Mendoza

Mendoz is nice. The streets are all lined with trees, the plazas are big and the Andes in the background make for a majestic backdrop.

We walked around the park in the sun with a random couple we met and we had afternoon beers sat outside a bar on Astides Villanueva - a strip of fancy expensive restaurants and bars. We didn't make it out to the wine bodegas but we did have our own tasting session and put away quite a few bottles of malbec. And we had a huge 500gr argentinian steak.

The hostel was called Ruca Potu, it was miles away from the centre of town and the owner, Ariel, lied to us whenever we asked him for information. All the bodegas are closed apart from one really far away that's not on the bus route, but if you pay me 100 pesos each I will take you. Awful man. He also tried charging Ric 100 pesos for a footy match that only cost 40 on the door. Although we did manage to get a double room with a lush private bathroom and cable tv for the same price as a doom.

Ric the adrenalin junky went jumping out of planes whilst I spent the day getting lost and riding around on random buses. It took me 3 hours to go to the supermarket and back.

Adios Chile

This week I've been sweating in the heat of the desert, I've been wet and windy on the coast, and I've shivered in 6ft of snow in the peaks of the Andes. That's a lot of climate change for one week! In summary, Chile is a pretty diverse country, and I only saw half of it.

The money is ridiculous, the food isn't anything special and they put the toilet roll outside of the cubicles in public toilets. Inspite of this I quite like it, the people are some of the friendliest I've met and its western enough to almost ease the pain of missing baked beans.

If it wasn't so expensive I wouldn't have minded staying a little longer.

Santiago (kinda)

All we saw of Santiago was McDonalds and the bus station, and on the news we saw that there were riots, strikes and road blockades so perhaps just as well that it was a brief visit. Would have stayed in England if I wanted to see rioting.

So we went up over the Andes back to Argentina, land of the best empanadas and dogs in frilly dresses. The road there was rather interesting, we went past a few ski resorts and had views over snowy mountains for a couple of hours.

The border crossing was the most straight forward so far too, lady with a stamp from Chile and sat right next to her was a fella with a stamp for Argentina. I'm goin send a memo to the guys on the Bermejo border with Bolivia where you have a 3 mile uphill walk between border control offices!!

Viña del Mar

From Valpo we went on a day out to Viña del Mar, just up the coast. Its like a posher, wealthier version of Valparaiso. Glass fronted buildings and fancy hotels everywhere.

We took the bus there and headed straight to the market for lunch. It was a bit of a struggle for me to find something I could eat, as we're on the coast all the restaurants are seafood restaurants. Eventually we settled on chorrillana for two. Chorrillana is a local dish cosisting of chips, onions, sausage, beef, chorizo and eggs, all fried up together in a medlay of greasy meaty wonderment. - Sound familiar?? Every South American country has its "typical dish" - but its all the same thing! In Peru it was lomo saltado - meat, onions and chips, fried. In Bolivia its pique macho - meat, onions and chips, fried. Here its chorrillana. And in Argentina they bung it all in a pasty and call it an empanada!!

After dinner we walked along the promenade, got hasseled by some gypsies who put a curse on me because I didn't want to buy their magical leaves, and sat on the rocks to eat an ice cream. Interestingly, lots of the rocks by the sea have biblical quotes painted onto them, telling you to obey your parents and go to church and that kind of tripe. Just what you want when your taking a leisurely stroll by the sea.

We found a guy hiring golf buggy type tandem bicycles and had to give it a ago. It was hilarious. Ric foolishly let me steer and we crashed into everything. We flattened a bush, got stuck in a hole and put a few dints in the bike driving full speed into walls. And we almost knocked over a man in a wheelchair. When we saw McDonalds drive through we had to give it a ago. We cycled up in our golf buggy tandem and ordered two cokes. We were wetting ourselves laughing and so was eveyone else - people actually came out of the restaurant to take photos of us. Good thing about tandems - you can look like you're pedaling but really you're just letting the other person do all the work. Hahaha, poor Ric got quite a sweat on.

After that we sat on the beach for a bit, even though it was overcast, and watched gangs of Chilian kids trying to do back flips and kung foo.

It was a fun day out.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

This week we're in... Valparaiso! A bohemian seaside town half way down the coast of Chile.

The bus ride here wasn't too horrendous considering it took 24 hours and the air conditioning didn't work. I had to peel myself off the leather chair in the morning. When we stopped to get breakfast somewhere and I had "barros jarpa" which was a hot bacon and cheese butty, it reminded me of greasy cafe food from home. Mmmmm...

We finally arrived, checked into Millenium House hostel, which is more like a family run B&B than a hostel, its on the port and has views of the sea. Then we went out for something to eat.

As we couldn't find anywhere cheap to eat we ended up in a nice restaurant in the port, and as we were treating ourselves - I had a big beasty steak. After our meal we were finishing off our drinks ready to head home to bed when we met Alexandra, a 'larger than life', crazy, hippy psychologist who joined our conversation and declared me her new best friend. It was quite surreal, her and her two mates, Ricardo and (another) Alexandra, got us up dancing, sober, in the middle of the restaurant on a quiet Sunday evening, and she kept toasting us, clinking glasses every 10 seconds. We stayed for another drink with the crazy people and at the end of the night Alexandra invited us to her house the following evening for pizzas, beers and more entertaining randomness. She even said we could stay over if we liked. When I called her to confirm the next day she couldn't remember who I was. Needless to say we didn't end up going round for her tea party.

When we arrived in Valparaiso the bus attendant told us that the time had changed, like it does at home for British summertime. We thought he told us it had gone back an hour. Either we misunderstood his heavily accented chilian spanish, or he lied to us to so that the bus would still arrive on time. The time actually went forward. This meant that when we got up the next day thinking it was half 10, it was actually half 12. No wonder the hostel owner looked at us funnily when we asked where breakfast was served! We'd lost 2 hours of our day!

