Lots of places

25.06.2009 - 12.07.2009
View Here we are on cazngaz's travel map.

Hi everyone,

Got out of the habit of updating this blog (and have been struggling to find places we can actually upload photos). We´re currently in La Paz, Bolivia, where we´ll be staying put for around a month and are already enjoying not having to constantly pack our bags. Because it´s been quite a long time since we last updated this, and because I can't be bothered writing about all the places we´ve been to, we´ve decided to use some of our time here to catch up on the blog in a few installments.

Much of the rest of our short time in Salvador was spent looking for a replacement camera to the one that got nicked. Salvador is a really beautiful city with lots of colonical architecture, but it didn't feel a particuarly safe place and we felt glad to be on our way again.

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The next few weeks were spent stopping at various points along the coast as we travelled north. Didn't really do anything much other than laze around on beaches, so all was v good. Our favourite stop on our costal trip, which was also our last beach in Brazil, was at Pipa. There was one beach with dolphins, and as it was only accesible at low tide we would get up early every am to go swim with them (it was more like swimming ´at´ them than ´with´ them but they did occasionally jump out within a few metres of us) - definitely one of the best parts of our trip.

We both could have stayed in Pipa a lot longer, however we had already booked a flight. So we bid farewell to the dolphins, and 4 buses, 2 planes, and one taxi later we arrived at our hostel in Campo Grande. CG itself wasn´t particularly exciting, just a concrete city and nothing compared to the beauty of Pipa, but we didn´t spend long here as we booked a 4 day tour of the Pantanal, a 92,000 square mile wet land national park. Saw loads of wildlife including loads of caimen (small alligators - allegedly not dangerous if approached from the front)

loads of capibaras (no idea how to spell their name, but they are ridiculously lazy rat/kangeroo/pig/teddy bear looking animals that laze in or by the rivers);

toucans;

yet more monkeys, wild hogs; and loads and loads of birds such as Kingfishersand macaws. Our guide was the brilliant Johnny Indiana - he was great at spotting animals but incredibly tactless and bossy - "you! get out now. Stand there. Take picture!" We didn´t argue. The tour was great with boat trips,horse rides and walking and jeep trips. Caz did some fishing and caught a piranha for her lunch (I stuck with the vegi option of beans).