Tracey Messenger
Kia OraTrace from NZ
Well here I go guys about to embark on my adventure of a lifetime to the mystical lands of South America. To a land where I will not only face numerous challanges, have unforgetable experinces, meet great people, and return with stories I will recount for years, but where I will have the opportunity to learn so much more about myself.
Now, for those of you who don't know, the planning of this trip all started when Andrew had his own dreams of conquering the world (with South America as his starting point) but as his dreams grew (thanks "Motor Cycle Diaries") he was kind enoungh to allow me to join him on his mission of discovery for the first four months or so. So with Andrew by my side I prepare for a journey that will take us through Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru to the many treasures hidden between these borders. When my journey ends where it started back in Buenos Aires at the end of December, Andrew will continue on his grand adventure alone. To follow Andrews side of the story search for Andrew Cassels on this site. (We had planned on writing our blog together but discovered we couldn't agree on what to write, so for a brilliantly penned narrative check out Andrew's blog, but definately stay here for beter photos).
With four months up my sleeve and South America at my feet, I can only dream of the endless possibilities that lay before me.
This is the start of my story of South America, follow me as the tale unfolds.
Travel Blog Posts
November 8th 2006
Onwards and upwards, into Lima we plough, and what we discover is a city we can definitely handle. We head out to the pleasant suburb of Miraflores with its tree lined streets, modern houses and cliff side mall. We enjoy the luxuries of city life for only two days before we embark north to the fishing village of Huanchaco. Having arrived at 6.00am in the morning, our first mission was to find a hostel and catch up on some much needed sleep. Lucky for us the first hostel we went to, “La Casa Suiza,” was full so we found a great family run place down the other end of town. After speaking to some locals we found out that “La Casa Suiza” had a policy of NO PERUVIANS ALLOWED. Unbelievable! While illegal, they still seem to ... read more
November 4th 2006
After getting some r&r in Huacachina it was off to the seaside town of Pisco to get in a bit of wildlife watching. The town of Pisco was reasonably non-discript, much like many other Peruvian towns, the main attraction is the sight seeing to be had in Paracas about 20mins away. We booked into a tour at our hostal, and the next day we were off nice and early. The not so well organised tour saw us arrive at the wharf first and pile into our boat last. The first part of the day we got to see an ancient hillside geoglype, a dolphin, penguins, sealions and more birds then you can possibly imagine. The place with all this action was an island off the coast called Isla Ballestas, home to the largest bird migration in ... read more
We really aren´t backpackers at all
Published: November 12th 2006South America » Peru » Ica » Huacachina
November 2nd 2006
Our next stop was Huacachina, an amazing small town just off Peru’s south coast. The town is literally an oasis town, a lagoon in the middle of the dry, hot, desert of sand dunes. Our main reason for going to Huacachina was the promise of some incredible sandboarding. On arriving at our hostal (with a pool, yay!) we quickly booked into a dune buggy/sandboarding tour. Without any explanation as to what we had booked ourselves in for, we jumped into the jumbo sized dune buggies, ready for a bit of adventure. As soon as we got up into the heart of the sand dunes, the driver set out to give one of us a heart attack. The driver screamed around the sand dunes at outrageous speeds, zooming up to the top of a dune, slowing, and ... read more
October 25th 2006
Adios Bolivia. Hola Peru. We arrived in Arequipa safe and sound with one more border crossing under our belts. After a mix up with the hostal we had booked into (it was “Tony’s” birthday after all) we managed to find the perfect place run by a great Peruvian family that suited us just fine with its cheap prices, roof top terrace with views of the city, internet, laundry service, friendly staff, and not to mention the best shower so far. With Andrews lung on the repair, the next day we were off to check out Peru’s second largest city. Arequipa is at an altitude of 2325m and sits in a valley under the perfectly cone-shaped volcano of El Misti. The town has been built around the towns Plaza de Armas, a Plaza surrounded by grand colonial ... read more
October 20th 2006
