LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN

When we signed up to go Dolphin watching, we never thought that we would get the experience of getting to swim with them. That kind of stuff only happens on Walt Disney movies, and when it does, the Dolphins come right up to you, cure you of all personal hang ups and illness, let you ride on their backs, flip you in the air, and give you a new lease of life.

So when the giant Maori skipper of "Dolphin Adventures" offered us to jump in and have a swim with these critters, I was only too keen. The fact that the water was about 5 degrees did not phase me, and neither was the fact that we had to get changed into wetsuits in front of the entire boat. But hey, whats a bit of bum cheek and boobin flashing going to harm anyone??

The Dolphins were swimming madly in and around the boat, this was going to be my Disney moment. Irish mate April and I waddled to the side of the boat in our luminous yellow flippers, goggles and snorkles, and in we leapt reeling from the cold of the water.

They say that you have to interact with the Dolphins if you want them to play with you and it is amazing how this reduces people to their lowest level. People were making noises that sounded like a dying cow, some were letting out high pitched squeeks, some were clapping, some were flapping their flippers around and others were just choking and hyperventilating from the salt water.

Drew stayed behind as chief "Dolphin-Pointer-Outer-From-Birds-Eye-View". And kept shouting "they're behind you, they're infront of you, they are underneath you, swim left, swim right" It felt a little bit ludicrous and after a short while and a lot of energy the dolphins seemed to disappear.

So with the waves splashing salt water and hair into eyes, we made a very unglamourous exit shivering, coughing and spluttering, and started making our way home.

Next thing a 2m dorsal fin appears on the horizon, and skipper, starts skipping and getting excited about killer whales lurking about in the sea. He then excitedly tells us that Dolphin is the food of choice for this big guys which is possibly why they disappeared.

Lucky the sheer lack of grace in the water made it easy for the Orcas to see which was which on the menu and we all got off unscathed.

So double whammy for us. Whales and Dolphins in the same viewing.

And with that, we headed back to our Campervan for another night of 2-minute noodles under the stars.

* Couple of extra pics of the 90 mile beach, our campervan, hole in the rock, larking about on the beach

Having gotten used to the queuing system in South America (there isnt one - its a push in, thrust yourself to the front - free for all culture) we waited at the taxi rank after a furiously long journey across the Andes to Barriloche.

Tired to the core, we made sure our places in the front of the taxi queue were well retained and hairy eyeballed anyone who looked like they may "accidentally" step in front of us.

Barriloche is a town which specialises in chocolate making... It is made of Apex wooden ski chalet's, set on a lake that reflects the snowcapped Andes lying behind it. Sounds terrible hey ;-)

But a trip is not a trip unless you have brilliant company..

For Sale: Dan & April (Answer to O Keefe or O Gorman, depending on who your asking). Quality Irish couple who love a pint and a laugh.. brilliant fun for all types of backpacking trips, please enquire within for price list.

It was a brilliant arrangement. Each night someone would cook, we would drink loads of red wine, play cards, speak rot and solve the worlds problems.

And the skiing was brilliant too, We were lucky to catch the last good snowfall of the season. Laura and Dan, two Americans on tour with us were demons down the runs and left us chasing them as they whizzed down any slope type. I guess you have to grow up on the slopes to have that kind of grace as a skier. No intense snow ploughs for those two!

And then there was the bar called mute. Its set at the base of the ski slopes in Barriloche. One would mistake it for the den of Apre Ski. It has a "no ugly chicks can work here" policy and as such only Argentinas next top models seem to serve you beer.

No problem at all for our male counterparts who purposefully placed their glasses across the table so that she would have to lean over to pick them up, they asked for one too many beers, jaws dropped to the floor, and waited for their next pint, panting with the anticipation of her return. Pathetic I tell ya.

Its all good times and good fun, and at the end of the day, its all about the laugh.
And so back to Santiago on a loong loong bus journey.

We had our last "Once's / Elevenses" with Liz and with that we boarded our plane to Auckland.

What a journey.

