Bonnetts Abroad Past Trips

South America

Picked up Debbie at the red funnel terminal, the traffic was manic, but we had plenty of time. So went back to the house for an hour.

I drove Debbie to the coach station to drop off out bags, it was manic there too, because the coaches were having to park in the road as the entrance to the coach park was being worked on.

I drove the car back to the house, parked, and walked down to the coach station, the coach went at 15:00, but there was a slight delay because a passenget injured himself. It turned out that the passenger wasn't for out coach so we left anyway.

The coach driver was tutoring a future driver, to he delighted in giving a running commentary on all the hazards he was avoiding, we changed seats to be out of earshot.

We got to Heathrow terminal 4, very handy for the Premier Inn, as a covered walkway links the terminal with the hotel.

The automated checin was very easy and we were soon in our room. We had prepaid for a meal so headed down to the restaurant.

A preprandial drink of a G&T each set us back £18..40!

The meal was ok. To start, I had lamb koftas and Debbie had Chicken & Chorizo skewers. Followed by surf and turf and a rump steak.

The was some kind of dripping noise in the room, that we both found disturbing, so neithe rof us slept particularly well.

We left the hotel just after 09:00 and walked to the bus stop to catch the 824 bus to terminal 5.

There was a bit of a fracas as our cases were taking up the wheelchair slot on the bus, so the driver refused to let on a disabled person at T4, even though we offered to move.

Check in with BA was easy, full automated, as was the bag drop.

I was a bit confused by the seats we had been allocated as they weren't the ones that BA had said we would be in. But it turns out that we had been upgraded.

The gate opened at 11:05, but boarding didn't start until half past.

We were due to take off at 12:00, but the pilot said a panel needed changing, it was 13:30 by the time we took off, but we were served sparking wine so we didn't feel too bad about the delay.

It's a long flight, and our noise cancelling headphone jack didn't fit, so to listen to movies we needed to use the supplied headset. (Online research later revealed that only one prong of the double prong connector was needed, as the smalled one is used to supply power to the headsets, so we probably could have used them).

For dinner we were served beef, I had red wine, Debbie had white, followed by more red wine.

The 787 is quite comfortable, but 13 hours is a long time to be in one seat, even if the seats are economy plus.

The onboard fridges stopped working, so they had to serve the evening meal early, teryaki chicken, Deb also got us a G&T each when a steward asked if she wanted anything.

After landing, immigration was straight forward, and baggage reclaim was quick too.

We were met by a airport transfer company that we had pre–arranged, and after being handed off to a driver we ere at the hotel by 22:00.

They gave us a better room than we'd paid for, ocean facing with views over Cocacabana beach.

Breakfast was a buffet, so we tried a bit of everything, pizza, chicken nuggets, toasted cheese and tomato sandwich, cheese bread, scrambled egg, fruit, cheese rolls and plenty of juice, orange, mango, coconut, plus coffee (nice coffee)

Debbie had fruit, omelette (made to order), cheese roll.

We also prepared some cheese rolls to take with us for lunch.

We looked around the hotel a bit, there's a infinity pool on the roof, but didn't try it.

After we got back to the room, we spent quite a lot of time sorting things out, like taking camera gear out of hand luggage bags etc., and then headed out.

The target for today was the Duke of Caxias Fort.

A short walk from the hotel and we were there, 4 Reias each to get in (about 80p).

The path was steep and cobbled, it was 27 degrees, so we were soon sweating.

We saw a few lizards and butterflies along the way.

We needed to stop for a rest a few times on the way up.

At the top there were good views to both sides, over Copacabana, and to Sugar Loaf Mountain.

It was very hot at the top, there were small primates in the trees surrounding the fort, an exhibition inside the fort about the wildlife said that they were Micos.

We were able to refill out water bottles here as there was a water filter machine.

On the way back down we saw many more Micos, including mothers with their babies.

Debbie was bitten by many insects on her legs.

We headed back to the hotel to cool off, the GPS had logged the walk at 3.5 miles with a 650 ft climb, it seemed further.

We rested until mid–afternoon and then headed out for a stroll along Cocacabana. There was a big football match going on, so all the bars and restaurants were full of people watcing the game.

There was also some other event going on, attended by a lot of police, so we avoided that and headed back.

A slow start to the day, the Expedia booking for our room was up, and it was the start of the AstroTrails booking, so we had to swap rooms. We could've stayed in our original room for an extra cost of $67 per night, but we chose the cheaper option.

The room was available so we swapped rooms straight after breakfast. The new room was ok, a little older, and the views aren't as good, but quite adequate.

After we'd swapped rooms, we booked a tour at reception, to see Christ the Redeemer. We were too late to get a morning tour, so booked for the afternoon. (200Rs each, plus 10Rs credit card fee).

