The Big Trip.

Fiji

thebigtrip — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:21:00 GMT

There are a few things it doesn’t take long to notice about Fiji… not only is it beautiful, hot and sunny but its got a lot of very gay men (and I mean very gay), its completely normal for men to wear skirts and the people are without a doubt the friendliest we have ever ever met.

We can all agree that Fiji without a doubt was one of our favourite places so far and we had the best two weeks there! Our first week in Fiji was spent doing the Feejee Experience. The feejee Experience is a hop on hop off tour where you have days full of activities and in between you can hop off at different resorts stay a few days and then get the next bus when you feel like it. It was brilliant and the resorts we stayed in were amazing.

On our first morning visiting Nandi markets to buy Sulus which are like long sarongs or skirts Fijian people wear and we had to buy these because there are times when you have to wear them, even the guys had to buy them… Stephen and James just loved wearing them along with there sea shell necklaces we got when we arrived in the airport. After stocking up we headed for the beach for some sun and a BBQ which was followed by a visit to a traditional Fijian village and then sand boarding on the sand dunes. We hopped off the bus and stayed three nights in Mango bay resort. It was here on our first night that we were introduced to Kava. Kava is the traditional drink of Fiji, its made from the root of a pepper plant which is dried ground up and mixed with water… and its disgusting! It looks and tastes like muddy water and it turns your mouth numb. Kava is very important to people in Fiji and the drinking of Kava involves a ceremony where certain traditions have to be followed, Its mixed in a special bowl and served in a coconut shell and basically there’s clapping and chanting and drinking and so on. There’s no alcohol in Kava but people here drink it all the time and they say it can have some pretty strange effects if you drink a lot. It impolite to refuse Kava so we ended up having to drink quite a lot of the stuff in our two weeks in Fiji.

There’s one person who made our stay in Mango Bay so memorable.. His name was Ore. Ore was a complete nutter who went round singing the “wheels on the bus go round and round” most of the time, he brought us to a big Kava and beer piss up with the people from his village and he got pissed and he possibly seriously injured himself by insisting on carrying all of our backpacks which together weigh about 70kg to the bus on our last morning. The second days activity was a hike to a waterfall and after this we arrived in Uprising Beach resort. We stayed here three more nights. We chilled by the pool, treated ourselves to full body massages, tried horse boarding.

Our last night in Uprising was pretty interesting. After dinner we were drinking with some of the other people on the tour when we noticed a crowd at the beach, a bomb fire and some girls dressed in very skimpy outfits. It turns out that some reggae star who is apparently huge in the south pacific was making his new music video on the beach. Me and another girl got talked into joining a crowd of extras on the beach. Basaclly a load of us just stood arround and tried to look like we were having a great time dancing arround the bomb fire. It was an interesting experience. An so I now star somewhere in the background of a music video for a guy iv never heard of… how random. Make sure you look out for me on MTV…! The rest of that night was spent drinking until very early the next morning in out tour guides room while Willy our bus driver tried to sleep even though we kept jumping on his bed . When we got back to our dorm with only about two hours to go until we had to get up Stephen was not to happy to find some girl in his bed… he eventually found another bed. James spent the night snoring his head off, as he does when he’s been drinking but one girl in the dorm really didn’t like this and Sinead woke up at some stage in the night to find her standing over James with a shoe in her hand ready to wack him… luckily for James he rolled over and stopped snoring just at that moment. With a hung over guide and a driver who got feck all sleep we set off at 7am the next morning.

The highlight of today was visiting the school. The kids were so cute, friendly and so excited to see us they were running wild in the school. After a traditional Kava ceremony with the Chief of a village we got to our last overnight stop. Here the group drank, played some very funny party games involving dancing like fools and sexual positions, had more delicious Kava and then we stocked up on drink and had a bomb fire on the beach.

After a bit of a lie in the next day it was time for the mood pools and hot spring. We all stripped off and jumped into a natural pool full of hot mud. It went right up to our knees, was disgusting and slimy but we all covered ourselves in it and one or two of the guys made sure that all the girls had their hair covered in it too. To wash off we had to take a dip in the hot spring which was hot hot hot.

After one last night out with the gang and a very late night we slept on it the next morning at 7am and realised that the buss that we were supposed to get to the port for our transfer to the Islands was out side the hostel and it was broken down. We were so lucky, there was no way we would have made it unless we were lucky enough to have it break down out side our hostel. We made our boat on time and headed for Beachcomber Island where we were spending our last five days, we all had to go to bed as soon as we got there.

Beachcomber is a tiny Island of one resort, you can walk the whole way around the Island in less than 5 mins. The snorkelling was amazing so we did that quite a few times and seen some amazing tropical fish right off the beach. We also seen Reef Sharks and Manta Rays, both harmless. We decided to give diving a go but the day before the dive Sinead got a cold and wasn’t allowed to go so it was me, Stephen and James. It was one of the best things we have done so far. We dived 10 meters deep for 40 mins. The dive instructor brought bread down for the fish and when he took it out of his pocket we were surrounded by hundreds of the most beautiful colourful fish. Scuba Diving is something will be doing again. After five days on the Island it was back to the main land for our flight to Australia.

We are currently in Oz. The four of us have decided that even thought we have had a great time over the last six months and have gotten on really well that its time for a change. We have decided to rent two cars and split up for about seven weeks before meeting up to spend Christmas and New Years in Sydney.

Sweet as....! South Island N.Z

thebigtrip — Mon, 5 Oct 2009 08:49:00 GMT

(Sweet as is a phrase we hear every where in N.Z, every one says it and it means, cool, great, excellent sometimes it means yes or thanks or your welcome etc. )

New Zealand is all it’s cracked up to be! Amazing scenery and non stop adventure…! The south Island is definitely the more beautiful of the two and we can now see why so many people kept telling us to spend the majority of our time here. Just about every activity that you think of is on offer here and so we planned to do it all in New Zealand. We got quite a few activities ticked off the list on the north island. Our first stop was Abel Tasman National park on the north of the Island. After our taste of kayaking in Brazil were wanted to try it again so we decided to take a full day kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman marine park. The park is absolutely stunning, with beaches of golden sand, lush green forest and the clearest water. If you didn’t know any better you’d think you were on some tropical island somewhere. We kayaked 15km along the coast and saw Seals, Penguins and huge starfish. It was great fun but I hurt my wrist about half way through leaving Stephen to do most of the paddling which he wasn’t to happy about.

After enjoying a few days of sunshine in the north we set off for the Franz Josef Glacier on the west coast, making a few stops along the way. In Franz Josef we decided to be a bit naughty and splash out and do the heli hike on the Glacier instead of the normal hike. It was a bit pricier but we think it was worth it…! The helicopter ride up the glacier can only be described as one of the most amazing sight we have ever seen. The glacier looked so small from the air but when your walking around on it you realise how huge it really is. We hiked around on the ice for over two hours, climbing up and down, through caves and tunnels of blue ice… really cool! It was all going great until Stephen posing for a pic put his foot in the wrong place and ended up almost knee deep in ice cold glacier water. haha. His toes were pretty cold for the rest of the day. We only realised later that night in the pub when we got talking to some people who had done a glacier hike as well that day how lucky Stephen really was. They said that a girl in there group hadn’t been listening when the guide was telling them not to walk and ended up chest deep in ice cold water…!

Our next destination was Queenstown. On the way here we stopped in a town called Wanaka. Beautiful town but not much to do so on our first night we headed to the cinema… not a normal cinema, this cinema shows all the films a normal cinema would show but instead of normal cinema seats this cinema has an array of mismatched comfy couches and chairs for you to sit in. It even has an old convertible VW Beatle people can sit in. You can have dinner in the cinema, wine, beer etc and freshly baked giant choc chop cookies at half time interval… it was the greatest cinema ever (Lisa, Mag, Sandra if ye are reading this ye would love it..).

The lads also went clay pigeon shooting here… but they managed to not hit a single pigeon between them ha-ha. How crap are they!? Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand and the first ever bungy jump was done here so as you can imagine it is big business here and there are loads to choose from. Myself and Sinead had already decided that even after the skydive there was no way we could do a bungy, even looking at the promo videos I felt sick. Stephen and James on the other hand had spent much of our time in New Zealand trying to talk themselves into it. But in the end fear won out and we left Queenstown with not one bungy jump between us. We’re big chickens aren’t we…?? We did however do a jet boat, which was a bit extreme and left us a bit sore for a few days after. We thought we should learn a little about the Moari culture before we left New Zealand so we went to see a Maori cultural performance and enjoyed the luge one last time.