It´s been a month since our last entry and soo much has happened. We´ve been predominently in and around Peru, racing down daunting sand dunes, trekking in amongst snow capped mountains, visiting awesome sites like Macchu Picchu and Ballestas islands (poor mans Gallapagos islands) and Lake Titicaca.

Where do we start???

How would we have known Peru had so much diversity - when we thought of Peru we obviously thought Macchu Picchu, Nazca lines and lake titicaca on the way to Bolivia - which we saw along with so much more.

We started in Lima, which was pretty uninspiring due to a constant grey mist which hangs over the city for 8 months of the year. This gives London a run for its money! needless to say we high tailed it outta there and booked onto a tour going South to see the famous Nazca lines.

We ended up having such a wicked time - not only did we fly over the famous nazca lines, which still have Dee and I second guessing why they were made and for what reason (we obviously have plenty of theories but we´ll save it for when we bring out our bestselling book - Mysteries of South America sorted by D&D!), but we also managed to go on a dessert safari, sand board down some bloody impressive dunes, visit the Ballestas islands (poor mans gallapogas) to see sea lions, penguins, beautiful rock formations and caves, birds and plenty of bird shit!

With the wind in our sails we headed off to the legendary little backpacker town of Cusco to try get to see the famous Inca city of macchu picchu. Blind luck struck us again as we arrived during 1 of the biggest festivals of the year (Inti Raymi - festival of the sun), so things were happening and the town was a buzz. We managed to book into some sweet accommodation at a convent! This meant lovely clean rooms, tranquil atmosphere and best of all hot water - although I do confess 1 of the old nuns took a fancy to me and made me sit down next to her on the bench and hold her hand while she muttered sweet nothings in my ear.

Alright, moving on - we managed to book onto an alternative inca trail called Salkantay trail as the main renowned inca trail was fully booked (thanks Clive and Jayne!). While we were waiting for our start date we found the worlds highest irish pub and the rest was a bit of a blur!

The Salkantay trail was awesome - 4 days/80km of hectic hiking through ravines and valleys, past glacial mountains and through rainforests, ending up on the last night at the little backpacker town of Aguas Calientes at the foot of Macchu Picchu mountain. This allowed us to wake up before the crack of dawn to hike up the steepest path in the world to the Macchu Picchu ruins 500m above. Once our eyes had stopped watering, we could reel our calves again and breathing had resumed to normality we realised that we were infact shrouded in a thick cloud so couldn´t see the legendary sunrise over macchu picchu. Still not thinking clearly from over exertion we decided to take the opportunity to climb the nearby mountain overlooking Macchu Picchu called Winay Waynah. This path made the first 1 seem like childs play! The good news is somewhere in our unconscious state while crawling up the mountain it started clearing and the most beautiful birds eyeview of Macchu Picchu was revealed below us. We got our picture postcard of Macchu Picchu and rolled back into Aguas Calientes.

After Macchu Picchu we headed to lake titicaca where we visited these communities that live on these floating islands made out of reeds. Bad neighbourly relations make for some pretty interesting times as if you have a disagreement you just unhook your island from the anchor point and float downwind to some other spot. Better still, we were told, if you dislike your fellow islanders you can always just cut the island in half and quite litterally go your separate ways! (Ok - maybe we were being spun a story there but a good one nonetheless!)

We stayed with a local family for a night on another 1 of lake titcaca´s natural islands (Amantineen) which was quite a humbling experience and a highlight of our trip.

Took some great photos with our not so great disposable camera and headed onward with our dodgy stomachs into Bolivia...
not the best place in the world to arrive with an already dodgy stomach!!!

The taxi driver looked in his review mirror, glaring at us as our stifled giggles grew into loud snorts when Celine Dion finished the last few notes of her song.

Its just that¨The worlds greatest Divas¨CD seemed inappropriate for someone whose driving skills were similar to someone off Prison Break. Perhaps it was part of his anger therapy.

Buckled over from the weight of our ever growing backpacks and from the laughter, it was obvious for Ilea to spot the gringos in the crowd.

