Our Highlights of South America

We have now been back in the UK for two or three weeks, and are gradually adjusting to quite a different kind of lifestyle from the last 16 months! Having spent a few days with families, we are now in London, staying with some friends while we attempt to get ourselves sorted (looking for jobs, houses etc.).

As Kev mentioned in his final post about Uruguay a couple of weeks ago, we have been planning for a while to do a few summary style blog posts. These might include some of our highlights from the entire trip, favourite cities, best places we stayed / restaurants we ate in etc, as well as some general tips for travelling South America.  I've finally got round to writing the first of these posts, on our top highlights  - enjoy, and please feel free to share among anyone you think might be interested.

All of the Lonely Planet guidebooks have a few pages at the start devoted to a selection of photos and short descriptions of the top places to visit - the absolute must sees. Lonely Planet's 'South America on a Shoestring' guidebook, which covers the whole continent, is no exception. Some of the standouts are obvious, and also on our own list - Macchu Picchu, the Galápagos Islands, Torres del Paine National Park... However, we think that Lonely Planet has also made some significant omissions. So, in chronological order, here is our very own 'South America Top 30'.

1. Punta Tombo, Southern Argentina
Colony of over half a million Magellanic penguins. They were everywhere!

2. Cueva de las Manos,  Southern Argentina
9,000 - 13,000 year old cave paintings, in an absolutely stunning setting. The famous handprints in the paintings are actually silhouettes, created by blowing paint using pipes made out of bone. Pretty amazing!

3. Hiking around El Chaltén, Southern Argentina
This tiny, colourful village is known as Argentina's capital of trekking, and rightfully so. We spent a week here near the start of our trek, and came back 6 months later when my family was visiting. Some spectacular day hikes, all free to do and easily accessible - you just walk out of your hostel!

4. Perito Moreno Glacier, near El Calafate, Southern Argentina
Where else can you stand within a few metres of a 60 m high monster of ice, listen to it constantly shifting, creaking and cracking, and watch chunks the size of a house fall off? We visited Perito Moreno twice, and would love to go again.

5. Driving south through Tierra del Fuego towards Ushuaia, in the Far South of Argentina
We didn't think much of Ushuaia itself, which is a very touristy and expensive town most famous for being the 'most southerly town in the world' (this is not in fact true; there's a town further south in Chile!). However, the long bus ride down through the island of Tierra del Fuego was an unforgettable experience. We gazed out of the window at mist clad lakes, forests and mountains that really felt untouched by humanity. It was magical.

6. Hiking around Puerto Williams and Isla Navarino, in the Far South of Chile
We took the last boat of the season across the Beagle Channel from Ushuaia, to get to the Chilean town of Puerto Williams. This really felt like the end of the world, unlike Ushuaia. Kev was still on crutches at this point, but we still managed to climb Cerro Bandera, which has to be one of the most spectacular day hikes of all time. The views of the Beagle Channel in one direction, and the stunning Dientes de Navarino mountain range in the other, would be hard to beat.

7. Seeing Calbuco Volcano Erupt, from Chiloé, Chile
We were out for a walk on the beautiful island of Chiloé, and saw an unusual cloud in the sky at sunset. It was so strange-looking that we took a photo of it (luckily). A few minutes later, we arrived back at our homestay to find the main story on the TV was the eruption of Calbuco Volcano, on the mainland!

8. Conguillío National Park, Southern Chile
Possibly our favourite national park in Chile. It has everything - beautiful lakes, perfectly conical volcanoes, monkey puzzle trees ... and virtually no tourists.

9. El Enladrillado, Reserva Nacional Altos de Lircay, Middle Chile
Epic day hike up to an unbelievably flat volcanic plateau. We walked across to the other side, and were greeted with a stupendous view down into the valley and across to the opposite mountain range.

10. Wine Tasting in the Colchagua Valley, Middle Chile
Colchagua is Chile's most famous wine region, and deservedly so. This was our favourite of the three sets of wine tasting we did in Chile. Incredibly friendly, helpful and well informed people at the wineries, and world class wines. Colchagua is geared up more to luxury / package tourists than backpackers, but with some research we still managed it on a reasonable budget.

