It was about an hours drive out of La Paz to the starting point of the ride, La Cumbre. The views I must say were already impressive. We were up pretty high as well - somewhere up there in the 4000-5000 meters. There was snow on the nearby mountains. The whole ride was actually 64km but he death road is only 32 km of that I believe. The rest is paved. Chris had a very dry, sarcastic sense of humour and his english was good but with a heavy Swedish accent so I missed probably 30% of what he was saying. Anyway he fitted us in our bikes and made us all drink this horrible local liquor as some sort of luck ritual. My bike was named Pepino. These bikes really were top line. It was like riding a Rolls Royce of bikes. Such a smooth ride. Anyway we started out and it was easy enough because 90% of the route is downhill. It was slightly wet out and very misty and very very cold at the top (I swear my hands nearly got frostbite). There were some points where we could barely see a few meters in front of us. As we got lower it cleared up a bit. We hit the porcion of uphill. Now they gave us a choice between being driven up in the support vehicle or riding up. Apparently it´s only 8km but uphill at that altitude is one killer ride. Steve decided to do. I decided to save myself for the ride down the death road which would be strenuous enough. It started to pour rain while the few who chose to ride up did it. Seemed like a very long 8km to me and they were all soaked afterward. Conveniently when the rest of us started riding it had stopped. So we started the death road. Very gravelly, waterfalls along the way and some points were you´re like a foot from a 600 meter drop. But you almost don´t notice because you´re paying so much attention to the path ahead of you and you have to. It was a cool ride though, all said and done. We stopped about 8 times - one of which was to have lunch. It was well paced and instructed so nobody had any problems. The key really was to keep your head focused on the road. We didn´t encounter any other vehicles thankfully and I took some nice pictures. It took us probably and 1.5 hours to get down. At the bottom we had a buffet lunch at an animal shelter. Abused or homeless animals taken care of by volunteers. Parrots, rabbits, monkeys, goats, dogs, and other creatures wandered around. There was as particular goat that took a liking to me. I think it tried to hump my leg. It also butted me with it´s horns. The monkeys were mischievous and little thieves if you got near the wrong one. One little bastard started up my leg - I thought he was going to climb on my shoulder - instead he stole the pen from my pocket. He let it loose for a moment and I got it back and he started screaming like a banshee - he was on a rope so he couldn´t come after me. Those monkeys were troublemakers man. Anyway it was a very noble group.

Man the scariest part of the ride was going back up in the bus, man there was times when you could look out and see nothing but the drop - there was no ground between the wheel and the edge. It took an hour and it was a scary hour. The bus shouldn´t really fit on that road, but we made it .

Anyway good company, good ride and good day. The next day we headed into Peru - where we spend 1/3 of our trip.

Check out more pics of the road here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81510&l=a4786&id=684816071

The Death Road remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We flew to Rurrenabaque - the closest town to the park in a small plane. Only fit about 20 people and we could see the pilot. The views were cool though because we went right over a mountain then over rainforest. The flight, happily for me, is only 40 minutes. The runway in Rurrenabaque is a grass field and the airport pretty much a large shack. The weather though is amazing. Tropical - about 35 degrees. It´s lush and green - a complete change from what we had been seeing lately. So hot. We were shuffled into a van thing to be taken to the Chalalan office. We got a flat though a few minutes in. Strangely a frenchman suddely rode up to us in a motorbike selling fresh croissants and pan au chocolat. We were hungry so we bought a couple and jumped into another van. At the office we were explained the way of things. We were at a hotel for tonight and then tomorrow morning our guide would take us in a river boat up the Beni then the Tuchi River for about 5 hours to the lodge. So we headed to our hotel nearby. It was pretty decent. Lots of hammocks and they gave us fresh juice. We had a bit of clean up and rest and walked around Rurre. It´s a pretty place, very touristy though and no ATMs. Anyway onto the rainforest.

