Archive for May, 2010

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Woah! We´re going to Bolivia (ala Venga Boys)


2010
05.29

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Hola! Just a short blog today as Bolivias internet is not the fastest… So as you may have realised we are in Bolivia and it is awesome :) We are now eating out every meal and have had a private room for a few nights. Arrived at the Bolivian border at 5am and eventually got allowed into the country when we remember to get checked out of Argentina. So anyway a 1 pound 2 and half hour bus ride along dirt tracks we arrived in Tupiza down one bag that Polly managed to lose/got stolen (she says…) Luckily there was very little in the bag, the most valuable item being our guidebook, luckily we have kinde planned our last month so it isn´t a major blow. Yes it is our last month now, we past the 100 day mark the other day!

We checked into a hostel and a mini rest before going and exploring the town as well as withdrawing 3000 Bolivianos (300 pounds) in cash from a bank as cash machines don´t exist here! Despite the hostel womens best attempt to get us to book a Salt flat tour for double the price than in Uyuni we resisted and instead booked onto some more horse riding as, yes Sophie we have decided to ditch the bus and travel via our four legged companions, who were slightly crazy it turned out! Our day in Tupisa was awesome. It was very hot all day and cloudless. We chilled on our rooftop terrace for a couple of hours sunbathing/reading and listening to music as my phone has decided to work again! The horse riding in the afternoon was great fun. We went out to a big canyoney place that felt a little like mars as whichever way you looked was red rocks… The horses were a bit mad and liked to attack one another if they got to close, Polly´s horse was the worse and proper jumped to try and bite other horses! We got to gallop on the horses as well which was scary but immense and the horses jumped over this stream thingy. Overall a very good afternoon.

Today we had an all day bus to Uyuni which wasn´t the best as they don´t have roads here so it is a very bumpy ride with huge drops down cliffs either side of the road.. Pol shut her eyes for bits of the journey! Took all day to cover 200km so wasn´t exactly speedy travel. We have been very busy since we arrived as there isn´t actually a whole lot to do here apart from the salt flat tours, so after listening to the agents tell us how good their tour is we booked one to start tomorrow morning! We also booked our bus out of here a few hours after we get back! Some fun shopping times followed so we now have super cool hats, gloves, socks and even leg warmers!!

Our trip lasts 3 days and then were straight up to La Paz so will be a short while till the next post, but don´t worry we haven´t died (unless our jeep breaks down and we get stranded…) We´ll keep our fingers crossed :) xxx

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Cactuses and Chicken


2010
05.26

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We successfully managed to waste the day in Cordoba…i don´t really mean waste…in mean cinema :) robin hood this time, we are actually regulars. For those of you aware of my film taste, you can imagine that endless wars with bows and arrows involved is like my idea of an amazing film…not. But, it was pretty much the only option and not too too bad. (Polly was actually enjoying it, whenever I sneakily looked over she was grinning!)

Tried out an ice cream place afterwards, soooo cheap like 90p for a sundae with fruit two scoops whipped cream and sauce, we accidentally went back today for more…milkshakes this time… mmm! Bus was average… tea was far too late. We stopped at like 9 and almost everyone got off and came back with bought food which we took as a bad sign but we had been promised food, so persevered. By half 9 i had almost given up, eaten my one banana (only food we had) and resigned myself to a hungry sleep…. and just as i was nodding off, at about 10:10pm round comes another delectable selection of ham and cheese sandwichs plus mushy ham with corn and peas in a lasagne form kind of. Yum.

Arrived horribly early (still dark) to a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Noone fancied telling us there was another bus hidden behind our bus to take us to the town so we wandered into the cafe thing and had a very stunted convo with the guy trying to sell us coffee.. where are we??? looks bemused, pulls out map and points to a place which is not really near to salta, where we are going…oh dear… Luckily he realised our stupidness and took us to the bus, just before it was about to drive off. Close call! and an hour later we were at our hostel.

Salta is really nice, especially after not living anywhere for a couple of days…and very hot and sunny!!!! yayyyyyyy i actually got another tan line today.. it had been very missed. Yesterday was argentinas 200th birthday/independence day celebration which apparently required shops being closed about 4 days in advance … for preparations.. obvs. So we managed to catch a bit of the parade (seemingly every person in salta was involved in some way) then had a lovely lunch in the main plaza square thing … sat outside. It was the first restaurant for at least a week and the first proper food for a few days… the chicken salad sandwich was yumyum.