11. Stargazing in the Atacama Desert, Northern Chile
We were not fans of the extremely touristy town of San Pedro de Atacama, and found places in northern Argentina with equally impressive scenery. For us, the real highlight of the Atacama Desert was the stargazing, We saw Saturn through a telescope, other galaxies with the naked eye, and we even learnt how to take a decent photo of the night sky (and yes, it was freezing cold!).

12. The Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
This one is obvious - the Bolivian Salt Flats were just as amazing as we'd hoped! We did the standard three day jeep tour, beginning in San Pedro de Atacama and finishing in Uyuni in Bolivia. We went up to nearly 5000m so it was very cold at night - our first experience of sleeping in temperatures of -15°C...

13. The Amazon Jungle and the Pampas, near Rurrenabaque, Bolivia
We opted to visit the Amazon from Bolivia, as it was a lot cheaper than anywhere else we'd read about. Our 6 day trip with Mashaquipe Ecotours was pretty special, despite Kev getting horribly ill for two days of it. We spent 3 days in the jungle, followed by 3 days in the Pampas (a wetland savannah area). The highlight was swimming with pink dolphins!

14. Trekking to Macchu Picchu via Choquequirao, Perú
We wanted to hike to Macchu Picchu. We also wanted to see the Choquequirao Inca site. And we did not want to be in a group of 20 plus tourists. The solution? A 9 day trek. The hardest either of us had ever done, but also the most rewarding. The scenery was unbelievable, we saw several less-visited Inca ruins, several condors, and no other people apart from the others in our (small) group for days. For us, this was so much preferable to hiking the Inca trail with 500 others!

15. Macchu Picchu, Perú
Oh, and Macchu Picchu was incredible, of course. We stayed later than most tourists, who all seemed to leave around lunchtime. At 7 am, we were there with 2000 other people - by 3 pm, we had the place nearly to ourselves.

16. Flying over the Nazca Lines, Perú
I had read various horror stories about the tiny aircraft that take tourists on short flights over the Nazca Lines. But this is really the only way to get a panoramic view of the area. In the end, we felt perfectly safe, and we were in complete awe of these mysterious, centuries old lines and figures drawn in the desert.

17. The Huacas del Sol and de la Luna (Temples of the Sun and Moon), near Trujillo, Perú
Perú is full of wonderful examples of pre-Inca architecture. These pyramid temples, built by the Moche culture (around 100 - 800 AD) were some of our favourites. 1500 year old colourful murals, incredibly detailed and still in fantastic condition.

18. Trekking near Huaraz, Perú
The mountain town of Huaraz, in central Perú, has a wealth of nearby opportunities for trekking, We opted for the 4 day Santa Cruz trek, which took us to the highest I'd ever hiked to (a pass at 4750m) and the highest I'd ever camped (4250m). The views were stupendous throughout the trek - it reminded us of Patagonia.

19. Torres del Paine National Park, Southern Chile
Talking of Patagonia ... we missed this national park when we were first in the south of Chile, due to Kev's injured leg. 6 months later, we returned at the start of the trekking season (October) to undertake the 5 day 'W' trek. WOW. Like El Chaltén, but even better - and not too busy at this time of year.

20. The Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Our 8 day cruise around the Galápagos was by far the biggest splash out of our trip. It was worth it! These volcanic islands support such a bewildering array of life, a lot of it found nowhere else on the planet. Blue footed boobies, frigate birds, iguanas, giant tortoises ... not to mention the great diversity of the underwater environment.

21. Pailon del Diablo Waterfall, Baños, Ecuador
One of our favourite waterfalls (although we'd not been to Iguazú at this point!). The sheer power and noise of the water crashing down right next to us was overwhelming. Baños is also a very good place for adventure sports - we had our first go at canyoning here and loved it.

22. Learning to Dive in Taganga, Colombia
Taganga is a nice enough place to chill out - a beachy, backpacker place with lovely sunsets - but what it is really known for is diving. It's one of the cheapest places in the world to learn, which I duly did. We had a great time hanging out with fellow divers and ended up staying a lot longer than intended (and getting 3 PADI dive certifications between us)!

23. The Gold Museum, Bogotá, Colombia
One of the best museums in South America - a fascinating insight into the history and symbolism of gold in indigenous and colonial times.

