South America

Coming home

2008-02-18T22:08:00.000-08:00

I needed to change my sydney-perth flight to a sydney-melbourne flight so i could go see frannie, and was advised to see the people at the LAN airlines desk to change my ticket. So we got to the airport 6 hours early and i waited in line (people in south america are really into pushing in). When i explained my situation to the girl at the desk she said there was nothing she could do, and it was a Qantas issue, which i thought was very odd, as both fran and i had been told more than once that this was what i needed to do. A $40 phone call to qantas confirmed that LAN had to change my ticket but they refused again. GRRR! I decided to take it on the chin and just see what i could do once i was in Sydney. Luckily however, as we approached the gate I overheard someone else modifying thier ticket and asked the same worker if he could modify mine, to which he replied that all he could with such short notice was only check me in to the santiago-syd flight which would make it more flexible for me once i got to sydney. So with that done, a really boring chick flick about a kid who thinks he's an alien and a 2 hour stopover in Auckland, New Zealand we arrived in Sydney.

We grabbed our bags, went through customs and Steve and luke checked in as per normal
and i was directed to the Qantas sales desk to modify my ticket. It turns out that there where rules on my ticket that would not let Qantas modify it and all i could do was delay the perth flight and book a return ticket to melbourne. I ran down to the free internet booth, and after it crashing and restarting on me mid-booking i managed to score a (expensive) flight to melbourne within the next hour. When i got back to the qantas desk i was served by another lady who said what i was trying to do was impossible and her collegues misinformed me. So i got a knife played stabby mc stabby-stab in her face. Well not really, but I was close to, if only i had a knife... In reality i told her it was bullshit and pleaded with her to help me out. So she charged me $50 and told me to be back here by 7pm in a week to catch the flight to perth. GRR!

I managed to see Steeve and Luke in the lounge before they flew back to Perth and filled them in on the shenanigans that had occured, and with a peck on the cheek they where off. Teary eyed i got into the fetal position and rocked away until my flight to melbourne was called, in the realisation that this was the end of the most super dooper holiday of my life.

But then i got to Melbourne, got to see Frannie and then my family in Perth and it made everything all good again.

THE END

Santiago V2

2008-02-18T21:29:00.000-08:00

After skydiving, we went out to the SUPER PARILLA and then jumped on a bus back to Santiago.

Our nine hour journey was interrupted waaay to early in the morning with a border crossing, which meant getting out of the bus and getting our passports stamped. At customs they lined us up like criminals and we watched every bag go through the xray scanner and a sniffer dog went through our hand luggage as it was placed infront of us. On the bus again, i quickly fell asleep and woke an unknown time later to a semi-full bus parked on the side of the road, the bus had broken down! so we waited around for a while (i mean we slept more..) and boarded the next bus. Unknown to me this bus had super magical time travel powers and as soon as i closed my eyes i fell asleep, only to be woken as we pulled into the Santiago bus terminal.

We just chilled out at the hostel for a majority of the day and met up with Anya, bob and lucy from Mendoza for a few drinks that night, for some last night in South AMerica Celebrations. I had my first piscola, it was yummy. After we bid them a fairwell, me, luke and a british guy from the hostel went for a walk around to find another bar/discoteque. We must have walked atleast 8 blocks with no bar in sight so decided to call it a night and head back for some sleepies.

Skydiving continued

2008-02-10T09:13:00.000-08:00

Just to recap..

THE PLANES ENGINE HAD JUST CAUGHT ON FIRE, so after putting it out and the plane starting successfuly (minus the fire this time), the instructor assured me all was fine, and if it caught on fire again we where fine because we had a parachute.

It took about 20minutes for us to pass above the clouds and get to the right altitude, i was supprisingly calm and had totally forgotten about the whole engine catching fire thing. When the instructor tapped me on the shoulder as a signal to kneel so he could hook himself on to me my heart began to race. It was really surreal looking out the back window of the plane, with the snow capped andes not far off into the distance, getting blasted with cold air, kneeling 30cm from the edge of a doorless aeroplane.

We shuffled backwards and i clumsily pulled my legs out of the plane. Now for the scariest bit where i let go and he lowers me down so im no longer sitting on anything and hes supporting all of my wieght by holding onto the door frame. The only thing between me and the ground is alot of sky and 4 metal clips... he then tells me that all i need to do is relax and remember to keep my legs together, and not to pull the ejection cord because thats his job. I cross my arms across my chest and without warning we spiral out of the plane.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

My face feels like ive had 20 botox sessions at one time its pulled back so tight and i can feel my cheeks wobbling and it sounds lkike im stuck inside a hurricane, i open my arms... i begin to flail like ive never flailed before. The clouds are coming up at us sooooo fast and everything is so overwhelming i cant even think. He pulls the chute and with lots of noise and a huge jolt it feels like we pretty much totally stopped mid-air and everything goes silent and we start to glide through a huge cloud... they dont taste like fairy-floss, trust me. As we come out the other side he tells me to grab the steering cable things and we practice the landing. I was amazed how manouverable the sail was, pulling both cords down we could pretty much stop dead in the sky, and pulling one we could spin around on the spot. We had a bit of trouble locating the DROPZONE at first and spent a while flailing around looking for it in between the huge patches of wineries and little patches of really poor housing.

