San Andrés Island - Colombian by Name not by Nature

We had always wanted to go to a Caribbean island as part of this trip, but were horrified by the price of the flights to most of the islands from Colombia. However, on reading about the little island archipelago of San Andrés, we realised we might be able to manage our Caribbean island after all.

The San Andrés group is made up of three islands - San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina. While located in the Caribbean some 700km from Colombia and closest to Nicaragua, the archipelago is actually officially part of Colombia. Flights here from inside Colombia are thus domestic flights, and far cheaper than to anywhere else we'd looked at in the Caribbean. After learning that the islands are also renowned for their diving and snorkelling, we decided to fly out from Cartagena and spend a few days there.

San Andrés island

We booked these flights a couple of weeks in advance and although we'd heard the best things about Providencia, we chose to visit only San Andrés, the largest of the three islands. This might sound counter-intuitive, but we had done some research into dive centres and discovered a couple of highly rated ones in San Andrés, while those in Providencia sounded less promising / safe. San Andrés island itself we had heard was far from paradisical, but as we were going mainly for the diving we thought this would be fine. We also didn't much fancy the 4 hour choppy catamaran ride over to Providencia!

Our flight was full of holidaymakers, mostly Colombian but a lot from the rest of South America too. Especially Brazil, for some reason. San Andrés is a tiny island, only about 10km long, and as our taxi drove us through the main town after landing we noticed that it was indeed pretty ugly. A rapid boom in tourism had indelibly marked the place. Concrete 1960s style buildings everywhere; big hotels, casinos, and souvenir and duty free shops lined the streets. We stayed at a nice place just out of town, about a half hour walk from the centre and away from all the noise.

Holidaymakers on one of the least busy San Andrés beaches

San Andrés and its two sister islands are part of a huge marine protected area of 180,000 km² called the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve. It is recognised by UNESCO as one of its World Network of Bioreserves and is home to one of the largest coral reefs in the world. So a great place to get some more diving experience! We booked through a dive centre called Karibik, run by a friendly German instructor called Christian. For our first three days on San Andrés, we dived twice each day, visiting several different dive sites. It was a new thing for me to just do some fun dives rather than a course, and I have to say, I panicked a little when I first got into the water again - all the equipment felt completely different and unnatural - but once I got underwater it was fine. Christian was a great instructor to dive with - he always let the group dive for as long as possible and shared his air with whoever got low first to allow the rest of the group to continue longer. Most of the dives were 55 - 60 mins, a lot longer than the dives I did in Taganga.

The diving was pretty nice: highlights included the 'Blue Wall' site, where we saw several reef sharks, and a site on the first day where we saw the biggest eel I have ever seen! Sadly we didn't have an underwater camera to capture this, but the monster's head was at least a foot across. It was like some huge underwater serpent in a Disney movie! I had no idea Moray eels could get so enormous. We also enjoyed the coral, which was varied, quite colourful and seemed in good condition. One of the dive sites had what was like a forest of coral, with structures that looked similar to ferns and huge leaves. Really pretty. Plenty of fish too, though fewer and less varied than we had anticipated to be honest. Unfortunately, this is probably a result of overfishing around here.

Palm trees lining the coast road. Note the gorgeous colour of the Caribbean Sea
 in all of these photos!

On our third day of diving, rather than returning to the dive shop in town between dives as we had been doing for the other two days, we spent our break at El Acuario, a small cay that is one of the most popular spots for mainstream tourists here. This gave us our first glimpse of how most tourists spend their time here. The tiny island was absolutely crowded with people, both in the sea, lying on the beaches and spilling out of the one café. It's called 'El Acuario' (the aquarium) because some marine life can be seen while snorkelling there, particularly stingrays. However, the way the stingrays were treated was horrendous! A stingray would be attracted there by feeding it, and then would be captured and held still while tourist after tourist took turns to have their photo taken holding it. So completely opposed to anything we've ever been taught about how to treat marine life (NEVER touch anything). It was quite shocking. Sadly, all the tourist agencies here advertise the stingray tours as an 'amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience'. There are similar manta tours. We couldn't quite believe these activities were permitted at all, let alone promoted.

