Just Married & On Tour

Cuba

2010-10-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

We landed in Cuba to a wall of heat! We were spending the first four nights in a casa particular, this is basically when you stay in someone's house and is a great way to get to know the culture and people of Cuba. The taxi dropped at Casa Tamara where we were met by Tamara herself and shown to our room.

We were keen to get out and about straight away so hit the streets to explore Havana's central streets. Havana is an amazing city and so different to all the cities we'd been so far, the architecture is beautiful and the streets are filled with vintage cars. It wasn't until we'd walked for about half an hour that we realised we were yet to pass any shops, there were a few restaurants on the streets, ice cream parlours and a cinema but hardly any stores.

We ended up walking down to the ocean front and so stopped in at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba for a drink. The hotel, now govenment owned, used to be a hangout for the film stars and mobsters in the 1930s. We had a daiquiri in the terrace bar, enjoying view of the beautiful gardens and buildings.

That evening we hit the town (!), we had some pretty basic food in a cafe with some live music, then we visited Ernest Hemingway's favourite bar for another daquiri before jumping in a lada to deliver us back to Tamara's!

The next day (another boiling day of uninterrupted sun!) we opted to take the bus tour to see the most favourite sites of Havana. This was a fantastic way to explore the city, see the main sites and gain a true understanding of the place. We jumped off the bus at several stops, including the Plaza de la Revolucion where we saw the Jose Marti Memorial and the famous Che Guevara image with the slogan 'Hasta la Victoria Siempre' (Forever Onwards Towards Victory) on the the wall of the Ministry of the Interior building. The square is most notable as being where many political rallies take place and Fidel Castro and other political figures address the nation.

Later that evening we went out for pizza with some of the other guests in the hostel, it was a bit of a different dining experience for us, as we vivited a local restaurant where they use the local currency, therefore it was extremely cheap for us - about 10p for a pizza! As we discovered though, if you want to use local money you must eat as a local, therefore the choices are limited and menus are redundant, you should simply ask them what they have and that's what you'll be eating! After dinner we headed for ice cream then a beer as we strolled along the Malecon, before jumping in a Lada taxi back to the Casa.

The next morning we visited the Partagas Cigar Factory, we really enjoyed the tour round the factory, especially watching the cigars being hand rolled by workers. The wages here are 30 CUC a week, a good wage in Cuban term, and jobs are much sought after by Cubans thus they are prepared to train for 9 months. They most interesting bit to me was to see and hear the reader relaying novels to the workers, in fact Romeo y Julieta cigars got their name because the workers were so fond of Shakespeares being read to them.

In the afternoon we went down to check out the Old Town, this is a beautiful area of Havana and we loved it (so much that we went back the next day!) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We had a lovely lunch in a German bar located in a large square suurounded by recently refurbished baroque and neo classical buildings. After chilling out with a cold drink we meandered around the cobbled streets, taking shelter from the heat in some of the cool courtyards and pretty gardens and nosied around the book market for a couple of books for us to read by the pool. On the way back to Tamara's we stopped off at the Hotel Inglaterra for a drink and to shelter for the early evening downpour!

Later that evening we visited another local restaurant for some cheap food, saving our pennies to go out for an evening in the old town. The rain was still pouring down so we shared a cab with some local people to get to Habana Vieja, it was an old station wagon that had been converted into a mini bus with benches in the back - it was a bit of a squeeze but good fun. We had identified a small street earlier in the day with some lively bars on it, so we popped into a couple of them to enjot some local cocktails and live music! Our taxi journey home was fairly eventful, we found a lovely guy who was willing to take us back for a reasonable price, the only issue was that he had no idea where we were going! We had a great tour of the backstreets of Havana for about half an hour before we finally located our Casa!

The final day in Havana was once again spent wandering around Havana Vieja, purchasing some cigars and generally enjoying the ambience. We finished the day off with a truly awful meal, using up the last of our local currency! We were definitely ready for some better food at the all inclusive which we were off to next!

Our taxi transfer to Jibacoa was around an hour and we really loved the journey through the Cuban countryside, our taxi driver seemed to enjoy it too as he managed a visit to his favourite food stall for a barbecued pork sandwich.

As we opened the door to our hotel there were some pretty excited shouts from Lynne as she spotted the bath!! It was a lovely room with a huge bed, cable tv, minibar and large french windows looking out onto the ocean! After 9 months of backpacking, we were in heaven! The next few days were a blur of swimming in the pool, sunbathing at the beach, playing tennis, experimenting at the cocktail bar and generally indulging ourselves!

So after 9 months of travelling, we woke up to our last morning of our honeymoon! It seemed surreal to imagine that in just 24 hours we would be landing at London Gatwick! We were so excited to see all our friends and family but we would miss the excitement of travelling - the anticipation of arriving at a new place, the fun of making friends and trying new experiences. We lounged by the pool until our transfer arrived and then for the last time loaded our back packs onto the bus...homeward bound!!

Panama City & San Blas

2010-08-04T12:24:00.001-07:00

We arrive in Panama early evening, but before we head to the hostel (booked back in Hostel Casco Vieja) Lynne makes a stop off in Zara much to David's bemusement. With an early start in the morning we spend the night relaxing in the old town.

Up at 4am for a 5am pick up we are tired when we throw our day bags into the back of the 4x4 that is taking us on our 3 day trip! The trip is to the San Blas Islands.

These are an archipiélago which stretch from the Golfo de San Blas to the edge of the Colombian border. There are in total around 400 islands most of which are uninhabited post-card islands consisting of palm tress on white sands surrounded by crystal clear waters. The islands are home to the Kuna people who have been allowed by the Panamanian government to run the islands as an autonomous region. They make their own decisions and have their own economic system . They have successfully built a strong tourist industry by maintaining their traditional way of life.

The islands are only accessible by plane or by taking a 4x4 from Panama up through the Comarca de Kuna Yala National park and to the “port” where you are taken by the Kuna people on small motor boats to the island of your choice. There are perhaps 10 main islands where tourists (on backpackers budgets) stay and these are chosen before you book the round trip by jeep. The whole excursion isn't that cheap but we had been persuaded to visit by many travellers we have met in Panama. The Jeep journey of 2 hours and boat trip of 1 hour took us to Robinson Island. We were dropped off with four other travellers, all Israeli.

The islands are truly beautiful and we were shown to our beach hut right on the beach. The facilities are basic, being a double bed in a hut on the sand, a toilet flushed using a bucket and gravity and a basic tank shower. But none of this is important as you look upon incredible views, rest in the hammocks between palm trees, snorkel in the crystal clear turquoise waters or just read your book on the white sands listening to the waves lap onto the shores.

All meals are provided with lunch / dinner usually being fresh seafood; in fact we had lobster on the first night! During the 3 days / nights we had on the island, we relaxed completely and had a great time with our Israeli friends. One day we took a boat trip to a artificial coral on a wrecked ship surrounded by tiny desert islands, but apart from this we relaxed on our island's beach and it's surrounding waters.

It was a fantastic few days living in true paradise. However, it was disappointing to find that once you walk round to the other side of the island where the locals live (~20 on our island) the shore is littered with plastic bottles and bags and even used nappies! Although they maintain the tourist beaches, some of the inhabited small islands have a litter problem. None of us could understand how they can litter such picturesque surroundings! Nonetheless this didn't detract from the amazing scenery and a brilliant few days.

We returned to Panama City on the 24th June. With only two nights before we fly to Cuba we headed into town to exchange some money and to have a walk around the downtown area. The stifling heat of the city soon had us back in the hostel and walking around the shore line of the old town to enjoy the sea breeze.

On our last day in Panama, we visited the Metropolitan Park to take in some views of the city from the top of the park and were happy to have the opportunity to see our first ever 3 toed sloth!! In the evening, we took a taxi to the Causeway – a man-made link between the mainland and a couple of islands just off the coast. Here, there are many bars and restaurants and is a popular area for the locals to run, cycle and roller blade etc. We enjoyed a drink by the harbour, overlooking some ridiculous sized boats before returning to the old town for dinner to celebrate our last night in Panama!!

David & Boquete

2010-08-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

The bus journey to David is bad! A rammed packed mini bus with no space and as a result, no sleep for the 5 hour journey. Arriving into David, we decide to try out hostel Bambo with Jono and Maria. The cab journey there confirms what we have heard that although this is Panama's second city there isn't a whole lot to do here! Arranging one night at the hostel, we head straight for the supermarket where we purchase beers and wine to enjoy by the pool at the hostel to combat the stifling heat! Later we head to a recommended Libyan restaurant for kebabs before seeing the night through back at the hostel pool side.

In the morning we say our goodbyes as the others head to Panama City and we bus it to Boquete. Only an hour away we arrive late morning and find a room in Hostel Mamallena on the main square. Boquete is a wonderful contrast from David being a small town sat in a valley surrounded by green hills and a river running straight through. The town offers lots of walking and other outdoor sports but is most famous for it's coffee. Coffee farms litter the hillside.
We stay here for 5 nights in total enjoying the cooler climate of the region. The first day we spend relaxing in the town and hostel and researching our activities for the rest of our time there.

The second day we take a collectivo along one of the many tourist routes and enjoy a beautiful walk through lush forest up to a waterfall, (yes we have now seen lots of waterfalls on this trip!). After the walk we visit Cafe Ruiz, a local coffee bean farm that makes the town's most famous coffee; David enjoyed a nice cup after living on instant Nescafe for so long! Next door to the cafe are public gardens...well by public, they are open to the public but actually constitute several gardens of a small community of locals (we think American retirees). They are really quite impressive especially as there is no entrance fee and appear to be a hobby of the locals and offer a nice way to spend a sunny afternoon.

The third day, we decide to go on another long walk, this time on an alternative loop that took us up high above the town offering great views down the valley and the chance to see some more of the beautiful varying greenery which spoils the area. The walk home gave us another chance to visit Cafe Ruiz before a lazy afternoon. In the evening after enjoying some food, we headed out with a large bunch from the hostel to a local haunt where we enjoyed the local cocktails!

After a late night, we awoke not long before the England match....unfortunately!! However, today was to be a lazy day spent in bed and resting because tonight we were to set off on the night hike upto the peak of Volcán Barú – Panama's highest peak and only Volcano, which supposedly is the only point in the world from where you can see two oceans at one time, the Pacific and the Caribbean. Apparently the best way to make the climb and to enjoy the views is to hike up over night and arrive for sunset! David was extremely excited at the prospect of a night hike, Lynne less so. However, after David sold it to two more Brits he met during the England game, we had a team of four and Lynne was on board!!
The weather in Boquete is very changeable with a downpour everyday. This ususally comes between 2-4pm however, on this day it never came....we were concerned it would come in the night time! Either way, it didn't affect our preparations, stocking up on a high-carb content meal and dressing in all our hiking gear with plenty of food and water and waterproofs in our bags.

One of the hostel staff took us in his jeep 8km to the eastern entrance of the National Park 'Volcán Barú' at 22:30 so we were set to get going by 23:00. The path is 14km along a rough dirt/road all the way to the summit. During which we would climb 1.7km from the park entrance to the summit which stands at 3.5km.

Our fellow hikers were Dave and Rob and they proved great company as we set off at a casual pace with plenty of time on our hands. It was certainly a strange experience hiking in pitch darkness using our head torches to keep us on the right path.
After only 40mins into the hike, we were disturbed by another torch in the distance coming up the side of the hill shouting to us. It turned out to be an American girl called Amy who had already taken a wrong turn so early on. As she approached us, we all noticed that she was alone, wearing a lot of clothes, had a avery heavy bag and was using a mini-keyring magnalite that wasn't even strong enough to light up more than a few inches of ground in front of her. Straight away we were amazed that she was out here alone attempting this by herself and so badly prepared. She told us she wanted to go alone but since we were here and after a shocking wrong turn so early she asked if she could join us. So we all set off and it soon became evident that she was struggling with our pace (which was comfortable). We had to continually slow down and give her time to recover after shortish stints of climbs. It turned out that she had just arrived in the town in the afternoon and with only a few days here decided to attempt the climb alone. Soon enough the rain we had feared started to pour!! It got worse for Amy as it turned out here coat was not waterproof but a shower jacket! Combined with the fact the temperature was dropping fast as we went higher she was starting to get cold. To make it worse, she was feeling the altitude (having been at sea level in the morning) and was really struggling to keep up with us even for 5 metres. Our progress was seriously being hampered now and we acted by ordering her to give us her weight by splitting her bag contents between us. It wasn't long before she couldn't continue (after we had suggested she consider returning to town earlier based on our concerns of her condition). She was starting to shiver and couldn't go on, she wanted to pitch her tent and sleep right there, however, we obviously weren't going to let her as she was soaked and struggling with altitude sickness – falling asleep in a wet tent and in wet clothes could have serious consequences. The day was saved by Dave (not Henderson) who being a ski instructor has plenty of mountain rescue first aid and after making the decision told us he was going to abandon his hike and take her back down to a shelter we passed at the bottom. He had a stove and some warm dry layers he would put her in, confident that at a lower altitude and with some warm clothes she would be ok. He convinced us two and Rob to continue to the top and after some goodbyes we started back up and they down!

The events of the past hour or so gave us plenty to talk about, especially the naivety of here heading up here alone so badly prepared. Although all of us are fairly decent hikers and have a good level of fitness, the idea of attempting a night hike alone didn't appeal to any of us.

Anyhow, we were off and after a couple of hours the rain subsided to great relief, however, the temperature continued to fall. Being sheltered by the surrounding forests we weren't exposed to the wind but we could hear it above our heads!
The path didn't very too much at any point but at some points it was fairly steep and with now cold wet feet it was starting to get a difficult and required a few extra breaks and a handful of toffees!

By 05:00 we reached the power station that sits at the top of the path just short of the final path that takes you to the peak. We set off trying to find the path but it was so dark and foggy once we stepped out of the forest we couldn't find it and with some sheer drops and visibility only a few metres we decided to take shelter in the power station grounds until the sun started to rise and could help us find our way. This also gave us the opportunity to put on our warm dry jumpers we had been advised to bring and to have some of the tepid tea from David's thermos. Out of the wind we were able to warm up a little but the wet feet were not going to warm up until the sun came. No-one really spoke as we ate our rations and huddled up in a doorway out of the freezing wind. It was very spooky especially with the thick fog and the odd flashing beacon around us. We were even a little more on edge as we had heard of armed muggings of hikers by plant workers during the night hikes and so we were keen to stay quiet and still!

By 05:45 the darkness and fog was lifting and we headed out to the path to the peak we could now just make out. This last bit involves using the hands to negotiate a few rocky obstacles but we were at the large cross denoting the peak by 06:00.

The wind at the top was very strong and very very cold! So cold that we were forced to find shelter behind some rocks at the peak and spend a few minutes at a time exposed to the winds taking in the 360degrees views.

The views although disturbed by a few clouds that denied us a true clear sunrise, were spectacular! In the distance we could see far into the distance across the mountain ranges and flats of Panama and as advertised the two oceans. The immediate geography of the volcano was also fascinating with a huge crater below us and plenty of rocky peaks forming a contrast against the flats and coast lines. We could also see the Islands of Bocas del Toro and we allowed ourselves briefly to discuss the heat and sun we enjoyed down there!

After taking the obligatory photos we were too cold to hang around any longer and headed back down to the power station, by this point, the sun was heating the air and by the time we started back down the track the feet started to warm!

The walk down was down the same path and it was nice and impressive to see what we negotiated in the night time. The forest /jungle was beautiful and at times the trees broke to offer misty mountain views similar to those seen in Peru. There was plenty of wildlife to hear and see, although we only heard the infamous Maya bird of paradise which sounded like nothing else on earth!

We set off from the power station around 07:00 and arrived back at the park entrance around 12ish. At the bottom we were very relived to hear the park range say he arrived this morning and found Dave and Amy at the rangers hut both healthy. A last painful walk to the local bus station left us waiting only 10mins for the first collectivo back to town! The knees were hurting so much from the walk down that we were soon showered and on the bed falling asleep for the best part of the afternoon!

After enjoying a pizza in the evening, Lynne went back to bed as David enjoyed a few beers with Rob and Dave toasting Dave on his heroics from the night before!!
Saturday, our last day in Boquete was spent recovering further before catching the bus at midday back to Panama City.

Bocas del Toro

2010-08-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

We arrived tired after a sleepless night on the bus, relieved that would be our last nightbus of the trip! We were herded in to taxis at the bus station and shuttled to the 'port' where we boarded the boat to Isla Colon. The boat journey was a chance to get some sun on our faces and fresh air as we scoped out the islands. When we got to the island we found that a number of the hostels were already full, so we ended up checking into a cheap hotel for our first night, so we could dump our bags and freshen up then check out the area to find somewhere decent to stay for the two weeks.

We found the lovely Hostel Hansi just off the main road and moved in there early the next day before heading to Bocas del Drago beach for some serious sunbathing. Its a lovely beach located at the other end of the island. Despite only being a small island, it takes about an hour by bus to reach but its well worth the journey. We took the first bus there and were rewarded for the early start by having the place to ourselves! We walked around the bay to reach star fish bay, then found a spot to lay out our towels and jumped into the clear, blue waters.

Whilst in Bocas, David took advantage of the cheap prices to book a diving course. He enrolled on a three day course to obtain his PADI Open Water certificate and got two free dives thrown in to the package. He started the course on Monday morning. Whilst David was swimming with the fishes, Lynne attended daily yoga classes at a local studio.

We met some really great people in our hostel, and spent a couple of evenings enjoying drinks on the balcony. On the Thursday night we headed out for drinks with Debs and Grant, a couple from Clapham. We visited Riptide, a bar on a boat, for sunset drinks before heading back to the hostel for dinner then on to La Iguana for some very loud cheesy music, the girls retired early leaving the boys to a VERY late night out!

The next day the four of us were up early for a boat trip to dolphin bay, Caya Zapatilla and a reef for snorkeling. The clear blue water soon cleared everyone's heads and we had a great time exploring the beautiful Cay Zapatilla, a small, uninhabited island which forms part of a protected national park. After a hard day of swimming and sunbathing we hit the local BBQ restaurant for dinner.

We did have a couple on rainy or overcast days in our Caribbean paradise, one such day we hired bikes from a rasta guy on the corner and went cycling round the coast. It was a great way to see a bit more of the island and its beaches. We stopped off at a hotel perched on a hill overlooking the beach for lunch before continuing along to Bluff Beach.

During our second week on the island, we met a French family who were keen to take their children on the night excursion to see the leatherback turtles at Bluff Beach. There are no arranged excursions here, therefore, its best to get a group together to reduce the cost of the taxi per person. We took a taxi around 9pm to the beach where we found the local volunteers who monitor the turtles to take us on a walk along the coastline to the nesting spots. We followed the volunteers along the beach, with only pink tinted torches to light the way, as full torchlight may confuse or distract the turtles. It was a long walk along the beach, about an hour of trudging through the sand and we were all a bit disappointed when we reached the end of the beach and hadn't seen anything apart from some tracks from turtles who had been and gone already! However, on the walk back, our luck changed and we were fortunate enough to see two full size leatherback turtles on the beach laying their eggs. It was an amazing privilege to witness this act which has been occurring on the same beach for hundreds of years. The turtles were huge, we watched from a distance as they dug a hole, laid their eggs, covered them then created false tracks to confuse any predators before lumbering back down to the ocean.

A couple of days during our second week in Bocas we took a boat to Isla Carenero, across the bay from where we were staying in Isla Colon. We managed to find a small, secluded beach where we could chill and swim, then we popped in to Aqua Lounge for sunset and a beer before heading back across the water to our island.

Needless to say, there was a great deal of build up by the English boys to the Football World Cup. The forthcoming USA vs England was greatly anticipated and so it was with much excitement and expectation that we set off to a local bar to watch the game. Unfortunately England failed to deliver the result we had hoped for but that didn't deter us from heading out for a night on the beers! We met up with a Swedish couple, Maria and Juna and, after a few drinks in the hostel, took the boat over to Aqua Lounge to dance the night away! Unsurprisingly the next day was fairly low key, as we started packing to leave Bocas and continue our travels through Panama.

Panama City

2010-08-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Panama City around 7pm after a really great flight with Copa Airlines. The first challenge was to get to our hostel, the Lonely Planet says that there is a bus stop just outside the airport you can walk to, however in 30 degree heat and in the dark this isn't really advisable as it is actually quite a walk. So we settled for a mini bus for $12 each that would drop us of at the door of the hostel. Our hostel in Casco Viejo was the last stop so by the time we had dropped all the other passengers off at their swanky upper town hotels and reached ours it was about 9pm. Hostel Casco Viejo was a cheap but decent hostel located in the old town. This area is a beautiful part of Panama, previously it had a reputation for being a bit dodgy but there has been a lot of effort to clean up the area and there is a large police presence patrolling the central area so its perfectly safe to stroll around at night. We headed to the nearby supermarket for some pasta and sauce and whipped up an easy meal for our first night, getting an early night so we could be up early to get a bus to the Miraflores Locks on the canal.

We took a taxi to the bus station and then a local bus out to the locks, this was a really easy and cheap way to get there. After a walk up from the main road to the canal side buildings , we found ourselves entering a blissfully air conditioned building to view the museum before the first of the ships started entering the locks. The museum was really interesting, telling us about the original building attempt by the French, which was then taken up by the Americans, with a host of workers from many different nations using technology from all over the world, including a steamer from Clydebank in Scotland!! We also saw the plans for the new larger locks which are being built to take larger vessels in today's modern shipping industry. Leaving the museum we found ourselves on the top floor of the building on the viewing platform where we had a great view of the ships coming into the locks. The process is fascinating, there is very little room for error, as there is just a couple of feet clear at each side of the vessel. The captain of the boat must hand over control to the canal pilots who will steer the captain through the locks. Watching these huge vessels rising up as water floods into the lock was pretty cool.

After our morning at the Canal, we headed back to old town, We spent the afternoon wandering around the small cobbled streets, exploring the area. There is a beautiful waterside front area to chill out and some lovely, spanish style architecture to admire here.

After packing up and checking out we had breakfast in a little cafe a few streets away, then we had to go back to the bus station to buy the tickets to take us to Bocas del Toro. As we were there, we decided to pop into the Albert Mall next door for a browse round the stores. We then made the fatal mistake of booking cinema tickets to 'The Prince of Persia'. We didn't know it but this was a terrible error and that afternoon we were subjected to 2 hours of torture courtesy of Disney! Its a truly awful film, with a weak script, wooden acting, we could wait until the final credits came up to end our misery. Then it was back to the hostel to pick up our backpacks to catch the night bus to Bocas del Toro.

Quito

2010-06-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

Having extended our stay in Baños we had only one night in Quito before catching our flight to Panama. We stayed at a cheap hotel/hostel in the historic sector of the town. We were left slightly unnerved after the first thing we see walking out side of the hostel was a man sprinting away down the road from a local women with her handbag in his arms! Welcome to Quito!!

We spent the afternoon walking round the historic sector and were impressed by its beauty and architecture...we ignorantly had no idea it was like this...probably based on our time in La Paz and Lima. Nonetheless we both just didn't feel comfortable and felt the streets were fairly intimidating. As a result we headed back before it got dark and decided to head out to the new sector of town for food that evening. After getting a recommendation we opted for an Italian restaurant to enjoy pizza and wine whilst celebrating the end of our South American journey! The food was truly excellent and the calzone David had was probably the biggest he has ever seen! It goes without saying that this put a big smile on his face. With Lynne failing to finish her giant pizza we took it back with us in a doggy bag to have the next day!! We went for a few drinks afterwards in nearby bars but found a lack of atmosphere and decided to head back.

Before taking a cab to the airport in the afternoon we spent the morning strolling around the local area once more! At the airport after paying the ridiculous airport fee of $40 each (!) we had mixed emotions, sad, to be leaving South America after an amazing 8 months but happy, looking forward to Panama, Cuba and being a step closer to returning home!(Not that we were ready to return just yet!)

Baños

2010-06-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

After a very dodgy night bus ride which we were very relieved to be awoken by the bus driver with all our belongings still intact we followed a fellow Danish gringo to a hostel we had stayed in before. He took us to Plantos y Blancos, a great hostel! They luckily had a room ready and with it being before 6am we went straight to bed!

Baños is a beautiful small town situated at the base of huge lush green hills with waterfalls littered amongst them. We had heard great things about this place and we weren't disappointed. By the end of our first day we had already decided we would stay here an extra night and spend only one night in Quito before our flight to Panama.

The first day we spent wandering around the town before climbing a long stepped path up to the a holy statue they have overlooking the town. This was hard work in the afternoon heat but worth the view over the town and valley.

The second day we went canyoning. This is basically abseiling down waterfalls. With no others in the group we had the guide/instructor all to ourselves, this was comforting to Lynne who had signed up to face her fear of heights. The first 4 waterfalls varied in height (10 – 15 metres) and difficulty and had us actually abseiling right down the middle of the waterfalls. Following a heavy night of rain the water was very strong and it proved very tiring but great fun. The final waterfall was 50 metres high and had us step off a sheer drop and gradually let ourselves down next to the water. This was really exhilarating and fantastic fun. Lynne did herself and David proud by finishing it after almost pulling out at the top!

In the evening we headed for a session in the town's famous thermal baths. Ecuadorians come here from all over the country to spend time in these waters that (like all thermal springs) boast many medical benefits. We were surprised at just how hot they actually were and felt very rejuvenated afterwards before heading out on the town for a few drinks.

