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23 November 2019

This was a section of our travels I was looking forward to.  I had no idea of what this road might be like but crossing the Andes sounded like a very special experience and I was not disappointed.

It seemed like the moment we left Santiago we were climbing.  We started at about 900 metres and we’re heading for 3800 metres.  Back to gasping for breath altitudes!

It’s hard to describe the experience and maybe the photos won’t do this journey justice.  Every bend, twist and turn revealed a new vista more stunning than the last.  You cannot but take lots of photos hoping you have captured what you are seeing.

The high mountains, rocky cliffs and deep gorges seemed to go for ever.

We stopped at a section of about 20 switchback bends.  Actually we stopped at no. 17 for photographs.  We were all soaking up that view when there they were; condors!  Probably six condors soaring above a ridge immediately in front of us.  My major regret at this time was that I had decided not to bring my telephoto lens.  A mistake.  We were all in awe watching these huge birds effortlessly glide on the thermals.  These are one of the few birds that can fly at over 5,000 metres.  I did take pictures however I regret to say the condors take up about a pixel on the screen.  They can be mistaken for dust.  I also now realise why they fly in circles.  They are not catching thermals, they are blacking out due to a lack of a oxygen.

We passed through Chilean immigration and then a few kilometres on, Argentinian immigration. We were now in a new country and on the ‘other’ side of the Andes.  The border is at the highest part of the mountains dividing Chile and Argentina.  The actual border is in the middle of a long tunnel.

A little further on and there it was, another surprise.  Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside of Asia was suddenly visible in bright sunshine.  This was a mountain I had read about in my school days but never thought I would see it.  On this day it was so clear without a cloud in the sky, the mountain shining in the bright sun.  Another wow moment.  

What I found really amazing was how different the Andes are on the west versus the east side.  On the west the views of are rocky peaks, cliffs and deep gorges.  In contrast, on the eastern side the mountains have massive scree slopes from almost the tops of the peaks down into the valleys.  The rivers on the Argentina side run through deep sediments in wide alluvial valleys.  The contrast is quite amazing.

We drove on to Mendoza, a city of wineries and beautiful sycamore lined avenues.  This is a city oasis in the middle of a dry scrubby landscape.  The sycamore and lush garden are all the result of irrigation channels running beside the city streets.  Where the irrigation system stops the dry desert starts.

Winery’s are every where in this region and the Malbecs are certainly worth the investment in time. A lunch of 7 courses with matching wines will go down as one of the highlights of the whole South American adventure.

Next the city of Buenos Aires.

22 November 2019

I thought at this stage I would reflect on some thoughts of the trip so far.  Here are a few random thoughts:

Our guides have all been highly educated with multiple degrees and are multi lingual.  Our guide for the whole trip has a PhD and all of our local guides have travelled the world. Our current Chilean guide climbed Everest in his younger days.  He holds a masters from a Chicago university.  Our guide in San Pedro was a robotics engineer.

It’s clear working in the travel industry is a highly skilled profession.  Our guides perform the roles of educators, project managers, counsellors, mediators and foreign exchange experts.  This is not a job I would ever have the patience for and I am in awe of their ability to manage such disparate groups.

Peru and Chile both do a good mountain.  The Andes are spectacular and ever changing.  At 25 to 50 million years old they are the new kids on the block.  In comparison parts central Australia are 1.8 billion years old.

While we might complain about our own local politics, South America takes politics to a whole new level.  Their recent history includes coups, revolutions, foreign interference, independence from foreign colonial powers and regular social discontent along with the odd riot.  Long term stability would make such a difference to these countries.

The coffee has been excellent everywhere we have been.  The ceviches, raw fish marinated in citrus juice, is always good and the range of potatoes in Peru is impressive.   The conger eel in Chile was something I wouldn’t see on the menu in Australia and  it was good.  We haven’t been disappointed by the wine and the pisco sours in Peru are worth the 20 hour flight.

