Sophie and Rhea's S.American Adventure

BUENOS! Soooo, down to business - Machu Picchu time...

Had an early start on the first day which was so early it was still dark, wild. Picked up our soon-to-be American bezzies from their swish hotel who we would be spending the next 4 days with. After a pitstop of egg sandwich for breakfast, we arrived at the start of the trail and got to work with strapping our sleeping bags and roll-mats onto our day backpacks (only small 10L ones). We went hardcore and decided to not hire porters, choosing to carry our stuff ourselves, unlike the other 4 who had 3 porters between them! We went for lightweight, they went for hygiene. And then we set off, with Fredy, our Peruvian guide, leading the way. Managed to overtake some donkeys within the first 10 minutes so knew we were setting a good pace...

Soon stripped off all our many layers to ´feel the freedom of the breeze´ as we began to understand that ´Peruvian flat´ actually means lots of little ups and downhills. Stopped off at some ruins and sat down to learn the history about it with Fredy for a while. Then we walked a little more before getting to lunch. Ahhh, lunch. Literally the best food we´ve ever eaten on this trek! For the first lunch (yes, we´re going to describe each meal in detail) we had succulent trout enveloped in a rich tomato purée with garlic sprigs, with rice, potatoes and a million other things. Mmmm. Had a little snooze, where Sophie was on an incline so kept rolling and making a move on Rhea. Ate some lollies, then set off again, finishing with a steepish hill and a bit of drizzle so we could whap out our waterproofs. Got first pick of the tents YES so chose the romantic one in the corner with a view of mountains and the river outside our zip up door. Rhea´s feet stunk. They could have killed many animals. Had tea AND dinner (apparently theyre different things..!), with popcorn and hot chocolate for starters, followed by our main meal. During the Inca trek we learnt the danger of Brits using the word tea for dinner. The Americans would say ´tea´s ready´so, naturally, we´d get mega excited because that involves food but then they were just meaning drinking tea. Always a disappointment. Didn´t massively enjoy using the French loos as apparently some other people in our group find it difficult to aim! The next morning we got woken up by the porters bringing us hot water outside our tent...´AGUAS CALIENTES´. We should add at this point, just how amazing the porters on the Inca trek are and how well they do their job. Every day they carry great big loads of up to 20 kilos on their backs, with flimsy shoes and little proper equipment. Yet they still make it up way faster than you do, and have tents and food ready for when you arrive into camp. When looking to book our Inca trek, we deliberately chose a small business, run by Peruvians with no Western influence that can somehow pool the money back to them. The porters are renowned for being treated well, and the idea of a small company means that the porters, guides and managers all know each other well and there´s a strong family feeling when you´re around them. It made the trip even better.

Day 2 was tough as there was 5 hours of uphill to look forward to. Took a lot of dancing, singing, sweating and lollies to make it to the top, but we did make it, reaching the highest point on the Inca trek just after midday, at about 4200m. Unfortunately, on the way, all the Americans became a little sick with the altitude (they had just flown in from US so not used to it yet) so we had quite a bit of time at the top of this point (called Dead Woman´s Pass) to kill. No worries though as you can always rely on old British men farting mid-conversation to have a giggle at. Or a cry. After that, it was a long downhill walk on now really shaky knees to camp. Again, we had an amazing view outside our tent. We were above the clouds, so when you looked out the sun was setting above them, surrounded by mountains. The stars that night, too, were just amazing - you could see so many. The Americans were still not feeling great that night, so refused to eat anything, leaving us two the task to eat food cooked for seven. Needless to say we accomplished this task, though we couldn´t quite finish the suprise (and still warm!) cake they presented with us for pudding, though we did manage a good 3 pieces each which we´re pretty proud of. Pretty much rolled out of the food tent and down the hill to the toilets where we didn´t hesitate to use the men´s when the women´s was full. Word of warning though: when a real man knocks on the door, don´t put on a male voice because it creates awkward moments when 2 girls walk out... Struggled to roll back up the hill but somehow managed to defy gravity and slumped into bed immediately falling to sleep after a hard day´s eating. Slept suprisingly well apart from the slight disturbance when one of the Americans thought she had to be air lifted to safety...

