La Paz Next stop in Bolivia was lovely La Paz, one of our favourite South America cities. Loads of charm, lots of lovely buildings, great hostel & nightlife and really, really good icecream. At a height above sea level of around 4000m the central part of town is within a valley surrounded by several large mountains. It makes for a dramatic and chilly setting and unfortunately means that you are guaranteed to lose your breath every time you step foot out of our hostel which, conveniently, is half way up one of these large mountains. Despite these drastic hardships we managed [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our Argentinian leg over (sigh) with a last minute run to the shops in Salta to stock up on western world supplies (like moisturiser and hair bands that don´t break), we crossed the border and entered the south of Bolivia for our first stop, Uyuni. Uyuni is situated next to the worlds largest salt flats (10,582 km²), it´s basically un unglamorous service stop for tours visiting the flats. Some 40,000 years ago, the area was part of Lake Minchin, a giant prehistoric lake. When the lake dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake, and two [View Full Entry]

---

---

Anyone with taste will know that Argentina is particularly good at wine, in particular a fabulous variety called Malbec that annoyingly is not (cannot be?!) produced in Australia... shame. Mendoza is the heartland of the wine region in Argentina; it´s hot, dry and there´s not much else to do but, well, drink wine. We did managed a tour of some wineries on push bikes, 3 out of the 5 bikes that we and our friends took with us quickly ended up with punctures... For the record, I don´t recommend this medium for wine tasting! Despite a slightly lacklustre city (it never [View Full Entry]

---

---

Next up was a stop in the beautiful ski town of Bariloche in northern Patagonia. Surrounded by lakes it has draw-dropping scenery with a view from the top of the piste that leaves you lost for words... in short, heaven. We stayed in a fabulous hostel, 41 Below. Kiwi owned but run by a Belgian couple, we met the best bunch of people we could hope to spend 3 weeks of our life with. Israelis, Italians, English, US, South African, Argentinian, Kiwis - all ready for absolute hedonistic fun. Snowboarding by day, eating fabulous food and drinking all night - what [View Full Entry]

---

---

Buenos Aires or Fair Winds is by a long way the most cosmopolitan city in South America. Wandering around it´s beautiful buildings over our first few days we found a distinctly European feel and appearance to the city. Wide avenues, cafe society, green parks and fabulous architecture in every direction. The beautiful suburb of Boca became famous when the poor shipyard workers that were in residence there began painting their corrugated iron homes with leftover paint from their boats. They would often not have enough of the same colour to complete their home so began using their walls as a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Wow. For this one I guess the pictures probably speak for themselves so perhaps I´ll just give you some stats and leave it to you to imagine the roar that you can hear from kilometres away. The name Iguaçu comes from the Guarani or Tupi words y (water) and guasú (big). Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 [View Full Entry]

---

---

Lencois is a fabulous tiny town that evolved when diamonds were discovered in the nearby Chapada Diamantina National Park around 1800. I arrived on my own at 4am in pitch dark after a sleepless 6 hour bus ride from Salvador and for the first time since arriving in Brazil felt completely safe. The town itself has so much charm and is set on a river with waterfalls and fabulous rock formations including a natural waterslide - fun! The nearby National Park has some amazing features including several caves, underwater rivers and a fabulous blue grotto so clear it´s impossible to tell [View Full Entry]

---

---

Desperate for some sunshine after 5 successive days of rain in Rio, we headed northwards to the soul of African Brazil, Salvador de Bahia. Located on the north-eastern coast of Brazil, Salvadors unique culture is famous for it´s music - drum beats can be heard all over the city all hours of the day and night, religion - a blend of Catholicism and Nigerian´s Candomble beliefs and most importantly, Capoiera the fabulously physical blend of dance and martial art. The culture stems from the 80% population with African origins, descended from the slaves brought in by the Portugese to work in [View Full Entry]

---

---

Cuzco, the home of the Incas, is an absolutely gorgeous city. Surrounded by mountains with rolling cobblestone streets and fairytale colonial buildings coupled with the incredible history of the incas. Or maybe it just felt surreal due to a dizzied head from the 3,300m altitude we had to contend with? We arrived in Cuzco five days ahead of the day we were due to start the Inca Trail so that we could aclimatize. We booked ourselves into a hostel a little out of town and up a steep hill so that each time we came home we had to walk up [View Full Entry]

---

---

After a marathón 28 hour sucessión of busrides from the south of Ecuador, we arrived, surprisingly fresh, in the bizarre backpacker haven of Huacachina in the south of Peru. Surrounded by palm trees and hostels, this strange little lagoon is set amongst enormous sand-dunes as far as the eye can see. The only passtimes in this strange little town are sitting in a hammock, dune-buggy riding and sandboarding… we were more than happy to oblige with all of the above. Skilled snowboarders that we are we thought that we'd show the locals a thing or two... alas we did not allow [View Full Entry]

---

---