70c wind camera...70c quality

salt lake, Penong, South australia

Nullabor Plain, Middle of Nowhere, Australia

karate kids, Japan (I in orange hat)

local fishing boats, Huanchaco, Peru

Mountains, Vilcabamba, Ecuador

(just to prove that i did some climbing, actually this photo doesnt prove anything...)

street action, Piura, Peru

Sigsig, ecuador. The make grass hats here.

Train 'the devils nose' Riobamba, Ecuador (you go up that mountain in the middle)

The photo you were all waiting for: 80's retro wetsuit

with Sambo, Chicama, Peru

One of the longest breaks in the world, Chicama, Peru

On a good day they reckon you can get 4 minute rides.

Punta Hermosa, South of Lima. Peru

No drink driving.

Boat builders. Chicama, Peru

2 months late...

hey kids,

hope this post finds you well. Im not sure what you know, but if you still think or have been told that im somewhere in the south american jungles chasing something around then you are wrong. I have actually been home for almost 2 months. I have been procrastinating this blog for ages, and have been doing a few things out of internet reach as well, but this arvo i find myself with a few minutes to let you out of the darkness. (unless you already knew i was back...)

(As this happened probably 3 months ago, i cant promise that all details are correct. Ill try my best but please be aware that some names, dates, locations and events may not be 100% correct.)

I eventually got on the right bus up to Piura, one of the northern most towns on the peruvian coast and switched onto another bus for guayaquil, Ecuador and the straight onto another bus for Montanita a surf town on the coast. When i did my rough time estimation from Peru, i thought no more than 15 hours, but once again i was wrong and i ended up crusing in not far off midnight almost 24 hours later, nice. Montanita is pretty well known to backpackers, but it was the off season so there was a comfortable amount of people around. Found a cool backpackers (theres 60 in the town of about 80 buildings) and was pretty much just living with a family there, i was the only person staying in their rooms. The water was warm, like 23 or 24degrees, but the waves were small as, like 23 or 24cm. So i decided to just hang out as it was cheap and eventually sell my board and get into the jungle for some exploring. I made up some "se vende" signs to try and hock off my board and stuck them round the place, but didnt have much luck; but i wasnt concerned as it was a nice place to hang out. Met some cool dudes and enjoyed hanging out with the family (who seemed to be watching "zohan" everytime i went past the tv room). There was a great soccer tournament on, including a reggae band playing during the entire game with an announcer screaming over the music like his life depended on it. The pitch was an Ecuadorian classic made up with a base of crusher dust and a top layer of gravel(with grass half a metre tall in the corners only (where no one actually runs). The soccer was great and the atmosphere even better, and when the games had stopped the band jumped on the back of a truck and played continuously till 3am while driving around the town. Nice. After 3 days i was keen to move on, needed to get rid of my board (i had just learned that i couldnt take a surfy home on BA flights) so a made a "se vende" (for sale) sign and hung it over my board bag and walked around the streets, 2 mins later a Argentinian dude bought it ( i actually made $15, yeew!) 2 hours later i was on a a bus back to guayaquil. (after buying 4 wooden spinning tops, and meeting a texan spearfisherman in need a wetsuit; what a conincidence i still had my 80's retro suit. He was happy as he wouldnt freeze in the depths of the ocean, and i was happy as id helped keep 80's fashion alive and started a free communal wetsuit group, with that one wetsuit hopefully passed around between backpackers for years to come...)

