Patagonia - Lots of glaciers, mountains, hiking, middle of nowhere type of stuff

After our few weeks in Chile we arrived back to Argentina and Bariloche and met up with the rest of our group. I had been looking forward to Bariloche for a few years now since I lived in NZ. I heard it was a very similar area to Queenstown in NZ which I had spent 8 months and loved. It is in the lake district, a small little tourist town, very scenic and also a ski resort.

It was nice but we just didn't get time to enjoy it properly. In all the times I've travelling I don't think I've ever seen stuff so busy. Maybe I just don't travel in high season so often but planning and booking in advance is not a thing any of us like to do. It's a pain in the ass cause you never know how long you want to stay in a place. A few people thought this was ridiculous when I said this but its just too much work to plan all sorts of stuff when on the road this long. It's nice to just wake up in the morning and decide if we want to go or not, hop on a bus and then go to whatever hostel has been recommended to us. Argentina in summer is a very different case. Everything needs to be planned out and everything gets booked up way too quickly. In Bariloche I spent over 5 hours two days in a row trying to organise stuff. Trying to figure out how many days we need in each place, then when we find a hostel we liked just to find out it was booked up. Then also we wanted to do a tour around the lake district but car rentals were booked up. Buses out of Bariloche were then booked up but also accommodation was booked up in Bariloche. So we just kept meeting dead ends. We liked it and had a good few nights out there and ate so much steak and choripan and eventually we found a 30 hour bus out of there down Ruta 40 (A mostly unpaved dusty highway in the middle of nowhere) to El Chalten in Patagonia.

We had heard the same story about things down here been booked up as well. People sleeping on floors of hostel lobbies and in cars. Also people who got stuck because the ATM's were empty of money so they couldn't pay to leave. Even if they could the buses were booked up and they couldn't even pay their hostel bill. This seemed to happen to a few people so we made sure we'd plenty of money coming down here. Ruta 40 was some trip. Into the middle of nowhere. Mostly desert and shrub style scenery but freezing cold. At one stop we dared Nick to run down this mountain strip off and swim across this freezing cold river. Been from Perth and he'd only travelled in hot countries this was probably the coldest he'd ever been but it was funny and he came out 300 pesos richer because of it!!

El Chalten is a small little tourist town developed in the 1980's for people to go hiking. We managed to get ourselves accommodation even though 6 of us crammed into an overpriced room with three beds on the first night. Being down south the weather had changed immensely and was freezing cold. The second day there we decided to do a hike to Fitzroy. I had been told by my doctors to stick to towns and cities and not to do any hiking at all. My arm was still in a sling and even though the bone was fixed it was still weak. I had been planning on not doing the hikes because of this but in fairness I figured I could just as easy fall in a town as on a mountain. Bariloche has lots of steps and hills and stuff. And on hikes down here most of them are just paths leading you up mountains. Nothing like in Ireland where you really have to find your own route and practically climb at some stages. So with one arm I went for the hike up to Fitzroy. Again been down south its great cause it doesn't get dark till 1030 in some places so we can start stuff pretty late if we like. We had a big group. The pictures will tell all from this hike but let me just say it was incredible but tough going. No longer used to hiking and altitude and been taking it easy for the last few weeks because of the hand. I'd say if I'd have done this hike after Peru I would have flown up it!! The following day was another long day of planning stuff and trying to figure out what we were doing. I then left with two Dutch girls to El Calafate for another hospital check up while the others stayed for another hike.

All these hospital check ups I'm learning a lot more Spanish medical terms. But still so much gets lost in translation and it took me 3 hours to sort out this short visit to take some stitches out. Apparently I was waiting aimlessly at the start which one person had told me to do when I should have gone to see some doctor first to get referred to a tramatologist. Such a pain in the ass. So most people come to El Calafate to visit the Glacier Perito Moreno. Its amazing but such a rip off. They charge 100 pesos which is about $25 for an hours bus ride. Then another 100 pesos just to get into the glacier park. And all facilities and stuff close at 630, they kick you out at 730 and then the bus doesn't leave until 830. So we were there hanging around in the freezing cold and rain waiting for the bus. A lot of us just waited in the bathroom reading a book trying to warm up. This was probably the coldest I'd been in months. And also it was the first little bit of rain I'd seen since around Mid October I'd say. We've been so lucky with weather and even in Patagonia we've been lucky with it just getting the odd shower here and there!! Anyway the glacier is impressive. Its huge. And its size and scale is so hard to see in photos. There were huge chunks of ice crashing off and splashing into the water below. From where we were they looked small but the sound of it was louder than any thunder I've heard and it was also delayed by a few seconds just showing how far we actually were from the glacier even though we felt so close. It is 30km long, 5km wide and average height above the water is 74 metres. So picture this when looking at the photos!!

