Otavalo Market & Hemisphere Hopping

We have had a very busy few days here in Ecuador. On Friday morning we caught a 2.5 hour bus ride north of Quito to Otavalo, a small town not far from the Colombian border. The coach and the coach ride itself was an experience ($2 each). The bus was gaudily decorated in blue and purple with paintings of gods in gold and the driver drove it along the Pan-American highway as if it were a mini, throwing it around bends which had nice drops on the side!!! There was an assistant hanging out of the front door shouting out the destination along the way and touting for more passengers and every so often, locals would also jump on and walk up and down the bus trying to sell their wears.

We arrived in Otavalo, settled in to our nice guesthouse and headed straight for the main square. Otavalo is fairly spectacularly located, surrounded by three enormous volcanoes. The most striking part of the town however is the locals. They are exquisitely dressed. The men wear their hair long in a ponytail, under a dark panama hat, with white trousers and either a red or black poncho. The women wear embroidered blouses, head scarves and carry their children on their backs wrapped in cloth. It was really quite a sight, and a real treat to be around them. They were also enormously friendly, which is becoming a bit of a running theme here in South America. The people here are quite small so Bi feels right at home while Ash feels like a giant... regularly banging his head on fixtures!!!

Well as always it was first things first for us... lunch. We found a little organic cafe with a balcony overlooking the market square. Naturally, Bi was absolutely busting to get to the market and fulfill her shopping needs, so we ate up and headed straight to it. Ash has been going on and on about getting a hammock since he first saw them 8 weeks ago in Iguazu and finally purchased one for a huge 6 pounds. He's absolutely wrapped! After touring the market we took an hour's Spanish lesson (which we desperately needed) before heading back to the guesthouse for a traditional Ecuadorean dinner and an early night, ready for an early start at the main markets on the following day.

We awoke at 6am the next morning and headed straight for the animal market just out of town. Wow what a sight beheld us! Up on the side of a hill a whole field was filled with locals trying to sell all kinds of animals: cows, pigs, sheep, horses, chickens etc. It was fascinating to see the locals lead their squealing, mooing or bleating purchases back into town! Ash approached one man and with a mixture of pigeon spanish and sign language asked how much he was selling his cow for. He said that his cow was one of the better cows and quoted a price of $60. Tempting.. but we don't have much use for a cow at the moment!!! We stood on a small hill just observing this very different way of life before heading onto the produce market. We were both stunned at the quality, quantity and diversity of the fruit and vegetables on offer. Organic eat your heart out... it's the norm here! We would have loved to have gone mad as we are longing for some fresh salad and veg, however, we have to be careful as we can't stomach the water here. Our next and final stop was to the Artisans market which had tripled in size from the previous day. We picked up a few goodies: Bi got a handwoven replacement camera bag ($1.10), and a table runner and Ash finally succumbed to the pressure and bought himself a Panama Hat... he spent the whole evening admiring himself in it! Happy from our day experiencing reputedly one of the best markets in South America, we caught the bus back to Quito in the afternoon.

On Sunday, we took a bus north to Mitad Del Mundo, or the 'Middle of the Earth' where the equator line is located. We found it quite quirky seeing as we were at 'Fin Del Mundo' (end of the Earth) only a few weeks ago. We walked to a (rather touristy) monument to the Equator and it was a novel experience hopping between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. We then headed out of the monument and walked 150m down a dust road to see the outdoors Museum of the Sun. Using GPS technology about 10 years ago, they had pinpointed the Equator to actually be at the point where this museum is now located, rather than at the monument we had previously visited. We had fun participating in various experiments all brought on by the lack of centrifugal force at the equator, such as watching the water drain down a sink in different directions, balancing an egg on a nail, and performing human strength and balance tests (which were both completely diminished!). We also saw some ancient indigenous buildings, shot at targets with blowpipes and saw a real shrunken human head! It was an old tribal tradition in the Amazon to cut off the heads of enemies and through a rather unpleasant process shrink them down to about the size of a fist! Back in Quito for the evening, we sat on our room balcony with some drinks and a pizza and watched the world go by.

