TravelStream™ news feed for member kariandlukeyb on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kariandlukeyb en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:09:32 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kariandlukeyb/2/1238119320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kariandlukeyb/2/1238119320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kariandlukeyb/2/1238119320/tpod.html Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:09:32 -0400 A trip of dreams, new sights, tastes, sounds and senses we havent experienced. Central and South America 2008-2009

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Sao Paulo, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil

mainly to break up our long bus ride north we stop in sao paulo, and also we thought there would be some night life for lukey to pick up some new music....

first off though...a conference has landed the same weekend as us..and we cannot find accomdation anywhere... we are left with a very expensive hotel that blows more than double our daily budget...but thankfully we are in a safe neighbourhood and close to the transport links.

we spend our day in the centre checking out the views from one of the tallest builsings, chatting with local school children who are desperate to practice their english, and fighting our way through the markets.

we try to find a decent club to head to on the evening, but can only find some dub step..great... happy with that...although at the end of the evening, although very drunk, we have not listened to one dub step beat... hrumph... maybe they just dont have that sound over here...there certainly was no whisperings of any drum and bass.....

so a short but sweet visit to this city, perhaps a preparation into how much rip is going to cost us, and how much we have to be on our toes in relation to safety.
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Florianopolis, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil

we only have a few weeks left and lukey and i want to see the beaches....so we head to south brasil. known for its white sand beaches and laid back lifestyle. we find a lovely apartment to rent which is ran by an old brasilian lady and her white kitten, and we settle down for nearly two weeks.

the island is quite large, but has many a bay surronding it, and the rich flock to this area at weekends and holidays. we notice a small increase in the small bay we select. its turning into winter for brasilians,,,29 degrees is mild but they dont hesitate getting their skin out...lukey even persuades me to get a brasilian bikini! wont be getting that out in england or france thats for sure.... !

we spend our days reading on the beach, playing bat and ball, playing cards and generally being lazy bums topping up our tans before we return to rainy england. we chat about what we want when we get home, how we hope our wedding will be, and day dream many a tale about what we have done on this adventure together.
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Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ok..here it is.. our last entry into our blog... after our last ever bus journey ( how many have we actually taken.. how much land have we actually covered?we really would love to find that out....) we have landed in rio...said to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. i clearly remember writing a school report when i was 7 about this city. one of the main places that has driven me to take this trip. many a moon i have cut pictures out of magazines, and read through vast amounts of information about this magical city. and we have not been disappointed. i have gone through every emotion possible since we have been here, and i couldnt of wished for a better ending.

lukey and i arrived safely after our 6 hour bus from sao paulo, and find our way to ipanema. an area known in rio to be one of the safest.... as we have heard many , many a tale of tourists being robbed in this huge jungle. as soon as we land we are welcomed by trees lining the streets and restaurants piling people onto the pavements, laughing and chatting as they eat every cuisine imaginable. but this all comes at a cost... there are only a few hostels...and we have to pay more than our daily budget just for a room , without a private bathroom..... ok....???

but the atmosphere has been great, we decide to book into a hostel rather than a hotel as we want to spend our last days with other travellers. and we meet some fantastic people over our last week. namely debbie and mitchell.... we miss you guys, and hope youre enjoying your trip in peru.... we hang out at various restaurants, the beaches ....which are full of locals playing volleyball and footie, tanning every inch of their beautiful bodies. the food is delicious...albeit very expensive...and lukey and i fall deeply in love with acai...a national super berry that fills you up when mixed with ice, granola and honey...what a way to start the day (and ok...to eat for a sweet lunch..and yes lukey babe, i will have one for supper..lol!)

we tour the city centre, taking in some of the concrete, but are blown away by their cathedral. not what we expected. a pyaris shape buiding that looks like a hotel from the outside, but is circular inside with thousands of small windows lining the sides and the most beautiful HUGE staineglass windows on 4 of the sides..... the panes are made of huge blocks of colour and it floods in, even though is drizzling outside. debbie and mitchell are into music in a big way, and are blown away that it would be cool to have an orchestra in there...if not for the sound. the rest of the city is ok, we walk the streets looking for other things and find their parliment building.... makes me want to check out our own, seen so i have never been there.