I don't know was it the cold or something I ate but I ended up getting so sick that afternoon and didn't recover for four days. Couldn't keep any food down and was so weak. We got a bus back to Chile a few days later to Puerto Natales and we were trying to organise stuff for a five day hike. I was so not fit for going but luckily we all decided we needed an extra days rest and this gave me the change to recover properly. Again another hike I wasn't sure I should be doing with only the use of one arm but decided to chance it anyway. Unlike in Peru where we had porters and donkeys to carry our stuff we had to carry everything ourselves. Tents, big sleeping bags fit for -6 degrees, stove, 5 days of food and all sorts of water proof clothing. It was Torres Del Paine we were hiking, the W circuit its called and weather can be very very unpredictable snowing, raining sun etc.

The first day was a short enough hike and weather was sunny but winds up to 55kmph going around steep mountain edges with 15kg on our back. We got to camp and then hiked up to see the Torres. The second day was a killer. A long days hike with our bags in wind and rain and sun. Having to change our clothes every few minutes. I was wondering why people submit themselves to this. The others all seemed to enjoy the second day but I hated it. The main reason I don't live in Ireland is the rain and this reminded me of just hiking around Kerry or somewhere. Couldn't see the attraction at all. But then the third and fourth day came and I totally changed my mind. We were able to leave our bags at camp both days and it was like been back in summer. The hikes were incredible. Stunning mountains, lakes, snow, glaciers etc. We can drink the water from anywhere as its so clean and fresh and here we were filling our water bottles out of freezing cold rivers. Day four was my favourite and there were points where we stopped for a few hours just to enjoy the view which was incredible. It was also scorching hot so we could lie out in tshirts at some stages. We had ended up walking somewhere between 70 and 80 km in the four days. It was a relief to get back to town on the 5th day though and make some proper meals and have a proper sleep. Plus my hand was getting so much better now that I was able to cook again for the first time in a month so made some massive burgers like 250 Grams each with veg and a few other things. Was great to get some proper food in us and relax in the warmth.

This was our third and last time in Chile for a while. We had spend just about one month in Chile in total and it was unreal. Had not heard too many stories about Chile in the past apart from how expensive it is but it was definitely up there with some of my favourites in South America. From here we got a bus to Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego and the end of the Pan-Am!!

Bariloche Photos

Patagonia Argentina Photos - Fitzroy and Glaciers

Patagonia Chile Photos - Torres Del Paine

Start of Jan - Breaking my wrist and heading South through Chile

So January has been very much a month of highs and lows for a number of reasons. Its quite difficult travelling in high season and very annoying, plus the fact I broke my wrist has been kinda awkward as well, but here's the story from New Yrs on now that I can type again!!

So we had our apartment in Valparaiso for New Years. We were on the 14th floor so we stayed there drinking to watch the fireworks which are meant to be among the best in South America. Honestly fireworks have never impressed me and although the others liked it, it didn't do much for me. After this we spent over an hour walking into town and spent pretty much the whole night at street parties on hill tops with thousands of people which I barely remember. Have snippets of memory of glass shattered all over the streets, people dressed up in all sorts of costumes and looking out over the city from a hilltop with music blaring. Got home about 8 in the morning, had about four hours sleep before the others woke me up to go to a concert. I was in no state to be going but decided to anyway.