For the remaining three days we relaxed enjoying the tranquility of the town and the fantastic hostel (Plantos y Blancos), especially the steam bath sessions the hostel offered. It appears that these are a prerequisite of any accommodation in the town and for only a few dollars a session we made the most of it! The sessions involved us sitting in a big wooden box filled with hot steam broken up by a few washes in very cold water. At all times the spa owner is there and he times the sessions whilst also having the pleasure of hosing you down at the end with more cold water!! By the end of the 3 sessions we definitely felt a difference in our skin....David now has the idea of building one of the steam baths in the flat's garden!

One morning we hired bikes and cycled along the road that heads east to the jungle. This is a popular tourist activity and takes you through some beautiful scenery consisting of lush green hills and waterfalls. Also, it is all down hill and easy to hitch a ride back to town on a bus or in a pick up truck. The main attraction is a walk to the impressive Devils Throat Waterfall. We didn't expect to be so taken back by a waterfall after visiting Iguazu falls but with the opportunity to squeeze through some tight caves and get up close and personal with it you couldn't help but be in awe of the power of this waterfall. After hitching a lift back to town we randomly bumped into Eddie & Alice, a couple from PSF. Using the excuse of catching up we headed out on the town again.

We left Baños feeling well rested looking forward to our flight to Panama, not particularly looking forward to a night in Quito.

Cuenca

2010-06-05T11:57:00.001-07:00

Cuenca is a beautiful city nestled within the mountains and national parks of Ecuador. It is most famous for its hat-making, the famous panama hats are made here (not in Panama!) and you can take a trip to local shops to see how they are made.

We spent two days here and enjoyed strolling around the city, taking in the architecture in between numerous stops for coffee and cake. We stayed in the old town at a lovely hostel where we had breakfast everyday overlooking the river. Our first day, we followed the river walkways about 30 mins to check out some Inca ruins close to the city center then visited the beautiful plazas in the old town. That night we met up with a friend from PSF to catch up and take advantage of happy hour!
The next day was lovely and sunny and so we made the most of it lounging by the river, reading our books! Then we were off again, this time to Baños, on our last night bus in South America!

Montañita

2010-06-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

We took a night bus to Guayaquil, where we changed at the bus terminal for the three hour bus journey to Montanita. Our first impressions of the Ecuadorian coast were as to how green it was, after the deserts of Peru it was a welcome change to see all the banana plantations and palm trees! We got off the bus at the small station and set about finding accomodation, after splashing out in Mancora we opted to go budget here so ended up in a hostel for ten bucks a night! After dumping our bags we headed off to find breakfast and explore.

Most of the day was spent on the beach here, playing bat and ball and chilling in the sun. Its at night that the town really comes alive...we had heard a lot about the place and were looking forward to checking it out! We hit cocktail alley that evening, a road lined with shacks which will whip up any cocktail you fancy! Then it was on to some of the clubs to check out the local music and dance the night away!

Unsurprisingly we weren't up particularly early the next day! We made it to the beach around midday, just in time for all the food guys who go up and down the beach at lunch offering anything from sandwiches, burgers, empanadas and ceviche! So we didn't have to look too hard for our lunch! That afternoon we decided to hire surfboards and put into practise what we had learnt in Mancora....unfortunately things didn't go quite to plan. The waves in the afternoon became pretty strong and a particularly engulfed Lynne knocking her off the board while paddling out, the board then came up and smacked her on the face before the current dragged her under! When she came back up she had a broken and bleeding nose and a severe loss of pride!! Once the bleeding had sopped she was left with a swollen nose...not a great look! Needless to say we didn't do too much that night, just heading to a local restaurant for some cheap Ecuadorian food.

The next day we were heading back inland to Cuenca, although we managed a morning at the beach before we left. After buying some empanadas for the road, we were back on another bus to Guayaquil, where we would change to reach Cuenca.

Peru - Lima

2010-05-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Lima we headed straight for our hostal – The Inka Lodge Hostal – in Miraflores. Miraflores is the “nice part” of Lima and the safest for tourists to stay. Having heard nice things about this area we were a little disappointed! It is a fairly lively place in the evening but we both found it fairly bland and uninteresting. The area is littered with western eateries and cafes, which is always a shame to see but at least it allowed us to satisfy our appetites at Papa John's Pizza after a month of eating chicken and rice in Pisco!

The hostal was really nice and so we decided to spend a couple of days there to relax and get some admin done (significantly a huge laundry session to try and remove the last of the dust and concrete from Pisco!).

With use of a kitchen, we didn't eat out again but did head to the Cinema to watch Ironman 2 (in English!). The cinema is located in a shopping/entertainment centre built into the cliffs by the sea, and was probably the most impressive part of the city which we saw. The coast does have beaches and a walkway but with the very overcast skies (or smog?!?) we didn't make use of it. Although we enjoyed watching the numerous paragliders in the skies above.

So there we have it, we saw hardly anything of this city which may have been a shame but with little glowing reviews from other travellers we were more than happy to head up the coast to Mancora to revive our tans and enjoy some surfing!

Peru - Mancora

2010-05-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

We were dropped off early morning from our night bus in Mancora and immediately loved the change of scenery. The place is basically one main street, off which there are tons of local eateries, hostals and market stalls. A short tut-tut ride (on a tarmac road, very different to the painful tut-tut journeys in Pisco on pot hole ridden dirt tracks) took us to Loki del Mar, our hostal for 5 days. Loki is a chain of hostals in Bolivia and Peru based in the cities mainly, with this being their newest venture on the coast; they are party hostals and although a little pricey they are really well maintained and a fun place to stay...and this one had a pool! Having to wait for our room to be ready we spent the first morning checking out the town to find what tasty street food options there were...not many! Checking into our room we were very happy to find we had a nice balcony overlooking the pool and beach. We then headed to the beach for the afternoon and enjoyed the rays!

There wasn't a lot to do here except sun bathe, surf, kite surf, drink, eat....and that's about it, so we happily spent our days sun bathing and taking on the waves before enjoying a few beers in the evening whilst we watched the beautiful sun set from the beach. We must admit though, that although we were staying at the crazy party hostal we didn't exactly join the majority of gringos and party through till the morning every night...strangely we both felt so tired that we were able to drift off at a sensible hour and sleep through the loud music and cheers that died off usually about 4am each day! (Maybe it's our age...everyone there seemed to be gap year students!)
The beach was great, nice fine sand, sandy sea beds and warm water! The surfing whilst we were there however, was difficult. The waves were strong and messy and there were lots of other surfers in the water to avoid hitting or being hit by! However, Lynne took a couple of lessons and with the help of the instructor soon became the Queen of the waves, riding many waves comfortably stood up and showing all those other beginners how to do it!! (Admittedly also showing David, who was cocky enough to think he was a decent surfer but who figured he must have done something to offend the sea because he took a battering!).

We also got back into the running making use of the long beach. We usually went an hour or so before sunset and enjoyed the tranquility of the far stretches of the beach all to ourselves. For lunch / dinner we often tucked into one of the many fresh fish meals available including Ceviche, the local coastal cuisine in Peru that consists of citrus-marinated raw seafood served with onions, chile, sweet potatoe, salad and corn.

Soon enough it was time to leave and having enjoyed our time on the coast we decided that our first stop in Ecuador would be on the coast and took the overnight bus to Montanita!

Huacachina

2010-05-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

For two of our weekends while at PSF we headed to nearby Huacachina. This is a little town situated in the desert by Ica. The main attraction are the land sand dunes where you can take sand buggies and go sand boarding. The first weekend there were 15 of us from PSF in this small town! We headed off straight after work on Saturday afternoon, checked into our hostel (with pool!) and then piled into the sand buggies for two hours of sand fun!! The sand buggies were great fun, the drivers took us on a roller coaster of a ride around the dunes, with plenty of jumps and jolts! Then it was boarding time...for the first three 'practise' runs we all attempted to sand board upright (as you would snowboard), however we soon realised that it was faster and a more thrilling experience to go down the slope on your stomach headfirst!! Of course, there were a few wipeouts at the bottom of the slopes with (you guessed it) David taking the biggest tumble and ending up covered in sand and dust but luckily only a few bruises! It was a lot of fun and the ride back in the buggy as the sunset was even better!!

After the boarding it was back to our hostel for a long-awaited hot shower (the showers in Pisco were cold!) and a ice-cold beer at the poolside bar! We then danced the night away at the hostel's bar until the early hours!

The next morning we were all feeling a bit delicate, so it was off to a local cafe (run by a English lady!) for a full english breakfast, or as close to it as you can get in Peru! This was followed by much poolside lounging and silly games in the pool before we packed up back to Pisco.

The next weekend followed a similar routine, although we didn't sandboard this time. There were even more PSF volunteers there this time and so we pretty much took over the hostel. That evening we headed back to the cafe for some more British style food and some cocktails, before once again taking over the dance floor at the hostel!

David's PSF Blog

2010-05-18T16:49:00.000-07:00

Below is a description of the projects I worked on during my time at PSF.

Las Dunas
Following the earthquake some whole communities had been flattened and have either stayed in the same location and are trying to rebuild their homes as before or have opted to move to new land to rebuild their lives in a different location. Las Dunas is one such community that has moved to the other side of the Pan American Highway and into the foothills of the huge sand dunes that line the edge of the vast desert region. The central Government of Peru in an effort to show the world they were giving aid to the town's people supplied a large percentage of the community cheap makeshift plastic homes. These had one room only, were nailed together and were simply placed on the ground. Now, with the help of a local church scheme, a few streets of the community are having concrete foundations laid and new brick homes constructed. The role of PSF in this project was to dig and prepare the foundations at which point the Church foundation will takeover. This project took roughly three weeks and we arrived for the last three days, two of which I worked on. The work consisted of pickaxing and where necessary jack-hammering the foundations and clearing away the rubble in long wheelbarrow runs. In the heat of Pisco this proved very hard indeed. It was a fantastic way to start our time at PSF due to the large team on site and the fact you were working right in the middle of one of the poorest communities dealing with the locals who also cooked you lunch every day.

Dinner
As discussed, each day several volunteers are required to cook dinner for everyone. For someone who has rarely cooked for more than two people (with the exception of a few barbeques) this proved a very enjoyable task especially when numbers were over 70. I cooked dinner twice, the first time in my first week when along with two others we joined Carolina in the kitchen. Carolina is the sister of the president, the local Peruvian who set up the charity around two years ago. Carolina has been a volunteer since day one and before having worked as a volunteer for Burners Without Borders the preceding organisation – also run by her family. She is a fantastic person with lots of energy and more importantly she used to run the kitchen and so is used to cooking for so many people. This day we cooked Lomo Salteado – a local dish. It's beef steak with chips, peppers, onions, chilies served with rice and salad. It was a really fun day visiting the market and buying at the meat and vegetables, although it was a little off putting at the meat market when there are flies buzzing around all the meat and not much in he way of the strict hygiene standards of UK supermarkets! It happened to be the birthday of several volunteers the same day and as a result we decided to make a large quantity of Sangira for everyone to enjoy as a surprise. As this would blow the budget, we decided to pay for it ourselves, especially since the cheapest box of wine cost just over 50p for 1litre!! The rest of the day was spent back at the volunteer house where we prepared the food. I took the responsibility for frying all the chips and enjoyed the “chippy experience” especially when it was an important task to taste each batch of chips! The sangria went down a treat and set everyone off for the big night we had in town!

After having a lot of fun with Carolina and the team, the second time I cooked it was again with Carolina and this time we opted for another Peruvian classic, Stingray (or Raya in Spanish). It was served breaded and fried and so I spent a lot more time with the pans frying the fish. We also made spring rolls (a local variant) and lots of salad.

New Volunteer House
During our stay, the organisation moved from it's original three buildings to a new larger headquarters nearby. This was a necessary step as the organisation has continued to grow and is much easier to run when everyone is under one roof! The new building is a hostal they have taken a open year lease on. From being handed the keys however there was a lot of work to be done including:
moving all the possessions from the previous houses
cleaning, repainting the old houses
cleaning the new house
building two new dormitories at the new house, one on the roof and one on top of the office
building a new kitchen
building a new out house for the bio diesel compound
building a new tool shed
concreting large portions of the yard
amongst other smaller tasks.

This meant that for the rest of the time we would be there lots of volunteer time would be spent at the house and not in the community, but it was a very important task and the quick completion of the new house would mean the organisation would be better set up to run its operations.

My first job at the new house involved expanding one of the dormitories. Along with Nick, a locksmith from Bristol, we were to take down a plywood wall out into the large hallway, then use the materials we could from that wall to build a new wall for an enlarged room. This was done so more beds could be fit into the room. With no carpentry experience between us we set to work and over 3.5/4 days we completed the task.
Being an NGO, money is obviously strictly monitored and all of it after the small amount spent on food and other facilities goes into the community. As a result, the aim for the construction of the new house was to be at as little expense as possible. One of the main reasons this was possible is because of the large amount of timber donated by a large Peruvian Steel company. This is wood that is used to transport steel and is mainly scrap wood, but we have first option to visit their site and shift through it all selecting the best – see below. What this means is that for our wall we were to use as good timber as we could find from the worst piles. It proved a tricky proposition, especially with the lack of tools and supplies available but we did it and were proud of the job done!

Sonja's House
Sonja is a lady who lives in one of the poor communities that was flattened during the earthquake. Here the community is rebuilding where their original houses stood. Sonja and her family have raised enough money to buy new materials for the house where needed and the role of PSF was to supply labour and tools to help her rebuild her home. I worked on this job for three days taking ownership for the completion of the job. This included helping construct several roofs of bamboo and asteria (small strips of thin bamboo nailed together in long strips), a small amount of concrete pouring and helping to clear all the rubble and dirt from the areas of the home that have been a construction site for so long. It was great fun doing this job as it was only two of us there with Sonja and it gave me the opportunity to use my Spanish all day. She was a delightful lady who helped really open my eyes to the long and arduous process it's been for so many since the earthquake. She has worked non-stop for three years along with her husband to try and rebuild and it was upsetting that we left with her having run out of money to complete the roof. I tried my best to source the materials she required but everything we had was required for other projects. Although frustrating, it showed the professionalism of this organisation where every project is assessed and prioritised to ensure the best use of materials. At the time we left they were in the process of raising money to help supply the materials required.

Olga's House, Kathryn & Hugh's Miracle Project concrete pour, Ludoteca School: All these were projects I worked on with Lynne which she has blogged.

Demolition Job
I spent just one day on this project at a house near the centre of town. It belonged to a couple who were looking to remove a wall and dig up some old foundations in preparation for the builders to build their new rooms. I was happy to see that we had the jackhammer booked as this one one of the power tools I was keen to try. We spent the whole morning jack hammering ans pick axing the old foundations. The wall they wanted taking down was complicated by the fact there was a huge crack diagonally across it which extended past the point they wanted to remain standing. With none of us being building or demolition experts it was obviously risky and in addition to being a little dangerous is would be too easy for someone who didn't know what they were doing to pull down the whole wall and the adjacent one. Over lunch we discussed this with the owner and a builder volunteer came to assess and agreed that we shouldn't touch it. Relieved we enjoyed the slap up meal they prepared for us, 2 courses, coca-cola and then a large bottle of beer each!!! In the heat of the day and after a hard morning this didn't help us get back to work!! Luckily there wasn't much to be done by us with the wall being a no-go. So instead we sat and “supervised” (watched!) a friend of the couple try and take down the wall against our advice by himself with the most minute regard for his own health and safety! At times he was trying to persuade the dodgy circular saw to start by spinning it with his own hand when plugged in! At one point he turned it on with the blade on the floor and almost lost his foot!! After lending him some of our tools we decided we couldn't stop him and left...it was at this point when we shook his hand that we noticed he had 2 missing fingers.....obviously some people just never learn!!!

Concrete Pours – Hillside community
The day after doing the concrete pour at Kathryn and Hugh's Miracle project (see Lynne's comments) I volunteered to join a team doing another large pour in a poor hillside community. Here, the family of the house had prepared the foundations and we were simply doing the pour with their aggregate and cement. Upon arrival we saw just how large these foundations were and that we were going to have to be taking the wheelbarrows of concrete over dodgy looking planks to access some of the areas! In total we went through 35 large bags of cement which equalled 70 pours! We did this in one go in the morning finishing for lunch at 14:30 – it was probably the hardest physical day of my time there especially after the previous days pour. We had just enough people to do all the tasks required but this required lots of rotation of duties. The lunch the family provided was substantial and after feeding us with shots of the liquor Pisco (very strong and nasty neat!) we all crashed out on the floor while we waited for the truck to pick us up! By the time we got back, we helped out in the yard at the new house.

Aceros Arequipa
As I have mentioned above, the majority of the wood used by the organisation is donated by Aceros Arequipa one of Peru's major steel manufacturers. They have a huge plant just outside Pisco where a large team of us went in trucks to sift and sort through their scrap wood piles. It was interesting to visit the plant and be transported from the run down town of Pisco to a very modern plant only just down the road. The plant reminded me of some of the large chemical plants I visited when a chemist all those years ago and we were amazed how western it felt. The job of shifting through the wood was good fun and involved the brave few of us to climb the unsteady mountains of wood and simply battle our way through it. Although maybe a little unsafe it was good dirty fun and by the end of the day I was the filthiest I have ever been!! Lunch was eaten at the site canteen with all the workers, a funny friendly bunch (bunch being a few hundred of the 1000+ who work shifts at the 24-hour plant). The trip back was spent in two trucks with all the wood as we needed to drop and resort it at our wood store near the house. One of the trucks was stopped by police twice and fined for carrying people in the back of the truck on the Pan American Highway which didn't amuse the driver but amused us.

Plastering and Painting the Old house
I spent only one and half days helping out a team plaster and paint the old volunteer houses in preparation for handing back the keys. With little tools we applied the plaster by hand before sandpapering it when dry and then adding the paint (which was a type of plaster mix again). In Peru, it is the responsibility of the landlord to supply the materials whilst the tenant does the work; therefore we had little input into what we could use. I was also required to remove the barbed wire from the roof and gate of the old house, a task that required the use a very heavy circular saw to cut through some rebar.

Kitchen Tiling
For my last day I fancied working at the new house, I therefore volunteered to help the resident carpenter who was responsible for building the fantastic new kitchen to fit the kitchen units and then tile them; Another new skill to add the list! I was able to fix the units to the walls easily enough before being shown how to prepare the mix and the tiling technique. I believe I did a good job and was happy to receive acknowledgement from some of the builders especially after dealing with some uneven table tops. Unfortunately these were heard by Lynne who now has me down to do the bathroom upon our return!!

Free time

In the eveneings, it was very common for everyone to enjoy a cold beer back at the house with possibly a generous slice of cake from "Cake Lady". A quick cold shower loater we'd return to the house for dinner. They organised activites for the evenings after dinner each week, the only one I partook in was football; either between ourselves or playing against the local tour guides. The matches against the tour guides was quite a feisty occasion...just the way 5-a-side should be!

Lynne's PSF Blog

2010-05-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

By way of background, Pisco Sin Fronteras is a charity which was set up to help the people of Pisco following an earthquake in 2007, which flattened most of the town. The community has recieved very little help from the state. Immediately after the earthquake, an organisation called 'Hands On' arrived to help the locals in the immediate aftermath, they were then followed by 'Burners without Borders' another NGO which aims to help communities following disasters. PSF replaced this charity about 2 years ago and have continued the work started by the two former aid organisations. The charity relies on word of mouth to attract volunteers and raises money with the help of volunteers and their friends and familes, as well as through approaching Peruvian businesses for assistance with projects. All members of management are volunteers who give up their time to help the community of Pisco.

So we arrived on Sunday night and were met out the taxi by some other volunteers heading off to the pool...'the pool, this isn't going to be as tough as we expected we thought'!!

Monday morning started at 7.45am for breakfast with all the volunteers in the yard of one of the Casas de Voluntarios. Volunteers take it in turns to cook breakfast so we were treated to scrambled eggs, fruit and bread this morning. The morning meeting kicks off at 8.30 with announcements and introductions from new volunteers, hence David and I had to stand up, like new kids at school, to tell the group about us. After this, TBC, the charity's director (real name Dave) gave us a summary of each project going on that day and the required number of volunteers for each one.

For Monday I ended up on dinner duty with three other volunteers, after a quick chat we decided to make spaghetti bolgnese and two of the group headed to the market to purchase the ingredients while I helped other volunteers breaking up pallets until my group returned. I then spent the rest of the morning on the roof of the house chopping up enough vegetables to feed 70 people!! We finished chopping around 2pm, and I headed back to the market with Gemma, another volunteer to buy the mince meat and a few other bits and pieces. Around 4pm we started cooking the bolognese sauce and the garlic breads, it was quite a job cooking for that many people but we pulled it off, serving up the pasta, sauce and breads by 6.30pm. Luckily for us there were another group taking care of dinner dishes so we could have a bowl of bolognese and relax!

Tuesday, I volunteered to attend two child daycare centres (ludotecas) in some poorer communities of Pisco. The first was El Molinho , a neighbourhood in the desert, where a number of people relocated to when their homes collapsed in the earthquake in 2007. PSF had built a ludoteca there and supplied volunteers every day to help out the lady who runs it. That morning there were only 4 kids there, although there can be as many as 30 some days. They range in ages from 2 – 14 but were all younger this morning. So I spent the morning playing football (badly!), pushing swings and working on the alphabet with one little boy.

In the afternoon we attended Alameda Ludoteca. This is even busier that the morning's one and is run by one volunteer lady who can have as many as 50 children running riot! For the kids this is a really important part of their lives, many of them have few toys to play with at home, so they get really excited when the Ludoteca opens and run in grabbing at the toys and games. They are really energetic and need a little more discipline than the morning's kids, they are constantly shouting for your attention and you have to try and be a bit more strict with them, not letting them walk all over you or spoil games that other children are playing! I really enjoyed volunteering here, although it was exhausting!! We played lots of catching games and building (and destroying!) sandcastles, it was great fun and you really feel that the children are benefiting from the centre.

We headed over to the volunteer house later that evening, where a feast of chilli, beans, rice and salad awaited us!

Wednesday, I volunteered to go to Las Dunes to dig trenches for house foundations. The community of Tupac Amaru was badly hit in the earthquake, many residents are now living in temporary accommodation in the desert and a church group has donated funds to help them build more permanent homes. PSF have volunteered to aid the residents digging trenches required for the foundations. David had done this the past two days and was aching from the work so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about!! It was tough...we were digging trenches, chipping away at the rocks and taking the waste away in wheelbarrows to dump. After just a few minutes on site, everyone was dripping in sweat, as the sun was relentless with no shade over the site. We worked until 12.30, then took an hour for lunch, prepared for us by a group of residents. The food at this project is well known among volunteers to be really good and plentiful, and indeed it was!! After lunch we continued the work until 4.15, when I was pleased to be able to down tools and climb into the van heading back for a much needed shower and well deserved dinner!! The team cooking today (including David) had prepared Lomo Salteado, a Peruvian dish of rice, chips, vegetables and meat and it was awesome!!

Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I was on the moving team, helping to move the contents of one of the volunteer houses over to a new place that the organisation was relocating to. I started the day, working in a group to clean the rooms of the new house. Then I joined in with various groups moving items across to the new house... not quite as rewarding as some of the jobs out in the community but a necessary job nonetheless and physically tiring.

I started the next week once again on the moving team but the dreaded Pisco belly struck me on Monday night and so I spent a very boring day on Tuesday in bed eating very little and drinking lots of fluids, hoping to recover for the next day.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday:I joined a team of four of us working on a local school project. Tupac Amaru School was built by PSF, financed by some previous volunteers, as a place where local people can go to learn practical skills such as cooking, building, carpentry, sewing, etc. While I was there we worked on fitting the roof, securing the walls, digging a trenches for the new plumbing, building tables, sanding furniture and painting murals. This was a really great project and meant we got to meet and spend time with the local lady who was going to run the school. Everyday she cooked us an amazing meal at her house for lunch and came round at the end of the day to talk excitedly about her plans for the school. I was sorry that we would be leaving Pisco before the school was finished and opened for business but happy and proud that the murals we painted would adorn the walls of the school, the tables would be used by new pupils each year and the trenches we dug in the blistering heat would provide water to the school for years to come.

The following week, David and I decided to do a few more jobs together, one of the days we helped out in the Alameda Ludoteca together, playing football with the locals kids, with David teaching them a few tricks! In the afternoon we ventured to Olga's house, Olga is a local lady who is trying to build her own house, fitting the building work around her schedule as a teacher at a local school. David and I helped her and her husband fit the re-bar for the concrete columns they would pour the next day.

Thursday was one of my favourite days at PSF, it will forever be known as 'Kathryn and Hugh's Concrete Floors Day'! Kathryn and Hugh are two volunteers who had raised money from friends and family at home to finance concrete floors for two local families. So many families in Pisco live on dirt floors, this is what their children play on and where they sleep, it is no way to live but concrete floors are a luxury they simply can't afford.

The two houses had been cleared the previous day and one, a modular (shed-like) structure had been moved and the floor area marked out. We spent the first couple of hours levelling the floors with pick axes and shovels, before laying out the plastic under layer. Then the fun began!! There was about ten of us working on the project, taking it in turns to shovel aggregate into the mixer, cut and move cement bags, wheelbarrow the concrete to the houses and level the concrete once poured. By 2pm we had one floor done and a tasty lunch awaiting us cooked by the families.

