Week 10 - Buzios and back to Lima

So I am on the road to recovery today. I was ill for the last post as you all should know and John had to take over my station. I think you will agree he did a good job (although it did take him all day to perfect it).

This week we were in the town of plentiful beaches called Buzios and then mid week returned to Lima...so here is our week numero 10:

Day 1 Monday - Today was our second day in Buzios, which is apparently to Rio what the Hamptons are to New York. We awoke to an amazing breakfast, one much better than any other breakfast we had delved into on our travels, including exotic fruits, croissants, cakes, hot chocolate, a variety of teas, cereal which personally I had been longing for and all sorts of breads. Being on a budget vacation we also sneakily stuffed a couple of bananas and croissants into our bags to take away for lunch, after all it was a all you can eat buffet....we were just 'very hungry'.

The previous night John had rented a buggy which we were allowed for a day and a half, so when we were ready we hopped into the yellow vehicle and drove down to Buzios's natural beach, which would not have been feasible to get to on foot. We had tried to visit the night before but with my poor map reading skills and the lack of daylight we failed at our attempt. When we finally found the beach where we saw some fisherman feeding the segulls with cut offs from the fish they had caught and a few vultures were lurking around too...they truelly do look evil. The beach was very pretty but however it being deserted and the smell of fish put us off a bit so we went back to find a busier beach with less of the fishy smell. After midday we came back to enjoy a crepe in the center of town for lunch. We then relaxed beside the hotels pool until the evening where we ventured into town to eat at a nice resturant serving mexican burritos and nachos.

 

Greedy seagulls

 

 

 Our little buggy

 Brazil! 

Day 2 Tuesday - It was a lovely breakfast again today and we nicked a few more bananas and bread rolls for our lunch. We decided together that the first beach we had visited on Sunday was infact our favourite of the beaches so far, and with it being in walking distance (and we were no longer in possesion of the buggy today) we planned on spending the morning relaxing on the Azeda playa. We got ourselves a couple of chairs and a couple of beers and relaxed by the sea until midday came. After we had gobbled up our stolen rolls and bananas we headed back to the hotel. We washed off the sand and then jumped straight into the pool. Just as we did yesterday we spent the afternoon sunning ourselves at the poolside....it was actually quite nice to not worry about sand getting in every nook and cranny. After the sun dissappeared we decided we should start packing as in the following morning we were to return to Lima. An early night tonight!

 

 Basking in the sun

 

 

Photography

 

Day 3 Wednesday - We returned to Lima today, so it was a 'lovely' bus journey back to Lima followed by a taxi drive to the airpor,t where we were sent back and forth until we were finally in the right queue and on our way back to Lima. We arrived in Lima late in the evening and we were nackered. We were greeted by the happy faces of Johns grandparents and were soon back in the apartment and sound asleep.

Day 4 Thursday - After a gruelling journey back from Brazil the previous day we spent most of today relaxing. It was however, being close to november, my time of year to get ill and just on time I awoke with a horrible cold. I did feel I should have taken the lead from the group of Janponese OAPs on the plane who wore there masks during the flight. So with my iinfluenza/malaria taking over my ability to function, John had to step in and write the blog.

At lunch time I managed to get myself out of bed and to a neat little chinese place down the road. It was really tasty...2 courses each and drinks all round for a mere 40soles which is 2.50pounds per head! Now try getting a deal like that in England. We returned to the house and slept again. In the evening we downloaded a film by Oren Peli, the director of Paranormal Activity, called the Chenobyl Diaries....it was actually pretty good.

Day 5 Friday - Today I awoke with an even worse cold....I swear its malaria even though we haven't entered the Jungle. So with nothing planned today I spent the day again in bed with John at my beck and call, bless him. I slept most of the day so there really is not much to report here. In the evening however John managed to get in contact with a hockey team. Turned out to be the National hockey team! They invited him to trials that evening. When John returned he told me they wanted him to get a Peruvian passport and join the team straight away! John does want to point out there are only 6 teams in all of Peru however I could still say my boyfriend is wanted by the national hockey team of Peru. (noone needs to know they suck)

Day 6 Saturday - Took it easy in the morning as still recovering from the lurgy. For lunch we were treated to a tasty peruvian 3 course meal at a resturant called Cherry, owned by a family friend hence everything was on the house! When we returned we started to plan furthur excursions in Peru. One thing we both agreed on is that we want to go Paragliding here in Lima! Exciting!

