South America

So, on the recommendation of Casa Viena in Colombia we booked on a catamaran with Captain Gisbert departing on the 10th March for a five day cruise to Panama including three days in the San Blas Islands. The boat takes 15 people and has space for everyone to have a bed with a few cabins up front. The price was 450 dollars including all meals and the transport. Its nice that we have a catamaran as they are supposed to be more stable on the water and we had heard that the crossing is pretty rough.

We went shopping the night before departure in Cartagena, not really knowing what to get. I stocked up on seasickness tablets because I have a reputation for motion sickness and I thought better safe than sorry! I also stocked up on ginger, because I've heard that helps too. We didnt get any fruit or food as the boat should have everything included, but we did get some snacks and lots of alcohol. I actually had to persuade John to put some alcohol back because he would never have been able to carry the amount he had picked up in the supermarket. In the end he settled for 24 beers and a 2 litre bottle of rum. I had a 2 litre bottle of vodka and 6 beers. I figured the first two days are reportedly very rough at open sea, so drinking then is probably not the best idea.

John had the instructions of where to go to meet the captain in the morning, we took a taxi to the dock but it turned out john hadnt listened properly and wasnt entirely sure where we were meant to go. Enevitably we were in the wrong place and were getting a bit worried as we couldnt see the boat, captain or anyone who looked like they were waiting for a boat. With 15 other passengers it should have been quite obvious. Anyway, turns out we were in the wrong place and the captain had to come and get us, good start! When we got on board we established everyone had loads of alcohol, so no problems there and we actually set sail a little early too. We were given a double bed in the main section of the boat which is all open with 4 doubles and one single bed plus the dining area. There are two small cabins at the front of the boat which can sleep 3 and 4 people. Our 15 people consisted of myself and John, 4 canadians travelling together (brother and sister Hannah and Saxton accompanied by their friends Emily and Nick), an aussie couple - James and Wai, a dutch couple Fleur and Duco, two English guys Will and Simon (one working for the British Embassy in Colombia and one running his own business there, an american called Kyle, a swiss girl called Melanie who we had met before and another English guy called Alastair. The boat was run by our Captain Gisbert, his first mate Luis and a german guy called Hans who was helping sail and maybe would buy a boat from Gisbert. Everyone seemed really friendly and nice, so we were set for a good trip.

The first part of the journey is the afternoon then over night and one whole 24 hours at sea - a total of 40 hours. You leave in the afternoon because the captain needs to arrive in the San Blas in daylight to avoid grounding the boat on the shallow waters and reefs. The first night and morning I didnt feel too bad and everyone was getting to know each other on the boat. We played lots of cards and had a nice meal. After that everyone went to bed pretty early as it was quite a long day sorting stuff out. The next day we had a huge breakfast ( all the meals were great btw) and I started off sitting on deck. But gradually one by one about half the boat got sea sick and people started just lying in bed instead. The captain said the crossing was especially rough for some reason and I found myself not being able to get out of bed or eat anything for the next 24 hours until we reached more sheltered waters. So much for the ginger...I couldnt ever get up to make ginger tea let along drink it. The worst was when you needed to go to the loo because it is down in the bottom of the boat and it really makes you feel ill down there. I dont know how the Gisbert and Luis managed to cook meals in the kitchen below deck all the time. Although, I guess they have pretty good sea legs doing the crossing every other week.

We arrived in the San Blas early the next morning and I think everyone was relieved. It was the first full table for breakfast on the trip and we definitely made up for the lack of consuming food until then. There was a spanish tortilla, fruit, toast, jams, peanut butter and cream cheese with cucumber and tomato. We all ate so much! The canadians introduced everyone to the idea of cream cheese with jam, which I must say I was dubious about at first but was infact pretty awesome. Sadly the weather wasnt great during our trip and we didnt get much sun. It was still hot but very cloudy the whole time which did put a dampener on the swimming and meant that I didnt get a picture perfect caribbean photo. But the islands were still very beautiful. Theres over 350 in total and they are only inhabited by the Kuna people ( an indiginous tribe from Panama). The islands are perfect postcard islands with white sand and palm trees. Some of them are tiny and have no people living there, others have huts and houses, while some have hostels and bars. We stopped on a small one the first day and swam over to explore. The current is very strong in the ocean here and the sea shore is full of sea urchins and other painful things. It was pretty trecherous walking the last bit to the shore and you really had to wtach where you were going I think several people got stings and spikes in their feet. One of the english guys, Will, took the Kayak out and stayed on the island to read by himself. I think everyone was just glad to be free of sea sickness. In the afternoon and evening the canadians taught us some great card and drinking games which were definitely a highlight of the trip for me. We are still trying to find people to play Mafia with. The next morning we moved to another spot, but sadly still no sun. It was hot though and people got quite sunburnt. We swam again and relaxed, with Will taking the kayak on his own again. It was abit strange that he didnt even eat with us on the boat but took his own boil in the bag food to the island. Perhaps someone offended him or he wasnt impressed at being with backpackers, when he worked for the British Embassy and had a chaufuer driven car normally. He told some one in the evening that he didnt even want to come back to the boat to use the toilet, so instead he dug a hole on the island and used a page out of his book as paper! Think people were slightly shocked by that revelation.

