First Stop

The flight from La Paz to Rurrenabaque was pretty scary as it was only a 16 seater plane and you could see right into the cockpit! I got the giggles when i could see the amount of steering the pilot had to do to control this tiny plane!!.
We didnt know ourselves when we landed after the 40 minute flight as we were at a normal altitude after Uyuani and La Paz and the weather was beautiful.
Rurrenabaque is a lovely little tropical town close to the amazon basin with a river running through it called the river Beni.
We stayed in a lovely hostel on the riverbank and it had a big garden full of hammocks where you could just chill out under the fruit trees and eat all the bananas and starfruit you wanted.
Next day was beautiful so we headed for the Pamps. We got a lift in a jeep for about two hours to the point where you get the boat. We saw a Sloth on the way there it just came walking out in front of the jeep (it is the strangest and ugliest animal i have ever seen!!). Then we saw a Boa Constrictor which was mad and i held it( it was pretty heavy and smelly).
The boat trip to our camp took about 3 hours. It was a lovely trip and the weather was fab (it was a little wooden rowing boat). We saw so much on the way there Alligators, Monkeys lots of birds (Mc Cawys and Toucans). We had a chance to swim with pink dolphins also which was great but i was a little freaked out when i got back on the boat and spotted Cayamns and Alligators on the shore opposite where we were swimming!!!. The camp we stayed at was lovely but very basic (no electricity or running water) well what do you expect in the jungle!. So we had to wash in the river along side the Alligators. It was really hot which made it very hard to sleep and the fact that we were eaten alive by Mosquitos didnt help!.
The next morning we went right out into the pampas (which means swamp) and swampy it was we were kneedeep in s**t looking for snakes (and i dont even like snakes). Anyway we spent hours and eventually Mal found an Anaconda which made lots of people happy! and someone else found a Cobra. When we got back we had lunch and a swim in the river. That afternoon we went back out in the boat to do a spot of Pirahana fishing which was great fun especially as i caught the biggest one on the boat!. Well fun until one that was still alive on the boat bit Mal on the finger. He really had a good chew as the boat was like a blood bath, but my five years of A&E experience payed off and he didnt loose his finger!!. We went back and ate the fish we caught which didnt taste of much to be honest. We went out on the boat again when it got dark and all you could see was the big bright eyes of the Alligators in the dark......scary and they were very close to the boat!. We were pestering the guide for beer all evening so he brought us up the river to this local womans mudd shack to get some beer. When we were all walking in there our heads were banging of stuff she had hanging from the celling and to our horror when she lit some candles we could see a cows inards hanging above us that she was curing!!!!. One of the girls with us was a veggie and needed a few beers to ease the trauma.The next day was our last and we did some more birdwatching and swimming with the pink Dolphins. As soon as we got off the boat and into the jeep it started to pour rain and we were on another unpaved road (funny that in Bolivia) and i really thought we were going to die as the jeep was sliding all over the place and we came of the road twice.
When we got back to the village we went out for drinks with the group we had done the trip with (cheap coctails) and ended up in the local nightclub called bananas disco! A fine example of Bolivian nightlife lots of early nighties and love songs! The only reason we went there was because the electricity goes off in the whole village at 01.00am and it is the only place with its own generator.
Next day was Mals birthday and we hooked up with a couple we had met in Argentina and a gang of lads from Dublin. We had a great time we got Mal really drunk in a local bar and made him sing karakoe It was clear from the looks on the locals faces that this bar didnt see many tourists (especially since everyone else was singing in spanish!).
The hangover to follow was pretty bad but the weather was good so i deceided to be lazy and lie at the towns outdoor pool. While i was there who should i meet but Sinead Hopkins, Suzanne Maguire and Sarah Blessing!! (sorry , for those who dont know who they are (3 girls from Cootehill and Sinead was my nextdoor neighbour for years!). How bizzare to meet them in the middle of Bolivia so of course that ment more beers!.
We hung around Rurrenabaque for a few more days as the weather was good and we loved it there. We did a day out where we visited three indegineous communities in the jungle it was really interesting to see how they survived. One group made wine from wild coco so we had to taste it of course!.
We landed back in La Paz and only stayed for two days (enough time to allow Mal (the adrenaline junkie) do a bike ride on the worlds most dangerous road while i went shopping. Our hostel was right in the middle of the witches market which was very strange they sold all sorts including llama fetouses (disgusting but people buy them for remedies and things).

