Ciao for now...

Tomorrow morning we will be leaving South America and ending our eight month trip. While we are both hugely excited to be seeing everyone again or meeting some people a new, we are both pretty devastated about the end of our trip. After 8 months of packing every other day and absolutely hating it - it is quite sad to think there will be no more.

 For our final day we had an Amazing meal of baby beef, chorizo, morcilla and mollejas to say goodbye to the wonderful Argentine/Uruguayan food. I'm afraid to say Argentina that in the final tally Uruguay won on the most excellent steaks despite the fact that the best steak in South America is to be found in Alfredo's in Bariloche.

 After a huge debate we have decided that we would live in Montevideo, Uruguay but that we think Buenos Aires, Argentina is the coolest city in Sudamerica. Harriet's favourite place is the Salar de Uyuni closely followed by the jungle  - making Bolivia her favourite country. Meanwhile I am in love with Patagonia both in Chile and Argentina - and climbing the mountain in Bolivia really was incredible.

Casi Home

For our final week in South America Matt and I went back to Uruguay. We first spent a weekend in Buenos Aires frantically buying clothes as we feared that our Uruguayan family and friends would mistake us for tramps if we were to turn up in our clothes that we had worn continuously for 8 months. I managed to buy two pairs of shoes, jeans, a coat and a jumper while Matt bought three tops and brown suede shoes!

Montevideo was beautiful even in Winter as the sun was shining and we saw all of our friends and family. We even found time to meet new people and further become integrated into Uruguayan culture. We were staying with Cecilia Brugnini, a well known artist in Uruguay and her house was beautiful. We were both on best behaviour to ensure that we didn't accidently knock over a priceless piece of art!

MENTAL

In our crazy bid to get home from Buenos Aires we have had some mental travelling days and nights. From Cuenca, Ecuador we went to Guayaquil to see a park full of Iguanas. If you imagine Trafalgar Square before they got rid of the pigeons then this park was like that but with iguanas. This was one of treats that we used to cope with the tens of thousands of miles we have covered in the past few weeks.

After Guayaquil we got on a 27 hour coach to get to Lima, Peru. In Lima our next treat was to see Natalie and Tom and drag them to see 'Hangover 2'. The plan had been to go for many drinks to see Tom off back to the UK and Natalie (lucky cowbag) onwards in her trip. However, this plan was slightly ruined by 'Ley Seca', the Peruvian 'Dry Law' which is in place for the weekend of their Presidential Elections, a HUGE roadblock in our plans. Although I think that Matt was secretly delighted at having no choice but to go to the cinema.

From Lima we got a wonderful 72 hour coach to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This was a very eventful trip as I managed to succeed in getting food poisoning on our last night in Lima. Matt being the excellent nurse that he is (I hope that no-one else ever has to be cared for my Matt) first believed that bullying me to eat would work. After throwing up all of my forced feed food, he came up with a new plan of mixing three or four different medicines which he had from the pharmacy and vaguely understood together. Luckily something seemed to work enough as I was able to sit on the bus for three days. (Not exactly like I had a choice anyway as thanks to a volcano in Chile all flights have been shut down.)

The trip was fun as we were accused of having stolen ancient artifacts from Peru. Brilliant. The items in question were a cement made replica fossil and a painting. We had bought both in La Paz, Bolivia but that didn't quite cut it with the Peruvian customs lady. Eventually, after a historian on the bus certified that it was indeed a CEMENT FAKE and I had produced the address of the painter, we were given a form stating that we were taking suspicious items that could be recalled to Peru.

It was an eventful few days. Buenos Aires is just as amazing as we remembered and we have been shopping like crazy to replace our smelly, holey clothes and to look like human beings again. Best of all we have been eating many steaks to make up for the chicken and chips and rice trio that is standard in the rest of South America!

Cuenca

After Quito we moved on to Banos, a place that everyone has told us is amazing and we were very excited. Instead it rained continually for three days which made hiring a very cool buggy a little bit pointless, neither could we walk up to any of the miradors as it was too foggy to see anything. After some very disappointing days we eventually cut our loss and made our way to Cuenca. Below the weather in Banos.

Cuenca is a pretty colonial town with a river running through it which made all the difference to Matt. We spent some time wandering around and browsing through markets before I eventually gave in and bought a Panama Hat. Panama Hats come from Ecuador not Panama like everyone thinks. I didn't exactly buy a traditional one but I have a lovely hat for Henley! Matt decided against getting one and he thinks he looks stupid, I think he is just embarrassed about needing an XXXL size hat. Once we had decided on or not a hat we realised that we needed our hair cut. After not having my hair cut for nearly a year now and it having been treated to travelling, I was not looking my best, so the decision was made to lop half of it off. I now have hair touching (just) my shoulders and very badly painted pink nails with silver bits on them. (The hairdressers' 14 year old daughter wants to be a beautician and it was free and she wanted to practice her English, I haven't yet found nail varnish remover so I'm regretting being a guinea pig!)