A cruse in Milford Sound is apparently one of New Zealand’s biggest tourist attractions so we thought we should give it a go…. It was a bit crap! The drive to the sound through the national park was nice but the cruise itself was very underwhelming. After this we spent about a week driving around the south coast then up the East coast. We spent our last weekend in Christchurch. We all loved this city. Its beautiful. Its got a great atmosphere, cool parks to hang out in (We were lucky enough to get great weather) good bars and some serious shopping. With Fiji only a week away we all needed to update our wardrobes in a bad way, not that I needed the excuse to go shopping. The shopping in New Zealand is really good and so cheap so some of us went a little overboard and now have some very full backpacks and have had our credit cards taken from us (Me) for our own good apparently …!

The last activity on our list was whale watching. We headed to Kaikoura. After three days of rain and cancelled whale watching tours we had no choice but to give up and leave in order to make it back to Auckland for our flight. So disapointing! Now we have a very long drive back to Auckland to get our flight to Fiji on Friday. We are spending two weeks in Fiji which we cant wait for. We are dying for some sun and sea and all the other great things that go along with tropical islands! Backpacking can be pretty stressful believe it or not so I think its time for a holiday from our holiday. Enjoy work everyone and we’ll be thinking of ye when we’re lying on the beach sipping cocktails in Fiji…!

The Kiwi Experence... North Island

thebigtrip — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:12:00 GMT

We arrived in New Zealand after a long flight from Chile where we not only lost a day due to crossing the international time line but Stephen also lost his birthday…! After catching up on some much needed sleep we spent a couple of days seeing a few sights and doing a bit of shopping (esp. the girls). After four months in South America it was so strange to hear everyone speaking English… We actually spent the first day or two like fools saying things like ‘gracious’ and ‘café con leche’ to every one. We got some weird looks. Auckland is a nice city and it also has a very large Chinese population at times it felt like we were in Honk Kong instead of New Zealand. We’d been told by so many people not to stay for to long in Auckland as its not great and even though its as nice city we found this to be true. We went up the tallest building in the southern hemisphere the sky tower for the views, walked the harbour and best of all found an Irish Pub which sold large Bulmer’s…!

After a couple of days in Auckland we collected our rental car. The car is an automatic Mazda station wagon, bit of a heap really, but cheap. None of us had ever driven an automatic car so we pretty much had no idea what we were doing so we were pretty much just winging it and after a few dodgy moments we started to get the hang of it.

We set off north in the direction of Bay of Islands. We spent a couple of days doing some sightseeing round the coast and visiting some cool Maori reserves and monuments. We didn’t expect New Zealand to have such amazing beaches and it was a pity it wasn’t quite warm enough to enjoy them as its only early spring here. Next we made our way up to the far north to visit Ninety Mile Beach and Cape Reinga, the most northerly point of NZ where the Pacific and Tasman sea meet. We stayed in a little town close to the start of Ninety mile beach called Kaitaia in a pretty shitty hotel/backpacker place. What made this one night in this hostel interesting was the guy in the room next to us. This weirdo appeared to be living in the hostel, he spent the entire night making the strangest noises…. Use your imagination and you’ll get the idea…! He would knock on our door and run away, stand in the hall making noises like he was pretending to shoot a gun, shouting ‘Pow Pow Destroy’ singing, talking to himself and more random strange things… we spent most of the night slightly scared and in the stitches laughing. We got out of there first thing the next morning. After a trip to ninety mile beach and Cape Reina, where it was so foggy we couldn’t even see the water, we set off back south.

Our next stop was Hot Water Beach. Hot Water Beach is a beach over some hot springs and you go there around the time of low tide everyday dig yourself a hole in the sand and wait for it to fill with natural hot spring water. We rented a couple of shovels from the hostel and set off at 5.30pm for the beach. It was pretty cold and windy but there was plenty of people there. We started to dig a hole but sure enough we were only getting cold water so when we got the chance we jumped into a hole that a couple of other girls had dug. The water was so hot and we had to be careful where we sat so we didn’t burn the arses off ourselves… it was that hot. It was a very strange experience but fun.

The other highlight of this area was Cathedral cove. We did a 7km walk along the costal cliffs to Cathedral cove passing some of the mosr beautiful coves and inlets where the water is pure blue and crystal clear and the sand is white and soft.

Next it was on to Routarua. Routarua stinks… It is surrounded by geysers which cause the constant sulphur stink in the town, like rotten eggs, not very pleasant. We spent the weekend here and in addition to a bit of drinking we tried out some of the many adventure activities on offer. First we did a zorb. Zorbing in case you don’t know is where you get into a huge rubber ball along with a bit of water and roll down a hill along a zig zag track.Sounds bit crazy dosnt it..? But it was great fun, much better than expected.

We also did a sky swing, kind of like a bungy but your strapped into a seat, real adrenalin rush. The surprise highlight was the Luge. This is a small go-kart which you race down a really fast down hill track with lots of sharp turns and bumps. It was loads of fun and we could have spent all day doing it. Routarua has the largest Maori population in NZ so James also decide to get a Te Moko (Maori tattoo)done while here. Each Moko is designed for each individual and has symbols which represent family and their life. James Moko has his family members and the swirl design represents travel, which is fitting considering were on a world trip.

The sky dive was the next thing on the agenda so we headed for Lake Taupo. Taupo is apparently sky dive capital of the world. More people jump from planes here than anywhere else in the world. We were all really up for it and not feeling quite as scared and nervous as we thought we would be when we headed off. Once we got to the airport everything happened so quickly we didn’t have time to think to much about it, before we knew it our feet were dangling from the door at 15,000 feet. The dive was amazing but the 60 second freefall felt so short. Apparently when you jump out you go through what’s called sensory overload, where your body and brain go into shock so they say you loose the first 15 seconds of the fall. The experience of free falling at 200kmph through the air is amazing. It was so cold, -15 degrees, and hard to breath. Each of us had our own camera man jump with us to take a video and lots of pictures on the way down. Later that day we walked a few miles to some waterfalls to try work through the adrenaline we all still had pumping through us. After the sky dive we decided to head to Wellington.

Wellington is a lovely city like Auckland set on a harbour but much nicer. We spent a couple of chilled out days, site seeing, shopping and of course tested the extremely lively night life which was right outside our hostel. Sunday was the All Ireland hurling final. After asking around in the Irish bars we heard of an Irish Society that would be showing the game. We turned up there at 1:00am to find thirty odd eager hurling fans. Kilkenny beat Tipp and a great night was had.

After the weekend we put in a long days driving to get to Waitomo. Waitomo is famous for black water rafting in the glow worm caves. The trip we did involved a 35meter abseil down a tunnel into underground caves, a zip line through the pitch dark, jumping into underground rivers, climbing and jumping off of water falls, crawling through caves and floating round in some tubes looking at glow worms. Lots of fun.

Then it was off to Raglan on the west coast, the surfing capital of NZ. We stayed in a hostel on the beach unfortunately it rained for the two days we were there. The lads did some kayaking but me and Sinead, still sore from the caving, spent the days relaxing. Our last night on the North Island we went to see the All Blacks play the Springboks in a Tri Nations test match in Hamilton. Before the match there was an amazing fireworks display and dance performance. The match itself was very exciting but South Africa lead throughout and won by 3 points in the end. While the lads concentrated on the rugby myself and Sinead were kept entertained by the very ‘fit’ players. The next morning we headed for our ferry to the South Island.

