Joe Frost
I've spent the last couple of years living and working at a backpacker's in Sydney. An English girlfriend, a Hawaiian wedding and years of constantly dealing with people having the time of their lives travelling Australia culminated in what is to be my South American/British trip...joefrost
Travel Blog Posts
Iguazu Back to Bolivia
Published: January 19th 2011South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Tupiza
January 11th 2011
Back to Salta We left Puerto Iguazu on the morning of the 9th on a 24 hour bus to take us to Salta. The bus had an impressive run of English language films including one starring Chris Brown (because a hit record is evidence you can act), one starring 50 Cent (ditto) and a final starring the only action star of the 80´s and 90´s not to get a bait for "The Expendables", Steven Seagal. Seagal got his revenge though - wrote and produced his own film, "Born to Raise Hell" in which he seduces a woman half his age and a quarter his weight but does so (thankfully) without ever taking his rollneck sweater and leather jacket off. Despite the quality of film on offer, I used the time to knock over "The Good Soldiers" ... read more
January 7th 2011
Been a While I have been remarkably slack with keeping my blog up to date, with my last entry being us entering Argentina. I shall try to do a run down of the cities we went to because I can´t leave Salta, Cordoba and Buenos Aires unspoken for. But that´s for another time. To keep you keen, it saw such exciting events as: *Finding a St Joseph´s College (my old school) Rugby ball in a sports store window in Salta. *Being mistaken for a local by a local and asked for directions (trust me, that never happened in Bolivia!) *Finding out that the prices in Argentina meant we would be leaving far quicker than we anticipated. *Getting mugged (Mum, don´t worry, I was very brave and did exactly what you would want from me - I ... read more
Crossing the Border
Published: December 18th 2010South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » TupizaDecember 16th 2010
Police Reports At the urging of the police at the bus station, we spent another day in Potosi so that they could find my laptop and return it to me, otherwise they would give me a report of the theft the next night. I wasn´t overly confident of either of those things happening, so the next day I went to the Potosi police department to make a report. Despite the language barrier, we got through the reporting process and I was sent to the room next door where I had to buy a B$10 certificate if I wanted a copy of the report. I know it´s not much to pay but having to pay anything for a police report was still pretty scabby. I took the report through to the cop and he told me it ... read more
Like a Big Bowl of IceCream and Finding the Final Scoop is Actually Poo
Published: December 15th 2010South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » PotosiDecember 14th 2010
The World´s Highest City We left Sucre on a 4PM bus and pulled in to Potosi at around 8PM. The world´s highest city at just a tad over 4000m in altitude, I wasn´t particularly dressed the part in my thongs and shorts. We went in to the terminal where I whipped on a pair of jeans and then booked a ticket for the following night for a bus to Tupiza. We headed up the terminal´s (faux?) marble stairs and out in to the night air where we jumped in to a cab headed for the city centre. The cabby dropped us off a block from the main square, around the corner from the hostel we had decided to stay in based on LP advice. Called something about Jesus it was supposedly cheap and friendly. I stood ... read more
Jaguars, Monkeys and Pumas
Published: December 12th 2010South America » Bolivia » Santa Cruz Department » Parque Ambue Ari
December 11th 2010
The parque was primarily home to cats, with six jaguars, four ocelots, fifteen pumas and a Brazilian wild cat. However they had howler monkeys, a night monkey and a squirrel monkey. Their bird populace included pios, parabas, parrots, macaws and toucans. Sprinkled in for good measure was a tapir, a deer and tortoises. And that's just the animals the parque officially took care of, with no thought of the amazing array of wild animals living on parque lands - including the biggest tarantulas you could ever hope to see! I came out the other end having been bitten by a jaguar, a spider, a toucan, dozens of ants and millions of mosquitoes. But for the most part, I dealt with a select few animals. Ru The fist week or so at Parque Ambue Ari for me ... read more
