My best of and special travel awards

Hello everyone! 

We've been back in Bristol for a while now, and it feels...a bit strange. In a good but also...well...in a strange way. The memories of our trip are so incredible, and to be honest, quite unbelievable. Did we really do all these things? Did we really visit all these places? Did we really meet all these people?

So I thought that it would be kind of cool for my last post, to wrap it all up, and do a few 'best of' lists and to hand out some special travel awards. 

Are you ready? Buckle up, it's going to be a long one, and in no particular order:

Best historical and archaeological sites

Kuelap in Peru

Machu Picchu in Peru

San Agustin in Colombia

Nazca lines in Peru

Caral and Chavin de Huantar in Peru

Best cities

La Paz in Bolivia

Cusco in Peru

Cuenca in Ecuador

Cartagena in Colombia

Medellin in Colombia

Sucre in Bolivia

Santiago in Chile

Best hikes

4 days hike in Machu Picchu in Peru

2 weeks hiking in Cordillera Blanca, Huascaran in Peru

4 days hike in Ciudad Perdida with Dan in Colombia

3 days hike in Colca Canyon in Peru

1 day hike in Cobo de los Andes in Saimaipata, Bolivia

Best wildlife experiences

Too many to list but, if I really really had to pick a few, I would have to say:

Our first taste of really wild wildlife in Ibera National Park in Argentina

Everything about the Galapagos islands in Ecuador

Experiencing the Amazon in Parque Nacional Manu in Peru and Cuyabeno in Ecuador

Spotting jaguars and other animals in the Pantanal in Brazil

Hanging out with sloths in Isla Fuerte (aka the sloth island) in Colombia

Eating mangoes with spectacled bears in Chaparri Ecological Reserve in Peru

(and Dan wanted to add - ticking off 316 species of birds over the trip!)

Best natural wonders

Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru

San Pedro de Atacama desert in Chile

The Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia

The Iguazu falls in Argentina

The Yumbilla waterfall in Peru

The Cloud Forest in Peru

Best National Parks

Ibera National Park in Argentina

The Galapagos islands

Podocarpus National Park in Ecuador

Lauca National Park in Chile

Best Swims

Swimming in the Aguas Negras river in Cuyabeno (Amazon) in Ecuador

Swimming with sea lions, rays and sea turtles on my birthday in Santa Fe in the Galapagos islands

Swimming and diving for the first time in Tintipan island in Colombia

Waterfall swimming in Argentina

Swimming down rivers in Chapada dos Gumaraes in Brazil

Best Places We Stayed At

Wood cabin in Reserva Nacional Malalcahuello in Chile

Pole house in Vilcabamba, Ecuador

Beach hut in Isla Fuerte, Colombia

Best Meals

Again, this is really hard because we had some amazing food but the most memorable meals were:

Moroccan tagine with Kika and Anouar in Colombia

The roast goat we had with Dan in Cachi in Argentina

Eating in a chef's house in La Mojarra in Colombia

La Mar restaurant in Lima with Maro

Best Festivals

Inti Raymi in Cusco, Peru

New Year's Eve celebrations in Cuenca, Ecuador

La Diablada in Pillaro, Ecuador

Carnival in the Galapagos islands, Ecuador

Best Activities

Horse riding in Argentina

Surfing in Peru

Diving in Colombia

Snorkelling and swimming with hammerhead sharks in San Cristobal, Galapagos islands

Skiing in Chile

Cooking in the Amazon, in Cuyabeno, Ecuador

Climbing in La Mojarra in Colombia

Kite flying in Chile

Fishing in the Amazon

There are also some very special awards that I would like to hand out, and thank you's I would like to say:

A special thank you to all the fantastic guides we had in our whole journey. I learnt so much from you and really enjoyed our time together. 

A huge thank you to the top 4 commentators of my blog: Sallie, Chronis, Margaret and Ioni. Thank you so much for reading my blog so frequently and for your lovely comments.