Another overnight bus trip bought me to Banos (meaning baths) up in the mountains, it was a beautiful setting with the town situated in the valley with towering mountains and even a volcano surrounding on all sides. I found 'hotel las vegas' and got a room for $3, which included a bed and a light. The cold shower and toliet were outside. Spent the day exploring the town, with heaps of cool little shops and markets etc. Ate awesome breakfast at a market stall for $1 and just cruised around. Met some cool Algerian boys (also staying at las vegas) and hung out with them for a while, they even gave me a cuban cigar, i dont smoke but a cool gesture. The next day, was supposed to go hiking with the fellas, but couldnt find them, so just set off by myself. Met Alison, a cool american chick halfway up the mountain and hiked around and got lost and searched for the volcano (turned out we were looking at the wrong mountain) met a few cool other people up there hiking around including 3 dudes from norway searching for an alleged man who lives in a tree house and monitors the volcano activity (saw them the next day at the bus terminal and they hadnt found the treehouse man). That night went down to the hot baths and chilled out. Theres a whole range of pools ranging in temperature from 6 degrees to 45 degrees. Met some cool backpackers and locals, you can spot the gringos a mile away. The next night Alison was due to bus out to vilcabamba in the south, i went to the hot springs. I came back to vegas and the dude said " your friend Alison is here". It turned out a bit hectic for her getting onto the bus, and a guy had helped her put her bag in the storage underneath, closed it and she jumped on. It turned out he must have come back and stole her bag, so she returned to banos to sort some stuff out. So that was pretty unfortunate situation for her, but im sure its turned into a good travel story by now... Later we hired a dodgey chinese one-speed quad bike and zoomed up the volcano road about 10 mins before dark, managed to get a glimpse of it not totally covered by cloud. We also found the treehouse man. What a find! Rode back in the dark, almost hit 2 kids playing on the road. (the light shone about 1.5m in front of the bike)

A few days later i jumped on a bus to riobamba, and hopped on a train called 'the devils nose' apparently one of the steepest rails in the world, where the train uses a series of switchbacks to descend. (goes forward, then reverses on a different track, then forward again) To be honest, i didnt find it overly exciting and a bit lame. Made it down to vilcabamba on my journey south back down to peru. Another town simliar to Banos, surrounded by mountains and really beautiful, had a great time hiking and meeting people. One day i set out for a hike at 8am, and ended up just chatting to people along the way (including sharing a papaya in the main square, helping push a bogged car out of mud, and chatting to a local cowboy) by 4pm i still hadnt made it to the start of the trail...i ended up giving it a miss.

Vilcabamba was my last real stop in South america and my long, fast trip home began. I had 2 overnight busses down to lima, one night rest there, then 2 overnight flights to london. I had planned to spend 10 hours in new york running around and looking at stuff, but ended up missing a connection, so enjoyed my 10 hours inside an airport terminal instead. I only just made my flight out of jfk, new york by 45 mins.

Spent 5 nights in England, and was able to spend them all in different locations. It was great catching up with mates from years back, most of whom i hadnt seen for years. It was ace! I was pretty stuffed tearing round the country, but its always worth it when you get to hang out with some cool cats. Shipped out of Heathrow to Narita, Japan Via Helsinki. Only spent 1 night there, stayed in a rad hostel and spent my 2 days, riding bikes around, trying to speak to locals with charade actions, and eating noodles and tofu (as it was all i could afford) Met some rad people there and really enjoyed the hospitality there, the people are so nice (but then again, maybe they were impressed by my fluent 2 words of Japanese, konichiwa & origato (fluent in speech only)).

And it was then on the plane to Brisbane, only 5 people knew i was coming home. Was met by Bro ben and Jasmine (girlfriend) and shot up the coast where there was a surprise party organised for my mums 50th birthday. I managed to sneak up and surprise her, she screamed right in my ear for about 5 minutes. (About half way through i was wondering if i had made the right decision to go for the surprise option)

So its been nice, being home for the summer with the family and enjoy some nice sun and surf (as opposed to the english winter) Since ive been back, ive gone for a road trip down to sydney, and have just come back from a 3 week road trip across to Perth (the other the side of the country) we clocked up almost 7000km and it was rad seeing a bit more of my own country, as i seem to do most of my sightseeing overseas.

