beefy

Brazil is a country that I’ve always fancied visiting for various reasons and was always going to be an integral part of this trip. I had allocated roughly 5 weeks for Brazil, finishing off in Rio and the carnival. It’s actually difficult to write about Brazil as I have only seen a fraction of the country & mostly the south of the country up to Rio. Brazil is by far the biggest country in South America and the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area and the fifth most populous country in the world It has powdery white sand beaches, fronting the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of over 7,491 kilometres (4,655 miles). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and ... read more

Uruguay is a country that I had decided to visit as an after Buenos Aires / New Year relax by a beach option. I had heard mixed reports about the place, mostly that it was expensive. The time that we decided to visit happened to be smack in the middle the Argentinian summer holidays, so all the wealthy Argentinians and students come to that were heading there, making it a difficult place to get accommodation and not a true representation of the country I guess. Uruguay is a small country, approx the same size as the US State of North Dakota (187,000sqkm) The capital is Montevideo Total population roughly 3.3 million £1 = approx 30 Uruguayan Pesos. The country is famous for it's beaches & winning the first world cup (1930) Popular foods include Milanese sandwiches, ... read more

The Chile and Argentina blogs are a bit mixed up due to the fact that I have been zig zagging in between Chile and Argentina. Think there are 3 Chile stamps in my passport now ! Chile is a strange country geographically, running from Ecuador right down the West coast of South America (unless Bolivia ever get the coast land back, very unlikely though !) Over half the continent. It has 6,435km of coastline Santiago is the capital Population of 16 million Currency is Pesos, roughly £1 = 800 pesos, which makes it quite annoying to work prices out in your head, especially when you often cross into Argentina in the same day and 6 Argentinian Pesos = £1 Chile is famous in South America for Politics (especially General Augusto Pinochet), Pisco (brandy like liquor, also ... read more

So, a few facts about Peru then : Peru is 5 times larger than the UK. Famous for Machu Picchu (Trekking - Inca trail) Capital - Lima Currency - Soles (just over 4 to the £) Population just over 22 million Languages - Spanish, Quechua & Aymara Peru's geography varies hugely between desert, sierra and jungle. Over half of Peruvians live below the poverty line with unemployment out of control and difficult to measure. With many jobless working as street vendors, selling anything from clothes to chocolates. About 45% of Peru's population is purely indigenous, making it one of the 3 Latin American countries to have such high indigenous representation. 80% of Peruvians are declared Roman Catholic, although often combining traditional beliefs into church festivals. Football inspires passionate fanaticism although the national team hasn't qualified for ... read more

Colombia - Capital, Bogotá Famous for coffee, emeralds, plastic surgery, cocaine & the FARC Currency - Pesos, $1 = 2355, £1 approx 3,000 Population 43 million Now first of all the plan was to go south through Ecuador and into Peru after the Galapagos Islands, so my time in Colombia was always going to be rushed. I was very apprehensive about going to Colombia due to the general negativity and paranoia about the place, however everybody that has actually been says how wonderful the place is and the people are. My thoughts were that if I used my common sense and stayed away from areas that are clearly dodgy then all should be well. Those areas tend to be bordering the jungle where the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) control everything, mostly cocaine growing and ... read more