Was a bit of a mission to get there working out different buses etc and it was scorching hot. All I wanted to do was to go to bed. But eventually we found it. It was unlike any other concert I'd been to. Pools, water slides, people sunbathing walking around in just shorts and bikinis. Stupidly I'd worn jeans. But still managed to have a great day. One of the best days I'd had in this area. And the whole area was so nice. Way nicer than Valparaiso. But 15 minutes before the end of the concert I managed to fall, nothing to do with been drunk and broke my wrist. Didn't even feel the pain at the time but sat there laughing. Even though it was totally out of place with the bone nearly protruding from the skin I thought without the pain it couldn't be broken. But there was a few doctors around who convinced me to go to the hospital. Daniel a Texan guy we'd been hanging out with came with me cause he had the best Spanish and off we went into an ambulance getting a free ride and skipping all the after concert traffic. The ambulance driver even let Dan smoke in the back!! I was mad to just get the hospital thing over with and head back out to finish my night. But unfortunately my X-Rays showed that I had a very bad fracture and needed surgery. My doctor was so friendly as well. This was a public hospital and he recommended I come to him in a private hospital on the Mon.

So I was back in our apartment late Saturday night trying to sort out all sorts of shit with the use of only one arm. Feeling too stressed and sick to eat. A full cast on. At least the pain wasn't too bad. But I was going around in circles. The hospital needed the insurance company to confirm to pay for it. The insurance company needed an estimate on the operation to confirm it which the hospital couldn't give. Once that was sorted I needed to call the doctor to make an appointment which I couldn't get through to him. Insurance company was brilliant though and the following day I went into the hospital, got them speaking Spanish on the phone to the receptionist and it was all sorted. My Spanish was nowhere near good enough to sort all this stuff out but I heard the receptionist say something like 6 million pesos which was $13000 USD for the whole thing. Not sure what it came to in the end but I know the metal plate alone I got was worth $2000. After that the insurance company were unreal. Emailed me good luck, called me afterwards a few times to see how I was feeling and for follow up checks and all. This was when I was lying in bed with nobody to talk to. They also had Spanish speakers on call whenever I needed them as well.

The hospital was like a 5* hotel. Had my own private room. Cable TV with over 100 channels including movies. Really fast WiFi and an amazing view of the beach and the whole town of Renaca below. They were also feeding me like 4 meals a day. Pretty decent food as well. The bed had a remote to move it in any direction. I was offered showers by the nurses. Never seen anything like it not even in movies. The view was one of the best parts.

Unlike the rest of Chile where everybody seemed to speak English including old 70 yr olds on the street that we asked for directions everyone in all the hospitals we went to didn't seem to have any English. Here was me learning all these new technical words in Spanish. Thank god for Wifi and Google Translate. Helped me out a bit. My doctor had a bit of English though which was good and he was so friendly. The operation went really well and I have a big metal plate in my wrist now. Afterwards I was very down. My hand was fucked. I was told I had to have the cast on for a month and take it easy for two months. My fingers and whole arm were numb for 24 hours after the operation and it looked like I wouldn't be able to do a thing. The doctor told me I definitely can't go hiking or carry bags. But even simple things like brushing my teeth or cutting up food took weeks to do. I figured there was no way I could go on and started looking up flights home. Without been able to cook or carry a bag it would be impossible to go on. Even if I could carry my bags and cook it would be impossible down south where it was a lot of hiking. But thank god the others came in that night and cheered me up. Told me they'd cook for me, carry my bags etc and they were so helpful.

I'm writing this now four weeks after the operation. Was very awkward in the beginning trying to do things with my right hand when I'm left handed. Took two weeks before I could even hold a toothbrush and then day after day I noticed been able to do more and more with the one hand. Last night I cooked for the first time and was allowed to get the hand wet for the first time. Because of that day and the help the girls and Adrian gave me I was able to go on travelling. I had been recommended not to go hiking but still managed to do that one handed as well.

One funny story from the hospital was the nurses were asking me about the scar on my nose. Had to tell them that was from another drunken accident in Thailand in which I fell over. They found this quite funny. I know some people who fall over all the time when they are drinking. You know who you are!!!!! But this never happens me usually. But after I got this email from a friend its made me remember about four times its happened and I've always injured myself somehow!! This is what it said:

Glad to see you have progressed from falling on your face. Putting your arm out to break your fall is good progress even, if it an instinct most people perfect shortly after birth!!. Next step is to try not fall at all! Now is you chance to learn how to be ambidextrous....seize it!!!!! You'll have to come home and let us sign your cast?

