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Elvis Lives Tour
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mai 2016 – août 2018

Elvis Lives Tour

May 2016 - April 2019 En savoir plus
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    1

    Moray... Eels?

    5 avril 2018, Pérou ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    After a slow morning we headed out of Cusco and into the Sacred Valley. Our 70 soles ticket (about 20 bucks) got us access to 4 sites in the north of the valley and we were determined to get our money's worth.

    First up was Pisac, a huge fortified site set on top of a hill, as they mostly are. It was a sprawling place that took us over 2 hours to explore and we could have spent twice that. From there we drove down the valley up and up the other side to the next spot, Moray where we camped for the night in their deserted car park with incredible views over grasslands and snow capped peaks beyond.

    When you sleep in remote and high altitude places like this you tend to go to bed early and get up with the sun rise. Moray didn't take long to walk around but the strange sunken terraces was unlike anything we'd seen before and reminded me of roman gladiator arenas. It wasn't far to Maras, a salt farm with a hodge-podge of saline pools stretching down the valley side.

    It was then on to Chinchero our 3rd stop of the day and it wasn't even lunch time yet! This site was huge with a massive amount of large terraces. Sitting atop of all this great Incan stonework was a Catholic church that looked very out of place.

    Next, and last, up was Ollaytaytambo This site was different again, set in a tight bit of the valley with high terraces constrained by stone walls. Atop of this was the Sun Temple, constructed with some massive blocks of stone that must have weighed many, many tonnes and had been transported from over 7 kms away. Unfortunately the Spaniards had turned up before this place had been finished so they hastily tried to fortify it, but throwing stones, spears and fighting with staffs wasn't any competition to the Spanish muskets.

    It was a really great few days jammed with so many impressive and varied sights, particularly enjoyable considering we nearly skipped it to continue heading south.    En savoir plus

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    Rainbow Mountain

    7 avril 2018, Pérou ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    I was hoping to use the great quote 'we went with low expectations and came back disappointed' (Maggie Smith referring to America in Exotic Marigold Hotel), but we were more than pleasantly surprised by Rainbow Mountain. This all stems from reports of the bad road and crazily Photoshoped pictures plastered over the tour company windows.

    As it happened the road wasn't any worse than a normal gravel road (i.e. pretty bad) and we went up late morning so we didn't meet any of the tour buses haring down the narrow and steep-dropped road.

    We set off at lunchtime and met hordes of people coming down, but by the time we had reached the top there were only a couple of people hanging around. Despite it being at 5,200 masl we charged up in an hour and a half, so we are obviously pretty acclimatised by now, although it was really due to the hail that was coming down.

    Miraculously just as we reached the summit the sun came out and we got fantastic photos without loads of people in the foreground. We hung around until the weather turned again, and ended up being the last ones up there. An hour later we were back at Elvis, and we got down the horrible bit of road that evening to a lovely camp spot in the trees we had picked out on the way up.    En savoir plus

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    Condor Canyon

    10 avril 2018, Pérou ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    It was a loooong day drive down to Chivay, the gateway to the Colca Canyon, at over 9 hours. This is double what we would normally do, but we were way above 4,000m for almost all of it and we didn't fancy sleeping that high and exposed if we didn't need to. Actually when we reached the wild camp spot we had in mind the snow was coming down so thick there was no way we weren't going to drive the extra hour to drop down into the town.

    We squeezed into a small hostel driveway and had our first shower for 5 days. The following morning we stocked up in the local market and headed to yet another mechanic for a new noise that bizarrely started only as we pulled into the hostel the night before. First they found that the guys who did our alignment hadn't put things back together right, and our steering arms weren't secured. Everyone thought that was the noise started but within a few blocks it was obvious it wasn't. We headed back and completely stripped out the suspension one of the front wheels and found that the spring was rubbing on the housing which was making the racket. Apparently this spring was a different size to the other one, but it's bizarre we'd managed 30,000 miles without it causing an issue. Replacement parts were all the way back in Lima, so we used a lump hammer to buy us some breathing room so hopefully that's the end of our weird noises from the front end for a while (he says unconfidently).

    That had ruined our plan of a lazy day in the sun on the canyon edge, but actually he afternoon was thick fog so we tentatively found our camp spot on the canyon rim and settled down for the night.

    In the morning we woke to sun rise over the canyon, and took our morning brews to look out for the famous condors. We spent a couple of hours just sitting there watching the massive creatures (3m+ wingspan) cruising on the thermals.

    We parked up in the main square of the next small town and were delighted to bump into our friends we'd first met on the beach in El Salvador over a year ago. The last time we'd seen them involved all day drinking and a street burger in our home town of Leon, Nicaragua and we'd been chasing them down for the last couple of months. They'd just finished hike we were about to start so we made plans to meet in Arequipa and parted ways again.

    Surprisingly it only took us a couple of hours to descend down into the canyon floor 1,200m below. This time we were travelling light we found an 'Oasis' at the bottom with a nice swimming pool which we spent the afternoon lounging around. Maya lived it here especially as she had 2 amigos to play with who had followed us all tge way down from the top! After an early night in our private dorm we then headed back up which took considerably more time - just over 3 hours, still with our little band of doggies. Exhausted we headed back to Chivay and the wonderful thermal pools for an afternoon of soaking.    En savoir plus

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    Rice Pudding

    15 avril 2018, Pérou ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Apparently Arequipa means rice pudding but fortunately the town isn't as stodgy as its namesake.

