Purgatory, Puno

Puno was shockingly shabby after Arequipa - a dusty and ramshackle town brightened only by the mountains behind and the blue lake in front. The centre of town was slightly more attractive, albeit touristy, but nearer the outskirts a smell of urine pervaded, due to the guys stopping to pee at every street corner. Our first impressions of Puno however were necessarily overshadowed by the fact that we would not be able to leave until Saturday at the earliest due to a local bus strike. This would normally have been an inconvenience, but under the circumstances was a near disaster as unless we paid the balance of our Inca Trail by 7pm on Saturday we would lose our deposit as well as the chance to visit Machu Picchu. We considered various methods for getting to Cuzco on time if the strike continued (dodgy night bus, expensive flight, hired taxi for the seven hour journey...) but none were ideal, so we just had to wait and hope that everything would work out ok.

Puno is 3800m above sea level, which took some adjustment after Arequipa. We had come equipped we altitude sickness pills but even so I struggled with dizziness, difficulty breathing and headaches. (Dave was fine.) The high altitude also meant blazing sunshine by daytime and brutal cold at night. We shivered in our hostel and avoided the tepid shower as much as possible.

The sights of Puno were fairly limited, apart from the ubiquitous touristy alpaca product shops. Walking around town was also made difficult by the touts offering massages, meals and jumpers. This was a feature of travelling totally absent from Chile, Argentina and Brazil but it didn´t take long for us to remember how annoying it is.

We tasted coca tea for the first time in Puno, as it is meant to help with altitude sickness. Coca leaves are legal in Peru and a harmles and mild stimulant, although they are the first ingredient needed for the production of cocaine. The tea was quite refreshing and seemed to help the headaches a bit, despite tasting slightly like grass. Other notable meals included salchipapas, a heaped plate of chips and chopped up hot-dog, Andean pancakes and excellent guacamole, and poached Lake Titicaca trout in a vodka and red pepper sauce. (The latter was in a Peruvian fusion restaurant while the former was in a greasy spoon equivalent.)

Our main activity was a tour of the Floating Islands, which we tried to do independently rather than through a tour agency. However, we got ripped off and as a result succeeded in paying exactly the same amount as we would have if someone else had arranged it for us. Also on the trip were fifteen Peruvians, who seemed more into the touristy things the islanders were shilling than we were. Included in the trip was an introduction to the islands which helpfully was in Spanish. We did manage to take away from it the fact that the reeds which form the base of the islands are around two metres deep. The islands are literally floating - the ground is formed from layer upon layer of matted reeds, which are springy to step on and felt exactly like a water bed.

The boats and houses are all formed entirely from reeds, as was a little free range guinea pig enclosure we spotted. Most of the islanders seemed to be involved in tourism in one way or another, and it was an incredibly commercialized place. Despite this, it was also totally unique and so worth a visit. It helped that the lake itself was blindingly blue and pretty stunning by itself. 

On Saturday morning, after more than enough of Puno, we walked to the bus station to see if we would be able to get to Cuzco.... Cliffhanger! (Except not really, because I´m sure everyone reading this already knows what happened.)

The city of volcanic rock in the land of the Incas (Arequipa)

We entered Peru in a colectivo taxi, which ended up being our simplest border crossing yet. Not only did we get charged the same amount for the ride as the Chileans in the taxi with us (in parts of Asia it would have been ten times as much!) but the taxi company actually filled out our immigration forms for us. Peru at first sight seemed wealtheir and more attractive than we had anticipated - although writing this with hindsight, it no doubt had a lot to do with the fact that the border town Tacna used to be part of Chile...We hopped on a bus straight to Arequipa, which proved to be rough around the edges but stunning in the touristy city centre.

Although Arequipa has suffered more than a few earthquakes, many of the city´s ancient buildings built from sillar (white volcanic rock) have survived. We really liked the cobbled streets surrounding the main plaza, which was always packed with Peruvians and tourists enjoying the sun. However, in many ways Peru reminded us of SE Asia, and the constant need to be alert to the possibility of scams and theft, as well as the never-ending attention from touts on the street. Added to this was the need to be extra vigilant when receiving change (counterfeit coins and notes are common) and taking taxis (kidnapping a possibility.) There was a bit of cultureshock after Argentina and Chile.

