Well I got to the bus station in Puerto Iguazu, after writing my last blog at the internet cafe down the hill, only to find Canadian Judy waiting for the same bus to Buenos Aires as I was. Mindy, Judy and I all hung out for the 22 hours that it took us to reach Buenos Aires. It was supposed to have taken maybe 16, but due to protesters on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, who have set the vast agricultural fields alight, the main road is closed to traffic. So we ended up on many a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, driving down a really narrow street in our double decker bus, with school children all riding against us in a pack of uniforms. Although the journey was a bit extended it was ... read more

What a place. I boarded the bus in Rio de Janeiro at about 7:15pm for an 11 hour bus trip to Curitiba, the capital of the Brazilian state of Paraná. And damn, was it good. The two seats that I enjoyed reclined to just above horizontal, with footrests and calf rests and blankets to keep you warm and snug. I knew that I had had a bloody fantastic sleep when I woke up and felt the dried saliva on my cheek. We arrived in Curitiba at about 9am, the roads wet from some overnight rain. I got talking to an English couple that were on my bus, and got a few accomodation ideas off them - since the Lonely Planet had figured to omit all hostel options from its budget guide. They had a different guide, ... read more

Ah yes. I spent my last 3 days in São Paulo having all in all a very good time. On the Monday I think (I can´t quite remember, seeing as it was a few days ago) I went to USP (University of São Paulo) to the Instituto Butanta, which was and is a herpology centre and a centre for microbiological research and vaccine development, and all that kinda shiz, back in the day when Paris had the only supply of Plague vaccine in the world, and there was plague in Brazil, and someone didn´t quite see eye to eye. So the Brazilians decided to build their own immunology centre, and it all went from there! The only problem, on this particular Monday, was that I had caught the wrong bus. Fresh from Canberra, I was used ... read more

Wowee! I arrived in Sao Paulo yesterday, to be greeted at the airport by my sister´s friend Marcos and a bolt of electricity. This place is absolutely amazing, pulsating with energy and activity and people. You really can sense excitement in the warm air. I got into Marcos´friends´car after groping my way through immigration and customs at the airport (rather less thorough than I would have imagined, but still gropable) and was inundated with amazing scenes. The road from the airport, which is on the northern outskirts of this sprawling city, follows the route of the Rio Tiete, once a river which has turned into an concrete walled, foul smelling, industrial waste depository. Driving down the road, along the river, was also rather interesting, as Sao Paulo´s 6 million cars make the streets rather crowded. Motorcycles ... read more

Good Morning and Good Afternoon, I haven't written for about a month now, which is rather naughty of me. And its also kind of stupid of me, since now I feel that I have a lot to write about, even though I really don't. My last email/blog entry was about the lovely towns of Vancouver and Victoria, nestled on the West Coast of Canada, in 'Beautiful British Columbia'. About 6 hours after sending that last email, I boarded a bus to take me to Calgary, which is in the 'Wild Rose' state of Alberta, 13 hours West of Vancouver. Well, by car that is. If you take the Greyhound bus you get the scenic tour, and go back and forward between all these little towns in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. I came to Calgary ... read more