South America Highlights

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Tuesday 13 January.

It's an awful long way to Lima in Peru, particularly when you go via Madrid. 2hrs 10 to Madrid then 11hrs 50 mins to Lima. So from the Taxi arriving at 4am to arrival at the hotel it took a long 21hrs.
Iberian airways packed us in and sort of fed us, but nearly 12 hours in the same uncomfortable seat with the occasional trip to the toilet is tough. Thank goodness for iPads. The short 2 hour hop to Madrid was fine, nice seats, albeit cramped for me, passable ham and cheese croissant (I had asked the stewardesses as we got on the plane if we were getting a full English breakfast, but they just smiled enigmatically). We expected cramped seats on a short journey and comforted ourselves with the fact the seats on the 12 hour transatlantic flight with Iberian airways would be more spacious and the food would be more imaginative. But we were wrong,

The Iberian Airways plane to Lima was a new Airbus with sockets to charge iPads. However the seats were worse and more cramped than the short previous flight, the staff seemed reluctant to get involved with the passengers and the food was disappointing, to say the least. Here is what we were offered: after 2 hours we had a dollop of humus (which was nice), then lasagne or chicken, (both strange), washed down with some nasty cheap Spanish wine. After 7 hours we had a sandwich the size of a Mars bar. We think it was tuna with olives, but when speaking to other travellers we found there was no consensus on what was actually in it. After 11 hours we were hurriedly presented with a cardboard box which contained a cheese and ham roll, a yoghurt, and a Kit Kat. I know we were in the cheap seats but the service and food were grim. Add to this a girl behind me who enjoyed hitting my seat and it really was a very long flight.

When I land in a new country I always enjoy the first journey from the airport to the hotel. However when we landed it was dark and we saw nothing particularly amazing, just lots of low rise buildings which needed some maintenance and repair. Lima is big, very big and the journey took 45 minutes through the outskirts. First impressions were of a sprawling metropolis without many planning laws but lots of casinos.

Wednesday

Lima is a city of 8 million people at the foot of the Andes. This gives it a unique climate. 9 months of cloud and 3 months of sun (Feb to April) and 3 hours of rain every 2 years! So there are no drains on the roads, in fact it is the second driest capital after Cairo. A luxury coach took the 21 of us round the city, as quickly as the congested roads would allow. The free flow of vehicles is hampered by many or most junctions not having markings, signs or traffic lights. Our guide remarked that anyway traffic lights are seen as only suggestions. And as we saw, a red light at a pedestrian crossing is no guarantee the traffic will stop, and if you do you will get hooted by the more impatient motorists.

We passed colonial buildings and many apartments , invariably with substantial gates and high fences, sometimes electrified, but not to the grim extent of South Africa.

We visited baroque San Francisco monastery which was built in the 1670s. It was constructed using adobe (mud) so was it not massive like European stone built churches and cathedrals but pretty impressive nonetheless, particularly as it has suffered from a number of earthquakes. The best parts were the Hogwarts style library of 25000 books dating back to the 1400s and a crypt full of bones which had been arranged neatly 150 years ago by someone with OCD.

St Martin's square was particularly pretty with colonial buildings on all four sides, in fact the colonial buildings throughout the city give it a very definite Spanish flavour. The main square has the government buildings in the old palace taking up one side and soldiers with riot shields occupying the middle. Demonstrations seem to be a daily occurrence but they are not allowed near the government buildings, heaven forbid, so the riot police must be there pretty much all the time.

The anthropological museum had some particularly interesting displays of burial methods, which in this case was mummifying the bodies, putting them in a cave with a narrow hole to the surface where sat another mummy to guard the entrance . The guardian mummy would have his legs removed, presumably to stop him running away.
An even more sinister practice was changing the shape of children's skulls. By tying rope and boards round a baby's head you could change the shape quite significantly so when they grew to adulthood they would be quite striking, to say the least! The museum had examples of elongated and flat heads. Most bizarre!

Peru has a growing reputation for food and gastronomes seem to salivate over anything which comes from Peru. So, following a recommendation, we walked to a restaurant for our first taste of Peruvian food and we weren't disappointed. We started with a traditional Ceveche which is marinated raw fish with a hot-ish sauce made with peppers, onions and other bits and pieces. The lemon and lime juice in the marinade "cook" the fish so it doesn't look raw.
The main courses were also delicious; a substantial soup, breaded fish on a mountain of rice (far too much for a normal human to eat) and sliced chicken breast presented beautifully. All in all we were impressed with our first meal and looked forward to many others, and even to our first taste of guinea pig, when we can find it!

