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!

New Year in Ecuador and on into Colombia

We were sad to leave our lovely hostel in Quito but we had decided to spend New Year in Mindo, a backpackery little town in the cloud forest. The bus from Quito took about 2 hours, winding down through beautiful scenery with tree covered slopes.

Hummingbirds around Mindo

Mindo is down at 1200m and the climate is completely different to what we've got used to recently - very humid and pretty hot during the day. The town is mostly unpaved roads and has quite an outpost, jungly feel, with cloud forest all around. This feeling was enhanced by the amazing diversity of birds (and insects!) everywhere. Most cafes and hostels have hummingbird feeders outside and we saw so many beautiful examples of this tiny bird. We'd expected Mindo to be full of backpackers, but actually it was quite a mix of people, including a lot of older tourists here for birdwatching.

Peering in at one of the very large owl butterflies (they can have a wingspan of up to 16cm!)

We arrived in Mindo mid-afternoon but still managed to fit in two activities that day - a butterfly farm, and a chocolate tour. We started with the former. You might ask, why on earth would someone with a butterfly phobia possibly want to visit a butterfly farm?
 Well, I guess I thought it might be good for me - after all, I would actually like one day not to be in mortal fear when a butterfly or moth is in my vicinity. I braved entering the big netted off section with the butterflies once, and did okay until some of the gigantic owl butterflies started flying around. After that I made do with sticking my head through the entrance and withdrawing it whenever one came near. I think it did help, a little. Exposure therapy! But my bravery diminished rapidly that evening when we were confronted with the biggest moth I have ever seen, just casually sitting on the hostel wall. That was truly something out of my worst nightmares and it took a while for me even to pluck up the courage to run past it back to our room.

Cocoa beans drying, part of the chocolate making process

Immediately after the butterfly farm we did the aforementioned chocolate tour, which felt like a reward for surviving the house of horrors. Mindo has its own chocolate company, and over the hour or so of the tour we saw all stages of the chocolate making process, from the cocoa pods on the tree, to the finished bar. We also got to sample several of their chocolate products, including the (amazing) chocolate brownies, sea salt chocolate, and liquid 100% chocolate (added sugar required!).



We spent the first of our two full days here hiking in the jungle around Casa Amarilla. This, as you might expect from the Spanish, is a yellow house, owned by a friendly local lady. She also seems to own the surrounding jungle for miles around; at least, if you pay her a small entrance fee you can spend several hours exploring the paths she's made. We think it's great that she's chosen to open the area for hikers and birdwatchers, rather than getting rid of the trees to make room for cows, or digging for oil. The circuit we did took about 3 or 4 hours and included an enchanting viewpoint, looking down on tiny Mindo surrounded by cloud forest for miles in all directions. We met a Dutch guy and chatted with him for most of the hike; maybe we were making too much noise as we failed to see many birds!

View of Mindo (in the distance) from viewpoint during our jungle hike

Our second day in Mindo was New Year's Eve. In the morning we had a go at ziplining - zooming high above the trees along cables. For $20 we got to do an hour or two's circuit of 10 different ziplines ranging from 75 - 400m in length. It was great fun! Especially trying the 'Butterfly' position - literally upside down, with your legs in the air! Absolutely terrifying, but awesome. We spent the evening hanging out with some fellow travellers, enjoying free cocktails courtesy of our hostel, and then plenty of beers outside watching the festivities in the square. It is traditional in Ecuador to make sort of large dolls, a bit like the 'guys' on Guy Fawkes' Night, and burn them in the street at midnight. Often the dolls have masks representing unpopular politicians or celebrities. There were also kids running around everywhere in masks, and the odd guy or two wearing drag (another tradition apparently)! It felt more like Halloween than New Year! Really fun though, and interesting to see another culture's completely different style of celebration.

Ziplining and the 'Butterfly'

New Year's celebrations in Mindo

We returned from Mindo to Quito on the 1st, feeling a little the worse for wear after the night before (the twisty bus ride didn't help) and spent that afternoon in our hostel recovering. We had intended to proceed to Colombia the next day, but we'd not bargained on the city we were heading to in Colombia, Pasto, being so booked up and expensive! It turns out that Pasto has its annual carnival on the days we were planning to be there. It's so popular that Colombians book up all the places to stay months in advance. The only place we could find to stay was an (expensive) AirBnB, so we ended up prolonging our stay in Quito by a day so as to just spend the one night in Pasto. We were pretty happy to have an extra day in Quito at our favourite hostel, anyway! That day we visited the Basilica del Voto Nacional, a huge neo-Gothic church, and climbed up to the top of one of the towers. The ascent began like normal stairs but ended with some quite scary vertical metal ladders! The view from the top over the historic centre was worth it though.

