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South America » Chile » Valparaíso Region » Valparaíso February 20th 2006

Howdy all, how are we?! Well, I just spent a very entertaining weekend in Valparaiso. It was good fun to be back in hostel again. Eventually. You see, Greg and I had not booked anywhere to stay for various reasons. But we were travelling down with 2 girls from school who had booked a place, so we thought we´d go where they were going and we might be OK, or if not they could point us in the right direction. Well, we arrived at the hostel, and surprise surprise they were fully booked. They phoned around some other places but they were all full too. So they pointed us in the general direction of 'a few´ hostels. Eventually we found one, but it was booked up too. So after a couple hours walkings the very hilly ... read more
Hole in the attic
Valpa

South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires February 19th 2006

Well, I promised I'd post more often, so here I go...Thursday night I went with some kids from class to a boliche called Lost, in Palermo (I think), that plays hip hop until about 4am on Thurs. Some of the kids had gone last week and said it was worth the trip. I shared a taxi with a kid from my class and we met some others at a friend's apartment. Around 1:30am we left the apt. and grabbed a taxi to the place. It was definitely worth the trip and the lack of sleep. It felt like home, but not really, haha. The music was typical club music, but nothing any newer than 3-6 months ago. There were dudes with jerseys on (which you don't see here in the streets really, only futbol jerseys) and ... read more
Zoo de Lujan
Zoo de Lujan
Zoo de Lujan

South America » Paraguay » Encarnacion February 19th 2006

Now that I have your attention let me start from the beginning. As I mentioned in the previous blog I wanted to take a bus to Asuncion which is the capital of Paraguay. As it goes with plans they are made to be changed and so I did. I met a polish guy at the bus terminal in Montevideo and he had the plan to get off in the first city in Paraguay to see some old Jesuit ruins. As I didn’t want to see another city I decided to go along with him. We got dropped off in Encarnacion at 3am in the morning after 15 hours on the bus. The bus ride itself wasn’t that bad at all and we even got lunch and dinner. The latter was served late as usual at 10.30 ... read more
You must love this country
Having a shower is a health hazard
The local shopping mall

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco February 19th 2006

Ofcourse everybody who comes to Peru must come to Cuzco. It is filled with tourists and all the stuff that comes with that: hotels, restaurants, tour agencies, etc. But it's no wonder that it's so popular destination since it's a really nice city. The inca heritage is visible everywhere. We went for a half day's walk on the ruins surrounding Cuzco. The ruins of Tambo Machay, Puca Pucara and Sacsayhuaman were impressive remains of the Inca empire. They really knew how to work the stone and were hard and precise builders. The rest of our time in Cuzco we spent enjoying the beautiful city and good food.... read more
The Cathedral
The stone with 12 corners
Ancient inca wall

South America » Peru » Loreto » Iquitos » Amazon Rainforest February 19th 2006

Interesting title hey. I just looked at my blog stats and it appears that you are getting board with my stuff. less readers for the last couple of stories. Do I need to get more advertuous for you guys or what. I am now in Iquitos my first stop in the jungle as I am heading down the Amazon tomorow by boat. I stop for a day in Lecticia Columbia should be interesting. then in to Brazil. There were a few places here that I wanted to photograph. yesturday I ventured off the beaten path a bit to far but nothing magor went astray. I wandered down the coast of the amazon in Iquitos to where the local slums began. you enter the slums through a market selling all kinds on strange fish Piraunas and manythings ... read more

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco February 19th 2006

Well, we have come a long way since our last journal entry that’s for sure. 10,000 feet upward to be exact! We are now in the wonderful Cusco, dodging forked lightening. Generally the days are scorching, but around tea-time every day, the rain comes down like there is no tomorrow! Last night there was a huge storm....so dramatic over the mountains, but there is rumbling now as I write!!! Thank god for Peter Storm waterproofs huh! So we left Huacachina last week, after going on a winery tour, around 3 local wineries, producing sweet dessert wine, and the local drink, Pisco. After many tastings, and several hilarious chats with the very drunk owners in the last place, we headed out of Huacachina south to Nasca. Nasca is a tiny town in the middle of barren desert ... read more
Machu Picchu

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro February 19th 2006

We received our bags, and things started to improve. I decided to leave that apartment and spoiled myself with a 4 star hotel, and I even had a private Jacuzzi in my room! I think that it was my best experience until that moment. We also went to see the Corcobado, which is a statue of Jesus that oversees the entire city, and the view (although cloudy) was amazing from over there! I discovered that the language barrel is a serious one, as almost no one knows English or even Spanish in Brazil. The next day I was to fly to Salvador, and I had real problems making a hostel reservation by phone - It was really funny - I knew how to ask for a room, but I couldn't understand the response, so it was ... read more
Jesus
Rio

South America » Ecuador » South » Cuenca February 19th 2006

Cuenca - the cultural Mecca of Ecuador After our amazing hike on the Inca trail to Machu Picchu (see Discovering the lost Inca city), we caught the plane to Lima on Friday 21 January. Lima is supposed to have great surf beaches but considering that we live in Sydney there was little point in trying to verify this claim. Rather, being pretty exhausted from the four day hike, we just had a walk down to a viewpoint over the beach, where some surfers were enjoying the waves, to have an icecream. The night was spent in a Mexican restaurant before we went to bed early for our next day flight to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. That flight turned out to be a long one - flying with Copa Airlines, the plane took us first to ... read more
Surf beach in Lima
Mexican dinner in Lima
Inside cathedral

South America » Paraguay » Encarnacion February 19th 2006

As I mentioned in the previous blog I wanted to take a bus to Asuncion which is the capital of Paraguay. As it goes with plans they are made to be changed and so I did. I met a polish guy at the bus terminal in Montevideo and he had the plan to get off in the first city in Paraguay to see some old Jesuit ruins. As I didn’t want to see another city I decided to go along with him. We got dropped off in Encarnacion at 3am in the morning after 15 hours on the bus. The bus ride itself wasn’t that bad at all and we even got lunch and dinner. The latter was served late as usual at 10.30 pm! including super sweet coffee As you can imagine we were ... read more

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro February 19th 2006

So Brazil. Turns out the Spanish and the Portuguese dreamt up some line of longitude to separate their New World empires. Then they discovered Brazil. Or something like that. Long and short of that is they don't even bother speaking Spanish here. Well that's no bloody good, is it?! Anyways, four months of lazily travelling far too slowly meant so far I'd cut short my stay in Costa Rica from three weeks to two days, scrubbed around Panama altogether and put Cuba off until later. So far so good. Flying into Sao Paulo late January was a bit of a shock really. My biggest problems were assuming I'd be fine with Spanish - which I guess now is getting pretty OK - and not having a guidebook. English language books in Rio are surprisingly thin on ... read more
Who's this cheeky fella, eh?
Nice picture, eh?
The Stones.




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