When I leave the truck for lunch or shopping etc the heat in the cab builds up to 50+ believe me that is hot, thank goodness I was able to get the Air Con fixed in Quito and can bring that down to 30+ (which is bearable) quite quickly. Oh for a silver screen!

This kind of heat and dust does not do my chest much good either, that sounds like a lot of moaning I am enjoying it really.

We arrived in Guatemala 11-04-07 and headed for the town of Esquipulas which was very busy with tourist shops, market stalls, lots of people. We had lunch then went to visit the church, the towers of which, shining white in the sun, loom over the town, this is also the reason for the tourists, in 1595 an image of Christ carved from black wood was installed in the church, it is known almost universally as “Black Christ” and since 1737 when the Archbishop of Guatemala came to visit the church and was allegedly cured of a chronic ailment pilgrims have been a steady flow to the town. This massive church has withstood earthquakes for 250 years. We did end up in the queue that was going to view the “Black walking backwards", it was all very err……………..

From here our journey took us to Guatemala City, I have a problem with the engine over heating and going down hill racing badly, just by chance trying to find our way through the city we passed a Mercedes’ Garage, I was struggling by now with the engine, so we pulled in spent the night, even had lunch there for 2 days; I also found a loose shock absorber, which got fixed before it broke, score !!!

Our next stop was in Antigua, this wonderful colonial town nestles between 3 volcanoes; it has cobbled streets, beautiful mustard and ochre colored houses all with very colonial iron fittings. We found street side parking then wandered the town, which was lovely.It has a very village feel, lots of tourists, for us this was a first. We also managed to get wireless!! We walked the town the following day seeing all the sights in our guide books – The very best being a beautiful, privately owned Colonial house built in 1636 and destroyed in 1773 by an earthquake, it then stood desolate for over 150 years, was purchased in 1929 by a couple whose painstaking, authentic restoration gives a fascinating glimpse into how a royal Spanish official lived in the 17th century. This house is only open in the afternoon for a couple of hours I am so pleased we were able to view. So very enjoyable. The whole visit to Antigua was lovely and not too hot either!!

Our next stop took us through the mountains to Lake de Atitlan - awesome, we spent the night at San Antonion Palopo; this is a small lake side village extremely poor, here men and women wear traditional clothing, tend their terrace fields and clean mountains of scallions !!! on entering the village we had great difficulty getting past the scallions as they are cleaned at the side of the road, which is very narrow. The men and women here also do some very good weaving, but were very pushy and not very nice when we did not buy. Of course we cannot buy everything.

We turned east from the Pan-American to go into mountains and visit some of the villages; this took us through some very sadly deforested slopes also along a high ridge with the road dropping away from either side. The roads in the villages were very narrow, cobbled, quite steep in places - usually just round a corner! Very scary, with our size vehicles. We passed through several very small, very poor villages, in my diary I wrote “How do the people keep so clean! The women look amazing in their beautiful hand woven clothes” because they live in what we would call hovels, very small with only a cold tap out side and a cement sink for washing, some people had made square shields from black plastic for personal and private washing, which could not be seen form the road! Who knows about the toilet!!!!

We arrived at the border town of La Mesilla just after lunch; this of course is much lower then our lovely mountains and therefore HOT! We have read in our guide books that the Mexican borders are a nightmare, slow, busy, very long queues and corrupt. So we decided we would park up at the border overnight crossing first thing in the morning before the queues built up also before the heat builds up. We spent the afternoon trying to get in a minuscule spot of shade at the side of the road; I could not open my windows or door on the shade side - too near the road, scared of a lorry hitting them, so could only open on the sun side then had to keep the blinds shut. HOT HOT HOT!!! We then moved to try and find more shade and found a building which helped a tiny bit and I was off the road so could open up everything. I sat outside on a dirty edge with fly’s and ants ugh! (why do I do this) but shade. Once the sun had gone we drove to the side of a petrol station to sleep. Ian (who built my truck) put a dimmer switch on the fan over the bed, which I can leave on all night wonderful, this has saved me on these very hot nights ‘cause I have to shut all the windows I am able most of the time to leave both roof lights open.

We left early in the morning to cross the border I do admit to being a little worried. Do not believe all you read. The Guatemala side was very straight forward took all of 10 minuets and only that because the guy was not quite awake and filled in the wrong exit stamp in my passport, but realized what he had done when he filled in Les’s exit visa.

Into Mexico we go, first sprayed with disinfectant, had to changed some money to pay for this - 6$US. Then into the passport and vehicle office. Here it cost 50$US for road tax. That was it. All very quick efficient and not a whisper of any thing else. This had to be the easiest most efficient border so far of all the America’s. We still have insurance to purchase because here in Mexico unless you have Mexican insurance for your vehicle and have any kind of an accident you go to jail whilst your paperwork is sorted and blame allotted. Not a prospect I wish to challenge, we were ale to get insurance in the town we were heading for San Cristobel de las Casas this cost us 126$US cheaper then jail I figured.

In San Cristobel de las Casas we stayed on a trailer park! Our first. (First campsite for ages) there were 2 other trucks there both American. Because of the delay in getting the insurance we stayed on the site for 5 nights which was a nice change, we went on a couple of trips into the beautiful highlands of Chiapas, where descendents from the ancient Maya live and maintain unique customs, costumes and beliefs. The village of San Juan Chamula is fiercely independent and strict laws for outsiders must be obeyed. A large sign at the entrance to the village forbids photography in the church or near where any rituals are being performed, there are houses belonging to leaders all over the village where rituals are held, the people are dressed in traditional clothes most men wear a loose homespun white tunic, those with important religious and ceremonial duties wear a sleeveless black tunic and white scarf on the head, the woman wear white blouses, woollen skirts and very nice shawls. They have their own courts and jails the criminals have to wear the white tunic and carry a black stick, so everyone knows they are serving a sentence; they then have to act as policemen and road sweepers. One of their duties is to catch visitors taking photos of forbidden stuff, I took very few photos and only when the guide said it was ok and he was standing next to me.

The churches were something else, still Catholic, the priest comes once a month to do baptisms, but for the rest of the time their own rituals and ceremonies are performed inside the church, I have never seen anything like it, but …………………………. The people here are called Tzotzil they are the largest subgroup about 80,000 strong, Some live inside the villages, some out in the country side. Starting at dawn on a Sunday people from the country stream into the village for the weekly market and for their visit to the Church, also bus loads of tourists also stream in, we went another day!!

The following day we went to a Zapatistas strong hold, this is a guerrilla movement whose main aim is to improve the wretched living standards of Mexico’s indigenous people, their subcomandant called “Marcos” has become a cult figure, this was a very interesting visit we were treated with great respect, were interviewed by 3 of their leaders, told what their aims and objectives are, were allowed to ask questions and took their photos!!!! Purchased some of their handicrafts; also had a lovely lunch at one of the shops. Quite an experience. On our way back to San Cristobal de las Casas our guide took us to a another village where there was a ceremony going on, the smoke coming from the church door was amazing, inside the floor was covered in pine needles, someone was swing a very large incense pot all over the place, groups were sat in front of all the pictures of the Saints, Mary, and our Lord each group was chanting, a couple of groups had a Shaman performing what ever they perform one young man was having an evil spirit purged from his body, all this going on in a Catholic Church !!

We climbed endlessly into the clouds and then descended in to the cool pine clad valle de Jovel. Where lies the beautiful colonial town of San Crisobal de las Casas, this is very true the town is beautiful as is the Church surrounded by a very colorful indigenous market. The city was catapulted into the lime light January 1st 1994 when the Zapatista rebels took control of the radio and government offices. The other outstanding feature is the fact that 20000+ indigenous people live in a shanty town surrounding the city, these people have been expelled by the leaders of the villages for changing their faith to Protestant - most of the hawkers and craft sellers in the city come from these people. I am not sure if they were expelled for not being Catholic or for not following the bizarre rituals and ceremonies of the Chamulans, I did ask but my question was not answered. I enjoyed my stay there it was very interesting. We finally got our insurance after a 5 day wait we were not very pleased, a nice place to be stuck.

Back on the road still heading north.

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From our very nice visit at the waterfall we headed back the way we had come towards the town of Gracias, the area around Gracias is very beautiful and mountainous, much is forest. BUT we lost the tarmac, we were left with a road that is just gruesome it has all the things we hate - pot holes, corrugations, deep, deep ruts which are made by running water in the rainy season, the only thing we did not have was mud, BUT, of course we have DUST!!! I have just spent days getting the stuff out of my cab, now it’s full again!! For a while I kept hearing a tinkling sound, each time I put my head out of the window I couldn't hear it from the inside, I just could not tell if the noise was inside or outside. We stopped for afternoon tea, thankfully in the shade, (the sun is still very very hot) the tinkle was the back strap that holds my spare diesel tank in place! one side had broken its fixings and was banging on the road. “Houston I have a problem” the tank is 90% full and holds 230Lts aprox, weight aprox 250kilos. Some how we have to find some kind of strap to add to the other straps, thank goodness Ian is a 'belt and braces man'. The tank is suspended from the chassis by two stainless steel straps, added to this Ian has put two nylon web straps with some kind of a ratchet fastener making 4 straps total. I have two of these ratchet fixing straps spare in the truck, but do not know how to fix them or even undo the ratchet. But guess what between the three of us we worked it out and managed to get both of them helping to hold the tank in place. Continued slowly down this ** awful road, with L’n M behind me keeping an eye on the tank stopping for our night stop, checking our handy work nothing had moved. Next day we headed again down the awful road with L’n M checking my rear end until thank goodness we came to our beloved tarmac. Our worry was that because it is Easter this whole country is on holiday and everything is closed. We got to Gracias on Good Friday. We watched the Good Friday Processions and then managed to find a restaurant open and a good night stop, but no one to fix my tank, still fingers crossed nothing as yet has moved. We are told the road is tarmac to Santa Rosa de Copan the next biggish town. It is, we move more slowly than normal, not that we ever go very fast. Some of the car repair spots are open however, after stopping at a couple of no go’s Margaret spots a radiator repair; yes he will fix the strap. L’n M go off to find a laundry I eat my breakfast and do a couple of small chores and I am fixed, looks like a good job to me and cost 20$US, at which point L ‘n M return having found a laundry which will be ready at 1pm, we are all happy bunnies, they have also found a nice cool spot to park the trucks. Santa Rosa de Copan is a small very Spanish mountain town, with cobble streets and some lovely colonial buildings and large colonial church beside the central park. The church has a program of events for Easter on display Mass on Easter Sunday was at 4am.

Next morning before the 4am Mass the church had a procession around the town - this was very loud passing very close to our trucks !!!! We had decided to leave early trying to get to Copan Archaeological site before it was too hot, the road was good but it was still very hot by the time we got there, however the site still has a lot of trees left from when the jungle took over the site, so we were able to keep in the shade for most of the time. These Mayan Ruins have some remarkable stone carvings, we were told the best to be seen in all the ruins of either Guatemala or Mexico, we shall see!

The small part of the whole site which has been uncovered is very impressive I must say. The most impressive of all is the Hieroglyphic staircase. This flight of 63 steps tells a history in several thousand glyphs – of the royal house of Copan – the steps are boarded with ramps inscribed with more glyphs and reliefs the story is incomplete because only the first 15 steps were still in place, when it was found, the reconstructed stones were put back jumbled I guess - maybe one day some clever person will sort the jigsaw puzzle out. Hope so.

Next to this there is a ball court the second largest found in Central America. Here a game with an 8lb rubber ball was played by two teams of men! Was this the original football game? If your team lost you lost your head, however our guide told us the winning team captain lost his head as it was such an honor!!! Don’t really get that myself, which means if everyone is correct someone ended up dead!

I enjoyed the visit to the ruins, the guide was good, it was cool, I find it so amazing that people lived and loved here over 2000 years ago, it is believed that over 20,000 people lived here and moved away because of a very modern cause - the whole area was ecologically devastated. By the year 1200AD or thereabouts the jungle reclaimed what must have been a very beautiful city.

We enjoyed a lovely 3$US lunch in the cafeteria then visited the museum in the village Copan Ruinas this is a beautiful little village cobble stoned with white adobe buildings with red tiled roofs and beautiful central park full of palms and other jungle plants/flowers unfortunately parking was horrific as was the heat making a walk around the village a no go. Returning to the site of the ruins Les and I did a very small jungle walk spotting a number of birds but no jaguars. We also saw a Mahogany Tree I have never seen one before as trees go it was very ordinary, but I was very pleased to have seen it.

