The Mammoth trip to South America

Flying over Brazil
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Today was the day our new Zealand leg came to an end. It was a strange last few days in Auckland as we had mixed feelings about many things. We were sad the guys had gone back home and were sad New Zealand was nearly over, we were running out of money, we were forced to stay in Auckland waiting around and just counting down the days and there was a general felling that we all could have called it a day there and gone home. However, we had South America to come meaning we were very excited but also anxious. It seems that South America isn´t on the usual travellers route (normally Australia, Thailand, New Zealand, etc) so the people we had told we were going there seemed pretty jealous...it made it a bit more exciting i suppose and got us in the mood for it slightly more.

Sleeping rough for the night...
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We had an interesting journey ahead of us and and a fair bit of preparation was needed; buying any clothes, books, accessories, walking boots and the like. We had a good last night with Ben, Max, Billy, Simon and Claire (the four lads we met in Thailand and have continued to bump into throughout tour and Claire who we met in Christchurch), and woke early the next day to check out.

Posted by Adam

We jumped on the shuttle bus to the airport at 2:00pm on Monday 28th, all packed and ready to go. No need for shopping for tourist tat, we could´t afford the space in our bags for any of that. Enjoying the films on board, the free beer and a good sleep we arrived in Chile´s capital, Santiago at 13:15 on Monday 28th...45 minutes before we jumped on the shuttle bus in Auckland! Passing the Date Line east of New Zealand really gave us something to think about when setting our watches and meant of course, we had Monday 28th May twice.

Playing about in the Airport
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We took a bus into Santiago to check out the city, a very busy place with a good mix of old and new architecture. We didn´t really have long there as we thought it was best to avoid being out and about in the dark and we had to catch a bus back to the airport. Our flight was early the next day, at 7:45 so we chose to sleep in the airport. We found a large area upstairs that was home to a load of the old check-in desks and old bench seats. We made the best of that situation and slept there for the night, hidden away from anyone who came near. It was actually a decent nights sleep; the other three on dissused bench seats and me on some polystyrene i found tucked away. And it was free!

Driving through Chile
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We caught the plane to Buenos Airies, which was late, landing at 12:20, meaning we had to be rushed by a British Airways rep to our next plane, a 747 which was to take us to Sao Paulo. Total time spent in the Capital of Argentina...about 4 minutes.

Upon landing in Sao Paulo, Brazil, our fourth country in two days we found out our bags weren´t there. We spoke to the B.A. guy who checked his screen and spoke on the phone only to tell us our bags were still in Argentina. That was a probem. As we were sorting out the paper work and trying to think where we could stay for the night he received a call that told him our bags actually where here and will be with us shortly. Sure enough, about a minute later they came through the hatch. It was very odd, none of us knew what just happened but we were glad we had our bags back anyway.

We had the prospect of a 6 hour coach journey to take us to Rio to look forward to now. We had been in transit for 3 days (although it was technicaly only 1 day after we left Auckland(?!)) and did not fancy a coach journey in any way. We booked a flight to Rio instead and took a shuttle bus to a hotel somewhere in Sao Paulo. We freshened up in the best showers we´ve had all tour and after ordering a pizza to the room enjoyed a good nights sleep.

Awaking strangely fresh at half  6 (Wednesday 30th) in the morning we grabbed some breakfast and went back to the airport. A short flight from Sao Paulo later we had arrived in Rio De Janeiro. At last.