I checked out of the hospital on the 5th and then we headed onto Santiago. I was in a lot of pain the first few days. Any movement the wrong way would aggravate it and it was fairly swollen as well. Santiago was an amazing city. I couldn't get over how clean and modern it was. There was an amazing metro system that would put any other to shame. That was so clean. There were all sorts of barrios or neighbourhoods around. Lots of restaurants and bars and all sorts of amazing foods from every part of the world. The first night we went to a really cool tapas/sushi place and got so much to eat. Ten little tapas dishes to share and then sushi each. Was perfect for me because it meant I could eat with chopsticks and not have to cut up my food!! The first night we arrived in was a Wednesday and no matter what time of day or night the streets were packed with people eating outdoors and enjoying the city. Seems like a perfect place to live as well. Great climate. So close to the mountains for snowboarding and so close to the beaches for surfing. Even in the summer the mountains were towering over heading capped with snow. We ended up walking around for two hours the first night looking for accommodation which was so annoying. There were so many really nice hostels but so many of them were booked up. This had never happened me before. I usually just go to a place and there is availability. So we really just hung out there and relaxed for a few days enjoying the summer. Cooked some good meals and then moved onto Valdivia down south.

Valdivia is a town of German influence and its really easy to see in the food, the buildings, the beer and the faces of the people. Felt very like been in Germany. A lot of people speak German as well. Really liked the place apart from the hostel we got. We'd decided to book in advance for once which was something we never do and then the hostel turned out to be awful. Very old and musty, not very friendly and kinda felt like it was in an old haunted house that was about to collapse. I had to go to hospital here for a check up as my doctor had some friends he recommended. So we left the hostel early, did this then went walking around and for some beers so we wouldn't have to go back to our place till late. Valdivia is very much a student city on a river. Really nice university which we walked around but unfortunately all the students were gone. At this stage since the operation I was just with the two Canadian girls as Adrian and the Australians had gone south a few days ahead of us. But we planned on leaving after one day in Valdivia to meet them in Bariloche but unfortunately everything was booked up. Again never seen anything like it. Usually we just go to a bus station and get on a bus but in this case we had to spend an extra day before moving on!! So had a nice day relaxing in the sun in a much nicer and friendlier hostel than the first night before moving back to Argentina again.

Xmas and New Yrs Photos

New Years Day Photos

Santiago and Valdivia Photos

North + Central Chile + Argentina

After spending a few days in Chile which I really enjoyed we moved onto Salta in Argentina. Dropping massive amounts in altitude for the first time in months, driving through the driest desert in the world and arriving into 37 degrees in a beautiful european style city. We could already see the buzz of Argentina. People wandering about the streets until all hours. Restaurants don't really open until 10 or so and at 2 in the morning people are still eating. Night clubs and a lot of bars would be empty until about 2 and then they get busy. Plus the steak. Have heard all about this before I came to Argentina and was really looking forward to it but honestly in the first two weeks there we kinda struggled to live up to the lifestyle properly. After been used to getting up so early for most of the time in Bolivia it was worse than jetlag adjusting plus the fact that it was so hot. I've been in above 40 degrees before which has been fine, or humidity in places like Thailand that you get used to but here at 36 and 37 degrees with humidity it kept tiring us out everyday. One day we got into a taxi and the thermometer in the car actually said 51 degrees.

So a lot of Argentina for us was just relaxing and lazying about. Its so european it just felt like been back at home or in Europe. And because it didn't feel so much different there wasn't much to write about. It was nice to get back to the luxuries of a normal country though as well. Been able to drink tap water is one of the things I love which sounds stupid. Been able to cook our own meals instead of eating out all the time.

I had been so looking forward to the food and finding a big supermarket to cook but we couldnt find any big supermarkets that stocked everything but there was no lack to big ass steaks and they were so cheap.

So we travelled from Salta to Cordoba to Mendoza. Mendoza did a wine tour where you cycle around on bikes.