I love Valpo. Its a really interesting, pretty city. From the ocean it goes up almost vertically into the mountains, you can't get anywhere without a breathtaking climb. They even have old funicular trains to take you up some of the steeper slopes. The wooden buildings are brightly painted and look like dolls houses stacked on top of each other up the mountainside, every single one of them is unique with spiral staircases and cast iron balconies. We spent our first day walking up and down the narrow streets admiring the houses and the sea view. We went on one of the funiculars, which is more like a garden shed on a pulley system than a train, and at the top as well as stairs going down there was a slide!! Brilliant idea - although I ripped my new pants on it! :( The graffiti here is amazing too, almost every building has big brightly coloured murales painted on it.

Our friend for the day was a stray dog who we named Patch. Not that he had any patches, but there was a blob of dirt on him that kinda looked patch-like. He followed us on our walk for about 3 miles, waiting in the doorways of the shops we went in and sitting next to us when ever we stopped. We got a pizza for lunch and shared it with him, he would jump up and catch the pieces of pizza in his mouth. Such a clever dog. I don't know why he chose to follow us, we didn't pay him any attention at first, he just set his sights on us and tagged along. When we had to get on a bus to go back down the mountain he sat at the bus stop and watched us drive off until we turned a corner, the look of abandonment in his big brown eyes broke my heart.

Valparaiso is very western, in the centre of the city you could easily be in any big European town. That's one things about South America, there's such a massive difference between the rich and the poor. In any of the big cities you have the centre where all the big white colonial buildings are and the high rises and the Starbucks coffee and McDondalds, like any other major city in the world. But here, as soon as you go a few miles out of the centre the landscape changes completely and you get 5 generation families living together in tiny little rooms made out of wood or mud bricks. That's what England would be like if we didn't have such a good benefits system; Instead of all the wasters living in their council houses with their plasma screens they bought with their job seekers, they'd be in grubby tin huts trying to polish your shoes to make a living. That'd teach them. Obviously here its undeniably worse, I'm not saying extreme poverty is a good thing, it just annoys me that so many people have it so easy at home and abuse the system. Coming here puts it in perspective really. 

Anyway, rant over.

In the evening we sat on the beach and watched the sunset and drank red wine. Romantic, even if the wine did come out of a box. The beach is really nice even in winter, much better than Blackpool. I bet its gorgeous summer.

Today's our fouth day here and we were planning to leave, but its pouring down and there's a national strike, so we took it as a sign and stayed in bed, ate chinese food and went to the cinema. Pretty excellent day actually. I really like it here so its worth sacrificing a couple of days in Santiago.

We've stayed in pretty much every night, cooked cheap food in the hostel kitchen and demolished several boxes of red wine. Its been so good to chill out, to have lie ins, laid back days and lazy nights. From La Paz until here we've been really busy, moving on every couple of days and doing lots of exciting things, fast travelling is hard work, its made a nice change to kick back and chill by the beach for a few days, even if it has been cloudy and wet.

San Pedro de Atacama, the most expensive town in Chile.

We got another night bus from Iquique to Calama, only a 6 hour journy and we arrived at 6am and had to wait an hour in the cold for our connecting bus to San Pedro.

However... the bus never came! And at 7.30 I asked at the desk only to be told that it was delayed and wouldn't arrive for another 3 hours. This was the start of a long and draw out, pointless fiasco between me, the woman at the desk and a friendly bus driver called Hector.

Basically we had tickets for the 7.15 bus, the one that was delayed. The 8am bus turned up on time and there were plenty of free seats on the bus, however the driver, Hector, wouldn't let us on with our 7.15 tickets because his boss wouldn't accept them and he wouldn't be paid for our fare. So we had to change our tickets at the desk. However, the arrogant woman at the desk wouldn't change the tickets because you're only allowed to make alterations up to 4 hours before the departure of the bus. She would sell me another ticket but wouldn't return our money for the 7.15 bus (and buses in Chile cost a small fortune.) The next 25 minutes were spent with me, sleep deprived and ratty, standing between Hector and snotty desk lady trying to find a solution that would get Ric and myself on the bus. Eventually, due to my awesome spanish and natural charm (pah!) we got on the bus and made it to San Pedro.

San Pedro de Atacama is a little touristy town in the middle of the Atacama dersert on the border with Bolivia. In fact, when we did our salt flat tour we went up to the border, where the Laguna Verde was, so now I have seen the same volcano from both sides and from two different countries. The Chilian side is certainly a lot warmer.

We checked into hostel Cabur on the outskirts of the town. Awesome place, big courtyard in the middle with hammocks and benches and cushions.

San Pedro is nice, all llama shops, restaurants and hostels. The llama shops sell exactly the same stuff as in Bolivia and Peru just 10 times more expensive, not that that stopped us from buying 2 pairs of pants, 1 hoody, 2 postcards and 3 pairs of sunglasses between us.

We went on a little day trip to Puritama, out in the desert, to visit the thermal hot springs. On the way there we stopped and did a short hike through the "cactus forest", it was my kind of hike, no climbing up mountains, just a pleasent walk along a river clambering over a rock or two. The springs were lovely, lots of different pools running down the hillside, surrounded by reeds. There were even fish and ducks knocking about. We were there for 3 very relaxing hours, and by the time we left the sun had gone in and it was freezing.

On our final day, before we caught our bus in the afternoon, we hired bikes and went off into the desert to Valle de Muerte (Death Valley). It started out well until we took a wrong turn and cycled up a big hill - hill plus altitude plus 30 degrees midday sun is not a good mix! It took me half an hour to get my breath back.

It was only a minor detour though, and we soon found Valle de Muerte - dry sandy rocks in the desert. We climbed perilous rocks and a big sand dune. The landscape is very similar to what we've seen already in Tupiza and Huacachina. The bike ride totally wore me out, riding a bike on sand is near imposible, although good fun, and possibly the first bit of exercise I've done since I left Manchester so it felt pretty good.

We met some characters in the hostel, as per. There was Jaime, an old Chilian man who'd been staying in the hostel for 6 months, I think he just sat in the courtyard everyday looking for people to talk to. There was another guy called Claudio, from Santiago who was super friendly and enthusiastically explained to me the politial situation of every single South American country within minutes of meeting him.

