Stop! Hammerhead time.

My time in Guayaquil wasn’t overly “guay” (cool).  I spent the spare day I had organising my bag, charging my cameras and other bits for my trip to the Galapagos Islands.  I ventured into town to have a look around for some bits, including a new stick for my GoPro which I’d managed to break in transit along the Peru Hop route.  I couldn’t find anything in any of the shopping malls dotted about the city, but had a nice wander and a faff about.  I went down to probably the largest collection of electronics stalls right next to each other in a network of alleyways down by the river front.  Not one of the people I talked about knew what a GoPro was, except one who didn’t have anything anyway.  He could call his mate who had exactly what I wanted for 120USD, something I could buy online for 60USD.  I politely declined.

Cathedral. Nothing to rave about if I’m honest!

Parque de la Iguanas 🙂

Unsurprisingly, Iguanas were there to troll me.

One of the few nice buildings in the centre of Guayaquil 🙂

Another one.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Yes. Horse lovers can shower in the stables with their favourite equine.

After all that faffing I spent a nice night at my hostel in Alborada, the Dreamkapture Hostel where you can also book tours and last minute Galapagos cruises.  I wouldn’t recommend booking before going anyway,  the amount of last minute cruises available at much cheaper prices with more included is great.  If you’ve even got just one or two days’ worth of flexibility then consider getting a one-way flight or flexible return ticket and booking a cruise there, if a cruise is what you’re after.

I’d planned to try and find a cruise where I could see the bulk of what I wanted to see and then have a spare few days in which to do some diving.  All the cruises I found within my price range didn’t include anything I couldn’t do by myself on day tours and on Santa Cruz island from Puerto Ayora, the biggest settlement of Galapagos.  After shopping around I decided the the independent route was the one for me and began to book a couple of day tours and diving trips to start with, using Puerto Ayora as my first base.

I’m getting a lot of questions already about Galapagos and how expensive it is and when to go and what to do and how to get there, so I’m going to be a bit more methodical in this post and explain everything really clearly so I can remember exactly what I did!  I’m going to write it for fellow budget travellers like yours truly.  #skanklife

Pre-arrival costs for me were as follows:

Return flights for 11 days 10 nights @ 312USD

Guayaquil to Galapagos Airport Transit Fee @ 10USD

Galapagos National Park Entry Fee @ 100USD

Total $422

Day One:  Arrival/Santa Cruz

My flight from Guayaquil landed at Baltra Airport at around 1pm local time (Galapagos is one hour behind mainland Ecuador) and I got the free transfer bus from the airport to the ferry.  The airport is on Baltra island, also known as South Seymour island, so you have to get a small ferry to Santa Cruz island.  The ferry costs one dollar per person and you can either get a taxi or the bus to Puerto Ayora from the dock when you get to Santa Cruz island.  I intended to take the bus for 2 dollars, but it didn’t leave for over an hour (it only leaves when it’s full) so a few of us got together and negotiated a cheap taxi for 2 dollars each.  Taxis usually cost about 18 USD to and from Puerto Ayora so I’m not sure how often this price can be negotiated!  It helps to speak Spanish and use lots of diminutives.

Like I said my first day involved finding somewhere to stay (you can’t really book any hostels online), which the taxi dude recommended to us.  It was one street away from the main Charles Darwin street which runs along the front at 15USD for a dorm bed.  I ended up getting a private room for the same price the next night as they needed to move me, but you can get beds for 10USD per night, which I ended up doing later on.

I booked my first tour for the next day, a day tour to Isla Floreana, just to start off.  It was a pretty basic land tour but I’d heard it was a pretty island so I took the plunge and booked my first tour!

Getting the boat from Baltra to Santa Cruz 🙂

Sat in a bus for an hour waiting for it to set off! Everyone ended up leaving so he had an empty bus! 😦

Sea lions were there to greet me in Puerto Ayora 🙂

Expenses Day One:

SAT11OCT

15 Hostel

27.75 Suncream & Snacks

11 Burger & Beer

TOTAL $53.75

 

Day Two: Isla Floreana

After forgetting to turn my clock back an hour, I woke up early for my tour.  I soon realised and thanked myself for my forgetfulness and crawled back under the covers for another hour in Bedfordshire.

It was a bumpy two hour ride over from Puerto Ayora.  Usually water taxi fares to the boats are included in your tour price, but sometimes they’re not.  Don’t worry, it’s only 50cents in Puerto Ayora, or 1 whole dollar at Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabela.

The tour itself was pretty simple to be honest, involved a bit of walking, eating, snorkelling and sunbathing.  I met a couple of nice people on it and we had a laugh.  It’s a really pretty island, although it’s nothing to scream about.  It’s a nice chilled place to visit some giant tortoises instead of the other breeding centres on Santa Cruz and there are some nice views and some OK snorkelling at Playa Negra.

Looking stylish 🙂

These guys lie around like they own the place.

Iguanas came to say hello 🙂

Hey bitches 🙂

Lonesome George is long gone, but these fellas were here to say Hola!

Weird stone heads with pineapple hair.

Being a fabulous pirate in a pirate cave on the island 🙂

Nice view!

Cats, dogs and rabbits are pests on these islands, but I can’t hate them!

Playa Negra – a black sand beach. It’s not as black as other ones I’ve seen on the internet but was still nice and cool to see!

Colourful Sally Lightfoot crabs 🙂

Snorkel time!

Hey duuuuuude!

First turtle of the Galapagos!

Isn’t he a beauty? 🙂

That evening I met up with my travel buddy Rachael, who had just competed in the Galapagos Marathon and come in second in her category!  It was great to see a friendly face and even better to watch her receive her medal and prize.  Well done love!

Galapagos coffee! Awesome 🙂

Expenses Day Two:

SUN12OCT

15 Hostel

70 Floreana Day Tour

18 Fish, Salad & Potatoes

5 Snacks

65 GoPro Stick

TOTAL 173

 

Day Three: Dive Day @ Gordon Rocks

I’d already booked a day diving for my fourth day on the islands, but I ended up making an impulse purchase and getting on a dive boat going to Gordon Rock.  If you’re not doing a live-aboard and seeing some of the more remote dive sites, this is one of the best places to see the most amount of marine life.  A couple of dive shops wouldn’t take me as I didn’t have over 25 or 30 dives, but I had a good conversation with an instructor from another dive shop who said I would be fine to go.  The currents can be strong there and on our second dive they were quite strong but fine to work with if you just follow the rules and do what the divemaster says.  The site is a half-submerged volcano crater so it’s a really cool site to explore, but it can be tricky and in 2012 two people died there.  Just a couple of days before I went, two people ended up being carried away from the site by the currents, but must have forgotten their training and tried to swim back against the current, almost running out of air.  The divemasters and instructors can be a bit moody with you if you want to go, but hearing about the jams that even experienced divers seemed to get into, I could understand.

The boat was small but it was only a 45 minute ride away from the top of Santa Cruz.  We did a test dive a Islas Plazas to check out weights and gear as we had to go straight down once in the water at Gordon.  I ended up needing at least 12kg – I just wouldn’t sink with the thick wetsuit and the salty water!  The divemaster was a bit moody but once we were under and saw we weren’t having any trouble (and he’d seen some sharks and a huge manta ray on his safety stop) he was ridiculously happy.

All set!

Oceanic Sunfish a.k.a Mola Mola – funny buggers!

Lovely fish!

Loving it 🙂

First hammerheads (“Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks” to be precise).  At first glance I thought they were Galapagos sharks, but you can just see the thin head of the one on the left as he’s turning, although the quality isn’t very good.  Their heads are a lot thinner than I expected!  Still, a new addition to the log book! 🙂

On the second dive we didn’t see very much as the currents were a bit on the strong side to enjoy it.  It was more or less a case of hold on for dear life and try and see some fish floating past you!  Still a great day, although the dive sites around the north of Santa Cruz seem to be very unpredictable.  Some have gone down straight into a school of hammerheads, mantas and every fish you can think of, then the next day the same sight has produced nothing.  The underwater critters just seem to do what they want!

After the dive I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Charles Darwin Research Station.  The information is a bit basic but still interesting, which tells you something about the work that’s going on in the Galapagos region and why.  Lonesome George died a few years ago so that’s pretty sad, as the signs are still up to go and see him, then you get there and beneath the  out-of-date “look here’s George” sign is an attached “R.I.P” plaque which is a bit depressing.  It’s OK though, because there’s a quiet beach nearby (Playa de la Estacion) where you can chill out afterwards.

Look at him go!!!

Nice cactus trees 🙂

Charlie boy. Cheers mate 🙂

Chilling after a long day 🙂

Expenses Day Three

ON13OCT

15 Hostel

140 Diving Gordon Rocks

7 Set Meal at the “Kioskos” (and a beer)

5 Snacks

TOTAL 167

 

Day Four: Diving @ Floreana

I’d almost backed out of doing this trip as I’d already been to the island, but the dude at the dive shop and the divemaster convinced me that it was worth doing.  It was an easy relaxing site and they even take discovery divers out there sometimes if there’s enough demand.  Most of the best stuff to see is in the shallows and the seabed is only about 15m down anyway.  Some of the best snorkelling trips are around Floreana at sites like Corona del Diablo.  We dived just next to there and were very lucky indeed to see some more hammerheads, white tip reef sharks, turtles and and so many fish in one place it felt like you were climbing out of a giant sardine can.

Casual 🙂

More dudes 🙂

All ok 🙂

Galapagos Sea Robin – funny things with their little head legs. The have beautiful fins which come out into semi circles when they swim 🙂

NUDIBRANCH!!

Scorpionfish – don’t touch these poisonous buggers! Cool camouflages though 🙂

Sleeping white tips!

Pretty sea lions came to play 🙂

Pretty 🙂

They demand a lot of attention…

Hammerheads! Lucky to see these at Floreana 🙂

It was a tight squeeze at some points!

How am I lookin’ betch??

Some of the best diving I’ve done so far was at the two sites we went to around Floreana – Punta Cormorant and Isla Champion.  Great fun!  In case you’re wondering, the best photos with the flash were taken by our divemaster, although some are from my GoPro.  At least I can say my camera doesn’t have a flash which probably hurts the fishies…. 😦

With the rest of my afternoon I decided to go in search of some lava tunnels I’d heard about.  There are some on a ranch to the east of the highlands, but I ended up at the “Tuneles del Amor” in Bellavista, a short bus ride away from town.  There’s a 3 dollar entry fee but apparently it’s the second longest lava tunnel in South America.  There was no bugger there when I went, which was cool but a bit creepy when the tunnel didn’t seem to end.  It got very dark and wet in some spots and the torch I was seemed to only increase the creep factor.

Finishing up the day at Floreana and Isla Champion 🙂

Classic bus.

Tunnel of lurrrrrve…

Creepy!

Still room for a virgin.

I made it!

Expenses Day Four

TUES14OCT

15 Hostel

150 Diving Floreana

1 Taxi from Bellavista

3 Tunnels

TOTAL 169

 

Day Five: Isabela (Part One)

In the morning I took the 7am boat to Puerto Villamil, Isabela, from Puerto Ayora.  I fancied a change of base and planned to spend two or three days on the sea-horse-shaped island.  As I arrived I bumped into Kiwi Kent, one of the dudes from my dives at Gordon Rocks.  He was with his travel buddy Anna and I ended up tagging along on an abseiling trip into some of the chambers surrounding Sierra Negra.  I think it was called Volcan Chico (little volcano), but I’m not 100% sure!

Murgh…

Small climb to the craters 🙂

Nice panoramic view of Isabela and some of the other islands 🙂

Inside the volcano…

Welcome to my volcano lair…

“We’re in a volcanoooo. We’re surrounded by liquid hot MAG-MA…”

Muddy but alive and well, with just a few scratches!