24. Kaieteur Falls, Guyana
We flew deep into the jungle in Guyana (the flight itself was amazing) to see this waterfall. What made it most special was how remote it was - an hour plane ride or a 5 day hike from the capital, Georgetown. The only people there were us and the other 10 people from our (tiny) plane. It's the highest single drop waterfall in the world, and we felt privileged to have seen it.

25. Watching Sea Turtles Laying their Eggs, Suriname
On the border between Suriname and French Guyana are some beaches where sea turtles lay their eggs. We saw all stages of the process - turtles coming out of the water, clearing an area, digging a hole, laying their eggs, and eventually dragging themselves back out to sea. An amazing opportunity to see nature in action.

26. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
One of our favourite cities in South America, and it has to be one of the most beautiful cities on the planet. Rio has it all - beaches, mountains, nightlife, colonial buildings, great museums... and Christ the Redeemer of course.

27. The Iguazú Falls, Brazil / Argentina
You've probably already seen our photos - there's not much more to add! Iguazú made every other waterfall we've ever seen look pretty insignificant. One of the absolutely unmissable sights of the continent.

28. The Hornocal and Other Coloured Mountains, Northern Argentina
We hired a car for a week or two in northern Argentina, to drive around the Quebrada de Humahuaca. The whole area is full of mountains and rock formations in unbelievable shapes and colours. Best of all was the Hornocal, the 'mountain of 14 colours' - which doesn't even make it into the Lonely Planet book!

29. Condors in Quebrada del Condorito National Park, Argentina
We'd seen a few condors in Patagonia and when hiking in Perú, but only a long way in the distance. Here however, we saw some a lot closer up and could really appreciate their colossal size.

30. Wine tasting in Carmelo, Uruguay
We didn't have any great expectations for Uruguayan wine, so were pleasantly surprised when we did some tasting at a tiny boutique winery in Carmelo. Some of the best red wine either of us had ever had, and such a lovely family place. We bought some to take home, and can report that it is still excellent!

Mountains Through a Kaleidoscope

Exploring the northwest of Argentina feels a lot different to the rest of the country. It has a much larger indigenous population, and the sounds, tastes and buildings could belong to any of the other nearby countries - the north of Chile, or the south of Perú or Bolivia. The main cities are Salta and San Salvador de Jujuy (or just Jujuy), but there is a string of small towns following the long Quebrada de Humahuaca ravine north towards the Chilean and Bolivian borders.

The Quebrada de Humahuaca, from Tilcara

We arrived in Salta from Corrientes with the intention of hiring a car to explore the region before heading south. Originally, our plan was to drive all the way 1000+km south to Mendoza, but the fee for leaving the car there made it prohibitively expensive. Also, I didn't fancy driving the whole way - Jo wasn't able to take the wheel as her licence was stolen in Perú. Instead, we decided to just take the car around the surrounding area and leave it in Cafayate, just 200km away.

The road up to the Hornical

Salta had the feel of a lot of the other Andean cities that we've liked along the way, like Arequipa in Perú or Sucre in Bolivia. It even has a cable car to the top of the nearby hill, which seems to be a trend in many South American cities (La Paz, Quito, Medellín, Rio de Janeiro, etc). Our highlight, though, was the High Mountain Archaeological Museum (or MAAM - the Spanish acronym). It contains the remains of two children sacrificed by the Inca to their mountain gods. They were buried at the top of the region's highest mountain, at 6739m, and their bodies and the intricate grave goods have been perfectly preserved in the freezing temperatures.

Salta's take on the ubiquitous cable car

We left Salta in our hire car, driving north along the Quebrada de Humahuaca on the RN9. We soon found that, although the main road was in good condition, almost anything off the side of it was less so. Trying to get to the Lagunas de Yala, we had to turn round along one dirt road as it had been completely covered by a landslide. We did make it there a different way, making slow progress along another dirt road as we tried to protect our car from any flying pebbles. It was worth it for the great views along the valley from the winding mountain roads, even if the lagunas weren't that spectacular.

Not this way, then

The real reason for visiting this area is to see the celebrated coloured mountains. The most famous of these is the Hill of the Seven Colours rising above the small town of Purmamarca. The hill certainly lives up to its name! As this is probably the most accessible of the coloured mountains, it is also the most visited. Many of the towns in this area have been overrun by stalls of llama wool knitted into every form imaginable. This didn't prevent us from enjoying the spectacular hill and the drive past the town (and more coloured valley walls) up to the Argentinian salt flats, the Salinas Grandes.

