Sep 25, 2010 - Tchau Brasil

So the final few days in Brasil have arrived. Rather than heading onwards to Sao Paulo we followed the sun and headed for the greatest concentration of trainee lawyers in south america that we could find - back to Rio. Having been persuaded by the hostel owner to use the hostels transfer back to Rio, a few hours later we were there. Sania had a couple of friends who were already encamped there doing a Portuguese course for a few weeks, who were staying in a hostel/home called The White House. MOre like a castle actually. Luckily there was...

Jul 16, 2010 - The mighty falls

After another bloody long journey, this time with the air conditioning stuck on freezing, we arrived bright, cold and early at the Brazilian side of the falls and were greeted by temperatures of 1 degree. Nice. However, after grabbing a quick luke warm shower at our ´Supernova` hostel, we pushed on and caught the bus to Iguaçu National Park. They were spectacular! Rather than trying to describe the scenery and not do it justice, here are a few pictures ....

May 25, 2010 - Matt's Birthday

Had planeed to do helicopter flight over Iguacu this morning for Matt´s birthday - however unfortunately was cancelled (cloudy). Still did the boat trip into the falls - got absolutely drenched - had lunch in the restaurant overlooking the falls then wandered round. Dinner at a local cantina - menus don´t have English translations so we ordered chips then what we figured might be a cheese sandwich - turned out just to be diced cheese - JACKPOT = cheesy chips! Will have a nice birthday meal elsewhere for Matt since there is NOWHERE in this...

May 9, 2010 - The Pantanal

As some of you know, our route through South America is not exactly the standard one...we are basically following a vague line that Luce and I scribbled on a map two years ago! This involves crossing from Rio into Bolivia, which looked definitely doable on my world atlas. We decided to go via the Pantanal which is an area of wetland in Brazil, half the size of France but often overlooked in the shadow of the Amazon. So after a night in Campo Grande to recover from the 24 hour bus journey from Rio, we set off into the jungle in a jeep. Our...

May 2, 2010 - There once was a boy from Canberra-ina

Today is art 2 of my great Iguazu (or Iguacu in portugese) falls adventure. Now let me tell you firstly, the travel agent lady here is the biggest liar there ever was. She was caught out the other day and she lied to me today. I missed "her" direct bus to the brazilian side of the falls for 50 pesos. As a result she would not help me (similarly the other night when i'd already booked my luna walk). the recetion guy is fortunately a good bloke. He suggested the bus from the bus terminal was about 30 pesos. Then the #$%^@ (insert expletives)...

Apr 29, 2010 - Iguassu Falls - more pics

Hola and good bye Brazil - it was the best! We are in spanish country now; Brazil is portugeuse and we just arrived in Salto, Uruguay; afer our long bus ride; we are sort of sad to leave Brazil as there will no more ciaphrina's or portugeuse - spanish moitio's now!- our bus was stopped twice and searched with drug dog and guards - pretty wild experience; we arrived early this morning bus dropped us off in the middle ot no where but taxi's waiting for us to cross the border - oh what fun. Leaving for the thermal pools today and spa...

Apr 27, 2010 - Iguassu Falls, Brazil

Picturs of Igussua Falls Brazil and Argentia Side - Totally imaging. More pictures to follow. Could not download all at one time. SORRY GUYS CAN NOT DOWNLOAD ALL PICS - WILL TRY AGAIN TOMORROW. LAST TWO DAYS HAVE BEEN AMAZING - NOW WE KNOW WHY THEY CALL THIS ONE OF THE 7 NATURAL WONDERS OF THE WORLD. FIRST DAY WE TREKKED FOR 4 HOURS ON THE BRAZIL SIDE AND WE GOT SOAKED JUST FROM THE MIST THE FALLS ARE SWOLLEN WITH WATER REPORTS SAY THIS IS THE HIGHEST VOLUME OF WATER THEY HAVE EVER SEEN - SABE TOLD US THAT WE ARE VERY LUCKY TO SEE THIS AT...

Mar 5, 2010 - Wa-ter lot of Falls

Following a gruelling 14 hour drive we arrived in Foz de Iguaca in the dead of night and camped about 10 minutes away from the legendary falls. Iguaca falls consists of 275 seperate waterfalls and is 3km wide, covering both Brazilian and Argentinian land. It is fed by Rio Iguaca which is 12,000 km long. We visited the Brazilian side first of all and literally spent the whole day exploring. You can hear the falls long before you can see them and our fist view was from about 1km away and it literally blew us away but little did we know that...

Mar 2, 2010 - Will Something Please Bite Me?

Bidding the Atlantic coast goodbye, but not farewell, we headed inland towards the huge mass of Amazonian bush that seems to take up the whole of the middle of South America. We went to the Pantanal, a huge open swampland about the size of France, roughly 200,000 square km. It was the rainy season, although it didn’t actually rain when we were there, at least on us. I say not on us because often you could hear thunder and see lighting dancing in evil black clouds on the horizon, but it never reached us. It did mean, however, that there were...

Dec 25, 2009 - Merry Christmas with Michael Jackson

Merry Christmas! My first ever spent in the Southern Hemisphere--opposite toilet flushes, summertime weather and all. Christmas Eve was our celebration day--an afternoon spent with a few bottles of wine by the beautiful pool at Hotel Feana in Buenos Aires and dinner at reputedly the best restaurant in the city Oviedo. Tasty. Today we arrived in Iguaçu, home to some of the world´s most beautiful waterfalls, I hear (Off to see them in the morning.), and Stuart, our Brazilian Michael Jackson look-alike, sound-alike and assistant to our...

Dec 15, 2009 - Curitiba

I arrived in Curitiba, Brasil last night. I'm staying at a hotel until Thursday because there is a maximum stay limit at the hostel I'm staying at. The hotel is right downtown, whereas the hostel is 25 minutes from downtown by bus. I spent most of the day today just walking around the city. I have started to really pay attention to my surroundings and every 2 minutes I try and find something that will stand out in my mind so that I can recognize it if I get lost or need to get back somewhere. So, I can count on one hand all the words I...

Dec 3, 2009 - Foz de Iguassu

As soon as I arrived at Foz de Iguassu I dumped my rucksack at the hostel and went straight out to see Iguassu Falls from the Brazilian side. I´ve been accused of using this word too much when describing the things i´ve seen (you know who you are!) but Iguassu Falls are quite simply amazing. They are a collection of approximately 275 waterfalls on the Rio Parana that borders Brazil and Argentina. The sheer size of the falls and the volume of water crashing down is absolutely mind blowing. This is another occasion where the pictures don´t...