Something as simple as renting a scooter and riding down the Miami Beach seems to be a mission for us. As always I was a little nervous trying something new especially when I have to ride a scooter (I am not even a fan of riding bicycles) and drive on the other side of the road, but with a little persuasion from my carefree wife, I agreed to do it. Thinking it can’t be that hard when you see so many others doing it all around Miami, we ventured out to rent our new mode of transport.

The deal was I would drive and as long as I didn’t go too fast Phillipa would be happy. Phillipa did offer to drive but my ego would never allow it. Not only are we riding a scooter (a real man’s bike) but we wore dorky helmets and the thought of me holding onto Phillipa would break any sense of manhood I had left.

It seems the theme of our 6 month trip was to rent from very dodgy companies and renting a scooter was no exception. After filling out a few forms we were then asked “Have you rode a scooter before?”  I smiled and gave a little girlie giggle and said “No”. I am not sure if it was the animal instinct in him sensing fear or my answer had that little croak in it like a boy who is just going through puberty but when he answered “It’s not that hard” he showed signs of regret and seemed very worried all of a sudden.

We walked to our bike and with some instructions on how to ride the scooter he made it clear a few times that there was petrol in the tank. “How you get it is how you return it” and continued to tell me that it would only cost me $2 to fill the tank and a 2 hour bike ride should only cost 50cents. Opening up the petrol tank he showed us there was petrol in there and off we went. It seems a little odd that he would open the tank and show us but assuming that’s what you do when renting a scooter we just went on our way.

The first few kilometers were a little shaky. With my balance a bit all over the place and stressing about driving on the wrong side of the road, things eventually seemed to get a bit easier. We weren’t wobbling all over the place like a worm but cruising along like we knew what we were doing. Phillipa is taking pictures over my shoulder and everything is looking great. With this new confidence we see a really cool bridge and decide to ride over it.

Just before we ride over the bridge I look down and see that the petrol indicator is showing low. I think to myself how that can be when it only cost 50cents to refill what we have used in 2 hours. I don’t see any petrol station on this side of the bridge maybe on the other side. Going up the bridge we feel the engine struggling a bit. The thought of running out of petrol came to mind but the little voice inside, the voice of hope, was trying to tell me that it’s all ok and it’s just the angle of the bike on the bridge. Stupid voice it was wrong. Really wrong. Mid way up the 4 lane bridge we find ourselves stuck without a single drop of petrol. Do you think there was any service lane that we could pull into? Of course not, otherwise where is the adventure in that, right? Here we are, stuck on a very busy bridge in Miami pushing along a scooter without petrol. It’s funny right?  Of course it is, because it wasn’t you pushing that hunk of junk over the bridge.

Over the bridge we go and still not a service lane in sight. There was a foot path next to the road so we pushed the scooter over the concrete barrier and onto the footpath. I did worry about scratching the whole bottom of the bike but getting hit by a car made that worry obsolete. First thing we did was get on the phone and call the rental place to find the nearest petrol station. Calling from our international mobiles we call the number we were given and what happens? A fax machine picks up. 6 calls later (8 English pounds later) someone finally picks up but with our adventures there is always a catch. We ran out of credit before we could even get the message across. As I looked at Phillipa trying to get connected I could see steam being released from her body. Yes that’s right Phillipa’s blood was boiling! Especially when they finally answered again and told her that we needed to find a gas station! I kept trying the scooter in “hope” that it would miraculously start and what do you know it did. I quickly made the waving motion (like people stuck on an island) screaming at Phillipa to get off the phone and go. She jumps on and we are off YAY for a total of 500m.

Running out of petrol wouldn’t be such a big issue except true to form Phillipa had booked in another tour just over 1 hour from then. Time was ticking and we had no idea how far the next petrol station is.

We saw a council gardener doing his rounds and thought he might the just the kind of person we could ask for the nearest petrol station. Phillipa rushes over and asks but the gardener instructed Phillipa to bring the bike over. We thought that we could just leave the bike with him and he would show us the nearest petrol station. But the guy continued to walk to the back of his truck and gets out the one single thing everyone who runs out of petrol wants to see. RACV cover… no, it’s better than that. It was a jerry can full of petrol. It was like the clouds parted and a ray of sunshine (the ones you see in the movies) shone on the red can. He filled us up enough for us to locate the petrol station and get back. We didn’t have much to offer him but we figured we could give him a few dollars for his trouble.

The guy said that wasn’t necessary and he would get in a lot of trouble if he accepted money but if we insist we should leave it on the ground. Finding the request a little odd, we slowly put the money on the ground. The same way a robber would put down his gun and walk away slowly. As soon as we walked away the gardener made a remark “Oh look I found some money on the ground”. I guess he didn’t want to get seen taking our money but I am not sure what difference it makes if we put it on the ground, but he was fantastic and very helpful.

We hopped back on the scooter made a quick stop at the petrol station and back to the rental place with 2 minutes to spare. With our new adventure under our belt we can happily laugh about it now but next time I am going straight to a petrol station and filling it up!

So we get to Miami and the weather is beautiful. We spent the first night kicking back a bit before checking out the awesome Lincoln Road in South Beach. Next morning, we take a nice walk along the beach, checking out the beautiful people in their beautiful bikinis and also the gay section which was quite colourfully highlighted.

Somewhere along the line, we get the idea to go shopping! Hey, not long to go now we figure (where on earth did that notion come from), so we set out to get all the things we’ve been craving! For me it was runners, gym gear and jeans and for Kim it was jeans and Jordan’s (a childhood dream). People who know him would wonder why he didn’t get a cap, but don’t worry, he took care of that in New York.

So we pretty much wrote off a day shopping – mainly because we found TJ Max. Heaven! But the next day we decided to actually see some of Miami and surrounds. So I get a great idea to rent a scooter. No biggie. Stay tuned for Kim’s blog on this adventure

After our ‘adventure’ with the scooter, we get a bus to the Everglades where we are entertained by a guide who plays with his alligators. Next we jump on an air boat where we take a very loud spin around the waters and over the grasses. Pretty damn cool! We even saw an alligator in the water just outside the docks, but Kim thinks it was fake and just put there just for tourists to spot!

That night we chilled at the cinema to watch a film without subtitles! Whoo! And then came home to try and cram all our shopping into our tiny bags before our flight to Washington the next day.

We arrive in Washington DC early, and head to a Tourist Information counter to grab a map and find out how to get to our hotel. They guy was extremely helpful (although we think he was lonely because he kept us there for a very long time talking), but we had to laugh when he said our hotel was a long way away from any metro station. When he told us it was 8 minutes, we had a bit of a chuckle! So we walk our 10 minutes – add 2 for time with the packs stuffed with shopping – check into our gorgeous (and cheap thanks to an online deal) hotel on the edge of Arlington.

We investigate the NBA situation and found there was a game on that night – Wizards vs. Pistons. So we headed into town to grab some tix, and then took advantage of Chinatown just around the corner for lunch. Yummo! After lunch, we wandered around taking some cool Fall shots before ending up along the Mall about halfway between Capitol and the Washington Monument. It was pretty exciting! We wandered around looking at some of the beautiful buildings and some lovely sculptures before heading to the game.

Unfortunately Washington lost, which is never a good game to be at (i.e. when the home game loses), but Kim was happy that he got to see a game and we were quite entertained by the guys yelling behind us and the guy next to Kim who couldn’t get over the guy who gave away a free car because he couldn’t shoot a 3 pointer.

Next morning, we had a nice sleep-in before heading to DuPont Circle to the fresh farmers market where we had delicious fresh apple cider and some lunch.

It wasn’t very big, so we jumped back on the metro and made a beeline to the White House. We were surprised at how big the place was, and also surprised by how close you couldn’t get, but it was nice to visit such an iconic place anyway. Unfortunately Obama was in China, so we didn’t get to see a glimpse of him!

Next we had decided to do the Washington DC by Foot tour. Similar to BA, it was based purely on tips and it was a good choice. The guy was a retired teacher who absolutely loved doing these tours (you could tell). And it was kind of entertaining how loud he was – Kim and I had to hang back for fear of bursting some ear drums! But he was definitely fantastic and very knowledgeable.

On his tour, we visited the Washington Monument, Capitol, the White House from afar, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial (where I got goose bumps and had tears in my eyes – if you ever get a chance, don’t miss it, and read up about its history) and the Lincoln Memorial over the reflective pool. We learnt a lot about American History that day. A fantastic and worthwhile tour.

After he left us, we visited the Korean Memorial and then took our time to wander back toward Capitol as it was twilight and the lighting was perfect for photography. The photos turned out beautifully – and I’m glad they did as I was contorting my body every which-way to get them at night!

For dinner, Kim had found a Washington icon called Ben’s Chilli Bowl. So we headed there to give it a try. After I spilt a whole cup of lemonade over the table, chair and floor, we did actually get to taste the Chilli Dogs that are apparently so famous. And we must admit they were pretty good!

Next day we visited the Iowa Jima Memorial which was only a 2 minute walk from our hotel. It’s located in a memorial garden in Arlington which overlooks the Mall. Another iconic symbol of American history.

Today was the day we decided to museum ourselves to the max. So we started with the Natural History Museum and were pretty excited to get in with the dinosaurs in there! They were huge! We also checked out the Ice Age, Sea Life and African exhibits which were all fantastic, though Kim kept saying we didn’t need to be in the African one!

From here, we took a detour to go up into the Post Office building Clock Tower. From here we could see the Mall from a unique perspective and we also checked out the bells that were given to America as a gift from the UK.

Our next stop was the Library of Congress where we took a guided tour of the building itself. It was pretty special to be able to see the very first printed book in Europe (made from movable letters or something like that). Once compared to a hand made book that took 2 years to write, it was pretty impressive.

After walking past Capitol and wondering if we were going to be killed for joking about bombs, we headed to the Air and Space Museum – apparently the most visited museum in the world. Who’d have known? Anyway, we saw a race to the moon exhibit and a moon landing one as well. Also outer space and aeroplanes… and we were starting to get tired! The poor feet! But the exhibits were pretty cool (except for the spaceship made out of cardboard that is).

Our last stop for the day was the National Archives. And we’re glad our feet didn’t give up before we made it here! There were tonnes of interesting documents that had been released to the public and plenty of things on display like Shaq’s shoes, a bathtub, and secret phone recordings of presidents amongst many others. But the most amazing and interesting was the original Declaration of Independence, original Constitution of America and the Bill of Rights all tucked away safely in a beautiful vault called the Rotunda. It was fascinating to see these original documents!

After dinner, we headed to Union Station to book some bus tickets to NYC and headed home. On the bus the next morning, we experienced a lovely new concept here in the States. Wifi on buses Awesome. So our trip to NYC was quite productive!

Once we got to NYC, we met up with a client of Kim’s who let us leave our bags in their office and then gave us drinks and a mobile phone – it was so lovely of them! We felt really well looked after and everyone was so nice So nice in fact, that the IT manager had offered us his house to stay at in New Jersey. Loving the idea that we would not only see the metro side but also the suburban side of New York, we accepted. His little girls were off school sick that day, so he had people help us out.

We spent a few hours walking around and visiting the incredibly cheap B&H to check out the photography gear before heading back to the office to pick up our stuff and get escorted to Ngoc’s house by a friend of his. So lovely! So we took the bus (had a little nap), saw NYC at night from afar and got dropped off at their beautiful home. We were just in time for a delicious Vietnamese home cooked meal. Yes, we were in heaven! And Kim started to get homesick!

We spent the rest of the night checking out all the renovations they had done to their house and Kim getting beaten by a kid at ping pong I had my work cut out for me entertaining (or rather being entertained) by the two girls who were obsessing over origami and bunny copters (which are sooo cool). We slept so very well that night!

The girls were still sick the next morning, so we were able to wake up late, have a beautiful walk around their neighbourhood (checking out all the houses), a quick drive around new jersey checking out some huge mansions (but unfortunately not the batman house as the road was blocked off) and also Ngoc’s friend Danny’s house to see their pond that freezes over during winter making a cool ice skating rink!

We then caught a bus into the city where we walked up through Times Square, NBA store, Museum of Modern Art (where a Tim Burton exhibit was starting and Monet’s Water Lilies are on display), a train to the Upper East side for a wander, then walk back down through Grand Central before jumping on a bus back to the ‘burbs for another awesome Vietnamese soup. Oh man, we normally wouldn’t accept a second meal as they were far too generous, but this food was to die for!!!

An earlier night this night – thank goodness, because we were stuffed from all the walking. Next day we were up for an 8am pickup by Ngoc’s friend again (so sweet!) to get to NYC.

We walked up 5th Avenue in the direction of Central Park but it started to rain, so we decided to wait 5 minutes until the FA Schwarz (Toy Store) opened. We were glad that we did, because as the doors opened, all the staff lined up (about 50 of them) and applauded us as we walked in! It was like rocking up to a premier event! Fantastic!!! We saw loads of things that were so cool, including an owl that flapped his wings… sometimes and tonnes of lollies that a certain sister would have loved.

We then made a visit to the apple store and headed to Central Park where we took some shots before heading to Chinatown to meet Ben for lunch. We decided on Viet again After catching up on the last few weeks apart, we all walked up through Soho and along Broadway checking out the shops. We stopped when the rain got really heavy at a hot chocolate stop… great excuse I say!

After saying goodbye to Ben, we caught up with Ngoc and Sean (Kim’s clients) and his very pregnant wife and his daughter for dinner at a lovely Japanese place not far from Central Park. It was delish sushi! We had some laughs as Ngoc pointed out the interior design and sucked me right in! He’s now become our dealer from the States

Ngoc, Kim and I then set off for Danny’s pharmacy in the Upper East side to catch a ride home. This is a pharmacy with a difference – it’s for pets exclusively! Fantastic idea and ideally located in Manhattan! After Danny had locked up, he was hungry, so he took us to Katz Deli for ‘dessert’ near Chinatown.

The drive there was incredible enough as we were in a huge truck (Ute) where you could fit 4 people comfortably in the back. This thing was massive! The great 90s and classical music and hearing about the rich people in NYC were great!

So we got to Katz Deli and Ngoc and Danny ordered the pastrami sandwich with pickles on the side. Yummo! This thing was MASSIVE to say the least, but sooooo tasty! Our poor arteries were crying out for mercy, but it was delicious! If you’re ever in NYC, you MUST go here!

After ‘dessert’, we drove up the east coast of Manhattan where we heard about Manhattan, the mafia, growing up in the Bronx and people who treat their dogs like their children. We drove over Washington Bridge where we got a fantastic view of NYC at night. Simply stunning! That night, we said our thank you’s and goodbye’s to Ngoc’s family. They had been so amazingly generous and we couldn’t thank them enough.

The next morning, we got to do the same thing again – but this time with traffic Washington Bridge at 7am was also a good scenic viewpoint! Traffic wasn’t too bad… but it wasn’t great either! Danny made it to work just in time. We left our bags there and headed to Central Park for some more photos (which was only a few blocks away).

We saw some interesting characters on our walk including a guy that spat more than he talked (and he talked a lot) and a guy who’s gorgeous little dog didn’t want to part from Kim! It all ended too soon as we had to lug our now huge packs through the metro to our bus stop, where I accidentally headed the wrong way and we ended up walking about 4 blocks too many. Oops.

But we survived and jumped on a bus to Boston where we would be catching up with Max and Ryah from our African trip. When we got there, we found the train system incredibly easy to use and it wasn’t long before we were knocking on Ryah’s door! It was so great to see her and Max (who arrived later) and it was strange to see them in their regular clothes as opposed to the travel gear we had seen them in! hehe!

