the good, the bad, the ugly and the out of focus

thats right, i am now back home safe and sound and have finally begun loading my photos up onto the internet for all you people to see, so check them out at

http://picasaweb.google.com/Tomlin.an

they're all in a bit of a jumble but if you vaguely follow them in number order (for some reason i didnt make a gallery number three) and ill try and get them all up real soon!
hope you enjoy

swamps and cowboys!

really sorry everyone for not posting for a while, at first there was nothing to post about and then john and i went to the middle of a big old swamp (roughly the size of switzerland and france combined (i think) ) in the middle of cowboy country in brazil!
the big old swamp is actually called the pantanal, which, after another failed atempt to learn to surf , is where we decided to go. we caught an overnight bus to campo grande (translates as big field ?) from curitiba and spent the day wandering around looking at all the comedy cowboy shops and indeed almost purchasing the highly compical rodeo cologne aftershave (but not having the guts)! the next day (a friday i think) we set off with our tour group to the heart of the pantanl (stopping for lunch on the way and sharing some banter with some brazilians about the game). we arrived late that night and all found a spare hamock then after dinner sat round the camp fire accompanied by a pet calf and a kitten!
the next morning we were awakened early by some exotic birds (i didnt care to find out which ones that early in the morning) sining outside, once up we stumbled to breakfast and then had a cold shower before going of on our wildlife walk around the swamp!
that first day we had a walk and boat ride and saw a boa constrictor, some funnby monkey rakoon things, capibaras, aligators and lots of pretty birds! the next day, a sunday, we were supposed to go horse riding, but after an hour wait our guide came back dripping wet and saying that he couldnt find the horses. instead we went piranha fishing, although for some reason none of our group caught piranhas, just cat fish, also got to stroke a baby capibarah which had been orphaned and taken care of by a lodge nearbye.
monday, our final day we finally went horse riding which was awesome! saw an oselot (wierd pretyy cat thing) and an armadilo and just rode about prettending to be cowboys! also found out that i am a rubbish rider, couldnt get my horse to do anything but trot, so i was very sore by the end of the ride! on the drive back to the camp we spotted a giant ant eater in a field and went running beside it for a bit, was absoloutely amazing!
so yeah, that was the pantanal, from there we have come back to sao paulo and next tuesday we fly back to england! strange to think that im finally comming home, it hasnt sunk in at all yet, and i dont think it will until im on the plane. i think im going to miss speaking portuguese and im going to miss seeing strange exotic places and things, but im really looking forward to seeing all you guys again and having some english home comforts!
stay safe until i come home and ill see you all soon
ate mais!
God bless!!
andrew

pratting around in the ocean

yeah so wednesday one of the surf schools here were supposed to ring us up so we could go for a lesson, but the idiots musty have forgotten or something and didnt bother ringing. no matter though, because it was a flipping freezing day. instead john and i spent it in true english style and wrapped up warm and went for a walk on the beach, with a random dog that decided to adopt us. appart from that wednesday was a pretty mundane day, the evening was spent chatting to a brazilian waiter at a pizzaria before getting our pizza and eating it on the beach, then going back to the hostel and watching `blood diamonds`which is a flipping awesome film!!
yesterday however was a completely different action packed kettle of fish, and it was some kettle i can tell you! we met up with this irish guy called mark, borrowed the hostels surfboards and went to rip up the local surf! im not sure how, but somehow this never happened, perhaps my skills just wernt up to scratch that day, but the status of ripping was never achivied, it was rather more a floundering!
at the first beach after trying furiously to get out to the waves, and after 10 minutes succeeding i realised i was very far out, the waves were big and the people around me were clearly pros, so i nonchalantly paddled back to shore, 15 minutes later id made land, warmed up and was headed, byu bus, to the next beach with great hopes of surfing prowess! 1 hour later i was huddled on the beach having just been trashed around by the waves, and john with his extreme sports prowess had gained a black eye, a bashed head and a slightly compressed spine from a gigantic 2 foot wave!
thiniking that the waves just probably wern´t right or something (obviously it was nothing to do with us) john, mark and i went dune boarding (an obviously superior sport!) several mouthfuls of sand, a hurt wrist, and on johns part and bashed in shoulder, later we dicided it was time to call it a day! however this time round none of the buses would take us and our surf boards, so once again we had to walk about 1hr back to the hostel!
so yeah things are going well, as im sure you can tell my surfing is a flyig success!
leaving ilha da santa catarina today and heading for ilha do mel again (the walks are shorter)
missing you all lots!

