Lizzie's Travels

Gallery: Brasil

lizziewebber — Tue, 8 Jan 2008 05:58:00 GMT

Gallery: Chile

lizziewebber — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:46:00 GMT

Chillian Coast

lizziewebber — Sun, 7 Oct 2007 10:49:00 GMT

We felt we had done our time on buses and foot for the time being so decided to catch the Navimag ferry from Pueto Natales up the coast of southern Chile to Puerto Montt. This 4 day journey took us up through the Peninsula de Taitao, Archipelielago de los Chonos and Giatevas. The scenery on the first day was spectacular, however after this there was a lot of water to see and not much else!! So we did the only thing one should do when in a confined space with other backpackers and played drinking games until new dances were invented and people wern't sure if they were sea sick or just struggling with the pisco.

Torres Del Paine

lizziewebber — Sun, 7 Oct 2007 10:22:00 GMT

From Ushuaia we crossed too Puert Natales, Chile. Here we stocked up on our walking supplies and headed off for 6 days walking in Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine which was absolutely awesome. We started our walk in wind that blew you over sideways making carring packs quite difficult. On the first night we considered eating all of the food we had brought to make our packs lighter and easier to carry, but after eating our first squashed Chillian packet pasta, we were turned off eating all together!! Luckly the second day brought with it some blue sky and spectacular views of Gray glacier. The park is the most visited national park in South America and has a reputation for being very crowded in high season. We were lucky that the official 'walking season' was not open so in the first 5 days of walking we only saw about 4 other people. The views throughout the park were stunning as were the massive condors which circled around the torres. After six days of walking, and camping we headed back to Puerto Natales for much needed showers, clean clothes and a seafood feast. Needless to say we slept like babies that night and well into the next day, which was fitting as despite a day walk up a hill overlooking the town, Puerto Natales was a sleepy little town with not much to offer.

Ushuaia

lizziewebber — Sun, 7 Oct 2007 10:02:00 GMT

From El Chalten we travelled down into Tierra Del Fuego to visit the souther most city in the world, Ushuaia. Despite being completly freezing Ushuaia was really interesting. With our new English friends, we went on a bost cruise on the Beagle channel where we checked out the sea lions who stank worse than the piled up rubbish in Lima and sailed past the infamous Beagle lighthouse. We don't actually know what is so impressive about this light house, only that it is on front of the local beer which is really good. We went on the token tourist tour (which was actually awesome) involving a feast cooked on a 10 meter fire in a teepee, dog sledding and snow shoeing!!! Castles and I attempted to find the local glacier however ended up lost in the snow so decided to retrace our steps and tackle another local flaggon of red instead. The next day we redeemed our walking efforts by tackling the Parque Nacional del Fuego and went ice skating on a semi frozen lake (not particularly successfully!)

El Calafate

lizziewebber — Sun, 7 Oct 2007 09:45:00 GMT

After around 30 hours of buses we arrived in El Calafate where we were able to see the Perito Moreno Glacier in the Parque Nacionql Los Glacier. Outside of Antartica, this is the only glacier that is not receeding and it is awesome!!! We were mesmorised by it, watching it for a couple of hours waiting for the next piece to fall off. We were luckly enough to see about 4 massive chunks fall off making the biggest glass smashing type noice I have ever heard!

From El Calafate we ducked up to El Chalten for a couple of days walking in the Fitz Roy Ranges. Here we walked between snowed capped mountains including Cerro Fitz Roy and multiple frozen lakes.

Bariloche

lizziewebber — Fri, 7 Sep 2007 04:43:00 GMT

From Las Lenas we headed to the `premier`ski town in South America, Bariloche. Bariloche is very similar to Queenstown, except more tourists and smaller. There were so many chocolate shops there I am suprised anyone could fit into their ski pants let alone ski. Regardless, the chocolate had to be tasted and lived up to expectation. Here we did a couple of days skiing with various friends from our hostels, the crazy Austrians from Las Lenas (with the best beanie collection in the world)and we meet up with Sheepy and Matty for a few days. Had a quieter night out with the boys, who then headed north back to B.A.

