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Monday, September 17, 2012 - 15:27 |
Today was a good day. No offence intended to South America or anyone from there, but it was great to be back in a first world country where everyone speaks English (and my ‘awesome British accent’ is often complimented). ... |
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Saturday, September 15, 2012 - 18:48 |
The first day of my return trip involved me spending most of my day sitting down on first a plane and then a bus. Luckily my flight back up to Sao Paulo from Buenos Aires was from the domestic airport (contradicting the airports title I know), which is right in the city centre, rather than the international airport which is a good hour away. ... |
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Friday, September 14, 2012 - 05:09 |
I’m writing these two days as a joint blog entry primarily because there isn’t much to report. I’ve been very much taking it easy, with highlights including wandering around the city’s parks and going out for some great food. ... |
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Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - 07:43 |
Today was my first full day back in Buenos Aires, and I was quick to do some research about what there is left to do in the city. One place which had been in mind from the start was La Boca, which it was a definite shame to miss last time, and is the kind of place people always ask if you visited. I therefore did some research about the best way to get there, and then headed out. ... |
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 18:31 |
The last couple of days I have been faced with two options: stay in Brazil on my own for another week, or accept invites from people I’ve met along the way to return to either Buenos Aires or Santiago (or both). Going all the way back to Santiago would have required a rather expensive change to my return London flight, and I wasn’t sure if I fancied another week on my own in Brazil. ... |
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Monday, September 10, 2012 - 04:29 |
Apparently I have been very lucky with the weather here in Sao Paulo – a rather hot 33 degrees with bright sunshine during the winter. It was therefore the perfect day to go walking around the historic city centre in order to check out the city’s main sights. ... |
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Sunday, September 9, 2012 - 05:00 |
…not that the locals in Sao Paulo seem to care. This was in stark contrast to the same celebrations in Peru, where the streets were littered in Peruvian flags and special parades were being put on. All anyone seems to see today as is an excuse to get out of the city, as evidenced by the terrible traffic I witnessed last night. ... |
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Friday, September 7, 2012 - 19:53 |
Today was the last full day of my Brazilian road trip since I have to return the car in Sao Paulo tomorrow by midday. Rather than rushing up from Curitiba tomorrow morning, I decided I’d end up back in Sao Paulo tonight instead. Therefore I planned a more leisurely route back which would take in more of the coast and require the whole day to drive. ... |
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Friday, September 7, 2012 - 02:14 |
I had a strange experience in my hostel dorm last night. It was just me and one other guy who couldn’t speak English, and before he went to bed he showed me a message on his phone saying something along the lines of ‘Jesus is watching over you. God bless. Good night’. I said an awkward ‘obrigado’ and the guy got into bed. ... |
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Thursday, September 6, 2012 - 00:52 |
Today was the start of my mini road trip south of Sao Paulo, and it of course had to begin with collection of the rental car. It had turned out the cheapest place to pickup was the international airport, so I had a roughly 1 hour journey to get there. The journey involved what was probably the busiest bus I have ever been on, with people crammed in until they literally couldn’t move. ... |
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Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - 03:01 |
After a very lazy weekend, today it was time for a change of scene. I had one last lunch in the hostel (can you guess what I made?!), and then headed to the bus station in the city centre. This was a rather convoluted process, which first involved taking the metro to Centro, and then a large amount of wandering before giving up and getting a cab to the bus terminal. ... |
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Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - 02:46 |
Today was my second day relaxing at the beach, and it was probably the best yet, with perfect weather for the occasion. I headed there with two English guys and two Australian girls from the hostel who I met the night before, and we found a great spot on Copacabana. The beach appeared to be even busier than yesterday, and the main carriageway on the beach front was closed to cars. ... |
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Sunday, September 2, 2012 - 21:43 |
This morning as I booked another night at the hostel it occurred to me I’ve now been in Rio for almost a week, and have more or less seen all the major sights. Therefore I’ve decided that after a relaxing weekend by the beach I’m going to head south to Sao Paulo, and then do a mini three day driving tour to Florianopolis and Curitiba. More to come on that next week… ... |
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Saturday, September 1, 2012 - 19:30 |
The hostel I’ve been staying in has a list in reception of all the things to do while in Rio. It seems I’ve been working my way through them over the past few days, and today I decided to head to the botanical gardens, which are apparently one of the best in the world. Last time I went to botanical gardens was in Cape Town, so these ones had some strong competition. ... |
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Saturday, September 1, 2012 - 00:18 |
It’s finally Marc’s last day! After 36 days of on/off (mostly on) travelling together, today was the day we ended our joint South American travels for good. However, Marc’s flight was a night flight, so we had more or less the whole day to do some sightseeing. Given we saw Christ the Redeemer yesterday, the obvious place to visit today was Sugarloaf Mountain. ... |
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Friday, August 31, 2012 - 03:06 |
Marc has less than two days left in Rio, which gives him just about enough time to see the two main sights: the Christ the Redeemer statue, and Sugarloaf Mountain. Today we decided on going to see Christ, since the Germans I met the other day were going, and we thought we may as well join them. ... |
