So, you like llamas?

the night before we went travelling i was terrified and nervous.
who would have ever thought i would feel the exact same way on our last night of this amazing adventure.

i can tell you all how amazing south america is and about some of our experiences to date but in honest truth, no matter how matter pictures you see and stories you read, until you come you will not understand. So hopefully this last blog and the previous might make you that little bit more excited about travelling if you are about to go or make you realise life is not all about work, but so so much more.

so when we left you, we were partying buenos aires style, with probably the best group of people ever. sadly this came to an end and we all went our separate ways. we were lucky enough to steal Jemma for another week as we ventured onto Iguassu and Rio. we took an arduous 18 hour bus ride to the north east tip of Argentina in a place called Puerto Iguassu. Iguassu borders both Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and is famous for its magnificent waterfalls. The waterfall complex at Iguazu consists of 275 separate waterfalls along a 3km (two-mile) stretch of the Iguasu river.

this is something definately for the old bucket list, even just walking through the rainforest trails to get to the main waterfall is awe inspiring. every time you weave around a corner you are greeted by a new waterwall gushing through leafy foilage and quite often paired with double rainbow, at this stage it is pretty tranquil and picturesque but as you steep further into the jungle you can hear the deafing sound of water soon approaching. When you get your first glimpse of Iguassu you can`t help but stop and utter out loud `FAR OUT.....´ and want to have eyes in the back of your head just to be able to take it all in. if i said i told you it was enormous, immeasurable, monumental, and vast it would be an understatement.

so what is the best thing to do while near a huge mass of water.... strap on your lifejacket and get into a boat that is going straight into it! i must admit, i was terrified. my sensible hat was telling me it wasnt safe to go front first into a tsunami but my fun hat was saying i know this is going to be awesome... and the last time people died from a similar boat was back in march... and that was probably bad luck.....

thankfully i am here to tell the story. it was awesome. a rollercoaster on crack.

when we thought it couldnt get better we were wrong. we walked to what as know as Garganta del Diablo *Devils throat* which is basically the top of all the waterfalls...where they all intersect....but keep in mind we were standing one a flimsey metal rail which could probably break at any given moment due to the incredible chasm of water below... and would mean sudden death. but dont let this put you off, i assure you that the sight that you behold is enough to make you forget any anxieties. it does make you realise how powerful nature is and insignificent we seem in comparison.

enough about iguazu, i guess you had to be there. as for rio what can i say... thankgod we didnt get robbed! haha no although that is very true and rio has a very dodgy side, i was won over by this city. on the one hand side you have the favelas, frequent robbings at gun point *one guy in our dorm was unfortunate to be robbed twice in the same week* and graffiti washed streets and on the other you have the sophisticated streets of ipanema and leblon, the sun drenched beaches with incredible mountains dotting the backdrop. not to mention one of the most richest cities in the world. rio has everything and depending where you go you would get a completely different perspective. we were lucky to stay in a couple of different neighbourhoods and got to experience a taste of partying brazilian style at the Lapa street party *think the streets of new years eve at 3am*, the stunning Selaron stairs*250 steps which are covered in over 2000 tiles collected from around the world*, the 130ft statue of Jesus who embraces rio at the top of a 2,300ft mountain and many other spectaculor sights. when i think of Rio i will remember the sunsets from the top of Sugar Loaf, the amazing churasscurias where meat is brought out to you on giant skewers, the juice bars that dot ever corner selling acai *a berry drink that resembles gooey purple sorbet and tastes incredible*, the men playing football on the beach, ripped abbs and toned buttocks, the trendy boutiques across ipanema and leblon selling designer clothing to the rich and famous and of course the favelas dotting the hillside on your way to the airport reminding you rio has a huge gap between wealth and poverty. a pretty mental but alluring place, not to be missed!

we also got to enjoy the beach town of Buzios a couple hours from rio, once home to pirates and slave traders, now a touristy spot made famous by Brigitte Bardot in the 1960s. we have pretty much spent our time here reflecting on our travels, tanning and enjoying more endless sunsets as our trip comes to an end.

hope you enjoyed the blogs, thanks for giving me a reason to capture what has been the best 3 months of my life.

