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| Puerto Varas, Chile |
Hi again, here are a few photos from our third major stop on our big adventure. A beautiful little town called Puerto Varas. As you can see it was coloned by the German's!!
Speak soon
N&K
Friday, June 6, 2008
Some long overdue photos!!
Hi everybody!!! Well we are well and truly back in England. It has been a whirlwind first week, one christening, one job interview (successful!! - I am now a project manager for a renewables energy org. in Cambridge!!) lots of driving around the country visiting friends and family - we did notice though as we were travelling - England is sooooo green!!!!
Anyway here are a few piccies from our first major trip from Buenos Aires, we flew down to Patagonia to visit this amazing Glacier called Perito Merino. As you can see by the pictures it is pretty amazing!!!!!
More piccies & stories coming soon
Hasta Luego
Nige & Katie
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Back in Engerland!!!!!!!
Well that is it...we are back!!!!
Just a quickie to let you all know that we arrived safely back in rainy Engerland on Thursday evening!!
We will add our last installment of our amazing South American adventure in a couple of days (with piccies!)
It is really good to be back (& the sun is shining today!!)
Speak soon
Loads of love
Nige & Katie xxx
Just a quickie to let you all know that we arrived safely back in rainy Engerland on Thursday evening!!
We will add our last installment of our amazing South American adventure in a couple of days (with piccies!)
It is really good to be back (& the sun is shining today!!)
Speak soon
Loads of love
Nige & Katie xxx
Friday, May 9, 2008
The rest of Chile and crossing the Andes
Hola Chicas!!!!
How´s it going everyone? As usual we are struggling with the pesky Spanish keyboard so hope you can understand this! We are currently in a small town called La Rioja in Northern Argentina, we have come here to sleep and eat some good food! At present we are feeling very old in a cyber cafe where all the kids are playing games, there appears to be bad U2 covers playing on the radio and the school girls have been practising their English asking us our names and what the time is!
Well since we last wrote we moved from Southern Chile up to a place called Puerto Varas, we flew there and had an amazing birds eye views of the glaciers on our way. Puerto Varas was colonized by the Germans in the 1840s and the result is a lot of beautiful wooden houses and German style churches. The town is on Lago Llanquihue (sort of pronounced Jankeyhooie)the lake is surrounded by 3 volcanoes (dormant ones), the most impressive is Volcan Osorno approx 2000 metres high and a perfect cone, don´t worry there are lots of pictures!!!! Here we walked around some of the lake shore (it is the third largest natural lake in South America).
Next we got an overnight bus to Santiago, the capital of Chile. This is a beautiful city with many grand old colonial buildings, but they have a major smog problem. We climbed the famous hill there where you can get a view of the sprawling city and suppossedly the Andes behind it but they are really just a haze hidden behind a thick layer of smog. We stayed in a party hostel where most people seemed to be 18 and just finished high school, we felt VERY old. People were going out for the night when we were going to bed (remember we had an overnight bus to get there!) and coming in from their nights out when we were getting up! We went to a really nice Spanish restaurant and saw a Flamenco show, we got chatting with a local couple, well chat might be a bit of an exaggeration with our pigeon Spanish but we communicated nevertheless. They shared their wine with us and gave us a ride home with a mini tour of the city at 1am. The next day we walked and walked and walked to find the largest artisan market in Chile only to find it had been replaced with a department store, blinking lonely planet!!!! We found some more nice helpful locals who drove us a few kilometeres to another market, where we bought a clay spoon that has since broken!!!!
From Santiago we said goodbye to Chile and got a bus to Mendoza in the wine country of Argentina. The journey crossing the Andes was amazing, we climbed up and up on switch back roads to find the border crossing. It took 1 and a half hours through immigration - 1 hour 27 minutes on the Chile side and 3 minutes on the Argentinian side! Mendoza was a really nice quiet town. We had some really good food and also took a local bus out into the wine country. We hired some rickety old bone shaker bikes and did a little tour of some wineries, olive factory and chocolate and liquor factory. Sampling was mandatory!.
