Blog Number 2

Sorry it has taken so long to write an entry, but our very busy tour of Asia left us no time to blog, and intending to write an entry in China, we found that they have strict restrictions on the Internet, one restriction being access to blogs... So, now we are in India, our last country, we have found a spare few minutes.

Well, so many places have been visited since Australia we have to spend a few moments thinking back to the first of June and our arrival in Singapore...

We arrived late at night and as usual, the taxi driver got lost and had to stop a few times to ask directions, this is a common occurrence with taxi drivers all around the world. We thought they were bad in the UK. Anyway, when he found the hostel it was a little disappointing, it certainly didn't look like the pictures on the website! It was sweltering heat, stuck on the corner of 2 permanently busy and noisy roads, and the room was a cell with 2 bunk beds and a tiny, smelly bathroom, to share with many other travellers. We were too tired to complain, and agreed to find somewhere else the next day.

Singapore is an odd place, very British and everyone speaks English, all the signs and information was all in English too, very unexpected. But a good place to start Asia, and easy way in... Little India and China town were impressive. Amazing smells (some maybe not as pleasant as others!) colours, and sounds. There was such a variety of nationalities it was a such a change from Australia. We spent a few days getting used to the heat and humidity and explored Singapore, a complete mix of culture; British colonialism, chinese, indian, turkish... We also made the must-do visit of Raffles Hotel and had our Singapore Slings! Luckily(?) for us it was the famous Singapore Sale while we were there, so of course we had to investigate. Unfortunately it was a sale of all designer clothes and accessories, so we couldn't afford anything even with 70% off!

(can you spot James in the crowd?)

After Singapore, we headed to Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia; a stark difference to Singapore. The laws in Singapore are very strict, no littering, no spitting, everything is pristine. Kuala Lumpar, however, is none of this! We arrived in a torrential downpour, nothing like we had ever seen before, the roads were mini rivers, and we had to wade through them to get to our hotel. Needless to say we were completely drenched! We must have looked such a sight walking into a relatively posh hotel lobby (we decided to treat ourselves after the pit in Singapore!)we vowed to take the brolly with us wherever we went in future. Kuala Lumpar was very busy and not much to see apart from an enormous market selling every type of knock off item imaginable, and the Petrona towers, which until recently were the highest towers in the world, very impressive.

Our trip to Malaysia then took us to the Cameron Highlands, famous for it's tea plantations. A lovely place, with rolling hills scattered with tea pickers, even Hannah who hates tea was impressed! We also visited a hill tribe, who lived along many km of dirt tracks; a very bumpy ride! Their village was lovely, stilted houses made entirely from bamboo. We met the tribe leader (a very short man!) who showed us how to use a blow pipe, James was a natural!

After the Cameron Highlands we wanted to take the 'Jungle' train up to the border of Thailand which is supposed to be impressive scenery and full of locals, but fortunately we were warned not to do this as there was political unrest at that side of the border , so we had to make alternative plans. No worrys! We decided to still get the train, but instead of heading north we would go south and after the train we would make our own way to a city called Melaka, which is on the south western part of Malayasia. WE were the only white people on the train, so alot of staring was happening, but it was a great adventure, seeing the locals packed onto the train, it was much more civilised than we expected, A/C and padded seats; luxury! After the train got to our stop, we left, expecting there to be many buses going to Melaka... how silly, a big city, which is just 100km away, of course there would be no buses, we were to learn malayasia's transport system the hard way! We eventually got a bus which took us to a local town (about 1 hr away) and then we were to get another bus to Melaka. Now these buses were not quite as luxurious as the train! Remember, we had all of our bags with us and the bus was packed to burst, I don't think the locals appreciated us! But we eventually found our way to Melaka, and checked into the strangest hostel we have had so far in the whole trip, and we have been to quite a few...

The hostel was a lovely old chinese house nestled in the heart of china town. But, the woman who ran the place was a little eccentric to say the least, she spent a lot of time giggling in a very high pitched manner and generally acting very strangely! The room was very basic and the shower was freezing cold, but was refreshing in the heat.

Well...

Adelaide...

The Australian Winter had well and truly started, nobody had told us that oz can get cold in the winter months. So out came the hats and scarves that we thought would be unnecessary from now on. It was freezing! And if you remember, Hannah had no glasses at this point, so sunglasses were the order of the day, in miserable, cloudy, wet weather!

Anyway, luckily we had a friend to meet up with in Adelaide, a girl, Kristen, who we met in Mexico. It was nice to catch up and we went out a few times with her, so despite the miserable weather it wasn't so bad. Adelaide itself is quite a nice place, lots of old colonial buildings with fancy iron work around the verandas.

We spent a couple of days doing the tourist thing, going to a beach (a little disappointing, we thought aussie beaches were the best in the world!)wine tasting, and of course looking for a campervan for our road trip. It took a little longer than intended, but we finally found one, and after almost a week in Adelaide we happily set out on our journey.

