South America, November 2009 – April 2010

Notes and recordings from a 145-day trip from São Paulo to São Paulo (visiting Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina)

Stories

Note: all of the stories are work in progress.

Two days in São Paulo
Buses of Brazil
Hiking and sandboarding Cerro Blanco
Visiting the Colca river canyon
Climbing Huayna Potosi
Torres del Paine walking times and distances (ods, html). We started from the CONAF office and walked the tracks "Tail of the Q", "W", "From Hosteria Las Torres to Laguna Amarga".

Surprises: a list of things that have surprised Kaarel during the trip.
Safaris: a list of mammals, birds and other creatures that we have spotted or observed during the various visits to nature parks.
Links: a list of URLs that somehow relate to the trip. Most of them we have not checked out yet, but plan the do it in the future when there is more time and faster connections to the internet.
Fruits: a list of (Brazilian) fruits.
Future work: a list of places/events that we did not have time/resources to visit during this trip, but would want to visit in the future
Top 10 towns by Kaarel: Kaarel's pick for the best (impressive, interesting, livable, etc.) towns in South America.

See the South America photos in the general photo album.

[BUG: the following list is not completely up-to-date]

São Paulo Weekend in São Paulo
Rio de Janeiro Two days in Rio de Janeiro (Corcovado, down-town, Rocinha, Vila Canoas, Pão de Açúcar, Maracanã)
Ouro Preto A day in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais (churches, steep streets and staircases, churches, an old gold mine, and more churches)
Salvador Two and half days in Salvador
Amazonas 23-day river trip from Belém, Brazil to Iquitos, Peru (including stops (in Brazil) in Santarém, Alter do Chão, Tapajos national forest, Manaus, Tefé, Mamiraua reserve, Alvarães, Tabatinga/Leticia)

Iquitos Three days (over Christmas) in Iquitos, Peru. Visits to Belén, a manatee orphanage, and the Quistococha zoo.

Quito Five days in Quito and around (Mitad del Mundo, Pichincha, Otavalo)
Galapagos One week on the Galapagos Islands (Baltra, Santa Cruz, Rabida, Santiago, Bartolome)

Colca Canyon A 3-days/2-nights visit of the Colca river canyon near Arequipa, Peru. The visited villages in the canyon were Cosñirhua, Malata, Sangalle; and out of the canyon Chivay, Cabanaconde and Maca.
El Misti A 2-days/1-night trip to the top of the El Misti active volcano (5822m) near Arequipa.
Lake Titicaca Visits to Puno, the Uros Islands, Taquile Island, Copacabana (Bolivia), and Isla del Sol (Bolivia), around and in Lake Titicaca.

La Paz A couple of days in La Paz (during the carnival time), before and after climbing Huayna Potosi.
Huayna Potosi A 3-days/2-nights trip to Huayna Potosi (6088m) near La Paz.
Potosi Visit to the mining town of Potosi, the highest town in the world, at 4090m.
Salar de Uyuni A 3-days/2-nights trip from Uyuni (Bolivia) to San Pedro de Atacama (Chile), going through Salar de Uyuni, Laguna Colorada, Sol de Mañana, Laguna Verde, and other places on the Bolivian Altiplano.

Patagonian ferryride A 4-days ferry trip from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales through Patagonian fjords and channels.
Torres del Paine 6 days (5 nights in tent) in the Torres del Paine National Park, Chile (tracks: "the tail of Q" + "the W" + "the road from Hosteria Las Torres to Laguna Amarga")

[BUG: TODO]

Pantanal An evening in Campo Grande and 4 days in Pantanal (close to Porto Manga)

Last update: 2010-05-06 Lutheran Guesthouse, Goroka