The main attraction near Arequipa is the Colca Canyon....but we didn´t end up going there. We wanted to check it out independently but we didn´t have enough time. We could have done an organised tour but they all seemed pricy and rushed. Then we found a company which was recommended for tours but it was closed for the weekend, so that was that! Instead we spent our time in Arequipa just hanging out, which was good after the last few days of intense travelling. Dave worked on his espanol and managed to leap ahead of me, although I still have more food-related vocab. We checked out a few ancient and architecturally impressive churches and cathedrals in the city centre, as well as the Santa Catalina monastry, which is a sprawling and beautiful citadel.

Additionally, we visited many of the identical tourist shops selling ´genuine baby alpaca´ products, watched a lot of the World Cup and explored Peruvian cuisine. We discovered that Arequipa has many excellent Turkish restaurants (falafel sandwiches! Jonny, Emma and Neil, you will know what this meant to me!) and we found a creperie (with both trout and curry crepes) which we went to no less than three times. Other notable meals included the classic dish of stuffed chilli pepper with potatoes and cheese fondue, and guinea pig, which Dave described as ´like steak but crunchy´. And of course, there was plenty of Pisco.

On the 16th of June, we set off for Puno with the intention of spending just one night and breaking up the journey to Cusco. But the travelling gods seem to agree with Robert Burns in that the better a plan appears to be, the more likely it is to go horribly wrong...

Around (the north of) Chile in 4 days

Valpairiso is just two hours away from Santiago, and used to be a very important port in ye olde times. A glamourised version of it appears on many postcards in Chile - it is eminently photogenic as it is built on several steep hills, and boasts many cheerfully colourful buildings. The best way to describe it is to say it is full of character, a euphemism akin to saying someone has a great personality. It is not postcard pretty; but it is attractive in an interesting way. Compared to the deserted streets of Santiago, it was full of vibrant life on the Sunday we visited. We hiked our way up through an open-air museum of murals built on one of the city´s hills, which was cool, and checked out the port from a distance. Other activites included drinking coffee, eating completos and exploring the town in in a brief and haphazard manner. Next, a return to Santiago for the night before beginning our journey northward to La Serena.

La Serena is a coastal town which in summer is a popular beach resort, but which was overcast and quiet when we visited.

We stayed at a quaint little guesthouse with actual waitress service at the not-bad-at-all free breakfast. We also continued our run of scoring discounted accommodation by using the revolutionary tactic of asking for it! Thanks, SEAsia, for forcing us to haggle over everything! We arrived late so dinner on our first night in town was a choice between a series of identical looking neighbourhood type grills, offering variations on the same dishes at the same prices. We ate grilled meats with chips and copious amounts of guacamole.  We spent a day or so appreciating the lovely architecture and ancient churches in town. We also drank some more pisco and walked along to the beach, which was pretty in a grey and brooding kind of way. This was also the first time (except from a distance in Valparaiso) either of us had seen the Pacific ocean. (Bonus Where´s Wally style challenge - spot the large cross on the hillside!)

The following day, after two separate Chileans assured us the Elqui Valley was pretty much the most beautiful place in the universe we managed to pack in a tour around the region before catching our bus to Arica at 6pm. And yes, it was really beautiful. Unfortunately we didn´t get as much time to appreciate the landscape (read: take photos) as I would have liked, as we were constantly whizzing between various papaya or cactus fields, learning more about the produce of Chile than I think anyone in their right minds would ever want to know. Still, we visited a cool dam with some great views, and some unbelievably picturesque little villages, as well as the house of South America´s first ever Nobel prize winner, poet Gabriela Mistral.

