Christmas Cheer - I´m still alive

Happy Christmas everybody from the very hot city of Santiago, Chile. It felt very strange celebrating christmas in shorts, t-shirts and factor 30 sunscreen - keeping alcohol chilled whilst sat around the pool is very difficult but I tried my best. I had a great day with the rest of my group, santa had left us all presents under the tree - we even had stockings full of sweets to nibble upon whilst we waited for lunch. Lunch was a variety of pasta and rice salads served alongside the roast meat (obviously not for me) and was delicious. Needless to say after 14 hours of continual drinking we were all feeling a little merry. The photos and video evidence (especially of the wonderful dance routines) make compulsive viewing - even if they are totally embarassing but all are testament to the amazing atmosphere of the day. Even better the hangovers were very mild on boxing day!

I am currently in Pucon - the Lake District area of Chile, the scenery is fantastic - especially if you view it from above in a tiny plane. What was I doing in a tiny plane I hear you ask. Well as a special birthday gift to myself, I thought they could be no better way to mark the passage of time than to jump out of a plane. Yes I have done a SkyDive!!!!!!!
What an utterly fantastic experience. I jumped at 9000 feeet and freefell for over 40 seconds. There are very few words I can use to describe how amazing it was. (The words I want to use come under the term "flowery language") Obviously this is not me in the photo - ours haven´t been uploaded yet but this is Peter the skydive master whom I did my tandem jump with. (Just pretend the girl is me). I even managed a perfect landing which was remarkable as I couldn´t really stand up for 10 minutes after the dive ended. I was literally floating on air. To anyone thinking of doing this - go for it. It is the best experience of my life.

Doing nothing in Argentina

After a couple of horrendous driving days on the worst roads in South America (they are not actually roads - they are dried out river beds) we finally spotted the border to Argentina. The prospect of decent driving conditions was overwhelming - unfortunately there was a price to pay for our combined euphoria. It seemed as if everyone else in the country also wanted to cross the border at 9am on a saturday morning. We were stood in the queue - in the baking heat (no sunscreen or water as they were in the truck on the otherside of the border) for - wait for it - over 4 hours. Wasn´t that a fun time. Argentina recently updated all its borders to computerised borders - no old fashioned stamps for them - unfortunately none of the bloody computers work!
We spent that night and the next morning in the city of Salta. Strangely enough following Saturday - the next day was Sunday - being a strict Catholic country obviously not a single shop was open. To make matters worse all the shops were full of lovely very cheap good quality things laughing at us.
Feeling dejected we moved out of Salta to a campsite by a deep ravine. The heat in Argentina is immense- we are moving into summer here but it is so much hotter than the Carribbean was. Factor 40 is having a hard time coping. I guess the weather is similar in the UK though (ha ha ha) To cool off I went Zip lining. Zip lining or flying fox is simply dangling off a metal line and going down it. The safety equipment has improved though since I last did this - then I had to grip on to a wooden handle with all my strength - if you fell - tough. Nowadays you are strapped into a harness and attached (safety rope and all) to the line - falling out of this would be a minor miracle in its self. Good job too. There were 9 lines, the longest 500m long, another 365m long. They criss crossed across the ravine a number of times. As you were fyling down them you were 140 m above the river and at times going 35kph but is was so relaxing. I was gliding down the lines feeling on top of the world. I reckon even those not too great at hights would have enjoyed this!
Its taken another couple of very long drives and camping at the side of the road but we have now reached Mendoza. Its a city in the middle of the Argentinian wine district. Got here at midday just in time for Argentinian siesta. Siesta lasts from 1 or 1.30pm to around 5pm. Everything and I mean everything shuts downs. Not only shops but banks, other services, even most restaurants! Have well and truely given up on the notion of trying to achieve much in Argentina. (Even the skydiving is not possible as the plane is being serviced for 7 days). Instead tomorrow I am going on a 2 day wine tasting tour. To make it even more amuzing, the first day will be on bicycle. Sun, sun, bicycles and lots of lots of good wine. There cannot be a better way to spend the run up to christmas...

