Blogs from Brazil, South America - page 630

From the tranquility and beauty of the small towns on the coast we made our way 4 hours north to our next stop, São Luis. We were looking forward to the city because of the historic centre where a number of buildings have been restored. Well its true that some have indeed been restored but its also true that most havent. The Lonely Planet describes São Luis as "one of Brazil´s architectural gems" - i have got to be honest - i have seen better architecture elsewhere in Brazil - more colonial and better preserved. I know that this is one of the few places in Brazil where they tile the outside of the buildings but not enough have been done - and some have been restored very poorly. But we made the best of it ... read more

First off, the serious stuff, in case any poor unfortunates out there are actually refering to my blog for info on south america.... THE PANTANAL, do it, go and the tour group to do it with is ECOLOGICAL EXPEDITIONS based in Campo Grande, across from the bus station. They have their own buses/trucks and a camping ground/hammock lodge deep in the pantanal, all other groups tend to stick close to the few main roads that cross this incredible place! www.pantanaltrekking.com..... what an experience! we left paratai 5 days ago, where the...ehem...mexican was lovely; tasty and educational :p even if we still forgot to eat until we crashed...again and again! took a massive 20+ hour trip to campo grande, via sao paulo, managed to hold off our continual abusive of local booze for the journey and the ... read more

Travelling on a budget is an adventure in itself. Thinking of ways to save a couple of Reals here and there is good fun, though ultimately pointless once you’ve then spent twice that amount on churros. One idea which does make a lot of sense is catching night-busses. You save the cost of a bed for the night and get where you want to go without losing too much of the day. When possible, go for a ‘cama’ bus. They are more expensive than the rubbish bus and a night in a hostel combined; but faster, more comfortable and allow what some may call sleep. Despite our first impressions, let’s be clear, it isn’t sleep. Comfortable as it may be the difference between lying down on a bed and leaning back quite far on a seat ... read more

Night buses are funny things. You sleep alot, but to call it sleep is lying to yourself.The seats are really comfy,and recline to almost lying down, but that little bit difference stops any real effect. plus the driver ran over something in the early hours... Anyway, yes,we got the bus to Campo Grande - two busses in fact, and 14 hours. now here we are, in the middle of nowhere in Nowheresville - a 50 horse town with nothing to entertain even one of them. Well we´re off tomorrow morning to tour the Pantanal for three days... so who cares. We did our first proper bargaining today and got a 640 R$ tour for 550, plus a free night in this hotel. Today was spent wandering around Campo Grande wondering why everything was shut... and then ... read more

Like I said before, travelling without plans is great, as long as you have enough time to do whatever takes your fancy along the way. Knowing your limits is frustrating. Countless places and activities get left behind with promises of coming back one day. We only had one place which we were desperate to go to: Macchu Picchu in Peru. Which was why our pouring over the cheap tickets to Asunción, Paraguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina came to nothing. Instead we decided to hang around in Foz before heading off in a vaguely Westerly direction. We had been so impressed by the waterfalls the day before that we decided to go back and see them again. We got on the bus with that intention, but quickly changed our minds when we saw a sign to the ... read more