The bus ride from Buenos Aires to our first stop in Patagonia took 18 hours. It was an overnight bus so when Trace and I went to sleep we were still surrounded by the lush green pastoral Pampas landscape of northern Argentina and southern Brazil. When we woke up we were on the dry, arid, Patagonian tablelands - it was a different world. Our first stop was Puerto Madryn. Patagonia Part 1 - Puerto Madryn, Penninsula Valdes, Punta Tomba and Gaiman Stopping at Puerto Madryn was a necessity as much as an opportunity to visit the World Heritage Site at Penninsula Valdes. Any longer on the bus south and we would have gone mad. We had two sightseeing days at this Patagonian mid point before heading further south. The first day was spent on Penninsula Valdes. ... read more

Well we are now in Argentina. We arrived at the Brazilian side of the border in a place called Foz De Iguazu, tired after a night on a bus and needing somewhere to stay. We stayed in town at a cheap little hostel-hotel. After a quick sleep we went out on the town, only to return exhausted at 4pm. Tracy laid on the bed for about 2 minutes before her side of the mattress fell through the bed frame, with her on it. She was OK, but we then had to explain in our poor Spanish to the hotel manager how the bed had been broken. From the looks he, and the chap how fixed the bed, were giving us, they had come to their own conclusion! ***Tracÿ - And we were innocently just talking about ... read more

Week 2 and its all about Colonial towns and Beaches!! So after a crazy time in sunny Rio we headed off on our travels to a couple of smaller towns and beaches. First stop was a place called Ouo Preto, a small town north west of Rio. This colonial town built up around a number of gold mines in the 16th Century. Its a pretty hilly place, but that meant great photos- see below. We went down one of the mines and it was crampt to say the least! After two days we retured to Rio and went on to a place called Ilha Grande- a large island off the coast to the south of Rio. For the next three days it was all about beaches, sun and sea. Finally, we have now come further down ... read more