Afterwards we headed back to Puerto Villamil for some food, then hired bikes and went for a little ride out of town to do some sightseeing.  There are a few spots, such as the “Wall of Tears”, a Tortoise breeding centre and several nice viewpoints.  The ride is quite easy and it’s a couple of dollars an hour to hire bikes.  After several nice viewpoints and passing many tortoises we got back and headed straight for Casa Rosada, a lovely little beach bar which seems to be the go-to place after a hard day at the beach, snorkelling, diving or anything.

A dude called Jimmy tagged along to make a video of the abseiling and we ended up meeting up with him to share our videos and photos in the evening over coffee and a bottle of rum.  A nice end to the day!

Crazy Jimmy, the Ecuadorian – Cuban singer and musician 🙂

Checking out the flamingos 🙂

Poor little tortoise got stuck 😦 He made it though!

Horny turtles

Nice bike ride out of Puerto Villamil 🙂

El Muro de las Lágrimas (Wall of Tears) – built by prisoners or war for no other reason than punishment. Here I was attacked by thorny little buggers that dug into my flip flops. I nearly cried. Brutal.

View of Puerto Villamil 🙂

A good day to be alive!

Iguana crossing 🙂

Caña shots at the beach!

Fab sunset 🙂

🙂

A bottle of rum and a jam sesh later… 🙂

Expenses Day Five

WEDS15OCT

30 Boat to Isabela

30 Volcano Trip

10 Room

5 Bikes

7 Lunch

19 Drinks

TOTAL $101

 

Day Six: Isabela (Part Two)

Luckily I didn’t wake up with a hangover the next day and Anna and I went on a tour of some semi-submerged lava tunnels, about a 40 minute boat ride away from Puerto Villamil.  We stopped by to see some blue-footed boobies and had a nice long snorkel sesh, where we saw turtles, sharks and sea horses.  I’d never seen sea horses before so I was excited to cross them off the list.  They’re a bit boring as they don’t do much, but they’re really quite pretty and their faces are cute as buttons (whatever that means).  The tour was 70 USD which is about right.  Some charge 75 including a wetsuit but our price included wetsuits.  You can book two or three-day tours of Isabela from Santa Cruz, but it’s cheaper to just go there and do it yourself.  I only had two days here in the end and I still did more stuff than was included in the organised tours which left from Puerto Ayora.

Baby sea lions sheltering in some rocks 🙂

Boobies!!

Union Rocks – a popular dive site 🙂

🙂

Keeping some eggs warm 🙂

Pretty birds!

Little babies!

Mating call or calling something!

🙂

Booooobies 🙂

Sea horse!

Duuuude 🙂

Sea horses!

I forget the name of these fish, but I’m pretty sure it has the word “rainbow” in it somewhere.

Sharks’ nap time 🙂

Golden eagle/cownose rays 🙂

Chilling before the boat back to Santa Cruz 🙂

We had fun snorkelling around the lava tunnels and saw lots of cool things, although it wasn’t the best or most fun that I’d encountered in terms of marine life.  That was to come later!

We’d heard that a day or two before some people had seen a killer whale breach while they were on their way to the tunnels.  Unfortunately we didn’t see one, but I was watching the water like a hawk!

Expenses Day Six

THURS16OCT

70 Los Tuneles tour

30 Boat back to Santa Cruz

3 Beer

12 Hostel

7 Kiosko Cena & Beer

TOTAL $122

 

Day Seven: San Cristobal

When we arrived back in Puerto Ayora I was wary of my time beginning to run out on the islands, so we set about finding a a tour to San Cristobal island as it didn’t seem like it would have been possible to spend at least a couple of days there like we did on Isabela, then be back in time to get to Baltra Airporta again.  We arranged a day tour for $135, which included a snorkelling trip to Kikker Rock a.k.a Leon Dormido.  This is actually pretty good value as the return ferry ticket alone from Puerto Ayora costs $60 and a day tour to Kikker Rock bought on the island can cost around $80 on it’s own.

We spent almost an hour and a half snorkelling and I came back feeling as though I’d just been for a dive!  We saw so much marine life, hammerheads, white tips, turtles and lots and lots of fish.  They weren’t very deep at all, which meant it was perfect for a quick “free dive” (as Kent dramatically described, I didn’t argue).  This is probably the best spot to visit if you don’t dive and don’t have the money to dive, or don’t want to waste valuable dollars on a discovery dive at a lame site like Islas Plazas.

Leon Dormido a.k.a Kikker Rock

An albatross came to say hola 🙂

Let’s go see some fish!

What’s up bitchesssss??

Another dude. Never seem to get bored of these guys 🙂

Yes we get it!! You’re cute and adorable! 🙂

Fishies!!

 

Hammerheads! Thanks to Kent for this snapshot of some of his footage 🙂

Spot of sunbathing in the afternoon 🙂

Getting in with the locals.

A hard life.

It was a lovely day and I would recommend visiting Kikker Rock to everybody visiting Galapagos.  I wish I could have spent more time on San Cristobal, although I’m not sure I would have done any diving there as most people were saying it wasn’t worth it.

That night I made some Ecuadorian friends who got me ridiculously drunk on home-made blended cocktails.  I ended up down at Bongo Bar, which is more or less the place to be if you’re in Puerto Ayora and have the need to throw some serious shapes.  Reggaeton is the staple with some token dance and house thrown in for good measure.  The cheapest drink is a Vodka Tonic for $6 but you won’t need many of those if you’re already smashed on caña.

Expenses Day Seven

FRI17OCT

135 San Cristobal Tour

12 Snacks

12 Hostel

1 Taxi

16 Drinks

TOTAL $176

 

Day Eight: Tortuga Bay

Bongo Bar almost messed up my entire Saturday, but thanks to some coffee and a tub of encebollada I was ready to take on the world (kind of) and we walked from town to Tortuga Bay, one of the most popular beaches on Santa Cruz.

It’s easily accessible if you walk up the main street out of town and turn left just before you get to the kioskos.  When you get to the end of the road you just climb some steps, register with the national park dude in the hut and get walking.  It’s a paved path a couple of kilometres long which leads straight to the beach so totally doable, even if you’re hung to the over and climbing up Struggle Street.

Octopus-y/Squid-y looking thing that squidged off once we irritated it.

This guy stood there like a statue the whole time. I actually thought it was fake until I saw it move and breathe!

Iguanas seem to rule the place 🙂

They’re all over it like a rash. A crawling spiky rash.

Murgh…

This guy and a load of his mates came and sat with me/all over my stuff for a bit. One of them did a poo on my bag.

Tortuga Bay 🙂

A cheap day out if you realise you’re spending too much and need to apply the brakes, however reluctantly that may be.  I made up for it by rewarding myself with more vodka tonics and dancing with my new Ecuadorian mates at Bongo that evening.

Expenses Day Eight

SAT18OCT

12 Hostel

20 Drinks

7 Snacks

10 Tacos & Beer

TOTAL $49

 

Day Nine: Diving North Seymour & Daphne

For my penultimate full day I decided to not think about my bank balance and go ahead with some more diving.  The only things I hadn’t seen so far on my wish list were manta rays (I’d seen them on the surface but not underwater) and Galapagos sharks and I was determined to see them before my time on the islands was up.

I’d been to different dive shops for each of my dives in the name of research and variety and I made no exception for this one.  You usually have to swap dive shops as each one goes to different sites on different days.  We went with a guy called Rene this time who took our suggestion to do a dive at Daphne as well, as I was really keen to see mantas.

I was EXTREMELY pleased that he was flexible as we lucked out at North Seymour, not seeing much apart from little fishies.  I was lucky to catch a couple of manta rays, marble rays, turtles and Galapagos sharks.  My GoPro ran out of space mid-dive which was unlucky, but I got some videos and took Kent’s videos and photos too so I should be able to make a good compilation sometime.  I only have a couple of photos to share from these dives unfortunately!

Ready, get set…!

Another little Nudibanch – I really need to in a red filter!

Looking for fishies!

No pics of the mantas or sharks, but they’re burnt into my memory! 🙂

Kent caught me getting a bit close to this fella!

A lovely friendly white tip that came by 🙂

On Sundays it’s tradition for all the families on the island to go up to the highlands and eat local and traditional food.  Rene invited us up to his ranch in the highlands, where he cooked some beautiful tuna and other fish on the barbecue and we drank some well-deserved post-dive beers.  It was safe to say I had a massive fish food baby once I’d done!  We even went for a ride on his horses which was nice.  Even the damp weather didn’t bother us!

This guy made an appearance, not that it was a surprise by this point in my trip.

Rene cooking up some fish!

Rachael celebrating completing her advanced diving course! 🙂

Stop! Hammer time 🙂

Couldn’t look more like Jesus if I tried. #shame

That evening there was a power cut and the whole town was in darkness for the night and most of the next day.  My body thanked me for the early night.

Expenses Day Nine

SUN19OCT

12 Hostel

125 Diving Seymour

(Note: cheapest dive, but better boat and equipment.  Only standard GoPro photos offered for free instead of proper underwater camera photos)

13 Fish BBQ

3 Beer

7 Salchipapas and beer

TOTAL 156

 

Day Ten: Admin (i.e. Shopping & Packing)

By my tenth and final full day on those beautiful islands I was, in a word, knackered.  I decided to spend the day relaxing and doing some souvenir shopping.  Many of the shops weren’t open during the day (either due to the power cut or because there aren’t many people around during the day, as everyone’s off doing tours or diving), so I did most of my shopping in the afternoon and early evening.

Some of the better shops are further along the road out of town towards the Charles Darwin centre, around and past the seafood market.  I bought a couple of t-shirts and some more handmade bracelets to add to the growing collection around my right arm and wrist.  My last evening in Galapagos wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to Bongo Bar and indulging in a couple of caña shots though…

Expenses Day Ten

MON20OCT

10 Hostel

5 Breakkie

11 Burger & Beer

42 Souvenirs

9 Drinks

TOTAL 77

 

Day Eleven: Leaving

Leaving the islands is quite simple and cheap to do.  It’s basically a reverse of arrival, except I actually managed to get the bus this time.  You can get a taxi from town up to the bus terminal for $1 (50cents each for Kent and I), the bus for $2 and the water taxi to Baltra island for another $1.  Our flight was at 10:10am, so if you get the bus at 7:30am that gives you just enough time to get to the airport, check in and have breakfast if you need it.

TUES21OCT

0.50 Taxi

2 Bus

1 Water taxi

5.50 Food Airport

TOTAL 9.50

 

So here it is, the grand total for ten nights exploring the Galapagos islands (not including flights and entry/transit fees):

1252.75 USD (about 776.40 GBP or 983.74 EUR)

You can make you’re own decision about how that works for you, but I was more than pleased with what I got for my money.  Comparing my activities to those included on a 650USD tour, (which didn’t include any dives or non-snorkelling activities) I think I did pretty well.

Prices and budgets aside, it was the trip of a lifetime and words can’t describe how lucky I feel to have been (although I will give myself some credit for working hard and saving the money to do it).  It’s very difficult to say this as it’s been a long trip and I’ve done a lot of enjoyable things, but it may be the highlight of this round-the-world journey.

The islands are amazing, surprising and quite different to how I’d dreamt.  If you have any possibility of going or giving yourself the chance to go, then do it.

If you’re disappointed, you’re probably a tough one to please (and I met a couple of those while I was there!)

Thanks Charlie, you’re a ledge.  I’ll be back to do a live-aboard dive cruise some day and cross whale sharks off my list…

Eat, Sleep, Hop, Repeat.

As much as it’s killing me not to write about my time spent on a certain group of islands off the coast of Ecuador, I must pay the price of my own laziness and pick up where I left off.  I wouldn’t want to disappoint you by missing out all the things Peru has to offer our varying senses, desperate for arousal and stimulation.

No boom boom in Peru I’m afraid, but plenty of other activities were available to allieve my frustration, to placate me and to allow me to indulge my non-carnal desires.  Joking aside, there is plenty of stuff to do there and although I had limited myself to about nine days to get from Arequipa in Lima to Guayaquil in Ecuador, there was a way I could fit in lots of sights and activities in a shorter space of time.  This help came in the form of Peru Hop, which I’ll get to in a bit.

