Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) and Lakes

Another overnight bus took us to Uyuni where we began our 3 day tour of the salt flats and crazy coloured lakes. We booked the tour at 8am and left Uyuni at 10.30am, all very off the cuff kind of stuff...

Before getting to the salt flats we stopped at what they call the "train cemetary", old steam trains, apparently from England, just left to rust on the outskirts of town. There must have been at least 20 trains there.

We were absolutely awe when we got the salt flats themselves, and had to take the obligatory "no depth of field" shot, i.e. Cate holding mini-Simon...

We carried on from here in the 4x4 to the Islas Pescadore, litterally an island in the middle of what used to be an ocean. Check the video...

The cacti were very cool, Cate had been waiting the entire trip to see cactus that look like they´re supposed to look...

After lunch we crossed more of the salt to our lodging for the night, a building made entireley of salt, pretty cool. We only had power for a couple of hours at night, but enough to charge the camera battery for the following day.

It was a long day in the 4x4, but we got to see loads of flamingoes in the various lakes we went to. These two are the rare James Flamingoes, feeding on some algae.

Cate was somewhat shutter happy (undstatement of the year) and took hundreds of photos of the flamingoes that we´ll share with you when we get back.

That night´s accommodation was probably one of the most basic of the entire trip, but it didn´t matter too much as we were woken at 3.30am by our guide to go and see the geysers at sunrise. They were fairly calm and were only shooting steam, appparently when they are more active they shoot mud and boiling water, making it a bit dangerous to get close to them. It was really cold up there, 4965m so warming our hands in the hot steam was really nice.

From there we continued on to some hot springs where our guide told us there was no breakfast unless we got in to the hot baths. They were lovely and warm, but we both bottled out due to the freezing air temperature and the fact we only had hand towels with us. Still, it was beautiful to see the sun come up over the moutains.

After breakfast, we were taken to the border with Chile, which seemed to take ages to cross, but eventually we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, in the Atacama desert - the dryest desert on earth.

We staying in a really nice hotel here with hot showers, pool and internet, a nice change from the last few days.

So, a very Merry Christmas to everyone, we miss you all loads and are looking forward to seeing you very soon.

Lots of love,

La Paz

We took an overnight bus from Copacabana to La Paz, which wasn´t the most comfortable ride due to the road been somewhat dodgy, but we made it.

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at 4000m! Everywhere you walk it´s either uphill or downhill and at that height it´s hard work.

The city was very much like we had expected, lots of old colonial buildings, ladies in bowler hats and impromtu street markets on every corner.

This cathedral on Plaza Murillo looked like it was about to fall down...

Despite the hills, we did plenty of exploring and seeing a completely different culture to anywhere else we´ve been.

Copacabana, Bolivia

OK, OK, it´s been a while since the last post, we´ve been busy having a great time in Bolivia!

We got our flight out of Cusco to Juliaca, then taxied it to the Peru - Bolivia border, then walked, into Bolivia, ok it was only a 100m, but still, pretty cool walking into another country. Copacabana sits at the southern end of lake Titicaca, and what a beautiful setting after the hustle and bustle of Cusco. We really scored with our hotel! --->>>

We had the whole place to ourselves. Downstairs was a massive round bed (that was a first), and upstairs two hammocks to chillout in, both with uninterupted views of the lake, stunning!

Both nights we were there, we were treated to spectacular light shows like this!

So yep, a great way to start our week in Bolivia.

Cusco & The Inca Trail

Cusco is busteling city of 1.5 million people, although you wouldn´t think so to look at it. It sits at over 3000 metres, so the air was a little thinner than Arequipa. It was originally the Inca capital and then conquered by the Spanish Conquistadors about 5 centuries ago. The spanish influence is apparent everywhere you look.

We sat at a bar overlooking the Plaza de Armas (seems every town here has a square of the same name), and were spoilt by the brightest rainbow we´d ever seen - no wonder the Inca flag is like a rainbow...

We had our briefing for the Inca Trail that night so were well prepared for what was to come the next day.

We were picked up from our hotel at 6am and taken Ollantaytambo (not sure of spelling there) where we picked up some walking sticks and last supplies. The first days trekking was fairly easy, more undulating than anything, but the last half hour to our first camp was pretty tough.

There were six of us in the group, 2 guides, a chef and 9 porters to carry all of our gear, tents, sleeping bags etc. The porters are absolute machines, they each carry 20kg of gear and practically run the entire trail. When we arrived at the first camp our tents were all set up and they were waiting with hot cups of coca tea, amazing service!

Day 2 was very different to the first day. We left camp at 3200m and climbed for almost 5 hours up to 4215m to Dead Womans Pass - it was by far the most physically challenging thing either Cate or I have ever done. Towards the top we´d take 10 steps and have to have a break. Running on a treadmill at the gym from now on will be a piece of cake compared to that pass. We arrived at the second camp again to tea and later a lush dinner prepared by our chef. There´s not exactly any nightlife at these camps, everyone goes to bed at 8pm and gets up at 5am.

