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July 30 Brazil - Pantenal ParkJust got back from three days in the Pantenal park, a huge marsh area in Southern Brazil. It´s home to millions of birds, Anaconda´s, Anteaters, Caimans (Crocodiles) and other exotic South American animals. Saw a good range of stuff, and took some good shots (not the ones shown which are just some snaps from my digi camera). The only thing I didn´t see, and really wanted to, was a big Anaconda. Mybe next time.
Currently holed up in Corumba, on the border of Brazil and Bolivia, waiting for my train to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, which leaves tomorrow. It´s a 20 hour journey, but I´ve managed to download Itunes on this machine so am now stocked up on BBC podcasts and some cool Brzilian music. July 26 Asuncion, Paraguay to ConcepcionAsuncion turned out to be a strange place. To the East of the centre, where I stayed, lie the wealthy suburbs, full of glitzy shopping malls, ladies who lunch, and Mercedes with blacked out windows. I took a bus ride a few short kilometres into the centre. There it´s a very different place with the Plaza´s full of the poor sleeping under tatty tarpaulin, dead dogs left to rot in the street and cops walking around with pump action shotguns resting on their hips, Terminator style. Apparently it´s completely lawless at night, but I managed to get my boat up the lazy Rio Paraguay in the early evening and avoided any nastiness.
The boat trip was great. I asked around the port for any boats that were heading North, and as luck would have it a cargo ship was leaving that very night. I shared my 2 day trip, with three other interpid Westerners, floating up the river and sharing our meagre supply of food, beer and cigarettes.
July 25 A night in ParaguayWell the signs were not that auspicious upon reaching Paraguay. I was already a tad paranoid of the city Asuncion as it has a bad rep for crime. I´d booked a hotel on line but when I got there it turned out to be full. (Crappy Hostelbookers.com - total waste of time). Anyway, worse still, I was informed by the Neo Nazi looking German (military haircut, bomber jacket, and martial arts grand master I later discovered) on reception that the chances of getting a hotel room anyway in the capital were nada, due to an annual Paraguayan Expo. Shit. Anyway, the German turned out to be a great fella, and kindly offered me use of his appartment for two days. It turned out to be a great place, and not a shrine to the memory of the Third Reich as I had initially feared. After an afternoon catching up on some zzzz´s I went back to the hotel for a couple of beers, and spent the evening being entertained by a collection of charachters.
Most interesting was the hotelier himself, a 72 year old elegant and charismatic Paraguayan. Turned out he has spent a few years in London, some of it as a guest of Her Majesty´s. He´d opened one of London´s first private Casinos and was unfortunate to receive the attention of Freddie Foreman, one of ganglands most famous villains, and enforcer for the Krays. When the Flying Squad eventually caught up with the slippery Freddie, they looked to the hotelier to provide evidence of the villains racketeering. Caught between a rock and a hard place (rather, a spell in nick, or receiving an evening visit from one of Freddie´s business associates) the Hotelier sensibly refused to give evidence and received a two year sentence.
The rest of the evening was spent hearing various wild stories of drugs, and other lawless behaviour while knocking back some excellent Bavarian lager (brewed in Paraguay)
A good night. July 17 Last day in Argentina today..Well it´s time to leave the wonderful country of Argentina. I hope to cross into Paraguay today or tomorrow. Here are some hightlights..
Horseriding in the Northern countryside $5 steaks and Malbec wine The nightlife, especially the bars and clubs, most of which don´t get rocking until 2am Very friendly people Buenos Aires...just a fantastic place, sophisticated, great shopping and architecture. I want to go back The beautiful City of Salta Watching the Copa America. Argentina made it to the final but got trounced by Brasil 3-0 I am feeling slightly nervous about Paraguay it´s a bit of an unknown. Not many people I´ve met have been there and it sounds like the Capital has it´s dodgy bits. Hoping to get out on the road or river quickly though, and hopefully will be out into the countryside soon. Want to see some of the South American wildlife and there is a big National park in Paraguay I´m planning to visit, and later the Partenal Natinal Park in Brasil
I got "virtually" burgled...Someone (see below) managed to hack my Hotmail account, problably by using some kind of keyboard tracker in an internet cafe. Just got access back (thanks Jo and Sue at Microsoft) but not after some excruciating incompetance from the on line Hotmail support infrastructure. They really do need to get that sorted...it´s been broken for years and is mucho frustrating for the end user. You get to realise when you are suddenly denied access to one of your main email accounts how much you rely on it, and how much personal data there is in there, not to mention ten years worh of contacts in my address book. Anyway, I can finally update the old blog now I´ve got my ID back If you were the fucker that hacked my HM account..oye rico, por que no te vas a tomar por el culo. Why is half of Microsoft on Facebook?Probably because MS does not have a product that is anywhere near as cool...
PS
Get back to work you lazy gits :-)
July 04 South American RoadtripWell I´m now in wonderful Buenos Aires, having chickened out on the more challenging Columbia. My mate Jonny advised that Columbia is OK so long as you don´t walk around drunk with aa big camera hanging out of your arse. Which is exactly what I´d end up doing if I went there.
So instead I´ve got a fairly ambitious plan to travel northwards from BA, taking in a couple of Argentinian highlights, then into Paraguay, north into Brasil, and then West across Bolivia.
Buenos Aires is great and very European after Peru. It´s a bit like Paris in some ways, great architecture and well heeled women with small dogs.
Food has improved massively. In fact last night I had an early evening snack of champagne and sushi. A little extravagant, but everything is cheap here. Today I am planning on tracking down one of the famous steaks, washed down with a good Malbec. I think I owe it to myself
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