Whistestop tour of Bolivia

I left Cusco heading towards the border with Bolivia. Lake Titicaca is the natural border with both countries claiming half of this lake each. It is the largest freshwater lake in South America and the highest navigatable lake in the world at over 4000m. There are still communities of Uros Indians who live on floating reed islands in the lake and the things they can make out of reeds are truely impressive. We spent the night on the lake staying with local families. In the evening, we were all dressed in traditional clothing and made to dance alot. The boys got of alot easier than the girls- they just had to wear ponchos. Female outfits consist of multiple skirts, shirts, corsets and shawls. We were certainly not cold! I looked very colourful in my heavily embroidered outfit - wait till you see the pictures. After formally crossing the border we headed towards the Bolivian City of La Paz. All of Bolivia is very high - most over 3700m and the towns are all built on the sides of mountains - making walking up and down the streets very difficult. Alas I still hadn´t manage to shake my infection totally, so could not take advantage of the shopping to be had in La Paz.
By the time we got to Potosi though I was completely recovered so I was able to take a trip down the mines. Potosi had a moutain full of silver until the Spaniards discovered in and mined it completely - killing millions of slaves and locals in the process. Mining practices have changed little here in the last couple of hundred years and I watched as the miners dug the minerals out by hand. I also listened apprehensively as the dynamite explosions were going off in the mine whilst we were they. There has been enough Silver taken out of this mine to create a bridge that spans all of South America and reaches Europe. Ironically Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in the world as it was the Europeans who took all the money. Potosi mine is also the largest cemetary in South America with over several million workers buried in the mountain. When the Spaniards first starting forcing people to work in the mines, most only lasted 3 months on average before dying! Standards have improved since them but it is still a haunting experience. I did get to hold some dynamite though, and we blew a stick of it up - all for the grand total of 75 pence! It was great fun though!
After the thrills of blowing things up I headed off for the amazing visually spectacular Uyuni Salt flats - If sunglasses are not worn here you become blind as the reflection off the salt burns the retina - like snow blindness but worse. It is so white and bright here- The salt flats cover a vast distance - the only activity being a couple of towns on the edges where the locals dig out the salt and process it - selling it on to businesses. It some places they have found the salt to be over 50 metres deep. It was here I aso saw the oldest catus in the world - over 1000 years old - very tall it was too.
Bolivia has been a strange country - very high, with Salt flats at one extreme, and the continents largest body of water at the other. It also has the worlds most dangerous road within it but going on my past performance you will be pleased to hear that I was unable to cycle down it. But now I´m fully recovered I will be able to do the next madcap thing - which rumour has it may well be a skydive. Watch this space...

Machu Picchu ... eventually

Well the plan was to spend 4 days hiking the Inca trek up to Machu Picchu - the lost city of the Incas. This place was never discovered by the Spanish and as a result is largely intact. The trek itself is very challenging, climbing and descending some incredibly steep mountains. Some of the passes are above 4200m and the altitude only adds to the challenge. I have been looking forward to hiking the trek for a number of years now. Well that was the plan. I only went and contracted a particulary nasty kidney infection the day before. The doctor would not let me start the trek. He may have had a point as at the time I couldn´t stand up! I was gutted but the antibiotics I was prescribed kicked in quickly and in a couple of days later I was declared fit enough to take the train up the mountain. The train journey was so picturesque as we climbed into the Andes. This is no ordinary train track - the mountains are so steep the train is unable to go in a continuous path. Instead it has to stop every 10 mins or so and change direction, climbing the mountain in a zigzag fashion. I spent the night in the town of Agua Callientes (Hot water) where I did partake in the healing qualties of the hot springs. First thing the next morning (at half 5 to be precise) I caught the bus to take me the final way of the journey to Machu Picchu. I was so pleased to see the rest of my group arrive via the Inca trek. Some of them looked very much the worse for wear - most of them doing good impressions of the John Wayne walk. We all entered the site together and what an amazing view awaited us. The mist hadn´t quite lifted from the top of the mountain making the place look even more magical. The stones that Machu Picchu are built from are immense, some well over the size of 5 adults - some of them weigh over 130 tonnes and they all fit together perfectly without any assistance from any type of mortar. They were also built to withstand earthquakes which is why so much of the site remains. After exploring the royal tomb, sun temple, quarry and sacred plaza to name a few we made our way to the famous hitching post of the sun. This was some kind of altar although some acedemics believed the Incas thought it to be a hitching post to the sun - the place where the sun was tied to the altar. It is suposed to give off magical healing energy so I placed my hands as near to it as I could without touching it. (Well I need all the help I can get at the moment!) After a couple of hours exploring our guide suggested we climed the nearby Waynu Picchu to get an excellent ariel view of the site. Waynu Picchu is that incredibly steep looking mountain in the background. Well since I was here I thought I may as well give it a try. Didn`t manage to get anywhere near the top before my body had had enough but I did climb high enough to get a good view. Climbed back down and spent the rest of the day exploring this site firther. By half past 4 it was time to catch the train back to Cusco. I would suggest that everyone comes to visit Machu Picchu and to be honest arriving there by train seems the more sensible way of getting there