Leaving Cusco was a bit hard: we had a great time there and to got to know Edison and Yeile for our jewelryproject, which was so motivating. But we had Bolivia ahead of us with all its promising sites. Of course Bolivia was a country that we especially looked forward to visiting due to various contacts with Bolivians that we have had in advance and all the great things that we heard about the country. And as you will read in the following paragraphs we were not disappointed Bolivia is so far our favourite country that we have visited and luckily we have a few more days here to enjoy its enormous diversity and the friendly and happy people. Viva Bolivia!So we took the route from Cusco to Puno/Lake Titicaca on a comfortable tourismbus with a few stops at specific sites. Awesome and breathtaking landscape of the altiplano, climbing higher and higher up the road to Titicaca. We enjoyed it a lot. Once in Puno our original plan was to commute directly to BoliviaCopacabana but this turned out to be impossible as the last bus already left and the border closes in the evening. This forced us to stay 1 night in Puno but gave also the opportunity to visit the floating islands of Uros on the next morning. We were really glad not to have missed that: the Uros descend from indigene communities which were originally living totally remote from the mainland society, only having a trading relationship with the mainland. Nowadays they are still keeping a traditional lifestyle and some old customs but are living from tourism and from the artisanal goods they produce. The islands are made of straw (or more precisely reeds of the plant called tortora) and as the reeds rot quite quickly the Uros have to keep adding new reeds to the top each 3 months! A huge ongoing work in order to keep their place for living! It was so interesting to see and learn about how this community lives!

Bienvenido a Bolivia: we were really happy to cross that border and to finally have Bolivia and its promises ahead of us. Copacabana is a very little town, famous especially for its access to the lake and also its closeness to Isla del Sol the island of the origin of the Incas. We had a great stay there and our excursion to Isla de Sol kept its promises. A beautiful hilly island where one can discover the temple of the Sun as well as get on a breathtaking 3hours hike from one end to the other. And what a great surprise for us popping for the second time into Lisa the german girl we met in Paracas after having lost her track for whole 3 weeks. This was just amazing!

When your expectations are low you can only be positively surprised. And that's maybe a bit how it worked for us with La Paz. We didn't expect much but we really loved this city with its many markets, colorfully dressed people, uncountable shops that sell traditional artisanals and many other great things that La Paz has to offer on 4200 meters above sea level. It is such a diverse city and is beautifully located surrounded by mountains. We were lucky with the weather too but not when we went on the so called "Death Road" with rented mountain bikes. We had heard from fellow travellers how great this experience was and therefore agreed to go for it as well. For me the most interesting part was that you go from 4600 m down to 1200m, which is a very impressive change of temperature and vegetation. Also I was hoping for the great views that we were promised, but unfortunately we had chosen a foggy and rainy day. Something, which is quite often the case for the first part of the ride as we later learnt and it could have even be worse (hard to imagine though). Anyhow we had a few great moments with crystal blue sky and breathtaking views in the beginning and also some sunny bits in the end. Although I had the impression that I was riding my bike like mad, I was always the last one of the group (behind me Robert, to make sure I wouldn't get lost). Others in the group were great risk takers and therefore much faster. But who cares? The most important thing is to survive the death road, which we happily did (I mean I was glad when it was over). By the way what we didn't take into account was the way back, which was on the new, but still very curvy road and took us 3.5 hours and this is when I seriously started to doubt that this whole thing had been worth it. In the evening I met an English girl in the hostel and she even had even had the worse experience on the death road and it was very to relaxing to laugh with her about the whole thing. She also invited us to go along with her on a special city tour the next morning. Which we did, although it was hard to get up quite early the next day. But the tour was fantastic and the guide brought us to all the places that tourists normally don't go to: To the market in El Alto, to the cemetery, which was very unusual and interesting for me and around the centre by local bus . If I'd remember his name I would recommend him:). And this is probably when we started to fall in love with La Paz. Another thing one cannot miss is a visit to the Museo National Del Arte in La Paz, this has been the best art museum on our trip so far. Not only do they exhibit many wonderful paintings but the building in itself is worth a visit. We were in particularly looking for a painting by Fernando Montes a friend of friends and when we found the picture we were so impressed. The whole room where his painting is is just so well arranged and makes a lasting impression on the spectator. So Bolivia is also from the cultural perspective a very special country.Of course such a big city like La Paz also has its downsides. There are many people who are very poor and who seem to struggle to survive. This gave us even more encouragement to follow up with our Fairtrade project and we met up with two ladies from Fairtrade organisations and also bought quite a lot of their stuff in their Fairtrade shop called Mama Rawa.

