After a week of hedonism in Rio we needed time to rest and recover before another expected few weeks of hedonism in Australia. Our flight to New Zealand was booked from Santiago, so we spent a week back in Chile, and headed south to Pucon at the very north of the Chilean Lake District, and ateway to Patagonia. The flight from Rio went via Montevideo, so it meant Jon did to go there in the end, although he didn't actually leave the airport so I'm not sure it was...

We began our 6 day stay in Rio with a talk from our guide, Hanna, introducing us to Carnival. The origins of carnival date back to the ancient Greek spring festival in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine. The Romans adopted the celebration with Bacchanalia (feasts in honour of Bacchus, their own god of wine) and slaves and their masters would swap clothes in a day of drunken revelry. Carnival is a massive celebration of indulgences - one last gasp of music, foo...

The first thing I did when I got to Rio de Janiero was sat on the floor next to our luggage trolley and sobbed. I was worried about travelling round Brazil - everyone we had spoken to said how expensive it was. That was all they said - never it's amazing but expensive or great fun but expensive. Just the cost factor. Our own experience of trying to arrange travel, even with our Carnival providers in the UK was painful. Unlike most South American countries, you ...

Iguazu is on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay in the middle of a rainforest. It was recently voted one of the natures seven wonders of the world - we spent three days waterfall watching and it was certainly a sight to behold. After our eventful last night in Buenos Aires and rush to the airport I wanted to lie down for the rest of the day when we arrived but Jon was having none of it and got a bus to the Argentinian side of the park at lunchtime....

Wherever you look in Buenos Aires there is graffiti on the walls. This ranges from tagging (where kids spray paint their name), New York style graffiti (where they decorate their names) to political slogans or protests, and what is now being called 'street art' by those in the know - murals and stencils which has increased in popularity and numbers over the last 10 years in BA. It's interesting to wander round and see what you can spot, but we were interested to ...