We spent the night catching up on the last 3 months with travel the main topic as they cooked up a mean feast of fajitas! Sooo yummy! And to finish the night off, we shouted them an ice cream at a local shop after we wandered around Harvard Square where they lived. Kim and I had pumpkin ice cream (Kim’s was conveniently lactose free) which was for thanksgiving. Different and indeed yummo!

Max and Ryah are studying MBA’s at Harvard and we almost got the chance to take a class with them. They explained the process which sounded pretty awesome, but extremely challenging for people who are shy at public speaking. These guys sure are intelligent beings!!!

A very comfy bead, delicious towels and a great night’s sleep – we couldn’t thank them enough for having us I tell ya! We got up early to go into Boston to walk the freedom trail. We decided to bypass the reading and pay the $12 for a guided tour. Best money ever spent because he was so entertaining! He told us loads about American History and filled in quite a few gaps for us. He was also sensitive to the fact we weren’t American (something that others hadn’t really understood).

After that fantastic tour, we took a walk along the docks before a nice hot coffee and then dinner with Ryah at a fantastic Yum Cha place in Chinatown. Yep, we go where the food is! It was sad to say goodbye to Ryah (Max had gone to Yale to watch the Harvard vs. Yale football match which would have been awesome to see!). We’d had a fantastic time in Boston (even if it was short) with fantastic people.

So next day we were on a 12 hour train to Buffalo to see Niagara Falls! And see them we did! After taking some research to figure out how NOT to pay $70 to see them, we found a bus for $2.35 (bargain) that dropped us right in front of the bridge. Though even that didn’t stop us from getting scrutinised by the Federal Police because we walked the wrong way!

It was ridiculous how completely lax security on the border was though. We didn’t even get stamped out – just let through. Strange? So off we walk into Canada!

We flew out of Peru and into Ecuador with great relief. Peru was one big tourist scam and we just wanted a day without feeling cheated. And we found it in Guayaquil. We were charged the correct fare in the taxi, the correct rate at the hostel and a reasonable price for lunch (with a lovely lady who spoke very good English!). It was a breath of fresh air and we loved it. We spent the afternoon shopping for some things for our trip to the Galapagos Islands that we had booked the week previous. And we stayed in a hostel with pygmies, cockatiels and parrots (as part of a breeding program).

The next day, we were driven to the airport to start our 10 day break on Galapagos. After having our bags scanned, getting an official card made up and getting a personalised final call for our flight, we were finally on our way! 2 hours later and we touched down on San Cristobal.

We caught a taxi to a B&B (without the second B, so I guess just a B) that I had received a reply from only that morning. We had planned to stay elsewhere, but I took a punt. And what a great punt that was! When we arrived, the man who owned the house (but not Nelly who ran it – it was called Casa de Nelly, or Nelly’s House) greeted us warmly and invited us in.

He took us upstairs to our rooms and we had separate rooms, bathrooms, a shared kitchen and an outside deck with hammocks, sun lounges and a beautiful view over the town and bay! It was stunning and the perfect place for us to spend the next 2 days chilling. All for US$20 pppn. Sorted!

We settled in and then went searching for something for lunch. So we left the house and walked down to the beach where we saw about 10 sea lions basking in the sun. Awesome! We knew we had to stay 2 metres from them, but it was proving a little difficult as they were everywhere! I was so excited!!! We then walked along the boardwalk and saw bright red crabs, iguanas and sea turtles (though the boys didn’t believe me).

Stumbling upon a place to eat, we were told to sit down and the food just came without us ordering. We thought it might have been someone else’s order, but there were no other tables of 3, so we just ate it! Turns out it was a set 3 course menu with juice! We thought it was going to cost us a fortune (there were no signs saying how much anything was), but it was nice, so we just prepared ourselves for paying US$50 a head or something. Nope. US$4 per person. Bargain!

We strolled around and then made our way back to the beach where we saw pelicans, blue footed boobies and more sea lions. I was in heaven!!! I was giggling all the way back to our house for a siesta.

That night, we walked through town in search of food. Along the way, we found that the whole population of sea lions had beached themselves for the night and it was even more difficult to get past them. A few of them yelled at us for disturbing their sleep! We also saw two babies playing on the sand and a heron stalking in the water… how cool! There was absolutely no one around, but the days we were there were public holidays, which also meant most of the shops were closed.

The next day was a complete chill out. We watched movies, did some washing, lay about in the hammocks and on the sun lounges and ate when the need arose. It was such a great rest day and great prep for the next day when we joined our cruise!!!

DAY 1
We got to the airport and there was nobody around. Literally nobody. We found out later that we hadn’t turned our clocks back an hour when we landed so the whole time we were working on mainland time, not Galapagos time! Explained a few things, like why the streets were deserted at 8pm at night!

So anyway, we met some of the people on our cruise (and were delighted to meet 2 Aussies from Melbourne and a nice Spanish guy), jumped on the bus and headed to the Galaxy. When we got on the boat – wow. This was the nicest boat Kim and I had ever seen, let alone stayed on for a week!! We looked all over the boat, checking the ins and outs and loving every square inch!

We had a briefing and Roberto (our guide) told us the deal with the ship and the itinerary for each day. That day we would be cruising to Sea Lion Island for a snorkel and a walk on the island (just off San Cristobal), then back to San Cristobal for the first part of the night.

So off we go to Sea Lion Island. We decided that wetsuits weren’t needed, so we jumped in only to wish we had got the wetsuits after all. But as soon as we were in, we saw 2 sea turtles and a sting ray!!! Awesome! After that, we snorkelled along the island where we were met by a very playful sea lion who scared the bejesus out of Kim… he came right up to his snorkel mask, then shot straight down into the water – he nearly jumped out of his wetsuit! Celine, another girl on our tour had a similar experience and I nearly drowned laughing at the two of them!! It was hilarious! We saw loads of gorgeous fish too and one huge sea lion who we were warned to stay away from! A very successful first day of snorkelling!

That afternoon, we caught the dinghies to go for a short walk around the island. There were loads of sea lions lazing about everywhere and making their very attractive calls to each other. There was also a pelican whose wing had been broken and he sadly died

We also saw a whole heap of bright orange and red crabs, iguanas and blue footed boobies. We learnt all about the sea lions that ranged from a few days to years old. They were all adorable (even if they were a little stinky).

That night back on board, we had an awesome dinner (the food was great) then sorted through photos and headed to bed. So far so good with Kim not getting sick – we hoped it would stay like that!! That night around 3am, the anchor came up and we set off for Santa Fe Island. We knew it was 3am because it was really noisy and everyone woke up to hear it!!

DAY 2
After getting back to sleep, we all awoke when we docked at Santa Fe the next morning. It was great to wake up in a new, beautiful place! We could get used to this lifestyle, that’s for sure!!!

So our first adventure after an awesome breakfast was a wet landing (i.e. your feet get wet) on a beach where baby sea lions and their mums lazed about or playfully swam through the shallow waters of the beach.

We then took a walk over the island past some cacti while we looked for land iguanas. We eventually found some and they were bigger than I’d expected! We also saw loads of lizards and 2 gorgeous Galapagos doves. When we walked onto a different beach, we saw 4 hawks that were eating a dead baby sea lion Just another example of how nature is damn cruel.

We then walked back to the first beach where we rode the dinghies back to the boat. On the way, we noticed all the sharks lurking around – they must have been waiting for a baby sea lion to jump in the water. I’m glad I didn’t see it happen. But I was slightly worried about the fact that I would soon be snorkelling in these waters!

Sure enough, about 30 minutes later I jumped off the boat (hitting my leg on barnacles on the boat and drawing blood, mind you) in with the sharks to check out the underwater life. I stayed close to Kim as I thought I just might scare myself to drowning if I saw a big enough shark!! Unfortunately (yes, unfortunately) we didn’t see any sharks, but we did see loads of awesome fish, sea lions and most spectacularly a booby who dove into the water right in front of us to catch a fish! We saw him go back to the surface, gobble it up and fly off!!!! Right past my head!!! It was awesome and we were all amazed that he did it right in front of us!!! Definitely a highlight

After lunch on the boat, we were cruising again to Black Turtle Cove, not far from the mainland of Santa Cruz. Over lunch, I noticed bird shadows from above the boat, so immediately after lunch, I headed to the top deck with the camera to find about 10 or 15 frigate birds circling and landing on the boat! I got some great shots of them up close – they were quite big with a massive wing span. We learnt that they can’t get wet (they don’t have the oils for it so they won’t be able to fly), they can fly for hundreds of miles without needing to flap their wings and they steal food from other birds! There is a tropic bird with a long tail that they stalk, pull their tails and wait for them to cough up the food they just ate!!! OMG, that’s hardcore!

After we docked, we all jumped back in the dinghies for the most amazing ride through Black Turtle Cove. We saw pelicans, boobies, frigate birds, searched for and found sharks looming around under the dinghies and most amazingly sea turtles! We got some fantastic shots (wall shots I reckon) but more importantly, we got to witness two sets of sea turtles mating! It looked like a difficult task too in water (they kept coming up for air), but it was quite a spectacle. The poor female goes through 3 or more partners and the males bite each others fins to get them off her for their turn. Not very nice hey? I can’t remember how long, but it goes on for quite some time and she ends up being exhausted – not surprisingly! It was quite a show, that’s for sure!

As we drove around through the mangroves, we could hear all sorts of splashes going on, which we assumed were also mating sea turtles, though it could have been anything!

We were pretty stoked, so after dinner, we went through photos again and compared with Amy who had some awesome shots as well! It was a great day and we were so glad we made it to Galapagos!!!

DAY 3
Next day, we headed to Genovesa overnight when we also crossed the equator. We were sleeping at the time, but I would have loved to have seen water go down a drain So anyway, once again we woke to a beautiful new location. We were in the middle of a crater that was surrounded by an island that went 2/3 way around us in a circle.

Our first adventure this morning was on Darwin Beach where we had another wet landing to see an island swimming (or rather flying) with so many birds! Most of them were babies as this was their nesting site. They were everywhere, you actually had to be careful where you stepped at times!!

We saw birds with red eyeliner (they looked really cool), tiny weeny crabs that would only show if you were absolutely still, red footed, blue footed and nazca boobies (their babies looked like they had white feather boas around their necks, quite funny really), frigates, tropic birds, finches and our old friends the sea lions We spent a few hours wandering around and learning about these birds and how they have evolved differently to adapt to their environment. One very interesting thing was how the 3 types of boobies don’t compete for food. One finds food close, another type further away and the other type even further away. Very cool.

That afternoon, we snorkelled further down the crater edge. It was a little murky because this marine area is quite rich in food and as a result, marine life. We were happily snorkelling though, when both Kim and I (and we later found out Raymon as well) were stung by a jellyfish. My jaw went numb and Kim’s neck was stung badly. Not knowing any better, we ripped the thing off and ouched and ahhed, but we continued on for a bit before we jumped back on the dingy as our time was up.

After lunch, we must have all been a bit sleepy because a siesta was definitely on the menu. We were due to snorkel again at 2pm and Kim and I were umming and ahhing right up until 2pm (the bed was sooo comfy and we were soooo sleepy). But at the last minute, we jumped into our wet togs and headed for the back of the boat. But the only person there was Raymon! It seems we all had the same idea! So we waited for 10 minutes then just set off on our own.

It didn’t seem like far to swim, but it was actually quite scary. The water was deep and it was at least 200 metres from the boat to the edge of the crater. It was about half way that both Kim and I realised how easily we could be mistaken for sea lions in our wetsuits and be shark bait. We soon kicked up our speed and finally made the rocks. Raymon had a bit of a rest on the rocks while Kim and I tried to snorkel, but it was really murky and you could barely see anything.

We were so relieved when a dingy with Jimmy on board came out to save us. We all jumped in and got driven back to the boat. Thank goodness! No more stressing about being a shark’s afternoon snack.

After another short siesta, we all jumped on the dinghies again and made our way to the Prince Philip steps on the other side of the island. On the way we got to see Galapagos fur seals – they were scared by us and we were told that they were almost hunted by humans to extinction. Interesting that not many of the other animals in Galapagos ran from us except the ones that were hunted by humans.

On the island, we saw so many booby babies (that sounds really cool, don’t you think?) all over the island. Including one that seemed to be raped by an older male Poor thing. Worse still was that someone in our group thought it was lovely – obviously not realising what was happening. We tried to search for the short eared owl amongst the volcanic rock, but we were unsuccessful. We did get a fantastic sunset though and made it off the island smack on our 6pm deadline.

That night, Amy asked the captain if we could set sailing earlier (i.e. while we were awake) so we could get a decent sleep. Great idea! Except the anchor was getting stuck and it took 3 hours to actually reel it in!! It wasn’t so bad though because Kim and I both opted to sleep when the boat was moving, so we were happy to stay up a little later than originally planned! Still not sick though, all good!

DAY 4
The next morning we awoke to the views of Santiago Island and Bartolome island. These were islands that had been extended by volcanic rock about 100 years ago. Which also meant that there was not much growing on these parts of the island (all of Bartolome). That morning, we took a dingy across to walk on the lava at Sullivan Bay. We learnt the difference between a. a lava (it hurts to walk on in bare feet i.e. ‘ah ah’) and pahoe hoe lava (it looks like rope).

We learnt all about the lava and the island before jumping back on the boat to get ready for snorkelling. We were dropped off on the edge of the lava to swim all the way around to the beach, which was quite a long way. As soon as we jumped off, someone spotted a shark and followed it, but Kim and I were too slow, so we let them go. In the meantime, a penguin had decided to swim right past us! So we chased after him! He stopped for a bit where we got pretty close before darting off in the water, leaving us for dead – they are so fast!!

Well, we were pretty excited about that and thought that nothing could top it… until a sea lion that was particularly curious started playing with us! He swam around and around us, getting really close to each one of us, including making Kim almost poo himself again! Hilarious! This lasted for about 20 minutes and we had to be basically dragged into the boat to go back for lunch. It was incredible and an unforgettable experience!

That afternoon, we snorkelled along the cliffs of Bartolome island where we again saw (and swam alongside) loads of penguins. They are so fast!!! This time Ben joined us, even though he couldn’t see too clearly without glasses or prescription lenses. Kim and I spent most of the time making sure he wasn’t swimming out to sea! We saw loads of fish, sea lions, sting rays and some sea turtles and of course penguins! At one point, I saw three swim by me and I came up to tell Kim, but by the time I did, they were gone! So fast those little things!

Again, reluctantly, I was dragged out of the water and back to the boat. Though Amy and I stayed in as long as we were allowed to waiting for a sea lion and penguin that were darting around the bay where we finished showing up again (which they did).

That afternoon, we went onto Bartolome Island again and walked up the volcano to a lookout point to watch the sunset. It was gorgeous and we watched as we talked to an Aussie from Tassie who was on holiday with his two sons.

Another unforgettable day as we set sail for Santa Cruz to dock before bedtime. Well, bedtime for normal people, Kim and I again opted to sleep while the boat moved to avoid getting sick… stomachs were still in tact at this point and looking good!!

DAY 5
The next day was a dry day – no snorkelling on the agenda. We started out with a trip to the Charles Darwin Station to check out the tortoise breeding program. We saw 1 week old to a few month old babies and some that were a few years old. We tried looking for lonesome George (the only tortoise left in his species), but he was hiding from us. We even went back after the others had left, but he was still nowhere to be seen We also got amazingly close to some of the biggest tortoises imaginable where we took some cool photos.

