TOUR DE MONDE
In and around World
Yes yes we know, Travel Blogs are somewhere between a little to incredibly self indulgent. But the World Wide Web is to blame, not us.
Anyway sharing is caring, and we care alot.
At the very least, hopefully you´ll find the photographs real puurtty!
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler Raaaabert + Angie
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1
Start. Switzerland.
It started to snow. Time to go. Ho ho ho.
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2
I wish I could Quit(o) you!
Quito is apparently the second highest capital city in the world, but its more likely the second most boring capital in the world, behind Canberra... Continue reading »
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3
Banos (Cotopaxi)
Canyoning and horse riding.
Rob asked Angie if she would like to go canyoning thinking she would say no. Soon we were descending rather lar... Continue reading » -
4
Valley of Longevity (Vilcabamba)
A nice quite town that supposedly has lots of old old people. We personally didnt see that many, maybe they had recently all gone to the big Vilcabamb... Continue reading » -
5
Border crossing
Crossed the border from Ecuador to lovely Peru. Things are looking better already.
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6
Chiclayo and Puerto Eten
We asked around like seasoned backpackers (BP) for the ´new deal´on beaches. Instead of the usual BP haunts we thought we had scored a local secret -... Continue reading » -
7
Sex n´ Drugs n´ Rock n´Raul... (Huanchaco)
Surfer town, with some pretty good waves. Had the longest wave in the world apparently but couldnt be arsed (bothered) to check it out.
Went... Continue reading »
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8
Long ride to Switzerland (ahem the mountains of Huaraz)
Lots of mountains but cold and rainy. Was entirely Rob´s idea as angela has seen enough mountains in her lifetime! We saw our first lama.
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9
Lots of bloody gringos in Lima
Another 10 hour bus trip, this time in a really cheap and crappy bus. Angies motto is ¨travel like a local, eat like a tourist¨ ha ha ha
Elfi... Continue reading »
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10
Las Islas Ballestas
We arrived in Pisco and thought to ourselves ´this place is a dump´. It looked like a warzone. We later found out the place had been destroyed/flat... Continue reading »
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11
Desert oasis
A really nice quite place after the hustle and bustle of the typical Peruvian city. It was great to lie beside the pool, go sandboarding and dune b... Continue reading »
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12
Peruvian Lines!
We arrived at the famous Nasca Lines, but unfortunately there was a multiple fatal plane crash a few days before (Rest In Peace) us so we decided to v... Continue reading » -
13
Ahh Cusco you've done it again
Well what can we say about Cusco that hasnt already been said. Nothing! Ok, it was a pretty beautiful town, at 3000+ metres above sea level, a pret... Continue reading »
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14
Trek to Machu Picchu
As alternative kind of people we chose the "alternative" Inca Trail, plus the fact that it is booked out until May 3014. Four days and three nights... Continue reading »
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15
Man-made islands of straw
After 5 minutes on the floating islands of Puno we were pretty bored, the picture tells all. None-the-less these man-made islands of straw were good t... Continue reading » -
16
Her name was Lola, she was a show girl.......
Yes we know its not that Copacabana, but it still sounds as good.
Our introduction to Bolivia was quite serendipidous. Meaning the sleepy li... Continue reading »
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17
Stinky La Paz
Bolvia is famous for everything ´higher´than almost anywhere else and it gets a bit much after a while. None-the-less we stayed a few days in... Continue reading »
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18
Dschungel Fever
The call of the jungle is loud and had to ignore, so we decided to leave the cold grungy city of La Paz for the greener, tropical town of Rurrenaba... Continue reading »
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19
The mountain that eats men
The lonley planet opens with the words "Potosi shocks", but upon arriving at 4am by bus from Lima we were thinking more along the lines of "Potosi... Continue reading »
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20
Worlds largest salt flaps
The worlds largest salt flat is found in Bolivia so we had to check this out. Wouldn´t you? 3 days in a 4WD and we had our answer - it is very salt... Continue reading »
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21
Dont cry for me Argentina
The truth is..... we only visited Argentina for the passport stamps and to get some famous steak into our stomachs. Also it logistically coinc... Continue reading »
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22
Paraguay
Same story for Paraguay as for Argentina, namely as a conduit between Bolivia and Brazil. Still it was interesting enough if not relatively unremar... Continue reading »
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23
Roar like a waterfall
The timing was perfect. Birthday boy celebrated another year on the planet as we visted the thundering beauty of many waterfalls. Mother natures timin... Continue reading » -
24
Kapital
Yeah the less said about the city that 'looms large over Brazil' the better. Whilst it wasn't that bad it wasnt exactly awesome either.&n... Continue reading »
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25
Blame it on Rio
Ahhh Rio, it really is what they say its like. Sun, sea, skin and capriosas. We arrived at Rio via the massive 'urban jungle' of Sao Paulo which is... Continue reading »
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26
Salvador - truely one of a kind!
The throbbing heart of Brazil must surely be Salvador. It marches to the beat of a different drum, a sound that neither of us had ever experienced... Continue reading »
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27
Oh Oh Olinda
Now Brazil is a LARGE country. We were running out of time so we broke our crossing of the north coast into 2 managable bus trips, only 20-30 hours... Continue reading »
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28
The Amazon River. Vol 1
Now its time to buy a hammock and book a boat for the mystical and mysterious Amazon river. Rob is not so keen on going all the way in a... Continue reading »
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29
Super Santarem Stopover
Four days on the boat and we had to get off. Alter do Chao is like heaven in this case. It was such a sweet little town, smack bang in the middle o... Continue reading »
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30
The Amazon River. Vol 2
A funny (or horrifying) thing occured on the second night (of 3) on the second leg of our Amazon journey. Around 9pm whilst everyone was preparing... Continue reading »
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31
In transit 1
We sped through expensive Venezuela in sub-zero air conditioned buses to get to our next stop - Columbia. No photos.