Thursday
Up early for the flight on LAN airways to Cusco, the 5th highest city in the world. The view as we flew up and up over the Andes was spectacular, a geological lesson laid out before us. Predominantly brown of many shades we saw remote valleys with little villages, mining in the middle of nowhere and roads winding backwards and forwards, up and down, trying to get to a tiny habitation.

Cusco sits at 11100 ft which is higher than I had ever been and is the 9th highest large city in the world. It has 430000 inhabitants and lies in a valley, miles away from anywhere, or so it seems. It has been inhabited for nearly 1000 years but it is most known for the Inca period ( 13th century to 1530s). The Inca period was brought to a sudden and bloody end by the Spaniards who looted and melted down all the gold and silver which adorned the buildings of the city. Of course the Spaniards didn't like any religion other than their brutal form of Catholicism so temples were destroyed, but interestingly not the bottom 10ft which were earthquake proof.
The first place we visited was the main square in which a few bits of inca wall remained but the buildings were mainly of Spanish type. The cathedral was big and of less than exquisite construction but it was full of gold. Large pictures adorned the walls. They weren't bad but again, not exquisite. A martyr was celebrated here. I think she was young, appeared to be a bit of a pain in the arse, and had a toe cut off.

A monastery contained the bottom 10 feet of an inca temple. Beautifully built with interlocking blocks, they had withstood anything the Spaniards or the restless earth could throw at them.

Outside Cusco is Saksaywaman which is a huge walled temple complex. Built in about 1100 it is pre-Inca but the Incas extended it. The walls are massive and beautifully constructed without cement and with gaps between the blocks you couldn't get a cigarette paper in. Unfortunately the Spaniards destroyed everything except the walls. Not far from this site is a white Jesus identical to the one at Rio de Janeiro, but one fifth the size. It had wonderful views across the town.

It was about this time, about 6 hours after landing, altitude sickness started to take its toll. Headaches, heavyness, dizziness and general tiredness and lethargy. The plan had been to explore the many excellent restaurants of the city, in the end we managed to drag ourselves to the hotel restaurant, which actually was very good. A panadol thankfully sorted out my splitting headache.

Friday
Altitude sickness was in its stride among the group. 2 of our group of five friends had gastric issues throughout the night. 2 others had trouble sleeping. Amongst the rest of the group it was a similar tale. Oxygen was taken to some good effect. It can strike you down in a number of ways and there is so way of knowing who will suffer, it will hit the young and old, fit or unfit, male or female. J had nasty stomach problems in the night, was sick and totally pole-axed for a day. She took oxygen for 10 minutes which did help her significantly.


Thankfully the day was a free day, deliberately so I suspect, the the tour company know what happens on arrival at altitude . Some people walked round Cusco but we stayed in the hotel. One of our fellow travellers said there was a stone with 12 sides to visit but we had to miss that no doubt unforgettable sight.

In the evening J and S could not even contemplate the thought of food so the remaining three of us visited a local restaurant where we had the Peruvian speciality of stuffed cold mashed potato and stuffed avocado. Although quite nice on their own they needed the fiery salsa to liven them up.

Saturday
The big day! Macchu Pichu! Perhaps the most famous place in South America. Thankfully J and S had recovered enough to get on the coach, although neither were 100%. The first part (at 6.30 am) took us 2 hours through mountains to Ollyantambo. It seems any journey in the Andes is spectacular and I could go on and on about the scenery but I will just recall the terraces built by the incas, or pre incas which rose up to the highest, most inaccessible parts of the mountains, all to get the last bit of growing area in this incredible mountainous country.

We boarded a comfortable single carriage train with a panoramic roof and chugged off down the valley. The scenery changed from sparse mountain valleys to thick thick jungle with all sorts of strange and wonderful tropical plants. I particularly liked the spikey plants which made their homes on the branches of trees. However we saw very little wildlife, just the occasional bird. After an hour and a half we reached a town with, as ever, a market. The last stop off before the final vertical climb up to Macchu Pichu. Thankfully there were buses to take us, via about 20 hairpins to the entrance of the site. At this stage we were a lowly 2,430 metres (7,970 ft) so those who had suffered form altitude sickness were feeling much improved.