I have been craving hot chocolate for a while so in the afternoon we ventured down the supermarket to purchase the nessecary ingredients (and some unessecary ones aka marshmallows). This was the perfect medicine for my recovery....

Day 7 Sunday -  We spent the day at the arts and crafts markets in Lima searching for gifts for friends and familys. We were rather successful and we even purchased a big round llama skin rug for our future house (12pounds each....bargain). I cannot write about much else we bought as you lot will all be reading this!

Hope everyone had a good week
Miss you all

 

Vicky and John

Week 9.... Rio is Hot and Sunny

This week’s post is unfortunately not coming from Vicky as she is suffering from a mix between Malaria and the common cold (her words not mine). So I will try my very best to keep up to the standards you all expect.
 
I would like to apologise for the lateness of the post, lack of internet access and an abundance of traveling has meant that today is the earliest I am able to do it. So without further stalling, here is what happened in our previous week.
 
Day 1 (Monday) - Today was undoubtedly the most exciting experience yet! We were still on the bus......
 
The bus taking us from Foz do Iguaçu to Rio de Janeiro should have only taken a mere 22 hours (I know! what am I complaining about) BUT due to traffic and an incompetent driver we were on that dreaded bus for an extra 2 hours. To make matters worse the chairs "reclining system" moved back by no more than 20 degrees, apart from the chair of the gentlemen sitting directly in front of me who managed to reach an angle somehow greater than that of my bed at home.
When we arrived in Rio, we ran for the street and paid a London priced taxi to take us to iPanema which is where the lovely Isabel (friend of my mother’s) lives. She was very welcoming and even invited us out for dinner that same night. We went to a restaurant with a system new to me and Vicky, you pick and choose from a buffet filled with different random foods, then have your plate weighed and pay an amount representative to the weight, and we came to find this system very popular in Brazil.
 
Day 2 (Tuesday) - The beach

We woke up nice and early to get a jump start on the famous Rio Beaches that we have been longing for since we planned our trip. Ipanema was on the agenda today, this was decided because the beach is only 2 blocks from Isabel's house. The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was hot! We had breakfast, gathered our things for the beach and headed out. We found the beach and now had to make the decision on where to set up camp, we had to be careful with this decision, on the left was the "gay section" in the middle was the "beautiful area" and finally to the right was the "family zone". We opted to find the family zone but I’m still sure we didn't walk far enough and ended up sitting on the border of the gay and beautiful beach, the abundance of banana hammocks and thongs referred to as bikinis made me think otherwise.
 

The beach was amazing! The water was tepid (Vicky would describe as freezing), sand was...well sand and the waves were HUGE. There were many people walking around selling all kinds of rubbish, including hats, authentic "Ray Ben" sunglasses, Biscoittos (strange but delicious donut shaped biscuits) and even a few people walking around with BBQ's under their arms. We stayed here for the majority of the day which didn't work out so great. Unbeknown to us the sun was much stronger than we initially thought, the combination of only factor 15 sunscreen and malaria tablets that cause you to have incredibly sensitive skin meant that both Vicky and I were bright red. Me on my stomach and poor Vicky on her behind. So after a bath of aloe vera we went to bed with the air con on and the fan at max power!!!

Day 3 (Wednesday) - The Beach part 2

You would think that 3rd degree sunburn would be enough to stop the pasty Brits from stepping out into the sun again, but no it wasn't! The desire to tan outweighed the common sense we had, so we had our sights on another round with Ipanema beach, only this time we would hire those umbrellas we saw everyone using the first time round.
We left the Ipanema beach early today, we wanted to venture over to Copacabana beach and see what Barry Manilow had been singing about. On the way Vicky and I got to talking about the choice of clothing worn by the natives, discussions went back and forth; "we don't want to stand out", "but isn't it a bit revealing?" and "wont I look stupid?". We found a swimsuit shop and both bought the traditional attire, Vicky with a bum bearing bikini and myself sporting a dashing Speedo.

Copacabana proved to be an amazing sight, we both agreed that tomorrow would be a day for Copacabana. While there, we bought some snacks from the vendors along the path, sweet corn covered in butter, and a mixture of sweet and salty popcorn. It was approaching dinner time so we searched for a restaurant and luckily found a tiny place that specialised in Mexican food, It was here that I had one of the best Burritos in my life and Vicky ordered a burrito with pineapple and turned out that she didn't like cooked pineapple..... We headed home and after a quick chat with Isabel she convinced us that we should try and head to Buzios for at least a couple of days, the plan was made!

