We said bye to Dave and took a 4 hr bus to the Brazilian boarder town Corumbá. The boarder was said by all guide books to be closed at 1pm on a Sunday. We arrived at 1:45pm and according to the bus terminal staff the boarder was going to close at 2pm. We jumped in the taxi with an Austrailian couple we met in Bonito and prompted the taxi driver with Rápido Rápido (go-go). We made it to the boarder just passed 2pm to discover that they were still open and weren...

After 6 hour minibus ride we arrived in Bonny Bonito. The town itself was quaint with a square that had giant jumping fish water features, loads of curio shops and a cachasa (local Brazilian sugar cane and main ingredient for traditional Caiparinhas) factory. Even though low season, the Rio de Prata was fully sold out due to a large tour group that took over the town. So we went to the Natural Aquarium instead, which was awesome in the true sense of the word. T...

After a 5 hour private transfer to Sao Paulo to get a 12 hour overnight bus we arrived in Campo Grande. Greeted by a tout from Santa Clara Pousada we decided they were the best option for the Pantanal - Motto Grosso package. An American guy, Dave, joined us, shortly after the four of us were transferred by 4x4 on a 5 hour journey, in the rain as well, to the Pantanal Santa Clara farm. As we got there the rain stopped and we went on a night safari where we saw a...

Not expecting much of this vintage cobbled stoned beach town, I was blown away by what it offered us in the end. We stayed in a Pousada again (Brazilian guest house). As we got there late afternoon we explored a bit and went for dinner at this quaint restaurant with live jazz music. The food was great, but my highlight was that I got to sing 3 songs with the band whose keyboarder player is a famous samba music recording artist...so even if that's not a claim to f...

About 3 hours from Rio one can get a ferry/fast boat to Ilha Grande (Big Island) which had the most spectacular beaches all around with some amazing seafood. On recommendation we booked into El Misty which was a really amazing place however the room we paid 50 Reals for turned out to be, well politely put, a bit of a dump...was a 9 dorm room with triple bunks, so needless to say it's not quite on our recommendation list. We took an incredibly scenic route around...