Brazil and Norway

Its been an amazing 10 months. Seen more than I thought I ever would. Made some life long friends that I hope to always stay in contact with. Have had lots of different experiences. Actually finally managed a bit of a grasp of Spanish at the end even if I mixed Portuguese with it a bit! And we met so many friendly locals. In particular people from Colombia, Chile, Rosario and Porto Alegre thank you. My only regrets are that I didn't learn Spanish better and that I didn't have the money to see Brazil properly. I only had three weeks in Brazil and could have spent months there. It has its problems which annoyed me in some ways but besides this its full of cheerful friendly people. By the end of it I crossed X countries and X border crossings (which at times are quite exciting but other times just a load of hassle). Even if I wanted to keep going the passport is now full and the money gone. The last two stamps they had to stamp over old ones. I have less than 100 euros left to my name and its time to get some sort of job! And for people who go on about certain countries been dangerous I had absolutely no problems anyway except for my second last night in Salvador where three times people attempted to pickpocket me.

Travelling Brazil involved a lot of beaches and cities. I really enjoyed it but just didn't have the money to do it properly. Three weeks in Brazil and I barely even touched it. Started learning Portuguese just a few days before I went and quite enjoyed it. Actually met a few Spanish speakers while there who had forgotten bits of their spanish cause they'd picked up Portugeuse. The two langauges are quite similar in a way so kept forgetting which one I was trying to speak. Either way it was easier to understand than in Argentina cause people spoke a lot slower. People here are really chilled out and friendly and relaxed as well. And also while travelling through Brazil the culture changes so much. In the south everyone is blond and white, Rio is a bit more mixed and then Bahia is one of the biggest African populations outside of Africa. I never made it north of Salvador.

So myself and Mallory split up from Adrian and Amanada cause we were in more of a rush as we had flights booked. Stopped off in Florianopolis which is a really nice modern city with something like 42 beaches. Didn't see much but from what I did say was beautiful. Tried for the first time BBQ'd cheese and Shrimps on the beach. Amazing. Then onto Paraty an old colonial town with more surrounding beaches and Ilha Grande a nice tropical island that reminded me a bit of Thailand except everything cost ten times as much if not even more! After this it was Rio. I had been looking forward to Rio for ages. As in like for the last 10 yrs I had wanted to see it and its a really cool city but unfortunately the weather wasn't great. Went up to the Christ statue on one of the few sunny days we had and even though the whole of Rio was sunny there was just one big cloud hanging over the statue. Got a few good shots from the other mountains though and we kinda got like a 30 second gap of photos of Christ statue. Def a reason to come back. Beaches weren't even too busy either.

We moved around a few different hostels. For our last week in Rio we really wanted somewhere nice but most of them are so overpriced and cramped. Some of them having three story bunks. One really cool place we stayed for a few nights was like a big old mansion. But it didn't have a kitchen so we moved on. But that night we ended up drinking with some locals in the favela and had a great night. They were so smiley and happy. We also tried a favela funk party one night but that was a bit of a let down cause I think they took us to a different one than they usually do. Basically it is an overpriced tour to some warehouse in the middle of the favela. Meant to be different floors, people dancing like mad etc. But we paid a load cause it was meant to be dangerous and a bunch of Israelis paid nothing for a taxi and came to exact same place as us. I guess they just changed the normal venue for that night or something. Another day we did a favela tour which was definitely very interesting, walking down winding little streets, seeing how the people lived. Lots of poverty here, lots of gangs and drug lords but they don't do crime within the favelas cause that will cause the police to come in. They could be all nice and friendly to us there but meet us on the beach and then rob us! They respect their families and kids. But although saying this, there is times that there are big gun fights. Something like a few hundred thousand people in Rio live in the favelas.

Brazil is one of the most expensive countries I have ever been to. And it has such a huge rich and poor divide. Everything is so so expensive no wonder the poor are so poor. And then the rich are crazy rich. It's economy appears to be booming and we got to see a bit of both sides from our nights out and the people we met. And everyone was smiley and friendly.

In all my years of travelling I have never been effected by bed bugs. Mallory got bitten again in Rio in our hostel. So our whole room was moved to another dorm. On our last night we both woke up covered in bites. We came back to the bed and shone a torch and they were crawling all over it. We were so disgusted. These things are see through but if they have already bitten you, you can see them and they are brownish red. The colour of your blood going through them. We tried another dorm and just from even looking under the seam of the mattress we could see them under it. So then we went slept in the restaurant of the hostel. Whatever about a spider or cockroach even been in ur room but in this case your actually sleeping in their nest. Mallory had like 2 days of flights the next morning with very little sleep and I had a flight to Salvador with an overnight in the airport. I had to wash all my clothes and when I got back to Ireland make sure I didn't bring my bag into anyones house for fear there would be eggs or something on the stuff.