We headed out to the boats at 7.30 am. They´re long thin boats and they have to be careful at points in the river because if it gets too shallow the guides actually have to jump out and push the boat otherwise it´ll drift or go over. They had to do that a couple times on our trip. We saw various birds, howler monkeys and I glimpsed a Capybara - the largest rodent in the world. It´s about the size of a medium dog. We had a nice box lunch on a shore - I spied some very large animal tracks when I went to go to the bathroom. Guide said they probably belong to a Tapir. Not a jaguar like I would have thought. We arrived at the lodge and had to walk another 30 minutes to get to the cabins. Steve and I got the "matrimonal" cabin. It was fancy. Hardwood floors, big bed, large spacious bathroom and remarkably clean. Impressive accomedations. The dining hall as well was beautiful - mostly made of mahogany from the forest. We went for a dip in the lake - which was actually filled with caimen but apparently safe for humans. We went for a walk through the forest where our guide, I may have forgotten his name, spoke passble english and explained some of the medicinal plants and we spotted frogs, common squirrel monkeys, a white chested hawk - I think. Really cool. There were also macaws about. Dinner and lunch were practically gourmet affairs. Amazing for the middle of the jungle. Delicious food and amazing amounts. It was a buffet for dinner with the main being fish wrapped and leaves with various traditional tribal spices and baked. We went for a noctural walk after dinner. It was full dark and many bugs and creatures made appearances. Night time in the jungle is spooky. So many noises and seems like even more life comes out including the more dangerous animals. The guide told us that nighttime is the most dangerous time for them because of snakes. The two most dangerous snakes being bushmasters and coral snakes. Both of these are ground snakes. Jaguars do exist in the forest but they stay clear of humans. So knowing there were fatal to humans snakes in the forest made me uneasy. We saw some new poisonous frogs and a big dirty tarantula. He was about the size of my hand but not particularly jumpy or anything. Lots of bugs were attracted to our flashlights so I was happy to leave to night forest. When we got back to the cabin there was a frog crawling up our shower and a rather large spider with a cockroach in its mouth. Very noisy at night as well but we managed to get by. The next day we went for a really long walk. 5 hours. We saw various flora and butterflies, leaf cutter ants, some sort of small wild jungle cat, wild pigs, more monkeys and birds and so forth. Really amazing. The jungle is teeming with life but it´s actually quite to hard to see a lot of it. They blend in. We saw frogs and geckos that were camoflagued to the closest leaf or whatever. In the afternoon we had a nap but I felt up feeling sick because of the heat and probably dehydration. I actually started vomiting and our guide made me some medicinal tea made from plants from the forest. I think it helped. Didn´t last too long happily and I was able to have a bit of dinner and go on the night canoeing session. We were going caimen "hunting". It was really weird to canoe at night in almost complete darkness. There were fisherman bats swooping in and catching fish. We had to shine flashlights close to the shore and you could see the caimen because their eyes reflected back red. We´d wander the canoe over and get pretty close. Most of them were adolescents. Apparently adult caimen don´t usually show their faces to humans. Anyway the stars were so clear and it was quiet on the lake. The next day we headed back out. It was only 3 hours down stream to Rurre. Our flight was delayed, apparently that´s a common occurance for the flight to La Paz, but we still managed to get back that day on the 6pm flight. It was really interesting time in the jungle, I could see how people could take a real interest in say bird watching etc. I guess for me, seeing all these animals in the wild was the real benefit. it´s so much better than in a zoo.

In La Paz, Steve had continued to try to "persuade" me to go with him on the Death Road. The Death Road being a 32 km stretch of gravel road in the mountains between La Paz and Coroico that is only the length of one vehicle but accomedates two way traffic and is for the most part on 600 meter cliff edges. It´s called the death road because, you guessed it, it has a huge mortality rate. When it was the only road to Coroico and buses and trucks used to go along it, it was reported to have around 200-300 people dying in accidents. Mostly people falling asleep at the wheel and going off a cliff or some kind of careless driving. Anyway Steve had been bugging me to do the mountain bike trek down this road for a while and finally after seeing the pictures I decided to go. Next off is the Death Road in La Paz.

For more pics of the jungle and Rurre go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81033&l=b5e7f&id=684816071

Rurrenabaque - Madidi National Park remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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For more pics of La Paz go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=80489&l=d245d&id=684816071

