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A journey to the alter and South America

a travel blog by Cath & Andy

Cath and Andy are tying the knot on 31 March 2007, and then taking off for their dream honeymoon spending 2 months travelling around South America. The trip will encompass Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.
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In the jungle the mighty jungle...

Puerto Maldonado, Peru


Spider Monkey - Amazon Basin
We have just spent the last three days in the Amazon Basin at an eco-resort 1.5 hours long boat ride down river from Puerto Maldonado. The heat and humidity knocked us for 6 when we got off the plane. The other thing that was hard to deal with was the group of 16 year old American kids that were along for the ride also - very taxing on the patients.


Andy the riverman - boots and all
We went to an island in the middle of the river called Monkey Island - guess what we found there? yep, monkeys. We walked around the island looking at the 5 different kinds of monkeys that like to eat bananas but none of them grow on the island so they were very happy to see us carrying a big bag full.


Lion Monkey - not much bigger than your hand
The second day we were there Cath wasn´t feeling well so spent the morning in a hammock resting while Andy joined a tour group (not the American kids thankfully) for a trudge through the jungle mud to get a taste of the various jungle flora and fauna. And of course, because we were in a rainforest, it rained.


Macaw - Amazon
The amount of noise generated by all the animals in the jungle is amazing. We were woken on the second day by the sounds of Red Howler Monkeys sounding out their territory. They sound like a cross between a jet aeroplane and Cath´s parents´kettle! Just the thing to wake you up at 5am!!

We saw tonnes of beautiful birds, some lizards, frogs, caimans, tarantulas, weird bugs, butterflies and a resident Tapier named Carina that hung around the resort as a pet. The Tapier looks like a cross between a Elephant and a Pig but is actually a jungle cow and we were most impressed that it can eat grass whilst it is lying on its side being patted by tourists. Its kind of a jungle wombat with a snout and somehow quite endearing.


Mud path in the Amazon

Amazon River boat


Cath on river boat
It was quite a change to be in low altitude (175m ASL from Cuzco´s 3300) in a dead flat environment. Apart from the opressive humidity, mud, bugs and heat, we had a pretty cool time its just a shame that Cath was sick for most of the three days we spent there but she´s better now and ready to tackle the local cuisine again.

Tomorrow we are on a bus out of Cuzco to Lake Titicaca with a few stops on the way to look at ruins and stuff. We plan on a few rest days at Puno before heading out to the floating islands and then crossing into Bolivia (don´t stress mum, its not such a bad place).

Love to you all,
Andy & Cath.

permalink written by  Cath & Andy on April 24, 2007 from Puerto Maldonado, Peru
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
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Random observations from the half way mark...

Puno, Peru

Just thought we would post some random observations as we have passed the half way mark in our South American adventure...

- Cath has discovered that there is such a thing as too much cheese. In Chile, cheese seems to be part of every meal.
- Roadsigns are purely recommendations, nobody follows them even when there are traffic police standing on the side of the road next to them.
- Attractive Latino women lose some of their appeal when you see them squat and pee in the street (This is common everywhere outside of major cities, both boys and girls)
- Car horns can mean a myriad of things for instance:
= I am approaching a T intersection with a stop sign but am not stopping so I am letting you know that I am passing straight through (first beep has right of way?)
= Get out of the way
= The light turned green less than 1 second ago and I am not moving so get out of the way
= There is a child, person, pig, donkey, alpaca on the side of the road
= I am overtaking you
= I am passing a bus parked on the side of the road
= I am a taxi and I want your attention (this can be any number of bird like noises for horns including some that sound like a wolf whistle)o
Suffice to say, its a pretty noisy place, we had an Italian fellow from Rome tell us that they use the horn a lot here so that should give you some indication.

- Flushing the toilet is optional, Cath has had a few surprises but thinks this is more a tourist problem than a local one.
- Do not order anything a la carte unless you really aren´t hungry. You can get a 2 or 3 course meal with choices for every serving for a third the price of a single a la carte dish.
- More people speak some English in Peru than they do in Chile
- A tour with an English speaking guide does not actually mean you will get an English speaking guide, Agencies will tell you anything to sell you a tour.
- Children can really make a place, the kids are really beautiful here when they aren´t trying to sell you finger puppets, postcards or beanies on the street.
- American 16 year old tour groups are painful.
- If you return to a hotel after a tour with a night away you seem to get upgraded with either, a TV or a bigger TV, a bigger room, better towels, shampoo in the shower - this has happened to us four times already!

