Our disillusion with city lifestyle was one of the reasons we decided to travel. We wanted to experience the total opposite whilst helping out a project we admired. Research led us to Mama Roja a sustainable village project based in the Misiones, Argentina. We both felt apprehension before heading off to the sub-tropic jungle. Giant spiders filled my nightmares whilst Jim started to freak out at the thought of two weeks with no meat or internet.

We quickly realized that without knowing any Spanish we would not be able to venture far into the unknown in Latin America, as we struggled to make ourselves understood in a city that wants to be European. But where could one learn Spanish?The answer came suddenly and unexpectedly at breakfast one day, Lennart a friendly Dutch dude was running late for his first day at the local language school, and within 20min of talking to Lennart we’re where enrolled for a weeks intensive course in Argentinian Spanish, yes Argentinian Spanish as apparently they say and pronounce things differently to all the other 300 million people that speak Spanish in the world, but hey it’s better than a kick in the teeth.

We ventured off one day to Palermo, to see how the yuppies live, and it really was like Buenos Aires 90210, loads of gym chiselled dudes in slicked back hair was roller blading around the park along with orange tanned ladies who seemed to have the same nasal ancestry as each other and gravity defying boobs. Although Palermo also offered A$ 8 Choripans with chimichurri which made me very happy.

Buenos Aires overwhelmed us. It is so familiar yet completely unique. Impossible to place making each day last for three. An evening in Bangkok, shopping in LA, a Parisian antique markets, dinner in Milan and dancing at Notting Hill Carnival. A constant mix of emotions. Fear from robbery and relief as we leave a taxi. Adoring the energy of the people. Absolute joy watching people paint and carve wood in art gallery.

Finally!After a prolonged build-up, we’re finally here in the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires, surrounded by parrillas, dog walkers and tango dancers, the first being the biggest favourite of mine, but sadly not Sarah’s, the first hurdle we’ve had to jump is the vegetarian/pescatarian one, they don’t barbeque fish in the parillas, and they certainly don’t grill nut roast. So Sarah’s diet will more than likely be composed of 66% pizza, which seems to be the second favourite food of the locals.

As we’re staying in the jungle for a bit we needed Anti-malaria prescriptions, which ended up costing £13.50 each at the NHS (so much for a free service) for a Malarone prescription, and in the NHS Pharmacy each pill would have been £2.83 and together we would need 140, other drugs like Vibramycin and Lariam would have been cheaper but Sarah has had pretty bad reactions to these before, so why spoil a holiday?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly1CJFHKdJw When you’re going on a long trip, but monetary measures are short I reckon that unorthodox methods of cash gathering suddenly just springs to mind, in our case, the local house “gold mine”… the piggy bank and the copper coin bucket. I never really learned to spend change, change is something of a bother to me, it’s something that you don’t want but need to keep to be thrifty. And I certainly wouldn’t pay anyone with it, not yet at least, I need to wait another 40 years for that.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI0h_jaXOXA I woke up this morning from a dream of traversing the Amazon in an canoe, I do think that ever since I was a kid I wanted to see the jungle, and I think I’ve got the Norwegians to blame, and their oh so bad, but oh so good childerens show “Brødrene Dal og professor Drøvels hemmelighet” Comments: Miquel Madrueno - Oct 4, 2010The beautiful country of Nepal has some of the best hiking trails and trekking in the world.

We just went through the amount of injections that we need, it’s a ridiculous amount of things that can kill you out there in the world, and also I am afraid of needles, eeeek! So because I’m from Sweden I don’t really get immunised against anything, and have always just gotten the Gamma Globulin injection on holidays that kinda boost your immune system for 3 months, but this travel will more than likely extend beyond 3 months.

It looks well naff, but it seem like fun, you get to learn about how to build a sustainable village, and live in it, the only drawback is that they all seem to be VEGETARIAN, I’ll have to sneak myself in a months supply of sausages if I’m to survive that ordeal. This one above is in Peru, but we’re hoping to find something in the the middle of the jungle somewhere.