Monday 29 December 2014
Saturday 27 December 2014
Volunteering with the Angeles de Medellin
James and I with some of our English students |
In Medellín, we spent a few weeks volunteering with the Angeles de Medellín, teaching English, playing with the local children and distributing much needed clothes, food and household goods.
The charity operates up in one of the mountains in Medellín in the small barrio of Regalo de Dios (which, perhaps ironically, translates as gift from God).
Friday 19 December 2014
Photo Friday: No need for viagra!
This sign, which translates as "Don't take viagra, drink goat's milk", was on a wall in the small town of Guane, just outside of San Gil in Colombia.
There were several shops in the town, selling goat's milk,
Thursday 18 December 2014
From Barichara to Guane
The pretty town of Barichara is just a 40 minute bus ride outside of San Gil. We jumped on a bus from the local bus station on the
Saturday 13 December 2014
White water rafting in San Gil
San Gil in the Santander region is about 6 or 7 hours north of Bogotá. It's Colombia's centre for outdoor sports, from caving to bungee jumping, down hill mountain biking to white water rafting.
Rapids! |
We opted for a day on the river, as I had never been white water rafting before. Despite my lack of experience, I was persuaded
Friday 12 December 2014
Photo Friday: The mud volcano
About 30 miles outside of Cartagena lies the Volcan de Totumbo, where you can bathe in a mud pool inside the crater of a small volcano, while getting yourself a massage. We were intrigued.
Tuesday 9 December 2014
Being vegetarian in Argentina
I may have been able to seek out more vegetarian options in Argentina, if James hadn't been on an ongoing mission to find the best steak in the world.
Luckily, because of the Italian influence on Argentinian cuisine, pretty much every restaurant in Argentina (including the steak houses) do serve meat-free pasta dishes. However, generally these options are either pasta with a nice (but not especially inspiring) tomato sauce or pasta with a good (but again not particularly varied) cheese sauce.
To avoid just eating pasta covered with tomatoes, here are some of our top tips for being vegetarian in Argentina:
Monday 8 December 2014
Relaxing on the beaches of Tayrona
Sunset in Tayrona |
The Tayrona National Park is beautiful mix of dense jungle and pristine white beaches, bordering the clear waters of the Caribbean sea in north east Colombia.
Unfortunately for us (and the trees), there had been very little rainfall
Friday 5 December 2014
Monday 1 December 2014
Highlights of Cartagena
The famous clock tower entrance into the old town |
On both visits, we enjoyed wandering the colourful streets, eating and drinking, 'walling'
Sunday 30 November 2014
5 things you need to know about Colombia
1. Its Colombia NOT Columbia!
Fed up with everyone from international media sources to Paris Hilton and even US presidents* misspelling their country's name, a social media campaign was launched last year to shame offenders into correcting their error.
The campaign is also designed to encourage people to take a second look at a country that most people immediately associate with drug-lords and kidnappings.
Saturday 29 November 2014
Tuesday 18 November 2014
Arriving in Colombia: Bogota
The sprawl of Bogota from Monserrate |
I don't think I've ever had such a good conversation with a taxi driver than the one I had from Bogota airport to our hostel!
Saturday 15 November 2014
Being vegetarian in Chile
Arriving in San Pedro de Atacama over the salt flats from Bolivia, we were pleasantly surprised to find a town in the middle of the desert stuffed with a range of good restaurants - all of which had tasty veggie options, which is not always guaranteed in South America.
Aside from trusty (and yummy) pizzas, the options were quite varied too, including quinoa risottos, stuffed peppers and stir fries. Just walk up and down Caracoles - the main street in town - and take your pick! Be warned
Tuesday 11 November 2014
Waterfalls, Cachaça, Jungle and Waterholes in Paraty
The countryside around Paraty is full of pretty waterfalls, cachaça distilleries (known as alambiques), pretty jungle and a number of waterholes for a refreshing dip.
