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South America by Olie and Emma
*Partially funded by First Capital ConnectThe Rough Lonely Feet Guide
Tired of the daily choice between the 7:56 or the 8:01 train between Hitchin and Kings Cross, and inspired by previous travels to Asia, Australasia and Africa, Emma and myself have saved and scrimped (and boy do I mean scrimped) for the past year or so and are finally heading off to South America. After a brief suare around New York, we head for the gringo trail for 5 months, stopping for a month to impart our knowledge on some innocent and unsuspecting children in Posadas, Argentina. We will travel through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, maybe Chile, Argentina and Brazil before heading back to the UK for Christmas.
As a lazy post-carder and seldom phone caller we've decided to set up this travel blog to keep anyone who cares up-to date of our whereabouts and goings-on. Hopefully it will make for an interesting and amusing account, stylishly written with a wealth of educational material and inspirational anecdotes. There'll also be pictures of Emma falling off things and me running petrified from tiny insects!!
Gracias para leyendo y esporazo su disfruta...
until we're off...
Travel Blog Posts
Beach bums and burger buns - the Costa Verde
Published: December 15th 2011South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Botafogo
December 15th 2011
Ok, last ever blog from a grey, glum-looking Rio. The sun has barely shone here, but the beautiful Costa Verde coast has definitely made up for it. Looking forward to seeing everyone at Christmas and glad to see the back of our backpacks, grimey hostels and SA scumbags, but we'll definitely miss this way of life! 09/12/11- After publishing our last blog in Paraty, we returned to the pousada for crackers and a poolside beer before catching a minibus to Penha village. We were dropped off next to a church perched on top of a massive boulder, and walked down to an even bigger boulder in the river, creating a crazy natural water slide! Lunatics sometimes surf down this monstrous rock (there's even an annual world cup!), but we only saw people sliding down it. Olie ... read more
Let me see that thong...Brazil - country 9 of 9.
Published: December 9th 2011Oceans and Seas » Atlantic » Tristan da Cunha
December 9th 2011
Hi everyone - I know its been a little while longer than usual since our last blog entry and Im sure you´re all struggling through the withdrawal symptons...but worry not! Your fix has finally arrived and you can blame a serious lack of internet cafes in Brazil for the wait! We´ve done quite a bit since we last spoke to you at Iguazu Falls including the Amazonian cities of Manaus and Belem, 4 days on a cargo ship down the Amazon River, lots of beaches and a robbery! I´ll try and keep it brief but I know you enjoy my eloquently wirtten tales of our ´adventures´ so lets go... 22/11/11 - Up early and driven to airport to fly from Foz Do Iguacu to Manuas. Im not normally big on landing, taking off or that much ... read more
Back on the road...the end of Posadas and a new World Wonder
Published: November 21st 2011South America » Brazil » Paraná » Foz do Iguaçu » Iguaçu National Park
November 21st 2011
Olá! We´re finally in Brazil and it´s pouring with rain!! Sitting in an internet cafe in Foz do Iguacu soaked through to our skin. But we´re still smiling because we never have to return to Posadas :-). We´ve met a few Argentinians over the last 4 days and every time we tell them we´ve just spent a month in Posadas a look of horror appears on their face before they ask... ´WHY?!?´ I think it´s like telling an Englishman you´ve spent a month of your life in Stoke-on-Trent. Anyway, since its raining we thought we´d take the opportunity to do a final Argentinian update, which thankfully ended on an overwhelming high. However, before we get onto that we have to give credit where credit is due. After 4 days reflection we have decided that Posadas is ... read more
Por que no estan escuchando niños...?