    We found a lovely hotel garden with dedicated toilet and HOT shower block (courtesy of iOverlander). This coupled with sunny days, great WiFi, a lounge we could use and finally catching up with our Canadian friends Sam and Don, who we first met in the beach in El Salvador probably a year ago, and the last time we saw them was demolishing a street burger after all day drinking in León. We spent a few days here doing admin; for those I've not told yet I have booked mine and Maya's flights home for the end of July - very excited. Phil's going to wait to book until Elvis is sold, and he is now on the market.

    We did manage to tear ourselves away from the WiFi and wandered around the charming town of Arequipa famed for it's beautiful buildings made from the local white volcanic stone, with said snow capped volcanos towering over the town, it really is a stunning place. I also visited the Monasterio de Santa Catalina where there have been an order of nuns since it was founded in 1580. It was supposed to be a life of chaste poverty but for some nuns from rich families they had servants or slaves and made grand purchases such as shipping pianos from London! There are still nuns living there today but without the slaves or servants. It was a very tranquil place where they piped 16th and 17th century choral music and I enjoyed wandering through the streets peering into the nuns cells and soaking up the atmosphere in the cloisters.

    Sam and Don treated us to some delicious homemade bbq ribs and we spent several nights out enjoying the local food and drink, especially in the Red Lion pub which bizarrely had amazing paintings of iconic mainly British artists (unfortunately out of our price range) and an incredible Indian restaurant.    En savoir plus

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    1

    Titicaca-ca-ca

    19 avril 2018, Bolivie ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Viva me patria Bolivia, como la quiero yo. We loved Bolivia so much last we learnt their national anthem at the footy game against Brazil.

    From Arequipa we drove back up up up onto the altiplano - high & flat land at over 4,000m. Every so often you would come across a pack of alpacas or vicuñas mooching around the road. It really is other worldy landscape up here and I think we're going to be up here for a while now.

    After a long but pleasant 6 hour drive we arrived at our designated camp spot, but were a little disappointed the grassy field had been turned into a bit of a building site. It was fine for an overnight stop but we definitely didn't feel like hanging around. We drove a couple more hours to the border, and it wasn't quite like any border we'd been to before. Firstly the little old lady doing the currency exchange didn't have a rigged calculator and completely threw me by offering me the official rate! Checking out of Perú took about 5 minutes and even more bizarrely getting into Bolivia only took 20 minutes. There wasn't a queue in sight!

    Half an hour later we were parked up on the shores of Lake Titicaca in the town of Copacabana and we felt so peaceful. The town is a lovely chilled place, and hasn't changed a jot from 13 years ago. We climbed the big rock jutting out into the lake crowned with the stations of the cross, and tried to find the spot where we took a pic of my brother sucking on a maté (argentinan tea through a straw!) last time around. Later that evening we found the same fancy restaurant where we ate, and a filet mignon cost me a fiver - I think we're going to like Bolivia :)

    The next day we were both feeling a bit under the weather - not sure if it's the altitude, a tummy bug, or (more likely) the beers/wine from last night. But the beauty of overlanding means you do what you feel like so we had a lazy morning looking out over the lake, which is so vast you can't see the other side. In the afternoon I went for a fantastic bike ride, with Maya pegging along behind me. The climbs were tough and I was soon panting for breath, but the descents down rough hillsides was awesome (although I'm not sure Maya agreed). A quick dip in the lake and drip drying in the sun rounded off what ended up being a nice day.

    In the morning we hopped onto one of boats and headed out to Isla Del Luna (Moon Island). Except for the fairly delapidated moon temple there wasn't much to see and an hour later we were hopping across to the larger Isla Del Sol. We had great memories of this place but unfortunately a dispute meant that the northern side of the island with the coolest stuff was closed off. Still a beer in the sun in the middle of the largest high altitude lake in the world, in the middle of a continent, and views across to Perú one side and snow covered peaks in the other was pretty awesome.

    The next day there was the Titicaca triathlon, and we watched the poor souls emerge freezing from the water and struggle to even balance on their bikes. Our mates Sam & Don turned up and we ended up back in our fav restaurant.

    The next day was Earth Day so we took part in the Overlanders Trash Pick Up, and collected 18 bags of rubbish in under half a Km. The lake side where we were camping was so gorgeous it's a shame the locals don't take better care of it, and we got a lot of funny looks but one old guy thanking us made it worthwhile. In the afternoon we went for another cycle ride along the peninsula, and stumbled across the ancient Incan road leading to the island, and great views across the water.

    That evening Nick & Megan (coincidentally the organisers of the pickup) rocked up and we all ended up getting drunk on the beach, until the wind suddenly picked up and drove us inside.

    After nearly a week we finally decided to move on, but Copacabana and Titicaca definitely had a place in our hearts.    En savoir plus

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    La Paz

    23 avril 2018, Bolivie ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    We drove around Lake Titicaca until we hit the point of a peninsula and the only way across was a small wooden ferry. It creaked scarily as we drove on and the thing twisted as the waves lapped into the side of it. I was pretty relieved when we drove off the other side and shortly afterwards we stopped for a delicious trout lunch at a deserted lakeside hotel.

