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!

To the Ends of the Earth....

Hello from a very cold Punta Arenas!

 

After having avoided the winter for most of our journey it has finally caught up with us at the end of our Chilean adventures. It's so cold here that we're wearing woolly hats in the middle of the day! June commented earlier that it finally feels like Christmas.

 

Despite the chill Punta Arenas is a nice town, and we've spent today visiting a couple of museums. The first was the Maritime Museum and covered details of Chile's naval battles as well as a display about the rescue of Shackleton's expedition from the Antarctic. We'd both enjoyed the Shackleton mini-series when it was on TV a few years ago, and it was nice to see some relics of the adventure. They survived in the Antarctic waiting for rescue for the best part of a year - at the moment we're struggling to stay outside for more than a few minutes at a time!

 

Tomorrow we head on a long bus journey back into Argentina and down to Ushuaia in the Tierre Del Fuego. Ushuaia is the southern-most city in the world, only about 50 miles north of Cape Horn. Its latitude is 54°47' south. Surprisingly Glasgow is at 55°50' north. I wonder why the bottom of the world is colder than the top? Something to do with hot air rising perhaps?!

 

We've really enjoyed our two spells in Chile. It has some stunning scenery and the people are very friendly. It's the wealthiest country in South America (52nd in the world in the GDP per capita table) but feels less westernised and a little less worldy-wise than Argentina. I don't know if we'll ever be back this way again, but there is still lots we didn't see, including Easter Island, and most of the peaks of the Torres Del Paine!

 

We've got a few days in Ushuaia before we fly to Buenos Airies to thaw out. We've booked an apartment for a week so we can relax and enjoy the city's buzz.

 

Adios!

 

Hello in the Snow!

Back from the Torres

As you can see from June's video above we had quite an adventure in the Torres Del Paine!

 

We arrived in the park on Sunday in heavy rain, but gamely took the boat across to the western side and had an afternoon hike towards the Grey Glacier. The wind and rain was really strong but we made it to a look-out over the glacier - although due to the overcast weather the glacier lived up to its name and looked grey rather than blue! Luckily the rain stopped and the wind dried us off on our walk back to the refugio.

 

The next morning the rain was even worse, and we decided that we'd have to abandon our hopes of walking the 'W'. Most people staying in the refugio and campsite decided to call it quits and headed out of the park, but we thought we'd give it one more shot so got the boat and bus back to the eastern end and checked into another refugio. We had a pleasant (dry!) walk beside some lakes in the afternoon, and went to bed praying for some good weather the following morning so we could make an attempt to get to the Torres themselves.

 

When we woke up this morning, however, there was no sign of the Torres and it was pretty obvious that any walking would have to be through a snow-storm! Fortunately we had bought some woolly hats and gloves and hired some water-proof trousers, so we excitedly headed up into the snow. As it turned out it was a really good fun hiking through the snow, and after a couple of hours the sun came out and we had some great views down the valley, although not, alas, or the Torres themselves. The deep snow prevented us from getting any further, so we headed back down, and were very happy to meet Vicky, a girl who'd been on the rafting trip with, heading up the hill. One of the best things about travelling is bumping into people you last saw hundreds of miles away.

 

As we were about to climb into the bus and head back to Puerto Natales, the clouds lifted and we finally got a view of the Torres. They didn't look as spectacular as they looks in the books, but as least we saw them!

 

You can see the photos we took in the Chile set.

 

The calm before the storm

Driftin'
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Here we are driting down the Rio Manso between rapids - as you can tell we've finally found somewhere where the internet is fast enough to upload our photos. Check out the Argentina link on the right for lots of photos of glaciers, mountains and white water rafting!

We're having a relaxing day in Puerto Natales before we head to the Torres Del Paine tomorrow. Ironically the weather is really nice today - hope it lasts for the next few days! We've done some investigation and it turns out that there are options for doing 1, 2, 3 or 4 day treks, and we can make up our minds as we go along depending on how tired / cold we are. If we were here in the high season we wouldn't have been able to be so flexible and would have had to book all of our nights in the refuges in advance.

It's a bit confusing being back in Chile again. Some things are the same as Argentina - eg hundreds of stray dogs running around - and some things are different - getting 880 pesos to the pound instead of 6 means we have to be careful with our sums!

We'll let you know how we managed on the trek when we get back! Bye!

Head in the clouds (2)

Hola chicos!

We're back in El Calafate now after our hiking trip to the El Chalten region. We did two 6 hour hikes through beautiful countryside, although unfortunately it was a bit cloudy so we didn't have clear views of the top of the mountains, which was a shame as they are pretty spectacular. Luckily we managed to get a peek at them when we first arrived in town, so at least could picture what we were missing!

Our trip to the Perito Moreno glacier on Monday was one of the highlights of our trip so far. It was a lovely sunny day and the glacier was beautiful, and every now and then huge (house-sized) chunks of it would break off and crash into the lake below. It made a continuous creaking and groaning sound, and was one of the most amazing sights we've ever seen. Gorgeous.

We head off on the bus to Puerto Natales in Chile tomorrow morning. The main reason for going down there is to visit the Torres Del Paine national park. The most popular trek in the park is the 5 day "W" route, although looking at the weather forecast we probably won't attempt all of it. The forecast for the next 5 days down there is rain, rain, rain, rain and rain, so maybe a day of two hiking will be enough for us! Hopefully the weather won't be so bad that it obscures the views of the Torres themselves.

We're really enjoying South America now that we've got into the swing of things. Argentina is very traveller-friendly, and a lot more people speak English here, although we (ie June) are persevering with our Spanish. We're meeting lots of fellow travellers with hints and tips of what to do. Pretty much everyone we speak to gushes about Buenos Aires, so we're really looking forward to going there. Whether we go straight there from Puerto Natales or go to the far south of Argentina first (to the Tierra del Fuego) is up for debate at the moment.

Still no photos for you to look at, as the internet is woefully slow here. Hopefully it will be better in Puerto Natales.

Hasta la vista!