I am little over dimly lit hotel rooms.  They seem to be a universal feature of hotel design.  The light switches in South America make more sense than they did in China but I would like to see what I am doing and the contents of my suitcase.

Back to the last few days:

The book and movie Alive closely depicted our situation on the road returning from Valparaiso heading to Santiago.  Ok, we weren’t a soccer team and we weren’t marooned on top of the Andes for 72 days.  However our bus had broken down near the Andes and we were marooned for about an hour and there was no food.  It was touch and go for a while until a replacement bus arrived.

Chile and in particular Santiago has been on the news lately for reasons of civil unrest.  Many buildings remain boarded up in case of fresh riots.  The city is however very safe too wander around.  Many of the protest groups which are generally young people, are still on the streets and are only too willing to talk about their issues.  There is also the  opportunity to meet up with older people who will also gladly express their opinion on what is happening to Chile.

Valparaiso was in its prime before the Panama Canal opened and when nitrates were shipped from the port.  Since those heady times it has been locked in time.  Today it’s trying to lift itself out of years of neglect while retaining the look and feel of the unique architecture and streetscapes that define Valparaiso.

And now across the Andes and Argentina …

20 November 2019

This would be the earliest start on this whole trip.  We were on the road by 4.45am headed for a  geothermal area some 80 kms north east of San Pedro.  San Pedro is at an altitude of 2400 metres which we were almost used to.  We were now headed for 4500 metres to see the geysers and to enjoy a breakfast ‘in the field’.  

The road surface to the geothermal field would be very familiar to any Australian who has ventured into the outback.  This road is heavily corrugated however unlike Australian outback roads the unguarded drop on the side of the road was something to behold.

The reason for such an early start was to see these geysers and the steam they produced in the cool morning and before the rising sun heated the surrounding air.  It was cold at this altitude before sun rise but as soon as the sun broke over the mountains the temperature instantly rose to the point jackets were removed, beanies pocketed and gloves discarded.  

After wandering around the geysers and getting annoyed at seeing the footprints left by careless and ignorant visitors we enjoyed our high altitude breakfast of scrambled eggs and coffee.  This would be the highest altitude at which I have ever enjoyed a meal. I was however quick to discover breathing, chatting and enjoying a coffee are not necessarily compatible at these heights. You have to choose whether to breath or eat.   The choice means there is much breathlessness and some gasping.

We are told all of the mountains we can see are dormant volcanoes. There are however the odd active volcano identified by steaming fumaroles. It seems Chile has 2,000 volcanoes some of which have been quiet for 25,000 years.  We didn’t feel under threat during our breakfast and we were overwhelmed by the views.

From the geysers we headed back to Calama but via a different route that would allow us to see more of the Atacama  desert along with many of its unique inhabitants. On these mountains, covered in tussocks and low scrub, we were tantalised with glimpses of wild vicuña, guanaco, chinchilla and donkeys or burros for our Peruvian guide.

Back to Calama, probably the driest city I have ever visited and a flight to Santiago the capital of Chile.  And so we continue….

19 November 2019

After Lake Titicaca we had one night in Lima and then back to the airport for a flight to Calama, Chile.  Our bus driver had somewhere else to go so it was a quick drive through the Sunday morning streets of Lima.  What would normally take 1 hour on a good day took 45 minutes on this trip.  Maybe an appreciation of the Dakar rally would have allowed me to understand what a heavy vehicle can achieve in the right hands.

We arrived in Calama and were back at 2400 metres.  Now Calama has one claim to fame and that’s copper mining.  Its a dusty modern city in the middle of a bone dry desert.  Not a blade of grass, tree or scrub in sight.

Atacama desert

San Pedro de Atacama, Peru

We were immediately despatched to San Pedro de Atacama.  This town of about 11,000 people looks like it is straight from the Star Wars tone of Tatooine  The town is built in an oasis and is surrounded by desert. The streets are narrow and dusty, the building predominantly built of adobe.  The town is a buzz with travellers from all over the world here to experience the Atacama.