Well our bus from Uyuni to La Paz turned out to be a bit of a disaster. When we arrived at the bus stop there was two different buses and many confused people. After specifically asking the tour agency for cama tickets we were disappointed to find we had been booked onto the normal bus which did not even have enough space to accomodate Andrews legs. Lucky for us we managed to help ourselves to two more seats so the bus trip would be bearable. The rest of the trip was 12hours on mostly bumby, unpaved roads...again. La Paz is a bustling, noisey, polluted city that seems to move non-stop. Every driver seems to think that beeping their horn will get them to their destination faster and everywhere you walk there are people yelling out of ... read more
October 14th 2006
So after Salta it was of to Humahuaca for a couple of days, and then into La Quiaca where we met up with some fellow travelers to walk across the Bolivian border. They were to become our traveling partners for the next week and just so happened to be a Kiwi, Craig, an Aussie, Pedro (actually Pete), and a Zimbabwean, Kim. The border formalities were surprisingly easy, and within half an hour we were walking through the cheap markets of Villazon, Bolivia. And I mean absurdly, ridiculously, unbelievable cheap! After arranging lodgings and onward tickets, we decided to go in search of some food. Since we’d been warned against dodgy Bolivian food, we decided to stay away from the market stall food, and amazingly the only suitable food we could find was fried chicken and chips. ... read more
October 3rd 2006
After our exhausting bus trip, we finally arrived in Salta in the Northwest of Argentina. We arrived on a Sunday and were pleasantly surprised by the relaxed atmosphere. Once we checked in to our hostal, we headed out to the plaza to check out what the Salta markets had to offer. The local market was a lot calmer then those in Buenos Aires and there was a lot more room to move around, which Andrew was extremely grateful for. We spent a couple of hours hanging around the plaza simply enjoying the food on offer and watching families enjoying their time together. On our wander about the city, we were roped into booking a 12 hour tour with a tourist agency (we did well to escape the other 13 agencies that approached us) for the next ... read more
Natures beauty
Published: October 4th 2006South America » Argentina » Misiones » Iguazú National Park
September 30th 2006
Right now I´m in Salta in the north-west of Argentina but I´d better fill you in on Iguazu first (as you can imagine, updating the travelblog isn´t topping the priority list at the moment). The bus ride from Buenos Aires was an interesting experience as we had anticipated Our seats resembled lazyboy recliners and were reasonably comfortable to travel in (much better then the plane, except of course the plane would have got us their in 3hrs but at 5 times the price). On the bus we were served dinner and breakfast and were shown numerous movies throughout the ride. The countryside scenery was interesting as it had some similarities to New Zealand but the most obvious differences were that there were no big trees with thick trunks, only skinny tall trees and the earth has ... read more
September 22nd 2006
So we’ve been here now for almost 3 weeks and are really getting to know this giant city. To be honest there’s nothing too exciting to report but I’ll do my best to give you a bit of insight into our trip thus far. As always we have religiously attended our hostel soccer matches and the weekly asados, both of which we look forward to each week. We have been enjoying eating out at the restaurants here immensely. The best two that deserve mention are “La Siga La Vaca” and “La Generosa.” The first is an all you can eat restaurant that serves up giant slabs of meat straight off the parilla (grill). For $34pesos we had all you can eat meat, salad as well as a desert and drink included in the price. We simply ... read more
September 8th 2006
On Wednesday Andrew and I signed up for a game of soccer organised by the hostel. There were eight of us all up (me, Andrew, 3 Chileans, an Englishman, a Brazilian and an Argentinean) which meant a game of 4-on-4. Lule (our hostel host) hailed us a cab and off we went to an outdoor inner city futbol turf. We played indoor rules on an area the size of a basketball court and had miniature goals. Our team reigned supreme and I think the other guys were a bit shocked that they lost to a team with a girl on it (granted we did have the silky smooth skills of our Chilean friend Manuel, also the ping pong champion, on our side). The game lasted over an hour and was not only a lot of fun ... read more
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