Having just spent the week in Buenos Aires concentrating on tango, flamenco and some brilliant cuisine we have just arrived in Chile. Awaiting our flight to Punto Arenas to get way down south it is an anticipated O degrees where we are headed!

For the record I enjoyed Brazil immensley! Saquarema, a small beach side town 2 hours from Rio was really relaxing with the most amazing sunsets! ( oh yes there will be photos!) The Iguazu Falls, which took a full 2 days to take in, were one of the most incredible nature wonders I have seen. Argentineans are living up to expectation; immaculately dressed and proud. Can´t wait for Chile!











Email may be a little more erratic now we are headed south so stay tuned.
Hope you are all well! Keep the news and the photos coming!
K x

A Walk on the Wild Side - Part 2. Walking the favela
We hadn´t planned to take a tour of one of Rio´s favelas. Not through fear, although this was a factor, but because we saw no reason to see the poverty at close quarters. Fear of a guilty conscienmce perhaps. Reading the Lonely Planet changed our minds as responsible tours give back to the community in many ways not least through education.We took a tour of Rocinha, one of Rio´s largest and like many, an area controlled by a drug lord. The public image of the favelas is not good to say the least and yet Christina, our guide assured us that we would be 100% safe within Rocinha as crime is totally prohibited by the drug lord and any acts dealt with severely. Surprising as this first sounded it made perfect sense when Christina explained that the drug gangs wanted as little pólice intereference as possible and also to create a safe environment in which to attract the wealthier classes into the area to buy drugs in confidence. The official figure for Rocinha is a population of 60,000 but this is a massive underestimate. The electricity board estaimates some 127,000 people living in this city-within-a-city and yet even this may be inaccurate judging from the many instances of illegal tapping into the wires, just one example of the local population keeping costs to a minimum in order to survive. The need to do so is perhaps best explained by the contrasts surrounding the favela. Opposite to the entrance to Rocinha is Rio´s most prestigous school, the American School. Here, the monthly fee for pupils is some 4000 Reis, the minimum wage in the favela just 350 Reis per month. With such disparity it is all too easy to understand why children look to drugs as a way to lift themselves out of poverty. To act as a lookout, the lowest rung in the gang hierarchy, brings in 800 Reis a month, way more than the minimum salary. And yet drugs are not the only option and many schemes are now in place to offer children an alternative. We stopped to view the artworks of a number of both children and adults who are encouraged to develop their skills and sell to the turists who visit Rocinha each day. Typically the colourful paintings depict famous Rio views or landmarks such as the Maracana football stadium or the statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corvocado hill. Showing both an inventive as well as creative streak, stylish bags are made from magazines and hats from plastic shopping bags. Not that we would have been any the wiser had we not been told.The very location of Rocinha is staggering in itself. Nestled in amonsgt the Rio hills it is surrounded by remants of the Atlantic rainforest, a serious rival to the Amazon for biodiversity. The views across the city are spectacular and take in Corcovado and the Sugar Loaf. On the hill opposite, one of Rio´s most fabulous homes whose owner has his own private island south of the city and is a world famous surgeon who has operated on Sophia Loren and Jacques Chirrac amongst otherr famous names. He has endeared himself to the people of Rocinha and beyond by performing free operations for the poor each Friday. It is philanthropic acts such as this that provides hope of a better future for the people of Rio´s favelas.Walking the streets we were lucky to hit upon market day and Rocinha was buzzing with produce as varied as you might expect to see at Borough Market on a weekend. The houses look poorly constructed and the wiring positively lehtal yet we were assured that there are no instances of collapsing buildings, fire or any records of electrocution. Indeed, many of the electricians working for the electricity board live in the favelas which would explain the extensive wiring that is everywhere.Amongst the impression of close cooperation, the emphasis on a crime free favela and the communty projects springing up the problems that a favela like Rocinha faces should still be highlighted. They receive hostile press, strike fear into the hearts of most Brazillians who wil not venture inside and receive little help form politicians who ignore the poverty and are either unwilling or unable to tackle the powerful drug lords. The drug lords themselves are part of the vicious circle. Few last long, sometimes only days and the average life expectancy for somebody involved with a gang is 30 we were told. Later we visited a much smaller favela called Para Ti numbering a mere 2,500. Here we visited a community school partly funded by the money we paid to take the tour. It has 80 attendees, 40 in the morning and 40 in the afternoon and amongst other features it has 8 computers with free internet access and also produces its own handicrafts which it sells to visitors.Taking a short 3 hour tour may only provide a limited insight and it certainly does not give a full comprehension of the difficulties the inhabitants of a favela face. But it does break down illusions, false assumptions and fear that bad press creates for the favelas. The tour was certainly one of the highlights of our trip so far. Mike