Only Seven colours?

The salt flats, although not as big or as well known as those at Uyuni in Bolivia, are still an impressive sight. They stretch miles into the distance, with no point of reference until the mountains on the horizon. This was where we first discovered that cars don't run so well at 4000m above sea level, needing a lot more effort to get up the hills! 

Walking across the Salina Grande

The next time we went this high was to yet another coloured mountain, called the Hornocal, following a tip from an English couple to whom we got chatting in a restaurant in Tilcara. After a long hour drive along another gravel track outside of the town of Humahuaca, the view suddenly appeared before us of one of the most jaw-dropping sights of our trip so far. The entire opposite side of the valley was like a giant kaleidoscope. The Hornocal is also called the Hill of the Fourteen Colours, rather trumping the Seven in Purmamarca! It was relatively quiet and doesn't appear in so many guidebooks as the other hill, maybe because of the more difficult location.

The Hornocal

We had based ourselves in the small town of Tilcara, which is perfectly positioned to drive to many of the sights in the region. It is also home to a Pucará - a pre-Inca fort - looking over the Quebrada. Unfortunately, it was misguidedly reconstructed in the 1950s and isn't viewed as particularly authentic. However, because of its strategic position, it does have fantastic views over the entire valley. The whole Quebrada de Humahuaca has been listed by UNESCO, not so much for its natural beauty, but because of its archaeological sites. It has been in continuous use for over 10,000 years as an important route down from the Andean highlands to the lowlands of the south of the continent.

The reconstructed Pucará de Tilcara

After finishing driving around the dry, desert-like Quebrada, we are now moving across to the more humid, jungle-like Calilegua National Park. We will then be heading south towards the wine growing regions of Cafayate and Mendoza.

A closer view of the Hornical

9 days, 4 countries, 1 robbery

The last few days have involved a lot of travelling: four different countries over the past nine days! There have been ups and downs, with one particular down occurring when my bag was stolen as we went from Peru into Ecuador - more on that to follow. Returning to Chile and Argentina gave us a chance to reflect on all the countries we've visited so far. So in this blog entry, at the end of each section I thought it would be nice to sum up some of our feelings on each country.

One of the hikes around El Chaltén with my family, in Patagonia

We ended our last blog entry still in Argentine Patagonia, from where my dad and sister flew back home to the UK. Kev and I then made our way back to Punta Arenas in the south of Chile. We had some time to kill in Punta Arenas, so we made use of this by checking out the outdoor shops there. Turns out 3 years and 20 plus countries is too much for even the toughest hiking shoes, so we both reluctantly purchased new ones.

The harbour at Punta Arenas - taken when we first visited earlier this year

Argentina: worst food in of all the countries we've visited (apart from the good steak!); excellent Malbec; friendly people; weird Spanish accent; crazy dual exchange rate due to crazy inflation; super expensive buses; amazing Patagonian scenery.

Chile: favourite country so far - fantastic wine at very cheap prices; Spanish accent almost impossible to understand; volcanoes by the dozen; gorgeous, rarely visited national parks; some of the best day hikes ever; food nearly as bad as Argentina but improved by seafood; crazy long thin country (very long bus rides!)

At Conguillo National Park earlier in the year - one of our favourite places in Chile

As we boarded our flight to Lima at midnight, we wondered what had possessed us to pick this ridiculous flight time. After a turbulent flight from Punta Arenas up to Santiago, we groggily had to change flight at 4am and finally arrived back in Lima, Peru at about 7am. We spent the next couple of days staying in a pleasant Air BnB recovering from our flight and not doing much. As you may have gathered from previous posts, we've not been overly inspired by Lima. We did however return to our favourite craft beer bar, and to the cat park of course, and also finally went into the cathedral.

The tomb in Lima cathedral of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of the Inca empire

From Lima we took the longest bus journey of the trip so far (19 hours) up to Máncora, a small beach town on the north coast. For this bus journey we'd chosen the luxury option - all meals provided, private TV screens, and seats that reclined 180 degrees - so the time went surprisingly fast! Getting off the bus in Máncora, we were hit by the heat. This is the first time we've been anywhere genuinely hot since the start of our trip, and I was finally grateful for all the summer clothes I've been carrying around for months. On with the shorts and flip flops!

