Breakfast was at 7am so we got up around 630am. There were no showers so it didn’t take long to get ready. As we were packing up the jeep a friendly baby llama came to investigate, it was so sweet. We had another quick stop at Laguna Colorada to see it from a different perspective and we managed to get another group photo – with Rodolfo too.

The first major stop of the day was to see the stone tree or Arbol de Piedra. It is an isolated rock formation projecting out of the sand dunes of the Siloli desert. It is about 7m high and was formed by the strong winds in the area.

The desert itself was also pretty stunning, it’s actually one of the driest areas on the world. As we drove through we came across an unusual animal called a viscacha which is kind of a mix between a rabbit and a kangaroo. I have no idea of the English name for it.

We drove on to see a number of high plateau lagoons – altiplano. The first lagoon we stopped at was Honda Laguna. Again extremely impressive views with white borax areas.

We drove past the next lagoon, Chiarcota but made a stop at Laguna Hedionda which actually means ‘stinking lake’. It didn’t actually smell at all.

There were more flamingos at this lake too and this sign made me smile.

We stopped here for lunch. I don’t know how they produced such delicious meals with the most basic facilities but they did.

After our delicious lunch it was time for another group photo.

After which we headed to volcano ollague overlook and Rocas Sora Valley or valley of the rocks. The volcano is not completely inactive and sometimes smoke can be seen from it. It stands at 5,868m and towers over the surrounding area

The rocks in the valley were fascinating with one in particular that looked like a condor.

We drove through San Augustin and it was amazing to see the change in the scenery with much more vegetation. Due to this there were a lot of llamas around too and many of them just oblivously crossed the road in front of us. We also saw the Andean deers which are called Vicuña, but they were always too quick to get a good photo.

From here we drove to Juluca train station which is an abandoned train station.

We got there as the sun was setting and it seemed wierd to be in a place that used to be active but was now completely abandoned apart from being a tourist attraction. The station was used as part of the route to transport the minerals from the Salt Flats out of Bolivia. We had some fun lying on the tracks and climbing on top of the old train carriages. A few of us also had a quinoa beer which just tasted like ordinary beer to me.

As the sun went down it got quite cloudy and windy and Laura took this amazing photo that looks like the end of the world is coming.

We then made our way to our accommodation for the night which was the Salt Hotel. This place was amazing- the walls, the bedside table, the bed, it was all made out of salt! We had a delicious dinner here too, along with a nice bottle of red wine.

After dinner we did a bit of star gazing – we saw the milky way and the southern cross. I didn’t actually know what the southern cross looked like but some of the girls had been on the astronomy tour in San Pedro so knew what to look for. You can just about see some stars in this photo, again courtesy of Laura.

It was then off to bed. I shared a room with Ellie and we both had a good night’s sleep even though we were still at quite high altitude, 3,600m.

On Friday morning it was an early start as I was picked up from the hostel at 7am and taken by minibus to the Chilean border. It was quite cold and the clouds were at the same level as us. It was around a 30 minute drive and I met some nice people on the bus including two girls from California- Ali and Lauren.

The passage through the Chilean border was pretty uneventful but there was a long wait at the Bolivian side to show out passports. We had an outdoor breakfast which was really nice but as it was so cold it was hard to hold the food without any gloves on. We then all had to transfer into 4×4 jeeps which took six people each. I was with a really nice group of girls – Sarah, Laura, Chloe and Ellie from England and Vicki from Canada. As we drove away from the border we saw a desert fox.

Shortly after the transfer we reached the entrance to the park and paid our fees. This park is in the far southwest of Bolivia. The parks is located at an altitude between 4,200m and 5,400m and extends over an area of 714,745 hectares.

We made our first stop at the white lagoon. And then we continued onto the green lagoon. You could easily see the different colours in the lakes. The green lake contains arsenic among a number of minerals such as copper and lead. It’s this unique chemical composition that keeps the water from freezing in the subzero temperatures.The volcano in the background is inactive and is called Licancabur. It has a crater at the top which also contains a green lake.

We continued on through the Dali desert. Salvador Dali never actually visited this area but it looks like one of his surrealist paintings.

The next stop were the thermal springs –Termas de Polques. Sarah, Laura and I decided to get in and I’m really glad I did. The fresh water was around 35 degrees and it felt lovely just to relax in them. The view was pretty amazing too. Although it was pretty cold outside it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be when we got out and got changed.

