Amy and Jos viaje to south america

Post South America Blues!!!

2006-09-12T04:46:00.000-07:00

Ah i hate this, why am i back home, and why does it feel like forever ago since we have been away Amy!? looking at photos it already feels like it couldnt possibly have happened, theres no way we were actually there, doing and seeing all those things! Ah well, reality sucks, gotta get back to the real world and all that! It was also frustrating me that we couldnt update our blog since the travelling is over, but i have decided to defy whatever laws were holding me back from doing so and i am adding a new post, doubtful that anyone will read it at this stage, but its just for my own sanity!!
Laters
jo

“Good things come from sleep deprivation.” Endarire Elward

2006-08-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

So we on a money saving initiative got a night bus for our last night, arriving in sao paulo bus station at 5am (biggest bus station ever!) then moved onto the airport, spent another sleepless night on a plane anf finally found some rest on the floor of madris airport.. our robbed(or borrowed as Amy liked to say) iberia blanket was invaluable!!

ummm sleep and lack of sleep do weird things to your head....

Brazil hat?!

2006-08-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

So Brazil had no wooly hats that met Jo's high standards.. and it was just way to hot for hats! So embracing local culture we invested in some matching Havianas, Brazil's must have accessory! ...A hat for feet, perhaps?

Our very last stop, Paraty...a whitewashed, colourful beach town!

2006-08-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately our time only allowed us one night in Paraty, and you could definately do more! More amazing beaches, great touristy shops, and a wonderful hostel with the friendliest staff we´ve met in a while! Great way to end a great trip!

these stairs weren't made for rucksacks!!

There were lots and lots of irish people so we almost felt like we were home already, it had been a while since we had had some hardcore irish humour, lots of laughs! Amy made some of them happy with her leftover Barrys tea!

We thought that we were ready to go home, but when the reality hit in, emotions started to arise....and overflow perhaps! We really were, possibly still are,a mess, a crazy mixture of excitement, fear, joy, sadness and unpreparedness for the reality of home.....looking forward to seeing all you guys of course but gonna leave a little bit of our hearts here!

“Amy felt anxious, as well she might , for when Jo turned freakish there was no knowing where she would stop”

2006-08-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

So after 7 weeks together, we seem to have misplaced our social filters, or at least forgotten what normal behaviour looks like... things have been a little crazy. These pictures are only a small taste of the pure madness that has become our everyday!

Amazing quote from an amazing book about amazing people (that would be us!) `Good Wives` Louisa May Alcott... she´s teaching us good:)

Paradise is exactly like where you are right now... only much, much better.(Laurie Anderson)

2006-08-16T05:35:00.000-07:00

Ilha Grande....a paradise island off the coast of Rio! Our last planned stop before home time, all felt very final! Not surprisingly we managed to screw up our money situation again, not realising that there was no bank on the island, Jo having no cash whatsoever. But like all of our previous situations it all worked out ok in the end, we ate and we slept, who needs more when you´re in paradise?

On our first day there we went a beach hunting, and after trekking through some rainforest in the blistering heat we found ourselves a deserted, tropical haven! A private beach, a melon and strawberry lunch,and refreshingly cool water....all the ingredients for a perfectly perfect day!

Spent a few days exploring the quaint town and the beaches, mingling with the locals, and eating lots of fruit....ummmm melon!! Enjoyed some late night beach strolls and once again were astounded by the starry starry nights, found some swings too, tending to the inner child!

Rio de Janerio.. the city of sun, sea and samba!

2006-08-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

funny story...

Rio was deadly... really didn´t have enough time though, but we´ll be back! Pictures speak a 1000 words so go listen to them they´ll tell you our story!

Sunset in Rio

2006-08-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

"Its the suns way of saying goodnight to the mountains", he explained, "He spreads that beautiful light over them so that they won´t forget him till he comes back in the morning"

The Iguazu falls....a whole load of water!!!

2006-08-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

please excuse the crazy hair!

Can you still feel the Butterflies?!

2006-08-07T07:48:00.000-07:00

Salta is flippin amazing!!

2006-08-07T07:21:00.000-07:00

So we loved Salta and pretty much everything about it, got ourselves a nice place to stay, pretty close to the centre, did a lot of wandering city streets, we´re good at that!! The people are super friendly, we loved them. This one man, who worked in a photo shop, and was transferring our photos to cd gave us the sweetest welcome to any city anywhere! he was so cute, he invited us into the back to wait to see our photos on the computer, where he also wanted our help in translating the James Blunt song `Your beautiful` , ha that was pretty funny, everyone here loves the track. He was super enthuasiastic about our travels and made our day!

