Brazil

To catch my flight to Brazil, I had to get up at 3.30am - I was not impressed and nor was the guy on duty at reception as he was having a nice snooze before I disturbed him!! I made it to the airport, check-in, boarded the plane and off we went. All was pretty uneventful. I arrived at Rio De Janeiro where I was to be collected by my friend Keila who I had met in Santiago when I first came to South America. I waited and waited for her, not quite sure where she was. After an hour I figured something wasn´t quite right so I went to the information desk to ask where the phones were so I could call her. The lady very kindly lent me her mobile instead. It turned out the Keila was not in fact not going to be collecting me but instead was at her beach house in a tiny place called Jacone. She decided to go the night before. So she told me how to get there and off I went. First I had to catch a bus from the airport to Niteroi bus station (about an hour away). It turns out that buses in Brazil are not made for backpackers!! They have turnstiles you have to go though to get on the bus and me and all my baggage did not fit through. The poor bus driver had to help me lift it all over the barrier!! So I made it to the bus station and then wandered around trying to find the bus to Jacone. I could not see it and tried to ask at the information desk for help. They did not speak English. But luckily for me a Brazilian lady heard me asking for help and came over to offer her services as she spoke English - yeah!! So with her assistance I found the right bus and off I was on the second part of the journey. After another hour I eventually arrived in this tiny place and by then it had decided to start raining. I have no wet water gear so me and everything I owned just got wet!! My next mission was to find Keila´s house. She had forgotten to give me her house number so I tried calling her. The number she gave me did not work. Eventually an old lady felt sorry for me and let me use her phone (she dialled the number as she figured out what was wrong!). I managed to get hold of Keila, she then came to pick me up and we went back to her house. That night we all just chilled out and drank beer. We couldn´t go anywhere as it was raining a lot! The next day we again stayed in the house because of the rain. In the afternoon we then drove back to Rio as everyone had to go to work the next day (except for me of course!!).

The next couple of days I tried to tour Rio but it just rained and rained and rained. Eventually I got bored of this, so I caught a bus to a town in the hills called Petropolis. It was where the Portuguese royal family used to go on holiday - so there you go!! It was a very pretty place so I stayed for a couple of days and saw the sights - which were all indoors unlike Rio. I then returned to Rio and caught a plane to Sao Paulo where I was met by a friend of my Mum´s - Anneke Chatwin. I stayed with her for a week and pretty much took it easy. It was still raining quite a bit so we couldn´t do too much. But there was a swimming pool so I took advantage of that and I walked Anneke´s dog Mia a lot as she was soooo cute. I also met up with my friend Lucianna who I had lived with in Manly. I wasn´t too keen to do much in Sao Paulo as everyone I met kept telling me really nasty horror stories of what had happened to them. Pretty much everyone had been robbed or assaulted in some way. Therefore I felt the best thing was to stay in the safety of Anneke´s flat and surrounding area as it was all fenced off and no one nasty could get in. I had a really great, relaxing time and Anneke was a fabulous hostess.

I then returned to Rio where I decided that I would stay in a hostel in Ipanema as it was near the beach and it wasn´t hard to get around. My friend Keila lived in Niteroi and it always took me an hour to get into Rio! I met some lovely people in my dorm - Claire and Jules from South Africa, Hannah and Christine from Australia and Rachel from the UK. On my first day I went up to see the huge Christ on the hill with Claire and Jules, but unfortunately the weather was terrible and we were all of 2 meters from him and could not see him at all because of the clouds - my photos are great!!!! On the way down we saw some tiny monkeys so we fed them bananas. That evening we all went to the Artisan market in Copacabana and we all ended up buying Havaianas!! The next day the weather had cleared up a bit so I went to the beach. In the evening we went to Sugar Loaf Mountain to watch the sunset over Rio. We were really lucky with the weather as the clouds and rain managed to stay away :-) It was absolutely beautiful up there.

The following day we decided to try again to see the Christ on the hill. This time we were much luckier. The weather stayed good and we got some great photos of the Christ and of Rio. At around 6pm Claire decided that she wanted to go swimming so we all went along. I have to say it was absolutely freezing. It doesn´t help that the sun was setting and therefore you couldn´t warm up when you came out of the water!! But it did wake you up!!

Nearly everyone left the next day apart from me and Rachel. I decided to stay in Rio for the rest of my time in Brazil. There are a few reasons for this. First I am slightly fed up of buses and things always going wrong and I really don´t have the energy to travel around. Second, the stories I have heard of what has happened to people while they have been in Brazil is unbelievable. Every day when we would return to the hostel we would hear of another person who had been mugged or had something stolen. I have to say this is the only country that I felt very unsafe in. And I don´t know any Portuguese and I would much rather improve my Spanish!! So because of all this I have decided to leave Brazil early and fly to Spain and spend more time there.

So in my last days in Rio I was just sorting things out for my departure. I met up with my friend Keila again and collected the bags I had left at her house. The amount of luggage I have now is unbelievable - I think the people at check-in are going to have a heart attack when they see what I have!! So I have just been pottering around, going to the beach, drinking Caipirinhas and avoiding being mugged!!

I can´t believe I am now leaving South America, I have been here since July and I have had a wonderful time. I have met some fantastic people and had some great experiences and some bad ones, but that is all part of travelling :-) So now it is onto Spain....

Chile - again!

I went to Santa Cruz airport to catch my flight to Santiago. I went to the check-in desk and thought I would pass by with no problems - not quite!! I handed the guy my paper ticket and he nearly had a heart attack!! He had never seen anything so big in his life and the date on the ticket was different to the date that day (I had changed the flights). He took this straight to his manager and they spent the next 20 minutes trying to figure out what to do. After a while I enquired what the problem was and they said that they were trying to figure out if they needed to charge me a fee for changing the date of my ticket. I told him this was not necessary as I was allowed to change my flights as much as I liked and did not have to pay a fee - he did not believe me!! But surprise surprise after a few phone calls it turned out I was right! So to compensate me standing at check-in for what felt like ages they upgraded me!!!!! Now this sounds a lot nicer than it actually is. The plane I was flying in is a small plane and business class in fact has the same seats as economy but has an extra 2 inches leg room instead. But hey, who am I to complain - so now I have flown business class - although it really isn´t that impressive!!

We had a stop off on the way to Santiago, which was also in Chile. Because it we were now in a new country we were all required to get off here and go through immigration. But before we were allowed to get off the flight they had to sterilise the aircraft - all very technical stuff!! A guy boarded the plane with..... bug spray!!! He then walked through the aircraft spraying it randomly - sometimes at people!! After we had completed this process we were finally allowed off the aircraft, went through immigration and then we were all back on the plane again and off we went to Santiago. I got to Santiago fine, and went to my hostel via about 5 other hostels in the city as I was on a bus which drops people off along the way so I got a good tour of the city!

I had a nice time in Santiago - for a start the weather was amazing - it certainly beats it when I was there 3 months earlier and it just rained and rained and rained. I also felt a lot safer than when I first was here. After travelling around all the other South American countries, Santiago comes across as a piece of cake, so I spent the few days I was here just chilling out!! Although for a country that has a better reputation than the other countries, they do keep their shampoo and chocolate locked away!! It is really strange. You wander around the supermarket and the only things that you have to buy separately because they are locked in cupboards is the shampoo and chocolate (not the alcohol which is by far more expensive!). So I think these must be very important goods to the Chilean people and they clearly get shoplifted a lot - very strange indeed!!

While I was in Chile I did a day trip to Valparaiso which is on the coast. It was a lovely place, but practically deserted. I discovered later that it was in fact a holiday (these South Americans seem to have holidays all the time!!). I wandered around and then went back to Santiago.

It was then time for me to leave Chile for good and catch my flight to Brazil...

Bolivia

You can´t make this stuff up!!! Well I thought (at least I was hoping) that in Bolivia I would have fewer problems, but no!! (Sorry people, but this is a long, long blog!)


THE PLAN

Arrive in Copacabana from Puno, go on a tour of the Isle del Sol. Then catch a bus to La Paz, stay a couple of days, sort a few things out, before catching the night bus to Uyuni. Do a 3 day tour of the Salt Plains etc. Then catch a bus to Potosi, then onto Sucre, stay a couple of days to rest and then catch a bus to Santa Cruz in time for my flight to Santiago.

Sounds easy doesn´t it - well it wasn´t!!

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

Obviously you know that getting to Copacabana wasn´t easy, but once there I found a nice hotel to put my feet up and relax in. They had hammocks which was great so I spent my first afternoon, lying in one of these reading my book - wonderful, although later I discovered I had acquired a little sunburn - the price to pay for relaxing too much!! The next day I caught the boat to Isle del Sol. The boat had two motors and a good thing to. Only one was working at any one time and on a few occasions they both decided to stop. We got there though so that was ok. I walked around the Island, saw some more Inca ruins, and had a very nice time.