    We knew petrol was going to be interesting in Bolivia, as the locals can buy it super cheap (under half a buck a litre) but the gringo price is nearly 3 times that, if you can buy it at all. Then there's the whole jerrycan vervus direct to the tank conundrum, so the whole thing is a bit of a lottery. The first place I'd tried with my jerrycans said there was no gasoline, but promptly filled a local when I was leaving. The next place's pumps were broken and the third really didn't have any petrol. Eventually I found a place 'mannned' by 3 local women, who giggled a lot when I asked but did fill my jerrycans at a midway price, pocketing the difference. I then had to decant them into our small jerrycans so we could get it into our tank without spilling lots of it. The giggly women did refill my two big jerrycans one more time so we were good for a while, but we have to find an easier way than this!

    A couple of hours later we hit the outskirts of the capital, La Paz. Its a sprawling place but with the city centre constrained within a deep bowl with narrow streets and we didn't fancy driving in. Rather bizarrely we camped in the long stay section of the airport, which was much better than it sounds. The car park was pretty small and it was only a minutes walk from the terminal, with clean toilets, wifi and lots of reasonably priced eateries.

    The following morning we took a microbus into town and went straight to the tourist area around the Witches Market. They still have the llama foetuses for sale (used in building foundations for good luck) and lots and lots of tourists shops selling all things llama. We hunted out some of the places we visited last time around. We even found the home of the legendary Oreo Cheesecake, but were very disappointed they didn't have any. We did find an English pub showing the unbelievably entertaining Liverpool vs Roma game (5-2!) but the full English breakfast we ordered had to be sent back FOUR times as it was cold.

    The next day we left Maya with our friends Sam & Don so we could ride the brand new cable cars into town. We spent hours exploring the Mercado Negro, a vast locals markets that must have covered a few square kilometres. It was much more enjoyable than the tourist shops that basically all sell the same thing.

    We were very excited to see the 'safety zebras' of John Oliver fame so of course had to get our photo taken with them (nearly getting run over in the process....!)

    Although the airport wasn't a bad place we were in need of showers so decamped to a lovely campsite on the other side of town where we met our friends Sam & Don again, ate some good food, wandered around the nearby valley of the moon and most importantly had hot showers!    En savoir plus

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    WMDR (World's Most Dangerous Road)

    26 avril 2018, Bolivie ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    So 13 years ago I spent an anxious day with Phil's brother Ed in La Paz after sending Phil off to cycle down the worlds most dangerous road. As you all know he made it back unscathed (just....)

    Of course he wanted to do it again this time and in a crazy moment (I don't know what came over me) I decided I should give it a go and signed up as well.

    We had to get up and leave our camping place in the longterm parking at the airport at 6:30am to make it into town (keeping Maya in a bag on the buses!). I was very quiet on the drive up to 4700m where we got togged up with full helmet, gloves, elbow and knee pads - I was just hoping I wouldn't need them but also didn't think they would do a lot if I went over the 800m sheer drop...

    Off we whizzed the first part of the ride was on asphalt and I don't think I've ever gone so fast on a bike - it was completely exhilarating and, when we got the chance to stop and look at the scenary it was just spectacular. Having gained confidence on the first bit we then got to the dirt road which is officially the WMDR. It was slower going and very very bumpy but great fun splashing through streams and under waterfalls all with a huge sheer drop off to the left.

    Phil declared it more fun than last time as in the intervening 13 years they have built another asphalt road which all the traffic uses so there is little danger of coming round a corner to come face to face with a truck or bus anymore. It also meant on the flatter part of road towards the bottom we could let Maya out of the support vehicle so she could run along beside us.

    I was pretty pleased with myself for cycling the whole thing (which not all of our group managed) and we rewarded ourselves with a few cold ones and a bit of soaking up some sun by the pool at a very balmy altitude of 1200m.    En savoir plus

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    Sajama National Park

    30 avril 2018, Bolivie ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    On the second attempt we got our jerrycans filled halfway between gringo rate and local rate, and drove across the high altiplano to almost the Chilean border, never dipping below 3,800m. All the time we could see 2 amazing snow covered volcano cones and the beast of Sajama Mountain rising up to 6,500m although it was topped in clouds.

    We parked up by a small river and set up, before noticing the ground didn't drain very well so wisely moved a hundred metres back up the road. We were in a wide plain and in every direction there were awesome peaks. The sunset between the 2 volcanoes was quite unlike anything I've ever seen before. When I let the dog out last thing at night the sky was crystal clear and we could see every peak and possibly the brightest milky way ever.

    The morning was chilly, and we set a new record low inside the van of just under 5c, but we were snug under our duvet, llama blanket (and sleeping bag for the first time). It was still super clear and the whole scene looked really different in the morning light. Fortunately it soon warmed up, thanks to the altitude, and we set off on our bikes to find the geysers. They themselves weren't so impressive, but they fed into a river and we made ourselves an amazing hot tub where we whiled away most of the day.    En savoir plus

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    Stuck in Sucre!

