Feliz Navidad

Simon Lee, Dan told me that you required me to talk more about my thoughts and feelings in my blogs. I take my readers opinions very seriously and as such, I will attempt to do so in this blog, and those in the future.

Laurence Conway, in a recent viber call you informed me that my sentences could flow a little more and you felt 'let down' by my spelling, and in cases, grammar. Again, I value the opinions of my viewers as both very important and indeed crucial for the future success of Jim's Travels.

So, to continue from where I left off last time:

Cordoba, Argentina:
After enduring the worst hangover known to man, and spending a day on a wonderful glittery beach next to a stream, I readied myself for one final night out. Many things happened on this night but the highlights include practicisng our broken Spanish whilst chatting up girls...and repeating the sentence, "Por favour, esta es mon primera noche en Cordoba, Donde Es Mui Bien??" which roughly translated and using hand motions means, "Excuse me, it is our first night in Cordoba....Where is very good?" - Needless to say... the line worked terribly. Also, Jonny promised us that he would take us on a "giant tour" - which involved him taking us to the end of the road where he thought he had seen a giant women, but by the time we got there she had vanished. I don't think Jonnys Giant Tour will be making it into the lonely planet guide this year but regardless it was a very fun night.

Simon, How did this make me feel?? I felt upset. I was looking forward to the giant tour.

The next day, we headed to the Che Guevara museum - which was his old house from his childhood which had been converted into a museum. It was interesting, if a little lacking in information! On the way to the museum, I got talking to a 60 year old Argentinian woman called Marina, who gave us many recommendations for the rest of Argentina. She was lovely and we discussed Argentina, England, Politics, Sport, Art....and we really hit it off! When we both got off the bus at the same stop, I had a photo with her and kissed her goodbye. Just as I kissed her goodbye, her very confused husband coincidentally drove past and must have wondered what his wife was doing with 5 boys and kissing such an attractive young man! I explained it all to him for a while until his wife informed me he didn't speak English! (below, me and Marina!)

Simon, How did this make me feel?? Happy. And slightly confused that I am attracted to old women!

Mendoza, Argentina.
Mendoza is an area in the middle of Argentina famous for its vineyards. Eager to improve our knowledge on one of Argentina's most famous exports, we embarked on a wine tour of the local area. Mr Hugo provided us with a map of the area, a glass of wine, a bottle of water and bicycle to get around. The next 6 hours or so were truly magical! We visited a few vineyards, tried many red wines, white wines and sparkling wines, learned a little about the grapes of the region... and visited a special special place - a factory making the finest olive oil, spirits, chocolate and absinthe! We sampled all of the above, and rode around Mendoza for the rest of the day very merry! (below.... us at the winery)

The next day, we headed to a huge park in the middle of the city which contained a large football stadium (estadion Provincial) around a 40,000 seater which hosted some games when the world cup was last in Argentina. We ventured towards it in hope of perhaps doing a tour... but with no staff around, we took matters into our own hands, snuck around a fence.... and bang....we were in the stadium! Photos were taken, seat hopping took place and ideas were formulated on how to jump past the moat which surrounded the pitch to stop fans getting onto the pitch! Me and Dan lowered ourselves down, then jumped onto the pitch to run around jubilantly and pretend for a minute that we were Argentina Footballers. Getting down was easy... but getting back up was ny on impossible as its much easier to fall/jump downwards six feet, than leap upwards the same distance! Michael and David were waiting patiently, safely in the seats thinking of ways to get us back up when a security guard, with a big dog appeared out of nowhere to tell us we had 2 minutes to get off the pitch... or pay the consequences! We found a table near the dugout (convenient i know!) and climbed up on it, then leaped to safety with the assistance of Michael and Davids firm grips before swiftly departing the lovely stadium- safe in the knowledge that a real stadium tour was soon to commence a week later... in a better stadium, with an actual guide...and in a legal manner! (Below, me celebrating entrance to the stadium!)

Simon, How did breaking the law make me feel?? Scared. I'm an honest man with honest values and if its a crime to love football so much that I want to jump onto a pitch then I'm guilty. *
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
What a week, what  place! Arrived in BA on the morning of the 19th December and headed to a local area called 'La Boca' where Boca Juniors football team are based, and we meandered the local markets and took in the sights of the colourful buildings and football mad culture. I successfully took my tally of foreign football shirts up to 10 with the acquisition of an Argentina, Tevez football shirt. (I had by this point already purchased my Martin Palermo, Boca Juniors top!) That night it took me 24 minutes to down my dirty pint.... and I didn't make it to the nightclub!

The next day we drew names out of the hat for Secret Santa gifts, played some pool, recovered then went out again, sober as could not stand the thought of alcohol, and performed some classic dance moves including the pencil jump! Successful night!