The tour guide was a personable Chilean guy, and along with us on the tour were a middle-aged couple from Santiago and a couple who lived in Hong Kong, although the guy was a magistrate who originally came from Leeds. Lunch was at a restaurant which used solely solar power ovens to cook the food - interesting gimmick but indifferent cooking. The hightlight of the day was a visit to a pisco distillery, as the valley is where most of the pisco in Chile is produced I believe. (It is a form of grape brandy and not from sugarcane as some inexperienced Pisco drinker attested in the last post...) Therein we tried a mango sour, some straight 40% pisco and some 67% pisco, which David claimed to prefer to the cocktail version. It was just as well we clung to our heritage and drank up, as awaiting us was a 25 hour journey to the border town of Arica. The landscape en route was to my eyes stark and desolate - mile upon mile of bare heaps of dirty sand towering up to grey skies, with the occasional stray dog or wooden cross interspersed. We saw little of Arica before our border crossing to Peru, on the 11th of June.

Santiago - smog with a side of city

The photo above was taken during our journey through the Andes to Santiago. The landscape changed drastically as the trip progressed, from green fields near Mendoza, to the snow-covered mountains, and then to sunny Santiago. Which we actually loved, despite the post title. Yeah, there was a lot of smog, but like Buenos Aires Santiago had a great atmosphere. The border crossing from Argentina was a massive contrast to the chilled out strolls across we got used to in SEAsia. There were sniffer dogs, and lots of those x-ray machines for bags from airports and we actually had to fill out our forms properly, instead of leaving loads of blanks like we normally do for questions such as ´occupation´ and ´address in Chile´.  In other news, my travel sickness pills definitely work! First journey through the Andes was completely vomit-free.


We had anticipated Chile being nearly as expensive as Brazil, and accordingly planned to whiz through on our way to Peru. Luckily, it wasn´t as bad as we had feared, although still more costly than Argentina. We fell in love with our hostel in Santiago - La Casa Roja - which was a rambling wooden mansion. It was freezing at night but gorgeous. The hostel had a bbq while we were there, (everyone sat shivering in their jackets) which had indifferent food but was a lot of fun. We drank Chilean wine and hung out with a couple of civil engineers from Bedfordshire and a Scottish guy from Glasgow. He was the very first other Scottish person we´ve talked to on our travels, and as I said to him, his accent just made me want to hug him because it reminded me of home so much.

As well as wine, we discovered the pisco sour in Santiago, although I believe it originated from Peru. It is pretty fab, although not sure if pisco is available to buy back home. I want to replicate it! We discovered that Chilean empanadas are double the size of those in Argentina, and even tastier. The most common kind is pino, which is a filling of beef, olives and boiled egg. The snack we ate the most however was the completo. Vegetarians and indeed healthy eaters look away now... The completo is a hot dog covered in lashings of tomatoes, gucamole and mayo. Chilli sauce or ketchup optional extras! They are so big it´s impossible to take a bite of the whole thing at once without getting sauce on your chin. I miss them already!

For once, we decided to actually do one of Lonely Planet´s walking tours, where they sketch out a little route for you around all the main sites in the city. We started at Cerro San Lucia in the city centre, which is a lovely park with fountains and great views. Then we stopped for coffee for an hour before checking out some market stalls, and some of the city´s most beautiful buildings. (Including some attractive plazas - why don´t we have more of these in Britian? They´re my favourite thing about SAmerican cities.)

We also visited the Museum of Pre-Columbian art, which was an amazing collection of sculptures, figurines, jewellery and mummies from South and Central America. Definitely the best museum we´ve been to on our trip. Lonely Planet then told us to go to a legs cafe, which....is a normal coffeeshop but with waitresses in skimpy outfits. We gave it a miss though in favour of more pisco.

On our next full day in Santiago, we visited the city´s biggest park, which is also host to San Cristobel - the Chilean version of Rio´s Christ the Redeemer. Access to the statue was via a scary and steep funicular train to the top. We got lost on the walk down, but we did see some amazing views of the Andes.

We liked Santaigo so much we decided to see Valparisio, our next stop, as a day trip rather than staying there. Updates on that and more pisco adventures to come.