A Walk on the Wild Side - Part 1

Apologies in advance ... I'm now having problems with Argentinian keyboards!
As most of you probably know I'm interested in natural history so I thought I would relate a few animal encounters ...
Highlight has been the Tamarins that we have seen at various points whilst in parts of the Atlantic rainforest. These dudes are small monkeys but way cuter than your average Bubbles. Long tails, smaller than Koalas and kinda like gremlins before they become gremlins! Seeing them leap out of trees and onto a fence to be hand fed banana on top of Rio's sugarloaf was a highlight!

The Iguazu falls were packed with wildlife. Thousands of swifts hunt insects around the falls and overhead dozens of great dark vultures wheel away in the sky. More fun or terrifying if you're Katherine are the large 4ft lizards that regularly cross your path. I was yanked back in dog-on-a-leash fashion when trying to pursue one into a thicket. I'm told they're harmless ... Not so are the coatis that you literally have to step over. Racoon like, these little critters scavenge everything they can from the zillions of daily tourists and they don't mind having a full domestic in front of everybody either. Or taking the occasional pop at an intrusve tourist.

We're gonna experience the Amazon in Peru. So far we have mostly encountered the remnants of the once equally impressive Atlantic rainforest now cleared heavily to make way for Brazil's coastal cities. What we have seen has been impressive though. My plant knowledge is non-existent but we have seen some stunning trees and flowers and some giant butterflies, particularly near to Iguazu where they flock in their 100s and land all over you. Amazing.

Okay, enough for now. Hopefully Katherine will post some pictures to properly do justice to these words. We're off to Patagonia on Sunday for 6 weeks trekking and whale watching on the valdes peninsular. For those of you in the know this is where the killer whale phenomenon of beaching themselves to catch seals occurs. Wish us luck on witnessing this! All the best.

When my baby, when my baby smiles at me I go to Rio! (Peter Allen - Aussie songwriter! - blame him not me!)

Well, Rio has been awesome thus far! We arrived on Monday and managed to find our way to Ipanema minus my backpack which BA had convieniently misplaced! (I really was starting to think maybe someone was trying to send me a sign about travelling either that or I have done something bad to a backpack in a previous life!!) Ipanema is the more upmarket side of Rio and the beach next to Copacabana beach.

Starting to settle in and get more of a feel for Rio itself now. Tuesday we went to the beach and Mike had a go at surfing the pitching shorebreak which is hard and fast on his first go of a short board. An experience shall we say! We went up Sugarloaf mountain on Wednesday and the views of Rio were spectacular! Kind of Byron Bay crossed with Sydney but more mountainous and more populated. Yesterday, we went to St Teresa which is the area behind Rio centre and quite bohemian in atmosphere. We caught the street car (open tram that looked about 50 years old) with people hanging off the sides and had lunch in a funky little restauarnt with bright colours, paint peeling off the ceiling and a live 6 peice jazz band!
The weather is not so good today so we have spent time planning the next leg of the journey. Tonight we hope to go to a Samba club and tomorrow we are trying to organise a guided tour of a favela (one of the many shanty towns) that also contributes money to that particular community.
We are probably heading out of Rio Monday and onto Saquarema and the Isle de Grande for more beach and trekking. The off to the Iguacu falls and Argentina.

The food here has been excellent! I actaully don´t think that much of Copacabana to be honest! The beach, is the beach and the area back from it is hustle and bustle but not so nice. Ipanema, where we are staying is much nicer with great bars and restaurants. The beach is just as nice with a younger crowd and the scenery surrounding is spectacular! Definately more safe than some of the other areas surrounding.

My bag arrived yesterday and all intact thank goodness! We recieved some compensation from the airline on the day we arrived and can claim things on our insurance although I think that may be more hassle than it is worth!
Anyway I will leave Mike to the next installment down the track - photos may be a while as I need to get them to disk before I can eduit the site! Sorry!
Hope all is well with everyone! Let us know your news!

I think I am becoming a novice web designer! This IT stuff is doing my head in! Anyhow if you would like to see more photos then on the right hand side of the blog and on the side in green is a link - if you go to 'lots of photos' then this should link you to all our albums! Just to really bore you!

By the way if anyone can tell me how to get this green side bar back up the top of the page onto the top left of the screen where it should be!! then please help (Andrew/Prue this means you)! I have spent hours!

Hope all is well with everyone.