It is well known fact that things grow fast in the jungle. The humid and sunny climate is the ideal condition for things to grow. But who would have thought that Robert's beard also grows very fast during our six days in the pampas and the Madidi Nationalpark? Well that's surprising isn't it? To proof it we have added a few photos for you. Of course more than anything it had to do with the simple lifestyle that we had chosen for those days. In case you are wondering what Pampas means: It has nothing to do with Pampers, although it is a very wet area. It's part of the country that used to be a Savanna and for reasons I don't remember is now covered in water in many areas. This makes it the perfect breading place for hundreds of birds and also for many types of animals including anacondas. The rivers still search their own way, which makes it a very beautiful and photogenic spot. It is great because you spend most of your time on the boat looking for animals, which is very exciting. Less exciting was our attempted ananconda search, for which we put on rubber boots, which were quickly filled with a braun, warm type of water, which could have potentially full of anything really. Of course our search was for nothing and we were not quite sure whether this was a just an excercise to keep the tourists busy. Anyhow we also saw several pink river dolphins, which are wonderful creatures that seem to like the company of human beings. Although probably not when they come in packs. They swam off when members from our group tried to swim near them. Near our camp were also a group of ... monkeys which make the most impressive noise especially in the morning. Aparently the aligator that swam in the water next to our huds wasn't dangerous because they feed him (which is obviously not permitted). I was very impressed by the sight of a Riesentukan, a bird which I have admired since childhood. Of course it wasn't waiting for us to take photos. Overall a wonderful experience (not included the 3 hours ride back in a van that had broken down twice before on the way from the airport, with a driver whom I dare to call mad and a road that had seen better times before the rainy season. In Bolivia it is definitely not a good idea to take the cheapest tour organisator. But other than that Fluvia Tours were o.k.). Then trip into the jungle Madidi, for this experience we chose the luxury category tour operator Mashaquipe. And we were really grateful for our knowledgable guide Eloi, who was there just for the two of us. Here we were not so lucky with seeing animals on the first two days we didn't see anything apart from insects (and after the sixth type of ants it can get a bit boring, I have to admit.) So long hikes in humid temperatures were quite a challenge for our good mood. Especially as there is something else that grows very fast in the jungle (and in the pampas: mosquitos! I got an estimates 1000 mosquito bites, which cause a sort of allergic reactions on my skin. We had used up our Boots anti mosquito spray and had to buy the Bolivian one. But of course the mosquitos are quite resistant to that one already. So next time I would definitely bring an extra bottle.One reason why we had chosen Mashaquipe Tours was because with them you can spend a night really in the jungle and not just in the lodge. So this is what we did for the second night. When we were heading off we made quite a bit of pressure on our guide that we have to find animals. So when we heard the sound of the wild pigs and some monkeys we ran into the forest as silently as possible, imitating the pig noise, so that they would think we are pigs (that was easy thinking of how looked by that time) and to surprise them. So we did see them and they made an impressive noise when running away from us. The monkeys were only seen by the guides, but we do believe they were there. We also wanted to go and see the deers before sunset but shortly before we made it to the camping place a torentious rain started. We were really lucky that we just about made to the "kitchen" before even more rain came down. Our brave guide and chef then had to go and find dry fire wood. Which they managed! The meal in the jungle was one of our top ten, but no wonder after the many hours of hiking in this humid forest. After dinner Eloi told us that some tourist also go on a excursion in the Madidi jungle, which means you get to the Primary Forest and spend as many nights in the jungle as you like with a group of guides etc. This sounded fantastic to me, but Robert seemed to have had enough after this short jungle experience. If olny I could invent a jungle without mosquitos...

We didn't know whether we would actually make it to Cochabamba or not because all of a sudden we were running out of time (I know four months of traveling seem like an awful lot but as soon as you get going time flies by and it is hard having to leave some things out. Peti said it's a bit like shopping only when you get started you realise all the things you don't get to see resp. to buy.) But we had promised to visit Elena and so we set off from La Paz in a night bus. That was so far our coldest night bus experience. How could we have known that there is no heating in the bus and of course temperatures fall way below zero in these regions at night. So this time we could hardly sleep because of the cold and for once not because of the reckless driving. But when we made it to Cochabamba we received such a warm welcome from Elena who had waited for us for two hours at the bus terminal that our toes and hands defrosted immediately. Elena showed us Cochabamba and took us to eat Picapica, a typical Bolivian dish that we absolutely loved. Also we to the top of the hill where there is a Jesus statue which is taller than the one in Rio de Janeiro. We were impressed and had to smile when we read the sign in the cable car. Elena made our stay in Cochabamba just wonderful. Finally we went to her church to meet some of the ladies there who produce jewelry in a project which involves women from the mountains around Cochabamba. We would have loved to stay a day longer to visit the place of production, but we had already bought the flight tickets, so that wasn't possible. However we hope to be able to sell some of their felt and wool jewelry once back in Switzerland. So we were extremely sad to say goodbye and were overwhelmed by the hospitality that we experienced at Elena's home. Hopefully we will be back soon!