Day 3 wasn´t a particularly difficult walk but it was made hard by the fact it was SO long! It felt like forever before we got to the campsite for lunch, and no it doesnt always feel like it takes forever to get there... Rhea got pretty tired but Sophie enticed her on with her "Mucho sexy woman" song and dance routine. Lots of downhill after lunch where we made friends with an injured porter and so gave him some lollies too. Arrived at camp and shock horror had a shower! This seemed to suprise the Americans who said they could hardly recognise us afterwards! In the shower rooms we met a lady called Helen. Helen became quite special to us over the trek as her joyful and positive outlook on life spurred us on even in the darkest moments. We first met her in the shower where she complained no end about the lack of hot water, the length of the shower queue, the lack of privacy in the changing rooms and the general hygiene. Helen dear, we´re up a mountain!

Day 4 we got up at 3:45 when it was absolutely pitch black but Nasario the chef still managed to cook us pancakes, much to our delight. Had a short walk (without torches!) to the control point where we waited just over an hour til it opened at 5:25am. Tried to make the walk up to the Sun Gate as quickly as possible to avoid the crowds overcoming many steep steps on the way. Got to the SUn Gate which on a clear day would dive you the first glimpse of Machu Picchu however, we were unlucky (probs Helen´s fault) as it was very cloudy for us and we could hardly se a thing! Got lucky later on though as it started to clear up for the walk down to Machu Picchu. Had some amazing views close up, photos can never do it justice! Freddy gave us a tour round Machu Picchu which was very interesting but we were so shattered we could have fallen asleep right there and then! Found out that Machu Picchu was right on a fault line and was designed to fit round this, its still a mystery as to how they know this. The Incas decided on that location for Machu Picchu due to the protection of the mountains and also due to astronomical reasons. There was also a quarry nearby which provided all the white granite for the buildings. Had a nice sleep while the other went to climb Huayna Picchu (the mountain in all the pictures of Machu Picchu). In quechua, Huayna means young and Picchu means mountain, whilst Machu means old. Caught the train back to Cusco last night and went straight to sleep when we got back to the hostel. Had a fairly relaxing day the next day. Wandered up to Sacsuayhuaman, though didn´t realised you had to pay to get in, so wandered back down towards Cusco´s version of Christ the Redeemer where Sophie met a friend for life...a Peruvian local, either high or drunk, who kept giving her stones to pass on to her mum..LOL. That night we sat in on a mini lecture about the discovery of Machu Picchu. It was a man from National Geographic who had many contradicting views and opinions that conflicted with what we´d learnt the day before! Also had some good pie and gravy that night, with apple crumble and custard for pudding - it´s a traditional Peruvian dish...That night we set off for Arequipa on an overnight bus, arriving mid morning. Had a nice couple of days there. It´s a nice little town, from which you can do day tours into the Colca Canyon to see condors...twas a good day. After Arequipa we moved onto Nasca, to see the famous Nasca Lines. Pretty expensive, it has to be said, but worth it. We clambered into a little 6 person plane, got some cool headphones to drown out the noise and had a 20 or so minute flight over the desert. The lines are huge drawings carved into the desert floor by the Incas many many years ago, which make different pictures - spider, humming bird, monkey and astronaut were just a few. Again, as with most things to do with the Incas, its unsure as to how they came about (ie. how they got the lines so straight without technical equipment) and why they are there. One theory was that they were used to study the stars and another was that they were used for irrigation systems. Mmmm, now there´s some food for thought. From Nasca, we moved further up the West Coast of Peru onto Huacachina which is just outside Ica. It´s a really small little place set around an oasis between the sand dunes. Beautiful. Went sandboarding one day, once we´d managed to tear ourselves away from the enormous and extremely yummy chocolate and fruit pancakes served in the restaurants. We´ve just realised how much we really do talk about food! From Ica, we carried on to Pisco which is where we spent the next 2 weeks volunteering. That´s another blog though unfortunately, as its just gone 1am and we have to get up at 6am in the morning because....WE´RE GOING HOME and have important things to do like catching flights.