Macchu Picchu sits on a mountain surrounded by vertical drops to the river below. Why did they build on this remote spot? We heard many reasons: they wanted to conquer the mountain and please the gods, they wanted a centre for coca farming, it was a place for producing new crop technologies. It was not a city though. It was the administration centre for the local area. Lots of storage rooms, few living rooms and little, if any, sign of permanent residence .

It was built in 1400s and took 40 years to build: 20 years for the terraces and 20 years for the buildings, yet it was only used for 90 years. According to our young guide, it was divided into 2 halves, male and a female , with appropriately shaped temples, alters, rooms. However our guide (about 25 years old) did seem to be obsessed with sex and saw it everywhere so this theory may have been formed in his fertile young mind. Whatever, the walls (no roofs left - they would have been made of wood and thatch) were sturdy and beautifully built. The temples particularly had those amazingly close fitting stones the Incas and pre-Incas did so well. We learnt about their rituals which had, apparently, a high sexual content and how they organised the building work. There were no slaves, but family groups would be requested to provide a few workers is return for land, food and security. And this was the inca strength and why they conquered so much land and so quickly: they turned up with massive armies and said you work with us, we will provide security, food, organisation OR we destroy you now. So most tribes acquiesced.

So for 3 hours we walked around this amazing site with its 100s of building and 1000s of steps. And all the time you could not help being awestruck be the magnificence of the surrounding mountains.

The long journey back to Cusco was enlivened by the staff on the train giving us entertainment. One of them dressed up as a strange, colourful wolf life character who capered around. 2 others gave us a fashion show of local garments which were lovely but not cheap. Really quite bizarre!

Sunday.
Another early start because we had 8 hours on a coach. We climbed through mountains and reached our first break which was a magnificent church in a poor village. The Jesuits had built the church in the 1700 when they were trying to persuade/ force the local people to convert to Catholicism. And what better way then building a magnificent church they would not be allowed in, unless they converted? Inside was probably the most lavish use of gold I have ever seen in a church anywhere. Totally over the top to my mind, the East wall was totally made of gold, but I have to say, not particularly well executed. I kept thinking they had the hired the local odd job man, given him a ton of gold and a rough plan and set him to work. The west wall had the usual intimidatory pictures of hell and heaven and how to get to each. A nice reminder as you left the church. It must have been very impressive, or perhaps oppressive, to the simple farmers who lived in the area.

However, as we found in a small museum in the Alto Plano, the local people already had a particularly brutal religion of their own, thank you very much, before the Catholics arrived. Statues have been found of "devourers" who ate people. Particularly rare ( but there was an example in the museum) were statues of devourers eating babies. Heads were prized and many statues held a trophy head. Ironically the Spaniards decapitated these statues as idolatrous.

In this area villages were known for a particular product. This dates back to Inca times. So a village might produce cooked chicken, or tiles, or lime, or bread, or a vegetable, and everyone in the village would be involved in the production. We tried bread from the village known all over the area for its wonderful Chuta bread. It was OK. A bit sweet for me. We saw some people having a picnic in a cemetery which is quite usual, presumably to be near lost family members.


We drove over the highest point on our trip; 4537 m (14230 ft) but thankfully didn't have to do any major activity, just get out of the coach and buy stuff.

Lunch was a very good buffet of Peruvian food but still no Guinea pig.

We reached the Altiplano which is a vast plain spreading across Peru and Bolivia. It's average height is 3700 m. There was some agriculture on a small scale but most people herded llamas, alpacas and cattle and because there are no fences, each small herd had a person to stop the animals straying. There were buildings dotted everywhere and occasionally we drove past small villages which were drab and pathetic. Most houses, or more correctly huts, were made of mud with thatched roofs. The upmarket houses were made of badly built brick and had tin roofs. They all looked as if the owner, whose day job was tending llamas, had built them. Some were in family groups, (apparently when a son married the family would build the newly weds a house ) so there were clusters of badly built mud houses surrounded by a badly built mud wall. In some areas the local authorities had built an orange coloured outside toilet in an attempt, I suppose, to improve sanitation. The vast flat bleak plain and the pathetic houses and the inhabitants' tedious life made me feel quite depressed.

The main town of the area, Juliana, was a jumbled collection of badly built brick houses with a few more modern buildings, many unmade roads and it was chaotic and dirty. It is, apparently a centre for contraband from Bolivia. It had the chaos and dirt of an Indian city but with far less people. Not an attractive place. We left it and drove on the through the unending plain and past more miserable houses. Then it hailed so fiercely it covered everything in white within minutes and it looked quite nice. I would not have like to have been in one of those small mud huts during such a storm though.