permalink written by  Cath & Andy on April 27, 2007 from Puno, Peru
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
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Lake Titicaca and Island Adventure

Puno, Peru

We managed to take a tourist bus from Cuzco to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca (actually pronounced Titi-haha I am sure much to Robs amusement). It was a good ride with a few stops to see Inca ruins but the rain and cold winds after lunch meant that we were over it pretty quickly and just wanted to get there. When we arrived in Puno it was sleeting and we were glad that we had pre booked a night of accommodation. However we were not ready for the four flights of stairs we had to climb to get there. (altitude really affects you)

We spent a day chilling out and seeing the sights of Puno, so we were bored by 10am but it was good to have a rest day before our overnight tour to the islands around Puno. We headed out to the Uros floating islands that are made out of reeds which were really interesting to see how these people lived. Predictably, these days they live in tin sheds and use wooden boats tucked away behind the tourist created spectacle. Its such a shame that the whole experience is 100% commercial and put on for the tourists but it was interesting, and Andy got to try some more weird food.


Floating Reed Islands - Lake Titicaca

Andy eats a Uros Banana - lake reed

We then putted out to Amantani Island, our boat was capable of about 5 knots top speed and for 4 hours it got a bit tiresome. At the island we were billeted out to families for a home stay to experience how they live. The trek uphill from the waterfront was fairly difficult at altitude but the home afforded great views of the lake and the family were just lovely. Unfortunately they spoke about as much conversational English as we speak conversational Spanish so we didnt get to speak to them much. A severe storm blew in at about 6pm whilst we were out walking around the island so we had to run back in the hail to "one of those mud brick houses over there" that didnt have electricity or heating. We spent the night huddled together in a single bed to keep warm. That said, it was actually quite a good experience.


Andy shivers - homestay Amantani Island

Amantani Island

The next day we went to Taquille island and were once again greeted with rain and sleet which made our hour-long trek across the island a bit painful. However, after lunch the sun came out and we had a nice 4 hour boat ride home.


Andy tucks in to a Guinea Pig - mmmm tasty
When we got back to Puno we decided that, as it was our last night in Peru, we should try some of the local delicacy .... Guinea Pig. Lets just say it had lots of bones and crackling like a pig, but was pretty tasty!

permalink written by  Cath & Andy on April 27, 2007 from Puno, Peru
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
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Her name was Lola ... She was a Showgirl

Copacabana, Bolivia

Thats right, were in a place called Copacabana, and Andy cant get the song out of his head!

This end of the lake is very different from Puno. Weve gone from industrial fast paced Puno (kind of like Newcastle) to laid back and beautiful Copacabana which is more like Byron Bay - after only a 2 hour bus trip with an "interesting" border crossing into Bolivia. Lets just say, theres nothing stopping people walking straight through the border.


Car blessing - cheaper than insurance
We had another chill day in Copacabana before doing a full-day "tour" of Isla Del Sol (the island of the Sun) where Manco Copec, the first Inca, was born. On our down day we witnesed a very bizarre ritual blessing at the Cathedral in town where people line up to have their cars blessed by the priests (for a small fee of course). People decorate their cars with ornate flowers before the priest comes around and blesses the car and family with holy water. After this the owners drench the car in alcohol and let off fireworks. We saw about 30 cars being done and it was a very strange sight. This happens every day at 10am and 2:30pm.


Cath hiking Isla Del Sol
The Isla Del Sol "tour" lasted for about an hour and then we were off walking the length of the island on our own to get to the pick up point. The walk was about 7km and took us about 2.5 hours at altitudes constantly above 4000m and lots of up and downs, some very steep. Along with the strenuous walk, the views along the way were breathtaking. It really is a very beautiful place with bluer than blue water and barren Medditeranean type landscapes. We were both really happy we chose to do the full-day hike from North to South as people on a half-day trip didnt see much at all except for the stairs coming out of the port. It took us half and hour to walk down them to meet our boat only just making it in time for the ride back to Copacabana.


View to Isla De la Luna from Isla del Sol

There is some bizarre weather up here. The air temperature is probably only 10-15 degrees but when you are in the sun it feels more like 25 and burns your skin in no time. When you venture into the shade, however, the cool breeze off the lake makes you switch from a t-shirt and sun hat to jumpers, jackets and beanies. It has also rained every day that we have been around the lake, and at this altitude it is basically ice and they have some wicked thunderstorms.

permalink written by  Cath & Andy on April 30, 2007 from Copacabana, Bolivia
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
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La Paz gives me the poos

La Paz, Bolivia


Plaza San Francisco - La Paz

We left Copacabana on a bus for La Paz which was 5 hours to cover 160km. We did get a ride across Lake Titicaca on a punt watching our bus on another which was kinda cool. The entry towards La Paz was a bit daunting through dirt streets, and lots of poverty but that was just El Alto, a city above La Paz itself. Once we got through that, the views of the city were simply spellbinding, Pity that view was the only highlight of our time in La Paz.

