It´s almost over and we can´t believe it. In about six hours´ time, the South American leg of our travels will end when we hop on a flight out of Santiago and travel for 20 hours - crossing the international date line in the process - to Australia. We have been in this continent of incredible contrasts for four and a half months now, but the time has just roared by. Given the choice, we´d both stay longer - months rather than weeks longer - but we can't, and anyway, the couple of weeks we've just had have been the perfect [View Full Entry]

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Bad news, chaps: it´s definitely blogging weather in South America. Just when we thought all the stuff we´d heard about it being utterly miserable in Patagonia at this time of the year was wrong, the heaven opened, confining us to barracks and me to the computer for the first time in.... well, it´s been quite a few weeks. (You lucky, lucky people.) We have landed in a small town called San Martin de los Andes which, as the name implies, is right on the edge of the Patagonian Andes. With impeccable timing, we seem to have arrived at a time when [View Full Entry]

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Hello from Rio and long time no speak. Since arriving here, we seem to have become infected with a serious case of what doctors would call ´Brazil-itis´. The symptoms are: not getting out of bed, wanting to go to the beach every day, eating and drinking too much and generally behaving like tourists on a two-week holiday, rather than travellers who have to make their life savings stretch over a year. If ever there was a place to blow the budget, however, it´s here. Rio is an incredible city, with lovely beaches, gorgeous weather (even in so-called winter) and beautiful people, [View Full Entry]

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Rather like the speed of connection at the internet cafe I´m writing from, it´s been a week of highs and lows. The latter are behind us - hopefully - but one way or another the last 10 days in Bolivia have definitely been our toughest to date. Last time we wrote we were on the point of catching a plane to The Jungle, and that´s where the lows began. The local airlines are about as reliable as Frank Lampard, and we spent a day fruitlessly waiting at the airport for a plane that was never going to take off while the [View Full Entry]

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Good news: this is going to be a short entry, for two reasons. Firstly, we have one free afternoon in the Bolivian capital, La Paz, before we hit the road again; and second, Adele says we spend too much time writing blogs and not enough time doing things to write about in them. (She might have a point, damn her.) So, to cut a long story short... Last Wednesday we entered Bolivia via a hideous all-night bus journey from our favourite place so far, Arequipa in Peru. And if I'm honest, first impressions weren't great. We got ripped off by money-changers [View Full Entry]

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This week in South America, we have been mostly... travelling by bus. In just over seven days, we´ve covered well over 1000 miles and spent something like 40 hours on board. (Almost as long as we´ve spent on the lav, but that´s another story.) And tomorrow, when we ship out of Peru and head for Bolivia, we´ve got another 14 hours of the same to look forward to. Can´t wait. All Peruvian bus journeys are different but somehow the same. Long-haul or short-hop, your journey always seems to take longer than you ever imagined it could. There are always too few [View Full Entry]

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If I wiggle in my chair as I write this, I can just feel a dull twinge from my groinal regions - a memento of the Inca Trail, South America´s most famous hike to the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, which we completed two days ago. The trail is absolutely awe-inspiring: a four-day, 27-mile hike climbing to over 4000 metres amid the most wonderful scenery we´ve ever witnessed. But bloody hell, is it hard work; especially if, like us, you´ve warmed up by spending four days on a boat in the Galapagos Islands filling your cakehole every two hours. As a [View Full Entry]

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So that´s Ecuador left behind. We´re writing this from Cuzco in south-eastern Peru, where we arrived yesterday after an epic 24-hour journey from the Galapagos Islands that involved four flights, some sailing, a taxi ride in a rather out-of-shape Toyota Corolla and the combined total of about 11 minutes´sleep. It´s a tribute to how splendid Cuzco is that we managed to last until bedtime without giving to the desire to be horizontal. Bit short of breath, though, as it´s 3600m above sea level. We´ve been in south America for a whole month now, although it feels more like about 10 days, [View Full Entry]

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It's hard work, this blogging lark. No sooner do you commit to keeping an online diary of your travels and cheerfully tell everybody about it than you disappear into the sticks for two weeks, where they don't have hot water let alone email. So apologies for the lengthy radio silence. Here's what we've been up to... The first thing I did (this is Rob, by the way) after posting the last blog was have my wallet expertly pickpocketed on the tram: quite possibly a new world record, because it was all of five minutes into our first real bit of travelling. [View Full Entry]

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At last, the waiting's over... At about 4.30am last Wednesday, after a REALLY rubbish night's sleep (not to mention a really rubbish couple of weeks of preparation), we got in a taxi at my sister Claire's house in Surbiton. By tea-time - after a connecting flight to Madrid, followed by a 10-hour Iberia long-haul with but one Jennifer Aniston rom-com for entertainment plus a head-spinning six-hour time change backwards - we'd landed in Quito, capital of Ecuador and the base for our first four weeks of travelling. And the good news is: it's bloody brilliant here. Beautiful historic buildings, [View Full Entry]

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