We took a taxi to our hostel and were dumped on the street outside. After 5 minutes of ringing the door bell, we were feeling a little exposed and wandering what to do? However, after a couple more minutes whilst consulting our Lonely Planet, the door opened and we were shown inside. Phew!!!
We really enjoyed the vibe of Arequipa. Compared to Cusco it was very laid back. We had a great day wandering around the Santa Catalina Monastery in the city, which we pretty much had to ourselves.
After deciding not to climb the big mountains, I (Chris) decided that going into the Colca Canyon was a good idea. (It is the deepest canyon in the world and there are Condors to be seen). Of course I wanted to get there!
We were planning on hiking into the canyon to visit the Oasis, however Corinne wasn´t really feeling up to it, so we decided that we´d only stay the one night there intead of two and go see the Condors in the morning on our way back to Arequipa.
After our bird watching we headed back on the local bus to Chivay, where we spent an hour waiting for the next bus to Arequipa. Although the birds were great, we were thinking at the end of the 11hr round trip if they were worth it!!
All in all, we had a very nice time relaxing in Arequipa, sampling some of the local dishes, including llama. We also found a good burger joint, which helped settle our upset tummies!! Nothing like a good ´ol burger to put things right!!
Next stop, Puno, Puno, Puno...... (for those who have travelled these parts do you recall the crazy bus touts calling out?)
We hope you are all keeping well. Keep the comments coming.
Lots of love,Chris and Corinne xx
We wandered around and experienced many of the colourful markets.
We researched as much as possible and found a company with the least amount of complaints, paid our money and crossed our fingers.....
The Salar de Uyuni is a massive salt desert, with white salt as far as the eye can see. We had lots of fun taking the usual trick photography shots.
From there we saw other rock formations and picturesque lakes with perfect reflections in them, in particular, Laguna Verde was the most impressive for that reason.
So, as we were in Gaucho country we thought it was only right to go horse riding. Chris did try and convince me that he needed another cowboy hat as he had done in Vegas but I convinced him otherwise! However, that hat has come in handy for a few dress up parties.
The wineries we visited were fab. We tasted some very nice malbecs and of course could not leave without purchasing a few bottles.
Next stop - Rio baby!
We were wise this time and got a flight instead of hauling ourselves through another 24 hour bus ride. Our butts just couldn´t take it!
The coastline is stunning with gorgeous protected coves, white sand and torquise water. Even though it was beautiful, we only spent 2 days here and instead decided to head back to Rio with the plan of finding warm water.
We originally planned to Stay in Ipanema, however, as we were a week early and it was a long weekend in Brazil, our hotel couldn´t put us up. We quickly looked up our trusty hostel booking site and found the only double room available in Copacabana and took it!!
We spent a day on each beach sunning ourselves, however, the water was still freezing!! So swimming was pretty much out of the question, sunbathing and getting sunburnt was not!!! (After living in England for so long I think our skin has forgotten what sun is!)
We spent a day going up to Corcovado with Christ the Redeemer looking over with his arms stretched out over the city. From here we could appreciate why Rio is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Surrounded by lush green mountains, perfect white sand and islands off the shoreline. Truly amazing.
We were also able to catch a local football match between two Rio teams, Vasco and Botafogo, at Maracana stadium. The stadium is impressive. Holding 100,000 people at capacity; it would be a fantastic venue to watch a packed out event.
Barra is a beachside suburb at the head of the bay of Salvador. Our quest to find warmer water was successful!!! Yay. Needless to say we were very happy with that. The water was like a warm bath and the coastline is among the most beautiful in the world.
The historical centre wasn't that interesting anyway. We read that up until only 10 or so years ago, it was neglected and was completely run down and very unsafe. So basically most of the buildings are in bad repair and not that nice to look at. the biggest single attraction is an art deco elevator that links the upper and lower city!! That should give you an idea.
One advantage to Brazil, on top of everthing else, is that the flip flops (Havaina brand) are made here, so therefore very cheap. We have now got a pretty good collection going on.
Essentially, our time in Bahia was lovely and now we are completely relaxed and ready for the second half of our trip. Bring it on...
Till next time.C and C x
We had a bit of a wander around and noticed that there wasn´t that many people about, until we got to an excellent little coffee shop and asked where everyone was. Apparently it was a public holiday, so no-one was working. We got to walk the city almost as a ghost town. Even though there was not many people around, it still felt safe with nobody harrassing you or trying to sell you something or get money off you. Normal life again!!
From here we are heading to Pucon on an overnight bus, where we will try and climb Volcan Villarica in a couple of days if everything works out weather wise.
Will write when we can as we expect to be on the move quite a lot over the next few weeks, so may not be able to update often.
Till then ....xx
We were both dissapointed that we wern´t able to see the molten lava inside the crater but were very happy at the same time not to go any further as it did look dangerous and we could smell the sulphur. The views were amazing with a number of lakes and volcanoes in the distance.
Now the fun part! Coming down! We took off our crampons and strapped on our sliding pants. A quick demo on how to stop ourselves using the ice axe and we were off. What took us over 4 hours to climb up only took 45 minutes to slide down. We thought it was a great experience but have decided that snow is there not to climb up but to ski down!
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