On our last day, we didn't do any diving and moved to stay for one night in the south of the island. This was a whole different world from the unpleasant main town - older, more traditional island architecture, cleaner, quieter beaches and a higher proportion of native (i.e. not Colombian) people living there. We had a nice walk around the south coast, happy to be away from most of the tourists. That evening we had dinner in town, and then got a taxi for the 8km or so back to our accommodation in the south. This turned out to be one of the best things we did. The taxi driver was a native islander, speaking Creole English, and it was fascinating, if sobering, hearing his story and the history of the island and its original inhabitants.

One of the quieter, beautiful southern beaches of the island

The San Andrés archipelago was first settled in the 17th century by English Puritans, and later pirates (again English). The English also brought in African slaves. While it later became a possession of the Spanish Crown and then in 1822 officially part of Colombia, no Spanish settlers ever came there and it retained its English-Caribbean flavour. The Colombian government also initially made no attempt to make anything of their island territory, and the islanders were left alone for years. Things only changed when in 1912 Colombia adopted a new policy of 'Colombianisation', enforcing Spanish language, religion and culture on the native San Andrés people.

An even bigger change came when in 1953 the Colombian government declared San Andrés a free port. This led to a huge influx of Colombians looking for a new life in paradise, and a massive construction boom in the 1960s. To give some idea of the magnitude of the change, in 1952 San Andrés had around 6000 inhabitants. In 1973 it was 23,000. Today, it's 80 or 90,000, and the population is still growing rapidly. Land that used to be agricultural has been replaced by housing, lagoons have been filled in and replaced by the port and airport, self-sufficiency has gone in favour of imports from the mainland, and there is a huge problem with rubbish and pollution of the water supply.

Don't think this boat will be going anywhere fast! Horses and an old boat, near
one of the native islanders' houses in the south 

The two taxi drivers we spoke to over the next two days both told us that they did not feel in the slightest bit Colombian. Most natives are descendants of the original English settlers and African slaves. They have names like Williams, Robinson, McDonald or Smith, speak Creole English and are devout Protestants. They resent the way that Colombians are coming in, treating the land how they feel, enforcing their own culture and traditions and not respecting those of the local people. One man we spoke to, a Mr Williams, even asked us to please go and speak to our English government and ask them to come and take back their rightful territory! The other taxi driver told us, with real sincerity, that 'God sent the Colombians to San Andrés to punish us for our sins.' Native people feel the Colombian government simply does not care about San Andrés, other than the revenue it brings in from tourism.

To summarise, we had a great time diving round San Andrés, but as part of our visit, we became more aware of the controversial and sad history of the island and the challenges its people are facing.
Unless things change, it doesn't look like the remaining beauty of San Andrés, its outstanding marine environment and unique island culture will be preserved much longer.

Injury, Illness and More Diving

When we last left you, we'd planned to be heading off into the jungle for four days to trek to 'Ciudad Perdida' ('Lost City'). However, a couple of days before we were to leave, we were struck down by both injury and illness. I managed to hurt my foot once again - tripping on a loose paving stone in Santa Marta left me with a big cut on my toe and an inability to walk comfortably. Not ideal when preparing for a long, hard trek. Jo, meanwhile, was feeling a bit unwell and this worsened for a few days. Aching joints, mild fever, fatigue and a small rash pointed to zika. This is currently all over the news in Europe at the moment, possibly leading to babies born with microcephaly. Luckily, the other symptoms are generally mild, although don't leave you ready to hike. Therefore, we cancelled this plan and spent the time resting and recuperating in an air conditioned room in Santa Marta.

The town hall in Santa Marta

A plaque for Símon Bolívar in Santa Marta's cathedral

Santa Marta doesn't have much in the way of sights, which was perfect to ensure that we didn't venture out too much. We always try to see as much as we can of a place, so it was something of a blessing that there wasn't much here when we needed to rest and recuperate. We did visit the excellent Museo de Oro (Gold Museum), full of artefacts from the ancient Tayrona culture and information on the history of the city. The cathedral was the first resting place of Símon Bolívar, the Liberator of much of South America from Spanish colonialism, before his body was moved to his birth city of Caracas in Venezuela.