At about 3000 metres the conditions here are somewhat extreme.   The air is bone dry, the UV rating is through the roof and the skies clear.  In some parts of the Atacama rain hasn’t fallen for thousands of year.  Its dry! Exposure to the sun for only a few minutes and you can feel yourself turning into a desiccated version of what you were at sea level.

Our accommodation was in a hotel that truely reflected the desert environment and complimented the adobe architecture of San Pedro.  The rooms opened onto their own courtyard and the pool was a pleasure after a long day of travel.

Our exploration of these high altitudes commenced with a visit to the oasis village of Toconao.  This a small village that has existed for hundreds of years thanks to a ready supply of water from the surrounding mountains.  Whilst irrigation channels provide for lush gardens and the orchards where the water stops then the extreme wasteland of the desert starts.  There is no soft border between garden and desert.

After the oasis village it was the vast Atacama salt flats that was our focus for this part of the adventure.  These salt flats extend 100km long by 80 km wide or 3,000 sq km of salt.  Regardless of the SPF50 sun screen you are wearing, along with long trousers and long sleeve shirts and sun glasses you can still feel the heat and dryness sapping the moisture from your body. But we were here to see the Andean flamingoes.  And they were there, feeding on the brine shrimp in these caustic waters.  There is the Jame’s, the Andean and the Chilean flamingoes all feeding in the same lagoon.

Atacama salt flats

Atacama

Later in the day we walked the tracks of Moon Valley and enjoyed a glass of wine as the sun set over the Atacama desert and the high Andes.  Moon Valley is the closest representation on earth of what the martian landscape might be like.  Rocky cliffs, wind borne dust and stunning sand dunes.  I couldn’t imagine any life form surviving in this place but we know that’s not the case.  There are Andean foxes, lizards, and birds surviving in these extreme environments.

Atacama desert, Chile

You run out of superlatives in trying to describe the magnitude and vast spaces that make up the Atacama desert.

18 November 2019

A ten hour train ride is the way to travel from Cusco to the high plains and Lake Titicaca.  Sitting back watching the Peruvian countryside pass by is a very comfortable way to travel.  This is not to say the three course lunch with wine, the morning and afternoon tea and the various folkloric dancing and music didn’t also add to the experience.  Did I mention our pisco sour with lunch?

Train to Lake Titicaca

Unfinished houses in Cusco, Peru

The highest altitude the train reached was over 4300 metres so if the scenery didn’t take your breath away the altitude certainly did.  Mountains, glaciers, high plains, alpaca and llamas, villages and the farming people, it was all there.  This is serious Peru.

Late arriving passengers at Cusco delayed our train and so what was supposed to be a ten and a half hour trip became something closer to twelve hours.  This is what travel is all about and a good dose of patience is always required.

Arriving in Puno in the dark we were unable to get our first glimpse of Lake Titicaca.  That would have to wait for the morning.  Our accommodation was comfortable but  was not quite the 5+ star standard we had become accustomed to and our breakfast was not something I wish to recall.  It must be said however the traveller is always seeking new experiences and stories to tell.

Next day we travelled by boat to the floating reed islands and then on to the island of Taquile.  We only touched on the entirety of this lake which is 165 km long, 65 km wide and 280 meters deep.  Not quite the Great Lakes of North America but an impressive lake regardless and this one is essentially on the top of the hill at 4000 metres.

Floating. Islands of Lake Titicaca, Peru

Like Machu Picchu the reed islands were something I had learned about in National Geographic magazines and through various documentaries.  The islands are still something to see.  They do float and they do rise and fall as boats pass.  The reed mass on which they float is about 3 metres thick, floating in water 20 metres deep.  The islands last about 30 years and take a year and a half to build.  The islands are maintained by a monthly layering of new reeds.  The island we visited accommodated 6 families and about 2,000 people are spread across 200 islands.  Like the glaciers, the reed islands will probably be gone in 20 years.  Young people are not staying, rather they are attracted to life in the city of Puno and beyond.  Another lost culture as the internet and access to information drives cultural homogeneity across the world.