(Writin by Laura)

Chile

thebigtrip — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:53:00 GMT

Arica

So after a few exciting days in Huacachina we got yet another overnight bus to the border town of Tacna, Peru. When we got off the bus we had two options for crossing the border into Chile, wait four hours and get the train to Arica, which is the cheapest way to go. Or get a taxi to drive us from Tacna to the boarder and den onto Arica which is the more expensive option. So what did we do? We went for the more expensive option in our exhausted confusion with us not speaking Spanish and him not speaking English we handed over the money and den more money and more money it seems there are a lot of taxes in Chile…. So we were ripped off, not for the first time but we didn’t care we just wanted a shower and a bed! Finally we arrived in our first Chilean destination the coastal city of Arica. This town has not got much going for it besides the fact that it has some nice beaches and the sun was shining. We stayed in the” gayest hostel in south America” (we didn’t make this up) why is it so gay? We have no idea. Any way what was meant to be a two night stay turned into 4 nights with plenty of hangovers thrown in. While we were there we went down to the beach to watch the world body boarding championships, walked along the harbor and saw some seals. On one of the nights the hostel had an “All you can eat and drink BBQ” the food was good but the beer ran out pretty quick so we headed for town with our fellow guests and ended up in a Simpsons themed bar until 6am. We all ended up walking the deserted streets looking for a taxi when along came a police car. In Ireland we all know that a group of drunken Irish, English, Argentina, Belgium, Bolivian and Chilean’s wondering round the streets at 6am would get a pretty frosty reception if a Garda car pulled up but here they chatted to us called us a few taxis even took pictures of us with their camera and got out of the car to get in pictures with us, it was mad.

The next night after a few too many drinks we headed for the local casino. Stephen left with a bit of extra money in his pocket but me and James didn’t have such good luck. The next day we decided to move on to Iquique.

Iquique

Iquique is also on the coast but has nicer beaches, even though the weather was good it is winter in Chile so too cold for swimming. Our main reason for going to Iquique was to do paragliding as it is one of the top ten places in the worrld to do it and the best place in

South America. So we booked our trip and drove to the outskirts of the city to the top of a 500 meter cliff overlooking the city and the ocean. When we arrived one by one we were kitted out in overalls and harnesses and strapped to our pilot. During takeoff the pilot raises the glider so it catches the wind then we have to run towards the edge of the cliff until your feet no longer touch the ground. Once we were in the air the pilot said that in order to fly over the city and land on the beach we have to gain altitude. So we go round in circles getting higher and higher reaching a height of about 700 meters until we can fly all the way to the beach. The flight lasted about 30mins and was amazing from that height the city looks so small. At the end of the trip we land on the beach one by one. Other than the paragliding Iquique was pretty boarding so we left and headed for San Pedro de Atacama.

San Pedro de Atacama

From the top of Chile starts the Atacama Desert which stretches about 1/3 of the way down, Arica and Iquique are in this region. This is the driest desert in the world, some parts like Arica and Iquique it only rains once every two years while in other parts it’s been hundreds of years since it has rained. San Pedro de Atacama is a tiny dusty town in the middle of the driest region. We decided to go on a few tours while we were here. So we decided to go see a geyser field the 3^rd largest in the world. The 4 am start we could handle what we weren’t prepared for was how cold it was. We had to drive for 3 hours on a freezing cold bus with no heating up into the mountains so the higher we got the colder it go there was ice covering the inside of all the windows it was so cold -15 we later discovered. To top it all off we were on a bus full of pensioners there were only a handful of us who were under 65. We arrived at the geyser field in time to see sunrise and had breakfast in front of hundreds of bubbling geysers with boiling steam rising into the air it was an amazing sight. We went to see a cycling geyser which erupts every 10 mins when all boiling water shoots out in an amazing display. At the edge of the geyser field there is a natural pool which is filled with the hot water from the geysers. We decided we would brave the freezing temperatures and get in. Once we were in the lovely warm water it was worth it but getting out getting dressed was hell.

That evening we took a tour to Valley de Luna which is a valley of sand dunes and rock formations carved out by the weather. It was a little disappointing as we did a similar trip in Argentina which was much more impressive. The highlight was scrambling through some small winding caves. Laura and James are a bit claustrophobic didn’t enjoy it as much as me and Stephen.

We ended the day by climbing a huge sand dune to watch the sun set over the desert. The next morning James awoke with swollen infected tonsils and spent the day in bed. That evening Myself, Laura and Stephen took an astronomy tour. The tours are run by a hilarious French astronomer and his wife who have an observatory outside their house. The tour was excellent and because of its position in the world and the clear night sky’s Atacama is a top spot for this kind of activity. At the start of the tour we were treated to a view of the moon rise over the Andes. After seeing so many sunrises this was something special. We viewed the stars and constellations which cannot be seen from Ireland through huge telescopes and even got a photo of the moon through one.

Tours done and time running out we set out on our last overnight bus journey, 23 hours to Santiago.

Santiago

We arrived in Santiago and checked into our hostel La Casa Roja which is a huge converted mansion in the city. We were in an 8 bed dorm and for the first time on the trip Laura got a top bunk. Anyone who knows Laura knows she is vertically challenged and it was a funny sight for us watching her struggle in and out of the very high bunk with no ladder, i can only imagine what the other people in the dorm thought of her. We spent a few days relaxing checking out some of the city (there is not much to see) and enjoying our last chance to have some really cheap drink. Were going to miss 1liter of beer for 1.30 and a bottle of great wine for 4euro and bars that stay open until 6am. Santiago seems to be the city where everyone is ending their South America trip most people we met here are flying to New Zealand or Australia. We gathered a few good tips from some New Zealanders we met along with some drunken attempts at map drawing but I’m sure they will come in handy at some stage.

On Thursday we decided to take a trip to Valparaiso a harbor town two hours from Santiago. Valparaiso is a UNSCO world heritage site it’s a very unusual city with loads of coloured houses and graffiti everywhere. as you can see from the pics the hostal had a trapize swing in the common area which james too a liking to, he was actuly very good at. we think hes found a new calling. While we were here on our way home from a night out we saw rain for the first time in 3 months. It rained for the next two days, we didn’t miss it!! Back to Santiago Laura was getting a cold and went to bed while me James and Stephen went for a steak dinner, which was a little disappointing but at this stage I think that the steak in Argentina was so good that we will be forever disappointed with any steak we get. Then back to the hostel bar for a few drinks which turned into a trip to a nightclub and crawling into be at 7am. Not bad for our last night out in South America. .

We leave Santiago on tonight Monday the 17^th of Aug and arrive in Auckland on Wednesday the 19^th (we cross the international date line and lose Tuesday therefore because Stephens birthday is on Tuesday he will have no birthday this year and will remain 27). So this is our last blog entry for South America and were all a bit sad that it’s the end of over 4 months of our trip but while there are many things we will miss we are looking forward to going to a new country where people speak English again and don’t try kill you every time you get into a taxi.

Written by Sinead

Peru...Partying in Arequipa and sandboarding in Huacachina

thebigtrip — Tue, 4 Aug 2009 21:55:00 GMT

This entry is written by Laura and not Stephen, for a change!

After another bus breakdown and a very long bus ride we arrived in the city of Arequipa from Cusco. We got a taxi from the bus station to our hostel and as has been the case with so many of our journeys in South America it was a pretty frightening experience. Our driver was crazy and there were a few very close encounters with other cars.

We spent four days in Arequipa. On our first morning there Stephen and James decided they needed to get some hair cuts so they set off to find the barbers the guy in the hostel recommended. James was first up. The hairdresser began cutting his hair with a razor blade and paper scissors… she had no shaver. Stephen caught sight of this and decided he wasn’t having any of that and left to find some where else. Stephen found what he thought was a decent barbers and tried to tell the barber who didn’t have a word of English that he wanted a 3 blade on the sides and a trim on top. Happy that the barber understood he sat down for his hair cut. The barber got the electric razor and shaved everything right off the top, it has been quite a while since Stephens had hair that short. Stephen was gutted he thought he was being so smart but in the end James ended up with the better hair cut and Stephen ended up wearing a hat for the next few days.

We did a bit of the touristy things while in Arequipa, which included going to see another Mummy. The mummy is called Jucinita. She was sacrificed at the top of a volcano by the Incas over 500 years ago. She was only 14. The museum was really interesting. The girl was frozen as soon as she died on the volcano so she was well preserved. We also went to see a convent that’s the size of a small town, its like a city inside a city.Hundreds of years ago a rich widow hand picked her nuns to live here in luxury. They were never allowed to leave the convent once they entered and only saw their families through wooden screens. The most interesting part was when we got to see the barbed wire underwear that the nuns used to wear. It did not look comfortable…! And also a whip they used to scourge themselves with for penance. (thats it in the pic below).

We did the usual sightseeing… Arequipa is a really nice city with a beautiful plaza surrounded by a huge white church and some really nice colonial buildings. Many of the buildings in Arequipa are made of “Sillar” a sparkly white volcanic rock. Arequipa is surrounded by two volcanoes.

