Feb 2009

Arriving in Bolivia was a bit of a change of scenery to say the least and 20 times more stray dogs. Got the train to Uyuni and headed on a salt flats trip from here. Hostels here are a bit limited and the showers were locked as no hot water so had to do without. Salt flats were pretty cool, it looks like snow its so white.


Had some laugh trying to make funny pictures and trying to acclimatise to the altitude. Had food and drinks at a hostel in the salt flats and had late night guitar playing and singing which was good craic. Next mission was to get to Oruru for Saturday carnival. A storm on Friday gave us little hope of the bus making it so we opted for the train. Queued up to buy tickets for ages and the ticket office was being run by 2 drunks so this slowed down the process a good deal.

Got the tickets for the executive seats (15 euro) and slept through the night on the train. Landed in Oruru bleary eyed and had to take on the scramble to find accommodation for the busiest night of the year. Managed to get a room at mediocre hotel but were happy to have a roof over our heads. Had great fun watching the carnival, drinking beer and dodging water bombs.


Headed to La Paz the following day by bus which didn't take that long at all. The bus couldn't drive down the main street so we got dropped of by yet another festival. Our hostel was right on the street the carnival was going down so had to walk through the carnival with our bags and baggage dodging foam and water bombs. Gringos are the main target here so there is no avoiding it. Luckily we had our plastic ponchos from the day before. Got to the lovely Adventure brew hostel and had a free beer while watching the carnival from their roof bar. Chilled out in La Paz for a few days and took advantage of all the good restaurants and coffee shops. Headed to valley of the moon which was worth a trip. Headed for Cocacabama and got a pretty good hotel here overlooking lake Titicaca. Sampled their finest trout which went down a treat. Headed to Isla del Sol the following day and did the trek from the north to the south of the island, pretty hard going with the altitude here but we managed to get through it. Found a cute hostel looking over the lake again and had more trout in a random family run restaurant.

Arrived in Buenos Aires late in the evening so got shuttle to the hostel. Ended up being a crappy hostel so ended up checking out after 2 days and moved to the lovely Hostel En BsAs, it was so nice there I could stay there forever. Did the city sights ad took in La Boca (stadium), San Telmo for street tango, Palermos parks and museums and Recoletta.

Went to a soccer game on the last day with Lacey and Adam to see River Plate vs Colon, pretty crazy atmosphere with all sorts of chants, songs and drums. At the end of the game they let the Colon side out first so that there would be no trouble but it was all very mild at the end of the game.

Had some great steak after the game in La Cabrera, totally massive portions that our table was full of meat and all sorts of condiments, well fed after that!!
From Buenos Aires headed to Iguazu fall on a 20 hour bus, it was a 'cama' service which means your seat reclines almost completely and you get fed a couple of times , get to watch movies and have a night cap of either champagne or whiskey before you go to sleep! Luxury travel or what! Arrived and checked into El Gembe hostel and met Mark, Chrissie, Niall and Sally and we headed off to the Iquazu park.

Really enjoyed seeing the falls, devils throat was fab and the spray goes all over your face. It was really refreshing after 30 plus degrees heat. Saw some monkeys and racoon's around the jungle park so that was pretty cool too. Had dinner that evening at the hostel, Mark and Chrissy cooked up some great steak and fancy potatoes so it was a big treat. Headed for the mega disco with Niall and Sally later on so it ended up being a late on. Got another bus the following day to Tucuman (another 22 hour trip). Stayed at a pretty nice hostel and got to have a quick look around the town and also did some shopping, clothes are really nice and very cheap so I was thrilled to buy some new things and throw away my rags! Then onto Cafayate a really nice friendly town. Took in a trip to the mountains Quebreda and some wine tasting and a bit of cycling where some local kids took a fancy to my bike!



Had a good rest in this place which was definitely needed. Then headed to Salta, did a bit of sightseeing and shopping, had my last Argentinean steak before getting the night bus to the Bolivian border.

Arrived in Santiago tired after 11 hour flight, with the time difference I got there 5 hours before i left Auckland which was a bit confusing. Got a shuttle to the wonderful La Casa Roja hostel, got a few hours kip and went looking for food in near Bario Brazil, went for an empanada which wasn't a good idea, had some gelato for dessert which was much better. No air conditioning in the dorm made it pretty sticky. Did some city sightseeing the next day to Parque Cera , climbed the big hill to see the holy statue, had a decent lunch in Bellevista. Had 2 days of Spanish lessons and managed to fit in some wine tasting also. Then met the group for the Patagonia trip in Santiago and we headed for Puerto Montt the following day. Did some sightseeing for 2days including a trek up to the top of a volcano and a trip to Chiloe island to sample some seafood and see some penguins.

Then it was 3 days on the Navimag ferry boat along the fjords of Patagonia. Pretty dramatic scenery even if the weather wasn't so good and it was a bit rocky on day two. Had a bingo night on the last night followed by a mega disco. Met lots of people on the boat and then kept bumping into them throughout Patagonia.
Arrived in Puerto Natales and got picked up by Sergio our tour guide for the hiking trip to Torres del Paine.

We set off with all our gear to the Park and started fro Las Torres where we dropped our stuff at the campsite. Did 19ks the first day and took in some valleys and the famous towers (Torres).

A lot of climbing involved getting to the towers but was well worth it. Day 2 involved getting a ferry to Grande Paine campsite and had a quick lunch before heading of on an 18k walk this brought us through french valley, three lakes and a climb up to the plateau for great views. Bumped into Lua a Galway college head which was totally random!
Day 3 was a short 11k walk, it was the clearest day so far so we got great views of the mountains and lakes and towards the end we could see glacier Grey.

Got to the Glacier Grey campsite which was the best campsite by far despite super cold showers but how bad. Did an extra hour walk to get closer to the glacier and saw some of it crumbling away and breaking off into the the lake, pretty loud when it does that. Celebrated our last night by having cheese and pisco sour (a brandy with lemon juice drink). Met some people from the Navimag boat at the campsite so we had a few drinks into the early hours. The last day was really easy, 11k was nothing after all we had walked. Headed back to Peurto Natales and then said goodbye to Sergio before taking our bus to Punta Arenas. Our last day in Chile was spent mostly sleeping and eating and recovering our sour muscles. Had fab seafood in La Luna for the last night with the group.