Rio. What a way to finish! I arrived a mere 52 hours after leaving Santa Cruz (the less said about that the better) and fell in love with the city as soon as I saw the view from Corcovado (the hill with the statue of Christ). It was truly beautiful, with deep emerald green, wooded islands floating in the blue of the bay; and the blazing blue sky definitely helped paint it in a positive light after all that Bolivian rain. On that first day the city seemed bursting with colour and life. I loved the uniqueness of the different areas, [View Full Entry]

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Bolivia is officially the poorest country in South America and you don't have to look very hard to recognise that life here is pretty hard for many people. However, many travellers that I had met had told me that Bolivia had been the great surprise of their trip; they hadn't been expecting much but had loved the place. Forever Miss Contrary I have to say that I had good expectations but have liked it less than I thought I would! I can't quite pinpoint why that is, but the fact that it's the rainy season and many days are grey and [View Full Entry]

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Now that I was starting the final leg of my adventures in South America, I resolved to try and spend more time with locals rather than international travellers. This was mainly a desperate bid to get my Spanish back up to scratch but also because I wanted to get a better insight into the culture rather than just reading it in my book. Whatever the motive, I certainly picked the right month for this resolution as, being the summer holidays here, the whole population of Argentina seemed to be on the road. The downside of this was that it was much [View Full Entry]

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The transition from travelling with Fiona to being by myself was made much easier by the fact that I seemed to already know several people in Buenos Aires. There was Jackie P, Alistair (a friend from England) and several other people I had met in different parts of South America so there was never any time to start feeling lonely. Alistair and I went off to Mendoza for a few days and the 13 hour bus ride was definitely the swankiest so far. I finally got to play bus bingo (or "Bingoooo AN-DES-MAR" as the conductor kept announcing emphatically in an [View Full Entry]

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Having missed the only weekly bus we had to give up on working our way South in Chile. Instead we headed for Argentina via Lake General Carrera, the second biggest lake in South America which straddles the border between Chile and Argentina. The journey there was through beautiful countryside and we had all the more time to enjoy it as our minibus driver seemed to think he was driving a 4x4, took a big rock full on and ended up with a ruptured tyre. We made it to the tiny ferry just in time and we just had time to remark [View Full Entry]

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Chile became much more interesting as soon as we left Santiago. Our first stop South was Valparaiso, one of the most important ports on the whole Pacific coast and with a rich and interesting history. European and US business interests during the port's heyday in the 19th century had brought hundreds of international settlers to the area. The city sprawls higgledy-piggedly over a series of small hills connected to the port area by century-old funiculars that only carry a handful of people. There are numerous hidden alleys and stairwells that connect all the streets on different levels and it was a [View Full Entry]

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If you were cursing me after the last blog then no doubt you'll be very pleased to know that it seemed to jinx the weather completely and we even had two days of solid rain in Salvador (I can feel the sympathy from here). In fact it seemed almost as if a higher force was deliberately trying to disprove everything I wrote about in the last blog. For a start, there was a film on the bus (although given that it was a romantic comedy about two people with learning difficulties falling in love, it was still rather a radical departure [View Full Entry]

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HEALTH WARNING: If you're feeling a bit glum about the onset of winter in England, it might be best if you skip this blog ;) I think the photos probably speak for themselves. These beaches are just stunning. Any of you who have been on holiday with me will know how much clear, turquoise, shallow water just does it for me so I've been in total heaven for the last week or so. We're on the north-east coast of Brazil just south of the equator where the sun always shines apparently (why didn't it in Ecuador, then? If anyone understands [View Full Entry]

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Travelling from Vilcabamba southwards meant that we crossed into Peru at the most eastern and more remote border post. Being off the beaten track had its advantages, one of which being that I got to practise my Spanish an awful lot, but it also meant that we had to be quite canny and organised as transport options were much more limited. We travelled for 3 days in a variety of cars, collectivos, trucks and minibuses, and I'm sure came close to breaking a few world records for the number of people that can be crammed into a single car, along the [View Full Entry]

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Fiona arrived at midnight on Monday and by 8.30 am was bundled onto the bus ready for a 7 hour trip to Quilotoa. No mean feat! Im not sure she knew what had hit her, especially when we transferred to the local bus filled to the brim with indigenous people and their chickens and all the sensory overload that that entails. Sandy roads and hairpin bends made the last 4 hours fairly hair-raising but it was through spectacular scenery which made it more bearable (if the bus is going to hurtle over a sheer drop it may as well be a [View Full Entry]

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