The next day we made our final stop on the San Blas, a bigger island with a bar. We played volleyball and lazed around, but still had no sun. I brought some art work from a local lady. Its called a mola and is the traditional art work of the Kuna people. Its a piece of embroised fabric in various designs and colours. They use layers to create the colours with stitching on the top, very intricate and beautiful. I got a fairly cheap one - just 10 dollars, but at least I knew it was genuine. I also took a picture of the lady who made it because they have beautiful outfits with bangles all up their legs. When I asked to take her photo she wanted to get dressed up for the picture and then she wanted to see it afterwards. She even put blusher on.

In the afternoon I tried a bit of snorkelling and saw some fish, starfish and brain coral. It was great to try, because we are thinking we'll do some diving in the bay islands. Some locals were fishing in the area with spears and they offered us some octopus and tiny lobster. Apparently the fishing has been bad the last few days because of the bad weather. We also saw several helicopters and a high presence by the US coast guard in the area, apparently because drug trafficking increases in bad weather due to the cloud cover.

On the final day we set sail in the morning for Puerto Limon in Panama. The trip was 5 hours in rough sea again, so I sat outside and listened to music for the duration. We sailed all the way along the Darien Gap which seemed endless and is almost totally uninhabited apart from tribes. Its one of the last real unexplored frontiers in the world, because of its density of jungle and notorious dangers from drug traffickers.

We arrived in Panama that afternoon and stayed in a hostel for the night before meeting Gisbert at immigration the next mroning. He had taken our passprts ahead to be stamped and was waiting for us. When we arrived he told us there had been a problem, after the immigration officer had stamped all the passports he had informed Gisbert of a 'new visa' required for people entering by sea. Apparently it would involve us going to the next town and paying for a visa - the next town being an hour away on the bus! Gisbert told us he'd never heard of this before and thought the guy was probably just causing trouble. A prime example of the corruption of the police and officials over here. As some of us were in a hurry we debated and decided to just continue our journey hoping for the best, we never had any other problems and hope Gisbert didnt either. Just a customs guy trying to con us then!

I would throughly recommend the trip over to the San Blas to anyone who is interested. It was worth it despite the sickness and is really good value when you consider the travel involved and the fact that everything is included. Our captain and crew were really friendly, kind and professional and the boat, Santana is definitely a good choice. Next on to Panama City...

Well here we are in Colombia, still one of the most feared places in the world. In all of South America this was the one place everyones parents think you shouldnt go...after so many years of trouble from gangs trying to control the drug running routes to the USA its no surprise people are still a little scared to come here. But, its an amazing country with some of the friendliest people, despite the many issues they've had to deal with throughout their lives. During the worst years 1 in 20 colombians were displaced people who had family members killed and were forced to leave their homes. Many of them are still displaced and there are still problems with gangs in a few small pockets of the country.

We crossed into Colombia over the border from Ecuador in the South. This area is lush and green with palms and coffee plantations. It´s very mountainous and the road crosses several deep ravines in beautiful national parks. In the past it was very dangerous to cross the borders here, especially the border nearest the coast, which is still experiencing issues with gang related violence. We crossed the border further in land and went straight to a town called Popayan. We wanted to travel all the way to San Agustin on the first day, but it was a long ride from ecuador and we couldnt get there all in one go without travelling after dark. The area surrounding Popayan and San Agustin has only recently been freed from the paramilitaries, so its still a risk to travel on the dark lanes. We actually released afterwards it is currently not recommended to travel to any of this area at the moment due to some serious trouble recently in the mountains, but we couldnt have had a more relaxing time there! The road is unpaved and takes 7 backbreaking hours to travel, all cramed into a tiny mini bus with far too many people and a toy horse.

There is one thing you notice straight away in colombia - that the driving is appalling. We later found out its a macho thing..the men compete to see who can drive the fastest and over take the most. Its like a race and you are literally hanging on to your seats. At one point our driver was going to overtake on a blind bend and John actually shouted out 'nooo' which evoked some pretty confused looks from the locals. Despite the apparent rush in the driving, we seemed to stop on the way to San Agustin whenever the driver was hungry and also whenever the locals would shout out, stop the bus and then run into local farmhouses to buy cheese. I bought some strawberries and cream from a farm, which were so sweet and the cream was freshly churned. Delicious.

We arrived in San Agustin around 2pm and were offered a hostel by a guy who met the bus. We wouldnt usually go for that straight away, because you often get talked into bad rooms but some other people recommended it and he was a really nice guy. So we went for it..it was called casa Japones and was up the hill slightly out of town. It was a bargin at just a few pounds each for a private room and had a beautiful view of the town. Very peaceful place, if not a little rustic. The owner, Lee organised me a cheap horse-riding tour of the valley and we visited the archelogical park as well. The park I think was a little disappointing, it features ancient stone carvings of men and animals found in the area in the 50s. Sme of them are painted and reach up to 6m tall. They were believed to have been the guardians of tombs and marking buriel sites. Unfortunately when they discovered the stones they moved them all to new locations and fenced them in, which I think ruins the impact of the area and makes it feel a little false. They were interesting anyway and the horse ride was stunning. The scenery in the area is beautiful, completely undeveloped still, very lush and green with great rolling hillsides and ravines. I took the tour with a few other people, which was lucky because when I told the guide I hadnt ever ridden a horse before he just gave it to me anyway and didnt give me any instruction. When someone asked for a helmet he returned with a sombrero! Á swiss girl on the tour gave me a quick intro to riding and I had a pretty passive horse, so I was all good. Infact on the way back I would have preferred to have gone a little faster but the horse seemed to have other ideas. Possibly a little too passive.