La Paz remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Anyway back to the scenery. Day 1. The mountains we started to drive by were coloured in ways I had never seen. Light browns, reds, whites even green sometimes make up the striated textures. Our first stops were coloured lakes. The white lake - laguna blanco. It really was white - some mineral in the water. Green - laguna verde. Looked like a turquoise caribbean sea. Next we passed by a chunk of desert aptly named the Dali desert. Both stark and with unusual rock formations it very much reminded me of one of Dali's many surrealist paintings. The weather though extremely sunny was also fairly cold because of the altitude. We stopped at Polques hot spring after. Steve and I only waded but the others in our group got on the bathing suits and hopped in. It was a very nice temperature and sat on the edge of a lake. We then headed to the Sol de Mañana geysers. There are a smattering of sometimes large smoky holes coloured yellows and browns with bubbling grey liquid. You would not want to fall in that. Really interesting to see though. We then made our way to the hostel we would be spending the night in. It didn´t have showers and was very spartan and was also at an altitude of 4200 meters. That is a serious height. To put that into perspective - the worlds highest city, Potosi (also in Bolivia) is a mere 4090 mts. Two of the Seven Summits (the highest mountains on the 7 continents) are not far off; Carstensz Pyramid in Australia-New Guinea is 4884mts and Vinson Massif in Antarctica 4892 mts. There were points on the first day were we were at an altitude of 5100 mts. Not for too long though. So the "hostel" was well known for giving people altitude sickness - the guides carry oxygen with them. Even though we were literally in the middle of no where they still had beer for sale. Anyway nearby was the spectacular Laguna Colorado - the Red Lake. It was actually red, pink in some areas and white in others. It was also a popular spot for flamingos who get their pink coloured feathers from a certain red organism that they eat in the water. Amazing lake combined with the bright blue sky and the dark brown-red mountain in the background and you get quite the array of colours. Amazing. We went back to the hostel and had lunch - salads and hot dogs - and later dinner - soup, rotisserie chicken and rice. All decent meals. Apparently it gets very very cold at night. Our beds had probably 3 blankets on them and we pilfered blankets from the other empty beds. Most of us had two pairs of socks, several layers and no less than 5 blankets. It wasn´t that cold though. We heard rumours of -10 but I never even saw my breath at any point at night which means it couldn´t have below zero. This night did not go well for me. I was hit with some seroius altitude sickness. I couldn´t sleep at all and I had chest discomfort. If I did manage to fall asleep I would wake up 5 minutes later gasping for air. That´s not uncommon for altitude sickness. Anyway by morning I was in bits and really freaked out because i had no sleep and was pretty well paniced the whole night. Then I got a nosebleed and vomited. That was the worst of it though. The guide from the second jeep gave me a sorojche (altitude sicknes) pill and they gave me oxygen. Happily we were decending altitude that day and they assured me the symptoms would abate. I felt much better after we started heading down.

Day 2. We headed first to the Arbol de piedra, the stone tree which i suppose looks like a tree but to me just looked like an interesting rock formation. We passed by more lakes that were more plainly coloured but often reflective, more desert and otherworldly landscape. We had lunch near Ollague volcano which was surrounding by volcanic rock formations. We also passed a small salt flat then ventured to our next hostel which was in a small town somewhere...It did have showers but none of us partook. Dinner was soup to start and spaghetti with a lovely sauce. We were now at an altitude of about 3400 mts. I slept fine that night and we had to get up at 4am to get to the salt flats by sunrise.

Day 3. The Uyuni Salt flats. We got there as the dawn colours were marking the sky. The salt flats are mainly just a white layer of crystallized salt on the ground that is apparently 5 meters thick. It goes as far as the eye can see. Dawn colours of light blue, purple, oranges all looked amazing against the distant black mountains and the white ground. It was so beautiful. After sunrise we headed to fisherman´s island in the middle of the flats. A cactus oasis that used to be an ancient coral bed. We had breakfast there and wandered around the island. Some of the cactus there were 900 years old. The rock that composed the island was obviously coral formations. Then to be surrounded by a flat white sea of salt. Really cool. Steve and I then engaged in the time old practice of perspective flexing pictures. This has always been done on the salt flats since young backpackers realized the could be made to look like they drinking beers the size of houses or shrink themselves to seem to fit in their friend's hand. The best one we did I think was a giant me about to step on our jeep. I named it "Janzilla". Another good one was Steve leaning on a giant beer can, and me holding a tiny Steve in my hand. All the fun of having an endless horizon of white nothingness. Anyway on the way out of the salt flats we visited the salt hotel wihch was made out of salt bricks and held many salt figures and tables and stuff. We then began to pass into real Bolivia, what could be described as a dry dusty ghost town or as impoverished desolation. There weren´t many people. We headed onto Uyuni after lunch. Just outside Uyuni is a train cemetery. Old trains are literally dumped there and though interesting in some respects was not the highlight of the trip. Uyuni, another dry town, but with more people and activity just made me want to run. We went to a hostel only to take a shower and paid for it then we got an overnight bus to La Paz.

