Wednesday 8th January (Odyssey Day 61) We were collected from the hotel by an air-conditioned coach this morning and everyone was thrilled with the alternative transport that we had for the trip to Rio. The scenery was absolutely beautiful on the drive, with stunning views of the mountains out one window and the sea on the other side. It was a really winding drive along the coast. We arrived in to Rio de Janeiro at lunch time, about 1300 and checked in to our 4 star hotel just down the road from Copacabana beach. What more could we possibly want? A walk down the street to the beach was definitely in order. We did hear about Simon’s interesting drive to get here though. Apparently he got caught in a bit of a riot after a peaceful ... read more

Friday 3rdJanuary (Odyssey Day 56) So today we left our New Year camp, departing at 0730 after breakfast. Everyone was sad to leave as we have all really enjoyed our New Year break. Packing up our tent, I was rather unlucky to discover the hard way that fire ants had decided that under the tent was a nice cool place to build a new home. By the time the first one bit, my feet were covered with them and it was certainly one way to make sure I was well and truly awake! And I am not at all ashamed to admit that this had me jumping around, spinning in circles and shaking my feet in some weird parody of the chicken dance trying to get them off as fast as possible. To be fair there ... read more

Friday 27th December (Odyssey Day 49) Another resting day today. Some went to Paraguay for a day trip but I didn’t want to spend all day out, mostly on a bus, so Hannah and I relaxed for the morning instead. We were planning on heading out for the afternoon, Hannah to the bird park and myself into town, when the rain suddenly started pouring down. We got absolutely soaked while closing everyone’s tent flaps and bringing in their shoes, so we decided to stay at camp. Fortunately, even the rain is warm here so we weren’t too worried about catching a cold. Cook group two had our last cook day today as we change to the new cook groups and truck jobs tomorrow. Actually, cook group two will no longer exist, as it has been deemed ... read more

Tuesday 24th December (Odyssey Day 46) Getting dropped into town this morning, our first stop was a bank. We found an HSBC and managed to get some money from the ATM. Unfortunately some cards trigger a maximum withdrawal from the local bank and you can only get out 300 real per day. I believe it is a security thing and while that’s good, it’s also really frustrating. A few of us then caught a local bus to Iguazu falls. The bus was interesting, when we boarded we didn’t pay the bus driver – instead there was a turnstile just behind him with an operator who took the money and let you through. I’ve never seen a setup like this before, but it did make each stop much quicker as the driver didn’t have to worry about ... read more

Saturday 21st December (Odyssey Day 43) Cook group 2 was on again today, so I was up to set out breakfast at 0615. It was a rushed breakfast this morning, as at 0700 we all had a boat tour of Laguna Ibera which lasted for 2 hours. We were split into three boats for the trip and fortunately Triona was in our boat and able to translate some of what our guide was saying as her Spanish is a lot better than the rest of ours. This made it a lot more interesting as we could understand what he was telling us about the area and the animals. We saw some caiman of various sizes and plenty of different birds. The splashes in the water in some areas were apparently piranha but we could only see ... read more