Ahh, inadvertant symbolism... Thank you 5th Avenue

A fine fur coati

These cheeky little guys were all over the place at the falls - I'd first seen them near Macchu Picchu making a racket in the forest as we walked down from the ruins, and hadn't been able to work out what they were. Called coatis, they are opportunistic relatives of raccoons, and not shy at all - particularly if you have some food on you. Around 50 of them, in groups of 10 or so, would have passed me and several other bemused sight-seers as we followed the walkways around the falls.

If you're going to smuggle drugs anywhere...

Probably the most dramatic of border crossing points I've seen is that of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay at the Iguazu Falls. On either side of the largest fall (Devil's Throat, see ridiculous amounts of water falling off a cliff below) are viewing points, on the right Argentina, on the left Brazil. I was there when the river was at low flow... I can't imagine it when it is in full flood.

Lots of water, jungle and the first blue sky I'd seen in a week led to a veritable frenzy of photo-taking. I won't subject you to more than a few of the results...

Fiebre de fútbol

Arriving in Buenos Aires just as the national team defeated Mexico in the World Cup granted the opportunity to experience the South American passion for the round-ball version of football which has become everyone's favourite over the past while.

The Plaza de la Republica seemed to be the convergance point of the streams of peoople flowing through the streets - the result a heaving, chanting mass of blue and white holding up traffic at one of the city's biggest intersections. Not that anyone seemed to mind - every person was making as much noise as was within their capabilities, and this by no means ruled out getting on the horn, something every driver in the city was doing gleefully.

Wet 'n Wild

To the other side of the continent; an overnight bus ride took me to Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic coast. The town has recently undergone a huge tourism boom due to the relatively unspoilt Valdes peninsula, which is something of a haven for elephant seals, sea lions, guanacas (basically faster deer-like llamas who like to trample people as well as spit on them) and plenty more. Importantly, it's also a major stop over for migrating southern right whales and orcas; the bay was full of southern rights who put on quite a show. The shots I got of them breaching are even blurrier than above, as the conditions were very dark, wet and windy (not to mention freezing cold), so this is all you get.

As a footnote, any doubters of the theory of evolution please compare the below with my dog. This is clearly what her ancestors looked like before they evolved legs and gained all that weight.

Top of the world at rock bottom prices!!

The next move was across the border to Argentina, to stay in Bariloche and catch a couple of days snowboarding. The town has all the hallmarks of a classic swiss-style mountain resort - wood and stone architecture, mountains and lakes as a backdrop, fondue, cosy restaurants and bars, and of course 20 minutes to fantastic slopes. The only difference: everything is one third the price.

Not complaining.

Adventuresome

The Púcon area is famous for outdoor activities - I had heard about the hikes and volcano climbing and had put together some plans with my partner in crime, Eli. When we arrived at the town, the sight that greeted us was that of the above - the volcano Villarica absolutely looms over the town, sitting there quietly releasing clouds of smoke. Climbing the volcano is something which almost everyone who goes to Púcon has a go at, going up with organised tour groups. Eli, being an experienced mountaineer, had different ideas.

So, having arranged the necessary equipment for the climb, I found myself catching a taxi hours before sunbreak to get a jump on the other climbers and to see the dawn over the mountain. Approaching it was quite incredible, as in the darkness the red glow of the cone is clearly visable, and certainly hits home that you are about to climb a live volcano. The first three hours or so of climbing were in darkness, with a little moonlight to show the way. Whether the light is good or bad, plotting a course for the climb can be difficult; several times we were forced to turn back due to high drops, and sometimes the ice axe and crampons got involved in some pretty vertical climbing - a lot of fun.

Soon enough, as can be seen below the sun arrived, and provided some amazing views.

Finally, after around four and a half hours climb and lots of stops for photos, we got to the top - the shots below are the last couple of metres before arriving at the summit.

Finally, the top - and it was here that one of my biggest misconceptions about the summit of volcanos was dispelled. I had thought the presence of liquid hot rock would perhaps provide some warmth one you were within metres of it. Not so much. I don´t remember ever having been as cold as I was at the top of Villarica - the wind, with nothing to block its path, whips the gas (extremely smelly and none too healthy for breathing) from the cone, and bit right through the gear that up to now had kept me perfectly comfortable. I had hoped to see some of the molten rock that the glow from earlier had hinted at, but unfortunately only clouds of gas was visible from the edge of the crater.

After stopping for some lunch, it was time to head down - which, unsurprisingly, was something of an easier task, made even more so by the idea we had of sliding down using our gators as toboggans. The route chosen by gravity ended up being perhaps a little more interesting than that we might have chosen with more cerebral mothods, but way more fun.

The trail down the mountain opens out into some strange shaped landscape at the foot, caused by previous lava flows, over which the forest of the national park has grown. It was through this that we decided to trek back to Pucon from, and after working through some pretty dense forest on very broken up ground, it was a pair of very footsore walkers who stumbled out onto the road about 5 kilometres down the road from Pucon and were kindly given a ride into town by a passing ute.

The next move was south via Santiago de Chile to the lake district of northern Patagonia. This area is pretty amazing, and is definitely high on the list of "things to come back to see more of" as a good percentage of the time spent there was spent indoors avoiding the weather. Luckily enough, Pucon is a great spot to do so, with lots of cosy pubs and a very laid back atmosphere, and with two World Cup games a day on, we had no problems keeping entertained.

Frivolography

This is the dried mud at the very bottom of the creek bed we followed. Not that it signifies anything, but I thought it looked pretty cool.

Where there´s a will, and no other option, there´s a way

This is the "waterfall" we came across. Not having anything else, we ended up having to hook our bags together and lower the bikes using them as a makeshift rope.

Dune biking

This was one of the greatest things I've done on this trip - mountain biking in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. The town is an oasis (literally as well as figuratively) in the driest desert on Earth, and a great place to hang out after the freezing cold conditions of the Bolivian highlands. The border crossing itself is pretty interesting- the road is basically dead straight and downhill all the way from the Andes down into the desert, giving great views of the area you are entering. Which happens to be centred around a great little town - also was lucky enough to meet some top people, which always helps of course! 

 The biking was something myself and Eli (below), a friend from Israel we met in the salt flats (of "D'ya like dags" fame, see below) who was travelling South America with his girlfriend Ilanit, got stuck into one afternoon. We had a vague idea of where was good for riding in the area - what we didn't realise was just how interesting the place was. The shot above is the top of the climb we did via a bit of a made-up route. The reward for the hard work of pushing ourselves up there on the bikes (kind of steep - at times the roles were reversed and the bikes went up on us) was that we then got to try out a whole new adventure sport - dune biking. 

 The idea is as follows; get to the top of a massive sand dune, the steeper the better. Throw self down sand dune on bike, and attempt to stay on as long as possible. I highly recommend it. A further bonus was that at the bottom we found ourselves at the start of a dried up creek bed which wound its ways through the sandstone rock formations that you can see in the background. This was awesome - the creek made a naturally smooth, winding path with sloped sides great for banking the bike up, as well as providing plenty of spots to do jumps. We did run into a few difficulties, at one point having to dismantle the bikes a little to squeeze through a tunnel made by the river and at another a 4 metre drop (in wetter times a waterfall) which provided some challenges, but definitely added to the fun.

 

Welcome to the surreal

Here´s a couple more weird and wonderful shots from the area around the salt flats. Above is one of the amazing wind-sculpted rocks of the area and below the boiling mud pits which produce some amazing geysers as well as some amazing stench.