After San Agustin we travelled by over night bus to Bogota. This bus is one of the safer ones in the country and is no problem to travel on overnight. We arrived early morning at the major bus station, which is across the main city. We stayed in La Candelaria which is the old town and main tourist area. Its very pretty with narrow streets, colourful low rise colonial buildings with wooden balconies. There is also a very large plaza with all the government buildings surrounding it. The presdients house is located in this plaza and is huge. You can walk all the way round the outside wall, much closer than you can get to anything of that importance in england. But you do have to have your bags searched and there are armed guards stationed all around. There is also a modern goverment palace, replaced after the old one was taken over and bombed by the M-19 military group. 115 people died. We visited the gallery of Frank Botero, a famous colombian painter. He only paints fat things in a comedy style. All his paintings are brightly coloured and contain fat people, fat animals, fat fruit and veg etc! He also has many sculptures around bogota and the city of medellin. We visited the police museum - lots of guns and police outfits from the years, plus Pablo Escobars old motorbike. I visited the gold museum, which hosts a huge collection of gold pieces from all cultures. They are so amazingly intricate, with masks, jewelery and staffs. They used all kinds of setting technics well beyond their time.

We also took a trip out of the city to the Salt Cathedral at Zipaquira. The original was built in the 50s in a salt mine for the workers and is 200 metres below the ground. However, water seeped through into the original cathedral and caused structural issues so the government closed it down. They replaced it will a new version in 1991, which is 200 feet below the original. It was opened in 1995. The cathedral is based on the 14 stations of the cross. Each cross is in a separate cavern or chapel and has a different style to it representing a different stage in the final journey of jesus. The crosses are lit up in different colours and all carved out of salt. There is a huge cavern at the end which is the main cathedral and is used by the locals. We had a guide so it was fairly interesting and you have to walk up a big flight of stairs at the end called the steps of redemption.

While we were in Bogota John went to the local skydive place in a town called Giradot. Its off the tourist trail, but is popular with local people and has a river you can swim in. Its unbearably hot though and you can only eat pizza really. It was packed with locals at the weekend and the bars were busy all night. The dropzone was reportably not too great. Really nice people, helpful and laid back but John said they didnt have the safety procedures we have in England so he didnt feel great about it. Following that we took a night bus to Medellin and cahnged buses to go to Guatape.

We had some work organised in a hostel in Guatape, called Lake View, to practice our spanish. Guatape is a beautiful place near Medellin, with a man made reservior used for power generation. They created a dam and flooded a town to create a huge lake. You can view it from a rock called El Penol, which has a really old concrete stair case built into it. The rock has 635 steps to climb and gets you 200m above the lakes. The views are breathtaking. The place is so tranquil now, its hard to believe that less than 10 years ago you couldnt have travelled down the local roads from medellin, it was such a guerilla stronghold. It was declared safe to visit when the army regained control in 2006. The hostel we stayed in was really relaxing with bike riding and kayaking. We also took a tour of the lake by boat which included a view of the Peñol from the water, a museum with info about the area before the dam, and views of Pablo Escobar's old holiday home (with the escape tunnel). The holiday home has been bombed and is deserted now, but is still fascinating. The government have taken control of it at the moment and dont allow people to walk round, but we persuaded our guide to let us off the boat for 5 minutes to take a closer look. The place must have been really grand in its time, you can picture the huge pool parties. We stayed for 10 days by the lake, but left a bit earlier than planned because we were starting to get short on time, and everyone there was english so we really werent practicing any spanish!

We stayed in Medellin for two nights, which is a nice city but we didnt see much, we just went out drinking and then lazed around. Then we took a bus up to Cartagena. This trip you cant do by night as the roads are still a little unsafe, so we took a full day to get there. We were planning on working our way down the coast to do the Darien gapster ( a speed boat trip with camping on the San Blas). This is one of the cheapest ways to travel to Panama from Colombia, but it only departs once a month and we couldnt make the timing work for us. So instead, we emailed Casa Vienna in Cartagena and got some recommendations of boats doing the crossing from Cartagena to Panama via the San Blas. The best one for us was a catamaran with Captain Gisbert. It takes 15 people for 450 dollars each for the five day trip, including all meals. It was departing in a week, so to use our remaining time we took a trip down the coast to Taganga and visited the Tayrona National Park. Taganga is a small caribbean town located in a beautiful sandy bay surrounded by hillsides covered in jungle. Its lush and green and must once have been a very tranquil spot. Now its renowned as a party town, although I didnt think it was that bad. There were quite a few gringos there, but we found a nice hostel with a good mix of people and we were travelling with friends. We stayed a few nights, just relaxing and eating seafood. We visited Playa Grande, a beach you can only reach by boat at the start of Tayrona National park. It was nice there but so windy and the beach was packed with tourists. There's nothing to do apart from sun bathe so we only stayed one day. After that we went back Cartagena and stayed for 3 days. Its a beautiful city with lots to appeal to travellers and holiday makers. All the buildings are colonial in style, very well maintained with lots of plazas and surrounded by stone city walls. It should have great sunsets but was a bit cloudly when we were there, although we tried to see them every night. Hostels and restaurants are a little expensive for a travellers budget though and we were ready to leave after a few days. We had a meeting with everyone from our boat the day before we were due to leave, seems we have 4 canadians, 2 aussies, 3 english guys, a swiss girl, an american guy and a dutch couple. Everyone seems really nice so we are really looking forward to the trip. Now we just need to decide how much alcohol to take....

