Friday, 12 November 2010

The Great Big South American Ticklist

Be warned. The smugness of this post may make you sick.

The things we ticked off our lists, our great, ever-expanding, life-long lists, were plentiful. Whilst on the road, Andy Ellis and I:

* Ate the Steak of Our Lives in Argentina.

* Rode pillion on a motorbike in the biggest favela in Rio.

* Looked a Southern Right Whale squarely in the face and heard her mammoth inhalation as she filled her lungs.

* Went to a Brazilian rave in the country wilds of Sao Paulo.

* Sunk numerous caipirinhas on Copacobana Beach in Rio.

* Swam in the thermal waters of a hot volcanic spring.

* Breathed the sulphuric stench from a geyser in Bolivia.

* Got chased by llamas.

* Rode a horse into the red desert where Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid battled it out.

* Chewed coca leaves in Bolivia.

* Rode tipsily round the bodegas in Mendoza, sampling the wines.

* Felt the spray of the Iguassu Falls on our faces.

* Saw a Tango Show in Buenos Aires.

* Were robbed blind.

* Watched the sun rise over the Bolivian Salt Flats.

* Accidentally ate cow lung soup. (Big white hexagonal tissue which flails like coral in the hot liquid. Rising bile.)

* Dived into a glacial river.

* Saw smoke rising from two active volcanos.

* Slept in a hotel made entirely from salt.

* Cycled down the World´s Most Dangerous Road.

* Visited the world´s first cocaine bar.

* Crawled down a stifling silver mine in Potosi.

* Hiked through the Amazon rainforest by night.

* Watched the sunrise over Lake Titicaca.

* Survived a light aircraft flight over the Andes.

* Hiked through the jungle to Machu Pichu.

* Sandboarded screaming down the world´s biggest sand dunes.

* Ate a Mexican Christmas dinner in a palm fringed courtyard.

* Were battered by the waves in the Pacific as we played frisbee on Christmas day 2010.

* Had severe food poisoning thanks to a cup of unboiled tap water.

* Toasted marshmallows in an active volcano.

* Burnt effigies at a political rally in Honduras.

* Waded through a flooded Columbian barefoot.

* Got rained on everytime we visited the Caribbean.

* Veered too close to the crocodiles in a boat screaming with tourists.

* Traveled with a group of 11 of our best friends and siblings for Christmas and New Year.

* Missed home.

* Came home.

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