We're back in ol' London town now, and the adventure's over, but just thought I'd give a bit of an update on the goings-on since we had to abandon Queenie in Cuzco...

We flew in to Sao Paulo and spent a night there before flying on to Campo Grande, which is one of the main gateways to the Pantanal, and then drove (correction - were driven - which felt rather strange and rather decadent, having just got used to driving ourselves everywhere) for about 4 hours on glorious long straight and well-paved roads to the Pantanal.  The landscape gradually became flatter and wetter, and we started noticing more birdlife and fewer people.  After another 2 hours on appalling roads (well, mud tracks), dodging alligators and potholes, we arrived at the far, met Mariza the peccary, and embarked on the non-stop task of fending off the hordes of mosquitoes.

We had 3 very chilled days in the Pantanal (piranha fishing, safari, boat trips, mosquito-battling, horse-riding, and saw capybara, toucans, alligators, deer, racoons, a tarantula, heaps of birds, howler monkeys and capuchin monkeys, and an unidentified snake - sadly the jaguars and anacondas eluded us) and tried to get used to being conventional "tourists" rather than intrepid adventurers, which I think we both had rather mixed feelings about.

From the Pantanal, we pushed on through (by means a 23-hr bus journey) to our final destination - Rio de Janiero!  It was a bittersweet occasion - although we were pleased to have made it there in one piece, we were also disappointed not to have been able to arrive in our very own Queenie.

Our time in Rio consisted of 100% tourist stuff - going to see Christ the Redeemer, watching the city light up after sunset from Sugar Loaf mountain, hitting the Samba clubs in Lapa, and much quality beach-time, watching...[Read More]