For saving me from having to talk to only Dan, Ioanna and Ismene for a whole year, a big award goes to our friend Maro who made it all the way to Peru! Thank you Maro. We had a great time with you! Don't forget our collection of poems :) Puno???

This trip would never have been possible without the most incredible car ever made: Chiquita! You were an absolute monster, our home for a year and the most fun car to have my very first driving lesson in. 

Also, I would like to hand in some special family awards.

The first one goes to Dan for being the best driver, the most talented packer (the first rule of packing is that you can fit in everything!), the best trip planner and, of course, the greatest chilli sauce-fanatic!!

I have to hand it to Ioanna who cooked all our food, edited my blog and was the best shotgunner and endless snack provider in Chiquita for a whole year. Impressive! Thanks Ioanna! 

I couldn't possibly have survived the year without Ismene, so a special award goes to her for being the silliest, most fun, best friend I could have wished for on our trip.

Not sure if I am allowed to do this, but I would very much like to give an award to myself if I may: for writing this blog! Nothing more to say apart from...131 blog posts!

And, last but not least, an award goes to all of you. THANK YOU FOR READING THE BLOG AND FOR FOLLOWING OUR JOURNEY! 

Here is to more adventure, more travelling and more fun...

Where to next amigos?

Saying goodbye under a blanket of snow and fun

Hello everyone! I think this will be my last - or almost last? - post. I don't want to think about it too much because it feels a bit weird. Weird in a sad kind of way. So I will just crack on and tell you a bit about our last week in Chile.

Throughout the whole of our trip, we've hardly touched snow! So with a week or so left in our trip (yes, I could hardly believe it myself that there was only one week left) that was about to change. We wanted to finish the trip by doing something special, something we haven't done so far, something that will take away the sadness of the trip finishing. And this is exactly what we did...

We went skiing in the south of Chile, in an area called Reserva Nacional Malalcahuello! This is the furthest south in South America we've been and very different to anywhere else in our trip. The reserve includes big forested areas with araucaria trees and big volcanic mountains covered in snow. And of course, snow means skiing, and Ismene and me were very keen to try skiing out again. You see, we've skied once before in Austria, over two and a half years ago (hello Nefeli, Theodora and Alex :)) but, back then, we only learnt the basics. So we were really excited when we heard we were going skiing and really couldn't wait to get on the slope. Other than skiing, we were also really excited for snow because it would be the first time we could snowball each other for a whole year!⛄

Ioanna and Dan made it even more special by choosing somewhere pretty amazing for us to stay: a big, wooden cabin hidden in the woods with a roaring fire which was on all day long. We even had a moonlit swim in the hot tub outside the cabin one night. Cold outside but, oh so warm inside the tub!! There was also a friendly dog around our cabin who we played with every day. One night, we even let him in the cabin for extra cuddles, he enjoyed sleeping by the fire and we enjoyed the cuddles.

But the highlight of the week was to be up in the ski station and skiing again! We were incredibly lucky as on our first night there, it snowed, something that hadn’t happened in the area in a while. That meant we had a fresh piste to ski on! 

On our first day, we had a very nice instructor, called Tom, who really helped revive what we learnt in Austria. By the end of the day, me and Ismene, were both turning well in snowplough, the basic turning position for beginners. Our second day skiing was also great fun as our teacher taught us how to ski backwards! It was something I thought I'd never be able to do! I enjoyed the second day even more because everything we learnt so far had been brought back to us and we felt such a joy in the feeling of the wind whistling past our faces. On our last day on the slopes, I managed to do parallel turns, where instead of turning in snowplough, you turn with your skis parallel. This is of course how most people turn when skiing but it made me really happy as I had been trying since our second day to do it! Ismene also managed to do a parallel turn although not as sharply as I did mine and apparently it was all done by accident.

But apart from the fun of skiing, I loved being in that part of Chile. It was just magical! We went for several walks on the day we didn't ski, and marvelled at how beautiful and exotic the araucanía (monkey puzzle) trees looked in the snow. It honestly looked like a winter wonderland all covered in snow. We played about in the snow, snowballing each other and messing around. We saw some incredibly old araucanía trees, and I wondered if it was called monkey puzzle because the bark was in pieces shaped like octagons or because the leaves were so spiky!