When we left Salta we headed north for Bolivia.This involved a seven hour bus journey and a stop over in La Quiaca for a night (as the border is closed at night time!!).Next morning we got a cab to take us to vallazon at which point we were able to cross the border into Bolivia.
The border between Bolivia and Argentina is absolute chaos there was hundreds of people everywhere running back and forth between the two countries and there is no such thing as a queue for immigration control its survival of the fittest!!. There is a back path around the border where hundreds of Bolivians are just running across the border with as much as they can carry on there backs its amazing what they can carry i mean its mostly women with huge amounts of stuff (even bags of cement)we saw one woman with three crates of oranges on her back!and its not as if they can stop as there are hundreds of people behind them.
after standing polietly for ages we then pushed our way through!!.
when you cross the border the clocks go back an hour and so to does everything (mainly technology!)hot water does not come from the taps and none from taps in some places, you still cant put toilet paper in the toilets either.We took a bus from Villazon to Tupiza (where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid were said to have met thier maker after a big robbery!). We really noticed the effects of the altitude as Tupiza is 2950metres above sea level (headaches, tiredness, breathlessness, insomnia....i could go onn!)we overcame this by doing what the locals do chew coco leaves(yuk!).We only spent one night in Tupiza as we were egar to get to Uyuani to see the salt flats.
Next day we got on the bus to Uyuani only to be forced off it by the woman who had sold us the tickets and ordered into a jeep.
I can safely say that it was the most uncomfortable journey of my life. We were like sardines for seven hours.
1 jeep-13 adults, 2 children and a dog!!The road was really bumby too as it wasnt paved anyway we arrived in Uyuani at night time so we had to wait until morning to book a trip on the salt flats. It was freezing so i opted to stay in bed with several items of clothing onn! while Mal deceided to venture out to a local bar with a german guy we had met earlier ,apparently the bar didnt see many gringos so they were a novelty they had loads of drunk Bolivian teenagers coming over to shake their hands!.
next day we wandered around the local market and booked ourselves a three daytrip on the salt flats before visiting one of the local attractions The cemetery for trains!!! How bizzare they had heaps of really old knackered trains on a big plot of land apparently even European countries send their old trains.
On day one of our trip on the salt flats or (Solar de Uyuani as they call it) we drove for ages till we ended up in the middle of nowhere, nothing for miles (hundreds of miles!!) but bright white flat land..............Salt. Thousands of years ago it was a huge lake that just dried up!!.It is the most amazing thing i have seen and as its up so high nothing grows except Cactus and there was an island of cactui right bang in the middle of this strang landscape.It was quite a steep island and as we were climbing it i tripped and natural reaction of course is to grab onto something to break your fall and muppett here grabed onto the biggest cactus you have even seen......ouch i was picking giant needles out of my hands for days and i still have the scars!!.
When we got back to the jeep the driver had cooked us llama steak for lunch which was surprisingly good. Then he left us in another part of the salt flats to watch the sunset. It was the most beautiful thing watching the colours of the sun reflecting on the salt. Once the sun went down it got very cold very fast. That night we stayed in a hostel made of salt It was amazing even all the furniture an beds were made from salt!.We had five other really nice people on the tour with us so we played cards and drank rum until the electricity went out at 10pm. It was so cold that night the temperature got down as low as -15 degrees (i can safely say i have never been so cold in all my life).
The next morning we had a very early start we drove further to watch sunrise which was equally as beautiful as the sunset.
We saw all these little "Geezes" (gas volcanos) it was mad they gave off such a strong smell of sulphur we were practically standing in them to keep warm and you could see all the larva bubbling!!.We then went to a big mountanious area with a big Lagoona in the middle of it called "lagoona verde". It was beautiful as you could see the reflections of the mountains giving off really nice colours. Apparently Salvador Dali found a lot of inspiration for his work in the landscape of this area.
After we left Uyuani we got a bus to La Paz which is like the toilet of South America! It is a really busy , noisy and filthy city and i wont go into deatail as it only makes me feel ill!! We only stayed for two days before getting a flight to Rurrenabque.

salta is a beautiful town with lots of old Colonial buildings,as its based at the foot of the mountains and 1200m above sea level there is a lot to do.We spend a day kite buggying which i found really difficult and mal loved.It was a great day, on the way there the instructor drove us up the mountain so we got the most stunning views. We were up so high that nothing grew only Catui.At one point we were above the clouds it wasnt sunny but Mals face got really burnt.
We spent another day white water rafting and Canopying which was crazy. The rafting was great fun and had lots of rapids,at one point we lost mal and he got the biggest bruise on his thigh trying to get back in the boat!!.After a really good Barbaque which was included in the day we went canopying (which i hadnt thought to look into before signing up for it). Basically you climb up a mountain then they put you in a harness (like a nappy how attractive!)and give you a pair of gardening gloves and you have to make your way across this cable from canyon to canyon with lakes and stuff underneath. I can safely say that i have never been so scared in all my life (and remember guys i Absailed off Twickenham stadium for Cancer research!!). The biggest was 140 mts high and 500 mts Long (also the biggest in South America)not a good time to find out you have a fear of heights!. There were nine cables (or runs) in total funny that .....whats that they say about having nine lives!!!