As the tour pickup wasn't until 14:00 we thought that we would try a bit more Copacabana, but the beach side of the road was far too hot, and the shady side was a little dull.

We left the seafront and went down some of the roads back from the coastline, here we came across a tour office, so we booked ourselves a full Rio tour for the following day.

Back at the hotel it was time for our tour, we were met in reception by Carla from Greyline tours, who took us to the coach, we were the first ones aboard.

The next pickup was at the Hilton, they didn't turn up, and the coach couldn't wait because of the security arrangements in place for the Chillean football team who were staying there.

The coach drove us along Cocacabana and picked up a few more people on the way. We drove through Ipanema and Le Blanc. The Mericana football stadium was pointed out to us, as was the sambadrome.

Our tour guide was Carla, as in Carla Bruni she told us, many times. It was a big coach, but there were only about 10 other people on it, a Frenchman, a family with 2 girls and a few others. Because it was mixed nationality, Carla had to deliver her spiel in 3 languages, English, French and Spanish. She was very informative and on several occassions broke out into song, "The girl from Ipanema" of course and Barry Manilow's Copacabana, she had quite a good voice.

At Corcavado, we disembarked from the coach at the station. We had about 10 minutes to wait for the train, rack and pinion to get us up the hillside.

Our guide recommended that we sit on the left, as there were more photo opportunities, even though it meant we would be travelling backwards.

The track started off quite shallow, but towards the end, as it travels through the Tijueu forest, it becomes quite steep.

When we reached the top, we had 45 minutes to look around. Normally there are lifts that would've taken us the rest of the way, but they were out of order, so we had to climb the 220 steps to the top.

The views of the city below are magnificent, but it was very crowded with people taking selfies.

After we'd soaked in the views and taken a few photos, we walked back down the steps and bought an ice lolly each to cool off.

We took the train back down the mountain and the coach drove us back to the hotel

On the way Carla explained that she lived near the football stadium and would have to go home by metro, as the streets would be too crowded due to the football.

The coach driver seemed a little aggressive, he was hidden inside a closed compartment, but we could here him cursing the other drivers.

In the evening, despite being somewhat weary, we walked out for a meal, we found a different Italian restaurant amd ordered pizza, we were in there by 19:00, but didn't want to stay too long as the football started at 20:00. They turned the TV down for us, even though we'd made no comment about it.

Debbie had Calzone, while I went for a ham and mushroom, a pizza without tomato, but some kind of cream sauce, washed down with Brazilian beer.

Going back to the hotel, we found a small shop and bought some more beer to take back to the room.

The city tour that we'd booked yesterday cost 500 Reias for both of us, they picked us up from the hotel lobby at 08:00.

The tour was in a minibus, there were 3 couples already aboard and we picked up another 2 couples.

We headed for Corcovado. Our guide was Marios, everyone else on the tour spoke spanish.

Instead of the train up the mountain that we'd taken yesterday, we wound up the hill in the minibus.

We left the minibus to get tickets and then boarded a shuttle bus to take us up the really steep part of the mountain.

We arrived at the top, and as yesterday, climbed the 220 steps to the top.

We were their quite early in the morning (09:00), so it was a bit cooler, which made the going somewhat easier, also it wasn't nearly as busy which made getting pictures a lot easier.

We had 45 minutes at the top before heading back down to meet the rest of the tour at the shuttle busses. Which took us back down to our minibus.

The next stop was to be Sugar Loaf Mountain, when we got there, there was a longish queue, but the the guide cut straight to the head of that and got us our tickets.

We boarded the cable car for the first stage of the journey to Mt. Urca. We left the cable car and walked along a treetop path towards a second cable car station.

There wasn't long to wait before we were on our way again to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain.

The guide gave us half an hour to look around the top , the views over Rio are amazing, also you look down on the planes coming into land at Santos Dumont airport, they have to bank quite steeply to get in.

After our half hour was up, we met up with the guide and the rest of the tour and headed back down to Mt. Urca, where we had a few minutes to take pictures.

The guide gave us a brief walking tour as we headed back to the cable car to take us down.

The minibus arrived to pick us up, ready for our next part of the tour, which was a brief stop outside the Stadium Mericanas.

We stopped again at the Sambadrome, hard to imagine what it's like when it is being used.

Next stop was for souvenirs, we bought a few postcards and a miniature Redeemer statue, then we dropped off 2 couples and headed off for a lunch stop.

Lunch was an all you can eat buffet, with a bbq section, the beef from the bbq was very good.

With lunch over we headed to the cathedral of St. Sebastian, an immensely impressive structure, modelled on a Mayan Pyramid. It was a huge space inside, with 4 very large stained glass panels.