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Thursday, August 30, 2012 - 02:23 |
Today I thought I would check out the area of Rio called ‘Centro’, which is the main city centre where many of the historic monuments are found, as well as the financial centre. It was a very easy journey to get there, with the metro going direct from the station by the hostel to all of the main stops in Centro. ... |
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Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - 00:40 |
When considering what the most famous beaches in the world are, only a few come to mind (Santa Monica, Bondi for example), and two of them are right here in Rio: Copacabana and Ipanema. Given my hostel is a 5 minute walk from Copacabana beach, I thought it would be the perfect place to spend my first day in the city. ... |
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012 - 00:35 |
My flight today was at a slightly awkward 9pm, which meant I couldn’t really do much during the day because a) I woke up quite late, and b) I had been told the airport is quite a long way and there can regularly be bad traffic. ... |
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Monday, August 27, 2012 - 00:32 |
As the title suggests, today was my last full day in Buenos Aires, and it was also a rather relaxing one. Marc headed off to the airport around lunch time, and I was on my own for most of the day after that. Having seen quite a lot of the sights now, I had to do a bit of research online in order to find out where would be good for a wander. ... |
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Saturday, August 25, 2012 - 23:29 |
Yesterday when we met the Americans at the cemetery they mentioned the Argentine Tango festival was on at the local exhibition centre. Apparently we are fortunate to be in the city at such a time, since it only happens for about a week every year. As a result, we thought it would be the perfect destination to head to on Marc’s last full day in the city. ... |
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Friday, August 24, 2012 - 23:12 |
Our main aim for today was to check out La Recoleta, which is the cemetery where Evita is buried. Getting to the cemetery saw us take our first Argentinian bus, which was most noteworthy due to the payment system. Unless you have the Buenos Aires equivalent of an Oyster card, you have to pay the 2 peso (about 30p) fare using coins. ... |
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Friday, August 24, 2012 - 01:22 |
It seems that since we got to Buenos Aires we struggle to get up before around lunch time. I suppose it isn’t such a bad thing – the weather isn’t great at this time of year, and the Argentinians tend to be a lot busier in the evenings/night. For example, last night we were in the bar until around 3am, and it was still completely packed; you certainly don’t realise quite how late it is. ... |
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Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 02:00 |
Today was supposed to be our last day in Buenos Aires before getting the boat over to Uruguay for a few days. However, it turns out the boat only goes at the weekends in winter, so the trip is unfortunately off the cards (Marc flies up to Rio on Saturday). On the plus side, we will get to see more of Buenos Aires, and it took pressure off sightseeing today. ... |
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 22:21 |
This morning saw the earliest start in a while, with us taking advantage of not having gone out the night before in order to see some more of the sights. Our first stop was the obelisk which stands prominently in the middle of Avenue 9th July. ... |
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Monday, August 20, 2012 - 05:38 |
After a slow start yesterday, we didn’t do much better this morning since a Saturday night out in Buenos Aires more or less equates to a Sunday morning out instead; clubs don’t really start until 3am, and people happily stay out until about 7 or 8! We had both had enough by about 5am, though getting to bed by 6 still wrote off the morning. ... |
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Monday, August 20, 2012 - 02:53 |
Today was my first full day in the Argentinian capital, and it turned out to be a rather slow one. After a terrible night's sleep due to a very loud snorer in the hostel, Jonty and I awoke to find there was a power cut in the entire building. Realising there was no reason to hang around, we made our way to our hostel for the next couple of nights in an area called Florida. ... |
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Sunday, August 19, 2012 - 00:16 |
After 12 days in Chile, today it was finally time to leave. Waking up this morning wasn't the easiest, given we had been out until about 5am the night before. It had been treated as something of a 'goodbye' party for me, given I have got to know the staff at the hostel really well over the last week. ... |
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Saturday, August 18, 2012 - 01:48 |
It’s now over a week since I arrived in Santiago (with Easter Island in between of course), and today I finally made it on the walking tour of the city. Unfortunately, the weather decided it wasn’t going to cooperate, so we had to stick it out in the drizzle and overcast skies (reminiscent of a miserable autumn day back home). ... |
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Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 17:13 |
Our plan had been for this to be our last full day in Santiago before getting the bus to Mendoza. However, this morning we found out the Andean pass to Mendoza is closed until at least Sunday due to heavy snowfall. Unfortunately the pass is the only road in the region which crosses the mountains, and we were therefore completely reliant on it for continuing our journey. ... |
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Wednesday, August 15, 2012 - 17:24 |
After nearly 10 days apart, we were finally reunited today! Marc arrived at the hostel around lunch time after a flight down from Calama in northern Chile. It was great to finally talk English to an English person after the time travelling on my own. ... |
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Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 17:24 |
This morning was my last on Easter Island, and I had a few errands to run. First I headed to the post office, where I got my passport stamped – this unique stamp is quite a traveller trophy, and something I’ll definitely be showing off! After that, I had to go to the bank to get some money to pay for my hotel. ... |