The landing was a total success and i remained sitting on my bum in the grass for a bit as i dwelled on what i had just done. I was still a bit shaky and my heart was still pumping for atleast 10 minutes after as i took my jumpsuit off and handed it to macca.

The rest of the day was spent sitting around on the grass and watching the other three do thier thing.

Skydiving.. the real time...

2008-02-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

When we woke up the wind was down and it was only slightly cloudy, yaaay! The guy picked us up and we drove out to the DROPZONE again.

When we got there we weighed ourselfs (ive put on 6 kilos hehe yummy steak) and he told me i was to go first. AHH! So i donned my jumpsuit and he harnessed me up, dang it was tight. We ran through the jump again and they prepped the plane. I was alot less scared than i thought i would be given the fact that in half an hour id be falling out of a plane with only a parachute saving me from becoming pulp.

So the planes on the runway, we're packed into this cozy little two seater plane and they try to start the engine. it stalls. they try again. it stalls. So the instructor gets out to check the engine, AND ITS FUCKING ON FIRE! he quickly gets the extinguisher and i bail very very quickly. After he assures me everythings ok we get back into the plane.

to be continued... heheh

oh and im not lying,.., this actually happened

Skydiving!!!!

2008-02-09T09:27:00.000-08:00

The next morning i presented herb with his complimentary koala and thanked him for not taking offence to my Arnold Swartzanegger jokes as he was leaving that day.

We got picked up for skydiving and headed out on a hour van ride to the DROPZONE (i shall refer to the airport as this from now on to make myself appear cooler), the guy spoke pretty good english and we picked up his wife and two kids on the way. He explained that the weather wasnt ideal (it was overcast and really windy) but it might clear up and would be happy to pick us up again tomorrow if it didnt happen today.

When we arrived he ran us though the jump and showed us vidoes of the right and wrong things to do and how sydiving really isnt that dangerous compared to driving around in south america (very very true). Then we just sat around and waited... and waited.. and slept on the grass... and waited. He was even getting impatient! After a good (well boring) three hours we decided to give up and try again tomorrow. By the time we got back to the hostel we had been out for 5 hours but had caught up on some well needed sleep.

It was herbs last night with us so we feasted like gods at another parilla (he even bought slacks because this one had a strict dress code)!

Mendoza Wineries

2008-02-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

On our second day in mendoza we caught the bus to the outskirts of town to visit some wineries. We hired bikes from a family and headed out in the rain, using a small map with only a few roads on it for directions. Mendozas wine region is the wine capital of Argentina (and possibly south america) so we where expecting margaret river-esque sytle nice country roads and maybe pretty little cottages, oh how we where wrong. It was more riding around highbury or another really small, run town country town, only with crapper roads with oversized, over-flowing drains. The fact toppled power-poles where used to stop cars entering both sides of the main street due to road works highlighted the fact that this town wasn't going to live up to aesthetic expectations.

As we turned off the main road onto the gravel it started pissing down with rain wich certainly didnt impress Herbert, but made it more of an adventure trying to avoid the splashes from passing cars. After parking our bikes (mostly in the rain) we entered the first winery. Inside we where greeted by two collumns of huge oak barrels which we walked between, and a strong smell of red wine filled the air. The winery doubled as a musem and many old corking and seperating machines where on display. They ran a tour but the one we started to follow was in Spanish so we hung around the tasting area until the group came back and had a lovely glass of Malbec, which was supprisingly drinkable for me. It was still raining when we left but soon cleared up on the way to the next winery.

This one was a small operation run by a family and the girl who took us around was the daughter of the owner. She explained they did the entire process by hand, from using scissors to cut the grapes off the bushes to hand filling, cleaning and labeling the bottles herself. You could tell that she and her family really loved what they do and where proud of thier products.

For lunch we headed out to a place where they either made sundried tomatoes or grew olives, i couldnt really work it out, they cooked a freaking good steak though. Herb picked out a smashing bottle of red from the wine list and cheered up majorly after his morale-breaking overly cooked bife de choriso the night before.

That night we had parilla again, it was herberts first! ..... we soon found out that it was pronounced 'pariyah' not 'parrila' because two l's make a y sound, the term 'parrilla geurillas' didnt flow anymore, stupid spanish.

Mendoza

2008-02-05T09:22:00.000-08:00

Of the bus trips so far, the ride from Santiago to Mendoza was the worst by far. The bus was small, cramped, bumpy and had intermittent bursts of air-conditioning wich where hardly effective; not only this, it took us 9 hours to go 400k´s! Santiago and Mendoza are on opposite sides of the mountain range so pretty much the whole journey was winding up and down mountains and following the river that ran between the valleys. There was little to no vegitation so we didnt even have any pretty trees to look out at! Additional to this it took over an hour for us to be processed at the border... grr.. i have lots of pretty stamps now though.

Mendoza is situated pretty much in the middle of the desert and is known for its wines and adventure sports (ie. white water rafting, mountain climbing). The overall town is pretty run down but it has pretty, tree lined streets and lots of shopping malls. Today we just walked around town and checked out the malls and should spend the rest of the day chilling at the hostel which has super facilities like in-room internets, table tennis, foos-ball (which Herb tells me is german for footbal..) a pool and a big keg of red wine that we have unlimited access to! When the young son of the owner hit us with his sales pitch as we exited the bus i was skeptical, but it is probably the best hostel we have stayed at in our travels. Run out of the family home it has spacious rooms, air conditioning and as the owner was super proud of; a big toilet and a bathwith a showerhead a big bigger than a cd. "two people can even shower together!" he said excitedly, "just dont drop the soap..".

