Steve and Tuyet

Our second stay in Buenos Aires, 5 days this time, was even better than the first! We love this city. The sheer energy, the sense of style, the unbelieveable food. Tuyet was very keen to see a Tango show, but after being quoted a ludicrous price at a Travel Agent, we happened to pass a street poster advertising a Festival of Tango. We put our names on the door at the address listed and we found ourselves later that night, sitting at a candle lit table, in an intimate club, waiting for the show. There was no actual dancing as this was a Tango music show, we found out a little too late. However, I must admit that, sitting in the gloom, pretending to understand the rapid fire comic reparte and fantastic cabaret, with an audience ... read more

Foolishly...... we decided that taking the 13 hour overnight bus from La Paz to Uyuni would save us a night's accomodation. Only, the road was unsealed and so studded with rocks and potholes that it felt like we were riding inside a jack hammer. We arrived at Uyuni at 3am and in our severely sleep deprived state, were easy prey for the local tout who took us to the nearest hotel and sold us a 3 day desert jeep excursion leaving in a few hours. We awoke the next morning to find our trip delayed one day by some late withdrawals and promptly went back to bed. One of the better things to do in a town consisting of a few dusty streets and surrounded by desert in every direction. The desert surrounding Uyuni is, however, ... read more

Ah, the magic of Lake Titicacca 3,800m above sea level and staddling the border between Peru and Bolivia. We arrived in Puno on Saturday, amid spectacular thunder storms and carnival atmosphere. Puno is a sleepy little town of adobe brick houses and was unusual in that one of the main means of transport was bicycle taxi. In the morning we arose early and boarded a ferry bound for the Island of Taquile along with a few tourists, some locals and all the produce they could fit aboard. The first stop was the intriguing floating Isles of the Uros people. Centuries ago the Uros tribe decided to escape aggressive neighbours by building floating Islands out of the abundant reeds that grow around the lake. In 2005 every tourist who visits Lake Titicaca stops off on these floating ... read more

Well here we are in beautiful Cuzco. Surrounded by mountains, this charming town of terracotta tiled roofs, winding cobblestone streets and stone masonry incorporating the earlier Inca Citadel, simply takes the breath away. Partly because at 3,400m above sea level it really is difficult to breathe when you first arrive. Cuzco is famous as the jumping off point for Macchu Piccu, so tourism is very big here. Every building on the central Plaza De Armas and surounding streets is here to serve the tourist. Either selling package tours, hiking gear, local craft or with a stairway leading to a restaurant with balconied views of the square. The main tourist season is July to August and the town seems refreshingly empty. There are almost as many street touts as tourists and they seem almost half hearted as ... read more

Lima is, quite simply, muy loco. I am quite frustrated now because I wrote a long entry and then the pc crashed on me, which is very typical of a lot of things in Peru (ie quite dodgy). Argh. When we were about to board for Lima, Steve realised his swiss army knife was in his pocket, so he quickly placed it in his carry-on luggage as we'd passed the point of no return having gone through immigration. The xray beeper went off and the guard pulled Steve aside and removed his swiss army knife, and then proceeded to pull out the various gadgets like the 6cm blade, the screw, the nasty looking saw, the sharp scissors. The guard demonstrated a furious stabbing motion with the knife, shaking his head at us. We feigned ignorance and ... read more

So here we are in Buenos Aires!! Our first three days here have been a very gentle introduction to South America, we will return here several times before we leave so it will be interesting how our perceptions change. First impressions? What a superb city, clean, modern, impressive - at least in heart of the city where we´re staying. And very affordable, thanks to the favourable exchage rate. We´re really easing into the trip. We booked into a nice hotel just off Avenida de Mayo, have been sleeping well, eating well - even have satelite TV with over 70 channels. It seems that either a football game or a chat show about football is on at least half of them - including a chat show with local deity Diego Marradona - his face is everywhere, on ... read more