Bolivia is a poor country. But La Paz’s public transport system is very modern and it would be at home in any major city. La Paz is built in a bowl with steep sides, with maybe two flat streets, and so a rail system would never cut it. Instead, La Paz has ten interconnected cable car lines. And it is […]
Sometimes our posts make it look like our lives are exciting and extraordinary, but it isn’t always sunshine and roses, so I thought I would bring it all down to earth a bit.. Today was not a good day, mechanically-speaking! We had overnighted in a typical “panoramic-view” type of spot, with no-one around – just us and the stars. But, […]
Before leaving Uyuni, Dave visited the ‘train cemetery’ in Uyuni – a graveyard of tens of steam locos imported from the UK. Great fun! From Uyuni, we drove to Potosí, once the largest city in the world thanks to a silver mining boom. It is now a city of steep hills (being located on the foothills of the mountains being […]
The Salar de Uyuni is the largest continuous high salt desert in the world, with an area of 10,582 km² (4,085 sq mi ) – about half the size of Wales. It is located at about 3,650 m above sea level in southwestern Bolivia. It is on every overlanders itinerary and we were really looking forward to spending a few […]
The Laguna Route – an overlander’s right of passage. This 302km off-road adventure starts at the Bolivian Border, Paso Fronterizo Hito Cajón and goes all the way to Uyuni, although there are patches of tarmac towards the end. It’s not for the faint hearted. The entire route is above 4000m, is very cold at this time of year, and is […]
Around mid-August, MAN told us there had been a cock up in Germany and our order was delayed until early September. This was unfortunate and so we used our extra time to explore northern Argentina before heading back into Chile to collect our parts. From Salta we headed to San Salvador de Jujuy on the very narrow and twisty Route […]
Having said good bye to Ivan at Belén, we journeyed north on the famous Ruta Nacional 40 towards the wine producing area of Cafayate. On the way we spend the night at the Quilmes ruins, an ancient settlement set on a hillside with fortifications higher on the hill. We stopped next at a roadside distillery (Francine tried one or two […]
We first met Ivan, an intrepid Spanish Overlander, a year back in Buenos Aries, we were both waiting for our trucks to arrive, ours from South Africa, Ivan’s from Panama and we met for a meal in one of the city’s great cafes. We went our separate ways but met again recently, at San Antonio de Cobres, with our vehicles, […]
There we were, driving merrily along a ‘ripio’ dirt track from the Salinas Grandes salt pan to San Antonio de los Cobres, in the middle of nowhere, when there was an almighty noise from underneath Big Bertha. We stopped quickly, expecting a puncture. But no, it was something much worse, the front propshaft, along with the transfer case output shaft, […]
Returning from the UK at the end of May we spent the first few weeks at MAN in Santiago getting a few issues fixed for Big Bertha. Whist there, we were invited to an asado by Mauricio and Patricia whom we met at Puerto Tranquiol earlier in the year. We had a lovely meal with the family. Leaving our friends at […]