The rest of the week was generally spent preparing for Christmas (I bought 12 Christmas hats after running around the city for an hour asking people where i could buy a 'Sombrero Navidenyos') sight seeing, partying and  trying to find lookalikes. I found a Kevin Pieterson lookalikey who David denied, but I will claim until I am blue in the face that he looked exactly the same as him! We also all concurred that Michael looks very much like your average kurdish man! MICHAEL IS A KURD!! (Below, picture of typical Kurdish man. Please note similarities to Michael)

We made it to Recoleta, where we sunbathed next to a massive mechanical flower and also saw the grave of Eva Peron, Evita, in a famous cemetery. We experienced the Palermo and Santielmo Markets, where I purchased a mannequins head, for 50 pesos. Mannequins heads are fun for a few minutes, however almost impossible to travel with due to their weird shape and size! This aside, I do not regret my decision! We also completed our legal, excellent and highly recommended Boca Juniors Stadium tour. The stadium nicknamed 'la bombonera' was awesome, and our tour guide was a really fit woman! Highlights included running onto the pitch, getting undressed in the changing room showers for some photos, and having a kick around outside with our boca juniors football! Oh... and I accepted the challenge of wearing my full boca juniors tracksuit for the full day despite the 35 degree heat. It was boiling and everyone thought i was either mental or an extremely cold and passionate Boca Juniors Fan! (Below, me in my full body tracksuit.... HOT!)

Jonny left us on the 23rd. It was emotional. He was a great guy and will be sorely missed for the next week or so until we see him again, however he had to catch his flight from Chile to New Zealand on Christmas day. As a result, we had a mock Christmas a few days early where we went for another great steak meal and exchanged our secret Santa gifts:

• Michael got Dan a book about space and planets as well as a voucher for one hug! Dan loves space and planets!!
• Dan got Michael a Toy Story Towel, and some children's Toy Story underpants. Michael LOVES toy story. And underwear!
• Jonny got me a Boca Juniors Football. He must know me very well, I LOVE football!!
• I got David a bracelet, some Dulce De leche, some black pepper, medicine and a voucher for 1 favour, non sexual, to be redeemed at any time. David LOVES stuff!!
• Finally, David got Jonny some Cigarettes. Jonny LOVES cigarettes!

We said our farewells to Jonny, and spent the next day, Christmas eve, partying hard at Pacha nightclub until the sun came up... It was a great night and bought Christmas Day in in Style! (Below... Tearing up Xmas.... BA style with fake snow!)

We Also met a very happy Chinese Man called Shin.

Our time in BA was spent at Millhouse Hostel, which apart from some of the most unfriendly and unenthusiastic staff known to man, was awesome. We met some real characters, including one man in particular, Angel! Angel, or Kevin to give his christened name was a 29 year old American who was looking for a flat in BA but spent his days and nights in Millhouse sitting on a couch near the back of the lobby telling stories of his miss-spent youth. One night when David was very drunk, he kindly offered to put David into a choke so that he turned unconscious as this would put David out of his misery. He assured us that he had done it a hundred times and it was very safe... indeed he had endured the fate himself a number of times and woken up in the trunks of cars! After a few minutes of persuasion we let him down gently and politely asked him not to choke anyone tonight... nor in any nights in the future! Choking aside, Angel was a millhouse hero who endeared himself to us with his cheeky grin and infectious smile... legend! (Angel, Shown Below)

Dan Also gave 100 pesos to a tramp on Christmas day... whilst the tramp was asleep. Giving charity anonymously is one of the nicest and most generous things man can do. Simon, How did this make me feel?? Proud. Very Proud of my kind friend Daniel!

Flying:
Spent the days of 27th and 28th December on Flights to Auckland, New Zealand. There were many highlights of the epic journey.... including:

• everyone having to wake up very early, very drunk and hungover to catch the flight.
• One member of the group throwing up both on the plane and at the airport!
• Watching about 5 films, 2 Documentaries and reading 1 book.
• An increase in the standard of aeroplane food and free headphones.
• Stopping over in Sydney and rubbing the ozzies faces in it that we were killing them in the ashes.
• Arriving in an English speaking country 2 days later, get in!!!

Auckland, New Zealand:
After a fantastic and well deserved nights sleep, we set about organising our next month's travel (we are no further forward) and seeing some of Auckland's sights. Today we scaled the city's sky tower to see a great view over the city and looked down through the glass floor at a height of around 192m. The glass was only 4cm thick...Scary!

We walked to the harbour, ate some sushi, wondered about the city and also we are now with Michael's American friend, Amanda, who will be travelling with us for the next month. In Jonnys boots, she has large boots to fill, but after day one I am confident she can affect the group dynamic in a positive way as she also likes to mock Michael and his Kurdish beard!

Many more things to do in New Zealand, and so little time.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and enjoy the new year.

Simon.... what are my thoughts and feelings about the pending new year.......joy, excitement and anticipation.

Prediction.... 2011 is going to be absolutely HUGE!!

xxx

*Don't Commit Crimes.

2 weeks. 3 countries. Several Hangovers.

Forgot to say last time.... we also did some volunteer work in Cusco, Peru.... we helped build a straw thatched roof for a building inside a local school/community centre. Now, I Don't mean to blow my own trumpet, but I think these kids will be some of the driest kids in Peru.... It was an absolutely wonderful construction!

Arequipa Continued:
Given that we had little idea of what Arequipa had to offer, we soon discovered that it was a really cool city with lots to do.... Many of which we didn't do because of time and money! But During some of our most proactive hours, we were challenged to a game of football against the hostels Peruvian staff. They dismantled team England quite easily (I blame the altitude) however we did show some flashes of brilliance and on another day, with Adam yuchatel as manager, I firmly believe we could have won! This game lead to a lifelong (2 day) firm friendship being built with the hostel staff, and its fair to say that we established ourselves as hostel legends too over the coming days. After the football game, we headed to a local museum where we shown the remains of a girl who's body has been frozen, preserved almost perfectly, for the last 500 years! Her name was Juanita, and at aged just 13 she was sacrificed to the Inca gods on top of a volcano! Pretty weird right.... see below!

