Avan writes about some trip observations on South America.Back to Sao Paulo and as we are arriving by bus at around lunchtime and flying out to Dubai that night (well 1.30am), we have decided it is not worth checking in anywhere or trying to do anything with our luggage. We have opted to simply transfer from the bus terminal to the International airport and wait out the time until our flight. Not much of a story in that so since it is our last day in South Americ...

A glitch in our plans….Now, most things go to plan when we are travelling, and just happen like they should, but sometimes a glitch causes us to have to come up with an alternative.Saturday the 15th January was one such day.We left our hostel (and Argentina - for the last time) in a private taxi to take us over the border and to the bus station in Foz Do Iguacu, the town on the Brazilian side of the border. The first part went to plan with the border not ev...

Our trip back to Rio from Ilha Grande was booked as a "Speed connection" the day before we were to travel. Sounded like a good idea as the brochure promoted a fast looking boat and a late model bus that would take us right to our hostel. In reality it was a much older boat than we arrived on and the bus was a crowded transit bus with no air con! What was worse was that the boat appeared to have left the island without the skipper!! We were about three quarters a...

I sit writing this looking out over the bluest of blue bays imaginable dotted with little jungle clad islands and peppered with tourist boats.Looking up I can see the dense forested mountain we climbed for three and a half hours yesterday to get to the beach of Lopes Mendes. The sounds are of the happy chatter of Brazilian holidaymakers, (for this is a holiday destination for Brazilians, more so than foreigners), children coming home from the nearby school, the f...

How good it is to slip back into the back- packing hostel scene! Rio hostel, in the steep bohemian hillside area of Rio De Janerio is all a hostel should be – quirky accommodation and friendly travellers . Within 5 minutes of arriving we had been invited to go out to eat with a Brazilian girl, Natalia, who wanted company to walk the kilometre or so up the street in the dark to the closest restaurants . As the three of us walked down the steep steps of the h...