Day 4 (Thursday) - The Beach.......part 3 (yawn)

YES, again we decided to go to the Beach! it’s what you do in Rio when it’s hot. Today was the best day out of the 3 in terms of weather, 33 degrees and a cool breeze as well. Vicky Preferred Copacabana purely because she didn't feel like the whitest person on the beach anymore, we heard a lot more languages instead of just Portuguese which felt more reassuring. One of the sales people that stroll up and down the beach sells drinks out of 2 large metal canisters, one contained lemonade and the other contained a drink that should never be sold.... apparently it’s called Moche, basically tasted like coffee that had been left out in the sun for a week, needless to say that drink "accidently" got knocked into the sand.

Not much more to report for this day, went home at the usual time of about 6pm, watched TV and made a dinner of salad, pasta and fruit for pudding. The Fruit in Brazil is out of this world, I think we managed to have watermelon every day.

Day 5 (Friday) - Something different.

Today we went to the beach............ only joking, the sun wasn't shining so we felt it was time to explore Rio further than the coast line (for the record, if the sun had been shining we would have been on the beach again). We strolled about 3 blocks to the Lagoa, a huge salt water lagoon that is behind the accommodation and shops in iPanema, from here you could just about make out Christo Redentor in the distance keeping watch over Rio. We walked about halfway around the Lagoon then turned off into Leblon. Leblon is basically the same as Ipanema, lots of high class shops, restaurants and big multistory housing with sea views. In Leblon we searched for a Sushi restaurant that our travel book recommended, it was delicious! I enjoyed their famous salmon skin wrap, and Vicky ate Philadelphia salmon rolls which to my surprise she enjoyed! After that we headed back to the house but not before I bought a tub of frozen yogurt covered in chocolate for the journey home.

A quick recharge in the flat and we were out again, only this time we wanted to visit Santa Teresa, the old part of Rio. To get there we had to take the metro, wasn't difficult got there without any trouble. We were told that Santa Teresa was on a hill and there were 2 options to get to the top, car or by walking. We walked because the staircase was a must see attraction, it’s called Escaria de Selaron, " the most famous staircase in Rio, a lengthy work in progress by an eccentric Chilean artist who since 1990, has been covering some 215 steps with over 2000 tiles from around the world", not my words, that was taken out of my travel book. We walked up this staircase admiring all the different tiles and then up a very steep hill to finally reach Santa Teresa, old houses, cobbled streets, very nice but unfortunately it did feel almost unsafe to be there. We took out photos and headed for home, on the way back Vicky and I tried Tapioca wraps, Vicky went for Banana and Chocolate and I chose the cheese and beef option.

Day 6 (Saturday) - Christo Redentor

Our last day in Rio before heading to Buzios, so to avoid ridicule from both our families, we thought it wise to go see the famous Statue of Christ today. We got up from bed very early so that we could get a head start on the day of sightseeing. Isabel kindly offered to take us to the tram that you take to see the statue. But to our surprise she took us on her own personal tour of Rio, we were able to see the sugar loaf mountain, several other beautiful beaches and some amazing old buildings etc. When we arrived at the tram, we immediately noticed a huge amount of tourists waiting in line; it seems a sunny Saturday wasn't the best time to choose. No matter, we got straight in the queue and booked our ticket to the statue at 3pm, only a 3 hour wait!! We filled this time with a quick lunch followed by sitting doing nothing. It was all worth it.

When we finally got on the tram we saw some amazing sights, including monkeys, fruits, and some jaw dropping views, but none were as outstanding as the views from the top. We saw Christ himself up close and personnel, taking many photos (which was difficult with the shear amount of people around), spent an hour admiring the views, then took the tram to the bottom and jumped in a bus to go home. We had to pack our bags for our bus ride in the morning to Buzios, which both myself and Vicky were very excited about. Before the day was done I took a trip with Vicky to the Havaiana shop just down the street and bought 12 pairs of the famous flip flops (not all for me though). I managed to persuade Vicky to get herself a pair, she is very happy with her choice.



Day 7 (Sunday) - Buzios Beaches part 1

We arrived in Buzios after what felt like a 10 minute bus journey due to the fact both Vicky and I were able to sleep the whole way. It was overcast :( but also hot, so the day could be promising. We had no idea where our hotel was so we had no choice but to get a taxi to our destination, turned out it was 2 minutes up the road...oops.

