Lima, Huacachina & Islas Ballestas

Sunday saw the start of our Peruvian adventures with a flight from Buenos Aires to Lima. A 5 hour flight which sure beats any bus ride... We arrived in Lima expecting to meet our new travelling partner Gareth (STA Travel buddy) at Arrivals, however, after much searching he was not to be found anywhere. We headed to our hostel where we waited for him with anticipation... still no sign... so we opted for sleep and left instructions with reception for Gareth to knock on our door as soon as he arrived to relieve us of our worry.

5.30am the next morning, the knock on the door finally came with a weary looking Gareth standing there. It turns out he missed his connecting flight from Miami because he was detained by American police who had a ´Gareth Jones´listed on interpole. After 3 hours of bag searching and questioning, Gareth was set free once they were convinced they had got the wrong man, only to have to wait a further 6 hours for another flight. An adventurous start to his holiday, but luckily one that ended well, and will be a great story to tell for many years.

First impressions of Lima is that it is a large city with a heavy American influence - Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger Kings on every corner, there is even a Starbucks! We stayed in Miraflores which is a more wealthier area of the city, filled with shops, bars & restaurants mostly to cater for tourists and the middle class inhabitants. Lima has become a richer city in recent years and has only just developed a middle class where as before there was a great divide between the rich and poor, similar to what we saw in Rio.

We stayed in Lima for the day exploring the City Centre which houses many churches, a Cathedral and the Presidents residence, and then the following day we caught the bus to Huacachina - 4.5 hours away, 4km from Ica. Huachachina is a small village, housing just 12 families and dominated by a backdrop of massive sand dunes, where you will see many people making the huge trek to the top to board it down to the bottom at full pelt. In the middle of the sand dunes, there is an small lagoon which makes the village an idyllic place to spend the afternoon relaxing - we opted for watching the sand boarders this time, and hopefully Nads and I will get the chance to do it in the Atacama Desert, Chile. If it´s anything like the 100 ft sand dunes Sinead and I climbed and boarded down in NZ last year, then it will be well worth the wait.

We overnighted in Huacachina, and then took a bus to Pisco to tour around the Islas Ballestas. The Islas Ballestas are known as the ´poor mans Galapogos Islands´ however, the wildlife here is fantastic. We cruised around the islands, caves & arches watching sealions sprawled on the rocks, Peruvian pelicans & Peruvian Boobies, and my favourite... lots of penguins. After the tour, which last 1/2 a day, we headed straight back to Lima after the tour, and got onto enquiring about a surfing lesson.

Oh my God! What a laugh! Surfing is hilarious... well, it was for me and that was purely because I was laughing at myself! I now realise that I have absolutely no upper body strength whatsoever! Paddling out to sea was pretty tough, let alone trying to stand on the surf board. I managed to catch a wave still laying on my stomach so in my book that´s me surfing!!! So, as you can imagine, I was unsuccessful in trying to get up on the board, but as they say practice makes perfect, so maybe I´ll give it another go in NZ or Australia. I have at least learnt some of the terminology, and have become addicted to watching surfers ´catch their waves´, and in Lima there are a far few surfers as the surf here is excellent (so they say... I´m still trying to work out what makes ´good surf!´.

Tonight, we meet our other Inca Trail trekkers and tomorrow morning we fly to Cuzco where our Inca Trail adventures begin... wish me luck!!

Buenos Aires, Argentina

A city known for it´s nightlife, Tango, good steak and cheap everything... We arrived here on Thursday afternoon on an overnight bus from Iguazu Falls.

Many people compare Buenos Aires with a European city and for me, it reminded me of a city like Madrid. Grand buildings with intricate architecture, the hustle and bustle of any large city and of course the Spanish language.

We started of by exploring the shopping streets (well, with 5.7 pesos to the pound, who wouldn´t!). The shops took us along Avenida Santa Fe and Avenida 9 Julio - the widest road in the world, 18 lanes wide! You´ll never cross it in one go, more like 3 stops at various pedestrian crossings. The highlight of this day had to be the ´All you can eat buffet´ which had EVERYTHING on offer, from big juicy steaks, lots of salad, potatoes, chinese, octopus, calamari etc... and copious amounts of ice cream! Eat all of this for 9 pesos - that´s just over 1 pound 50p!!!! A backpackers dream...

The history of Eva Peron and Evita is all over the city centre, with the Casa Rosada (pink palace) where Evita gave her speeches on the famous balcony, and the Cementaria de la Recoleta where Eva Peron is buried.

La Boca is an area that is quite dangerous,however, there is one street that must be seen - ´Caminito´which is alive with brightly painted buildings, a busy market and street performers including Tango dancers - elegant men and women that dance with sheer ease and beauty. We were warned that straying from these streets could lead to trouble, so we had our fill of Caminito and took the bus to San Telmo.

San Telmo is a great area for Antique lovers, with shop after shop selling every antique you could ever think of. On Sundays there is a big antique market which is bustling with tourists and locals alike - and yes, there are lots more Tango dancers.

The nightlife in Buenos Aires is second to none, but beware for those who like your bed, people do not START clubbing until 2-2.30am - anytime before then and the clubs are empty!