The next day I hoped on a bus to La Paz (the tourist bus). Everyone on board was a backpacker so at least I didn´t feel bad about taking my Ipod out of my bag and having everyone on the bus staring at me!! We arrived in La Paz (2 hours late, but that's expected in this country!) and I got a taxi to my hostel. The hostel was really nice and the staff all spoke English (makes a change) so I was able to find out what there was to do and also the best way to get my errands done. So I decided that I would in fact try and send home all that shopping I had done in Cusco. My bag is very heavy and I didn´t fancy dragging it around with me. So I made my way to the post office and found out that if I did send the stuff home it would not arrive until January and would cost me GBP50. Well that wasn´t any good, I will be back in December so there was no point in doing that. So unfortunately I am still carrying all that shopping! I also got to find out how much more desperate people are here. In Peru, I thought it was pretty bad. The shoe shine boys kept asking to shine my trainers, but in Bolivia, they keep asking to shine my shoes when I am wearing flip flops!! I mean seriously, my feet aren´t that dirty!! The other thing I noticed here is that a lot of the women are wearing eye patches over their left eye. Seriously on my first day in La Paz I saw something like 10 women like this. What is going on here???

Anyway, I left La Paz on the night bus to Uyuni which is in the very south of Bolivia. Surprisingly enough we arrived early despite the tire blowing and we having to spend an hour by the roadside while the driver and his mate fixed it (this obviously happens a lot). I did not get any sleep on this trip (and I don´t think anyone else did either), most of the journey was on a very very bumpy dirt track (They don´t seem to have very many sealed roads in this country!).

So on arriving in Uyuni, (again women with eye patches!) I picked a tour company that I thought would be nice for me to do the 3 day tour around the area. They specifically said that they had an English speaking guide (there are very few, if any guiding these tours), and that on the first night we would be staying at the Salt hotel and there would be hot water - excellent! So at 11am I jumped in the range rover and off we went. On this tour there were 6 tourists (3 french boys who spoke no English, an Australian couple and me), and the driver and cook - so 8 in total.

We quickly discovered that the guide did not in fact speak any English whatsoever! Problem number 1. This meant for the entire tour we had no idea what was going on. We never knew what we were stopping for, plus as we couldn´t communicate with the guide we never found out any history about the area! Despite that the first day went ok. The scenery was amazing, the Salt Plains was huge, it just seemed to go on forever. It was also nice to drive on as it was flat. But the minute we hit the dirt track, we quickly discovered our car had limited suspension - yeah!! Also the dust seemed to come in to the car despite every door and window being shut (I don´t think my lungs have recovered yet!!). Well near the end of the day our car broke down (the first time). The fuel filter (I think that is what it was called) had blocked up because of all the dust. At least this is what the Australian guy thought was the problem. The driver managed to unblock it and off we went. As we were driving along I noticed that we were leaving all the other tour groups behind and thought this was very unusual. I was right. We rocked up to where we were spending our first night and guess what, it was not the Salt Hotel as we were told, but in fact someone´s home in a tiny village called San Juan in the middle of the desert. We complained, but there was little we could do as we were stuck there and the driver was not going anywhere. So the 6 of us went for a walk around the village, which turned out to be tiny, we did manage to find a building which had beer written on the outside so we took our chances and knocked on the door. A man answered and we managed to find out that he would serve us some alcohol - yeah!! So we drowned ourselves in beer and wine - everything seemed a lot better after that!!

That night was freezing, and then the next morning when I had my shower I discovered there was no hot water at all, just very very very cold water!! They must have piped it up from the Antarctic!! Anyway, we set off for our second day, only to stop after only one hour as the exhaust had fallen off!! (Second breakdown) So the driver jumped out and tied the exhaust to the roof and we carried on. Then a few hours after that the fuel filter blocked again so he had to clean that out (Third breakdown). We then set off again. The scenery as usual was stunning and we got to see flamingos which were awesome. We arrived at our home for the second night, which again turned out to be in the middle of nowhere, but this time with no alcohol! As we were in the middle of the desert it was absolutely freezing, but hey nothing like the present to start getting used to the condition it will be in the UK when I get back!!

The next morning they had issues starting the car (it was 5am when we left, so not too early!), but we managed to set off. As it was very cold, frost had formed on the windows so the driver drove along with his door open and his head peering out of it so he could see where he was going (why he didn´t just wind down the window I don´t know) - anyway we all felt very safe (although I was surprised to discover that our headlights actually worked, so that was a bonus!). So after 2 hours driving, guess what the car´s muzzler fell off! (Fourth breakdown). Our driver, having somehow missed it falling off (god knows how as its huge and the noise the car was now making was ridiculous!), so he dropped us all off and then drove off back the way we came to find it. He (thank God) did return 20 minutes later with the offending item tied, along with the exhaust, to the roof. We then set off again. This time we were heading to the Chile/Bolivian boarder as we were dropping off the 3 French boys who were heading on into Chile. They seemed very relieved to be finally getting off the car and away from all the problems (lucky them!!).

So now we had to drive 8 hours back to Uyuni. The driver had decided to pick up a Bolivian girl (to earn a bit extra money on the side) so we got the enjoy her company for 6 hours (as well as her constant farting, which I have to say were very smelly, and I couldn´t open the window as otherwise a ton of dust would come in). We eventually dropped her off and then continued to Uyuni, but guess what, we were not on the road long before the tire blew (Fifth breakdown). So the driver changed the tire and tied the old one onto the roof along with the rest of the car parts that seem to be dropping off left, right and centre!! We managed to arrive back in Uyuni with no further problems. The Australian couple were very pissed off with the whole trip and so decided to complain. I told them I didn´t think it would be worth it as from past experience the South American´s don´t refund money and it all gets nasty. Guess what.... It got nasty. The secretary of the company managed to recruit about 5 of her friends into the argument to back her up, at one point she went to the police (they obviously thought the situation ridiculous as they never turned up!). So in the end we walked away with nothing. I found it all quite funny as they tried to blame us for everything that went wrong and as the French boys weren´t there to defend themselves they said that it was their fault why everything was dusty - yeah right!!

So the next day I caught the bus to Potosi as there isn´t much to be done in Uyuni and I wanted to get out of town. As I was now in a bit of a rush I only spent the night in Potosi and then caught the 7am bus to Sucre the following morning. This journey was supposed to be the easiest journey I was to take in Bolivia. It was supposed to be 3 hours and therefore I was hoping I could get settled into Sucre by 10.30am and have some breakfast. No such luck!! During the journey, we stopped an awful lot, which I found strange for such a short trip. Then when I thought we were finally getting into Sucre we pulled up behind another coach. People started getting off with their things. I thought surely this can´t be the bus terminal as we are in the middle of a road! I got off the bus with my stuff and took a look down the road to see a mass of cars filling the road ahead of us. My first thought was ´Oh my God, there has been a huge car crash´, but on a closer look, it turned out they were just blocking the road. Due to my lack of Spanish I could not understand what people were saying and therefore did not know what the problem was and how I was supposed to get to Sucre. I spoke to the driver and found out that we were at least 10km away from Sucre and that the walk was mostly uphill (God I wish I had sent home my stuff now!!). He then turned the bus around and said that he was heading back to Potosi and not bothering to go any further to Sucre. I was therefore left stranded in the middle of the road (by the way, I was the only backpacker there, everyone else was Bolivian) to fend for myself. A couple men drove up and said they would drive me to Sucre (for more than it had cost me to come from Potosi), I had little choice so I said yes. There was a Bolivian girl who also had a few bags as well who decided to come as well. Now I know what all the books say - don´t get into a car that isn´t clearly labelled a taxi and don´t get in taxis with other people as it might be a scam! Well I did think this through but I had very little choice as I had no idea where I was or how I was otherwise going to get to Sucre, let alone why the road was blocked! I was thinking there was some kind or huge protest and that if I ever got into Sucre I would discover a hellish scene!

So off we went. It turned out that we had to go the very back route, along a dirt track which was covered in huge stones and clearly only for 4wd, not a taxi! So after 15 mins driving the driver stopped and asked us to get out (the bottom of his car was getting scratch a lot). Again, I did think this does not sound good. Being told to get out of someone´s car, in the middle of nowhere, leave your backpack in the car while he drives on ahead. But I had little choice. He continued to drive while me and the girl walked behind. I did think that this might be a scam between the both of them, but the look on her face clearly stated that she wasn´t happy either! He soon disappeared, which I was not happy about and I thought, right this is truly it. I am now stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing - great!! After 15 minutes walking we turned a corner and surprisingly enough he was there waiting for us - few!! We jumped back in the car and continued driving. 3 minutes later, we stopped and had to get out again. This went on for over an hour as he struggled to get his car over all the rocks (I bet now he regretted trying to make a bit of dosh on the side out of tourists because of the road block!!). It also turned out that he actually didn´t know the way so whenever we saw a local we had to stop and ask for direction. So after 2 hours of this we eventually made it to the outskirts of Sucre - much to my relief. We drove along the road and then he stopped behind a tanker which was clearly blocking the road. He said we had to get out and walk now as he could go no further due to the roads being blocked. He pointed in the general direction of the centre of Sucre and then drove off - great!!