When I got to Salvador I was so lonely and down. I had just spent practically every moment of the last 6 months with the others and always had people around and now I was alone. Plus I was still disgusted for days over the bed bugs. The summer season had really died down and there was very few backpackers in Salvador. Weather was great though and then on my third day I think it was I bumped into an Irish guy at the tourist office. So me and him kicked it off and spent the weekend hanging out, and also met a Chilean and Argentinian girl. Salvador is in the state of Bahia, beautiful old city, beaches etc.

So one of the nights with the Irish guy we found some street party. Lots of music and booty shaking, street drinking and street food. We were the only white people there. Aiden felt someone pulling zips on his pockets and stopped them. Then i took camera out. Solely cause I know its a shit camera and I had everything backed up. Didnt care if it was going to be robbed. Few mins later I feel hands in my pockets, grab the hands, take the money out of them and push him away. Sometimes im annoyed for not taking action in situations like that but in this situation I was annoyed with myself for reacting cause he could have pulled anything on me and it was just an instinct. But it worked out ok in the end.

Then three girls joined us. They didnt speak spanish or english but we had enough portugese to understand and they could understand some spanish but not speak it. Beautiful girls. Def not out to rob us. Kept saying to be careful and its dangerous to bring camera out etc. Saw one girl find some keys and hand them to the police. They seemed more upper class than other people. During festival thing this other girl in a black and white dress was there, I went for a beer, they showed me a chewing gum and i felt her hand in my back pocket. grabbed it and took it out she had my id in my hand. So also another set up to rob me.

So later on in a different area we were at another street party. Two people came towards us acting drunk walking pushing everyone out of the way. We avoided them. Then they came back other way. One guy in front of me I pointed him out to Aiden. Felt other guys hand in my back pocket again. Grabbed the hand pushed him out of the way. At this stage just wanted to go home.

We then met some German and French who live here. telling us all about kids and stuff. All on craic. Buy them food they'l sell it. All they want is drugs. They collect beer cans for money. juggle cocunuts. They are all coked out of it even if they are smiley. Felt bad. Not going to give someone money but would happily buy them food. The girls had gotten robbed multiple times. Most of them by knife. They actually pointed out kids that had pulled a knife on them some as young as 8 yrs old. Then on other streetes cracked out people who would protect them cause they knew them. Never seen poverty like this before. There was lots of these kids around all really smiley but for one reason only and just living on the streets since they are babies with nobody to take care of them.

Anyway, after a few days here it was time to go home. After 10 and a half months I was really looking forward to it. Got a nice cheap flight to Frankfurt for 320 euros which wasn't bad. Got to the airport and actually knew two other people on the flights as well. A German guy I had met probably more than 5000km away down in bottom of Argentina, and a Norwegian girl I had met in Rio!

Spent a few weeks in Ireland in lovely weather. Weird coming back to "Normal" life. Having my own room and kitchen to cook in. Driving again. Even just been on my own whether it was walking around Limerick, or driving or something. I was at a loss one day not knowing which direction to go. I know it sounds weird but just hadn't been on my own in so long and all these things you take for normal when living life at home, are more of a culture shock to come back to after been away from them for so long.

I had been planning on coming to Norway for a while to work. Two years ago I tried it but got lazy and then travelled around Europe. So I needed money and minimum wage here is like 15 or 16 euros an hour so I decided to come here. Within my first three days I ended up with three interviews and got all three jobs. Seems like the stressful thing here is not been unemployed but deciding which job you want!! One of the jobs was this real fancy restaurant. Then the other was a cool outdoor bar with a good buzz and flexible hours. And the third one is hard rock cafe which I start next week. Finding accomodation was a bit of a problem. Particularly cause I don't want to make a committment to anything long term, and also wanted something furnished. But found a great place in the end with a really friendly Norwegian girl who has been great to me since I moved in! Going to stay here for a few months and then maybe head off again. Lots more to see....

Photos of Brazil

And a trip around Kerry when I got home!! Some of the beaches here were as good as Brazil!

