Well the time has come to leave South America and finish our 6-month trip with a few days in New York. I am gutted to be honest because amongst other things I flipping love Argentina. Far from my preconceptions of a country filled with dirty cheating footballers (which it is) and people with a dislike of the English because of the Falklands war, it is a beautiful place with the nicest people you could meet. Buenos Aires is one of my, if not my absolute, favourite cities in the world and Iguazu falls have to be seen to be believed. I [View Full Entry]

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Without a doubt, my main reason for wanting to travel in South America was to visit Patagonia, in search of the Welsh. My head was full of romantic notions of the heroic Welsh settlers of 1865 , crossing the Atlantic in search of a land where they could preserve their language, way of life and religion, free from persecution. We took the bus North from Rio Gallegos to Trelew, and could not help but wonder, during that 24 hours of nothingness, what possessed them to choose such a dry and barren land, so disimilar to Wales? Diolch i Dduw for the [View Full Entry]

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Travelling down to the southern most tip of South America we have embarked upon an epic journey through Patagonia. We have travelled through the most spectacular scenery by aeroplane, bus and mostly foot. We have experienced extremes of hot and cold and moved from crystalline mountain lakes to thunderous collapsing glaciers. The trip has even managed to reconnect me with my secondary school education. Last but not least we have crossed into Argentina, the final country of our south American voyage, where we are getting to grips with a new variation of Spanish and an even greater aversion to v [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Santiago was a wrench as we had such a good time with Penelope, James, Henry and Isobel. Dipping our toes back into the murky world of flash-packing we have moved further down south into the Chilean Lake District or little Deutschland as it could be called. Were it not for the towering snow-capped volcanoes dotted around the region you could really believe you were in the south of Germany. The lush green surroundings are very European but more importantly the whole place is full of Germans. The first of many influxes from Germany took place in the mid 19th century [View Full Entry]

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Well, it's the time of year to wish everybody a Happy Christmas and New Year, although sitting in Santiago in 32 degree heat, it doesn´t feel as Christmassy as it does at home. Whilst we imagine eveyone at home spent the build up to Christmas cozily eating and drinking in pubs and front rooms, we have had 2 epic journeys (for very different reasons) and an awesome trip across the Salar de Uyuni into Chile. We have seen some of the strangest but most spectacular scenery possible, crossing salt flats, vividly coloured lakes filled with flamingoes and passing smoking volcanoes before [View Full Entry]

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As our time in Santa Cruz draws to a close the political crisis in the country seems to have been escalating at an alarming rate. We had been keeping our fingers crossed that it would stay calm until we leave here on Saturday. Given the nature of our trip so far, I guess it was inevitable that the demonstation which taxi drivers would have us believe will spark a civil war, falls on Friday, the day before we are due to leave. Now taxi drivers often have their fingers on the pulse of what's going on but I think they are [View Full Entry]

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To say that we got off to less than an auspicious start in Santa Cruz would be putting it mildly! After surviving an erupting volcano, an earthquake, an avalanche, the world's most dangerous road, the world's most dangerous plane and the jungle's most dangerous snake, Joe broke his arm playing football on our second day here. He said he did it during an "ambitious, overhead swivel chest flick". I called it a (luckily) "non displaced fracture of his left distal radius" (medi-geek strikes again). We had suspicions with regards to our home stay from the start. The family lived in seven [View Full Entry]

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It was a real wrench to leave Cococabana, a real wrench, but we did make our way along a beautiful road to the insanely busy city of La Paz, the world’s highest capital city. The journey was notable for having to get off the bus as it drove onto what looked like half a boat to ferry it across a lake while we were shipped across in a little boat that provided enough petrol fumes to make you think you were flying across. It was only when arriving at La Paz that we started to realise that Bolivia seems significantly poorer [View Full Entry]

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Well, what a week..it's not often that you find true love and a slice absolute tranquility in one week. Copacabana might not have the beaches of it more famous Brazilian namesake but nestled on the banks of the world's highest navigable fresh water lake, with temperatures well into the 30´s, it doesn´t get more relaxed. Leaving Cusco proved to be a bit of a mission involving being lied to by numerous dodgy bus companies. The first attempt to leave was supposedly on a brand new direct bus. The reality was a dirty stinking old bus with a lack of seat belts, [View Full Entry]

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Well, it is billed as one of the highlights of South America and the Inca Trail has not disappointed at all. After a few days exploring Cuzco and the surrounding area we have braved (or luxuriated our way along) the original Inca Trail to the religious city of Machu Picchu and are now safely back in our hotel with hot water to ease our painful muscles. To get to the Inca Trail you start at the ancient city of Cuzco which was the capital of the vast Inca empire. The draw of Machu Picchu means that the city is now a [View Full Entry]

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