Day 26, Jujuy to Resistencia, Argentina

Today is the longest day in terms of distance, 871 kilometres.  Despite having a pretty crap day yesterday spirits were high this morning, good to be back in civilisation and good to be back at a sensible altitude, we hadn't been below 3500 metres in the last week.  We didn't suffer much from altitude sickness, but it is a bit debilitating at times and definitely more difficult to sleep.
The car, once we adjusted the carbs, is going like the wind, well, by Morris 1800 standards anyway.  We have had very little in the way of problems so far, we had to replace two shock absorbers, a wheel bearing and a track rod end, all the other issues have been minor mechanical repairs and maintenance. At lunch time today we were still missing three Mustangs, two Jags and a couple of Volvo's from yesterday.  The Mighty One continues to surprise and is going well, touch wood.
After an early regularity section the rest of the day is a fast blast across flat farmland, we even went on a dual carriageway this morning! Bliss.  As I type this we are travelling along the RN16, it's a glorious sunny day and everything has gone green again, this is rich farmland with numerous huge ranches and huge wide open spaces.  We passed a cattle ranch with several thousand cattle penned into one area, you could smell it several miles away.  Coming to a table near you soon I guess.  We have mobile phone signal again and decent fuel, Fangio XXI, powerful 95 octane stuff.The highlight of the morning was the girl making the coffee at the cafe stop, it was delicious and a welcome change from some of the more basic places in Bolivia.  
We have become institutionalised by rally life, the routines, the disciplines and the lack of time to think about anything else are all consuming.  It's difficult to imagine life without a time card, road book and a GPS.  There are so many highs and lows, sometimes you feel beaten by it all, then there are euphoric moments when things go really well.  The pace is difficult to get your head around, we have been to so many places, seen so many wonderful sights, stayed in more hotels than we can remember, made lots of new friends and had a lot of laughs.
Only five more rally days and 2700 kilometres to go...stay tuned for the further adventures of Wallace and Grommitt!.      

Day 25, Uyuni to Jujuy, Argentina

We awoke to the sound of a duck quacking, our 5am alarm call. We had some work to do on the car, battle scars from yesterday.  It was so cold we struggled to get the car doors open but sunrise over the salt flats is a beauty to behold.  After a spanner check, service and another replacement shock absorber we were ready for a hearty breakfast, but it was not to be, stale bread and jam with weak coffee and optional sticky buns.
We made it to the time control with minutes to spare and then headed off to the fuel station for some Super Plus (85 octane) but on the way there another ominous clunking noise reared it's head.  Having refuelled and fixed the clunk we set off half an hour late.  The "road" was even worse than yesterday and we picked our way through with great care and skill. We tried wherever possible to use alternative tracks through the sand as maximum speed on the road was 25  kph and we had 611 kms to do, work that one out. The going just got worse as the sandy bits ran out, this was painful stuff but we only got stuck in the sand once.  The only highlight was a random ostrich which ran in front of us, the only one we have seen.  
We missed the first time control but soldiered on to the top of the mountain pass, 4200 metres high, where the views were quite stunning.  We had passed several broken down cars, offering help and assistance of course, things were proving tough for the classics, this was 4x4 country and we started to share the Dutch contingents view that this stuff was just destroying the cars.  At the bottom of the mountain we passed a dead cow strung up from a tree with all it's insides missing, we just kept going.
Then it was a matter of following the river along the valley, but the washboard got worse, this phenomenon is the worst of all conditions, just small ridges about an inch high and 8 inches apart, they just shake the car until you think it can't possibly take anymore and blur the vision. The rock formations were incredible, like something out of Lord of the Rings, weird lifelike shapes and mythological forms, a sort of fantasy vista.  
Needless to say we missed lunch and survived on water and a packet of Polos and some Halls cough sweets donated by a generous
benefactor.
We eventually got to the first stretch of tarmac after 232 kms, it had taken us 9 hours so far, non stop apart from numerous pee breaks.  The silky smooth blacktop lasted 2 kms and then broke off for roadworks, this was the story all the way to the Argentinian border.  The crossing was quite straight forward, around 45 mins, there was one amusing moment when one of the contestants, a big fat red-faced Dutchman, threw a wobbly, he went berserk with the customs officials, I think it was because he had been much delayed on the way into Bolivia, anyhow his wife took control and sent him off to sit in the car on his own.  Needless to say it took much longer for them than anyone else.
It was a massive relief to be back in Argentina, our favourite country so far "the truth is we've always loved you" we sang as we set off for the long downhill stretch to Jujuy.
One of the Dutch crews, a husband and wife in a Mercedes 280 SEL hit a 14 year old girl on the way, she had crossed the road in the dark, whilst using her mobile phone.  They had been doing about 75 kph before they swerved and braked but unfortunately hit her, damaging the front wing and breaking a hole in the windscreen. The girl had a badly bruised arm and a broken leg, it was a miracle she wasn't killed. Very lucky/unlucky, depending on how you look at these things.
We got to the hotel at 10.30 pm, 11.30 Argentinian time, completely knackered, caked in muck and dust and starving hungry.  Peter and I
love rallying.    


