"I...am...never...taking...another...night...bus....again...understand?" This was the question posed to me as we arrived in Cordoba, a mere nine hours by bus (Chevallier) from Buenos Aires, but given that the movies and lights were on most of the night and then we were woken early by music, not the best trip. This wasnt good...How the 'eck were we going to get back to BA, walk?! I decided to let the issue lie for a while to allow the water to cool... And so to Cordoba. Centre of Argentina really, right next to these small hills they call the Sierras, and second largest city in [View Full Entry]

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So we checked out of the Hilton in BA. It was a struggle we could have stayed for weeks! We caught the Buquebus which is not actually a bus but a high speed boat which crosses the Rio Plata to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruquay - our 9th South American country of 2005. We really didnt know what to expect of Uruguay, the guide books bill it as the "Switzerland" of South America. We also knew that Uruguayans eat more beef than Argentinians and thats going some because the Argies pack away some 55kg each a year (wow that explains the prevelance [View Full Entry]

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Thanks for all your cards and messages and really thoughtful pressies, it was great to recieve a bag full of goodies via Andrew and Susan and really exciting when we arrived at the Hilton and there were christmas cards waiting for us. As you know we had been disappointed with the lack of Christmas cheer in the run up to Christmas as we faithfully towed our own mini chritmas tree (arbolito) around with us to cheer up dingy hostel rooms - but everything changed the minute we arrived in BA. On our first night we met up with Andrew and Susan [View Full Entry]

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I need a new lexicon. I have just spent 5 hours on a bus ride that isn’t even mentioned in any guidebooks and I cannot find the superlatives to describe it. I should have paid more attention to the thesaurus I was given many years ago, trouble is I never understood what it was for for about 10 years, by which time it was too late to use. Anyway imagine if you can towering mountains, brush-filled dry deserts, wooded valleys, lakes, rivers, condors, and big blue skies over the course of this journey and add the necessary superlatives to make it [View Full Entry]

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Ooops its been a while since we updated the blog. Not that we’ve been having too much fun to write, quite the opposite we’ve been working hard taking Spanish language lessons in Argentina. Anyway where were we? Oh yes, just about to set out on our expedition to Angel Falls. We were met at Caracas airport by Ben of Osprey Expeditions who whisked us to the bus terminal for our overnight bus to Cuidad Bolivar. This was to be Bonny and Steve´s first overnighter and we were really lucky with the bus company “Rodavia” as the bus though freeeeeeezing cold was [View Full Entry]

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Last you heard from us we were taking a 7 hour flight from Chile up to Venezuela for a little “holiday” within our big holiday. First stop, Los Roques. An archipelago of picture postcard coral islands in the Caribbean sea off the northern coast of Venezuela. To get there you take a small plane to the main island of Gran Roque where we spent our first two nights before Bonnie and Steve arrived from London. Los Roques is hugely expensive so we booked into Dona Carmen one of the cheapest posadas on the island and signed up for a day of [View Full Entry]

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There are allegedly many things to fear in South America; spiders, diseases, strange people, mugging, falling off mountains etc. But the only thing we have come to fear is the magic hammer; “el martillo magico”. Unlike Thors hammer, which I believe was used to protect the common good, the magic hammer is eeeeevvil. It is a time-tested fact that however comfortable your accommodation and cozy your bed, however tired you are from the night before, however far you are from civilization, the magic hammer will find you at 8am in the morning. Pucon was no exception. Day two and it found [View Full Entry]

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You know other peoples holidays, right? Well they’re like dials that go up to ten on normal amps. Well we've got an amp called the intense-o-meter. Our holiday, right, it goes to eleven in intensity, see?, eleven. And that means that its much more intense? I hear you ask. Well, its one more isn’t it, its not ten, its eleven. So while most people will be holidaying at ten, we’ll be at eleven. (respect to Spinal Tap) It seems like a long time since we blogged… this isn’t intentional, in fact its because my hands have been so cold I can’t [View Full Entry]

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Since arriving in Chile we have done nothing but eat, drink wine and do extreme things, long may it continue…. Santiago turned out to be the nicest of the South American capitals that we have been to. Very reminiscent of Paris in architecture we felt quite at home especially since the Best Western Hotel has an INDIAN RESTAURANT! Of course, we over ordered and bravado got the better of us as we told the waiter that we wanted it HOT. Seems our taste buds have gone all woosie on us! From Santiago we headed north to the port city of Valparaiso [View Full Entry]

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Its a 5 hour flight across the southern pacific from Santiago to Easter Island, the most isolated inhabited spot on earth, home to hundreds of mysterious Moai statues and the birdman cult. On arrival at the airport (which has been upgraded to take emergency landings from the space shuttle but unfortunately was not needed whilst we were there!) we were met by Teresa our host from Cabañas Vianni with garlands of beautiful southern seas flowers from her farm and taken on a quick guided tour of “Hanga Roa” town. We settled in to our sunny room and adjourned to the veranda [View Full Entry]

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