With our brains having experienced a bit of knowledge and culture, we decided we best have a big night out so that the world regained some equilibrium. Yes, you guessed it, pre drinks began with the customary game of ring of fire.... .this time the drink in the middle contained avocado and tomato, and it was again Dan who had to consume this alcoholic gazpacho! We also had an epic game of giant jenga which left the Arequipans amazed with our guile, dexterity, and hand eye coordination.... it is estimated that the game lasted around half an hour and the tower reached a height which exceeded the length of any known tape measure. We headed out to a club called dejavu, and what happened later that night is not publishable on a family friendly blog such as this. But it was hilarious.

The next day, I recuperated in the hammock for most of the day in the summer sun, then we grabbed a nice dinner, and once back at the hostel, were presented with a "the point" (name of the hostel) tshirt each for free for being such great guests. Chuffed with this, we headed to bed and began to mentally prepare ourselves for firstly, crossing the border again the next day, back to Bolivia, and secondly, for one more crazy night out at the Wild Rover Hostel!

La Paz, Bolivia, Again, Just for One day!
The man who had promised us the world in booking our coach to the border and then to LaPaz from Peru had, as expected by most, not delivered and we rushed to the coach station after the lift that he had said would be picking us up from our hostel, had not turned up. We made our coach, and upon changing coaches then realised that the coach he had said he had booked for us from Puno to the border... did not exist! We complained to one of the bus companies and they said a man called Fernando would be along to meet with us in 10 minutes. He turned up, sorted out our transport to the border, then gave us 50soles to get another bus once we had crossed the border in order to get to LaPaz. Whilst we were again suspicious of the strangers generosity and help, we obliged as we had no other way of getting to our destination, and a few shady minibuses and several hours later, we were back at our spiritual home, Wild Rover Hostel.... for one more crazy night!

Now..... doing a shot of jagermeister on a dicky tummy is no easy feet. Now..... Please spare a thought for the poor individual who was born 6 weeks premature and as a result has a gag reflex to shots when on a dicky tummy... myself! It was agreed (forced upon me) that should I not be able to do said shot, I would be stripped to my boxers in the middle of the bar. Despite the fact that head barman, Jack, assured me that Jagermesiter was voted the easiest shot to do in a recent poll by fellow gag reflexers, 2 Minutes later I was in my boxers having only been able to complete the shot in 2 attempts! I have terrible terrible friends. They also hid my clothes! This obstacle aside, the night turned out to be a bit of a let down after our high expectations, highlight was probably coming back to the room to discover my Norwegian roommate had purchased 2 giant paintings which were sitting on top of my suitcase.... one of several giant cows and one of the more elegant Lamas. Norwegians are weird.

Potosi
Arrived in Potosi, the city in Bolivia famous for its mines, and chilled out during the day, headed to the miners market... which was nothing short of rubbish, and booked our mine tour for the next day with a company called the real deal.

We woke up early the next day, and soon discovered that they really were offering the real deal when we were dressed in our full mining gear, head torch included, and were readying ourselves to go down a tiny shaft into an underground world full of miners, dynamite and a little underground devil called Tio. First we headed to the refinarys where they seperate the minerals from the rock in order to sell on, then we began our tour of the mines. It was dark, enclosed, dusty, boiling hot and we were also at the second highest city in the world.... so the altitude ensure it was also hard to breathe! The tour was amazing as we got to see the miners working conditions, rush out the way of wagons carrying 2 tonnes of rocks at a time, climb up and down a ladder with no rungs... whilst not being able to breathe.... see the miners devil, tio, in his full glory, and at the end.... after surfacing alive from the mine without any damage.... hold some live dynamite in our hands (and mouths) then giving it to the tourguide to run really quickly with to a spot 100m away, then run back, and watch the dynamite explode! After this, I discovered 2 things... 1) Being a miner would be a near impossible job.... very very very hard work. and 2) Blowing up stuff is awessommmee! (The miners were mining silver, zinc, tin and other things but most of the silver has run out so Bolivia is pretty much done for economically unless they can sort their lithium reserves out in Uyuni, I tell you!)

After a hard mornings work, we headed to the natural hot springs half an hour away. A relatively hot lake, made less relaxing by the fact it was really deep so you could not stand or sit anywhere in it!

Uyuni, The Salt Flats
We indulged in an American breakfast and booked our salt flats tour for the same day. We were driven to various stop off points to take the standard photos. If like me, you don't know much about the salt flats.... in short its a large body of salty land, completely flat for miles and miles, left there by an evaporated salt lake many many many years ago. We took hundreds of photos, using our props of baby dolls, finger puppets, hats, dice, Bolivian women statues and a stolen polystyrene cart combined with the theory of perspective to take some interesting snaps! Full results of our unique pictures can be seen on Facebook.... but below is a personal favourite!

Michael also managed to trip and fall and graze his back when attempting to kick his baby in the air! Child abuse never pays.

