In Salta, we stayed at Las Rejas B&B for a night or two to get our bearings (Thanks to Fi and Dunc for the recommendation), see a bit of the city and to sort out hiring a car. We also went to a ‘Peña’, or folklore music and dance show over dinner. Then came that awkward ‘I’d like to be invisible’ moment of the evening when the dancers looked for partners from the audience. Bert and I, seeing all exits blocked, obliged and donned the necessary outfit in order to provide quality entertainment to the masses. We think our Dads were impressed!?!!

We then spent six days driving around the amazing landscapes of North Argentina, sampling empanadas and drinking beer in the square of every town we stopped off at. And eating llama. Oh, and visiting vineyards (Bodegas) where wine like Torrentes and Malbec is made. Apparently, the extreme range of temperature between night and day results in grapes with tough skins and intense flavours. We visited the organic ‘Nanni’ bodega as well as the ‘El Esteco’ bodega, both at Cafayate.

Our drive took us through stunning scenery; dusty orange rock formations, winding valleys with river crossings, steep gorges, enchanted valleys, cactus fields whipped by dust devils, stripy coloured rocks, wide open high altitude puna, salt flats… you name it. Los Cardones National Park has an incredible cactus field. The huge cacti have a hollow wooden structure that when dry is a fascinating material and we enjoyed seeing the endless examples of how the local people put this material to use: picture frames, roofs, bins, doors, lampshades, furniture.

The ‘Salinas Grandes’ were the first salt flats I (Bert) had ever seen. Vast white solid lakes of (a bit dirty) white salt. These were being harvested by having rectangular pits dug in them which seems to serve to crystallise purer salt. Amazing. One restaurant we went to had tables made out of massive slabs of salt. Bizarre.

The other cool place we went to was Purmamarca with a ‘Seven Coloured Rock’, in Jujuy. It’s true. There are seven colours. Or five. Or nine. Depends on how picky you are! You can count for yourself in the picture. We stayed in Tilcara, a town about 22km north of Purmamarca and whilst our accommodation was basic it had the BEST breakfast view ever. As we sipped our coffee, beautiful hummingbirds darted around the flowers in the garden. Unfortunately we didn’t catch them in a photo – we were too chilled out man.

The landscape was mind blowing. I (Bert) have made a 3min video of what it’s like to drive through the North of Argentina (very fast). We held a camera out of the window and took five and a half thousand photos, which we made into a video. Luckily it omits the loo stops… and the bit where Tania managed to beach the car on a sandy kerb and everyone had to get out… oops.

Click here to watch the video.

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We spent two days in Puerto Natales preparing for the five day trek; renting equipment, pre-mixing and portioning our meals, finding the perfect trail mix and packing and repacking our rucksacks. Our hostel, the Erratic Rock, was run by a very nice American guy called Bill on very environmentally friendly principles. The hostel initiated recycling in the area and has a system for re-using everything possible from half-used gas cylinder to plastic bags. They even have shopping bags made from broken tents for you to use instead of plastic supermarket bags.

After our 2 days of preprartion, countless ‘debates’ about what food to take (food is a very emotive subject it seems) on the 5th November we were ready to start and we caught the bus to the National Park ready to take on ‘The W’.

Days one and two were spent hiking up the side of a valley to Glaciar Grey, which was an incredible sight. A condor was warming its wings just in front of the glaciar. Day three took us up into the French Valley, with views of the amazing ‘Cuernos’ (Horns) mountains and through a moonscape type forest. On day 4 we walked round to the ‘Torres’ (Towers) campsite so that we’d be ready for a 5am start the next morning. On the last day we walked up to the three towers themselves, starting in the dark but it was worth the very early start to watch the orange light hit the top of the towers and slowly illuminate them from top to bottom.

The trek was quite challenging, perhaps we should have prepared a bit rather than just eating tacos in Mexico for 2 months. We were particularly proud of Dadso and Ali’s fine performance. They may hold bus passes but they are a fine pair of fit fiddles. Other than endurance, the trek also tested us as couples. Ever tried putting up a tent with your nearest and dearest when you’re cold, super tired and unable to find a flat pitch. Luckily any tensions did not rise beyond a level that a hot cup of tea couldn’t sort out.

