http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Bartoni/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Bartoni en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:30:55 +0000 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:30:55 +0000 With literally just days until I am back in the UK I wanted to post some pictures from my wonderful time in the Galapagos if only to give you a flavour of where I have been for the last 2 weeksIn any event I will tell you the TRUE story of Lonesome George in case you do not know it....Once upon a time in the Galapagos on the Island of which there are many here and I only peeked at 7 called http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos/blog-428213.html Here are some of my photos from our stay in Copacabana. This was where we took a day tour onto Lake Titicaca and visited some Inca ruins with a guide who only spoke Spanish. I am not sure I understood everything he was trying to tell us but I will bore you all with it when I get backCopacabana was a nice place and had a great custom of a daily blessing of its carsMore text in a few weeks http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Copacabana/blog-422800.html Having said goodbye to the remainder of the Rurrenbaque gang the night before it was another early start to get the plane back to La Paz. Unfortunately due to clouds and other unknown reasons there was some delay before we could get on board the plane on the grassy runway and head back into the altitude More soon. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-422797.html When Brim said she wanted to go sandboarding in Peru I have to admit it was not top on my agenda but as I had dragged her to Tango and Whales I could not really argue...and in fact it was such brilliant fun I would probably do it again Please check out Andreas travelblog for me with great panache coming down a sand dune More text in a couple of weeks. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-422806.html Still in Peru at this stage our final stop in fact before crossing the border to Ecuador. We had intended to spend a few days here enjoying the sunshine and beach and possibly even some surfing but Mancora hostels were fully booked and we struggled to find a room In any event we did get to stay a couple of days and enjoyed lazying in hammocks eating ice cream and paddling in the ocean More t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Piura/M-ncora/blog-422809.html ...where Brim finally did some dancing Okay because I am about 4 weeks behind in sending you my travel updates I have decided to try and cut some corners and send some photos. I will try and update the text over the next weeks if I am not too busy having too much of a good time in the Galapagos if not I will just bore you with the stories when I get back.In any event as a very quick summary http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Trujillo/blog-422807.html ...it is cold it is not very pretty and they only put the heating on at 8pm at nightThis is a very short blog as not many photos and not much happenedOK so the Salt flat tour ended and we were dropped off in Uyuni. We did not a hostel booked so we asked at 2 places no space or no TV and found ourselves at Hotel Julia The place was fairly clean but it was FREEZING. There was no heating unti http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Uyuni/blog-422792.html Lucky Bartoni After the coldness of the salt desert tour and the high altitude we had been in including La Paz we decided we needed to get back down to sea level and also to do the infamous Pampas tour that had been recommended by Ken thank you and Heidi and Tom from Salta who raved over it compared to the desert. I am so glad we took their advice.The Pampas is made of a network of riverwa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Beni-Department/Rurrenabaque/blog-422795.html the unofficial Barton and Brimelow Inca trek to Machu Picchu courtesy of the Danish family in Puno and Dave and Paul from the Southern Comfort hostel in CuscoThere are mainly two ways to get to Machu Picchu. 1. The train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes and then a walk up or a bus up to the entrance. The other way a 4 day trek and it is a real trek not even close to an infamous Barton family str http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/blog-422804.html As I took so many pictures from the 4 day tour from the Bolivian desert to Salt plains where we travelled from Tupiza to Uyuni by Jeep a second blog is needed for all the pictures Hope they are good as the tour was brilliant. FYI the ladies in the pictures are Elena Krystal and Christie me and Brim More text to follow in the coming weeks http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Salar-de-Uyuni/blog-415955.html 22nd June Arriving on an Andesmar bus in La Quiaca at 7.30am in the morning it was dark and cold and damp. The town was very grim and with backpacks on we had to walk across the town to get to the border of Argentina and into Villazon in Bolivia Unfortunately the map in the lonely planet guide didn't seem to correspond with the roads in front of us so Brim and I found ourselves walking in a hug http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Tupiza/blog-415946.html The bus journey from Mendosa to Salta overnight was not too painful although at 5.15am in the morning Brim was rudely awoken by some electrical work undertaken by one of the conductors at the front of the coach I managed to get some sleep between cold feet and DVDs in Spanish playing in the background. Around 4pm in the afternoon we finally arrived in Salta and wandered the 5 minutes from the bu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Salta/Salta/blog-415940.html 8am bus from Valparaiso to Mendosa. Bus company was El Rapidio and our conductordriver Samuel certainly made for an eventful trip he was brilliant fun He liked the English chicas making sure we were happy winking at s between the seats and singing along to the Spanish DVD playing on the bus TV. In fact as we crossed over the Andes he made the bus stop so we could get out of the bus and tak http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-409497.html We took a Tur Bus from La Serena to Valparaiso during the day arriving in the city around 7pmish. Arrived at the hostel Nueva Mente and rang the bell and waited waited and waited. No answer and there appeared to be no one around. We were just thinking about our next options when a man appeared let us into the hostel and told us to wait A few minutes later hostel manager arrived and showed us http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-409494.html Morning of the 10th June following breakfast we took our Tur Bus coach from Santiago up the coast to La Serena. Through the bus windows there was still lots of smog and clouds in the air as we drove out of Santiago and finally hit the west coast road and our first view of the Pacific Ocean since landing in South America.As we neared La Serena the view of desert changed to flat farmsteads and the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Coquimbo-Region/La-Serena/blog-409492.html The journey to Santiago from Bariloche as I know Fuzzy likes to know about these things was a two buses journey one from Bariloche across the border leaving Argentina and entering into Chile to a place called Osorno and then second bus from Osorno to Santiago. The bus journey took us across the Andes with a customs stop out of Argentina and one into Chile. No major incidents or delays involved http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-406619.html Another day another bus journey and another blog to write After a brilliant day on the Valdes we got a late bus 9.30pm from Peurto Madryn to San Carlos de Barlioche which is the start of the lake district area of the Andes and a beautiful alpine like town with houses like log cabins and a million fir trees on the bus managed to sleep most of the way until early morning when I was greeted wi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Rio-Negro/San-Carlos-de-Bariloche/blog-405287.html Dearest ReadersIt gives me great pleasure in announcing that without a doubt for me Puerto Madryn the Pennisular Valdes is my favourite place so far in Argentina and yes that has everything to do with the fact we saw Southern Right Whales both from the shore and in a boat Anyhow where to begin so when I last wrote we left El Calafate and took a bus via Rio Gallegos to arrive in Puerto http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Chubut/Puerto-Madryn/blog-404002.html Hi AllHope you are all ok and not too red from all the sunshine in the UK Anyhow when I last wrote I was in El Calafate and updating you on our time in Ushuaia. So now I need to tell you of the time in El Calafate starting from the fact that Brim and I had to get up at 4am in the morning in Ushuaia so we could head to the bus station for El Calafate. The journey went as follows leave Ushuaia http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-403999.html The snowcapped mountains and blue water and minus 2 degrees celcius That is right people we have made it from Buenos by plane a much shorter journey of 3 hours ish to Ushuaia the southernmost city in the WORLD A slight shock from the warmth of Buenos Aires but Brim and I came prepared with warm clothes and waterproofs At the Airport Brim was worried about me and swine flu questions no coug http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Tierra-del-Fuego/Ushuaia/blog-401261.html