Top ten of everything in Latin America

Over the past 205 days we have travelled approximately 20,000km through 13 countries, which is further than Sheffield to Auckland as the (exhausted) crow flies! We started in Buenos Aires, Argentina, way back on September 6, 2011, and passed through Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia again, Panama, Costa Rica (just), Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala to end up in the middle of Spring Break(!) in Cancun, Mexico. Tomorrow we fly to LA and then on to the next big adventure in New Zealand.

People have asked us what our favourite place or thing has been, and we never have a very good answer to give. So much has been amazing! So many places have been fantastic, so many views have been breathtaking, so many people have been special. But, in an attempt to answer those questions, we have made lists of our favourite things from the past seven months. So, in no particular order...


10 best new foods and drinks of Latin America

Making Coco Locos in the San Blas, Panama

• Pincheiras (Chile) - The best sausage in the Southern Hemisphere and possibly the world!
• Yomi Lala (Mexico) - Great name, great chocolate milk
• Alfajores (Argentina, Chile) - Unspeakably yummy little layer cakes
• Lomas de Cauquenes (Chile) - Who said wine in a 1.5l bottle couldn't be good?
• Ceviche (Peru) - Fish or seafood 'cooked' in lime juice. See our Lunch in Lima blog
• Locos (Chile) - Chile really has come out on top for culinary experiences. This shellfish has to be beaten up in a washing machine before you can eat it but my God is it worth the effort!
• Dulce de Leche (South America) - Imagine eating the caramel from a banoffee pie on toast
• Maté (Argentina) - Bitter herbal drink with a very particular etiquette. Thank you to Gabriel for teaching us the Uruguayan way!
• Torta (Mexico) - Simply the best steak sandwich you will ever eat
• Coco loco (Kuna Yala, Panama) - Find a coconut on the beach. Fight your way into it with an army knife or machete. Drink a bit. Fill it with rum.

WIth Gal, Nim and Beatrice in Santa Catalina, Panama

10 brilliant friends we've made

• Max (Chile) - The man, the legend, the inspiration
• Beatrice (Switzerland), Nim & Gal (Israel) - They made the San Blas islands and Panama even more beautiful!
• Mariana (Argentina) & Gabriel (Uruguay) - Tiny house, huge hearts
• Timon (Germany) - AKA T-bone Massively Awesome Lionfish Chef, divemaster extraordinaire and ladykiller!
• Kristin (USA) - Soon to be reunited in LA 
• Josephine (Sweden) - Fate conspired to make us repeatedly bump into each other in S.A., hopefully it will again
• Chris (UK) - We were one in our longing for dog foster-parent schemes and Tshirts in bad English
• Noelia & Fran (Argentina) - Kickstarted our trip with empanada-making lessons in Buenos Aires 
• Victoria (Argentina) - We could've talked for weeks
• Phoebe, Eric, Jess, Nina & Boon (Australia) - Amazon boat trip buds
• Jill (Canada), Andy (UK) & Brian (USA) - The Couch we just didn't want to leave!

10 amazing places in Latin America

Parque Nacional de los Alerces, Esquel, Argentina

• Cartagena (Colombia)
• Atacama Desert (Chile, Bolivia)
• Utila, Bay Islands (Honduras)
• Curanipe (Chile)
• El Hoyo (Argentina)
• Parque Nacional de los Alerces (Argentina)
• Huanchaco (Peru)
• Isla Caledonia (Kuna Yala, Panama)
• Agua Azul (Mexico)
• Urubamba Valley (Peru)

10 incredible experiences in Latin America

Wrestling cholitas in La Paz, Bolivia

• Swimming with a wild sea lion colony (Chile)
• Watching ladies in traditional dress wrestling (Bolivia)
• Staying in and visiting local people's homes 
• Watching southern right whales 7m from the beach (Argentina)
• Living through a dynamite explosion in the Potosi silver mine (Bolivia)
• Partying in the street in Manaus (Brazil)
• Kissing 12m underwater! (Honduras)
• Living in hammocks on the Amazon River for eight nights (Peru, Brazil)
• Waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of howler monkeys surrounding us (Mexico)
• Snorkelling in a flooded cave system (Mexico)

10 reasons to come back to Latin America

• The second half of the Amazon River, Manaus to the Atlantic 
• Patagonia (Southern tip)
• Brazil, all of it
• Mompos, Colombia - time has stood still in the town where Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle Of A Death Foretold was set
• Diving the Blue Hole in Belize. It's rammed full of hammerheads 
• Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, if they stay open to tourism
• Eating guinea pig in Peru... We just forgot to
• Iguassu Falls
• Cave-diving in Mexico
• Xel-Ha, the adult playground. Not as dodgy as it sounds.

10 things to cross off the Unesco list for Latin America

Huascarán, Peru

• Copan ruins (Honduras)
• Machu Picchu (Peru)
• Potosi (Bolivia)
• Cartagena (Colombia)
• Huascarán National Park (Peru)
• Antigua (Guatemala)
• Barranquilla Carnaval (Colombia)
• Cusco (Peru)
• Coro (Venezuela)
• Valparaiso (Chile)

10 songs for our Latin America trip mix

Throwing shapes in Honduras

• Michel Telo - Ai Se Eu Te Pego
• JLo - Get On The Floor
• Pitbull - Give Me Everything
• Michael Franks - The Lady Wants To Know
• The Austin Powers theme tune
• Vamos A La Playa!
• All Gaga
• All Enrique
• That trumpety song in Bolivia
• Mercedes Sosa

10 things we've learnt from travelling in Latin America

• How to haggle like a Moroccan
• The value of a sofa
• That there are lots of other people like us...
• To appreciate the scale of the map
• How to sleep on night buses
• The art of working in random places
• To scuba dive
• How to assemble the perfect empanada
• How to string a hammock avoiding 'the coconut danger zone'
• To pack fewer socks

CHRIS & SARAH