Of course, some wines are more equal than others... [Rosario and Mendoza]

Rosario is perhaps the kind of town it is better to live in than to visit. This is not to denigrate it - it is an extremely pleasant town, with wide, tree-lined pedestrianised streets. However, there is not much for the traveller to do - we attempted to visit a few museums, but somehow we always turn up when they are either closed, being renovated or have mysteriously vanished from where Lonely Planet insists they will be. Something about the dreich weather and grey town centre reminded us of Scotland. In a good way! Somehow we ended up spending a few days in town, at a hostel which felt more like a home, with access to the owners´ kitchen.We ate a lot of pizza verdura (spinach and white sauce on top) and visited the birthplace of Che Guevera! (To the left) It is a very nice building but otherwise entirely unremarkable. I refrained from wearing my Che Guevera t-shirt for the visit. It was bad enough having to step aside to let residents into the building as we were taking this photo of their home!

Mendoza was our next stop, and our last before Chile. It´s a lovely place, with gorgeous streets and plazas. It had a really autumnal feel, with cold, crisp air and orange leaves on the trees. The snowtopped Andes were just visible on the horizon at certain points in town. Despite the chill, the cafe culture was thriving. There were many places for us to while away a few hours sipping cafe cortados or the local wine. Our vast, draughty hostel was deserted except for us and the young guys running it. We spent one full day ´touring´ all the different plazas of the city, and another lying on the grass beside the lake at the massive park on the outskirts of the town.

Our main activity in Mendoza was an organised wine tour we went on. Also in our group were a few Argentinians, a Brazilian couple, an uber-confident spanish student from England and a doleful American, with a copy of Ulysses in his pocket. (Honestly! And I just had to bring it up, because there aren´t many opportunities in life you get to boast that you´ve read Ulysses. Which of course was one of the main reasons for reading it in the first place.)

We visited a modern, clinical looking winery and an oldschool rustic looking one. For those interested, the varieties we tried were Malbecs,  Torrontes and a Cabernet sauvignon. The whole experience was fun and surprisingly unpretentious. Although we did all have to talk about what fruits we could detect, and what colours we could see in the wine. (I was like, red?!) We also learned that American oak is bold and sweet and French oak is gentle. So there you go. Included in the trip was a visit to an olive oil factory and a church but neither of those involved alcohol, although there was free bread at the factory. And that concluded Argentina! Chile was just a trip across the Andes, a time change and a few sniffer dogs away.

Buenos Aires Part 2 - Now I know how it feels to be an American

The food in Argentina centres around pizza, pasta and meat. Even so, this represented five or six more food groups than we ever sampled in Brazil. Pizzerias selling the cheesy stuff by the slice are on every corner, filled with guys in suits munching at counters. The pizza would not be recognisable as such to an Italian, but it is excellent in its own oily, doughy way. The pasta is generally homemade ravioli. Dave had  it once in Palermo with a bolognese sauce, which he says is the best he has ever had. Including in Italy. Then of course there are empanadas, which are similar to cornish pasties and filled with minced beef or chicken with palm hearts. They are usually really nice although I had a bad one once and threw up on the street. Coffee is great and hugely popular, and the wine! The wine! It is cheap and very very good. An interesting snack is the aljafor or cookie sandwich - the filling is an Argentinian speciality, dolce de leche, which is basically caramel. Dolce de leche is so popular it is also an ice cream flavour, a breakfast spread and a variety of Oreo. As for the steak, it is really great. I had never had a steak

in a restaurant before Argentina and now I probably never should again. Lomitos are greasy but good steak sandwichs, and burgers are gigantic and come as standard with mayo, salad, cheese and ham. When ordering beer or coffee in restaurants, something extra to nibble on is usually brought over on the house - usually peanuts for beer and some sort of pastry for coffee. Coffee also always comes with a glass of fizzy water, which is pretty sensible... During the festival for the bicentenary, stalls popped up everywhere selling popcorn, candyfloss and massive chorizo style hot dogs.

