more peru!

Buenos dias!

Como estan? Things here in Peru are going great.

On our way south from Lima a couple of weeks ago we stopped at Ica for a few hours to climb the sand dunes surrounding the desert oasis: Huacachina. I have never seen a real sand desert before, let alone an oasis! Ica, the city next to Huacachina is also in the middle of the desert, but being a fairly substantial size you just don't notice. We sat on the dunes for an hour or so counting grains of sand (kidding). It's very beautiful. We continued on to Nazca later that afternoon, and then first thing the following morning we jumped in a tiny cessna plane and circled over the Nazca Lines a few times!! Those things are fascinating, and look a lot smaller from the plane than they actually are, which means they're even MORE amazing! We saw the main ones like the dog, the astronaut, hummingbird, condor, monkey etc, but there are thousands of lines and patterns that were not even pointed out. It's a real wonder how the Inca made them and how they have lasted so long! I have put some pics up on the gallery :). The actual plane ride was not so fun though... the constant circling and dipping had poor Ranga gagging into a bag, and me very near to it! We needed a lie down once back at the hostal.

While in Nazca we also visited an old Incan cemetery... Cementerio de Chauchilla. Its full of underground tombs in which mummies were placed, along with offerings of food, pottery and gold. Unfortunately hundreds of the tombs have been plundered by grave robbers and in the sand you can see so much cotton stuffing which had been ripped from mummies insides, and even bits of human bones litter the sand, thanks to the grave robbers. Only relatively recently have the authorities put in measures to protect the remaining tombs. Now, for the tourists, a few of the tombs have been opened so that you can view the mummies and offerings. It's fascinating of course, but also kind of disturbing, especially the tiny child ones. The hair and remaining skin bits made me feel quite ill.

We decided to head to Cusco a day early in order to catch their biggest annual festival: Inti Raymi. Hundreds of people re-enact the ancient Incan Winter Solstice Ceremony on the ruins overlooking the city. Apparently even Cameron Diaz, John Travolta and Bill Gates attended this year! We didn't bump into them, but Ranga MIGHT have a pic of Cameron Diaz in the crowd... we have to see the photo on a computer screen to confirm. The festival was quite a buzz. There were thousands of people there, sitting amonst the ruins (including us) and the performance was very colourful. It was just as fun to watch the crowd though! And we bumped into our friends Beth and James (from the amazon boat trip) there!!

Cusco is a gorgeous city. Its 3300 meters above sea level and both Ranga and I had a bout of altitude sickness during the first 5 days. I'm pleased to say that we are now aclimatised :). The cobblestone streets are threaded with remains of old incan walls, in fact, most existing buildings have been built on Incan foundations, utilising the incredibly strong Incan engineering! Its awesome to see. We spent our 5 days in Cusco before our trek strolling through the streets, visiting historical sights such as churches and convents, and the Incan museum, dining out with Beth and James, and sifting through the markets. There is so much culture and tradition here.

