What to you after you see more aussies in a week than in four months.... Sorry Mum and Dad

An economic powerhouse of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires has the culture, architecture, and style of a French, Italian, or Spanish city. Magnificent monuments of conquistadors, generals, independence heroes, and presidents; Gradiose european styled buildings and apartments; Vendors and markets hawking the latest fashion; and an elite that would make a burnsidian feel like a dirty old aussie derro. This city proper, far removed from the poverty of South America, and even the poorer suburbs of Boca and the like is firmly orientated to Europe.

After awe inspiring beuaty of South America, endless hikes, and a thousand old churches, what can I say....

Take BA, add backpacker hostel, add bar, add ten aussies, add heat, add the festive season and you can probably guess what happened next. With special mentioned to Blue and Ryan, a seven day bender, shaming any footy trip weekend at Melbourne with a litany of steaks, brews, vino´s, music, and parties. A traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Chinese takeaway at the hostel was followed by at a dance party that started at two, got kicking at three until we left after five. The after party, starting at 8am Christmas day held captive two of our aussies mates who duly arrived for Christmas lunch around 2pm.

Joined by Johana from Finland and our aussie bretheren, we dragged ourself towards Recoletta for a hearty Christmas steak and then afternoon / evening at a chilled little wine bar.

Today a BA lite, the impressive, but slightly run down city of Rosario is a pretty city holding a smiliar population to that of home. With a cost of living a third or a half of BA, the riverside city loses only a little culture, with a cafe of every street, street vendors and buskers in the main, monuments, impressive buildings, and the first house of Che Guevara.

It´s like a hurricane. You can see it coming from a mile away, you see the storm building on the horizon, you can feel it´s breeze before it get´s there, and when it gets there, it rains down on you. It´s as simple as that.
I always knew this feeling was invetiable. The night before it was going to come. Several hours in the shade, waiting your turn you know it is just around the corner. On your way up, your thinking it should be here by now. But then, the door is opened at it is time. It grips you like it never has before, you try to conceal it with a wry smile to little effect. These guys do this and see this every day after all. This fear, this gut wrenching fear is unsurpassed as you are about, or are expected to jump 3000 metres out of a moving plane.

Thankfully, these guys are old pro´s, even if they only provided a three minute safety talk prior, after all, what can you expect for $OZ150 anyway? Asked to move my feet out the door momentarily laspses my panic, but now I am truly scared. However, my partner grinding me into position, I realise the choice to jump is now not mine. The first seconds contain only panic, the next few joy with a scream of elation, then I can relax as I´m falling screaming and shouting down to earth over the next minutes. Absolutley FANTASTIC. Before I know it, the shoot is pulled and we float and I guide our parachute over the city, with a couple of spins and turns until we land on the field about five minutes later. I must say, that much adrenaline is coursing through your veins causes the concept of time to become meaningless. I could have last one minute or ten?!?! It was fantastic, you must do it and do it soon!!!

Tiahuanaco, Coca, the world´s most dangerous road, and what do you mean our tickets are cancelled

Passing through the urban sprawl become city el alto, we overlook the remarkable valley and city of La Paz. The border of snow capped mountains deliver an unparalled background and the world highest ski slopes. Breathtakingly 3,600 above sea, all foot travels suffer the effects of the altitude; where suicide is the term used by visiting football teams and lethargy and shortness of breath are common. Catering for between 1.6 and 1.8 million inhabitants it holds the power and privelledge of Bolivia, if not the official capital status. Incomparable to Lima or Quito where style, grace, and culture is interwined between poverty, street sellers, and open sewers. By far the cheapest destination thus far, a superb lunch for two with drinks is $5 unless you roll the dice on a friendly street vendor.

A trip to La Paz is not complete without a visit to the coca museum. Used by pre-columbian civilisations to adjust to altitude, reduce hunger, physcial increase output and as a basic anaesthetic, it was declared a path to the devil and banned by the church. After discovering it´s properties the colonial goveners overturned the ban and made it´s used by indigenous slaves mandatory in the mines to foster ¨shifts¨of up to 48 hours. At one point, it´s per kilo value was greater than gold. Avoiding the known history of the drug wars of the 20th century, Bolivia today legally produces coca for traditional uses, although much is diverted to neighboring countries for the production of cocaine. Interestingly, Bolivia is not one of the roughly a dozen western countries that can legally produce cocaine.... Also coke still uses coca leaves for flavour.

A visit to the pre-incan ruins of Tiahuanaco produced a tour guide garnering conjecture as fact and a site that after restoration may one day rivial Machu Pichu.

Reviewing the logistics of our impending travel, we head down to the local LAN office to book an early flight to Santiago. Much to our suprise, the officer, who we´ll call Juanita, informs that all of our forwarding tickets have been cancelled due Iberia, which we already loathed, incorrectly altering our flight changes we requested in Spain..... dumbasses... Our shock compounded by the knowledge that all of our future flights were fully boooked raised the old blood pressure just a tad. Luckilly, Juanita was up to the challenge with a wink and a nod a quick phone call secured our passage on the aforementioned flights.

