Colombia

Cali and the match
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After a night on a building site disguised as a hotel, we crossed the border into Colombia. Our senses were in full flight at first as stories of past kidnappings flooded our minds but we were very quickly put at ease as each Colombian we met was even friendlier than the last. We weaved our way through the vibrant green mountains to the city of Cali - the salsa capital of Colombia. Our time here was spent taking more salsa classes and checking out a soccer match between two local rivals. We arrived at the stadium about an hour before the match started and what we witnessed was incredible - hundreds of young boys aged between 12 and 16 roaming the streets around the grounds, with a large number of them asking people in the street for small change, trying to gather together the amount needed to get into the match. These matches are a common occurrence and seem to be a massive part of the social scene for these boys. Once the stadium they perch themselves behind the goals and they sing as loudly as they can for the complete duration of the game while simultaneously jumping up and down - the most enjoyable exercise regime we've seen in a long time!!!

Bogata
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Bogota is the capital and biggest city in Colombia, with a population of 7 million people. We weren't too impressed by the city. There is a lot of poverty, poor housing and homelessness and the poor street lighting makes it seem dangerous at night. We spent most of our time in the city centre walking around, and went to a few museums - the best one being the National Police Museum. This museum tells the story of the Colombian police force, its history, the laws, famous policemen and the war against Pablo Escobar and the drug cartels (more about old Pablo later in this post). It was quite a big museum, spread over three floors. There wasn't much else to recommend about Bogota, so after two days we packed up and headed onwards.

Medellin
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Medellin was our next port of call. In the late 80s and early 90s, Medellin was probably the most dangerous city in the world with drug cartel related violence getting out of control. Nowadays, it has managed to give itself a complete makeover, and we really enjoyed our time there. Public transport is efficient, the city is relatively clean, the downtown area is bright at night and there are quite a few parks and museums - all of which give the city a safe feel. One of the highlights of the city was the Plaza Botero which houses an art gallery by an artist of the same name. This artist depicts life "in an exaggerated form" - to you and me he paints and sculpts fat people. We also took a cable car over 2km up into the mountains surrounding Medellin. The scenery from the cable cars was stunning and at the top we found Arvi Park, a cloud forest with a host of walking trails and other tourist attractions.

Roberto and Pablo Escobar
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Pablo Escobar is probably the most famous drug lord in history. In the 80s and 90s, his empire was so big that at one stage he was supposedly the seventh richest man in the world. He even had his own fleet of airplanes to get his cocaine to the States. He managed to buy off people with his famous saying "plata o plomo" - literally meaning silver or lead. In other words, take my bribe money or face my bullets. He was eventually killed by the Colombian police in 1993, and his empire fell apart. Roberto Escobar, his brother,  was his right hand man right throughout those times, and now Roberto makes his money by participating in a tour where he answers questions and poses for photographs with curious tourists. So along we went. The tour brings us to the old headquarters of Pablo's cartel, to his grave, and then to Roberto's house (formerly one of Pablo's safe houses). Roberto is an old man now, but he was happy to answer and questions we had, sign pictures and generally appear very pleasant.

Cartagena
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Practically everyone we met during our time in Colombia told us that we would fall in love with Cartagena boasting about how 'mucho linda' it is and rightly so. After a long bus journey we arrived at the bus station which looked like it was built on a landfill in the middle of the Sahara. After arguing with the taxi man to take us to the old town we took off across the streetless humps and bumps of the area around the station, through the chaotic morning rush hour traffic of the new town until we reached the gem of the north that the locals bragged about - the colonial old town of Cartagena, one of the most beautiful places in the world. The narrow cobble streets, lined with colourful houses built by the Spanish, blasted out Latino music from morning to night. The plaza next to our hotel was a hangout spot of everyone from the neighbourhood, both young and old. Some people played the guitar and sang while others played chess or joined into the football game that was being played barefoot. The old town was a bit of a maze, with churches and plazas to beat the band. There was a film festival on in town while we were there so we took advantage of this and went to see a rather depressing film about a Chilean musician. From here we took a boat out to the most beautiful beach that we've ever been on, Playa Blanca. This was one of those beaches that you only dream about...but we were here for real...we even drank a cocktail from a coconut!