After cutting our trip to Brazil short due to budget restraints, we decided to add Ecuador in as an extra country to ease the pain. It made perfect sense because a flight to Quito was cheaper than a direct flight to Bogota in Colombia (even though the Quito flight changed in Bogota). Also we heard lots of good things about Ecuador on our travels, so we thought we´d check it out.

It´s still a pretty cheap country to travel in, even though the government have partially stablised their economy by getting rid of their weak currency and using the american dollar instead. We had heard it was dangerous to travel there when we were in England but in South America everyone told us they loved it and felt really safe.

We booked some extra spanish lessons for a week because it was so cheap. Just 7 dollars an hour for one on one with the Colon Spanish School. The school is attached to a hostel and they picked us up from the airport and took us straight there. We started spanish the next day for 4 hours per day. The teachers at the school are great, although they dont speak any English, which was a problem for John as he is still pretty much a beginner. But for me it worked fine most of the time and really improved my listening. I need conversation practice so we ended up having some pretty random conversations to fill the time and try to increase my vocab. I think I know most of what there is to know about my Spanish teacher now! After a few days lessons we actually decided to move hostels to one in La Mariscal (locally called Gringolandia). The hostel for the school was nice, but there werent many péople staying there and you can get much cheaper beds elsewhere. So we moved to Vibes Hostel. Gringolandia is crazy, you woudnt believe it....its so Americanised and completely touristy. There are bars and restaurants everywhere, all complete with flashing neon lights. There was also a lot of police, but despite this we didnt feel particulary safe to be honest. The probem was that every one we met in Quito had been mugged or knew someone that had been. It seemed the longer you stayed the higher chance of it being your time. We didnt take our cameras out really, we only withdrew money during the day and didnt walk around alone, but still we didnt feel great. We decided we wouldnt stay long after our spanish lessons and we would head to Colombia overland to the North. We were debating a trip to the jungle but since John is terrified of snakes and neither of us was really feeling excited by the idea, we thought we would make do with a trip to cloud forest and perhaps see some jungle elsewhere.

Before we left Quito we visited the old town, which is very pretty and has a beautiful Basilica which you can explore. You can even go in the roof and to the top of the spire up a series of ladders. I went half way but the top was a bit far for me! We also visited the equator line, which was an experience in itself. Its quite far out of town and you need to take a few buses. Then you get dropped off outisde the tourist village the government have built around the equator line. Its got a tower and line marking the original equator, plus the typical egg balancing spot along with some bars and restaurants. The thing is, its actually quite expensive to go in and its not even the real equator. When the explorers went on the expedition to discover the equator they didnt have the GPS equipment to mark it accurately, so they were slightly off. The real equator is now down the road in what looks a bit like someones garden. We walked round to that bit after and were disappointed to find another entrance fee was being charged there. Plus it was closing time by that point, so we used the good old iphone GPS, found a spot just over where the real equator ran through and had our photo taken there. Who needs to see the egg balance anyway....

After Quito we went north to the colombian border stopping in two towns. The first was Otavalo, a town famous for its markets. The main market is Saturday, but they have markets every day and we heard things are cheaper other days. We were there on a Friday and there was still plenty of market traders and lots to buy. Theres not much else in town and we were keen to get over the border the next day, so we took the bus to the border town of Tucan and stayed there one final night in Colombia. The cemetary is sighted as the thing to see in Tucan but I didnt think it was that impressive. Similar in style to lots of south american cemetaries and not really very big. The best thing is that the bushes have been trimmed into different shape by the groundskeeper, including one which looks like a piglet. The next morning we took a taxi to the border (you can take a bus but it was quite a walk with our bags), after getting our stamps in a rather long queue we walked across the border to Colombia. Strangely there were no people at Colombian immigration, which makes you wonder why there were so many on the ecuadorian side...

From the border we took a bus to the first town to continue into Colombia...but thats for the next blog.

We arrived in Puerto Iguazu, the town on the Argentinean side of Iguazu falls after an 18 hour night bus from Buenos Aires. The town is basically built to serve the falls. It´s quite small but has everything you need and a nice atmosphere. It was unbelievably hot though and John forgot to look up the hostel address, so I wasn't too impressed at trekking round in the heat after the night bus looking for internet or the hostel...

We were staying in the HI hostel at the top of town. It was ok, dorms were nice enough and the pool was fairly clean. We were thinking we would stay the one night in Argentina, do the Argentinean side of the falls in the day then come back and move to the Brazilian side for one night to do the falls from that side as well. Each side has a national park and walks to see different sections of the falls.

We got up at about 9am to go to the Argentinean side and caught a local bus from the bus station, its the cheapest way to go and is really simple, there are buses running all day that drop you off near the entrance and you can walk in from there. Once in we went straight to the train to get to the top of the falls. The heat was crazy and there were a lot of people even though we thought we were nice and early. After a long wait for the train we realised we could have actually walked the first section and saved ourselves the time. Especially when a japanese tour group did walk it and then were all in front of us in the next queue! We got the train all the way to the top and then walked through the park towards the falls. I had to use my umbrella as a parasol and even the locals were sweating it was so hot.

