HAPPY EASTER!!!

11/4/98

Hi there everyone

Just a quick note to let you know we’re safe and sound and still in La Paz in Bolivia…

…and also to test out this new email service…

Thanks for the letters of concern, but this so called civil war doesn’t seem to be affecting us.

There have been some deaths and road blocks and rationing since food and transport can’t get through since they have blockaded La Paz, but apparently this happens all the time so the locals are used to it… It’s a part of life here…

The only hairy experience we had was when we were walking back from some Spanish lessons and we saw a demonstration march ahead.

It looked peaceful so we went for a closer look when all of a sudden some dynamite exploded only about 10m from us!!! Continue reading →

4/4/98

Hola amigos and a big Hi to all those just joining our adventures…

Well here we are in La Paz the capital of Bolivia and it seems we still can’t avoid tear gas and riots.

2 days ago there were mass riots here over a variety of issues and 2 people were shot by police. Needless to say there were retaliation protests and riots just outside our hostal… so being inquisitive and dumb tourists we decided to get amongst it all…

…and I can safely say that we were scared SHITLESS… that is in a state of shitlessness… without shit… and shit-challenged.

At one stage Avril was standing behind a group of riot police full to the teeth with big gun things when I decided to take a photo… Unfortunately the flash went off and all 30 cops spun around pointing their tear gas guns at me. You can check the photo out by click on the link at the end of this email.

If that wasn’t enough, we then got caught standing next to other police in a narrow street when suddenly protestors came from both sides and started picking up rocks to throw at the police.

All the other locals disappeared in to shops but they closed the doors on us so we just started running towards the less aggressive crowd and hid in a church ground. Continue reading →

12/3/98

Hi Guys and Girls

Well here we are back in Santiago and boy are we enjoying the smog. Since we last wrote we have had a pretty interesting few weeks. We arrived in Puerto Montt which is in the lake district of Chile which is a fantastic area filled with numerous beautiful lakes, thermal springs, glacial fjords and active volcanoes… all at the base of the Andes.

There’s heaps of fantastic trekking and climbing around here and we bummed around for a few days and soaked up some of the best seafood ever and salmon fresh from the ocean.

Initially Avril wanted to do a trek to a geyser field but the weather soon changed that idea. Which was OK since we were still nursing injuries from walking thru Torres del Paine.

So instead we visited Agua Calientes which if you remember your Sesame Street spanish means hot water.

Basically Agua Calientes is a thermally heated pool situated high in the Andean mountains, so we sat inside a beautifully hot chateau pool whilst watching volcanically heated steam rise off the lush forest on the mountains outside… is anyone jealous yet?

The weather was pretty crappy for about a week here, but that was cool because we had such good weather for trekking in the Torres…

However, a few days after we left Torres del Paine, it rained and snowed so hard that 70 backpackers had to be airlifted out of the park… Man we were sooo lucky…. El Nino strikes again. Continue reading →

26/2/98

Que pasa muchachos

OK… there are a few new readers to our list so all you have to know is that Easter Island and Antarctica were totally unbelievable!!!

After Antarctica we flew to Calafate in southern Argentina to see the Moreno Glacier. It’s the only advancing glacier in the world which means it grows down from the mountains and frequently huge chunks of ice break off it crashing into the nearby lake with amazing exploding sounds.

The surrounding country side is also amazing…basically dry brown desert with huge plateaus but with snow capped mountain peaks in the distance.

Calafate also has an amazingly turquoise lake in the middle of the arid desert… a definite land of contrasts. The weather has been so hot that it’s hard to believe such a huge glacier exists here.

We learned that the Moreno Glacier is only one of about nine glaciers that extend down like tentacles from a central cap high in the Andes which is absolutely huge…. about 12000 square km in size.

After that, we crossed in to Chile and did the very famous Torres del Paine walk.

The Torres are a huge mountain range with peculiar granite rock formations that stick up from the ground like pillars.

There is a huge walking trail around the range which winds through beautiful Andean forests and snowcapped mountains eventually finishing at another huge glacier called the Grey Glacier. Continue reading →

7/2/98

OK dudes and dudettes… today we are back sitting in a shop in Ushuaia and this morning we returned from ANTARCTICA and blow me down was it fantastic or what!!!

It was cool because Avril’s mum joined us as well as Helen and Dee, 2 nurses that Ced used to work with at Ipswich Hospital.

Here’s a quick run down…

First, we spent 2 days crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica. The seas were the roughest that the captain had seen and the boat being an icebreaker has a rounded hull and no keel so it can pop out of the ice should it ever get frozen in… Needless to say we spent the entire 2 days in bed as the boat literally rolled all over the place… and I can honestly say that I have NEVER been that sick in my entire life!!!

However, it was all worthwhile as we soon we arrived at Deception Island and Aitcho Island on the outskirts of the Antarctic Peninsula and we went to a couple of massive penguin colonies, one of which had over 1/2 million penguins as far as the eye could see… man… they are so cute but boy do they stink and I would have died to have a bowling ball with me… We spent literally hours watching them… it was really cool and we totally felt like David Attenborough!!!!!!!!! Continue reading →

26/1/98

Hello everybody!

Since last we spoke we’ve climbed a very large hill in Santiago to find a very large Mary statue. It was like climbing a very large hill in Santiago to find a very large statue of Mary!

Well, it was really hot but we got to ride a funicular cable car and view a very smoggy city. Unfortunately, we didn’t get quite a good view of the snow capped mountains that were looming near by because of the smog.

…you get that.

For those of you from St Leo’s College, Ced caught up with big Dean Ilott in Santiago who is currently working for an internet company. Also for Greco, we found a c-man in a museum from prehistoric times, but we weren’t allowed to take a photo.

We arrived in Buenos Aires for a couple of nights. Nice place, lots of statues, but like all cities they all start looking the same. It’s great if you’ve got money to burn as Argentinos are renowned for partying hard.

Most of them eat after 10pm and hit the clubs after 1am. Couldn’t keep up with them, but we did learn to tango. Ced thinks he’s so suave now. Continue reading →