We had a bit of a walk around the city but there was not much on offer, the coca museum was interesting and the witches market was smelly and disturbing with all its llama foetus´on display. Apparently you bury one under the cornerstone of a new building for good luck - they just grossed us out a bit.

It only took us half a day to see the highlights of town and we were wondering what we would do for the rest of our time there before our flights to Buenos Aires.


Cool Bus - La Paz

La Paz Street

As luck would have it, the next morning Andy fell ill with some salmonela and spent the entire day with his head and backside on the toilet fulfilling one of Cath´s fears of one of us getting sick in Bolivia. Cath had to call for a doctor which was daunting as the Lonely Planet guide says "In a medical emergency, don´t go to the hospitals..." The doctor, who was actually quite good and recommended by the hotel, gave Andy a needle which stopped him vomiting and promised that we´d be fine to fly the next morning. He even returned to check up on him late last night just to see how he was faring. Amazingly, with some antibiotics, plenty of water and a small amount of food, Andy is feeling much better today ... and we´ve made it to Buenos Aires.

Tomorrow is a new day and Andy is set to have his first meal in two days tonight so its all looking up from here. Despite it raining here, the city looks quite interesting with lots to see and do. There are also plenty of parks for us to laze about in till Andy fully recovers.

The other good news that we got was that our unit will settle on the 18th of May so we will have a new house to come home to after all!!!

Cath & Andy.

permalink written by  Cath & Andy on May 4, 2007 from La Paz, Bolivia
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
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On the mend...

Buenos Aires, Argentina

We left the big city and slums of La Paz and landed in the big and very much more modern city of Buenos Aires and found a few surprises. We remembered quite quickly that Argentinians (especially the men) are very competitive. Nowhere is this more evident when riding as a passenger in a taxi racing between sets of traffic lights for a single lane opening ahead. Unfortunately, due to their rather relaxed adherance to lane markings, the one single opening quite frequently allowed both cars to fit, much to our dismay. The other thing that became apparent was that they speak a different kind of Latin American Spanish than in Chile, Peru and Bolivia. In all other countries we have been fairly well understood whereas here it seems nobody understands us. Often they even repeat back to us the correct pronunciation which to us sounds like what we have said but they still don´t understand us.


View onto worlds widest road - Buenos Aires
We managed to get a nice hotel room one block away from what claims to be the widest road in the world ... and at 9-10 lanes (each way!) we´re not going to argue! For such a large road, its actually quite nice with parks separating every three or four lanes.


Andy in Buenos Aires
We have spent the last few days here chilling out and letting Andy get a bit better which he is doing slowly. And before you all start going on about all the crazy stuff he´s been eating, he probably picked something up from either scrambled eggs or some fried chicken skin - nothing out of the ordinary there... La Paz doctor said that this is the most common source of salmonela.

We went to a soccer (futbol) game last night which was certainly an experience. To say Argentinian fans are fanatical could be a bit of an understatement. The crowd, the noise and the smells were overwhelming. At either end of the ground behind the goal posts were the opposing teams fanatical supporters with very large fences between them and the pitch. On the side where we were there were more home team supporters but not part of the official cheer squad, though no less noisy. The sides of the ground were separated from the playing surface by a 3m wide and 5m deep trench filled with some revolting ooze at the bottom which really stopped you thinking about a pitch invasion. We were frisked on the way in and there was a riot out the back at half time when one side pushed down a security fence but we were in the safe confines of a tour with tour guide who assured us that we were safe as long as we stayed in the stands. We didn´t see a goal as we left just after half time because Andy was feeling (and being) unwell but apparently, according to our taxi driver, it was a 2 all draw by the time we had gotten back to our hotel.

Tomorrow we head north to Rosario, we have put off Iguazu Falls until maybe another week or so just to make sure Andy is well enough before we head back into the Amazon.


Ornate Doorway - Buenos Aires
We think that a lot of our friends would like Buenos Aires, its quite a beautiful city and has some amazing shopping (we didn´t know you could make that many things out of cow) and interesting street performances including Tango. We will upload some photos when we can find a good internet place.

