13 December 2010 – 14 December 2010 – Machu Picchu

·        Arrived into Machu Picchu after a 3 hour train ride to torrential rain but went up anyway

·        We were rewarded at times when the clouds broke and the rain stopped

                Before                                                                After

·        4am start the next day so we could be at Machu Picchu by the 6am opening time to get one of the 400 tickets each day to climb Wayna Picchu (mountain next to the ruins and in the background of the photo above)

·        Wayna Picchu is 2635m and took about an hour to scramble to the top

·        Pretty tough walk but the brilliant views made it worth it

Scrambling to the top................

At the top of Wayna Picchu

The stairs were steep!

·        Some other pictures once we had made it back down from Wayna Picchu

The resident lawn mowers!

Wayna Picchu in the background

The Inca's View!

12 December 2010 - Travelling day to Cuzco

·        Travelling to Cuzco

·        Should have been a short flight (55 mins) but instead took all day as a result of plane delays

·        Cuzco is our home for the next 5 days (with a quick side trip to Machu Picchu)

7 December 2010 – 11 December 2010 – La Paz

·        Chaotic but very likable city

·        Altitude (3,660m above sea level) and afternoon storms made it easy to duck into a café for some chill time each day

·        Loads of shoe shine boys wearing balaclavas and Bolivian ladies in traditional dress working in the streets

·        Did a day trip to Tiawanaku Ruins (c4,000m above sea level and close to Lake Titicaca and Peru) – pretty interesting

3 December 2010 – 6 December 2010 – Salt Flats Trip

·        Trip to Salar de Uyuni

·        On the way to the Salt Flats we went past some amazing landscapes, volcano’s, geysers, lakes and rock formations

1 December 2010 – 2 December 2010 – Tupiza

·        Arrived in Bolivia today and made our way to Tupiza by bus – well that was the initial plan anyway until we saw it!

·        Touristy town with electric showers - but good place to chill ahead of our 4 day Salt Flats trip

·        Did a 3 hour horseback ride (wild west style – compulsory given we were in the town of Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid)

29 November 2010 – 30 November 2010 – Travelling days

·        Overnight stopover in Salta – quaint little town – could have quite easily spent a couple of days here relaxing

Salta

Salta

·        Next morning caught the bus to Humahuaca – stayed for a day to acclimatise to the higher altitude (c2,500m) on our way to Tupiza, Bolivia

Humahuaca

Humahuaca

28 November 2010 - 29 November 2010 - Iguazu Falls

·        Went to both the Argentinean and Brazil sides of Iguazu Falls

·        Absolutely spectacular……

                 ·        Speedboat ride underneath the falls provided a decent drenching

24 November 2010 – 27 November 2010 - Buenos Aires

·        4 days in Buenos Aires chilling out eating loads of steak and ice cream……

·        Really vibrant and diverse city

·        Palmero was a Melbourne-esque type area with awesome, cafes, bars and private clubs - managed to blag ourselves into one of the clubs to mingle with the local cool (and young!) kids 

23 November 2010 - Travelling day to Buenos Aires

·        Flight to Buenos Aires – this time my backpack arrived safe and sound

17 November 2010 to 22 November 2010 - Torres del Paine National Park

·        5 days hiking the 'W' route (c75km) through Torres del Paine National Park (Chile) from refugio to refugio (or camping if you are stupid / brave enough – after Africa, a dorm bed was luxury in Clare’s eyes)

·       Amazing place – here are some highlights that we saw through the rain, snow, wind (70kmph), heat, cold and sunshine……..