There's lots of treks and things to do in San Pedro, like geysers, Valle de la Luna and more salt, but we mainly just chilled out and relaxed because: a) rocks rocks and more rocks - have already seen lots of wonderful exciting rocks in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina and I've had enough Inca ruins to last me a life time. b) Ric's already been to San Pedro and seen it all and c) its super expensive - officially the most expensive town in Chile, but then again what do you expect when the hostel is 6 grand a night each and bread costs over a thousand pesos!

Relaxed, caught a bit of sun and met some nice people. And then we got on a bus for 22 hours to Valparaiso.

Iquique, Chile

It took us about 28 hours of solid travelling to get from Ica in Peru to Iquique in Chile. 3 buses, 3 gypsies, 4 films and a chicken.

We crossed the border in a crappy little bus and befriended a family of Chilian gypsies who asked us to fill out their customs forms for them because they couldn't read. They were friendly but had absolutely no manners whatsoever, one poked me on the head and said "chica, agua", I think what she meant was 'excuse me miss, might you be so kind as to provide me with a sip of your water'. I got quite scared they were going to rob us when we got off the bus but they didn't, we just gave them some biscuits and a cigarette.

Speaking of which, the people in South America are fascinated by Rics rolling tobaco. Most of them have never seen it before and think its weed.

We stopped in the border town of Arica for lunch and ordered the special offer: a whole roast chicken, bread,a mountain of chips and a load of salad. We ate it for tea as well.

Eventually we arrived at Iquique and checked into "Mis Nietos" hostel.

Money in Chile is insane. Its 774 chilian pesos to the pound, I drew out a hundred and fifty grand from the cash machine! (About £200) The numbers are too big for me to comprehend, Bolivia was easy, it was 10 bolivians to 1 pound, so you just take a 0 off to covert it but here the maths is too advanced for me! Everything is so expensive too. The prices are like european prices, a little bit cheaper but its a big leap coming from Peru and Bolivia. We're paying about £10 a night now for dorms whereas in Ica for example, it was only £5 for our nice "Edwardian" double room.

We only stayed one night in Iquique but we fit a lot in.It's a nice little town on the coast in the north of Chile. The main plaza is nice but the rest of the town is quite dirty and run down. It even has a red light district paradoxically located infront of the cathedral.

The Good and Bad and the Animal World;

We went for a stroll down to the sea and were surprised to see thousands of pelicans sat around everywhere. They were huge, over 2ft tall. All sitting on the rocks looking out to sea. Even better, there were sea lions too in the water just a few feet out from the rocks, they were having some kind of staring competition with the pelicans, waiting who'd blink and get the fish first. They entertained me thoroughly.

On the other hand, we also experienced nature at its worse. Dog rape. We saw two dogs standing bum to bum on the pavement, it took us a minute before we realised they were in fact "attached"... and when they finished there was dog 'juice' all over the pavement.Most unsightly.

In the afternoon Yorkshire's answer to Mad Max got me doing something I'd never ever dreamed of doing before - paragliding! We drove up to the top of the cliffs that overlook the city and met our instructors. It was terrifying. I actually had to run of the edge of a cliff! I screamed for the first 10 minutes, then it took me another 15 before I dared to let go of the parachute. Its such a weird sensation, you really feel like you're flying (I mean, you are flying, but it feels like a bird!). You look down and all you see is your feet dangling miles above buildings. We went up to about 600m above sea level, I didn't like going up because we had to cork screw up pretty fast to gain height and it was really scary. Once we were up high we floated down towards the beach, that was my favourite bit because it was slow and steady (and because I knew it was nearly over!) I landed on the sand with a thud on my bum and had to lie down for half an hour to recover! It was an amazing experience, although I was terrified the entire time and it made me feel sick. The best bit was seeing the massive grin on Ric's face when he landed, he absolutely loved it and that made it worth it. Was his birthday present afterall.

We even managed to fit in some tax free shopping. We'd heard a lot about this tax free shopping centre in Iquique called Zofri, so we decided to go and check it out in the evening just before it closed. Tax free shopping is like a dream for me but I was rather disappointed. For starters it smelt like fish. It sold mainly electronic goods and perfume and it was cheap, just not so cheap after Bolivia. I got a watch for 2 quid though.

We had hot dogs and mini cheese pasties for tea and then hung around for our 11.30pm bus to Calama. Busy day.

Lima (Round II)

4 months travelling in South America and I end up back to square one - Lima. We've taken a slight detour up to Lima to have tea with Rics Mum and Dad.

Staying in a hostel-come-Israli drug den in the up-market district of Miraflores. We'd already checked into one hostel when we went outside and found the Israli place for half the price. All the signs are in Hebrew and it's full of pot head Isralis but I quite like it.

Miraflores is the posh bit of Lima, it's so Western that it could easily be mistaken for a European city. A million miles away from my couchsurfing experience first time round.

We went to Parque de las Aguas; A park full of fancy fountains with lights and music and projections. It was really pretty, although Ric persuaded me to run through one and I got soaked and had to spend the rest of the evening in cold wet clothes. Ric somehow managed to stay dry...

The weather has been grey, grim and cool, reminds of summer in Manchester. We spent an afternoon in the shopping centre that overlooks the beach, eating ice cream, drinking posh coffees and watching the sea. Then Ric kicked my ass at bowling.

Ric's parents are here on an organised tour of Fair Trade productors. We went for dinner with them and the rest of their group - about 20 pensioners of which Ric's parents are the youngest, and one poor girl about my age who's obviously in for an exciting couple of weeks.

I tried Ceviche, Peru's national dish. It's quite scary - raw fish in lime juice with garlic and spices. It was actually a lot better than I was expecting, considering I don't like fish, it justed tasted limey. Although I think it would be nicer if it was chicken... and if it was cooked!