So theres a bit of a rough overview of my last few months, it all seems very rushed and a bit random. Heaps more happened then what ive been able to bash out on the keyboard, tons more stories, heaps more cool people, more locations. For now, ill be hanging in Aus for at least 8 months as im going to attempt uni this year, but still plan to get out in the long summer break (savings allowing). I know what your thinking, and yes you're right. If im going to uni i'd better learn how to spell, punctuate, and write proper paragragh, not least a sentence. Your spot on.
(I have an aunty whos an english teacher, she said it made her physically sick to read my blog).

Thanks for reading, until next time. take it easy :) andy

ps. ill chuck some pictures from my $0.70 camera up soon.

Travelling with the third man...

hey kids,

Hope this note finds you well. Life is great over this side of the world, happy, healthy and heading north towards the sunshine and warm water...yeeew!

Jasmine flew out of Lima to New York a few weeks ago. I was pretty keen to catch a bus to the airport and save about 10 times the amount of taking a taxi. Only problem was that when your looking for a certain bus it never seems to come. We ended up taking 2 and switching halfway, a great plan as it worked out cheap; but also not so great as it took ages and cut Jasmines quality airport time down a bit. She ended up having a few complications with her ticket (ask her) and only ended up resolving them 30 minutes before departure time. Then i saw her being pushed out in a wheelchair(thought she may have stacked it down some stairs or something), but no it turns out it was a time saving ploy to rush her through security and immigration. Thats fantastic...think i might leave my next run to the airport a bit late and see how i go...

Again the lone ranger, i set out to find a surfboard and then some waves. Spent 2 days going to EVERY surf shop in Lima, struggled to find what i was looking for, and boards over here are really expensive and locally made ones were pretty poor quality. Was pretty keen to get out of Lima (read previous post) and had arranged to meet sambo (read a few posts ago) 3 months late in a surf spot "punta hermosa", 45 mins south of Lima. Eventually made it to a surf house and met some cool dudes, one of which was selling a good board for 100 bucks (with a broken fin plug) pretty much because he was too lazy to fix it. The repair ended up costing 10 bucks. You little ripper! Also managed to buy an oldschool 70´s wetsuit, which seemed like a bargain at the time, but upon actually wearing it, i realised it had left all its warmth in the 70´s.

Sambo rocked up a few days later and we have spent a great (almost) 2 weeks, heading north to various surf spots on the Peruvian coast.We crammed both boards into one bag, but usually still get hit with paying for an extra person, for the room in the bus it takes up. So we now have a new friend we have to take everywhere with us "the third man". We also have to carry him everywhere, were paying for him, the least he could do is carry his own weight. We have surfed Punta Hermosa, Huanchaco, Chicama (one of the longest waves in the world, when its cranking you can ride for up to 4 minutes - look it up on google images) and pacasmayo. We havnt had the best swells, but still got a some ripper waves. Waves here are a lot more tricky than the ones i am used to in Aus. Heaps of rocks, you either have to walk over them (always with barnacles) paddle around them, surf around them, try not to get dumped on your head on them. There is usually a massive current (especially the points) so you are constantly paddling, but with a water temperature of about 16 degrees( and dodge wettie) you need it to stay warm. It had been 8 months since my last surf in Aus, and to be honest im a bit rusty and dont quite have the best paddling fitness, but have still had a great time and look forward to coming back in a few years (when im in my prime) and shredding some more...

My 70´s wetsuit also had a 70´s plastic zipper, which decided to pack it in one day. All the teeth were slowly falling out and it was only just hanging together when it just carked it. There are quite a few strong industries in Peru, wetsuit zipper repairs isnt one of them. Eventually wound up at a shoe repair man, who only had a small size zipper (like what you would need for a purse) not the tough type i would need for my extreme sporting action. This is cool... he went around the back of the shop and came out with his oldschool sports jacket (containing robust zip) and offered to cut it off his jacket and sew it onto my wetsuit. I didnt want to ruin his jacket, but he insisted. So one hour later i rock up to find a hardcore metal zipper perfectly stitched onto my wetsuit. What a legend! and how much did that set me back?... $3. ACE!

