Meet the Araya-Gonzalez family: There's Nidia, the hard-headed politician who's constantly having to choose between her career and the husband she idolizes. There's Mari, the glamourous nurse and daughter of Oswaldo and a previous flame. Also Stephanie, the shy 14 year old obsessed with boys and shopping, and Karina - the reserved, stressed-out medical student with a talent for dance. Living on the farm, away from the capital city, are Oswaldo, a soft-spoken farmer who has a skin condition meaning that any more exposure to the sun will almost certainly lead to cancer, and Andrey, the girl-cr [View Full Entry]

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As luck would have it, my dwindling bank balance seems to be in direct correlation with the amount of free-loading I managed to do in Brazil. After the excesses of Rio, which had been planned to last 4 days and then turned into 2 weeks, it was definitely a good thing! I arrived in Florianopolis to a deserted hostel - I mean, seriously deserted. I think there were 3 guests in total. Under any other circumstances I would have heaved the old backpack on again, but a few quiet days where I wouldn't be tempted to spend money or have [View Full Entry]

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"Bullshit!" exclaims my friend Shelley, after I have extolled the virtues of the caipirinha and the lack of hangover that it brings. Although we disagree on this point, we are firmly in cahoots that this cocktail is capable of transporting you from a place of sobriety to a place of sozzled delight in the time it takes to get a Brazilian bikini wax. And believe me - in the spirit of crucial cultural exploration, we have done the necessary research. Rio de Janeiro was named after a fairly significant mistake was made by its Portuguese discoverers - they thought that [View Full Entry]

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[url='/Videos/3284.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3284.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] Iguazu Falls[url='/Videos/3283.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/3283.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'] The Iguazu Falls Straddling Argentina and Brazil, the Iguazu Falls may not be the largest waterfalls in the world, but they are said to be the most beautiful. Surrounded by national parks filled with tropical rainforest, these 275 falls are sights not easily forgotten. And it is this place that Amanda, Shelley, Pancho and I endured a 20 hour bus ride from Buenos A [View Full Entry]

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Although Australia and New Zealand had been great, the pace of adventure was a lot slower than we had grown used to in Asia. Both of us had been massively looking forward to going to South America, and thankfully, that was rightfully so. Over the past week, I've fallen in love with travelling again. Although Cambodia stays firmly top of the list as my favourite country so far, Buenos Aires is now pegged as the favourite city. It's fabulous. The journey to South America was a very long one - Hannah and I travelled for about 3 days in total. [View Full Entry]

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We finally managed to get out of Wellington on Monday morning, and caught an inordinately early ferry across to Picton on South Island. We then hopped on a bus to Nelson, a "city" which is approximately the size of Esher. However, if you would like any information on the area, I would be only too happy to oblige - we were treated to another one of those bus drivers that chatters away for the entire journey, so among other things, I am now able to describe in detail real estate prices for the region, and the success of the local [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Auckland with a freshly topped-up tan, eager to see what New Zealand had to offer. We stepped out into the fresh air...and had to resist the urge to turn on our heels and scuttle back inside again. It was FREEZING - and we hadn't been anywhere cold in about 2 and a half months. After checking in to our hostel, my first port of call was a pharmacy - I was running out of practically everything! I stocked up and, to placate my mum, I also bought some Spirulina, a supplement she's been telling me to get [View Full Entry]

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After an uneventful flight, we arrived at Downtown Backpackers, Nadi, Fiji - a bit of a hole, but the staff were friendly. After checking in, we had our first taste of Kava, which was aptly described to me by my friend Netta in Sydney as "looks like mud, tastes like mud": she was bang on. I thought I was drinking ditchwater, but the Fijians are obsessed with it. Water mixed with ground tree root, it's not alcohol - closer to legalised drugs in terms of its effects. After settling in, we booked a couple of nights on Mana Island, and [View Full Entry]

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When I arrived in Brisbane I had a little fun finding the right local bus stop, but eventually got on. I got increasingly panicked as I tried to work out how everyone was 'dinging' to get off the bus - I couldn't see a nice, pretty red button to press or anything. As we neared my stop, I was getting frantic and saw a friendly Aussie girl to ask - it turns out that there was a black strip running along the bottom of the luggage racks over our heads - there was no sign, and it looked like part of [View Full Entry]

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I'd been sad to leave Brisbane, but happy to go back to Sydney, where I had some good friends, so that my sprained foot could recover and in the meantime they could look after me. Unfortunately, not everything turned out as planned because both the rooms I requested (which had people I knew in them) were full, so I was stuck in Room 1 - an absolute nightmare, largely because it's right by the terrace where people sit and get rip-roaringly drunk until the early hours of the morning. Also, despite arriving at the hostel around midday, there was only [View Full Entry]

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