At 7.00pm we arrived at Ezeiza airport (BA's international) and checked our bags in, all 51 kilos. They were half that when we left but I hate throwing things away and ended up collecting much memorabilia. We landed at Dallas at 6.30am and immediately searched for somewhere to watch the England v Paraguay match. We were successful much to our surprise as the Yanks are not big into Soccer, so much so that the Dallas Times could only dedicate 4 columns to the opening of the World Cup. We left Dallas at 7pm and arrived in the UK at 10am Sunday [View Full Entry]

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We were sad to be leaving Ushuaia but not sad to be heading to Buenos Aires. We had heard so many positive reports about the place. The bonus was that we had a bit of money left and were quite happy to live the high life a little. We arrived in BA at around midday and heaed to our prefered hostel, unfortunately it was full so I sent Tas on the hunt. She came back with great news there was a room in a hostel just down the road and it was cheaper. Normally we would have walked but as we [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Ushuaia - the southern-most city in the world in a bus. The journey was more than a little hair-raising as the roads were covered in snow and ice. Remarkably we have now travelled from the Equator all the way to Ushuaia by bus, moving 55 degrees from the Equator and covering thousands of miles. We are now so used to long bus journeys that the thought of ever going to Scotland by bus sounds like a fun day out! As we were approaching the end of our journey we decided to splurge on a nice log Cabin as [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop on the cold road south was Puerto Natales, not a particularly attractive town aesthetically but attractive as a base camp for our trek around Torres Del Paine National Park. We arrived late Sunday afternoon and after the disappointment of 2 full hostels we found a little place on the edge of town. The landlady was most helpful in advising us where we could hire all the necessary things for our trek but her missing teeth and moustache were a little off putting. Our trek was to last 5 days/nights at a maximum of 1000m above sea level and [View Full Entry]

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The bus to El Calafate was an arduous journey, 34 hours in a new but not particularly luxurious bus. Luckily we reserved the front seats which allowed us a little extra leg-room. We arrived at El Calafate at 1am having lost lots of sleep but gaining two friends: Robert from Austria and James an Ex-Pat living in Spain. James had booked a place at a hostel so we just jumped in a cab with him and stayed there too. We were asleep within minutes. We woke the following morning at about 11am, we had missed breakfast. The whole town is surrounded [View Full Entry]

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Bariloche is the main town in the Argentinian Lake Disrsict, is the most northern town in Patagonia and is a mecca for trekkers, climbers, fishermen and skiiers. Nahuel Huapi national park crowded with mountains and lakes surrounds the town and is one of Argentinas most visited parks. Due to the schedule of our journey we have arrived in Bariloche and in fact Patagonia in low season, meaning that it is not the summer so you can´t fish and its not winter so you can´t ski. In fact it´s pretty damned cold and much accomodation is closed down including most refugios in [View Full Entry]

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Our intention had been to spend time in Arequipa at the world´s deepest canyon, then to pass through to Chile and spend time discovering some coastal towns on the way to Santiago to visit Consuelo and Nelson (the couple we met in Valparaiso at New Year). It became apparent in Arequipa however that Tas was not well so we had spoken to Consuelo who was kind enough to book us an appointment at her Doctors. We were to get the bus from Arequipa, Peru to Arica in Chile where we would rest for the night before catching the bus to Santiago, [View Full Entry]

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Our night bus arrived in Arequipa at 6.30am and we got a taxi (who over-charged us) to a hostel. We agreed a price for a room and went to bed to sleep. We slept for most of the day but went out into town in the afternoon for a look around and book the bus to Chile the next day. We had orginally intended to go to Colca Canyon but as I was not well we decided to head for Santiago as quickly as possible to see a Doctor. We took advice from the Lonely Planet and went to an agency [View Full Entry]

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We were up in the 5s to get the 6.15am train to Aguas Calientes a.k.a. Machu Picchu village. Getting up in the 5s is my pet hate (I refuse to do it for work purposes) but today it wasn´t pàrticularly difficult as I honestly hadn't slept a wink due to excitement. Goodness knows what I am going to be like before the wedding! The views from the train were fantastic though by then I was finally getting sleepy and struggling to stay awake. On arrival we walked from the town down the road to find the camp site mentioned in the [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Cuzco just before midday and looked for a hostel. We thought we had found a very pleasent place at the right price until the man explained the advertised price was in dollars not soles! We eventually found a hostel within our budget, a run-down converted colonial casa. We have stayed in quite a few colonial buildings some better maintained than others. I can honestly say I am getting to like them. The facia of the building is generally just a large arched split door - no windows. This door leads to a lobby and central courtyard from which [View Full Entry]

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