Week 36 - Argentina - Mendoza to Bariloche

We set the alarm for 7.30 am on Monday so that we could be ready by 9.00 am for our day trip to the Hotel & Spa Termas Cacheuta. The minibus was the standard half an hour late (this must be some kind of rule in South America). To our delight we were the youngest people on the bus – this was a pleasant change because in most of the hostels we've been the oldest!! It was an hour's drive to the spa and off the flat plain into the foothills of the Andes.

The spa complex was just a simple wooden building but behind the complex was a series of open-air thermal pools overlooking the Rio Mendoza and with the Pre-Cordillera mountains providing a stunning backdrop. There was also an underground sauna (which we forgot to visit), pressure showers and best of all the medicinal mud. We smeared ourselves in terracotta coloured medicinal mud, and then sat outside on a deck to wait for it to dry off. Then we headed inside to the pressure showers and had it all blown off. Then we roamed between the pools which varied from 18°C to 36°C in temperature. The pools looked really natural as they were made with rocks and surrounded by flowers and cactuses. There was a wonderful buffet for lunch – various cuts of grilled meat and a wide selection of salads and vegetables. We had lovely stewed fruit for dessert with leche flan and a couple of dulce de leche (caramelised condensed milk) based desserts before heading back to the thermal pools for the afternoon. Keith went for a walk checking out the river, the water was freezing but there were large fish in the water. There was a suspension bridge with bits of plank missing which made it more exciting. The large pools of water were beautiful blue green clear cold. We spent most of the time chatting to a couple of UK doctors who were holidaying before starting a one year contract in New Zealand.

After breakfast on Tuesday, we headed off with Mike, Sara, Sean and Dave from New Zealand to the first winery. We drove out of Mendoza through the suburbs until we reached the Hacienda Del Plata vineyard which was surrounded by a big wall. Mike had to buzz the intercom to be let in and as the gates opened we saw a long driveway with vineyards on either side. We were welcomed effusively by Bacco (a very friendly boxer dog) and Paolo. Paolo told us about the vines, the irrigation (channel versus drip), American versus French methods of vine growth, the pruning, grafting, reproduction by placing stems under the ground and the predominance of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon grape types in Mendoza. We went from the vines outside to the tanks and barrels inside with Paolo's son Jaun. Juan had worked in France, USA and Barossa Valley. We tasted Shiraz, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon from the last couple of years and then finished at a table outside for their icon Malbec Reserve with bread, cheese and salami.

Next we drove to Bodega Ruca Malen for five course degustation lunch. Each course was paired with a wine from the winery. We ate lunch at a big table looking out at the spectacular views over the green vines to the snow capped Andes in the background. On the way to the final winery Kaiken, Suzie was struggling to stay awake. Kaiken was a very professional winery run by a successful Chilean group. Our hosts Lucia and Alejandro told us about the Villa Montes method of making wines from purchased grapes until the best grapes were identified and then an investment in those vineyards could be made, guaranteeing top quality wine production. We finished with a tasting of their rose, malbec and cabernet sauvignon. We all contributed towards a bottle of their Ultra Cabernet Sauvignon to enjoy back at the hostel. Back in Mendoza we went into the common area and drank the Ultra Cabernet Sauvignon together with Dave, Sean and Sara while enjoying a lively chat with some of the other travellers.

We had another early start on Wednesday morning and headed off with Ginny from London after breakfast on our day trip to the Alta Montanas (High Montains) and Aconcagua – the biggest mountain in South America. We drove into the first range of dusky brown Pre-Cordillera mountains and stopped at a massive blue water dam powering a hydro electric scheme. We passed a spa resort similar to Termas de Cacheuta where we had spent Monday and then continued on the main Route 7 highway from Argentina to Chile overtaking many trucks. The highway followed an ancient route through the mountains used by the Incas and at one point the ruins of Inca houses made of stone lay between the road and the river. The river had carved a path through the mountains and beside us also ran an old railway line with bridges and tunnels all gradually subsiding back into the desert. The landscape was pretty barren except for occasional trees and shrubs along the river including the jarilla shrub, useful as firewood. There were many different colours in the rocks of the mountains ranging from gypsum greys, copper greens, ferrous reds, lilac porphyry, black lava and sulphurous yellows. We stopped briefly at the small village of Potrerillos lined with poplar trees in the only green valley we came through. We stopped at a viewpoint of snow capped Cerro de la Plata, an extinct volcano. We left the highway and travelled a short distance on the old road to scenic Puente Historico de Picheuta with a willow tree and a stone bridge over a stream. General San Martin's army camped here on their way to liberate Chile and Argentina from the Spanish in the 1800s. Next was Los Penitentes ski resort named after pinnacles of rock looking like monks with their heads bowed. Lastly was the Aconcuaga National Park with views of the mountain and a sobering cemetery of dead climbers. We stopped for lunch of hot chocolate and toasted sandwiches at Las Cuevas just before the highway goes through a tunnel under the mountain into Chile. On the way back we stopped at Puente del Inca where a sulphurous thermal spring ran under a natural bridge next to the site of a ruined hotel, crushed by a flood in the 1940s. There were some handicraft markets but the quality of most of the goods was poor. Back in Mendoza we bought our bus tickets to Bariloche for tomorrow night and a couple of delicious empanadas to tide us over until dinner cooked by Celeste's (the owner) mum.

At about 9.30 pm Celeste turned up with a car full of food from her mother and we helped to set up the chairs and dish out the food. The pasta was delicious - it was handmade and came with lovely meatballs and really melt-in-your-mouth slow-cooked beef. We had a really fantastic night enjoying the food, wine and socialising and we didn't go to bed until 2.00 am.

We enjoyed a lovely sleep on Thursday morning and checked out of the hostel after breakfast. We spent some time in the lobby catching up on our emails and then went out to spend our last day in Mendoza walking around town. We walked towards the Parque San Martin which contained the zoo, a lake, tennis courts, golf course, a hill, the Cerro del Gloria, with a monument to the Andes army of General San Martin, a soccer stadium and numerous tree lined avenues with fountains. We walked through town past the Plazaletta Italia to the park. We walked around the parklands which required a map to follow all the roads and eventually climbed the hill. The walking and the water we drank cleared our heads foggy from the red wine the night before. We walked out past white horses of Carrara marble and the wrought iron front gates made in Glasgow with Andean condor over the top. We walked down Avenida Emil Civit and found somewhere open to eat lunch at 5.00 pm. After lunch we walked to the pretty Plazalettas Chile and Espana. We went back to the hostel for a rest for an hour before we walked to the bus station (with Holly from the UK) tired but happy that we had had a great time in Mendoza.

On Friday morning, the bus attendant woke us up early with the usual selection of sweet biscuits on a polystyrene tray and a cup of tea. We looked out the window at the endless flat green scrub and then managed to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. When we woke up we were driving through beautiful scenery of rocky mesa outcrops, long lakes and flat plains of scrub. As we got closer to Bariloche, the scenery started to change and began to look alpine in appearance. There were glassy looking lakes surrounded by mountain slopes of pine trees with snow capped mountains in the background. The mountains close to us had enormous chunks of rock sticking out of them of all sizes and shapes. There were fantastic shapes and some perilously perched. When we arrived at Bariloche bus station, we noticed a definite drop in the temperature. We booked our bus to Puerto Madryn and then caught a bus into town. We checked out a couple of hostels before settling on a room at Periko's Hostel. We went to the supermarket to buy a snack of roast chicken and cherry tomatoes and some bread, cheese, salami and tomato for our day trip tomorrow. We chatted to a couple of English girls back at the hostel before heading off to Dias de Zapata Mexican restaurant. After dinner we had a chocolate and passionfruit ice cream at Helados Jauja and then went for a brief walk to the lake, past all the chocolate shops (which were still open even though it was late) and up through the main square with its graffiti spattered monument to the Spanish general who won the war in the desert.

After breakfast we caught a local bus which wound around the huge lake with spectacular views of distant snow capped mountains over the water and forested slopes nearby. After about 17 kms we got off at Cerro Campanario. This was a steep hill with a ski lift to the top but we walked up the track, unlike most. The track was dusty but a few spots of rain damped it down, and as it was spring there were many beautiful trees and plants in flower. We were sweating and exhausted by the time we reached the top but the panoramic views were worth it. We were surrounded by lakes and mountains and it reminded us of Switzerland. It was spitting rain and a bit overcast but even so the clouds were high and moving so the views were great. We went to the cafeteria and saw what the view looked like on a clear day and at sunset on their postcards. We clambered back down and caught the same bus onward to Hotel Llao Llao. This was a massive golf resort with snow capped mountains in the background and another lake in front with boat tours leaving from the lakeside harbour. We walked along the road for a few kilometres until we reached a track for Villa Tacul which was a beach on the lake. We walked for a few kilometres through forests of enormous conifers and bamboo forests below. We had lunch of bread, ham, cheese, tomato and some peanuts looking over a pebbled beach covered in driftwood with snowy mountains basking in the sun. It was a bit eerie as there was no one else there and it felt like we were the last two humans on earth. It felt very old and there were hardly any animals. One seagull and one cormorant was all we saw until we walked along the beach and saw a few tiny lizards. We got directions from a little Spanish woman living in a small house with her dogs nearby. We couldn't understand much but she pointed us down a dirt road and we walked off to find Lago Escondido. As we walked down the road the weather changed and we could hear the trees creaking and groaning as the wind got hold of their tops. Again it was quite eerie and at night would have been quite disturbing. We found the track for the Lago Escondido and it was a beautiful smaller lake with brown grass growing out of the water. From here we tried to walk around to Bahia Lopez but we couldn't find the track so we settled for a bay before it. It was another beautiful spot with not a single person around and picture postcard views when the sun came out again. We ate our apples and contemplated the silence. On our way back we explored another track and when we emerged onto the lake front there was a beautiful large duck who seemed unfazed by our appearance.

After this we took a track to the Puente Romano, a small bridge in the forest and then walked along the road until we took a track to the large Lago Moreno, a viewpoint, and then a beach before we turned for home. Walking back to Hotel Llao Llao along the road we realised how tired we were as it was 6.00 pm and Suzie had sore feet. Luckily we had a little dried fruit before we caught the bus, and the sun was still shining. The bus got really packed on the way back to Bariloche and a real gypsy character with few teeth got on and sang and played the guitar but sadly got only applause as far as we could see. We had a much needed shower at the hostel and got ready to meet our friend Holly at El Boliche de Alberto's Parilla in town. We walked to Holly's hostel to collect her and then walked to the Parilla where we ordered lamb, lomo (eye fillet), mixed salad and chips with a Trapiche Malbec. The lamb was tasty but a little disappointing while the lomo was delicious. We ended up ordering another portion of lomo and we sat around and chatted for a while before heading off to Helado Jauja where we ordered ice cream and a submarine (piping hot milk with bars of chocolate to melt into it).

