TravelStream™ news feed for member 2monkeys on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/2monkeys en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:26:14 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1233155700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1233155700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1233155700/tpod.html Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:26:14 -0500 Driving the Pan-american highway: Vancouver, Canada to the ends of the earth.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Well, that's it, were done with this trip. you can stop reading now, no NOW ok not really. We got back to BA after a ride on a highspeed jet-boat across from uruguay. we had some trouble with getting our hotels sorted out, but managed it in the end. honestly at this point it didn't really matter so long as we were able to spend our last few days together enjoying the city and eachother. the only real snag is that lindsey was told she had to go into the travel office to get her airline ticket (again) because they had givin her the wrong thing last time. when we got there they didn't have it. but they insisted we would have it by 2 the next day. but they didn't. linz was pretty nervous but did eventually get it. about 24 hours before her flight. good job oviajes travel, you bastards. we didn't get up to much craziness, other than spend a goodly amount of time walking about, drinking wine, and eating nice food. not such a bad way to end it really is it? We are both looking forward to seeing our friends in the coming weeks, farewell until then from two monkeys.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1232101680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1232101680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1232101680/tpod.html Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:05:13 -0500 Driving the Pan-american highway: Vancouver, Canada to the ends of the earth.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

barra del chuy, Uruguay

we´ve been without internet access for quite some time, sp please forgive the lateness of the entry, we know everyone was sitting with white knuckles gripping seat edges and whatnot (yeah, right, we know for a fact one of lindsey´s mates forgot which continent we even were in) from iguasu falls we took a rather roundabout way to mercedes and then north to colonia peligrini, which is a wetlands area described aptly as a poor-man´s pantanal. it was beautful and tranquil with great sunsets and views of caymans sunning themselves 6 meteres from your tent... this is one of the few places where capibarras (spelling?) exist. this is sort of a hampster that weighs 70 kilos and is the largest rodent in the world. also cute as buttons. big buttons anyway.next we were off on the slowest bus that was ever devised by the devil himself, going only 130 road miles but stopping in every small town 20 miles off the road to as to take almost 7 hours. on a cramped bus. with children weeing and screaming etc... we finally arrived on the urugyan border, decided we didn´t like the argentine side and hopped the river to make good our eventual escape to beachfront tranquilitywe got stopped for the night at pasayandu, also unreamarkable except is was in our 14th country on this trip. we were afraid we would be waylaid for hours at customs as some friendly canadians simon got chatting with informed us that the previous day the customs at this crossing found 3 kilos of cocaine and had shut the crossing down in celebration of their thoroughness and attention to detail or whatever. it all went smoothly in the end and we crashed down in a nice hotel. next it was early doors thorugh montevideo to la paloma, a beach getaway that lonely planet reccomends as being the place to kick back in the summer seasonevidently they didn´t just tell us thisla paloma was rammed thick with young rowdy argentine youths doing all night drinks parties and smashing bottles on rocks ecetera... we didn´t realise how bad it would be until we hired a camping spot on a cramped camground, and got invaded by a group of friends who sayed up all night drinking with their stero turned on loud and placed a metre from our tent. neither of us slept much that nightand so it was groggle eyed and dismayed at the shambles of our beach holiday plans that we decided to head northward to points undecided in an effort to excape the crowds. we were heard in our deliberations by a young lad named santiago who wanted to practise his english, and were reccomended to go to barra del chuy, a relaxed little town near the brasilian border with a campground. we liked it so much we spend nine days there (actually we did try to go other places but they had pretty much gone the way of la paloma or required a car) we also visited chuy a border town with good shopping potential, but didn´t find much of interest except some havaiana flip-flops, which were so very cheap were were suprised they were genuine... until we were told that we were in, fact in brasil (where they are made) we had no idea we had even crossed the border, but took advantage of the situation to have some brazillian food, ending up at a buffet restaurant with an endless parade of waiters with tasty meats on sticks inquiring if you would care to have a taste. lindsey will always remember the spit roasted pineapple covered in cinnamon. muy rica. We spent Linz´s birthday (not saying how many...gulp!) here chilling on the beach and eating a slap up steak and potatoe roasted in the fire meal washed down with a nice bottle of uruguayan wine. Mmmm. Thanks to everyone for cards/messages etc.  Finally it was time to go, we could grill $2 steaks and drink red wine by the gallon no longer! so we packed up and headed back southwards so we could at least sleep in a proper bed again!.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1232620440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1232620440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1232620440/tpod.html Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:39:21 -0500 Driving the Pan-american highway: Vancouver, Canada to the ends of the earth.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

