All change please!

No i have not become a bus driver too.. i am still very much.. oh wait thats for another blog!!

And i really mean another blog... this one is, to be honest, far too complicated, and hard to keep up-to-date and linked in with everything else online, ie. Facebook, twitter etc. I don't have as much time and plan to do a bit more blogging due to the new addition in the family- an iphone- so wanted to make it easy for everyone to see whats occurring in our silly little lives whatever platform they are on!

The new address is www.worldtravels2010.posterous.com i am working on changing this one, but its a hassle- hence why we are leaving this hell hole. So change your links!

Its easier and more simple, has better links to our photos, and because its easier to upload stuff, we shall be adding to it a little bit more!

There is also a little video of meado on there for your amusement!

much love

jonny, james and steve

Another wierdo gets a job as a bus driver

It feels like ages since I last wrote to everyone out there, excited about my big move to Cairns. So much has happened it really feels like I've been here for months already.

I landed in Cairns on the Monday night at midnight and after an extremely brief job hunt was hired the next day as hostel bus driver for Travellers Oasis. Take a look on Hostelworld.com and check it out. It is generally considered the best hostel in Cairns and I'm very proud. My job however has more to it than you would expect. In between driving jobs, which only take up a small amount of time, I role is to be the hostels Domestic Goddess. In an extremely emasculating way I wake up every morning and assess the weather to determine if its going to be a good "drying day". The result of which has a surprisingly large effect on both my mood and workload for the day. I work hard (7am - 8.30pm, usually) and play hard (8.30pm - 3.30, occaisionally) but the lifestyle is great. Every day a fresh batch of travelers are shipped in and there's more people to meet. You always get the odd nutter amongst them as well which adds to the excitement. The sad times do come though (yesterday) when goodbyes must be said. I get way to close with the guests and then have to see them disappear into the sunset on their own adventures. But its certainly worth it

On the brighter side of things I do actually get a full day off a week and two short days. My full days off have been packed full of new experiences. Week 1 and I went to the Great Barrier Reef on one of the best reef tour operators in Cairns. It was a unique experience. After hyperventilating twice when getting used to the breathing apparatus, I was away in an underwater fantasy land with bright blue "Christmas Tree Worms" the slightly eerie "Garden Eels" and a plethora of bright colours. I was fortunate enough to see a black tip reef shark resting on the sea bed, saw Nemo (Clownfish), and even petted a turtle's shell. For my second week I headed off to the Atherton Table lands and saw some on the oldest rain forest in the world. Here we slid down cascades of granite rocks into the water below (some chap decided wearing shorts was restricting his experience of this which was unpleasant for the rest of us). We also went to a waterfall that all of you will certainly have seen. It was the one used for Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl music video. Those of you that were in a coma in the 90's may have missed it but fear not, you will also have seen it in the Herbal Essences advert on British TV. It the one when the girl flicks here hair back. So naturally everyone had to do the same and photo's will follow.

I think that's quite enough for now. Tomorrow is back to the reef and Saturday I'm taking a rather pleasant plane flight over Cairns. And then jumping out of it. At 14000 feet. Its just how to say goodbye to another character in hostel life. A nutcase Dane who's enthusiasm for drinking games boarders on obsession.

For now,

Steve x x

More to melbourne than meets the eye!

As you may have guessed, or read, Ive been in Melbourne for a little while!

And as you may have guessed, or read, Ive been slogging away working the bars at a winter festival which has traveled from Sydney to Melbourne, via bondi.

Ive been lucky, i must admit, in getting this work, and it been fun, if a little stressful and annoying, but i'm sure that is what ' real life' work is! However all of that of the negatives are forgotten when i think of the number of strange people i have met along the way, and the number of great people i have met along the way.. both being as amazing as each other. From street entertainers taking cover in our bars durign storms, to drunken people reliving them selves in their seats(nice!), they have been an odd few months since i arrived in Sydney.. and i don't think i would have it any other way!

One thing i do have to say is that people are idiots, stupid and moronic... some may say these are the same words, and i agree, i used them just for adding to the intensity of my announcement!

From people complaining that it was raining and that the ice was wet on an outdoor skate rink, to people asking what beer you have, when there is as stack of bottles and two taps in front of them... they decide to look up behind you at the ceiling like that is where the drinks are displayed!!!..... McDonald's effect is taking over of looking up at wats on offer!

And as some of you who know me can imagine the more moronic customers realized they have picked with he wrong guy... A scenario for you to imagine... A sign was put up advertising that we had hot alcoholic drinks for sale, mulled wine and hot toddy's... It was placed in front of the been taps but with the taps very visible and that we were a normal bar serving normal drinks. . The amount of people i got coming up saying, " ah... hot alcoholic drinks ... what are they?" i would say mulled wine, as it says on the sign... they would say, 'what else do you have?' i would reply with the statement of. ...' well its a bar.. all the normal things you find in a bar, as you can see..., we have beer, wine spirits... what would you like'? And then the amount of people that said...' all hot, hot beer? hot spirits?? It was amazing. Its like these people had never left their own kitchen. i would reply with a certain disbelief... 'what??' And they would say, 'well it says hot alcoholic drinks, are all your drinks hot?'

Ive never felt like curling up in a ball and hoping that all human life nolonger reproduces, or at least the people that visited our festival refrain from such activities!