As I have discovered in South America, places of significance tend to be situated at the top of hills and mountains. Well Sucre is no different to them, the centre just so happened to be at the top of the hill, and a steep one at that!! I tried to see if I could catch a taxi, but it appeared that no traffic was running at all on the roads today???? So I put on my backpack (why oh why did I have to do shopping in Cusco!!), I figure I was carrying about 35kg and set off. The Bolivian girl came with me but she decided to carry her bags in stages. She only had 2 so I didn´t see why she couldn´t carry one in each hand. After a few minutes I got a little annoyed with her running back and forth so I just picked up her bag (I was now carrying 4 to her 1) and set off. Her bag was a lot lighter than any of mine!! Eventually she was met by a friend so I gave her the bag and continued by myself - uphill for half an hour!! It was hard work, it was hot and sunny and I had very little water left. I practically crawled into the first hostel I found. It was overpriced, but I didn´t care as all I wanted to do was stop and lie down!! The room was decent and it had a TV with cable - yeah I made it!! I was so happy to finally be somewhere safe, especially considering at one point I thought I had been had and would never find my way back into civilisation again!!

Although, at least now I can say that I have been to a part of Bolivia that no other backpacker or tourist has ever been to. As we were driving along in the middle of nowhere, the few locals we met all stared at me as they clearly don´t come across tourists very often!!

So I asked at the hostel why there was all the blockades and they lady told me it was a holiday and that no one would work today (so I guess to make sure that no one can, then they just block the roads!!). After I recovered I asked the lady where I could find some food and water. Her response was that that would not be possible today as everything was shut - great I was now going to die of dehydration!! Well I decided to try my luck and after walking around for an hour I eventually found someone who was selling water - yeah liquid! After another half hour I found someone selling a KitKat - yeah some food!! Well that was going to have to do me for the rest of the day as everything was shut. I really didn´t mind, I was just glad to be safe and sound :-)

The following day was completely different. Sucre was a different city altogether. There were cars driving around the roads, shops and restaurants were open and everything seemed to be right again!! I spent the next couple of days chilling out in Sucre, not doing an awful lot - mostly because I felt that if I got in another bus I would never come out the other side alive!! But I still had the issue of how I was going to get to Santa Cruz in time for my flight to Santiago, Chile. As far as I was aware there was only one option and that was a night bus which was 15 hours. Now usually I don´t have a problem with buses or night ones at that. But after recent events and the fact that not one of my trips in Bolivia has gone smoothly I really did not fancy taking another bus let alone at night. But thanks to the Australian couple on the tour who mentioned that I could indeed fly from Sucre to Santa Cruz and the flight was only 25 minutes - excellent!! So I found the AeroSur office and enquired about flights. It turns out it is 3 times the price of the bus ticket but to be honest at this point in time I really didn´t care as I really really really didn´t want to get on another bus in Bolivia again!

So I made my way to the airport, everything for once went smoothly. I checked in, completely expecting to pay excess on my baggage as the lady I had bought the ticket from had said I would need to . My bag was 5kg over but nothing was said, so I got away with that - yeah!! Because it was such a short flight they gave us our food before we boarded the plane!! Anyway, I got on the plane and off we went. It was a pretty rocky take-off. We kind of took off but then hit the ground again before we finally got up into the air. Due to air pressure (at least that was what the pilot said (he was the first pilot I have flown with in South America that I could actually understand when he spoke English!)) we had a lot of bumping around before we finally settled down. So pretty much as soon as we had hit our maximum height, it was time to land again (this has to be the shortest commercial flight in history!). I didn't even get time to eat the minute processed ham and cheese sandwich they had given me :-( So we landed in Santa Cruz, my bag was there and off I went to the hotel. For once everything worked out well. Although I felt like I had arrived right in the middle of an Australian summer. When I left Sucre it was 25 degrees Celsius. Santa Cruz is 38! I seriously thought I was going to melt, its like being back in Broome!! But it is very very nice to be in hot weather again, and I had better make the most of it before I head back to the UK. The other noticeable difference is that Sucre is something like 4000 meters above sea level where Santa Cruz is only about 400m. I have to say I am really appreciating it as it doesn't feel like I am gasping for air anymore, plus for once I didn't wake up in the middle of the night because I had stopped breathing (this is common after you have spent some time at high altitude, and believe me it is not nice!).

Tomorrow I fly to Santiago, Chile. I am really looking forward to getting back down to sea level - mostly for the reasons stated above! Bolivia has been very interesting. It is an absolutely stunning country, the scenery is breathtaking, but it is a very very hard country to travel around which is to be expected I guess! I only have 3 days in Santiago before I fly to Brasil which I am looking forward to - more sun :-)

Peru

Well I arrived in Lima, Peru at 11.15pm (on-time), what I was not expecting was to leave the airport at 12.45am! It took 1 hour and a half to get through immigration and customs. For some apparent reason the airport decided it was a good idea to have 4 flights all arriving at the same time (in the middle of the night), and this for an airport that gets about 6 flights a day anyway! Therefore, the amount of people they had to get through was unbelievable. You had queues to join queues!!! It took so long to get officially stamped into the country that my bag had already been taken off the travellator to make space for the next plane load!! I found the whole situation very bizarre, but apparently it happens every night!! To top it off, once you have got your bag you have to queue for customs - as expected. But because of the sheer volume of people they have this really odd machine. Basically once you get to the front of the queue you give the person your customs card and then you have to personally press a button on this machine in front of you. If it goes green you can pass through without having your bags x-rayed and you´re out of there. If it goes red, then you have to join another queue and go through the x-ray machine. It is basically chance and whether you are lucky enough to avoid standing around for another 30 mins. Guess which colour I got.....red!!!! So I went off to join another queue and surprisingly enough I had nothing suspect in my bag, so eventually I was allowed out of the airport. I found my taxi and we made our way to the hostel. The taxi driver was obviously on some suicide mission as we got to the hostel in half the time and I had to close my eyes for most of the ride because it was so terrifying!!

Lima is not the most exciting city on the planet (although it does beat Santiago), but I managed to occupy myself for 3 days. It also turned out that Emma and Marc were also in Lima (honestly I am not stalking them, although I think they are getting worried!), so I met up with them one night and we had a few Pisco Sours (the national drink, and a very strong one at that!) and a lovely meal in the city centre.

I then had to catch my flight to Cusco, which again was pretty odd. I had checked-in online the day before so that I could reserve my seat, so when I got to the airport I just had to show them the boarding pass I had printed off and hand them my bag. I then went through immigration, again only showing my boarding pass. I then got on the plane, showing only my boarding pass. When I got off the other end, I did not have to show anybody anything and just picked up my bag and walked out of the airport. During that whole time, no one asked to see any identification whatsoever. How on earth did they know that I was the person who had the reservation and that I had taken the right bag!!! All very suspect if you ask me!!!

Anyway, I had arranged with the hostel that I had booked my room with for an airport pick-up. So the guy was there when I came out of the airport, but we had to wait around for another 30 minutes as he was picking up 2 other people. Then he left the 3 of us for 25 minutes, during which time we were wondering if he had just abandoned us and whether we should just get another taxi. Eventually he turned up, in what was his mates car. We then drove the 10 minutes to the hostel. But it turned out that they didn´t know where it was and drove straight past it. We then had to guide them back to it (we had only just arrived in the city!!). So eventually we got into the hostel and we began the checking-in process, filling in forms etc. So once that was done he took us to our room, which as it turned out was to be all together. This was not right. I had booked a single room and the couple had booked a double, so we weren´t all that keen to be sharing. I tried to explained the problem to the guy, using my limited Spanish. He then gave the dorm room to the couple and then half an hour later told me that they had no other rooms for me. I could not believe this. I had made the reservation 2 weeks ago on http://www.hostelworld.com/ and confirmed with the manager 3 times as I had heard of situations like this and didn´t fancy going through it myself!! Well the manager was apparently out all day and I was left with this idiot who spoke no English (I have to say that my Spanish is improving as now when I argue I can do it in mostly Spanish, although I do tend to repeat the same words a lot (I have limited vocab!)).

Anyway, they couldn´t accommodate me and they guy didn´t know why there was no room, so I was then transfered to another hostel, which I had to wait another half a hour for them to come and pick me up. 10 hours later I finally got a call from someone at the original hostel I was supposed to be staying at who explained that the people who were supposed to vacate my room that day, did not and therefore I was not able to move in. I guess when you make a reservation, pay a deposit and confirm three times, then it isn´t set in stone!!! Anyway, they would now come and pick me up at 10am the following morning and I would be able to have my room - great!! Anyway, to cut a longer story short, I eventually got my room, but with countless other problems, including my new room dispensing smoke from the plug socket with a very strong burning smell!!

Apart from all the accommodation problems, Cusco turned out to be quite a nice little town. It´s safe to walk around, which makes a change, and there is lots of shopping to do!! Anyway, before I could shop to my hearts desire I had to make a trip to Aguas Caliente which is the town next door to Machu Picchu (the whole reason I am here!). So I got up very early one morning and caught the train to Aguas Caliente (its a 4 hour plus journey). I arrived safe and sound and joined up with my tour group. Our guide took us to Machu Picchu and gave us a tour for a couple of hours. I have to say that Machu Picchu is absolutely amazing. Completely worth every penny spent! It is unbelievable that the Incas built this place on top of a mountain. The only problem with the place is that it is incredibly touristy, but then what do you expect from Peru´s most famous attraction. After the tour I stayed for a couple more hours, walking around and trying to get pictures of the llamas just wandering around the ruins. I then made my way back to Aguas Caliente where I was spending the night. I have to say that this place has to be one of the worst places in Peru. It is purely built to accommodate tourists who want to see Machu Picchu, and therefore, is completely overpriced and filled up with tons of bars/pizzerias blaring horrible music. Luckily I was there for only the night before I caught the train back to Cusco.