My favourite person of Lima is a girl called Catherine who was the only other female and the only other non Israli in the hostel. She's in her 30's, has been married twice, is scared her boyfriend is going to die whilst she's in South America and that her evil cat will eat his rotting body. She's just spent a year in Mongolia which she hated, has non career or responsabilities and is my new role model. She was funny.

I'm glad I follow Ric to the opposite end of the country,Lima hasn't enamoured me anymore than the first time I was here but it's been good fun, we've eaten lots of nice food and I got to meet the parents!

Rics Epilogue

Don't ask me why but I thought it would be a good idea to detour 47 bus hours off route to meet the folks, but how often do you catch em half way round the globe. It was real nice to see them after 7 months even though my mum fell asleep at the table in a posh restaurant with live music after a few bevvies and nuff cake whilst we were tellling stories of our trip. Spose we better blame it on jet lag and dancing the afternoon away with traidcraft workers but nevertheless we had a couple of really nice evenings, with dancing show off fountains and some peng raw fish.

For the rest of our time we spent good old time like at home, shopping centres, high rises, burgers as big as your head, bowling and arcade games n air hockey.

Can't beat it!

Lima this time round has been mint for a 3rd time in one of my least favourite cities in SA.

P.s. israilis are wack and spend all night coked up n bonging it whilst playin pro evolution soccer. Funny onions! And I think steph learnt cat women are weird the world over.

Happy Birthday Richard Stopher

It's Ric's birthday and we're in PARADISE!! We're in Huacachina, an oasis in the desert near Ica and its BEAUUUUTIFUL. It wasn't even my birthday yet it was one of the best days of the whole trip.

We're stayin in a pretty swish hotel called Salvatierra and we've got a massive room that Ric described as "Edwardian" (although I'm pretty sure there has been no King Edward of Peru). The bathroom's missing half of the roof but this is Peru afterall, plus it hot here so I see it as more of a lighting feature than a lack of structure.

So to start the day we had breakfast in bed, followed by huuuuge chocolate cake that Id commandeered the owner into getting for us from the nearby town of Ica. It was damn good cake.

Then we spent the best part of the day by the pool, sunbathing, swimming, eating cake and drinking beer. Its boiling hot, about 30 degrees. Absolute bliss.

Giant sand dunes surround the oasis, they're like mountains. When we arrived it was dark and they literally took my breath away when I walked outside in the morning and saw them towering over the hostel.

At 4 we went to explore the dunes in a sand buggy. Better than any rollercoaster I've ever been on! The buggy was a beasty machine that flew over the sand, me and Ric had the front seats so we got the first glimsp of the sheer drops we were driving down. This meant that not only did I scream the entire time, I also started screaming before anyone else in the car because I could see what was coming before anyone else. Ric didn't scream cos he's 'ard, he just laughed at me lots.

We also sand boarded - surfing on sand! It was well fun. I just went down on my belly, which is scary enough because you fly down the sand head first and its really fast. Ric tried standing up but failed quite epically and ended up doing elaborate somersaults down and nearly breaking his neck.

Just to make the day more perfect we watched the sunset from the sand dunes.

In th evening we went for a meal and then chilled by the lake in the middle of the oasis. We even sat in a random rowing boat for a bit.

Its so beautiful here. The one downfall being the hoards of mosquitos which have bitten me to death. But nowhere's perfect.

I could stay here for a long long time but... Ric spent a whole week here on his first lap of Peru and we really do need to hurry up and get to Chile.

Not eating Chinese food in Arequipa.

Plan was to leave everyone in La Paz and go to Chile on my own, meeting up with Ric a week or so later. However...due to a drunken promise, I've landed myself back in Arequipa in the same volunteer house I left two months ago!

Not that I'm complaining though. I'm tagging along with Ric for his rabies jabs and then going up to Lima for a cup of tea with his Mum and Dad! Back to square one!!

Its great to be back in Arequipa actually, it's like going home seeing as this is where I've spent the longest time in the past 4 months. Chillin.

First night we went out for Chinese take away but it was shut (it was midnight) so we ordered a pizza. Somehow neither of us put two and two together to work out that 'pizza metro' wasn't infact the name of the pizza, it was actually its size... a metre long pizza!! It was the biggest pizza I have ever seen!

On the second night we also went out to try and get a chinese take away, yet once again it was closed! (It was Sunday). We decided instead to go into town to this cheap mexican restaurant we know, we were wearing our "happy pants" (which double as pyjamas) but it didn't matter because we were just going for tacos then home. BUT... the taxi dropped us off outside ZigZag, the poshest most expensive restaurant in the city, and also home to the most amazing alpaca steak served on sizzling volcanic rock! Implusively, we went in. The restaurant was full but they gave us a table in reception, on low couches, and said we could eat there. Some how we went from chinese take away to 300g steaks and fancy cocktails served in ostrich eggs. A

pretty good swap I think.

When we failed for a third night in a row we decided that the chinese restaurant had in fact closed down. Gutted. I left Peru for 2 months and my favourite restaurant goes out of business. What does that tell ya?! Had mexican instead.

La Paz (Round II)