Plaza, Arequipa

However the best thing about Arequipa was the night life…! The nightlife in most of Bolivia and Peru so far was non existent or just crap. Arequipa had had the best night life wed seen in ages so we felt it was our duty to sample it. We had a couple of really good nights out with people and staff from our hostel. A night out in South America as we have learned starts early and finishes early, as in 6 am so the recovery period is somewhat longer especially as myself and Sinead also got a real taste for Peru’s national drink, Pisco Sour. A really nice drink, but lethal and gives one hell of a hangover…!

Our next stop after Arequipa was Huacachina. Huacachina is a tiny town built around an oasis surrounded by towering sand dunes and palm trees. Its an amazing place and like nothing we had ever seen before. We had heard that this was the place to go for sun and sand boarding.

We spent a few days in a very nice hotel with a pool relaxing and of course we had a go at the sand boarding. Our first attempt at sand boarding involved us deciding to rent some boards and climb the dunes ourselves. It looks easy but its not. Walking up the very high and steep dunes was tough and a pain in the ass really. After I climbed some way up I decided to sit on the board and slide down. On the way down I flipped came off the board and went head first into the sand, at speed as well. I was covered in sand. It all stuck to the sun cream on my face and my arms. It went down my top, down my jeans… it was in my mouth my ears and up my nose. The others could not stop laughing at me. I decided to pack it in and headed to the pool. The next day we did the proper sand boarding. We set off in a dune buggy with our driver who was known as “Schumacher”. A pretty appropriate name considering he was crazy behind the wheel, driving like a mad man flying over the sand dunes and the more people screamed the faster he went. After some crazy driving we got our boards. The best way to do the sand boarding is to lie on your tummy and slide down so this was the method we went for. It was fun and fast. We would slide down the dunes and the driver would collect us at the bottom and bring us to a higher dune… and then a higher one. We got pretty high and pretty fast, and none of us fell off. It was so much fun… After a bit more racing round the dunes we got to watch sunset over the oasis.

While in Huachchina we also went on a trip to the Ballestas Islands. These islands are sometimes called the “Poor Man’s Galapagos”. The islands are small rocky islands off the coast of Peru. They are home to Sea Lions, Humboldt Penguins and millions of birds. The trip was nice but the islands stink. The islands are as famous for the bird shit as it is for the animals. The birds shit all over the island (the shit is known as “Guano”) and every 10 years the shit is collected because it’s a very valuable and expensive fertiliser.

With three weeks until we fly from Santiago to New Zealand we decided to make our way to Chile. Next stop Arica in the north of Chile.

P.S if your reading the blog please leave us a mesg, wed like to know who’s reading and what ye think, thanks.

Ascending Machu Picchu

thebigtrip — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:39:00 GMT

Friday morning we left Bolivia behind and boarded a bus for Cusco. We were delighted to get going after being held up by the strikes. We arrived at the Point Hostel Cusco late in the evening. Next day we explored the city. Cusco is a colonial city built on Inca ruins. It is one of the nicest cities we had visited in a long time, full of Spanish style buildings, plazas and cobbled streets. It is quite the opposite of anywhere we had visited in Bolivia. We spent the next few days browsing the markets and feeding Laura’s new found addiction to coffee. We visited the Inca Museum and Saints Domingo's convent.

Hundreds of times each day we said "No Gracias" as the many street traders constantly bugged the hell out of us selling art and jewellery and everything else you could think of including drugs... James said he would love a t-shirt that said "no gracias". Sinead found him the t-shirt in the Irish bar Paddy O’Flaherty’s. He was delighted when she surprised him with it.

Tuesday we headed on a two day Sacred Valley and Macchu Piccu tour. First stop on the tour was Pisac Market. Here we bought some art and alpaca wool jumpers. Next we visited the ruins on top of the mountain overlooking the town. Then we visited Ollantaytambo ruins. These ruins were far more impressive than Pisac's. We had coffee in a charity coffee shop in town while awaiting the train for Aguas Calientas. And guess what... along the way the train broke down for an hour and a half. When we finally reached our destination we hit the cot straight away.

We got up at four next morning and headed straight for the bus station. We got up at this crazy hour so we could get to Machu Picchu in time to get a ticket to climb Waynu Picch (Waynu Picchu is the tall rock peak behind Macchu Picchu in the pic above). There are only four hundred people given tickets to climb Waynu Picchu each day and these tickets are handed out first thing and there a lot of competition for the tickets. Even starting this early we only managed the eleventh bus up the mountain. We headed straight away to get the tickets. Luckily we managed to get tickets 378 - 381. Sinead and James were lucky, they skipped the queue and got away with it... next we headed up the hill to get a good view point to watch the sun rise at 7am and it was pretty cool.

Next up we went to meet our tour guide. The tour lasted two hours. He showed us Inca engineering that lasted 600 years and then pointed out the hydro electric dam in the valley below that was wiped out by a land slide. He got a laugh from us all. After the tour we headed for Wayna Picchu to start the ascent to the top. We had to hike down from Machu Picchu before starting up Wayna Picchu. The climb up was almost vertical.

The stone steps, there since Inca times, were small, slippery and sometimes very high. We had to squeeze through caves and climb wooden ladders to reach the very top. It was a tough climb but we made it in an hour. The views were magnificent. Below were the ruins on Machu Picchu. All around were mountains. The valley below was carpeted in jungle. Very cool. (Check out the photos.) At the top stone buildings precariously cling to the side of the mountain. God only knows how they were built there. The descent was quite tough. The narrow steps were difficult to navigate. After we got back down and had a bit of a rest myself and James went to check out some of the ruins we hadn't done on the earlier tour. The girls sat it out on a terrace soaking in the sun. Later in the afternoon after a long day in Machu Picchu we headed back to Agaus Calientas for food and to catch the train back to Cusco. Thankfully there were no breakdowns this time.

Next day James lay in bed with what we hoped was not the swine flu. He lay in bed wearing all his clothes shivering away. He had to keep it quiet from our eight other room mates. He didn't want men in white coats taking him away for quarantine. Next day we boarded a bus for Arequipa. Two hours into the journey and you'll never guess what happened... OUR BUS BROKE DOWN. A replacement bus took three hours to arrive. Our bad luck had struck again. What the hell is it with us and public transport in South America?

Monkeys on the death road.

thebigtrip — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 01:35:00 GMT

We returned to La Paz from the jungle and decided to spend a few days chilling out. We checked back into the Wild Rover for four more nights of good food and drink. That Thursday myself and James done the Worlds Most Dangerous Road (WMDR) cycle.

At 6:45 we headed for the Alexander Cafe in the centre of La Paz. Here we had breakfast and met our cycling buddies for the day. At 7:30 we boarded the bus for the hour long journey up to wind swept La Cumbre at 4,700 meters to start our day's cycle. The cycle consisted of 64km divided in 14 segments. Over the journey we descended 3,600 meters into the jungle below. The first 24km is asphalt, then the famous "World's most dangerous road" follows. The journey ends at the Sende Verde animal sanctuary in the jungle below.

After instructions and safety checks from our guides, Duncan and Gus, we geared up and hit the asphalt. Going was slow at first. We were getting used to the bikes and were all a little cagey.
The hazards of the paved section were the uphill segment and traffic. The cars here did not care for the ten in orange making their way down the hill. Once a bus passing another bus coming in our direction pushed us all onto the gravel. We got the feeling the Bolivians didn't care much for us gringos. Then we hit the uphill segment. It was only for a couple of kilometers but at that altitude it was no joke. It hurt. My heart was pounding. My lungs felt like they might collapse. The whole group finished the stage successfully without needing to get on the bus. Afterwards we took a well deserved break whilst the guides explained the WMDR section. Here the hazards were traffic, killer butterflies and the 1000 meter sheer drop to our left. On the decent out guide showed us the wreckage of a bus in the valley below. 40 people had died when the bus went over the edge. The driver was drunk when the accident happened.

We reached the bottom without anyone falling off. We were in for a real treat. Lunch and then time to chill out by the pool watching spider monkeys and capuchin monkeys play nearby. At 3:30 we boarded the bus to ascend the WMDR and return to La Paz. Along the way we noticed crosses every half a kilometer or so erected for the people who had died on the road. The number was astonishing. We had missed them on the way down as we were watching the road so intently.

