Tres Fronteras - Arriving in Argentina

Breakfast in Paraguay, lunch in Brazil and dinner in Argentina. After quite a day of border crossings to finally get to Puerto Iguazu - our first taste of Argentina - we thought it only polite to treat ourselves to a parilla (BBQ) and a good bottle (or 3 as it ended up) of Malbec. The Chirizo (like a sirloin but better) is the cut to have, smother on some Chiri (herbs and spices) and pour a glass of vino tinto. The best so far has been the vino La Linda, a complex flavour and the very best the label says, like his mother, Pete commented after a few glasses.

With bottles of vino at $1.50 in the supermarket, we're working our way through the local vineyard offerings and are on the third night of steak dinners. When in Argentina...!

Paraguay - Salta Monday and Ipaitu dam

I am writing this in Argentina. Having seen 'the' falls, Salta Monday is no Iguazu... but if you're in Asuncion and are travelling east or in Cuidad del Este and fancy an easy day out you can get to it by public bus.

We spent a morning in Salta Monday and went to the hydroelectric dam which 'drowned' the 'more impressive than Iguazu Falls waterfall in the sake of progress' later that day.

The Ipaitu dam, which supplies 98% of Paraguay's and 25% of Brazil's electricity, is epic. 7km of concrete and generators the size of olympic pools.... ok it's geeky. But they put on a free VIP bus and it is the biggest green power generator in the world!

Note the cost.... $26bn in 1980 to build, today they make just $360m a year from it... not exactly a great ROI

Paraguay Asuncion

If we had not flown to Paraguay I think I may have thrown myself off of one of the 250ft cliffs we'd have had to have gone over. It took just 12 minutes to fly on TAM from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz, in the south of Bolivia on route to Asuncion. But the bus....15 hours... can you believe that.. well the mountains are insane!

Instead of the three day trek over the mountains, we decided on the easy route. Two hours in the air to the capital, also in our favour was three weeks on intense cold. So with a lack of good buidget accomodation, I managed to find a suite in a nice neighbourhood hotel for a great price, roof top swimming pool and 80's syle gym included! We got there on a Saturday evening so everything was closed, but we managed a fantastic local steak dinner and a bottle of rum from the korean market was only $3.... so it went well.

Didnt do much, other than lounge... take in the view from the balcony and pool and spend monday messing around with HSBC, global is not their thing.... and looking at the stunning buildings and railway stations built for a time gone by.....aventure was beyond Asuncion.

Cochabamba - Bolivia

We'd planned to carry on the adventure with a trip to the famous Bolivian salt flats - home to lagoons, geysers, trick photography and starry nights. But with road blocks and protests running all the way south, it wasn't to be. We're going to wait a few weeks and return to Bolivia through Chile's Atacama desert.

So in the interest of thawing out our frost bite, we decided a little sadly, to leave bright lights and friends in La Paz behind and catch the bus to Cochabamba. There's not a lot to say about Cochabamba apart from it's a pretty colonial city, apparently in the top 3 in Bolivia, that feels more like a village. It's extremely laid back and the sun shines everyday. We did catch Bolivia's final day of Independence celebrations there, so we were treated to marching bands and military processions. But wiith everything else shut down for family celebrations, the plaza made the perfect place to read a book in the sun.

After a couple of nights in town, we caught a flight out of Cochabamba's little airport to the equally sleepy city of Asuncion in Paraguay...

6080m's to the top of Huayna Potosi - Bolivia

Quite honestly the hardest thing we have ever done. I thought I might not mention the altitude sickness, thumping headaches, inability to get air into your lungs quickly enough, lovely nose bleeds, turning blue or -20 temperatures but quite frankly, they were all part of the adventure. Day one of the Huayna Potosi adventure was actually brilliant fun, acclimatising to the altitude (4,700m) and practising climbing in cramp-ons and using picks to climb sheer ice walls. Not a natural climber, I surprised myself by loving it.

The evening at the Refugio passed with lots of cups of tea and sharing stories with a couple of vets from England who were on a 14-day hiking adventure - and were wisely bypassing Huayna Potosi for lower climbs. By midnight though, it was icy cold - thank god we had invested in some sexy thermals!

Day two we hiked up to high camp (5,200m) which only took us an hour or so with all our gear, water etc on our backs. But with beautiful views over the glacier and the sun high in the sky to keep us warm-ish it was a pretty nice place to relax. The whole camp was in their sleeping bags by 6pm and trying to get some kip before setting off at 2pm the next morning for the BIG day!

