Planes planes planes!

So it seems like we've been travelling for 48 hours, though I'm so confused by the time zones that I can't be sure of that. Plus my watch has developed a very amusing habit of getting stuck on the hour sometimes... not boding well for the future.
Highlight of being on so many long-haul flights has been seeing what new and exciting meal gourmet gateway will give us. My stomach is so confused with the amount of main meals it's had at odd times. Best by far was some weird concoction of different flavoured scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning (haven't eaten since and the clock says it's 8.15) - they were with chillies, tomatoes, and some bean paste (which Paul didn't complain about) with cheese. Served slightly warm and soggy in a metal container.
Landing in Mexico City, by the way, was unbelievable. Don't know what time it was, but it was dark so there were thousands of lights as far as the eye could see, punctuated by black patches of hillsandthings. The lights were a bit weird to look at, as so many of them were skyscrapers so they had this 3D sort of effect. Still have no idea what Mexico City actually looks like! When we finally made it to Buenos Aires (oh, how I'm growing to love customs and immigration queues - we've already done 3) we spent about 2 hours trying to work out how to get a bus and how to get change for it. Then realised the journey was going to take 2 hours because it wasn't particularly direct. No matter, we got an interesting insight into the outskirts of the city, and were ambushed by some guy trying to sell chocolate bars to passengers on the bus. (Can you imagine a Lothian Bus response to that? The driver would shout and swear whilst everyone else would pretend they couldn't see the vendor.)
Anyway, we're here now in a great youth hostel resembling an MC Escher house and awaiting a promised BBQ where will have Lots Of Meat and Half A Bottle Of Wine each. Much needed.
Ta ta for now!

And they're off!

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who turned up at the Rev to see us off. It was fab to see you all and the burger I had was one of the best (a big thanks to A+G for buying us dinner and transporting us to the bus station). A sing through of the "Ramblin Rover" seemed the appropriate way to signal our departure and then we left to catch the red-eye bus to London. Since then it's still pretty red-eyed with a tube in London to Heathrow then a 7 hour flight to New York. We're currently in the departures awaiting our flight to Mexico then Buenos Aires. It's all feeling a bit strange - almost like a dream at the moment, especially when so little sleep has been had. I'm feeling sad that we're not seeing New York yet as looking out to the city it looks fab. All to come though!

Not much to report on flights. The on demand entertainment on our BA London-New Yor flight was very impressive. I watched the Simpsons, The Thick of It, Bill Bailey and the movie Invivtus, which I highly recommend. Morgan Freeman is a legend and it makes me want to meet him and Nelson Mandlea.

Anyhow, lots more flying to come before we start properly. I'll post again from Buenos Aires but not until we've had some sleep...

Love to all.

Ethno Scotland

This past week, instead of making last minute preparations for the big trip, Paul and I have been taking part in the musical force of nature that is Ethno Scotland. Many thanks to all the organisers, and everyone who turned up - we had a fantastic time! For anyone who's interested, Ethno Scotland involved 30 musicians from 12 countries all over the world, sharing music from the various countries' traditions and culminating in a series of fantastic concerts at the end of the week. We also got to spend a nice relaxing time on the beautiful shores of Loch Goil and even managed to fit in a bit of sailing and kayaking. Looking forward to an even bigger and better Ethno next year, and we'll miss all you people who we met this time!

http://www.internever.com/ethno/

Tonight we'll be taking the night bus down to London, ready to catch a plane to Buenos Aires (via New York and Mexico) tomorrow morning. Here we come!

Postcards

Hello! If any of you loyal blog followers want us to send you a postcard on our travels, leave a comment with your name and address below!

Update - jags, jungles and couches

Today Chris, Paul will be getting his yellow fever vaccine and Charlotte will be getting the first rabies, hepatitis B and Japanese B Encephalitis shots. We are now nearly the most vaccinated people in Edinburgh. I thought that because of all our vaccines, the blood donation people wouldn't touch us with a cattle prod let alone a needle but according to Nurse the Sooz we actually become even more desirable due to the fact that we have all these useful antibodies. Who'd have thought!

In other news, we've booked a 3-day/two night stay in the Wasai Tambopata Lodge which is near the Tambopata river - itself a tributary of the Amazon. Basically, it's a stay in the Amazon jungle where we'll get to see Macaws and swim in a "natural jaccuzi" (I think that's the bit we're most excided about).

The Couchsurfing is going very well and we've been having great cultural exchanges with a number of our guests. Here's hoping we get similar treatment when we're the guests!

3 months to go (just over)!

Couch-surfing

We've just signed up to the Couch surfing network... here's to some interesting adventures with that. Will let you know how it all works out!

Flat and jags, or flat jags

So now tickets are booked and the flat is rented which means....it's jag time! I visited the nurse first and found that we Probably need the following...

Hepatitis A (NHS)
Polio/Diptheria/Tetanus (NHS)
Typhoid (NHS)
Hepatitis B (£31.50 x 3)
Rabies (£42.00 x 3)
Japanese B Encephalitis (£75.00 x 2)
Yellow Fever (£49.35)

Overall £423. A pretty expensive run but I guess you can't put a price on health.

The next stage is to try and figure out where to store our stuff. Any volunteers?