And so my adventure reached a new continent. Touching down on a cold, wet day in Auckland wasn't really the ideal introduction to New Zealand, and having my entire bag searched because the sniffer dog took a liking to me didn't really enhance the experience. In case you were wondering, my crime was having a hacky sack ball I'd bought in Bolivia with me, which was filled with illegal seeds. On the upside, they did give my tent and hiking boots a free clean, so it wasn't all bad. So then, back into the English speaking world for me. Which was [View Full Entry]

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The next place I visitied was a little bit special. Easter Island is one of the most isolated places in the world, located as it is a 5 hour flight off the Chilean coast. Flights to the island are controlled by LAN, and as there is no competition, they are prohibitively expensive on a backpackers budget. Luckily, on my RTW ticket, it simply counts as a stopover on the journey between South America and New Zealand, meaning I had the chance to visit. It was with palpable excitement that I boarded the plane in Santiago, and a thoroughly enjoyable 5 hour [View Full Entry]

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As I mentioned in the Santiago entry, I took a jolly down to Valparaiso for a couple of days. It's meant to be a really interesting city, with coloured houses set on an assortment of hills surrounding the port. Imagine my disappointment when I arrived, it was cold, grey and foggy, thus you couldn't see anything. I took a trip up one of the lifts out of duty, but it was a bit pointless. I seriously considered getting on the next bus back to Santiago. I was a disappointed man. But I awoke the next day to a blue sky, and [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Santiago rather late at night, so just had enough energy for a quick feed then it was bedtime. The following morning, I awoke, stepped out of my hostel and saw the Andes. I'd spent a long part of my trip following these mountains south, but hadn't seen hide nor hair of them since Ushuaia. It was a bit like seeing an old friend. I also saw a not so old friend, as Oscar, a Chilean whom I'd met in Rio, had invited me to stay. I shifted my stuff from the hostel to his place, and then it [View Full Entry]

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And so I finally arrived on Ilha Grande. The early signs were good, as we sailed into the island under the bluest of blue skies. I could even forgive the fact that the "correct" pronunciation of Grande all but rhymes with orange. Silly Portugese. I'd arrived with a few folk whom I'd met in Rio; Cindy, Marcus, Francis and Jacqueline to give them names. Coincidentally, that's actually what they were called. We spent our first day going for a hike through the forest to get to Lopes Mendes beach. It was a long sweaty walk, and took a bit longer than [View Full Entry]

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You know, I had a title all lined up for this blog. It had been kindly donated by Michael Paynter, but events overtook me, and the title was changed. But Mike, you can take solace in that you have been namechecked in a world famous blog. Well, maybe not world famous, but perhaps famous in England. At least my mum and dad read it occasionaly. So then, Rio de Janiero. The very mention of the place is enough to get you mugged apparently. But I've been around Latin America quite a while now, and consider myself pretty street smart, so I [View Full Entry]

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I'm sorry about yet another Paraty/party pun in the title, its just that it seems to be the done thing in this little town. Every hostel claims to be a paraty hostel, every bus is a paraty bus and every church is a paraty church. Or something like that. So, after the debacle of the previous blog, we only arrived in the town fairly late. There were 4 of us tourists on the bus, and due to my slight misfortune we stopped for a bit of a chat as we got off the bus. Rhys and Anne, an Aussie/German couple had [View Full Entry]

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I'll be honest with you. I'd dreamt up this title for this blog for quite a long time. It just seemed oh so perfect, even if there was no fighting involved, as all it takes is a simple bus journey from Sao Paulo. Or does it? Perhaps aware that I had a blog title in my mind, Brazilian police stopped our bus for a passport check just minutes outside of Paraty. I handed him my passport, and answered all of his questions to the best of my ability. However, it soon became clear that he didn't like the fact that I'd [View Full Entry]

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Firstly, everyone stop panicking, I didn't fall foul of the Brazilian branch of the mafia. As if I did, I wouldn't be here writing this would I? It's just a title. Perhaps I should change it. Down to business then. So, from the Pantanal all of our group except for Mack, who swanned off to Rio, got on a bus to Bonito, which duly arrived about four hours later. Bonito has become one of Brazil's main centres for Ecotourism, and thus is filled with rather large statues of fish and the such. Quite bizarre. It is also jolly expensive. So why [View Full Entry]

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I had planned to make an early start from PJC the next day, and catch the 6am bus to Campo Grande. Yes thats right 6am. I can see you sniggering in the back. And snigger even more, because I pulled my favourite trick and missed the bus. Never fear, I just got a later one, and pulled up into Campo Grande at 10pm. One free night in a hostel, and excellent Brazilian breakfast later, I was signed up for a Pantanal tour and hitting the road! The van escorted a group of 7 of us - myself, Mac, Marty, Donna, Pipin, [View Full Entry]

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