I'm sat in a diner during a meal break on a very long Greyhound bus journey. Sat at the table in front of me is a large middle aged woman, wearing a T-shirt and shorts. At the table behind the woman are sat 2 thin middle aged men. One of the men says to the woman, "Where're you from?" "Dallas" replied the woman, "I've been inside for 10 years. I shot a man. Do you still wanna talk to me?" You meet some interesting characters on long distance Greyhound bus journeys in the USA. I flew from Rio to Miami arriving [View Full Entry]

---

---

Have you ever tried to meet up with a friend when you are both travelling? It is not that easy. Thereby hangs a tale... I rather rushed through Brazil, a difficult thing to do when the country is so big. Which meant that I spent a long time on Brazilian buses. Brazil is a beautiful country, the people are friendly and love to party. I arrived in Porto Alegre, Brazil by overnight bus from Montevideo in Uruguay on the 26th of July. Porto Alegre is the capital city of the province of Rio Grande do Sol. It was a short stop [View Full Entry]

---

---

I crossed the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento using the Buquebus high speed catamaran ferry. The cat crosses the water in just 55 minutes from breakwater to breakwater. For that reason many tourists visit Colonia on a day trip from Buenos Aires. I though caught the evening cat and spent 2 nights in Colonia. It was dark when I arrived, so I asked a taxi driver to recommend a hotel after checking that he would accept Argentinian money as payment for his fare. He took me to a hotel which cost me $US20 for a [View Full Entry]

---

---

The Iguazu falls are spectacular. When the Iguazu river is running high more than 200 cascades swirl over a 3km long horseshoe front. But when I was there, maybe half the cascades were dry. It was still a spectacle even in its depleted form. The falls have been hit by a long drought and the five dams along the river course in Brazil store water for power generation and irrigation. The Buenos Aires Herald says that "the Brazilians turn off the faucet on weekends in order to be able to get the water in their reservoir lakes up to the level [View Full Entry]

---

---

Paraguay is muy tranquilo. I arrived in Asuncion at the weekend to find the streets of the city centre stunningly empty. There was a little activity on the Saturday morning, but after the siesta started the streets stayed empty all weekend. Paraguay is a laid back sort of place. Everyone takes a long siesta in the afternoons, not a bad idea in such tropical heat. The people are friendly and keen to talk to strangers. They don´t see many gringos. Paraguay is firmly off the backpacker circuit. Most people in Paraguay speak Spanish and Guarani. 95% of the population is considered [View Full Entry]

---

---

9.30am in the Amazon basin. I am knee deep in muddy water walking through the middle of a swamp. The parts of my body not covered in muddy water are soaking wet from the sweat dripping off me, because of the oppressive humidity. It feels like it is building up to a massive storm; the sun is hidden behind the clouds. So, what sort of self inflicted torture am I describing. I was on a Pampas Tour in the Amazon Basin. This wasn't just an excuse for our guide to torture us; we were in fact looking for Anacondas. Who said [View Full Entry]

---

---

"The United States seems destined by Providence to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty." (Simon Boliva, El Libertador). During my trip through the amazing and remote South West of Bolivia, I looked out of the window of the Toyota 4 wheel drive towards the horizon. I was looking towards the Salar de Uyuni (the worlds largest salt flats). But it looked as if some of the landscape had been rubbed out. Light headed as I was from the altitude I would swear that it looked as if the mountains on the horizon were hanging unsupported in the [View Full Entry]

---

---

I've spent the last 2 weeks in the northern Argentinian provinces of Salta and Jujuy. The city of Salta is known as "the beautiful one". It has well preserved colonial architecture, luxurious churches, exuberant parks set to the backdrop of the Andes. Jujuy province, although it is the poorest part of Argentina has the Quebrada de Humahuaca. A valley that stretches from the city of Jujuy to the Bolivian border. The Quebrada de Humahuaca has striking indigenous Quechua speaking towns set against stunning multicoloured mountain sides. It has been a major trade route for 10,000 years, s [View Full Entry]

---

---

Listen, said Ricky. We were standing in the middle of the Valle de la Luna in the Atacama Desert, which is the most arid place on earth. It has a sublime beauty which looks like another planet. We stood there for several minutes in total silence. It was a total silence I´ve never experienced before. We couldn't hear a thing, not even the squeak of a mouse, because the valley is totally devoid of life. It was a profound experience. I had just met Ricky a few hours before, when I had arrived in the village of San Pedro de Atacama. [View Full Entry]

---

---

It took five hours to fly from Santiago to Easter Island. The name of the island is Isla de Pascua in Spanish, but was known as Te Pito O Te Henua (navel of the world) to islanders in the past, and is usually called Rapa Nui today. As we approached Rapa Nui we circled around the tiny island, giving me a panoramic view. Then we landed. As the plane turned around on the runway, I noticed that the runway seemed to go on forever, disapearing over the horizon. I thought to myself; "Welcome to the Space Shuttle emergency airstrip." I am [View Full Entry]

---

---