Argentina, Buenos Aires (1st edition)

After San Pedro we arrived in Salta, Argentina where we were very excited to have our first great meal since Mendoza. Unfortunately though Phil caught a stomach bug and stayed in bed the whole time we were in Salta. After much deliberation, we booked our bus tickets to Buenos Aires. We didnt spare any thought to the budget and bought the executive suite bus which was well worth the money. Unfortunately before we got on the bus Adrienne started feeling sick as well and has since spent the last few days in Buenos Aires feeling bad, although the site of a shopping mall and Zara did a lot to make her feel better.

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

There are two cash machines in San Pedro and they only work sporatically. We were lucky as when we got there the machines were in the process of being fixed, so after two hours wait we were able to actually get cash out. Unfortunately we tried to get too much cash out and the ATM ate some of our money. Long story short, we found the idiots who were fixing the other ATM and asked them to come back and get our money. Our cash was jammed in the ATM and we watched hopefully as they took it out, unfortunately however they had some lame idea that our transaction would not go and therefore refused to give us the rest of our money. After multiple attempts to speak to them calmly our spanish gave out and we left, leaving it to HSBC to sort out. We are not the only ones that this happens to as the cash machines always jam, funnily enough tourists get 5000 notes and locals get 10,000, we think this may be a great money making venture for the local banks. After that we couldnt do too much in the fear that we ran out of money. Phil, Kelly and Steve did however go sandboarding in the nearby sanddunes. They had a fantastic time although were knackered at having to walk back up the sanddunes after sandboarding down. Phil is still finding sand in his ear, shoes and other orrifices after caning out at one point.

Bolivia, Salt Flats & High Andes

Due to the current political strikes going on around Bolivia, we could not get the highly recommended train from Oruro to Uyuni, as the protestors had blocked the train tracks. Unfortunately for us that meant the only way down was by bus, something we had heard a lot about and spent a lot of time researching and planning to avoid. But alas it was unavoidable so we forked out a whole US30 each on the newest tourist bus in Bolivia, circa 1980, and made the 10 hour bus trip down to Uyuni. The road was as everyone had described, really really bumpy and not at all comfortable but we did manage to sleep a little despite the ice on the inside of the window and the contents of our stomach rattling.

In Uyuni we met up with Eadine, Ken, Steve and Kelly, who we had met in Cocacabana, to start the Salt Flat Tour. After a fantastic breakfast of pancakes and spiced apple for Adrienne we were on our way, although first stop was the liqour store for a couple of bottles of the wine, either for bribing the driver or consuming if it really was as cold as everyone was saying. Ken and Eadine had kindly booked our tour with a Blueline Tours for us, so we were saved the hustle and bargaining of the early morning tour companies at the bus station. The Salt Flats are amazing, created by the drying up of a prehistoric lake and rewetted many times, leaving the evaporated salt deposits. The final formation being about 40,000 years old. It is the largest salt flat on earth and the flattest place on earth, apparently NASA uses it to calibrate their satellites its that flat. After the salt flat we climbed further into the higher plato to the south of Bolivia where the terrain turned to desert and was extremely cold especially at night. Phil regrets not bringing his puffy jacket as this would have been the 2nd time it would have been cold enough to actually wear it.

Close to the Chilean border we got to 4900+ metres where there were geysers, mud pools, and slightly lower down some hot springs and flamingo filled lagoons. Phil was the only one of our group brave enough to actually get in the hot springs as it involved getting undressed in the subdawn freezing conditions. He waited until the sun rose before he got out. The towel and thermal pants he wore in the hotsprings promptly froze over while we had breakfast. Instead of going back up to Uyuni, we decided to hop off our tour, along with our tour buddies, and go to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. We are so happy we made that decision until we experienced the cash inept town that is San Pedro.

La Paz, Bolivia

La Paz, administrative capital of Bolivia, is a large city surrounded by the Andes with approximately 1.5million. Here Phil and I shopped in the markets and tried the various delicacies that Bolivia has to offer, in particular the English pub and the "traditional english indian curry house!" where llama tika masala was one of the house specialities. Phil and I both purchased jeans at the black market and Phils US10 Calvin Kleins lasted a whole day before the colour went out of them. Apparently the reason girls jeans are twice as expensive as the guys is that they are originals = YEAH RIGHT. The witches market was interesting with dried llama fetuses being their speciality, which the locals bury the foundations of their house for good luck. Another site was one of the locals dinner, chicken feet soup, luckily we didnt get a chance to try such a delicacy.

Copacabana, La Paz

Cocacabana is a little town on the edge of Lake Titicaca and a great place to just stay and hang out a little. After being recommended by our friends Nicolette and Stef, we stayed in La Cupula hostel (the splurge option in the Lonely Planet – a big US20 per night!) and met some great couples who we have since been travelling with. Our only really touristy event during our three day stay was to visit "Isla del Sol" (translated Island of the Sun) which is an island about 1 mile off the coast of Cocacabana. It may have only been a mile but with a boat full of 50 or more people and only one outboard engine it took a little over 2 hours. The island itself was a bit of a let down but still a nice days walk.

