Gemma K

Our journey to Ilha Grande wasn’t the easiest of trips, in part self-inflicted lack of sleep and in part a driver who not only got us lost leaving Rio – at one point we were still 3 blocks from our hostel 1.5 hours after being picked up – but also drove so erratically that he had us reaching for our seatbelts and crossing our fingers that we’d arrive in one piece. But arrive in one piece we did and it only took over 5 hours to do a 2.5hr journey, not bad by South American standards! Thankfully the boat transfer hadn’t left yet so it was a quick hop from the minibus of doom and on to a catamaran for a trip across the sea to Ilha Grande or as it has been rechristened by us, ... read more

The Sambadrome is a purpose built parade area in downtown Rio, it’s a 700m stretch of street converted into a permanent parade ground with bleachers built along both sides, with a 90,000 capacity. It’s the part of carnival that’s broadcasted all over the world, the competition between samba schools to win the carnival crown. The schools gain points for lots of aspect of their parade, one of them being the inclusion of tourists in the dancing chorus, for what seemed like an astronomical amount of money (especially after I’ve been travelling on a budget for a long time) you get a costume to keep and get to join in the parade. Whilst it’s not an expense I could justify – or truthfully something that I think I would enjoy all that much – some friends were ... read more

From Foz we headed to Brazil’s Southern Pantanal. The Pantanal is a vast wetland that covers much of inland and central Brazil, staying on a cattle ranch we spent a few days getting up close and personal with the Brazilin wildlife. Heading out on horseback we traversed the ranch viewing an amazing amount of birdlife in the tree tops, hundreds of macaws and parakeets, some toucans, kingfishers, storks, kites and hawks. On night safaris we hoped for jaguars but were happy to see ocelot, capybara and giant ant eaters. When not out viewing the wildlife there was a huge pool, amazing food, cold beers…… From the Pantanal it was a short drive to Bonito – described as the ecotourism capital of Brazil. Surrounding Bonito are crystal clear rivers, natural springs and caves. We spent a couple ... read more

The Buenos Aires Street Arttour takes you around the city giving you an up-close introduction to the street art scene, our guide an English guy called Matt was so enthusiastic for the art and knew where to find all the best murals and graffiti pieces. He’d previously co-written a book on South American street art and has a wealth of knowledge on all things graffiti. Matt leads us around the neighbourhoods of Palermo and Colegiales as he explains about the history of street art in Argentina - When the military dictatorship fell in the 80’s and the constraints on free expression were lifted graffiti bloomed- we see colours exploding and animals leaping out from the walls as wepass by, in addition to animals every other picture imaginable will appear somewhere in the city if you look ... read more

Leaving El Chalten at the unsociable time of 5am was made slightly (and only just) more bearable by the amazing sunrise and subsequent scenery witnessed through the truck windows as we drove, we spent the day following the Atlantic coast heading towards Camarones. Long drive days quickly settle into a routine of dozing, reading and watching the world go by, accompanied by a soundtrack of whatever’s flavour of the day on my ipod, this way 14+ hours of driving passes relatively painlessly. A few 100ks outside of Camarones we stopped for the night, heading to what looked like a lovely little campsite and it was a lovely little campsite to begin with, we set up the tents and got on with cooking dinner, it was still warm and sunny at 9pm, beer in hand, tunes on, ... read more