The beach at Mancora, with fishing boats in the distance

Máncora has a different feel to the rest of Peru. The streets are mostly unpaved and dusty, there are tuk tuks everywhere, the beach is lined with bars and the roads with souvenir shops. There are people everywhere trying to sell you stuff, and more than your average number of scams. We felt like we'd returned to south east Asia! After a couple of nights here relaxing on our balcony, with the occasional 'swim' (read 'splash around in the shallows' - the waves were pretty big!) and plenty of time spent in bamboo beach bars, we were ready to head on up to a new country - Ecuador.

Peru: best food of anywhere in South America so far (ceviche especially); delicious pisco sour cocktails; most places especially in the South are very touristy; incredible history and archaeological sites by the dozen; our least favourite capital city; great hiking; excellent craft beer selection.

At Choquequirao in Peru - amazing history, amazing hiking!

As I mentioned, Máncora is full of scams. One of these involves bus companies. We'd been warned to make sure we bought our tickets to Ecuador from the actual company itself, NOT an agency. Easy, we thought. We're travel savvy! Wrong. The company we bought the tickets from was an agency masquerading (very well) as the official bus office. We discovered this when we found out we had to get a minibus to start with and then change to a bus at the border, which is exactly what you are NOT supposed to do. But it was too late to change plan by then.

Colourful hill in Guayaquil, Ecuador, near where we were staying

The minibus dropped us at the bus office at the (very gritty) border town. We went to the window to get our tickets sorted, and had our bags on the bench next to us, literally a step away. I took my passport out of my rucksack to hand to the woman behind the desk, and when I turned around 30 seconds later to check on the bags, I immediately noticed my small rucksack was missing. We both ran out into the street but the man had disappeared. Some people in the cafe next door had seen him running and we ran that way but couldn't find any sign. There were some local police on the next corner and they immediately searched the area themselves on a motorbike, but no luck. We left our details with them but I think it's pretty unlikely we'll ever get that bag back.

Cathedral in Guayaquil, Ecuador

The one good thing is that I did not have my passport in the bag, having taken it out a few seconds before. Most of the items that were in the rucksack are replaceable, but it's very frustrating as there were quite a few things of financial value (phone, backup hard drive, Kindle, raincoat, etc) and many more of sentimental value. Sadly these things happen, and we are still berating ourselves for letting our guard down for that one moment. We read later about how some tourists have been held up at gunpoint outside that very same office, and others kidnapped nearby. Maybe we got off lightly.

View of Guayaquil, from a lighthouse up a hill near where we were staying

We arrived late that day in the city of Guayaquil, our first stop in Ecuador. It's Ecuador's largest city (though not the capital), very hot and humid and located on the coast. Guayaquil is an interesting place - it used to have an extremely bad reputation, which didn't inspire us with confidence arriving here after the robbery. However, the waterfront area where we're staying has had a recent makeover and is now very nice and very safe - there are armed police every hundred metres or so!

Ecuadorians just getting on with normal life, in the iguana park!

We have spent the last couple of days shopping to replace the stolen stuff and filling in insurance claim forms, as well finding time to see one of Guayaquil's main attractions - a small park in the centre that is full of iguanas! Most importantly, we've been researching Galapagos cruises, and are excited to say that we have now booked an 8 day trip starting on the 28th November. The cruises are very pricey, but this is something we knew all along was unmissable, and we've managed to get a very good discount by booking last minute from within Ecuador.

Iguana and pigeon!

First impressions of Ecuador: bad food, friendly people, very hot at sea level, very green (lots of banana plantations!); football mad (like all of South America).

We leave here soon to spend a few days in the highland city of Cuenca, before returning to Guayaquil to fly from there to the Galapagos.

Oh, and though we haven't been there recently, it's not fair not to include Bolivia in this post - so, Bolivia: least Westernised country; lots of indigenous influence; crazy country with half at 4000m altitude and the rest at 0; highest capital in the world; cheap; too many incidents of food poisoning; insane cliff edge bus rides.

Up at 4900m at the El Tatio geysers, in Bolivia in June

That's all till next time!