After our big day yesterday, we were exhausted and slept in until 9.00 am on Sunday morning. After breakfast, we checked out of the hostel and then walked into town. We had to shop for thermals as it was cold enough here, but we were headed towards El Calafate, a 38 hour bus trip further south, to see the Perito Moreno glacier. We spent a couple of hours shopping for thermals because we had to find a shop that was open, work out our sizes and then what material we preferred – in broken Spanish. Once this was done we were free to wander around town. We walked up and down the main streets browsing through the numerous chocolate shops and then we went to the main square to eat our remaining peanuts in the sunshine. The main square had a few large St Bernards with the barrels around their neck – their owners were trying to get tourists to take pictures with them for a fee. We walked along the lake front to the cathedral and walked back through town to the hostel. We did some reading and admin until we had to catch a local bus to the bus terminal outside town for the overnight bus to Puerto Madryn. We had booked the seats right at the front of the bus so we had a beautiful view of the lakes and mountains in the afternoon sun as we drove out of town.

Week 35 - Argentina - Puerto Iguazu to Mendoza

On Monday we woke up after an average night's sleep on the bus, to the movie Avatar, which was playing in the background. We were given biscuits, crackers, jam, croissants, coffee and tea for breakfast. We arrived at the Buenos Aires' Retiro bus station at 11.00 am and it was a beautiful sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. We bought "cama totale" (full bed) class bus tickets to Mendoza and then caught a taxi to our hostel in San Telmo.

After a shower, we went out for a walk and to find some lunch. Buenos Aires was a really stunning city with wide avenues and beautiful European architecture. However many of the buildings were dilapidated and covered in graffiti and the pavements were cracked. A lot of the shops were closed because it was a public holiday so the streets around San Telmo were strangely empty. We walked into town along Avenida Peru which turned into Avenida Florida. In contrast to the rest of the city, Avenida Florida was a hive of activity. There were street vendors selling panama hats, mate gourds and perforated spoons/straws, cheap handbags, and hand-made jewellery. All the restaurants, cafes and a lot of the shops seemed to be open – in particular the leather shops. On one street corner we saw a fantastic tango street show and we went for a quick look at the ceiling frescoes inside the Galerias Pacifico – a very plush shopping centre. We walked around for a couple of hours and then headed back to the hostel. On the way back to the hostel our backs were squirted with a foul-smelling green viscous liquid by some woman who then offered to help clean us up (and then pick our pockets). We brushed her off, bought a bottle of wine at a nearby supermarket and we went back to the hostel for a rest before dinner.

We headed out for dinner at around 9.00 pm. We decided to have dinner at a grill that we seen earlier. The Parilla El Gaucho was great. It was a tiny mom and pop shop hole in the wall with about three tables jammed in beside the grill in the wall. On the grill was beef, chicken, chorizo and morcilla (black pudding sausage) which we ate with a basic lettuce and tomato salad and salsa. We had a couple of glasses of house wine poured from an enormous raffia wrapped bottle and the casero budin de pan – home-made bread pudding with apple and raisins.

We woke up to another sunny cloudless day on Tuesday. After breakfast we spent a couple of pleasant hours walking around the cobbled streets of San Telmo. We spotted a few "paseaperros" (professional dog walkers) walking around with as many as eight dogs. There were a lot of stores selling vintage clothing, antiques and collectables, shopping arcades in the courtyards of crumbling mansions, and a few boutiques. There was also a covered market there but even though it was after 11.00 am a lot of the stalls were still closed. We headed back towards the city centre stopping on the way to have a vegetarian lunch at Abuela Pan (recommended in the Lonely Planet). After lunch we walked to the Casa Rosada (the salmon pink government house) with its famous balcony from which Evita Peron used to address crowds and then on to the Obelisca – the symbol of Buenos Aires on the massive Avenida 9 de Julio. Then we walked across town to the plush neighbourhood of Recoleta which was full of fancy designer stores, cafes and shopping centres. We walked all the way around the impressive walls of the Cementerio de Recoleta (where Evita is buried) but it appeared to be closed. We spent the afternoon walking around the leafy avenues and green plazas in the Recoleta area and stopped at Havana for an Alfajor (two biscuits sandwiched together with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate) and coffee and then walked back to our hostel. We saw lots of cartoneros - people on the street sifting through the rubbish. Buenos Aires had a slightly decrepit edge with all the dilapidation, graffiti, dog droppings, beggars and desperation under the style and wealth of the city.

After breakfast on Wednesday, we headed off to catch the Line 29 bus to La Boca – we had been warned not to walk. We had no coins to use the ticket machine on the bus but a lady kindly helped us with change. La Boca was the old quarter at the mouth of the river where the docks used to be. This had always been tough working class neighbourhood and the home of the famous Boca Juniors soccer club. The bus terminated near Caminito, a short cobbled pedestrian street. The street was lined with corrugated iron souvenir shops and tango bars painted in bright garish colours. Obviously they were desperately trying to attract tourists back into the area but it was just too contrived and the dirty slum neighbourhoods were just a block away. There were some street stalls selling tango photographs and paintings, grimy looking men and women dressed in tango costumes posing for photos, and dodgy salespeople selling tickets for tango tours. However there were some decent murals on some of the buildings a block away from the Caminito and the blue and yellow Boca soccer stadium was 200 metres away. Outside the stadium on the street was a restaurant cooking chicken, chorizo and beef in an oil drum Parilla (barbecue) which looked and smelt delicious. We stopped to ask some police where to find coins for the bus and they made a point of telling us not to walk more than a block away from the Caminito. They sent us to the bus terminal where we could buy a ticket without needing coins. Later we found out that there really was a shortage of coins and you need to pay $100 pesos to get $90 pesos in coins!

We caught the bus back to San Telmo and got off near the Mercado San Telmo to see if it was up and running today. We bought a fresh orange juice at Plaza Dorrego while admiring a handbag made from wild pigskin, and some strawberries at the Mercado. The meat stalls looked sensational with posters illustrating the many cuts of beef – which are different to the ones that we have in Australia.

After lunch we walked to Independenzia metro station to catch a metro to Palermo Viejo. The subways were decorated with stylistic Arabic tiling and the platforms had scenes of life on the floor and walls in tiles. From Plaza Italia we walked around Palermo enjoying the trendy designer boutiques, funky coffee shops and Disco supermarket (with its extensive variety of wine). We walked along some wide leafy avenues admiring the European style mansions with wrought iron balconies. We stopped at a Freddo ice cream shop where they had an amazing array of flavours and toppings. We walked around the Plazaletta Cortazar with restaurants and boutiques set around the tiny green central roundabout. Then we walked back to the Avenida San Felipe and wandered around the Botanical Gardens which were rather small, slightly derelict and overrun with stray cats. However the cats looked well fed and there were some excellent statues including Saturnalia – a drunken Roman scene. We caught the metro back to San Telmo at peak hour and it was jam-packed.

We had a wine tasting with Sean and Sara (who we met at Iguazu Falls) in our room and once the wine was finished we headed out for dinner. We went to the Gran Parrilla del Plato where we all ordered steak, salad and rosemary potatoes and a bottle of Finca El Origen Malbec. The steak was fantastic – ojo de bife (rib eye) and medallon de lomo (tenderloin/eye fillet?) – probably the best steak we have ever eaten! We staggered back to the hostel in the rain. Outside the hostel, the cartoneros (rubbish recyclers) had been at work - all the rubbish bags had been opened and their contents were strewn across the pavement. It was an awful mess.

It was overcast and raining when we woke up on Thursday morning so we took our time getting ready and eating breakfast. The mess outside the front of the hostel seemed to have disappeared overnight – municipal rubbish collection? After breakfast, we started walking back to the Recoleta neighbourhood. We walked through the Retiro neighbourhood past the Plaza San Martin and admired the monument to General San Martin. We peeked through black and gold gates at the impressive Palacio Paz on one side of the plaza and then we made our way back to the Cementerio de Recoleta known locally as the city of angels.

The main entrance (classic style with Greek columns) was closed for renovation so we went in through a side gate. The cemetery was laid out in grid format like city blocks. There were many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide variety of styles and in various states of repair. Some were well maintained and in good condition, whilst others were littered with broken glass, tiles and falling masonry. Some tombs had been shored up with bricks to prevent collapse. Each mausoleum had the family's name engraved into the facade with marble, bronze or bronze plaques added to the front for particular family members. Many prominent Argentines are buried here including writers, poets, several presidents and Eva Peron. We spent a good two hours wandering along the walkways admiring the statues and mausoleums, and looking for Evita's tomb. We started off very methodically, working row by row until we realised how large the cemetery was. It started to rain and then we bumped into Sean and Sara who had just been to Evita's tomb and pointed us in the right direction. We had already walked past the tomb and missed it because she was interred in the Duarte family tomb along with several other members of her family.

After lunch we decided to visit the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. We spent a couple of pleasant hours there admiring the works by Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, El Grego, Goya, Degas, Gauguin and Rodin. There were also some prominent Argentine paintings in the collection and pre-Colomban art.

On Friday it was overcast and colder than any previous day. We walked through San Telmo up to Plaza de Mayo where the crowds of tourists were thronging. We walked down Avenida de Mayo stopping to admire the 22 storey Palacio Barolo office building which was completed in 1923. It had a beautiful carved granite facade and inside the lobby were elaborate sculpted iron dragon lamps. We walked along Avenida de Mayo until we reached Plaza Mariano Moreno which joined onto Plaza del Congreso. There were fantastic sculptures of happy cherubs dancing, giant lizards, Andean Condors, winged angels with swords and more in front of the National Congress building. There was a protest by conscripts who had fought in the Malvinas/Falklands conflict going on. They made a lot of noise with their drums and blocked off some traffic. The Congreso Nacional building was monumental, with more sculptures on all sides and the roof and a front gate containing a coat of arms for each of Argentina's provinces. Opposite one corner was the fabulous old Confiteria Del Molino building with a decorative windmill up high below a hollow spire. It was all boarded up and slowly decaying but was magnificent faded grandeur. It was crying out for someone to renovate it. We walked back along Avenida de Mayo to Cafe Grand Tortoni founded in 1858. It was lunch time so we had to queue to get in. It was another great old cafe filled with antiques, stained glass, art deco lights, memorabilia on the walls etc. Afterwards we walked to Puerto Madero via Avenida Florida and Avenida Cordoba. It was a huge area of restored port land with a canal running through it. It had over 100 restaurants and other shops but still felt a bit cold and stark because it was so spread out and there were fewer people than the bustling centro. We walked home through San Telmo via the famous Parrilla La Brigada we had seen on TV.

At 7.00 pm we went downstairs to the lobby for a tango lesson with two other couples. This was much harder than we expected and we spent a lot of time trying not to tread on each other's feet.

After our tango lesson, we went back to the Gran Parrilla del Plato where we had steak, salad and a half bottle of Estiba I 2007 Cabenernet Savignon. We ordered medallon de lomo (tenderloin) again and tried bife de chorizo mariposa (thick butterflied sirloin steak). As we had two different cuts of steak, the waiter cut each steak in half – with a spoon!