Ileia is the sister of Ilce from Rio, whose friend the paster, is staying in Annes mums house in Welkom!! Complicated ??? Try explaining that in Portuguese!!

But what a little ripper she was. She welcomed us into her home, and soon enough ushered us out of the door to meet some of her mates who could speak English.

After sampling the local Moqueco (fish stew) we found ourselves invited to the beach the next day.. got to love it when life takes care of itself.

Guarapari is an awesome little coastal village just south of Vitoria, and at long last we got some sun. The beach was amazing, but what a place to people watch.

To Drews delight, the girls hardly wear a thing!! One ¨Post It¨ on the front, one on the back, and one over each boobin seemed to be all the kit that was required. Tie together with a piece of string and Bobs your uncle!! And the girls really work it!! Even with all their shapes and sizes.. its brilliant!

We made our way to a mates grandparents house where we were blown over and given the biggest family welcome ever!!

You have to love Brazilian familys.. 6 kids on this farm raised singlehandedly by their mum (after the dad passed away at a young age). As we arrived, the brothers / husbands were all mucking in doing alterations to the old farm house, while the sisters / wives looked on drinking wine and chirping them.

We caused such a commotion, that it took about 20 minutes for them to figure out our names... they couldnt seem to get it. So they settled for Andreas and Joanna. Fine by us!!

Just as we thought all would settle down, the 10 year old hyperactive cousin arrived flung down her bicycle and before I knew it she had me by the hand dragging me to the kitchen to help make Brigadero - a little Brazilian sweety treat made from condensed milk.

The little girl was like a tasmanian devil and when she wasnt on Drews shoulders or getting a piggy back from me, she was hanging upside down from a Mango Tree, or hurdling over broken farm gates.. pretty intense

Ilea is a pretty religeous girlie, so she took us to her church with her, and roped people out of the congregation to translate the songs and prayers, everything!! It was awesome.

The most special part was when we were invited to a ¨cell group¨the night before we left and they all sang to us and prayed for us.. It was so emotional!! But very very special.

We met such increadible people and were super sad to be leaving Vitoria, but our flight to Peru was booked and so we closed the Brazilian chapter of the tour and climbed onto the bus.

* The picture is Naiara (whose grannys house we went to), me in the middle and Ileia on the right. This was at Guarapari where it was a public holiday and locals were decorating the streets making motifs out of sand!!

Uruguay is the wall flower of South America.

Before we headed off on our trip we didnt know much about it. The good thing is that always leaves one open to be pleasantly surprised.

The locals seem to be more chilled and its capital Montevideo, seems far more relaxed in comparison to Buenos Aires.

The old city seems to have a certain romance about it, the buildings are derilect old colonial, the streets are cobbled and these are interspersed with a couple of quaint little plazas where the locals sit on benches sipping their mate (strange bitter tasting tea drunk out of a small pot through a straw!!! Dont ask questions - just accept it.)

One night, we accidently fell into this gorgeous little pub just to the side of the town theatre. Its quite famous judging from the photos of various celebs on the wall and seemed to have all the actors and actresses from the local playhouse pour in for a drink after the show. We had a drink there, that they only serve there. Begins with an N.. obviously quite a good drink, as we cant remember the name.

A three hour bus trip from there and we found ourselves in Punte Del Este. A completely different vibe - the Monte Carlo of South America. The whose who all seem to holiday there in the summer and locals slog hard for one month of the year to sit on their porches enjoying the view for the rest of the year.

The prices fluctuate accordingly, and whats more is that it seems to get better the more you leave the centre of the city.

We stayed at Manantiales just outside Punte, which can only be described as Ballito 20 years ago. A couple of beach houses, a supermarket, dirt roads, stray dogs and untapped beaches - best one being Montoya which hopefully wont get too exploited in years to come.

Unfortunately, being off season, this awesome little spot turned out to be a one horse town, so we chilled for a few days and headed off to the lure of world renowned Iguazu Falls...