After saying goodbye to our entire group except Raymon, we bought some t-shirts (something we never ever do – an indication of how much we liked this place) and walked into town as we had some free time. We wandered past the fish market, checked some emails and then headed back to the boat for lunch.

After lunch, we met with the new group of people that joined the boat. People from all over the world and again a couple from Oz Our first stop as a new group was a farm on Santa Cruz that opens to the public because giant tortoises graze the grass on their land. Well we thought the tortoises at the Charles Darwin Station were big, these guys were massive! And so tame – they let us get so close to them without showing any signs of bother whatsoever! I was completely fascinated and once again in love with another species of animals.

Our time was once again too short (I could have stayed there forever) and it was time to leave – but the driver was nowhere in sight! We eventually found him and he drove us to a lava tunnel that we walked through for about half an hour. The tunnel took us as low as about 50cm high where we had to crawl through on hands and knees. It was also quite fascinating but also a little worrying when you consider there was absolutely no structural support

That night we left late to our next destination, Floreana Island. This was the first night that I slept right through the engines starting and the anchor coming up – must have been tired!

DAY 6
Floreana Island was our next island to explore. Our morning stop was a wet landing at Cormorant point where we watched more sea lions on the beach, checked out another type of mangrove on the beach and then watched as a German couple blatantly ignored instructions not to take anything off the island. They were picking out olivine crystals from the sand and pocketing them. I told them it was not allowed and they just stopped, didn’t return the ones they had already stolen.

Anyway, the beach appeared green due to these crystals which were quite unique (I think it will eventually go back to sand colour if tourists like those kept at it!). After this, we walked to a lake on the island where there were flamingos. Not a huge population, but there was a baby who looked like he’d been abandoned by his parents He seemed quite stressed, poor little thing. Just another example of how harsh nature is.

Next we went to a lookout point where Roberto told us the mysteries of disappearance and deaths of people on the island. Spooky! Next we walked to a beach where we watched sea turtles waiting in the shallows of the shore to come up and lay their eggs on the beach at night as it was nesting season. This is why there is a 6pm deadline to get off the islands, so the sea turtles can lay their eggs undisturbed. We learnt about how they lay their eggs and the survival rate of their young. Simply amazing is all I can say!

We were all enjoying the relaxing time on the beach simply watching nature, but it was time to go for a snorkel, so we all headed back to the boat. This was the first time that Ben decided to snorkel with fins and it wasn’t the best place to try. We were taken out to very deep water where we would ride the current around a crater. I was a little worried about it, let alone worrying about Ben! But we did find sea turtles, a couple of sea lions and the tiniest little fish you have ever seen living in rocks that would stare at you if you stared at them!

The current was so strong that it was hard to get anywhere! Kim and I passed a portion of the current, but Ben couldn’t get past a part, so we called the dingy and got him to take us around to the calm part where we jumped back in

Back on the boat for lunch, our afternoon was at Post Office Bay where an informal posting system is at work. We were told to write a post card and put an address on it. When we got there, we would try finding a post card that was written by someone else with an address that we could hand deliver it to! This was how the islands posted mail many moons ago, so we took part and found a postcard to someone in Coburg (we think). So we hope to deliver that when we get home! The majority of postcards were from the US, not many from Oz at all, so the Coburg find was quite a lucky find!

Next we walked to a lava tunnel that we climbed down into. Nothing lived in there – not even bats. And the water was freezing! But our guide had told us that in some of these tunnels, scientists had found blind fish and insects that had adapted to their conditions! This place is truly enchanted!

That afternoon, we snorkelled off the beach that we landed on and it was one of the best snorkels yet! We saw 3 sea turtles, including 1 that had a white shell that made it easier for Ben to see and 1 that was sleeping on the bottom. We were having such a great time watching these turtles that we didn’t want to go back when everyone headed, so I dragged by heels and took my time.

When I got close to the shore, I just hung around for a bit. Then I heard Kim whistling at me and telling me there was a penguin not far from me! So I raced over (and Kim joined me) and we spent the next 10 minutes watching 2 penguins dart around and feed less than a metre away from us!!! I was having a ball, giggling as they’d dart in and around catching their dinner. They are so fast and not fussed if we were there or not! It was fantastic and I loved every second of it! Unfortunately it was time to go and we were called in.

But that night, we had a dingy tour around some of the small islands just off the coast of Floreana Island. On this, we saw 1 day old sea lions – they were sooo adorable! We also saw blue footed boobies, more penguins, sea turtles and finished with watching the sunset over the water… A truly magical day in the Galapagos Islands!

DAY 7
The next day we awoke at Espanola Island. Our first stop was a lovely walk along Gardener beach where we watched sea lions, sea turtles from the beach, land iguanas, crabs, birds with red rimmed eyes and hood mockingbirds that wanted to drink our water if we didn’t hide it from them. It was another lazy morning where we all were happy to sit in the sand and chill out! But once again, snorkelling was on the menu, so we headed back to where we landed on the beach, put on our snorkel gear and swam out to an island not far from the shore.

Along the way we saw a huge sea turtle and then when at the island we snorkelled with our first shark! Whoo! He wasn’t too big, so I wasn’t as scared as I thought I might be! We saw lots of fish as we circled the island.

A quick trip back to the boat and then we were off again to another island for snorkelling. This time, on the way, loads of dolphins were swimming alongside us! We did some large circles as they followed us and you could see 10s of them all around us and in the distance! Simply beautiful creatures and so graceful

We were going to snorkel along a very steep cliff. I had opted not to wear a wetsuit as I think I’d grabbed the wrong one and it was too big for me. So I worded up Kim and asked him to let me know if there was something good and I would jump in at that point so I wouldn’t get too cold. After about 10 minutes, he told me there was a sea lion and I jumped in. At that point, 8 people had given up due to the cold (and they were wearing wetsuits) and that dingy took off back to the boat. So anyway, I had timed it perfectly as the sun was shining on this part of the cliff which kept me warmer. There were huge schools of fish everywhere and it was quite deep.

I was so lucky, because a pelican dove into the water right in front of Kim and me again and took a bunch of fish and ate them on the surface! And after that, we watched 3 sea lions playing with each other for age’s right in front of us! Yep, I love Galapagos!

During lunch, we cruised to Suarez Point where we got off for a walk on the island. It was hot. And I mean hot. There was no shade at all and the sun was beaming down on us. I don’t think one of us escaped from being burnt that day even though we all wore sun cream.

But the walk was fantastic. We saw oodles of iguanas that were all facing the sun to warm themselves up before braving the cold water to feed. They all lay on top of each other! We saw tiny baby blue footed boobies who were no more than 1 or 2 days old. We saw boobies sitting on their eggs and protecting them from the sun with their bodies. We saw Nazca boobies who were also nesting and then we walked to a blowhole where we sat and saw amazing displays of water shooting into the air.

Next we walked along a path right past the nesting grounds of the albatross birds. Apparently this is the only place in the world where they nest and they travel thousands of miles at a time all over the world. Incredible birds these are and we got to see loads of them nesting! We then walked to what Roberto called the albatross airport because the albatross tend to launch themselves off a cliff instead of using too much energy trying to lift off the ground to fly. So we watched one walk all the way over to the ledge and dive off into flight! It was quite entertaining!

We were glad to be back on the beach where we found a tiny bit of shade (and nosy hood mockingbirds) and a slight breeze.

That night, we had a goodbye cocktail, exchanged email addresses and also sailed back to San Cristobal. But Kim and I felt a bit woozy (Kim more so), so he skipped dinner to sleep through the sailing and I had to depart straight after dinner! But we got a great sleep though!

DAY 8
The next morning, we awoke back in San Cristobal where we packed up our stuff, had breakfast and then headed to the Interpretation Centre where we learnt all about the plates of the earth, the formation of Galapagos and evolution. It was quite educational and very interesting.

Afterwards, we took a walk (that was also quite hot as the sun was quite harsh) where we had beautiful views along the west coast and where I could spot a sea lion playing in the water from way above. We also stopped by a huge statue of Darwin that seemed slightly out of place (i.e. in the middle of nowhere). Perhaps that was where he landed?

We wandered back into town where we were taken to the airport for our flight back to the mainland. To be honest, I was devastated to be leaving. I could spend my whole life there and be a very happy woman, but that would be greedy – it was someone else’s turn. And Kim and I couldn’t help but think that the people getting off that plane to start their visit where in for the most magical trips of their lives! And that is exactly what we thought of it. A unique, magical, (relatively) untouched place that reminds us exactly what went wrong in our world and what we must do to stop it from continuing.

Back in Guayaquil, we said our goodbyes to Raymon and headed to our hostel. Surprisingly the service was much better this time and we got to meet the baby pygmy on the owners shoulder – so cute! We also found out about the power outages the whole country was experiencing. They only had power a few hours a day and businesses were losing ridiculous amounts of money. It was because the country relies on hydroelectricity and there had been no rain. Ouch!

That afternoon, Kim asked a taxi driver to take us to the lighthouse (or nearby). For some reason, we ended up at a statue of Christ on a hill. Close, but not the same as a lighthouse!! We had a good giggle and found where we were aiming to go and ended up walking there ourselves. It looked far, but it was only about 20 minutes to walk. So we walked down the boardwalk along the river in the city which was lovely. We then headed to a shopping centre where we watched a movie and said goodbye to South America. The next day we set off for the States…

Let me first describe our first impressions of Peru before I get down to the downright ugly. Tourism. Tourism. Tourism. It seems that every corner you turn there is a tourist being scammed or ripped off. We set off from Copacabana in Bolivia on Lake Titicaca and it wasn’t long before we hit the border and got screwed by exchange rates. Ok, so we only changed 6 Bolivianos (US$1) but the guy didn’t even bother giving me the whole amount that he showed me on the calculator. So I let it go because I didn’t really care – I’m simply trying to paint you a picture

So anyway, as we were driving past the Lake to Puno, we suddenly stop and change from a reasonable bus to a crappy bus in the middle of nowhere. This isn’t really a problem either. It’s just that they advertise the type of bus you will get on at the booth where you buy the ticket in Bolivia. Nice.

So we get to Puno, have some lunch and get on a bus to Arequipa. Everyone had told us the drive is 4 hours. 6 hours later we arrive in Arequipa. We’re still tolerant at this point and we jump in a taxi and pay 4 soles to get to the hostel. Only to find out later we shouldn’t pay more than 3! Ok, so gringo tax was clearly excluded. No worries.

Now our hostel was brilliant (Arequipay Backpackers). Lovely, clean, spacious and a really friendly host. We were pretty beat, so we headed to the supermarket to cook ourselves a yummy stir-fry (home cooked food is a delicacy you know) before calling it a night.

Next day we were up and booking our trip to Galapagos, only to find it was Sunday and there wasn’t much to be done! We went out to eat pad thai (recommended by other travelers), only to find not a single taxi driver would take us there! Not even when we showed them a map of where it was! So we ended up walking there ourselves. Ok fine. The meal was great after all but we weren’t going to risk another rejection from a taxi driver, so we walked all the way back again. We walked around the city for a bit, checking out the sights and beautiful architecture before going back to the hostel. Along the way, Ben was craving a cold coke, but do you think he could find one? Nope. Non existent. He said one coke he had almost gave him third degree burns it was so hot. Hehe.

In all honesty, we were starting to get a bit sick of Peru and my severe lack of Spanish was starting to get very tiring (many people over here are not overly forgiving either). After everywhere we had been, this seemed like the biggest tourist haven and just a plain rip off for travelers. So we decided to cut colca canyon and get the hell out of South America in a hurry. So we made our plans and stuck to our guns. We were off to Cuzco the following day to see Machu Picchu as we couldn’t justify going to Peru and not visiting it.

Just when you think you can’t get screwed more… enter PeruRail. We took an overnight bus to Cuzco and although the buses aren’t the same as Chile or Argentina (come to think of it, Bolivia as well), it wasn’t too bad. Except for the 40 degree temperature inside, that is. But we arrive at 5.30am and then get screwed by a taxi driver who took us to the train station. Firstly, he took us to the wrong station. Secondly, he charged us too much.

So we lined up outside waiting for the station to open at 7am. And how nice the locals were who pushed in front of us instead of lining up. 7am and the doors opened. We got a ticket and sat down to wait for our number to be called. 7.20am and number 5 gets called out. We watch as 2 separate women push in front and just go to counters instead of waiting for their numbers to be called. Getting pretty unhappy at this stage, we finally get called (we were only number 10) at about 7.40am, a nice 10 minutes after the train we wanted left. When we get to the counter, we find out that there are only the expensive (not super expensive at US$220, but expensive at US$60 one way) tickets left.

So US$360 later, we each have return tickets to Machu Picchu. The catch being we have to find our own way to a little town called Ollantaytambo and back the following day. Fine. So we catch a taxi to a little street where you can catch a shared taxi to Ollantaytambo. I ask how much and when it will leave. They say ‘now’, but I insist that we need to be in Ollantaytambo by 10am to which they start being honest by saying they will leave in 10 minutes.

They weren’t bad after all and got us there in one piece (with Kim’s stomach contents just staying down). We looked for somewhere to get a drink. Ben just wanted a cold coke, so we went into a shop and asked for a cold coke. No, they had water, fanta, sprite and a 1 litre bottle of coke only. Ok, cold sprite then. No, only cold fanta. Ok fine, cold fanta please. Sheesh.

Next we decided to call our accommodation as they had said to us to let them know when they were coming as they would organise a transfer. Ok no worries. We see a sign for a public phone and go to find it. Nope, the sign lies, there is no phone. We find another one across the street and shock horror, it works! We just had to avoid the live wire that was hanging around eye level.

So I call the hostel and speak with a woman who knows very little English. So in my bad Spanish, I ask her if we can get picked up from the train station (ok, so we didn’t know it was only a 7 minute walk from the station to the hostel at this point!). She said, ‘No problem, I’ll call PeruRail and book you train tickets’. I tried to explain that ‘no no, we have tickets, we are just letting you know that we will be there at 12.10pm’. ‘You are in Cuzco?’. ‘No no, we are in Ollantaytambo, we just want a transfer’. ‘Oh, you need a return ticket?’. ‘No no, we have a return ticket, we want to let you know we will be in Aguas Calientes at 12.10pm’. (Ben laughing as I keep saying ‘tengo tengo’ in Spanish and wondering why I’m dancing with them). ‘Oh, so what do you want then?’. ‘We want to let you know that we will be there are 12.10pm and we need a transfer’. ‘I’m sorry, what?’. (I repeat again). ‘Oh, it’s ok, it is a very small town, and you don’t need a transfer’. ‘OK, no problem, thank you’. And I hang up the phone. I was exhausted. Kim was feeling ill and Ben was wetting himself laughing.

We get on the train and we tell each other that no one is allowed to sleep as its one hell of an expensive train ride. We started to joke about how Peru was one big ‘tourist trap’ (for censorship reasons, I’ll say we said tourist trap). We passed the points where the Inca trail starts. The scenery was absolutely amazing. And the further we went, the more beautiful it became.

When we finally got into Aguas Calientes, the scenery just blew us away. Huge big mountains in such extraordinary shapes with a beautiful river running down the side, it was just breathtaking. The town itself was cute, but it was the surroundings that stood out.

We got to our hostel and it was really really nice. It was more like a hotel (private bathroom, towels and real bedding). We had a gorgeous view of the mountains as we were on the top floor.