We arrived in Puerto Iguazu two days after leaving Ushuaia we stayed a night in Rio Grande as we were flying from there to Buenos Aires. The weather in Iguazu was great and much welcomed after the freezing nights in Ushuaia. Puerto Iguazu shares borders with Brazil and Paraguay,we stood on the banks of the Rio Parana and we could see all three countries. We met some fellow Paddies and needless to say had a couple of late nights!. After copious amounts of alcohol we deceided that we should buy a camper van and do a road trip together (6 of us!) but the next day they left for Paraguay (drink talk!!).
We went to Parque Nacional Iguazu the only reason for our visit to Puerto Iguazu (to see the famous Iguazu falls).The falls are based in this huge park which is like a sub tropical rain forest. The falls are absolutly breathtaking the best part is Garganta del Diablo or The Devils Throat.I think we can safely say that we got as close as possible we took a boat ride around it and went underneath it with a crazy driver, we got soaked the noise of the water is unreal and the speed at which it falls actually hurts your skin.We had to walk around for the rest of the day dripping wet. We took a really old train across the park which brings you to a point where you cross lots of little walkways and then you get the best views of all the falls.The park itself has loads of lovely wildlife the prettiest butterflies just land on you in amazing colours.We also saw a Toucan (just like the Guinness ad!).
I spent a day on The Brazalian side of the falls while Mal opted to go fishing and get ravaged by a dog!.
Foz Do Iguacu (as the Brazalians call it)gives you great views of both sides of the falls (both brazil and Argentina)and more panaromic views but you dont get as close as you do on the Argentinan side. Apart from the falls there isnt much else to see in Iguazu so we only stayed a couple of days.

It takes 30 hours to get from Bariloche to El Calafate so we stopped in Rio Gallegios for a night as we had to wait until morning for a connecting bus. Big mistake, Rio Gallegios is a small bleek coal shipping town with nothing to see and we had to stay in a hotel (as there were no hostels)that cunningly resembled the hotel in The Shining!!.We were more than happy to arrive in El Calafate and find a really cool hostel.El Calafate is a small town which relies on tourists visiting the area for bread.Like every other tourist visiting the area the reason for our visit was to see the 60m Moreno glacier and we were not dissapointed. We hired a car and drove there for sunrise it was amazing as it was an hour or two before we could see the extent of the glacier in front of us (and we had it to ourselves!).
It is the most amazing thing i have ever seen for once i was speechless!.We just stood for hours watching huge ice peaks sheer off into the water and the deafening noise they made before turning into icebergs in the water,Mal was pretty impressed too.After our morning at the glacier we drove a further 50km to do a spot of fishing(twice in one year!)on our way we stopped to have a picnic and just a couple of hundred yards from us were about half a dozen pink flamingos and some black and white swans which apparently are unique to Argentina.
We drove for hours without meeting a single car it was beautiful but i handed the car back to Mal when the road turned into a river!!.No luck with the fishing so we had to shop for dinner.We hung around El Calafate for a few days as the hostel was great and we met some cool people plus i had a dodgy stomach from some prawns i ate in a restaurant and couldnt face the 16 hour bus journey to Ushuaia!

Ushuaia
We arrived in Ushuaia (the worlds southernmost city)late at night,it was cold and very windy so we deceided to take a room at a hostel close to the bus terminal rather than spend ages looking for a decent one (bigger mistake than the shinning style hotel!!)it was run by an old man with a really strange dog who listen to this...got his son out of bed to give us the room and didnt change the bed clothes!!.Needless to say we moved to a nicer place in the morning.
We went on a boat trip in the Beagle Channel which brought us to the lighthouse which marks the southernmost point before Antarctia. We stopped at bird island and some colonies of sealions. The sealions are beautiful they come right up to the boat but they are really noisy and a bit smelly!.Mal was a little bit dissapointed that there were no Penguins or killer Whales apperently they only stay in the channel between October and March.Ushuaia also has a glacier called the Martial glacier but a little dissapointing after seeing the Moreno glacier it looked like an ice cube!.
We didnt stay very long in Ushuaia as we were short for time as we had to head back up north.