The first part of the trip was the long road to Melbourne, but there was plenty to see along the way; aussie road signs, lighthouses, wildlife, oh yes and the Great Ocean road (although at times it felt like it should be called the 'Great road with a little bit of Ocean'!) We made many stops along the way, and saw some beautiful beaches, and some not so beautiful... We spent a morning in a nature reserve called Tower Hill and to our surprise, as we entered the park we had to stop to allow a Koala to cross the road! Cute! From then on our eyes were continually looking skyward and with aching necks we spotted a total of 12 koalas ( pictures of all, you'll all have so much fun when we show you our photos!!!!!)

The Great Ocean Road was the final leg up to Melbourne, lots of beautiful sunsets, the best of course was the sunset at the 12 Apostles, although you have to look hard for them all! We saw many crazy surfers, especially as the weather hadn't improved much, so the water was freezing, all we managed was a little toe dipped in. Hannah, as well as her obsession with road signs, started a new hobby of lighthouse spotting (I do worry about her). But we did go on some scenic walks in search of lighthouses so it wasn't all bad!

After the G.O.R. we hit Melbourne, got a pair of glasses (yeah!) and went to explore the city. It is a great place, full of museums, different cuisines from all around the world, and has a very arty feel about it. Very different to Sydney, it is a much busier city and not so compact, but the rail and trams were useful. We spent 4 days in Melbourne and had a great time. we caught up with Liz, a girl from the Peru trip, who took us on a wine tour of the Yarra valley (very nice!) and we went to our first Aussie rules footie match with Liz's parents at the MCG(Melbourne Cricket Ground). A cool game, a bit like rugby, basketball, and football (sort of) We think we have a little understanding of the rules... we also met up with a guy from Buenos Aires, Shukri, so we were sorry to say goodbye to Melbourne, but looking forward to the next leg; Melbourne to Canberra to Sydney.

The next stop after Melbourne was a National Park called Wilsons Promotory. It was beautiful, luckily the day was clear and bright, but still cold! We did a walk to a beach which was called squeaky beach! The sand did really squeak under your toes! The sand was white, and the sea was a clear blue. We also saw many emus, kangaroos, and our first and only wombat. He was so cute, we could get really close to him, he was too busy munching on the grass to notice us!

Onwards we went, to the capital, Canberra. Now after spending so much time in the other big cities of Australia (Sydney, Darwin, Adelaide, Melbourne) we felt that the capital deserved at least half a day! Well, apart from Parliament House, there is very little to see there, so after a few hours looking around, we hit the raod again to head to our first and final destination in Oz, Sydney.

It was a very quick few days, we spent one night with the Storeys again, bringing them up to date on the photos, and then onto Debs (our other Peru friend) for a couple of nights, it was lovely to meet Deb's family, we have definitely been lucky in Sydney, meeting so many many people and places. We will certainly return the favour when they visit the UK. As long as they bring some wellies (sorry, gum boots!) they'll have a whale of a time! Deb's family were really kind and offered us their beach property up in Port Stephens for a night, so we headed north for a couple of days by the beach; perfect!

But unfortunately, we had to say bye to all of our Sydney friends and head to the airport for the final leg of our journey; Singapore.

We are sitting here right now, sweating rather a lot, in our pokey hostel in Singapore, the memories of Australia already seeming a million miles away, which we suppose in a way they are, it couldn't be much more different here... But we have had a fantastic time in Oz, made even more special to all of the people we have met up with and visited along the way. A special thanks has to go to our Peru pals, Charlotte, Debbie and Liz (and their families). All of whom, have taken us into their homes and made us feel so welcome. After six months on the road it has definitely been a welcome break.

We were sad to say goodbye to Charlotte, Deb, and their families on our final night, we feel that we have known them for a lot longer than a couple of months, but we will look forward to seeing them again in the not so distant future...

Now onto our next adventure. We only have 2 months until we return back to the UK, and so much to see, we know that 2 months will rush past more quickly than we want. Despite missing home we just don't want this journey to end...

Hopefully we will be able to do a couple more blog entries before we come home, but if not... see you soon!

Well, we have been in Australia some time now, and we have finally got around to writing on the blog. So much has happened since we left NZ, some good, some not so good... Lets start in Sydney.

We arrived in Sydney, and to our disappointment it was overcast and raining, not a good start! We were stopping with Charlotte and her family, we spent 3 weeks with Charlotte in Peru, and she wisely invited us to stay when we visited Australia, she is probably regretting it now!

We had a fabulous 10 days in Sydney,luckily the weather changed from raining that first day to 10 glorious days of sunshine. We visited many of the local beaches (including the Summer Bay beach), went for a sail in a speed boat, took lots of pictures of the harbour bridge and opera house, popped up on Australian TV, fed possums, hit the town on a night out, got spoilt by the Story family, ate lots of creme eggs, visited the blue mountains, had a typical Aussie barbie (no shrimps though)...

