We arrived in Brazil after crossing the border with Argentina, where our bus driver left us stranded at the immigration office! We eventually got on the next bus and spent a while trying to get any of the ATMs to give us any Brazilian money. After spending nearly three months speaking and listening to Spanish it was a shock to go back to not understanding a word anyone was saying to us in Portugese, and not being able to do simple things like buy bus tickets after sussing the spanish lingo. We did make ourselves understood though and managed to get [View Full Entry]

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After El Calafate we went to Buenos Aires for a few days. The day we arrived began with a downpour that reminded us of home, although the temperature was still around 20 degrees C so more like July than October. We spent some time window shopping in the expensive shopping areas, and a significantly larger amount of time trying out some of the bars. We also visited the La Recoleta cemetary which has hundreds of huge sarcophagi, one of which holds the body of Eva Peron. We visited the district of La Boca and went inside the famous Boca Juniors football [View Full Entry]

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After surviving the end of the world we flew to El Calafate, a small town near the Los Glaciares National Park in Patagonia. The main attraction is the Perito Moreno glacier which is one of only three in Patagonia which are growing rather than retreating. There is a viewing platform quite close to the edge of the glacier from where we got great views. We also went on a (very cold and wet!) boat which took us up even closer. The glacier is 60 metres high and we thought it was really cool (ha ha), hence the number of photos... We [View Full Entry]

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Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world, only 1000km from Antarctica. After our epic journey from Chile we were glad to finally arrive in a place with more than two shops open and not to be the only people walking around in the streets! We got a boat out into the Beagle channel to see the Les Eclaireurs lighthouse, and went past small islands full of sea lions and cormorants. The highlight though was undoubtedly our trip to a penguin colony, where we walked around the island where the penguins were nesting and saw them up really close. We also [View Full Entry]

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From Santiago we flew to Punta Arenas, the southernmost town in Chile. We thought it was maybe because everything was shut on Sundays that the town seemed bleak and dull, but quickly realised that the day of the week didn't have much effect on the place's appeal! We took in Punta Arenas' attractions in about an hour (1 supermarket, 1 bar and a walk along the seafront!) and retired to watch cable TV in our hotel room - saved by the 2 or 3 English channels! We thought we were going to be stranded here for days on end but eventually [View Full Entry]

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After sitting on a bus for 23 hours (which was not enjoyable!!) we arrived in Santiago de Chile. It was nice to see trees and grass again after the jungle, mountains and desert scenery of the previous few weeks. Santiago is one of the most western cities in south america, and reminded us a lot of home. It was a novelty to see shops selling "normal" stuff! Sadly though they also sell it at "normal" prices. We spent a couple of days looking around Santiago and then got a bus up the coast to Valparaiso which is a world heritage site. [View Full Entry]

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From La Paz we crossed into Chile in the far north at Arica and got a bus south to San Pedro de Atacama, in the Atacama desert. The Atacama is the driest desert in the world, and home to some incredible scenery. The desert is absolutely freezing at night due to the altitude and the clear skies which make it one of the best places in the world for astronomy. Although neither of us know any constellations it is impossible not to be impressed with the amazing views of the sky at night from here. The clearness of the air makes [View Full Entry]

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We had a strange experience on our way from Copacabana to La Paz, as we were made to get off our bus and then watched it floating across the lake on a barge whilst we queued for a smaller boat to taxi us across ourselves and meet it the other side! We arrived in La Paz at our hostel which was amazing, in a converted hotel which still had some original features. La Paz is in a breathtaking setting, with buildings piled up all around the surrounding mountains on every available surface of the hills. We spent some time wandering around [View Full Entry]

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Copacabana is a small holiday town just over the Bolivian border with Peru on the edge of Lake Titicaca. We had a cool hostel where we had a great view of the lake and our own kitchen. We took advantage and alleviated our eating out fatigue (yes it does eventually happen!) by cooking ourselves some food for the first time in about 2 months. We went on a pedal boat on the lake which was a big mistake as, not only was it broken (we had to pedal furiously for several minutes just to get a few metres across the lake, [View Full Entry]

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Having arrived in Arequipa on a night bus from Nazca we struggled out of bed at 2am the following day (a ridiculous time to get up for anything!) and sat on a FREEZING minibus for a 3 hour drive out to the Colca Canyon - the temperature in the Andes can get to below -20 at night and +20 in the day. It was worth it for the amazing scenery and we even saw some Condors flying in the valley. Arequipa itself is really attractive city, with grand colonial buildings around the Plaza de Armas made of a white volcanic rock [View Full Entry]

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