I think Ive just done another blog which moans, and im sorry, but despite this moan Melbourne is great, Ive spent the days drinking coffee in the coolest coffee shops, exploring the coolest bars, and meeting great people, and i still have a day left which i plan to use to see the coast and to see yet more coffee shops!

Its odd traveling on your own again after so long with 2 mates always there, but when i get back to Sydney i have a feelign all will change again!! watch this space!

JONNY XX

Big Update

Hi everyone,

Upon reading my last blog, I decided it was rubbish, deleted it and am going to write you a new one.

Over the past two months while we've been in Sydney we have been experiencing Aussie life in all kinds of ways. From drifting on the ferry across the harbour to the city, to the busy city bars, surfing from Bondi to Manly and even on to Palm beach (setting for Home & Away - we're never too far from the celebs) and just popping into Mosman for a coffee. Its been a cultural experience very different from those of previous countries - aided by the fact we have spent more that three nights in the place before moving town.

For the last two weeks we've has some Pommy guests Dan and Lathy who flew all the way here just to see our little faces. So we've been living the tourist life's again - been to see the Sydney Swans play Aussie (no)Rules Football, the zoo, the blue mountains, opera house, botanical gardens, more Bondi, more Manly and more bars! Its been flat out.

The guys have headed back home now, Jon's in Melbourne, Jim has landed a job just outside Sydney and I have news of my own. I'm off to take on my own adventure. On monday I head off to Cairns to go get some sunshine, some work, some diving and hopefully not see a single spider. Yeah right. No we haven't all fallen out and want to kill each other, we still live in harmony. But its time for me to do a new thing, I can't stay in one place too long - not these days anyway. So my blogs shall come forth from Cairns, while Jon blogs from Melbourne for the next week and then both he and James from Sydney.

So that should just about bring you up to date. I shall be taking photo's on my own from now on and will try to get some up as soon as possible. Now I have to go out and buy some sun tan lotion and a baseball bat for fending off spiders.

Speak to you from Cairns,

Steve x x

The picture you have all been waiting for!

I have been inundated since people heard about this ( steve's mum) and since i confirmed the rumours in the last post yesterday (poppy). Here it is.

This is exactly what i wore, a 100% true represenation except i looked less like a hobbit as i had shoes on. And i actually only wore it for the first few days, as i looked just as much of a prat as this picture... And riley wasn't with me.

Enjoy, and laugh very load if you want. You wont be the first person to have done so.

jonny x

'Where are we now?!' I really am unsure!

'Ja ja, this is true ja' I have spent some of the past ten days dressed as a german.

But not in the way which got price harry in trouble all those years ago, not the most famous son of Germany but the second most famous, the laderhosen clad people who drink far too much ale and eat way too much deep fried snchitzel and crumbed mushrooms, that even Dr Atkins would disagree with! These are the people that are the stereotype of germany, much like the garlic and baguette man of france, or the man with corn in his mouth ( devon/cornwall i think) or the ...ah forget about it. I dont care, and im sure you dont care how many stereotypical dress types there are.

Its not the start to Sydney i was expecting, lets put it that way.

Sydney is currently in the grip of the coldest spell ever, or for 15 years or something, England is in the middle of a heat wave. Its all a bit backwards. And why not top it off with dressing like a german and working in a little bit of bavaria in the middle of sydney for 10 days @ the Sydney winter festival . We travelled all this way to go to a colder place, have our second winter in one year, and then i end up spending 12 hours a day listening to rita and bjorn ( or whatever their names) playing the organ and accordion, singing the bavarian national anthem 100 times a day. I don't think ive listened to the English one that many times. Its the most expensive and long winded trip to Germany i think i will ever do. But i think the best!

I have had the best commute to work i think i will ever have. Getting the ferry from mosman to circular key in sydney is an amazing ride. In the daytime the water is deep blue, and crystal clear and is topped off with the Sydney harbour bridge and world famous opera house rising out of the water as you sail out of the bay and across the water into the CBD ( Central business district) Its incredible. And just as good at night, even if you are shattered, been one your feet for 12 hours and told by middle class woman with far too much makeup on (but not enough to cover up the botched botox or hung over eyes) that they cant believe you dont have marsh mallows for their precious little jimmy's hot chocolate and wondering ' how many people does it take to make hot chocolate'. But that is all forgotten on your way home, on a deserted ferry, with just the the view of the lit up sydney skyline stuck in your mind.It is one of the greatest in the world. Ill get a picture some day, and you can see it for your self. Or just come out here and see what i mean.

I'm amazed i have managed to write this as i don't think my brain is functioning correctly today. Im shattered from the lat ten days. My body clock is all wrong, my eyes keep closing, my feet hurt and the guys are playing rock band on the Ninteno Wii,. Or tryignt o anyway! But one day of discomfort is nothing. Sydney has been most welcoming and Im glad to be here. My job is great, the people ( apart form the moaning woman, and anyone from germany- sorry just give me a few days to get over it) are great. Its an amazing place, and i hope the next few months will be just as good.

One final thought. Ausies don't understand bars. They queue in a line, like they are waiting for a bus. Its most strange to see it, and when a pom ( english gentleman) just walks up ( as they understand how bars work) and get served straight away, it makes me proud, despite our world cup performance, to be English! But ill put up with being and english man in sydney for a bit longer tho please!

Gut Nacht.

jonny xx

Snap Back to Reality

Well, here we are. The Real World. Life. Adult life.

