Blogs from South America - page 5464

I had been anticipating my arrival in Latin America for a number of years now. Always being intrigued, as a young scholar, by the rise and fall of the mighty Inka culture, among others. And the constant political and social unrest that has bickered the whole continent over the past century. With it's recent past being littered with so much fighting and guerilla warfare. I think we all know the latino's are very passionate people. It's that passion in it's varying forms I was also looking forward to seeing. The mad football fanatics, the salsa and tango enthusiasts. The colourful and vibrant architecture. Would 3 to 4 months, on the quickly noticeable gringo trail, with fairly poor spanish; be sufficient time to delve into the psyche, personalities and cultural diversities that are uniquely Latin American. Knowing ... read more

After booking our trip to the Galapagos Islands (more on that in my next entry) we decided to spend some of the intervening days somewhere other than Quito. There's nothing wrong with Quito in my opinion, although the pollution, hustle and the potential for petty crime can wear you down after a while. We had after all been there for almost two weeks. With all of this in mind we decided to spend a few days in the market town of Otavalo, in the north of Ecuador. Most people go to Otavalo for the market. Emma and I went there to see what it was like, the market being a secondary attraction as neither of us are natural shoppers by any stretch of the imagination. The weekend market (said to be the biggest in South America) ... read more

Had an excellent morning white (well mud brown actually) water rafting! It was Lou´s first time on the water so she was a tad nervous...but it was such a laugh, by the end of the trip she was volunteering to sit at the front again! The water was freezing, but luckily the sun was blazing, so we didn´t stay cold for long. We obviously weren´t able to take our cameras on the raft, so we had to buy the CD of photo´s taken by the tour company.... We´re off biking to the wineries tomorrow.... hope your all having fun in the cold! Lou & Steve xx... read more

Hello all, Hope you´re managing to keep warm over there. Been checking out the UK weather reports and very glad to be where I am!! Vicki, Wendy and I decided to go for a wander around some of the parts of Ayacucho that we hadn´t seen yet. We decided to miss lunch at the house so we weren´t restricted for time. I went equipped with a bottle of water, a bottle of Inka Cola, two packets of Dorritos and some Peruvian chocolate to make sure I maintained my energy levels (my excuse and I´m sticking to it!!). We took a taxi to the Mirador in up in the hills. This is a tourist area with a large white cross. Some of the earlier photos of Ayacucho included in the blog were taken there. We headed down ... read more

Also do emol e paar erschti Idrück vo BA. Ich han es mittlers Hotel z mitzt im Zentrum gfunde - sehr bequem zum z fuess e bitz go d stadt erkunde - uf dr andere Site halt au bitz lut - aber das bin ich jo vom Mässplatz z Basel gwohnt. Vo dr Stadt bin ich sehr positiv überrascht. Si verbindet dr Charme vo Paris mit de alte schöne Hüserfasade und de vielne Platane-Allee, mit em Klima vo Miami und em Läbensstil vo de Cubaner. Alles in allem e sehr vibrierendi Mischig. Ha mi au nie unsicher gfühlt in däne paar Täg (OK, bi au nid mit em Fotiapparat und dr Golduhr in d Vorstädt go luege) - aber wenn s z Nacht am 10i imene Stadtpark no kleini Kinder elai uf em Spielplatz am spiele ... read more