Driving along in an automobile It´s hard to know what to write about Argentina. Unfortunatly we were only there a week so I do not feel we have quite done it justice! Crossing the border was a long affair due to several people in the group not realising that they had to keep their visa slips from immigration and were thus forced to pay 150 US Dollars. We then crossed over and had to queue again to enter Argentina, but the officials seemed to enjoy skipping over us and allowing locals to go before us. We eventually entered though and headed [View Full Entry]

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Leaving the Pantanal After our two and a half hour ride back to Swampy on the "4x4" we set off again for another delightful day of driving with a free camp in a service station next to a road. Hmmm. Well at least it didn't rain! We then continued on south to Foz do Iguacu, the Brazilian town for the Iguazu falls. The journey was a first for me for two reasons. Firstly, I read. I was so fed up of being bored I thought I'd risk travel sickness for some amusement and I was actually ok! For about 15 minutes. [View Full Entry]

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Pantanal So after leaving Bonito, we headed into an area called the Pantanal. It covers land in both Brazil and Paraguay and is the world's largest wetlands, covering 75,000 sq miles. We were dreading the journey there because we had to be carted in on what can only be called a tram (though they called it a 4x4) and we'd been warned that the journey would be a mossie heaven. As we had already spent the last 2 weeks scratching every inch of our bodies, we were not looking forward to more. Luckily the journey itself was not too bad and [View Full Entry]

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On The Road We are finally on our way, travelling on a wonderfully yellow truck called Swampy and getting to know each other on our 10 week Budget Expeditions adventure. This truck, along with the tents it is carrying, will be our home for this whole time across South America. The bus is incredible huge with lots of leg room and two table areas at the front of the bus as well as a library at the back. We also have a sound system which we can connect up to our iPod's and MP3's, though a tv where we could watch [View Full Entry]

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Its Carnival time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (or Carnaval as they say here) And here I am in Rio de Janeiro. You have never experienced a party until you have experienced this I am telling you. Samabdrome I honestly don't think words can describe this event. This was the night I had most been looking forward to and it did not disappoint. Unfortunatly it rained half the night and I felt a bit ill but it was still fantastic. We were sat in stand 13 which was on the left hand side right at the finishing line and we had a great view. Its hard [View Full Entry]

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Arrival Wow, so I'm finally here. And what an adventure. The flight over was relatively ok. I managed to get a emergency exit seat but that was about the only good part of my trip. Firstly, even though it was a 10hr 30min flight, there were only main screen t.v's which showed nothing for the first two hours. This was also how long we had to wait to get our food. So then it was 1.30am and everyone decided to go to sleep, as you would. I woke up an hour later and they had just started showing the first film, [View Full Entry]

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It is the night before the long day ahead. Well actually the morning of the long day ahead now I have finished writing this. I'm finally packed, in the sense that my rucksack is all fastened up. Though no doubt it will all be opened up again tomorrow either to add some extra items I have forgotton, or to take all the contents to pieces because it is just too heavy (though I can't see any possible way of making it lighter other than to take no clothes at all!) I still maintain it is the sleeping bag and thermorest that [View Full Entry]

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