There And Back Again

Hello again - I bet you thought this final blog posting was never coming eh?

 

We've been back for just over a month now and are really enjoying being back in our own house and our own bed, and catching up with our lovely friends and family. Already the trip is beginning to feel like a bit of a dream - did we really do all of those incredible things?!

 

We feel so lucky to have been able to have such a great adventure, and will have memories to last us a lifetime. Picking out our highlights has been a pretty difficult task, but we've had a go, so here are The Official Off-shored World Highlights 2007-08......

 

 

Favourite City

Nominees

- Hanoi, for its hustle and bustle

- Sydney, for its beauty and cool

- Melbourne, for its friendliness and style

- Wellington, for its great museums and views

- Buenos Aires, for its life and soul

- Rio de Janiero, for its jaw-dropping beauty

 

Winner........for its stunning harbour and cool-vibes, Sydney 

 

Favourite Town

Nominees

- Hoi An, for its quaint riverside and lively festivals

- Cooper Pedy, for its alien-landscape and other-worldly feel

- Wanaka, for its "we could live here" charms

- San Pedro de Atacama, for its laid-back desert setting

- Pucon, for its great cakes and ice cream!

- Colonia de Sacremento, for its cobbled cuteness

 

Winner........for its beauty and laid back wonders, Wanaka

 

Best Adrenalin Rush

Nominees

- climbing the Bicentennial Tree

- Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef

- Bungy Jumping at Queenstown

- Sky Diving over Lake Taupo

- White Water Rafting in Argentina

 

Winner........for its eye-popping excitement, Sky Diving

 

Lowest Point

Nominees

- No room at the inn in Napier

- Bottles thrown at our hotel window in Nowra at 2am

- Rain obscuring the Great Ocean Road

- Clouds obscuring Torres Del Paine

 

Winner (Loser) ........The Nightmare in Nowra

 

Best Natural Wonder

Nominees

- beautiful Ha Long Bay

- the mountain-side paddy fields at Sa Pa

- the beaches on Wilson's Prom

- the blistering Ayers Rock & the Olgas

- the gorgeous NZ Lakes & Mountains

- the jaw-dropping Milford & Doubtful Sounds

- jumping off the sand-dunes on Farewell Spit

- hiking the Tongariro Crossing

- the vibrant colours of the Champagne Pool

- the other-worldly Atacama Desert

- the stunning Perito Moreno glacier

- the beautiful Iguassu Falls

- the improbable landscape of Rio

 

Winner........for the sheer spectacle of watching icebergs crash into the lake, the Perito Moreno glacier

 

Most Magical Moment

Nominees

- cycling through a river on Cat Ba island

- kayaking in the rain in Ha Long Bay

- exploring the haunted casino on Bokor Hill

- the stunning Kampot sunset

- wandering through the overgrown temples of Ta Phrom

- lazing in the pools of Lichfield Park

- hiking and swimming at the Edith Falls

- the helicopter flight over the NZ glaciers

- swimming with dolphins off Kaikoura

- hiking through the snow in the Torres Del Paine

 

Joint Winners........the Kampot sunset and swimming with dolphins - both amazing!

 

Best Wildlife

Nominees

- crocodiles and birds at Yellow Water, Kakadu

- kangaroos on Pebble Beach

- koalas crossing the road in Australia

- penguins, seals and sea lions of the Otago Peninsula

- the dolphins of New Zealand

- butterflies and hummingbirds in Brazil

 

Winner........koalas...no, penguins...no, crocodiles....

 

Best Man Made Structure

Nominees

- Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

- the temples of Angkor, Cambodia

- Sydney Opera House & Harbour Bridge

- Auckland Sky Tower

- Itaipu Dam, Brazil

- Christ the Redeemer statue, Rio

 

Winner........for their scale and beauty, the temples of Angkor

 

 

And that's more or less it. Just a few thank-yous before we sign off.....

 

...huge thanks to Jean, Gil & Chris, Vern & Shirley, Tony & Max, the Woods, Walkers, Sorensens, Steeles and Searles for their hospitality and kindness - spending time with friendly faces really kept us going.

 

...big thanks to Sally, Nona, Yvonne, Ross and Sandra for keeping things in order back in Worthing and making coming back home a real pleasure

 

...and finally thanks to all of you for reading this! Knowing that there were people at home interested in what we were up to made it feel like we were never alone.

 

Till the next time....

 

All Good Things....

Hi everyone!

I'm happy to report that we've had a lovely last few days in Rio. The sun has continued to shine and we've really enjoyed chilling out in this gorgeous city.

On Wednesday we caught the train up to the Christ the Redeemer statue. The statue itself was really impressive but the views from the top of Corcovado were even better. We could see pretty much all of Rio from up there. It was absolutely stunning - if there is a more beautifully located city in the world we haven't seen it yet.