In the afternoon we headed up in a cable car to the top of a tall hill thing (they seem to like their tall hills where you can view the whole city) chilled out there in the sun with icecream (hard life) then got some photos with the waterfally things they had created, before coming down checking out the markets and trying to sort our life out for the next few days… the plan for ages has been across to buenos aires and then up to salta and then….. yeah, we hadnt really got that far. But its sorted now. That afternoon we booked a day trip for today to a nearby-ish town and then tonight we have yet another night bus (groan… but yay for saving on accomodation)(but really it isn´t a proper nightbus at it leaves at quater to 1 in the morning!!) to the border of argentina and bolivia… so by lunch tomorrow we should be in cheap land ! cant wait! and we have like over two weeks to spend there so should be able to chill out a bit :)

The day trip today was really cool, a lot of driving but worth it for awesome pictures. Basically you take a really scenic route to this village called cachi stopping at various points for photos and then stop at the town for lunch then head back. Not sure quite why, but it was only me and toby on the tour, so personal guide and chauffeur whooop… little apprehensive at first but ended up good. Apparently there was supposed to be another two but we called at their hostel (yucky time of about 7am…and they were still asleep so we drove off.. gutted times!)

Will hopefully get the pics up either tonight or sometime soon but basically loads of funky mountains, some with snow on the top, loads really reddy or orangey because of the iron apparently…probs took too many photos.. the highlight for me (and toby has concurred) were the cactuses or cactai or whatever you wanna call them. Apparently it was the second largest cactus reserve in the world so we partied on down all alone with the cactuses while the guide sat in the car far away. Because there were only the two of us in a car as opposed to the minivan full we were ahead of all the other tours which meant it was totally deserted for us. Commence photoshoot… with toby modelling the bed head look he works so well (unless your sophie who thinks it needs to go!)

Made it to Cachi and decided to use our two hours well and go to the museum and the church like the guide recommended….just joshing! we sun bathed in the centre square with our premade lunch :) last night we bought an epic pre cooked roast chicken and ate it with rice and tomato sauce yesterday (it was one of the best teas in aaages :) – toby) but had enough left for massive baguettes.. and an apple as well (gotta stay healthy!)(plus crisps… don´t want to get too healthy do we) finally got of our bums for a walk up to the cemetery wayyy too much effort up a hill, when we were already at a high altitude (which i am blaming completely for my out of breath ness) had a nice look then wandered down to find the car.. i fell asleep pretty much straight away but got woken up for a lovely mountain stroll (great) which was nice but……. so was sleep. Then it was tobys turn for sleep not sure how, as our guide had decided he was colin mcrae (toby says its a good job we werent in a helicopter…..) and we made it back to salta in good time..just what we needed a couple of extra hours to hang around whilst waiting for the bus. Polly did suggest that in those couple of extra hours we go to an ice-cream parlour……

its now ten to 9 and we are just waiting until a suitable time to go for tea comes, probs like 45 minutes….. groan. hungry!

anyways, next blog will be from bolivia

xxxxx

what do you say to a liar from south america?

i don´t bolivia! :)

2 comments

Life on a bus (with lots of ham and cheese)


2010
05.24

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So… i finally woke up on that afternoon…and a very nice someone went out to the supermarket to buy our healthy tea (fish fingers and chips… with peas and sweetcorn might i add) and a sneaky chocolate bar to make me feel better…and then he cooked it all while i blobbed in front of my super sweet 16 on mtv. We did actually manage to make it out to the jazz bar in the end. It said on the flyer it started at 10pm so we decided to head out about half past…fashionably late… good job we didnt go at 11 like toby had suggested… We got there and the place was pretty busy ordered our ginormo beer to share and heard about a minute of music then they all stopped grabbed their coats and went outside. <i was sure it was just a cigerette break but still, it would have been a rip off to pay the 2 quid entrance feww for that! We didnt need to worry though, they came back and did almost an hour so we got our moneys worth…and the double bass player (who had a really cool electric one) im sure is a runaway from coldplay… he had the look downnnn.

