Ardilla y el Sapo..........estan de vuelta!

It´s us again, Squirrel (Ardilla) and Toad (Sapo) and wow have we been busy little things since our last update. We´re in our tenth country; Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador (we slept there for one night so we are counting it), Nicuagara, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and now Peru!

Since the last update we´ve visited Ometepe where we climbed a Volcano (Nicole climbed it for us…) and enjoyed riding on the bumpy local buses. We weren´t too sure about the 10 hour boat ride from San Carlos to Ometepe, but it wasn´t too bad in the end. El Castillo was definitely worth the visit and the rainforest there was much more beautiful than what we saw in Costa Rica. Costa Rica was lovely but Monte Verde is a little Touristic for us, although we did enjoy chilling out in the hot springs with Alex and Helena, two Norwegians we travelled with for a while. They were much better at gin rummy than Nicole and Malc….embarrassing really….

The flight to South America was interesting, Nicole and Malcolm had to sit apart and Nicole got to sit between two quite big men, that´s when we´re glad we´re so little, we don´t have to fight for elbow space (if we even have elbows). We killed time in the airport messing around with some smac that we found.

The carnival in Brazil was tremendous, the feathers were bigger than us, but some of the nipple tassels weren´t, toad was shocked! After dressing up at the carnival, finding time to hunt Christ the Redeemer down in the fog and visiting Sugar Loaf Mountain we endured the 23 hour ride to Iguassu….it was definitely worth it! The falls were fantastic. It was hard to imagine how powerful they would be, Squirrels don´t swim, but even Toad didn´t fancy a dip, much too dangerous for her.


From Iguassu we did a ´whistle stop´ Argentina, with more epic bus journeys and a stop off in Salta, where we saw a very ´jazzy´ cathedral and indulged in Malbec and steak. Toad indulged a little too much….typical toad!

Argentina to Bolivia was interesting, there wasn´t much warning about the sudden climb in altitude between Salta and Tupiza and we all had headaches for a day or two. The South Western circuit in Bolivia was fabulously beautiful and the landscape was so varied, we didn´t realize how amazing Bolivia would be, or how high above sea level! Nicole and Malcolm are total geography geeks, so while they were talking ´Aeolian landforms´, wadi´s and salt flats we went off hunting Llamas.

At the first stopover on the Bolivia trip we almost became Bolivian residents when a lovely little Bolivian girl tried to adopt/kidnap us. I think she told Nicole that she would get us in the night, luckily Nicole slept with us in her jacket pocket……..


We had fun messing around on the salt flats and even managed to make ourselves look bigger than Nicole!! (with a little help from Malcolm)

After all that excitement we took it easy in Uyuni, Potosí and La Paz, and left the train cemetery and the silver mines to the humans. We chilled out with our new found Bolivian friends Julio the Llama herder and Mr Llama instead and conserved our energy for Isla del Sol, Cusco and the Inca Trail.

Isla del Sol was breath taking, literally, the climb up the island from the beach was a bit of a shocker, but the views from the 12ish km walk around the island were awe inspiring; even if we had to pay to enter the south, the north and the middle of the island separately. We were very confused about paying for the ´middle section´, but we enjoyed seeing our first Inca sights and the money goes to maintain the island which is most definitely money well spent. 

So, we´ve now hit Cusco and have spent the last two days seeing the city and making sure everything is in place for the Inca trail. We visited a Chocolate Museum today and had a great time tasting ´Te de Cocoa´, tea that tastes of Chocolate, I think Nicole nearly died and went to heaven…

Anyway, time to go and catch some small furry ZZZ´s. We hope you like the pictures, we can´t wait to post one of us at Machu Picchu!!!!!!

Working the mining look!!

We´re just downloading all our pics to send home, as we now officially have over 8GB worth, so I thought I´d treat you all to the sexy look Malc and I rocked for the mine tour. I am in awe that miners work in the conditions we experienced for over 8 hours a day!

The mines were at about 4200m above sea level, so we were still higher than London while we were 60m under ground. Buying dynamite as a gift for the miners was a bit of an experience too, you can buy a stick of Bolivian dynamite in the Miner´s market for just 2 Bolivianos, although better quality Argentinian dynamite is 8 Bolivios, that´s roughly 75p…….

If anyone is coming to Bolivia we recommend this tour with Greengo tours, our guide was great. Only 30 seconds into the tour George turned us around and shouted ´run´ as two huge trolleys (Indiana Jones style) were hurtling towards us. We got out of the mine just in time to see them pass us!

Buying Coca leaves and 96% proof alcohol for the miners

The entrance to the La Negra mine....where we ran away from trolleys!