In my mind Lake Titikaka ( highest navigable lake at 3800m) would be reached by an unmade road and would be isolated and remote without much human habitation with a just a few people living on reed islands. Sadly this was not the case because there is the unattractive city of Puno (pop 146000), squatting on the shore. We didn't visit it.

Monday

We boarded a 30 person boat and chugged 20 minutes from our hotel to the reed islands. And another expectation gone, I had thought there were just a few people living on a few islands, but there are 4600 people on 42 islands, each one containing 1 to 10 families. We visited one island with 1 or 2 (not sure) families living on it. The island is built as follows: 2 metres of reed root which is a fibrous mass, on top a metre of reeds laid down, then houses on top. The one we visited was about 30m by 30m and in the middle was a hole, like a little pond. It was a very strange sensation walking of the reeds because you sink in them and they catch on your feet. The living huts have a comfortable double bed (I know because I sat on one and got chatted up by one of the women) and a table but most of their life seems to be communal. The islands are anchored but they can be moved if the families want a better view. If there is falling out of the families they can even saw an island in two and drift off! The reed is essential to the people, apart from the making the island they eat the tender bits and make boats from of them.

They use barter a lot and have little use for money. We were given an amazing re-creation of 3 women bartering their fish, duck, potatoes, quinoa, etc. and having seen it I am glad we use money. The women wear very colourful clothes as all women in the Andes seem to do, and their hair indicates whether they are unmarried (ie virgins), married or widowed. Finally we were directed to another part of the island where the women had laid out a selection of knitted goods and jewellery which of course we had to buy.

We left the island on a large reed boat which carried 30 people on 2 decks. Some children joined us and sang a variety of international songs. The oldest child was 15 and, my goodness, how her life was different to the 15 year olds we know.

The visit was fascinating, and although their life, to our standards, looks quite tough and unsophisticated, I didn't feel depressed for them as I had felt for the poor people on the bleak and vast Altoplano.

Tuesday
Up early and we headed off to Bolivia. After a short coach journey we stopped at Copacabana which is the original, one, not the Brazilian one. The 16th century church is large and there was a service in progress when we arrived, nevertheless our guide led us through. As a lover of church music I was dismayed to hear the music was obviously recorded and sounded like a European pop song, ie bad. Outside people had brought their new cars to be blessed by the priest. There were markets stands outside selling models of things you might want, such as miniature suitcase with money and passport if you want to go on holiday, or a car, or university degree. I don't know what Rome would say but apparently it has very little influence on the Catholic Church in South America. It's interesting how the ancient beliefs have been blended into the Catholic religion in these parts.


Eventually we arrived at the border, which must be one of the highest border crossings in the world. We were taken to the immigration office to have the police study our passports, take back the immigration cards and, if they felt like it, stamp our passports. A 400m walk up a road brought us to the Bolivian police and their variation of bureaucracy which involved one person, then thankfully 2 staring at the 2 forms we had filled in, looking for mistakes then grudgingly stamping our passports and waving us into Bolivia.

First impressions were that the rural areas were not as desperately poor as rural Peru. There were fewer adobe (mud) houses and more tin roofs. There was a impression of a little bit more care.

Before we got to La Paz we passed through El Alto, the city of 1 million people which sits outside and above La Paz. It is the highest large city in world at 4,150 m (13,620 ft). El Alto has grown enormously through closure of mines and rural migration and because of this rapid growth the roads, such as there are, are bad, signs and traffic lights are non existent as are planning laws. It is not , it seems, a place to stop and visit.

As we made our slow way through the chaos of El Alto in our comfortable coach, it had become dark very quickly (as it does at this latitude) and our guide told us to close our eyes, which we dutifully did. After a countdown we were told open them, and there, laid out before us, was La Paz, millions of lights sitting in a huge bowl (it was once a volcano). It was truly an amazing sight.

Wednesday
We boarded a coach at a thankfully sensible starting time of 9 and drove slowly through the streets of La Paz (3,640 m - 11,942 ft). Telegraph and electric wires were everywhere which spoilt the view but there wasn't much view to spoil because La Paz couldn't be accused of being a pretty city. It is a wonderful setting though. And as in other towns and cities we had visited most houses were either unfinished or in need of repair. Our guide explained that people pay more attention to the inside than the outside and will often not finish because they may want to extend in the future. Whatever the reason, if you look at 100 houses 95 will be, to our eyes at least, unfinished or in need of TLC

The moon valley is an amazing landscape of soft rock worn into fantastical shapes by wind and rain. In 50 years it may be worn away completely so they are looking to preserve it with a silicon sparky as they have done in Cappadocia, which is not a dissimilar site. A lady in traditional dress collected our tickets and we learnt that the bowler hat (imported by the English and French) is the traditional headwear. Amazingly the had just sits on the top of head, it's not fixed at all, so it must do wonders for deportment. If its worn straight then then the women is married, if at an angle then she is unmarried.