Today we are joining our 10 day tour of the Galapagos Islands. We are very excited, although Bi is somewhat dreading being back on a boat again! Fingers crossed for nice smooth seas.

Farewell Chile, Hola Bonito Quito!

On Monday we caught a 3 hour bus from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas, the largest town in the south of Chile. It lies on the Magellan Straits, but it is really just a town with not a huge amount to do from a tourist's perspective. We spent a day doing a few domestic bits and pieces (haircuts, post and finally getting Ash's backpack repaired after is was ripped on our flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia) and then decided to bring forward our flight to Quito by four days as there was little point staying in Punta Arenas. We've covered all of the parts of Patagonia that we planned to and we were ready to move on. There is so much to see on this continent so we feel the need to make the very most of all of the time we have.

So, we were up very early on Wednesday for our flight to Quito, capital city of Ecuador. We took two flights and after several stops and a five hour wait in Santiago we finally arrived in Quito late last night. It was a long day! We had been warned about personal safety issues by other travellers and so we have switched back into 'Rio mode'. We had a pre-arranged taxi waiting for us at the airport to take us to our hotel for this very reason.

Well, we couldn't be anywhere more different. Both Argentina and Chile are very European, while Ecuador is much more what we expected South America to be. That's a great thing though! We both woke this morning excited to be somewhere so new and so different and with a huge 12 week overland journey ahead of us which will take us through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Northern Chile.

What a beautiful city Quito is. The city is located in the Sierra region of Ecuador, up in the Andes, so arriving at an altitude of 2,500m left us a little breathless and reminded us of being on our high altitude Alps Expedition last year. The city is divided into two main areas, the New Town and the Old Town ('Centro Historico'). Our hotel (which we don't think has been re-decorated since the early 70s) is slap bang in the middle of the Old Town and perfectly located. The historic Old Town is deservedly a UNESCO World Heritage sight. The old colonial architecture is exquisite, and has been extremely well preserved with numerous churches, cathedrals and monuments, and narrow cobbled stone streets that twist and wind through the city. It is fascinating to see the indigenous people in their full traditional dress and to see the women with their tiny babies tied to their backs with cloth. This is what we came to see and experience... real culture. The people we have met today have been so friendly.

Having spent the morning walking around the Old Town, we went for lunch in a Hare Krishna vegetarian restaurant (!) which was very good and cost us only 75 pence each for a three course feast. We then headed up to the huge central Basilica for spectacular views over the city. We have never had quite an experience like it... we climbed vertical ladders to the top of the bell tower on rickety wooden bridges and iron railings, right into the roof of the tower and climbed OUT onto the edge to stand on a tiny stone cornerpiece with a HUGE drop below us. You could never do something like this in England or Australia; Health and Safety Legislation would be all over it! Believe us when we say you have to hang on for dear life! The views however were incredible and worth the vertigo!

In the afternoon, we took a taxi across town and up to Panecillo to see the statue of the Virgin Mary that overlooks the city, similar to Christ the Redeemer in Rio. More spectacular views over the city and the taxi ride provided a good tour of areas where it would not be safe for us to go on our own.

We have both decided that we really like Quito. It has a special charm and a real buzz about it, and we are really glad to be here. It is also extremely cheap by Western standards which makes us wonder how much we must get ripped off! Tomorrow we are heading 2 hours north on the bus to Otavalo ready to visit one of the best indigenous markets in South America early on Saturday morning.

Torres Del Paine...Take Two!

Ok... so perhaps we don't like to be fully defeated!

After a day of improved weather, we decided to again throw caution to the wind and make our way back to the Torres Del Paine National Park to complete the final walk which provides the best views of the Three Towers.

We woke early to the sound of... oh my word, silence! It looked to be the start of a really nice day so we boarded our bus much more cheerily this time around. (Ok, so the promise of no camping and a warm bed at the end of the day did add somewhat to our happiness!). Our 2 hour journey into the park was rather different and afforded fabulous views of the mountains and surrounding countryside. Our first obstacle of the day was to sneak past the entrance as we had not been told to get our passes stamped for re-entry when we left on Wednesday. Out of principle we were not prepared to pay the over inflated and hugely touristy price of 15 pounds each again to get back in when we were entitled to enter the park 3 times on the one ticket. Our tactic was as such: We joined queue. Guard turned around. We legged it! We made it! We jumped on the shuttle bus to our startpoint, Hosteria Las Torres, and we were away!