Have met some great characters on my travels from Pot smoking Brazilians(and pretty much every surfy dude) right up to a surgeon from Florida. The Surgeon said the place we were staying was the worst place he had been; it was the best hotel i have stayed in, in all of South America...serious. Sam mentioned that we were living on $10 a day (don´t worry, it buys a lot mum) he said he was spending us$10,000 on his 2 week holiday. We met him at Chicama, the long wave, usually you walk out to the point about 1km, then catch waves back to the start(also mega strong current) then walk back to the point again. Not Doc. He hired a private boat to pick him up at the end and drive him back out to point. Nice. haha. Total other end of the scale to the way I am travelling. To be honest, Ill be thankful if i get back to aus with $10 in my pocket. Thats one of the things i love about travelling, the variety of places you visit and the variety of people you meet, from all walks of life, all religious backgrounds, all financial levels etc. Love it.

(Doc also got his surfboard caught in a finshing net. Funny as. Theres some things money can´t buy! Even the Doc couldn´t afford that...haha)

Anyways my quest for sunshine and warm water was off to a rough start. I was supposed to be in ecuador 2 days ago, but am still 10 hours south of the border. I had a ticket up there, then i was waiting for the bus, and it turns out there wasnt even a bus there. The guy a bought a ticket off was about 75, so maybe he had his times mixed up. Anyways second attempt is tonight, im heading up to the border, and Sambo is heading south to cusco. Righto, thats about up to date, so many small cool things have happened, i dont have time to mention the here, but thats a snapshot of what ive been up too in the last few weeks. I shall send a new report from the country of the equator in a couple of weeks. Take care kiddos. andy

Digital photos (from jasmine)

Monkey country, Satipo, Peru

Dang! Knew i shouldn´t have chosen to travel by horse and cart.

footpath and photocopy shop, La Paz, Bolivia.

Old mate. Cool beard. Somewhere in Peru.


Rambo chikens, best (and toughest) chiken around. Satipo, Peru.

$2 gets you $2 worth of quality.
( not including anything other than a thin straw mattress on wooden slats)

La union, a.k.a middle of nowhere, Peru.

La Paz, Boliva.

Tourists in Cusco. (notice ipod)

No new photos...

From thew moment i landed in Lima, i hated it. Im not a bit city person at the best of times, but Lima especially i didnt like. I never wanted to go back there, unless i absolutely had too. One of my good mates Jazz flew down from Mexico - to Lima. So naturally i went there to meet her. I still didnt like Lima. One day we were searching for a random market, and walked down some wrong streets. We got mugged twice, in 5 minutes. Not that i needed another reason to dislike Lima, but i had two more in a very short space of time. It was a very surreal experience, all happened in slow motion( like they always say) we were walking along and then noticed 5 teenagers walking quite close behind us...im thinking this isnt great. Then all of a sudden i felt this hand slam into my right pocket and another one fumbling for my left. They werent overly strong and i was able to kind of push them off and of fend them away, but with 5 pairs of hands against one, they eventually grabbed my camera(which was looped around my belt) and were able to snap the strap off and then they darted over the highway and out of sight. Dang! thought that strap was a bit stronger...very weird experience...other then shoving them away-kind of like an NFL defensive linesmen- i didnt fight back very severely. I know i can kick pretty hard, and i guess i could punch pretty hard as well...and i remember thinking i should just smash this guy in the head, but i didnt. And im still not sure why...surely you have the right to fight back if you are attacked...Another group came back to try again, managed to fend them off much better, but still lost my vans adventure hat. At the end of the day neither of us got hurt and thats the main thing... so sorry guys, all those photos that i promised...wont be ending up here. But if you scout thru a few pawn shops in Lima you might just find a 4gb memory card with a few of andys snaps on it...

fear not, i have replaced my camera with an old school film camera i got from a flea market, cost me 85cents...maybe dont hold your breath for photos from that either...