Another hour and a half in the boat and we reached the island of Tacquile.  For a visitor this island is a mix of Australia and the Greek islands.  The island is covered in eucalyptus trees and lots of sheep.  The scenery is rocky hill tops, sandy beaches with a vista across a shimmering blue lake.  Do not be tempted to dive into these crystalline waters.  The temperature of Lake Titicaca is about 9c.  Another breathless Andean experience.

Taquile island, Lake Titicaca, Peru

We flew out of the city of Patallini and back to Lima.  Patallini is a city that has nothing to recommend it to the traveller.  Streets of dirt, unfinished adobe houses, traffic congestion.  We are told this is not a safe place.  One of those times it was good to be enclosed in a bus as we drove to the ‘international’ airport.

Speaking on unfinished houses, in this part of Peru you are only taxed on the value of your house when it is finished.  The result being the majority of houses in this region are and never will be finished.  In other parts of Peru many houses are also unfinished.  This comes from a distrust of banks and credit.  This may be the result of a history of civil disruption, revolutions and coups.  The outcome being the people avoid credit, building their houses only as money becomes available.

Final thought, leaving an altitude of 4000 metres and arriving at sea level does wonders for your breathing.  Breathing at sea level is an under appreciated treat

14 November 2019

Civil unrest in Bolivia.  Surely that won’t effect us, I mean after all these years of travel we have never been inconvenienced by such local issues.  Our luck has run out.  Travel to far off places requires flexibility and patience.  And so it is with this trip.  Our plans to visit the salt flats and the salt hotel in Bolivia will have to happen another time.  No travel to Bolivia this time.

Plan B has been invoked and we now have the time visit places the average traveller never sees. Of course there are plenty of local tourists visiting their cultural sites its just the international tourist is pretty scarce in these parts.  Excellent I say.

After the train ride from Machu Picchu which included a fashion parade of locally made garments we caught a mini bus for Cusco.  This journey traversed open mountainous country covered by small farming plots.  We are told there are thousands of potato varieties grown in Peru and there are certainly potatoes fields everywhere.  I must confess to eating a black potato with my breakfast one morning.

Up here a rich family is one with a couple of bullocks or oxen that you can rent to your neighbours to plough their fields.  Some of the fields however are on such steep land that cultivation can only be done by hand.

We visited the salt mines of  Morass and later Inca ruins at Moray.   The Inca stonework never ceases to amaze.  I thought the Inca stonework was unique to Machu Picchu, not so, it’s everywhere.  The Incas were amazing stone masons.  It would be amazing to see their skills demonstrated, I just can’t imagine how they achieved such accuracy and such a smooth finish to granite and basalt.

We drove on to Cusco and arrived as the sun was setting, quite an amazing site across the city.  Our hotel is part Inca ruin and part Spanish palace.  Regardless its another 5 star hotel we will have to  enjoy.

Our next two days have included tours of what was an Inca temple to the sun god and to more Inca ruins.  We have now also visited Wari ruins.  The Wari were the civilisation that preceded the Inca.

Some insights into Peru and Cusco.  Peru is certainly a developing country but you get a sense that this place is made up of a hard working population that is focussed on doing better.   The towns and villages are tidy and neat.  The cities are bustling with vehicles and people.  Everywhere you look you know you are in Peru.  The people still wear traditional clothing and the architecture away from Lima is definitely Peruvian.   The Andes just take your breath away.  You might like to research Pisco Sours or you can trust me when I say these are a cocktail to be enjoyed.

Today we are at 3400 metres and tomorrow are going higher.

11 November 2019

The approach to Machu Picchu is via a train trip of about an hour and a half.  The train follows the Urubamba river downstream as it heads towards the Amazon.  The train can carry only so many travellers and so it might appear that travel by road might be a more efficient way to get to Machu Picchu.  A quick look at the map and in particular the tortuous route the road follows tells you the train is the only way to get there.  It would take many hours to travel to Machu Picchu by any other means.