    5 mai 2018, Bolivie ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    It was a long drive from Sajama NP so we found a mirador to spend the night, and in the morning we headed into Potosí. This was once the richest city in the world, but there is a little sign of that now. The famous mountain that is riddled with mines still towers over the town, but after the nerve racking tour last time (with individual miners randomly setting off dynamite with no warning) we decided not to chance our luck again. In fact there wasn't a lot to keep us in the city so we headed along the road towards Sucre.

    We had just set up camp and had a brew on when we got a message warning us of protests in Sucre and that they were blocking all roads in the morning, so we broke the overlanding rule of not driving at night and after a few hours arrived at the only camp spot in town and fortunately we could just about squeeze in. The protests were due to el Presidente Evo Morales deciding to change the ownership of a huge gas field from this state to a neighbouring one - almost definitely due to his fight to remove the presidential term limit - and so we didn't blame the city for taking a stand.

    Its a lovely city full of delicious places to eat and a fantastic food market so we had no problems whiling away a few days, although it was frustrating we couldn't do a tour with Condortrekkers, the sister organisation to the one we volunteered at, or visit the famous dinosaur footprints. In fact we would have happily stayed a few more days but on Sunday we were told it was our best chance of getting out of the city otherwise we could be stuck for another week or more, and we only had about 10 days left on our visa.

    So a convoy of 5 different shaped rigs tried to work our way out of town. Fortunately there was a French couple who spoke really good Spanish at the front, and they got us through 5 major roadblocks via a variety of techniques (bumping over major curbs, buying chicken from a drunk truck owners wife, sweet talking, and bribing with a bottle of wine). In fact the blockaders and the supporting people were not at all aggressive to us and knew that a bunch of gringos caught up in this did little to help their cause, but finding the truck drivers to move their vehicles took some effort and it took us over 2 hours to get 10km out of the city. Our little convoy then group camped on a mirador and it ended up being quite a fun experience.

    The next day we were back in Potosí getting a vet certificate for Maya so we could get papers to 'export' her - bloody ridiculous when we just drove over the border without any questions when we came into the country.    En savoir plus

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    The Great White...

    9 mai 2018, Bolivie ⋅ 🌙 6 °C

    After never having driven in the dark for 2 years we seem to be making a bit of a habit of it, and we got to Uyuni late. It was a dusty and deary place as we remembered from last time! We had friends camping at the train graveyard so we headed there, but in the pitch black and rough ground so it took some finding. It was a bloody cold night, but when I let Maya out for a midnight pee the view of the stars and silhouettes of the trains was amazing.

    We stocked up and headed out onto the Salar (salt flats) with Don and Sam. We were expecting some water when we entered and weren't sure how deep it was, but after a little paddle we went for it and fortunately got out the other side. From there we were faced with a few hundred square miles of flat salt.
    We didn't really have a plan so we found a bit of a track and just followed it. After a hour or two of identical views we figured there wasn't a lot of point driving all the way across, so we pulled over for the night.

    Within a few minutes I'd put my foot through a soft spot, which was more than a little disconcerting, particularly after hearing about some fellow overlanders who managed to sink their rig and had to hike 20 miles for help! After a bit of investigation we found a bunch of these holes with a thin crust over them - they appeared to be small vertical holes through the thick salt (well over a metre) and everything else was pretty solid so and figured the vans would still be there in the morning!

    I had the forethought to take some firewood (very hard to come by on the altiplano) and we had a lovely evening cooking stew on the expanse, accompanied by a few bottles of lovely wine. It was a slightly surreal but highly enjoyable experience.

    We woke to a bright white landscape as far as the eye could see. There wasn't much point exploring as it was all the same so out came the golf clubs and an impromptu game of pitch and putt! We then spent a couple of hours experimenting with some fun photos as the lack of discernable features means your perspective is easily distorted. Obviously most of these activities were done with a beer in hand, and we had a wonderful day just messing about.

    The next morning was more of the same, and after a couple of hours we figured we should probably venture back to civilisation, and ended up back at the train graveyard.    En savoir plus

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    Butch & The Kid Country

    12 mai 2018, Bolivie ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    From Uyuni it was a gorgeous drive first over the antiplano, then finally (and happily) down through some gorgeous multi coloured mountains, and eventually through winding valleys of dusty red rock. This was made all the better by the fact this road was under construction, so for some of it we were diverted down dry river beds or through undulating twisty roads cut through increbile scenary than normally you would blow past at high speed.

    There wasn't much going on in the sleepy town to Tupiza, and we spent an uneventful night at the seemingly never open train station. The next day we relocated to the yard of a small hotel, and got the bikes out to go explore Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid territory. We'd watched the classic film a few days before, and have to admit we weren't on the edge of our seats during it, but it sure was beautiful dry landscapes they were always galloping around in.

    We cycled up to Canyon Del Inca, which was much harder work than the 6km would indicate as it went from soft to uber-soft under tyre. At the end the canyon quickly tightened to rock scrambling, and we had to stop when I realised Maya was trying to follow me! Still it was yet another glorious day (I don't think we've seen rain all of Bolivia, and beyond) and it was a nice afternoon out on the bikes.    En savoir plus

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    No Salt in Salta (Argentina)

    15 mai 2018, Argentine ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    After short hop to the boarder and minimal fuss we were in Argentina, country number 13. Almost immediately you feel like you are back in the modern world, with good roads and clear signage its a big change from the past 18 months - you could even be driving in America.