On Saturday morning we had to check out of the hostel. It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to make the most of it. We walked back to Recoleta to check out the hippy market outside the cemetery. It took us about two hours to walk there because we took some scenic detours and stopped to take photographs. On the way we walked past the Club Espanol – a magnificent building on the Avenida 9 de Julio with bronze statues, intricate carriage lights, mosaic tiled entrance and Islamic arches with art deco mosaics on the interior. The market at Recoleta was still setting up when we arrived at around midday. There were some really nice handicrafts for sale – paintings, leather, knitwear, clothes and semi precious stones.

We spent some time browsing at the stalls and then made our way to Palermo. We were pretty tired from walking so we were happy to stop for lunch at a busy restaurant called El Pinguino de Palermo. We had a mixed salad with the Parrillada – grilled short beef ribs, pork, chicken, chorizo and kidneys. We asked them to leave out the morcilla (black pudding) and chinchulines (tripe). After lunch, we walked to the Buenos Aires Zoo. We saw a South American beaver (coipo), jaguar, puma, tapir, agouti, liebre mara (giant hare with short ears), maned wolf, various bears, alpacas, vicunas, llamas, giant anteater and capybara. Like everything in Buenos Aires, the Zoo was a little run down and in need of a good wash. The stench from some of the cages was overpowering.

It was almost 6.00 pm when we left the zoo and we were tired from our day of walking, so we decided to catch the metro back to San Telmo. Back at the hostel, we had a shower and spent some time updating our diary and uploading our photos before catching the taxi to Retiro Bus Station to catch our bus to Mendoza. The taxi we ordered didn't turn up at 8.20 pm and we ended up just getting one off the street at 8.30 pm. The taxi driver told us it would take 20 minutes to get to Retiro and our bus was supposed to leave at 8.50 pm so it was an anxious ride to the bus station for us. It actually took about 10 minutes and the bus left 10 minutes late so we were in plenty of time.

This time we were travelling "cama totale" or full bed class so there was much more room behind and in front of the seats which were made of leather. Once the foot rest was up and the seat back fully reclined, the seat was practically horizontal. After they served us dinner on the bus, we set up our beds and went to sleep. We were uncomfortably warm on the bus because we were seated over some sort of machine that generated hot air during the night.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast consisting of a selection of sweet biscuits and muesli bars on a polystyrene tray. It was a beautiful sunny clear day and we could see green vineyards and the Andes in the background as we drove into Mendoza. After we arrived at Mendoza, we walked a couple of blocks to the Hostel Lao where we sat at the breakfast table drinking coffee and chatting to other travellers. When our room was ready, we had a lovely shower before heading out for lunch. On the way out we chatted to Mike, Romina and German, who told us that it was siesta time and everything was closed so they suggested that we have a long lunch at Anna Bistro. We walked through town and several beautiful green plazas but there weren't many people around as everyone was having Sunday lunch for Mother's Day. We had a great lunch at Anna Bistro, sitting in the garden eating pasta and a monster salad with a bottle of Altavista Premium Malbec. We walked back to the hostel and had an ice cream from Farruccia Soppelsa, a legendary Mendocino place on the way. We stopped at Carrefour to pick up a bottle of Nieto Senetiner Malbec and waited at the hostel for Sean and Sara to return from horse riding. We shared the bottle and caught up with them and also shared their bottle of Septima Malbec 2008 before we walked to El Palenque for dinner.

Week 34 - Brazil - Bonito to Argentina - Puerto Iguazu

The alarm went off at 5.00 am on Monday and we walked to the bus station. It was a four and a half hour journey from Bonito to Buraco das Piranhas during which time Keith read the Lonely Planet and Suzie dozed. We arrived at Buraco das Piranhas at 11.00 am and there was no one waiting to meet us as promised. We waited for a while and we were just starting to get worried when a jeep arrived to pick us up. We clambered aboard and drove 8 kms along a straight dirt road over 9 makeshift wooden bridges to the Passo do Lontra Parque Hotel. The hotel was a group of buildings on stilts situated right on the banks of the Miranda River. To reach it we had to walk along a series of wooden boardwalks. On the way to our room we saw caiman, capybara, kingfishers and hawks. We dropped our gear off at our apartamento, a basic, clean, wooden unit on the end of a group of four and high off the ground on boardwalk level. We had some lunch and then Keith walked around the extensive boardwalk along the river while Suzie had a rest. Keith saw caiman, howler monkeys, lizards, jacana, fish, herons including a striking white heron with a blue face, capybara, hawks and many other birds. The caiman were in large numbers and of all sizes. We both went for a lap of the boardwalk before our boat trip at 3.30 pm. We set off in the boat with our guide Paulo and we were cruising up the river enjoying the white necked blue heron, the spectacled caiman and the giant otter nest in the riverbank when the motor cut out and we had to float back downstream. Unfortunately we had a petrol pump problem which couldn't be fixed so we had to continue floating back until we got back to the hotel complex. We really didn't mind because it was so peaceful and much quieter without the motor running. On the way back we saw darter, tiny grebe, green iguana, red cardinals, cormorants, black hawk, needle-billed rufus-tailed jacamar, squirrel cuckoo, wood stork, golden collared macaw and green kingfisher. Back at the pontoon, we swapped boats and went upriver. We saw white ringed kingfisher, capybara, jabiru stork, tiger heron, night jar and berry faced ibis. We enjoyed the beautiful sunset and then Paolo switched on the spotlight and turned the boat around. We didn't see anything exciting except a houseboat that had just sunk and we only saw caimans, capybara and a domestic cat. We came back to the hotel for a shower and went to dinner where we were the only two guests. On the way back from dinner we saw a fox and a caiman under the boardwalk.

We set the alarm for 7.00 am on Tuesday so that we could have our showers and breakfast and be ready in time to meet Paolo at 8.00am. Again, we were the only two people (besides the owner) at breakfast.

After breakfast, we set off in the jeep to Fazenda Sao Joao – a farm that was owned by the same man who owned the hotel. We drove back to the long straight dirt road across more of the makeshift bridges. On the way to the farm we spotted a kingfisher actually catching a fish, the limpkin bird, buffalo, jabirus in their nest and a black collared hawk. Just after bridge 24, we turned into the farm. At the farm we mounted our horses and went for a two hour walk. The farm was huge, 2000 hectares and it was typical Pantanal country with lots of small lakes and marshes in the depressions and islands of trees on the slightly higher ground. Paulo told us that in the wet season the whole area is inundated so that all the animals congregate on the treed islands and all the areas inbetween are awash. As this was the end of the dry season it was particularly dry – although to us it seemed like a lush green jungle. The horses were well behaved and followed each other along the tracks through the open spaces, shallow water and the cordilheras or tree islands. These were obviously where most of the animals would hide and rest in the heat of the day only emerging in early morning, evening and at night. The islands were thick jungle on the outside but inside they were mostly large trees and many palms. The ground was covered in leaf litter so we made quite a lot of noise as we moved around. We did see black hooded parakeets, a beautiful pair of hyacinth macaws, deep blue with striking yellow circles around their eyes, a wild pig drinking, an iguana rushing for cover, pink spoonbills, wood storks, jabiru storks, jacana, ibis, herons, ducks and a red headed woodpecker. Paulo pointed out a particular tree which the fire ants lived in. After two hours we were hot and tired and glad to get back to the farm buildings. We walked around the perimeter of the farm buildings while we were waiting for lunch and we saw monk parakeets nesting in the palm trees, green backed lizards, crested ouro pendalo bird (black with yellow tail) eating a pawpaw, and an oven bird at its impressive mud nest. We had lunch at the farm and then waited until 2.00 pm before setting out on foot. We saw spectacled caiman, sandpiper, lapwing, buff necked ibis, the nesting pair of hyacinth macaws again, plumbeous ibis, crested ouro pendalo, agouti, parrot snake, curacao bird, pipinguan, red green macaw, howler monkeys and a coatimundi. The agouti was a small rodent the size of a cat, the coatimundi was like a small bear and stared at us from the shade of a tree. We saw a large flock of hooded parakeets eating on the ground and making heaps of noise. We got back to the farm tired and sweaty and hopped into the truck for the ride back to the resort. On the way we saw an armadillo digging at the side of the road and a large ocelot which high tailed it into the bush. We walked around the boardwalk back at the resort and got the end of sunset and saw a few frogs. We went to the restaurant for dinner and to our delight there was another guest there – Anne from San Francisco. We sat with her at dinner and had a great time chatting. Keith spoke to a travel agent and organised our onward journey to Foz de Iguacu – bus to Campo Grande and then overnight bus to Foz de Igaucu. We went to bed tired but happy.

After breakfast on Wednesday we headed off in the boat with Anne and Paulo upstream towards the Rio Vermelha (Red River) which was a tributary of the Rio Miranda. On the way we saw a tiger heron, darter or snake bird, caiman, white necked blue heron, flycatchers, black cuckoo, capybara, striated heron, kingfishers, dona cabius (beautiful marsh bird), cormorants, fishing hawk, gura cuckoo, jabirus. We turned left into the Rio Vermelha and stopped near the giant otter nesting area. They weren't around so Paolo moved the boat to some nearby water hyacinth. We started fishing and it was the easiest fishing you could imagine! We were using makeshift bamboo rods with a short fishing line tied to the end and a small piece of raw steak for bait. We dropped our lines in and immediately began hooking gold and silver piranha. Suzie caught nine in the half an hour while Keith and Anne only caught four - more often than not they fell off the hook before we could land them. We had just decided to stop when the giant otters appeared. They moved very fast in the water but stopped and got up on the bank. Paulo started tossing our piranha onto the bank and they gratefully ate them. They were as big as a large dog and dark except for some white markings around the throat. The dominant female marked the bank with her excretions and wiped it everywhere! They eat small caiman as well as fish and they looked fat and glossy and in excellent shape. We ran out of piranha and had to leave to catch our bus so we went back to the resort at full speed. Back at the resort we saw a big iguana near our room. We tipped Paulo who had really looked after us and worked hard to make our trip to the Pantanal worthwhile. We took a last photo of a jabiru stork and drove in a VW Combi to the bus stop near the police station. The bus was the usual half an hour late. It felt like much longer because it was really hot and humid even though it was only spring. We arrived at Campo Grande Rodoviaria and bought tickets for the 8.00 pm bus to Foz do Igaucu. We got on the bus and updated our diary and uploaded our photos before trying to go to sleep.

When we woke up on Thursday morning, it was raining really heavily and the floor of the bus was wet. We had had a very ordinary night's sleep and got off the bus at Cascavel where we changed buses. We arrived at Foz do Iguacu two hours later and had to catch another bus to Centro. Thankfully it had stopped raining by the time we arrived. It was a short walk to Pousada El Shaddai where we checked in and had a much needed shower. On our way out, the owner offered us a taste of some fruit from the jaboticaba tree (also known as the Brazilian grape tree) that he had growing in his back yard. We had a look at the tree – it was very large and the purple fruit appeared to be growing directly on the bark of the tree.

We walked into town and had breakfast/lunch at Boi na Brasa, a churrasqueira (BBQ) restaurant. Then we walked back to the pousada for a cup of tea and a rest.