We set off on the Inca Trail (El Camino del Inca) last Friday, and were wandering the mountains for 4 days. It was a very early start, we were picked up at 4am that Friday, and the following days weren't much later! (Ouch). The first day's hiking was the toughest for Ranga and I, which really worried us because we were told that the second day would be the killer. We hiked to 3,800 metres, passing a couple of ruins sites along the way. It was really tough uphill grind, the only relief came when we spotted a HUMMINGBIRD!!!! I have never seen one before and I instantly forgot all my aches and pains and the inability to breathe and was filled with amazement! They are so tiny!! Like little flying jewels. It actually gave us strength! That night I suffered a little nausea, from the altitude I presume, but for the rest of the trek I was fine. The second day was actually not as bad as Ranga and I expected. We did climb to the highest altitude of the trek - 4215 metres at Dead Woman's Pass, but for some reason we seemed a little stronger. There are many ruins sites along the trail and each one is very different... resting places, astronomy observatories, soldiers stations... our Qechuan guide 'Edgar' was very knowledgable and enthusiastically told us about the history of the sites, and the history of his people as we sat in the sun at each ruin. It was a lot to take in, but so interesting. I also have to mention the food. I think we must have had a gourmet chef with us because each meal consisted of about 5 different imaginative dishes, cooked to perfection. I have never eaten so well in my life! Not what any of us expected, roughing it in the Peruvian Andes!!! Along with the gourmet chef we had 2 guides (Edgar and Edwin - Edwin swept up the stragglers at the back - usually me and Ranga and a New York couple!), 16 porters carrying unbelievable loads (Ranga and I are proud to say we carried our own stuff, when most of the other hikers had extra porters), and there were 13 of us hikers: 9 Americans and 4 Kiwis. We all got on very well. On the 4th day we had to tear ourselves out of our sleepingbags at 4am!!! We had to start hiking the one and a half hours to Machu Picchu so that we could arrive before most of the crowds who would be catching the bus up. We hiked for about an hour in the early morning darkness which was quite scary at times coz the Inca trail often tends to drop off at a sheer cliff on one side... not good for half-asleep hikers stumbling in the narrow torchbeams! (I tripped 4 times). But we made it, and when I came up over the final rise and saw Machu Picchu laid out ahead of me I almost fell backwards back down all the steps I had just painfully climbed! It's an indescribable place. I felt so awed by it, there is definately magic there. We had a tour through it with Edgar, and already by 7am there were a few other guided tours happening. They get thousands of people up there every day, but it had definately paid for us to get there so early. It was a beautiful day, and we even got to see the sun rise up over the incredible mountains. The mountains are just as magnificent as the Lost City of the Incas. It's so impressive that the Inca could build a city up there in such unlikely terrain, I can see why it was always considered such a sacred place. After strolling around for as long as our tired legs would permit we caught a bus down to the nearby town, Aguas Calientes, (which means hot waters) and had a soak in the hot pools!! Just the thing our aching muscles needed. We met the rest of our group at a restaurant and said goodbye to our guides, then we caught the train back to Cusco! The trail was finished. I was kinda sad. I think I'm kinda sad coz it also means our time in Cusco has come to an end. It's so peaceful here, I don't really want to go, but there are new places to explore.

Tomorrow we are catching a bus with Beth and James to Puno, this side of Lake Titicaca. From there we will head into Bolivia and then the home stretch through the north of Argentina back to Buenos Aires by the 21st July to meet Ger!! I can't believe there are only about 3 weeks of the big South American Adventure left.

Photos:
Lima: http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album42
Ica and Nazca: http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album43
Cusco: http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album44
El Camino del Inca: http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album45

Hope everyone is happy and well. I'm looking forward to seeing some of you soon when I get home :)

Love d xxx

the amazon (june 21, 2007)

Hola guys :)

I´m totally in love with the Amazon. I want to live there in a village hut with my man, fishing (but someone else will have to kill them for me when I´m not looking... unfortunately it´s the only way to make a living in an Amazon village), swimming in the river and exploring the jungle! The last couple of weeks have been incredible.

Although, I must admit, 12 days on the boat were at times a bit tedious! However each time I looked out across the river, and each time the sun set, I felt so amazed. We travelled a lot closer to the river bank than I thought we would which enabled us to see loads of birdlife, and all the various types of jungle vegetation you can imagine. We saw a few river dolphins and manitees, and passed many little villages consisting of little wooden huts on poles, sometimes seemingly floating, with faces peering out of the glass-less windows. We saw villagers fishing in their canoes, washing clothes and muddy children in the river, and paddling like mad out to our boat to shout and wave and wait for food to be thrown. It was so fascinating to see such a way of life drift on by. We also passed a surprising amount of bigger towns, stopping at most of them along the way to drop off and pick up cargo and passengers. We got off at one and were lucky enough to stumble into an Amazon festival! We were told that monkeys could be seen from the boat, swinging in the trees, at 5am but we never got up early enough to see them! We also saw many floating logs that we thought were anacondas or alligators. There is lightening every night over the Amazon river, even though most nights are clear. It´s beautiful, and kinda freaky.