After a few days, we felt we needed a change of scenery and went for a couple more restful days in the hills surrounding Santa Marta. We stayed at a hostel/farm a short bus ride outside of the city, followed by a bumpy motorbike ride up a hill. We relaxed by the pool here while feasting on locally grown chocolate, coffee and honey. We also exerted ourselves more on the last day to climb the steep path up to a viewpoint over the whole of the surrounding countryside, with the city in the distance.

The viewpoint near Finca Carpe Diem

We had been filling up time before returning to Taganga for some more diving and to meet up with our friends from home - Ralph and Shehnaaz. We all stayed in the same hostel as last time, which has a terrace with a perfect view over the bay for sunsets. The main reason we'd returned was for diving. The other three successfully completed their PADI Advanced Open Water course with the same instructor as before - Reto Müller. I had already completed the next certification up, so just joined them for some fun dives. Unfortunately, the visibility was often not great for much of it and the currents were quite strong. This made the conditions quite tough, which I guess is a good way to learn!

Wearing diving t-shirts at Casa Baba

While Ralph and Shehnaaz have continued on to the northernmost point of South America, Punta Gallinas, we are returning to Cartagena to then fly to San Andrés. This is a Colombian island in the Caribbean Sea, close to Nicaragua and supposed to have excellent diving.

The Oldest Civilisation in the Americas

We've spent the last few days getting to know a bit more of Peru's history, from the oldest civilisation in the Americas to the turbulent recent past.

Ayacucho

From Ica, we set off for the less-visited city of Ayacucho, back up in the mountains. Ayacucho was the main base for the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) communist organisation. Starting in the early 80s, it waged a guerilla war against the military government that, predictably, responded with violence. This left much of the populace caught between the two sides with thousands of casualties, the majority poor people from the countryside. Sendero Luminoso declined in activity from 1992 when its leader was captured, but there are still sporadic bursts of activity.

The remains of the powerful Wari empire

We used Ayacucho as a base to visit the ruins of the Wari civilisation's capital city. This was a city of an estimated 50,000 people and was the centre of a pre-Inca empire extending over much of Peru between the years 500 and 900. There isn't much left of it today; although there are some remaining buildings and walls still standing, it's hard to imagine a city that big in the abandoned cactus-covered desert.

The main square in Lima

After Ayacucho, we took another night bus back down to the coast for a brief stay in Lima. We're planning to return here in about a month, so we just visited the main sites - the park filled with stray cats in Miraflores (which Jo loved), and a walk around the historic colonial-era centre. It felt a bit depressing as Lima is famous for being covered in white mist for half of the year. We cheered ourselves up by finding one of the first places in which pisco sours were made.

5,000 year old pyramids at Caral

We left Lima to travel further north along the coast to Barranca, the closest town to the ancient ruins of Caral. This is an astounding site - it dates from 5,000 years ago so is one of the cradles of civilisation. It's the oldest such site in the Americas, and was founded at the same time as the Egyptian pyramids were being built. There are remains of pyramids and residential buildings centred around a large square that are in amazing condition considering their age.

Being gluttons for punishment, we've now returned to the mountains, where we're hoping to do some more trekking from Huaraz.

Trekking to Machu Picchu

A few weeks ago, after hearing about the less-visited Inca ruins at Choquequirao, I looked at my map and saw a very wiggly, mountainous trail that continued on towards Machu Picchu. I remember saying 'that looks ridiculous'. We've just returned from hiking that trail, and the 8 days it took have been some of the hardest, and most rewarding, trekking of our lives. There was very little walking on the flat, and relentlessly steep descents and ascents into and out of canyons:

Day 1: down 800m;
Day 2: down 700m; up 1500m;
Day 3: explore Choquequirao ruins; up 300m; down 500m;
Day 4: down 700m; up 1100m;
Day 5: up 1300m to 4150m San Juan pass; down 700m;
Day 6: up 1100m to 4660m Yanama pass; down 1800m;
Day 7: down 700m;
Day 8: up 500m; down 500m;

The main square at Choquequirao

We'd chosen this trek to avoid the crowds on the other trails in the area and we weren't disappointed. On the first couple of days we saw just a handful of people making their way to, and from, the Choquequirao ruins. We felt privileged to have this remote hilltop city to explore almost to ourselves. This site is also host to the unique 'Llama Terraces' - white stone depictions of llamas making their way up the dizzyingly steep hillside. We were also lucky enough to spot a condor soaring past.