Back in Cusco, I managed to track down Emma and Marc again! They had just arrived in Cusco and were leaving the next day to do the Inca Trail (they had sensibly booked it ages in advance!). So we spent the day wandering around the artisan markets buying stuff that we didn´t really need, but it was all so cheap! So even though I have already sent home 5kg and thrown out another 2kg, I have now gained another 10kg with all the stuff I bought. As I only have 2 months before I am home I am going to try and carry it around with me, but I´m not sure how long that will last! My backpack now looks utterly ridiculous! It has all the stuff I can´t fit inside tied to the outside and therefore looks absolutely huge!

Anyway, I then had to leave Emma and Marc for the last time (they are probably relieved as I have stalked them around most of South America!). I won´t be seeing them again on this trip as they are spending longer in Peru and are not going to Brazil. So I wish them good luck on the rest of their adventures.

I then caught a bus to Puno which is by Lake Titicaca, which apparently is the highest navigable lake in the world! The lack of oxygen in the air is a definite sign that it is high up anyway!! I took a day tour out onto the lake. Our first stop was this tribe which had built its home out on the lake using the reeds. It is absolutely amazing what they have created just using the reeds. All the islands are made out of the reeds, so are their houses, seats, boats and pretty much anything you can think of. They apparently moved out onto the lake several centuries ago to get away from the Incas who were causing a few problems for them. Anyway, we got to spend some time on one of these reed islands as well as sail around on one of the reed boats which was cool. We then got back on our motor boat and sailed the the main island (for Peru) Isla Taquili . Here we spent some time with the locals and they showed us some of their weaving, music and dancing. They even dragged some of us up there to participate, but luckily I was not picked! We then climbed to the top of the island and got a beautiful view of the lake. We then made our way back to the boat and back to Puno.

The next day I was to leave Peru. I got up really early in the morning to catch a bus that had been booked for me in Cusco, by the people I had had problems with the accommodation (I really should have know better!). So surprise surprise when I got to the desk I found out that a reservation had never been made and there were no seats left on the bus. They managed to find me a seat with another bus company who´s bus was leaving an hour later (so much for getting up early!). I then found out that I had in fact paid 4 times the price of the bus so I was not too happy! So I got on the bus to find out that I had got the equivalent of the jump seat in a plane. It was a fold out chair that was squashed between the toilet and a proper seat, so I was in the aisle, squashed and unhappy with the fact I was to be sitting like this for the next 4 hours! It turned out that they also didn´t have any seats left so they created this one for me!! Anyway, I made it to Bolivia in one piece. I have to say that I am relieved to be leaving Peru after all the problems I had there. It was a beautiful country with lots to see, but I just got so exhausted with all the complications - hopefully Bolivia will be trouble free....

Ecuador

Well completely surprisingly enough, I got to Quito, Ecuador with no problems at all and my bags made it as well!! Once I had settled in I had a walk around the old town, which was a very interesting place. There are still loads of people who dress in their tribal clothes, which are very colourful and pretty.

The following day I went to Mitad del Mundo. This is apparently where the Equator crosses Ecuador. The bus journey there was a bit interesting! They appear to squeeze as many people onto the bus as possible, and even when the seats have clearly all gone, they still drive along with the door open shouting the destination of the bus! I was lucky enough to be sitting next to an old lady who had brought 3 alive chickens with her!! Their legs were all tied together and were plonked at my feet - nice!! These poor birds spent the entire journey (2 hours) trying to get up and flap around! Anyway, I eventually made it to my destination. To mark the spot of the Equator crossing is a big square statue........ and that would be about it!!! Its a very touristy area and there are tons of little shops selling bits and pieces you know you don´t want!! I didn´t hang around too long and made my way back to Quito. My journey back to Quito was ok, but the problems started when I had to get the connecting bus to the old town, where I was staying. I asked the bus driver and he confirmed that he was indeed going there so I hoped on. Everything was going ok, until we got so far and then started going back the way we had come - not good!! Some guy, seeing the look on my face and the fact I was looking at the map, asked me if I was ok. I said, ´no´as I thought we were going to the old town and now we are not! So he very kindly helped me to find the right bus and made sure I got to the right destination. His English was not very good, so conversation was limited, but he did manage to ask me if I was married or had a boyfriend!! Then when we got off the bus he asked whether I wanted to visit his family with him!! I quickly made my excuses and pretended that I didn´t understand him and promptly walked off in the opposite direction!!

The next day was Saturday which meant market day. There is one of the biggest markets in Ecuador in a place called Otavalo. I hoped on a bus there - this time I spent the journey being squashed against the window by some lady who was determined to keep her elbows out!! But the journey was worth it. It has to be the biggest market I have ever been to. It appears to take up the whole town - every street is literally covered with stalls. I spent a couple of hours wandering around and I bought a few things that I didn´t need but I liked!!

On Sunday, I felt that I had not spent enough time on the buses in this country so I thought I would make another journey to a town 3 hours south of Quito called Baños. There are several reasons I wanted to visit this town. It is surrounded by volcanoes, it is very pretty and its name when translated means ´toilets´!! Well I had to see it for myself. This time I spent the bus journey next to a woman who breastfeed her son the entire way! And when he wasn't feeding he was trying to clamber all over me and take my book and water away!! Baños was a very pretty town and a nice place to relax after being in a crazy city like Quito. It was not covered in toilets as one might expect but what the locals call baths (or what we would called swimming pools!). I enjoyed myself there, not doing anything much. I went on a few walks, but I really didn't have time to do anything else. After a couple of days I caught a bus back to Quito. This time I was chatted up by two different men who I think where only interested in me as I was the only gringo on the bus (=money!). My time in Ecuador was then over and so I flew onto Peru...

Uruguay

Well I arrived in Uruguay with no problems whatsoever. I caught the boat from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento. It took 3 hours and was pretty uneventful. Although at the customs (which is on the Argentina side, there appears to be nothing on the Uruguay side!) I got stamped into Uruguay before I got my exit stamp for Argentina - that was about as exciting as it got! But it has to be the easiest boarder crossing I have ever done - certainly beats going from Vietnam to Cambodia!!

I made my way to the hostel and then had a walk around the town. It turned out that Colonia is a very nice little town, which the Portuguese and Spanish fought about for years. It also houses the oldest church in Uruguay (thats your new fact for the day!). I went up the lighthouse and got a good view of the town. I later found out at night that it is in fact still a functioning lighthouse. They apparently earn a little bit of money during the day when it isn´t in use - so I think that has to be the first functioning lighthouse I have ever been in - yeah!!!

I also happened to walk across a small festival the town was having. Lots and lots of children were dressed up and parading through the streets, some on 'floats' (a car with all its doors open and blaring music!), others dancing down the street. I have no idea what the festival was in aid of though, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves!! I then passed by the local school, which appeared to be where everyone from the festival had ended up and they were now doing a sort of dancing competition. It was obviously of a high standard as they were dancing to such tunes as ´hey mickey your so fine´and ´i'm a barbie girl´!!! (the latter was repeated at least 3 times in 10 minutes!). I quickly moved on as it was doing my head in!

The next day I spent the morning seeing the rest of the town I had missed, which included the museums, which were really random. One had a very small room of tiles (?), another housed a bunch of rocks, all looked the same (I think they were some sort of weapon used in ancient times - this is pure guess work as I couldn´t read any of the Spanish!!). And another had a bunch of maps which made no sense whatsoever! Either way the whole thing cost me about 30p so I wasn´t complaining!

In the afternoon I caught a bus to Montevideo which is the capital of Uruguay. I had a walk down the main street there and came another festival/parade (is there something in the air?). This was on a much larger scale and people were dressed up in very fancy costumes with their faces painted. Again it involved quite a few cars blaring different kinds of music or people banging drums very loudly. I watched this for a while as it was quite intriguing. In the evening I went out to dinner with some people I had met at the hostel. We had a good time and ate some local cuisine - hotdogs in a bun covered with melted cheese and golf sauce (tomato ketchup and mayonnaise mixed together!)

The following day I wandered around Montevideo and visited the flea market where they were selling dogs, cats, birds, fish and a lot of cr*p. I managed to get away without buying anything, although to be honest that wasn´t hard! I also didn´t come across anymore parades - it appears that literally nothing is done on a Sunday!

On the Monday I made my way back to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This time the crossing wasn't as easy on the way in. It turned out I was missing a piece of paper which I should have recieved when I came into Uruguay and that immigration required so that I could leave the country. I had no recollection of ever getting this piece of paper, and after being passed around the immigration officers and me going through my bags to prove I didn't have it, they eventually let me through without it - obviously it wasn't that important after all!!

I have to say I do love being a 'Gringo' in this place. When arriving in Buenos Aires, we had to go through customs. But there was this guy who was standing inbetween two corridors and most people were going down the left corridor, but he waved me into the right one. I was a bit worried as I thought that me not having this piece of paper was now going to be a problem. But actually the corridor led straight outside, avoiding customs entirely!! All other foreign looking people came out the same way. Clearly us 'gringoes' are of no trouble whatsoever and won't be carrying anything dangerous!! I wasn't complaining!!

