Blogs from South America - page 5468

sorry one of the sisters came in and needed to use the computer so i sort of stopped mid sentence. There was a second part to that cockroach story, this time on Julie´s turf. Of course you have all heard of the lovely dog that we live with named Buddy, well he was in her room barking incessantly (as per usual) and we were trying to kick him out. However, in the process of him leaving, a cockroach scurried in! Now these things are more like creatures/animals than like insects and to kill one takes skill, might, and lots of persistance. Upon first attack, this damn cockroach found a handy hole in the wall to hide in.We tried to encourage it to come, but he knew we had ulterior motives, we just had to wait. Julie ... read more

Iguaçu and the Journey to Salta Exiting in Brazil in a bus adorned in Argentinean flags we passed through immigration and on into the town of Puerto Iguaçu, where the driver kindly stopped so we could buy tickets for our onward journey to Salta. Being so used to the Portuguese not being able to speak Spanish I walked into the ticket office and asked, “ Abla espanol?” (Do you speak Spanish), Carl and the lady I had addressed found this astonishing and after a brief pause to digest the stupidity of my question burst out laughing. Of course she spoke Spanish, Argentina is a Spanish speaking country! Well we eventually managed to buy some tickets on a bus that left that evening to Salta, Semi Cama (Reclining with foot rests) as seats in the Cama ... read more

Can´t afford to fly, so I took a bus for 17 hours up to Rurrenabaue. I bused up with Flota Vaca Diez. The seat I booked, no 28, window, was broken. It would not lock into place in any posistion, and would recline at every bump. Normally a broken seat is a bad thing, except on this trip it acted like a secondary shock absorber, and was just the ticket when bussing the worlds most dangerous road, which leads through to the world´s most bumpy road. As a note, the worlds most dangerous road isn´t all that dangerous really. Sure, it´s mostly single lane, cut into a cliff, dirt road, but any drunck wouldn´t make it up the first K before driving off the side, so you can be sure most drivers are sober (if not ... read more

Ok, so we’re back in Bolivia. We’re in Uyuni this time, which has pizza, pool tables, but NOT atms. Here’s how we got here: We left La Paz for Iquique, but didn’t get such a good deal on the bus trip. Also it turned out that the bus wasn’t going to Iquique, but to Arica. We were fairly surprised by this when we got to Arica and were told to wait and hour and get on a different bus. So we waited and no bus came. Turns out the bus we had tickets for had flat tires or something and we were all transferred to another company. So, despite setting out at 6am, we didn’t get to Iquique until about 10pm. It was too dark to look for a hostel, but luckily we had made friends ... read more

Ahh...at last, another iconic moment in the trip...(and another misuse of íconic´)..but still a significant milestone in the journey...to get to the most famous and exotic of Brasil´s places..Rio de Janeiro...and just for starters..its not a bloody river at all..the turkey who first landed..way, way back, thought it was and so named it..the next bozo that came along didn´t have the nouse or the courtesy to re-name it...like Porto de Janeiro, no, he wants the first bugger to have wear the ignomy for all time...anyway... Into the most beautiful city in the world, they say.....across the longest bridge in the world maybe..thinking I was back in the Florida keys...on and on, in the distance, the beautiful layout, the buildings, the mountains, the rock features, the fabulous beaches, the city skyline, the cable cars, and the Big ... read more