The park consists of forest and rivers with walkways constructed over the top. The size of the rivers is quite impressive but then as you are walking you can suddenly hear the roar of the falls. Its incredibly loud and as you get closer you can start to feel the spray in the air. You can see the top corner of the falls first where the water just disappears over the edge in a sudden drop, then you come out onto a platform which looks over the whole throat of the falls. They are huge...the throat section itself is massive and speed and amount of water crashing over the edge is stunning. The noise is pretty intense and the falls continue in different sections all the way down the ravine. I could have watched it all day if it wasnt for the heat. Thinking we would try to get out of the sun we went to see the bottom of the falls. This takes you through more forest and you see lots of different views of the falls. There are so many individual sections which would be really impressive on their own, but nothing compares to the impact of being at the top of the falls. To see the very bottom of the falls you walk down through the forest which leads out to a small island. The view from the hill and the bottom is beautiful, A real tropical paradise, those pictures you get with the moving water in chinese restaurants...or what I mean is its more llike a picture than real life.

We were really struggling in the heat by this point though and decided that we would have loved to go to the island but we just couldn't walk around for much longer. If I went back I would definitely go in lower season. After that we went back to the hostel and moved to the Brazilian town - Foz du Iguazu. Its easy to cross the border here, you just take a local bus to the border, its only about one pound. You can get off at the border to get your passports stamped then catch the next local bus going through to the first town in Brazil. The immigration section was so quick - just 5 minutes. We couldn't quite believe it after our recent 5 hours at borders in Chile and Argentina.

Anyway, the town of Foz du Iguazu is not great. All high rise building and no real town centre. There are a few hostels and a few mediocre restaurants but nothing much to look out for. We also decided that we actually wouldn't go to the falls again on the brazilian side as we had seen so much from the Argentinean side and you have to pay the same amount again for the park entrance. The only difference is that Brazil has a zoo on there side with some endangered animals, but the actual parks and views of the falls have much less to offer than Argentinas side. So instead we moved on the next day with a bus to Curitiba. Its a fair sized city in the Parana area of Brazil. Not really on the travellers route, but I have a friend who lives there so we thought we would pop in and get a local tour. The place is really European; you can clearly see the Portuguese influences in the buildings and churches. Apparently the people like to the think of themselves as European. We stayed in a new hostel called Curituba backpackers which was really nice. The owner is really helpful and cooks cheap meals and makes drinks for the guests. Just 8 Brazilian Reales for a healthy meal and a drink...cant complain.

We pottered around the city and did a sightseeing tour by bus. There are lots of beautiful parks and the whole area is very well maintained. You can tell that this is one of the richest states in Brazil. There is an amazing glass opera house and a botanical garden worth a visit. They also had a Jazz Festival on during out stay which Mariana took us to the next night. We stayed with her for a day and she took us to see a great brazilian string band playing at the university and then out to a bar. The band had 6 or 7 different types of guitar from all across Brazil and played both Brazilian and English influenced Jazz. In the bar afterwards we all drank large bottles of beer which everyone shares. The only problem is that you kind of lose count of how many have been ordered and the bill seems to be quite large at the end!

The next day Mariana´s family took us to the bus station to book a night bus to Rio and then took us out for the day. They have a beach house on the coast and they very kindly took us with them to see it. We had lunch in a place called Fantinato before we left, a traditional brazilian lunch of feijoada (is meat cassarole with beans, rice, wheat and cabbage with salsa). Really great and good value too, its the common thing to have on a Saturday to cure your hangover. After that we drove 2 hours to the coast. Mariana´s family have a flat right on the beach and the town is where everyone from the surrounding cities goes for holidays and weekends. The beach was packed even when it started to rain and there was music pumping from a massive rig set up on the beach with beach aerobics going most of the day. We lounged around on the balcony drinking beer and then played some pool in the apartment block. It was a shame the rain didnt stop all day, but it was still really warm. In the evening Mariana´s family took us for dinner to a really nice seafood restaurant where we had all different dishes, including calamari and a prawn stew which was delicious. We offered money but they wouldn't take it, so we were full and happy all for free.

That night we got the night bus to Rio, arriving about 7am. We realised after we left Mariana how much we were struggling with Portuguese. Its really quite different to Spanish and even when the words are the same the pronunciation is totally different. However, with some broken language we did manage to get a local bus across to our hostel. We saw the centre, Copacabana and Ipanema beach before reaching our hostel, which was all the way at the end of Ipanema in Leblon by the Sheraton Hotel. We got off the bus right outside but as we were walking up the steps we were overwhelmed by the smell of drains. The place stank. Even worse was that when arrived in the reception the hostel seemed to smell pretty bad as well. The girl came out from one of the dorms to check us in but couldn't seem to stop her incontrollable laughter. I don't know what was so funny but its a bit disconcerting when she is laughing for about 2 - 3 minutes none stop and cant speak to you. When she finally spoke it became clear she had been out all night and was probably still drunk. She continued to burst out laughing most of the time and I was quite sick of it by the end. Our stay there didn't much improve. It turned out the girl at reception was useless, she couldn't tell us anywhere to eat, she looked at people weirdly all the time and the guy wasn't much better. He tried to force us into an expensive BBQ and then later in the evening he was djing so loudly to an empty garden, it was frankly a little embarrassing. The showers were filthy as well and the dorms were too small with triple bunks squeezed in. We moved hostels the next day across town and left a fair but bad review, which the owner then had the cheek to reply to and slag us off claiming that we were boring and we were arguing at the reception so the girl was just trying to break the ice. Wouldn't go back there if you paid me! The beach by the hostel wasn´t great either. Its a small local beach, but at the weekend it was packed and we didn't feel very safe there really. Theres no facilities and nowhere you can get drinks round there. Better off spending a few more pounds and staying closer to the centre.