My first impressions of Bolivia did indeed live up to it being the poorest country in South America as well as the cheapest. The scenery is amazing, the service unreliable at best - fatally dangerous at worst, an extreme adventure really. Just traveling by even up-standard public transit can be seriously dangerous especially if you´re traveling at night. Apparently it is not uncommon for Bolivian bus drivers to fall asleep at the wheel and either crash or go right off a cliff. The bumpy, unpaved roads don´t help. The highest city in the world is in Bolivia, the largest salt flat, they also have one of the most ecological diverse chunks of the Amazon rainforest. Travelling there can be done amazingly cheaply. I would probably recommend Bolivia as the country where you can see the most for less in South America. Next onto the capital of Bolivia, high rising La Paz. The highest capital in the world at 3600 mtrs. Famous for the incredible number of markets and having the World´s Most Dangerous Road.

For more pics of Uyuni Salt Flats check out:
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Uyuni Salt Flats remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The next day I was beginning to feel the effects of altitude sickness: insomnia, fatigue, nausea. Not very fun. We headed out at night on an astronomy tour. Even before we were in San Pedro I had somehow heard of the crazy frenchman that lives there in the middle of the desert. He´s more funny than crazy a very interesting guy and very french in his flamboyance. Very informative though and served us some very good hot chocolate after the tour. The next day we were supposed to head out salt flat tours. I was very anxious about this having read a very graphic account of an accident in April that happened on the flats. Dangerous apparently, 17 people died on the route, simply from falling asleep at the wheel or careless driving. We picked the company that had the best reputation out of San Pedro however I think they all are pretty similar. No seatbelts or radios and this is some serious terrain. No way you could travel on it in anything other than a 4WD Jeep. Anyway we were supposed to go the next day but altitude sickness, anxiety and the neighbours partying till 4am got the better of me. I hadn´t had any sleep, and was in a state because of the altitude sickness so we had to put it off. We ended up having to stay in San Pedro for an extra three days. I rested for most of and got better, Steve did mountain biking around the area apparently almost getting himself lost in the desert one of the days.

San Pedro is a decent town to use as a base to travel to the amazing sites around it: Valley of the Moon, Death Valley, el Tatio geysers, Astronomy tour but can be a really boring town and expensive town. We were damn happy to leave even if it meant heading perilously into the Bolivian Altiplano. San Pedro was my first desert and a very interesting landscape and atmosphere. Dry and hot and sparse. How anything grows there i don´t know. Better things to come though. To the Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt flat in the world.

Check out more pics of San Pedro here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78299&l=eb748&id=684816071

San Pedro de Atacama remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I liked Santiago but I think I´m finding I like big cities more than the countryside. Chile is actually cheaper than I thought. People were saying it was more expensive than Argentina but I don´t think that´s true at all. Next stop is San Pedro de Atacama - a 24 hour bus journey away. Happily this is the last long bus journey we have. The rest can be down in 12 hours or less I think.

For pics of Santiago and Valpariso go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78295&l=15c36&id=684816071

Santiago and Valpariso remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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For more pictures of Bariloche check out: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78262&l=82d9f&id=684816071

Bariloche remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Puerto Madryn is on the eastern coast of Argentina and known mainly for it´s proximity to two animal reserves; Punto Tumbo penguin colony and Valdes Penninsula for sea lions and whales. The tours are expensive in my opinion. We did the one to the Valdres Penninsula because we would see more animals and we did see Patagonian hares, Guanicos (cousins of the llama), whales, penguins, sea elephants and even a hairy armadillo. The scenery itself was a bit desolate but it was a decent day even at the molopoly prices. Also the whale seeing boat trip we could have done without on the basis that you could see whales just as closely and free from the docks in Puerto Madryn. You´re aren`t actually allowed on the beaches with the animals, which I suppose is fair though I would have loved to get a closeup of the elephant seals. They actually look quite dead when you see them at first - they only appear to muster energy to throw stones on themselves and occasionally wail like some sort of half-dog/half possessed demon child. The penguins were actually quite close to the fence so we got to see them closeup. Very cute and small - these are megellanic penguins. The guide told us a story of how an emperor penguin got lost and ended up down by the penninsula. Apparently one of the park rangers took it in as it were, the penguin actually followed him around. Apparently they´re like a meter high so it looked like a kid or small person beside him waddling along. About a month later apparently they put the penguin on the boat heading to the antarctic. The guide was in tears because they were like friends. I thought it was a cute story.