Greeted by Gabriel at the front desk of our hotel, he assured us that the weather always changes, and he was right! The sun came out by midday so Vicky and I wasted no time in getting to the beach, however there were 26 different ones to choose from, we wanted to visit a secluded natural beach called Azeda which was only a 10 minute walk away. This was by far the best beach we came to discover in Buzios, the water was warm and calm, sand was yellow and red, drinks being served by friendly locals. We loved it here.....
This is how I remember the week, I hope you enjoyed reading it. Vicky should be back next Sunday to do the next post.

Sorry for no photos! they will be coming soon, just having some technical difficulties.

Lots of love to you all!

John & Vicky
Xxx
P.S Hi Jack, Fergus, and Hamish

Week numero 8

Sorry again for the lateness of this blog however we have been travelling a lot this weekend and therefore had no access to the internet...I hope you all can forgive :)

Day 1 Monday - Today was a bank holiday and so everyone was off work and school, however it meant a lot of places were closed. We visited another little market (on Sunday we went to Santelmo a really large market but mostly for tourists so expensive) in costarenasur which was cute however the bad weather and bank holiday again meant only a few stalls were open.

Day 2 Tuesday - We visited the Reserva Ecologica today which is full of many species of birds and we even saw a giant lizard. John decided to climb a tree and got stuck up for a while...silly boy. In teh evening we were invited to see Esteban's (a family friend of Johns) play called 'El Caberet de los Hombres Perdidos' which means the caberet of the three lost boys. It was very good with lots of singing and dancing...very gay adn fabulous. We did struggle to understand the plot but with Lucia, Johns cousin with us we had a interpretor. We then joined Esteban, his girlfriend and our hosts for dinner at a Indian....we have to say that altough South America have far better Chinese, Indian is definately better in England!

Day 3 Wednesday - Today we woke up very late as we were out late the night before and fancied a morning in. In the afternoon we went on search for aleather handbag for myself, and eventually after 5 hours or so found one I liked and John helped me buy it as a early birthday present. After all argentinian leather is supposed to be the best!

Day 4 Thursday - Esteban, Rosita, John and I took a trip to Tigre today which is a town off the coast of Rio de la Plata, apparently teh worlds widest river! We saw some fo the famous Mercado de Frutas the fruit market (not just fruit btw). We walked around the rivers and the weather proved very nice. Tigre is a very beautiful place. We took trains back as Rosita had to go to her work midday and we then stayed at Estebans house until the evening where Rosita picked us up and treated us to dinner out as it was our last night here.

Day 5 Friday -  Today we spent the day packign and relaxing before we left for Puerto Iguazu in the evening.

Day 6 Saturday - Most of today was spent on the bus and we eventually arrived in the evening in Puerto Iguazu. As soon as we got off the bus we felt the heat...finally heat!! Our hostel was not far from the bus station and was very nice...full of dogs and cats which we loved...however when we tried to make our food they all sit at your feet making puppy dogs eyes.

 Day 7 Sunday - Today we got up early and crossed the border of Argentina to Brazil to Foz de Iguazu. Here we saw the amazing waterfalls. One of the seven natural wonders of South America apparently. It was amazing! In the evening we got a bus to Rio....a gruelly 24hours but when we arrived on Monday it was worth the wait!

Missing you all
Vicky and John
x

Week number 7, Argentina!

So this week we entered into Argentina, the land of meat, unfortunately for me. This is what we have got up to so far this week...

Day 1 Monday

We got to the bus station a tad early today as we had to check out of our hostel in the morning and our bus station was not until 8PM (7 hours of waiting). However whilst at the bus stop we met a friendly dog who slept under our bench for a while, this was the highlight of our day. The evening was spent on the bus to Buenos Aires.

Day 2 Tuesday

We arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning and were greeted and picked up by our hosts (Rosita John´s Aunt) daughter Lucia and her boyfirend. It was very cold and windy which is apprently unusual for Buenos Aires in Spring. We did not let the weather bother us however and once we had unpacked and freshened up we went to Florida street in the city centre which is the main strip for shopping. We searched for Toms but unfortunately were unsuccessful in our quest (apprently Argetina do not do Toms anymore). We then visited the Plaza de Mayo and Madero Harbour. We also found out that Buenos Aires invented the Tango dance so we want to try and catch a show before we leave. In the evening we sampled Rositas singing which was very good.

Day 3 Wednesday

Today we returned to the town centre with a bit nicer weather and a camera! We visited a museum in an old ship which displayed items and maps and pictures of the Armada. We also visited a number of other sites in the city center. We got attacked by pigeons in the plaza. They got so close they would rest on our arms. For lunch we found a really nice little Chinese buffet take away which was a real bargain! On the way home we got terribly lost as we managed to walk past our street and walk approx an hour in the wrong direction! Silly us!