House two wasn't quite such a smooth operation, the concrete company hadn't delivered all the cement we had ordered and the aggregate was running low. Being the alpha males (!) David and Hugh went off to pick up the remaining ten bags of cement, unfortunately on the way back the wheel of the trike bust under the weight of the cement, they valiantly trooped on in the blistering sunshine to deliver the cement to us. Then David headed back with the trike to fix the puncture while Hugh and Kirsten accompanied him with wheelbarrows to pick up more aggregate!! Luckily some neighbours had a delivery of aggregate unused (only in Pisco!) and agreed to lend it to us, so between that and the deliveries from Hugh and Kirsten we managed to produce enough concrete for the final floor! Big high fives all round, it was an awesome day, physically exhausting but well worth it!!

Well after the euphoria of the day's work we all looked forward to a beer. It was also Nathan's last night, another volunteer we had become good friends with, so that was all the excuses we needed for a good 'ole celebration!

Friday was a slightly hungover day!! David and I took different approaches to this, he decided to sweat it out on another concrete pour while I opted for a sedate day, cooking dinner with Kirsten and Simon (resident chef). This basically meant another trip to the market, following Simon around as he decided what he wanted to cook, then an afternoon of shelling peas and chopping veggies...with an hour break for a snooze!!

Saturday morning we all headed over to the modular house where we had poured the concrete floor, to move the house back onto its new concrete base. It was great to see the family moving their furniture back in, happy with their new floor!

Monday, I took part in another concrete pour, unfortunately this was not to go so smoothly as the previous! This was part of the 'Miracle Floors project', the charity had raised money throughout the year through various events and had decided to spend the money providing concrete floors to a number of families in the Alameda district of Pisco. When we arrived at the first home in the project, the aggregate mix of sand and stone was yet to be delivered, despite being ordered the previous week. This meant we couldn't really get started until 11am, then about 30mins in, the mixer broke down. As we had started pouring the back room floors for one house we wanted to ensure the room was finished, which meant about 2 hours of hand mixing concrete!! We finally stopped for lunch around 3pm, when (hurrah!) the mixer was returned in full working order. So we got back on track at 4pm finishing the remaining floors in house number one and continuing on through sunset to complete all the floors in house number two. We returned to the volunteer house just after 7pm, very tired, hungry and with aching muscles!

After the strenuous day previously, I was back on the Tupac Amaru School project for my final day...it proved to be a good choice as it was a fun day of sanding and painting desks!

Wednesday, our final day at PSF!! After 3 ½ weeks of work and play we were sad to be leaving all the fantastic volunteers. The management team do such a fantastic job, we both have a profound respect for these people who dedicate their time selflessly to the aid of others. Our time there allowed us to meet so many lovely people from all over the world, we feel very privileged to have been part of the PSF family!

Cusco, Machu Picchu and Nazca

2010-05-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

There were several options/classes of bus from Puno to Cusco and it's safe to say we made a mistake. We opted for the cheapest option instead of one of the several 'tourist only' operators whose trips include a buffet lunch and several stop offs at places of interest on route. We figured we were in for a rough ride when instead of the mini bus we'd been promised, the agent we bought the tickets off turned up in a cab to take us to the bus station! Sitting on the bus we found the painted on air vents didn't open but were relieved to have opening windows. Our concern deepened when we were handed tickets for our luggage although they didn't attach anything to the actual bags..?!?! This meant that at every stop (there were lots of them, David spent his time next to the luggage hold keeping an eye on things)!

Once the bus left it took only an hour or so before it broke down leaving us stranded for over an hour. Once fixed, the bus filled with the locals, mainly the women (bowler hats included!). Each seemed to bring with them several large bags of maize that filled the bus's hold and meant the sitting area was filled with the excess! The bus was then stopped for a search by Peruvian police who between the 15 of them performed the most lack lustre effort at searching we've ever seen (a far cry from those Brazilian amazonian patrols we experienced months ago!) and we were especially entertained by the fact as soon as the other passengers realised the police were boarding there was wide spread panic as they all ran around the bus hiding bags of who only knows what!! To delay us even further a lorry had broken down in one town jack knifed across a junction!!

When we finally arriving into Cusco we jumped in a cab to the San Blas area of town where we headed for The Sami Wasi II Hostel. Central Cusco is really beautiful, with small cobbled streets stretching as far as one would want to walk up the valley hills it is built on.

It was soon evident that it was a very touristy city but one where you could really relax in and enjoy good food, drink and views on every street! We were also very happy to find that Machu Picchu was to open it's doors to the public once again after being closed following serious landslides several months before. This was an unexpected surprise and we made it our immediate mission to book on a trek there asap. We were introduced by the hostel staff to Pepe, a tour guide whose “office” was just down the road. Pepe was to prove a bit rogue but his pitch for his jungle trek to Machu Picchu worked on us! After checking out a few other high street tourist agencies who offered the more popular alternative Inka treks we opted to go with Pepe. Initially we were set to leave on the 28th but due to the ineptitude of the Peruvian Government who decided to delay the opening to the public, we ended up leaving on the 1st April. This meant that we had seven nights in the city before embarking.

The first night there we enjoyed an evening out with Eduardo and Carolina (the Mexican couple from the Salt Plains tour) who we had caught up here. The next day was spent exploring but unfortunately after eating eggs David contracted a bout of food poisoning. It hit in the evening and didn't really clear up until we started the trek on the 1st!

After some expert nursing from Lynne, he was ready to leave the hostel after a few days and we celebrated by taking Pepe up on his offer to go off and explore the immediate surrounding hills of Cusco and some recently (three years ago) uncovered Inka and Pre-Inka ruins. We went with a couple of other Swedish girls (one whom Pepe has a history with) and enjoyed our first glimpse of the kind of temple ruins that surround the city and the Sacred Valley. Pepe proved to be an interesting guide who was very spiritual and knowledgeable about the ancient rituals and temples. This cemented our decision to go with him for our trek to Machu Picchu. Unfortunately before long, the weather closed in and we started to make our way back towards town. Arriving back in town, Pepe invited us in for a coffee and tea, David accepted on behalf of us both so he could investigate where such a random soul lives. His place was covered in drawings he had done of his past girlfriends and others he had taken on tours. In between these were many other pictures and drawings. After one cup of cocoa tea and some random conversations it was evident that Lynne needed to get out of there!!

The next day we met up with Jen & Joe who had moved into the hostel next door. After introducing them to Pepe we had two more signed up for the hike, to celebrate we enjoyed a few drinks down on the Plaza de Armas. With one day to go before the hike we rested up, as David wasn't feeling too great once more, and spent some time buying essentials before briefly meeting with Enzo (from Montevideo).

So the 1st April came round and we set off for our hike at 5pm-ish. We initially met at Pepe's office and sheltered from the pouring rain. The driver was meant to meet us here but Pepe had to go running off to find him when he wasn't answering his phone- a sign of things to come. Once he did return he ordered us to head around the corner to the van..so we did this and when a driver outside herded us into his brand new huge Mercedes van we thought it was too good to be true......it was! We had infact jumped into another tour's bus and realised as soon as we saw Pepe walking away from us down the street ahead!! So we jumped out the van and pursued him down the street to the van which we were actually taking! Luckily, it wasn't too bad at all! So began the “five” hour journey to Santa Maria...the journey in fact took us seven hours but included a dinner stop and a few night time tours of Inka ruins on route! That night we stayed in a hostel in Santa Maria, we were a bit apprehensive getting on the van on the dirt road as the hostel seemed half finished and the owner didn't seem to be expecting us, however it worked out fine and we all found a bed for the night!

2nd April: In the morning we awoke a little later than planned and after enjoying an excellent breakfast (bananas in pancakes with honey and plenty of fruit and hot drinks) We set off at 8:30. Our driver for the first part of the journey informed us he'd only be able to take us a short distance because of a landslide that occurred early that morning! After five mins in the car we were facing the landslide and we had to climb not only over this but another few smaller ones past it before we able to enter the jungle path. This would be a sign of things to come.

Pepe was soon in his zone teaching us about all the plants and fruits of the jungle letting us try them as we went. This was how the morning went until 1pm where we stopped for lunch at a local farmers house, a friend of Pepe's since he lived in the area many years ago. Here we enjoyed some fantastic food and yet more local fruit concoctions. The afternoon took us higher up onto an original Inka trek that offered some incredibly beautiful views of the valley we were walking. At some of these beauty spots it also allowed Pepe to teach us about meditation and some ancient Inka rituals. Interesting, although each time we had to sit and wait for him to finish his own meditation session!

It was later in the afternoon that we started to realise that Pepe wasn't so sure what state his usual route was in following the worst rainy season in a decade that has meant all these areas have been closed for the past two months. It really hit home as we crossed two very recent landslides in succession before we met a fast flowing river, looking across the rushing rapids we could see the road on the other side we had to get too – the bridge had been destroyed in the recent rains!!! By this time is was approaching 4:30pm and darkness would soon be upon us. With Pepe looking further up stream and then talking about hiking to the top of the mountain behind us to find a road we took a group decision and decided to attempt a crossing using the logs on the rocks around us. After an immense group effort we lifted a huge log up and over and threw it across the rapids....unfortunately it fractured ¾ across. It did however give us a stable-ish platform against which we could lean against and plough through the stomach high rapids. Well, it enabled Pepe, both of us and Kaysie to cross before it suddenly broke under the strength of the water and disappeared down stream – very luckily no-one was crossing when it went! With Jen & Joe still stranded on the other side we had to find a new plan – the best and only really option was to form a human chain across the water at a point further up with Pepe and David in the middle and using another smaller log Jennie & Joe would hold onto us and cross behind us...it worked and soon enough we were all across, very wet but very relieved!! What an adventure this was turning out to be!

It was now past 5 and Pepe told us that the we just needed to walk the road for 1 ½ hours to arrive at our destination for the evening – Santa Theresa. Unfortunately for us, Pepe was absolutely useless at timings (the fact he doesn't have a watch suggests we should have seen this coming). We were soon enough walking in pitch darkness with no town in sight. By 6:45 we had found room in passing vehicles for the girls which left David, Joe & Pepe walking. We gave up listening to Pepe's estimates but were fortunate enough to be picked up by a passing truck that got us into town before 8pm. We were all exhausted after a long day and ate very well in the restaurant of Pepe's friend enjoying a few beers. We were supposed to be camping this night but we told Pepe there was no chance of that now it was dark and the campsite would require a walk out of town, so he found us lodgings in a hostel. That night the rain returned with even more force!!

3rd April: After breakfast we found a driver for the morning's drive but were not surprised to hear that there had been two more large landslides only a few hours earlier which meant we would walking further than planned once again, today with our rucksacks and tents! Initially however, Pepe wanted to go down into the bottom of the valley to inspect the damage to the Hot Springs during the major landslide that destroyed so much of the area. This was where we were meant to camp for the previous evening! From the photos we have seen of it it looked like an amazing place to relax so we were gutted to hear of its destruction. Jennie and Kaysie decided to give it a miss so we left for the one and a half hour walk with Pepe and Joe. Down on the valley floor we crossed loads of boulders that had fallen during the landslides and watched the cliff sides as many more crashed down either side of us. When we arrived at the hot springs there was nothing but rubble – everything had been destroyed, the pools, car park, road, restaurant and lodgings. We did however find two small puddles of the crystal clear hot spring water that had found its way up through the rocks. Following Pepe's pitch about its health benefits it didn't take David long to roll out the speedos and give it a go! The walk back up the steep valley side was very tough and we made it back to Santa Theresa just in time for lunch!

The Peruvians are very relaxed about timings and so it wasn't a shock that we left the town almost an hour late. Exiting the car we had to walk over the landslides before making our way to the public river crossing in the hot, hot sun!! After an hour or so we arrived at the crossing and joined the queue. This is a river crossing we have never seen the likes of before. It was like a theme park death slide where three people sat in a metal crate and after the initial momentum ended you helped pull yourself in with the aid of some locals at either end! Lynne was fairly unnerved by it and didn't particularly enjoy the ride across!! The queue was almost an hour long due to the slow manual process but by the time it was our time the queue was much larger than when we arrived! At least it gave us a rest and some enjoyment watching some of the daredevil locals stand on the edge as they travelled across.

On the other side we were meant to be picked up by car once again but as you may have guessed due to the destruction in the area the area was not accessible by car anymore. So onwards we marched in the roasting heat to Hydro where the train line to the town of Agua Caliente and Machu Picchu starts. The extra weight of the bags, distance walked and heat meant everyone was feeling tired now and with the approaching darkness we were looking to Pepe for guidance. He didn't seem to have much more clue than us unfortunately and after narrowly missing a train and the realisation we would be walking in darkness for the second night running and would have to pitch our tents in torch light meant Pepe wasn't the most popular person in the group!

After an hour and a half walking along the train track we arrived at the camp site to become further frustrated with Pepe! The owner of the campsite was not at home – he hadn't told her we were coming and just assumed she'd be there! This meant that we had no dinner as she was the cook when you stayed there! After a slightly heated debate about what to do, either set camp and stay or to walk a further hour to Agua Caliente and stay in a hostel, we opted to stay there as we were all tired and settle with bread, tuna and cheese for dinner. It was almost unbelievable how oblivious Pepe was to our disappointment as he maintained he wanted to show us the beautiful gardens of the camp site and waterfall before telling us a story – we swiftly pointed out that it was pitch black so we couldn't see anything and that we weren't interested in any story at the time!!

Luckily, we had brought along our own tent even after Pepe told us he had a two and a four man tent, when in reality he had two three man tents but his had a broken pole which meant it was half the size inside and not waterproof!! Just another example of how unorganised he really was, the fact he never checked the tent or more likely he forgot about it or just couldn't be bothered fixing it – in short if we hadn't had brought ours I doubt any of us would have got any sleep!! We realised soon enough we weren't the only ones hiking in dark as a trail of some 20 or so hikers passed in the darkness as we prepared for bed. For all these lost and tired souls we provided a top up of water from the fresh water pipes the site had available. These poor guys heading for Agua Caliente must have reached town very late at night!

The other dilemma we had was returning to Cusco. Initially all visitors to Machu Picchu required a return train ticket to Cusco and we had purchased these with Pepe. However, as soon as the Government changed their position on this, Pepe had sold them back but now this meant we would have to walk back (due to the landslides) the way we came or face an alternative seven hour hike. This went down very badly with the group as it became very evident that Pepe is completely disorganised and clueless!! Pepe tried to rectify the situation by walking alone to Agua Caliente to pick up food for breakfast and to try and purchase train tickets to Cusco whilst we nestled down to sleep.

4th April: We had planned to get up at 4am to start the hike to Machu Picchu, however when we woke in the morning to rain Pepe decided that we would delay our hike an hour as we wouldn't be able to see sunrise through the clouds. We eventually set off around 6am, the walk there took an hour and a half, the first 30 minutes were a leisurely walk along the train tracks, followed by an hour of intensely steep climbing to the main entrance in high humidity! At the top other tourists were laughing as we sat there catching our breath and quite literally steaming!! After recovering our breath we headed inside and were greeted with the amazing views of this unique place. Being there early we were able to enjoy it with relatively few people around.

The first stop was the trek to the top of Wayna Picchu - the tall sacred peak that towers over the site. Before this, Pepe told us about Machu Picchu and the many different theories surrounding its purpose. The walk to the top of Wayna Picchu took one hour and was steeper than anything we had walked before. Quite how the Inkas built this staircase and the buildings at the top is astonishing! By the time we reached the peak we were once more absolutely shattered (especially as we hadn't eaten a proper meal since lunchtime the day before!) but the views are simply incredible. Not only the town of Machu Picchu but the surrounding green valleys and mountains are truly dramatic. The clouds form several thin layers and created a very mystical feeling. Pepe had made the climb with us but he left as soon as we reached the top so he could head to Agua Caliente to pick up some hot lunch for us and find out if there were any spaces on the trains to Cusco – we arranged to meet him at 2pm. This gave us a few hours to climb down and explore the town (but first we headed to the cafe outside for some much needed snacks!).

Walking round the ruins it's hard to comprehend just how this place was constructed, particularly after witnessing first hand how hard the climb is! The site was gradually becoming more busy with the arrival of the large tours but it was easy to find fairly secluded places to relax and take in the views. The brickwork was really astonishing, similar to that found in Cusco and is testament to the industrial minded people of the Inkas.

We returned to the cafe outside the park to meet Pepe who had actually come through for once with hot food and a replenished supply of water. He also had news regarding our return to Cusco; there were no trains for several days but the landslides between Santa Maria and Cusco had been cleared and so the way was clear to return the way we had come. There was always the risk of further landslides the next night but we decided to camp again at the same campsite (with the promise from Pepe the owner would be there to cook us dinner) and early the next day head off back to Santa Teresa from where we would get a bus all the way back to Cusco.

The walk back was very relaxed and all down hill with us returning to camp, before dark for once! We were relieved to meet the owner of the site and before settling down for the dinner she had cooked we all had a brief power nap! We ate dinner in her house but because of the threat of powerful neighbouring river destroying her home she keeps all her furniture in a storage shed during the rainy season, as a result we ate off plates on our knees sat on tree logs using our headtorches for light...but after such a wonderful experience we happy just to have warm food and drink whilst discussing the days adventure.

5th April: Spirits were high as we set off early to head back knowing we'd (hopefully) be back in Cusco with a warm shower, beer and good food by evening! The walk back to Hydro along the train tracks and then onto the cable car crossing took under 2 hours and we were very relieved to find no queue at the crossing. Once across the river we had to negotiate a fresh landslide from the morning and there was a brief panic when Kaysie fell waist deep in the mud and got stuck with the looming overhang of rocks cracked and ready to fall, fortunately there were several locals walking near us who ran in and pulled her out before any of us could react. The road we walked on a few days from Santa Teresa had also been badly damaged this morning ans so we were forced to walk back to town through the valley bottom. This was aided by a few locals we hired for a few soles to guide us and get us across another cable car crossing. With the town in site we sensed the end and after a short steep climb into town from the valley bottom we headed straight for a restaurant and ordered a well deserved beer!!

It took a frustrating hour to chase our driver to get going by 2pm in order to avoid a large storm we could see approaching slowly from down the valley – with the number of landslides on these roads we did not want to be on the mountain side in the rain!! We shared the mini bus with a group of Peruvian students – the poor boys must not have enjoyed our accompanying smell!! We won't ramble on about this journey back but it provided the worst three hours of our trip so far. In daylight you could see just how much damage these landslides cause and the road is built into the steepest rock faces we have ever seen. When approaching some corners you could see cracks beneath the road and on several occasions we were stuck in mud where a landslide had been cleared and the back tyres skidded towards the edge of the cliff – we were all on edge and close to screaming! The stretch between Santa Maria and Santa Teresa is frequently closed because of landslides and one that most tour operators tell you to avoid due to how dangerous it is – we only found this out upon our return to Cusco! There were two instances where the van became stuck in mud/water and we slid precariously close to the edge as the driver tried to correct things! This was two instances too many.

We were very relieved to arrive back in Cusco and after saying our goodbyes to Kaysie we all made our way to the same hostel to escape the tiring Pepe and get ready to head out for some food at Jacks Cafe!! We were all so tired that after one beer we were ready for bed and departed with the promise of a celebration tomorrow!!

6th April: After a well deserved lie-in we met Joe and Jen early afternoon to head down to the Plaza De Armas and settle in Nortons Pub for some food and beers during some Champions League action! After the game we made use of the darts boards before enjoying a few drinks at the hostel and a night out on the town!

7th April: Returning from the night out at a very ungodly hour today was spent sleeping it off and filling our faces with some good food!

8th April: The day of our departure from Cusco. Leaving in the afternoon we spent the day doing a few chores in town before meeting Joe and Jen at Paddy's Pub for a farewell meal. We were sad to leave Cusco after a fantastic time but looking forward to moving onto the Nazca for some sunshine!

9th April: The bus journey was slightly delayed so we arrived by mid morning. Nazca is a very small town and appears to be dependent on the tourist trade which the near by Nazca lines attracts. The heat was the first thing we noticed and it felt good to be back in flip flops and vest weather after the chilliness of Bolivia and Cusco. Deciding that we'd check out the Nazca lines tomorrow we headed for Brabants Hostel and settled in. Strolling round the town centre didn't take long so we enjoyed spending some time sampling the local cakes and empanadas before heading back to relax and cook dinner, a pleasant change after too much time spent in pubs and cafes.

10th April: Up early we jumped on a local bus to the nearby Mirador where you can view several of the famous lines. This was after deciding against the airplane trip due to the expense and the fact we have been warned about the lack of safety and comfort. The Mirador however was one of the most unusual and disappointing attractions of this trip. It consists of a rusty old tower at the side of the road that isn't actually that high and to climb you have to pay a small amount for the privilege. We laughed about it with a couple of British travellers who also made the journey.

Spending no more than ten minutes at the site we flagged down a local bus and returned to town before midday. The rest of the day was spent at the Nazca Lines Hotel (the only posh hotel in the town) where for 20 soles (~ £5) we enjoyed lunch, drink and use of the pool for the rest of the day, this was a great way to relax and escape the heat of the day! That evening we relaxed with a home cooked meal and looked forward to starting our volunteering in Pisco.

La Paz, Lake Titicacha (Copacabana - Bolivia, Puno - Peru)

2010-04-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

After a very bumpy bus ride with limited sleep we arrived in La Paz early on Wednesday morning. We didn't have a hostel booked so asked the cabbie to drop us off on a busy street in the town centre so we could go in search of one. We ended up at the Estella Andina, a really nice hotel, with lovely bright rooms, with paintings by local artists adorning the walls and a fantsatic room terrace with panaromic views of the city. The hotel was expensive though so we decided to stay there one night to enjoy the comfy bed and cable tv after our sleepless bus journey and to find somewhere more budget friendly for the following nights. The next day we moved to Hostal Republica, a really beautiful old house with a lovely sunny courtyard. The house used to be the home of General Jose Manuel Pando the President of the Bolivian Republic before he was assassinated in 1917!

We spent most of our time in La Paz wandering the streets at a very slow pace!! The altitude there makes it difficult to be energetic and we were happy to fit in with the leisurely pace of life!

We spent quite a bit of time perusing the witches market, where you can buy all sorts of Bolivian knitwear items, such as wooly socks and ponchos as well as more unusual souvenirs...dried llama foetus anyone??! David bought a cosy jumper from one of the stalls, while Lynne purchased a poncho and some pressies for the folks back home. After exhausting ourselves with all that shopping we retired to the local cafes for brews and large slices of lemon cake!!

We stayed 4 nights in total in La Paz and enjoyed trying out many of the local restaurants which offer 3 course lunch for 85 bolivianos(about 85p)!! As well as sampling the 'not so local' Irish and English pubs with some fellow travellers. Olivers Travels became a favourite due to the fact they served pints...of tea as well as beer! We also managed to met up with Jen and Joe on our last day to watch the final day of the six nations and that extraordinary win for the Scots in Dublin that put a big smile on Lynne's face!

On one rainy afternoon, we enjoyed the four local museums situated in the old part of the city, which gave us a great insight into the traditional Bolivian way of life and the feelings of the indigenous people at the arrival of the Spanish.

La Paz very much feels like a mixture of cultures, where old meets new. We noticed that the upper class La Paz residents seem keen to shrug off the traditional ways of life and look down upon the poorer classes who work extremely hard to make ends meet. It will be interesting to see how Bolivia progresses over the next few years and whether globalisation will have the same effects as it has on many other South American countries.

After four nights in La Paz, we took an early bus up to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca and arrived there around 3pm, we were immediately set upon by hoteliers offering us rooms and we ended up following one landlord back to his hostel. To be honest, this place would have made Fawlty Towers look flawless! The staff were really disorganised and half the hotel wasn't actually finished, having said that it was clean, the showers were hot and it was very cheap so we decided to give it a go! We decided to visit the Isla del Sol the next day so bought our boat tickets then spent the rest of the day exploring the town, chilling on the coast with the locals and climbing the hill 'Calvario', passing many crosses and monuments of the way to the top where we had great views of the lake below. We also visited the Cathedral in the main square, where, bizarrely, locals bring their cars to be blessed. We watched in amusement as they draped their vehicles in flowers and confetti, then doused them in fizzy wine and beer!!

The next morning we took the boat from Copacabana to Isla del Sol. This route is really popular with tourists and there were about thirty of us crowded into the vessel for the two hour trip. We landed on the north of the island around 10.00am and proceeded to take the Inca path which would lead us to the south of the island in approx four hours. The scenery en route was beautiful and we saw a number of Inca and pre Inca ruins, including a sacred stone shaped as a puma (you had to use your imagination a bit here) and a sacrifice table. The only downside to the island walk was that we had to buy 'tickets' from locals at three points along the pathway in order to visit or just pass through their community. We weren't told about this previously so it was just luck that we had enough cash to do this and we couldn't help but feel that we were being scammed! We also ended up paying over the odds to get back to the mainland, as following the Lonely Planet's advice we only purchased a one-way ticket just in case we didn't make it back in time for the 2.30pm boat and had to stay over on the island. We had no choice but to pay a ridiculously inflated fee for a boat to take us back...don't listen to the LP just buy a return ticket in the first place!! However, despite the dent to our funds, we still enjoyed our trek across the island and the picturesque views along the way. We had dinner in one of the local beachfront restaurants, both opting for the local specialty of trout from the lake, then watched as the locals set up lanterns and stages along the waterfront for the Fiesta del Mar which was taking place the next day.

