Backpacking

Where should i start, it had to come, one way or the other, the time to say good bye to organised travel, brilliant food, 1st class buses and the time to see different people concerning their looks, go back to basic food and a little bit of chaos where you queue in front of the only ATM in town at 2.30 pm and you are told every hour to come back and you start a party at 5pm when you manage to get money as nobody is interested in libras or as we call them english pounds.

BUT, i am jumping again. We made it to Bolivia, got to the border crossing at 6am and head to Tupiza, one of the gateways to the immense, amazing, stunning Uyuni Salt Lakes. The flats are the biggest in the world with 12,000 m2 and attract hordes of backpackers, mainly Israeli - not that we mind.

Tupzia is the place to make friends either 2 or 4 to be able to go on the 4 day Jeep Tour through the amazing Bolivian altoplano basically highlands. This incorporates being stuck for most of the 4 days in the Jeep, but being rewarded by ¨some of SA most stunning landscape¨. And it is true. Once we hooked up with our 2 aussie mates from Sydney, Claire and Mariana, we get to see deserted villages as there is no more silver, colored lagoons, llamas, flamingoes, volcanoes, desert and a lot of salt, once we make it to the salar on day 4. Other highlights include the ´Hotel de Sal´ we stayed in, the other nights we stay in very basic refugios which have electricity for 3 hours a day, no hot showers - well we booked an adventure trip and thats what we got.

In places, we make it up to 5000m above sea level and some of us need to pop one or two pills not to go mad and avoid more altitude sickness. Apparently 1 in 2 or 50% get sick, this time it is not me. Thank God !

After day 4 we get to Uyuni, the other gateway to do the salar. After freezing for several days, despite the blue sky you can see on the picis, next stop is La Paz, still on 4000m, but we might try to get flights up north....heading for hot beaches or so, or not !!!

Mendoza and Salta likewise as Patagonia is a must for most Argentina visitors and the climate is great and there is much to do.
Already the journey from Chile (8hrs on the bus during the days) takes us through amazing landscapes and country side.

Mendoza is the wine factory of Argentina. 80% of the countries production is here. Most of it is not for export as the locals just finish it and hence, next to horse riding, paragliding we decide for the half day winetour. Some funny people on the tour, but managed to buy a bottle for $15 (15 pesos = 2.5 pounds) which can´t be bought other than in the United States due to a binding 5 year contract the bodega has signed...there is is sold @ 70 dollars the bottle. Probably the poshest bottle we had our entire life. Being shattered after a 18 hrs bus journey to Salta we just had it in our hostel and i needed a nap afterwards. Not used to alcohol anymore or...

Well, the local drink in Chile was the Pisco sour. Kind of a grappa, served in a prosecco glas with lime juice and some nice sugar topping around the glas. Nice one ! BUT defininitely lethal as so yumm !

Activities and Mendoza: just arriving we had the same spiel as in many other places that the first day the weather is dissapointing and hence we don´t get a feeling for the place after day one. Day by day the weather improves, we extend the stay in the hostels and end up being nearly 5 days in Mendoza and even 7 days in Salta where it is finally boiling hot. What a difference as we got so jealous that you lot were doing BBQs in April in the UK, Switzerland and Germany.

Day1: To enjoy our time we rent bikes and go to the local Zoo which was really nice as it is located in the huge San Martin Park

Day2: Horse Riding. How lazy are these boys. Still a nice and easy trip as we ride up and down some nice mountains. I must admit i was looking for a little bit of action on these nice animals, but it wasn´t meant to be. Saw some really ugly dog though, apparently a mexican creature, not sure whether the locals were just taking the micky telling us chistes..ANYWAY, it the story made perfectly sense to us and we were entertained.

Day3: Winetasting (1 industrial bodega, organic olive oil factory - bought some nice stuff for my skin here, organic bodega). This is only a half trip and really interesting as well. Originally, we intended to do the bike & wine tour, but somehow nobody we met was raving about it, hence we gave it a miss

Day4: Paragliding. Now this was a hightlight as it was the first high adrenaline activity for me. Flew from approximately 1600m, luckily my instructor was a professional who is parapeting for more than 24 years and also flies a lot of competitions. We did some acrobatic stunts and some attempts of freefalls. Wasn´t scared which helped and really loved these 20min in the air, but must admit, i am done on it for a while as i got a little bit sick and wasn´t sure whether i would make it...(not pucking). It is the same as sea sickness and if you have ever spent any time on a boat with me, you know what i am talking about.