After the salt flats we took a night bus up to La Paz. Me, Ric and our new bestest travel friends Laurence and Jenna. For the first 5 hours of the bus ride the road was so bumpy that I thought my teeth were going to fall out. Then as the road smoothed out a little they turned off the heating and ice began to form on the insides of the windows - it was not the nicest bus I've ever been on. It was good to spend a few days more in La Paz, its a massive city and the first time round I didn't manage to see much of it due to being constantly drunk and consequently hungover. We did some pretty reckless shopping in the gringo shops, found myself with a beautiful hammock even though ive no home to hang it in, but could be worse - Ric ended up with two! Went to the witches market again and bought the infamous San Pedro concoction- burnt down cactus that you mix with juice and drink to achieve a magical deep and meaningful trip. Saving that for a rainy day. We visited the coca museum which was only slightly entertaining and we went up to this lovely view point overlooking the entire city. Great views and we had a sing song with an Argentine man who was up there jammin with his guitar. Unfortunately we got mugged by two 16 year old Bolivian scallies on the way down! But... they only got away with a 10er and a kick in the shins because we're soz 'ard (and because some people at the bottom of the street shouted at them and scared them off!) We were all a bit shook up after that so we cheered ourselves up with an "authenic English curry"! There's a curry house in La Paz run by British Indians and it was bloody excellent. The same place also boasts "the worlds spiciest vindaloo" - but we were all too chicken to try it! As well as doing the death road (scary as) I also found myself sat outside a prison one morning trying to bribe my way in! Yes - IN! San Pedro prison in La Paz was made famous by the book Marching Powder, its a capitalist prison with its own mini economy, you have to pay for your cell and food and there's even a 5* wing. The guards don't go inside and the inmates make money by making the purest cocaine available in Bolivia and by giving guided tours to tourists. I did NOT want to go until the day before, when I decided I didn't want to miss out on what would probably be one of the most unique experiences of my life. However, andperhaps fortunately, our attempts to bribe the guards didn't work and we were told to come back the next day (which we didn't because we all got very very messy, stayed out til 9am and spent the following day wimpering in bed nursing our hangovers.

Death Road!

The Death Road is a road in La Paz that UNESCO declared the worlds deadliest road. When it was fully open to traffic over 200 people died there every year.

The road goes from La Paz into the jungle, descending 3000m along single lane dirt paths. It bends through the mountains round some unbelievably tight corners with a sheer drop to the side.

5 years ago they built a safer road so now there isn't so much traffic and its become a tourist attraction. Since it opened 33 tourists have died cycling down the road.

I chickened out the first time I was in La Paz, a girl died on it the week I was there and I wimped out. However... this time I did it - and I survived!!

It was really scary. Its a 70km downhill bike ride, the bikes slip and slide about a lot because the road is gravelly and there are lots of rocks to trip you over. I didn't even fall off though :)

It took about 4 hours to get from top to bottom, I spent the entire time squeezing my brakes, at the back of the group about 10 minutes behind them! It was lots of fun.

The best bit was afterwards, we went to a nice hotel and had a buffet lunch, drank a few beers in the sun and cooled off in the swimming pool.

Tupiza to Uyuni Desert Salt Flat Tour

Back to Tupiza to do the salt flat tour that we postponed two weeks ago because of severe snow.

The tour started on Friday morning, we set off in two cars; Our car consisted of Ric and myself, two awesome people from London called Jenna and Laurence who we've now adopted into our special little family, our amazing guide Segundino and his wife and cook, Porfidia (also known as Profiterole as her name was a bit tricky). The other car contained two German girls, a French lass, Jose from Granada and an intriguing creature from Canada who went by the name of Andrew.

To summarise the first three days, we sat in the jeep for about 12 hours a day, stopping every so often to look at rocks and little villages. The scenery was beautiful, and the banter inside the car was top notch so it wasn't too bad being cooped up all day. It was FREEEEEZING outside, there was still snow on the ground and all the rivers were frozen. It was a shame really because we kept stopping at all these lovely places but it was so cold that we couldn't really enjoy it, we just jumped out of the car, took a photo and dived back in the car again to defrost.

Some cool stuff we saw along the way:

- We went up to these three volcanoes that mark the boarder between Bolivia and Chile and at the base of them there were two lakes, one white and one green.

- GEYSERS! The geysers were one of my favourite stops. The whole landscape was errupting with hot sulphur gas, it was like being on another planet. Well cool.

- Hot Springs. The warmest moment during the whole trip was our stop at the hot thermal springs, it was below freezing outside with snow on the ground and we all stripped down to out swimwear and jumped into the pool. Larvely.

- Laguna Colorado. On the third day we saw a huge red lake, its red because of the minerals in the water, and was half frozen over. The mountains and volcanoes covered in snow in the background made for a nice contrast.

We saw lots of wildlife along the way: ostriches, vicuñas (deers), loads of llamas and "silver footed ducks" (translation courtesy of Ric Stopher).

The accomodation on the first two nights was basic at best, we stayed in these "guest houses" that were sooooo cold. The first one had a mud floor! I slept in 5 jumpers, my sleeping bag and 4 blankets.

On the third night we arrived at the SALT HOTEL. Yep, a hotel made of salt. Everything from the walls to the beds to the floor was made of salt - we licked it all just to confirm.

This Andrew creature provided the majority of amusement and conversation during the trip; a middle aged man travelling alone without any apparent concept of what is socially acceptable. He told nazi jokes at the dinner table in the company of two young German girls, he used the C word and refered to us as " you f*cking English with you f*cking English films" and he spoke in really long annoying elaborate sentences. Added him to the list of weird and wonderful characters I've met along the way.

The fourth day was the main reason for the tour. The Salar de Uyuni - the biggest salt flat in the world, 12,000km squared. We got up super early and drove out onto the salt flat to watch the sunrise. It was spectacular. Then we got to climb "Fish Island" where we were witness to a LLAMA SACRIFICE!! It was the 1st of August, the Bolivian national day to worship the Pachamama (mother earth). So we climb up this big rock covered in cacti, surrounded by miles upon miles of salt, to find a small group of Bolivians, playing the flute and hacking into this poor llama. Its insides steaming. There was also the skin of a sheep and two cups of blood sitting at the bottom of a 'shrine'. All this before breakfast.

Sacrifices aside, the salar was stunning, pure white, vast and flat. One of the most impressive things I've seen here. 

We went to Colcaní where they mine the salt, then on to Uyuni - graveyard to trains and plastic bags. We went to a 'train cemetry' where Bolivia dumped all its steam trains when they introduced diesel trains. Then we chilled in the town for several hours waiting for our night bus to La Paz. All the locals dump their rubbish on the outskirts of Uyuni and as its ridiculously windy there it all blows back into the town covering the place in plastic bags. Rotten place.

So that was our tour. It was very cold, covered in snow, which actually made it quite special, everything looked really nice against the white background. Met some really cool (and interesting) people, had a good laugh and saw lots of salt.