So, Buenos Noches and see y´all VERY soon!!!!!!!!!!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hola Señors, señoras and señoritas... (look at our fluent Spanish)

We last left off in Sucre, just before we were due to get the bus to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Ironically, after saying how we were going to be very early for the bus, we were actually pretty close to missing it due to the rain, traffic and Sophie`s mispronounciation of where we were going which meant we ended up in a different place (told you we were fluent). En route to La Paz, Sophie had an interesting toilet experience where actually, there weren`t any toilets, so she followed a trail of old Bolivian ladies in traditional Bolivian skirts who all immediately squatted at the same time, seemingly effortless, with their skirts poofing nicely around them. Felt a little out of place with trousers.

Sooo onto La Paz. We arrived around mid morning and checked into a Irish party hostel. We like to be traditional and all that. They did have THE comfiest beds however with duvets and really friendly staff. They weren`t in the bed by the way. High altitude though meant that every time we got into bed (we were both on top bunks) we were very out of breath! Had a nice wander that day through the very big but very pretty city, getting hassled by lip balm sellers on the way. They had...apple, strawberry, grape, orange, lemon and for youuuuu, special price (private joke incase Hannah´s reading). We also checked out the Negro (black in Spanish) Market and Witches market, which both sold all sorts of odd and ends like llama foetuses(!) which Bolivians apparently put under their doorsteps to bring them good fortune...DO try this at home. We also bought our own body weight in alpaca wool goodies, and Rhea bought some very expensive (8 squids) walking shoes for the Inca Trail. The evening brought many compications, actually only one but because it`s food it`s very important to us. All we could find for tea were greasy chicken restaurants so we headed back to the hostel, looking forward to bangers and mash, despite the overpricing. Only then to find that we were 5 minutes too late to order. Ohhh. It was getting late and we were super duper hungry so ordered some greasy pizzas and stood on the street searching desperately for the pizza man. Well worth the wait. Met a nice Ozzie couple on a 12 month honeymoon that night! Don`t you just hate these greedy people who travel for ages?!

Next day we went to the Coca Museum, which was all sciency and nerdy so we loved it. The Incas used to (and the locals still do) chew coca leaves constantly for energy benefits when food was scarce but workload from the Spanish high. It also helps with altitude sickness as it dilates the bronchioles so helps you to breathe better when there`s less oxygen. Or so they said. After we had some dulce de leche ice creams, did some more shopping, finally had our bangers and mash and then went to bed.

DEATH ROAD DAY!! Also known as `The Worlds Most Dangerous Road`, so...we cycled down it. Went with a company which was kindly called Gravity but was the most reputable so we felt the extra money in return for our lives was worth it! Got all geared up with helmets, bandanas, googles, waterproof jumpsuits and cycling gloves. Oh, and bikes which we were named after Simpson`s characters. The first bit was along a tarmac-ed road which we whizzed down on on the right (wrong) hand side of the road. It was pretty cold as we were so high up (the whole ride is pretty much downhill so poor fitness is no excuse). We then had to jump off our bikes and walk along a little path for about 2 mins, for drug checks. Typically Bolivian though, there wasn`t a single person, other than us, in sight. Very thorough then. The next bit was an optional uphill section, which our group hastily opted for whilst we both stood and shook our heads. 8km uphill didn`t massively appeal to us. But then, just because everyone else was doing it, we decided to as well and both made it to the top without stopping...very proud! The next section was the scary bit that was a very bumpy gravel road, which at some points, was 3 metres wide with a sheer 600m drop. We should also point out that they actually encourage you to cycle on the side closest to the mountain as it was the only section of road in Bolivia where you drive on the left. 3 or so hours later, and after much bingo wing wobbling and yeehah-ing we made it to the bottom, both very much intact but also very sweaty as it was now tropical weather! At the bottom, we ate in an eco animal reserve, which had the cutest monkeys, one of which broke into the food court and stole a load of crackers! After a long bus ride back, we returned to our hostel absolutely shattered. And then went out to celebrate!