XXX

sitting in the bar at our hostel in buenos aires debating whether to go out and have another night. my bodyclock is almost sync'd to BA time which for those who have never experienced, it is something along the lines of waking at 1pm, having breakfast at 3pm, dinner at 10pm and starting to pre drink at 12am before hitting the clubs at 2am whcich barely start to empty until 6am. as you can imagine this is taking its toll after 3 consecutive nights of boozing and hitting the pillow at 9am. and for those that think this is just on weekends, think again.

the argentinians know how to party and this city NEVER sleeps! as our cabbie told us when we entered BA "welcome to the jungle " he wasn't kidding.

just you standard thursday night mardi gra show at a club in BA

the podium we later dominated

me and Jemma with our new friend

8am coming home from the club

(pictures courtesy of Jemma Couchman)

another passion is of course football. tomorrow we head to La Bombonera, home of the Boca Juniors, one of the biggest teams in BA. to say football is a passion here would be an understatement it is something in their blood that makes them argentinian.

tomorrow what awaits us

for those wondering if we have done anything constructive other than booze the answer of course is yes. i have learn't that in south america you do not need to travel far to see stark contrasts and unbelievable sights. we took the 3day 4WD drive from Uyuni in Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile(described as the 'most inhospitable place in the world') to see the famous salt lakes, cactus deserts, moon like rock fields, coloured lagoons, geyers, volcanoes and the like. Try to envisage you are 4800m above see level with the tops of the andes mountains within climbing height. there is ice on desert. steam billowing from holes in the ground. cactus on immense fields of salt. bright red lakes contrasting the snow capped peaks dotted with bright pink flamingos. the imagery is endless, it is almost a sensory overload. a definate one in a lifetime experience that i would recommend.

speaking of contrasts, nothing contrasts more than the border crossing from bolivia into chile. we drove about 40min into chile and we suddenly in san pedro, we went from minus 15 degrees to 30 degrees once we had decended. we went from frozen lakes to a town where everything is made of cactus. inceedible. not to mention a diet of quinoa, plantein and llama steak to michellin star style plated up dishes of gourmet food and amazing wine. crazynesss.

over the next week we head to iguazu falls, one of the most terrifying waterfalls bordering brazil, argentina and paraguy. we then land in rio, our very last stop on what has been an incredible journey. between now and then we have some serious dancing, drinking, football cheering and steak eating to do before leaving beautiful buenos aires!!

much love
jas and gav

well well isn´t this overdue.

trekking through amazon, climbing through mountains, boarding 12 hour horrific bus journeys and being in an irish run hostel will hopefully explain the absence of blog entries over the last couple of weeks. here are a couple of more memorable anecdotes you might appreciate

LIMA:
here are a couple of my observations, there are chicken rotisseries everywhere, thousands of cats in parks, they love to beep there horns (we were luckily enough to see a protest which included a guy dressed as grim reaper on the side of the road to stop people beeping) and last but not least loads of random friendly people - that you are not sure if they are out to help you or mug you. on one occasion we met a middle aged woman by the name of Helen who spent a good 30min with us walking us through the streets of miraflores and then directing us to a cafe where she then sat and waited outside until we had finished. i wasn't sure if this was because she wanted commission as our impromptu tour guide or if she was a genuinely nice woman who wanted to direct us where to go for the best chicken rotisserie place was. Our other ´friend´was a bloke we met in a dodgy department store who was some club promoter (who´d definitely had way too much peruvian charlie) who invited us to his club which i guess was a slight complement, but then went a little too far when offering to pick us up and be our tour guide for the time we were in lima. to make matters worse, his name was Percy. i mean honestly you can´t trust a coked up bloke called Percy.

PUERTO MALDONALDO (the Peruvian part of the Amazon Jungle)
basically a bit of a shithole (tuk tuks were the mode of transport if you get me) BUT where we stayed had fucking monkeys. not like one or two but loads, and they had all had rabies jabbs so were fine to play with and live out my childhood dreams. you that know me, know that i get pretty excited when seeing them in zoos so you can imagine how much i was in heaven whe we got to our lodge and i was greeted by a capuchin and spider monkey!! then upon going to the reception house the owner was while bottle feeding a 6mth howler moneky called bob. heaven!!!! combine this with a day of jungle trekking, caiman and otter spottting and not a singular tarantula spotting happy days.

hmmm... upon leaving the jungle things were sweet until we saw our overnight 12 hour bus to cusco.... faarrrrrrrk me is all i can say. imagine the shittiest bus you can fathom and then times by 10, there was a bloke opposite me who no joke had a bag of chickens, on the two seats behind us sat 3 blokes (one on the other guys lap) whose face was like 5cm from gavs, combined with an incline of a couple of thousand metres up a windy mountain and the incredible stench of urine. i will never complain about a festival toliet again! oh and to cap it off at like 5am this bloke gets up with a microphone and starts doing a sales pitch for cocoa leaves. jesus christ.

