It was pure conicidence that we arrived in Brazil just in time for Carnaval, the biggest party on the planet!! The two best places to experience it are in Salvador or Rio but we were told that Salvador is the best so we decided to stay there.Rio is more for the tourists and has the amazing costumes whereas Salvador is for the Brazillians who take to the streets to party for a whole week non stop til they drop. When we arrived in Salvador the hostel was nice but the staff were horrible, not what you need when you arrive after [View Full Entry]

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Two other people had told us about a little place just 100 miles north of Rio called Arrial do Cabo. We got a ticket from the bus station in Rio which was manic as its the holiday season in Brazil and everyone is off on their jollys. It was only 3 hours up the coast and the hostel was really nice with a pool. Arrial do Cabo is a quiet unassuming town but its main attraction are its beaches. We got up early and wandered down to the best beach and it was beautiful. It made a welcome change from the [View Full Entry]

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Our first impressions of Rio as we arrived after our 27hr journey werent good. The favelas (shanty towns) seemed to go on forever and I was starting to wish I had never watched City of God.It didnt help when we were told at the bus station we shouldnt pick up a cab off the street as it was too dangerous but get one from inside the terminal. We were staying in Santa Teresa at Rio Hostel, the hostel was described in our guide as beautiful which couldnt be further from the truth.The conditions were cramped and our room had no window [View Full Entry]

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Legend has it a jealous forest god caused the riverbed to collapse to stop a warrior escaping downriver with a young girl.The girl fell and turned into a rock, the warrior survived as a tree overlooking his fallen lover. The sheer size and power of the falls are awesome. It was new years day when we got there. The hostel had laid on a party for everyone the night before. The weather was great, we were lucky as it rains quite a bit, its really humid as its in the jungle. We took a boat out and it took us right [View Full Entry]

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What can you say about B.A? It has a slice of hip London, Parisian architecture, international cuisine, great bars, superb restaurants, clubs, designer shopping, parks....it has just about everything but at the fraction of the cost.This is up there as one of the best places we have been to so far. There is still poverty here though and that was made worse in 2001 when the economy crashed. People woke up one day to find that they had lost their money!At night groups of people go through the bins to try and find things théy can then sell on to the [View Full Entry]

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The next stop was a sleepy town called Tupiza on the way to the border. It is here that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid got captured and killed and has a real spaghetti western feel about it.The idea was to do some horseriding but the weather didnt hold up so we moved on.We had started travelling with Carlos and Margarita. It was time to leave Bolivia and head for Argentina, we got a bus to the border town of Villazon in Bolivia and we walked across a bridge into Argentina where we got our passports stamped. It was funny as [View Full Entry]

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To say that Boliviain infrastructure is a bit to be desired is an understatement. When we got the bus from Potosi to Uyuni we were told the bus would have to stop, we would then have to walk with all our gear(weighs a tonne!) in the dark across contaminated wasteland for half hour. OK, I think we can swallow that.... But.............when we get to the other end, the passengers of the two buses have all got to fit onto one bus, God knows how? In the chaos that ensued we made friends with Calros from Barcelona and Margarita from Argentina who [View Full Entry]

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Somebody threw a brick at our taxi as we were leaving Sucre to get the bus to Potosi. It was a relief to get out of there. Potosi is a pleasant colonial town and is the world´s highest city. It was basically colonised by the Spanish for it´s silver and at one point was the largest and wealthiest city in the world, fuelling the Spanish economy. The main reason to visit Potosi is to vist the mines, which are still working to this day, although the silver has all gone they still mine for minerals such as zinc. I was really [View Full Entry]

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At the bus station on the way out of La Paz some scumbag picked my bag up put it over his shoulder and walked off with it.Fortunately, Marina felt the strap of the bag move under her foot and ran after him. Cool as you like and with more front than Blackpool he apologised and walked off into the crowds. Couldnt believe it, so close to losing all our photos...well done Marina. The bus journey back from Rurrenabque was 18 hours and the plan was to get to Sucre, kick back, relax, maybe take in a few churches and colonial buildings. [View Full Entry]

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The worst road I have ever been on!! 16hrs on a knackered old bus.It was excruciating, you couldnt sleep because your head jolted violently all over the place.They had to stop along the way to change the wheel, gives you some idea of the quality of the road.However, this did give us the opportunity to use the toilet - if you can call it that, the worst in the world, the locals were using the showers, this makes a nice change from using the street I suppose. When we arrived in Rurrenabaque at 6am my head was spinning and we had [View Full Entry]

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