Rare Adventures

Category: Adventures

Stories about travel and adventure

  • Amazon treks –  a cautionary tale.

    Amazon treks –  a cautionary tale.

    Our search for adventure took us into the Amazon jungle. This wasn’t planned at all, but our journey through Patagonia had been quicker than we expected so we had accrued a few days.

    Making last minute decisions is part and parcel of our approach, but the decision to take on the Amazon at short notice did come with risks.

    There were one or two other potential options for the last week, but as I had always wanted to do a jungle trek (and after some negotiation with Wooksie) it was agreed that we would do a jungle trek to use up the spare days, it also had the benefit of saving us coming back on a future trip.

    Reflecting on this story, there is a lesson that if you are going to commit to something as risky as an Amazon trek then you need to do your research properly, rather than doing it on the spur of the moment like we did.

    In addition, we made an assumption that if you offered to pay more, you would get better accommodation, but clearly that was lost in translation.

    The last 2 years we have booked the Inca Trail and a safari in Tanzania without needing a travel agent, so know about the potential pitfalls and the need to take care about the selection process of suppliers.

    We were in Ushuaia when we had the discussion, and I have to admit there were a few logistical challenges, not least that we were on the edge of Antarctica and the treks were mostly from Manaus in Brazil, which is only just south of the equator. We were embarking on a 6000 mile journey as the crow flies, which involved 3 flights and 10 hours on a plane over 3 days to get there.

    Wooksie only agreed to the Amazon trek on condition that the accommodation was good so she could escape some of the heat, many people don’t realise that redheads struggle with body heat regulation, so it was a really important criterion.

    Unlike the Inca Trail and safari, where I did the research months in advance, this time we only had 7 days to get it booked and get to Manaus. Most of the offerings were 2 or 3 nights at a lodge, with a night camping out in the jungle in a hammock, which was an absolute “no no” for Wooksie, and me to be honest.

    So, we set out our defined our requirements, namely, aircon room, private bathroom and no camping in the jungle and sent them off to some of the travel companies in Manaus.

    We tracked down 5 companies that were offering jungle treks and seemed to fit the bill. At such short notice the potential suppliers dropped down to 2, namely:

    In the discussions, I made it very clear that Wooksie needed good accommodation to be able to cope with the heat that we anticipated, at the end of the day, she is a red headed English Rose and has to be handled with care.

    Our safari accommodation had been really outstanding, its cost a lot more but we got what we paid for. It also set an expectation for what we should expect in the Amazon, but of course, this is a different country and different continent,  

    We chose Antonio as he seemed to understand our requirements the best and his English was very good,  so we committed to go with them, on Sunday 15th Nov. for the tour going out on Thursday 20th Nov, after confirming I was a bit surprised they didn’t ask for a deposit, but I booked our flights and we headed to Buenos Aries enroute to Manaus for our trek.

    The problem with rushing through the selection process is that it is difficult to do the quality control and checking, so I was taking their word and depended on them being honest, and unfortunately, we had a nasty surprise coming.

    On the Monday night in Buenos Aries, just before we headed for our night out in at the Tango at 745 pm I received an email from Antonio Trekking that said the accommodation was double booked and offering me their very basic accommodation, no aircon, shared bathroom and a night camping in the jungle – I couldn’t believe what I was reading and it is fair to say it ruined our evening at the Tango.

    I have no doubt that this was a callous attempt to get our booking and that they were never intending to meet our requirements. They hoped that we had no other options so were up shit creek without a paddle and would take their package in desperation.

    I’ve always been careful not to burn bridges unless I have to, fortunately, I hadn’t told Leonardo  we hadn’t chosen them at this point, so a quick check with them confirmed they still had availability and by 1am we had switched the booking to Leonardo Trekking them and all seemed well.

    We have covered the adventures in our other blogs, one to cover the journey to the lodge, the fishing expedition and the jungle treks. So, I am just focusing on the sharing our experiences with the lodge.