How lucky that we happen to be in Sucre for the Holy Week. In this cute little village people celebrate Easter in the traditional style and we could experience parts of it. The original plan was to learn Spanish in Sucre, but as it turned out we run out of time and in the end we could only do two days of Spanish. During those days we actually realised how much more there is to learn. We had the excellent and funny teacher Delia from Sucre Spanish School, which we highly recommend. She even took us to buy new trainers (because mine died on the Death Road) in a corner of Sucre which we wouldn't have discovered on our own. It's also thanks to our teacher that we went to the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday evening, which was a unique experience. People pilgrim up there with there families to light candles and make fires around the chapel on top of the mountain. What a beautiful atmosphere! It was worth going up the steep path. The tradition also demands that every person should visit the 14 churches in and around Sucre, but these days they have reduced it to only seven churches. We managed about three, which is not too bad as we had to fit it around our Spanish classes. Sucre is definitely a place I hope to come back to one day with the idea to learn Spanish properly.Unfortunately we had to spend Easter on the bus to Uyuni, but I had secretly bought some Easter chocolates (photographed in the hostel “Dolce Vita” which has a great ambiance but very hard beds) to make our Easter journey a bit sweeter.

It is full of expectations that we finally arrive in Uyuni eager to set off for our last adventure in Bolivia. However the start of our 3days tour was a bit of a challenge for our nerves: being adviced to do so, we had carefully checked the quality of our chosen tour operator and were then confident to get a good service. Unfortunately, once ready for departure, the operator tells us that because of last minute bookings we had been moved to another jeep of another company. Because we were promised differently we got quite angry. We also saw straight away that we wouldn't get the same quality of service as paid for. Anyway we had actually no choice. So we got over it and were curious to get in contact with our new group. We were lucky to be with a great group indeed: a sympathic couple of Germans living close to Munich, a cool MexicanAmerican with his guitarre and a funny Australian. We had a great and unforgettable time together.For Uyuni itself there are no words to describe it. Simply look at the photos and try to imagine you were there. The salt lake, the colourful rocky mountains, the vulcano and its geysers, the multiple lagunes populated by hundreds of flamengos... A breathtaking scenery which kept our camera going click and cklick during those 3 days. But this whole adventure wasn't for free: Uyuni lies between 4000 and 4995 meter above sea level and the nights were freezing cold (so that we lied awake most of the second night because of being so cold) and the drives are rough and long. Anyway because of the beauty of this place it was so hard to stop taking picutres and even harder to leave that magical place.Our Bolivian adventure came finally to an end with a spectacular and unforgettable highlight.And we both say: Bolivia, we come back!

Welcome to Chile! San Pedro de Atacama is a really cute little village where one feels a bit like in a Western movie: sandy streets, short houses and nice little bars and cafés. Just some cowboys missing! The entry to Chile went pretty fine although we had to note that Chile is very strict in prohibiting the entry of any fruit or vegetables into their country they made a real fuss about a little apple left in Nathalie's bag. Anyhow in the end all went just fine. Nice hostel with solar panels, time to do some laundry and also to cook again! We had a great and restful stay in San Pedro if only we had known that it is wise to take some dollars from the ATM, which are useful in Argentina.

