After hearing bad reports about Puno we decided to cancel our hostel booking and go to Copacabana instead. Copa is on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca and the gang from Madidi said it was much nicer. When we flew back to La Paz from Rurre we weren't feeling too good, we took a cab with Mike a Sarah to San Francisco church and there we parted as they went to their hostel and we checked intop our Hotel. They were planning on climbing the peak in La Paz (over 6,000m) in the coming days . We had booked the hotel in Rurre and we were glad we did. We were feeling under the weather due to the altitude and it was freezing cold outside. Our room had a plug in heater where we could dry ... read more

We left Buenos Aires in high spirits, as our trip to the Jungle in Bolivia is something we have been looking forward to for a long time. We were to get a flight from BA to Santa Cruz in Bolivia, and then from Santa Cruz to La Paz. We planned to stay in La Paz overnight and then catch our flight to Rurrenabaque the following morning, and from Rurre we would get to Madidi by boat up the Beni river. Our flight from SC to LP was originally scheduled for the afternoon, but it got cancelled. We were booked on a 7pm flight instead. That was no problem, it didn´t really bother us! We arrived in SC airport around 11.30 am and hung around the airport until 5.30 when they would let us go through security ... read more

Orlagh blogging here! After our long journey from Rio, we arrived in Foz de Iguaçu on Monday afternoon. We got off the bus and ran into 3 irish girls Jamie, Michelle and Sarah. We decided to get something to eat and stopped off at a traditional Brazilian all-you-can eat buffet. Afterwards, the girls decided to head over to the Argentinian side (to Puerto Iguazu) where they were staying. We decided to go see the Brazilian side of the Falls while we were there. So off we went with our backpacks (the heat was unreal) to look for a banklink to get cash, which took forever. It can be difficult to find a banklink that accepts international cards. We went looking for a tourist information centre, but it wasn´t where it said it was on the map. ... read more

Dave blogging here... after a late night at the wedding and a game of penos back at the hotel (not to mentioning having to share Pedros room!) we were up early to get the transfer back into Sao Paolo, everyone was in a good mood but very sleepy from the night before so not much was discussed on our way. We dropped Rudy and Cintia off at the airport which we thought would be the last time we saw them for some time but they will reappear in a later episode. So then it was off to the Vila Madalena hostel in SP for me, Olragh, Kev, Emma and Pedro. Rory and Jessie were travelling back later on and staying in a hotel elsewhere in SP. The hostel was grand, we were all in bunks in ... read more

Typing this from Santos post-wedding but here´s a run down of our last couple of days in Rio before we flew to Sao Paolo....this is the first Dave entry so let´s see how it goes... We were up relatively early on Wednesday morning to greet Rory and Jess. Spent the day in the sun at the beach in Ipanema. Saddled up with a box of beers from Mineiro´s mates (the Kevin Costner aficionado was absent on the day himself) and stayed there from 11.30am until about 4pm. Needless to say we almost all got a bit sunburnt. It was a great day between playing sea ball, watching the girls get knocked over by the waves and listening to Rory haggle with the vendedores... the best moment being when he told a guy he could only buy ... read more