Would you find…? Sheep, llamas, wild pigs, donkeys, any assortment of animals just wandering the streets in the cities? People living quite happily in unfinished houses which they never intend finishing building? (they don't have to pay tax if the building is unfinished!) The most beautifully landscaped and maintained roadsides and roundabouts next to deathtrap potholed roads and pavements in a country where you can eat a three course lunch for 70p? These...

So I finally arrived in Mancora, tired and stinky, but I arrived, and spent 3 days there, dragging myself away before I gave in to Jody asking me to work there! It was pretty much the same as the last time I was there, hot and sunny and good parties, just with different staff, and I made friends with some cool American guys Dave and Matt and hung out with them for a few days. Then I headed straight off to Arequipa with a brief stop in Lima, another 30+ hours of...

As Ben has abandoned me for the moment, I have spent the last four weeks on my own! I was very worried about this to start off with but it turned out all right in the end, although I'm looking forward to Ben's return tonight! When we went back to BA we stayed in a different hostel which was in San Telmo because it was a lot cheaper than the Milhouse. To be honest, the reason for that was obvious! Ben stayed with me for the first night, then the next day we went ...

The bus drive from Los Antiguos to El Calafate was literally the most boring of my life! The scenery consisted of totally flat landscape with tiny shrubs no higher than 30cm, not even any trees, for 12 hours, with the occasional sighting of nandus (emu like birds) and guanacos (kind of like llamas). The bus driver actually stopped the bus when we got to a lake and made us get out and take a photo as it was the first remotely interesting thing we'd seen! However ...

So we left Pucon and arrived in Valdivia, a university town located on a river. There wasn't masses to do there but the main spectacle was the riverside fish market. The stall owners gut their fish behind the market on the riverside, and therefore attract hundreds of birds (including the biggest birds I had ever seen in my life) all fighting for the cut offs, and sealions which live in the river and climb up onto the side to get snacks! They do quite a good show ...