Back in Brazil

Penultimate stop for leg one, Brazil's Sao Paulo an absolutely vast city that I only saw a small part of staying overnight.

Sao Paulo Cathedral

Then a flight back to Rio for a day of culture; the modern art mueseum, football museum at the Macanara and opera at the Teatro Municipal.
The Macanara is currently being rebuilt to host the 2014 world cup final, and is the venue Pele scored his 1,000 goal.

day of culture

Macanara from the air

Teatro Municipal

 2 days in rio without the sun, but I did get to see a bit of football on my final day

7 a-side at the Sambadome

7-up

Time for a quick stop in Asuncion, capital of Paraguay & country number 7 of the South America trip.  Not enough time really to explore outside the centre of the city, but I liked what I saw.

Panteon de los heros

Cathedral

 The city is also home to the first train station in South America and contains some interesting old artifacts in the museum alongside railway carriages.  Nearly everything had been designed in England, and there were extensive plans all in English alongside plaques from Wolverhampton.

first train station in S America

setting the standards for the trans Mongolian

Santa Cruz

So one final overnight bus, and a final town in Bolivia.  Santa Cruz was a strange sort of place to visit, unlike the rest of Bolivia and certainly not touristy.  There´s evidence of some money being made with expensive cars and global brand names including the largest Burger King I´ve ever seen.

The streets were lined with a multitude of statues and sculptures.

sculpture on the street

Jesus in the middle of the ring road 

Arenal park, somewhat functional

A day trip to Biosphere Guambe I got to see a variety of birds and butterflies and even a sloth.

macaw

macaw

butterfly

butterfly

toucan

parrot

sloth

One final item for the record, something I´ll miss - Durazno con leche (peach milkshake), although it didn´t always come with lemon meringue pie.

Durazno con leche

Nazca & Arequipa

After Cusco things took a turn for the unexpected.  I´d been planning to head back to Bolivia, but instead found the overnight bus to Nazca and literally performed a flying visit to the Nazca and the eponymous lines, which are huge ancient drawings in the stone - another of the worlds mysteries as to how they came into being.

On the road Cusco to Nazca

Astronaut

Monkey

Hummingbird

For good measure, the little prop plane (40) is a whole new mode of travel and the only way to see the lines, a test of endurance with all the banking for photos.

the big 4-0

From Nazca, after watching Spain destroy Italy, back on the overnight bus to Arequipa and a 2 day trip to see the nature wonders of Colca Canyon and the condors with an overnight stay in Chivay

El Misti - Arequipa

typical tourist trap at a viewpoint

Condor

Condor

Condor (juvenile)

Colca sour

Chivay