It was so interesting to see the changing landscape as we drove through the area, and there was more to come. This was a group photo of is in the desert, all trying to jump at the same time.

Our next stop was the morning sun geyser which is part of the 10 km squared Sol de Mañana geothermal field. You could walk all round the geysers, including the active ones, and through the steam they produced. The smell of sulphur was unsurprisingly pretty strong.

Following the geysers we drove to the hostel we were staying in for the night in Huayllajara and ate a late lunch.

It was then back on the road for a short drive to Laguna Colorada, known as the red lake. This is a shallow salt water lake and the red colour comes from red pigmentation and some algae. The white bits are islands of borax. Laguna Colorada is at an altitude of 4,278m and covers 60 square kms. It is named after the effect of wind and sun on the micro-organisms that live in it. The lake is very shallow, less than 1m deep, and supports some 40 bird species, providing pink algae to the flamingoes.

We walked around the lake – it was extremely windy and pretty cold too but gorgeous scenery which made it worthwhile.

The lake itself is home to three species of flamingos and the most common ones here are Jame’s flamingos which apparently are quite rare but there also some Andean and Chilean flamingos there too. There were also quite a few llamas wandering around.

After the walk around the lake we headed back to the hostel for dinner and bed. I was a bit worried that it would be cold in the night but we all borrowed an extra blanket from a room that wasn’t fully occupied and it was lovely and cosy.

Our guide, who we all thought was called Alfon but later found out was called Rodolfo, was the best. He kept making sure we were all feeling ok and gave us plenty of coca leaves to help with the altitude as we went up to 4,900m, climbing 1,880m in one day. He didn’t speak much English but I was actually able to understand a lot of what he said. I was lucky too in that I had the front seat in the jeep. I did offer to swap but nobody else seemed to want it.

By the way some of these photos are from the other girls in the group, especially Laura who had a great camera.

Hi – I haven’t posted for a few days as I’ve not had any Wi-Fi because I’ve been on an incredible journey through the desert and the salt flats – but more on that later.

I’m going to catch up and start by going back to Thursday 22 March. Much of Thursday was spent travelling from Valparaiso to San Pedro. I was picked up at the airport in San Pedro by the hostel I was staying at and as we drive into town the views were pretty amazing.

When I arrived in San Pedro I quickly booked the valley of the moon tour for the next evening and also paid for my tour to Bolivia via the salt flats.

I met a girl in my dorm, Kirsten from Germany and also a guy, Filippo from Italy.

On Friday morning Kirsten and I explored San Pedro. There’s not a huge amount here and most of the main street is filled with tour agencies and souvenir shops.

We visited the small artisan market but as it’s no longer high season not many of the stalls were open. But it was a nice wander round the town.

Late afternoon Kirsten and I went on the moon valley tour and this was amazing. The tour started at the visitors entrance to the park and already the landscape was looking a little surreal.

A short distance into the park we reached the salt cavern where we got out and clambered and crawled through the cave, sometimes using the torches on our phones so we could see where we were going.

At the end of the cave we entered into a canyon where the guide explained about the formation and stratification of the rocks.

Following the canyon we walked back to the minibus and took a short trip to the great dune – and the size of this sand dune was pretty impressive.

We walked along the ridge for around 40 minutes before setting of to see the 3 Marias. On the way we drove past the amphitheatre.

The three Maries are a rock formation and have resulted from intense erosion and are around 1 million years old. You have to have a bit of imagination to see them especially as the head fell off the one on the left.

Personally I preferred the ‘pac-man’ formation which is officially supposed to be a dinasour.

We drove a bit further along to watch the sunset over the valley – it was beautiful.

Then it was home time and a quick change of clothes before heading out for dinner with Kirsten, Filippo, Max, Alfonzo and Carina. I had a local pie dish which was a pie surprise as it had all sorts inside – meat, corn, olives, vegetables and eggs. Very tasty but a little bit too sweet because of the corn. I refrained from alcohol too as I knew I’d be going to high altitude the next day.

After all the wine tasting and then more wine in the evening I had a little bit of a fuzzy head this morning.

Despite that I got up to do the ‘off the beaten track’ walking tour around Valparaiso.

Valparaiso is a really pretty port town with loads of street art and colourful houses. The bottom part of the town is flat but the hills surrounding the town are pretty steep and my B&B is up one of the hills!