Llamas climbing up their steep terrace

Nobody else continued on past Choquequirao as we did though - we didn't see any other hikers until day 7. This part of the trek contained some of the hardest days - clambering up to passes above 4000m in both sun and snow. The views (when it was sunny) were incredible - of adjoining canyons bordered by mountains topped with glaciers. On one day we also had the unforgettable experience of camping on Inca terraces, looking down to a foaming river far below.

Camping on Inca terraces

On the 7th day we joined the more popular Salkantay trek and were dismayed at the large groups going the same way as us. We managed to find more solitude on the final day, however, when we left at 4:30am to climb to some more Inca ruins at Llactapata. This gave us our first view of Machu Picchu, on the neighbouring peak, although it still seemed a long way away. From there, we made our final descent of the trek, where we had lunch while waiting for a train to take us the short distance to Aguas Calientes - the (tourist trap) entrance town to Machu Picchu.

Our group at the end of the tough, snowy, ascent to the Yanama Pass

During our trek, we were accompanied by a mule train that carried tents, food, cooking equipment and spare clothes for us. It was hard enough with this assistance; it would have been absolute torture to have attempted it without. We were also joined by two amazing chefs - they prepared miraculous food throughout, given that we were camping and they only had two gas hobs to prepare it on. It would have made chefs in many restaurants in Cusco jealous.

Our mule train crossing a stream near Choquequirao

Machu Picchu itself more than lived up to expectations. It's an amazing feeling to see the view that is instantly recognisable across the world. As predicted, it was incredibly busy during the morning, despite getting one of the first buses into the site. After we were given a tour of the main points of interest though, we found a quiet place to have some lunch and read for a while before venturing back. This proved a good strategy as by the afternoon many people had left and we had a much more relaxed time exploring the rest of the ruins.

The culmination of our journey - Machu Picchu

We thought that we'd had the end of hard trekking, but had decided to ascend the mountain behind the city, Machu Picchu mountain. This was another hour of climbing up steep steps, but the view from the top was worth the pain. As well as a fantastic look at the city, it gave a great perspective of its precarious perch atop the famous ridge, surrounded by steep cliffs, glaciers and other mountains.

Machu Picchu from the top of Cerro Machu Picchu

We feel we've had a good introduction to the Inca civilisation now, following our time in and around Cusco, and we're now going to head back down towards the coast and another ancient civilisation - the Nazca and their famous Lines.

La Paz - Not As Scary As You Think

We arrived in La Paz having heard tales of people kidnapped in taxis, fake police officers, bag snatching, etc. However, with a bit of common sense (don't just get in any old taxi, police officers should be wearing uniform...) we felt perfectly safe. We were staying in a more upmarket area called Sopocachi, outside of the traditional backpacker district, with plenty of good restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, we didn't get to try many of them - our visit was tainted by another bout of food poisoning.

The cable car descending into La Paz from El Alto

Having recovered after a day shuttling between the bed and the toilet, we braved going on a walking tour in the city centre. Although there weren't many stand-out sights, La Paz is a fascinating city to explore. It is situated in a deep valley, surrounded by snowcapped mountains, with buildings lining the vertiginous sides. Atop one side of the valley is a plain on to which the city extends; it has now been designated as a separate city, El Alto - the highest city in the world (4,150m). Lots of parks have great views across the valley. Unfortunately, they were all designed by an evil genius. Inviting looking paths wind down a cliff face, only to leave you at a high fence, with the next path that you want visible beyond, but inaccessible so there is no way to go but back up the cliff. There are also plenty of markets in the city, including the famous witches' market where you can buy love potions and llama foetuses among other outlandish things.

One of the parks in La Paz, with fence-lined paths

La Paz and El Alto also have significant, if not majority, indigenous populations. The Aymara women in particular have a very distinctive fashion with long, wide skirts and brightly coloured shawls, topped with a too small bowler hat. These were introduced by the British when building the railways, and soon became an integral part of the culture. Unfortunately for us, it's not the done thing to take photos as they believe it steals part of their soul.

