Titanium toes attempts to trek the Inca Trail plus some travels either side

[bPeteb]

Gee, how do I compete after the last few South American trip reports? I'll go for the sympathy vote as I hobbled around South America with my newly rebuilt feet. Actually, there was no hobbling, my surgeon did a great job getting me up and about in a miraculously short time.

If you want to read the waffling version here's the link to our travelpod blog that I finally finished last night - http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/aussiepanda/16/tpod.html

This one will be far more abbreviated. I'm usually fanatical with my food and hotel room photos but my head obviously wasn't there on this trip. I could try to blame the altitude but it was the non-altitude hotels I missed.

Our itinerary -
24 June NZ136 BNE-AKL 777-300 Y+ spaceseat
24 June NZ30 AKL-EZE 777-200 Y+ conventional seat
One night Buenos Aires
25 June AR1734 AEP-IGR Y
One night Puerto Iguazu
26 June AR1725 IGR-EZE Y
Two nights Buenos Aires
28 June AR1364 EZE-Lima
Two nights Lima
Intrepid Sacred Land of the Incas 15 nights
One extra night La Paz
15 July LA2567 La Paz-Lima Y
One night Lima
16 July AR1365 Lima-EZE Y+
16 July NZ31 EZE-AKL J
19 July NZ135 AKL-BNE J

Hopefully I'll get stuck in later today
Pete

 

[bPeteb]

We booked the trip late last year. I started to walk to work but my sad old arthritic feet screamed out 'no!'. I'd had a referral to see an orthopaedic surgeon for 14 months that I'd chosen to ignore.

My feet had been problematic for quite a while. In March I realised that without some serious medical intervention I wouldn't be walking, and possibly going, anywhere. Within a couple of weeks I'd seen the surgeon, had arthroplasties on both of my big toes, and had begun recuperation. 12 weeks after I had the operation I started walking in normal shoes again. 14 weeks later we boarded our flight to Auckland.

We originally booked Y to Argentina and J back. When NZ had another sale on premium fares we called to see what it would cost to upgrade to Y+. The first price quoted was laughable. When we said what the actual online difference between what we’d paid for Y and what Y+ now was they offered a much more sensible amount that we accepted. Better to pay and get the air dollars than have our OneUp bid of the same amount accepted and get nothing.

A few weeks before we left I read about the trial status match that United was offering. I applied and was approved within a day. When we checked in for our flight I mentioned it and the CSR added the UA number to the booking and gave us new boarding passes with UA gold and access to the NZ lounges in Brisbane and Auckland.

Bubbles in hand, we were on our way.

The new NZ lounge in BNE was pretty nice. The opposite end of the concourse to the now closed QF lounge. Certainly no complaints there.
What's inside from the top
and from the side

 

[bPeteb]

We chose Spaceseats on the outside of the 777-300 and if we fly Y+ NZ long distance we'd choose the outer seats again. We liked the legroom, the hard shell, the fact each of us would have something to lean against. The plane itself seemed a bit tired. My IFE screen didn't sit/hang properly. The seats and carpet a bit grubby. The plastic cup of bubbly pre-departure a bit of a surprise.

The crew on this flight were typical NZ friendly. The food was very good. The salmon was excellent, as were the two mains. Menu attached. I tried the provided nc headphones but they didn't compare to my Bose. I'm glad I brought them.

 

[bPeteb]

and the food

 

[amaroo]

We booked the trip late last year. I started to walk to work but my sad old arthritic feet screamed out 'no!'. I'd had a referral to see an orthopaedic surgeon for 14 months that I'd chosen to ignore.

Those X-rays look painful! Looking forward to your TR.

 

[bPeteb]

Two and a half hours between flights gave us an opportunity to try the new(ish) Koru Club in AKL. It was a huge improvement over the old one.

The second flight was on what felt like a very newly refurbed 772. I liked the conventional seats. Very similar to the QF Y+ seats. Maybe a bit more room? Not sure, it's a while since we last flew in them. The crew on this flight was extremely good. One flight attendant was from the States and was a wealth of information about BA. We both managed to get some sleep. We arrived in to BA just a little late.

 

[bPeteb]

We stayed at BoBo Hotel and Restaurant for three nights, one before and two after our overnighter to Iguazu. I'm shocked I took no pictures of the first room, or the superb meal we had in the hotel restaurant. Brilliant service. Entrees, mains and shared dessert terrific. I had a fantastic steak, my partner a great lamb shank, finished off with an excellent Patagonian malbec.

