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Nikki Grieve
So.... I´m finally doing the travelling I´ve been dreaming of for years, along with my best buddy Lorna. We´re touring South America, taking in Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil and then we´re jetting off to New Zealand. Anyone who knows us knows we´re both a little bit daft and up for anything and particularly fond of drunken, dangerous or just dumbass adventures!Sugarqween004
Travel Blog Posts
So our time has come to an end... kind of
Published: August 12th 2007South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires
November 21st 2006
So we DID actually manage to leave Bogota at the last entry. Our main objective after leaving Columbia was to get to the Salar de Uyuni - which we didn't manage to catch the first time round since we vamossed to Brazil to watch the World Cup - and to take in a little of Ecuador and Peru on the way. So, our first port of call was to head south from Bogota for San Augustin. There we found a beautiful wee countryside hostel just out of town with cute wee huts and where they make excellent fresh bread and have the ultimate in lounging... hammocks! Immediately on arrival we found the French friend whom we were supposed to leave Bogota with in the first instance! Nice how you randomly bump into pals from previous stops. ... read more
October 2nd 2006
Where was I..... somewhere halfway down the Amazon, I think. So.... I've already tried four times to update about the time I spent in the jungle from Manaus and each time lost all my work (yes, I know, I should've saved!). Suffice to say it was an incredible and unforgettable experience, involving camping with our hammocks deep in the jungle, spear fishing in the dead of night, breakfast with a local family (we even tasted a type of large rat they were preparing.. and FYI, it was quite nice), piranha fishing, silently canoeing through the dense jungle looking for monkeys, jaguars, sloths and anything else of interest. One night we stayed in a local house, where the family all crowd round the 3 inch battery powered TV each night to watch the brazilian soaps and the ... read more
August 11th 2006
The bus we took from Fortaleza to Belem was to be the last on land travel as the next leg of our trip was, inevitably, the Amazon River and Rainforest! From here on rivers are the new roads and boats are the new cars as we make our way upstream along the Rios Negro and Solimoes, which make up the mighty Rio Amazon. You can get a cargo boat that takes passengers on the upper decks where you get approximately a 6 inch wide space to hang your hammock, which will be bed for the next few days. Our voyage started with the journey from Belem to Manaus. Before setting off, we found out as much as possible about the boat trip by reading blogs and asking other gringos who've done the trip (and there aren't ... read more
To Copacabana, Rio de Janiero!!
Published: July 25th 2006South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Copacabana
July 16th 2006
So... we were in Rio for almost three weeks living in an apartment on Copacabana beach. It was just like being home again, like having a holiday from backpacking, ie living room, couches, TV, phone.. all the things we usually take for granted - like EVERYTHING unpacked and in WARDROBES ... wooOOooo!! - except we´re right next to one of the world´s most famous beaches. They have running and cycling tracks right along the 4km of beaches and we were even good enough to make use of them in the mornings (when we can be bothered!), drink some coconut water and do some people watching. Aside from lazing around in the flat or on the beach (which, by the way, we did LOADS of), we went to the Circo Vaodor to watch Brazil beat Ghana - ... read more
From Copacabana, Bolivia...
Published: July 17th 2006South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » CopacabanaJuly 15th 2006
Whilst still waiting for Lorna´s bank card to arrive, and getting sick of the same old sights of La Paz, the two of us decided to get a change of scenery and take a few days at Copacabana, a tiny town on the banks of Lake Titicaca. Beautiful, peaceful, tranquil, that´s this place. The Lake is massive and lies across Bolivia and Peru. You can see it for miles and miles and miles from loads of different viewpoints almost all the way on the 4 hour bus journey from La Paz, it´s an amazing sight. When we got to Copacabana we spent a few days watching football, went for a wee fishing jaunt on a boat and generally just chilled right out by the lake until we got news that Lorna´s card had arrived in La ... read more
Coroico - Death Road
Published: July 15th 2006South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » Yungas Road
June 14th 2006
You can go the road from La Paz to Coroico on a bus or you can go on mountain bike and it's mostly all downhill. It has some of the most dramatic scenery imaginable with a gaping valley, a huge forest and views that go on for miles and miles. At Coroico there's a beautiful wee hotel where you can sunbathe, swim and just chill right out from the hustle and stinks of La Paz. Sounds amazing... bikes, scenery, luxury... but I decided months ago I would not under any circumstances be going down what is otherwise known as the World's Most Dangerous Road or Death Road. It´s a two way road and runs along about 40k of a cliff edge, is full of sharp, blind corners and if you take your attention away from the ... read more
June 7th 2006
Well.... Bolivia!! Where to start.... it´s been so long since I blogged so I´m gonna try catch up like a mad woman!!! Villazon First thoughts on crossing the border from Argentina into the border town of Villazon ... being at about 3400m above sea level, I noticed the altitude effects pretty quickly, you can just be standing doing nothing and be completely out of breath so traipsing around with a backpack on can be difficult, and it´s also freezing cold. Villazon appears to be a poor little town of shacks and markets (mostly selling blankets) lots short assed people (it´s strange to be taller than an entire country of people... and I´m only 5´4"), but the most prominent noticeable difference from anywhere else I´ve been is probably the indigenous women everywhere wearing ponchos and carrying babies ... read more
June 1st 2006
From Valle Fertil we had to go back south to San Juan to catch a bus north again to Salta where we´re meeting up with the rest of the crew. I hate doing that, doubling back on ourselves, especially when the journeys are long enough as it is. It´s the woman at the bus station´s fault for not telling us we could move north from Valle Fertil even though we told her where we wanted to go. You get that a lot in Argentina, people not giving obviously useful information, or only giving half the info, such as if you ask where a certain place is, they´ll tell you right enough, but they won´t tell you that it shut down 6 years ago... that sort of thing. It turned out a bit difficult getting a bus ... read more
Valle Fertil and Valle de la Luna
Published: June 1st 2006South America » Argentina » San Juan » Ischigualasto
May 29th 2006
Left Mendoza with Bo, Max and Lorna to head for Valle Fertil (the Fertile Valley) which is just north of San Juan. The others were due to meet up with us in San Juan but they ended up going straight to Salta instead after being too drunk after the paragliding to understand the plan. We went straight to Valle Fertil and found the cheapest hostel ever at only 8 pesos a night (it turned out it was only that price for the first night but it was still cheap). On the first night I had the rankest wine i´ve ever tasted, and I´m glad to say I can draw the line somewhere and didn´t, couldn´t drink it. Max, however took it one step further the next night and and bought a 6 litre bottle of cloudy ... read more
May 25th 2006
With a real sense of achievement and extremely tired after the volcano experience, we left Pucon and moved on to our next destination, enduring one of our weirdest and worst journeys yet. We had to go to Santiago and from there to cross the border back into Argentina, however after a few hours on the bus and almost reaching the border we had to wait on the stationary bus while ´they´decided if we could proceed or not as there was too much snow on the Argentinian side. Finally, after over 3 hours of waiting we had to turn back... awwwww!! So, back to Santiago for a Saturday night on the town. We found a nice bar and drank a traditional Chilean drink called Pisco Sauers, which is a spirit made of sugar cane. They were soo ... read more
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