The next morning we joined crowds of residents and tourists who turned out to watch parades of schoolkids, navy officers and other local dignitaries. It was an array of colour, with traditional costumes and music and pretty entertaining! Lago Titicaca is especially important to the Bolivians, since Peru snatched their sea coast in the War of the Pacific between 1879-1884, it is their only waterfront and the base for their Navy! As the speeches started we began to lose interest and went off in search of some lunch, before boarding the bus to Puno, Peru.

We boarded our bus to Puno about 1pm, the bus was full of other backpackers and as we approached the border we were given a few tourist warnings, such not to change money from touts in the border region. We then disembarked en masse for the immigration offices. The border crossing between Bolivia and Peru were surprisingly efficient and we arrived in Puno in the early evening. The bus conductor recommended a hostel to us (his mate's hostel obviously!) at a really good price so we decided to give it a go. Puno is much bigger and far less picturesque than Cobabcana and the main reason to come here is the floating islands, so we set about finding a tour company to take us there the next day and booking our bus out of there afterwards! After arranging the tour we had a wander round the main streets of the town, coming across the local market where we bought the veggies for that night's dinner. Then it was a quiet night in for us, with the surprising luxury of cable tv to send us off to sleep!!

The next morning we joined our tour group to the floating islands. This is really touristy but also worth doing to see how the people lived on the islands and how important the lake was to those previous generations. The pre-Incan Uros people, who initially began the tradition of the floating islands, did so for a peaceful lifestyle, to escape the violent struggles on land. The island are made of totora, a type of rush growing native in the lake. Its dense roots support the top layer, which rots and must be replaced regularly by stacking more reeds on top of the layer beneath. The boat trips leave in their dozens and we were directed to one of the islands and greeted by the families that supposedly live there now (we were somewhat skeptical of this). After being herded off the boat our guide took us through the history and culture of these islands, this was the highlight of the tour and really interesting to hear. Then we were invited to speak to the islanders and look around their houses, while they tried to sell us their 'hand-made' crafts!! We then took a reed boat to another island where we could again part with our hard-earned cash for drinks and snacks. We returned to the mainland about 2pm just as the heavens opened and the rain lashed down so we made a run for it to a cafe for a brew and some food. It continued to rain into the night and so we abandoned ideas of going out, opting for another night in, some home-cooked food and a beer!

Bolivia – Tupiza and the Uyuni Salt Flats Tour.

2010-03-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

Thursday: We arrive at the Bolivian border and disembark our comfortable bus onto the paved concrete road below. We then decide to walk to the Border control which takes just under 10 mins but then realise that everyone else took a cab from the bus station – so we find ourselves at the back of the customs queue! Wow – it took a long time to process – and this was the Argentinian side! It did however give us time to take in the surroundings and spot a road sign telling us Ushuaia is 5,121 km away and that we have travelled that whole distance by bus within the last month!! A short walk across the bridge at the border control and we entered the more painful Bolivian border control – a sign of things to come perhaps!!

Walking into the Bolivian town of Villazon, on the gravel road, the first order was to exchange some cash amid the craziness (memories of the Colombian Caribbean coast were brought swiftly back), as Tupiza, where we were heading, doesn't have any ATMs! We headed for the bus station and were mobbed by the crowds of ticket sellers before almost being almost bundled onto a “bus” heading for Tupiza, our first stop in Bolivia. It took the whole journey (3 hours) to adjust to the fact we had left level concrete roads behind and comfortable seats as we tried to settle into the cracked, smelly, leather seats – not updated since the bus was manufactured cerca the 1960's. There is evidence of a new road being built, although we saw no machinery during the whole journey so we don't hold out any hopes for it being finished any time soon!

Arriving in Tupiza we were met by a number of hostel owners, we chose one of them on the promise of hot water showers and so headed off behind her to her hostel. We were extremely surprised to find a clean, large, triple room with en suite and cable TV, especially after all the fear mongering we've heard about the level of accommodation in Bolivia. We weren't planning to spend too long here, although it is a cute little town, so we started round the tour agencies to book a days horse riding for the next day and our 4 day Jeep tour round to the Uyuni salt flats for the day after. We booked both at the HI (Hostelling International) hostel. For the Salt Flats tour we chose not to opt for an English guide in the hope we'd be able to build on our Spanish that flagged so badly in Argentina!

For dinner we opted for some local cuisine... pizza and salad – damned good in-fact! We'll also add that we started to feel the altitude even here at only 2950m, climbing the stairs of the hostel with the rucksacks left us requiring a few seconds to regain breath. This was surprising after we both felt fine back in Bogota which lies at ~2,500m.

Friday: We met our horse-riding guide at 10:30, having being promised very tranquil horses based on our zero experience. We chose to do horse riding here after reading that it was the area that The Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid were killed after holding up a local bank – true cowboy country!!! After the initial hilarious attempts of mounting the horses (Lynne's attempts were not particularly lady-like – there is a photo but it is strictly not allowed to feature on the blog!) we set off, just the two of us and our guide – who spoke no English. It wasn't long before we realised that we'd been incredibly stupid (all will be revealed soon enough) and booked the full day 7 hour tour instead of the shorter 3 or 5 hour options.

The first 3 hours were brilliant fun; we made our way round through some fantastic 'cowboy' landscapes of intimidating looming red rocks and huge cacti. The horses were well behaved and we were holding our own in conversation with the guide. We even learnt to trot and at one point broke into a canter although both Lynne and I soon put an end to that with both if us feeling that we wouldn't last too long in the saddle! The fact that the guide was pushing us to this level so early was a sign of things to come!

We stopped for lunch next to the Rio del Oro (River of Gold) which in the not so distant past was filled with Bolivians sifting for gold and silver – the area is now a popular spot for the locals to cool off in the water from the hot sun – and hot it was!!! This was quite a striking area and feeling comfortable in the saddle the Henderson's started to believe they had a hold of this horse-riding lark! It was all soon to change! We were initially happy that the way back was via a different route, often on these tours you cover the same ground, and we enjoyed the first few water crossings in the gentle flows of the wider parts of the Rio del Oro. Gradually though, the crossings became more frequent and more powerful. We eventually came across one where we both had reserves about the strength of the current and suggested to the guide that this might be a bit much for us, however, he was not to be dissuaded and so we ventured into the river on horseback with the guide following behind. About three quarters of the way across the river both our horses buckled and fell in the deeper, stronger current, the water reaching right up to our waists, the sudden collapse of the horses sent us both off the side of the saddle and Lynne was thrown into the water, whilst David was able to just cling onto the saddle while his horse recovered and exited the river. It was a scary event as if the horse had fallen on top of Lynne things could have been much worse! What this also meant was that guide's horse saw this and then didn't want to follow, so Lynne and I ended up on one side of the water with the guide on the other. Before we could try and plan our way back David had to ride on and retrieve Lynne's horse which had run on ahead, somehow he managed this! Things were made worse as the guide – stranded on a muddy island in the river was thrown from his horse when he entered deep soft mud! Lynne was not hurt but was drenched head to toe, with no dry clothes to change into, luckily David had a spare jumper so first job was to exchange t-shirts with David, who spent the rest of the day sweating in his jumper, what a hero! We spent roughly an hour watching the guide try a suitable crossing point for his horse before he crossed on foot to help take us back over (NB: he intially told us to try and cross back at a weaker point but the horses didn't even budge when we kicked them and shouted “Vamos”, they knew we were beginners and didn't have a clue!) Once back across the river the guide gave us two options to get back to town, firstly, to go back the way we came, or secondly, to continue ahead along a mountain path that was “un poco peligroso” in English – a little dangerous! So it was, we headed back the way we came although after over 5 hours on the sadde it wasn't quite so much fun anymore! To make matters worst, David's horse started to misbehave, running off for food at every opportunity and breaking into trots constantly leaving him way up ahead, where he was hounded by packs of stray dogs nearer town which only forced the horse to go faster!! The last few hours were tiring and sore and we were very relieved to finally dismount!!

In summary, (neglecting the enjoyable part), the day had one dangerous incident and two very sore bums too many! After a warm shower we headed back to the tour agency office to confirm the details for the next morning departure to Uyuni; David took the opportunity to complain to the owner about the fact as beginners we should have never been made to cross such a strong river – but it soon dawned on us that Bolivian tour companies don't quite have the Health & Safety regulations we are used to in the UK! We left with nothing but a few “I very sorry Lin” (the Spanish have great difficulty pronouncing Lynne)!

Before an early bed to rest those sore musces and tired heads we headed to a local popular haunt for our first traditional Bolivian meal, pollo dorado for a mere £1 each, it was really good and we left impressed with the price and quality.

Saturday: Arriving at the tour office we met our travelling companions for the 4 day tour to Uyuni: Eduardo and Carolina (a married couple from Mexico) and Joaquin (from Rosario, Argentina). All spoke English but we agreed that we would try and speak only Spanish so we can practice (they did however agree to help translate the guide for us when required). We then met our guide, Fraulan and his wife, our cook, Rosemary, two locals. David was happy to see Rosemary was carrying a few pounds, just his type of chef! Our Nissan 4x4 was comfortable enough for the five of us, guide and chef with the backpacks thrown on the roof with the other equipment. We had read varying reports about some of the tour companies, especially around the quality of the 4x4 and the tyres. David had company from Eduardo when checking out the tread on the tyres including the spare; the only concern being that the spare looked a bit well worn! We were to later learn that there are three parties involved in the operation – the guide (a freelancer), the vehicle owner and the tour agency. Effectively what this means is that there is no-one party who takes responsibility for the maintenance of the vehicle and most importantly it's tyres. We were appeased, however, to learn Fraulan was a trained mechanic, who would over the four days be a saviour for several other tourist groups whose 4x4s blew tyres or had engine problems!

As soon as we reached the outskirts of Tupiza, we started a rapid climb off-roading along a mountain “path” with no safety barriers obviously, it was scary at times, particularly when Fraulan was showing off or being a bit careless by driving right up behind other jeeps or trying to overtake them, what's more the dirt flicked up by the jeeps meant visibility in front was at times non-existent! Fortunately, Carolina politely ordered him to calm down! We reached well over 4,500m by the end of the day, a considerable climb from Tupiza which lies at 2,950m. We were warned about the altitude sickness but we were all able to keep it at bay by chewing on cocoa leaves supplied by Rosemary (the locals eat them constantly – though they are not very nice!).

The first day's journey supplied some fantastic views across the region from up high, not quite as spectacular as the following days but impressive nonetheless. We didn't have much opportunity to have a walk when we stopped at viewing points but this suited everyone fine as we found ourselves seriously out of breath after the shortest of gentle climbs. Lunch was served alongside the other touring jeeps (~12 in total) on a grassy plain filled with llamas, which gave us our first opportunity to get up close with the animals and for David to familiarise himself with what will be filling his belly over the coming weeks. It was also our first meal on the tour and we were pleasantly surprised by the grub that Rosemary whipped up – with David taking to the strange meat parcels better than Lynne.

The final climb in the afternoon introduced us to the varying nature of the environment here and we enjoyed sand swept mountain tops amidst rock valleys. At every turn we were treated to sensational panoramic views across the mountain / volcano tops for as far as the eye could see – it took a while to comprehend the vastness of the wilderness here and made us hungry for more. I'm afraid that the photos taken of the valleys just don't do it justice so you'll just have to take our word for it. Amongst the mountains, Fraulen also pointed out several small communities who still spoke the indigenous languages and whom continued to mine the lands for precious metals, mainly silver.

We stopped for the night in a small community called San Antonio. The place was made up of small adobe houses and exists primarily for the tourists. The five of us had our own dormitory room equipped with nothing more than a well-worn bed each and plenty of warm woolen covers to combat the cold temperatures at night. Before dinner, David got involved in a football match with some of the other tourists and the local kids. All the tourists soon regretted their first few sprints as our lungs emptied and had us keeling over, whilst the kids ran circles round us. However, David had some very talented local girls on his side and he helped mastermind a victory that will go down in local folklore – so he tells himself! As darkness arrived we had dinner in our own little dining room and enjoyed the warming 3-course dinner laid on by Rosemary. The rest of the evening was spent playing cards.

Sunday: We were up at 4:30am, to vamos at 5:00am after some breaky. David really struggled to sleep during the night and didn't feel too hot as the jeep headed off – altitude sickness had taken him! Gradually, as we made our way through the first few stop-offs he felt worse and worse until the jeep had to be stopped. After a few minutes sat on the mountain side he was given some tablets by Fraulan and filled his mouth with cocoa leaves – the result, 30mins later he felt like a new man!

Shortly afterwards we reached a new high on the journey, 4,855m with views of the inactive Volcano Uturuncu which stands at an impressive 6,008m. After a wait at a checkpoint for Fraulan to attend to his and his mates jeeps we were off to enjoy some incredible scenery on desert plains surrounding by imposing mountains and volcanoes whilst catching our first glimpse of the local flamingo population feeding on several large lakes. The area is so peaceful, we felt we could sit in some of these places for hours just enjoying the silence and 'other worldy' views. One of the most impressive sights was Lago Verde. After being informed we would be having lunch at some thermal springs we briefly stopped at a smaller lake that is covered in a natural white powder (we can't remember the chemical name) but it is farmed and sold to the shampoo industry; this would be the first of many lakes we would see where this chemical covers lakes – but don't worry we won't be giving a geology lesson mainly because we couldn't fully understand Fraulan! But we have made a point to research this on wikipedia one day!

The thermal springs are situated at the base of a stunning lake, one which the Bolivian Government is trying to promote as one of the new seven wonders of the world – we're not sure about that, but it is a beautiful spot. The thermals meanwhile, are constrained to a smallish man-made bathing area where hot water flows up from springs in the rocks below. They were full of the other tourists as everyone waited for their respective chefs to cook up a hot lunch. The baths were really warm and soothing (especially for two retired horse riders who still struggled with very sore muscles) and the fact they were filled with lots of smelly tourists didn't bother us. Lunch was consumed very quickly, David being taught a lesson on how to eat by Eduardo, much to the surprise of Lynne.

The afternoon took us on a wondrous tour of the so called Dali Deserts, named after the famous Spanish artist Salvador Dali once it emerged they had inspired much of the sandy red schemes and desert landscapes he used in so much of his work, however, we were a little puzzled once we found out he had never visited them and we're pretty sure in his age colour photographs and the internet were not readily accessible (perhaps we lost the translation)! Ignoring this though, the colours were incredible and we all just sat back and relaxed taking in the stunning surroundings.

The trip took us to another picturesque lake sitting at the base of another inactive volcano 'Volcan Licancahur'. Racing back across the deserts we had one more stop at some natural geysers called 'Sol de Manana' at a staggering 4,870m, these were the first geysers either of us have ever visited and we regretted rushing in close when the strong sulphur smells hit us hard! We persevered though to get a photo for the blog! Base was only a short drive away close to Laguna Colorado – our first stop in the morning. The base camp for the night was again a string of adobe buildings with very basic rooms. We worked up an appetite taking a brief walk with Eduardo and Carolina round the camp before dinner and playing cards till bedtime. Fortunately, we all got a good night's sleep as we were up for breakfast at 6:30!

Monday: There were less stops scheduled for today (not surprising considering yesterday was 12 hours on route!) with a shorter drive much to the relief of the boys mainly whose knees a bit cramped given the space on board. Arriving at the side of Laguna Colorado shortly after sunrise we were allowed to take some time to wander round the laguna edge and enjoy the stunning tranquility and views. Like many of the lagos and lagunas we had stopped at so far, the flamingos were present in numbers.

The next stop was the 'Arbol de Piedra' in English, the Tree of Rocks. This is an area at an altitude of 4,260m where in the middle of a desert are a set of naturally formed tree shaped rocks (well, in truth there is just one, but all the others form just as crazy shapes). You are free to climb and explore and its difficult to imagine how on earth these rocks were shaped and left here in the middle of no-where.

Lunch was enjoyed in an area that resembled the moon's surface – just another example of the varied landscapes of this region. A great place to relax in the warmth of the sun and an occasion for the lads to exchange sporting anthems – needless to say the jeep was treated to a rendition of Marching On Together!!

The last attraction of the day was a set of five smaller lagunas set one after the other. As a group we decided to visit three of them as they were all in truth fairly similar – looking back it seems silly how we could start to take such environments for granted and miss the opportunity to spend time next to all of them – but that just goes to show how spoilt you are on this trip for sensational views. As we drove to our base camp for the night we were also treated to views of smoking active volcanoes including 'Volcan Ollague' in the distance!

Our base for the night was near a place called Puerto Chubica sat on the edge of the 'Salar de Uyuni' – the Uyuni Salt Plains, the climax of the trip! The hostel was made of salt blocks cut directly from the salt plains and consisted of a “cosy” five bed dorm for us all, the other rooms taken by a bunch of Israelis we had stayed with previously. We arrived early at 15:30 and enjoyed just chilling in the common room overlooking the salt plains playing cards and music. The view from the front of the building was once more mesmerising (we feel like we're repeating ourselves in this blog, but it all has been so amazing!), never before had we felt we could see for so far in the distance – Norfolk looks mountainous compared to this! We struggled to enjoy dinner as much this night as when delivered by Rosemary it was accompanied by a strong pungent smell – one we had started to notice more and more since the second morning; this smell was Rosemary herself, now we don't want to be too mean here but we noticed she had not showered the whole trip, we all struggled to maintain our appetites a bit after this and ate smaller portions this evening. The lack of hygiene in Bolivia in general is very noticeable especially in this part of the country where water is scarce and often runs out to the point toilets are flushed manually using buckets of water from a communal tub and where there is little washing of hands by the locals! All of this started to bug us a little, but what can you say!! After dinner, we taught the others the card game 'shithead' – now we're sure most of you are aware of the rules and perhaps know it under a slightly less offensive name but they seemed to go for it was the only game we played all night! The games were interrupted briefly by 20 minutes storm watching, as we watched lightening flickering above distant mountain tops, visible due to the clarity of the night sky here.

Bedtime was forced at 21:30 due to the electricity being turned off (the building uses solar panels like all of the settlements in the area) and everyone retired to bed looking forward to the next day on the Salar de Uyuni!!

Tuesday: It was 10 minutes drive from the lodging before we were driving on the salt plain, this was ~ 6:00am and so in complete darkness with the sun edging upwards. We stopped, disembarked and watched the sunrise over the plain. The salt plain covers 12.000 Km2 and it is situated more than 3600 meters above the sea level.

Due to the pristine white surface it didn't take long for the dark to be replaced by blinding whiteness and we were able to take in this truly amazing place. Soon enough it was time to start playing around with cameras; in this environment photos are unable to gain any perspective so you can get some amusing and unusual shots. Next, we headed for the 'Isla de Pescado' known as the ' El Corazon del Salar' The heart of the Salt Plain. This is a remarkable rocky island that rises in the middle of the plain covered in huge cacti, some over 1000 years old. Being a protected park, access was included in the tour and we enjoyed panoramic views from the top of the island across the plain, absolutely fascinating! Breakfast was served shortly after with Rosemary (who we were happy to say had her first shower last night and smelt much better) pulling out the stops with a heart shaped cake much to David's delight! After shifting our cake-filled tummies back onto the jeep we headed across the other side of the plain. Here, Fraulan stopped to fish out some salt crystals from water pockets which helped him explain its structure. This place is also known as “The mirror of the sky “. It is considered the biggest lithium reserve of Bolivia: it is estimated that it contains 64 thousand millions of salt tons. The salt plateau (120 meters deep) is formed by 11 layers that vary from 2 to 10 meters.

We all bagged a handful of salt crystals although we're not sure ours will survive another 4 months of travelling in our backpacks! At the edge of the plain we visited the Salt hotel (an illegal structure; although it is still a tourist destination and souvenir shop) before having lunch in Colchani a small touristy settlement. The drive from here to Uyuni took 45 minutes where we disembarked the jeep for a final time hereby ending the most remarkable trip! A real highlight, so far equal to that of the Amazon and Torres del Paine.

The last task was to fill in a feedback form. There were a few sentiments felt by the group, none more so than the fact the tour operators should be proactive in promoting eco/ethical tours. This was prompted by the fact that at all of the amazing sites we visited tourists and staff(!) were going to the toilet in any secluded (or in some cases not so secluded) spot they could find and leaving toilet paper littering the ground. It was very upsetting that people couldn't do more to help but until the tour operators push this agenda it might not improve. However, in a country (not too dissimilar to the rest of the Continent thus explored) where the locals seem only too happy to discard their litter wherever and whenever they wish we do not hold out too much hope. Come on Bolivia!!!!!

We had planned to stay one night in Uyuni but it didn't take long to realise there is very little reason to do so! Therefore, we headed off with Eduardo and Carolina to town and booked an overnight bus to La Paz leaving later that night. The booking was with a very touristy operator at slightly more expense than others but this suited us fine as all the other passengers were gringos and so we felt much more comfortable knowing we didn't have to watch our bags on the bus! However, no matter which bus you take you still have to take the same roads, and the first 200km out of Uyuni are unpaved! To relax and prepare our selves for the journey we relaxed in the town square with a couple of beers and some Mexican food, although unsurprisingly Eduardo and Carolina would not classify it as Mexican! The first 200km were indeed horrible and it felt like the bus driver was going far too fast! You honestly couldn't tell if you were on a road or back on the jeep crossing boulder ridden valleys but we made it to La Paz to tell the tale...

Mendoza and Salta - 2nd - 10th March 2010

2010-03-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

Tuesday: We arrived in Mendoza late afternoon and settled into the 4-bed dorm room which was to be our home for the next few nights. After a short stroll round the immediate area we went in search of some food for dinner. We discovered a market stall near the supermarket with a great array of vegetables and, most excitingly of all, hot chillies (these are hard to come by in most of Argentina!). After our dinner of pasta in hot tomato sauce we went back out onto the streets to explore Mendoza by nightfall and to check up on the Jeffreys. Mum and Dad were slumming it somewhat in the Hyatt Regency off Plaza Independencia so we ambled our way there and immediately located them in the restaurant! We joined them for a evening digestif before making our way back to our dorm to meet our room mates.

Wednesday: We decided to get the bus to Maipu to do the bikes/wineries tour with the legendary Mr Hugo. We arrived in Maipu around midday after a 45 minute bus ride from the city and were greeted by Mr Hugo himself brandishing a bottle of vino tinto, we didn't take much persuasion to indulge in our first drink of the day. After one glass (how restrained!) we were off to the Museum of Wine, our first stop. We had a whistlestop tour of the Museum then hopped back on the bikes in search of booze! The next stop was the Familia Di Tomaso where we did both the tasting and tour option for a bargain 15 pesos. The vineyard is a small, family owned one which uses traditional methods and only produces limited quantities of premier quality wine (or so we were told). For our money we were allowed to taste 4 wines and enjoyed two younger wines, one 12 month aged Malbec Roble and a Torrontes desert wine. All went down well, although Lynne enjoyed the desert wine in particular, while David favoured the Malbec. Next stop was Carinae vineyard, owned by some Frenchies who bought the place, renovated it and brought in some experts to monitor the quality of the wine, again this winery prides itself on quality over quality and here we tasted 3 wines, one rose and two reds, all were good, although we prefered the Tomaso vineyard. We then moved on to the Laurs olive oil factory across the road, where we were ushered in with a tour group and shown the factory and given some delicious tasters of breads, sundried tomatoes and olive oil. After the tour we attempted to pay the guides but they, assuming we were with the larger group, refused our money, so we hot footed it out of the factory and sped along to our final winery, the lovely Tempus Alba. This is a beautiful vineyard with a lovely rooftop terrace, a perfect place to end the day enjoying some wines with a view across the estate. We ordered a cheeseboard and David opted for the wine tasting menu, while Lynne went for a glass of rose. The food and drinks arrived and they were fantastic value for money, the cheeseboard was huge and delicious, the tasting wines were plentiful and the rose was lovely and fresh. It took us a while to work through the cheese and wine and we finally, reluctantly made our way back to our bikes to cycle back to Mr Hugo's, where we were once again met by the him and a bottle of red wine! We caught the bus back around 6pm and went back to our hostel for a shower and quick change before we went to meet mum and dad for dinner.

We arrived slightly late (blame Mr Hugo!) and enjoyed a quick drink with my parents before we went in search of a restaurant. We had a fantastic steak in a restaurant just around the corner from the hotel, then headed back in search of some sleep.

Thursday: We arranged to meet mum and dad after lunch, so we spent the morning pottering around the hostel and then got a cheap lunch at a cute local restaurant. It was a gorgeous day with the sun high in the sky, so when mum and dad suggested an afternoon by the pool at their hotel we jumped at the chance! For the next few hours we lounged around the pool, reading and dozing in the baking hot sun. We went back to the hostel around 6pm, expecting to cook dinner and get an early night but when we arrived back at the hostel we found out there was a bbq on and we decided to join in. The food was fantastic, loads of salads and veggies, huge slabs of meat from the barbie and as much red wine as we desired (which proved to be quite a lot!). It was a lovely evening a great chance to get to know some more guests from the hostel.

Friday: We woke late (see above) and headed out to meet mum and dad for lunch at a cafe near their hotel. After a delicious lunch (lomitos all round!) we went back to the hotel for another afternoon by the pool. It was here that we met Jennie & Joe, two other travellers who had sneaked into the hotel to use the pool! It was mum and dad's last day in Mendoza and we were sad to say goodbye to them around 6pm when we left them to get their taxi to the airport.

We had a quiet evening back at the hostel cooking up some chilli pasta before we went off to watch the parade for the festival of wine! The festival is a really big deal here, the region prides itself on its wine industry and all the local shops get involved by displaying bottles of wine in their window displays. The parade consisted of about twenty floats carrying the various beauty queens from the towns in the region...the whole city turns out with plaques and banners supporting their region's queen. All the shops have posters of the queens in the windows so people can see the candidates before the show select their winner. The whole show lasts for a few hours and is enjoyed by lots of families and tourists enjoying some local vino and yummy jamon crudo sandwiches in the streets.

