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Still Frozen in Patagonia

lima_llama_loo — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 01:39:00 GMT

Well we have managed to make it halfway across the Lakes District... it was slightly warmer yesterday at minus 15 degrees... we were assured that there was heating in all the boats and buses (there were 2 boats and 2 buses) but alas this was not the case... however the open fire place and hot chocolates while enjoying the snowcapped mountain vista has helped warm us. we are staying in a beautiful lodge nestled amoungst the snow capped mountains in southern Chile. there are only about 150 residents in the ´town´and it is quite remote.. The lodge is extremely luxurious with huge open fireplaces, 10 foot ceiling with glass walls to capture the magnificent views from every angle.. classical music is played constantly and the only thing to do is relax... spas, facials, horse riding (too cold) and small hikes and excursion. Our excursion has consisted of walking to the open fireplace with a hot chocolate!! Seriously, it is so cold here that we both have 6/7 layers on and are only just warm..

This afternoon we catch another boat for 1hr 40 mins and then a 2 hr bus ride to Puerto Varas - this should be a quicker trip than yesterdays (9 hrs due to Argentinian and Chilian immigration and Chilian customs)... we will never complain about (warm) airport customs again. Puerto Varas will be our last night in South America.... then comes the 30 hours of flying....

Snap Frozen in Bariloche

lima_llama_loo — Mon, 9 Jul 2007 04:40:00 GMT

- 18 degrees C!!! (Do we need to say more)

Chocolate and more chocolate.

Bariloche is a ski resort 2000km north of the bottom of South America in Patagonia. 130 000 people live here but they have over 1 million visitors a year. The school leavers visit Bariloche like Australian schoolies visit the Gold Coast. We are yet to see any bad behaviour though.

We have seen St Bernard dogs and puppies (complete with barrell around their necks) in the main square - gorgeous and fluffy. We had our photos taken with Camilla and Princess Fiona. Both more attractive than their namesakes. (Sorry!)

Hoping to try wild boar at a local restaurant tonight. Tomorrow we begin a 2 day scenic lakes crossing into Chile....before heading home Wednesday.

Rebecca - We would love to see you at the slide night. It was no problem getting a gorgeous Argentian to translate - who could resist our charms!

See you in Oz if we don´t get a chance to update the blog again.

Caio!

Tango in Buenos Aires

lima_llama_loo — Sun, 8 Jul 2007 04:20:00 GMT

We arrived in Buenos Aries on a cold foggy day. Much more European than the other cities in South America. We followed the advice of our guide and headed to a steak house - the steaks arrived and were about inch thick and covered three quarters of the plate - yum!

Half day city tour. We got to see the changing of the guard outside the Presidential Palace....but no football as all the South Amercian countries are involved in Pan Am games and the South American Cup...however we visited the Bocca football stadium - we think our driver was more excited than us....we saw one young man in his early 20´s with tears in his eyes - obviously very passionate about their futebal! We visited like every tourist Eva Perons crypt.....

Tango on Friday night. The dancers were amazing. This included a band with piano, chello, piano accordian, guitartist and a male singer and a female diva. We also enjoyed the performance of a traditional band - complete with pink ponchos - very difficult to look manly playing the ukelele in a pink poncho!! The theatre was very small and traditional. Gorgeous.

On Saturday nite (after a hectic day shopping, shopping, shopping for leather, jewellery and art work - every girls paradise - no necklace yet) we went to Cafe Tortoni. This was fantastic. The tables were oak topped with marble. Alfresco and stained glass ceilings. We had a great steak sandwich and irish coffees (food is very important). We asked the waiter to purchase a souvenir mug. Eventually....we understood none were available that night...after explaining we were leaving for Australia very soon...he hurried away and we saw him cleaning out a dirty mug...which he presented to us. We popped them in our new leather bags (purchased earlier that day) and scuttled out into the cold. The people on the next table were giving us the thumbs up and thought it was fantastic. We are sure there were many requests for mugs after we left.

We also got to try these biscuits (? name) like shortbread with caramel condensed milk in the middle. The coffee also had condensed milk at the bottom - sugar not really required! At breakfast they serve small portions (like jam) of condensed milk which you have like caramel on crossaints.....we now know why they like to tango (to keep the weight off!)

Next stop Baroliche

(PS: Photos very difficult to upload in short amounts of time)

Devils Throat Falls

lima_llama_loo — Thu, 5 Jul 2007 07:13:00 GMT

July 3 - Brazilian side. Spectacular view of the Iguazu Falls.

