The Intro.....Steve, Janette, Paul and Mandy's next big adventure.
During 2015/16, We decided to explore South America as one of our big trips from the "bucket list" and slowly plan how we were going to do it. Not content to do just a couple of countries, the journey became progressively longer and harder and more difficult to organise and then, when we relaised that the best time to go would need to be spring, we decided that it would be the ultimate thing to do on Steve 60th birthday.
During 2016, Janette had spent a lot of time on "Thorntree" talking to many experienced travellers and working out where we wanted to go or even could get there? or indeed if could, could we do at all it in one trip. Clearly the answer was no so it was then we decided to do it anyway.
Janette had screened a lot of specialist companies and after a couple of meeting in London, Journey Latin America was given the job of sorting us out.Following meetings in London with JLA, the draft route was planned and predictably, Janette threw out all hotel recommendations and added the ones she had researched - she calls it a nice mix of style and the rough!!.
The decision to add Antarctic came late 2016 and Steve decided that we wanted his birthday with a penguin and not the biscuit type. He was never the same since watching the 2 part Shackleton film on the TV.
The decision to do antarctic took a while to come to not only is it a long way south, temperatures range from 0 to -40 degrees and not cheap to get there and it ended up being added to the trip despite Janette hating the idea of travelling down the Drakes Passage - the roughest sea crossing in the world.
Steve had two main requests for his birthday trip - lots of photography, the Antarctic and a potash mine in Potosi. He had remembered the Michael Palin TV programs from the late 90s and clearly it had stuck with him ever since as he remembered that you can buy entrance to a mine by buying either cigarettes or dynamite from a local shop. Also, Steve feels the need to add guinea pig to his expanding list of animals actually eaten.
Janette on the other hand likes the animals intact so she is looking forward to Galapogos and the wine region.
The Patagonian stretch whilst probably the most breathtaking scenery in the world, will benefit from a total solar eclipse whilst we are there so will probably have more significance.
The Atacana will be right up there as well hopefully with the clearest night skies on the planet and with some places not having rain for 400 years will be special.
Better news still, Mandy and Paul said that they would be coming as well so after studying the route, decided to come over and re-form the team in Santiago in early March, luckily after the cold, wet and hard bit has been done. After minor tweaks to the schedule, the route was set, confirmed and booked late 2016. Surely, more "shenanigans" as the blind lead the blind around the South American continent.
Finally, over dinner in Glasgow at Christmas 2016 with Janette's friends, Sheena and Eileen, Steve had joked that he usually celebrates the "birthday decades" with Sheena as they are as young as each other which was a reference to the fact that we had had dinner on our 50th under Sydney Opera House when Sheena was working in Australia and he "tongue in cheek" said this year would not be the same without her.
6 weeks later, Sheena and Eileen delighted us by saying that they were coming for Sheena's (60th but dont say that) birthday and we would celebrate it together at Machu Picchu. So the long and short of that is that they are also joining us for a week or so along their route prior to them going off to the Amazon in a mud hut or something similar. We're are not sure about the dinner on Machu Picchu but we're sure we can rustle up a sandwich in tin foil.
As we have done before, we will update our blog with images, video and comments - usually with some background information but always with an odd minor disaster, calamity or humorous interlude added and the "Not So Famous 4 and friends" continue with their world tour. Does anyone speak Spanish? No
Finally, The blog will only carry a few images - especially if they involve any of us in a compromising position but all of steves images will be stored in JPG files via this link if anybody wants to see more on a location basis.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL IMAGE SET
The Route Map - press link below which is interactive
Route Map - Wine, Dynamite and Penguin Tour
During 2015/16, We decided to explore South America as one of our big trips from the "bucket list" and slowly plan how we were going to do it. Not content to do just a couple of countries, the journey became progressively longer and harder and more difficult to organise and then, when we relaised that the best time to go would need to be spring, we decided that it would be the ultimate thing to do on Steve 60th birthday.
During 2016, Janette had spent a lot of time on "Thorntree" talking to many experienced travellers and working out where we wanted to go or even could get there? or indeed if could, could we do at all it in one trip. Clearly the answer was no so it was then we decided to do it anyway.
Janette had screened a lot of specialist companies and after a couple of meeting in London, Journey Latin America was given the job of sorting us out.Following meetings in London with JLA, the draft route was planned and predictably, Janette threw out all hotel recommendations and added the ones she had researched - she calls it a nice mix of style and the rough!!.
The decision to add Antarctic came late 2016 and Steve decided that we wanted his birthday with a penguin and not the biscuit type. He was never the same since watching the 2 part Shackleton film on the TV.
The decision to do antarctic took a while to come to not only is it a long way south, temperatures range from 0 to -40 degrees and not cheap to get there and it ended up being added to the trip despite Janette hating the idea of travelling down the Drakes Passage - the roughest sea crossing in the world.
Steve had two main requests for his birthday trip - lots of photography, the Antarctic and a potash mine in Potosi. He had remembered the Michael Palin TV programs from the late 90s and clearly it had stuck with him ever since as he remembered that you can buy entrance to a mine by buying either cigarettes or dynamite from a local shop. Also, Steve feels the need to add guinea pig to his expanding list of animals actually eaten.
Janette on the other hand likes the animals intact so she is looking forward to Galapogos and the wine region.
The Patagonian stretch whilst probably the most breathtaking scenery in the world, will benefit from a total solar eclipse whilst we are there so will probably have more significance.
The Atacana will be right up there as well hopefully with the clearest night skies on the planet and with some places not having rain for 400 years will be special.
Better news still, Mandy and Paul said that they would be coming as well so after studying the route, decided to come over and re-form the team in Santiago in early March, luckily after the cold, wet and hard bit has been done. After minor tweaks to the schedule, the route was set, confirmed and booked late 2016. Surely, more "shenanigans" as the blind lead the blind around the South American continent.
Finally, over dinner in Glasgow at Christmas 2016 with Janette's friends, Sheena and Eileen, Steve had joked that he usually celebrates the "birthday decades" with Sheena as they are as young as each other which was a reference to the fact that we had had dinner on our 50th under Sydney Opera House when Sheena was working in Australia and he "tongue in cheek" said this year would not be the same without her.
6 weeks later, Sheena and Eileen delighted us by saying that they were coming for Sheena's (60th but dont say that) birthday and we would celebrate it together at Machu Picchu. So the long and short of that is that they are also joining us for a week or so along their route prior to them going off to the Amazon in a mud hut or something similar. We're are not sure about the dinner on Machu Picchu but we're sure we can rustle up a sandwich in tin foil.
As we have done before, we will update our blog with images, video and comments - usually with some background information but always with an odd minor disaster, calamity or humorous interlude added and the "Not So Famous 4 and friends" continue with their world tour. Does anyone speak Spanish? No
Finally, The blog will only carry a few images - especially if they involve any of us in a compromising position but all of steves images will be stored in JPG files via this link if anybody wants to see more on a location basis.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL IMAGE SET
The Route Map - press link below which is interactive
Route Map - Wine, Dynamite and Penguin Tour
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