Saturday: We headed towards Parque San Martin today, it took us a few hours to get there as many of the roads were closed for the continuing festival of wine parade and celebrations. The parque is huge and really popular with families chilling out at the weekend. We found a spot near the lake to relax and read our books in the shade. When we returned to the hostel we were pleasantly surprised to see that Jen & Joe had checked into the hotel, so we had a lovely evening of chatting with them and other guests over dinner.

Sunday: We were on the night bus at 7pm to Salta, so we had most of the day to enjoy some more of the sun. On heading out the hostel we realised that Sundays are truly a day of rest here, the town was dead so we took a taxi to the bottom of Cerro de la Gloria in Parque San Martin and climbed the path to the top where there is a huge monument to the soldiers of the various battles in the surrounding Andes. We had our sarnies at the peak then descended back down the hill to the bus stop to take the bus back to town, before making our way to the bus station. We were booked into Cama class for our 18 hr bus ride and quickly settled into the large, comfy seats to watch some of the films on offer.

Monday: We arrived into Salta just after midday and quickly found our hostel, Hostel in Salta. The hostel is really nice with a big barbecue area, courtyard and common area with table tennis and table football!We got a really nice double room with bathroom and quickly dropped off our bags before venturing out to explore the town. Salta is a lovely town, with a much more 'South American' feel than the rest of Argentina. We really enjoyed checking out the local shops and the huge market where we had a wander and bought our veggies for dinner. We passed an hour or so just people watching at a cafe in the square where we had some drinks and empanaditas (baby empanadas) before walking back to prepare dinner. We met a friendly American guy while in the kitchen and ate together that night swapping travelling stories, he told us all about a shaman in Peru who he had spent some time with and gave us her details...not too sure we'll be contacting her though!!

Tuesday: That morning we wandered around the city a bit more, checking out all the areas, we then headed back into the centre in search of some lunch, we ended up with some street food which we ate in the Plaza 9 de Julio. In the afternoon we took the cable car from the city up to Cerro San Bernardo, where you have a great 360 degree view of Salta. It was a really lovely day and we enjoyed a bit of time up there to walk around and chill. Then it was back to the hostel where we again met up with Jennie & Joe and decided to go for some dinner and drinks together.

We were 'reliably' informed by the Lonely Planet that Calle Balcares was the place to go for dinner, however it took us a while to find any restaurants on this street that were actually open, or that we wanted to eat in! We eventually found a Parilla to have our 'last steak of Argentina' and what a meal it was! The steaks were delicious, really tender and we had a great meal. Not wanting the evening to end so early we went in search of an open bar, the only one we could find in the area was a 'dinner and show' venue, as they weren't particularly busy they were happy to let us in to have a drink and watch the entertainment. It turned out to be a good laugh with the main singer, a large beared man, getting quite emotional over his songs. The only low point was where they asked us our nationality, when they heard we were British they didn't seem to be to happy...the Malvinas/Falklands are still a sore point perhaps? We finally made it back to the hostel in the early hours after a really fun night out.

Wednesday: After our late night we weren't in too much of a hurry to get up and stayed in bed until midday (ridiculously lazy and something we never do at home!). Waking up hungry we found a litte restaurant full of locals eating huge plates of roast chicken and pasta, we found a table and got stuck right in. We then met up with Jennie & Joe in the late afternoon to watch some Champions League football (clearly not Lynne's choice!). Joe had identified a bar where we could watch it, so we piled in and found that we had the place to ourselves, the waiters were really friendly switching on the massive wide screen TV for us, pulling up tables in front of it and reappearing with plates of crisps and beers every half hour! Disappointingly for David, Man Utd won!

As we had an early morning bus arranged we decided it best to get an early (ish) night so went back to the hostel to cook. The hostel was having a bbq and show for guests and although we opted not to join the bbq (unlimited wine not the best idea when you have to be up at 6am) we managed to watch the show and enjoyed seeing all the local costumes and dances. We also decided as this was our last night in Argentina we'd splash out one of the more expensive bottles of wine...at ARS 30 (GBP 5), we weren't disappointed – the wine was delicious and a fitting end to our Argentinian travels.

So tomorrow morning we leave Salta on a 7am bus bound for the Argentina – Bolivia border. We're slightly nervous at this point to be leaving the civilised, steak and wine country of Argentina to enter Bolivia, which from what we have heard so far seems to be the home of barbecued guinea pig, petty crime and altitude sickness...yikes!

Santiago, Valparaiso and an Earthquake: 24th Feb - 2nd Mar 2010

2010-03-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

Wednesday: Arriving early into Santiago at 6am we had some time to kill and so opted for the delights of the Terminal Cafe to kill an hour or so. Taking the metro to downtown to Hotel Neruda, we were pleasantly surprised by the efficiency and cleanliness of the underground a far cry from the tube back in the big smoke. At the hotel we were met with suspicious looks from the staff who weren't convinced these two backpackers had a reservation there! With Carolyn and Bob arriving early afternoon and check in not till 11am we went for a stroll of the immediate area appreciating the mix of modern office buildings amongst some older architecture and park areas. Once we were in the hotel room we headed straight for the bath! The first for 4 and ½ months (with the exception of the pathetic miniature bath in Puerto Natales)! Carolyn and Bob turned up on time and after an emotional hello (Lynne and Carolyn were both weepy-eyed) Carolyn and Bob went for a siesta after their long journey and we went for another stroll.

In the evening we headed for a walk along the river and enjoyed a few drinks in a trendy roof top terrace bar where Bob sampled his first Pisco Sour (the local tipple). This was followed by dinner at a local recommended seafood restaurant. The food was fantastic and it was an opportunity for Carolyn and Bob to enjoy the Argentinian vino.

Thursday: David acted as tour guide with the use of the Lonely Planet suggested walk – although his Spanish was questionable! The walk took in several sights of the city including: Cerro Santa Lucia, which offered a view of the city after a hike up a long stairway! (Unfortunately it was a little smoggy in the morning); The Palacio de Bellas – an art museum set in a leafy part of town; a coffee break; Plaza de Armas – a beautiful square with the city's Cathedral; El Rapido – for some cheese and prawn empanadas (highly recommended) – a first for the Jeffreys!; Palacio de la Moneda – the Presidential Palace, which staged the bloody 1973 coup and which was closed during the subsequent dictatorship and whose reopening in 2000 was an important event for Chileans; and finally the Bolsa de Comercio (the Chilean Stock Exchange). The final stop suggested by David was the Cafes con Piernas – Chile's answer to Hooters! The waitresses wear very little and have very long legs...surprisingly Lynne and Carolyn preferred a cafe further down the road!! We finished with drinks at a local cafe where we witnessed the Chilean obsession with Tarot cards and more excitingly a “patch war” between card readers – scary stuff! Although we couldn't help question – surely they saw it coming?!?!

We kicked off the evening with a photo slide show from our trips. To ease the event we enjoyed the New Zealand Vodka Carolyn and Bob had brought with them. We felt Bob and Carolyn were very polite in showing a continued interest through all of our albums! Unfortunately Bob's session was cut short due to David's overrun!! With all of us “photo'd out” we found our way to Vacas Gordas in Barrio Brasil (the trendy / arty area of the city). A local favourite and the steaks were fabulous!

Fri: Taking the 11am bus we made our way to Valparaiso – the busy, lively port town under 2 hours from Santiago. It is safe to say that we all had a view of what the town would look like but upon arrival it soon dawned on us that it didn't fit with the dainty seaside resort we all expected. Nonetheless, during the walk from the station to our hotel – La Puerta del Acala – we started to appreciate the older colonial architecture and nice plazas on offer. The town sprawls up the towering hills surrounding it, all the buildings are painted brightly and the resulting view is really striking. The hotel was near the port area and we spent the first afternoon exploring the local area (obviously including a review of the town's empanadas & coffee). After a siesta we climbed the Cerro Concepcion, one of the many hill top areas overlooking the town with streets filled of quaint cafes & restaurants. We found a little jazz bar to have dinner before retiring for the night.

Later that night – 3:35am.......

As you all are aware at this time on the Friday night, Chile was hit by an 8.8 strength Earthquake just north of Conception. Valparaiso is situated ~300km north of the epicentre and yet the town was rocked badly. The walls of the hotel shook for what we thought was roughly one and a half minutes. We won't go into too much detail but it was truly a humbling and terrifying moment for us all. We spent the rest of the early morning in the hotel foyer with the other guests and management awaiting news and eventually retired to bed at ~5:30am. However, there wasn't to be too much sleep as there were a number of large tremors which had us running for the door! The next morning, we were impressed with how much the town had got back to normal, with buses running, electricity restored and breakfast being served downstairs. It was only as we watched the news channels with all the other guests that we witnessed the devastating effects that the earthquake has had on the Chilean population. Later that morning, (after grabbing some light relief from the 6 nations game) we went for a walk and saw the damage to the town itself. It was very upsetting to see residential buildings with considerable damage and families sitting in the streets with their belongings. Our initial thought was to return to Santiago as soon as possible but decided to stay a second night following the disruption to the city and country. That night was spent on edge especially as we had to ride out several more tremors that had us jumping out of bed and getting dressed to sprint downstairs!

Sunday: After a fairly sleepless night, we gathered for breakfast early and decided to make our way to the bus station to try and take an earlier bus to Santiago rather than head over to Vińa del Mar for the day. We caught a bus easily and arrived back in Santiago bus station by early afternoon. Whilst Carolyn and Bob grabbed a well earned siesta in the hotel followed by a walk, we headed to the riverside for ours. In the evening we enjoyed a fantastic Italian meal in a much more relaxed environment than the last few days. The downtown area of Santiago we were staying in seemed to have survived fairly intact – although our hotel was having major issues with a leaking roof in the foyer! That night, we all slept a lot better but again were shocked to feel several further smaller tremors.

Monday: Whilst we slept in, Carolyn and Bob were up early to join the massive queue outside the Lan (Chilean Airline) office to try and sort out the remainder of their trip as Santiago Airport was now closed for at least 3 days. We met them as they approached the front of the queue and 30 minutes later they had resurfaced with a new itinerary. In short, they were now to accompany us to Mendoza before flying from there to BA and onto El Calafate. Not wanting to rush off, we all decided to stay in Santiago one more night and then travel to Mendoza together on the bus. Carolyn and Bob spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon re-arranging hotel bookings, etc, whilst we headed out to explore Barrio Brasil. This area is really picturesque and it rose up in our estimations even further when we came across 'Pao Food' that served us some of the best empanadas of our trip so far...in fact we're even willing to label them as Chile's best!! After further exploration of Barrio Londres & Paris we headed back to meet up with Carolyn and Bob for a few relaxing drinks to wind down after a long day for them. For Lynne and David, our last evening in Chile was spent on takeaway pizza and in the local mercado using up our Chilean Pesos to the last cent!

Tues: Making it to the Bus Station in plenty more time than usual (the “Carolyn effect”) we set off for Mendoza. We're still impressed that that bus was able to fit in all the passengers' luggage after Carolyn and Bob's four cases filled half the available space! This 9 hour journey was to give Carolyn and Bob an opportunity to experience 'real' backpacking – it turned out they found the bus journey a breeze! The views afforded by the hair-pin roads up the Andes were astonishing. They helped to take the mind off the lack of barrier between the bus wheels and a sheer drop only feet away! The border crossing (the last between these two countries for us – hooray!) was a little painful as expected but Bob was happy to have the opportunity to snap snap snap away on his new digi camera! At Mendoza bus station we headed off our separate ways – Carolyn and Bob off to slum it in the Hyatt Regency, whilst we whistled our way to the delightful Oasis Hostel.

We all felt more comfortable leaving Chile with the hangover of the earthquake keeping us awake at night there, but left feeling very lucky that we were all together when it hit and that none of us were hurt. We also left feeling very sorry for the Chilean People and wishing them all the very best in their recovery. For Lynne and I this was the end of our Chilean adventure and although we looked forward to getting back to Argentina, it is always sad saying goodbye to another country, especially one which provided highlights such as Torres del Paine – Ciao Chile, Suerte!

Puerto Madryn & Bariloche (part 2)

2010-03-04T05:23:00.000-08:00

Saturday: We arrived in Puerto Madryn around 1pm after a long bus ride from Rio Gallegos. It's a cute little seaside town and our hostel, HI Patagonia, was located just two blocks from the beach. The hostel staff were really friendly and showed us to our room, a bright airy double with cable TV, kettle and fridge! We spent the rest of the day wondering around the town and planning the week ahead. David had initially planned to do his PADI course here, as there are a number of dive schools offering this at a good price and giving divers the opportunity to dive with sea lions! However, we were told that the weather was likely to change throughout the week so unfortunately he had to put it off to do it elsewhere on our travels.

The owner of the hostel, Gaston, holds regular bbqs in the evenings and so after our long journey we opted to have dinner at the bbq that night, which gave us the chance to meet and chat with the other hostel guests and eat a ridiculous amount of steak, lamb and chicken!

Sunday: We were up reasonably early and so headed off for a run in the morning after some breakie. We took the beach promenade south along the coast for a good run in the refreshing sea breeze. In the afternoon we went to the beach, where the speedos made a long awaited reappearance! It was a beautiful afternoon and we were looking forward a week of great weather...but it wasn't to be!

Monday: We visited the Peninsula Valdes, a vast nature reserve situated north of Puerto Madryn. Our guide was really informative and spoke great English. We saw more Magellanic penguins, sea lions and their pups, elephant seals, foxes, armadillos and many birds. Orcas are also spotted in these waters as they feed off the sea lion pups in February-March and the elephant seal pups in November-December. This is one of only two places in the world where the orcas use the method in 'intentional beach stranding' to catch the pups. However, we were still a little early in the season and didn't manage to spot an orca, not too surprising as there are only 34 orcas in total on the east Argentinian coast line which spans over 40,000km! We found ourselves willing the sea lion pups into the water in the hope they would entice an Orca – initially we felt cruel thinking this but we got over it soon enough. We arrived back at the hostel in early evening and had another chilled evening chatting with the other hostel guests.

Tuesday: We awoke to pouring rain, which was forecast to last until Thursday. We decided to use the time to plan our time in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador and our route home via central America. We then whiled our evening watching Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sandra Bullock films on cable!!

Wednesday: Again we awoke to grey skies and rain and spent the morning firing off emails to various travel agencies to check out costs of tours and flights. In the afternoon the rain finally relented and we braved a walk along the coast. However, the rain may have disappeared but the wind still hounded us and we were sandblasted as we walked along the beach – good for exfoliation at least! Along this walk we came across several monuments commemorating the first Welsh settlers – not surprising the most common name was Jones!! We resisted the temptation to deface them in the spirit of the 6 nations rivalry and moved on. Apparently Welsh is still spoken in some areas with Trelew (a town 60km south) being the stronghold; we didn't make it there unfortunately to try out the famous tea houses.

Thursday: The sun was back out for our penultimate day in Puerto Madryn! So we hired some bikes and cycled he 17km along a gravel road to Punta Loma, another sea lion colony.
There is a really good pizza and empanada shop just a couple of blocks from the hostel, so after 5 nights of walking past it and looking in longingly we finally relented to the cravings and got a large pizza to share for dinner...delicious!

Friday: We spent the morning on the beach before headed back to make some lunch and shower in time to catch our bus to San Antonio Oeste, where we would take 'Tren Patagonica' overnight to Bariloche.

We made it to San Antonio Oeste around 7pm and were dropped off at the very quiet and deserted bus station, from there we found our way to the train station with the help of some helpful locals, who seemed fairly surprised to see two backpackers wondering through their town! The train station was no more than an office and platform next to the train line. The train leaves once a week and the platform was already crowded with passengers and 'train spotters'. We had booked to travel in tourist class (the middle class), this was our first mistake! We should maybe have realised that the price ARS 90 was far too cheap for such a long journey and as we boarded the train we both wished we had stuck with the buses! The interior of the train felt like it was from the 1970s, very retro, and I don't think they had replaced anything since then! The seats were pretty worn and some of them didn't recline, we thought we would be sat across from each other but we hadn't realised that the seats rotate and the Chilean lady that David was sat next too had already rotated her seat to face her family by the time we got on which meant that David was also sat facing them, while I was on the seat behind him. It was fairly late by then time we boarded and set off so we both stuck our ipods on and tried to sleep...tried being the operative word...the train stopped at numerous stations throughout the night and passengers got off and on, the constant noise and movement kept us awake most of the night. We were happy to see the sun rise and hoped that the journey would be at an end soon but then, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, the train broke down! We were stationary for almost two hours before a guy with a spanner turned up and appeared to fix the problem in just a few minutes...then we were off again, chugging through the barren wilderness! We finally arrived in Bariloche at 3pm, 17hrs after setting off.

We disembarked with relief and made our way to the hostel, the lovely Hostel 1004, which we had stayed at previously. The chilled out vibe off the hostel washed over us and after a hot shower we had forgotten all about the horrendous train journey. We spent the afternoon at the tourist information checking out the local walking routes and then headed back to the huge kitchen in the hostel were we cooked up a blinding spag bol in the hostel, accompanied by a glass or two of Malbec of course!

Sunday: We caught the 10.10 bus to Cathedral where we planned to spend the day climbing one of the trails to Refugio Fray. It was a beautiful day and the trail started off with a nice winding, fairly flat path, after about 1 ½ hrs walking the path started to become steeper and the last 30mins was a fairly steep ascent to the Refugio. We had a great view from the top and enjoyed our sarnies sat next to the lake which is next to the Refugio before we began the walk back down. The refugio is used as a base camp by rock climbers who tackle the towering rocks around the lake – a few brave souls provided the lunchtime entertainment – we both felt a little queasy looking at them dangling off the overhangs. The walk provided many great views and was a nice way to end our Patagonian trekking experience.

We spent the evening in the hostel, resting our weary legs and chatting with Brian and Mary, another couple we met who have jacked in their jobs in the UK to travel South America!

Monday: After a slightly later start to the day we decide to take the number 10 bus to Colonia Suiza, a village founded by some Swiss pioneers. The bus dumped us at the end of a dusty road with a sign pointing up for Colonia Suiza, we started the walk up, unsure of quite where we were or how long it would take. After about 30 mins we found ourselves in the village, which is really just a few houses, tea rooms and some touristy shops. We ate our picnic then read our books and dozed in the sunshine.

In the evening we once again enjoyed the company of Brian and Mary as we swapped stories of our journeys and experiences so far.

Tuesday: We took the 9am bus to Santiago via Osorno, both of us sad to leave Bariloche, where we have enjoyed some great walks, kayaking and met lots of lovely people in Hostel 1004. This is Lynne's favourite place so far, and we would love a chance to come back at some point, perhaps in the winter to get some skiing in!

Punta Arenas (Chile) & Ushuaia - Fin del Mundo (the end of the world - Argentina)

2010-02-18T17:42:00.000-08:00

Wednesday: We left Puerto Natales early morning however the journey to Punta Arenas is only two hours so it was to be a walk in the park for us by now! Upon arrival we swiftly made it to our Hostel – Hostel Costañera where we happy to find we had been upgraded to a private ensuite. The room was definitely one of the nicest we have stayed in yet and we felt right at home there following the very friendly welcome from the owner & her family. With only 2 nights here and the first part of today gone, we set about exploring town and, more importantly, finding a bar where we could watch the Leeds vs Spurs FA Cup replay over a couple of chilled beers. Fortunately we managed to find Lomit's, an American style bar, where they were happy to put the game on for us so we settled ourselves at the bar – unfortunately it wasn't the game we hoped for as Leeds lost!

Thursday: We relaxed in the morning and treated ourselves to more of the local steak before catching a boat from the port to Isla Magdalena - the local Penguin colony. This is an island situated in the Straits of Magellan that for the months of Jan – Apr is inhabited by ~ 50,000 penguins. We also caught up with Tom & Sarah on the boat, a couple we had met in El Calafate and in Torres Del Paine. The trip was really cool, and it was great to get up so close with the wildlife – they are even more hilarious than on TV. The round trip was around 5 hours with 4 hours spent getting there and back and 1 hour on the island. On the way back the crew treated us to a showing of 'March of the Penguins'!

That evening we went to dinner with Tom & Sarah to an all you can eat Chinese buffet – convincing ourselves we all deserved it after the Torres hike! We put away an impressive amount with several of the party clearing 5 plates each! With Tom being Welsh we set about arranging a get together to watch the 6 Nations opening weekend of games as we both set off for Ushuaia the next morning!

Friday: We set off on the dreaded journey to the bottom of the world early morning. The whole journey took about 12 hours and included the a boat crossing and the usual Chilean customs debacle. We arrived in Ushuaia late afternoon and were happy to discover Tom & Sarah had also booked in our hostel. However, on arrival to Casa Alba, we found she had overbooked and Tom & Sarah were carted off to a local 2 star hotel in town – the good thing was that they had cable TV which meant we could watch the games there if we struggled to find a suitable venue in town!

We all went out for dinner at a pizzeria which kind of turned into another all you can eat with empanadas, pizzas and pastas all being devoured. Lynne was delighted to find out that Sarah was a fellow white wine drinker and she was excited to have someone to share a bottle with.

Saturday: We spent the day searching for a suitable pub to watch the rugby and were disappointed to discover that the only option was the Galway Irish pub that was very overpriced and crippling to a traveller's budget!! Therefore, we went for the cheap option of a supermarket sweep for booze and empanadas and watched the games from the comfort of Tom & Sarah's hotel room. As you are all aware, it turned out to be a joyous occasion for the English!! Not so good for Tom and the Welsh nation. We continued the festivities into the evening but were unfortunate to have the worst meal of our lives in a TeleBingo cafe!! It was a truly awful steak sandwich.

Sunday: Having outlived our stay in Alba's and (Lynne) deciding we weren't going to camp in Tierra del Fuego National Park in this cold weather – we booked into the Los Lupinos Hostel and a dorm room trying to be kind to the budget. After the formalities we headed back round to meet up with Tom & Sarah to watch the Scotland game – unfortunately France were too strong. The afternoon was spent doing some local sight seeing, whilst in the evening all 4 of us ate back at our hostel as Tom & Sarah headed off the next day.

Monday: After an easy weekend of rugby and beers we headed off trekking out of the city into the Andes' foothills that surround the city. The easiest option was to walk the winding road up to the start of the ascent to the top. However in true fashion, David convinced Lynne it would be fine to follow some “dubious” forest paths. Soon enough we were lost walking through woodland before picking up a cross country ski path – in the winter when the area is covered in snow, this is a big sport in the region. We wound back & forth on these paths until we eventually heard the noise of a car and re-found the road – what Lynne called lost time, David called an experience! Continuing on the road, we made it to the bottom of a chairlift that took you to the top of a ski run from where you start the steep ascent to the glacier; we opted for walking and within 1.5 hours we had made it to the top. We were both excited to have the opportunity to play about in the snow line – the first time this trip! The walk afforded a great view over the city with thanks to some fantastic weather. By the time we had returned to the hostel we had been walking for 5.5 hours and so spent the remainder of the afternoon / evening relaxing with pots of tea and reading books.

I will also add here that since Uruguay we have taken to salami & cheese sandwiches in a big way. We can't recall many days thus far that we haven't visited a Fiambre where we've purchased a few(!) slices of both, constantly experimenting with the different types on offer. At the top of this hill, we believe we had the best so far. The salami was spiced, the cheese, Camembert in a crusty baguette. From now on we have set the task of discovering how to make the best 'Queso y Salame' sandwich possible!

Tuesday: We headed out on a boat tour on the Beagle Channel. The Beagle Channel is the water that Ushuaia sits on and which connects the Pacific & Atlantic Oceans. This was, of course, named after the boat which Fitzroy & Darwin sailed on in the 1830s when they explored the region. We went with a company called Tango Che, they proved a good choice splitting the 15 of us between two well sized boats.

The guides were good fun and very knowledgeable about the area and its wildlife. The trip took us out to the Eclaireurs Isles where stands a lighthouse built in the early 1900s that is a symbol of Ushuaia and the end of the world. Next the boat swings round to the neigbouring Alicia, Los Pajaros and Los Lobos Isles where we saw a large colony of Imperial & Magellan Cormorants – birds that look like penguins – Fullman & Giant Petrels, Skuas and many other species of marine birds and sea lions of course! The boats allow you to get really close to the wildlife...and the smell! In addition to these you see plenty of birds, and some of these birds are BIG!! Neither of us have ever been bird watchers – but after spending the last few weeks in Patagonia it is difficult not to develop an interest. We have seen numerous vultures, hawks, albatrosses and even eagles amongst the many different species. Seeing these birds, which sometimes span to over 2m in width, fly overhead is amazing to witness.

After visiting the sea lions the guides took us to Bridges Island where we took a brief walk during which the guide explained the way of life of the Yamanas – the indigenous people pf the area – and also the local plants. This was really interesting, especially learning of the Yamana people. They were nomadic and wore no clothes – crazy to think of that in these climates – but this was possible as they had evolved with a body temperature of 37.5 degC – a temperature which is classed as fever to us! They moved from shore to shore and camped with only a tent of sea lion skin to protect them. It is fascinating to think of the first encounter between Europeans and these people and the gulf of difference between them. It is sad to hear that today there is only one pure blood Yamana still alive, an 85 yr old lady. The guide showed us campsites they used, identifiable by large mounds of earth called “concheros” produced by shell deposits of the numerous oyster they ate whose shells they stacked up to give some protection against the wind.