The walking tour started at Plaza Sotomayor which is one of the many squares in Valparaiso. The town was never officially founded so it doesn’t actually have a main square.

We then caught a local bus to take us up into the hills to Plaza Bismark. A lovely guy called Ollie played my bus fare as I didn’t have any small change on me.

This area shows the influence of the Germans who came to Valpo and is along a street called ‘Alemania’ street. The views from here are really good down to the port but it was a little bit foggy when we were there.

Valpo has a lot of European influence from Germany, Britain and Italy.

The next stop was the old prison which is at the top of the town. Prisoners used to be tortured here and local residents could hear them screaming. At one point a prisoner was placed in the wrong category section of the prison and was killed by other inmates. This drew media attention to the prison so prisoners were then taken out to sea and tortured at sea rather than at the actual prison. Now the old prison is a cultural centre – with the aim of bringing happiness and joy to what was once a very sad place.

Near the prison there is an old water tank which contains some original murals and street art. At one point, during the dictatorship years, many of the original murals and graffiti were painted over.

We then walked downhill to another small square called ‘the resting place’. In previous years the poorer people were buried in a couple of cemeteries at the top of the hills, whereas the richer people were buried in a cemetery in the flater part of town. So the poor people used to have the mass in the churches in the flat part of town and then have to carry the coffin up the steep hills to the cemetery. So they used to rest for a while at this square to get their breath back.

We continued downhill to another square where we caught a tram to the offices of the tour company. These offices are in a gorgeous 18th century building which still has most of the original features.

I met some other English speaking people on the tour so we all had lunch together at the fire station.

We then did our own tour to look at some of the street art and to go and see the famous piano steps.

I left the girls here and took the funnicular back to the bottom of town.

I had a browse of the shops and went to Victoria square, named after queen Victoria, and visited the cathedral.

On the way back I took more photos of the street art.

There a couple of artists who have painted four huge murals across the city depicting the four seasons. This one below is of summer.

In the evening I met up with Emily from the USA who had just arrived at the B&B, and also Jerry, for dinner. We had some delicious local dishes – mine was a type of mushroom bake.

Yesterday was spent travelling from Mendoza to Valparaiso and crossing the border again which always takes quite a long time. Some of the views from the bus were pretty impressive.

I’m staying in a great B&B in Valparaiso and when I arrived I met the other people staying there – a couple from Germany (Marcus and Carin), a couple from Portugal (Alfonzo and Carina) and Jerry from USA. The owner, Rene is a lovely guy too and quite a character.

Shortly after I arrived Rene made Pisco Sours for us all (they tasted so much better than when I tried to make them) and I went for dinner with Alfonzo, Carina and Jerry. The food was good but not great.

This morning Rene served a delicious breakfast and then Alfonzo, Carina and I went to visit Isla de Negra to see the house of Pablo Neruda. He was a poet, a diplomat and a politician and had significant influence on the history of Chile. It was thought he was poisoned by the Pinochet regime but he also had pancreatic cancer at the time he died . He won the Nobel peace prize for his poetry.

The house was amazing and his collections of various artifacts were really good to see. The location of the house right by the sea and the way it was made out of natural stone really made it blend into the surroundings.

Following the tour of the house we went to the Indomita winery in Casablanca for lunch and also to buy so.e bottles of wine for this evening’s BBQ. The views were amazing and the food and wine were delicious.

Following lunch we drove to another winery, Casas del Bosque, for wine tasting and a tour. This was classed as a medium sized winery which produces around a million bottles of wine each year. I’ve got to say, I still prefer the Malbec!

We drove back to Valparaiso (I say we but Alfonzo did all the driving) and I took this photo from the car:

This evening we had a communal BBQ – beautifully cooked by Rene, with potatoes and tomato salad. Along with some wine from the Indomita vineyard it was a perfect evening. I tried the carmenere which is a specific Chilean wine but it was average rather than great.

It was a really good evening and we all chatted and got along really well.

So today we got up before the sun and caught the 7am bus to the visitor centre at Honcones. It’s about a 4 hour bus journey and to be honest I slept most of it, although when I was awake and looking out the window the views were amazing.

Aconcagua is the highest mountain outside Asia, at 6,960.80m (22,837 ft), and the highest point in the Southern Hemisphere. We obviously were not climbing to the top of this mountain as that takes around 20 days but we decided to hike to base camp, Confluencia, which is around 8.5km each way.