Salta, Argentina

After a torrid Bolivian/Argentinian coach journey lasting 22 hours and involving Davids hand luggage being stolen, An extremely ugly and annoying Bolivian women shouting at the coach driver, and a serious lack of Argentina pesos, we arrived in Salta, Argentina! We were delighted to be in civilized society again, and to be rid of the ugly Bolivian women! We checked into our hostel and after a day of Yaniv, the Israeli card game we are now addicted to, we had a steak BBQ prepared for us by the in house chef. Now comprised of 50% cow, and having loved our first Argentinian steak, it had been a tough day and we headed to bed!

The next day, I was determined to get a haircut. This was indeed a great risk given that my last attempt at speaking Spanish had involved me asking for a ham and cheese sandwich, and receiving a fried egg sandwich combined with a glass of coffee. However, I was determined to cut my hair for Argentina is in the height of its summer and all this hair was making me mighty hot! I stumbled across a unisex hair salon, in town, who´s `pictures on the wall did not inspire me, but I took the gamble none the less. A lovely woman called Sally, began with precision, to give me the haircut i had asked for. Short on the sides, and just trimmed on top. It was going perfectly.... superbly.... brilliantly.... I thought she had understood my request once she had shaved the sides and trimmed the top to perfection.... and then, when I wasn't expecting her to continue.... she carried on... chomping away at the top until it was very short, almost a crew cut. I paid Sally for her time, not the terrible job she had done, and got lost on the way back to the hostel. When I eventually arrived back, Michael decided that my new name was G.I.Jim, and asked me how my time in the army was. It was bad haircut as shown below. 

That night, we went out in search of the beautiful Argentinian women we had seen that day seen perusing the streets of Salta. We found some, who recommended we go to a certain club, and drink a drink called fernet. Fernet is a horrible drink! Do not under any circumstances ever drink Fernet!! It tastes like petrol and shoe polish combined, thinned, and disguised as a normal drink. It was the devil! The above picture demonstrates both our disgust at the drink, as well as my new haircut. Fetching. The night ended at around 6am, and for legal reasons, I cannot say which 2 out of the group we were with ended up kissing girls who may or may have been 15 years old!

Salta was a lovely city, and we found a great Steak restaurant called Jacks where we consumed larger than life steaks, and I predict that we now consist of 75% cow. Also the beer of Argentina, Quilmes, is a taste sensation. We decided that Argentina has everything you need for a man.... great beer, great food, great football and great girls!

Cordoba

Coached our way 12 hours down Argentina to Cordoba, again a lovely city. I purchased my umpteenth football shirt, a Boca Juniors Home kit with Palermo on the back. Delighted when the market guy had no change so let me off of 5 pesos. So far we have eaten steak, sunbathed, and been out on a night out which I do not wish to talk about in the foreseeable future!

In Cordoba, we plan to go to the Che Guevara museum and today, to a natural pool thingy to catch some rays and relax. Then were off to the vineyards of Mendoza tomorrow night.... before making our way to Buenes Ares in time for the lead up to Christmas.

Happy days.

Friends, I have obviously under exaggerated these stories, its absolutely mental out here! My haircut is really short, I look like a thug.... innit!!

Mum and family, I have obviously exaggerated these stories greatly for the benefit of my friends. My hair has already grown back, and I do not drink alcohol. If anything, I actively discourage my friends from doing so! 

Until next time, when I imagine I will be in New Zealand in a couple of weeks..... Byyeee Stay Safe and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka, Delightful Devali and a Rapturous Ramadan to you all!

xxxxxxx

Lots Of Stuff Happened!

Ola! Since my last blog I have done a lot - for my readers convenience, I will write about my experiences in chronological order. Here goes:

La Paz¨;
Day 29, Thursday 11th Novemeber, Woke up at 8am and made our way to death road. Death road my friends, is the most dangerous road in the world in terms of people dying on it by car accidents as the road winds down a very high cliff edge at 4700m high altitude.... so why not cycle down it we thought! Below is a link to a video of some people doing what we did... one wrong twist or turn and we would be dead but after a whole day of cycling down with some breaks to take in the scenary  we made it down safely and it was one of the best things I have ever done. Once back at the hostel, we ordered a 2 and a half foot pizza to share between 5 people. It was absolutely MASSIVE!!
(death road vid;   http://bit.ly/gcjGoZ )

Other stuff we did in La Paz, went to San Pedro Prison for an illegal tour. San Pedro Prison is a prison run entirely by the inmates. Criminals can live with their families in there, and no guards or policemen are allowed inside, much like Sonar prison from prison break. Basically, what you do is you go to near where the prison is and you get approached by one of the wives of the inmates who you pay to get you inside, and inside, you are greeted by a guide. Ours was named Gabriel and was inside for 2 years for smuggling cocaine) All details can be found here = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pedro_prison to save me some time but the tour was incredible and for a while we almost forgot that we were inside a jail with rapists and murderers and no police protection - fantastico.

Oscar ate some fish food for a dare.

