South America

Thursday 14 February

Well Im now in Brazil, survived the Carnival in Rio and am now chilling in a little seaside town called Paraty. The carnival was fantastic, as is Rio as a city, and all the concerns of security and the like were unfounded. The people are fantastically friendly, although the bus drivers think that they are all Rubins Barrechello and its quite common for them to try and powerslide the massive things around corners!! Quite an experience let me tell you! The Sambadrome (where the carnival is held) is certainly an amazing sight, the colours and costumes and music create an amazing atmosphere that almost makes you want to get up and dance. It doesnt stop either, these Brazillians just party all day and night!

All the sights in Rio are incredible, the cable car up sugarloaf mountain (where James Bond and Jaws fought it out) and the Corcovarda (big statue of Christ the Redeemer that looks out over the city) are simply breathtaking, and the Copacobana and Ipanema beaches are fantastic.

We have a another day here in Paraty, and then start to head inland away from all the hot sun (its been close to 40 degrees a couple of times) and towards Patagonia where it will get pretty cold pretty quickly. The truck crew seem to be a decent bunch (may have to revise this after 3 months) and everyone is getting on well together. Today we hopped on a boat and cruised around some of the local bays, where there was a lot of swimming and drinking and sleeping. Long may it continue!!

Corcavardo - Looking down over Rio

Monday 25 February

Hola! I am now in Argentina, having crossed over yesterday from Brazil after spending a day at the Iguacu falls. After we left Paraty, we drove two days to Bonito where we stayed in a cool hostel and experienced some of the kinds of deluge that makes the bush in this part of the world rainforests. From there we entered the Pantanal, and saw Alligators, Parrots Tucan, Capivara (weird water pig type things) and did stuff like fishing for pirahana, horse riding and trekking. Some amazing scenery, but sadly much of the forests have been cut down and drained. Makes me a little cynical about these Ecotourism tours..

We are doing the Argentinian side of the Iguacu falls toda, which are apparently even more spectacular than the thunderous spray and majestic views that we had yesterday on the Brazillian side. Also we get to be saturated in a boat just below, which will be a welcome cool off.

It continues to be hot, although it is getting noticibly cooler at nights. We got up to around 38deg the other day - so its by no means winter! All the hype about currency problems in Arge' has been overdone as well, as Ive had no problems so far, although one guy got jipped on coversion from pounds yesterday, coz they didnt know what pounds were!

Will update more soon - have just run out of time! Sorry kids.. see you soon.

Friday 1 March

Well, now made it to Beunos Aires having just spent the last day and a half in the Parque Nacional el Palmars, basically a big reserve full of palm trees. The trees themselves are amazing, up to 300 years old and the mountain bike ride through them was pretty surreal - sort of like something you would expect from the movie Jurassic Park. In comparison to the Pantanal in Brazil, there is a large amount of conservation work being done here to preserve the natural ecosystems and eradicate introduced species.

Entering Argentina, you are immediately aware of the differences from Brazil, there are many more facilities (eg Banks, Internet etc) and aside from the language the country just has a more affluent feel- this despite the devaluing of their currency by half over the last couple of months. Makes travelling quite a bit cheaper. I was also very impressed with the Argentinian side of the Iguacu Falls, 6.5 hours looking at a waterfall - fantastic.. it is almost beyond description but at around 75 metres high and having 14 individual falls in two countries certainly could have taken a lot longer to see.

At this stage, I though it might be a good opportunity to explain about the overland trip I am doing. There are quite a few companies that do overland expeditions in South America. The truck that we are travelling on has lived about 21 000 kms in this incarnation (one trip from Quito to Rio). It used to be a furniture removal truck in Holland before being refitted in England and shipped out to Quito last year. It is about the flashest truck on the route - the one operated by Burkima had a couple of problems when a local Argentinian driver (replacing the Kiwi driver who got Dengue Fever and had to go home) put water in the sump by mistake!

There are 15 of us at the moment, this will increase to 21 towards the end of the trip, but the truck can actually accommodate 23, not including the driver and courier. It can carry enough diesel for more than a couple of days driving, 300l of water, and has all our tents, gear, cooking equipment and food. Most importantly it can carry at least two days supply of cold beers. The group is divided into cook groups of 2/3 who do the buying for and cooking of dinner, brekky and lunch for the whole group. Often if we are doing long drives, we will pitch up camp behind a service station and cook/eat/sleep there. The composition of our group is 1 Kiwi (me!) 1 Irish, 2 American and the rest are all Brits. Driver and courier are from S. Africa and NZ respectively. I will probably be mentioning a few of the kids individually as the trip goes on..

So now weve got a couple of free nights in BA to chill, and with any luck catch the 6 nations on tv somewhere.. my Spanish is coming along slowly, so Im beginning to understand bits of signs and things that shopkeepers are telling/asking me. A long way to go yet though!!

