Greg and Laura

Oi again, Greg and I are now in Trindade, a small town of 700 on the beautiful costa verde. Its only 40 minutes from Paraty, a nice short travel. We originally had planned to to stay 2 days in Trindade and then the other two (before heading to Rio) at Ilha Grande...but, as soon as we got into this quiant town with its beautiful rolling hills covered in green jungle and bright flowers over every fence, we started to think we might not want to leave so soon. This became a definite when we got to the hostel (Kaissara Hostel); a beautiful wooden cabin/house with jungle surroundings, a great group of people and great owner (George). The first day, we hiked for an hour to a natural pool created by large boulders separating the ocean from ... read more

Hello again, After realising our plans of traveling to the northeast coast of Brazil and making our way south towards Rio were a bit more expensive/ambitious than we could enjoyably handle we decided to fly from Manaus (where we ended our boat trip) all the way to the south of Brazil to a place called Florianopolis. After a 1 hour stop over in Rio we continued on to Florianopolis by plane and after catching a taxi at the airport we quickly realised we had entered an entirely different climate from the Amazon, to say the least. It is winter in Brazil right now so the south sees cooler temperatures, much less humidity, and the day we arrived at least- rain. The staff at the hostel informed us that the past week had been very wet but ... read more

Well...we finally hit a snag in our plans. Friday: Flight from Bogota to Leticia (both in Colombia). Leticia is in the very south-east corner of Colombia at the tri-border of Colombia/Brazil/Peru. We crossed into Tabatinga, Brazil (no formal border entry just quite yet) with the intention of heading down the Amazon river on Saturday for 3 days to reach a town called Manaus. Our first surprise: the office that issues Brazilian Visas (in Leticia) closes at 2pm. We didn't get into town until about 4pm so immediately we knew we could not make the Saturday boat because the office isn't open on weekends. These boats only leave on Saturday and Wednesday so this set us back immediately at least 4 days. Our second surprise: about 30mins later we find out the office in Leticia NO LONGER ... read more

Hi everyone! We've switched climates and gone to extreme hot on the Carribean coast of Colombia, a city named Cartegena. I (Laura) had anticipated that this would be one of my favourite cities and I was right, it was a very unique and interesting city! Being on the coast, the city is surrounded by large stone walls used to protect the city from attacking pirates (in the past). The beach area (Bocagrande) and historical areas all have a Carribean, Spanish, African vibe to them. We stayed just outside of the historic centre in an area called Getsmani, where the cheap hostels were because believe us when we say that staying in the historic centre costs a fortune (we looked at one place just for the fun of it, call LM hotel boutique....I was intrigued and thought ... read more

Hi all! So we've had a bit of a gap since our last post, the reason being we're having a great time in Colombia! Yes, you heard that right. Try and put aside your misconceptions if you have them about Colombia for awhile and check out the cool stuff this country has to offer! We must admit that the government funded commercial for tourism in Colombia (which is really taking off right now) couldn't be more accurate: "The only risk is wanting to stay." Cali: After crossing the Ecuador-Colombia boarder we continued on by bus to the city of Pasto where we would spend the night to break up our bus journey. The next morning we did another 8 hours before reaching Cali, our first Colombian destination. Cali is known for 2 things: Salsa clubs and ... read more