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The Americas
  • Greg Clayton
  • Daniel Tarpey
  • Greg Clayton
  • Daniel Tarpey

The Americas

A 149-day adventure by Greg & Daniel Read more
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  • The Americas

    Piranha Fishing

    May 8, 2024 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    This morning we set off sailing to fish for piranhas. We found a piranha infested spot and put our rods into the water. Both of our first time fishing and probably our last as you can't really do much better.

    I managed to catch two and bring them back into the boat whilst Dan took the moral and ethical approach of letting them off his line as soon as they broke the surface of the water (5 times). If only there were more Dan's in the world.

    We chopped up some of the piranhas to use as bate to catch further piranhas and also took a few home to try for lunch. Most however were released back into the wild.    Read more

  • The Americas

    Sailing / Trekking Back to Leticia

    May 8, 2024 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    After lunch the time had come to leave the Amazon and head back to the town of Leticia.

    This was by a combination of two sailing stints and a further trek through the jungle.

    Once back in Leticia we checked into our lovely air conditioned hotel. After showers and a few hours catching up on the outside world we headed out for a pizza to spend what was left of our Colombian pesos.Read more

  • The Americas
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    Leaving Colombia

    May 9, 2024 in Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Today was a bigggggg travel day! We had 3 flights with the first commencing at 7:30am from Leticia to Bogota. The guy at the check in desk at Leticia was evidently new and his head was fried trying to work out how to print our luggage tags to ensure that they were transferred on each of our flights to end up in Santiago.

    The first flight to Bogota took just under 2 hours, where we stopped for a Burger King breakfast in our 3 hour change over. We then boarded our flight to Lima in Peru at about midday!    Read more

  • The Americas

    Lima Airport

    May 9, 2024 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Lima airport is up there for the worst I've ever been to simply for the severe lack of food options. All of the food was so expensive so we ended up paying £8.50 for a small wrap, brownie and bottle of apple juice. It did however do the job and on our flight to Santiago we were given a ham and cheese toastie (no good for Dan) and some fruit.Read more

  • The Americas

    Santiago Airport

    May 9, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Just after 11pm we arrived at our final destination for the day, Santiago - Chile! We stepped off the plane and the cold breeze from outside was ever so welcome after the past 3 months of sweltering near the equator. We jumped in an Uber to our Airbnb where we found a TV with YouTube. So we ended the day on a high with some Impractical Jokers clips.Read more

  • The Americas

    Travelling to Vina del Mar

    May 10, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    After a late night due to our late flight we had a lie in and wandered down to the nearby shop for a morning snack. We then took a taxi to Santiago bus terminal where we caught a lovely FlixBus to Vina del Mar! Plenty of legroom for the 1 hour and 40 minute journey.Read more

  • The Americas

    Exploring Vina del Mar

    May 10, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    After checking into our hostel we went for a wander to explore the city. It was very nice! We strolled down to the river and along the prom, past the casino and to the pier.

    We then headed to the mall, mainly to H&M to stock up on long clothes since our new surroundings were much chillier than we've been used to! Based on our future itinerary it's going to continue to be a little cold for a while.Read more

  • The Americas

    Pisco in Vina del Mar

    May 10, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    This evening we met up with a local Everton Vina del Mar fan named Daniel Gonzalez and his girlfriend Antonia! We were put in touch by Dan T's contact John. Dan G picked us up and took us to a few bars, insisting that we tried the Chilean favourite of pisco. It was a strong spirit and we both enjoyed it very much, probably me more than Dan as I went on yo order a few more. They even took us on an interlude down to the beach to look across to Valparaiso!Read more

  • The Americas
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    Flower Clock

    May 11, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    We met up with Dan G and Antonia at Vina del Mar's 'flower clock', apparently Vina del Mar's most popular tourist spot! We can confirm that the clock is working.

  • The Americas

    Arriving in Valparaiso

    May 11, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Dan G and Antonia took us on a short bus ride to the neighbouring town of Valparaiso. A port town filled with hilly streets, great views and street art. We arrived at the harbour to find many military musical parades in preparation for a large military celebration next week.Read more

  • The Americas

    Valparaiso Views

    May 11, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    We took one of the funiculars up a hill to save our legs. From the top we had great views out to the bay! Have also included a few more views from different spots all over the town.

  • The Americas

    Valparaiso Street Art

    May 11, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Probably the thing that makes Valparaiso so popular is its street art! We passed lots of tourist walking tours as we wandered around but we didn't meed any of that as we had our own personal tour guides!Read more

  • The Americas

    Completo's

    May 11, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    The final stop with our guides was back in Vina del Mar to enjoy a 'completo', one of Chile's most popular foods! It's essentially a hot dog, with chopped tomatoes, avocado and mayo. I have to say it was very nice and I didn't even notice the tomatoes too much!

    After this was parted ways with our wonderful guides and headed for a stroll around the nearby park.    Read more

  • The Americas

    Estadio Sausalito

    May 11, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Tonight was the main event, the reason we'd come to visit Vina del Mar... to watch Everton Chile play!