Map of route

Rosario - Uruguay beaches and Brazil for Paddys day

Back to Argentina again and we headed to Rosario for a week to meet up with some girls we'd met in Bariloche. Rosario was my favourite Argentinian city. Not sure if it's because it was the only place we met locals or what but I really enjoyed it. Very much a student town. Lots of young people and probably the friendliest place we were in as well. Plus we ended up cooking unreal dinners. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but we've been doing lots of group meals over the last few months and we have all learnt lots off each other on cooking. Only thing is the meals keep getting bigger and bigger so I'm guessing without realising it were getting fatter and fatter!! It's gotten to the stage that some of the meals consist of nearly 1/2 a kilo of meat or steak per person, huge thing of mashed potatoes, huge salad and shit loads of garlic bread! Some of these only costing 2 or 3 euros worth. But we love it and its always a disappointment when we find a hostel that doesn't have a good kitchen. Other meals have included homemade pesto pasta, really good BBQ's or Asado's, homemade burgers stuffed with herbs and cheese, or pizzas with all our own toppings, stir fries with prawns or chicken and a good veggy mix, curries, cobb salads, fajitas, roast chicken stuffed with tomato basil and mozzerella and wrapped in bacon and a number of oven baked fish dishes. The food list on this trip is endless and quite creative and depending on the country. I don't think we've spent more than $4 per person for a meal with sides and starters that would probably feed 6 to 8 in a restaurant as opposed to four!

Meeting up with loads of friendly locals in Rosario

One of our huge meals that we cooked. Doesnt look too big here but shit loads of garlic bread, salad and nearly 400 grams of steak each and chorizo.

We couldn't afford Brazil for carnival where some hostels were costing up to $100 per night with a minimum stay of like 7 nights so we decided to go to Uruguay which was also meant to be good. A huge disappointment. Pretty much nothing happening at all. Went for the Monday and Tues before Ash Wed which is meant to be the end of it and it was just like a ghost town.

Montevideo

Montevideo was an all right city. Nothing special but Uruguay in general was so rich looking, developed and clean. Amazing houses, brand new cars, lots of cool apartments. Also even more European than Argentina. One guy I was chatting to on a bus his surname was O'Neill. I guess a lot of Irish came to this part of the world before. Apparantly Argentina is 5th largest Irish population outside of Ireland but not sure if thats true or not. I couldn't get over the price of some things in Uruguay especially in Punta Del este. We used to find Argentina expensive but looking back it was actually good value in a way. In Punta Del Este for example a beach town it was $11 for a McDonalds meal, $15 for a load of laundry and $5 for some bananas and a bottle of water. Even a small bottle of beer was $6 in a small bar. Punta del este was a very different world for us. Lots of crazy rich Argentinian tourists mainly. Like your package holiday place in Spain but trying to be a lot more classy. Meant to be good nightlife but nothing we could afford. Beaches weren't even that special.

So it was great when we got to Punta Del Diablo. It finally felt like backpacking again. Too much time spent in cities and "highclass" places in the last few months. This was one of those chilled out little beach towns that people come to for a few days and just stay. Nobody cares to be dressing up and being posh, or about fancy nightclubs, restaurants or bars which is the case in a lot of southern South America. Just relaxed and chilled out. The roads winding through the town just made of sand, surfers in the water but not overly crowded, cheap steak and seafood and great friendly hostels. Not like the money making business's we've been seeing a lot of lately but just a genuine hostel there for the sake of been a hostel and not to rip off tourists. One night we got this amazing cut of steak which Adrian cooked (best steak we've had is Adrian's) and this was one of the more expensive steaks in the shop and it worked out to be like 4 dollars for a kilo. Maybe they charged us the wrong price or something! This "town" was only 45 Min's from Brazil so after a few days it was time to hit Brazil which I didn't think I'd get to originally on my trip.

Punta del Diablo

From moment one in Brazil I liked it. We got the bus from Uruguay into the town of Chuy. A random little town because part of it was Uruguayan and the other part was Brazilian with nothing to distinguish the difference as you cross the road except it was Portuguese on one side. My first stop in Brazil was Porto Alegre.

We arrived in at rush hour and one thing I noticed is how happy and smiley everyone is. If you walk around a lot of western cities in the early morning and I've noticed it in places like London and America people are on their way to work and usually expressionless. Maybe listening to music on the subway or reading the paper but not all smiley and chatty. The exception of this I noticed in NZ before. Coming into Auckland everyone from the immigration guy, to the guy sweeping the floor and then the bus driver were all happy and smiling. Well it was the same here in Porto Alegre. People looked happy to be going to work! Prob sound stupid but just an observation I made.

That day and night was Paddy's day. A friend of mine that I'd travelled with three yrs ago in Asia had sent me a message. Hadn't talked to him much in three yrs but we'd spent about two months travelling and because of facebook he saw I was around and he happened to be in Porto Alegre on a last minute business trip. So we met up. Was as if nothing had changed and had a great night out.