I slept in Rede (hammock) class and it´s an experience I´ll never forget! The hammocks were crowded in so tight that you spent the night swaying into other people´s feet and heads. Unbelievably I did actually get some sleep! Ranga and I were the only gringos on the boat so inevitably we got a lot of unwanted attention, especially at the start of the trip. Thankfully the novelty wore off after a couple of days and Ranga and I were able to find some peace, even if it meant hiding out in her cabin all afternoon! The meals were ok, but after 6 days of the same rice, noodles, meat stew and beans Ranga and I were totally hanging out for fruit and veges! It´s funny how the entire day´s routine revolves around meal-times when your world becomes confined to a boat deck.

We finally arrived in Manaus - a crowded and noisy city. It´s hard to believe it´s surrounded by jungle! We had one and a half days there to organise our tickets for the next boat to Tabatinga, and to find some fruit and vegetables. Our hippy friend Jorge, who we met on the boat, lives in Manaus and he kindly helped us sort out our tickets and showed us around the place. He even went so far as to smuggle a giant anaconda skin into our hotel room so we could take pics!! God knows where it came from... he spoke only Portuguese so we missed most of what he said! We also visited an Amazon environmental research centre and finally saw monkeys and caiman!! But before we knew it we were back on the river...

The boat from Manaus, "Sagrado Coracao de Jesus", was rather nice, an improvement on the "Amazon Star"... especially considering Ranga and I splashed out on a cabin!! I know I had adventurous dreams about the hammock for 12 days, but believe me, 6 is really enough. Our cabin, sorry: "suite", was really very luxurious... nicer than any hostal we´ve stayed in! Despite having to share a bed we were very comfortable with our own tv (ok, this only had one channel and we could never get reception... but it did have TETRIS!), our own bathroom, our own fridge, and our own balcony! This time the boat seemed a bit more civilised, we weren´t harrassed at all. We were happy to see a few other gringos onboard this time too and became fast friends with Dane the American and Beth and James the English couple. Our cabin became the social hang-out where many card games were played in the air-conditioning. I set my hammock up on our balcony and enjoyed some time swaying in it while staring up into the big bright Amazon night sky... aaahhhh :). On the last night on the boat a big firefly flew aboard, I was totally amazed as I´d never seen one before! We spent a few minutes chasing the glowing beacon of light around the deck. It was so magical! At about 6am on the 6th day we arrived at our destination: the triple frontier -Tabatinga! As we were packing our last few things into our bags we suddenly realised that it felt like we were moving again... slightly puzzled, we opened our cabin door and OH MY GOD!! Tabatinga was fast drifting away from us!!!! Slightly frantic, Ranga´s desperate pleas to the captain to turn around and let us off were ignored. Not even a money bribe worked!! "Sorry, too late" he said (in Portuguese), pushed her out the door and locked it behind her! We were in total despair... apparently the boat was not turning around and returning to Tabatinga until the NEXT DAY!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Thanks to a kind passenger who was heading to the next town (and noticed us hovering around our cabin, whimpering) we discovered that from that next town (one more hour away) we could catch a river taxi (boat) back toTabatinga... and so that´s what we did.

Tabatinga is a small Brazilian town that sits right on the border of Brazil, Peru and Colombia. Its a pretty run-down place with muddy streets and really slow internet, so we went to Colombia to write emails and get icecream. Leticia (Colombia) is a bit more civilised and just 3 minutes away on the back of a motorbike :). But we prefered to sleep in Tabatinga where the beds are cheaper :). We said goodbye to our boat buddies Dane, Beth and James here as they moved on to various places, and we set off for the jungle!!!

