Today, the last day of the rally, was also the first cold, wet and grey day of the whole rally. It was an easy 220km. run from Rio Grande to Uschuaia. We arrived first at the end of rally photo shoot location. After a light lunch we took the car out for a final spin, hoping unsuccessfully to find some snow on a road, although it feels as if it might snow tonight. Tomorrow the cars will be loaded into containers for the return journey to London and then sadly the whole event will be over. So for those of you who were interested in it I am afraid this will be the last post of the blog. Many thanks to those of you who have followed and kept up with us. All the best, Edmund.

Today was the last full driving day of the rally and in many ways had the most rally based ingredients of the whole trip. We covered 645kms., 220 of them on gravel, in 7hours and 26minutes, including a frontier crossing, 2 stops for petrol, lunch and the ferry across the straights of Magellan.

Today is our last day at the Explora, Torres del Paine. I spent the morning riding and the afternoon having a siesta and visiting the spa. Just great!!

 

Today a group of us did an 8km. hike to see wildlife and waterfalls. Then there was a barbeque for everyone at the Explora's estancia.

The Torres del Paine National Park is an amazingly beautiful place in the middle of nowhere.
Yesterday morning I went on a walk to the Lago Grey to see the icebergs that have fallen away from the Grey Glaciar. In the afternoon I had a great gravel test with the car and then a sauna, a quick dip in the lake (water temp 4ºC), a hot outdoor jacuzzi and then a massage.

Today's morning drive from El Calafate to Torres del Paine was fabulous!! Mainly on gravel the scenery was sensational. At the entrance to the Torres del Paine National Park Stuart Hampson and I swapped navigators and I think Angie enjoyed her rally car joy ride!! We arrived at the Explora in time for a delicious lunch and now I am off to have a siesta whilst enjoying the view.

Yesterday was a rest day in El Calafate primarily dedicated to eating.

Today has been fabulous!! First a shorter and more enjoyable drive through Argentinian cattle country, arriving in El Calafate in time to vist the amazing Perito Moreno Glaciar, followed by returning from the glaciar on 60kms of prime gravel to have a bit of fun with the car. Now we are off to have some great beef for dinner!!

Yesterday was another long day of Argentina's vast windswept emptiness, with the occasional view of the Atlantic Ocean, and a marvellous break when we took a boat trip from Puerto San Julian to view dolphins and visit an island where penguins come to breed.

Today we drove 856kms, through the emptiness of central Argentina,  the most kms. in one day on the whole rally. The weather has changed to cold and wet. Perhaps this has been the dullest and most miserable day of the rally so far!!

Our rest day today has been spent replacing the tyre we punctured yesterday and enjoying the scenery around Barriloche.

Today we crossed back into Argentina travelling on tarmac and gravel roads around the mountains and lakes to arrive at the superb Llao Llao Resort Hotel near Barriloche by mid afternoon. Probably one of the most enjoyable day's driving of the whole trip so far. A fantastic day!!!

Yesterday saw a fairly easy drive from Los Angeles to Pucon in the morning, arriving at the first of the Chilean lakes before lunch. In the afternoon some of us went white water rafting, me included.
The hotel where we stayed by the lake just before Pucon was excellent.

Yesterday saw a rather long and dull motorway drive down through Chile from Viña del Mar to Los Angeles via the outskirts of Santiago, with one most enjoyable stop for a wine tasting at Cono Sur's Winery

Today is a rest day in Viña del Mar, the best seaside resort we have visited so far, with Valparaiso in the background.

Yesterday was fabulous. After 150kms of fast straights between San Juan and Mendoza, we went off the road book to do "Los caracoles de Villavicencio" a famous 80kms. dust road mountain pass. 80kms further on we crossed back into Chile and had lunch at the Hotel Portillo (Chile's first ski resort hotel) where Tessa Brooksbank had worked 43 years ago and then went down the famous Chilean "Caracoles" to Viña del Mar.

Today was a rather dull day consisting of 625kms of fast long straight roads with nothing special to see. We are now in San Juan, just north of Mendoza in the wine country.