Day 3 was really enjoyable, two passes but nothing like the first one. Lots of undulation which was a welcome break for our now tired legs. We stopped at several Incan ruins that were fascinating how they just clinged to the side of the moutain. The descent to the last camp was excruiating, over 3000 steps down - and not your average steps, the Incas for some reason built steps at least 40cm high

Day 4 was a really early start, we were woken at 3.30am by the porters, breakfast waiting for us. It was only a short hour and a half walk to the Sun Gate, to catch our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, and wow! what a sight! Just breathtaking to see the "Lost City of the Incas" after 4 days hiking, covering over 40km and plenty of elevation change.

We had all morning to explore the ruins, our guide Orelia gave us so much information, it was hard to take it all in.

This is the photo we came for...




We took a combination of buses and a train back to Cusco for a well deserved hot shower (we didn´t shower for 4 days and we stank, yuck!) and a good rest.

It´s definitely true what people say, walking the Inca Trail and seeing Machu Picchu is a life changing experience. It really made a difference walking the trail and not just taking the bus there. We got a really good understanding of what the Incas were all about and how advanced they were over 500 years ago. They definitely didn´t use a back-hoe to build this place!

There´s so much more we could say, but you´ll have to wait till we get home to tell you more.

Finally, Cate made some new friends in Cusco...

We leave today for Lake Titicaca for a couple of days, then onto Bolivia - the last leg of our trip.

Hasta luego!

Colca Canyon

We got up early in Chivay for our visit to the Colca Canyon. It wasn´t the best night´s sleep in the very basic accommodation with no hot water and a very hard bed.

After a breakfast of hollow bread and jam, the bus took us out of Chivay towards the Colca Canyon. We made several stops in a couple of small villages where they were obviously ready to greet tourists with their local goods for sale and alpacas to pat. Kids in traditional clothing, doing their traditional dance offered some great photo opportunities. The villages were really interesting with all of the buildings built from traditional mud or clay bricks.

As we climbed up through the Colca Valley we saw the first of the terraces that cover the mountain sides, built by the pre Inca groups, I forget their names but their ancient people that had cone shaped heads! The terraces are just spectalcular and mind-boggling how they built them with no machinery hundreds of years ago. We got the feeling that today was just a taste of whats to come in Cusco.

After an hour or so of amazing scenery we arrived at Cruz del Condor, the best viewing point for the second deepest canyon in the world at 3,200 metres deep, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the US!

We´ve said this before about other places, but the photos don´t even start to show the magnitude of the place.

And yet another "Thelma & Louise" shot...

We didn´t see any condor unfortunately, but after seeing plenty in Patagonia we weren´t disappointed.

We leave Arequipa tomorrow morning for Cusco where we begin the Inca Trail on Wednesday for 3 nights in the mountains, so you may not hear from us for a few days.

Adios til then.

From the end of the world to the top of the world

We left yesterday morning for a 2 day trip to the Colca Canyon and Cruz del Condor! A 4 hour bus journey took us through a windy road out of Arequipa to an alti plano where we saw alpacas and lama and reached a massive height of 4,800 metres. The air really was hard to breath up there with Cate feeling small effects of the altitude sickness (a bit dizzy, pale and nausea - good practise for Machu Pichu in a few days). A few cups of coca leaf tea was recommended and did help!!!

We arrived in a small traditional village, Chivay for lunch and a chance to meet some locals and have a look around. As you can see from the photos they are interesting characters, and boy, what a life they lead. Not much else to do but agriculture, farming and knitting baby alpaca wool! We were lucky enough to arrive on the first day of their 3 day nativity festival, a great combination of their traditional culture (Inca) and Catholic religion. The different families in the community created their own nativity of silverware and childrens dolls as an offer to the festival which will be burned and danced on at the end of the festival. The dance symbolizes both war and love and has a lot of meaning for them.

We also watched a band perform in Chivay of which will be the first of many panpipes we will hear over the next few weeks.

Arequipa, Peru

We left the chaos of Lima behind us, not much to tell except it was a swanky hotel with a soft bed and great shower. Scored again with emergency exit seats, if only for an hour and a half, ahhh it´s the little things in life...

Arequipa is another town at the base of a volcano, Misti, which sits at almost 6000 metres high! The city itself is at 2300 metres, so when we got off the plane, straight away we were a little short of breath. It´s a great town, named the white city after the volcanic stone used to build most of the buildings here. We visited a museum that houses the "ice princess", Juanita. She is a 500 year old mummy, perfectly preserved by the ice on top of the mountain on which she was sacrificed to the gods by the Incas, quite brutal the story, but that´s for another time.

