On the raod again

Somehow managed a rendez vous with a friend I met in Peru back in July, and spent (what I though were) my last few of South America in peacful Punta Sal. A really good few days in the sea, pleanty of sun, and campfires banter on the beach =)

Moto, broken down combi and bus delayed by four hours got me from Punta Sal to the Panamerican to Mancora and finally to Lima in time to catch my flight home.

Sort of...

At check in KLM (the self procalimed "reliable airline") helpfully informed me that my ticket was refunded by a UK travel agent on 15 August... given the lack of third party involvement in my booking it seemed pretty unlikely, and my bank balance certainly doesn't support such a claim. After three hours of, ummm, "discussion" with check-in staff, their supervisors, Lima office, Santiago office and Amsterdam office they still wouldn't let me get on the plane... not until they've spoken to their accounts department in Amsterdam, who are only open 09.00-16.00 GMT+2 on weekdays (very convenient for an international company with flights taking off 24/7). Continued to reason with them until the plane took off (delayed due to my fuss - ooops!) and they did seem to accept what I was saying, but "computer says no". Stranded in Lima for the night. Spent the morning on the phone to Santaigo, who in turn spoke to Amsterdam and finally confirmed that I would be on "the next flight to Amsterdam". Tonight? No, Thursday... or Friday. In order to have my e-ticket reissued had to go to the Lima office (an hour away); arrived at 12.05 to discover their two hour lunch break finishes at 14.00. Sat on the street. Waited. Eventually got inside to be greeted with "oh, so you're the girl who can't get home?" Gee, that really helps the situation. Ticket reissued with an hour to get to the airport before check-in closes. Passport was scanned, and it was explained to me that I couldn't board the plane becuase I had already flown to Amsterdam on Tuesday. Hmmmm. Boarding card in hand [until my experience with Copa, I would have assumed I was therefore guarenteed a seat on the flight, but now I'm not so sure...] Flight was delayed on the runway for two hours due to "technical reasons" (although I have always wondered what else can actually stop a plane taking off...??) As a result I missed my flight from Amsterdam to Edinburgh. They tried to put my on the next flight, but my ticket was "invalid". In return for my multitude of booking reference numbers and change of detail codes they said I could go tomorrow. Eughhhh. The next flight today was full, but finally got her to admit there were two free seats in business class on the last flight of the day. Me and my bag landed alive and together in Edinburgh. Met off the plane =) and back to my flat...

Thanks to KLM for extending my travels.... but next time please tell me in advance; I'd rather spent the time in idylic Ecuador rather than Lima airport.

Ecuador

The arduous mission of getting to Ecuador turned out to be worthwhile; Quito was great – like a big version of Cusco... wandered around the old town and its many plazas, enjoyed the views from the towers of the Basilica del Voto Nacional (involved tightrope walking across the roof and then up a few rickety ladders to the very top), El Panecillo, and the balcony at Cafe Mosaico...

To the equator; purely for novelty value. There's a big touristy monument at the "official" Mitad del Mundo" (although they got it in the wrong place) along with several hundred cafes and gift shops - not worth the visit. The little Museo Solar Inti Nan two hundred metres north is supposedly on the "real" euqator, and very much worth a visit - water experiments, egg balancing, solar clocks and callendars, totenpoles, and lots more random bits and pieces...

Next stop, Baños (town, not toilet). Tiny little town in the middle of the green mountains, full of thermal bathrooms, and surrounded by waterfalls and volcanoes (which have been very active in the last twelve months...) After a relaxing steam bath, went for a wander around the nearby hills, but one missed turn and ended up halfway up Volcan Tungurahua - awesome view though! With hindsight, maybe the thermal bath shoudl have been after the climbing expedition...

Onwards to colonial Cuenca and its cobbles, churches and whitewashed, before starting on the seemingly simple task of getting to Peru... Bus to Machala broke down in the wee hours of the morning, so we were loaded onto the next few buses(/trucks/tractors/vans/etc) that passed, minor problemo was my bag going on the roof of a Guayaquil bound bus (north) when I was heading south... but they kept their word, and seven hours later my bag returned from its detour, and we set off for Huaquillas. After an attempted mugging on the Ecuadorian side, and then a stupid scam (also failed) at the Peruvian side I was in Aguas Verde =) Spent the night on the floor of Tumbes bus station, then combi to Mancora, then north again to the Punta Sal turnoff the Panamerica, and finally moto to the fishing village itself...

Rio to Quito. Simple?

So, flying from Rio to Quito, a fairly simple exercice... After dozens of failed attempts at booking the damn flight(s) I finally had a booking reference number, and therefore, a seat on a plane to get to Quito...

