hi everyone.... jst want to say thanks to everyone leavin all there comments and that we r missin everyone..... sorry but not enough to come back just yet:) lol xxx

so we r in San Pedro De Atacama at the moment, which is a desert so it is very warm and dusty during the day but bloomin freezin at night. its an amazin place with lots of mountains and volcanos so the views are spectacular.

So goin back to day 1 when the bus dropped us off at the "bus stop" ha!! if u imagine a desert there is not much about so when we got dropped off in the middle of nowhere we were a bit unsure of how we were goin to get to the digs...... not to panic though cause Garry had wrote down the directions..... from the cemetery go north, hmmm!!! how the hell do we know where North is:( but not to panic because thanks to Deke for thoughtfully giving us a "survival kit" to take away with us which contained a compass,lol so North we found and 3mins later we were checking in..... so thank u 4 that derek:) xx

so there is many tours that u can do everyday like goin to view the volcanos, goin to parts of the desert where there is millions of flamingos, u can go sandboarding or go to the beautiful lagoons for a swim... and so much more but to do but we have decided to take a 3 day jeep tour which includes many of the sights and it includes 2 night accommodation and we will end up in bolivia which is where we were planning to go nxt anyway so this way is working out much better for us:) ..... it includes all meals and is only costing us 66pound each so Yey:) xxx

we did go on a wee tour last night which was so cool(i really need to stop sayin that,lol) it was called Moon Valley which i am actually finding it hard to make it sound interesting,lol but u will jst have to believe me that it was amazing:)......... everything at the place is made of salt, some hard, some soft like sand and other parts like crystals.... and with the way it is natually formed and the textures its like u are on the moon......... so me bein me had to pretend that i really was on the moon by doin my good impression of moon walking...... getting some strange looks off the other tourers, ha!!!!! so we went a bit of climbing up the rocks to a very high point so that we could get the full view from above, which was unbelievable.....and it was really windy but luckily none of us were blown off:) xxxxxxxx

we r trying to get the photos on...... but as usual its not as easy as it should b, grrrr!!!
probably the fact that we have about 50million of the things, lol xxxxxxx
Anyways..... hope everyone is well, love yous xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Salta

After the relative success that we have had using the buses in South America, we were not too worried about the prospect of a 23 hour journey to Salta, but we were wrong not to be...

The journey started ok ,but after being stopped 5 times by different police to have our passports inspected, having the bags taken off the bus and put through an xray machine at the side of the road, mine being singled out as suspicious and inspected because of the books in it??? the bus breaking down, we arrived at our change over station with 10 mins ( not the 90 we had planned )to find the next bus for Salta. Asking at the desk ( well gesturing ) we were not having much luck finding the platform that we were looking for, and the 10 mins quickly passed. So after a long interrupted night and thinking that we had missed the bus we were a little miffed. But our connection bus had also run in to trouble, and duly arrived 2 hours late. So it was 29 hours later that we finally arrived in to Salta, tired and needing a shower.

Salta, has turned out to be a bit of a disappointment in terms of things to do, but the people we have met in the hostel have been really nice, and helpful in the places worth moving on to. That apart, we seem to have a new found appreciation of Argentinian wine (£2 a bottle for the good stuff ) and the free pool table, cards and domino's have been a god send.


After talking to other travelers we have changed our plans, as we are now going to San Pedro in the north of Chile next. There is so little, background light there that you can see millions of stars in the sky, with one girl actually managing to take a photo of Saturn.... So apart from relaxing the next couple of days, and enjoying more wine we wont be up to much else.

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Foz Do Iguacu

After arriving in Foz Do Iguacu at 8 in the morning we quickly found our new digs. Thanks to us now taking the address and name of our hostel with us...lol. The hostel had arranged a tour of the falls for that day, so we quickly dumped our stuff in the room and headed out with the rest of the party to the Argentinian side of the falls.

Thankfully the tour was guided which meant that we managed to squeeze everything that we could in to the trip. First off was the walk around the lower section of the falls which gave fantastic views of the falls and the surrounding area from a distance. then we were on to the power boats which took us out to and under the smaller falls, ensuring that we were well and truly soaked.

We then went on to the middle island, which took us closer to the falls, and the 250 steps up to the views were definitely worth it ( at least in my opinion ). On the way back down we saw a group of butterflies on the beach, and Arlene was in her element, soon standing amongst them for her picture.

After that it was a quick walk up to catch the last train through the amazon out to the biggest of the falls ( the devils throat ). Once there the views were amazing, and the pictures don't even begin to do justice too the views and experience that we had... despite the number that we took. It was simply incredible, and blew us away...

The next few days we sunbathed, until i was bored rigid, and needed to do something. So we went back to the falls but this time on the Brazilian side. You'll be glad to hear that we forgot to put the memory card back in to the camera, so you don't have to endure more pictures of the same waterfalls...but it was definitely worth going to see.