Thursday 6 November 2014
Pretty Paraty
Pretty streets of Paraty |
The forecast was still looking a bit ropey and with only a short amount of time before our flight to Colombia, we decided that it made more sense
Where we stayed - Argentina
Mendoza: We very much enjoyed Mendoza and stayed there three times while in Argentina - each time renting out a room at Federico's house, who we found through Air BnB.
We had a lovely stay at Federico's house. He was very welcoming and generous. He cooked a traditional Argentine barbecue for
We had a lovely stay at Federico's house. He was very welcoming and generous. He cooked a traditional Argentine barbecue for
Monday 3 November 2014
A breakfast of açaí
Açaí berries are a purple fruit from the Brazilian rainforest, which for hundreds of years have been a central part of the diet of native Amazonian people.
In the last ten years açaí (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) has become known as one of the latest superfoods, alongside goji berries and adzuki beans. Its popularity
Labels:
açaí,
Amazon,
Brazil,
fruit,
Para,
Rio,
Rio de Janeiro,
Vegetarian
Thursday 30 October 2014
5 things every traveller should know about Brazil
No.1. You might have to search for an ATM that accepts your card
We'd not had any problems getting money out of the ATM in any country in South America. Then we got to Brazil.
After crossing the border, we headed, with our bags to the nearest cash point. It wouldn't accept either my or James' card. Neither would the next two that we came across.
After traipsing around town in the heat with our backpacks, we finally found one that would take my card and got our hands on some dosh.
Labels:
Brazil,
buses,
rain,
reais,
Rio,
Rio de Janeiro,
travel apps,
world cup 2014
Wednesday 29 October 2014
Rainy rainy Rio
By the Arcos de Lapa in the rain |
After our successful and sunny day in Rio visiting the sugar loaf and the Christ the Redeemer statue, the rest of our stay in the city was unfortunately very wet.
Rio is very much a city to be enjoyed in the open air. But no matter, with our long experience of rainy British summers to help us, we were determined to get the most out of our time in the city, even if we did get a bit soggy.
Sunday 26 October 2014
Saturday 25 October 2014
Our top eight travel apps
We use a number of different apps when we are travelling to make help us on our way. Here our eight favourites.
Number eight: XE Currency Exchange is a money exchange app, which when it links to the internet gives you the latest up to the minute exchange rate for pretty much every currency across the globe. Its a massively useful app when
Sunday 19 October 2014
Where we stayed - Chile
Saturday 18 October 2014
Beautiful Bonito!
From the Pantanal, we headed to Bonito – a town known for its proximity to some of the clearest and most beautiful rivers in the world.
Sunday 12 October 2014
Nine South American Sunsets
A paddle in the Pacific |
1. Lima: Our first South American sunset was in Peru's capital Lima, where on day one of our 6 month trip, I enjoyed my first ever paddle in the Pacific Ocean as the sun
Labels:
boats,
Bogotá,
Bolivia,
Brazil,
Cartagena,
Chile,
Colombia,
Huacachina,
Lima,
Pantanal,
Salar,
salt flats,
San Blas,
San Pedro de Atacama,
sundowner,
sunset,
Tayrona,
Valle de la Luna,
volcano
Saturday 11 October 2014
The rest of our time in the Pantanal
Sunset in the Pantanal |
The highlight of our visit to the beautiful Pantanal in South-West Brazil was undoubtedly the jaguar sighting on our first day. However, we also enjoyed the rest of our stay at the Pousada Santa Clara - which is about 5 hours out of Campo Grande.
Tuesday 7 October 2014
Wednesday 1 October 2014
Watching the World Cup in Argentina
Is that James...? Or Lionel Messi?? |
James and I are not really football people. However, we couldn't help but get into the spirit when spending the whole of the Brazilian World Cup in 2014 in neighbouring football mad Argentina.
Living in England, I thought I knew what a football mad nation looked like. How wrong could I be?