We took many more pictures of the bridge and opera house, but we'll save all of those so that we can bore you when we get back!

A big thankyou to the Storey family, who made us feel at home in Sydney and went out of their way to show us the sights. Charlotte should definitely start working for the australian tourist board, her little lists of what we should do helped us enormously!!!

After being spoilt in Sydney we flew to Darwin right at the top of Oz. The flight was fine and there was no warning of the category 5 cyclone which was heading for Darwin in the next few days. We only found this out the day after when we went to book a tour to Kakadu park (the reason we went to Darwin), and no tours were leaving Darwin for the forseeable future, so we were stuck in Darwin, a ghost town, waiting for the force of a cyclone to hit, ready to run to the shelter if need be, all of the supermarkets had run out of essentials, and with nothing to do in the humid heat we waited... only to find out the following day that the Cyclone had changed direction and had missed us completely, apart from a strong breeze and a bit of rain we were safe, and a little disappointed!

Unfortunately, most of the parks were closed due to excessive rain and flooding so we went on the only available tour, Litchfield National Park. This was pretty spectacular, because of all of the rain, the rivers were fit to burst and the waterfalls were gushing over. We got to see some pretty impressive termite mounds, don't want to bore you with the details, but they are fascinating creatures, building enormous mounds out of their poo and spit (yuck!). We saw 2 different types of mounds, Cathedral and Magnetic. The catheral ones are huge towers which have lots of nooks and crannies, so that they maintain a prefect temperature throughthe shadows created. Underneathe the mounds is an underground storage area, which could fit in 6 people, huge! The magnetic ones are built in a thin structure facing north and south so that the mound is always part in sunlight and part in shadow, to keep a perfect temperature. We also saw ants with green bums that scurry around and if you are quick enough, you catch them and suck their bums(!) to get a vitamin c rich syrup, umm yum yum!

Unfortunately we didn't see any...

can you see their green bums?

A Cathedral termite mound.

Hannah's achievement of the day was a cute picture of a wallaby with a joey in it's pouch! James' achievement of the day was to throw Hannah's glasses down a river and lose them... Not a happy Hannah...

Can you see the Joey; cute!

Anyway...

After Litchfield we decided to get out of Darwin and head down to Alice Springs. We did a 3 day bus tour down there and stopped on the way at many outback towns, usually consisting of a pub and a few houses. The Devils marbles was the main stop, and they were incredible. Round rocks which stand precariously on their sides, as if they are about to roll away. A great 3 days, ending in a hostel in Alice, where the tour group (24 of us) went out for a night, and ate our first Kangaroo steak!

Many drinks later and just a couple of hours sleep, we got up at 4:30am (with a hangover!), to join another tour for 3 days in the Red Centre; Uluru, the Olgas and Kings Canyon. This tour was small there was 8 of us, and we rode in a 4 wheel drive Landcruiser, the journey was not smooth, so no snoozing in the back!

The 3 days spent in the red centre was amazing. We saw and did so many amazing things, from the wildlife, landscape, Aboriginal culture to the wood collecting and story telling around the camp fire!

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is a strange place, looking so different when you are up close, and has so much Aboriginal history to it. There are many areas you cannot photograph because it is a sacred sight for the aboriginals, and they are so secretive about their culture, that no one knows why. The sunset, was impressive, helped along by the wine and nibbles! Many photos taken... The Olgas were probably the best of the 3 rock formations we went to, they are enormous and so unexpected. Kings canyon was another great place, crawling to edge to look down into the canyon was a little nerve racking!

The best thing about our 3 days in the outback was the evenings, sleeping under the stars in our swags, and eating food cooked on the campfire. On our second night we were far away from the other tour groups and we really felt as though we were in the outback, we could hear the camels in the distance, and we had to heat up our water to have an outdoor shower, showering with the sun setting in front of you was quite an experience!

James in his swag; doesn't he look cosy?!

Unfortunately, the 3 days had to end, but the final drive was cool, a 100km stretch of dirt road, looking for wild camels and kangaroos!

A not so wild Kangaroo!

After arriving back in Alice we headed to the train station the next day to catch the Ghan train which took us all the way down to Adelaide 20 hours later.

We are now into the next part of our Australian adventure, the camper van and the road trip from adelaide to Sydney, but we will save that for another entry...

We have now spent 4 weeks in New Zealand, and this is no where near enough time to see everything. We have seen enough to know that we want to come back and see the rest...

Lets start at the beginning...

Our first day was spent in Auckland, a beautiful city, we had nowhere near enough time to explore it all, but luckily our campervan rental company didn't have the campervan ready, so, we got a free car for the day and was told the best places to go in Auckland in just a few hours.

The sky tower was incredible, the highest building in the southern hemisphere, and of course in New Zealand style,it had to be jumped off by some idiots who needed the thrill. There was a zip wire from the top to a target at the bottom: not for us!