    We arrived at the Ipanema  Lodge midafternoon after and an entertaining journey and it was a really nice set up.  We found a lounge and a communal dining area overlooking the river, was a very positive start, so we then headed to our room to settle in.

    Things took a turn for the worst at this point, there were lots of rooms in amongst the trees but we followed a walkway to our room, the walkway was clearly not finished as it didn’t have a roof or any rails to stop us falling over the edge. This was OK in the daylight but when faced with a monsoon in the dark later it became a lot more challenging with a 2m drop each side.

    This brings us to the room. The bizarre thing is that the room technically met our specification because it did have a private bathroom and an aircon unit as we requested. The room was actually a large wooden shed with gaps in the walls and the aircon was totally useless, it was a pathetically small unit in a wooden shed with gaps between the wood, so it had absolutely no impact. 

    We had, unfortunately, been allocated a room that was not in the shade, it was in direct sunlight so the temperatures in the room soared during the day (well over 40C), so the heat was stifling in the room. The balcony had not been built, so the door to the balcony led to a 5m drop into the jungle so had to be kept close.

    It had a private bathroom, which was an anteroom off the shed with a pipe that fed cold water to a shower, which was quite pleasant in truth, and the water ran out through a hole in the floor. Basically, from Wooksies perspective, this was a total disaster but despite everything, she almost kept her sense of humour.

    The accommodation was fine for young backpackers, which is largely what our travelling companions were. In hindsight, it was always going to be wooden accommodation, so temperature regulation was always going to be a problem, but the big lesson not having any images.

    There are about 5 of these lodges in the Amazon Rainforest 4 or 5 hours from Manaus and my conclusion is that all of the lodges are like this, and that accommodation is very basic. Having rechecked the websites, it is very difficult to find any images of the accommodation and if we had had more time I would have asked for images which would have solved the problem and set our expectations.

    As you will read in the other reports, we had lots of fun, the food was very good, with wonderful helpful staff, but the reality is that this is a hot endurance experience. We elected to head back civilisation after 2 nights rather than 3 to save Wooksie any further suffering, we had also done the main jungle experiences, we didn’t need the 3rd night as jungle doesn’t change much whichever direction you walk!

    The reality of a jungle trek is a very basic experience; these lodges are out in the wilderness with no creature comforts. We thought that if we paid extra, we could get a higher level of accommodation, but I am not sure it exists.

    Unlike a safari, where there is a wealthier clientele who will pay extra, I am not sure that market exists in the jungle trek sector, it is hot, steamy and basic.

    A tour of our room at Ipanema Lodge

  • Manaus – where the Waters Meet

    Manaus – where the Waters Meet

    There aren’t many reasons to come to Manaus if you are a traveller looking for adventure. It is a big city, home to over 2 million people who have lots of cars and vans living busy and congested lives a long way from the rest of Western civilisation.

    It is hot and humid all year round, has very little in the way of architectural history apart from a few buildings that are the legacy of the Portuguese rule, and it is far off the beaten track so if you are here then it is probably to explore the Amazon.

    One unexpected discovery was that Manaus is home to a professional football team called Amazonas FC that is only 6 years old. This is very unusual as most teams count their age in decades and centuries. Apparently, they were formed because Manaus had fallen off the Brazilian football map in recent years, despite it being a World Cup venue in 2014.

    By sheer coincidence, they stayed in the Intercity Hotel on the same days as us. It is quite an interesting thing watching a professional football team building up to a game. Strict food consumption, then the team meeting in a conference room the night before and then just generally killing time before they departed for the stadium 2 hours before the game.

    To be honest, it looked a very boring lifestyle, but then again, 9-5 in a factory or office is boring as well, but a lot less glamorous if they are selected to play, and they had a nice bus.

    Manaus is in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest and is at the convergence of the two monster rivers that form the Amazon. Both rivers are significant in their own right, but when they combine, they create a huge waterway. The Rio Solimoes originate in the Peruvian Andes, whilst the Rio Negro originates in the Colombian jungle thousands of miles away. Everything going on in the city is related to these massive waterways which provide the most efficient transportation system through the surrounding jungle.