We visited a Bolivian ceramic artist who is famous, apparently, throughout the world, and he gave an introductory speech, in excellent English with and American accent, about identity in Bolivia. He was a fourth generation Spaniard so was obviously not indigenous and also not Spanish. I think this influenced his art which was wonderful but sadly we thought it was too fragile to survive the journey home.

The identity thing is important in Bolivia and they are unique in having the first president in South America who is indigenous; Mr Morales. He is also a socialist and understandably wants to help his people, who, it must be said, in both Peru and Bolivia seem to get the rough end of the pineapple. For this and other reasons he has fallen out with the USA but nevertheless the economy is doing well. The country has abundant natural gas and minerals, including valuable lithium which is needed in batteries used in phones, cameras, cars etc. They appear to be handling this carefully so should prosper in the future. There seemed to be an air of optimism.

La Paz has a compact city square containing government buildings and the cathedral. It's was full of people (and pigeons) and rather pleasant. There is a clock on top of the government building which is a true mirror image of a normal clock. No one knows why. We also saw a memorial to, as the guide said, “some of our best revolutions”, (they have had 55)!

We walked to a witchcraft area which contained shops and stalls for all your daily witchcraft needs. There were all sorts of amulets and herbs and cactuses and unidentifiable objects to give you luck, ward off spirits etc. I am not sure what the dried llama foetus did but it certainly looked the part!

From a distance La Paz looks like a million red half finished houses have been poured in a huge bowl. It's an amazing view but for travelling around its a bit of a disaster. So the government has installed 3 cable cars (with another 5 to follow) to alleviate the transport problem. We took the yellow line which whisked us from the the bottom to the top in 25 minutes for just 30p. The views were impressive, particularly into the people's houses. I am not sure such a system would pass planning in UK.

Our Hotel, the Radisson, is getting a bit tired and showing its age, for example there were hardly any power points in the rooms to charge cameras, phone, iPads etc. Disaster! The key system used a swipe card which is a bit hit or miss, in fact we couldn't get into our room so we asked an official looking man in a suit lurking in the corridor and he just pointed downwards to where the reception was. Anyway the point is not the defective key system, but the man who transpired to be security. There were 3 presidents staying from Trinidad and Tobago, Ecuador and somewhere else, and every floor (there were 14) had a security man keeping an eye on us. It must have been the most boring job ever.

The hotel had a great restaurant on the 15th floor which offered wonderful views across the city. And the food was good and cheap.

Thursday
Yet another early start and to La Paz airport for the 8.30 Bolivian Airways Flight to Santa Cruz. Why not direct to Buenos Aires? Because the extreme altitude of the airport (4100 m and the highest international airport in the world) and the thin air mean that planes have difficulty taking off. The runway is 4.5 km long and still only smaller planes can get airborne. So we fly to Santa Cruz and get a bigger plane to Argentina. Airline food on the 1hr flight to Santa Cruz: a roll and a sweet. We landed and immediately felt the heat and lovely oxygen rich air. Water bottles which had been packed at 4000m were crushed by the greater pressure at 300m
So, 2 and a half hours to Argentina. The land of beef. So it was fitting that the meal on the plane was cold shredded pork in a roll. Very meaty. As normal we completed an immigration card on the plane, which, among other things, asked for the make and model of our mobile phones. Interestingly no-one ever asked for this form!

As we flew down to sea level I reflected on altitude sickness which was a much more of a significant factor than I thought it would be. We had spent 7 days living above 3500m and although most of us were getting used to it, some people were still suffering. I had thought I might have had a slight headache and no more but the tiredness, breathlessness, headaches and most strangely aching eyeballs were unexpected. And I got off lightly. J had her day of complete wretchedness but then recovered quite quickly, others had continual breathing problems and headaches. Someone else had restless legs at night. However it was difficult to know if some symptoms were altitude sickness or something else. J and I had upset stomachs for 3 days, was that a bug or was it altitude which apparently can affect your digestive system quite severely? I suspect the altitude weakens your system and make you more susceptible to various ailments. Altitude sickness is not to be underestimated! You also can't hand wash clothes because they won't dry at altitude.