Plaza San Francisco, Cusco

Spanish-speakers will like this one. A great play on words of “de puta madre” 🙂

Mercado San Pedro… 🙂

Love a good market!

Tasty ceviche with Rachael @ San Pedro market

Om nom nom 🙂

Parades and parties still pestering everyone in the run up to local elections in Peru…

Witches’ stalls. Picked up a decent quartz crystal!

Cake and ice cream for 3 soles – you can’t afford not to!

Batman bus!

I’d taken a bus to Arequipa after resting up in Cusco, getting a massage for my aching body and meeting up with the Salkantay crew for drinks and dinner etc.  Snaps go to Fuego, Korma Sutra and especially Cafe Loco for their awesome cake and great coffee.  Try their cafe loco coffee – double shot, chocolate milk and Bailey’s.  A wonderful and addictive treat if you’re bored as hell of mate de coca.

Arequipa is quite cool, with plenty of bars, restaurants and shopping if you’ve got some time to kill.  I stayed at Friendly hostel, a cheap place about five blocks from the main square where the many many touts are poised to pounce on and paw all over you, then moan at you for not buying their tours or eating their crap and overpriced food.  I’d met up with my Bolivia bitches on the morning I arrived, Dan and Steve, and we ended up going rafting down the River Chili.  We booked it through one of the shops at the Plaza de Armas for early afternoon.  We got picked up and driven up to a place to pick up our gear before heading out of town up to the river.  It was a pretty fun afternoon we had a great time as we were the only ones doing it.  I even ran into Alejandro, the dude who had done our trip on the zip lines on the Salkantay trek – turns out he’d just switched jobs and moved to Arequipa! It was his first day, but we survived.  Small world.

🙂

‘Ave iiiit!!

It was at this point we achieved “professional” status.

I’d booked myself on a day tour of the Colca Canyon as well for the next day, as I’d realised that I wouldn’t have enough time to get up to Ecuador if I did two days on a little trek.  After the day tour through the canyon I was quite glad I hadn’t done another trek, as I suspect I would have been a little underwhelmed by the views and and wildlife, having just come from the five-day Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu.  After a nice little day trip around the valley watching condors, exploring terraces, churches, markets, rivers and wall tombs.

Plaza de Armas @ Arequipa

Breakfast with the locals 🙂

Waiting at Cruz del Condor, for Condors, obvs.

Nice 🙂

Look who showed up!

Big buggers 🙂

Cañon de Colca

Church! I bought my new poncho across the street 🙂

Sheltering from the hail!

Watching some llamas 🙂

Snow!!

After I met up with Dan and Steve again for a meal at some Italian place near the Wild Rover hostel, I headed back to my hostel as I was being picked up in the morning by my Peru Hop bus.  The first day from Arequipa was a long drive where we only really stopped to pick up snacks and see the Nazca lines from the viewing tower.  It was a nice drive though up the Peruvian coast which made me happy – it was nice to see the sea again!

There are a few theories why the geoglyphs were made (water channels, religious symbols for rituals etc.) and it was fun to imagine and think about why they were there.  There are many symbols all over the place, but we saw the “tree” and the “hands” from the viewing tower.  The entry fee is included if you take the Peru Hop bus, but it’s only about 2 soles if you decide to go on your own.

“Tree” and “Hands” from the Nazca Viewing Tower 🙂

We continued north to spend the night in Huacachina, near Ica.  It’s a desert oasis (the only one in South America as far as I’m aware) which has a small settlement around it, mainly for tourism so people can go mental on the sand dunes that surround it, which is exactly what we did.  We stayed in a decent place and went out for some nice food that evening, after which I basically collapsed in a heap of fatigue on my bed, waking up fully clothed mid-way through the night.  The next day we had a chilled morning before our tour of a Pisco vineyard.  It was quite interesting and we got plenty of tasting opportunities, the two I remember being described separately as good for celebrating marriage, and the other for divorce.  Someone had a bottle of the divorce Pisco which we enjoyed drinking on the way back to Huacachina.  That afternoon we embarked on our little dune-buggy/sand-boarding trip!  I did have a video to upload but for reasons Facebook friends will be aware of, that is momentarily unavailable.  More to come about that in coming posts…

Oasis de Huacachina 🙂

Hostel in Huacachina 🙂

Down at the oasis, where I got a guy to make me a lovely necklace from a quartz stone I’d bought in Cusco! 🙂

Pun intended?

Pisco vineyard 🙂

Too cool for school.

Sandboarding!

I was awesome.

That night we left for Paracas, as the next day some of us were taking a little morning trip out to the Ballestas Islands, a.k.a Poor Man’s Galapagos.  FYI there’s nothing even remotely Galapagos about them, except there are some birds and sea lions, so don’t try to think of the islands like that if you decide to go, because you won’t be anything but disappointed.  Think of it as a warm-up to Galapagos if you’re thinking of going there too, but going there after seeing the wonders of those Ecuadorian islands then I also wouldn’t bother.  It would be like eating a Kraft Cheese Slice with out-of-date store brand ketchup, after having an organic blue cheese salad.  If you don’t like blue cheese as much as I do then imagine you’re own favourite cheese.  Vegans and cheese-haters can just read on.  Think about tofu or quinoa if you like.1

Cheeky lines of “cactus” made in a different style to the Nazca lines. No-one knows why it’s there anyway.

Birds at Islas Ballestas 🙂

Posers 🙂

Pretty starfish and crabs 🙂

Birds everywhere!

Work it bitch 🙂

So much bird poo, that they go on the islands every few years to scrape it off and sell it as fertiliser. Smelly.

MURGH

The rest of the day we explored the coast and a went to an information centre about the marine park runs along the coast.  I was a bit tired by then so didn’t take too much in, except that 50-85% of our oxygen in the air comes from phytoplankton and other organisms in the sea.  Interesting!

That afternoon we had a nice meal at Restaurante Paracas (original name) and because our bus had broken down, we had no other choice but to drink away the afternoon at the beach.  I even bumped into a lovely girl called Julia I had met in La Paz (we’d seen each other in Aguas Calientes too) and had a nice catch up at the beach.  By the time we made the bus about half of us were trashed and the rest were asleep, yet we still had a little tour of some tunnels underneath Hacienda San Jose, a hotel in converted colonial hacienda.  It is thought that the tunnels were used to smuggle in African slaves, after restrictions were imposed on slavery.  It was pretty creepy down there (not helped with a same-day hangover coming on) and there were still some bones knocking about.

Checking out the coast 🙂

nice 🙂

Afternoon drinking cocktails and beer with our best bitch Jorge on the beach 🙂

Sunset 🙂

I bumped into Julia again!

Creepy slave tunnels underneath Hacienda San Jose…!

By the time we got to Lima that night it was pretty late (around 2am) and my hangover was having his own party in my head.  I managed to sleep with the aid of a couple of ibuprofen and woke up refreshed the next day.  I had planned to leave Lima ASAP but unfortunately all the buses up north were full and I had to wait another day.  This turned out to be OK as we had a nice day exploring the town, doing some shopping and checking out the markets.  If there’s a market, I’m basically there and happy.  A lovely lass at the Loki hostel told me to go and buy some fruit at the market, specifically strawberries as they were in season and cheap at the moment.  I brought half a kilo back for 2 soles (about 43p or 69 US cents).  We made smoothies and I had a bowl of strawberries with natural yoghurt and granola.  It was a good day.  I also bought a couple of bits from a cool boutique called Perro Loco (“Mad Dog”), which is in the same building as the Peru Hop office.  They were impulse purchases, but one of the items might be the most comfortable jumper I’ve ever had in my life.  You may have to feel it to believe it, so I’m available for petting and stroking on my return to the UK.

Street

We did the casual walk in front of the cameras while they were filming someone. We ended up being in front of cameras about times that day!

Market time!! @ Mercado Uno

Casual dog poo on the floor by the meat counter.

Om nom nom. And so cheap! 🙂

Looking awesome. #h8rzgonh8

Funky art and shiz down at the “beach”

Coastline at Lima – bit boring down there…

After Lima I took a very very long bus up to Guayaquil before my trip to the Galapagos Islands.  I ended up booking it online through Cruz del Sur as it was the only bus that went direct.  I could have saved a few dollars by getting a bus to the border and then taking another bus up to Guayaquil, but I was in no mood for farting about.

If I’m honest I’m getting towards the end of my trip and I’m less bothered about saving pennies here and there.  On a scale of Liberia (low debt) to Zimbabwe, my debt levels are something like Australia.  Something to think about but nothing to worry about.

I’ve still probably got a better credit rating than Greece.

Sashay, Salkantay

After a not unpleasant bus journey from Copacabana I arrived in Cusco at around 5am and although I thought I’d arrived at 6am, I’d failed to account for the time difference between Bolivia and Peru.  Fast forward to me laying down on some bean bags under a warm blanket in the TV room of Pirwa Hostel on Plaza San Francisco waiting to check in at 11am.  Yawn.

I’d bumped into a lovely Frenchie at the border crossing outside Copacabana, whom I’d met briefly in La Paz a week or so earlier.  She hadn’t chosen anywhere to stay and took my suggestion and choice of one of the Pirwa Hostels in Cusco.  This meant I had some company during my pre-check in nap time and indeed the following two days.

We were both there mainly to see the wonder of the world that is the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu, like the many other tourists visiting the beautiful historic city of Cusco.  We spent the first day wandering the pretty streets and cute cobbled lanes and alleyways, in search of food to eat, sights to see and things to do, namely booking our respective tours with the goal of ending up at the famed ruins.

I’d heard from several people about the joys of one of the alternatives to the classic Inca Trail, which I had been more or less forced to do thanks to my lack of advanced planning and permit-booking concerning the trail.  Restrictions mean 500 people may start the track each day so permits sell out months in advance and I didn’t jump on it quickly enough, meaning I had to look at other alternatives.  The alternative I’d heard the most about and the one about which I’d received the most positive feedback was the Salkantay trek.  It’s around half the price, takes a day longer but ends up in Aguas Calientes where you continue the walk up to Machu Picchu after four days of trekking up to and over the Salkantay Pass, admiring some of the most spectacular scenery Peru has to offer.

I ended up booking with a lovely lady in a shop on Calle Plateros between an artesanias market and a kebab shop.  It was 230USD which included food, porters, a guide, tents and mats, transport to and from Cusco and the start and end points and entry to the Machu Picchu ruins and Machu Picchu mountain.  The only extra thing I had to bring was money for breakfast on the first morning and lunch/dinner on the final day at the ruins and Aguas Calientes, the town at the ruins which is also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo.  I bought some essentials from her including a new backpack and rain cover, sleeping bag, walking stick, water purification tablets, a water bottle, a torch and the most annoying disposable waterproof poncho known to man.  I found it was better to buy it all at the same place as you can ask for a bigger discount than if you spent the whole day shopping around for the best price.  I was a bit cheeky in my bargaining but we’d built up a nice little rapport and she was happy to help me out.  Speaking Spanish helps a lot – I’ve been determined to make my degree pay for itself.

Chilling at the Plaza de Armas in Cusco, with coffee and cake 🙂

@ La Plaza de Armas

I was picked up at somewhere between 3:30am and 4am on the first morning (I’d also been woken up at the same time the previous day due to a mix up, not happy) and we drove for a couple of hours to get the starting point in the village of Mollepata.  We had a fairly decent breakfast and started getting to know each other.  There were eleven of us altogether, plus our guide Nico.  Two Belgians, Two Dutch, an Italian, a Spaniard, a German, a Chilean, a Frenchman, an Australian and I.  A nice mix it turned out to be.

