Santiago, Chile

The flight from Sao Paolo to Santiago was smooth and uneventful... arriving to Chile was not! Before we knew what was happening Karen was carted off by customs and questioned for over an hour (in Spanish!) about 3 rogue Brazilian oranges that were still in her bag and undeclared. Thankfully there were no fines and I got to take a sneaky picture that I knew would be funny eventually!

We arrived at The Magic House Hostel a little bit later than expected but we were still met by 2 of the nicest people in Chile, Tanya and Vincent, who made us feel right at home in their home for our few days in Santiago. 

Our first order of business was to do our ice bucket challenge which we had been trying to get out of for a while, but decided the pun "chilly in Chile" made it worth it. 

Once we were warmed up we went on a search to find Wally. Wally Tours do a fantastic free walking tour around the city (their guides wear red and white striped tops so it's easy to spot them). I really love doing walking tours in South America. They are the best way to get your bearings in a new city and you learn so much from local guides who really know their city inside out. One of our first stops was at these huge street art paintings by an artist named INTI (close to Metro Bellas Artes). The murals depict what really matters to Chileans, with a mix of Latin American folklore and modern images. I can't remember the names of the dolls in the pictures, but it is superstition to have dolls like these in homes and to give them gifts to keep luck on your side. 

We sat for ages outside the presidential palace learning about Santiago's rocky political past and Salvador Allende's grizzly end. He was apparently a great orator and he even called a radio station while he waited to be captured and killed, to tell his people to hold on to hope. The speech is translated into English on youtube.  

Some of Santiago's streets were built to replicate other cities from around the world, so we visited Paris Street, London Street and New York Street with its very own flat iron building. We also visited 

"PDA Park" and finally found out why teenagers are kissing everywhere you look in South America (the answer was pretty simple in the end; they have nowhere else to do it!). 

Another stop on the tour took us to one of the "Most Beautiful Subway Stations in the World". I'm not sure which number it ranks at, but it's pretty damn cool with the entire walls painted to represent an old folklore story. 

A crazy phenomenon in Santiago are the Cafes on Legs. They started as a way to convince men to drink coffee instead of tea, so waitresses wore short skirts and paid their male-only customers plenty of attention while they enjoyed their coffee, maybe even a peck on the cheek if they were lucky. But has time has gone on the Cafes on Legs have been getting increasingly x-rated - so you can get a lot more with your coffee these days.

We saw loads more on the tour and learned so much from our guide, it's an absolute must if you are in the city: www.tours4tips.com. The rest of our time in Santiago was spent eating more than we should and shopping more than we could afford. And alas it was time to say adios to Johnny for a while at least, as me and Karen become a twosome once again. 

It's so hard to believe that it's a wrap for South America. Three months have flown by and we have seen more than we'd ever imagined. And while we do remember where home is, we are going to take a slight detour before we head back...

Next Stop: South East Asia BABY!!

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

As we boarded a massive plane in Iguazu to fly to Rio it began to sink in just how mental that tiny tin-foil plane we got from the Pampas was in comparison. Even now when I look back at pictures of the stuff we have done and the places we have been it feels like a dream! 

We were picked up on the other side in Rio de Janeiro by a guy from our hostel (El Misti) and it was so cool to spot Christ the Redeemer looking over the city as soon as we drove in. We didn't even care how bad the traffic was, we were so excited to be surrounded by sights that somehow felt familiar, probably from seeing them on TV with the World Cup. 

As we arrived on a Friday we were persuaded to head to Lapa for a night out (because it's a sin to miss a Friday night in Lapa!) but we made a pact to be home by 2am because Karen's boyfriend Johnny was flying in the next day. We got the metro with a gang from the hostel and soon realised that Lapa is absolutely nuts! The streets are lined with vendors selling drinks and crowds of people drinking caipirinhas on the pavements and outside petrol stations (classy!).

Once everyone is sufficiently merry on cheap street drinks, the crowds move to the nightclubs where girls get in free and guys have to pay. We went to a salsa club called Lapa Loca which played really cool dance tunes before a live salsa band started. Let's just say we missed our 2am deadline!

The following day we went to the airport to pick up Johnny. Karen hasn't seen him in almost 10 weeks so when he finally came through the gate I felt like I was in Love Actually, how cute is this?! 

On Sunday we went to see Christ the Redeemer. We weren't very organised and didn't realise that going at 2pm meant that we would have to queue for hours. It's definitely worth getting up early to skip the crowds, a lesson learned. 

When you finally get to the top, Christ the Redeemer seems so huge after seeing it from afar so often throughout the city.

It's hard to get a good photo with hundreds of people standing around with their arms outstretched but we did our best and  took a million selfies.

The whole time I was there I kept thinking of Karl Pilkington in An Idiot Abroad who thought that Jesus had a really big chin and then felt like a plonker when he realised it was a beard! 

The view from the top is incredible too. 

The next 2 days were spent soaking up the sun (finally!) on Copacabana Beach. Yet again I almost felt like I had been to the beach before because the view is so recognisable. But what I wasn't prepared for was the amount of women with massive bums and men with tiny underpants, as well as the sellers who walk up and down the beach screaming all day! It was a cool place to be but not your usual beach experience as you spend most of the time people watching. 

One of the best things we did in Rio was a tour of one of Rio's 1,000 favelas. A few years ago it would have been completely unheard of for a tourist to risk entering a favela, but since the announcement that Rio would host both the World Cup and the Olympic Games a project was set up to pacify at least some of Rio's favelas by driving out the gangs and replacing them with armed police. Santa Marta is one such favela which is now deemed safe, but it still felt quite edgy walking around. I couldn't believe that this is normal life for millions of people who live in mazes of tiny brick houses on steep hills with thousands of steps and narrow alleyways. Our guide explained that the minimum wage in Rio is about half of what a month's rent is, so for the majority of people a home in a favela is their only option.

Football is such a huge way of life for people in Brazil, kids especially. We even heard that schools were closed for the World Cup because they knew nobody would show up. There was one area of the favela which was really cool and colourful. A paint company had sponsored a project for the World Cup to paint the houses and it had been going really well, but apparently when Brazil were knocked out people were so distraught the project went by the wayside!

Santa Marta is also the favela where Michael Jackson shot his video for "they don't really care about us". The locals are very proud of the fact and have a life-size MJ statue and a little gift shop where you can watch the video. At the time, Santa Marta was completely under the control of a Ganglord and the police wouldn't even attempt to enter. So instead of asking the authorities Michael Jackson's producers got permission from the gang to shoot the video there, and the gang even provided his security! 

 I have since watched Ross Kemp's documentary on drugs in the favelas and read a lot about it and realise just how sheltered tourists are from the problems of the city. I felt safe the entire time, but so much happens there that we don't even comprehend. 

On Wednesday night we went to the Maracanã Stadium to watch a match where the World Cup final was held. Even with 4,000 people there the stadium looked empty (it can hold almost 75,000), but my god did those 4,000 fans create an atmosphere! There was drums and chants and huge flags, and there was devastation when Fluminense lost. I can't claim to be a football fan but here I am doing my best! 

The weather wasn't on our side for the rest of our days in Rio. We couldn't do the sunset on the Sugarloaf because it was so cloudy we wouldn't see anything, and it was lashing on the day we had planned a walking tour of the city. We did go to Ipanema beach even though it was quite blustery, and it was actually very cool because there were loads of surfers taking advantage of the waves, and Karen taking advantage of the pingpong!

It was a pity the weather wasn't on our side more as I would have liked to explore more of the city, but nevertheless we left with a salsa beat in our ears and caipirinhas in our veins! 

Next Stop: Ilha Grande