We've had a lot of fun over the last 5 months and we all decided its about time we got down to some hard graft. Or, more to the point, we've run out of money and we have no choice. In my early efforts of employment I amused myself by attempting to secure a job advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald as: Waiter/Waitress needed. Lingerie cafe. I can only say I was greeted with indefensible sexism from the lady on the other end who, despite my protests, insisted I would not look good in lingerie. How could she tell?!

That is one thing I have noticed in Aus. Political correctness doesn't matter. No one cares. It's brilliant. The other day we watched as an afternoon soccer programme made very strong implictions that the Germany coach was a raving homosexual. Just today we sat around laughing at an advertisement where the punchline is a child being denied its favourite snack food to comedy effect. I cant do it justice. It's hilarious. I'm going to try and find the link...

We are currently watching the junk that is "20 to 1" a clip show archiving "great" TV moments. Either not much was going on before the world cup here, or this show has a very limiting budget. We did, however, just watch a man jump off a bungee only to continue straight into the water and not come back. I feel a little shaky.

On that note, I'm going to have to go and calm myself before bed. I hate real world bed times.

Steve x x

OOO!!! Look who has time on his hands!

hello, and welcome from Australia, Oz, Downunder, the outback, the other side of the world, that island which has our queen on their banks notes...

.....What ever you want to call it, we, for the next half a year will call it home!

Its been a great week, a rest week, exploring sydney (well exploring Sydney's shopping malls to find semi respectable attire) and surrounding suburbs. Mosman, the district of sydney we are very kindly being put up in by james' uncle and family, is great. We are a very modern family now indeed, 2 parents, 3 20 somethings ( thats us) 3 kinds- 6, 13 and 16- and a dog named riley.I have tried to adopt riley as the lady magnet, tho all i have got so far is..... well nothing.

We've watch the kids play football and basket ball, gone shopping for clothes and prepared meals. We really are all grown up.. and we have even started applying for jobs, some with more success than others!!

We've watched football at Darling harbour and been to the equivalent of soho, where nearly every bar was a (cover your ears mums) strip bar. We did NOT go in any, we found the most sophisticated bar on the strip sank a few beers and got a night bus outta there!

Our daily tasks include having breakfast, lazing around, looking for jobs, sending off cvs, checking emails again and again to see if we have had any replies. Then we eat, check the emails again, play computer games, then check again. And after all of that we are hungry again and worn out from checking our emails.. and facebook, and twitter and doing cool things to our blog (this thing). Our life, to be honest is tough.. really tough.. im not sure how we are gonna cope!

Talking of the blog, look at its new look.. very snazzy isnt it??... 'yes it is jonny' , 'why thank you, i did it all my self'

You can now easily add it to your feeds (RSS and atom and yahoo and google etc etc) so you never miss a thing. You can also search the site for anything easily too. Amazing isn't it? 'Yes it is....... ( blah, blah, blah...) and the back ground is now a bit globe. And no, i have not done what everyone is asking for.. i have not added any more photos, tho i will when i can (be bothered)

I really must go, i have to some work on my cv, or maybe just watch some world cup football.. sorry i mean soccer.

G'day mate, Throw another shrimp on the barbie and any more stereotypical things you want to think of

Good day to you.

jonny xx

Its nearly over...

After 6 weeks, New Zealand is coming to an end.

We have traveled around, north to south, east to west, totaling up over 7 thousand Kilometers. Its been an adventure, its been inspiring, and its been expensive. But worth every penny!!

We have picked up 4 hitch hikers on route, stopped at too many vineyards to remember - tasting wines varying from petrol to passion fruit. We've camped at 3 petrol stations, been to 3 spas, eaten lamb only once but eaten chili con carne aver 20 times (never eating it again), become aces at making Tuna pasta (another, ' not eating that again' food stuff) and avid fans of 'luncheon meat' . We've embraced illegal freedom camping, but told to 'move on' only once. We bought snorkels and snorkeled in stormy waters seeing nothing, burnt feet on hot water beach, been shocked at the price on internet at every moment of the day, wallowed in natural thermal rivers getting too hot and slept in the van in freezing conditions only to wake up with frozen windows. We have seen New Zealand's stunning landscapes from both ground and air, jumped from suspended platforms and from planes. We've come to think of a hot shower to be a luxury, been initiated into the camper van club by giving the obligatory wave to every, and i mean every van we drive past, made countless U turns, visited every I-site and had no trouble with the language barrier for once! And to top it off on our last day we saw hundreds of baby fur seals messing around in a waterfall pool. Overall Its been incredible and memorable, and we now have no money left.

So what have we done in our last few poverty stricken days.. we have watched the world cup, drank copious amount of alcohol, eaten out at an indian where he did us a very 'hush- hush' deal, lunched at a thai restaurant with speakers big enough for a night club, and more recently lunched at a Harry Krishna vegetarian place, with harry him self serving us! Well, you gotta live properly hav'nt you!?!

Tonight its an all night sports fest, starting with NZv IRL rugby, then world cup footie with Argentina taking on someone( and being now a bit argentine, we will be wholly behind our second home nation) then its the england game. Thanks to time differences, we shall start this marathon at 7.30 pm, and get back to our room at around 8.30 am tomorrow. We will then catch (or not) a plane to sydney, where we shall sleep for days.