Needless to say we had a fantastic day. Great weather, great views and a lovely hike up. As our time was a little limited by the bus return time we powered up the mountain to get to our destination, the Mirador De Las Torres, or Towers Viewpoint (the main attraction of the National Park). The map recommended 5 hours to the top... without our backpacks, and already fit from previous hikes, we cleaned up in a smooth 2 and a half. This gave us ample time to sit and enjoy the views with our lunch and Bianca's bottle of birthday wine, which neither of us had felt like drinking in the pouring rain a few days ago. We unanimously decided that today was really worth it, and as such designated it as Bianca's official birthday!

After a pleasant hike back down we had several hours spare so decided to walk all the way back to Laguna Amarga rather than catch the shuttle bus. All the way, Bi was on 'high alert' for puma and frequently mentioned how she didn't want to be eaten. She'd only be a little snack anyway!

We got home late, but happy and hungry and finished off the day with a great stonebaked local pizza... yummy! Torres Del Paine... we gotcha!

Torres Del Paine... more like Torres Del Rain!

Well folks, we've had some awesome weather on our travels. Until now. All good things must come to an end.... can´t have everything perfect all the time!!

We spent all of Monday preparing for our 5 day, 76km camping and trekking of the 'W' route in Torres Del Paine National Park. We packed our backpacks with sleeping bags, tents, inflatable 'ultra-comfy' sleeping mats, stove, fuel, food, clothes and what came to be the most essential part of our kit.... waterproofs and bin liners! We were quite excited the night before but this was whole-heartedly dashed when we awoke at 6am the following morning to the sound of torrential rain. Not ever to be defeated, we gallantly boarded our bus for the 2 hour journey to the park entrance, hoping and praying the weather would let up. We took a 30 min boat trip to our start point along with several other travellers and began our trek in the gloomy weather to our first campsite, 11km away.

What can we say about the walk... well....it rained. It rained some more. It absolutely poured it down, and then it rained some more!!!

Three hours later we arrived soggily and cheerily (not) at our little campsite on the edge of Lago Grey. Just to set the scene it was raining, there was some icy snow on the ground in places, it was very cold, grey, and there were icebergs slowly drifting past our campsite on the nearby lake (see photo!). We pitched our little two man tent, crammed in and changed into the only dry clothes we had... long-johns, socks and flip-flops before joining others on the campsite under a little shelter to cook our dinner. We had an 'exciting' dinner of packet rice and packet soup which took about an hour to cook on our tiny stove, but we passed the time laughing with the others and all fantasising about roast dinners, pizzas, curry, sticky toffee pudding and warm custard and more! After dinner, and with little else to do in the pouring rain we dived back into our tent, awkwardly sorted our stuff out for some time because of limited space (Ash being 6ft obviously taking up most of it!), wrapped up in jumpers, woolly hats and gloves and climbed into our down sleeping bags....phew for that one!! We had a good old laugh at our soggy predicament before rapidly deciding that we hate camping and never want to do it again!

Somewhat familiarly we again awoke to the sound of rain. Ash went and made breakfast consisting of porridge with powdered skimmed milk and water from the lake (scrummy!). Actually, it is amazing how much you can enjoy something that would ordinarily be aweful when you're cold and hungry! Ash also gave Bi her first present for the day... a soggy birthday card and a sizeable toblerone bar and boy was she pleased to see that! (the other two presents were a tub of pringles and a bottle of wine presented during the day........a raincheck has been taken on the Louis Vuitton handbag!!!). We climbed back into our damp clothes and wet socks and shoes.... yuk! then packed away the camping kit and set off on the second leg of our trek which took us 11km back the way we had already come the day before.