The following day we decided to move onto our next stop, which was Copacabana, a small town on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. The lake is the world`s largest at high altitude and also marks the border between Bolivia and Peru. Had a bit of a hassle at the bus stop though, just before we were due to get on the bus, as some one somehow managed to take Sophie`s daysack, complete with passport, camera, all photos, phone, MP3 and most importantly, her ear plugs, from right under our noses. We still can`t figure out how they did it without us noticing. Well practiced, we imagine. The next couple of days was spent flitting between police stations, British Embassies (lovely woman) and the immigration office which handily closed for a 2 hour lunch break as soon as we got there. Bit of a nightmare, but just grateful Sophie wasn`t hurt or anything like that.

So a few days later than planned we set off to Copacabana, sampling Bolivia`s idea of transport ferries along the way...drive the coach onto a small plank of wood and push across water with oar whilst still sitting on coach, so when you look out the coach window all you see is water. Pretty surreal. Rhea started feeling pretty ill on this journey as well. Turns out she got food poisoning from a non-delicious cheese empanada, and so was out of action for a bit. Made the one pound 80 pence room a night even more dingy. A non flushing toilet, ominous body hair in the bed and water that smells of sulphur is not great when you`re not feeling well. Too much information? Ok, we`ll stop!

Didn`t really have much time to explore the town as we were due in Cusco, Peru for our pre-booked Inca trail on the 21st and the date was the 19th. We had also just learnt that the border crossing between Peru and Bolivia was actually closed due to mining and farming protests on the Peruvian side so we were pretty worried that we would miss it. None of the buses we running as there were blockades all down the road but we managed to buy a ticket for a boat that would apparently bypass the worst affected areas. They failed to tell us however that they`d be no transport however between the small farming village they dropped us off at and the nearest town (30km away). They was about 10 of us all together. 2 went off on a motorbike, wheeling their suitcase behind them on the road...if only we`d been in a good enough mood to take a photo! The rest of us set off to try and get their before dark and managed to hail down a local minibus which took us to Juli, where we stayed the night. Woke up the next morning at 6am to the sounds of the protests...it appeared they were literally on our doorstep. Once they`d passed from the main square we managed to find a taxi man to take 6 of us in 4 seats (plus bags) to Puno, the next town along. Bit of a scary journey, especially when the taxi driver had to get out and start moving the road blocks off the road. Got a few dirty looks. From Puno, it was then simple enough to get a bus to Cusco where we stayed at the hostel provided by the company we had booked the Inca Trail with. The people there were absolutely lovely and so welcoming, which was much appreciated after the long journey. Again a bit of nightmare, but very glad we made it. Oh, and just to make things worse, Rhea ran out of toothpaste.

And then it was time for the Inca trail, which unfortunately we don`t have time to write about right now, so in true Eastender`s style we`re going to have to leave it here....dum, dum, dumdumdumdumdumdum...(?)

Will write again soonish though. We have about 3 weeks left until home, 2 of which we are spending volunteering in Pisco, which is just south of Lima, the capital of Peru.

Hope alls well with everyone back home,
lots and lots of love, Rhea and Sophie xxxxxxxxxx

Ahhh, another overdue blog entry...

So we left off in Puerto Iguazu we think, which seems like ages ago now. Next stop after here was Buenos Aires, a 19 hour journey going south in Argentina on a very stylish bus which served Shepherd´s Pie! We arrived really early in the morning so got straight to work on the sightseeing! Wandered around the main plaza (Plaza de Mayo), ending up on the main shopping street. Buenos Aires´ shopping alone was worth it! We thought we should try to see something other than shops so ventured to the palace and Metropolitan Cathedral around which there seemed to be a student protest led by elderly nuns! Back to Hostel Sol (which wasn´t so sunny...) to get ready for our first Argentinian steak with live (and free) tango show!

Next day we set off early for one of Argentina´s main attractions...the cemetery of course! Saw lots of...graves. And that was about it. It was impressive though, Sophie says ´like a village of tooombs´/ something out of a Harry Potter film. Went to a jazz bar that night, which was a lot more swish than we were expecting so naturally we ordered some beer and crisps. Really good music though, David Baker for all you jazz fans. Also, that night marked the first use of Sophie´s pepper spray..on an unsuspecting nearby bush. We just wanted to try it out!!

