Our South American leg of the trip kicked off in Argentina. Buenos Aires is a very cool city, and flying in from Australia, we experienced jetlag for the first time in our lives! Not being able to function correctly for 48 hours isn't exactly a fun experience though. Hence our first few days here were spent catching up on sleep, though we did take time to check out the colourful houses in Boca, and take part in a little street tango.
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| Definitely not set up... |
After Buenos Aires we got a bus to Rosario, which was a great time in itself - taking a bus in South America (save for Bolivia) is like flying business class. Just incredibly good. In Rosario, we took a
real tango lesson. Now when I say 'real', I mean 'real'. It wasn't a tourist style "pay lot's of money and dance awfully with a load of tourists". It was a "Hi-this-is-a-weekly-lesson-for-locals-and-we've-just-come-along-too". Hence, there were some very good dancers there. Fortunately, we managed to just about get the hang of it (tango is tough), and didn't embarrass ourselves too much. We saved that for the day after, when we rented a pedal boat (hey, it was only £1.50..) and proceeded to crash it several times before getting yelled at for going in the out-of-bounds area. Oops.
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| This is what travelling the world is all about |
Next up was Iguazu Falls. The volume of water is impossible to comprehend. Just stunning.
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| And this is only about a third of the curtain |
Following the falls, we headed off to Rio de Janeiro. I think we both rank Rio as the best city we've been to on the trip. Beautiful weather, beautiful girls, friendly locals, amazing night life, amazing day life, amazing things to see, plus the whole "Dude, Rio's dangerous man, you're gonna get robbed or something or stabbed, it's well bad", seems to be a load of nonsense. Yes, there are dangerous parts of Rio you probably shouldn't go walking through at night, but the same thing is true of London, Manchester or any city in the world.
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| The Favela; not as dangerous as in COD |
The highlight of Rio's nightlife are the street parties. Every Friday and Saturday turns into a mini-carnival with people drinking and dancing in the streets. The atmosphere is simply fantastic. However, having such a good night can have consequences... After waking up in a rather drunk state, and rushing to catch a bus the following morning, something was bound to go wrong. And after getting off the bus at the Brazilian/Bolivian border thirty hours later, a discovery was made; Myles left his laptop in the hostel in Rio! So we ended up staying a little longer than planned in Corumba as we waited for the Brazilian Royal Mail to pop the laptop over.
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| The most brilliant city |
Upon entering Bolivia we started on the most horrible of journeys. A night train to Santa Cruz (we didn't know trains could be so bouncy), followed by a night bus to Sucre (without a road), followed by a (long) day bus (which didn't have a toilet on board, nor did it make toilet stops...) where we eventually arrived in Uyuni. Uyuni is home to the world's largest salt flats, and despite being incredibly impressive, is more known for the awesome photo opportunities!
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| Oh, the japes we have |
Following another night bus (they're incredibly tiring by the way) - we arrived in La Paz - the highest capital in the world. At 12,000ft above sea-level, walking around is slightly more tiring than back home. Even more tiring is biking down the world's most dangerous road. Yunkas Road - you may have seen it on Top Gear - is an incredibly thrilling bike down through incredible scenery, though it is risky. A couple of fellow riders crashed in emphatic fashion while Dave rode into a bush after flying round a corner too fast.
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| Riders have fallen off the edge and died here in the past |
Onwards from Bolivia, our next destination was Peru, though due to time constraints, we sadly only had time to hit Machu Picchu. Though it was certainly worth it. We took part in a 4-day jungle trek up to the Incan Ruins though some stunning mountains. Football matches against locals (we only lost because we weren't accustomed to the altitude), a dodgy papier-mache cable-car and one-foot wide paths were the order of the day on the way, and after travelling nearly 50 km over the four days, we finally arrived at Machu Picchu - it was well worth it.
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| The family |
And onto our final week in South America which has been spent in Colombia. Again, supposedly dangerous, but in reality, not really much worse than anywhere else in the world, we spent a relaxing few days along the beaches in Santa Marta on the coast of the Caribbean, enjoyed the last cheap markets we'll see for a good while, and simply enjoyed our last few days in the continent.
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| We didn't even do any cocaine in Colombia - we're awful tourists |
South America has been amazing. With just a little over two weeks till we're home, let's see how North America can do.
