The mundane...

So I'm back on the treadmill that we call ordinary life. I don't like it. Take me back to the places with friendly faces and sun, because it isn't England.

I miss travelling. At the time it was hard, but being back is harder. Knowing that every day will start and end the same way, in the same bed, in the same village is driving me crazy.

I was crazy anyway though, and here at least I have my family and friends, albeit that most of my closest friends aren't near here, so I guess my travels will be shortened to around the UK for the time being.

It was a blast. One day I will tell you all about it. Not today though, today is for another Mojito.

Fat toes and Mojitos

It's sooooo hot here in Cuba my little toes have swollen haha!

Anyway this will only be a quick blog as internet here in Cuba is the most expensive anywhere (beats Easter Island Cerdito) and the only place we can get to it is in a strange telecom building, because the locals are banned from using it. So I'll keep my moaning short.

I am no longer the chilled happy little skippy traveller I once was, oh no. Goodbye to the days when I could smile at people and try and chat and generally have a nice time. Now I have a permanent frown and am so rude. Why? I hear you ask... well the Cubans (not all obviously, but the delightful kind that travellers collect) my little friiieeends, are oh so friendly, but only because they want to sell you something, hassle you to go somewhere, or want all your money, oh yes. Last night we were hassled by a grand total of 15 jineteros. FIFTEEN! I had had a couple of mojitos by this point and actually growled and waved my hands at the last one, yelling in a crazed manner 'nonononononononooooooooo por favor noooooooo'. I do believe I scared the poor man, so much so he quickly ran away.

I'm not surprised.

I have to say that Cuba is not at all what I expected, Cubans don't even eat rice and beans Papa. All they eat is Pizza!!! Pizza coming out of their ears I tell you. All the side street stalls that would normally be the cheapest way to eat are more expensive than going to a restaurant, because as Cuba has a dual economy us tourists are screwed 24 pesos to one tourist peso. The exchange rate is bad too. So most stuff is pretty much the same price as at home. AND we left Havana before a huge anti-American march that would have gone right past our balcony argghh! Looked so cool on the TV, we're kicking ourselves for missing it!

Ok enough of my moaning, just be glad this place was shut last night when I was in a really bad mood! This morning though is much better. We ate a great breakfast at our Casa Particular (where some nice Cubans live) and tried a new fruit that I swear she called Zapatos (yes shoes Cerdito) guess I misheard her!

Anyway we are in Santiago de Cuba, so this afternoon we are going to a rum factory hurrah! Roll on the mojitos! Guess how we got here... oh yeah baby nightbus! Pretty disappointing after our lovely last one in Argentina, but Scotty survived (I'm so proud!) hurrah! 16 hours too, so a hardcore journey. It was freezing at night with their air con, so we resorted to spending the journey under a towel haha, should have kept my fleece liner. Although I suspect we won't need it again as it's about 30 degrees in the day and it hardly gets cooler at night!

p.s. you probably won't get another update til I get home, because this internet malarky costs too much, still you never know ;)

¡Hola Perú!

So we´re back to where we started...

Before we left Buenos Aires we thought ah we´re going back to Perú, how much fun we had there, but we have to be very protective with our things again... then we got off the plane and realised we had forgotten how busy, dirty and smelly Lima is!

That was mainly at the airport though, and now we´re in the lovely Miraflores, just writing you all perhaps the last entry from South America before we grab some lunch.

We had to leave the hostel at 3.30 this morning, and it was particularly noisy so we didn´t get much sleep at all. We had a brilliant last supper in Buenos Aires though, we got a takeaway pizza for a mere 4 pesos (which is about 60p ish and it was huge) and a bottle of beer and sat on the floor of our room nattering. It was a nice end to Argentina.

I know I´ve promised to tell you more, hopefully there will be internet at the airport, because Matt and I have decided to sleep at the ariport as we can´t get up at three again tonight. It is going to be one hard day, the lack of sleep last night is already taking its toll on us.

So tomorrow it is off to Cuba for me and home for Matty. I just wanted to say what an ace travelling companion Matty has been for this trip. We´ve made a brilliant team.

So here´s to Matt my great pal and to the many more adventures for us to come - thank you Cerdito! hehe x

Brazil and Uruguay baby yeah!

Well there's another two countries I can knock off my to do list... well not really but I have at least visited one town in both hurrah!