I don’t want to rattle on too much about every single detail, but if anyone is thinking about doing it I’d say definitely do it.  I had every intention of being as fit as a fiddle before I did it, hence the many treks and walks and exercise I’d been doing in Patagonia and what not.  Things took a turn for the worse after I got to Buenos Aires and decided to jump back on board the party train to Wheezeville.  Despite my below-standard fitness (I exaggerate but I did break a rather large and unattractive sweat) I made great time and was one of the first to make it to camp at the end of the first day, which I had found the steepest and hardest.

And we’re off…!

Little rest stop to admire the view as we began our 1000m climb for the first day 🙂

Pretty flowers and shit.

Great view!

Couple of hours from camp!

It was more than basic, but there was a little kiosk which had beer. It was cold enough, so no fridge required.

Beautiful night for watching the stars from outside the tent 🙂

The second day involved less climbing as we made our way over the Salkantay Pass, although it was a little frustrating with the rain, hail and fog, as well as the muddy and slippery paths on the way down the other side.  I could have coped with all of this, if it wasn’t for the most pointless creation anyone had ever decided to create: the disposable (and despicable) plastic poncho.  It just flies around and does everything it can to try and get you wet.  If it can’t, it makes you sweaty and wet on the inside from your own sweat as you flail your way down a mountainside path, caught up in your own frustration and a flimsy sheet of barely-shaped plastic thinner than a gnat’s wing.  I implore anyone who needs to consider a form of waterproof garment, spend the extra couple of quid and get a decent one with sleeves and buttons and things that make it something wearable, instead of something you want to burn in a satanic ritual.

Start of the second day 🙂

Almost at the highest point!

We made it!

The dreaded poncho, just as I got to the hail and rain that greeted us at the top of the Salkantay Pass 🙂

We stopped for lunch here, and like a bit of a creep I watched this lady making flour. She does it old school, yo.

Then one of the many chickens came to snoop.

More chickens at another rest stop. Farm animals of various kinds lined the route as well as a layer of faeces.

I tried some different shutter speeds and aperture settings to see if I could get the effect of the clouds that I liked seeing at this point.  Not sure if it comes through but hopefully you might get how I saw it 🙂

Camp No. 2

Not a bad night either at the end of the second day for stars.  Cheeky mountain silhouette there  🙂

The third day was mostly downhill and pretty easy.  We had a cracking lunch at Santa Theresa (the food had been really good so far as well thanks to our cooks Juan Carlos and Oscar) and some beers to celebrate being over half way too which was nice.  We’d all bonded pretty well and were mixing plenty which I thought was a good thing, mainly so we didn’t get bored of each other!  A little treat came in the form of a visit to the thermal pools down in the valley by the river, not far from our third night camping ground.  It was nice down there, except for the weird staring couple who were obviously having some intimate moments under the water.  Fair enough, you get your kicks in public places, but don’t do it in plain sight and 15ft away from young children.  10ft away from them a middle aged Peruvian couple were making out in the middle of one of the pools, so at that point I had to call it quits with the PDAs and head to the shower to wash off the shame, and then to the bar to drink away the memory.  That night there was a little “party” at the camp, where we drank a few pisco sours and chilled around a fire, where I met a nice Canadian dude who was planning to propose to his girlfriend at the top of Huayna Picchu.  This was nice, but waking up to a soaked tent was not.  Thankfully that was our last night in a tent as we made our way to Aguas Calientes for our final night before Machu Picchu.  At the camp we were given an option to join another group doing a zip lining trek/ziptrek (or whatever it’s called) down the mountain, which cut out a few hours walking for an extra 30USD.  At this point I was happy to do that and we had a cracking time zipping our way across some valleys for the morning.

Our camp for the second night was on the right 🙂

Chasing waterfalls 🙂

Turkeys! I think…

Minging flower…

Lots of butterflies eating poo…

Fooooood! Stuffed avocados were awesome. It looks pretty basic but this was heaven after three days.

Banana trees, with lots of cocoa trees growing among them, planted by locals 🙂

Hot springs near Santa Theresa 🙂

Standard underwater selfie.

Our camp for the third night, getting ready to set off for our zip-lining adventure!1

All ready!

Rachael and I at the zip lines!

Superman!!

It was fab and Alejandro was a good guide, on one occasion coming to rescue me when I didn’t come close enough to the platform and got stuck! Class.  My favourite part was the last one where we reversed our harnesses and flew across like Superman! The vids I have are hilarious and will be featuring in another compilation video I’ll make no doubt sometime in the near future.

After our little thrill-seeking adventure we made our way to Hidroeléctrica, where we had lunch before we carried on to Aguas Calientes.  This involved walking up to another train track and walking along it, through the valley and along the river.  It was a nice walk but we had to carry all our own things by now as the porters had ditched us, so my back was screaming at me by the time we got to the town.  Thankfully a hot shower, clean bed and some rewarding pisco sours were waiting for me.

Cracking on from Hidroeléctrica to Aguas Calientes 🙂

Inca sun dial 🙂

Boulders!

Crossing a bridge 🙂

The trains were loud.

More butterflies 🙂

Walking along the tracks 🙂

Coming up to Aguas Calientes!

Casual train tracks in the street.

Our guide Nico gave us everything we needed for Machu Picchu and our final day, our tickets to enter the site and the mountain (opposite to Huayna Picchu), our train ticket out of Aguas Calientes and instructions to meet him up there so he could give us a guided tour of the ruins.  We had a choice: pay 10USD one way for a bus up to the site, or climb some really steep steps for 45 minutes.  All of us except one opted for the steps, probably for varying reasons.  I felt I wanted to finish the trek the way I’d started and that 10USD was just a bloody rip off.  Either way, we all had to be up for 4am, as you had to queue for the first bus at 5:30am and the lines were ridiculous, and the gate to the steps opened at 5am, for which there was also a small queue of eager pilgrims.

The final ascent was pretty tough and I’m glad I brought an extra t-shirt to change into, due to my transmogrification into a right Sweaty Betty.  It was worth the effort and the feeling of achievement and I got to be first in line to enter the Machu Picchu site on the day.  Little did I know that it was Machu Picchu Mountain that was going to be the killer – 90 minutes of the steepest steepness ever, almost like a ladder.  Nico joked that the Incas were probably ridiculously tall.  I didn’t find that funny as my legs wailed at me in pain.

5am at the gate to the steps…

Coming into the ruins 🙂

Dream come true!

Iago was loving life too 🙂

Cheeky Llamas for the tourists 🙂

Terraces

🙂

Checking out the Inca Bridge there 🙂

Taking inspiration from fellow tourists. “Draw me like one of your French girls, Jack…”

Climb up the mountain… deadly!

Contemplating death/defeat!

We made it!!

Worth it? Deffos worth it.

I loved this view so much!

And so did Iago!!

BEAUTIFUL!!

Legends 🙂

It’s safe to say that this was a dream come true.  I’d been waiting to see these ruins since at least the start of this trip if not before, having wanted to do a trip to South America for several years previous.  The feeling was so overwhelming when I got there that I almost cried! It was definitely a great reward after five days of walking and camping and I would say to anyone even considering it to just do it.  Don’t worry about fitness or anything else, just do it!  It was also nice to be there so early in the morning for sunrise, as there weren’t many people so you could enjoy it without the hoards fighting for spots to do their selfies.  Nico also said that we were lucky as not as many people seemed to be there that day.

I’d heard of people leaving after one hour or so due to their disappointment, but I expected the photo tourists bussing in and out and there weren’t many making the gruelling 20 minute walk up the bridge or the actually gruelling 90 climb up the mountain (I think around 200 or less did during the whole day, according to the sign-in book).  The photo tourists usually confine themselves to a particular spot at the top of the terraces near the guardhouse so they can get their best selfies done and dusted.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a well-timed and impressive selfie at the best of times and I wouldn’t say I’m some sort of selfie-snob, but it’s nice if you actually appreciate the environment and location in which you are deciding to do a selfie.  For some I feel like it’s more about where you get to check-in on Facebook rather than the beautiful view you want to share.  Says me, with the obligatory Facebook check-in at Machu Picchu. #soznotsoz

I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them, so I’ll leave you with the inspiration for the name of this post, the one and only RuPaul with, “Supermodel (of the world”.

Sashay, shantay…

 

Dancing with Mr D

This post is so named in honour of Keith Richards’ lifelong dance with death, involving drugs, house fires, falls and electrocution.  Despite this, I used Black Sabbath for the soundtrack in this video, so shoot me.

It’s that video I said I’d post, a little compilation of some of the videos of our downhill bike ride on Bolivia’s “Death Road”.

Enjoy 🙂

I Bolivia in miracles

The mate really does help on those long and fearful bus journeys.  Luckily we made it safely to La Paz, although some fellow travellers got more than just the annoyingly bumpy ride I paid for, with a couple of girls I met having the horrible experience of a lorry smashing into the side of their bus.  Upon seeing that unfortunate Facebook status, I proceeded to count my blessings and forgive the uncomfy seats and lack of asphalt roads.

La Paz was certainly a different experience to that of Sucre.  It’s really nice to see as you’re coming into the city, winding down the long main road into the city which snakes around the valley sides.  Houses and other developments are draped all over the place like a blanket, even on the steepest of the steep hillsides.  It’s definitely more rough around the edges and the traffic is dreadful, but it wasn’t as stressful as it sounds.

The first day involved checking out the markets, getting something to eat (check out La Cueva for decent tequila offers and a mean chilli con carne) and scouting for tour companies that operated on the infamous Camino a los Yungas/de la Muerte, or “Death Road”.  I’d heard about it when I was in Chile and thought that it would be something cool to do!  I’d also heard that a girl had died the other week thanks to her insatiable desire to take a selfie whilst peddling.  In spite of the dubious authenticity of this tale, I found it amusing nonetheless and vowed to be as slow as a snail if and when I attempted it.

After shopping around we ended up going with Pro Downhill, booking through one of the travel agents not far from the witches’ market.  We were quite happy with them as the bikes were a good quality and just as good as the well-known operators such as Altitude and Gravity, only slightly cheaper.  If you go with a group to book it, then you can usually ask for a group discount from most of the operators.  Snacks and a lunch pack are included along the way so you don’t really have to bring food.  Included in the price is a souvenir t-shirt and a disc with photos and videos they take during the day.  I took my GoPro after asking for a helmet which I could attach my camera to, so I’ve made a little video to give a taster of how the day went from my point of view.  I’ll upload that later but for now I have a just couple of photos to share.

My Bolivia Bitchesss. Legends 🙂

Getting ready… 🙂

Boy band 🙂

Coming down the first part of Death Road 🙂

Towards the end!

Knackered!

It was a great experience and not as scary as I was expecting.  There were a couple of moody Germans in the group who absolutely insisted on pushing past you and going at the front every time, but apart from that we had a ball.  The worst bits were the flats where it feels like you’re going uphill after so much downhill action, but anyone can do it really and our guide was great at giving us instructions and important info about what to look out for.  If you’re even considering it, just do it!  It’s a great achievement.

We celebrated with a long and heavy night in La Paz but definitely paid for it the day after.  The day after we ventured for a little sightseeing trip around the city and even ventured up the hill via cable car and had a mill around the big flea market at the top.  It’s actually quite good with loads of second hand stuff (which looked like stolen goods from those “missing” gringo backpacks) and food.

Checking out the “potions” at the witches’ market 🙂

Essential llama foetuses for all your witching needs.

@ the main square 🙂

At the top of the cable car!

Steve is loving life 🙂

After more partying I decided I’d better get a move on and headed west to Copacabana for my last stop in Bolivia before I continued to Peraaaah (#gapyah).  This involved a hungover bus from the Cemetery in La Paz to Copa, which took somewhere between three and four hours.  I’d just missed the 10:30am bus thanks to the terrible traffic so had to wait around two hours for the next bus.  I thought I’d booked the “big bus” instead of the minibus, but it turns out the “big bus” was just a big minibus – cue a bumpy bus ride over capacity complete with several dogs and loud children.  This wasn’t exactly what I wanted, and neither was the unexpected ferry crossing.