From Mendoza we got a bus across very scenic Andes on a day trip to get to Valpariso and Vina del Mar which is about two hours from Santiago. On the coast we heard this was the place to spend New Yrs. So far I am very very impressed with Chile. I love the food here. The night life and the lifestyle. People are so friendly. Not that I'm saying Argentinians aren't I just havn't met too many yet there cause we were so lazy. Chile is also another really modern country. Everybody seems to speak English here which is shocking. Even an old man that we asked for directions who looked about 70 spoke to us in English. We could be standing on the street looking for a map and someone would come up to us and offer us help in where we are going. Plus we found this massive supermarket. It had everything and I mean everything you could want so did a crazy amount of shopping. They even had Kerrygold butter!! The only problem is the prices. A lot of Chile is the same price as Ireland. Argentina is also really expensive like more so than Spain, Portugal or Germany for travelling in but its cheaper than Ireland. But Chile is Irish prices for a lot of stuff which is rare.

A lot of our group got back together for Xmas and we got a really nice hostel not so far from the beach. Myself Adrian and two Australian guys cooked a big dinner for Xmas day and then spent the rest of the night going out and drinking. Like Ireland I'm pretty sure the bars are closed on Xmas day but unlike Ireland they were able to open after midnight and go until 5 in the morning so we didn't head out until 2 and had a great night!! This lasted for a whole week non stop.

After Xmas 6 of us moved to an apt in Valpariso. Big place with a pool which we still havnt checked out as I'm writing this! Again we are been lazy. Just chilling out and eating lots of food and drinking! Enjoying having our own place for a while. Like moving into a house!!

We stayed on here for another few weeks in which we had a great New Yrs and New Yrs day and I proceeded to break my wrist. Some pretty interesting stories but I might wait until I get quicker at typing with one hand to finish it all off!!

Happy New Year to everyone.

Photos

3days across desert to leave Bolivia(Thank God) and back to the modern world in Chile + the Atacama!

So not too much more to say about Bolivia apart from the fact that its definitely not far up on my list of countries. Pretty much down the bottom to be honest. Hate to say that about a place but I just wasn't impressed. It was cheap, sunny and we had a great crowd of people to travel with plus did a lot of cool activities so should have had all the good factors there but something just didn't add up and it was mainly the Bolivian people and service. The highlights were the Loki hostel in La Paz(which isn't Bolivian owned), the food in the tourist restaurants(which isn't Bolivian), the Death Road cycle (which was great but still a road that a lot of people died on), the visit to prison(an amazing experience and definitely something I'd do again but still we're bribing cops, murderers and drug dealers to show us the inside of a prison) and the first day of the Salt Flats(which our guide was absolutely shit!) So sorry to sound so negative. I had a great time there. Enjoyed most of. Don't get me wrong but overall as a country it just didn't impress me. The scenery was nowhere near as good as Peru, the people were very different to the friendliness of Peru and Colombia. The local food was very basic and unhygienic. Been eating a lot of street food the whole way from Mexico to Peru but barely touched it in Bolivia. The tourist infrastructure is there but just not in good service. As soon as they have the tour or product sold they don't care anymore. The exception to this is our tour on the death road. Our guide was brilliant. I didn't go to the jungle thank god but eight of the others did a tour there, got a shit guide, very little food and bitten all over my mosquito's. Everyone we met heading north had absolutely loved Bolivia. And to be honest a lot of people I've travelled with before who are probably reading this also said Bolivia is one of their favourite countries. And I can totally understand why and the different perspectives you get when you head from south to north rather than the way we did it. For example I absolutely loved Vietnam, one of my favourite countries but a lot of people I met hate it. Funny how you can think different things that way.

Anyway, after Sucre which I actually quite liked, we went to Potosi. This was another tour where you go into the mines to see how people work. Under the same conditions that they did hundreds of years ago. Another tour that sees the hardship of the Bolivian people. Well we didn't bother with it in the end and spent about three days doing nothing but staying in bed and watching movies. From here it was a bus trip to Uyuni across roads that weren't really roads just dirt and mud and potholes until we got to a big flat plain spread out for as far as the eye can see. Coming into this town all we could see was rubbish everywhere. Literally plastic bags in particular strewn all over the place. It was very ugly. The town didn't have much to offer either but it was just the starting point to our Salt Flats tour. Most of them didn't provide English speaking guides but we eventually found a really nice agent whose husband did the three day tour to the Chilean border across the Salt Flats and the desert. This was three days across no roads I think more than 600km but honestly some of the driving on the Salt Flats is better than most Bolivian "roads"!! Although we had pretty good experiences on buses in Bolivia I've heard about other dodgy roads and stuff. I guess we avoided a lot of them.