The Pampas
From LaPaz, we headed with Jack and Oscar, or Joscar as they are now affectionately known, towards The Pampas, which is an area at the start of the jungle which lies next to a large long winding river and is filled with wildlife, humidity and vegetation. To get their we got a tiny plane, no bigger than a mouse at a guess. Upon arrival, our tour guide didnt really tell us much for 3 days, for example, we only discovered his name on the last day! During our pampas tour, we saw aligators a plenty, did an annoconda search for 5 hours only to find one tiny snake hiding in a tree, swimming with dolphins which was in fact sitting in a boat and seeing a dead dolphin and an alive dolphin half under water and also went fishing..... slash..... tried to catch a fish but only David caught a tiny catfish and didnt know what to do with it so Oscar beat it to death with the paddle!!! Our hostel or lodge was basic to say the very least....and there was pretty much no way of seeing light after 7pm so we had 2 nights of going to bed at 8pm and taking sleeping pills to deal with the ridiculous heat and uncomfortableness. Highlights of the Pampas were generally the banter between our group and also Oscar having a weird reaction to mixing his malaria and sleeping pills which made him feel drunk and cold despite the hottest weather ever! Lowlight was the 3 hour bumpy dusty jeep journey with the random korean woman in our jeep with far too many people in.


Isla Del Sol
Bussed, walked, boated and skipped our way to Isla del Sol, Island of the Sun, which sits on Lake Titikaka in between Bolivia and Peru. The island is extremely basic with a population of about 2000 people and a handful of restaurants and hostels. Also, its pretty much built on a mountain so getting to our hostel with a backpack on consisted of walking up 100s of steps at a ridiculous altitude and making you want to die when you reached the top! Highlights of Isla Del Sol == Sunbathing....next to a pig. The view from our hostel over the lake. The thick duvet. Sitting 3 to a computer in the only internet cafe watching spurs vs arsenal on bbc live update and manually refreshing the page every minute to see us go 2 goals down then have to leave to catch a boat then get 3 texts from dad saying spurs has got 1 back, got an equaliser, then won the damn match with a few minutes to go and then seeing Michaels little big head and face turn rather sour and celebrating mentally with Dan! Oooo and also paying a random local called Moses quite a lot of money to take us in his motorboat which didnt really work to another part of the island which was actually awesome but only spending an hour there because Moses has said he wants to go back now. good times!

Other things about Bolivia.... general lack of toilet seats, and toilet paper.

Michael telling Dan how to say "we only have 1 hour to eat before our bus arrives" in spanish and dan repeating this to the waitress at the restaurant, however, what Michael really told him to repeat was "I have a very small Penis!!"


Cusco, Peru
Went out a lot. Tried to get a taxi driver to take us to Columbia.Failed. Went out some more. great Israeli restaurant. Went out some more. Stole some road signs, love life, hated life, love life, then went out some more! Stayed in Loki Hostel. Reunited with Joscar. Said Goodbye to Joscar again. Booked Inca treck to Machupicchu.


Salkantay treck to Machupicchu
4 day treck. One of the hardest things I have ever done, getting up at 4am each morning to walk between 8 and 10 hours. Now for any normal human climbing mountains at this altitude would be hard. But now please spare a thought for me and my tiny 6 week premature underdeveloped lungs!! It was mighty hard but we had a great group consisting of our guide, Peruvian Jorje, A czech, a spaniard, a german, an American and South Korean named Lee who was 39 but looked 18 and was probably the nicest man alive, as well as our group and also our new friend... Ned. Many things happened along the way, the most difficult perhaps was night 2... or Tsunami night as it is known when the heavy flooding meant that my tent as well as Michael/Dans Tent leaked covering all of our stuff in water.... our sleeping bags were drenched inside out and we were pretty much the only sufferers as the other tents had been constructed correctly! Damp, Cold and seeking restbite....we meandered our way to a small hut with 3 walls and a roof  (no fourth wall so it was still very cold!) and found a couple of sheep skin matts to lie on, used a tablecloth as a cover and froze our way through the night until morning arrived where we huddled to keep warm! We arrived at Macchupicchu on the fourth day of our treck and despite having a hungover tourguide, and me losing my ticket to climb one particular mountain there, was pretty special. Turns out the Inca´s were a clever bunch of people really, building a community hidden from the spanish in 1400ad with temples, houses farms etc out of massive pieces of stone cut using the most basic of materials. Again, my description is probably not doing these places justice so get yourselves down to google and wikipedia then look at my future photos for more of an insight.

Ica, Huacachina
Next off, we headed to Ica, and more specifically, Huachachina which is a tiny resort next to a lagoon in the middle of the desert. We relaxed here before getting a crazy sandbuggy, driven by a man called smiley, to the top of the sand dunes where here, we sandboarded down them which was SICK. I Must mention that David was very confident going up to the top as he claimed that he skied as gracefully as a swan. I must also point out that David was rubbish at Sandboarding.... and volleyball for that matter... and he complains a lot about a wrist injury that he sufffered when he fell over on the street standing near a motorbike.

Arequipa
We are now in Arequipa and I dont really know why we are here... but apparantly there is stuff to do such as seeing stuff and whatnot so should be interesting!

Elsewhere, No Shave Novemeber is now over and myself and senor Rhodes are sporting wonderful Moustaches (probably just for a day or two before we are babyfaced again, and the others have yet to shave their lovely beards off.... oh the tough life of a traveller!

Until next time..... BYEEEEEEEEEEE xxxxxxxx

Bye Bye Brazil, Hello Bolivia

So.... Bonito was RUBBISH! went to this place in mid west brazil which was a very quiet town but famous for its wildlife and natural wonders such as the crystal clear waters that you can snorkle in.... the water that we snorkled in was indeed crystal clear, but the lack of fish somewhat spoiled the experience!! This combined with a few days of bad weather left a sour taste in our mouth..... but we had bigger fish to fry (pun intended).... Getting to Bolivia!

