Oh well though, that’s traveling. Home now. It’s late. Goodnight.

Before arriving in Bogota we weren´t exactly sure what to think. Sadly, there is so much negative press about Colombia and it´s security that we were still a little weary, yet on the other hand we had heard nothing but rave reviews from other travellers. Over the past four days we´ve had a good chance to see Bogota and it has easily been one of our favorite places. The city is beautifully situated up in the mountains, it´s modern and lively while still retaining some beautiful colonial style neighborhoods, and the people are wonderful. We´ve also been pleasantly surprised that the security seems a non-issue and we´ve felt very safe walking around, even at night. So here´s the last few pics of the trip, from Bogota …

From here the only thing left is to fly home =(

Buenos Aires:

• Tango in the Park – Tango is all over Buenos Aires so you won´t miss it, but there are many options for soaking up the excitement. You can see street performers in the park, go to a cena show, or watch an intimate dance at a cafe. We did them all and liked them all, but we really enjoyed the atmosphere of watching it in the park. Head to San Telmo on Sundays to catch a show.
• The Beef – It`s mouthwatering (even for non-beef eaters) and parrillas are everywhere. Our favorite cut was asado de tira and our favorite parilla was DesNivel in San Telmo (a packed locals spot that is dirt cheap and has excellent traditional food).
• San Telmo Antique Fair – Only on Sunday, but worth the wait. It`s a lively street scene that has more to do with socializing and watching the street performers than antiques. Try to catch a tango show as well.
• Futbol – Don`t miss it. It`s a blast. We heard the Boca Jrs. games are classic fun, but we went to River stadium for a national game against Bolivia. Pick up a jersey beforehand if you want to blend with the crowd and best to go with a tour agency to avoid lots of confusion and crowds.
• Olsen – For a trendy night on the town, this Palermo eatery was a little taste of NYC in BA (but at better prices!). The best part was sampling the delicious drinks. Sitting at the bar also allows you test out your Spanish skills on the bartenders…
• Shopping – You won´t be able to get enough of it. The porteños are definitely trendy and the clothes are good value so try to come with some spending cash. We liked Santa Fe street, Palermo, and Florida streets the best.

Mendoza:

• Wine tasting in Lujan de Cuyo – Most people do bike tours in Maipu, but if you`re into wine and you want to do it right, rent a car, make reservations at wineries (during the week), and do it yourself. First, go for a tasting at Vines of Mendoza and get information about the best wines and wineries. We liked the tours at Septima and Carlos Pulenta the best. (Skip the La Rural museum unless you don`t know the first thing about wine.)
• Tablao for a Lomito Completo – Did you see that picture of the lomito sandwich we posted a while back? This is where it´s from. If you don´t make it to Mendoza, get one somewhere else because they are oh so good.
• Hostel Independencia – We liked this big hostel with a central location. The breakfast was generous and the weekly bbq was also good fun and food.

Other stuff in Argentina:

• Iguazu Falls – Don`t mean to diminish this one by putting it in the “other stuff” category because it was one of our favorite sites on the trip. Give yourself 2 days to see the whole thing. Start with the Brazilian side for an overview of the falls and then go to the Argentinian side to get up close. Both sides have unique views, so its worth it for the cheap park tickets… and somehow the falls never get boring because they are just so big!
• Andesmar – Our favorite bus company in Argentina, with a good website.
• Lomo Sandwiches – A little slice of heaven stuffed between 2 pieces of bread. We actually blogged about this one earlier.

Central Chile:

• La Casa Roja – We loved this hostel in Santiago. It was big, had a beautiful kitchen, tv room, and numerous lounge areas, not to mention sparkling bathrooms and a pool with a swim-up bar!
• Valparaiso – Worth the detour from Santiago, this small coastal town is colorful and quaint and boasts some pretty cool history and really good seafood. Pick up a copy of Isabel Allende´s Daughter of Fortune before you go.
• Los Porteños – Really good local seafood spot. Famous for thier seafood soups and chowders.
• Le Filou de Montpelier – A tiny simple place between Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepcion, this french restaurant serves only a set daily menu. It was one of the best meals we had and at a pretty good price.
• The bus ride from Mendoza to Santiago – Do this one during the day because the views as you pass through the Andes are spectacular.

Other stuff in Chile:

• Empanadas- Sometimes more like a calzone, but usually always a really good option for a cheap meal.
• Kalabaza – Really good cafe in Puerto Montt. Take advantage of the set menu for a deal.