Sunset over Copacabana

As promised dad here is a map to make it slightly easer to look up the encyclopedia (we leave tonight from La Paz to Uyuni (Bolivia), then to San Pedro (Chile), Salta (Argentina) Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls (Argentina Brazil Border), Rio (Brazil). Oh and maybe Uruguay on the way.

Arequipa & The Colca Canyon

From Cuzco we traveled by overnight bus to Arequipa. Arequipa has a very nice city centre with a magnificent backdrop of snowy volcanoes, the cone of El Misti and the Nevada Chachani, both being about 6000 meters altitude.For the last 3 days we have been visiting the Colca Canyon, which for 100 kms averages 3400 meters deep, making it the deepest in the world, Or so the locals say! (if you are more inclined to believe books I think it maybe second behind the Grand Canyon).

The Canyon is reached via a 5hour very bumpy road, and then a 1100m trek down. We then stayed the night with a local family.

The next day we visited an oasis before making the assent back up. On the 3rd day we stopped at Cruz Del Condor, where we were lucky to see many condors at close range. While I (phil) was off snapping 100s of photos Adrienne needed a quick toilet stop which she took behind a cactus, but got a bit close resulting in spines in bum.

Cuzco, the Salkantay Trek and Machu Pichu

Cuzco is a tourist mecca and one which we have really enjoyed stopping and spending some time in. Cuzco was once the heart of the Inca Empire and has amazing cobblestone streets, a beautiful plaza and lots of tourists!!!!

We spent 3 days in Cuzco acclimatizing to the altitude (3300 metres above sea level) which we felt the effects of at first but luckily enough acclimatized quickly enough to enjoy our first bout of stomach issues. We cannot blame the food totally though as everything is delicious here. The lack of oxygen certainly affected our budget as we went slightly crazy at the towns markets where we bought a lovely 3m by 2.5m alpaca living room rug. All we need now is a living room!!!!!! Hopefully Serpost in Peru is good and this should be reaching Auckland in 4 weeks (everyone please cross fingers!). Coca leaves are used by the Quechuan people to help relieve the affects of altitude sickness so before long we were chewing these, drinking these and even sucking these in lollies. Coca leaves are what is used to make cocaine but we were told that we would need to chew alot before any similiar affects were felt.

The main reason we stopped in Cuzco was to do a trek and visit Machu Picchu. Unfortunately this year the number of tourists that can trek the Inca Trail was reduced by half and was therefore totally booked out until September when we tried to book in February. An alternative trek which we ended up booking was the Salkantay Trek and one which we would now thoroughly recommend. We spent 5 days walking at various altitudes (the highest being 4600metres above sea level). The highlights of the trek were many including being in a group of four with another Dutch couple who we got along with really well - the cards that we had bought were a great success and we ended up playing a common NZ drinking game most nights (just without the alcohol!). The first night of the trek was extremely cold (even by Phil standards) so we were quite happy to see the sunrise on the 2nd day, the view from the top of the Salkantay Pass was beautiful although Adrienne didn´t appreciate quite as much as she was very puffed (mainly due to the altitude of 4600m!!!!!), this second day was a long hike (total 9 hours) however we were rewarded by a soak in our own outdoor hotsprings.

Many of the other companies doing this trek then went on to a small town where there were other hot springs instead we crossed another large mountain to get our first glimsp of Machu Picchu. The night before Willem and Phil joined our tour guide Jose to play the locals in a game of football. As with everything, the game was played for money but Willem and Phil did Corlyn and I proud by winning the first two games against the 14 year olds but unfortunately loosing against the elder 18 year old local kids. Good effort considering they had walked for 5 hours before playing! Well worth the two sols that it cost them!

Machu Picchu itself is hard to describe as the allure comes mostly from the sense of grandness of the Inca lost city and the likely lives of the Quechuan pèople. We arrived at dawn on a beautiful clear day and toured the city before making the hour climb to the top of Wayna Picchu - not great for our already sore legs but well worth the view.

Here is a quick video that Phil took at the top of Wayna Picchu - don´t try if on dial up!

Total kms walked on the Salkantay Trek = 75 - not a lot some people would say but at altitude this is slightly more difficult!!!

About to board another overnight bus to Arequipa and then foolishly we are doing yet another trek in the Colca Canyon.

Mancora and Lima, Peru

Hi its been awhile since the last update so a quick note on Mancora and Lima.

Mancora is a beach resort in the north of Peru. Unfortunately for us, we will remain this Cockroach city as everywhere, even the beach had groups of cockroaches - not our favourite thing in the world. We had a lovely hostel that overlooked the beach and was so clean but by the end of our trip we had to kill 25 cockroaches that had breached our defences in our room. It was lovely spending a couple of days relaxing by the beach and eating some fantastic mexican food!

Lima was only a quick stop before flying to Cuzco. Lima is a big city with approximately 8 million people so we didn´t venture past the tourist friendly Miraflores. This was enough for Phil to be very impressed at the quantity of paragliders off the cliff beside the beach.

Next stop Cuzco - 3300 metres above sea level!!!