Bye for now.
Cath & Andy.

permalink written by  Cath & Andy on May 6, 2007 from Buenos Aires, Argentina
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
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Perfect Argentinian town ... I think not

Rosario, Argentina

Yesterday we landed ourselves in a town that the Lonely Planet describes as possibly the "Perfect Argentinian Town". The city is made up of entirely square blocks that are actually quite small and manageable, unfortunately it makes trafic flow a bit of a nightmare and everything looks the same. If we hadnt seen so many amazing cultural and scenic other cities on this trip we might have quite liked this laid back town but we just couldnt find anything to do on a Monday, even most of the shops appeared to be closed at 3pm!!

They did have a big river front with some big ocean-going ships tied up in it which was interesting to see and also the burial place of the designer of the Argentine flag. Che Guevera was also born here. We did find the electric busses (exactly like a tram in Melbourne but on wheels) a bit of a novelty but we seriously only took one photo and that was Cath in front of the flag monument.

We had planned on spending a few days here but had decided to hot foot it out of there on a bus to Cordoba. Despite the cities being around the same population, there seems to be heaps more to see and do here than in Rosario. However we have discovered that after 11 hours on a bus, Argentina is really very flat in the middle (unlike Andys belly after eating a 400g steak tonight).

We will probably spend a few days in and around Cordoba with possibly a side trip to Iguazu Falls if we can swing it from a travel agent before heading to Mendoza to drink more wine and eat more of this fabulous Argentine bovine.

Stay Tuned,
Cath & Andy.

permalink written by  Cath & Andy on May 8, 2007 from Rosario, Argentina
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
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Paragliding in the Argentinian Sierras

Cordoba, Argentina


Paragliding in the sun


Cath all geared up
Yep, in an effort to conquer Cath´s fear of heights, and test out Andy´s stomach, we decided to go paragliding - Cath´s fear of heights is still intact, Andy´s stomach, predictably, made a bid for freedom. It was a fantastic experience though despite almost losing our fingers to frostbite and the giddying twists, turns and ups and downs.

There is certainly more to look at and do in Cordoba than there was in Rosario although our trip here was a little interesting with the choice of movie being the Texas Chainsaw Massacre - we´re glad we weren´t travelling at night with some unexpected stops on the side of the road...


Andy in Cordoba pedestrian mall
We´ve had a lovely time here just chilling out and eating. We´ve had amazing food and our choices of local wines keep getting better and better ... and we still haven´t made it to Mendoza which is supposed to be the capital of wining and dining! Although the food has been fantastic, we still can´t find vegetables or fibre in any great quantity. Meals seem to be served with a side of potato, be that chips, wedges, potato gems, mash or bake. We did try to order a side plate of vegetables last night, but they were pretty tasteless and even that came with potato on it! The other cool food related thing you can do is walk into a shopping mall food court and buy a 1Litre beer from every single food outlet (though we didn´t look at Maccas). It is a strange feeling to be sitting inside a mall drinking a 1L Heiniken as everyone shops around you at 7pm on a Tuesday night (the malls are open until at least midnight).


Cordoba´s Jesuit Block Streetscape

Jesuit Block building - Cordoba

We have also decided that Argentina is closed for renovations. Just about every Museum, public building or tourist attraction, right throughout Argentina, is covered in scaffolding and a troop of workmen being renovated. In 12-18 months this place will look like new!!! Suffice to say, we haven´t been to one Museum yet, but the food is keeping us company.

After a bit of tooing and froing with the internet and a travel agent we have decided that we will give Iguazu a miss on this trip. It was going to cost us a bomb to get there and back from where we are by plane, and we didn´t have 3 days just to sit on a bus if we had taken the bus option. Even if we had gone from Buenos Aires it would have cost us about 1200AUD to fly and that´s the cheapest place to go from. So we´ll take it easy in Western Argentina and we might even have a bit of time up our sleeves to see some more things around middle Chile before our flight home - maybe we´ll sample another wine or two?

We are booked on an overnight bus to Mendoza - the heart of wine country - tonight so there should be more fantastic dining experiences on the way. There are also a lot of National Parks and volcanoes in the area so we should get back to nature again. We have been reminded that we are home in 2 weeks so probably not many more entries till we see you next.

Andy & Cath.

permalink written by  Cath & Andy on May 11, 2007 from Cordoba, Argentina
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
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More randomness...