Next we headed a little North to San Juan to change buses on the way to San Augustine Valle del fertil. This is a tiny little town with 3000 people pretty much in the middle of no where. We went there to go to two National Parks, NP Talampaya and Valle de la luna. Talampaya is a park full of 250 different canyons, we only visited one but it was amazing, we cannot compare it to the grand canyon as even though we lived in San Francisco we never managed to visit there! Anyway it was AWESOME!!! Valle de la luna was like being on the moon with lots of crazy landscapes and rock formations, we took at least 100 pictures. The parks were definitely worth the trip to get to them, even though the bus broke down on the way home and it took an extra three hours to get back. We were with a guy from Singapore and two people from Belgian and 5 old Argentinians at the front (the old folk didn´t talk to us and we were considering eating them if we were left there for days). It was very entertaining!
We left this morning at 3am and came to La Rioja where we slept for a few more hours and then have wandered around went to a really cool museum where the curator gave us a guided tour about dinosaurs and fossils found in the surrounding area and parks that we visited yesterday. Tomorrow we are going further north to Tucaman and then Salta then it is back to Buenas Aires and then up to Iguazu falls.
Well congratulations to those of you who didn´t get bored and read to the end, we love you all. Will try and write more frequently in future!!!!
Thank you for all the lovely comments too!!
Love K & N
xxxxxxxx
How´s it going everyone? As usual we are struggling with the pesky Spanish keyboard so hope you can understand this! We are currently in a small town called La Rioja in Northern Argentina, we have come here to sleep and eat some good food! At present we are feeling very old in a cyber cafe where all the kids are playing games, there appears to be bad U2 covers playing on the radio and the school girls have been practising their English asking us our names and what the time is!
Well since we last wrote we moved from Southern Chile up to a place called Puerto Varas, we flew there and had an amazing birds eye views of the glaciers on our way. Puerto Varas was colonized by the Germans in the 1840s and the result is a lot of beautiful wooden houses and German style churches. The town is on Lago Llanquihue (sort of pronounced Jankeyhooie)the lake is surrounded by 3 volcanoes (dormant ones), the most impressive is Volcan Osorno approx 2000 metres high and a perfect cone, don´t worry there are lots of pictures!!!! Here we walked around some of the lake shore (it is the third largest natural lake in South America).
Next we got an overnight bus to Santiago, the capital of Chile. This is a beautiful city with many grand old colonial buildings, but they have a major smog problem. We climbed the famous hill there where you can get a view of the sprawling city and suppossedly the Andes behind it but they are really just a haze hidden behind a thick layer of smog. We stayed in a party hostel where most people seemed to be 18 and just finished high school, we felt VERY old. People were going out for the night when we were going to bed (remember we had an overnight bus to get there!) and coming in from their nights out when we were getting up! We went to a really nice Spanish restaurant and saw a Flamenco show, we got chatting with a local couple, well chat might be a bit of an exaggeration with our pigeon Spanish but we communicated nevertheless. They shared their wine with us and gave us a ride home with a mini tour of the city at 1am. The next day we walked and walked and walked to find the largest artisan market in Chile only to find it had been replaced with a department store, blinking lonely planet!!!! We found some more nice helpful locals who drove us a few kilometeres to another market, where we bought a clay spoon that has since broken!!!!
From Santiago we said goodbye to Chile and got a bus to Mendoza in the wine country of Argentina. The journey crossing the Andes was amazing, we climbed up and up on switch back roads to find the border crossing. It took 1 and a half hours through immigration - 1 hour 27 minutes on the Chile side and 3 minutes on the Argentinian side! Mendoza was a really nice quiet town. We had some really good food and also took a local bus out into the wine country. We hired some rickety old bone shaker bikes and did a little tour of some wineries, olive factory and chocolate and liquor factory. Sampling was mandatory!.
Next we headed a little North to San Juan to change buses on the way to San Augustine Valle del fertil. This is a tiny little town with 3000 people pretty much in the middle of no where. We went there to go to two National Parks, NP Talampaya and Valle de la luna. Talampaya is a park full of 250 different canyons, we only visited one but it was amazing, we cannot compare it to the grand canyon as even though we lived in San Francisco we never managed to visit there! Anyway it was AWESOME!!! Valle de la luna was like being on the moon with lots of crazy landscapes and rock formations, we took at least 100 pictures. The parks were definitely worth the trip to get to them, even though the bus broke down on the way home and it took an extra three hours to get back. We were with a guy from Singapore and two people from Belgian and 5 old Argentinians at the front (the old folk didn´t talk to us and we were considering eating them if we were left there for days). It was very entertaining!