Got back to the hostel where the second round of ring of fire was just commencing…how could we resist, except iut was the american version called kings cup and obviously not as good… boooo! but it was fun and at 2am ish it was our latest night in a while.

Which was great for my johnson cough which has been getting louder and more annoying until about today where i think it is starting to subside a little, as well, the epically runny nose is on its way out… whoop.

the next morning we got a bus to Montevideo, the capial of uruguay. I remember learning all the countries and the capitals in grade 10 spanish class, but never actually thought i´d go there… but to be fair i probably wont be going back. It was ok, nothing too special… cloudy and all food was expensive so we hit a new low and got plain pasta with tomato puree for tea, saved by a fruit salad we made ourselves. Was still feeling pretty rough and had passed it onto toby a little bit so early night, gutted for the people in the dorm that had to sleep through the cough… ha!

Day 2 montevideo… had already booked our bus for the night but woke up feeling suprisingly energetic and went on a ´free´ walking tour with the hostel… you had to tip.The guide, although she could speak good english decided not to 90 percent of the time, so all we gleamed about the city was mainly here is the library and law school, have a look at the market, mee tback here in 50 mins.

It was a weird market, kinda like a car boot sale in the middle of the city, but they had stands for most things, remotes, rabbits, underwear, bikes, gold things, birds, old games consoles, fake dvds…nothing caught our eye really though and we continued on with the tour… which was pointless except for the fact that where the tour ended happened to be at a really cool park with another market, peddle boats and a drumming group, which they neglected to show us… we quickly paid our 1 pound tip each and went to explore…/ collapse in front of the burger stand with our hamburguesas numero dos…cheese onions sweetcorn ketchup… mmm.. the drummers were still playing and the sun was out so sitting was nice for a while.. then a wander round the market (still too expensive) and then a sneaky turn on the peddle boats. Toby decided that we should see if we could get a chunk of wood all the way through the mechanism (why¿?) which hindered our progress for a while, but we got there and then made the long walk back to the hostel to get ready for a night bus, back to corboda in argentina.

We´re trying to get to a place called salta in the north o argentina but no buses went there so corboda was the furthest and stpped us from having to go bak to buenos aires and pay more for taxis to get around, so here we are again and today we went back to the same cinema we went to last monday to watch robin hood. Another bus tonight, finally getting to salta so we are proper bums…left our bags in a locker at the bus station as obvs we have no hostel to go to … sob.

Tea last night was thrilling, ham and cheese sandwich followed by ham and cheese croissant followed by ham and cheese lasagne but at least there was food and at least it was free… i bet we will have the same joy tonight. lets just hope that they dont consider 3 crackers breakfast again… grrrr.

And yeah think thats about all to report…

xxxxxxxxxxxx

4 comments

Want Clean Clothes…


2010
05.21

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Hola :) that is my basic Spanish phrase yes, but I have improved slightly and can ask for things and costs so can survive. Some phrases are still a little out of reach of both of us though. Yesterday we went to a landeratte to have Everything washed (for the first time in SA…) and it wasn´t self service. You had to ask what you wanted so Polly pointed at our clothes and said ´Want clean clothes´ (In Espanol obvs) The woman managed to work out what she was saying so I am sitting here in lovely clean smelling clothes :)

Our couple of days in BA was very nice. The bus ride was basically a chauffered limo due to the fact we were the only passengers sitting upstairs! There were a few people downstairs, but in total about 5 people on the bus including the driver! Got a taxi to the hotel door for about the correct price. Taxi drivers have lots of ways to make fares more than they should be. We chaecked at tourist info how much it should be and Polly basically told the driver that the fare should be about 25 Pesos. Our hostel was amazing. The guidebook rates it as one of the best in Latin America and it was voted in the top ten worldwide by hostelworld.com. The staff were really great and when we arrived at around 9 they said the beds wouldn´t be ready until 11 but we could head up to the rooftop terrace for breakfast :) Better brekkie than at most hostels, with pasties and oranges so you could make fresh orange juice. The views over the city were also pretty good, although I never remember to take my camera up and get any photos :( We met a Canadian couple while having breakfast who had arrived the night before and we ended up going together to some area of the city (I can´t remember which sector) It had this huge metal flower thing though, that rotated to follow the sun and opened and shut when it was day or night. Was quite cool. Also the huge cemetry place which we wandered round for quite a while and got lost as we refused to pay 1 pound for a map! They bury people above ground here and build houses to put the coffins in. Was a bit creepy seeing lots of coffins (the houses have windows) but some were very decorative. Some over the statues of the people were a bit ridiculus – see the picture of the guy in a dressing gown! Evita was also burried there, although I have no idea who she was, apparently quite a famous singer and she had lots of fresh flowers…