Our 3 days in the jungle were at times incredibly uncomfortable (read: we were eaten alive by mosquitoes) and constantly incredible. It was just Ranga, me, Antonio the Spanish guy, our guide Miguel, and our little putt-putt boat driver, Lopez. On day 1 we traveled about 40 mins by our little putt-putt boat to the Gamboa village in Peru, which has about 100 people. Miguel showed us around and introduced us to some of the villagers... one of them had a couple of pet monkeys and a turtle cooking on the fire! We had seen villages just like this from the boat on our trip up the big river and I felt so priviledged to be able to see it up close! In fact, we spent the first night here in a local´s (Noila´s) house (which is better described as a hut). We set up our hammocks in the main room - which also had a tv!! the only tv in the village!!! but apart from the tv and the cds decorating the walls, the house was incredibly basic. No glass in the windows, cracks between all the floor-boards and wall-boards - great for letting all the mozzies in, the roof balancing above with the breeze coming beneath the open rafters (of which Ranga pulled one down with her hammock!!)... the kitchen had a bucket for doing the dishes in, another bucket with clean water in, and an oven made of bricks and planks of wood. You can imagine what the toilet was like!! The whole place was fantastic. The people in the village survive by fishing and selling their catch at the Triple Frontier. They dont even have a shop there. From this village we went on a 3-hour jungle hike with local guide Jose. He slashed a path for us through the vines with his huge machete and we followed him through the clouds of mozzies. The trees were so dense in some parts but not as tall as I expected they would be... we were in the "low" jungle, and it was pretty swampy. It was so incredibly hot in there and we had to wear long sleeves to protect us from the onslaught of mosquitoes (although they bit right through our clothes anyway)... so for most of the 3 hours we were rather uncomfortable... but we were in the JUNGLE! So what did we expect?! :) We saw some monkeys and some macaws, HEAPS of big centipedes and some pretty big spiders. We were introduced to and tasted the sap from the rubber tree, and then shown a poisonous tree which looks exactly the same and has the same looking sap too... That night we went caiman hunting which was SUCH a thrill, putt-putting down the narrow tributaries, with the deep dark jungle on both sides, fireflies sparkling all around... and occassionally the glowing red eyes of caiman in the torch beam! A hunter snake also swam past our boat... but no anaconda unfortunately. The sounds coming from the trees were incredible. The second night we actually spent sleeping in the jungle!! We strung our hammocks and mosquito nets up between the trees and slept exposed to all the critters! It was such a thrill. While we were cooking dinner (chicken) on the campfire our guide pointed out that the shrill peeping sound we could hear in the trees above us was a poisonous snake...that sound continued all night in the trees to which our hammocks were attached! We also lay awake in the darkness fully aware that tarantulas, and the poisonous frogs that we had seen on our night walk, were all around... We all slept quite well! Another highlight was piranha fishing... on our first try I was the only one to catch something - a tiny sardine! But the next day Antonio actually caught a piranha!!! We threw it back after taking the necessary photos. Oh, and I can´t forget the dolphin spotting... we saw lots of grey dolphins and pink ones! Bathing in the river every morning was also a treat, with mud squelching between our toes, fish bumping into our legs and occassionally taking a bite... one tiny fish even fell out of my singlet top when I lifted it to squeeze some water out! The whole experience was fantastic... it will be a highlight of my life I reckon... I am definately going back one day.

Ranga and I arrived in Lima yesterday after spending a few days in Iquitos... a 12 hour "fast" (and dangerously over-crowded) boat ride further up the river from Tabatinga, in Peru. Iquitos is a very rad city of about 500,000. It´s the largest city in the world without road access. There are some really fancy tiled, almost arabic-styled buildings remaining from the rubber-boom days and hundreds of "motocarros" - motorbikes with carriages for passengers on the back - whizzing madly through the streets. We visited another village there - Santa Clara - a suburb of Iquitos really, and again the different lifestyle amazed me. The poverty is extremely apparent, and the smiles on the faces unbelievably big. We also went to a small zoo and FINALLY SAW AN ANACONDA!!! :) In fact we even got to hold her! Her name was Chachito, and she was BEAUTIFUL, just a small one at 3 meters long but very friendly.