So ive been travelling with Jasmine for almost a month, having some great times, went north of lima to huaraz, and then have come south, the inland route and hardly seen any gringos. ACE! had some great bus rides one of the best was 137km and we did it in a tick under 8 hours (work that out folks, thats less than 20km/h ) we were sitting in the luggage section and the road was rough dirt the whole way. kind of like having a jackhammer as suspension. The whole way. There were a few corners that were a bit sharp for the bus, so old mate had to do a 3 or 5 point turn to make it around. One corner he had the nose hanging over a 50m cliff and he had to get a passenger to run out and put rocks under the front tires to prevent any rolling over that cliff while he attempted to reverse back. Once we even had to all get off the bus while the driver negotiated a massive ditch, with rock wall one side and cliff the otherside. We have spent almost 100hours on these types of busses and roads...so far, we still have a week to go.

Stayed in some great places, including a concrete garden shed ( hospedaje) at a bus station. No shower, no toilet (included a candle) and a nail and piece of wire as the lock. Nice. cant expect too much for $1.65 a night. It was actually Jasmines birthday that night, lucky i organised the penthouse suite. (hey, at least we had a candle for light)

Travelled south down through Satipo, Cuzco, Lake Titicaca and are now in La Paz Bolivia. Went to the Uros Islands at Titicaca, they are islands made of reeds and they just float around, about and hour off the coast. I heard there was an SDA church there as well (it floats) but our boat didnt stop at that island, so we hired this dude sitting there to row us in his little boat over there, it was great we got in front of the congregation and said g"day to them all on behalf of the SDAs in Australia, they loved it, and so did we. Great experience. Fell in the water both times, trying to get in and out of old mates little boat...

Tried teaching Jasmine to ride a motorbike in Satipo. She was doing great, until we got the wobbles and almost went off a 15m cliff into the river. luckily there was a mound of dirt we got stuck on and were able to see-saw on long enough to get under control and not end up having to buy old mate a new bike.

Now in La Paz, Bolivia. About 4 weeks ago they were on the brink of a civil war, but i think the situation has calmed down a bit since then - at least it looks like it has. Althought yesterday they was a peacefully demonstration march down the main street. about 100,000 maybe even more, im not joking. But it has been peaceful. Its a cool city here. Ill show you photos one day, but youll have to come round to see them.

Anyways rough plan is to drop Jasmine off back in Lima next wednesday (she flies out, im not just leaving her...) then surf up the coast to eucador / columbia and chill out for a while. Thats the plan, we´ll see how i go. heaps more cool stuff has happened but im tried of typing ill tell you later. hope this note find you well. take it easy kids. andy

conjugating in my sleep...

the title sounds sus, but its not...

hi kids, how are you? Hope this find you well. I havnt really moved very far since my last writing, im currently living in Salta, Northern Argentina. Since last time, ive just hooned up north, passing many cool rock formations and much cactus action. The scenery is rad up here, its pretty much total arid desert, heaps of shrubs, cactus and rocks, rocks, rocks. When i first pulled into Salta it was 35 degrees and dry. A really nice change form down south where i had to wear my snowboard pants for weeks straight...

So i got here just before the weekend 3 weeks ago, and stayed in a hostel for a couple of days...in my dorm there was only one other guy, from France...i used some of my spare time to repair a hole in my jeans, at which time french mate came back, and he too had a whole in his shorts, so we had a great time doing a bit of sewing, comparing techniques etc... great fun...

