#overlander

I love the contrast of this truck against the orange sand and another amazing sunset out here in the Simpson desert.

#desertsunset #amazingvehicle #4x4truck #overlander #dynamicslideoncampers #allterrainwarriors (at Simpson Desert)
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Wine Tasting, Chile 

Wine tasting at Clos Apalta Winery was a lovely day out. The winery, easily one of the best in South America let alone Chile, has a natural gravity based wine cellar built 25 metres underground. The day was topped off by lunch at a neighbouring winery called Vina Montes. Delicious!

Pucon, Chile

Pucon is a great place if you love the outdoors. We hadn’t had a chance to go for a hike since Peru so we really enjoyed spending two days exploring Huerquehue National Park and Villarrica National Park. The weather was perfect therefore we could see Villarrica Volcano towering over the town of Pucon. 

Peninsula Valdes, Argentina 

Península Valdés is home to the endangered southern right whale as well as orcas, elephant seals and southern sea lions. Unfortunately it was the wrong time of year to see Orcas but we came at the perfect time to see southern right whales! At one point we saw roughly 20 whales displaying and bashing their tails on top of the water to attract females. A local we spoke to said if you’re lucky you can see up to 80 whales all at once!  

On the way to Peninsula Valdes we also drove past a replica of world’s largest dinosaur which was found in northwest Argentina (discussed in a previous post). It was about 40 metres long and 20 metres tall and weighed 77 tonnes! It absolutely dwarfed ours and our friend’s Delicas!

Bosques Petrificados de Jaramillo National Park, Argentina

The petrified tree forest was a really special place. ‘Bosques Petrificados de Jaramillo National Park’ is the second largest petrified tree forest in the world, the trees are 150 million years old. Some of the remains are up to 2 metres in diameter and 30 metres in length and belonged to trees that were 100 meters tall. It reminded us that the human race is still so new in the history of the earth. We learnt about how the trees fell and became petrified, in a nutshell - volcanoes in the Andes erupted and covered the forest in ash, the weather was so extreme and the winds so strong they caused the trees to fall. The ash created an air tight seal therefore the wood does not decompose, however mineral rich water entered the trees and replaced the organic structure with silica and other minerals, thus creating petrified wood. We found this fascinating and we were humbled (and a little scared) to learn of the earth’s natural cycle of extreme weather conditions and the trail of destruction it leaves in it wake. 

The road to Ushuaia

The road to Ushuaia through Punta Arenas Chile and Tierra Del Fuego was a bit cold and dull at times but we also got to see some King Penguins and a Shipwreck along the way! We love wildlife so we really enjoyed watching the penguin colony. You can see part of the sea is frozen which just shows how cold it can get there!

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

This glacier is not to be missed when visiting Patagonia. It is 250 km2 and is 30 km in length which is hard to grasp when you see it. It is also one of the most active glaciers in the world moving up to 2 metres a day.

We watched huge chucks of ice calving from its front, it was hard to visualise just how big the chucks were but we guessed the size of a truck, maybe bigger!

Cueva de las Manos, Argentina

The Cave of Hands was definitely a highlight in Argentina. The name speaks for itself but it is essentially a lot of negative prints of hands in a series of caves stretching for 100s of meters. There are also painted scenes of hunting and various other depictions. Each set of hands and animals tells a story, they were drawn by the hunter-gatherer communities 13,000 - 9,000 years ago. We were absolutely blown away by how old these painting were and one of them has 6 fingers!

I also had to add the dinosaur footprint we found and the view from one of our campsites. The world’s largest dinosaur (a herbivore) and the largest carnivore were both found in northwest Argentina. The largest dinosaur was about 40 metres long and 20 metres tall and weighed 77 tonnes! That’s about 14 african elephants…WOW! The picture of the footprint is not the same dinosaur but it is still at least 240 millions old! We loved trying to imagine the dinosaur running through mud and creating the footprint right in front of us. Crazy!