We stayed at Hi Patagonia which was a very nice hostel with a minifridge and a TV in the room. I have to say it was quite enjoyable having a TV in the room. Was able to watch some shows in english with Spanish subtitles including the titillating Legally Blond and Two and a Half men...better than nothing I say. The owner of the hostel, Gaston, was quite the accomedating , nice chatty fellow. We´ve been finding the higher rated the hostel the more they´re willing to bend backwards to make you happy and keep that high rating on hostelworld. The restaurant we went to on the first day, El Nautico I think had a fabulous set menu that I feel necessary to menu on the basis that it was one of the most memorable parts of Puerto Madryn. Anyway we left with no regrets onto Bariloche.

For more pics go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76183&l=dafd5&id=684816071

Puerto Madryn remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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From Buenos Aires we almost missed our domestic flight to El Calafate because we mistakenly assumed the flight was taking off from the domestic airport. Lesson: Always check the airport your leaving from! Luckily our driver took us straight to the international airport when we realized our mistake...for a considerable fee of course. The man deserved every penny though because we thought for sure we were going to miss our flight and have to deal with the aweful reprocussions in spanish but happily we made it by minutes. Or by the "skin of our balls" as Steve said. Aerolineas Argentina has a great reputation - didn´t stop me from being freaked out on the flight. I talked to one of the very friend flight attendents, who all spoke great english, and it really helped. He was so nice I felt bad I never got to say thank you to him for talking to me for a good hour of the flight. Anyway the first views of Patagonia were stark and desolate. Mountains in the distance but barren wilderness in between. The skies at points that evening looked simply surreal. Chilly and beautiful.

We stayed at America del Sur...which is probably one of the most reputable hostels in South America. Everyones stayed there or at least heard of it. Clean, spacious, with underfloor heating. The room was very nice and cozy. The staff very helpful and laidback. Fairly expensive town though and touristy. We met up with a friend and ex-colleague in a happy coincidence of luck. The next day we headed out together by taxi to Perito Moreno Glacier. Spectacular. Apparently one of the few glaciers still advancing. The blue of the glacier is amazing and the greenish run off another interesting colour of water I´d never seen. We had the place practically to ourselves because it´s off season. You could occassional hear the cracks of the ice. We went on a boat to see the north side as well. Cold cold wind but again very nice views. We stayed there for a few hours and the taxi driver took us back.

We debated between doing a long daytrip to Chile´s Torres del Paine park or going to much more nearby El Chalten overnight. We decided to do El chalten - Torres del Paine was 5 hours drive each way and barely any time for walking or trekking. This turned into a great decision. El Chalten is an awesome town. The small hub for trekkers, backpackers and climbers still retains a grassroots "real" feel to it. It hasn´t got too touristy yet. The views were incredible. The treks - challenging and worthwhile. Mount Fitzroy was so impressive. I´ll never forget it. Our second day we got particularly good weather. Anyway I recommend it to all and any Patagonian traveller. The pictures just can´t compare to the experience of feeling those stark peaks beside you.

The views both leaving and going from El Chalten were amazing also and Ranche Grande hostel, we´re we stayed overnight, was pretty good with a nice restaurant/coffee place build right in. We headed back to el Calafate on the famous Route 40 but I have to say I was loathe to leave the beauty behind. We spotted horses, condors, flamingos and guanacos (cousin to the llama). I love Patagonia.

For more pics check out:
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El Calafate and El Chalten remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The next day we headed to Palmero, which is technically one of the recommended ´sites´of Buenos Aires. I´m not sure why. While it is a pretty park, it wasn´t all that interesting. We went to plaza del Mayo after which has a pink palace and through the shopping area where we were able to pick up a few english books. Buenos Aires as a whole I found a bit of a typical city. The buildings were pretty but unremarkable and very European. It does have a good vibe and would probably be great to live in but I suppose I´m more interested in natural phenomena while in a continent like South America. As that was our last day we went to a tango show and that is what makes Buenos Aires worth a visit. Tango. Impressive dancing and atmosphere that makes you want to learn. Beautiful music, beautiful dancing and good food. That was the most worthwhile part of our trip.

Other Points
The people seemed decent enough. Argentina as a whole seems much more safe than Brazil. The food is all pasta and pizza and meat. I´m not sure how they live. It´s like coffee and croissants for breakfast and empanadas (meat filled pastry) for lunch and pizza or pasta for dinner. Not my style but I´ve survived thus far. The empanadas de carne are great. Beef is in great availability and value. You could get two steaks for like $5 Pesos (1.10EUR) at the grocery store. You can barely get a bottle of water here for that price. The weather has been pretty mild. Not at all hot like I would have liked but I guess when they´re coming out of winter that´s too be expected.

