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South America
SophieandChris
Follow our 20 week journey around South America!
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Day 123 - Down at the Copa-Copacabana
Published: August 15th 2010South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro
July 23rd 2010
Today was our last day in Rio, indeed our last day in South America. We had hoped to spend more time in Rio, as well as some other beach towns, but lack of funds forced us to bring our flights forward by two weeks. We wouldn’t have survived long in Rio anyway, with a double room (in a less than average hostel) costing £50 per night versus the £7-£16 we had paid in every other country! Desperate to catch a few more hours of sun (having left the English winter to arrive in the South American winter, and then not seen as much sun as I would’ve hoped) we got up at 6:30am and headed for Copacabana beach! The weather was gorgeous, and we were so grateful for it as it had been raining in Rio ... read more
Day 122 - Sugar Loaf Mountain, Cristo Redentor and Some Crazy Steps
Published: August 15th 2010South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro
July 22nd 2010
Due to only having one full day in Rio we thought the only way to see all the sights was to book on a city tour. Unfortunately 40 other people also fancied a bit of sightseeing today (no word of a lie). Luckily we got split into three groups, and were able to walk around the sites at our leisure, first up was Sugar Loaf Mountain. The mountain rises nearly 400 metres above the harbour, and it took two cable cars to reach the top, each level providing different, but equally spectacular, views. At the top Chris exclaimed, “Monkey!” To which I replied “What?” as he has taken to calling me monkey. It was in fact a real monkey, dancing all over a nearby tree. Cute! Next stop was lunch, the renowned “per kilo” Brazilian style ... read more
Day 121 - The Girl from Ipanema
Published: August 11th 2010South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Ipanema
July 21st 2010
Arriving around midday we hurriedly changed into our beach gear and headed straight for the beach! Copacabana beach! The weather was beautiful, not overwhelmingly hot and humid like the jungle and Venezuela, but a comfortable 30 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. The beach was gorgeous - with a fascinating backdrop of skyscrapers and mountains. The people, however, were less than gorgeous. I was expecting Rio to be full of beautiful people; skinny women in skimpy bikinis. Only half of this was true, the skimpy bikini part. Thongs galore and tiny triangles of material that let boobs escape in all directions. But these ladies were not skinny, or even average weight. It was a sight for sore eyes. Another amusement was the cycle track on the road that bordered the beach, which facilitated runners ... read more
July 20th 2010
Before our midday bus to Rio, we squeezed in a trip to the bird park near our hostel. Over the course of the morning I developed a number of “new favourite birds” including the macaw and toucan (a post previously taken by the British mallard!). We also saw some strange critters such as the Cassowary and Harpy Eagle (the world’s most powerful raptor!), and a little grey bird that appeared to be doing a mating dance with Chris’s shoe! At midday we boarded our 24 hour bus to Rio, our last bus of the trip. More specifically, this was our 20th public bus, 11 of which travelled overnight. I decided to add up all the hours we spent on the road (including all those days travelling on the Kumuka truck, but excluding day trips sightsee-ing and ... read more
Day 119 - A Wet Day in Iguazu Falls
Published: August 11th 2010South America » Argentina » Misiones » Puerto Iguazú
July 19th 2010
Lucia had told us the previous night that the weather we were currently experiencing was very unusual - when she had arrived a few days ago it was 24 degrees Celsius, and now it was 4 degrees. Today it got worse - it rained. We used the hostel’s minibus to get across to the Argentinean side of the Iguazu Falls National Park (we had hoped to see the Brazilian side too but our delayed flight scuppered those plans) but did not arrive until about 11 o’clock, leaving us only 5 hours to explore the site (which can take up to two days to fully appreciate) before the minibus returned. The site was serviced by a small train line, with only one track. This meant trains could only travel in one direction between the 3 stops. We ... read more
Day 118 - Arriving in Iguazu Falls, 24 Hours Late
Published: August 11th 2010South America » Brazil » Paraná » Foz do IguaçuJuly 18th 2010