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Monday, August 13, 2012 - 06:39 |
Today was my last full day on Easter Island, and I had a choice between two self-guide tours. The first visited the Rano kau volcano and birdman festival village of Orongo, and the second visited the Moais on the island's interior and the topknot quarry. ... |
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Sunday, August 12, 2012 - 17:30 |
…or at least all of the major Moai-based sites. Today was probably the best day of the trip so far, and it’s safe to say I’ve now seen enough Moai to last a very long time. ... |
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Saturday, August 11, 2012 - 05:37 |
*Edit 14/08/12: I later found out that Tristan Da Cunha is in fact the most isolated permanently inhabited place in the world.* ... |
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Friday, August 10, 2012 - 05:21 |
This afternoon I finally booked my flight to Easter Island. As I write this, I am about to go to bed because I have a taxi to the airport at 5am. A few people I’ve met at the hostel here in Santiago have been, and each one reckons I’m going to have a great time – more to come on that over the weekend! (can you guess what the photo of the day will be of tomorrow?!) ... |
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Thursday, August 9, 2012 - 18:26 |
When I woke this morning I could hear sirens outside. I thought nothing of it and couldn't actually see anything because the shutters were over the windows. I soon went into the hostel's living room, and casually went on my laptop as scenes of violence played on the television; again I thought nothing of it. ... |
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Wednesday, August 8, 2012 - 17:11 |
Nothing too exciting today so I'll keep it short. The main purpose of the day was to fly to Santiago from Arica. This was via the smallest airport I can remember visiting, with just one security officer, and two gates. The whole process felt more like getting a bus than getting a plane, since it was a 'hopper' service going from La Paz, then Arica, Iquique, and finally Santiago. ... |
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Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - 03:33 |
I was in my hotel room today and thought I could hear some rain outside. "Here we go - I don't even have a jacket" was my first thought given I was soon to leave for lunch. However, a quick check out the window confirmed there was no rain in sight and I must have been hearing things. This was good news, but the sky was cloudy so I checked the forecast. No rain! ... |
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Monday, August 6, 2012 - 06:26 |
Today was another travelling day, as I made my way from Arequipa down to Arica, the northernmost town in Chile. ... |
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Sunday, August 5, 2012 - 06:42 |
Today we finally got to see the sights of Arequipa, but not before spending the morning sorting out our travel arrangements for the next few days. Marc is heading to Puno tomorrow for Lake Titicaca and a trip south through Bolivia, while I am going to be sticking to the coast and travelling down through northern Chile. ... |
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Saturday, August 4, 2012 - 20:17 |
After 10 hours on the bus last night we spent the morning catching up on sleep until our white water rafting booking at 11.30am. This was a first for both of us and something we had been strongly recommended to do in Arequipa. The whole package only cost the equivalent of £15 and it lasted for almost 3 hours - brilliant value. ... |
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Friday, August 3, 2012 - 23:06 |
Only a short one today because we didn't actually do anything of note, or even have the opportunity to take any pictures. In the morning we relaxed in our hostel after an exhausting couple of days on the Machu Picchu tour, before having some lunch locally in Cusco. ... |
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Thursday, August 2, 2012 - 05:27 |
The second day of our tour package saw our earliest start yet, with us waking at 4am (after just 3 hours of sleep) in order to hike up to Machu Picchu for the start of our guided tour. The night before I had specifically asked the guide whether it is light at 4.30am. ‘Yes of course it is already quite light at this time’ was the answer, so we confidently packed our bags without torches. ... |
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Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - 06:15 |
Today was the first day of our tour, which involved visiting Incan ruins and Peruvian villages on the way to Ollantaytambo, where I am writing this while waiting for our train to leave for our hostel near Machu Picchu. ... |
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Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - 04:18 |
Our main mission for today was to sort out a tour for Machu Picchu. The standard 'traveller' thing to do is a 4 or 5 day trek through the jungle, but we don't have time (and perhaps the inclination) to do so. Instead, we opted for a two day tour which visits the sacred valley on the first day, before a full guided tour of Machu Picchu on the second. ... |
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Monday, July 30, 2012 - 03:10 |
Our last night in Lima was spent celebrating Independence Day at the hostel and at a local club. Everyone wore red and white outfits to match the flag, and there was a special 2 for 1 deal on the Pisco, which Marc took full advantage of. I stuck to the local beer Cuzquenya, which is only about £1 a bottle here. ... |
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Sunday, July 29, 2012 - 01:57 |
As the locals say: feliz 28 de julio! Today was our last full day in Lima, so we took the chance to check out the main downtown sites. Turns out there wasn't actually that much to see other than the expected town squares and cathedral, though we still had a good day. ... |
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Saturday, July 28, 2012 - 06:24 |
Day 2 very much started from midnight, with us heading to a club with some people from the hostel soon after I arrived. This inevitably lead to a very late night, and a late start in the morning as a result. ... |
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Thursday, July 26, 2012 - 20:14 |
Here it is! I am sitting in Atlanta airport (the busiest in the world), waiting for my connecting flight to meet Marc in Lima, Peru where our travels will commence. ... |
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