As much as I enjoy writing this blog, when Im having a really good time I do find it difficult to sit myself infront of a computer and try and remember what I've been up to. Which I guess is my main excuse for writing so little during the last week or so in Brazil. Make what you will about my more frequently updated times in Bolivia and Peru. To get around this I have with me a funny little disney style notebook which I brought in the rainforest in bolivia (I know, I know, globalisation, McDonalds etc etc). As I currently write this I am sat on a 35 hour bus journey from Sao Paolo to Buenos Aires, with the whole day and a second night stretched before me. I'm wondering why I took buses which cost over $165 from rio-BA when the flight cost $200, with scenery that so far today has been about as unremarkable as driving through surrey.

Anyway I have finally left Brazil, or I will have by around 2pm. I leave a little behind schedule (not drastically so) and a little over budget (slightly more drastically so) **Note to Mum and Dad, this was through no fault of my own, every effort was made for conservative spending, but market forces, shifts in international economics and fluctuations in currency have all conspired to push me into my own little credit crunch.As Gordon Brown says "It's a global phenomenon" "don't blame me" and "the only way out is to spend lots more money" - thank god I've been paying attention to the news. With Gordon's wise words I think I'll be able to pull myself through.

As draining in both money and time as Brazil has been, I feel it has more than rewarded me. I know I mentioned this previously but the people I've met here have made a big difference. Both Bernardo and Renata, friends of my cousins, who I stayed with in Sao Paolo, and Fernando a friend of one of my great friends in london, made a huge difference to my trip and showed me round some great local spots. Ok so lets see what I managed to get up to while in Brazil, highlights were:

All you can eat sushi in Sao Paolo, attempting to climb sugar loaf in rio but picking the wrong trail and getting stuck halfway, going out to a live samba night with free caipirinas till 12 in rio, cycling around Sao Paolo's equivalent of hyde park with Mariana my colombian friend who I met in Paraty, hanging out on the sofa with a brazilian friend at their friends flat, watching a football match for free in Maracana the largest stadium in south america with some brazilian friends who had some inside contacts for us, going to a houseparty with Mariana where i was the only person who wasn't an artist.

lowlights included:
going to the cinema to try and watch Bruno, it not being on and making the incredibly bad mistake of watching Harry Potter which was without doubt the worst film I have seen in the last 5 years. Waiting to meet my friend next to the laziest busker i have ever seen, who "played" the triangle, or rather repeatedly hit it in a pretty unrythmic fashion, which is really the only skill you could ask of a triangle player. It did cheer me up to notice in the 20 painful minutes i had to sit next to him, nobody gave him any money. During the same period of time watching a crazy man (who I can only hope for Brazil's sake was crazy and not somehow employed by them) who stood next to perfectly functioning traffic lights blowing his wistle and flailing his arms around when the lights were green and then doing the same for the cars in the other direction. The only rationale I could come up with behind this is that it was to help out drivers who were colour-blind or had particularly bad eyesight but perfectly good hearing abilities. I'm not going to bother mentioning the thousands of flaws with the theory. I sat there silently praying that he would blow slightly too hard on his whistle one time and it would go flying out of his mouth and get runover by a large truck, leaving me only to have to deal with his manical arm movements (for more manageable).

Back to the present. I was greeted on the bus by a weathered 40 something year old man, who had decided that my seat was the one that had taken his fancy. After a few taps on the shoulder he turned around and promptly pointed to the seat infront. My portugese not quite being up to scratch enough to tell him to get his scrawny butt out of my seat I decided to take up his offer of said seat. We seemed to be getting along reasonably well until the next morning. With the sun shining through the window, and feeling a little toasty and cooped-up I thought it would be a good idea to open the little window next to me. Cool fresh air poured into our stuffy cabin, yet as I sat down my old friend behind me started muttering and pointing telling me he'd rather not have a change from this stale air. Resisting the urge to tell him I'd rather not have to turn around and look at his face, I made a token jesture and half-shut the window. With a pleasant supply of fresh air still seeping in, I leaned back, Victory!

Which brings us all up to date with the present. I arrived here in Buenos Aires this morning, and have checked into a great little hostel in the centre of town. I had my first of many steaks for lunch and had a little wander around the main square, where i proceeded to fall asleep on the grass. The plan for the timebeing is around 5 days in BA before 1 night in mendoza to sample a few wines, finished up with around 3 or 4 days in santiago, hopefully with time for a days snowboarding and a visit to valparaiso.