We spent most of the afternoon in the room catching up with our emails (no internet at the Pantanal) and enjoying some English satellite TV. Later on in the evening we went downstairs. There were some other travellers there and we ended up having a social evening sharing wine, trying passionfruit caipirinhas, chatting, dancing some samba and listening to music.

The sun was shining when we woke up on Friday which made it a perfect day for our trip to the Iguacu National Park. We had breakfast and then caught the bus. At the park, we paid our entry fee and then caught a shuttle bus which took us to the beginning of the Trilha das Cataratas – a scenic 1.2 km trail leading to the Gargantua del Diablo (Devil's Throat) waterfall. We had a great overview of the falls from here – they stretched a long way in both directions with many individual falls often on two levels. The falls had been created as the water flowed off the basalt plateau onto a softer rock. We walked along the road to the top of the falls so that we could walk back along the track. We saw a group of six fully-grown coatimundi searching for food. At the end of the road you could look across the wide Rio Iguacu and see the mist rising where the water was disappearing over the edge. We caught a lift down one level and walked along a misty wet footbridge to a viewing platform directly in front of the Gargantua del Diablo which plunged dramatically splitting into several smaller waterfalls. Then we walked back to the bus stop along the scenic Trilha das Cataratas. The trail was well set up, with boardwalks, concrete paths, steps and viewing platforms placed at strategic points. The falls were spectacular and the trail followed the bank opposite the falls all the way! Far below were a couple of power boats in the river giving people aboard a view from below. Numerous vultures wheeled in the air above the falls. At one point the falls ran around behind a huge island.

Back at the bus stop we caught a bus back to the visitor centre and then walked to the Parque das Aves – a bird park which was a five minute walk away. First we had lunch at the park restaurant next to a pond of pink flamingos. There were musicians there and it really looked like the flamingos were dancing to the music. After lunch we walked around the park. Amongst other things, we saw macaws (including blue-and-gold macaws and scarlet macaws), sun conures, boa constrictors, various parrots, cassowaries, a large monitor lizard, butterflies, hummingbirds, a tarantula, several varieties of toucans and aracaris (toucanettes), golden conures/parakeets, cranes, guineafowl, rheas, king vultures, harpy eagles, a broad-snouted caiman, black-tufted-ear marmoset, turtles, tortoises, a green iguana, an anaconda, various ducks, scarlet ibis, herons, spoonbills and red legged seriema. We had a photo session with a very obliging blue-and-gold macaw. When it was Keith's turn to be photographed, the macaw took a shine to his top shirt button and very deftly removed it! We really enjoyed the park because we were able to enter several of the five metre high netted aviaries and interact with the birds.

We caught a bus home at 5.00 pm and had dinner before walking back to the hostel. We felt lucky to have had such a beautiful day for our last day in Brazil and we also had the excitement of looking forward to a new country – Argentina.

On Saturday morning we got on a rickety bus to the border. The bus left us at the Brazilian emigration office and we queued up to get an exit stamp. Once our passports had been stamped we walked back to the bus stop to wait for another bus. At the bus stop, we met Sean and Sara from the UK, Linda from Dublin and Andreas from Colombia. We jumped on the next bus to the Argentine immigration office and joined yet another queue.

After our passports were stamped, we went to foreign exchange bureau to change our remaining Brazilian Reais into Argentinian Pesos. In the meantime, Andreas had spoken to the border police and found out that it was only a short walk into town so we decided to walk rather than catch another bus. It was hot and the walk turned out to be a bit longer than expected. The first hostel that we tried was full however we found a room at the nearby Hostel Peter Pan. After checking in, we spent some time walking around town finding out about the buses to Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls and we went to an ATM to take out some money. We had lunch in town and tried an Alfajores (a special chocolate cookie sandwich), bought some more antibiotics to replenish our first aid kit, and then bought our bus tickets for Buenos Aires. We bumped into Sean and Sara and organised to meet with them later at their hostel. It was still pretty hot so we headed back to the hostel where we spent the afternoon in the pool and did some research on the internet.

At 8.00 pm we walked to the Sean and Sara's hostel to meet them. We walked around town looking for a restaurant and finally settled on Il Fratello where we all ordered steak. We knew that we had to order our greens separately so we ordered a dish of green vegetables. To our surprise the green vegetables turned out to be a plate of mixed lettuce. The steaks were pretty good and we had a lovely bottle of San Felipe 2009 Malbec to go with them. After dinner we were heading back to our hostel when we bumped into Linda with Meg from California at a Pizza Restaurant. We had another bottle of wine (Norton 2007 Classico – which wasn't as good) with them and finally headed back to the hostel at midnight.

We set the alarm for 7.15 am on Sunday so that we could have breakfast and head straight to the falls. After the breakfasts in Brazil, our first breakfast in Argentina was very disappointing. It was just coffee, croissants (media luna) bread and butter with various jams. After breakfast we checked out of the hostel and walked to the bus station where we caught a bus to the Cataratas (falls). We had to queue for a half an hour at the ticket office because it was a long weekend in both Brazil and Argentina and there were buses full of tourists arriving every five minutes. We walked through the park entry complex and took the Upper Circuit Trail. We walked on boardwalks which took us along the top of a series of waterfalls with great views from above. It was such an incredibly beautiful day with blue sky dotted with a powder puff clouds. The sun was reflecting off all the water and we were surrounded by green foliage. We saw a pair of trogons nesting in a termite nest next to the trail. There were many coatimundis busily snuffling through the jungle debris on the ground. At the end of the Upper Circuit we could see the San Martin Island surrounded by waterfalls. Unfortunately the island was closed but normally you could get a boat from the lower circuit and walk around the island. We completed the Upper Circuit and then took the Lower Circuit Trail. This time the boardwalks took us through the jungle along the base of the waterfalls so we had a view of the waterfalls from below.

After lunch at the cafeteria, we decided to do the Devil's Throat Trail. We planned to catch a small train to the start of the trail, but the crowds were so large that the train was totally full. Instead we walked along the trail beside the train track which was filled with a continuous stream of butterflies which flew past us. The butterflies were primarily various shades of yellow with a few other different types. They landed in some places and we were able to take photos of them. Eventually we reached a boardwalk which crossed right over the Rio Iguazu to the main Devil's Throat waterfall. The viewing platform was right above the spot where the brown water of the river fell off the horseshoe-shaped basalt plateau creating a white cloud of mist which prevented you seeing the bottom. A few hundred metres away we could see the Brazilian side of the river. It was a fabulous sight and a great way to finish the awesome falls. It seemed better organised and presented than the Victoria Falls in Africa.

We walked back to the bus stop and caught a bus back to town. We were happy to sit down after the day walking in the heat. We had a quick shower at the hostel before getting the bus to Buenos Aires on a super comfortable Rio Uruguay bus "cama" (bed) class. We had a full recliner seat and it was even better than the buses that we had caught in Brazil. It really was like business class on the plane with movies and a bus attendant that came by at regular intervals to ply us with drinks, sweets and biscuits. At 10.30 pm we were served dinner with a choice of soft drink, water, red wine or white wine and after dinner, we were offered a choice of whisky or champagne! This was a world away from the skanky buses of India and Africa!

Week 33 - Brazil - Rio de Janeiro to Bonito

It was raining heavily when we woke up on Monday morning so we took our time getting up. While we were eating our breakfast, it stopped raining and the sky cleared up. We hurriedly packed up our backpacks and checked out, leaving them in a storage room. We caught the bus to Cosme Velho and got the cog train up the Morro Corcovado (Hunchback Mountain) to see the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue. On the way up we enjoyed spectacular views of Corcovado which was in the middle of the lush green Tijuca National Park. At the top of Corcovado we walked around the statue and despite the clouds we enjoyed 360 degree views over Rio. After an hour or so we caught the cog train back down to Cosme Velho, where we had lunch at the Mamma Rosa cafe. After lunch and a lovely lime tart for dessert, we caught a bus to the Botanical Gardens. This was at the foot of the Corcovado mountain and from the park we could see the Cristo Redentor statue. From the entrance with its turtle pond we walked along a long palm lined avenue to the Fountain of the Muses at the centre of the park. We walked around a lake filled with strange fish and over the Monkey River and visited the bromeliad house and orchid house where we admired their extensive collection of flowering orchids.

We caught a bus back to Lapa after that and walked back to hostel. We caught a taxi to the bus station to get on our 11.30 pm "leitos" (first class) bus to Ouro Preto. The bus had spacious reclining seats (like Qantas sky beds) and we were issued with a pillow and a blanket when we boarded.

On Tuesday we were woken at 6.30 am when we arrived at Ouro Preto bus station. For the first time in weeks, we put our packs on and walked to the closest hostel in the rain. The room they showed us was very small so we caught a bus through Ouro Preto to Praca Tiradentes where we checked into the beautiful Pousada Ouro Preto. We sat down to a lovely breakfast of watermelon, pineapple, and small papaya, Pao de Queijo, rolls with cheese and ham, corn cake with cumin, biscuits, fruit juice and coffee. The pousada was full of Brazilians on holiday. Ouro Preto was built on steep hills with slippery cobbled streets and a plethora of churches. It had been a rich gold mining town and the churches here still contain large amounts of gold. We had a late lunch at Osotao, a per kilo restaurant and then wandered over to the travel agent recommended by Jerson, the owner of the pousada to organise our flight to Campo Grande from Belo Horizonte, the nearest airport. Then we walked to the bus station to buy a bus ticket from Ouro Preto to Belo Horizonte. Once this was sorted out, we walked around the Praca Tiradentes again but as it was raining we headed back to the pousada for pineapple tea (amazingly good) and corn and cumin cake.

Much to our relief, the sun was shining when we woke up on Wednesday. We had another lovely breakfast at the pousada and then we went to the Tourist Information Office to get a map of Ouro Preto. We spent five minutes marking the route suggested by Lonely Planet on the map before we set off. The route took us up and down winding cobbled streets, across picturesque plazas to various stunning baroque churches perched on top of steep hills. We started our walk from the Praca Tiradentes and walked along the Rua des Lajes to get a panoramic view of Ouro Preto nestled among the mountains. Our first stop was the Igreja de Santa Efigenia dos Pretos built by and for the black slave community. It was closed for restoration, but the caretaker opened the front door and let us in. Inside the church were columns, scrolls, tromp de l'oeil and plump cherubs painted in gold leaf. The walls and ceilings were decorated with frescoes and there were wood and polychrome figures of various saints, Christ, Mary etc. We visited Capelo do Padre Faria and the Igreja Nossa Senhora da Conceicao de Antonio Dias before heading back to the centre of town to the Igreja Sao Francisco de Assis which was just closing for lunch when we arrived. We decided to have lunch ourselves and walked to the Adega Ouro Preto Restaurante – another per kilo restaurant. After lunch we visited the Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosario dos Pretos, the Igreja Matriz Nossa Senhora do Pilar (containing 434 kgs of gold and silver) and finally the Igreja Nossa Senhora do Carmo. All of the churches that we visited were decorated in the same heavy baroque style - it was all very excessive but there was some great sculpture and artwork.

