Team Olson vs The Volcano

On Tuesday, we climbed the Volcan Villarica. We started at 6.30 and went by van up a long dirt road to the ski lift at the bottom of the volcano. I was a little daunted by the fact that we were wearing borrowed hiking boots which were very heavy and were carrying huge backpacks with…

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Bienvenido a Chile!

We left Mendoza and travelled by bus through the Andes.  The views were spectacular, with just a little bit of snow.  We had booked the most budget seats we could but for some reason were seated in first class – leather seats that reclined and snacks and movies. This is the way to travel! We…

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Reflections on an adventure in Brazil

As referenced in a previous post, a reflection on “How we each react when we are lost in Brazil with no visa in our passport and no local money”! First, to set the scene. How confidently we had set off from Puerto Iguazu! Armed with our Lonely Planet on our smartphone, we had a plan…

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Mendoza

We arrived in Mendoza on a Sunday morning and found that Sundays here mean the whole town is extremely quiet. We couldn’t even find an open supermarket (despite Reuben determinedly searching for 40 minutes) and so wound up going out for dinner. The town was transformed the next morning when the sleepy, quiet streets burst…

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Cordoba

After a 24 hour bus ride, we arrived in the city of Cordoba. After coffee and a nap we were ready to explore, and headed out to the Jesuit Crypt, an underground crypt that was only discovered in 1989 when a telephone company was putting in wires. It was cool to see this old crypt…

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Iguazu Falls

We arrived at Puerto Iguazu in North Eastern Argentina on Monday after an 18 hour bus ride. The buses here are surprising comfortable, and even brought us tasty empanadas as a snack. We managed to get a fair amount of sleep, and spent Monday finding our hostel, having a swim and getting used to the…

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Reflections after 7 weeks of travel

After a month travelling the South Island and two weeks travelling overseas in Dubai and Argentina, as well as some time in between, we wanted to reflect on what we have been learning. We have had some ups and downs, and some funny moments in between. Here’s the stand outs for the last few weeks:…

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Meet the Cow

Meet Cow. For those of you who have stayed with us at our home in Auckland, you may have met Cow already, as he usually lives in our spare room. We thought it would be fun to bring Cow on our world trip so that he too could expand his horizons. Here he is pre-trip,…

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La ciudad de Buenos Aires

On Thursday morning we headed to Recoleta cemetery, a famous cemetery where Eva Peron (who the musical Evita was about) is buried. We joined a free English tour which was fascinating. The cemetery is nothing like a cemetery in New Zealand – it’s more of a collection of mausoleums owned by a family, with each…

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Los estúpidos

¡Hola amigos! We have had our first few days in Buenos Aires. We arrived on Sunday night and experienced the slowest airport either of us had ever been to- it took us over two hours from leaving the plane to exiting customs. We loved the response of the crowds waiting though – apparently here you…

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