Patagonia:

• Torres del Paine National Park (Chile) – The highlight of Patagonia, this park boasts some of the most dramatic scenery in the world. 3-5 days (or more) is ideal here if you want time to explore and enjoy. The W features the parks most famous spots and while all the sections of it are amazingly cool, we especially loved the French Valley for its 360 degree views and interesting trail. Be prepared for extreme weather – the sun can be just as deadly as the wind.
• Erratic Rock Hostel – Probably our favorite hostel on the trip, this is place is small and cozy and a good hub for before and after trips to the park. Daily baked goods and info talk are pluses too.
• El Calafate and Perito Moreno Glaciar (Argentina) – More touristy than Puerto Natales, but the place to go for outdoor gear shopping and trips to glaciars. Perito Moreno is the most dynamic and worth staring at for a while.
• Ushuaia (Argentina) – The city at the end of the world. It´s a pretty cool town with dramatic scenery and the view from Glaciar Martial is worth the trip.
• Bodegon Fueguino – Great local restaurant in Ushuaia that features small plates and specializes in lamb.

General tips…

• We forgot this one in past summaries, but wanted to send a notice to future SA travellers that most places down here take their weekends seriously. Everything is usually closed on Sundays and in many places closed early on Saturday as well. That goes for restaurants, stores, wineries, museums, churches, sometimes tours, etc. Try to avoid making your only day to visit a town Sunday (if you plan on visiting any sights) and be sure to check hours before heading anywhere on the weekends because it will likely be closed. (Internet cafes are usually an exception, even on Christmas!)
• To add to the inconvenience, the Argentine schedule is classic craziness. They take their siestas seriously, often shutting down between 1-4 everyday and they love their nightlife. The prime dinner rush is at 10:30, meaning many restaurants are still not open by 7pm. Clubbing starts between 1-2am, so bring some sleeping pills because you will definitely need to adjust your internal clock here! (Some exceptions in tourist locations during high season, but just be prepared).
• Reservations in high season a must. Although you can usually always find a place to stay, the best places will be booked. Book buses and flights at least a little bit in advance if you want to stick to your schedule.
• Prices for flights vary a lot here unlike the states. If you don´t like a price, just keep checking because it may change daily or hourly.
• Ahh the buses. Heaven after Bolivia. These things are equiped and the cama class is really quite comfortable. For the long journeys, definitely enjoy the luxury.

So that´s the spiel on Argentina and Chile. Hope that helps. As always, drop us a line if you have more questions…

So we started in Ushuaia and set out our first evening to head across the Drake Passage for Deception Island and Cuverville Island. Deception Island didn’t offer much of a view due to heavy cloud cover, but in Cuverville we got our first chance to get out in the zodiacs and get a closer look. This time it was only a zodiac cruise, so we’d have to wait one more day before actually laying foot on the continent.

The next day it was on to Port Lockroy where we would finally have a chance to get on land and wander around a penguin rookery and see some Antarctic wildlife up close, not to mention some pretty cool looking whale skeletons. The weather was still a bit dicey, snowing off and on, but we were obviously so excited to get close to some penguins it didn’t really matter.

Port Lockroy would also be where we kept anchor over New Year’s Eve and celebrated Antarctica style. In a bizarre and very nice twist of fate at about 9 in the evening on the 31st we got our first clearings of the weather and we ended up having an absolutely gorgeous New Years. And of course, aside from being in Antarctica for New Years we also had the unique experience of ringing in the new year in daylight, the only place in the world where that is possible.

On New Years Day it was up nice and early for some more penguin action, this time in nearby Paradise Harbor. Sadly we had reverted to our snowy weather, but oh well. One of the best parts of the Paradise Harbor excursion was the fact that we had to navigate a very dense field of icebergs to get to the actual landing, so we snapped off some fun shots of icebergs along the way.

The following day was set to be our last day in Antarctica with an excursion to Half Moon Island, but sadly the weather was too bad for us to use the zodiacs so we couldn’t get off =( We passed right by Half Moon Island and into the Drake Passage steaming our way back towards Ushuaia. After a long and rocky day and a half across the Drake Passage we hit the final spot on the tour, Cape Horn.

Not the most scenic place in the world, but maybe if you could look at the ocean floor you’d see something more interesting considering the number of shipwreks around that little piece of land.

