The hostel had insisted that I get to the airport v early so I got almost no sleep for a 7:20 flight... it was great to BA from the air, but then I quickly passed out, only to be woken for food... grr!! Flew in to Trelew, over Puerto Madryn and my first view was of cobalt seas and semi desert scrub, with next to no hills. The road to PM confirmed this - it only had about 4 bends in it! Also no trees. Talking to our guide he said they get the same amount of rain as essex, but [View Full Entry]

---

---

We crossed the river Plate on a fast cat - a surprisingly large body of water - took about an hour and a half, with free wifi...! Have to confess that I wrote one of the earlier blogs from there! Buenos Aires was really not what I expected... it started when we got off the boat and had our luggage x-rayed.... wrong way around, I feel! Then it was a cab ride to the hotel - moderately tame, and it being a sunday I teamed up with Rick and Simon and Shal to wander over to the San Telmo antiques market. [View Full Entry]

---

---

We were up early for our transfer - not that we had much choice as the ibis nesting around the farm made far more noise than the cockerel, and driven into town, for a 4 hour bus ride to montevideo. Doesn't look like a south american city - there are plane trees, and mixture of european architectural styles, (it's small, too). There is, of course lots of drab concrete, but it could be europe 10 years ago - especially with the types of cars on the streets. We went for a walk through the old town, to mercado del puerto - [View Full Entry]

---

---

We were met in Salta by Juan miguel, and he was kind enough to ferry us over to the thermal baths (think hot swimming pools) and then the 3 hours into the middle of nowhere, to the ranch. It turns out that Uruguay is absolutely lovely - verdant, gently rolling countryside and pretty little towns. Our first job on the ranch was to herd 200 sheep onto a lorry, and then we had some free time - Rab had decided to build a fire (must be an aussie thing) an was busy hacking an 8 foot long chunk out of a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today was always going to be a bit of a nothing day as we were shipping out in the evening, so after wandering into town to get my first dvd burned I found an acai for breakfast and wandered back to the hotel; 7 of us had elected to go to Paraguay for a couple of hours - an illicit border raid, if you will as we didn't get the passport stamps. Customs was just a chap sitting under a tree.. The contrast to brazil was striking - yes it was still scorching hot, but unlike the reserved streets of Foz [View Full Entry]

---

---

The main form of transport in south america is the road.. So the long distance buses are actually quite something - the bus to Sao Paulo was better than most national express coaches, and the one onward was like business class, minus the champagne, of course! The first part of the trip meant following the coast for a couple of hours, all the while eying up the near cliff like sides of the coast mountains. Eventually the road made a break for it, with lots of hairpins and shear drops. Strangely we didn't seem to drop back down on the other [View Full Entry]

---

---

So.. .(only kidding) We caught the boat back to the mainland yesterday, then travelled a couple of hours on a packed local bus down the coast, past a nuclear power station, and on to Paraty - an old colonial town with brightly coloured windows and doors, and roughly cobbled streets that flood at high tide. I say flood, but I guess that´s more at the Spring tides - it did come in a bit yesterday, and I went back to one of the churches last night to see if I could get a nice photo at the top of the tide, [View Full Entry]

---

---

So there's a crew of sixteen of us on the tour - i'm one of 2 brits, there are 2 from ireland, 2 from canada, and lots of aussies, and everyone seems really nice. We're spending a couple of nights on ilha grande, a small tropical island with really course sand, except on lopes mendez, where it was so fine it squeaked! Spent the afternoon there, and it was very hard to leave. Had tried my hand at body surfing, but that didn't go so well.. After a laid back evening I went kayaking today with Bec, one of the aussies, [View Full Entry]

---

---

So I spent the whole of last night travelling and I´m just a bit knackered - will be heading off for a siesta shortly, but I´m back in Rio for one night to join the Intrepid tour - we head to Ilha Grande tomorrow, home of (apparently) the world´s 3rd best beach - I´ll have to let you know. Anyway, a little of what I´ve been up to in Bonito... Day 1 was the tombstoning - we did a walking tour along a river, with waterfalls, and jumped in for about 4 of them. The water was running brown as they [View Full Entry]

---

---

Keeping it brief as i'm typing this on my phone via wifi. Lots to tell, can't wait to get to a pc! Last night was a little surreal - the bus drove for an hour and a half on dirt roads to get to Bonito, but the town is actually really cool. Met a couple of folks who are doing this properly - over a year in south america, now that's some real self development time! Went tombstoning in one of the local rivers today and got obscene amounts of water up my nose. The platform was about 5m above the [View Full Entry]

---

---