crellston

Firstly, a big thank you to all who followed along on our travels over the last six month both here and on our blog. Your comments, suggestions and (in the case of mlgb) constant reminders to post updates, were a terrific inspiration to continue. I hope at least some of the information will be of use to others visiting this amazing continent.

A few thoughts and reflections on the last six month:

Transport
BUSES - 200 hours or over 8 days spent on buses. Longest journey 22 hours from Lima to Cusco. Best buses Peru, worst, Bolivia and Ecuador. Most spectacular bus journey was from Copacabana to La Paz, around and across Lake Titicaca

Most fun trip - the train journey to Machachi accompanied by 60 excitable school kids on a massive sugar rush

Most exhilarating trip - our bike ride down a Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador 45 kms long and a descent of 2.5 kms from 5000m to Riobamba

Most embarrassing moment - Trying to mount a horse in Tupiza Bolivia and managing to somersault over its neck

We love walking and my pedometer tells me we averaged 12km per day walking, around 2200kms in total 1375 miles

Hardest hike - the Quilatoa loop in Ecuador - I could barely walk by the end,

Boats - 10+ hours in canoes  in the Madidi NP. 5 hours on a ferry on lake Titicaca, and one sea voyage to Isla Del Plata - 6 hours.

Flights- 24 hours and 3 flights to get here and two flights and 20 hours to return. Four flights in Bolivia including one broken down aircraft in Rurrenabaque and passing one plane that had crashed off the side of the runway a few hours before as we landed in Sucre.

Driving - a spectacular drive around the northwest of Argentina. Worst drivers are in Quito, or Lima or La Paz where they actually seem to aim to kill pedestrians. The most considerate drivers were in Chile, possibly because any driver hitting a pedestrian is automatically jailed until proved innocent...

Scariest driving experience - outside of Sucre on a day tour. Thunderstorms, fog and floods in a fogged up minibus with a lunatic driver along muddy mountain roads sliding withing inches of a sheer drop down a mountain. Not our best day..

FOOD

Food is very inexpensive everywhere and usually of a pretty high standard, although we corundum that price has little correlation with quality.

Fish - Arica, Chile especially swordfish and tuna straight from the dock

Lima for the sheer variety and quality of restaurants especially ceviche and sushi

Ecuador for street and market food and superb soups

Cusco and Ecuador markets for fruit and juices

Argentina is still the best for meat 

Salta, Argentina, not as well known as Mendoza but it has some incredible vineyards

MOST MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES/PLACES

Tupiza to Uyuni salt flats. The most mind blowing scenery of anywhere we have been ( and not just the Salar

Sunrise over Uyuni salt flats. Almost like being on a different planet

Madidi National Park in Bolivia. Unspoilt, peaceful and great people

Biking down Volcan Chimborazo in Ecuador. Still can't believe we were biking at 5000 metres, even if it was mostly downhill

Bus ride from Copacabana to La Paz around Titicaca , surely the amongst the most spectacular in the world

Wandering the markets of El Alto in La Paz. High on the plateau above the already high La Paz. Food and witches, it has it all

SCARIEST MOMENTS

Earthquake in Arequipa. The earth really did move. 7.0 on the Richter scale it was quite a big one and yes, the earth really did move! Thankfully, although there was a fair amount of damage, loss of life was limited.

Earthquake in Lima (not as bad as the first but it was 10 floors up and at three in the morning)Only then did we realise that the only way down was a bridge to the lift in the next block..

Aforementioned day tour from Sucre

WEATHER

I could have planned the timing a little better! We hit the pacific coast at the time of the "Garua" which blankets most of the coast in fog and mist for half the year. Certain places seemed to have unseasonable weather e.g. Rain at the wrong time in Chachapoyas etc. in lots of places we visited the locals were often talking of the changes taking place in the weather in recent years ( global warming??)

Hottest place Arequipa 27c
Coldest place Uyuni -18c
Sunniest place -Uyuni 
Foggiest place - Lima ( we chose the wrong time of year)
Wettest - Ayacucho (again, the wrong time, just as the rains started in earnest)

ACCOMODATION

47 different hostals, clubs, hotels and huts and apartments.  Some really nice, some not so much. All relatively cheap  (price has little correlation with quality!). Finally learnt to not trust reviews of certain websites! Again price has little correlation to quality and personal recommendations proved the most reliable source of information.

SAFETY

Despite many comments in guidebooks etc. about how unsafe South America can be, we felt as comfortable here as anywhere else in the world. Not once did we feel uneasy except perhaps late one night in Quito when the streets had emptied out. Pickpockets can be a problem on buses etc. and we did lose a camera and some cash in Ambato bus station and experienced a pretty inept attempt at pick pocketing in El Alto, La Paz. 

PEOPLE

Everywhere we went the people were exceptionally friendly and helpful. Fiestas and parties seem to happen all the time as do street demonstrations. Every where we went, we found people either celebrating something or practicing there traditional dancing or music.
Bolivian people seemed the most reserved and shy.