Meeting up with old travel buddies

Went to an Irish bar. Actually it was the third Irish bar we tried as the first two were actually full. Still had to queue for about an hour. So used to going out lately at like 2am from months in Argentina and not even starting drinking until like midnight. But here people were standing in line at 7 O'clock. Maybe it was just because it was Paddy's day. Everyone was wearing green except for me and Nu cause we didn't have any. All sorts of Irish t-shirts going around and Guinness hats. Had a great time inside and by the end of the night we knew half the people in the bar. Everyone was interested in meeting the only two foreigners in the place. And I never drink Guinness but one guy insisted on keeping buying me Gunniess. Was a strange system in that you don't pay to get into the bar but you pay to leave it and all your drinks are put on your ticket. Brazil is crazy crazy expensive. There exchange rate has gotten so good in the last few yrs is the main reason why. So for example some of the beers here were 16 Reais or $10 or so. We only had four beers(besides the Guinness that people were buying us) and it averaged at $9 USD per beer. Crazy. And its not just drink but buses, accommodation and all as well. The food in supermarkets seems all right value however. Anyway we preceded to get very drunk. One thing that was annoying me was not been able to speak Portuguese. Its been years since I've been in a country where I can't speak the language. I'd say China about three and a half yrs ago was the last time. Everywhere else speaks English or Spanish. But anyway, Spanish is very similar to Portuguese so I kept trying that. But funnily enough most of the young people in this town said they understood English way better which we were well surprised with. So this one big guy that looks like the main guy out of Xmen decided to sing the Irish national anthem for me. Three times throughout the night. All in Irish. Ashamed to say it but I don't actually know it myself but the bits I did know he nailed. Not sure where and how he learnt that!

Click here for photo album

Meeting loads of friendly locals

Punta del Diablo

Punta del Diablo

The guy who could sing the Irish national Anthem

Buenos Aires, Waterfalls, Carnival and how to hop across borders illegally

I'm not going to write a load of negative stuff about Buenos Aires because its not that I disliked it in anyway. But I'll just say it wasn't for me. I just expected a lot more from it. And I know its wrong to have high expectations or any expectations of a place or even to compare places but I can't help it, its just something I do. I kept comparing it to Barcelona, London and New York which its not like these in my opinion but I thought it was going to be. Plus I didn't have the money to enjoy it properly. Statistically its probably cheaper than any of the other cities above but as a backpacker you can find accommodation, food and drink cheaper in the other cities. Obviously you can find cheap stuff here as well but a lot of it was beyond what I could afford at this stage and I guess I just didn't know where to go for other stuff. Its got high class restaurants, people, nightclubs and a booming 24/7 night life. Usually something I'd enjoy. But I like to start early and maybe stay out all night like we did in Barcelona. However here nothing really gets going until 2. So we drank in the hostel before this but sometimes it would be 3 or 4am and then we wouldn't even make it out cause we'd be too tired at that stage and drinking slowly. I don't know was I too lazy or just been travelling too long or what but I prefer the more casual night life scene lately. Not a top end night club that you need to dress up to go to, then queue for hours outside unless you have a special pass or password. Besides all this it has a number of different neighborhoods. Lots of types of nightlife, restaurants, and parks all over the place.

Also even though this is nothing to do with BA in particular but the first hostel we stayed at Milhouse was a bunch of shit. It's one of the top rated ones in BA but this is mainly for partying. The staff weren't the friendliest. It was just a money making place. They had a bar which they tried to get us into upon check in when all we wanted to do was drop our bags in the room and could have checked in at reception. Then every morning they would come into the room and wake us shouting our names thinking we had to check out even though we didn't. The kitchen was small cramped unstocked and dirty. I guess a lot of this had to do with first time travellers who didn't know how to wash dishes. Then one day when I wanted to eat lunch all the staff were crowded around in the kitchen for ages eating when they easily could have sat in the bar. Once they finished they tried to move everyone out of the bar so they could clean the bar (where you sit) and kitchen so we couldn't even make food. Even a small thing like the TV room. They close this between 11pm and 3am just so they can encourage people to drink but I guess at 3am it gives people the opportunity to go have sex on the couches.

With a lot of thinking and pondering and changing my mind every hour about what to do I finally booked a bus to Paraguay not sure if it was the best decision or not but had to do something!!