The Salt Flats in Bolivia are amazing. It is the worlds largest at 10582 sq km. To put this into perspective Ireland is 84421 sq km. So about 1/8 the size of Ireland. Its flat as can be and covered in salt. The jeeps drive across this. There are hotels made of salt here as well. It was very impressive and we did all the cheesy photos that everyone does that with the perspective issue. The first night we stayed in a salt hotel and the food was pretty good the first few days as well. Got llama which I quite like and there was decent portions as well so me with my huge appetite got at least three helpings.

Our guide was pretty useless and kinda but a dampener on the whole trip. Even though his wife in the tourist agency sold the trip well he was just a bit strange. Started out the first hour all cheerful and happy but after that he barely spoke to us. Barely told us a thing and after the first day he stopped speaking English altogether. Most of us had enough Spanish to understand everything except he didn't speak that either. He started falling asleep at the wheel which wasn't that big an issue cause there are no roads to drive on but still that wasn't the point. He slept in, in the mornings when he told us to be up at a certain hour and then when we questioned him about things like that he pretended not to understand. He'd throw out the food to us and then go off to sleep or chatting to other guides or something. In Peru and the death road we had meet such nice people doing tours. Really friendly. Such a different experience in most of Bolivia. I just couldn't wait to get to the border and get to a modern developed country!! We spent most of the second day driving across desert that went up to 5000 metres high. Windy as fuck, hot, cold, freezing. It kept changing and would have been amazing except for the fact that we were just in a bad mood with the driver. Had a really nice Irish couple in the car with us that we got on really well with and funnily enough also new a good few people I've worked with in hotels over the years!! And a very odd Barcelona guy who didn't talk too much at all. Most of the highlights of this desert and salt flats trip are in the photos so won't bore with the details here.

The second night was freezing. Had had a shit dinner the night before, shit breakfast that morning and just wanted to get straight to the border. We all woke up feeling the effects of the altitude and it was that day that we hit 5025 metres. The bottle of red wine and beers the night before didn't help it. We finally got to the border at around 930 and to top it off the border guards wanted to make us pay to leave the country. An unofficial payment that goes straight into their pockets which usually you don' t have any choice but to pay. Just one last straw to top off Bolivian hospitality.

We got in a Chilean bus and already the driver was friendly. You could see the difference in peoples faces. He started describing all sorts of stuff to us. 45 minute journey from here where we actually got proper roads again at over 4000 metres down to the Atacama desert at around 2000 and something. The driest desert in the world we were stopping off in a town called San Pedro de Atacama. The Chilean side of the border was an ordeal because they didn't want any food, wood or anything like that coming into the country from Bolivia. And what a relief it was to get there. Felt like been back in Europe. Proper hostels, showers, toilets, cars, roads. All the things we're used to but usually culture shock for me is coming back to normality rather than the opposite way around. Stuff you'd never really appreciate or notice but when you don't have it for a while and then get it back its mad!!

San Pedro is a beautiful little tourist town. Even so modern that out in the middle of the park in the centre they have wifi and all around. Christmas decorations are up with a big Christmas tree right in the middle of the town sq. Great star gazing at night and great food. I've been looking forward to Argentinian and Chilean food for so long now. We got this meal in the tourist restaurant in the Sq and even though Chile is meant to be expensive $10 for this was great value. Bread with Olive oil, Greek salad lots of olives, pork steak(the girls got salmon pasta, and a pasta pesto which I also got to finish), glass of amazing wine(and i never notice the difference with wines) and an ice cream!! Was in heaven. Might sound plane but it had so much flavour. And the hostels also have kitchens. Been so looking forward to been able to cook my own meals again!!

Anyway, sorry to sound so negative about Bolivia but Chile is definitely a positive so far. Love the people, the food and everything about it so far. Only going to spend two days here though then get the bus to Argentina spend a few weeks there and back to Chile then for New Years. Will probably be switching in and out of the two countries over the next few weeks.

