Our 2 week whistle-stop tour of Bolivia...... La Paz We arrived in huge bowl-shaped, frantic La Paz and checked into The Adventure Brew Hostel right by the bus station. Enjoyed their free beer every night policy but at 3660m above sea level, one beer was enough! Wandered around the city and took advantage of the cheap shopping. Browsed the Witches Market, which sold all weird and wonderful potions and good luck charms including disgusting dead dried llama fetuses. So many traditionally dressed locals here, the women wear full skirts and bowler hats and have their hair long and in plaits, even the little old ladies. Excited to find a Brit run Indian curry house (Star of India) but although the food was tasty (Bolivian food is not!), we're sure they made everything with jars of Pataks. ... read more

Finally the day came we had been planning and looking forward to for ages, our 4 day 43 km trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. They only let 500 people a day onto the trail so we'd had to book our places months ago with United Mice, a recommended local tour company. When we went for our briefing, we found out that only the 3 of us would be doing the trek that day, which at first we were a little despondent about. Usually, the Inca Trek is done in groups of up to 16 people and we imagined it would be really fun and great to meet new like-minded people. As it was, it would be just us three plus Fredi plus our 6 porters, which would still be great but different to ... read more

After having to wait 8 days for our Argentinian visas (should have been 3 days!), we were really glad to get out of Santiago and Chile, even if this did mean getting a 33 hour bus back up north. We'd stayed again at Hostel Casa Roja in the capital, the staff really helped us to chase the frustrating Argentine Embassy and we became one of the family. We arrived in dusty Arica after our long and boring journey (extra boring because all the films were dubbed in Spanish). We only stayed one night near the bus station so didn't do this town justice and left early the next morning for Peru!! Took a 'collectivo' taxi with 2 locals over the Chile/Peru boarder and to a town called Tacna. Really easy boarder crossing and very helpful driver. ... read more

After spending an action packed last day with Christine and Steve in Auckland (pancake brunch, walks around ancient volcanoes and lamb petting!) we + didgeridoo took our delayed LAN flight to Santiago in Chile and began the final phase of our trip....South America! Chile is 16 hours behind New Zealand so it was weird living Sunday all over again. This meant we were knackered and slept for 16 hours straight on our first night! Stayed in Casa Roja Hostal, a huge old converted mansion in nice Barrio Brasil near the city centre. It was mostly full of Brits and Aussies so we didn't have to worry about the language barrier! Spent a few days exploring Santiago and it's skate parks. The didgeridoo got posted home. The 8.8M earthquake that rocked Santiago in Feb 2010 was still ... read more

Cheap and tacky Qantas flight from Brisbane to Auckland after a slightly stressful early morning. The people at the Jucy office forgot we were dropping the camper van off early so we had to just leave the van outside the locked compound and Dee jumped the fence to leave the keys somewhere safe before we raced to the airport. Anyway, yay New Zealand! Got stopped going through Customs with the didgeridoo, which had to be unpacked and checked for insects. But this did distract officials from Holly's illegal collection of Asian shells, Australian sand and a chicken noodle cuppa soup so it worked out ok. Picked up our hire car, a very worn 'rent-a-dent' Nissan Sunny and got on the road. We spent the weekend with our friends Christine and Steve in their lovely home in ... read more