We learnt afterwards that the araucanía is the national tree of Chile and an evergreen tree.  The araucania has a thick cracked trunk and pointy, scaly branches. It has a beautiful silhouette and can reach 50 meters in height. It dates back 240 million years and is an extremely slow growing tree; we read that there are some trees in the area that are older than 1,600 years! Even though it looks similar to the pine tree, it actually belongs to the Araucariaceae family instead. The Pehuenche (indigenous people of Chile) base their diet on its pine nut, an edible seed. The araucanía reaches the ages at which it produces fruit at 100 years, so I guess there is plenty of food for the natives to eat.

We have a few very busy (and boring?) days in Santiago sorting things out before we fly back home, but I want to cherish these last few days and remind myself how lucky we've been. It's been an amazing year, and although I feel ready to go back home, I am going to miss so many things and so many places and so many people.

Taste pisco and see stars!

Ready for an alcoholic journey to the stars? Our next stop after Pan de Azucar National Park was a seaside city called La Serena. But before I tell you about what we got up to in La Serena, I need to tell you about a little stop we had on our way. 

On the way to La Serena we stopped at the paleontological park Los Dedos (the fingers) where several dinosaur bones were found, including those of a megalodon (a giant shark)! We stopped to visit the park on a quick walk because we heard that it's Chile's most important paleontological site. The bones were amazing and there were models of the dino you were looking at, either in bones or as the dino would have been. On several occasions, near the models, you could see dino bones nearby, either teeth sticking out of the rock or a bone on the floor! The park is called Los Dedos because the sand dunes stretching out looked like fingers and so the palaeontologists adopted the name.

Now back to La Serena which has quite an interesting history. La Serena was founded around 1544 by captain Juan Bohon, who called it Villanueva de la Serena. Around 1549, five years after its foundation,  the natives in the area rebelled, causing the death of most of the Spaniards in the area. Later, in August of the same year, it was re-founded by Captain Francisco de Aguirre on the order of Pedro de Valdivia giving it the new name, San Bartolome de La Serena. La Serena suffered from pirate attacks causing a fortress to be constructed on the seafront in 1700.

Though we didn't explore La Serena much, we did visit the surrounding area and in particular a valley called Elqui valley. Apparently, Elqui valley is the first place in Chile were pisco first started to be made. Pisco is a bit like raki in Greece or grapa in Italy. And because it is a very famous South American drink, we went to a pisco distillery to do a tour, and learn a bit about how they make it. To be honest, I thought it's going to be boring but, actually, I really enjoyed it. Making pisco is quite a complicated process; what I liked about the distillery we visited is that they still try to make pisco in the traditional, slow, hand-made way.  Unlike most other distilleries in the Elqui valley, the distillery we visited heats the machine with wood, which apparently gives it a hint of a smokey flavour. Also unlike other distilleries, this one manually mixes water and pisco together when trying to dampen the amount of alcohol. Dan and Ioanna tried all four of their piscos but Ismene and I also got lucky. The distillery makes a grape musk syrup from the left over grape musk which we of course tried and it was delicious!

Later on that day, we also visited Observatorio del Pangue just south of a town called Vicunas, were some of the clearest skies in Chile are.

Our guide told us that they have over 300 days of sunshine and clear skies at night a year. Imagine that? I heard poor Ioanna sighing next to me when he told us that. I bet she was thinking about going back to England and secretly (or not so secretly) despairing about the English weather...Also, the absence of light pollution in the area makes it perfect for star gazing, and this is why there are many observatories around. The only constructions in the area are observatories, no other buildings for miles and miles.

You might remember that we also did a star gazing tour in San Pedro de Atacama (on the east part of Chile) and in the Tatacoa desert in Colombia. But this one was I thought the most impressive and I think it was because the telescope we used was huge! Our guide told us that it was the largest telescope available to the public in Chile.

We saw loads of different stars on the tour: Mercury (which apparently is really difficult to see); clusters of 5 million stars; twin stars; galaxies colliding; and, at the very end, an incredible moon. 

And I realised how lucky we were to visit on the night we did when our guide told us that the observatory was closing tomorrow until September because the weather changes and there are many more very cold and cloudy nights. I have to say, I think I'll miss these incredible skies when we go back. So maybe I'll join Ioanna so we can sigh together...

A few days in Parque Nacional Pan de Azucar or the Sugar Loaf National Park

Hello from Ismene. We are in Pan de Azucar, a national park in the north part of Chile by the coast. This is our fourth national park by the sea. Do you remember which other ones we visited? Paracas in Peru, Galapagos in Ecuador, Tayrona in Colombia and now this one is the fourth.

We spent our days camping, playing on the beach and flying the kite that Chronis and Titika (our Greek grandparents) bought for Orestis's birthday a few years ago. That of course means that it was....windy. Very windy!

On the first day, we spent the morning building a homely place on the beach out of sea weed, sand and other treasures  and had a rewarding, delicious lunch of fresh fish sandwich and chips. After lunch, with full tummies, we decided to go on a walk, and as soon as we got out of the car, we saw an Andean fox, just wandering by and looking at us curiously! 

The walk took us through a valley to a viewpoint where you could look for miles and miles ahead down to the ocean. There were cacti all the way through the walk and three resting spots before the viewpoint.  When we got there it was cloudy but it was even more amazing to see a ray of sun light peeking through the clouds.

The second day, it was very cold and cloudy but we spent the day doing pretty much the same: flying the kite, building things on the beach and going for lunch. The boys were very excited in the afternoon because there was football and they spent all afternoon in the car trying to listen to the match. Luckily, England won and at the weekend they are in the finals!

Heading south now and getting closer to Santiago. I am feeling sad because we are going to leave South America in a few weeks. But I also feel excited...pretty much because of the same reason. It's also my birthday in two weeks so that has to be a good reason to be excited, right?

 

Dan goes back in time: visiting the North of Chile once again

We’re back in Chile again and visiting places Dan visited more than 25 years ago! Can you believe it? He travelled to Chile for six months after university and, now, going back to the same places, I guess, it must feel a bit of a time travelling for him. We’re visiting some of the areas in the northern part of Chile that Dan enjoyed the most: the National Parks of Lauca, Vicunas, Salar de Suriri (another salt flat) and Volcan Isluga.👍The whole trip was over 4,000m high.

The northern part of Chile is one of the most untouched areas of Chile and, sadly, several of the indigenous villages are now abandoned. It is a harsh environment, hot in the day, and extremely cold at night. As it is now winter in South America, it is colder than usual, and frost and ice are around throughout the day!

The whole trip was a real adventure, because of the extreme landscape, the altitude but also the crazy weather.  The scenery was amazing in a very harsh kind of way. During our three days driving in the parks, we saw hills of the same dry, arid landscape covered with small shrubs and gigantic sand-coloured boulders here and there. Not only did we have this amazing landscape around us but we could also see snow capped mountains and volcanos everywhere we looked!

On our first night, we camped outside one of the park ranger's hut, overlooking a beautiful lake called Lake Chungara, and a wonderfully perfect volcano called Parinacota (not to be confused with Panacota :))! But it was very cold. So cold that, in the morning, we had to wait a while before packing up the tents as there was ice on our tents and our pillows. It was properly-properly cold!

On the second night, we camped inside another park ranger's hut at the Salar de Suriri. In fact, Dan has memories of spending two weeks in the same hut, volunteering with the biologists and helping out with a project they did back then with the vicunas. The park guard, Ephraim, was working back then, and Dan think that he remembers him as well. The salar was incredibly beautiful, though being mined in the parts outside the national park :( 

In the afternoon, we went to the thermal baths which were crazy hot but really great. Best combo - cold outside, hot inside.