    The convergence of the two rivers causes a natural phenomenon, “The Meeting of the Waters”, hardly original!  The phenomenon is that the rivers converge but don’t mix, one is a dark brown, and the other is a light brown. So, there is a stream of dark water from the Rio Negro, which is slightly denser and colder than the water coming from the Rio Solimoes, which has a light brown coloured water.

    We went out in a boat to see the effect, and you can put your hand in the light brown water which is one temperature and 10m away put your hand in the dark water and feel that it is colder.

    Apart from the “Meeting of the Waters” we could not really find anything particularly interesting to do as we prepared for our jungle trek. We have seen plenty of old colonial buildings in our travels, so we restricted our activities to using the hotel pool before we headed off into the jungle on our adventure.

    We did take time out to visit the Manaus shopping mall in search of some additional trekking supplies, but to be honest, it seems that the jungle trekking industry is not particularly prominent, but we did manage to find a couple of long sleeve tops to prepare of the trip.

    We also discovered that Christmas comes early in the Amazon

  • 10 things I didn’t expect to find in Argentina.

    10 things I didn’t expect to find in Argentina.

    After 2 weeks travelling the length and breadth of Argentina, we discovered a few things we didn’t expect, here is a quick summary for those planning a visit.

    1. Buenos Aires is an amazingly beautiful city. It would be one of the most attractive capitals if it was in Europe. Big French and Italian influence come through loud in clear as you move around. I am sure that the grid system was great when it was first installed, now it is a well-established gridlock. The suburbs of La Boca and Palermo Soho are not to be missed.
    2. Italian influence.  Speaking Spanish I was fully expecting it a lot of Spanish culture, but it is much more Italian. All over the country the local’s area speaking Spanish with an Italian accent, it is very noticeable when they speak English as well.
    3. British music – wherever you go in Argentina, you will find 80s and 90s Britpop playing. The thing that is weird is that it all the songs are cover versions of the tunes by alternative singers, I suspect this may be to get around music licensing laws.
    4. Lovely People – happy, friendly and lots speak enough English to get by. In fact, there is a lot more British influence than they realise. They also don’t like using shower gel, it is clearly a big luxury in that part of the world.
    5. Stunning scenery – we have also concluded once you have seen one mountain you have seen them all, even if it is in mystical Patagonia. We have some really beautiful places, but it is also rugged and wild, the Argentinian side of the Andes is barren desert as the mountains take the rain. Unlike Europe, there are no foothills that build up to the range, it goes from flat desert to mountains very suddenly.
    6. Vaping – basically they don’t, there are still a few smokers around, but vaping is non-existent.
    7. Cash and credit cards – getting cash out of the ATMs is really expensive, minimum £8 service charge and often a lot more. I also found using credit cards online is hard work as UK cards seemed to assume I was a fraudster.
    8. Internal Flights – the country is huge, so air travel is essential, but it is expensive and more unreliable than we were expecting.  We had a very bad start with FlyBondi, but after that most flights were at least on the same day, but always late.
    9. Cost of living – it is pretty much the same prices as the UK, steak and Malbec is a bit cheaper but not massive. All their menus are digital as the prices are always rising.
    10. Homosexuality – Argentina is one of the most permissive countries from that perspective, they were the first to have same sex marriage, we even saw a gay pride march in Ushuaia, they all looked a bit nippy.  
  • Exploring “the end of the world” around Ushuaia

    Exploring “the end of the world” around Ushuaia

    Having travelled to the most southerly point in the Americas, it feels like you should so something significant to remember it. When I first planned the trip, I was hoping to stand on Cape Horn and see the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet as I had done in Africa. The problem with the southern tip of America is that it littered with little islands, so Cape Horn seems to be a bit more of an area than a specific point. 

    The same applies to the most southerly point, as the Beagle Channel is 200km long it is it along there somewhere. As the channel and surrounding mountain are the border between Argentinian and Chilean territory, there is a general disagreement on most things, so the Ushuaia claims the prize of most southerly point, but Chile has a village on one of the islands with a similar claim, but as it is an island it doesn’t count in my book.

