Over the Andes once more to Arica, Chile - June 2011

One of the many amazing views from the bus as we drove though the National Park in The Andes, which straddled Bolivia and Chile. Everyone throws rubbish out of their windows around here, and we are used to seeing carrier bag forests, particularly in Bolivia, but it was a real shame to see the bus driver doing it in this beautiful National Park.

There was a series of very precarious hair pin bends on the route and this lorry didn't make one.
These men left from our bus and walked down. We thought they may have been investigators at first, but on second glance they looked more like they were there to take what they could find.

Arica didn't have a huge amount going on in the town, but we did find this delicious chocolate stall in a market.

We are getting pretty good at this jumping lark now! And using the camera to mislead.

This church was designed by Gustav Eiffel.

The stand up comic from our bus to Peru. He was very amusing and picked on Richard for one of his jokes.

Problems at the border - La Paz, Bolivia - June 2011

We took our luxurious flight to La Paz and checked back into the delightful Arty's Guest House, where Arty remembered us from last time.

The cheese buffet restaurant in La Paz. Richard should never have had this big beer - it made him get altitude sickness though.

The four hour bumpy ride to Tiwanaku, it was supposed to be an hour and a half. One of the roads was closed and there was much  heated debate between the locals and the bus driver as to which route was the 'best' - in Bolivian terms. After cutting across traffic a few times and several quick swerves, we seemed to take a route which nobody was happy with.

The entrance. Richard with the two French lads who enjoyed our adventure with us.

Erlend made another friend, Dinosaur.

The famous 'Sun Door'.

There were some amazing monoliths there. Inside the museum (where no photos were allowed), there was a gigantic on, about ten metres high. In the museum we became swamped by local school children. The girls were very sweet and wanted to practice their English and find out about us, the boys just wanted to shout 'Hello baby' to Richard. It did make us laugh!

Waiting for the infrequent minibus back. Several had left the small town and bypassed the museum ( we could see them temptingly coming towards us only to turn of 100 metres up the road). Eventually, Richard and I walked into the town, found one and made it go via the museum to collect the Frenchmen.

With our time we had left, we thought we might take a three day trip to the Bolivian jungle. However, for a few weeks we had been hearing from fellow travellers of the Lake Titicaca border between Peru and Bolivia being blockaded by the Peruvians protesting about the elections.

Every person you talked to said something different - it appeared that some days people could get through, others they couldn't. We decided not to chance it as we had already been this way and took a short (8 hours) detour south  via Arica in Chile. As it turned out, this worked in our favour as it led us along the Pacific coast, which we may have missed and another amazing Andes crossing.

Return to the Land of Dreadful Buses, Santa Cruz, Bolivia - June 2011

We took a 24 hour bus from Asuncion to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. This turned out to be one of the most uncomfortable rides to date. The bus was old, dirty and not very comfortable (although at least it had a toilet) and a bit of a chicken bus stopping all the time for people to get on and off, with luggage which seemed like it should have been in the hold.
We thought driving through the Chaco in Paraguay would be interesting, but along the roadside, there is not much to see but what looks like scrub land. We left Paraguay at 4am, after aimlessly wandering around border control for 10 minutes, before someone from the bus told us we had to go around the fence and down the dirt track...'Of course it's there and not in the office before us we thought!' A wild boar was there to greet us too and tried to get on the bus - he seemed quite tame.
The Bolivian border control came about 3 hours after and was a shack in the middle of nowhere on a sand road. Much of the way to Santa Cruz was on sand and dirt roads, so quite bumpy, but fun in some places.
Santa Cruz was a very pleasant town. Very different to what we had seen of Bolivia so far, it could have been a different country. There were not many indigenous people around, which made it feel like many other South American countries. Everything seemed much cleaner and smarter and there was certainly more development. The town still retained a charm in around the main plaza though, with beautiful colonial buildings, carefully restored. One day was enough to see everything though.
We decided we could not face a 24 hour bus ride to La Paz though and treated ourselves to an internal flight with TAM for the princely sum of £54.

The Bolivian side of the Paraguayan-Bolivian border crossing.
This was a typical 'main' road in Bolivia.

The restaurant where we lunched twice in Santa Cruz. A gorgeous old colonial building. They had a delicious set menu which cost about £1.50, although the lemonade tasted of lavender.

The main plaza, Santa Cruz.