After returning to the boat we headed back for port enjoying a few glasses of the local Beagle pale ale – David made up for fact that no-one on the boat had seconds and enjoyed several extra glasses with the crew!!

After the trip we enjoyed a couple more drinks but unfortunately which sent us to sleep quite easily until........we were awoken by a fellow room mate (a 50yr old Japanese chap) who snored like a train! It was a sleepless night for both of us and we looked forward to checking out and moving onto our private room in our third & final hostel in Ushuaia!

Wednesday: We moved into La Posta and were delighted with the place! A really nice hostel with great rooms, facilities & staff, one we would definitely recommend – and who serve the most amazing sweet croissants we have ever tasted! They even got a fresh delivery for us even though we missed breakfast – we showed how appreciative we were by putting away 10 of them!! A trend that would continue the next few mornings! After letting the food go down we headed to the Museo 'Fin del Mundo' in town. Although it had some interesting items it was fairly small and the layout could be improved but we enjoyed the hit of culture anyhow. With a bit of time to kill we visited a local deli and spent some time trying and choosing the local salami, jamon crudo and cheeses to put together a tapas platter for dinner – so far we are torn between strong smoked or Camembert cheese for the sandwiches!

Thursday: After deciding to avoid the national park – Tierra del Fuego - earlier in the week, we spent today hiking around it. We took the local bus there and were disappointed when we discovered how expensive it was! Nevertheless we opted for one of the longer coastal walks that took us about 3 hours before we added on an extra bit by one of the lagoons. The area was quite beautiful and reminded us both of Parque Tyrona in Colombia but in a much colder climate – especially the deserted beaches. Tierra del Fuego translates as The Land of Fires and relates to the fact that when the first Europeans arrived they saw lots of plumes of smoke rising into the air from the campsites of the Yamana and other tribes. After a satisfying trek, we treated ourselves to more of the Argentinian steak & Malbec for a change.

Friday: The day we have been dreading had arrived! Today we journey to Puerto Madryn which is way north on the east coast of Argentina. To get there we had to be leave on the 05:00 bus to Rio Gallegos that takes 13 hours – mainly due to the fact the bus has to pass through Chile and we've talked about what a pain their border controls are! This was followed by 4 hours waiting in the bus station in Rio Gallegos before catching the 18 hour over night bus to Puerto Madryn.

Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. 5 Day Hike: The Marriage Maker or Breaker.

2010-02-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

So Friday morning we were up early, packs ready, thermals on awaiting the 7.30am bus. Bill (the hostel owner) sent us off with a hearty breakfast of omelette and homemade bread and we boarded the bus wondering what the next few days would have in store for us.

In true Henderson style we decided to make life a bit harder for ourselves by adding an extra bit to the first day's walk. So we were dropped off by the bus at the Sede Administration CONAF office at the bottom of the park where we would walk (17.5km) round Lake Pehoe to Refugio Grande rather than taking the 30 minute Catamaran journey across the lake, like most of the others on our bus. This was a beautiful walk which starts crossing the flat plains leading up to the mountain ranges and lakes, from afar this allowed us a glimpse of what lay ahead of us and as we neared the lake this built up into an exciting picture of the terrain and scenery we would face.

We reached the first Refugio around 3pm and allowed ourselves a generous 1 hr lunch break before we started the hike to Glacier Grey campsite. The weather had been very kind to us that morning, with beautiful blue skies, however, as we finished our sandwiches and prepared to set off for the afternoon the weather broke and the heavens opened, lashing us with wind and rain. Luckily this didn't last too long and the sun made a welcome return as we continued our climb to the glacier. The paths were well marked but the terrain was mixed, at some points we were walking through muddy woodland paths, while at others we were marching across streams and scaling boulders. The hard work was rewarded with some truly stunning views of Glacier Grey on route. We made it to the campsite about 7.30pm, both tired and hungry. We quickly pitched the tent before succumbing to a hot shower, this was not a great idea - as soon as we were out the shower the cold, icy air hit and we were chilled to the bone. We brewed up on our stove and quickly discovered, tea has never tasted so good as when you are camping next to a glacier and can't feel your fingers and toes from the cold! Then we got on with preparing our pasta and sauce dinner, which disappeared within seconds! We were both shattered after the 7 ½ hrs of walking that day so it wasn't long before we were ensconced in our sleeping bags ready for bed. Unfortunately though, neither of us was to get much sleep that night, camping next to a glacier is pretty chilly and we were both awoke several times throughout the night trying in vain to warm up cold hands, feet, noses, etc!

Finally morning came and we were up and on our way again, after a satisfying bowl of porridge and a cuppa! David wasn't so keen on the porridge, luckily Lynne was ready and waiting to finish of the leftovers! We walked the 3 ½ hrs back down the trail to the Lake where we prepared and ate another exciting lunch of pasta and sauce, then we began the shorter (2hr), and considerably easier, walk to Los Italianos campsite at the foot of the Valle de Francés. The campsite was spread across some woodland and we found a sheltered spot not too far from the river (our water supply for the day). After pitching the tent we got on with cooking up some rice and vegetables before we heading off to bed, hoping for a bit more sleep than the previous night. Unfortunately, once again it was a chilly night, particularly for David, whose 'summer' weather sleeping bag wasn't really up to the job.

We got up early and set off on the climb through the Valle de Francés. The first hour was a steep climb over boulders and through forest trails. We were making good timing until we lost the path at a river crossing, instead of cutting over the river we headed up the bank, we walked about 20 minutes uphill before we agreed that this probably wasn't the correct route. We weren't too sure where we had lost the path but didn't think it could be too far away, so we found a bit of high ground to scan the area from, thinking we could see the path we cut across some shrubbery to find just another stream, it was at this point that David noticed some large, recently made paw prints, the evidence seemed to suggest that this was a watering hole for one of the park's resident pumas, so we quickly scarpered, retracing our steps until we finally found the point where we had lost the path and rejoined it, with hearts racing, not daring to think of what might have happened had we run into Mr Puma!!

The last half of the trail was less steep and we found our way to the Mirador where we could enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the snow capped mountainous landscape.

We then headed back down the trail to the campsite where we took the tent down, cooked a quick lunch then made our way (2hrs) to Los Cuernos campsite, a beautiful walk along the coast of the lake. This was Lynne's favourite campsite as it offered the opportunity to have a hot shower in clean bathrooms and then enjoy numerous cups of tea from continuously topped up thermoses in a cosy common area, with a wood burning stove providing much needed heat! After two fairly sleepless nights we decided to hire and extra sleeping bag from the Refugio (for about £4) which we used to sleep on providing some further insulation from the cold ground. We sat drinking tea for a few hours, chatting to some Californians, who were about twice our age and fairly hardcore walkers, the W was merely a walk in the park for them (although I hasten to add they weren't enduring the hardship of camping!!). We then retired to our tent where we huddled in our sleeping bags, considerably warmer than previous evenings and listened to the winds outside. You could hear the wind as it started out on the lake and built up as it blew inland through the forest, bracing yourself for it to hit your tent. Thanks to David's legendary Duke of Edinburgh skills our tent survived the night and we awoke early to find ourselves bathed in sunshine and beautiful blue skies.

We hit the trail around 8, after some more of that delicious porridge and started the 11km trek which would take us to the foot of the Torres. We stopped off for a short break before beginning the steep 4.9km climb to Torres campsite, pausing for a hour to cook lunch halfway up at Refugio Chileno. The climb up to Chileno is the steepest part of this climb and when we finally reached the peak of our climb we were met with gale force winds which blew us into the mountain face and made moving forwards even more of a challenge. We were glad to have our walking poles to dig into the ground and help us progress along the track to the Refugio. Once again we were afforded outstanding views – this time of the Valle Ascencio. The final part of the day's trek was just an hour's walk to the campsite, this was considerably easier than the first part of the walk as we were sheltered from the winds by woodland and the terrain was far flatter. We reached camp early after approx 5 ¼ hours of tough hiking. We pitched the tent and brewed up before our meal of packet rice and vegetables. We were due to get up before sunrise the next day to trek to the Mirador to watch the sunrise on the Torres so we were in bed by 6pm, fully clothed in all our layers!

We woke at 4am and along with a number of other campers began the 1hr climb to the Mirador. We were behind another walker and followed him for most of the way until we realised that he had veered off the path leading us and another German couple. It was pitch dark and with our limited torchlight we couldn't find our way back to the path. We ended up in some forest and managed to locate a clearing where we had a good view of the Torres, so it was there that we sat and awaited sunrise and the snow started to fall around us! Sadly, the snow meant that the three Torres were shrouded in clouds and there was to be no beautiful sunrise turning them into the red towers seen on so many postcards. Once the sun was up we could easily see the path and were surprised by how far into the forest we had strayed, we quickly found a more direct route back to the path and headed up to the viewing point we had intended to reach a few hours earlier. Despite the clouds the Torres are still are remarkable and imposing view and we enjoyed a few moments taking in the wonder of our surroundings.

On our return to camp we dismantled the tent for the last time and quickly packed and set off on the 50 min walk back to Chileno where we would make breakfast and enjoy some tea and coffee in the warm dining room there. Then it was downhill for most of the way back! We took our time and enjoyed the walk and some victory banter reaching the bottom of the trek by midday. A popular game was to think of classic marching rhymes – David wanted to record some of his favourite in this blog, but with a threat of a divorce he has decided not to.

As the bus wasn't until 2.30 we decided we had time to walk the 7km round to the bus stop instead of waiting for the shuttle bus, however Lynne's legs disputed this decision and her pace slowed to that of a toddler, when a kindly mini bus driver slowed and offered us a lift for a measly 1000 Chilean pesos we leapt at the chance and bundled in. The sun was out by this point so after being dropped off we both slept, basking in the sunlight until the bus arrived ending our siestas.

We stayed at a B&B for our final night in Puerto Natales and we were so pleased to be returning to a private double room, with en suite, heating and cable TV!! After some well earned pizza, empanadas, beer and wine we crashed out, enjoying the luxury of a mattress and central heating system!!

The W walk was undoubtedly a highlight for both of us. The scenic views make the physical challenges worth the effort! Camping and lugging all your stuff round in your packs does make this all the harder but the campsites are beautiful and we felt it added to the experience overall (particularly for Lynne whose pack was only half the size of David's!!).

Puerto Natales (part 1) and El Calafate.

2010-02-10T16:20:00.000-08:00

After eventually disembarking we made our way to the Erratic Rock 1 Hostel where we had our reservation. This turned out to be a great little place with fantastic staff headed by Bill & Paul. It's a really cosy hostel with a well-equipped kitchen and busy social area. The only dampener was that the double room we had was freezing at night because the heater was broken much to Lynne's dismay!! The hostel also has a hiking shop attached that puts on a free talk every day at 15:00 which covers everything you need to know about hiking around the Torres Del Paine National Park – the reason we are here!!! That night we cooked and enjoyed a casserole (the meat here is almost as good & cheap as in Argentina) whilst chatting with other guests about their stay and more importantly their experiences hiking around the Park. We decided to go to El Calafate first to see the Perito Morreno Glaciar before getting on our rucksacks & hiking boots and entering the park.

Tuesday: After booking our bus for El Calafate on Wednesday, the rest of the day was spent doing some admin tasks – booking buses (for Ushuaia and Punta Arenas) and hiring the necessary gear for the hike in the National Park.

Wednesday: An early morning bus took us back in to Argentine and El Calafate – the base town for visits to the very touristy Perito Morreno Glacier. After a bit of a error in our logistical planning we managed to get a bus to take us to the Glacier that afternoon within half an hour of arriving to ensure we could return to Puerto Natales the next day. Fortunately for us the staff at Hostel Buenos Aires (where we stayed) were absolutely fantastic and sorted out everything for us. (We should also add that the room was great – we were upgraded for no extra cost to an en-suite). The Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is fairly vast with several hikes and boats excursions amongst other activities available. However, the main attraction is Perito Moreno and this is all we had time to see. What makes the Perito Moreno special is, (like the Pio XI glacier,) that it is still advancing, up to 2 metres per day, while most of the world's other glaciers are receding. Having had the opportunity to visit Pio XI on the Navimag ferry we weren't too sure what to expect but the glacier really is a treat to visit, it's enormous and the park really gives you a chance to appreciate the sheer scale of it. Walking round the many walkways opposite we witnessed the constant creaks and groaning of the ice and even saw several large chunks of ice breaking off and crashing into the water below. A fascinating natural event, one that made the whole trip here worthwhile. That evening we strolled round town enjoying a few local empanadas and purchasing some more of the famed beef fillet from the butchers. WOW......we both agree that the steak we cooked that night was probably one of the best we have ever had – if not the best – it melted in the mouth like butter!!! The meat is so good it makes even David think he is a world class chef!! There were two other British couples staying in the hostel that evening – also cooking steak! After dinner we all sat around chatting, discussing travel plans and getting advice on our upcoming hike around Torres Del Paine.

We took the bus back to Puerta Natales the following day, once again facing the arduous customs system to enter back into Chile. We arrived around 10pm so headed straight to bed to get as much sleep as possible before we hit the park!

Puerto Montt and the 4 day Navimag trip down the Chilean Fjords to Puerto Natales.

2010-02-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

Thursday: The bus journey to Puerto Montt in Chile took approx 8 hours – longer than expected due to the Chilean border crossing. As we found out, the Chilean Envionmental Department are extremely thorough (i.e. ridiculously so) in controlling food products across the border. We must have been at the border for over an hour during which every bag was put through an airport type scanner and a declaration form was filled in stating what food & drink substances you were carrying. With no idea of this we shed a few food items prior to crossing.

So we arrived in Puerto Montt and checked into Casa Perla – a cute little B&B. Perla was the perfect host and we were soon out exploring the town. To be honest the town doesn't offer much to do, but the countryside offers much more including horse riding, hiking and other outdoor activities. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time for any of these activities as we were catching the Navimag ferry the next day; so we settled for a walk along the sea front instead.

Friday: We had to board at 14:30 and so had the morning to relax with the rest of the passengers in the town's harbour & fish markets whilst basking in the splendid sunshine. We were very excited about the ferry journey and were enjoying the day until we noticed Lynne's passport had been swiped from her handbag. With only 20mins before boarding both our hearts sunk and were understandably shaken. Luckily upon retracing our steps we spotted the passport discarded in some bushes only a few metres away. We realised Lynne had been targeted by some pickpockets (two middle aged ladies) who we had thought were gossiping and walking slowly in front of us, we now know what they were doing was purposely separating the two of us before making the grab. Fortunately for us, they must have decided that the passport was of little use to them and ,perhaps after hearing Lynne's shouts, decided to throw it in the undergrowth next to the walkway. So we boarded with hearts racing and feeling very relieved indeed!!

Moving on, the first day on board was really pleasant, the weather was stunning as we set out to sea down the Fjords. We had booked 2 bunks in a room of 4 and shared with two Italians neither of whom spoke English or Spanish – but they were cheery enough people and by the fact all of us had brought on board plenty of wine we developed a mutual respect for each other. The boat was an old cargo ship that now transports tourists around the Chilean Fjords. There were plenty of Europeans on board mixed amongst Chileans and some North Americans. All announcements were in Spanish and English and the crew were all young and good fun. Instead of describing the route each day we have attached a rough map of the route (best we could find on the internet). If you want more information the website is http://www.navimag.com/.

The day was spent on top deck with the majority of passengers enjoying the sun or reading books in the bar / lunge area. The evening was spent in the bar playing cards, chess and mixing with the other passengers over some wine!!

Saturday: After a good breakfast (all meals are served in a canteen – decent quality in-fact!) the day was again spent walking around the decks enjoying the scenery and wildlife. This was enhanced by a very lively presentation by the crew on native Patagonian wildlife. By the afternoon however, the weather had closed in and we were to enter the Pacific Ocean from 14:00 after passing through Bahia Anna Pink into the Golfo de Penas. The crew warned us that the conditions would become very choppy and it is advised to take sea sickness tablets. Lynne was the first of the Hendersons to be affected and went for an afternoon nap to recover, much like a number of other passengers. David meanwhile (one never to have been affected by sea sickness) was in the Bridge with the captain and on the front of the top deck enjoying the experience of just how humbling the ocean can be! The waves at times crashed over the front of the lower deck and the size of waves very daunting. However, by dinner time the tables were turned as David started to feel a bit green, by that time Lynne was feeling much better as the sea sickness tablet had taken affect! David for once couldn't finish a meal and went to bed with a tablet! He certainly wasn't the only one and a number of people had to be carried off to bed after being revisiting by their dinner in the corridors and toilets of the ship! By about 9pm the ship was deserted as almost all the ship's passengers had retired to their cabins attempting to sleep through the very choppy conditions!! We found ourselves sliding down the beds constantly as the ship rocked forwards, backwards and sidewards!

Sunday: The ship awoke in calm conditions once more after escaping the Pacific ocean through the Angostura Inglesa. The views were fantastic today and it felt like you were a million miles from any civilisation amongst the many inhabited isles of the region. After an informative (!) talk by the staff about glaciers, the boat took a detour northwards to treat the passengers to up close and personal visit of the largest Glacier in the Southern Ice Field of Southern America – 'Pio XI' (The 11th Pope). This was truly a staggering sight which left everyone speechless. This topped off a day of seeing lots of wildlife including dolphins, sea lions and many of the regions birds.

The final evening on board was a bit of a party and included a brief staff Karaoke before a game of Bingo. During the game, the booze was flowing and with every winning line the lucky contestant had to dance in front of all the room. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for all involved Lynne was one number away from winning the star prize!! We hit the dance floor as expected and after being completely embarrassed by some Chilean dancers we decided to call it a night!

Monday: The final part of the journey took us through the Golfo Almte Montt and was enjoyed on the deck with most of the other passengers trying to clear our hazy heads. The final leg into Puerto Natales is in a truly breathtaking setting, surrounded by huge dramatic snow capped mountains and vast plains of arid land.

In summary, we had a great time aboard the Navimag and really enjoyed the opportunity to see very rarely travelled waters and coast line. At times eerie, beautiful, scary and simply breathtaking it had a bit of everything. The staff were great, everyone on board was there to enjoy it and have a good time and the food wasn't half bad. Although more pricey than travelling by road we thoroughly enjoyed it!!

Bariloche - Argentinian Lake District - 17th - 21st January

2010-01-26T11:48:00.000-08:00

Sunday 17th January (My wonderful husband's birthday!)
We arrived on the bus around 10am waking up to a glorious view of the Argentinian lake District, framed by the snow capped Andes. We stayed at Hostel 1004, which was a recommendation from another backpacker we met in Rio, what a fantastic place it was! The hostel is on the 10th floor of the tallest building in Bariloche centre and looks out over the Lake Nahuel Huapi. Our room was beautiful and airy with the same spectacular view!

We spent the morning exploring the town and planning our activities for the next few days, in the afternoon took a walk along the lake and went for a birthday drink! We bought a few bottles of good (and unbelievably cheap) red wine and some tapas style nibbles for dinner and settled down in the lovely common area with several other backpackers. Later in the evening the hostel staff treated us to some live music, mainly celtic tunes and a special rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for Señor Henderson!

The next morning we headed off to hire bikes and cycle round the Ciruit Chiquito. This is a 30km loop which takes you through the Nahuel Huapi National Park, provided some great vistas of the areas en route. The circuit turned out to be fairly, no make that VERY, hilly and it wasn't long before Mrs Henderson lost her sense of humour about the whole thing! However, we had started so we would finish. It was worth it in the end though and the views, beautiful weather and wildlife soon won Lynne over. We arrived back at the hostel a bit weary but with a sense of achievement, a great opener to our Patagonian adventure. We spent the evening in the hostel exchanging stories of our day with other guests over some wine and risotto - a great end to the day.

Tuesday morning was spent hunting down some fresh local fish and practising our spanish in some of the local shops. We had arranged to go kayaking in the afternoon and were collected after lunch with the rest of the group. There were 10 of us in total on the trip accompanied by two instructors. As it was quite windy we set off from a more sheltered lake (Lake Moreno) to ease us into it. We had a two man canoe, David went in the back, taking charge of steering (probably a good idea given Lynne's sense of direction) and Lynne took the place up front. The kayaking was great fun and with the windy conditions gave us a bit of a workout! We got back quite late and enjoyed some more banter with some of the hostel guests.

On Wednesday we made our way to the 17.7km point to do a short but very steep walk up to the top of EL Campanario, a spot which is rated by National Geographic in the top ten views of the world. It was quite a tough trail up the mountain but luckily doesn't take too long and we were rewarded with a panoramic view of the beautiful crystal clear blue lakes and lagoons and mountains. We picnic-ed at the top taking in the sight for as long as possible then headed back down the trail. In the evening we bought some steaks to cook ourselves (ridiculously cheap) and of course a bottle of red wine to accompany them, delicious!

An early morning bus will take us on the next leg of our journey to Puerto Montt where we catch the three day ferry trip to Puerto Natales.

Buenos Aires Part Dos

2010-01-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

We took the ferry across the water to BA and arrived at our around midnight. We stayed in the Hostel Suites, Obelisk in Central this time instead of San Telmo. The hostel is really cool, its basically split into individual apartments each sharing a kitchen and bathroom. The bar area is really busy and lively, although unfortunately for us on our arrival night it happened to be full of loud, drunken, shirt-off Argentinians and Americans!

Thursday we went to Palermo visiting the beautiful wide avenues and grassy green park areas. We later went into trendy central Palermo where we stopped in a cobbled square for a Stella Artois in the sunlight! In the evening we took advantage of a free meal from the hostel (which turned out to be a shoe leather piece of meat and rice!) and a few more beers, then went to a late showing of Sherlock Holmes at the cinema to take in the last English film we'll probably see for a while.

Friday we walked from central down to San Telmo and Boca, stopping off at a deli to use our new found Spanish to order some delicious salame and cheese for lunch en route for just £1 all in! We had a great time wondering around taking in the architecture and amazing artwork on the buildings. David was pretty excited about getting in a game of chess from the locals in one of the parks famous for this, however we couldn't find anyone brave enough to take him on, only a table full of hobos trading white lightening!

We spent the afternoon walking (actually crawling in the sweltering heat) around the natural reserve in Puerto Maderno which was beautiful and a hidden gem in an otherwise crowded cosmopolitan city.

In the evening we met up with friends, Amy and Ben to attend a tango show called La Ventana in San Telmo, the show was fantastic, the food was great (half a cow each for main course!) and the company was even better. After the show we hit the bars (we are BRITISH, of course!) we traded wedding tips and travelling stories until the wee hours! It was a great night although the morning after proved a tough one as we had to get up and out by 11am!

So now we are off on the bus to Bariloche excited by the prospect of fresh air, mountains and the great outdoors!
Ciao!

Montevideo Monday 14th Dec 2009 - 12th January 2010!!

2010-01-19T05:29:00.000-08:00

This blog entry recaps on the above period and gives a general update as to what we've been up to based in Montevideo.

We started college on Monday 14th Dec at “Academia Uruguay” and were really impressed with the college. We were assigned Gaston as our teacher and for the first week we were the only ones in the class. They have a fairly set curriculum and we started to work through their syllabus book 1. Gaston is a fairly animated character and very difficult to understand, apparently some of the Uruguayans who visit the college struggle to understand him!! The first week flew by and we appeared to progress well, although we found ourselves exhausted and moaning about the homework soon enough. College this week was between 09:30 – 13:30 meaning we were out and free by the hottest part of the day – and hot it was!! A typical day that week involved us heading home for lunch and then heading down to either Punta Carretas or Pocitos (favoured) beaches to siesta in the sun before returning to the flat for dinner and wine and the odd trip to the bars.

By the first weekend, we were looking forward to two days off and celebrated by enjoying a few drinks out on the town in Ciudad Vieja and a few longer runs down by the Rambla; we have been fairly discliplined with the running, alternating between a gentle jog and a David's training run which has us doing all the kind of exercises expected in a football training session warm-up – much to the pleasure of the 'mate' swilling locals who tend to shout and encourage us (we think!) as not many people here tend to take advantage of this fantastic rambla to run.

By the end of the weekend we had become fully accustomed to having our own flat again with the fridge filled and enjoying a routine of cooking with no smelly dread-locked travellers in the kitchen! The flat is great although a few mornings it's hard to sleep when the market on the road outside being set up from 4am!! Also, the local bar (Bar Sarandi) tends to be frequented by various local characters and seems to go on until the last of them runs out money or falls asleep!!
The second week was a four day week, with 5 hours a day (!) due to Friday (Christmas Day) being a holiday and that we were joined by another student – Bjorn, from Germany. It was a good laugh with Bjorn, who we quickly realised was just as keen on having a laugh with us as he was about learning the lingo! The week passed by quickly but was tiring with the additional hour each day and Gaston not easing up on the homework! (Lynne and David don't need to point out that we are quite geeky and wouldn't dream of turning up to lesson without having completed it!). By the end of the week it was evident that much to his disgust David was clearly bottom of he class and crying out for some numbers and no more Spanish! Lynne on the other hand was clearly top of the class and Gaston's favourite! The afternoons this week remained hot and so we frequented the beaches once more.