Buenos Aires was a very nice surprise. I had heard that is was called the Paris of the South, and although that might be an exaggeration it certainly had a European feel which was quite a surprise after La Paz, Lima, etc. furthermore there seemed to be a lack of indigenous people in the city, it seemed to to remarkably white and tall. In fact there is a greater variety of people in London. As we drove through the streets to our hotel we observed how clean it was, but the the buildings had a faded grandeur about them and were in need of some TLC.

We ate in a trendy restaurant and club where the average age was about half of ours. We were in quite an affluent area and this was reflected in the young smartly dressed good looking clientele. Apart from us, of course. So with booming music in our ears, mixing with the beautiful people and eating very good food, we had an excellent time and vowed to return.

Friday
The city tour took us to the major sights of the city, starting with the cemetery which was a maze of substantial mausoleums, often elaborate and beautifully decorated. It was here that Eva Peron (Evita, named after the musical!) lay. Our guide was quite outspoken on many subjects and commented that Evita was not all she seemed. Still, she seems to have turned into some sort of Saint. Later on our guide remarked that it was not always safe to talk in public, so she left her more controversial remarks for when we were in the safety of the coach.

The guide also said that the economy was a "disaster" and with high unemployment and inflation of 40%. 50 years ago Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world but now, although not a third world by any stretch of the imagination, is languishing in the world league. A few statistics; gdp per person for Bolivia is about $3000, Peru about $6000, Argentina about $14000, UK about $40000. However with its wide boulevards, hot sun and grand buildings, Buenos Aires has a great feel to it.

We visited the cathedral which was, well, a cathedral but it was on the square where Eva Peron did her famous balcony speech. The pretty square also had a camp of Falkland veterans protesting about their treatment (the guide expresses cynicism about whether they were really veterans) and outside there were veterans begging for money. I asked the guide whether there was anti-English feeling in Argentina and she said, cryptically, that there are always bad people, so I guess that was a "yes". But she did say we shouldn't have any trouble and we didn't need to pretend to be Australian.

As we drove around people were out and about in the sun, running, chatting, shopping, all very European.

In the evening we went to a Tango show. We started with a nice-ish meal of chicken and beef accompanied by unlimited Argentinian wine. We then moved over to show building which had a stage , tables and chairs for the audience and a balcony. It was quite dark and intimate, perfect for the Tango. The dancers were really good and moved perfectly in the steamy way they should for the Tango. This dance was, as everyone knows, invented in La Boca, an area of Buenos Aires, so this was very much an authentic show. Apart from the athletic and good looking dancers wrapping themselves around each other, there was an excellent indigenous band who played extremely well. In fact it was the first time I had heard panpipes and didn't want to run away with my hands over my ears. And then there was a female singer who sang about something, probably about what a bad life/man/indigestion she had then there was a middle-aged popular (to the Argentinians) male singer who we, guessed, was singing about how bad it is to shop in Tesco but now he had discovered Lidl. Or something like that. For me the dancers were the best, then the local band. It was a fantastic evening, a real highlight.

Saturday
We had booked the optional Delta cruise so we boarded a coach to take us to the embarkation place. After driving through upmarket suburbs with nice houses, (although again most need some care and attention) we reached San Isidro, the home of Argentine Rugby. We stopped at a shopping centre and cathedral. We could only surmise they wanted to pad the tour out because the cathedral was unremarkable and the shopping centre was a bit grim. Even the hardened shoppers said there was nothing to buy. There were parrots in the trees though.

The boat set off down the river, which was boarded by waterfront houses, from small wooden huts to larger houses, all built on stilts. This waterfront community which stretches for many miles and is serviced by shops in boats, pizza delivery in boats, refuse collection, mail delivery all in boats. Interesting but not really spectacular. The narrow river opened up into the delta many miles wide as we headed to Buenos Aires. My view was the trip was rather underwhelming for the price.

We took a taxi with a very chatty driver to La Boca, the artistic area of the city. We had been warned to leave there by 5pm because it becomes unsafe, but when we were there it was a charming area of colourful houses, artists pictures and sculptures and restaurants. Women dressed in Tango clothes would try and charm you into having your photo taken with them, or even have a dance with them, at a price of course. Lots of colour, lots of buzz. We ate at an outside restaurant which had musicians and a very good and attractive couple of Tango dancers who put on a great show for the diners. It was another highlight.