We awoke to an amazing buffet breakfast and another one of those travelling coincidences - Harry and Ghia from our jungle trip were sat in the restaurant! They had also had flights cancelled (to the Pantanal), but had been stuck in this hotel on the outskirts of Sao Paolo for two nights (three if you include tonight, as they had already been to the airport and been told they could not fly today). Once again, it made our unfortunate situation seem a little better, as we had only been delayed 24 hours at the end of a 4 month trip; Harry and Ghia were only in Brazil for a few weeks! We headed to the airport early to see if Chris’s bag had turned up. Luckily the lady in lost luggage spoke Spanish, and told us ... read more
Day 117 - Cancelled Flights, Closed Airports and Lost Luggage
Published: August 7th 2010South America
July 17th 2010
When the alarm went off at 4am, we had no what idea what hell was in store for us today, We thought it was bad enough that our flight from Manaus (North Brazil) to Iguazu Falls (South Brazil, on the border with Argentina) involved two changes (at Sao Paolo then Rio) and lasted from 7am to 7pm, but it got a lot lot worse. After landing in Sao Paolo at 11:30am we had a three hour wait for our connection to Rio. We had limited options for lunch (and more expensive than UK airports! £6 for a tiny ham salad sandwich!) and settled for a ham and cheese croissant (after a ham and cheese pastry for breakfast and a ham and cheese sandwich on the plane). In the 20 minutes we spent over lunch, our flight ... read more
Day 116 - Deep in the Rainforest
Published: August 7th 2010South America » Brazil » Amazonas » Manaus
July 16th 2010
Waking up for our last morning in the jungle, I wasn't really sure what else we could do today as every other day had been so successful. Not put off by the rain first thing, Elso had a plan for another canoe trip to see some special flora. Our private tour continued and we headed out in the boat, putt-ing along the river for about an hour. The lack of sun did mean it wasn't too hot, but my boney ass is not designed to sit on a wooden plank for that long! On our journey we spotted another hawk resting and several more macaws scared into the air by the sound of our canoe. Deep in the jugle we pulled onto shore in front of the biggest tree I have ever seen. I thought Sophie ... read more
Day 115 - Trekking into the Jungle
Published: August 7th 2010South America » Brazil » Amazonas » Manaus
July 15th 2010
Sophie woke me early as she had suffered sore eyes yesterday and after a night's sleep her left eye had gunked over and was plastered shut! After a dozen rinses with mineral water she was able to open it again, but it was still puffy and swollen. Not fun in the sweltering heat. The morning's activity was a trek into the jungle, requiring long sleeves and trousers... sooo overkill in this heat but a definite requirement with all the mosquitoes. We went the whole hog and looked very hot with our trousers tucked into our socks! But at least the bugs could only go for our hands, necks and faces... 95% DEET to take care of that (thanks Lucy!) Luckily most of the time we were shaded by the thick foliage; the plant growth was just ... read more
July 14th 2010
Today started with an unexpected awakening at 3:30am with our guide asking if we wanted to get up and watch the sunrise... of course we did, despite Sophie's protests that we had not been given warning the night before. Our night in hammocks with howler monkeys screeching though the night hadn't been a great night's sleep anyway so might as well get up. And it was worth it; spectacular reflections on the water. After breakfast we jumped back in the canoe and headed off to an indigenous family to see how they live on the river. Elso, aka hawk eye, spotted a three toed sloth up in a tree on the way so we stopped for a closer view. Sloths, like jungle iguanas, are known to jump out of their trees if scared, whether over water ... read more
SophieandChris
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Our South American Adventure
Map Legend: 3%, 8 of 263 Territories
Maroon 
We land in Buenos Aires on 23rd March and spend a couple of nights in South America's Paris. We then begin a month long tour of Patagonia and the Argentine Lake District, including a visit to the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia. A number of long bus journeys take us through the Andes to the top of Chile, where we will hop across the border into Bolivia. We begin our exploration of Peru with the Inca Trail (if it's recovered from the recent flooding!) and then it's on to Ecuador. One of the certain highlights of the trip will be the Galapagos Islands, after which we will enjoy the beaches of Venezuela. Then it's down into the Amazon in Brazil (Chris has always aspired to be a jungle explorer.. maybe his next career move!?) followed by the magnificent Pantanel wetlands and Iguazu Falls. We finish up in Rio... from which we fly home on the 6th of August... or maybe the 7th.. I can never remember as we land the day after we take off!
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