The flight down to Punta Arenas was fantastic, the flight followed the Andean Mountain Range South. To one side were the snow capped peaks of the Andes and to the other the Pacific Ocean dotted with islands and the coast punctuated with inlets and lakes. The further South we got the whiter the mountains got until we passed over the Patigonain Southern Icefield. It has to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The icefield is 350km long and looks like a massive raised lake iced over and sitting between massive snowcapped mountains leading down to lakes [View Full Entry]

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7th December 2005 It was a flying visit to Santiago this time, we arranged accommodation for new year, booked a bus ticket to Mendoza and waited in a massive que in the post office for ages! I know it sounds silly but I forgot it was christmas, and the post office was very busy. After that it gave us little time to do anything else before our bus, so we grabbed a quick sandwich and headed to the bus station. The bus journey to Mendoza was beautiful going over the high passes through the ski resorts which are all empty at [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Buenos Aires from Igazzu and after a couple of hours walk and getting lost due to a map being wrong, we eventually found suitable accommodation that had vacancies and was in a good location. We could finally get down to planning our time in Buenos Aires. We booked a few trips through the travel agency at the Youth Hostel International, a Tango Show, a Football Match (Racing v's River a Buenos Aires Derby), and polo match (a chance to hobnob with Buenos Aires high society). After which it was time to hit the shops, it took Sue no [View Full Entry]

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We crossed the border into Chile around 5pm and after a short drive we reached tarmac and a proper paved road! This was a novelty as the majority of roads in Bolivia are unmade gravel roads. After being stamped into Chile, walking over a disinfectant soaked mat and a rather half-hearted bag search which didnt follow any of the procedures and rules printed on the walls in the customs office we were back on our way. A few minutes later we were on the outskirts of San Pedro De Atacama where we saw some poeple erecting a large stage. Our driver [View Full Entry]

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We caught the 10am bus on 20th November from Uyuni to Potosi which as the norm with Bolivian buses was over subscribed. We had reserved seats which were unfortunately on the second row from the front of the bus. I had someone sat on the arm rest of my seat for three hours of the journey and a womans big ass wedged in the aisle near to my leg and whenever someone needed to pass she just sat on my knee without prior warning. At least we had seats unlike many who were crammed into the aisle, swaying from side to [View Full Entry]

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18th November 2005 - We flew from Santa Cruz to Sucre (the official capital of Bolivia) arriving at about 11.20am. Sucre is a very pretty town which is full of white washed colonial buildings with a pleasant leafy plaza. Although it is officially the capital it only has a population of 225,000 and La Paz has taken most of the power away from it other than that of the supreme court. We got a taxi from the airport to the town centre and jumped straight onto the Dino Truck with all of our baggage. The Dino Truck took us to Cal [View Full Entry]

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8th November 2005 We left Rurrenabaque and again the airline (Amazonas) had delayed the plane. After discussions with a few other people it turns out that the airline cancel flights themselves and wait for the last flight to fill up so our lost day in the airport and in Rurrenabaque was just for their gain which if they had told us we could have planed something else instead of wasting 2 days. Anyway thats the moan over and done with, we flew to Trinidad which is a bit off the Gringo trail hoping to catch a boat trip up the Rio [View Full Entry]

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Well we eventually made it to Rurrenabaque after 10 hours in La Paz airport. I had a horrible flight as it was a little 12 seater plane and shortly after leaving La paz and the beautiful snow capped montains behind we were submerged in thick dark grey cloud and rather sever turbulance at one point the plane dropped what seemed like a few hundred feet and let out a large beep (never known a beep mean anything good, I´ve not said a prayer in a long time but I said one then). Andrews hand was white from me squeezig it so [View Full Entry]

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We are starting to wonder when our luck is going to change! We are currently sat at La Paz airport as our flight to Rurrenabaque has been delayed indefinately due to heavy rain and Rurrenabaque only having a grass runway! We were meant to fly at 7.15am, it is now 1.40pm and we have been told they will give us an update at 4pm. We also had to get up at 5am to get the early flight so we would have the full day in Rurrenabaque so we are quite tired. Ironically we decided to fly to save time! Well enough [View Full Entry]

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We left Puno on the bus at 7.30am on a journey which took us along the edges of Lake Titicaca before turning inland a little and going through some fields sprinkled with snow. Only a couple of hours into the journey we had a relatively easy border crossing into Bolivia and then had a two hour break in Copacabana for lunch. It is only when you drive along side the lake for a few hours and there is still more that you realise just how big Lake Titicaca is, pretty impressive for the highest lake in the world! After lunch we [View Full Entry]

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