For dinner, Cate had an alpaca chop, quite tasty but a bit tough. Neither of us were game for guinea pig, a local specialty. We knocked back a few pisco sours (local drink) and hit the sack, ready for a big day the day after to the Colca Canyon.

Peru

We flew out of Buenos Aires this morning, had an awesome flight, scored emergency exit seats on a brand new plane. LAN is heaps better than Aerolineas Argentinas.
We're staying at the Radisson here in Lima, thought we'd treat ourselves to a little luxury before the rusticness of Arequipa and Cuzco start. We have an early flight to Arequipa tomorrow morning where we're going for a bit of jaunt in the Colca canyon, hopefully see some more condor!

The end of the world

Well here we are guys at the end of the world ´fin del mondo´, Ushuaia, a hop skip and a jump away from Antarctica, where the Pacific ocean meets the Atlantic ocean. And what a journey it has been. Many of the roads and weather conditions (gale force wind and not always hard compacted gravel as promised) were challenging on the bikes but that only made it more glorious to reach the end of the road. We did it!

We had our last day on the bikes yesterday exploring the Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) National Park, taking us literally to the end of the road, as far south as you can go by vehicle.

This is the end of the Beagle Channel and the end of the southern most road in the world. We were fortunate enough to see a seal swimming around and witness a bird like duck species mating ritual.

Tomorrow morning we fly off to Buenos Aires for a few days of partying before Peru and our hiking adventure begins! The bars don´t even open until midnight in BA so I think we will be having a few nanna naps to keep up!

Torres del Paine National Park

We spent 3 days in this UNESCO World Heritage Biosphere and it´s not surprising why it´s classified this way. We´ve seen jaw dropping scenery all the way down from Santiago, but Torres del Paine really is the pinical of Patagonia.

And this is my favourite shot...

Even the photos don´t do this place justice. The Torres (towers) are so majestic, you can literally sit and stare at them for hours on end.

Because we´re so far south (about 52 degrees latitude), the sun doesn´t set until 11pm and rises again at 4.30am! I got up one night from our tent to pee (and dodge pumas!) and saw the most stars I´ve ever seen, just incredible!

This waterfall was so powerful. There were no barriers or anything, so you could have just jumped if you were nuts enough. All the water is basically melted ice from the glaciers.

One thing is for sure, Torres del Paine will stick in our memories forever!

Video

I would have liked to upload more video to the blog, especially the helmet cam and some videos Cate has filmed when she´s been on the back a couple of times, however the internet here is just not fast enough to upload them. The files tend to be quite large, so would take forever...

Anyways, so everyone can see what an amazing place Patagonia is, I´ll put a dvd together when we get back and send it out to everyone.

hasta luego!

Icebergs in Torres del Paine, Chile

Icebergs in Torres del Paine, Chile, originally uploaded by simonthepom.

we found a cheeky little wifi connection at a pub after our iceburg discovery so thought we would share it with you. These iceburgs are huge and broke away from a glacier 15km's away so the glacier must be humungous. Torres del Paine is just spectacular so far. We have 2 more nights here so tomorrow is a little warm up 8 hour hike for macchu pichu.

Ps. In case you were wondering you can add your comments to the blog and a little return communication would be welcome with our moments of home sickness.

Perito Moreno Glacier

Today we had the pleasure of visiting the Perito Moreno Glacier, about 80 kms from El Calafate, where we stayed last night and tonight. The glacier is absoultely jaw-dropping, at 2.5 kms wide and 60m high!!! The video is the road to get there and what a sweet road it is. Glad we could ride it rather than sat on a bus with the plebs...

After staring at the glacier in sheer awe, we took a boat trip to get a closer look. This is what we saw:

The glacier advances 2m a day and within an hour or so, we heard a huge cracking sound, the sound of tonnes of ice dropping into the sky blue water below, bloody amazing!

Lake Argentina

Hi everyone,

We have had some amazing days these past few days, much more spectacular than any words could describe. Ruta 40 is all it is cracked up to be, classic gaucho territory with wide expanses of sky as far as you can see. At some points the sky and clouds swirling above made it difficult for the eyes to soak it all in as we cruised past. We have already racked up over 3000km´s since we started on the bikes.

So far we have seen guanaco (cousins to the lama´s), condors, armadillo´s, flamingos, deer, rhea (like an emu) and a dead skunk. Pheweee, they smell. The condors are our fav so far, they have such grace and seemless effort with one small flap to soar above the mountains.

2 nights ago we stayed at an Estancia (traditional Argentinian sheep station) and experienced an Argentinian BBQ. Yum, yum, yum! The lamb was the best we have ever had, cooked in a raging open fire on a skewer (up its bum) so was super crispy on both sides. Argentinian wine and beer is a fine drop!

