Just a small trip to Pantanal, on the other side of the Bolivian border and I continue my journey southwards.

 

I’ve already torn up and thrown away the “Brazil” section of my “Lonely Planet – South America” guide (convinced that I wouldn’t go there and to have more room in my bag).

 

Being in Brazil without stopping in Rio…okay, little detour to the right.  It’s lovely to hear Portuguese: good excuse to stay an extra week and follow some courses (I teach French in exchange for being taught Portuguese).  The north seems beautiful.  24-hour bus journey to Bahia de Salvador.  A short weekend on the island of Morro beside Sao Paolo?  I stay there three weeks and would return there afterwards.  I’m short of cash: 100 kilometre round trip during the day.

 

The world is beautiful…but large.  There’s always a good reason to stop or to deviate from your route.  I lose all sense of time and distance.

 

The first (and for the departure only) year of the trip will finish in a month.  I ask for my car to be sold Belgium…and decide to travel for another year.