If we´ve got our dates right, the next day was Easter Sunday. We managed to find an English service so went to that in the morning, and then pigged out of ´dulce de leche´ice cream (kind of caramel) instead of easter eggs as cadbury´s creme eggs are yet to catch on here. In the afternoon, we also went to San Telmo market, which was highly recommended to us! We found: full cola bottles from many many moons ago, glittery boob tubes which Sophie nearly tried on, an amazing leather bag shop and a fox skin scarf with eyeball holes. Some good souvenirs for the family then. That evening (busy day) we went to Le Cathedral tango club, which soon became our favourite haunt. Got pretty lost on the way there, but saw a police/criminal car chase which made it all worthwhile, though a little scary! Met a couple of friends from the hostel for drinks, and watched lots of tango-ing and live music. Muy bien.

Next day we lazied about, finding a nice little park where we sat and read our books for hours, with random bagpipes in the background. Went to a cafe in the evening (they stay open till early hours of the morning!) for cards and chocolate milk, where several games of noisy slam drew a bit of attention.

The following day we went to another district called La Boca, managing to get there completely for free by playing the confused tourist act. Saw the famous Camonita (google it) which was set amongst lots of colourful restaurants, with music and dancing and sausauge stalls. Was a good day for marriage proposals...´Be my wife, I cook, I clean´was our favourite, although ´Hello, let´s go´ was a close second. In the evening we went to Le Cathedral again, for a tango lesson which was so much fun! Granted, we were pretty useless! Our lesson finished at midnight, followed by everyone dancing till about 3am. Pretty tired by the end, though as we were leaving people were still arriving so we realised we needed to change our body clocks!

On Wednesday we went to a zooo were animal enclosures seemed kind of optional (the big brown bear one was the most concerning)! There were also these wierd horse/kangeroo/rabbit kind of animals - see the facebook photos! The monkeys were pretty funny too, scratching bums galore. Also visited the Botanical Gardens which was full of wierd and wonderful statues that were great fun to copy. Then, tango show time!! One of our favourite evenings in Buenos Aires. For about 30 pounds we got transfers, a tango lesson, 3 course meal (probably the best food we´ve eaten here) and an open bar (4 bottles of wine between 5), plus of course the tango show where the dancers were amazing. Struggled to understand the storyline as it was all in Spanish, but understand enough to gather it was all about prostitutes! Went home with big food babies and regret at not quitting education for a tango school!

Thursday we went to Palermo district where we hired rollerblades and bicycles and got bitten by lots of mosquitoes around a really pretty lake - very upper class so we fitted right in with our dirty smelly selves. Had a good giggle at the lady whose job it was was to keep people of the grass by blowing an extremely loud whistle and sprinting over. The best was when she attacked a half blind woman with just one foot on the grass, probably deafening the poor biddy(?!) in the process. We also saw a professional dog walker, who was sat reclining on the pavement, surrounded by his 15 eager canine friends. Went out for more steak that night. Language barriers meant we perfected our cow impressions to find our way to steak district. Sophie became really good friends with the waiters after sending her steak back 3 times...! Again, language problems meant when asking for it to be less rare it actually came back swimming in blood, pretty much cold in the middle! Oooops. Tasty eventually though. Back to the hostel for a final night out where it seemed everyone we met was Irish. Ended up in this cabaret style club with lots of cross dressing staff! Fair to say it wasn´t typically Argentinian!

The next day was the ROYAL WEDDING!! Both pretty tired so a good excuse to lay around, gawp at Kate Middleton and laugh at Princess Beatrice´s crazy headwear...is she really representing York?! Got our bus out of BA that night to Mendoza, a quiet little town west of BA, famous for it´s wine. Spent about 4 days or so here. One day we went into the Andes where the scenery was spectacular, pretty cold though so we had skirts for hats, sarongs for scarves and socks for gloves. Didn´t quite match the beauty of the nature! Another day we hired out bikes in a village called Maipu (never got old) where we cycled round wineries and wine-museums, making the most of the free samples. Again, very pretty scenery amongst all the vineyards and windy, dusty little tracks. Left our mark in the hostle bathroom when we tried to put up a washing line, and then, when coming to take it down again, managed to bring down 10 or so tiles with it! Our mood wasn´t damaged though as we had a 12 bed dorm to ourselves so danced around to Justin Bieber on the pimped out (joke) speakers in our room.