Buildings lining the valley wall up to El Alto

We spent one day outside of La Paz to see the UNESCO site at Tiwanaku. The Tiwanaku culture dominated the region for around 2000 years before the Inca arrived in the 15th century. We visited one of their largest religious sites, close to Lake Titicaca. It was mostly destroyed by the Spanish colonialists, but excavations have revealed grand pyramids, statues of heads protruding from subterranean walls and giant monoliths. It was a fascinating trip to see something of a less-celebrated, but no less influential, culture than the Inca.

Faces inset into the wall in Tiwanaku

We are coming to the end of our time in Bolivia now - we have a final stop in Copacabana on the shore of Lake Titicaca before heading into Peru.

In the Jungle and Pampas (With a Butterfly Phobia)

We flew from Santa Cruz to Rurrenabaque, down in the lowlands in the Amazon Basin. It's a pleasant, if very touristy, little town right on the bank of the Beni River, and felt the most like Asia of anywhere we've been so far. The humidity, the motorbikes carrying four people, the bamboo bars, the wide, muddy river and the beautiful sunsets - we liked it! We didn't have long to explore Rurre though as we'd booked ourselves onto a 6 day trip to the nearby areas of jungle and pampas with Mashaquipe, a local tour company that came highly recommended by some travelling friends.

The tiny airport in Rurrenabaque

The first three days of the adventure were spent in the jungle, more specifically in Madidi National Park, a huge protected region including part of the Amazon rainforest.We were joined by a Belgian couple for these three days, forming a group of five with our amazing local guide, Ismael, who actually grew up in the jungle and was therefore a fount of knowledge about all aspects of jungle life.

Our guide, Ismael, with the boat along the Beni river

We travelled from Rurre by boat for around three hours to our base for the next few days, Mashaquipe Ecolodge. En route we stopped at a local village to taste fresh sugar cane juice - Ismael cut the canes with his machete and we pressed the juice ourselves using a rustic wooden contraption! The lodge was great: despite being in the middle of the jungle, it was a comfortable place, with a dining room, running water, mosquito nets and even electricity (from 6-10 pm each day). The food was delicious too - 3 course meals that were better than most we've had in Bolivia.

It's thirsty work making sugar cane juice

Over the next two days we spent most of our time walking in different areas of the jungle, spotting animals and learning a lot too about the trees and plants that local tribes use medicinally or for cooking. The craziest thing was possibly when Ismael extracted a maggot like white larva from a seed pod and ate it! In fact we tried the larvae ourselves later on, toasted, and they were rather tasty.

To eat or not to eat? Larva from a seed pod

We saw plenty of animals - capuchin monkeys, lion monkeys, squirrel monkeys and howler monkeys, a boa constrictor snake, plus a lot of birds and the footprints of jaguar, tapir and ocelot. The monkeys and birds were mostly high in the trees and Ismael was fantastic at spotting them; he could even make noises like most of the monkeys and birds to encourage them to come out. We spent quite a while following him through dense jungle in search of a peccary, or wild pig, that he could hear walking along nearby (none of us could hear anything!). Eventually we were rewarded by seeing not one but a whole herd of peccaries, around 30-40 of them, marching with intent through the jungle. Early in the morning one day we hiked up to a viewpoint at the edge of the cliff and watched the canopy emerge from the mists, with scarlet and green macaws flying by and making an incredible amount of noise.

Jaguar footprints

This boa constrictor snake appeared right next to our dining room!

View of the jungle canopy and Beni river below

Of course, the Amazon rainforest is full not only of animals but insects. Thus you can guess that it was quite challenging for me trying to cope with my phobia of butterflies and moths; we saw some of the largest butterflies I have ever seen. Fortunately Ismael soon got the idea of the problem and protected me from anything flying too close. He also cleared the dining room and bathrooms of moths every night! We also saw a huge tarantula and of course were hounded by mosquitoes and ants of all sizes. We were warned not to leave anything on the floor or we might find it in pieces later due to the industrious leaf cutter ants!

Tarantula just sitting on a tree next to our cabin

Unfortunately Kev came down with a severe case of food poisoning again during day 2 and spent most of that afternoon and the next day in bed - we think it must have been something he ate prior to the trip, as the rest of us were fine. Thank goodness Ismael was brillliant and supplied us with antibiotics plus his own homemade herbal tea made from a leaf in the jungle. The latter was incredibly bitter but definitely and he was feeling a lot better by the time we arrived in the Pampas.