Ecuador

Quito
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Quito is the capital of Ecuador, with a population of about 2 million people. It is about 2,800 metres above sea level, but after spending much of the previous few weeks at altitude, this wasn't a problem for us. We liked Quito. There were plenty of green areas, good restaurants and lively nightlife. We spent over a week here, taking classes in Spanish and Salsa Dancing (more about that later). We spend a lot of time exploring the city, going for long walks and enjoying the wide variety of cuisine on offer.

Salsa Classes
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We decided to take Salsa classes in Quito, taking classes for an hour each day for five days. We learned five or six of the basic steps over the course of the lessons from Paulo, our teacher. It was great fun - it took us a while to get going but once we did, we fairly burned up the floor! We even managed to bewilder Paulo with a couple of our moves that he never knew existed in Salsa. We are looking forward to using what we learned later in the trip.

The Amazon Rainforest
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The Amazon covers an area of about 7 million square kilometres in total. To put that into context, it's about 90 times the size of Ireland. We went to the Ecuadorian part of the Amazon, about 8 hours from Quito. We visited an indigenous community, where we learned a little about their lives. Many of them marry at a very young age - 12 or 13 - and have up to ten children. We took a canoe trip down one of the rivers, with dense jungle on both sides. After a long hike in the forest, the group finished off the day with a dip at the foot of a waterfall.

Banos
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Banos is a town famous for its thermal springs. We arrived on a Sunday morning, and the place was really busy. There were probably 15 or 20 baths in total, with the water temperature ranging from freezing to quite hot. It reminded us a little of the saunas in Korea, with families enjoying the time spent with each other, moving from one spring to the next.

The Middle of the World
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Mitad del Mundo is a place north of Quito where the equator passes through the country. A 30 metre monument marks the spot, with the four sides of the monument facing North, South, East and West. The latitude is marked with a yellow line, giving a good photo opportunity for the tourists to put one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern Hemisphere. There is also a museum inside the monument giving detailed information of the indigenous communities in Ecuador's different provinces.

Peru

Floating islands
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We crossed the border to Puno in Peru, a town on the edge of Lake Titicaca. We went on a tour to see the Uros - a group of artificial islands made of reeds. We got off to have a closer look at one of the islands, where we were met by the island leader. He explained to us that ten families lived on that particular island, in homes also made of reeds. Once an island is created, it lasts about 100 years. Fishing used to be the main source of income for the people on these islands, but now tourism is their main source of income. There are schools on a few of the islands, which cater for children on all of the islands. In total, there are 42 islands with a few hundred people living on them.

Cusco and Machu Picchu
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When we arrived in Cusco we weren't affected by the altitude sickness that a lot of people suffer from as we had become accustomed to the height in La Paz
As Fionn had been to Machu Picchu before we decided to go our separate ways for a few days - so Fionn got stuck into the computer to do some work and I hit for the hills to go on the Inca jungle trail. There were about ten people in my group, mostly Spanish and French speaking. Day one consisted of some downhill biking...the best kind of biking in my opinion! Day two was a toughie, hiking and climbing - very difficult but very rewarding when we reached the hot springs at the end. Day three we enjoyed some zip lining in the morning - I would really recommend this to adrenaline junkies, it was brilliant. In the afternoon we did some more hiking. Day four was amazing - we reached Machu Picchu. I can't describe the feeling you get when you walk around such an amazing place - hopefully the pictures will do it some justice.