In the evening we went to the Maracaña for the game between local side Flamengo and Club America from Mexico. The match was in the last sixteen of the Copa Libertadores, and Flamengo were holding a 4-2 advantage from the first leg in Mexico. As such there was a fantastic party atmosphere in the ground, with 50,000 fans singing, dancing, banging their drums and letting off flares. The stadium itself was also really impressive. It was built for the 1950 World Cup (when it held 199,500 for the final!) and will become the first stadium to host two Wold Cup Finals when the 2014 tournament is held in Brazil. The capacity is 'only' 95,000 now, but it is still an amazing place.

Unfortunately the game didn't quite go as planned, and America ended up winning 3-0 and therefore knocking Flamengo out! There were needless to say quite a few unhappy fans after the game....


Yesterday we had another lovely day and decided to spend it on Ipanema beach soaking up the sun. Unbelievably this was the first day of our travels when we've done nothing but lie on a beach - it was the 244th day of our trip! I've been promising June that at some point she'd get a beach holiday, and yesterday I lived up to my word!


So, this is it. Tomorrow we fly out of Rio and on Sunday we'll be back in good old Worthing. It feels really strange to be coming to the end of our travels. We've had an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime adventure with hundreds of unforgettable experiences, but now we're just looking forward to 'on-shoring' ourselves and living a normal life for a while. Some people are never happy eh?


The End


.....almost. Look out for one final posting when we get home, when we'll try our best to pick out the highlights of the trip. See you very soon!

Here Comes The Sun.....

Rio skyline
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hello again! As you can tell from the photo above the sunny weather has finally arrived, and we've had a lovely day visiting the Sugar Loaf Mountain. The mountain is actually a large rock on the coast of Rio reached by cable car, and is a beautiful spot with stunningly gorgeous views over the city and bay. To my disappointment though it turns out that it isn't actually made of sugar.

Yesterday's trip to the favelas was good and showed us another side of Rio life, although after having been to India and China the conditions here didn't seem that bad comparatively. Having said that though we didn't go on one of the tours that includes a visit to machine-gun-toting drug dealers!

All being well we're heading up to the Christ the Redeemer statue tomorrow, and in the evening are going to see a football match between local side Flamengo and a Mexican team in the South American equivalent of the Champions League. The weather is still supposed to be good until Thursday, so our dream of actually lying on a beach may still come to fruition....

Her name is Rio

Hi there.

 

We've had a good few days in Rio so far, although unfortunately the weather hasn't been quite what we were hoping for. Its nice and warm but a bit overcast with occasional showers, so we haven't managed to hit the beach yet. Instead we've been chilling out and visiting a few different areas of the city, including the centre with its bizarre cathedral, and the hillside suburb of Santa Teresa. We were supposed to go to see a football game today but the agent couldn't get any tickets, so will probably go to a mid-week game instead. Tomorrow we're going on a tour of a favela (slum), which should be interesting.

 

We're saving the "highlights" of Rio (the Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugar Loaf mountain) until the weather improves and we can get some nice views. Even now though the city is really beautiful, with huge hills looming over beautiful beaches. We've enjoyed strolling along Ipanema and Copacabana beaches people watching. The people here are a lot more varied than elsewhere in South America - Brazil was a major destination for the slave trade, and there are a lot of their descendants here alongside the Europeans and indigenous people.

 

June has bought a Portuguese phrase book but we're finding it pretty difficult to pick up the lingo. The accent is very hard to understand, and the words that look like their Spanish equivalents don't sound anything like them!

 

We're really looking forward to getting home now. Its been a long road with a few bumps along the way, and it will be good just to be in our own home and see all our friends again. Can't wait....

 

Toucan play that game

Close up toucan
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hello again! We had a good couple of days down in Foz do Iguacu. As well as visiting the falls we went on a very brief visit across the border to Paraguay, visited the awesome Itaipu dam, and went to a great bird park.

The Itaipu dam was really interesting. Its the largest generator of electricity in the world, and cost 6 billion dollars to build. Its been voted one of the 7 wonders of the modern world by engineers, and you could see why - it really was an impressive structure.

The bird park was also cool, and we got up close and personal with lots of birds, including toucans and humming-birds. The humming-birds were amazing. They flew right past our ears making a very loud humming noise, and hovered like helicopters with their wings going so fast you couldn't see them.

Last night we flew up to Rio, the final destination on our world tour. It feels quite a relief to be here - our days of working out what to do and where to stay are behind us! We're staying in an apartment 2 minutes from Ipanema beach and 4 minutes from Copacabana beach! The weather is a bit dodgy at the moment but is supposed to clear up soon, so beach here we come!

Falling in love again....

The gorgeous Iguazu Falls
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hi everyone!

We've had an amazing few days visiting the Iguazu falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil. We'd heard great things about the falls and had very high hopes of them, and we're glad to say they more than lived up to our expectations. There are about 285 falls in total, spread across the the Iguazu river as it plummets down over basalt platforms. We visited the Argentinian side on Friday and Saturday for a close up look at the falls, including a VERY wet boat ride under one of them, and today went to the Brazilian side (where it is 'Iguacu' rather than 'Iguazu') for panoramic views. Its hard to do justice to them in photos but we've put a few up - check out the Argentina and Brazil sets. As you can see from the photos we also saw a fair amount of wildlife there, although we didn't manage to get photos of the amazing hummingbirds.