There is an "edge" to the city and it can be quite dangerous. La Boca has a reputation at night and one of our group, a female, tried to get a taxi to take her to the evening fireworks there, but, amazingly, the Taxi drivers refused to take her, saying it was too dangerous for a single woman. In fact, the following day we heard that 2 friends of the guide had been stabbed that very evening.

Sunday
Argentina is the third country we visited and by then the currency situation was getting to be a pain in the neck. We had brought dollars because you can use dollars in all countries, but your change is in local currency, and then you normally get a bad exchange rate, which in Argentina was different to the official rate. ATMs in Peru and Bolivia will give you dollars or local currency, but not in Argentina which only give pesos. But we didn't want pesos, so we used a fifth currency we had: Euros. So on Sunday I had no dollars, about 40 euros and £1 of pesos. Luckily credit cards are used everywhere but for tips (and there are lots of those) you need small currency. The challenges of international travel!

We flew north to Iguassu on an internal flight and entered the falls park. A cute train took us, after much delay and, I must stay, faffing about by the staff to a station, where we had to get out then queue for another train on the same line. The whole procedure of getting on the train, the delay, the queueing seemed a bit unnecessary but we have noticed a general air of inefficiency in South America. Another example was in a small cafe where 5 staff stood behind the counter but it took ages to get a simple meal, and then 2 plates.

The 2nd train eventually chugged us to the top station where we disembarked and set off to the falls which were about 1km away. It was very hot and being Sunday it was very crowded. We walked along a metal walkway over the huge river until we got to the falls, or more accurately, a part of the falls. And very impressive they were! Huge amounts of water poured into 3 sides of a vast basin and churned downstream. It is one of the 3 greatest waterfalls in the world, along with Victoria and Niagara Falls and we could see why, and we had seen only a small part.

On the return walk we saw a Cayman (crocodile) in a stream and while watching it I heard an American tourist ask his local guide if it was real (he had obviously only ever been to Disney land) and her face as she comprehended the question was a picture!

And then the rains came in stair rods. Good big drops of tropical rain came out of what only a few minutes before had been a blue sky. Even though we got very wet I thought ( and I may have been alone in this) it was lovely to walk in a tropical rain forest in the rain.

Back in the coach we crossed the border into Brazil and after a short journey arrived at the hotel. The hotels had been very good but this was, as its name suggests, a resort hotel which means children, sparse but functional rooms and a canteen style dining room. And more children. Not at all what we were used to. Outside was a vast swimming pool with a pool bar and jacuzzi, with bridges and corners, but we couldn't use it because we arrived too late and it was raining.

The day had been tiring in the heat so we soon headed to the bar and had a tin of Brazilian beer which was ok, but we gave up ordering a second because the poor barman was overwhelmed by an order of cocktails. Dinner had a holiday camp feel to it. The room was vast, probably catering for a 1000 at a time and the buffet food was a bit school dinner-ish.

Exhausted as I was, I was woken at 12.45 by a family with children screaming and shouting in the reception area just below our window, with not a single shhhhh! from the parents. Most annoying!

Monday
We visited the Brazilian side of the falls for a different view which turned out to be better and easier to get to, without the long walk. It even had a elevator to get down to the best view which was a whole vista of numerous waterfalls of various sizes. It must have been over a kilometre long. In fact the falls have over 250 separate waterfalls.

There is an animal called a quati which is like a raccoon with a long nose which is an extremely enthusiastic forager and will eat anything. If it's long nose detects food in a bag you a carrying and it will jump or climb up you to rip the bag apart to get at its contents. We saw this happen and its very impressive if scarey. What's more it carries rabies so you really don't want them near you. At the service area in the park where food is everywhere there is a man with a stick which has a bottle with stones in, with which he shoos away these multitudinous pests. Of course they return as soon as his back is turned. We also saw large lizards nearly a metre long, monkeys and colourful butterflies as large a birds. It was a great place and better, we thought, than the Argentinian side.

So, to the airport where we found they had lost the bookings for all 21 of us. After much running around by the Sipo staff and a 20 minute wait the booking was found and we boarded the plane.
For information we had a packet of "Parmesan flavour" bread type bites for nourishment on the 2 hour flight.

The 45 minute journey from the airport was through the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro which were a bit grim in places but there were signs of an organised and relatively advanced business environment. Rio is, of course, holding the Olympics in 2016 and, so we were told, the preparations are running behind schedule. No surprise there but they are working round the clock to be ready. Our guide was sceptical about the success of the Olympics but since the World Cup which ran without a hitch (apart from the final: Germany 7 Brazil 0. It's still a sore point) there has been a little more optimism that Rio can produce a successful Olympics. Let's hope there is a little more get-up-and-go than that we have observed.

