[May 2016] By the end of April, after our successful trip to the Amazon, the rainy season in the mountains of Peru was over, so we turned back south again to go and explore the High Andes of Peru. However, we hadn’t got far when I got the sort of phone call that everybody dreads, especially when they are a long way from home – my father had been taken ill and had been admitted to hospital. The first days of May became about getting me onto a plane back to the UK. Bruce stayed with the van in Huaraz and, for him, that two week period rapidly degenerated into a cascade of interrelated mechanical problems and then culminated with him, on the day I was travelling back out, taking an unusually bad fall while rock climbing and giving himself a concussion! June could only be an improvement…
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Tag Archives: Climbing
A Miserable May in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru
Climbing in Chile and Bolivia: Places with potential
Rock climbing has only recently become a popular activity in Chile and Bolivia and this is most obvious when you see who is climbing – most people are in their 20s. Unless you are a mountaineer, or fancy a go at climbing the formidable Torres del Paine, then the crags are probably best visited as an element of a wider trip to explore the country, as they were for us. Saying that, there is plenty of potential for rock climbing in these two beautiful countries. Continue reading
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Christmas season in Cusco and the Sacred Valley
New Year’s Eve in Cusco
We arrived in Cusco from Lake Titicaca on 23 December 2015, just in time for Christmas. In the end, we spent more than three weeks in and around Cusco and the Sacred Valley, which gave us plenty of time to explore the many, many Incan sites in the area. We’ve selected our favourite of these for an accompanying blog here – there is so much more to this area than Machu Picchu! As well as seeing how modern Peru marks Christmas and New Year, we caught the festival of the “Coming of the Kings” in the Sacred Valley at Ollantaytambo, and, despite it being the rainy season, we did some delightful walks along some lesser known Incan trails and even managed a little rock climbing, as well as the fantastic Skypod experience.
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Rock climbing in Argentina: A land of plenty
Argentina is a huge country and a great destination for rock climbers. Whether you only go to one of the well-developed crags, each of which could easily occupy much more than a week of your time to explore fully, or just sample these crags in passing and discover a few hidden esoteric ones as part of a grand tour, Argentina has a wealth of options. Continue reading
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Magical Lake Titicaca
On the Isla del Sol
Titicaca (or Titiqaqa in Quechua) is the largest lake in South America and, sitting at 3,812m, the highest navigable lake in the world. Coming here was one of the most anticipated parts of the trip for me, perhaps largely for what it represented. It straddles the border of Bolivia and Peru, at the top of the Altiplano, and sits at the heart of the historical cultures of the high Andes.
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Remote Bolivia: Plains to mountains
The Mission church of San Ignacio
We’re not usually that interested in religious history, but the Jesuits’ social experiment in the heart of this fascinating continent is rather absorbing. We took a back road route across the border from Caceres in Brazil to pick up the “Missions Circuit” in the lowland plains of eastern Bolivia, then had an adventurous journey back up into the mountain valleys to spend more time in and around the lovely city of Sucre, visiting a traditional market, chasing dinosaur footprints and letting llamas distract us from rock climbing on the altiplano.
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Cities, wines and climbs: Santiago to Mendoza
Central Chile and mid-Andean Argentina is where most of the vineyards of these two great wine producing countries are. The region also includes some great cities (Santiago, Valparaiso and Mendoza) that have the added charm of decent climbing nearby… Continue reading
The winding road to Santiago – part 1: Argentinian delights
Our route north to Santiago de Chile took us on a zig-zag, to and fro across the Andes, travelling, mostly, up the beautiful, lush and verdant, western Chilean side, whilst also crossing back to the east, to take in the highlights of the Argentinian side of the Andes on the way. To give some geographic continuity, this blog recounts these Argentinian treats, while the following, accompanying blog (part 2: Southern Chile) describes the two legs of the journey north through southern Chile. Continue reading
Southern Andes: Our first three encounters
We started our journey north, following the Andes, in Tierra del Fuego, where the very southern peaks are smaller but magical, covered in snow. From there, the roads north take you back into the desert of the Patagonian steppe, with the mountains usually not far from view to your left. Only forays into the national parks along the eastern edge of the range are possible by road – but those encounters with some dramatic massifs have been breathtaking…
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Argentina Head to Toe – Part 1: Iguazu Falls to Cordoba
An Amazon peers out to check us out from a hole in a tree above our campsite
We turned south at the Iguazu Falls for a drive that will take us the full length of Argentina, we hope. Iguazu Falls is at the northern tip of the Misiones province, a thin spit of Argentine land separating Paraguay from Uruguay and defined by the Rios Uruguay and Paraná.
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Yellow Van Days 