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Published: April 6th 2010
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Impressive
View from the top of the hill near Salta Arg. Bit good. So then, this should finally have us up to date!
We met up with Ryan and Kees in Mendoza Argentina, all pretty successfully, but Ryan did have to spend a night in a McDonalds waiting for daylight so he could find where we were staying! We had a fairly lazy week or so, in Mendoza and then Cordoba - catching up with old stories and getting used to Ryan's new hair. We had just under a month to get to Peru to meet Ma and Pa Vickery, with a route north through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia planned.
We went up to Salta in the northwest corner of Arg. and had a pretty good hostel, where we met a few people who by chance we'd end up bumping into over the next couple of weeks. They also had a big BBQ with traditional dancing which was fun. They got Me Ryan and Kees up to join in which was funny - especially for the others when i was heartlessly rejected by my 12 year old dance partner. Sadly, Sarah was ill for a while here so she had a bit of extra time in bed.
We went from here
Not impressed
Artificial waterfall near Salta, Arg. Bit crap. into Chile to the dryest place in the world, the Atacama desert, where we got chapped lips. On the way we had our first taste of high altitude with the Argy border at about 4,300m - pretty tough to breathe up there! Sarah's illness hung on for a day or two, but we did all go out on a desert tour together, where we saw some amazing valleys, lots of rock and sand, and a nice sunset.
Us lads and our new colombian pal Simon also when out for a bit of night time mountain biking to get out of town. The night sky was amazing, you could see the milky way really clearly with no electric lights for miles. We did experience a nice bit of chilean hospitality at one point..... My chain got wedged round my back wheel, and we had to spend about 15 minutes trying to get it un-stuck. We were in the middle of nowhere trying to see with our rubbish rented LED bike lights, and after a while we could see a guy with a torch and some dogs approaching the road. Apparently instead of helping, he thought it would be more fun
to start throwing rocks at us, so we got out of there pretty quick!
From the desert we headed north to Arica on the Chilean coast - our first real sight of the Pacific. They had nice long beaches, lots of pelicans, and a rocky hill next to the city with great views. All the others we´d met headed into Bolivia from the desert so we were back to the 4 of us, and had a pretty good chilled out time in what was apparently ´The best gay hostel in the world´.
From here we headed up into Bolivia, with the bus hitting 5,000m on the way. We arrived in La Paz, in the early evening which is one of the best looking cities I´ve seen. After miles and miles of the barren land around it (all at about 3,500 - 4,000m), La Paz is in a valley / basin with a backdrop of massive snowcapped mountains. The city spreads all the way up the sides of the basin, and looks great on the way in. It was also a very interesting city, with lots of indigenous locals, which made a change from the much more European people
of Argentina and Chile. They also had massive markets selling all sorts of things including llama foetuses (for luck)! From La Paz we went to see some old pre-inca ruins which was a good day out. They had a big stepped pyramid half excavated - it will look amazing when they´s dug it all up in 10 years!
In La Paz we met up with Simon again, and Kei (met them both in Argentina) and we all decided to head on to gether After a bus-boat-and more bus trip on some shady roads we got down to Copacabana on lake Titicaca. This was a nice quiet place, an pretty cheap (3 course meal for 1.50 pounds). From here we went to the old inca's sacred Island of the sun, where we did a 10 mile hike at 4,000m. We´ve never been so out of breath!
Outside our hostel, Simon managed to arrange a bit of street football with some local kids which was fun. They were only small, but weren´t willing to mix up the teams - it was us against them, and we kicked their asses! They were pretty small, but there were quite a few of
them! (see the team photo below) They were all Boliviana fans, so we were the other big La Paz team which have the comedy name - ´The Strongest´!
From Bolivia we headed into Peru, with Simon heading to Cusco, and the rest of us heading to Arequipa. We have successfully met up with Ma and Pa, and have had a good first few days together. Noone´s had the guts to order guinea pig yet, but we´ve eaten llama and alpaca, so we´re building up to it!
We just got back yesterday from a couple of days in the deepest canyon in the world - the Colca canyon. It had some amazing views, andean condors (the biggest flying bird - 3m wingspan), and like everywhere else in the world, an Irish pub. We´re off to Cusco on a night bus tonight, to carry on the Inca hunt, and to make sure we can get to Machu Pichu after landslides and cock-ups with tickets.
Sorry it was so long, we´ll try to blog a bit more regular from now on.
Also, come on Saints! Cup winners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Gerry
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update!
Hi greg lovin' the blog keep it coming! Excellant photo's - hope dad is enjoying the local cuisine! Hope Sarah is better now. Take care, love Gxx