Monday 4th March

What a weekend! BA is certainly well equipped to handle the most demanding needs of anyone who is after a big night out. We started a couple of beers on Friday night over dinner, watching a protest/demonstration against the banks, which left most of the ones around our hotel covered in graffiti. Then went out for a look around the night life. We found that the locals are pretty friendly, even if they possibly only want to practice their English but more than that - and Im not talking about blokes here - fantastically good looking. (sigh!) Of course the usual antics occurred, and when the pub closed at 7:00am we wandered out in search of another beer selling establishment empty handed. Quite a lot more happened over the next few hours, but suffice to say we found a number of other pubs, watched the Highlanders demolish the Sharks on tv, played pool and got home at about 3:00pm only to get up 4.5 hours later and see some excellent tango before repeating the dose.

Its probably worth noting here that vegetables in Argentina are somewhat of a rarity, from my perspective it seems like the locals seem to think that they just get in the way of the meat - and therefore dont really bother too much with them. Great steaks, and cheap too.. but Ive never hankered so much for a salad. Unfortunately we are heading in entirely the wrong direction for vege type dishes, so Ill be settling for the fillet steaks every night for the next couple of weeks. Its certainly a hard life!

Yesterday was an exploration day, and I saw some Tango in the street and had a good wander around the central city. Sundays are not the busiest days in BA and there is not too many touristy sights to see, so I snuck off to watch La Grand Estafa (thats Oceans Eleven to you) at the local cinema before heading out to La Racoleta area and drinking until some ungodly hour this morning.

Today is the last day in town, so its back on the road again early tomorrow morning. There are a few more things that I want to see so Im going off to La Boca this afternoon and down to the waterfront tonight. Im looking forward to sleeping for a decent length of time more than you could possibly imagine!

Monday 11th March

I am now in Urshuaia, the southern most city in the world, after some incredible days driving some 3000km (twice the length of New Zealand) through Patagonia. Its gone from 30 odd degress to around 0-5 and from endless scrubland to beautiful mountains, sea and lakes. We stopped in Baiha Blanca on the way down and spent a day on the Valdez peninsular near Peurto Madryn looking at Sea Lions, Elephant Seals and penguins, but missed out on any Orcas, who we were told also frequent the shores looking for easy feeding. update:12/3 there were Orcas spotted feeding on Sea Lions on the beach the day after we left.. boooo! Patagonia was incredible - just endless nothingness and we celebrated every time we go to anything that resembled a kink in the road.

Tomorrow we are out canoeing and trekking through the national park, and today we went on the sounthernmost railway in the world. We were supposed to head out to sea to have a look at some sights off shore, but the conditions were too rough for the tourist boats. The scenery here is quite reminiscent of Queenstown in New Zealand, and it is certainly geared up for all the tourists that come on the cruise boats to Antartica. We attempted to play a round of golf this afternoon, but the golf course didnt seem to have anything in the way of hire clubs, balls.. or people! I spent a few minutes roaming around the very small clubhouse looking for someone before we decided to jump back in the taxi and head back to the campsite. Unbelievably the taxi driver was an international boxing referee and showed us pictures of him with Mr T and a number of Cuban world champions as well as pictures of him in Las Vegas and various other big matches around the world. The campsite incidentally is part of a rugby club complex and a couple of us went to see the Ushuaia Orcas play another local team yesterday. The pitch was something to behold - grassy in places, it was mostly uneven and covered in gravel, which caused many cuts and grazes as the game progreseed. These were covered by the players using the standard insulation tape! Most people that I have talked to in Argentina know of the All Blacks and many talk about Jonah Lomu and bang there fists together in the appropriate manor. Ive seen plenty of All Blacks merchandise wandering around on people also, but Im stuffed if I can find an Argentine jersey to buy!

After we left BA some of the guys stayed on to head over to Uruguay and flew down here yesterday, they reported that the protests there are getting bigger and bigger. Still having no problems pulling cash out of the machines, so here hoping that my card doesnt get eaten before we leave Argentina. Ive noticed that the queues at the banks get pretty large towards the end of the day, so there are definately money problems going on. Its hard to understand however when you cant read the newspapers. We can get the Super 12 rugby though, so that more than makes up for my lack of local political savvy.

Tuesday 12th March

Today was spent out in the National Park of Tierra del Feugo where we did a hike in the morning around a coastline that I couldnt stop comparing with Stewart Island in New Zeland, before getting into some two-person indian style kayacks and paddling firstly around a lake and then down a river toward the sea for a couple of hours. The highlight of the day definately was seeing some woodpeckers during the hike, they make a hell of a racket banging on the trees and strangely enough sound exactly like Woody Woodpecker from those cartoons of my youth. All the mountains have a fresh dusting of snow on them at the moment, so they are very picturesque when the mist clears for long enough to see them.

We are back on the truck tomorrow, so its time to stock up the alcohol supplies for the drive into and out of and into Chile tomorrow. Another few pages of the passport used up...