Yesterday we added 90 kms. to the road book when we broke away as a splinter group of 4 cars to search for more interesting roads and scenery. This was a success. Our first full day of driving in Argentina was fantastic, great driving roads and amazing and incredibly varied scenery from jungle to wine growing areas to gorges such as "The Devil's Throat" (La garganta del diablo).

Last night the barbeque was fantastic.
Today we entered Northwestern Argentina. The scenery is spectacular!!

Today was the first really good rest day. In the morning finally got the shock absorber fixed and accompanied Rick to frontier to prepare crossing tomorrow. Everyone very helpful. In the afternoon a massage and then the jacuzzi and pool. This evening a barbeque. This place is great. Wish we were staying longer!!

Yesterday we drove 700 kms. plus from Arica, through the Atacama desert, to San Pedro de Atacama, which is an oasis.
The Explora hotel is an excellent contemporary ranch style hotel such as one might find in Arizona or New Mexico. They have an observatory and last night we went out after dinner to discover the Southern Night Sky. Quite beautiful!!

On Saturday we drove from Oruro in Bolivia to Arica in Northern Chile. The scenery was spectacular. Arica is on the coast and I think everyone, as well as the cars, were pleased to be down from the high altitudes of the previous days. Suddenly we all got our energy back.
Sunday was a rest day in Arica. Dessie had already arrived. It was a ladies day by the pool, whilst the cars were getting some tlc from the men. The last days had been tough on the cars and two have already fallen by the wayside, whilst many others are having problems. Dessie and I, with some help from Paul, spent the day attending to the car, which has acquired the nickname of "The Flying Tangerine". By now it is very clear that this is an endurance event, for both cars, drivers and navigators, and apparently the toughest one Rick has ever organised!

As I foresaw, I have fallen several days behind, due to some very hard days of driving and lack of internet connections in Bolivia. Last Thursday we drove from Potosi to Uyuni in Bolivia. The salt flats at Uyuni are the largest in the world, 5 times larger than Bonneville, totalling 28,500 sq. kilometers. After a long drive we went out and had some fun on the salt in the evening and then stayed in a salt hotel, a bit like an ice hotel but made of salt.
On Friday most people drove the long way back to Oruro via Potosi. but we and one 4x4 decided to take a shorter route that included 180kms of "piste". At first it was great fun for 80 kms or so, but then we broke a shock absorber and lost 2 hours while we changed it in the desert. Eventually we arrived exhausted.
Now in San Pedro de Atacama in Northern Chile and tomoorow is a rest day so I will continue then.

Yesterday we drove 564kms from near La Paz to Potosi, mostly speeding across the Bolivian Alti Plano. Shortly before Potosi we came to a more mountainous area which was spectacular. It would have been a wonderful day if Potosi had not turned out to be a hell hole on a steep hill with horendous traffic. It took 2 hours from entering the town to get the car parked at the hotel, which was murder for the clutch and stressful for the driver. Ended the day exhausted.

Today we entered Bolivia and spent most of the day going around and crossing Lake Titikaka.
Wonderful!!

Yesterday was Sara's first day in the car. We drove from Cuzco to Puno where we had our first sighting of Lake Titikaka. The hotel we were at last night overlooked the lake and we were able
to visit the floating islands by boat. By coincidence Dessie and his wife were also in Puno, so the orange Tuthill Porsche crew gave a party for the whole group in the evening to say farewell to Francis and welcome Sara and Dessie, as this was the only occasion in the wholw two months of the event that we would all be in the same place together. Today we cross into Bolivia and it looks as if the going is about to get tougher and internet may be less readily available, so I will do my best to keep the blog up to date, but please forgive me if occasionally it lags behind over the next few days.

Yesterday was a day of rest and our last day in Cuzco. The morning was spent checking over the car for the next stage and the afternoon visiting monuments and museums. I thought the MAP. Museo de Arte Pre-Colombino's collection was exquisite and superbly presented.

 

 

Yesterday was a fantastic day. 26 of us joined the best "school outing" ever going to Machu Picchu on the Orient Express Hiram Bingham train. We were pampered and guided through the whole experiance and ended up having a full blown party with a live band on the train on the way back.