These are some of the views on the way up. The trek wasn’t too hard in terms of steep inclines but it was a steady climb upwards. However the altitude made it more difficult.

It took us around two and a half hours to get to the base camp which was at 3,400m. We then climbed up a small hill by the side of the base camp and the views were unbelievable.

These photos don’t really show the colours of the mountains – they were like rainbows, it was amazing. It was pretty windy at this point too but we found a sheltered spot and ate some lunch.

The trek back down was slightly easier but we had to keep stopping to take photos as the scenery was breathtaking.

As we got closer to the end we walked around Laguna Honcones and the colour of the water was a lovely turquoise colour.

The bus back to Mendoza was at 430pm and the one after that at 8pm. As we got towards the end we realised we only had a couple of minutes left to cat h the 430pm bus so we had to jog the last bit. Anna ran ahead to let the park rangers at the visitor centre know we had made it back ok. We literally just made it in time.

On the way home we caught a glimpse of the famous sulphur bridge at Puenta del Inca.

We were all pretty tired when we got back to the hostel so we ate in and shared a bottle of wine.

These last few days with Petra and Anna have been great, hopefully we’ll stay in touch.

I was up and ready to leave for 815am and a lovely guy, Fernando, from Martin’s Bike tours came and picked me up and drove myself and another couple (Clari and Thomas) over to the start of the tour. At the start another couple also joined us (Pablo and Eileen) and we met Julia who founded the tours. Luckily Julia, who was originally from England, was there and she translated for me during the day.

So after a quick safety check and talk we cycled to the first vineyard – Alta Vista. It was only a 10 minute bike ride so nothing too strenuous.

This is quite a large vineyard and run by a corporate organisation. They were running two tours just as we arrived- one in English and one in Spanish. They took us all round the vineyard to show us how the different wines are produced. Their young wines are fermented and stored in the steel tanks before being bottled, some others are aged in barrels before being bottled – sometimes for a number of years, and some are processed in the concrete tanks.

After the tour we went to taste three of their wines. Their most expensive wine was the Alto 2011 which was around £100 a bottle. This wine is kept in the barrel for 7 years before being bottled and released to market.

The photo bottom right is of the private collection of the owner – he keeps several bottles each year of the Alto.

I liked all of the 3 wines we tried but my favourite was the 100% malbec which was made from the grapes from across all 5 of their different vineyards.

We then cycled onto the next place which was completely different. It was a family owned winery – Carmelo Patti – and they buy their grapes from other vineyards rather than grow them there. The gentleman who owns it was the one who provided the tour (in Spanish but Julie translated for me). He is the winemaker and blends the grapes to get the perfect taste.

Carmelo gave us some great tips about red wine:

1. If the cork is really stuck never push it back into the bottle. Heat up the outside of the bottle around the cork to make the glass expand and liquid the paraffin around the cork.

2. Store red wine bottles so that the cork is constantly in contact with the wine. Any air bubbles should be at the bottom of the bottle.

3. Take the metal / plastic lining off around the neck of the bottle as soon as you buy it as it is easier then to see any damage to the cork which could lead to the wine going ‘off.

4. A red wine should always be decanted from the bottle and allowed to breathe at least 1 hour before serving.

He was a great guy and his wine was really delicious. Again I preferred the malbec. Carmelo stores his wine in the bottle and ages it for at least 7 years in the bottle before releasing it to market. He stores the bottles upside down for a while and all the checking of the corks and labelling of the bottles is done by hand.

The next vineyard we went to was around 15km away which was a really nice cycle ride through some lovely streets.

At this vineyard, Clos de Chacras, we also had dinner which was so nice. They paired each of the dishes with a specific wine.

The dining area and surroundings around the vineyard were also really beautiful. This vineyard had some grapes but it also has other vineyards in the region and all the grapes are transported to where we were and then made into wine.

The cellars at the vineyard are really old and what were massive tanks for wine have also been converted into cellars for storage. This vineyard also ages it’s wines in the barrel. My favourite this time was the Merlot.

I did feel a little drunk after all that wine but luckily the cycle back to the starting point was only around 15 mins.

When I got back to the hostel I had a shower and then a little sleep in the hammock on the rooftop terrace.

In the evening Petra, Anna and I decided to go to a couple of Irish bars as it was St Patrick’s day. The first one was pretty busy but the second one was a little quieter. It was busy out on the streets though ad everyone seemed to be celebrating Irish style!

