http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MikeBee/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from MikeBee en-us Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:10:22 +0000 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:10:22 +0000 Between Nepal's trekking capital Pokhara and it's actual capital Kathmandu sits the small town of Bandipur. With it's winding slate paved streets that wrap around a high ridge and cheery people who greeted us with smiles and ldquoNamasterdquo Bandipur was the most welcoming and relaxing place we had been to so far. We filled our days with long hikes over hills and through fields alway http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Chitwan/blog-452656.html Our crossing from India to Nepal came at the end of a gruelling twelve hour bus journey and the start of the most important days in Nepal's Dasain festival. Whist we filled in our imergration forms the cheery Nepalese officials a marked contrast from the surly Indian ones explain the festival and advised that the country was almost at a stand still was everyone visited family. There would be n http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Tanzen/blog-448341.html Having ldquoagreedrdquo to return to India on our way to Australia we arrived in Delhi and spent a couple of days looking about. I'm not sure if it was my low expectations of Dehli or the fact that we know what to expect but we found the place to be much easier and less daunting than we believed it would be.After two days in the humid heat of Delhi we headed for the cooler air in the hills o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-442547.html Arriving in Sucre Bolivia's administrative capital was a breath of fresh air. Mainly because it was only 2750 meters above sea level. We were no longer getting out of breath after walking up a flight of stairs due to lack of oxygen.The Sucre's main plaza was a pleasant tree lined square ringed with bars and cafes which provided the perfect spots to watch the world go by from the sunny balconie http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Santa-Cruz-Department/Vallegrande/blog-424411.html Potosi is a lovely town in Bolivia which sits at the base of a hill containing huge silver reserves. This silver has been mined for hundreds of years and has meant the town has many pretty churches and plazas built by it's wealthy and lucky residents.To better understand what these miners go through to extract the silver from the hill we went out to mines. After putting on our protective cloth http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-419466.html We arrived in Uyuni from La Paz after getting no sleep on an overnight bus and went straight out on a three day tour of the area and it's salt flats. The first stop was was a train ldquograveyardrdquo where lots of old trains were left to rust. Because the climate is so dry the trains had been sitting there for seventy years and will undoubtedly be there for another seventy at least.Then we http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Salar-de-Uyuni/blog-418517.html I was apprehensive about La Paz because of all the terrible stories of kidnapping I had heard but I'm please to say Tracy and I had a great time. Undoubtedly because we were stay right in the centre of the city so never got to see the harsher side of life but I'm quite happy about that.La Paz has many restaurants severing food from all around the world and having been living on beans rice and m http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-418501.html Rurrenabaque is the jumping off point for adventures into Bolivia's portion of the Amazon jungle and wetlands. We decided to start with a three day trip into the jungle so packed lots of insect repellent and climbed aboard a boat as it sped up river. On the way to our jungle camp we stopped off at a sugar cane planation and collect freshly picked oranges off the tree.Once at our camp we begin ou http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Beni-Department/Rurrenabaque/blog-418495.html After recovering from the Inca trail in Cusco we boarded a bus to Puno on the shores of Lake Titikaka. The journey through small villages and farms was lovely but as soon as we entered Puno the loveliness vanished. While not unpleasant the town was similar to port towns throughout the world in being grimly and industrial.Waking up early the next morning we took a tour out to some of the Uros r http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-413682.html We arrived in Cusco a few days before we were due to start the Inca trail to meet Tracy's friend Liz. For the next three days as we acclimatized to the altitude we explored Cusco's markets churches and old Inca ruins whist visiting the occasional bar and having one or two beers on the sun drenched balconies overlooking the main square. Liz was brave enough to try roasted guinee pig which wa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Machu-Picchu/blog-410930.html We crossed from Chile to Peru via a very small train and made our way to the city of Arequipa. Arequipa has a fascinating museum that holds the frozen body of 'Juanita the ice princess' who was sacrificed to the Inca mountain gods 500 years ago. After the museum we spent the rest of the day exploring a old convent Monasterio de Sant Catalina founded in 1580. The huge area of twisting street http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Colca-Canyon/blog-406688.html After spending a few days relaxing in small villages within Chile's Elqui valley we made our way up to San Pedro de Atacama. This small town in the middle of the Atacama desert is home to a huge tourist industry taking people into the surrounding area. Hitting the ground running we booked onto a cheap tour out into an area renowned for looking like the moon and called... Moon Valley. While th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Arica-and-Parinacota/Lauca-National-Park/blog-403902.html We bypassed Santiago on our way up through Chile and went to straight to Valparaiso. This charming city is spread over hills that back onto a harbour and the houses on the hillside are painted blues and yellows. The colorful houses are complemented by masses of graffiti which covers every available surface. For three days we wandered the streets and walked up and down the hills. When the walk http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-403866.html We went to Pucon with the express intention of climbing to the top of the towns volcano. However as our bus neared Pucon the snow capped summit of Volcano Villarrica came into view and it became clear that getting to the top would not be easy.Tracy spent much of our first day in Pucon procrastinating over whether to attempt to climb Villarrica Volcano. However once she saw pictures of people who http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Araucania/Villarrica-Volcano/blog-400501.html We left Argentina for Chile on a bus that crossed over the Andes in brilliant winter sunshine. As we got closer to the Chilean border grey clouds covered the sky and a light ran began to fall. The first place we visited in Chile was a small town called Puerto Varas which stands on a lake with a couple of volcanoes on the farshore. Unfortunately low cloud and mist covered the volcanoes. They http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Los-Lagos/Puerto-Varas/blog-400498.html Bariloche and the surrounding area in Argentina's south west is nick named the lake district. The reason for this was evident as our bus pulled into town by the side of a huge lake backed by low mountains. After checking into a lovely hostel where everything was made of pine and we seemed to be the only people staying we wondered around town and hired a car for the next three days. Just out o http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Rio-Negro/San-Carlos-de-Bariloche/blog-397403.html In an effort to make up time we had skipped Argentina's San Juan region only to realize that it contained a National Park we really wanted to visit. So we traveled 400km back north to the town of San Agustin de Valle Fertil.San Agustin de Valle Fertil is a small town surrounded by scrub land that acts as a gateway to the Ischigualsto National Park. We know it was going to be small when we boarde http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/San-Juan/Ischigualasto/blog-395534.html Leaving Uruguay was lot harder than we expected simply because it was Easter holidays and all the buses were booked up. We ended up going to a student town in the middle of Argentina called Cordaba. Tracy had read about a town nearby called Cappilla del Monte that is famous for UFO sightings. Some say that the under town's hill Cerro Uritorco is a subterranean city where the future regenerati http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Mendoza/Mendoza/blog-393630.html Hmmm yeah not much I can say about Uruguay but I'll try.We got the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento a nice little town full of cobbled streets and spent the day wondering around. We sat and watched the sunset which was applauded when the sun disappeared under the horizon The next day we moved on to Montevideo Uruguay's capital and spent another day just wondering around. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Uruguay/blog-393099.html Buenos Aires came as a busy and vibrant change to the small towns and villages we had become used to. After settling into our hostel and meeting up with an old friend of Tracy's we spent our first night in the city feasting on huge beef steaks. The next morning Tracy woke up to find she had been eaten alive by bedbugs. Pulling back the sheets uncovered loads of them fat with Tracy's blood ru http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-390034.html