The last stop of the day was the Selaron steps, these were very busy, with many people queuing to get photos of themselves sitting on the steps, which made it quite difficult to get picture so the steps themselves.

The minibus dropped us off at the hotel, and we bought a few beers and water from the local shop before heading back to the room.

A comprehensive tour of the city.

Whilst we were in Rio, we'd gone online and booked a trip to Petropolis to visit the old imperial summer palace, the pickup was at 09:00, and we were ready and waiting when the man arrived to lead us to the minibus, he was Julio.

The minibus was already quite full, so we were at the back. There was one more pickup to do, but we had time to make a stop and photograph Sugar Loaf from a different angle. We also made a quick stop to that a German girl could go to the loo (see spoke excellent English, but with an American accent).

We picked up the last couple in downtown Rio and headed out of the city.

The tour was in 3 languages, Spanish, Portuguese and English.

After half an hor or so, we made a stop for toilets and for some people to buy snacks before heading onwards to Petropolis.

The road leading up into the hills is very twisty and bumpy, but with the occassional glimpse of trully spectacular views.

Just before we got into Petropolis itself, we stopped to take pictures of the ex–casino, which is now privately owned and can't be entered. There were hummingbirds in the trees.

The tour continued into the centre of Petropolis, where we visited the cathedral. After which we went to a restaurant for a buffer lunch, 2 pieces of meat and as much salad as you liked. We also had beer with lunch.

With lunch over we were led to the Imperial Museum, we had to leave our bags in lockers in a separate building before crossing over to the palace.

Overslippers were mandatory, which made walking very awkward. The guide led us through the various dining rooms, bedrooms and children's rooms. We also saw the crowns of Pedro I and Pedro II as well as the Sceptre of state, unfortunately photography was forbidden.

When we had collected our bags, we went back to the cathedral steps, which was to be our designated meeting place, we were then given two and a half hours to look around.

We wanted to see the crystal palace, so we headed that way. Unfortunately, the whole park had been turned into a German beer festival , we still saw the palace, but it ras regaled with German flags.

Our next chosen destination was Liberty square, with the intention of visiting the house of Santos Dumont. On the way we bought an ice cream each from a McDonalds. We made it to the house, but our enthusiasm had waned somewhat, so we ended up back in the same McDonalds for a cold drink and another ice cream.

From the shop next door, we bought beer, and sat outside to drink one.

We were a little early back at the meeting point, so we tried sitting in the cathedral for a while, but then came back out and sat on a bench. We were back at the the meeting point a quarter of an hour before we were due.

Everyone was meant to be at the meeting point at 17:30, but one couple were half an hour late, by which time is was dark and there was an atmosphere of moodines on the minibus.

The driver made good time on the way back, but we were the last ones to be dropped off, so it was nearly 20:00 by the time we got back to the hotel.

It was a very early start, we had set our alarms for 02:30 in the morning!

A quick shower and then down for breakfast at 03:00. The waiter at breakfast was happy, because he'd been allowed to stay in a guest room overnight!

Check out was easy and we were on the bus by 03:45.

The trip to the airport was uneventful, but at the airport, the queue for the checkin was extremely long, hence it took quite a while.

The first flight was a short hop to San Paulo, followed by a connecting flight to Iguazo, for which passengers boarded from the front and the back of the plane, irrespective of which seat they were in, it was chaotic.

A new guide, George, met us and loaded us onto a coach, whereupon we were driven directly to the Brazilian side of the falls.

We had a rushed lunch, we tried to get ahead of the queue by ordering our food via an automated machine, but it still took ages to come, and wasn't like anything that we had expected. I had anticipated a burger, but it turned out to be more of a stew with rice.

After lunch we walked the trail to the falls. The trail led along the top of the river bank and boasted stunning views of the falls across the border with Argentina..

The trail eventually led to the main falls on the Brazilian side, where a bridge leads in front of the falls with a lot of spray from the falls.

We took the lift back to the top of the falls, where our coaches were waiting for us. Here we had to go through the rigmarole of swapping luggage between coaches as some people were heading back to the hotel and others had elected to go on a boat ride. We were going on the boat.

The coach took us to the start of a jungle trail, where we boarded open sided trucks, with metal seats and no legroom. About half way down to the river we swapped to smaller, more agile vehicles that could negotiate the stepper slopes.

At the boat embarkation point, our guide (Paul, the son of George), was left to guard our stuff, a change of clothes that we'd bought with us, and our shoes.

A small funicular lift at 45 degrees lowered us to river level. We donned life jackets, which were still wet from their last usage, and got into the boat. There were two options available, a dry ride, or a wet ride, we were going wet.

We were wearing cheap poundland ponchos, that I was convinced would leave us soaked, but as it turned out, they were fine.