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Day 24, La Paz to Colchani, Bolivia

I may have been a bit over enthusiastic about how wonderful Bolivia is in my last post, today we saw the real Bolivia.  We were up very early in order to leave La Paz before the traffic started, and because we had a lot of ground to cover.  At 5.30 am we heard a big commotion outside and opened the window to see about 200 Bolivian Army soldiers quick marching past the hotel, in bright red uniforms, singing at the top of their voices.
Unfortunately La Paz was in thick cloud when we left, so we never got to see it properly, apparently it is a wonderful place.  Once we cleared the city the sun came out and it was a fast 350km slog on good roads across a wide plain with mountains to each side.  
After we stopped for lunch everything went pear shaped, firstly we wanted to top up with fuel as we knew it would be at least 300kms before the next fuel station, however there was a queue of about 200 local people all with plastic containers wanting them filled. We would have been there till tea time.  Then the tarmac ran out a short while later and we were onto gravel roads of very questionable quality.  When I say questionable what I really mean is atrocious, no, worse than that.  We slogged on for 200 kms or so and it just got worse and worse. Ironically we had to keep leaving the road to get onto sandy tracks which sometimes run alongside and are marginally smoother.  And then there is the dust, everything just gets caked in it, inside and out.  
The driver, who shall remain nameless (me) made a minor error on one of these excursions and mistook a river bed for one of the sandy tracks, ending up stuck.  Bear in mind that we are miles from anywhere, off the main road and up to our axles.  As luck would have it we managed to flag down an elderly Belgian couple, both well into their seventies, in a Toyota 4x4 and they towed us out.  Never again will I say a bad word about the Belgians.  Or old people.
The roads didn't get any better and the "washboard" was becoming really wearing, the car was developing new rattles which were drowning out the sound of the rattles we had before.  
We eventually made it to the Salar de Uyuini, better known as the salt flats.  This is  a quite unbelievable place and yet another "In The World". These are the biggest and the highest salt flats I.T.W. and measure about 10,582 sq kms, aproximately.
We drove out about 10 kilometres and all we could see around us was salt, apparently 10 billion tons of it, and it was totally silent.  It is weird to see such a wide expanse of featureless flatness. We didn't stay to long as salt and Morris 1800's don't go well together.
Our hotel was up a long track, even more bumpy than before if that's possible and we arrived just after sunset. Guess what the hotel was made of...salt!  The whole place is made of salt, the reception desk, the floors, walls, furniture, the lot. How salty is that?
To add a bit of seasoning (geddit?) to the situation, some of the Dutch crews are bitching heavily to the organizers about the terrible roads this afternoon because their cars got wrecked and are demanding a solution. Pussies.  


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Day 23, Puno to La Paz, Bolivia

What a difference a day makes! We woke early to a glorious sunrise over Lake Titicata, with snow on the distant mountains. The first challenge of the day was getting out of Puna which is an ugly, chaotic place, or at least we thought the traffic was bad but nothing compared to La Paz, more of which later. Then we had a 120k blast to the first time section, 20 kms of gravel road up and down a mountain , with a bonus wonderful view of the lake from the top.
Then it was off to the border crossing into Bolivia which we were dreading, based on our 8 hour experience getting into Peru. Peter had met a reporter from The Daily Telegraph in the bar at our hotel last night, he had joined the rally for the last leg and he wanted to interview us and look at the car, we thought the border post would be a good time to do it. Fame at last, as we imagined a full colour article in the Saturday Motoring section! It turned out it was the Dutch Telegraph, ugh!
However the rally organizers had done a great job with the paperwork the night before and we sailed through the border in about 15 minutes and it was off to the beach at Copacabana (no relation) a holiday resort on the side of the lake. It was a fabulous domestic tourist resort, very pretty, perhaps a bit like Mallorca 75 years ago, not a Sunseeker in sight!
Then it was off to the Pucanari race circuit fo a handling and manoeuvrability test, up a spectacular mountain road with views down to Titicata on both sides, absolutely stunning. The only problem was that we had to cross the straights of Tiquina, about 800m across, to get there. Our transport was a fleet of ramshackle old wooden rafts which could take 2 cars at a time. We drove on using some wooden planks and the driver pushed us off before starting the motor. Then there ensued an edgy 10 minutes while he tried to start the outboard motor as we drifted gently off down wind. Anyhow he got it going and we chugged across to the other side. Another great experience.
On a less enjoyable note we then had to pick our way through the traffic into La Paz. As everybody knows La Paz is the worlds highest capital city, but at 3660m it was the lowest we had been for a couple of days. There are 2.3 million inhabitants and, I promise you, they were all out on the streets this evening. The place is mad, there are no discernible traffic rules, it's every man for himself. Nobody takes any notice of the traffic lights, taxis stop anywhere they please, pedestrians just walk across the road without a care. Never seen anything like it.
Ou hotel, predicably, is in a quieter and lower part of the city, a brand new round glass and stainless job, very comfortable indeed. The Stephenson / Robinson suite has two huge beds, an office, and a relaxation area. it is of course round. As I type away Peter is feeding the waypoints into the GPS with his feet up drinking an ice cold Huari beer and eating a packet of Pringles. Not so bad in Bolivia then.

