Carl and Nicola No Fixed Abode

So sorry for the delay in this our last blog, but we have been wrapped up in trying to settle in to our new country (South Africa), which required adjusting to the new culture, finding jobs doing other admin and most importantly spend time with our new Golden Retriever puppy Gaucho. AUCKLAND AND THE CUMMINS’S As we taxied up the runway to Auckland International our minds immediately kicked into Spanish preparation mode, this was force of habit when arriving in a new city after a long flight/ bus journey. We were going over the words in our heads to make sure we had all the vocabulary and phrases in place to handle the interactions with immigration officials, customs and the rental car agent. Having just completed a thirteen-hour flight crossing 10 time zones and the International ... read more

The Journey to Middle Chile - 9 buses, 72 hours of travel The Atacama frontier between Chile and Bolivia is a vast arid high altitude plain dotted with the occasional dormant volcano. There is little physical evidence of the border and the transition from one country to another included a visit to the Bolivian border control (Chilean border control was further down in the town). However, a few hundred meters after crossing into Chilean territory we encountered a herd of the endangered Vicunas (the high altitude camelids renowned for the best camelid wool), for a change they did not run away from us as all the others in Bolivia had but stared at us as our bus passed by. The border for them was quite obvious and they knew they were safe from poachers. We arrived ... read more

Iguaçu and the Journey to Salta Exiting in Brazil in a bus adorned in Argentinean flags we passed through immigration and on into the town of Puerto Iguaçu, where the driver kindly stopped so we could buy tickets for our onward journey to Salta. Being so used to the Portuguese not being able to speak Spanish I walked into the ticket office and asked, “ Abla espanol?” (Do you speak Spanish), Carl and the lady I had addressed found this astonishing and after a brief pause to digest the stupidity of my question burst out laughing. Of course she spoke Spanish, Argentina is a Spanish speaking country! Well we eventually managed to buy some tickets on a bus that left that evening to Salta, Semi Cama (Reclining with foot rests) as seats in the Cama ... read more

I´m in Chile in an internet cafe with Real Coffee. Wow! Guess its a good place to write an entry. From Rio we flew via Sao Paulo to Johannesburg for Kara and Andrew’s long anticipated wedding. We were quite please to be going to our new home for a short while as it gave us a chance to drop off some of the extra baggage we had accumulated. Our time in South Africa was exceedingly busy and we had very little time for anything not related to the wedding, such as recovery. First major event was Andrew’s stag do, which started off with Paintball which was fun until Andrew and I got a little bit out of control, followed by a Braai at Dave and Paula’s house and then some other stuff ……. ( No nothing ... read more