Tuesday 30 September 2014
The Three Frontiers
The Iguazú falls are in the border of Argentina and Brazil.
Paraguay is also nearby - just over the bridge from Foz
Saturday 27 September 2014
A quick guide to the quirky towns of Las Sierras de Córdoba
The best way to see the towns and the countryside around Córdoba is to hire a car and go exploring! But where to go? Here is our quick guide to the towns and villages in the Sierras.
The open road |
The towns are listed in the order we visited them. We hired a car for 4 days (3 nights).
We spent most of the first day in Alta Gracia and the night in Belgrano. The following day we were in La Cumbrecita for the day. We spent our second night in Belgrano.
Tuesday 23 September 2014
Las Sierras de Córdoba - Part 2: Little Germany, pretty views and some wine!
Chairlift up the Sugar Loaf Mountain near Cosquin |
We spent most of our first day in Alta Gracia, exploring the Jesuit Estancia and at the Che Guevara museum. To read more about our time in Alta Gracia see this post.
Sunday 21 September 2014
Saturday 20 September 2014
Learning about the dictatorship in Córdoba
Like many (all?) countries in South America, Argentina has a pretty brutal history.
Although we’d had some idea of the events of the late 1970s and early 1980s during the time of the military dictatorship, the guide on our walking tour in Buenos Aires really brought home the brutality of the regime, when he highlighted that from 1976 to 1983 up to 30,000 people were ‘disappeared’ by the military.
Labels:
Abuelas,
Argentina,
art,
Cordoba,
Córdoba,
dictatorship,
Guerra Sucia,
Madres,
paintings
Thursday 18 September 2014
Where we stayed – Bolivia
Overview:
Bolivia is the cheapest country in South America. Depending on your budget you can find cheaper places to stay than those listed here. Alternatively, you can splash out a little bit and stay in some very nice places. Our choices were largely above complete budget, but were, on the whole, great value for money.
Monday 15 September 2014
Wednesday 3 September 2014
A day trip to Tigre
Pretty walkway in Tres Bocas |
Tuesday 26 August 2014
Thursday 21 August 2014
Photographing Palermo
Labels:
Argentina,
Buenos Aires,
iPhone,
Mate,
Palermo,
photos,
street art
Wednesday 20 August 2014
Fuerza Bruta - Brute Force
On our first night in Buenos Aires, we headed to see the Fuerza Bruta show. I’d first heard of
this from some fellow travellers in Sucre, who had managed to describe it as a
bit like
Sunday 17 August 2014
Friday 15 August 2014
Saturday 2 August 2014
Mendoza – the city we just kept going back to!
Parque General, San Martin, Mendoza |
We went to Mendoza three times while in Argentina!
At the border: still smiling as we haven't realised how long we'll be here |
Crossing the Andes from Chile after our stay in Valparaiso, we arrived into the wine-making capital of Argentina on the 5th June (2014) for our first stay with our Argentinian host, Federico, who we found through Air BnB.
Friday 1 August 2014
Our time in Valparaiso in pictures
Friday 25 July 2014
And into the Elqui Valley!
Cochiguaz Valley |
Small villages are
Labels:
Chile,
Elqui Valley,
La Serena,
Pisco,
Pisco Sour,
stargazing,
trekking,
Vicuna
Sunday 13 July 2014
Top tips for San Pedro de Atacama
There's lots to do in San Pedro and the surrounding areas. Here are some top tips for making the most of your time there!
For more posts on San Pedro de Atacama, see: Hanging out in San Pedro de Atacama and Trying to escape from San Pedro de Atacama
1. For an amazing view into the Valle de la Muerte and
For more posts on San Pedro de Atacama, see: Hanging out in San Pedro de Atacama and Trying to escape from San Pedro de Atacama
1. For an amazing view into the Valle de la Muerte and
Saturday 12 July 2014
Where we stayed: Peru
Lima: Most visitors to Lima stay in
either upmarket Miraflores or slightly bohemian Barranco. The old town is reportedly not very safe for
tourists at night, although there are hostels and hotels there too.
