Blogs from Brazil, South America - page 631

Just spent the past week in Rio de Janeiro and am now in Puerto Iguazu getting ready to head back to Buenos Aires tomorrow morning. Rio was beautiful and lots of fun. Kind of like a Hawaii/California mix with a South American twist. White sand beaches, lots of surf, big boardwalks, and lush green mountains shooting up in the background. I flew from Buenos Aires and arrived in Rio at midnight...not the best idea when you don't have a reservation anywhere during the busy season. I found myself walking around Copacabana at 1am knocking on hostel doors looking for places to stay, knowing little to no portugese. I was about to find a spot on the beach to sleep when I finally came across the last bunk in this hostel just outside of town. I ... read more

well we´ve left the severed bulls head behind, we had to face the reality that a dead bull and plus 30 heat just didn´t mix.....we rode the ride in style, got deported from Ilha Grande, but the people lined the streets to hail the vaca loco! He slept with swedish girls in Rio, chased dogs in Ilha Grande, drank beer in paratay, but the pantanal is just one stop too far, after all pirhanas don´t really like bulls, or is it that they like them too much! The maddness improves in leaps and bounds just as my love for tequila, coincidence? Thanks to the advancements in upper arm floatation devices, ligers for dave and seahorses for me ( I am secretly jealous) we laughed a watery grave in the face....on a boat trip out to a ... read more

I've heard that the Japanese actually see the world differently (to us Westerners) because of their writing system. Apparently that's why they take photographs of traffic signs, chavs and council flats. That got me thinking about why we travel. Seeing new things and interpreting them in relation to what you're used to seems to make a lot of people happy. I wonder how quickly that honeymoon period would slither into the banal were we to emigrate to the postcard or photograph. The traveller is always seeking new things because they are consistently discontent with the known. Yet sometimes we do miss that known. Most of us find ourselves in McDonalds or Pizza Hut abroad from time to time, even if we don't eat there at home; probably because we're just bored of putting the effort into ... read more

Okay well here's a quick review of what we did the last few days in rio - briefest of brief as we have some sightseeing to do. Firtly we took the cablecar up sugarloaf mountain, which was amazing - stunning views of the beaches and islands of rio. We also met some cheeky monkeys, and walked down the smaller 'mountain' connecting sugarloaf to the ground - it was a great, though sometimes tricky, tropical walk. The rest of the day was spent walking back to Robbys through three different beaches. That evening two German girls arrived, and the next day we all went up to the statue of Christ the Redeemer, where the views were alm,ost as good as sugarloaf. Christ was dissapointingly small, and it was very busy - i got in loads of other ... read more

Hey everyone!!!!! We are starting our own travel journal so we can keep you guys up to date with everything that we have been up to!!! Some of you will probably have already seen some of the photos and heard some of the stories, but.........too bad!!!!:o) Well, after three months hollidays from each other, we are back together - it was about time!!! We start our journal with an eventfull trip to Brotas, about an hour and a half from home if we hadn´t got lost. But 6 hours and 30km of dirt road later, we found the place nearing dark and only got to see one lame waterfall. Well, it was a nice way of spending my (Axe)birthday!!!! Tom got a little taste of driving on the right side of the road - he says ... read more