The ancient air conditioning unit seems to serve no other purpose than to make noise. So we slept badly and I wake up rather grumpy. We have a whole day to explore Asunción. I’m not sure what we’ll do in the afternoon. Probably sleep, as we need to leave for the airport at 3.30 am tomorrow. We set off at 9 am for some sightseeing. First stop, the railway station – South America’s first station. I ponder briefly the point of being first, it would seem beneficial to have more than one or where would the trains go? There is what can loosely describe as a museum, plus an original train from 1861. Next we go to the cathedral, which is locked. We head instead for the waterfront (the Costanera) but the cathedral’s security guard tells ... read more

Today we are going to Iguazú National Park on the Argentinian side of the falls. For a local, this trip is simple; a bus to the Argentinian town of Puerto Iguazú and a second bus to the park. For a foreigner is more complicated as you have to disembark for immigration twice and the bus doesn’t wait, so it involves taking 3 consecutive buses on the same route, then a 4th bus to the park. We walk to the international bus stop and wait. A bus to Paraguay pulls up and everyone else gets on. This happens a few more times before eventually a bus driver asks why we’re sitting at the bus stop and explains that buses to Argentina depart from the other end of the road. On our complicated journey we have fallen at ... read more

We are up at 5 am this morning to fly 750 miles south-west to Foz do Iguacu on the border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The old man has survived the night without succumbing to dysentery – a fact he puts down to a combination of luck and having killed the germs by drinking caipirinhas. We have booked and prepaid for our taxi, which sounds like a recipe for disaster. But 15 minutes ahead of schedule and before we’ve even had chance to worry about what to do if it doesn’t arrive, we get a call to say the driver is in reception. One advantage of being up so early is that we see the sunrise over Rio en route to the airport. It really is something; the city and its monoliths silhouetted by the bright ... read more

Today we are going sightseeing in Rio. So, on a sunny summer Saturday, we set of by Metro from Copacabana to the city centre. Not surprisingly, we are travelling in the opposite direction to almost everyone else. We buy Metro tickets, which are quite decorative and thus a good item for my scrapbook. However, at the turnstile, we insert the ticket and it isn’t returned. I look so disappointed that on the following journey, the old man buys 3 tickets so I have one to keep. First stop is the Bonde, the old streetcar which clambers across the Arcos de Lapa viaduct and up the hillside along cobbled lanes decorated with murals. We’re taking the Bonde just for the sake of it, so buy a return ticket, worrying that we’ll look a bit sad when we ... read more

We get up and go for breakfast. We deal with yesterday’s dietary deficiencies by consuming a mountain of fruit – mainly mango – the sweetest, juiciest mango I have ever tasted. I also have some sausage and eggs, although there’s a slight delay in proceedings while a women attempts to light her cigarette on the heat source under the breakfast buffet. Then we set forth along Copacabana Beach. It’s 8.30 and the prom is already heaving with walkers, runners and cyclists out for their morning constitutional. It’s like an exotic Bournemouth; we have the Overcliff, they have Sugarloaf mountain. We walk the full 4 km length of the beach, and back again. By the end it is 36 degrees and we’re rather warm and sweaty. After a pit stop at a beach bar, we round off ... read more