Ain't no mountain high enough, Ain't no valley low enough, Ain't no river wide enough, To keep me from loving PERU!

After spending every waking moment together over the last few weeks, it was a welcome addition to have another join our ranks, even if she is a "filthy kiwi". 

Edwina's uni buddy Rachel joined us in Cusco (eventually after we lost her to the wonders of technology). Together we settled into our awesome new hostel and enjoyed the sites of old Cusco town. Highlights included the main square area, eating guinea pig and flexing our haggling muscles in the worlds biggest discount camping supply purchase-a-thon. After all this we were geared up, ponchos and head torches included, for the reason we were there…. the Inca trail.

Mountain High...

After the first of many way too early mornings, we were bused off to the starting marker of the famous inca trail. After a quick team photo (the first of many), we set off for "the easy day" of trekking. Although not too challenging, there were definitely a few hills that left the big fella (that would be me!) breathing in a few big ones. The scenery on day one as we worked our way through the sacred valley would only wet the whistle for what lay ahead.

The first big surprise we received, and one that would be repeated throughout the trip, was the amazing food spread laid out for lunch. Our two chefs (yes.. trained one WHOLE year a culinary school in Cusco) consistently whipped up a three course feasts. The amazing thing is that everything we ate, everything we sat on and in, had to be carried up the trail by the dedicated team of porters. These guys are machines. When on day two I saw them steaming up and actually RUNNING down the mountains carrying 20kg's, you quickly appreciate their skills.

So we eventually made camp in the afternoon and settled in for a early night ahead of the "challenging day".

Okay… now this next bit of the story may be hard for some of you to believe. I know you often look at me and two words usually come to mind, "Super Athlete". Unfortunately on day two I must of been slightly out of form or maybe had a niggling injury… because it was definitely a challenging day! After waking early, we spend the first 5 hours of the day climbing up a mountain…. no flats… straight up for 5 hours. After employing a system of step step step… die… revive…rest… rest… rest… step step step, I eventually made it to the top. Luckily we could set our own pace so we created our own little climbing teams and all got there in the end. The feeling of making it to the top was amazing, and looking back down the valley and mountains we had conquered gave us all a great sense of accomplishment. 

Valley low....

As a reward we then had a two hour decent down the other side of the mountain, which on jelly legs became a bit of a balancing act. We all safely made it to camp and enjoyed the afternoon off resting our aching legs.

Day three, the "beautiful day", was by far my favourite. I think I must of recovered from my niggling "hammy strain" that was slowing me the day before… *cough*… and we powered up and down the path. Unfortunately Kiwi Rach had hit a bit of altitude sickness, her reward for being such a fit and fast young lady the day before. As I experienced earlier in the trip, a few "colourful discussions" were had along the path… in the bush… behind a rock… off the edge of a cliff…. and so on. She did show great determination… for a kiwi… and tramped on (that one's for you Rach) throughout the day. There were some amazing ruins and scenery on the third day, with the highlight being the decent to camp and the final inca terrace ruins. As they emerged from the clouds it was pretty amazing. The Korean tourists who happened to arrive just after us were also amazed.. by the rainbow that appeared. Each to their own I guess!

After reaching camp, heartbreak soon set in. After being promised a bar with countless beers by our loyal guide Franky, disaster struck. THE BAR WAS CLOSED! The Peruvian government in all their wisdom had closed the bar two days earlier…. yes… two days. The mood in the group sank as thirsty trekkers searched for any remaining mouth wash, vanilla essence or cough syrup, but the search was hopeless. We would remain sober… and devastated.

With aching bodies we rose super early on Day Four to make the final push towards Machu Picchu. After joining the other treks in the lineup at the park entrance, at 5.30am the doors opened and we were away. After only an hour or so we reached the sun gate and viewed our goal for the first time. The excitement in the group was high and countless photos were taken. After eventually ticking all the photo boxes including, general scenery, nice couple photo, threesome photo with Rach, jumping photo with the three of us, a few sleepy joe photos and even a sleepy joey (Edwina) photo, we began the final climb down into Machu Picchu.

After a quick rest we had a really interesting tour of the ruins with Franky, and then some free time to wonder around. We then left the ruins and bused into town for a final team lunch, a quick dip in the hot springs and a few sneaky pisco sours before we boarded our train back to Cusco.

Rachel the crazy kiwi stayed on an extra day to climb another mountain or something equally as craze,y and rejoined us in Cuzco the following night. To celebrate our completion of the trek, Edwina and I treated ourselves to several of Cuzco's cheap massages, $5 for an hour - no happy endings, and generally chilled out. 

River wide...

When Rach rejoined us we spent a day doing some white water rafting in the FREEZING and fast flowing rivers surrounding town. Cool fun.