Labels:
Arequipa,
Barranco,
Cabanaconde,
Colca Canyon,
Cusco,
Huacachina,
Lima,
Nazca,
oasis,
Peru,
Pisco,
Puno
Thursday 10 July 2014
Trying to escape from San Pedro de Atacama! (And why you need patience if travelling through Argentina and Chile in winter)
Now don’t get me wrong, we liked San Pedro de Atacama. We really did. But we also very thankful to get away! Some of our bad luck from the salt flats tour lingered
Tuesday 8 July 2014
Hanging out in San Pedro de Atacama
Sunday 29 June 2014
Being vegetarian in Bolivia
We’d been told in Peru from travellers coming north that
Bolivian food was rather underwhelming and that there was little choice for
vegetarians. I’d had quite an easy time in Peru and so was bracing myself for a
month or so of nothing but rice and omelettes.
However, while it was true that Bolivia is less foodie than
Peru, there were some good veggie options and I only ate about two omelettes in
almost two months. (And they were nice omelettes.)
We did have more time to cook for ourselves, so that helped,
but even in our homestay, the family didn’t seem to have too much trouble
cooking vegetarian.
And there were some great veggie options both at the street
stands street and in the restaurants, particularly in Sucre.
So what did we eat and where?
Labels:
Bolivia,
Copacabana,
curry,
Isla del Sol,
juice,
La Paz,
papas rellenas,
quinua,
saltenas,
street food,
Sucre,
tiramisu,
tucumanas,
Vegetarian,
wine
Tuesday 10 June 2014
The highs (and lows) of our visit to the Bolivian salt flats
Our trip to Bolivia’s salt flats and other worldly landscapes
of the country’s southwest was somewhat cursed from the start. First off we
missed the bus that we had intended to take to Uyuni (where most tours to the salt flats start), as we struggled to find a
taxi and then the police decided to check our taxi drivers papers. We arrived at the bus station, just as the very full bus was leaving. This was not too much of a problem as there was
another bus in an hour, but if only we’d known it was a sign of things to come!
Thursday 5 June 2014
Siete Cascadas and the road to nowhere
By the time we’d got ourselves ready, it was getting a
little bit late and so we decided to “splash out” and get a taxi rather than
work out where to catch the bus from. But the taxi drivers we stopped didn’t
seem to want to take us there. Some of them genuinely didn’t seem to know where
it was. Others just said they wouldn’t go there and suggested we ask someone
else.
Sunday 1 June 2014
Highlights of Sucre
The main square in Sucre |
Labels:
birthdays,
Bolivia,
Cake,
cemeteries,
cholitas,
dancing,
dinosaurs,
food,
juice,
learning Spanish,
lemonade,
live music,
markets,
papas rellenas,
parades,
Sucre,
white city,
wine
Friday 30 May 2014
And into the jungle!
Madidi Travel's resident parrot |
We decided fairly quickly against a 'pampas' or wetland savannah trip, as although you have a higher chance of seeing animals, due to the lack of trees, there are few (if any?) reputable companies that take tourists there and we'd heard that the area gets overcrowded with tourists and their not so conservation friendly guides. We've spoken to people who very much enjoyed their pampas trip, but we decided it was not for us this time.
Labels:
Amazon,
Bolivia,
caiman,
capybara,
jungle,
Madidi,
monkeys,
parrots,
Rurrenabaque,
Serere Reserve,
tapir
Tuesday 20 May 2014
The world’s most dangerous road
Its a long way down! |
Before arriving in South America, I had read about the so called 'death
road' in Bolivia, which according to Wikipedia claims up to 300 lives every
year. I watched youtube videos of buses travelling along very narrow stretches
of road, with sheer drops of over 600 metres. It looked horrible.
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