Unfortunately, the sd card in the gopro chose that moment to misbehave,

The boat was quite fast, they took us 3KM up the river, where it pulled in to a quite stretch of water so that the crew could take picture for sale later.

Then the fun started. The boat heads directly into the waterfall, there is no chance of staying dry, everyone was laughing and screaming. It was quite an experience. When we looked down, our ponchos had filled up with huge pools of water. Water was sloshing along the seats it was incredible. The boat went through the falls 3 or 4 times. It was fun.

We made it back to the pier, wet but happy. We put our ponchos in the bin, they hadn't done such a bad job, but there was so much water.

Once ashore, there are changing rooms, and we were able to get dry and changed before repeating the reverse journey through the forest to where our coach was waiting.

We made it to the hotel where we checked in. The hotel was very nice, outdoor swimming pool with bar and nice restaurants, but they did make us wear wrist bands.

After we'd had a brief look around the hotel, we went to the bar for a beer and a beefburger, we were too tired to attempt anything grander, and we had been warned not to leave the complex on foot at night.

We set the alarm for 6:30, ready for the buffet breakfast at 07:00, the breakfast wasn't bad, plenty of fruit juice and coffee.

We were in the coach for 08:00, passports at the ready as we would be crossing into Argentina.

The hotel was only a short ride away from the border, but the border crossing into Argentina was particularly slow, it took the best part of an hour to get the passports stamped,

But we eventually got through, and at the entrance to the falls George went off to get the entrance tickets, this got us into the park, but then we had to get tickets for the train.

The train took us a fair distance, to the end of the line. We walked along metal walk ways that formed bridges between the numerous islands in the river, as we walked we saw many butterflies, some were even landing on us.

At one point we saw a turtle resting at the base of a pier supporting the bridge.

It took about 25 minutes to walk to the devils throat, an immense cascade of water, falling on 3 sides of a chasm.

We spent about 20 minutes marvelling at the spectacle, before heading back the way we came.

We had been aiming to get the 12:30 train, but it was full, so we had a spare half an hour. We had a couple of ice lollies to try and cool off.

There was space on the next train, so we travelled down to the next stop. This was for the Superior loop, to see Garganta. A very spectacular waterfall, and in the bright sunshine we saw many many rainbows.

Lunch was at a self service place, enpanades, 3 different fillings. The place was full so we had to eat it outside, where there were a lot of coaties and primates scavanging for food.

After lunch we walked the lower trail, steps down took us to the main part of the Argentinian side of the falls that we had seen from Brazil yesterday, up close they were awesome, again with loads of rainbows.

The walk back was up a steep slope, which was quite hard going in the heat.

The coach wasn't there, so there was a lot of hanging around waiting. When the coaches arrived, they took us back across the border to the hotel.

We had decided that we would eat in the main restaurant at the hotel, It opened at 19:30 so we thought that we would have a beer in the bar first, but we never managed to get served,

In the dining room there was a choice of al la carte or buffet. The buffet looked good, so we went for that, lovely huge mussels for starters, filet mignon for main, a selection of deserts and cheeses.

A lazy start, breakfast at 08:15, back to the room. We went downstairs to check out at about 10:30 We settled the hotel bill (for restaurant, bar and minibar) in cash, so managed to use most of our Brazilian currency.

Again it took ages to get the passports stamped by the Argentinians.

We arrived at Iguazu airport, a small airport, and were able to check in our bags quite quickly. We then settled down for a wait, the flight had been moved, so we had 3 hours to kill. There wasn't much to do, other than read and do crosswords that we'd brought with us.

By 16:15 we were through security and waiting for the gate, we eventually got on the aircraft and arrived in Buenos Aires at about 19:30. The group was divided into those going to the tango show, and those going directly to the hotel, we were heading for the show. The coach took us on a bit of a detour to show us some of the sites on Buenos Aires. Including the Pink Palace.

We got to the tango show by 20:30 and were led to our seats on a table of 8.

We both chose empanadas to start (mine were a bit late coming) and Argentinian steak, followed by pears in malbec.

We were still eating our deserts when the lights were dimmed for the show.

The wine flowed freely through out the meal and show, good wine, Argentinian Malbec.

The show was very good, with displays of tango music and dancing, solo singing and traditional gaucho music. The performer with the boleros was particularly spectacular.

We got to the hotel at just after midnight, the room was luxurious. Shame we were only staying there for a few hours.

Tango Show and Dinner

We were late arriving as the plane had been delayed, so had some anxieties about going to something that had already started.

The guide on the bus assured us that the food service started at 20:00, and then the show started at 22:00, after dinner.

When we arrived at the venue, we were enthusiastically greated by a uniformed, large, coloured man, ‘John', who made us feel like he was pleased to see us.