Was quite a long wander to the cemetry and to get back we went via the posh area with its very expensive shops and door men on the hotels everywhere. Our hostel was very central though which was helpful to get to the sights everywhere. In the evening we cooked ourselves as the hostel bbq was slightly overpriced at about 15 pounds!! We watched a film on the huge tv about a women who went out with the nanny who was 15 years younger. Was quite good but I have no idea what it was called. The next morning we were meant to be up early, but didn´t. Polly has been feeling a bit rough recently so needs a lot of sleep. She is in bed atm.. We went out to La Boca in the afternoon via the very bumpy bus! Its a big tourist place with lots of colourful house :) and grafitti art. Polly finally bought a purse as she hasn´t had one since Cambodia, so now she can look after her own money! We saw the football stadium as well, although the football season has finished now so not many games on. Managed to resist the very touristy restraunts in La Boca and ate a huge pizza back in the centre for a very cheap price as it was a localy place.

In the evening we went out to a tango show and dinner :) We had a one hour tango lesson before the show so we are no both experts in the Tango!! The meal was very nice and filling. Due to it being 4 courses! Was definately the poshest place we have eaten in on our travels. The show was great fun, although the singer was a bit dodgy. The costumes were awesome and the band were really good. Got to dance with dancers to show off our skills! The next morning we left to catch a boat to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay! The country that we weren’t expecting to visit. No-one guessed it so no prizes, sorry. We arrived in the afternoon and had a wander around the town. It’s very nice and lovely to have a break from big cities. We cooked an impressive rice dish with peas, sweetcorn, carrot and beef. And had a make shift game of monopoly last night. There wasn’t a dice so we used cards instead as the numbers. And chess pieces as our characters. Polly said that Sarah would be impressed with our commitment to the game! Polly narrowly won.. but it was close.

Today we used the hostels free (and very rickety) bikes to ride around the old town, most of it which is cobelled so was quite a bumpy ride! I managed to buy us grapefruit juice, the only one that Polly doesn´t like, to have with our mamoth burgers at lunch, then we ditched the bikes to go wander around the craft market and some other shops. Came back quite early so we could have a lie down. I´ve just finished another book so have come to write this. Going to have to go and find something to cook for tea tonight. There are no big supermarkets and the choice at the smaller ones is very limited :s Then later we are going to a jazz bar as there is live music tonight :) Hopefully we will have the energy! Getting a bus to Montevideo tomorrow then going to have a 36 hour epic all the way back up to Salta! Anyway some Spanish person is starting to talk to me and Polly is asleep so I have no idea what they are saying!! Ahhh going to run away byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

5 comments

Milkshakes and Popcorn…. mmm fatties


2010
05.18

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So… we woke up friday morning ready for horse riding times… after the lovely experience of our travelling friend matt being sick from too much absinthe in the dorm. Luckily…. he was not on the bunk above us…. which turned out to be unlucky for the irish girl underneath who had just got to the hostel after a long bus ride, and then got sicked on… oh yeah and it got her bag too, so what did matt do, roll over and go to sleep. Lets just say the cleaners were not too happy to be woken up in the middle of the night :S good times.

BUt we were up fine at some yuckily early time n the morning, ready for our pick up and when the guy got here, he took one look at tobys outfit and was like, ill wait you can change quickly. He had chosen to go for flip-flips and shorts, for trekking on horses, in the foothills of the andes. NUMPTY. so after a quick change into trousers and hiking shoes and rain jackets, which we didnt need because it was actually surprisingly warm, although they had forecast rain for the next day in the same place. The views were very cowboys and indians movie and there was sooo much dust im pretty sure im still emptying it out of my socks. yuck. it was a couple of hours wandering around mountain valleys and stuff which was really cool and we stopped for a break and some mate which is the national drink of argentina or summi, and totally disgusting and then carried on. They tried to sell us the pictures for quite a lot but we declined as we managed to get enough good ones ourselves…

We got back only 2 hours late of the scheduled time i think that south america time might be quite similar to fiji time and mooched mostly that afternoon, sneaking in a sub del dia, which is sub of the day… and crikey, ordering in spanish is quite the mammoth task when you consider how many questions they ask you. Toby opened with his usual, hola, a and then i had to take over, but it was a yummy sandwich in the end, and we even managed to ask for tomatoes only on half!