So, we woke up at 1am, piled on all our clothes, got on our snow boots and cramp-ons and after a cup of coca tea, we were armed and ready with our ice picks for the ascent to the top of the mountain. I have to say I don't remember much about the climb. When walking in the pitch black, surrounded only by snow, slowly digging in your cramp-ons, cautiously moving one foot in front of the other, with a small headlight and delirious from the cold and panicking that you cannot feel your hands, feet, nose... time goes surprisingly fast.

It was testament to Pete and my relationship that we were still, just about, talking by the end of this expedition. It is quite testing to be tied to your loved one under such extreme conditions. A lovely Canadian friend Jess summed it up well, she conquered the mountain with her boyfriend Justin. 'Did you cry? We were pushed to breaking point that day, like 10,000 times'. Jess, why didn't you tell us this until after we returned to La Paz!

Still, we trudged up the glacier digging our cramp-ons in deep to secure ourselves on the glass-like ice, climbing like this for 6 hours to finally ascent the summit ridge pulling ourselves up with our ice picks, and getting up onto the narrow platform on top of the mountain for sunrise. With the 6080m ridge totally exposed to the wind, the sun was more than welcome and unveiled an incredible landscape of the whole Cordillera Real mountain range, La Paz city, Lake Titicaca and all the way over to Brazil. Quite an amazing view.

As were the views of the glacier now glaringly lit by the morning sun all the way back down to camp, a long route back down to the first nights camp. All in all we hiked 10 hours that night. Thankfully, we had two amazing Bolivian guides with us, Rogelio and Victor, without which I think I would have collapsed on the ice and asked to slide back down (though I think I probably did request this in my exhausted state). I can't believe they do this 3 times a week - wow!

To hike at the altitude is quite an experience, your body and mind do strange things! On return to La Paz at 3pm in the afternoon, Pete disappeared to bed and didn't emerge until the next day. I hadn't been able to eat for a couple of days, so a warm cosy bar and some home-made soup worked for me!

Incredibly Pete has now got his eye on a 13-day expedition up Aconcagua in Argentina, only a mere 6962m. Easy for climbers now so experienced as us he says! Maybe he has it in his genes... hopefully his climbing-star uncle Rab can point us in the right direction for some seriously warm climbing gear for next time, if indeed there is a next time... I might be on the beach with a surf board instead!

'The Death Road' - Bolivia

It's a Bolivian backpackers right of passage to ride the 'death road'. Ask anyone who has been to La Paz and they have defied the death road. Because if they hadn't, they'd be lying at the bottom of the Yungas valley with a cross marking the spot. Around 200 people dissapear over the edge each year, with a record pile up of 100 cars! Thus titled the 'world's most dangerous road' the ride requires no effort - it's 'gravity assisted' mountain biking. Being South America, it is of course now a tourist attraction!

It would be nice to think that you could ride along and admire the view but the huge potholes, rocks, sand blowing in your face and the 500 meter drop-offs keep your eyes firmly on the road and fingers on the breaks. You snake down from chilly mountains at 4,670 meters down to 1,120 meters of tropical forest. You can ride it pretty fast and looking over the edge is quite scary.

Not to mask our bravery, there's now a new alternative road so you only really have to compete with the odd car! At the end of the day we realised we'd been on much scarier chicken bus rides during our travels - at least this time we were in control of the breaks. Still, it was good fun to cruise all 63 kms of the road -even with filthy hangovers - and claim the all important t-shirts saying that... WE SURVIVED!

Check it out... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungas_Road

Bolivia - La Paz

Everything in La Paz claims to be the 'highest in the world' - highest (and spiciest) curry, highest o2 bar, highest Zip line and highest English Pub. La Paz hosts 2 million bolivian people and loads of cool hostels and resturants.

We've eaten amazing Lamb Rogan Josh, spectacular French Onion Soup and even Lama Kababs, and we've made some great friends. Including Harry James, who will be moving into Endcliffe Halls of Residence on my mum and dads road in Sheffield this September!

La Paz isn't unlike Sheffield; it's a bit cold, there are loads of steep hills and the pubs are full of hardcore northerners. In between our trips to Huayna Potosi and 'the Death Road' we've been staying at Loki (http://www.lokihostel.com/) which was really fun, it's a 100year old hotel which has been converted into a true party hostel, with bar staff and fine English grub. Including homemade burgers and Shepard's Pie - chavy choices I know for an 'exotic' south american country, but after months of rice and chicken/skirt beef, it made a welcome taste of home.

Bolivia is celebrating 200 years of independence, so we've been awoken by brass bands and marching military police, the 'Witches' market sells everything from the weird - Lama fetus's, to soft snuggly lama wool jumpers and we've had $6 hot stone hour long massages to rejuvenate our tired backs!

We've had plenty of parties and have bumped into people we've met on the road... which has been really nice, as we're missing all our proper mates - only 6 more weeks and three more countries till BA will bring us home for a month of reunions!