We had to leave the site for a night stop but returned the next morning to visit the museum on the site. The highlight here is the true scale reconstruction of the Rosalila Temple found in near perfect condition in 1989. Under the central building of the Acropolis. What happened here was that every 54 years the temples were knocked down and a new one built on the top of the old, but Rosalila was so sacred it was not knocked down but the next temple was built on the top leaving Rosalila in tact. The original is still untouched and still in situ. Amazing.

Now we return to Santa Rosa de Copan for a visit we hope to the cigar factory, also Les is having trouble with his brand new tyres, one of them keeps going flat!!!

The cigar factory, interesting, smelly, employing over 1,000 people every thing done by hand. However the girls did not roll the cigars on their dusky thighs! Instead they used a very large cigarette roller, Jocelyn used to have one! We were not allowed to take photo’s which was a shame ‘cause it was so interesting to show the photo’s would have been great. Every cigar is put into a small machine to make sure air can get through and it will infact “work”; three different tobaccos go into each cigar, the tobacco was very different in colour from very pale brown to very dark brown almost black. Enjoyable visit.

Les and Margaret then went off to do tyres, water, spring noise and look for batteries. I returned to the cool shady parking spot we had on our last visit. I then had a very lazy afternoon listening to an audio tape and drinking tea. Great.

L “n M had good success two wheels had holes in, which was why the tyre kept going flat. The noise needed grease. Whilst they were filling up with water found some batteries. So they are going back in the morning to collect two repaired tyres and two new batteries. We all hope. (Sad to say they were unable to get 2 new battries our search continues).

Me! I am sat in the cool of the truck listening to the carpenters and writing this. I was up at 5am to reorganize the boot in the cool, now that I know how to use those ratchet strap things! Although the sun is so very hot I am parked under trees and have a very nice cool breeze coming in the window. I have also done some washing and a little cleaning!

With luck L ‘n M will come back here and we will go for lunch together.

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The following day we went to Monteverde the plan was to take the sky walk, the road from Tilaran awful, just awful, but very beautiful. The community was founded in 1951 by a group of Quaker families from North America who came here to escape the draft in America for young men. The group came to Costa Rica because in 1948 when the US made the draft compulsory Costa Rica abolished their army. The road quickly gives way from ranches to dense cloud forest, the road is treacherous, full of rocks, pot holes, tight corners, narrow bridges, steep inclines and angles but the scenery is so beautiful and our stay here has been awesome.

Our first visit was to the sky walk, most of which is at the top of the canopy. We left at 7am - as soon as the walks were open, there were very few people and we hoped we would be able to see alot of wildlife. We had to climb a very high tower to get to the first bridge across the canopy (this is a suspension bridge across the top of the trees). Those of you who know that I do not do suspension bridges also know how brave I was to do this, but I can tell you it was worth the effort, there were 6 bridges joined by tracks through the jungle, it was a wonderful experience. There were no other people on the walk we were doing although we did see some people doing the zip line’s, this was not for me - that would be a zip to far cause I am too chicken!!! Can you imagine flying over the top of the jungle on a zip line?

Unlike a BBC travel programme the rain forest was NOT teeming with wild life at every step. However, the plants, flowers and the birds we did managed to see were absolutely wonderful. We had parked in their car park overnight at the side of the humming bird garden, this was beautiful. To watch these wonderful little birds darting from one feeder to the other and hovering with their wings going so fast, did you know they are the only bird that can fly backwards!

From here we went along a worse road to Santa Elena Reserve. Les and I went on another jungle walk taking a guide who spoke very good English and had a great passion for her country and her job - her knowledge of the birds, flowers, plants and trees was amazing. It makes the whole trip so enjoyable when a guide is like this because it rubs off and we all get so much out of the trip. She knew where to take us to see the birds and we were able to see a Bell Bird which we have been told today is very unusual. We were able to watch this bird fly from one perch to another so watched it for some time. We were very happy about this. Then it was back down the awful road to find a camp for the night. Les spotted a piece of flat ground next to a café, turned out not to be so flat so the proprietor of the café sent us round the back to a football pitch, we parked along the touch line, from next door were able to book a coffee tour along with a tour of the Quaker cheese factory for the next day.

What a wonderful and interesting day this has turned out to be. The road if anything was worse but we were not driving so were able to enjoy the drive, I of course sat in the front - Margaret will not allow the driver to sit me any where else. I was very pleased and just about hung onto my stomach ! The whole area is preserved, growing coffee, bananas, pineapple, papaya, orange, lemons and mango, also dairy farming. The Quakers have given so much back to this part of Cost Rica, which has given them such a peaceful life.

The Quakers purchased a large farm, some 50 hectares, which was then divided between 25 of the poorest families in the area, on 25 year leases. The farmer has the choice to renew, the conditions are:- they cannot sell the farms, they must live in the traditional way and teach these ways to their children, who can then take the farm over under the same conditions. It was one of these coffee farms belonging to a cooperative, part of the Fair Trade organization we were to visit, we were very lucky because we booked 'pot luck' on the only truly Eco coffee tour. I have in all of my travels never seen coffee growing so was really looking forward to this but was unprepared for what I learnt. This farm is worked solely by the farmer (with his family helping when it is picking time). We met a young American volunteer who was taking the pips from lemons that were to be planted to create shade for the coffee. The farmer is paid annually for the coffee crop when the beans are sold to the mill; he grows enough food to feed his family and sells any surplus. His wife works, the family live a very happy simple life making a reasonable living. His farm is totally organic unlike other coffee plantations we passed on the mountain side’s, just rows and rows of coffee plants. Here we have coffee plants growing under the protection of banana trees, orange and lemon trees, flowers and shrubs not only giving protection from the strong wind that is here but also from the animals who like to eat the fruit on the coffee trees (the beans are wrapped in a very sweet syrup) but instead of eating the coffee berries, they will eat fruit from the other trees. Also, apparently, banana trees put a huge amount of goodness into the soil, the husbandry of this guys farm was amazing. It was explained to us very carefully and thoroughly, very interesting and shows what can be done, making very little impact on the countryside - in fact improving things. No forest has been lost since this operation has been in practice and no chemicals are used and very little natural compost is needed. The people also have a lovely life. The small coffee mill which only processes the beans for the farmers of the cooperative was run along the same lines, everything given back to the land, everything done by hand, most of the mill was run by water. The pulp from the beans is made into natural compost on the site - using worms from North America as Costa Rican worms liked the jungle best! Up until only a few years ago all the pulp from all the beans in C.R was put into the rivers, this proved to be the biggest source of pollution, it is now illegal to do this. This compost is free to the farmers of the cooperative however because the farms run by the cooperative are run totally organic they use very little compost so most of it is sold giving the income back to the farmers in the dividend.

We then made a quick visit to a small organic paper making organization, again the Quakers had come up with the money to buy what was really a shed where women can work taking their children if they need to, when we visited there was an elderly man breaking up wet cardboard, a young man doing the heavy wet stuff and maybe a dozen ladies making cartons/bags that the coffee beans in the cooperative shop were sold in. they also made note books and birthday style cards and various other little things all very nice indeed. of course we all bought something. Our guide this morning had been so enthusiastic and interesting we were all shocked to learn he had only been in the area 3 months, we all thought he had belonged to the original Quakers. As I have already said it makes such a difference.

After a very nice lunch in the cooperative café we walked up to the cheese factory, which turned out to be another informative/interesting visit.

The young lady who was our guide this afternoon was a direct descendent from the original group of families who came to the area. She again had this enthusiasm that makes for a good tour.

Of course one of the first things the families had to decide was how to make a living, I am sure this took a while - they were after all in the jungle which they did not want to harm, no roads and a long way from other large settlements. So, what ever it was had to be hardy, because of tough transportation (eggs would have been no good), sellable ‘cause it was to be their living, they came up with cheese, having made this decision, none of the families were cheese makers so how to make cheese , they wrote to the American government and asked “how do we make cheese” got back a reply! “An easy guide to cheese making” which they used! at first only using their own milk, but as they grew and other farmers wanted to sell their milk for cheese, the Quakers set up what the young lady assured us was not a cooperative, however it became more and more like a cooperative as the afternoon went on, all the farmers own stock in the company no one is allowed to own more then 5% the farmers own the local gas station and are helped in every way possible. the farmers each only have small herds, the young lady said like 35 cows! Of course the farms have again good husbandry are organic with no forest loss.

The cheese was good as well!!!

The local people are trying to stop the awful roads from being tarmaced, because tourism is growing, they want the tourist’s but not the traffic which will spoil the balance, we did discuss park and ride with them, the chap that took us on the coffee tour is involved with the protests so was going to look York up on the internet.

I started this some days ago have since jumped 2 countries we are now in Honduras. I have had trouble since I have been back over here charging up my computer. There is a fault, I think, with my inverter. Les has been charging it up for me with his, but last week his inverter died! So I could not down load from the computer which had no battery, we have now both got a new inverter. I am very happy sat, in my truck charging away. We are in a Merc garage in Tegucigalpa the capital of Honduras. We came for tyres for Les which he has been trying to find for ages (countries ha!) So I had a quick service and got the inverter and their sparky checked it out for me. Sooooo fingers X. we left this morning 03/04 with no new tyres, but had to come back ‘cause Les’s handbrake was not working he is having that and new tyres fixed as we speak I am so pleased for them, on these awful roads it is such a worry when you know the tyres are not 100%

05.04.2007

Still in Honduras heading for the border. Stopped at a beautiful waterfall today, had a nice walk along the side of the falls lots of birds, plants and flowers the temperature is good there is a nice breeze, we are staying here for the night. Central America is very different from South America. Lots more jungle, small, very poor housing, lots of fruit for sale at the side of the road. We are in the mountains the valleys are very hot. We are here at the very worst time of year, the hottest, to get as much as we can we will stay as much as possible on the high ground which is cooler

Also there has been no phone cover in Central America at all.

I am next going to try and send some photos !!!!!

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still at the dock in Costa rica

Well after our awful day yesterday, we returned to the port to try again and recover the trucks. It took another 1.5hrs to finish the paperwork from yesterday, a further hour to have everything photocopied and get the place a little hotter !!! then we were taken by car because I am still in my flip flops!!! To get the trucks. we then, of course, had to be fumigated with a very silly little spray - just enough to dirty the windows, but I could not see that any more use was done. After this we were then quickly out of the dock. By which time it is roasting. What made all this worth while was the fact that the trucks were in perfect condition, we paid no bribes were not even asked, yes it had taken a long time but in my opinion worth every minute.

Then back to the hotel, put all the stuff back in the cab - radio, CB, etc. Took the bars from the windows; had a shower and lunch in the hotel and then back on the road again.

We are heading for the Laguna del Arenal and the Volcano Arenal we hope again to be able to see a volcano spitting fire and brimstone.

We turn east from the Pan-American highway towards the town of Tilaran, this is a small town a ranching center but we are to early for the rodeo I am very sorry to say, (it is very hot). We continue making our way up the Tilaran Mountains and we have a lovely cool breeze. once we reach the lake the temperature is a lot more pleasant, the lake is very pretty with the volcano at its end; now everything is much more jungle - the flowers are very beautiful and different; also there are a lot more birds - most of them are very colourful. We continued around the lake until we came to the small village where the German Bakery is, here I had apple strudel and ice cream lovely!! Les asked where we could park for the night and we were sent down a couple of short dirt roads to the lakeside, when it was dark we should have been able to see the volcano spitting red fire. But with low cloud we could see nothing!!! (Just our luck) this night we had torrential rain, my roof windows were open - I knew it was raining when I got wet!!

Following day we continued around the lake; the ride is very beautiful and interesting. We are going to the Arenal Observatory, this is a hotel with some wonderful jungle trails and with a great view of the volcano, we had a lovely walk through the jungle to a most beautiful water fall, the flowers and birds are magnificent, there is a feeding table on this we saw a red, blue, green birds and a brown black with yellow in its tail, orange beak and blue around its eye - all these colours are very bright and it was all at the same time.. awesome. we had a wonderful afternoon. In the evening we went to watch the fire spitting from the volcano but with low cloud, rain we could not see anything. !!!
We had rain again this night *my windows were shut*
tried agian for a view of the red fire but no luck!!! we will just have to wait and see if the weather changes ......................