The crossing was so choppy we almost had to stand up every time it swayed. Nice 🙂

On my arrival I walked a couple of blocks from the main square and checked into the least offensive looking hotel that caught my eye.  I was so tired at this point I could have quite happily slept with the tramps, oblivious to the street dogs taking my clothes and giving me rabies.  Thankfully I had enough functioning braincells to check in to the Hotel Ambassador, which is a lot less glamorous than the name might suggest.  Nevertheless I was given a moderately comfortable and quiet single room, complete with en suite cold shower.  After a nice sleep I thought it best to explore a little, and decided to go up the Cerro Calvario to watch the sunset. Worth it.

The next day I went out to explore and sort out a trip to la Isla del Sol, an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian side.  After losing my phone on my last night in La Paz I was searching for a replacement but didn’t find anything appropriate in town so decided to postpone my search until I arrived in Cusco.  I also booked my bus to Cusco for the same night as I was eager to get on.  The clock is ticking!  I got a boat ticket for 35BOB, which included a boat from the North to the South of the island, just in case I wasn’t up for the three hour walk.  I wasn’t.  If you have the energy, you can save 10BOB and get a ticket for 25BOB.  Bargain.  There are guides on the island who are willing to show you around for tips, but don’t be like the stingy bastards I was with and don’t tip.  The lovely guy asked for 10BOB (less than a quid) after showing us around and giving us loads of info for a couple of hours and only one other person and I tipped him, the other older travellers and an obnoxious European threesome of lads scarpering once all their questions had been answered and the suggestion to tip mentioned.  Here’s an idea: do everyone a favour and help build a good relationship between locals and tourists by tipping at least something, so they don’t finally get fed up of us all and restrict access to guided tours only for 50BOB each.

Checking out the cathedral in the square. On the weekends the baptise the cars with flowers and alcohol! 🙂

Down at the lake front 🙂

Watching the sunset from Cerro Calvario 🙂

Standard boat steering 🙂

Donkey!

Sacred rock on the North point of the Isla del Sol 🙂

Pretty beaches. You can camp on the beaches if you want some more time on the island 🙂

Ruins of temples and settlements 🙂

🙂

Piggies!!

I’M ON A BOAT MOTHERF***ER!!

Gardens and fountain on the southern point of the island 🙂

Fountain. The locals were filling their containers from this 🙂

Enjoying some trout! 🙂

Tourist boat made from reeds. Apparently they keep on sinking but it’s a good money maker for them 🙂

On the way back I had a nice ice cream (well deserved for getting through the day), but was worried about a slight delay we had.  We came across a boat going around in circles with no passengers or driver present, so had to wait while we could grab another boat’s attention to help find out what happened.  Our skipper ended up leaving another boat to investigate, so I never found out what happened but was happy that I didn’t miss my bus to Cusco.  I’m trying not to waste too much time now as my days in South America and indeed on my whole trip are numbered.

Tick tock, on the clock, but the party don’t stop, no…

Do you Bolivia in life after love?

On a scale of “clinically dead” to “speeding on amphetamines”, the WiFi situation in Bolivia has been on the ridiculous side of “on a downer”.  Finally I find myself in a part of modern civilisation where it doesn’t take 8 hours to start uploading two photos and then fail.  So here goes.

Saying adios to Chile was sad, but I was more than ready for a new country after spending the last month in and out of Chile and Argie Bargie Land (with a quick stop in Uruguay of course).  Some people like to spend heaps and heaps of time in one country, usually mucking around and smoking weed in hostels and visiting shit towns “to really get a feel for the country”.  They’re not getting a feel for it, they’re just pissing about because for them, travelling is a competition to see how long you can not be in your home country and spend as little money as possible.  That’s like me doing a UK tour and spending two weeks getting stoned in a squat in Slough.  No thanks.

Having said that, I found myself staying in Sucre in Bolivia for the best part of a week after an awesome three day trip through the south of Bolivia, ending in Uyuni.  Over a few days we drove through desert, national parks, visited beautiful lagunas and enjoyed the climax of exploring the epic Salar de Uyuni.  Our little group of four had a great time and our driver was awesome and really chilled.  He just let us get on with whatever we wanted to do, not rushing us, and gave us the low down about the places we were visiting and answering any questions we had as best he could.  I paid 78,000 CLP for the 3 days and 2 nights, which included all food and accommodation.  I only needed to bring some money for the national park fee and souvenirs (and some booze which we managed to pick up along the way!).  A bag of coca leaves is essential, to avoid the headaches and tummy ache that sometimes come with high altitude.  I had an initial headache once we got to our highest point, but it wore off as I kept drinking water and stuffing my mouth with coca leaves.

Our first stop after crossing the border and entering the national park.

Laguna Verde 🙂

Laguna Blanca 🙂

Casual at Laguna Blanca 🙂

Geysers! These were more smelly and splashy, they had a good go at coating my camera in hot smelly sludge.

Smelly geysers!

Loving the geysers with my new Chilean friend 🙂

The 4×4 crew.

Hot pool break – nice location! 🙂

Chilling out at some hot pools. Standard South America 🙂

Llamas! #standard

Laguna Colorada 🙂

Checking out the bajillion flamingos at Laguna Colorada 🙂

Picking up the Bolivian booze for a night learning to play the weirdest Swiss card game ever,

Desert at night!

Arbol de Piedra 🙂

One of many jump photos attempted at various points throughout the south of Bolivia…

Colourful desert!

Another Laguna I can’t remember the name of! More lovely flamingos here too 🙂

Say whaaaaa?

We thought that this was a disused train line….

… until the train arrived.

Our second night was spent at this lovely hostel made out of salt. Our bottle of red wine somehow exploded and went all over the floor – we created our own Laguna Colorada…

The mooooooon….

After a few drinks the night before, I arrived a little worse for wear at the Salar de Uyuni. Altitude hangovers are not fun…

Isla del Pescado. More like Cactus Island!

Isla del Pescado, in the middle of the Salar de Uyuni, which is covered in cactuses.

There were many flags for the tourists to play about with, so I of course obliged.

Holding two Jehova’s Witnesses in my hands. That’s something I never thought I would be doing in the middle of Bolivia!

Standard Salar selfie.

Classic. I’d fully recovered from my early morning hangover by this point.

🙂

Souvenir shopping in a village near Uyuni 🙂

Loving the train cemetery near Uyuni 🙂

Dead trains 😦

Some people were stopping the night in Uyuni, but I decided spend the rest of the day checking it out before heading straight up to Sucre to plan my next move.  I ended up having a lovely meal at Minute Man, a pizza place in some hostel in town.  They do really nice pizzas and burritos, so I made sure I ate plenty before my first dodgy Bolivian bus journey.  A kiwi guy I’d met decided to tell me about the crash the previous week which had killed nine tourists, thanks to the tired driver that drove straight off a cliff in the middle of the night.  The worst bit was the ride was so bumpy I couldn’t even let myself sleep, with the intention of not knowing whether I’d died or not.

Thankfully I made it to Sucre in one albeit very tired piece and followed some Frenchies to a hostel a couple of blocks from the Plaza 25 de Mayo, called Pachamama.  I’d recommend it if you want a cheap, quiet, clean and friendly hostel that’s not far from the centre at all.  Like most places in Bolivia though, I wouldn’t expect hot showers 24/7, no matter what the owners say.  I got one lukewarm shower for the six nights I spent there.

I had only intended to stay for a couple of nights, but I ended up meeting some fabulous English lads who were in town to learn Spanish and hacer la fiesta.  I ended up spending the weekend there as it turned out that the festival of la Virgen de Guadeloupe, which culminates in a few days of parades and street parties.  Well, it would have been rude not to embrace the local festival atmosphere, wouldn’t it?

Sucre!

View of Sucre from la Recoleta 🙂

This photo kind of explains how the traffic moves in Bolivia…

Plaza 25 de Mayo

The fesitval of the Virgen de la Guadeloupe – thankfully Steve was on hand with his 50/50 rum and coke camel hump…

Bolivia “cake”.

She’s loving it.

They’re all loving it.

Feel the rhythm…

After a few bevvies I couldn’t help myself and jumped in with them. I knew all the moves…

Prior to the festival, during my first couple of days in Sucre I’d explored the beautiful city (a UNESCO World Heritage site) and met a lovely woman called Sonia in the Museo de Arte Indigena.  She asked me if I had planned any tours and explained that she was doing a tour the next day to the Maragua Crater and the surrounding area.  I’d already been to Joyride (a cafe, bar, and tour shop which seems to be the go-to place for backpackers in Sucre), but had left less than keen to give them any money thanks to the miserable staff, particularly the quite unfriendly French guy that was working there.  “A rude Frenchman!” I hear you cry? Yes. I was surprised too…

Needless to say I gave Sonia some money and was confident I would see her when she came to pick me up from Pachamama the next morning.  She was only 10 minutes late, but I forgave her because she was so lovely and gave us one of the nicest tours I’ve been on.  She was so friendly and knowledgeable and made so much effort to make sure we were all having a good time, were comfortable and got what we wanted out of our visit to the area.  I would highly recommend her.  Her company is called Cadena Tours if you’re ever in Sucre!

Sonia was a doll, one of the best tour guides I’ve ever had!

Walking on one of the many Inca trails to the Maragua Crater 🙂

The locals followed us around for a while!

Dinosaur footprints at Niñu Mayu 🙂

Went to see some weaving in one of the indigenous villages in the campesino 🙂

My second “garganta del diablo” of South America. Sonia told us about the legend locals believe.

After the festival antics, some good cheap food at La Cabañita (Calle Argentina 79), and spending a few fun nights out with my new mates at some of the Sucre hangouts (Florin, KulturCafe), I decided to head on up to La Paz to crack on with my journey.  It seems my time in South America and indeed on my round-the-world trip is beginning to dwindle, so I’ve been thinking more and more about how to fit in the rest of the things I want to do and the places I want to see.  Before we left for La Paz, we squeezed in a last minute trip to the Parque Cretacio, or “Dino Park” as was the accepted term among us.

Classy spare shoes they lent me at the Parque Cretacio…

The largest collection of dinosaur footprints the the Parque Cretacio outside Sucre.

Dino bum.

They’ve only just started doing walks down to the wall of footprints, caused by tectonic plate movements pushing up the layers of sediment over like, a lot of years.  If you go, wear proper shoes (no flip-flops) as they don’t let you down there without shoes on – they’re concerned about health and safety issues like that, see.  It’s the largest collection of dinosaur footprints in the world which is a pretty cool selling point, but the park itself is a bit lame and the 30 BOB entry fee they charge isn’t really going to any conservation work because the cement plant next door still owns the land and is still operating a quarry right in front of and next to them.  Apparently they might be gone in a couple of years but who knows!  It’s worth going if you want to easily get to see some dino footprints, but the ones at Niñu Mayu were much more impressive and better preserved and there are no random dino replicas.

After that riveting visit, we headed back into town with enough time to pick up our bags, prepare a mate gourd and head to the bus station to catch our bus of death to La Paz.  The story continues…

Your own, personal, geysers

Since I left BA my life has been pretty full with lots of organised fun.  However I did manage to get myself into a minor situation on what should have been a routine bus journey to Salta.  Not knowing exactly what Salta looked like, towards the end of the journey I asked one of the drivers if I had to change buses and when we would be getting into Salta.  He told me not to worry and he would let everyone know when we got to Salta.

After a few more stops we were coming towards the stated time of arrival in Salta so I mouthed to a fellow passenger if we were in Salta, to which he responded with a similar mouthed expression of “no I don’t think so”.  I asked the driver again as we stopped at another stop, who proceeded to exclaim his disbelief at how I didn’t hear him shout out “SALTA” over an hour ago.  It turns out my fellow passenger with the dodgy opinion on our geographical location was deaf.  Only I could pick out the deaf guy.  After a few more questions it seemed we were in General Güemes, an arse-end of nowhere kind of town north of Salta and luckily I would be able to catch the last bus to Salta that left in five minutes.  After moving rather quickly with my bags I bought a 25 peso ticket back to Salta, along with my new best deaf Argentine friend who seemed to then be asking me for information.  Funny.