Ric's thoughts on salt:

White crystals make chips taste good, dunt taste good by itself, Bolivia has nuff, looks beautiful when you have enough to make a desert out of the stuff. Don't visit hotels made of salt, you end up being a wall licker on accounts for bolivian food being bland as shit. Geysers are like farts, smell n fire like em. But look peng as feck (irish for fuck). Rubbish is a problem in Bolivia think they're proud of it as many outskirts are plastic bag city kinda think they're goin for some nouveau arte sketch.

N.B.

Now know my spanish is not up to scratch after tryin to compliment our driver on his driving skills but instead told him 'your a very good driver, you drive like a pool table' !Tit!

Andrew

Man is a 50yr old canadian whirlwind has a girlfriend called Gail, has mouth as vicious as a hurricane, tells jokes about shooting germans to germans, and is an artist of the awkward moment. Nuff said!

Road Trip! - Salta Province

Steph and Ric Tours!

Some raving lunatic let me and Richard Stopher hire a car and hit the road for an adventure around Argentina. And it was rather excellent fun.

We picked up our Volkswagon Gol (that's right, Gol, without the F) on Sunday morning, the roads were almost traffic free as all the Agentinians were either in church praying to giant wooden puppets or at home making empanadas. We drove south, through a couple of towns, eventually getting to Parque Nacional Los Cardones. We drove up to over 3000m above sea level through the mountains, it was very pretty - the rocks are all different colours. One thing I will say about mountains on this side of the world, they're the real thing; they actually look like they've just been thrust out of the earth by some tectonic movement. Unlike the smooth grassy hills we call mountains at home.

Anyway... we got to Cachi just after lunch time. Its actually a nice little town but it won itself the title "Hell Town" because it was really windy and sand kept blowing in our faces, and we got attacked by a swarm of wasps. Didn't like it. It was also really touristy and full of yet more llama souvenir shops so after lunch we made a swift get away and carried on along Ruta 40.

Ruta 40 is a famous road like Route 66 in America, it runs the whole length of Argentina from north to south and is one of the things you have to do travelling here. However, like the windy town of Cachi, it was pretty awful! The road was unpaved, dusty and bendy, the car was shaking about so much that eventually we had to tie one of Ric's socks around the windscreen wiper to stop the racket it was making. Loose rocks kept flying up and bashing the car and we got lost in a cloud of dust everytime a car went by in the other direction.

Still the landscape was stunning and we drove by several little villages of mud huts.

We impulsively took a rather long and pointless detour off track to Lagunas Brealitos - some lakes in the valley of the mountains. It took us ages to get there and by the time we got our first glimpse of the lakes the sun was already setting and it was getting cold.

We made it to the town of Molinos by 8pm to find everywhere locked up in darkness. Whilst searching for a hostel a lady approached us and offered us a bed in her (or someone elses) house. She claimed it was a hostel but it definitely wasn't. Didn't matter, it was clean and comfortable, although there was no toilet paper which was most inconvenient. The only restaurant in the town that was open on Sunday evening was in a 5* hotel and was verrrry very posh. We staggered in, tired after a long day travelling and covered in a layer of dust from the road, looking like proper gringo rif-raff, and ordered the cheapest thing on the menu (spaghetti and fanta in my case). The hotel was stunning, there was a lit open fire place in every room, and the food was excellent.

The next day whilst having breakfast outside a cafe a couple approached us and asked if they could tag along with us on our way south. They were Natalie and Tom from France and England. The four of us carried on, with our teeth rattling, along ruta 40 until we noticed that the boot had somehow opened itsself. Turns out the excessive shaking of ruta 40 had loosened the nuts in the lock of the boot and it had fallen out. So for the next hour we had a very loud drive to the town of Angastaco with the boot banging open and shut and me worrying that it was going to smash the glass.

After a picnic lunch of empanadas by the river, we found a mechanic who fixed the lock on the boot and we carried on to San Carlos where we had ice creams in the plaza.

As we approached Cafayate, our destination, we stopped off at a vineyard and did some pleasantly free wine tasting. We had a brief tour by a girl who was clearly merry after her 10th or 11th tasting of the day, and we tried 3 wines. The vineyard was called Vasija Secreta.

We managed to find the cheapest hostel in the town, possibly the cheapest in Argentina - it was 25 pesos a night each, just over 3 quid! Then we carried on with our wine tour.

Cafayate, along with Mendoza, is where the majority of Argentinian wine is produced and there are loads of wineries in the town where you can go and sample the vino. We went to 2 more bodegas - El Transito and Figueroa. As the places with free tasting were by now shutting shop for the day, we moved on to the bars in the plaza.

We ended up in a restaurant that had a peña show. Peñas are evenings of traditional folklore music and dancing. We had a very nice meal there (more steak), more wine, and enjoyed the live music. 

The next day, with slight hangovers, we drove back up north through La Quebrada de Cafayata, - more mountains. There were plenty of stops along the way visiting interesting rock formations such as Los Colorados, El Obelisco, El Amifteatro and La Garganta del Diablo which I proudly climbed to the top of in my flip flops and summer dress.

We said goodbye to Natalie and Tom along the way and they headed back down South whilst we carried on north to Alemania, apparently a ghost town although there were clearly people living there. There was a big railway bridge across the river which Ric played on whilst I watched a family who'd managed to get their car stuck in the river. They'd managed to flag down help from a guy in a jeep, who in turn got his own car stuck! It was most amusing. They asked us for help but Ric just mumbled "no entiendo español" and we made a run for it - yeah we're bad people but we didn't want our Gol to be the river's third victim!

Next stop was at Dique de Cabra Corral, a big damn where you can do "extreme sports" such as bungee jumping. Ric was going to do a bungee jump but he changed his mind when we got there and realised the bridge that you jump off is only a couple of meters high and that you can probably jump off it without the bungee.

We had some food by the edge of the damn, "best pejerrey in Argentina" - apparently (it was just fish and chips). And we saw the most ridiculous boats! They were like caravans and buses stacked up on top of one another with some floating device at the bottom.

