Northern Argentina

Argentina. Fifteenth and final country of the trip (unless we make a cheeky trip to Uruguay). Things are getting much colder as we head down towards 30-35° in southern latitude. Our northern hemisphere readers should note it is the depths of winter down here. We spent our first week in Argentina on the historic highway 40, Argentina's route 66, down the dry eastern flank of the Andes.

Argentina is well set up for the driving traveller. There are lots of campgrounds everywhere- usually for about five bucks we get power, a bbq pit, hot showers, and sometimes wifi. Freecamping is easy and safe almost anywhere. The roads are also in good condition. And last but not least...a good malbec starts at about $1.50 a bottle!

Communing with the locals at a standard municipal campground. We have become dog magnets in Argentina, and we aren't complaining.

We headed first to Salta, a fairly big city in the north. We had our first experience exchanging cash on the "blue market". The official exchange rate is nine pesos to a US dollar if you use an ATM or exchange money at a bank. However, you can get 13 pesos to the dollar if you exchange US bills on a street corner. I am unsure of the economics of Argentina's blue market, but it has something to do with the super high inflation and the relatively stable US currency which Argentinians like to stash away for savings. At any rate, if you ever come to Argentina, bring stacks of US cash to trade and make a profit.

In Salta we mostly did chores- including taking Kellie's fingerprints in a cafe so that she could apply for a background check, needed for her NZ work visa

Counting our cash after a trip to exchange money with the 'cambio' guys

We drove through the Quebrada de Cafayate, a really amazing drive through a large valley/canyon. There are landforms with names such as the "castle", the "devil's throat" and the "amphitheatre". Everywhere you look is stunning, and you can't take a bad picture on this whole route.

We headed to Cafayate, a beautiful little wine growing town. We only stayed a night, though we should have stayed much longer. We had an excellent dinner at "La Casa de Empanadas"- empanadas are an Argentinian favourite, and come stuffed with all sorts of fillings. We had a few cheap clay jugs of local wine to wash them down.

We stopped in at the Quilmes archeological site, reportedly one of the best in the country. It is a well preserved city fortress in the desert. The people who lived there flew under the radar of the Incas but not the Spanish, who rounded them up and sent them to Buenos Aires.

The race through northern Chile

Due to what was later discovered to be a totally unnecessary need to race to Argentina for visa purposes, we had only one day in northern Chile. The landscape of northern Chile is much like Peru, very dry and barren. In fact, it is home to the driest place on earth, the Atacama desert. Some parts of the desert have not had rainfall for over 50 years!

It is a beautiful place to visit. There are some unusual, otherworldly landscapes. There are also very clear skies at night for stargazing. Despite the lack of water and vegetation, we saw many llamas, and at higher altitudes, their wild cousins called vicunas.

The drive from San Pedro de Atacama over the Andes and into Argentina must rate as one of the world's best drives. It is mindblowingly stunning. Luckily for us there was not too much snow, and the border crossing was open. Here the Gladiator had its first real customs search. The border patrol unscrewed a bunch of the interior panels, and they even inserted a special camera to check the roof cavity. We were a bit worried that Tom may have had a stash in there he had forgotten about.

We also saw our first salt flats of the trip, including the huge Salinas de Jujuy. Due to the aforementioned "wild visa goose chase" we unfortunately missed the famous salt flats of Uyuni, and the country surrounding them (Bolivia). Seeing some big salt flats ameliorated this somewhat.

Southern Peru

The entire Pacific coast of Peru is a dry and barren desert. You can drive for days without seeing much greenery. However, every now and then there is an oasis.

The Reserva Lomas de Lachay is a peculiar little ecosystem that gets its water from coastal fog. It was fairly dry during our visit, but from July to October it transforms into a lush green little forest in the middle of the desert.

Another oasis we visited was Huacachina. This is more of your classic "Lawrence of Arabia" oasis. Huge sand dunes, palm trees, a small lake. It is also popular amongst local and foreign tourists alike for sandboarding. Noisy dune buggies shuttle people up the dunes with their boards. We didn't have a go as it looked pretty lame, but everyone seemed to be having fun.

A highlight of southern Peru is the famous Nazca lines. They cover 500 square kilometeres, and there are over 300 geometric figures, some 70 animal and plant figures, and over 800 perfectly straight lines. They were created by dark rocks being removed to reveal lighter gypsum soil underneath. They are so big that the only way to really appreciate them is by aeroplane. They were discovered in 1939 during a research flight on ancient irrigation. Some of them are so big and the proportions so accurate that researchers suspect that complicated mathematics were involved. Who created them and why remains a mystery. Here are a few aerial photos from google:

We stopped by a tower built by the side of the road where you can view "the hands" and "the tree" from an oblique viewpoint. They are pretty impressive.

We also visited the well preserved colonial town of Arequipa before heading to the border. We had a classic last Peruvian dinner of cuy (guinea pig), and ricotta relleno (large pepper stuffed with ground alpaca and baked).

Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!

Well we ended up spending a bit more time in Lima than planned while the van got some new tires and other repairs. From our first impression of a sprawling, crowded metropolis, we found that Lima definitely has its charms.

Luckily our friend Pino lives in Lima. He took us out for some typical Peruvian food, local craft beers, and pisco sours (pisco is a grape brandy, and pisco sours are basically Peruvian margaritas). He also took us down to stay at his beach house at the famous surf beach Punta Hermosa.

