23/05/04- 28/05/04 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Arrived in the early afternoon alter a gruelling journey to a beautiful sunny day and booked into the worst hostel ever. Spent the rest of the day finding another place to stay and ended up splashing out on a fancy place in Ipanema. The following day having moved into our nice place we set about exploring the city and carried on doing so for the rest of the week. Did all the touristy things you would expect, went up sugarloaf and visited Christ the Redeemer, we also went to the botantical gardens and took a little walk in the national park next to it where we managed to see monkeys playing in the trees. We spent a little bit of time on the beach and a lot of time in the bars and even managed to pop across the water to Niterói. All in all had a great time and we are both really sorry to be leaving.

Rio is great and we have bought a place there- it's in one of the favelas but we have selected blue tarpaulin held down by breeze blocks for our roof so people flying over will think we have a swimming pool.

This is a picture of the city from Sugarloaf mountain:


And this is me outside the art gallery in Niterói- the building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and is quite something to look at (e.g. a building) but it doesn't make for much of a gallery as there's hardly any wall space.

19/05/04- 22/05/04 Puerto Iguazú

Having taken yet another overnight bus we arrived in Puerto Iguazú and checked into our very lovely and posh hotel. After a bit of a kip we headed off to Brazil to their Iguaçu (in Foz de Iguaçu)falls park as we had been told that you should see that side first in order not to be disappointed. We had a bit of trouble finding the park and didn’t get off the bus to get the passport stamped by the brazillian authorities, but we were not in anyway dissappointed.

The park and the falls were amazing, but we have no pictures so you will have to either go yourselves (which I would recommend) or wait until we get back and suffer the camcorder footage!!

The next day (Roger´s birthday) we went to the Argentinian side of the park and we were completely blown away with how beautiful it was and the number of waterfalls which were just stunning. We took a boat out into one of the falls and whilst we were out the driver of the boat asked if we would like to get a bit wet. I shouted yes, like an idiot and he immediately drove straight into one of the falls absolutely soaking us, it was fun until we had to get on the train back to the entrance and then wait ages for a bus back to town. That night we had dinner in the hotel and Rog was surprised by the staff bringing out a cake to celebrate his birthday. The following day I was surprised to see that the remainder of the cake had been put out for breakfast but still the gesture was nice.

The next day we went back tot eh park to do one of the nature trails (didn’t see any animals despite all the signs telling us not to molest them) and then took the train up to the devils throat waterfall which was unbelievable. The waterfall itself was immensely powerful but it was made even more beautiful by the 100´s of birds swooping down to their nests behind it.

Happy birthday to me- Iguaçu / Iguazú falls are trully amazing and you have to go there. Write to me and I will put the air fare into your bank account.

http://www.iguazuargentina.com/

17/05/04 San Miguel de Tucumán

I am sure that we did not see the best of this place but other than one of the nicest sandwiches I have ever tasted I wouldn’t recommend a trip to this town. Whilst there, though, we took seriously the cultural bit and decided to go the son et lumiere which was recommended in the guidebook. That was a bit of a mistake, apart from the fact that it was only 3 different coloured lights flickering over different trees and bushes in the garden of the Casa de la Cultura whilst the history of the independence of Argentina was explained (in Spanish for nearly 2 hours) it culminated in the entire audience singing their nation anthem, which we of course didn’t know any of the words of, this wouldn’t have been a problem if we weren’t at the very front. Very very uncomfortable.

Oh that casa de la cultura thing was truly awful- flashing coloured lights and talking plants and spokey wheels and sounds from empty spaces in the courtyard.

15/05/04- 16/05/04 Salta

At this leg of the journey we did a little bit of the historical bit and visited the museum, after of course sitting in a café on the main square and filling our faces. The museum was in this lovely old colonial building overlooking the Cathedral and main square which were all really beautiful, we also took a wander up to the train station (closed apart from one train a week that goes to nowhere and then comes back but is supposed to be a pretty journey- we will have to leave it for another time). The following day we took a trip in the cable car to the cerro with its fabulous views of the city and then took our time wandering back down. I was rather taken with Salta ´which was just as well becuase it really was miles from everywhere. We were in a bit of a rush so didnt get a chance to explore the areas surrounding Salta but according to the nice lady in the tourist information it is the best bit of the place. I still think that the restaurants have to be one of the main attractions.

Apparently I had one of the tastiest steaks ever on my plate and I was suffering from a blocked nose and couldn't taste a thing. I nearly cried.

11/05/04- 14/05/04 Mendoza, Argentina

The scenery between the Chilian border and Mendoza was breathtaking. Unfortunately I lost all the photos that we did take but trust me it was amazing, the mountains were a beautiful red colour and some of the mountain roads were frightening enough to inspire hysterical blindness. Again arrived in quite late but this time the ever helpful Argentines had set up a tourist information centre at the bus station who booked us into a very cheap hotel and organized an equally cheap cab to get us there. Spent the next four days exploring the town, shopping and largely eating, actually mainly just eating. Apparently it only rains 5 days a year in Mendoza and unfortunately we seemed to have arrived on the first day of the wet season as it didn’t let up for the whole time we were there. Mendoza itself was lovely and had a fabulous park which we had a wonder round and picnic in, in a very brief dry spell. But the main attraction was definitely the restaurants or in particular the Parrillas. Yum.

I was really relieved to be out of Chile. Mendoza I really liked- a city reputedly with only 5 days of rain a year or some such but it rained for 3 of the days we were there.