We were led downstairs to a room absolutely crammed with people sitting at rows of tables, back to back. The atmosphere was electric with every one anticipating excitement. We had been briefed by the guide to be quick with our menu choices, starter, main and desert.

The waiter was unable to get around the table a we were packed in like proverbial sardines.

We had red wine provided, and jugs of water. We were on a table of 8, but were very close to other tables, so conversations were with all tables around us.

The venue was very atmospheric, with a curtained stage at the front. The walls were crammed from the ceiling down, bottles and bottles of wine, then mirrors. There was a vaulted brick ceiling, and a bar along one side.

The menus were quite hard to read in the low light, but I chose my started by copying what someone on the next table had, which looked delicious. Empanadas with cheese and caramelised onion chutney stuffing, followed by steak – well it had to be steak here! Served with a roast potato, a disc of sweet potato and chimichurri sauce. For desert I ordered pear in Malbec wine, as we had discovered Malbec wine and love it! Plus we were in the region where it comes from.

The meal was delicious, as was the plentiful supply of wine.

The lights went down at 22:00 sharp and the show began. It was spectacular, the dancers, the folk music, the orchestra and the fantastic rope swinging, tap dancing, man.

The night was over at about midnight when our coach took us to the hotel, which was luxurious, but only for the one night.

The coach was set to leave at 08:45, but our bags had to be outside our rooms by 07:30, our alarms had been set to 07:00.

We were at breakfast before 08:00, which was the normal buffet affair. The coffee was good.

Check out was easy, as we hadn't spent anything, they called us for our coach from the dinning room at 08:45. Whereupon we were driven to the airport. The bags had to be dropped at terminal A, but the flight was from terminal C. so they checked the bags in en masse to try and speed up the queue.

The coach took us from terminal A to terminal C.

We had been allocated seats on opposite sides of the plane, a charter flight. We were driven to the plane on buses, and we took our respective seats.

After take off, when the seat belt sign had gone out, I noticed that there were 2 empty seats across the aisle, so I moved over and got myself a window seat, with no one next to me.

The flight was 1 hour 50 minutes, we were served a sandwich (cheese and ham), coffee and water. We landed in a damp and chilly Mendoza.

Once luggage had been collected we were met by the agent and told to go towards some waiting coaches, we had been allocated specific coaches. There was a lot of waiting around before we could get onto our coach, which was the last to leave.

The coach had an upper deck, so we sat up there to get better views of the countryside as we passed through it.

There were acres of vineyards, as well as olive trees. There were many run down shacks, were people lived, but they all had cars, and many of them had satellite dishes.

It's about 150 kM from Mendoza to San Juan, hence we were on the coach for about 3 hours. We got to the hotel at about 17:30. The hotel was obviously good once, but these days the Alkazar is a bit frayed around the edges.

We went for a walk around the block to see where there was to eat, but because it was a Sunday, we couldn't see many places at all, in fact we only saw a single burger bar that was open.

Which left the hotel for food. The hotel wasn't used ot the number of guests that it now found itself with, but they laid a table for us and brought us a menu, which did have English descriptions.

We both ordered a steak with a pepper sauce, a bottle of wine (Argentinian Malbec for £6 a bottle) and a bottle of beer. I'd asked for Cerveza Argentina, the waiter said it was a large beer, but I was ok wih that. When the beer came it was a litre bottle.

The wine and steak were extremely nice, in fact we ordered another bottle of wine to take up to the room.

We had some some to ourselves this morning, so after a lazy start, headed out into San Juan, with the aim of climbing the campanile.

The tower was less than half a mile from the Hotel Alkazar, it was an easy walk with quite pleasant temperatures for us, but the locals were wrapped up in coats, hats and scarves.

We found the campanile easily enough, but the girl at the entrance told us that we needed to get tickets from the theatre.

We misinterpreted her instructions and wandered through a small shopping mall, where we had to ask for instructions again at a travel agent.

Having found the theatre, we got 2 tickets, 30 Pesos fo us both, we had enough cash for that, and headed back to the campanile.

Because there's limited space at the top, we had to wait for others to descend before we were allowed up.

There were some other Argentinians waiting, who were all very friendly. There was a couple there who had been to London, and greatly admired the Gherkin!

It was a lift to the top, there were 5 of us in the lift. We were told that there had been an earthquake yesterday, 4.5 on the Richter scale.

At the top of the lift there were a few steps to climb, which led us out onto a small, walled, parapet, with perspex all around it.

Very narrow, only one person wide. The Argentinian woman we were talking to before offered to take our picture together.

The bells chimed 11 whilst we were up there. Nice views from the top.

After the bell tower we wandered around the Plaza 25 de Mayo, before heading down some of the shopping streets. We didn't venture very far.