The rudest people were invariably other foreigners notable the ...... although certain  wealthy Peruvians ran a close second

Racism seems to be quite prevalent in some places, most notably, Peru mainly directed at both the indigenous and black people. In Ecuador, many people seemed to still resent the Spanish.

One particular act of kindness was in a Sucre market where a 10 boliviano note  I had dropped was returned to me by a Cholita.

People in Lima are very friendly. Even in this massive city, complete strangers will say hello in the street.

BEST DECISIONS

Travelling light. Our bags were carry on only weighing in at less than 12 kgs, they were light to carry and to take on board buses, planes etc. saving a lot of time and worry about bags being stolen from buses, lost in transit etc.

Ignoring guide books. We started off using them but quickly realised how out of date LP was in particular ( I started to doubt that they had even been to some of the places). Rough Guides was more accurate but not well written or laid out. I did win a Fodors SA guide which is the best written but wasn't really comprehensive enough for this trip and is mainly aimed at more "upscale" tourists.

Travelling by bus. Keen to reduce both the cost of travel and our carbon footprint, the bus system is a great way of getting around South America. Although not always safe by western standards and security and theft can be an issue, it worked well for us. Standards of buses vary tremendously from luxury buses equivalent to business class on airlines to the roughest and most crowded bus imaginable.

Where next?

avrooster

Short answer: Back to Argentina, OF COURSE!

thursdaysd

Great summary! Thanks.

I'll definitely be reading your TR again when I plan my next trip to SA, although I won't be NEARLY as energetic, lol. Would you care to say which review sites you gave up on?

glover

What fun stats! 1375 miles walked - very impressive. And all those bus rides. Sure has been fun reading. So does it feel good to be home after such a long trip or are you already itchin to go again?

SusanInToronto

Very impressive!

colduphere

Printed out and hanging on my wall. Though I doubt we have the guts to try it someday. Congratulations.

mlgb

As always crellston you are a leader in the area of South American travel. Except of course for the horseback somersaults. I will always think of you when I see the ponies on offer.

It has been fun following along on your journey. Thanks for sharing.

crosscheck

Bolivia is now on my wishlist.

brendensadventures

Thanks for the briefing. It's great how thourough you are with everything. I got lazy and before i knew it i forgot to read your updates and there were so many I couldn't catch up without a hours few of reading. I will get to it before i head away because there is so much information you have given. It's been a great help. I want to keep up a thorough blog as I go to try and help and inspire others. And it's a good way to reflect also.

Thanks again, shame we couldn' meet on this trip.. but who knows you may decide to go again over the next year while I'm there.

Enjoy being home

crellston

Thanks once again for you comments.

Thursdaysd - I was less than impressed with TA reviews than I have been in the past. On numerous occasions we turned up at places with very positive reviews and wondered if we had turned up at the right place, The same applied with hostelbookers and hostelworld whose reviews I had always felt were usually more accurate and had fewer fake or "owner placed/ influenced reviews than TA - sadly this no longer seems to be the case.

Glover- we arrived back in England to typical November weather - cold, wet and grey. I think it is safe to say we are "itching to go" again!

Brenden - really looking forward to reading about your exploits, especially the WOOFING

brendensadventures

Spent this afternoon sending off three expressions of interest to some farms in the Misiones region of Argentina- one in El Soberbio, can't remember the other two right now- took me ages to translate into spanish. Two of the farms have English speakers.. we will see who replies first and hopefully I can head up there after a few days in Buenos Aires.

live42day

Crellston, your reports are invaluable and I really appreciate the time you took away from your travels to write them. I imagine they are good for you to keep as a diary of your trips as well.

We have just returned from Europe and skimmed over your posts while there, but need to look at them more in depth now that we are home. We leave for a similar trip in January.

Thanks again for your detailed and entertaining posts. I know that they will help us with our planning as well.

cindyjo

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We have loved reading this wonderfully detailed and entertaining travel log and are using it as a blueprint for our trip. Looking forward to your next one!

wolfgangs

Thank you Crellston for the travel report! We visited Bolivia in March of this year. Our highlight was the salar de uyuni trip. We didn't start from Tupiza but from Uyuni. Despite travelling during the rainy season we didn’t experience any rain during our 3 days trip. The salt flats were partially flooded, which gave us the possibility to make amazing photos. We booked over the internet via Ruta Verde (www.rutaverdebolivia.com) and I can highly recommend them. The driver Fabio did an amazing job.
We also spent 3 days in La Paz, again without any rain. Maybe we were just lucky. In La Paz we did suffer a bit from the altitude, we had to take it slow there. At night the temperatures were rather low so you need to bring warm clothes with you. In La Paz we stayed at Hotel Rosario (http://hotelrosario.com/la-paz/). We were very happy with our choice. From La Paz we made a 1 day excursion to Tihuanacu. We also visited Lake Titicaca on a catamaran boat, which was a great experience as well. Don’t forget to include Sucre in your trip as well. My wife and I really enjoyed our stay in this colonial city. We thought it was more of a friendly / cozy town than La Paz. We stayed at the Samary Boutique Hotel (http://www.samaryhotel.com/hotel.html) which was lovely. We plan to visit Argentina in 2018! Happy travels!