We headed out from Dublin with Rabbie's Tours, our group of 12 consisting of five Americans, four Australians, two Chinese, and one Canadian, and our driver/guide, Marcus. Our first destination was Belfast, where we focused on The Troubles between Catholics and Protestants in the 1970s to 1990s that led to thousands of deaths in Northern Ireland. We made three quick stops along Falls Road to look at murals of the hunger strikers (Bobby Sands, etc.), ten of whom died in the 1970's. They were IRA members who protested that they should be prisoners of war, not criminals, so wouldn't wear the prison garb, etc. As with most conflicts, there were lots of atrocities on both sides. We had a little break from The Troubles at lunch time with a two-hour stop at the Titanic Belfast Visitor ... read more

On June 27 we flew from Rio to Iguazu, approximately a two hour flight. We were puzzled as to why our seat assignments kept changing, from booking to check-in to gate. The when we got on the plane, we were told to just sit anywhere but not in the first ten rows! It turned out that the cockpit door lock was broken, so for security reasons they didn't want anyone within ten rows of it, and therefore about 50 people had been bumped off the flight! Good thing we were traveling with a group or it could have been us. Upon reaching Iguazu we drove straight to the waterfalls rather than our hotel, because this was our only chance to see the Brazillian side of the falls, and the park closed at five. We saw some ... read more

On June 22 we woke up at 2 am (!) to fly to Cuiaba in the state of Mato Grosso. Then after arriving there we had a three hour drive to our destination,the Pousada Rio Mutum, which we reached at about 4 pm. However, we all got a second wind on the drive, because it was probably the best wildlife viewing we've had yet. Right away we saw greater rheas (large emu-like birds), and then about 40 other bird species. Somehow we were blessed with unusual sightings: a tree full of twenty blue and yellow macaws, a family of five toco toucans, capuchin and black howler monkeys together, and even a giant anteater that Wayne spotted just disappearing into the bush. It was also the brief season for tabebuia trees to be in brilliant pink flower, ... read more

June 18 we woke at 4:30 to fly to Manaus via Brasilia, arriving about 1 pm after setting our clocks back an hour. Manaus is on the Rio Negro just above the spot where the major branches of the Amazon come together (meeting of the waters). Here, finally, we are really hot and humid, and this is the "winter." It was 98 degrees today and sunny! We went directly from the airport in our air conditioned bus (yay!) to the Manaus Opera House, built in 1896. At the time, this was the rubber capital of the world, and it was forbidden to export any seeds or young rubber trees I order to protect the industry, but in the early 1900s some British men sneaked seeds to Malaysia by hiding them inside the shell of a coconut-like ... read more

June 13. We emerged from the fog of a 9-hour overnight flight into the Rio airport, which is large and modern, walked about half a mile (literally - I have a pedometer), and entered a long, slow immigration line serviced by only two agents. The joys of travel. Things were looking up, though, when we breezed through customs and emerged into the real world to find our Overseas Adventure Travel guide, Danna, and four other group members waiting for us. From that point on we were well taken care of with comfortable bus transportation and conversation on the way to our Rio Othon Palace Hotel right on the beach in Copacabana. First impressions of the city: huge, spread out over a large area divided by beautiful peaks and bodies of water, requiring bridges and tunnels that ... read more