A Day in the Life at Parque Ambue Ari
Published: December 11th 2010South America » Bolivia » Santa Cruz Department » Parque Ambue Ari
November 27th 2010
Mornings Life began at 6:30AM with a knock on our dorm room door and the knocker saying “good morning” in their cheeriest voice. Gado and Sebastian were the only two people on wake up duty whilst we were there. It was a job that sucked because you had to get up at 6:25 but it had the benefit of being your only daily task. Usually I would lie in until 7AM before getting up to do my weekly task. Weekly tasks went from 7AM until 7:30 and were such jobs as cutting up fruit and veg for Herbie or the birds, cleaning out the aviaries or, my personal favourite, digging drainage ditches. Weekly tasks were rotated each Sunday. From 7:30 until 8AM you had your daily task to do and these were such jobs as cleaning ... read more
Parque Ambue Ari
Published: November 16th 2010South America » Bolivia » Santa Cruz Department » Parque Ambue AriNovember 9th 2010
Inti Wara Yassi Leaving Santa Cruz on a 7AM bus, we saw the first car smash of our trip on the outskirts of town. A truck had smashed head first in to a bus and the wreckage implied that neither driver had escaped with their life. Otherwise, the trip to Guarayos was a hot, sweaty affair and we arrived around 12:30ish. We went for a feed at a restaurant directly opposite the bus station where the middle-aged waitress took our expectations for Bolivian service to new lows. We ordered food, a bottle of coke, used the toilet (it didn´t flush and so had a couple of “presents” sitting in it), ate, paid and left. She treated us as though we had come in, spat in her face and called her a whore. We returned to the ... read more
Bolivia's Largest, Most Expensive, Least Interesting City
Published: December 11th 2010South America » Bolivia » Santa Cruz Department » Santa CruzNovember 8th 2010
In Pursuit of a Party Hostel We had spent the majority of our time up until Santa Cruz in double rooms in small, family run hostels – or hospedajes as they’re called in South America – and so with a month in a remote animal sanctuary on the cards, we would have our last few days in a party hostel. The reason for steering clear of these up until that point was simply a financial one. Generally, to stay in a double room at a hospedaje would cost us around B$60 a night, whilst a party hostel with bar and high Gringo clientele would be something like B$50 each in a dorm. The decision really made itself. The only problem was that the hospedajes didn’t really lend themselves to having any real level of fun. Usually ... read more
The Boss's Birthday
Published: November 16th 2010South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » CochabambaNovember 1st 2010
Or Why I'm a Shit Boyfriend We waited for our 9:00PM bus in Uyuni at a bar called “Extreme Fun Pub” which, surprisingly, was not Japanese. Our main motivation for eating and drinking there was because the Lonely Planet said that they had a book exchange and, thanks to the boring as shit salt flats, I’d finished mine. Turns out the Lonely Planet was wrong. Again. But it was an ok evening - the food was basic (a menu consisting solely of burgers and nuggets) but tasty, the staff were friendly and the drink selection was a bit of a laugh. They had a shot called “Llama semen” which featured a secret ingredient and a series of drinking challenges which gave the place its motto of “not for chickens”. The ultimate challenge was 10 drinks - ... read more
Why the Bolivian Salt Flats Are Shit
Published: November 5th 2010South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Salar de Uyuni
October 30th 2010
Days Two and Three AKA Waste of Time and Money A 7AM start and a reasonable breakfast had day two of the trip off to a good start. We piled in to the Land Cruiser and were told we’d be at the Galaxy Cave within twenty or so minutes. We got out at the cave, paid B$10 each to enter and saw a cave. Ten minutes was more than enough to walk up in to the cave, confirm that yes, it was a cave, then leave and get back in to the car. We had been told that other trips didn’t go to the Galaxy Cave, which was one of the reasons why our trip cost B$100 more than some of the others. So we spent an extra B$100 to spend 10 minutes in a place ... read more
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