My travels: Michael Jacobs travels the Andes from top to bottom
The author tells of the journey of a lifetime down the Andes, from the tropics of Venezuela to the icy tip of Patagonia
Eventually I realised my childhood dream of travelling their whole length, from the tropics down to Tierra del Fuego. A framework to my journey was provided by the exploits of the great Andean adventurers of the past, one of the most influential of whom was the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt. He toured the Andes from Colombia to Peru at the turn of the 19th century, drawing conclusions that would later form the basis of a massive unfinished study of the cosmos. His writings are filled with a constant and infectious sense of wonder.
Hundreds of Humboldt's contemporaries, including Charles Darwin, were encouraged by him to come and visit the strange and marvellous lands he described. A no less significant response was that of the South American liberator Simón Bolívar, who thought frequently of Humboldt while pursuing down the Andes his dream of a united continent freed from Spanish rule.
I planned an ambitious transcontinental route that would begin by following Humboldt and Bolívar through the northern and central Andes and end up with Darwin at South America's southernmost tip. I estimated that it would be six months of near-continuous travelling, largely by bus, but also by train and boat, and even on horseback and on foot.
I started in Venezuela, climbing into the Andes along a road that Bolívar had taken when marching his army towards one of his earliest great victories against the Spaniards, in 1813. On the ascent from the small town of Trujillo to Venezuela's mountain capital of Mérida, lush tropical scenery dotted with coffee plantations, sugar cane and banana palms gave way to steeply inclined fields still ploughed by oxen, beyond which came the bleak high moorlands or páramos.
I spent three days hiking through the páramos, an area whose main vegetation in the higher and rockier reaches are haunting, triffid-like plants called frailejónes. Freezing fog set in during the afternoons, but the mornings were unfailingly crystal clear and sunny, allowing occasional views towards the faraway snowy profile made up of Venezuela's three highest peaks, named in descending order after Bolívar, Humboldt, and the latter's faithful French companion, Bonpland.
I enjoyed unworldly views of Cotopaxi while staying at San Agustín de Callo (incahacienda.com), a rustic archaeological complex now transformed into one of the Andes' most unusual and enticing hotels. Still a working farm, and with the atmosphere of an eccentric private residence, the place incorporates a former Augustinian monastery. My book-lined bedroom, set behind a cloister strung with hammocks and warmed by an open fire, had Inca foundations, and adjoined a bare stone chapel thought by some to have been an Inca place of worship.
From San Agustín de Callo onwards, I would be confronted by remains of the Incas' austere, autocratic, and remarkably short-lived empire.
MyTravel history
The story of MyTravel, formerly known as Airtours, began in 1972 when the firm's founder, David Crossland, bought Pendle Travel Services, a travel agency business with two stores in Lancashire.
A second travel agency business was acquired shortly after from Albert and Ivy Roberts who had registered it using their initials A.I.R. Tours. The Airtours name was born.