We free camped at a park near Pino's place. The Presidente's inlaws live nearby, so there are a lot of cops around to ensure the safety of any wily free campers. This was a good spot to explore the city including the upmarket seaside suburbs of Miraflores and Barranco.

We also spent a day checking out the city centre. Lima was the most important city in colonial South America. It was the home of the viceroy, and the huge palaces, cathedrals and hotels are still here.

There is a beautiful Franciscan monastery with enormous subterranean catacombs. The building has been kept in good shape despite several earthquakes. We particulary liked the library and choir stalls built out of central american cedar (pictures are not allowed, but Kellie managed to sneak a few of the catacombs). There is also a museum at the original site of the Spanish Inquisition headquarters. Both of these sites were pretty gruesome, but a fascinating look into how the Spanish masters treated their living, and their dead.

The catacombs below San Francisco Monastery. Home to 30,000 odd skeletons. Above is a Googled image of the library - 400 year old books!

The Inquisition museum, a very vivid recreation of what these nasty bastards got up to in the name of religion.

Serious mountains

The Cordilleras are the second highest mountain range on earth after the Himalayas. There are 50 peaks over 5700m (the whole of North America only has three). The area is stunning, with countless glaciers and alpine lakes. 

Remember that time our smart phone maps casually led us into the 
very rough and rugged Canon del Pato? I do.

In the town of Caraz we saw children making these elaborate Jesus sawdust murals on a Sunday morning.

We stayed in Parque Nacional Huascaran for a couple nights. Mount Huascaran is the highest peak in Peru at 6700m. The campsites are at well over 4000m, but below the snow line which is at around 5000m. This altitude makes for thin air and gaspy breathing.

Sadly, an earthquake struck this area in 1970 and killed over 80,000 people. The town of Yungay, on the side of Huascaran, was completely buried killing all 20,000 inhabitants. There was not much left except for the spire of the cathedral poking out of the rubble. The town of Yungay was rebuilt 2km away, and we hope it never suffers the fate of its predecessor.

The Gladiator had a few tricks up its sleeve for our trip through the mountains. After seven months of not so much as a flat tire, we had four of them in three days. Two struck at once forcing us to taxi to the next town and get them patched. The van now has four brand new tires. Those mountain roads were pretty rough for the ole Gladiator, but nothing is gonna stop us now.

The road to Chavin...windy and epic

Windy and epic roads lead to four flats in three days. Time for new tires.

We also visited the archeological site of Chavin de Huantar. This ancient city was built in 1200 BC and was a centre of power and religion. There are extensive tunnels to check out. Apparently the priests used to dose citizens up on hallucinogenic san pedro cactus juice and send them into the tunnels. Inside they had highly polished rocks and elaborate water canals set up to reflect light and noise and disorient these people. People came out even stronger believers in whichever gods the priests wanted them to believe in.

The land of surf and ceviche

We had an easy border crossing from Ecuador into Peru. However, we experienced our first taste of Peruvian corruption on that first day in Peru. The border guards seized a box of our ready-meal quinoa for their lunch! (Torrey was actually pretty happy about this as he doesn't like the ready-meal quinoa).

Peru has a huge coastline, which means lots of olas y mariscos (waves and seafood). Puerto Chicama is world famous for its veeeeeery long left hand break. If the swell is pumping from the right direction, you can ride a wave for over 2km down the coast! It wasn't breaking that well when we were there, but it was still a long and fun wave.

Puerto Chicama- capital of the longest, perfect left wave in the world

The nearby town of Chiclayo is the home of some of the best ceviche we have had. We have had a lot of ceviche on the trip, but this was by far the best.

Ceviche served on boiled yucca, with corn and cancha (a kind of toasted corn). Yummmmm

We also checked out the surf town of Huanchaco. The waves were big and fat. Freecamping is possible on the beach here, but not worth the aggravation of security guards knocking on your window and asking for propinas (tips)- if we wanted to pay we would have gone to a hostal amigos!

We visited two ruins in the area, Tucume and Chan Chan. These were both enormous civilisations, older even than the Incas. The cities were made of adobe (mud) so they haven't aged as well as other pre-Columbian cities we have been to. It's still possible to get your head around the scale of the cities, and learn something of the fascinating history of these people.

Capital of the Chimu culture, Chan Chan was the largest pre-Columbian city in South America

Tucume covers an area of 540 acres and contains at least 26 important pyramids. The founders of the city believed that the outlying hills held important powers, and by building pyramids that replicated those hills, they could harness that power

Isla de la Plata a.k.a "the poor man's Galapagos"

Ecuador is home to the world famous Galapagos Islands. Unfortunately, they were well out of our price range. We instead opted for a trip out to Isla de la Plata a.k.a "the poor man's Galapagos". It has a few of the same bird species, including the blue foot boobies, albatross, and frigate birds (the males have a huge red neck balloon they can inflate to impress the ladies). There are none of the lizards, tortoises, or penguins you would get at the more famous islands. We did spot a couple humpback whales and a bunch of green turtles on the way out there.

Ecuador also gets some reasonable surf. Montanita is supposed to be one of the best breaks in the country, as well as having a beachside "cocktail alley". However Torrey found the nearby, and much quieter, Ayampe to his liking.

We also visited a petrified forest before we missioned into Peru. There were plenty of trees lying around that had turned into solid rock, through some kind of geological process that we never did quite figure out when trying to translate the signs. Very cool though, and lots of wildlife on the way, including a cornucopia of mariposas (butterflies) and a solitary zorro (fox).