The Moped Diaries

We have reached our final destinantion for South America and are now in Rio de Janeiro. We have strutted our stuff along Copacabanna beach whilst singing the Barry Manilow classic and realised that Rio is probably not the place for us as we don´t have the right bodies or the right swimming cozies. Major surgery would probably be required to get the bodies and additional surgery would definitely be needed to get the swim suit off afterwards. We also went to see the second of the seven wonders of the world for this trip (Corcovado) and were suitable underimpressed, the most amazing thing being the coach ride up there which ranks as one of the many white knuckle rides on this holiday. They probably drive this fast to make a more difficult target for the drug gangs to shoot at.

Tomorrow we will be in Miami (more drug gangs!) and I suppose the blog will have to end or get renamed.

We are now in Brazil (a coastal town called Parity) and are facing the last leg of our overland trip to Rio. Dulcie´s spanish is now coming automatically which is a shame because the language is now Portuguese.

Unfortunately I have to report that my thermarest mat has (literally) let me down! We accidentally pitched our tent on a thorny twig las week which managed to penetrate the ground sheet, the bottom of the tent and the mat. This meant that during the night I was gently lowered to the ground as the thing deflated and I awoke wondering why we were on such an uncomfortable camp site (and then leant on it puncturing the top side of the mat and my hand!). We´ve tried several repairs (on the mat – not my hand) but not even the mighty gaffer tape has managed to stem the escaping air and each night I feel let down!

We went sea kayaking today and within two minutes we´d tipped the boat over (all my fault of course – nothing to do with a wave). We then managed to get it stuck in a mangrove swamp. All in all a fun day!

When in Buenos Aires what else should you do but join in the national pass time and watch some "futbol"? So we got tickets to watch Boca Juniors (Maradona´s old team) play Atletico Argentinos. Fortunately I was wearing ... [Continue reading this entry]

We have now passed the southern most point of our trip and are now heading north. To say it was a little nippy in southern Patagonia is putting it mildly. The other morning I woke up and turned ... [Continue reading this entry]