Monday 18 March

Torres del Paine was fantastic! We arrived in the pouring rain and got a bit wet, then a bit drunk (getting to bed at around 6:00am after lots of drinking, singing and guitar) before getting up at 9:00-ish to go into the tourist office and for a bit of a hike in the rain. The nice people in the Dragoman truck gave us a lift to the tourist office as Will our driver was probably incapable.. actually he was still drinking, in between swims in the 1 or 2 degree lake. It was nice to see how the other half live.. Dragoman trips are about twice as expensive as Oasis - the company I am with! After that we played a bit of football in the rain wandered up a nearby hill for something to do in the arvo. The next day dawned fine and a large group, consisting of three overland trucks worth of people, caught a ferry to a base camp where we split off into groups to do different treks to either the Grey Glacier or the Valley Frances. The walk I did was the harder of the two but because of a slight directional problem (d'oh!) we didnt quite make the end of the hike. It was not a huge drama though as some of the views we got were fabulous, and it was good to spend a good 8 hours wandering in the hills.

The Moreno Glacier

Today we went up the Moreno Galcier- the only glacier in the world that isnt retreating, although its not advancing either.. just sort of hanging out in the Andes. It is a very impressive sight to see the huge chunks of ice fall off and thunderously plumment into the lake at the face. We went for a walk on the ice, kitted out with crampons and the landscape of moutains of ice was a fantastic sight.

There has been a large amount of rain in the area recently, and so hopefully we will be able to continue our trip towards Barriloche tomorrow (the truck is currenly stuck in our camp ground), where we will spend our last few days in Argentina. Im certainly going to miss the beef here.. I had massive cravings for steak during the short stay in Chile.

Saturday 23rd March

Well we managed to get the truck out of the camp ground in El Calafate, it only took a couple of hours of sandmatting - but in the process I slipped over and caught my chin on the front indicator of the truck, ripping it open and creating quite a bit of blood. I went to the hospital that night, and got some dressings put on it which were supposed to stay on for seven days- but some drunken wrestling the other night meant that I had to put some sticking plasters on again yesterday. Hopefully this will not mean too much of a scar (..yes I know, serves you right, Ryan you bloody idiot).

Because of all the rain, the road to Barriloche was closed, so we took an alternative route, and decided to go straight to Pucon in Chile, where we are now. Pucon is a lovely little lakeside town and there is pleanty of outdoorsy stuff to do. Tomorrow I have planned to climb up a local volcano where there is a possiblity of seeing hot magma flows. This afternoon the plan involves chilling out in some of the local hot springs.

We have two more days here after today, although one morning will be spent cleaning the truck in preparation for the new arrivals at our next stop, Santiago. There has been a number of comings and goings from the truck over the past few weeks with some guys opting to stay in Buenos Aires longer and catching us up in Urshuia, the two American guys who departed after 1.5 weeks will meet us up again in Santiago and two others skipped out at El Calafate a few days ago and will also see us there. This means that the available seats have been going up and down quite a bit, which has been good for the long drives that we have been doing. From next week on though the drives get shorter and the number of spare seats will be limited. The excitement contines..

Wednesday 27th March

Santiago. We arrived here last night and set about discovering the nightlife, which is pretty good if somewhat expensive. Santiago is a very European looking city, much in the same way as Buenos Aires but without the cosompolitan feel. Its also a city of eight million, so you can get your hands on pretty much everything that you need though there is nothing particularly outstanding about the place. There is however, Macdonalds Burger King and KFC, but they dont have a zinger twister so I have had to be content with the 'Whopper con queso' combo. Much of Chiles industry is in the surrounding area, so there is also a problem with polution - its the first time since leaving London that I have been able to taste the air. There are however plenty of wineries (is that a word?) in the area, so will possibly go and have a look at some of those tomorrow.

The last couple of days in Pucon were great. I went to the hot pools and up Villarica (the volcano, pictured to the right) as planned, but didnt make it all the way up the mountain because of bad weather and therefore didnt see any lava flows or the like. We did manage some sliding down the snowy bits on our bums which was fun, and the early finish meant that I got to go to the pub early. This probably wasnt the best preparation for the truck punch party, and meant that there was some pretty severe memory loss of events later in the evening. The next day involved a lot of recvovery and not a lot of anything else!

The weather has also improved substantially with temperatures back up to the 30s today, making a substantial contrast to the snowstorm that forced us off the mountain only two days ago. Heres hoping that the blue skies continue..

Saturday 6th April

Vally of the Moon - San Pedro de Atacama

We are now in San Pedro de Atacama after a night in the desert and two nights free camping on the beach during our northward journey from Santiago which has taken us through La Serena and Bahia Inglesia. The temperatures have been very pleasant and although the sea has been brisk to say the least, it doesnt take too long to dry off. We are using this time as an opportunity to get acclimitised to altitude - we are around 2000-odd metres at the moment, but will be over 4000 in the next week and a half. Its a good opportunity to catch up on sleep, laundry and showers as well as getting out for possibly a bit of hiking.