The Routa 5, Chile

The Routa 5 (The Pan-American Highway) from Atacama Desert to Santiago has so many great stops along the way. Atacama Desert has the world’s oldest mummies, the oldest mummy recovered in Atacama Desert is dated 7020 BC, which is 2,000 years BEFORE the first Egyptian mummy.  

Atacama Desert is 105,000kms2, so we drove through it for a long time! It is the driest non-polar desert on Earth and so to be honest there sometimes isn’t much to see except dry open plains as far as the eye can see, so when we saw the “La Mano del Desierto” (The Hand of the Desert) poking out of the sand just a few hundred metres from the highway it was a big surprise!

We also found some geoglyphs - which are images drawn into the landscape, some on a grand scale! The age of the images range from 600 - 1500AD. San Pedro de Atacama is also a great place to visit, it is a hot spot for hippies and tourists looking for adventure. We saw some great views and a salt lake, unfortunately the geysers and hot springs which are famous in the area were closed due to the recent heavy snow. 

Chacaltaya mountain involved hiking straight up through snow to get to its peak. The top has stunning views, we were lucky to have a sunny day and we could see La Paz and the whole of the Cordillera Real (Real Mountain Range) in all its glory. Its elevation is mere 5,421 meters, about the same height of Everest base camp.  Not to brag or anything!

Chacaltaya mountain involved hiking straight up through snow to get to its peak. The top has stunning views, we were lucky to have a sunny day and we could see La Paz and the whole of the Cordillera Real (Real Mountain Range) in all its glory. Its elevation is mere 5,421 meters, about the same height of Everest base camp.  Not to brag or anything!

Uyuni Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni)

Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the world’s largest salt flat. It’s the legacy of a prehistoric lake that went dry, leaving behind a desert of nearly 11,000 square kilometres.  It is at an elevation of 3,656 meters above sea level therefore it gets VERY cold at night! In the height of summer it can reach as low as -25 degrees. Luckily we came prepared with lots of firewood, marshmallows and beer/wine!

Driving through the salt flats felt like being on another planet, just an open expanse of flat white salt and no limitations on where to explore! It was an amazingly beautiful place. 

Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the US). We spent two (cold) nights camping near ‘Cruz Del Condor’ the best place to see wild Condors. The lookout was very busy in the mornings as it was the best time to see Condors soaring overhead however after lunchtime we had the place to ourselves. In the afternoon they flew over our car travelling to and from their nests, it was an amazing experience!

Not to mention the drive to the canyon which went up to an altitude of 4,960m and was spotted with volcanoes. Almost like a lunar landscape. It felt like we were on the moon!

Rainbow Mountain

Rainbow mountain was one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen on our entire trip. The trail head starts at 4,400 metres with a peak of 5,200 metres. I found the hike very hard as about 70% of the hike was up hill and at that altitude I struggled. James however bounded up the hill to get to the top before the other tourists arrived to take the best photos. We were lucky we were able to camp at the trail head, unlike the other tourists that got up in the middle of the night to take to 3.5 hour bus ride from Cusco. We set off at 6:00am to beat them to the top and thankfully we did as when we started to descend at around 10:00am there were at least a hundred tourists walking or taking donkeys up (slackers!).

The photos are not edited in any way, the colours were so bright our brains were trying to tell us it was a trick!

Machu Picchu

The famous Machu Picchu. At first a wasn’t all that excited to visit Machu Picchu as we have slowly learnt to appreciate places with very few tourists and tend to avoid places with too many gringos, like ourselves. But we knew we’d regret it if we didn’t visit and we’ll probably never get the opportunity again. On the day we went there were of course lots of people but it really didn’t matter as it was such a wonderful place to visit. The architecture is so impressive, we marvelled at how they built it without metal tools or machinery.

There are two main ways you can access Machu Picchu, one is by walking the Inca Trail or the other is by train to the nearby town and then a bus… we didn’t do either. We camped at the hydro-electrical plant and hiked 11kms along the the railway lines (one way) which was 31kms in total including walking around Machu Picchu (its huge and not flat!). It was a long and tiring day, but we had a fantastic time!