After Auckland, we picked up our camper van and headed off onto our adventure of discovery, we couldn't wait, after 5 months of back packer hostels and dodgy dorms and sometimes even people, we had our freedom, stopping when we wanted, sleeping where we wanted, own food, own bed; bliss!

Our first night was spent an hour north of Auckland, in a place called Hawera, it was right on the coast and so friendly. You could hear the waves gently hitting the wall as we had our first meal in our new camper. Our first moonlit night was a full moon, and we woke in time for our first sun rise, beautiful!

So much has happened in the last four weeks it is hard to remember all that we have done! It has definitely been a busy few weeks, zipping around the country in a blur, but hopefully the pictures, more than the words show what a beautiful country this place is, so many different backdrops to drive through;mountains, plains, farms, wineries, lakes, beaches, orchards, rainforest, the colours... it is endless, not to mention the hospiality of the people here, they are so friendly.

We shall split our time here into 2 and do a quick tour of where we have been, there certainly isn't enough time or money to spend writing it all down on the blog.

North Island.

After our first night we headed to the bay of Islands, a beautiful bay, with, you've guessed it, lots of islands, we only had time to spend a night there, but it was stunning, perfect clear, blue water, with islands dotted in the distance.

Our main destination in the North Island was to see John and Barbara (James'Uncle and Aunt). It was so nice after 5 months to see familiar faces and have a home to stop in for a couple of days, they couldn't have been more hospitable, a big thanks to them both. While we were there we couldn't miss going to Rotorura, the home of the thermal springs. To say it was smelly is an understatement! The whole area is thermally active, and is covered in hot steaming (smelly) pools. It was amazing to think of all the activity going on under ground to create all this... There was also a Maori carving school here which showed the impressive carvings created.

After Tauranga, we headed off to Napier, a town, which was destroyed in an earthquake in 1931, most of the buildings were flattened, and in just 2 years the whole city was rebuilt. Because of the time they were built all of the buildings are art deco style, and it is an impressive sight walking around and looking at the buildings. A great place with interesting history.

A couple of days later, we headed to Wellington to see Andrew (James cousin). Wellington has a nickname, 'windy wellington' and we know why. Just look at the pictures! We postoned our ferry trip to the south island because of it!

South Island.

The ferry over to the safe island was luckily calm and sunny (most of the time!) The journy into Picton on the south island was beatiful. You sail through the Marlborough Sounds, which are lots of little islands scattered around.

Our fist stop in the south island was a national reserve called Abel tasmin. It is a big park on the coast, you can only get to it by doing a five day trek, or by boat, of course, we did the boat option and a half day hike! The beaches were golden and the sea a beautiful turquoise, definitely the most beautiful beaches we had ever seen.
The great thing about the beaches was that you were usually the only people on the beach. Your only companion was a couple of seagulls!

After a couple of days in Abel tasmin, we hit the road again!

Now this blog entry could go on for days... so we shal show you the pictures...

After many months of lake spotting, we finally found our mirror lakes. Spot the one with the camper van, we stayed here overnight, for free, unbelievable!

Another thing we got a bit carried away taking pictures of was road signs. We were always after that elusive kiwi sign. Unfortunately we only saw one and it was dark and raining so we didn't get one. Oh well we know where it is for next time!

Queenstown was a stop off well worth doing, beautiful autumnal trees, another ride in a cable car, not so scary this time! A ride on the luge, a sledge with wheels, a visit to paradise (almost!), an ice bar, and a Lord of the Rings scene spotting (yawn). A little place called Arrowtown, just a few km down the road was stunning, set in the mountains with trees of all shades surrounding them. we also visited the spot of the first bungy jump and watched a few idiots jump...

We are almost there! A few days ago we spent the weekend with Tom and Ange and their gorgeous children. Tom is friend of James who has been living in NZ for almost 5 years. It is clear to see that it was the best thing he has done, and no regrets at all, it is very tempting to follow suit! James ahd his fix of tractors, seeing a world record attempt of the most tractors working in one field at the same time. Lots of dust and exhaust fumes, but pretty impressive! A big thankyou to Tom and Ange for a great weekend, we were sad to leave. (remember, a foghorn is not classed as an instrument!) I have finally got over the hangover!

Our last adventure in New Zealand was our whale spotting. We splashed out and hired a helicopter to see some sperm whales. They are rare to see so close to shore and NZ is the only place to do it because of their deep oceans which are close to shore. Sperm whales come up to the surface every 45mins for air and we were lucky enough to spot one. It was incredible to see...

Can you spot the whale? The pictures really don't do it justice!

We did so many more things in this fantastic country, but it is impossible to write it all down. We have stopped in the most remote and beautiful locations, many memories that a camera cannot possibly take. But, here are a few more...

We are so sad to leave NZ, but we are now looking forward to Oz, we are sure it will be another entirely different type of journey, we will have to just wait and see...

Well, we fly tonight at 11:30 and we have time to fill before we leave. What would we do without free internet!?