We have another 3 days here wich should be a great way to wind up the trip, we´re going on a bycicle ride of the wineries tomorrow and then SKYDIVING the following day!

i have broken my camera so the upload today is the last of the photies:(

5 days to go, see you all soon!

Going home

2008-02-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

Leaving at 9 we expected the trip back down to where we started to be alot shorter than the 5 hours that it took us to climb up, and it was! yaay! It wasnt easy though because my shoes couldnt support my and the bags weight and i found myself sliding down alot of the steeper parts which was ouchie on my blisters. Standing at the top of the hill we could see thick cloud cover below us and as we came down through it the temperature changed dramaticaly, from a nice sunny 30 above the clouds to atleast 10 degrees lower underneath them, and the jungle had this eerie jurrasic park mist so i spent the whole time preparing myself for velociraptor ambush.

It was such a relief to walk down the last hill and through the bottom of the valley to the restaurant to sign "back out"... then we walked another 2 k´s to the bus stop and waited for 5 hours... ahhh

that night we decided to celebrate our achievements by going to a disco-tek where we had the biggest tequila shots ive ever had in my life.. they where more like middy glasses. I woke up to steeve returning home at 10.30 who had been out with some metal-heads and had forgotten where the hostel was so he was walking around for a good 5 hours trying to find it.

At the moment we´re in Santiago Chile and are heading to Mendoza (argentina) on an early bus tomorrow. I shall report more then.

cio!

Los Banos

2008-02-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

day three...

After waking up and eating more chocolate we headed out to see some geysers. It was a 3 hour round trip and we where to walk back to the first camp so in total that was a 8 hour day! Luckily it wasnt too strenuous,just more desert with a relativly small ascent at the end, we had to take our shoes off and walk through the river a few times though. It was SOOOO COLLLD by the time i got half way across it was so rediculously uncomfortably cold i thought my toes where going to fall off. The geysers where impressive, huge puffs of steam broke through the cracks in the rock below and there where even pools of bubbling mud! On the way back Herbert slid down a near vertical snow-slope on his ass as an "éasier" way to the bottom, after my last attempt i gave it a miss and walked down..

The rest of the day was spent backtracking through the desert up a huge, slow climb to the first camp. When we got there most of us had blisters on our two outer toes on each foot and where looking forward to the descent back home tomorrow.

Second Camp

2008-02-03T13:13:00.000-08:00

After a good few hours hobbling through the desert and jumping over a few rivers we finally came to the second camp and set up tent. Herbert decided (crazily) to go for a swim in the river that passed not even 5m from our tents door, in water that actually started to hurt when you stayed in it too long it was so cold. After eating dinner some other campers mentioned some hot springs upstream so we donned on our togs and headed for a looksie.

Pople had made barriers out of rocks and branches to moderate the hot water from undergraound, with the cold water that flows down the from the melting snow. At first it was super cold, and as we got closer to the hotter (and smellier.. it smelt like fart) end it got so hot it was uncomfortable so we went to another section where it was just perfect. Air bubbles from underground and slight steam made it look like the water was boiling and the sand felt really wierd, kind of like qucksand because you could easily get your hand 30cm deep in a matter of seconds. It was quite lovely despite the floating algae and sulphur smell.

Up the volcano

2008-02-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

After packing up the tent and having another bag of nuts we started our climb to the top of the volcano. As we got further from the camp the soil began to change from a nice grassy meadow to loose, light pummas (sp?) stones and gradually got steeper. We left our bags at the turn off point to the next camp wich lightened our loads, luckily, because i found myself sliding backwards with secod or third step. So we climbed, and climbed, and slipped on my ass, and climbed until..... SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! herbert (bieng from austria who see´s snow all the time) laughed at us as we began frolicing and eating the snow like children. After a brief moment of joy we continued our ever-steepening climb. so we climbed and climbed some more until we got to what we thjought was the top.. but it wasnt!!!! it just got steeper, but atleast we could see the top of the crater now. we climbed for another hour.... macca got to the top first, and proclaimed his love for me ´from the top of a mountain´(anchorman). The view was absolutely freaking amazing. we had a whole 360 degree view around us and you could see the many rivers and lakes that lay in the valley of the other major mountains adjacent to us. The crater was about 3km across and was filled with snow. I collected a volcanic rock as a souvinier and we headed back down. We decided to slide down the extremely steep snow on our asses to speed up our trip but i fell over and got wet and ice-burnt hands so decided to walk the remainder of the way down.

We returned to our bags and had luch and then walked for another 5 hours (thats 8 in total) through FREAKIN DESERT WITH SNOW IN IT! (IT WAS 30DEGREES!!! THATS WAY TO HOT FOR SNOW!) to the second camp...

in posts to come...

hot springs!

slippery snow!

geysers!

fumagores!

isrealis!

pooing in the desert!

wading through water that was ice half an hour ago!

more snow!

more desert!

the descent!

waiting for the bus!

back to civilisation!

disco tek time!

we walked 55 ks in total and are heading to santiago tonight just incase your wondering..

much love

-brad

Volcan Puyehue

2008-02-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

day one... 10k´s ascent up a near-vertical slope

After stocking up on nuts, chocolate and canned tuna at the supermarket, we took the 2 hour bus ride into the middle of nowhere to begin our trek up volcan puyehue.

