Just Turn Up

Sorry if the sound on the video is really low, we were on a mountain top and it was difficult to find a place to film! Turn the volume all the way up and you might be able to hear at least some of it!

Once again, it may have taken us a while to upload this, but (thanks to Alice!), our video blog from Machu Picchu is finally online. Apologies for our rambling, I haven't watched it since we filmed it but I'm sure it's terrible and I blame our tiredness/excitement at finally making it to the end of the trek!

And here is a little panoramic view overlooking Machu Picchu.

There is a possibility we might have forgotten to mention a couple of minor things we got up to in Central America, such as...

• Visiting the Mayan ruins at Chitchen Itza, Mexico - it's massive and very impressive, and the main pyramid is perfectly designed so that the shadow of the snake god appears to climb down the stairs on the longest day of the year, and if you clap your hands in front of the staircase it makes the sound of a bird call.

• Visiting the Mayan ruins at Tikal, Guatemala - one of the temples at this site was used when they filmed the first Star Wars film!

And a few things we've been up to since the Inca Trail...

• We mountain biked down 'Death Road', also known as The World's Most Dangerous Road, just outside La Paz, Bolivia. It's not as dangerous as you might think. If we survived it, I think anyone can!

• We visited the salt flats in Uyuni, Bolivia and took some crazy photos which I'm sure we'll bore everyone with when we get home.

• Laura went down a mine in Potosi, Bolivia to see the working conditions the miners have to deal with every day. It sounded pretty intense!

• We went to see Brazil v Ecuador for Copa America in Codoba, Argentina. We also watched Chile play in a bar in Santiago, Chile. Football fans here are in a whole different league to the English. Absolutely mental!

• We went to Iguazu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil - getting there and back took us two nights on buses but it was worth it to see the waterfalls, they're amazing.

We're currently enjoying some much needed sunshine in Florianopolis, Brazil before we head to Rio in a couple of days to meet up with people who were in our tour group. Will try and get one final video blog done from the beach at Copacabana, you know, just so you don't all feel left out!

Believe it or not we've been trying to upload this since Mexico. Hopefully the next one won't take so long!

Sorry for neglecting the blog for so long. Internet access in Australian hostels is not exactly cheap and because it's free in the ones in the US it's not the best quality! Plus, we've been keeping ourselves busy and today is this first chance I've had to sit down and write anything!

Here's a round up the rest of my time in Australia... after Melbourne I went to Canberra for a great weekend visiting Matt and Naomi at their lovely new apartment. They showed me pretty much all the sights of Canberra in a day. It's a really pretty city and we went for drinks at a nice bar in town too. We also went to Quest-a-con, which is a science centre and should have been SUPER geeky but was actually a lot of fun. Every day's a school day, you guys.

I headed up to Sydney after that and spent a few nights at a hostel in the city. I did a walking tour and saw all the sights, did a bit of window shopping and went up to Bondi Beach. The city is huge and there's loads to see there. I'm glad I did the walking tour because I got to find out a bit about the history, which was really interesting. The weather wasn't great the day I went to Bondi but there were still people out surfing and walking along the beach. I swear, I've never seen so many people randomly exercising outside of a gym. Aussies heart exercise. I also went to Newtown and met up with my sister's friend Rebecca and had the most amazing ice cream (thank you Rebecca!).

I went over to Manly for a few days after that, which is only about half an hour away on the ferry but feels like a completely different place. It's so relaxed and the beach is really nice. I got to stay with my cousin Abbie which was awesome because we haven't seen each other in about 15 years so we had a lot to catch up on! We had a great night out for Mardi Gras while I was there too, which is as crazy, camp and fabulous as you would expect. We went to a rooftop party on the street overlooking the parade, which was huge and there were thousands of people there. It was madness, I thoroughly recommend it!

After Manly I headed up the East coast to Byron Bay, which I loved. I stayed for five days but could have happily been there for longer. It's just a small beach town but it's very laid back and all the people I met there were really nice. I spent a lot of time at the beach, which obviously meant I got sunburned AGAIN. I've been super careful since then and have managed to (touch wood) not get burned since! I did a day trip out to Nimbin which was just... trippy. Lots of people in denial that the sixties ever ended.

My last stop in Australia was Brisbane but I was only there for a couple of days. I walked around city a bit, the area around the river is really nice and still picturesque although they were rebuilding a lot of it after the floods. I went to see Mark Watson as part of the Brisbane Comedy Festival, I recommend everyone go and see him if you have a chance, he's was hilarious! I went to Australia Zoo on my last day and got to see all sorts of wierd and wonderful animals. Kangaroos were my favourite, they're just the most ridiculous and amusing creatures I've ever seen in person. I paid a bit extra so that I could meet some dingoes too. They were very cute, I even got kisses on the cheek from one of them!

From Australia I flew out to LA to meet up with Laura. Update about our adventures since then to follow!

I don't want to start this off by complaining but as the title suggests, I'm cold and wet and tired and I feel the need to tell people. I arrived at Byron Bay after an overnight journey at 6.30am and since I can't check in until 2pm I thought I'd go for a walk along the beach. Great idea until the heavens opened and I was miles away from anything resembling shelter. So now I'm back at the hostel trying to warm up and thought it would be the perfect time to blog...

After Perth I flew to Melbourne to stay with Emily and her boyfriend Kevin and their housemate Fish. Their apartment is in Elwood and only a few minutes walk from St Kilda, which is a really popular area and is filled with shops, cafes, bars and backpackers. And more Irish people than Dublin. It's really nice and a lot more laid back than the city centre, where I think I only actually went twice! The city centre is great for shopping, there's loads of little independent clothes shops down the side streets, as well as all the big chains and department stores. My other venture into the city was to go to the Rooftop Cinema to see The Goonies, which was amazing but a lot colder than we had prepared for! There's artificial grass and you get to sit in a deck chair and watch a film under the stars. If I'd have taken a pair of socks it would have been perfect! We had a really good night out while I was in Melbourne as well, although I don't recommend going to X Base no matter how cheap the buckets (really only doubles) of drinks are! The other bars we went to were much nicer and contained a lot less bad Euro-dance.

Me and Emily went on a road trip down the Great Ocean Road on Monday and stayed for two nights, the first at Lorne and then the second at Apollo Bay. There are great beaches at both but it was overcast while we were there so we didn't go for a swim. Watched some people surfing though and went for walks along the beach. We went to see the 12 Apostles which are huge limestone rock pillars. They're pretty spectacular, even if there's only seven or eight of them left. Oh and during the drive we saw a wallaby, amazing! On my last day in Melbourne we went to Chapel Street where there's an amazing second hand shop which I think was just called Chapel Street Bazaar. It was like Aladdin's cave, you could lose hours in there. And we had $4 pizza at Lucky Coq which is just about the cheapest pizza you're going to find in Australia!

Overall Melbourne was loads of fun, I'd definitely go back. I'm about to run out of internet credit so update about Canberra will have to wait!