I got to Salta and checked into Exxes Hostel which was more or less dead apart from an Irish couple.  I had a nice walk around the city in the evening, picking up a couple of super panchos (big hot dogs) for 5 pesos each.  I bumped into a few Frenchies looking for a hostel and suggested mine as it wasn’t too expensive (around 80 pesos per night), they weren’t sure at first but I ended up seeing them later and spent a good chunk of my time there with them.  There are lots of nice people and shops in town, with plenty of good bars, cafes and restaurants to eat good cheap food and drink some Salta lager (btw it’s not bad).

I spent the first night deep in conversation with one of the guys that runs the place, continuing my new found trend of meeting friendly Argentine folk in the splendid north of the country.  He introduced me to a sugar load of Latin American music which I’m still making my way through, but it’s all adding to the South American experience.  Awesome.

After spending a day exploring the city with two lovely Aussie girls Katie and Laura, I’d booked a tour to nearby Cafayate (not to be confused with El Calafate, as I frequently kept on saying to several bemused Argentinians) which involved the typical photo op stops along the way through la Quebrada del Rio de las Conchas.  If there’s a few of you, it would be worth looking into hiring a car and doing it yourself just to be able to take it at your own pace, as it’s a really beautiful part of the world.  We got to Cafayate where we visited a couple of wineries for some tasting sessions and food in town.  We went to Vasija Secreta which was quite nice, although if you don’t speak Spanish then you’ll miss all the info they give.  This is where a guided tour comes in handy as your guide will usually answer any of your questions and give you the low down in your own language, or English if they doesn’t speak that.  We also stopped by Domingo Hermanos where I picked up some Malbec red wine, for a mere 28 pesos per bottle.  Needless to say it went down a treat that evening.  One final tip, if you’re in Salta don’t go for Italian food, stick to steak and other stuff no matter how bored or unimpressed you might be with it.

Plaza 9 de Julio at Salta 🙂

Of course 🙂

Walking up Cerro San Bernardo, instead of talking the cable car is a lovely way to view the city 🙂

Aussies, Frenchies and a Brit 🙂

On the way to Cafayate, at las Tres Cruces 🙂

Llama

Feeling good!

Llama selfie.  It was tied up for tourists, so I felt a bit bad, but he was all like, “KISS MA TEETH!!” 🙂

At one of the many Gargantas del Diablo that dot South America.  Accidental selfies are the only acceptable type.

Katie, Laura and I at a natual Amfiteatro we stopped at along the way 🙂

Wine o’clock!

At Plaza 20 de Febrero. They like their dates, these Argentines.

Couldn’t help myself. Love em.

Standard Cathedral.

Wine!!

la Quebrada del Rio de las Conchas 🙂

The tour was about 250 ARS, which is about 30 USD if you’re talking offical exchange rates, but remember if you’re exchanging money on the blue market you’ll save even more money, so for me it was more like 18 USD.  Don’t forget to go with high denomination notes to get the best rate on the street.

After Salta I was itching to get back to Chile and for a change of scenery, continuing my journey north.  This involved my first experience of high-ish altitude travelling, as I was moving back towards the Andes and to those higher parts where the air gets thinner, but not in the looking-hot-on-the-cover-of-Vogue way, but feeling-like-you’re-about-to-keel-over-on-the-catwalk kind of way.  At the border crossing, two women decided enough was enough and threw up their lives as they left Argentina and entered Chile.  I got a headache which was quite annoying too.  Violin please.

I’d already made a booking at a hostel but I wasn’t quite sure which one it was on my arrival.  Luckily a guy on a bike called Ricky was handing out flyers for it and I recognised the name – Juriques Hostal.  He gave me some directions which I instantly forgot, but as I was walking through town in the general direction he had given he appeared and directed me further.  He reminded me of an slightly more wasted version of Jack Sparrow.  Awesome guy.

After chilling out for the rest of the afternoon and soothing my headache with mate and music, I booked a couple of tours through my hostel with the lovely Nataly, the first one for the following afternoon so as to give myself time to rest and have a lie in.

The first tour was to el Valle de la Luna for a mere 7000 CLP, which you could make even cheaper if you hired a bike yourself as it’s not far away from the town.  However, I wasn’t in the mood for exercise that day so I settled for a guide and a relaxing day learning about the desert around me.  The place is beautiful and our guide was really knowledgeable and enthusiastic which always helps, showing us how everything around us was actually made out of salt crystals covered in desert dust, rather than rock.  We explored some caves in the dark which was quite fun and notable rock formations made by wind and sand.  After visiting el Valle de la Muerta (Death Valley) we finished up on the other side of the valley to watch the sunset which was pretty fabulous.

Classic jump photo at the Valle de la Muerta 🙂

Feeling alive at Death Valley!

Just before sunset in Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley)

All over them salt crystals!

Feeling good 🙂

Our attempt at being Charlie’s Desert Angels.

Awesome 🙂

That night I’d planned to do a stargazing tour, which ended up being cancelled due to the amount of clouds that were present.  The Atacama desert is the best place in the world to go stargazing thanks to the lack of light pollution and high altitude.  We ended up going the next night, but I have to say that unfortunately I was disappointed.  We went to one of the observatories near town and spent a couple of hours looking at the moon, a couple of planets, stars and nebulae.  I might sound like I’m being a right miserable git but I was hoping for a few hours in the desert identifying constellations and getting the opportunity to practice taking photos of the Milky Way with my camera.  It wasn’t their fault, as we had the best part of a full moon stopping us from seeing a blanket of stars and staring in awe at the universe.  If you’re serious about stargazing, make sure you time your visit with a new moon and maybe even consider venturing a little way out of town with a good group so you can spend as much time as you want with some wine and the stars.  Having said that, they provided plenty of wine and the astronomer at the observatory was very enthusiastic and keen to big up the moon.  He also had a cute Brazilian sidekick which made for an additional pleasant sight that evening.

Before that experience and after the afternoon in the Valle de la Luna however, I awoke early at around 4am so I could crawl half asleep into a minibus to go and see los Geisers del Tatio.  That visit was accompanied by the Marilyn Manson version of Personal Jesus playing in my head for most of the morning, so I thought it only appropriate to dedicate this post to that.  It was a fab place and our guide Daniel was both informative and hilarious.  We explored a few of the different hotspots in the national park and rounded it off with a relaxing visit to some hot springs.  They weren’t as hot as the ones in Taupo in New Zealand, but they were nice (except when you moved some of the river bed and got scolded by a rush of geothermal hotness).

Nice morning 🙂

Only a little smelly.

Geyser good, geyser good, he’s ebe-geyser good 🙂

Daniel sneaks in a selfie with my camera when I’m not looking 🙂

Checking out the ducks and birds at Rio Putana (Italian lol) – Volcano of the same name in the background there.

I still can’t remember what these are called – something like a llama but definitely not a llama. And you don’t eat them.

I don’t usually like taking photos of/with locals, but this guy was banging out the tunes and was pretty chilled.

Hot spring sesh 🙂

The next day I’d planned a chilled out day sorting out my stuff for my impending trip to Bolivia, but I was dragged away by Oscar, my new Chilean chef friend and a couple of other backpackers from Spain and Germany, on an afternoon mountain biking trip.  I hadn’t expected to be carrying my bike on my back up a mountain but there I was, struggling through the sand thinking I could have been chilling out with a cold beer.  Nevertheless I had an great time and in the end thought that it was a fitting way to say goodbye to Chile.  We hired some bikes for the afternoon at 2500 CLP each which was fine, we packed a lunch and plenty of water and explored the hills and valleys that form a great deal of the landscape of the Atacama desert.

Curious cat at breakkie 🙂

Curious dog, “Negra” at the bike hire shop 🙂

Rock face.

Cave selfie!

Climbing through a pitch black cave to this little area 🙂

Panting as we made our way up!

Tunnel shortcut 🙂

Nice 🙂

The bike carrying was worth it for the views 🙂

I’m well sporty me.

Iago loves flying high!

Mucking about in some ruins.

House invasion!

Gearing up for sunset (get it?)

After changing some money into USD and Bolivianos for my tour up to Uyuni in Bolivia, we went out for a nice meal at Oscar’s restaurant, just at the top of the road our hostel was on and had some cracking pizzas, the leftovers of which became a packed snack box for any peckish moments on the bumpy journey through the south of Bolivia.  But that’s another story for another day, because I can’t face writing any more and waiting to upload photos with this dodgy WiFi.  Until next time, amigos.

Desert sunset 🙂

Fair Winds and Following Seas

I remember somebody asking me, possibly Welshman Owen, about the meaning of Buenos Aires in English.  I wasn’t sure at the time but I hazarded a guess at “good airs”.  A quick search online told me I was bang on the literal translation (not difficult but I’ll take a gold sticker and a smiley face stamp from the teacher) but the translation that made more sense was “fair winds”, hence the title of this chapter of my journey.

After one of the more acceptable bus journeys of my time travelling around the world, I made it to the Paris of South America after about 22 hours of quite nice food (better than some of the shite they serve on long-haul flights), beer and even some bubbles in fabulous little champagne flutes (Eurolines: take notes please).  We even got smiles and conversation from the “cabin crew” guy, or whatever the bus equivalent is called, and I finally got round to watching Frozen.  Loved it.

My Brazilian travel companion Moacyr decided to join me on the journey north to BA and on our arrival we took a taxi to the hostel I’d booked online (another bargain through booking.com instead of hostelword/hostelbookers).  Food, shower and primping followed before getting on it for my first night on the town.  We didn’t go far from Hostel Fiesta (not much fiesta going on in that place it seems at this time of year), opting for Palacio Alsina.  It’s in a old theatre and we had a cracking night dancing to some good tunes and meeting some nice Argentinians.  I left as it closed sometime before 4am covered in confetti so I was happy, but my fellow reveller and I were keen to keep the party going so we headed to a club a couple of blocks away called Circus.  That place is definitely more in the grubby after party genre of raves, the kind of place where you leave in a daze with the lower part of your body coated in some kind of black substance the consistency and origin of which you are never quite sure.

@ Palacio Alsina

Confetti!!

The next morning I didn’t feel at my best for obvious reasons, but managed to make it out into the real world and crawl around the city in search of sights to see.  One of the highlights was being able to sit down in silence at the Cathedral on Plaza de Mayo and have a pretend pray/nap while my brain melted down and rebuilt itself.  The weather wasn’t the best that day so after walking around all afternoon I headed back for a sleep and to sort my life out.  I didn’t want to waste the days I had in BA, but I wasn’t keen to be rushing around and trying to see and do everything at once so having a debate with myself I decided to do as I pleased and take it easy.

Happy Evita – I think the other side of this building had angry Evita.

Standard road crossing procedure.

Obelisk, bitches

Teatro Colon 🙂

Christmas shop!!

Down at the Catherdal, praying for the devil hangover in my head to be gone.

That’s the Cathedral. Looks more like a museum of sorts.

Standard Falklands stuff. Next to this memorial some veterans had a protest camp there.

Casa Rosada, or the “Pink House”. Government House.

Cristina K well wants to be Evita.

The next day involved shopping for some shoes along Calle Florida (plenty of sales and cheap shopping) and trolling the boutiques in Palermo, the trendy and arty area of Buenos Aires where your ears will tell you a lot of foreign exchange students and interns like to hang out.  In anticipation of a cold night or two up a mountain somewhere in Peru, I bought my first ever pair of long johns from a little underwear shop called Narciso (plenty of cute shops and cafes for the gays in Palermo) with glow-in-the-dark skulls on them, something which I was excited to tell my bitch Andy immediately, a committed long john wearer.  I also stopped by Magdalena’s for a nice breakkie burrito, but was disappointed in the over-salted and over-spiced Bloody Mary which I just couldn’t drink (they were really nice about it and didn’t charge me).  Once I remember drunkenly agreeing to take a shot glass of chilli oil in Brussels – I think I enjoyed that more.  This may may sound a bit exaggerated and a pointless waste of words and your time reading it, but hopefully now you will understand how much I like a good Bloody Mary.