Overall Ouro Preto was a beautiful town full of colonial architecture, most of which had been immaculately restored. As well as the buildings, statues, cobbled roads and bridges there were flowering plants and trees everywhere which attracted a lot of birdlife from humming birds to buzzards perched on churches. The incredibly steep hills gave the builders plenty of sites for the twelve or more churches and the different stone used for cobbles (black), walls, sidewalks, and columns (brown and grey) also gave it a different feel. Many of the paving stones shone with metallic lustre in the sun or glistened in the rain which reminded you that all this wealth in the town was from the gold and silver mines of the Minas Gerais region.

After breakfast on Thursday we headed out into the warm humidity to the Igreja Sao Francisco de Assis which we hadn't seen yesterday. It was also impressive with wonderful ceiling fresco painting and beautiful carving in wood, silver and gold. As with all the churches there was a large room in the rear with antique furniture, ceiling painting and works of art, this time paintings by Goncalves. The ticket for this church entitled us to entry to the Aleijadinho Museum so we headed down the cobbled streets back to the Igreja Nossa Senhora da Conceicao de Antonio Dias which had the Museum at the rear on three levels. There were furniture, oratories to display saints in order to ward off evil, four magnificent stylistic lions carved in cedar, all types of religious figures in stone, wood and polychrome, religious vestments, monstrances and other religious artefacts. Most related to Aleijadinho who was known as the Brazilian Michelangelo. Amazingly he lost the use of his arms and legs at the age of thirty and continued working! There was eerie music playing in the background and a TV playing continuous images of the highlights of the Aleijadinho art contained in all the churches. We climbed back up hill to the Praca Tiradentes only to find that the museum (Museu Inconfidencia) we had earmarked to see last was in fact closed until 12.00 pm! Our bus left at 1.00 pm and we decided to play it safe and returned to the hostel. We caught a taxi to the Rodoviaria (bus station) and then caught the bus to Belo Horizonte through interesting countryside of green hills and huge valleys spanned by enormous railway and highway aqueduct-style bridges. The highway cut into the hills exposed metallic laden ore of silver colour and the highway became three lanes in each direction as we approached Belo Horizonte with gum trees growing beside the road. Belo Horizonte is Brazil's third largest city and it looked like an ugly industrial city. We changed buses for one going to the airport 40 kms away. We reached the airport and our flight was delayed by an hour and a half so we checked in and did some work on the laptop while we waited. We arrived in Campo Grande, the gateway to the Panatanal two hours later. Our luggage came out really fast and we caught a taxi to the Pousada Dom Aquino and checked in.

After breakfast on Friday we headed off to the Tourist Office to get a map of Campo Grande and to find out about buses to Bonito. It was an extremely humid day, but the sun was blocked by the haze and smog so it wasn't too bad. We walked to the Tourist Office where we found that the earliest bus to Bonito we could catch was the one leaving at 3.30 pm and we couldn't purchase a bus ticket in town. We had to catch a bus to the Rodoviaria to buy our ticket and then catch a bus back to Centro. When we arrived back at Centro, we walked back to the pousada to check out and then we walked to the indoor market. We wandered around through the stalls selling electronics, travel goods, sunglasses, jewellery, and shoes from Paraguay – apparently they were cheaper because the taxes there were lower. We walked around town and found a churrasqueira restaurant. We had delicious grilled beef, chicken and sausage with a selection of salads, pasta and rice. Afterwards, we went to the shop next door where we bought a passionfruit juice which was large enough for both of us. After walking around some more, we walked back to the pousada to collect our bags and caught a taxi to the Rodoviaria to catch our bus to Bonito.

The bus took half an hour to get out of Campo Grande. Once we were in the countryside most of the vegetation had been cleared and you could see how flat the landscape was. We started seeing large herds of cows, mostly white and leaner than the dairy cattle we had seen in Scotland and Ireland. We also saw some rheas, vultures, an eagle, and two giant hairy anteaters. The first of these was wandering along in the open near some cows so we could see that it was quite large, about half the size of a cow and extremely hairy. It was a truly amazing looking animal. We also passed many dilapidated shacks made from cardboard, wood and plastic sheets which were obviously home to local people. There was a lot of water lying around as it had rained solidly last week. As the sun went down the haze became more of a heavy mist which made a surreal sight floating over the flat land with occasional patches of jungle appearing and disappearing. Apart from short green grass for the cows we saw corn and sugar cane being grown. We reached Bonito at 8.30 pm and walked to the Pousada Muito Bonito and checked in.

It was raining heavily when we woke up on Saturday, but it had stopped by the time we had had our showers and went out to the breakfast table. After breakfast Keith organised an eco-tour/snorkelling trip to the Rio da Prata (Silver River) with the hostel. We grabbed our swimmers and towels and at 10.30 am we were collected from the hostel by a taxi driver. The Rio da Prata was a 50 km drive out of Bonito and some of the drive was on dirt roads. We drove past open flat plains dotted with red termite mounds, herds of cows and a couple of rheas. We arrived at the tourist reception centre at 11.30 am only to find out that our tour didn't begin until 1.30 pm – after lunch! We walked around the property for the next hour and Keith took photos of various parrots, a road runner, a toucan and an ibis. We had lunch at 12.30 pm and it was a fantastic buffet lunch featuring lots of meat and local produce. After lunch we got ready for our tour. We were issued with wetsuits and booties which we had to put on immediately, and a mask and snorkel. Our clothes were put into plastic bags to be collected at the other end of our swim downstream. At this point Keith found out that he would have to leave our cameras behind because they weren't waterproof – very unhappy! After donning our wetsuits and booties we climbed onto the back of a jeep and were driven to the start of our tour. We spent about half an hour walking through the rainforest in our wetsuits and booties, which felt very surreal. Thankfully because it had been raining, it was cool and overcast and the walk was very comfortable. At the river bank, we were given an orientation session in Portuguese (general gist of it was don't touch the fish, don't put your feet on the ground and swim in a single line) and instructions on how to use the mask and snorkel. Then we started a 3 km float/swim down the river. The current was pretty strong so we really didn't have to put much effort into swimming at all. The visibility was really great and we saw many different varieties of fish. The fish were very tame and we could get quite close to them before they swam away. There were large silver fish with thick lips which vacuumed the river bed, large black fish which looked velvety soft and appeared to eat leaves fallen into the river, there were golden dourado with big teeth, freshwater catfish on the rocks, and many more big and small. We saw a deep hole in the river bed at one point and we saw springs bubbling up through the sandy river bed. We saw macaws flying overhead, a cormorant, and a large black bird with yellow beak calling plaintively. Much to Keith's disappointment and Suzie's relief, we did not see any anacondas or jacare (caiman). Our snorkelling trip was over all too quickly and we got changed in little huts by a jetty on the river bank and then we climbed back on to the jeep. On the way back we saw a little armadillo crossing the road! We drove back to the tourist reception centre where we had a cup of tea and some fresh popcorn. We wanted to fit in a visit to the Buraco dos Araras (a sanctuary for macaws) before we went back to Bonito but when we arrived, it had just closed and we couldn't persuade them to let us in. However, outside in the car park was a very friendly red and green macaw who was happy to pose for photographs. We drove back to Bonito after that feeling very satisfied with our day.

We had a leisurely breakfast on Sunday morning chatting fellow travellers. We met Lucas and Cynthia from Holland who had rented a car at Campo Grande and driven to Bonito. They told us that they were visiting a few of the local attractions so we asked if we could join them. They agreed and so after breakfast, we jumped into their car and headed out for the day. Lucas and Cynthia turned out to be avid wildlife enthusiasts with lots of camera equipment which suited us (and in particular Keith) very well. We drove slowly out of town on dirt roads trying to spot birds or animals. Our first stop was the Ilha do Padre (Priest Island). We paid our entry fee and walked onto the island over a small footbridge. There were a few waterfalls and some crystal clear waters that would have been great to swim and snorkel in, had it been hotter. We walked around some picnic areas and some leisure areas. We spotted a couple of toucans and a large troupe of Howler monkeys swinging through the trees. We were on our way out of the complex when we came across a very tame red and green macaw called Laura. It was very friendly to Cynthia and after a while we worked out that it was absolutely besotted with her red fleece - when Cynthia put her fleece on the ground, Laura nuzzled it lovingly. We also saw a blue crowned motmot with two long tail feathers ending in a disc. As we watched another arrived with an insect as a gift.

Next, we drove to Ilha Bonita where we ordered lunch at the restaurant. While we were waiting for our lunch to arrive, we walked around the gardens and the clear river where they were feeding fish with corn. After lunch we drove to Buraco dos Araras 50 kms away. On the way we spotted a giant anteater right beside the road and we got out and got really close before it suddenly fled. It had an enormous amount of shaggy hair and a strange dark colouration with a light stripe down its side. It had a long relatively thin snout which it appeared to be probing the ground with very carefully.

We arrived at the sinkhole Buraco dos Araras and walked a about 500 metres to the hole. It was a circular hole approximately 300 metres wide and 200 metres deep with almost sheer walls of red rock. In the bottom was a pool of green water and tropical vegetation. In the trees around the edge many macaws were screaming at each other. There were also many ibises nesting and calling. The red and green macaws flew across the hole and dived spectacularly down towards their nests in the rock walls. Apparently there are a couple of caiman in the water in the bottom and the guide said that they must have been washed down in one of the annual floods. It was a very relaxing sunset there and we were thoroughly satisfied as we drove home. We saw another giant anteater on the way back and a small grey cat. After dinner we packed up our gear in readiness for catching the 6.00 am bus to Buraco das Piranhas in the Pantanal.

Week 32 - England - Stoney Stanton to Brazil - Rio de Janeiro

On Monday morning, we got ready to go out for a walk. Talbert and Linda had chosen the three halls walk which was 6 miles (or 9½ kms) long and started in the village of Hungarton. After a half hour drive from Stoney Stanton, Talbert parked the car at The Black Boy Pub where we planned to have lunch and we set off on the walk.

We walked up a small lane next to a 14^th century church through some gates and up a long winding driveway where we had a view of the beautiful frontage of Quenby Hall – a 17^th century Jacobean country house on the top of a hill with views of the surrounding fields. The next hall that we saw was Lowesby Hall – a Georgian red brick manor house next to the former village of Lowesby with its own cricket pitch. Lowesby had been razed during the plague years. After scrambling over some stiles and walking over cattle grids, through fields and parklands we came across Baggrave Hall – a Georgian red brick and granite building set amidst some impressive parklands. We saw many pheasants, sheep, pigs, cattle including long horned cattle, and beautiful horses including one which ate a mint offered by Talbert. We walked back along an avenue lined with horse chestnuts and wild blackberries to The Black Boy Pub for a well earned shandy and lunch.

After breakfast on Tuesday, we packed up the car and set off for Oxford. At Oxford, we parked the car and spent the next couple of hours walking around town. The university colleges, chapels and gardens seemed to be scattered randomly through town. We walked past golden stone buildings, the Bodleian Theatre, the Old Bodleian Library, the University Church of Saint Mary and Lincoln College. We walked along High Street and took a quick detour through the Covered Market which contained permanent stalls and shops. Most of them were food retailers. We walked past the Town Hall and Christ Church College, peeking through the Tom Gate at the quadrangle with the magnificent cathedral in the background. We were sorry when it was time to return to our car before the parking meter expired.