We left this morning at 3am and came to La Rioja where we slept for a few more hours and then have wandered around went to a really cool museum where the curator gave us a guided tour about dinosaurs and fossils found in the surrounding area and parks that we visited yesterday. Tomorrow we are going further north to Tucaman and then Salta then it is back to Buenas Aires and then up to Iguazu falls.
Well congratulations to those of you who didn´t get bored and read to the end, we love you all. Will try and write more frequently in future!!!!
Thank you for all the lovely comments too!!
Love K & N
xxxxxxxx
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Paaaaaatttttttaaaaaaaagggggggoooonniiiaaaa!!!
Hola Chicas,
Well we left B.A a week ago and headed South to Patagonia. This is truly an amazing part of the world. We flew 4 hours south of B.A to El Calafate. Here we stayed in a cheap little hostel, well someones house really. El Calafate is a little like a European ski village and is the base for visiting the Perito Moreno glacier. This was one of the most incredible things we have ever seen. The Glacier has two faces one that is 2km long and the other 1.8km long. In parts the glacier wall is 60 meters high above water and 110 metres below water. We went on a boat to get a closer look, you can hear the ice creaking and it makes an amazing sound when the ice falls into the water. It is one of the few glaciers that is not receding. We spent a day wandering around the town, the lake that flows to the glacier borders the town and is home to some pink flamingoes. It is impossible to go anywhere without been followed by at least 5 stray dogs, one of which we named Patch who seemed quite loyal!
After El Calafate we went on a bus ride for 5 hours further south to Puerto Natales (this is now in Chile) , this place felt a little bit more authentic compared to El Calafate. Again we stayed in someones home for a night and then went to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, we stayed in the park for two nights and did several really long walks. The ¨Refugios¨in the park were more plush than the hostels we had been staying in. We met some great people that we hiked and ate dinner with. Small tip, when in the presence of Brazilians and French men do not introduce yourself as Nigel. This invariably leads to Nigel Mansell and then a very lengthy debate about whether Alain Prost was better than Ayrton Senna, this got quite heated at times but was very entertaining for the neutral!!!
Today we arrived 3 hours further south and are now at the most southern part of our travels. We are still in Chile, in Punta Arenas. Arriving on Sunday during siesta time means that not a lot is going on! We have had a walk around and checked out the park, had lunch on a bench with the obligatory stray dog and have been catching up on deleting the crap from our email in boxes. We are hoping to do some kind of tour tomorrow, although the penguins have all gone for the winter, we are not sure where, the Brazilians were trying to convince us they have gone to Brazil but we are not sure!!! We found a thermometer in the town that ranged from +5C to -4C, it is a little above freezing at the moment, it is a good job we have plenty of warm clothes!!
Anyway folks we hope you are all keeping well and looking forward to seeing at least some of you in a few weeks time!
LOL
K&N
xxxx
Well we left B.A a week ago and headed South to Patagonia. This is truly an amazing part of the world. We flew 4 hours south of B.A to El Calafate. Here we stayed in a cheap little hostel, well someones house really. El Calafate is a little like a European ski village and is the base for visiting the Perito Moreno glacier. This was one of the most incredible things we have ever seen. The Glacier has two faces one that is 2km long and the other 1.8km long. In parts the glacier wall is 60 meters high above water and 110 metres below water. We went on a boat to get a closer look, you can hear the ice creaking and it makes an amazing sound when the ice falls into the water. It is one of the few glaciers that is not receding. We spent a day wandering around the town, the lake that flows to the glacier borders the town and is home to some pink flamingoes. It is impossible to go anywhere without been followed by at least 5 stray dogs, one of which we named Patch who seemed quite loyal!
After El Calafate we went on a bus ride for 5 hours further south to Puerto Natales (this is now in Chile) , this place felt a little bit more authentic compared to El Calafate. Again we stayed in someones home for a night and then went to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, we stayed in the park for two nights and did several really long walks. The ¨Refugios¨in the park were more plush than the hostels we had been staying in. We met some great people that we hiked and ate dinner with. Small tip, when in the presence of Brazilians and French men do not introduce yourself as Nigel. This invariably leads to Nigel Mansell and then a very lengthy debate about whether Alain Prost was better than Ayrton Senna, this got quite heated at times but was very entertaining for the neutral!!!