    We found an entry on the iOverlander app claiming to have the best empanadas (mini cornish pasties) in the country, so obviously we had to stop and we weren't disappointed. A few hours later we were in the city of Salta, staying at a municipal country on the edge of town. It's a bit of a revelation to have multiple camp sites to choose from, let alone municipal ones.

    We spent a few days enjoying the town and its wonderful restaurants. The highlight was definitely Viejo (Old) Jack's for Sam's birthday where the waiter cut our steak with a spoon!! Honourable mention goes to the real ale house where happy hour ran from 7 until 9pm so a decent american style IPA only cost 2 bucks, and they served incredible loaded chips. We even visited Barny Gómez, a legendary bar we got drunk at 13 years ago although frustratingly I couldn't replace my long since disintegrated t-shirt.

    At this point I should probably explain the Argentinan schedule, as its quite unlike anything we've come across. The day starts at 9am as usual, but runs until 12 when everything bar the restaurants shut down. The siesta time lasts until 4 or 5 when the day resumes and continues until 7, 8 or 9. Prime eating time is around 10pm and some bars don't even open until midnight. It's all very strange and we become slightly nocturnal (this is helped by the fact we're on a Buenos Aires timezone so it doesn't get light until 8am) but it's actually a bit of nightmare for overlanding life when you lose the afternoon and it's chilly in the morning so you stay in bed until the sun warms things up. Still Argentina has a lot of things going for it so I think we're going to enjoy our time here.

    Unfortunately I came down with a bad bout of man flu, which laid me low for a few days. When we came to leave Jo even drove for the first time since America, and it was one of the nicest drives we've ever done!    En savoir plus

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    Wine Country

    21 mai 2018, Argentine ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    Cafayate has been raved about by many of the travellers we've met, and is the wine capital of the north. Its not a large town but is surrounded by vineyards, that cover the flat valley floor and hemmed in by steep sides. The soil is predominantly sand which sits on a solid rock base, and the area receives a measly 20mm of rain a year - who would have known this is perfect for growing wine grapes?

    The wine here is quite different to the normal 2-4-1 stuff we all buy at home. It's very full bodied and very strong (14.5%) - if you describe the stuff at home as rounded, then I'd said this has some pretty nobbily corners on it. It's due to the altitude (~1,500m) which causes large temperature differences between day and night (~20°C) so the grapes have thick skins and are extra sweet. You'd be thinking it's easily a 20+ quid (£ for the foreigners) bottle when you'd only pay 5/6 bucks (£3/4) for it.

    We had a great tasting at Porvenir Bodega - a morning visit due to the crazy opening hours I described in the last post, which set us up nicely for the day. Prices are incredible here at around 6 bucks a bottle for a decent tipple and we lugged the inevitable case back to the van. Lunch was a fantastic selection of fresh empanadas, amazing cheeses and delectable dried meats - all washed down with a couple of bottles of course!

    There was also a great microbrewery on the main square but we were a little disappointed we couldn't find the same standard of restaurant as we'd quickly become accustomed to.

    Sam and Don had to head off as they were heading back to Canada for a few months in the(ir) summer. Strange to think we'd met them on a beach in El Salvador exactly a year ago, and we'd really enjoyed travelling with them for the past month or so.

    We did another tasting at a vineyard just out of town, and we could choose the wines from a large selection. This meant we could compare their cheaper and premium ranges, and surprisingly we often preferred the cheaper ones. The tasting was accompanied by a huge bowl of delicious cheese and view across the sun drenched vineyards was gorgeous. Also the $5 tasting was free of you bought a $6 bottle of wine, which obviously didn't need much thinking about, although liked this stuff so much we manged to buy another case!    En savoir plus

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    Valle de Luna

    27 mai 2018, Argentine ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    After Cafayate we headed to a small sleepy village to the northwest. There wasn't much going on but we visited a micro brewery and had a nice night in a huge but completely deserted municipal camp ground.
    Next up was a looong drive south to Mendoza, down the iconic Ruta 40 that runs the length of the country tracking the Andes. After a good day's drive we stayed in a lovely community camp ground at Pozo Azul (Green Wells), with a gorgeous red rock canyon.
    After another longish stint we ended up in Chilecito an old mining town which had an incredibly ambitious cable car system built in the early 1900s to link the mines in the Andes to the railway line. Very impressive but now a rusted old relic. The memorable thing about the campsite here was that we had to ask the owner 30mins before we wanted a shower so he could start a wood fire to heat up the water!
    We had a short hop to La Rioja, which was a larger town as we wanted to make sure we had somewhere to watch the Champions League final. Just as we called a cab into town the fancy hostel found the big match on the TV there, as Jo was feeling a little under the weather so we stayed local to watch it.
    Another 4 hour drive and we arrived at the Valle Del Luna regional park. The national park next door costs 4 times as much and offers less, so it wasn't a hard decision which to visit. Its a strange set up as you can only drive through the park, and only in convoy with a guide, but as we got here late in the day there was only 3 cars and we got to see it in the gorgeous late afternoon orange sun. The unusual geogology make up means there's a huge area rich in fossils from across all the epocs and the landscape is pretty epic. One of the most amazing stops was the marbles you can see in the photos - they are not made by erosion but by layers upon layers of sand deposits around an organic embryo, like a dead fly - truly bizarre. We finished the tour just in time for an amazing sunset, and spent the night at a great spot with free WiFi and brand new toilets - better than most camp sites!

