South american awards 2012

After 5 months of travelling around and through South America we thought it's about time to pick our favourites in different categories. It's all just in our opinion based on what we've experienced in this time. Decisions are mostly influenced by the limited budget of a backpacker.

 

 

We travelled through Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Out of these we chose the winners.

 




easiest travelling award

Travelling in Colombia is affordable, some streches are not more expensive by plane than by bus and those are in good shape and taxis generally have fixed prices or at least fair fares. If you're lost everyone is happy to help.

 

 

 

 

 

friendliest people award

 

Before we reached Colombia we had no doubt it'll be Bolivia. But Colombians won our hearts just after we crossed their border.

 

 

 

 

 

easiest spanish award

 

No doubt, bolivian spanish or castellano is the easiest to understand, no weird accents or slang. If you don't understand them you can be sure they talk Quechua or Aymará.

 

 

 

 

 

must see national park award

Madidi NP in Bolivia is absolutely beautiful, full of life, well protected and only accessible by boat. We'd go there again any time.

Very close second place, that has to be mentioned here is Galapagos. Just unique.

 

 

 

 

most perfect beaches award

Galapagos wins by its unspoiled, tourist and rubbish free beaches full of sea lions and iguanas. You never get bored.

 

 

 

 

 

best hostel breakfasts award

Nowhere else in the whole continent the breakfast came even close to those in Brazil. Fruits, fruit juice, cheese, ham, sausages, different bread rolls, croissants, cakes, coffee, tea. All included in the price. Good morning!

 

 

 

 

 

most relaxed award

Not much is happening in Uruguay which just suits us. Calm little towns, empty beaches and flat farmlands. Quiet.

 

 

 

 

 

budget friendliest award

Bolivia is cheap. Everything. But only in a bus you notice why.

 

 

 

 

most beautiful landscapes award

Colombians green, tree covered mountains, beautiful cities and the caribbean coast with splendid snorkelling and diving.

 

 

 

 

best buses award

 

Argentinian buses with luxurious chairs, dinner with wine, clean toilets.

 

 

 

 

 

outstanding ruins award

Peru with its Machu Picchu, just unbeatable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

best food award

The cheap and tasty food in Bolivia caters to everyone. There's a lot of meat, yes, but half of us is vegetarian and she voted for Bolivia too. If you cook for yourself you'll find the freshest veggies and the juiciest fruits just around the corner in a market. Chef's paradise!

 

 

 

 

most memorable wine award

Uruguay's Tannat you'll remember forever. Best enjoyed with a dinner. Also works without.

 

 

 

 

 

most different to home award

Everything is different in Bolivia, we really felt like somewhere else. And in every taken photo is at least one indegenious person, we like.

 

 

 

 

 

the country we're most likely to return to award

Colombia wins by it's comfortable climate (we say too hot is better than too cold), it's beautiful vegetation, friendly, beautiful people and the Caribbean coast which we didn't explore long enough. Let alone the San Blas islands...

 

Leaving Argentina

From Cafayate we took a bus to Salta, the main city of the state with the same name. We read that it has a population of over 500'000 people and as we both aren't big fans of cities we weren't expecting too much....

The drive towards Salta leads through the Quebrada which we visited last week and we were able to see all these amazing colours and rocks again! Somewhere on the way the driver went out to check the tires and at the next bigger village we stopped at a "gomeria" and the mechanic worked hard for almost an hour with help of the driver to change the one tire that had blown up with loads of "helpful" advices from locals that gathered around our bus... The weather changed rapidly when we got out of the gorge and it was overcast and cold in Salta.

 

There aren't many attractions in the city, it's basically just a place to stop between two buses or to do tours from. One "attraction" is a cablecar on the hill next to the bus station called "Cerro de San Bernardino" (almost sounds like home for swiss people...) with a view over the city and the mountains (the last only with good weather though). We were glad to have spent another couple of hours and spent another few with looking for a museum which we eventually found closed....

Salta from the hilltop

Happy to move on we took another bus the next morning toward San Salvador de Jujuy - normally just called "Jujuy" - this time on the top front seats with a great view of everything happening on the road (much more than back home...) and arrived in Jujuy in the late afternoon in the same weather, just a bit colder again.

Jujuy

Jujuy is quite a big city it appears much smaller though, with hundreds of market stalls in every place not taken by the traffic and mostly run by indigenious people from Argentina and Bolivia. The hostel we booked was called "Yok Wahi" and we recommend to stay far away from this place as it is run down, barely warm water in the freezing cold bathroom next to the freezing cold bedroom and staff that leaves you wait outside the hostel on the street for 10 mins... (later it turned out to be a different hostel than we booked over hostelworld.com but with the same e- mail address and way description but both hostels accuse the other of cheating and using the same name...)

Jujuy

The next day we took a local bus to Humahuaca, again on the top front seats, able to see the amazing gorge we drove through! Humahuaca is a pretty town in the mountains on 2400m, full of Indios (and herds of tourists) surrounded by nicely coloured mountain ranges. It's also the place were we dropped our postcards with stamps worth over 60€... On the way back we caught the local, local bus which seemed to stop at every house we passed.

Humahuaca

Finally, the next morning we boarded our coach toward Chile, again on the best seats! (Yes, on purpose) We highly recommend this trip over the Andes, with superb views changing after every bend and climbing over a pass at almost 5000m, passing several salt flats, herds of donkeys and llamas and this all with walking speed, the big bus gasping for air so as everyone aboard (and at least one lad puking because of the altitude). The exit stamp at the argentinan border was quickly done and we kept on moving. After the highest peak the road went steep down, flattening out in the desert of Atacama where San Pedro the Atacama is located where we stopped at the customs and had to queue for over an hour and they even scanned our backpacks, the first time so far in south america. Just after the sun dropped we found our hostel where we will spend the next week adjusting to the altitude and doing trips to nearby sights...