After an awe-inspiring journey through Peru, with our hearts tuned in to the Latin beats and Castellano rolling freely off our tongues, we realised just how quickly we had grown to love this intriguing, inviting and edgy continent. And with six weeks to go, our distant homeland and the voices and faces of much loved and missed friends and family seemed closer than ever. It was time to wrap up our big adventure and journey through Argentina and Southern Bolivia, ending with a week on the beach in Copacabana, Rio.
Argentina was very much what we expected: a big, brash, confident nation, less than a century ago one of the richest in the world and after much economic and political turmoil, more determined than ever to succeed on the global stage. With an excellent infrastructure that towers over its South American neighbours, this is a comfortable country to travel across, and the quality and value of the food is astounding - some of the most succulent red meat we are ever likely to taste and coffee so rich and full-bodied that it rivals an espresso in Rome. Needless to say, the lure of all these comforts led us to stay in the bustling capital Buenos Aires for almost a week. We wandered around the barrios of Retiro & Palermo, sampling the delights of the confeterias, paradillas and cafes, remained mesmorised at the beautiful Recoleta cemetary, strolled nervously through the gritty backstreets and dockside of famous Boca with its coloured houses and opportunistic thieves, and even made it to the River Plate stadium to see Argentina vs Colombia in a 2010 qualifier. Argentina narrowly won, but had previouly lost 6-0 to Bolivia and would go on to lose 2-0 to Ecuador. I always enjoyed talking to Argentinians about their national team. They had that kind of resigned embarrassment we had when England failed to qualify for the last World Cup. Messi was off-key and Tevez barely moved. One guy I spoke to was convinced that Maradonna is like the players´ drug dealer but can currently only afford low quality cocaine. ´This is why they play so bad!´ he asserted. And watching the great Maradonna trying to command his players on the pitch at half time...well, he might as well have been David Brent. It comes as something when the look-a-like Maradonna we met seemed somehow more ´real´than the actual man himself. A national hero rapidly becoming a national joke, a national disgrace. Serious stuff aside, it was a great atmosphere and we certainly picked up a few more colouful Spanish phrases and the odd futbol chant:´ Ésta noche tenemos que ganar, a estos putos tenemos que cacar´ was our favourite - simple and straight to the point. Screams of ´horrible´ and ´burro´ (donkey) also had us in fits of laughter.
Anyway, after all this metropolitan mayhem, it was time to stike out to the provinces once again and a 22hr bus journey led us to the northwest corner of Argentina and the beautifully set city of Salta. We spent several days exploring the surrounding countryside on tours and in hire cars. The landscapes we took in were amongst the most stunning and dramatic we had seen all year. As we drove across the puna (high altitude deserts 5000m above sea level) we encountered a series of multi-coloured grandiose mountains - red for iron, green for copper and yellow for Jackoryte - where the Nasca and N. American plates had collided thousands of years ago, pushing the bottom of the ocean to the top of the mountain. Huge mounds of encrusted sand, all testament to the power of nature and the passage of time.
Everything was in 3D, just like in New Zealand, and every landscape gave us the sensation of being on another planet - a tough, desolate, fiery-red earth - the odd adobe abode that we did come across left us astounded as to how anyone could survive such a remote existence. And as we concluded that these people had more in common with their Bolivian neighbours - in wealth, dress, food, custom and look - we decided to make the journey across the border and see for ourselves what the so-called land of superlatives had to offer. It would be the poorest, coldest and highest country of all of South America.
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After a ´brief-ish´ 7 hour bus ride to the Argentine border, we had the slightly strange experience of simply walking into Bolivia. However, although it was only a matter of a few 100 feet, we might as well have been crossing into another world. Bolivia was a far cry from the majority of Argentina - the people, the clothes, the food, the smells - we were immediately intrigued.
Heading straight for the town of Tupiza, the starting point for four day trips across the coloured lakes and mountains of this SW corner of Bolivia, we experienced our first taste of Bolivian time-keeping - waiting until 3.30pm for the so-called 2pm bus to leave. ´Wow, we´re going to have to be really patient here´, we thought sagely. It was a couple of days later, after lots of frustrating waiting, that we found out Bolivia was actually an hour ahead of Argentinian time. Doh!
Once we had sorted out our watches, we headed off with two Israeli guyes (uncle and nephew) in our jeep, replete with driver and cook Lydia, for our four day ´South West circuit.´The scenery was out of this world - weird rock formations at over 5,000 feet above sea level, the brightest coloured lakes - emerald, red and blue - and of course, the highlight of the tour, the vast salt plain of Uyuni. Getting up at 5am, your feet crunching on layers of salt, to watch the sun rise over this remote, eerie landscape was truly breathtaking, like nothing we had ever seen before, almost like being on the surface of the moon.
