JudiMurdo

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Tuesday 1st Feb 2011 Puerto Madryn, Argentina Punta Tomba Provencial Reserve Soooooooo excited about this trip !!! Time to visit the penguins... we had no idea what to expect, only that we had to drive two and a half hours to the penguin colony. This we did not mind as it took us through the Patagonian country side where we saw herds of guanacos (they look like lamas), hares, rheas (ostrich like), gulls and other species of birds. We were surprised to observe that the landscape was arid and vast. Puerto Madryn is in the Patagonian province of Chubut, and is one of Argentina’s fastest growing cities with a population of about 50,000 people. It is a popular resort for holidays and excellent scuba diving. The town is a gateway for the Peninsula Valdes being a ... read more

Saturday 29th January Day in Buenos Aires A long sleep in and a leisurely breakfast was our treat this morning. Buenos Aires looked immense when seen from the aeroplane yesterday, and highly populated. We thought it was going to be a noisy, dirty and overcrowded city with not much to see. We were very wrong and realised it lived up to being one of the worlds loveliest cities. We went into the city on a complementary R.Steins jewellers bus into a lovely area. The streets were wide and clean, full of interesting old and new buildings. We walked up a main pedestrianised street full of street traders and performing artists, in so much that it reminded us of Les Rambles in Barcelona. Today's quest was to try to find the church where the pioneers from Lewis ... read more

Thursday 27th January Overnight trip to the Iguassu Falls, Buenos Aires, Argentina We were very excited about starting this trip. We took an early morning one and three quarter hour flight to Puerto Iguassu where we would be staying at the Sheraton hotel. Our flight was delayed and our late schedule meant we did not have time to check in our hotel, freshen up or change our clothes. We went straight to the Brazilian border which took ages to cross to get into the park where the Brazilian side of the Iguassu falls were. We were given a packed lunch which described as 'gourmet' .... Not!! Anyway, complete with beetle it filled the hole!! The falls are taller than Niagara Falls and twice as wide. They are spread out over 2 miles on a horseshoe shape. ... read more

Wednesday 26th January Montevideo, Uruguay The ship docked very close to this nice peninsula with it's mixture of old and new towns. Tiled pathways and Spanish looking buildings and several monuments, antique shops, leather and woven merchandise shops, museums and sidewalk cafes. Montevideo is home to nearly half of Uruguay's population and was quite busy on the day we went. We started our ambling at Independence Square, which held a nice statue of Jose Gervasio Artigas in it. We worked our way around the craft stalls and shops with lots of very well crafted leather items. We stumbled across a museum of an old colonial house which was lovely inside with it's huge White Walls and courtyard garden. Our mission today was to find Murdo a shop he could buy a new lens for his camera, ... read more

An early morning rise -5.00-rewarded us with the spectacular entrance into Rio De Janeiro's harbour. Dawn was breaking and the surrounding hills were dusted with low clouds. The well known statue of Christ slowly came into view and made quite an impression. We excitedly looked forward to our trip there later in the morning. We boarded the coach and started our trip; we travelled past several beaches including the famous Copacabana beach. It was very packed with families enjoying their children’s summer holidays, plenty of beach volley ball. The coach did not stop to let us sample it's delights and we had chosen the wrong side of the bus to sit on, so we did not see much of it either. We arrived at the base of the statue of Christ and it was very hot!!! ... read more

Hi all, well here we are!! Where? I hear you ask…. At time of writing we are in Fortaleza in Brazil. We were supposed to be in Recife in Brazil but the authorities there wanted $500 for every Pilipino crew member on board – according to our captain that would have cost the cruise line thousands of Dollars. So no docking there and a quick change of course to this place ( Fortaleza). It is a seaside resort, much like Torremolenos (not that I have ever been there, but it is what I imagine it would be like) with great sun, long sandy beaches and mobbed – a bit like Girvan beach at the Glasgow fair. The update starts here: We left Glasgow and travelled to the midlands to stop for the night. The journey was ... read more