Melbourne May 2007

Having left the Americas behind us we now found ourselves in the land of Oz which will be our home for the foreseeable future. Wanting to ease our way in slowly we paid a visit to our newly married friends Emma and Marcus currently living in Seddon in the Melbourne burbs. It's great to see them after so long!

Melbourne is a great city and what it lacks in beaches and weather it more than makes up for in it's relaxed vibe and continental style culture.

Whilst there we hired a car and drove the Ocean Road along the south coast of Victoria. We stayed at the BIMBI campsite in Otway National Park and saw our first wild Koalas! The next day we continued along the coast and visited the 12 Apostles, a series of 12 rock stacks formed from collapsed arches. We stayed in a caravan park in Woollanbool for the night which had a welcome Jacuzzi spa. In the morning we drove back across Melbourne to the Yarra Valley where we went wine tasting.

Back in Melbourne we managed to get ourselves thrown out of the Workshop bar for moving a table. We also found the bowling alley Strike and had a very drunken game one night.

After 10 days of exploring Melbourne and the surrounding area we said goodbye and got a flight up to the Gold Coast to stay with Mels parents and wait for our things to arrive from the UK.

Melbourne photos here.

The Big Trip: Los Angeles - A Crazy Place

From one crazy place to another.

After a long journey from Buenos Aires including a stop off at Mexico City we finally landed in the smoggy and sprawling city that is Los Angeles.

We were heading straight for Hollywood, the lions den of US culture, and the exact opposite of everything we've come to know and love over the past eight months. An exhorbitant taxi ride saw us pull up at our amazingly located hostel right on Hollywood Boulevard in the middle of all the action.

After settling in, we decide to walk down the boulevard to take in the Hollywood atmosphere. We were not disappointed. The street was full of crazy people, either trying to sell you stuff, doing those silly human statue impressions or dressed up as Yoda or Shrek. And this was during the day! When the sun went down it got a lot more bizarre when the real crazies came out of the woodwork shambling up the boulevard and talking to themselves which a lot of people seem to do here. We escaped into the Mann theatre which was showing 28 Weeks Later, a film about a bunch of virus infected human zombies.

The following day we decided to head over to Universal Studios. However, apart from the tour of the film lots which was interesting it was basically a theme park with some good rides/experiences. All in all though it wasn't really worth the entry fee.

We awoke early the next morning and took the long journey across town to Venice Beach which wasn't half as tacky as I'd expected it to be. We had sushi by the beach and then I got a tattoo.

Back on Hollywood Boulevard we were about to check out some bars when we ran into a guy we'd met the night before called Eddie. Eddie is homeless and wheelchair bound and seems to spend his entire day cruising up and down the boulevard. We ended up hanging out with (sometimes pushing) him and he took us on a mini tour of the local area whilst giving us his fascinating and very sad life story.

On our last day I thought it would be a great idea to go celebrity spotting so off we went to Beverly Hills in the hope we might bump into Brangelina or George. However, there were none to be found. In fact, Beverly Hills was strangely quiet and the shops more like designer facades. We took lunch in an Italian corner cafe where I was sure we would see some but still no luck. We still had one card up our sleeves though, the Beverly Hills Hotel, the place to celeb spot and just a short walk away through mansion lined backstreets. On arrival we found our way to the cocktail lounge, ordered two overpriced Mojitos and waited...

If there were any celebs here they were certainly keeping a low profile and after about an hour of feeling totally out of place we finally gave up and returned back to the hotel. We just had time to spend a couple of hours around the pool at the Roosevelt Hotel before it was time to head off to the airport and onwards to the Land of Oz!

Farewell America!

Pics here.


Stuff
The best budget place to stay in LA by a long way is the Orange Drive Manor Hostel just next door to the Kodak Theatre on Hollwood Bld at just GBP36 a night for a double.
Beauty Bar - a cool hangout and god cocktails
Must do - see a film at the Chinese Mann Theatre - it's where they first showed Star Wars you know.
Must do - take a stroll down Venice beach
Must do - relax around the pool at the Roosevelt Hotel

The Big Trip: Argentina Part 2: Four Go Mad in Buenos Aires

And so onto the final chapter of our Latin American journey, Buenos Aires. It was here that we were to meet up with our mates Si and Damo and take possession of an apartment in the centre of town for a few days.

Mel and I had a couple of days to kill before the others arrived so we got ourselves a cheap hotel and attempted to get a flavour of the city.