Mendoza, Argentina

Some more random observations from South America:

- Salt - we will need a detox when we get home
- Men like to sing in the street in public and loudly
- You never need to order bread, it comes free with every meal (lots of it)
- Busses and Trucks are faster than cars, the bigger the bus, the faster it goes
- Gum trees everywhere
- Speed humps are sometimes in the middle of the highway for no apparent reason
- Argentinian highways have street lights
- Every bus we have been in has had a cracked windscreen
- Potato, you can never have enough ... apparently
- Argentinian steak thoroughly deserves its reputation as the best
- Asking for the bill - it will never, ever, come if you don´t ask for it.
- Long lunches, a standard lunch lasts about 2 hours with a 1 hour rest afterwards.
- Smoking, everyone everywhere - is there such a thing as a non-smoking hotel room?
- Its perfectly normal to leave your home and go nightclubbing at 2am
- The sun rises at 9am in Mendoza (all of Argentina is on one timezone)
- At cafes in Mendoza people drop pens/torches/stickers/lollypops/lottery tickets on your table every 5 minutes trying to sell them to you - quite annoying.

permalink written by  Cath & Andy on May 14, 2007 from Mendoza, Argentina
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
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Mountains, cañons, wineries and food...

Mendoza, Argentina


Mendoza street
We arrived in Mendoza after an overnight bus from Cordoba, bus travel here is very comfortable with some busses having fully reclining seats the size of a business class seat in an aeroplane. To our surprise when we arrived at 7:30am it was still dark with the sun not showing itself until 9am. It was also freezing cold and when we went into town at midday on Saturday, everything was closed. Suffice to say, it took us a little while to warm to Mendoza but we´ve spent the last 5 days in and around the city and its quite nice and strangely a bit like home with its tree lined streets. We are often reminded of Garema Place as we stroll around from coffee shop to steak house. We think we should have visited Argentina first on our trip as now we don´t have the major culture differences and everything is so civilised, it is a little harder for us to find things of interest which is strange as it really is beautiful here.


Cath at Aconcagua base camp - note the frozen water!

Puente del Inca, Mendoza Province

We did a tour of the mountainous regions around Mendoza all the way to the Chilean border stopping at Aconcagua, the highest peak outside of the Himalayas at 6962m, and Puente del Inca, a natural formed bridge stained by sulfur in the thermal waters that run over it. Predictably it was very cold, have a look at the frozen lake behind Cath in the photo, but being surrounded by such large mountains with a dazzling array of colours and shapes was makes 6 hours in a bus and a sore neck worth it. The colours in the mountains here are nothing like anything else we have seen in the Andes and the barrenness makes it very beautiful.


Perfect winery view

We couldn´t come to Mendoza without doing a winery tour - they have over 900 wineries in the area and supply 70% of Argentina´s wine. We were very lucky to book a tour that had nobody else on it so we were chauffered around with a personal guide to 4 wineries that included a 5 course wine matched lunch and also barrel tastings and full tours through their production including seeing people labelling bottles by hand. The wineries here are quite different to Australia and to get into a winery you must have a booking as there are security guards and big locked gates at each winery. The tasting is quite different too as you pay for the tasting but there is no ´big sell´ trying to get you to buy anything, its just an excuse to sit around and appreciate the wine that they make. The wineries here would have to be in some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. Its also amazing to see that within approximately 20kms and probably 50m elevation they have quite different microclimates around each wine region due mainly to their proximity to the Andes.


Cañon del Atuel, Mendoza Province

Andy at Valle Grande in Cañon del Atuel

Yesterday we did a tour to the south of Mendoza through Cañon del Atuel which is kind of a mini grand canyon that has had 4 dams and hydroelectric plants built in it. Would have been good without the dams but still an amazing canyon with interesting rock formations (some look like elephants, penguins, monks, turtles and of course male anatomy) and once again beautiful colours in the rock. It was freezing (again!) and our guide didn´t speak english but it was still a good experience, just a shame that the sun wasn´t out to light up the colours it the rocks.


Tucking into a big dinner - check out Cath´s steak!!!

mmmm piggy-pig

We have done some of the best eating here of our entire trip with each dinner including a full bottle of wine. The weight we have lost over the rest of the trip from all the exercise we have done will surely be back on by the time we leave Argentina. We are booked on a bus tomorrow across the border into Chile to see the Pacific Ocean again and spend a few days in and around the coastal town of Valparaiso.

Still having a ball and can´t believe its been nearly 2 months!
Andy & Cath.

permalink written by  Cath & Andy on May 16, 2007 from Mendoza, Argentina
from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America
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Join us on our journey to our wedding and our 2-month South American honeymoon. We will be married on 31 March 2007, in Narooma Australia and are honeymooning through Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina in April and May 2007.

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