So after a few more days in Ushuaia we went back to Buenos Aires where we are currently relaxing for a few days before we head for the final stop on the trip, Bogota, and then it’s back home. sigh.

Set in a harbor surrounded by mountains, Ushuaia has it all – penguin colonies, trekking, cruising (even around Cape Horn), glaciars, museums, and shopping (all the ¨end of the world¨ paraphernalia you could want) – and it´s quite picturesque. While we couldn`t do it all, we got a good flavor starting with the former prison at the end of the world turned maritime museum. A pretty cool tourist attraction in town, this place has some interesting history about the many voyages and shipwrecks around Cape Horn and expeditions to Antarctica as well as prison life in one of the most remote former jails.

Next, on to the national park Tierra del Fuego, which is famous for its landscapes and being the end of Route 3, the road (once again) to the end of the world. We did some short hikes in the park and overlooked Lapataia Lake, which borders Argentina and Chile.

Finally, for a view of the city from above, we hiked up to Glaciar Martial on our last day. From here you can see Ushuaia and the beagle channel below which heads out toward the ocean and Cape Horn.

And what city at the end of the world would be complete without a post giving you the distances to the other major cities in the world?? It doesn´t get much further than Tokyo from here, although NY is still a lofty 10.6K kilometers…

We´re heading back to Buenos Aires now, but more to come on real end of the world soon…

Eventhough we couldn`t be home to celebrate with you all, we had a relaxing time drinking lots of wine and watching cheesy 90s movies with some friends of ours in Puerto Natales, Chile. The gorgeous Patagonia mountain backdrop definitely made for a memorable Christmas location.

We are now in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. It`s a cute little harbor town with mountains all around. Although it`s a bit touristy as many cruise ships pass through, it still has an Argentine feel.

We set sail today on the Marco Polo to Antarctica…

Happy Holidays to all and we`ll be back online in a week…

Zig-zagging back across the border to Argentina (neither country wanted to forfeit the beautiful land, so all the major sites are conveniently divided between the two), we set out to explore one of the most dynamic glaciars of Patagonia…

About the height of a 14 story building (60m above water) and 5 km wide at the face, this massive glaciar is 250 square km and advances 2m every day. From the various viewpoints in front of the glaciar, you can`t even see where it ends as it sprawls on beyond our sight…

There isn`t much else to say besides, it`t really big and cool!!! Listening to it crack and waiting and watching for ice chunks to break off and creat huge waves beneath it kind of make it feel alive.

Unfortunately, we didn`t have the time to make it up to El Chalten and Fitz Roy for more trekking, but maybe next time. We really can`t say enough about how cool Patagonia is, so hopefully we`ll make it back for round 2 someday.

The most trekked route in Torres del Paine is called the W based on the shape of the route and that’s basically what we did, however we did a shortened W in 3 days just via day hikes rather than the full trekking. So on Day 1 we came into the park and set out on our first hike along Grey lake to the Grey Glacier …

On day 2 it was a long haul up into the French Valley which offered a wonderful view where you are surrounded by mountains and glaciers all around you. Along the way you have some great views of the various flora in Torres del Paine as well as some of the best views of the “cueros” (horns). I’ll try and stitch a photo together for a panoramic view, but i don’t have the time/tools right now …

Day 3 the weather turned a little bit worse and we lost our beautiful sun and blue skies, but none the less we had a great day for our hike up to the torres (towers) …

After 3 days of hiking we decided it would be good to switch gears and try seeing Patagonia in a different way so we setup a 2 day overnight kayaking trip down the river Serrano at the southern boarder of the park. The wind proved to be a bit of a challenge for the kayaking and made it a bit more difficult than we had envisioned, but none the less it was great fun and we had some amazing views of the park from a distance on day 4 …

At this point we were beat and ready for some R&R, but we have no time to waste, so it’s off to El Calafate to check out the Perito Moreno glacier, one of the world’s largest and still advancing glaciers. More about that in a couple days.

Merry Christmas everyone, we are off to a good old fashioned Chilean Christmas BBQ. yum!