Next day we day we left the Wild Rover and La Paz behind to head back to La Sende Verde. We got a private transfer rather then squeeze into a hiace with 12 Bolivians. Big Mistake, our driver was a feckin maniac. He was determined to pass every car that blocked his path, even if this meant passing on a blind bend on a mountain road. A number of times he would have to slam on the breaks whilst passing a vehicle so as the avoid a collision. We were relieved when we arrived in one piece.
We soon forgot about our journey as we checked out our lodgings for the next two nights. La Sende Verde is an animal refuge. Animals rescued from the black market are sent here to live their lives out in piece. Among the animals are black spider monkeys, capuchins, squirrel monkeys, nocturnal monkeys, a red howler, a spectacled bear, a number of macaws, cowaties, an oclet (wild cat) and a few other animals I've forgotten about. The monkeys were free to roam about. We lazed by the pool for two days as the monkeys came to play with us. The black spiders were like children; they would come up to you, sit on your lap and go to sleep. The capuchins were cheeky. They would rob wallets, sunglasses, hair clips etc.
We visited the Andean bear at feeding time on the first day and got to hand fed him peanuts. On three occasions on the second day a spider monkey came to visit us. Each time it would gun straight for the bathroom. Once he got away with toothpaste, another time shampoo. We were sad to leave on Sunday afternoon but time for Bolivia was running out. It was time to head for our last Bolivian destination, Lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca was disappointing. We found it to be a dirty over priced tourist trap. We only planned to stay two days. On the first day we browsed the stalls. Then in the evening before sunset we climbed the hill over looking the town to watch the sunset. Next day we got the boat to Isle del Sol. After returning from the island we went to buy bus tickets for next day, only to be told that due to strikes in Peru there would be no buses to Puno for three days at least. We spent three days hanging about waiting to cross into Peru. We had spent to much time in Bolivia so decided to skip Puno and the floating islands and head directly to Cuzco to see Machu Picchu.

Into the Jungle...

thebigtrip — Thu, 2 Jul 2009 18:14:00 GMT

On Monday we flew to Rurrenabaque (Rurre), a small town at the edge of the Amazon. The flight from La Paz was an experience… The plane was a turbo prop plane and it was tiny.

There were only 19 seats in single row on the plane. It was so small and cramped even Laura had to almost crawl into it. The flight was only 45 mins and a bit nerve wracking for some (Laura). We had to fly over a mountain range which was only a few hundred meeters below us. We landed in Rurre into what resembled someones back garden. The runway was a grass strip between the trees and the airport was a bit of a shack. It was some sight..!

We spent the night in Rurre and set off early the next morning on the first part of our trip which was the Pampas tour on the Yacuma river with bala Tours. The pampas are the wetland areas around the rainforest and most of the trip is based on the river. We had a three and a half hour drive before we would reach our accommodation. The drive was pure hell, it was very hot, very bumpy and so uncomfertable. Very few roads in Bolivia are paved so we had a few rough road journeys so far but nothing like this. The road was rock and dirt track and sometimes we had to pull over because the driver could see nothing with the dust. We eventully reached our destination and after a short ride in a dug out canoe we were at our lodge. The accommodation was basic but comfortable but the girls had to put up without hot water and somewhere to plug in there GHD’S but they were getting used to that.

On the first evening after a bit of relaxing in the hammocks we went out on the river in the canoe with our guide Ivan and driver Shermin. Ivan is from an indegnious community 8 hours by boat into the Amazon. We saw Caiman (like crocks), Monkeys, river Turtles, Capybara (the worlds biggest rodent which are actually kind of cute but huge), plus loads of different birds. We were also treated to an amazing sunset which turned the whole sky pink. It was all very cool. The next morning we woke to heavy rain and wind. The plan for the morning had been to go on a hike in search of Anaconda snakes but it was to cold and wet and there was no chance we would see any as they go into hiding in the cold. When the rain eased we went out in the canoe to find more Monkeys and some Pink river Dolphins. We managed to see a few different Monkey and loads of Pink river Dolphins aswell as more of what we saw the day before. We had the option of getting into swim with the dolphins but is was so cold and we were at least an hour from our lodge we would have froze on the way back so we decided against it. The presence of Caiman and Parana was also a bit off putting even though we were told it was safe. The rain returnedand we got drowned on the way back to the lodge. We spent the afternoon in the lodge drinking beer and playing cards with the other two people in our grout, Karena and Rupert. The rain stopped early in the evening so we set out in the canoe to fish for Parana and catfish. This was great fun and a few fish were caught. Stephen was very proud of his catch of a catfish.

There were a few catfish caught and we had these for dinner that night, very tasty. That night we got to see more monkeys in the trees right outside our lodge and went spotting Caiman in the river. Next morning after another canoe trip and more wildlife spotting we returned to Rurre where we spent another night.

The next morning we set off to Chalalan Lodge for our jungle trip. The lodge was six hours up river by boat on the Beni and Tuchi river's into the middle of the Bolivian Amazon. We travelled in a very basic canoe. The water in much of the river as we travelled up river is very shallow and rocky and a few times we struggled to get the boat over the rocks. About four times during the trip our two guides and the two men driving the boat had to actually get out of the canoe, stand in the shallow water and push and pull the canoe over the rocks.

It all seemed a bit dodgy especially as they were continuously unloading the boat of water. At times we wondered if we were ever going to make our destination. We did and after a 2 and a half km walk into the forest we reached Chalalan Lodge. Chalalan Ecolodge is considered Bolivia’s best ecotourism project and has won many awards. The lodge is 100% owned and run by a local indigenous Amazon community San José de Uchupiamonas. All the profits from the lodge go back to the community to fund things like sanitation and education. Our lodgings ware top class and the food was amazing as was the setting. The lodge is set next to the Chalalan Lake. The first evening we went out into the lake on canoe and got very close to a huge group of squirrel monkeys who were feeding in the trees that hung over the lake. We were so close we could almost touch them. We also saw Howler monkeys. That night we sat at the bar chatting to one of our guides Andres he told us all about his community, their traditions and how they live and use the rain forrest for every aspect of their lives. For example the community does not have a doctor insted they use the plants and trees from the forrest for medicine. It was raining that night and we were saying how we hoped it wouldn’t be raining the next day. Our guide began telling Pacha Mama (Mother earth). He told us about the ritual that his people perform when they want to ask Pacha Mama for something such as good weather. We decided to give it a go. We chewed coco leaves, we offered Pacha Mama coco leaves and beer by putting them into the ground and ask Pacha Mama to make it stopped raining. We then had to smoke cigarettes and if the ash leaned a particular was it meant to be good luck. We woke the next morning and the rain had stopped. Coincidence..? However poor Laura woke up not feeling to well and it only got worse and she spent the day in bed pretty sick….. Coincidence…?

The rest of us set out on a 7km hike looking for wild life. Our guide Alajandre has been a guide for 12 years. On the hike we saw some Jaguar prints only a few hundred meters from Sinead and James cabin unfortunaltely we didnt get to see the real thing. We did see lots of different kind of monkeys, birds such as humming birds, wood peckers, tucans, red and blue macaws (parrots), killer ants and lots of interesting trees and plants such as the walking palm tree. After a couple of hours our guide said he could hear spider monkeys which are apparently very hard to see. He set off running through the forrest chasing the monkeys for about 20 mins leaving the track we were following. When we finaly caught up with the monkeys we were not dissapointed they were amazing. When we decided to go back to the trail our guide realised we were lost. After about 20 mins of wandering around trying to find the trail the guide went off and told us to wait for him at this stage we were starting to get a bit worried... eventualy we found our way back and continued on. Then we spotted some wild pigs. These pigs travel in packs of about 100 and are very dangerous especially if they have young, these pigs had lots of young. We crouched down to watch the pigs making sure they could not see us. The noise they make can be heard form hundreds of meters away as they stomp through the forrest and they stink. They have glands on their backs which give off a strong smelling gas when threatened, it was bad. Our guide explained that if they charge we would have to run and mabye climb 2 meters into a tree....a little nervous at this stage as the pigs were only meters from us. Again our guide wandered off leaving us to size up some trees. While he was gone we heard loud crashing sounds like the pigs were chasing something. We found out later that it was him that was being chased he ahd a luckey escape. After all that excitement we returned to the lodge starving and covered in mud for lunch. We relaxed in hammocks for the afternoon. That evening we took a canoe across the lake and hiked up to a Miridor (view point) for amazing views of the lake and rain forrest. that night after dinner we wnt on a night hike in search of snakes, we had no luck but did spot some big tranchulas and rabbits. The next morning we set off for our return trip down the river back to Rurre where we spen the day before catching our return flight to La Paz

Higher and higher....

thebigtrip — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:23:00 GMT

After the awful bus trip from Uyuni we were all wrecked after our Salt Flats trip. We decided to spend a few days in Potosi which is the highest city in the world at 4060ft above sea level. The altitude at this level was a killer and just doing simple things like getting out of bed would leave us short of breath and walking anywhere was especially difficult. Potosi is famous not only for being the highest city in the world but also for its mountain Cerro Rico which is rich in silver deposits to this day people still mine there in medieval conditions.