So Sunday morning was coming round, and we hadnt been to church in ages so decided to try and find one, did some net searching with no success saturday night, so presumed we would just leave it!!
Sunday morning we were awoken super early by the dude in the bed next to us snoring like an engine, no really the extent of it cant be put into words, anyways taking this as a sign from God that we should get up and go look for a church, thats what we did!!! wandered for about 40 minutes or so, soon to give up hope when there we saw it, the cross on the wall and the sound of people singing, we couldnt believe it, it was pretty amazing, lots of kisses, the service was amazing even though we couldnt understand the most of it! met some pretty cool guys afterwards, Nick and Christian, oh an lets not forget Joel ( See you in heaven!!) anyways they invited us to the evening service later that day and we loved the morning so much that we decided to go again!! was as amazing as the morning had been, and we both just felt so blessed by the day, taken out for food afterwards..Cores answer to Eddie Rockets, and had some kick ass empanadas(ummm)
Chatted for ages with the guys who said they wanted to give us a present of their cd, and could we go back to the church the next day, well not totally free, part of the deal was that Jo would sing for them in return, as they had never heard an Irish girl sing before,beyond Jo´s control, Amy sealed the deal, and we headed the next day to meet them in the church. They were such cool guys, super gentlemanly, bought some pastries and made us some coffee before headin to do some hard core singin!!! A rendition of Amazing Grace in Spanish and English at one time was attempted, followed by some Guns and Roses classics, as well as Celine Dion, my heart will go on....they made me do it(JO) The guys were just starting up a christian radio station in Salta and decided it would be cool if Jo would sing one of Nicks songs with him for the radio, as well as Amy helping out with a `keep listening to Extreme Connection Reloaded` embarassing, but funny!!!
Cool now that we have contacts in argentina, we will surely be back!!!

Hat numero 4, Argentina

2006-08-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

.....and Jo found local fame!!

2006-08-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

<---- Jo and Nick
Nick, Jo, lovely girl, Joel and Christian

Christian and Nick

Salta Argentina..where Amy ate lots of sugar!!!

2006-08-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

ummmmmmmm ......
.......yummmmmm
Beautiful Salta from San Bernard hill

Amy and the water
Jo in our cable car, not quite as scary as the pedal boat!

Pink Cathedral by day and Pink Cathedral by night!

Stevie Wonder & the Wonder Years!

2006-08-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

We bought some new CDs, the photos pretty much explain what followed!

Iquique.... In july, you´ll feel passion, you´ll kiss, you´ll feel like you never felt before( according to Iquique cable anyways)

2006-07-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

So we had a television in our hostel room, and i hate to admit how happy it made us...the Oc, Gilmore girls, SVU, CSI, it was amazing!!!
Iquique is beautiful, the sea, the city and the mountains all in one shot, our first quality beach time, and though it wasn´t particularly warm,it was still definately beach worthy,lots of walks by the sea, watching the surfers, some waves catching us off guard a couple of times also!!
The main street is just gorgeous, especially when its all lit up at night, pretty houses of all different colours, and more markets!!! We´ve decided that our best technique for not buying is to just avoid them altogether!! hmmm I(joanna) was just thinking, Nana you would make a mint here, with those hats of yours, if your ever looking for someone to sell them out here for you i would have no problem!!Leech lids could definately make it big!!!
So somehow we missed a whole day, as in we thought we were there a day later than we actually were so ended up having 3 days there, which was more than planned, but it was a laugh, did lots of home cooking, saving the pennies!!we also spent quite a bit of time in the cinema, which you might think is a stupid thing to do when you´re away, but it was great!!! Over the Hedge(in Spanish) was followed by superman returns, oh and then there was pirates of the Carribean( as I said we had a lot of time to spare, in a city that isnt particularly touristy except for its waves!)
The hostel we were in had the weirdest atmosphere though, sort of felt like you were a guest in someones home, anyways, beds were great so no complaining, actually except that they robbed us of the rest of our pancake mix!!!that was not cool!!

Island hopping on Lake Titicaca

2006-07-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

Got ourselves hooked up with a cheap 2 day 1 night island hopping tour, and headed off early Saturday morning. First stop...the Floating islands, islands entirely made of reeds, we munched some,apparently good for cleaning out the system!!!

Sat and listened to our crazy guide for a good long while, whos spanish was more understandable than his english for Amy!! after a bit of a wander round we took a trip in a crazy reed boat to explore another of the floating islands! We got off the boat to the sound of some cheesy music, closer inspection confirmed that yes it was in fact God music, really cute little church, but unfortunately we didnt have a chance to stay.