It just so happened that the lovely Cath, who we met at the Erratic Rock hostel, was also doing the same trek at the same time in the same direction as us. And she proved to be a lovely trail and campsite companion. Great to meet you, Cath, and we hope we can stay in touch when we’re back in the UK.

At the end of the trek we found a refuge with a (we thought) well deserved beer and lay around in the sun waiting for a shuttle bus to pick us up.
Then back to Erratic Rock for one last night and a celebratory dinner before heading back to El Calafate. From here we got a taxi to the incredible, blue and huge Perito Moreno Glaciar which despite us both having seen before is still mind-blowing. Fortunately, we had a friendly taxi driver who used to work in the national park where the Glaciar is so he became a sort of tour guide for us. For example, apparently the blue colour comes from total internal reflection inside the ice crystals and the older the glaciar, the larger the crystals and the bluer the glaciar. I’ve since heard there are competing theories. Anyway, the sun was shining on and through the glaciar and it looked amazing.

So, a fantastic adventure in Patagonia. After which it was time for us to abandon Dadso and Ali at an Estancia for a few days and head back to Buenos Aires to prepare for the next visitor’s arrival…

Reviews of these photos:
***** “Terrific” – Empire Magazine
***** “Best photos ever” – Professional Snappers
***** “&*%£ing Ace” – The Sun

Things to note:

- Iguana spit as an aggressive gesture but also as a way to limit the salt content of their bodies.
- The two fins moving together through the water belong to a giant manta ray.
- The fluffy birds at the start are little fluffy baby boobies.
- Don’t miss Tania squeaking and swimming away right at the end when she realises she’s swimming over five sharks!

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The Galapagos Islands are part of Ecuador, 970km off the mainland, so you have to fly. There are 15 main islands and 3 smaller ones. 97% of the islands are national park and it’s very clear the effort that has been made to preserve this incredible place. Non-native species such as goats, cats, pigs, dogs and cattle were introduced. The native species were defenceless to new predators. Efforts to preserve the native species mainly involved hunting non-native species, including from helicopters. This has been successful and in July 2010, the World Heritage Committee agreed to remove the Galapagos Islands from its list of precious sites endangered by environmental threats or overuse.

Charles Darwin famously brought his ship, the Beagle, to the islands and saw the large number of species that are unique to the islands. Aparently, this helped him come up with his theory of evolution.

The actual land itself is incredible as the islands are all volcanoes and therefore made of lava. Lava flows during an eruption and the surface cools and forms a crust under which lava continues to flow. This forms tunnels which we saw and were able to walk through and sometimes gives the land a ‘liquid’ look to its surface. Our guide, Victor, saw the volcano on Fernandina Island erupting in 2009 and lava flowing into the sea.

Our boat, the Floreana, took us a 14 other passengers around its ‘North route’ which we’d chosen as it included Genovesa island and Fernandina island, both of which we’d heard were highlights. We typically did one land visit and one ‘snorkelling’ during the morning and then the same in the afternoon.

The snorkelling was absolutely mind-blowing – it was literally like being in a David Attenborough documentary and I’m intending to make a video to show you better what it was like. We swam with: Marine turtles, white tipped sharks, sea lions, jelly fish, huge schools of fish, marine iguana, giant rays, manta rays, penguins, flightless cormorants, eels, starfish.

On land we saw the classic ‘blue-foot boobies’ as well as ‘Nasca boobies’ and ‘red-footed boobies’. We saw carpets of smelly iguana, hundred of ‘Sally redfoot’ crabs, giant tortoises, one over 100 years old and 250kg, bloodsucking vampire finches, 500 year old cacti, pelicans, frigate birds, hawks and flamingos. We were very lucky, also, because from our boat, we also saw Bryde (I think) whales in the sea.

After our boat trip we visited the Charles Darwin Research Centre on Santa Cruz island where we met Lonesome George. Lonesome George is the last surviving Pinta Island Tortoise and is 100 years old. He has two young female tortoises in his compound who are, apparently, almost the same species as him. It has been hoped (for several decades) that he might get frisky with one of them. It didn’t look like he was going to get frisky. So, unfortunately, the Pinta Island tortoise may become extinct.

