Aaron Condron

Hola amigos, My last entry was just as we were leaving for the jungle, a 40 minute plane journey north from La Paz to Rurrenabaque, Bolivia, a popular place to visit the Amazon Basin from. This however was no normal flight, and no Boeing 747, as lined up against the large jumbo´s was our plane which seated about 9 and in the front seat as I was, you could see into the cockpit and oversee the pilots reassuringly cracking jokes and enjoying themselves. Just as we were getting over the size of the plane, we descended deep into the Amazon Basin, landing on a grassy strip cut out in the middle of the jungle, onto the formalities in the shack that was the airport. Apparently flights become cancelled when it rains, luckily however we were greeted ... read more

Evening all, Hopefully this latest entry goes off with a bang, as it was Potosi next, world reknown for being both the highest city in the world, sitting not so pretty at 4080 metres, and the dynamite captial of the world, one of few places where the buying, selling, and exploding of such stuff is perfectly legal. The journey was once again memorable, the distance from Uyuni to Potosi is roughly similar to that between Birmingham and Sheffield, however I don´t think even the worst M1 jam would lead to an 8 hour marathon, this a result of the steep climb, winding roads, and ineptitude of drivers in large vehicles, recklessly turning corners and ending up stuck teetering perilously over the edge. In our taxi from the bus terminal we heard that Real Potosi, the team ... read more

Hola again all, barely have you had time to take in and enjoy my Iguazu blog and I lumber upon you all the details of our next adventure. Hope you have the stomach. From Puerto Iguazu we endured yet another 24 hour bus journey (my concept of distances will be massively altered by the time I get back), and arrived in Salta, Northern Argentina, a burgeoning attraction for travellers and tourists alike for its natural landscapes, vineyards, architecture, and opportunities to take road trips scattered with incredible views. First impressions of Inti Huasi, to be our hostel for a over at week, were excellent, as resident legend Victor greeted me with a freshly made brew: this was to become a pattern throughout our stay, during which we have been treated mildly like Kings. As in Northern ... read more

Ola amigo´s Upon our arrival at Foz Do Iguaçu we were greeted by an enthusiastic staff member who questioned our sanity were we to not visit the Pantanal, several hours north, the worlds largest area of wetlands (as we were to see), encompassing the worlds most dense flora and fauna ecosystem. We conducted a little further research (my only reference to date was John Grisham´s ´The Testament´ where the main character contracts Dengue Fever and is nearly eaten by tribes) and were in agreement, we could hardly call ourselves adventurers if we were to deliberately shun an area host to between 10-35 million cayman (alligators). Adequately persuaded, we took a 15 hour bus to Campo Grande, and transferred from here to the Pantanal, approximately 7 hours away. In order to get to the heart of the ... read more

On Sunday 10th Feb we left Sao Paolo for Rio De Janeiro, a 6 hour journey during which we were subjected to 2 of the worst films ever made, I think one of which was called Raising Helen, avoid it like the plague. Eventually, and thankfully, we approached something resembling a large city which turned out to be Rio, the landscape was very different from Sao Paolo, houses littered everywhere among green hills and many more small houses bundled together, with less evidence of the concrete which dominated the biggest city. The weather was atrocious and the following morning there was a photo of lightning striking the Christ the Redeemer Statue in the local paper, fortunately it stood firm. We arrived in the hostel late in the evening, the hostel itself (Ipanema Wave) is located on ... read more