Getting back to the travel exploits, I cruised south to Rio to see one of the most famous cities in the world. To be honest, I wasn´t expecting much as tales of favelas and rampant crime had dimmed its image in my mind. Instead, it turned out to be a fantastic city, surrounded by green mountains rising up from the bright, white beaches. The mountains of the city give it a striking appearance that definitely left an impression. Unfortunately, the price tag left an even bigger impression. We had selected a hostel in Ipanema (start humming now), but the cost was more than a hostel in Miami Beach. Yikes. After just one night, we headed out. One night in Rio, though, is still plenty of opportunity to get a taste of samba and the now popular forro. We headed to an open air forum and danced the night away to a live band. It was a great atmosphere.

The following day we spent, of course, walking the beach. Ipanema is a nice beach, but not stellar in my book. The ladies on the beach, now that´s a different story. Anyway, that evening we caught a bus south down the "Emerald coast" (actually just the "green coast", but I´ll let the favorable translation pass) south of Rio towards Ilha Grande. The coast was really gorgeous with more of the green mountains crowding into the ocean and numerous humpback islands dotting the horizon. A person could get used to this. We spent the night in the coastal town just across the bay from Ilha Grande, and in the morning ferried across, weaving amongst the numerous green islands we´d watched on the ride down to reach the "Big Island", Ilha Grande.

The island was just a nice spot to relax and get some beach time without the expense of Rio. We walked around a bit, did some snorkelling, watched some capoeira, and basically did what was meant to be done in Brazil...nothing. It was a nice way for my friends to wrap up there vacation, and a good way for me to gear up for the ordeal to come. After a couple of days there, they headed home, and I headed for Sao Paulo. First, was the ferry ride back across which involved my tiny little fishing boat running out of gas. I didn´t see this as a big problem as the coast was just a couple hundred meters away and there was still some fairly constant boat traffic. The brazilian family I was with, however, ranked this catastrophe on the scale of the Titanic. All the women immediately donned life jackets and began crying and wailing. Both men jumped on the gunwale and began screaming "Please help us". Our beleagured captain kept hitting himself in the head and trying to calm everyone down. Eventually cellphones were broken out, boats were flagged down, gas was obtained, and we were off. Good fun.

I shot over to Sao Paulo next. No one told me to stay there, so I didn´t plan on it, but as I was stuck overnight until the next bus out, I walked around a bit, liked the look of it, and hung around for an extra day. Despite its reputation as an extremely dangerous town, in the right neighborhoods it was quite nice. They had a great park in the middle of the city with all the trees labeled, and a number of nice cheap restaurants. Following my stopover (in which I managed to procure two new English books, hooray!), I began a very, very long excursion.

Time and money are starting to run low, and I´ve still got Ecuador and Peru to see. I´ve determined not to take any flights that aren´t absolutely necessary, so I have a lot of ground to cover from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. I decided the best approach was get it over with in one fail swoop, so I set off across Brazil. Day 1, 24 hour bus to Cuiaba, the jumping off point for trips into the Panatanal, a huge wetland in the center of Brazil. No time for fun though, I spent one evening walking around, watched a lavish gay pride parade wind its way through the city, and took off again. As a side note, Brazil is the most sexually open country in South America, but it seems that the gay community still likes to have a little fun when the opportunity arises, even in the more remote stretches of the country.

Day 2: a six hour bus to the Bolivian border town of Caeceres.
Day 3: Cross back into Bolivia (hoping and praying) and take the 18 hour bus to Santa Cruz.
Day 4: A six hour bus to La Paz, followed by a three hour bus to Copacabana (resume humming) on Lake Titicaca.
Day 5: A much shorter three hour bus across the border into Peru and the frigid tourist town of Puno.
Day 6: Rest buttocks.