Yeah, went to church on Saturday, and depsite not being able to speak the best spanish, met some really cool people. Got invited home for lunch by a young married couple who could speak about 10 words of english between them, and i have ended up living at the blokes mums place every since. Its heaps of fun, and a great way to learn Spanish, at first, it was really difficult as all of them spoke pretty much no english and I very little spanish...but they were making such an effort to learn english to make it easier for me...funny as...i came back from an arvo run and they were all crowded around this massive spanish-english dictionary trying to learn words...cool as. I have since put bits of paper all round the house with the translations on them so we are all learning together... fun times...spanish is a cool language but its quite different to english in many ways...for example, each verb has about 40 different forms depending on who your talking about and in what tense...thus the challenge is conjugating the right verb for the right instance...i conjugate verbs in my dreams...

The family i live with, live right on the outskirts of the city, in the lower income area. I increasingly find that the people who have the least in terms of material possesions are almost always heaps more generous than the rich. The house we live in is all concrete, about a foot thick...the only wood are the door and window frames...the rest solid concrete. No carpet, rugs or anything. The house is always cold. Its like a big concrete fridge, even when its 30 degrees outside you have to wear a jumper inside. Really great family, and they wont let me pay board or buy anything...so i have to get up early and race the mum to the markets and buy everything before her...i have recently repaired an old bike from under the house, so of late i have been winning the early morning market races...( a got a puncture this arvo..might be a battle in the morning...)

The family insist i stay here for my birthday, and they have some sort custom in which everyone in the house pulls the ears of the birthday person for the age they are turning...they love this joke and talk about it almost every day at some point..they cant wait...i told them im going to sneak out and run away the night before...

so ill stay here about another week before heading north too meet up with jazz and for a change of scenery. Its been heaps of fun here, i am sort of a local celebrity here, with kids coming and crowding around my internet booth staring at the strange language i type in, or waiting till i finish and mobbing me to play football with them...(theyre good)...so ive made heaps of friends in age range of 6-10....(and even my own age as well!) fun times!...anyways hope this post finds you well. take care kids. andy

fotos de sudamerica.

mtv midnight moshing

(to drown out disturbing neighbour noise @ dodge hotel/brothel)

Coquimbo, Chile - and the mountains 470km away, where we were supposed to be snowboarding.

I get asked to model all the time; just this once i gave in.


The andes: Chilean & Argentinian border

...and andes again.

Happy family: Buenos Aires

Punk is dead.

(...for those who couldnt work it out, i know its kind of a tricky catchphrase.)

Jumping on rocks. Tandil, Argentina

Man on a horse. For Ruth. Tandil, Argentina.

Fully loaded. Argentina

25cent Fair fairy Floss. Posada. Argentina

Iguazu Falls. Arg.

molly & ninja kid. Sao Paulo.

doll graffiti. Brazil

My name is earl. Saquarema, Brazil.

The three kids. Rio.

The three amigos, awaiting departure. Lima Airport. (i was supposed to travel with sambo for close to 2 months, but lost him after 3 days and havnt seen him since.)

andy stranded by andes...

hi guys...

hope this post finds you well, i have quite a lot to catch up on, but not a lot of time. We left Buenos Aires a few weeks back. We were just going to jump on the bus like normal and head west towards the Chilean border - but i heard from a guy that you could catch a train to cordoba - roughly in the same direction - and it was really cheap. sweet as. Down at the train station, we found that it would cost us only 25 pesos (8 bucks) for the journey, instead of 90 on the bus..cool...but that was for the cheapest seats. we had to walk down to our carriage at the front of the train, at first the seats looked really good through the window...awesome...until we got down to our cheap carriage...and it was a bench seat, like those ones in old school buses...a wooden seat with about 5mm of padding, surrounded by a metal rail, unable to recline- always at 90 degree angle. Those buses that are uncomfortable to ride on for 15 minutes...it took us 17 hours to get to cordoba... apparently 7 hours longer then the bus... i didnt tell camilla that...