We left for the Iguazu falls on Tuesday. Guess the mode of transport? Ah yes the nightbus I hear you all cry, and if you did then you will receive 10 Suzie points that you can collect and trade in for a prize!

The nightbus was the best we've been on, with a great man doing the airhostess thing, who even got down on one knee to offer me champagne, now there's service for you! We arrived after 16 hours in Puerto Iguazú where the sun was shining and it was so hot people were wearing shorts (in Autumn oh yes!). Matt and I were properly impressed as we were met straight of the bus, even though it was an hour early and got straight across the border into Brazil. Our hotel (note the word, not hostel!!) even had a swimming pool which I made full use of the minute we got there!

We went on a tour of the Argentinian side on Thursday, where we got a little train across the national park and got to walk across metal grided bridges above the rivers until we got to the Devil's Throat, which was utterly incredible! Then we did a couple of other walks to see other smaller waterfalls which were also really beautiful. The best bit, however, was a boat trip that we'd been sucked into paying for the day before. It was brilliant, we got our lifejackets on and got into a speedboat, luckily Matt and I grabbed the closest seats to the front. The driver started by swinging us round and getting each side as close to the water as he could, until both sides were a little sprayed and the others had started woo-ing. Then the fun started! We raced towards a small waterfall where he suddenly stopped (for a moment we thought he was going to smash us straight into the rock) then he went back and drove us straight under the waterfall, he went backwards and forwards til we were all completely drenched! The water was so powerful and cold, but it was brilliant, and we got taken under a few more times! Then we sped off down the river, jungle on each side with gaps where there were little idyllic looking coves. After a few more spins for good measure it was, unfortunately, over. We got out and I think half the river got out of the boat with us! I had to take my top off to wring out the water there was so much!!
Then we all traipsed the steps up the hill to where a large open truck was waiting for us, to drive us through the jungle.

It was a brilliant day, and the following day we got to see the falls from the Brazilian side, which was great because we got the whole panoramic view. We came back that Friday night and arrived back in Buenos Aires Saturday morning. We checked into a horrible hostel in the morning and after dumping our things went into Recoletta. We went shopping in the craft market (danger, danger on all sides...(just for you D) I wanted to buy EVERYTHING! Matt had to pull me away from all the pretty things) and went for a great meal in a swanky restaurant, which still only cost about 2 pounds haha! Recoleta has a huge walled cemetry in the middle of the square, full of the rich and famous of Argentina. The crypts were amazing, all very ostentatious, and we saw Eva Perron's tomb. We didn't realise it but it was actually her birthday so there was a huge crowd, people singing and shouting things and loads of bouquets of flowers.

After leaving the cemetry we went back to the hostel to clean up. I had a shower in a really skanky room, where the water wouldn't go away so they left a squeedgy thing in there for you to sweep it away yuck yuck, we did not like the hostel! Anyway we met Carmen and we went to the Ballet together. It was Sleeping Beauty at the Theatre Colon, dahhling. It was brilliant, the theatre is gorgeous. Afterwards Carmen invited us to her house, so we managed to get out of skankyville (without paying, how we managed that I don't know) and went to stay with lovely Carmen in her lovely house. That, of course, is another story which I'm afraid will have have to wait for another day...

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is so cool. Only problem is that the streets are full of dog muck, but if you ignore that, everything is ace! Well actually not quite everything. I have once again become the tastiest morsel around for mozzies, and currently my face is the size of a balloon, because all the bites are swollen (on my face!!) arrrggghhh. At the moment it´s hard to get through doors!!

Anyway apart from that everything is good. We´ve finally got a plan and tomorrow we´ll be heading to the Igazu falls (hurrah hurrah). Although we still have to confirm our flights and tickets as after the tour we´ll be back in Buenos Aires for the night before heading to Puno.

Back to Easter Island and Machu Picchu briefly, Matt´s just loaded up some new photo´s so you should check those out. Hopefully I´ll be doing the same, but I´m waiting for a confirmation e-mail, so check my links and it will be updated when some of my photos are up too. Oo just got it, so hopefully there´ll be a link there now.

Well this photo thing is painfully slow, so I don´t have time to write anything again huh! Maybe tomorrow we´ll get a chance to actually write something!

Easter Island rocks!

Well you may have thought we´d actually dropped off the side of the planet for five days, and you may well be right. At least sort of, we had moved down to Easter Island, currently my favourite destination of the trip!

We landed at a sticky, humid hour, may I add, however, until getting off the plane, this was not the case. After all they make sure you are precisely the right temperature in first class baby yeah!! Woo hoo, it´s the only way to fly!