We rescued the car and drove to Avebury. On the way we drove past Silbury Hill – a large manmade grass covered chalk mound. The site at Avebury consisted of a large henge (large circular ridge and ditch), several stone circles and a large barrow. The village of Avebury extended into the heart of the largest stone circle. We spent an hour walking around the village and the stone circles trying to find the "Devil's Seat" and the "Diamond" stones. After that we drove towards Salisbury across the scenic Salisbury Plain, taking a short detour to go and see Stonehenge. The site was closed when we arrived, but we were able to park the car in a nearby lane and view Stonehenge from the road. In the setting sun the stones looked really atmospheric.

It was quite late when we arrived in Salisbury and there were no double rooms available at the hostel. However, we managed to find a room at the nearby Citylodge.

We got off to a late start on Wednesday morning, watching TV and dawdling over a cup of tea in our room. We had a delicious breakfast at Reeve the Baker and then strolled round to the Tourist Office where we found a city walking tour that was just about to leave. We quickly bought tickets and joined the tour.

Helena (the guide) took us along the Fish Row into Cotswold (an outdoor shop). Inside the shop on the second floor were large wooden beams and archways showing traces of woodworm. Our next stop was the vine covered 13^th century Red Lion Hotel. It was once a "coach inn" and so had a very high entry into the courtyard. The drive had deep carriage ruts worn into it. Inside the inn was an amazing skeleton organ clock (carved by prisoners from the Spanish Armada), a wooden fireplace with a last supper frieze and some clocks with extremely large faces (Act of Parliament Clocks). We paid a quick visit to the 1220 bar before moving on to the Odeon Cinema. The cinema was closed but we could still admire its half timbered medieval entrance and original stained glass windows from the outside. We were able to walk down the side of the building where we could see that the walls had been constructed with a mix of brick, stone and flint. The flint had been used to extend the stone – stone being scarce in the Salisbury Plains because the area is chalk. We walked along Butcher Row, stopping to admire the 15^th century stone Poultry Cross which marked the site of the old poultry market. Then we went to St Thomas' Church which was also constructed from flint and stone (ashlar). Above the altar was a spectacular "Doom Painting" – a fresco depicting judgement day. The ceiling was a Somerset Angel roof – it was made of timber beams with little cherubs on each corner. Finally we walked with Helena behind the church along the trout-filled River Avon and then along High Street into the Cathedral Close – a large enclosure surrounded by walls made from stone harvested from the site of OId Sarum. As well as the cathedral, the close contained a number of residential buildings and museums.

After Helena left us, we walked back into town to Tesco where we bought lunch. We brought this back to the Cathedral Close and had a picnic on a bench opposite the great spire which at 123 metres, is Britain's tallest spire. After lunch we spent a couple of hours wandering around the cathedral. The cathedral was built in English Gothic style and had 68 statues on its west front. Inside we saw a beautiful cloister, a medieval clock, decorative tombs, ornate quire stalls, a stone frieze of scenes from the Old Testament and an original Magna Carta manuscript. We walked back into town to Reeve the Baker for afternoon tea. Then we walked along the river and then on the Town Path to Salisbury's water-meadows to the Mill. Keith was disappointed because we didn't see any water voles but we saw plenty of trout, ducks, swans and even a large hawk that was tethered in a garden adjoining the river.

We walked back into town and as it was still light, we decided to walk to Old Sarum – the site of the original town which was abandoned due to a shortage of water and space. We walked for ages along the river and then across some fields before we arrived at the massive Iron Age hill fort. At the top of the hill, we were rewarded with a view of the surrounding countryside and the stone ruins of a castle and cathedral.

We went to the Coach and Horses Inn for a lovely dinner and then returned to the hotel. It was the end of a fabulous final day in England.

We woke to our alarm at 7.00 am on Thursday and it took us an hour to shower and pack. It was pouring rain as we drove out of Salisbury towards London and Heathrow airport. Luckily the traffic was ok and we found Avis at Heathrow and returned the car. We checked our baggage in and went through security to the BA lounge where we had breakfast. We boarded via a bus which delivered us to the wrong plane! Then there were delays as they had to change the nose wheel! We only ended up taking off at 3.15 pm when the flight was scheduled to leave at 1.15 pm!

We landed in Rio a little after 10.00 pm - only one hour late, which is not bad considering we left London two hours behind schedule. We met Allie from Bristol on the plane and it turned out that she was also staying at the Rio Hostel so we agreed to share a taxi. After we got through customs we found Flavio in "Arrivals" carrying a Rio Hostel sign with the name John Lyons. Flavio agreed to take us to the Rio Hostel as well and while we were waiting for John Lyons to turn up we went to the ATM to take out some Brazilian Reais. John Lyons didn't turn up so Flavio gave up and took us to the hostel. The Rio Hostel was perched on the top of a large hill overlooking Rio and to get to reception we had to climb up a couple of steep flights of stairs. We had a big room with a super view over Rio city centre. John Lyons turned up at reception just after us – he had been detained by customs because he declared his malaria tablets! He was completely cool about us taking his lift because he said he was so long he knew the driver wouldn't be there by the time he got out.

On Friday, we woke up at 7.30 am and lay in bed for a while before a cold shower got us going. We had a continental breakfast which included chocolate cake and some really good coffee. Keith saw a tiny Sagui monkey with a banded tail in the trees next to the hostel. Then we raced off into town on foot to meet Sarah Laird whom we had previously met in India. We got to the Confeitaria Colombo right on time. It was an amazing building on two levels with giant size ornate mirrors all around the walls and marble tables giving the impression it was even grander with all the reflections. It was a belle époque 19^th century style cafe with a huge stained glass design in the ceiling and enormous displays of every confection under the sun. We had a great chat and met her husband Julian (a Scot). They invited us to a BBQ on Sunday afternoon. They suggested that we walk around the area of Candelaria church with lots of old architecture and good restaurants. There were many modern buildings in Centro with restored and unrestored old buildings dotted in between. The streets were dirty and lively and the humidity similar to a Brisbane summer. We walked and walked and walked and ended up taking a lot of photos although we did not see other tourists with cameras as we had in other cities on the trip. There is definitely an undercurrent of poverty and a feeling that something could happen to you if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time but overall we liked it. We stopped at a per kilo restaurant in Candelaria for lunch at a very reasonable price. It was just the healthy meal we needed after the flight here and we felt recharged afterwards. We continued walking and enjoying the many plazas, markets and sculptures until we ran out of steam and the sun started to go down at 4.00 pm. We found our way back to Santa Teresa by retracing our steps and using the Arcos de Lapa (a large concrete aqueduct) as a landmark. It was Friday afternoon and many people were around in the bars and on the street. We bumped into Allie at the door to the hostel and compared notes on our day. We did our diary and had dinner and a couple of beers and refreshing Caipirinhas at the hostel with Allie, John and Tiago.

On Saturday, we caught a taxi to Rodoviaria Novo Rio, the Rio long haul bus terminal where we purchased an overnight first class bus ticket for Ouro Preto for Monday night. As we had seen a lot of cloud we decided to change our plan to go to the Corcovador mountain and instead jumped on a bus for Leblon beach. We went through a tunnel carved through a mountain and went past Pao De Acucar mountain on our way down the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches to Leblon beach. We got off and walked for miles up the beach watching the beach sports being played all along the esplanade which was paved in the Portuguese style with small cobbles in off-white and black stone forming a wave like pattern. There was beach volleyball with most games not using hands but feet, chest, knees and head instead which improves the soccer skills. There was also a game of hitting a ball very hard and fast between two players with solid bats shaped like short tennis rackets and with nets running behind each row of players. There were also games of soccer in progress with organised teams playing in bare feet. There were kiosks selling mainly green coconuts to drink and large concrete stands called Postos with their numbers which delineated the beach areas informally – some were for families, some for gays, and some for the beautiful people apparently. A steady stream of joggers, cyclists, skateboarders and roller bladers passed us in both directions in their own special lane. Above us there were flocks of buzzards and Gaviotas (frigate birds) wheeling continuously. The Gaviotas had a very large wingspan and there was something eerie in their pterodactyl silhouette against the sky and their silent circling. Eventually we had lunch at a per kilo restaurant at the headland between Ipanema and Copacabana. The food was beautiful with real beef, pork and fish with numerous vegetable options both cold and warm. After lunch we kept walking up Copacabana beach until we reached the end and then had to walk back a little in order to catch the 511 bus to Pao De Acucar (Sugarloaf Mountain) where we caught the cable car up to the first station half way up. The views were totally awesome and for the first time we could appreciate how huge Rio really was with favelas (shanty towns) spilling down the mountain sides, acres of high rise in the valleys and bays full of boats stretching around to the 13 kilometre Rio-Niteroi bridge connecting Rio de Janeiro to Niteroi. When we went up the last stage to the top there was a cloud over the peak which blocked the view but it did give a surreal effect as the cloud swirled around you and the distant sights below loomed and receded with the clouded visibility. We waited until it got dark but left without any clear views. Luckily when we descended to the first station we were below the cloud again and the carpet of lights was extremely beautiful. After a few photos we descended to the bottom and caught a taxi back to the hostel for a welcome cup of tea and to catch up with John and Allie from the UK.

Later in the evening, we walked to the Lapa neighbourhood next to Santa Teresa famous for its nightlife, colourful restaurants and Samba Clubs. We walked through the busy streets to the Rio Scenarium Samba Club only to find a 100 metre long queue at the front door and a cover charge of R$30. We decided to walk around and find somewhere else. We chose a restaurant with a black musician on the mezzanine floor and R$5 cover charge so that Allie could have some dinner and we could have a drink. We spent a good couple of hours chatting over our drinks and people watching. There were several couples who had no inhibitions about public displays of passion – we didn't know where to look! At about midnight, we decided to walk back to the hostel. The streets were still full of people and if anything busier than before.

After breakfast on Sunday, we walked down through Santa Teresa and saw some more tiny Sagui monkeys on the way to the Arcos de Lapa. At the Arcos de Lapa, we took some photos of the stairs which had been covered in tiles from all over the world by an eccentric Chilean artist. Lapa looked pretty dirty in the morning light and there were lots of people sleeping in the street. Some were still out from the night before looking the worse for wear. We took out some money from an ATM and walked back to the hostel to stash some of it. Then we walked up Rua Joaquim Martinho past Largo Curvelo to Largo Guimaraes. We enjoyed the views over Rio and admired the restored and decaying villas along the way. We got onto an ancient tram and had a great ride down the hill and over the Arcos de Lapa into the city centre. We found a metro station at the terminus and caught the metro to General Osorio station at Ipanema where we cruised around the Hippie Market which was full of interesting Brazilian clothes, gemstones, wood carvings, jewellery, and stalls selling acaraje, a dish of yellow lentil, sticky okra stew, a fried bun, and prawns. This was pretty good and we shared a cob of corn as well as a chicken empanada before dessert of tapioca flan with chunks of coconut and covered in delicious burnt sugar syrup. We bought a couple of bottles of red wine and a box of chocolates and caught the bus to Barra in the rain. We enjoyed the drive down the coast from Leblon with jungle and mountains on one side and the sea on the other. At Barra a huge canal appeared beside the highway for some time. We got off at Ponte Lucio Costa and walked to Julian and Sarah's apartment in a secure condominium. We had a fantastic churrasqueira (BBQ) outside with roast beef, salad and baked potato. We met Julian's colleague Alfie and the children, Oscar and Mica. After dessert, we went upstairs into their apartment for a cup of tea and a chocolate before catching a taxi back to Santa Teresa. A couple of young Germans had had their uncle's car stolen from the front of the hostel which was a bit sobering.

