Blogs from South America - page 5351

After visiting Machu Picchu, and Cusco I headed South to Bolivia to explore a country I new very little of. The only thing I knew was that it was land locked after losing several wars to Chile and Peru over the past centuries. I feel bad for Bolivians because after losing so much land over time what they have been left with is very unworkable. In Bolivia if you aren't in the jungle you are in the mountains. Having little to offer the world as far as trade and of course years of corruption the Boliviano has been left very weak. The people of Bolivia are the poorest people I have ever encountered, but the majority are modest, humble, and happy. There are bad people wherever you go but in Bolivia crime seems to be more ... read more

I was in Arraial de Ajuda a few weeks ago. It´s a tourist town for sure, but the beaches are fun. Then I flew to Olinda, and Carnival has begun. Here are a few recent photos.... read more

Well hello again. I´m currently in El Calafate, after a 27+ hour bus ride from Bariloche to Rio Gallegos, and then a 4 hour ride to El Calafate. But it wasn´t terrible. It is decently easy to amuse yourself for that long if you know in advance it will be that long. Plus, I had Scott with me, and the benefit of meeting Hugh, an Irish guy, as well as Cody and Sean, two American kids from Seattle. They´ve all been great to talk to, and Scott and I are sharing a hostel with Hugh while the other boys camp. On the bus they showed four movies - one bad film with the Rock; an equally bad film that I did watch called Shriek if you know what I did last Friday the 13th; Analyze That; ... read more

When someone mentions the country Argentina a tapestry of images come to mind, of sultry tango dancers, wild soccer hooligans, gorgeous natural wonders, and big juicy beef. Some of my caring vegetarian friends and family have been concerned about the ´no como carne´or ´soy vegetariana´deal, so I am writing to say: every little thing is gonna be alright! I have been eating fine, cooking every day and smiling past offered plates of sausage or burnt beef. We were invited to an asado at the neighbours and had no problems at all. What a relief! No feelings hurt, no meat consumed and no feathers ruffled. Yesterday I visited the pigs, sheep and chickens. They were so sweet and cute. So I have posted some pictures of my new friends here. Anyway, with out stepping on any toes, ... read more

As promised at the end of the last blog, I've been on pilgrimage to Welsh Patagonia. Or, at least my stomach has, as I visited a number of Welsh tea shops. For those of you that don´t know, my mother was Welsh. When I was young ( I know that´s difficult to imagine), our parents used to take us down to visit the Welsh relatives in the school holidays. A highlight of those childhood visits was our Aunt Olive´s teas. The Welsh teas in Patagonia though, didn't live up to my memories of the huge spreads that our Aunt Olive used to put on. Even if my mother would always accuse us of having hollow legs, it would have been rude not to have done justice to the effort that went into Olive´s spreads. The Welsh ... read more