Thought I would give my input on the blog for once as Tania has been doing all the writing up untill now, though expect she will check this before I press post!

We are leaving South America after 3 months and after traveling overland for about 10,000 km, it will be sad to leave, although it will be nice to get to a country where you can speak a languge that they actually understand - hopefully! After our time here we still can't speak spanish fluently but we can now get by in resturants and no longer have to resort to making mooing and chicken clucking noises to get across what we want! I expect it will take a bit to get used to being away from here and am sure I will be saying "Si" and "Gracias" a few times before I get the hang of English again. One thing I must remember though is that toilet paper will now go in the toilet and no longer in the bin or we will not be popular in New Zealand! ( Plumbing is so bad in South America that paper will just block everything up). Saying that the electrical installations here are interesting, at our lodge in the amazon the "light switch" for the bar which was on a post by the bar (just where you may lean) was 2 bare wires which were touched together when lights were needed. And in a number of places you never touch the shower head as the wiring to them is usually twisted together and then taped up.

In the countries we have travelled through we have seen everything from desert to jungle, cites like Santiago which could be any where in Europe, to villages in Ecuador where it is normal to get married at 13 and start having kids. Which means if I was Ecuadorian I could be a Grandfather now, that is a frightening thought! The range of people we have seen too has been great, in Santiago even some of the beggars are better dressed than the normal people in Bolivia. Apart from Chile (although there are rich people in South America) on the whole from what we saw, most were poor and there are a lot of people who beg to survive. In Sao Paulo, Brazil alone there are 14,000 kids living on the streets. When you see them you realise how well off we are at home, though would be good to take the lazy people from home who want everything for nothing to see what living in poverty really is like. In some rural areas the people live in mud huts and by our standards are poor and yet they seem happy enough they have enough to survive and so are content I guess. Something I saw written on a resturant wall maybe sums up these people "Being happy is not having what you want ,but wanting what you have".

Im trying to remember some of the best and worst things that we have seen the last 3 months so here goes:-

Best natural wonder: Has to be the Iguazu Falls. The Amazon rain forest, some of the deserts, the falt flats in Bolivia and the Andes mountains are amazing but the falls have to be the best and no photos can can do them justice. If there was only one place in South America that you were going to visit, it would have to be here.

Most exciting time: Now this is difficult and so Im going to cheat and list a few things which were exciting but for different reasons. Sand boarding was great but was over before you knew it. Mountain biking down the "Worlds most dangerous road" was great and lasted all day, there is nothing better to focus the mind than a 600m vertical cliff! But perhaps the most exciting thing but for different reasons was the rioting farmers in Peru. Its amazing how fast you can throw things into the truck and get everyone on board too when you can see a group of people running towards you in the black of night! They turned out to be riot police but we couldn't tell untill they were right along side. There is something quite surreal about seeing a Peruvian lady in full traditional dress complete with bowler type hat at the side of the road cluching stones ready to throw at the next vehicle!

Best Ancient Site: Machu Picchu, really nice scenery as well as the city itself.

Best City: Rio de Janerio, it has everything from beaches to mountains.

Best Wildlife: Galapagos Islands, there is no other place like it. Great as long as you don't get sea sick, ask Tania!

Worst time: Now for Tania walking the Inca trail (with a cold) wins by a mile. Its hard enough walking to altitudes of 4800m (thats about 3 miles above sea level) when you are well so as you can imagine she was a bit grumpy for a few days!!

Worst Roads: Bolivia, south of Potosi tarmac doesn't seem to exist there.

Worst Drivers: Pretty much everywhere though in Buenos Aries the howling which we thought was a dog that had just got run over was acually a woman who had been knocked down by a car!

Most Distressing Sight: Has to be the kids begging, if it is adults maybe they got themselves into that state, if it is kids I guess they had no choice.

Most Interesting thing we saw for sale: Dried Llama foetuses hanging on the stalls in the witches market in La Paz.

Most interesting food: Toss up between the turkey testicles I ate in Brazil and the Guinea Pig I ate in Peru. The other thing with food in this part of the world, if you are in a group don't expect to eat at the same time they will bring everything in dribs and drabs, you may well get your starter after the main couse and just because you have waited a long time you don't expect that it will be hot - its often half cold! Saying that we have had some good food here too. Now at this point I would normally make a comment about the size of Tania`s bottom but as she will be proof reading this for my sake I had better refrain!

And thats it for South America, if we can manage for another 8 hours we will have got out without being robbed or mugged which is always a bonus in this part of the world, (though we have a few friends that didn't manage to) and so onto the next stop of New Zealand.