PS Rather than bore you with all the terrible parts of this torturous journey, how we suffer for our readers, the six o'clock starts, the
hours spent fixing the car, the incredible mileages, the blood sweat and tears, the fights to use the loo first thing in the morning etc etc, we just save you the good bits...

Day 22, Cusco to Puno, Peru

Today was a bit uninteresting, we retraced our steps back from a few days ago, the weather was a bit dull and there were too many dead dogs on the road for our liking. There were two regularity sections today both of which went normally (badly) and another one was cancelled because they were blasting some rock to widen the road. The highlight of the day was probably the rice pudding at lunch, which was excellent.
Tonight we stay on the shores of Lake Titicaca, thankfully some way out of Puna which is a complete shambles. They have a really dumb law in Peru whereby you don't have to pay any property tax until the building is finished, so all the buildings are half finished which looks dreadful.
Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, at 3811m (12,500 feet) above sea level, although it is receding due to lack of rainfall and smaller glaciers, it apparently dropped 81cm in 2009 alone.
Hopefully things will be more lively tomorrow as we enter Bolivia...

Day 21, Machu Picchu, Peru

Well, what a day!  We had another rest day today and the opportunity to visit Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas and one of the seven wonders of the world.  We were up at 5am for the 5 hour journey, first we had a bus ride, then we took a train, and that was just to get to the bottom of the mountain!   The final sector was a half hour bus ride up a dusty track, anyway, much quicker than walking the Inca Trail like some people I know!
We had an idea that that it was going to be pretty good but nothing prepared us for what came next.  Machu Picchu is an anchient city built on the saddle of a mountain flanked by sheer drops to the valley below. It wasn't sacked by the Spanish like most places in the area as they couldn't find it, it was simply abandoned by the people who lived there, for reasons which are still unclear, and left for nature to reclaim.  Whilst the local Peruvians knew about it, it was secret to the outside world until 1911 when an American archeologist called Hiram Bingham discovered it.
It is a simply staggering place to visit, not just because of it's remote location or the quality of the architecture, it is magical and beyond belief, absolutely awesome.
We explored a mountain path cut into the rock which used to be the main access route, jaw dropping and not for the faint hearted.  There were almost vertical drops to the valley and it finished, thankfully, at a wooden planked bridge which they used to use like a draw bridge to keep out unwanted visitors.
Go there!



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Day 19, Chivay to Cusco, Peru

Today was always going to be a long day but at the last minute they changed the route due to some problems with protests about something or other, anyway our intended route was blocked and we were obliged to take a longer but considerably smoother road which suited us fine as we are still nursing problems with the car.
We cracked off at 7.30 with a regularity up a steep and windy mountain road for 25 kms which went fairly smoothly, then set off on the long drive towards Cusco. We covered the equivalent of the length of England today, this might sound boring but it was anything but. The landscape was just astonishing, we have been up and down mountain passes, driven past a lake with flamingos feeding (at 4500 metres!), across wide plains, through lush green valleys, and through towns that reminded us of India. It is difficult to explain the scale of things here, everything seems to be the worlds highest, deepest longest or most beautiful.
Things are very Peruvian, that may sound silly as of course we are in Peru but to give you a flavour, the locals in the country areas are all in traditional dress, the women wear woolly stockings, skirts several layers thick and several cardigans, topped off with a pointy wide brimmed hat, despite it being a lovely warm sunny day. One hopes this look will not catch on in the UK! The women seem to do all the work especially shepherding duties, although the children take over when school finishes. We saw children walking home from school on their own, playing by the side of the road, one little girl who can't have been much more than seven or eight was herding half a dozen cattle up the road on her own, she had a stick with a bit of string on the end to shoo them along.
So our impression of South America is that it's a phenomenal place, we have driven 8000 kms and been to three countries so far, and seen a tiny fraction of the continent. If you want to go somewhere where you can find great food, culture, generally good roads, friendly people, lots of sunshine, free wi- fi and great mobile phone reception get yourself over here!
We have a couple of days off now, fixing the car and having a look around Cusco tomorrow, then off to Machu Pichu on Wednesday.