My chin is well on its way to recovery, there will most probably be a substantial scar, but thats what you get on the big journeys (especially if you are an idiot like me!). All the new people on the truck have fitted in well, although Monica got her back containing all important stuff (flight tickets, passport, travellers cheques etc) stolen in Santiago and has had to get back there to sort it all out. She should be catching up with us again here after leaving to go back to Santiago from La Serena. In other truck news, one of the English lads, Pete, from the original crowd has been asked to leave the trip. It seemed that he was unable to deal with alcohol as well as most others and after he drunkenly assulted a second passenger on the trip (with a rock and deck chair!) we left him behind yesterday afternoon. The mix of countries onboard now extends to Croatia, Scotland, Australia and South Africa as well as the original representatives from Ireland, England and of course NZ.

All the days since Santiago have finished with spectacular sunsets, two of them saw the sun dissapear into the Pacific through clear blue skies and the other, in the desert I watched from the top of a hill as it brilliantly sillouetted a range of mountains. Over the last couple of days the ground has been so bare that we have celebrated sighting anything that looks like a tree or grass. Tonight we are off to see the valley of the moon which from the postcards, looks as if it will use up at least another roll of film.

Friday 12th April

Today we are chilling in Uyuni after some physically draining days in the desert. After leaving San Pedro we headed up into the mountains, stopping for the night at Laguna Colarada at an altitude of around 4500m above sea level. Amazingly I was not affected by the height and although short of breath after doing the slightest exertion managed to cope pretty well. It got pretty cold that night, the water bottle that my tent partner had beside his head froze overnight, which meant that the beer was nice and cold for the next day. A couple of people on the truck discovered that not only are the effects of alcohol greater at altitude, but so is the size of the hangover. The next day we had a long, slow drive stopping for the night by the side of the road just over a half day drive from the Uyuni salt flats.

Stuck! Only a few kms away from San Juan

After getting up early in preparation for our trip across the salt flats we were all getting sunblock on for protection from the reflection when all of a sudden the truck went from going about 20km/h to zero in about 4 metres. We got out to find ourselves bogged in up to both axles in sodden clay. After digging for a couple of hours we hadnt moved very far, but managed to flag down a Bolivian Army truck, which after negotiating a price and some diesel with the driver helped us out for about half an hour or so before deciding that it was too hard and buggered off. We then decided that there was a lot more digging required and as we moved all the earth out from underneath the truck, Will managed to negotiate with a bloke who was passing on his motorbike collecting firewood to use his tractor. The motorbike guy returned with his tractor a couple of hours later and we started the painful process of sandmatting the truck out of the bloody great hole. At one stage the tractor got stuck, and we had to push it out, but after nine and a half hours digging the truck happily zipped on down the road to solid ground. I celebrated long and hard after that effort, in the little hostel that the guy who pulled us out happened to own in San Juan 4 kms away.

Scalar de Uyuni - Salt Flats

Yesterday we resumed our journey on the salt flats, an incredibly vast expanse of white that stretches into the distance in all directions. A simply amazing sight. We had not been able to hook up with the guide that was arranged from San Pedro de Atacama and so picked up a guy at the side of the road who was heading to Uyuni with his bike just before getting onto the salt and he was to guide us through. After one hour of whizzing across the flats the "guide" pointed us over towards an island and this time we were doing around 60km/h when the truck broke through the salt and again stopped in just over 4 metres. My recollection of the event is firstly the realisation that we were in trouble, and then watching the two guys sitting behind me fly past towards the front of the truck. One guy, Richard caught his elbow on the front sill of the truck and seems to have quite badly hurt it. Meanwhile further behind me, Nicole had sailed directly into the bike that the guy we picked up had been riding. She was unable to move for the rest of the day and was initially in a severe amount of pain. We jumped out to find that the truck deep in muddy, waterlogged clay and once again started the digging process, but this time there were no rocks to put under the wheels and every time we tried to clear our the rubbish from uder the truck it simply sank further into the ground. We started getting some rocks from the island that was about 4-500 metres away to try and jack the truck up but they just kept dissapearing into the mire underneath the front wheels as well.

While some of us were trying to get the truck out, a couple of the girls headed off to try and flag down a passing vehicle, they arrived back about three hours later, and took Nicole off to hospital and arranged for one of the other tour Trucks passing through to take us through to Uyuni. They picked us up for the nearly two hour drive and no sooner were we on board, bottles of Whiskey and Pisco started to get passed around. There were very few sober people inside when we got in. Later today we will find out the fate of our transport, as its not clear whether we can get a digger big enough to pull out the truck. All part of the overland experience!