Cuenca's cathedral above and flower market below.

Quito

We have got a little tired of the same colonial old town and new town combination that makes up South American cities, so we decided to view Quito from a different vantage point. This one was 4,500m above Quito, so we went up a cable car just under 2,000m and then walked up a bit further. Bearing in mind that we arrived from sea level the night before this probably wasn't one of our wisest decisions, turns out that walking and hiking at that altitude becomes hard!

The views above Quito were very cool, as it is one giant city surrounded by mountains. We wanted to walk all the way up to another peak at 4,700m but at 4,500m we found ourselves in the middle of a cloud and had to sprint back down the mountain before we were completely drenched in ice cold water mist.

Same! (SAH-MAY Beach, not same beach)

As we are now ending in Buenos Aires where it will be cold and I have missed out on coming home with a tan to make you all jealous, Matt suggested a week at the beach before we go into winter to try and cheer me up. We stayed with a crazy German, Caribbean couple who taught us how to make Iced Tea and the perfect Guacamole (be warned it contains virtually a whole garlic bulb) and enjoyed having the whole hotel to ourselves.

Turns out the beach that we had chosen is also THE destination of the rich from Quito. Slightly bad move as the food in the restaurants was extortionate and very poor. However, as we were there for nearly a week we managed to find a very nice place on the beach, it did take us 4 days to do so though!

The beach was very nice and I am now off white. Matt did incredibly well and only burnt his back which is apparently my fault for not protecting him enough! Whoops! However, as he spent a great deal of his time in the gym at the hotel, preparing himself for rowing (I can hear the moans and anguish across the world guys) we can't complain.

Despite us not going to the Galapagos we still got to see Iguanas crawling across the hotel roof!

Bellavista

Well, I was right it was sort of an old man's bird reserve but we liked it anyway! We somehow got the best room in the reserve and so had windows for walls! ( This only caused a slight problem on the final day when the maid came up to clean the room and Matt was getting into a shower! hehehe) You could hear the screams a mile away- Matt was screaming.

Anyway despite our best efforts we did see a few birds. We devised a 'cool bird list', i.e. Toucans, Parrots, etc which warranted a photo but little brown birds slightly bored us. The cloud forest as a whole made up for the little brown birds as we played with leaves and I created an excellent beard out of one of them.

We also went out for a walk to a waterfall which was amazing, as we had to trek up the stream to get to the waterfall and then climb up rocks with ropes to reach the waterfall. The downside was when we arrived Matt decided it would be incredibly funny to try and throw me under the freezing cold jet of water. We also went zip lining over the canopy which was 'loco' but we are awaiting photos of that.

 As Bellavista Reserve is infamous for its hummingbirds, it meant that Matt went crazy trying to get the perfect shot of a hummingbird mid-flight. Turns out that as the hummingbirds move their wings 80 times a second it is hard to get a photo.

Matt trying to take more cool photos, this time a giant spider!

Otavalo Market

After a ridiculously long, 40 hour bus ride from Lima to Quito we are finally in Ecuador! After recovering from this horrific journey (complete with gentlemen not making the loo in time) in Quito for a few days we went to Otavalo in time for their Saturday market.

On a Saturday there is an Animal Market and an Artesian Market. We went first to the Animal Market which is frequented by all the countryside small farmers to buy and sell their stock. It was amazing! I'm not quite sure how animal rights activists would feel but personally it was brilliant fun. All the locals come in traditional dress; a long skirt, blouse and colourful sash for women and a ponytail and dapper hat for men. Then they bring their pigs on leads, which scream like girls by the way, their chickens in baskets and their guinea pigs in sacks. I shrieked at the beginning as I was very unsure as to why sacks should be wriggling away on the floor!

After the animal market we went to the Artisan market which has been slightly ruined by the crowds of day tripping tourists who are on route to the Galapagos. Unfortunately prices are quite high as these tourists don't seem to understand the concept of bartering and therefore the initial price of items is very high. Luckily we are expert barters (or rather Matt keeps his mouth shut and allows me to barter, he is no longer allowed to help as he gives up and pays asking price the moment they bring a child into the room, hmmm.) We got some cool buys but as our Bolivian purchases have their own bag we were unable to justify another bag to carry around.

Our lunch, Matt very nearly died on the spot and had to have two servings!

Traditional Panama Hats, which do not come from Panama but from Ecuador. I tried to persuade Matt he looked good in one but unfortunately he knew the truth- he looked like a moron.