PS We are having some issues with our hard drive so can´t show you pictures of the above for now. But will up load as soon as we can. This is the last internet connection before Ushauia we the bike trip finishes so you won´t hear from us for a few days after this.

We´re still around...

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone, internet is few and far between round these parts. I´m writing this on satellite internet, so won´t post any pics as it´s quite slow.

We arrived in El Chalten yesterday, an absolutely beautiful place, surrounded by the Fitz Roy range and a massive glacier, just stunning! I´ll post some pics and videos of where we´ve been riding in a couple of days when we get to El Calafate, but let me say this, it´s the windiest place I´ve ever been! Quite challenging on the bike on gravel roads.

Love to all xoxoxo

Into Argentina...

The border crossing was definitely tedious... After 30 km's of dirt and gravel roads (pretty hard core) we arrived at the Chilean part of the border to find that the customs people were on strike! Bastards! So we spent the next 7 hours waiting for the private contractor (yes, just 1) to arrive. Wasn't a bad spot to be stranded, next to the volcano, but after 7 hours the sun did start to take it's toll on us.

So after finally getting through the Chilean and Argentinean border we had another 15 k's or so dirt and gravel, only to arrive on some of the best bitumen I've ever experienced, period! Amazing curvy roads that motorcyclists dream about. Only slight issue was that it got dark towards the last 100 k's into Bariloche (not so good with a dark tint visor...)  So this arvo we're going back to ride some of it again and also the Seven Lakes Drive, check back for more pics and video on the way.

The dogs are some new friends we've made here at Bariloche, they know how to turn on the cuteness, just like Cash.

Much love to all xoxo

Some pics for your viewing pleasure

We'll start this post with an oh 'so romantic' pic of us in front of the volcano in Pucon at sunset...ahhh... absolutely glorious. A nice relaxing evening before we head off for Bariloche in Argentina.  Our first boarding crossing which we have been told can be slow and tedious. xoxo

The damage

Here you go Mum, photographic evidence of my topple injury.  Nothing to worry about, just a bruise!  But a goodie.  Hopefully my first and last one... although my bum is still a bit sore after yesterday's marathon ride.

Pucon

We got to Pucon last night, and wow what an amazing place. A massive volcano all covered in snow towers over the town. Pretty special.

Had our first day on the bikes today with a half day ride to get used to them. They are pretty damn hot bikes! Really easy to ride...most of the time. Cate had her first spill at very low speed. Think gravel but large pebbles the bikes slide around on. Mainly her ego bruised but we will post evidence once the bruise comes up nicely...it´ll be a goodie!

Cate was a bit disappointed being the only chick on the tour and the only rider to tumble...but hey, Ewen dropped his bike quite a few times on Long Way Round so I am sure there will be a few more. Particularly as part of this mornings ride was to orientate ourselves with the bikes, but also with dirt and gravel roads.

Soaked ourselves in natural hot springs in the afternoon in readiness for our first border crossing into Argentina tomorrow. Exciting stuff. I would use an exclamation mark if I new how to with this keyboard. :-?

Av. Libertador Bdo O'Higgins, Santiago

Av. Libertador Bdo O'Higgins, Santiago, originally uploaded by simonthepom.

This is the view from our hotel room. There's been protests everyday, unions demanding pay rises, 14.5% they want... So it's been less than quiet with the protestors blowing whistles constantly all day, must work for I suppose.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Pucon, a 10 hour bus ride south of Santiago. We are so ready to get out of the city and start riding through the Andes and then Patagonia in about a week.

Here we are in Santiago

After quite a long flight, we've arrived in Santiago de Chile. We now have 3 days here before leaving for Pucon to jump on the bikes.

Santiago is really nice, much like Europe. We enjoyed a nice dinner with some cracking Chilean wine, yep will be having some more of that!

More exploring tomorrow in very very broken Spanish - which will hopefully improve by the end of the 6 weeks.

Buenos noces!

Simon & Cate

Nice bit of kit

This is the same as the bikes we'll riding, including GPS, so we'll be free to roam.

Only a couple of weeks to go...

In a couple of weeks, my soon to be wife, Cate and I will head off on a South American adventure, starting in Santiago, Chile. We wanted to do something exciting for our honeymoon, so rather than lying on an island beach somewhere, we will be riding BMW F650's through both Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia, finishing in Ushuaia, on December 2, 2008. From there we travel to Buenos Aries for a few nights, then onto Peru and Bolivia and finally leaving South America from Santiago on December 28.

We'll be updating this blog every now and then while we're away on our six and a half week adventure. We'll hopefully also upload some pictures and videos from the trip as we go.

Here's a map of where we are going on the bikes. It's missing quite a lot of the place names, but you get an idea of the distance. The blue place marks are some of the places we are staying in.


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