A new definition of remote is when Google Maps says it can’t find a way there. This is the response you get if you look for directions from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu.  Ollantaytambo is where the train trip to Machu Picchu starts.  I thought Google knew everything; it doesn’t and that makes me feel good.

The train ride is followed by half an hour in a mini bus which climbs to a point 400 metres up from the river level.  This is the entrance to the archeological site.  This is not a road for the faint hearted.  It’s one car wide and it twists over several switchback bends.  The view is breath taking.  The buses have to stop and reverse to let other buses pass. From the bus stop its short walk through the cloud forest and there it is the Machu Picchu ruins!

Visiting Machu Picchu involves lots of walking but it is so worth the effort.  The steps are very steep.  While Incas were amazing builders they didn’t have standards on how high steps should be.  There are no hand rails and at many places the drop off is an unimpeded vertical fall to the river below.  No wandering around at night after a few wines.

The views were breath taking as the mist and clouds opened up vistas and just as quickly rolled in and covered the view.  On tall peaks you could see narrow paths with visitors were attempting to get to the highest peaks overlooking the Machu Picchu site.

The stone work is just as we have all seen on all those documentaries and National Geographic articles.  Even so you can’t help yourself from asking and can only imagine ‘how did they do that’?

This place was only occupied for about a hundred years and was never completed.  The Spanish never found it and when you get there you can see why.  It just cannot be seen from the river valleys below.

In many places you can still see remnants of the ancient Inca trails.  These are narrow pathways often cut into the side of the mountains with no handrails or warning signs that state the obvious like a fall from here might hurt.  Thankfully new approaches to the ruins were built for the modern visitor.

The Incas never utilised the wheel for transport and maybe didn’t have a written language as we might expect but they could carve rock and run an empire through some remote and seemingly impenetrable mountains.

10 November 2019

We have made it to South America! It was a long flight of 13.5 hours to Santiago followed by an extended wait for our 3.5 hour flight to Lima. All up we were on the go for 28 hours from waking to putting our heads down in Lima. A long day.

Our first day in Peru was easy with a tour of the city and a walk along the Pacific foreshore. Lima is working hard to develop itself into a modern city that will become a gateway for international tourism. There are lots of reminders of its colonial past and its more ancient history including stepped pyramids made of mud bricks.

A flight from Lima to Cusco and we are now in the foothills of the Andes. When I say foothills we have just gone from sea level to 3200 metres. Everywhere there is information about altitude sickness and what you need to do to alleviate the symptoms of these altitudes.

The advice includes drinking lots of water and staying hydrated, eating chocolate covered coffee beans, drinking coco leaf tea, taking things easy and not rushing about. What nobody tells you is don’t open that bottle of aerated water you bought at sea level. Ignorance of this phenomenon and it will result in you wearing your water. This may have happened to me.

Peru is growing like the rest of the world and has a population of 30 mill. Cusco has grown in 40 years from 20,000 people to 500,000 people but still retains the look and feel of Peru.

From Cusco we ventured further into the countryside arriving at our hotel in the Sacred Valley. It is something beyond 5 stars surrounded by high mountains and amazing gardens. The bathroom is the size of many of the hotels rooms we have frequented.

We have travelled beyond the Sacred Valley through many villages and towns to climb the Inca ruins of Pisaq.

To date we have sampled the Peru cocktail pisco sour which are excellent. We have also eaten ceviche which is raw fish cured in citrus juice and tonight alpaca which is something between beef and lamb. Whilst it has been offered we have not tried guinea pig which is served on a skewer.  Maybe there will be more opportunities to enjoy such local delicacies.

Tomorrow Machu Picchu.

24 August 2019

The title of this Log is an oblique reference to our experiences over the past week.

We have left the wide open spaces of the more distant country and are now in what seems to be suburban by comparison.  We are still a long way from home but the towns are bigger, the road trains have vanished, the farms are closer and the traffic is heavier.  When I say the traffic is heavier I can now see a car way out in front of me and a vehicle might pass me every few minutes.  Its practically peak hour out here.  The Brahman cattle are no more and the paddocks are more likely stocked with Hereford and Angus animals.