On another note, we are now flying out of Buenos Aires on 21st June! We have a wonderful 3/4 day bus from Lima to Buenos to contend with but it shall all be worth it to visit our Uruguayan friends for a week before coming home!

We finally found Jaguars!!!!!!!!!!!

Admittedly they were in Lima's zoo but we had had enough. After six months of searching and spending many pennies and pounds on going to the pantanal, pampas and jungle we have officially given up with seeing a Jaguar in the wild.

Instead we were able to sit and watch the Jaguars, Pumas, Panthers and various other native wild cats with an ice-cream. Matt was able to take photos and tried his best to make them seem like they were taken in the wild....

A photo of the 'Cock-of-the-rock', a bird from Ecuador which apparently we will be seeing this week in an old man's bird sanctuary Matt is taking me to.

Lima Zoo was actually very impressive for a zoo and incredible for a zoo in South America. I'm pretty sure that we have both seen worse Zoos' in England!

Gringo Porter coming through.....

So we have finally done the Inca Trail and seen Machu Picchu. We were both surprised to find that the hype was not overdone and that they were both incredible!

The Inca Trail is 3 nights, 4 days and many people had terrified me by telling me that it would be the hardest thing I have ever done. We begun the trek, me very apprehensively and Matt doing his utmost best to race the porters. The Porters or Chuskies, are truly amazing men, they are around 5:5 and weigh 60 kilos but run up and down the Inca Trail with 25-30kilos of equipment on their backs. The Chuskies have a race every year, the winning record for the trail is in 3hours and 45 minutes. Last year the trek was done in 7 hours and it takes us Gringos four days!!! Matt had decided that he was going to carry our bags and that he would keep up with the Chuskies. I think he managed to impress a few as on the final day they weighed his bag (20 kilos) and let him try one of their bags on for size! (I also think they were fed up with him, hurling himself down mountains to catch up.)

Matt imitating the Chuskies by running down stairs, I had to look away till he was out of sight as it was terrifying! Below a Chuskie and his ridiculous bag!

I also did surprisingly well at the trek and even jogged on the last day to get to the Sun Gate within half an hour of Matt. I know, I was worried about me too but I think Matt's 6 month boot camp may have finally paid off! Below, me still smiling during the Trek!

We had an amazing group and guide. Our guide Wilfreddo, would play the flute to help us get up those tricky mountain passes! On the way to Machu Picchu we saw quite a few ruins, learnt a lot about Inca Culture and passed through mountains, cloud forest and jungle.

Wilfreddo, playing the flute to get us up the Dead Woman's Pass, the highest point on the Inca Trail. To prove how competitive both Matt and I are, we were told it would take 1 hour and a half to reach the top. Matt did it in 35 minutes and I did it in 45 minutes.

A woman in traditional dress at the start of the Trail.

Ruins on the way to Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was crazily rammed with tourists in comparison to our nice jaunt to get to it. However, we did our best to forge a path through the million exhausted tourists who had only walked for 5 minutes to find the best parts of the city. Incas were crazy, they built a city on the top of a mountain when there was a perfectly good valley below!!!!

Semana Santa in Arequipa

The streets of Arequipa with Misti, a huge volcano in the distance. 

Easter celebrations in Arequipa Peru turned out to be very understated. However, it was a pretty cool city which  we used to chill out and drink coffee at 'Cusco Coffee Company', its embelm looking dangerously similar to Starbucks.

Cactus Fruit 

Cusco Coffee Company where we spent a few hours of our time until we discovered the Starbucks next door.  Turns out there is only so much Chicha Morada or Inka Cola you can drink before you need a Frappacino.

Easter Celebrations included processions and statues. As you can see this one is Christ himself in a glass box.

Colca Canon

In a pre-Inca trail warm up we decided to do a 3 day trek in apparently the biggest Canon in the world. To us the Canon looked suspiciously like a valley and its depth was measured from the highest mountain point which made the rest of it quite a bit smaller!

Colca Canon is also the best place in the world to see Condors, Matt went crazy taking photos and was very upset to learn that the rangers feed them to make sure that there are always Condors for the tourists!

The trek was quite good but the severe lack of food supplied by the company saw our group resorting to desperate measures of eating Cactus fruit to stay alive.

I may have slightly chickened out on the final day of trekking and got a mule up the hill. For the record, this was the biggest mistake of my life and I have never been so scared! I got the crazy, competitive mule (which I named Matthew) who tried to overtake every other mule to be at the front. This was not ok as the path was too small for two humans to walk next to one another let alone two mules, especially as there was a nice cliff drop on the other side. Matt (human) was stupidly competitive too and reached the top of the cliff in first place, in front of the other groups who had left an hour before hand, he was a bit too proud of himself.