The new hostel, Lisetonga was lovely. It was at the end of Copacabana in Favela Morro da Babilônia. The Favela is built on a steep ridge separating Copacabana beach from Botafogo. Apparently it was one of the first Favela´s originating from an army post stationed on the hillside where the officers built shacks to sleep in which were then increased in number when the workers settled there whilst building the tunnel and the tramway. Its still a Favela of course, but its controlled by the police now and its fairly safe. Babilônia was controlled for years by drug traffickers linked to the Terceiro Comando (Third Command) organization, which imposed its rules by force on the community. In addition to controlling the illegal drug trade, the gunmen monopolized other services like the supply of cooking-gas cylinders and imposed rules on the population such as the times when they could come and go and the law of silence. In June 2009, police occupied the area without firing a shot. The intention was to make Babilonia into a model community by installing Police Pacification Units. Now, there are police stationed permanently on points up the hill and the hostel is only a few minutes in anyway. We didn't feel unsafe at all. The hostel was fairly new and is really nicely done out, clean with cheap drinks, a nice kitchen and separate bathrooms. The staff were nice too. We would definitely recommend it to people and go back if we return to Rio. The location was perfect too, just a few minutes down to Copacabana beach. Long beautiful sandy beach with lots of people selling all kinds of food, drink and souvenirs. The sea was clean although freezing cold and really powerful. It knocked me over several times and I had sand everywhere. Really good fun though.

In the evening we chilled out in the hostel with lots of nice people and drank the cheap drinks at the bar. I developed a small addiction to Caprihanas. We visited the Christ the Redeemer statue, which was amazing. The view of it from the main city is not too impressive as it really only looms over the suburbs of the city, but when you get up close it is much bigger than you imagine. The statue was all carved by one guy, and then hauled up onto this really high mountain overlooking the whole of Rio. We took a bus up to it because the trains only run every few hours and the bus is the same price. It would be worth checking the trains in advance though, because apparently the trip through a national park is beautiful. But the bus was good and they took us to a view point on the way. You can also come back whenever you are ready.

At the top the statue is reached by a series of modern escalators. We spent about half an hour taking photos and admiring the view before getting the bus back down. We didn't do the sugar loaf cable car afterwards because the view of the city is much the same and each one is quite expensive.

We just stayed a few more days in Rio enjoying the beaches, visiting the area of Lapa and chilling out before heading south to Ilha Grande and Paraty. Lapa is a district on the otherside of Rio with a famous set of steps decorated by one guy in all different tiles. Its a constant work in progress as he changes the tiles all the time. You can send him a tile and he will switch it for one of the wall and send you the one he removes. We also saw the Santa Teresa area which is a pretty neighbourhood with a tramway. We had originally planned to go north from Rio, visiting Salvador and Belem and down the amazon by boat. However, I found the prices in Brazil too much for my budget and all the extra flights required to go that way round would have been too much for me. So instead we decided to do some of the coast South and then fly from Sao Paulo to Ecuador and go north into colombia from there. It felt like a good compromise as we would see an extra country in compensation for sacrificing Brazil.

Unfortunately, on the way to Ilha Grande the weather turned really bad. The Island is full of tropical beaches but there really isnt anything else there. Its more of a peaceful paradise kind of place. By the time we arrive at the nearest port to get the boat cross the weather was just too bad and they had stopped sailing for the day. Theres not much in the port of Angra Dos Reis itself and the captain said he thought the weather wouldn't lift for a few days, so we made the decision to keep moving down the coast to Paraty and hope for better weather there. When we got there we had another problem; the hostel we booked online weren´t answering the door. It was raining and we stood outside for 15minutes knocking on the door but no one answered. We had to find somewhere else for the night and then somewhere new in the morning. We ended up staying in Geko hostel on the beach. It was really nice and we caught up with some friends before they flew home, so that bit was perfect. Also Paraty is really nice. Its a small town with lots of pretty painted buildings and is set in a beautiful bay. You can take boat trips out around the bay stopping to swim and sunbathe. Unfortunately it really wasnt the weather for sunbathing but we went anyway and it was still fun. There was a music festival in town during our stay, I think for the run up to Carnival. Its a great place to spend some time and we really enjoyed it, we just wished we could have had some sun. But we had lots of sun in Rio so I guess you cant have everything! After Paraty we headed down the coast to Sao Paulo, where we had booked a cheap flight out to Quito in Ecuador. We stayed just one night in Sao Paulo so I cant really tell you anything about it and to be honest John was so disgustingly ill that night that I would prefer not to think about it too much. We did think we might have to take him to hospital, but I think it was just a bug and after a few hours of solid vomiting he did get some sleep and I got to clean bathrooms at 2am...what more could I want from a night in what is apparently one of Brazils best cities.

This blog is really really late now...I´ve actually been to two countries since this and we´re now in Colombia. But it´s hard to write a blog when you´re having fun!

Anyway, following our amazing Salt Flats tour, we were dropped off in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. We had thought we would move on really quickly, as it wasn't really on our list to visit, but actually it is a really nice place and we stayed a few days. The town is very low and flat, it forms a kind of Oasis in the dessert. It is surrounded by barren landscapes, containing the driest dessert in the World and a valley they call the Luna Valley, because the landscape resembles that of the moon. The buildings are all one story high and painted white, making the town itself look a little bit moroccan I guess. Having come from Bolivia one of the best things was the food here. Lots of salads and fresh healthy food options...amazing compared to a diet of chicken and rice. However, water is very scarce here and things are quite expensive.

