We have spent the last three weeks having a great time travelling up the Queensland coast, from Brisbane to Cairns. Luckily, despite Queensland experiencing some of the highest rainfall for ages, with many areas on flood alert, we have escaped the worst of it. Brisbane was our first stop in Australia and it was good to spend a few days in the busy city, visiting it's art galleries, and taking in some night life as well as planning the next leg of our trip. From Brisbane we travelled up the Sunshine Coast to the seaside town of Noosa. With its beach, [View Full Entry]

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Having driven 4,500kms and seen so much stunning scenery it's been hard to take it all in, and means we have two pages of photos this time. Since Christmas we have travelled around the South Island and seen everything from the dramatic west coast, the Southern Alps and the glaciers at Franz Joseph and Fox, to the rolling hills and farmland to the east side. Along the way we have encountered quiet, sleepy towns, and laid back people (except when they are behind the wheel of a car!), and have lost count of the number of squashed possums on the roads. [View Full Entry]

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Wow, what a difference from the usual snow we see each year. We spent Christmas around the Nelson area to the north of the South Island. Our Christmas present to each other was a day sea kayaking in the Abel Tasman National Park on Christmas Eve which was an amazing experience. Despite all we have heard about South Island nothing had prepared us for just how mind-blowingly beautiful it is. Christmas Day we took ourselves further north and off the beaten track to walks though haunting beech forest to huge caves, then to the stunning Golden Bay. Christmas lunch consisted of [View Full Entry]

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Crossing the International Date Line meant we arrived in Auckland two days after taking off from Santiago, so we spent our first day a little dazed and confused. We soon found our way around the city centre though, with it's bright shiny buildings, clean streets and relaxed friendly atmosphere. It wasn't long before we were feeling quite at home, drinking coffee on upmarket Ponsonby Road and drinking beer on the not-so upmarket 'K' Road. The Auckland Museum was an interesting introduction to all things New Zealand with it's sections on the natural history, war, and Maori culture with it's [View Full Entry]

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We struggled a bit to get to grips with Chile, which is strange because, superfically at least, it seems to be the most European of the South American countries we have visited. Maybe it´s Chile´s return to moderate politics after decades of extremes, or the new money here that means it a complex place, and makes it difficult to penetrate. Perhaps we have explored too limited a geographical area or perhaps we simply haven´t spent enough time here to appreciate the country´s depths. We have met some people who have been friendly and polite and others who have been rude and [View Full Entry]

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Only in Rio can you bump into gorgeous men walking down a busy city street at 10pm in the evening wearing only speedos. What a crazy, beautiful, exciting city this is. The movement of people around the streets, beaches and parks gave Rio an amazing vibe that lasted from early morning to late at night. As we were here for a week and a half we decided to rent an apartment and found ourselves a compact and bijou 1 bed flat just a stones throw from Copacabana Beach. We were practically next door to the Copacabana Palace, but we don´t like [View Full Entry]

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We spent a few days relaxing in the eco holiday town of Bonito where we had a great time watching hundreds of fish of all colours and sizes whilst snorkelling in the Rio Do Prata. A relaxing experience with no effort required, we just lay there in our wet suits and let the river current do all the work. After Bonito it was off to Foz do Iguacu and two days of exploring the huge and awe inspiring Iguacu Falls which lie on Brazil´s southern border with Argentina. The first day we spent viewing the falls from the Brazillian side with [View Full Entry]

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Down from high altitude at last, we were very excited to be in Brazil which seems so different after the cold nights and lack of oxygen of the Andes. The tropical heat hit us immediatey and we were loaded into an ex-army truck to cross the border and were soon bouncing along dusty tracks, beer in hand, into the Pantanal. The Pantanal is the world´s largest wetland area (over half the size of France) crammed full of an amazing variety of birds and animals, and it definitley counts as one of the highlights of our trip so far. We stayed on [View Full Entry]

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After La Paz we had a nightmare overnight bus ride to the town of Uyuni. The journey started off ok with Blood Diamond on DVD and a chicken supper, but then the road disappeared and we spent another 7 hours being tossed in all directions on a rocky track. Arriving in Uyuni was little consolation, a strange frontier like town with very basic facilities and water only on for a few hours each day. Once we got used to the place it was actually quite nice to relax and have nothing to do but drink beer and do a few very [View Full Entry]

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After the Inca Trail we returned to the Inca capital, the city of Cuzco, to celebrate with a few cocktails. It was census day so all nationals had to remain in their homes until 6pm or face a spell in jail for 24 hours, and this meant that bars and cafe´s were also closed for the day! Lucky for us our guide Claire owns a great little bar in the centre of Cuzco and she organised a lock-in for us. The drinks were soon flowing strong and fast! From Cusco we had a very hungover bus journey to Puno, situated on [View Full Entry]

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