After a 16 hour bus that turned into 20 hours we arrived in Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. Most other countries need Visas to come here and plus because its out of the way most backpackers don't even come. So I came up with Mallory, the Canadian girl I've been travelling with for a few months. Adrian stayed a bit longer in BA and Amanda was going to meet us here when she got back from the Antarctica. A lot of times in Argentina I feel like I might as well be at home or at least back in Europe. The culture there is such the same. Coming in here I felt like I was really back in South America or even actually in Central America. Statistically its the second poorest country in South America after Bolivia. Its hot and humid which we havn't had in months. There are no hostels here. There are hostels everywhere in South America but this just shows you how little tourists come here. It is literally on the border with Argentina and Brazil and we can see them from our hotel balcony but even still the people are different looking. Argentina is very European looking where as here we are like the only two white people walking around. At times I feel like I'm back in Thailand because of the heat, the motorbikes buzzing around outside, some BBQs on the street, the electronics and the look of the people. Other times it feels like Central America. There is also a big Asian culture here as well. Lots of Chinese and Korean food and even some Japanese. Its huge into Electronics. And I mean huge. South American in general is more expensive than anywhere in USA, Europe actually anywhere I've seen for Electronics. But I guess Paraguay has tax free or something so they have everything and anything here. Including all the fake stuff like phones that take two sim cards and stuff like that. And picture all the packaging that comes with electronics. Boxes and white foam and all that. They just throw that all over the streets!! So I guess a lot of Brazilians and Argentinians come across the border to buy stuff.

I'm finding it hard to get back into Spanish as well. 8 months in now and I've gone through so many stages or getting good and getting bad at it. I feel like now I'm back at stage one. Barely even able to ask for a hotel room or a bus. Everybody we met in Argentina had english so we barely used it and have forgotten everything. And even the bits I know the people reply to quickly I don't have a clue what they are saying!! But today I managed to somehow find this local bus out to Itaipu dam which is a big dam between Paraguay and Brazil.

So the following day I decided I'd head over to Brazil to check out the Brazil side of Iguazu falls. Mallory was sick in bed and going nowhere and Amanda was meant to have arrived on the Argentinian side of the falls. I decided I'd stay an extra night on the Paraguay side as Mal wasn't able to leave the country. The joy about been Irish or European in this sitation and not USA, Canadian Australian or NZ was that I can pass as many times as I want between the countries where as the others have to pay a fortune for visas which you have to get from a consulate or embassy and sometimes only allow one entry. So even though I could walk ten mins down the road to Brazil and possibly another short walk across to Amanda in Argentina the two girls couldn't meet up. Walking across the border was one of those border type towns you see when a really rich expensive country borders a really poor one. It felt in a way like the Tijuana/San Diego border. The paraguayan side was full of huge shops of electronics. People coming across with empty suitcases and big trolleys to fill up with stuff. All sorts of fake brand clothes, cigarettes etc. There is a bridge dividing the two countries across a river which takes less than 5 minutes to cross and even on both sides of the bridge you can see the different in peoples faces and the language people were using on both sides. There was huge lines of traffic and then pedestrians who had bought all sorts of stuff. Luckily for me all I had with me was a water bottle and got to skip all the lines. It was 35 degrees and crazy humid. Little did I know that in this town they took every currency but I didn't have any Reals and just started walking. They were also an hour ahead which I didn't know. I thought there would be a bus right there to take me to the waterfall but I had to go to centre of town first which by the time I walked there I was too late. So had a glimpse of Brazil, nearly walked into Argentina to see Amanda but decided to leave it till the following day when I could do it properly and came back to Paraguay again. Bit of a waste of a day but on the other hand very interesting. Another page wasted in the passport with all the stamps.

The two days after this I had to do the same all over again. But this time to avoid stamps in the passport and stopping and starting at every border I managed to find a way to cross through Brazil unofficially. I got on a bus with locals which drives right through the border. I then changed to another local bus in Brazil to go to Argentina but stupidly got off at the exit of Brazil rather than the entrance to Argentina so had a long sweaty walk through no mans land for a while. But literally managed to walk right through the exit border, passport in hand without them every checking me or caring. The following day coming back myself and Amanda did the same. She's Canadian so needs a visa for Brazil as well so even if she had stopped at the border they wouldn't have stamped her on but we managed to get through ok and even accidently skipped the Paraguay border and had to walk backwards to get stamped in. They are so easy going here its crazy.

So Iguazu was cool enough. Our first impression was bad at the devils throat. Could barely see a thing. But then did lots of walks around and saw other sides of the falls which was pretty cool but decided we'd seen enough and didn't need to see the Brazil side which is just meant to be a panoramic! After this we all headed onto Asuncion the capital of Paraguay.

Paraguay was a lot more normal in Asuncion but because it started raining we didn't do much at all. And we havnt seen proper rain in months. Met a cool English girl here who decided to come along with us to carnival in Encarnacion. I'll let the pictures tell most of it but basically lots of spray foam, like shit loads of it and lots of bare ass and parades.