We seemed to just make mistakes about things to do in whilst here. The first was that we had read about some Inka ruins down the river and thought it would be nice to hire bikes and cycle to them..bit of a mistake as the sun is incredibly hot in the dessert and we were sweating after just a few minutes. We made it to the first set of ruins in about 15 minutes and walked all the way to the top, up a very steep hill. The thing is, that after Machu Picchu and the Inka Ruins in Peru, its really quite hard to impress me now...but nonetheless the view of the valley was nice and we sat for at least half an hour admiring it. Then we decided there was little point continuing to the further ruins, as we had already seen far better and had surely exerted ourselves enough for one day?

We also went sandboarding whilst in San Pedro. Being snowboarders we assumed this would be great fun and really fast. Perhaps it is if you go with a decent company, but we went with our hostel, Hostel Rural (nice hostel - idiot manager and rubbish sandboarding). We should have known better because it was really cheap, but we just thought it was a good deal. However, the guy was using snowboards with bindings (correct me if I'm wrong - but I'm sure that's not right)...he didn't measure anyone's height or feet, he just handed out boards. Mine was so big I could barely hold it up let alone ride it! It was a bit of a joke and he just pretended it was fine. I'm surprised no one broke an ankle. But, we gave it a go (and I actually quite enjoyed the last two runs), although the wind in the dessert was crazy...I had sand everywhere by the end. The moral is, if you stay in Hostel Rural in San Pedro..don't go sandboarding with them. Its rubbish.

On the whole we had some great food and drink in San Pedro and its a nice place, but that's about it. People in Bolivia told us Chilean locals are a little rude, but actually we found them to be lovely. John even made a friend...Ruben the bar man, who made us coca leaf mojitos (dont try those btw..coca leaves are no replacement for mint). Amusingly Ruben was possibly the worst bar man ever. He couldn't take more than once drink order at a time, he got confused between black and white russians and almost set the bar on fire. We loved him, John went back three times.

Next, we took the bus from San Pedro to Salta, in Argentina, as we had decided we wanted to be there for Christmas. It was a day bus due to the border crossing, but we weren't prepared for how bad that would be. We were supposed to arrive in Salta at 8pm, but infact we didn't get in until 11.30pm. We ending up stuck at the border for three hours. They just don't seem to do anything to help you along in immigration here. There was a queue of buses all at the border at the same time, so we didn't even get off the bus for 1.5hrs and then they check your passports separately to your bags and nothing seems to be in a hurry. Very frustrating for all the tourists on the bus, but just seems the norm here.

We stayed at hostel 7 Duendes Base in Salta. It is quite nice and relaxed and there were loads of other people there for Christmas. They celebrate on Christmas Eve here and the hostel put out free beer, cider and Empanadas. Everyone in the hostel cooked as well...making a dish each, so we had a massive feast and met lots of nice people. One of the guys staying in the hostel here is cycling through South America. He´s already come through Peru and Bolivia and is heading down Argentina. He´s so funny...a really loud american guy who everyone already remembers meeting in different places. At midnight all the locals set off fireworks in the street with their families. Its quite an odd sight. No precautions they just set them off outside theirs houses with kids running around. Closest I've ever been to the sound of a warzone and you do have to look out for rogue fireworks heading your way.

On Christmas day we were planning on having a grilled meat dish at a restaurant round the corner, they said they were open all day. Whether it was John´s spanish or just true South American style I will never know, but they weren't actually open at all, so we had to find somewhere else. When we found somewhere on the plaza we had steak and cocktails, with a slightly crazy guy from our hostel who thought everything was a big party. Very different to an English Christmas day. Sadly it wasn't very sunny though, maybe next year in New Zealand we will get sun.

From Salta we took a wine tour to Calafate. It was actually pretty rubbish. You only visit one winery and the tour just lasts 10 minutes. The plants aren't working, so they don´t show you round. They let you taste two wines but they were horrible. Wouldn't recommend that tour, wait till Mendoza instead.

Next, we took a bus to Cordoba to visit a friend of John´s. We probably would have visited the city anyway as we had heard good things. Its a very big city but it not pretty and there isn't much to see in the city itself but the surrounding areas are beautiful and the bars and restaurants are good. We visited John´s friend who has a small house in the outskirts of the city with his wife and son. The evening was really nice and it was good to see someone from home again.

The next day we visited Alta Gracia, the town where Che Guevara was brought up. It is known locally for it´s health beneficial climate (he had asthma as a child). There is a really interesting museum about his life and the town is very pretty, with a big plaza, boating lake and a Jesuit Palace. It is said to have been the spa town of the time, where locals went to spend their summers. That evening we took a night bus out to Mendoza - the wine capital of Argentina.

We arrived in Mendoza on New Years Eve, hoping for a good party. Unfortunately no one told us that they don't really go out on New Years in Argentina. The hostel told us people were with their families until midnight and then go out after, but what they didn't emphasise was that there wouldn't be a single bar open - not even a light on until 3am. We spent New Year swinging our legs on a park bench with our friends Kylie and Aaron, passing round one bottle of beer! Even at 3am when the bars did open, it was all very subdued and by that time we were knackered and went to bed anyway.

Anyway, despite the disastrous new year Mendoza was really nice. We went to an olive oil factory and two vineyards, both of which had much better wine than the vineyards in Calafate. The town has a huge park, nice squares and a great bar street.