Malc crawling in the mine

Us with Carlos (the Barca fan) and Jorge Louis

Beautiful Bolivia!

We have just returned from 4 days on the south western circuit in Bolivia and this country is beautiful! I may however be slightly biased as I am a drylands geek, but the scenary is amazing, if only I could find a way to swing a PhD on Bolivia.......

The link included on this post is for the tour company that we went with, as Alfredo and Maleny who were our driver/guide and cook team were brilliant and should be recommended to anyone coming to Bolivia! It meant that as well as amazing scenery we had great information, food and company and along with Felcity, Laura and Jonathan (our trip companions) they made the trip what it was.

I have spent the last hour downloading photos from our camera onto a usb stick, as some numpty (ummmm I wonder who) tried to set the camera up for a group shot on a rear view mirror of the jeep and it fell off onto the floor. The result of which is that we now seem to be getting read/write errors on the memory cards. OOPS!!! There were a few cross faces being pulled at me after that stroke of insane genius.....

So, as I am going through checking that we have the hundreds upon hundreds of photos that we took, yes that sandals and slide party is going to be an epic, this blog post is going to be quite short. I have attached more photos for your amusement/perusal instead.....I repeat....this is an extremely small percentage of the photos we have of Bolivia!!! I have included some of Malc this time as I am ashamed to say I didnt in the last post, sorry all you Malc watchers, I am reformed.

We are off down a working silver mine in Potesi tomorrow, which is slightly dangerous, but should be eye opening. Im sure it will be an experience that I will never forget, but Ill let you know in the next post. After that its the night bus to La Paz and then onto Cuzco to aclimatise for the Inca Trail. We ascended to 5000 metres above sea level in the last two days (Potesi isnt quite that high but is the highest city in the world) and Malc suffered with the altitude a bit, due mainly to the speed at which we ascended, so I think we will be aiming to get to Cuzco three days before we set off. 

Does anyone know if you can buy Dulce de Leche in the UK??? Its basically the toffee bit from the Banoffee pie in a jar, YUM, I am totally addicted and was extremely excited when we were given it with cake for breakfast one morning. Cake and toffee for breakfast!!!! whooo hoooo!!! 

Toad and Squirrel do promise to be back soon, but are currently hanging out with their new Bolivian friends, Mr Llama and Julio the Llama herder.............

Malc, Felicity and I on the salt flat......



Squirrel and Toad made friends!!!!



Only 8 inches.....

The photo that broke the camera......Jonathan, Laura, Felicity, Malc and Alfredo

Malc and that famous Bolivian rock

Malc and a beautiful lake/volcano that I cant remember the name of already!!!

Rainy Rio and those Caiprinas.......

Hours of sleep = Not enough
Waterfalls = Hundreds
Cocktails = Too many
Quirky spanish phrases learnt = at least two...... ´le gato es en la mesa´ and ´la vaca hace ´mu´´  - I think that´s roughly right!

Hola from Argentina, thankfully a very sunny one, after the torrential rain in Rio!

I have heard a few amusing reviews of the Carnaval in Rio, it is after all in a class all of it´s own, but I think the funniest one was from an English guy who got tickets to the Sambadrome and left after two hours because after 6 minutes he realised that the samba schools played the same song on repeat for an hour and a half and he just couldn´t take it! Not even with almost naked samba dancers to keep him occupied!

My take was..... AWESOME! Even in the rain. The best way I can think of describing it, although this is still pretty shabby, is like Glastonbury in a city, just with more feathers, stronger cocktails, worse porta loos (who knew Glasto could be beaten on that front) and some awesome dancing. Glastoberries, this is no reflection on you, but I have never seen moves as good at Glasto!

I am so glad we went, despite the expense, every penny was worth spending; the Blocos were street parties like I have never seen and the Sambadrome was just brilliant, our seats weren´t great but we got to see a lot of the dancers up close which I definitely think Malc enjoyed! We even got to try on a couple of the head dresses on, which are suprisingly heavy and I couldn´t believe they just throw away afterwards. Next time I go I´m going with an empty suitcase and stocking up on the fancy dress ;-)

After partying all night for 3 nights and still managing to do Sugar Loaf and pop in to see Christ on the hill, we hopped on a 23 hour bus to Iguasu. Needless to say we slept the whole way. The Iguasu falls are amazing, we got to see them from both the Brazilian and Argentian sides and now have, wait for it, approximately 200 photos to prove it. Hmmm, some serious culling required I think, or that sandals and slide show party is going to be REALLY fun!!!

We have just completed a 22 hour bus journey from Iguasu to Tucuman, followed immediately by a 4 hour journey from Tucuman to Salta and get back on a bus at midnight tonight to head from Salta to La Qunica (another 7 hours),  where we will cross into Bolivia. You´ve got to love the buses in Argentina though, the seats recline so far that they are longer than me, they provide food, have a coffee machine and show films. National express have a lot to learn.