As well as the amazing landscape around us, we had several animal sightings along the way. The most wonderful of them was the vicunas, a type of wild llama which is common in this part of Chile, and we saw a lot of them as we drove along the dirt track. We even saw rheas, a bird rather like the ostrich. They are very funny, especially when they run to get away from cars.

On the second park ranger's hut at the Salar de Suriri where we stayed, there were lots of flamingos nearby and also viscachas, a rabbit like rodent. They were very cute hoping around on the rocks beside us and trying to steal our lunch. 

And last but definitely not least, on our last day while we were driving out of the park, we spotted an andean fox!! We were driving along when Ioanna spotted it. He looked a bit shocked to see us, then a bit curious about who or what we were, and seemed to play hide-and-seek with us, hiding behind low bushes and vegetation. He soon got bored though and vanished into the shrubs. He was so handsome...

I am going to finish today's post with a little something that happened after we left the national parks, on our way to our next destination. We visited a geoglyph on a dune in the desert who is known as El Gigante de Tarapaca. Apparently, he is the largest prehistoric human representation in the world, close to a 120 meters long. The geoglyph is believed to show the God Tacapu going down from his home in Titicaca to the Pacific ocean to die. There are several other geoglyphs that have been discovered in this area, I guess because of the dry
climate in the desert of Atacama. We saw several others on our way but the giant was definitely the most impressive and my favourite.

We are heading to the coast now so maybe we get a chance to do some swimming too. But I think it might be too cold. We are in winter after all! Although Ioni with her superhuman all-year-around swimming will probably disagree with me :)

Last days in Peru: Waqra Pukara and the Three Rainbow Mountains

We really need to start making our way back to Chile soon but there is still so much to see and do in Peru. Even getting to the border is fun and busy. And of course, there are many more Inca sites to visit if you so wish to ...

When we were in Cusco, I did some research on the Incas (as you do!) and found out about a nearby site called Waqra Pukara. Much to my delight, it was in the right direction as we were driving to go to the border crossing and so...we went to see it. Waqra Pukara is at 4500 meters and it takes about 2 to 3 hours to walk to the site.  The walk to the site was quite short and easy (in comparison to what we’ve done so far) but, because of the altitude, it felt really difficult at times. Despite that, I really enjoyed the trek and was rewarded by the stunning site which was located in the most amazing place. You see, Waqra Pukara is on the high altiplano and on the edge of a canyon, nestled in between two gigantic rocks. In Quechua, 'waqra' means horn and 'pukara' means fortress so 'horn fortress'. Apparently, it wasn't built by the Incas but by the Canchis and, later on, was conquered by the Incas.

The site of Waqra Pukara itself was also impressive. I am not an expert or a historian but I’ve seen a fair deal of Inca sites by now to know that, although the stonework was good, it wasn’t ‘temple-quality’. That told us that it was a rather important place, but not a temple.  We can also figure this out because the doors were double framed, something which was common in important places. Although there wasn't much information about the purpose of the site, from the little search I did on the internet afterwards, it seems that Waqra Pukara was an Incan sanctuary. And I can totally see why given its magnificent place and the views.

Unfortunately, on the way back, I got a really bad headache and found hiking rather hard. The thing that kept me going (and slightly laughing) was that Ioanna got scared by two birds that flew in front of her very suddenly. It was hard to tell who was more scared, Ioanna or the birds. Me and Ioanna also saw another two birds that were walking like they were something out of a comic! They really were funny!

But Inca sites were not the only thing we visited on our way down to the border crossing. We also hiked to the three Palcoyo Rainbow Mountains. These weren't the most famous Rainbow mountain in Peru (Vinicunca) because we decided that it just is too busy with people and too high in terms of altitude to visit. But these are three other rainbow mountains very close by (known as Palcoyo Rainbow Mountains) and, apparently, equally stunning. From one viewpoint, you can see all three of them!  Because of the minerals, you get to see layers of different colours which appear like a rainbow. It's pretty hard to believe it's real We took loads of photos, and even some with the llamas that were there on the terraces, smile mister llama!

