We rocked into Arequipa at about midnight woke up the hostel staff and slumped into bed exhausted. We awoke the next morning with a beautiful day ahead of us and a new city to explore. We came to the garden of the hostel for breakfast and were greeted with the city´s two formidable guardians. The peaks of El Misti and Pichu Pichu rose up in our view, with their snow caps to remind us that we definitely were still in the Andes. We had little expectations of Arequipa, our visit was solely based upon trekking the Colca canyon. We headed into the urban fold of Peru´s second largest city with an open mind and a fresh palate. We ventured towards the Plaza de Armas and felt as though we´d stepped into the plaza of a fancy ... read more

The bus to La Paz was a little less eventful. Actually it was brilliant, seats that reclined right back, all the leg room in the world, oh and sealed roads which was a nice change. We were so tired we slept through most of the trip to La Paz, which was disappointing because what we saw of the trip was amazing. Winding through the Andes is quite breath taking. However we were awake for our entrance to La Paz. Driving over the top of the rise of El Alto and looking down into the bowl of La Paz was awesome, check the photo´s. Quite an introduction to our favourite city so far. Finally finishing our grueling bus journey, we venture downhill to our hostel, The Adventure Brew (recommended by the guys we met at our hostel ... read more

The tally so far... hostels/hotels: 6 ... with hot showers: 2/6 plane rides: 3 long haul bus trips: 4 long haul train rides: 1 dorm rooms shared with chronic snorers: 1 injuries: 1 rainy days: 0 weather under 30 degrees: 2 days We really enjoyed Puerto Iguacu, but time is short and we must fast track back through Brazil and across to Bolivia since Brazil is totally blowing our budget. But first its back across the border. It was easy enough to get on the bus to get to the ´frontera´, but getting through is a total pain. The bus from the Argentinian side waited for us at the Argentinian border which was nice. But then he dumped us off at the Brazilian border and left so we had to get our entry stamp and then ... read more

The tally so far... hostels with hot showers: 0/3 plane rides: 3 long haul bus trips: 1 injuries: 1 So on our last day in Rio we donned our evil backpacks and headed down to the bus stop in the 36 degree heat. We were heading to the bus station a few hours early since only Brazilian citizens can book bus tickets online. According to our Lonely Planet, a bus ticket would cost about 32USD, but once we got to the station we found that only 2 bus companies went to Curitiba and they both charged the same price of R$104 (AUD64).. another hit to the budget. But the bus turned out to be really nice. We got free food and water, pillow and blanket and the seats almost lay all the way flat. Somehow we ... read more

So the plane flight was totally crap. 11.5 hours of average food and uncomfortable seats. Dinner food was great, breakfast food was shite. We tried to sleep but it just didn´t happen. Leaving Auckland at 4.40pm on Wednesday and arriving in Santiago at midday on the same day and having no sleep can make a person damn tired. We were wrecked by the time we landed in Santiago. The landing was great though, the view from the plane was amazing. The land is so flat and barren, then there will be a massive mountain popping up out of nowhere. In between the barren areas and mountains there are massive crop plantations, all set out in huge circles (have a look at the photos). Got held up at the airport because we didn´t see the sign pointing ... read more