Walking into Palermo Soho 🙂

To get to Palermo, just take the Subte (Metro) to Plaza Italia.

I got lost on the way back but ended up seeing some funky street art, which is always good 🙂

I’d also planned a little excursion out of the city and indeed out of the country.  On the other side of the Rio de la Plata is Uruguay and you can take a boat across to Colonia del Sacramento, an old and originally Portuguese settlement designated a UNESCO heritage area thingy.  There are boats to Montevideo and further afield as well, but I didn’t fancy venturing even further away from where I had planned to be at this point as my “detour” in Argentina had already taken the best part of three weeks.  By this point though I was rather enjoying myself and the country, as the people seem to be a lot more happy, friendly and easy going in the north (probably because they have more stuff).

I went with Colonia Express, but there are a couple of other companies that go (Buquebus and Seacat).  Check online for prices as there are different fares which are subject to availability, and be sure to book at least a day or two in advance as the boats are often full (more if you want the cheapest online fare).  Plenty of business men were on the boat coming back, most probably working in the free trade zone in Colonia.

The place itself is great and a punctuates a visit to busy BA with a laid-back break in an old corner of colonial South America.  The historical centre is really pretty and small enough to slowly walk around for most of the afternoon.  I stopped for lunch at a place outside of the barrio historico, which was cheaper than the places in the centre (better for those on a budget like me) and still with plenty of atmosphere and friendly wait staff. While in town I was sure to withdraw some US dollars (available from Uruguayan cash machines) so I could change some into pesos on the black market back in Buenos Aires (the people that shout cambio all the time in the street as the police stand by, smoking and focused intently on their iPhone screens).  It’s actually known at the “blue market” and you can find the daily exchange rate here.  The more money you exchange and the higher the denomination, the better rate you get.  It came about when the President restricted the amount of foreign currency Argentinians could buy, thus creating a black market for foreign currency.  The prices are high for people wanting to exchange Argentine Pesos (ARS), but foreigners clear up when exchanging US dollars, Euros and Brazilian reals.  Argentina has just defaulted on its debt and the ARS isn’t doing too well at the moment, so the exchange rate is decent. #sorrynotsorry

Hola Uruguay!

Old lighthouse 🙂

Red cars galore!

Lighthouse selfie.

Country number 3 in South America, bitches 🙂

Sunny day in Colonia 🙂

🙂

Love them cars, me.

Sunset selfie.

Old train platform with graffiti 🙂

I took the 8:45pm crossing back to Buenos Aires and after a quick change went to meet a fellow traveller I met in Calafate, Joe, for some company and possible fiesta-ing.  We had a few beers and after a lot of umming and ahing we ventured out in search of booze, but ended up tagging along with some of the coked-up exchange students from Milhouse hostel to Asia de Cuba for a dance.  The music was typical David Guetta shite with the odd hardstyle tune thrown in if the DJ really wanted to “SMASH IIIIIIT”, but a night is what you make of it, so I danced and watched and laughed as one moron from Surrey rolled around the place moaning about how weak his coke was, chewing his face off, abusing people, stealing their drinks and then getting thrown out for his efforts.  Bless.

By this point I’d grown tired of the centre and decided to relocate to Palermo for a more chilled out atmosphere and to indulge my inner douche.  Cue more boutique perusing, mate pots and parties.  I’d decided upon one last #BGNO (Big Gay Night Out) and found an enthusiastic Brazilian guy in my hostel who wanted to come along.  We had some fab food to start at Espacio Dadá on Plaza Serrano, before being disappointed by the fact that the nearby gay bar had closed.  After some more beer we ventured further afield to Sitges on Avenida Córdoba where we watched a fabulous and hilarious cabaret show with some awesome sketches and stand up performances, incorporating the standard lip-syncing tradition as well as live speech and singing.  At around 4am the show finished and I befriended some Argentinian fellow community members who suggested we come along to Glam on José Antonio Cabrera.  It ended up being a great night with a lot better music (including one big room remix of Conchy) and many friendly gays.  Thanks to Alex and his amigos for showing me a good time!

My last day consisted of hungover packing and more crawling, but a very positive trip to Burger Joint in Soho.  I ploughed through one of their Mexican burgers in their arty graffiti’d walls and generally just coloured-in burger bar, which totally did the trick and gave me my life back.  With this new found energy I decided to kill some time before my northbound bus at the Museo Evita, a mere block away from the zoo.  It’s a small place but worth a visit and the 40 pesos if you want to learn a bit about Evita from Argentina’s perspective and don’t know much already about her.  There are plenty of inspiring quotes plastered all over the place and captivating moments and speeches playing on videos throughout.  It’s in a nice building too!

Good burgers at “Burger Joint” in Palermo Soho. Not quite a Fergburger but they’ll certainly do!

Trip to the Evita museum! I think I had the Madonna tune in my head all the way through…

After having much trouble trying to book a bus ticket out of BA (it seems the internet was on strike as well during Argentina’s general strike that took place during my time there), I managed to get a seat on a 7pm bus to Salta.  It was a bit cheaper that my other buses which pleased me a little, so I prepared my mate gourd (which I had cured the day before following online instructions and tips from the Argentinians in my hostel) and a flask of hot water for another mammoth journey across South America…

No llores por mí, Argie Bargie

Another one of my great spontaneous decisions that worked out exactly how it was supposed to.

Not exactly, but my bright idea to venture forth into Argie Bargie Land has made for an interesting, eventful and rather sizeable detour (it seems I wrote that I would merely “have a butcher’s” at the end of my last post).

Welshman Owen and I took a bus to El Calafate where there was a lot more evidence of a “gringo trail” with lots of backpackers and things going on.  This involved a border crossing not long after leaving Puerto Natales in Chile with a less frosty welcome back to Argentina, but with the first of many, many, many signs explaining to all those that should wish to enter the Republic of Argentina that “las Islas Malvinas son Argentinas” (the Falkland Islands are Argentine), but more of that later.  The main attraction for me going to the town was to see the Perito Moreno glacier and I made sure I got there.  I had planned to go the first morning after arriving, but I didn’t realise how far away it was and missed the buses in the morning (the last of which left at 9am), so I ended up having a stroll around town and visited Laguna Nimez, a reserve area of sorts where you can walk and see lots of birds.

Bienvenido!

I’d been promised some Flamingos by the guy at the little hut, who took 50 Argentine pesos before letting me explore the area, but I didn’t see any.  On the way back I thought that it probably wasn’t the best time of year to be seeing them, although I had heard that there were some lurking about on the shore of the Lago Argentino which is right next to the Laguna.  I still had a nice time and didn’t go mental at the guy for not providing Flamingos.  I’m not that guy.

Laguna Nimez

Checking out them birds 🙂

I pretended to be a real birder, just like Jack Black in the Big Year (a film shown on one of my various long bus journeys so far in Argentina)

Iago got all excited!

Poser.

The next day I actually managed to make it on time to catch the bus to the glacier.  I’d somehow managed to set off late from the hostel, despite getting up extra early for breakkie and what not.  Drama ensued on arrival at the bus terminal as I realised that I needed cash, as cards were not accepted in the national park and there were no cash machines in the bus station.  This is the bus station that charges you 5 pesos for walking through the door.  The bus station that charges you 5 pesos to remind you that you’re a pesky Malvinas-meddling Englishman.  With little sympathy from the lady at the desk, who was aggrieved to have been pulled away from a particularly gruelling session of Facebook News Feed trawling, I was pointed in the vague direction of the nearest cash machine in town and ran furiously in search of currency, hoping that the bus would not leave without me.  Luckily it didn’t and I got back in time with plenty of pesos for the day and an annoyingly sweaty back.

As the bus enters Los Glaciares national park there’s a 215ARS entrance fee to pay (215 for foreigners and something like 80 for locals).  Then it stops off by the boats which go to the south face of the glacier, so you can get off and take the boat up the the terminal face.  The boat trip lasts an hour or so and sets you back about 180ARS.  If you’re on a chokingly tight budget then I wouldn’t bother, but despite my limbo low bank balance I indulged my curiosity and went along.  It’s definitely enjoyable and a nice way to see the glacier.  If you do one of the trekking trips on the glacier then you take the boat to get there anyway, but I decided against as I’d already done a trekking trip on the Franz Josef glacier last month in New Zealand (and I got to go in a helicopter, cough cough).

After the boat your bus picks you up again and takes you to the balcones where you can walk around and view the north and south faces of the glacier.  It’s pretty nice to see and hear the cracks and bangs coming from it as the glacier advances and bits fall away into the water.  There were some pretty big bangs happening as I ate my lunch!  It’s a definite must-do if you go to Patagonia and there are a few different options for visiting, if you want to combine some ice hikes and be a bit more adventurous.

Glacier, bitches.

Perito Moreno – a gorge day for it too 🙂

Getting sick of the panoramas yet?

View from the balconies 🙂

I’d met a few other travellers in the America del Sur hostel (nice hostel, underfloor heating, and a good breakkie with loads of drinking yoghurt) and we’d gone out for something to eat the night before I went to Perito Moreno.  Being in Argentina I wanted to eat a good Argentine steak so I was hoping for good things as we arrived at a good-looking restaurant not far from the hostel, just next to the bridge into town.  I’m pretty sure I wasn’t being a picky bitch but I was a little disappointed as it was nowhere even close to being a good steak.  A nice hunk of meat, but there was almost no flavour and I left a little deflated and a couple of hundred pesos lighter.  The search continues and I am determined to find a mind-blowing steak while I’m here!

After our fun in El Calafate we continued north to El Chaltén, the self-styled “Capital Nacional del Trekking”.  If you like walking and mountains then this is the place for you.  Plenty of tracks of various degrees of difficulty but splendid views from whichever you choose to follow.  Owen and I wasted no time as we arrived and did a couple of the smaller tracks during the afternoon.  Some people had taken the bus and were going to blitz one of the seven or eight hour walks before heading back to El Calafate, but we were happy to stay a couple of nights and enjoy some time in a quiet place.  The next two days we spent walking the Fitzroy track and to Glaciar Grande and we were treated to some more typical Patagonian weather – rain, clear sunny skies and snow.

Waterfall on one of our first mini walks – Chorillo del Salto 🙂

View from Los Cóndores

Beautiful day hiking around the Fitzroy range!

Cheeky birds that had probably been fed too much by humans!

Laguna Capri – marred only by the most annoying Frenchies who didn’t understand the rules about no smoking or no weeing near the water. Of course they smoked and threw their tab ends on the ground for a bird to eat, and poisoned the fresh water with their froggy wee. Merci twats.

View of the valley on the way back 🙂

I’m pretty sure the dog ran this place.

Cascada

Another cocky bird that was bullyiing Owen.

A terrible view of the Glaciar Grande, but an enjoyable walk in the snow nonetheless!

If you do end up visiting El Chaltén during winter, don’t expect much to be going on.  There was just our hostel (and possibly one other) open and the helpfulness of the locals was in line with what I’d encountered so far in El Calafate.  In our search for a supermarket we were told that there was nothing open, but found one that said it was open six days a week near to our hostel.  However the usefulness of the places was also questionable thanks to it’s whiffy meat counter and mouldy fruit and veg.  I would say it’s important to stress how little I’m exaggerating the meat and mould situation.  Minced meat so old it looked like it had scabies, and so much mould on the veggies that it could be considered a single living organism.  We stuck to tinned things, pasta and actually dared to buy an aubergine that still resembled an aubergine.

