Hello everyone!

So SOUTH AMERICA!!!!!

Bet you all thought we had given up on updating this blog? South America was proving difficult.......trying to find a computer anywhere were we could plug our camera in and update the photos without any problems was a bit of a task.

We're now back in London for a few days to sort out visas for the next part of our trip, so we can now officially say that we've been 'Round the World'!

So where to start...... We arrived into Santiago absolutely knackered because we flew from New Zealand and although the flight time isn't much... the time difference is!!!!!!! (International date line and all that!)

I have to say it is very different to what I thought it would be like.

We stayed in Santiago for few days and decided that we wanted to head over to Buenos Aires. Bus travel is the way to travel in South America as it is so cheap. Anyway we jumped on the bus and headed towards Mendoza which is probably about half way.

We left at 10am in the morning and got to Mendoza at 7.30pm. We had thought that we might as well just jump on the next bus to Buenos Aires so we went into the travel office in the bus station and were told that the next bus is at 8.15pm.............and thought that would be enough time ...WRONG!!!!!!! after trying to find the cash machine and a shop it took us a bit longer and we missed the bus....well to be exact it actually left a few minutes early!!!!! We were fuming! We had to go back into the travel office and try and explain this, and since we knew very little Spanish this was almost impossible...........Nightmare!!!!! (This was the start of our 'Crash Course in Spanish'!!!!.......Which we needed to learn pretty damn quick!!!)

Luckily we were told that there was a bus coming from Lima, and we may be able to get on that one....but that meant having to sit around for 5 hours in a bus station in the middle of nowhere after dark!

We ended up speaking (or at least trying to speak!!) to a family from Iqueque in Chile....They were very nice (they knew about Braveheart and Celtic and Rangers!!!) At least the 5 hours weren't a total waste.. they taught us a little Spanish!

We finally arrived into Buenos Aires at 3pm the next day!!!

Anyway, after a bit of research we decided to go to Iguassu Falls instead of the Rio carnival............we had been speaking to a few people about prices etc so we decided against it otherwise we would have been coming home about 3 month early!

Iguassu was amazing......the photos really don't do it justice!!! took a boat ride directly below a part of the falls called The Devils throat it really is worth the visit!!!!

After spending a few days in Puerto Iguassu we headed across to a town called Salta where we stayed for 5 nights, we couldn't believe the prices there, it is so cheap for food and drink! (but cheaper prices were still to come!)

The next place we wanted to visit was Bolivia......'Why' I hear some of you asking...but after buying the lonely planet book for South America they made it sound quite an interesting place to visit (which it was...in more ways than one!!!!!) plus we had talked about visiting the Bolivian salt flats!!

So the easiest way to get to Bolivia from Argentina was to cross the border on foot from La Quaica...this was certainly one of the strangest things we did......I think we were one of the very few backpackers doing this....it was definately like something you would see in a film.......dogs running around, all the locals rushing back and forward with food etc to sell across the border............I really wanted to take some photos but thought that probably wasn't the best thing to do! I think there is one photo we took.. (Very quickly) of the border into Bolivia on the road we walked.

After crossing the border we the first town you come to is Villazon which is an hour behind Argentina!!!!!!! We decided to try and jump onto the first bus out from here so we could get to Tupiza...which was where we wanted to do our Bolivian salt flat tour from.

Tupiza is about 2000 metres above sea level so had felt a bit strange for a few days.

So glad we stumbled across another town that was very cheap....... Bottle of beer was about 80p, litre of water 50p, and dinner for the two of us was between 5 and 7 pounds!!

We booked a tour through a local travel agent for 4 days and 3 nights to the Bolivian salt flats and surrounding lagoons, volcanoes, desserts etc.....it was amazing, such a strange thing to see plus we got to stay in a hotel made from salt. The accommodation was VERY basic as you will see in the photos...but totally worth it.

We finished our tour in a small town called Ulyuni where we had a bus booked to go to La Paz........funny how things never quite work out....... the bus company left a note on there door, informing people that all the buses were in for maintenance...so the next problem was trying to find a half decent bus company that could take us to La Paz.....Well we managed to find one and it was the last two seats.......Big mistake!!!!....It turns out we had the last two seats (which never reclined and probably because no one wanted to sit next to the CHEMICAL TOILET!!!) After 14 hours of being on a bus that felt it was trying to re-enter earths atmosphere(you've seen the films.......everyone getting buffetted about, all over the place)....and then everyone being told to get off the bus in the dead of the night as 2 lorries had overturned in the road infornt of us!!! We were glad we arrived in La Paz in one piece!

Then there was La Paz. It felt very strange! We felt almost breathless just walking in the streets. It is the highest capital in the world (13,450 feet) which seemed very bizarre when we considered that our sky dive in New Zealand was 12,000 feet!!!!!!!!!

Our plan had been to leave La Paz and go to Peru to see Machu Picchu.......but luck wasn't with us for that one. The site had been closed in late January due to extremely bad flood damage and we were told it would not be open again until April!

So after being in La Paz for about a week we decided that we were in much need of sunshine (La Paz can be a fairly cold place due to the altitude) so we thought it was about time to head to Brazil.

On our way to Brazil we stopped in a place called Santa Cruz, where this fab hotel with a jacuzzi, that charged us half of what was supposed to be charged for the room!! all those bus journeys were worth it!!!! (I think it worked out at about 22 pounds per night!!!)

Rather than booking a hostel/hotel in Brazil we deiced that it would be better to book an apartment we found on trip advisor......which was next to Copacabana beach! It was fab! (it had a kitchen, double bed and a bathroom.......all you really need!!!!......all this and it was cheaper than any decent hotel in Rio!!!)

Was so glad to be back in a place with sunshine.....Rio was great despite the crazy thunderstorms and lightning during the night!

The beaches were really nice..Ipanema was def the best!!!!

Did all the touristy things, including visiting Christ the Redeemer............The sights and views were amazing!!!

Oh and spotted a C&A down the road from where we were staying......yep they still do 'Clockhouse Fashions' too!!!!!! The clothes were fab.......def an improvement from what I can remember lol!!!!

It was great to chill on a beach for the next 10 days, and not need to worry about long bus journeys!!

So, here I am sitting in London after a few visits to Primark and sorting out visas for the next part of our journey..it has been great so far...apologies for not updating this sooner...... (btw, if it seems like there aren't as many pictures of South America as you might have thought, it was due to the fact that we didn't feel as comfortable getting the camera out in certain places that we went to...........It just drew attention, and some of the places were a bit scary!!!)

Our next stop on our travels is India, then overland to China then fly to LA overland to New York and poss Europe

Take care all!!!!!

Remember please keep leaving us little messages as it is nice to find out what you are all up to back home!!!!

P.S Congratulations to my sister Nicola and Ross, and Jo and Stevie on your engagements.

Lou & Iain xxx