Had a quick look around cordoba for a day, then another overnight bus for mendoza...were going to stay in Mendoza for a day or two, but i heard about a cool little ski resort right on the slopes and thought we should have a look, so jumped straight on a bus for Los Penitentes. Fortunately, we were able to find some accommodation, despite everyone saying we wouldnt...it was in this little wood hut about 50 square metres, and had 26 peple crammed in...everywhere, sofas, floor, under the stairs...but was quite good fun...went out and mucked around in the snow till the end of the day. it was cold...about -10. Was dissapointed to find that it cost about the same as europe to snowboard there...dang. The plan was to continue over the andes the next day to Santiago, and ski some of the slopes close to there...(they have 4 awesome resorts less than an hour from the city) but the weather had other ideas...that night there was a huge blizzard for about 15 hours and we woke to the news that the pass would be closed for at least 4 days(it can be closed for up to a month in extreme conditions) we were told we would be lucky if we could get anywhere at all...for 4 days... wasnt overly keen to be stuck in the little hut for another 4 days... luckily in the arvo someone came in yelling that there was a bus back to mendoza outside...yeeew...we ran for that bus and are glad we did...as that road as well got blocked by an avalanche the next day...so we were back in mendoza to wait for a while. Found a cool hostel, with cool people, I was cooking on the stove next to a chef from new york, who was giving me some quality tips on my spaghetti and veggie recipe i am trying to perfect. He said it looked good, but didnt taste it... spent the next few days cruising around and doing some day trips to the surrounding mountains and lakes...the scenery in so beautiful...hopefully ill have some photos soon...

mmm... so, disappointed that we didnt get to board in Argentina, we got on the net and searched for accom to book in advance for chile. all the resort places were full, and expensive anyway. the hostel website, reccommended a place called Coquimbo, on the outskirts of Santiago 21km away from the slopes...ripper. lock it in... We eventually got out of Mendoza on the bus to santiago, spent 5 hours at the border trying to get thru...along with the rest of the backlogged traffic...the line of trucks was, no joke, about 10km long...pulled into santi about 11pm and just crashed in the city with a few aussie dudes we met on the bus... next day jumped up to head out to the place we booked...at the bus station they guy said it leaves in 1 minute... so we just ran and jumped on the bus, no ticket, nothing. After about 30mins, we thought we should be almost there now...its only 20km away...then we bought tickets and they were very expensive for that trip...then looking out the window saw the beach...the mountains arnt on the beach...we thought we might as well see where we are going...the end result was, we ended up 470km north of Santiago in a smallish port town of Coquimbo. Random, but i really liked it and had a great time there, stayed in a massive french mansion, almost 200 years old, which had been converted into a hostel. There werent many people, there but they were all cool as...

Didnt end up going snowboarding after all, after all our efforts...i even bought snowboard pants...looks like ill have to sort out a trip to japan... Camilla flew out 2 days ago, so andy is back to being a lone ranger...both hostels i have stayed at since, i have been the only person staying...usually they are a good place to meet people..haha...so im in San Juan, Argentina at the moment, and heading north towards Bolivia. Having heaps of fun, Argentina is a great country, really cool landscapes...really varied, Like Australia. Have been meeting some really cool people(apart from last 2 hostels...haha), my spanish is still very average, i can get where i want to go quite well (except booking hostels on the net, which i have never been a fan of...) but my conversational skills are still quite poor. Hoping to get away from english speakers in Bolivia and do some volunteer work. well see how that works out. Ill keep you posted...ok thats enought computer, im going to explore San Juan...woohoo! andy

beaches, brothels & boca...

ps. i love travelling... i have just spent 20 minutes speaking with an argentinian guy...he spoke about 7 words or english (not including his 1-10 numbers) i speak a few more in spanish...but with a combination of charades, pictures, maps and the 20 words or so we both understand we managed to understand each other...love it. he will also be in bolivia in a few weeks, so i told him i will practice my spanish on the bus, and we'll meet up for a good chat...he was stoked...