Photos of all of this

Ushuaia - End of the Pan-Am (End of my trip?? - Bit of a summary!)

So after just under 8 months of travelling overland from San Diego I made it to Ushuaia ("The worlds most southern city" / El Fin Del Mundo). Back when I was 15 in school myself and my friend Damien talked about this trip around the world that we would do once we finished Uni. It was kind of a joke at the time but we became pretty serious to do it. It involved travelling overland all the way across Europe, Russia and Asia to Australia then North to South America and then Cape town to home. It was always my dream to do most of this and I have now made it to 53 different countries 134 times along the way. Africa is something I am not so interested in doing just yet and will leave until I am older. Although Damien managed to do the bulk of this journey!

This particular trip along the Pan-am has been an incredible trip and I've met lots of amazing people. Originally kind of doing it myself or travelling "alone" I think I've only been on my own for the whole trip for less than 12 hours. Different people, friends, family and friends from other travels have joined me along the way not to mention lots of new friends I have met along the way and ended up travelling with for a number of months. In particular we had a group of about 8 of us travelling for about two months in Central America. Then after the boat from Panama to Colombia we had a really cool large group for about 6 weeks and then since Quito back mid Oct we've had a group that varies from 4 to 12 people all heading south so that's lasted about 4 months now. No matter where we go in South America its easy to bump into people we know as there are a lot of people doing the exact same thing and maybe branching off for a few days here and there. Not as unique that someone might think. I really respect those people who are driving this route on motorbikes or cycling it. I took the easy way out by busing it!

A lot of people keep asking me where I get the money to travel. Or how to do it. Well I feel like absolutely anyone can do it and you don't need much money at all. The truth is I work a few months as a waiter or bartender, usually minimum wage jobs and save as much as I can. A few months doing this is usually enough to travel well for a year. This means eating really good food, staying in nice hostels, drinking where we want to and doing most activities. I was very surprised at how expensive lot of stuff here is like food, drink, transport, activities, accommodation. It can be way more expensive than when I've travelled even in places like New Zealand, Germany, Spain and Portugal. Parts of South America are probably some of the more expensive places I've travelled to but despite this its been possible to do the whole trip on just about 30 euros a day or just under $40 USD. In the countries such as Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru which are a lot cheaper its tourist activities that always add up to a lot.

I don't know how much time I spent on buses and public transport to get here but it was highly enjoyable. In Central America it was generally chicken buses, old American school buses where locals bring on all sorts of stuff. Always ended up in a really interesting ride and interesting conversations. Most of South America and Mexico its been high class Semi-Cama buses which a lot of the time are on par with 1st class airplanes. The whole way from San Diego to Ushuaia including taxis to and from bus stations actually only cost 1521 EUR ($1923 USD) which is not that much at all. And actually Mexico, Chile and Argentina were the most expensive parts of this costing 874 euros between them which is crazy. Buses here were ridiculous.

A lot of people seem to think South America is dangerous but luckily we've had absolutely no problems so far....touch wood! Coming through all the countries the ones that stereotypically people think are the most dangerous were actually the friendliest and safest. Nowhere I've ever been has been as friendly as Colombia and that is by far my favourite place on this trip. Pretty much everyone we know got robbed in Ecuador or had a story about robberies there. We were lucky enough not to thank god. My biggest danger was my own stupidity and breaking my wrist!! Colombia was my favourite place for people, lifestyle, parties, hostels etc etc. Peru and Patagonia have been my favourite for scenery. Peru was absolutely incredible and also has great food and is very reasonably priced. Chile was also a favourite for people, food, scenery and lifestyle. And then there was Central America which I guess Nicaragua and Panama were my best.

Ushuaia is a pretty nice city. I somehow pictured it a lot duller and boring but we've had pretty much good weather every day. It usually doesn't get above 12 degrees but because its summer its bright until 1030 at night and bright again at 430 in the morning. A few weeks ago anything less than 30 degrees felt cool. Funny how quickly things change cause yesterday was 15 degrees and that felt very warm!! Its a small little town in Tierra del Fuego surrounded my snow capped mountains, a large port in the middle of the blue Beagle Channel. Surprisingly you'd think it would be really far south but its along the same latitude south as Belfast is north! On the other hand its so far from anywhere and everywhere. Its more than 10000 km from pretty much all the major cities anywhere in the world except for Brazil and Argentina!!

