Jun 25, 2013 | Bolivia, Brazil, South America
South America borders are not the cheapest places for Americans due to Visas and reciprocity fees and without prior planning they are also not the easiest to cross. We’ve already been hit with $160 for a Brazilian Visa, $160 reciprocity fee for Argentina, and...
Jun 18, 2013 | Brazil, South America
After our extended stint in Bonito we once again headed to the Pantanal, only this time in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. I missed out on driving the Transpantaneira road in the north and didn’t want the same to happen with the Estrada Parque in the southern...
Jun 11, 2013 | Brazil, South America
Now that I’ve signed up for La Ruta, the 3 day mountain bike race from the Pacific to the Caribbean in Costa Rica, I have to start learning how to ride a bike again and gain some level of fitness! Most of the tourism places in Bonito rent mountain bikes and...
Jun 10, 2013 | Brazil, South America
It’s hard to travel because you always feel like you’re on vacation and with that mentality you tend to eat and drink more than normal and are lax about working out. Well, this has finally caught up to both of us – Wayne is losing weight and I’m finding it! We are...
Jun 8, 2013 | Brazil, South America
When you think of animals and wildlife in South America, specifically Brazil, you automatically think of the Amazon. We thought so too until we looked deeper into Brazilian attractions and found an area called the Pantanal. We would have really missed out if we had...
May 28, 2013 | Brazil, South America
Andrea and I slept as best we could at the Montevideo airport on Thursday night, a first for both of us. Our flight to Porto Alegre, Brazil was scheduled for a 7am departure, arriving at 8:45am. We both fell asleep as soon as we took off and when we woke up we...
May 22, 2013 | Brazil, South America, Uruguay
Up until this point we were a bit disappointed with Uruguary. Colonia was awesome, but Punta del Este and Montevideo had both been disappointing for us. This is when it all started to change! We rented a ‘”toy” car from Montevideo and started our drive to La...
Mar 6, 2013 | Argentina, Brazil, South America
Wednesday night, February 27th, we took the bus from Ipanema to the Rio International Airport with 3 hours until our flight. However, the bus made numerous stops causing us to arrive with little time to spare. We were fortunate that we had some assistance from the GOL...
Feb 28, 2013 | Brazil, South America
We headed to Paraty on February 17th by rental car since we were with friends from Virginia, Jeff and Colleen for the week. Paraty has become a popular tourist area in recent years, renowned for the historic town and the coast and mountains in the region. It’s an...
Feb 28, 2013 | Brazil, South America
Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar) We headed to Sugarloaf on the 511 bus from Ipanema around 8am. I had to be back for work at 11am and Jeff and Colleen were arriving from DC at 10:30 so it needed to be a quick trip! We were concerned that we may not have enough time...
Feb 20, 2013 | Brazil, South America
Another “must do” on our list was to visit Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during Carnaval. The city and its suburbs are crawling with locals and foreigners. The buses are packed with people traveling from bloco to bloco (a bloco is a block party – some with just a few people...