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We arrived at the port this morning; soon after 10 the boat was docked so, we asked the customs 'could we start the paperwork?', the answer was no we couldn't until the paperwork on the boat had been done. also we needed road tax and insurance documents; we explained that yes we knew this, and also that yes we knew we would have to pay for it. However what we did not know was that we had to go to the next town (30 mins away) to buy said document!!!! we asked a taxi driver belonging to an American couple if he would use his radio to get another taxi for us, which he did, turned out to be the same guy who had taken us from the hotel to the dock. He proved to be a great help, even rang his own insurance to see if they could help us, they could not, but he took us to the place that the custom's lady had told us to go to, waited for us and made sure we were in the correct place so this was quite quick. back at the port we were not so lucky, customs lady still could not help us, we had to go find the agents who were dealing with the boat, this proved not too difficult, but he spoke very fast; L + M found him very hard to understand, but did understand that it would be 2 hours before the trucks would be off the boat. It is by now just after 1pm we are very hot very sticky and beginning to get fed up, we found the coolest place to sit and had a snack and drink. Around 2pm Les went for a walk and found that the trucks were off the boat, we then had to go to the agents office which was an air-conditioned container, lovely, which we enjoyed whilst they photo copied all the necessary documents, then back to the customs lady and with the help of one of the agents she checked all the photo copied documents matched the originals, she then filled in a hand written document but was unable to find most of the information from the documents she had. we are getting hotter and stickier by the minute, Les took his shirt off. Then, the best part of the day. One of the agents who spoke english and was by this time helping the customs lady who could not understand we were English, lived in England yet on our passport says "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" good job Les and M have spanish. Anyway then the guy asked Les had anyone said anything about his T-shirt? Les laughed (as he does) the guy then said they would not let him go collect his truck in shorts and sandals!!!!! I truly believed the guy was joking. He was not!!! I had flip flops on but I did have long trousers. So when they had finally done the paper work customs lady got her high visibility vest on, she the agent and myself went to go to the trucks; I had to put a high visibility vest on and a hard hat, which would not fit on top of my sunhat (how silly did I look), but I was not allowed to go through the gate to the port for ages (standing in the hot sun) cause of the flip flops!!!! I have no shoes in Costa Rica says I, the agent chap said he would drive me in his car, this was ok and saved a long walk in the hot sun. I was very relieved and happy to see both trucks 100%, then back to the customs office for more paperwork but I cannot drive the truck off without shoes!!!! AND THEN their computer crashed, its closing time and we have to go back tomorrow!!!!

We do each have, at great expense, a "Carnet de Passages en Douane" this is an international document for the temporary importation of vehicles to which Costa Rica subscribes, this document takes less then 5mins to stamp and sign has all the information with regard to the vehicle that all the countries have agreed they need. However Costa Rica has promised to use modern equipment to speed things along !!!!!!

So I am back in my hotel bedroom, just had a lovely cool shower, washed my sticky clothes, written this and now I am going to watch "Forsyte Saga"

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We have had a great time wandering around the mountains and villages here in Ecuador, I have loved it. My chest has not been so good in altitude but now we are down at sea level it’s great but it’s very hot down here apart from the afternoons when, although the sun is so terribly hot the breeze is great, with all the windows open the vans were very comfortable, but we lose the breeze at night for some reason. But my fan, I have discovered, works on silent, I have been able to leave it on all night which has helped.

I am looking forward to Central America and beyond; once we get the trucks back I will be very happy and excited.

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The trucks are sailing from Manta which is a smaller port Esmeralda’s (we hope less corrupt) and have chosen a small port in Costa Rica for the same reason.

We leave Ecuador on the 16. o3. 07 fly to Costa Rica and pick the trucks up to continue north.

So, we have time to kill here and have been exploring the beautiful country side and the wonderful indigenous villages taking the Quilota Circuit, the first day we stopped in the small village of Pujili. We were only stopping for afternoon tea but it was so lovely we decided to stay the night. After a walk around the village we visited a small local craft market in a lovely building, the mayor in this village has spent money in making everything nice and interesting, the pavements around the Square have decorative squares of tiles, each square different but in local patterns. In the town hall there was a glassed in walkway that had a full size man with a musical instrument carved from the most beautiful wood. a garden was surrounded by very nice paintings of all the important people of the town over years. The whole place showed a great pride, unfortunately we were unable to visit the church which the guide book says is very beautiful but, unfortunately, closed most of the time. The following day, just before we were about to set off, we heard matching band music and after further investigation we saw there was a parade of school children, very smartly dressed, playing the music and marching with batons etc. it was lovely.

We left a little late, heading for the most beautiful emerald lake in a volcanic crater at Quilotoa, it was very cold and windy here but the locals came out with some very nice goods to sell - mainly painted pictures on leather. From here it was down to Chugchilanto, a very poor village but one of the most scenic areas in Ecuador, also one of the worst roads we have been on in Ecuador! From the crater it was a very hard hour and a half drive, at the end of this Les had a huge stone between his back wheels "I just pulled it out with my truck" - madness!! This village was going to be our night stop. We all were so shattered we decided to eat out, Les asked one of the locals and we had a lovely meal at the Cloud Forest Hostel. We met a couple of Australians, and we had a nice evening. The road continued the next day just as awful as the day before, thank goodness it was not raining.

We parked the night at the back of a garage in Saquisili. There is a good market here in the morning. Had a great time walking around the market and met up with the Australian couple from last night.

Now we head off for Quito, and on to Otavalo for Saturday, which is market day, and the “book says” the best market in South America. We stopped for our morning drink in a garage just outside a smallish town. On leaving the garage, which was very bumpy, followed by 2 speed bumps, I noticed something hanging down, flapping from under Les’s truck. Wondering what it was and getting a little closer - Panic!!!! It was the gas tank hanging and flapping!!!! How lucky – I am not always as close as I was, for the 2 days on the bad road, I had been some many miles back most of the time – a couple more bumps and ………………… I do not know what would happen if a gas tank fell onto the ground at speed!!!! Because we were near the town, getting the thing fixed was not so bad - 2.1/2hrs including lunch and we were back on the road.

On the way to Otavalo we crossed the Equator – exciting – into the northern hemisphere – its not very hot – I’m pleased to say and now it is winter!!

The market at Otavalo was great, had a smashing day, there was a lot of different stuff from what we have seen before. Friday night we had a lovely meal out and Saturday Les cooked. We ate in my truck I made crumble and custard also had a lovely bottle of wine. Great time was had.

From here we were going to explore more of the north, but the road was so bad we decided to turn around. We did manage to get to the Pyramids at Cochasqui, this is an archeological site which contains 15 truncated clay pyramids dated between AD900 and 1500 built by the Cayambi-Caranquil Indians. The tour was in Spanish but Margaret and Les gave me the gist and some of what we have learnt at other sites, plus the guide book all help to make sense of the site. There were also a couple of chaps on the tour who spoke English and helped us. It rained quite hard for a while we were also very high so my chest was not good, but I enjoyed the visit very much.

Our next stop will be the Mercedes Garage in Quito, where we hope to get the last of our security work done. I also have an electrical problem, I cannot charge up my laptop!!!! Major!! We stayed 4 nights, it was a good camp for a visit into Quito, but first the serious stuff I needed a complete set of leisure batteries which is 5. And joy of joys I got my air con fixed which has not worked since Argentina. I also had a bar made to go across the back of the door from the cab into the house!

Oh, by the way we are back into summer and it is hot, I got my face burnt. Had a lovely day in old Quito, visited the Church de la Compania de Jesus which it is said has 7 tons of gold to decorate it……… In a country with so many very poor people I find this very difficult to comprehend, but that aside it is amazing. From the church we walked to the square in front of the Presidents Palace. There was a very large demonstration, lots of riot police ( they were not needed), and lots and lots of Indigenous people mainly women. It is national women’s day. Just as we were leaving the President came out onto the balcony, he then made a speech which was received very well by the crowd, we stayed until he had finished. I think he hopes, like the president of Bolivia, to improve the life for the Indigenous people, particularly for the women.

We left the garage after lunch, heading North West and to Manta, the drive was just awesome through an amazing cloud/rain forest it rained very hard but we had tarmac. Of course there were no birds or creatures. Everything was so thick and lush with so many shades of green, with beautiful bright flowers, some very large leaves from some plants were used as umbrellas by the locals. We stayed in a tiny reserve village called Mindo. On the square there was a sign which says “poverty is no excuse for being dirty”. The following day the rain had stopped, we continued through the cloud/rain forest, in this part of Ecuador there are very big banana plantations (Ecuador grows more bananas then any where else in the world) and also Palm plantations for palm oil, and pineapple plantations going on mile after mile. All the villages had huge great piles of bananas, which I guess they were selling. I cannot imagine how many bananas they must eat (glad I am not poor and live here!). But the green plantar bananas, fried are lovely. Another very interesting part of this ride where the houses, this is the Equator it is very wet and hot, most of the houses are made from bamboo, on stilts. The bamboo is made into screens which make up the walls and I guess will catch any breeze through the gaps between the bamboo, the windows are just square holes, some had chicken wire over them, the roof is made of corrugated iron. Most had a balcony which people had been sleeping, underneath hung the washing. I must say there was loads of very clean washing, it must take ages to dry in this humid weather, everyone did look clean and fairly tidy, also underneath the houses were bikes and farm/garden stuff. Lots of the houses had lovely bright flowers outside with trees giving shade.

The driving from when we got near Quito has been the worst we have had in South America and it has not improved on this last stretch.

We arrived in Manta on Sunday; Les found us a wonderful park at the side of a hotel where we will stay when the trucks go to the boat on Wednesday. Joy of joys for me, we are overlooking the sea from the seat at my table I can see the Pacific rolling onto the beach.

Well this is me more or less up to date, next time I write we will be in Costa Rica and I hope all is well with the trucks.....

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After arriving in Cuenco we all became ill, Les was first followed by Margaret and finally me. We think we must have all caught the same bug from the plane. Anyway I ended up in hospital, I lost some days along the way there. The care in the hospital was very good, I had some very strong antibiotics, taking 10 days supply home with me when I left which were also very strong and wiped me out. There was some kind of festival (before lent) where mainly youngsters threw water bombs, and the contents of anything that contained water, at each other and anyone who happens to be driving or walking past, very strange but everyone seemed to have a great time. The family at the hostel came home with a live pig which they fed for 2 or 3 days and then the pig is dead!!! Strapped to a kind of work bench the men took turns at burning all the skin with a blow torch (wonderful crackling) when this is done to perfection the pig is cooked over a fire. This is the very best roast pig I have ever had.

However, we decided to leave Cuenco and move slowly north on our journey, we think we may feel better. We go to Ingapirca which is the Inca main sight in Ecuador; it was very impressive with what we had learnt from the Inca sites in Peru and was very enjoyable, but I'm still sick! From here we are heading for the town of Bano’s (Bath) which is at the foot of the Volcano Tungurahua. After parking up for the night at the side of a river, which was very dusty, we head off up a pretty good road to Bano’s. Then the road got very dusty, then very sandy, then NO road, just sand and dust. There was no sign of where the road should be, we just followed the tracks made by other vehicles. We crossed 5 rivers all with the bridges washed away. It was like a gigantic dust slide, thank goodness it was not a mud slide! Although there had been a lot of water that had come down the mountain. We stopped by a very lovely gorge for our morning cup of tea Les and Margaret got stuck in the sand and I had to pull them out, thank goodness for 4x4! The cloud was very low, which stopped us seeing the whole mountain and when we came out of the valley and up the next mountain we could just see this huge slide. Eventually we did arrive in |Bano’s after going over a further slide; we went to a very good French restaurant and had a lovely lunch. The waiter there told us the volcano had blown in 1999 and then again last October 2006. In 1999 the whole town was evacuated for several weeks, in 2006 the snow cap of the volcano melted when it erupted sending all the melted snow rushing down the mountain side. Also in 2006 it rained stones!! This was quite an experience, we parked the night in the street very near to the Civil Defense Hut had a good sleep.

Driving slowly around some of the most beautiful scenery over the next week through tiny villages, high in the Andes, some are so very poor. Their lives must be so, so hard. We saw a group of villagers, men and women, digging a water trench with hoe’s at 4000m with the wind howling and blowing very hard. But a spectacular view of a volcano elluded us, because the cloud was so low. We caught a glimpse of Volcano Chimberazo, not the top, but a good view of the glaciers.

We had a bit of trouble with the trucks. A bolt had sheared off Les’s powered steering and his step would not work, I had some light out and battery trouble, then found it was a bolt sheared off, and then I found that a shock absorber had a bolt sheared off!! We were able to get all these fixed and have an enjoyable lunch before we headed off to drive the Quilotoe Circuit which the guide book describes as some of the most beautiful scenery and villages in Ecuador, we shall see.

