It all started early one Sunday morning as we shivered on the street outside our hostel at around 4.30am. As taxi after taxi honked, waved, and shouted all sorts of unrepeatable things at us we began to wonder why we were up so early. Then a lone pedestrian shuffled his way towards us, hair hanging over his eyes, looking shiftily down at his feet and then from door to door as he walked. ¨What are your names?¨he demanded, "Are you New Zealand?". Well not quite, but that is how began our adventure in the Colca Canyon with Marcos, the sleazy, greasy tour guide. Several hours later we were winding our way over the high plateau, families of vicuñas feeding in the early dawn as snow capped mountains peeked out of the clouds above us. As we ... read more

One very long bus ride later, and we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama in Northeast Chile, after passing more windy valleys and high plateaus. San Pedro is a wee desert oasis.. well kind of. Our hostel was on a dusty street with a sleeping dog wearing a kercheif on the corner. Through a large blue door we escaped the dust and emerged into a peaceful, kitten filled garden, tempted by the smells of brownie baking from Café Sonchek. It was a wee bit of an oasis for us. First stop was to have the obligatory Pisco Sour, having missed them for all the wine in Santiago. Mmmm delicious. Then we bunkered down to a long night´s sleep as the cold wind blew outside. Our first desert adventure was to Laguna Cejar, a salt water lake ... read more

In this episode our heroines sing "we´re up to our heads, I think we´re dead!" So they arrived, tired and dusty in the charming town of Cafayate late one Friday evening. They headed straight for the RustyK hostel, the cutest and quietest little place around a vine covered courtyard. Showered and feeling much more human they set off in seach of what were quite possibly the world´s best empanadas at La casa de las empanadas.... they have 12 varieties, the speciality being the local version with meat, goats cheese, onion & the local torrontes wine. They had seconds. Saturday morning started a little late for our weary wayfarers, and before long they found themselves amongst the bodegas trying more of the regions finest. After a short siesta they toiled down a dusty path to Las Cabras ... read more

When I last left you were we knee deep in Chilean vineyards and enjoying the sun. Well following a spectacularly scenic ride over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina and a few days in said region... I´d say oh heck - we were up to our necks! Mendoza is famed for its Malbec, and so one sunny Wednesday we set off to the area of Maipu, just outside the city centre to taste a wee drop or two. Vienyard number one (La Rural) hit us with a full glass of the red stuff, just enought to get us through the museum and out into the vines where we ate lots of grapes while no one was looking and plotted our next steps. A little later, under the scorching hot Argentine sun we rocked up to Historias y ... read more

So we've arrived! And from how things have turned out so far this promises to be a rather interesting trip: 1) the immigration guy at Akl Intl Airport wanted dating tips from me as he thought I'd picked Caitlin up in the terminal. He then proceeded to give us instructions on how to smuggle cocaine.... and tips on where to go to find it... 2) we were given a shot of tequila by a guy at regency duty free who wanted to come along... and it didn't taste that bad (considering my last encounters with tequila) 3) Caitlin has been wooed by the local policemen already (our hostel is a few doors down from the station, and we've been here less than 5 hours) Other than that it is hot and dry. Our hostel seems quiet ... read more