Salt Flat Photos Day 1

Driving through the desert photos

Map of Route

Bolivia - Prisons, Highest cities, Cycling Death Road, lots of Irish

Entering Bolivia after Peru was like going back in time a lot. Lots and lots of more indigenous people and we had heard how cheap it would be but literally couldn't believe how cheap it was. Imagine stuff priced the same in numbers as in Ireland. But the exchange rate is roughly ten to one. So you could get a cheap meal for 10 or so an expensive meal for 20. But really that's 1 or 2 euros. Or a room in a hotel was varying from 15 to 40, per room, not per person. Couldn't get over it. Possible to live good here for 5 or 6 euros a day including transport but its all the activities that really add up and cost a fortune.

So the first few days we stopped off at Copacabana by Lake Titicaca the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. 3811 metres with snow capped mountains around as well. The whole town was geared up for tourists but no tourists were around. It was more like a weird little ghost town so we just spent the day sitting out on some sun chairs by the lake drinking some beers and reading some books. Then two random Irish guys showed up who recognized us from Ecuador and we stopped to chat to them for a while. We decided the following day we were going to take a boat out to Isla Del Sol island, trek across it, come back and get to La Paz the following day then. We were a bit bored of the town.

Funnily enough the boat out to Isla del Sol, 2.5 hrs worth was mainly Irish people on it. Had a good chat and got to the island with great views of the lake all around. Very flat lake, nice sunny day but the people, the locals we met just weren't that friendly. Not like what we are used to. And even though the money is nothing they all seem out to want to make money off the stupidest things! Like at three different sections of our walk there was a local there trying to charge us to get by. It was a three or four hour walk from the north to the south in which we mainly stuck with the Irish and a few Canadians. Had known this guy Aiden now for a few days and had done a bit of the usual stupid small talk where you find out where people are going and stuff. But whatever way the conversation went we discovered that we share first cousins. He's just on the other side of the family than me, and he had been to my house yrs ago and I'd probably visited him too. Am used to meeting Irish I know in Australia or Asia but a little random island in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia when you discover someone your kinda related to was quite random!!

That night we got back got the bus to La Paz and went to The Wild Rover an Irish hostel famous for its parties, Irish food, big warm duvets etc. Three beers in got me so drunk. probably the first time that little since I was 15 or something. But we were at over 3600 metres where all sorts of crazy stuff effects your body. You should see the state of some people who've flown in directly from sea level. Also found out later the beer which is a good beer was 7% and also larger than a pint for less than 2 euros so that helped explain it.

One of the days in La Paz I went to this place which claims to have the hottest chilli's in the world. So if I finish the Vindaloo dish I get a free tshirt. I love spicy food so had to do this challenge and wasn't too bad. Hottest thing I've ever had still is called an Issan salad in Thailand!

We ended up spending about 6 days in La Paz. I wasn't too impressed to be honest it was just the crowd we had and the hostels that were great. We left the Wild Rover and moved to Loki probably one of the best hostel chains in the world!! Might have talked a lot about these hostels already but they have everything. Absolutely everything. This one even had oxegen tanks for people who were feeling the altitude!!! We had a few nights out drinking. Nothing special except that it was so easy to get drunk. A lot of people we've met come to La Paz and stay for weeks or months. I honestly could not see the attraction at all. For the first few days in Bolivia I seemed to bump into someone I kind of knew nearly everyday. For months without seeing Irish people there were nearly a majority of us in every hostel. One night in a bar saw this girl I recognized from Uni. Turned out she was in loads of my photos from the last week of Uni and recognized loads of people I knew. Then another girl in my dorm went to school around the corner for me and lived where I surf. This kind of stuff kept happening until I was out in one shitty nightclub in La Paz that reminded me of the old version of the knights at home and I bump into about three people from Clare.

Since the middle of October there has been a group of about ten of us travelling some people parting for a few days and joining up again and also a few new members to the group as well so have had lots of people to do activities with. We got a group of 12 people to go cycle the death road. A lot of people I know have done this. Lonely Planet which I always recommend for everywhere but have found it useless for South America says how you should only go with this one company gravity and a lot of the other companies have dodgy equipment. This road is described as one of the worlds most dangerous roads cause of its high cliffs, tight turns, crazy drivers and mainly the amount of people killed on it each year. There is barely enough room for two cars to pass on it not to mind the amount of trucks and buses travelling from La Paz to the Amazon. It closed two yrs ago due to a new road opening and is now open only to cyclists. So you do need good safety equipment to cycle it. I shopped around to about 12 different places checking it all out and decided on one company. A few of the others were skeptical about it because of the Lonely Planet article saying not to trust other companies. Well later on when we were on the road we could see that the company Lonely Planet recommend that charges 720 Bolivianos had the worst equipment, just luminous vests, no proper clothes, shoddy saddles and bicycle helmets. We got the cheapest price of all of them at 420 and got the best gear. Proper waterproof and protective coats and pants that barely any other company gave. Vests, helmets that were like motorcycle helmets, proper knee pads, bikes worth $3500 USD before they were shipped and breakfast, lunch and two big decent snacks and water. Plus a guy to take our photos and videos. It was great. The bikes were double suspension with hydraulic breaks.

