We've had great fun spending the last few days of our tour in the pantanal wetlands. A bird lovers paradise and I soon got enthusiastic about twitching,spending quality time with the miami scientists and their binocularswatching fly-catchers. Ed on the otherhand got involved in some male bonding Caiman spotting. He was disappointed his loving wife wouldn't let him wade in and swim with them as the crazy dutch guy and our guide did on a couple of occasions. (This ...

Well we can`t quite belive it...only 2 weeks to go....yet we press on and after the charm of colonial Paraty we headed to Iguassu Falls to witness them at their driest state in 30 years. It was pretty disappointing but there were still spectacular views to be had....we'll just have to watch The Mission when we return. Managed to fit in another couple of countries whilst we were down there also. Spent a day on the Argentinian side of the falls and then a morning i...

Our nerves have calmed down now we've left Rio and joined our final tour group. Rio was pretty much how we imagined, impressive, upbeat city but we couldn't feel that relaxed with all the stories of muggings, not that we've much left to steal - I'd have been happy to part with the fleeces and stinky walking boots. Copacabana (Rio's playground) was a stones throw from our hotel and by 11am on Sunday there was barely a patch of sand left and the surfers were crashi...