Huanchaco
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We both felt like we had spent enough time in the cool air of the high altitude so we headed down from the Andes to the Peruvian coast! Huanchaco is a beach town about eight hours from the city of Lima. It was quite busy in Huanchaco as there was a surfing competition taking place. We rented chairs and an umbrella and sat on the beach for a few days.

Mancora
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We wanted to make our way as close to the Ecuadorian border as possible but having not received our complete fix of the beach air we stopped off in Mancora for a few days. Mancora is about 8 hours north of Huanchaco, and was more developed although it only had umbrellas on the beach - no chairs. The water was fantastic, nice and clean with great waves!

Bolivia

La Paz
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We decided to go to Spanish school for a week in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. La Paz is in the Andes, about 3600 metres above sea level, making it the highest capital city in the world. The altitude wasn't really a problem for us, although when walking around the city you would often be short of breath. Our school was about 5 minutes from where we were staying, with Karen taking 4 hours of classes every day and Fionn two. We both had one to one classes with our teachers.

Street markets
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Sometimes the whole city of La Paz can feel like a giant street market. There is a big population of Aymara people in Bolivia - an indigenous ethnic group whose people wear very colourful clothes. Many of them set up temporary stalls in the towns and cities of Bolivia to sell their wares. Fruit and vegetables are the most common products, but the stalls really sell anything and everything. In the area where we were staying, the stalls shut at about 6 or so, but different areas of the city had night markets, where the trading continued.

The coca leaf
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The coca leaf has been a big issue in Bolivia for years. It has been chewed and used for making tea by the indigenous people for centuries, but is very controversial as it is also used as the raw material for cocaine. The current president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is a former coca farmer who made his name campaigning for the rights of the Bolivian people to continue growing the leaf, in opposition to the US government who have tried to sponsor programs to eradicate it. We went to the Coca Leaf Museum in La Paz for a few hours - a very interesting place with information on the history and uses of the coca leaf. Mata de coca (a type of coca leaf tea) is a common drink in La Paz, and we had a few cups in our time there.

Lake Titicaca
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Lake Titicaca is on the Bolivia/Peru border. It is the largest Lake in South America, and is about 38oo metres above sea level with a surface area of over 8300 square km. The Isla del Sol in one of the largest islands on the lake, and was a sacred place for the Incas, who believed the sun god was born there. We took the boat to the Isla del Sol, which took about 2 hours, and we spend the day walking the length of the island before returning home. It was a lovely sunny day, and we had some great views of the lake on our walk.

Chile

Santiago, Chile
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The trip from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago in Chile crossed the Andes. The border crossing was very chaotic, with many people travelling as it was just before the New Year. It took about 3 hours to clear immigration, but the wait was worth it on the ascent down the Andes to Santiago.

New Year's Eve
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We were lucky enough to be staying in a 25 storey apartment complex in the centre of town. We were able to get onto the roof of the building for the New Year's Eve fireworks that were taking place about 2 blocks from where we were. They lasted about half an hour or so, and we could see and hear parties continuing in our building throughout the night.

Museum of Memory and Human Rights
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The ex-President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, was one of Augusto Pinochet's many victims. Although she survived his prison camp, many thousands didn't. Just before she left office in 2010, she was the driving force behind a new museum in Santiago - the Museum of Memory Human Rights. This documents the coup against Salvador Allende on September 11th, 1973, the aftermath of the coup, the prison camps, the disappeared, and the search for justice. It's a great memorial to all those who suffered during the dictatorship.

The miners
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Chile is famous for its mines - copper in particular. We spent half a day in a city called Copiapo, near where the Chilean Mining Incident happened in 2010, where 33 miners spent 69 days underground before being rescued. We met a taxi-driver who had worked in that mine before that incident. He told us the work was hard and that he's too old for it now, but that for many people the salaries offered are relatively high by Chilean standards. On the way to the Atacama Desert in the north, where there are lots of mines, we were in buses with lots of miners on their way to work. They got off at various stages of the journey and were picked up in trucks - off to start another stint underground.

