Wow what a city Rio is :-))) although we've liked a lot of the other cities we've been to this is the first time since we left Buenos Aires that we're in a place with life, soul, buzz and action. For the first time on this trip we're having to move on before we'd really like to, but if we don't we won't make Patagonia - bummer but that's how it is. When we arrived from Ouro Preto in the early morning it was grey and drizzly and stayed that way for most of the day, it meant we couldn't do much but we still walked along (a deserted) Ipanema beach. The weather had been like this for the past 3 or 4 days, apparently this almost never happens so it had to get better - ... read more

I know it's an odd title but it's the best I could come up with. The Parque Nacional Lencois de Maranhenses is literally at the end of the road, to keep going east from here - which is what we wanted to do - needs off road 4x4's, plenty of time, a lot flexibility and tons of patience. We don't have some of these so went on a long day trip from Sao Luis, it was a good decision and well worth the travel time, the place is sensational. After a 5am !!!!! start we got to Barreirinhas where we transferred to a Toyota Bandeirante 4x4 for the last 15km to the park entrance. After a few km we came to a long, sandy uphill climb which needed the low 4 wheel drive setting, unfortunately the ... read more

We had a choice of 2 boats from Santarem to Belem, one that looked like a converted car ferry, the other that looked like a real Amazon cruiser built in the 40s or 50s. We chose the real Amazon cruiser. Getting onboard was more of a challenge than we expected, the guide books say that ALL boats leave from the Docas do Para which are near the middle of town, but that's not right, the N/M Santarem (our boat) leaves from Porto Derre, an industrial dock about 5 - 10km out of town. It was starting to dawn on us that there was a reason it was cheaper :-) As it had come from Manaus it was already pretty full when we got on so finding a spot for our hammocks was not so easy, but ... read more

We're are on a ship on the Amazon. With the exception of the Death Train all of our journeys so far have been by bus so it's great to be taking something different, what's even better is that the journey on this ship is fantastic and unlike anything we've ever experienced before. The journey downstream from Manaus to Santarem takes about 30 hours. On the boat there are no seats or bunks so you have to turn up with your own hammock which you hang up as early as possible in the morning although the boat doesn't sail until 1pm. If you don't bag your spot early you end up either on the bottom deck with the cargo, or near the carzeys, or both - not the way to enjoy the trip. Life onboard operates to ... read more

After having such great times in Ecuador and Colombia Venezuela is a real disappointment. The people are OK and some of the scenery around Merida is nice, but the exchange rate problem makes everything either expensive, difficult or both. That's probably making us view everything else negatively, things that we would laugh off in a country we liked become another reason to dislike this one, and we don't like it here, both of us are looking forward to getting out. We decided to cancel our biking and paragliding plans in Merida and head straight to Ciudad Bolivar to see whether we could sort out a trip to Angel Falls. We did some research on the internet and found the best route was Merida - Barinas - Ciudad Bolivar. Stage 1 went well, we got to the ... read more