After some relaxation we headed for Sucre for a few days. Sucre is the former capital of Bolivia and is a beautiful city full of lovely white washed colonial buildings an is a UNISCO world heritage site. Sucre appeared to be a relatively wealthy city but in Bolivia you are never far from poverty and it was evident on the outskirts of the city. When we arrived we got a taxi from the bus station. Stephen sat into the front of the taxi and he noticed something a bit strange.... in front of him there was everything you would find if he had sat into the driver side, speedomoter, fuel gauge, all that kind of thing. The only thing that was missing was the steering wheel, it had been taken out and moved to the passenger side of the car, what a strange country Bolivia is.

We spent a few days here enjoying the good bars and restaurants. We also visited a limestone quarry where a few years ago dinosaur foot prints were found in the stone. One thing we wanted to do here is paragliding as its something we have wanted to do for some time but hadn’t had the chance. So having booked and paid we headed off early for a two hour drive into the mountains. We were excited and nervous. The instructor set up the gear and it was just a matter of waiting for the right wind conditions! Our drive set off down the mountain to the landing area where we would be collected after the flight. After 15 mins he returned... there was a problem... there was some kind of machinery blocking the road and he would not be able to get down to the landing point. Our only option was to go back to Sucure and get our money back. We were very disappointed our bad luck had struck again. The next evening we left on an over night bus for La Paz.

We arrived in la Paz early Friday morning after a long hellish trip where we almost froze to death. There was also a near riot on the bus when the staff refused to allow anyone to use the on board toilet. Lets just say there were some people who really needed it was quiet funny to watch.
La Paz in the capital of Bolivia at about 3600ft so our altitude problem were not over, just climbing the stairs to our room left us feeling like wed run a mile. We booked into the wild rover hostel an obviously Irish Hostel owned by Davie from Tipp. The wild rover is a mad party hostel with Irish bar, lovely food and parties every night not for people who like to sleep. Sinead and James ended up sharing a dorm with two Cork stoners who hardly left the room for the 3 days we were there and we don’t think they washed either judging by the smell in the room. On Friday we went and booked a week long trip to the Amazon to leave Monday. We spent the rest of the weekend exploring the city, and having a few drinks. On Sunday very hung over (altitude and alcohol dont mix) we went to see the choilita wrestling, which is traditional Bolivian women wrestling each other. The main attraction for the lads was we heard there would be midgets wrestling at the end however there wasn’t and everyone was disappointed. It was memorable to say the least.

Tupiza to the Salta flats.

thebigtrip — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:18:00 GMT

After crossing from Bolivia at 7am we had a eight hour wait for the train to Tupiza. The Bolivian border town is a dirty, dusty and very basic town. The wait was long and cold; the food was bad and we were wrecked.

We eventually got the train at 3pm. Two hours later we were in the small town of Tupiza. We all had well deserved showers and an early night in our nice hotel. The next day we explored the nice little town and its markets. We booked onto a tour to Salar de Uyuni. The trip was three nights and four days and took us from Tupiza through the most isolated parts of Bolivia and ending at the amazing salt flats in Uyuni. It would cover 1,200 kilometers in all.

Day 1

An early start. We had breakfast and headed to the bank to get cash. At 9am we set off with our driver Daniel and guide Raul. In the other jeep were four others, a couple from Belgium, Tom and Veronik; and George and Evereck, two brothers, also from Belgium. We set off on a dirt road that brought us higher and higher into the mountains. It was a nerve wracking drive at times as there were very steep drops down the mountain side the higher we went. The views were amazing.

After four or five hours we reached flat land. We were driving along enjoying watching the llamas when all of a sudden the land cruiser pulled of the dirt road to the right. We looked to our right only to see our front right wheel rolling at speed into the distance toward a group of llamas who were scarpering in every direction. The lads and our guide jumped out of the car and ran after the still moving wheel. Meanwhile Sinead and Laura began to realise what would have happened if the wheel had come off a couple of hours before!!! The wheel was retrieved. However four of the six bolts which held the wheel to the hub had sheered off and all of the six nuts were gone.

We searched the track for the nuts and bolts but they were not to be found. After a couple of hours the two drivers had taken the other front wheel's hub apart for parts and we were on the road again with two half held on wheels.

We were hours behind and were late arriving at the first nights accommodation. Located at 4300 meters above sea level it was standard accommodation to say the least. No hot water, an outside toilet, no heating and it was freezing cold out. The lights to eat by ran off a car battery. Dinner helped to warm us up. We had delicious hot soup followed by goat meat and Smash, a gloupy potato substance. We had a few drinks and got to know the others on our tour. Tom and Valorik were quiet and didn't say much. George and his brother, we were told to call him Nipples, were a good laugh and very cheeky. We had an early night but didn't get much sleep as it was so cold. The beds were paper thin mattresses on concrete.

Day 2

We had to get up at 5:30 am. It was so, so cold and dark. After a breakfast of stale bread we were off. During the day we visited a ghost town. This mining town was abandoned a couple of hundred years earlier after plague and leprosy hit hard and wiped most of the population out. The remaining population left believing the town was cursed. We also visited Laguna Celeste and a number of other lakes coloured white by the substance borax which is used to make explosives and in the manufacturing of cocaine. At lunch time we stopped at a hot spring. We had the option to get in but it was so cold we decided against the idea. After lunch we set out for the geysers Sol de Manana.

These were at 5000 meters above sea level, the highest we would reach on our trip. We couldn't stay here long because of the lack of oxygen. Our guide told us that last year two Israeli tourists fell into one of the boiling geysers and died. We didn't get too close.

That day we also saw Laguna Verda, which was a beautiful blue, green colour and over shadowed by Volcano Licancabur.

After a long day reached out digs, this time located at 4,600 meters. It was just as bad as the night before but colder. We spent the night huddled around a tiny stove, desperately trying to get warm. We had a few laughs and a few drinks with our Belgian friends.

Day 3

Day three started with a lie in until 6:30 am. After breakfast we set off. First stop was Laguna Colorado. This lake is a deep red colour from a distance . After this we went to the Desierto de Siloli rock formations in the middle of the desert

Here we got a flat wheel. Our faith in the wheels of our land cruiser was fading fast. After a quick wheel change we were on our way again. We saw another five lagunas that day. Some were completely frozen it was so cold. After lunch we passed a small salt flat called Salar de Chiguana, and an active volcano, Ollague Volcano (5865 meters), which marks the border with Chile.

Last that day we passed through a small isolated town and visited an Inca burial ground. We wondered if it was just put on as a tourist trap as it looked kind of fake.

Our last nights accommodation was in a salt hotel. The hotel was built from blocks of salt, our beds were on salt bases, tables and chairs were salt and floors were covered with rock salt which was like gravel. It was cold again but at least we got to have a hot shower. It was another early night as we had to be up at six next morning.

Day 4

Up at 6am. We headed straight to the salt flats to see sunrise. It was well worth the early start. When the sun was up the hard salt earth was blinding white and looked more like ice.

We headed for a coral island in the middle of the flat which is called fish island and covered in cacti. It was a climb to the top to see an amazing view. The salt flats are 12,000 square kilometers in area. It is the remains of a prehistoric salt lake. After breakfast on the salt and a bit of football we went to the middle of the salt flats to take some photos.