So I have now been in Buenos Aires for the last couple of days and I have been trying to see the sights that I have yet to see! Yesterday I visited dead people!! There are a couple of cemetries in the city which apparently are not to be missed, so I thought why not. The first one had Eva Peron's grave and the other one had the creator of the Tango. Personally, it wasn't that exciting, but at one of the graveyards, they have roads passing inbetween the graves, so you can literally fling the flowers out from the window of your car onto the grave!! (At least that was what I was imagining!!).

The Argentinians have been very interesting the last couple of days. There have been quite a few protests happening (their history is amazing, what these people have been through is shocking - their own army bombed their parliament building!!). So at the moment the umeployed are protesting around the city and there are tons of police with riot gear and the biggest police vehicles ever - with guns on top!! There are also barracades everywhere - especially around the HSBC building which I found out today was because 6 years ago during their economic recession the HSBC let armed police into its building and they went up to the 2nd floor where they shot dead a protestor on the street. Since then whenever there is a protest they have to put huge metal barracades around the building as it is a target for angry protestors! Its the only bank in Buenos Aires that has constant police protection. So this has all been very exciting. So far no violence has happened, but a lot of the protestors are carrying long pieces of wood with them - kind of like walking sticks but more nasty looking!

Anyway, there is no need for you guys to worry, I am off to Ecuador tomorrow. Thats if the flight manages to leave. Apparently the flights have been seriously delayed recently as the baggage handlers are protesting as well (it seems everyone protests around here!!). So hopefully I will leave on time, but my bag may not be joining me!!

Argentina

Well I made it safe and well to Buenos Aires and met up with Fay. During the day we went shopping (the thing to do in BsAs). Buenos Aires is a lovely city and has a very European feel to it. Also the weather was great so for the first time in 2 months I was back in my summer clothes - yeah!! In the evening we went to Club 69 which is an experience!! Its a club that puts on a drag show which is very colourful, but means there are lots of weird and crazy looking people wandering around! Despite this I did not have the best experience here. I owed Fay a drink so she decided she wanted a cocktail and I thought I would join her. So I went up to the bar and bought us both a cocktail costing 15 pesos each (It is really odd here, you have to pay for your drink at the till and then take your receipt to the barman who then makes your drink). I did just that and was then told by the barman that they didn´t have the ingredients for the drink (Its the beginning of the night and they have already run out of ingredients!!). So I told him that we would like to change out drink order. But to do this we had to go back to the lady at the till!!!!!! This was already getting stupid! So I went back to her to discover that in fact she had only put one drink on my receipt, not two as I had paid for. She refused to believe that she had made the mistake and that she had charged me twice - despite my change proving it!! I argued with her and the bar man for 10 minutes - I lost as only 1 in every 10 words I spoke was Spanish!! In the end I gave up and settled for the fact that she charged me twice for one drink!

Now I would have been alright if it wasn´t for what happened when we got a taxi home. When paying for the taxi, I gave him a 20 pesos note. He returned it to me saying ´fake fake´. I looked at the note and compared it to another 20 and indeed it was a fake. Guess where I had got it from - that stupid bl**dy women at the bar in Club 69!! Oh how I hate her now!! So in fact I had now paid 50 pesos for a 15 pesos drink - what a rip off. I have since tried to pass the note on, but it is very obviously a fake so no one wants it (and before you guys say how stupid I was to accept it, it was very dark in the club).

I must also mention the hostel we were staying in - Milhouse. Fay, who had been at the hostel longer than me and she had said to one of our friends, that people at Milhouse seem to have a lot of very loud sex here. No joke, when you use the bathrooms you can here people screaming their heads off... It actually turns out that the hostel is situated right next to a porn cinema!! I have to say it makes a change to listening to people singing in the shower!!

Anyway, the next day Fay and I made our way to Iguazu Falls which is on the boarder of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. We took an overnight bus which turned out to be freezing (we were still dressed in our summer clothes and did not expect the bus to feel like the North Pole!! We arrived at Puerto Iguazu in the morning, checked into our hostel and then immediately jumped on a bus to Brazil. You can see the falls from both sides, and as it is quicker to get around the Brazilian side we decided to do that first.

We got officially stamped out of Argentina, but when going through the Brazilian immigration the bus seemed to fail to stop - hmmmm. It eventually let us off outside some hotel where we were to catch the next bus to the falls. Although we were still thinking about the fact that we were not legally in the country, we decided it was best to ignore this and just continue onto the falls!! The falls was spectacular, and the sound was deafening - what more can you say. I took loads and loads of photos (so if any of you are bored when I am home and fancy looking at 200 plus photos of falling water then I would be happy to show you!!). On the way back to Argentina, the same happened again. The bus failed to stop at the Brazilian end and we just got stamped back into Argentina - so we didn´t have to do any explaining. And, despite spending a day in Brazil, I do not have the stamp in my passport to prove it :-( Although, we got away scot free, there was one guy on our bus who had entered Brazil via Rio and therefore had no exit stamp - he is going to have a few problems when he wants to re-enter!!

The next day we got up really early to visit the Argentinian side of the falls. And I have to say it was completely worth it. In my opinion, the Argentinian side is much better. You get a lot closer to the falls, there are tons more walks and you get far more varied perspectives of the falls. It was a beautiful day so we just walked around the park and had a great time. In the evening I had to say goodbye to Fay for the last time. She was heading back to BsAs to fly back to Australia. I was heading onto Salta, which is in the very North of Argentina to meet up with Marc and Emma.

I got on to the bus and sat down in my seat. This was going to be a very long journey - 28 hours in total and I had to change buses at one point. During the night the bus was stopped a total of 3 times by guardes who got on the bus and demanded to see our official papers (apparently they are making sure none of us are drug smugglers or wanted!). This did not help the sleeping situation! And then at 2am in the morning (while I was still attempting, unsuccessfully to sleep) I was disturbed by the waiter who said I was sitting in the wrong seat and the guy who was supposed to be in my seat in fact wanted to sit in it. I thought this was ludicrous and produced my ticket which indeed did state that I was in the wrong seat! Turned out I had sat in the seat that I was supposed to sit in on the next bus I was going to take!! I managed to persuade the guy to take my seat so I didn´t have to move! Then at 6am in the morning, when the bus was just about pulling into the garage station it packed up!! They kept trying and trying to turn it on but it was having non of it. So for 2 hours we sat there, waiting and waiting and every so often being vigorously vibrated while they tried to start the engine (so no more sleep was to be had!!). As I didn´t speak spanish I had to guess why we weren´t going anywhere. I kept seeing a guy running to and from the petrol station with a canister, I therefore guessed that we must have run out of petrol literally 5 meters from the pump - what are the chances!! Anyway, eventually we managed to set off again and we just made it in time for my connecting bus to Salta from Tucuman. I arrived at Salta at 1am in the morning and Emma and Marc where there to meet me. They had very kindly stayed up so that I wouldn´t be lost in a new town in the middle of the night :-)

Salta is a lovely place, although it is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. We spent the day shopping through the artisan markets, which were excellent - I bought quite a bit of stuff that I didn´t need!! They have so many odd things there, including mugs made out of cows hoofs and bracelets made out of llama´s toe nails!! (anyone fancy those for xmas???). Unfortunately Emma had to leave the next day for Seattle, USA as a friend of hers needed her. So that left Marc and I to investigate the rest of the city for the next couple of days. It turned out there was a religious festival going on so we got caught up in that which was rather exciting. For 2 days before the festival, huge groups of people kept arriving in the city who had come from the surrounding villages/regions. Some had walked for over 2 days to get there! Some wore colourful clothes and came in traditional costume! Others just made lots of noise and set off loads of fireworks! For the finale the town celebrated by setting off the air raid sirens for an hour (they are very load and now I have a feeling what it was like during the World Wars - not nice!)

I do have to mention the lady at the hostel we were staying at. She, for some reason took a disliking to me, I think she thought I was stupid or something - anyway, this became very obvious after one day when I asked for my room key. I then asked her ´how do you say it?´ (I am still learning my numbers and keep getting 14 and 15 mixed up). So she says without missing a beat ´fourteen´!! I just look at her and said ´I know that, how do you say it in Spanish?´. Marc thought the whole thing hilarious!!

After the festival Marc and I did a couple of day trips around the area. We got to see some cute little villages, huge coloured mountains, a huge salt plains and tons of huge cactus's. We did a little wine tasting and shopped at more artisan markets. All very enjoyable. I then had to leave Salta and head back to BsAs where I met up with Caroline and Peter from Austria who I had met in Santiago while attempting to learn Spanish! In the evening we went to a tango show which was OK. Although it was more amusing watching the old man in front of us groping his lady friend (did they not realise they were in public!!).

The next day we went shopping, but then decided that since we were in a city of beautiful people we should attempt to make ourselves look less like scrubby backpackers so we went off for haircuts and manicures - all very nice and civilized!!

It was then time for me to say goodbye to Caro and Peter as I was to go onto Uruguay...