    We then took a bit of a detour off the main road and down a small windy side road that wound through more gorgeous scenery, and spent a lazy day cooking stew on a camp fire at a dusty little free camp ground.    En savoir plus

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    21

    Dozy In Mendoza

    2 juin 2018, Argentine ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    We are struggling a bit with the Argentinan lifestyle and how it ties into Overlanding - over the past 2 years we've generally been getting up with the sun and going to bed at 10ish. However here the time zone is skewed towards Buenos Aires so it still pitch black at 8am and really doesn't warm up until 10ish, then by the time we've eaten breakfast and got ourselves going all the shops and businesses are shutting for their 4 hour lunch break... and then the restaurants don't open until 9ish! Anyway the above means we didn't get to San Juan until the extended lunch break so there was nothing for it but to eat a big steak with roquefort sauce and huge tasty caprese milanesa!

    After an uninspiring night in a petrol station (not as bad as it sounds as they are set up for truckers with wifi, toilets, etc and it was reasonably quiet) we finally arrived in Mendoza. Here our luxurious accommodation was a 24-hour car park but it was smack in the centre so it meant we could go out out! Queue a few more parillas and steaks :) We also had boring admin stuff to do - laundry and dog papers to prepare for Chile.

    We decided we'd had enough of carparks and petrol stations so drove just south of the city into the vineyard area and found a lovely hospiaje run by a former overlander who let us park next to the vines but sit inside by the log burner - bliss! We met a fellow traveling Brit, Tony, and spent the next day touring vineyards and breweries on our bikes. Maya was very happy to get a chance to properly stretch her legs and we've been doing a lot of cities, eating and driving - not her favourite activities. Of course staying out much too late so we ended up tipsily riding home in the dark with no lights....

    Unsurprisingly the next day was a bit of a write off and we spent another night around Mendoza, but this time in a nice little campsite with WiFi, electricity and hot showers (what more could you ask for!) before heading back into town the following morning to pick up the stamped dog papers.    En savoir plus

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    Not So Good, Not So Bad

    5 juin 2018, Argentine ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    This post is named after my favourite tagline from a local restaurant. Needless to say, we didn't eat there!

    A short drive out of Mendoza and up a valley in the impressive Andes we found some lovely thermal pools. We arrived at 7pm after everything was shut so we spent a quiet night camped outside.

    The next day we spent 7 blissful hours soaking in hot bubbly water made all the better as you could bring your own food and drink in. Our friend Tony arrived along with his girlfriend Carol so we all decided to drink a bottle or two of wine and spend another night in the car park!

    The next day we drive through some gorgeous scenery with craggy peaks and turquoise lakes before climbing up to about 3300m to cross the Andes at Frontier Los Liberatores into Chile.

    What a beautiful border crossing this is - the peaks were covered in fresh snow and we had a perfectly sunny day. We had been a little worried about entering Chile as we'd heard tales of overzealous officials pulling everything out of camper and looking for contraband fruit, veg, meat, dairy etc etc, plus that snow chains (bought at great expense) were compulsory. However we ticked the box as having food to declare, gave them a bag with a few old veggies in and after a cursory inspection and stamping of Maya's papers we were on our way down the windiest road in the world (fortunately no chains required)!    En savoir plus

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    The Final Frontier(a)

    7 juin 2018, Chili ⋅ 🌙 -6 °C

    Maya is dictating this part of our trip as we have to be in Chile a minimum of a month prior to her (and Jo's) flight home so, despite desires to stay longer in Argentina, the fact that the pass was open after a few days of heavy snow meant we had to go for it.

    The drive down the Chilean side was a very different - it's soooo steep! I remember this road really clearly from our last trip and driving it myself was even more intimidating. You've never seen a road switchback like this - even Chris Froome would be having kittens! The ice on the side of the road kept you alert, but you couldn't help but stare at the awesomeness of the terrain they'd somehow built this road though.

    We stopped off for a few hours in the town of Los Andes, trying to sort out the basics (money and SIM card) plus we had to restock on fruit & veg as you were allowed nothing through the border. The next day we continued down and were soon in Santiago, and unbelievable we had another noise eminating from the front end of the van (argggh).

    We dealt with Maya's stuff first and got that clock ticking, then off to yet another mechanics. They found a problem and sent me off to search the part shops to find a replacement 'idle arm' (don't ask - I might just bore you with the answer). I eventually returned triumphly, just as everything was closing for the day. After an exceedingly unglamorous night at the local petrol station we returned and they installed the new part. Immediately on the test drive around the block I knew it wasn't any better so back we went. Next we replaced the shock absorbers but still it wasn't sorted. Finally we found one of our newly replaced ball joints had some play so again I went off part hunting. Fortunately this time I didn't have to ship from the states, but when it was installed the following morning (after another unglamorous night) there was still some noise. The mechanics were at a loss and were shutting for the weekend, but stressed anything remaining wasn't serious so we had little choice but to head onwards (later update: the noise seemed to diminish over the following few days, and the work was all done well and needed - it's just frustrating to be still dealing with this).