We have seen a very grand old monastery here in Lima and we lucky enough to be able to explore it without a guide... even into the underground catacombs where thousands of human bones were piled messily or sorted into various compartments or arranged in patterns... spooky chills down there. Today we caught a bus out to Pachacamarc - a pre-Incan ruins site... and that`s when it hit me that Lima is surrounded in desert. Real sand-dune desert! Its incredible, I've never seen anything like it... its unbelievable all the thousands of shacks built there don`t come sliding down! We leave Lima tomorrow bound for Nazca to see the mystery of the Incan lines. I fear I have written WAY too much for anyone to be bothered reading… but just wanted
to tell you all that THE AMAZON ROCKS! :)

I have put some photos up here: http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album37
(there are 3 albums here).

Hope everyone´s all good and not working too hard ;)

Love d xxx

brazil! (may 29, 2007)

Hey all!!

I thought it about time for an update :) Since I last wrote I can´t really believe how far Ranga and I have travelled! In about 2 weeks we have travelled up the main chunk of Brazil´s coast! Phew! After checking out the Iguazu Falls from the Brazil side (GOTTA do BOTH sides, really) we jumped on a bus bound for RIO DE JANEIRO!! Can´t actually remember how long that ride was, but probably about 30 hours, something we´re quite used to by now. I remember it WAS a bit of a mission with our bus breaking down just outside of Sao Paulo (3rd biggest city inthe world)... after about an hour´s wait on the roadside our driver finally flagged down another passing bus (from another company) and we all climbed on board - all good! :)

Rio is an INCREDIBLE city. I´ve seen pictures of the Cristo before but I never imagined that Rio could be as beautiful as it is. I mean, it´s just abig city! But it´s hot, it´s buzzing, the sun shines all the time, there are palm trees and BLUE sea, and the strange shaped peaks all around make you feel like you really are in a far-off land. Ranga was most pleased that Rio was the scene for her birthday :) The hostel even threw a party for her! Of course we spent a few hours sunning ourselves on Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, I swam in the Atlantic for the first time!... and I even outsmarted the robbers at Ipanema - twice! And we couldn´t be in Rio and NOT see the Cristo, probably the most well known image of the city. We had such a gorgeous day for it and stunning clear views...Check out the photos! :) - http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album35

From Rio we flew (what luxury!! Unbelievably the 2 hour flight was cheaper than the 20-something hour bus trip!!) to Salvador. Salvador had a MASSIVE influx of African slaves way back, and now I´m sure it must be like going to Africa itself! Salvador is such a fascinating place... Africa, Portugal and Brazil all mixed together - it´s totally electrifying. The thing I will probably most remember about Salvador is that there is music EVERYWHERE, ALL the time. Honestly, you really can´t escape it, not that you´d want to. Although I admit the day I had the pounding headache and just needed to sleep I was cursing the tremendously loud percussion concert happening JUST outside my window for 6 hours... We spent about 3 days there soaking up the art and the drum beats, checking out the markets and walking down the cobblestone streets (I SO love cobblestones!)... Pics are here: http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album36

And then we flew to Natal (further up the coast) (again, cheaper to fly than to bus) and what a little (ok, not so little) paradise it was! Golden sand, palm trees, clean ocean, coconuts everywhere... We stayed in a cheap little hotel here which was a really nice break from hostels. We had a room to ourselves, and our OWN bathroom!! No hot water, but we really don´t need that here. Our hotel was right across the road from the beach - Praia das Artistas. It was the perfect place to stay really... the beachfront was lined with little restaurants and the beach itself was really pretty and refreshingly without the skyscraper fringe. We decided to stay an extra day in Natal and on our last day there we went to a beach an hour and a half further south - Praia do Pipa - as recommended by someone we met in Salvador (and the Lonely Planet). Somehow we found ourselves miraculously transported to Fiji!! Complete with cute little lizards and giant sea-slugs... Natal pics right here :) - http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/natal-brazil