The rest of Patagonia

Well Fay and I managed to keep each other occupied for the 4 days we were waiting for the boat to leave. On the Sunday, we checked out and made our way to the port (which basically consists of one jetty!) where we checked it before midday as that was what we were told to do. We were then expecting to board the boat at 2pm and leave by 4pm. We, once again, were in for a surprise. It turned out that the boat wasn´t actually leaving till the following morning at 6am and we were boarding at 9pm - so we had another day to kill!! The weather was really bad - lots of wind and rain - so we made our way to the smartest hotel in town as it was warm, clean and a place we would never normally go. After 5 hours, 2 jugs of hot chocolate (costing us GBP2.00), we moved to Indigo (the only smart bar in town) and consumed a couple of very nice Pisco cocktails. We then proceded to the only pizza joint in town where we met up with Fay´s friend Johnny who was also waiting for the boat. Eventually 9pm arrives and we get to finally board the boat. The boat is actually a cargo ship, not a cruise liner (unfortunately), but we knew this already. Fay and I were sharing a cabin, which was slightly on the cramped side but would surfice for the trip.
We then had the usual introduction in Spanish about safety, rules etc, then came the English version (which seemed to finish a lot quicker than the Spanish version - either it takes longer to say things in Spanish or we didn´t get told everything - I´m betting on the latter!!). We then all settled down for the evening to watch a movie and then to bed. Surprisingly enough I didn´t get any sleep due to the fact it was incredibly noisey as they were loading the boat all night!! Everything went quiet at 5am for half an hour and then all hell let loose. The boat went into full swing for departure and at 6am we were off - finally!!
Our days on the boat were not that exciting. We would get up for brekkie at 8.30am, watch a movie, have lunch, watch another movie, have dinner, watch another movie and then bed. In between we would pop outside, take a look at the view (which on the first two days wasn´t that great as it was cloudy and sometimes wet!!) or play lots and lots of cards! We did have some lovely people on board - although there were only 15 of us tourists on a boat which can carry 180 - so we had lots of room. But we were sharing the boat with lots of lorry loads of cows, horses and one dog which we could hear but never saw (even on the open sea you can´t get away from the dogs in Chile!!).
On the second day we left the protection of the islands and hit the open sea at 1pm. The boat suddenly began to toss around quite dramatically for the next 12 hours. Several of the passangers did not take this too well and spent most of the day getting to know the toilet!! Suprisingly enough, I did not feel sick at all. So the few of us who were fine, played cards and watch a movie. At dinner time only about 5 people turned up (soup was not served for once) and we all attempted to eat spag bog without throwing it around the canteen! Not an easy feat when you only have two hands and you have to hold your fork, glass of water, plate and tray all at once!!
On the third day the clouds gave way to the sun and the views were amazing. The sunset was gorgeous and it really made the boat trip worth while. It was definitely a great way to see parts of Patagonia that you would not normally have the opportunity to see.
On the final night we all realised we all had quite a bit of alcohol left over so we spent most of the time trying to consume it. Fay and I hadn´t got that much alcohol compared to some others. A group of 4 people had brought in 16 litres of wine between them and 3 bottles of spirits. Due to the fact that they had spent most of the second day being sick they had a lot of alcohol to consume (although they did successfully lose 2 bottles when the boat tossing started as they had just left them on the table and they promptley slid off and smashed all over the floor!).
We arrived in Puerto Montt at 2am in the morning, although luckily we didn´t have to leave the boat until 8am. Although that didn´t make much difference as once again they spent the night unloading the boat which meant no sleep for moi!!
So at 8.30am we left the boat (we had to wait for some of the French guys to get ready) and made our way to the bus station. Two people Fay and I had met on the boat, Marc and Emma who were from England and were travelling around South America were headed the same direciton as us. So we all got on a bus to Bariloche in Argentina - I had finally left Chile - It has only taken me 5 weeks!
Once in Bariloche, we found a hostel and then went for a walk around town before heading out for dinner. We went to a great restaurant were they serve so much meat (I never knew there were so many different parts of a cow you could eat!). It all tasted great.
The next day we spent looking around the town, doing shopping and in my case trying to send stuff home as I seemed to have collected a lot of cr*p again!! Bariloche was a lovely little town which is famous for its chocolate. Mix it with Dulce de Leche (which is condensed milk boiled) which is what they sell by the bucket load in Argentina and you have a great combination!!
The following day did not start well. We were all heading on a bus to El Bolson on a bus at 7am in the morning and getting a taxi from the hostel at 6.30am to get there on time. Fay and I were relying on my phone to wake us up. But this didn´t quite happen - it sort of went like this:

Fay: Sara, its 6.30am
Sara: No, its not, its 5.30am, my mobile says so.....
Sara: Oh Sh*t, I forgot to change the time when we left Chile!

We both lept out of bed, shoved everything in our bags and got downstairs (all in 5 minutes).

Poor Emma and Marc were sitting downstairs waiting for us. They didn´t know which room we were in so couldn´t wake us up! Luckily we made it to the bus station with 5 minutes to spare - few!!
We got to El Bolson at 9pm to discover that the market which we had specifically gotten there early for didn´t start till 11pm - some of us weren´t too happy about this! We found a hostel to check into which was up in the mountains. It was actually closed as it was out of season but they couldn´t resist 4 tourists so opened it up for us!! We had a lovely day in El Bolson, eating ice-cream, shopping at the craft fair and walking around the town. In the evening I made dinner for everyone at the hostel.
The next day Emma and Marc left to go to Buenos Aires. So Fay convinced me to go for a walk up the mountain to see Bosque Tallado which is a ´shady grove of about 30 figures carved from logs,´ plonked on a mountain! We started to walk up the road to the mountain and on the way we met some Argentinian guys who were doing the same. The four of us managed to hitch a lift to the end of the road with an Argentinan couple, thankfully as that part of the walk alone would have taken us 3 hours. We then had to walk another hour to see the sculptures. It was slightly harder than we originally thought. It turned out the pathways were all covered in snow/ice and neither of us were wearing the proper clothes. Fay was in a skirt and I was wearing shoes with no grip. I had huge problems trying to stay upright and not slide back down the mountain. After 45 mins we stopped for lunch and took in the amazing view. As we finished packing up and Fay had just zipped up her bag, it suddenly decided to slide down the mountain. I looked on in horror as Fay just sat there watching her bag. Luckily it stopped just before it went over the top and would never have been seen again!! She slowly made her way down and retrieved it - that was close!!
Anyway, we then made out way up to the sculptures, which were pretty cool, although some of them were covered with snow so you didn´t get to see all of them properly.
We then decided to walk a bit further up the mountain to the house/hostel, I only made it another 5 minutes before I decided to not go any further as my shoes were useless and I couldn´t get any grip. So I waited (what I thought would be 30 minutes) for her to climb their and then come back. 2 hours passed and she didn´t come back. I was very worried something had happened to her. I scrambled up the mountain - ending up on my face a few times and eventually made it to the house. There I met the two Argentinan guys that we had met at the beginning of our walk who said that Fay had gone up to the top of the mountain and that that would take a couple hours. I was slightly anxious because she was on her own, the snow was 3 feet deep plus in some areas and I needed to catch a night bus which was leaving in 3 hours and it was going to take us that long to get down the mountain! After another 30 mins she turned up safe and sound and we made out way down the mountiain. I spent half the time sliding down on my arse as I just couldn´t stand upright, but it was lots of fun! We managed to get down the mountain in time for my bus and I then set off to Puerto Madryn.
I arrived in Puerto Madryn at 7.30am, checked into my hostel and was expecting to chill out as I hadn´t slept on the bus. But I had booked to do a tour for the following day and there was a space to go on it in 15 minutes. I quickly put my stuff into the locker and jumped on the bus.Our first stop was one of the beaches on the way to the peninsular. The Southern Right Whales come so close to the shore as it is really deep there. We saw about 3 mothers with their calves playing around - it was awesome!! We then jumped back into the minibus and headed out to the peninsula. On the way we passed the island which inspired the drawing in ´The Little Prince´of the snake that swallowed the Elephant - the island really did look like the picture!!
We then boarded a boat and set off to see more Whales. We spent an hour out in the Bay and got to see loads more Whales. Some were breeching which was excellent. The sounds they made was amazing and the whole experience was great. Finally I have managed to see some whales after 20 months of traveling!!
Afterwards we drove further into the Peninsular and stopped off at another beach where we got to see Elephant Seals. They are really big, but at the moment they seemed to be conserving their energy as apparently the mating season will be starting shortly!!!
As we were driving around, we would stop occasionally and look at the wildlife. We saw an armidillo, their version of the emu, horses, a really odd looking hare thing as well as lots of sheep. At one point we had stopped to look at an emu, when our guide got off the bus. We were all wondering why until we saw the little lamb beside the bus. The lamb immediately mistook our guide for his mother and ran over to him in delight. Everytime he moved it would run after him. It was really funny. We eventually found its real Mum, but every time the guide tried to take the lamb over the mum would run away. It also didn´t help that the lamb kept running towards our guide and not its real mum. Eventually our guide put the lamb as near to its real mum as poss and legged it into the bus. We quickly drove off, with the lamb in pursuit!! Fortunately its poor little legs couldn´t keep up so it gave up, but its Mum did go after it this time!!
The following day I stayed in town and walked to the end of the pier to watch some more Whales. There were loads about and I ended up watching them for 2 1/2 hours!! They came really close to the pier which was amazing. At one point 5 of them decided to come and play right next to where I was standing :-) I can´t believe there are so many whales here and they are literally on the doorstep!!
Today I am heading to Buenos Aires on another night bus. I love the buses here, they are so comfortable. The seats are huge and there is a waiter on board to serve you your meals and drinks!! I am absolutely loving Argentina :-)
Right now I am going to head back to the pier and take one last look at the whales - yeah :-)

South Patagonia

Well you will all be glad to hear that I managed to buy myself a jacket and sunglasses as I managed to break the other ones I had - I think now I have gone through 3 pairs of sunnies in 2 months (its a good thing I only buy cheap ones really!!).