We wandered around Palermo in the morning, down as far as the very bizarre Japanese Garden (way too much concrete and asphalt) before returning to the hotel for our taxi to AEP.

excellent breakfast at Bobo hotel
botanicalgardens
the Mattg street art challenge is on
some more street art that an Argentinian street artist prepared earlier

 

[RB]

Looking forward to reading more of your experiences. Interesting to see the photos of your first 2 flights

 

[love_the_life]

Ooh, those toes look 'ouch'. Do you set the metal detectors off now?
The itinerary looks great - I loved Iguazu Falls and of course Peru. I have no toe implants but I certainly would not be able to do the trek like you so I am really looking forward to reading more.

 

[bPeteb]

Ooh, those toes look 'ouch'. Do you set the metal detectors off now?
The itinerary looks great - I loved Iguazu Falls and of course Peru. I have no toe implants but I certainly would not be able to do the trek like you so I am really looking forward to reading more.

So far metal detectors have ignored me

 

[bPeteb]

Drone racing course in Palermo. I hate the stupid things buzzing around so this is a great solution.

Wildlife at the Jardin Japones

I can't remember what we were told about this. It reminded us both of an Inuit totem

Buenos Aires is all about epic avenues

I couldn't be bothered to rotate this one. A copy of The Hobbit, in Indonesian, In Argentina

 

[bPeteb]

View attachment 77503
Snack served on AR 737-700 to Puerto Iguazu
View attachment 77504
Sunset over northern Argentina, just for drron
View attachment 77505
Comfortable room at Hotel Jardin de Iguazu
View attachment 77507
A perfectly respectable Argentinian beer to go with our meals at Terra Bar and Restaurant

 

[bPeteb]

We booked a private guide for Iguazu through Tours By Locals. We have always been very independent travellers and are usually happy to organise ourselves using taxis and public transport. We had just a day at Iguazu, had pretty much zero Spanish/Brasilian Portuguese, and wanted to see as much as we could. From our perspective a guide was the only way to do it. With Tours By Locals you choose a destination then choose a guide. Marcelo D offered a 10 hour tour of both sides of the falls, he drove a near new Peugeot 408, he looked after the two border crossings, all for AUD350. It was money well spent.

The hotel opened the restaurant for us 30 minutes early so that we could have breakfast before Marcelo picked us up.

He took us to the lookout where we could see Brasil and Paraguay from Argentina cross a fork in the river. Then to Devil's Throat where we were on the first train. As we got out of the car two toucans flew over us. That was as close as we got to a toucan the whole trip.

Devil's Throat Falls was amazing. The power of the water unbelievable. If you go you need proper waterproof clothes, top and bottom, unless you have a dry set of clothes with you. You might be lucky and the say blow away from you. We got drenched and just had spray jackets. Luckily it was very warm and our jeans dried out pretty quickly.

We then caught the train back to the second station on the line and walked the full length of the Argentinian falls. Amazing!


Breakfast spread at Hotel Jardin de Iguazu. I'd asked the night before if we could get a breakfast bag or box in the morning as our guide was coming earlier then the restaurant opened and they said yes. When we went down to check out they told me that we could have breakfast, half an hour early.



Sunrise over the fork in the river - Paraguay to the left, Brasil to the right


The wide open spaces of the train station to Devil's Throat. Marcelo always gets you on the first train of the day to avoid the crowds





Walking out along the boardwalk towards the Devil's Throat

 

[bPeteb]

Coatis heading back to the station in search of food. Don't feed them. Don't let them near you. Don't let them scratch you.

 

[bPeteb]

 

[bPeteb]

 

[bPeteb]

Flew back to EZE on an Embraer (sp?) 190. Nice little plane. Even had a tiny EFI screen. Left early, again.

 

[tgh]

Great tr.. muchly enjoyment +++

 

[JohnM]

BP scanned.

 

[bPeteb]

We knew what to do when we got back to the airport this time. We headed straight for the counter of remis company that we'd used when we first arrived. More than a taxi yes, but it's not always about money and we'd just spent a quite the wad of cash for 24 hours in Iguazu. We were greeted like long lost family when we got back to BoBo.

We were upgraded to a Deluxe room for our second visit. The room was in the new part of the hotel. More modern, much more nicely decorated, a small balcony that opened over the rear courtyard. But... it had the same issue as our first room - noise. It seemed to be a South American hotel thing. Tiled or timber hallways with gaps under doors you can just about climb through. This one had the timber floor through into the room so noise in the hallway poured through. We heard just every word from the room next door and every stpe the people above us took. Lucky I had ear plugs!