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Hi everyone.
So I´ve finally been able to upload some photos. Just a quick update on what we´ve been up to so far. We arrived in Sao Paulo on the 20th. Only spent two days in the city. Its very big about 19 million people and loads of skyscrapers. We had no problems there but heard it can be quite dangerous. There were alot of homeless people on the streets too. Met a really nice Brazillian guy called Marcello on the first day. The epople are very friendly, he overheard us discussing that we could´nt find a bank and offered to help us. After we chatted for awhile he then offered to bring us around the city while he was waiting for his girlfriend to finish work. We went to Liberdade area which is the biggest Japaneese town outside of Toykyo! Alot of Japaneese moved there after WW II.
Because it was Good Friday we went to a religious ceremony to see what was going on in the Cathedral. We were´nt allowed into the Jesuit church because we were wearing shorts. The Jesuits founded San Paulo. After a long day walking around the city we went for some beers with Marcello on Avenue Paulista. After two days in Sao Paulo we decided it was time to head for the countryside and got an overnight bus to the Iguassu falls. we stayed on the Brasillian side of the border with Argentina for two nights. The weather was scorching about 35 degrees! The falls are fabuloous. Spent one day walking around the Brazillian aide and one day on the Aregentinian side. I thought the Argentinian side was better as you could get closer to the water, Paul even got in. I did´nt chance it as I´m almost blue white and there were too many tanned bodies around. Got some great pictures of the falls, and rainbows. No pot of gold at the end though.
After a couple of days at Foz du Iguassu we headed up to the Pantanal and got another overnight bus to a town called Campo Grande. Here we organised a tour to the Pantanal where we would be staying in a hostel in the middle of this huge wetland area the size of France. Got another bus to the hostel which took another five hours! The hostel was down a dirt road in the middle of the swamp, it was nightfall when we arrived and the place was crawling with insects and bats! Over the next few days we fitted in Jungle trkes, Jeep safari, Horse riding, Piranha fishing, swimming and alot of eating. I would really recommend this trip it was brillant, we saw loads of wildlife including caimans, snakes, coatis, macaus, storks kingfishers, Giant Otters, armadillos, howler monkeys, wild pigs, cappibarras. We walked through alot of swamps and jungle and the guides were excellent. There was also a pool at the hostel and although the rooms were hot and sticky we managed to sleep quite well, worn out from all the activities.
After the Pantanal trip was over we got a bus to Corumba which is a town on the border with Bolivia. We decided after talking to alot of the other travellers in the Panatanal that we would head to Bolivia as we were spending way above our measeley budget in Brazil! Hopefully we will get back to Brazill some time in the future as we did´nt get to Rio or the northeast coast which is supposed to be a tropical paradise.
We spent a couple of days in Corumba just waiting for the train to Bolivia. We passed the time by drinking Caiprinhas in the evening down by the river in Corumba.
The train is called the death train and takes 20 hours. The train is more like a roller coaster ride and very bumpy. It stops every couple of hours at little towns were numerouse little Bolivian kids no more that 6 or 7 yrs old get on the train selling all kinds of cooked food, cold drinks, pastries, fruit. We were hungry and bored so we got some meat and rice and some unknown vegetable dish. It tasted fine, and cost less than a pound for a full meal! However both of us have been frequenting the loo quite a bit since we arrived in Bolivia!
So we arrived here in Santa Cruz Bolivia yesterday on the train. Its qite a nice city and we are going to chill here for a few days before we organise something else to do and head up to the north of the country to go to the Bolivian Amazon. I had the most fabulous steak for dinner last night which cost 2 pounds. Its crazy cheap. Loving it!!
Oh yea, there is an Irish bar here. Yup!
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