Day 4 Thursday

The sun has got its hat on today and Rosita has the morning off from work so she took us to Recoleta which was very pretty, lots of green parks. Whilst we where there we visited a designer furniture shopping mall, a big white church and a large cemetory only for very very important people like presidents and generals. The graves where massive and grand and John managed to accidently open one which terrified us.We also witnessed a semi naked man sunbathing on a very important statue (that is one way to get a tan I guess). Rosita left for work and we were introduced to a close family friend called Julio who is a 70 year old Jewish man who we quickly learnt was a tad racist. He showed us around a neighbourhood called Palermo, which was very nice, in the car and we then were dropped off back at the house early evening.

Day 5 Friday

We slept in a bit in the morning. Rosita took us to La Boca, a working class neighbourhood not to be visited at night. We visited the museum of art dedicated to Benito Quinquela Martin, where the museum itself actually used to be his house! We visited the famous stree of Carminite where the houses are multi coloured and  people dance tango on the street. There are many cafes and markets lining the street and me and John invested in some hand made Mate cups and straws (the traditional drink here) with our names on. We had lunch at a grill which had asado for Johns meat cravings. I had salad and chips...yum! In the evening we went to a Peruvian sing and dance show celebrating 25 years of a certain gentlemans career in music. We had Peruvian food and saw Rosita singing live.

Mate the drink

Day 6 Saturday

Today was a Lazy day as were trying to save some money so we just planned the next part of our journey.

Hope everyone is well still!
Lots of Love
Vicky and John

Week 6 - Santiago

I would just like to apoligise at how late this post is, however we have not been with a computer for a couple of days and therefore could not do it :( I am sure everyone missed it. Anyways here is our 6th week in South America:

Day 1 Monday - Today we went to the Plaza de Armas in the center of Santiago. It was very pretty and there was street performers much like in covent garden. We pent the day mooching around the center. We attempted a traditional Chilean drink called ´Mote con heusillo´which was a kind of peach nectar with ebly in it. Unfortunatel we did not like the drink. We returned to our hosts house about 5PM and had a little siesta. In the evening we went out for dinner to Ruby Tuesday where I tried BBQ chickend wings for the first time and have fallen in love with the sauce!!

                                                                      Plaza de Armas

                                                                       Mote con Huesilla
                                     
Day 2 Tuesday - In the morning Roxana took us to a grand shopping center where we looked around all the nice (but far too expenive for us on this holiday) clothes shops. John did discover a fast food chain in the mall which made proper burritos (meaning with rice) which made him a happy chappy. It was a really hot day so in the afternoon we sunbathed in the back garden and John braved the ice cold pool (I managed two feet which diserves some recognition surely?).

                                                               John in the icey pool!

Day 3 Wednesday - We awoke early today to visit a local beach town called Viña del Mar 2 hours from Santiago via bus. Unfortunatel although nice and sunny and hot in the city, as soon a we approache the beach town we entered into overcast and cold, wet and windy weather. So instead of our sunbathing day we had planned, we found some hot food and then hopped back onto the bus and headed back to sunny Santiago.

                                                            I was too cold for this!

Day 4 Thursday - Today was rainy and cold outide and therefore we spent the day saving money by doing not a lot. In the evening we met up with Stephanie, one of the englih students from Iquique and went to a province called bellavista where we had some beers and pizza! It was a really nice area, so lively and cheap!

Day 5 Friday - In the afternoon today, John and I went with Stephanie and her friend to a rock climbing center. It was much harder than I had orginially expected. However I was proud of myself as I made it fairly high up the wall! We came back and made dinner at Stephs, then brought some alcohol for a couple of house partys we went to. It was so much fun although we felt a little stupid as everyone we met knew at least 2 languages fluently. We then crashed at Stephs house that night as it was far too late to go back to our hosts.

Day 6 Saturday - Woke up early to return to the hosts housde and packed, cleaned and said our goodbyes before we left Santiago to Mendoza.

Day 7 Sunday - We arrived in Mendoza very early in the morning and took a taxi to our booked hostel. Unfortunately a it was a sunday we had no luck booking a vineyard tour as everything (unknowingly to us prior this trip) closes on sunday. We did manage to visit the plaza´s, one with lots of mosaics which was very pretty. We also passed a cycle festival of some kind which was very odd.

Missing you all as always
Love from
Vicky and John