on thursday i have one of the best days of our trip. we meet up with debbie and mitchell, linda and henke, and a whole group from our hostel and others around for a tour of all the sites around the city of rio. again we are knocked over by the price, but as i have mentioned, i have wanted to come to rio since i did my first ever school project , and we couldnt leave without seeing the christ figure or the sugar loaf. we are picked up by a guy who has a strong new york accent (which we learned he picked up from when he lived there when he was little...but is actually living and from rio itself..... good to know!) and has a good banter with all of us. he drives us past his football ground, and says with pride that they are the best in brasil...and we can see a match on sunday.

he also drives us through our small community of lapanema, along the beach and into leblon. leblon orginally was an area that was farmed by a rich blond guy (hence name) who was kind to slaves. brasil was one of the last countries to get rid of slavery, but this guy was canny....so they named a whole suburb after him. its a pleasant area with a good beach, a lake, a race course and some expensive shops. one thing we have noticed across this city is the trees line the streets, and here there are beautiful flowers everywhere. much like ipanema, it could be a good place to stay, as they are possibly two of the more affluent areas of rio.

we are led into the rainforest which surronds rio. the locals call it the lungs of rio. its the biggest city rainforest in the world, and some people are lucky to live in it. both rich and poor meander their houses through small sections... (its now illegal to build)...mansions and favelas climb up the hill as we move closer to the mountainside called -la bonita. this is where you can see right down the south of rio, across the ocean, the rainforest and where the paragliders and hanggliders get to sail out and fly like birds. we so wanted to treat ourselves to this luxury, but money is so tight, so we have to pass, just taking in the view as a subsitute.

back in our little mini bus we are taken to the christ redeemer. he is a white chirst like statue that was built in the 1930's , and measures something like 29m tall and 25m across. not quite as tall as the angel, but stick him on a huge hill and he safely looks out across the bays below. the views are incredible, as are the fast clouds that roll in across the blue sky at an incredible rate and obscure all landmarks below us within minutes..... reappearing just as fast. this is where my emotions of what we have done in the last 6 months, and that we are returning so soon hit me for the first time. i burst into tears in lukey's arms. happy, sad, confused..... time certainly flies when youre having fun!

we are taken to the famous santa teresa steps... where various video shoots and film shots have taken place. this mad ciliean guy (with and enormous tash!) moved to rio, fell in love with the people, and started to put tiles up his local steps to try and brighten the sad area. 20 odd years later his art work is still going on, and he regularly changes the tiles. he even asks you to send him tiles and he will put them on the stairs for you. think we will do that... newcastle one coming up.... its simply very cool... the colours and history of the tiles are immense. and as a result he is bringing trourism to the area.

we also hit the famous macarena football stadium on sunday with friends. this stadium is huge and has the capacity to hold close to 100 000 people. ths most its ever held though was ,..can you imagine! the atmosphere was electric as two local teams played out in a derby match. the supporters went whole hogs too...banners, drums, flags...and huge ones all over the place contstantly being waved. hooters, flares, glitter...and chants that were infectious with the dances to go with them. now lukey being a pro, settled into this but to be honest i was like a kid in a sweety shop, i didnt know where to look. the sun was intense even before the game, and when the players came on we couldnt believe they were playing in this heat. thankfully the stadium wasnt full...around 36 000 of us came to this this local match.... and we were able to skip to the shaded seats regularly.

the game was quite slow the first half and no where near as sharp as our premier league matches, that i have only seen on tv. but the second half was great, posts being hit, yellow cards everywhere, and goals just flying past the posts, or the goaley really having to stretch for them. in the end our opposing team scored...noise erupted....(i would have gotten really mad if they were really my team), but it was a good goal... but flamengo werent to lose sitting down and literally 10 seconds before the whistle blew our team scored a cracker... i think our fans went loopy with pride and amaement at this short time left. oh the fun! i cant wait for lukey to take me to one of his west ham matches now!

