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!!!!!!
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!!!!!!
Got the parcel, thanks for the hats. I have just uploaded all your photos, took hours but they look good.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your travels.