CHILE Torres del Paine After driving for days of nothing but flat lands til the horizon we suddenldy see in the distance rugged snow capped mountains that are the Torres Del Paine. We did a full day hike up to Torres which I would´t lie was pretty hard, but the views were well worth it. It was foggy and rainy when we 1st started off but when the rain and fog lifted it left way for some amazing views. Our Campsite in Torres had a wonderfull of the mountains and opening up the tent evrey moring to those views was just [View Full Entry]

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Well it's my last country and although I should be home in Ireland right now, I've stayed on for two more weeks to go tro the Gollapogas Islands. Quito is a really bizzare city. Standing high at 2,850m above sea level it has a new town and an old town both of which couldn't be any further from resemling each other if they tried. The old town is steep, poor and full of oranatly decorated churches, if not a liitle bit on the tacky gold side. There are so many churches around the old town, almost on every corner where there [View Full Entry]

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After a 3030km drive from Beunos Aires we arrived in Ushuaia, the end of the world. Yes i've been here before 2 months ago, last time I flew from BA to here and it took 3 1/2 hrs, this time i went overland which took 7 days. it was 7 days of very long and boring drives, with the flatest land i every seen with nothing for 100s of miles, no town, no petrol staion, no trees or plants, nothing, but electricty poles and one straight flat road. So on the truck I slept lots, read lots and ended up playing [View Full Entry]

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Well I´ve been in Buenos Aires (BA) for 2 days now and so far I love it. When got into our hotel (Hotel Tribeca) I was actually in awww for at least half an hour. I've been to one or nice nice hotels in my time from the Four Seasons NYC to the Claridges in London, but getting to any hotel (this is 4 star) after 3 weeks camping and hostleing it is a dream. There's 3 of us in thr room, with a massive king bed, 2 singles, cable tv, mini kitchen and the highlight has to be the free [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Campo Grande on Monday armed with 2 bottles of bug spay I was off to the Pantanal, which is the wetland region of Brazil. We stayed in a modest hostel and our room rested on 2m high stilts ( it´s called the wetlands for a reason). After a small buffet dinner our group sat around for a while in the dinning hall chatting and drinking the local bear Skol ( which costs a whole 80c !! ). All of a sudden out of no-where, i saw this black shadow flying towards me and then BANG in my face flew a [View Full Entry]

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Well since my lastblog i have found sun and my skin in no longer white, it is slowly going froma bright red hue to off brown colour. My nose was soo redtheother day that Santa rang me up wonderering would i guide his sleigh ! So i left Rio on an overland truck with 19 others on boardmade up of mainly ozziez, but also english, dutch, american and 3 other Irish and drove a short drive South Paraty. Paraty is a reaklly sweet village with cobbled streets, white washed buildings and coloures doors, just outside the town is a long stretch [View Full Entry]

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Well i´m leaving wet and rainy Rio 2moro in the search of some sun. I got here on Friday and it was sunny for a few hours, as was Saturday, but now it´s Tuesday and it´s almost been raining solid since ! But don´t worry I have enjoyed some of Rio. When i planned to go to Rio in the 1st place I was really scared, hearing all stories about robberies and the like, actually we met these American guys who got their clothes robbed while swimming in the sea, but then played extra to get their clothes back and then [View Full Entry]

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Well i left Ushuaia, Argentina at 9pm on Monday and got to Florianapolis, Brazil midday on Tuesday after 3 flights, 3 checkins, 5 airports ( had to change airports in Beonas Arues, got a taxi to bring me from one to the other and being 2am in the morning my head wasn´t screwed on so i left my handbag in the car and only realised 5 mins later when i went to check in and had no bag that had my passport, phone and all my money, so i was very close to tears until i realised that i had [View Full Entry]

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Well where to I start to describe where I have been and what I have seen for the past 12 days ? "Imagine a place as big as the US & Europe combined, sunnier than California, yet colder than your freezer, drier than Arabia, higher than mountainous Switzerland & emptier than the Sahara" (the quote was stolen from a book i read) . A land bigger that Austraila with no roads, no cars, no banks, no permanent citizins, no currency, no culture. A place run by wildlife and goverernt by mother nature - welcome to Antartica ! Left Ushuaia on the [View Full Entry]

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I´m still in Ushuaia, although in 24 hours i´ll be on my way to ´the Ice´which is the local term for Antartica. I´ll be gone for 12 days and I can´t wait, I had this trip in my mind since I saw it on RTE´s travel programme ´No Frontiers´ 2 years ago. It´s really warm here and today I sat out reading my book with just a t-shirt on. Yes you read right I was reading ! I finished a complete book on the journey here, which was called Dear John by Nicholas Sparks ( the guy who wrote the Notebook) [View Full Entry]

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