So we started off the day pretty early, great that we were all friends already and went up to 4600metres to start our cycle on a tarmac road. We had a good number of Dutch with us who claimed they would be no good cause they are used to flat roads and of course they went flying ahead. They were so fast. This wasn't the death road the first few km but I found it more scary cause I thought I should try keep up with them which I obviously failed to do!! We were told we were going at a max speed of 60 - 65 kmph at this section. We then reached the start of the death road. Gravel, very tight curves, getting warmer as we were going down and stripping off the layers. We were losing 1000metres every hour or so. By the end of it we had gone down something like 3700 metres from snow capped mountains in a moon like landscape where nothing grows, through pine forests, into jungle with banana trees and tropical weather to near the amazon. Very interesting change of scenery. The cycle on the death road was very interesting. Fast speeds, slowing down for corners one guide at the front, one behind, another for photos and two support vehicles. There was three minor accidents among our group! One girl fell at very start of death road and cut side of her face. Then one of the guys we came upon and he was halfway off the side of the mountain with his bike on top of him. Think he flipped over the handlebars. He got up laughing as if nothing happened. But looked quite scary from where we were. Then another guy did a slip over a rock in the middle of the road, not near the edge but still cut himself in a few places!! Id highly recommend Overdose if anyone else is going. I know a lot of people have done this already and have seen loads of photos but great guide, and great company.

So after this most of the group were heading to the jungle, amazon for a few days, Adrian was going ahead to Argentina cause he had to start his work visa by the 5th so myself and Mallory decided to head to Sucre and meet up with the rest of the group for the Salt Flats for the weekend. We bought our ticket for the night bus and it was only 70 Bolivianos which is $10 for a luxurious night bus that was like 12 hours. Even though Bolivia is cheap I was sure we were been scammed. Usually we were bargaining for buses in other countries but here I felt like I should have been offering him more than this just to get something comfortable. Like bargaining in the opposite way. Am so used to buses in Asia screwing you over, and in south America buses are better than first class planes. Just couldn't understand why a bus would be this price. So waited around for an hour and got on. Wasn't too bad. Full reclining seats and all that is practically a bed but just no toilet on board.

The main plan for the next few days was just to sit around relaxing and doing nothing. Dec 1st was our first day in Sucre and also the first day of summer and sure felt like it. The weather here changes usually with altitude not so much with season or distance from the equator. But definitely felt like a lovely summers day!! Weird when looking at all the pictures of the snow at home. Heading south from here the weather should keep getting warmer for a while, even though were going further from the equator we've been at altitude for so long now its been chilly enough at nights. Rain usually follows me everywhere I go but I must have some good luck charm lately with me cause I think I've only seen two days of rain since the start of October. Loving it. Also even though there was Xmas decorations as far back as October in Colombia we are seeing them more and more. Keep forgetting its nearly Xmas. And compared to Australia and NZ which seemed to do very little for Xmas with regards to decorations South America is definitely into it in places!!

Had a nice walk around Sucre and relaxed in the park reading and stuff. Very very much reminded me of Spain, blue skies, white buildings, hot, red roofs and pretty churches. Nothing to keep us there too long though to following day we moved onto Potosi the highest city in the world at over 4000 metres. Again was skeptical about the bus cause it was only 1.50 EUR for 4 hours. But of course it was fine again.

After that we are planning on moving on to Uyuni to do a salt flats tour and then head into the north of Chile and onto Argentina. Been looking forward to Argentina for so long now!!! Can't wait.

This is a map of the route with the list of hostels and transport and all that.

Bolivia Photos

Death Road Photos