Squirrel and Toad will be back online soon with an update from the last couple of weeks, Squirrel tried the catwalk dance that Pablo so kindly recommended but despite wowing the crowds, he is now nursing a poorly tail after toad hopped all over it. Turns out toads don´t samba as well as Squirrels.......

There is so much more I could write and I haven´t done the last week or so enough justice at all, but I don´t want to bore you all and quite frankly after 26 hours of buses my brain is a little numb. Not even the super strength coffee I ingested my own body weight of has managed to kick start my brain cell, I´ll have to hope red wine and steak do the trick.

Speaking of which I hear the restaurant calling................There are some pics below to keep you entertained.

Like my hat?

Iguasu.......or some of it....

Our hostel owner in Puerto de Iguasu, LOVELY lady!

The Dragon Lizard hat that we tried and failed to get for Hugo, sorry H man, we´ll have to see what Adam can do with some paper mache instead.......

Please excuse all the spelling mistakes, spell check on a Spanish PC is not very helpful when you are writing in English!!!!!!

Just to give you an idea of that bathroom, Ometepe and a tree frog in El Castillo

Just thought I would add a few pictures to give you an idea of the places I talked about in the last blog entry!!

We're in Rio now and the Blocos are fabulous, more updates soon..................

The approach to Ometepe

Volcan Conception from the hostel under Volcan Maderas

Tree Frog in El Castillo

That bathroom!!!

Bright buildings in Granada

Toilets, Big ass spiders and Volcanoes........

Another week (and a few days) bites the dust and what a packed week it has been! Since my last update we have visited Granada, Ometepe, El Castilllo (via the Rio San Juan river), crossed the Nicaraguan border to Costa Rica, soaked in the hot springs at La Fortuna (the free ones) and are now being rained on in Monteverde!

My view of Granada was a rather different one from what Granada really looks like, as I was sick for both days we were there and have even had to get antibiotics to help aid the recovery process, which meant I only saw Granada for an hour or so before we left. Trust me to get sick in the only place we have visited where there is a huge festival taking place, hostel rooms are limited and we have to take a room with a constant leak in the bathroom and a toilet that backs up into the ´shower´ when it flushes..........NICE!

Needless to say the 4 hour ferry ride to Ometepe was a little bit tense for me, but everything was okay, by that I mean no throwing up or being locked in another lovely bano for the whole 4 hours. I was actually able to enjoy the fabulous views of Ometepe as we approached (an island with twin volcanoes) and watch the sunset over the horizon.

No rest for the wicked and after one rest day, during which we still moved locations in Ometepe, so that we were at the foot of the Maderas volcano, we climbed Maderas. Now, a couple of things I have learnt, climbing volcanoes after being extremely sick for a few days is probably not a wise idea, especially when coupled with extreme period pain, unless you are a saddist, or into extreme torture! There was some hardcore mental strength required for the 3 and a bit hour climb to the top, but I survived and enjoyed the sense of achievement when we returned to the hostel 7 hours later....at least that is what I am telling myself.

We met a young aussie who climbed the volcano with us and he completed the climb wearing flip flops tied together, as well as to his feet, with electrical tape and string, which was highly entertaining and a spectacle in itself.

From Ometepe we took the 10 hour ferry ride, during which I slept on top of our backpacks on the floor and Malc had the seat, to San Carlos which is the gateway to the Rio San Juan. After a 5 hour wait at San Carlos we hopped on a panga down the river to El Castillo, passing pristine rainforest and river side villages on the way, and prepared for a day hiking in the rainforest in search of Macaws, Toucans, Monkeys and Caimans.

We say lots of Monkeys, a Caiman, some Tree frogs and two Toucans (hurray), as well as learning loads about the rainforest from our guide Orlando. We even spotted a few Jaguar tracks, but sadly no Jaguar or Macaws.

The journey back up the river to San Carlos a day or so later and the border crossing to Los Chiles in Costa Rica went without a hitch, despite the 5 hour wait for a panga to cross the border and we managed to make the two buses we needed from Los Chiles to get to La Fortuna, during which time we met the lovely Alex and Helene, a Norweign couple who we are now travelling with for a few days.

The hot springs at La Fortuna represented the first real hot water we have had in weeks, so I now feel a little cleaner and it was so nice to relax in a natural hot river! Especially as the last day or so in Monteverde has been rain, rain and more rain.

We´re booked on a night tour of the forest so I have to dash now and I haven´t even mentioned the Tarantula that was in our room in Ometepe......