Ok so, a week on my last post I've decided to write a few observations about Brazilian culture and Fortaleza in general! Football:Is huge and is a national obsession. If you thought the brits were crazy about it, Brazil might just make you think again. The local two teams are Ceara (the better state team) and Fortaleza (the bad loosers with a large following due to the fact that we are, afterall, living in Fortaleza) which team you choose to support essent...

After leaving Brazil after a crazy action packed week of carnival, I arrived at Fortaleza's International Airport with just 2 hours sleep and my trusty rucksack. After grabbing my luggage I strode out of the Arrival doors to find that there was in fact no one waiting to collect me and that I was effectively stranded at the airport with no idea of where I was meant to be going or who was supposed to be meeting me. Luckily there was an internet cafe upstairs in...

Mendoza was amazing! After a 10 hour journey over the Andes from Chile, I arrived in the mountain city. I was expecting Mendoza to be a little like Queenstown in New Zealand, but despite being at a higher altitude (800m) you cannot actually see the mountains from the city and it takes about an hours bus ride to get to the actual snowy capped mountains which one envisions at the mention of the Andes. However, thats not to say that it still wasnt an incredible stop...

On the 31st January 2007 I arrived at Sanitago International Airport 3 hours before I'd even taken of from Auckland. I was a little sad to have left all my relatives and friends behind in New Zealand and was terrified at the prospect of travelling across South America alone. Luckily, I'd taken some precautions before I'd left the cosy comforts of NZ and had arranged a private Taxi to pick me up from the airport and had book a private room at my hostel...

The next day we had another slow start. My continued Jetlag and the unpredictable weather meant we were unsure about what to do with ourselves. Finally, Seb made our minds up for us as it was his last day and he insisted on going to Bondi beach. A short bus ride later and the three of us clad in shorts, flip-flops and t-shirts stumbled down onto a empty wind-swept beach which, had it not been for the occasional Japanese tourist (who, fully-cla...