The trip from Vitoria to Porto Seguro didn't go well. I maintain that the principal reason for this is that we had too good a nights sleep in our own room in Domingos Martins. Philippe blames it on the two ignorant locals in the seats behind us who didn't appear to have been on a bus before, let alone a night bus. While I did notice that they didn't stop talking from the start of the voyage until the end, Philippe had the added joy of having his hair or shoulder pulled each time they wanted to get up out of the seat (which, granted, was certainly more often than your average traveller). Needless to say we arrived grumpy and tired - however, we had decent accommodation booked this time round, to avoid a re-run of ... read more

We decided it was time to move on from Buzios - we were getting far too accustomed to the easy life! So with our backpacks tightly packed we boarded the bus to Rio. A short three hours later we were at the general bus station. We had some difficulty reserving our tickets for the trip to Vitoria online, so we had to pick them up from the ticket desk. Thankfully we found a ticket guy who saw the humour in our lack of Portuguese and as we surrendered our passport, he completed the necessary paperwork on our behalf. We were curious about the travel arrangement on the night bus to Vitoria. Visions of sharing bunks with chickens and goats sprung to mind, however, when a luxurious coach pulled up at the assigned platform, we breathed a ... read more

Philippe went on top on Monday night, and I took over last night. You can feel every movement down below and with so many people watching you it can freak you out. Welcome to the world of triple bunkbeds and shared dormitories! We decided to stay in Rio for one extra day and to continue our downgrading from luxury to budget we moved into the shared dormitory. It's not so bad, particularly as there are lockers where you can store your entire backpack. We knew we wanted to go to see Christ the Redeemer, but decided to shun the tour guides and go it alone. We tracked down the local bus number to take us to the train station, paid our R$2.20 each and had an impromptu tour of the back streets of Rio. The bus ... read more

We made it! The eleven hour flight turned into 13hours because we were late taking off and then had a hiccup in Brazil. I say hiccup but it was more like a collective gulp when the plane pulled up sharply during landing and then the captain said he couldnt land because there was stormy weather around the airport. So he did the sensible thing and circled for a while. Needless to say we were glad to step off the plane - only to be greeted by the swine flu patrol - masks and all. Queue second big gulp of the trip. But all we had to do was sign that we hadnt had a fever or cough in the past 15 days. Then on through passport, smirked at all the people waiting on luggage and skipped ... read more

For those who might want to track us, here is our Itinerary: THU 11 JUN LONDON (HEATHROW) to RIO DE JANEIRO 3 weeks in Brazil Fly Sao Paolo to Lima 4-5 weeks in Peru (Start Macchu Picchu 22 July) Make our way to Buenos Aires. 3 weeks in Argentina Then head for Santiago, Chile THU 24 SEP SANTIAGO,CHILE to AUCKLAND Arrives SAT 26 SEP THU 22 OCT CHRISTCHURCH to MELBOURNE MON 26 OCT MELBOURNE to ALICE SPRINGS SAT 31 OCT ALICE SPRINGS to SYDNEY THU 10 DEC CAIRNS to SINGAPORE (Via DARWIN) Singapore to Thailand. Thailand to Vietnam. Vietnam to Laos Laos to India. India to Nepal. Nepal to HongKong. Hongkong to Beijing. Maybe: Beijing to Tokyo and back. Beijing to Moscow (TransSiberian Express) ??? MOSCOW to LONDON... read more