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Published: September 3rd 2008
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Brazil was not originally in our plans because of its sheer size we knew we were not going to get to see much in the time we had, plus we knew it was going to put us way over budget (and it did), but we were so close to the border at Iguazu that we could not resist.
So we crossed over the boarder and went to the Brazillian side of the falls. Very impressive once again, much better view of the whole thing. After spending a few hours there we were dropped off at the bus station in Foz du Iguazu (Brazillian side) to catch yet another bus, this time to Campo Grande - our starting point into The Pantanal.
The Pantanal The Pantanal is the world’s largest area of wetlands, although not too wet when we were there as it’s the dry season.
We spent 4 days at a lodge in the middle of nowhere and were treated to horse riding, piranha fishing (although we were the only people to catch nothing!) and general wildlife spotting.
The Pantanal is famous for mainly the Cayman - crocodile type things and Capybara the world’s largest rodent. We also saw
The Pantanal
A Jabiru stork, the one that leaves babies on the doorsteps in cartoons - also the symbol of the Pantanal.
giant river otters, monkeys and loads of different wild birds including toucans and macaws. We stayed on a ranch about four hours away from anything. It was very secluded and relaxing, they had a strange pet pig and parrot who hang about the place.
Overall it was very nice not anywhere near as death defying as it was built up to be, we didn’t mind though as the weather was beautiful so we sun lounged quite a bit. After a few days we headed back to Campo Grande and got the next bus over to Rio de Janerio.
Bus time - 22 Hours! (Beginning to hate buses now)
Rio de Janerio Wasn’t too sure of what to expect of Rio, the general consensus from other travellers is that it has to been seen, it’s very expensive (in travelling terms) and quite dangerous.
When we arrived we agreed it was definitely worth seeing. The city is beautiful and the surrounding mountains and beaches make it a unique place. As for the cost, I would also agree, we were paying almost three times as much to stay in Rio as in Buenos Aires and the standard of room was
Rio de Janerio
Copacabana beach at night rubbish. As for it being a dangerous place... well, we took precautions, like not walking around with your massive camera and ipod hanging off your neck with a fat wallet of dosh in plain view from you back pocket. We had no problems at all, but saying that we did hear of two people getting mugged at gun point who were staying in our hostel and we were only there four days.
We took a city tour around Rio and it was actually one of the most informative and interesting tours we’ve done on the whole trip. The guide was really nice and took us to everything we wanted to see, Christ the Redeemer (Big Jesus), Santa Teresa and Sugar Loaf Mountain, we packed a lot in on that day.
We were staying very close to Ipanema beach which had the reputation for being a safer part of town. It was very nice, lots of bars and restaurants and the beach was quite nice too, although the general size of bikinis and swimming shorts was shocking! We were already spending so much money, we thought in for a penny in for a pound and headed over to Ilha Grande to
Ilha Grande
The view as we arrived at the island meet up with Ken and Eadoin the Irish couple we travelled with in Boliva.
Ilha Grande Ilha Grande is a beautiful island just south of Rio. It’s a popular stop with locals and tourists for its picture perfect beaches and laid back style. We couldn’t resist getting in a bit of beach action before returning to Argentina and going south into Patagonia where it was going to be freezing.
When we got off the ferry we were accosted by the usual mob of people trying to get you to stay in their hostels, but we opted to go with a French guy with dreds and a Bob Marley tattoo. We stayed in a nice little place at the top of a hill over looking the village. It was very chilled out although the music they decided to blast out in the evenings was rubbish.
When the weekend rolled in the streets were lined with stalls and a little street party started up. It was great just wandering round buying drinks cakes and yes more meat - this time it came on a stick. We stayed out late most nights drinking.
We spent all of our daytimes on the
Ilha Grande
More boozin in town. fantastic beaches, the sand was so fine and white like flour it actually squeaks when you walk on it. Unfortuantley the island didn’t have any cash machines so getting more money was impossible. We tried to make our money last as long as possible but after 4 days we had to call it quits and leave, begrudgingly.
We got on the next boat back to Rio.
We did have a chioce of flying back to Buenos Aires, but there was also a bus that went from Rio. The bus cost a third of the cost of flying, so being that we have to do things on the cheap we got the bus.....
Bus time - 40 hours. (YES 40 hours - I think it was worth doing rather than flying?!)
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Gary
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Nice!
Have to say kids the trip is looking pretty sweet, although Copacabana looks remarkably like Southend at night...it's uncanny. PS - nice Ken Toucan reference by the way