    I don't really have any photos for this blog so I've just added a selection that sum up our time in Argentina (i.e. a lot of eating & drinking!)    En savoir plus

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    The Lake District, Chilean Style

    13 juin 2018, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    We high tailed it out of Dodge, sorry Santiago, and drove south as fast as we could heading for the Lake District. The weather was pretty dismal but at least the road was a good (flat, dual carriageway & no potholes) so we made good time. We stayed one night at a rather noisy Copec, but these are the most glamorous service stations you could imagine (hot showers & WiFi), and another a nice rest area just off the road. After a 3rd day driving we rolled into Villarrica, a nice little town by a big lake and thought it was a nice place to spend a night, although we soon realised there wasn't much going on so the following morning we drove the half an hour down to Pucón, the tourist centre for the area. It was like arriving in a posh ski town in rural America or even New Zealand.

    Elvis's new travelling companion is temporarily living here, so we got in touch to see if she would like to meet up and were delighted to be invited around for a curry. She was lovely and knows what it's like travelling and also offered us showers, so we felt very much at home.

    The following day was absolutely glorious, and having wimped out of an expensive guided volcano climb (mainly because of the dog, plus it was half the height of my last climb!), we decided to try and hike around the base. This was easier said than done due to a huge dump of snow - we were advised to install our chains but thought we could creep a little way up without them, but after sliding around a bit we soon ended parked up back at the entrance. We had a lovely walk up the way we thought about driving, and had to help a 4x4 stuck on the ice! When we got to the end of the road we ventured off to the side and were soon waist deep on snow!

    After a quiet night at a lovely spot on a black sand beach we drove a little north to do another walk but were warned we would be in deep snow again so decided on a shorter hike to 3 waterfalls followed by a soak in one of the numerous thermal baths around here.

    We continued winding our way around the lakes staying at lovely free campsites and one day we even braved a quick dip in an extremely cold lake to freshen up.

    Although the area was very pretty, due to the price of everything we made the decision to head over the pass back into Argentina where we would be able to afford steak and red wine again. It also meant we would reach Patagonia which felt like a good way to end our Southern trajectory.    En savoir plus

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    This is England,... Actually No - Chile

    15 juin 2018, Chili ⋅ 🌙 7 °C

    It was wierd coming into Chile after spending so longer in countries of varying (i.e. low) levels of development. My yankee friends won't like me saying this but I found the US a lot less modern that you would expect, but compared to everything else it was the most like home.... until we got to Chile!

    Firstly the weather - we're now on the western side of one of the biggest mountain ranges in the world and bordered by the coast, so unsurprisingly it's wet. It's not wet like the east coast of the states, where we'd never seen such powerful storms, but wet in the depressingly British sort of way. Grey clouds are the norm at this time of year, along with drizzle to heavy rain, reminding me of aqua-planing along the M6 (fortunately both Mol & Lynds were passed out after a rough night in hospital when Lyndsey shattered her ankle at Toby's wedding down south).

    Secondly the prices were a bit of a shock to the system - petrol isn't that far off UK prices (but at least someone pumps it for you). We're finding we can't justify eating out, even an empanada (think of a small cornish pasty) costs more than a 3 course menu-del-día in most countries, and a pint is nearly as eye watering as at home (normally a beer out is only fractionally above a beer from a shop, double at most - I can only wish that was true at home, or in the states).

    Lastly, we walk into the local supermarket and are stunned to see a Tesco's section. Although slightly more wierd is the fact only a single product was recognisable from home. The beer section (not Tesco branded) was much more familiar, and we took good advantage of the Adnams beer on special offer, and my personal all-time favourite of Wychwood's Hobgoblin ale :)

    Its funny as when we drove into Argentina we said it reminded us of the US, but I wasn't expecting this of Chile and it's certainly not what we want when our final journey home is looming ominously large on the horizon.    En savoir plus

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    Patagonia!! We Made It!

    25 juin 2018, Argentine ⋅ 🌬 5 °C

    We didn't quite realise it, when we crossed back into Argentina we saw a sign saying we'd arrived in Patagonia! I thought it started way further south than this, but was super chuffed to be able to tick it off the list, although we definitely have to go back and explore its wonders in the summer at some point in the future.

    As soon as we hit a town we immediately went for a delicious lunch of steak and chips with a fried egg on top - delicious, and one of the main reasons we came back over! We were so happy to be back and after a night by the lake we drove to Bariloche which has been an aim of Phils for the last few months. Although the town wasn't that great we managed to find a real ale bar showing Argentina vs Croatia and they let us camp in the car park for the night! We enjoyed their happy hour (6-10pm), playing pool and found it a very quiet campsite - mainly due to the very poor Argentinian performance!

    The next few days were spent driving around the national and local parks, finding some beautiful free campsites and doing some walks in either drzzily rain or stunning sunshine.