So anyway were sitting down here in Ushuaia now having a relaxing week after a few weeks trekking. Five of us are here all trying to decide what to do with our lives now!! We are all kind of heading different directions and coming up with different ideas of what to do next. Most of the week we have done nothing except sit around and its been great. Lots of ideas have come to mind but will just see how it plays out. The Antarctica was an option. I have never taken a loan out in my life but was considering it for this. Plus the Euro to Dollar exchange rate got so good over the last few days that it made it a few hundred euros cheaper. So a 11 day cruise including all the warm clothes would have cost 2300 euros as opposed to the $6000 to $8000 you might pay if you book in advance online. Had been considering it cause I could probably pay this money back in a yr or so but on the other hand I'm just not feeling it right now. I hope I wont regret it in the future.

Carnival in Brazil is also another option as something I've always wanted to do but its also crazy expensive. Brazil is meant to be the most expensive country in South America and if I already find most places more expensive than Europe I can't imagine what this is like. I hear some of the cheapest hostels are over $70 per night during Carnival with a 7 night min stay so this I can't really afford either. I am flying to Buenos Aires on Saturday so might look into working there for a few months and working on my Spanish. One of my biggest regrets of this trip is not knowing Spanish better and would hate to leave without learning it. But otherwise a lot of things have come to mind like work in New York, Norway, or stay in Argentina for ski season or keep travelling another month or so until the money runs out and then just find a flight home and hope something pops up there!! If anyone has any suggestions or job offers anywhere please tell me. Was also looking into going back to Uni sometime next yr. I would have thought that after 5 yrs after finished Uni I might have come up with some idea with what to do with my life but still don't have a clue!! Hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining because I'm not!! Just looking for advice or ideas from other people doing different stuff around the place! If anyone has info on things like working Bar jobs in BA or NY or cruise ships or ski resorts or even teaching English without a qualification let me know! We all keep coming up with different plans here all the time and changing our minds daily!! One of the girls actually booked the Antarctica. Others are trying to work out different routes from BA to Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and even a trip up the Amazon to Colombia which I'd also love to do!! But who knows, I guess I'll head to BA and see where it takes me!!

Photos of Ushuaia

Map of route to here

Patagonia - Lots of glaciers, mountains, hiking, middle of nowhere type of stuff

After our few weeks in Chile we arrived back to Argentina and Bariloche and met up with the rest of our group. I had been looking forward to Bariloche for a few years now since I lived in NZ. I heard it was a very similar area to Queenstown in NZ which I had spent 8 months and loved. It is in the lake district, a small little tourist town, very scenic and also a ski resort.

It was nice but we just didn't get time to enjoy it properly. In all the times I've travelling I don't think I've ever seen stuff so busy. Maybe I just don't travel in high season so often but planning and booking in advance is not a thing any of us like to do. It's a pain in the ass cause you never know how long you want to stay in a place. A few people thought this was ridiculous when I said this but its just too much work to plan all sorts of stuff when on the road this long. It's nice to just wake up in the morning and decide if we want to go or not, hop on a bus and then go to whatever hostel has been recommended to us. Argentina in summer is a very different case. Everything needs to be planned out and everything gets booked up way too quickly. In Bariloche I spent over 5 hours two days in a row trying to organise stuff. Trying to figure out how many days we need in each place, then when we find a hostel we liked just to find out it was booked up. Then also we wanted to do a tour around the lake district but car rentals were booked up. Buses out of Bariloche were then booked up but also accommodation was booked up in Bariloche. So we just kept meeting dead ends. We liked it and had a good few nights out there and ate so much steak and choripan and eventually we found a 30 hour bus out of there down Ruta 40 (A mostly unpaved dusty highway in the middle of nowhere) to El Chalten in Patagonia.

We had heard the same story about things down here been booked up as well. People sleeping on floors of hostel lobbies and in cars. Also people who got stuck because the ATM's were empty of money so they couldn't pay to leave. Even if they could the buses were booked up and they couldn't even pay their hostel bill. This seemed to happen to a few people so we made sure we'd plenty of money coming down here. Ruta 40 was some trip. Into the middle of nowhere. Mostly desert and shrub style scenery but freezing cold. At one stop we dared Nick to run down this mountain strip off and swim across this freezing cold river. Been from Perth and he'd only travelled in hot countries this was probably the coldest he'd ever been but it was funny and he came out 300 pesos richer because of it!!