We went out for lunch when the ‘tourist trap’ continued. We got a ‘deal’ where we got free sprite and juice and all the meals reduced to 20 soles. Ok fine, only to find out when we were ordering it was only the juice that was free, no longer the sprite. No tip for you

Continuing along the same theme, we went to buy our tickets into Machu Picchu from the ticket office. True to its word, Lonely Planet was spot on the mark when it said that the staff in the ticket office were grumpy. He barely even acknowledged us and had no time for us whatsoever. So instead, we went next door and asked our questions from which we got a great deal more information.

We then returned to the grumpy guy to buy our tickets and curse this country again (sorry, just being honest). So another US$45 out of pocket each and we headed to the bus station to spend another US$14 to get to the gates of Machu Picchu. We wandered around the markets where we found a comical magnet that perfectly matched our idea of Peru (ask any of us later).

We didn’t do anything interesting for the rest of the day except to pay for accommodation that night. When Kim asked if we could leave our bags somewhere the next morning as we were leaving at 4.30am, we were all surprised to hear her ask ‘do you want breakfast and 3.45am then?’. Huh?!?! Yep, this place serves breakfast at all hours! So we booked a wake up call for 4am and a breakfast at 4.15am.

It was a short night, but when we looked out the window at 4am, there were people everywhere! Locals going to work and tourists heading to the bus stop to get in line for the buses. See, you need to be one of the first 400 at MP to climb up to Waynapicchu. We weren’t the only people with this in mind either!! At 4.30am (the first bus leaves at 5.30am), we joined the back of the queue and ended up on the 6th bus!! It was kind of crazy! We got talking to an Aussie couple who were in front of us and they were really lovely. We had a great old chat and time went by really quickly. Before we knew it, some lovely local Peruvians had pushed into the front of the queue and we were moving forward as the first bus had arrived.

It was fairly light at this stage, so we could see the beautiful mountains as we wound up and up the road to Machu Picchu. It was breathtaking. Stunning. But these words barely do it justice. The clouds enveloped the tops of these most magnificent mountains which made it look even more elusive.

When we got to the top, the queue at the gate was even bigger than that at the bus stop (some people had trekked up to be first in line), so we were unsure if we would be able to climb up Waynapicchu after all. But luckily, we were number 64, 65 and 66 for the morning climb at 7am – whoo!

So we went inside and chose a path to take. It was quite cloudy, but that just added to the mystique of the place. It was amazing – to be in this lost city from so long ago and walking the same steps as the Incas. It completely blew my mind and for a moment (just a moment), I forgave all the shortcomings of the Peruvians. Don’t worry, that didn’t last too long

We made our way around some parts of the city and then when it came time, we made our way to the gate to Waynapicchu. After lining up for a while and signing in at number 64, 65 and 66 again (freaky), we started our trek up this huge mountain. It was still quite cloudy, which was a very good thing as we found out on the way back because these mountains are STEEP and we also found out later that loads of people had died on this trek.

The clouds were also good for the cool air they brought. It was a tough climb and we were going straight up for an hour before we reached the ruins. Needless to say, we were glad to reach the top where we took a photo of what seemed to be us on top of the world! We weaved our way up through the ruins (including a quite narrow cave for some people to complain about) and found a spot to wait for the clouds to clear over Machu Picchu. We also met up with the Aussies again!

We were patient and our patience paid off. After about an hour of waiting, the clouds lifted to show us the magnificent panoramic view of Machu Picchu and its surrounds. Stunning and breathtaking. Magical. This is one hell of a city, perched atop a mountain! It’s easy to see why it is such a huge attraction in South America. It really is every bit as good as people say it is.

We spent some more time (and hundreds of photos) up there, perched on a mountain before slowly making our way down. The next group of trekkers were on their way up and we took great delight in making all sorts of comments to the strugglers on their way up. It was also when we realised just how steep the climb was, and the edges of the cliffs. Boy were we glad we were ignorant to that at the start!

Once back in Machu Picchu, we wandered around for a bit, took some more photos and then headed back to Aguas Caliantes for some lunch (and to be lunch for a great number of midges). We picked up our bags and headed to the train station right on time. This was when we were led into a back room to be told our luggage was over the FIVE KILOGRAM limit. He had to be kidding. But no, as usual, we were getting screwed over. Apparently if you pay MORE for a train ticket, you don’t get as many privileges as those who pay less. I told the guy there was no problem on the way up and he took our first and current tickets and went off somewhere. Well we were just dumbfounded. Just when you think you can’t get screwed in any other fashion, they find a new way.

I argued with the guy for a while when eventually he cut a ‘deal’ with me. We pay for 7 of the 41 kilograms we had between the three of us. US$12 later and we were finally boarding the train. I was pretty angry though and got out my laptop to start my angry blog. The train ride was also bizarre because the staff who served our lunch also put on a fashion parade (along with a weird guy with white makeup all over his face, apologies for the lack of culture, I was over Peru through and through by this point) and then tried to squeeze us tourists out of even more money. Weirder still, the guy who was modeling kept saying ‘Gracias Senor’ to Kim every single time he went passed us. Thanks for what exactly?

Anywhoo, when we got to the station where we got on, we were told not to get off, but rather a few more minutes and we would be somewhere that we could catch taxis etc. We were pretty confused at this point (and Kim and I slightly worried as our bags were on a different carriage) but we stayed on. We were then shipped into a bus that took us no more than 800m down the road where taxi touts were standing. Luckily, a French tour guide had pretty much asked if we wanted to share a taxi back to Cuzco – where he would do the negotiating. We were thankful – even though we’d been told never to share taxis. He was great though, even pointed out the mountains and lakes that we passed. Nice guy.

We eventually reached Cuzco and walked up a long hill to our hostel. There was more confusion over the room (we booked 2 rooms, but only 1 was available or a triple room where the shower didn’t work or something…), but we took the nicest room with a working shower with the best bed ever – and a TV! Whoo – things were looking up! For now

We then took a walk to get some dinner. Ben was craving Maccas (yes Maccas), so we walked in to find a trillion other tourists. Maybe we were all sick of the local food! At least we knew this place wouldn’t rip us off. After dinner, we walked around for a bit and Kim found a t-shirt that matched our magnet. So he bought it. I asked twice what the price was (ie. asked, then confirmed) and STILL when Kim went to buy it, it went up by 50%. I told her that I had asked her twice and she just shrugged. It wasn’t too expensive, so we handed over the money. When I looked back in the store after we left, I could see her laughing to her friend. I really don’t like Peru.

We headed back to the hostel for a good night’s sleep. When we checked out in the morning, the hostel guy told us our deposit for the second room we booked didn’t count. I was pretty furious at this stage and had to walk away while Ben took care of him. Just another example of being screwed. It just never stopped. Ben asked how much the taxi should cost to get to the airport before we walked out. The first taxi that came along actually came in UNDER what we were told to pay, so we thought he was a nice taxi driver! Unless the hostel guy just wanted to rip us off more….. Now I’m just being cynical

So we get to the airport 3 hours in advance like they told us to. Except the counter was by no means open. So we waited in line for about 30 minutes. I was still furious and very unhappy with Peru and Kim was unhappy with me being unhappy vocally. So I decided to do as the English do, and write a letter. To my mum I bought a postcard and entertained myself by telling her how much I ‘loved’ Peru without ever once spelling it out. I felt better after that

Oh and another thing, at the airport you have to pay departure tax. We thought we were pretty lucky, because we only had to pay US$12 rather than US$31 because we were flying domestic (We got hit for the US$31 when we left the country instead).

We flew to Lima and had a taxi waiting for us at the airport. But he had to wait until the ground crew had smoko and a lunch break as we waited about 40 minutes for our bags to come out. The taxi driver seemed nice enough, taking a nice scenic route to our hostel.

Now this hostel is not just any hostel. It is called One Hostel and it is THE best hostel to ever stay in. And it’s not the beds (that come with freshly wrapped clean sheets) or the showers (that are even better than showers in Australia) or the breakfast (that seems like the only freshly baked roles we’ve had in 4 months) that makes this place awesome. It’s Melissa who runs the show. When we got there, she had left us a map with everything we needed pointed out and a lovely letter apologising for not being there when we arrived and more pointers. We were quite impressed!

We headed to Miraflores to check out some civilisation. Real shops! We were in shock lol! It was quite pretty though, and the coastline reminded us of Santa Monica. We spent the afternoon playing games and browsing through shops. We ended with yummy ice cream and walked back to the hostel where we met Melissa. We chatted to her for ages and she gave us loads of advice and help.

The next day we headed to a black market to find some shoes for Galapagos. Jose (the security guy at the hostel) negotiated the trip for 10 soles. He was upset that he couldn’t get better for us! So just another notch for getting ripped.

When we got there, we were gobsmacked at just how many pairs of shoes there were! There were THOUSANDS of them! It wasn’t long before we got hungry, so we found a load of restaurants, chose one and ordered Ceviche. We were only slightly worried, but when it came out – it was awesome!!! Loads of seafood, rice, fish, salad… yummo! Melissa later told us we were crazy for eating there.

We then tried to negotiate for a taxi to take us back to Miraflores and all I could negotiate down to was 13 soles. Fair enough, we were beaten this time. But when Kim handed over the money, the guy short changed us! Ended up costing us 17 soles! This was just getting ridiculous now and I couldn’t wait to get out of that horrible country. We walked around some shops, had dinner and headed back.

That night, Kim had a great conversation with Melissa and her boyfriend. I was feeling ill from the anti parasite tablets from Africa so was in bed early. But Kim learnt all about Lima and the apparent good side of Peru! Fancy that, it does exist!!

Just when we thought we were escaping this rip off country, the taxi driver rips us off 5 soles and not only that, he gives us 5 soles that a shop wouldn’t accept! Oh, and then they charged us US$31 to leave the country. They should be paying us to put up with all the crap that goes with visiting this place! I can honestly say I have never ever been more glad to leave a country than I was to leave Peru. If it wasn’t for Melissa and her hospitality, I wouldn’t even have a single good thing to say about the place!! Ok, so Machu Picchu was ok, but the people weren’t exactly friendly or generous.

I was so excited as this was one of my most favourite of travel destinations to date and although I was worried that I had talked it up too much in my own mind, I was more worried that I had talked it up too much to Ben and Kim! But everything was exactly how I had remembered it. We were in a 4×4 with a newly wed couple from Israel. Our driver was nowhere to be seen but about 30 minutes later, he rocks up. He was there the whole time asleep! We started to get a little worried (and even more so when the other group’s driver told us he was asleep because he was drunk). Turns out, he was just tired from driving from Uyuni!

We started with the Laguna Blanca (White Lagoon), Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon), Bali Rock Desert, Hot Springs, Geysers and then finished with the Laguna Colorado (Red Lagoon) with flamingoes and llamas.

We ended at our accommodation for the night where we all suffered mild headaches from the altitude (Kim also with mild nausea). But we weren’t as bad as some of the oldies we were staying with who were vomiting in the corridors and bathroom sinks. We managed to stay up playing cards until 9pm when the power/lights went out. By this stage it was feeling pretty cold and we were glad we had lugged our sleeping bags all this way with us! We were nice and toasty that night!

After breakfast the next day, we headed to a rock formation that resembles a tree (aptly called Stone Tree), then past some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Multi coloured mountains with reds, browns, oranges, whites, greens…. simply stunning! From there, we headed to some more lagoons (Honda, Chearcota, Hedionda, Canapa) with the tamest flamingos that let us get so close you could see the water dripping from their beaks! We were blown away (well, Ben was suffering pretty badly from altitude sickness at this point, but the rest of us were blown away!). From here we crossed some pretty rocky terrain, saw a smoking active volcano (Ollague Volcano) and then to a small salt flat (Chiguana) where we followed the train tracks that took the salt from Bolivia through to the coast via Chile. Our next stop was a small town called Villa Martin where we stayed in a fairly comical house. Our room was upstairs, but the stairs were old, rickety and there was no banister (even on the landing outside our room!), so there was definitely no drinking to be had this night!

This night it was my turn to be ill as my head was throbbing. We met up with the second half of our group and chatted with them all night (well, I snuck off to bed for a nap, but the boys did).

Next morning, we were up singing to Robbie Williams at 4.30am to see the sunrise on the Uyuni Salt Flats. Our driver, Figo, was having a great old time! We sang all the way to the flats, where we got out to watch the sunrise – simply magnificent! From here, we headed to the Fisherman Island (an island in the middle of the salt flats with cacti everywhere – quite a sight), where we spent a few hours exploring before breakfast. Once we got down, we watched all the drivers vs. the tourists in a game of soccer. Naturally the tourists were not accustomed to the altitude, so it was funny to watch them fatigue quickly!

We then walked around the island and tried out some perspective shots, before our driver picked us up and took us to a better place for the perspective photos! We spent AGES here doing all sorts of photo trickery! We had a ball, but it was starting to heat up and we could feel our skin burning! So we headed to the salt mine and museum (hotel) before we reached a small village where we had lunch and saw the world’s biggest llama (stuffed, of course)!

Next we headed to Uyuni to see the train cemetery. Kim, Ben and I were all fascinated by the endless photo opportunities… it was just a pity it was also a dumping ground for trash and urine!

Our tour ended in Uyuni where we said our goodbyes and headed to our accommodation to do some desperately needed washing!

Next day we were up early to catch a bus to Potosi. What a bus ride that turned out to be! A bit over 5 hours of driving, stopping for a kid to pee (with whole bus watching), stopping in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere to let people off, stopping after people stamped at the front of the bus to communicate with the driver and some more death defying driving. Kim and I were glad that we slept through the… errr… ‘trying’ parts. Most of the road was a dirt track, but there was lots of bitumen and roadworks. We imagine one day it will be a nice road all the way through!

We took a gamble with a hostel in the LP guide, settled in, and then went for a walk. Potosi is 4,060m above sea level and boy did we know it. Our hostel was downhill from the main street… and it was strange to have to take huge deep breaths to walk up a fairly mild hill! Even sitting still at times, we found ourselves needing extra deep breaths!

We had a super cheap meal (US$3 for 3 courses) and found a place to take us on a tour of the Silver Mines. Had an early night and in the morning, I decided to give the Silver Mine tour a miss – given it was definitely not recommended for asthmatics or claustrophobics. And I was glad I did…..

(start Kim’s entry…)

After a short bus ride we arrived at the area where we got fitted into our new suits for the day. It consisted of a leather jacket, MC-Hammer pants, gumboots, helmet, bandana and a torch.

With our new suits we headed off to the miners market were we were given a quick guided tour of what miners needed when working in the mine. The store had shovels, hard hats, gloves, alcohol (96% strength) and dynamite. Unfortunately there are no rules on who can purchase any of these goods so Potosi has some serious problems with alcoholism and children getting their hands on dynamite. There was one more crucial thing that the miners needed to work in the silver mine – that is coca leaves. After purchasing some dynamite and coca leaves to give to the miners as a present we headed off to see the refinery.

In the refinery we were shown how they separate the minerals from the stones. We saw the process of crushing the stones; mixings water and chemicals the minerals are separated ready to be shipped out. It was a long process and the final product still needed to be sent to another factory for melting.

Arriving at the mine we see some miners standing outside talking and chewing coca leaves. It was at this point that we are told the most important thing the miners need to do their work wasn’t dynamite or shovels but coca leaves. Miners do not eat while in the mine. They chew coca leaves all day and use it as a source of energy and help them keep going.

At the entrance of the mine we see black markings that the guide tells us is llama blood. This blood is painted on the entrance during a ceremony to prevent bloodshed of miners. This was the first instance of how miners are very superstitious.