It´s a shame we´ve run out of time in Argentina as it is a fantastic country, definitely a country that I will have to come back to and explore on its own.

Tonight we fly to Peru, where with meet up with Gareth and start our next leg of South America including the Inca Trail...

Iguassu Fall - Brazil & Argentina

The bus from Parati took 6 hours to reach San Paulo, as soon we got of the bus a security guy came and stood quite close to us, which we assume was to ensure we didn´t get robbed from the numerous dodgy people hanging around the bus station - we were very grateful! We had to wait a further 3 hours in the station before boarding another bus to Iguazu Falls (Foz) which was a mear 18 hours over night. We were all quite surprised how much we slept (and Rich / Kel this was exactly what the Ipod Nano was ordered for!).

We arrived in Foz d´ Iguazu and caught a cab to the boarder to stay on the Argentinian side of the falls. Crossing the boarder was simple for those of us who remembered where we had kept our immigration document but for Nadia it meant emptying her bag, packing it again and emptying it again. She was close to a R.165.00 fine before our cab driver smuggled her out and told her not to worry about the fine...! We thought she would be on the wanted list and banned from entering Brazil ever again, but all turned out well in the end.

After checking in to our hostel which more of a resort - pool, bar, good dinners etc... we headed straight back to Brazil to see the waterfalls from this side. There was quite a bit of water but could only imagine how much more water could gush down these falls if they had more rain over the year. The Falls were amazing, and definitely deserved being named a UNESCO heritage site. According to other travellers the Brazilian side was "ok" but for us we couldn´t imagine anything more beautiful. We just had to wait for the next day to head to the Argentinian Falls to see if they could get any better.

... And they did! The Argentinian side was a much closer look at the falls, you are able to get right underneath them - and under them, like we did by taking a boat and literally getting soaked to the skin with the falls. A great experience, and I have taken a million photos of waterfalls, I just couldn´t get enough of it!

We leave Iguazu this evening and head to Buenos Aires which is a 20 hour ride from here. Looking forward to Tango dancing and eating good steak!

Ilha Grande & Parati

From Rio it was time to head 2 hours South to Angra, a small fishing port where we caught a ferry to the island of Ilha Grande. After an hour and 30 minutes crossing from the mainland, we arrived to what was a beautiful island, with just 3 settlements, glistening green waters and white sandy beaches.

This day was Chelsea's birthday and so once we had settled in our hostel we did no more then head for a bar to celebrate with a few drinks. The 4 of us soon turn into 5 people, then into 7 people, then into 9 people as our group kept growing as people came to join us. A few drinks later (quite a few) we all headed for the beach, where we were joined by a group of Brazilians with their guitar.

The next morning, most of the group were feeling a little worse for wear however, we wanted to get to Praia Lopes Mendez which had been recommended as one of the best beaches in the world. There are 2 ways to reach this beach 1) a short boat trip or 2) a 3 hour trek across the island - despite some delicate heads, we went for option b. We came across some gorgeous little beaches, saw wildlife and managed to shed some pounds in the midday sun. After a little hard work we were all pleased to have finally reached Praia Lopez Mendez - and yes, it did live up to expectations.

Next stop was Parati, a further 2 hours bus ride South. Parati is renowed for its 64 islands and over 300 beaches, and so we made it a priority to get sorted and check out some of these islands - by pirate ship no less. Although yet another rainy day we had fun, swimming to the beaches from the boat, drinking lots of beer (you drink lots of beer in Brazil!) and eating fresh fish.

This weekend was a public holiday in Brazil and so although we wanted to move on, on Sunday we ended up stranded as all buses were fully booked as the locals were shipping out of town and needing to get back home for work. We ended up staying 4 nights in Parati which has thrown our schedule a bit out, but are hoping to make it back by heading straight to Iguazu Falls without stopping over in San Paulo.

This stop also meant we had to say goodbye to our new friends, Caroline and Kelly (from Dublin - Shin pops, this is in honour of you and Kier. We have nick named them Paddy & Murphy) and Johno, a guy from Nottingham who has been lucky enough to travel around with 6 lovely ladies. We are hoping to meet up with Johno again in Buenos Aires. Right, onto Iguazu Falls - 24 hours on a bus yippee!

Rio Favelas

The divide between rich and poor is huge in Brazil, and so to experience exactly how the poorer side lived we did a tour through one of the biggest favelas in Rio.

The favela that we visited homes between 250,00 - 300,000 people and is run by a 23 year old Brazilian man - who incidently is the big poncho in the drug running world. The last head of the favela died last October when the police set up watch and shot him down. We all thought 23 years old was very young to be running a favela, but apparently this is quite old as most people do not live past 14-15 years old.

The inhabitants of the favela are proud to live the way they do, it is cheaper than anywhere else in Rio, they do not pay taxes, steal water and electricity and the favela is a safe place where no crimes are prohibited. The downnside (well, they would not see it as a downside as they are quite happy with their life) is that they will never leave the favela and see the outside world. The drug dealers are likely to get arrested or shot down by the police if they leave the favela.