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Our bags were in the taxi, which I was sitting in to make sure the driver did not drive off with all our belongings, and Les and Margaret were looking for something which turned out to be Les’s man bag which had his new super duper camera, a couple of cash cards and all his cash in. It had to be in the hotel, we had paid the night before the front door was locked and barred, L & M were asked to moved from one room to a second room, we were all incredibly tired, Les had either left it on the desk at checking or the second room, but much search revealed nothing, we had to continue our journey. A stressful start because we knew it had to have been in the hostel.

Arriving in Cuenco with no further mishaps. At the hostel were we had left the trucks all was well and the Womble looked in good health. Humberto, the hostel owner, had been looking after the trucks. After a lovely cup of tea, time to get the trucks down from the blocks Humberto had put them on before we left, Les’s came off no probs. As I walked back to Womble the truck moved forward there was a shout and groan. My heart stopped I believed Les was underneath. He was not, but Humberto was! Les and I did try to push the truck off, we failed, however Humberto managed to roll out, but he had been crushed by the transmission. I managed to keep everyone off him and made him stay as still as possible, we also rigged up a shelter from the sun, it was of course midday, the family at first rang a doctor who said he would come but after much waiting, we got them to ring the emergency service this came very quickly, the care and attention they gave him was very good.

The out come also was good Humberto was very badly bruised but no broken bones and no damage to any organs. He stayed the night in the hospital and came back very stiff and painful to move the next day.

He was so lucky, over the 5 months we have been gone Humberto has been running the engines for an hour or so, he had left both trucks out of gear with the hand brake’s off then went underneath to get the chocks out!!!!! Had it been Les’s truck I think the out come would not have been as good as Les’s truck is much lower to the ground than mine, I have very good ground clearance.
One very stressful scary day!!

We have some boring stuff to do like unpacking and finding homes for all the stuff we have brought from home. Also, we want to get the trucks checked out before we set off and I want to get bars fixed to the windows ready for the boat trip to Costa Rica.

So at the moment we are doing what we do best in a garage! In fact, we spent the night here !!!! All in all I am glad to be back at the start of another adventure.

Les has been sick wiht a terrible cold I have never known him on all out travels give in!!! Now we all have what ever it is, and of course mine has gone to my chest. I feel pretty awful, but hopefully will be better before we hit the road again, we are all very keen to get going.

I made one of the curries yesterday it was very nice, glad I fetched them also strarted on the wine that I had hoped to bring home.
We are on a wireless free sight in a mall, I did keep losing the signal but it seems ok now. Les has not been able to get on to the wireless who knows why.

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Monday 31 July 2006
Barranca towards Conococha

Today was not for anyone with a weak disposition, and the same warning may be appropriate to anyone reading this diary entry.

It started out ok. Our nightstop was fine, though MM who, unusually, parked a few metres away from us, found that her spot was next door to a house owned by market traders, and at 04.30, they started their preparations for the day’s work.

We’d decided to set off at 09.00 and I used the spare time this gave me to do a small repair on the van and some essential shopping for bananas and bread. The quality (and indeed availability) of the latter continues to be a problem, but when you can find it it’s a bit better here than down south.

The short journey from Barranca to the Chimu castle beyond Paramonga included another silly encounter with the police. They stopped us just beyond a bridge and we were accused of breaking the 45kph limit which applies to the road under the bridge. This restriction was not signed, but it could be that all bridges in Peru have such a restriction. Who knows?

Whatever, we produced our documents and protested our innocence, notwithstanding the fact that we may well have been going at 46kph. Matters started to go our way when the speed we were alleged to be travelling was quoted as 78kph. This is more or less our maximum speed, and there was no way we were travelling that fast. So we said so.

In the end, the boss copper came to speak to us, ticket at the ready, and we told him in no uncertain terms that we were NOT going that fast. And where’s the evidence anyway? He backed off and we were allowed to continue.

The fortaleza is a very impressive monument, and in excellent condition. It stands right by the modern PanAmericana, testimony to the antiquity of this route. It was built c1400 by the Chimu empire as a southern frontier castle, but did not survive the Inca onslaught that then enveloped a great swathe of the west coast. It’s built of adobe in the form of a stepped pyramid on a large natural rock hill and when you climb it, you find that this is one of c7 hills in a very small area, and all but 2 have (what appear to be) Chimu buildings. This makes Paramonga a very big complex indeed.

We walk the major building. There’s no interior: the few rooms are therefore on the outside. These include an excellent guard tower to the north and a complex of quarters on the very top. It has the bulk of a British castle from the same period, but not the finesse nor the architectural interest. Fine nonetheless: a good intro to Chimu culture of which there’ll be more further north.

After a drink, we drive back a few kms and then turn left up the valley of the Rio Fortaleza (now there’s a coincidence) which majors on sugar cane. Our second police patrol of the day comes into view in the first km but they merely advise us that the road is bendy and to drive tranquillo. Onwards and upwards, very gently with no steep hills, with greenery all the way in the valley bottom. We stop again to pay a toll, and end up with a 10 minute argument about whether we are a camioneta (a ‘little lorry’) or a camion (a big one). The price difference is 7.50 soles or 22 soles. We win when our third policeman of the day intervenes, and the clinching argument is the bundle of toll receipts we have collected saying we are a camioneta. As we progress, MM announces that we’re invited for shepherd’s pie tonight. Everything’s very tranquillo: more police in Chasquitambo, but we’re not stopped.

It’s now c12.15, and a lunch stop beckons. As we turn a sharp right corner there’s a promising, flat area off to the right but we’re well past it, and as MM rounds the bend we stop and radio her to test if it’s ok. She does so by driving on and then reversing to get the best place. I follow events in my mirror and watch in astonishment as the van gently tips over on its side. MM comes on the CB: “I think I’ve fallen off the road”.

Margaret and I run back to see what’s happened and to assist. Is Maureen ok? The answer is a very positive ‘yes’ . She’s now suspended in her seat belt high in the cab, but unhurt and in excellent humour! The van engine is still running and the rear wheels are still turning in mid-air. I urge her to turn the engine off which she does after a minute or so: she needs to regain the confidence to move (later she says that she thought the van might tip over even more) and then right herself so that she can operate the pedals, gear stick and keys.

But what tipped the van over? The answer is a deep drainage ditch that is virtually invisible even from a few metres away.

The van’s roadside wheels rode over the drainpipe that takes the water under the carriageway, but the passenger side wheels just disappeared into the hole and the van could not remain upright. Moreover, the rear end is now in the ditch so the entire undercarriage is visible and the vehicle is resting on the bottom metre or so of the passenger side bodywork. It is difficult to see how the vehicle can be extracted (it is tipped at crazy angles both sideways and backwards), let alone how it can be extracted in one piece, and goodness knows what damage has already occurred.

A collectivo [small minibus] stops and everybody jumps out. They can’t do anything but promise to tell the police down in Chasquitambo: the police, the ROAD police, are surely the best people to assist in this situation. They arrive 10 minutes after the incident and are indeed very helpful – but can offer little by way of material assistance. My idea that there will be a towing vehicle on the well-populated coastal strip is clearly fanciful and the probability of MM’s van being destroyed even as it is rescued seems ever more likely.

Against our advice and MM’s express wishes, she is extricated from the cab and helped to the ground. This process requires 2 policemen and 2 passing motorists. MM, still in great heart, gets a big laugh when she expresses pantomime delight at the prospect of falling into the arms of a hunky young PC!

We warning-triangle the road at this stage as rampant buses look likely to mow down one or more of the people working at the edge of the road, and 2 of the police leave to get a mechanic from the village. A big lorry stops opposite and offers to pull MM out and is directed backwards by PC Hunk to park up safely and await instructions.

The police plus mechanic return and things move very swiftly. I say my piece but then accept that whatever MM or I say or think, the business is out of our hands. Spare tyres are placed under the recumbent side and a chain attached to the lorry is strung around the up-in-the-air front axle of the van and I rush back to our van for my camera. When I turn round, MM’s vehicle is upright and almost out of the ditch. Amazing!

Is the vehicle ok? The answer is an inconceivable ‘yes’. It is driveable, has lost no essential bodily fluids, and the bodywork, though part-dented, is in far better condition that might be expected from a modest crash. Totally remarkable. Later we find that not one of MM’s eggs broke and the only casualties inside are a spilt, but not broken, ceramic salt pig and a butter dish which landed (butter side up of course) on a cushion and a side window.

Thanks (and payment) are generously given all round. A police charity also gets a donation.

The police now ask us to go back with them to the village and make a denunciation. We do, but in the end neither a denunciation nor a blood test prove necessary: these are only obligatory when people are injured or insurance claims will be made.

Margaret and I had been very, very impressed with the way MM had handled herself throughout but were nevertheless concerned she may suffer a reaction, so when we inspected the van again and especially MM’s side door step which was mangled, I took the opportunity to encourage her to get a pro-tem repair here, which would mean a delay before we drove off. MM agreed and we searched out ‘Senor Castrol’, our helpful mechanic. It took a couple of hours of banging and welding to do the work and we filled the time with the dregs of an interrupted lunch, much tea drinking, and a lot of talking to the local kids.

16.00 and all is done. Despite the calamitous events of the last few hours, we’ve only lost a net couple of hours and we all agree we’ve emerged smelling of roses. We can’t believe our luck.

The road continues to climb gently for 20-30 minutes and then the inevitable, steep bends begin as we leave the cultivated fields and swing into serious gorges and mountains. It’s 17.15 before we’re entirely happy with a roadside spot. There have been many others, but they have all been on an unacceptable tilt. This one has diabolical road noise, but the volume of traffic is low, and there’s no alternative.

We occupy ourselves gainfully till 18.30 when shepherd’s pie is served in the van of the utterly-delighted-at-her-good-fortune Mrs Maureen June Middleton. And what a lovely meal it is too. Pity about the orange cake, the dish of the day that did fall victim to the ditch of the day.

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The farmyards on the way were much smarter than what we have previously seen! enclosed farm yards with lovely arches and 2 bulls on the top as offering for a pleantiful crop.

Mum stayed at base, as she continues to be poorly! - Its a good job she stayed, as Clive and Ann, Steve and Judy an Mick and Mo passed! By the time we got back, everyone was enjoying a catch up! It was decided that we would all stay the night, and enjoy a "pot luck" tea! It was fab! everyone had such an amazing time! it was lovely to see mum catching up with her mates! - just a shame that she was so poorly!

We had a little wine from the Chillean vines! - Delightful! (went to bed a bit tipsy!

Day 8!

Oh Dear! Chilie wine at altitude not a good idea! When will i learn to listen to mum! Been up and down to the toilet all night! - part of me was very greatful, as i hadnt been for 8 days! But when it started coming from both ends, and mum at it aswell! m Not good! We were like a tag team! one would just get settled and the other would be up! (our van hummed! )

Early start! said goodbye to everyone! and headed north to CUZCO! Through miles and miles of countryside and farmland! the herds are much bigger in Peru than Bolivia fields full of farm animals! Some very fertile villages about, where at lot of growing was going on! - it was very much like 18th century Britain for farming! one tractor every 75 miles! - Again, we had the beautiful snow capped mountains by our side! - the Andes really do put the Peak district to shame!

We stopped at the local market for some bits! - again i have no change! Tried to buy some grapes with 20! - got laughed at! tried again somewhere else and the ladies laughed even more! until i realised what they were laughing at! - i was trying to pay them with Bolivianos! Not Soles! I'm not surprised they found it so amusing!

Called into a local town to take mum to the hospital! Quite against her will! (im not sure how the NMC would have felt! im sure i didn't obtain consent!) We got a prescription from the Dr and went to the pharmacy £1 for the consultation, and £3 for the meds! in and out in an hour! fingers crossed! the anti-biotics will help improve mums condition! Parked up for the night before hitting CUZCO in the morning!

Day 9 (28/6/6)

Did lots of miles! Mum is still poorly! We went to book the adventures while mum rested! the campsite is lovely! and the owners are dutch and very helpful! Hope mum's better soon!

Day 10

White water rafting!!
Jenny and I set off early to have breakfast in town before going to the river urubamba for our first taste of the rapids! After a long delay and an even longer drive! - we arrived at the start! the "happy house!" to get kitted out before a whistle stop tour of health and safety and oar control! before jumping in the raft with the only female instructor in Peru! - We headed off down 20km of water! The instructor said the group do celebrations after each set of rapids! this went down a treat! and we were celebrating everything! The rapids were a little tame! but good for nivices like me! - i will defo be doing it again! 20km later, with freezing feet! - we headed back up to the happy house for almuerzo! (2 course meal soup followed by meat and salad) showers and a hot cuppa! after an enjoyable lunch and a natter with the others in the group, we headed back to Cuzco for tea!