The festival events were spread over several days, although one of the outdoor music concerts we tried to go to was cancelled due to rain - in Britain I´m sure we would just have persevered! We watched Argentina´s football match against Canada on big screens in the main plaza, with a crowd of thousands. I don´t have many insightful remarks to make about it but Dave enjoyed it, although he said the crowd were much more subdued than they would have been in Scotland. The main event of the bicentenary was the parade of floats chronicling the history of Argentina, followed by a concert.

The parade included a section on the Falklands, with a dramatic representation of the deaths of Argentinian soldiers, accompanied by mournful music. This provoked a passionate reaction from the crowd - we joined in with the clapping, scared to speak to each other in case anyone overheard the English.  Anger over the Malvinas is still alive and well - we saw countless memorials to war veterans and I heard/saw it mentioned more times in two weeks than I ever had in my entire life in Britain. We got some frosty looks on producing our passports and saw graffiti on the main avenue advocating "English out of the Malvinas! English out of Latin America!" It was a strange and new experience to feel judged for my country´s actions, especially ones which took place before I was born....

The rest of the parade was great, and the atmosphere in general really good. Afterwards we wandered past all the stages, sampling a bit of interpretative dance, tango, rock and some massively popular middle-aged singer a bit like a Latin Elton John crossed with Bon Jovi. (We didn´t linger long there...) It was really interesting (although entirely accidental) to be in Argentina´s capital for something so nationally important. We left BA the following morning, as the street sweepers were tackling the mounds of rubbish in the city centre, en route to the town which inspired a million posters - Che´s birthplace!

Tango in the Streets - Buenos Aires Part 1

My initial and entirely unscientific impression of standards of living in Argentina is that there is less of a divide between rich and poor than in neighbouring Brazil. The streets of Argentina feel like Western Europe; people are well-dressed, there is little rubbish and cafe culture is clearly going strong. Unlike Asia, we seem to have less disposable income available for meals and drinks than most people here.   In terms of ease of travelling, Spanish is thankfully proving marginally more comprehensible than Portuguese. Dave is much better at it than me, although when it comes to menu reading my expertise is unparellelled. I may not be able to tell you my name but I can sure as hell ask you for a steak sandwich!

Our twenty hour journey to Buenos Aires was not entirely awful, primarily because bus travel in Argentina aspires to be more like air travel, with a stewardess, microwave meals and wine.On a recent trip, we had champagne while watching Shutter Island. We did however wake up at 1am to find an armed and uniformed guard standing over us asking to see our passports. Military presence is everywhere here.

We had heard rave reviews of BA from other travellers and it did not disappoint: it manages to be both charming and cosmopolitan, accessible to tourists but still authentic. It felt very safe, and to a certain extent we let our guard down - we were unprepared when a couple of scam artists tried to rob us in the park. Luckily, we´re always careful to conceal our valuables and Dave caught on quickly so they got away with nada.

Our hostel in BA was more like a boutique hotel where they let you share the kitchen. We were technically in a dorm room, but as it´s low season we had it to ourselves for most of the week we spent in the city.

During that week, we packed in the sightseeing, walking round most of the city and admiring lots of monuments to guys on horses. We tried to visit a few museums but they were all closed. Our hostel was located in San Telmo, an area famous for its antique shops, like a less gentrified version of Camden Market. On Sunday, San Telmo holds a market and its cobbled streets are packed with both foreigners and locals. Crowds gather around the dancers performing the tango in elaborate costumes and makeup. It´s blatantly touristy but still a lot of fun. Jugglers and mimes also work the crowds, along with buskers, who we´ve also seen performing on the tube and the bus, to much applause. Although the city centre  is attractive and interesting in its own right, the yuppie district of Palermo is the true heart of BA. It has acres of peaceful parks and botanic gardens, and its streets are lined with colonial buildings complete with wrought-iron balconies, steakhouses, bars and boutiques. It felt like Ashton Lane on a much larger scale. The atmosphere was especially festive because the week we were there coincided with a national holiday, to celebrate Argentina´s 200th anniversary of independence. Details on the festival, Argentinian food and sociopolitical observations to follow!