From Natal we embarked on our longest bus trip yet... 35 hours. Obviously we survived! I must point out here that the Brazilian bus service compared to Argentina´s is a bit kaka. For a 35 hour bus trip we had NO supplied meals (regular meal stops, but still...), NO movies, NO blankets and little pillows... all or most of what we would have got in an Argentinian bus... AND they´re more expensive!!! QUE?? Anyway... we made it to Belem and that´s the most important thing I guess. Belem is even further up the coast... on the mouth of the Amazon River!! Its a big, loud, dirty city... the river doesn´t actually look that clean either, but we are so excited!!! Tomorrow we are getting on a boat and we are going up the Amazon!! It will take about 6 days to get to Manaus, and from there a further 6 days to get toTabatinga... on the border with Peru. Today I bought my very own hammock... my bed on the deck for the next 2 weeks :) Hammock class is half the price of cabin class, and there´s no way I´d take a cabin anyway... swinging in my hammock sounds way more adventurous to me! :) I just hope me and my hammock don´t get stuck by the loo...

Wish us luck! :)

Oh yeah, I put up some other photos from a while ago, mostly from Argentina I think but forgot to email the links, they are below...

El Calafate (Arg): http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album30
Bariloche (Arg): http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album31
Santiago (Chile): http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album32
Mendoza (Arg): http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album33
Iguazu Falls (Arg and Brazil): http://wedged.showcard.co.nz/gallery/album34

Hope everyone is well and happy!

Love d xxx

kia ora from iguazu! (may 10, 2007)

HOLA!! Como estan¿ (I cant find the right-way-up question mark on this computer!). How´s everyone coping with the setting in of winter¿ Well, those of you inthe Southern Hemisphere! Things here in the north of Argentina are getting colder, but still very much bearable :)

I think my last email left off in Bariloche. From there we bussed our way to Santiago (back in Chile) and the thing I´ll always remember about that place is the thick layer of smog. It was incredible, I´ve never seen anything like it and I´ve been to Tokyo and Beijing!! We caught a cable car (much like Wellington´s one) to the top of a big hill in the middle of the city which is supposed to be the best view-point... we thought we´d go up there for a big laugh. We bought a postcard of what we were supposed to see on perhaps a windier day: the city sparkling in the sunshine and the towering Andes hugging it on all sides. We spent the rest of our 2 days in Santiago checking out the MANY street markets, sipping banana liquados in street-sidecafes, and we also paid a visit to the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino (art of the native people)... it was quite fascinating.

Before leaving Chile we decided to spend a couple of days on the coast at Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. Valparaiso is such a rad little city. It often reminded me of Wellington. It´s a port city (complete with big grey frigates) and is surrounded in hills. The hills are literally carpeted with colourful houses, very cluttered, but very pretty. The streets are also a lot like Welly - narrowly winding and twisting up and down the hillsides... except there are a lot more cobblestones in Valparaiso. And they have these funny little cable car things up the hills... consisting of one shaky box about 100 years old that rattles up the rails... we crossed our fingers and went up a hill in one. We tried the local dish - Chorrillana... a huge pile of greasy chips with egg, onion and fried pork plopped on top. Of course it tasted great! And the actual restaurant was so much fun too. Chorrillana was the only dish served there, and by the looks of all the plates coming out, there weren´t any variations of it either! Sure made ordering easy! :) We went to Viña del Mar (10 mins away) on our last day for the beach. We even wore our bikinis under our clothes in anticipation of the swimming and tanning. Typically though, the sky clouded over and the temperature dropped by the time we actually made it there (delayed of course by our seemingly compulsory need to get lost and take the wrong bus miles away from our actual destination).

From there we were on the bus again back into Argentina, to Mendoza: wine country :). Mendoza produces at least 70% of Argentina´s fine wine and so a wine tour really is a must. We decided to do ours by bicycle :). It was gorgeous cycling the dirt streets with vineyards racing by. We only visited 2 because we did it on a Sunday and only found out when we got to the bike rental place that only 2 were open on Sunday! Ah well, two was definately enough. We sampled much Malbec (my favourite) and were having a wonderful time until Ranga came flying off her bike on the way back. She insists it wasnt the wine, but the curb :) and thank God she´s OK. We had to make a quick trip to the hospital that night and she got 3 stitches in her chin. But even that wasnt too unpleasant with barely a wait and not a cost! It could have been a lot worse we suppose. She was a very brave girl.