so this is it... our last day. we are starting it by trying to confirm my flight as there appears to be no evidence of me on the plane. great! hopefully once confirmed, we are going for my last cup of acai, and then to hit the beach as we dont need to be at the airport till this afternoon. and then guys we will be home, chatting to most of you by the end of the week. i am a huge mixture of emotions...a wreck to be honest. so grateful for what we have experienced, but determined this trip wont be our last.

in fact, i am going to take my fiance for a drink this lunch time and i am going to raise a toast.....

to central and south america, to the dreams and laughter i couldnt even fathom would happen.

to new friends, thank you for the good times.

to family and old friends, thank you for your love, guidance and support.....

and to my handsome fiance, thank you for sharing it all with me.
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PUERTO IGUAZU, Argentina

lukey, ellie and i arrive early, and ellie checks on to another bus for that evening as she has to be in buenas aires the next day .... hard life... but lukey and i carry our ever heavy rucsacks around this small and very pleasant village. if i had ever been to new zealand or australia, i could imagine it may be like this. the houses are set in small grids of streets, with low lying fences around, all brightly painted, or with plenty of flowers to welcome you along your way. we finally find a hostel. but already we are aware that our daily budget is been blown purely on accomodation... and brasil is only going to get more expensive. lukey is shattered as he didnt sleep at all on the bus, and we both fall asleep for a few hours.

in fact lukey didnt make it out of bed again till about 5pm, being under the weather, it was best for him to stay in the shade. but ellie and i headed off on the small buses a few hours later to the falls. i was really excited, as this was one of the only places in argentina we have been able to fit in to our schedule, and as its way up north on the border with brasil, it means when we return to argentina some day, we wont have to make the 18 hour bus journey rfom buenas to reach it......

ellie and i had a fantastic day, however she had to take all the pictures, due to lukey and i not being able to charge our camera..and she hasnt sent me them yet.... so i ahve just included a few of what it would have looked like.....

the park is huge. we were adviced to see them from the argentinian side if either (you can see them from the brasilian border too) as you see the power and the size of the falls as they tumble across the land. i was sad lukey couldnt be there, knowing he was sick, but also that we doubted we could afford the brasilian side aswell.
you meander across parkways alongside the falls and are eventually led across the water, which looks incredibly calm....very deceptive...as we later spot a croc swimming towards us...oh thats why they dont let you swim in some areas....

we held back from the crwords that arrived with the buses and then on the small train that takes you around this huge park. and are we glad as we sit and have hundreds of stunning butterflies flapping aroud us, landing on us and dazzling us with their colours and tranquility. i really hope that i get the pics of ellie as we caught some great pictures of them.

but the waterfalls were what we had really come to see, and they certainly impressed. they are HUGE! as you come close you can hear the water before you see it, piling with such speed and adrenalin over the cliff tops. they stretch as far as your eye can see. again we were blessed with a stunning blue sky day, and the contrast of the mist piling up skywards , as the white water fell down, with the lush vegetation growing around, was incredible.... you find yourself just standing in amazement that is this is all natural, and was created thousands of years a go, and is ever changing....

we didnt go on the river raft which took you quite close to the base of one of the waterfalls, again because it was so expensive....but we did manage to wander the whole park, taking in the many small falls, along with seeing the brasilian side. i am determined that i want a decent camera for my 30th....all contributions would be greatly appreciated.... lol... this trip has realy made me interested in photography, and what can be snapped. a decent camera is the only way forward.

we make it back to town late afternoon, lukey was probably going mad with worry, but two girls off exploring...well, what can i say? i said goodbye to ellie... which i hope wont be the last time i see her. she was a canny southern lass who had similar interests in growing food and other nonsense. we laughted a lot, and she was easy to hang with.