All in all, we leave Mendoza on a high, even with some little disasters on hostels....not worth boring you on those though....

Next stop SALTA
Didn´t really think to much about Salta the day we arrived. Yes, exactly, it was too cold again. We intended to stay for a couple of days, but once we changed hostels, met some nice people, waited for good weather, we did change our mind. There is loads to do here and no wonder this is one of the MUST places for people to visit. The original plan was to hire a car and do our first tour, driving ourselves to Cachi and Cafayate, but we headed for some adventure first.

Canopy, gosh this is so much fun. It is also called something similar to tyroling or so. Basically it involves you being connect to a zip and a carabiner and off you go from one moutain to the other crossing rivers, lakes or hills. We did this tour with an Argentinan super woman and her daughter and managed to converse in castelano for 2 whole days as they were on our other trip as well. Well, we got invited to an asado, BBQ, when we return to Buenos Aires, so it was worth the pain.

Downhill moutain biking. Again what a trip, we just loved it. We drove to the national park, stopped at the top and headed downhill for the next 5 hours, occassionally stopping to gain breath, have some food, have a chat and finished 45km later on a complete high !!!

The other days we just spent lazying around, Simon checking about every bar whether they would show the ManU Champions League game, which they lost so badly after all the hoo haa b4hand,...going for runs pretending to get fit and eating far too much in particular red meat, but in hinsight that was a wise thing b4 heading to our next adventure, BOLIVIA

Ok, next country on the go. The longest country of the world and i presume the thinest (4000km long, 180 km wide) - hope i didn´t make this up completely, we only intend to stay for a short while as it is more expensive here and we were told that the food is crap. Well, in Santiago we stayed in SA best hostel, voted for in 2006 and the location was good, could have been the Soho of Chile. We enjoyed strolling around the city, going for great Thai food and were proven wrong and you can actually find other food than burgers and chips and though more expensive than Argentina, still good value for money.

Santiago de Chile: not sure whether you want to know this, but they have 250,000 dogs producing 40tonnes of dog shit every day (indeed i am fascinated by dogs in South America). Apart from that they have some great hill/mountains in the middle of town. So, great 2 days.

BTW - got conned by fake students on our first day in Santiago, somehow they got us with this weird sounding story that since Pinochet students are really poor people and to finance their studies they come together to distribute poems to tourists. Their US $200 pay a month work as students does´t fund the uni.....bla bla bla, we didn´t give them too much money, but hey...you are warned of them in every tourist leaflet, but it just clicked too late for us.

Valparaiso: Port town. approx. 1 hrs from Santiago and the first impression we have is that of a pretty poor place we don´t particularly like, probably as we were still waiting for good weather, but once the sun came out, we head for the beach in Viña, check apparently the best seafood in the country and have some nice strolls on the Cerro Allegro and Cerro Conception. After 4 days we definitely fell in love with this place...The hostel we stay in was owned and refurbished by the author of the Chilean Footprint autor who helped us to get into the vibe of this place. (London guy who even new Haydons Road...how small is the world).

We go for some runs and try not to be too ignorant and wanting to learn stuff about the countries we visit, we go to the house (now a musuem) of Pablo Neruda who is one of only 2 chilean Noble Prize Winners. Great stuff to stroll through somebodies house who is actually famous. I tell you, great views he got from the study !!!!

Viña del Mar is literally next door to Valparaiso. Buses and a posh tube system connect the two and Viña is like the Chelsea of London whereas Valparaiso is the Camden part..., but it is Valparaiso with its quirky bohemian arty touch which is far more interesting with its hills, murals and cable cars....

It is quite late to go to Patagonia at this time of the year as it is pretty far south, but if not now when will we come again....so let´s make sure we get the best out of it now. Despite an early start of the winter as they say (it is still autumn) this whole area of Argentina is amazing. Pampa everywhere you turn. It is a rough country side, windy, lots of condors arounds and well why are we exactly here - of course to see the Perito Moreno Glacier and famous Fitz Roy mountain (never heard of it before the trip..but i am not an expert hiker as we know).