Capybaras grazing next to the river in the Pampas

The Pampas was a different experience from the jungle but still fantastic. The area is mainly wetlands and we spent most of the three days cruising along the river with Ismael and our new Canadian companions, looking for animals. While there is less biodiversity here overall, the animals are a lot easier to spot than in the jungle. We saw caimans, one 4 metres long, alligators, turtles, capybaras, more monkeys and best of all, pink Amazon river dolphins (yes, they really are pink!) The highlight was swimming among the dolphins; they were playful and curious and liked to play or to nibble your leg at times.

Squirrel monkey jumping across our boat

One of the many alligators in the Pampas

We were assured that the area in which we swam with the dolphins was not frequented by caimans or piranhas. One evening however we went to a shallower area and fished for piranhas using raw meat as bait. The Canadians caught a couple, but we failed - I did however catch a catfish of reasonable size, which we ate for dinner along with one of the piranhas.

Piranha for dinner - look at its teeth!

On the last day I had an interesting time - Ismael was worried about a couple of my mosquito bites and on examining them decided that they were not ordinary bites but had mosquito larvae growing in them - eurgh! He treated this by extracting nicotine from a cigarette and leaving the nicotine on the bites overnight. The next morning he checked and proclaimed the larvae were 'muertissimo' (very dead). In fact he extracted the head of one of the larvae. It was too small for me to see, but I'm sure he knew what he was doing...

Turtles basking in the sun 

Overall we had an unforgettable few days, regardless of illness, bites and butterflies. Waking up to the sounds of the jungle or Pampas, learning about living in the jungle from an indigenous guide, and seeing such a variety of wildlife was amazing . Furthermore, Mashaquipe give a large proportion of their proceeds to the local community - Ismael told us they are supporting 48 different families in the jungle at the moment -  and we were happy to be giving something back.  It's certainly one of the high points of our trip so far.

Our Pampas group, with Ismael and the boat

Ghost Mining Towns, Mummies and Llamas at 4500m

When Kev last posted we were still in touristy San Pedro de Atacama, trying to deal with extremes of altitude, temperature and aridity. It was thus a relief to arrive in Iquique on the west coast, which was at sea level and relatively warm. There's not much that can be said for the city - it's quite a gritty place, rough around the edges and swathed in mist for 90% of the time. Strangely enough however, it did boast some excellent sushi restaurants and, best of all, it lacked tourists other than than ourselves and Cindy and Julien, the Swiss couple with whom we're travelling at the moment.

Old mining machinery in Santa Laura

The four of us hired a car for the day to visit the nearby mining ghost towns of Humberstone and Santa Laura. The two towns and their surrounding area were one of the world's most important producers of nitrate from the 1880s until 1960 and were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2005. We enjoyed wandering around the abandoned buildings, both residential and industrial, and imagining the lives of the miners living there. The conditions must have been pretty tough - the towns are in the middle of the desert, in unpleasantly dry and hot conditions. We read that the temperature in the mines could get up to 50ºC. At least Humberstone had a swimming pool they could cool off in!

Walking up towards the Atacama Giant 

We also took the opportunity of having our own transport to go to see El Gigante de Atacama, a huge geoglyph on the side of a  hill in the desert. It is the largest anthropomorphic  geoglyph in the world, at 86m tall, and estimated to date to around AD 900.  It was believed to have magical powers, seen as a shaman or a deity by local people of the time.

Chinchorro mummy, in Museo de Sitio Colón 10, Arica

We moved on from Iquique to Arica, another coastal city that was a lot more pleasant than Iquique. A number of mummies have been found in this area from the South American Chinchorro culture and are on display in local museums. They are the oldest examples of mummification in the world, dating back to as far as 5000 - 7000 BC (2000 years before Egyptian mummies). The main museum in the town showcased some remains as they were found - we walked across a glass floor and could look down at the mummies beneath. Some had red or black clay masks, some had wigs and others were decorated with feathers. Quite a weird experience!

We took a bus from Arica up to Putre, a slightly giddying journey up a winding road to an altitude of 3500m. Our main aim of coming here was to visit Parque Nacional Lauca, which is even higher at an average of 4500m. Quite few tourists come to Lauca on a day trip from Arica  - a little stupid, we thought, as an increase of altitude of 4500m in a few hours is a recipe for disaster. We arrived in Putre in the morning and spent a day acclimatising and admiring the incredible scenery. It's a little like San Pedro, but better, with mountains all around.

