We had to force ourselves to leave Punta del Diablo and beach life but after a lucky choice of Hostels we were so glad we did. Things diodn't start great when we arrived in Rosario in Argentina, after a long bus journey, at about 4 am in the pouring rain, a kindly local took it upon themselves to aim for a puddle to further soak us whilst we tried to hail a cab, and then we thought we'd be left out in the rain after we couldn't get into the Hostel because the 24 hour reception was asleep! However, once in [View Full Entry]

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After the excitment of BA we decided we needing some quiet time to relax and work on our tans as the end of our trip approached. We headed to the beaches in Uruguay and after a night in the expensive and holiday-resort feel of Punta del Este we were up in the morning to take the local bus to Punta del Diablo an old fishing village where we rented a cabana, beach hut, with 2 of the Irish lads we had met previously. We had our own hut with kitchen and bbq out the front and after so much time in [View Full Entry]

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Well, it's now September sitting in the lounge of our house in Australia... it would be fair to say we're a little behind on our blog. It would also be fair to say that we don't have many pictures for this visit to Buenos Aires. We were staying in Palermo amongst the cafes, markets and bars and once again found that living in BA is to invert your sleep pattern and after a late dinner you would go out about midnight to the bars then clubs then home for breakfast time and then to bed. We met an Aussie couple in [View Full Entry]

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The following day we had our easiest border crossing yet with a taxi taking us the 10 minutes to the border, getting out with our passports and clearing customs, etc for us and then jumping back in the taxi and driving 5 minutes to our Hostel on the Argentinian side in Iguazu. We were nearly as impressed with the Hostel as the waterfalls themselves, we were paying 7 pounds each a night and arrived to what looked like a Holiday resort for Backpackers with a massive swimming pool and outdoor bar area and 24 hour bar. We were soon splashing in [View Full Entry]

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After 22 hours on the bus we arrived in Foz de Iguacu, on the Brazilian side, and made our way to our Hostel ready for some time by the pool rather than rushing into our sight-seeing. Luckily Cherie insisted on a cab to the Hostel because although it looked close on the map the walk would have taken rather longer! With perfect blue skies it was a perfect day to relax by the pool and recover from Rio. We met some Swedish guys we knew from Rio but it was coca colas all round. The following day we headed into the [View Full Entry]

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Landing into Sao Paulo, Brazil, we ditched our pathetic Spanish and mangled our way through with our even more minimal Portugese to get a public bus from the airport to the main bus terminal to head straight for Rio. Arriving in Rio we got a taxi to the famous Copocabana beach where a friend of a friend owned a Hostel. This Hostel and Rio itself seems to be a non-stop party with happy hour in the Hostel from 7 pm and then people not going out to parties until at least 1 or 2 am. We experienced a variety of pubs [View Full Entry]

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After the hardships of Hostel life, the occasional night in a dorm room and worse still, Hostel toilets, we were both quite happy to be inauthentic backpackers and kick back on the Executive lounge enjoying the free food and drink. And most importantly, apparently, fresh smelling towels and bed linen! Waiting for us in reception was our Canadian friend Tyler, looking inconspicuous in the Hilton lobby with a chin full of stitches after a disagreement with a car on New Years. But his recovery was much aided by the free food on offer. That afternoon hew took us on a walking [View Full Entry]

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Bariloche is a beautiful town that looks onto a big lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains and is said to look rather like the Swiss Alps. In this beautiful place we were staying in the ugliest building in town. It looked like a big council estate building that was slowly falling down. However, inside there was an incredible little Hostel on the 10th floor with panoramic views around us. We arrived to find our Canadian friend, Tyler, there and after catching up we headed out to the supermarket to buy the biggest steaks in the World. It was Tyler´s birthday the following [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Ushuaia - the southernmost city in the World - after a 12 hour journey through the day (the night buses you can just sleep the whole way there!) after experiencing crossing from Argentina, into Chile and back into Argentina, torrential rain that obscured any view out of the window and a hungover backpacker sitting across the aisle from us vomiting into a plastic bag for half the journey. Our only highlight was watching the dolphins swim alongside our ferry on a short crossing we took. Ushuaia itself is great and so was our Hostel, although we were in [View Full Entry]

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From Puerto Natales we took a bus into the Torres Del Paine National Park where we were provided a map and without a guide set about attempting to navigate our route over the course of the next 2 and a half days in what is known as the "W trek". We got to our first Hostel late morning and conscious that the trek to Torres Del Paine and back was around 8 hours we set off with pace. Our training in Bolivia paid off and with the benefit of not fighting the altitude as well we found we were making good [View Full Entry]

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