So much to write about since our last entry...

The Mountains.

The mountains were fantastic, so quiet and serene, no traffic and very few people, just fresh running mountain streams, cows munching on the mountainsides, and wild horses roaming around, perfect. We were stopping in a little refugio, a mountain refuge, there were 6 of us staying there, so it was nice and quiet, no partying til late!

We went on a trek up one of the many mountains on our second day. It was so beautiful, you flet like you were the only people for miles, we could easily have been. The views were spectacular, the Andes surrounding us and clear blue skies. The water running from the streams was so clear and fresh that we were able to fill up our water bottles and drink it. A first for us both! The dog was from the refugio, he came with us on our trek and made friends with James!

Our next day was another horseriding trek. Unbelievable as it may seem we were not put off by our first horse riding experience! Riding through the Andes was definitely an experience we will not forget. Unfortunately, due to our lack of experience on a horse we were not able to take too many pictures of the spectacular views, we could only take pictures when we knew the horses were stopping for a while - they could be a little unpredictable! We spent 4 hours riding through the Andes and it was not enough, we now feel like proper horse riders, we even trotted up and down the mountains, our horses were even listening to us towards the end, stopping and starting when instructed. We were rather impressed with our improvement rate! Riding (trotting) without hanging on for our lives was pretty impressive! Don´t worry, we won´t be taking up any equestrian past times when we get home, we will leave this new hobby in the Andes, riding anywhere else just won´t compare.

The Bus Trip to Santiago.

The trip from Mendoza to Santiago was the most impressive one so far, we had to go through the Andes to get there. Some pretty impressive scenery and some very windy roads, one of them was a road which had about 20 switch backs on it. We got very close to the edge a few times, definitely not for the faint hearted!

Santiago.

We have only been in Santiago for a couple of days, but yesterday has to be the most traumatic day we have experienced so far... There is a hill you can go up called San Cristobal hill, where you get a great view of the city. You go up by fenicular or cable car, we decided to do both. What a mistake! The fenicular was fine, a rickety old cart being pulled up the hill by a couple of wires and pulleys, no problem. We stopped to admire the views and get some lunch, then go down the hill via the cable car. To get down the hill on the cable car, you went across the valley to another hill and then took another cable car down. These cable cars were tiny, 2 people could fit in comfortably, you wouldn´t have wanted many more! Well, we got in and as soon as we did, we regretted it, the cable car was very very very tiny and swingy and very very very high up. Hannah spent most of the time with her eyes tighthly shut, too afraid to look down! James won´t admit it but he was also a little afraid! This was not the worst part of the ride, halfway across the valley at the highest point the cable cars stopped, and we were left dangling for 15 minutes, it seemed to be alot longer. Especially when the wind started to howl around the cable car and make it swing. It was the scariest thing we have ever done. We are not sure which was worse, dangling 150ft above ground, the jolt of the cable car as we started to move again, or the actual ride itself. Lets just say we won´t be going on a cable car again in a hurry!

We really hope these pictures give you an idea of how bloody high up we were! Unfortunately no pictures were taken inside the cable car, Hannah would not allow me to move to get the camera out of my pocket, incase it rocked the car!

We have now recovered after a night of chilean red wine, and are now waiting for our flight this evening. So next time we write on the blog we will be in New Zealand, hopefully with our trusty old campervan!

It has been an interesting and fun few weeks in Argentina, but our travels here are coming to an end. We are looking forward to the next leg of the journey, but it will be many fond memories that we leave with. Argentina has been the most pleasant surprise of all our destinations so far, and it has definitely found a place in our hearts along with the rest of South America. We have met many like minded people from all over the world while we have been here, and from talking to them, there is so much more that we need to explore in this continent. Argentina is now on the top of our list for return visits, there are so many things we just haven´t had time for, but we have done so many great things and seen so many beautiful sights we are just looking forward to next time...

This map hopefully gives you an idea of where we have been in Argentina. The distances are hard to imagine, but we took a bus from El Calafate to Bariloche, and it took 33hrs... a very long and tedious journey! The red dots are where we have been in the 4 weeks we have been in Argentina.

We have one week left and this might be our last opportunity for some time to update the blog... Chile is our next stop and then New Zealand. Our flight is 13hrs, but after all off our over night buses this sounds like a breeze!

Our last overnight bus was our journey from the lake district Bariloche to Mendoza, heart of the wine district. It is with a great sigh of relief that we leave these behind. The buses in South America are fantastic, like first class on an aeroplane, but sleep is sometimes hard to find on a bus, when the roads are windy, and you are either freezing from an over-eager driver who likes air con, or one who enjoys to watch his passengers sweat in a sauna bus! If anyone ever comes to south America, you must try the buses they are definitely an important part of a holiday here.