I hope you have enjoyed our traveling blogs. Sydney and the following months will be a little different, with us trying to get jobs to enable us to continue this trip until the real world catches up with us. While the blogs may involve less stuff about where we have been ( not that most of them have informed you of this, leaving it to a blog like this which tries to list all the highlights as the others have been far to full random stories, and hungover blatherings) we hope to continue them in some shape and form. The pics will also keep on coming and get close to up to date very soon, as if you were relying on them to see where we had been, you would think we stopped at the top of a Patagonian mountain for the last 2 months!

Its been amazing, and now i must go as i want to have a minute or two of sleep before our last night as backpackers.... for a while anyway!

jonny xx

Lemmings on Tour

Well we all survived. It was pretty scary getting a little cable car out to a pod in the middle of a canyon. Further still knowing that soon I would be jumping from that pod for no apparent reason. It didnt help that the pod in question had a glass floor and sweyed with every movement.

As one of the heaviest I was thrid to jump. A little nervous one might say I think I had the look of a rabbit in headlights. I edged over to the ledge and on the count of three leaped into nothingness. I managed to perform a scream reminicent of Barry White singing according to eye witnesses. Still the bungy didnt snap and we all made it safely. My foot release mechanism failed so I had to be winched back up upside-down.

Then onto a Sky Dive. Another tremendous Barry White voice for my concerningly depressed jump instructor but a much more beautiful and enjoyable experiance. Especially the glide down - very serene.

All in all its been an action packed few days. We're going to calm down now with a nice mountain walk. I cant help looking up at them though and wondering "I wonder if we could attach a bungy rope to that..."

Steve x x

Just about to jump down a gorge!

A little daunting I must say. But I'm committed now. I've made my plan of how I'm going to so it. I'd like to think I can just run and jump off but who am I kidding, they're gonna have to wrestle me over the edge. Screaming probably. I just hope I don't humiliate myself in any way. I'm also concerned about my trousers splitting but its a long story.

Well, in a few hours I'll write my report on the event and let you know how I got on. Hopefully not from a hospital bed. Don't panic Mum.

Until later...

Steve x x

You can take the boys out of surrey...

...but you can't take surrey out of the boys! More on that later, as there is soooo much to tell!

Its seems like a life time since we got time to write some rubbish on here, if fact it was only a week and a half ago, but what a week and a half that has been. We have been all the way up to the most northern point of NZ, stopping of at the bay of islands, where there is nothing else to do that get on a boat or play golf on one of the most picturesque golf courses i have ever seen. Those you know me will realise that my knowledge of golf courses is a little limited if even, non existant, but it beats both Cranleigh golf and leasuire ( or whatever its now called) and Little Hamtons' world class crazy golf/pitch and put, despite the lack of the train through the middle of hole 4. We, as had become normal did neither of these must do activities. The weather was crap so it was pointless getting on the water tho i think it was the cost which put us off most, but we did get closer to the golfing part. We walked into the club house, asked about the price, and then walked out quicker than a sheep falling off a mountain ledge. ( don't ask)

We have also seen lots of other beautiful things, and that is what NZ is, BEAUTIFUL! My highlight, if you care, was wallowing in a thermal stream today. Hot stream met cold and you could choose to poach your self, be comfortable, or really cold. We did all. And best of all, it was FREE and very natural!

So, why cant you take surrey out of the boys.. i shall explain...

Our camper van is mental. Its a 4 berth, the type that retired folk use when they travel around holding up the M4 on a rainy British summers day. We have a shower, toilet, kitchen similar to most uni halls operations, and of course 2 front seats and an entertaining area/bed, and another bed.. Most backpackers squeeze into a tiny van, but we are not like most backpackers, cos we are from surrey darling.

In NZ you do a lot of driving, and that really is one of the things to 'do'. A plus side of this is that you drive past, or in our case drive into, a lot of vineyards. While in these we have taken it upon our selves to learn as much as we can about our beloved wine, as well as divulging, far to many times to remembers, how, while we are just 23, we love wine and port, and that we actually sometimes stay in and have wine and cheese nights. We have had some odd looks, but we dont care, most are free tastings, and actually have some pretty good wines on offer. People have said that travels takes longer than you think when they are such small distances in NZ but they don't know why. We know why...we call into far to many vineyards, and pop into so many roadside stalls looking for perfect avocados.

Talking of food, we also eat very well, not a 'thing' that backpackers do. We met a German girl the other night whilst preparing our dinner food who had trundled into town with, from what i can remember,a piece of ham and no money in her bank account. I was in the middle of preparing fresh mussels, or moule mariniere if you are, like me, fluent in french. I was also in the middle of pouring white wine into the mussles, which later we had to drink other wise it would have been a waste. Most backpackers, given a bottle of wine wine, would never 'waste it' in food. She said you can get mussels from the beach for free.. i nearly told her where to go, tho Im sure it was an innocent mistake , Im sure she did not know we were from surrey and would never scavenge for food- our parents taught us that!!

This was not our first taste of mussels, we had had some lovely smoked mussels as a starter the other day, followed by Lamb chops, and a fruit salad to finish it off.. im sure we also followed it by a wee bit of port we had recently purchased!

So that's it, that's why you can take the boys out of surrey but you , in no way, can take surrey out of the boys. James' dad gave him some advice, sleep rough, but eat well. We say... do nothing rough and eat very, very, very well! We ceratinly dont want to start following the first part of the mantra anytime soon.

I must go now, we have a 5 star holiday park to check into and those oysters need to be eaten.

much love

jonny xxx

New Zealand!

Hellooooo! We have arrived. Its Saturday morning in Aukland - We left Chile on Thursday night.