Saturday 13th April

The latest news from Uyuni is that we have managed to hire out some trucks with hydrolic airbag jacking equipment stuff to get the truck out, and will be heading north to Potosi with or without truck either tomorrow or the next day. It looks like the injuries to Richard and Nicole are not too serious, but they will be getting checked up when we get to La Paz. In the meantime there is not much else to do except catch up on sleep and rest weary bodies. Some of the guys have headed out to the truck today to help with the excavation, but I am taking the easy option of doing entirely nothing.

Tuesday 16th April

On Sunday, I awoke with a bit of a queasy belly but headed out for brekky and then a wander around the local markets. I was sitting at the internet cafe when a small rumble gave me one of those warnings we all know so well, so I bolted back to the hotel and proceeded to empty the contents of my stomach into the bao. Poor thing didnt stand a chance. I went back to the internet, and sorted my bill, caught up on the Super 12 results and basically slept for the rest of the day. The previous night had had some interesting events however, the guys who had been out at the truck (which is still stuck, but more on that later) were returning with the locals over the salt flats. The thing to note here is that that driving at night without a GPS means that you do it with your lights off navigating by the stars. The guy driving had been working in the sun all day and had not quite set off in the correct direction, so after a shout went up from one of the back seats as they were driving along he jammed on the anchors and swerved and the lights went on to reveal a cliff about 5 feet infront of them. Suffice to say there were a couple of passengers that refused to continue, so the others returned safely to tell the tale.

So anyway, on Sunday evening we caught a night bus for the seven hour journey to Potosi, still with only the clothes that we had taken from the truck three days before and aside from smelling, pretty short on cash and immodium and pretty much anything. We got into Potosi yesterday morning at 4:00am and had a bit of a sleep before heading up to the mines to which the city relies on for its existance. Somewhere on the bus ride my stomach had righted itsself to a point where it could handle some food again. The mine tour was conducted through a company that uses guides that have actually worked there. Our guide, Pedro at 21 had started when he was 10 and was a 5 year veteran. We bought presents for the miners (coke and water) and some dynamite for a bit of a demonstration after the tour. The mines themselves are an incredible experience, we had met a tour coming out as we were going in and they looked visibly shaken at what they had seen. The conditions are unbelievable, the mine we visited had six levels, of which we saw only three (about 60m down) and although there are around 400 mines in the hill only 200 of them are active, some go down as far as 17 levels. We squeezed our way through passages some as low as 1m high and a couple of us helped out by filling a couple of 250 kg bags, but at around 4500m above sea level I was pretty fucked by the end of that. The miners are pushing one or two tonne wagons uphill along tracks when they are not digging. These guys are down there at least eight hours a day and at the end of the month if they are really good they pocket about 1000 Bolivianos. Thats 100 quid a month for only the best miners, the rest get a lot less. The average life expectancy is 50 years but they will generally have some lung related cancer by the time they get there. You wont hear me complaining about my job anymore. Going down there is one of the best things Ive ever done.

So now I am in Potosi until the end of the day when we depart on the overnight bus for the 12 hour drive to La Paz. A couple of our guys who had stayed behind managed to get our gear on a bus up here yesterday so we now have clean clothes again which is a pleasant change. Our truck was almost out the other day but the winch on the equipment dragging it out broke and it just sank straight back in. Apparently the salt flats are substantially less white these days. We borrowed some sand mats off the SAS truck to help with the recovery process, and of course they got stuck the next day in a river. Luckily they managed to get out after only a few hours.. if only! We are hoping that our truck will catch us up in La Paz, if it hasnt rusted to pieces by then!

Wednesday 17th April

Markets in La Paz

Now in La Paz, we have picked up three new passengers, and have the good news that yesterday afternoon our truck was pulled out of the salt flats, so it should catch us up in a couple of days. We only have two days here, so I once again missed out on the golf that I had planned, today was an orientation day and I expected to be able to shoot out to the gold course this afternoon for a quick nine holes of the highest course in the world - but as usual we left it a little too late, and managed to miss out. Tomorrow its the steepest mountain bike ride in the world (apparently!) though. La Paz is quite a cool place, lots of markets selling things like ponchos, tablecloths and llama foetuses. All a bit weird, but I am coping. Certainly its a nice change to have a few of the big city comforts, like fast internet and not having to wait for 45mins to get something to eat.

EDITORS NOTE: Just thought Id let you all out there know that this site is now getting an average of over 150 hits a week. For those of you in GSK Consumer Heathcare, compare that with yours...

Sunday 21 April

Mountain Biking

After the first day in La Paz a few of us headed up into the hills for a days mountain biking. The ride started at an altitude of 4700m above sea level and we got out of the minivan to be greeted by snow and ice on the ground. We started out at great velocity down the sealed roads, pushing the guide along all the way for the first hour, before the first of the uphill sections and the start of the torrential rain. A few people put their bikes back on the van but the rest of us persevered and managed to powered up as the seal turned into mud track, overtaking the group in front. We got to the end of that section absolutly covered in crap and had to wait for our van which was stuck in roadworks for a landslide that had covered the road for 45 mins. We continued on down when they arrived, stopping intermittantly for gear failure and massive trucks coming up the other way and as we progressed the weather changed back to hot and dusty covering our saturated bodies in another layer of dirt. At the end of the ride we had dropped 3000m to 1700m above sea level and breathing was noticably easier and the jungle climate was very pleasant. After the long and arduous trip back up, we got in at about 10:00pm and had a very satisfying couple of beers, rums and a few songs on the guitar before bed.

