On our way ...

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new

landscapes but in having new eyes."   Marcel Proust

So our trip to South America is days away and since we're disappearing for the entire summer we thought that it would be fun to create a blog about our adventure. We hope that you will share in our journey with us through this blog and enjoy the sights and stories to come! Hopefully we'll be able to post something new every few days or so (depending on internet connections).

The trip begins on July 4th when we fly out of Ottawa early in the morning to Toronto. After a quick plane transfer we then head south to San Salvador, El Salvador and onto Lima, Peru - our first South American destination. Once in Peru we're planning to travel overland throughout the country visiting the famous Nazca Lines, sand surfing in Huacschina and hiking to Machu Picchu. After this adventure we then head to La Paz, Bolivia (the highest altitude capital city in the world) with stops at the stunning Lake Titicaca region and the Salar de Uyuni (the largest salt flat expanse in the world).

Following Bolivia we will then travel south to Chile for some ocean swimming in Algarrobe and Valparasio, downhill skiing and snowboarding near Santiago in the Andes, and touring the beautiful Lake District near Valdivia. Argentina and Uruguay are the next stops with visits to the wineries of Mendoza, and the vibrant cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

From Montevideo, Uruguay we have a flight to Curitiba, Brazil on August 2nd (it was required to have it pre-booked in order to obtain our Brazilian visas - which we thankfully now have in hand). This will be our first stop in Brazil and over the last three weeks of the trip we're planning on visiting the thundering Iguazu Falls, the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janerio (and its famous beaches), and unwinding on Ilha Grande (a tropical island near Rio). We then fly home on August 23rd with a full day stop in Panama City before continuing onto Toronto and then Ottawa. The hour drive back to Perth on August 24th will be on our 52nd day away from home!

To give a sense of the planned overland route that we'll be taking the Google Map below has the journey traced in a thick yellow line (the fainter yellow lines are the different South American countries).

Enjoy the blog and please feel free to leave any comments below the posts - it would be great to hear from friends and family while we're away!

Carolyn and Tom