Yesterday I got the overnight bus from Bariloche to Mendoza- an 18 hour journey. The bus was not as good as the one from Iguazu to BA as the seats did not fully recline but the food was better. And I watched all of the first series of breaking bad!

This is the sunrise from the bus.

I arrived into Mendoza around 8am and walked to my hostel as it was only a few blocks from the bus terminal.

Almost as soon as I got there I met a lovely girl, Petra from Switzerland, and we decided to go to General San Martin Parque which is the other side of town. The park is huge – it’s kind of a mixture of Regents park and Hyde park in London.

We walked all through the park, the weather was gorgeous and around 30 degrees.

We climbed up Cerro de la Gloria to see the monumento al ejercito de los andes. As we relaxed with a coffee a group of guys on Harley Davidson’s showed up and posed for some photos.

The views from the top were ok but there was a bit of a haze or fog/smog over the city so they weren’t amazing.

We walked back a different way and stopped off for some salad and chips for lunch.

When I got back to the hostel I checked in and met another girl Anna from France. The three of us went for a few drinks and we tried a variety of different craft beers which seem to be all the rage here at the moment. Anna and I headed home and I went to bed to catch up on some sleep.

It’s nice to be back in the sunshine for a few days!

I had a lovely lie in this morning and didn’t get up until around 9am. I chilled a bit at the hostel after having a leisurely breakfast.

Caro and I spent the day together. We were going to get the number 10 bus to the Patagonia brewery but it was full when it got to our bus stop so it drove straight past. We got on the next bus that took us some of the way but we were still around 5km away so we started to walk. On the way we went past a hotel that had been burnt and was now abandoned. Its such a shame as the views from the hotel were gorgeous.

As we were walking along the road a bus came so we flagged it down – luckily it stopped even though we weren’t at an official bus stop.

We got off at the brewery and again the views were stunning. It was a bit of a sunshine and showers day so some of the photos don’t show how beautiful it looks in the sun. We ate lunch at the brewery, a typical picada dish of cheese and meat (lamb, chorizo and blood sausage) with homemade fresh bread. The beer is brewed on site and we had the original craft beer which was delicious.

After lunch we started to walk towards Colonia Suiza which is a small Swiss village with market stalls. As we walked we tried to hitchhike and a guy stopped to pick us up and dropped us a short distance from the village.

It was a really cute area and mainly sold arts and crafts and food. I bought a mate tea mug with a straw.

We wandered around for a bit and then made our way to another brewery – Berlina where we tried a couple of variety each of their craft beers. Again, it was all very tasty.

Tonight I just chatted with some of the people at the hostel and had an earlyish night.

Yesterday was a travelling day from Ushuaia to Bariloche. This is Ushuaia from the plane.

The plane flew to El Calafate where half the passengers got off and those flying on to Bariloche on Bueonas Aires were told to stay on the plane. In the end though we had to also disembark for 20 minutes before getting back on the plane and flying to Bariloche.

The hostel I’m staying in is really lovely – they have a communal dinner every night and last night was risotto and tonight was tacos.

The people staying here are really friendly too and my roommate, Belen, invited me to join some of them on their trek to Frey. It sounded like a good plan.

Frey is one of the peaks of Catedral which is part of Nahuel Huapi national park. Its a 1700m climb and around 26km. It took us (Julian, Caro, Belen and I) around 4 hours to walk up. The trek was through a beautiful forest and the views were amazing.

We were lucky with the weather as it was pretty sunny, although a bit cold when you stopped walking. When we stopped for lunch I noticed that several bits were falling out of a tree in front of me – it was three woodpeckers. You can just see the red head of one of them in this photo.

At the top we had a hot chocolate and left Julian behind as he was camping overnight and then trekking to another area tomorrow.

It took us around 3 hours to walk down and when we got to the entrance the next bus back to the town wasn’t for another 25 minutes. Luckily a very kind truck driver offered us a lift which we accepted.

It was a really good day but I think my legs may be a bit sore tomorrow. This evening I had some more Mate tea with Caro – delicious.

Bariloche developed from a shop established by Carlos Wiederhold. The German immigrant had first settled in the area of lake llanquihue in Chile but crossed the Andes and established a little shop called la alemana. A small settlement developed around the shop, and its former site is the city center.

These photos are from right by my hostel which is by the beach – Playa Bonita. Unfortunately it’s a little bit too cold to go sunbathing.