Alaska is big, very, very big. You won't believe how big it is... It is the largest state in the USA, representing 25% of the entire landmass. Mount McKinley is North America's highest mountain and the state has more coastline than the whole of the rest of the States. A coastline ringed with magnificent Volcanoes and islands. The State borders the Pacific Ring of Fire - the seismically active area that marks the border of the Pacific Plate. As a result, Alaska also gets bigger earthquakes than anywhere else in North America. The earthquake of 1964 destroyed a number of settlements along the Kenai Peninsula. It was the biggest ever recorded earthquake in North America and the second most powerful earthquake in recorded history. The place has a mystical pull. The marketing people plug Alaska as ... read more

I was in the bathroom of a hotel room in California. The TV was talking to itself in the other room. Unless I've started hearing things I would swear I heard... "Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to get out of the car to shop. Walgreens have (X number) of drive through pharmacies..." What a dream! The American shopping Utopia. Yes sir-ee. America is car country, for sure. There is much to love about the USA. Also, as a Brit some of it is strangely familiar - I've watched far too many American sitcoms in my life. But sometimes the USA seems strange and alien. Drive through drug stores and ATMs seem very weird to me. But then, I don't like cars. I hate driving. I'm sure that must be Un-american. I didn't learn ... read more

Have you ever tried to meet up with a friend when you are both travelling? It is not that easy. Thereby hangs a tale... I rather rushed through Brazil, a difficult thing to do when the country is so big. Which meant that I spent a long time on Brazilian buses. Brazil is a beautiful country, the people are friendly and love to party. I arrived in Porto Alegre, Brazil by overnight bus from Montevideo in Uruguay on the 26th of July. Porto Alegre is the capital city of the province of Rio Grande do Sol. It was a short stop in order to recover from the long bus ride, although I did visit a couple of museums in the city. The biggest adjustment for me was the language. Although my Spanish is still rubbish, my ... read more

The Iguazu falls are spectacular. When the Iguazu river is running high more than 200 cascades swirl over a 3km long horseshoe front. But when I was there, maybe half the cascades were dry. It was still a spectacle even in its depleted form. The falls have been hit by a long drought and the five dams along the river course in Brazil store water for power generation and irrigation. The Buenos Aires Herald says that "the Brazilians turn off the faucet on weekends in order to be able to get the water in their reservoir lakes up to the level needed to generate sufficient power during the work week." Even though Iguazu had less water than it should, it didn´t deter the tourists. The place was packed. It was hard work jostling amongst the crowds ... read more

9.30am in the Amazon basin. I am knee deep in muddy water walking through the middle of a swamp. The parts of my body not covered in muddy water are soaking wet from the sweat dripping off me, because of the oppressive humidity. It feels like it is building up to a massive storm; the sun is hidden behind the clouds. So, what sort of self inflicted torture am I describing. I was on a Pampas Tour in the Amazon Basin. This wasn't just an excuse for our guide to torture us; we were in fact looking for Anacondas. Who said travelling was fun? ...SWITCH LOCATION... "Me Llamo Fidel Castro." Yes, I met Fidel, although not that guy that hangs out in Cuba. The Fidel Castro runs the Hotel El Ambaibo in the little town of ... read more