Greetings. I know that you've missed us so we decided to fill you in on our trip to England last weekend. I realise that many of you with Scottish heritage are probably saying "why would you go to England....never mind for the weekend?" But it was in fact an important reason. My baby brother, Jamie was getting married. We flew into Heathrow at approximately Thursday lunchtime and after a quick shower in the Air Canada arrivals lounge we headed off down the M3. I did pretty well at remembering how to drive on the left hand side of the road. In the next 3 days only once did i drive on the wrong side of the road. Unfortunately I did it in front of my sister Shiona who honked her horn rather dramatically at me. Off ... read more

So last time i left you we were shopping it up in the dizzy heights of Curitiba... We survived a rather posh night bus to Rio and then another bus ride down the coast before a 90 minute boat ride took us to Illa Grande. On a side note to anybody planning a night bus to anywhere...its ALL about the medicinal products. Any of the -azapam (valium) family will do and I´ve used a fair few varieties on this trip. (of note you can buy almost anything over the counter in Bolivia - much cheaper than at home, including antibiotics and antimalarials) This was well worth the trip. Its on all the must see lists for Brazil. A small island off the coast South of Rio with jungle inland and tropical beaches surrounding it. The town ... read more

So lots has happened since the last enstallment. We hung out in Campo Grande for a day and our fearless tourleader decided that since were staying in the red light district anyway that we should explore. This involved sitting in a bar with hookers drinking beer. Actually we had a blast. Very bizzare place. The madam unfortunately took a shine to me...proceeded to demonstrate Scottish highland dancing (whilst trying to pull down her denim mini skirt) and wanted me to dance. She slipped Maurice round the ear for laughing so much....Jo was commenting on how feminine those lads looked...they were girls. We got drunk enough to fall asleep on the night bus which was the entire point I suppose. So we arrived in Foz de Igassu early in the morning and actually were a day earlier ... read more

Well, this is it for me. It's monday evening and I start my trek home tomorrow morning. I leave la Paz at 8 am via bus. I wanted to fly La Paz to Lima but the only financially solvent airline in south america was sold out of seats from lima to la paz - you can still buy tickets for the financially insolvent (dissolvent? bankrupt anyway) but they only have 2 planes or something now and are putting them on random routes and just cancel your flight sometime on the day it's meant to leave. I'm thinking of starting an airline and not even buying any planes or anything. I'll just agree to give incompetent travel agents a small cut of each ticket they sell and everyone (other than the travellers of course) will be happy. ... read more

Ola! Well, it´s been a CRAZY coupla days some of which I´ll discuss here, some of which I´ll be happy to tell you in detail when you´re planning your next holiday and are considering using GAP travel. So, we got to La Paz Boliva after a strange but actually pretty uneventful border crossing. It´s the first time I´ve had to get out of the vehicle and walk across. I´m also convinced that border crossing guys are bored and angry with their jobs and so just for kicks they make sure to stamp your passport on any page OTHER than the one you´ve opened for them. In fact, I think it´s a game and they get more points for stamping right over the other cool stamps you´ve got. Anyway...on to La Paz. What a crazy city. Big. ... read more