bob and julie

BREATHLESS Since we last wrote we have flown from Cuzco to Arequipa, spent a night there, flown from Arequipa to Tacna, spent about 5 minutes there and caught a taxi to Arica in northern Chile. $40 US for a 50 km taxi ride and the driver handled all the cross border paperwork for us. Arica is a coastal town and fishing its main industry. Birds love fish, and there were thousands of pelicans and cormorants chasing the fish and the fishing boats. We spent a couple of days wandering the black sand beaches, hiring some bicycles one day to have a look further down the coast....In all the years of technological development in bicycle design, the seats are still unbelievable uncomfortable ;-) Got the bus up to Putre last Tuesday. A town of a few ... read more

I´m sittng here in our B&B basement accomodation in Cusco, Peru trying to get my brain into gear after a jam packed week of amazing sights, history (ancient), uncomfortable bus and train trips, walks and markets - somehow I think that I´m going to have to let the photos do the talking! Canyon Country We left Arequipa joining a 3 day Colca Canyon trip. Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the US. The steep sides range in depth from 1000-3000m at an altitude of 5000m to 2500m or so above sea level. It is pretty dry country that gets extremely cold in winter and is where a lot of the film Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid was filmed. We hiked down into the valley - 3 hrs straight down ... read more

Theres a reason these places are called Rainforests More an experience than a photographic subject, the rain and the animals having little respect for us tourists. Leaf-cutter ants chew off pieces of the leaves of trees and carry them, single file, to their underground nest, where the leaves stored in warm humid conditions will develop a fungus growth. This fungus is food for the ants. Stepping over a procession of leaf-cutter ants while walking through the Amazon rainforest in the pouring rain is one of those priceless experiences that so typifies this part of the world. The Amazon is a wet place and for the last 5 days we, and everything we own, has been wet too. A little uncomfortable, yes, but its quickly forgotten when drifting down the river in our canoe we are accompanied ... read more

Tierra del Fuego We´re in Ushuaia, a town that markets itself as ¨The End of the World¨and a look at a world globe confirms that it is indeed a lot further south than just about everything else. The south western corner of South America, in both Chile and Argentina is generally known as Patagonia and that word has always conjured up thoughts os snow capped mountains, huge glaciers and beautiful lakes and the reality hasn´t disappointed. Anyone we subject to the inevitable slide show at the end of our trip will see that we have taken photos of almost nothing else. But theres a lot in between that, although, not as photogenic, is still part of this amazing place. One of the first things we have noticed about every town is hundreds of stray dogs. Very ... read more

Beautiful scenery = Exhaustion Ola! Buenos Dias Just back in ¨civilization¨ in Puerto Natales after spending an amazing 5 days hiking the ¨W¨ track in Torres del Paine National Park. Some say ¨Paine¨ is a local Indian word meaning blue, others say Paine was an early Welsh settler. We say its the feeling in our legs after the first day of hiking. Whatever it means its an incredible place. Pouring rain, brilliant sunshine and wind so strong just standing up is a challenge. Sometimes all on the same day, sometimes all at the same time !!! Lots of uphill and then lots of down but the views of glaciers still shaping these enormous mountains was worth all the effort. In between each major attraction - The Towers of Paine (pronounced Pie - Nee), The Horns, French ... read more