Puya Raimondii

When we decided to take a detour from the main roads to visit the Puya Raimondii plants I wondered whether it would be worth the hassle, fortunately I was not disappointed. The plants are related to the pineapple family. They can grow up to 10 metres in height and can live for 100 years. It blossoms over 8000 flowers on its ‘corn’ shaped head but only flowers once in its lifetime, after which it dies. Again, we were the only people to visit these amazing plants and we didn’t see a anyone when we took the hike to get up close to them. We camped at the trail head which was a lovely and peaceful nights sleep.

Lake Paron + Tunnel Punta Olimpica

Resting at 4,200 metres, Lake Parón is the largest lake in the Cordillera Blanca, on the Peruvian Andes. We camped at the rangers station (it was very cold!) but we woke to a clear day with some amazing views of the lake. 

With a length of 1,384 meters, Tunnel Punta Olimpica is the longest vehicular tunnel in Peru and the highest in the world, located at 4,735 meters. The drive to and from the tunnel was absolutely stunning, even with the headaches from the altitude! To put that into perspective the highest point in the Alps is Mont Blanc and is 4,800m.

Chauchilla Cemetery -

I found the Chauchilla Cemetery so fascinating and sad at the same time. It contains prehispanic mummified human remains and artifacts. It was discovered in the 1920s, but had not been used since the 9th century AD. Unfortunately the cemetery has been looted by grave robbers who have left human bones and pottery scattered around the area.

Cahuachi Ruins -

Cahuachi Ruins was a major ceremonial center of the Nazca culture, based from 1 AD to about 500 AD. Driving there it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere in the dessert. It was a (very) rough dirt/sandy road and it took about 45 minutes to travel roughly 15kms. Parts of the ruins are still being excavated and so it is not yet set up for large groups of tourists which made it even better as we had the place to ourselves. There were no guards, ticket collectors, guides… no one!

Vicuñas -

Peru is known for its Llama and Alpaca trade and we have learnt quite a lot about the different breeds and their wool. Llama and alpaca wool is common in the UK and Australia however we had never heard of the Vicuna (pronounced “be-coon-ya”). It is said to be the softest material in the world, during the time of the Incas it was against the law for anyone but royalty to wear vicuña. We saw quite a few wild vicunas on our drive through the Andes so when we arrived to Cusco we thought we would enquire as to how much it would cost to buy a vicuna garment. Only two retailers in Peru are allowed to sell it, and when you purchase a garment it comes with a “passport” to prove you have purchased it legally. A pair of gloves started at 3,900 Soles (£915) and a large scarf was 13,000 soles (£3,000). Needless to say, we gave it a miss!

Kuelap Ruins + Yumbilla waterfall

Yumbilla falls is the fifth/fourth/third highest waterfall in the world depending on who you speak to (!), we took a lovely hike through the rainforest to see it and we didn’t see a single soul on the way.

The Kuelap ruins is a walled city/fortress of the Chachapoyas people built in 6th century AD. It consists of many circular structures surrounded by a massive stone wall situated on a mountain which is a mere 3,000m high. It was a long drive up a dirt road to get there or you can take the cable car… which we decided was for wimps!

Galápagos Islands Part Two.

There is an abundance of bird life on the islands, these photos represent just a few. The “blue footed boobies” were our favourite.

The Galápagos Islands sometimes felt like we were on another planet watching alien species! There are a lot of wildlife that only live on the Galápagos Islands (“endemic”) so it was really special to experience it first hand. As you can imagine we took SO many photos therefore we’ll be posting a series of pictures over a few days.

The Bogota Graffiti Tour was a really fun (and free) activity to introduce us to Bogota. Some of the artworks were stunning! The only thing I didn’t like about Bogota was all the “tagging” on the walls and signs which apparently goes hand in hand with the graffiti art.

Although we only spent a few days in Bogota we met some really lovely people and got a good vibe from the capital city