Lish and Ands hit South America

We crossed over to Brazil, Porto Iguaçu to be exact, in a luxury car (compliments of Andrea's Iguacu tour) with a driver who couldn’t speak English or understand our limited Spanish as he was... Brazilian!! Welcome to Brazil... Goodbye Spanish and welcome to Portuguese! At least we didn’t even have to get out of the car to stamp our passports as our Brazilian driver did it all for us!

From there we flew to Porto Alegre to meet up with Lisha’s friend from Tahoe, Caro – where we stayed with her family for 3 days! We arrived in Porto Alegre on Saturday afternoon, ready to party that night in true Brazilian style with Caro and her Brazilian girlfriends. We went to Caro’s friend’s birthday party – got our first (but def not last) taste of Brazil's national cocktail, the Caipirinha (made with cachaca, which is sugar cane rum, sugar & lime) and set out on the town after learning more about Brazilian culture from all the single Brazilian girls! We had a really fun night out - with Caro's friend Gia trying to 'hook us up' with Brazilian boys by acting as our translator and match maker!
The food market in Porto Alegre
View in Porto Alegre
We took the bus on that rainy Sunday to Caxias do Sul, to visit a friend we had met in Chile, Victor! Caxias do Sul was established by Italian immigrants and is also a wine-producing area in Brazil (although we later figured out we couldn't afford the wine in Brazil). We spent the day there, getting a taste of Brazilian/Itialian cuisine, and getting a personal tour of the town and surrounding areas. The following day we set out to explore the town of Porto Alegre and do some sightseeing, afterwhich we grabbed a bus to Florianapolis on what was our first busride in Brazil and definitely a dodgy bus ride at that, comparable with bus-riding in Bolivia!

A 'bunch of glass' in Caxias do Sul!

We arrived in Florianopolis early the next morning and after 2 local busrides, getting dropped off at the wrong stop, walking up a giant hill in the morning heat - we finally arrived at our backpackers, Sunset Backpackers (we met one of the hostel owners at Millhouse in BA), and he was insistant that there is only one place to stay in Flori, and he was right - this was the view of the lagoon from our backpackers:

All worth it though, as we were finally experiencing Brazilian paradise and we're booked into a private room with a double bed, small balcony and an amazing view - Andrea and I dubbed it the 'honeymoon suite':

No time was wasted as we went on a tour of the Florianopolis beaches that afternoon with our backpackers in their magic school bus, complete with disco lights and matching sounds system. The spent a chilled out afternoon lazing about on the beaches and watching the sunset, we also met some cool peeps on the tour and spent the next couple of days with them!

We liked Florianopolis so much, the hostel owner convinced us to change our flights - which we did after he helped us and so ended up spending an extra day in Flori before we set of for the rest of Brazil.

Next stop RIO BABY!! ...but not quiet yet as we flew to Rio, got there and then directly went to the bus station to grab a bus to Buzios (a nearby beach resort), also known as the St.Tropez of Brazil and playground to the rich and famous! Our hostel, Nomad Buzious Seashore Hostel, was right on the beach - and we were loving living it up in the lap of luxury! We spent our days lying on the beach - sipping on Caipirinhas, eating oysters, eating fruit salad dessert... all while lying on the beach!! One word for this place and that's AMAZING! The cobble-stoned, fairy-lit street of Buzios:

Yummy, Oysters on the beach!View from our hostel:

On our last day we went on a booze cruise with all-you-can-drink-Caipirinhas and rushed from the boat to our hostel to grab our backpacks and make our bus to Rio... just in time, and arrived safely in Rio, ready and amped for Saturday night!
In Rio, we stayed at a hostel called CabanaCopa in Copacabana... and we made some friends & went out to a local bar called Emporio in Ipanema on the Saturday night. We spent the next day walking along the Copacabana beach, and explored the areas of Ipanema and Leblon, going to the hippy market in Ipanema and running into Capoeira performers on the beachfront. That night we signed up to go to a Favela party (term used for shanty town in Brazil) with our hostel and whole group of hostel friends, something not many well-off Caiocas (Residents of Rio) would do!! However our tour operator (Don't be a gringo, be a local) assured us there is no reason to be scared as we were 15 vans with roughly 10 people in each van all going together - basically a 150 gringos all heading to a party in the Favelas! We arrived in a massive warehouse-looking club with thousands of Favela locals getting down to Favela Funk! 'think African Kwaito type style music' Luckily the gringos had a 'VIP' section upstairs - so we could get use to our new surroundings before joining the masses who were dancing like we've never seen people dance before. The guys mostly weren't wearing shirts, their shirt was safely rolled up and tucked into the back of their jeans and the girls wore tight clothes and tiny dresses but somehow managed to 'hit the floor' or 'get down' in a way only Brazilian girls can! We had a massively fun night after we got over the initial shell-shock, and this was definitely one of the funnest nights we had in Rio!!

