http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Chris-and-Danis-Travels/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Chris and Danis Travels en-us Fri, 25 Dec 2009 20:15:16 +0000 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 20:15:16 +0000 We left Medellin early on the Tuesday morning and got the bus to Armenia in the Zona Cafetera from where we got a minibus straight out to Salento. Salento was a very cute little town with fantastic scenery surrounding it though we saw little on our first night as we arrived as the sun was setting mintues before there was a nightlong powercut in the whole place. We managed find a hostel with th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-421737.html We reached Guayaquil in South Ecuador at 4 in the morning after a nasty bus ride across the border though we couldn't complain after 3 weeks of no buses to jump on another bus by 7 taking us to Tena a town in the River Napo region of the Amazon. It was an intense 12 hour bus so we were more than grateful to find some food and a bed on arrival. The following morning we headed out to a smaller v http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-418989.html First of all a huge apology to all of you that have been waiting to hear from us I hope youll be glad to know that we are in fact safe and just been really bad at keeping up to date with the blog.Once we had conquered Machu Picchu we hung around in Cuzco for a couple of days once again enjoying the beautiful mix of colonial architecture and Inca ruins while we waited for Dave Ollie and the thr http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Piura/M-ncora/blog-416016.html So we left La Paz without any major complications on a slow bus ride to the small town of Copacobana on the Bolivian shores of Lake Titicaca. We spent the evening there enjoying our first taste of nice fish in a while in the form of trout fished from the lake marvelling at the spectacular sunset with the whole horizon appearing on fire. The next morning we jumped on a boat to Isla del Sol the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/Cusco/blog-403589.html Sorry haven't updated for a while but here we go...........After a good night's sleep and a lot of cheese dreams in our grotty little hostel we were ready to start our journey to Rurrenabaque where we would begin our tour of Las Pampas. Despite panicking in a taxi for half an hour while on hour way to the bus stop there was a huge protest on so the main road was blocked off we didn't miss our b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Beni-Department/Rurrenabaque/blog-403556.html On arriving in Samaipata a 3 hour taxi ride away from Santa Cruz on a standard Bolivian road ie dirt track we headed to a campsite which although full of hippies making their bracelets or paintings to sell was actually a very nice spot. That evening after eating a good meal out for 1 pound it's hard to get over the prices here in Bolivia we constructed a camp fire along with Kass and Alan http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-399760.html After a very good night's sleep in the little hostel in Uyuni we were ready to hit the bumpy road to get ourselves to Potosi. The bus was very bareable I for one slept most of the way and we even got a free Coca Cola on board We arrived in Potosi late afternoon and were pleasantly surprised by its quaint little streets and attractive buildings. Once we had found a hostel we went and booked a to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Santa-Cruz-Department/Santa-Cruz/blog-396513.html We trudged to the bus station and jumped on our midnight bus to the border arriving there after a fitful 7 hours sleep ready to cross into Bolivia. We had to walk the mile or so to the border crossing where there were no problems at all and entered Bolivia. During our walk down the one road of the border town to the bus station we knew we were in Bolivia the huge bags of coca leaves being ped http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Uyuni/blog-394951.html The bus ride from Mendoza to Cordoba wasn't very fun so all 3 of us were exhausted on arrival. After spending the morning waiting to check in and relaxing we set out to visit one of the big art museums called Carrafa where there was a huge international photography exhibition. Tha evening we were joined by an Argentine friend that Chris and I met in Brazil who talked us into going out with him an http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Salta/Salta/blog-392532.html We caught the bus out of El Calafate without any problems and after an unpleasantly brief sleep arrived in Rio Gallegos. The bus that we were planning to get to Mendoza left at 11am only a 3.5hour wait however the service had been cancelled the day before leaving us only two options get a bus at 9am without any food for 48hours or wait until 6pm. So we spent the day in the bus station and th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Mendoza/Mendoza/blog-389932.html Sorry its been a while......After getting our final supplies together on Thursday 26th March we got on the bus to El Chalten which raced the only other companys bus there all the way across dirt roads. On arrival we pitched our tent in the local camping ground and went to the visitors lodge to start planning our days there. However the next day it started raining very early morning and didn http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Chalten/blog-389928.html Before leaving Trelew we made time to venture out to the paleontological museum with fantastic exhibits all original fossils of prehistoric life in Patagonia including some amazing fossilised crabs a huge about 1.7m diameter ammonite and more full skeletons than I can remember After spending a couple of hours there we headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and head to the bus stati http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-384784.html After our visit to the cemetery we got our stuff together and headed for the train station to catch the night train south. It sounds more glamorous than it was. Something that could have only been built by Fred Flinstone pulled into our platform and everyone charged it before it had even stopped. Some people were getting on through the doors and fishing there bags and remaining members of there fa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Chubut/Trelew/blog-383763.html After a long bus journey with no drinking water on board it was replaced for us by fizzy drinks and tea we arrived in BA and made our way to our hostel that we booked a couple of days earlier. It took us a while in our sleep deprived state to find the hostel and after grabbing some breakfast and showers headed for a wander before we were able to check into our room. On our return we found our f http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-382222.html Having arrived back in Campo Grande at 7pm we had an hour to hunt down the guy who was looking after our bus tickets whilst we were in the Pantanal before our night bus left. Thankfully we found him in good time and were swiftly on our way to Foz de Iguau. We decided last minute that it would be ashame to miss Iguazu Falls from the Brazilian side so left our bags at the bus stop and jumped on a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Misiones/Puerto-Iguaz-/blog-382218.html So having left Rio without managing to see any of the major sights although neither of us would have changed our time there for the world we headed off the Campo Grande from where we were hoping to arrange a tour to the Pantanal which are the largest wetlands on earth not far off the same size as Great Britain Our original plan was to try and do them on our own making it a lot cheaper in the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Mato-Grosso-do-Sul/Campo-Grande/blog-379373.html Well its been quite a while since our last entry but as you can imagine there was little time to spare in a city like Rio We left Trancoso shortly after our last entry with some banana cake and minging guacamole to keep us going. The bus ride took 21 hours but was quite enjoyable as they supplied us with biscuits and films for entertainment. After settling in to our hostel in Catete we headed http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/blog-379167.html The following day we left Jacuma armed with half a cake that we couldnt resist buying from a little cake store before we left. We caught the bus to Joao Pessoa where we ended up waiting in the bus station for the rest of the day while armed guards seemed to be running around the place until it was time to board our night bus to the city of Salvador.Salvador was a city that from the early plann http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Porto-Seguro/Trancoso/blog-374884.html After quite a heavy last night in Praia de Pipa we dragged ourselves out of bed after about an hours sleep to pack up and make our way to Olinda. We had arranged to travel with 2 girls we met so when we all discovered that the 3 buses we had to take to get there worked out more expensive than splitting a taxi 4 ways we were all over the moon The drive took about 4 hours though we slept for mos http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Para-ba/Jo-o-Pessoa/blog-374880.html Im sure that you will all be glad to know that we managed to get our parasending done and both survived with an awesome experience to keep with us After a lazy day on the beach we left Canoa on the night bus to Natal and got a bus to Praia da Pipa a small but rather touristy beach village. It is touristy for very good reasons however.Our first day here after very little sleep on the bus was http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-Grande-do-Norte/Pipa/blog-371077.html