Brian and Jackie Cross: Trip 22 - South America via Spain

Trip 22 - South America via Spain

23rd October 2024 to (possibly) 22nd April 2025

After a summer of house renovating, a wedding, a via ferrata holiday in the Italian Dolomites, a Kenyan safari trip and several UK houseits in various places in the UK, we are heading out for a six month tour of South-America, taking in Peru, Bolivia and the Salt Flats, the Atacama desert, Quito, Cuenca and The Galapagos, Ecuador, Easter Island and the fjords in Chile, Antarctica, The Falklands, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Montevideo in Uruguay, Mendoza, Cordoba, Salta and Iguazu Falls in Argentina, The Pantanal & Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and a cruise back to the UK via The Canaries, Madeira, Portugal and Spain.

We started with a 10 day visit to Spain to see Jackie's dad Richard and wife Elizabeth and then flew to Arequipa in Peru to commence our travels. We stayed in Arequipa for 4 nights, taking a tour to the Salar quarries, then a two day tour to Colca Canyon and on to Puno on Lake Titikaka. We stayed there for three nights then had a night on an Uros floating island before returning to Puno for another two nights. Next was a Bolivia Hop bus to Copocabana in Bolivia, with the intention to stay on the Isla del Sol for a night then travelling on to La Paz for two nights, but protests and road blocks in Peru meant we didn't leave Puno until the afternoon, which meant we didn't make it to Copacabana, so instead went straight to La Paz for three nights. We then took a flight to Sucre for three nights then on to Potosi for another three nights. Uyuni was next for an amazing tour through the Salt Flats in Bolivia, the highlight of our trip so far, on to the Atacama desert of northern Chile at San Pedro de Atacama, from where we did some trips out into the desert.

Our route then took us on three flights, north to Quito in Ecuador. We stayed three nights, during which we did a free walking tour of the city, visited the Middle of the World monument on the equator and hiked up Cotopaxi volcano to the refuge. We followed that with two nights in Mindo cloud forest before returning to Quito, where we summited Rucu Pinchincha volcano.

The Amazon was calling next and that was our trip to a lodge in the Amazon forest of Ecuador for a four day all inclusive forest immersion with lots of birds and animals and then onto Cuenca for a months housesit over Christmas and the New Year looking after three dogs and some rest and relaxation.

Over Christmas we worked on our onward travel and got booking, finalising the remainder of our trip. We've now booked onto a Galapagos trip for late January on a luxury 4* ship for a 6 day tour, followed by another two days on Santa Cruz island. From there we catch a flight to Santiago in Chile to pick up our 23 day cruise through the Chilean Fjords, Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, Montevideo in Uruguay and onto Buenos Aires. We stay in BA for a week at a hotel run by a professional Argentinian Tango dance teacher, who will give us daily lessons and time to visit the sights and local Milongas (dances). We then fly to Santiago in Chile, two days in Valpariso and then a long flight out to Easter Island for five days.

On our return to Santiago we will catch a bus over the Andes and to Mendoza in Argentina for wine tasting and hikes to (but not up) the tallest volcano/mountain in South America, Aconcagua. A flight will then take us to Cordoba, Argentinas second city, for a few days before flying on to Salta in NW Argentina. There we hope to take the Train to the Clouds and hire a car to drive the scenic Salta-Cachi-Cafayete-Salta route with many amazing sights.

Another flight will take us to the amazing Iguazu waterfalls on the Argentian/Paraguay/Brazil border. We'll spend time on the Argentine and Brazil sides of the falls, visiting Itapu dam on the Brazil/Paraguay border, the second largest dam in the world and then take another flight to the Brazilian jungles of The Pantanal, hoping to see many species of birds and mammals (hopefully, but unlikely, to include sightings of Taipir, Jaguar and Puma amongst others!). Our final flight will take us to Rio de Janeiro, the iconic and former capital of Brazil where we'll spend a few days taking in the well known sights there.

From there we'll pick up another cruise to take us, over 18 days, back to Southampton in the UK. We'll call at three ports up the coast of Brazil before heading north across the Atlantic to visit the Canaries, Madeira, Portugal, Spain and finally the UK on 25th April. Hopefully the train will take us back home to the Midlands!

The map below has place markers (in various colours to denote the month) showing the places we will stay as we go along with lines showing our route. Click on each place marker to see details with photos.

Below are links to the blog posts we are making on the way. Click on each one to read where we've been, what we saw and what we did. It will be updated as we go along. Happy reading!

Here's a map of our route showing places we've been to and others we've booked. To see it properly you'll need to click on the little square in the top right corner which will take it to full screen. It opens a new tab and you'll be able to browse round, zoom in and click on each marker to show more details.

And here's the blog posts of our journey, updated as we go:

23th October to 1st November: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/11/south-america-days-1-to-10-stage-1-spain.html

2nd to 6th November: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/11/south-america-days-11-to-15-stage-2-peru.html

7th to 10th November: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/11/south-america-days-16-to-19-stage-3.html

10th to 12th November: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/11/south-america-days-19-to-21-stage-4.html

13th to 16th November: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/11/south-america-days-22-to-25-stage-5.html

17th to 19th November: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/11/south-america-days-26-to-28-stage-6-la.html

20th to 22nd November: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/11/south-america-days-29-to-31-stage-7.html

23rd to 1st December: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/12/south-america-days-36-to-39-stage-9.html

2nd to 7th December: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/12/south-america-days-40-to-46-stage-10.html

7th to 9th December: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/12/south-america-days-46-to-48-stage-11.html

10th to 12th December: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2024/12/south-america-days-49-to-51-stage-12.html