Since our last blog we have only been to a couple of places, but it has been nice to stay in the same place for a week and enjoy what the areas have had to offer. After El Calafate and the glacier, we headed off to the lake district. The setting of Bariloche is beautiful, serene, completely clear lakes surrounded by the snow topped Andes, what more could you ask for! Some lakes we drove by on the bus journey were mirror lakes, which reflected the mountains, absolutely beautiful, unfortunately not quick enough for photos, but many more opportunities for lakes in New Zealand! Bariloche is very pretty, swiss looking as there are a lot of log cabins, and pine trees and we even saw some St. Bernards with their first aid barrels, very cute! The area also has has a large swiss presence, as there are many swiss settlers, hence the log cabins!

We took the opportunity to do some exercise while we were there. Cyling and horse riding.

Well, the cycling sounded like a good idea at the time, beautiful scenery, sunny days... What we forgot was that we have not sat on a bike for over 4 months, let alone ridden one 70km in one day. As you would expect, being near the Andes it was very hilly, we mastered some impressive hills during the first part of the day, but as soon as we got on the bikes after lunch, we realised our mistake... saddle sore bums! Oh dear, they were very sore and getting back in the saddle was agony, made even more painful with the knowledge that we had over 30km left to cycle! Despite this the views were spectacular, even though we vowed never to get off the bike, as getting on after a break was not good, the views were so breathtaking you just couldn´t help but stop and admire them. Hopefully the pictures do the lakes justice. we had a perfect day, and even though we were sore, not helped by the 6km of very bumpy gravel road, every ache was worth it! We even managed to get back before dark - what an achievement!

If the cycling was not painful enough, we foolishly had booked horse riding for the next day. Could our backsides take any more? The horse riding was lovely, very peaceful, walking through the trees on the mountainside. Neither of us have ridden horses before so we were both a little anxious, but nothing to worry about, the horses were mostly well behaved, and the effortless way of getting around made up for the legs being scraped on thorn bushes! Riding through the woods and picking berries and apples off the trees was an easier way of getting around.

After Bariloche was Mendoza. Heart of wine country, and the wine here is fantastic. We have both learnt a great deal about wine while we have been here, but we know that we will not be able to afford the wine we are drinking here back home. A bottle of wine here costs 2 pounds for a good bottle, if you spend 3 pounds you are splashing out! The 3 pound bottle have security tags on them, because they are considered expensive. It is going to be so hard going to New Zealand after being in such a cheap country, a culture shock for sure! We have done the winery tour, learnt so much about wine making and the different methods for red and white wine. we have tasted copious amounts of wine and enjoyed them all! The highlight of our stay has been the Wine festival, again more wine, but also a big show in the enormous amphitheatre in the city´s park which can hold 30000 people. It was very impressive, the main purpose of the show was to elect the harvest queen, so it was a little like a poor mans Miss World. Lots of smiling girls prancing around. But, there was a very impressive show with great dancing and costumes. The build up to the show was a parade the day before, which had floats which held each queen. The girls threw out things for the crowd, but this was not your usual lollipop throwing. Oh no! They were throwing cartons of wine into the crowd, fruit, one float was grilling meat and was handing out sandwiches! But the more butch girls were throwing melons, yes! melons! you really had to have your wits about you, flying friut is not safe!

Anyway, we are off to the mountains for a few days and then we head over to Santiago, ready for our flight next Monday, if we get the chance we will add our photos as soon as possible...

So it is goodbye South America, hello New Zealand...

Patagonia was our next stop. Two 15 hour bus journeys, and 2 stops at very remote, blustery towns, which sort of reminded us of British seaside towns; Skegness and Worthing in particular!

Patagonia is a very desolate area, with very few towns and very few people living there. It covers a huge area, as we discovered on our bus journeys, but there is very little to see. It is flat with hardly any vegetation. Some sheep and emus were spotted, but very little else. You do feel very isolated and was a complete contrast from Buenos Aires.

Our destination was a place called El Calafate, which is famous for its glaciers. The glacier we went to see was called the Moreno glacier. It is the third largest in the area, but is the most famous, as it is not getting smaller. It loses huge chunks every day, but it is always advancing as well, so it keeps a stable size all the time. Even though it isn´t the biggest, it could fit the whole of Buenos Aires on it, pretty impressive. It is set in Lago Argentina, which is a beautiful lake, turquoise in colour due to the minerals in the ice which melts into it. Snow capped mountains surround the glacier giving it a perfect scene in which to take many pictures, which of course we did! The actual glacier (as james put it) looks like an enormous lemon meringue pie! Which is exactly what it did look like.

The sounds were incredible. You could actually hear the Glacier cracking and splitting, and when pieces dropped off there would be an almightly crash into the water, sending waves around the lake. Well, enough of the descriptions, hopefully the photographs do it justice, and show the enormity of the glacier...

Well, we have travelled alot in the past 2 weeks, and have gone all the way down from Buenos Aires to the south of Patagonia. The weather s very different in the south. Despite being the summer, scarves and hats are needed!

Anyway, more about Buenos Aires...