god bless!!!
andrew
ps oh and at the beach some brazilian though i was a brazilian surfer, sadly i had to tell him i was infact neither, just a gringo pratting around in the ocean

the bolivian salt plains!

is where we should be right now, however instead sunday night we got a bus to florianopolis in the south of brazil with the intent of learning to surf. from florianopolis bus station we took two local buses to prior de joaquin where we were going to stay but on arrival decided to stay in campech a town (acording to the guide book) just down the beach. so as it started to rain, and whilst getting wierd looks from surfers and people in resteraunts (ok it did look ike i was feeling john up when i was actually putting the waterproof cover of his bag on!) we set of for our stroll down the beach. an hour and a half later, completely soaked we turned up at the ecolodge which the guidebook suggested only to find it was 80 reis a night!!! the person who wrote the chapter on the southern region of brazil in the lonely planet guide is a bad bad bad person!!!! so completely exhausted we resigned ourselves to a night in the overly priced lodge and the next day were going to get a bus to barra de lagoa and stay in an international back packers lodge.
so this morning rolled round and just as we were about to leave we found out that the buses had gone on strike! thus we had to hike 20km with our backpacks on!!!! 2.5 hours later we finally arrived and chilled on the beach!! looks like tommorow we will finally get to learn to surf. we are in an absoloutely stunning area, and the sunset today was amazing but my legs are killing me!
hope you guys are all well!
god bless you billions
andrew

argentina is nice

well so ive heard. today john and i got as far as the brazilian border, brackpacks packed, our heads full of dreams of seeing lake titicaca and the rest of south america only to be told that if we leave brazil we cant return until after the 10th of july (our flight is from sao paulo on the 5th!) great!
well apart from that, we also went and saw the brazilian side of the falls yesterday, and with the sunshine it was stunning, full of butterflys and rainbows and funny monkey things! was really cool!
hmm i here the pantanal is good this time fo year!
take care!
god bless
andrew

iguacu falls

yeah so i have now left sao paulo and am at the iguacu falls one of the seven wonders of the world!
at the border of argentina, paruguay and brazil, just south of the itaipu damn are a load of big waterfalls (one of them being the most powefull in the world, i think) called the iguacu falls and theyre pretty spectacular!
we arrived in the brazilian border town of foz thursday lunchtime, met some irish people, and with them got a bus into town (were staying just out of town on the way to the falls) foz itself is a bit of a dump, but we still had a wonder around and just killed time.
friday was much more interesting as lots of things happend which havent happened before or at least in a long time. the first thing of which was i got cold! how unfair is that?! im in brazil and it was overcast all day and i got properly cold for the first time in i dont know how long! the second thing is i left brazil for the first time since comming here. thats right i went to see the argentine side of the falls which despite the weather were absoloutely stunning (im not sure if they were better then vic falls), you got absoloutely soaked by the spray from the falls and at times could even see the river bellow, just a white cloud of mist! i think the third thing to happen was i had to try to speak spanish which is flipping annoying as i am just getting to the stage where everything is comfortable with my portuguese! (silly other languages!)
so yeah, yesterday was really fun, and ended with a meal in town with a couple of germans (they get everywhere!) who are currently on a trip around the worl, funny guys.
today we are off to see the brazilian suide of the falls and maybe an avary, then sunday we are going to get a bus to salta in argentina then hop over to bolivia and maybe meet up with a bulgarian we met yesterday.
anyways having lots of fun, missing everyone at home lots.
god bless!
andrew

because nem kept whining

havent blogged in a while because i havent had much to write, but since my lovely sister kept complaining i decided i would be nice and post.
i am currently back in sao paulo, having had a week in rio training capoeira. rio was a lot colder then we where last there (which means it was still hot) and had a nice end of summer feel with big golden sunsets. went and visited the beach lots and watched the surfers surf as the sun set, was pretty stunning. pretty funny watching the brazilians buying hats and scarfs, they are crazy!
hmm what else, oh the bus journey down was horrific, 29 hours in an economy bus, without blankets and tv! at night they left the air conditioning on so i froze and 2 hours into the journey my ipod ran out of battery =O so being the clever person i am i tried to sleep the remaining 27 hours! i woke up at 3 in the morning my body clock a complete mess!
anyways i am here for one more day then off to see the iguacu falls! cannot wait!
ps nem didnt vote how shameful is that! what would emily pankhurst say?


god bless!
andrew