July 4 - Argentinian side. View of the Devils Throat. This is so named as the early settlers used to throw the aboriginals into the throat. Absolutely spectacular display of the worlds natural beauty and ferocity. The noise and power made you imagine thunder at its most intense. We took a jet boat ride right into the base of the falls - soaked to the skin but estatic.

Rio

lima_llama_loo — Mon, 2 Jul 2007 07:13:00 GMT

We flew into fog, rain and mist on arrival in Rio... after three days the weather was still the same. Our hotel was right on the Copacabana Beach - it was all good.

We saw Crist the Redeemer through a haze and there were times we were standing at his feet and we couldn´t see his face... so needless to say we didn´t have much of a view of Rio however what we did see was amazing. We then had lunch in Ipanema (remember the Girl from Ipanema? We can´t but apparently there is a famous song about 40 years old).... entree was crab in shell... and that is exactly what it was, minced crab (supposedly) meat in á´shell (not the crabs´shell but a beach shell)... then onto Sugarloaf Mountain via cable car - great view.

On Sunday we visited the Hippie Markets and purchased original artworks (they really should be in the Lourve).. and two spinning tops (go figure). then onto an evening out - (yes Struan put on her dress), this involved a Brazillian grill ... food, beautiful food, and more food and then some. they continuously brought spit roasts (beef, lamb, pork, chicken, sausage and prawns) to the table and carved them fresh for us.. then a braziillian stage show complete with feathers, bikinis, feathers, drums, feathers, amazing costumes and a lot of male tourist... (no... only the uglies unfortunately) we finished a bottle of wine and the show seemed to go quite quickly.

Shopping, shopping, shopping... we were picked up and whisked off to the Sterns workshop where we were able to observe all sorts of precious gem stones being fashioned into works of art... eg. think Eva Longario chandelier emerald and diamond earrings at the Oscars. Needless to say ... Emma your necklace has not been purchased.

then onto an afternoon tea at the Copacabana Palace Hotel - an upmarket colonial setting (first hotel in Copacabana)... the staff were very professional and did not even blink as we flip flopped our way through the elegant foyer and onto the restaurant.... silver service all the way! as we looked around the poolside setting we noticed a number of portly gentlemen with the ultimate accessory... the (much)younger and beautiful woman.

Charming Chile

lima_llama_loo — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:15:00 GMT

Charming Chile!!

Went over to Bella Vista, Santiago for dinner (27 June). Restaruant = Como Agua Para el Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate). Gorgeous courtyard and beautifully cooked salmon. Wandered around the quaint little bohemian shops displaying jewellery, textiles and cafes.

Finding the quick change of currency between Bolivia and Chile (we are only here for 1 1/2 days this time - just rubbing it in a little) a little confusing. We have notes up to 100 000 pesos (seems like a very large amount).

Our guide (Alwin) told us that we were lucky to have a June day with reduced smog - we had a good opportunity to view the panaroma of the Andes from San Cristobal Hill.

Chile is more like Australia - we have only seen a few beggars and the traffic appears to be somewhat organised. They even have lights controlling pedestrian traffic. In Peru and Bolivia it was definitely every pedestrian for themselves!! This is also apparent as we don´t have as many tales to tell.

Except....we are off to have coffee at a 'coffee with legs' cafe. The drinks here are served by scantily clad buff men (apparently there are many with women serving and the women decided that equality of the sexes was required)....to be continued!! (NB: The current president to Chile is a woman - move over Johnny!!)

Rio tomorrow!

Chow

Cinco days en Bolivia

lima_llama_loo — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:08:00 GMT

Firstly we journeyed to Sun Island (an island on Lake Titicaca, Bolivian side) with a guide named Gonzalo. Yet another hike viewing ruins along the way (everyone has a ruin to show us and they all want us to hike 2 hours to get there - seriously, after Machu Picchu what could compare). We were rewarded with a traditional Andean lunch with a spectacular view... however the sunrise the next morning was even more so. the good old aussie solarhart panels were used to power the ecolodge.

Then onto La Paz the highest city in the world with the highest golf course, highest stadium, the highest hospital etc... (they were very proud). Although there seemed to be less poverty than Peru there were more beggars (interesting). We visited Tiwinaku - more ruins however this culture dates before Incan rule and is currently an archeological site which was fascinating to see the locals discovering historical evidence thousands of years old.