ofcourse, when i returned , lukey was fanished so we asked where a decent steak house was. a restaurant was highly recommended, and we set off to try and taste some of this delicious argentinian steak you are alwways hearing about.... disappointed... we ate much better in nicargaua, and even at home with some of the stuff dad gets... but wee will keep an open mind and next tie we return we will try again. lol.... and with some good wine this time!
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Resistencia, Argentina

again not a very interesting passage, as we literally had a 14 hour bus ride...had to stop here for the day before our 12 hour rie to the falls....

but this city was pleasan after we eventually got away from ur taxi man who tried to rip us off, then took us to the police station.... but we ended up sitting in the park, and eating cheese.... paying cards and having a few drinks.... a great way to spend an afternoon before your next slog...
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Salta, Argentina

this is where we now have to drive across the huge expanse of south america.... we arent giving argentina any justica...we have decided we will come back and travel slower and further south, along with chile....

we say goodbye to the mad alaskans, and ellie , lukey and i move on
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san pedro, Chile

we stayed here a few ays. a really nie town, built around a plaza..but very expensive... we appear to be going up in prices for everything now... and our treats are getting lower....

but we hang out with the gang, and have a good few days with them.
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Uyuni, Bolivia

first things..we are sorry that it has taken us a while to write another blog.... camera died..no charger, and then we have actually hit the beach in brasil...... no explanation needed there..

but anyhoo.....

we originally had read that there was wicked comanies going to the salt plains from tupiza, but when we got a bus from la paz to oruro, the train company had cancelled all on going trains from uyuni..... so this is when you just have to go with the flow...and we decide our salt plain tour is from uyuni.....

we book ourselves first class train tickets...i.e our seats recline! and hop on, but i am not happy and strike up a conversation with a few girls that we have been given seats right at the back of this particular carriage..with seats that cant recline! i stomp off to try and change them, to be told we will be able to change seats once we get started.... ok.... as i sit back down again, a man about 50ish sits opposite us, and we strike up conversation. jerry is from ireland, and already we know its going to be a better trip than we thought.

as we move away the three of us decide to move carriages as he is in the same predicament, and we move a carriage along, where we are actually facing the way we are going. for anyone else that gets travel sick, then you will understand i was a much happier bunny. even happier when a few others from the other carriage move in too, stating the same thing. we laugh when twenty minutes into the ride a huge bunch of young kids straight out of uni come hearding through. with their guide! they have been sitting in the wrong seats for this long..... erm... 1 in about 20 of them cant find the right seats on the train...with a guide... how are these little gringos ever going to make it across south america, alone with out mummy and daddy.... we all laugh and ellie, another english lass who has travelled columbia and peru, asks if we fancy a game of cards in the drinks carriage..... enough said.

we meet lots of peruvians, who are very very drunk. scott and brin, who are from alaska encourage them far too much, and eventually they get chucked out! we play cards late until our train arrives in the station, 8 or so hours later. a great way to get to know each other, and we decide we have met our tour group for the following day, so off we hike to find accomodation.

scotty used to be in the army, and rose at some ridiculous hour and found us a great tour guide. he had advice from others which group to go with, and the boys all set off and book us in for a 3 day tour.

when our 4 by 4 pulls up i am not happy as we were told we would have no more than 4 of us in the truck... and there are 6 of us.... but everyone cheers me on, and when we get in, there is actually tonnes of room. and i know that the adventure we started last night on the train, has only just begun.

first we hit a disused train station, with some burnt out trains, all rusty and very cool. we also head to a salt shop where you can buy the salt in various tat...no salt shakers to be found though...gutted. i therefore buy everyone a finger puppet..in line with their personality.....
lukey is spiderman... i am maggie, ellie is a clown, although she hates clowns and says he is just a cool dude with mad hair, brin is a snail, scotty is batman, and jerry is an eagle.....kids eh? we play with them the whole trip....