El Chalten is a small little tourist town developed in the 1980's for people to go hiking. We managed to get ourselves accommodation even though 6 of us crammed into an overpriced room with three beds on the first night. Being down south the weather had changed immensely and was freezing cold. The second day there we decided to do a hike to Fitzroy. I had been told by my doctors to stick to towns and cities and not to do any hiking at all. My arm was still in a sling and even though the bone was fixed it was still weak. I had been planning on not doing the hikes because of this but in fairness I figured I could just as easy fall in a town as on a mountain. Bariloche has lots of steps and hills and stuff. And on hikes down here most of them are just paths leading you up mountains. Nothing like in Ireland where you really have to find your own route and practically climb at some stages. So with one arm I went for the hike up to Fitzroy. Again been down south its great cause it doesn't get dark till 1030 in some places so we can start stuff pretty late if we like. We had a big group. The pictures will tell all from this hike but let me just say it was incredible but tough going. No longer used to hiking and altitude and been taking it easy for the last few weeks because of the hand. I'd say if I'd have done this hike after Peru I would have flown up it!! The following day was another long day of planning stuff and trying to figure out what we were doing. I then left with two Dutch girls to El Calafate for another hospital check up while the others stayed for another hike.

All these hospital check ups I'm learning a lot more Spanish medical terms. But still so much gets lost in translation and it took me 3 hours to sort out this short visit to take some stitches out. Apparently I was waiting aimlessly at the start which one person had told me to do when I should have gone to see some doctor first to get referred to a tramatologist. Such a pain in the ass. So most people come to El Calafate to visit the Glacier Perito Moreno. Its amazing but such a rip off. They charge 100 pesos which is about $25 for an hours bus ride. Then another 100 pesos just to get into the glacier park. And all facilities and stuff close at 630, they kick you out at 730 and then the bus doesn't leave until 830. So we were there hanging around in the freezing cold and rain waiting for the bus. A lot of us just waited in the bathroom reading a book trying to warm up. This was probably the coldest I'd been in months. And also it was the first little bit of rain I'd seen since around Mid October I'd say. We've been so lucky with weather and even in Patagonia we've been lucky with it just getting the odd shower here and there!! Anyway the glacier is impressive. Its huge. And its size and scale is so hard to see in photos. There were huge chunks of ice crashing off and splashing into the water below. From where we were they looked small but the sound of it was louder than any thunder I've heard and it was also delayed by a few seconds just showing how far we actually were from the glacier even though we felt so close. It is 30km long, 5km wide and average height above the water is 74 metres. So picture this when looking at the photos!!

I don't know was it the cold or something I ate but I ended up getting so sick that afternoon and didn't recover for four days. Couldn't keep any food down and was so weak. We got a bus back to Chile a few days later to Puerto Natales and we were trying to organise stuff for a five day hike. I was so not fit for going but luckily we all decided we needed an extra days rest and this gave me the change to recover properly. Again another hike I wasn't sure I should be doing with only the use of one arm but decided to chance it anyway. Unlike in Peru where we had porters and donkeys to carry our stuff we had to carry everything ourselves. Tents, big sleeping bags fit for -6 degrees, stove, 5 days of food and all sorts of water proof clothing. It was Torres Del Paine we were hiking, the W circuit its called and weather can be very very unpredictable snowing, raining sun etc.

The first day was a short enough hike and weather was sunny but winds up to 55kmph going around steep mountain edges with 15kg on our back. We got to camp and then hiked up to see the Torres. The second day was a killer. A long days hike with our bags in wind and rain and sun. Having to change our clothes every few minutes. I was wondering why people submit themselves to this. The others all seemed to enjoy the second day but I hated it. The main reason I don't live in Ireland is the rain and this reminded me of just hiking around Kerry or somewhere. Couldn't see the attraction at all. But then the third and fourth day came and I totally changed my mind. We were able to leave our bags at camp both days and it was like been back in summer. The hikes were incredible. Stunning mountains, lakes, snow, glaciers etc. We can drink the water from anywhere as its so clean and fresh and here we were filling our water bottles out of freezing cold rivers. Day four was my favourite and there were points where we stopped for a few hours just to enjoy the view which was incredible. It was also scorching hot so we could lie out in tshirts at some stages. We had ended up walking somewhere between 70 and 80 km in the four days. It was a relief to get back to town on the 5th day though and make some proper meals and have a proper sleep. Plus my hand was getting so much better now that I was able to cook again for the first time in a month so made some massive burgers like 250 Grams each with veg and a few other things. Was great to get some proper food in us and relax in the warmth.

This was our third and last time in Chile for a while. We had spend just about one month in Chile in total and it was unreal. Had not heard too many stories about Chile in the past apart from how expensive it is but it was definitely up there with some of my favourites in South America. From here we got a bus to Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego and the end of the Pan-Am!!

Bariloche Photos

Patagonia Argentina Photos - Fitzroy and Glaciers

Patagonia Chile Photos - Torres Del Paine