It definitely rates as one of the best cities we have visited so far. It is a beautiful city, full of history and a mixture of architecture, old and new, that fit well together. The people here have to be the most beautiful in the world, more beautiful than Brasil!

Well, our week in Buenos Aires was very busy, lots of sightseeing- we learnt alot about Eva Peron, a very interesting person, she reminded us of princess Diana. Lots of the nation loved her, but many questioned her motives for her charity work, as it was seen as a way for her husband to be popular and keep his presidency.

We went to a cemetery called the Recoleta Cemetery, which is full of the rich dead of Buenos Aires. It was a very eerie place, a little like a small town, with the tombs lining the streets. No headstones here, massive statues and building to house the dead. You could even see the coffins, and the steps which led down to the underground rooms which stored even more. A very unusual place.

There is so much to do and see in the city, that we found it hard to fit it all into a week. One of the highlights of the week was going to a football or futbol as the south americans call it. We are not particular football fans, but it was an incredible place to be. The first Boca Junior game of the season. The Boca Juniors are famous for having had Maradona on their team in his youth. Apparently he still goes to games now. He is held in such adoration, that they will not redecorate or update the changing rooms because Maradona has walked and showered in them, so they cannot possibly change them! The match was crazy, not for the football playing but for the behaviour of the fans. It was mad. We stood in the stands with the oppostion in stands above us. There was a band playing and all of the fans singing and bouncing up and down, it was a great atmosphere. Then the oppositions fans started to throw things down. It got a little scary, but luckily we were safely tucked under their terrace, so flying debris did not reach us! They were spitting and throwing liquid over (we did not like to ask what it was!) chairs were thrown over and even hit a small child - it was crazy, but this is what happens apparently!

Unfortunately our only photos of the match were taken with a disposable camera, not with digital, so we can{t put them on the blog... But we have got some pictures of the district where the football stadium is. It is called La Boca, and is famous for it{s painted houses, which are cool.

Another very important part of Buenos Aires is the Tango. It is a beautiful dance, which looks very complicated. We saw some of it in Uruguay, but nothing like this. They danced in the streets and in bars, a sight to see. Hannah even tried a tango lesson at the hostel we stayed in, she eventually got the hang of it! But a long way to go til she looks like the professionals!

Social Life... Well the Buenos Airians certainly know how to party! They have very strange eating, sleeping and socialising habits!

They tend to eat at around 10pm onwards, we went to a grill restaurant at around 11:30pm one night and the place was packed. They then go out drinking at about 2am, getting in at 6-6:30am. then off to work. They sleep in the evenings before they eat! Crazy, but somewhat enjoyable, it felt like we were 18 again! Oh how we are getting old!

The steaks here are fantastic. You cannot go to Argentina without trying the steak and wine. Both of which are delicious and very cheap. We have photographic evidence!

One final picture; hannah´s budding wildlife photography, we are getting quite a portfolio, most of it is not very spectacular, but every now and again...

This picture is when we went to the zoo, very nice for a zoo, and we caught a yawning hippo... a real kodak moment!

Ummm, can you notice the similarities between James and Hippo? Which is which, maybe I should hire James out to local zoos back home!

We are now in Buenos Aires after spending the past week in Uruguay.We caught another overnight bus from Porto Alegre (Brasil) to Montevideo (capital of Uruguay). The bus we took was like travelling first class on a plane,with trolley dolly bringing round food and drink and enormous seats that fully reclined like beds, they were so big you could only fit three seats wide in.
We stayed in a wonderful old building with great high ceilings and marble stair cases. The great thing was it was only 10 pounds a night for the two of us.
Bargain!

Montevideo is a beautiful city with only 1.4 million people, no traffic problems and friendly people. Just the kind of city we wouldn´t mind living in! There were lots of derelict buildings that we dreamt of converting and using as a holiday home! The city is quite sleepy, but as with the rest of south america, they like to socialise. We went to a tango night at a bar, which was full of locals tangoing, they were really impressive, it looked like such a complicated dance, and they made it look effortless. We left the bar at 3am, but there were still people in the streets whose nights were just beginning. Some old people sitting in the streets outside their homes drinking mate, the local drink that consists of lots of herbs and green stuff soaked in hot water, drunk through a straw that has holes in the bottom that act like a filter to stop the green stuff being sucked up. It is disgusting stuff, but all of the locals drink it. They drink it as they walk, in shops, on the bus, everywhere they carry their special cup and a thermos flask. It is very funny to see!

Uruguay is a gem of a country, one you could spend a long time exploring. We only visited two places but both were beautiful and full of history and charm. Our last stop was a place called Colonia del Sacramento, a port town, with old cobbled streets and lovely quaint restaurants. The food and drink was soooooooo cheap. We had a meal with a litre of wine which came to 7 pounds.Another bargain! The wine was good, we recommend you try Uruguayian wine it is quite tasty, and for only 1 pound 50 for a litre it was delicious!