We found the hotel again, but decided we needed some supplies, so we walked on to a small supermarket, where we bought wine, beer and crisps, which came to less than £10, then we went back to the hotel to relax.

There was an eclipse briefing scheduled for the early evening, so we boarded coaches at 17:00, to be driven through the town to a casino/hotel. All of the Astro Trails tours converged here, so there were a lot of people.

The briefing was pretty good, with knowledgeable speakers.

After the briefing, we had a short recess, before those who hadn't elected to fo on a a dark sky night left to go back to the hotel.

Nick Hewitt then gave us a briefing on what we could expect to see once we had got to the dark sky site.

Thankfully, there was no urgency to get up, we went down to breakfast and made a couple of sandwiches to take with us. We had to be on the coaches b 10:30 as it was a 3 hour dirve to the eclipse viewing site.

It took a while to get out of San Juan as there was a lot of traffic, and outside of the city there was major road construction, with new highways being built to replace the existing roads, consequently, the roads we were on were very rough indeed.

Once we were were past the roadworks, the road climbed gradually higher, the surrounding countryside was mainly scrubland with mountains in the background, and a few deserted, run down buildings by the side of the road.

As the road got higher, we were able to see the snow capped peasks of the Andes in the distance. Eventually we descended a bit into a valley, with fine views of the Andes.

There were signposts to different designated eclipse viewing sites, we were heading for Bella Vista, a small community. The site was on an Alpaca farm.

They had set up bales of straw, covered in waterproof sheet, for seating, with logs inbetween to act as tables.

It was a very hot day, cleat skies. Much sunscreen was needed.

There was a stage set up with a band playing South American style music, and also some western style music (Pink Floyd, etc.). Portaloos were plentifu;, and there were also vendors set up selling various snacks, bottles of wine etc. but they only took cash, and we had none.

A small hot air balloon was being inflated in the adjacent field.

The Alpacas had been penned up at the top end of the site, people were flying drones overhead.

School children were doing traditional South American dances.

As the eclipse approached, it gradually got colder and darker. The eclipse itself was perfect. After totallity ended people were opening up bottles of fizz to celebrate, although quite a few people had been supping on wine all the way through.

As the sun set below the distant peaks of the Andes, it was still in partial eclipse.

In the morning, we had a 2 hour drive back to Mendoza, where we had to catch the plane to Chile.

On the flight we were told that we couldn't bring fruit into Chile, so various fruits were shared out, in my case I was handed a banana to eat.

We had chosen to go on a Santiago City tour. The tour took us to the viewpoint on San Cristobel hill.

It also took us to the presidential palace and the cathedral

A very early start (02:30!), the hotel gave us breakfst bags. Getting out of Chile involves a lot of queues, for checkin, bag drop, immigration, securirty, and a long walk to the gate.

We bought McDonalds coffee to help wash down the almost inedible cheese and ham sandwiches that the hotel had supplied (they also gave us water, fruit and a granola bar).

The flight to La Paz was uneventful, and it was still quite early in the day when we landed. A coach took us to the hotel, but it was still several hours before we could check in. We left out luggge and stated to walk towards the main avenue.

We didn't have any of the local currency, so the first step was to get to an ATM. The menu options on the ATM seemed overly complicated and we failed to get any money out. We thought we'd try exchanging some dollars at a bank. The bank was very busy, long queues, but because we were foreigners we were lead straight to a cashier, but we still had to wait whilst he finished serving his current customer, during which time a security guard asked me to remove my hat. When the cashier eventually served us, it turned out that we couldn't change money because we didn't have our passports on us! We tried a different ATM, this time with success, managed to get 500 Bolivar out (about £60).

With cash in hand we bought ourselves a citrus drink at a corner store, and then set about getting a ticket for the cable car, they only accept cash. Communication was tricky, but we chose a destination by pointing to a place on the map on the wall, the security guard was then able to tell the cashier were we wanted to go. It worked out at 50p per ticket to ride the length of the line. At the end of the line, we had to get off and buy another ticket so that we could come back.

It was now getting towards lunch time, as we wandered back torwards the hotel, there were many street food vendors. We chose one selling Tucumanas, with the intention of eating as we walked, but we went inside, sat down and had a meal deal which involved fresh squeezed orange juice.

A little later on, we came across another street vendow selling Saltenas, we wanted to try these, so bought one each, very tasty?

In the evening we walked out again, and this time came across a food hall, where all the stalls were selling fresh fruit with ice cream and yogurt, people were dotted around the edge sitting anywhere they could eating. We thought we'd try it, so had a bowl each, very nice and refreshing, and no ill effects.

Just an overnight stop in La Paz. After breakfast at the hotel, we were loaded onto coaches and driven along the edge of Lake Titicaca.