    There are a number of teams called Everton across South America, and Dan tells me that this is because Everton FC (England) were the first team to come to South America back in the 19th century.

    The ground was a half an hour walk from our hostel. Along the way we picked up some snacks from the supermarket and a pair of wooly Everton hats, partly as souvenirs and partly because it was pretty cold!

    We took a few photos outside the ground and headed into our VIP entrance to the directors box!    Read more

  • The Americas

    Everton v Cobresal

    May 11, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    The game itself was pretty entertaining!

    Everton went behind after 7 minutes before equilasing on the half hour mark. However there were 2 more goals in the next 5 minutes meaning it was 2-2 going into half time. Everton were probably unlucky not to be ahead.

    The first 35 minutes of the second half left a lot to be desired, that was until Everton took the lead of 81 minutes. However, deep into added time there was an extremely long VAR check for a penalty to Cobresal. Both sets of players swarmed around the VAR screen to try and see for themselves / sway the referee, and in the end a penalty was given and converted!

    Even after this Everton had a huge penalty claim turned down which was checked by the out of stadium VAR but no further intervention was necessary. A drama filled 3-3 draw in true Everton fashion!

    On the way out of the ground we bumped into Dan G and his family (dad, mum and 2 brothers) for a quick introduction and picture.

    Thanks Everton for a great evening!    Read more

  • The Americas

    Chilled Day in Vina del Mar

    May 12, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Sunday was mother's day in Chile! We had a pretty relaxed day with some pastries for breakfast before heading to the mall for some more shopping. I splashed out on two Messi shirts ready for Argentina and what will probably end up being my only souvenirs of the trip 😆.

    We then took a stroll down the prom in the sunshine, through the many market stalls. After making some dinner we headed for an evening stroll and stopped for a couple of drinks to top off our 3 days in Chile.    Read more

  • The Americas

    Leaving Vina del Mar

    May 13, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 4 °C

    This morning was an early-ish start as we left Vina del Mar, boarding the 8:30am Andesmar bus towards Mendoza in Argentina!

  • The Americas

    Arriving in Argentina

    May 13, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ -4 °C

    We crossed the Argentina border with no problems and the views continued to shine! We even passed Mount Aconcagua (South America's highest peak) although I didn't manage to get a picture of it. We arrived into Mendoza just after 5:30pm and headed immediately to the nearby McDonalds. We then took an Uber to our hostel and had a quick evening of relaxation.Read more

  • The Americas

    Exploring Mendoza

    May 14, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    This morning we had a couple of admin tasks to do to kick-start our time in Argentina. First of all we had to get our hands on some cash.

    Argentina is in a very complex economic situation due to hyperinflation. In 2023 the inflation rate of the country was over 200% and is still at around 10% inflation per month!

    Due to the Argentina peso being effectively worthless, foreign currencies are extremely valuable, particularly since the Argentinian government has placed restrictions on its citizens changing pesos to foreign currency.

    Whilst the official exchange rate from GBP to ARS is around 1:1,100, the unofficial 'blue dollar' exchange rate is around 1:1,347. This rate is available on the street and most importantly at Western Union!

    We'd therefore placed an order for some cash a few days before and went to collect it today. The only issue being that the largest note you can get you hands on in Argentina is the 1,000 Peso note, which is worth around 74p. So we no joke had to take a rucksack to collect our cash as it was just under 1,000 notes. Paying for anything here is a nightmare as you have to count out so many notes to pay for anything!

    A 2,000 Peso note does exist (still not really worth anything) but nobody seems to have ever seen one. And it's not like they can print more money either as that will only make the situation worse!

    After collecting our cash we bought a SIM card and dropped our cash off back at the hostel.

    We then took a stroll through the city all the way up to the park at the far end.    Read more

  • The Americas

    Liverpool Bar & Drinks

    May 14, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    This afternoon was Tottenham v Man City, a crucial game in the Premier League title race. We therefore settled down in none other than 'Liverpool Bar' to enjoy the game. We then went for a few more drinks including a bar with some darts! There was also a bar offering two Aperol spritz for about £3.30 so I was loving life.Read more

  • The Americas

    Cycling Wine Tour

    May 15, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    The Mendoza area is would renowned for its wine production so we had to give it a go! You can hire a bike and cycle from vineyard to vineyard.

    Fair play to Dan on this one as he can't ride a bike and doesn't like wine, but he was happy to go along with it regardless.

    Whilst not quite mastering how to ride a bike, Dan gave it a good go. Although we did end up just walking our bikes from vineyard to vineyard. We tried a number of different wines (all red or rose) as well as a few olive oils. We established that red wine isn't my favourite, and Dan doesn't like it at all but hey we tried!    Read more

  • The Americas

    Alta Montana Tour - Potrerillos

    May 16, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 2 °C

    This morning we were up bright and early for a tour through the Andes! It was the absolute perfect day for it as there wasn't a single cloud in the sky, it was however still quite cold. First stop being this lovely viewpoint over the lake and mountain ranges!Read more

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