Just before embarking on our amazon journey we received news that mum had completed her last chemo and had been given the all clear. With this wonderful news and so happy her struggle was finally over with, we were at last able to relax a little bit on our travels and more importantly have an amazing 2 week cruise to look forward to in June!! We had a big drink for you mum (don't worry about that)!! Here's to family and good health. We took a very nail biting taxi journey to the airport where Perdy was nearly crushed 4 times between the central reservation and a bus. But somehow, we made it without a scratch on us. Just when we thought that things couldn’t possibly get any worse and all our horror travel stories were ... read more

We had about a 2 hour drive to get to the outskirts of Uynui, where we would be stopping at the train cemetery. Once again, it’s exactly as it sounds. 2 railway tracks and many abandoned trains and carriages. These were trains that were used by the Spanish and English to export minerals out of Bolivia into Chile. Bolivia doesn’t have a coast, therefore all materials that were exported were sent through to Chile to be able to reach the coast and get shipped back to Europe. It was very eerie just how all these trains had been dumped here. It was a very dirty area and it was clear that it was used as a dumping ground now. A great shame as you would think someone would come and clear up the area and preserve ... read more

On the first day we had to meet our group at the tour company at 8am. Choosing a company is one of the most difficult decisions to make. You hear of such horror stories of other companies and unfortunately there have been several deaths on the tours over recent years, so picking a good one was extremely important. After weeks of research and reading blogs, we had decided on a company called Cordillera, who we couldn’t recommend highly enough. There were 4 jeeps in total carrying 6 in each, so 24 of us would be enjoying the journey together. We left San Pedro de Atacama to go to Migration from Chile into Bolivia and Entrance to National Reservation, where we would visit the White and Green lagoons, Hot springs and Geysers "Sol de Mañana". The border ... read more

We had been very impressed so far with our buses. We always upgraded to a Cama, which means a sleeper version. It was very comfortable with a dinner and breakfast, blankets and pillows. Even with the additional comforts, it was still nearly impossible to sleep on, so we always arrived at places tired and cranky. Slightly shocking though for the trip from BA to Mendoza was that it was £65 for a ticket, when the lonely planet had quoted £25. We had found this to happen quite a lot so far on the trip, and the £600 bus budget we had given ourselves for the whole 4 months was now down to £45. Lonely planet is our bible but sometimes, with things like this it can be a let down. So only 1 month into our ... read more

So somehow the 4 of us managed to clear immigration and they allowed us to enter Argentina in the state we were in, they must let anyone in. We grabbed a taxi and went straight to our accommodation. It was 7.30 and we couldn’t check in till 2pm. We were feeling very sorry for ourselves so when we arrived and was shown to our room immediately, we could have cried tears of joy! It was a beautiful room with a huge double bed, so homely and cosy. We just threw our stuff down and had the best sleep. We could have stayed there all day, but we had pre-booked tickets to see River Plate play. There are 2 big clubs in Buenos Aires, obviously massive rivals, bit like Liverpool & Everton. Only this was River Plate ... read more