The wildlife on the Galapagos islands has evolved without human presence. When you wander up to a bird in the Galapagos islands, it just stares you in the face with a blank expression. Anywhere else in the world it would have flown away. They don’t even flinch. The same in the water. We could go right up to turtles feeding on seaweed and it was like we were invisible – they couldn’t care less. Not only have I never seen wildlife like this, but I literally couldn’t imagine anything more amazing. If you can, go.

Ecuador made it onto our destination list for one reason. The Galapagos Islands. So our stay in Quito was really just long enough to get a feel for the place and try and book ourselves a last minute (and hopefully therefore cheaper) tour. Bingo. We managed to get ourselves a great deal on an 8 day tour round the Northern Islands (although actually they are more like the West islands) including the islands of Genovesa, Isabella and Fernandina. It was fantastic, so fantastic in fact that it deserves its own post. So stay tuned for that.

Our time in mainland Ecuador was short and split between Quito and another town called Latacunga. In Quito we initially stayed in the New Town which was very touristy. Lots of bars and restaurants and tour agencies. We spent our day and a half there looking for Galapagos tour deals and trying to keep Bert out of the chori-pan (Argentinian sausage sandwich) restaurant we found there. Latacunga however was where we chose to spend the rest of our time before our Galapagos trip, about an hours bus ride south of Quito. WARNING: Never put your bag on the over head shelf on a public bus in Ecuador, no matter how strongly the ‘nice’ bus conductor man suggests that you do so. You will end up with fewer belongings than you started with. I am now camera and 5 weeks worth of photos less. Bum.

We went to Latacunga to trek the Quilatoa Loop, a 3 days circuit of rural villages and spectacular scenery. Alas, I got ill and spent 3 days lying in bed and… well I’ll spare you the details. Bert however boldly trekked out in my absence and made a day trip to see the Quilatoa Crater (see panorama pic) with a lovely Dutch family we met – Meret, Pepijn & Felin. In the meantime I completed 3 levels of Angry Birds (all with 3 stars I hasten to add), so it wasn’t a complete disaster. Besides, nothing could dampen our excitement about our Galapagos tour which we went on next.

We returned to Quito and stayed a few nights in the Old Quarter. A much more characterful part of town. We climbed the Basilica… a crazy building with absolutely shocking build quality. We’re talking 2 inch gaps between the clock tower and the main building. Thats more than just careless. Climbing steps followed by a spiral staircase or two and then ladder we reached the clock towers. Each clock tower had 3 clocks. All of them (thats 6 in total) displayed different times. Ah, but that wasn’t the end. From the clock tower you crossed the narrow planked gangway to another rickety ladder leading to a thin iron stairway up to the lookout tower which offered pretty good views over Quito. Not quite as good though as the views that we got the following day by taking a cable car up one of the big volcanic lumps of rock that form the valley in which Quito sprawls along. That was pretty impressive and we got to see almost all 45km of Quito spread out below us. Quito is BIG.

We also finally got to open the little envelope (only to be opened whilst we were in Ecuador) that we have been carrying for over 2 years now. Its contents allowed us to buy his’n'hers authentic Panama hats. Thank you Ollie for a really thoughtful and fun wedding present. I have to admit I hadn’t actually realised that Panama hats originated in Ecuador.

The rest of our time in Quito was spent:
- in or trying to find the correct police station in which we could report stolen cameras,
- discovering that all of Ecuador’s best cocoa gets exported (mainly to Europe) and so chocolate in Ecuador doesn’t actually taste that bueno unless its been made by Europeans,
- eating THE tastiest corvina (seabass) in the local market (the closest we’ve come to fish and chips in almost a year)
- selecting a pair of custom handmade Ecuadorian boots. For someone with massive feet, this is very exciting,
- visiting Otavalo Market to browse the overwhelming array of ponchos and other knitted items and
- looking at shrunken heads and trying to balance an egg on a nail at the “Middle of the World” actual equator line.

We had the pleasure of Rosie and George’s company for much of our time in Ecuador and fine company it was too and had been since we first arrived in Mexico. So it was all quite strange and sad to be waving goodbye to such bueno travelling companions as they headed off to enjoy their remaining days in Latin America and we prepared for our flight to Buenos Aires. Rosie and George, we salute you. You have been SUCH good fun and a joy to be with. Thank you.