montevideo, Uruguay

we spent a few days in montevideo walking about and seeing the sights. it´s pretty relaxed for a capital city, and although it is beautiful in places we have both agreed that there are WAY too many cars here. we´ve done a food tour of urugay and had some delicious pizza, barbequeue, and bauru ( a local dish a bit like a hamburger but with peas and corn) they also have what is called a chivito canadianse (canadian steak sandwich) which is a steak sandwich with tomato, lettuce, mayo, ketchup, ham, and and egg on it... simon is sure he has never seen anything like this in canada...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1230984720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1230984720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1230984720/tpod.html Sat, 03 Jan 2009 07:40:57 -0500 Driving the Pan-american highway: Vancouver, Canada to the ends of the earth.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

here we are in stunning iguazu falls, most notable as being where lindsey´s sister nicola met her fiancee darren (some kind of water thing is supposed to be around here somewhere too)we rang in the new year at the hostel inn, worth mentioning as it is a resort hostel in the site of an ex-casino and for the money is extremely swish. there was an argentine grill buffet, free caprinhas, and champagne at midnight. we both stayed up long past nigdnight partying but will need to speak with a few more people before we are able to piece together exactly what we were up to. lindsey remembers the samba show with a brazillian woman with a bum so well-formed and wiggly she had to run and get her camera to capture her posterior for posterity, and dancing in a konga line. simon remembers waking up in the wee hours next to the swimming pool wearing only his swim shorts... we were able to meet some interesting characters who included 2 mysterious columbians, a chain-smoking doctor, and a young agentine lad who insisted on calling simon "lucha" for 3/4 of an hour. of course the falls were staggering. we spent a good long time admiring the vastness of the miracle of nature and all that... right now due to heavy rains in brazil we are told there is 3x as much water as normal, but we were lucky to get a sunny day where rainbows could be seen, as well as a range of fauna ranging from interesting bugs to quite large lizards. we have decided to skip the brazil side of the falls due to money constraints and the adequately stunning argentine side.we had been planning to spend the next few days lying in the sun by the pool at the hostel, but the clouds and wind have come. simon discovered that his height and ridiculously long arms made him a ringer in the pool vollyball game and finally got to hear his name being chanted by a group of beautiful young latin women (scratch that off the list) he was also able to hold down the title of table football champion for several days (often playing alone against two) until a young lad from rio came to repeatedly squash him with impressive ball control. he made a fatal error though when he challenged linz to ping pong and she beat him 3 games in a row. we also played water polo with a bunch of american soldiers recently returned from iraq... simon tackled some kind of a human tank who was able to swiçm, control the ball, and even score while simon had him in a full nelson. he was finally undone when he scraped his toe on the bottom of the pool....so after all that we are planning our next adventure. there is supposed to be a wetlands conservation thing that we might check out in a couple of days before heading to uruguay for gauchos and then maybe taking in a beach or two before joining you all again variously.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1230495000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1230495000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1230495000/tpod.html Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:41:35 -0500 Driving the Pan-american highway: Vancouver, Canada to the ends of the earth.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Buenos Aires, Argentina

the steak and red wine here is good. cheapand goodwell, we have spent the past week in buenos aires. christmas was a great time, with large grass-fed argentine steak, plenty of good red wine and wonderful company. simon´s cold abated sufficiently to allow the tasting of the great food and we all enjoyed the local cemetary (well, HERE cemetaries are cool) and some beautiful city parks and bohemian neighborhoods. simon is already talking about how we might be abe to manage living here one day (uh oh - not really) we did a lot of shopping in the beautiful street market, and saw some ancient people dancing tango (who are actually pictured in our 2 year old lonely planet) lindsey went to see the boca stadium (yes, jon, it´s amazing) al is now on his luxury buisiness flight back home before spending a few weeks of blissful laziness before beginning his 2 year volunteer stint in africe with VSO (well done). he was very popluar with the argentine women here, and on his next trip i am sure they will try even harder to win his favours.... we have a bus booked this evening to iguazu falls where we willl be spending the new year in a "luxury" hostel (drinking and eating and swimming in the pool) this is where nicola and darren met and simon has already warned lindsey not to get any fancy ideas about upcoming mariages, as has she similarly warned him (so relax mums, your grandchildren are still miles off in this case) we both wish we could share this time with our various friends and family members back home, but we hope to have a drink in your honour (and then you can have a drink in ours) and then we will have a drink in your honour (and then you can have a drink in ours (and then we....) well, you get the picture, right? HAPPY NEW YEAR and all.after iguazu we hope to see the panatel ( maybe replace some of our rainforest pictures), then spend a few weeks in uruguay on the beach so you in england (having winter) and you in canada (having CRAZY winter) will basically be as jealous as hell of our beautiful brownness
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1229085600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1229085600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1229085600/tpod.html Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:32:36 -0500 Driving the Pan-american highway: Vancouver, Canada to the ends of the earth.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

