2023 South America on singinwhale

Choquequirao

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 21:40:25 +0000

Choquequirao (Sometimes also written as Choquekiraw) is an Inka city ruin that was discovered in the 80s. Since a couple of years they have been clearing the ruins of the jungle that overtook the ruins when it was abandoned. It is believed that almost 2000 people lived there in its glory days.

I did a guided tour with only a small group of 2 other people plus the guide. The other 2 were a couple from London in their 30s.

Cusco

Sun, 04 Jun 2023 03:51:02 +0000

Lead-up to Inti Raimi

When I arrived in Cusco it was the beginning of the lead-up to Inti Raimi (Quechua Inti: Sun, Raimi: Festival), the festival of the sun around the solstice. Even before the festival on the 24th of June, every day there is marches and celebration in the town square of Cusco where the different departments and institutions of Cusco present themselves and their tradition. Sadly I had to leave Cusco just before the solstice but I would have loved to see the actual show at saksay huaman.

Drive to Arequipa and to Cusco

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 20:07:57 +0000

On the way to Arequipa Christelle and I wondered if there were any interesting sites along the way that we could visit. On the map we found the Reserva Nacional de Salinas y Aguadas Blancas. So we took a detour through there. It was mostly a high altitude desert but with great panoramas and lots of alpacas and vicunas. At one point we got out and walked around a bit but there was not much interesting stuff to be found.

Isla del Sol

Mon, 29 May 2023 17:55:22 +0000

From La Paz I drove north to Copacabana to take a boat to Isla del Sol which is supposedly where the first Inka king was born. I did not make it there the same day so I stayed for the night on the shores of lake Titicaca.

It was a bit overcast but you could see the high (>6000m) mountains of the Andes in the distance.

The next day I had to take a barge over the bay to get to Copacabana. Anyone taking this way to Peru also has to go via the barges. On both shores there is a huge amount of ferries waiting for passengers so the bandwidth on the bay is very high and there is no waiting lines.

La Paz

Wed, 24 May 2023 18:21:26 +0000

Before arriving to La Paz I had to stay another night somewhere. I found a nice mountain pass with a small maintenance road to an antenna tower. It was a little windy but in the slipstream of the car I was able to cook some dinner without the wind blowing out the gas stove.

El Alto

On my way to La Paz I had to go through El Alto. El Alto has a larger population than La Paz itself. While La Paz is in the valley, El Alto is on the plane around the valleys edges and is much more of a sprawl than La Paz. The quality of the buildings is also significantly lower. From La Paz there is multiple cable car lines going up to El Alto.

The Ditch

Tue, 23 May 2023 23:22:00 +0000

The drive from Sucre to La Paz takes 9 hours (even though it is a fairly well maintained toll road). It is a beautiful ride but after 5 hours I started looking for a place to sleep for the night.

On the iOverlander App I found an entry for a camping spot that seemed good and on OpenStreetMaps there was a road that went there. I found the entrance to the road and it did go for some 500m to an old graveyard but sadly it seemed like the map was outdated after that for there were fences crossing the section where the road should have been and behind the fence there was already plenty of grass. So the map must have been outdated for some 10 years already. This was not the first time OSM had been wrong though so I was not entirely surprised.
So I turned around and wanted to look for a new place but the way back went in a right turn around the graveyard and in my turn and with only my headlights to go by I must have missed the ditch that was there. In any case, I ended up plowing my car more or less straight into said ditch.

Sucre

Mon, 22 May 2023 20:29:11 +0000

Potosi

On our way to Sucre, Bismarck and I drove through Potosi - a mining town where his brother lived. Bismarck told me that Potosi used to be the richest town in the world and bigger than London in its heyday. That was because there was an insane amount of silver deposits in the mountains and still to this day the silver mine is active. From Potosi they shipped the silver down the river and over the Atlantic back to Spain which is the reason that Argentina, the “Rio Plata” and “La Plata” are named after the precious metal.
We only went to town to get an ice cream however and then we were back on our way to Sucre.

Uyuni and southwestern Bolivia

Sat, 20 May 2023 20:29:12 +0000

I went on a 3 day guided tour of the salt flats and the surrounding area. Our tour guide, Bismarck, was a pretty chill dude and the other visitors on the tour, 3 Irish and 1 Russian folks, were also pretty chill. We got along quite well.
There was a lot of driving happening between stops so we took turns playing music on the bluetooth. I spent a lot of time reading books and got through 2 books on this tour alone.

Crossing to Bolivia and driving to Uyuni

Tue, 16 May 2023 20:29:12 +0000

After Humahuaca it wasn’t far to to the Bolivian border anymore. I was already in the altiplano at over 4000 meters and I wouldn’t get below 3000 meters until I went to Sucre later. Along the way I saw huge herds of alpacas and llamas that were grazing on the huge planes.

Humahuaca

Sun, 14 May 2023 20:29:12 +0000

On my way to Humahuaca there was a police checkpoint. I had not noticed that one of my headlights had failed and so the police officer wanted to give me a fine. Or rather, he said that technically he would be supposed to give me a fine *wink* *wink*. After my parking ticket situation I really was not into getting another ticket so I went with the suggestion and gave him US$20.