Had a night bus that night, way more comfortable than asia, or australia (the worstest so far) but no free food or movie which we had been promised. boooo. Got to Cordoba well early (8ish) but the hostel was rubbish and didnt get our beds ready until like 2 so we had to do a lot of hanging around but finally got in. Had a look round that afternoon, found some street markets and went out to eat for a change. Tea is really weird here because they dont eat until at least 9pm so when we were starving at 8 barely anywhere was open, and we ended up being the only people in our restaurant. apparently people sleep from like 5-9pm then wake up eat and party till crazy times in the morning… nightclubs don´t open until 2am!

so we chilled out, and then saw some random tango-ing in the main square where they set up speakers and people seem to just show up was cool– but we wanted costumes! and there was none! booo. Sunday…… woke up wayyyy too late, like 11ish or summit, after the women at reception promised us that she would wake us up at like 8 so we could go quad biking. She didnt but it turned out the weather was too bad to go biking anyway so nice lie in. We eventually got up bought a pile of chocolate croissants for brekkie/ lunch and  headed towards alta gracia a village thing which is only of interest because there is a che guevara museum thing we went to which was cool, but it seemed to focus on what games he liked as a child and silly stuff like that as opposed to what he actually did. oh well. I thought we had done well as that was our first museum in the whole time travelling. Another meal out (mostly because the hostel kitchen was completely shizzer) with the most amazzzzzzing milkshakes ever…although deciphering the flavours from the waitress who kept saying helado con leche (ice cream with milk) yes, we guessed, but what flavour!

Anyways, next day another lie-in… a city tour thing on a bus had been on the cards but we ended up at the cinema watching a ewan mcgregor film….oops! with the most massive-est popcorn ever invented, we couldnt even finish it by the end of the film it was that big! The film- ghost writer- was sadly average with a very unsatisfying ending .

Chilled out again (bet you are bored of reading this by now) then waited fir another bus to buenos aires! –where we are now !

xxxx

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All i want is an manzana!


2010
05.13

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Which is seemingly impossible. Manzanas are apples by the way. We have tried twice now to buy them. the first time, we took the bag to the counter but the cashier babbled in spanish for a bit then said no and put them to the side. Ok, no apples for us. We later found out you are supposed to get them weighed or whatevs before going to the till. Fair enough. Second time around we got a bit further…actually managed to buy the apples from the supermaret with our new friends who have been here longer and seem to havemore of an idea how it works. Then , later, we took the bus across the border, casually leaving our food bag on the bus just because we couldnt understand any potential customs questions. Turns out they actually check the buses here (unlike asia) and the bag got hauled off. who´s is this (in spanish) we put our hands up… no manzanas we were basically told, and again they were taken away after being examined carefully. Gutted times. Thank god the pizza flavoured doritos didnt meet the same fate…apparently they dont pose the same threat to national security.

So yeah, we got on the bus crazy comfortable i just wish there was an uncomfortable option which was slightly less. It took like 7 and a half hours not too too long, and the views were pretty cool of the andes (well i assume- not really sure-) but the roads were really long and windy and it did get a bit boring to the end. Some argentinian people we had spent like 10 mins trying to have a conversation with (totally in spanish..thankfully we had our new friend  matt with us who speaks a lot more than us… but toby did well with his opening hola… couldnt have asked for a better delivery :p) anyways, they gave us hugs and kisses when we got the bus,. introduced us to their daughter and wished us luck. strange- very but nice.

