After landing in Santiago from New Zealand we have been making our way across Chile into Bolivia, over the desert, through the Andes and on into Peru (home of Paddington Bear and the marmalade sandwich) before crossing into Ecuador a week or so ago. In case you don't want to read all of this the South America we have seen so far is extremely friendly people, lots of stray dogs and even more churches surrounded by beautiful scenery with big empty bits in between....we're off to Costa Rica soon and will report from there....
For those who want to see pictures, here are a few..starting with another Couchsurfung success story in Santiago with Tavo and Conchi and a very welcome guest appearance from our Tobago-living UK friend Mindy....
Then west to the colourful coastal city of Valparaiso....
Murals everywhere...
Although some different choices of subject matter...
One of the many churches...
Elqui Valley next....with church of course...
and stray dog....
Back in an easterly direction we took the first of many overnight bus rides to the desert town of San Pedro de Atacama for a few days.....
The nearby Valle de Luna....
We decided to cross into Bolivia earlier than planned via a three-day drive in a jeep across the southern altiplano...immigration facilities and border car park....
Our convoy...
Magic bus, for all those Into the Wild fans....
A whole lot of very spectacular nothing...
but plenty of things to climb or jump off...
Randomly there is a hot springs pool in the middle of the desert....
Sunrise over the Salar de Uyuni salt flats after a 4am start and two hours in the jeep at about 100 mph courtesy of our schoolboy driver...
and also randomly, an emu....
Messing around with perspective and our travelling companions Mark and Holly on the salt flats...
Half bunny, half kangaroo....
Our first Bolivian destination after three days in the desert was the town of Uyuni, where not a lot happens...
except it is where trains come to die....
Onwards to Bolivia's surprise, the delightful city of Sucre...
Lots of potatoes for sale....
Tarabuco market...
Tarabuco commuter...
The VW van alive and well here in ambulance guise (just for Oli)...
Next, La Paz (highest capital in the world in case anyone is interested - closer to the Him upstairs) for a couple of days...
then the less-famous Copacabana (it'll be nice when it's finished) on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The vehicle ferry across the lake is more interesting than the town....
After a very brief visit we crossed the border into Peru to the colonial town of Cusco, gateway to the ancient Inca ruins at Machu Picchu...the VW Beetle alive and well here in a Peruvian taxi rank (just for Tony)...
A trip to the ruins begins with spectacular train ride up through the mountains to the town of Aguas Calientes and then a 4am climb up the mountain to the gates of the park to be two of the lucky first 400 visitors of the thousands each day to be able to climb the adjacent peak of Huaynu Picchu..
Foggy (apparantly as usual) first thing....
but once the sun comes up the view is certainly worth the very early start and extraordinarily steep climb....
Skipped a whole lot of the nothing north of Cusco and took another overnight bus to Lima for some more Couchsurfing and a culinary tour of the city with our host, Jorge. Highlights are anticuchos (beef hearts on a skewer) and cerviche (raw fish marinated in lime juice, chilli and onion)....Another night bus to coastal Mancora in the north, seaside home of Peru's stray dogs, and then another day on the bus out of the desert and dust into green, lush Ecuador and the town of Vilcabamba in time for the rodeo....
Always pleasing to see the bull get his own back.....
The distances in South America have been huge....22 or 23 hours in a bus is quite normal and even in the equivalent of first class with videos, lie-flattish beds and a Ryanair-standard meal it can be pretty tough-going at times...especially with some fluid lavatorial arrangements by some indigenous travellers...why wait for a rest-stop when you have a window...just need to make sure you sit at the front of the bus....
Not that we expect or deserve any sympathy, even when watching Gladiator in Spanish with Norwegian subtitles....as if it wasn't bad enough in English....on that note we have also just watched Russell Crowe in the new Robin Hood film....we had no idea the good people of Nottingham spoke with Irish, Yorkshire and Geordie accents all at the same time......
Right now we're in Cuenca, another fantastic colonial city, before making our way north over the next week or two to Quito and our flight to Central America....until then, Adios, Hail Mary and Amen....