From Cusco we bused down to Lake Tititcaca and spend the day sailing around visiting villages that are on floating islands made out of reeds. Slightly smelly and kinda boring, but interesting in parts. 

From here we farewelled Rach as she returned to home via Cusco and B.A. We then kept the wheels in motion and headed north to Arequipa.

The second biggest city in Peru was a little gem. Lovely architecture and friendly vibe lead to a few good days of exploring. From here we headed further north to Peru's capital, Lima. Like most capital cities Lima was … big. We stayed in the "cool" section of Miraflores and once again put on our walking shoes to hit the town running (okay… more like walking).

Situated right on the Pacific ocean, the city had some interesting little areas. It is known as the food capital of latin america (apparently), so we ate fairly well. Our hostel was centrally located so we could wonder pretty freely all day and check out the downtown, beachside and Miraflores areas. 

After what had been a VERY action packed 6+ weeks, we finally kissed goodbye our new lover South America, and began our new dirty travelling affair. Next destination - Mex-i-co! 

Living the high life in Bolivia

Sorry for the delay in this country update but Bolivian wifi isn't rocking my socks... anyways here we go. Apologies for the MASSIVENESS of the blog but we have been busy little Bolivian beavers.

After eventually getting a flight out of Sao Paulo in Brazil we arrived in Santa Cruz to begin our bargain basic Bolivian.. adventures (damn.. ran out of B's). Hardly the sexiest place on earth we quickly organised a bus south to Sucre. Usually I won't bore you with transport stories, but this bus had to be one of the worst in history. Cramped in with the locals and smells you can't describe without a M15+ warning, we sure had an interesting night.

We arrived in Sucre and explored the city and rested up in a nice cheap hotel. The highlight of our short time here was our visit to the local quary which has hundreds of dinosaur tracks measuring up to 80cm. We could only view it from far away as the wall was falling down, but was still very cool to see and to learn more about how the land was created.

We then continued our travels further south and stopped in Potosi, the World's highest city at 4600 metres above sea level. Ignoring all sensible advice we spent our short time there trekking up to town centre and walking around the sights and eating lunch. The city is famous for its Silver mine which back in the day provided millions to Spain.

Those familiar with altitude sickness would be aware it's not a good idea to exercise or eat a lot when acclimatising. I learnt this the hard way and enjoyed some tactical liquid discussions out of our moving bus on our way out of town. Lesson learnt people!

Anyways, we eventually arrived in the southern Bolivian town of Uyuni to visit the famous salares (salt flats). We sorted ourselves out with a three day tour and set off. It was an amazing few days and the pictures hardly capture the natural beauty of the region. Highlights included...

Playing around in the train graveyard...

Visiting a hotel made completely of salt...

Getting our salt flat and funny photos on...

walked inside a 5000 metre high semi active volcano and saw some amazing mountains...

From Uyuni and the salt flats we headed north to Bolivia's capital La Paz. The city lies within a deep valley with the poorer suburbs towards the top. Once settled into our hostel (Loki - awesome times) we quickly discovered a good friend Tim had broken his ankle mountain biking and was in hospital. It worked out well for me as it gave me a chance to see a familiar face from home and swap S.A stories. The scary thing was Tim hurt himself doing the famous Death Road bike ride which was to be a highlight of our visit to La Paz. 

With some new found nerves (thanks Tim!) we set off to test our two wheel chops. I am glad to report Edwina and I escaped without a scratch (well Edwina did have a couple of stacks but nothing serious). Unfortunately the weather wasn't great so we could barely see the amazing scenery. On the plus side we also couldn't see the sheer cliff drop from the unsealed road with no railings... yep they don't call it the "worlds deadliest road" for nothing. Check out some sweet pics of us ripping it up...

After our adrenaline rush and partying in La Paz it was time to blow the lid on Bolivia and prowl on over to Peru, the Inca trail and meeting up with Edwina's uni buddy Rachel. You'll have to stay tuned to see if we survive! Until next time... peace from Peru.

Dancing in the streets... and the rain.

Unfortunately our trip to Rio has been slightly dampened by the almost continuous bad weather. In a city bursting with beaches, beautiful views and street parties, it was hardly the place to spend much time inside. Of course this wasn't going to stop us from enjoying the craziness of Rio during Carnival. 

During Carnival the city turns into one giant party with countless street parties, the Samba school parades at the Sambadrome and general drunken' adventures. The locals really take this seriously and the city is overflowing with Brazilians dressed up and on the drink. The streets, metro and buses are ringing with Samba music and the cries of locals singing! 

We met up with some friends from Sydney and danced our butts off at a local street party in Copacabana. To see how the experts did it we then watched the finals of the Samba school parades. It was simply amazing! The time, effort, skill, money and passion the people put into their parade is unbelievable. Unfortunately photos hardly do the night justice. 