CUSCO
alive and thankfully not throwing up from altitude sickness we managed to sleep our way to recovery and managed to score an hour an half massage for bout 10 aussie we ate a bit of the local food but then after almost eating pigs intestines thought we might consult lonely planet and head to the more touristy joints. we were saved and found a great little british bar that made a mean veggie cottage pie and sold proper tea and even did a wednesday pub quiz (and to gav´s delight played all the premier league games) through this place we we met other travellers and got recommended to other joints around town.

INCA TRAIL
On Monday 15th August came D-DAY -- we woke up 4.30am to get picked up for our 4 day 50km trek to Macchu Picchu. lucky for me i got the itchy throat and first signs i was getting a cold or flu. just my bloody luck. Little did we know the 14 others on our bus to ollayantambo (the start of the trek) would be our family and support for the next four days. we faired well and had a good mix of americans, canadians, poms, couple of Germans a token kiwi and even another Aussie. as to the trek itself, the first day was touch but not excruciating, the second day was horrific (it is hard to explain to those who haven't done it) but imagine climbing the stair climber at the gym for 8 hours. not bloody fun hey. oh and throw in 4000 plus metres above sea level, sheer cliffs and attitude sickness. third day was the longest but the most enjoyable, imagine walking through clouds and seeing through the glimpses of the clouds parting Inca ruins hundreds of years old and the most magnificent snow capped mountains. words cannot describe. when we finally got to the summit on day for and saw the sun peak through the mountains and light up macchu picchu it made all the mud, sweat and tears (to quote bear grylls) worth it. not to mention having accomplished such a feat with wonderful people.

i think in retrospect, while macchu picchu was incredible it was the journey not the destination and the understanding that the quechua people and the incas had some much respect for the land and the mountains that they decided to build their places of worship high up in those mountains. (which would not have been bloody easily!!!) they have a word in the quechua language ¨pachamama¨ which means mother earth, it is tradition to toast to her honor before every meal by spilling a small amount of drink on the floor, before drinking the rest. i think is western culture could learn a bit from the quechua people about respecting the land and maybe the worls would be a much better place!!!

BOLIVIA
well we just lost a week of our lives in Wild Rover La Paz, a hotel run by Irish full of brits, irish and aussies. to give you an idea of what it was like after the 5 days we were there we came away with 4 hangovers, some serious bowel movements and barely more 20 aussie dollars a night spent on food, accommodation and booze. the drinking was impossible to avoid. at about 6pm each night the bartenders would be knocking on our door with a bottle of spirits pouring it down our throats, we didnt have a choice. and then there were the drinking marathons at the bar, involving killer pool (you had 3 shots, each time you missed you drank) followed by a night of beer power hour (a shot each minute for 60min) all egged on by the bar tenders dressed in drag and yelling in irish.

as far as culture was concerned we spent a day quad biking round the valley of the moon (a canyon like landscape north of la pàz) imagine sheer cliffs and moon like landscape, we also visited the witches markets where we saw numerous llama foetuses (they bury them under their houses for good luck, i think as a bit of a sacrifice ritual for pachamama) and of course went to the infamous san pedro prison (not inside), the prison where the inmates have to buy their own cells and it is basically like a mini city (those who dont know what im taking about read marching powder, most interesting book you will read in a long time) they have stopped doing the tours inside since a couple of aussies got deported...

we are now in sucre which is a nice little town (i think it is the colonial capital) which is full of nice white buildings. today we visited a cement quarry famous for all it´s dinosaur footprints (we rode their in a truck with a tyrannosaurus rex on the front, bit embarrassing) tomorrow we take another pretty horrific 9 hour bus journey to Uyuni where on monday through to wednesday we will see the salt flats, loads of flamingos, volcanoes, geyers and the like.

thats all for now, will have awesome pics of uyuni which will features some of the p`plastic dinosaurs we brought .... you will understand when you see the pics!

lots of love
J and G.