The rain stopped briefly in the morning and we managed to get some nice views of the surrounding mountains and lakes before it started to drizzle again and the dark clouds returned. We arrived back at our start point from the previous day and were about to trudge along onto the next trail at about 2pm before we spotted a 5 day weather forecast pinned up on a wooden board. To our dismay, it was rain, 100% cloud cover and winds increasing to 50mph!! After some debate over a hot chocolate cooked in our little stove (this gave us at least 30mins thinking time it was so slow) we decided to cut our losses - we were obviously getting some kind of sign here! We don't like to be defeated but the thought of camping in the pouring rain with no views over the following 3 days seemed like a lot of effort for not much reward! For us, the highlight of the trek was to be the views and so without them it seemed little point to us to continue.

So, we waited a few hours and caught the next boat and bus back to Puerto Natales late last night... just pipping two others to the last two beds in our lovely warm, cosy and comfortable guesthouse. On the bus transfer home we had some luck at least... the cloud broke momentarily and we got a full view of the 3 torres peaks that this national park is famous for and which for us was the main attraction on the trek. What a bonus!

We awoke this morning after a lovely warm, cosy sleep to a nice home-cooked breakfast. As we write this, Bi has just this second popped off to make us a cup of tea to have with some cake. We both feel we have learned something out of this little experience. That it's ok to give up. Usually we would not admit defeat and persevere, but in this case we would have both been miserable and that's not the point of the trip. On the plus side, we now have a blank canvas for the next week to go and do some other things.

PS: Neither of us ever want to see a tent again!

El Chalten and Mt Fitz Roy

After a 4 hour dirt track bus ride north of El Calafate, we arrived in El Chalten in the most northern part of the Los Glaciares National Park. El Chalten is a very small and rustic town at the foot of the Mount Fitzroy range; dirt roads, few pavements and limited facilities but it is rapidly growing as evidenced by a huge amount of building work that was going on. This town only came into existence about 10 years ago but is rapidly becoming flooded with tourists during the summer months. The timing of our visit was just about right as it is coming to the end of the season and so both town and trails were nice and quiet.

We were in El Chalten for 2 1/2 days purely to trek around Mount Fitz Roy. On the first day we took a long trek to Laguna de los Tres and were rewarded with the most magnificent views of Mount Fitzroy and its surrounding peaks and glaciers. We sat making up our fresh baguettes and soaking up the sun and the atmosphere. We have been lucky enough to see some pretty stunning scenery from our treks in the Alps and the views over Mt Fitz Roy and the surrounding peaks definitely rate up there with the best. The weather was perfect and made for a really great day.

On our second day it was a little overcast but the mountains were still clear of cloud, so we made a slightly shorter trek to Lago Torre for views over Cerro Torre, a mountain to the west of Mt Fitz Roy. It was a pleasant day, but the slightly shorter trek didn't feel that much shorter! With aching legs we treated ourselves to some handmade ravioli and a large beer. Even Bi is getting a taste for the local cervezas as they are served ice cold and are really refreshing after a long day in the hills!

Our hostel in El Chalten is definitely worth a mention. We had the dreaded room number 2 - a dark and cramped dorm built for four beds but in which they had shoved six. The second whammy came for Bi when she realised that she had to share it with five blokes!!!! She was not impressed but braved it for the three days... albeit feeling a little traumatised by the time we left. In the early hours of one morning she was to be found spraying air freshener around the room as the rest were sleeping! Unfortunately we could find no availability elsewhere!

Needless to say, whilst El Chalten itself was lovely, we were both glad to be leaving. After a brief stopover in El Calafate we took the early bus this morning across the border to Puerto Natales in Chile. We have just arrived and are staying in a lovely B&B which feels somewhat palatial in comparison! Tomorrow we sort ourselves out for 5 days of hiking and camping in the Torres Del Paine National Park, which we are quite excited about... back to the big outdoors!

El Calafate, Glaciers & Gauchos

After a couple of days chilling out in Ushuaia, post Antarctica (for 'chilling out' read doing laundry, checking our slightly depleted bank accounts, sending some post etc), we took an hours flight north to El Calafate.