A big change was awaiting us for our travels in Argentina, instead of two people we were the three of us. Petra, my school friend from Wil, joined us in Salta for the final part of our 4 months trip. What a great coincidence that she happens to have time to join us for our last three weeks! We have heard a lot of great things about this huge country beforehand, which is so badly hit by a recession at the moment, and were looking forward to the great food and impressive landscape we had heard about. First stop: Salta. Our landlord Jorge from Caseros 44 in Salta (a great place if you like B&Bs, but bring Dollars, it’s much cheaper) recommended us a place for dinner, where one apparently can eat the best meat in the world. We went to this place called "Monumental" and ate a monumentally big portion of meat with potatoes. The place was packed with locals and it was truly impressive how much meat was being served in this place during one evening (we estimated about 10 cows in total). We for our part really enjoyed our huge portion of beef but had to admit that we have had better beef in London (I know we are spoiled!). So the best Argentinean steak was still waiting for us. The region around Salta is also very well known for its wine. And we had some excellent experiences for our taste buds with Argentinean wine Malbec is a wonderful grape. We also discovered some times it is much cheaper to order a big glass of wine than a lemonade! For this part of our trip we hired a car to explore parts of the famous Ruta 40 on our own. It was reassuring to see that Robert could still drive even after a three months break and we all really enjoyed the freedom this little car gave us. (And that we could decide the speed and actually stick to the speed limits). The part between Molino and Cafayate was simply unforgettable. When we were driving through the valley the sun was setting and the mountains, unusually shaped by the wind and sand, appeared in all sorts of colours. Incredible the beauty nature has to offer in that part of the world! Also the Los Cardones National Park with its thousands of cactuses between Salta and Cachi left a lasting impression on us. We realised that one can actually start to like cactuses. The high pass "Piedra de Molino" that we crossed to get there is simply impressive. Do you know the feeling that when beauty is everywhere it is hard to actually spot it?Near Molinos we went to the vineyard owned by the Swiss Hess, who produces quality wine from grapes, which grow on the highest altitude (between 2300m and 3100m). Unfortunately that wasn't a great experience, as the staff didn't have time for us (although we had called the evening before to announce our visit). And finally we left the place without having tasted their wine and with our hungry stomachs grumbling (and our mood well affected by hunger as well). But on the long way back and forth to this vinery we were lucky and spotted a snake, an eagle and a desert fox. This and the surroundings were also worth a visit. After all the driving we wanted to go for some hiking too, which we were able to do near Cafayate. As if it was the most natural thing two street dogs decided to follow us. We mysteriously seem to be communicating to dogs that it is fun to join us for a walk, as this has happened several times before. These dogs were waiting for us whe we visited one of the artisanal places along this walk. And they were barking with joy whenever we came out of a place. This is how easily you can sometimes make a new friend. We treasure Cafayate as a nice and calm little town where we simply enjoyed life, learned the lesson that you should always order “lomo” (filet) and no other part of the cow (as we Europeans are not used it) and also found some interesting artisanal textiles and souvenirs.

The three of us agreed right away on the most important objectives for our visit of the Mendoza region: go on a 3 to 4 days trek in the mountains and as a reward join a winetasting experience in some nice Bodegas. So the first 2 days besides visiting this very pleasant city we invested time to organize the trek. We got a recommendation by Hostel Lao (we had such a nice stay there everything was simply perfect and the staff extremely friendly): the trekking company "Cordon del Plata" (try to avoid them!). They offered what seemed the ideal tour for us: 4 days in the region called Vallecitos with overnight stays in the Refugio San Bernardo at 2500 meters. We didn't hesitate too much (something that we questioned a lot afterwards) and went for that and rented the missing equipment (mainly walking sticks, which is highly recommendable). The next day with best weather conditions and a very promising forecastwe got picked up and drove off towards the mountains – right up to the Refugio San Bernardo. A very warm welcome by Marcos responsible for the Refugio and surrounded by a wonderful mountain scenery with peaks up to 5000 meters. The first day we went for a 5 hours trek up the valley in order to acclimatize a bit. In the evening Marcos prepared the fire in the chimney and once ready he put 6 large chickens unto the grill. This accompanied with a very good Malbec made our first (and only!) luxury dinner and we celebrated this wonderful day. The next day in order to get fit for the challenging peak awaiting us on the 3rd day we went on a tougher 7 hours trek up to 2 peaks each about 3900 meters. The three of us felt in good shape and we admired the spectacular surroundings. We spent another nice evening in the Refugio (although food was already getting sparse, the tomato sauce was so much watered down, that it hardly tasted like tomato) and also time for playing an animated poker (Peti's first one). Not too late to bed in order to be really fit for the next important day with the hike up to San Bernardo at 4100m. Then day X San Bernardo peak! It is nearly impossible to describe that day in words as we had to face so many challenges and left us with so many impressions. In summary we had to cope with a lot on that day especially the hike up on a very steep slope with instable rocks slipping away under our feet. And all of this with the completely inexperienced guide Martin who was probably hiking up this mountain for the first time (something he denied of course) and who became master in constantly loosing the way and guiding us to even more difficult paths. Finally we realized that we had to find the way on our own, which helped to get back on a better and less dangerous route. In the end we were quite relieved to have made it to the top. We enjoyed the splendid view around us and had time for a welcome picnic (two tiny sandwiches). The descent went similarly challenging and fatigue didn’t make it easier. Finally after 11 hours of effort we were safely back in the Refugio, where a tiny portion of rice each was meant to be our supper, luckily some other people gave us some more food. If it wasn’t for this organization and guide it would have been a simply stunning experience. But in any case we will certainly never forget it.