We drove through Ipanema (where the girl came from) and to our hotel for 2 nights; the splendid and luxurious Windsor which was located right on the edge of the iconic Copacabana beach.

Like Argentina, Brazil likes its meat and a typical restaurant is a Churrascaria. The format is that you pay a fixed rate, £25 - £30, so not cheap. You put a salad on your plate from a substantial salad bar and then waiters come round with a variety of steaks, chicken, sausage like things each on a skewer the size of a sword. So if you want a slice of steak, for example, he plonks the giant skewer next to your plate, and with a large knife slices off piece of meat which falls onto your salad. You can have as much as you like, so it's a meat eaters heaven. Not being a big meat eater I did enjoy the drama and the salad. When you can eat no more, they bring desserts. One other thing, the restaurant was very bright, like a supermarket.

Copacabana area is really quite seedy after dark. Certainly single females should not venture out alone. The restaurant next to the hotel seemed to be the local ladies-of-the-night meeting point. And of course there were the sundry low lifes lurking in the shadows, or just slumped comatose on the pavement. In fact, apart from the odd restaurant the front is not particularly attractive at night. A startling fact is that the murder rate in Brazil is 26 times more than the UK.

Tuesday
Our excellent Brazilian guide picked us up in yet another coach and we wound our way through the graffitied streets, past some lovely colonial type buildings which, as ever, needed attention, to a railway station. The 2 carriage cog-driven took us steeply up to just below the famous Christ the Redeemer statue. A further elevator and 2 escalators took us to the foot of the huge statue. It was built in the 1920s and is the largest Art Deco statue in the world. Apparently at that time there was much tension between the left and right wing with the church in the middle. The statue was a gesture for reconciliation. It's very impressive but unfortunately 1000s of other people thought so too, and they all seemed to need to photo themselves posing in front of the statue. Because of its height many people lie down, causing a tripping hazard, to get the "perfect" picture. It was a scrum but the view of Rio de Janeiro were breathtaking. One of the great views of the world.

On the way back we fell into conversation with a young woman who, when she heard we had been to Argentina, gave us her forthright views on the Argentinians: arrogant, boring, miserable and so on. There is a fierce rivalry with Argentina. In Peru it is Chile who are the enemy, in fact they went to war with over guano.


The evening meal was a so-so Italian which just seemed to confirm that the eating options on the Copacabana beach are limited and average.

Wednesday
The last day and what else should we do but spend it on the famous beach. It is 3 miles long and every hundred metres or so is a beach bar and kiosk selling food, coconuts, phone charging, all your beach necessities. The beach is about 300 metres wide , the half nearest the promenade is dedicated to sport, mainly football. The half near the beach is for the sun worshipers. They have an ingenious method for combatting the too-hot-to-walk-on problem; a hose with holes in stretches from the prom to the sunbathing area and you walk on the wet, and cool sand. Marvellous!

Once we had been set up by the hotel staff with seats and umbrellas we could observe the beach life. We were not surrounded by beautiful bodies as you might expect. In fact from my quick survey I estimated about one in 20 was a proper beach body. Thongs are de-rigour but really shouldn't be for anyone over 30, there was a lot of cellulite and disappearing beachwear. From the comfort of your seat you could buy almost anything, water and beer of course, also ice creams, peanuts, clothes, towels, pictures, bags, sunglasses, and there was even a man who had a little grill who would cook you a skewer of meat. The sea was warm and the waves just big enough to be fun. A great way to wind down on our last day but I wouldn't want to do it too often.

Rio has Christ the Redeemer statue and the beach. There is sugar loaf mountain which we didn't visit but beyond that there does not seem to be an awful lot to see, so we probably won't return.

In summary it was a great holiday but one of the most challenging trips we have done, mainly due to the week we had at high altitude. Fantastic natural wonders are everywhere and Machu Picchu is amazing. However the towns and cities, while very interesting, do not match their natural surroundings. Buenos Aires was my favourite city but Argentina has, as we say, issues!

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Photos

Andes
Taken on journey between Lima and Cusco

Eva Peron's Mausoleum
Buenos Aires

Tango in cafe
La Boca, Buenos Aires

Cocabana beach
Rio de Janeiro

Christ The Redeemer
Rio de Janeiro