09/05/04- 10/05/04 La Serena

We decided to stop at La Serena in order to break up the journey from San Pedro to Santiago and also because loads of people had recommended the observatories here, so after a quick bite to eat we booked a trip that night to the observatory which was spectacular. We were able to look at the ring of Saturn, the Surface of Jupiter with the gas thingy in the middle and Venus which was in a crescent. They also pointed out loads of constellations and the southern cross, which i havent been able to see since.

The following day we spent on the beach and managed to find a sushi restaurant. We then had to travelled overnight to Santiago to collect passports (mine was still very hot off the press) the went straight to the bus station to get a bus to Argentina.

We were shown around the observatory by the only man in the world who could say 'if you peer through this you can see Uranus' without it being vaguely funny. Oh how puerile.

Anyway, the stars were amazing there and looked a bit like this:

05/05/04- 07/05/04 San Pedro De Atacama

We arrived very late in the evening and decided to take a room from one of the blokes hanging around the bus station. This is always a mistake I think as there is a reason why they haven´t been able to rent out their rooms. In this case it was definately a mistake as the room was the spare room in his house and his wife clearly wasn’t expecting us as she was wondering around the kitchen/sitting room in only a very small t shirt and kitten heels. So having dumped our bags and explained that we were only staying one night we wondered off in search of a nice place to stay and something to eat. Found both. We ended up staying 3 nights and did loads of trips to see geysers and the valleys of the moon and death. The best bit was watching the sun set at the top of the Grand Dune and then jumping down it.

Also meet up with a few people we had met earlier in Chile and met a few more. San Pedro is a great place, it looks a little like a set for the flintstones movie and everyone is really friendly as most are tourists or reliant on them.


Only place in Chile where the food wasn't god awful. Spectacular scenery of which we have no pictures at the moment but there are some here:

http://www.sanpedroatacama.com/excursiones.htm

Yes, Chile managed to rob quite a beautiful piece of land from Bolivia- this was Bolivia's only piece of coastline. For a more in depth story on the circumstances leading to the acquisition of this land, ask someone else.

30/04/04- 04/05/04 Valparaíso

Although we arrived in very stressful circumstances we were helped out by the friendliest and kindest person in the tourist information centre who helped us sort everything out with the police and even got her family to phone our previous hotel to ensure that we hadn´t left everything there. After that we had a couple of hours sitting around the police station and then found a hotel and explored the city. The city is built on hundreds of hills so everyone gets round on funicular railways which makes it quite fun. We stayed in the nicest part of the city, not only because it had a café that knew how to make a proper cup of tea but also because it had a fantastic view of the habour. A couple of the days that we were there we took the bus to Vina del Mar a posh resort which is pretty much a suburbs of Valparaiso. Very nice, but a bit too cold to sunbathe. Had a picnic on the beach (with a rabid dog) and watched the sun set that kind of thing.


For anyone going to Valparaiso, watch out for the comic strip published by the Chilean tourist board and distrubted free everywhere. The main character is an American traveller who explores all the sites (and shows diagrams of how the lifts work etc.), constantly called a 'gringo' by every local he encounters, finds love a couple of times and very suddenly treads in a dog turd (of which there are many in Valparaiso)and when he is left without a girl he goes to a filth bar. Well done to the Sernatur, Chile's government run tourist service!

Once again don't have any pictures at the moment but here are some:

http://www.valparaisochile.cl/paseos.htm

Oh, and we saw some little kid trying to relieve a lady shopping of her necklace.

26/04/04- 30/04/04 Santiago

Arrived on the 26th after an overnight bus which was pretty scummy. Booked into a rather nice hotel in the centre and decided to settle for a while as we had been skipping through Chile up until then. After a bit of a sleep we wondered around and managed to find the bottom of the park where all the nice restaurants and bars are. I think there is a bit of a pattern emerging to our exploring of new places. Anyway after a few beers we decided that we were too poor for a proper dinner and fancied a pizza so got two and headed back to the hotel. On the metro Roger managed to get assaulted by a dirty yuf type who gobbed on him for not giving him any pizza. Not the best start. We spent the next few days wondering around Santiago and the surrounding area, we visited the art galleries (not up to much) and a vineyard (yum) and spent the day in the park which was lovely. On the last day we went to watch the changing of the Guard which was the funniest thing I have ever seen. All the usual pomp and ceremony but the band played “we are the world” and walked in the most effeminate way that I am very surprised the country hasn’t been invaded. Managed to get our passports, emergency money and some cards etc nicked on the bus out of Santiago which was not much fun.

By assaulted Fiona meant gobbed on from afar by some dirty tyke who was well practised in distance spitting. No need to worry about my physical well-being.

Aside from that I felt that Santiago de Chile (to give it its full name) is one of the shittest cities on this planet- it is incredibly hostile, the art galleries are falling apart, food is crap, the river is half boarded up and full of refuse, the streets are full of thieves and cut-throats and oh I could go on and on. Oh and the old dancing grandma- on a big piece of cardboard in the pedestrianised shopping street with a tiny battery operated tape recorder battling for attention with the evangelists screaming their fiery, ignorant abuse- so so pitiful! And this has nothing to do with getting robbed or spat on. Investors! Don't invest in this city, let it fall back into the wretched guts of hell from whence it came.

http://www.chile-travel.com/santiago.htm

Still.

I suggest a fortnight there, regular flights from London Heathrow with British Airways.

That should be long enough to raze it.