It is so nice to taste good wine, now we are in Argentina it can only get better! The wine is cheap and the steaks even cheaper! Our idea of heaven. We may never come home, we might just be hidden in Buenos Aires, in a restaurant with a good juicy steak and a litre or two of good Argentinian wine! we have already discovered they don´t ask how you want your steak, they know how to cook them to perfection already!

Well, we are nearing the end of our two weeks in brasil and we have only experienced a small part of this enormous country, Unfortunately we haven´t had the time to explore the north, only the south, but that has given us a taster of the country.

But we need to quickly rewind to our last few days in Peru, which were spent in Lima. We had a mini adventure which was visiting the local hospital! Nothing much to worry about, but a little traumatic nonetheless. I (Hannah) had developed a rash on my stomach during our Peruvian travels and had put it down to stress and tried to ignore it, but after two weeks of it getting progressively worse we felt it was time to have it looked at. The only place we could find to do this was the private hospital. It was a very nice place, but difficult to find an adequate level of spoken english, so I was sent to the emergency room (scary), but it turnred out to quite pleasant! The doctor informed me that I had developed the rash because I had eaten something I was allergic to, I still haven´t figured out what, but the cream and tablets have done their job and the rash is a distant memory!

Our plane journey from Lima was impressive, we flew over the Andes which was really impressive, snow capped mountains and beautiful scenery.

We started our Brasil trip in Rio de Janeiro, which is a beautiful city if viewed from high up, especially from sugar loaf and Christ the redeemer. The whole of rio is surrounded by mountains, so many of the buildings are high because of the lack of ground space. Rio was not quite what we expected, it is quite an unclean city with many homeless people scattered around. The city is famous for it´s favella´s, which are the slums, and they are on the outskirts of Rio. Brasil in general is a country aspiring to be a modern urban country, especially in the south, but it desperately needs social reform. Many of their Presidents have been corrupt or spent money on ridiculous projects. For example one president created a huge debt because he decided to build a new capital city, so Brasilia was built and replaced rio as the capital of Brasil. The sad thing is, in the lonely planet guide which we have, the write up on this city is minimal and must have the smallest city map of all of the places written about in the whole chapter on Brasil.

Next visit was Sao Paulo. It is much the same as Rio, but on a dirtier scale. It didn´t seem to be the safest place to be after dark, so we spent little time wandering the streets! It is an enormous metropolis and it was with a lighter heart that we hopped on the bus for a 15hr bus journey to Foz Do Iguaçu (on James Birthday!). The bus journey wasn´t the most comfortable, no air con. so we just sweated for 15 hours!

But the bus journey was well worth it. The 4 days we spent in Foz were great. We met some really nice people and despite the 45 degree heat and the ever present mosquitoes (swollen ankles due to 18 bites on one foot!) we will remember foz as one of the more memorable places visited. The hostels you stay in can really make a difference to the experience you have in a place. A small privately run hostel is much preferable to a large hostelling international place. We got to chat to people from all over the world, with different experiences. It also gives you an opportunity to find out where the best places are to go in different countries because you will usually find someone who has already been there. Our main reason for going to Foz was for the Iguaçu falls, which were incredible, over 200 waterfalls all in one spot, overlapping the borders of Argentina and Brasil. We went to both sides and both were impressive- it was nice to go back to spanish speaking for the day, it has been so hard to speak in Portuguese, we keep forgetting and revert back to our very limited, but well practised Spanish! Our one extravagance was a birthday treat for me(james!!!) it was a speedboat ride from the Brasil side. We went up the river as close as we could to the Garganta del Diablo or Devil's throat which is the largest of the falls.The driver then took the boat and sat it under one of the smaller falls and completely soaked us,which cooled us down alot! Then it was back down the rough rapids (more getting wet) to the end of the experience. Despite being completely drenched it took very little time for us to dry out, due to the excessive heat of Foz do Iguaçu!

Another local sight in Foz was a food place which was James' idea of heaven. It cost R$8.50 about 2 pounds and you loaded your plate up with buffet food - salads and rice/noodles/potatoes. When you sat down waiters kept coming round with a variety of meats freshly roasted in their barbeque. Then the pizza came round. You could literally eat as much as you wanted, James had meat piled high on his plate! A bargain find which James will not forget in a hurry!

We are now in a city called Curitiba, which is pretty and very European. We are only here for 2 days, after which we are going to a port town called Porto Alegre which is our stop off to get to Uraguay. Brasil has been interesting and we definitely would like to come back to explore the rainforest and the northern parts.

Anyway, one last photo... hopefully we have sorted out our photo problem, we are making the file size of our pictures much much smaller so we should be able to fit many more on this blog.

This photo is part of my flora and fauna portfolio, it has taken me almost three months to have had enough time to see a lizard, get the camera out, turn it on and take the picture without the damn thing scurrying away. It has been a bit of a mission (and annoyed James intensely at times!) to get a decent photo of one, so it is being shared with you all!