We had to cross a narrow strait of water, for which we had to get of the coach, which went on it's own raft, while we were in boatds.

We reboarded the coach on the other side.

The coach drove on, along the side of the lake, we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking Cocacabana.

We then drove down in Cocacabana itself where we had a couple of hours to ourselves.

We walked down to the lake side, but it all seemed a bit tacky and touristy, so we walked back up into town to look at the cathedral.

We sat in the square to eat the sandwiches that we had prepared at breakfast, and watched the locals go about their business.

We got back into the coach, which was parked up a side street and continued our journey.

It was a short ride to the border with Peru.

The cases were loaded onto tricycle affairs and pedalled across the border. We queued to get stamped out of Bolivia, walked over the border, and got stamped into Pero.

We climbed aboard a coach, and once everyone was settled, headed off to Puno.

When we got to Puno it was dark, we ate at the hotel.

It was a 06:00 start, as we wanted a chance to see the floating islands. The hotel had it's own jetty on the lake, so we walked down steps, boarded boats and headed off.

That part of the Lake is vey polluted, much gas was bubbling to the surface, it smelt bad by the jetty.

On the floating islands, we were given a demonstration of how the islands were constructed, by the head of the island. He also demonstrated how they hunted, mimicking bird calls, and firing an old musket, ramming powder, wadding and shot into the barrel.

A fake bird was thrown down in front of us as he fired the musket.

We were led into one of their houses, it was cramped and dark, the solar powered light would not work. We bought some of their handicrafts, a tapestry of ducks,

We then went aboard one of their reed boats, and were paddled over to the main island. There were 2 people paddling, a man and a young girl.

On the main island we paid 1 Sol each to have our passports stamped!

The motor boat had come over to this island, we boarded and headed back to the hotel, we passed a lot of tourist boats headin out into the lake. We were back at the hotel by 08:30. From the lake, the hotel looked like a cruise liner.

The first destination was an archeological site with burial towers on a hill, Sillustani. We didn't feel inclined to walk up the hill, so stayed down and drank coffee, we also bought a pack of coffer to bring back with us.

After that it was off to the airport at Juliaca for a short flight to Cusco.

From Cusco we were drivern to the Sacred Valley, we stopped to take photos overlooking the valley, and then descended down into Pizac to visit the market.

Before being let loose in the market, we were given a demonstration of silver work, how to tell real silver from fake (it's shiney!), and also of the various alpaca wool garments. Baby alpaca is wool from the first shearing of the season, and feals cool to the touch, also it contains lanolin.

After the demonstrations we went over the lane to get some empanadas. He made a big show of putting them in the oven, but they were cold and contrained little filling. We tried to buy some pictures, initially being told they were $1, but when we chose a picture, the price shot up to $48, we walked away. We eventually bought some postcards for 1 Sol each.

We continued on the coach to our hotel, it was in the middle of nowhere, down a bumpy dusty track. The hotel itself was a huge site, with large pools, spacious rooms and a nice restaurant.

We had breakfast and were ready to board the coaches by 7:15, the coach took us to the train station.

The trains take an hour and a half and follows the Urabamba river, it's a very scenic route.

At the base of Macchu Picchu, we boared busses fot the 20 minute ride up the switchback style road to the top.

The group was divided into 3 groups of 18, and we entered the site. Quite steep steps and slopes, with no views to speak of at first.

But as we climbed higher, he vistas opened up and we had magnificent views of Macchu Picchu itself, as well as the surrounding valleys and mountains, immensly spectacular.

We travelled through the site, there's a one way system in place, so that visitors have to follow a fixed circuit, but that didn't detract from the experience.

The guide explained about the sungate, and how, at summer solstice, the sun would shine through it onto Machu Picchu

A wonderful experience

After we left the site we had a buffet lunch at a restaurant just outside the entrance, ours was the last group in, so we were a bit rushed.

We stamped out passports with the Macchu Picchu stamp, and then joined the queue for the bus down. We jumped the queue, as the guide wanted us all together as a group. It was a bit of a wait for the bus, the driver instructed us to sit in the two front seats.

The final of the Copa Americas, Peru v Brazil was on the radio.

We got down the mountain ok, and headed for the train station.

We sat on the opposite side of the train to when we came, so we had good views of the river as we travelled.

We were entertained by the “devil”, who danced with some of the female passengers, and also by a fashion show of alpaca wear.

By the time we got off the train it was already dark, but we still had a two hour drive by coach to get to Cusco.

The hotel in Cusco was upside down, being built on a steep hillside, the reception lobby was on the top floor, and the rooms were on the lower floors. We were on floor 4, so we had to press the down button in the lift to get there.

They had a washing machine and tumble dryer for customer use, so we took advantage of that and got some washing done.