Not all Favela'd -out yet, we followed up the Favela party with a tour of the Favelas the next day! WOW, this was definitely an experience! We went to Rocinha, the largest Favela in Rio, and got escorted on moto-taxis (basically getting a lift on the back of a motorbike) up the steep street hills of this crowded Favela. Our photography was restricted during the tour as there are some areas that are not to be photographed, this is as per gang regulations - for example we couldn't taken any photos going in or out of the Favelas as the entry and exit locations is to be kept 'secret'. This was definitely a pity as we saw some very interesting sights such a guys driving on the back on moto-taxis with an AK-47 in hand! We also walked past numerous gang members with guys hiding under the jackets or stuck in the back of their pants, all equiped with walkie-talkies so that they can communicate with each other. This particular Favela is run by a gang called Amigos dos Amigos (ADA), which translates to friends of friends!

We met up with our friends from Florianapolis that evening in Leblon, the chic beachfront suburb in Rio.

On Tuesday , we decided to try out the beaches of Rio, especially the world famous Copacabana beach; the weather didn't quite turn out as forecasted, and unfortunately we never got to experience Copacabana beach in true brazilian style, but this is always an excuse to go back, VERY soon!! Brazilian beaches:

The following day, we set out on a city tour of Rio visiting the neighbourhood of Santa Theresa by a small , really old fashioned tram , which actually made headline news when it crashed only a few days after we were there.

DSC00848

Mix in trendy Leblon was the party for that night. All you can drink caiprinhas until 12pm, for only 15 real, which is about R60. It was enough to set us up for the night.

Finally the sun had come out in Rio and and we headed for the absolute 'must-sees' , Christ the redeemer statue and Sugarloaf. The views were spectacular and the absolute beauty and spirit of Rio shown off from these view points. Ashamed to admit, it made the view from Table Mountain look rather silly..... Rio, to date , the most beautiful city we had seen in the world!!!! Christ the Redeemer statue:

Sunset from Sugarloaf:

Our last night in Rio was spent with the locals, making our own caiprinhas at one of their apartments and visiting some neighbouring pubs, by the time we got there most had closed, but the drinking on the street continued, some very clever people have coolerboxes on the side of the streets and sell to you straight from there.

The next morning we were off to Isla Grande, meaning 'big island'. It is Brazil's biggest island and also has one of the top 10 beaches in the world,Lopes Mendez. The island has no cars and the only way to get around is to walk or to take a water taxi to the other side. It has a very small population but plenty backpackers, restauarants and parties!! It is safe to walk everywhere and has a real community feel :-) simply put, paradise :-) The first day there, we embarked on a hike, which was a little longer than anticipated and almost all of the team had some close moments along the way negotiating the sometimes steep rocky paths. The hard work was rewarded though when we reached our beautiful destination, what looked like a deserted small town and ate at a local restaurant, which is more like the porch of somebodys house. You also had to wait for the hosts to finish showering and brushing their teeth before you could use the 'restaurant' bathroom!! Lucky we had experienced this all before in Peru and Bolivia.
Hiking on Ilha Grande:
The next day we headed out to the top 10 beach Lopes Mendez on the water taxi; totally unpopulated Lopes mendez is beautiful; and the weather played its part too, a perfect beach day :-)
A perfect day at Lopes Mendez beach:
The water taxi

Apart from hiking and beaching we enjoyed the most delicious food on the small island, some great meals out and some great parties!!
Dinner on the beach on the island of Isla Grande:

Our last coastal town stop was in Paraty, heading down the coast and making our way towards Sau Paulo. Paraty is a historic town and os also well known for its beaches and waterfalls...! Here we once again enjoyed some great dinners, some good parties (including a local beach braai party) and the mean caiprinhas served by the Che Lagarto barman!! We visited nearby Trinidad, which had some stunning beaches, and did a waterfall tour, which takes you to a few unique waterfalls, one of which you can slide all the way down , and visited a local cachaca mill (brazilian national drink)

Historical Paraty . It was really sad leaving Paraty, knowing that we were headed to the big city of Sau Paulo for just one night , and then it woud be time to go home, this was our last taste of Brazilian coastal towns, beaches, local parties on the beaches and midday caiprinhas in the sun...