First stop: El Calafate... probably didn´t exist more than 50 years ago. Nice smallish touristy place and the gateway (80km) to the Parque Nationales des los Glaciares. We book a promo for the next day - Day 1 Trip to Perito Moreno with a short trekking - and Day 2 more glaciers Upsala, Spagezzi and the Bahia Orla on a Catamaran.

I can´t really add much comentary - i think the pictures talk for themselves. This is just an amazing, asthonishing and beautifull trip despite the freezing temperatures.

Next stop: El Chalten - four hours coach journey, the 3rd early morning in the row (really can´t do 6 o´clocks, always hated them) and we arrive in no mans land. 400 people live in this "village" off season, 2 people who live here are originally from this village, no paved streets, mobiles don´t work...it is cold, very cold and windy and why are we here ?? Trekking, i love it, Simon hates it, but needs to be done ! We know who is wearing the trousers ...only until i get socked in wet snow.

So, no bookings. You just get a map from the local rankers, take you backpack, some food and your legs and walk as much as you can to get to see Fitz Roy. Well we never managed it, our attempt has to be abadonned after we get soaked as we don´t have waterproof trousers and the snow is just too much. Nevermind, some of you got postcards...

Again, met some nice interesting people, bumped into people we met before and had an interesting time in this part of the world, but craving for at least warmer weather now, hence we head to Chile, Santiago de Chile via Buenos Aires as i found a good deal, only to pick up a new debit card in one of the many HSBCs in BA.

It´s been nearly 4 weeks for me in Argentina, so it is time to tick off another country on the map and why not Uruguay which the Argentinians rather treat as another province than an independant country. Well, on the map it looks tiny and what are about 3.3m inhabitants if you are squeezed between Argentina and Brazil.

We start in Colonia de Sacramento (2 nights) as this is the easiest place to get to from Buenos Aires. It is literally a 1hrs ferry ride with the great Buquebus over the neverending River Plata seeming like the sea - as it is enormous, but it is actually a river (huge and brown though).

Colonia is old and colonial. We head for the beach and a run, we are actually here to top up our tans, but forget it, it is raining and raining (which some of you might have already read in the blog Simon sent out). A little bit depressing, but what can you do. I learned this living for 6 years in the UK, don`t get moody only because it is raining. On day 2 we go for a nice walk and find this amazing restaurant called "The Drugstore" and hey, the world looks different after a lentil stew and 1 1/2 liters of Sangria.

Punta del Este (4 nights): After 2 nights we decide to pack it in for more action in the St. Tropez of South America, where models, politicans and VIP hang out in the summer (surrounded by Paparazzi) to find more beach (weather). Punta is a peninsula, the season is over, so that we don`t see a face arriving in the rain. 2 blocks down the road is our hostel 1949 where we check in and enjoy having our own TV with some english / american channels which makes all the difference if you haven´t watched TV for nearly 6 weeks.

The Hostel has a great location, really in the midst of 2 beaches and close to the beautiful port (sealions !!!) and we make some good friends on the first night. We were really off to bed, but somehow started chatting to some interesting people who asked us to join them for some dinner and since then we made friends with Nina from HH, Frank from Canada and a great bunch of english (croydon) and Aussies - we have been bumping into ever since....

So, finally, it is party time in Punta del Este as the weather is still not good enough for beaching, hence we drink, chat and meet different guys in the local Moby Dick. The next morning or should i say day, as you tend to sleep in Punta forever and ever (it is the only hostel i have found so far, offering breakfast until 12pm) apparently something to do with the air here...or is it me and the fact i love sleeping forever (...hence another good reason to travel and not to work).

Once the sun comes out, we don`t move from the beach. Our books become our best friends, we just leave the beach to get some lunch and as our new friends decided to leave we spend some time on our own. Still going for the odd run and sightseeing (mainly house spotting as they have some fantastic and some odd places here).

Next stop Montevideo (2nights):
Again a fairly short bus ride, we head for the capital of Uruguay and check in the Che Lagado hostel on the Plaza Independencia. Close to the gateway to the old town, we meet extremly nice staff in the hostel, go for food as we can afford it now (old town, after expensive Punta) and my only effort to start cooking was viciously penalised. I fancied some easy scrammbled eggs and opened the pack only to see dozens of small but horrendous looking worms crawling out of the eggs i just had purchased...i know now need to elaborate any further, or ?? Hope i didn´t put you off.....hey, it is far away...

Montevideo has a huge port, but we mainly head for the beach before flying off to cold and windy Patagonia.