Published: November 9th 2011South America » Argentina » Misiones » Posadas
November 9th 2011
Hello friends and family! I know its been a little while since our last blog entry but hopefully thats given the slow readers group a chance to catch up with our last three mega-entries. If you´d have sat me down before I left and said that I would write one blog entry of nearly four-thousand words, I would have given you a gentle slap on the face before wiping away the tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks. Anyway I diverge from the subject...where are we, what have we been doing and (probably my biggest question) what the hell are we doing here? The answers are simple; 1) Posadas, north-east Argentina 2) Trying to teach something resembling English to a mixture of 10, 11, 12 and 13 year olds, 3) I have know idea, and apparently ... read more
Buenos Aires: the good, the bad and the Uruguay
Published: October 23rd 2011South America » Argentina » Misiones » Posadas
October 23rd 2011
Hola chicos. Time for another update. We arrived in Posadas at 5am this morning, much to the delight of our i-to-i co-ordinator and our new landlady. It´s been 37C today and the mosquitos are ferocious this evening. We´ve been told that due to mass teacher strikes our school timetable has been reduced as they need to focus on core curriculum. Fine by us! Our co-ordinators mum is a Spanish teacher, so we´ve decided to put in a few hours a week and try and nail this language malarkey. I think the teaching plan is... full day on Monday, Tuesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, and then Thursday /Friday morning. Kids only go to school either in the morning or the afternoon - never both. We’re liking this lifestyle already! Anyway, we better go through the last 10 days... ... read more
Argentinian adventures and gourmet delights
Published: October 11th 2011South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires » Buenos Aires
October 11th 2011
Hola! We're currently in El Calafate, Patagonia, southern Argentina. I'm back on blog duty after Olie valiantly battled through the Bolivian entry. I'm afraid that this one could be equally beastly as we've let 14 days pass. To make matters worse the one internet cafe in town charges over £3/hr, so I'm attempting to type this entry on my touch screen phone using our hostels free Wifi...slow, painful progress! Anyway, I'm determined to try as I absolutely love Argentina…you may not have had such enthusiasm if I'd attempted this for Bolivia! I was looking forward to Argentina the most and it hasn't disappointed...gorgeous sunshine, stunning and often monstrous scenery, pretty town centres, amazingly friendly locals and delicious wine/chocolate/ice cream/steaks etc etc. This place is on par with New Zealand for me...lucky we're here for 2 months ... read more
The mountain that eats men, the coldest night and our first (minor) disaster
Published: September 28th 2011South America » Chile » Atacama » Caldera
September 28th 2011
We are currently in the worlds driest desert... any guesses... well done to all the geographers out there who knew that it is the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. We´re about to go sandboarding this afternoon and then see (another) sunset from some sort of salt based lake/cave/mountain. We´ve done all of Bolivia since our last blog on a GAP Adventures tour (I got it for free as a sort of leaving present from STA and snuck Em on with a tidy discount :) ) so quite a lot to tell you about. Bolivia is supposed to be the weirdest country is South America and also the cheapest - which got me excited - and it certainly didnt disappoint on both fronts. We ate a three course lunch for 90p and saw all sorts of weird ... read more
A big lake, llama foetuses and some top facts about coca!
Published: September 17th 2011South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » La Paz
September 17th 2011
Hi all - I only have one hour before our (mostly free) organised tour through Bolivia starts. I was hoping for a nice big group of maybe 12 or 14 people, including some Brits that we could befriend. There´s 6 of us and not an English name in the bunch!! We thought we´d write a quick blog entry now so that the next one would be more of a full Bolivia account. Hang on - Ems just been told that to upload photos its going to cost more - I´m literally having an argument with her now...she´s crazy!!! Anyway - back to the blog... so weve entered Bolivia via Lake Titicaca, and the fasirly uninspiring town of Copacabana, and are now in La Paz (the highest capital city in the world). 12/09/11 - Wanted to get ... read more
Incan History Module 1 (Lima, Cusco and the Peruvian Andes)
Published: September 11th 2011South America » Peru » Cusco » Machu Picchu
September 11th 2011
Hola! We´ve just torn ourselves away from the ChocoMuseo in Cusco. I wanted to sign up to the chocolate making workshop, but Olie reminded me that we´ve already attempted it in Ecuador. It all looked and smelled so good! I now want to open a ´Casa de Chocolate´ as well as a cake shop and handicrafts shop! Anyway, better do this update on Peru. We´ve had an amazing few days, despite a lot of early mornings, chilly temperatures in Cusco (I´m talking two tops, two fleeces, a coat, gloves and scarf!), blistered feet and aching legs! 04/09/11 - Arrived at our stop-over destination of Lima about 1am and made our way to the One Hostel in Barranco, a beach side neighbourhood in Lima. Hostel was gorgeous and as the owner had been out the night before, ... read more
A relaxing beach break in the sun... Oh and 25km´s down an active volcano!
Published: September 3rd 2011South America » Ecuador » North » Quito » Historical Center
September 3rd 2011
Hola. Our final day in Ecuador :-(. We´re flying to Peru tonight. Olie is currently trying to sort out somewhere for us to sleep in Lima (his job last time we wrote the blog!) I was looking forward to a few days relaxing in the sunshine last time we wrote...it didn´t quite work out like that... 28/08/11 Olie decided it would be a great idea to sign up to a 25km mountain bike ride down the side of the highest active volcano in the world. I wasn´t that keen (...can´t we just do 5km?!), but gave in eventually. I wish I hadn´t! We got up at 6am and without any prep for the trip quickly tried to pack a bag. Olie contemplated shorts but I pursuaded him to put jeans on as it was a bit ... read more
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