Buenos Aires is a huge sprawling city of 13m inhabitants that is more European in feel than South American. I liken it to a fusion of Barcelona and New York. It boasts everything a traveller could ask for from a city, grand avenues, a vibrant cafe culture, bustling cobbled streets, great shopping, fantastic restaurants and a truly 24hr nightlife. Seriously, the people here think nothing of eating out at say, 11pm, before hitting the bars and clubs. This is what we decided to do for my birthday. After a few drinks locally we decided to head down to a recommended steak restaurant called La Brigada in the area known as San Telmo. We noticed a little smile from the waiter as we ordered but thought nothing of it until the steaks arrived to audible gasps from those around us, they were the biggest steaks we'd ever seen! Check em out here! We did manage to get through them but our plans to go out clubbing were knocked on the head as we realized we were too full and bloated to do anything apart from head back to the hotel.

The next day I went to the airport to pick Damo up and after he had settled in to his hostel we wasted no time in checking out some of the local bars, we even found a hilarious Goth bar full of moody teenage drinkers.

The folowing morning Simon arrived and we all went off to check out the apartment we had rented. It was fantastic and would provide us the perfect base for the rest of our time in BA. We just had time to dump our stuff before it was time to experience one of BAs other passions, football! We had organised tickets through Damo's hostel to see the local side Boca Juniors, former club of Maradona, take on Racing, another BA club. We had great seats and the atmosphere was awesome even before the game had started. The legendary Boca band provided a heartbeat of drums and horns throughout the entire 90 minutes not even pausing for the goals. It turned out to be a classic game 2-2 with 3 penalties! See the pics here.

The next day we tried unsuccessfully to find a decent city tour with which to orient ourselves and take in some of the sights but we did manage to find an excellent restaurant with great food and Flamenco performances.

Another one of the must do's in BA is the cemetary in the area of Recoleta. It houses some fantastic mausoleums including that of Eva Peron and appears to be a favoured spot for cats as well.

Damo left a couple of days later to catch up with girlfriend in Chile whilst we decided to take a boat across to Uruguay for the day. This was really just to say we'd been to Uruguay as the port town of Colonia was really only worth 2hrs and the rest was spent sheltering from the pouring rain.

Back in BA, we visited the excellent MALBA, the modern art galley before heading into the trendy Palermo district for Thai lunch. Later on we went to another funky restuarant called Patagonia del Sur only to find it was $200 a head so instead we returned to our favourite La Brigada for more delicious steak before hitting the bars. After many rounds of the local Red Bull equivalent and Vodka we found ourselves wandering the streets of San Telmo at 8.30 the next morning until we eventually found a cafe for breakfast and a much needed break. We rested for the remainder of the day.

Our time in BA and South America was almost at an end but there was just time to spend a couple of days visiting probably the most spectacular attraction that Argentina has to offer, the waterfalls at Iguazu. These are the most impressive falls I have ever seen and extremely photogenic from almost every angle. You cannot visit Argentina without coming here.

Check out the photos here.

Eventually we had to leave this wonderful place and soon we were on a flight back to BA for our last night in South America. We celebrated in style with steak and wine at a great local restaurant La Cabrera. The next morning we said farewell to Simon and packed our bags for the last time before heading for the airport.

Looking back, we have had more amazing experiences than we could possibly have imagined. It seems like a lifetime ago that we were learning the Spanish language beside the lake in Guatemala not knowing what was ahead of us. We've gone back in time to the Mayan civilisation at Tikal, gone in search of the Jaguar in Costa Rica, dived with hammerheads and played with sealions in the incomparable Galapagos and climbed mountains in Ecuador. In Peru we trekked the worlds deepest canyon of Colca, found the condor at the sacred site of Macchu Pichu and journeyed with the Shaman in the Amazonian jungle. We cycled the worlds most dangerous road in Bolivia and then spent the most magical three weeks walking Roy the puma and monkeys at Inti Wari Yassi animal refuge. And to finish we savoured the fine wines and steaks that the world has to offer in Argentina not to mention the incredible waterfalls of Iguazu.

But we have also been robbed twice and in the case of Mel received stitches twice due to hole that shouldn't have been there and a spider monkey that definitely was.

Most of all we've met some lovely friends (and animals) who we shall never forget.

And so, after almost eight months in this extraordinary part of the world, we are finally on our way to Australia, the land of sunshine and koalas!

Just one short stop in Los Angeles to go...

Adios y cuidarte mis amigos !



Stuff:
La Brigada, San Telmo - best steaks in BA!
La Cabrera - also amazing steaks and wine
Millhouse Hostel - a great centrally located hostel
Our apartment 1180 Avenide de Mayo