While in Mendoza we also went out to the Andes to see the highest mountain in the Americas (and in the western hemisphere): Aconcagua. At 6,959 metres high it´s definately the highest I´ve ever seen... almost twice the height of Mt Fuji! While out there we also visited Puente del Inca... a natural rock bridge famous historically and also for all the sulphur! Inca used to live there and cross it, and there are ruins from an old thermal bath building (only about 100 years old I think) just below it. I just couldn´t stop staring at the colours from the sulphur... the yellows, oranges, browns and creams look like they´ve been painted down the rock, its so beautiful, like a giant mural in the middle of the mountains!! The mountains out there on the Arg side of the Andes are so beautiful... they have hues of pink, purple and red strewn across them. Hopefully my photos will do them even slight justice.

From Mendoza we travelled further North-east to San Augustin. That´s really getting into desert country. Driving there through desert and past the occassional mud brick huts and chickens was a new experience. What a lifestyle, I reckon I would like to live it for a week or two, just to know what it´s really like. No more than a week or two though! San Augustin is pretty small itself, dirt roads, a central plaza and some shops. We stayed for one night before joining an excursion out to the National Park (I can´t remember the name, its a long complex one) where Valle de la Luna is (Valley of the Moon). Its in a big canyon and filled with the most amazing rock formations and pillars... many like the hoodoos I saw and loved in Canada, but on a much bigger scale! While there we even saw some wildlife.... a little desert fox!!! It was gorgeous and quite shy, but hesitated a while to check us out. We also visited another National Park close by that day: Talampaya, and that was maybe even more incredible. The desert soil there is really quite red, and the cliffs (canyon walls I suppose) are sharp red walls stretching into the sky. Standing at the base of them makes you feel so damn small. We had a beautiful blue sky that day which was a perfect stunning contrast with the red rock. The tour group left me and Ranga there at Talampaya because we planned to catch a bus from there to LA Rioja, 3 hours away. We were told it was easy and that the 8pm bus always stopped outside the main park entrance. So at 7.30 we marched our way out to the park entrance with all our luggage under the most AMAZINGLY sparkling desert night sky and stared up into space while waiting for the bus. We were left standing there (in the middle of the desert) slightly confused when a bus whizzed past us without even slowing down a few minutes past 8. Didn´t it see us standing ON the road right in its headlights, waving a white plasticbag¿¿¿ Obviously not. We had to be in La Rioja by 5am to catch our pre-booked bus to Iguazu, and that was the last bus that night to La Rioja. SHIT. Our only other option was to catch a taxi. $290 pesos and 3 hours later we arrived in La Rioja. Believe me, it was the cheaper option as if we missed the bus to Iguazu we would have to pay our fares again, and they were slightly more expensive than the taxi ride!!

And now, after a 30 HOUR (THIRTY HOUR) bus ride, we have safely arrived in Puerto Iguazu!! Where the BIG waterfalls are!!! :) The bus trip wasn´t that bad I suppose, it was a double decker and we got the front seats up the top so had a pretty awesome view (of the desert) ;) but unfortunately I´ve picked up a bugger of a cold somewhere between Mendoza and here, and that did not help the comfort levels. Never mind. We slept horizontally today, and ate, and will get up bright and early tomorrow morning to go check out the Iguazu Falls!! YEAH!! Tomorrow night, after checking out the Argentinian side we plan to cross over into Brazil. We´ll see the Falls from there too, before jumping on yet another long-haul bus to Rio de Janiero. Brazil is a bit daunting I guess, but we´ll be extra careful and will hopefully get lots of nice weather so we can just lie around on the beaches all day, recuperating from Argentina and Chile.

Its dinner and an early night for us tonight, so buenas noches!! Take care and keep me updated on all the goss :)

Love d xxx