Matt did brilliantly when we landed, by finding out what was on offer hostal-wise (as all the hostal owners were in the arrival lounge with their clipboards of photos), we picked the cheapest and hey-presto had a ride to our new home for five nights! The hostal we stayed at was brilliant. We had an ensuite bathroom, I got the double bed, we had a patio window and sort of balcony and a really nice hostal owner. Although we had a lot of rain, most of the days were glorious. We got to see loads of Moai, which were pretty impressive, and the island itself is gorgeous.

We saw volcano craters, met some ace people, gained a third travelling companion, again (lost one again, because he´s still in Easter Island), cycled and trekked for miles, hitched a couple of rides, adopted a dog (or rather Rosita adopted us!), and ate the biggest sandwich in the world ever. When I say 'ever', more like 'ever...outside America' - so I´ve heard).

As you can probably imagine, we´re running out of time, and there is an awful lot to tell you about the wonderful Eater Island so it will all have to wait for another day.

Matt and I are off on a night bus to Mendoza in Argentina shortly and then (fingers crossed) straight off to Buenos Aries. Hopefully we´ll have a chance to update properly when we get there!

I'm very sorry!

Sorry for worrying everyone. Everything's fine it was a terrible joke.

That takes the cake

Matt and I were having what I thought was a great night. We went to an ace cafe that I found and ordered a cake to share. As usual Matt had to go to the toilet within 3 minutes of ordering.

The Chilean guy brought the cake over and proceeded to divide it, but after smiling at me and saying something that I didn't understand, he gave me the slightly larger piece. I'd taken one bite when Matt re-emerged from the toilet. He took one look at thecake and had what I can only describe as a mental episode. He cried for a full 10 minutes after knocking his cake on the floor, whilst the Chilean man looked on in disbelief.

Apparently this trip has been too much for Matt and the fact that I was given the larger piece of cake was the last straw.

He is unbelievable. He finally lost the plot, it was clearly too much for his weak mind. He said he was going his own way and ripped up my Easter Island ticket. Except he didn't. Obviously the red rage prevented him from being able to read because it was his return ticket to England. I'm sure he'll work that one out soon. I can't believe what an utter arse he's been. He limped off with cake all down his trouser leg and I came back to the hostal to change my room. I don't know where he is now but we are certainly not travelling together any longer.

19 hours later... the driest place on Earth

Well I wrote a great blog yesterday, however, due to some kind of technical problem (I´m assuming it´s not because I was drunk of course!) it somehow got lost! Pah!

I did write a witty reposte of yesterday´s events, (made so much funnier by the beer) however it was not to be, so here is a less funny version.

Our first coach trip of joy was from Cusco back to Arequipa. It was, again, a night bus and it started out ok, with more leg room and a film, but as the night went on things were a little strange. We were woken by Police men who flashed torches at us, and our feet (obviously there is sock smuggling going on in these parts), then some Peruvians got on about 1.30 and proceeded to bring on the most luggage that they thought was best in the rack above our heads. Which it wasn´t. I didn´t appreciate the plastic bag that kept being swiped against my head either!

After managing to get back to sleep the driver then put on his delightful Andean music... I do not find a wailing woman the most condusive to sleeping, nor the cold. Matt and I had to keep close for warmth, in fact we were frozen together by the end of the night!!

At any rate we arrived in Arequipa and found the next bus to Tacna. We opted for Cruz del Sur again, so joy of joy we got to play bingo again, and we were given breakfast and two films! Luckily this bus was only 5 hours, and we only had one stop to check that none of us naughty people were smuggling fruit and therefore fruit flies from one end of the country to the other!!

Once we arrived in Tacna we had to get a taxi, from a very scary place, across the border into Arica. The taxi driver was actually really nice, and made sure we knew where we needed to be shifted to check our passports etc, so that finally Matt and I arrived in Arica. We got the exchamge rate a bit wrong, so when the lady told us it was 3000 pesos we initially thought it was about 9 pounds each, to which we said no, and tried to get a cheaper room, however, we now think its about 1000 = a pound (or at least its easier to think of it like that) so we felt a little embarrassed when we were arguing over 3 pounds!!

We did, as you might have guessed go out for a quiet beer or two, (ahem) and ate some great Mexican (even though we are in Chile!). Alas the beer and lack of sleep made us sleepy, so yet again we had an early night!