South America
August - September 2008
03/08/2008
Map of South America
Yes - we are off on holiday!
Hobohome will be safely parked up in Queensland and early on the morning of the 5th, we will be headed off for a South American adventure holiday.
We planned this holiday almost a year ago - at times it seemed like the time would never arrive.
You can read about the what the trip entails (according to the tour company) on this page.
Our traveling companions for this trip are Norm and Thel Deal - Tracey's parents. (We asked them to join us on this trip, not so much because we like them that much - it's just that the 43 other couples above them on our list (including the bloke and his dog we met on the side of the road the other day) all said no! (just kidding Norm and Thel :-)
I will update this page with photos and text as often as I can while we are away. I will not have access to the software used to update the RSS feed while away - so the RSS feed will stop until we return.
This link will take you to a page of the photographs we have uploaded from the South American trip.
06/08/2008
4am Local time in Santiago Chile. After 18 hours on a plane yesterday, clearly my brain is still on Australian time.
We arrived at about 2pm local time and despite having not slept at all on the plane, decided to take a walk and check out the area around the hotel
The city seems quite clean but the air is quite thick with smog. This is a bit of a shame really as the haze spoils what would be fantastic views of the snow topped mountain backdrop to the city.
Today we have a city tour planned with the driver who provided the transfer from tha airport.
There are as yet no photos in the slide show - I have not yet decided how I am going to get them from the camera to the PC in the internet cafes that we are using along the way.
10/08/2008
Nascar - Peru
This is a VERY slow internet connection so the update may be briefer than I would like. We joined the GAP tour in Lima a couple of days ago and it has been a very busy time since then. We traveled down the coast from Lima to Pisco (home of the famous drink the Pisco Sour) yesterday. Last night we wandered the market streets of Pisco and were able to get a feel for this town that was almost totally distroyed by an earthquake just over a year ago. Only a few of the buildings escaped the quake.
Today we were up early to catch a boat the the islands that lie off the coast of Pisco. These islands are home to lots of wildlife. We really did not think much of the boat trip as we have seen sea lions and sea birds many times before - some of the others really enjoyed the boat trip. The second activity of the day was far more exciting - a buggy ride in the desert followed by sand boarding. The buggy ride was wild! Much like a roller coaster without the constraint (or safety) of tracks. The buggies are powered by huge V8 engines and can really move across the sand dunes. The Sand dunes are huge and climbing or decending at well beyond 45 deg is just crazy! The sand boarding involved using snow-boards to slide (either standing or lying down) from the top a a dune to the bottom (and beyond in some cases). Loads of fun!
Tomorrow we take a small plane flight over the famous Nascar lines - this is the only way to see the ancient ground markings.
I have now uploaded a few photos to the Slide Show. Sorry, they are not yet titled or commented.
23/08/2008
Cusco - Peru
Lots of stuff to report this time ...
We have completed one of the highlights and major challanges of the trip - the Inca Trail! This was simply fantastic. The trail was quite hard going with some parts higher than 4000m above sea level and two major passes to climb - but the experience was worth every step. The entire trek was very well organised and the porters and guides were great. The food served on the trail was just unbelivable - two cooks using a tiny gas cooker turned out some of the most amazing 3 course meals you can imagine. One of the guys with our group had a birthday while on the trail - he was presented with a birthday cake complete with icing and happy birthday piped lettering! Reaching the Inca city of Mitchu Pitchu on the fouth day was amazing. Up at 4am then just a short 5km walk to the Sun Gate - entrance to the city. After the guided tour we spent another few hours exploring and photographing before catching a train back to Cusco.
The very next day we were again up early and on a plane to the Amazon jungle near the Bolivian border.
About half of the group spent most of the night celebrating the conquering of the trail - a few were still VERY drunk when it cam time to catch the flight. They were looking very sorry by the time the hang-over fully developed around 2pm.
After a bumpy bus ride and a 90 minute boat ride we arrived at the jungle lodge. It was basic but comfortable. No power or telephone, no hot water and candles for night lighting.
The guide for the jungle section was very good and pointed out lots of interesting wildlife including monkeys and lots of diferent birds. Unfortunately the entire jungle experince was spoiled somewhat by the food served at the lodge. At best it could be described as bland - it was often burned and was generally a major dissapointment. Four members of the group suffered from upset stomachs before we left the lodge this morning (Tracey and I escaped). Happily this has been the only blemish of what has so far been a great trip.
We are now back in Cusco and tomorrow we head towards Boliva where we are told to expect some very rough roads and very basic accomodation.
12/09/2008
Brazil - Bonito
Boliva was fantastic - a full report of this incredable place will be posted once we get back to the bus. We have thousands of photos to work through - so it may take some time.
We are currently in Bonito Brazil after a very difficult boarder crossing out of Boliva (involving bribes for officials etc). As expected, Brazil is a lot more expensive than Boliva, it is also a lot warmer. Access to the internet for updating the site is quite difficult so we have decided to leave trip reporting until we return to the bus in a few weeks.