Middle Earth

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Buenos Dias, Hope you are all well. Sorry its been so long since we last updated but we have been on the move loads lately. Half of you have probably only just read the last entry due to my email probs.

So currently we are in Quito, Ecuador. We are only here for 4 days, we came up on a lovely 36 hour coach from Peru. We visited Mitad del Mundo yesterday, which is the equator line where latitude is 0, 0, 0, centre of the earth, it was pretty cool, ive got a photo of lisa doing the splits over the equator line, as she does. The pics will be coming soon.
We are flying to Panama tomorrow in central America, we cant wait as we havent seen a good beach since Brazil 6 weeks ago, our tans are starting to look quite pathetic.

Im going to give you a fairly quick recap of what we have been doing for the last 6 weeks. Carnival in Brazil was crazy, we visited the sambadome where the samba schools perform down a quarter mile street. Some of the costumes and floats was amazing, proper over the top.
Also during carnival we where partying outside a cool bar in Ipanema, when all of a sudden a girl next to us decided to piss where she was standing, she pulled across her shorts and pissed, she started spinning around and lisa got spalshed on her feet, she wasnt happy although i found it quite amusing. We couldnt believe what she had just done, even her mates was in shock, the dirty moose.

Straight after carnival we headed to Iguassu falls which are on the border of Brazil and Argentina. The falls where amazing, they consit of 275 separate falls. The best views are from the Argentina side where you get drenched watching them.

After 2 days there we caught an 18 hour bus (with shit air con and 30 degree heat outside, nice) to Buenos Aires, Argentina for 5 days. We wasnt planning on going, but loads of people we spoke to raved about it and said it was the party capital, so naturally we thought wed better check it out, also its dirt cheap, happy days. The only problems was that we arrived there on sunday morning, nothings open on a sunday and the best clubs dont open till thursday, the day before we leave. So we didnt time that one to well. Apart from that we both enjoyed Buenos Aires, it had a nice fell about it, alot more relaxed and safer that Rio. We did visit a cool club on the thursday, which had breakdancers on the stage all night, i got a few tips for the next time i atemp it when drunk. We was both a bit gutted we didnt have more time in Argentina, but we have flights booked to Lima, Peru.

So Peru, we flew into Cusco, this was a cool little city. Its set in the Andes, 3500m above sea level. Which means you only have to walk for 5 mins and you knackered, gasping for breath. You do get used to it after a while though. We both caught colds because coming into cold weather from hot, also not helped by the fact the first night we had a late night out on the piss we some people wed just met. They tell you not to drink alcohol in high altitude because it can cause altitude sickness, which can be like threatening. Oh well we survived anyway, although felt proper rough for a few days. Just recovering in time to hike to Macchu Picchu, which was a 4 day, 25 mile hike to the lost city of the Incas. We had both been looking forward to this for ages, although it wasnt easy. The first day was quite easy, bout 8 miles walked. The 2nd day was not easy. The first 3 hours was walking up steps, these steps was shit, theyve been the a fair few hundred years so arent the best, some massive, some small, really really hard work. Once you reach the top, 4200m above sea level, it was freezing and pissing down with rain. Then you have to go down the other side. 2 more hours of more steps, going down was alot worse on the legs. Apparently when going down the steps you should run, easier on the calfs. The 3rd day was easy, only a 2 hour walk, although we started walking at 5am. We finally reached the lost city at 7am. it was worth the walk. The city was pearched on top of Macchu Picchu mountain, breathtaking. Ill put the photos on soon, you have to see them. After that we physically couldnt walk any further. The funniest part of the four days, was after the hike we went to a town called Aguas Calientes, which was in a vealley in the Andes. Lisa was sitting on a wall on the side of a raging river. She took off her hired hiking boots, and accidentely knoked one of them over the edge. luckily it was precariously balancing on a branch 6 feet below us and 20 feet over the raging river. Not a good situation. Soon we had a crowd of locals around us trying to work out how to get it back. There was so many people around us it looked like someone had gone over the edge, just lisa shoe. The locals and us found it hilarious, although we wasnt lucking forward to loosing our 50 quid deposit. Luckily lisa managed to colar 3 passing, lanky germans. She talked them into hanging there mate over the side to get the shoe. A bit of sweating later and the shoe was retrieved, thank god, she didnt take them off again for a while. Funny as.

Anyway guys ive got to go now, ill fill you in on the rest soon. Got a couple more weeks of fun and frolics for you to catch up on.

Take care

Neil and Lisa xxxxxxxx

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