The town square and church in Putre

The second day in Putre we organised a tour to Lauca. Our driver was a friendly Venezuelan guy, so as well as enjoying the incredible scenery and wildlife of the park, we gained an interesting insight into life and politics in Venezuela at the moment. Lauca national park was one of the most stunning places we have visited so far, with picture perfect volcanoes and lakes. There were lots of animals - we saw endless llamas and alpacas (I still can't tell the difference!) and also herds of their shy wild relative, the vicuña. Plus, among others, the cute rabbit-like viscacha, giant tagua (giant coots) and flamingoes.

In front of Volcán Parinacota

At Lake Chungara (4500m, new height record!)

Feeding a llama

You could really feel the altitude up here and we were glad we had had a night in Putre to adjust a little. At one point we had to walk up a hill, not a particularly steep one, and within seconds I was gasping for breath. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest and I had to stop and then walk at a really slow pace in order not to feel like I was dying! For once we were glad that we were driven around for most of the day and only minimal walking was involved.

Vicuñas in Parque Nacional Lauca

We travelled back down to Arica the next day and this evening will be taking a nightbus back to San Pedro, from where we'll head into Bolivia via the famous salt flats.

Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego was named by Ferdinand Magellan when he explored this area in the 1500s. Sailing past the island, he saw the smoke rising from the fires of the native people living there and thus called it 'Land of Smoke' - this name was later changed by the Spanish King Charles V to the more exciting 'Land of Fire'.

The end of the road

We arrived on the island by boat from the mainland, with dolphins jumping all round us, and then had a bus ride of several hours down to Ushuaia in the south. While Tierra del Fuego is now home to a population of nearly 150,000, it still retains its feel of undiscovered wilderness, with an air of mystery and enchantment. Driving through the island, gazing out at the beautiful mist clad mountains, lakes and forests, it felt otherworldly; I have rarely been so strongly affected by a place.

The mountains rising behind Ushuaia

Ushuaia is quite a touristy town as most Antarctic cruises pass through here, however it is also a working port and nearly half of Tierra del Fuego's inhabitants live here. There are two main museums in the town, both of which we visited. The first is based in the old prison building and is HUGE, attempting to cover maritime history, the prison's history, Antarctica and local art all in one. Although we enjoyed the model ships and the opportunity to see the original prison cells here, there was really far too much information, most of it dry and irrelevant, and we gave up after two visits feeling somewhat brain dead!


On the other hand the second museum, about the Yamana indigenous people, was excellent. We learnt a great deal about the native people and their plight after the arrival of the Europeans. In the 1830s Captain FitzRoy of the Beagle thought it was a good idea to bring four native Fuegians back to England, supposedly to educate and Christianise them. The four were given the names Jemmy Button, Boat Memory, Fuegia Basket and York Minster. In a similar vein, British missionaries travelled to Tierra del Fuego in the 1870s to establish a settlement and 'educate' the indigenous people. As a result of the spread of hitherto unknown diseases, sadly nearly all the Yamana and other local tribes were wiped out.

Tierra del Fuego national park

A beaver dam on the way to Laguna Esmerelda

In addition to Ushuaia itself, we have enjoyed getting outdoors. Tierra del Fuego national park was stunning in its autumnal colours, and we also managed a long walk to Laguna Esmeralda. The latter trail was more of a bog than a path but we enjoyed the challenge (and got completely covered in mud!). We also saw several dams built by beavers, as well as the destruction they'd wrought in the forests - trees reduced to stumps, and others in the process of being gnawed through. There was plenty of other wildlife to see in the national park, birds especially - my favourites were the white throated tree runners, which as you can guess from the name run up and down trees, tapping with their beaks like woodpeckers.

Laguna Esmerelda

We'll be leaving Ushuaia tomorrow for Puerto Williams, the sourthernmost permanent settlement in the world. The plan is to then take a ferry back to Punta Arenas, then a second ferry from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt along the Chilean fjords.

Although Ushuaia claims to be at the end of the world,
Puerto Williams (our next destination) is further south