The night after we crossed the border again back to Chile. Another horrendous border crossing, even worse than the last - five hours at the border. Two of which were before we even got off the bus and all of which were at 2am. We arrived in Valparaiso, Chile, at 11am in the morning. We checked into a really nice hostel in Barro Conception, which is the artist quarter of the town. The hostel was called Casa Fischer and the owner is lovely. Much to our disgust everyone showed us amazing pictures from New Year in Varparaiso, where they have a massive party and a huge fireworks display over the sea. Probably would have been a bit expensive anyway and a girl in the hostel told us the police let off tear gas in the main Plaza at 5am to try to clear the crowds.

The town itself surrounds the bay and grows upwards from the sea. The inside areas (nearest the sea) are the safest and the each Barro (area) has a funicular or cliff railway going up to it. You can also reach them by steps, but the railways are cheap and quick. Each area has a different style and the whole town is covered in amazing graffiti. The weather wasn't great - it only clears up after 1pm each day because of the sea mist, but the place was fantastic and we took so many photos.

After Valpariso we went to Santiago. It´s quite a small capital city for South America, but a very safe one in comparison to many others. We stayed in the Bellevista neighbourhood the first night and really loved it. Its the cool place to go out in town and the bars are absolutely packed. Its very hot in the city, so everyone is out on the streets and all the pavements are full of people. The second night we moved hostels to the Brazil neighbourhood. This is where we thought we wanted to stay as it is supposed to be the artist area, we hadnt managed to get into the hostel the first night which had forced us to choose one elsewhere. Barrio Brazil is full of old crumbling buildings and has a nice enough plaza, but we actually regretted the move and I would have stayed in Bellevista if I´d have known.

We visited most of the city parks, which are all beautiful. There is a Paris-London neighbourhood, which is where the richer residents live and I went to a large park with a zoo and cable car. The city is really safe and clean. We saw some jazz music and I visited a memorial to the Pinochet regime, whilst John went skydiving for the day. The memorial is a park on the location of Villa Grimaldi (ex torture camp of Pinochet). The site is now used as a garden containing items to calmly remind us of the terrible time the victims must have been through. There are trees planted in the areas where cells would have been, which outline the sizes and shapes, and there is a monument with metal railings, which were found in the sea nearby (tied to victims whose bodies were disposed of in the sea, to ensure they wouldn't float). The whole memorial is really beautifully done and I spent about three hours there listening to the audio guide and wandering round the garden. Its a very shocking realisation that we don't hear much in England about a regime which was so recent and so brutal.

After Santiago we sadly decided that I couldn't afford to go South to Patagonia. It´s a shame to miss it, because it must be really beautiful. But its really expensive and part of the National Park is currently closed due to ash from the Chilian volcano and forest fires raging since Christmas. We decided we would come another time just to visit the lakes and Patagonia, to take our time and make the most of it. So instead we flew to Buenos Aires. The flight was as cheap as the bus and just took 2 hours not 28. Such a luxury to do customs via the airport, you don't realise how efficient it is until you´ve spend 5 hours on the border in a bus.

Buenos Aires is huge in comparison to Santiago and just as hot. We stayed on the edge of the San Telmo district, which is the district famed for Tango. It has a really nice square and on Sundays it has an antiques market and free tango shows in the square. Its really nice at night too with lots of bars and restaurants.

We visited Boca, the district with the multi coloured houses. We took a bus there and and back - its not far from the centre. Its really impressive but the main streets are very touristy. However, the other streets are very unsafe, its the poorest district in central Buenos Aires. The tourist area is fine, but you cant go further in and if you do there is nothing to see anyway. The area is bland apart form the port which they maintain for tourism.

We also visited the modern Port area, Puerto Madero, which is redeveloped and modern now. It´s a bit like being at Gloucester docks though and has lots of chain restaurants and bars. Even a TGI Fridays. We walked past the port and stumbled across lots of local burger vans next to the sea. They were actually selling sandwiches as well as burgers, the biggest of which was called the Bondiola. This apparently, is a Argentinian tradition - a grilled pork sandwich with egg, cheese and ham. It was amazing! You get loads of salad and condiments to go with it, although youre lucky if you can fit them in the sandwích anyway, the filling is huge.

The other food highlight of Buenos Aires was in the Palermo district. The district best for bars and restaurants. Its a hidden secret in a resturant called La Cabrera. The restaurant is one of the most popular steak houses in the city. Huge, amazing steak - the best quality meat. But the place is so popular now that it is packed every night and its hard to get a reservation. However, someone told our friends that if you get there at 7pm they have a happy hour. Drinks and steak half price. Well, that was just too good to miss, so we made a normal reservation (just incase) but we also decided to head over at 7pm with some friends and try our luck. The guy in our hostel (he´s from BA) said there was absolutely no chance it would happen and why would they offer half price if they were full every night anway. But, turned out it was true. The deal is that you need to get there by 7pm, be seated by 7.15, order quick and be happy to leave before 8.30pm, which is when the restaurant opens for its first full price sitting. For people on a travellers budget eating quick for half price drinks and food is really no problem. There was 6 of us. We had two bottles of wine, some of the biggest and best steak I've ever tasted and condiments of potatos and salad, all for just 70 pesos each which is just over 10 pounds! What a bargain.

Later that evening we went to find a Tango show. Unfortunately they were all really expensive so we settled for seeing some free Tango in the Plaza and went out to a few clubs with our friends. After finding lots of clubs with locals dancing on the bar and fighting we eventually gave up on the local nightlife of Buenos Aires and wandered back to our hostel.

Next stop...Iguazu falls and into Brazil...(actually we´ve already been there because as I said I'm behind in writing this, but you´ll have to wait to here about it).