It had been a long, but rewarding day.

We were in the hotel in Cusco for 2 nights,so we had a full day in Cusco.

At 10:30 we boarded coaches for a city tour, firstly we headed up to the Incan fort of Sezhua Huanan, pronounced by the guide as “Sexy Woman”, a huge site, with remarkable stone work and huge blocks of stone, we had half an hour to look round, but the usual people took longer, so we had to wait.

After the fort, we drove into the city of Cusco for a tour of the cathedral. Very interesting, with a mix of Chrisitian and Incan symbology, including a paiting of the last supper where the main course is guinea pig, and Judas looks like Cortez!

We also visited the temple of the sun, with original Incan stonework.

We had the option of staying in Cusco or getting a coach back to the hotel, we opted for the coach.

When back at the hotel, we didn't go straight it, but walked a little further up the hill with another couple. There was a local restaurant where no one spoke English, so we went for the easy option and had the set meal. Some kind of soup with lumps of veg and meat in it, followed by a main course of chickem fillet and rice. We also had beer.

Later, back at the hotel we had an alpaca burger between us, from room service, for dinner.

It was a 07:30 start to get to the airport in Cusco for an internal flight to Lima. A short flight of less than an hour.

At Lima airport, some people had paid for an optional Lima city tour, but we went straight to the hotel.

We went for a local walk around Kennedy Park, where we selected a restaurant/cafe to have some food, we thought we'd ordered a burger, but it was meat, rice and chips.

We went back to the hotel, where we could now check in.

There had been some attempt to arrance a group meal, but we missed it, we ended up going to an Irish bar, Molly's with James, rather unexpectedly he insisted on paying for it all!

In the morning, we walked down to the Pacific. The weather was overcast and muggy (it never rains in Lima).

We saw plenty of cormorants perched on the lamps posts of the Pacific highway, as well as pelicans skimming the surface of the sea.

Surfers were taking advantage of the breakers along the coast.

We walked along the shoreline, gathering pebbles from the stony beach.

There were many crabs and sea urchins washed up on the shore.

We headed up the cliff, and walked back alonf the top, visiting the various parks along the way, before heading back to the hotel.

Before getting to the hotel we investigated the upstairs of a mall with a long “Wong” sign, it turned out that the upper 2 floors were a large supermarket.

We bought beer here and took it back to the hotel.

Later on we went back out to buy bread and cheese to have for our lunch.

When we were out walking later, we booked tickets for the “Mirabus” to to Pacachamac for tomorrow.

Back to work

The Mirabus departure was at 10:00, we had been allocated seats on the open deck upstairs, near the front.

It took about an hour to drive to Pacachamac, through the suburbs of Lima.

Once there we were given a very brief tour of the museum and then driven into the site itself, we made various photo stops before getting out and walking to the temple of the sun.

We were given half an hour to look round, basically there's one path that goes around the outside of it, so we took that.

It's an impressive structure, but with little or nor explanation of what it was all about, maybe more time in the museum would've helped.

We walked back to the bus and boarded, we sat a bit further back on the upper deck, which was probably a mistake as it was extemely windy when the bus was moving.

The bridges are very low, low enough to cause injury if one was not sitting down.

We had lunch at a restaurant called tip top, Debbie had lomo soldado, which was very salty, and I had some kind of beef heart skewer.

That afternoon we went to Wong to get more bread and beer.

Today we were due to fly home, but our flight wasn't until the evening. We had a leisurely breakfast, checked out, ordered a taxi for later and left our bags with the concierge.

We then walked to Huaca Pucliana, a large pre–Incan step pyramid in the centre of the Miraflores district.

The museum itself was closed due to construction work, and we had to use a temporary entrance on the far side of the site.

It is only possible to go around with one of their guides, in a group. So we waited for an English speaking tour to depart.

The tour was very interesting, the guide had an amplified microphone, so it was easy to hear everything she said.

There were examples of native crops and food animals.

The pyramid is very impressive, the library pattern of mud bricks make it resiliant to earthquakes.

The tour took an hour and a half.

We walked back towards the hotel, but stopped for lunch in a steak house.

Very large avocado salad, huge streak and chips.

We went back to the hotel to wait for our taxi.

The taxi ride to the airport took and hour. The driver spoke no English, but manipulated goodle translate on his phone as he drove.

Eventually we got to the airport and checked in. Once free of our bags, it through immigration and security.

The flight was meant to depart at 20:00, but the flight cew were stuck in traffic so it was 21:00 before we took off.

We landed at 15:00. got our bags and caught the train to Portsmouth Harbour.

Bought tickets for the fast cat and where on our way home.

Whilst in the queue for the fast cat we ordered a taxi to meet us on the pier.

Then we were home.