Mendoza

lizziewebber — Fri, 7 Sep 2007 04:30:00 GMT

From B.A. we headed to Mendoza by overnight bus (which froze on the inside of the windows). Mendoza is the capital of the wine making distract in Argentina so we thought it was only right to do a wine tour of the area. The tastings at the vineyards were less generous than we had hoped for, however the magnificent buffet with all you can drink wine certainly made up for it. We met some Chilian marines who took us out one night to some massive club in the middle of absolutely no where. Now when a Marine says drink, you drink, when he says you drink tequilla, you have to drink tequilla. Needless to say the night ended a littl earlier than it needed too but was fun regardless! The next couple of days we spent a little more quietly, checking out the city and its many wine shops and delis.

From Mendosa we headed south to Las Lenas where we were able to snowboard for a couple of days. We boarded with some seriously good skiiers from our hostel, and not until we finished the day did we realise that one was a professional snowboarder (a lady about 1.5m high from Japan -crazy) and a couple of Austrian sports teachers/ski instructors. Made me feel a litlle better about not being able to keep up, at all!!

Uruguay

lizziewebber — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 05:14:00 GMT

We caught the ferry from Buenos Aires across to a beautiful little town called Colonia which is similar to Battery Point but about 20 times colder!! Apart from stroll around and enjoy the scenery there was not a lot to do in Colonia other than eat local cheese and go out to dinner with a scary South African man caled Ludwig who one day will make Paige his wife where she will be able to fly in his planes, live on his numerous ranches and go hunting and shooting with him!!!!

We headed for Montevideo which was a really interesting city. It had heaps of free museums and art galleries which were really facinating and a wicked market area at the port, which was all under one roof. Here we found possible the best empanada shop in the world and another 500 BBQ bar/restaurants.

Iguazu Falls

lizziewebber — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:58:00 GMT

Iguazu falls were awesome! No description would do them justice. The volume of water thundering down per second is just amazing. Even standing around 150metre from the face of the falls you were getting wet from their spray. Unfortunately it was also raining the day we went there so our photos aren´t awesome but you get the idea. We only visited the falls from the Argentinan side as the boys were going to have visa difficulties getting into Brazilian side. From the Argentinian side you can get really quite close to the falls from a varity of heights and angles and also catch a quaint little train out to the ´Devils Throat´ of the falls, which was well worthwhile. Whilst in Iguazu we also took a little boat along the river to where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet, went absailing, flying foxing and rock climbing.

Buenos Aires

lizziewebber — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:34:00 GMT

The girls finally caught up with the boys in Buenos Aires. As the boys had been in Argentina for a little while they had no trouble in showing us the best spots for steak, red wine, desserts and more steaks. One of the places we visited was all you can eat meat (with a bottle of red thrown in for each person) called ´Siga la Vaca´ which means follow the cow!! We were staying in San Telmo which had a weekly market and heaps of really nice restaurants and ice cream shops, as well as some cool pubs and bars. We visited the bright and colourful suburb of Boca, Evita´s grave in Recoleta, went to a tango show and numerous other famous sights and buildings around the city. We went out a few times including to the forgotten disco where people routinely broke into break dancing and to a club that could probably fit more people into it than the MCG! Unfortunately we didn´t fit in very well as we didn´t have massive sunnies on and for some reason we wern´t spontaneously ripping our shirts off if a good song came on. Before Paige and Ellen left we visited Iguazu falls and Uruguay from Buenos Aires.

Once the girls left, Castles and I stayed an extra week to do a Spanish course which was really hard but interesting. Despite learning a lot in the course, I an still really struggling to understand most of the conversations I manage to get myself involved in!!

Puerto Maldonado

lizziewebber — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:20:00 GMT

After the excitement of the Inka trek we spent 3 relaxing days in the jungle of the Amazon Basin at Puerto Maldonado which is the capital of the Madres de Dios region. Our open air cabin was the only one located in the Reserva Nacional Tambopata. When we weren´t busy hunting for otters, spiders, kymen and birds (in our gumboots)we were hanging around in the hammocks and creating cocktails with the barman. Needless to say the ´Australian´ cocktail was a great hit that night!!!