Christmas Eve however was rainy, we decided to head down to the Mercado del Puerto after enjoying it for Lynne's Birthday....it was quite different this time!! By the time we had left college at 14:30, the streets were filled with locals wandering the streets drunk on Roldo's and swilling it freely in the streets; by the time we got to the Mercado the area was crammed with the drunken mass singing along to live music and throwing cider in the air over any unfortunate bystanders who happened to get too close. The meal was as good as last time and afterwards we headed back to the flat as the streets emptied – we later found out that after drinking the afternoon away everyone goes back to their families where they dine and relax before setting off fireworks at midnight. This was quite spectacular, we enjoyed some wine on our roof terrace watching the 360 degree firework display. It seemed every plaza, house were setting fireworks off, even those in the streets were setting off rockets.

Christmas day was relaxed, with the morning spent cooking Christmas Dinner. Limited by the produce on offer here we opted for roast chicken, roast potatoes, homemade onion and herb stuffing, sweet potato mash, broccolli, carrots & sweetcorn topped off with proper gravy (no oxo!!) and a few bottles of local red wine. It turned out great and we enjoyed raising a glass of wine with the family over the webcam!

Shannon (from Canada) joined us in the class for the third week, which again consisted of 5 hours a day with Friday being New Years day. The weather didn't quite live up to the first two weeks, so afternoons & evenings were spent between the beach, parks and socialising with the other students at college.

We brought in the New Year by having a group of the students round to our flat for drinks and food before once again taking in an impressive fireworks display at midnight which was followed by a trip to the bars/clubs of Ciudad Vieja which only opened at 1am. They seem to have many strange customs here, the drinking of Mate being numero uno, but another noted is that on New Year's Eve before they all go out and get drunk at midday they rip up their used diaries as well as all office paper that relates to the year and throw it out their windows and onto the streets! The streets were littered with paper on every street in town, it was quite strange! What would be called a security nightmare in the UK!!

On New Years day we relaxed by the coast and on the 2nd we headed to the Bodega Bouza Winery in the countryside of Montevideo. This is an experimental vineyard only recently opened and prides itself on quality over quantity. The scenery was as beautifu as the weather and we thoroughly enjoyed a break from the city. We had a tour of the facilities followed by a wine tasting session. We tasted 4 wines consisting of pure Tannat (a grape favoured in Uruguay)., Merlot and combinations of the two. Needless to say we say we enjoyed the wine tasting and look forward to more of the same in Argentina.

On the Sunday we explored some new areas of the city including a trip to Estadio Centenario – which is the Country's National Football stadium, the same one where they won the first ever World Cup in 1930. It got David thinking of how great it's going to be when England win the 2010 Cup!

The final week in college started with a painful Monday. We were joined by two new girls, a Finnish girl who was pleasant enough and a German lady who was possibly the most annoying person we have ever met. She just wouldn't shut up!! Following a brief complaint and a day of deep breaths and counting to ten we had Gaston to ourselves once more from Tues – Fri. We covered loads of material in this week at a fast pace, so much so that it's going to take some time to revisit it all. The weather once again picked up and with class finishing at 13:30 we were once again unleashed onto the beaches. We enjoyed a few nights out with some of the other students which left us very tired in college trying to survive on only a few hours sleep! For the Friday we prepared a hand made card for Gaston as a thank you which he got quite sentimental about!

We then took a bus to Punta Del Este which is 2 hours down the coast and is the Monte Carlo of South America where all the wealthy and famous go for the summer break. We booked a B&B just out of town and after settling in headed into town (the peninsula) to meet with Ida (Ian's wife's best buddy from San Francisco). We went for dinner with her before making our way home about 1:30am being tired after the week at college – for Ida however and most of Punta Del Este, this is the beginning of the night when they start to go out clubbing. The typical day there appears to be: clubbing from 1am – 9am, sleep until 5pm, beach for a few hours before grabbing a power nap from 7pm – 10pm after which they go out for dinner and then back to the club!! A ritual we may have sampled if we had a few nights there, but we were to head down the coast to Punta Del Diablo the following evening and so opted for a fairly early rise, hiring bikes and exploring the city & coast on wheels! In short, the day took a twist after we realised somewhere on the bike tour that David's wallet was missing! So the day then went as follows: a visit to our first South American police station, a trip back to see Ida – our Guardian Angel who saved us with a cash advance – as with no cash we couldn't pay for our last night's accommodation or any food! We were touched by the generosity of not only Ida but also the local Uruguayans and visiting Argentinians who couldn't do enough to help. The B&B owners were very kind to us and in light of the situation allowed us to camp for free in their back garden (we had the tent as were planning to camp in Punta Del Diablo) and gave us breakfast in the morning. After a negative response from the police that morning and having been able to change our bus tickets (and receive practically a 90% refund for those missed and cancelled – thank you kind women at COT buses!!) we headed back to Montevideo a day early as that is where our remaining bank cards and money are!

With only Monday & Tuesday left in Montevideo, we started getting ready to leave. We had some positive news on Tuesday when the hostel in Punta Del Este informed us that my wallet had been found and handed back in with all the money intact!! Amazing, not sure that would happen in London!! A bit late for the bank cards that have already been cancelled but nice to have back. We picked it up from some Argentinian Girls who were travelling back to Montevideo that evening. That afternoon we also enjoyed our final run down the Rambla, notching up 10km and then heading out to a Tango Club with Bjorn, Shannon and a few others. This was basically someone's house that has been converted into a Milonga which stays open until the last person goes home – Lynne impressed with her first Tango lesson!

So our Montevideo / Uruguay adventure comes to an end as we take the BuqueBus Ferry back across the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires.

2010-01-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

Saturday – Lynne Henderson's Birthday!! With college starting on Monday we had the whole weekend to explore the city and to find a suitable venue to celebrate a very special birthday! The morning took us around Ciudad Vieja and the weekend Flea markets before we walked down the coastal Promenade (the Rambla) right round to Playa Ramirez (our nearest beach 2km away) and then to the Punta Carretas district and more importantly its shopping mall; this area is a very smart residential area with tree lined avenues and based around a decent amount of greenery on the coast. A very disciplined Mrs Henderson left the mall with no shopping bags except for lots of carrier bags from the supermarket which meant a taxi was required to get us back home!

At this point we were very hungry and so headed for Lynne's Birthday meal at the Mercado del Puerto. This is an old Iron market which houses many Uruguayan steak / barbeque houses, the place was alive with music, locals and the bars were bustling!! We read that the steaks here are obscenely large and so once we had selected the restaurant where we'd eat (i.e. being the first one we could find a table at – the place was heaving) we ordered one Lomo to share with some fries and a salad. Not as cheap as Argentina, but just, if not more amazing! We proceeded to have one of the most enjoyable meals we have ever had, not only due to the quality of the food but the general buzz of the place; after the meal we moved to one of the bars also indoors to supp back a few more drinks amongst the locals who were mostly pie-eyed by 5:30pm!! It was just like being in London on a Saturday! It didn't take long for us to find the reason for this...Roldo's; a Uruguayan sweet cider, £2 a bottle and 10.5%. The Market closed shortly after and so we headed out onto the street with the rest of the crowd where we witnessed a small carnival with a procession of African Drumming bands circling the market with massive flags denoting the groups filling the immediate area. There were people dancing in the streets and the music was brilliant. We saw the last 3 groups of who knows how many and then before we knew it, up pop a local band onto a temporary stage next to us who proceeded to play a type of upbeat Latino reggae (best description we can come up with). The streets were filled with people dancing off the effects of several bottles of Roldo's and of course it didn't take long before Mrs H was throwing some of her own Birthday shapes in the mosh area! Once the set was over we dispersed with the rest of the crowd into the surrounding streets before deciding to head home for a relaxing evening in the apartment. Considering there was no plan to the day, it proved to be so much fun, befitting of the occasion, and a day that has convinced us that we want to stay in the city at the weekends.

Sunday: Having read of a large Sunday Market in the Centro district we headed there for lunchtime and found a huge market where you could buy anything there, including some extremely cute puppies and kittens!! The whole place was fairly manic and so after an hour of browsing we decided to cut loose and head to the beach in the Pocitos district. This is a decent sized beach with white soft sand; a place we will definitely be visiting more often! David was a bit puzzled to find that the locals here tend to opt for swim shorts rather than speedos, but it didn't stop him being true to the speedo tan lines!

We walked back from the beach, all 8km of the way and thoroughly enjoyed witnessing the local way of life; so far we can identify that the Uruguayan (well the Montevideo) culture is based around, mate, boozy Saturdays, lie-ins (the streets in the morning are dead!), fishing and family. All down the coast, which is either beach, grassy park areas or fishing clubs the area is packed with families, couples or group of friends sat on deck chairs or the path wall supping mate whilst the men (usually) fish. The evening was relaxed to ensure we were fresh and ready to begin our college course in the morning.

Buenos Aires - Visit 1

2009-12-20T05:13:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 9th December: The weather was very hot upon arrival, so after checking into the Hostel (Carlos Gardel) in the Santa Telmo district we went exploring the immediate & surrounding areas. The Santa Telmo district is the city's historic heart and is all about Tango, flea markets and the Flaneur! Its a beautiful area filled with cobbled streets and aging mansions. From here we walked into Central, where the main wide and spacious strips show off many 19th century European-style buildings; there is also the main shopping area, Avenue Florida which offers many shops and cafes but also the chance of being attacked by 10 year old street kids as David found out! The Av. 9 de Julio is the main road through the city and boasts many of the main theatres alongside a very large obelisk, and proves to be a very lively interesting area.

Next on route was Puerto Madero, BA's equivalent of Canary Wharf; a swanky dockland development showcasing new office and apartment buildings with a dock front littered by bars and restaurants.

We were warned that in Argentina the locals do not go out for food until late at night and so we did well to hold off going for dinner until 9.30pm, and being in BA we opted for steak at one of the local recommendations in the San Telmo area. After placing the order, we realised our first mistake; everyone else ordered one steak to share whilst we had one each with side orders!! Still we agreed to show them we knew what we were doing and demolished the whole lot to the surprise of the waiter and the shock of our stomachs! Needless to say there was no tango for us later on, just a few more drinks in some of the local bars.

Thursday: Being our last day in BA during our first visit to the city, we decided to do more exploring and took the Subte to Recoleta, the area inhabited by the rich of BA and where the buildings are very reminiscent of Paris; there is a pleasant area of greenery to relax and watch some old residents tango in the park whilst enjoying a Cortado (double espresso with hot milk) in the many bars/cafes that litter the streets. Next to these bars and park lies the Recoleta cemetery where BA's great and good are buried in striking tombs. This is a remarkable place, the likes of which we've never seen before and most notably contains the tomb of Evita Perón in the Duarte family mausoleum: We can't imagine she gets very much peace with the groups of tourists snapping away!

The evening was spent back in the Puerto Madero district enjoying a stroll down the dock front before sampling a local Chinese restaurant (there will be plenty of time for more steaks in our future visits to this city!).

Friday: We took the BuqueBus (Large Seacat) from Puerto Madero to Colonia del Sacremento where we connected with the bus to Montevideo to arrive at the flat we have rented for 4 weeks whilst we study Spanish at the Academia Uruguay. The apartment is an open plan loft style apartment situated in Ciudad Vieja (the old historic quarter). With only a little of the day left, we headed out to explore the immediate area where we enjoyed a choppe (beer) and steak sandwich before finding a supermarket and enjoying our first home cooked meal for a few days!!

Mate: We would also like to highlight a strange phenomenon in Argentina & Uruguay, that being the drinking and general obsession with the drink Mate!! We noticed in this initially in Iguazu , where we saw most people in the park were carrying a large Thermos alongside a kind of cup with a metal straw from which they continually sip their favourite drink, Mate – a type of herbal tea. It puzzles us how much the population can like one drink in order to carry round a thermos and separate cup with them everywhere they go. In Buenos Aires it was less evident, but within only a few hours, it appears that 75% of the Uruguayan population always have Mate at the ready! We will report more on this drink once we have sampled it ourselves!

Iguazu Falls

2009-12-14T11:34:00.000-08:00

Saturday: Arriving into the Brazilian town of Foz de Iguazu, we decided to cross the border and stay on the Argentinian side after being convinced it was cheaper and the park offered more for tourists. The border crossing was easy enough and by lunchtime we had checked into the hostel (Hostel Sweet Hostel) and had brunch. The Argentinian town is called Puerto Iguazu and was very relaxing and safe to stay in; it reminded us both of a ski resort (with the exception of the snow and salopettes - the place is baking hot!!). The remainder of the day was spent chilling by the pool side.

Sunday: We headed into the Iguazu National Park and embarked on the “Grand Tour” which started with a 4WD excursion through the jungle on the Yacaratia trail; this wasn't so impressive to a couple who had stayed in the amazon recently, but was a nice way to relax. The jeep dropped us off at a small port (Puerto Macuco) where we boarded a speedboat that would take us to the falls via the Rio de Iguazu....this was definitely worth the money as it provided us with fantastic views on the approach (via some rapids) and allowed us to experience the true power, size and sheer noise of the falls. After allowing for a few photos the boat took us very very close to 2 sets of the falls where we got completely soaked from the spray only; to think that this volume of water has been falling at this rate for thousands of years is truly mind blowing. The largest and most impressive of the falls is the semicircular Garganta del Diablo, no boat can approach these and the closest we got by water was 600m away. However the park offers excellent views of this via a 1km walkway across the water to its edge on the upper level of the falls (also including walkways along all of the other falls).

We walked every path available to us in the park, including the lesser walked route 'The Sendero Macuco'; a 2.5 hour round trip through dense jungle where we were treated to a lot of wildlife including, squirrel monkeys, (very) large lizards, racoons and a large type of guinea pig (can't remember its name). The path eventually led to the base of a hidden waterfall (~25m high) where it was possible to bath in the fresh water pool at the bottom; David obviously took the opportunity to take the plunge in his speedos to the embarrasssment of Lynne and the amusement of the few other visitors who watched from the sidelines!
The evening was spent resting tired legs with a couple of bottles of wine (priced ~£1/bottle in Argentina...brilliant!).

Monday: The day was spent relaxing by the pool side.

Tuesday: We boarded the overnight bus to Buenos Aires in the early afternoon, opting for the first class option (on the advice of every traveller we have met who has been through Argentina) called 'Camo-Suite' for approximately an extra £12 each, you have fully reclining seats/beds, covers, pillows, english films, meals (dinner and breakfast) and drinks (including champagne – well some sort of sparkling wine). It was definitely worth the money as we arrived in Buenos Aires rested and ready to hit the city that doesn't sleep!

Rio de Janeiro, Paraty & Sau Paulo

2009-12-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

Monday: We arrive on time and successfully find the cheap airport transfer bus to Ipanema with no Brazilian only very broken Spanish.

We stayed at Bonita Ipanema (to the left of the picture), a slightly more expensive alternative but one we don't regret. A chilled place with cool staff, bar & pool area. We decide to have a wander to the beach (2 blocks away) and in the surrounding streets of Ipanema and Leblon; and are thrilled to find them filled with a huge variety of eating & drinking establishments, no more rice & beans for a week anyway! The place reminds us of Miami and we prepared ourselves for a week of luxury (forgetting about the expense!). That evening, after relaxing on the beach into the early evening, we head to several local bars and enjoy one too many Caipirinhas.

Tuesday: The morning was spent on the beach, the afternoon spent walking around the lagoon behind Ipanema and another trek into Leblon. This area is definitely high class, and we enjoyed the shops and cafes, and made an important purchase of a pair of speedos for David....always one to want to to fit in with the locals!

Wednesday: We enquired on the way to breakfast whether there would be any chance of hanggliding today...unfortunately we received a prompt answer of...”you'll be picked up in 20mins”...yikes! No time to back out now. We were picked up on time and met the other Europeans / Americans who had signed up for the day. Before being taken to the top of the Tijuca National Park (~1.5k ft high) we were asked to sign a form basically indemnifying our instructors against any negligence on their behalf....the colour in Lynne's cheeks vanished!! We then met our instructors who drove us up to the park, and we were shocked to see that there would be a very quick turnaround before it was our turn to take the plunge. There wasn't much in the way of a runway and after one practice run with the instructor Lynne found herself next in line. The key message everyone is told is “...you must keep running until you are off the platform, failure to do so could event in us falling!” This seemed to be enough to make most people obey, however, due to the sheer fear, Lynne stopped running after 1.5 steps and to David's initial shock & then amusement (when he realised she would be safe) her feet were dragged off the runway by her instructor...regrettably there is no video of this moment! David fared much better with a proper run-off although Lynne was not there to witness so she is not entirely convinced. Anyhow, both successfully landed on the beach, having had a great experience. David's thanks go to all those at BDO who bought him the great experience. The afternoon was spent recovering and working on the speedo lines on Copacobana beach.

Wednesday night was a repeat of Monday night, hitting the local nightlife.

Thursday: Today was spent visiting the Botanical Gardens, which were really impressive (no Kew though). There was also a run (second of the week) along the beach front in the evening; the city is very health & body conscious, with running / cycling tracks and outdoor gyms littering the beach front.

Friday: We did some exploring of the Copacobana, Centro & Lapa districts. In the evening, we headed into Lapa with a bunch from the hostel to experience true Rio Samba nightlife. The place was heaving, a huge street party (happens every weekend) with beer venders on the streets amongst the many many bars & nightclubs. We ended up in the 'Estrella de Lapa' (The Star of Lapa) which is a large gig venue where we watched Jorge Ben Jor was playing a live gig for MTV Brazil. We're sure you are all aware of this guys biggest hit, 'Mas Que Nada' used for huge amounts of football coverage ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCM_VWzSiMo ). It was a great night, an absolutely crazy place. After several very strong Caipiroskas we left and in true British style, found another venue to grab one more beer and some chips before a cab home. It would have been nice to show those of you who haven't visited some photos of the area at night, but it is advised not to take any cameras, watches, wallets etc to be on the safe side (kind of like being on Bridge Street, Warrington on a Friday night).

Saturday: As one would expect by now, we spent today on the beach recovering with some of the other tired & sore heads from the hostel. Being the weekend, there were more locals on the beach, and the people watching was very enjoyable, for David especially! We initially planned to have a quiet Saturday night....however, being Saturday in Rio, this was never going to happen! We instead signed up with others from the hostel to be taken to a Samba school evening in the Mangueira Favela. We were dropped off in a street party outside the school for an opportunity to soak up the atmosphere before getting into the club around midnight. On stage in the club there was a live singer, band and percussion. The music was FANTASTIC and the dancing displays were even more impressive...it gave us just a glimpse of how crazy the Carnival must be!! David was quite enamoured with one of the leading ladies, (Lynne was later to discover this on Sunday morning whilst reviewing the photos!!) and Lynne received a lesson in Samba from a lady of 50+ years but who moved like a 20 year old. A brilliant night overall!

Sunday & Monday: Relaxed on the beach of course!!! Not much to report.

Tuesday: We did the tourist trail as part of an organised tour, visiting Sugar Loaf Mountain, Christ The Redeemer, Lapa Steps & Santa Teresa (where we had a great Brazilian style barbeque lunch). The views from Sugar Loaf & Christ TR were as impressive as expected, we think a tour is the best way to cover these sights as they are far apart and mobbed by tourists.

We took the 8 o'clock bus from Rio to Paraty (4 hrs down the coast) and checked into the Blue Jungle Hostel, our home for the next 2 nights.

Wednesday: Paraty is a very beautiful colonial town, characterised by cobbled streets and artisan shops. We used it as a nice relaxing stop off but there are in fact many activities & restaurants to check out. As it is a popular tourist location, eating out can be quite pricey, so when you have a good kitchen (& good cook...not David) and a host doling out free (& strong) Caipirinhas, there's no need to go out! We enjoyed an evening in the hostel chatting with the other guests.

Thursday: We spent most of the day on the bus to Sau Paulo, at Sau Paulo Bus Station and trying to find our hostel. After finally locating Olah Hostel, we were picked up by Cez (David's University friend) who took us for dinner in town. We went to a very upmarket end of town and had Sushi in a very smart restaurant. It was awesome. We were intrigued by the other diners, including a whole entourage of young female models with their agents; interesting people watching!

Friday: We had a stroll round Sau Paulo before embarking on an overnight bus to Puerto Igauzu.

The Amazon

2009-11-24T04:49:00.000-08:00

Saturday: We arrived in Manaus in the late afternoon and so made our way to yet another luxurious establishment...The Continental Hotel...don't be fooled, it's nothing to write home about, but it was cheap!

Sunday: We quickly confirmed our suspicions, Manaus is a dump. SO we got on with hunting down a jungle expedition to start Monday morning. We booked with Antonio's Amazon Tours, a company based in the Manaus Hostel (which we would stay in on our return). Antonio himself helped us plan our trip which we could tailor to our liking. We opted for 5 days / 4 nights and set early Monday.

Monday: Hoorah, we left Manaus! After a 2.5 hour coach journey we were dropped off in a dusty amazonian village, from there we went by boat for 1.5 hours to the lodge on a branch of the Rio Negro. We opted for the Rio Negro because the waters are (apparently) safe to swim and more importantly, there are no (well very few) mosquitoes.

The lodge was brilliant, we had the use of a private room with en-suite or if we chose, hammocks to pitch anywhere on the site, or on any of the surrounding beaches. At this time of year, the water is very low, meaning there is no swamp but many beaches and the conditions perfect for jungle trekking.

The first day was spent on the water fishing for piranha, first we had to catch the bait, little sardine-like fishes then we went in the deep to search for the vicious red piranha. Lynne brought home the bacon with one, David a miserable zero. Luckily our guide bagged many more and we were able to feed the whole camp that night with our catch! After dinner we were taken on a night boat trip searching for Caiman Crocs. It was just us two, Leo (our personal guide for the week) and one other guide. They took us up river for 30mins until we found the perfect baby caiman on the shore. Up to this point, we were enjoying the trip underneath the clearest night sky we have ever seen and in absolute silence with the exception of the jungle animals. So Leo swooped down and grabbed the croc to give us a closer look and to explain a little about the fella. Apparently, this black caiman is one of two species to be found in these local waters, and the largest they grow to in this area is 2m, so we had nothing to be worried about!!! Lynne was terrified and almost capsized the boat in her panic! However, the little croc behaved and let us handle him and see his teeth before Leo placed him back in the water. As we started to head back, the chain of the boat motor snapped leaving us stranded in the pitch black with one paddle...we were both very concerned especially with 2m crocs in the water and a hole in the boat that e hadn't noticed due to the darkness, our two guides didn't seem worried though and settled in for a long paddle back as we scooped out the water threatening to make us croc food. The shore of the lodge was a very welcome sight.

Tuesday & Wednesday: We were up at the crack of dawn, literally, to see the sunrise and to prepare for our jungle trek. Immediately after breakfast we got going with a 2.5 hour walk into the jungle behind the lodge to find our camp for the night. Here we pitched the hammocks, had a wash, made a fire and prepared & cooked lunch before a small siesta set us up for the afternoon's adventure deeper into the jungle. We saw lots of wildlife and amazing plants. Leo, aged 27 also, grew up just down river and has never left the area. He speaks fluent English and so gave us a fascinating tour of all the wonderful plants and their uses. He also taught us some useful jungle survival tips. Overall we walked for near 6 hours and so when we returned to camp we were knackered. It went dark very quickly underneath the canopy of trees but we had a nice fire going and cooked a feast to help send us to sleep. However, for two St Margarets softies, it wasn't that easy to sleep with all the noises of the jungle, truly amazing!! This wasn't helped by the fact a Jaguar was seen on this trail the night before, confirmed by some of it's paw prints near the camp. A bit of a sleepless night all in all. Before, there are no mosquitoes in the jungle, there are however, horseflies!! These horrible creatures rise at 5am and do not depart until 7am or until they have had their fill of your blood!! They swarmed around our mosquito nets testing it for holes to get in at you. They can pierce through cloth and so you have to be careful your hammock is not anywhere near the net.....we both survived the experience (David with one bite only!). They were reason enough for us to stay only one night in the jungle.

After a jungle breakfast, we hiked a further 2.5 hours, ending up at the shore where we were met by another guide and his boat to take us back to the lodge and lunch. In the afternoon we went fishing once more, this time for Peacock Bass. This trip was much more successful and we each bagged 2 beasts. Not an easy feat as the fish are real fighters so Leo had to teach us the correct technique to real them in. It was a lot of fun, and we both loved spending the time in the sunshine on the water in the stillness of the unique location. So once again, the Hendersons turned providers for the whole lodge that evening!! That night was spent in a hammock on top of the watch tower; it was incredible to be atop the tree canopy and listen to the incredibly wide range of noises escaping the jungle around us, although a monkey fight near by did have us a little on edge!

Thursday: The morning was spent back on a boat downstream dolphin watching. We were lucky enough to see all three types, pink, grey & black. We then chilled out on a beach and enjoyed a swim in the river (ignoring the large fish and other nasties in there!). We relaxed in the lodge all afternoon after a hectic few days.

After dinner we headed out back on to the river in pitch darkness to witness some night fishing. The locals wear a pair of goggles and take a torch and harpoon into the water. The fish sleep amongst the submerged tree trunks for safety and so the locals dive amongst them and kill the fish as they doze. It requires a surprising amount of skill, but David was disappointed not to be allowed into the water to try after being promised by one guide. (Probably for the best though considering David's records of injuries!).

Friday: Our last day in the jungle! We were up early to take a boat across the river for an alternative view of the sunrise. We then joined some other guests to visit a local family who live traditionally relying on the river for their livelihood. This was quite fascinating and a world away from our life in the UK. We arrived back to Manaus (Boo!) in the early evening.

Saturday & Sunday: We don't want to give this city any more blog space, beer, pizza and a new hat were the highlights!

