SmaviesAdventures

Sun, Sea, Sand and Brazillians (no, not that kind...) The Panorama from Christ the Redeemer As I write this, it is raining... but at least the rain is warm! For the last month or so we have been in winter, which has seemed at polar opposites with the sweltering weather that the UK has been experiencing. But since arriving in Rio it has truly become more summer like. To be completely transparent it is winter here, but at roughly twenty seven degrees each day it is a very poor excuse for winter... The sandy Copacabana We have situated ourselves in a lovely apartment about two blocks from the world famous Copacabana. We have walked along this beach a few times having a look at the sea and walking on it's wavy black and white sidewalk. I have to say it's been a little scary though as whenever I enter the beach there is this impending sense of doom, probably because whenever an action film wants to prove it's a global crisis something terrible always happens here.....

The Devil's Roaring Throat View of the Devil's Throat, with an eagle soaring above it Our trip from Buenos Aires was less than easy. We were flying from the domestic airport this time, instead of the international airport that we had arrived in. On the map and when we looked up the public transport this seemed like a relatively easy journey as the airport was near Palermo in the north of the city, as opposed to outside the city. However upon crossing the city we found out that the internet and the map had it a little wrong and we were not only running late, but 1.5km away from the airport, on the wrong side of the airstrip. Thankfully we managed to catch a bus around the airfield and ran through the terminal to make our flight (although, as irony would have it, our flight was delayed, so we had plenty of time).  The top of the Garganta del Diablo Iguazu falls are located on the border of Brazil and Argentina . In a futile bid to make our transport easier we...

Buenos Aires, A cow walked into a bar, we ate him... Selfies at the Pink House We spent a week in Buenos Aires, unfortunately we had very bad jet lag, and slept through the whole first day. Unintentionally, completely, unintentionally, just shut my eyes for ten minutes after our morning alarm and it was 4:45pm. Whoops. Cabildo in Plaza De Mayo We spent a bit of time in the Plaza De Mayo, saw the pretty pink government building, visited the old church on the corner; which were alright, but nothing special. Then we looked at the white building that was one of the first buildings, or government buildings, there was some history there. Apparently England invaded, could tell from the red and white uniforms in the paintings. We are greedy aren't we. It's quite strange to think that the 'history' of these places is only about 200-400 years old, to be fair when we went to Uruguay some of the early settlements   were from the late 1600. Nevertheless nothi...

Colonia Del Sacramento, Uruguay Olivia at the Porton De Campo So since spending our last day in Auckland , we have hopped on a plane, gone back a day (yes I feel like a time traveler) and arrived in Buenos Aires . From this point onward Buenos Aires will simply be referred to as Buenos, because I cannot spell the last part without triple checking, I have similar problems with Rio . I will be writing about Rio later on in the week as by then we will have completed our time in Argentina. In the meantime however to keep you posted on what we're up to, we had a fun day trip out today. Our day trip took us up to the 14th country we have visited this year (fifteen if we include Italy from last September). Buenos is located on the Rio De La Plata in Argentina, which serves as the border between Argentina and Uruguay. So we thought we'd take a spontaneous(ish) trip out to Uruguay. We landed in a town called Colonia Del Sacramento. This town is a very pretty old town which lo...

This page will cover a series of posts about our time in South America, as we try to break this down into monthly/regional pages (just for the purpose of organisaiton) We will be covering our travels from Argentina-Brazil where we cover a variety of destinations over the period of the month. The locations covered below are our travels from August 12th until September 5th and covered the destinations below. Colonia Del Sacramento Buenos Aires Iguacu (or Iguazu) Falls Rio De Janiero Teresopolis Colonia Del Sacramento Olivia at the Porton De Campo Buenos Aires La Boca in Buenos Aires Iguazu Falls and around The magnificent Iguazu falls Rio de Janeiro, the first part Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro Teresopolis, Brazil The Finger of God Rio de Janeiro, Part two Escadaria Selaron, Santa Teresa/Lapa in Rio Other places to see pages like this Overview European Ecstasy Adventures in Asia Pacific Paradise Souther...

Auckland and our final thoughts on New Zealand Sunset in Mangere I'd like to say that I have lots of things to say about Auckland and the exciting adventures that we had there, but I unfortunately don't. Truth be told we were quite tired after all our adventures in Hobbiton and Rotorua . We stayed in a place on the outskirts of Auckland called Mangere. Mangere was a little confusing as it wasn't clear whether we were actually in Auckland or just another place, but that is where the airport is, which was our main reason for coming to Auckland. My other confusion with Mangere is how it is pronounced. Man Gary? Man Jerry? Manga Ray? Like the french word Manger? The possibilities were endless but the bus driver merely nodded and took our money for a ticket, he didn't give us any indication of how it was to be pronounced. The view across Mangere Lagoon We only had two short days in Auckland and so decided that to make the most of it we would spend the ...

Rotten Rotorua, (just the smell) The Boiling Lake Rotoura is most famous for its eggy smell, and you guys are lucky you didn't have to put up with Andrew making farting jokes at your expense at every opportune moment. Many Rotorurian's are no longer under the illusion that their famed eggy smell comes from the sulfur being produced by the volcanic activity and the local pools, but are utterly convinced of my jet powering abilities. Thanks Andrew. (oddly there was a newspaper clipping in our accommodation implying that the smell was an aphrodisiac to men... Lucky chickens...) A Redwood Trunk Nonetheless, Rotorua was a lovely town to visit, we spent a few hours viewing the smelly swampy areas (sulfur bay), and all the beautiful wild life and birds there keeping their little leggy peggies warm in the pools and the nearby lake. The Eerie Dead Lakes The next day we went to a beautiful place called the Redwoods, with these stunning redwood trees that towered ove...