Cafayate, Cachi and Salta

Fri, 12 May 2023 20:29:12 +0000

Cuesta de Miranda

On the drive to Cafayate I drove through the Cuesta de Miranda. A very nice mountain range that was red with lots of shrubs all over which gave it a very interesting red and green contrast.

Having lunch by the roadside

Parque Provincial Ischigualasto and Valle de la Luna

Fri, 05 May 2023 03:33:18 +0000

North of Mendoza are the Provincial Park Ischigualasto and National Park Talampaya. The latter I did not visit because you can only go there with guided tours but the former was quite interesting.

Dinosaur Museum

Ischigualasto is an area where the formation of the Andes mountains unearthed soil from the Triassic age. Many Triassic dinosaur skeletons have been found over the years in this area.

The sanjuanosaurus. Named after the region of Argentina where it was found.

Mendoza

Mon, 01 May 2023 03:18:54 +0000

Mendoza was definitely the culinary highlight of my trip so far. It was a highlight in many other ways as well but my stay was very much defined by the food and the people surrounding that. That was of course no accident, I figured that in the most prominent wine growing region in Argentina where the famous Malbec wine is grown there must be good food to go with it.

Parque Nacional Lihué Calel

Sat, 22 Apr 2023 16:04:50 +0000

The drive to the entrance of the park. In the second half you can see the hills of the park from afar.

My route takes me west again; back to Mendoza. That means that I have to cross the country laterally - through the literal Pampa. The province of La Pampa is right in the middle of the country and is a mostly flat and arid landscape. To change things up I went to the Parque Nacional Lihué Calel in the middle of the route.

Peninsula Valdez

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 17:25:12 +0000

Camerones

Camerones is on the way to Peninsula Valdez. The name translates to “Shrimps”; probably due to its fisher village nature. Some 20km south of the village is a national reserve for the magellan penguin colony. The penguins there are not shy but you need to stick to the metal walkway that has been built over the colony.

The Penguin Calendar. I arrived during the migration period which is why there were not so many penguins left anymore.

The Ticket

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 03:04:57 +0000

My next destination was supposed to be peninsula Valdez after I decided to not go to El Calafate and El Chalten the supposedly best places in all of Argentina. I left them for a future trip where I could come a bit earlier in the year because I already noticed that it gets below freezing temperatures at night so I wanted to go there when it is a bit warmer.

Parque Nacional Perito Moreno

Sat, 15 Apr 2023 01:28:14 +0000

About 800km south of Barriloche is the national park Perito Moreno. It is sometimes confused with the small nearby town Perito Moreno but more often it is confused with the glacier called Perito Moreno in the national park Las Glaciares which is the famous glacier that is on every top 10 list of things to do in Argentina. I only know of the place because the owner of the hostel in Barriloche is an avid hiker as well and when I told him that I am here for the hiking he immediately suggested this route and said that it was one of — if not the — best hikes he ever did. So I quickly told the park administration about my plans and reserved a 3 day hiking round trip in the park that involved visits to 3 distinct refugios (shelters) in the park. Very cool that this is completely free.

Barriloche

Sat, 08 Apr 2023 04:20:03 +0000

In Barriloche I stayed in a nice cozy hostel that had an awesome common room where meeting other travelers was very easy. I met a bunch of people from Argentina and Paraguay who used the Easter holidays for a hiking vacation in Barriloche.

One of the people that I met was Luisina (Lu) who spoke really good English which made communication a lot easier. She taught me a lot about Argentina and its people and we did a lot of hikes around Barriloche together. Sadly she had bent her ankle on the first hike but she did not let that deter her from doing more hikes.

Drive to Barriloche

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 04:19:45 +0000

Ruta Nacional 40 ("Ruta Cuarenta")

Ruta Cuarenta is the Argentinian equivalent of the American Route 66. Along the way uncountable motorbike groups have left their emblem stickers on the different road signs and you can buy merchandise carrying the markings for this iconic road. And what a road it is.

The Ruta 40 winds itself through the outskirts of the Andes all the way from the very north to almost the very south just shy of Ushuaia. The section that I drove on to Barriloche was a very scenic drive with a different view waiting behind each turn.

Drive to Barreal, Argentina

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 02:13:39 +0000

I did not drive south through Chile as originally planned. Someone from my hometown - Penzberg - that a friend from school knows, has a winery in Barreal, Argentina. I checked on the map and it was “only” 750km away. a bit more than a days drive. So I changed plans and went over there first; thinking that I could still drive back again. It was not that far off after all.

Las Cascadas

Sun, 26 Mar 2023 03:43:00 +0000

From Santiago I started driving south, expecting to take Ruta Austral in Chile all the way south and crossing to Argentina there. On that route, some 200km south of Santiago, 80km east of Curico lies Potrero Grande in a nice valley at the end of the road there are the Cascada Las Buitreras.

On the campsite there were very lovely dogs that wanted to be petted.

Santiago de Chile

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 03:05:05 +0000

The Flight

The first weird thing that I noticed on this journey was that there were a lot of german dudes going to Santiago de Chile with me. In a glimpse at one of them I saw that they all had their names and Bayern International on the card that was dangling around their necks on a leather lanyard. Definitely something political going on there.