Ironic that our last bus journey in Bolivia should be the worst... We asked at our hostel in Potosi for the name of some reputable bus companies which go to Uyuni, and chose the one which left at midday. After enduring a breakfast with loud and rude English tourists talking about bodily functions, we made our way to the place to get the bus. When a little rattly pile of junk clunked up to the office, we exchanged a few "no, that can´t be our bus" looks, only to be told that, duh, yes this is your bus. Once again the [View Full Entry]

---

---

So we recovered from our jungle trek. From Arequipa we got on a bus to Potosi in Bolivia. Now as there are no direct routes to Potosi this meant a 2 day trip via the north of Chile, essentially trying to do 3 countries in one day. We set out from Arequipa on a 7.30a.m. bus to Tacna, around 7 hours. From there we got a local bus to the Chilean border which was 15 minutes away, and from there, after clearing customs on both sides, into Arica, that whole journey around 1.5 hours. At the bus station loads of people [View Full Entry]

---

---

We've done it! 3 days of hiking and one of biking. Saddle sores from bikes, muscle pains from hikes, insect bites. We marched through rain, landslides, biked over waterfalls and dirt tracks. And every minute was worth it!! We tried to do our homework by going around to a few agencies on Saturday to try and work out which would be the best one for what we wanted to do. After going to quite a few, we decided to book with the first one. We were told there would be just ourselves plus 6 others on the trip - Irish, Scottish [View Full Entry]

---

---

Another night in our Puno hotel, all was quiet except for our security whistlers outside. We felt so pathetic about not taking anything to the kids that we decided to go back to the tour operator and see whether they could somehow get some books and stuff to the kids for us. Easier said than done. Observing siesta time means that they were shut from 1 until 3:30, which is when we were due to get a bus to Cusco. We bought some stuff and only realised this after going there the third time to be met with a bolted door. [View Full Entry]

---

---

We left around 8 a.m. on a mini bus from our hotel after a night enjoying cable tv, a hot shower and listening to random whistlers all night. We couldn't work out why every few minutes, sometimes more frequently, until dawn, we heard whistles from across the road. Turns out it's a security measure for the school across the road, the security guards keep in contact by whistle, 2 blows means all is well, short frequent blows or none at all means there's trouble. We got on board a boat with about 12 others and a guide plus captain and went [View Full Entry]

---

---

Thank goodness for small mercies. The trip to Copacabana is only 3.5 hours so we didn´t have to face another overnighter and all the dramas that entailed. We had banked on a cushy tourist bus but alas some kind of dispute between the operators meant that there were no tourist buses running, only local ones. So we got the bus at 1 in the afternoon from La Paz, and managed to score the seats right at the very back of the bus. Not only did this mean feeling every bump of the journey and being covered in a cloud of thick [View Full Entry]

---

---

According to the Lonely Planet: Boliva is the hemisphere's highest, most isolated nation. It's one of the coldest, warmest and steamiest places. Geographically it's the driest, saltiest and swampiest. It's one of the porest nations of South America but one of the richest in terms of natural resources. It's South America's most indiginous country: 60% of 8.8 million claim indigenous heritage. It also provided us with the coldest, most uncomfortable, most dramatic bus rides of this trip. We left Santa Cruz for La Paz on a night bus. We had paid for what we thought was going to be the most [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 2 of Bolivia, Santa Cruz, leaving tonight on a bus bound for La Paz, the world's highest capital city. We felt like it was a real treat to be getting in a plane again rather than thinking about another long distance bus trip. We bid farewell to Rio in all its splendour and after a bus ride with a kamikaze bus driver on a death mission, we made it to the airport all in one piece. Confusion set in at the airport much like when we flew from Buenos Aires to Santiago all those months ago - where to check [View Full Entry]

---

---

Fact: Brazil nuts aren´t called Brazil nuts in Brazil. They´re called something completely different. And they´re not extremely cheap. They´re actually quite expensive. So we´ve enjoyed Rio being our home for the past few days, to having fresh juice daily and for me a dose of "açai" with various acoutrements. We´ve got used to seeing men walking around on the streets in speedos (sometimes white, always tight), and women in their g-string bikinis (sometimes black, always up the, well, you know what...) We´ve seen dog salons where the poshest of the Ipanema la dee dahs get their pooches groomed and fluffed [View Full Entry]

---

---

So, we have made it to Rio! All the songs about Rio have started coming into my head, which is good, as I was sick of singing the Braaaaziiiiiil song! ("Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand....", "When my baby, when my baby smiles at me I go to Rio de Janeiro, my o mi oh...." "the girl from Ipanema do do dee do", "At the Copa, Copa cobana..." etc) But no songs about Sao Paulo. We had a great few days in Floripa, day 2 was a little overcast but that didn´t deter Johnny too much from [View Full Entry]

---

---