So there it is, a brief insight into our time in Ecuador. Next stop… BUENOS AIRES and our grand return to our Southern Hemisphere home after more than 7 months away travelling.

Our week in D.F. was great and we have our friend, ‘DJette’ Maru to thank for showing us round and making it a fun week. Maru took us to a bar where we ate mini burgers (amazing, but not that Mexican) and drank Pierde Almas Mezcal. This means ´lost souls´ and unfortunately Tania found out why when she woke up the following morning having lost her soul. Bert loved it and bought a bottle.

We attended the compulsory masked wrestling, or ´Lucha Libre´ which was quite similar to what we saw in Guadalajara but MASSIVE, in a huge stadium in D.F.’s equivalent to Croydon. As entertaining as the fighters´ ridiculous acrobatics were the middle aged couple sitting next to us who were clearly veteran and perhaps famous hecklers, standing up and shouting various hilarious things as if they had been paid to.

Also on our itinerary were visits to the former homes of monobrow-endowed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and Soviet Marxist founder of the Red Army, Leon Trotsky. The latter had bullet holes in the wall, signs of the attacks (ordered by Stalin) which killed him, although it was actually an ice axe wound to the head from which he died.

On 30th September we took a bus to the ancient site of Teotihuacán, built in 100BC, which includes the third largest pyramid in the world, the pyramid of the Sun, which we climbed to the top of. Teotihuacán was at one point the largest city in the Pre-Columbian Americas and is kind of impressive.

Finding accommodation in DF was tricky and we stayed for half our stay in a 1980´s smokey business hotel. Very odd. Maru explained to us the concept of “Mexico ´86″ which is a significant part of culture in Mexico City that has clearly remained unchanged since 1986. We went fabric shopping in the historic centre around the Zocalo (main square) in an area which certainly fitted into this category.

We left DF on a bus and arrived 27 hours later in the disaster that is Cancun, the only reason being to get a flight to Ecuador. This extended journey brought an end to our time in Mexico. We reflected on all the amazing places we’ve been and food we’ve eaten and people we’ve met. We loved it.

Our first week was spent in Oaxaca City, arriving on 9th October. Tania, Bert and George attended Spanish classes at Ollin Tlahtoalli school, run by Omar Nunez Mendez while Rosie finished here second novel. I think our Spanish improved. A bit.

Omar was great and took us to a closed doors Mezcal bar. Mezcal is an extremely strong Mexican spirit, like Tequila, but made from the Maguey plant instead of the Agave. These plants are enormous and grow everywhere in Oaxaca. There is bad Mezcal and good Mezcal, we learned. The good stuff is available in plastic pots, written on with marker pen. The mezcal we tasted was made on tiny farms by Omar’s mates and some were really good. But they haven’t gone through the required certification process to be sold legally. Hence closed doors. One of them was 86% alcohol. Yes. 86%.

More incredible ruins were visited at Monte Alban, a day trip from Oaxaca City. Oaxaca is an amazing, low rise (due to earthquakes) place with increadible markets, foods and lovely people. We celebrated Mexican independence day on 15th in the Zocalo, or main square.

Omar sent us off to a village to learn to make ‘Mole Verde’, a kind of green soup with chicken in it. We spent the day with Alicia and her family, buying ingredients from the market, picking stuff from her garden like ‘Yerba Santa’ which is an aniseed leaf and grinding, boiling and blending. Moles are a famous dish from Oaxaca and there are seven different colours of them.

After Oaxaca City, the four of us spent a few days trekking in the ‘Pueblos Mancomunados’ in the Valley Central in Oaxaca State.
This was amazing and reminded us a bit of Nepal as it was high up in the clouds and life there is basic. We based ourselves in Cuajimoloyas, where Rosie met an old lady who made her a potion, as she’d been ill for a while. We think it worked a bit. It took an hour to boil up all the ingredients.

Our three day trek was through jungle and we saw lots of medicinal plants and our guide, ‘Tokyo’ was lovely – he’s a friend of Omar’s. Our trek was cold and wet, through the villages of Latuvi and Benito Juarez. We stopped in a cabin with a log fire where we could dry our clothes out and play cards.