The 03.00 flight from Rio to Panama was cancelled less than an hour before take-off; a good start to the day. The scheduled 09.00 flight to Sao Paulo turned out not to exist; in fact there are no flights that leave Rio at 09.00 on a Saturday. Ended up being put on to a flight to Buenos Aires, which was meant to stop in Sao Paulo´s Guarulhos airport, but was then diverted to Santos Dumont instead. Got a bus back to the right airport, and then tried to check in again for my flight to Panama... The flight was then delayed by four hours, meaning that (in theory) I would miss my connecting flight. About two hours from Panama they told us that we might be diverted to Costa Rica becuase apparently there is a hurricane heading in the direction of Panama... although did actually end up in Tocumen afterall. Fortunately the Quito flight was also delayed , so I didn´t miss that one. Relieved to finally be sitting on the plane to Quito, I got chucked off the plane becuase there was someone else (who spoke better Spanish) with the same seat number... but then someone from business class got chucked off too becuase he was too drunk, so I got his seat - score! - next to an au pair with two screaming smelly six month old twins - less good. Arrived at my hostel at 03.30 to (obviously) find the door locked and nobody at reception... but knocking (banging) on the door for long enough woke the owner up and she let me in. Then I went to sleep.

Brazil

From Foz do Iguacu (via an unplanned day in Sao Paulo) it was off to Paraty. I arrived on the last day of the Festival da Pinga de Paraty (which turned out to be a rum festival, rather than a penguin party...) Fifteen somber guitars were followed bt a geriatric in a nice orange number accomanied by white leggins danced around the stage for a couple of hours, quite bizarre, but helped by the caipirinhas...

Next stop Rio de Janeiro... although somehow not quite right to arrive in Rio inside a very rainy grey cloud; Pao de Acucar was totally invisible from only a hundred metres away, and Copacobana beach was empty! Soon found out that there is plenty to do in rainy Rio, and explored the streets of Copacobana, bars of Ipanema and samba clubs of Lapa. Also learned that posh business men can disrupt last-night-in-Rio plans, and hire out the entire Pao de Acucar!

On my last day in Rio the sun decided to show its face, so ended up doing all the touristy Rio things in a day: Pao de Acucar, Christo Redentor, Santa Teresa, Copacobana... An amazing day =)

Iguazu Falls

Niagra; check. Victoria; check. Iguazu; check. All impressive, all different, and all worth the overnight buses to get to them...

The Iguazu falls are at the border of Argentina and Brazil, and can been viewed from each side. From Brazil there is an impressive panorama of the falls which cascade over the edge of Argentina as far as the eye can see... and then from the Brazilian you get up close (very close, and totally drenched in a speed boat) to the cataratas...

Buenos Aires

So, everyone raves about BA (of the Argentinian variety rather than the flying sort), so I went to find out for myslef... Everything about BA is big: the parrillas, wine glasses, sixteen lane roads, architecture, cemetry, football, tango, shops, rain, parks and more; oh, and the bus station has 175 platforms. So basically there is something (and a lot of it) for everyone. The city also seems to exist in its own time zone: dinner at 22.00, go out after midnight, and return home after dawn... all good =) Recoleta was unexpectedly ornate, La Boca colourful (despite the rain), the tango mind boggling, and the architecture just impressive.

While I was there also popped across to Uragauy for the day. Ferry (worthy of cruise liner status, unlike the one to Zanzibar) across the water, and then a day wandering the quaint streets of Colonia de Sacramento...

The Little Prince

I ventured out to the Valdes Peninsular in the hope of seeing a whale; or maybe two. With personal assurance that there would be whales at this time of year, I risked the extra two overnight buses, and it was totally worth it! The Southern Rights came within about 10m of the beach, and later on they were right up agains the boat. At any time could see three or four whales, and knew where another dozen or so were submereged just below the surface... On the boat for just over an hour, but could have stayed there all day watching the whales splash and play in the ocean.

Next was a beach (supposed to be) covered in elefante seals... but there were only about a dozen of the huge things. Far more interesting were the handful of dolphins leaping in the river eastury. On the drive back, passed Isla de los Pájaros, which supposedly inspired the first image in "The Little Prince".

*s*n*o*w*

Fair enough, it snows in Patagonia and the tops of the Andes, but not in Santiago! It didn´t stop snowing all night, and by the morning the city and Andes were totally white... and all the passes through the Andes were closed.

That meant a 1000km trip south to Orsorno, but it turned out alright in the end... The Lake District scenery crossing the Andes to Bariloche was awesome - snow drifts twice the height of the double decker bus, forests, lakes, rocky mountains and an amazing sunrise after a very long overnight bus...

Too much snow closed the lifts at Catedral, an ironic start to a day of skiing in Bariloche, but a couple of hours later it was all go with knee deep powder after the metre of fresh snow overnight...

Atacama Desert

First stop San Pedro de Atacama. Almost set a record for the worst sunrise and sunset seen in one day, but the latter turned out alright in the end. After a 03.45 start, and two hours of horrendous road to El Tatio Gysers it got light, no sunrise, just gradually got a bit lighter. As a result the gysers didn´t get very excited, and thus remained bubbling puddles of sulphuric water with the odd spurt of steam to liven things up. Next stop was the hotsprings (read very small stream with tepid water and lots of mud), and then to a small village with four residents, eleven houses and a church. The journey back was interrupted only by numerous photo stops for cactus (singluar), llama (singular), and motion sickness (plural). Trekked up to moon valley for sunset, which looked to be a total anticlimax, but just as the sun hit the horizon the sky lit up in some pretty amazing colours.