On our way up the Basilica in Quito

On the Sunday we finally left Kinde House for good and proceeded 5 hours north to the Colombian border by bus. The Ecuador side of the border had a horribly long queue, due to mainly to Ecuadorian citizens returning from a weekend in Colombia. Anything in Ecuador that is imported carries a huge tax. Thus a lot of locals hop across to Colombia at the weekend to buy things like electronics and toiletries there - it's so much cheaper it's worth the journey! Luckily the queue moved quickly and within an hour we were through both Ecuadorian and Colombian immigration.

The Las Lajas church in the daylight...

Our first stop in Colombia was the small village of Las Lajas, only a few km from the border. The main reason for visiting here was to see the famous church, El Santuario de Las Lajas, which is literally built across a gorge. We expected this place to be very quiet but actually it was heaving with crowds of local tourists - it's something of a pilgrimage site for Colombians, it seems. The only place to stay was a sort of convent converted into a very basic hotel and run by nuns. The room was like a cell and the bed might as well have been a rock. I'm not sure being a nun is for me... The one consolation was that it cost £5.60 for the night.

...and by night

In the evening the church was lit up with neon lighting, constantly changing colour, which we found somewhat tacky but quite amusing. We got up early the next day and had a better look in the daylight with fewer tourists. It's certainly a spectacular setting - hopefully the photos demonstrate this better than I can describe. We have now arrived in Pasto for our night in an AirBnB around 10 times the price of last night - about 10 times nicer too. Tomorrow we are flying to Cartagena, on the Caribbean coast, and excited to be meeting up with our old travelling buddies Cindy and Julien again there.

Celebrating Christmas in Ecuador

Before we left for the Galápagos, we'd thought ahead, done some research and reserved somewhere that sounded social but not a party hostel to stay in Quito for Christmas. Unfortunately, when we returned, and after we'd reconfirmed with them, they'd decided to cancel the reservation and close for Christmas. Thanks BoutiQuito. Luckily for us, that meant that we found KindeHouse instead.

Christmas lunch with our fantastic hostess, Monserrate

Although there weren't many other people staying there, we were welcomed by a very friendly Ecuadorian family. We came back one evening after dinner and joined the daughter and her work colleagues for pre-Christmas drinks and, on Christmas Day, were cooked a fantastic festive lunch - traditional Ecuadorian style with three meats, rice, token salad, a very sweet condensed milk and cake dessert, and Sangria! The next day the mother randomly brought us each a little glass of a homemade cocktail a little like Baileys. The family were really very welcoming and couldn't have been more helpful. Better still was that we were just around the corner from Bandido Brewing, which has by far the best craft beer we've tasted in Ecuador.

The cathedral and main square in Quito

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is set in a valley so is lined on both sides by high mountains. We were driven to a cable car running up one side of it by our host family one day. From the valley base at around 2800m, the top of the cable car is at 4100m. At the top we did a short hike to a 4700m peak with marvellous views over the city, 2 kilometres below us. The 600m climb to the peak was quite tough - we're not used to that altitude at the moment.

The view 2km down to Quito, from Rucu Pichincha mountain

The real highlight of the city though is just wandering around the UNESCO-listed historic centre. It is filled with grand plazas and beautiful churches. There are picturesque streets filled with artisanal shops and interesting museums. Looking over it all is a statue of the Virgin Mary atop a small hill. Locals claim this is the only statue of the Virgin with wings in the world - it just looks like an angel to us!

The winged Virgin, in the distance, above the city

Close to Quito, an hour's bus ride away, is a monument to the Equator - Ecuador takes its name from the imaginary line running close to the capital. The actual Equator meanders over the course of the year in a 5km wide strip, but I guess they had to choose somewhere to put a monument. It is called the 'Mitad del Mundo', or 'Centre of the World'. This is somewhat ironic - as the Earth bulges slightly at the centre, and Ecuador is at around 3000m above sea level, this point is one of the furthest places you can actually be from the centre of the Earth.

The Equator line at the Mitad del Mundo monument

We've now said goodbye to the family in Quito and have come to the cloud forest of Mindo to celebrate New Year. From here, we'll soon be heading into Colombia.

Canyoning and Cliff Top Swings

Bus journeys in Ecuador are generally nice and short; we only had a 2 hour ride from Riobamba to our next destination - Baños. This is a small town at 1800m, not far from the beginning of the jungle in the east, and a favourite with backpackers. It's known for two things in particular - the thermal baths that are its namesake, and adventure activities.