Reed boat near the Islas Uros, Lake Titicaca

The next day we were back on our truck and drove to Puno, Peru where we are now. We have just finished a couple of days out on Lake Titicaca - the highest navigable lake in the world. Yesterday we spent cruising out to the middle of the lake via the reed islands before stopping on Isla Aminatina where we were to spend the night. We were allocated a local family in groups of two and three and after settling in, wandered up the hill to take on the locals at soccer. These guys were an entirely different to the last time the truck team played in Chile - they were not just a bunch of enthusiastic kids, but a collection of guides and tourist workers who were out to win. Also the altitude was a serious factor in the equation, as most of us were seriously out of breath just walking up to the court. In our favour however they had just dispatched the gringos from the Kumuka truck with relative ease and were not totally fresh. The rules were first to four goals. We started a little slowly letting in a goal after a scramble in the goalmouth. Around 20mins later we were still 1-0 down and because there were others wanting to use the court (most noteably a large Australian girl with a mouth to match her girth) starting to get agitated, so the golden goal rule was called into play. Well suffice to say, the local team suffered their first defeat ever and the Oasis team remains undefeated on its tour of South America. After the football, we climbed up to the top point of the island and learnt about some of the pre-Inca culture that still remains as well as the magnificent views of the lake and surrounding mountains. It struck me that the Tiawanaka culture has some very close resemblances to the Maori culture of New Zealand. Pacha Tata and Pacha Mama (universal mother and father) are the equivalents of Rangi and Papa and many of the other major components we learnt about are also similar.

Today we continued our trip around the lake, to Isla Tequile where we had a short walk and lunch before heading back to Puno. On the way, we stopped for a swim which was entirely "refreshing". Very, very, very much so. Tomorrow we are off to Cuzco, one day out from the start of the Inca trail. Tonight will once again try to be a chilled out affair, but these things have a habit of getting out of control..

Monday 29th April

I am now in Cuzco, chilling out after the Inca trail, and recovering from the post-trail celebrations. The trail itself was fantastic and and we had a great time over the four days hiking. The two days before the trail in Cuzco were a source of much bewilderment, as I discovered that many of the pubs in addition to serving beer, also had dart boards. Certainly it confused me. Cuzco is a nice city with a very Spanish feel and is also the centre of attraction for all the tourists heading to the same place as us. It also means that for every three or four steps you take you are asked if you want "tourist information about the Inca Trail", a postcard, some art, or your shoes shined.

The Inca trail to Machu Picchu starts at an altitude of 2500m above sea level, rising to a maximum height of 4200m before finishing at 2400m. During the trek, there are three passes to climb the highest is Dead Womans Pass and it occurs on the second day. The tour company that we used provides three guides, porters, all the tents and food and we had a choice of either paying extra for a porter to carry our sleeping bags, roll mats and clothes or carrying it ourselves. I chose to carry my own and shared a 19kg Pack with my tent partner for the trip, Darren.

The first day we got up at 4:00am and caught a bus to the start of the trail, starting the walk at around 10:00am after breakfast and all the formalities of getting our tickets stamped etc. The Peruvian government only allows 500 people per day on the trail, so it was no surprise that the track was busy, but what I did find interesting was that there were people all the way down the track selling just about bloody everything that you might want; walking sticks, water, water carriers, coke, coca leaves all thrust in your face all day. The first day incidentally was ANZAC day, so with the help of a little woman selling beer, my foresight (bottle of Johnnie Walker) and the Australians in the group the day was commemerated appropriately. It was however quite difficult initially to play 2-up as we couldnt figure out which side of the Peruvian currency was heads!

Day two began and I woke up with a rumble in my tummy, but it didnt slow me down too much, and I managed to get up the highest part of the trek without too much damage. Typically, just as the climb got difficult, all the people selling things dissapeared so there was no excuse to stop. We got into camp after another nice day and played hacky until dark. I was still feeling a little rough and went to bed early, which almost killed Darren as he entered a tent containing more than just a few toxic fumes as my stomach tried to come to grips with whatever was bothering it. The next day we zipped off nice and early and had a reasonably long day, but finished at the base used by those who take the two day trail option, which was good because not only is there a hostel there, there is a bar.