We signed in at the resturaunt at the base of the valley, marking the beggining of our voyage, and then headed up the hill. We knew the first day would be hard, but fuck, i nearly died, it was nearly vertical the entire 5 hours and with only my sneakers on, lack of grip was deffinately an issue. A streamlet marked our half way point and we stopped for a drink and lunch. The view below was absolutely amazing but the fact that we had 3 more days of this really didnt help push me on. This was our last water source before camp, luckily the bush was reasonably thick and the shade helped keep us cool so water wasnt really an issue.

So we climbed and climbed and climbed and slippèd and climbed some more until we were above the point where trees stopped growing, by this time my legs where throbbing so it was a huge relief when we finally got to the top and could see the two shacks the marked the camp below. On arrival we set up our tent and i feasted on my lovely dinner of nuts and chocolate, staring up at the VOLCANO that we where about to conquer tomorrow.

Orsono

2008-02-02T08:08:00.000-08:00

Orsono

We left bariloche, along with out austr(al)ian buddy Herbert and headed to Orsono to do some trekking. First impressions of our first Chilean town werent great, it´s dirty and run down and alot more expensive than anywhere in argentina. They have some super cool looking churches though. The currency here is quite different, there is no decimal place or ´cents´, so a coke will cost you 1000 pesos and a good meal will be $18000! It´s bit hard to get used to but i think it works better than our system (and im nearly a millionare here!). We´re staying at this kind of bed and breakfast kind of place run by two elderly people, it smells like cigarettes and there is no hot water but the beds are super comfortable which makes up for it. They dont speak any english, so its a bonus that herb is fluent in spanish...and german.. and itiallian... and english...

Bariloche

2008-01-27T13:14:00.001-08:00

We went white water rafting right on the Chillean border, it took us two hours to get there because 30 of the 100 kilometres of road was just gravel, it wasnt the most comfortable trip but they gave us lollies on the way though wich made up for it. Breakfast came complimentary with the package. Argentinians eat alot of pastries for breakfast.. well they only eat pastries, and cake, and flan things and they have their coffee pretty much straight, with about 2kgs of sugar. So after a few crossaunts and coffee we had enough energy to face the RAPIDS OF DOOM. I wish i had my camera on me so you guys could see how rediculous we all looked in the wetsuits, helmet and puffy jacket.

Our instructor was absolutely hallarious, he gave us a quick safety overview and then showed us the ideal ways to splash the other boats with your paddles, ideally going for the eyes. The water from the river flowed from glaciers up the mountains, so it was so clear you could see the bottom, and you could even drink it as you swam around. As we began to approach the first rapid he explained that he would basically be shouting forward, backwards and stop commands, and if he shouts it louder, we need to do it faster and if he stops, he´s probably falling off the boat. The first rapid was only small, but one of the 8 on board fell out and steve nearly did, partially because i was on top of him... When we finished he showed us the victory cheer, which was kind of like the hands in the midde of the circle then lift them up with a ´ÝEAAAH!, and then we all had to bang heads in the middle. our cheer was waaay better than the other boats..

We floated down river for about 2 and a half hours, with rapids every 15 to 20 minutes and we could just sit back and soak in the awesome mountain views and talk to the others on board between crazy times. When we finished (about 5m into the chillean border!), it was a half hour ride back to camp but we got a PARILLA when we got back so all was forgiven.

Back at the hostel we organised to meet up with Jasper and Judith (yasper and yudith!!) for australia day, so we grabbed a litre of vodka, 6 litres of beer, a kilo and a half of tbone steak and hit the parrilla hardcore. This would be our final encounter with jasper so we had to finish it off in style. Herbert the austrian also joined us, claiming that austrian was so similar to australian that he should be able to celebrate also. After eating a considerable amount we headed to a disco with some guys from the hostel and randomly ran into some girls from the rafting and disco-tecked the night away. We even got an awesome hamburger with salsa from a guy on the street on the way home...

Tomorrow we leave for Osorno for some trekking and volcanoes!

Bariloche

2008-01-25T06:23:00.000-08:00

Bariloche
We arrived at Bariloche around lunchtime today after super dooper long bus trip, lucky we had a tripancho (yes.. thats THREE HOTDOGS IN ONE! i have photographic proof) before we left.

We had planned to arrive yesterday but the busses where sold out, and because we didnt reserve a room at the hostel we had to find another one for a night. All went well though, and the people at the original hostel where great at helping us find another place.

Bariloche is surrounded by mountains and sits on a pretty lake, we´re hoping to do some rafting or something a bit crazy in the days to come.

shweya!

Penguins and Llamas!

2008-01-23T00:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we woke up at 7 and got a on a tour bus at 8. We drove around Pt. Madryn for atleast an hour picking up other tourists who wanted to go on the tour and then proceeded to drive the two hours to the dolphin boat ride (in Rawson maybe.. i´ll find out). I pretty much slept the whole way, and as we approached the harbour the guide described it as ´picturesque´ or something along those lines, and because the whole place was covered in fog we didnt know what to expect anyway. On arrival, we where greeted to what looked like an abandonned industrial area, with 44galon drums everywhere, no vegitation and ships sitting on the dry banks of the river. So when the boat arrived i was pretty supprised when we saw atleast 10 seals/sea lions frolicking around on the banks, not even 5 minutes from where we left off.

