Nicola: For most of our trip we have been seeing places in the off-season. It has meant the weather hasnt always been great but the tourist sights havent been as busy and things have generally been cheaper. However, at the moment Peru´s high season is just getting under way. Hotels and bus comapnies put up their prices which is annoying but it also means there are hundreds of fantastic festivals and celebrations going on. We have been really lucky that every Sacred Valley village that we have wandered into has had some brilliant, loud and colourful dancing going on. It all [View Full Entry]

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Neil: Ola! Machu Picchu - the seventh New Wonder of the World and something both Nicky and I have been looking forward too since the off!! It has a lot to live up to; our expectations are high and we're lucky enough to compare them with some of its fellow wonders - Taj Mahal, Great Wall, Terracota Warriors and Christ the Redeemer. We landed in Lima and shortly after took a 22 hour bus ride to Cusco from where we took another bus, then a train and then another bus before reaching MP - 27 hours travel time in total from [View Full Entry]

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Neil: Having dragged ourselves away from the tropical paradise of Ilha Grande we made our way along the coast in the direction of Sao Paulo. Before we hit the metropolis of SP, we have dropped into the small colonial town of Paraty. Paraty is one of the local holiday destinations of Sao Paulo residents, and is a picturesque seaside town with cobbled streets, 300 year old buildings and beaches all set in front of huge mountains cloaked in tropical rainforest. The highlight in our trip was our Brazillian cooking lesson (see Nicky´s description below) but its a really pleasant place to [View Full Entry]

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Neil: One overnight bus and a boat ride later we have arrived in Ilha Grande, a tropical island off the south coast of Brazil blessed with white sandy beaches and covered with atlantic rainforest. The island is quite large, but only about 3000 people inhabit the island plus a few hundred tourists. We´ve decieded to stay for a week and soak up the sun and relax before the final leg of our round the world trip. Our accomodation is a house owned by Willi - a German habitant of the island. Its a nice change from our usual hostel accomodation - [View Full Entry]

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Nicky: It is great to be back on the road again, it is the first time we have experienced buses in Brazil! And it is brilliant to be able to see a different side to Brazil, as we have found out over the last few days there is some fantastic history and architecture and culture. Our first bus ride in Brazil was overnight from Rio to the mountain town of Ouro Preto. The bus didn´t leave until 11.30pm so we were V tired before we got on the bus, but we didn´t sleep particularly well as the roads were so bumpy [View Full Entry]

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Nicky: I hope everyone is ok, we can´t wait to catch up when we get home - only one month to go!! After all this time lugging our bags around and not sleeping in the same place for more then three days we decided we needed a holiday (!!) so after a few days in Rio we have spent the last week in Buzios. It is a beautiful village about two hours from Rio that was made famous by Brigitte Bardot. We rented a villa about 5 minutes from the beach and have literally spent all our time laying on the [View Full Entry]

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Nicky: In the dimly-lit, brick-walled basement of a 19th century cafe (which over the years has been visited by diplomats, ministers and celebrities) three couples; accompanied by a singer, a pianist, a violinst, a celloist and an accordian player, perform nightly, for locals and tourists alike, the Argentine tango. The music is provactive, loud and passionate and the dances doubly so. The costumes depict the tale of the dance from its birth among the prostitues and their customers on the streets of Buenos Aires through the 1930s and 40s to the modern, yet traditional, black and red attire. The audience is [View Full Entry]

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Nicky: In true travelling style we decided that while we were this close to Uruguay it would be criminal not to hop across the Rio Grande and see what it was like. We took the boat from Buenos Aires last Friday to Colonia, on the south coast. It is a beautiful seaside town full of cobbled streets, stunning squares and views out to sea and back across the river to Argentina. On Saturday the sun was blazing so we wandered from our hostel (which was actually a beautiful private room and bathroom in the back of someones garden with its own [View Full Entry]

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Neil: After experiencing the stunning beauty of the Iguazu falls in northern Argentina our journey has taken us south towards Buenos Aires stopping via the cities of Santa Fe and Rosario. Before we headed south however, we couldnt resist a quick trip over the border into Brazil, our objective being to see the Brazillian side of the Iguazu falls or if the sun stayed in bed, we had the backup of visiting the Itaipu Hydroelectric Dam (Nicky was praying for the sun). The weather turned out to be overcast and grey, so a trip to the dam was made. Itaipu Hydroelectric [View Full Entry]

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Nicky I think after four months away we are starting to get used to long journeys on public transport. Our 20 hour bus ride from Cordoba to Puerto Iguazu was relatively painless and was a great way to see the countryside changing. When we left Cordoba it was lots of cities and towns, by the time we woke in the morning it was rolling farmland full of cows and cowboys on horseback and by the time we arrived in P I the scenery was thick rainforests. I hope what I am about to say does not sound like we are getting [View Full Entry]

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