HOLA loved ones! here´s a snapshot of some of our recent experiences that hopefully will make you laugh at our expense!

cancun, hahaha, this will make you laugh, we thought we would be adventurous and stay in the non tourist part which ended up being far more ghetto than expected, so to escape our new lodgings we headed to the beach strip and paid $40 for a day pass at one of the fancy hotels which included access to the beach (think turquoise water, white sand), pool and more importantly all you could drink. brilliant right? haha well, the combination of too many pina coladas, dehydration, exhaustion and eagerness for a suntan resulted in both of us being burnt and me getting pretty severe sunstroke and throwing up on the sidewalk (in the ghetto part of course ) you will be glad to know that after managing to stumble back to the hostel and not get mugged gav nursed me with aloe vera and i passed out.

lessons learnt here, stay in the tourist part of cancun and mexican sun is as strong as aussie!

subsequently, the first couple of days in playa (del carmen) were spent in our hotel room avoiding the sun, when we did venture out i was pretty much dressed as a muslim and hobbling about. on one of our ventures we discovered the amazingness of cerviche (fish marinated in chili and lime and salsa) and $2 dos equis beer. Playa was amazing, felt to me like a mexican byron bay, lots of young people, surfers, house music (hed kandi!) on the beach. honest to god all you need is a sarong and havvianas and you are set! food was expensive but we managed to find a little burrito place run by local surfers that did buritos for about $3. it helped that the owners were all stoners that played rastafarian music loud and offered to shout us tequila shots. i love this place, playa and (burro playero!)

speaking of rastas, that brings me to our next destination, san pedro in belize. imagine a much poorer jamaica and you got belize. colourful little buildings on the beach, palm trees, everyone getting round by bike and speaking in a thick rasta accent. we stayed at this hippy yoga retreat place run by this strange american couple. in short th beach was beautiful and clear water but our room was a nicely decorated prison cell with no air con situated between the beach and the lagoon. unfortunately for us we were on the lagoon sie which to gav´s dismay meant he was RAPED by mosquitos. probably the most irritable i have even seen gav which was somewhat hilarious and reminded me alot of karl pikington. despite the mosquitos, we enjoyed the beach,hired bikes and rode on the dirt tracks to the town. we were playing cards and were joined by a bunch of kids and a big rasta dude call Papa who taught us a game called "pit-ta pat" , i bought a crappy bracet off the kids cause they made me . of course we went snorkeling and a patted sharks but you don´t want to hear all that boring stuff.

after 2 water taxis, 3 flights, a couple of kilos lost from sweat and a few more freckles, we are alive and safe in Lima, we head to the jungle this weekend then will make our way to the sacred valley of cusco and beyond.

until next time amigos.
xxx

ps. below are a couple of pics, our burrito place in playa, followed by our bar in belize and a pic of the local san pedro streets

well my my we have had a busy couple of weeks! we packed up our life into a cubic metre and a backpack! of course i have definitely packed way too much, while i look like i could possibly set up shop, gav looks like a schoolkid heading off for a camping weekend... ah well...girls will be girls! after all we are going flashpacking, the slightly more glamourous version of backpacking.

so what's ahead?
we leave tuesday afternoon, arriving in cancun the following day, then working our way down the mexican carribean coast. while tanning is top on the priority list, we will be visiting wonder of world 'chichen itza', which for those who don't know is an ancient mayan pyramid. a cool fact i read about the mayans is that they were pretty obsessed with the worship of nature gods (especially the gods of sun, rain and corn) and believed if they did not kill humans for sacrifice, they wouldn't get rain and good harvest etc.. it turns out chichen itza is a bit of a human sacrifice theme park with loads of imagery of hearts getting ripped out and offered to the gods. nice hey!

following that we are spending about a week in playa del carmen followed by some island hopping around belize. i am looking forward to doing some snorkeling in the cenotes, yoga on the beach and some serious cave tubing. most of all i can't wait to hang out on the rastafarian island of caye caulker.

thanks to our wonderful families who have been so supportive of our trip and the move, and to my friends who have made my time here in adelaide the last couple of weeks memorable.

write soon,
jas.
x