Gallery: Argentina

lizziewebber — Mon, 6 Aug 2007 11:50:00 GMT

Cuzco

lizziewebber — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:20:00 GMT

Well despite violent protesting, the worst buses in the world and altitude sickness, we managed to get into Cuzco and have a couple of days playing in the city before starting our 4 day Inca trail. The city itself is pretty weird. Half the city was knocked down and rebuilt by the Spanish, which makes for an intersting mix of Inca sun temples and Catholic churches next to one another. No matter what time you enter the main plaza, you will find a protest of some description occuring and 4 year olds selling finger puppets. We were in Cuzco when Machu Picchu was announced as one of the new seven wonders of the world which was pretty exciting. We left early the next morning to begin our trek. The trek itself was not that difficult. There were at least 2 million steps and there was always the risk of being knocked off the side of the mountain by a porter with a big load, but the real difficulties were the altitude and the weather. It is currently dry season, which usually means that it doesn´t rain. Our guide told us that it only ever rains for 20mins at a time and that it never rains 2 days in a row. Luckly at the start of the trek (while our porters prepared our second breakfast for the day) we actually listened to one of the annoying beggers who convinced us that it was ¨necessary amigas¨ to buy one of her plastic ponchos. Little did we know those shiny plastic Godsends would soon become our best friends. It rained all 4 days and even snowed one day as we crossed Dead Womens pass, which is the highest pass on the trek at 4300metres. It hasn´t snowed on the trail for the last 5 years, so our guide convinced us that we were exceptionally lucky!! Despite the crazy weather, the trek was awesome. We were provided with 3 4 course meals a day plus ´happy hour´. The scenery was amazing and the view of Machu Picchu from the sungate at 6 in the morning was breathtaking (this could have also been to do with pretty much running the last 4 km´s to ensure reachng the sungate at sunrise). Machu Picchu itself was pretty awesome. We were provided with a guided tour and were then let loose for a couple of hours. The photos don´t do it justice unfortunately. After Machu Picchu we descended to Aguas Calientes for a quick swim in the hot springs and then encountered another strike, resulting in yet another long wait in the train terminal. Once we finally caught the train, we were then picked up by a driver from our tour company who took us on the scariest drive of my life through the back streets to Cuzco. Because of the strikes all the roads were blocked with piles of stones and really angry, scary looking people. Needless to say we were pretty happy to make it safely into bed that night!!!

Gallery: Peru

lizziewebber — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 06:21:00 GMT

Puno

lizziewebber — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 09:40:00 GMT

Well the late night bus to Puno was horrible. We had gone from approx 2300m in Arequipa to 3900m. Our bus driver was a complete nut case who overtook everything in sight then slammed on the breaks nearly forcing you out of your seat to take the hairpin corners. I was not a happy camper, vomiting in the first bin I could find once off the bus. Unfortunately for me (and my travelling companions!!)I continued with this delightful behaviour for the next 3 days!!!! The girls were also feeling pretty rotten so all in all we didn´t have the best time in Puno.

To try and make ourselves feel better we went on a tour of the Inca funeral towers and surrounding ruins. We also though we were going to the reed lakes on Lake Titticaca however it turned out our understanding of Spanish was not as good as we had thought. Anyway, we thought we had a spare day in Puno in which to visit the lake however on our return to Puno we found out that there were massive (and violent) bus/train strikes. Our proposed bus to Cuzco was most likely not going to run, or was going to involve us getting off mid journey, walking 8kms with our luggage and having stones thrown at us. We decided instead to book the last flight available for that week into Cuzco. Unfortunately for us, the flights fom Puno were all booked so we had to take the formentioned night bus from hell back to Arequipa then fly to Cuzco.