So I finally managed to leave Santiago (thank God, it was getting a bit much for me!), although it wasn't easy! First of all I had to get up at 3am in the morning to catch the bus to the airport and then my flight. Everything went pretty smoothly until we were about to take off. We just pulled out of our gate when we suddenly stopped. We sat there for half an hour before they decided that actually we weren´t ready to leave and so we went back into our gate. From this point on I didn´t actually know what was going on as they only spoke spanish and my lessons didn´t cover plane lingo!! But after 2 hours we finally pulled out of our gate again and this time we actually took off. I found out three days later (I met some other people on my flight) that the reason we were delayed for the first hour because the electrics on the plane weren´t working (could have made for an interesting flight!) and for the second hour because there was snow at Puerto Montt (our first stop-off on the flight), although I would like to point out that when arrived there was no snow in sight so they were talking b*llocks!!

Anyway, I eventually arrived in Punta Arenas, which for those of you who don´t know, it is at the bottom of Chile and very very cold! I had booked a hostel so I made my way there and was glad to see that it had central heating and a lovely lady running it who spoke some English! I then quickly discovered that I was in fact the only person staying in this hostel! It turns out that not many people come to Punta Arenas at this time of year as there is sod all to do. Their only attraction is the penguins which don´t turn up till the summer - typical!! Well I had three days to kill here and believe me it was hard!! I spent most of the time sorting out the rest of my trip and where I would go next. I also visited the museum which apparently is supposed to be good, but since only half of it was open (they were revamping the place during the winter as apparently no one is around!!) I didn´t get to see much! I then got desperate and read in the Lonely Planet that the cemetry is a good place to go (who are these people - vampires!!!). Well I figured it was worth a go and surprisingly enough it was quite interesting. They bury the poor dead people in what can only be described as the equivalent of council houses - no joke!! The rich dead people get fancy graves (in the ground) all to themselves and the poor are in these building which are like blocks of flats which are big enough to fit a dead person length ways. They can be up to 10 people high and if your family member happens to be on the top then you have to climb up a big step ladder (sort of like the ones you get in those libraries which keep the books very high up) so you can put flowers next to their ´window`. It was all very surreal!

Well I pretty much covered Punta Arenas and hopefully won´t be going back anytime soon! I took a 3 hour bus journey to Puerto Natales which is smaller than Punta Arenas but has lots and lots of things to do. My first success was that I managed to stay in a hostel that had other people - yeah!! My second sucess was that I was finally doing things during the day. My first day was pretty much spent on a minibus but it was worth it. We drove 6 hours to El Calafate in Argentina to see this massive glacier called Perito Moreno. It was really cool because it came all the way down the mountains and at the bottom was a huge lake and it apparently moves about 2 metres a day which means it is continuously breaking bits off at the bottom. The sound the ice makes as it does move is amazing and we actually saw huge bits breaking off and fall into the lake - it was absolutely awesome! We took a boat out to the glacier which really gives you a good idea about how big it is. At it´s highest point it is 90 metres high! Also on this trip I met some great people, Sylvia, the Italian Lady and Davina and Ben from the UK (it was so nice speaking to people who first language is English - I haven´t done that for a month!!). On our way back we had dinner in El Calafate and of course we had to try the infamous Argentinian steak - it was AMAZING!! It tasted sooooo good - I can´t wait to go back to Argentina and eat lots more!! We eventually got back to our hostel at 11pm and went straight to bed.

The next day I had to get up early again as I was doing a boat trip up the river to see more glaciers. I had a great day, (despite it being slightly rainy and windy) and met some more people who were really nice and they even bought me lunch and wine as well!!

The following day I went horseriding with Sylvia, Davina and Ben. It was absolutely brilliant. It was a completely different style of riding to which I am used to. The reins go in one hand and you just move your hand side to side depending on the direction you want to go in. The horses are so responsive and the saddles were comfortable as they were lined with sheep skin. We rode for 2 and a half hours up a mountain, it was cold so I did feel like my feet were going to drop off, but when we saw the view at the top it was well worth it. You could see 360 degrees and the snow covered mountain rage that surrounded the area - absolutely beautiful. We then made the journey back down and at the end they took us into their house and fed us lunch. We then took the taxi back to the hostel (there were 5 of us to take in the taxi so 4 of us had to squeeze in the back - apparently they are not too fussy about how many passengers are in a car!!). For the rest of the day we chilled out and then went to a smart bar for drink in the evening (it was everyone else´s last evening in Puerto Natales). We tried the local beer as well as different kinds of Pisco (the national drink, although technically its from Peru!) - all very good!!

Yesterday I took a day tour to the Torres Del Paine which is the mountain range you have to see when you are here - apparently!! Unfortunately for me I didn´t get to see it as it was a very wet cloudy day and so my pictures only have clouds in them. Luckily when I flew down to this region the pilot did point it out so I have seen them from the sky which was pretty cool. We did see quite a bit of wildlife though, including wild horses, foxes, condors and ñandu (a type of emu) and guanaco (a type of llama).

So now I am sitting around in my hostel in Puerto Natales. I was supposed to be catching a boat today to Puerto Montt which takes three days to get there, but it has been delayed by 3 days and so it doesn´t leave till Sunday. The problem is that I have now done everything there is to do in this region so I have no idea how to keep myself occupied. A few things have been suggested to me including learning more spanish!! We shall see!! I have made some friends though who are also waiting for the boat so hopefully we can keep each other occupied!!

Goodbye Santiago

Well I am finally moving on from Santiago and about to make my way to the bottom of the world (well nearly!!). All went well in Santiago. I managed to learn some spanish - although I´m hoping I will improve with practice. I finally managed to start communicating with the people I am staying with, but not because I spoke spanish to them. A Brazilian girl moved into the flat as she is also here to study spanish. She also just happens to know some English - yeah!! I was so happy to see her. So now whenever I have a problem I tell her and she goes off to translate to our host. It turns out Portuguese is pretty similar to Spanish and they can understand each other. We also went shopping and using her speaking skills I managed to buy myself a new pair of trainers in the right size - this would not have been possible if I had been on my own. Unfortunately she has a job back home in Brazil so cannot take time off to follow me around South America and be my translator - oh well!!

Other than that I have been out on a few nights, which have always been fun. The interesting bits have been when I wanted to get home. I always get a taxi, but the problem is trying to tell them where I live. I live on one of the main roads in Santiago - in fact it runs through about half of Santiago, so when I tell the taxi drive to take me to Avenida Providencia he is like which part. So I quickly found out that living above a stripjoint (it turns out the to be the most popular one in Santiago) is very useful. So now I just say take me to Passapoga and surprisingly enough all the taxi drivers know where that is!! So over the weekend, after a night out, I caught a taxi and said exactly that, and in reply the taxi driver asked (with a smile on his face) if I worked there!! I quickly said ´no no no no no no` and managed to tell him that I infact just lived in the apartments above - he wasn´t as impressed with that and his smile disapeared after that!! So I am pretty glad that I now know some spanish, as before whenever anyone used to speak to me I would just nod my head and say ´si` - this could have lead to a rather embarrasing situation!!

Anyway, I am off now to by a big, thick jacket as I still don´t own one and it is apparently very cold at the bottom of the world. Unfortunately I can´t drag the Brazilian girl with me as she is at spanish school this morning, so I am going to have to work this out myself - should be interesting!

Santiago, Chile

Monday 24th July was the longest day of my life!! It lasted 40 hours - and I was awake for 32 of those!! Before you think I have gone crazy, or somehow invented a way of making days longer, I will explain. New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of Chile, therefore the usual 24 hour day had an extra 16 hours added onto it. Which meant I arrived in Santiago (after a 12 hour flight) 4 hours before I left New Zealand!! I did not manage to sleep on the plane as it was a very bumpy flight and the flight attendants kept running around the plane every hour telling everyone to put back on their seatbelts, so there was little chance of getting any sleep! Needless to say, we arrived safe and sound, and I managed to get through customs with no problems. But the minute I stepped outside the airport I was jumped on by about 20 Chileans shouting taxi at me!! I had been told which company to go for so I found them, and then went to get some pesos from the ATM. I was then stalked by the guy who represented the taxi company I was going to get a lift into the city with. He was terrified someone else might lure me away and he would lose all of USD$9!!

Eventually I got to the hostel I was staying at, and was shown my room which turned out to be a shoebox!! It had a small single bed in it and just about enough room for me to squeeze my backpack next to it!! At this stage I was too tired to care and I still had 8 hours more to stay up before I could go to bed. I managed to occupy myself, as well as make some Irish friends who very kindly fed me dinner. They also fed me the following night as well as I was clearly too useless to venture out and find food for myself (I don´t speak spanish!!).