When we got out to sea (to see what we could see, see, see) there was dolphins galore, even mummies and babies swimming together! They were black and white which was a bit wierd, but made them easier to see, despite this they where so fast it was nearly impossible to take a photo of them (i had to steal Jaspers).

Back at shore, we jumped on the bus again and headed for the Punta Tombu penguin colony! The biggest conglomeration of penguins outside of Antarctica! The bus took just over an hour and a majority of the drive was on a crazy, winding gravel road.

We stepped off the bus, walked about 10m and BAM, BAM, BAMMITY BAM, penguins fricken everywhere! We couldnt even see the water yet, and it was pretty much desert, and it was about 30 degrees, and there was a penguin under every single bush, it was crazy. But the crazyness had only just begun, on the hill before us A PACK OF WILD LLAMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as we wept with excitement, we realised we where here for the penguins and continued up the path towards the shore. These penguins where everywhere and where not at all scared of humans, some even walking infront of us on the path.

After the penguins we took another 2 hr bus ride to Trelew to visit some fossils at the fossil museum, followed by super panchos. It was on this journey that i saw A FREAKIN ARMADILLOW on the side of the road!

Just to put that into context, today we saw: the biggest colony of penguins outside of Antarctica, llamas, seals, dolphins, sea lions, dinosaurs, super panchos and armadillows!!!!!!!!!

...too bad we spent 8 hours on a bus.

Peurto Mardryn

2008-01-21T06:22:00.001-08:00

Hola!

So we went to our dance lessons, it was really fun. It started off individually just following the moves the instructor was doing at the front of the class, and then the crap people and the good people where seperated and we grabbed a partner and learned how to tango. I started with Steve but then paired up with a local Buenos-Aireaan lady who was equally as bad as me, but atleast we had a good laugh. After a while we were told to sit down and the instructors put on a show, they where awesome, but me and steve deffinately looked sexier together. By the end of the night we consumed far too much alcohol but had a great time talking and dancing like retards.

The next day we visited the parilla place three doors down from our hostel for lunch AND dinner, so in total we probably ate a kilo of steak. This was the third day we visited this place, but for 13 pesos (THATS $4.30 AUSTRALIAN) is was killer value: all you can eat steak, roast, ribs, salad, whole grilled fish, fruit salad, bananas with honey, herb-a-fied oven roasted potatoes, chicken, spring rolls, ICE CREAM and much much more... no wonder everyone loves Buenos Aires.

After two epic feeds we where pretty knackered, but it was our last day in Buenos Aires so when Wagner the Brazillian suggested we hit a nightclub we couldnt refuse. We ended up going to a place called La France wich was basically a big hall with smoke machines and lazer shows but had a zillion people in it. It was 30 pesos entry but beers where aud$1 and cocktails aud$2, no wonder i slept nearly the entire 20 hour bus ride south to Peurto Madryn.

We arrived here at 7 thismorning and have already been for a walk around the beach and some parts of town. Its not a very big town but has alot of sea lions and penguins to have a look at. Its overcast and a bit rainy but hopefully that should clear up before we head bush and set up tent in a few days time.

La Boca

2008-01-18T12:35:00.001-08:00

La Boca, Buenos Aires

Today we went to a suburb in Buenos Aires called La Boca, known for its colourful streets, tango clubs and football team. First we went to the stadium, wich was quite small compared to AFL standards, but they probably pack it choc-a-block, and judging by the +9ft, barbed wire fences that not only seperate the spectators from the field and from each other, it would be absolutely crazy during a match. We then headed towards the center where all the colourful buildings are, had a look at the markets and watched a tango show while we got a coffee. On the way home we got photos with a tango dancer who was a little past her prime, and probably a bit more than just a dancer (SEE PHOTOS!)...

Tonight we have tango lessons wich should be fun...

olah!

2008-01-17T03:59:00.000-08:00

Nothing much to really report in on.

We´ve decided to stay in buenos aires until sunday and then head south to Patagonia/the lakes district. We visited the zoo, i saw a condor (the biggest bird in the western hemisphere!) and umm we walked through a room full of macaws (the freaking huge parrot), stacks of llamas, polar bears and a loco monkey who fell off the top of his house. From the zoo we took a walk to a few museums and the cemetery where Evita is buried. It was really eerie because people had broken into some of the tombs and coffins where falling out of the rooms.

i shall put the photos up later today.

Buenos Aires

2008-01-13T08:23:00.001-08:00

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital city of Argentina, and is known as the ´Paris of the south´, partially because of its arty farty culture, and heavily european influenced architecture. Its actually a really pretty and clean city, the people are really friendly and the food is rediculously good and cheap, i mean like practically giving it away... 3 FREAKIN HUGE STEAKS, REAL chips (gwennie style) , salad, 2 x i litre ´grande´beers for 80 pesos in total (about $30 au or ten dollars each).

We went for a walk to the government building (the evita dont cry for me argentina balcony) and then to some awesome street markets full of antique jewellry, cameras and paintings, then generally soaked up the atmosphere of town. The chick at the hostel counter was rude and tempermental and it was lucky we only had one night here beacause all of the rooms backed on to a communal dining\reception\bar\tv area that at night meant you got pretty much no sleep (except for macca who managed to sleep through the take off and landing of the plane to iguacu).