The easiest way to get across would be a coach from Bonito to Corumba which lies on the Brazil, Bolivian Border, and from Corumba, get the ´death train´ to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. (Mum, the death train is very safe but its just named that because it used to be the main method of transporting dead bodies across Bolivia!) The coach journey was fine, comfortable at a push, however when we got to Corumba we discovered those wretched Brazilians were having another national holiday and the death train and immogration office were closed that day! Tails between our legs, we stayed in a hostel there overnight (experiencing tottenhams fine victory over inter) and woke up early to get our passports stamped at the border and catch the death train. Now... the death train in itself was 20 hours long, and with no air conditioning, we decided to take some sleeping pills to make the journey a tad easier. Dan, David and Jonny took theirs quite early and drifted off to sleep on our empty carriage like the little travelling angels that they are... Myself and Michael took the tactical approach and decided to delay taking the sleeping pills until it was quite late so we could sleep through the night and wake up just in time for our arrival in Santa Cruz. Our tactics paid dividends when at about 10pm, About 100 Bolivians got onto our carriage and Dan Jonny and David were rudely awaken by the angry locals upon whose seats they were sprawled across. Watching 3 groggy sleeping pilled up friends trying to comprehend the onslought of a mass influx of bolivians on an old train was extremely entertaining for me and Michael - and I cought a lot of the carnage on video.

We decided to only have a brief stint in Santa Cruz, just staying the one night at a hostel we had been reccomended online. The hostel was pretty decent, and we had a very random night out.... involving the traditional pre drinking ring of fire, a mass dive into the pool pre leaving the hostel, and a large chunk of the night that cant be repeated via this blog but ending with us being squashed into the back of a car with a middle aged woman who halfway through the drive home, decided to get out of the car and squat beside it and urinate. Classy. The next day we went quad biking (i discovered i cannot quad bike) and to a local market where I discovered 2 things - that Bolivia is extremely cheap - and also that I love buying stuff!!

Next up, we headed to the Bolivian capital, La Paz. Where we have now been for 5 days staying at our best hostel yet, Wild Rover. It has been an absolutely mental so far - beginning with the coach that transported us from Santa Cruz to LaPaz attempting to drive off, on purpose, with Davids backpack only for David and 2 conveniently placed Bolivian policeman to chase after it, stop it, and get the bag back! Here are some selected highlights from La Paz so far;

The discovery of inca cola.... a drink that tastes like a cross between cream soda and redbull and it is a miraculous cure for hangovers!! Followed by the voyage to find it at 9am dragging Michael and Dan with me fo 40 minutes as hardly any shops sell it! Our voyage around La Paz included askign almost every person where to find it and being lead in all sorts of directions as well as a local 60yr old woman inviting us to stay at her house the next time we are in Bolivia! We found it at one tiny shop in the window and wild celebrations occured just before we realised the shops were shut... a Photo of Michaels despair can be seen on facebook shortly!! Eventually we returned to our hostel empty handed only to realise the shop next to our hostel sold the drink!!

I went to 2 local football matches played one after another in the national stadium which is just down the road from our hostel and experienced some awful but entertaining football as well as buying 2 football shirts, the entrance ticket, some facepaint for the equivalent of about 10pounds! After game 1, I got some of the players from the team who won who are called ´´the strongest´´ (mental name) to sign my shirt. Delighted!

Enthused, I headed back to the hostel for a night that began with a quiet drink and ended up in fancy dress (yes some of us were dressed as woman, bolivian footballers in wigs and businessmen in shorts) dancing on a bar in a club lit on fire! One of the boys we were out with, Oscar, ended up with blood gushing from his lips at the end of the night, and when questioned on how he had ended up in such a state, remained adament that he had been punched repeatedly in the mouth by several Bolivian Woman! Back at the hostel, drunk and feeling inspired by Simon Lee, I patched Oscar up with some antiseptic wipes and a cotton bud and he was very grateful the next day, even admitting that it had not been several Bolivian woman who had ambushed him, but in fact he had walked into a door!

On Another night out, we gave Oscar a Barmitzvah, hoisting him up on a chair, drawing star of davids on him and getting him to repeat a prayer in hebrew!  He loved it!! and he later got naked in the club... its fair to say Oscar is a top lad but an absolute nutter! The same night, we fitted 7 people into a tiny taxi, including a Bolivian local who was one of the ugliest people we have ever met in our lives - we affectionately nicknamed him the alien. He was not only very very ugly, but very very odd and the poor lad was left outside our hostel dazed and confused miles away from his house!!

In Other news, we have invented a great game whereby when the taxi drops us at any destination, we sit silent for a minute and leave the driver feeling confused and sometimes angry! I absolutely love Bolivin markets and in one visit purchased 3 football shirts, a jumper, a shirt, 2 bow ties and a classic adiddas zipup top for about 25 english pound sterling! (there is no pound key on this keyboard!) I have had my fortune told by a Bolviian fortune teller - he assured me the rest of my travels would be safe! We are about 10 days into no shave november by my calculations so beards are starting to itch, and La Paz is actually a very nice city on the cultural side of things! Have met great people bla bla bla and have loads of other great stories to tell and videos and photos to amuse which will all be shown in good time my friends! Oh and also, we beat our rival La Paz hostel in a football game, which played at such high altitdue was almost impossible to breathe! Rhodes had the game of his life in goal wearing the cleaners pink rubber wahing up gloves whillst Dan got on the scoresheet and a semi professional german wonderkid secured a wonderful 8-3 victory!