The next day I went to the Spanish Language School to enquire about Spanish lessons and a place to stay for the next 3 weeks. They were very kind and sent me off to visit a homestay. For those of you who don´t know, a homestay is where a family rent out a room in their house/flat. I met the lady, who I quickly found out spoke no English, and since I didn´t speak any spanish, everything became very interesting and confusing!! As I didn´t really understand what she was saying, I decided the best thing was to go back to the language school. I then got the lady there to call up the homestay lady and confirm everything - it worked a treat!!

On the Wednesday I moved into the homestay and also started my spanish lessons - this was my most exciting day so far!! It turned out that where I was now staying was actually above a strip-joint. Luckily I haven´t come across anything as it is underground and I am on the 8th floor of an apartment building. The people I am staying with also have a small boy who I think is about 4-5 years old. At first I thought he was cute, now I think he is just plain irritating!! He keeps coming into my room, throwing things around and taking things - grrrrr!! Plus its not like he goes to bed at 8pm like most kids, noooo, he stays up till gone midnight, so its not like you get any peace and quiet!! All in all though, the room is nice (and its a lot better than staying in a hostel), and I get breakfast and dinner, so I don´t have to cook - yeah!!

Other than attending the spanish school I haven´t really been doing much. Everytime I have a problem speaking to the lady I´m staying with, I make my way back to the school and get them to call her - its just brilliant!! I do have to mention that I am getting far too much attention. I have a 20 minute walk to the school everyday and people always stare, or try to talk to me, and its driving me crazy. All because I have blonde hair and I stick out like a sore thumb! I am seriously considering dying my hair or buying a wig!!

I have another week of spanish left, and then I have to fend for myself which should be really interesting!! I am really looking forward to leaving Santiago as its not that nice a place and there is not much to see. Also the pollution here is hurendous! Everyday I go out I get a massive headache and my eyes and throat burn - just wonderful!! The city is surrounded by snow-covered moutains, not that you would know most of the time because the smog hides that! Also the weather in general hasn´t been that great (I´m used to Australia!!). It was torrential rain the day I arrived and since then it has been cloudy and very cold - I have still yet to buy a jacket! I head south in just over a week and apparently it will get a lot colder - yeah!!

Doyle's turn to drive!

Return to New Zealand

I'm sorry I haven't written for a while, but I figured my last 3 weeks in Sydney would be very boring to write about. All I was really doing was catching up people, saying my goodbyes and doing last minute shopping and packing - not that exciting me thinks!! But I had a lovely time and I am very sad to be leaving Sydney and Australia where I had a fantastic year and met some brilliant people.

Although I did do a day trip to Canberra which was ok, not the most exciting place on the planet! But I did discover where all the kangaroos have gone! I have very rarely seen any kangaroos on the east and south coasts of Australia and now I know why - they are all hiding out in the ACT! So if anybody comes to visit Australia and all you want to do is see kangaroos then I suggest you go to Canberra, but don't stay too long as there is not a lot to do there!!

I am now back in New Zealand and it has been exactly as I expected - wet and cold!! I have been told it has been one of the worst winters they have had in a long time - just my luck!! I was lucky to stay with some family friends (The Rishworths) for my first 5 days in Auckland. They have been absolutely lovely and took me to their 'summer' house which is an hour north of Auckland. It is such a lovely place and they have their own beach - I am so jealous!! I then hired a car for 4 days and headed up into the Northland. When I visited NZ last year we only made it as far as Auckland, so this time I thought I would venture further! The first day it was torrential rain, so that made driving interesting, at some points I could just see beyond the bonnet! I got all the way up to the Bay of Islands which is definitely the highlight of the Northlands. I found myself a nice backpackers and settled in for the night. The next morning was glorious. I booked myself onto a boat trip around the Bay of Islands. It was so beautiful out there. We even came across two pods of dolphins who were only too happy to jump around in the water for us. The following day I did a lot of driving. I drove all the way up to Cape Regina which is the top of NZ. Surprisingly enough it was a lovely day and the scenery was amazing. I drove in a large circle and eventually made my way back to Wangarai (pronounced 'fangarai' - don't ask me why!). The next day I went back to Auckland, where that evening I met up with Kylie and Chris who I had met back in the UK when I worked for Morgan Stanley. We had a lovely evening and it was great catching up with people I knew.

I am now preparing to leave NZ and fly to Chile tomorrow. I am very excited about it, but a bit worried as well. I have yet to learn any spanish despite carrying around with me 3 spanish books for the last 18 months. I am hoping to do a spanish course once I arrive which I hope will make things easier!! Oh well we shall see how things go...

The next part of my adventure!!

Well I am sure you are all exciting to hear about my next adventure, I can't wait to go anyway!! For those of you who don't know how this all came about I shall elaborate... While I was looking for a way to get back to the UK, I found that it was actually cheaper to buy another round the world trip and therefore visit the countries I wanted to see before I came home plus some more!! So I have spent the last couple of months planning where I wanted to go (it only took this long as I was trying to do it while travelling the west coast, and with time difference, my agent pouring hot water on his hands and another agent going on an extended holiday, it took a bit of a mission to book, but I finally got it done and picked up my tickets yesterday!!). So I bet you are all dying to find out where I am going now!!!!

I leave Sydney, Australia on July 12th 2007 and fly to Auckland, New Zealand. As I am sure many of you remember, I have already been to New Zealand, but it actually costs me no extra to stop here for a while and I figured why not. Now that I have thought about it, I can think of a few reasons as to why not... To start it will be the middle of their winter and therefore bl**dy cold!! But on the positive side I will hopefully be able to visit the very north of the north island which I didn't get to see the first time around (although, this is apparently a lot nicer to see during the summer, oh well!!), and of course more importantly I will be in an English speaking country when the lastest and final installment of Harry Potter comes out. I am of course relying on the fact that the book is being released the same time it is everywhere else in the world, but this is New Zealand and may not be the case - fingers crossed though!!

From New Zealand I will then fly to Santiago, Chile. I will then spend the next 4 1/2 months travelling around South America (if all goes to plan!). I will hopefully be going to Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. I will then fly from Brazil to Madrid, Spain and then onto the UK. I have to do a stop over in Madrid and therefore I felt that I might as well spend a week there and hopefully meet up with a few people I know there when I did my TEFL course. I will then fly back into London - again bad timing as it will be the middle of winter, but at least I will be at home for Christmas :-) Now some of you might be mistaken for thinking that since I am home then that would be the end of my trip - you would be wrong. I figured that one month would be enough before I felt the dia need to travel again. So in the middle of January I will fly to Barcelona and then onto Egypt where I will hopefully do some diving which I am really looking forward to. After a month away I will return to the UK again for my birthday. I figured you guys are really upset about missing my last 2 birthdays!!! So I shall be at home for this one! I will then take off again in March and head to India, then Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and China. I have given 4 months for this, but who knows. After that I am supposed to return to Sydney in the middle of July, but I am yet unsure as to what I will do. It's a year away so I figured I have a bit of time to think of something!!

If anyone is planning on doing some travel to any of these places, let me know and maybe we can meet up...

Wish me luck...

Sydney to Krambach

Well I arrived in Sydney safe and sound. It was weird being back, although kind of like coming home, as to be honest, this is the first time in 17months that I have gone back to somewhere I have spent a considerable amount of time in. Anyway, as always, I was greeted in the same way I always am when I come back to Sydney...... with rain!! And lots of it! As some of you might know, Australia is going through one of the worst droughts in history, and it just so chooses to start recovering the day I get back to the East Coast! Don't get me wrong, I am really happy it is raining here as I know they need it, but can't it rain somewhere else in Australia (anywhere but where I am!!) I come from a country that rains, I know what it looks like, I don't need to see it anymore!!
I only had one day in Sydney before I headed north up the coast. In that day I rushed around the city trying to sort everything out and looking more and more like a drowned rat in the process. I might add that I don't own an umbrella, rain jacket or in fact any jacket (far too bulky to pack!). But I did manage to sort out my next round the world trip which is very exciting. When I have time I will let you all know where I will be traveling to for the next year or so. I so can't wait :-)
I then caught a bus up to Nabiac which is a small town (or village by UK standards) 4 hours north of Sydney, where I will once again be spending time on a cattle farm. I was picked up by Keith and driven to his farm (some 2000 acres) in Krambach. Surprisingly enough it was still raining, so for the first few days we didn't do much as we couldn't get out as there was so much water. Although on my first night I was taken to another little village called Wingham by Ross (who works on the farm) along with David (another British person helping on the farm who is very strange indeed!) to do some dancing. I'm sure all of you have heard and seen on TV these people who get together and go to the local town hall one evening a week and do some dancing and that most of these people tend to be retired. Well guess what - that is exactly where I went!! I have to say it was a very interesting night and I did get to try out lots of dancing although my waltz was a little to be desired!! Other than that I have just been driving a tractor and building a cattle yard. Yes, I am now an excellent tractor driver, I can move the fork lift and everything!! I have also built wooden fences (which hopefully the bulls won't break out of now!!) I have to say that the finished result does look petty impressive!!

I am now heading back to Sydney where I will spend my final 3 weeks saying goodbye to everyone and hopefully doing everything that I haven't managed to do yet - we shall see. I know some of you will be glad to hear that it is snowing in parts of Australia at the moment. The weather is absolutely terrible, although in the space of 2 weeks, Sydney went from a desperate state of terrible drought to better than it has been in 40 years or so!! I just hope the sun comes out for my last couple of weeks - keep your fingers crossed!!