Next stop was over the border in the capital of Chile, Santiago. Took an overnight bus, so got in around 5am. It was crazy cold so huddled under blankets in the bus shelter waiting for it to get light, and obviously looked the part as a stray dog came and sat next to us. One McDonald´s breakfast later, we locked up our bags in the station´s lockers and started our ´Santiago in a day´trip. Got a hop on hop off bus, feeling like proper tourists, though it was a good way to see the city in such a short space of time. We hadn´t heard great thigns about Santiago but by george was the tube station clean!! Ahhhh, Sophie and her quotes. What we were going to say was...we actually liked the city very much, lots of nice old buildings and the snow-topped Andes mountains made a very picturesque backdrop. Had an all time favourite goat´s cheese pizza for tea and then both had a good family skype session. Unfortunately misjudged how much time we had to get to the bus station for our 23 hour journey north to San Pedro de Atacama and found ourselves running between the 3 different bus stations not having a clue which one our bags were in and which one our bus left from. 20 minutes after our bus had left we decided to recompose ourselves sitting down on the pavement of one of Santiago´s busiest roads, emotions running pretty high! Though not quite as high as the colour of our faces! Asked for directions, aided by showing our bag-locker ticket to a bus warden man thing and set off again in search of our bags. Finally found them, then realised we´d left the ticket that would get us our bags back with the warden. Anyway, story over, we managed to sneak our way onto another bus and started the marathon journey up to San Pedro, the main town in the Atacama desert, which is the driest desert on Earth according to the trusty guidebook.

Arrived fairly latish in San Pedro, and met a Scouse to dine with. Lovely. Some of the best pasta in the world when you´re that hungry! We´ve just realised how much we talk about food. Getting pretty hungry now actually. Found a hostel and slept some more. Next day we went on a horsey trek through the desert (we sang that song the whole day!) with a guide who looked like Jennifer Anniston. Got pretty scared though when one of the horses decided to roll down a sand dune with someone on its back!

For the next 3 days, we were in a 4x4 jeep going from San Pedro up to Uyuni in Bolivia. Met some really cool people on the tour (there were about 17 of us altogether) and saw lots of amazing lagoons, volcanoes and geysers etc. The last day was particularly good. We visited the Train Graveyard (fb photos to follow) and also Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt flats in the world. Impressive is an understatement! Sunglasses were a must and we managed to get some pretty cool snaps.

We didn´t stay too long in Uyuni as there is little to see and do there, and headed north to Sucre, which is where we are now. It´s a lovely, colonial style town, which used to be the capital of Bolivia. The majority of the women here wear traditional dress which is a big poofy skirt, woolen socks with sandals, thick brightly coloured shawl (often carrying a baby) and a kind of straw/bowler hat. Which you could get away with that in England. We´ve spent a couple of days just exploring the town and tonight we´re taking a 15 hour bus to La Paz, the capital. So, we´ve learnt our lesson and are going to go now to make sure we are EARLY for our bus. It´s currently chucking it down so sitting on the pavement isn´t an option this time.

Ciao Ciao! xxxxxxxx

Where to begin?! We`ve just spent one night in Puerto Iguassu (Argentina) so will rewind to the rest of Brazil

The day after Sugarloaf Mountain Sophie decided she wanted to go hang gliding over the beaches in Rio which meant being taken up a huge mountainside with a very friendly Brazillian man and running off a steep ramp praying they weren`t going to drop straight to the ground..! Great fun! After a final sun session on Ipanema beach we started the 5 hour bus then boat journey to Ilha Grande- what a paradise! Pretty much as soon as we dumped our bags in the hostel the sky clouded over and there was a huge thunderstorm so naturally we put on our waterproofs and went running in the rain!

Next day we took an hour long boat ride and had a bit of a jungle trek to Lopes Mendes (one of Brazil`s best beaches). 3 guesses what we did here..! White sand, turquiose sea, coconut scattered here and there etc etc. We felt this was time well spent after the hectic sight-seeing in Rio! We got the boat home when the sun went down, had the usual cheapest possible tea (supernoodles and melon!) and played cards with an English man, an Australian man and an American (surely theres a joke in there somewhere?!). We also found out that night that even if you`re red raw with sunburn, it`s not hot enough to fry an egg on!