The first 2 levels the mine seems relatively roomy apart from the low beams here and there. This is when we realised how important the helmets were. There were a few times after hitting our heads we felt like we were a foot shorter. As we go lower and lower the path gets smaller till some stages we were crawling and sliding down on our bums through gaps. With the altitude affecting our breathing and the mines getting hotter and hotter it wasn’t the most pleasant place in the world. There was so much dust flying around we wet our bandanas and tied them tightly to our faces. This did not improve our breathing at all but it was better than eating a mouth and nose full of dust.

During our decent down to the lower levels we find ourselves dodging miners pushing and pulling trolleys. These trolleys held wooden logs used for support in the mines. We were told that the trolleys normally hold stones that need to be moved to the refinery plant. Four miners push and pull 2 trolleys weighing up to 2 tones. With the current conditions the miners are working in I don’t think I could even push an empty trolley alone for 30 meters let alone 2 tones worth.

We were shown how superstitious the miners were inside the mines as we found statues made by the miners were sacrifices of alcohol, coca leaves and cigarettes. These sacrifices are to prevent miners getting hurt and to increase prosperity in find more minerals.

After spending nearly 2 hours climbing up and down mine shafts we were absolutely exhausted. All the mine shafts were created by miners using dynamite so it was essential that the miners created holes in the mine to deposit dynamite. Our final stop in the mines was to see the miners using jack hammer creating holes where they will plant the dynamite. Getting to this point was not an easy task. We had to move up 2 levels and going up mine shafts was a lot harder than going down. By the time we got up to where the miners were getting ready to drill we were so tired we only wanted to sit. As part of the traditions, the miners hold a ceremony to make sure everything goes as planned before they start drilling. We were asked to be part of the ceremony so each of us was poured a shot glass of alcohol. Yes it was the 96% paint stripper… I mean alcohol. We were told to pour some on the ground and then drink the rest. Ben and I both do not drink so it was even harder for us to even smell the paint stripper let alone drink it. Ben turned off his head lamp and poured the rest of the alcohol on the ground but I wasn’t so lucky being closer to the miners I had to drink some of it. I don’t know how the miners do it but that stuff is just plain wrong. I got drunk just by smelling it but sipping it made me ill.

We finished the day by blowing up one stick of dynamite. One of our group members prepared the dynamite under close supervision of our guide. Once the dynamite was prepared the fuse was lit. The guide proceeded to tell us that we have 2 minutes to hand the dynamite around before it goes off. After we played hot potatoes with a live stick of dynamite the guide took the dynamite and ran as fast as his little legs could take him. With only about 1 minute left he ran off buried the dynamite and quickly walked away. With a loud bang we felt from a distance how powerful a single stick of dynamite could be. I couldn’t imagine what kind of damage a few sticks could do let alone children playing around with it.

It was a very interesting and informative day and we were both very glad Phillipa didn’t go as it is not a pleasant place for asthmatics.

(end Kim’s entry!)
(back to Phillipa’s….)

I spent the day researching how to get out of a town where there were blockades at every road exiting the city. After asking numerous people, I kept being told there was ‘no salida’ ie no exit today. But I was determined, so I waited in a coffee shop until just before the bus was due to leave and asked the (seemingly) only English speaking person if they could ring the bus terminal to see if buses were leaving Potosi that night. After about 4 hours of waiting, we were in! I was mostly glad to be leaving because the rude lady at our accommodation was so intolerant of my poor and broken Spanish she wouldn’t even entertain the idea of engaging in a conversation with me!

So I grabbed the boys and we were off to get the tickets, some food (we are starting to get sick of Pringles at this stage, but this is what we got… again) and book some accommodation in La Paz, our next destination!

We have another lovely cama (bed) bus that took us to La Paz overnight. Only problem was, we arrived at hour stupid so we waited at the bus terminal for an hour and a half until 7am when we told our accommodation we would be there. We got a bit lost on the way to Arthy’s Guesthouse, but eventually we get there to find some backpackers waiting out front. They obviously didn’t see the door bell, so after we rang it, they also came in!

The accommodation was gorgeous with a nice big spacious room, hot showers and English speaking hosts. We were so happy!!! We spent the day walking around the main parts of the city and seeing the sights. We visited the art museum before having an awesome brunch at a very trendy cafe.

We headed toward the witches market, where I almost vomited at the sight of the llama fetuses. I couldn’t handle it, so I avoided it like the plague. We then headed toward Gravity (getting lost again), where Ben booked in for the World’s most dangerous road bike ride which he did the following day. Needless to say, the man is nuts. But he got a free t-shirt!

After that, we found a place that makes the most awesome desserts and then visited the famous Coca Museum. This place was quite interesting and we spent quite a bit of time in there learning about drug addictions, chewing coca leaves and Coca-Cola.

On our way home, we stopped at a Japanese restaurant called ‘Arso-San’ purely because of the name! It was a great meal that reminded us of home!

Next day, Ben went on his death road thing and I took Kim to a restaurant called 100% Natural, except I got the address completely wrong and we ended up in the middle of the suburbs! But we got there in the end and had an awesome lunch. We then took it easy, walking through the back streets and found a cafe to have a coffee. It was a great day – especially because that night I watched 2 chick flicks while the boys went out for dinner!

Next day we headed to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. We took a ferry to cross to the peninsula and the views from here were breathtaking. Beautiful, clear, green water with the hills rolling into it. It was a lovely drive from here to Copacabana, a sleepy tourist village on the shores of the lake. We checked in to a crappy hostel (recommended by fellow travellers by the way, should have listened to Or!) and then set off to look around town.

The town itself (well the main parts) seemed purely geared toward tourists. We found a little restaurant with hammocks where we had some lunch. Only to find a VERY sleazy guy who was constantly trying to look down my top. I was keen to get the hell out of there, but there was a girl (staying in the room next to ours) who loved the attention. All the best to ya luv.

After we scoffed lunch, we tried to find an ATM. Except they don’t exist here (should have trusted that Lonely Planet). So we had to wait until the bank opened to get a cash advance. We soon realised this was not enough cash, but we figured we could live on a budget for a day! But we wandered the streets and tried to take random photos of the old women here – they have so much character in their faces!

We booked onto a cruise/tour to the Isla del Sol (Sun Island) for the next day. Around 6am, we started hearing pretty loud thunder that set off car alarms (more than once!). When we got up, we saw that it wasn’t just raining, but hailing as seen by the piles of them outside! And yep, wouldn’t you know it, it was still raining. Not deterred in the slightest, we put on our trusty waterproofs and headed out to the boat. This was after the worlds most disgusting breakfast – but the juice was fresh and lovely!

Kim didn’t take any chances and took a travel sickness tablet. And good thing he did. The boat was rocking like never before! It was quite a choppy ride, but by the time we got to the north side of the island, it was a beautiful day with clear skies and calm waters (probably blocked by the island itself!).

So we were rushed off the boat and into a museum where we got to see artifacts from Pre-Inca days. But we weren’t allowed to spend much time in there, as we were rushed to the site of the sacrificial table and Titi-caca wall. This is where the guide told us that if we touched the wall, we would be healed. So we obliged and touched the wall. Then I asked Ben what of his was healed. He replied that he was cured of sarcasm. But it didn’t last long Ben and Kim also had doubts about the authenticity of the sacrificial table. They thought that it looked far too clean and flat to be genuine. We figured they just put it there for tourists.

We weren’t there long before the guide was asking for a tip then sending us back to the boat. We would have walked to the bottom of the island, but we were short of cash (in the cheapest country in the world it seemed) and didn’t buy any food for lunch. And we were starving! There was no way we would last 3 hours!

So we hopped back on the boat and headed for the South of the island. We found a place to eat along with an Irish couple who we spent the rest of the day chatting to. As we were leaving, we glanced over the cliff we were sitting on to eat lunch and saw the pile of bottles that were just tossed over the edge. Nice.

On the way back to Copacabana, we stopped at a ‘floating island’. We were getting pretty sick of being ripped off at this point, but there wasn’t anyone demanding more money, so we jumped off the boat onto the ‘floating island’. Turns out this thing was on floaters and it was a complete fake. Ben spotted it a mile away, I thought it was just so typically Bolivian! As was the fact that someone was collecting money as we got back on the boat! What a joke!!!

Back on the mainland and we were getting pretty low on Bolivianos. It was just hard not to laugh at the fact we were on a tight budget in the cheapest place we had visited! We tried to get tickets to Arequipa, but no one would accept our slightly torn US$20 note. So in the end we got tickets to Puno in Peru, ate a nicer dinner than we had planned and then went to bed. We were broke, tired and feeling bitter from one big tourist trap!

Next day, we set off for Peru…

After 45 hours, you can imagine how desperate we were for a shower. But low and behold, after running the water for 10 minutes, it’s still icy cold. And I mean ICY – far too cold to even contemplate showering in it! So we head to bed instead and as soon as the sun is up, we try again to find it nice and toasty

After doing some boring things like washing and organising, our very friendly host (at La Bicicleta Hostel) drives us and a French couple to Lagoo Caburguar with bikes so we can ride back into Pucon via a gravel, scenic route. So we spend the next 4 or so hours dodging huge boulders, weaving up and down hills along a very pretty river with many rapids.

We stopped for lunch at a rapid that was easily accessible and I went off for a pee. Thinking the coast was clear, I do my thing and then head back to where the boys were sitting. They point out the man across the river who was fishing and I was ok with that, because he was a fair way from where I was and wouldn’t have seen me. Kim joked about the other guy further down who would have saw me, but we all laughed as he was just kidding. Until we looked closer and found one. Doh! Then a few minutes later and another one appears! Ninja fishermen everywhere!!

After lunch, we were back on the bikes where Kim and I constantly complained about our sore bums. We were pretty sure they were bruised through and through! But we made it back to town ok – but glad not to sit for a while!!! We then wandered through town to the lake front where there was a remote control sail boat competition happening. I was kind of shocked to learn that there were adults controlling the boats, not kids! And Kim and Ben were joking about B6, to which I laughed but had no idea what they were talking about. They explained to me it was a reference to battle ships (the game).

So for the rest of the afternoon, I was obsessed with the clouds that were permanently covering Mt Villarica, the volcano I climbed a few years back. It was pretty obvious that we were not going to be able to climb it. I think we were all secretly relieved given it’s one tough climb taking around 5 or 6 hours to get up.

So the next day, we checked out and had every intention of going to the hot springs. But given the trips were 6 hours in duration, we weren’t too keen and it was cutting it fine for our overnight bus to Santiago. So instead, we found a cozy cafe and had brunch and afternoon tea in there! It was so warm and toasty and we were having a good chat, so we just stayed there!!

After we felt we outstayed our welcome, we went for a walk down the street where a stray dog attached himself to us and followed us everywhere. We wandered by some markets where we found a nice small Domino set and an elephant figurine (don’t ask). We then headed back to the hostel where we waited until our bus was due to go.

After a few games of dominos and some calls home to Oz, we packed up again and headed to the bus station to wait for our bus. This time, we ordered PREMIUM seats and boy were they premium! These things were better than first class on a plane – they rocked! We lay completely flat and the conductor came along and put an extra mattress on top for you (Kim and I were extra glad because of our bruised bums from the day before) and then tucked you in with a pillow and blanket! Nice!!!

So we had a great night’s sleep and got to Santiago at about 7:30am (we think daylight savings started because the Metro opened early!). I was searching for internet to see if we had a bed for the night when I finally found one and confirmed. We dropped our stuff at a luggage store and headed into town for a walk around some of the sights. The boys laughed at me, calling me the surly tour guide as Santiago is not one of my favourite places in the world. I guess working in a place can do that to you!

We had to wait around while some places opened, but we saw the Biblioteca Nacional, climbed up Cerro Santa Lucia, continued to Parque Forestal and past Palacio de Bellas Artes before heading to Plaza de Armas, checking out the cathedral and Ex-Congreso Nacional and Tribunals de Justicia.

It was about here that I mentioned there was a TGI restaurant at Parque Araque shopping mall and the boys were definitely interested. So we headed there and spent some time shopping around for a camera to replace mine that was lost/stolen. I then convinced the guys to at least see some of Santiago, so we decided to hire a taxi driver for an hour to drive us around all the sights that a bus tour did. He did it for a fraction of the price and he was really sweet so we tipped him generously for taking us past a whole heap of things, including the Teatro Municipal, of which he asked the guards to let us in for a looksy! We had asked, but the guy had said no, but our taxi driver begged and got us in! And we were glad too, because the building was beautiful and the guy let us on stage and everything! It was pretty cool!

Lastly, we got our driver to take us to the finicular to go up to San Cristobal where the guys got to see exactly what was meant by the ’smog issue’ in Santiago! Typically, the cable car was down for maintenance, so we had to rush to the finicular again to go down and get to our accommodation. We did get a chance to eat fairy floss and walk a tiny part of Bellvista beforehand though

So we raced to get to our apartment that we had reserved only to find we were going in the wrong direction and we were running late. It was now 8.10pm and I had to call the guy to find out which building as he didn’t give us an address. We finally get inside and the doorman has a phone call for us, where the guy tells me the room is getting cleaned and it won’t be too much longer. So we wait… and wait… and I go up and knock on the door, noone replies. So we wait some more until about 9pm and I ask the doorman if he knows any hostels in the area. He brings us the yellow pages, so we have a look and he shows us one nearby. So we head off, telling him we’ll be back if the hostel is really bad.

We can’t find the hostel (stupid Santiago street numbering), so we decide to go back to the bus station, check out somewhere to sleep at the internet cafe and take a cab to wherever we find. Given that by now it is 9.30pm.

We get there and ring a few places that are all full, so we give up and get a taxi driver to take us to the Crowne Plaza. It was Ben’s birthday in 2 days, so that’s how we justified it! After telling the taxi driver it’s been a long day, I start begging with the concierge for a good deal on the room. He reduces the rate by US$5, and given we are so tired, I took it. In the end, it wasn’t TOO bad – US$50 each per night – the same rates as Europe I guess!

So we finally get up to our room and it’s the luxurious delight we had hoped it to be! We chill out and order room service (where I accidentally tipped 20,000 pesos or US$35. Luckily we got a phone call to confirm it!!

Given I had already been to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, I had told the boys that I wanted a day off the next day, but that they really should go, because it’s great. So I headed off to bed while Ben researched away on the web. Next morning, I woke up early and got the boys up at 8am because they had to get going. Only to discover that they had a case of the lazies and had decided not to go!

I was eager to hit the gym, so Kim and I went for over an hour (it was awesome). The boys played table tennis then headed to the shopping mall while I caught up on emails, business stuff, travel insurance and international phone calls to banks and airlines. It was such a relief to get all that stuff off my mind!

Given it was Ben’s birthday the next day (and we were leaving for Calama at 3.30am), he got to decide where we had dinner and TGI’s it was We had a late night – staying up to say happy birthday to Ben at midnight and giving him a shockingly pathetic birthday card on the back of a Crowne Plaza coaster type thing.

We were at the airport within 20 minutes (thanks to an awesome taxi driver who we went with after ditching the hotel guy who didn’t even seem interested who also charged twice the price) only to have LAN move us from queue to queue and wait for 30 minutes before they would open the check in desks. Nice birthday present for Ben But we did all get some sleep on the flight to Calama! And watching the sun rise over the Atacama desert was pretty awesome.