After leaving Mendoza we moved into Chile to spend a little time checking out Santiago and Valparaiso. Truth be told we weren’t even sure we were going to go to Santiago at all since it has the reputation of being one of the more uneventful cities in South America. That basically proved to be true so we spent only a short time in Santiago before heading just a little further west to Valparaiso. Similar to Santiago there isn’t particularly a lot to say about Valpo other than the fact that it is known for having some colorful and vibrant neighborhoods, in a kind of hippie or bohemian way. So we spent only about a day and a half in Valpo before it was time to make our way into Patagonia. Here’s a couple pics from Santiago and Valpo …

From Valparaiso we took an overnight bus down to Puerto Montt which was really our official launch pad into Patagonia. From Puerto Montt we took a 3 day ferry ride through the glacial fjords on the western coast of Chile which eventually brought us down to Puerto Natales, one of the main towns in the heart of Patagonia. Aboard the Navimag (the name of the ferry) we basically just relaxed and made friends, watched some amazing scenery stream by day after day, drank quite a bit, and at one point got a little sea sick where the boat passed into some rough waters in the Pacific ocean.

Once we got to Puerto Natales we had a day to gear up before it was time to see the wilder side of Patagonia in Torres del Paine National Park …

A couple of days later we wisened to the fact that bus travel for wine touring wasn’t going to cut it and since we wanted to visit some of the nicer wineries a bit further away from the town we decided to rent a car and do things the easy way. Fortunately this day turned out to be much more productive and we got to visit a few very nice wineries.

Our first winery, Septima, was our favorite in terms of wine and also offered a cool raised view of their wine facilities. Their operation itself wasn’t particularly special, using stainless steal for pretty much everything, but it was a nice start to the day.

Our second winery, Carlos Pulenta, was the most interesting of our tours. For starters they were using concrete fermentors for a portion of their wines which is something i had never heard of and sounds like it’s a pretty new technique that is not used much yet. Even more impressive though is the fact that the entire winery is built in vertical layers so that rather than having to use pumps to move the wine through each phase of the production process they can just rely on gravity itself, simply opening up channels from one floor to the one below to let the wine pass to it’s next container. The design also ensures that the cellar is well below ground level which helps maintain an even temperature without much energy cost. Pretty cool stuff.

Our final visit was to Ruca Mallen, which didn’t offer the same level of interest as far as the tour was concerned, but they had a nice building with a view of their winery and a very nice tasting room. They were also the only winery which gave you a spending voucher to use for buying wine after the tasting, which we liked.

Sadly only a very small portion of the wines made in Mendoza are being exported to the US or other locations right now, and most the wines that are exported are often not the most interesting varieties. So we were able to grab a few bottles for immediate consumption but sadly won’t likely be able to get more from these wineries once we get home.

So from Mendoza it is onward back to Chile for a couple stops in Santiago and Valparaiso before we turn directly south and head into Patagonia =)

Cusco and the Sacred Valley:

• Machu Picchu/Lares Trek with SAS – This one is of course a classic, but we also have to recommend doing a trek in the area. Most people we know did one of the classic alternative treks and loved it. There are a number to choose from based on your interests, but we were really happy with the Lares Valley and SAS did a great job. The day at Machu Picchu was the most tiring part, so don`t think you can`t do the trek, you can. You have to climb Wayna Picchu when you get there for the best views.
• Jack´s Cafe – Order yourself a ¨gordo¨ and enjoy. Perfect after coming back from a Sacred Valley trek.
• Tratamundo Cafe – On the second floor of the South side of the plaza, this place has great views of the Cathedral and serves up devine sandwiches and cafes…yum.
• Korikancha and the Convent of Santo Domingo – Our favorite sight in Cusco and one of the most impressive Inca structures.
• Pisaq – Our favorite sight in the Sacred Valley (aside from Machu Picchu). There are a number of temples to see, but not are all worth the effort. Do this one first or make sure to leave time because it´s big and worth the time.
• San Blas Neighborhood – The best place to stay in Cusco, without a doubt.
• Alpaca gear – You`ll need it to keep warm and it`s cheap!

Lake Titicaca:

• Reed Islands – It only takes a few hours but they are one of the most unique places we went.
• Quinoa Soup – The lake is almost like the heartland of the Andean experience and it wouldn´t be complete without trying some quinoa soup. Delicious.

Other stuff in Peru:

• Segundo Muelle in Lima – Considered one of the best cebicherias in Peru and it doesn´t disapoint. Absolutely worth going to if you go through Lima.
• Cruz del Sur – Our favorite bus company in Peru, bingo included.
• Monasterio de Santa Catalina in Arequipa – Awesome convent in Arequipa worth wandering around in for hours.
• Fez – Really good falafel house in Arequipa.
• Chicha morena – Special juice made from purple corn and fruit juices.
• Pisco sours – It´s not a trip to Peru if you don´t try one of these. Refreshing and delicious.
• Dunkelvolk – Cool Peruvian surf brand.