The next day brought with it more sunbathing and swimming but this time we decided to go to a more local (and quieter) beach than Lopes Mendes. When we went swimming in the sea all Rhea could say was "I`m so happy!!" whereas Sophie was irritating the peaceful sunbathers by shrieking as a swarm of fish followed her about sucking on her ankles! More noodles and melon for tea and an early night in preparation for the next day´s journey!

Then we travelled to a small and pretty town called Paraty and soon found a cheap and cheerful hostel, first double bed of the trip...whahey! Whilst making tea, we met a pirate, pretty standard. After complimenting him on his fancy dress and the likeness to Jack Sparrow, things soon got a bit awkward when the owner of the hostel told us he was actually a real pirate...oops. I hope we weren`t just being gullible!

Next morning we hired a couple of faulty bikes and headed off to some waterfalls about 7km away, getting so confident we ended up going round the roundabout instead of getting off and walking. 20 minutes in though, Rhea got grumpy because of some fly that would NOT leave me alone and it was about 37 degrees (and now Sophie tells me that she actually found it pretty amusing at the time but dared not say anything in case the same happened to her as did the bike - thrown and left in a pile of mud for a good while). We made up later though, Rhea and the bike, that is, I didn`t actually throw Sophie in a puddle. We headed over an "I´m a celebrity get me out of here"style bridge and went for a well-deserved cold drink (Sophie on the beer, getting to be routine!) and afterwards clambered on some big rocks in the river under the bridge. We didn´t make it to the proper waterfalls (Sophie didn`t want another `bike-in-mud`episode!) and the the downhill ride home was amazing. Dumped the (more?) faulty bikes back and walked along the port looking at all the multicoloured boats to the beach. We went for a ´pastel´for tea (deep fried cheese pastry with a banana one for puds) and then for our highly anticipated Caipirinha cocktails!

The following day, we left for Sao Paulo, which is the biggest city in the Southern hemisphere, don`t you know (we didn`t). We were staying a bout 7km out of the city, though it was still very busy, in a really pretty part of town called Vila Madeleina. We stayed there for a couple of nights, and during the day took a very long route to a fairly nearby place as our map-reading skills aren`t the best. It was Sophie`s time to be grumpy, which also made for a good excuse to sit in a cafe with a chocolate milkshake. Managed to find the park we`d been hunting down eventually, and sat down next to the man shaving his beard...you know the one. We felt very lazy as most people were jogging despite the heat. That night we got all dressed up to go out for drinks...and ended in a pub drinking beer and watching cage fighting...LADS. If this wasn`t manly enough, Sophie accidentally entered herself into an all-you-can-eat buffet at 1am when she only meant to go for a snack. Ah well, we`re not ones to turn down food so a midnight feast was go!

After Sao Paulo we moved on to Foz do Iguazu, home to the Iguazu waterfalls. There are two sides to these falls, the Argentinian side and the Brazilian. The town wasn`t anything spectacular, but the falls really were! The noise alone was incredible, so much water! We watched sunset which was very pretty and then got herded out by this little Brazilian man running around waving his arms! Our hostel that night was AMAZING. For 8 pounds we had...a pool, a dorm to ourselves with single beds rather than bunks, a huuuge kitchen that was clean and cookable in, free internet and to top everything off, an electric gate!! Oh, and the breakfast...!

Next day, we had our first border crossing,how exciting! And a chance to try out our Spanish, or perhaps more accurately, try out our English with a Spanish accent. All pretty uneventful, apart from some nice new colourful stamps in our passports. We are definitely in a Spanish speaking country though cos we can do things like this: ñ Ç ? ¿ ì ª ....well that was fun.

So now we`re in Puerto Iguazu which is the town that surrounds the Argentinian side of the waterfalls. It`s a gorgeous little town, pretty sleepy during the day but a bit more lively in the evenings where there`s a litre of beer for 90p. Combined with table tennis and table football makes for a more interesting game. So today we did the Argentinian side of the falls which was even more spectacular ( in our opinion) as you got to get a bit closer to the falls (and hence wetter) and see more of it. Other interesting things...a butterfly landed on Sophie`s nose and a foreign man with a big polaroid camera took a close up!