The best meat, the happiest cab driver, the sunniest weather, the strangest Spanish, the noisiest room and the most expensive everything…A short flight brought us from Mendoza to the city of the “most” of everything. Buenos Aires is a place of the extremes and we absolutely loved it. Rich and poor, clean and filthy, green and polluted, romantic and noisy, traditional and modern – everything comes together in this city with such an eventful history. Some tips for the visitor in short: It’s a good idea to hire a bike and explore BA by bike, as the city is big and the cars are used to bikes. Also it is important that you carefully select the area where to stay, we recommend La Palermo or San Telmo. Then it is recommendable to stay in BA on a Sunday, so you can visit the wonderfully creative market in San Telmo. If you like to eat meat (and a huge portion thereof) go to La Cabrera, they know what they are doing and it comes with a lot of everything, so no need to order anything but your meat (very American I reckon). And what else? We happened to be at the cemetery when there was guided tour and that really made Eva Peron’s grave more meaningful. Also make sure you have enough cash on you – BA is expensive as any other big and famous city and shopping is amazing. We stayed at the Bonito Boutique Hotel, where the staff is extremely friendly and helpful, the rooms beautifully decorated and big (including Jacuzzi), but quite noisy in the morning. Tango: We tried several times to go to a Milonga, where everyone is welcome, not just tango cracks, but not with much luck. Fun was “La Catedral” on a Sunday when it happened to be folklore evening instead of tango. Young people performed a sort of courtship dance, which was very entertaining to watch (and easy to learn…). Other than that BA also painfully reminded us that our four months trip was slowly but certainly coming to an end. During that time we have been blessed with so many unforgettable experiences, we have been challenged many times when things didn’t go according to plan and we have had the chance to meet so many wonderful people. So it is sad that the four months went by so “quickly” and that this is our last post for the moment. But maybe – who knows – we might embark on another adventure in the future and we will then hopefully be back with some more blog posts. Thanks for reading and thanks for your comments and support!

How happy we were as we could board the plane and fly off to the famous Iguazu falls! The staff from Hotel De La Fonte gave us a warm welcome with Champaign and brought us to our fancy room (including a Jacuzzi, which is nice after a day of looking at water)! Everything there was made to fully enjoy our stay. It was shortly after lunch when we arrived and there was still time to directly organize a private transport for the Brazilian side of the Falls. That's how we met Julio the happiest taxi driver on our whole trip: he was super friendly and told us a lot about the life in Iguazu and gave us the best recommendations on how to organize our 2 days. First he drove us to the bird park opposite the entrance to the Brazilian Falls and highly recommended us to enjoy this visit prior to the Falls. He was so right: it is indeed a wonderful park where we were welcomed by parrots calling 'Hola!'. We also met Nathalie’s favorite bird: the toucan. These were just staying so close to visitors that Nathalie could even stroke one of them. We spent 2 good hours in this amazing park. Then we went to see the falls. What a spectacle! We walked the whole trail and took in the incredible scenery at each viewpoint. One little plague were the coatis (=Nasenbär), which were grasping for food all the time. I once got caught by one, which didn't hesitate to steal my little picnic bag and run away into the bush with it. In the evening Julio drove us back to the hotel, where we enjoyed an excellent gourmet dinner. The next day, animated Julio drove us together with a very kind Argentinean couple to the Argentinean Falls with whom we shared the transport. We had the whole day for visiting the place and that is really the minimum time that one needs for it. We were so impressed and could practically not stop taking pictures! We knew that with our stay in Iguazu our SouthAmerican journey was now really close to the end... It was so hard to leave this magical place! Nothing helped flights were booked and some plans were already waiting for us in Switzerland. But nonetheless: we had still one last night here and also a full day in Buenos Aires in order to say goodbye. One thing is sure: our journey is deeply burned into our memories and we keep a wonderful souvenir of all that we experienced during that period!