Next up is a bike ride, a jungle tour, probably buying some more bolivan market schmutter and a slow movement up to Peru before heading back through Bolivia to Argentina.

Until next time, Adios!

xxxx

In which we meet the New Zealander harmonica playing hypnotist...

A lot to fill you in on - starting with the end of our time in Rio. Sunday night saw us head to the Vasco vs Flamengo football derby played at the Rio Olympic stadium - it was only half full but the atmosphere was electric - flags, banners, balloons, streamers, fireworks etc. The game finished 1-1 after a late sending off and even later equaliser from Flamego. When i say the noise was deafening - it could be because one Flamengo fan took it upon himself to lean on me for the duration of the first half and sing at the top of his voice into my ear drum! Once back at our hostel - we had a game of ring of fire (drinking game) which was hilarious including Dan giving a rendition of O Towns ´All or Nothing´ in his boxers. Just when we thought the night was coming to an end - we discoverd that Rene (Hitler he barman from the previous blog) had closed the bar off to have his own private party.We were not happy so duly gatecrashed said party, much to his disdain - eventually leading to him throwing his guitar at us before giving us a furious rendition of Oasis - Wonderall! Next... the kind of normal (or so we thought) New Zealander from our hostel joined us and whipped out a harmonica to join in with the tunes! Later that night we discovered he was a hypnotist - and as such, attempted to hypnotise us! Photo below! He tried very hard, but was extremely unsuccessful! Highlights of the hilarity included trying to stick Michaels hand to his forehead ´´your hand is stuck to your head like glue, when you try and pull it away you will not be able to, it is stuck strong like cement´´ - only for a second later Michael to pull his hand away extremely easily! This lasted about an hour of failed attempts and was one of the funniest things on our trip so far!

The following day we headed to the Lapa steps and were filmed by a Brazilian TV station singing a Beattles song in honour of the Beatles tile on the steps - very surreal! We then headed to Santa Teresa for some more touristy photo opportunities - and our journey on there included a tram journey. We were told you can just jump on and off the trams, which is easier said than done! On our first attempt at the jump onto a moving tram... we geared ourselves up, got ready to leap, then all chickened out and watched the 3mph tram trickle past!! a 1 mile walk and 20 minute wait later, we successfully jumped onto the next tram, which terminated about 100metres further up the road! Nethertheless, We had a good day of seeing the Rio sights. We packed our bags, said goodbye to the nutters in the hostel, and geared ourselves up for the impending 24 hour coach journey to Iguazu - which in the end was actually pretty OK.

We checked into Hostel Bambu, in Iguazu which sits on the Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina border - where we were surprised to see friendly staff, an operational kitchen, and even a swimming pool! We relaxed, sunbathed and planned the following days trip to the Iguazu falls. The next day, we hopped over the border to enter Argentina to see the falls from the Argetinian side, just for the day. The skies were blue and clear which meant we could see the waterfals in their fullest glory - and they were indeed mesmorising. We got a boat into the waterfalls and got absolutely drenched. We discoverd that Dan absolutely loves waterfalls as in the boat he went absolutely mental - shouting at the top of his voice stuff like `we loovvvee ittt yeeee!!´ Also in the national park where the falls are, there were a lot of Argentian school children who had clearly never seen English people before as they kept stopping us to ask for photos and videos with us!! Confused, but flattered, we continued and headed back to Bambu for another epic night which saw Michael lose a bet and have to jump in the pool, another game of ring of fire with some canadians and dutch which saw Dan have to drink the glass in the middle which consisted of beer, capairinha and a raw egg! and a night out to a local brazilian bar with live samba music and countless funny moments.

Next, we headed to Bonito. Cental west Brazil. The journey consisted of 3 coaches. The first, fine. The second, I was stuck next to a whale of a Brazilian woman and was in mild discomfort for around 6 hours. The third and final coach, the air conditioning was broken, we wernt allowed to open the windows, and I hadn´t slept so the journey was rather hellish! There was a small bonus, as when we stepped off of the coach (into the rain) Michael, wearing his backpack, made an epic slip/fall onto his back! We checked into our latest hostel, ´Ecological Expeditions Hostel´ which was basic but OK, and had a look around the local town which is absolutely dead and filled with strange Brazilian cowboys! Made some pasta for dinner, and sat down for some drinks with a group of French people.... highlight of the evening was an old Australian couple briefly joining us and explaining that the man (A jewish fella called Mick Joffe who is a famous characaturist) was about to head to a place near Brazilia, for a spiritual healing operation by a man - ´John of God´ (google it) who apparantly heals thousands of people a day and can remove tumours and such forth using his bare hands! Mick and his wife told us a few more loopy stories before we decided he was mental and wished him luck for his impending operation!

Today, we are still in Bonito, and the only reason we came here was to see the Blue Caves and Rio De Prata - a snorkelling/floating trip in the clearest of waters. However, the heavy rainfall has meant all trips are cancelled today so fingers are firmly crossed for good weather tomorrow.

In other news, my camera has packed up, Dan has had is Ipod stolen, Our football, Wilson, is on his last legs, and we are gearing up for another epic coach/train journey - this time on Tuesday to Bolivia - where we have been promised that everything is extremely cheap - which we are looking forward to greatly! (Also been told that Bolivian women are extremely ugly and everything is cold, dusty and mystical there!!) We are all also considering no shave Novemeber - and the lad Jonny who we met in Rio has continued his journey wth us turning our quartet into a quintet for the time being - nice guy!

