frayed_edge

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 even managed to fullfil a dream and watch some of the afore-mentioned dirty cheating footballers playing in a game between Boca Juniors and River Plate. Arriving at Buenos Aires is a bit of a culture ... read more

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 vegetarian food than previously encountered. Unable to take the Navimag ferry down to Patagonia we instead opted for yet another internal flight down to Punta Arenas. This cold, windy but attractive city sits on the Magellan straights, ... read more

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 heading into parched desert. We are now staying with Penny, James, Isobel and Henry and are really enjoying being around old friends in a cool family atmosphere for Christmas. Our fears of not being able ... read more

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 bedded mansion, with six cars parked on the driveway. The twenty year old son drove a sports car. He also happened to be the "executive director" of the charity who was arranging our voluntary work. ... read more

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, sitting in front of a selotaped together smashed upper windscreen which only needed the smear of blood to identify the cause. After the 3rd stop in the 1st five minutes to pick people up we ... read more