The Atacama Desert
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The Atacama Desert is the driest place in the world. We travelled for about 7 hours through the desert and saw nothing but hard sand plains - it was one of the most amazing sights we've ever seen. Desert scenes in films do no justice to the real thing! The reason for our journey through the desert was to get to a place called San Pedro de Atacama which is a small town on the Chilean/Argentinian/ Bolivian border. We wanted to take a stargazing tour with a French Astrologist that is located there. He owns an ELT (extremely large telescope), as he calls it. San Pedro de Atacama gets 360 clear sky nights per year and is one of the best places in the world to see the stars and planets in all of their glory, however, as Murphy’s Law would have it we arrived during a full moon and we brought the clouds with us so the notice on the door spelt it out......All tours cancelled!!!

Geysers
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All was not lost when our stargazing tour was cancelled - it gave us the opportunity to take an early morning tour to see the highest geysers in the world at 4,300 metres above sea level. With the landscape having received a battering from the rain the evening before, we set off in a transit van on a fairly hair raising journey to the geyser fields. What a sight to behold at 6.30am - steam gushing high into the sky from bubbling pools of water surrounded by snow covered mountains with wandering llambas spread about the place - and the temperature at minus ten. The power of nature is something else! We both felt a little woozy from the altitude as we ate our geyser cooked boiled eggs and drank our naturally warmed chocolate milk. We finished it all off by taking a dip in the thermal spring - it's a tough life!

Argentina

The Iguacu Falls
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The Iguacu Falls is on the border with Argentina and Brazil and we spent two days here, one on each side. You get much nearer the water on the Argentinean side, so this was definitely our favourite. There are about 275 falls dropping about 80- metres, with the highlight being a fall called the Devil's Throat - where about 1.8 million litres of water falls every second.

Buenos Aires
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We ended up in Buenos Aires for a week in an area called San Telmo, south of the city centre. San Telmo was a great spot - full of colourful little streets, cafes and restaurants. The area is famous for its Sunday market - although this fell on Christmas Day the market was still in full swing. The area had a real bohemian feel to it and even though we had a wander around Recoleta and Palermo we always ended up coming back to the old reliable San Telmo.

Steak for Christmas Dinner
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There was very little build up to Christmas in Argentina. At midnight, however, the fireworks started. Even the police across from our hostel got in on the act - letting their sirens go on for about 20 minutes and ignoring all the illegal fireworks exploding all around them. The Chinese shopkeeper below us forgot that there was a second level to the building when he started letting of his fireworks - we were lucky to come out of it safely as we watched from above.....On Christmas Day, we had planned a Tango Show followed by a Christmas Dinner of steak. Although we never got to a show, the Christmas Dinner more than made up for it.

Boca Juniors
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San Telmo borders an area called La Boca, which was the first port of call for many European immigrants in the last century. La Boca is now most famous for its football team - Boca Juniors. Boca is the team of most of Buenos Aires now, with plenty of the restaurants and bars having Boca memorabilia on the walls. Diego Maradona played for Boca at the beginning and the end of his career, and there are still many murals of him around the stadium where Boca plays.

Cycling in the wineries
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After Buenos Aires, we took a 15 hour journey to Mendoza, in the West of Argentina. Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina, and is one of the nine Global Network great wine capitals  of the world. Nearly all of Argentina's wine is produced here. We rented out the bikes, got a map and cycled around to different wineries where we were given tours and tasting sessions - One of our more enjoyable days so far.

Transport in Argentina
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The buses in Brazil and Argentina are great. There are three general levels of long distance bus - the semi-cama (or half-bed), the cama (bed) and the premium cama. There are only three seats per row in the cama and premium cama giving very wide seats and lots of leg room. You can also recline the seat half way back (cama) or fully back (premium cama) without disturbing the person next to you. Food and blankets are provided, and there is also a coffee machine on board as well.