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DAY 6 - England 1 - Equador 0 !!

Early start to get through the border, and on to Puno! Mum is poorly! I did the paperwork at the borders, to give her a little rest! everytime she is able to leave the wheel, she jumps straight into bed! (or onto the toilet!) I got shouted at by a Peruvian officer! oops! I don't blame him though! and i was very embarassed after! I should have known better! i felt very ashamed when i realised that i was stood in the middle of their colour parade! without saluting their flag! - the man was shouting at me telling me to salute! which obviously i did, as soon as i realised my huge mistake! - how disrespectful! i was too busy trying to work out the immigration routine to realise!

Driving through the beautiful scenery with farmland as far as the eye could see! we were bird watching, and pot hole spotting! We tried to pick up the pace to get to Puno for the match! However, believing the game started at 3pm, we called in at Chucuito to have a nosy at the temple de la Fertilidad! As soon as we jumped out of our vans! - (Minus mum, who spotted the chance to jump back into bed to try and recover! she is now really bad! showing no signs of improvement, becoming dehydrated, and everyone was very concerned!) we were met by 3 cute little children, offering to be our guides! We agreed, and they took us into the small temple filled with stone phalluses! (stone willies to the lay person!) Story has it that the ladies of the village used to sit on them to increase their fertility! hasten to add - I stayed well clear! i didnt even touch them! Scared that the legend may have some truth in it! The kids walked us round, showing us the remarkable markings on the stones representing various sacred animals!

Moving on, we headed towards puno to stumble across a jobs worth copper, who wasn't happy with our insurance documents, and wanted to fine us! thankfully, he changed his mind and we were able to move on! Parking up near the cathedral, which was much less OTT than the one at La Paz! we headed out for lunch and football! again, unfortunately leaving mum in the van poorly! Sadly, our boys were not in sight! they had played 2 hours or so earleir!

Had a lovely lunch! Alpacha steak, and 4 other courses for £3! (can't be robbed!)

Parked up near Sillustani ready for tomorrow! such a clear night! so many millions of stars! beautiful!!

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Up bright and early again! 7.30 starts!
-5 degrees outside!
The sun is blazing through the windows, but we are not to be fooled! its cold outside!

Spent the majority of the day exploring the ruins of TIWANAKU -600bc civilisation! We had a fantastice guide, and Les and Margaret did a top job of translating! however, I was amazed at how much I managed to understand without the translation!
The area was beautiful, the ruins were old, and the story behind them was very sad! In a nut shell, the incas who lived here built their homes, minded their own business worshipping the sun, moon, and a variety of animals during the Spanish invasion, the Spanish looted the place, and dug huge holes in search of treasure. The original people of the land disappeared with minimal trace, except the ruins we see today! The incas made several sacrifices of both humans and lhama. This tradition has continued through the years,(however, not as frequent!) we saw evidence of the latest sacrifice remains (hopefully not human!) from the winter solstice a few days before! These sacrifices were made to the Pachamama (earth mother) and various Gods of abundance and fertility.
By 1200ad the incas had disappeared!

We had a tasty lunch nearby! Most of us opting for lhama! Very tasty!

Few base jobs on the vans before heading of towards LAKE TITICACA!(230km long 97km wide one of the world highest major lakes 4000m above sea level!) magnificent views! as far as the eye can see! Once the lake came into sight the blue of the water hit us! followed by the back drop! lake, mountains, followed by even higher snow capped mountains in the distance! Such a beautiful scenery to enjoy while heading to the border of Bolivia and Peru. Getting closer to the border, we started to realise that it might not be as easy at the ones Womble, Les and Margaret were used to!

After showing our passports and driving details on 3 seperate occasions, we arrived at what we thought was the border to be told we had to go back and through the town! Once we arrived at the town, some young men directed us to the right (down a dusty track!) Driving down the dusty track, we were soon to end up where we had started from 15 minutes ago! no nearer to the border, but covered in dust!
Back into the town again we got directed back down the track again!
Thankfully though! this time, we turned left, through a bustling town center (full of stalls, people, bikes, rubbish, pigs, and of course dogs!!) to a dodgy looking building with a young boy directing us! Reluctant to listen to the boy, we were getting confused as to what to do next! Finally! - The boy was right!
He led us through immigration, and across the border, and helped us with various tasks! - ie. pointing out the buildings we needed and watching the vans! - for his trouble he got a few Bolivianos, and a pair of black trousers! (They may fit him in 15-20 years!)
Moving on into Peru, we were stopped by 2 more sets of officials, who didnt seem to be sure why they were stopping us, but felt like they should! (very repetative!)

Driving on through the countryside, with the scattered adobe huts, donkeys, and lhamas along with a variety of other farm animals we headed towards COPACABANA for tomorrows adventure! keeping our eyes peeled along the way for a wild camp for the night!

Saw my first green ibyss (later to discover that it was something completely different after all! but we had been informed on good authority initially that the birds in question were infact green ibyss's! unfortunately, the real name has slipped my mind!) - Les would be so proud! he has very kindly pointed out lots of birds, including an andean gull (that never sees the sea!) and a turkey vulture!

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We had a nosy around the central square, houses or parliment and the Prime Ministers house! (he wasn't home!) Before heading up towards the oldest street in La Paz! (very similar to the Shambles in York, without the tourist tat!) We called in a cafe for a smoothie, and soon got chatting to the couple sat nearby! exchanging travel tales! only to realise that I knew them from York! (small world!)

Mum and I were on a mission to find the entrance to the Cathedral - through the main doors one would think! not so simple! On the first read of the lonely planet, we were lead to believe that the entrance was on the street below, however, walking down there drew a blank! After another look at the LP we realised we weren't reading it properly! The enterance was where we started! (back up the hill!) Puffing our was back up there we found the entrance! CLOSED!!

Back to rummaging around the stalls! We spotted a different market that we hadn't yet explored! with loads of juice stalls! with atleast 20 different types of juice all the fresh fruit beautifully balanced on the front of the stalls! As we walked past, all the girls were shouting at us to buy a drink from them! (how much juice do they think we can consume!) Manyana! Manyana!

DAY 3!

Jenny has arrived! Womble and I headed into town to finish yesterdays haggling! and of course, to keep to our word, and have some fruit juice from one of the stalls! So tasty!!

Back at camp, we packed up, to get on the road!! Destination - TIWANAKU! 600bc old town!

We hired a taxi to guide us out of the city! (makes Sutton Bank look flat!) The hills were huge! and driving up them was quite daunting at times! I kept getting a very unnerving feeling that we were going to get stuck, or mum was going to drive into the gutter! Safely out of the city, we drove across 40km of beautiful countryside! with scattered farms, and still more dogs! We parked up for the night outside the enterance to the ruins so we could be ready first thing in the morning!!

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where to start! we all had an amazing time! so much to tell! best start at the beginning I guess!

Arriving at Lima in Peru, to transfer to La Paz in Bolivia, the flight officials got me panicing a little! They were asking for my luggage tickets! The look on my face made it quite clear that I didn't know what he was talking about! suddenly, the haze was lifted, and I realised he was talking about the "scraps of paper" the guy in Manchester stuck to my passport! (I chucked them 7000 miles away! oops! ) The mans face when I explained that I didn't have them said it all! - interpreted to Joc speak! "I'm never going to see my luggage again!

Thankfully I soon arrived in La Paz! Tired, Stiff, and ready for a beer! However, I was still concerned about my luggage, thankfully, as I stood in the queue waiting to go through customs, I spotted my bags, and mum's air conditioning tube on the conveyor belt in the distance!

Exiting through the sleepy quiet corridors, (in the middle of the night!) I was wondering where to go, and how to find my lift to base! lost in my thoughts, I was surprised to walk around the corner to find 80 - 100 Bolivian people all staring at me as they wait for their relatives! I did not relish the thought of having to fight my way through the crowd to the other side, however, holding my bags tight, I headed forward! Towards the exit! - Only to find everyone parting (like something out of the bible!) at the end of the opening was a man with my name on his board! BINGO! - my ride to base!!

Jumping in his cab, he explained it was a forty minute drive to base! I sat back to enjoy the ride, as we decended down, down, down! the long winding roads, with hundreds of dogs scavenging on the streets! I have never seen so many dogs! then suddenly BAM!! we were hit by the amazing view of La Paz by night! - in the basin of the deepest valley I've ever seen! thousands of street lights guiding the way! Very shortly, we were heading back up, up and up the other side of the valley!

Time to crash out and look forward to exploring tomorrow!!

Day 1 -

We had a lazy morning, unpacking, and catching up on the gossip from home! However, we did venture to the local stretch of shops, to get a few bits! All the stalls sell the same! how anybody makes a living is still a mystery to us!
We called in somewhere for lunch, and both ate lovely meals for less than £2 for both meals! Les and Margaret joined, just in time for Les to point out a small hummingbird near by! Everyone enjoyed a relaxing time staying local! doing a few jobs on the vans, before I crashed in front of a DVD fast asleep by 8pm!

Day 2 - Early start to the day! Womble and I decided to join the hustle and bustle of La Paz! We enjoyed a lovely breakfast in town after a brief look around the San Fransisco church! - gold galore! vile statues of Jesus christ, Mary, and his disciples! Surrounded with such gold, every statue of Jesus had blood dripping off him all the statues were made out of plastic not the most asthetic objects!
Moving on, we wandered up the street! UP being the operative word! The hills were massive! and with the altitude, walking up them, we were soon out of breath! We were admiring the beautiful textiles on sale! Everything was so cheap! how anyone made a living! who knows! all the stalls seem to sell the same thing! in blocks of stalls, there seemed to be distinct areas for textiles, some where else for flowers, a different area for cosmetics, and so it went on! in each block though, it was all the same stuff!

To reassure myself that mum wasn't going to come back to the UK a cocaine habit, we went to the coca museum! Very interesting! learnt lots! Quite scary that the Bolivians have a prayer which is 1000's of years old, expressing the good of the coca plant for them, and then the poem states that the Western world will seize the coca, and it will damage their minds! - oh how true this is!

After the museum we wandered around amongst the busy city - people hollering from their taxi's their destinaiton, to pick up rides - there seemed to be more taxi's than people! and definitely more taxi's than normal cars! ladies and men carrying the largest of parcels which were strapped to their backs! up and down hill - where they get their strength is anyones guess! (guess the coca will help!)

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our pc has died, well, it has a terminal illness, which means i have lost everything. including my email address book. i did manage to save some of the blogs but don't think i have everything. i am hoping that olwyn and john can re-send their blog entries to me so i can post it. some of the entries have been cut short by cyberspace in the transfer and bouncing process, but hopefully normal service will be resumed now, i am using a lap top as a stop gap and its very difficult to type so apologies for any mistakes, the mouse thing seems to have a mind of its own.

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WHO NEEDS AN ENGINE, ANYWAY?!!
At 5pm on Saturday 27th May we were driving merrily into the Argentinian town of Gral Pinedo Chaco when there was a heartrending cry from the engine and a lot of noise. We stopped and looked under OJ in case I had driven over something wot I shouldn´t have but no, it wasn´t that. When I opened the bonnet, it was clear that the engine block had sunk, and was tilted at a funny angle. We both thought, mmmmhhhh, a serious problem indeed.

As Providence would have it, an angel in the form of Carlos came up to us in the middle of the road, saying "Follow me!". Albeit worried about the terrible engine noise we followed him 100 metres and parked outside his house. Carlos (Juan Carlos Santillan) is a diesel mechanic. I could see no winch and I wondered how he could lift the heavy 2.8 motor up again.

Simple, he placed a jack under it. An engine mounting had sheared, along with 2 of its 4 securing bolts. Not surprising in view of the jolting it´s had. His soldering friend (and ours, now) Ferdinand came and removed the severed bolts. Another friend soldered together the broken aluminium mounting. At 8.30pm the work stopped and we slept outside the home of Carlos, his wife and their 5 children overnight. The job was completed the next morning.

What a relief to find that the engine was just fine. Typical in Argentina, the total figure asked for by Carlos was 180 pesos = 36 pounds sterling. Needless to say we did better than that for him. Carlos and his family have been enthusiastically added by us to our list of good friends made in S. America. We can still hardly believe our good fortune at having been approached by Carlos in that street.