We finally left at midnight on Sunday to Rio de Janeiro!!

Leticia / Tabatinga to Manaus

2009-11-20T14:59:00.000-08:00

Wednesday: We were up early for our flight from Bogota to Leticia with AreoRepublica. The weather in Bogota was sunny but chilly and we weren't prepared for the wall of heat that met us when we stepped off the plane at Leticia...its absolutely sweltering here. After paying a tax to get it (!) we took a cab to the main square where we were accosted by several tour operators who had followed us from the airport on bike! One of the tour operators spoke good English and recommended a Residencia to us...it was very cheap, so we thought we should give it a go, the words you get what you pay for have never been more true!! Our home for the next two nights was a small orange box room, with damp and peeling walls. Nevertheless as we were only staying a few nights we thought it would do.

Leticia is a border town with Tabatinga, Brazil, and you can walk freely between them. Both towns are nestled within the Amazonian rainforest, with the heat, relaxed lifestyle and style of buildings they have a slightly Caribbean feel, reminding us a bit of Barbados. There are quite a few restaurants and shops around and a local market street in Tabatinga where we purchased some hammocks.

We had a really good meal in a local restaurant and a few beers before heading back to our shoebox room.

Thursday: When we went to bed the previous evening there was only David and Lynne, however when we woke up the next morning we found we had an extra guest...a friendly local cockroach! David, being the man of the house, was tasked with disposal of our guest!
We managed to ascertain from a local that there was in fact a fast boat service between Tabatinga and Manaus (31 hrs), which we could find no trace of on the internet. Luckily, we found a cabbie that knew about it and took us to the office...this was basically a house on a backstreet with a sign outside it, we were fairly skeptical to say the least. The boat left Friday AM which meant that we had to sort out our immigration that day before we could buy our tickets. We won't go into full details but needless to say it wasn't as easy a process as suggested by the Lonely Planet guide! There was a lot of too-ing and fro-ing, so in the end we managed to procure the same cabbie to take us to the Airport for our Colombian exit stamps, then take us to the Policia Federal for our Brazil Entrance stamps before we went back to the office to purchase our tickets. We also arranged for the driver to pick us up at 5 in the morning to take us to the Boat – although as most of our communication was in hand signals and the odd Spanish and Portuguese word how we did this is anyone's guess, but he did understand us and turned up bang on time!

When we were finally sorted, we went to Parque Santander to see the Parrots taking to the trees for the evening, there are thousands of them squawking at the same time, its unbelievably noisy!
It was fairly exhausting day, with lots of walking in the baking heat and we collapsed with a few beers and some food in the evening before we tentatively made our way back to our room, fingers crossed that there were no more cockroaches waiting for us!

Friday: We arrive at the boat in a typical British manner, on time, first there. The boat is fairly small, 2 seats either side of a central aisle. We pick our seats and try and dump our backpacks on the back seats as it appeared the boat would not be full when it departed (~ 30 in 50 seats). However, soon enough one of the crew dumped our bags next to us motioning they were to stay here....this annoyed us, partially because we had no room and that we couldn't communicate as they do not speak any English. Within a few minutes it's obvious why the bags are left out as we are boarded by 6 armed Brazilian Federal Policia officers who perform a thorough search of everyone's passports, tickets & luggage!! A massive hassle for everyone on board which delayed us ~50minutes. We eventually set off with the bags stowed under the deck, so at last we are comfy and on route. The scenery is fascinating, the boat fast and the food decent! The ride gets more interesting after lunch. Approximately 3pm we were stopped in the middle of the river once more by Federal officers who boarded us and performed another search....they had all the bags brought up from below deck and one by one most of the passengers had their belongings thoroughly searched; Lynne & I being the only westerners on board were of course included. After they departed and all on board had seen all our underwear and other belongings we felt as if we'd started to form a bond everyone. The beers came out at 5pm and it wasn't long before we were chatting to some Colombians who didn't speak much English but somehow we were able to communicate through our rough Spanish and hand gestures. This conversation turned into a Spanish lesson, with more and more of the passengers joining in. After dinner, the sun started to set and we were treated to some stunning views over the forest and river. At night time the place seems altogether different, it is pitch black and the crew use a large spotlight to sight the riverbeds on either side to ensure we don;t run aground...an impressive feat at the speed the boat travels. The sky was incredibly clear and all the stars could be seen, and more impressively when the spot light shone on the water, the sparkling Crocodiles eyes formed their own constellations on the water. The journey took a new twist when we suddenly pulled into a small port at 11pm. There were hundreds of people gathered there and we wondered what was going on; soon enough an elderly gentleman was carried on board upon a mattress and was to be taken to Manaus Hospital. He was placed in the aisle of the boat and for the remainder of the journey everyone had to step over him to access the toilets/bar/outside.

Saturday: We were awoken by an early breakfast and again beautiful views of the amazon at sunrise. It wasn't long before we again chatting to the locals, this time to a bunch of Brazilians & the crew. There was one English speaker (kind of) but we managed to communicate and had a great laugh. Once Lynne has gone back to her seat, I was shown the local Amazonian liquor – a well known aphrodisiac and medicine in the area. They suggested I should try it in Manaus, but from the look of it (mud) I might give it a miss! I was disturbed to learn that it was half empty due to the captain's liking of it, this explained his typical Brazilian charm with the ladies everyone on board had witnessed!

Bogota

2009-11-20T14:19:00.000-08:00

Friday: We arrive in town early and find a cab to the Candelaria district where the bulk of the budget hostels are. This is the historic sector of the town and is very quirky; old buildings, some of a European style spread along small tight streets, interesting graffiti and full of small eateries and student bars (being popular with the local university students). The hostel is very nice, only opened in 2008, we take a double with private bathroom and for the 5 nights to have a little more luxury than of Salento & Medellin.

First stop we head to the Botero Museum. The Museum which houses Botero's works is a beautiful building with lots of tranquil courtyards and airy exhibition halls. It showcases Botero's works: portraits and sculptures of fat people and animals alongside other well known European artists' works including Picasso, Monet, Miro, Ernst etc. It also houses an impressive collection of very very old (circa 16th Century – post Spanish invasion) catholic gold statutes and paintings...amazing!

We went to the Police Museum in the afternoon...quite an odd choice it sounds but then it is free! We had a guided tour by one of the military service lads (all boys have to do a year of service in either the military or police, unless they have enough money to bribe their way out of it!). We had a full 1 ½ hrs of detail on the the police's history, the capture / killing of Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug cartels and the current guerrilla conflicts. The Museum houses a number of fairly obscure and grizzly artifacts, including Pablo Escobar's blood stained jacket, a roof tile from the building where he was shot and a hat belonging to a general who was shot (in the head) by one of Escobar's cronies, you could see the bullet hole in the hat where the bullet entered his skull...nice!

Friday evening we hit the clubs and bars of Candeleria with Fleur and Alex, the nightlife was buzzing and we ended up sampling a bottle of Aguardiente and salsa dancing in a random backstreet club!

Saturday: After a much needed lie-in we went to the Museo d'Oro (Gold Museum). This is a fascinating collection of ancient gold, silver and copper artifacts from the indigenous people and some of it dates back to 500 AD!

In the evening we went to Andres Carne de Res, a restaurant/club on the outskirts of Chia (about 60 mins away). This was a wedding gift from Spikey, Gaz, Nathan and Welsh. It was an awesome evening, the steaks were huge, the cocktails were EXTREMELEY potent and the dance floor was heaving from about 10pm onwards. Its a really cool place to head on a Saturday night and popular with the locals, we arrived about 7.30pm and it wasn't long before some of our fellow diners were up dancing on the tables and nailing bottles of aguardiente! There were performances by professional salsa dancers and some interesting performances by some not-so-professional diners who decided to try their hand at pole dancing! Anything goes here! Our evening was finished off by a stop and search from Bogota's constabulary, needless to say after a few drinks we didn't take too kindly to this and its lucky that the police didn't speak much English or David may have finished his evening in a cell!

Sunday: A sedate Sunday spent chilling out, taking on fluids and recovering our strength...i.e. hungover. We took the cable car to Montserratte which is about XXX metres high giving you a fantastic view of sprawling Bogota. There is a church at the top and is popular for local Colombians to visit on a Sunday. However, Lynne's fear of heights didn't combine well with the hangover from the previous evening and it wasn't long before we were heading back down to the city. In the evening we popped round to see Alex and Fleur for a relaxed evening of cheese, biscuits and red wine, needless to say it wasn't a late one for us!

Monday: We took the bus to Zapiquiera to visit the Catedral de Sal, Salt Cathedral. Despite this being 'Colombia's number 1 tourist attraction' there are surprisingly few signs and it took us a while to actually find our way there, with the help of the friendly locals and our excellent Spanish! It is worth making the effort though, the Cathedral is just a small part of the HUGE salt mines at the site. The cathedral was originally built for the miners that worked there around the turn of the century, the original is now closed off and they rebuilt the current Cathedral in 1995, its quite spectacular and very eerie. We had a tour of the Cathedral in Spanish, followed by a tour of the Salt Mines in English (thankfully!). The Salt Mines are not somewhere for those who are scared of the dark or claustrophobic, and Lynne found them pretty scary, especially when we were told to turn our head lights off and walk through a tiny passageway in the pitch black! David loved it though and may have a new vocation as a salt miner if needed...as the pictures show!

Tuesday: Our last day in Bogota sniff, sniff! We spent the morning attempting to post some letters back to the UK...Colombia doesn't appear to have a national postal system, instead there are a number of carriers who freight mail nationally and internationally, we managed to negotiate a price for our parcel eventually, although it took us most of the morning to do so! In the afternoon we took the Transmilenio to the upmarket Zona Rosa area of Bogota. This area feels more like an international city, with glass multi story buildings and swish apartment blocks. We managed to track down a cup of earl grey tea, much to Lynne's delight! Then we wandered through the blocks to Parque 93, (Usabequen) a trendy square with loads of bars and restaurants where we splashed out on a burger and chips!

Salento

2009-11-07T08:04:00.000-08:00

Tuesday: We spent the whole day on the bus travelling to Salento, in the heart of Colombia's coffee region. The views on route were stunning, huge green valleys with all manner of vegetation & wildlife, and fincas (farm houses) occupied by their poncho & cowboy hat wearing farmers!

We book into Plantation House, a hostel owned by a British gent who also runs the neighbouring coffee plantation.

Wednesday: We spent the morning walking around the beautiful town, before having a tour of the coffee plantation. The town is a world away from Medellin, a very sleepy non touristy feel. The locals are extremely friendly & proud of their colonial town. The tour was very interesting and we learnt the whole process of how coffee is made, from bean to mug.

We befriended a French lad who was travelling on his own and we decided to cook together....i.e he did all the work and we enjoyed it! The local speciality is trout, fresh from the trout farm in the National Park Cocora, we had this a couple of times whilst in the region.

Thursday: Up at the crack of dawn to have breakfast and catch the jeep from the town square to take us to the entrance of the National Park Cocora. We opt for a hike following the river through the park; this takes us 4.5 hours at a good pace. Similar to Park Tayrona, the 'path' wasn't as easy as hoped; having to cross the river 5 times across makeshift bridges, muddy & waterlogged trails and no signs to let us know if we're on the correct route - we loved it though!

On the way up, the sun gradually disappeared under a shroud of cloud cover, which was a shame as we hiked from near 2000m to 2900m so we didn't manage to get the full view of the valley from the top.

We refuelled at the top of the mountain with coffee/ hot chocolate & cheese supplied by an old couple who live up there with no electricity and no access other than foot....quite random!

After a hot shower, we packed up and took the night bus to Bogota, the capital of Colombia.

Medellin

2009-11-07T07:43:00.000-08:00

Sunday / Monday: The overnight bus drops us off at 09:00am. From the appraoch into town, we notice how vast this city is, set among massive green mountains on all sides. Medellin is the 'second capital' behind Bogota and we have been told it's a modern city. On the metro to our hostel (on the other side of town), we notice that shacks are built from the rivers edge to the mountain tops where the poor live. We notice significant numbers of homeless and litter especially at the waters edge. In contrast to this, the metro is very modern and some parts of the centre of town are landscaped and generate a completely different feeling.

From books we have read, we are aware that there are a large number of 'desplazados' (the displaced) in Medellin, being those forced from their farms in the countryside by the recent (and still on going) battle between the FARC forces, the paramilitaries and the army; Medellin offers help & hope to these, or so we have been led to believe.

The hostel appears nice, but we end up with the last room...a box room on the stairwell landing with a good 30cm gap between the top of the walls and the ceiling. The result, a very noisy room. Definitely the worst so far, but the location and facilities (out side the room) are decent with friendly staff and so we decide to stick around for a few days and to try and explore the city a little before moving onto Salento.

The best area by far was Zona Rosa which we had a great time exploring. We regret not staying in this part of town as it's where all the cool kids hang!! We treated ourselves to some good Cuban food to compensate. Our hostel was near the Sur Americana Metro stop and although it lacked the bars/cafes & buzz it did have a Carrefour much to Lynne's excitement where we managed to purchase some long awaited Tea bags. This part of town is fairly middle class and we enjoyed a few runs in the morning amongst the locals around the football stadium area.

After two days we had to move onto Salento which is a shame as we would have liked to explore Medellin a little more.

Medellin is the home town of Botero, a famous Colombian artist, who creates statues & paintings of fat people mainly....

Taganga

2009-11-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

Friday: Up early to spend the day on Taganga beach. Started with a breakfast of waffles with honey, omlette, toast, coffee, hot chocolate and orange juice at a local haunt, all for the bargain price of £2 each.

The day on the sand allowed us to start planning the amazon & Brazil part of our trip. The afternoon was spent swinging in our hammocks, reading and generally chilling out enjoying the fantastic views from the hostel. We decided to hit the town in the evening, for a few beers and pizza!!! Everywhere in Taganga sells pizza, not particularly local but very tasty. All in all a lazy day.

Saturday: After packing up, we headed to the beach but the plans soon changed and we ended up on a snorkeling tour of the surrounding bays of Taganga. We had a really good time and were lucky enough to meet a couple from Bogota who spoke English! And who gave us some really good tips for when visiting the city. The trip ended with some fresh grilled fish at Alex's (the very simple but endearing tour guide) moma's beach shack...perfect!!

We are now on board the Brasilia express to Medellin where we will be spending our next two days. The bus leaves at 6pm and when we wake at 11am we will be there! A long journey but these buses are very comfortable, almost fully reclining seats and very efficient air conditioning...icicles are already forming on my fingers as I type!

And here's an update on the beard growth (hair styled by 'Salon Lynne').

So until Medellin...........

Parque Nacional Tyrona

2009-10-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

Up early as a busy day ahead. Initially an “interesting” hour spent at the post office in Santa Marta but in the end we successfully (hopefully!) sent off our letters to the UK. We negotiated leaving our large packs at the Hostel and made our way to Santa Marta market with day packs, camping equipment and dry rations. The market was chaotic and it was a case of head down and walk ignoring the numerous shouts of “El Gringo!” as it seemed everyone had some service or goods they thought we'd like to buy. Fortunately we found the local bus to El Zaino – the gate to Parque Nacional Tayrona. We set of with a full bus including a group of Argentinian troubadours..or so they seemed. Dropping us off at El Zaino with little instruction, we found a jeep to take us into the park and drop us at Canaveral – the furthest point any vehicle could go, from here on it is by feet or donkey. We trekked almost 2 hours in sweltering sunshine & humidity through a jungle path negotiating large boulders & millions of red ants. We finally made it to the campsite 'El Cabo' & pitched our tent, our home for the next few nights. The park is simply stunning, with an incredible coast line, empty beaches, coral reefs & very diverse wildlife hiding in the jungle.

We up at first light on our first full day (5:15am) having gained 4 hours sleep each as a result of the unrelenting heat, continuous animal noises and mosquitoes sensing fresh UK meat! As we were up and the weather was slightly overcast, we decided to undertake the 3.5 hours hike to and from 'La Peublito', an ancient indigenous tribal village. Between 450-1600 BC this village was inhabited by 2000 inhabitants, but it now lies empty with the ruins hidden on top of one of the mountains in the jungle. We were slightly concerned to see we were the only people on the path, especially considering the 'path' was more of an assault course,crouching through caves, scaling boulders and a continuous uphill gradient. To add to our nervousness, we were accompanied on route by a range of wildlife including, multi-coloured snakes, black & yellow frogs, geckos, lizards, bats, monkeys,blue crabs, many coloured butterflies and dragonflies the size of birds (of which landed in David's hair on the descent). It was worth it in the end to see such a rare sight nestled within the breathtaking jungle backdrop. We relaxed there for a short while and had some food, but our return to the camp site was hastened by what sounded to us like incredible growls and roars coming from the mountainside opposite our path. Initially thinking it was some kind of large cat, we found out it was probably some kind of large ape fight between two dominant males...if that's so, then the nature programmes you see on BBC do not give justice to just how loud and impressive the roars are. After such a taxing morning, we opted for the beach in the afternoon, which is not as easy as it sounds, due to the extremely strong currents and waves you can only swim at one beach 'La Piscina', another 20 minute trek through the jungle. The bay there is cut off by a coral reef, making the snorkeling there fantastic with a large area to explore.

We decided to treat ourselves to dinner and beers at the campsite 'restaurant' and a game of chess....Lynne is getting better every game!

The next morning, after a much better sleep we decide to spend the day at La Piscina and then to head back to Santa Marta to pick up our bags and travel onto Taganga – apparently a beautiful little bay area 5km from Santa Marta. Again, the weather is slightly overcast but it allows a day of comfortable rest on the beach and snorkeling in the reef. The afternoon is less fun as we pack up and begin the hike back to the entrance, during which the heavens opened...wow, it was some rain!! Even with the jungle shelter we arrive at Canaveral drenched, but it is surprisingly refreshing considering the heat. We find a jeep back to the gates and then take the local bus back to Santa Marta. To rejuvenate ourselves, we decide to head back to the same fish restaurant in Santa Marta we enjoyed a few nights earlier for some more grilled fish .again it was delicious.

Afterwards we took a cab to Taganga and checked into Techos Azules (Blue Roofs). The place is awesome, overlooking the beach with rocking chairs, hammocks (chess set!) among it's other facilities not forgetting the most comfortable mattress we have slept on so far!

On the buses!

2009-10-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday: We decided to head along the coast today to Santa Marta. We made it to the bus station on the outskirts of town are were immediately descended upon by ticket touts for the various bus companies. We managed to negotiate a price and, feeling quite pleased with ourselves, boarded the bus. On cue, the bus started its engine and so we thought we were off on our journey...not quite! For the next hour, the bus proceeded to crawl its way in a loop around the bus station while the touts rounded up more passengers. Finally, we were on our way up the coast.

The view from the bus window was really something, lush green fields and foliage almost made us feel like we were back in Cheshire, until a corrugated iron house would appear reminding us of our whereabouts. The level of poverty in the country is quite startling, thousands, if not millions of people were made homeless in Colombia's internal conflicts. It's not really safe for us to walk around certain parts of town but from the windows we saw shanty towns and houses built on the edge of the water, surrounded by litter where children play barefoot in the filth. It seems that everyone has something to sell, all of the houses on the main roads double as stores selling street food and drinks, while men and women continually boarded the bus selling snacks, refreshments and jewellery. We also pass through some more prosperous towns where terraced, multi-coloured houses with tiled patios line the clean streets, they seem a sharp contrast to the poorer areas and highlight Colombia's wealth gap.

After 2 hours, we reached Barranquillo, where, unbeknown to us, we were changing buses. We saw our bags being despatched onto the pavement and race off the bus to find out what's going on. Two touts directed us to another bus without explanation but we obediently boarded the bus on the promise that it will deliver us to Santa Marta. The bus then edged its way through the town at snail's pace for over an hour (!) as the touts collected more passengers, finally, with the bus full, we're off again on our journey.

With the help of our accompanying passengers we alight the bus at the right place and take a cab into the beach area to find somewhere to stay. Our 4 hour journey has taken us over 7 hours!

We end up at the Casa Familiar, a family-run hostel with decent rooms equipped with bathrooms and ceiling fans. The location is perfect, a short stroll from the beach where we plan to spend most of tomorrow. Gaining confidence in our Spanish we ask the Hostel owner for a recommendation for dinner and take her advice. The restaurant is fairly basic looking, although there are menus with prices so at least we know we won't be charged 'gringo' prices! The food, however, is AWESOME! Huge portions (which are very welcome as we haven't eaten since breakfast) of prawns in a creole salsa and grilled fillets of fish heaped with garlicy vegetables accompanied by chips and rice. Delicioso!

South America!!!!

2009-10-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

We spent Monday evening in South beach, enjoying a few happy hour drinks and ending the night in The News Café – an institution of South Beach. The cheese burgers were exquisite and were quickly polished off.

Tuesday was spent on the beach and in the sea, a chilled day in all preparing for the trip to Colombia early Wednesday morning.

Wednesday: We flew into Cartegena, Colombia via Panama, but arrived one bag short.....David's bag! After some flawless Spanish negotiations we agreed to have my bag delivered to us the next day at our hostel. We took a cab to Hostel Holiday, and this proved an eye opener to just how insane this city is!! The hostel is decent, a lovely courtyard for socialising with other backpackers, a clean room and fresh towels, better then expected.

First day was spent exploring the beautiful old town, a truly picturesque area with a very bloody history courtesy of the English cannons. The heat has been ridiculous, too much to handle at times for two pasty Brits. We also visited the beach at Bocagrande and enjoyed the warm Caribbean sea. (but did not enjoy the endless Del boys and massage ladies who made a beeline for us as soon as they saw us coming).

The second day we went to Colombia's largest mud volcano......Lynne is skeptical whether this can be classified as a genuine volcano!! Nevertheless we stripped off to our swim wear and took the plunge into the mud. Probably one of the most random things we have done. We washed off in the lagoon afterwards and then were taken to a remote beach for a fantastic lunch of fresh grilled fish, fried plantain and rice (of course).

In the evening we headed out on the town with Graeme & Katie after a boozy game of ring of fire in the hostel. A great night which led to our first hangover on South American soil. The hangover was nursed by a quiet day at the beach, saving the pennies before we head up the coast to Santa Marta today.

Miami 16-18th October

2009-10-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

Friday: So, this morning we started our journey. After the goodbyes with the parents we boarded the jumbo. Pre-marriage Lynne always had bad luck with flights, and as a Henderson, not much has changed. Sat in the seat next to her was possibly the fattest teenager we have ever seen. The arm rest between Lynne and him was hidden amongst the bingo wings. After a swift complaint that “these people” should have to buy two seats, the only two tv screens on the plane that messed up were ours......in short, rubbish flight, but hopefully the complaints card put in might secure an upgrade on the return leg whenever that will be.

In Miami, we get to Cyrus's Miami Beach pad, the house is awesome! And Cyrus being the legend he is, has stocked up the fridge with groceries / juice and beers!! First job, a maple streaky bacon sarnie!

Once Cyrus turned up and awoke us from our Chort (Persian siesta), we headed into South Beach and grabbed pizza, a beer and people watched on Lincoln Drive. Just enough to ensure a restful night with the jet lag kicking in and to prepare for what Cyrus has said will be a chilled day! I should also add at this point that Cyrus arrived with his pug Kalua, she's adorable and so much fun.

Saturday: First stop, The Standard Spa.

The place is amazing, first order of the day is breakfast, Lynne & Cyrus opt for the Eggs Benedict whilst I sniff out the pancakes & maple syrup accompanied by Chicken apple sausages....all this washed down by a pitcher of Sangria.

Then a chill by the pool on the waterfront; the salt water pool is perfect in the heat of the day. In the afternoon, we head to the Turkish baths and relax for several hours between the incredible steam room, sauna, waterfall showers, and other facilities. All three of us leave feeling completely zen froom the medatitive environment of the hamam, the only thing needed now is food. Cyrus takes us to downtown to Garcias Fish Restaurant, situated right on the waterfront. It serves fresh fish caught that morning, we start with StoneCrab Claws to share, Lobster Chowder and then Grouper; the freshness is immediately obvious and it was so good we didn't quite realise how much we had eaten. Leaving that plaice (bad joke) we were looking forward to a quality chort.

The chort lasted somewhat longer than expected and it wasn't until until 10.45 that we all woke up! We got together and decided not to undo all the relaxation from the spa day, the decision was made to chill-ax and stay in. So after some tea and conversation, we headed back to bed.

Sunday: Lynne disappeared for a run at 8am as usual, I'll stick to my word and start running when we arrive in South America!!

We grabbed breakfast with Cyrus at a local Jewish Cafe, huge portions once more, breakfast is perhaps an understatement....It took us through to dinner!

After b'fast Cyrus took us on a tour of Miami, stopping off in Coral Gables for a much needed walk around the area; then on to Vizcaya, a stately home built to replicate a typical northern italian village..a beautiful spot right on Biscayne Bay with fantastic gardens and a maze much to Lynne's excitement.

After saying a goodbye to Cyrus & Kalua we walked the boardwalk from Miami Beach to South Beach, people watching and checking out the incredible hotels and the art deco area.

Monday: David's fitness regime started. We both felt very miami running down the boardwalk & the beach stopping off for bootcamp style exercises! Now we've done the exercise, Miami beach is calling us in beautiful sunshine...I think we'll spend the rest of the day there.

First Post Pre-wedding

2009-10-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

A quick test post.

Both sat on the couch, unemployed with plenty of time on our hands...life is good! One of our last nights at home!

See (some of) you at the wedding!

D&L