After a long bus ride (yes another one!) to Campo Grande, we rolled out of the bus station and straight across the road into the awaiting hostel, which came complete with a tour agency for trips into The Pantanal (swamp region) and was recommended in our guide book.  After a bit of confusion in which the man tried to get us to leave on the next tour into in 2 hours, we settled for getting some breakfast and agreeing to come back to hear the sales pitch when we...

Sao Paulo wasn?t exactly where we wanted to be when we returned to Brazil, especially after having stayed in a dump the first time round and the crappy weather, however we started to appreciate it a lot more the second time, as we stayed in a nicer area and met some really fun people in the hostel we were at.  After having travelled from the ?end of the world? to half way across the continent on Rakhee's birthday, we arrived shattered the following day in a ve...

We arrived into Ushuaia by plane and after driving round a few hostels only to find that they were full, our taxi driver suggested Patagonia Pais Hostel, which turned out to be lovely.  The staff and all the people staying there were a good bunch, so lazing around the hostel chatting (especially with Marisha?s injured knee) was quite a lot of fun.  Ushuaia itself is, in a word, touristy.  It is the southernmost city in the world, so everything is geared ...

The bus arrived late at night into Puerto Natales in Chile, so we checked into our hostel, Erratic Rock (yes we know the name can be twisted to mean other things) and with hungry eyes we searched for the best pizza place in town... Mesito Grande. It really did turn out to be the best pizza we had ever had and subsequently turned out to be our dinner spot for the few nights we spent in Puerto Natales! Going from speaking Portugese to Spanish had been a struggle o...

From the moment the plane began its descent into El Calafate, we knew it would be nothing like Trelew or Gaiman (thank God!). The views over the Andes were simply spectacular - snow capped mountains, deep valleys and winding rivers in a milky blue colour that can only be described as similar to when someone washes out a paintbrush in water. We jumped onto a shuttle bus and headed off to the America del Sur hostel, where we planned to stay. Words cannot describe...