Dr Pepper

10 days in Rio de Janeiro, The Cidade Maravilhosa (The Marvellous City). Not many cities can boast such a beautiful setting, its backed by green mountains that look down on to wide swathes of sandy beaches. My hostel was in the area of Ipanema, one of the more expensive, and safer areas on Rio. The hostel was on a small closed street with a few other hostels so the atmosphere was relaxed, friendly and safe. Every evening people from the different hostels were out chatting on the street, well until the 10pm curfew. The first couple of days were spent getting to know Ipanema beach, which was 5 minute walk from the hostel, and seeing a few of the city sights. Ipanema beach is a great place to laze for an afternoon, the water is generally ... read more

Another little "hop" later, only 18 hours on the bus this time, and we arrived in puerto iguazu. Our hostel was just over the road from the bus terminal, which was just as well cos the humidity was about 30 billion % NO EXAGGERATION..... So we sweatted the day away until the aircon came on in our room and we could breathe without getting our clothes soaking wet... Next day we visited the Iguazu National Park. Was really impressed with the park itself, very easy to negotiate around, paved paths and raised walkways kept us tourist hordes from trampling the forest and led to various view points of the falls. Spent the morning wandering the upper and then the lower walkways, so amazing how huge the falls are, in terms of height, length, number of separate ... read more

This blog was written by my travel buddy Simon...... Day 1 - Leave El Calafate on bus to El Chalten After enjoying a touch too much Malbec the night before with some people we met in the hostel we kind of missed our scheduled bus and had to book another for 1pm. All went OK from there as we headed off for what seemed a very easy 3 ½ hour bus trip. However, we left fairly clear but windy weather and headed off into what can really only be described as ‘a cloud'... Driving rain and blustery winds gave the impression, once again, of the place being a harsh frontier town only suitable for the very hardy... I did see a couple of Condors overhead as the bus entered the valley... Boy they are big! Apparently ... read more

We arrived in Bariloche, only an hour late, and were blown away - literally - there was a chilly gale racing through the overcast day, quite a shock to the system after our incubated bus journey. We shouldered our packs for extra wind resistance and set off to catch a bus into town centre, our first priority to find a place to stay for the night. Of course we missed our bus stop and ended up in the far side of Bariloche, but as we walked back towards the centre, we came across one of the hostels we had tried but failed to contact to reserve with. The hostel was cosy and set right on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi, with a bar downstairs and a double room free it was perfect until they told ... read more

Venezuela to Arentina I left Margarita on the 22nd January and had about 8 days to make it down to Buenos Aires, I really hadnt left myself enough time The epic journey started with a flight from Margarita to Caracas, and then a flight from Caracas to Bogota, at Bogota I changed flight again to Guayaquil, Ecuador. Arrived in Guayaquil after a torturous wait to clear immigration to then find my bag had not come though and was still probably in Bogota. It seemed that this was the case for half of our flight so there was not much else to do but get to the hotel and hope for the next day. Got out of the airport and of course it was raining - my coat is in my luggage. The next day brought ... read more