Well since we last spoke we have visited Lake Titicaka which was moderately impressive.

Following that we entered northern Chile and into La Serena where we went on a Pisco (a Chilean brandy) tour followed by a world class observatory. There we saw the moon blindingly bight through detailed telescopes, the Orion Nebula and Saturn complete with rings. The whole thing was incredible and very exciting.

Onwards to Santiago and we had a brilliant farewell to South America. There we went on a walking tour for free with a guide from our hostel. One of our highlights was a "Coffee Shop with Legs" - right in the heart of the finance district a coffee shop for office hours with some of the most stunning women in Santiago as your Barristas. Following this we went to a dingy underground bar where at 5 in the afternoon, everybody was hammered. We quickly found out why when we tried the local speciality which translated to "The Earthquake" Three of those and we were struggling to get to the airport. Got to chat to crazy locals before embarking towards our current location.

We will keep you updated as to our progress as usual - today we are going to find a campervan to hire for our 6 week road trip!

Loads of love

Steve x x

I said I been through the desert on a horse with no name...

...It felt good to get out of the rain. Actually we haven´t seen rain for a month and there were no horses involved at all. We did see two donkeys though.

But yes! We have been out into the Bolivian desert, starting in a little town called Uyuni. It was amazingly traditional and all the streets were full with market sellers. Within two hours of arriving we had all bought a sombrero and a llama wooly hat. Watch out for the pictures. The air is strange here at 3500m above sea level. Its like having a really heavy cold where everything you do makes you out of breath.

So off into the desert we went with our trusty tour guide, old man Raul who unfortuantely did not speak a word of English, or many identifiable words of Spannish. We began with a train graveyard which was pointless. You wouldnt go to see a landfill, so why would you go to see scrapped trains with graffiti. The tour quickly picked up, however, when we entered Salar de Uyuni - a blindingly white salt desert, the basin of a dried out ancient lake. The views were stunning but we had cause for concern that Raul may in fact be blind from 15 years of failing to wear sunglasses for the event. We trooped on.

Onwards to a Cactus island amongst the baron Salar desert, volcanoes, oddly shaped rocks (that did not look like a tree, Raul) and Flamingo lakes. The trip involved an overnight stay in a hostel made completely of salt - best hostel so far, and a second nights stay in the worst hostel I have seen yet. Not to worry though, we were off the next morning to see Gysers spouting hot steam and a themal spa, where we had a little dip. It was especially good after the rather uncleanly hostel.

Back to Uyuni, after taking a route Raul had never taken before to avoid protests blocking the nescessary bridges to get back home, we were off to La Paz where we have been settled for two days. Yesterday included Witches markets flogging dead llama foetuses, the legendary Black market (loads of tat) a long walk and shopping for Jonny´s birthday (its tomorrow, don´t forget).

To top off, we have spent today decending (brace yourself, Mum) the Road of Death on mountain bikes. 60 Kilometers of downhill mountain biking on the edge of mountains. It was once known as the most dangerous road in the world, but we consider it the Road of Moderate Danger as its really not that badthese days. Having said that, a definate Darwin Award candidate met her fate a few weeks ago after refusing to take off her sunglasses and (tinted) safety goggles when the supervisors reccomended - IN FOG - and slowly cycled straight off the mountain.

Tomorrow is Jon´s birthday as I mentined. God knows what´s gonna happen.

Keep reading!

Steve x x

Nice, this travelling lark!

Welcome along from a mystery location!

So, apart from lots of photo uploading, have we actually done anything over the past few days?

Firstly i congratulated Jim on his first blog entry... i think you should all too. And he was correct, we went to Salta, "but where after that?" i hear you cry, where is the mysterious location? .....

......Jujuy actually.

Its about 2 hours north of Salta, has hot springs, a botanical garden or jardin botanico if u want to get all spanish about it, a super market with a sloping floor, and they seem to enjoy a good protest, if our first trip to the shops was anything to go by. All in all it sounds promising, and we have about a day to discover all that, except the supermarket (tick) or the protest ( tick).

But forget about that, that's the future, lets look to the past(?!)

Salta was great! We went on a day trip to a canyon where the rock changed colour as you proceed along, from brown to grey to green to purple, an amazing sight, difficult to capture on camera, but i found a great postcard where all the colours have been massively enhanced, so ill try to get that up and pretend its a truthful representation of it. We climbed ( partially) up where a waterfall used to exist, it was incredible the erosion that had occurred, and the shapes which were now left´interesting! After this, we saw rocks in the shape of a toad, a priest and towers. A parrots nest as well as many more tour buses were also spotted.

Salta is also a famous wine region-not quite so as mendoza, but we dont judge, So of course, as part of this day trip was some wine tasting, a great white for 15 pesos was tried and bought and then a rubbish white for 35 pesos was tried and of course, not bought. It was good to try white for the first time in Argentina, but i have to say that the malbecs are amazing and the cab savs taste like all the peppers... green, red, yellow, all of them! Move over Oz Clarke.

We were also very uncultured. Salta beign a uni town, we visited a club where they basically paid us to come in, always a great sign, free entry and free drink. We could have left at that, but stayed and me an Jim tucked into what the advertising standards board would have a nightmare about... "champagne and speed". The champagne being sparkling wine, and speed, well mum and dad don't worry its not that type! It did, however, do the trick.