We enter Brasil in a few days´time to re-visit our friends in Marilia. Our latest challenge is trying to sort out in advance, the importation of OJ back into the UK, as it has been out just over one year. Not a simple procedure.

What a wonderful part of Argentina this is. All the way along the roads there are amazing arrays of bird-life in the fields either side of the road - it almost makes you dizzy keeping up with this feast for the eyes. Lots of wild flowers too, for Olwyn´s camera.

Love........
Olwyn and John

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Bolivia was/is amazing. I am really enjoying it. It is so very different from anything we have seen so far. The salt lake was terrific but we were sooooooooo very cold in the evening; then in the mornings for breakfast plus waiting for the truck to be loaded it took us until lunch time to warm up and then all afternoon the sun was burning throughthe window, cant win really!

But the whole trip was terrific and worth the discomfort. We were jolly glad to have decided to take a trip and not our own truck. The roads were awful. All the roads to Potosi were dust, dust and more dust, the worst ever. Dust got in where I have not had dust before!!! My chest is about the same; but I think I am getting used to the altitude which is good.

Potosi was very interesting. We had a couple of good guides for city trips, both were indigenous indians and very interesting. We declined to visit the mine - 1) because of my chest and 2) I really do not want to see how people work under such terrrible conditions - it is bad enough being told about it. But we saw everything else.

My back door had broken - again. One of the catches keeps breaking off. I have a dead lock which keeps it shut, but I worry about that. the last time it happened thank goodness I had bought 2 so had a spare, and then it was only a 2 minute job! Jocelyn is bringing me out 6!!!!!! (along with maltesers, cheese sauce and soluble aspirin )

In Potosi we parked at the side of the road in the town near a market and church with a square. It was ok. The director of tourisim gave us 2 police men for the day to attend to our every need!!! This was good, they got us water and the gaspipe sorted. We are having
trouble filling up with gas, we have the wrong fittings. They also found a garage to
fix my door and told us we were ok to park where we were so all was
well.

Now we are in Sucre outside a church, along side a garden it's all nice and
quiet. This is also a very interesting town and has the most amazing textile
musuem with weaving done by the indigenous people; I have never seen anything like
it (and if you know mum you know how many weaving and textile museums she has been to in her life ). All the patterns are carried in the girls heads!! The patterns are so
small and intricate; telling of their lives etc. We were in the musuem all day.

We will be returning to Potosi to see a couple of things we missed, because the altitude got to us, it really knocks you out, so I hope I can cope with the altitude better this time. There is a wonderful market here in Sucre they sell THE most delicious fruit juice ever. I have been twice today always go to the same lady she is getting to know us asked where Margaret was today, a couple of the other ladies called out to me, it is really nice and friendly, I had chicken and fried potatoes at a stall in the market they were lovely cooked fresh and cost less then 50p!! not worth cooking.

If any of you are following Bolivian news this is where the new constituion will be made and signed this was also where independents was signed, so there is alot of history here.

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This area is in the country's central valley between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean it is making a very pleasant change the weather is much warmer, infact the last couple of days have been very hot! Remember you guys who are coming out of the winter into spring; we are coming out of the autumn into winter. We have of course had a few little adventures along the way,

I will tell the story of quarter's Well I had the truck serviced, a full
everything possible service, also had the batteries checked and I needed a
another new leisure battery so the bill was a bit heavy, I paid the account
with my debit card (which does always cause a bit of a problem 'cause its
not a credit card). this took about 15 mins of the cashiers time; also it was 5
mins off lunch time. Then she said "did I want 25 or 75%" I did not
understand the question, and tried to say 'no no pay the whole account'. There
were by this time several people trying to help!!! I understood them to say
that I had to pay 25% of the bill for using my debit card, I tried arguing
that no this was incorrect but was told that this was what happened in Chile.
this did amount to over £100 I was not best pleased. The mechanic, who I
think was in charge of the whole job took me into his office where he, a
secretary, and a further chap from the office all tried to explain in Spanish
what was happening. My whole understanding was that I had to pay 25% for
using a visa card; they got someone on the phone who spoke English, they
explained, very carefully, that this was the way in Chile, everyone was being
very helpful and kind, but, I just kept think £100!!! For nothing. Then I
had the idea that if they would come outside with me we could speak to Les and
Margaret who both speak pretty good Spanish. Yes yes they ALL said, so out we
all trouped, on the way we collected a complete, random stranger who did not
seem to have anything to do with anything!! This I think made 6 people - all
smiling. I explained all to Les, as I understood it. We did agree that 25%
for using a debit card was a bit much. Then the others explained to Les what
they had been trying to explain to me for the past hour after lots of recaps
and explaining Les understood. What I believed to be quarter was infact
"cuarto" which, when said in Spanish, sounds like quarter and this is to us
HP! Or the never never!!! Well by the time all this was explained to
everyone - including the total stranger - everyone was laughing and shaking
hands and they all gave me a hug, not to be out done so did the stranger.
Then he trotted off and the others went laughing to their lunch break. AND
when I finally got Dans football shirt the cashier asked did I want it on
quarters!!! Olwyn and I just laughed. We are asked if we want "cuarto" when
ever we use a card even in the supermarket. Olwyn and I did think we may buy
a new lap top by the time the next cuarto was due we would be in Peru

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We arrive at San Salvador de Jujuy with its perpetual spring-like climate,
we are looking for the merc garage (no change there ). Les has trouble with
his fuel pump and I have no fog light. The garage put Les a new part in his
truck but said they would order me a part. After trying to find a restaurant
we ended up getting a cooked chicken from a supermarket which was very nice.
We had not, as yet, found a night stop but the tourist information had told us
were there was some quiet parking. It was dark so not easy to find but at
last we were parked for the night. Tourist Information lied. It was very noisy but earplugs saved the night. We left early next morning as the park was filling up did a
trip to the supermarket and then headed off for Salta where we intended to
spend a few days. We just followed the road which turned out to be a most
beautiful cloud forest; we were all unprepared for this - I have never been in
a cloud forest before. The lush trees, grass, creepers all the undergrowth
was many shades of green and water dripped every where, after the dryness of
the mountains this was a great surprise. We also saw many birds, but it was
hard to see because the undergrowth was so dense. On our return to JuyJuy on
route to Bolivia we passed along this road again, but this time there was no
cloud, we could see deep valleys, lakes and small settlements. In Salta we
stopped on a campsite which was very nice, we met up with the young Swiss
couple who are traveling in a Land rover, we also met a Brazilian couple who
have been on the road for 4 years; also a young German couple who are
traveling with their little dog. It is very good to meet with other Over
Landers, we are always able to swap information about places to camp,
shipping and road conditions which are not good in this area. It is good to
talk to folk who are doing the same crazy stuff as we are. I enjoyed our
stay in Salta; we had a very good visit to the town looking at all the most
important buildings and learning a little about the area. We were lucky
enough to be inside the Cathedral when the bells started to ring, the sound
was very good but on going outside the sound was fantastic and we were able
to watch the guys ringing the huge bells.

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I decided today, as Les and Margaret are in the garage, to go find a football shirt for DAN (number 2 son-in-law), 'simple' you may think.

OJ and I parked up in a supermarket carpark for the day, there was a taxi rank in this carpark. So I got out the dictionary and wrote out, in spanish, 'Football shirt shop'. I could not find sports shop. Showed this to the taxi driver, after lots of speaking, laughing and hand gestures and the asking of every other person within range 'where to buy a football shirt' we set off with another customer(poor lad) in the front of the taxi. He was going to uni! We stopped at a fuel station, not for fuel, just to ask more questions . When we arrived in the shopping center we assumed, after all the asking, that we were at the correct place. driver got out, we stayed put; he came back with 2 policemen!! who had no english, there followed many questions and much looking at my piece of cardboard, then the driver left us his fare was 1 pound . The 2 police persons (one was a young lady) both got on their radio, still more questions and reading of my card, out came Olwyn and my phrase books, the young lady got on her cell phone. the guy used his. then he suddenly said very excited si! si! he knew what we were looking for at last . we needed to walk 10 blocks, we think they were going to come with us, but Olwyn cannot walk 10 blocks so the young lady used her cell phone to ring another taxi this took quite a while to come. it is so suprising how much you can talk with very little language on each side. Then along comes another policeman (he was a higher rank because the other 2 saluted) but at least he had some english

everything was explained. we were waiting for a taxi that would take us to the shop and a mall. at last the taxi arrived along with a policeman on a motorbike . By this time Olwyn and I are in fits of laughing, all this for a football shirt!!!! anyway the taxi dropped us right outside a sports shop with a mall across the road. we went straight into the shop, asked for what I wanted - but they only had childrens !!!! however, the guy tried to direct us to another shop, but outside, waiting, was the english speaking cop!!! we told him they had none; he said "follow me". we did, around the corner there was a large department store and on the first floor I could see the elusive shirt!! But they did only have one!!!! I bought it. paying for it on my card I was asked if I wanted to pay in quarters.......................that is another story!!

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It astonished us to be driving into Atacama region III shortly after leaving La Serena. There are XII regions to Chile so, in theory at least, this means the Atacama stretches for fully a quarter of the length of this very long and thin and fascinating country.

We had camped that night by a boulder strewn river close to the Pacific, at the little town of Los Hornos, about 30kms from La Serena. Immediately after leaving our campsite we started climbing a steep hill that wound up and up through increasingly dry terrain to the 1,200 metre level. Shortly after arriving at the top we saw a sign announcing that we had arrived in Atacama Province. The wide plain ahead stretched from the coastal mountains to the Andes, but due to the hazy conditions we could only see the Andean foothills, not the peaks. Sparse, low growing vegetation dotted the landscape and our excellent road lead straight ahead over a series of gentle inclines until it disappeared into an indecipherable mixture of haze and mirage. Little changed all day except the occasional dip into a dry gully but we did see one village Incahue with the unmistakeable shone foundations of pre-Columbian dwellings. We had no trouble in maintaining a steady 100kph for hour after hour while occasional signs pointed along dirt tracks to either side saying Mina San Antonio 60kms or Mina Pedrito 56kms or even in one case, another mine120kms to the right of the road. Distances to the mines along the coast were much more modest but you just had to wander at the driving economic forces that had led to tens of thousands of men and families to accept work in such a dreadfully hot, dry and waterless region and even to the bloody and long drawn out War of the Pacific in the 1880s. It was during this war that Chile had conquered huge areas of Peruvian land and cut Bolivia off from access to the Pacific Ocean.

At Copiapo, an oasis town which, after so much dry desert, appeared almost by magic, the Pan-American Highway turned towards the Pacific. We made for Baja Inglesa, a very pleasant sandy, laid back little place where we rested our eyes on the peaceful sea. We had driven nearly 400kms that day, including a cross desert diversion to make an extremely interesting visit to one of the overnight staging camps of the Patagonia-Atacama Rally.

From Bahias Inglesa we went north again, this time along the coast, still on the Pan-Am Highway but twisting around jagged rocky headlands and spurts of black laval rocks that carried right down to the edge of the sea where breakers crashed upon the rocks and dunes. Every few kilometres we came across a basic little settlement, mostly they consisted of a very simple hut or house and a series of reed sunshades where beach campers could provide a secondary income for the fisherman owner and his family. We stopped occasionally to take photographs of this extraordinary landscape where the desert met the ocean but easily drove 100 kms before stopping for diesel and coffee at the next little run down port town.

We were heading for Pan de Azucar National Park, a geologist's dream where the desert sand has turned yellow with sulphur or green with copper deposits and the dry water courses are rust red with iron. The rocky mountainous hills are variously red, cream, yellow, grey, black or white with sand piling between the rocky outcrops and cacti growing everywhere, some taller than a man and some small clumpy ones made up of a dozen or more tennis ball sized ones, some even in full flower. Many were covered in a Spanish moss like growth which appears to have been coated in spume from the sea.

The fishermen from the hamlet of Pan de Azucar offered to row us around the rock from which the park gets its name. Sea lions, seals, otters, penguins, pelicans and many other birds live here, but the price they were asking was for a boat load of ten people, so as there were only four of us decided not to take up the offer. Instead we agreed to have a meal of freshly caught fish we had just seen brought in, Dorado so fresh that it was still wriggling when we watched it being gutted, cleaned and filleted. It was touch and go whether we got any lunch at all as we weren’t the only watchers as a crowd of about twenty cheeky and voracious pelicans crowded around the fisherman’s little marble slab grabbing whatever titbits they could. It turned out to be a draw in the end as most of the pelicans managed to get a good feed from the complaisant fishermen, while we had a large and really tasty meal of fresh grilled and the obligatory papas fritas..

