CONTACT IS RESTORED

I'm sitting again in Fritha's flat early on Friday morning and I'm pleased to report that I've just had an email from Barbara in Cuzco. She is well and enjoying everything. She says some of her fellow travellers have had problems with altitude sickness but she hasn't been affected at all so far. She is also keeping notes of everything so she can do her half of the blog when she has the chance. I have a feeling that won't be until she gets over here and I have to do it for her. She's off to Machu Pichu for the next few days and promised another email before she goes. Also her phone is now recharged and we can text if need be.

In the meantime back in London I'm heading out on a one day trip today, to Portsmouth Harbour and the Naval Museum. This is the location of Nelson's ship, HMS Victory. I've booked lots of rail tix online and if you do it in advance, even by one day, you can get amazing discounts. Last night we drank a few pints and watched. the last pre-election debate. I have to say I thought Brown outperformed the other two. The topic was the economy and he came acrossd as someone totally in control of that area.

You may have read of his blunder this week when he talked to an elderly lady about immigration and what she called "all these Eastern Europeans flooding in." He left an open lapel mike on and as he got in the car her was heard to refer to her as "some sort of bigot woman". Very very embarrassing for him, and a huge drawcard for the media. On the lighter side, a well known political satirist who models himself on Tony Blair's spin doctor,Alisdair Campbell, tweeted in character his advise to Gordon Brown e.g. "Raise the terror alert level, that might work again."

and "Send a junior minister down to Luton to call Esther Rantzen (a tv icon) a c**t, that should take the heat off Gord for a bit." They do great political satire here.

So that's it from me.

BETTER LATE.....

If anyone is thinking..well what's the point of a blog if you never update it, you have my sympathies. Barbara has been exploring South America for nearly a fortnight now and nary a word.I (Damien) have only had 2 emails in that time telling me that it is hot, except for a very cold day in Buenos Aires, and that she is having a fabulous time. She did mention that the Iguassu Falls are very very big, so big that you can't imagine how big, but beyond that very little. I gather it is difficult to get to a computer besides which she's got so many places to see and the pace is pretty full on. She should be in Machu Pichu by now.

I (Damien) on the other hand have just arrived in London for a joyous reunion with Fritha and Anthony. The flight over was exhausting and a bit cramped and I made the mistake of spending my first afternoon here in Fritha's local pub. Those pint pots catch up with you when jetlag sets in.

I'm now sitting alone in Fritha's flat overlooking the Thames. The weather is very springy if a little overcast and London is looking beautiful. There are flower beds bursting with daffodils and tulips everywhere, and the trees in the parks are fresh and green with lots of blossom. I think it's time to sign off and do a bit of exploring. More later!!!!

OK now I´ll start this again and point out that I am travelling for the first time by myself and so I have to do all the things like blogging and snapping that Damien usually does. I am neither a professional writer nor a professional photographer so please don´t expect too much.

At least this trip started gently with a short trip to |Auckland , only 3 and a but hours in the plane and into a country where they speak a language that is not too different from my native tongue.

There´s not much to say about Auckland. It´s a city but not really a "thriving metropolis". On Saturday 8 of us walked around for somewhere decent to have breakfast. It´s hard to imaging, coming from a city like Melbourne, having trouble finding a reasonable breakfast bar, but we walked the streets of Auckland , obviously in the wrong direction looking for food. Finally we found some eggs Benedict without lamb and some coffee that was not to die for!!

Then we split up and half went shopping through the few shops that were open while the rest of us hopped on a ferry to a p´lace called Devonport, no not Tasmania.

Why did~´t we go there to east? It´s a beautiful little township in a n obviously wealthy area - more BMWs per square foot than Toorak . The residences are either very cute weatherboard ones or stunning new apartments overlooking the bay. I think that they had escaped from Sydney Harbour.

Back to the airport on Saturday pm for a flight to Santiago. So we´d had breakfast in Auckland city, lunch at Auckland airport dinner on the plane when we crossed the intermational dateline and started Saturday again - breakfast on the plane, lunch at Santiago Airport and dinner later that day in Santiago city. I was slim and slythe like before that Saturday but NOW well!!!

Santiago: Paris of South America.

There are some really charming old colonial buildings, lots of tree lined avenues, and plenty of parks but a lot of boring new glass boxes.

Rio

Don;t hold your breath waiting for the professional blogging that Damien did. I haven/.t even had time to think about this let alone start it. It has been go go go since we left home. I´m
travelling with a great group of people but they are mostly teachers so there is a fair bit of the type of organisation that Katy would understand!! I´m also struggling with this keyboard.
We are in Rio at the moment staying across the road from Copacabana beach {is that how you spewll it?) This morning 8 of us walked to Ipenyma (?) beach but6 we didn´t quite make the ´talk, tan young, lovely description. Mind you the blokes were not that fantastic; we saw one, not so young, guy with the very heavy all over tan but you could see his pacemaker under the skin. We all felt he was not a good investment.
I know this is not chronologically correct but I´ll have to catch up at some stage and get things into order. We are off to see the city this afternoon and then to a Brazilian Dinner tonight. Tomorrow is the rain forest.

I´ve no idea what day it is so I can´t even use the cliche of it´s Monday it must be Rio but I think that it might be right!
Bye for the moment

The Adventure Starts Here

While I'm still sitting at home, having just washed the kitchen floor and hung out the washing, Barbara is somewhere between Auckland and Santiago. She got away on time from Tullamarine yesterday, just after we heard that all flights to the UK had been cancelled thanks to an Icelandic volcano.

It doesn't have any bearing on her travels. Hopefully it won't impinge on mine on the 27th.

I don't know how often Barbara will be able to update this blog, but she said she'll try to whenever she gets access to a PC.

Keep an eye out.