Following this we felt we should remember where we come from, how or parents brought us up like. We went to a museum about mummified, or petrified, children of Inca villages, followed this with a trip to a modern art gallery and finished of with a visit to the church. All of which i have not done since my parents were trying to bring me up to do these kind of things. Museum was questionable, the art gallery basically free and interesting and the church... well its was beautifully built but they need to clean the entrance lobby as the pigeons seem to pray here.

Only 2-3 weeks left now...bolivia and chile to visit... hold on tight!

jonny xx

Lots of NEW PHOTOS!!

Hello!!!

Some Great news!

We have amazing internet connection and in our room too, so what does this mean???... we can lock away the laptop and upload our photos all night and day!

You Can now see Everything from Rio to Buenos Aires. Highlights include, carnival in foz d iguazu, our rainy day in bogner ( Parana), massive plastic ducks and the stunning Iguazu Falls, as well as much, much more.

You will not believe how happy this has made us, or maybe u know how sad we are, either way we hope you will be as joyous as us with this news.

We know it will take a long time to look thought them, but please do.

Click on, or insert into your browsers, this link : http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldtravels2010/sets/ and u can see all the photo sets to date.

Proper blog soon.

Muchas Gracias-
your caring worldtravels2010 web support team (jonny)

Yes, I am alive. And so are the Orca's.

My first post and we've been going over 2 months. I'll blame it on Jon for not giving me the log in details promptly enough.

It has been incredible so far and was made even better one lucky day on Peninsula Valdes near Puerto Madryn.


Yes, we saw Orca's. Photographers in the national park had been waiting up to 4 days to see them and we turn up on a lazy sunday afternoon and get lucky. We waited for 4 hours for the atlantic tide to come in and lap at the sea lions basking in the setting sun. We were told that this was the time at which the Orca's were most likely to strike. They didn't but they came very close. Even though we didn't see them attack the anticipation was immense and it made for a great day. One of the highlights to far.

As Jon said, we returned to Bariloche. Stayed for a 5 nights, spent one of them at a Refugio in the mountains which was a great experience as it was a stormy and very windy evening. We also sampled some excellent in-refugio micro brewed beer. Our last night in Bariloche was great and it topped of a great stay in such a beautiful area. We had the Bosch family over for a bbq and wine - Argentine style. So the steaks were thick and rare and the wine was good and cheap.

We are now in Mendoza. Staying in a hostel which is on the 'nightlife strip' which has provided us with...well, beer. Jon and I had a very lazy Sunday. Woke up at 5.10pm. Rickydiculous. As I sit here in the garden writing this by the pool, Jon and Meado are playing pingpong. I think Jon is whipping him.

A wine tour was experienced yesterday, where the mode of transport was bicycles. It was fun and some of the wine we had was great and inexpensive. However, after drinking some top quality tipple we returned to Mr Hugo's (the bicycle tour operator) where we were provided with free wine which was to put it kindly 'grainy and vinegary'.

We go to Salta tomorrow evening where we will make plans to enter Bolivia. The next month is going to go by very quickly.

All the best to everyone at home.

James x (or is this Jon and Steve writing on my behalf...hmmm)

Home-sweet-home!

Phew.... thats was an adventure!

We are back from our roadtrip and back to our second home, bariloche... will we ever leave??...

... Yes, tomorrow.

Im going to keep it short as i promised i would let jim make his first entry on the blog and i also want him to!! Just incase it doesnt happen, a little summery...

We drove about 5.5 thousand kilometers, climbed various mountains, met an auzzie lawyer who every year puts a water melon on his head, drove on trecherous roads, and saw once in a life time natural wonders.

Overall and incredible experience!

Jim, over to you........ (for some details as this teaser will get the audience salivating,and wanting so much more!)

Hope everyone is well?

jonnyx

Working our way back to civilization!

We have completed Route 40 and to be honest, I'm sick of gravel roads now. Luckily Route 3 north is paved and we can enjoy the smooth ride of tarmac.

We have been havng a good time though, since I last blogged we have visited Glacier Moreno. It was more beautiful in person than I, or photos, can describe accompanied by a soundtrack of crashing ice as it plummets into the sea sporadically.

Following this we entered Chile for the first time. Onwards to Puerto Natales, the nearest town to Torres del Pain national park. There we took on a two day hike, camping in the woods with the help of the equipment provided by our extremely kind hostel host Andreas. It was heavy and lengthy scaling the mountain to the campsite with our tents, sleeping bags and provisions. But seriously worth it. After setting up tents we legged it further up the mountain before sunset and caught the "Towers" - two huge, sheer granite rocks behind a mountain lake - at the only time of the day that they were not in cloud. Every direction we looked was beautiful with snowy mountains accompanying them.

We trekked back down the next day via a waterfall, taking on incredibly strong winds which were apparently "mild" that day as the normally reach 200kmph, and yesterday they were "only" 90kmph.

On the East coast now in San Julian about to tuck into some seafood for the first time since we arrived in South America.

Steve x

Bloody hell, we´re only in El Calfate!

Route 40 has proven interesting!

We have seen towns hundreds of miles from the nearest shrub! Its been amazing! On our way here we have come across 7000 year old cave paintings in a caynon in the desert (which is in my top 3 experiances) to getting totally stuck hundreds of kilometers from anywhere in mud slicks in the rainy (ironically) desert. The pushing the car out of the mud has written off my jeans. gutted.

