Well I suppose you could call staying with local families and meeting bats in the bathroom as cultural! Fortunately, the bats were in the bathroom of my colleague......all I had to face were a few roaches and a search for hot running water, which I didn't find for three days.\ Still, it has been interesting to deliver training lessons in a church which was founded almost two centuries ago by a minister with the surname of Wray, who hailed from Hull and who ar...

Well I finally made it to the feet of Corcovada, the art deco figure of Christ, which seems to be an icon for Rio, but in fact may have little to do with the lives of most people who live in the city as they seem more concerned with their outer, rather than their inner being. The visit to the monument was a bit of charge uphill up in buses followed by an elbowing battle as everyone in Brazil seemed to be there on a Saturday afternoon to take pictures of the ...

Have survived two overnight bus trips - one lasting twentysix hours - but both in air conditioned reclining seat comfort so not as bad as I have expected from "local transport". Now in the lovely historical town of Paraty some 250 klms from Rio. Cobbled streets - which are so cobbled that you spend the entire time looking down or falling over - painted houses, colonial style churches and dozens of eating places selling every style from local to Sushi! ...

If you know anything about Buenos Aires you will know that the photo on the front of this card is from there, and not from MOntevideo, from where I am writing. Well, its not my fault that there are no great pictures to be had of Montevideo. Can hardly remember when I last wrote as I have been on the move.....one way and another!.....for the past seven days. Have seen sunrises and sunsets to test the will and skills of JWM Turner, visited one of the most...

First things first..........thank you everyone who has been so kind as to remember my birthday, especially those of you who were good enough to transpose the numbers 5 and 6. Had another adrenalin packed day on the 25th as we (group of four, plus our guide and driver) set off from The White City (Arequipa) named, not because of the stone which features in its buildings, but rather that the Spanish founded the place and wanted to make it clear that it was not...