The shopping in La Paz was cheap and challenging - we are not the worlds greatest hagglers (Emma do you still want that necklace?) Witches Market - Struan bought an interesting love potion that Sophie refuses to let her open until she is back in Australia (currently sleeping with one eye open!). The markets also displayed dried llama feotus - these are used as offering to the sun god when building property (to be buried under the foundations) Sophie nearly vomitted at this sight and Struan wasn´t much better.

We have also purchased some dvds that we ´hope´are in english (many movies are dubbed in spanish) .... guess we´ll find out when back in Oz.

The local vino is very good over here and we are purchasing the odd bottle of red for about $5.00. We have all but given up on the pisco sours...

A Saga to Tell - We thought we would copy some photos onto a cd for safe keeping and left our 2g memory cards for downloading with a little girl in a kodak shop.... an hour and a half later we trundle in to pick up our disc when the little girl announces that there are no photos on Struans card and that there never was (she had previously told us that it would take 2 cds to download the photos)... well you can imagine just how upsetting that was... she then informed us that they ´may´be able to retrieved but it would cost more money (of course). We promptly phoned our english/spanish speaking Gonzalo (student lawyer - the poor girl didn´t stand a chance)... she emphatically insisted that there never where photos... we then went to another shop that recovered the lost photos (...4 hours later amid shop lockup at 9pm) and surprisingly there were photos of the silly little kodak girl!! she had taken photos of herself on Strus memory card and then deleted it... Can you believe it!! We left La Paz a little jaded..

Farewell Peru

lima_llama_loo — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:19:00 GMT

Our last experience in Peru was visting the Uros Indians on their floating reed islands on Lake Titicaca. These people make their islands entirely of reeds from the lake. they also eat the reeds (apparently full of protein but we could only taste water and fibre) and make boats, homes, beds from these reeds and even have small fish farms on the islands.

Highlights of Peru -

- Pisco Sours

- Machu Picchu

- Women in tradional dress working hard carrying children, sticks, animals etc.. on their backs wrapped in the colourful blankets...

- amazing fruit that actually tastes like fruit

- silver shopping (can always find a shop)

- tooting cars

- chaotic drivers (we have had our taxi knock a man off his bike, run over a dog and almost run into another car full of young men which resulted in a short spat of road rage)

- dogs everywhere (some police with rottweillers with muzzles on, cute fluffy dogs with winter manmade coats, strays - but all friendly)

- Amazon anteater

- toilets (bano)... hmmmmmm. no flushing of loo paper... mmmmmmmmmm

Next stop.... Bolivia

Machu Picchu

lima_llama_loo — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:55:00 GMT

After an arduous 12 km trek, 700 meters up (but we walked úp´more than 700 meters as there were many, many steps up and down..) we finally passed though the ´Sun Gate´(the Inca trail entrance) to capture our first (well deserved) glimpse of Machu Picchu... the most well preserved Inca city of of south America. It sounds corny but it really was a magical experience - the afternoon sun was streaming through the clouds casting it´s rays onto the ancient sight (the sun gate is some distance away looking down on MP).

The Incas (well only the king was Inca) were amazing considering that they were only around for a century. They were fierce warriors who (similar to the romans) conquered much land in their effort to dominate. Their engineering abilities were incredible which has ensured the longevity of their buildings even in a earthquake zone. unfortunately many of the buildings were destroyed by the Spanish from 1532... enough of the history lesson..

the vista train ride back to Cuzco was quite bizarre to say the least. the carriage hosts and cleaner participated in a fashion parade of the latest designs in alpaca wear. this was all to the tunes of Áre you going to San Francisco, Money for Nothing, Careless Whispers and James Blunts.. You´re Beautiful!!! believe it or not, people bought the clothing from around usd250..

We will bore you all with our photos when we get home (or as soon as we are able to upload photos to this site) ... Be afraid, be very afraid... we are already planning a slide night!!

Roasted Guinea Pig ´n´ Frog Juice

lima_llama_loo — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:43:00 GMT

well we finally got around to eating the national dish of Peru... Roasted Guinea Pig (coya)... We were enthusiastic about this culinary adventure until the poor little fella came out like a pig on a spit... we think he was full stride when cooked as his little back leg was fully extended. once we covered his shrivelled head with a napkin, it was each girl for herself!! actually it took quite a bit of time to psych ourselves up to eat him. then it was stringy and gamey... we possibly sent most of him back to the kitchen (there was very little meat on his bones... as you can imagine). The waiter then delivered us shots of ánise´(a bit like oozo) to help with ´digestion´... we think it was just to have the tourist go away happy.

we have also heard about a ´health juice´made from frog legs amongst other things, but have decided to leave kermit for another day!!

