Chris & Patty

Chris and Patty

Chris & Patty

A blog and photos of our round the world trip



North America » Canada » Ontario February 28th 2011

Our next stop was Toronto, Canada where we stayed with the parents of one of our Brisbane friends, who had kindly offered us accommodation for the few days we were there. They were living in a quaint house in the suburbs of Mississauga, but close to the railway station which made it easy for us to get into the downtown area. The cold weather stepped up to a new level going from REALLY COLD to F$@#ING FREEZING! We spent one day walking around the city with our friend’s brother, where we were outside for a good three hours of the day, which wasn’t the smartest of moves considering the temperature was below -30 degC. Patty had done the right thing and borrowed this huge thick coat known as “big blue” from our hosts which was as ... read more
See through floor at the top of the CN Tower
Dinner at the top of CN Tower
Catching the train from Toronto to Montreal

North America » United States » New York January 24th 2011

Arriving in New York, it took me a few days to get back into the habit of speaking English. I caught myself on quite a few occasions, structuring a sentence in Spanish in my head before realising that I didn’t need to. Not that it would have mattered if I spoke Spanish though, as most people we met in New York could speak the language, with the amount of Latin Americans that now live in the country. New York was also the beginning of the REALLY COLD part of our trip. We arrived in New York to find a blanket of snow over everything, as they had had a large snow storm a few days earlier. All of the winter / skiing clothes that we had left in Bogota during the South American part of the ... read more
A huge piece!
P1190000
P1190002

South America » Colombia » Manizales January 16th 2011

After the wedding, we commenced 3 weeks of travel through Colombia with a small group of the Australian contingent of wedding guests. This part of the trip didn't get off to the smoothest of starts as there was torrential rain in Cartagena, which delayed our departure by a number of hours, and this then resulted in us missing our connection in Bogota. We spent the whole day waiting around in airports and didn't get to the farm we were staying at in the coffee lands until 1am the following morning! However, we were welcomed by our two maids when we arrived at the farm with a typical Colombian meal waiting, even at this late hour, which ensured we had a full stomach before going to bed, a nice end to an long and frustrating day. The ... read more
P1150943
P1150917
P1150924

South America » Colombia » Manizales January 15th 2011

After new years, the last of our travelling guests flew out of Colombia, leaving Patty and I to continue with our travels. During our trip to the coffee lands (a few weeks earlier), our guide for the day in the Cocora Valley had told us about a 6 day trek in early January that he was organizing through the nearby national park, Parque de los Nevados (park of snow peaked mountains), taking a group of 6 people from Medellin, that were putting together a documentary on the area. Patty was immediately interested as the guide was very enthusiastic about the trip, so we negotiated with him to also go along on the trip. So as everyone flew out, Patty and I flew back to the coffee lands, sleeping overnight in Salento, a small town near the ... read more
P1060738
P1020597
P1060903

South America » Colombia December 27th 2010

Our arrival into Colombia commenced the wedding part of the trip. We flew into Bogota and spent the weekend with Patty’s dad running errands and picking up wedding clothes, including Patty’s wedding dress that she had bought in Brisbane but left at her dad’s place while we travelled through South America. A couple of Patty’s friends also organised a party in her honour to celebrate the upcoming wedding. Many of her old school friends were there, and she had a great time catching up with them. The highlight of the night was the serenade they had organised for us, which was a group of 10 mariachis (Mexican musicians playing trumpets and other instruments) who sung and played for us for about half an hour; something Patty had always wanted! (Colombians still have the tradition of serenades, ... read more
P1000005
P1000002
P1000004

South America » Colombia » Cartagena December 26th 2010

The big day of the wedding then arrived. We both had an easy morning getting massages, before Patty headed off to the hotel to get her hair and makeup done. As the ceremony was late afternoon, we decided that rather than try and fit in the photos between the ceremony and the reception, we would get them out of the way before the ceremony. This then gave us more time with our guests and also allowed us to take advantage of the day light hours and take photos around the gorgeous old city before it got dark. This meant I got to see the bride before the ceremony, but oh well! After running about the old city taking photos for a couple of hours, we dashed back to the hotel to cool off for 20 minutes, ... read more
553 DSC5693
575 MG 3715
596 MG 3741

South America » Argentina December 4th 2010

The next part of our travels was through the Lakes District, which is again split between Argentina and Chile, either side of the Andes mountain range. As the name suggests, this area has numerous lakes as well as quite a few volcanoes (some active!). After disembarking in Puerto Montt, Chile from our 4 day cruise through the Chilean fiords, we headed for the town of Puerto Varas, a former German colony only 20 minutes further north. This town is on the edge of Lake Llanquihue with a beautiful view towards Volcan Osorno, a perfectly symmetrical, cone shaped, snow covered (extinct) volcano. We didn’t get to appreciate the view for the first couple of days though, as the bad weather, with torrential rain, moved in once again. We took advantage of this time to catch up on ... read more
P1140507
P1140737
P1140502

South America » Argentina November 5th 2010

Patagonian region of Argentina & Chile travel update From Buenos Aires we started our journey down to the southern tip of South America, the Patagonia region. We had intended to fly this distance, however we were told by some fellow travellers coming the other way that this time of year was the perfect time to see southern right whales, migrating to their breeding grounds, in a protected peninsula near a small town called Puerto Madryn, about half way down the east coast of Argentina. So rather than fly, we decided to bus it from BA to Puerto Madryn, about a 22 hour bus trip. The town of Puerto Madryn started as a whaling station before becoming a settlement for Welsh immigrants in 1865. We did a full day trip out to the Peninsula Valdes, including a ... read more
P1120249
P1120410
P1110916

South America » Chile November 4th 2010

Our next stop, a 3 hour bus ride north of El Calafate, was El Chalten, also in Argentina, a tiny frontier town that was only set up about 25 years ago, solely as a tourist destination to access the Fitz Roy mountain range. It is known as the capital for hikers. The day we arrived here, the weather was still horrible, raining heavily the entire day. Towards the evening, as it got colder, the rain turned to snow, which persisted all night, so the following day we woke up to a stunning sight, with the town completely covered in a blanket of snow! This snow also blanketed the surrounding Fitz Roy mountains, so over the coming days during our hikes we got to see these spectacular mountains in all their snow covered glory. So a couple ... read more
P1130449
P1130887
P1120761

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro October 5th 2010

Brazil travel update From Iguazu Falls we started our Brazilian part of the trip, and after another 18+ hour bus trip, we arrived in Sao Paulo, the capital of Brazil. Here we stayed with Cynthia and her partner Niki, who Patty met while working at PwC a couple of years ago. Having friends in the bigger cities we have visited has been really fortunate, as local knowledge is invaluable in seeing the true highlights of a city, especially in a city like Sao Paulo with over 19 million people! Cynthia and Niki were absolutely lovely, and looked after us while we were there, especially considering they were only a month away from their own wedding which they were busy organizing. Cynthia even got her mum to help out, taking us on personalized city tour with one ... read more
P1110104
P1100978
P1110154




Tot: 0.156s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 14; qc: 92; dbt: 0.1034s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb