Its been a while since we landed in New Zealand and I have to say that I love the place but it is damn expensive, especially compared to South America!! First of all, I had a great birthday and received an additional travelling buddy especially for this occasion and for the rest of my travels - Darren arrived one day after me in to Auckland which was an awesome early birthday pressie and then proceeded to ensure that I had a brill birthday along with Sal and the girls, Charlotte and Andy a guy from the hostel. Had a great [View Full Entry]

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After many recommendations we headed to Valparaiso just north of Santiago...and were rather shocked when we arrived to find what seemed like another has been city, more like the port of Middlesbrough that an exclusive Chilean holiday destination!! Granted there was some cool Bohemian grafitti around town and some cool old buildings but not so much that I would shout about! So getting there on a Saturday, we thought it would be heaving but the centre of town seemed to be dead, only full of dogs, not a lot else, I seriously think it must be dog capital here / they [View Full Entry]

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Yep, we did that volcano that loomed over our house in Pucon!!...and I finally got to look inside the crater of a volcano and the added bonus was that it was spitting magna- absolutely amazing! The downside was the faceful of sulphur and other stinging volcanic gases if you got too close or thw wind changed direction!! So off we trotted,ice pick in hand for a second time which I wasnt expecting to be given and crampones on the feet...Sal was a bit nervous about the climb especially when they were handing these things out...and I have to say it [View Full Entry]

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I loved the place as soon as we arrived - no smog and really fresh!! We all piled in to the cheapest hostel we could find and really liked it too!! The only bad thing about the place was that it was quite expensive - ski town in winter!! We went for a few beers as soon as we got here and ended up with the cheapest things on the menu due to the prices and only a few beers as they were a rip off!! We chilled for a day and then hired a vehicle to do the 7 [View Full Entry]

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It was time to move on again, clock is ticking unfortunately!! So we headed south to Tucuman which according to our great guide books sounded like a cute little colourful town where they still use horse and carts...what we exeperienced was more like a really neglected old soviet town, it would have been great in its day (many years ago) but nothing had been done to the place in years...so as soon as we arrived in the bus station we booked our tickets straight back out, five hours later, to Mendoza!! MENDOZA Phew - we finally made it after about [View Full Entry]

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I was sad to leave Bolivia as I really enjoyed my time there and loved the place because it was so different to anywhere I had ever been - more the third world country I had been expecting. Stepping over the border into Argentina made me realise just how we had been living for the last six weeks and how much more civilised Argentina is!!!! Seriously it was mad that just 500m over the border there was such a change, such a difference in everything from the cement on the pavements to the way people acted towards one another and [View Full Entry]

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Yeeha and in to the nice warm cowboy country!!! A fun and early morning chasing buses around Uyuni, trying my spanglish, freezing on the bus a couple of stops in random places, we arrived in Tupiza. It was sooooo good to walk around in short sleeves again!!! We booked our horse ride with two girls we met on the bus - Moran and Ayelet - we were to endure 7 hours on horse back at the mercy of a 15 year old guide ha ha!! And how long since any of us had been on horses.....?oh well.... It was an [View Full Entry]

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After the most awful bus journey so far we hit Uyuni!! Imagine a 12 hour bus journey with no toilet, two stops and bad guts - yep painful!! Luckily we met some nice people on the bus journey to join to go and do a tour with as you need at least six in a jeep so we were all sorted in that respect and then also luckily I was introduced to some magic pills that finally made my stomach better...some magic pink antibiotic pills that you can just buy over the counter for 1 boliviano (12p!!!). DAY 1 When [View Full Entry]

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Well.. the original plan was to do 2 days jungle and 3 days Pampas but after the mozzy ordeal of thePampas we decided that we couldnt spend another night being eaten alive so we decided to do a special one day trip into the jungle!! Little did we know that the buggars not only come out at night in the jungle but they lurk in the dark of the trees in the day so I managed to acquire another 10 bites from a few hours in the jungle!! It was a cool trip though!!! We took a boat for about [View Full Entry]

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It felt like I couldnt go anywhere more contrasting...from the snow and cold temperatures at 6000m to 150m above sea level, 40 degree heat and 98% humidity!! We headed to rurrenabaque straight from La Paz )only 40mins away) on a scarily tiny plane that isnt so good for anyone that even has a touch of claustrophobia....we made it after taking a nose dive into the amazon!! The lfight was pretty cool, you fly sooo close to the mountains and then the jungle is soooo vast its amazing!! It just scared me a little with the sudden descent in the jungle, [View Full Entry]

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