After that, on 22nd Oct, we headed down to the Oaxaca coast to Zipolite. After a miserable rainy first day, the sun came out and we were all taught to surf by a muscley French man called Davide. We also visited the turtle centre at Mazunte and saw millions of turtles of all sizes, then headed to a night time trip to the beach at Playa Escobilla where we saw turtles laying eggs in the sand. This was amazing. A guide took us and an Australian couple on the beach, which was protected by the military where we saw about 20 to 30 turtles. The week before we would have seen 5000. The little poppets dig a hole about a foot deep, lay 100 springy golf ball sized eggs, pat the sand back over them then head back into the sea. It was incredible.

Oaxaca is an amazing part of Mexico. We loved it.

After Akumal, we visited the Mayan ruins at Coba which were pretty impressive. The Mayans had a ballgame that was played in a kind of small stone valley. Each sloped side had a basketball style hoop at the top and the Mayan men had to use their knees, thighs and elbows to score. Stories vary, but it seems that either the captain of the winning or losing team was often beheaded at the end of the game. Funny old Mayans. Also near Coba was a wild alligator in a lake, refusing to eat chicken a man was offering it.

After that, on 3rd Oct, we went up to Isla Mujeres, via Cancun. Cancun shocked me – I was prepared for an over-developed hotel city but what we saw was nothing short of Las Vegas, without the charm that Vegas has because it is SO unreal. Yuk. Isla Mujeres was nicer and we stayed for a few days with Rosie and George, attempting three times to go out on a boat to swim with whale sharks, but three times being told the weather was too rough. That’ll be hurricane Harvey’s fault. Hey ho.

On 7th Oct, we headed to see some of the most impressive Mayan ruins in Mexico, at Palenque. We stayed in a hippy jungle commune thing called El Pachan, in a cabin. I awoke at about 4am to the loud roar of dinosaurs coming from the forest. Some say that the noise is howler monkeys but I’ve seen Jurassic Park. They were dinosaurs. The ruins are amazing – in the 50′s an archaeologist discovered the tomb of the Mayan leader Pakal by going into the Temple de los Inscripciones and through a network of tunnels inside it. Imagine that – real life Tomb Raider. Must have been exciting.

We dived in an underground cave near Tulum called ‘Casa Cenote’ which, compared with the incredible Gran Cenote we had snorkelled in, looked like a big black puddle from outside.

It was a bit scary being so far underwater (especially for Bert who is in the process of conquering his fear of deep water) but we both enjoyed it. Our instructor, Jorge, and Tania both got quite a shock when Bert´s goggles started filling up with blood, but Bert was fine – just a nose bleed brought on by pressure or something, we figured.

Well, apparently, our ‘Discovery’ dive was actually the first day of a PADI course. We learned to do the following underwater-

1. Remove respirator from mouth, breath out through mouth for a while, replace respirator (this was the most nervewracking bit)
2. Let go of your two respirators, then recover them from behind you by moving your arm round in a big circle and putting one back in your mouth.
3. (Tania only because of Bert wearing contact lenses) Fill goggles with water, then fill with air again by blowing out your nose.
4. If someone panics and loses their respirator underwater, hold your second respirator out to them to take whilst putting your hand on their shoulder to keep them at a safe distance.
5. Lie flat in the water without going up or down.

This last point sounds easy, but I (Bert) found it completely impossible. You wear an inflatable jacket which you can put more air into, or let air out of. The idea is that you have the right amount of air so that you don´t either float or sink. I didn´t work out under after the dive, however, that I was actually controlling this with my mind. When I got nervous, I somehow changed my breathing and floated. When I was relaxed, I sank. So I spent the whole 90mins trying to compensate for my state of mind by pressing buttons to inflate or deflate my jacket. It never really worked and I spent quite a bit of time lying on the bed of the cenote looking like an idiot.

Tania was, needless to say, brilliant. The instructor, Jorge (George) said she had better breathing than he did. Typical.

We are glad we did it and it was an amazing place to do a first dive, once we got under the water.

Photos were taken by a professional photographer who dived with us.