ByeByeWhitleyBay

After 23 hours on a bus you would think we would be exceptionally stiff and uncomfortable but, thanks to the 'cama' seating with almost fully reclining seats the journey to Rio was the most comfortable we had experienced so far. The only drawback was that, despite the cost, no food was included so we had to take some snacks with us to tide our hunger over. At least there as free coffee :-) It was a nice feeling sipping a hot beverage and seeing the statue of 'Christ the Redeemer' for the first time high above the city. In reality he looks quite small from the ground! We arrived at sunny Rio around 1:30pm (feeling a little hungry as our supplies had run out earlier at breakfast) and entered the main bus station which - to ... read more

As with all large cities, actually getting into the centre on the bus was a long process, with us having to pass the sprawling urban areas before finally coming to a stop at Retiro, the main bus terminal. However, the multi-level building was fairly modern with all the ticket offices contained on the upper level: useful for us to scout out companies for our onward journey. This task completed we ventured outside and into the mass of humanity - the most we had seen in one place for a long time - in search of the Subte (the Argentinean version of the metro/underground) which we caught to our hostel. We had chosen to stay in the area of San Telmo, a district to the south of the centre and famous for being one of the ... read more

Villazon was a bustling town, made prosperous for being cheaper than its Argentinian neighbour La Quiaca therefore more popular for thrifty tourists. Avoiding the numerous shoe, textile and cake shops that lined the route to the border, we changed our remaining Bolivianos into Pesos and completed the crossing, waiting for 30mins on the Argentinian side for our entry stamp (strangely, no entry form though - first country not to have one). We followed the straggling line of tourists walking to the bus station in La Quiaca and were dismayed to find that the next bus to Salta (that we could see - the station was rather a melee of offices and locals) did not leave until 8pm - in 4 hours time. This was doubly disappointing as the journey was only scheduled to be 7-8 hours ... read more

The road wound its way through a couple of dusty, sleepy towns and round a small mountain range onto the flat expanse that surrounds Uyuni. Rattling along the bumpy route we drew near to the town, the initial glimpse of the salt flats we had previously experienced from the mountain top having disappeared as we descended leaving only vast open spaces broken only when we reached the walled church graveyard on the outskirts of town. Uyuni is described as 'climatically challenged' which is a nice way of saying that its in the middle of a desert with nothing green for miles around. On arrival we found quickly where we were on the map and made our way through the dusty streets to a cheap hostel. There seemed to be no electricity and asked the owner why ... read more

Our journey to the Amazon basin began with a speedy taxi ride to the northern bus terminal to find our 'flota' (long distance bus) to Rurrenabaque for a three day trip to see the wildlife. Of course, the taxi arrived late which meant we had to zip through the rush hour traffic in order to meet the 11am departure but this didn't turn out to be a problem as the bus was over an hour late leaving anyway. We arrived into the chaos of the bus station where buses were being packed full of strange packages along with passenger luggage since buses once again seem to act as a makeshift parcel service. Eventually we set off and made it about 50m up the street before the bus pulled over for another half hour while huge piece ... read more