After some more driving, stopping and silliness we made it back to Salta in one piece and dropped the car off, forgetting to mention the breaking of the boot.

San Lorenzo: Gaucho Time

I got to be a cow girl today and I absolutely effing LOVED IT!!!

Steph and Ric Tours organised an outing to San Lorenzo, a town on the outskirts of Salta, only a 10 minute bus ride away and the bus conveniently stops right outside our hostel door.

San Lorenzo is like the Notting Hill of Salta, the houses were beautiful! Apparently a lot of rich political people live there. We got off the bus and set about looking for a man with a horse. That's man's name was Ruben. We asked about and found a guy, who made a few calls to his mates and eventually got hold of Ruben, who picked us up in his truck and took us to his ranch. He has over 20 horses.

Ruben's 15 year old daughter, Rosa, accompanied us on our ride, she was really friendly and left us to go off racing and galloping about the hills. Stark contrast to Jonathan the moody emo guide we had in Tupiza. (Proof that Steph and Ric Tours are the best.) We had a fantastic 3 hour ride. The horses didn't seem too fond of us though, mine kept walking me into trees and sign posts and Ric's kept trying to head butt him!

Loads of fun. Gona be sore in the morning!

Salta

It took 2 and a half hours to get from Jujuy to Salta. Not 1 and a half as we were informed. NB. When asking for an estimation of travel time in South America be sure to add at least an extra third of the time to the journey.Still, its nice to be travelling on posh buses again here in Argentina; buses in Bolivia were pants.

We're staying in Hostel Sol Huasi which is nice enough, right in the centre next to the plaza. Salta is lovely, very European looking, has a massive PINK cathedral and a busy high street with HOT DOG STALLS! So many hot dog shops, we're eating about 6 a day, minimum. They're well nice, they come with tiny minature chips, cheese and sweetcorn (best vegetable in the world) and you get a choice of like 15 different sauces.

So we went on a cable car up a mountain, had to queue for an hour to get on it but it went pretty fast because we made friends with the couple in front of us who were rubbish at cross words. The lad, Ese, was listening to Linkin Park and trying to sing along (making noises which vaguely resembled the lyrics). Him and Ric had a little sing song together whilst I talked to his girl friend, Lorena. The cable car ride was nice, nice views of Salta, and the top of the mountain was pretty, overpriced cafe and some waterfalls.

Found a bargain in the supermarket - litre of gin, 2 litres of tonic and a couple of lemons for 25 pesos which works out at about 4 quid. Eaten some damn good steaks (not much vegetables on the menu but I'm not complaining).

Went on a loooong hungover walk to this mercado artesanal which was absolutely rubbish and overpriced. I am sick to death of seeing llama jumpers. However we were much amused by some of the shop names we saw on the way such as Gay Gas, Mary's Muebles and Drugstore (selling cigarettes and chocolate as oppose to drugs as the name suggests).

Like Salta. Good meat, good hot dogs, good booze.

OAP Shopping Trip

Went on this tour right, "northern circuit", north of Jujuy, where there's all this amazing scenery and multicoloured mountains and nice little villages and such. But... the other 6 people in our group had an average age of 120 and didn't want to get out of the minibus! They were all upper class Argentinians from Buenos Aires and all they wanted to do was buy over priced llama jumpers from the markets.

We rushed the first part of the trip to get to the town of Humahuaca to see the spiritual appearance of a saint in the town square. We got there, there was a crowed of about 200 people stood, cameras at the ready, looking up at this window. The saint was a wooden statue that popped out of the window like a cuckoo bird in a cuckoo clock, it waved, then went back in. The whole thing lasted less than 3 minutes. Silly Catholic people.

Then we had to wait 3 hours whilst the oldies had lunch and did some shopping. We were being economical and didn't want to eat in the restaurant, we got quite bored.

The day was totally geared towards the pensioners, we did see some really beautiful scenery but only from the back of the minibus - we couldn't even get out because we were at the back and it was too much havoc for the grannies to get out and pull their seats forward!

We were accosted by a very pushy salesman called Johan who "married" us by means of a tatty piece of string which he tied round our wrists, without us asking him to, then charging us for it! Crackpot!

We visited the most boring museum ever; some miserable old git sat in a drafty old building with a few old pieces of wood and a random out of place mummy in a display cupboard! The grannies loved it.

It was a nice enough day out, reminded me of going to the market in Tenerife with my Grandma when I was little.

From now on its Steph and Ric Tours all the way.

Thoughts on Bolivia

Velocity

SLOWEST RACE OF PEOPLE ON EARTH!!!! Seriously, it's a wonder anything gets done in this country. Walking down the street I have on numerous occasions, wanted to lift up the miniature Bolivian person walking at a snails pace in front of me, thrown them into the gutter and continue at a normal pace. I thought it might be something to do with the altitude at first but then even in lower altitude places the guys are damn slow. Even I walk faster than them at 4000m above sea level and I'm about as fit as a McDonalds victim off Jeremy Kyle.

Fodder

Carbs carbs carbs. I think the further into the Andes you get the more carbs you get with your dinner. In Peru it was rice and chips with every meal, here you get rice, chips AND pasta. How to live in poverty and still manage to be obese? Eat triple carbs 3 times a day. Apart from the carb overload the food is pretty good. Market food is generally cheap as anything and really good. In Tarija we got chorizo sausage, bread and salad, followed by steak, egg, rice, cheese, potatoes and more salad for £2 and it was delicious. You've got to be careful though with the market food stalls, some of them don't actually have cookers they just heat it up at home and leave it there all day - in Potosí we got a taste of that; cold meat balls stored in a pan with some raw chicken pieces and warmed up in some luke warm sauce. Berk. Ric ate it.

They love their chicken here too. Every other restaurant is a fried chicken restaurant. Its not KFC standard though, it kinda just sits there all day under a lamp getting tougher and tougher.