Arequipa

lizziewebber — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 09:24:00 GMT

In Arequipa we were able to catch up with Castles, Matty the Scott and Sheepdog which was really great. We hadn´t planned on seeing them for another week or so,thus it was a nice bonus. The boys all looked really well, tanned and skinny, need less to say we were very jealous! Arequipa is a really beautiful city with an open plaza and snow capped mountain backdrop. We managed to go white water rafting here which was great fun. We were only on grade 2,3 and 4 rapids however we were not keen to end up in the water which was freezing so the low difficulty suited us to a tee!!!! From Arequipa we took an overnight bus to Puno.

Nazca

lizziewebber — Sat, 7 Jul 2007 05:44:00 GMT

Well Luis didn´t let us down. He took us with some of his friends to the cock fighting!!! At first it was pretty disgusting but by the end of it we were chanting along with everyone else and having a great time. It was a great way to learn our left and right in Spanish. Luis starting making bets with us which is where things got interesting. Luis actually breeds chickens, and his are fighting next week. Well well, didn´t a little knowledge prove to be a dangerous thing! We beat Luis 5 2, so he had to buy us a bottle of Pisco. After about 4 shots each we kind of wished we had lost the bet, it was gross, like cheap vodka and petrol mixed together. Anyway, as our betting was goimg so well some of the locas started betting us as well. Luck for us the fighting ended soon after our new rounds of betting as our beginners luck had run out!

The next mornimg we went to the Charachacha (cemetry) where we saw heaps of mummies, nicely wrapped up. Then we did the flight over the Nazca lines. This was really interesting yet we where shocked at how small the lines where. We only got to see about 20 lines, there are approx 2000 more throughout Peru. We also did a tour of the Aqua ducts that afternoon which was really interesting (watch out Romans)

That night we caught an overnight bus to Arequipa which was not a bad as we had expected.

Pisco

lizziewebber — Sat, 7 Jul 2007 05:16:00 GMT

Well I spent my 25th birthday on a 4 hour bus from Lima to Pisco. The bus stank, but was a real eye opener. The pollution was disgusting and limited you to only being able to see about 150metres in front of you. The only thing the pollution didn´t cover up was the poverty we saw which was unbelievable. The biggest challenge we had on the bus was knowing where to get off! Luckly we managed to get off at the correct spot and then got completly ripped off on a taxi ride into town. As 3 ´Gringo Chickas` with very limited understanding of Spanish we are continually being ripped off. Luckly we are only being ripped off about 3 Soles each time which is approx Aus $1.

That afternoon we took a tour with Pepi around Reserva Nacional de Paracas which was awesome. So unlike any other national park I have been in, you can pretty much park where ever you like and people can sell what ever they like. It was completly barren, we didn´t see a single tree, but miles of desert filled with salt and iron deposits. The park had a beautiful coast line (despite the gray sand on the beaches) and a cool blow hole. We had a seafood feast in the Park and then headed back into town via the gas works and the fish canning factory, needless to say it stank, but lucky Pepi put on his latest Discoteck music which was the best of the 80´s which distrated us nicely.

The next day we went on a boat tour of Isle la Ballestas which were quite ugly bird poo islands however thay had awesome wild life including seals and penguins. That afternoon we took an amazing bus ride to Nazca through mountain ranges comprising of sand hills and rocks. Once again not a single tree in sight. We were meet by Luis at the bus station who was from our hostel, who asked if we had plans for the night?

Peru

lizziewebber — Sat, 7 Jul 2007 05:04:00 GMT

Well well, after about 2 million hours of flying we finally made it to Lima, via Sydney, Auckland and Santiago. As some of you may know sitting still is not one of my strengths so I found the flights pretty uncomfortable. Anyway we finally arrived in Lima and had a litle man from the hostel pick up us which was great. When we got into his car he hid our packs under a blanket and made us hide our back packs under the seats just in case we got attacked at traffic lights. This freaked us out so we went straight to the hostel and then to bed (fair enough though it was late). With this lovely impression of Lima fresh in our minds, we went stright to a bus station, and using our recently learned Spanish (2 million hour worth on the plane trip) we got tickets out of Lima.