This has been a real avdenture, today we climbed to lagos dos tres near Fitz Roy in El Calafate which was beautiful. Speak to all soon, and apparently the postcards are getting there slowly...

loads of love,

Steve x x

San Carlos de Bariloche - Turning a trip into an Adventure

Hola again, for another assortment of drivel about our travels! We don´t even konw if anyone is reading this anymore but hopefully its worth our while!

We are now in Patagonia and loving the outdoorsy life. Its as if we´ve never been in the countryside! We are mountain biking, trekking, visiting waterfalls and climbing 2000m mountains. We were stood in snow! The views were incredible. We also climbed a hill (rather than got the lift) thats supposed to be one of the top ten views in the world. It was amazing but nothing in comparison to the mountain. I wouls suggest the title "top ten views accissible from a chair lift". Take note National Geographic.

We have also aquired two "Travel Pets" Claire and Charlie from Cornwall. We are all going to take a 2 week drive down to El Calafate right down south to see Perito Moreno Glacier, the worlds last growing glacier! For this time we will be lost to the world, roads dont even belong in this part of town. The blog will fall silent...

Tomorrow, more trekking with our lovely local tour guide Flora who shows us all the best bits of Bariloche.

So until our return, take care

Steve x x

Bariloche... we've arrived!

From the busy, rushed, party life style of BA, to a much more slower pace of life of Bariloche.

We have our own (more-or-less) private lagoon to swim in, mountains to ride bikes on, and treks to trek.

oh... and there's that rotating restaurant we were in on top of a mountain.

(pics soon- as ever!)


That is all.

jonny
x

Chile Earthquake

Please Click Logo to donate

Chile Earthquake Appeal

A massive earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded, measured 8.8 on the Richter scale. It struck Chile on 27 February 2010.

We are just weeks away from arriving in Chile, and being so close to this disaster has made it seem far more real than hearing about it from the UK. Lack of food and fresh water has put many more lives at risk, so please give what you can.

Please click logo to donate

We like to wander... part 2

So, as meado says, we made it to BA... something always in our plan, but, as you may remember we had planned to go to Paraguay and to see that Dam i mentioned when we were in Posadas... We did not make it to either. Instead we did a bit more wandering, booked bus journeys and lazed by the pool. We have since found out the only thing to do in, and why everyone goes to Posadas, is to see some ruins. Where's that tourist office again?!?!

BA it was.. we had an idea to make our travels flow a little more organically, explore a few more places etc etc.., based loosely on a theory by a a guy we met, a seasoned traveler for twenty or so years he knows his stuff. Not once booked a hostel in this time, this was the way to go. He did plan where he wanted to go, he had bench marks- something we feel we have (though just not as solid as his perhaps) but booking hostels was for losers, and we did not want to be three of them. Lets try his thinking we thought.

It was the night before BA.. we decided to wing it, not plan our hostels as much as we had and do it the night before we arrived in BA, tho being British we couldn't bring our selves to completly wing it ... an email was sent and a confirmation received. While this was less official than online booking it was slight planning, a good medium between the previous and just turning up. We were not planning... but were planning.. surely this would work our fine!?

We arrived in BA, got to 'our hostel', got welcomed in... and told they did not have room, no payment had been received so the room was gone, despite confirmation. I guess three are more tricky to fit in than one lone wolf! Many phone calls later, yet more wandering,and we got accepted into a hostel and went out to celebrate...

3 days passed, we were full of beef and wine, and we did it again, booked another hostel and got the same result. This time we went back to good old tried and tested hostelworld.com way. Proper planning. Confirmation received and then double confirmation received ...we relaxed. One problem- we had booked for 27th march 2010 not 27th Feb 2010. Only we could do this!

We are now back in the hostel we started in, after guess what.. more bloody wandering.

The good news?? I found some sunglasses that suit me (ish).. so much so i was called '80s boy' by a tour guide- i think thats is a complement.

jonny xx

Just off to the Windmill for a beer, back in ten...

A quick beer in Buenos Aires, it appears, is similar to a quick beer at the windmill. There is a high chance you arent coming back until tomorrow!

We have arrived in the party capital! We dumped our bags in our hostel on Tuesday and headed our for some Chopp - draught beer, a real rarity so far. So we pounced at the chance of a quick lager before getting some dinner at the supermarket. On our way out of the bar, we bumped into a table of Aussies, Canadians and Brits and got chatting. Beers follows beers and soon we were eating stakes and then moving on to more bars ending in the wee hours of the morning. Made some great friends though!

As well as teaching the locals how to drink, we have also been devouring kilo after kilo of meat. Some of the best and biggest steaks I have ever eaten for around five pounds. Well, why not at that price!

Did a great City tour yesterday and saw the great parts of town, with some history, a few awkward Malvinas memorials and lots of cosmetically enhanced women. If you have health insurance here every two years you are entitled to a free cosmetic procedure! Tomorrow we will do another tour and visit the Boca - an old part of town where the people were so poor back in the day, they used the left over paint from ships to paint their houses. The result is an incredibly colourful street with all the houses contrasting bright shades.

More to come, we plan to stay for a few more days before heading to Patagonia way down south but there is plenty more to happen here so until then... Salut!

Steve x x

We like to wander...

Hola, time for another load of drivel, boasting and moaning for your eyes to look over!

As i write this, its 8.30 pm and the boys and i are chilling by the pool trying to organise the next leg of our journey... an impossible task despite our enormous understanding of spanish, our hatred for haveing to plan things is getting in th way ( like writing this instead).

