chrisandnatSA

I'm sitting here laughing to myself as i write this as some angry American has just sent me a message on my blog calling me a 'Hater' as i apparently angered/offended her with my description of the American tourist groups in Peru that drove us crazy.....if only she knew we were now in the States and loving both the place and the people!! So this will be my last blog entry and i intend to keep it short and sweet as it is now costing us $1 for 10 minutes internet use, versus the $1 for an hour we were paying in Bolivia!! We're now in NYC but we started our little American adventure in Los Angeles. We were staying right off Melrose Avenue, and about 10 minutes walk from the Sunset Strip so we were ... read more

And so the countdown to the end of our South America trip begins! We have only 3 dys left in this crazy, beautiful, challenging, corupt and awe inspiring continent...which mebns only 3 more days of speaking in 'pretend' Spanish (although our Spanish IS actually barely understndible now!!) only 3 more days of taking random buses and only 3 more days of waking up each morning parying that last nights dinner has not created WW3 in your stomach! For the last week we have been based in Cusco - the historical centre and main city of the Sacred Valley - home to the Inca legends and close to masses and masses of amazing Inca ruins. After our bus ride from hell and border control dramas, the four of us arrived in Cusco grumpy, tired....and without a booking ... read more

We're now in Peru. Thank god. They nearly didnt let me leave Bolivia...i'll get to that in a minute but first an update on our last few days in 'lovely' Bolivia (i only write that with muted sarcasm becasue Bolivia has really pissed me off in the last 24 hours, i love it really!!) So we ended up getting delayed in our Amazon oasis, Rurrenabaque for another day as we were rained in meaning no planes could fly. By the end of our week there we were getting a bit fidgety and as everyones stomachs had turned to sludge we were depsertae to get back to La Paz for a Burger King to try and sort things out (you know things are bad when you turn to BK to save the day) We had quite the ... read more

Most people arriving for a tour of the Amazon would be well prepared in advance - drink plenty of fluids the night before, get a good nights sleep and brace yourself for the humidity, heat and general uncomfortable ness of Amazon life. Not us. Drink fluids we did the night before, just the wrong type, and lots of the wrong type. And so on the morning of our flight (the night after our hostel trivia quiz and celebratory shots at winning best team name) to Rurrenabaque a small town in the Beni region of North East Bolivia from where we would start our tour of the Amazon, we were hungover to death. Dragging our sorry arses out of the hostel and to the airport, all we could think of was cold diet coke and Mcdonalds. Jess ... read more

Following our 3 day adventure around south west Bolivia hanging out in hot springs and amusing ourselves, with what we have all decided are the campest animals in the world, Llamas, we arrived in lofty La Paz, the second largest city in Bolivia. I had heard alot about La Paz, mainly so from the book i read last year called Marching Powder, which tells the story of a Brit who got locked up in a prison in La Paz for trying to smuggle a shed load of coke out of Bolivia to the UK, smart guy. But La Paz really is the home to everything dangerous, every tout will try and sell you an experience that is ´the most dangerous´ and even breathing or eating makes you feel like you are in danger, hopefully i can ... read more

After a few days in Tupiza, some horseriding and more pizza eating, we headed off on a 3 day 2 night jeep tour of south west Bolivia. Its a well trodden route, every backpacker does it, and i now know why! It was the best 3 days we have had on our travels yet and we have taken in some of the most unbelievable sites, animals and people! As we are with Jack and Jess we already had our group of 4 good to go so there was no danger of being stuck in a jeep for 3 days with people you wouldnt normally choose to be with, so that was easy. Its a very cool set up. You basically pay your 1000 Bolivianos, and for that you get a driver, a cook, accomodation and 3 ... read more

Now i´ve of course read about Bolivia. Its renowned for being a hard place to travel around, or at least it used to, its renowned for coca leaf production and therefore keeping half of Europe and Americas noses powdered and its renowned for its crazy llama textiles and clothing. In the last few days we have experiences all of this (NOT the powdered nose bit, just the leaf!!!), and more. As soon as we arrived at the Argentina/Bolivia border we could tell it wasnt going to be an easy crossing. For starters, we had to queue for about an hour, for no obvious reason. We were literally queuing like we were at a ticket kiosk, small hole in a window, scary looking man with a big gun sat there taking about half and hour to look ... read more

Adios a muchus gracias Argentina and Bien Dias Bolivia! We´re now in Bolivia but spent pretty much the last ten days before we arrived here having an aweosme time in northern province of Salta in Argentina. Following Iguazu Falls we took another crappy overnight bus to Resistencia, a ´city´ that was half way between Iguazu on the Argentinian border and Salta, our destination where we planned to stay for a week. Instead of doing the 24 hours on a bus straight we thought it would be nice to drop into Resistencia, have a nose around, get a cheap hotel room for a night, maybe have a nice steak.....Nope. When we arrived in Resistencia at 8am and took a cab to the hotel we planned to stay at we were confused as to how earily quiet the ... read more

I sit and write this with a hangover. And not any hangover, i drank enough cheap Argentinian vodka last night to fuel a whole bloody nuclear war and the fumes seeping out of my skin right now, a good 12 hours after the night ended (yes, it was a 4am finish, nice) could fuel a small car, so excuse the spelling mistakes. I think last time i wrote we were on Ilha do Mel. Not much to say about that one...no one was there, it rained, none of the restaurants were open, showers were cold and we only had enough money to buy 2 cheeseburgers over 2 days, and they were rank. But...from Ilha do Mel onwards, we had the best time in Brazil, an absolutely aweosme final 10 days. We basically traversed the coast by ... read more

Currently on an island called Ilha Do Mel, 12 hours south west of Rio. Its raining so i thought i´d take 10 mins to blog about a VERY important experience i encountered in Rio that i forgot to mention in my Rio blog...and also to give Brazil some credit following my bashing about how bad the food can be here........... in Brazil they have pay per kilo restaurants! Now we´re talking.....one hungover day in Rio , Nat and i stumbled across a restaurant that we thought was all you can eat. As a massive fan of all you can eats (I kept Pizza Hut lunch buffet in business through my university years) there was no doubting it ws going to be good feed. But this wasnt just any buffet...its a smorgasboard of food amazingness! Steak, fish, ... read more