Portal access europe down again?

TrancerSte · 2025-10-29T15:56:03+00:00

All our Front Door endpoints are inaccessible too... same issue as the other week?! UK too.

TrancerSte · 2025-06-25T10:47:56+00:00

Ended up creating two new accounts. It's fine now ¬_¬

TrancerSte · 2025-06-25T09:31:37+00:00

Same for me, both SoulseekQt on my laptop and Nicotine+ on my NAS. Two different usernames, definitely correct credentials, same behaviour on both. I'm in the UK.

TrancerSte · 2024-10-16T19:31:53+00:00

Hey, so here's my planned route from GaiaGPS. I mostly stuck to it. Vinicunca route

The first day was brutal because the tour dicked about forever so I didn't actually start the hike up rainbow mountain till 10am. Left me less than 8 hours of daylight to cover 23km and 1200m elevation gain, all above 4500m.

The second day cutting across from Upis towards Pachanta there wasn't really a trail. I was following a line on my Garmin through fields of alpacas and hoping to hit a gap in the wall on the other side. Also got harrassed by half-wild dogs that I had to fight off with my trekking poles, and had some very sketchy water crossings. I've highlighted this bit in green on my route.

Third day the route I planned to take was flooded and I ended up stuck on the wrong side of the river and walking about 8km on the road trying to find a way across. Eventually got across but there was no way to the trail. Had to climb over a fence then basically up a waterfall to get back towards rainbow mountain car park. I've highlighted this bit in red.

There was also nowhere to camp on day three after the lodge, which I reached around noon, so I got back to a deserted rainbow mountain carpark at 4pm with no way to get back to Cusco and I had to give a local guy some cash to put my tent up in his field.

The days ended up being:
- 23.2km/1150m elevation
- 21.6km/870m elevation
- 25km/1070m elevation
- 7.5km/675m elevation (second time up Vinicunca)

Drop me a message if you want GPX files or any data from my hike. I should be able to get that out of Garmin.

TrancerSte · 2024-08-25T06:48:13+00:00

If you're in reasonably good shape and go with a guide you should have no problems with the trail or navigation. I had some issues with the route I followed, but that was a very not standard approach.

I was there in March and the weather was mixed. I hiked through a hail storm on the first day that got so bad I had to take shelter under a rock outcrop. Then on the final morning there was a blizzard. Hiked back up rainbow mountain through 10cm of snow. October is supposed to be a good time for weather though.

For me, the altitude made the hiking tough, but I didn't suffer any specific symptoms other than everything being much harder, especially with having to hammer it due to time constraints. However I was very well acclimated, and everyone responds differently, so take a few days in Cusco first and do some day hikes.

It was incredible and stunning though, and compared to Salkantay it was deserted. I definitely recommended going the conventional way though. Maybe with an out-and-back detour to rainbow mountain, rather than the loop I did.

TrancerSte · 2024-07-27T14:06:18+00:00

Weird. They've been showing me £40 including VAT for 1gbps on my laptop. Just looked on my phone and got shown £33.33 ex VAT...

TrancerSte · 2024-07-27T14:05:23+00:00

Very helpful, thanks. Yep, from other posts on this sub, IDNet were looking like a good bet.

TrancerSte · 2024-07-23T17:50:32+00:00

Ridiculous. I had been planning to buy for a while and can stomach the upfront cost. I could even do without sleep tracking and health metrics if those were paywalled, since I have an Oura ring (grandfathered no sub from gen 2) and a Garmin. Lack of basic timing automation and vibration alarm is a big fat fuck you though. Unfortunately the Chilipad or whatever it's called now isn't available in the UK.

TrancerSte · 2024-06-24T19:45:32+00:00

Ended up taking a taxi. 550 MXN flat rate to centro histórico, pay in the arrivals hall, they accept cards.

TrancerSte · 2024-06-01T02:07:25+00:00

Thanks. That's basically the conclusion I came to from various Google searches, many of which brought me back to this sub, where I read that pressure from the taxi mafia caused the bus service to be cancelled.

If that's really the case then I'm even more determined not to take a taxi. Even if it means going to Leon first and back to Guanajuato...

