www.Earthconnection.com.au

Most people may have heard of this road, which starts in La Paz, Bolivia, descending 3.450 meters down into the Yungas, within only 64km. It is an unpaved gravel road that was wedged out of the mountain in the 1930s by Paraguayan prisoners of war.
Nobody knows how many of them died during the construction, but statistics in more recent times say that every year about 200 – 300 people died on this short stretch. In 1985 a completely overcrowded bus plunged down killing everybody and making it Bolivia’s single worst traffic accident. The name “Death Road” is not an invention of sensational journalism but was given to the road in 1995 by the Inter American Development Bank.

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Day 3

Today we’re climbing the French Valley; the ascent is pretty strong so it helps having left the backpacks at the camp. It’s a narrow and elongated valley surrounded by steep bicolour mountains (limestone white and basaltic black). A glacier watches us on our left during the entire ascent and from time to time we hear strong bursts, like thunders from an imminent storm, resulting from the icefalls. Fascinating.

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Although we had crossed briefly through Chile when going to Ushuaia through Tierra del Fuego, it wasn’t until our bus to Punta Arenas arrived to its destiny that we finally felt we were in a different country.
Chile. My long imagined and desired Chile.
And although it wasn’t here where my grandma was born, the fact of being in the country that saw her born and that knew so many of those relatives I never got to know, great-grandparents, grandma’s many brothers and sisters…fills me with emotion.
But these thoughts are like hanging in the air floating around me. This is not the time, but most of all, it is not the place.
Our two Swiss friends from the End of the World accompany us. Together, we are going to trek, which is in our opinion, the most beautiful national park of all South America.

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Well, it seems that our laptop does not like to travel as much as we do. It has just stopped working , without notice. Luckily, this time we had backed up most of the information. We are now in Humahuaca, North of Argentina, about to enter to Bolivia without much internet around, so do not expect to hear about us so often.

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Se nos ha vuelto a romper el portatil! Parece que no le gusta viajar tanto como a nosotros y ha dejado de funcionar sin aviso previo. Menos mal que esta vez si que teniamos copia de seguridad de casi todo.
Estamos en Humahuaca, Norte de Argentina, a punto de cruzar la frontera con Bolivia donde la internet escasea, asi que, no podremos publicar mucho.

(Continued from this post)

Puerto Madryn is the nearest city to the natural reserve Península Valdés. We arrived here around the 9th of February and stayed for 3 days.
La Península Valdés is one of the most famous national parks in South America, being the main attraction the endangered Southern Right Whale, which, in spring (from July to December) comes up from Antarctica to give birth and breed the pups before heading out into the ocean again.
The Peninsula is also home to many species like: guanacos (belong to the family of the lamas, alpacas and vicunas), Magellanic penguins, sea lions, armadillos, sea elephants and many birds.

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