South America travel highlights

I now know, by an almost fatalistic conformity with the facts, that my destiny is to travel...   Ernesto Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries

Here is a final list of our highlights in South America. What an amazing 6 months it has been!

First and foremost

• The great people we have met along the way.
• Getting to see 86 new bird species.
• Galapagos Islands
• Torres del Paine
• Fitzroy Mountains
• Cloud forests of Mindo

The highest, biggest, and best... anywhere

• Highest navigable lake
• Highest capital city
• Most dangerous road
• Biggest salt pan
• Most active, advancing glacier
• Biggest stork
• Most faithful parent
• Toughest peak to climb
• Most famous beach...
• ...with the most famous bubble-buts
• Largest penguin colony (outside Antarctica that is)
• Cutest creature (well I think so anyway!)
• Deepest canyon
• World's largest and oldest tortoises
• Area with the highest number of hummingbird species in the world (over 40)

Argentina

Highlights

• Sea Lions, Sea Elephants, Guanacos, Rheas, Patagonian Hares and Armodillos at Peninsula Valdes in Patagonia.
• A colony of half a million Megellanic Penguins at Puerto Tombo in Patagonia.
• A 12 km hike through Parque Nacional Los Arrayanes along a peninsula to a gorgeous forest of cinnamon barked Arrayan trees
• A hike through the forest of Parque Municipal Llao Llao in Bariloche
• Vast lakes with snow capped Andes backdrops in the Lake District, Bariloche.
• The windy, barren expanses of flat bleakness in Patagonia with its big skies and awesome sunsets.
• Buenos Airies : What a great city, and the enormous steaks are to die for
• High tea at Llao Llao hotel in Bariloche - very grand, not suprising considering the $ 600 US you need to spend a night there.
• Watching birds in a lake reserve in El Calafete
• Hiking in the Fitzroy Mountains from El Chalten and viewing Laguna Tres and Laguna Torres
• Watching huge chunks of ice fall of the Morraine Glacier
• Capybaras, caimans and stacks of birds at Provincial Esteros del Iberia
• The amazing Iguazu Falls
• Paper falling like snow from the sky scrapers over Buenos Airies over New Year´s so that the pavements and roads became white. This is due to the annual custom of tearing up 2005 dairies (and bank statements!) in anticipation of the New Year and throwing it out their windows. Makes for very busy street sweepers!
• Learning to communicate in Spanish - thank goodness for our handy phrase book! Also trying to decipher the all Spanish menus - our first couple of meals were pot luck!

Not quite so great...

• Argentinian blood sausage (we were offered it at a local barbecue and felt it would be disrespectful not to accept. Boy was it hard to swallow - taste, smell and consistency were not in its favour.)
• Our 50 hour bus journey from El Calafete to Buenos Airies. My toes swelled up like sausages.

Chile

Highlights

• Climbing a live volcano in Pucon, watching lava spew, and then sliding down the mountain on our bums
• Lazing in the Pucon hot springs with our newfound friends, Donna and Pete
• Hiking and camping in the Huerquehue National Park, viewing mountainous lakes
• The 3 day ferry from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales through beautiful fjords
• 5 day hiking in Torres del Paine and watching the first ray of sun hit the Torres pillars

Not quite so great...

• The smells of Puerto Montt

Brazil

Highlights

• Exploring the vast swamps of the Pantanol
• Snorkeling in crystal clear rivers and caving in Bonito
• Frolicking in the mud in Parati
• Lazing on the beach in Isla del Mel (Ally)
• More beaching and many Caipirinhas and sweet cakes on Isla Grande
• The Christ Statue, Copacabana, football, Favella tour and Sugar Loaf (and meeting up with Russel) in Rio de Janeiro - oh, and did I mention the volleyball !

Not quite so great...

• Brazil was expensive (particularly transport) and really stretched our budget to the max. Thankfully we pulled it back in cheap Bolivia
• The most awful meat dish I've ever tried.

Bolivia 


Highlights

• Exploring hallucinogenic salt deserts, spurting geysers and eerie lagoons around the Uyuni Salt pans
• Hiking in the jungles of the Amazon basin in the famous Madidi Park
• Swimming with pink dophins in the Pampas (Ally)
• Hurtling down the worlds most dangerous road on mountain bikes and then chilling out in Coroico
• Exploring the Valley of the Moon in Lapaz
• Lazing in Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca, then hiking and boating to Isla del Sol, the Inca birth place of the sun

Not quite so great...

• Getting munched my sand flies in Madidi (just check out my poor back!)
• Withdrawing counterfeit dollars from an ATM (always check!)

Peru


Highlights

• Visiting the floating islands, sleeping with a local family on Amantani Island and hiking around Taquila Islands on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca
• Hiking along the ancient road of the Incas on the Inca trail
• Sunrise over the sacred and mysterious city of Machu Picchu
• Hundred of thousands of sea birds (including beautiful Inca terns) at the Ballestas Islands
• Llamas in pink tassles
• Exploring Arequipa and it's beautiful and mysterious monastery (St Catalina)
• Eating guineapig
• Hiking into the deepest canyon in the world (Colca Canyon) and watching condors gliding over
• Sandboarding at the desert oasis of Huacachina
• Learning that the red in lipstick comes from the blood of squished bugs
• Exploring the Gold Museum in Lima

Not quite so great...

• Russell getting his passport, wallet and GPS stolen on a bus to Cusco
• Saying goodbye to Russell

Ecuador

Highlights

• Visiting Quito and an outlying forest reserve
• Getting thrown by a donkey on the craters of Quilotoa Lake
• Our own secluded camp site on the banks of a lagoon in the very cloudy Cotapaxi Park
• Horses in the Mist
• Exploring the flooded forests of the Cuyabeno Jungle
• Being offered questionable delicasies at the animal markets of Saquisili
• Snorkeling with penguins, sharks, turtles and rays and getting close and personal with tortoises and marine iguanas in the surreal islands of Galapagos
• Seeing 78 new species of birds in 2 days (in the cloud forests of Mindo)

Not quite so great

• Picking up an invisible mite (probably from the jungle) that bit me to smitherines on and off for three weeks.