Christmas, New Year and everything Before

Hello

Not updated for a while as since being here life has just seemed like one long weekend and we didn't really realise that we'd been here for so long already!! We've been having a great time hanging out with the family, going to the mall, eating out alot and watching tons of movies.

One highlight so far was going to see the Phoenix Suns play basketball against the Washington Wizzards, we had row 13 seats so had an excellent view of the game.

Christmas Eve was spent with family, we had a gorgeous roast (not as good as our own mums dinners though!!) and rounded out the evening in the hot tub overlooked by the mountain at the back of the house. Even though we had presents and spent time with family it still didn't really feel like Christmas because its fairly warm and just different from usual. We miss everyone so much aswell!!

We have walked Max (the resident Bichon Frise) loads around the estate and he has become our new friend, which is cool!

New Years Eve party tonight (7 hours behind you all) so last couple of days have been spent preparing for that, so must go...photo's to follow,

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE XXXX

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!
Love us xxx

Rio, Brazil to Phoenix, Arizona, USA!!!

Hey Y'all

We loved Rio so much that we didn't even update the Blog....so for a short summary of what we did, please see below...

Stayed in a great hostel a few blocks away from Copacabana Beach, hung out in a gang (two Swedes and a Finn) for tours and beach trips. Visited the Christ Statue and Sugarloaf mountain on quite possibly the worst day, rain and cloud so no views of the city at all, went on a day boat trip, visiting various gorgeous beaches on Isle Grande and spent time on Copacabana and Ipanema beach. Due to the many "mugged at gunpoint" stories we heard, we didn't take the camera out much, so photo's are limited, which is a shame, but we brought postcards for the photo album instead!

We really loved Rio and were quite sad to leave, but life goes on...so, three plane rides later and we are now in Phoenix. We are staying in the nicest house of the whole holiday, we have our own in-room computer and use of a Mercedes, something we could get quite used too!! We are now thinking about Christmas Shopping and so have researched the Malls, also looking for ideas for THE RING!!! This afternoon we are going to spend time responding to lots of outstanding emails and then have a beer in the spa, bliss!

Arraial Do Cabo and Rio De Janerio, Brasil

Arraial Do Caba was a gorgeous beach town, some excellent beaches with clear, warm water and lovley soft white sand. The weather was good while we were there so we spent practically the whole time on the beach reading and sunbathing.

We are now in Rio De Janerio, staying in a hostel a few blocks away from the ¨Copa, Copacabana Beach¨ looking forward to more sun, sea, sand and skin cancer, excellent! Nothing really to report as I imagine the thought of us sunning ourselves in Brazil is boring you all, we will add some pictures later when we are back at the hostel as we didn´t bring the camera with us today in case we got mugged.

Hope everyone is getting into the festive spirit and that you´ve all got our gifts ready for when we get back!!.....Luke would like a new BMX and a PS2 if anyone is wondering what to get him.

Florianopolis, Brasil (Brazil to us)

After our three relaxing days on the coast inUruguay, where we went to the cinema (see photo, the cinema was fairly packed as you can see) the beach and to the beach again and again... we finally got our bus out of the country.

18 Hours later and we are in Brazil! It´s like we are no longer in South America, as Brazilians speak Portuguese! We did´t really realize how much Spanish/Spanglish we had picked up, so now its really hard to communicate, but not long to go so we should manage!

Last night we spent out first night in an actual dorm room in a hostel, obviously we are too old and boring to actually share a room with other peeps, so we got a whole 6 bed dorm to ourselves! We had to sleep apart on the bottom bunk of different bunk beds, so it was quite lonely but we did get a good nights sleep!!!

As Florianopolis was just a quick stopover point we have just booked our last long bus journey to Rio, 18 hours followed by another 3 hours on another local bus to get to our destination, a beach town called Arraial Do Cabo which looks amazing in the photo´s, we can´t wait. we are there for three nights and then its back to Rio for our final 5 days before we fly of the the US.

We are off now to get lunch and then back to the bus station, keep you posted!

Lost Mobile Phone...

I (Luke) have just discovered I have also lost my mobile phone!! I think I may be a little retarded! We have cancelled it, but we have to wait a couple of days to find out if some snidy Uruguan has been using it to call his cousins in Spain, and how much we will have to fork out for his calls. This means I no longer have any phone numbers. Can anyone that wants to, please email me your phone numbers for future reference. Thanks.

This has pissed us off no end, here is a photo.

Montevideo, Uruguay to Punta Del Este, Uruguay

On Luke's Birthday we got up really early and boarded a seacat to Montevideo, the Capital city of Uruguay. We were only there for two nights so we didnt really see much of the city, just relaxed in the sun after our heavy walking schedule in Buenos Aires!

The hostel was really relaxed and everyone was friendly, we met a couple of guys from the States, good contacts for our impending trip...and celebrated Luke's Birthday with lots of beer and pizza, very traditional!

A national dish in Uruguay is Chivitos, a steak sandwhich with various other toppings, they are fairly pleasant, so we have been eating a fair few, of course. Another tradional food- drink item is Mate, a drink made with hot water and mate leaves and drunk through a silver straw - to avoid sucking up the leaves. They love it in Argentina too, but the Uruguayans are addicted to it so much that it is very common to actually walk around the streets with your flask of hot water, cup of mate and silver straw, sipping away! young and old they all seem unable to cope unless constantly drinking the stuff, its quite strange!

This afternoon we made a short 2 1/2 hour trip up the coast to the beach resort of Punta Del Este, we are here for three nights in total and plan to spend our time on the beach before attempting a marathon bus journey to Brazil, for the final 10 days of our South American adventure!