Nevertheless we had a fab time in El Chaltén and I’m pretty sure it has a lot more to offer tourists in summer.  Hopefully the locals’ mood would cheer up as well, as we were once again made clear to whom the Falkland Islands belonged.  The man at the bus station selling me my extortionately priced ticket to Bariloche highlighted his several Malvinas “Nuestras Islas” posters, including a lovely window sticker indicating an Argentine return to the islands.  He told me to look at it, asked if I understood, at which point I agreed for fear of not being able to get my ticket!  Welshman Owen escaped the frosty exchange thanks in part to his lack of Spanish and Welsh identity, which some Argentines don’t seem to think is in anyway linked to those pesky Inglés.  Hint: when someone tells you they’re from el Reino Unido and that they’re británico, don’t write or repeat back, “oh, Inglés“.  Having said that, there might not be a UK by the time I get back, in which case, carry on chicos.

“We’ll be back” #sorrynotsorry

I’d paid something around 1600ARS for my ticket back to El Calafate and then onwards to Bariloche with TAQSA.  The buses in Argentina are pretty good though, they provide meals and drinks and put on better films than the ones in Chile!  There was a problem with it though and somehow Contraband was on a few more times than I cared to watch.  Surprisingly I had fun watching Big Year with Jack Black, but I had my laptop with a few films and series on as well as my copy of Wuthering Heights to read.

Bariloche was pretty fun, although I didn’t get to sample all that it had to offer.  It’s quite an expensive place as it’s very popular with South Americans, especially Brazilians, as a holiday destination.  The place made the news a few years ago as a few Nazi war criminals had been found there, owing to Juan Perón’s decision to let all the Nazis come to Argentina to escape prosecution.  He also didn’t seem to mind Jews coming to work for him to escape persecution either.  Not the most consistent man, really.  Anyway, there’s skiing/snowboarding, walking, mountain biking and lots of other things to do.  We opted for a day with some bikes cycling around the Circuito Chico, which is basically a road going around the nice lakes area half an hour west of the town centre.

You can take the number 20 bus, but make sure you buy a travel card from a kiosk (we went to one right by the main big bus stop in town) as they don’t take cash on the bus.  It’s only about 5 or 6 pesos one way and you can use the same card for more than one passenger.  In fact many locals who forget their cards ask people on the bus to use their card and give them the money, which one lady did for me as I was leaving Bariloche! I was happy as I got the 5 pesos which were still left on my card which I wouldn’t have used otherwise.  If you’re feeling adventurous and have time to spare, you could always ask someone to use their card, but it’s not a great effort to pick one up yourself.  At the 18km bus stop there’s the bike hire shop.  It’s 150ARS to hire a bike for the day and the bikes are not too bad.  Some are a bit dodgy so make sure you get a good one and check the brakes!  Mine were a bit old and Owen got a completely flat tire in the last kilometre, so I wouldn’t bother if you’re expecting quality or safety and are bothered about making it through 30km in one piece.

Town square in Bariloche – the German influence is easy to see!

Oh look. More signs about the Falklands.

View from our hostel 🙂

Nice view along the Circuito Chico 🙂

We stopped in Bahía Lopez for lunch!

Bike selfie!

Little church along the way.

The traffic was a bit more dense towards the last part of the loop, but not too bad at this time of year!

It was about here that Owen got his flat tire. Not a bad place to break down I guess!

It was in Bariloche that I’d met up with my Brazilian friend Moacy from my time in Santiago, who had come down from Buenos Aires for a few days.  We had planned a night out, it seemed that I had spent all my energy hiking around El Chalten so a half an hour disco nap turned into a really long old man sleep.  He was heading back up to BA so we decided to go together.  Bariloche would have bled my bank account even more if I had stayed much longer so after looking at the much cheaper hostel prices in BA, I thought it best to finally make more of an effort to get further north so I could continue my journey up to Bolivia.

I’d heard that people get more friendly the further north you go and I’d already met some much more happy people from Buenos Aires while I was in Bariloche.  In my dorm were a brother-sister duo from the capital who were down for a week’s holiday, who were really friendly and with whom I had a great conversation.  I even dared to ask them about the dispute over the Falkland Islands (I feel like I’m talking a lot about somewhere I’ve never been but if I had my way I wouldn’t be talking about them at all!) as I’d never asked an Argentinian about them before, but it turns out we shared the same view about self-determination.  A pleasant surprise!

So as I set off on another 20-odd hour bus journey, I had high hopes for the so-called “Paris of South America”…

House of Paine

I feel like I’ve settled into travelling in a non-anglophone region again, adapting to wherever I find myself at any particular moment and deciding what I want to do as each day passes.  As I said at the end of my last post I had made my way down to Chilean Patagonia from Santiago.  After taking a 13 hour bus from Santiago to Puerto Montt I had intended to spend a day there before heading further south.  However, I took one look at the place and thought it best to make a quick and valiant escape, a decision based mostly on the miserable and drizzly weather and quite dumpy impression of the town.  Evidently it’s one of the less affluent areas of Chile and to be honest I couldn’t be bothered sticking around to find out if I was right or wrong.  Apologies to Puerto Montt, but I’ve only got so much time.

My only shot from Puerto Montt, looking out from the bus station… you can see why I loved it so much.

Less than an hour later I was on board another bus south, destination Punta Arenas, the last major city right at the bottom of Chile and South America.  I’m pretty sure that the agent at the bus station said that it would take around 26 hours, but it turned out to be closer to 36 hours.  It was a nice journey down and there weren’t many people on the bus so there was plenty of room to stretch out and sleep, which is what I did most throughout the trip.  I’m glad I ended up taking the Pullman bus instead of the other ones (which were already full and cost more) as we passed most of them as we crossed the mountains, watching them pass by as they were stuck in the snow along with several other lorries, vans and cars.  It was dangerous indeed and I’m worried that I may have seen someone fatally injured, although I hope my tired eyes were deceiving me.

The Tur Bus from Santiago to P. Montt cost 15000CLP and the Pullman bus to P. Arenas was 30000CLP so the whole 48 hour journey only cost me about 45GBP which was a plus.  No accommodation to pay for of course, but I was in dire need of a shower and a good meal when I arrived.  I also needed some form of entertainment, after having sat through Delivery Man with Vince Vaughn (dubbed into Spanish of course), a whole music video album of some random crooner in a sombrero, some Chilean comedian playing a guitar and several episodes of “Del hotel a la calle” which brought many of those on the bus to tears (if you have time, watch it – it’s so random I’m not quite sure what to make of it).

Snowy weather as we crossed the Andes into Argentina to make our way down to Punta Arenas 🙂

The snow was really quite thick!

The mountains made the first half of the journey pleasant to watch 🙂

Frosty welcome at my first flying visit to Argentina!

Late night stop for food at some restaurant in the middle of nowhere!

Second sunset of the bus journey, a few hours before my arrival in Punta Arenas.  This was taken at the border crossing as we came back into Chile – I presume many Chile-Argentina mini-matches have been played here 🙂

The border crossing back into Chile was a bit more of a faff, thanks to the many scans of our bags, sniffing dogs and two poor Colombians who were questioned at length (they laughed as they said they get it every time at every border).  My experience was less frosty as I left Argentina and crossed back into Chile than my first entrance into Argentina.  I remember the welcoming exclamation of “ooooh, Brrrrritiiiish” from the Argentinian border official as he processed my entry and enthusiastically stabbed my passport with his stamp.  Comical exaggerations aside, on my eventual arrival in Punta Arenas at Hostal Torres del Paine I received a lovely warm welcome at the door from Carmen, the lady that runs the place.  There weren’t any other people there so I had a room to myself and she made me coffee and served me a lovely big piece of cake she had made that weekend, as it was el Día del Niño (Children’s Day, like Mother’s/Father’s Day).  After a lovely hot shower I had a cracking sleep and awoke the next day to explore and figure out what I was going to do!  I’d heard from a French guy that the Torres del Paine National Park was closed and he couldn’t understand why I was going.  Having done a fair bit of travelling on this trip, I’ve learnt to take what some backpackers say with a pinch of salt (sometimes a handful is needed) so I didn’t despair and was somewhat confident that I would be able to do something.  I’ve come across too many ‘travellers’ that seem to think that if it’s not possible to do a 10 day free unguided trek in whatever place, then it’s not worth going at all.  I was happy to get a taste of Patagonia, to be able to see if I would like to come back.  My time so far has told me that I will definitely come back and really get my teeth into it.

After a great deal of research and planning, I had a walk around town to visit some of the tour and information shops that were still open and I came away knowing that it was worth heading up to Puerto Natales to have a bash at going into the Torres del Paine National Park.  It seems that the road between Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales had been closed due to bad weather but it had reopened and there were still trips operating in and around the national park.  A lot of the trekking routes were off limits as they were only accessible with guides and the weather still wasn’t good enough, not to mention a lack of demand!  After a lovely meal at La Marmita to treat myself for my efforts in planning my next move, the next day I took the bus up to Puerto Natales with Bus Sur and checked into the Singing Lamb hostel.  There were two other people there and I got chatting to a Welsh dude called Owen, who filled me in on what seemed to be available in the area.

Down at the foreshore in Punta Arenas, looking out onto the Strait of Magellan

Punta Arenas @ Plaza de Armas

Got to love the street art. “Different but equal” 🙂

I booked a day trip through Torres del Paine with my hostel and was picked up at 8am the next morning by Fernando, the guide.  After four years of drinking and doing a fair amount of studying, I can speak Spanish and the rest of the group was either Spanish or Chilean, but I’m told he speaks excellent English if you don’t.  30000CLP for the day which some might say is pricey, but when put into the context that some of the multi-day guided tours that run during high season can cost up to several thousand dollars, I was more than happy to pay.  The 10000CLP entry fee for foreigners into the park wasn’t included but Fernando was a sound chilled out guy and an interesting and great guide, so it was definitely worth going.  We began at the Milodon Cave (2000CLP entry) which wasn’t the most impressive cave I’ve ever seen, but it was interesting to learn about how it formed as it seemed to be quite a large but relatively young cave.  It was a good start to the tour and intriguing introduction to the geological history of the region.

We continued the rest of the tour going through Cerro Castillo to the national park where we started exploring the area.  The weather wasn’t the best so sometimes the mountains were obscured by cloud, but they cleared at certain points during the day which was nice.  From what I’d read it was typical Patagonian weather so it wasn’t unexpected and I had a lovely day exploring the area and learning about plutons/plutonic rock!  I LOVED seeing the many many llamas and there were even a few emus (or something that looked like them)!  We saw lots of condors eating various dead things and saw a few foxes on the run after a group of circling condors spotted them and chased them.  I was waiting for a pat on the shoulder from David Attenborough to narrate my experience of watching the chase, but he didn’t materialise.  Shame 😦

On the road into the park 🙂

Llama selfie!

We stopped for coffee in Cerro Castillo – just a small place that serves the national park really.

End of the world!

Plenty of photo ops of course 🙂

The Carabineros were even out there doing their checks!

Llamas!

Possibly one of the best wildlife photos I’ve ever taken. This fellas seemed to have something itching his back and just had to see to it 🙂

More llamas!

Nice 🙂

At one of the lakes – I forgot all the names!

First of many panoramas!

Waterfalls at Rio Paine 🙂

Cascada bonita

Coming into the heart of the national park.

Some of the cuernos were obscured a little, but impressive nonetheless!

Is that a cheeky glacier?

No we didn’t feed the foxes, but the condors certainly fed themselves with many foxes!

Chuffed!

It was indeed a bit windy…

 

🙂

Going down to the lake to see fragments of the Grey Glacier 🙂

Casual jump a la Mama L 🙂

On the way home after a fabulous day in the Torres del Paine NP 🙂

The next day I decided to take the bus with Welshman Owen and head over the border into Argentina, so I’ll leave it there for now.  It was a spontaneous decision as had expected to make my way back to Santiago, but seeing as I was so close to Argie Bargie Land, I though it best to at least have a butcher’s…