We didnt see much of Sau Paulo as we were only there for one night, it is one of the biggest cities in the world, but more a city to work in than one for tourists. We had a farewell dinner and drinks with Imke and Stu, sad that our travelling party was now going to split ways :-( and the following morning tried to do some last minute (not so successful shopping) and enjoyed the last of the brazilian markets , then it was time to make our way off to the international airport, homeward bound...!! Excited to go home and see family and friends but devastated that these incredible three months were coming to an end! The airport was chaos (never seen anythign like it before) but we finally made our way on to flight SAA 233, destination: South Africa!! What an incredible experience this had been!!!!

We crossed the beautiful snowed-out peaks of the Andes into Argentina! Wow, what an amazing site!... of which we were mostly asleep as we were still utterly exhaustedl! We arrived in Mendoza that night and grabbed a taxi to our hostel, Hostel Empedrado - a hostel offering a free glass of wine every night in true Argentina Wine Country style! We decided to go out for a bite to eat and a glass of wine, at about 11, this is normal dinner time for Argentina and walked to the main square, Plaza Independencia, to grab a bite at a local Cafe! We ended up meeting some local guys, a Argentina gaucho (cowboy) and local barman - who we partied with a bit in the next couple of days!

The next day, we got ready to explore Mendoza and more importantly drink some vino tinto (red wine); the area around Mendoza is the largest wine-producing area in Latin America and Mendoza itself is famous for its Malbec.! We met an American lone-wolf traveller at breakfast in our hostel, Sarah, - a really nice girl and we instantly aquired a friend for the next few days! We started off by exploring the town of Mendoza, visiting the various squares and doing some sightseeing, thereafter we set off for a wine tour organized through our hostel. We visited an Olive farm, a big commercial wine farm and a smaller family-run wine farm, which produces organic wines - and of course we drank lots on vino tinto!!

Vistandes the big commercial wine farm


Cecchin, the smaller family-run wine farm

On our second day in Mendoza, after a heavy night of eating red meat as part of the Argentinian barbeque and drinking some wine with our new friends - Sarah and the local Mendoza guys, we set of for another wine tour, this time on bicycles - we arrived at the infamous Mr. Hugo, what a legend - he hooked us up with some bikes, a map of Maipu (a wine area) and some free wine - for a very good price and off we were! We had an awesome afternoon, riding through the vineyards, altought at times not as glamourous as it sounds - we got a bit lost and some of the roads were a bit rough as they were under construction, but the day got better and better with each wine farm, or should I say with each wine glass and we even ended up bumping into our old Amazon crew - who decided to take on the wine route with tandem bikes, very brave!! All in all this was an amazing day, watching the Mendoza sunset while drinking vino tinto!

Renting bikes from Mr.Hugo

Riding through Maipu

Outside the Vineyard of Trapiche

...and some more wine

On our last day Andrea and I decided to treat ourselves to a spa day at the thermal pools near Mendoza, Las Thermas de Cacheuta! This was AMAZING! We spent the whole day relaxing in thermal pools, covering ourselves in mineral-enriched mud, enjoying hydro massages, a fabulous buffet lunch and ending it off with back massages! Yip, it's a tough life being a backpacker!

Las Thermas de Cacheuta

Covered in Mud!

It's tough life, this backpacking thing!

We caught the bus that night to Cordoba to visit Lisha's friend from Tahoe, Javier, in his hometown of Cordoba. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina and has many historical monuments preserved from the times of Spanish colonialism, especially buildings of the Roman Catholic Church. Javier picked us up from the bus station the next morning and took us to his home, as we were staying with him and his family!
In Cordoba

Javier played tourguide for the day as we went sightseeing and walking around Cordoba, making Javier go to museums in his own town which he has never even visited! We got ready that night for a big night out, we went to Javier's friends house for some pre-drinking and thereafter to a local club in the student party area in Cordoba! The town was packed, as Thursday night is the big party night in town and the local elections were also coming up that weekend, on which apparently you are not allowed to go out as it is expected of you to make a sober voting choice.

Partying in Cordoba with Javi

We caught the bus the next morning to Buenos Aires, and arrived that Friday evening - we got dropped of at our hostel, the renowned party-hostel Millhouse and literally walked into what we though was a club, the reception area was dark and in the backround their Millhouse bar was lit up with strobe lights and pumping with people and music! We dropped our bags and went to join the crowd at the bar, once again bumping into our Amazon crew who was also staying at Millhouse.