Thats all for now - some photos coming on facebook!

Peace and love xxxxx

Hello World!

Hello World! Have found a quiet time and a free computer in the hostel to give you a quick update on the trip so far... so here goes...

Arrived in Rio on Thursday night and got a taxi to our first hostel called ´Walk on the Beach.´ The 4 of us got to our room at about 10pm to find 2 moody girls being very unfriendly/half asleep and we began to wonder if our hostel choice may have been wrong. David decided that the 2 girls must have been Peruvian... and since then guessing nationalites of room-mates/people nearby has become a regular theme! We took a quick walk along the beach front, sampling the national drink - a ´caipirinah´- a cocktail made from  caschaca (a brazilian rum) muddle lime and a lot of sugar - before heading back to the hostel for a good nights sleep (or so we thought) for we were shattered!

On our first full day, Friday, the moody Peruvians decided to wake up at about 6am and make a lot of noise... ruining our prime sleep opportunity! Nonetheless, we had a great day... chilling on Copacobana beach - tanning, playing football, frisbee and enjoying the views! Bliss. That night we had many a Caipirinah at the hostel making a lot of new friends from all over the world... before heading to the Lapa street party (a party...on the street!) which was absolutely mobbed - thousands of people lining the streets with outside bars, clubs etc... was a messy night but very enjoyable! (unedited version of events available on request.) Anicdote of the night - fat, gay, sweaty, ponytailed drug dealer coming up to us and grabbing david and dans crotches repeatedly... nutter!

On saturday we watched the merseyside derby - much to david´s disapointment before headint to Tedjuka national park to climb a mountain where at the top amazing views of Rio were promised. The climb was supposed to last around 25 minutes but due to our lightening pace, we managed it in about 20 including stopping to take photographs and David Wearing flip flops! The views at the top were indeed incredible - the skies were blue and we had a 360 degree view of the city from pretty high up. We almost never made it home as there are no taxis at the bottom and most people normally get a taxi to wait for them when they get dropped off - but we thought we would save money and hope to find a taxi passing by... our hope payed off when we jubilantly flagged down a taxi after about 10 minutes of walking aimlessly on a foreign road... the driver proceeded to play Elton John and Stevie Wonder songs on the way back! That night - headed to a Favela Party - a clubnight in a Favela full of Topless brazilian men, women dancing like maniacs and the fear of being mugged or beaten up - was actually very sae but was definitely an experience!

Day 5 - Rain! + was a national holiday so everything was shut. Chilled at the hostel and did a sun dance in hope!

Day 6 - Tuesday - Went on a Favela Tour - a guy called Alberto who has lived in this Favela his whole life showed us around - starting with a motorbike trip from the bottom to the top - scary! Alberto told us all about the crime and corruption within the Favela but at the same time we were surprised by some of the normality - ie banks, proper shops and restaurants etc along the main roads. Conversely, some houses were tiny and has open sewage running underneath them. Alberto then invited us into his home because he needed a drink... before spending the next half an hour making michael a CD of american rock music (he had faster internet connection in the favela then we do at home!) and giving us advice on how to pick up girls including wearing deoderant and using listerine... nice guy though!! Eventful day continued as we went to see the Christ Redeemer (or Christy as we affectionately called him) which was good to see if a little boring!! Day turned to night and we headed to a club called Melt which was a funny night culminating in singing the taxi driver the happy birthday song which I´m sure he enjoyed!

After some time in Rio, we headed to Ihla Grande - a remote island a few hours from Rio - that we got to by coach and boat. Our hostel there was amazing with a balcony overlooking the sea and mountains and a better room than we had been used to staying in. Result! Spent a few days here enjoying the sun and beach - relaxing . Thats about what weve been up to so far that I can remember but a couple of other funny stories including going into a restaurant and Rhodes asking for a menu only for the old woman owener to think that ´menu´ meant ´toilet´ and pushing him into the tiny toilet at the back of the restaurant!

Met a lot of nice people and a lot of absolute nutters including the barman at our current hostel who we have nicnamed ´hitler´ and we all hate! Heading out of Rio on Monday after catching a local football derby and heading up through Brazil on our way to Bolivia and Peru  -  will update again when i can!

Love to all! Especially the legendship who I think about in every passing second.

Follow Follow

On the 14th October 2010 I will be setting off on a 6 and a half month travel adventure with Dan Cohen, Michael Rhodes and David Friend. 

Important facts that will get us far:

Michael Rhodes - Rhodes knows the Roads

David Friend - Studied Geography at Uni

Dan Cohen - Tall

James Lesner - Excellent knowledge of capital cities

Important facts that could hinder us:

Michael Rhodes - Excessive Hair

David Friend - Liverpool Fan

Dan Cohen - Hates Spiders

James Lenser - Hates Kangaroos

Important things to take with:

Frisbee

Follow me as I fill you in as to where I have been and what I have been upto. The world does not know what is about to hit it!

Basic Itinerary: 

14th October - London - Rio

27th December - Buenos Aires - Auckland

27 January - Christchurch - Sydney 

27 March - Sydney - Bangkok 

27 April - Bangok - London