Aaaand we`re finally up to date! Adios amigos!

xxxxx

Hello!

Four days in and we feel like we´ve done enough to write a blog entry about! After a very ´Love Actually´like airport scene (invloving running and hugging etc) we made our way to the hostel (via manic taxi driver) where we crashed and burned from our very long journey! Jet lag meant that next day we were up far too early and decided to do a longer than anticipated walk from Copacabana to Ipanema along the beautiful beaches. We decided to be good and cook our own tea but after buying ingredients were put off cooking by the numerous beetle-type creatures in almost every kitchen draw! We stuck to bread that night... Oh and not to forget our free Caipirinna (the cocktailof Brazil) which was very tasty!

The next day we went on a tour of Rio´s largest favela (home to 200,000 people) which started off with a motorbike ride up a busy and winding road to the top of the hill- so much fun. We now both want motorbikes- watch out parents!! We were both worried that a ´favela tour´would just make a ´zoo´of the people that lived there but in setting up the scheme the company brought custom to the locals as there was plenty of opportunity to buy paintings, bracelets and food (etc) and we all know that neither of us will let an opportunity to eat escape us!

On Wednesday we decided to hit the main attractions and where better to start than Christ the Redeemer?! It was a hot, sunny and v clear- important for seeing his face! Morning didn´t get off to a good start as we waited over an hour for a bus that didn´t exist... We´d got out 2s and 5s mixed up-bit embarrassing! An hour late we got there and took a tram up about 700m to the top of the mountain. The statue itself was HUGE and we tried our very best to get some decent photos. We came to the conclusion that the best way to do this was by lying down a the statue was so big! Entertainment came in the form of 3 older men attempting a very sombre (and out of tune) 3-part harmony which hurt our ears and made us giggle. That evening we decided to walk a very long way along the beach to the night market from Ipanema to Copacabana. Sophie bought a new red dress- no suprises there! Walked back pretty tired but somehow were persuaded into sampling the city´s nightlife!

This morning we went to Sugarloaf mountain which again provided us with spectacular views over the city. It´s hard to believe how big it is! Had a picnic lunch (bread rolls and fruit taken from the complementary breakfast...) on top of the mountain- the most picturesque venue ever! We spent a long time selecting the right colour havaianas (trademark Brazilian flipflops) that we considered a must buy! After walking round a pretty town/ village called Urca we chased down a bus to take is back to Ipanema where we made eggy bread with sausages- healthy diet and all that... After sunbathing on the beach (sorry that bit was vital) we sat down to write this blog (about 10 hours ago co we´re so tired and the letters have rubbed off the keyboard making it very difficult to type. We think a drink is in order..!

BYE!!!
xxx

Hello and welcome to Sophie and Rhea's blog

We thought we'd get this started a little early to show you a rough itinerary of what we plan to do while we're away! The dates arn't concrete (AT ALL) but just give you a rough idea of when we should be in each place (providing the route doesn't change..!).

BRAZIL
Rio: 03/04/11- 08/04/11
Ilha Grande -09/04/11-11/04/11
Paraty-12/04/11 –14/04/11
Sao Paulo: 15/04/11-17/04/11
Iguassu Falls: 19/04/11- 21/04/11

ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires: 22/04/11 - 26/04/11

CHILE
Santiago: 27/04/11-29/04/11
San Pedro: 30/04/11 - 04/05/11

BOLIVIA
Uyuni: 05/05/11
La Paz: 06/05/11- 08/05/11
Copacobana:09/05/11- 10/05/11

We intentionallly left a gap here so we could stay in a place longer if we liked it! The only thing we've booked is the Maccu Piccu trek (22/05/11) and the voluntary work (01/06/11).

PERU
Cusco:21/05/11
Maccu Piccu trek: 22/05/11- 25/05/11
Arequipa, Colca Canyon & Nazca Lines: 26/05/11- 31/05/11
Pisco Sin Fronteras: (voluntary work at earthquake relief site)- 01/06/11- 13/06/11
Fly home (Lima) : 15/06/11

Love Sophie and Rhea
xxx