The river in Baños, with waterfalls coming down into it 

We had three days here and managed to fill them with lots of fun stuff. On day one, we hiked for 3 hours or so up to the top of one of the nearby hills to visit the Casa del Arbol (tree house) at the top. En route we saw a sign for the 'Vuelo del Condor' (Flight of the Condor) with pictures of a huge swing. It was only a short detour so we decided to give it a go. Good choice - it was awesome! It is a basically a gigantic swing off the edge of a cliff, run by a couple of locals out of their back garden. One at a time, we were harnessed in and tied to the swing seat then pushed off the cliff! The free fall down to the bottom of the swing to start with was very scary (I may have screamed a LOT) but an incredible adrenaline rush. And then you were swinging high in the air, with eagles soaring nearby and amazing views down. Worth the $5 I think.

Kev on the Vuelo del Condor swing

Our eventual destination, the Casa del Arbol, turned out to be a bit lame. It's not just a treehouse but a little park with a cafe, a very tiny zipline and the famous End of the World swings. Unlike the Condor swing, where we were the only people there, this place was full of backpackers, and we had to queue for 10 minutes to have a quick go on the (crap) swings, which were much like ordinary playground ones! The best thing about here was the view, which was pretty spectacular. But the Condor swing was the highlight of the day - very glad we went there.

The Casa del Arbol, and me on the End of the World swing

On our second day, we signed up for a canyoning trip at the nearby Rio Blanco. Neither of us had tried this activity before, but it looked really fun and Baños was a good place to give it a go. For those of you who don't know, canyoning is essentially rappelling down waterfalls. Though, as we learnt, it is not just that but includes all sorts of other methods of getting down waterfalls - jumping, sliding on your bum, ziplining... We were both pretty nervous at the start, as we stood at the top of a huge waterfall and were encouraged by our guides to lean backwards and begin abseiling down it! We soon got the hang of it though, and particularly enjoyed the final waterfall where we sat at the top and basically slid down, while roped in. We felt very safe the whole time and had so much fun. I'd like to do it again!

Canyoning at the Rio Blanco

Our hostel here didn't include breakfast, and one morning we came across a nice looking cafe and decided to try it. The Danish lady owner seemed a bit odd. As we went in, she said 'Oh, you want breakfast too do you? That's the last breakfast I'm doing today!'. We were slightly taken aback but smiled politely and sat down. When we saw the menu we did a double take though - erm, $8 each for a breakfast?! Too late to back out now though, we thought. The lady actually turned out to be quite insane. She took an hour to bring us our breakfasts, while she lectured us continually about how good her bread is, her fruit salad is, etc, and how she makes 50% profit on everything, unlike all the other cafes in town which only make 30% apparently (why do we need to know this?!).  She also had an obsession with the nearby Pailón del Diablo waterfall, pontificating at great length on how we HAD to go there. We were in the cafe for 2 hours in the end and thought we'd never escape!

With one of our canyoning guides at the bottom of a waterfall

However, the Danish lady did actually get something right. On day 3 we took a local bus out to the Pailón del Diablo (Devil's Cauldron) waterfall, about half an hour away from Baños. After a short hike through cloud forest, we arrived at the first viewpoint of the waterfall. I cannot even begin to describe how awesome (this word is used in the correct sense for once here, I think!) it was. One of those examples of raw nature so spectacularly beautiful it makes you quite emotional. We stood there for some minutes just gaping at it, speechless. The waterfall is huge - about 70m high, but what makes it so breathtaking is the sheer volume of water that is coming thundering down, literally right in front of you. Water reaching the bottom crashes and comes spewing back into the air, creating an amazing effect. You can see where its name comes from - the bottom is just a foaming cauldron of white water and water vapour, with jets spewing in all directions and spray everywhere. We got very wet! One of my favourite waterfalls ever.

The Pailon del Diablo waterfall

From Baños we headed up to the city of Latacunga at 2800m and had a night there before taking a bus the next day to Quilotoa. This is a small village right up in the sierra at 3800m, in beautiful scenery. Most people come to this area to hike round the scenic Quilotoa Loop -  3 or 4 days, hiking a circuit from village to village. We had not planned our time here too well though and only had 2 days before we had to head to Quito, where we have booked for Christmas. So we decided to confine our exploring to Quilotoa itself.

Laguna Quilotoa

The main attraction here is the huge volcanic crater lake, Laguna Quilotoa. We were blown away by this - it's stunning. On our first day in Quilotoa, we walked the 5 mins from our hostel to see the lake from a viewpoint above. After admiring it for a while, we spent the rest of the day resting as we needed a little time to readjust to the altitude here - it's been a while since we've been this high. The next day we hiked the trail around the top of the lake. We had imagined this would be a fairly easy stroll. Erm, no. It was 3.5 hours of constantly going up and down steep peaks, along paths that were often deep sand. And no switchbacks, just straight up, as seems to be the theme with most trails in Ecuador. The views were magnificent though, not only down into the emerald blue lake, but also the surrounding countryside with its patchwork of steep fields and terraces.

Beautiful scenery surrounding Quilotoa

We are now back in Latacunga and tomorrow will head to Quito, where we'll be for a few days over Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS one and all!