It wasn’t until we stepped off the plane that I remembered how COLD the desert gets at night/in the morning! We got our bags, rugged up and found a taxi to take us to the bus terminal to get to San Pedro. Silly me forgot to negotiate the price before we got in, so we ended up paying far too much for the trip! Once there, a bus was departing in 20 minutes, so we bought tickets and off we went.

When we got to San Pedro, we realised that we didn’t have the address for our hostel, just the name. And low and behold, noone had heard of the place! We eventually found a lovely German man who sourced out the address and gave us directions. So off we go with our packs, walking for about 15 minutes when we realise we are clearly not in the right area. So we ditch the bags and I get nominated (for my pathetic but get-by-able Spanish) to go back to the last hostel we saw and ask for directions. The boys start playing bocci with rocks and entertaining themselves while I finally found someone who knows where the place is. I returned to the boys with softdrinks (it was getting pretty hot by this point) and after another rest and a lot of laughing (we were pretty tired), we set off again.

We were just about to walk down a long barren road, when I glanced back up another street. Ching ching! Bingo! We found the place! And Silvia (the owner of Hostal Solor) was so lovely! She let us into our rooms early and was simply delightful. We had a few drinks, checked some emails and then headed into town for some lunch. Ben’s choice, as it was his birthday (and we all seem to be having 2 day birthdays this year), we find a cruisy little place with a courtyard that served strawberry juice. Sorted! We kicked back while we contemplated just how lucky we were to be living this kind of life!

We spent the rest of the day wandering around town and checking out the iconic church, before heading back to the hostel for a nap. We got up after dark and wandered back into town for some dinner before calling it a night.

Next day we were up early for breakfast and then started our mission to find a tour to Uyuni. We went straight to the tourist information office that keeps a book of travellers reviews of the tours. This book is extremely handy and we narrowed down our choice to two. But it seems these tours are all hit and miss with it all depending on the driver. There were horror stories about accidents and drunk drivers. We went to Cordillia, who seemed quite robotic and impersonal. Next stop was Estrella del Sur, who were a completely different kettle of fish (and who I also went with last time, 3 years ago). The guy was really friendly (calling Kim and Ben my body guards) and quite excitable. So we decided to go with them!

Last thing for the day was a tour of the Valley de la Luna (or Moon Valley). we jump on the bus and get taken to a lookout point, then through a valley (that we got sandblasted walking down) while we watched some sandboarders at work. Next stop was the national park, where we went to a few places before stopping at some sand dunes to watch the sunset. There were a couple who parked their butts directly in the spot that every single tourist wanted a shot. Not happy Jan. We didn’t get any information as it was all in Spanish, but we were happy enough with the sights!

Next day we set off for Uyuni!

So the area looked kind of dodgy, but we had a walk around and realised it was actually a really funky area with loads of awesome looking bars and restaurants.

So Kim picked one for his birthday lunch that was nothing short of awesome! We sat in an upstairs mezzanine area and when we looked at the menu, we could see someone below us with a huge chopping board full of tapas type food. So we ordered that – it was scrumptious!!

After lunch, we headed out for a nice long walk along Santa Fe, a shopping street west of the city centre. Kim chose a sushi place for his birthday dinner where the waitress’ skirt was so short, we thought maybe she was a pole dancer. But we had a great meal with a dessert that was literally a tower and headed home.

Next day was miserably wet, cold and windy. We decided that museums would be the smartest thing to do on such a day, so we navigated the bus system and eventually made it to the Evita museum. She seemed like a pretty impressive lady and we found out later that the building was actually one of the women’s houses that she set up.

We decided to write the day off and watch movies in our apartment with a nice home cooked meal.

Next day we headed out to see some sights. We went down to San Martin Plaza, walked around for a bit and asked to send some stuff home – only to find out we needed our passport to do so. Doh! So we moved on and headed for Recoleta cemetery. Along the way we found a place that would indeed send our stuff back to Oz – without a passport. Another angry Argentinean woman encountered back at the first place.

But we eventually got to the cemetery. But it was more like a dead village than a cemetery. Seriously, this place is kind of weird. There are full on shrines here for all the rich people. Not only that, there are families of dead people stacked on top of one another. Some are beautiful; some have been left unattended for decades with the coffins within reach of a bystander. Ew. Kim completely freaked out and made a beeline for the exit after we eventually found Evita’s shrine. For me, it was the cats that freaked me out. There were heaps of them and they did not flinch at the sight of humans. It was like they were rich people reincarnated into cats’ bodies and were just as snobby in their new outfits.

So after that, we wandered past a cinema where we watched Sector 9 (or District 9 in English). It’s a wonderful thing having so many movies with just Spanish subtitles! After that, we found a minimarket, bought some meat, veggies and headed home to cook a lovely dinner. Thanks Kim

On our last day in Buenos Aires, we figured we probably should see the main attractions. So Ben found a free BA tour where you pay the guide tips only. Rated number 1 of things to do in BA, so we figured it was worth the early rise! 11am we met at the Republic Plaza where we saw Congress and Kilometer Zero (where all the signs in Argentina mark the center of Buenos Aires) with one side plastered with hooker business cards and the other left clean as it was a religious symbol. Strange!

But the Monument to the Two Congresses was fenced off to stop vandalism that is clearly a problem here. We also heard about the more than daily protests that happen between here and Plaza del Mayo. It seems the current president is not very well liked at all in these parts. Considering the government had just issued statistics that stated 13% of the population was living in poverty whereas the people believe it is more like 30% or more.

So we wandered the streets, crossing what the Argentineans believe to be the widest avenue in South America (well it used to be) only to find that 2 buildings were not knocked down to build this huge avenue – one very pretty, the other a complete eyesore! We then moved on toward the Pink House, where the president ‘works’ after passing a very famous coffee shop. After 3 hours, we finished at the Obelisk.

We got a recommendation from the guide for lunch, but when we got there, the waiter was terrible, the service was sooo slow and the food was ordinary, so we left without leaving a tip (or even waiting for the bill) as we wanted to see some more of BA.

After we left, we headed to a few places we wanted to check out on our own. Then we had a submarino (glass of hot milk with a submarine shaped chocolate that you stir in) at Cafe Tortoni (the famous and oldest coffee shop), took the oldest subway in the Southern Hemisphere 2 stops down to Plaza del Mayo then headed toward San Telmo.

It was about here that Ben realised that he was still lactose intolerant. In his own words, he said he experienced all stages of grief before finally reaching acceptance and needing desperately to beg with the owner of a bar who was closing up if he could use the loo. “Baños por favor, POR FAVOR!!!”.

We didn’t quite have enough time to go into San Telmo, so we relented and headed for Puerto Madero for a wander. This reminded us a lot of Melbourne along the Yarra! One last stop – Galerias Pacífico – a shopping mall in a beautiful building, before we met up with the second free BA tour that left from San Martin Plaza. This plaza was full of a cotton like thing that grew in pods on the trees. Though it looked like a poodle had exploded!

This tour was aimed at the aristocratic families that live/d in the fancy neighbourhoods of BA. This was quite entertaining as we were also on ’safari’ where our guide would yell ‘LION’ if she saw a lady who had clearly had too much plastic surgery. Can you believe that the procedure is included in health insurance? Every 2 years, you get another procedure! Crazy!

After we finished this tour, we headed to Freddo – where the Dulce dul Leche con Brownie is THE BEST ice cream ever. Kim was the one who stumbled on this one (as always) and I’m hanging to get back to BA to try a whole one for myself

Next day I was telling the taxi driver I wanted to go to the airport in Spanish. He was all confused though and I had no idea why. Luckily a guy from the building understood what I meant and told him. Who knew that the domestic airport was actually called and air park??!!

So anyway, we flew to Ushuaia, the city at the end of the world. But seemingly typically Argentinean, there is another town south of it – Puerto Williams that is in Chile. So I guess the catch is in the fact it’s a ‘city’ lol! But as the flight came in, we caught our first glimpse of the beautiful snow capped mountains and Beagle Canal. It was breathtaking!!

We checked into our hotel (yes, HOTEL!) and this place is a gem – Hotel Austral if you ever get there. They spoke perfect English so we asked a thousand questions and planned our few days there. As we got there in the afternoon, we decided to check out the town’s museums first up. So we went to the Naval Museum and then the Museo del Fin del Mundo (End of the World Museum). Both were a bit overrated, but the latter wasn’t too bad. We did learn a lot about the yamana who were basically wiped out because European settlers brought in diseases that they couldn’t compete with.

That night we tried Cordero patagónico (Patagonian Lamb) that is cooked on a spit-like thing. It was far too salty, but the salad bar was good and the Flamb wasn’t too bad either. We revisited old times by spending pretty much the whole night chatting which was really refreshing.

Next day, we were up early for a cruise on the Beagle Canal. The weather wasn’t too bad and the sun was out, but Kim still took some seasickness tablets, just to be sure! The scenery was beautiful, especially looking back into town from the bay. We cruised past a lighthouse, seal colonies and bird colonies before landing on an island to go for a quick walk. It was FREEZING outside, but I was in ski pants and rugged up to the wazoo, so there wasn’t a single cm of skin that was exposed on my body, so I was toasty

We got back early enough to get in a trip to the Martial Glacier. When we got there, we learnt that the last lift was in 2 hours and that the climb to the top took longer than that. So we went anyway and walked part way up before realising we weren’t going to come close to making it, so we opted for some perspective photos instead! I think that snow turns adults into kids, because we had an absolute ball up there in the snow while we were trying not to crack the ice into the river that was flowing underneath us!

We must have been tired, because we had an afternoon nap before getting a great recommendation from the hotel owner for a restaurant. This place served a good old hearty meal that was exactly what I was after.

Next day we were up early-ish to visit the Tierra del Fuego National Park. We thought we would be smart and cost efficient by taking a taxi for 25 pesos out to the park. This was a saving of 125 pesos! Except we soon realised that we had to walk an additional 8km to where the walks started. No problem, we can do that!

So off we go, entertaining ourselves along the way and convincing ourselves that we needed the walk and it would replace the walks that were closed due to the season anyway. We were almost at the start of the walks (ie, end of the 8km) when a transfer bus stopped and asked us if we realised how far it was to go. We said we knew. He asked how we were getting home and we shrugged and said we didn’t know yet! We assured him we were fine, so he drove off only to come back about 3 minutes later. He must have felt sorry for us, because he drove us to the first walk and showed us which walk we should do!

We first walked to Lagoo Negra, then down to the Lapataia Bay where we crossed a few people, including some from our cruise the day before and a girl who looked cold, wet and miserable. It was here that we hit the end of Ruta 3 – a highway that goes from Buenos Aires all the way to this point. We kept walking until we found a deserted Beaver dam and then followed the road back to the bus stop as we no longer trusted the map that didn’t match up to the trails.

Tired at this point and absolutely wind blown, we finally find where the bus departs and ask if this is the place. We were stressing because we only had 114 pesos and we thought the bus was 150 pesos for the 3 of us. Luckily (as our patience was fairly thin at this point), a lovely girl by the name of Sandra helped us with our Spanish. Yes it was the place, the bus is only 75 pesos for the 3 of us and weren’t you the miserable looking girl we passed on our walk? She sure was! She was certainly one unhappy chappy!!! lol!

We had a great chat to her on the bus back into town where she recommended a gorgeous tea house she had found the day before. So we all sat in there together to thaw out and eat some lunch. We had not eaten anything all day at this point (it was about 4pm), so we were ravenous! But this place was awesome – it had a whole heap of old antiques and the loos had old style underwear to indicate male/female. And the penguin desserts were just gorgeous!

We said goodbye to Sandra and had a quick shop around town before organising skiing for Kim and I the following day at Cerro Castor.

So we were up early and keen to get on the ski fields. First challenge, ski hire. We were lucky enough to have an English speaking man at a shop a few doors down from the hotel. Sorted. He got us a transfer, also sorted Get to the fields (while it was snowing very heavily), find out the return time is 5:30pm – all good.

After buying lift passes, getting an essential ski map, bouncing around to find where to hire a locker and finally getting sorted, we’re ready to go. I engage the help of a very friendly English speaking local to find out exactly which runs we should try – and what order!

So we jump on the ski lift and it’s a long one. It goes up and up and up. So we start thinking… how do we get down? lol! We take a look at the ski map and realise it’s a black run at the bottom. Wonderful! lol! All good, we find the baby slopes (called the magic carpet hehe) no worries and have a few goes to get our groove back. We realise we’re definitely not the worst on the slopes which makes us happy and then we set off to find the next slope.

Just to be sure, we stop at the ski school to ask where to go next and the first question he asks is ‘you do turns very good?’. I say ‘maybe not very good, but good’. He gives me a nervous look and then lets me know where to go next. So we spent the next few hours exploring these slopes and having lunch at the restaurant that we ski into (I love that part of skiing!).

The second lift we take brings us to a point where the snow is so heavy and wind is blowing so hard that you can barely see ANYTHING! It was soooo cold at that point we were wondering what on earth we were doing up here! After our second stop to warm up, we decide that it’s too cold up here and we might make our way back down. I asked a guy who spoke very little English if we would be ok doing the black run at the bottom to get out and he said ’si, muy facil’ (yes, very easy), so we thought we’d be ok!

So off we go down the blue run to the black run. We loved the blue run loads, mainly because it was pretty much empty with noone zooming by us (ok, me). When we got to the black run, we both had scares. I had a scare because after pretty much ploughing most of the way down that part, I let go and zoomed down, only to realise it was VERY steep and I went much faster than I intended and there was another slope beyond it and you couldn’t see where it ended! So after almost pooing my pants, I finally stopped and regained my composure!

Kim had a scare because as he was going down the same part of the black run, he was pooing himself so much he wasn’t looking directly in front of him, but rather at the aforementioned slope after the slope. So he went straight over a small hill in the wrong direction and ended up going backwards… VERY FAST and completely freaking out. We both needed to clean out our jocks after that run!

But as usual, we are stupid, so when we got to the bottom, we both said ’so, wanna go again?’ and proceeded to do the whole thing over again. This time, we both went slower over that black run and finished without issue (except Kim did stack at one point on the blue run). We were going to do it one more time before our transfer arrived, but we figured we had already tempted fate and we were lucky to have all bones still in tact. So now we can say we skied at the end of the world! Whoo!

Next day we flew out of Ushuaia to El Calafate, a little further north in Patagonia. We could have taken a bus, but it takes more than 12 hours with faffing around in and out of Chile, for the same price (or very similar) as a flight. We got to the most awesome hostel (American del Sur) where we were bombarded with honest and frank information from 2 very hungover hosts lol! And they were still very friendly and helpful!

We checked out the town, ate some delicious crepes and rented a car before going to bed nice and early as we had planned to go and see Perito Moreno Glacier in time for sunrise the next day. Yes, we are crazy. We were up at 4:30am ready to depart at 5:00am for the glacier. After driving for 1.5 hours, we hit the ‘Sigh Corner’ and the ‘wows’ come thick and fast! Our first sight of the glacier! With so many icebergs floating nearby, it’s so cool!

We get into the park, rug up and trek down onto the balconies to take some shots of pre/during/post sunrise. The sight is spectacular! Our breath is completely taken away (and not just from the absolute freezing cold at 0.2 degrees). We hear the enormous grumble and crash of ice breaking off into the water – all without a single other soul in sight. The first busload arrived at about 9am when we were making our way back up to the car to go on our ice trek.

We drove around the corner to the small docks and caught a boat to the other side of the lagoon. We got really close to the glacier on the boat, so more photos!