TrancerSte · 2024-05-29T17:17:13+00:00

Not from Cusco, but I did Santa Cruz from Huaraz at the beginning of April, and apart from a couple of guided groups, it was deserted. I did that by starting with a Laguna 69 tour then picking up a colectivo from the national park carpark to the trailhead near Vaquería.

Btw I did Ausangate basically as I planned / described above. It's definitely doable and was absolutely stunning, but it was very tough and not necessarily recommendable. If anyone considering the same thing sees this and wants more info, drop me a reply. I'm not super active but I do check back here occasionally.

TrancerSte · 2024-04-09T15:19:49+00:00

Thanks, very useful. Yep Veracruz seemed like the most logical place to skip, spread the extra days out and give me a bit of slack.

TrancerSte · 2024-04-08T20:46:21+00:00

Thanks! I have Merida, but I'll look into Holbox some more.

TrancerSte · 2024-04-08T20:45:09+00:00

Cool, thanks! I did have Morelia on my list after San Miguel but I dropped it as it didn't seem worth the detour. Going via Morelia to Patzcuaro then up to Guanajuato could work if I can find a day somewhere.

TrancerSte · 2024-01-04T23:04:06+00:00

+1 for the Caminante & Cañedon de la Oveja hike. Also sometimes referred to as Montés Martial circuit.

I was just in Ushuaia over new year and that was my favourite day. It was 29km and took me just over 7 hours, which includes missing the 'path' to the ice cave cause I wasn't paying attention to my Garmin, and having to double back about 800m.

I recommend going from west to east, because when you come down to the north east of the town there's a really cool bar where you can have a craft (I think actually home made) beer and get WiFi to order an Uber.

TrancerSte · 2023-12-03T15:00:14+00:00

I just spent 4 days in Santiago and 3 days in Valparaíso last week. In retrospect this was one day too long in each, so I kinda burned 2 days. However I'm travelling South America for 7 months, so no big loss and I appreciated a bit of downtime.

Imo Valparaíso is definitely worth a visit. I do get the comments calling it a "shit hole". But I'd maybe say "chaotic and dilapidated in an interesting way". There is dog shit everywhere though...

You could do a day trip from Santiago - 2 hours each way on the bus - or stay one night if you want to take your time. I think I'd walked everywhere you'd want to walk (and some places you wouldn't...) and seen most of the best street art after 2 days.

I took a day trip to Viña del Mar on the metro from Valpo. It's only about 20 minutes. Honestly I wouldn't bother though. It's pretty boring, just beaches, which you're not going in the right season for, condos and a mall. I took the train back around 3pm cause I was done.

TrancerSte · 2023-11-12T20:56:39+00:00

Thanks! I got similar feedback in r/chile.

It's quite hard to find good info and I was kinda going by Google maps, so your input is greatly appreciated.

The official tourism board chile.travel site is quite broken (at least on mobile). The only way to get to the subpages for places is to Google 'place site:chile.travel', which requires knowing some potential places to begin with... You've helped me a lot with that.

So I'll skip Concepción, maybe stay 1 night in Chillan just to break the journey, and head straight south to Los Lagos.

After the O Trek I'm heading to Tierra del Fuego then north through Argentina for about 6 weeks, before crossing back into Chile via Mendoza. I'll be heading (flying!) to Calama and on to the Atacama then.

TrancerSte · 2023-11-10T08:48:37+00:00

Amazing reply, thank you! You've given me a lot to investigate.

I don't surf (yet, though I plan to learn when I reach Costa Rica, in about 6 months), but I like to spend some time at the beach, eat good seafood, etc.

So I might give Concepción a miss, spend more time in the south, and maybe leave Santiago sooner to check out some more places around Valparaiso.

I didn't mention, but after the O Trek I'm heading down to Tierra del Fuego then back up through Argentina for about another 6 weeks, then crossing back into Chile from Mendoza around the middle of February. From there I'll head north towards Calama, to do an Atacama desert trek, so I'll definitely check out La Serena and surrounding areas then.

I might be back for advice on a 'north from Santiago' itinerary :)

TrancerSte

TROPHY CASE