We´re at a different hostel tonight, and its got free and working computers and the staff seem alot more friendly. they even have a ping pong table!

oh and the main road through town here is 18 lanes wide (the photo)... crazy eh..

mwa mwa´s

-braddles

Bye bye posadas

2008-01-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

We spent friday just strolling around Posadas, this was when we realised the shops here open from 8-12 then 4-8, so they get a four hour lunch break! Wich was crap for us because we wanted to buy some clothes and fruit, and would explain why the pub we where at the other night only started to fill up at two oclock. When the time arrived for us to head to the bus stop, we said bye to Chris and caught a taxi well before the 6.30 departure time, i think we got there at 5.30.

we waited.. and waited.. and waited.. and waited..

and then when a bus to Buenos Aires pulled up at 7 we were like Yaay! however, we were quickly informed that we MISSED THE BUSS! (oh noes!!) and were taken to the office of the company that we booked at, and they frantically tried to organise another ticket for us. We had to pay a fee and the difference between ticket prices but were informed that we would be able to leave tonight, but one of the workers would have to drive us out of town to meet the bus.

So we hopped in his nice little Voltswagon (which everyone seems to drive here) and he DROVE US LIKE A FREAKEN MANIAC about 20 minutes out of town. At one stage we where overtaking a car, which was being overtaken, on double white lines around a corner, with not seatbelts! AHHH! (i have footage of the crazy south american drivers to come). The best part of all of it, was the fact that he had ace of base blaring the whole time (i saw the sign... it opened up my eyes.. la la laaah). When we arrived at the destination (alive thank god), and the bus turned up, they threw deeves stuff onto the bus and he got on. then they took off... without us! Turns out we had seperate busses (ohh nooo!). It all worked out in the long run, and we even got 2 meals on the bus and the seats basically turned into beds. Despite the two babies and chorus of snoring old people we actually got a fairly good sleep before we arrived in Buenos Aires.

Posadas

2008-01-11T05:18:00.000-08:00

Posadas, Argentina

Hi guys,

We left Iguacu a few days ago and caught a 5 hour bus to a town called Posadas in Argentina. As we got off the bus we ran into an english guy named chris who we met at Hostel Bambu and have been hanging around him since we arrived (he can speak spanish, BONUS!). This place kind of feels like Subiaco or South Perth, with lots of trendy clothes stores etc but has cool little fruit shops everywhere.. it Deffinatley feels more safe than anywhere else we have been, with joggers and kids on bikes riding around until extremely late. We have been spending our nights down by the river wich seperates Paraguay and Argentina, chilling out at bars and cafe´s.

We went to some old Jesuit Reduction (see here for more info!) just out of town, which are World heritage listed. We didnt even know what a jesuit was until we watched the video when we got there! Basically in about 1700 some people ( a mix of local Guarni people and European settlers) set up a kind of cult which balanced the lifestyle and traditions of the locals but with a big european influence. It was all about equality, balance, respecting nature and following the word of god. They set up something like 50 towns around this area, the one we visited had a population of about 4 thousand people and their way of living was really efficient and successful. This pissed off the government at the time and they basically told the Jesuit people to leave, and then they made them leave by attacking them! All that is left of any signs of the people now are the few ruins that lay around Argentina and Brazil.

We leave for Buenos Aries at 6.30 tonight and should arrive about 6 tomorrow morning. The busses here are awesome, theyre more spacious and luxurious than most planes ive been on, and theyre cheap too. The bus from Iguacu to here only cost $10! and we even got to watch Die Hard 2 on the way.

Itaipu Dam

2008-01-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

Today we had a tour of the Itaipu dam, wich generates the most powerof any hydroelectric dam in the world and is one of the 'modern wonders of the world'. It wasnt really tall like the hoover dam, but it stretches for 7235 m and holds back a huge reservior (1350 square kilometres) that powers the huge turbines. Its a bit sad really, because all in that space used to be towns and farms, but now its just a shitload of water.

Because the dam is on the brazillian and paraguaynian border, its actually in a neutral zone where no one actually owns it, and both contries contribute and recieve 50% from it. for example the amount of workers is the same between the two contries, they have the same amount of turbines and theres even a line drawn down the middle of the control room to show who's from brazil and who's from paraguay.

We're heading to a town called Pasada tomorrow, it's about 5 hours south of here, this should break up the 15 hour bus ride to Buenos Areis and has some cool old ruins that we're going to check out. We have knocked up a kind of itinerary with loose dates on it wich i'll post sometime tomorrow.

loves to all!
brad and the boys

Teh Foz

2008-01-07T01:52:00.001-08:00

Foz De iguaçu

The hostel we're at is really cool, its basically a huge house with little or no sign of people actually 'working' here. Everything works on an honesty system, you just grab beers/shots from the bar and write them down in a book and the internet works in the same way. The guys are really helpful, they hooked us up with a tour of the Brazillian side of the falls for $r150 (about $100au) , this got us a half hour bus trip there and back, we jumped the massive entry line to the park, got a super, upclose look at the falls, went on a 9 km bike ride through some insane rainforest, a boat ride up the iguazu river, some kyaking and even a little lunchbox!

Our boat broke down at one stage about 2kms upstream from the BIGGEST WATERFALLS ON THE PLANET, we were heading towards them quite fast which got me a big nervous, but the tother guys kept thier cool.

