Rangorilla go in search of Chinchilla

We arrived in Mexico City at midnight, and got our first scary realisation that we needed to be more advanced in our Spanish skills than we were. Somehow we got ourselves into a taxi, and got to Mexico City Hostel with our mad taxi driver who drove 100kms/hr over the speed limit, and drove through every red light the whole way. We had some beers and climbed the four flights of stairs to our room (which is extemely difficult at high altitude) and crashed.
Our first day here we ventured out into the crazy streets of the Zocalo and surrounding Centro Historico. We felt fairly intimidated as there are so many people, and you have to walk around all the street vendors who are shouting unkown things in your face. And as we discovered, the scariest thing in Mexico City is crossing the road. There arnt any road rules here, and more people are injured on the roads every year than from any other reason. I thought I was going to die every time.
We were both quite blown away by the centuries old buildings eveywhere, which are all awesome. We managed to find some disgusting food and retired back to our safe little hostel.
On Tuesday night we went to the Lucha Libre (wrestling), via the metro. It was an awesomely funny spectacle. We saw big scary Mexican chicks wrestling, and then a couple of rounds of men duels, and then the big finaly of four wrestlers who took it way outta the ring! Steve bought the mask of the favorite wrestler of the night, I bought one with cool colours he he.
We checked out some cool old Aztec ruins, Teotitlan, and the museum that was built on top of the rest of the ruins. On Thursday we went to a Mezcal workshop in Teotihuacan where they gave us a demo on how they make mezcal from the Agave plant, and all itts other uses. We sampled some real mezcal, some infused with almonds and some Prickly cactus alcohol, all were absolutely delicious. Then we ate our first decent meal in ages, which included a cactus salad. Afterwards we checked out the Teotihuacan Pyramids, a massive old Aztec city, and climbed to the top of the Sun Pyramid which gives an amazing view of the whole city and surrounding landscape.
For the rest of our time in Mexico City we wandered around checking out art exhibitions, museums, parks, gardens and markets, smelt heaps of sewrage and ate heaps of disgusting food. Yes Mexico City smells bad and the food is horrible, especially if your a vegetarian, which is impossible. The underground metro here is very efficient, however it gets extremely packed and at one point Steve got off and then a whole lot of big men charged in and pushed me back onto the train. Steve went crazy and started screaming at them all and had to pull my arm to get me off, I was pissing myself laughing, scary but funny.
Our Hostel room never got below 33, it was so hot that we awoke grumpy every day. After 8 days here we knew it was time to leave and head for the coast

So we arrived in L.A o.k, but spent most of our first day a bit jetlagged and wandered around Venice Beach alittle confused by the craziness. Every 2 minutes down the boardwalk someone wants money, or a cigarette, or wants to give you an evaluation for medical marijuana. It was a lot to take in, in the state we were in. Had an early night and awoke fresh on Wednesday. We met a tourist from Chicago outside our hostel who gave us a lift to Santa Monica in his 4WD, the whole way there asking if we had cars like this and that in Australia. Santa Monica is a more upmarket beach town, with nice cafe's and expensive shops. We checked out the Santa Monica Pier, the old hangout of the original surfers and skaters of Dogtown, now it is a mini carnival.
We drank at a little bar that night while chicks danced on the bar we were drinking from, which was pretty interesting. We met a local guy who drunkenly drew us maps of things to see on serviettes, then took us back to his joint and got us more drunk.
On Thursday we went in search of Hollywood, but we were extemely hungover and it took us all day just to get there. And on the way bus drivers kept throwing our "day passes" in the bin, then Steve had an argument with one and got us kicked off the bus. Then we finally got to Hollywood, stepped off the bus into some kind of Hollywood Latino ghetto. It took us another hour or two to find the real Hollywood, and it was a massive disapointment. We were over it and just wanted to get back to our nice quirky little Venice Beach.
Everybody in Venice Beach gets around by bike, rollerblades, skates, and every type of bizarre moving contraption you can think of. And much to Steves delight half of the population there gets about on skateboards. So he hired a board and had a go in the massive Venice Beach skate park which was pretty cool, and he had just gotten a tattoo about an hour beforehand.
The beach boardwalk is a colourful festival everyday. Every begger has their own unique way of earning their cash. From the "worlds biggest wino" who will tell jokes for money, to people wearing signs promising they will buy heroin with it, to the world renowned Harry Perry who sold us a t-shirt and cd, and played us a song which was funny stuff.
Venice Beach was supposed to be a nothing stop, just the entrance to Mexico, but when we had to leave we were sad because its such an awesome place to chill out

Team Rangorilla are on the search for the elusive Chinchilla.

Our mission is to find the chinchilla and save the world… errr… or maybe just have fun on the way.
We have worked out our basic route to where we think the chinchilla may be hiding.

We leave on Tuesday 29th March

Our (extremely rough) itinerary is

March 29 L.A.: Venice Beach
April 3 Mexico City
26 Miami
28 Colombia: Bogota
May 5 Santa Marta
Tayrona National Park
16 Leticia
Boat up the Amazon
Peru: Iquitos
Lima
Huacachina
Arequipa
Cuzco
Lake Titicaca
Bolivia: La Paz
Salar de Uyuni
Chile: San Pedro de Atacama
Santiago
Illapel
Some little shack in the desert in the middle of nowhere

To be continued…