then we head off into the wilderness. the landscape is instantly different to what we have seen in peru. its flat with smaller hills way off in the distance, and finally we hit what used to be a huge lake or sea. we are told its over 200 square km;;;;; i.e HUGE! and all i can say is...WOW!
we have been very lucky. it had been raining the last few days, but today was the puriest blue of days ever. most people come and see the salt plains. which are amazing. one huge piece of salt flat as far as the eye can see, some piled high, but other than that it has cracked into huge hexagons which go on and on.

but we were very lucky as the rain creates a mirror effect as it lies so thin on the top of these flat white sheets. the results are breath taking and to be honest...totally trippy! the sky looks like it rolls into the earth, and you look lie you are standing on the sky, when we drive along we are flying! we are all gobsmacked, and all agree this has to be the highlight of most of our trips so far. the clouds look like they have become those painted sploges you used to make with a piece of paper folded in half when you were little , and then ask yourself what they look like...a butterfly... a tree... well, we have our very own HUGE versions opening up right in front of our eyes.

the day just gets better and better. we stop for lunch by a giant cactus island, and our guide makes us a lovely fresh lunch, and we crack open a few beers. we then spend the rest of the afternoon making silly photos to entertain ourselves as there is no perspective in the pictures as the salt just keeps on going. we cant wait to get them home to cut some down to get rid of the tiny people in the backround.... then they will look funny.

we drive on for hours.,.... spell bound. and find our evening at a small SALT hostel where we sit and watch the most spectacular lightening show right around us, sitting drinking rum with our new friends. we could not have found a better group to have done this with.

the next few days we cover the deseert, which is barren in places, and has fantastic rock formations. we come across flamingos (i have never seen one...not even in a zoo!) and other wild life. its a fanctastic trip, although nothing can beat that first day. we end with a trip to a hot spa straight out of the ground... great memories.

we are led to the chiliean border where we hop on another bus to cross. we decide we all want to travel a little together as were having so much fun. chile it is then.
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La Paz, Bolivia

we arrive from puno, and have been travelling since 9 the morning before all the way from matchu pitchu.... we are glad to be in a new land...

but as expected its very similar to peru...what with it being so close...and with there not being an awful lot to do in the city apart from the witches market which we do visit, and head on....
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Aguas Calientes, Sacred Valley, Peru

we rise at 4.30 for our cheaper(?????) train ticket up through the narow valley..yes it costs more than any ticket in england.... and already i am peaved that we are being told..its the only way to see these ruins....

then we have to fork out another rip off bus ticket... which i can only say , should mean that the road is built of gold, how many people we know catch this only bus every day... think 28 on each bus, and over 100 buses constantly running!

then we have to fork out to get into the ruins... at least 10 times more than any other ruin we have visited in the whole time of our travels....

then we obviously need a guide, so we ask and she has the cheek to try and charge me 6 times what i know it should be....by this time i am so short tempered with being ripped off that i actually laugh at her and say i know how much it should be. we eventually get it for cheaper and again when some other guy says he wants in....

so i am not off to a good start, and to be fair it doesnt get any better.

i am so disappointed,. why do people pay so bloody much to come and see this ruin? i really havent got a clue? ok..its pretty, yes its surronded by some of the same beautiful hills and moutains that you find ALL OVER PERU! and the stone work and the stories that go with the hostory are INTERESTING i agree. but if you really dont want to THROW AWAY MONEY then go and see other parts of peru, because trust me...

THIS RUIN IS NOT WORTH WHAT YOU PAY..OR HIKE FOR....... THERE IS BETTER!!!!!!

so we left feeling very disappointed and sad that we had literally just thrown away a huge preportion of our budget becasue we had to. no other way to get to this ruin unless you hike...even then you have to pay much more for food etc....

in one word...GUTTED!!!!!!!!

If i ever come back to peru..which i hope one day i will, i will go again where not many other travellers go.even more so this time as i know its so easy and safe.. there is so much more i want to explore... this country was amazing...i could have spent a whole year here..easily....i WILL COME BACK.... i know it....

but if anyone is thinking of coming to peru.....read more people...and get off the gringo trail... then you will see the REAL PERU!
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