Montevideo

After a few gorgeous days at the beach it was time for another city centre. We arrived on Sunday mid morning and the place was like a ghost town - we were beginning to wonder whether we had fallen under another curfew! I eventually found somewhere to dump our bags and Kate so I could go off in search of some accommodation. I strolled around the town for a while and soon found a suitable hostel. I returned to pick up Kate plus bags and we checked in only to be told the room was only empty for one night so we would have to find somewhere else to stay. Due to the fact I was not feeling too chipper (picked up a stinker of a cold in Punta del Diablo) we decided to take the room for the one night and look elsewhere the next morning.
After we had chilled out in the room and I had cleared most of the gunk from my nose we decided to take a stroll along the promenade. The river was more like a sea with waves constantly crashing against the sea wall. As the day was slightly overcast we had not seen Montevideo in it's best light. The next morning was the complete opposite. Bright blue skies and a refreshing breeze. Kate went in search of somewhere else to stay and came up trumps. Once we had moved we explored the town with renewed vigour and took in most of the nearby sights. Including the ashes of the dead chap I'm sat below. His urn was guarded by two figures who on closer inspection we discovered were real soldiers. It took a while for Kate and I took realise they were human - our excuse was that it was quite dark under the ground. By mid afternoon we were quite tired and retreated to our room for some sleep and emails. I managed to organise dinner with the couple that owned the cabana in Punta del Diablo - In Uruguay, locals don't eat dinner until 10pm so the rest of the afternoon was an extended siesta.
We were picked up from our hotel by Roberto and Andrea. Kate and our two hosts sat in the front of their pickup while I hopped into the back. We sped through the Montevideo night and soon found a place to eat. We chatted over our meal in a mixture of English and Spanish - mostly English I am ashamed to say. After dinner we visited a small market then popped into a petrol station to buy some beers and drank them on the promenade over looking the yacht club. It was a lovely evening and we made some good friends.
The next day we explored the town once more. We were given a few tips by Andrea of things to see and places to eat. Whilst checking out a nearby mall we managed to find a great shop but was slightly disappointed by it's products - they will be getting a visit from Trade Descriptions!
Using a tip from Andrea we ate a late lunch at the Mercado del Puerto. The building used to be the old train station but is now home to several Parillas. The smell of BBQ-ed meat was fantastic - A carnivores heaven! Kate and I both ordered steak and we received the biggest hunks of meat we had ever seen. Utterly delicious! With our stomachs full of gorgeous grass fed cow we waddled back to our room to pack in preparation for our trip to Colonia.

Punta Del Diablo

Time to say goodbye to Brazil and hello, Uruguay; but not before 2 days of traveling and 37 hours of those 2 days spent aboard buses! We were extremely happy to arrive in Punta del Diablo and even happier when we found that the glowing reports we'd heard about this place were all true. It is still a relatively undeveloped fishing village, with stunning beaches and forest surrounding it on every side and just enough in the small town to help us survive for a few days here. We stumbled across an absolute gem of a place to stay, Naranja Lima, a small cabana perfectly and beautifully kitted out and with the most helpful and friendly owners you can imagine, Roberto and Andrea.

We awoke each morning and looked out at the Atlantic Ocean, before eating breakfast out on the decking in the sun. We explored the small town during the first morning and then headed out along the rocks and in to the Santa Teresa National Park. The sea here was still rough and wild, despite Uruguay heading in to the summer season.

We walked for a couple of hours along the beach and came across a handful of people the whole time. We did however discover a whole array of dead wildlife, nothing sinister, just the results of a high tide and the Atlantic ocean; 2 huge seals, a penguin, birds, fish - Dave was in his element! We couldn't believe how beautiful this place was and how few people were around, absolutely brilliant.

After enjoying the chilled out atmosphere and gorgeous weather we decided it was time for some more activity and signed up for a sunset horse trek. After my evil horse in the Pantanal I was rather concerned when I was introduced to my horse for the afternoon, 'Borracha'; for those who don't have a clue why that would worry me this translates as 'Drunk'! My fears were unfounded though and Borracha turned out to be a great little horse. We rode into the National Park and our guide pointed out the various plants and birds along the way and then came up trumps when she produced a bottle of red wine from her saddle bag, which we polished off between the 3 of us.

We made our way back down through the sand dunes and onto the beach to enjoy the sunset and a gallop in the waves. I'm lying, Dave and Rossini (his Stallion!!) galloped off into the sunset and me and Drunk trotted gingerly behind; even that probably the result of dutch courage from swigging wine from the bottle.

After our equestrian efforts the day before, we lazed for the most part of our last day in Punta del Diablo; our most strenuous activity being a lick of an ice cream. We did narrowly avert certain death during our evening stroll on the dunes though when Dave, collecting wood for our fire, uncovered several small scorpions and proceeded to poke them with a stick! His comment,in typical Dave style, was 'oo that one's aggressive'; yes, that'll be because you're poking him with a stick Temple. We returned, scorpion sting-free, to our cabana and lit a fire to drink our beer and eat our dinner around, perfect!