The following day we went to explore the city of Buenos Aires, we visited the beautiful Recoleta Cemetry, where Evita is buried and enjoyed the weekend markets at the cemetry. We then met up with our friend Sarah for lunch, Sarah showed us around like a true local as she had been living in Buenos Aires for her Summer. She took us shopping in Palermo Viejo,an area in Buenos Aires known for fashion, design, restaurants, bars and street culture. We went out for dinner that night to an amazing Argentinian steak restaurant (parrilla) which Sarah had been raving about since Mendoza - La Cabrera, one that was truely worth raving about, the food was amazing and we indulged in delicous steak and red wine in true Argentinian style!

The Obelisk, an icon of Buenos Aires

Area of Palermo, Tazz - a club by night and a shop/cafe by day

Eating some steak and drinking some vino with Sarah at La Cabrera, yummy!

On the Sunday, we walked through the San Telmo Sunday market, selling everything and anything imaginable and that afternoon participated as spectators in a local 'footbal' match, of the team San Lorenzo - this was quite an experience as we were surrounded by passionate men singing their hearts out for their local football team and even some supporters taking it a bit to far by climbing the fence taking of their shirt and swinging it in the air while singing their heart out, no passion for football lacking here. Unfortunately San Lorenzo did not win and the crowd went home disappointed, that is after they kept us in the stadium for about 40 minutes standing at the locked gates, as the other team exited the football stadium - apparently this is so no fights can occur between supporters of the different teams.

On the way to the game, ready with our tickets

Passionate crowd of supporters...

...and dude please put your shirt on!

Monday we popped over to Uruguay on the ferry, which took 3 hours there and 3 hours back, to visit Colonia del Sacramento, more commonly known as Colonia - a cute little Portugues-influenced colonial town, with cobblestone streets and old cars. Colonia is renowned for its historic quarter, a World Heritage Site. We hired a golfcart for the day as Andrea put her driving expertise to the test, yes we were driving on the 'wrong side' of the road!

Watch out Michael Schumacer

We also decided to get to know the city better and did so by taking a city tour of Buenos Aires on an open-bus double decker, this was a great way to see this beautiful European-influenced Capital.

Floralis Generica, a giant mechanical flower which opens its petals in the morning and closes at sunset

Parliament Building

The Boca Stadium, home to Maradona

The colourful area of Caminito

To further emerge ouselves in Buenos Aires culture and really become Portenos (the name for Buenos Aires residents, meaning people of the port), we took decided to learn to TANGO!! We spent our Tuesday evening going for a Tango lesson, where we learnt the basic moves of tango and each got a chance to dance... as there were more girl than guys this felt a bit like a high school dance where you were waiting to get picked, yes definitely a bit awkward at times but it was great fun and everyone really enjoyed it. After our tango work-out we got treated to a tango show and an amazing dinner, with yes, unlimited wine! We had a great evening, and were really impressed by the show, the dinner and our newly acquired dancing skills, which might come in handy at the local Buenos Aire clubs!

Graduation from Tango Class

We spent our remaining days in Buenos Aires in true Portenos style as we went shopping for leather shoes and hand-bags in Galeria Pacifico and Avenida Florida, as well as going out for dinner at Puerto Madero - an area next to the port filled with restaurants. Andrea also attended a Gaucho day (Lisha had been previously with family so gave this one a skip). A gaucho is a cowboy and this day involves visiting an Argentinian horse racnch and experiencing their way of life for a day. We were greeted with piping hot empanadas (a veyr popular meat pasrty throughout South America) and a glass of wine before 12pm to kick-start the day. We visited the old Gaucha museum showing how the cowboys lived in generations gone by, took a ride on a horse-carriage and did a bit of horse-riding. Lunch was a traditional Argentinian barbeque , one again with unlimited wine and a traditional dancing show on the site. Afterwards the crowd was invited to dance and unfortunatley I was targeted by the chief cowboy (name forgotten) as he had taken a shining fany to my blonde hair which he had earlier expressed to the rest of the crowd. He loved kisses too! yugh...

The horse ranch:

Real life cow boy:

Argentinian barbeque:

Unknown gaucho who fancied his blondes- beware:

Gauchos showing off their skills:

After lunch the cowboys showed off their skills on the playground whilst we spectated.

Thereafter we were off to Iquazu Fall, Andrea left a day earlier as I decided to stay in Buenos Aires for an extra day as I had already seen the Falls. This was the only time Andrea and I split, and yes the only one of us missed a bus - that being Lisha as she was late for her bus to Iquazu but luckily caught one 2 hours later at no extra charge!

