Hey guys, well this is our first email from South America, email here is pretty good so expect to hear more from us.
3rd November
Arrived in Santiago, Chile, met some cool people on the plane over and luckily one of them (Antonia) is Spanish and takes over as unofficial tour leader. Very glad we started learning spanish as no one really speaks much English, having said that we are managing to make ourselves understood.
Went out the first night to defeat the jet lag and managed to stay out till three in the morning, the night was a bit of blur but some of the guys managed to get thrown out of the bar, the police were very understanding, even giving a lift back to the hotel, so much for our first night in Chile. Looking at some of the video footage of the night we found some shots of Chris sitting in a strange car. Pieced together that he had found an unlocked car in a drive way and had pushed it out onto the road and sat in it for a while playing with the buttons and things :-) Apparently he pushed it back into the same place, so no damage done.
Also had our first experience with the local fire water called Pisco and it is evil stuff, tastes sort of like Tequila but leaves a hell of a hangover.
4th November
Big big big hangover this morning, Trina took charge and did a very creditable job of ordering me breakfast. The other guys surfaced eventually and we had a long lazy lunch at 4pm. Lesson of the day don't order tea with milk, ended up with a cup of warm milk with a tea bag stuck in it!!!!! Sitting in the square saw an old guy dressed in a suit with giant kids sunglasses cellotaped to his head.....guess were not in NZ anymore.
Got absolutely no sleep that night due to jetlag so stayed up watching old movies trying to learn spanish from the subtitles.
5th November
Last day in Santiago so thought we might as well actually see some of the place, went up a really steep furnicular (tram) to the top of St Cristobel, sort of like a miniture version of the statue in Rio.
Fantastic views of a huge sprawling city.
Had to say farewell to Chris, Leah, James, and Antonia as they were heading north and we were flying out to Brasil.
6th November
Well no more interpreter :-( so its back to the phrase book, found our way to the airport without to much grief, thinking maybe we will get the hang of this spanish thing after all. Got to Brazil to find that my bag had been mutilated with all the zip handles had been cut off so can't lock it now. Went out to a nice restaurant and shared a bottle of wine (down to two meals a day at the moment) Around midnight Simon and Ruth (Harrington) fronted up and we caught up over a few beers.
Was really cool seeing those guys and hearing about their travels.
7th November
Iguasu Falls - bussed over to the Argentina side of the falls and they are FANTASTIC, we were blown away with the size of them, we found they were more spectacular then Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. They had had quite stormy weather previously so a lot of water going through. We caught a jet boat ride right up to the falls and got absolutely drenched. Got back to the hotel to find Bart sitting in the lobby. No getting rid of some people :-) Had to say goodbye to Si and Ruth but hopefully catch them in Rio.
8th November
Moved from the hotel to a backpackers nearer the falls, good place with a social bunch of people. Finding our way there was a mission and ended up walking 2.5km because I was to stubborn to ask for directions (Trina says typical male), we found it but glad we are travelling light. Scary how much equipment some of our fellow travellers have with them, some for only a two week trip. Checked out the Brazillian side this time and got spectacular views of the whole falls as well as walkways that take you right into the spray.
9th November
Flew into Rio, first impressions a little disappointing, maybe due to the weather/time of year, went for a long walk along the beach on sunset, didn't feel too unsafe even though had spoken to some people who had been mugged a couple of days previously.
Went to a bbq restaurant, all you can eat, 27 varieties of meat, needless to say the rabbit food got ignored. Rolled out of the restaurant and staggerd all the way back to hostel. Had an early night to try and catch up on all the sleep we have been missing out on.
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