After no sleep we got our LAN flight to Easter Island.We had no sleep as someone rang the doorbell of our hostel at 3.30 in the morning and I was convinced it was our taxi, which was due at 6.30, so went running out to open the door. Looking back that was probably pretty stupid of me as it could have been anyone but luckily it was just another couple of backpackers trying to cheack in. Our LAN flight was amazing! We were on a proper aeroplane again, with movies and everything! We were so excited as the flight is about 6 hours long. We hadn´t booked anywhere to stay on the island as I thought it was better to turn up and get something when we arrived. We decided to stay at Chez Cecilia who ... read more

Mendoza wasn´t at all what we though it would be like. It is the wine region in Argentina so we were expecting to get off the bus into a beautifal wine region covered with vineyards, but actually Mendoza is a massive, busy town and the wineries are 40 minutes away in the bus and even there they aren´t that pretty as it is very dry there and again there is lots of traffic. We also had another awful bus jounrey from Bariloche to Mendoza! The direct bus was full up so we had to change busses at Neuquen. The second bus we got on was awful, the food was gross and they put on the worst movie ever made. It was a Nicholas Cage film called The Bad Leuitenant and was about him going round taking ... read more

We took the Navimag ferry from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt. We spent a night in Punto Arenas on the way which was pretty uneventful! Only had the morning to explore Punto Arenas which was enough time! As I said before the Navimag is a converted cargo ship, which now holds a few passengers. We were on the last high season tour, which was good as it meant that we got to see a glacier and had some ínteresting´talks during the journey! The ferry was 4 day/4 nights. The first night we borded at 9pm and then the boat left the following day at 6am. We had opted for a 4 person bedroom without a window (we nearly got the beds in the corridor but decided it was worth the extra $50 to get a room!). ... read more

So we arrived in BA on our 20 hour bus trip. The bus trip was really comfortable as the seat went nearly the entire way back, we got to watch some movies (although two were in Spanish but they were really slapslick comedy so you could understand what was happening even without understanding what they were saying!), got given food (which was awful but still at least it was something! Breakfast consisted on 3 cakes and I´m still not sure what dinner was supposed to be!) and we got wine and champagne! Nice. BA is known for petty crime and scames and being ripped off by taxis. Well I´m ashamed to say we fell for one! We got a taxi from the bus terminal to our hostel. The taxi ride was A$35. Ian gave him a ... read more

We have been in Rio for about 3 days now. As most of you probably know it wasn't the best start to our trip as our journey from New Zealand to Rio was HORRIFIC thanks to the wonderful Argentina Aerolineas. I will def never ever fly with them again. Thanks to them the first day of our trip was spent in the hostel waiting for our luggage to arrive and trying to get through to someone to find out where it was. It did finally arrive at 9.30 at night! By this time though we were over it as we were in the hostel bar drinking and meeting fellow travellers! The place we are staying is really nice actually - it should be really as it's more expensive then New Zealand and we have a shared ... read more