In total there's 270 falls that span the entire front of the river, they just keep going on and on. There was these little animals that kind of look like bandicoots everywhere, picking up any food that anyone dropped, one even drinknng up an icecream. When we reached Devil's Throat and walked out over the platform leading to the center of the U shaped fall, the noise and spray coming off the falls was overwhelming. Looking up at the wall of water pounding down infront of us was one of the most incredible things ive ever seen.

When we arrived home from our little boat breaking down session we headed down to a place called 'Tropicana', which for 12 reis gives you an all you can eat meat buffet! at the front of the eating area a huge, open wood fired barbecuce cooked masses of meats on metal poles, to which the cooks would then walk around and offer the patrons and cut them straight onto your plate, it was like a never ending supply of meaty goodness! One of the beef ones was so tender it tasted like it had been in the oven on low all day, freakin awesome.

The falls form the border of three different countries: brazil, argentina and paraguay, i think we're heading off to the argentinian side today!

Foz De Iguacu

2008-01-05T14:22:00.000-08:00

Hi guys,
THe hostel took us to a crazy street party in Lapa last night, it was quite fun, macca got his camera stolen however (sneaky brazillians). We left for Foz De Iguacu (its pronounces iguazu) at 6 thismorning and have just been chilling out at the backpackers for a majority of the day. I've managed to put the photos from london up on flickr www.flickr.com/photos/bradfarleigh if you want to check them out! ill put the ones from rio and maybe some of the falls up tomorrow.

love to all

-brad

Copacobana: The home of the g-string

2008-01-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

So today we decided to have a chill out day. We slapped on the sunscreen and headed down the beach. It's amazing how much attention you get when everyone elses skin colour is 400 shades darker, its wierd though because lots of people have approached us and said how beautiful the pale skin is...

This beach is perfect. Thats all i can say. Oh and the sand is hot, and children should NOT BE WEARING GSTRING BIKINIS! All the girls here look about 25, and even the older ones who arent in thier prime walk around half naked and get as much sun on thier bodies as they can. Maybe they arent as concerned with body image as us australians, but when 80% of the population is super attractive i dont think they have anything to worry about.

First night at the hostel

2008-01-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

We're staying at a place called Mellow Yellow, which is about one block from Copacabana beach. The staff here a really friendly and nearly everyone speaks english. After getting our stuff together and cruizing around town for a while, we decided to retire to the bar for our free drink and continue the happy hour (well it was two hours) festivities. We decided to get Capirinahs (see above), basically a scotch glass half filled with some crazy vodka/tequila tasting cashew based white spirit, a load of ice, and about ten kilos of lime, and for 2reias (about 1.20 australian)... this was to be a dangerous night.

We started talking to this indian guy who sounded like he had been on holiday for his whole life but had been studing at uni's around the world at the same time. The irish barman started to get worried when we had been at the bar for 45 minutes and knocked back 7 each. The bar started to fill up and a guy with an acoustic guitar starting playing some local music. It was then macca decided he wanted to play a paul kelly song.. BAD IDEA *video upload pending*

A few hours passed, deeve went missing (he doesnt even know where he went...) and me and luke decided to go find a kebab. We ended up at a copabana and went upto a little bar-shack type thing that was built on the footpath and we asked for a kebab, so he opens an eski and pulls out a huge fish and offers to cook it for us(AT ONE IN THE MORNING!). DEAL! We then began talking to a local 17 year old who had very good english and we talked about his home and his family and the differences in culture between his and our contries. After about an hour we decided it was probably wasnt the safest place to be and headed home for some well earned sleep.

Friendly brazillian prostitutes

2008-01-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

So we're sitting at one of the many temporary bars on the footpath that runs along copacabana and a young brazillian girl who doesn't speak a word of english decides she wants to sit down with us and have a hamburger, this was all cool (the people here are really friendly), but the conversation wings towards 'sexo'.. which we guessed as meaning sex... We decline, she asks if we are gay, we say no, she shrugs her shoulders and continues to eat her hamburger and talk about her 5 year old kid. We then pull out the good old translation book thingo and she starts trying to say random english words, pointing out that many of the words are very similar to her language. After about an hour of this, we decide to get another round of capirinahs and she drinks one with us. All she really needed was some money, and we spent all ours on drinks so when we got up and left we couldnt even give her some shrapnel. Poor girl. I hope we run into her again just so i can pay her for the hours of entertainment she provided..

Pão de Açúcar

2008-01-04T10:35:00.001-08:00

Pão de Açúcar

The Pão de Açúcar or sugar loaf was another one of the 'must see' things on our list for rio. Basically its just a big rock, but it has a bar at the top and on a 37 degree day, sitting on a rock 400 meters above the most beautiful beach in the world was fricken awesome. We ran into some other aussies who where deckhands on a private yacht that goes around south america, they probably had the best jobs in the world.

Cristo Redentor

2008-01-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

Cristo Redentor

When we got off the bus from centro a taxi driver quickly sold us his sales pitch and we began hooning up the mountain towards the adjacent peak to the statue. Off in the distance you could see the favelas sprawled up the hills and the haze over the city, we were getting so high infact that my ears began to pop and it was apparent we were actually driving through patches of cloud. When we reached the peak we were greeted by armed guards and then trekked up the hill for some photos. About 10km's into the distance all we could see of jesus was his feet, and the rest of the mountain was cloud, it was spectacular none-the less.

