We arrived in Cusco 6 days ago and have really been enjoying the change of culture and climate. It is quite definitely tourist central here, but the beauty of the Inca stonework and the picturesque plazas and cobbled streets make it all worthwhile. Evidence of Quechua culture is everywhere. The colourfulness of the local dress and fabulous weavings adds real vibrancy to the place. Every few steps you are accosted by handicraft sellers - most of their products beautifully produced. Less welcome are the touts offering tours and trips, and the notoriously lightfingered shoe shine boys. But Gra [View Full Entry]

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Ten days in Argentina and lots of bus trips. It's such a huge country we really didn´t have enough time to get very far. Even so we seemed to spend most of our time on buses or waiting for them. Argentina really has the bus thing sorted. For not much more money than a standard coach, you can go overnight on a sleeper bus, with fully reclining seats - think first class airline - hot food, steward service, films, champagne... Fantastic! Our first few days in Argentina were a write-off. The weather was terrible - cold and relentless rain. We had [View Full Entry]

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Our trip to see the Iguassu falls was too dry and too wet. In that order. We decided to press on to Iguassu from Sao Paulo without stopping to see the city. As it turned out, we would have had a much better visit to the waterfalls if we had arrived a couple of days later after all. The weather was not on our side. It was still hot and sunny when we arrived in Foz, the town on the Brazilian side of the falls. We made it to a lovely rural hostel eventually. After getting off the bus in completely [View Full Entry]

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It´s about a week since we left Paraty, but we´re only just catching up with the blog. A lot has changed in a week, we´re in a new country (Argentina), it´s cold, we got thoroughly wet and muddy at the weekend. The lovely memories of Brazil are fading fast! Paraty marked the final stop on our trip down the Costa Verde. It is a protected historical town with handsome colonial buildings, no traffic and wide cobbled streets that disappear under water in the rainy season. The architecture is very simple - low white buildings with brightly painted window and door frames. [View Full Entry]

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Well it´s been a tough week. We knew travelling would be challenging at times, but never expected we´d have to spend a whole week stuck on a tropical island, sunbathing, snorkelling and messing about in boats... We caught the bus from Rio down the Costa Verde. I had rather stupidly packed the travel sickness pills deep in my backpack which was stowed in the luggage hold. I felt more and more ill as the coach wound its way round the coastal road. We stopped in Angra dos Reis, hopped into a taxi that took us to the port and then got [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Rio after dark and it took a full day before we were able to glimpse the Big Jesus. Didn´t really feel like we were in Rio until we had seen him. Stepping out onto Ipanema beach on our first morning was pretty wonderful all the same. The atmostphere in Rio was fun straight away. Knowing we would be tired after our flight from Madrid, we had booked a transfer from the airport. A very friendly guy, Paolo, and his son were there to meet us and despite our non-existent Portuguese and their faltering but enthusiastic English we were [View Full Entry]

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Our 6 day backpacking initiation is coming to an end. Lessons learned so far: 1 Don´t guess which way is north 2. Don´t wait to ask for directions 3. Never order ´house special´ tapas We arrived safe and sound after a short flight from Manchester and decided to head straight down south on the super fast trainline to Seville and Cordoba. Working out the Madrid metro was easy enough, but we came unstuck at Etocha station. We queued up in at least three wrong places and panicked when we worked out we were meant to take a number like at the [View Full Entry]

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Graham and I have a very different approach to preparations for our big trip. I'm up to my eyes in planning and administration wondering where the last few weeks have gone and how we're going to get everything done before we depart. Graham is pacing like a caged beast desperate just to pack our bags and leave on the next plane. We've never done this kind of thing before and I'm hoping our combination of organisation (me) and action (Gra) will be a winner. He's great in a crisis and able to make decisions and stick to them. I'm worried about [View Full Entry]

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