Found the hostel in not too long, only took a slight slight detour, checked in and for 50p more a night, we can actually stay in a hostel for a change :) although my shower that i had been dying for was still a shizzer cold dribble so a bit of bad times. We had a wonder round the city and booked on a pizza party for the evening. Supposedly all you can eat, plus free tequila good times. Almost didnt make it though, me and toby went to an atm and on the way back matt was chasing us saying, we´ve got the time wrong, argentina is in a different time zone so the bus leaves now… not in an hour like we thought it did. Oops! turns out the bus was pretty late anyway, and the pizzas were not unlimited…and the only toppings were combinations of ham, egg, and olive, which as you can imagine is delicious. Apparently most meals here are varieties of ham and cheese, jamon y queso, those fateful words. and the tequila….

Eww! a shot would have been fine, even though i dont like it that much… but instead you had your head pulled back on the bar and it poured into your mouth for a LONG times. I managed to avoid being picked, which involved some amount of hiding, but then they started coming round the people that hadnt volunteered/ been forced. Toby had his head pulled back and most of it pourd down his shirt, but i gave the bar man my best…no way look, and he took note and i was saved. phew

Got a taxi home after being promised a free ride in the hostel bus home, not quite the pizza party we had expected but still a fun experience and it saved us cooking and was cheap

Today we made the most of a lie in, although did wake up for breakfast (totally not worth it for a sugary stale croissant) and went back to bed. Legged it to the bus station to buy the tickets for moving on then jogged on sneakily sneaking into mcdonalds for lunch before our wine tour in the afternoon. Mendoza (where we are) is known for the vineyards so we though it only fair to try them out. We visited two an found out how to taste wine swilling and smelling the aromas like true professionals and tasting obvs (primary reason for going) and also checked out an olive oil factory, thrilling, especially for people who strongly dislike olives. but not a bad afternoon trip.

Tonight we cooked steak because apparently argentina is like the best place for it with a mountain of mash and veg and all for about 2 pounds each, which is what i call a good deal.

chilled out night tonight, admittedly with a lil vodka involved….1.5 litres, 2 pounds, s´all im saying….  and then horse riding in the foothills of the andes tomorrow morning… or at least thats the plan….. whoop!

xxx

spelling is rubbish because of keyboard, not me :p

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Hi, We´ve got a reservation here.. Oh um, let me get someone..


2010
05.13

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I should start with an apology for the spelling on the last blog post, Polly is pointing out the spelling of flgiht and Auland… This is not because I cannot spell them, but because I was in a rush so was typing too quick!

But anyway, its all good :) So we left the hostel in the morning and took the tube over to the bus station. Only a couple of tube problems. We managed to get our tickets fine time, (2 green tickets and slid the correct money under the counter so they could work it out!) but then it was a different style barrier and we couldn´t work out where to put our tickets! We managed in the end (they went in the top – who´d have guessed¿) Polly had got the directions and we got off at the university, I wasn´t convinced as I was sure we hadn´t gone far enough, so wouldn´t go through the barrier..We then worked out it was the other university where the bus left from! So, Yes, I did save the day – well I saved us paying 50p each for another ticket. Got the bus fine to Valporaso which was near the coast.

We had booked a hostel in Valporaso via hostelworld as we were still in our Aussie mode of needing to pre-book so we arrived and after being told it was an impossible walk to the hostel we did it in 30mins! No way were we paying for a taxi. Seems Valparso had been hit pretty bad by the earth-quake and a lot of things were shut. Our hostel looked very shut.. We knocked on the door and someone came to the door and had no clue who we were or why we were there! They said they´d go get someone, who also had not that much clue but said we could stay.. Apparently in the winter the hostel shut and becomes a student house. We were in a large dorm with lots of beds, most messy, but with no bags in the room. We were a bit confused! Decided to go out and explore Valparso.

