After leaving the Falklands we headed north to Montevideo, Uruguay. Due to some Argentinian political issues, ships cannot dock in Buenos Aires if their previous port is the Falkland Islands, due to the objection of the British occupation of the disputed territory. So we stopped in Montevideo prior to Buenos Aires and then again after Buenos Aires, giving us two separate days in Montevideo. We spent one of them doing a walking tour of Montevideo and the other travelling to the nearby resort town of Punte del Este.

On the way into our docking location we passed by a ship wrecking yard… or was it just the result of a pilot mistake in the dark?

Casapueblo, the house of Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró, at Whale Point on the way to Punte del Este

La Barra wavy bridge

Fishing boats at Punta del Este

Beach sculpture

Street scenes in Montevideo

On our return to the ship we were entertained by local dancers doing the tango

After Uruguay, our next stop was Rio de Janeiro. We found Rio a little unsettling. We were continuously being urged to be vigilant with respect to personal security and the prevalence of pick pockets and violent crime.

While we were in Rio we took a tour to Petropolis, a popular winter holiday spot.

Before leaving Rio a local dance group came onboard and provided an amazing demonstration of Carnivale dancing and costumes.

The next port after Rio was Armação dos Búzios where we left the ship for an overland adventure to Iguassu Falls. A small group of 10 of us caught a bus to Rio airport and then flew to Iguassu which is inland from Rio and on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

We arrived in Iguassu in the evening and transferred by bus to our hotel which was a majestic old hotel on the Brazilian side with a fantastic view to the falls.  

The next day we spent wandering around the Argentinian side of the falls getting a good close-up view of the mighty falls.

The following day we took a walk along the Brazilian side of the falls, which allowed us to go right to the bottom of the falls, which was spectacular.

Our visit to Iguassu was an amazing experience and the falls were more spectacular than either Niagra Falls or Victoria Falls, both of which we have previously visited.

From Iguassu we flew to Salvador where we stayed overnight in a 16^th century convent. This was a magnificent old building but we didn’t have a lot of time to appreciate it.  The next morning we took a walking tour of Salvador, finishing up at the wharf where we boarded the boat in time for lunch on board.

From Salvador we sailed North up the East coast of Brazil and into the Amazon River. The most amazing thing about the Amazon was its size – the river was far wider than we expected and it was amazing how our ship was dwarfed by the waterway.

We stopped at a couple of towns on the way where we experienced some of the Amazon wilderness and jungle. We continued upstream for a total of about 1,600 Kms to Manaus, which was our turn around point.

The ship spent three nights in Manaus so we took the opportunity to spend two nights ashore at a jungle lodge to experience the Amazonian environment. This included trekking through rainforest, hunting at night to spot alligators and fishing for piranha.

A sloth and a colourful lizard

This is the view outside our jungle lodge accommodation

Manaus is famous for its opera house

The highlight of our journey back along the Amazon to the Atlantic Ocean was a stop at Parintins where we were entertained by a local performance of Garantido.

 For lots more photos click here and select the area of interest.