Took off on a 3 hour boat journey to the next island Tiahuanaca where we met our host family for the night! Cute little rooms cute little kitchen, cute little Mummy...... her hot soup made us happy!!
After lunch we were reunited with our "friendly and warm" tour group, and were deceived into climbing a GIGANTIC mountain, it was crazily steep, seriously no mental preparation time, eventually got to the top where we witnesssed a beautiful sunset from Templa del Sol, had some coffee with some nice english people before beginnning the descent, resisted the temptation of buying more hats!

Enjoyed dinner with the family in the cute little kitchen, and got to meet the cute little Pappy.(not really all that little) And so to bed,after spending a nice while appreciating the starry starry starry night.
Got up the next morning, Amy was feeling slightly under the weather, when we say slightly we mean alot! But we had to head off all the same and hopped into the boat again, saying our goodbyes to Tiahuanaca and Aloha to the next and last island...no idea what it was called, some crazy name no doubt! Amy really wasnt feeling well so we just had a little sit down and didnt really attempt much, climbed down 550 steps to the boat and headed for home(Puno)...finally says Amy! Once we were back on the mainland made our preparations for an overnight bus to Tacna, on the border of Peru and Chile.
Funny story (in retrospect) we stupidly tried to smuggle fruit (it was our lunch) across the border....yeah i dunno, we were tired, not thinking properly, we blame the lack of sleep, so anyway we were standing at immigration when this man who had searched our bus came out holding our bag full of fruit, asking who owned it!! he wasnt very happy. So after a lot of confusion he threw the fruit out and let us go through baggage control, problem there was that we had more fruit than he realised, and presuming he had removed it all we werent expecting any problems. However he missed some. And we had to go through it all again, except he was a little angrier this time,threw us some paper, something about a fine and possible jail time. We played the dumb tourists though and just kept saying No entiendo....meaning i dont understand! it eventually worked and he let us back on our bus, to the sounds of locals calling us stupid Gringos.....So after a long stressful yet entertaining bus ride we were finally back in Chile! felt like home, unfortunately we forgot the time difference with Peru, and were rushed on to our next bus within minutes of arriving, only 5 hours to Iquique!

2006-07-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

Hat numero dos y tres

2006-07-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

Bolivia hat!

Peru hat and its maker, another lovely Joanna

Some Machu Picchu pics!

2006-07-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

Peru-CUsco and Machu Picchu

2006-07-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

Jo and Fronk, i think his name was actually Leo!

So we arrived in Cusco after a long bus journey forcing us to watch some painfully weird movie, with elephants and casinos and a little jungle boy...yeah we really dont know!! had been recommended a hostel, which turned out to be as amazing as it sounded, the ridiculous amount of steps up to it was no fun though, especially with the altitude,out of breath in seconds.
We pretty much wasted our first day there sleeping and then trying to sort out our trip to Machu PIcchu, we had no idea it was as expensive as it is,it pretty much killed our budgets but it did have to be done!! met a lot of cool people in the hostel are first night, and went out dancing,it was our first night out since we´ve been here, and it was so much fun,lots and lots of crazy dancing!!!
Our second day was our touristy day in Cusco,wont lie we didnt do much at all, visited the Jesuit church where we got our own personal guide, it was hilarious, dont know what it was about his accent when he spoke english but it was just hilarious, we both were struggling not to laugh without the other realising it!!! Amy thinks he sounded like Fronk from Father of the Bride, that means nothing to me but maybe it will to you!!! was crazy they have a sculpture of Jesus on the cross, wearing a skirt, apparently they have like 300 skirts for him and they´re changed regularly, he was sporting a pink one with gold glitter the day we were there...fetching!!!
Third day with an early start of 4:30 we headed for Machu Picchu. It really is as incredible as any pictures or photos you have ever seen, aside from the ruins themselves, the surrounding landscapes are just stunning, felt like cheats taking the train, seein all the hard core backpackers flaked out on the grass in the sun after there treks, but meh walking around the ruins for 2 hours was enough for us, we were knackered, headed back to Aguas Calientes and chilled there for the day, served dinner by Peru´s answer to Patrick Boland, really the resemblance was uncanny!!!
another super early start the next morning and we headed to Puno,off to the islands we´ll keep you posted!!!