    There are lots of tour companies in Ushuaia offering pretty much the same packages, either a cruise or a trip to the Tierra del Fuego national park. It is quite difficult to make sense of it all through Tripadvisor as the companies are all offering different sounding packages but they are the basically the same thing.

    The Beagle Channel cruises, this is the channel that separates Argentina from Chile, and giant catamarans ply the waters to 2 destinations. The first is the cruise to the Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse out in the middle of the channel, the most southerly lighthouse in the world, then there are the all day cruises to the penguin colony way down the channel towards the Atlantic, so we chose the one to the lighthouse which was 3 hours.

    The Tierra Del Fuego national park trips were dressed up in many different ways, but basically it is minibus trip around the national park with something else. The big attraction if the “Train at the end of the World”, so we chose the 5 hour trip and the train ride. Other options included, canoes, rafts and even a game of golf, but it was still the same national park.

    Beagle Channel Cruise  

    We set off at 9am in a freezing cold wind blowing along the channel that separates Chile from Argentina.  The trip was sold out, mostly to  Germans doing a South Atlantic cruise, seemed a bit odd to get off a cruise ship and then go back up the same channel in a smaller ship.

    After bouncing around in the waves running down the channel, our first stop was a remote island and the last bit of land owned by Argentina, everything south of here is Chilean apparently. The landing was quite a surprise, the huge catamaran just ran up on the beach, and we all marched down the gangplank for the professional photo opportunity.

    Apparently, some guy decided to live on this island 100 years ago, and he must have been a very hardy soul, because it was freezing and very exposed even in spring or nearly summer.  We concluded he must have either been very unsociable or was kicked out of Ushuaia by the locals.

    Then we were back on the boat, with the wind behind us it wasn’t so rough as we ran with the waves. Next stop was a remote rock occupied by a range of seabirds, mainly cormorants and penguins, they made a spectacular sight. If you couldn’t see them, you could certainly smell them as the rock was covered in seabird poop that even the elements couldn’t clean up, we circled the rocks, so everyone got a good view and plenty of photos.

    The views along the channel were spectacular, the visibility improved as the day went on and we had a great view of the snow covered mountains on both sides of the channel.

    Next stop further up the channel was the most southerly lighthouse in the world. Once again it was a spectacular display of wildlife with the main difference being the sealion colony with occupied the rocky outcrops.

    The trip was about 3 hours in total and pretty good value for money as the views are unique.  We were very glad we didn’t commit to the 6 hour cruise to see the penguin colony, that must be a very long day in those conditions unless you are desperate to see a penguin colony.

    Opinion – must do having come all this way

    Here is a video of the highlights

    Tierra del Fuego national park.  

    This is the southern tip of Patagonia, and the tour took in some interesting places, but in general it was very similar to a lot of the other national parks we have visited in Patagonia, lakes and snow topped mountains and border disagreements with Chile.

    There are constant reminders of how remote this national park is, at the limit of civilisation and due to the wild conditions, the limit of human habitation. There were indigenous people here for thousands of years surviving in this wild climate, but they didn’t survive the arrival of the Europeans and their viruses.

    The start (or end) of the Pan American highway is one of the stops, it is difficult to imagine that this stretches all the way to the tip of Alaka, anyone cycling or driving to this point would probably wonder if it was all worthwhile, as it ends as a rough track, the last sign for the Highway 3 and a little plaque to commemorate your arrival.

    To be honest there isn’t a lot else to see, we dropped in to see the last Post Office at the end of the world, but apparently it is now shut. The postmaster is in his eighties and doesn’t turn up for work much, so wouldn’t recommend posting a card to anyone.

    The main event is the “Train at the end of the World”. Apparently, this was built by convicts who had been despatched to the penal colony back in the day. It wasn’t entirely clear why they built this railway as it doesn’t seem to go anywhere particularly useful other than the old prison, but it would certainly have kept the convicts busy for a few years.