Wow, what a change of scenery! From the lush greenness and peaks of Tierra Del Fuego, both of us said the same thing when we arrived.... we're in the Wild Wild West! The landscape is dry and dusty, with steep rocky hills covered with low lying brushes and grasses. This truly looks like the home of the Gaucho, the Argentinian Cowboys and Horsemasters.

Yesterday we took an hour long bus ride to the main tourist attraction... the Perito Moreno Glacier. It is one of the largest in the world, rightly a UNESCO World Heritage sight, and even after the splendours of Antarctica, boy is it impressive and absolutely enormous! Just to get an idea of scale, the glacier is over 5km wide at the base (where we were standing), 60m high and snakes its way 30km up into the distant mountains. It is extending 2 metres each day!! Ash was rather excitable at the sound of the glacier creaking and groaning as it made it's slow way down to the lake below - Lago Argentino. The highlight was when we saw a big slabs of the glacier calving off into the lake. They would make a really really loud cracking noise and then come crashing down into the lake spraying water into the air.

After a few hours simply watching the glacier and waiting for pieces to carve off, we returned to El Calafate and mapped out and arranged our plans for the next few days. We keep bumping into people we have met on our travels, whether it be the people we shared a boat with in Antarctica or people we have met in previous hostels. It's quite nice, because it feels a bit like a travellers community almost. We had coffee with an Irish guy that we met a few weeks ago in Ushuaia and he gave us lots of useful tips for our camping and trekking trip into the Torres del Paine next week.

Today we spent the day at Nibepo Aike Estancia, a working farm 55km from El Calafate and located in the Los Glaciares National Park. We had a bumpy but scenic journey along a dirty and dusty road and along the way we spotted foxes, hares and giant condors - big birds of prey like eagles which were perched on the fence posts alongside the road. We were welcomed with hot drinks and cake in front of a log fire before taking a horse ride around the Estancia and up into the hills behind for some spectacular views of Los Glaciares National Park. It was so peaceful. We returned to watch a sheep getting an 'authentic' shearing by hand, and then sat down to an enormous barbeque... Ash got his first taste of raw sheep tongue, which he said was delicious! Bi was disgusted of course, especially at the fact that it came from a sheep! She gets a special mention for bravely handling the greasy wool just after the shearing, although you should have seen her face, followed by the prompt washing of hands!!

Tonight we are chilling in the hostel. Tomorrow we are on the move again and take an early bus to El Chalten for a few days of hiking and some more spectacular scenery around Mount Fitzroy.

Antarctica

We have just returned from our 10 day trip to Antarctica aboard the ice-hardened Russian icebreaker, M/V Polaris, and we both have had an experience of a lifetime. Antarctica is like another planet, an unspoilt wilderness that is quite simply magical and we have both felt genuinely privileged to have been able to experience a taste of it's beauty, and also of it's isolation, harshness and brutality of the environment.


Our crossings of the Drake Passage, famous for being the roughest seas in the world (where the Pacific and Atlantic meet) were very good to us although still like a neverending funfair ride, so we were rather seasick on both crossings especially little Bi who didn't surface for 48 hours each direction! Ash spent time listening to the lectures about Antarctica that took place during the crossing.


Our first experience of Antartica was 90mph winds, turbulent seas, and blizzards. We have never felt winds like it. Bianca is still lucky to be here, and not several miles out to sea! It meant for the first day that we couldn't land, so we cruised up and down the Antarctic Sound waiting to see what the weather would do and while doing so, just took in the grandeur of enormous tabular icebergs floating all around us. They ranged from small slabs of ice to some that dwarfed the ship completely.... similar to a good sized island. Amazing to think that 7/8ths of each iceberg was invisible and underwater. It was a proper Antarctic introduction.

A little about the boat that we were on. She was a Russian vessel, chartered by GAP Adventures after their own boat, the 'Explorer' sank after hitting an iceberg earlier in the season (gulp!! but to our advantage as people cancelled which enabled us to get our last minute place). She came with a Russian crew who were really friendly and there were a total of 64 passengers on board. The expedition team genuinely were second to none. They consisted of an expedition leader, and assistant leader, an ornithologist, marine mammal biologist, glaciologist and a historian who kept us enthralled with stories of Scott, Shackleton and the rest of the so-called 'Heroic' period of Antarctic explorers. Their enthusiasm was infectious and they really helped make the trip as special what it was. We had a really great group of people on board as well.