Duvets (lack there of)

Its cold at night right, especially at altitude its bloody freezing, and they don't have duvets. I miss having a nice thick duvet. Instead you get about 5 blankets and a couple of sheets that all go their seperate ways during the night and end up either on the floor or wrapped around your neck strangulating you. I'm going to revolutionise Bolivia with the emportation of duvets.

Directions

Don't ask a Bolivian for directions. They'll just tell you any old nonesense to save face and get you away from them. If you're lost or need to find somewhere I recommend you ask a sample of 20 people then take an average measure of the answers you get, whatever crops up most frequently is likely to contain some truth, but even then - handle with care!

Peeps

Bolivian people are very friendly. They tend to stare, especially if you're a 6ft tall white girl with red hair, but there's no hostility. I'm waiting for one of them to try and put me in a zoo. They like to ask where you're from and what you're country is like.

Children

Ric's like the Pied Piper. Kids love him (must be his childish behaviour!) In Potosí the receptionist's daughter greeted us by squeeling, refusing to talk, then we won her over and she wouldn't leave us alone! She stayed in our room wanting to play all night and even wanted to sleep there on the floor. And in Tupiza Ric made friends with a chubby kid with a Ben Ten watch... the two of them ended up competing in the hotel lobby to see who could do the best "spy rolls" across the floor! Ric won.

Jujuy: Krufts & Bath Tubs

It took us exactly 14 hours, 3 buses, 2 taxis and a 3km walk over the border to get from Tarija to Jujuy. It was a long day. We took a bus from Tarija to Bermejo and for the entire 4 and a half hour trip a lady with no teeth stared at us open mouthed. We crossed the Bolivia - Argentina border at Bermejo, via a bridge and a 3km walk to the first town on the Argentina side, Aguas Blancas. Having left the dizzying altitude of central Bolivia the temperate was more humid, and I was welcomed into Argentina by a swarm of hungry mosquitos.

From Aguas Blancas we took a bus to San Pedro, and from there another bus to San Salvador de Jujuy, arriving to our first 'choripan' - Argentinian sausage butty! Tasty.

We stayed at Club Hostel, very nice hostel with comfy beds, a big kitchen and a small pool that was full of leaves because its winter and only weirdos like me and Ric want to swim.

As our first day in Jujuy was a Sunday the city center was a deserted, however, we found all of the locals hanging out in the local park. There was a small fair, candy floss, a little train and best of all - Argentina's answer to Krufts! In the middle of the park everyone was crowded round watching these poor depressed dogs being dragged around a circle in the most ridiculous outfits I've ever seen. My favourites were a dog looking like the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood dressed up as the Grandma, and a big white boxer dog wearing a shiny blue and silver cheer leaders costume. There was also a terrier wearing denim hotpants, silver boots and a checked shirt. Crazy Argentinans.

Jujuys very nice, relaxed town, the weather is lovely and there are plenty of nice cafes and restaurants. We absolutely indulged on dinner and ate at a fantastic, rather fancy restaurant where we had: unlimited salad bar, egg and chips, bread rolls, unlimited grilled meats that just kept arriving at our table, pudding, wine, and a night cap for the grand total of about £15. It was divine, I had like 6 steaks!

About an hour away out of Jujuy, in the mountains, is Termas de Reyes, a spot with natural hot springs. There were 2 choices of places to bathe; the communal pool just off the main road, or in a private booth with panoramic views of the mountains in a spa at a 5 star hotel. Obviously being young travellers on a budget... we chose the posh spa!! Ric's a bad influence on me, he makes me eat steak and go to fancy spas. We were shown to our own little room with a huge sunken bath of hot termal waters, sun loungers and a floor to ceiling window over looking the valley. Not had a bath since I left home - it was LUSH! The valley was really pretty, we had lunch in a little outdoor cafe next to the river and I had a nap in the sun. Had such a jolly nice time that we decided to stay 2 extra nights.

Ric's Eplogue

If travelling from Bolivia to Argentina go via Villazon as life is made more simple. But you miss DMX n 50 Cents holiday home. Some bolivian buses contain hags who no matter how many times you try to stare them out or distract them by pointing at not much in the other direction, continue staring right through to your soul whilst sipping on what looks like a bag of manky water with a pickled onion sat at the bottom. 50 cent and DMX spend their hols chilling in a garden shed on the Bolivia Argentina border, I know this as it says so on their front door. 

Jujuy has a moving cinema, not very helpful when your trying to locate it. The coffee n ice creams here are peng! And on Sunday they hold a mini version of Krufts for all the locals who have gay ass dogs. This is also the reason for no street dogs here as the only bitch in the town can roam freely without having her arse sniffed by 20 or more dogs on heat.

Krufts should stay in the NEC and worshipped by poncy brits who want to give medals to slobbering furry beasts dressed like armish children ready for church on a Sunday morning, red riding hoods gran or pretending they're elton john.

Rics note on food...

Butties are pretty badboy, Empanadas are better. 6 steak dinner - spot on, all you can eat salad - sweet, vino - bingo, under 30 quid for 2 - back of the net!!!

FEED US UP ARGENTINA!!!!

Coimata

We were in a shop looking at souvenirs and chatting to the girl serving and she asked whether we'd been to Coimata. We'd never heard of it but we decided to go anyway.

We got a bus to the market, then had absolutely no idea what bus we had to get or where we could get it from. Asking Bolivians is pointless because if they don't know the correct answer they'll just tell you any old crap and send you on a wild goose chase. Eventually though we found the right bus.

I mentioned that in Peru the local buses are ex mini vans converted into buses... well here the buses are pick up trucks! Couple of seats in the cabin then a flat bed covered partially by a sheet of plastic! Travelling in style eh? - And still it beats the number 37!!!

So we got to Coimata; it's is a small place about half an hour away from Tarija, in the countryside. Its very pretty. We spent the afternoon there by some waterfalls by the river. We jumped in and swam, the water was freezing. Was really chilled afternoon, laying on the rocks reading and working on my tan (which has greatly suffered in the high altitude of Bolivia!)