Melanie and Hiral
Our Round the World Adventure, 2011/2012 Hilly and Melon
We'll never forget that boring day at work when we first talked about going travelling. I printed off a list of world countries, showed them to smelon and went through and highlighted all those we agreed we wanted to visit.
And since then......after a lot of organising, we're going on a trip of a lifetime and backpacking our way around the world!! : Starting in Thailand,moving on to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Borneo. Spending Xmas and New Year in Bali, a few nights in Sydney and moving on to South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Brazil.
We look forward to what awaits in each country and its definitely time for us to see more than the inside of the underground every day. This is a blog written for our friends and family, but everyone’s welcome to read along! We’ll try to post updates as and when we can and hope you enjoy it
Travel Blog Posts
Iguazu Falls and the END!
Published: May 1st 2012South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires » Buenos Aires
May 1st 2012
After a great weekend in Florianopolis we took our last ever bus to iguazu to see the falls. We spent our first day exploring the town and wierdly managed to get a local bus to another country.. Paraguay! It was a crazy place full of market stalls selling all sorts of junk.. unfortunately it rained all day long and we drowned in the process of finding our hostel on the way home..it only took us 3 buses to get back. luckily for us though the weather was on our side the next day, perfect to see the brazilian side of the falls which were amazing! we walked along the trail stopping at different platforms along the way each showing the waterfalls from a different angle. we saw a panoramic view of the falls and as the ... read more
Sao Paulo and Santa Catarina
Published: April 24th 2012South America » Brazil » Santa Catarina » FlorianópolisApril 24th 2012
Leaving Rio was a sad day but we headed to Sau Paulo for a few nights of partying. Dilpa got to experience her first bus with us, luckily for her it was only a 6 hour ride, not too gruelling. When we arrived at our hostel we were surprised to see that not only did we have the dorm to ourselves but the whole hostel!!! Never has that happened before, it was almost like having our own little house, except for the jelly belly hostel owner of course. The hostel is co-owned by two men, one of which is a pale, chubby little thing who never seemed to wear a shirt. He used to make horrible snorting sounds aswel, he was kind of gross. Sao Paulo is a huge city but unfortunately lacks any daytime excitement. ... read more
Brazil!!!
Published: April 22nd 2012South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » IpanemaApril 22nd 2012
Another new country to explore and sadly the last one of the trip. We finally made it to Brazil, land of big bums and tiny swimsuits. As always the journey to a new place is one to mention. For once it wasnt a case of horrible buses or me being sick but instead a first class flight from Peru to Brazil, oh yeah! Nothing quite like a bit of first class after 5 months of cheap travel. First stop was Rio De Janeiro and Ipanema beach. Its no lie the people in Rio are extremely fit, buffed up and surprisngly gay. I didnt realise just how large the gay community in Ipanema would be. That was my first observation, the second was that Brazilians dont seem to wear any clothes, they really do walk around in ... read more
April 21st 2012
After our gruelling Spanish lessons we flew to the Amazon for a ´rest'! we flew to the Amazon town of Iquitos and upon our arrival at the airport we heard a man shouting Panayi....... it was our jungle guide who gave us a warm welcome upon arrival... we were taken to our hotel and spent the first night exploring Iquitos town. The following morning we met our Amazon jungle guide Wilson who seemed friendly at first but soon started to say comments bordering on inappropriate! we boarded our boat and luck was not on our side as it became terrential downpour getting to our jungle lodge! we ended up getting completely drenched...and Wilson even offered to hold up a cover the entire time to protect us from the rain.. how sweet! we arrived at the lodge ... read more
March 30th 2012
Oh the joy, we arrived in Lima and we get to our hotsel and we can see the ocean. As beautiful as the mountains are we were so happy to see the water again and not have to worry about the altitude. The first thing we did was walk along the waterfront. The beach where we are is rocky but the parks surrounding the sea are really pretty. They even have a park called the park of love, cheesy i know but it looks cute. Suba and I spent the rest of the day shopping. We clearly didnt get enough of the incas so we went to the inca market and bought stuff, dont know why its not like i can lift my bag as it is! The next day we all took a city tour ... read more
March 30th 2012
We finally arrived in cusco city feeling both excited and nervous, the inca trail was finally around the corner and the prospect of trekking for 4 days in the mountains was suddenly a bit scary. We spent a few days in cusco beforehand visiting the markets and the inca musuem. Cusco city is a really beautiful place, it's seeped in history and has a real quaint charm about it. I did however manage to fall over on the pebble stones in the main square, ouch. It's ok though, the hippies didn't seem to notice. That is one bad thing about cusco it's full of hippies playing silly instruments really badly. On the up side the food is pretty decent! A day before the trek my friend Suba from uni joined us in cusco and we checked ... read more
March 13th 2012
After saying ciao to Bolivia it was time to say Hola Peru and first stop... Puno. We werent dreading this bus as much as it was only a 3 hour one from copacabana. When we reached the Peruvian border you could say it was the quickest line we had experienced to date and we were impressed with their efficiency. Our luck quickly changed and we should have guessed it was almost too good to be true. the bus driver announced that the bus couldn't take us any further because there were road blockages ahead. He casually said you need to take your luggage and walk 15 km to the bus terminal in the next town. Was he kidding?! Did he realise our backpacks weighed 18kgs? A guy on our bus kicked off at the driver screaming ... read more
Sucre, La Paz and Copacabana- Bolivia!
Published: March 9th 2012South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » La Paz
March 8th 2012
After the rank bus we mentioned in the last blog we made it to Sucre, woohoo. We were so shattered when we arrived we ordered pizza! Our room however was brilliant. We finally had our own private room with a couch and loads of space to spread out. Sucre itself is a really nice town. Its built in the hills and is once again at high altitude. The town is really quaint with whitewash buildings and cobbled streets. The only downside is that it is quite smelly. But i think it is fair to say that sums up Bolivia as a whole. On our first day there we explored the town and climbed up to a view point, the best part was the 30p ice cream we managed to find. Unfortunately Hiral was unwell for most ... read more
February 28th 2012
Welcome to Bolivia, the worlds best views and worst toilets!! We started in a mini van of 12 people at 8am and were driven to the chile/Bolivia border where as always we waited for almost 2 hours just to be stamped out of chile. We then made it to the Bolivian border which for once was fast and painless. We were given breakfast here then we were divided up into two groups of 6 and sent to our jeeps! In our jeep we had a german couple and a Swiss couple, lucky for us the Swiss spoke perfect Spanish as our driver didn't know any English. He was super cute and his name was clementine and he had no teeth! The german guy looked like David guetta and the Swiss guy looked like a barrister from ... read more
La Serena and San Pedro
Published: February 28th 2012South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de Atacama
February 28th 2012
After finally escaping the horrible vina del mar we got on an 8 hour bus to la Serena, a coastal town north of chile. As far as the town goes it wasn't the most exciting or the most beautiful but the beach definitely ticked all the right boxes. Quiet,golden sands and you could even go horse riding along the beach. We spent four days lying on the beach and eating, it was bliss, except for once again a really annoying hostel. The staff were rude, the bed slats moved around and they overbooked so we had a mattress in the middle of our room. The bathroom almost made me sick but it was still better than the last place. On the up side we bumped into a couple we met before in valparaiso. After our stay ... read more
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