Hi Folks, Landed in Auckland from Santiago and at last its nice to hear people speaking English. The flight seemed to go pretty quick, a few movies and meals and a half hearted sleep and I was there. Suppose with all the overnight and long distance journies in South America i am quite tolerant now. Auckland seems a nice place, perfect for the modern day metrosexual male, lots of cafes, bars, resturants and shops. A visits to the Auckland Quarter, a city centre...

Well, am finally here at the last destination on the GAP southern cross trip. Its not sunk in yet that the end is here, well at least in South America, but im still living the dream! Rio was not the happy, sunny, carnival place i expected. It was dull and raining. Fingers crossed that a few days on Illha Grande, an island an hour off the coast, would be better. Nope......still the same, but its a relaxed place where we will have time to party and explore a lit...

Hello everybody,After crossing the border into Brasil (another stamp in the passport) we are heading for the sunnier climes, hopefully, where i can finally get the shorts out and swim. First stop the Pantanal wetlands for a three day tour of this giant marsh land.The Pantanal is the world's largest freshwater wetland, a seasonally flooded plain fed by the tributaries of the Paraguay River. At 68,000 square miles, it is almost 10 times the size of the Everglad...

After a tiring journey over the border from Peru i am now well and truely in Bolivia. We arrived in La Paz the highest capital city in the world at over 4000 meters. Its a busy place, smelly and typical of most South American cities, just the way I like it!!! We had 2 days to kill here before heading to Uyuni to visit the salts flats, so this involved mainly wondering round, visiting the local witches market and buy fake goods and electrical items at bargin price...

Hi all, Well since the hiking i was hoping for an easier time, with some R&R. In a way visiting lake titicacca on the Bolivia/Peru border did just that, however the temperature never seems to get any warmer at night and i always end up wearing just about all my clothes to bed. They say Titicacca is the highest navigable lake in the world at about 3600m. It took most of the day to get to the island of Amantani going past the floating reed island Uros. These...