Week 31 - Ireland - Bantry to England - Stoney Stanton

It was raining when we woke on Monday but it had stopped by the time we left for the day. We drove out on the Mizen Head peninsula to Crookhaven with a famous harbour and stopped at O' Sullivans Bar for lunch. It was blustery and cold outside which made it so cosy inside even the Old English sheepdog came inside. We felt like we were at the end of the world. Then we drove to Schull which was another fishing village. We walked around the harbour and the main street where we stopped at Newman's Photography to look at the photos of the Fastnet Lighthouse, a perfect construction of interlocking Cornish granite blocks which has withstood the Atlantic storms for over 100 years. Then we drove to inland Skibbereen on the Ilen River which was founded after coastal Baltimore was sacked by Algerian pirates in 1631! It had a statue to Irish rebels and a nearby Abbey with mass graves of thousands from the Famine of the 1840s. We walked around town enjoying the scenery of colourful shops, hotels and restaurants. Then we drove on to Cobh (pronounced Cove), the port for Cork, on Great Island. It was linked to the mainland by a causeway and faces Haulbowline Island, once the base for the Irish naval service, and Spike Island which houses a prison. After checking into a room at Ard na Laoi B&B, we walked around the harbour and had dinner. Then we went into the plush Commodore Hotel for an Irish coffee which entitled us to use their Wifi to book accommodation in Dublin, and the ferry to Holyhead in Wales.

After a full Irish breakfast on Tuesday morning, we checked out of the B&B. We walked up some steep narrow streets past brightly coloured terrace houses to St Colman's Cathedral which was perched on a hillside terrace overlooking Cobh. The cathedral was in French Gothic style with crenellated spires, flying buttresses, gargoyles and statues and contains the largest Carillon in Ireland with 47 bells. The largest bell was 3.6 tonnes! Inside the cathedral were mosaic floors, beautiful stained glass windows and marble columns. We walked back into town and paid a quick visit to the Cobh Heritage Centre, housed in the old train station which had a lot of information on the massive emigration out of Ireland.

Then we set off for Barryscourt Castle – the 16^th century seat of the Barry Family. First we visited the beautifully sculptured herb gardens and apple orchards (with 58 varieties of apples). Then a staff member gave us a guided tour of the renovated castle. It was built in typical Irish style – with a main tower house building with smaller adjacent buildings arranged around a courtyard and surrounded by a protective outer wall. The staff member guided us through the main rooms and halls in the castle and pointed out the defensive features of the castle before leaving us to browse through an exhibition on the ground floor.

After a quick stop for lunch at Midleton we drove towards Cashel. On the way we stopped at Lismore for a five minute walk across the bridge over the river and to admire the Lismore Castle and gardens in some precious sunshine. At Cashel, we parked the car and walked to The Rock of Cashel – an archaeological site on the top of a limestone hill surrounded by a sturdy wall. At first we joined a guided tour which concentrated on the main buildings – the round tower, roofless abbey, 12^th century Romanesque chapel and Gothic cathedral. Unfortunately much of Cormac's Chapel was inaccessible because it was covered in scaffolding and undergoing restoration. Then we wandered around the site ourselves. It was scattered with monuments, Celtic crosses, ornate tombs and had sweeping views of the surrounding countryside. We visited the Hall of the Vicar's Choral where we watched an audiovisual presentation (in Italian), and visited a small exhibition of Bronze Age axes and blades, stone carvings, silverware and St Patrick's Cross.

We drove to Kilkenny where we were checked into the Kilkenny Tourist Hostel.

On Wednesday morning we walked through town to Kilkenny Castle. The castle was set amidst stately gardens and parklands on the banks of the River Nore. The castle had three remaining corner towers with connecting walls which gave it a unique horseshoe shape. The fourth tower and enclosing wall was damaged by Cromwellian forces during the siege of Kilkenny. It had an impressive entrance gate with the Butler coat of arms leading into the central courtyard. The interior of the three wings were lavishly furnished including 22 carat gold leaf on the ceiling, hand painted Chinese wallpaper and the piece de resistance, the Long Gallery with partial glass roof to let in light, hammerbeam wooden ceiling painted with Celtic designs supported by intricately carved stone corbels. The room was hung with huge oil paintings and furnished with velvet covered antique benches down the centre to sit and enjoy the paintings. There was an enormous white marble fireplace carved with various significant scenes from the family history including the purchase of the castle, acting as butler to the Irish king, the exile after defeat of Royalist forces by Cromwell and triumphant return on restoration of Charles II. There was also a beautiful Moorish staircase with double columns and arches in red and white. After our visit we picked up our luggage from the hostel and left Kilkenny feeling a little sad that we hadn't had more time to enjoy it fully. We drove on a super highway to Dublin, arriving a couple of hours later at the Castle Hotel. This was a lovely small Georgian hotel on the edge of the city centre and a step up from most of the hostel type accommodation we had been staying, thanks to a Wotif voucher present from our friends Andy and Holly. It was filled with old prints and paintings from Irish literature. We walked around the city centre including O'Connell Street, Trinity College university, Parliament House, St Stephen's Green and Grafton Street – where saw the statue of a rather voluptuous Molly Malone wheeling her cart. After having dinner in an Indian restaurant, we walked home via the pub area of Temple Bar and over a fairy tale bridge over the river Liffey. We slept like babies in our luxurious bed.

On Thursday, we headed out to the nearby Parnell Square with a mosaic lined pool in the shape of a cross and sculpture of Irish suffering and swans flying upwards. We walked over the Half Penny Bridge (same one as last night) where we saw a statue of two women sitting on a bench engaged in conversation with their shopping bags at their feet. We spent the morning wandering around, getting lost and enjoying all the architecture and atmosphere of which Dublin has plenty. After lunch we made our way towards the Guinness factory but subsequently discovered we were lost for the third time in the day. We finally made it to the Guinness tour which turned out be an incredibly slick marketing machine. It was a self guided tour through a refurbished industrial building on seven levels. It explained the brewing process, cooperage, history of the site and the marketing of Guinness. The tour culminated in a lesson on how to pour of a pint of Guinness and then we consumed this on the seventh floor Gravity Bar with 360 degree views over the city. Then we walked to Kilmainham Gaol which is one of the biggest disused prisons in Europe and is now a museum. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time we got there. Kilmainham Gaol has played an important part in Irish history as many famous people involved in the struggle for Irish independence have been imprisoned there. It was a long walk back to the hotel and we had just enough time to update our diary and have a cup of tea before it was time to go and meet our firends Colm and Niamh at the Odessa Restaurant at Temple Bar. We had a delicious meal and had a great time catching up with Colm and Niamh and then walked back to the hotel. We packed up as much as we could and it was almost midnight before we collapsed into bed exhausted from our day of walking.

Our alarm went off at 6.00 am on Friday morning followed by the wake-up call from the hotel. We got ready and packed up the rest of our things quickly before heading down to the dining room for a continental breakfast. After breakfast we drove to the Dublin Port. The streets were empty and the Dublin Port was well signposted so we found it easily. This ferry was enormous compared to the ferry we took from Cairnryan to Larne. Next to the ferry terminal we could see piles of containers and container loading cranes. After driving onto the ferry, we went to one of the restaurant areas where we spent the 3½ hour journey reading and catching up with our emails (free Wifi on board).

We arrived at Holyhead at around midday and we got caught in a bit of a traffic jam driving off the ferry before we could get onto the A55 towards Chester. After that the drive was really easy and we arrived in Chester at 2.30 pm. We parked the car in a 30 minute parking zone while we had a late lunch. Then we moved the car to the Forum Shopping Centre car park in the city centre and got a map from the Tourist Information Centre. We spent a pleasant afternoon wandering around town in the sunshine. This was Keith's first visit to Chester and he really loved the well-preserved Tudor buildings with intricate carvings, the Rows shopping galleries and the Eastgate Clock. After walking around a bit we went to collect our car. We parked our car outside the Chester Backpackers Hostel, checked into our twin room which turned out to have double bunk beds. After a rest and a cup of tea, it was time to drive to the Bengal Dynasty at Shotton to meet Suzie's friend Gwen from Hahn and her husband Ed for dinner. We had a lovely dinner and it was lots of fun catching up with Gwen and Ed. We didn't get home till nearly midnight and we fell into bed tired after our early start and long day.

We woke up early on Saturday because of the traffic noise but we stayed in bed for a while before getting up and having our breakfast of porridge with mixed raisins and tea in the kitchen. Then we loaded our bags into the car and walked into town. We climbed up a set of stone steps next to the Eastgate Clock spent a couple of hours walking around the Chester City Walls reading the information plaques at each gate. From the walls we enjoyed views of the River Dee, the Roman Amphitheatre and the Chester racecourse which was once the site of a massive Roman harbour. We climbed off the walls at the Eastgate Clock and walked to the Chester Market where we had lunch and wandered around looking at the cheeses and smallgoods. We bought a selection of cheeses, salami and hams to take to Talbert and Linda's (Suzie's aunt and uncle) house. After going to Tesco to buy wine, chocolates and crackers, we walked back to the car in the rain to drive to Stoney Stanton. We got a little bit lost because we took a wrong exit, but other than that we found Talbert and Linda's house quite easily with the help of directions from Google Maps. We arrived at Tal & Linda's at a little after 5.10 pm. We spent a lovely evening chatting and had our dinner with red wine from Australia, Italy, Spain and Argentina sitting in front of the fire.

We had a really restful Sunday, spending most of the day in Talbert and Linda's conservatory reading the South America Lonely Planet and the Sunday newspaper and watching the birds in the garden.

Week 30 - Ireland - Enniskillen to Bantry

On Monday morning we woke to the sound of the wind and rain lashing against the window of our hostel room. After breakfast, we checked out of the hostel and drove south along Upper Lough Erne. First we drove to Castle Coole on the outskirts of Enniskillen only to find it closed. We continued along the Lough past Crom Estate where we saw the marshes and islands that are home to many waterbirds. At the bottom of the Lough we turned north up the western side and into County Sligo in Eire. We stopped at Sligo town with its picturesque stone bridges across the River Garavogue. The river was full of ducks, swans and seagulls feasting on the waterweeds. We had a walk around town. Then we got back in our car and drove to Connemara peninsula in County Galway. The rain cleared and the sun made a brief appearance and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery in Connemara. We decided to stay at Clifden, Connemara's "capital" for the next couple of nights. After looking at a few options we checked into a room at The Arch B&B. Then we walked through town checking out our dining options. We had dinner at the lively J Conneely's Bar which had foot tapping live Irish traditional music.