    We were in need of hot showers so drove to a promising sounding campsite on iOverlander. The owner Anna met us but had the disappointing news that it was shut. Despite that she let us stay anyway, turning on all the heating and hot showers. She even let use the kitchen and a room with a heater, which was very welcome as it is very getting pretty damn chilly down here. We spent a happy few days here doing a bit more hiking and enjoyed an evening cooking a meal for Anna. She is one of the most friendly welcoming people we've met on our travels and would only allow us to leave a bottle of wine or two to show our thanks.    En savoir plus

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    Footy, Footy, Footy

    29 juin 2018, Argentine ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    After Bariloche we headed back to Angostura where we crossed the border, as its a much smaller town and way more RV friendly. Plus there's loads of great bars to watch the World Cup.

    The last Argentinan game was a shocking performance, but this time they pulled off an unlikely winner and the bar we were in went crazy and the streets soon filled up with singing & flag waving fans, despite the fact it was lashing it down. There was a little less atmosphere for the England game, but the way the lads are performing we made enough noise to make up for it.

    So we spent a happy week and half, eating and drinking! A humongous steak and sides only costs about $13, and if we weren't stuffing ourselves we were enjoying a bottle of red (under 10 bucks) watching a game.

    We did venture north through what is meant to be some of the most beautiful landscape in the continent, but the weather was pretty awful and thick snow clouds blocked all the amazing views. After a few days exploring we slunk back to the bars and the footy with our tail a little between our legs.

    We made the right move coming back into Argentina and enjoying our wealth again (the dollar rate has gone from 25 to 29 in the 2 weeks we were gone!). I was definitely missing mates with the fever pitch of 'football coming home' but we were in the right place to enjoy the football spectacular.

    Time closing in, as was the weather, and we had to get back on the west side of the Andes. Snow came down pretty thick that night and in the morning we got to use our expensively acquired snow chains for the first time (in my life). They provided quite a bit of extra security when driving up the Argentinan side, but as soon as we saw the 'Welcome To Chile' sign the road was completely cleared.    En savoir plus

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    San-hatten

    14 juillet 2018, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    We spent two days charging up the boring Ruta 5 highway - fortunately mostly on our argentinan petrol tanks at half the price of the Chilean gas.

    We spent a couple of nights outside a lovely Airbnb place despite the fact we were staying in our van. Claudia and Patricio are wannabe overlanders and they couldn't have been more accommodating. We hung out with them for a couple of days, watching the footy on his massive TV, and chatting away into the small hours. They didn't charge us anything and you couldn't have met nicer folks.

    We checked into our Airbnb nice and early so we could enjoy the England v Croatia semi final. We hit an Irish bar which had a whole floor devoted to England fans - rather bizarrely I got stuck next to a yank from NY who spent the entire game trying to convince me of his englishness, and Jo had a Danish guy who wouldn't shut up either. On top of that Fox Sports were there shining a camera and bright light right into our faces, but fortunately they didn't try to interview us in Spanish. We managed to ignore all the distractions as much as we could to enjoy the game, as England inevitably succumbed to beatable opponents.

    That night I had the weirdest experience: I took Maya out for her nighttime widdle and saw a load of fire engines at the end of our road. I paid little attention to them but jumped into the van to grab a few things before heading back upstairs. Then there was a knock at the door and a lovely, English speaking, volunteer fireman explained that a gas leak had been reported, we were parked right outside the French embassy - hence the big emergency vehicle response! They had found the leak was from our van and repaired it. If I hadn't had gone to the van we would have no idea of the drama we caused! That serves us right for filling the gas for the new owner - they somehow managed to squeeze in way more than ever before, but at least we got it fixed for free :)

    The drama didn't end there when a drunk crazy woman accosted me. She was blathering all sorts of stuff and trying to get into the van. Fortunately a security guy who was driving the streets (not police, so I don't know who was paying him?) calmed it down. A few minutes later she was back and shouting at me to lie down on the street like she was, but I love the security dude for sticking around and whilst she was offloading onto him I snuck out the back. The whole thing was probably the strangest experience we've had on the whole way down!

    Santiago is so westernised and different from the rest of our trip, that when I learnt they called it San-hatten I could totally understand it. It probably was a good readjustment back to the real world, but it was kinda hard to get used to not being on the road.

    We spent a couple of weeks in a nice little apartment really close to the centre. We had a lot to do to get ourselves sorted.

    I went to the airport to visit customs and sign over the van, but the guy there flat out refused and said we had to drive to the border over 3 hours and 3,000m altitude gain away! The next day we thought it worth popping back in to the airport before the long drive and low and behold they stamped the paperwork within 5 minutes :)

    The rest of the week was spent sorting ourselves out, getting Maya's paperwork ready and a little bit of time enjoying the city. This new sedentary lifestyle took some getting used to, for Maya particularly, and we ended both ended up running a lot just to blow through some excess energy.

    Eventually Patricio took us to the airport and Jo & Maya got home safely, albeit by a horrible circuitous route via Madrid & Frankfurt before her parents picked them up and saw them safely home.

    I left a few days later, as contingency against problems with the van or Maya, but with the luxury of a direct flight home. My heart fell when I saw 60+ school kids waiting to board the plane, and with all the commotion it wasn't until I was queuing to board that I realised I'd been upgraded :) What a great way to finish off the trip!    En savoir plus

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    Fin du voyage
    15 août 2018