We're heading into Paraguay tomorrow before flying up to Rio on Tuesday for the last 10 days of our trip. We did briefly consider going by bus and visiting a few more places on the way, but in the end decided that we finally deserve a bit of a rest, so are heading straight to the beach!

Day Trippers

Uruguayan sunset
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Very quick note today before we head off to Iguazu.

We had a great day in Uruguay yesterday. We went to a very pretty historic town called Colonia del Sacramento, which was used as a base for smuggling into Buenos Aires back in the 18th century. It was a charming place with cobbled streets and beautiful old buildings, and had a very relaxed feel. We wandered round a few museums, climed up a lighthouse and watched the sun go down. It was a lovely day. Here are a few photos.

OK, better run. Hasta luego!

Goodbye grey skies, hello blue

Hi again!

Its Monday night now and we've had a few more lovely days in BA. The smoke cleared yesterday, which was a relief - June had to resort to wearing her Saigon face mask again!

To get an idea of what the smoke was like, here's a picture from our flat on a smoky day.....



and here's one on a clear day....




We've spent our time exploring the different areas of the city. We're staying in the old quarter of San Telmo, with cobbled streets and a lively antiques fair on Sunday. One block from our flat is the widest street in the world, Av 9 de Julio. There are 20 lanes of traffic to cross to get to the other side, which is quite a challenge!

We've also visited the very modern marina of Punta Madero, the posher areas of Palmero and Recoleta with their lively nightlife and relaxing parks, and the city centre itself with its monumental buildings. We also went to the Evita museum which was interesting, and gave an insight into her magic. We really like BA and can see why its so popular. Now the smoke has cleared the weather is ideal.

We had a great night out on Friday with Bella and Jez, a British couple we met down in Ushuaia who are here for a wedding. We had a steak meal in Recoleta and a few beers (or margaritas in June's case), and were a bit worse for wear the following morning! The entertainment continued last night at a great tango show - the dancing, music and singing were all amazing.

We've extended our stay in BA until Thursday as we're enjoying it so much, although on Wednesday we're escaping the city (and country!) with a day-trip to Uruguay on the ferry. Then on Thursday we head up to the Iguazu Falls in the north of Argentina. After that its Brazil and then home.

I'm getting a bit worried that although we're 90% of the way through our trip I still haven't had a blinding revelation about what I should be doing with the rest of my life. I'm still hopeful that I´ll get some inspiration before our return, but we're running out of time....

Buenos Aires. Not!

Hi everyone. We've made it safely up to BA and have had a good couple of days so far exploring the city and relaxing in our apartment. Its really nice to have a flat where we can chill out and not worry about what time we get up! There was a bit of confusion when we arrived though - we thought that we could pay with plastic but they only took cash, so we had to run round the city at midnight looking for an ATM!

 

Buenos Aires is a nice city, full of lovely buildings and glamorous people. It has a very European feel to it - it could easily be Madrid or Rome. We've watched some tango and visited Evita's grave and have generally been wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere. The weather has been great and a very welcome change from the cold and snow of the last couple of weeks.

 

Today though we woke up to find the city shrouded in smoke! There have been a series of huge fires out in the farmland around the city and the whole place is really murky. The airports have been closed and visibility is poor, and the air smells funny and isn't great to breathe. We were going to watch a Boca Juniors football game tomorrow but may have to give that a miss if we're not going to be able to see the other end of the pitch! Ironically Buenos Aires means "fair winds" - we could do with some right now to blow all the smoke away.

 

We've uploaded some photos of the pre-smoky BA to the Argentina set.

 

Bye for now!

 

The end of the world as we know it

Hi everybody! Just a quick note to let you know that we're having a good time down here in Ushuaia. The town is in a stunning setting, on the shores of the Beagle Channel and beneath some snow-capped mountains, and despite it being on the chilly side we've had some good weather to explore the area.

Ushuaia is the main departure point for visiting Antarctica, but it's the end of the season now and there aren't any cruise ships running. It would have been cool to have arranged a quick trip down there so we could visit our final continent, but I guess that will have to wait for another time!

We've visitied a couple of interesting museums, one of which used to be a prison and was absolutely freezing inside! We must make sure we don't commit any crimes while we're down here!

Yesterday we went for a hike up to a nearby glacier. There was quite a lot of snow on the ground, and I ended up losing the path we were supposed to follow and doing a bit of ad-hoc mountaineering. Not good!

There are quite a few Malvinas / Falklands war memorials around here, and banners stating that one day the islands will be returned to their rightful owners. There is also a memorial to the 300 people killed in the sinking of the Belgrano, which puts the "Gotcha!" headlines into perspective.....

This morning we're going on a boat trip round the Channel and then flying off to Buenos Airies this evening. We've booked an apartment for a week so should be able to kick back and relax.

Bye for now!