Iguassu falls or Iguazu (in spanish) lie on the border of Argentina and Brazil and separate these two countries, and thus can be seen from both sides. Iguazu means big water and that it was, both sides were spectacular!!The Brazilian side showes a more panoramic view and on the Argentinian side, you get much closer to the water. On the Argentinian side, I also took a speed boat ride which takes you right underneath the falls, you get soaked!! The weather was perfect, it had rained recently and so the waters were pumping , but for the two days I visited each side of the falls, the sun shone and the sky was crystal clear. A highlight of this trip!! I could post so many pictures , but I will just tempt you with a few:

In my raincoat on the brazilian side:

Rainbow at the falls:

At the end of the Falls trip, Lisha and I re-united, and we spent one night at the Argentinian side of the falls, an then got a shuttle transfer to the Brazilian side the next morning to catch our airplane to Port Alegre in Brazil!!Brazil baby , here we came!!!

After the Pisco Valley, we headed to Valparaiso, a beautiful city set on the hill overlooking the port. It is a UNESCO world heritage site adorned with colourful buildings, mosaiced streets, artwork and graffiti everywhere.

We did a lot of meandering around, admiring the artwork and the beautiful views! Lisha took pictures of almost every piece of graffiti in the city,
Valparaiso is characterised by steep hills and walking back up is not always so easy! Luckily they have a number of ferniculars in the city running lifts back up to the top, these are all really ´old school` wood carved lifts and in keeping the old theme of this colourful, vibrant city.
We visited Pablo Nerado`s house, he was a famous poet and Chilean member of government and we also went to the nearby city of Vina del Mar. Vina del Mar is more upmarket and razzy than Valparaiso, with beautiful white beaches but lacks the character of arty Valparaiso. It was great though to walk along the coastline again, it had been a while!
We continued to enjoy the Chilean cuisine, sushi, seafood and supposedly the `best pasta in all of South America`. This was our treat on the half way mark of our trip, delicious!!

A highlight of our visit was the Chilean cooking course. Lish and I had a private cooking lesson with our instructor, Borris, whom we spent a wonderful afternoon with. We could select our own menu and then Borris took us down to the local markets where we bought the ingredients off the street. On the menu for today was salsa, Ceviche (a raw fish starter), Chilean corn pie, and to top it off we learnt how to make our new favourite drink too, Pisco Sours! We spent the afternoon listening to local music, chopping, cutting, cooking, chatting.... it felt like we were back home for an afternoon... except this kitchen overlooked the beautiful city of Valparaiso !! The food turned out great, especially accompanied with some local wine, and we officially felt like Chilean masterchefs...!!

Another thing Valparaiso is very well known for is its vibrant nightlife! It is a univerisity town and thus has loads of bars and clubs which stay open until the wee hours of the morning. We went dancing with two English girls we met at our hostel, Luno Sonrisa. We went out pretending at each stop that it was someone`s birthday to score some free drinks. The first club had a formal dance going on where you followed the person on the stage, it was soo much fun, but I bet the Chileans had a good laugh watching us trying to keep up with their sexy dance moves. We club hopped until 5 am,at which time, we felt like complete losers leaving, as the clubs were still packed, not only with youngsers but also people our parents age, still ripping it up at 5am.People in Chile sure do know how to have a party!!! Out on the town...

Beautiful Valparaiso:

Next stop was Santiago, a short 1.5 hour bus ride and the capital city of Chile. We were warned there wouldn`t be much to do in Santigo, but we were pleasantly surprised and managed to completely overstay our welcome here!! The nightlife was great and I think we saw a lot more of Santiago by night than by day. Our first night there, we nearly got ourselves into some trouble, when some guyts we met at the hostal bar suggested we used their secret shortcut to the club next door. This was basically a rabbit hole you crawl thorugh and you pop out straight into the next door club thorugh a hole in the floorboards. They had tried it very successfullly before, but tonight the club had had enough and us `first timers` were made an example of! Short of calling the police they called our hostel, luckily our friends answered the hostl telephone, posed as hostel staff and came to `rescue`us from the club. Our little adventure through the rabbit hole in innocence nearly turned very wrong!
The next day we visited Concho y Torro, the biggest wine farm in Chile and none of the biggest producers in the world. If you recognise the label `Casillero del Diablo`, it comes from this farm and is exported to most countries in the world, including SA! It means cellar of the devil and was named this after the owner started a rumour that the devil lives in this cellar, soon after, wine that had been mysteriously dissapearing from his cellar, no longer dissapeared and the rumour turned into a myth that stuck amongst the locals! We met two Brazilian friends on the wine tour who we the four of us continued the wine drinking tour on our own behalf. Drinking a bottle there and buying some take-aways for the Metro... our Sunday afternoon wine tour turned into many bottles later and in to the very early hours of Monday morning!!

