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.