Today we arrived 3 hours further south and are now at the most southern part of our travels. We are still in Chile, in Punta Arenas. Arriving on Sunday during siesta time means that not a lot is going on! We have had a walk around and checked out the park, had lunch on a bench with the obligatory stray dog and have been catching up on deleting the crap from our email in boxes. We are hoping to do some kind of tour tomorrow, although the penguins have all gone for the winter, we are not sure where, the Brazilians were trying to convince us they have gone to Brazil but we are not sure!!! We found a thermometer in the town that ranged from +5C to -4C, it is a little above freezing at the moment, it is a good job we have plenty of warm clothes!!
Anyway folks we hope you are all keeping well and looking forward to seeing at least some of you in a few weeks time!
LOL
K&N
xxxx
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Finally.......
Hola Senors and Senoritas,
I have finally arrived in Argentina, it was a long flight but I arrived feeling pretty good. The city was filled with smoke as the farmers in the North have been burning their fields, it looks like the wind has changed today and I can see blue sky.
Today we go towards the South of Argentina and Patagonia. We hope to go and see the glaciers and maybe a stray penguin or two, we are expecting them to have left by now though.
I have been on Nige`s whistle stop tour of the city. We did a lot of walking around different neighbourhoods, we went to the cemetry where Evita Peron is burried, this is very famous but also a little weird. We went to a local street market where we could have spent plenty of money but decided against trawling more things around with us for nearly 6 weeks. We sat and watched a guitarist play in a park, we were hanging out with all the locals drinking their mate`s. This is a local hot drink, people carry around their thermos, mate powder and special cup and what can only be described as a metal straw, I am yet to try one.
Last night we also had a tango lesson, it was a lot of fun but quite tiring! I think we were getting the hang of it by the end and we only trodd on each others feet a couple of times!!!
Well folks that`s all for now, we have to go catch our flight!
Much love to all
Katie and Nige
xxxx
I have finally arrived in Argentina, it was a long flight but I arrived feeling pretty good. The city was filled with smoke as the farmers in the North have been burning their fields, it looks like the wind has changed today and I can see blue sky.
Today we go towards the South of Argentina and Patagonia. We hope to go and see the glaciers and maybe a stray penguin or two, we are expecting them to have left by now though.
I have been on Nige`s whistle stop tour of the city. We did a lot of walking around different neighbourhoods, we went to the cemetry where Evita Peron is burried, this is very famous but also a little weird. We went to a local street market where we could have spent plenty of money but decided against trawling more things around with us for nearly 6 weeks. We sat and watched a guitarist play in a park, we were hanging out with all the locals drinking their mate`s. This is a local hot drink, people carry around their thermos, mate powder and special cup and what can only be described as a metal straw, I am yet to try one.
Last night we also had a tango lesson, it was a lot of fun but quite tiring! I think we were getting the hang of it by the end and we only trodd on each others feet a couple of times!!!
Well folks that`s all for now, we have to go catch our flight!
Much love to all
Katie and Nige
xxxx
Friday, April 11, 2008
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| Volunteeri |
Ola mi Chico´s!! Well I cannot believe that almost two weeks have already gone, I have learnt to Tango, been to a 5 star restaurant (with 1 star prices), partied at Pasha until 5am (yes 5am!!) popped over to Uruguay for the day, hung out in some very cool neighbourhoods, checked out local cinemas, art galleries & theatres, made lots of new friends from all over the world and most importantly have made lots of very poor children smile!!
This place is so amazing, so individual, so vibrant & so full of colour, every turn on every street brings a new experience. San Telmo market on Sunday was one of the highlights - the live bands performing on the street were fabulous, so talented and passionate, very Argentinian.
Well, Katie arrives on Friday (18th), I have lots of plans for showing her around the city & then on Sunday we fly to Patagonia for the start of our big adventure.
Hasta Luego
Nige
Friday, April 4, 2008
Nige in Buenos Aires!
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| Nige in Buenos Aires |
Hi Guys,
Well, I (Nige) am finally here in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I left my Katie and a sunny San Francisco :( on Monday morning and after three flights, three extensive body searches through security I made it to Buenos Aires 10am Tuesday morning. I was greeted by Lili, Victoria and Simon (the driver) all from L.I.F.E. in their rickety old van. We headed straight to the produce market to get some supplies - this took about 1 1/2 hrs as Lili & Simon just kept disappearing and coming back with bags of veggies. They said the market was very quiet as there was a national farmers strike going on at the moment - no top quality Argentian beef coming into the country!!!
