TravellingBird
Sarah M Joined: June 3rd 2007
Logged in: March 28th 2010
Logged in: March 28th 2010
Travel Blog Posts
Emma, Jane, Maco and the banner!
Ok, this is a tad overdue (two months to be exact!), but never let it be said that I don't finish things once I start them...so here goes - the last ever entry! Well, it's all over now. The final journey has been completed, and the year has ended, although it did seem like someone, somewhere, was trying their very best to ensure that we would never get back to Dublin. Airports; how they melt your soul. The last stop on this round the world loop was Lima, Peru's capital. Ugh. What a 100% certifiable shithole. I think it is the ugliest city I have ever been to, and it is definitely in the running (along with Phuket) to be crowned the worst destination of the year to date! The only good things about Lima are ... read more
What a view
Booking tours is never a pleasant experience. Even booking a one day tour is a pain in the arse. So imagine trying to book the most important tour of your trip so far, where you are basically trusting a complete stranger to take you into the wilderness of the Andean mountains for four days - yeah imagine booking THAT tour, on your own, after you've slightly overstayed your welcome in an Irish pub the night before. Ouch, ouch indeed. Everything really went belly up from the moment Sib said "Oh look, there's an Irish bar, I BET the grub's good in there!" It was our first afternoon in Cusco, and after recovering from our nightbus, we headed into the main square to get something to eat. That's when Paddy O'Flaherty's came into our life. We didn't ... read more
The last border!
So here we are; Peru. Last stop. Final Frontier. The end of an era. The closing chapter.....should I go on? It was a strange moment walking across our last border into Peru - which, inicidentially, is incredibly civilised compared to Bolivia. We stayed one night in a town called Puno, on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. Its was a surprisingly pleasant little town, not that we saw that much of it....we holed ourselves into a lovely restaurant, the owners of which naively put a tv into one of the rooms - so we ordered a constant string of food and drinks and watched Sony Entertainment Television all arvo! From there it was on to the beautiful city of Arequipa, which is truely stunning, and it's one of the few places that the guidebook does not ... read more
Views from up high
After two nights in our sub-zero hotel in Uyuni, we braved the horrific conditions of a nightbus, and headed towards Bolivia´s capital, La Paz. The nightbus was utterly disgusting - completely cramped and claustrophobic, it stank of urine and the blankets provided were like a science experiment of filth. That said, my main concern (and Sibs) was that it would be cold, and it really wasn't all that freezing - in fact it was considerably warmer than the hotel we left behind. For the first few hours it felt like we were driving across the highest and rockiest peaks of the Andes in a 1970s Mini Cooper - the only journey it could be compared to over this year was our bone shattering bus from Cambodia to Bangkok. But eventually the road improved, and because I ... read more
Charlie's (little) angels
Table service is not the swiftest in Bolivia. And our time management skills probably leave a little to be desired....as a result we were a whole 45 minutes late for the beginning of our jeep tour of the Salt Flats. After a lot of debate, we had decided to book a tour for just the three of us, heading off on Monday morning. Many people go in groups of up to six; which means they all have to squeeze into one jeep, plus the driver, cook, their rucksacks and loads o food - all of which didn't sound too appealing to us, so as usual we went for the slightly easier option! The tour itself lasts for four days/three nights and it takes in a huge loop in the South West of Bolivia taking in all ... read more
Giant cactus
As soon as we crossed the border into Bolivia, it was immediately obvious that we had entered a different country. Gone are the European influences of Argentina; the roads are dustier, the people's faces are broader and darker, and everywhere there is evidence that things are much much poorer here. We got off our night bus in the freezing morning air in the border town of La Quaica, without much clue where to go from there. We ended up getting a taxi (just a few hundred metres) to Villazon on the Bolivian side of the border, walking through the immigration office, which was a little shed at the side of the road, then into another cab to the bus station, where we booked our transport to Tupiza, our actual destination. It was a bit like being ... read more
Iguazu Falls
Little did we know the trek that awaited us when we got off the plane at Puerto Iguazu. Out we trotted and headed towards the nearest taxi, but when I gave the driver the address of our hostel he said something about the road being closed, and that he could only bring us so far and we would then have to walk "50 metres". Hmmmmmm, a tad ominous, but we didn't really have much choice, so we hopped in and about ten minutes later he dumped us at the side of the road and basically just told us to keep going straight. There was obviously some sort of protest going on, as the road was lined with a seemingly endless trail of trucks and tour buses. SO many tour buses, and all of them going nowhere. ... read more
Street performers in San Telmo
God Bless you Buenos Aires. We needed somewhere to prove that everyone had not been lying about South America, and BA has delivered, and then some. What a city. In many ways, it reminds me of New York, but with a crazy Latin American flare. Stunning architecture, beautiful parks, great restaurants, crazy nightlife, gorgeous boutiques, fabulous markets....and all this at a bargain basement price! Our hostel is also the snazziest I think we have ever stayed in - I feel like we're in a hotel! There are marble floors and pristine white walls in the entrance hall for gods sake. We have a private room, and we share a bathroom and a brand spanking new kitchen with just two other rooms on our half of the floor. So considering this is the first location in the ... read more
Pretty Bellavista
There is something extremely unnatural about leaving somewhere at 5pm on a Wednesday, flying for eleven and a half hours, getting a dodgy taxi (driven by a 90 year old man) and somehow managing to arrive at your final destination a few hours earlier on that same Wednesday. As a result, we were all a little jet lagged for our first few days in South America, and our body clocks were not helped by the fact that our room in Santiago had the most comfortable beds in the world, and dark shutters that block out any form of daylight. As a result, we haven't seen much before 2pm.... Not that there's that much to see, I'm afraid. Santiago will not be leaving a last impression on my soul - it's a big, smoggy city, with almost ... read more
View from Cathedral Cove
Well lord above, it´s nearly time to go to another continent. I don´t think I ever thought we´d get to this stage; Asia, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand ALL finito. It´s a bit overwhelming really. We´re in Auckland, our final destination in this fantastic country, and our flight to Santiago is this afternoon. Madness lads, madness altogether. There is nothing nice to say about Auckland (although I did just watch Oprah on yet another comfy YHA couch), so I don´t think I´ll say anything at all. On our way up here, however, we did take in yet another gorgeous part of the country; the Coromandel peninsula. The English couple we met in Fiji had thoroughly recommended that we go to a place called Cathedral Cove, so we took their advice and brought Harold (did I tell you ... read more