from mendosa we headed south to the lake area of bariloche. we camped out in el bolson during their jazz festival and knocked back a bottle of rum while listening to some tunes before hiking around the nearest couple of lakes the next day. we then took a marathin bus trip, expertly planned by linzus across to the meninsula valdez which was teeming with wildlife. we saw seal thingies, ostritch thingies and jim got to pose with a penguin! sadly linz has yet to sight her first whale fluke. stay tuned for the dramatic unwhaling! next we did another long bus to puerto natales where we did a 3 day trek in torres del paine, a beautiful national park even though a swiss guy burned down 10% of the trees by knocking over his camp stove a few years back. with heavy packs laden with food, all three of us managed to get injured (al and linz´knees gave out and simon fell into a blueberry bramble) the local vegetation was beautiful, and the mountains were stunning when not srouded in cloud or raining on us.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1229777040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1229777040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1229777040/tpod.html Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:57:29 -0500 Driving the Pan-american highway: Vancouver, Canada to the ends of the earth.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Ushuaia, Patagonia, Argentina

basically, there´s no one left in israel.obviouslybecause they are all down here, partying. we went from puerto natales, ingeneously smuggling fruits and wood products in our underwear and shot up to el calafate to view the stunning perito moreno galcier. tall as a building, and much bigger than an international airport the massive ice shelf moves along at a staggering 2metres per day, forming an ice bridge and then collapsing under it´s own weight about once every four years. lindsey was able to determine using dubious methods that we were within a week of a grand collape, but we figured it would be a bit difficult to justify spending 24/7 on glacir watch to see some ice fall down.... still we happlily spent hours munching ubiquitous ham and cheese sandwiches (here known as J&Q) and watching small chunks of ice creak and groan before finally crashing into the lake. next it was on to ushuhaia (crossing 3 borders into and out of chile, still smuggling fruit and veg) which is famous for being REALLY REALLY far south. this is the end of the panamerican highway and in a way a conclusion to the "quest" part of this adventure. we toasted our voyage with a shot each of 8 year old flor de caña rum that we have been carrying since nicaragua. cheers. it was pretty chilly there what with the sub acrtic winds and whatnot, but we were able to see another glacier, walk along the beagle channel, and look for new whales. still nothing, but statistically we should see some eventually... right? simon managed to get a truely dramatic bout of man-flu a some point during this adventure and was generous eough to share it with us all. so far al and lindsey are holding up well, and simon is mostly sleeping and complaining about not being able to taste even the spiciest curry available in buenos aires... the flight from ushuhaia was long, we landed three times, and a small child somehow was able to turn the entire cabin of the small, antiquated military plane into a sewage plant. simon immedeately stopped complaining about lack of smellers.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1230143400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1230143400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1230143400/tpod.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:32:19 -0500 Driving the Pan-american highway: Vancouver, Canada to the ends of the earth.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Buenos Aires, Argentina

We´re here...its hot hot hot after all that snow and its Christmas, everything shut. Steak dinners. MmmmmmMerry muggy Christmas to all our loved ones back home(s)L&S XXX
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1228480020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1228480020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1228480020/tpod.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:18:23 -0500 Driving the Pan-american highway: Vancouver, Canada to the ends of the earth.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Mendoza, Argentina

we hit  mendoza for a couple of days and stayed at hostel rucapotu where they provided free unlimited malbec wine with every room. the first night we crashed out as we´d arroved around 11 pm, but the next day was all about the vinyard bike tourwe manged to get the bus out to where the vinyards were with a great deal of fuss around trying to use the transit system. basically the busses here only use coins (which no one ver seems to have) or a swipe card (which costs $3) after some fruitless change searching we were finally forced to pay extra for the card we were only going to use once. what a waste.the wine tours were allright though they started to blur into one another, and the vineyards were nice enough but we were too excited to get on with the tasting. in all we tasted 8 chilean wines, 9 liquers, 4 kinds of colocolate and 5 kinds of jam. mmmmm. it was almost worth it even though we had to pay a bit and sit through lectures on the fermenting process, and the no doubt later valuable information on french oak vs. american oak... all difficult to absorb properly after failing to use those little spit buckets at all!we headed later to an all you care to eat buffet where the steaks were as thick as your arm, the sausages had, chunks of seasoning, and simon had some of the thickest, most tender beef ribs he´d ever tasted. they were so beefy that no sauce would be needed nor tolerated. tonight we aare on our ($60) bus trip to barriloche where we hope to enjoy the lake country  our next stop after that is as yet unplanned.... oh, and we went online to find that the pound is now worth $1.43 USD. that´s really putting a crimp in our travel funds as most of our money is still in the UK... YIKES!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1228307100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1228307100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/2monkeys/1/1228307100/tpod.html Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:27:18 -0500 Driving the Pan-american highway: Vancouver, Canada to the ends of the earth.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Santiago, Chile

met alsalomon the reggae singercastillero del diablo tourcheap beer partyincomplete completos
]]>