Next morning we jumped on our bus to Montevideo, but both agreed that Punta del Diablo is definitely a place we would love to return to one day.

Rio de Janeiro

After all the wildness and nature of the past couple of weeks we were ready for some pollution and traffic jams, so we hopped on another overnight bus and headed for Rio. We arrived into a very overcast city at around 11am the next morning and were very disappointed when all of the famous landmarks we were eagerly awaiting were shrouded in cloud. We headed for the famous beach suburbs of Rio and checked into 'The girl from Ipanema' hostel, mainly because I had been singing the song constantly for the past few days. After some very un-Rio like weather during our first afternoon, the sun came out and we got to see Ipanema and Copacabana in all their glory.

We spent a very hot afternoon sunning ourselves and playing in the waves; but mainly ogling the various sights to be seen strutting their stuff along the beach; young, beautiful, old, wrinkly, buffed or bloated you can see them all in Rio. In an attempt to avoid the wrinkled prune look which some of the older inhabitants of the city have adopted, we retired to the shade of a bar and sampled the national cocktail of Brazil, the Caipirinha.

The following day we headed for the top of Sugarloaf mountain, reached via 2 cable car journeys. At nearly 1300ft the top of the mountain affords spectacular views over the whole of Rio de Janeiro and we finally got to see the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking this amazing city.

Can you see Christ the redeemer over the other side of the bay?

Who are these two fools spoiling the view? Copacabana to the left.

After taking as many photos as humanly possible we left Sugarloaf and visited the neighbourhood beach where there was something sporty and exciting happening with canoes with stabilisers. We ogled the Rio locals some more while scoffing a very unsporty ice cream and then caught our bus back to Ipanema.

The next morning we walked to the Copacabana stretch of beach and we greeted by 10 men in Neoprene! The final of 'King of the Sea' was just about to start, which involved a 10k swim around the bay; we joined the crowds who were cheering for their Brazilian hero, who was unfortunately beaten by an Australian pretender. During our walk home we came across Santa, who was enjoying a pre-christmas break in Rio; thankfully no thong for him either.

Iguaçu and Rio de Prata

Obviously we had not seen enough wildlife in the Pantanal so we packed our bags and headed for a small town called Bonito. From our hostel we booked a snorkeling tour down the Rio de Prata - a crystal clear river teaming with fish. We hired an underwater camera to capture some memories!

Kate would have seen a whole lot more if she had opened her eyes

The river was even clearer than we had imagined and there were so many fish. We were supplied with 5mm wetsuits which made it extremely difficult to move but when the idea is just to float and be carried downstream that really isn't a problem.

There are a lot more photos on my facebook profile of this trip so have a peek there if you are not bored by my fishy friends.


After Bonito we headed down to Foz do Iguaçu to check some waterfall thing a few people had been banging on about.

What we saw too our breath away. They were immense. We stood for ages just listening and watching the mammoth amount of water cascading over 275 falls 2.7 kilometers across. It was no suprise to learn that it has been shortlisted for one of the New7Wonders of Nature

We went to visit the falls twice. Once on the Brazlian side and once on the Argentinian side. Both countries give different views of the falls and I don't think we could pick a preferred side if asked. Each country had a unique experience to offer - so if you are unsure - do both!!

The Devil's Throat pictured above is the largest 'ere cataract at Iguacu and quite a hike in the heat of the day to reach. (Ear Cataracts?...Ear Cataracts?...Ear Cataracts?). <---- for the web unsavvy that is a link to click on. The thunderous roar of the water here is deafening and we needed to shout to get each other heard - well more so than normal - apparently I'm going deaf, Kate has to shout at me most of the time anyway.

Aside from the rather large amounts of water passing by us (2000m3 per second - in 1992 in full flood there was 36,000m3 per second - mind boggling figures!) we were treated to quite an array of wildlife including Coatis and a spectacular monitor lizard.

Coatis are Raccoon like mammals. They can be quite vicious when trying to steal food from tourists but the group we saw were more interested in foraging in the dead leaves.

Not exactly sure what it is but he posed beautifully for me! We saw quite a few and I think Kate has had quite enough of me taking photos of reptiles - I haven't even started!

The Pantanal

We arrived in the Pantanal on the first day of December to absolutely sweltering conditions. We jumped in to our safari jeep and bounced along the dusty tracks to reach our campsite some 30 minutes later. We picked out our hammocks for the next 2 nights and then met our guide, Gabriel, who told us that our first outing would be a short trek, followed by some Piranha fishing. On arrival at the fishing hole we were greeted by some other inhabitants, Caiman.

Gabriel preceeded to inform us that we could cool off with a swim if we liked, I looked around for the Piranha/Caiman free pool which he was referring to but to no avail. The madman was suggesting that we join these very toothy creatures in their stretch of water!! Unsurprisingly none of us felt so hot that we jumped in; instead we put our fishing rods in to action and our fishy, flesh- eating friends were soon nibbling at the bait.

Dave's previous fishing exploits paid off and he was soon whipping the little buggers out of the water right, left and centre. My haul was slightly less impressive, but nonetheless I managed to hook one or two during our fishing session.

