Round The World Trip 2006

Good day to you, I hope this latest installment to my adventures find you fit and healthy. Lynn and I are both currently enjoying the dry and sunny weather of the city of Cusco, 3,310m above sea level in the heart of Peru. Before colonial times Cusco was the ancient Inca capital and is now a thriving tourist city where we gringos (as foreigners are affectionately known here) are so numerous we seem to outnumber even the locals. The reason so many tourists flock here? Cusco is the gateway to that most famous of Inca sites, Machu Picchu. The last episode of my travelogue saw us arriving in the city of Puno on the western shores of Lake Titicaca having crossed over from Bolivia. We spent only a couple of nights in Puno and that was enough. People go to Puno to go to Lake Titicaca and since we'd just come from there, there was absolutely no reason to hang about. We had a free day though before our bus to Arequipa the following morning and needing little incentive to leave the city we t...

Good day to you, I hope this message finds you well. Lynn and I are both fine although we've been a little under the weather recently with colds, sore throats and really painful stomach aches which haven't exactly produced the usual diarrhoea but have given us the smelliest rear-ends ever to have fouled this earth. Lynn's especially - talk about making your eyes water! Hopefully all that's behind us now though ("Always was!" I hear you shout) as today we've crossed the border into our 5th country - Peru. My last report finished on a rather sour note with the news that my camera had been stolen. It's been nearly 3 weeks since that unfortunate incident and the 1st week after was spent almost exclusively in trying to deal with a bus company that eventually decided the event never happened, a police service that has about as much interest in solving crimes as your average goat and an insurance company that assumed we'd finished our 2 week holiday to th...

01) Last Wednesday (June 7th) I cycled down a road known as "The World's Most Dangerous Road" from an altitude of 4,750m just north of La Paz to 1,100m near a town called Coroico. The trip was 64km long and mostly steep downhill on a dusty track with a steep drop off to one side all the way. Apparently a bus or lorry veers off the edge, smashing up in the valley below on average once every 2 weeks, killing everyone onboard. Seems like a pretty apt name to me then! (Check out Links for the 'Gravity-Assisted Mountain Biking' website!) (Photo by Lynn) 02) The ride was very dusty and here's me at the end just to prove I survived! (Photo by Lynn)

I'm posting these photos before I've written the corresponding installment to my travelogue. We are currently in La Paz and these photos were taken earlier this week. The next 'post' will contain more information about these photos. We're both using the same camera at the moment so some are taken by me and some by Lynn. 01) Our hotel in La Paz is right on the edge of the 'Handicraft Market'. Most of the shops around here sell colourful things like these bags and purses. (Photo by Rich) 02) We're also only one block away from the 'Witches Market'. All sorts of potions and charms and lucky trinkets can be bought from this place. Perhaps the most disgusting items for sale though are the dried-out unborn llama foetuses which you are supposed to purchase and then bury in your front garden to ward off evil spirits. Not sure I'd get it through customs, to be honest. Oh, and they really stink! (Photo by Rich)

01) Salar de Uyuni - The largest salt lake in the world and this is The Salt Hotel in the middle of it where we should have spent the 2nd night of our tour. 02) The Train Graveyard on the outskirts of Uyuni - an excellent place for photographs. Pity I haven't still got mine! 03) The Train Graveyard - When I grow up I want to be a train driver! 04) Minuteman Pizza in Uyuni - The best pizzas in Bolivia if not the world. Chris (pictured with another handsome fellow!) and his wife were a godsend regarding dealing with the police in Uyuni when I had to report my stolen camera. (Check out Links for the Minuteman Pizza webpage)

As you know, I had my camera and all my photographic equipment stolen in Uyuni, Bolivia and consequently also lost over 500 photos from our trip. The photos I lost included those from our 3 day tour through the strange landscape of Bolivia's south-west which I regarded as my best so far. The following photos of this region were all taken by Lynn. 01) We saw lots of weird rocks reminiscent of those seen in Salvador Dali's paintings 02) How does a rock get eroded into a shape like this? 03) Geysers at over 5,000m above sea level. Lots of sulphurous steam and it stinks! 04) Laguna Colorado - also known as the Red Lake. Weird! 05) Day Two - The 4x4 breaks down. Rich looks on in concern.

Our 3 day tour of this beautiful province's National Parks mean't we saw loads of strange rock formations, beautiful lakes and colourful hillsides 01) Colourful landscape 02) Imposing red cliffs - BIG! 03) Strange rock formations - This one is called "The Yellow Submarine". Yeah, I know you need a bit of imagination! 04) Laguna Brava - Weird sulphurous outlets supply this lake with water 05) Laguna Brava - Flamingoes love it here!

01) The island of Chiloe off the coast of Chile. Colourful and pretty but very boring! 02) Santiago, Chile - The city's cathedral reflected in a modern skyscraper built next to it - The old and the new! 03) Santiago, Chile - The last photo I took of the political march before it turned ugly and we had to leg it!

01 + 02) Bariloche, Argentina - the views are absolutely stunning! 03) Bariloche, Argentina - Renowned for it's chocolates - There's a large Swiss community here who like to open chocolate shops! 04) Bariloche, Argentina - Or is it Switzerland?

01 + 02) Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile - Day One and we can't see alot! 03 + 04) Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile - Day Two and it's a bit clearer! 05) A guanaco in the Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile 06) Puerto Madryn, Argentina - A wildlife haven - Penguins 07) Puerto Madryn, Argentina - A wildlife haven - Armadillo

Atlast I've managed to add a few more photos to this blogsite. I'm going to do it in a number of posts because there's 40 photos ranging from Week 5 in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Week 13 in La Paz, Bolivia. 01) Buenos Aires at night 02) Estancia Casa de Campo "La China" just south of Buenos Aires - dinner time! (See Links for the website) 03 - 05) Various images of Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia, Southern Argentina 06) Lynn - Patagonia, Southern Argentina 07) Rich - Dinner time on the glacier and you eat what you can find!