South American adventures

We have recently returned from a month in South America - to be exact, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia. It was exhilarating but exhausting. We loved the diversity: One minute we were hiking in Patagonia amongst snow-capped peaks, glaciers, lakes and vast plains, the next we were driving through dramatic mountains and volcanic landscapes, then into the Amazon basin in Ecuador. A couple of weeks later and we were visiting colourful colonial Spanish villages from the 16th century and lush green coffee farms in Colombia. 

Everyone was friendly and helpful and we always felt safe and secure.

Here are some photographic highlights. I'll do each country separately another time.

Patagonia, Chile

Torres Del Paine National Park

Hiking through the park

We saw lots of guanacos, native to South America.

A mother and baby guanaco

There were lots of waterfalls in the park.



I made it to the top of a mountain (well, all right, a big hill).

Ecuador

I stood on the Equator. Right foot in Southern Hemisphere, left in Northern!

Volcanoes (extinct and active) were everywhere.

Lots of old buildings in Quito, the capital.

On the way to the Mindo Cloud Forest, 2 hours north of Quito.

Unusual flowers in the Mindo Cloud Forest.

On our jungle walk in the Amazon basin.

A vicuna, another native of South America - their soft fur is worth thousands of dollars.

Colombia

We visited two colonial Spanish villages:

Villa de Leyva

and Barinchara.

I loved the colourful plaza in Jardin (pronounced har-deen) ...

... and balconies.

Coffee country.

Here I am learning how to pick the coffee beans.

And watching how to make drinking chocolate.

The people

But it is the people who make a country. Here is a gallery of some of the people we encountered. Most were happy for us to photograph them, though my super-long lens helped me get some shots unobserved.

And finally, the happy, though exhausted, travellers.