After this we visited the illegal salt hotel in the middle of the flats. It is now a museum. We had lunch in a nearby town before finishing our trip in the town of Uyuni at 2pm.

We waited for the bus office to open so we could buy tickets to Potosi that evening. Our Belgian friends George and Nipples arrived shortly after. They had counted on an ATM in Uyuni as they had to pay for half of their tour and also to buy tickets to La Paz. All banks and the ATM were closed as it was a holiday. They somehow managed to get their guide to believe they would transfer the money they owed and they also blagged the bus company into letting them pay when they arrived in La Paz.

After a bit to eat we got on our small crappy bus with bags strapped to the roof. During our journey to Potosi we had three flat tires, (what is it with us and wheels). The journey was long, cold, bumpy and tough. We finally arrived in Potosi at 3am.

Salta

thebigtrip — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:04:00 GMT

From Valle Fertile we got the overnight bus to Salta, a city in the north of Argentina. The city at first appears rough around the edges but after some exploring its attractive features showed, especially the beautiful European style plaza with a pink cathedral. On the first day we decided to head for Cerro San Barnardo. A hill which over looks the city. We had the option of taking the cable car to the top or walking the 1100+ steps. The lads opted for the steps but the girls chickened out as the hill looked very steep. The lads made it in twenty nine minutes. The views of the city and mountains from the top were worth the effort. We all took the steps back down.

Also that day we went to Parque San Martin where we browsed the markets and hired a row boat on the lake. The lads had a good laugh trying to wack the ducks with the oars.

Later James had a craving for McDonalds so he headed for the tourist information office to ask where the local outlet was. One of the highlights of Salta was the child mummies. The three child mummies were found at the top of the Llullaillaco volcano. The three children were offered to the mountain in an Inca sacrificial ceremony. At the time it was considered an honour for a family's child to be chosen for sacrifice. The mummies were found in 1999. They were a fifteen year old girl, a six year old girl and a seven year old boy. They were found almost perfectly preserved due to the climate, altitude and soil conditions of the mountain. Only one mummy is displayed at a time in the museum. We saw the six year old girl. It was a bit of a weird and freaky sight but also fascinating. James still insists the are fake.

On our second last day we booked ourselves in for a canopying trip. We had hoped to do paragliding but due to a bad accident this season it was no longer available in Salta. After a two hour drive into the mountains we arrived. We weren't expecting much but we in for a surprise. We got our gear and headed off. Our very serious German guide said we had an easy walk before we started. It turned out we had to hike up a cliff face. It was very tough going. After we reached 160 meters we did our first zip line. There were nine lines altogether, mostly going long distances across the canyon with a river dam below. The longest line was over five hundred meters and we reached speeds of around 50 kph on the fastest line. It was one of the best buzzes we had since we started our trip. Afterwards we had another fab argy BBQ.

Then that night we had another BBQ in the hostel! Our last day in Salta was spent shopping for warm clothes for Bolivia as we had heard it was going to be very cold. Friday night we got the 12:45 bus to La Quiaca which is where we crossed the border to Bolivia.

Bariloche, Mendoza and Valle de la Luna

thebigtrip — Fri, 5 Jun 2009 20:36:00 GMT

Next stop after Buenos Aires was the town of Bariloche in the south of Argentina. Bariloche is in the north of Patagonia, a scenic region in the south. After bite to eat we went for a drink in an Irish bar. We got totally ripped off and swore of Irish bars for the rest of the trip. However a few hours later we were enjoying food and drink in the Wilkenny Irish bar.

Next day we headed for Cerro Campanario. At the top we saw what National Geographic has named as one of the top ten best views in the world. We were encircled by snow capped mountains with woods and the Nahuel Huaei lake below. It was an awesome sight. Check out the photos attached. Next day we woke to pouring rain. We checked the forecast to discover heavy rain was given for the following six days. It didn't take us long to decide to cut our stay short. We bought tickets to Mendoza and checked out next day.

Thursday afternoon we arrived in Mendoza, a city in the desert near the Andes. It is famous as the wine region of Argentina. We spent the day checking out the city and the plaza. Next morning we set off on the wine bike tour. This involved cycling from vineyard to vineyard tasting the local produce. The tour also included a visit to a olive oil factory which we saw as a distraction from the main event. That evening we went to Point Break. Laura and Sinead enjoyed champagne cocktails all night long. Not very backpackery!!!

Next day was a hungover chill out day. We hung around waiting for the hostel barbecue. After some tasty steak we drank till the early morning hours. Check out the photo of James doing tequila. They didn't give out shot glasses. You got the bottle directly in the mouth!!! Sunday was spent in the park nursing yet another hangover.

Monday morning we headed out into the desert to go horse riding. The horses were so old and docile and no effort was needed to ride them. They just followed the guide without any instruction needed. It was a lot of fun though and the barbecue afterwards was the nicest one yet. James thought he was John Wayne by the end of the day.

The following day we were up at the crack of dawn to do a tour of the Andes. We were driven to 2800 meters where we would have seen Cerro Aconcagua, (the highest mountain outside of Asia), had it not been for the clouds. We did a short trek of about a kilometer. Myself and James shot ahead of the group but after less than one hundred yards the altitude got the best of us and we had to stop. We quietly followed the group after that.

Next day was champions league final day. Manchester United versus Barcelona. United played shite and lost so I proceeded to get absolutely pissed very early in the evening.

Next day we left for our next destination, Valle Fertile. We travelled six hours north into the desert to reach the base for doing an excursion to Valle del Luna, (Moon valley). We woke next day to rain. Just our luck, in the middle of the desert and it rained!! This caused a short delay to our trip. We visited two parks, Ischigualasto Provincial Park and Talampaya National Park. Ischigualasto Provincial Park was the more enjoyable of the two. Our guide showed us plant fossils in the rocks. Unfortunately they take the dinosaur bones out of the ground when they find them. We did see them in the museum afterwards. The sights were amazing. Definitely well worth the long trip into the desert.

Boozing in Buenos Aires

thebigtrip — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:37:00 GMT

Saturday May tenth we left Iguazu and headed twenty two hours south to Buenos Aires (BA).

After a quick nap and some showers we went in search of some famous Argentinian steak. After tasty t-bones in a pirate themed restaurant we moved next door to BA´s famous Irish pub, the Kilkenny, for a quiet drink with the intention of having an early night as we were all still wrecked from the bus trip. A few drinks turned into quiet a few and it was after 5 when we fell into bed. This was the start of a lively week in BA.

The next morning with some bad hangovers we dragged ourselves out of bed just in time to grab a McDonalds for breakfast and headed off to San Lorenzo stadium. We were booked on an excursion to see a match with others from our hostel including our new friends Paddo and Linda who we met in Iguazu. The match was a local derby. San Lorenzo versus Boca Juniors, two of the top five teams in Argentinia. Their fans are fanatical and Boca fans are known for their violance. The football wasnt up to much but the atmosphere was amazing. The fans chanted and sang throughout the game even when their team was loosing. One guy next to us was crying. The game was a without a doubt one of the highlights of the trip so far.

Monday we decided to go on the BA pub crawl with Paddo and Linda. It turned out to be more of a hostel crawl we were taken to 3 hostel bars before we got to a proper bar. It was still a great night we met people from all over the world and drank loads of cheap beer. By the time we reached the fourth bar we were all pretty full and Paddo ended up getting kicked out. We found out the next day met some friendly locals asked him if he was a tourist and preceded to take his money (its ok he lived to tell the tale and only suffered a battered ego). We however ended up in a nightclub in San Telmo. Our memories from here are a bit sketchy but we had a great night. Stephen had the kitty wallet taken out of his pocket (it only had bout twenty euro in it). He went back to the hostel with Laura at around four. James, Sinead and Linda stayed out a while longer then went in search of food and somehow found a restaurant serving wine and pizza at six in the morning. While walking home Linda wondered off and we were all awoken at eight by a frantic Paddo banging down the door looking for Linda who hadn't arrived back yet. Don't worry she eventually found her way home and all was ok. It was to say the least a very memorable night (the bits we can remember anyway.)

The next day was lost to hangovers but in between all the drinking we did manage to see some of the city. BA has a very european feel about it and at times you have to remind yourself you're in South America. We visited some sites such as The Pink Palace with the Evita´s balcony and Recoleta cemetry where BA´s rich and famous are buried including Evita. We visited a museum and some Monet and Renoir paintings. We visited the zoo and also saw Avenue 9th of July, the widest street in the world and did some shopping. We never did manage to make it to one of the famous tango shows unfortunately. BA differs from Rio in that it doesn't have very many famous sites to see, it is all about the food and the night life here.