The journey from pricey... Continue reading »
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32
Cartagena - romance and pirates
The fabled city of Cartagena was one of our milestone cities, as it was our planned exit point from continental South Ameria. When we fin... Continue reading »
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33
Paradise found!
Lets start this story in the middle. After the second day Aussie Captain Mike tells us that this stretch of the Carribbean is the 7th most dangerou... Continue reading »
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34
In transit 2
We bid our sad farewells to Captain Mike and hit the Panama Isthmus by 4wd across the jungle. This was our last chance to spot a three toed sloth m... Continue reading »
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35
LA Woman - Mr Mojo Rising!
LA. After the rawness of South America, the Californian city of celluiod was like a breath of fresh smoggy air. It's hard to convey LA's role&... Continue reading »
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36
Hong Kong - The Fragrant Harbour
As we had both recently been to Bangkok together we chose Hong Kong as our compulory Asian transfer point. Rob was excited to show Angela his... Continue reading »
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37
Shanghai
Shanghai was a bit of an anti-climax. The Hostel we stayed at was pretty nice, but the city itself doesnt really live up to the hype. Paris of the Eas... Continue reading » -
38
Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain)
So we high tailed it out of 'the Paris of the East' for lands more relaxing and less hyped. We stopped first in Huangzhou two hours by fast train f... Continue reading »
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39
Xi'an
The thing about travelling in China is - you have to love trains. So we boarded the first of many overnight sleeper trains to Xi'an. In doing so we... Continue reading »
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40
We love you Pingyao
After the mass tourism that is Xian and Shanghai we slipped comfortably into the bosum of Pingyao. Strait out of imperial China, this little town&n... Continue reading »
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41
Visa Ext. Attempt 1
There isn't much to say about alot of the more mediocre chinese towns we passed through on way to the more interesting places. Taiyuan is definitel... Continue reading »
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42
Datong
We saw our first 6 stack electric power station in Datong! Yes, this is a highlight as Datong aint much to look at.
We went to the Yungang c... Continue reading »
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43
Peking Express
Arriving exactly 3 days before the Olympics finished we timed our run almost perfectly. Most of the hostels we looked at were asking 4-5 times the sta... Continue reading » -
44
Visa Ext. Attempt 2
This time the Visa people turned us away flat. We spent the first and last time in a hard seat on the train from Beijing to Yinchuan, as the sleepers... Continue reading » -
45
Final Attempt at Visa
We know this Visa saga is pretty humdrum in terms of reader excitement so we will skip directly to the juicy details. They were kind enough to ente... Continue reading »
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46
Camel Time
Actually we only caught the train to Jaiyuguan in order to get to DUNHUANG further in the Gobi desert.
It was a lot like Huacachina in Peru... Continue reading »
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47
Panda Time
The drama for this leg of Le Tour De Monde was that we could not get train tickets for Chengdu no matter what we tried. Previously we had already t... Continue reading »
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48
Lhasa at lasta
After many frustrations we were finally on our way to the enchanted lad of Tibet, and in retrospect all the effort was definitely worth it. Tibet i... Continue reading »
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50
Saturday Night Shigatse Fever
We ventured into the heartland of Tibet and we loved it. Somewhere along the way we passed what appeared to be an extinct volcanoe, somesort of psuedo... Continue reading » -
51
Lhatse not 2b confused with Lhasa
Words escape me at this point as well as my memory, but in times like this cliches are always helpful - a picture tells a 1000 words.
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52
The Village People
So we continued our journey overland into the mystery that is Tibet. It was a wonderful experience and we began really getting into it at this stag... Continue reading »
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53
Chomolungma (or Everest for the heathens)
You can't go to Tibet or Nepal and not visit the highest mountain in the world now can you? For reference it's known as Mt Chomolungma to the peopl... Continue reading »
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54
Farewell Tibet
Well all good things must come to an end and it was with much saddness that we ended our tour of this amazing place. We managed to get bogged one l... Continue reading »
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55
Are you going to Kathmandu
We lazed around Kathmandu for a week waiting for our Indian Visa approval. Yup, it takes at least that long. Kathmandu is a pretty cool city, lots of... Continue reading » -
56
Hello to Namaste
Well we crossed the border into Kodari and from there we caught a local bus to Kathmandu.... luckily our wily, well honed traveler instincts (blah)... Continue reading »
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57
Hurts so good!
During our wait for the Indian visa we looked at several options for trekking in Nepal. We decided upon the Annapurna Sanctuary - a 9 to 10 day wal... Continue reading »
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58
A Passage to India
As mentioned previously, the transport situation was getting pretty bleak - the closer to India we got the worse the buses and integrity of ticket... Continue reading »
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59
Picking up Mumsy
New Delhi was our rendezvous point for Ruth, Angela's mum. After nearly 8 months on the road together - just the 2 of us, it was nice for a 3rd mem... Continue reading »
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60
Our Spiritual Awakening
Everything you've heard is true. Every cliche suddenly makes sense in Varanasi. The spiritual heartland of India where the sacred Ganges River kisses... Continue reading »
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