The trip was also memorable for taking the dubious prize of ´coldest nights we have spent anywhere during the whole year´. Even a sleeping bag, four blankets and every scrap of clothing we owned wasn´t quite enough to keep the cold out in the basic mud huts we slept in. Despite this, it was a lot of fun and the pictures do not do the scenery justice - on the last night, we even slept in a salt hotel, made almost entirely from blocks of salt taken from the Salar - talk about blending in with your environment!
Once safely back in the windswept frontier town of Uyuni, we sorted out yet another bus on to Potosi, the highest city in Bolivia at over 4,000 feet, travelling across beautiful, desolate landscapes to this once mighty mining town, perched dramatically across it´s hillside setting. In need of a lower altitude and a few days to warm up and chill out, we carried on to the former capital city of Sucre, a white-washed gem of a place, filled with beautiful churches and the spirit of revolution. This was where Bolivia was founded once the Conquistadores were finally driven back to Spain, and the place retains an air of pride and verve. We spent several days just taking it all in; the fabulous market filled with fresh fruit and vegetables, every kind of food you can imagine and the most interesting faces. Once our batteries were recharged, it was all too soon time to move on to the capital proper, La Paz. First glimpses of this vast city take your breath away - masses of houses crammned into every space imaginable, clinging precipitously to the sides of the valley, with the sparkling, snow-capped tip of Mount Illimani in the background.
The city was a vibrant mix of shops, stalls, food markets and people - really friendly and bustling, it was a true melting pot of Bolivians from all over this spectacular country. All too soon, it was time to head back to Salta in Argentina and on to the spectacular Igauzu falls. Our time in Bolivia was brief, but memorable, and our taste of this fascinating place was enough to ensure we´ll definitely be coming back for further exploration in the not too distant future.
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And so as we returned to Argentina, passing through Salta and on to another 22hr bus journey to Puerto Iguazu, we soon felt that feeling of comfort and re-aquaintance with a familiar friend. Puerto Iguazu is of course the town that borders one of the seven wonders of the world: the jaw-dropping Cataratas de Iguazu, the Iguazu Falls. From the Brazilian side, the panoramic views showed the falls in all their glory - thundering, crashing, gushing cascades racing off cliff edges as far as the eye can see. And back in Argentina, we were treated to close encounters with evey section of the falls from all sides, best seen close up from the Isla de San Martin. For all the expectation, anticipation and prior knowledge of the falls, nothing can prepare you for the real thing. A life-affirming display from Mother Nature leaves you with that one single sensation we had felt on so many occassions in the previous year: God, we love travelling!.
But, with each journey comes an ending and with one eye on London, we jumped on a 26hr bus to Rio for a final week of sun and sand.
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So, we finally come to the end...or is it just the beginning? It´s hard to sum up the best year of our lives, the lists and numbers below make some attempt at that. But suffice to say that it wasn´t the walking with lions, exploring the Great Wall of China, jumping off a plane at 15000 ft or reaching Macchu Picchu after an exhausting four day trek. It wasn´t experiencing all of these magical moments just for the sake of experiencing them. It was the fact that we experienced them together - that we stood together as lions passed by in the South African bush, that we shared a strong embrace after reaching the top of the Great Wall in China, that we gave each other one last look as we rolled out of an aeroplane and that we walked alone together for the final two hours to reach the sun-drenched Inca citadel of Macchu Picchu. Call us soppy, but that´s what we´ll remember. Not that we experienced it. But that we experienced it together. That was the year.
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The year in numbers:
5 continents
16 countires
32 flights
94 localities
112 accommodations
21 forms of transport
1 wife/husband (...the one we left with)
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Top 10:
-Top archeological wonder - Pompeii, Italy
-Top wildlife experience - Mala Mala, Nelspruit, South Africa
-Top culinary adventure - China
-Top memorable activity - on land) sand buggying in Huacachina, Peru. in the air) skydiving in Taupo, New Zealand. on water) sea canoeing in Southern Thailand
-Top unexpected treasure - Laos and the Laos people
-Top night under the stars - Kangaroo Island, Australia (SA)
-Top self-drive - the Garden Route, South Africa
-Top awe-inspiring journey - Yangtze River, China
-Top rewarding multi-day trek - Inca Trail, Cusco, Peru
-Top stunning landscape - Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
Overall winners:
1. Most yeared-for country - China
2. Most enjoyable city - Rome
3. Single favourite location of the entire 12 month adventure - a morning bush walk in Kruger National Park, South Africa.