The first 100 days

Been a while since the last blog. We´ve been busy.

1. Arrive Buenos Aires. Shopping confusion as we are given sweets rather than change.
2. Touch South Atlantic for first time. Watch Argentine military ship come into port.
3. See "Evita´s house", La Casa Rosada. Meet first Couchsurfing hosts.
4. Take tour of Buenos Aires´ graffiti scene.
5. Visit 4 shops to find $1 change for bus: severe shortage. Suddenly understand day 1 sweet incident.
6. Try classic Argentine bitter herbal drink maté, of The Motorcycle Diaries fame.
7. String up hammock on freezing night train south to Bahia Blanca.
8. Eat an asado with host Walter´s family in their garage full of candelabras.
9. Buy a good phrasebook and useless dictionary.
10. Hitch-hike 600km to Puerto Madryn.

    

    Garage asado, Bahia Blanca

11. Sneak into a sea lion colony.
12. Watch southern right whales playing 7m from the beach.
13. Join in a birthday party in Trelew.
14. Attempt to visit world´s largest penguin colony outside Antarctica; fail as locked in flat.
15. Hitch-hike 500km across Patagonia to Esquel and the Andes.
16. See condors flying at Parque Nacional de los Alerces.
17. Have "Welsh tea" in Patagonia Cymry settlement Trevelin. Let the dogs out.
18. Visit trout farm. Tourist information says the museum is closed and there is nothing else to do.
19. Let the dogs out again. See condors in El Hoyo with lovely Mariana and Gabriel.
20. Cook and build fences at a tiny Mapuche reservation.

    

    Diggin´ ´oles at the Mapuche reservation

21. Hike 20km up and around Lake Epuyen.
22. Hitch-hike to volcanic-ash-covered San Carlos de Bariloche.
23. Blag tens of free samples at town´s chocolaterias.
24. Walk up Cerro Campanario; see one of National Geographic´s top ten views of all time.
25. Do very little but watch lake Nahuel Huapi from the house.
26. Hitch-hike to San Martin de Los Andes; watch rugby match with very liberal Argentine.
27. Spend day on Lago Lolog with barbecue, beer and boat.
28. 5am bus across Andes to Temuco, Chile.
29. Hitch-hike north to Chillan. A lot of people snogging on the streets.
30. Drink chicha cocktails at a tiny tradtional Chilean place.

    

    Nat Geo´s fave, the view from Cerro Campanario

31. Travel several hours to Cauquenes with 1kg asparagus and 5 globe artichokes in bags.
32. Curanipe. Meet Carlos Maximiliano Lara Mills for first time.
33. Moonlit shellfish barbecue above the Pacific.
34. Sarah severely washing-machined while surfing.
35. Sarah receives black eye while surfing at Buchupureo; literal translation of town name "big wave".
36. Eat choripan and watch Chile v Peru (4-2).
37. Stay home, weather out the pigtail of a storm.
38. Pelican-dodge on the beach. A sea lion guards our stuff while we surf.
39. Make steak & ale pie and Eton mess for Chilean friends Carolina & Ruperto.
40. Fresh seafood empanadas. Sunset surf.

    

    Sea lion security guard

41. Have dinner with the mayor of Chanco.
42. Roadtrip to tsunami-battered Consitucion.
43. Chris rescues wonky dog Lina from cliff fall.
44. Sarah proof-reads first English translation of Max´s book. Launch Chinese lanterns.
45. Do little but surf and eat.
46. Make a compost bin. Drive south on the search.
47. Cook lunch for Chilean friends Don Tano & Juana. A cow invades the garden twice.
48. Chris rides his longest wave ever. Make sushi.
49. Watch dolphins in the Pacific from the breakfast table.
50. Lina the dog makes some amazing noises.

    

    Max at the barbecue

51. Double-decker surfing.
52. Avoid arrest for swimming with sea lions by convincing police we are marine biologists.
53. Lunch at Don Tano & Juana´s. Tickle a foal born less than 24hrs previously.
54. Splash about in the Pacific.
55. See the extremely weird red sea squirts piure in their knobbly black casings at the market.
56. Feel first seismic tremor after three and a half weeks in Chile.
57. Sarah is the paddle princess.
58. Build a fire pit from cement and rocks.
59. Find the enormous skeleton of a pelican on the beach. So large it looks like a child.
60. Chris surfs with extremely surprised sea lion at Pullay; rescues Lina from another cliff fall.

    

    Engineering success: the fire pit and bench

61. Watch pelicans and a sea lion catching fish in the ocean. Massive bonfire.
62. Let off a Chinese lantern; gets stuck in a tree.
63. Roadtrip with Max to ultimate surf spot Punta de Lobos.
64. Mooch around Pichilemu in the rain.
65. Drive up to Viña del Mar via Pablo Neruda´s Isla Negra house. First hostel in 49 days.
66. The Max Mills underground tour of Valparaiso.
67. Sad goodbyes in Santiago and a bus to the Atacama Desert.
68. Arrive at dusty San Pedro de Atacama.
69. Visit old church made from mud and cactus.
70. Take a walk out into the desert along with some gauchos and an upside down cow.

    

    Bonfire night. Photo: Max Mills.

71. Into Bolivia and 5,000m altitude: Coloured lakes, flamingos and thermal baths.
72. Desert rabbit. Smoking volcanoes. Mirages in the heat haze.
73. Take silly photos on the perspective-free salt flats. Chris spots first hummingbird.
74. Find a skinned horse´s head for sale at a market in Potosi, the world´s highest city.
75. Tour the world´s most dangerous mine; get drunk with the miners.
76. Watch Real Potosi v Universidad (Sucre) at probably the world´s highest football stadiums.
77. Walk across campesino roadblock on the way to Sucre.
78. Shop for Christmas presents at Bolivian artesan market.
79. Visit the world´s largest dinosaur footprint site: 5,000 prints.
80. Purchase three llama finger puppets in Cochabamba and immediately lose them.

    

    With our salt flat tour driver, Pedro

81. Bus to La Paz. Midway, a woman in full traditional dress perched on the roof of the bathroom.
82. Bump into the Swedes by the dried llama foetus stalls: get drunk.
83. Go to a live wrestling match featuring women in Bolivian national dress: full skirts and bowler hats.
84. Send Christmas presents at La Paz post office. Into the yungas via "The Death Road".
85. Walk in search of a natural waterfall; never find it. First caiprinha of South America.
86. Eat trout from Lake Titicaca at 4,000m. See two pigs being taken for a walk on leads.
87. Purchase two more finger puppets and immediately lose one. Electrical storm makes the plugs spark.
88. Walk the length of Isla del Sol, the birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology.
89. Sarah´s shoes are sewn back together by a Bolivian woman. Into Peru.
90. In Cusco. Eat three-course meal for 70p each; place is full of women holding baby llamas.

    

    She made us pay for this photo

91. Sarah spends most of the day throwing up. Vows never to eat a meal costing 70p again.
92. Negotiate 4-day Inca Jungle Tour to Machu Picchu with Lorenzo Expeditions.
93. The Swedes are back.
94. Karaoke at the hostel - second girl up sings Wuthering Heights. Incredible.
95. Make sad discovery that Travelpig is no longer with us.
96. Downhill mountain biking through cloud and past tiny Peruvian settlements.
97. 19km walk through the Urubamba valley, hot springs and the YMCA with a dog in the club.
98. Ziplining in the Andes and our second anniversary.
99. Machu Picchu. The most extreme day of sightseeing of our lives.
100. Walking tour of Cusco; herded by stressed-out vicuñas.
     
     
     
     Downhill mountain biking dressed as Robocop