Its been a while......

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Hi Everyone! Hope you are all well and enjoying the summer heatwave!

Sorry for the delay in writing sooner, but you know how busy you get when you´re travelling!

Currently I´m in a place called Salta, in North West Argentina, waiting for a bus to Chile tomorrow. Myself and a group of 3 English girls are travelling to San Pedro de Atacama in Northern Chile, near the Bolivian border, where they have the most incredible salt flats, and a moonscape called (unsurprisingly) "Valle de la luna"!

During my travels through Brazil and Argentina, I´ve learnt Spanish. Well enough to have a conversation with someone if they talk slowly and use fairly simple language anyway! I always carry my trusty phrase book with me so I can look up the lingo! It´s quite nice when you have absolutely no idea what mistakes you are making, as you just carry on regardless and hope for the best! ha ha!

Well, rather than bore you all with a huge email, here are a few highlights of what I´ve been up to......

RIO:
Spent 2 weeks here on the beaches of Copa Cabana and Ipanema. Went to 2 matches at the Maracana (Vasco beat Flamengo 1-0 in the first game, then Flamengo beat Vasco 2-0 in the Copa da Brasil) Awesome atmosphere, but not as good as City! ;0)

Spent an aftenoon going up the Christ Statue, and watched sunset from Sugarloaf. Sooo beautiful......And the girls aren´t bad either!

Decided not to embarrass myself playing footie on Copacabana when I saw the girls there doing barefoot keepie uppies that most premiership footballers would be proud of. They were doing barefoot volleyball using only a football and their feet for christs sake!

Learnt to juggle, spent a few nights in the party street of Lapa. Watched some Lapa dancing! And generally just had a good time staying in a very cool hostel - Che Legarto.

PANTANAL:
Huge wetland area about 26hours in a bus from Rio. Spent 3 nights there sleeping in a hammock in the middle of nowhere. Went hiking through alligator infested swamps.

Our guide, Gabriel, kept catching the buggers, and one nearly bit me as I was holding his tail! He also caught an armadillo, and a 6 metre Anaconda! But the coolest thing he did was when we went fishing for Piranha and he waded into the Lake with a handful of cow heart in one hand and a dozen dead fish tied to his waist! Well, it worked cos he caught 11 piranhas! I managed to catch one, which I threw back as he was only a tiddler. The camp cooked them all up for lunch, and they were actually quite tasty...

Puerto do Iguazu
Huge Waterfalls which were still mightily impressive despite the low water.

Buenos Aires
Funny City. Full of copies of European buildings and wannbe Europeans. Apparently we gave them a replicar of big ben to celebrate their independence. They called it the "English Tower" but changed the name after the Falklands, like they did various other streets and areas with English names.

Spent a great afternoon on a bike tour around the City, eating chorizo, and having a mate (a tea like drink in a small pot with a metal straw. You fill up the mate pot with the mate herb, put the straw in and add hot water. It actually tastes ok after about 100 times, but EVERYONE in Argentina drinks it, even motorcyclists at traffic lights)

Went to a Tango show, and to the Boca Juniors Stadium. They have a Coca Cola sign there which is in black and white - Red is not allowed to be used in Boca as it is the colour of their biggest rivals, River Plate! Great idea!

Mendoza
Spent 3 days here just chilling out, went to a couple of wineries and bought some lovely Malbec for about 3 quid a bottle, and that was the most expensive stuff I could find at the Weinert winery.....

Malargue
Went here for snowboarding and stayed at an eco hostel in the middle of a field, 3 miles from the town. I thought "what the f%$k am I doing here" but it was really cool. Really good bunch of people though!

On our last night we had a traditional roasted goat accompanied by mucho vino and a traditional Andean local band! I was wearing my England shirt and an Argie was wearing his Argentina shirt so it was only a matter of time before we challenged each other to a game. So at around 3am, fuelled only by pride and wine, out we marched, and set up a pitch in the total dark.

The game was simple, 2 players, one hackie sack, and one goal wins it! After much kicking of shins I somehow produce a shimmy and a left foot shot that squeezed between the narrow posts!! After much celebrating and drunk on the taste of success, I naturally accepted the challenge of a rematch which I promptly lost. To be fair, the guy was so drunk and it was soo dark that we both were often kicking stones instead of the hackie sack but it was good fun, and we decided to call it an honorable draw, to forget Las Malvinas and head inside for some more vino!

As for the snowboarding, we had one good day with tons of powder at Las Lenas (saving Bariloche for next time), but on the second day we got to within 20km of the mountain when the wind was so strong that it blew our minibus into a ditch on the side of the road. Fortunately it didn´t blow us the other way, as there was a cliff in that direction. Was a bit hairy for a while, but the stressed driver managed to navigate us back down the hill to safety......

Cordoba
I heard about this place from some English girls. Its the only Ranch Hostel in Argentina and is a one hour drive down a dirt track from anywhere. Its run by a real player called Diego, whos tricks include lassooing girls, massages, riding horses and lots of wine! I managed to drag the dutch girl Loiuse along but she didn´t succumb to his charms, and I think he was a bit upset by the rejection. Really nice guy and fantastic place. Learnt to lassoo, gallop on horses and also did some abseiling before drinking mate on a hill watching the sun going down.....

If I think I understood Diego correctly then he seemed to be offering me his girlfriend for the night too! These Argies....!

http://www.estanciapuestoviejo.com/english2/main2%FAltima.html


And now
Now I´m in Salta for a day before heading to Chile tomorrow. I head up through Bolivia to Lake Titicaca (Apparently the altitude of the lake means its too high to dive in) Then to Machhu Piccu in Peru before heading to Galapagos for a week. I end the South American leg on the 13th of September, and arrive back in London at 10am on the 14th. Drinks on the 14th anyone!?

If not then let me know when you are free, and we can meet up for some beers! Would be great to catch up with you all, as you have all been missed!

Cheers for now, and until the next time..........


p.s. write back and let me know what you are all up to!

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Comments

[shayne]

out with it, sunshine
Cheers Tim, sounds like you're having fun. And now how's about an unedited version for all of us who want to know what you've really been up to these last 3 weeks