Ok, so I should be writing about the Pantanal right now, but we arrived in Sucre today after our first Bolivian bus journey and it is worth talking about! We had heard the stories but it was hard to tell what was exaggerated and what wasn’t. After last night’s experiences, I think it is safe to say most of them are probably true!
The Pantanal, an area of vast wetlands, the biggest in the world, covering an estimated 54,000 square miles, and stretching from Brazil into parts of Bolivia and Paraguay. In another words, a really really massive swamp! Crammed with thousands of species of animals, a massive variety of plants and many an adventure, the Pantanal was somewhere we wanted to visit, and visit we did!
After a 15 hour bus journey from Sao Paulo, we were hoping Foz Do Iguacu would live up to our expectations. In case you don’t already know, the Iguacu falls is a series of over 275 gigantic waterfalls that lie on the borders of Brazil and Argentina covering an area over 3km wide making the Iguacu falls wider than Niagara!
We had always planned to visit Sao Paulo while we were in Brazil, but we weren’t looking forward to it that much because we had heard a lot of negative things about it. Its really dangerous, there is nothing to do, it always rain etc etc. Well I can tell you now that from our experiences none of that is true!
After a rather unsuccessful, but never the less enjoyable first day we where determined to do better. Our determination paid off and we managed to avoid getting lost and saw some of Rio De Janeiro’s most famous sites. Yes!
This is from Ben’s diary during his time in South Africa.
3rd January 2011
Happy New Year everyone.
I hope you have all had a good time and enjoyed yourselves in whatever you have been up to.
Well it is so hot and humid I am breaking out a sweat just typing this! Our first day in Rio has been an interesting one. I have to apologise now because I think I have only taken four photos today, but there is a good reason for this I promise.
Sitting in the airport (London Heathrow), just saw Bob Geldof reading the Financial Times. I’m not joking! It feels so great to finally be here after a fairly stressful week trying to get work finished before leaving!
Yes I like to make up words. You have probably already guessed that Frightcitement is a combination of excitement and fright, or frightening. With less than a month until we leave, those to words more or less some up how I’m feeling right now.
I’m very sorry for the delay, our internet has been very few and far between and to be honest I have been having such fun it has been hard to find the time. Anyway, here is what I’ve been up to since my last post. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.