http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Evana/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Evana en-us Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:54:08 +0000 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:54:08 +0000 We flew from Santiago to Aukland. It still freaks me out a little that even though the flight was only 13 hours we magaged to lose an entire day of our lives.We drove from Aukland up to Rotorua. We had lunch at a blueberry farm blueberry pankakes and a venison pie with blueberries and then raided the gift shop. Did anyone know that blueberries are a superfood.Next day we went jet boating on WAik http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/blog-105738.html We took a short bus journey to Valparaiso to escape Santiago. Valparaiso is a port city. The flat and main district is frankly yuk. However the bohemain hills are a joy to walk or when feeling lazy take a trolley to avoid the climbs. They are full of quirky little shops and delicious places to eat. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Valparaiso-Region/Valparaiso/blog-102996.html Not much to say. Went to this amazing glacier. It rained all day until we left and the sun started to come out. Still one of the most amazing things we have ever seen. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/Perito-Moreno-Glacier/blog-101966.html This is one of the few places where you can proclaim that its the end of the world and actually mean it. Ushuaia is located in Tierra del Fuego Spanish for Land of Fire. Its name comes from Ferdinand Magellan who was the first European to pass it in 1520. He believed he was seeing the many fires but he must have been crazy because all we encountered was snow and ice.On our second morning we http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Tierra-del-Fuego/Ushuaia/blog-100842.html Punta Arenas which lies at a southerly latitude of approximately 54 south is a gateway to Patagonia.The main attraction of Punta Arenas is its penguin colonies which we visited in the afternoon after watching March of the Penguins for inspiration. There is a penguin colony located 65 kilometres north of Punta Arenas on Seno Otway. The Magellanic Penguins return annually to this spot between Oc http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/Punta-Arenas/blog-100846.html We made a long journey from Cusco to Arica in Chile almost 24 hours of bus travel in all. Arica is a pretty nondescript town in North Chile and as soon as we were able to we took another 24 hour bus to Salta in Argentina. We hung around here for a couple days eating steak and ice cream before heading down to Buenos Aires 22 hours by bus. Bus travel isnt atually that bad. Many have seats tha http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/blog-98884.html We took a small detour through Peru to Cusco which is the jumping off point for Machu Picchu. Amazingly we bumped into my cousin on the bus its a small world after all we knew she was in South America but her werabouts were unknown. Although many travellers do not like Cusco because it is not authentic South America we found it very refreshing because of great places to eat and its slightly http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/blog-94024.html Hello AgainWe have just spent a week in the amazon via Rurrenabaque. This included a 3 day trip to the Pamaps area or savnnah lands and then 3 days to Mididi national park. Mind you if greg really thought about the how we were going to get out there Im not convinced we would have made it. As it turns out the only way to access this region of bolivia is by taking a small plane from La Paz ro R http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Beni-Department/Rurrenabaque/blog-91919.html Where is a good osteopath in Southern BoliviaThat sums up the 3 days trek in the Landcruiser from Tupiza to Uyani. We had made the decision after going through Potosi to do the reverse curcuit through the salt plains in the south. This meant a smaller chance of ending up in a convee of 4x4 and trying to view the sights through a dust filled windows. Turns out it was a good choice due to the smal http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Salar-de-Uyuni/blog-89816.html Wonderful SurpriseWe had only planned to go to Sucre for the Tarabucco Market which runs on a sunday. As it turns out there was a great little festival Virgin of Guadelupa which consists of a 2 day celebration of dance song and silver ware. The festival includes regions from Sucre Potosi and Tupazi. This is a big mining town and hence the custom for bringing out the silverware.So we arrived in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Chuquisaca-Department/Sucre/blog-88214.html It is often said that half of the adventure of Bolivia is getting from place to place.We had already spent 20 hours on the atmospheric death train and after a bit of RR in Santa Cruz place of good food and cable television we decided to head of to Samaipata for a little bit of adventure.In this way we encountered the death taxi in the sense of ohmygodIamgoingtodie and whyisthistaxidrivertryin http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Santa-Cruz-Department/El-Fuerte-de-Samaipata/blog-88213.html Normally after a day like today I would be dreaming of a shower. Yet even after 20 hours on the death train from quijarro to santa cruz I find myself a little scared of the shower.2 days ago we arrived in quijarro from the pantanal. It was a bloody hot day and we were cranky from crossing the border and getting ripped off at every turn by taxi drivers and money changers. We were trying to get pr http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Santa-Cruz-Department/Santa-Cruz/blog-86269.html I've had this song in my head for days. Actually just the first line. Does anyone know how the song ends We have just finished our trip into the wonderful wilderness that is the Pantanal. Actually we stayed in a lovely cabin with a hot shower television and the largest bed we have ever slept on. They had a restaurant where they stuffed us full with food three times daily. The service was a littl http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Mato-Grosso-do-Sul/Corumb-/blog-86218.html OlaUpon refection I realise that my comments could seem slightly negative and imply that we arent enjoying ourselves on holiday. Its all a lie the truth is weve both gotten a little slack with the old backpacking aspect of holidays. I think after this adventure the 2 of us are ready for grown up luggage at least 2 star hotels and taxis to and from destinations ok we are in fact using taxis a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Mato-Grosso-do-Sul/Bonito/blog-85974.html Bom DiaIt's that time again I get to write endless crap Greg gets to take endless photos and somehow you get sift through this all of this and try to sound vaguley interested in our holiday. So here is my first offical entry in this new format.The Yellow Taxi.Now i'd like to think that greg and i are quite savy and smart travellers. Especially as I never read about where were going until we arr http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Ipanema/blog-83484.html Cry me a river In true travellers fashion we seem to be hitting an unusal fare of bad luck. Not in our tradional sense such as minor injuries or illness befalling greg or missing vital travel links well that almost happened. Instead the greatest problem that can affect a travellers experince barring death or mainment is the weather. Since we travelled in NZ some 6 years ago I have gotten use http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Paran-/Foz-do-Igua-u/blog-84617.html We have just come back from Paris. On out first night we went to the Robbie Williams concert which was Evana's beltated birthday present. It was at a massive football stadium and there were thousands of thousand of people there. Basement Jaxx opened for Robbie which was a wonderful surprise for me as I really like them. Robbie Williams to my surprise was actually very good too and it turns out I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-68356.html We seem to have a knack of getting to spend time in Israel. I think it's the most regularily visited place I've been to. That said it's been a long time since I've travelled to Israel with my mum a good 25 years ago how things have changed. Let's just say that travelling as an adult with your parent can take a little adjustment.We caught a flight from London very very very early start for al http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/blog-59124.html We thawed out from our winter blues and tried to make the most of our remaining time in London.We have done the cultural thing ballet musicals and some musuems. We went to a wine museum which was great because we got to sample all of the wine.We have tried to be tourists in this wonderful city and are visiting all of London's landmarks. My sister Lori visited for a couple days and dragged m http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Islington/blog-59520.html We have had a really good year in London. We survived our first full winter just there were a few snowfalls but nothing ever settled.Spring in London was beautiful and we made the most of it. We went to the Chelsea flower show in summer which was beautiful and enjoyed a traditional Pims in the park. Sure we were the only ones under 60 but we have a refined sense of entertainment.We checked our http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/blog-59123.html