The driver then took us up to the main mountain, where the statue stands. It was amazing to look up at this huge statue that seemed to be balancing on the summit, overlooking the city. Standing at his feet and looking up sent shivers down my spine. As with many of the other places we have been around town, photos just dont show what it's actually like to be there. It was absolutely incredible.

New Years continued

2008-01-04T02:41:00.000-08:00

Well me and macca where the only people on copacobana not wearing white, we've been told it's a custom here so the fact that we where the only white people on the beach AND the fact we were'nt wearing white probably where the reasons whe got so much attention from the locals. from randoms shouting out 'HEY GRINGO' to people wanting photos of us for no reason at all it was actually pretty funny. On a beach with something like 2 million people (so google told me) it was actually not that hard for us to get back to the hotel at three in the morning. It was freaking scary none the less but we made it home alive.

IN BLOGS TO COME---
-christo de redemptor (big statue)
-the sugar loaf (big rock)
-two hour conversations with a lovely prostitute named luciana who couldnt speak a word of english
-macca playing a drunken paul kelly song on guitar at the hostel
-waaay to many capirinahs

plus much much more!

New years

2008-01-04T02:08:00.000-08:00

After a little afternoon kip, we decided to head down to copacobana for the new years celebrations. Deeve was sick so decided to stay back so it was upto me and macca to work out how to use the bus service and head the 10km's to the beach. The public transport here is supprisingly good, busses probably come every 5-10 minutes, displaying the fare on the front and what streets it~s heading down. Each bus has a driver and a cashier type person who processes the fares, this means the bus is pretty much always moving, but also means that if you have to wait in line to pay for your trip, you spend half your time falling over and trying not to fall out the door as the bus cuts four lanes to pick up another passenger.

When we got to the beach the atmosphere was incredible. People where singing and dancing everywhere, there where people selling huge plates of kebabs and chicken, balancing the dishes on thier heads. There was a beer stall every 5 meters selling cans for 2.50real (about 1.80 australian) and nearly everyone was shirt-less (except ofr us gringo's).

As the clock hit 12 the sky filled with the most fireworks i~ve ever seen in my life. it was amazing. There was about 6 cruize liners in the bay wich added to the overall spectacle and people sung and cheered as the half hour of fireworks continued

i have more to say but people need to use the computer...
to be continued!!

1/1/07 Rio first impressions

2008-01-04T01:54:00.000-08:00

So we landed in rio yesterday morning, it's about 35 degrees and super humid. We caught a bus from the airport to our hotel wich was a great opportunity to see the different aspects of the city, from the awesome mountains that surround it to the shanty towns and homeless that seem to be everywhere. It~s amazing how run down this place is, its kind of like fremantle back alleys making up an entire city. The sidewalks are a mozaic of broken concrete and all the buildings and fences have this gangster computergame feel about them, covered in graffiti and dirt.

It turns out that our hotel is in an area named 'centro' which is the business district during the day, but the streets turn into homeless-ville at night, with people making overnight houses out of cardboard boxes and old chipboard. The homeless are friendly though, many selling beer and lollies to make some money.

We checked into the hotel and then me and luke went exploring. We wandered to a huge street market where we scored an awesome turkish bread sandwich, but it was here we realised that nearly no one speaks english and we would probably have to learn some pretty quickly if we didnt want to starve to death.

Sao Paolo

2007-12-30T20:27:00.000-08:00

Its 12 in the morning and we have arrived at Sao Paolo Brazil! We have to wait 12 hours at the airport for our connecting flight to Riô yippee, but that should give us some time to learn Portuguese, well some of it.

We had a massive day in london looking at the musems yesterday (we spent 3 hours in the war museum and 2 in the london musem) and went out with some of lukes friends the night before, we had a chat to two guys who turned out to be famous authors!

London!

2007-12-27T07:54:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! We made it!

Well... after a three hour delay at perth airport, 5 hours on a plane to singapore, a half an hour wait, 12 hours on a plane to London Airport, 45 min in a train and 2 min on legs we FInally arrived at the hostel in the city at 6am thismorning! It wasnt as cold as i expected (10 degrees all day i think) but it was overcast and seemed liek it was morning all day which didn't help on the jet lag.

We couldnt check into our room until 2pm so we dropped our bags off and headed into town. First of all we hit up Buckingham Palace (which has way too many statues of big breasted women topless with small boys) and then froliced via some park (WITH CHIPMUNKS EVERYWHERE! PHOTOS TO COME!) to big ben, wich was actually a pretty cool clock. We then went on the London Eye and went all the way to the top, suprisingly there was little haze and you could see really far and it was very perty. We then decided to stroll up the river, grab a coffee and go to a HUUUGE museum of modern art (tate modern?) wich was in a converted power station with a chimney a zillion metres tall. After a few hours there we went over the much acclaimed millenium bridge, via St Pauls Cathedral to some cool little pub which couldnt supply us with anything off the menu except for beer, lasagne and fish and chips and then on to trafalga square.

By this time it felt like midnight to us but it was only really 2.30 in the arvo, so we decided to go back to the hostel, check in and have a shower.

...man i'm tired.

-brad

9 Days to go!

2007-12-16T21:32:00.000-08:00

It's 9 days to go 'till we leave!

I got some killer thermals and i think they make me look dead sexy.