Santiago is very close to the ski resorts in Chile, and so we were delighted to be able to hit the slopes for a few days! This was another big highlight in the trip!! We stayed in the ski town of Farellones, a cute little village in the snow, from which we called walk to the ski resort of El Colorado. We ski-ied here for 2 days and in the nearby resort of Valle Nevado for 1 day... the snow was good, the weather was good, and our ski-ing and snowboarding was, well, good :-) Our hostel was a lovely little ski chalet and we arrived back to a roaring fire and delicious meals each day! . The view from our hostel .
Ski bums The town of Farellones Our hostel

We returned to Santiago to do a bit of site seeing by day and not only by night... admiring the view from San Cristobal , where Santigo has the equivalent of Rio`s Christ statue with the statue of Mary . We did a walking tour of Santiago with a local Chilean women, where once again , we got a private tour as we were the only ones . She took us into the `coffee with legs´ which is a coffee bar for men where they can get a little more than just a coffee, and no, Eva Longoria was not in there and neither did any of the women look remotely like her. All rather ugly and fat, and we left very promptly, clearly not wanting a coffee or anything more. It was interesting to see though! Coffee with legs shop: . The Santiago market was also very interesting, packed with fresh fish and seafood, a rather stinky place really good meals... everyone loves South Africans in Chile and we got plenty of attention. When replying where we were from in the market, we got promptly led to a restaurant in the market, whose owner had been to South Africa, he had a whole display as a tribute to South Africa, with pictures, wine from Groot Constantia, vuvuzela`s and all sorts, he was very excited to meet South Africans in his restuarant!!We also tried the Chilean volcano `terre moto`at a local pub, its basically white wine with cream on top and who knows what else!! ...this pub was interesting, with all the locals vying for our attention and wanting us to sit with them, we felt very popular, the funniest was you could be talking to one guy and another will come and deliberately interrupt saying `come sit with me, I speak better English`, haha!

When the time came to leave Santiago, we had a very early morning bus to Mendoza, Argentina.. we decided that we wouldn´t go to bed and would rather party through the night and sleep on the bus... we arrived at the bus station having not slept and exhausted, ready for our 8 hour nap!!But alas, as with our previous bad luck in border crossings, we heard the border had been closed due to rain and snow, would only open in 2 days time! Very dispondent, we had to kill a morning in an interent cafe on no sleep, until we could check back in to a hostel... this time we had a very early night and luckily the border opened again the next day... bye bye Chile!! ...we were off to Argentina and ready for some more vino tinto...

We took a jeep to Chile, on the alternate route to Chile which was apparently open. A whole day of travelling and a wait of 3 hours at the border transferring from the Bolivian jeep to a chilean mini-bus. We were basically personally escorted to Chile and the 40 dollars we paid now seemed really worth it! The roads were dodgy at times but the scenery was spectacular!! This was an old bus that never made it across the border...

We were surprised to see tar roads, street lights and highways again, basically back to civilisation!!
We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, without having booked any accomodation, due to our lack of internet access in Bolivia.
We were lucky enough to check in to Hostel Soncheck, our home for the next 5 nights, an eco friendly hostel, all made of natural products, in accordance with the theme of the town of San Pedro. The town of San Pedro...

San Pedro is a delightful small bohemian desert town. All the buildings are made of clay and have an earthy tone to them, and the roads are unpaved or untarred. It is filled with artists, markets, bakeries, restaurants and travel agenices! But beautiful and small enough to walk anywhere in 5 mins!

We spent 5 days here delighted to have arrived somewhere warm. The days are as hot but the evenings are extremely cold, a real contrast, but typical desert weather! We enjoyed lounging around at our hostel in the sun during the day drinking pisco cocktails and reading . This is Hostel Soncheck This was the first time we put our culinary skills to test, and we used the hostel kitchen often to make delicious meals! It was great having home cooked food again. However, San Pedro was definitely not lacking in cuisine options , which of course we had to sample and we enjoyed some fantastic dinners out. All resturants have a menu of the day and it is cheaper to order this 3 course menu than it is to order a single course off the menu, thus we obviously took advantage of this and ate very well, including free pisco sours too!!

One is not allowed to party in San Pedro and thus you will not find any nightclubs. Restuarants may also not serve drinks unless you also order food and we only found one cocktail bar. This was quite a dissapointment on our first night when we thought we'd save money and make dinner at the hostel and then go out for a few drinks, which was then not possible! We did manage to find one beer bar and cocktail bar though!! Bands are not allowed to play in restuarants, and parties happen at secret locations which only the locals know of, late at night...
One evening when having dinner and drinks with our sandboarding group, we had long finished dinner but were still drinking, and the restaurant kept bringing plates with left over food on, to make it look like we were still eating, incase the police arrived! Celebrating with Pisco behind the cops back...