We made a brief stop at the Nindigully Pub.  This is Queensland’s oldest licenced pub.  It was first licenced in 1864, servicing Cobb and Co stage coaches and accommodating their passengers.  The pub has pretty much remained untouched since that time.  As you walk along the verandah you can almost hear the conversations of the drovers, shearers, farm workers and station managers that must have enjoyed a cold beer at this pub.

From Nindigully we reached Narrabri and visited the Australian telescope.  From pubs that serviced stage coaches we are now looking at radio telescopes that are looking at galaxies on the other side of our own Milky Way some 50,000 light years away. In a 100 years we have gone from stage coaches to radio telescopes analysing the universe.  Blows my mind.

After the satellite dishes we explored Mt Kaputar an ancient volcano.  Now this volcano was busy for 4 million years but stopped 17 million years ago, well before it was able to interfere with aircraft timetables.  Now 17 million years might seem a long time ago but to keep things in perspective the dinosaur footprints we saw in Winton were laid down 74 million years before the volcano even thought of spewing out lava.

We visited the town of Gunnedah which claims to host the biggest agriculture field day in Australia.  It is amazing with some 28 km of avenues to explore.  Again the technology changes in farming over the past 100 years is staggering. Of course with such a drought I don’t think there were too many sales happening.

Speaking of the drought we discovered that with no rain there are no trains.  The railways are empty.  A curious relationship but with no rain there is no grain and hence no trains to haul the grain.

Our final excursion before our return home was to the Western Plains Zoo.  Who doesn’t enjoy watching meerkats, lions, tigers, rhinos (fat unicorns) and elephants. A great day with lots of walking.

Tomorrow we head home for the obligatory unpacking, repairs (windscreen) and all the jobs that have been on hold for the past 8 weeks.  The next travel log will be from more exotic locations in a couple of months time.

17 August 2019

We have left the plains and have found our oasis.  What a change of scenery. Throughout the past days and weeks we have been driving across vast open plains dotted with small country towns and the odd sign to some massive open cut or underground mine.  We have been entertained by mobs of cattle being driven along the stock routes and have kept our eye out for massive road trains that frequent these roads.

We have now reached an oasis in the true sense with forests, shady palm trees, and creeks that never stop flowing.  Carnarvon Gorge is a green gem hidden away in the sandstone escarpment that lines the horizon.  We have been here before, some 6 years ago when access was via 40 km of dirt road that included three creek crossings. Now the road is sealed and available to all those who ‘don’t do’ dirt roads.  It’s popularity grows.

We spent four days exploring the highlights of the gorge. From rock art estimated to be over 3,500 years old to tree ferns only found in this gorge and a few other places along the coast 100s of kilometres away.  These ferns only grow in running water which means the creek in which they grow has not stopped flowing in a very long time.

In the evening you can watch platypuses swim in the creek as you wonder how did they get here.  You have just driven across a dry open plain and then you find a platypus joyfully exploring the bottom of the creek looking for food.

The gorge includes a formation called the Amphitheatre which is a hollowed out section of the sandstone cliff.  To gain entry into the Amphitheatre you climb up a series of ladders and through a narrow gap in the cliff.  You are suddenly surrounded by huge cliffs and silence.  A place for quiet contemplation and your own thoughts.

The Moss Garden is dripping with water seeping from the sandstone.  The water is estimated to be 1000s of years old.  This water could have fallen as rain while the Egyptians were building the pyramids.  That blows my mind.

A walk to the top of the escarpment offers a view of the gorge and out across the plains we will cross when we depart this exceptional place.

We are now heading south and toward home however we will delay the inevitable as long as possible.  We have reached country where it is no longer kites clearing the roadkill but common ravens (crows).  Road trains are becoming less common as we get closer to more populated country.

The windscreen has collected more chips and the crack continues to grow.  We have also just missed a steer that suddenly decided it wanted to be on the other side of the road.  It was almost a hood ornament.

One more week ……..