La Paz and around:

• Salteña tasting – Heaven in a little pastry. Our favorite place was Pacena La Salteña (get tumbo juice as well).
• Wagamama (not the UK chain) – Get your sushi fix here since we know you´re probably craving it about now.
• Coca museum – Small, but packs a punch. Really interesting museum with cafe for tasting coca products.
• Adventure Brew Hostel – One our favorites so far, this place was big and fun with most of the amenities you could ask for at a cheap price. The free beer every day helped!
• Biking World´s Most Dangerous Road – As if the bragging rights aren´t enough of an incentive, it´s actually a kick ass ride and totally worth whatever you pay. We went with Gravity Assisted and loved ém.

The Jungle:

• Pampas tour - This is a good intro to the jungle with the most opps for viewing wildlife. Whatever you do, the jungle is fun and you get to hang out in hammocks a lot. Getting to Rurrenabaque is an adventure though, so good luck with that one.
• Moskito bar – Good bar in Rurrenabaque with damn good caipirinhas.
• Casa de Campo – Really good restaurant in Rurre with patio seating at someone`s house. The couple cooks everything you order fresh.

Eastern and Southern Bolivia:

• Southwest Circuit and Salar de Uyuni – This was one of the true highlights of our trip. Surreal scenery for three days on a four wheel drive trip you won`t forget. It gets cold, so bring your alpaca purchases along. A definite must see!
• Minuteman pizza – Excellent pizza place in Uyuni that´s warm and cozy and totally yummy.
• Sucre – The white city. This one actually lives up to its billing a bit better than Arequipa in Peru and is worth the one or two day stop when travelling between Uyuni and La Paz.
• Convento de San Felipe Meri - You have to knock on the door to get in, but the courtyard is gorgeous and head to the roof for a view you´ll never forget.
• Para ti chocolates – Divine!

General tips…

• These countries are cheap!! So soak it up while you can…
• Prepare yourself for some ugly bus rides. The system in Peru is pretty good with tourist buses, but there is no real system in Bolivia (meaning lots of random stops and locals crowding on along the way).
• Everyone says everywhere in South America is dangerous, but it`s all exaggerated. Watch your bag at all times, but don`t be scared because its not nearly how it sounds.
• Look up the expected temperatures before you come. It`s cold here, even on the coast. Come prepared.
• Girls, bring toilet paper with you everywhere and get used to peeing behind rocks.
• They speak a little more English here and are more accustomed to tourism, so no problem if you don`t speak the language. No need to book ahead either, you can do almost everything when you arrive (except Cusco).

So that´s the quick rundown on what we liked most in Peru and Bolivia. If you have other questions about the area then drop us a line and we´ll answer what we can.

Chels and I aren´t particularly big steak eaters, so we´ve been doing our best to try and appreciate the great beef that they have here in Argentina. One thing that we have found, and love, are the lomito sandwiches. mmmm … lomo, jamon, queso, huevo, tomate (steak, deli sliced ham, cheese, egg, and tomato). perfecto!

Meeting up with friends from home and partying with new friends at the SAE social…

Taking in the street fairs and tango performances…

Enjoying the beef (and wine)!!

Marveling at the city scenes…

Buenos Aires is pretty much the New York or Paris of South America with tons of trendy cafes, bars, shops, etc. and a unique scene that blends Argentine culture into a definitively international city. You hear a lot of English here, so it can be more challenging to pull yourself away from the gringos and pubs and into the parillas, but whichever scene you experience, it`s definitely a great city with lots to see and experience… But don`t expect to be on a normal tourist schedule here, the dinner rush doesn`t start until 10pm and the clubs don`t close.

Luckily, I have first-hand experience and can vouch for how much fun it is. It all begins with a 2 hr bus ride to Ezeiza Airport (or you can opt for the more expensive cab), once you find the terminal de cargas, navigate through the buildings to the customs building (dock B)…and don`t forget to get certified first or you`ll have to go back and do it all again!