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Anyway we got to the hostel, Puerto Canoas, and it was pretty cool. Room was decent and there were hammocks outside. It was very colourful and we were lucky enough to be able to check straight into our room even though we were there at like 10am (normally you can´t book into a hostel till around lunch time). We had a bit of breakfast and then headed straight to the falls. We learned our lesson in Rio, never wait. If there´s good weather - do the sites. As much as you can. So straight to the falls, while the weather was beautiful. It was a long day but the falls themselves were amazing. Extensive and we walked quite a few trails in order to see it from several angles. What amused me the most were the animals though. I suppose through exposure to Niagara Falls, though not nearly as impressive, of a similiar mold, I was somewhat desensitized to the charms of waterfalls. The new and interesting animals though were great. We saw couti, some kind of cross between a a lemar and an anteater in appearance. Very cute. We saw some lizards that were either gigantic lizards or small komodo dragons. We saw a caiman, some sort of small alligator, so many butterflies, a toucan. It was great. Now that I definitely can´t see at home. Between the fabulous sunny warm weather, the friendly animals and the roar of the falls it made a great day.

The next day we just lazed around and enjoyed the town which is very laid back. A bit touristy but still very quaint just the way a sleepy small town should be. Another fun 20 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires next.

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Iguaçu Falls remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Today we´re going to visit the infamous Christ Redeemer and Sugar Loaf. I don´t expect to see much but you kind of have to do it.

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Rainy Rio remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Steve was there to meet me at the airport and we headed by taxi to Hotel Columbia by a very expensive taxi ride. The taxi was rear-ended someone, my experiences have yet to improve when involving Brazilian taxi drivers. The hotel was fair and in the afternoon we strolled around while it was still light and had some food. We ended up in a restaurant that offered food by kilogram. So you can choose what you want and of how much. We tried quite a few things which were tasty but I would not be able to identify or name.

The hotel was nice and the breakfast which included papaya and melon was welcome.

We ended up choosing to go with the bus company 1001 to get to Rio. Mainly because it appeared to be the most popular. Seems like different ´levels´of buses leave at different times and for different costs. The bus we ended up on cost $78 Reais which was on an ´executive bus´which meant it had air conditioning and a certain level of reclination. The cheaper buses seem to leave only a couple times a day at awkward times and don´t have much in the way of comfort. The bus ride was fine at first but then half way the bus driver came in and said something in portugese that sounded suspicious and sure enough we ended up taking a detour through some small villages and when we came back onto the highway later it seemed like there was a huge backlog. We arrived in Rio almost two hours late - we were supposed to be picked up at 5.40pm by a taxi sent by the hostel we were staying in. Luckily he waited! We felt especially lucky when we saw the queue for the taxis at the bus station.

The hostel we´re is nice. We have our own room with a fan and temperature is not so humid that it´s stifling.

Our first day in Rio we did hang gliding. Which is supposed to be one of the ´things to do´. It was cloudy but apparently still a go. Now I´m not one for flying even so hang gliding shouldn´t really be on my menu. However I was more worried on the taxi ride there - with wild Brazilian driving keeping me on the edge of my seat. I was nervous when I looked over the edge of the cliff we were going to run off with little more than a oversized kite on our backs. The hang glider I was riding tandem with has 22 years experience so there was not much to worry about. It was like being a bird I suppose. Amazing views and quiet and tranquility. We glided for probably 20 minutes or so before we landed on the beach rather softly. All in all a great time.

We visited Santa Teresa later that day, taking a rickety ´bungee´ tram. Which has no railings and is accosted often by street urchins. Santa Teresa was a nice quaint area. The best part was the bookshop at the top of the hill with delicious cappuccino´s and the reggae/salsa band playing nearby. We listened to that till night time and enjoyed the famous local drink caipirhinas. Those simple moments of good music and drink was even better than hang gliding in my opinion.

Today it´s been raining on and off and from what I understand will be until after we leave - looks like we won´t be getting any lovely shots of Rio in the sun from the Sugar Loaf. We ended up at the Botanical Gardens which was quite beautiful and extensive. Surprisingly so. Next couple days we´ll be hitting Christ Redeemer, the Sugar Loaf, Copacabana beach and Ipanema Beach - should be good even with the grim weather.
Cheers

Sao Paulo & Rio de Janeiro remains copyright of the author Janelle_B, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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