Vital Statistics

Posted from Home again! by Daryl, 28 Feb 09 at 15:20

We travelled approximately 50,000 miles, which is equivalent to twice round the equator.
This involved 28 flights, 21 boats,10 trains, 10 long bus journeys, 7 long car/motorhome journeys and we stayed in 44 lots of accommodation.

Our final flight from Heathrow to Manchester was the one with the most problems. The plane needed a wheel change and at Manchester the luggage hold was jammed and we had to wait ages for the release of our bags.

We had a brilliant homecoming though. There to gree... [Read More]

CheeRIO

Posted from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil by Daryl, 26 Feb 09 at 10:37

Last day in Rio and last day of our world tour. Went out for a Brazilian to celebrate. The waitress wore a white coat and showed us a menu that only had beaver, heart and rat's tail so we left sharpish. A close shave.

We fly to Heathrow overnight and then on to Manchester tomorrow afternoon.
We`ve loved Rio and loved the world tour even the challenges, and we have had a few.
Now we want to be home. We`re missing our sons, grandkids. animals, family, friends, house, garden, shepherd`s pie ... [Read More]

Meeting Jesus

Posted from Bakewell, UK by Chris'n'Daryl, 25 Feb 09 at 14:36

Yesterday was the last official carnival day and the samba music continued to beat through the night. We braved Copacabana beach (or Cocoa Banana as Daryl inadvertently called it.) It was wall to wall bodies but we managed to bag a space and go for a swim. This involved leaping bravely into mountainous waves and fighting with the undertow, but for those of us who survived, it was really exhilarating.

Today we went to see Jesus. We caught a funicular up the steep mountain through the beautiful... [Read More]

Mind the Gaps

Posted from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil by Chris, 25 Feb 09 at 11:06

Our hostel here in Rio is full of delightful English gap year students. Most of them have been here for about a month, working as house painters in the favellas or other community work. Building carnival floats, costumes and even taking part in the Sambodome itself. And they have had to pay a considerable amount to do this.
Next week they take off for Argentina, Bolivia, Columbia and Chile then on to Oz, Cambodia, India etc etc on a 6 month tour.
Now South America isn`t the easiest part of th... [Read More]

CARNIVAL!

Posted from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil by Daryl, 23 Feb 09 at 05:39

We tried to go and see Jesus at the top of the mountain but the queues were horrendous It was obvious a miracle wasn`t going to happen so we gave up and took 2 cable cars up Sugar Loaf Mountain instead. The views were spectacular, Rio must be the most beautiful city in the world, amazing coastline and lots of green bits. The 36C temperature takes a bit of doing.

Chris talked (with difficulty) to some locals about getting black market tickets to the Sambadrome (you can pay anything up to 200 p... [Read More]

Riotous Rio

Posted from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil by Daryl, 21 Feb 09 at 16:35

Rio is a Turkish bath with en suite samba music at a thousand decibels. We braved it into the city this afternoon. The streets were a throbbing mass of bands and dancers, every man, woman, child and their dog (we saw one in a red stripey T shirt), dressed up and gyrating. Tomorrow night we`re hoping to get tickets for the official procession and go with a crowd from our guest house. Tonight they`ve all gone out in amazing costumes to take part. We just need to relax after our gruelling whistle s... [Read More]

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Posted from Quito by Daryl, 21 Feb 09 at 16:23

At Quito airport we didn`t have enough money to pay the airport tax. They wouldn`t accept credit card or travellers cheques, we`d had our quota from the cash machine and the banks were shut! After about 2 hours of panic, with no-one able to help us, Chris managed to find a machine that would cough up some money on his Egg card. Phew! To celebrate, we took a taxi out to the equator which is basically an orange line painted on the ground (surprisingly cool to the touch, we expected it to sizzle) a... [Read More]

Puerto Lopez, we think, on the coast of Ecuador

Posted from Puerto Lopez by Daryl, 18 Feb 09 at 07:59

Quito was like Rotherham but with less allure and more rain. We priced up 4 days on the Galapagos and it was going to cost 1500 pounds. We still thought bout going for it but then couldnīt raise the cash due to the credit card theft in Lima. Instead we settled for an ecolodge in the national park on the coast. The trip here was gruesome - flight then 2 hours on unmade roads but it is wonderful - hacienda meets hobbit hole. We find it very moorish. We have a rustic balcony overlooking the sea and... [Read More]

Quito

Posted from Quito by Chris, 14 Feb 09 at 06:21

Overnight in Miraflores, Lima, before flying to Quito and checking into a hostel that boasted 'English speaking Staff'. Hmm.
More on this when we find out where we are and where we are going but Gallapagos looking expensive/ difficult at the mo.

Colca Canyon

Posted from Bakewell, UK by Chris, 12 Feb 09 at 08:59

Bumpy bus ride across the surface of the moon to get to Colca Canyon to try to see condors. En route we went on an alpaca/vicuna/llama safari (Ahh). We spent the night in the mountain village of Chivay, where national costume was the norm and the hostel owner gave us each a hot water bottle to take to bed and a drink of coca tea (as in cocaine). Up at the crack of dawn for another gut rearranging ride down the Colca Canyon to the Cruz del Condor.

The weather was perfect and we saw about half... [Read More]