Brazil, where to start...it's pretty much a continent in itself and with only 6 weeks to get from the very north of Venezuela to Buenos Aires, Argentina we had to pick a few key places and just bus our way past everything else. We had been warned by everybody we met that Brazil was expensive but we kept thinking 'well it couldn't cost more than Argentina'! The second we got to Brazil we realised our budget was out of the window just on bus tickets! We had trave...

Venezuela We’d heard a lot of negative things about Venezuela on our travels and one hostel owner ever planned a route for us through Colombian Amazonia just so that we could avoid it! Colombia takes some beating and admittedly Venezuela is more expensive especially for food and accommodation even by changing dollars on the black market! The official exchange rate is 2.15, set by Chavez, but by selling dollars here we generally get about 5! We’ve changed mon...

Colombia...I’ve wanted to write this blog for a while but I’ve refrained just in case! Colombia is an amazing country and the world’s opinion of it is generally completely wrong. Yes there is a massive drugs trade here, 80% of the world’s cocaine is made here and this has meant that there is a crime problem and also a few safety issues for tourists. Generally tourists are safer here than in most of South America but there is the risk of kidnappings and t...

Buenos Dias, my last blog I seem to remember saying that South America keeps surprising me and that the Salt Flats trip in Bolivia would take some beating. Well, Macchu Picchu is definitely up there! I had heard Peru was expensive, incredibly touristy and perhaps a tad overrated. That’s rubbish! We arrived in Cuzco after a nightmare journey on a bus with locals to find an incredibly beautiful colonial town with square after square and church after church. Yes...

Right...where to start. We FINALLY arrived in Mendoza and found ourselves a cool little hostel. We went out that night with some New Zealanders...Argentina is a little like Spain, they don’t do anything until after midnight! We left the club at 5am and then got kicked out of our room at midday! So that day was a write off! The next day we went wine tasting...I really want to make it clear that this trip is not all about tasting the local alcoholic beverages but...