We started Tuesday with a full Irish breakfast before heading out for the day. It was still cloudy and rainy. We decided to make the best of the day by taking the scenic drive around the craggy Connemara Peninsula. We started out with the Sky Road route which took us up through the hills overlooking Clifden Bay and its offshore islands, Inishturk and Turbot. Then we drove along the Cleggan loop before turning inland stopping to take a photo of the stunning Kylemore Abbey. We drove past the Twelve Bens and the Maumturk mountains and on to the tiny village of Recess for lunch. After lunch we drove down to the coast again and out to Lettermullan via bridges linking the islands to the coast. We saw beautiful horses, donkeys and sheep in little paddocks enclosed by dry stone walls and a couple of badgers run over on the road. For most of the day we were driving along single track country lanes surrounded by stone walls, fuchsia hedges, golden heather, and wild blackberry bushes. Whenever we stopped we picked some berries as they were generally flavoursome if more seedy than the commercial varieties. We turned back for Clifden via Carna and Roundstone with its famous little harbour. We saw fishermen harvesting seaweed and local men with terrible teeth. It kept raining and raining!

We headed for Galway on Wednesday morning. We drove through another showery day with spectacular views over mountains and loughs until we stopped briefly at the pretty village of Oughterard. Galway was back on the coast and seemed to be even bigger than Londonderry. Luckily the rain stopped and we found a room at a B&B just over Wolf Tone Bridge from the city centre. After dropping off our bags, we walked back into town. We walked around the famous Church of St Nicholas where Christopher Columbus was supposed to have worshipped and saw Lynch's window marking the gallows where a father hung his son who had killed a Spanish visitor. We wandered around the pedestrian walkways enjoying the happy crowds and Lynch's Castle town house (now a bank) with stone carvings of coats of arms, an ape holding a baby and gargoyles. We walked to Eyre Square and then to the Galway Cathedral via the Salmon Weir Bridge. We saw some young trout in the water and walked along Eglinton Canal towards the sea. We saw a lock where the water level dropped and a tiny leprechaun-sized bridge over a creek and then people feeding hungry swans. There was a beautiful small black duck as well. On the seafront the wind was blowing and many tiny terns were picking small fish out of the water. We took in the storms and sunlight over Galway Bay before we got caught in a small rain squall. Then we walked around town checking out our dining options and settled on Monroe's Tavern for dinner with a couple of pints of Hookers (the local brew) and a Jameson's Irish whiskey chaser.

We drove out of Galway in heavy peak hour traffic on Thursday morning. As one of Europe's fastest growing cities it had serious traffic congestion. We drove through more beautiful country towards Clonmacnoise, Ireland's premier monastic site. We stopped at Shannonbridge for a tea break and the views of the bridge over the Shannon River. At Clonmacnoise we were entertained by an excellent guide with his history of the site on the intersection of the east west highway and north south Shannon River. The east west highway utilised a raised geological feature formed by the collapse of the walls of ice age underground tunnels of water. These formed raised lines of stone rubble which drained well and sat slightly higher than the surrounding bogs. St Ciaran founded the site in AD 548 but died of the yellow plague shortly thereafter. The monastery and settlement survived regular Irish and Viking attacks for 1,000 years until the final sacking by English troops in 1552. The building of a bridge over the Shannon at nearby Athlone and the resulting diversion of trade routes had caused the commercial decline of Clonmacnoise far earlier. The site was incredibly beautiful with views over the river and marshes and an ancient tower with a door built at 13 feet to afford additional protection from attackers and its top section destroyed by lightning. There were several high crosses with detailed stonework telling various Biblical and historical stories. There were several ruined buildings surrounded by gravestones and Celtic crosses. There was a great audiovisual presentation and a small museum dedicated to the site. We left to drive back to the coast to stay in an area known as the Burren. Unfortunately it started raining again as we drove to Kilfenora where we checked into a room at Mary Murphy's B&B. We headed down to Vaughan's Pub for the roast of the day before taking in some Irish set dancing at the barn next door. At 9.15 pm we went to the renovated barn next door to the pub where we ordered a Paddy's Irish whiskey and an Irish Mist whiskey liqueur. The musicians and locals (dancers) were just arriving. There was a fiddle, a flute, a push button accordion and a keyboard. The musicians took a while to set up and tune their instruments and once they were ready, the locals formed three groups of four couples and then started to dance. The most basic dances were The Caledonian and The Siege of Ennis. There was a cross section of age groups there with young ones dancing with oldies and the group of school kids from the hostel danced The Siege of Ennis. The music was really lively and we watched the dancing for an hour and a half before we decided to call it a night. We had to run back in the rain to our B&B.

On Friday we drove towards the Cliffs of Moher stopping at the small village of Ennistymon on the way. We walked up and down Ennistymon's main street admiring the facades of some of the old buildings and a beautifully painted pub. We followed a brown sign leading under a stone arch to the Cascades and came face-to-face with the foaming brown stepped waterfalls of the River Inagh. It had rained heavily over the last couple of days so the water was roaring and surging and we were surrounded by a fine mist of water droplets. We continued on to Cliffs of Moher and after paying our entry fee, we parked the car and walked up to the Cliff edge. We climbed over a stone barrier and then walked south along a sometimes muddy cliff side track towards a ruined tower on Hag's Head. We didn't quite reach the ruin because it turned out to be much further than it looked but on the way we enjoyed panoramic views of the sheer upright cliffs towering above the icy aquamarine-coloured sea. We saw sea birds nesting in the cliff walls, caves at sea level, the Aran Islands, and O'Brien's Tower on the north stretch of the Cliffs. Occasionally we would hear a crack as a piece of stone broke off the cliff and then crashed down onto the stony beaches far below. The views of the surrounding countryside were also magnificent with miles of patchwork green fields bordered by stone walls. After turning back, we walked to the north stretch of the Cliffs where we had a view of the ruined tower at Hag's Head. We spent 2½ hours walking along the cliffs and we felt lucky because it started to rain as we walked back to the car.

We continued along the coast to Doolin, where we stopped briefly at O'Connor's pub for a light lunch. After that we saw the port where the ferry left for the nearby Aran Islands. Then we drove north along some narrow country lanes passing green fields, crystal clear streams, ruined towers and castles with the bare limestone hills providing a dramatic backdrop. We stopped at the Burren Smokehouse where we ate some delicious oak-smoked Irish salmon. We drove past Ballyvaughan to Linnalla Ice Cream Parlour at New Quay, which was basically a dairy farm with delicious farm-produced ice cream. We drove along Flaggy Beach and stopped at Linnalla Harbour where we spotted a small shop selling fresh seafood. The main area of the shop had a couple of tanks containing live lobsters and spider crabs. Out the back they also had a tank containing Galway Bay oysters. The shopkeeper was only too happy to open the oysters for us so we bought half a dozen and ate them in the shop as she opened them. They were lovely and fresh if salty.

We drove to Lisdoonvarna after that. The annual matchmaking festival was on and as we walked around town looking for somewhere to eat, we spotted a couple of likely lasses and hordes of likely lads who were aged from 18 to 65. We had our dinner with a glass of red wine at the Roadside Tavern. The Roadside Tavern had Wifi so we spent some time catching up with our emails before driving back to Kilfenora.

We were happy to see that the sun was shining and the sky was blue when we woke up on Saturday. We had our breakfast and then checked out of the B&B. First we walked around the corner to the ruined 12^th century cathedral. Unfortunately the cathedral was locked but by peering through some doorways and windows we managed to see the stone head of a bishop above a window arch and the heads of three clerics in a capital above the east window. Right next to the cathedral was the 800 year old carved Doorty Cross. Then we walked to a field 100 metres away to see a 12^th century high cross. From there we drove to the Poulnabrone Dolmen – one of Ireland's most photographed ancient monuments. It started raining heavily again when we arrived but we sat in the car and the rain cleared after five minutes or so. The dolmen consisted of a large five tonne capstone perched on stone uprights and was located in the middle of an uneven limestone pavement. After that we got in our car and drove to the tiny village of Carron. We paid a visit to the Burren Perfumery & Floral Centre. The centre uses the wildflowers of the Burren to produce its scents and product and we spent some time browsing in the shop and we watched their excellent audiovisual presentation on the flora of the Burren. To our surprise it wasn't an infomercial – it was more like a documentary and we really enjoyed it.

Next we decided to head towards County Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula. We got a little lost driving through the narrow country lanes but we really enjoyed our last look at the limestone and shale shelves and the stone ruins and ring forts of the Burren. In between rain showers, the sun came out and all the dark grey and blue grey green paddocks were immediately transformed into vivid shining warm yellow green paddocks. It was really beautiful.

We drove on a dual carriageway motorway to Limerick where we stopped and bought a salad from Tesco for lunch. When we got back on the motorway to drive to Tralee, we had to pay a toll! At Tralee we stopped briefly to get a map from the Tourist Information Office and we walked around the nearby park which had a beautiful flower garden full of roses in full bloom.

From Tralee, we drove past the Blennerville Windmill and then took the scenic route over the Connor Pass to the Dingle Peninsula. At 456 metres, the Connor Pass is the highest in Ireland and we had spectacular views of Dingle Bay and Mount Brandon. The road twisted and turned around the mountain and it was very narrow and very steep - with large signs telling buses, trucks and caravans to turn back! From the summit we looked across a valley scattered with rocks and the remains of stone walls and huts with Lough An Duin and a couple of other smaller loughs at the base. At Dingle we checked into the Hideout Hostel and walked around town and then down to the harbour.

We started off our Sunday with the Slea Head drive. This took us along a coastal road which hugged the tip of the peninsula. Although it was a cloudy day, the views were still jaw-dropping and our drive was punctuated with camera stops as photo opportunities presented themselves at every turn. The landscape was strewn with rocks and the remains of rock forts and beehive huts. At Slea Head the very tip of the peninsula, we had a view of the deserted Blasket Islands and we drove onto a tiny pristine beach which was also deserted! We paid a visit to the Gallarus Oratory, a 7^th or 8^th century dry-stone early church shaped like an upturned boat. It was beautifully constructed with downwards sloping stones to keep the water out – and after some 1200 years it was still waterproof. We turned inland and back to Dingle after that, driving along the Mount Brandon range in the rain. We took the main road down to Cork but turned off after a while towards Kilgorlin where we stopped for lunch at Jack's Bakery. We ate our fresh sandwiches, cupcake, and apple tart, and then we took a walk around the town and the bridge over the Laune River to see a sculpture of a goat – King Puck. We drove on towards Bantry through the Killarney National Park with thick forest, mountains, Lough Leane (the lake of learning), Muckross Lake, Upper Lake and ruins. We drove up into the mountains along a narrow winding road and then we passed through four tunnels in quick succession before the descent back to the coast. When we reached Bantry we took a room at the newly renovated Harbour View B&B.