They then took me to the LIFE office where I found out that my room was upstairs - nothing like rolling out of bed into the office!!! I had my induction and then I was straight into the thick of things. Our first afternoon we (the volunteers) all took taxis out to a very poor neighbourhood where we were greeted by lots of smiling children. Once a week the government gives poor families food to cook for the children. At this time LIFE also sends volunteers there to teach the kids to read and write. It was truly amazing, the children have nothing but the clothes on their back but they are so ambitious and willing to learn and are so friendly and caring for eachother. I worked with one little girl Daylma who was very smart & also remembered me when I went to teach there two days later. She ran over to me and gave me a big hug and asked if I could be her teacher!!! What an experience!!!
Today we took a bus, then a train out to the country to teach young children English. Jessica my new little friend was so cute & also very bright!! The trains are so funny, men get on with their stereos and play Dionne Warwick "heartbreaker" and try and sell you the CD - only in South America!!
Tomorrow, more Spanish lessons and a cookery class for the kids, evening am going to an "Argentinian dance club" open until 7am!! & then to a futball match at "La Boca" on Sunday
Can´t wait for Katie to get here and join me, Buenos Aires is such a cool, vibrant city & LIFE is a wonderful organisation I know that she will love it!!
Hasta Luego muchachos
Nige
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
1st stop Buenos Aires, Argentina
Hi Guys,
So I (Nigel) have only a few more days left here in this amazing city! I feel very excited but also a little bit sad as I am really going to miss San Francisco, the crazy wonderful people, the amazing weather - 70degF outside :) and the amazing job that I have had here for just over two years.
We have completed all our chores now so this last weekend is going to be filled with lots of walking around this great city, taking in a few bars, coffee shops and a nice restaurant or two along the way!! I am going to savour every last minute with my fiance and bestfriend, Katie!!
Monday morning I leave Katie and fly on down to Buenos Aires (B. A.), Argentina. I am very excited about this part of the trip as I am going to be volunteering with underprivileged children in impoverished neighbourhoods in and around B.A. The amazing group is called www.lifeargentina.org - please check them out! I will also be living in an apartment in the centre of B. A. for 3 weeks on my own (& taking Spanish lessons everyday) until Katie arrives (Thurs 17th April) and then we have a full weekend of culture and partying together in B. A.
Adios amigos & buenos nochas
Nige
Monday, March 24, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Preparing for the off!
Hello Everyone,
We are 'getting down with the kids' and have set up a blog for our South America travels and life beyond San Francisco. If you are interested in our antics you can log on and find out where we have been, what we did and what we saw.
Today we took our bed and TV to our lovely Dutch friends Ingrid and Robert. They look great in their appartment. Ingrid made us a great Easter Sunday brunch and then we played the 'bean game'-this is an awesome card game with special cards-we really want to get our own set and teach you all how to play!!!!
Yesterday we had a yard sale and sold an array of our prized posessions; well Nige's driver club, some tennis balls and a magnifying glass to name but a few! It was amazing what people would pay 50 cents for. We made a total of $84-not too bad.
So we are now sitting in a pretty empty appartment on an inflatable bed (thanks for loaning it to us I & R); but we are feeling good about what we have managed to get organised so far.
Happy Easter to you all
Love
K & N
xxxxx
We are 'getting down with the kids' and have set up a blog for our South America travels and life beyond San Francisco. If you are interested in our antics you can log on and find out where we have been, what we did and what we saw.
Today we took our bed and TV to our lovely Dutch friends Ingrid and Robert. They look great in their appartment. Ingrid made us a great Easter Sunday brunch and then we played the 'bean game'-this is an awesome card game with special cards-we really want to get our own set and teach you all how to play!!!!
Yesterday we had a yard sale and sold an array of our prized posessions; well Nige's driver club, some tennis balls and a magnifying glass to name but a few! It was amazing what people would pay 50 cents for. We made a total of $84-not too bad.
So we are now sitting in a pretty empty appartment on an inflatable bed (thanks for loaning it to us I & R); but we are feeling good about what we have managed to get organised so far.
Happy Easter to you all
Love
K & N
xxxxx
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