Then, once you get to the offices with all your paperwork and original passport, WAIT to be helped, but don`t ask for assistance. Once allowed to enter pretend not to speak any Spanish so they take pity on you and follow the directions to offices: 1,2,cargo,2,3,2,1,2,3,cargo. Hopefully after 10 stamps, you`ll get your goods with only having to pay ¨storage fees.¨ The unlucky ones may have to pay more ¨taxes¨ or get more stamps from other offices in different buildings…

here is a map in case you find it helpful:

Finally, you can sleep on the 2hr bus ride back to the city…

My advice would be don`t get anything sent to Argentina unless it`s absolutely necessary…and if it is, embrace the Argentine way. Although curiously strange, it is definitely amusing. Good luck!!!

We were originally pretty bummed to be missing the holiday season this year in order to be travelling, but things are slowly looking up. Tonight we won’t be enjoying any turkey and stuffing, however thanks to SAE we do get to go to an all-you-can drink Thanksgiving bash here in Buenos Aires, so neener-neener :p

Well, we just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving from Buenos Aires. Eat some extra turkey for us

The game was held at the River Plate stadium, the largest in Argentina, and ended with a 3-0 result in favor of Argentina, naturally. One fun thing that you are not likely to see at a game in the states is that during the second half it was getting very hot for folks in the sunny parts of the stadium, so the fire department opened up some hoses to cool people off. Luckily we were in a shaded area which was actually quite pleasant =)

Iguazu Falls is a massive complex of literally hundreds of waterfalls all kind of chained together along 2 km of river. There is no place on ground level which allows you to see the whole set of falls at one time, so you have to make your way up and down the river to see the whole thing. And to make it more interesting the falls is split mostly between Brazil and Argentina, with each side containing their own interesting vantage points for viewing the falls. So rather than spending a boring couple of hours looking at some waterfalls we spent 2 days hiking around the parks on both sides. I could try and remember some of the details about the falls, but you´re better off just googling or checking on wikipedia, so lets just see some pics …

After our couple days in Iguazu we continued south to Buenos Aires where we are now, unfortunately we haven´t done a whole lot here the past couple days because Chels hasn´t been feeling too well so we are resting up at the moment and should be back on the trail shortly.

So, from Lima we hopped a flight (overnight, of course) over to the eastern coast of South America and landed in Sao Paolo, Brazil where we then quickly grabbed a bus off to the costa verde and Ilha Grande. Ilha Grande was a nice introduction to Brazil since it was basically deserted until around 10 years ago and since then has slowly been converting into a tourist destination. The appeal now of course is that hardly anyone goes there yet, so the island is large and empty, a good place to relax for a few days before hitting the big city …

After a three good days relaxing on Ilha Grande it was time to meet our parents in Rio for a week. You´d think that a week was plenty of time, but it flew by and we could have spent even more time there. Rio certainly has one of the most unique and interesting locations for a city we´ve ever seen and there is a lot to see. Some of the weeks activities included … biking around the lagoa and Ipanema, watching a soccer game at Maracanã stadium, touring through a couple of Rio´s favelas (ghettos), Sugar Loaf and Christ Redeemer, getting stuffed on feijoada, and of course – lots of caipariñas.

And now we are off to Iguazu Falls and Argentina!

The photo above is from our first tasting, a mixed cebiche plate we got in Trujillo (northern coast). It has half of a fish cebiche and the other half a mixed seafood cebiche with octopus, squid, etc.

Our second tasting was actually from a cebiche class we had in Cusco where we watched someone actually make cebiche from scratch! This cebiche is a traditional Cusco version made with a lake fish called Kingfish.

And for our final tasting we went all out, a full cebiche sampler plate at one of Lima’s finest cebicherias, Segundo Muelle. What you are looking at above is three different cebiches, one traditional and two mixed. The cebiche on the left is mixed fish and seafood, the center is the traditional style with just fish, and the right is a purely seafood cebiche. Yum!

Arequipa is also the starting point for tours to Colca Canyon, which has been declared one of the deepest canyons in the world although it`s still being debated which one takes the crown. The canyon had some of the best agricultural terracing we`ve seen, but the definite highlight of the excursion was the stop at ¨cruz del condor¨- a lookout for condors. Luckily, we got to see some pretty good fly-bys and Allen captured a few of them.

Finally, we made a quick stop to fly over the Nazca Lines, which are ancient patterns carved in the dessert by a pre-Inca civilazation that can only be seen from the air. They were pretty cool to see, although a little strange to wonder what they were for, which is still a mystery despite the many theories.

In a few hours we´re off to Brazil!!