I crossed the border to Colombia, went to the city of Popayan and then on to a village called San Augustin, which is surrounded by beautiful landscape with lush green vegetation. There are many tombs with statues in the surrounding, which you can visit on horseback. I went on to a village called Villa de Leyva, once more cobblestoned streets and white buildings, they were filming a historic telenovela on the main square when we were there - quite interesting to watch, as many people in town were dressed up in custumes and added to the colonial flair of the town, you really felt like 300 years back in time when the spanish were buzzing around, conquering places.... We did a bicycle-tour, bumping through the town first and exploring the countryside later on. We also did some hikes to see some waterfalls, rivers and cascades.

 

I took a bus along the beautiful costline of brazil to Paraty, a picturesque little town with laterns and cobblestone-streets that naturally make you slow down if you don't intent to break you ankles - a perfect place for couples and old people : horse-carriages, nice beaches nearby, loads of restaurants and artgaleries- you get the picture....haha! Actually, that was the last place where I took pictures - I headed to Sao Paulo afterwards to catch a flight to LaPaz/Bolivia - the last 2 weeks were a bit of revival and first goodbye to southamerica in one. Returning to colourful, lively bolivia, where loads of people were roaming the nightly streets of LaPaz when I arrived, all those typical bolivian faces. I hurried on to Cuzco / Peru for easter / semana santa. I had most of my meals in the market, sitting at one of those foodstalls between peruvians while I could see "gringos" in the alleyways walking by, carefully holding on to their belongings, trying not to touch anything or be touched by anything while snatching pictures. And all those yummy fruits you could buy there, how I missed that! For easter, there were many processions all around town, there was one procession passing the place were I was staying, and as the family of that place had put up something like a little altar ( like many more along the streets), the procession stopped in front of the house, the "Christ" they were carrying around in a coffin was turned towards the altar and many prayers followed. I also saw lots of parades and lively dances that would have been great photo-opportunities. I left tuesday after easter for a 5 day- bus-odyssey through the whole of Peru and Ecuador again...passing through Lima on the way to catch up with friends, heading on to the dusty north, changing busses for a last time in Peru in the town of Piura, whose busy and chaotic main street made me head right on to the next place the first time I passed there- now it just made me grin, while I tried to cross the street to race to another busterminal. And then, as we turned slowly toward the mountains of Ecuador, the landscape turned green again - and you certainly will never starve on a bus in ecuador, with all those vendors hopping on and off, selling potatochips, fruits, drinks, chococate and all kind of local food- also the people were very friendly and in a good mood, reminding me why ecuador was one of my favorite countries right from the start - I passed through Loja, on to Cuenca and saw many more familiar places on the way to Quito, where I got yesterday evening just in time to have a look over the nightly city from that rooftop-terrace, just as I had on my first evening in southamerica.

I traveled north to Campo Grande, to get to the Pantanal, the wetlands I always wanted to see since I heard of them as a teenager. Leaving the spanish-speaking world behind and beeing surrounded by new sounds, I have to admit that I felt a bit lost....anyway, I made it to the Pantanal, and being the end of the rainy season, waste areas were still flooded, so you could just get around by boat for most parts, with the tops of the fences sticking out of the water for orientation. Huge birds accompanied us on our way: caracaras, macaws and vultures, the last ones finding rich feeding in the corpses of  dead cattle ( and even a horse) whose obviously hadn´t survived the last downpour. Caimans were crossing in front of us, and we waded along some now islandlike spots to spot more wildlife like wild pigs, deer, howler monkeys and armadillos clustering there. We also did some Piranha- fishing, which was quite funny: the first spot we went to we didn´t have any success accept that the piranhas obviously liked our feet more than the bait, so we went to another spot further out were we fished from the boat - our guide was able to get 2 smaller piranhas after he concentrated and tried hard, but his success was immediately forgotten when a dutch lady got 3 huge fish out of the water in a row, making the whole boat shake with excitement ( and almost tip over). Well, and I was lucky enough to get one piranha aswell ( as you can see on the pic, lucky guy- he got released after a bit of a photosession). I really enjoyed my time there, sleeping in a hammock under the clear sky full of stars, welcoming the morning with all those birds coming to life and afterwards hearing the howler monkeys at a distance. I got stuck in a little place nearby called Bonito for a couple of days before finally heading to Rio de Janeiro, where I spend the last couple of days. Certainly not enough time to really get to know this city, but at least I had a look at those fabulous beaches, some were unexpectedly empty- what a stunning setting for such a big city!!! I went up to the famous Christo Redentor- statue, from where you have an amazing view ( even though it was a bit foggy) over the city and the `Sugar Loaf´, also went out for a night of `Samba` in a part of town called Lapa, and had a look at the favela `Rocinha`.

Another little bus-Odyssey brought me from the middle of nowhere in Uruguay to southern Paraguay - a town called Encarnacion, I definitly felt like returning to latinamerica there ( everything a bit less organised). I set out for a daytrip to the nearby Jesuit ruins, the people were very nice and helpful, organising me a mototaxi to race from one of the ruins to another across the red soil of rural Paraguay. I went on to Ciudad del Este, to cross over to Puerto Iguazu/Argentina, which was a bit of a struggle, as we almost missed out on hopping off the bus at the paraguayan immigration office to get our exit stamps, and then we struggled on, taking some more busses, passing through Brazil as illegals for 10 minutes before entering Argentina. Well, what to do in Puerto Iguazu.... see the waterfalls, of course! I went to see them from the argentinian side first, and travelled on to Foz do Iguacu the next day, to see them from the brasilian side aswell. There is no way to describe this place, you have to see it with your own eyes. It took me a while to get to the falls though, as I got completely absorbed by all those fascinating colourful butterflies that are buzzing around you over there, and even land on the tip of your nose if you stand still for a while.....

It just takes a short ferryride from Buenos Aires to get to Uruguay, to the town Colonia del Sacramento. You certainly realise why the "barrio historico" - the historic quarter of the town makes it a tourist attraction: cobblestoned streets, an old lighthouse, and those oldfashioned street laterns everywhere....if I ever thought argentinians were crazy about their "mate", then I don't know how I could possibly increase this decription to make it appropriate for the uruguayans: whereever you go, you see people carrying mate-cups and thermos - in the parcs, in supermarkets, in bars, while repairing their motorbikes ( onehanded, of course) or selling veggies at the market, while having a walk or a little chat in the evening.....I also went to Montevideo, and on to Punta del Diablo, a little village with nice beaches nearby. From there, I went to nearby Santa Theresa, which is a nationalpark with a little fortress ( which was unfortunally closed ) and a lot of remote and stunning beaches ( were I could spend some time instead ;0)). Leaving the coast behind, I traveled further into the county, to a place called Tacuarembo, which you wouldn't find on any touristic map if it weren't for the nearby birthplace of tangolegend Carlos Gardel. It feels good, though, to be at a nontouristy place again where I'm forced to torture people with my 3-words-of-spanish and where you can get dropped off by busses in places in the middle of nowhere that are so peaceful and remote that even horses are having naps next to the roadside.