Valparso was, well, not much really. Some cool back alleys with lots of graffitis and trams going up hills, but little happening. We found a nice cafe for hot chocolate and a huge slice of chocolate and strawberry cake – yummm :) We bought a pizza to have for tea and decided to have a quiet night in as we doubted there would be any travellers to talk to. So anyway we got back and found our friends that we had made the previous night while watching tv – Pregnant and Young followed by Jersey Shore – drinking wine in the kitchen! This improved the outlook of our evening! We popped out and bought some wine then came back to find out how they had ended up there. Turned out the place that they were meant to be staying had shut and as we had dropped where we were staying into conversation the previous night they came and found it! Had a really fun drunken night despite the fact I forgot about the pizza and it was a tad crispy. We had decided for some reason to get up early to go visit Vena Del Mar (sorry spelt wrong there is an accent on the e), but that never materaliised as we lay in bed. At some point in the evening Andy had invited a slightly strange guy called Ocho (but we called him Taiwan as that was where he was from and apparently everyone called him that?!) to come along. He was ready to go at 9, but we didn´t set off till 12ish, then we had to stop for breakfast, but we were there by 1.. Was a bit grey, but we went to the beach and found lots of school children there as it was the school´s birthday! We watched the proceddings for a while and Taiwan got bored and walked off and we didn´t see him again until he got back at 7pm at night, no idea where he went! He has been popping up ever since. Said hi to us on our next long distance bus, but then wasn´t actually on the bus! Then when we went to a pizza and tequila party at a neighbouring hostel he was there! Random.

Anyway, I digress, we spen our day at Vina Del Mar wandering round it, not doing that much! We did manage to get to the top floor of a casino into the pool and spa section due to people assuming we were guests, spent a while admiring the view, but didn´t have the guts to use the pool incase they realised we weren´t guests and charged us 31 thousand pesos each (to put that in perspective, our hostel cost 5 thousand a night!) We did decide to cook and immense tea when we got back as Vena Del Mar wan´t that good. So after some shopping we had all the ingrediants to create Burritos and make Caprinos (a citrus cocktail :) ) When we got back we watched The Blind Side before cooking (very good) then created our feast! It was definately something special with about 6 dishes on the table! A slightly earlier bed as we all had buses in the morning. Me and Pol walked to the bus station as we were saving on the taxi and then we said our goodbyes to Andy and Charlotte as they were travelling north and we were going to Argentina (although hopefully will meet up with them in Peru). We then got on our bus to Mendoza with Matt as well a New Zealand guy who we are travelling with atm.

The bus then set off to leave and I think that is where Polly´s blog post starts so I hope this links ok :) Anyway, until next time, Adios (which is Spanish btw I am improving!) Xxx

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We´re not just travellers, we´re time travellers!


2010
05.09

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The flgiht left on time from Auland airport (which despite having big posters saying it is rated as one of the top ten airports in the world, is definately one of the worst – they seem to have endlessly long queues and don´t really understand how to make them go down!) The flight was fun, definately nice to have our personal tvs back again :) Not as many good films (that we haven´t seen) to watch. Managed to watch 3 in the flight, with Happy Feet being the highlight! Also had book of Eli – which wasn´t yet releasedin New Zealand but available on the plane! It´s terrible so don´t bother seeing it.

The time difference between New Zealand and Satiago is really wierd so you go back in time (a lot). We set off at 4:40pm from Auckland and arrived at 11:45am (after a 10 hour flight) on the same morning! Blew my mind. I think that Polly found it slightly less cool than I did, but essentially we were in 2 places at the same time! Plus we ate about 8 meals that day :) Always a benefit! Got a shared taxi from the airport to our hostel for cheaper than the guide book said it would be which is a nice bonus! Drove past the outer slums into the city, which were prbably small compared to the ones in Rio, but certainly bigger than we have ever seen. After dropping the other people off at posh hotels we drove down a back alley and dropped at a bright pink building with no sign on it! Turns out this was the hostel, but it looked like a house from the outside. Is our first hostel really in about a month, as the place in Fiji felt basically living with a family and then we have had family and the campervan!

South America is the first place where we have been that they don´t speak English. Polly is managing to drag up some Spanish that she learnt 3 years ago, and I point! We went to a restraunt last night and the waiter dragged the huge chalk board up to our table to make it easy for me to point out what I would like! We have been buying food that we don´t know what it is until it arrives which is very adventrous of us, although we haven´t had anything scary brought to us yet!

Today we walked around Santiagos sights (there are few) and as it is Sunday nearly everywhere was shut! Plus our map was very decpetive so a short walk to a park ended up taking over an hour! Getting a ticket for the subway proved quite difficult as the ticket man was trying to help us (we think!) but kept repeating himself in Spanish! Luckily a guy came up and helped as he spoke English (and Spanish obvs) we got our tickets and got the tube, noticing a shortish queue had formed at the ticket booth!