When we got off, we got ready for our ice trekking tour and then set off. Along the way to the starting point, our guide Cooney tells us all about this and the 300 other glaciers in the Glacier National Park. This is one of the few remaining stable glaciers in the world (ie not receding).

We then get to the edge of the glacier where we are fitted with crampons and taught how to walk on ice. So off we go! We weave up and down and around crevices, past drain holes and mini lagoons. It was beautiful! We walked for about 1.5 hours, stopping every now and then for photos etc. At the end they served us whisky and dulce del leche (which is everywhere in Argentina). Then we headed back where we had lunch, took more photos and heard more crashes

After the boat ride back, we jumped in the car and picked up Cooney (our guide) who was hitchhiking back to El Calafate. He was good to chat to and gave us loads of advice. As we drove out of the park, we realised that we had bypassed paying the park entry because we were there earlier than the fee collectors!

Once back in town, we rewarded ourselves with some more crepes from the same shop. The lady in there was lovely and seemed delighted we were back! Then the boys dropped off the car – likening it to ‘Dood where’s my car’ – and we had a nap. Ended up eating dinner at 11pm that night!

The next day, we headed for El Chalten for the day. This is a tiny town a few hundred kilometres from El Calafate. The main attraction is Fitz Roy mountain, so we found a 4 hour return trail to go see it. It was a fairly easy climb, but we were still quite warm. Until we reached the lookout point where the wind was howling and chilly, so we huddled behind a rock for shelter while we ate some lunch. We popped out of the wind just long enough to take some shots of Fitz Roy, the distant glacier and then headed off to warm up again!

We got to a lake that was quite pretty and then walked back down. The views were simply stunning with the turquoise rivers and snowcapped mountains. It’s a terrible life! So we got some supplies for our super dooper bus ride we were about to embark on (later that night) and then had a coffee while we waited for the bus to go back to El Calafate.

Once back in town, we had crepes… again! Yes, this place must have loved us! But they were soooo good! We then headed back to the hostel who let us hang around and have showers before our late night bus ride which departed at 3am.

So 2am comes around and we load ourselves up with our packs and set off on the 15 minute walk to the bus station. We had a pack of dogs that escorted us there, but they managed to lock themselves in a paddock so couldn’t see us the whole way!

On the bus we go. And 4 hours later we arrive in Rio Gallegos. After some waiting time, we hop on another bus. Now this bus is luxury. We reserved the cama (bed) bus which has leather seats that recline most of the way back – like a first class plane seat! Whoo! We were pretty excited and spent the day watching movies and napping. 14 hours later we get to Comodoro Rivadaria – which is when I also realised I am luggage minus one camera. I asked (in terrible Spanish) if a girl could call Rio Gallegos to see if they’ve found it, but no luck. In the end, we think it was stolen as our bag was suspiciously open when we got off the bus. Not happy Jan. I lost the El Chalten and backpacking at 3am photos

But anyway, not long a wait and we’re off to Bariloche over then next 12 hours. Our seats were still cama seats, but nowhere near as good as the last one. It was overnight, which was good considering we didn’t get fed at all! Once at Bariloche, we figured we might as well keep going to Pucon! So I bought a ticket to Orsono and had some brunch. Unfortunately no cama seats left, so we had to slum it in semi-cama which only reclines 45 degrees with a foot rest. Tough life! 5 hours and 2 customs inspections later and we were in Chile!

I was cursing the drivers for taking so long because I thought we had missed the connection to Pucon. But when I went to the booth in Orsono, they for some reason thought it was 18:30 instead of 19:30, so we got on a bus anyway! When I realised there was a time difference, I asked forgiveness for cursing the drivers, they were actually early! So another semi-cama, but this time only 4 hours to Pucon. Yep, but this stage a 4 hour drive was nothing!! So 45 hours after departing El Calafate, we arrived in Pucon and checked into a hostel run by a very friendly Chilean who waited up for us

We arrived at Foz do Iguaçu (as it’s spelt on the Brazilian side) and waited for a bus. It was quite a sight to see all 3 of us struggle past the payment barrier with our huge packs – or so the locals at the back of the bus thought anyway! We arrived at the main bus terminal and found our hostel without too many dramas. The hostel was neat, clean and a comfy bed that we were craving after our overnight flight. So we settled in and ended up napping for about 3 hours!

After we woke, we figured we really should get a move on and go out to see the falls. So we headed for a bus. After searching what seemed to be the whole town for a damn ATM without luck, we got to the bus terminal only to be chased by a policeman who didn’t speak English. I was starving, so I let Ben try deal with him while I bought something to eat. Turns out we bypassed the ticket booth for the buses. Oops. So we eventually pay for a ticket and get on and about 40 minutes later we arrived at the falls.

By this stage it’s pretty late and the park was due to close in a few hours, so we bypassed the museum part and jumped straight on a bus that took us up to the falls. We got off the bus where everyone else seemed to be getting off and found ourselves dumbfounded by these amazing falls! They were stunning and we could only see a small part of them at this point! We walked the long path up to the Devil’s Throat seeing the most amazing views of these huge falls!

The local touts must have thought we were crazy for turning down their $4 ponchos because we walked out into a walkway that takes you into the middle of the Devil’s throat where you get absolutely drenched!! We later found out that the water levels were THREE times their normal height! So it was a pretty unique and spectacular experience!

So after spending a while there and checking out the furry locals, we headed back in the bus to the entrance where we caught a bus back into town.

Given it was my birthday, it was my pick for dinner and I chose a sushi place we passed on the way out. It was gorgeously decorated and I chose the seats on the floor. A great meal and wine later, we walked back to the hostel for a good nights rest.

Next day we were up early to go out to the bird park. I was hoping for a huge open aviary, but instead it was many smaller ones. But there was a good cause behind it – a breeding program for endangered birds and reptiles. We got up close to many of them, including Toucans and Macaws, as we walked through aviaries. The Toucans were so friendly and also such calm creatures. They would sit in the same spot for ages, just taking in what was going on around them.

The funniest sight to see was a curious Macaw who liked to sit on anyone or thing (including Kim) to check out what was going on. He and the girl who supervised had a love-hate relationship and it was funny to watch her yell at him in Portuguese to stop scratching her!!! Between this and the other screeching, swooping Macaws, we were thoroughly entertained!

We headed back to town for lunch where we found what we now refer to as a ‘Meat Place’. It was a cross between smorgies and yum cha… And everything was great until they brought out turkeys testicles. Hmm.

So we then picked up our stuff and walked all over town to catch a bus to Argentina. The bus left us at the Brazilian exit border to get stamped, and then we caught the next bus into Argentina. It was a strange relief to be in a Spanish speaking country!!

We desperately wanted to wash the Amazon smell out of our clothes, so we made a beeline to the nearest laundry where a guy was obviously sick of English speaking tourists trying to communicate with him because he had a translation sign behind him where he could just point!

The next day we got up early to visit the falls. I had read about a walking trail that leads to a hidden fall. So we started off with that and we saw woodpeckers, hawks, furry rodents, lizards, butterflies and massive ants. Oh and the waterfall was beautiful too!

We then walked both the lower and upper trails of the falls where parts were closed because the water was too high! The sound was deafening in parts – but so spectacular! We then took a train to the very top where you could walk out on a really long (seemingly never ending) catwalk to view the Devils Throat from the top… breathtaking. We got a tad wet from the spray too!

That night we asked our laundry guy for a pizza recommendation and he pointed us 2 shops down where we had a pretty good pizza after playing cards.

Just before we took off for the airport, we asked our cab driver to take us to see the 3 frontiers where you can see Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay from the one point and also where two rivers join into one.

On the way to the airport, it suddenly dawns on us that our iPods are missing. We had ‘misplaced’ some new havaianas and a t-shirt, but now we were realising that there were quite a few items missing. We were getting a bit annoyed about it now and could only trace it back to when we were on the Amazon and our bags were left with their staff. We thought maybe a cleaner had helped themselves or something.

Anyway, we emailed them and they were good about it, offered to reimburse us and everything. And then they found one iPod, headphones and some cash in a bag stashed somewhere! It’s kind of horrible to know someone has been all through your stuff! And they were picky about it too – only taking bits so it didn’t look obvious.

So anyway, next stop… Buenos Aires!!

So we filled up the kayaks with all the stuff 5 people need to survive in the Amazon jungle for 5 days. We didn’t bring much stuff to be honest, the cameras took up most of the space. But there were eggs in Kim’s kayak and pineapples and other fruit in Ben’s. I just had camp chairs in mine It was funny to see Josue in his big canoe though, it was packed to the rim with an huge esky and a plastic picnic table that just made it look comical!

All packed up and water-sealed, we each get into our kayaks and onto the water. Ben first, he rowed straight into the bank on the other side. Rinaldo was telling him to brake left, but he kept paddling right (maybe I’m not the only one who struggles with left and right?). Kim was next and although he was able to turn ok, he ended up in a tree. I was last and after seeing the last two, I was only slightly panicked but kind of wondering why I was there when plenty of other people laze about at a retreat for numerous days as their experience to the Amazon. But I survived, after I realised that the rudder pedals do actually need to be negotiated if you want to turn.

So we spent the rest of the morning coming to terms with these floating beasts. It was not nearly as difficult to paddle these things as it was the last two times we did it in Africa and I was pleasantly surprised that my arms were not going to ache for 5 days straight.

First stop was lunch at a local’s house. This guy lives off the land (and tourism). At first it seemed kind of strange that this house was out in the middle of nowhere with dogs, ducklings and real toilets, until I realised it was kind of similar to the Murray River back home. We watched the butterflies feed off the mud from the little stream nearby as we waited for our whole fish to cook for lunch.

After a yummy (and large) lunch, we headed out on a walk to some nearby caves. Now we thought we were hot in Manaus, but we were thinking again after walking in the middle of a rainforest uphill. It wasn’t so much the heat as the humidity which felt like 100% (and probably wasn’t far off it). But we soon reached the caves which were lovely and cool. Only problem was that they smelt putrid and it was difficult not to flinch from the bats that would fly within 2cm of you constantly. Into another cave we went, which is apparently the honeymoon suite as this is where babies were made and babies were sleeping. Outside was a nice waterfall though, but we opted out of a swim. Probably a bad idea!

So we were back in our kayaks when we encountered our first rapids. Now this is nothing like the class 5 rapids we went down at Vic falls in rafts (thank goodness), but given you only have yourself to blame, it was almost as scary. We ended the day on a rather long rapid where we had to cross it again to get to our campsite. I almost capsized getting out of the kayak, but Josue came to my rescue

Once off the water, we first realised how sun burnt we were. Ben was pretty bad, but all of us had massive dark tan lines over our thighs! We then setup camp – a tarp and 3 hammocks with mosquito nets (Rinaldo and Josue set theirs up later minus the tarp). We sat down while dinner cooked while Josue made me a local cocktail which tasted a lot like a Pisco Sour from Chile. It was strong, but pretty good!

We chatted to Ben about how on earth we convinced him to come along with us given that he NEVER camps. He was unsure himself lol!

As I wandered off (not too far) into the jungle as nature was calling, I noticed what looked like a cigarette lit up. I thought it was someone walking nearby with a smoke in their mouth. A wave of confusion (and semi-fear) came over me as there was literally no one out where we were – we hadn’t seen anyone for hours along the river. Then the ‘cigarette’ took a sharp turn upwards and I realised they were fireflies! I had actually thought that fireflies were just a fictional thing you only see in fairy tales (shows just how ignorant I am), but to my fascination, they were everywhere! I was like a little kid in a candy store with excitement Next came the frogs – there were tiny little fellas everywhere! It was a little worrying actually because it must have meant that I had accidentally killed a few by treading on them

Anyway, all this excitement teamed with the fact we were actually in the middle of the Amazon amongst the wild animals meant I was back in my ‘hippo’ watching moments from Africa. I wanted to stay up all night to see what might wander by our hammocks! But instead, Ben and I kept Kim up because our hammocks were so close that every time we moved, we would clash bums with him! He said it was like playing ping pong.

Day 2
Next morning, I woke up naturally, but the mozzie nets were so dark, I didn’t realise it was so light outside! Unfortunately no animal sightings to report overnight (but I got the feeling there was a pretty blatant reason we stayed next to the rapids on the river). We watched as Kim almost fell into the creek as he tried to fill up our water bottles using a kick butt water filter. On the way back, we saw a lovely surprise left by one of our guys on a log…

After a big breaky, we were off on another hike into the jungle. This time it started pouring rain – tropical style. We walked to a waterfall and given we were already drenched, we figured we may as well get wet. So we jumped in and climbed up the waterfall 2 levels. It was about this point that they told tell us about the electric eels. We went for a swim, got a pretty full on massage under the waterfall edge and lost a few years of my life when Josue scared the bejesus out of me, but we had a ball! We also saw where the locals leave offerings to the waterfall as they believe they are magical. All the while, Rinaldo told us all about the fauna and how most of it is used by the locals as medicine or other remedies.

We walked back to the kayaks, packed up camp and spent the day navigating rapids down the river. On one particular rapid, however, there was a large tree across the river with a fair gap, say 15 metres wide, that we could easily paddle through. So we get in our single file formation, this time Rinaldo, Kim, Ben, then me. Only Ben was taking a photo of the tree that was across the river, and I didn’t have a chance to slow down or overtake him, so I of course ran into him which meant I then couldn’t paddle into the 15m gap and got stuck in the tree. I tried to go through it, but a huge branch whacked into my arm (leaving a bruise that I still have 3 weeks later), so I instinctively grabbed onto it, only to gracefully tip and capsize into the drink. It all happened in slow motion for me (and from Kim and Ben’s perspective too I hear), but the next 10 minutes consisted of me running into another branch and tipping the kayak right way up then fishing around for my bag that I didn’t quite keep hold of when I fell out. I gathered up all the things that had fallen off the boat, found a steep bank to climb back in after emptying the kayak of water. I blame Ben for that one

So after realising that I’d survived the caimans, piranhas, electric eels and other predators, I was ok! It wasn’t until the next day I’d even realised my nice shiny bruise!

It wasn’t long after my capsize before we pulled up at a little tributary with a waterfall for a BBQ lunch. We named this ‘Thong Cove’ as Ben broke his thong here after wearing them through a fast running stream. That was before Kim climbed down the waterfall and put his hand in a dead toad that was crawling with maggots. Ahh, gotta love the Amazon in all it’s beauty

So next we pulled up at another rapid on the other side of the river for the night. We had a quick bath after setting up camp and I spent some time in my hammock admiring all the fireflies, including one who hovered on the tarp for about 30 minutes – I was mesmerised. The boys were playing dominoes while dinner cooked… ahh the life! I got called for dinner, then we played some more dominoes. Josue lost by a single point to Kim (which was hilarious) as we all were swarmed by bugs (thankfully not mozzies – they can’t survive on the highly acidic water of that river). We listened to Rinaldo who talked so passionately about the Amazon and how to protect it by changing people’s attitudes toward it before we headed off to bed.

Once we got up the two hills to our hammocks, Ben gave a huge yelp before taking off his thong to investigate. We saw THREE massive ant-like things that were full on trying to savage his thong from 3 angles! His foot had a huge cut on it that started bleeding. We took a look at where he stood when he was bitten and it was infested with these things! He patiently and quietly went down to ask Rinaldo if he’d tell us if they were Army ants who were coming to eat us. He told us they were nighttime termites, that they don’t eat flesh and they wouldn’t climb our mozzie nets. He also told us they easily get angry and to avoid stepping on or near them!