Afterward lunch we drove up to a mirador or lookout, travelling along a steep sandy track that twisted and climbed through the cacti covered hills until, suddenly, we were perched on the edge of a high bluff with magnificent views straight down to the sea far below and also north and south along the dramatic coastal cliffs. To our delight, we then spotted a tiny Chilian fox. Its fur was a mixture of sandy red and grey so that it was almost impossible to see against the surrounding desert until it moved. Even close to you could easily lose sight of it. A few moments later we realised that it had three dainty but half-starved cubs. We soon found out that they just loved bacon and we almost had them eating from our hands while we took photographs. They were also very grateful for a bowl of water.

After this diversion we returned to the Pan-Am Highway and made for Tal-tal, an old nitrates port 25 kilometres off the main road. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the town had been a very important port and rail terminus, from which hundreds of thousands of tons of nitrates were exported to Europe, at first by sailing ships and then by steamers for processing use as fertiliser. Now very little remains of the industry, just a few interesting wooden, almost Victorian style offices and manager’s houses. All the dock area has been flattened and the old loading pier is in a sad and dangerous state of disrepair. The town itself still had plenty of civic pride though, with tumbling fountains, civic gardens, children’s playgrounds, a main square shaded by tall trees and a preserved steam locomotive. We parked up for the night right on the quay side, just feet above the sea and shared the space with yet more pelicans. The day had seen us cross another 250 kilometres of the Atacama.

Day three saw yet another 300 kilometres slip by, as we drove through an area of totally empty desert with not even a single living cactus, let alone anything greener. A single track railway had been criss-crossing our path for hundreds of miles, but, apart from this and the evidence of old mining activity there was very little else to see. Towards the end of the day we passed through the coast range of mountains which meant the mining now closer to the road and we dropped down into the large town of Antofagasta.

Antofagata is still a thriving port from which heavy loads of copper sheet are exported, the diesel trains bringing them down from the mines and processing plants right through the heart of city traffic. There is mining and metal processing activity all around the city while the town centre is thronged with smartly dressed people. It is an attractive place with large municipal gardens and scores of well preserved Victorian and Edwardian style homes and shop fronts, evidence of its long history of commercial success.

All these ports and villages along the coast have to be reached by steep inclines running down gulleys in the coast range of mountains.

When we left we took a 200kms diversion inland across the desert in a NE direction heading for Calama on our way to San Pedro de Atacama. It was day four of our Atacama journey. Once again we drove through heavily mined, flat, sandy desert, but for once, we had plenty of accompanying heavy truck traffic. This was another surprise after days of seeing only a few vehicles of any kind.

Day 5 saw us travel the 100k to San Pedro climbing to well over 8,000 ft to cross the ridge into the bowl in which the charming adobe oasis town sits. From here we paid dawn visit to the volcano flanked Taito geysers, which at 14,200 ft, are the highest in the World. Another day saw us scrambling and hiking in the Valle del Luna, an extraordinary landscape of salt crystals, mineral rocks, clay, sand and salt flats.

On our sixth day of travel we returned to Calama, another bustling oasis town and had a tour of the Chuchicalama open pit mine, the largest in the World. It is currently 4.5 kms long, 3.5 kms wide and 950 metres deep. It has taken forty years to become this size, but it is growing all the time as giant machines bite into its huge seam of ore to produce 2,500 tons a day of pure copper a day and it is expected to treble in size before the seam runs out in 60-80 years. The surrounding spoil heaps are enormous and will soon completely bury the nearby barrack-like accommodation so thousands of miners and their families are being moved to new and better housing in Calama itself.

On the seventh day we headed first west for 100 kilometres before turning North again for another 200kms on the good old Pan-Am Highway to reach our destination for the day. All the way through this desolate landscape there were signs pointing out defunct mines and oficinas, places where miners were able to bring their ore for working and payment. Dates on the signs indicated that nitrate mining in the region started about 1865 and carried on until the 1930s. Some mines only operated for 8 or 10 years, while others lasted for 40 or more. The sad remnants of hundreds of mine buildings, oficinas, barracks and cemeteries littered the desert. Only two of these offices still functions.

It seemed to us that God must have had a very off day at this particular part of the dessert. Yet, when we turned off the highway into the Pampa de Tamaruga National Park we only had to drive another 4kms to find a wild campsite under a range of brown hills covered by hundreds of geoglifeos, remarkable paintings made in pre-Inca times by pushing aside the stones with which the hills were covered and disclosing the smooth underlying rock. There were oblongs, rectangles, circles, arrows, fish, whales, birds, condors, flowers, men walking, men with staffs or weapons and men in boats plus many other subjects, ranging in size from a few feet high to maybe sixty feet wide. Hard to see at first they all became highly visible under the slanting rays of the setting sun. Disappointingly there was no information on when they were made, or who by or why. Was the area greener at one time? Did people from the desert interior go whaling or feast on beached whales? It was an altogether an amazing sight that gave us a real lift after so much bleak and desolate landscape.

We stayed the night before driving on to Arica on our eighth day, when we put yet another 300 kms or more on the clock. Immediately after leaving the geoglifeos we passed through a large plantation of the hardy tamarugar trees whose deep roots are capable of coping with saline water. Most of the day was spent driving up and down the sides of four enormous canyons, the largest of them, which was about 4,000ft deep, took us an hour to drive down and another to drive up. All but one of the narrow canyons floors were fertile, with fields, homes and paddocks, while the fourth, where the water supply had obviously dried up, was covered in the sad ruins of failed farms. All of the canyons had a few geoglifeos, but nothing like the display we had seen the previous afternoon.

At one stage in our journey we had to make a ten kilometre diversion down a very rough, dusty and bumpy ‘ripio’ section of the original Pan-Am. How did people face the 2,000 kms journey to Santiago on horse drawn transport or in early motorcars on such roads?

Arica, the most Northerly town in Chile was another pleasant surprise. It had a real buzz with colourful crowds thronging the pedestrian shopping areas and many good restaurants. We drove out a few miles along a flower lined road to an absolutely superb ethnographical and archaeological museum where we learned more about the people, history and culture of the region in pre-Inca times.

Travel day nine saw us cross the border into Peru. It was still bone dry, rugged, hilly, desert country but it was no longer the Atacama we had both learnt about in school. And, yes we had lived and worked in other desert regions, but there had always been a trace of life, a scorpion, some flies, or a lizard perhaps, but much of Chile’s desert is utterly devoid of life and, in size and impact it really does take some beating

Janet and Peter Milner, Arequipa, Peru March 2006

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OK. The best, most helpful and useful thing I can tell you about Santiago is that Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins is ALSO called 'Alameda'by absolutely everyone, except lost tourists. This little
nugget wasn't on any map I had, nor was it mentioned in the Bradt Travel Guide, which would have been enormously helpful, at least initially! Everybody was telling me about this Alameda place, and I couldn't find the bloomin' thing.... I really impressed the policeman by asking where it was, when I was standing on it! Oy veh!

That said:

Ladies, you going to LOVE Santiago! A cosmetic paradise (more about that later), plus great shopping. Santiago is a fun, relaxed, easy-going polite city with music, good restaurants, and dancing in the streets. And those handsome Latin men still whistle at 50-something women. You gotta love it!

After the 'high' of Easter Island, I wasn't expecting much from Santiago. I considered not going at all. Well, I would have missed a great time! Santiago is wonderful.

I stayed at La Chimba Hostel (www.lachimba.com), in a party part of Santiago called Bellavista. Lots of restaurants, bars, shops and easy walking to the city center. And LOTS of noise on Friday and Saturday nights! It's a nice hostel, but I wouldn't stay there again, at least over a weekend. Loud music - even with earplugs - went on till nearly 5 am. However, there are lots of wide side streets in the area which could be good for parking up the rest of the week, and it seems safe.

And Bellavista is close to something you MUST do if you come into Santiago, which is to take the funicular up Cerro San Cristobal. There is also a gondola, with stops along the way for a Japanese Garden, the zoo, Botanical gardens, but the best reason to go up is for sunset! I suppose because of the air pollution, the air vibrates with the brightest reds, pinks and mauves as the sun descends. And just when you think the colors can't get more intense, they do! And the snowy Andes are surrounding you, floating in pale blue. It's magic.

The cultural high point is the Museo Chileno De Arte Precolombino (10-6 Mon-Sat, 10-2 Sun, 2000 pesos). Five thousand years of sophisticated ceramics, stone-carving, textiles, gold and wood, some from obscure cultures forever lost. Just now there is a fabulous temporary exhibit of an intricately woven textile, a ceremonial costume, the likes of which I have never seen. The curators have displayed it in an area which re-creates in fabric the walls of an
archeological site! Nicely done. There is also extensive information about the conservation techniques of this rare and unusual fabric, and it is shown in the varying light of a 24hour day to show the nuances of the weaving. Extraordinary.

This museum is just off the Plaza de Armas, the heart of the city. It has the requisite cathedral, lots of benches for great people-watching (I saw some Indians in traditional clothing), big shady trees, chess players, music in the bandstand in the evenings,
street performers - stilt walkers, fire eaters - all the great fun things.

Also off of this square are the big pedestrian shopping streets! Clothes or shoes a bit worn? Great stylish things, a snip of the European prices, although higher than in Argentina according to
Maureen. Still very good value.

And if you're hungry from museuming or shopping, read on! Go to Gelateria Italiano Bombolo on Ahumeda, one of those big pedestrian streets. There are lots of ice cream places, but I selflessly checked them all out for you, and this one is the best, and the best value.
For 1200 pesos (about 2.50 US) you get 3 massive scoops, plenty for lunch. They have loads of flavors, and willingly give samples. You pay first, after carefully considering all the options, then go order.Don't miss Bombolo!

Another especially enjoyable visit was to the Bibliotec National on Alameda. I was just walking by and decided on impulse to go in this beautiful Belle epoque building. Be sure to look in the doors down the hallways on the first floor to see the splendid woodwork. And there is a real treasure! There's a lovely cafe, open for lunch, in the center of the building. Quiet, elegant surroundings, cozy and
comfortable, not expensive, I saw no hint of it advertised on the outside. There was also a very good photography exhibit of people of the BioBio area.

Across the street from the bibliotec & up a bit towards the city center from the is a souvenir market, with nice lapis lazuli jewelry and just about every other souvenir one might want. I was all over the city, the prices were good here, and you can bargain a bit. Lapis is mined in Chile. Afghanistan and Chile. Who knew??

Just stroll this city, and remember to look up now & then. Santiago gives many archtectural pleasures.

Ladies, are your cuticles dry? Hair need a shape-up? This is heaven! There are whole malls full of manicurists, hairdressers, pedicurists, facialists, waxers, and it is all a bargain. I had a handful of change (about 3.50 US) I wanted to get rid off, so, as
one does... I got my legs waxed! It didn't hurt, took 10 minutes max, and the lady was jolly and great fun. She seemed to find something amusing about the hair on American legs.... Must be different from Chilean hair! The best place is in a big building called 'Edificio Plaza de Armas'just a bit out from the plaza on Merced, as you face Cerro San Cristobal. It's filled with small shops, vying for your business, with the best prices.

The Museo Colonial de San Francisco on Alameda (near the church of the same name with its rough stone walls contrasting oddly with the elegant wooden European style ceiling) offers a leafy respite from the hot bustling city. Its untidy courtyard is a delightful little jungle of trees and shrubs. Not much to see in the museum, but a lovely, restful, sort of quiet place to get away from the crowded streets for a bit.

To sum up, one can have lots of fun, and find many interesting things to do in Santiago. I highly recommend it for a few days. If you need anything, or have any problems, there is a travel agent named Amaranta. Cell phone is 56-892.005.41 and home is 56-2-861.4072. Tell her you are a friend of a friend of Odette Zero.

PCW

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Womble did her rescue no 2. When OJ got stuck on a very nasty bendy hill, ripio of course, I was so pleased that I had pulled the guy out on the Carretera Austral this had given me a little confidence Les came along to boost my confidence whilst driving very scary BUT the girl did good we pulled up the hill as sweet as you like no prob’s, I was day leader as well such responsibility !!!

Yesterday rained 24hr low cloud miserable day we drove to Panguipulli on route to Argentina taking a ferry boat through the Andes we stayed in, the day was so awful after stopping for Tourist information and our morning coffee/tea we decided to stay in the town which is quite a nice little town, shop, internet, lunch leave around 4pm, I got myself a couple of pairs of trousers very thin, very cheap!! Also a fly swot and soap dish!! Last of the big spenders.