Don't worry mum, i didnt actually go to a brothel. We got into sao paulo, brazil at about midnight, and walked around trying to find a reccommended hostel for half an hour. we decided to just jump in a taxi...but he took us back about 100m away from where we had started walking to some random dodge looking hotel. couldn't be bothered getting to the other place so just booked in for the night. few minutes later (and repeatedly through the night) our neighbours made some interesting and quite disturbing noises...yeah...luckily we had pay tv and were able to drown it out by cranking mtv...

i seem to be writing in reverse chronological ( not sure if thats spelt right...i had to write a word out for a spanish speaker last night, and realised how rubbish at spelling i have become...or always was) order we spent 10 days in brazil. flew into rio - pretty much just chilled on the beach and relaxed a bit, went to a futbol game. fluminese vs vasco. man it was sweet as, you cannot believe the passion these guys have for the sport - it is pretty much life or death, the game ended 3-3 heaps of action, fans going ape...seriously reminded me of a zoo, an out of control zoo. The fans, sing, yell and scream. Slap, punch and break chairs. slap, punch and break billboards and signs. Light flares, fires and seats...man its is awesome, the best atmosphere. Definitely the highlight of rio for me.

Then we moved onto saquarema for the weekend, a quiet sleepy surf town 2 hours north east of rio. pretty chilled out, not alot to do rather then hit the beach and cruise around.

An overnight bus trip took us to sao paulo, home to 12 million people, went up a skyscraper and all you can see is buildings and house disappearing into the smog, absolutely massive...stayed for 3 days and just cruised around, wasnt really to interested in the city, but found some things to do. most notable being the portugese museum, the only one in the world...must see in SP...(i didnt understand a word, but the pictures were ace.) Heaps of homeless people. ate cereal from the box, just tip the milk in. no bowl, no worries....

From SP another overnight bus took us to the iguazu falls on the border between paraguay, argentina and brazil. Small problem at the border, the girl stamped me into brazil again, instead of out. she copped a bit from her supervisor as well, poor kid. got that sorted and jumped on a local bus to the argentine side and started chatting to some british boys...started talking about england, and as things were revealed one guy worked at the same gym i did 2 years before and the other guys played in the band at newbold college church ( i remembered his face from somewhere...and they knew a few aussies i know as well) random, on a tiny local bus on the border of argentina... couldnt believe it... both sevvies as well...so cool....

did i mention i love travelling...thats another one of the reasons( and the main one) the people you meet...

iguazu falls are mad...in total 3km long an dup to 80m high...awesome. look it up on google images, that will explain everything...i cant put my pics on here yet...

5 hours down the road we stopped at san ignacio mini, home of some jesuit ruins...awesome... actually while youve got google open, just look that up as well- itll save me from explaining a lot. and if you see the paddock behind the ruins... we jumped the fence and camped there for the night, just for something to do...it was freezing and the ground was hard as...so kind of like sleeping in a fridge, a fridge with a concrete floor...

We are now in buenos aires, Argentina. its an awesome city(and i dont even like cities) , so much to do, but i am running out of time - today went to these massive street markets, about 1km long heaps of antiques and artists who sell their work, so heaps of original and cool work for sale...if only i had heaps of money and didnt have to carry everything on my back for the next few months...also saw another futbol game this arvo. boca juniors vs. jujuy. it was the first game of the season so all the fans were keen as, and had a few months of pent up yelling and singing to get out. the atmosphere was awesome. we were in the locals stand, the cheapest ( and dangerous, we were told) and you stand up and sing, yell, chant for the full 90 minutes...sweet as...they even have a full band in there leading all the chants...had a great time boca won 4-0 and all was sweet despite all the warnings recieved...

anyways, thats about 1% of what ive done, and not even the best - just what came to my head now - having a ripper time, meeting awesome people, and seeing some really cool places and experiencing some sweet culture (how good is my adjective range...ha) jumping on an overnight bus tomorrow to not sure where, but were making our way west towards chile where will get in a week of snowboarding before camilla jets home. hope all is well where you are. take it easy. andy