On our second day we had dark brooding skies and a drizzly start to the day as we boarded zodiacs down a rickety and wobbly launch off the side of the ship and made our first landing on the great white continent. We visited Gourdin Island, and it was just unbelievable to enter a shoreline littered with blocks of ice and our landing spot just covered with penguins, fur seals and sheathbills. We saw all three species of brushtail penguins as we walked through an enormous rookery, and fur seals scattered in between them. The whole experience was magical, and it was fantastic to see each other's faces completely light up as penguins would waddle up to us so inquisitvely. They are so cute and cuddly (Bianca's words!) and really are quite hilarious to watch at times! Bianca said I looked like I was in Disneyland, sporting a huge grin from ear to ear the whole morning.


After lots of hot chocolate and lunch we again donned the waterproofs and welly boots and boarded the zodiacs (all with an extra two or three pairs of socks on our feet this time) and made our second landing for the day at an Island called Browns Bluff. The weather had completely changed, it was calm, clear, crisp and the sea was as flat as a lake and absolutely littered with ice bergs and chunks of ice as if you were gliding through a big drink filled with ice. It was absolutely breathtaking, especially the deep blue and turqoise colours in the icebergs. The whole scene before us just indescribable.. and every bit what you expected Anarctica to look like. When on land we walked through a big seal and pengiun colony, and climbed up to a look out point which gave us views over the whole landscape. Our boat again looked like a little tiny figurine anchored in a vast and icy sea littered with the most enormous icebergs. After a good few hours on the Island we went back to our boat for a quick warm up drink before being treated to a zodiac tour around all the ice and ice bergs for about an hour... the occasional fur seal perched on top!! Ash and others topped off a fantastic day with a whisky on the rocks - 30,000 year old glacier ice plucked from the sea!


On our third day we visited some of the South Shetland Islands, located just off the north of the Peninsula. We landed on Penguin Island, an extinct volcano, and walked up the edge of the volcano and around the rim of the caldera which gave us magnificent 360 degree views over the other islands and the Bransfield Strait. Wildlife was abundant as always and we made our way through more selas, penguins and giant petrel birds. Interestingly, the beach was littered with whale bones, which was an eerie reminder of the whaling that took place here some years ago.


We made another landing that morning at Turret Point, where we spotted a rare Sub-antarctic Seal (only 300,000 exist), and lots of huge elephant seals... these can weigh up to 4 tons each! We also had the opportunity that afternoon to steam to Admiralty Bay and visit a Brazilian Scientific Research Station, and it was really interesting to see a more human side to Antarctica (and we got our passports stamped too!).


Our final day of landing proved to be a real treat. We made our way to Deception Island at the most southern point of the South Shetland Islands, a giant dormant volcano some 12 miles across. We were told it is about due to erupt again as we sailed into the enormous caldera! We landed at Whalers Bay, so called for the large now-deserted Norwegian whaling station that lies there. It was fascinating albeit sad to walk around the old wooden buildings and to see the massive tanks that held all the blubber oil extracted from the Whales. We made our way up to Neptune's Window for views out over the bay and Bransfield Strait and had one of the highlights of our trip. We were completely spoilt to see Humpback Whales fully breaching out of the waters below. An absolute treat, and was poignant considering the early human purposes of the island.


We finished our final landing with the piece de la resistance... by stripping down to our bathers and charging into zero degree waters where we had to go completely underwater to qualify for the 'Antarctica swim team'. We both made it and were so numb afterwards we had no idea how cold we were. Not something we will ever forget!


We spent the final two days of the trip making our way back across the Drake Passage, and due to good weather we were lucky enough to take a detour to make close approach around Cape Horn, which was very dramatic. Our fabulous trip was over, and as we steamed back into the Beagle Channel towards Port Ushuaia, a school of Peales Dolphins put on a real show for about 15 minutes swimming and jumping up alongside the ship. This has truly been a trip of a lifetime and something we will never forget.