Blogs from South America - page 5243

We left Mendoza on our favourite transport, the trusty bus!! We thought it would be a good idea to go to Rosario a riverside town on our way to Mar Del Plata. however when we go there we only managed to stay there for only 3 or 4 hours!!! It is a beautiful spot, but at the time there were absolutely no hostels/hotels available (unless we were willing to spend $100USD a night). It turned out to be an expensive place as we had to catch a taxi from the bus terminal to our "hostel" then after wandering about for a while trying to find more places to stay, we gave up and headed for the docks to catch a ferry across to Isla Invernada (an island just out of the city)......do you think we could ... read more

Santiago We landed in Santiago on 22 April and despite the 6 hour time difference we felt energetic enough to explore the city. It was really smoggy and dry and an interesting mix of 1st and 3rd world. After Santiago we´ve headed South despite it being "off season" and the weather being wintery we´ve made the decision to try and get to the beautiful Torres Del Paine park in Chile. Pucon On route we have climbed an active volcano in Pucon which was great, it took the whole day to climb with crampons and ice picks. It was really awesome to stand at the top and look down into the smoking crater. We slid down on the snow, (on our bums) as the weather closed in. That evening we spent 3 hrs relaxing in the natural ... read more

The following are excerpts from my journal over the last four days or so: 24 April - Monday 11am. Our passports were not exit-stamped upon leaving Brasil. This is a formality that is apparently often skipped, but another English-speaking tourist on the bus last night told us we'll probably run into problems trying to get back into Brasil later without the exit stamp. So we went back to the border this morning to take care of it. Not a problem, despite a wasted morning. But it's okay! We're both healthy and should have no problem making up for lost time at the Falls. 5pm. The falls were beautiful. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Poor Niagara." I don't think I drank enough water. Not feeling so good. 8pm. My body aches in ways I've never felt before. ... read more

I bet you didn´t expect to hear from me again so soon! In the last blog I didn´t talk about the tourist sites we´ve visited around Chiclayo. There are quite a few vestiges of old (pre-inca) civilisations in the region, some of them were only discovered half a century ago (the famous Sipan Lord). We spent a day visiting the Tucume Pyramids, which are the remains of a city part of the Lambayeque/Sican (and afterwards Chimu) reign. A few days before Easter, we went to Motupe to see a famous cross on the top of a hill. People come from all over the country to climb up to the cross and ask for a miracle, but the scenery is also nice. When we arrived at the start of the climb, I felt my stomach was in ... read more

Just a real quick one, sorry no photos as many computers do not have cd drives. After a brief stopover in Fortaleza and pretty short flight that deviated through Belem we have made it Manaus. Manaus is located halfway up the Amazon, pretty much smack bang between the mouth of the river at Belem (coastline) and Tabatinga, the border city, Brazillian side to Peru.. Today we did a day trip to check out the point where the Amazonas and the Rio Negro meet, which is pretty cool phenomenon as the water from each river is a different colour - yellow & black. We also headed out on little motorised canoes just off the main river to inspect the vegetation and have a chance of seeing some wildlife. We saw macaques, an aligator, maccaws, parrots and a ... read more