I cant believe we’ve now been in Australia 6 weeks and still haven’t finished the blog from South America. I spent the first few weeks missing everything so much and wishing we were back there that I think I was holding on finishing the blog as something to still do from SA!! Anyway, the last one saw us in the Amazon Basin which was actually my overall highlight of the trip! Bolivia just carried on delivering the goodness and can officially be crowned as our favourite country in South America!! (And for me my favourite country I’ve ever been - FACT!). [View Full Entry]

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The choice was a 45 minute flight or a 16-20 hour bus journey. One was $8 each way, the other £100 return flight. “We’ll only be here once” was the only saying that would get us there, with whatever means of transport we took. And horror stories of the bus quickly made our minds up for us....”We’re flying!!” DAY 1 Naturally the flight was delayed, a very claustrophobic tube was the be our vessel, 2 seats wide with an aisle. Definitely the smallest plane I’ve ever been on. The scenery was stunning, flying level with snow capped mountains befor [View Full Entry]

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So, we’re skint, sat in La Paz feeling a bit jaded. We’ve got a few days to burn. We’ve done one of the hardest Peruvian treks having never trekked before, so what do we do? With ZERO proper mountain biking experience, we decide to sign up for the “DEATH ROAD” Mountain Biking. Nice. The whole time we’d said, “Nah not our thing” and “Why bother, if people die on that thing?” I think the amount of denial and pure terror surrounding the prestigious “Death Road” just outside La Paz finally got to us. That and everyone in [View Full Entry]

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Whenever we spoke to backpackers about La Paz they all said the same - that it was ‘a place you get stuck in but really need to leave’. When we first arrived I definitely didn’t think that would be the case but none the less we ended up there for over a week!! It just seems to suck all life out of you - either you end up sick or you party way too much - ours was the first unfortunately!! So having picked up a bad tum in Copacabana I woke up on the first morning in La Paz feeling [View Full Entry]

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Cusco was definitely my favourite town in Peru and although many snobby backpackers will say it’s ‘touristy’ (It’s so annoying listening to backpackers go on about a place being touristy when they’re sat there, in a hostel full of backpackers!) it was still full of culture and tradition and very in keeping with its ‘Inca Capital’ status. We arrived there two days before the trek to adjust to the altitude and there was certainly a difference to Arequipa as we were another 1000m higher at 3500m above sea level. The main reason you come to the town is fo [View Full Entry]

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“Oh right, you’re doing the Salkantay trek..? That’s tough!” Was the response everyone gave us when we told them we weren’t doing the Inca trail but an alternative instead. We’d found out in Brazil that the Inca trail was full until July (!!!) and that you need to be booking about 4 months in advance and not the 6 weeks we had thought. Having initially felt pretty gutted about this we looked in to the other treks available from Cusco (the Inca capital of the world) and realised that the Inca trail may not be all that great anyway! 500 people [View Full Entry]

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Next we headed north, flying from Buenos Aires to Lima in Peru. Immediately you could see the difference between the two countries. A lot more underdeveloped, and cheaper,although not by much. We stayed in a nice spot called Barranco, near Miraflores, south of Lima central. First thing we did was find somewhere to try the national drink of choice, a Pisco Sour, a mix of Pisco (local brandy), lemon juice and egg whites. Having had a great experience (and a few hangovers) from our previous countries (Capirinihas in Brazil & Red Wine in Argentina) we expected great things....let’s just [View Full Entry]

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I don’t really know where to start with this blog - we spent 10 days in Buenos Aires and really loved it. In order of my favourite things - Tango (both watching and our hilarious lesson), the steak (including going to what is thought to be the best steak restaurant in Buenos Aires) and all the amazing architecture (seen in the pic of my on the balcony of our hostel). We began our time on BA (sorry I know that’s cheesy but it’s easier the write!) in an area called Palermo which is the rich neighbourgood full of parks, bars, cafes [View Full Entry]

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Since writing the last blog we have left the beautiful countryside of Argentina and arrived in the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. The last blog was written from Bariloche and to go there was a tough decision, we had been trying to decide pretty much the whole time we were in Brazil whether to go North in Argentina or go South. The country is so massive that in just over 3 weeks we knew we’d probably only see a tiny section. We thought perhaps we’d be able to see some of what Northern Argentina had to offer whilst in Bolivia so [View Full Entry]

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Well I have now drunk my first full glass of red wine!! And having done it in Argentina’s wine capital i think I’ve been pretty spoilt. Steve and I headed from Iguauzu after ‘the falls’ to the middle of Argentina and a city called Mendoza (this was after 2 nights on a bus and 8 hours wondering round a city called Cordoba in between the buses!!). The main reason we came here was the try and educate ourselves in red wine, and mostly to go on the ‘bikes and wine’ tour we’d been looking forward to - a day pedalling round [View Full Entry]

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