Two Hundred Years in One Whole Day, Asuncion, Paraguay - June 2011

We arrived in the Capital City late in the evening, after a dreadful 8 hour bus ride from Encarnacion. We rode with one of Paraguay's top bus companies and were sorely disappointed. An uncomfortable chicken bus that stopped everywhere there was a house and nearly broke down (amazingly, after coming so close to breaking down and going uphill at about 15 MPH, it seemed to miraculously fix itself. It must have been the driver's sticker, 'I drive the bus, Jesus guides me,' that helped us. We nipped out for food to a great retro restaurant called 'Lido' for steak and eggs, and then back to our bed.

We wandered around Asuncion for most of the day, just managing to find enough to do to keep us busy with a long lunch in the middle. The city is pleasant enough and feels very safe, but there is not much of interest for us as tourists.

'What can I get you sir?'
The old train car. 

A highlight in one of the cultural centres!

Football shirts hanging out for sale in the centre of town.

Richard by the beautiful Governor's Palace.

Everything is draped in flags and ribbons to celebrate 200 years of independence.

The most beautiful building in town, The Governor's Palace.

A very big flag camouflages Richard.

One of the cultural centres from the outside.

More UNESCO Jesuit Ruins- Trinidad and Jesus, Paraguay - June 2011

Richard came down with a fever again last night and we thought we would have to go to the doctors again this morning, but luckily, after a good nights sleep, he seems much better (sore hands aside, which seems to be another part of the process of recovery). So, today we headed out of Encarnacion to the UNESCO Jesuit ruins at Trinidad and Jesus.

The main Plaza, Plaza de Armas, in Encarnacion. All decked out to celebrate 200 years of independence - the first country in South America to gain it, I believe.

On the manky bus to Trinidad, Richard ate his first food for ages, a chipa, which is dry bread with cheese inside.
I decided to wear it as a beard, as you can see.

This wasn't the bus we came on, but it was still in action.

 Trinidad

The friendly pooch who escorted us all the way round.

Richard is definitely on the road to recovery.

A ladylike attempt at a handstand!

 Jesus

Some spooky decapitated angel heads.

Richard only just makes it to a Jesuit Ruin, San Ignacio Mini, Argentina - May 2011

Richard felt well enough to move on from Puerto Iguacu, so we took the bus five hours down the road to San Ignacio Mini. We checked into the Adventure Youth Hostel, which was the much misguided 'Our pick' from the Lonely Planet. For an 'Our pick' we expected much more. The rooms were sub-standard for a hosteling international place, the toilet stank of the sewers and the pool was filthy. It all looked a little bit like a campsite from the eighties, which had not had any money invested. On the plus side, it did have friendly staff and an open log fire in the evening though.

Richard's home at the ruins. His fever has gone, now he has tummy troubles.

THE waterfalls, Argentine side, May 2011

We had to stay another night in the Paudimar Hostel in Brazil, as Richard came down with a fever and we had to go to the doctor. I won't tell you how much the cab fare, consultation fee and medicine came too - thank heavens for travel insurance is all I will say! The doctor didn't seem very good either. He asked a few general questions and then said: 'I don't know what it is really, I will give you some antibiotics'. Never mind the A1 poster next to his desk, which said; 'Got a fever? It could be malaria'. He didn't even ask where we had been! Anyway, apart from a slightly upset stomach and tiredness, Ricard seems to be on the road to recovery and he managed to visit the best side (in my opinion) of the falls.
The Brazilian side does have the grand overview, and a few short walkways, but the Argentine side is much more complex with a huge system of walkways and nature trails. You need at least one day there as opposed to a few hours to see the Brazilian side.

This is us with our nursing friend 'Jungle Jan'. She is from Washington State and we had a great time playing Yahtzee with her. She is also one of the few people that has heard of one of our other travelling games 'Pass the pigs'.
We say 'Hotdog' to Jan, who is about to go and do some volunteer work in Missouri to help with aftermath of the tornado.

The border with Argentina and Brazil, with Paraguay in the background.

This one hurt. I was egged on by our river and forgot how high the barriers we were jumping from were. Oh, the ankles and the bottom!

The edge of the park.



A coati (member of the raccoon family) in it's natural state, a rare sight here, most are scavengers now.

 

The big one, 'The Devil's Throat'.

It was all too much for a recovering Richard!