The Gran Sabana - 12th to 15th May We're up relatively early feeling very tired after such a long journey the night before. We wouldn't have made the early morning bus but we do manage to catch a taxi from this Brazilian out post to across the border to Venezuela. Its a 3 hour journey and our taxi driver stops at the border to drop off some packages. We're really glad we can be of help seeing as we are paying for this. This time we manage to get the border crossing correct as we are stamped out of Brazil [View Full Entry]

---

---

Natal - 24th April We wake up very tired as our flight landed late in Natal at 2am. We had finally got to bed at 3am and needed to be up early as we are going to explore the sand dunes today. We are picked up by George in his open top beach buggy at 9am. There are already a couple in the buggy so its a big squeeze on the back seat to fit 3 people in! This couple are very sweet and are on their honeymoon, bless! We speed off towards the sand dunes, there are several kilometres [View Full Entry]

---

---

Fernando de Noronha - 19th to 23rd April Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago 400km of the coast of mainland Brazil. In the past the main island has been used as by the Portuguese as a prison colony, the French used it for aviation research & the American´s as base during WWII. Now most of it is a protected Eco reserve where sea life flourishes & to sum it up it´s stunningly beautiful & it´s where we went for my birthday treat. Lucky lucky me!!! Our four days there were some of the best of our whole trip. The main [View Full Entry]

---

---

Salvador - 14th to 16th April We wake up at 7am feeling slightly debilitated from our partying the night before in Rio. We frantically pack and leave for the airport to catch our flight to Salvador. Given our previous check in experiences with GOL airlines we think we have given ourselves plenty of time to check in. How wrong could we be, there are about 20 check-in desks but every time we queue for a bit we get diverted to join another queue, this happens for about an hour until we only have 20 minutes before our flight leaves. All [View Full Entry]

---

---

Rio de Janeiro - 10 to 13th April Since we have been travelling on our own we have booked most of our accommodation through the Hostel Bookers website. Unfortunately the Internet on Ilha Grande had conked out so we couldn´t get hold of the address of our Hostel in Rio all we knew was the name, Alpha Hostel & the area, Botafogo. When our boat arrived on the main land we offered to pop to an Internet cafe to check the address but were told not to bother as the Minivan driver new where the hostel was. Of course when [View Full Entry]

---

---

Paraty - 2nd to 6th April We finally managed to catch our flight from the Pantanal to Sao Paulo (after we´d been up for hours unsuccessfully trying to get tickets for Glastonbury!). When we arrived at Sao Paulo we had to get a taxi to the bus station as we were hoping to catch the overnight bus to Paraty. No such luck as it was fully booked so we booked a ticket for the next morning. We then frantically had to phone around to find accommodation for the night. Luckily we found somewhere central and even managed to go out [View Full Entry]

---

---

26th - 30th March When I was a child I was obsessed with wildlife & loved to read Gerrald Durrell´s books describing his career working with animals. In one book he described travelling to the Pantanal on an animal collecting expedition for an English zoo (not exactly PC in this day & age but when I was a kid it was spell binding.) His descriptions of the abundance of exotic wildlife there had me buzzing. So when we came to Brazil I begged And for us to go & to my relief she agreed, although somewhat reluctantly. We both new [View Full Entry]

---

---

20th to 25th March Oh if every journey could be as pleasant as the night bus we took from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguassu. We had seats that reclined fully into beds with so much leg room they´d give thew M.D. of any airline a heart attack. We were served a three course dinner with wine & then given a nightcap of champagne (for me) or Whisky (for And). We arrived after 14 hours refreshed from a good nights sleep with our stomachs happily full of a good breakfast, how very civilised!!! We relax for the morning at our hostel [View Full Entry]

---

---

12th - 19th March On our first full day in Buenos Aires we spend most of the day wandering around the local district we are staying in. Our hostel is called the Chill House and the staff are good at giving advice and lots of tips as to what to do whilst we are here. We walk around Palermo which is a leafy green suburb of BA. There are lots of excellent looking cafes and restaurants so we stop at one to have the best homemade lemonade we have ever had! We also have lunch at a great restaurant called [View Full Entry]

---

---

Overnight we sailed away from the Antarctic peninsula so we wake feeling a little sad. Kate gets up for early to watch sunrise over a huge tabular glacier. I´m slightly more lazy and get up at 7.30am! In the morning we have a landing at Half Moon Island back on the South Shetlands. We land on a beach and walk along the shore and over some rocks to the tip of the island. There are lots of Chinstraps here and only a few Gentoo´s. Kate is still looking for the perfect penguin shot so we spend some time watching the penguins [View Full Entry]

---

---