Copacabana…..as beautiful as it sounds

2006-07-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Copacabana Friday evening, found our Alojamiento for the night, we were quite surprised with the accommodation after the impression that our trustee Lonely planet had given us , sunny mezzanine level……yeah right!! Hot showers……they may have been hot but the toilets were so gross that we didn’t even venture that far! After a good nights sleep we were a lot more impressed by Copacabana, went for breakfast in a nice hotel with a great view of the lake, and swiftly found ourselves a new hostel. Great location, right on the lake…a room with a view and an en suite!

Spent the afternoon down by the lake, so well earned quality down time, a lot of reading and staring at the stunning views! Got the pleasure of sharing the moment with a family baptizing their new car! We enjoyed our chill out day so much we couldn’t face a busy day the next day and decided to hang out at the beach again, Jo got a beautiful braid of some sort, went for a trip in a pedal boat, scared the life out of Jo, and I don’t think it can all be blamed on my driving skills! Quite entertaining really!
Spent the afternoon down by the lake, so well earned quality down time, a lot of reading and staring at the stunning views! Got the pleasure of sharing the moment with a family baptizing their new car!
We enjoyed our chill out day so much we couldn’t face a busy day the next day and decided to hang out at the beach again, Jo got a beautiful braid of some sort, went for a trip in a pedal boat, scared the life out of Jo, and I don’t think it can all be blamed on my driving skills! Quite entertaining really!
Thought we should see some of the sights so climbed the town’s big hill, actually quite big! Incredible views of the bay and the islands, but we got to cold to wait for sunset so headed back down! Bumped into our street seller friends and joined them for dinner! Craaaazy people, but a lot of fun, kept us entertained for the night!
It all sounds too good to be true… and it was! Woke up the next morning, Jo thought she might have food poisoning so Amy went off to the bank so we could pay for our bus out and breakfast, to discover that for some reason it doesn’t open on Mondays, crazy Bolivians, who also don’t believe in Atms or credit cards! It’s important to stress here that between us we had 1 boliviano to our name {about 10cent!} …. So we prayed. And prayed some more. Jo didn’t feel sick any more, nice lady let us get on the bus without paying and a nice moneychanger lady took our $6 so we could afford some breakfast! Alls well that ends well!

La Paz.. the city of shoeshiners!!

2006-07-16T18:38:00.000-07:00

So we finally arrived in La Paz after a painful, sleepless overnight 12 hour bus journey, no toilets, blankets that smelt like dogs and frozen windows…not quite sure but the sound effects suggested that at times we were driving through lakes or rivers!!
We killed a few hours before we could check in to our hostel eating cake and drinking coffee!! With no thanks to the helpful tourist police we found our hostel, ah no but if it hadn’t been for our random bumping into Jose, who you may remember from such posts as San Pedro de Atacama. We stayed in a great hostel, which roped us in with its free ALL YOU CAN EAT pancake breakfast as well as hot showers, always a plus! Wandered for a bit around the markets before crashing in our room for an hour’s nap. That hour turned into 4! Went for dinner in an English pub, no Irish ones to be found, great food and amazing, fresh out of the oven chocolate cake! Went back and treated ourselves to some quality Barrys tea before bedtime!
After our amazing pancakes the next morning, we headed to see visit the Coca museum. Fascinating stuff really! Visited some other sights, mainly the impressive markets where we spent a few too many Bolivianos!

Didn’t spend a whole lot of time there, headed to Copacabana in a crazy micro bus type thing, got to see amazing views of La Paz from above the valley as well as an incredible sunset over Lake Titicaca!

Gettin lazy just photos this time.....jeep trip from Chile to Bolivia!!

2006-07-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

Umm tastes pretty good for a hotel!!

Umm salty!

Thats a whole lot of salt!

The Heartbreak Hotel Crew!

hot springs where Amy enjoyed a dip!

Laguna Verde, first stop on our 3 day jeep trip

7 weeks, 6 countries & 6 hats!!

2006-07-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hat numero uno! Chile!

San Pedro de Atacama

2006-07-12T09:10:00.000-07:00

So we eventually arrived in San Pedro after 25 hours travelling! It is a really small, pretty town! We meet a guy called Jose in Calama who hooked us up with a nice hostel, with a discount, always good! Fell in love with the place straight away! A crazy traditional chilean band played while we ate dinner, and continued til 5 in the morning!