Took a tram thingy up one of the mountains around Santiago to the statue of the Virgin Mary that overlooked the city – found where all the tourists were hiding! Hadn´t seen a single one round Santiago.. Half the tourists we have seen are either staying in our hostel or were on our flight! The guide book reckomends to move on quickly as there is little to do! Have to go now as Polly has just cooked us tea – we´re eating in to save some money tonight. Moving on tomorrow to some place on the coast I forget its name, then going to Argentina on Wednesday.

We were planning our route last night and found we have loads of time here so might do an extra country! Prize for the person who gueses it :) xxx

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Good-bye to the campervan..


2010
05.09

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Soooo the sailing trip. Glad we didnt pay like a million pounds almost for a 2 night trip in australia as it was only like 45 for a full day ( i know! still a lot) but the other option was doing not much in a sleepy town on a cloudy day and plus we had spent a lot of hours driving to the place so felt we had to do something. it was just 6 of us on this guys boat and it was one of the last trips of the year before he sailed off to fiji or whichever exotic island he chooses to go to each summer (lucky bum)… so we got to help out with the actual sailing part, pulling some ropes and the sail, and steering to boat which was actually quite big and not that easy to keep in a straight line. Floated along for a couple of hours trying mostly successfully to avoid the rainclouds and aiming for the blue sky patches and then we ran into a load of dolphins yayyyyyyy and even though toby had mocked my wanting to go on  a dolphin trip he was well excited. They were pretty big arse dolphins as well and they were very jumpy and darting through the water, apparently because it was mating season. good times.

Shortly after we stopped on this island thingy and had a mooch up to a lookout point while the captain made us lunch which was…… a ham and cheese sandwich. A very tasty one at that so good times, except for the fact that when we arrived in new zealand we bought a chunk of ham and a lump of cheese and it had lastest us pretty much all of our campervan travels.

Back on the boat, where, after lunch we got made some funky shell jewelry then sailed back getting in around 4 where we decided we WOULD make a nice tea for a change instead being lazy and geting fish and chips or resorting to microwave meals so we bought some chicken schnitzel whatever that is and made a yummy sauce with pepper and rice. mmm, then another early night as we are too cool and also there doesnt seem to be much happening in the new zealand nightlife department.

The last proper day in nz involved more long driving (about 5 hours) because the maps are sooo deceptive it feels like a lot longer because journeys are at least an hour or two hour longer than expected. but we finally made it into auckland city centre and had to pay full on city centre parking prices! and to be fair theres not a whole lot there… the sky tower thing, but they had decided to light it in mouldy green once it got dark for some reason… we basically justgrabbed some food and had a bit of a wander round then drove off again to find a camppsite, where we got lost walking on the way to the supermarket, and then realized we didnt have any id so toby would have to drive back to pick up some beer anyway.  But we ended up not eating tooo late, inside our campervan as their were no tables at the campsite and also because it was cool and that was about it… the next nmorning we dropped off the van after having a good sort through and having lost a few things in a magical hole and then it was off to the airport….

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Caving in eel-infested waters… good times


2010
05.06

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Another blog… thats 3 in a week! woahhh go us. So Iron Man 2 is awesome! go see it right now :) deffo as good as the original! and… that was about all we did that day apart from a drive to a very small town place which had 1 bar open past 6 so we tested out their italian sodas- and also we kind of have a route planned for the first half of south america so all is good- just booked our first hostel in santiago! the next day we went on our caving trip, even though the one thing we decided we wouldn’t do whilst travelling would be caving…. It started with getting into sexy wetsuits, then abseiling down 27m into a cave then wondering around in the dark until we could find loadssss of crazy cool glow worms on the ceiling and the walls of the cave. It was dark, but cool- except for the fact that the water had eels in it, and we even saw one- eww! after that we took a tube ride down through the cave checking out more glowworms and then jumping into freezing water and climbing through really small holes for no point whatsoever realli as you could walk round the edge! had to rock climb our way out, tres energetic for a morning, before collapsing back in the campervan afterwards for another drive, a bit shorter this time.

Went to another very quiet town called Raglan, but the waves on the beach were wayyyyy huge, and the surfers were completely mad to be riding them, they were like 6 times as tall as them! there was also a giant chess set at the campsite which was pretty much the highlight! and then a six hour drive the next morning- not fun!

today we went sailing but ill have to tell you about that one next time!!

xxx

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