Thursday night we decided to treat ourselves to some proper steak and we headed off to the La Cabrera restaurant; known to be one of the best steak houses in BA. The hour long wait was eased by free champagne. The wait was worth it the food was amazing the portions were huge. We had enough food to feed a family for a week. Each steak was served on a wooden platter with each person getting at least four steaks. All this was washed down with some Argentinan wine and more champagne. Then wee headed off to enjoy yet another late night on the town.

Saturday after an amazing week we left BA for Bariloche!!!

Iguazu Falls

thebigtrip — Fri, 8 May 2009 18:07:00 GMT

We arrived to Foz du Iguacu Sunday afternoon after a twenty three hour bus journey from Rio. After a bite to eat near our Pousada we headed to a bar in the city. We were quietly having a drink outside when fireworks went off from a nearby apartment block. Shortly afterwards the streets descended into chaos. Corinthians had just won the cup. An impromptu street party kicked off. Hundreds of people got into their cars and arrived at our location. The streets shut down. People abandoned their cars and danced and partied. The party continued on for at least 2 hours. The Brazilians sure are nuts about their football!! Next day we headed for Iguazu Falls. First we visited the bird park. We all had it in our heads that it would be a small park with a a few birds in cages. The park was amazing, the highlight of the day. We walked through huge aviaries where you got up close to toucans, parrots and many other colourful birds. Next we visited the falls from the Brazilian side. We were all a bit disappointed. Our guide told us Mondays and Tuesdays were the worst days to visit the Falls. Dams upstream were closed at the weekend. Also there had been a three month drought and water levels were a fifth of their normal flow. The views were cool but not the awe inspiring sight we had read about in the Planet. We crossed into Argentina that afternoon. We changed our few remaining Real into Pesos and headed into town to find a bank. We hit all three banks without any joy. Neither our credit cards or pass cards would give us money. That evening was very depressing. We were in a party hostel with feck all cash for drink. Later on we found out that foreign cards can only draw three hundred pesos (sixty euro) at a time in Argentina. Crisis averted. We headed early next day to the bank to get cash. Then we hit the hostel bar to watch United give Arsenal a hiding. James was very depressed. I was delighted. We met a couple from Dublin and a session kicked off at the pool bar. A long night of drinking kicked off. Linda and Pado both ended in the pool at one in the morning. Next day was a repeat performance. After a morning soaking in the sun we hit the bar again and drank till the early hours. Next day in a hung over state we decided it was finally time to go see the falls from the Argentinian side. We met up with Linda and Pado and piled into a taxi with Linda and Pado in the booth... This side of the falls is far more impressive than the Brazilian side. We took a boat trip that brought us up the river and under a waterfall. We all got soaked. It was great craic. Then we headed for Devils Throat. This is the best view of the falls. Its a walkway that goes for about a kilometer from the bank of the river to the edge of the falls. The view from here is just amazing. You get soaked from the spray from the falls. The water thunders over the edge and you cannot see through the mist to the bottom. Very impressive indeed. That night we headed into town for what has definitely been our favourite meal out so far. We found a wok restaurant near the bus station. Delish! We all had lovely meal and dessert and drinks and it came to less than twelve euro per person. We are all well impressed with Argentina. Next stop Buenos Aires...

Costa Verde

thebigtrip — Thu, 7 May 2009 00:15:00 GMT

We spent a week on the coast south of Rio in what is known as the Coste Verde. Our first stop was four hours south of Rio in a small colonial town called Paraty. The journey down was amazing. The road hugs the coast and around every corner was another astonishing beach and deep blue sea. We stayed in Misty Chill. It was a really cool little hostel located right on the sea front. We were lucky enough to get the room with doors out to a balcony overlooking the beach. We chilled out here for three nights. We spent our time swimming, sea kayacking and just generally bumming around. The highlight of the stay wasa tour we did which took us to a number of waterfalls in the rainforest.

After Paraty we heading back up the coast for two hours to Angra dos Reis. From there we caught a schooner to Ilha Grande. This is Brazil's biggest island. It covered in rainforest and is a protected world heritage site. People are banded from entering a large part of the island. There are no cars allowed on the island. The girls were not impressed when we had to carry our bags for twenty minutes up a steep hill to reach our poussada. The room was a bit of a kip and we were not impressed. That night we were all awoken by a screem. "Get it off me!!, Get it off me!!". A large cockroach was crawling across Sinead´s chest. We laughed, Sinead screamed. She didn't get any sleep that night and the lights were left on for the following three nights there. The island had nice beaches to see during the day. Sinead and James walked a trail to the top of a hill and saw a family monkeys in the forest. There was no night life on the island. Everywhere shut up at ten o'clock and no one was ever in the bar. We found ourselves home every evening by the magic time of 11:26. In the end we were delighted to get off the island. It was nice but we wanted to be in a more upbeat spot. After this it was off to Iguacu falls.

Rio de Janeiro

thebigtrip — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:01:00 GMT

Rio. What an awesome city? 7 nights there just wasn't long enough. None of us wanted to leave this incredible place.
The hostel was cool and all the staff were really nice. Especially Bill the night porter who continually threw us out free beer and cake. He only a few words of English but we still had very funny conversations. The hostel room was about 10 foot by 6 foot with four beds in the room and no window. It felt like a prison cell especially the day when we were stuck inside because the rain poured all day. When it rains in Rio it really rains. Not Irish rain but proper floods appear in minutes.
When visiting Rio beaches were a must. First morning we hit Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana. Under the baking sun we were all thrilled. After months and months of saving and planning were finally here. Rio de Janeiro. Myself and James didn't pluck up the courage to wear speedos. Our pasty white bellys stuck out a mile amongst the beautiful tanned masses. After the beach we got on a bus to Botafogo. Unfortunately it was the wrong bus. As the bus travelled through the favelas (slums) my blood pressure rose a bar or two. All the books about Rio say it is so dangerous that I was convinced we would be robbed. We stayed on the bus to the end and then with some waving and pointing I managed to convince the bus conductor to let us stay on the bus and bring us back to Copacabana. As soon as we got to somewhere we recognised we hopped off and walked back to the hostel. We decided that there was no need to do the favela tour. We had already seen enough.
Next on our checklist was Cocovada, (Christ the Redeemer). We went up early Wednesday morning. The statue is an incredible piece of engineering and the views were amazing. Rio is nestled between the sea and mountains covered in rain forest. After our visit to Christ we headed for Santa Teresa. We got a rickety old tram through the town. It was a nice quaint old town but we bored quickly. We looked for the steps my friend had recommended we see. We had no idea what they were called and hadn't brought a guide book with us. After walking around aimlessly for half an hour Sinead bought a magnet with a picture of the steps. We hopped into a taxi and pointed at the magnet. Our sense of direction is awful because a couple of minutes later he had dropped of off at what we now know as Escadaria Selaron. These steps lead down from Santa Teresa to Lappa. Since 1990 a man has been continually tiling the steps. He constantly changes the tiles and travellers bring him tiles from around the world to add to he work. Really cool and definitely worth a look.
We could not visit Brazil without seeing a football match. We went to see Fleminese play Aguia in the Maracana Stadium. The world cup final will be played there in 2014. It is a really impressive ground. The crowd was really small as it was a cup game against a crap team but there was still a great atmosphere. Fleminese scored 3 goals in the second half, the first of which was a cracker.
Next on out itinerary was the sugar loaf (Pao de Acucar). This volcanic rock in the bay between Botafogo and Copacabana is 395 metres high and gives an incredible view of Rio. We went up an hour before sunset so as to watch the sunset behind Christ de Redeemer. We never saw the sun set because of clouds but instead were treated to a huge lightening storm on the horizon behind Christ. Very cool!!
On our final night we hit Lappa. A few to many beers must have been had. We never heard out alarm and never got up for the 9am bus to Paraty. The highlight of the night was our taxi journey home. The driver was a complete nutter. He blared out the samba music and was dancing and singing in his seat while driving. When we arrived at out hostel he hopped out and continued to dance on the footpath. What a crazy man! Photos attached.