Machu Picchu

After four or so hours sleep, we got up with torches in hand in the pouring rain toward Machu Picchu. After a couple of hours of annoying most of the people around us with some merry singing, we arrived at the Sun Gate where the first views of the ancient ruins occur. Fortunatly for our overworked cameras, all we could see was cloud, mist and rain so we didnt trouble them with taking photos of the classic scene. We arrived at the tourist base having seen nothing but the same mist and drizzle at around 8:00am and after dumping our gear in a bag check went to see if we could find the ruins. Fortunately the sun decided that it would be a good time to make an appearance, and we got all the fantastic views appearing out of the cloud in front of us as we rounded the corner. A wonderful day began and we spent the rest of the day exploring the ancient city before returning on the train to Cuzco last night.

Monday 6 May

Well Cuzco finished with a bang! After updating this page I went for a couple of drinks with some of the others from our truck and a few from the SAS truck and ended up arriving home around an hour before it was time to get up and leave for the continuation of my trip north towards Arequipa. Also there is now a new reader of my epic chronicles (Hi Sussie!). We spent all of the next day travelling, and stopped overnight utilising floor space of a little restaurant on the way to the Colca Canyon (which is in places the deepest canyon in the world) - where we saw Condors circling in the morning thermals. After this we got into Arequipa and had a free day which for many of us involved a lot of relaxing and recovery, followed once again by a hectic night out.

After Arequipa we headed up the coast, enjoying the ease of breathing that sea level offers over the altitude that we have been used to over the previous few weeks, stopping at Puerto Inca and another beach on the way to Lima where we are currently based for a couple of days. On the way we stopped off to take a plane ride over the Nazcar lines, which was an interesting experience as the little 3 seater Cessenas offer a pretty bumpy ride of the famous mysterious figures in the desert. The lines are so well hyped in this part of the world as a tourist attraction, what started out as one of the main highlights when I departed Rio sort of fizzed a little. It is nice however to now be in a big city (Lima, Peru's capital has a population similar to London's of around 8 million inhabitants) with all the associated crime, pollution, and fast food joints that have been absent from my travels of late. We are here for two days and lose five people from the truck before embarking on the last two weeks of the journey towards the Amazon and finally Quito. It certainly feels as though we are comming to the end of the trip as many are a little tired, and quite a few have been suffering from variuos stomach upsets over the past fortnight. In case you were wondering, Im fine though!

Wednesday 8th May

Paraglider over the coast in Lima

Today we are once again in Lima. This morning when we got up nice and early to get up and meet the driver, the truck realised that after drinking until 4:30 the previous morning, the driver was going to incur "techincal difficulties" and so instead of meeting us, it stayed in bed and the driver stayed in the driver park where it had been for the previous couple of days. Some people on the driver were not impressed. Meanwhile the previous night here in Lima, the trucks girlfriend took us out for dinner to the most expensive restaurant in town the other night, to say goodbye to all the folks leaving us here in Lima. Not only did we get stuck paying London prices for food, we watched while the nice people that booked the restaurant didnt bother to order food. Ahh.. such a cunning plan. Later at the karaoke bar, our guide then managed to make a complete disgrace of herself when either she was trying to sing into the mic while another punter (unknown to us) was singing, or when she was screaching into the mic at 150 decibels. I knew something was up when the staff at the bar were asking us to remove her halfway through songs! Still, we are all alive and eagerly awaiting the next part of our trip which "truck" permitting, we will be off to experience tomorrow.

This all pales into comparison when you take into account what has been going on on the truck over the last couple of days. I mentioned that there had been a feeling of tiredness amongst the troops, well today we discovered that instead of the 5 people leaving, there are actually 3 additional passengers departing, one is going home to be with her boyfriend, one is going in the hope that his girlfriend of 20 years younger is going to be around and one will meet us later on. This in addition to the bloke who has been "liasing" with a married woman on the truck who is leaving here in Lima. He is staying, and she is leaving.. oh its all so painful and difficult.. lucky its not me eh?

Tuesday 14th May

Last night we arrived here in Baņos, Equador where we will spend the next three days doing outdoorsy stuff like mountain biking and canyoning before heading into the Amazon jungle. Its very hard to believe that we've only got a week left on the truck so while I am still looking forward to the jungle I am also trying to make plans for the continuation of this trip. We are at 1800m above sea level again, but it is still very nice and warm so today I will venture outside into it, before all the adventure sports planned for tomorrow and the next day.

Thursday 16th May

Tonight is the last night in Baņos, after three great days. The canyoning that I had planned to do yesterday went ahead without me, as the rain that was falling outside awoke some kind of lethargy inside me (!) and I just had to sleep in. I took the opportunity instead to watch the UEFA Champions League final, and therefore got to see Zidane's fantastic goal as well as catching up on some well needed sleep. Today we went up the local volcano, Tungurahua - one of Equador's 25 active ones - but it was fairly misty so we didnt get the expected views of Cotopaxi and Chimbarazo, but it was a good hike and we got some great mountain biking in on the way down.