The next morning we enjoyed breskfast in the sunshine, it ws lovely when the sun was shining on you but freezing in the shade! In the afternoon we went on a trip to Valle de la Luna to see the sunset! its crazy landscape, named after its resemblence to the surface of the moon! We also visited cool salt caves, where Amy whacked her head, was very sore! and went to Valle de la muerte, which was beautiful and saw sandboarders! After watching a beautiful sunset and trekking back down alot of cold sand, (flip flops clearly a bad choice) we went to a lovely restaurant with some new friends! It had a lovely big fire in the middle which was greatly appreciated and the food was great! After hearing some horror stories about the cold on the salt plains we decided to stock up on some woolen supplies before we left, no better place since san pedro is some sort of wool heaven!

Valparaiso- A Love Hate Relationship!(hate may be to harsh!)

2006-07-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Valparaiso was not at all what we had expected! for some reason we both thought we were heading to a seaside town of sorts, but it just wasnt!! Our first day there and we were both wrecked,physically and maybe a little emotionally! We´re such girls! but we weren´t impressed with our hostel at all,since our first one in Santiago had been so amazing, we had pretty high expectations.... they were shot down fairly fast! when we got into our room, which was so dirty i didnt want to touch anything, we both burst out crying and laughing at the same time at our own patheticness for crying at all, it was quite funny really!!
We decided to get out of the hostel anyway and look around a bit, didnt realise that we wandered around the non tourist part of town for a couple of hours, and so didnt really see much, and we were quite dissapointed with it to be honest, wondering why everyone had told us it was so amazing. We realised it was probably just us, and that we could give it another chance tomorrow, friends from Santiago were coming for the day as well so we were lookin forward to seein them!!
So yeah the next day, we experienced Valparaisos beauty, great to see all the guys, did some exploring of the hills which are just incredible, all the little multi coloured houses, so cute, and some fairly impressive grafitti art as well, so now i think its safe to say we understand the charm of Valparaiso and why people fall in love with it!! Hopped a 23 hour bus to Calama later that day,which wasnt nearly as horrible as it sounds, super comfy buses,and great service.
Got a bus from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama which is in the middle of the Atacama desert, stars are amazing here! its a real traveller town and we love it so far! hostel is basic but nice, showers were a bit of an experience, think we´re still a little used to our comforts! Off on a three day jeep trip through the salt plains tomorrow hopefully, can´t wait!!
Sorry theres no photos, computer in San Pedro, not letting us!! we´ll put them up asap!!

Exploring Santiago

2006-07-04T14:59:00.000-07:00

So Santiago´s beautiful! wandered around the city today, visited some art museums, a cathedral and climbed a big hill which is kind of a park in the middle of the city! It was crazy standing at the top looking around and being surrounded by mountains, real mountains that is, in comparison to those hills back home!

Also got to meet the famous Fanny! Had a lovely evening, went to a really nice Spanish restaurant (AMAZING chocolate brownies!!). Was great to spend time with someone who knows the city, got some good tips! Thanks Fanny... looking forward to your trip to Ireland.. we´ll put the kettle on!

Man must rise above the Earth—to the top of the atmosphere and beyond—for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.

2006-07-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

Flying over the incredible Andes.......... a little sleepy, happy, grumpy, dopey.. maybe a little bashful, sneezy and doc?

Iberia are scumbags!!.....................

2006-07-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

Yeah so what a shocking airline, and we dont mean that in a good way, never in my life.....
On the plus side we did to get to buy matching polka dot tops, and Leah i realise you´ve probably already said " your holiday hasn´t even started and your already buying clothes?" but it was a neccesity, as the scummy airline kept our bags!

Jo and Pedro stranded in Madrid airport!

2006-07-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

Stranded in Madrid!!

2006-07-02T05:49:00.000-07:00

So our flight was delayed ................. we made it in time to our gate but they wouldnt let us on, so we spent 2 hours on a wild goose chase trying to find out what we had to do, the airport was madness since practically everyone on our flight missed their connections! eventually found some irish people to follow,and got a bus to an " airport" hotel, that was miles away! to be honest dont think we were ready for a 12 hour flight, and were quite happy to be put up in a hotel room for the night! met lots of interesting people already, and we just had a 3 course breakfast, which was supposedly lunch!:) So we have a day to kill in Madrids industrial area, flights not till after midnight, possibility of us getting some compensation so we´re quite happy!
I(jo) have never experienced heat quite like this and everyone has just gone back to bed for siesta! whats that about? Oh and we want to take this opportunity to introduce you to our companion...........Pedro, our faithful waterbottle, thanks John!!

2006-07-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

So the story is...

2006-07-01T04:33:00.000-07:00

Flying out today, into Santiago,haven't quite got excited yet, probably wont hit us until we land, but anyways watch this space, and we shall keep you posted!!