We managed to be very active too.... instead of taking the traditional tours they offer, we hired bikes and cycled to the nearby ruins as well as the Leguna Cejar... (Salt Lagoon), this lagoon is dense with salt and allows you to float in it. The bike ride there and back was not soo close and parts of it were through thick desert sand, making this quite a challenge!! Crossroads on our biking.. and the salt lagoon We treated ourselves to a good dinner at Blanco that night after all the hard exercise with Anne, a friend we made at the hostel who is British but had been living in South Africa for many years. Blanco means white, and it is the only white restaurant amongst all the surrounding clay buildings!! Dinner with Anne...
We did some walks to surrounding areas of interest and enjoyed the company of another friend we met at the hostel Amanda, USA but living in Santiago, and we also enjoyed a few meals with her at the great Chilean restuarants.

We took advantage of the desert sand and went sand boarding one afternoon which was fun but was definitely missing the 'ski lifts up'. A short sandboard down the mountain is followed by a tough trek up, to start again. Lisha put her snowboarding skills to test, and impressed the group with her speed and jumps at the end. The day we did sandboarding was full moon , and after sand boarding we watched the sunset at Moon Valley on full moon. Quite special and spectacular scenery!! And this was once again accompanied with Pisco Sours, the typical chilean drink, which we were growing very fond of!!

The geysers El tatio had been closed all week and we were leaving on Sunday , hoping to catch this 'not to be missed' tour on Sunday morning. Lucky enough the roads opened that morning and we had a very early start to the geysers (after the many pisco sours after sand boarding)... They instruct you not to eat red meat or drink the night before the tour due to the high altitude and very bumpy ride there. Once again.
The Geysers are in the base of the El Tatio volcano and are emersions of very hot steam and water rising from the surface of the volcano.
It was absolutely freezing here, but the water which emerges is far to hot to touch at 80 degrees celsius. it is quite a amazing site!! the geyser tour also visited a nearby lake which was stunning and a local Chilean village

We left San Pedro that Sunday afternoon, revitalised , refreshed and slightly sun kissed!! We had made it back to civilisation after Bolivia- electricity, water and toilet paper was once again in abundance. Of course this came at a price, as Chile is much more expensive than Bolivia (more comparative with South African prices). We had to use the 'treat ourselves' after all the exercise excuse a number of times. The currency in Chile uses many zeros and this also took some getting used to, it is not uncommon to draw 100 000 pesos from the autobank, the equivalent of about R1400.

Our bus that Sunday was an overnight one and we arrived the next morning in La Serena, and caught the local bus to our next destination , the Pisco Elqui. As we may have mentioned, Pisco is the local Chilean drink, and is similar to brandy. In this valley they produce Pisco as well as limited wine and it is also very beautiful and has 360 days of sun during the year!
Unfortunately we were there for 2 of the 6 cloudly days that year, but nevertheless had a very good time!!
Our hostel for 2 nights in the Pisco valley
The beautiful village of Pisco Elqui by day and night:

We visited two local Pisco distilleries as well as the winery situated at the highest altitude in the world. Most of the tours offered were in Spanish and thus we had to settle for sampling the drinks rather than taking the tours! Some of the pisco distilleries: our wine purchases:
We also had a very relaxing time here and ate very well, we were enjoying Chilean cuisine!! We sampled the recommended goat (delicious!) and the typical local dessert (not so delicious!).

We went horseriding with a Chilean cowboy in the mountains overlooking the pisco distilleries and snow capped mountains.

We also did a star gazing tour in Vicuna, which is supposed to be one of the best star gazing destinations in the world. Unfortunately our driver got lost on the way there , and was clearly new at the company and had never driven there before!! This put a dampener on what would have been a great tour. We still saw many constellations and learnt about the stars and galaxies in the Southern hemisphere!!!
We really enjoyed these two small towns of San Pedro and Pisco Elqui, and were glad we could make it across the border to Chile... Next up was heading further South in Chile!!

Our plan to head to the salt flats and transfer from there to Chile wash dashed when we found out that the border was closed between Bolivia and Chile due to snow (very unusual in the desert crossing). So we decided to head to Sucre to kill some time and hope that the border would open! What a good decision this was!

