We've changed continents since our last blog but heres a run down of things we've done in South America since Santiago.

From Santiago we went to Pucon/Puerto Varas which are towns in an area a bit like the lake district that cross Chile and Argentina, so lots of out doors stuff to do. We'd planned to go canyoning here but at the last moment decided not to as our next stop was Bariloche in Argentina which is the mecca of out door activities in the area. (or that was what we thought but it turned out companies in Bariloche didn't start doing canyoning until a month after we left doh!) We did get to do some white water rapids, which although were only grade3/4 were a good laugh and a good taster for ones in New Zealand, and some horse riding around the base of the volcano there. I enjoyed the horse riding more than i thought i would but there needs to be some kind of international law that forbids any horse trotting whilst a man is on the back of it.....its very painful (grapefruits suddenly come to mind for some reason)

Due to the non existence of canyoning in Bariloche we had to go for a plan B and decided to go kayaking around the lakes. A couple from our group were also doing this but as we'd decided late we went with a different company as their one was booked up. The day we did it was pretty windy but luckily the wind was behind us the whole time so made for a leisurely paddle. What we hadn't realised was the other guys were on the same lake but going in the opposite direction. We crossed them halfway looking like they'd been kayaking non stop since the day before (or should i say he did, his girlfriend had given up about 30mins beforehand by the look of it)

From this region we had a killer 24hour bus ride to get over to Buenos Aries. Luckily we we're given a option to upgrade the bus we were traveling on, bigger seats, more leg room, free alcohol (that was the clincher). Most people I've talked to about Beunos Aries have said how much they'd loved the city. Now i don't know whether it was because it was raining most the time we were there or we didn't see the best bits but i wasn't that impressed with it. Maybe you have to live there a month to find its hidden charms but we only had 3 days and we didn't find much. We did get to go and watch Boca Juniors vs Racing though which was amazing. The atmosphere was electric, for an hour before, during the whole game and an hour afterwards everyone was singing. A word of warning...if you stood where we were the away fans were in the tier above you. Various 'gifts' came down from them, all of which weren't welcomed! It might explain why theres photos of us wearing rain jackets in 28C heat.

Next was a quick jaunt through Uruguay which included Colonia, Montivideo and Salto. Nice country but not much to mention about the places. Colonia and Montivideo were nice but after looking around the cites we used the time to chill out. This was more about getting up to the Iguazu falls on the Argentina/Brazil border.

The Iguazu falls were breath taking. As well as viewing the falls from both Brazil and Argentina we also took a helicopter over the top. This gave a great view of the area and also allowed for some cool photos.

The Brazil side gives you a view looking up on the falls and from the Argentinian side you can go along walkways and look down over the falls. From the Argentinian side they run powerboats up to and partly under the falls. This was a great laugh and well worth it, even if you do it to cool down from the humidity as you get soaked. It was mine and our tour guides birthday that evening so we all headed out to get slightly worse for wear...our guide stitched me up with some horrible mega shot combination that the bar staff brought out banging a drum...no choice really but to drink it as everyone in the place was looking at me and the barman had already begun pouring the stuff down the funnel that he'd shoved in my mouth before i could say anything.

Next was a beach stop at Paraty in Brazil. Around this part of the coast theres loads of islands so our group decided to hire our own boat and go swimming, diving, drinking all day. Was a great day and probably the last good bit of sunshine we'd have for the next week. From there we went to Isla Grande, an exotic island near Rio, although not quite so exotic when its overcast and raining and finally onto Rio. Even though the weather wasn't with us there we really liked Rio. We did most of the obvious touristy stuff like Copacabana, Ipanema, Sugar loaf, Christ Redeemer. I would have loved a tour of the Maracana as well but Madonna was performing there so they weren't letting people in (the b*!ch). This was also the last we'd see of our group so we went out on the last night to have a drink or two.

To get out of S.America we had to take 3 flights. From Rio we had to fly to Beunos Aries, wait 4hrs, change flights and fly to Santiago, wait there about 7hrs and then fly onto Auckland. We were extremely glad to get to our hotel in Auckland after that and sleep.