We are now in Posadas, south of iguazu by about 5/6 hours and a whole lot less touristy (excellent!!) than our previous stops. A much smaller town than seen so far, yet still large enough for it to have everything, including a massive dam( which we will explore tomorrow).. oh and Paraguay (home of cheap electrical items and other general cheap tatt) is literally a quick bus journey over the river, something we also plan to do tomorrow. However we have not planned it.
If we get there pics will be up soon..... well, in about 2015, as argi internet is not the best.

The hostel is great, really chilled out with a central courtyard with pool smack bang in the middle. lonely planet is missing a trick not recommending this beauty. sadly the bar with views over the river to Paraguay is still being constructed, so off to the river front tonight to sample some of their drinking and eating culture.though i hope mainly the drinking side.

So what have we done here?? Wandering around seems to have become a past time for us, asking for directions from locals, then ignoring them and using our own judgment means that we can enjoy this past time even more. it really is fun, u should try it. Banks and shopping malls have been visited by us more than the local tourist office.. i think we are going wrong somewhere.

On one of our wanders today we went (eventually) to a Paraguay market to see some local arts and crafts from th other side of the river, a bit of culture and a hint of what we will see tomorrow. sadly all we saw was cheap electrical goods, cheap sunglasses and what look like stolen watches. now that is culture! i did learn one thing, sunglasses dont suit me, and i prob should not laugh at stalls holders wares.

i hope this has been fun for u, it has for me. there is so much more but i think this is long enough, and it is now 9 pm ,30 mins after i started, postcards never took this long to write.


jonny
xxxx

Hola from Argentina!!

We have arrived! And we can speak the language! Muy Bien!

Now, we are at Puerto de Iguzu, with over 120 waterfalls it is comparable to Niagra (according to the Yanks). The journey here began in Buzios at 8am on Thursday and finished at 6pm on Friday. You do the maths.

We have just settled into our new hostel which is very big, massive pool and comfy rooms. Luxury. We will chill out today but the following days hold in store a local carnival and boat trips into the falls.

On tuesday we took a boat trip around Boozious (as we have renamed it) to see many beaches, go diving off the boat, drink as many free Caipirinhas as we could, eat as much "all you can eat" as we could, and upset the tour photographer by not buying her DVD of the trip.

Untill next time!

Steve x x

A taste of paradise!

P2080205, originally uploaded by world travels 2010.

just a little sneak of a photo i took today in buzios. More to come when i can sort out some computer probs!

This place is paradise, and we have two more days of it!

jonny x

Rio De Janeiro!

We have arrived!

Rio is VAST! And pretty hot as well. The last few days we have been getting into the feel of things with numerous trips to Copacabana. On tuesday night we visited samba rehearsals ahead of the Carnivale. We didnt quite understand what was going on to be honest. Everyone lined up and started dancing in formation to a song similar to the Macarenha. The song was about 30 seconds long but went on for an hour! When we tried to join in we stuck out like sore thumbs and a local street seller quietly told us to stand down. Silly white boys.

The locals call us ^Gringos^. We havent worked out yet whether its a term of endearment or just racial hatred.

Yesterday we visited Corcovado and Christo de Redentor- The Christ the Redeemer statue. The views were amazing and I cant wait to get the photos online. After this we went out in Lapa for our first night out. Different. Live samba in a tiny club and free, FREE Caipirinha for the first two hours. Needless to say we took full advantage.

Today we have to move for a few days to Santa Theresa, so untill then... Bye

Steve x x

Photos, Web address and First hostel booked!

Hello loyal followers!

Its bang on 7 days till we fly out for our first destination- RIO! At this time next week we will above the Atlantic ocean.. WOAH!!!

In other news, we have a new web address for this blog...update links if needed.

www.worldtravels2010.co.uk

Photos are up, on Fickr, still uploading some but most will be done in the next day or two. Thanks for all coming, was a great night, and i think Pauls Olsons photos ( all 500-ish) of them show this! Click through them to see the full selection.

Finally the most exciting bit is that our first hostel in rio is now confirmed!

Bamboo Rio hostel be prepared!

http://www.bamboorio.com/index1.html

next post... in RIO!

jonny x

The Big Party

Its time I made a contribution here. Last night was the big send off party and it's all getting rather real. We had an amazing time - I have now got a croaky voice from shouting too much, and holes in my shoes from dancing too much. Can't wait for take-off now!

Steve x

The countdown begins... 19 days to go!

Welcome to the first of what we hope to be many blogs keeping you guys up to date on our travels: where we are, what we're doing and how many people jorn has managed to insult while trying to converse in the local language!

We all have access to this blog so you will hear all our individual veiws and thoughts we have about the trip of a lifetime we are about to undertake, so we hope that it will be interesting and much, much better than a post card.

We fly out on the 2nd feb from london heathrow to rio de janerio, leaving 12.15pm uk time and landing in the party capital of the world at around 10pm local time. How long this makes the flight given time diff, im really not sure! But what i am sure of is that it will be my first long haul flight, so im sure ill be like a child, while the others have done it all before and know how boring it will be!

We are also on twitter: @worldtravels10 so for less words and more pointless comments about what we are doing then follow us on there. Also u may actually get a postcard when we feel like being all nostalgic and remembering the good old days of paper and pen.

For now, i shall be off, to laze around and look at pictures on the web of where we will be in 19 days time! GOD I CANT WAIT!

jonny x