James Anne

The final leg of our 15 months round the world extravaganza takes us from Belem at the mouth of the Amazon 6000km south to Rio which claims to be one of the greatest cities in the world. We set off south on a 28 hour slow and uncomfortable bus journey to Forteleza one of a series of large cities on the north east coast of Brazil. Staying in an OK German / Swiss pousada only 2 minutes walk from the beach. It was like the Gold Coast of Australia with the beach front lined with huge multi-storey tower bocks. A relaxing time on our first real Brazilian beach was at Puerto Futuro. This was also our first exposure to Brazilian thong style bikinis - which Anne refused to buy!! This area was very busy so we ... read more

A long journey from Arequipa to Lima was followed by a nice hotel (to celebrate Anne's birthday). We were waiting for Heather (James' sister) to arrive from USA so had a second day in Lima Miraflores district merely hanging around. An early start to meet Heather's plane from Mexico where she was transiting. We arrived at the airport around 5.30am but much to our annoyance the plane was delayed by over 7 hours. Anne disappeared back to the hotel whilst James sat and let the world drift by for what seemed an age. Finally Heather arrived and was immediately surrounded by annoying taxi drivers - impressed with James' level of Spanish as he argued with various taxis until they came up with a reasonable price. A lighting fast drive into Lima was exciting for Heather ... read more

So after our climb up Huayna Potosi we deserved a 2 day rest in La Paz doing very little except watching cable TV, eating and buying new jeans for Anne. July 26 saw us set of in a taxi to 4800m and the start of the Choro trek. This time our guide was Sixto who also was our cook and carried all the food. Normally Anne carries the food and fuel so her rucksack was light whereas James still carried the tent so there was no change for him. The great thing about the Choro trek is that it is essentially a 3 day walk downhill 3800m down into the Yungas rainforest part of the Amazon basin. Starting at high alpine mountains we passed through the La Cumbre pass before starting our descent on the 500 ... read more

So we have finished our luxurious stage of our South American journey (Chile and Argentina) and now are heading into Bolivia. The plan - a three day trip across the volcanic landscape and largest salt flat in the world in South West Bolivia. After leaving the paved road behind in Chile we drove in 4 X 4 jeeps up to 4600 m to the Bolivian immigration control. After a dubious breakfast of bread, cheese and jam we continued with Juan our driver a couple from Belgium, a girl from Switzerland and another from Canada. Within 20 mins we had reached Laguna Blanca the white lake. In summer there would normally be flamingos here but in the middle of winter the lake was covered in a thick sheet of ice. On further towards Laguna Verde (the green ... read more

So a 14 hour comfortable first class bus journey to Buenos Aires from Mendoza was successfully completed. Arriving at 7 am on a Sunday morning to a dead city was accompanied by a tube ride on the relatively safe but slow underground to the Faculty of Medicine. We were greeted by a giant building which looked like an abandoned hospital from the 1920´s. Later we were to find out that this was one of their main tertiary referral centres. Anyway a short walk and we found our hostel - Archies Place - A nice comfortable building (and for once you weren´t allowed to smoke) although the kitchen was seriously limited by the bold notices saying you can´t fry. We got around this by only sweating the onions, meat, etc, although still got in trouble for this. ... read more