Hey Paul, how's tricks? Work going well? It's the day after Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer here in the States and the official start of some seriously hot weather in Vegas. Temperatures are just today climbing into the 90's farenheit, though a run of luck at the roulette table and way too many margaritas last night means I'm a tad under the weather as I write. The U.S. truly is the land of the free. So far we've found free cookies, free coffee, free internet and free loos. No more desparate holding on as we search vainly for the [View Full Entry]

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There is indeed much cactus in Mexico, but I’m speaking Australian here, and things went pretty much cactus for a while back there. From Oaxaca Mabel, who continues to hang in there like the trooper of the little car she is, took us on a fairly easy and uneventful journey to the city of Puebla. We did try and visit the nearby ruins of Cacaxtla but enthusiasm for this detour took a hit when we hit a hidden sleeping policeman at speed, eliciting cries of pain from C, whose back is not good, and a stream of profanities from me, whose [View Full Entry]

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The Mexican highway system is a little less robust than we had anticipated and we’re not going to be able to get to the Mayan ruins at Palenque. Having taken flak for not getting to the more famous Bolivian indigenous sites I fear the fallout from a certain over-educated friend of ours at home (you, and your more celtic work colleagues know who you are) and can offer only the Zatopec ruins of Monte Alban in recompense. We’ll try harder in future and offer up the prospect of reports from the pre-Columban sites at El Tajin, Tula and Teotihuacan. I would [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from Rio. Our hotel is so far down the end of the beach at Copacabana it is almost on Ipanema beach. Walking back down the beach, the choice in beach front restaurants here is limited. We quickly discover the nearest restaurant does not do good Pizza. We’ve developed a taste for Pizza in Rio. Don’t know why, but it’s the brunch of choice for the duration. The next couple of restaurants have an unfortunate location. Somewhere nearby there is a sewer that needs some fairly immediate attention. So it is that our innocuous looking beach front restaurant of choice in [View Full Entry]

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Arequipa is Peru’s second city, though you wouldn’t think so by the look of the small airport we flew into from Cuzco. The flight itself was highly scenic and ranks right up there with flights in the US south west for marvellous views of desert scenery with the added splendour of threading our way around 6000 metre high volcanic peaks as we came in to land. Fortunately the volcano that recently became very active is some 60km away and no threat to us, though sadly not so for the locals there who are losing livestock and being threatened with evacuation. The [View Full Entry]

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The Inca Trail is a punishing hike that starts 88km north of Cuzco at a point some 2600 metres above sea level. It negotiates a couple of passes up to an altitude of 4200 metres and arrives at Machupicchu 43km and 3 days walking later. The quality of accommodation along the way is entirely dependent on the class of tent you pack with you. We completed the journey from Cuzco in four hours, by train. Having made it to Cuzco we nearly did not make it to the number one tourist attraction in South America that is Machupicchu for a couple [View Full Entry]

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A tad nervous by the news that the bodies of a couple of tourists abducted in January were found in unmarked graves recently, we rode the bus into La Paz with some trepidation. If I had read the British and American government travel advisories before hand I think I would have insisted on riding the bus into to La Paz with an armed guard. The road to La Paz takes us through the ‘slum’ city of El Alto and then winds its way down the canyon slopes into the city itself. Our first view of the city is therefore from the [View Full Entry]

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Salta bus terminal, 07:15 in the morning. We don’t know it yet but we’re about to enter into the world of backpacking for the next couple of days. The 7 hour bus journey to La Quiaca on the Argentine border with Bolivia is uneventful enough, though it takes us onto the high plain sandwiched in the Andes, 3000+ meters above sea level and into the realm of altitude sickness. Breathing is not really all that difficult, but we won’t be running any marathons any time soon. Arriving at the Argentine border town around midday we hop a meterless taxi and whilst [View Full Entry]

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We chose the town of Salta in the Argentinean north west as a place for a pitstop. It was on our route up South America, a handy place for moving on to Bolivia and a quiet place in which to take a break from being on the move for what seems like all the time. As it turned out it rained most of the time and the traffic outside the hotel meant that we weren’t catching up on as much sleep as we wished, but there you go. Ain´t complaining. When it was dry enough we sat at café’s in the [View Full Entry]

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Somewhere along the way we picked up the information that the Iguacu Falls are a must see. To get us there we deployed our usual flare for independent South American travel; we got an English speaking Buenos Aires travel agent to book everything for us. The river forms the border between Argentina and Brazil at the falls, with viewing opportunities available from both sides. Visitors can fly into and stay in either the Argentinean city of Puerto Iguazu or the Brazilian city of Foz Do Iguacu. Our reasons for choosing the former over the latter would be; a) we were flying [View Full Entry]

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