The children that live there are happy and playful, they get excited when 'gringos' come to visit as they hope that our photgraphs with make them famous one day. If you ask them what they would like to be when they grow up, the boys would say a footballer (football is their passion) or a drug dealer and the girls would say a footballers wife(they have WAGs here too!) or a model - they have no inspiration to be anything else because they don't know anything else.

It was great experience to see how life happened in a favelas, and to interact with the locals who couldn't get enough of the gringos looking around there homes. 60% of our money that we pay for the tour is invested into the favela, improving schools and facitilies. Definitely a tour I would recommend if visiting Rio.

Rio de Janeiro (January River)

Finally, the day has come and the start of my round the world trip has begun - 1st stop Rio de Janiero!

Our adventures began before we even left Heathrow when we queued up for check in to be told that we had been put on standby, BA had over sold their seats - yep, it happens to the best of us regardless if you have worked in the travel industry or not. Our flight was at 2145, and we had to wait until 2100 to find out whether we would actually be flying that evening. I didn´t actually mind if we had to be compensated and put up in a hotel to fly the next day until Nadia had told me she had arranged for us to see a football match on the Saturday which meant we had to catch this flight!!! Luckily for us, we all managed to get on and 14 hours later we arrived in Rio.

The highlight of our 1st day was of course the football match at the Maracana Stadium - A huge stadium which seats 160,000 people. We saw Fluminese Vs. Sao Paulo play, which are 2 rivals teams from obviously the most well known Brazilian cities (Rio and Sao Paulo). The match was good, and I shared the same emotions as watching a West Ham game when Fluminese scored after 5 minutes, only to lose the game 2-1 - typical! The atmosphere at the ground was great fun, with the locals waving massive flags, banging on their Samba drums and generally making a lot of noise.

Unfortunately the weather has been rain, rain, rain - butyesterday we decided to take the plunge and make it up to Cocovado (Christ the Redeemer statue) to check out if we could see any of the views that this place is famous for. When we got there, the heavens continued to stay open and our views were nothing more than thick cloud! A bit of a disappointment but still it was a great experience to see for ourselves the real the magnitude of this world famous monument.

Last night we went to a Funk party in the favelas (shanty town / slum) to see how the poorer people like to party. The party kicked off at 12.30am and the place was hot, hot, hot with sticky bodies dancing like only Brazilians know how! This is where the gorgeous bodies of Rio were heading (men and women). The night ended at 5.30am this morning, and it was safe to say that the ´Gringos´(foreigners - that´s us!) admitted defeat and accepted that we would never be able to move like the locals.

After staying in Copacabana, which is a little like Nice or LA (i.e. runners, cute pooches, bikini, speedos etc...), we are heading into the Favelas later today to again check out how the poorer Brazilians live. These areas are well know for danger, drugs, poverty and crime, and we are going with an arm full of gifts to give something to the community especially the children. I´ll let you know in the next posting what´s it was like, but can only imagine it will be an eye opener.

As for photos, well the internet connections are ok but downloading doesn´t look to be an easy task so you may have to wait a little while, but don´t worry I´ll get onto it as I know most of you like photos as opposed to reading!!

Hope all in well with everyone, I will be in touch soon x.

Noch ein Bier bitte!

The Oktoberfest ROCKS!! If you have never been, then it should definitely be on your agenda for 2007. It was one of the best weekends I have ever had.

The locals know the festival as the “Wiesn” and is the biggest public event in the world, with 6 million visitors, drinking more than 5 million litres of beer (I drank approx. 10 of those…) and eating over 200,000 pork sausages.

This event is all about drinking, dancing, meeting people from all over the world and above all having fun! Our weekend began with a 6am wake up to get to Heathrow a little worse for wear after Nadia and I’s work leaving drinks the night before. We spent the 1st day soaking in the German culture, checking out the amazing sites of ‘Muchen’ and then popping into the world largest beer hall – the Hofenbrau to see what all the fuss was about… One beer later we realised we were in for a good weekend.

Day 2 we chose the Lowenbrau beer tent as our home for the day after many recommendations. Our first beer went down quite nicely (and quickly) which was a surprise considering it was only 9.30am! By 11am, we could all confirm that we were already a little tipsy and by midday we were up on the tables happily singing along and dancing away to whatever songs the very talented German band were playing (this ranged from traditional German music, Robbie Williams, Jonny Cash, Eros Ramazotti – you name it, they played it!).

By the end of the night, we had completed 15 hours of drinking, met people from all over the world – had conversations in English, German and Italian (it’s amazing how alcohol turns your into a great linguist!) and were looking forward to a well earned rest. By the time we made it back to our hostel we knew one thing for sure, and that was that we were excited about doing it all over again on Sunday!

Sunday came and went, and was pretty much a repeat of Saturday – more beer, more dancing, more new people to meet – 2 very busy days of constant partying! Come Monday it was time to leave Munich behind, if not for anything else it was for our expanding beer bellies! I went to the Oktoberfest with no expectations and walked away having one of the best times ever! It’s a brilliant place to have a fantastic weekend away with a group of friends – but make sure you leave car keys and inhibitions at home…

Vielen Dank Muchen! Prost!