Amazing Amazon

lima_llama_loo — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:30:00 GMT

We survived the Amazon jungle, complete with tribal tattoos. Canopy walkway (the highest swinging rope bridge was 36.6m above ground and ....there were 14 of them!!) - had Sophie committing to a life changing moment.....possibly now she is on terra firma this decision will like all new year resolutions - forgotten by day 2.

Our flight to Iquitos was initally delayed. We were meant to leave for Iquitos at 5.45am on Tuesday but ended up leaving at 5.15pm on Tuesday ...so probably missed a day. Ended up going back to the hotel in Lima where we were able to catch up on several hours sleep.

We spent the Tuesday nite in a 5 star hotel in Iquitos - because we missed the boat to the Amazon. the opulance was quite vulgar compared to the surrounding poverty of the local people. In the morning we left at 4.45am - travelling by boat on the Amazon River (the captain had to keep opening the windscreen and putting a torch out the window to navigate). We were both a little worried. We then took a moto taxi (a motor bike with a rickshaw attached) over a small island and then another boat to the Napo River to Ceiba Tops (the resort where we stayed for Wed nite).

Wildlife sightings included: saddle back monkeys (small and cute, charlie the worlds largest rat (the size of a medium dog), dennis the cutest little 7 month old ant eater, blue and pink dolphins, various toads and frogs, tarantula,condor farm animals - water buffalo, cows, chooks (with long legs - imagine the drum sticks).

We also watched a sharman concoct various potions - including one similar to viagra (for both men and women)- which apparently explains why families here are large.

Sophie learnt a Yaguan (Indian tribe) dance. Struan was a wall flower (ie. papparzi).

Struan negotiated a handicraft bag to Sl 5 (5 soles) and ended up paying Sl 15. Work out that one!!

Met a very nice younger American couple from LA (of course they worked in Hollywood in the movies - (We thought the guy was related to Ben Affleck). Laura (his girlfriend) had purchased the trip to Peru as a present and had a full face of makeup - in the Amazon rain and all. We also met another guy from South Africa (Mark) who was very patient with us on the canopy walkway when we were walking very gingerly.

Pleased to hear the Maroons one the state of origin. Make sure someone let us know the results of the third game by the blog or text.

Last Day Lima

lima_llama_loo — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:31:00 GMT

We are having a great time. Went to the catacombs today - skulls and leg bones under an old church in the centre of Lima. A little on the nose and claustraphobic. Then looked around the antique and jewellery stores near our hotel. We had a fantastic meal last nite on a restaruant over a pier. The lights of Lima were dazzling and the waves of the Pacific were crashing beneath us (very romantic for the two of us!!) We had octapus, fish, scallops, prawns and pisco sours. We were a little late getting up today.....

Off to the amazon tomorrow.

Hope everyone caught up on the family secrets before they were frantically deleted.

Gallery: Peru

lima_llama_loo — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:52:00 GMT

Touchdown Peru

lima_llama_loo — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 15:30:00 GMT

Touchdown in Peru after 30 hours of travel (including stopovers) arrived in Lima at 1am. (We were looking so exhausted after all our travels that our passport photos started to look like glamour shots!). The tour company picked us up directly at the airport which was fantastic. Everyone who owns a car - toots their horn at all hours ( the earplugs worked well).

We are feeling a rude as our Spanish is extremely poor - at the momento...but we are trying desparately to come up to speed (smiling helps)

We have a couple of lazy days to get comfortable and then head to the amazon, followed by macchu pichu....and it will be full on from there.

Both of us have lost our email address book so it would be great if people could email our hotmail(sophie) and gmail (struan) asap.

Our first impressions of Lima are - smog, friendly, exquisite architecture, ponchos.

Tonite we try out pisco sours - a local cocktail. More details to follow.....

2 more sleeps

lima_llama_loo — Thu, 7 Jun 2007 18:16:00 GMT

Struan arrived in Brisbane on delayed flight.... the beginning of many delays no doubt.... still, it's better than working. still frantically packing and finalising those last minute joys (eg. assignments).

In all honesty, we've got no news but wanted to test drive our first blog...

Watch this space!!

lima_llama_loo — Fri, 1 Jun 2007 13:55:00 GMT