It´s a wonder what boredom can ¨force¨ you to do. After daily knockbacks for an early flight and ingorning some fatherly advice, I booked passage by mountain bike on the Coroico road. In 1995, the Inter-American Development Bank dubbed the road ¨the worlds most dangerous¨ where a fatal accident is not uncommon every fortnight ... Starting early and high in the Bolivian Andes with white knuckles from the cold and a hearty grip of the handle bars, we embarked down a 64 kilometre, single lane, mountain hugging, waterfall disecting dirt and stone laden road descending 3,600 to the warmth of the sub tropics. One thing is certain, the fantastic setting would have been much greatly appreciated if my knuckles were not so sore two days later.

Captain Danger, Richard Nixon, Baños, and the chariot of the people.

Building on our first Ecuadorian bus trip, we headed down to Baños on a four hour trek via a mix of roads rated as western, laden with pot holes, paved, dirt, and finally ravaged by lava flows. Being a long weekend in Ecuador, we had the privilege of picking a couple of youngsters after a few cervaza´s. Plying themselves in the isle half a metre away, the struggling girlfriend started burping, or at least that is what we thought until vomit started sliding down her boyfriends new leather jacket. As it only can on a crowded bus in the tropics, the product of a afternoon at the football covered and festered on the floor of the bus with the girl swaying over the passengers in front over every corner and pothole. What can you say..... public transport, the chariot of the people.

Baños, meaning baths in Spanish, lies in the valley under the shadow of a 5000 metre volcano. Active as recent as late last year, several roads are under construction and one need not try hard to find the smooth black volcanic stones. Hosting several natural baths, which supposedly for health benefits, you spend 8 minutes in the hot and 2 minutes in the freezing cold have been frequented in the late of night after a days captain dangering or a nice meal.

After reaching our peak of about 4000 metres above sea level on a hike, we meet a friendly old farmer named Antoñio. The charming old man spent every second day tending his cows and chooks on the mountain between driving local buses. His tiny one bedroom shack, the home of this random act of kindness provided fresh tea, dried banana´s, bread, and a good dose of conversation. Advice from a friend suggested this was a real treat to the locals and we should not offer payment of goods in return. After a few photo´s and a sad goodbye, the call came for a few dollars for his kids. Taken a back that we were simply a cash cow, we handed over a few dollars and hiked down through tough terrain during the night both bitter and disappointed. That said, it is easy for a pair of westerners to judge a poor Ecuadorian farmer.


Captain Danger, often seen cutting up some dirt in his adopted home of Melrose had some competition in Ecuador this past day. With bugger all photographic evidence to show for it, a few minor scars, bruises, and that rush that you have from almost killing yourself we enjoyed one of the most exhilarating days of our lives.
First stop, white water rafting through class IV and V rapids. No words can describe the adrenalin rush of frantically paddling, jumping in and out of the boat on the faintest call of IN, getting drenched by ferocious waves, and hitting 10 tonne rocks in middle of the Rio negro. Falling in twice and Beth once mid rapids and feeling a blood rush without even a remote sense of danger, this is something everyone should do!!!

Not entirely sure what it was, but enticed by the discount of two activities in one day we headed canyoning; Abseiling down waterfalls. The first two, 12 and 6 metres were easily descended with one guide holding the safety rope at the bottom and our combined day of prior experience abseling in the Adelaide hills. However, as I was motioned towards the final descent, I started to realise that the man holding the safety rope was firmly staying at the top of this 45 metre waterfall. With panic setting in and Beth hearing numerous cries of holy four letter words I started this apparently crazy descent. I have not qualms in saying I have never been so scared in my life..... It was fantastic!!!! After reaching the edge, we free abseiled, spiralling under the powerful waterfall. Absolutely fantastic.

Tonight, we hunt for the local delicacy coy, which is a rather tasty guinea pig..... roasted without trimming a toe, ear, or eye..... yummy

Euroshock and a whistlestop tour of Sevilla and Madrid

Struggling to sustain our lavish lifestyle of hostels, bocadillo´s, and a bottle of vino. We cut short our stay in Spain with two days in Sevilla and one in Madrid and headed for Quito, Ecuador.

The final stop of our tour de andulacía was the regional captial of Sevilla. As per the prior stops, it was once the heart and soul of Moorish Spain until falling in the reconquista around 1300. The hallmarks of winding arabic streets, magnificent castles, ever present Spanish and arabic ceramics were all there. Our main site, was the ancient castle of alkazar and enourmous gardens. Remarkable by it´s size and location, walled the heart of town, you would not imagine it´s splendour withour a few hours inside.

It´s difficult to rate a city after one night, but, with everything seemingly going our way, from the hostal, to the gigantic El Prado museum, and the ease of travel; we could´ve both easily spent another few days with a looser budget. It was interesting to note that two of our american dormies, in tow with a backpack and suitcase were living off 8 euros less per person that the both of us.

After a terrible flight on Iberia, we hit Quito and our $US12 per person room. With an airport pickup, tv, double bed, central location, free city tour, and our best breakfast since Eijsden, we´re living like kings.