Sucre is considered the most beautiful and sophisticated city in Bolivia, and is a UNESCO world heritage site. Neon signs are banned and all the buildings are white washed once a year. We so enjoyed the stunning white buildings of colonial style, the warm spring weather, the delicious cuisine, the sidewalk cafes and patisseries and one of the best markets we have experienced.
Our time was short lived, as we had already booked a bus ticket and could only stay one night. It was a pity as this is a real gem in Bolivia!!
Our time here was short, but relaxing and definitely one place we would go back to in Bolivia, the beautiful city of Sucre!!

We took a bus the next day to Potosi, a silver mining city and the highest City in the world, where we had a very short stay of a few hours before our bus connection to Uyuni. We left Sucre on a warm spring-like day , and arrived to an extremely cold Potosi. One funny story on the bus was buying an ice-cream out the bus window. Rather a trust system, as ice creams are flung in the window and money is flung out, both parties hoping they recieve what they need. As the bus pulled off, Lisha literally had to fling the money out the window to reach the ice-cream vendor in time!! A strange concept this, buying snacks out the bus window, only in Bolivia... Potosi- the highest city in the world, we had lunch at this Cafe named after Potosi's altitude... 4060,

We arrived in Uyuni late that night, this was undoubtedly the coldest place we had been to yet!!! brrrr.... Our sleeping bags were literally wet from frost condensation by the time we got there...! This was our worst bus ride, freezing cold, overcrowded (there were people who stood the whole 7hr journey in the aisles) and electronic music blaring from bus through the night!!
By the time we arrived in Uyuni at 1am, we were desperate to get to the hostel and get to bed!! We took the first taxi we could which we thought may be a lil overpriced "mooi carro" but the taxi driver convinced us it was a fair price for this time of night! We drove one block in the taxi and were at our destination!! A very expensive taxi for one block! To our horror the next morning we discovered that one block was a detour for the taxi and our hostel was in fact right across the road from the bus station!! Our first taxi rip-off experience!!

We set about the next morning to find a tour of the salt flats- 9000 square kms of salt plains, and as white as far as the eye can see. The largest in the world!! We were hoping to do a three day tour but due to the snow we had to settle for a 2 day tour. We rushed to get ready for our tour which started an hour after we booked it, buying snacks and wine to keep us warm.
We had a great tour group- two Swiss brothers, an Australian/Irish couple and once again a token Jap.
Our guide, Oscar, was Bolivian and could not speak a word of english , luckily one swedish brother could translate a bit for our group!!
The first stop was a deserted train cemetry, and then on to the magnificent salt plains!! The first sight of the salt plains was amazing, and like nothing we had ever seen before. White plains as far as the eye could see, together with huge patches of water due to recent rains, which turned the flats into a large mirror, reflecting the surrounding snow-capped mountains!!

We spent the afternoon driving across the plains, stopping to take pictures and taking turns to sit on top of the jeep on this scenic drive.. We arrived at our accomodation for the night , the Salt hotel!Now im not sure how this ever got to be called a hotel!! Yes it was all made of salt, but it was extremely basic, extremely cold , the water was cut off at 10pm, and our plans on taking a hot shower for 10 bolivianas were dashed! Regardless, we had a cool night having dinner with our group, playing the chocolate game and drinking a lot of wine to try keep warm!!We slept in all our warm clothes and sleeping bag to try stay warm in this freezing 'hotel'!!

We were up early the next morning to climb the nearby volcano and look at some mummies preserved in a cave... This is our tour group at the top of the volcano
After that we went to the fish and cactus island. It is known as the fish island because of its fish like shape when viewed from afar and cactus because well, it is filled with enormous cactuses!!

We had another picnic lunch. Most of our meals were outside picnics prepared out the back of Oscar's jeep boot but nevertheless delicious..
They were in stunning locations and often on a table made of salt!! And lets just say, if the food needed seasoning, we just grabbed some salt of the floor!!

We returned to freezing cold Uyuni that evening, and joined their local party in the street as it was a festival day for them! Lots of very drunk Bolivian men who wanted to take pictures of us and dance with all the girls in our group! Luckily we had the guys in our group to protect us!
We had a delicious pizza (spicy llama and pesto) at a popular gringo (tourist) restuarant and had to rush back to the hostel for shower hour before they cut off the water at 8:30pm! This was definitely the longest period we hadn't had a shower for due to the extreme cold and non of them were very hot!! Electric heaters warm the water in Bolivian showers and the smaller the water trickle the hotter it is. So basically you chose, a strong cold shower or a small trickle of luke warm water... And in some places if you shower longer than 5 mins , they charge you extra!!

We needed to get out of cold Bolivia soon, but the traditional border crossing to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile was still closed.
We managed to find a company , through talk on the street, that offered a jeep transfer on a different route for 40 dollars. We decided to take the risk and set off for San Pedro!!!