Our last night in Peru was spent by Lake Titicaca, and it felt nice to go back to places we’ve been before! And we also discovered the answer to a little mystery: In all of Peru, we’ve been seeing little colourful bull statues, and we finally found out what they mean. Apparently, the bulls are a symbol for good luck at home, but only if there are two of them together! People usually put them on their roof or in their home as decoration. And now it all made sense...! 

For now, bye Peru, hello Chile!

Inti Raymi - a magical festival to the God Sun

Inti Raymi is the Inca celebration of the Sun, the most important festival in Peru. In Inca times, it would take place on the winter solstice (21st June). However, since the independence of Peru, it takes place on the 24th June instead. Nowadays, the main celebration takes place in Cusco and preparations for the festival last for months and months.

There are more than 800 people, including actors, dancers and musicians who star in this amazing theatrical performance that includes dances and praises to the Sun God. They are dressed in typical clothing and process through Cusco and perform outside important archaeological sites such as the temple of Qorikancha, the main square of the city and the Sacsayhuaman Archaeological Park.

Apparently, the Inti Raymi was established by Pachacutec and was celebrated every year during the winter solstice of the southern hemisphere, the day when the Sun was farthest from the Earth. It was so important that everyone from all around the Incan empire would gather in Cusco to attend. 

And of course, after spending a whole month in Cusco and the Sacred Valley, I thought that we HAD to get back to Cusco for Inti Raymi. But to see the performance from either Qorikancha or Saqusaywaman, we had to buy tickets that had long since sold out. So, in fact the main square was the only place you could enter the festival without a ticket. We arrived early in the morning to the main square, feeling very unsure that we will be able to see anything. You see the night before we overheard some people in our hotel saying that they planned to get to the main square at 4 in the morning to make sure they find a good spot. Our hopes were very low at this point but, luckily, we found a nice place at the front of the Cathedral. Phew....!

When the performance started, some actors dressed as guards rushed into the plaza checking every corner for intruders. That got the crowds very excited and created a great sense of suspense. After that, four big groups of people came in the plaza, each dressed as different tribes that were part of the Inca empire. They danced their way in the square and showed off their fabulous dresses. After them, four groups of soldiers came in with spears and shields and lined up in between two rows of the tribes. The interesting thing was that the men of the tribes were in front of the soldiers and the women behind.

There was a lot going on, but the whole plaza was in such celebratory mood and the whole performance was amazingly well choreographed. I guess they prepare for it for months, and it is the most important festivity in Peru!  

The bit that I loved the most was the characters dressed as a jaguar, a condor and a snake, the most important animals for the Inkas. They crept into the plaza and were acting out their respectable animals amongst the parade. In the whole of the procession, the jaguar was my favourite character.

After much anticipation, the Inca queen entered on a litter carried by some soldiers and was followed by someone carrying a shade for her and then her maids throwing flower petals behind her. That was very impressive and made everyone even more excited to see the Inca king. 

After the Queen's procession, came some people sweeping the floor with plants and then some women chucking flowers down for the king and his litter. And then he arrived! His litter had a golden seat and he was standing at its front with a golden staff and crown. The crowds went crazy as he passed and saluted them, and then stopped in the middle of the square where a replica of an Inca pyramid was.

He then went up the steps of the pyramid and started talking to his father, the Sun. All of this was in Quechua so we didn't understand anything he said but there was something about the triumphant return of the sun in the shortest day and the longest night and the beginning of the new agricultural year.

In Inca times, the shaman would sacrifice llamas so they can predict the prosperity and well-being of the coming year. But nowadays of course they don't do that. So what do they do? Well, there is a lot of singing and dancing and also they simulate a sacrifice with fake llamas and with a ceremony using coca leaves.  

I am so glad we managed to see Inti Raymi. When it was all over, I was buzzing! The whole city of Cusco was wrapped in an atmosphere of celebration and fun for the whole day and it was all such a huge party. Somehow, it felt like the best way to say goodbye to Cusco, the Sacred Valley and our Inca adventures.