Frank and Emma

So we left Sucre with heavy hearts. We´d loved what is said to be Bolivia´s most beautiful city, one of its two capitals along with La Paz. We then embarked on one of the unpleasant Bolivian bus journeys from Sucre to Santa Cruz, which took about 15 hours overnight. We were the only gringos on the bus, travelling on the worse roads imaginable. Needless to say, we got no sleep, the bus smelt constantly of sweat and urine and the roads made it feel like being on a tame rollercoaster/bad airplane turbulance. Not fun. Santa Cruz was a bit of a disappointment, but in hindsight I guess it was because we didn´t explore it enough. It´s said to have the best shopping, nightlife and restaurants in Bolivia. We just didn´t venture far with little time to ... read more

We´ve found somewhere with decent internet, so are still trying to get more photos up. So... We ended up staying in Salta for about two weeks in total. That was the fault of Enrique at Hostel Del Centro who fed us cocoa pops, and showed us that the best Empañadas in the world were in the restauaurant across the road. We got to know pretty much everyone at the hostel, and spent New Years Eve with them drinking Malbec out of plastic beakers at the picnic table, then heading to the clubs that open at 2am. We did a bit of that cultural stuff while we were there. Probably the most striking was visiting the pickled Inca they have at the MAM museum. It was a young boy that had been sacrificed to the Gods around ... read more

Following on from Frank, the tango show was incredible. We saw it at Cafe Tortoni, a very famous cafe in Buenos Aires, established in 1858 by a French immigrant. The cafe was beautifully decadent (thought that might amuse uni friends), all velvet drapes and gold plaster, serving delicious French food and drinks. We had front row seats in this small, intimate room with a tiny stage. The show tells a story (sadly all in Spanish), with a tenor singer, a violinist, a pianist and cello. The music is so good on its own, but the dancing is just so moving. Although you can´t really work out what´s going on, the dancers are so expressive and the tango is at once seductive and sinister. There´s a darkness and sadness to it, apparently it originated from the slaves ... read more

We ended up staying in Rio for some time as it's not half bad- some of the other stuff we did was: Shopping- we spent half our time going from one air conditioned shop to the next, seems a bit wrong, looking back. Got a nice hat though. Lua Nova- I've spent the last two years quivering like a lost puppy waiting to see my Robert Pattinson again after the epic Twilight movie. Thankfully Emma let me go and watch New Moon (Lua Nova), even though we had to hang round for 4 hours until the 1am showing in order to get a ticket. Turns out I fell asleep. Emma quite liked it- can't beat Twilight though. Capoeira- traditional Brazilian dance mixing martial arts with drums and stringed things. The hostel put on a show and ... read more

Hi all, Sadly we're yet to find a computer with a USB port but as soon as we do, photos - I promise. We've been in Rio for just over a week but we've done so much it honestly feels like a month. Our Iberia flight was in stark bitter contrast to the luxury of Qatar, but we arrived Sunday night at our youth hostel very tired and jet lagged. It was kind of beneficial that we were so tired as our first youth hostel really wasn't geared up for backbackers..I was in a girls-only dorm with Brazilian students who didn't speak a word of English, which was a little awkward. They were sweet though and we communicated through a variety of sign language and gesticulation. We then moved on to Rio Backpackers in the Copacabana ... read more

My turn to write, hence the delay. We´re in Rio- Em´s asleep in our room and i´m sat on a bony stool typing this- tough life. Since Em last wrote we´ve got through a fair bit, but Zanzibar has to be one of the most amazing places we´ve been. I got ill on rice loads- Uncle Ben had me over a barrel for a couple of nights. Actually we both got ill a fair bit at the start as Em got heatstroke- that week was a bit like listening to your favourite song whilst getting regularly punched in the teeth- but Zanzibar was pretty special. It´s a paradise island where people live on so little but you see more smiles there in 5 mins than you do in 5 days in London- when we finally get ... read more

Hello all, We arrived safe in Tanzania yesterday and got the ferry over to Zanzibar this morning. It's hard to describe how tired we are after the 4.30am start this morning, 8 hour flight to Doha, 1 hour transfer and the 5 and a half hour flight from Doha to Dar Es Salaam. We slept very little on the plane because Qatar airline was fantastic and provided around 1000 entertainment options, FREE alcohol (as much as we wanted throughout the flight), films, music, games and TV options as well as regular meals which were really tasty but kept waking us up. I didn’t sleep at all last night either, strange insect and animal noises all night and mosque prayers in the morning as our first accommodation in Dar Es Salaam (the capital) was a wooden hut ... read more