The rest of the week was fairly quiet with us sunbathing, relaxing, trying exotic food ( chicken hearts, and turkey testicles ) and planning the next part of our journey... so it's Argentina, Bolivia, Peru then down to Santiago for the flight to New Zealand. We leave for Argentina tomorrow to book the bus to Salta, 23 hours in the bus :o( and will take things from there...

We have started uploading videos to you tube. So search for garryfitz26 and you should see them from there. The camera work is a little all over the place but we re working on that...lol.

Garry and Arlene xxxxxx

Florianopolis

After a remarkably short 18 hours spent traveling on the long and winding roads of South America, we arrived in Florinopolis, refreshed after sleeping most of the night on the most comfortable bus ever. Floripa, ( as us locals refer to it... lol )is a relatively rich area of Brazil off the east coast of the mainland which is made up of small picturesque towns and villages. We headed for the more secluded south of the island to try and recharge the batteries after the hectic week in Rio ( you don't know how easy you have it back home lol )

We arrived at the hostel, and decided that the first thing to do was to walk along the beach at the end of our road ( 200m max )which was amazing, powder soft sand, warm clear water, and only 20 others on the beach. We settled down for the day and were just dozing in the afternoon sun when i was attacked by 2 sand crabs... well they ran over my foot...i sh*t myself (and Arlene nearly did cause of all the laughing at me )



In terms of nightlife there isn't that much to do, but we are still enjoying each others company, and the company of the others in the hostel. There has been a good mix from Argentinians, French, Americans, English, Spanish, and Swiss, but thankfully most speak English. A typical night has been. Freshly caught fish, shrimp and oysters BBQ'ed, washed down with 80p litre bottles of Brahama (lager) followed by swimming in the sea( or at least paddling ).

So it has been a relaxing week, of sun bathing, trying to find the secluded waterfall which is seemingly only 10 mins away from us but impossible to find, watching dolphins swim up the bay 150m from the shore, and not much else. We booked our tickets today for Foz do Iguacu the next part of the trip and are leaving Sunday :(((

AT LAST!!!!

WOO HOO......... After battling against internet cafe computers, dodgy card readers, dodgy connections, our computer, our camera, our belief in our ability with computers....... We have finally managed to get the photo's from the Carnival on to our blog in some shape. ( Thats them in the small box at the left ) If you click on to the picture you should get taken to Flickr where we have managed after trying most of the past week to get them uploaded to. If you scroll down a bit then there should be options to start a slide show on the right hand side. We will continue to try and get them in to Photobucket so that we can have a slide show like the last time. For now though this is as good as it's getting lol....

ps can you's please forward home phone no's as we can now call them on skype, not mobile as yet, sorry.

Cheers

Garry and Arlene

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THE LAST DAYS OF RIO

for em!!lol ......... Well Rio is coming to an end... its been amazing here, so friendly, loads to do and jst so beautiful..... well apart from the poor parts that smell and ppl sleep on the streets.... but that apart its been amazin!!!!!

we went up to the Christ statue thing(garry is not here to remind me what its exactly called,lol) which was unbelievable....that thing is soooooo big n weighs somethin like 30ton(and thats jst the head )... i dont have a clue how they managed to get it up there lol. and the views were amazin as youz will c from the pics and very windy as u can tell with my hair flying about. hee hee!!! there was a wee gorgeous chapel that was at the top too,,, u will c garry in it but i wasnt allowed cause i had a bikini top on lol.....well i do want to get a nice even tan:) it was beautiful though and had lovely music playin!!

But our bestest part of the whole trip was yesterday when we went to the MARACANA STADIUM(yes, nicky..thats the "stadium thingy" i was lookin 4ward to goin to,lol) for the Brazilian Cup Final....... Botofogo(1 of the biggest teams) v Recende(a WELL smaller team) The stadium holds 90,000 ppl and it had jst over 75,000 when we were there so the atmosphere was jst AMAZIN!!!!! we went with a very nice english speakin brazilian man... he took us there in his car, round a few bars then to the match.....we supported botofogo(prob cause we knew they would win) and also the fact that i think there was only about 500 fans 4 the other team, lol xx

so we r off to Floronopolis today 4 the nxt part of the journey, its a wee island jst off the coast a bit furthert down...well 18 hrs in a bus further, ahhhhh!!! they r big buses though n recline so we will jst read, sleep, play ipods n hopefully we will b there in no time xxxxxx

oh.... and b4 i go i jst want to say to my mum that i did a washing ALL BY MYSELF and by hand LOL xxxxxxxx we r missin everyone, big hugs xxxxxxxxxx

Christ The Redeemer Statue and Views