Blogs from South America - page 3

I arrived into Santiago, where a strange bearded boy befriended me at the airport. His name's Stu and he'll probably feature in my blogs from now on. It was exciting to arrive in South America and the laid back attitude of Santiago, lively street-side bars and food stalls were what id expected. We spent a couple of days here, and walked up to the statue of virgin Mary on the hill, which gave a great view of this sprawling and in parts modern looking but smoggy city. But it's not a city that captured me and we were pretty excited to explore other places nearby, so soon headed to Valporaiso. Valpo is a very cool city, where every wall is a canvas and a mosaic of colourful houses decorates the hills that the city is built ... read more

From Angra we took a bus to Paraty. After one hour the tire exploded, so in the middle of nowhere, we waited for another bus. After four hours we arrived in Paraty (normally 3hours), a pittoresque charming colonial location at the seaside, having around 50 little islands. It is one of the most cinematic destinations in Brazil. Cobblestones are so oneven that it makes it painful to walk on the streets. We enjoyed a horse trip through waterfalls and rainforest with two americans from NY. After a few days relaxing in the sun on small islands and little boats we took a 24 hours bus ride to Iguazu. It is advised to take place in front of the bus, as in the back of the bus a toilet might annoy your trip. Iguazu is located at ... read more

Šiandien vėl planuoju važiuoti į kitą miestą. Iš ryto atsikeliu kiek anksčiau, nes noriu nuvažiuoti kiek anksčiau į Cuenca, kad galėčiau šiek tiek apžiūrėti miestą. Bet atsikėlęs Juanas pasiūlo važiuoti ne su autobusu, bet su mikriuku, taip 200 km kelionė truktų dvigubai trumpiau. Tad prieš išvažiuodami nusifotkinas, Jonas duoda man atviruką kurį paprašo perduoti žmonai Lietuvoje. Dar norėjo įdėti ir skrybėlę, bet nepaėmiau nes paprasčiausiai neturiu kur jos dėti. Taigi sėdu į mikriuką ir po iek daugiau nei 2 valandų aš jau Cuencoj. Čia sėdu į taksi ir važiuoju pas kitą CSerę. Šį kart apsistoju pas amerikietę merginą Emili kuri gyvena name su dar apie 10 kitų žmonių. Dauguma amerikiečiai ir čia dirba anglų kalbos mokytojais. Su Emili nespėju daug pabendrauti, nes ji išskuba į darbą, tad turiu 5 valandas pasivaikščioti po m... read more

With little information, we set off to the interpretation centre just outside of town as we had heard that there were some walking tracks that branched from the centre. It was again a cool cloudy day perfect for walking. The centre was quite out date and in need of some repair, but we walked through it anyways reading more about the island. Half way through we stumbled across a scared and tired little darwin finch who had obviously been stuck inside for some time. Using a spare shirt Danel caught the poor little fellow quite easily and we gave him some water before releasing him. By 9.30 we had began our walk along the nicely paved paths that wound through the shrubby and rocky terrain that covers most the coastline. Our first stop was Frigate bird ... read more

After dropping the volunteers from the Andean village project at the airport, I made the rounds of Quito acquaintances to collect donations for the fundraising Garage Sale which is held semi-annually to benefit the Children’s Library in Baños (La Biblioteca Interactiva de Baños – La BIB). I have helped to coordinate and organize six such garage sales over the past few years. Folks have been generous, cleaning out closets to help the cause. It’s a great excuse for me to visit with friends I don’t get to see very often. As always, I stayed up at Shana’s house which is located just outside of town on the hill leading up to the El Salado hot baths. This time I was sharing Shana’s garden guest house with Jessie & Martin, two new friends from Seattle who were ... read more