The town of Baņos is a geothermal resort, whose name incidentally means "bathing" but these days it is unfortunately more commonly used to mean "toilet" lives under constant threat of the volcano that we climbed up today, and quite often roads are closed due to volcanic rocks being thrown onto them. Even during our trek up it was quite obvious that there was a lot of volcanic ash covering the leaves on trees beside the track and on the track itself. We didnt actually go all the way up to the top, as there is a fair amount of smoke and ash constantly pouring out of the crater this would have been a bad idea - but we did get up to the camp at 3800m which was easily enough for the day!

Thursday 23 May

Well, I have now finished the truck tour from Rio and am in Quito calming down at the end of a few hectic days. We drove from Banos to Tena - the gateway to the Amazonian rainforest, and after a night there organising ourselves we started a tour into it. We stayed one night at one small village and then moved on to a lodge a couple of hours drive away. The situation was really picturesque and didnt feel at all touristy. The first morning we went for a walk to a river a few kilometres away and swam, and slid down natural waterslides in the rock as well as jumping off a few waterfalls. On the way back we got into some tyre tubes tied together for a bit of a white water adventure on the way home. The rapids in the river we were on were not too scary, but managed to seperate Will from his solo effort towards the end. As we were about to finish, we realised that we had missed the get out point and the two blokes with paddles deemed it appropriate that we abandon ship in order that they steer it to saftey. In the meantime one of our esteemed collegues from one of the other "rafts" was yelling out that there was a large waterfall downstream and that we'd better hurry. Unfortunately one of our party took these comments as fact and when we were within five metres of the shore, resorted to panic in order to save herself. This panic involved clutching onto my shoulder and as I was clasping my sandles with my other hand, rendered me about as effective in the water as a lead brick. Fortunately I managed to somehow carry us both close enough to the shore to get some kind of footing and calm said panicing raftmate down. Crisis averted. The afternoon was a little more sedate with a walk in the surrounding area learning about the medicinal qualities of some of the flora. It seemed that the plants were divided reasonably equally in two - those that cause diahorrea and those that fix it. I didnt try any. That night, after dinner and a short snooze in the fantastically comfortable hammocks we inlisted the help of the local Shamin (spiritual healer dude) to mix up some ayaguasca, a drink that Shamins use to get more in touch with nature and help the health of the community. Basically its an hallucinagenic drink made from the bark of a vine and it gives you "visions" of your relationship with nature. He also mixed it with some other leaves that he said would give us endurance for the next day. The Shamin, Enriquez invited us to share our visions, and about six of us took up his offer. Personally, I just did it for the trip.

The next day we walked further into the forest and climbed up a few waterfalls over a five or six hour hike. It was a great time and although absolutly knackered at the end, it got any bugs out of my sytem from the night before. After another siesta in the afternoon, we had dinner and moved to our new accommodations. The 'Shangrila' lodgewas just as its meaning in Spanish suggests, paradise. Not only did it have beautiful views of the surrounding forest and river, but also a bar! As the new day dawned over our wonderful picture postcard setting, we got up and got ready for a hike into another part of the forest, this time incorporating a wander through a canyon where some of the local bats hang out. As Juilio the tour company's rep had suggested "the bats are vegetarians, they dont bite to you, but you also dont bite to them". As you have already probably guessed, this guy was a laugh a minute.

The walk, despite the pre-trek hype it received was great fun, and we saw all sorts of local flora and fauna including the hundreds of bats in the canyons as some of them came speeding past at what seemed like light speed. That afternoon we once again got into some tubes, but this time on a far more sedate river and spent two hours cruising down the river attacking each other and splashing and shouting and other grown-up type activites. Upon our return, we had dinner and were treated to a group of local Quechan musicians and their families putting on a traditional performance. Our guide earier in the day had told us how important it was for him to have these performances for the children as he thought that his culture was dying and it was the only opportunity to practise songs and dances that used to be a major part of community life.

The next day we returned to Tena for our final journey on the truck to Quito, and as luck would have it managed to get stuck in roadworks for an hour and a half on the way, arriving at around 7:30pm. Quito is a very modern (for Equador's standards) city and once again we have the opportunity to indulge in all the western crap that we are used to at home. After the usual night getting aquainted with the local pubs, some of us got up early and headed 180kms north to Otavalo where there are some fantastic markets and thus bargins to be had. The batering skills gained in previous trips came in very handy as I managed to get some real bargins. The bus ride to Otavalo was a staggering $1.50 (compare that to STG 1.60 for the 200m tube ride from Covent Garden to Leicester Square in London!).

Today I have been to where the Equator cuts through Equador, and visited a few museums there to see amongst other things, water swirling in opposite directions down plug holes two metres from each other. I have also (and this may come as a shock to many of you) booked some flights to Guatemala to where I am departing for tomorrow. (For those of you who understand, I wont be seeing Dr Ropata there, because hes not there anymore) .. Its funny how some things turn out!

Click here for the continuation of my trip to Guatemala

Feel free to send any messages to me at ryananglem@hotmail.com