Les checked out the weather on the Internet and the forecast for tomorrow is good, we need clear skies for the next part of this journey, it is very beautiful.

This morning blue sky’s we can see the mountains.J Before we get to the lake Pirehueico which has the ferry, there are two things to see, 1) Volcano Mocho Choshuenco which is a double peak. 2) Huilo Huilo waterfall. The road of course is ripio fairly narrow beautiful. The trees are amazing the view of the volcano is excellent we are well pleased. Then around lunch time we come to the turning for the waterfall, this is also a big ski resort which is being developed, the walk through the forest to the waterfall is thick with very tall trees covered in moss and air plants stunning. The water fall was remarkable at the top of the fall there was a very large bed of what looked like solidified larva rock that the river had forced its way through, the gap for the river was very narrow but the amount of water falling over was huge making the whole thing very spectacular. Of course yesterdays rain had helped. We continued to the lake and the ferry the ride took 1.5 hours the whole trip had been so amazing well worth the wait for good clear weather, Chile is so very beautiful thus far.

After spending the night by the lake we continued our way into Argentina, Chile is so lush and green the trees so thick and tall once we passed through the boarder we were all surprised to find the dry arid scenery of Argentina’s steppe, having had lunch in San Martin de los Andes we drove north which would enable us to go back into Chile vie the Mamuil Malal pass, this road also takes in the Condor nesting site nr Junin de los Andes where I had that wonderful site of a Condor taking off from the ground. (We have to exit Chile then re enter so we get a new visa stamp in our passports, the visa only last 90 days)

No Condor sighting’s off we go back into ~Chile what turned out to be an awesome day.

The drive back into Chile was one of the best days. the scenery was amazing. a forest of "Pehven or Araucaria trees" we call them Monkey Puzzle Trees. we had a back drop of the Volcano Lanin and ofcourse the Andeas

It is an endemic (is that the correct word) tree that grows only in this part of the world. the tree and its seed have played a large part in the history of man in this area the pine nuts are very rich in carbohydrates, It is the same tree that we sae in the petrified forest which of course makes it pre historic. they are beautiful and seem to change as they grew older some of the trees are well over 1000 years old and look nothing like the young (which we see at home) tree. These are the most amazing trees I have ever seen. soooooooooo beautiful. we drove all day in this magnificent scenery with waterfalls and fast running rivers, we were ofcourse on ripio aand the dust was pretty bad but we all enjoyed so much what we were seeing the road was forgotton. crossing the boarder was very easy and we now have a new stamp for a further 90days, we go back into Argentina again soon. at the end of the ripio which was also the end of the day we tried to find a hot spring for a good soakthis eluded us some how instead we found a rodeo our first we only caught the last hour. it was good fun we hope we may catch a whole rodeo sometime. we camped the night in the rodeo field, there was a party going on and the others had a noisy night but I heard nothing and slept soundly.

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Funny, it didn't FEEL like I was in the most remote inhabited place on earth, although the numbers are impressive - 3,700 km off the coast of Chile, 4,000 from Tahiti - WAY out in the Pacific. But "The Good Book According To Carl" says it is, so it must be true.

I've had that 'last place on earth' feeling other places, such as in the jungle in the Amazon River basin of Peru, perhaps some of the places out on the steppes of Mongolia, but even standing on Easter
Island's highest point where you see 359 degrees of impossibly blue ocean stretching endlessly (a small copse of trees on another hill blocks that last degree), it still didn't seem like I was so cut off
from the rest of the world. Perhaps it was the warmth & friendliness of the people. Or perhaps it was because I was so totally thrilled, down to my curling toenails, to be there!! I couldn't stop smiling .
This was a major childhood dream come true, one I'd been holding for, what, nearly 40 years? And here it was, coming true right in front of my eyes.

The only bad part about it was I had to leave Maureen, Olwyn & John to do it. It was a quick decision, having found out from LanChile I had to leave Agua Calientes (where they were enjoying a lovely mineral bath) IMMEDIATELY in order to even have a chance at making the next morning flight. So at 2.30pm we hugged good-bye - thanks for making it easy for me, you guys, and supporting my decision to go.
You helped & soothed my spirit. We will travel together again - and I jumped on a bus for Osorno. My hope was for an overnight bus from there to Santiago. Not good news, the buses leaving Osorno would get me there too late. Just by great good dumb luck an English speaking college student overheard my plight, and told me I could to go to Valdivia & get another bus there. OK. I had no idea if this information was accurate, but I had nothing to lose so I got a ticket
to Valdivia. Wonderfully, he was right; I got to Santiago & on out to the airport at 8.10am for a 9.30 flight, still having to refund one unused ticket portion & buy another one! The agent was great, and got me to the gate as the flight was boarding. A bit tighter than I like! (n.b. if you have to take an overnight bus, do check first to see if the movies play all night...)

And it was SOOO worth it! Easter Island exceeded even all those years of expectation. The only town, Hanga Roa - all 3 or 4 square blocks of the central area - is so low key as to nearly be asleep! The sidewalks can be rocky dirt paths or squares of cement just far enough apart to have brought a few tourists' ankles to grief, I'd bet. Dogs sleep on the street, confident that the vehicles will go around them. A few tin-roofed shacks, nearly overgrown with
bouganvilla, are trying to fall down. Coconut trees drop their coconuts. Locals sell pineapples from the back of their pickups. Things on the shelves in the grocery stores are all higglety-piggelty. Young men ride their horses up & down the street, doing equine wheelies to impress the girls. Some things are universal, no?

The air is scented with flowers and those pineapples, there seems to be not a speck of pollution in either the air or the water. Sea turtles swim in the harbour, you can see bright yellow little fish.
You don't see many vapor trails in the sky. Maybe it IS the Last Place on Earth... The morning I went shopping the store signs said they would open at 9 or 9.30. I was cruising up & down the Main Drag until 11am before they were all open! Having said all that, there are smart cafes, restaurants & shops, too. An example of Hanga Roa lowkey-ness: Kevin Costner came to town, wanting to go fishing with an old local woman noted for her skill. She told him she was busy
cleaning house, he'd have to come back tomorrow! True story, the woman is *Jerome's mother-in-law. (yes, he came back)

Easter Island is bigger than I thought! I'd imagined an easy 3 or 4 hour bike ride around it. Well, it's 7 hours, just to go diagonally across it. There's a lot of uphill & headwind. Trust me on this one! Unless you're feeling really energetic (and have a backside of iron, no gelseats on these rental bikes!), take a tour. Take several. A very good guide I can recommend is *Jerome, a congenial young-ish Frenchman who married a local woman. He does a great all day tour,
you see all the highlights, for 35 US. He takes only 4 people in his truck. Many agencies in town start at 50 US, and you're with up to 20 people. He also has a new B & B. www.chezjerome.net chezjerome@hotmail.com He took us across the island to watch the sunrise behind a line of black Moai (heartstoppingly spectacular, as you can imagine. Beyond my capacity to describe. First, you are sitting in total darkness watching the shooting stars, inches from your nose because there are NO other light sources. Gradually,
gradually the outline of fifteen massive Moai start to come into focus just a few yards away. The blood red sun brings them to life right in front of you, you want to run and embrace them, suck up their energy, know their ancient knowledge. The only sound is the
ocean crashing and your heart pounding. You feel the blood in your veins, such can be the power of this event) as well, and can arrange anything. Really, anything.

I stayed at the Hostelling International Kona Tau, 20 US per night for members, 25 for non-members. (of course you can pay for all this in pesos, too, which is actually a bit less) www.konataurapanui.com It was good.

Of course you are waiting to hear about the Moai! They are wonderful, impressive and mysterious. There are nearly 1000 of these impassive-looking statues, heights varying from a meter or two, to twenty-one meters! Scattered all over the island, in various states of erosion, and positions, one is lying underground, with only his face showing, surrounded by grass. Gave me a start when I nearly trod upon his nose! Only a few dozen have been set upright again. The quarry where they were chisled out has made my Top 10 list of most amazing sights. There is an army of them, marching down slopes of the volcanoe! I had no idea there were so many. You keep looking and
looking, wishing they could speak, and tell you of their long and tragic history.

The small local museum gives lots of good background information, and is a good place to start to have a sense of the history of the island. There are lots of petroglyphs all over, many related to the Cult of the Birdman. The water & reed filled volcanoe crater behind the Birdman village at Orongo is also a breath-taking sight. You can hike the whole way around the rim, but be careful not to get blown in.

Surprisingly - or maybe not, Easter Island is that quirky, magical kind of place - I saw a sign offering massages and facials for a mere 22 US for an hour. This is the only bargain on the island! And it was fabulous. The woman's name is Carolina, and she focuses so intently, and so carefully on you during her treatment that you feel totally, tenderly cared for. I went back twice. Her shop is on the left hand side of the Main Drag (otherwise known as Av. Atumu Tekena, but I never saw a single street sign) as you face the airport, with a small white sign in the window, easy to miss. Carolina's phone number is 551.675, and she speaks very little English. But that's OK, she figures out very quickly what you want. Or perhaps more accurately, what you need.

Speaking of prices, everything is high on Easter Island. Nearly all the souvenirs I saw later in Santiago for less. So just buy what you absolutely HAVE to have, like a small Moai to remind you of that very special place. Grocery prices were 2 - 3 times the mainland. LanChile puts its specials online Tuesday afternoons. The further you can book ahead, the better price you will get on your flight. LanChile doesn't do last-minute walk-up discounts, sadly!

So, read about Easter Island and see if it calls to you. If you can, park up your trucks (I have a contact in Santiago, that info will be in the Santiago story) and fly out to this storied, beautiful, Polynesian volcanic speck. There is no where else on earth like
it. PCW

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Hi from your long-lost OJ. We are in good spirits here at the Northern Lakes in S. Chile despite the almost continuous rainfall at present. This area receives more rain than does the English Lake District. No doubt, though, we'll recall this with fond memories when we're perspiring in the Atacama Desert.

Olwyn manages without the aid of an elbow crutch now, walking using a stick, or nothing at all over short distances. She walked a forest trail recently which was over 1 km and went even further than that on one beach. Trees are Chile's crowning glory. Hills are covered in indigenous species, and on the forest trail I mentioned, alerce trees of up to 2000 years old towered above us.

Pat came to visit SAM from Switzerland and traveled in Womble for nearly 2 weeks before departing to fly to Easter Island - one of her main goals. She emailed us on 7th March to say that we MUST go there. It was good to see Pat again and we hope that when she is back in Switzerland she will be transported in her mind back to Chile, her friends and Easter Island when she is involved in the more tedious dental sessions back in her workplace.

On the day Pat left, and after a session in a hot (non-sulphur!) thermal pool, Maureen drove Olwyn and me the 90 minutes journey up Volcano Puyehue. 2240 metres high, it blew its top in 1960 causing immense damage, but as is the nature of these things, the surface and surrounding areas are richly verdant again. The silence inside the Volcano's crater was absolute - except of course when Olwyn and Maureen were talking.

We are still in touch from time to time with our friends in Marilia and we always think of them with warmth and gratitude. Without their support, Olwyn's heel would not have started the healing process which has brought it to its present state. She still has to work hard to help, by, for example, her discipline in exercising the heel for an hour first thing every morning, but progress there is, albeit slow.

Mickey and Bigfoot are further North in Chile and the largest SAM contingent is now Womble, Kontiki and OJ. Olwyn and I intend to stick with our original plan to leave S. America in July, to reach the UK in August. Research has not yet thrown up any ro-ro ferries direct from the West (Pacific) coast of S. America to Europe, and certainly not ones which transport passengers too. We may therefore feel obliged to use the East coast again, despite the damage/losses OJ experienced coming out here on the Grimaldi ferry.

But, we're enjoying every moment of the present and seeing as much as we can each day. OJ is behaving well. Womble has only needed to tow us out of trouble once, when we ground to a halt on a steep ripio (dirt/gravel) hill. Maureen was also guardian angel to a young couple whose 4 x 4 had been forced off road into a ditch by an oncoming bus. Olwyn's photos are still 90% flowers, and she enjoys birdspotting with Les. The way they talk about 'common' condors etc led me to suggest that they inaugurate a new twitchers' club - the BBC - Blasé Birdwatchers' Club!

Among the many highlights of this trip so far has been our journey along Ruta 7, the Carretera Austral, over 1000kms of ripio which is very precarious in parts. The scenery was astounding. We shared some of the feelings of awe we experienced in 2004, driving along the Karacorum Highway from Pakistan into China.

Blimey O'Reilly we're lucky...

Love from OJ

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