    It is just a small gauge railway that trundles along a river, through some woods, stops off to look at a waterfall, and then tracks around the edges of a peat swamp that they are careful not to disturb and let off methane.

    If you have ever been to the Highlands of Scotland, you have seen everything this national park has to offer, in fact, one of the local jokes is that the Brits travelled all this was around the world to find the same weather conditions and scenery that they already had at home.

    Opinion – expensive, symbolic but not essential

    Here’s the video of our train ride

  • Highlights of a day in Ushuaia

    Highlights of a day in Ushuaia

    Ushuaia is that last bit of civilisation before you get to Antarctica, the tourist industry calls it the end of the world, and it certainly is the end of the road, the pan American Highway 3 starts or ends here depending on which way you are heading.

    Ushuaia is a wild and windswept place surrounded by towering snow covered mountains all around it, with the Beagle Channel separating Argentina with Chile just across the straights. Coming into land was a bit of an experience with a 70mph wind behind us and no sign of land until you hit the runway, in our case, with a bit of a bump.

    We had a nice little place called Hotel Austral the room even had a heated floor to keep us warm, and it was no coincidence that our hotel was located next to the Dubliner Irish Bar, this seemed a great idea until they all piled out at 2am singing.

    I’ve now been to the most southerly point of 5 of the 7 continents and this is without doubt the wildest, Cape Horn is on an island about 50 miles away on one of the myriads of islands they provide the barrier between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, Antarctica is about 800 miles south and there are winds that reach 150mph.

    Ushuaia is the capital of the Malvinas, part of which includes the Falkland Islands, so we were not too sure how Brits would be greeted in this area. However, we had no need to be concerned as the locals were very friendly and welcoming, that having been said, I wouldn’t advise wearing a Union Jack t shirt and we left our England rugby bobble hats at home. The war is basically a subject to be left alone and generations tend to move on.

    Ushuaia has found it’s way into the global tourist industry by virtue of building a cruise liner port that is the stop off for trips to the Antarctic, it has also built an amazing airport on a spur of land that juts out into the Beagle Channel and is very exposed to the elements.

    The end of November is the start of their summer, and it is cold and windswept, so it is difficult to imagine how desolate it must be in the winter.  It is a major skiing centre, nearly all the shops are dedicated to skiing and outdoor sports, but the Argentinian skiers must be hardy souls as this is the equivalent of skiing in the Arctic, like the Norwegians!

    Ushuaia is basically one long waterfront, which has been adapted to cope with cruise visitors near the key. Unlike Mediterranean cruise ports, there is no bargain gold or watches shops, a few souvenirs are about it. The cruise clientele coming through are made of hardier stuff as they are on their way to Antarctica.

    It is also home to a very dull museum and a Hard Rock Cafe, that wasn’t exactly bouncing either.

    Running parallel to the waterfront is the main shopping street, another very long street with all the shops interspersed with coffee and cake shops, eating to stay warm seems to be the local pastime.

    There is a notable lack of bars anywhere. Apart from our local Irish Bar we only found one other proper bar, and that was our old favourite from El Calafate the Patagonian Brewing Company again.

    We worked out that, due to its location, it was almost certainly the most southerly bar in the Americas, so we grabbed the table in the window, which made it the most southerly table, and had a beer to celebrate drinking in the most southerly, place and followed up with more beers and a lamb burger to fully celebrate reaching the end of our journey south.

    To be honest, there isn’t much to do in Ushuaia other than walk along the waterfront and get a few photos. We visited a museum that was utterly boring and reflected a history of hard labour as a penal colony and the indigenous people who were largely wiped out by the arrival of the Europeans and their ailments.

    There is a poignant reminder of the Falklands War, with images of the Argentinian troops occupying the islands. For me, it was very sad to see the images of young conscripts, brave and totally ill equipped on a mission to regain what they saw as their national territory. The problem was that the British naval forces, supported by some of the best paratroopers and commandoes in the world were on their way to reclaim it, so there was only ever going to be one outcome.

    The main trips are the Beagle Channel and the Tierra Del Fuego national park, which I will cover in a separate blog.