So we were a little freaked (ok a lot), but it only got worse when Kim and I realised the population increased exponentially under our hammocks! I nearly passed out from shock when I realised there were so many of them under my hammock I could actually hear their pitter patter as they walked. YUK. We managed the huge giant steps over them to our beds and Kim and I kept quiet to Ben after we saw that they were INDEED on our mozzie nets, albeit only a few of them. To be honest, we were terrified. We had no issues with the jaguars who were probably lingering around or the caiman’s or piranha’s that could eat us at any minute, but throw a few trillion vegetarian termites at us and we freak out. Kim made a ‘Blair Witch’ video of it – very funny… now. All we could do was try to sleep so daylight could come quicker and they’d disappear! I woke up at 5am to investigate the situation – as promised, they were all gone. Thank goodness, cos I really needed to pee!

Day 3
After a good giggle about our night terror, we headed out again on the river. Today we had sunshine and with it came the butterflies and the dragonflies – LOADS of them! They’d fly along the river beside you and sometimes hitch a ride on your boat, head or shoulder. Most of them were mating as they did so lol!

About mid morning, we were admiring the views and sounds of the jungle when Rinaldo spotted something shiny on the bank. We immediately followed him over to check it out only to discover a HUGE 6 metre anaconda curled up on the bank! FREAKY! There was no way I was getting out of my kayak, but Rinaldo and Josue were up for it, so we handed over our cameras for them to take a closer shot. Just when they got some good ones, it woke up and started unwinding… It was going into the water… Right where we were. Rinaldo assured me it was scared of us, but I think the evidence in my jocks proved I was more scared of it

Not long after this, we got to a waterfall that was too big to kayak through, so we had to get out and walk our kayaks down the rapids. It was pretty slippery, but we got through it relatively dry. While lunch was cooking away, Kim and I sat in a small rapid to fill up all our water bottles while Ben had a nap as he wasn’t feeling so great. We also hung out all our washing as it was the first day the sun was shining enough to dry anything! Amazingly, all clothes were dry in about 30 minutes! Given that if you hang something damp out overnight at a camp spot, it is actually dripping wet in the morning, this was a great thing! We spent a good few hours snoozing in hammocks while the guys visited some local fishermen. It was lovely!

Our next challenge was the most difficult rapid on the river. It was technical in that it involved 3 x 90 degree turns to avoid huge rocks. Rinaldo told us that it was normally the guides who capsized on this one as they were the ones testing the water. Josue had some particularly funny stories about capsizing in the large canoe! So we started out in our new single file line (Kim first, Phillipa second and Ben third), but after I struggled a little on the first bend, Ben overtook me. 1st and 2nd bends down and we were going good, but Kim mistook Rinaldo’s pointing at a rock as a direction of where to go and ended up being lodged neatly on top of a nice big rock! This was good for Ben and I, because it pointed out exactly where the last big rock was

Anyway, after Ben and I got passed this, I was busy telling Ben how many logs and rocks I hit along the way while not really paying attention to where I was going. Then all of a sudden, my rudder cable latched onto a nice little log in the middle of the river and I was stuck. Meanwhile, Ben was trying to pull over to the side of the bank to wait for Kim and he almost capsized! All the while, we could see thunder storm clouds drawing closer to us… After Rinaldo paddled like crazy to help me dislodge from my log, we were finally off and going again to our next camp site.

We just pulled up on the banks when the heavens opened and down came the most torrential rain I have ever experienced (well I think so anyway). We could easily have brought the soap out and had a shower, but the boys were busy arguing over where to put the tarp and hammocks! It was amusing to watch them argue, then agree, then change their minds and repeat. All in Brazilian Josue was climbing up trees, cutting down trees and hanging off trees – monkey style!

We finally get everything set up and of course the rain stops! But we were glad for the tarp being up as the raindrops fell from the trees all night long!

Day 4
We were meant to wake up at 2am for a night time kayak, but everyone slept through. Well, Kim didn’t, he woke up, went for a pee and then considered waking up Rinaldo and Josue, but thought better of it when he had visions of waking them up and getting attacked by a machete.

So we woke at 7am instead only to just miss seeing some otters playing nearby, but we did get to see monkeys swinging through the trees in the distance which was cool. We set off with the usual paddling down the river amoung the birds, dragonflies and butterflies before we stopped for lunch at a house. The lady here was so beautiful! She had 2 gorgeous kids (a girl and boy) and they were very friendly and welcoming. It was so hot here, so we went into the river for a dip and to fill up our water bottles before going on a 2 hour hike through the jungle.

During our walk, we heard about the telephone tree (because if you hit it, it echoes very loudly) and fire starter sap from trees amongst many other things. We reached a creek after an hour and were hesitant at first to go for a swim, but I was just so hot I jumped in. The boys were ewwing over the muddy part, but there was sand in the middle where they could stop whining! It wasn’t until we were all in the creek that they told us there was an electric eel that just swam away a minute before we got in. Awesome… not.

We didn’t realise at the time, but this is where Kim got himself a heel full of prickles that his body desperately tried to reject and a nice little tick that attached to his hip.

Once we got back, Josue was fishing for piranha’s where he caught some. We all jumped in our kayaks, said goodbye to our hosts and started off down the river again. It wasn’t long before we stopped to attempt to catch piranha’s ourselves, but without success. Because we had left too late, however (and the boys had been drinking a little too much while fishing), we ended up paddling in the dark… without torches. I can’t say I was happy with this situation, but had very little choice! We eventually arrived out our camp – that we never ended up seeing in the light – well after dark where Kim capsized as he pulled up on the bank because he couldn’t see anything and got his foot stuck in a rope or something. He wasn’t a very happy chappy!

We had a good chat that night as the guys drank some more. We were wary of a storm that was nearby as we didn’t put a tarp up that night – which was awesome to see the stars as you fell asleep – but it passed around us as Rinaldo predicted.

Day 5
So after a very short night, we get up at 2.30am and have packed up and ready to leave at 3am. Kim had to wake us all up twice and basically tip us all out of bed.

As I was leaving, I untied my boat and the branch hit me in the face – nice wakeup call! So here we are, leaving in the dark, tired and thinking of the story that Josue told us where he drank too much the night before a night kayak, fell asleep in the kayak and fell in with the caiman’s.

To say the very least, I was terrified. I had with me 2 shit torches, I couldn’t see jack, not even see which way river was going. I was counting down minutes until 5am when it would get light. We did end up seeing caiman’s in the water when shining your torch in their eyes, but we didn’t catch any. I was secretly relieved as any quick motion (ie my terror) would surely land me in the drink.

However as dawn approached, the scenery was beautiful – spectacular – unforgettable. The birds were waking up and singing sweetly and I stayed back from the rest of the group to hear the silence and see more birds (as I was quieter on my own) including hummingbirds everywhere.

We eventually got to our last stop where we had a nap in some hammocks at Barak Obama’s house (he was a spitting image of him) until breakfast was ready. We had a tour of the property where they showed us how stuff was done (I was tired, ok?) and the dam where they grew fish for eating. There was a beautiful (but loud) cat, I think she was hungry.

We then set off for our pick up point. We unpacked the kayaks while a beautiful BBQ lunch was cooking. It was smotheringly hot – so I kept going in and out of the river to cool down… Kim tried his hand at piranha fishing again and caught one – whoo!

The funniest sight was seeing what we dubbed the ‘upgrade’ come along which was a motor boat with 2 yuppie women and a man inside. The women held umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun and waited while the man walked into town to pick up their air-conditioned car to take them home. They looked so out of place! It was a sight, that’s for sure.

We then drove back to Manaus via a small town where the locals go for their weekends. Small huts surround a portion of a river and apparently they get packed on weekends.

Once back at the hostel, we say our goodbyes to Rinaldo, Josue and Charles and hit the showers. We found Kim’s ticks and prickles in his ankle and start our first aid on him while desperately checking each other for ticks! We desperately need a washing machine as we STINK, but after walking around the town, we give up and end up hand washing ourselves We realised later that a lady had approached Ben earlier and probably offered to wash our laundry for us there at the hostel – DOH!

We met some interesting people at the hostel from England and Denmark – the girl spoke about 7 languages, and the English guy couldn’t afford food apparently. When we left the next day, we gave him some 2 minute noodles and stuff we had left over and he was thrilled!

We spent the next day at the shopping mall in the air-conditioning. It was a challenge to find the right bus, but we got one eventually and ended up getting off too far after the mall, so had to walk back in the scorching heat!

We were so surprised to find chicken parmas on a menu for lunch that we had to try them. They were horrid. Processed meat, processed tomato paste and processed cheese. Ew. But we followed it up with McFlurries from trusty old Maccas. We then wandered around and ended up seeing a movie – Juzio Final (or Doomsday in English) which I thought was ok, but Ben and Kim thought it was terrible! At least it was in English (with Portuguese subtitles)! And don’t forget air-conditioned

We had another 2 hours to kill before our airport transfer, so we spent as long as we could in the supermarket, then realised that HSBC was air-conditioned, so we headed to the ATM area there. (You need to understand that this place is HOT and damn HUMID.) But the air-con was off, so we went back to the hostel and asked if we could sit inside to wait 2 hours, but he said no. A bit annoyed, we went outside the hostel and sat on the street and played cards while we considered the bad write-up of the hostel we were going to put on trip advisor. But then the angry guy came out of the hostel and asked us if we wanted to sit inside. So we did and realised it was our bad Spanish that landed us outside in the first place Forgot to mention that this guy was dubbed ‘angry guy’ because the first night when we arrived at 3am, Ben accidentally flicked the top of a pen and it got him in the face. He was not at all amused.

So anyway, at the airport, Kim counted down the minutes to my birthday. When we got on the plane, it turned 12am and he was proud to be the first to wish me a happy birthday! He and Ben then told me about how they’d been hiding my birthday card from me all day long and I was oblivious! Ahh the joys

It was a great trip through the Amazon, that’s for sure, but as we have already decided, we’d be picky about who to recommend it to as it wasn’t for the feint hearted!!!!

We ended our time in London with a ‘hand over’ dinner, where Ben, our best friend from Oz met Jono, our best friend from the UK. It also happened to be that the project I was working on when I left work was having its go live party the only night we were in London. So I went along to see some of the crew and say goodbye.

But next day, we said our sad goodbyes to Jono and jumped onto the red double decker bus for the last time. After getting stuck in horrible Brixton traffic, we met Ben at a tube station and headed for Heathrow. Umpteen hours later, we landed in Rio de Janeiro. Temperature in the mid 30’s. Lovely.

We felt like we had to avoid the vampires so we opted for a taxi over a bus as we arrived after dark. We got taken for a ride (in both senses) by our taxi driver to our hostel. After we checked in, we met an Irish guy who told us all the stories of people having their stuff stolen from them right in front of him. He warned us not to take anything of value on us when we walked outside the hostel. Great. A wonderful first impression of Rio! But we were staying in Lapa and given the extremely stressful visa situation I had found myself in 3 months prior, it was evident I hadn’t done my research on where to stay in Rio.

First day was gorgeous and we took a bus south along the coast to a place called ‘Fashion Mall’. Everything was closed until 3pm (given it was Sunday) so we wandered along the beach. I’m still recovering from the sight of white budgie smugglers. But there were people everywhere – the beach was jam packed! We wandered for a bit, then bought some havaianas at a supermarket (yep, a supermarket) and headed home to recover from our jet lag a little.

Next day we wandered around the busy streets of centro before we headed to Maracana stadium to check out the ground and what the fuss is all about. We got there no worries, but when we tried to get inside, we ended up walking the whole way around before finding the gate. Then when we tried to pay for a tour, we realised we only had enough cash for two and the ATM wasn’t an international one! So I opted out (as I’m not that fussed about soccer), but the guy let me in for half price anyway

We had a cool chick show us around and saw where the pope and Queen Elizabeth II sat when they visited Brazil. Kind of strange that they were at the soccer stadium I think, but who am I to judge?! She told us about the private seats that people lease for the whole year and showed us the media boxes and locker rooms before we went onto the ground for a looksy.

Next we headed back to the central area where we sat down for lunch and ordered 3 mystery meals (ie we couldn’t understand the menu). When the waiter came out with the food and announced our orders, all we could do was shrug! What we thought was linguini was actually sausage and arroz happened to be rice. You live and learn!

After that, we got caught in a rain storm so went back to the hostel to grab our rain jackets before taking the last tram in Brazil (or South America?) through Santa Teresa. The tram went across the ancient aqua ducts (where our hotel was), and up into the hills into gorgeous little streets with adorable shops, houses and pretty cool graffiti art. The only worrying thing was when the driver got out and filled the tracks with sand for traction on a particularly steep slope!

Next day was our last in Rio, so we figured we probably should catch the ‘big’ sights of the city. So we took a train and bus to sugarloaf mountain to see what the fuss was all about. When we got there, we couldn’t see the top for the clouds. It was just our luck! We decided to go up anyway and luckily the clouds cleared a little – enough for us to get a great look over the city of Rio and the bay. It was pretty spectacular!! We also saw some gorgeous little monkey-type creatures that were entertaining themselves on the cliffs.

After that, we headed to Copacabana to check out some shops. We tried getting money out everywhere until eventually we found a HSBC – our saviour in Brazil! We bought some more havaianas (all of us) and then headed for the ‘Big Jesus’. We found a train station and navigated our way on the bus only to find the train that goes up the mountain was out for the day due to a tree falling over the tracks. Just our luck again! I negotiated with a taxi guy to take us up for the same cost as the train (given that he was getting a damn good rate, I was unwilling to budge), but ended up paying US$1 more for him to take us to a lookout. It was the principle of the thing, alright?!

We went to a lookout point where we waited and waited for the clouds to part so we could get a shot of Mr J, but there were only very brief breaks! They then drove us further to where we drove up to the top. It was eerie up there in the clouds, but we managed to take a few photos and spend some time there before going back down again. We met some traveling Canadians who told us about Galapagos and a few other places which was awesome!

So we caught a bus back to the hostel, grabbed some dinner then had a crazy taxi driver get us to the airport in what could only be record time. Hopped on the plane at 10:30pm and got to Manaus, in the middle of the Amazon, at 03:00am where our tour agency picked us up to take us to our hostel. Temperature 35 degrees, humidity 90%. This was going to be a long week!

As our air conditioning was turned on only between the hours of 9pm and 7am, it wasn’t long after 7am that we were up and having breaky. We wandered down to the Teatro Amazonas (Amazon Opera House) where we got a tour. Very interesting place. A pity we wouldn’t be in Manaus for the nights there were shows on.

We then headed outside in the scorching heat in search of a plaza. We found it, but in typical style, it was fenced off for renovations. So we headed down the main drag and checked out the supermarket before we got picked up by Marcos from Amazon Mystery Tours where he took us to the Meeting of the Waters. It was more fascinating than the photos we had seen and the dolphins we saw just topped it off

After that, he took us through a museum where we saw loads of fish, spiders and butterflies (they were stuffed). Some were extremely impressive, but of course it would have been better if I had seen them AFTER our 5 day kayak trip so I didn’t know exactly what was lurking in those waters. I’m talking huge fish here – in excess of 200kg. Freaky.

Marcos then drove us to Ponte Negro which is a beach on the Negro River with a very fancy hotel. The hotel even had its own zoo which we walked through (me silently as I was upset at the tiny cages and sad, bored animals who were locked inside).

He then drove us back to the hostel via a coconut water ‘drive through’ where we sipped straight from the shells. We then packed up our stuff ready for our 5 day kayak adventure down the Urubu river (Urubu means Vulture in Portuguese).