After returning to camp as the sun set, we ate dinner and then embarked on our night safari. The jeep was set up with a huge light and we set off along the tracks to spy some of the nocturnal animals of the Pantanal; nothing particularly exciting emerged, a few deer and a big spider, until we got out of the jeep and walked along side the water. We shone our flashlights in to the distance and hundreds of pairs of eyes reflected our beams back at us, Caiman.

The following morning the weather was rather unsettled, so we donned our raincoats and climbed in to the back of the jeep for a wet journey towards the River Paraguay. We stopped en route for some more Caiman spotting; it really wasn't hard!

The Pantanal is crammed full of wildlife and during the couple of hours to the river we saw lots of it, Capybaras, Armadillos, Ostriches, Deer, Giant Otters and a whole array of birds. During one of the treks off in to the wetlands we came across this little fellow; a baby Caiman, have your hand off in a second.

We reached the river at lunchtime and after a feed and a siesta we piled into a small, uncomfortable metal boat for a water safari. The fish in the River Paraguay appeared to prefer our boat to the water and tried their best to jump in with us, causing much hilarity and girlie screaming (and not just from me I might add!) Next on the wildlife agenda was an Anaconda, but the increase in heat during the day meant that they were rather elusive; only after a very hot and long search was one eventually found. He wasn't particularly large for an Anaconda, but this didn't stop the compulsory round of 'hold the snake' photographs.

Highlight of the journey back to camp were the numerous Toucans flying alongside the jeep, such amazing looking birds.

After another surprisingly comfortable night in our hammocks we ate breakfast and felt extremely lucky that this spider had remained outside of our hut.

Our last morning was spent on horseback, trekking through the wetlands. Dave galloped off on his trusty steed and got a glimpse of monkeys in the trees; while I was trying to control my greedy horse who threw a wobbly every time I stopped him from eating the luscious Pantanal grass. After a few hours in the saddle we returned to the ranch, ate lunch and were soon winding our way towards our next destination, Bonito.

Uyuni Salt Flats and Sucre

After a bumpy night on the Bolivian roads we arrived in dusty Uyuni; not a particularly attractive place but the point from which we would embark on our 3 day salt flat tour. So on Saturday 21st November we clambered aboard a Toyota Landcruiser with 4 other Brits and made our way to the world's largest salt flats.

Our first stop was the Train Graveyard, self explanatory really, a load of rusty old trains sitting out in the Bolivian desert. Dave had great fun climbing all over them , until he smashed his flip flopped toe on a rock and proceeded to bleed profusely.

After some arty black and white shots and some walking on rail tracks it was back in to the jeep and we were heading to a salt processing plant on the edge of the flats.


It's a good job that they have 14,000 square kilometres of the stuff as they only get 10 Bolvianos (about 80p) per 50kg that they produce, absolutely crazy!

After lunch and some exploration of Isla Incawasi, an island of fossilised coral now covered in cacti rather than water, we attempted to produce some hilarious salt flat photos. Unfortunately we were all rubbish at setting up the shots and on the whole failed miserably to get any which actually worked; this one below is about the best!

Great fun trying to do them though and a very enjoyable journey to our first night's accommodation, a salt hotel. If they can't sell the stuff for a decent price they'll make everything they possibly can out of it; the beds, the tables, the walls.


Day 2 of our tour took us away from the saltiness and introduced us to a whole range of different Bolivian landscapes. From desert first thing to a lava filled landscape next, we were realising that Bolivia is an incredible place, full of surprises.

There were 3 lagoons on the agenda today Flamingo lagoon, Stinky lagoon and Red lagoon. Guess which one we stopped to have lunch at?


Filled with a tasty lunch of Llama meat we made our way across the Siloli desert, the world's highest and driest according to our guide Oscar, taking in the ever changing landscape as we sped along. The next time we stepped out of the jeep it was like a hurricane had hit, the sand whipped painfully against our legs and it was easy to imagine how the surrounding rocks had been blasted in to the strange shapes. This one is called 'El Arbol de piedra', the stone tree and I lasted about 2 more seconds in this position before dashing back to the safety of the Landcruiser.

Our 3rd day started extremely early so that we could see the fumaroles (like a geyser but emitting steam and gases not water) at their volcanic best. It was incredible to wander through the steam and peer into the pools of bubbling volcanic mud and all before breakfast.

So, due to all this volcanic activity, handily, just down the road there is a set of hot springs ready and waiting for groups of grubby, salty tourists to jump in to and enjoy the sunrise. We did just that and it was a magnificent ending to an un-Bolivia-ble few days.

Having dropped half of our merry band off at the Chilean border we made the long journey back up to Uyuni, taking in a few more jaw-dropping sights on the way.

And just to break up up the monotony of beautiful lakes, amazing landscapes and amusingly shaped rocks, there were several 'dust devils' thrown in to keep us on our toes.

After the extremes of the Uyuni tour we made our way back up north to Bolivia's constitutional capital Sucre. A gorgeous colonial city where we enjoyed a couple of days of relaxation and extremely cheap food, beer and colourful fruit; before moving on to Brazil.