http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Sophie Dyas/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Sophie Dyas en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:22:44 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:22:44 BST At the end of 10 months travelling 5 in South America I'd topped up my tan bought too many pairs of Brazilian Havaiana flip flops had sewn my flags on my backpack and was ready and excited to return to realityMy last week was spent in the island of Ihla Grande and the colonial beach town of Paraty where I managed to chill out completely in preparation of my return.10 months has gone so fast. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Paraty/blog-291856.html Well Rio was the final big city and highlight before I head home. Its really an amazing beautiful place and so much bigger than Id imagined. It has got a slightly dodgy side and reputation. Id heard lots of scare stories about muggings from lots of other travellers including one guy who was mugged at knifepoint by a group of 12 year old boys scaryThankfully I was very lucky and wasnt v http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/blog-286692.html I love Iguazu falls It is brilliant and beautiful and wonderful and fabulous I was especially excited about visiting them as Id just seen Indiana Jones go over them in the new film The falls themselves are on the border of Argentina and Brazil so you can visit on both sides. Although I was in Argentina I visited the Brazilian side first as the general consensus seemed to be that if you vi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Misiones/Iguazu-National-Park/blog-283791.html I've met so many people on my travels who went to BA for a few days and ended up staying a few weeks. Now I know why this is........ the Argentinians live their lives on a completely different timescale to the rest of the world On a night out at home you'd be in the pub by 8pm then falling out of a taxi into your house around 2am ish. But in this crazy country people don't think of even eating t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/blog-283780.html Theres only one month left until the end of my trip and I got a little taster of returning home when I visited the area in Patagonia where many Welsh people settled after crossing the Atlantic in 1865. So funny I visited a little town called Gaiman which is famous for its Tea houses. I was very intrigued by the idea of this as I dont really associate afternoon tea as being a particularly Wels http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Chubut/Gaiman/blog-279721.html Stop collaborate and listenIce is back with a brand new edition..... etc etcEnough of Vanilla Ice raps now I travelled down to the south of Argentina to visit one of the highlights of my trip the Perito Moreno Glacier. SO COOL Id seen photos of it before I went and they really dont do it any justice.The glacier is 30km long and the faces are 60m high. It is so big The glacier adva http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/Los-Glaciares-National-Park-/blog-277376.html For my final days in Bolivia I booked a 4 day tour which took me from a town called Tupiza to another called Uyuni. Tupiza is said to resemble the Wild West with lots of quebradas gorges and it is near where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid eventually met their demise. Uyuni is the nearest town to the weirdy salt flats which is one of the things I looked forward to seeing most in South Americ http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Salar-de-Uyuni/blog-273218.html Potosi is the highest city in the world at an altitude of 4060 metres above sea level yikes Luckily I seem to have adjusted to the altitude quite well and am no longer puffing and panting so much walking down the street.Potosi used to be majorly rich due to the silver that was found within the mountain that overlooks the town Cerro Rico. Mines were built there and are still worked in today alt http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-271647.html One of the trips that many agencies organise in La Paz is a cycling trip down The Worlds Most Dangerous Road. The road starts in La Cumbre 4640 metres above sea level and ends in Coroico 1295 metres above sea level and is 64km long with vertical cliffs up to 600m high. Until recently the road was used for traffic and an average of 300 people died a year mostly from cars and buses going ove http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Yungas-Road/blog-270277.html . http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/blog-269299.html Although it's possible to do trips to the Amazon basin from many of the South American countries I chose to visit from Bolivia mainly because it's the cheapest place to do it fromTo get to Rurrenabaque you either have to take a hellish 20 hour bus ride or grab a quick 45 minute flight from La Paz for 70 pounds return. I chose to splash out on the flights with the only problem being that the fli http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Beni-Department/Rurrenabaque/blog-268639.html My final stop in Peru was the town of Puno where I booked a 2 day tour to visit some of the islands of Lake Titicaca. My first stop was on the unique Islas Flotantes floating islands which were very bizarre indeed The islands are built by layering the reeds which grow on the lake. There are new ones layered each week as the bottom ones are continually rotting away. This means that it is a weird http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Puno/Lake-Titicaca-/blog-268342.html I was feeling a teensy bit guilty about not doing the Inca trail so when a few people that Id met recommended trekking in the Colca Canyon I thought Why not I was assured that it wasnt a hard trek. Hmmm.... they obviously hadnt met someone with my poor level of fitness beforeThe canyon was not at all what I expected a canyon to look like. I think I had a image of the Grand Canyon in my he http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Colca-Canyon/blog-263725.html Well I finally made it to the main tourist attraction in Peru Machu Picchu the lost city of the Incas. Many backpackers choose to arrive there on foot after spending 4 days trekking the infamous Inca Trail. However the idea of spending 4 days walking did not appeal to me at all and luckily was booked up until August anyway so I chose to get the train there instead. In my opinion the sens http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Machu-Picchu/blog-261008.html Im in country number 10 now Peru. I think that the local people that Ive met here in the past 5 days have been the friendliest of my whole trip so far So many people have come up to me to just chat in the street including lots of students wanting to practice their English for their Easter holiday homework After a few days pottering about in Lima Ive moved further down the coast to the dese http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-258673.html Wow The Galapagos Islands were truly amazing and one of the highlights of my trip so far I did get the nervous shakes when I had to hand over a month's budget for an 8 day trip but it was definitley worth every penny Many thanks to the people who gave me birthday and Christmas money which went towards my Galapagos fundYou can get so close to all the animals in the Galapagos whether on the la http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos-Islands/blog-253851.html Well I arrived in Quito Ecuador last week in my shorts and flip flops expecting some balmy tropical weather but instead found a lot of rain and British temperatures. Boo What is going on with the world Over the course of 4 days I had to buy a wooly hat for the evenings thick wooly socks for bed another fleece after losing my last one and some binglybongly trousers to wear as pyjama botto http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-250054.html Ive been rocking around the country for the past few weeks trying to see as much of it as I possibly canMEDELLINThe hostel I was staying in was in a very trendy rich area. Lots of cool well dressed people lots of silicone implants The best thing I did there was to go paragliding. I never thought that paragliding was something Id want to do but for 20 quid for a tandem ride I couldnt say http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/blog-245219.html Oooooooh I was very excited when I learned that one of the best places to celebrate Carnival in Latin America apart from Rio and Salvador obviously was in Barranquilla in Columbia woo hoo Barranquilla is a town that absolutely no tourists go to at any other time of the year because it is quite an ugly port city with not much to do. The only good thing about it is that it is where Shakira li http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Barranquilla/blog-243593.html After meeting lots of other travellers who had already been to South America the general consensus seemed to be that Colombia was pretty high on the list of their favourite places. Although my original plan was to fly straight from Panama to Ecuador I decided that it seemed a bit silly to miss out on a country that was so close to where I was already. After a quick phone call to my mum to check http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-240869.html