Blogs from South America

We have just sailed out of Brazilian waters having spent a week here. We made three stops, Rio, Salvador and Recife. We had visited Rio twice before but the others were new to us. The saga of visiting Brazil though started before we got to Kenya. We were asked if we had Brazilian Visas and we said no. I had checked the website and none were needed for Australians. However, they had brought in a new rule that Americans, Canadians and Australians all must have one if they arrived after April 10th. We were stopping on the 15th. We had to buy an internet package and tried to follow instructions but gave up. Eventually, we sought the help of the crew and one of the Cruise consultants helped us through it. We had to get photos ... read more

Hello! This one is for all the naysayers out there who said we'd never make it...we're OK here in hot and humid Buenos Aires. The BA journey was pretty long, not helped by the slobbering character sleeping next to me on the plane (no, not Laura) and the 25 Argentinian youngsters returning from their degree course at the Finsbury Park School of Applied English (cash only, terms and conditions apply). I arrived without incident and successfully booked into the wonderful Garden House Hostel in the San Telmo neighborhood of the city. Great hotel - not too many people staying, so no late-night raucous mobs to disrupt my beauty sleep...sort ly tailored toward the traveling population in a good way.My only complaint is a lack of air conditioning (that we've noticed) and the lack of a private ... read more

Anyway, we're back... in South America. Our crazy trip around the world brought us back here for five amazing weeks to see everything we missed the first time around (that's the plan anyway).On to Chile.Santiago is another well known city.. . fog The city is located in a beautiful location at the foot of the Andes, surrounded by mountains. The downside to this is that the area is exposed to low cloud cover, which in turn picks up the noise from cars and city factories. I'll keep my return intact by running until I leave Santiago.Our hostel, Happy House in the Barrio Brasil area of ​​the city, was possibly the best we stayed at on the entire trip (no mean feat). Not much to look at from the outside, the place is huge, beautifully restored in ... read more

In the narrow country, there are only two directions to choose from - north or south. With snow still in and out of the Lake District, heading north seemed like a reasonable choice, so we headed to La Serena, 7 hours north of Valparaiso. At least a 7-hour bus ride allows you to see amazing nature, unlike flying, so the trip went pretty quickly. Fortunately the Chilean buses are closer to Argentinian standards than those in Bolivia or Peru!La Serena is a large seaside resort in the summer, but was quite quiet in the off-season. Arriving early in the evening, food was again on the priority list, and after checking out the pizzeria we recommended, red wine was on my mind. Unfortunately, the waiter decided to leave out the fact that they were out of red ... read more

Many of us took a transport from Argentina to Paraguay some time recently the rest of the bunch in arrange to sort out my Brazil visa issues. The Brazilian Government office in Bolivia denied me a visa since my bank explanations didn´t have my title on them, fair my account number. No sum of clarifying that my bank does that for security reasons was progressing to make them issue me a visa. So I made a few articulations with my title on them prepared for my another visa endeavor. Recently I connected for the visa at the Asuncion International safe haven equipped with my bank statements and they didn´t indeed inquire for them. I couldn´t indeed donate them absent! And rather than a 48 hour turnover, my visa was prepared to choose up in three hours. ... read more