The rest of our week has been spent looking at the sights including Christo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) in less than amazing weather. We also visited numerous markets, Santa Teresa, Centro and the beach areas of Copacabana and Ipanema. 

For our final night out we once again returned to party central Lapa and busted some moves with the locals at a Samba club! They were kind enough to teach us some of the sexy dance moves and of course we returned the favour (well me at least... no surprises there!) 

After getting at least slightly comfortable with Spanish, it has been a whole new fun game understanding Brazilian Portuguese. Even the words that are spelt the same are pronounced completely different! Crazy. Luckily I've got such a winning smile and don't mind playing the lucky dip menu game. Mostly I end up with meat with rice and beans, it usually tastes pretty good!

From here we head south to Sao Paulo in the hopes we can somehow get across into Bolivia to continue the South American fun and games. 

BA 2.0

I am falling in love with the city of Buenos Aires. The place has an amazing vibe with many European influences but a strong Latin flair. The people have all been very lovely and the city itself is very easy to explore with the different districts having their own personalities and attractions. For our second visit to the city we based ourselves out of the very "happening" Palermo.

We spent our days exploring markets, visiting Recoleta cemetery (where Evita is buried), wondering in parks and really pounding the pavement. We also experienced our first South American futbol (football/soccer) match at the famous Boca Juniors stadium. The game itself wasn't the best quality but the atmosphere was amazing. The crowd goes wild and we were right in with the supporters singing along to their team songs and having a blast.

The next day we managed to randomly adopt a "tour guide" in Daniella who became our city exploring companion. She had spent some weeks previously in BA and spoke Spanish (very handy), so we were definitely glad to have her along.

Together we also sampled BA's famous nightlife including visiting a traditional drumming show. Here when I was attempting to order a Vino for Edwina I somehow ended up with a whole wine bottle poured into a giant plastic cup for the grand total of $6. WIN!

We also sampled one of their famed "discos" which surprise surprise was fairly similar to back home, except maybe lamer. One highlight would have to be our last meal in BA where we ate at La Cabrera in Palmero, which served THE BEST steak I have ever had. It was so giant I'm embarrassed to say I couldn't finish it… If you are every in BA, you have to eat here. We had to wait for a table but the free champaign made time fly. 

After some epic dramas the next morning including wrong airport, no ticket, crazy cab rides, we eventually left BA ready to begin our adventures in Rio for Carnival.

B.A to the Falls... and back

Since we left you last we've been busy exploring the wonders of the ever amazing Argentina. In our first week we have focused on the countries two biggest attractions, the vibrant Buenos Aires and the spectacular Iguazu Falls.

In B.A we based ourselves in the San Telmo/ Centro area and spent our time visiting monuments and getting a feel for the public transport system (it's pretty handy actually!). 

A highlight from our first taste of B.A was a trip to Complejo Tango lesson, dinner and show. True to form I of course was chosen as best in the class and had to dance for our dinners. If I didn't nail the tango routine in front of the class, no one was eating. Thankfully for everyone BPS knows how to CS on the DF (cut sick on the dance floor). Great night overall.

The next day we visited La Boca, which although has many run-down buildings, has a beautiful colourful vibe and street scape, that attracts people from all over the world. Historically the residents of this less than glamourous area brightened up their community by using left over paint from ships to decorate their homes. Surprisingly interesting and cool vibe. Edwina of course was digging the Architectural stuff.

From here we bid a temporary goodbye to B.A and travelled on an overnight bus the 17 hours to Puerto Iguazu. Surprisingly good trip with a pretty pimped out bus. Like everyone else in town we were here to see the roar power and amazement of Iguazu Falls. It is one of those experiences that photos really don't do it justice (but check them out anyways). If you ever visit South America, a trip to the falls is a must! We lashed out and also went on a boat ride under the falls which was wet 'n' wild fun. (Dad joke #1). We spent the rest of the day taking the numerous walking trails around the falls and checking it out from all angles. 

Tonight we head back to B.A, so will post again with more on the city that never sleeps.

Bon voyage BNE, Sayonara SYD

After much hype and excitement (mainly just Edwina), today is the official launch of the highly anticipated James and Edwina Vs the World travel blog. 

I am hoping this blog will be an avenue for our family and friends to stay up to date on where we are, what we've seen and how amazing everything is. Of course we look forward to all your comments, questions and suggestions as we trounce our way through four continents. *yes... I did include Australia as a continent to make it more impressive.*

Within hours of touching down safe and sound in beautiful Buenos Aires, we have experienced the wonders of Customs and their never ending maze of lines, engaged in our first spanish/ sign language negotiations (I think the cabbie won) and checked into our hostel. 

I've attached a few happy snaps to wet your appetite. We are now off to explore the sights of BA and will blog again soon.

Adios!