Mebs and Paulo

Mebs and Paulo

Mebs and Paulo

Our once in a life time trip



Africa » Tanzania » North » Serengeti National Park May 2nd 2011

After eight short months in Dublin, the travelling bug crept right back up on us and bit us hard. Although we only had a two week break from work, we decided to take flight to the one continent we missed out on in our round the world trip, Africa. We landed in Dar Es Salaam at midnight and headed straight to the hostel we had booked days previous. Unfortunately, when we arrived we were told that the hostel was fully booked and that they had “forgotten” to make a note of our booking. Left with no other option, we drove around the city looking for a room until eventually, we stumbled upon a remote guest house. Some things never change; it felt like we had never been home at all. We were right back into travelling ... read more
Banana anyone?
From Dar Es Salaam to Arusha
The safari begins

Europe » Portugal » Lisbon & Tagus Valley » Lisbon August 22nd 2010

We touched down in Frankfurt airport at 9 am and with twelve hours to spare before our next flight; we hopped on the train into town. I lived here in Frankfurt for a year, sixteen years ago and it felt really good to be back; it was Paulo's first taste of Germany. As we walked along the shopping streets of the city, we spotted a busy food market and went in for a closer look. Older German men sat in groups drinking beer, smartly dressed workers stood around eating snacks on their lunch breaks and hundreds of people filled the square. We spent the afternoon eating bratwurst and schnitzel and drinking wine with the locals before making our way back to the airport for our onward flight to Portugal. We flew into Faro and travelled north ... read more
German bratwurst
Leaving Frankfurt for Faro
Paulo and his brother playing beach ball

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Ipanema July 30th 2010

The weather improved with each day we spent in Rio, leaving us free to explore and enjoy what has turned out to be one of our favourite cities of the trip. For us, Rio has it all. We stayed in a hostel in Ipanema, a really safe, central and fun area of the city. Our first adventure to Rocinha, the biggest favela in South America. We got there on the back of a moped, or on a 'mototaxi' as they're known here. Kids lined the perimeters of Rocinha, armed with fireworks, which they would set off if any rival gangs or police tried to enter. We were brought up to the top of the favela and shown around the streets, shops and even inside some of the houses. The slums are built on the side of ... read more
Rio
Rio again
And again

South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires » Buenos Aires July 18th 2010

With only one month left in South America, we felt time really creeping up on us. This in mind, we crammed a serious amount into our stay in the fabulous Buenos Aires. We arrived into the city on a Monday morning after a twenty-one hour bus ride and checked into a great hostel smack bang in the centre of town. We spent the day getting our bearings on the city and that night made our way out to the ‘Culture Centre’ to see an amazing concert by a percussion group ¨La Bomba de Tiempo¨. Getting to the gig was quite an ordeal however. We decided to take the subway instead of paying crazy taxi rates in rush hour. The line we needed to take was the line with the original ninety year old city trains running ... read more
Steak in El Desnivel
I'd say we ate at least two of these since being in Argentina
More steak

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago July 14th 2010

Santiago is quite a nice city to explore, with lots of different neighbourhoods all within walking distance of each other. There are plenty of historical parks in the city with little treks leading up to beautiful views over the snow capped Andean peaks. We strolled around countless craft stalls and watched football matches in the plazas, soaked up the atmosphere around Barrio Bella vista, where all the young people hang out in cafes and bars before returning back to the small cobble stoned street to our hostel. We enjoyed the time we spent in Santiago, but seen as neither of us are all that keen on big cities, we were quite content to move on to Pucon, a little village south of Santiago. World cup fever was well and truly heating up at this stage and ... read more
Beautiful drive
Santiago
Sunset over the city


With a new emergency travel document, we hopped on an overnight bus to the town of Uyuni. Nothing could have prepared us for the cold we felt on the bus or for the freezing temperatures we were to experience over the following nights. It was baltic, despite the five layers of tops, leg warmers, leggings, woolly socks and tracksuit bottoms! We arrived into the tiny town of Uyuni at 5am and it wasn't long before we had a tour organised to the salt flats. Our group was quite European, made up of a Spaniard, Italian, Belgian, Portuguese and Irish! Our driver/guide/cook took us off to the spectacular Salar de Uyuni in his little jeep. This place is huge, covering 12000 squared kilometers. The salt beamed white as snow and with the sun shining down from the ... read more
Surfing the train
The Salt Flats
There was barely another sinner in sight

South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » La Paz June 5th 2010

The Bolivian border was one which we approached with apprehension and anxiety, given that I had no passport and was travelling on an A4 piece of paper with my photo 'pritt-sticked' onto it and my name and details hand written with little care. Fortunately we crossed with little hassle and headed straight for the small town of Copacabana where we spent an enjoyable day hanging out with Ian and Daragh. We set off on a walk up to a viewpoint at a height of almost four thousand meters above sea level over Lake Titicaca, where we had a picnic of wine and popcorn and chilled out for the afternoon until sunset, descending just in time to avoid the heavy downpours that followed. That same rain continued to bucket down throughout the night and into the morning ... read more
Candle Chaple
Again
View from the top of the hill

South America » Peru » Lima » Lima » Miraflores May 12th 2010

Our first impression of Peru was definitely not what we expected. As we drove down the west coast, we were greeted with vistas of beautiful white sandy beaches as far as the eyes could see. When we reached the small surfers' town of Mancora, we were really treated well, with the cheapest accommodation so far in South America and delicious seafood, sold for next to nothing. One of Peru's traditional dishes is called Ceviche. This is a mix of raw fish, marinated in lime juice and chili and served with raw onions and roasted nuts - we couldn't get enough. It was simply delicious. We were quick to get back out on our boards and practice the surfing skills that we'd learned in Bali. It was the perfect welcome to Peru. From Mancora, we took a ... read more
This is the life
Mancora beach
Our surf shop

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños April 25th 2010

The date of Caoimhe's scheduled departure came and went, but Caoimhe didn't. She was having way too much fun traversing the globe with us. Although we had already packed so much into the two weeks we had together, the time had passed too quickly, so it seemed only right to more than double the length of her trip and continue on travelling. We arrived into Quito on high alert, having met countless travelers along the way who had been mugged (some more than once) in Ecuador's capital city. Based on this, we were not intending on spending too long there, but were very pleasantly surprised by it’s beauty. The huge city, divided into two very distinct areas, is located down in a valley surrounded by fabulous mountains. The churches, monasteries and well maintained plazas of the ... read more
View from the hostel
Stuck in the cable car
Made it!

South America » Colombia April 22nd 2010

Our eyes were opened to the corruption we'd heard and read so much about as we made our way from Venezuela into Colombia. The bus we were travelling in was pulled over twelve times by the military police for passport control throughout our journey and each time we were pulled over we had to pay a bribe for the 'convenience' of continuing on our journey! We couldn't believe it. We had no problem with the police searching our bags but by the time it would have taken for them to search all ten passenger's bags (at each check point) it would have taken days to complete what should have been a two hour bus ride. We were left with no other option but to cough up the cash. By the time we reached the Colombian border ... read more
Two local girls
Our home for the night
Walking through rivers




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