Still feeling fairly inhuman and rather tired, I was most thankful when our bus arrived in the scorching heat of Santa Marta, a big port town and the pit stop for our next destination of Tayrona National Park. Stopping for an hour to leave bags in the hotel, we shot down to the beach for a supposedly speedy lunch from a local fast food restaurant. In true South American/Caribbean style this was slightly misleading as several others went elsewhere, ate and came back before we had even received our food! Eventually getting served, we wolfed it down and scarpered back to [View Full Entry]

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After our time spent there, we were all more than ready to leave Venezuela and head for the much anticipated Colombia. Having already changed as much currency on the black market upon entry to Venezuela, we had already increased our spending power there (getting nearly double the "official" rate), however we were duly shafted upon leaving, emphasized by their substantial hike (300%!!!) in departure tax for exiting the country. Furthermore, with the current bleak state of the Mighty Dollar, no-one would accept them for love nor money, posing some probs to those who had only enough currency for [View Full Entry]

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A noticeable change in topography occured not long after the border, as we moved into the outskirts of the Canaima national park area, before stopping at our spectacular campsite, Salto Kama, nestled next to a 40m waterfall with a plethora of biting insects. There was little time to enjoy the falls however as we all mucked in (with a couple of notable exceptions - the usual suspects slinking off when work needs doing!) for a final truck and tent clean. A fantastic dinner of steak and mash later with caesar salad and peaches and cream, we went to the bar to [View Full Entry]

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Heading on down to the docks in Belem, we spent an appreciable amount of time hanging around amidst the constant smell of bananas, (although not as long as the guys who had gone down in the morning to try, with no avail, to save us all hammock spaces) before eventually boarding the ship that would be our home for the next 5-6 days. Already bustling, the rush was to find good hammock locations as there is precious little available room. As things were, we managed to group all of ours together at the end of the area, although in a somewhat [View Full Entry]

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So, the next leg of the journey begins, bright and early with a departure from Rio and a sad goodbye to Matt, with several fresh faces on the truck, which itself is different along with our new driver, Euan and our tour guide Mark. Newbies include a couple of Aussie couples (Matt & Sonya, Dean & Jana), another Aussie , Andy, 3 dudes from Hong Kong (Chung, Yiu and Jonny), Doug (Laandoner), Tracy (Geordie, lives in NZ), Heather (Canadian), Nathan (another southerner) and Jenni (Finnish but lives in Canada). En route we were briefed on the running of our new truck, [View Full Entry]

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Our last morning in Paraty was an early start, after which we were divided into 3 separate groups to head into Rio (our trusty truck Jack was in need of some TLC so was sadly unable to transport us), split between another Tucan truck and 2 Budget Trucks. Enjoying a pub quiz along the way, several hours later we hit the outskirts of Brazil´s biggest city, signalling the end of the road for many of our crew. Upon arrival in the city, Jo and I hit the streets to get a feel for the place, stopping off at a comida por [View Full Entry]

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Setting off bright and early the next day, we drove out to the Brazilian side of the falls, where we saw a couple of guys engaged in a street fight (bricks and heads don´t mix very well), wandered around an excellent bird sanctuary and indulged in a helicopter flight over the falls. Feeling something like a military operation, the helicopter headed up river before rounding the bend and offering unsurpassed views of the falls in all their glory, circling several times for maximum sight seeing before rocking on back to base. In the afternoon we took the park bus (very good [View Full Entry]

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Often referred to as the Paris of the South, BA does bear a striking resemblance to its European counterpart, even sporting a massive obelisk in the middle of its main thoroughfare, the massive 22-lane Avenida 9 de Julio, supposedly the widest avenue in the world (not a good place to jaywalk!). Surrounded by suitably drab and decrepit suburbs, the city centre is very clean and tidy, feeling most un-South American, and seems to ooze elegance, sophistication and intelligence. Argentinians are exceptionally good looking normally, and being the capital, it draws the cream of the crop, so it is nig [View Full Entry]

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After the windy buffetting we had all endured in Torres, it was a very welcome stopover in Punta Arenas, with aircon, TV and comfy beds, to the extent that some people barely left the hotel. Chile´s most southerly town, it is also a tax free haven with some good duty free deals to be had (well, by Chilean prices in any case) and although not beautiful by any stretch of the imagination, has some cracking restaurants. Following one of the Lonely Planet´s suggestions, Matt and I found a delightful local restaurant tucked away in the middle of a residential street, offering [View Full Entry]

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Thankfully at a reasonable hour we emerged the next day, passports at the ready (best border control yet - table tennis table to keep us amused while we waited) to head for our next destination, Bariloche in the Argentinian lake district. A very hot and long yet stunningly beautiful drive day took us past all 7 lakes, reminiscent of Canada in parts, before finally setting up camp some way from the town centre. Famous for its chocolate and skiing potential in the winter months, Bariloche is very Swiss with its steep sloping rooves, hearty food and general high level of cleanliness. [View Full Entry]

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