Two days of driving through the Atacama followed. Scenery is amazing. Rock, sand, mountains and absolutely nothing alive (or dead). Total nothingness. Crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, a random statue of a massive hand emerging from the ground and lots, lots, lots more nothingness.

Next stop Pan de Azucar. Love it. No people. No houses. No traffic. Nothing. Just big rocks, waves and untouched beach. Spent the afternoon sitting out on a big rock (until I almost got stranded and waded back in to the beach), searching for shells, and wandering along the beach. Clear turquoise water crashing over the rocks and amazing sunset over the Pacific. Next morning went out on a boat to Isla de Azucar to see sealions and (a handful of) the three million strong colony of penguins.

Spent a couple of days in La Serena; half beach resort, half colonial old town. No prizes for working out which half was preferable. After an early morning dip in the ice cold Pacific, it was time to head inland to Vicuña and a Pisco distillery. Spent the night at an observatory looking through a massive telescope in an attmept to see more than just the increasingly familiar Southern Cross.

From there it was time to head all the way down to Santiago and work out where to go next......

Salares de Uyuni and the Altiplano

From the frontier town of Uyuni (complete with tumbleweed) I set out on a three day trip into the southwest corner of Bolivia... After the bizarre train graveyard, 12,000 square kilometres of dazzling Salares (saltflats) consumed the first day. Blinding white salt as far as the horizon and back... except for Isla de los Pescadores - a cacti covered coral island inhabited only by vizcachas. Difficult to comprehend that the entire "lake" is 3670m above sea level (although my lungs are reminding me all too often).

Next was two days exploring the rock formations, hot springs, gysers and lakes of the altiplano in the big orange truck. Laguna Colorada is as pink as its resident James flamingoes; Laguna Verde and Laguna Blanca (at the dizzying height of >5,000m) are as stunning as their names suggest. The Bolivian customs checkpoint at 5,300m was enough to knock out both me and my iPod (which is still suffering), but from there it was all downhill to Chile... =)

The most dangerous road in the world... twice

La Paz is at 3660m, so still suffering from the altitude clearly I would follow all logical advice to rest, drink lots of water and stay as low as possible....

Hmmm, well the not-so-sensible part of me hired a mountain bike, got a bus to 4850m and then cycled 69km down the world´s most dangerous road. Great fun (although the 10km of uphill cycling on gravel and sand at >4000m was a a tad tricky), and I managed not to go into freefall over the 600m cliffs, so was all good =) The end of the road is at only 1200m, so got a few lungfuls of decent oxygen, before getting back in a van which drove back up the road I´d just cycled down; much worse in the van than on a bike!

Machu Picchu

Unsurprisingly one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World" (announced the day I arrived in Cusco), Machu Picchu was pretty spectacular. Getting there wasn´t exactly as planned (see below!), but once I arrived it was great =) Looks like a postcard... actually no, it´s better than that, and there are friendly llamas everywhere.

Had a tour around the ancient Inca city for a couple of hours, and then spent another few hours exploring the terraces. Unfortunately, depspite arriving at 08.30 the quota of 400 people had already started to climb Huayna Picchu, so had to make do with the Sun Gate - which was still a fantastic view!

Will put some photos up when I can get a computer to talk to my camera...

Friday 13th

I´m not superstitious, but this Friday 13th was one of the worst days ever. I remember very little of it all, but generally involved being hauled off my Inca trek with altitude sickness.

During the preceeding forty-eight hours, breathing got more and more difficult, my entire body became agonisingly painful, I could barely stand up becuase I was so dizzy, and my head was excrutiatingly sore. On Thursday I stubbornly (aka stupidly) forced my way to the 4450m pass, but my body couldn´t take another two days without oxygen. So frustrating, but they reckon I had HACE so there was really no option.

Harder and harder to breathe

Finally arrived in Cusco. 3500m. Not enough oxygen.

Staying in a little tiny hostel up on the mountain side with an awesome view over the valley. Such a relaxed place compared to non-stop Lima... although there are a few too many gringos here. Llamas and goats wandering the streets, and hidden markets through every doorway off the quaint little alleyways.

Start on the Inca trail tomorrow, so over and out for a week or so...

Hola from Lima

Drunk Polish builders, bomb squad at every junction and roundabout, bag and body searches, flight confusion, and lost passengers. Then I finally took off from Edinburgh. Met Dad at Schipol - very odd...

Scenery flying into Peru was spectacular, the mountains are immense - I don't know words big enough to describe, and really bizzare to fly below the horizon... Arrived in Lima late afternoon, and then to a hostel in Miraflores... driving is mad, but nothing compared to Vietnam! - and only one minor collision on the forty minute drive.

In summary, I am alive.

PS - I offically hate Orange (rather than the usual disliking); they said my mobile would work here, but it doesn't - not even in Holland - so I cannot send nor receive anything =(

Thirty six hours, and counting.

Flights booked; one night in Lima sorted; after that, who knows. About six weeks to meander through Peru, Bolivia and Chile, and then another month or so to further fulfil the wanderlust…

You all know I’m categorically useless at keeping in touch, but will write on here when I can.

Lfsx

Where to go...

Any suggestions...??