Its over

´´They spend time. That´s just it. They spend time travelling. The time weighs heavily on them because they lack any context, any valid framework for their lives. They persist in hoping that something they think they will find in the place they are heading for will somehow provide them with a fulfillment they feel certain they deserve and yet have never come close to experiencing.

Some travel forever in hope and are serially disappointed. Others, slightly less self-deceiving, come to accept that the process of travelling itself offers, if not fulfilment, then relief from the feeling that they should be feeling fulfilled´´

Look To Windward. Iain M Banks


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Toronto to Natal - 17,000 miles, 78 bus jouneys 3 hrs or longer, 28 over 12 hours long.

Fell in love with - Mexico

Best country to visit - Guatemala
Most exciting - Columbia

Most depressing - Venezuela
Most disappointing - Brazil

Probably the most beautiful place in the world - San Blas islands, Panama

Best trip - Sailing between Panama and Columbia

Best experience - climbing a volcano and seeing lava flows

Best place to sleep - Quinta Real, Zacatecas, Mexico

What is the point of a cleaned up red light district?

Amsterdam is still a beautiful, exciting city but its changing. They are getting rid of the brothels and porn shops in the red light district and turning it into the same sort of twee paved area found in any other European city.

The Dutch were brave to legalise cannabis but they are cutting away at this freedom by introducing stupid laws. Coffee Shops cant sell booze if they sell cannabis but crazily bars still allow you to smoke cannabis in them. Owners are meant to ensure customers don't have illegal drugs on them.




Ferry to Harwich and home

The Shining (summer version)

Scheduled one way tickets home are very expensive. Packages are very cheap. UK travel companies cancel your holiday if you are a no show on the outward leg. So we have enjoying a holiday from a Dutch company and flying into Amsterdam and then ferry to Harwich.

Thought a 4* All Inclusive would be a nice end to the trip. Even if it is in one of the ´self contained resorts that are destroying this coast!´

Might even be a weeks party with the Dutch. Instead we ended up in a very nice but empty hotel. The Dutch go out on organised trips during the day and then off to bed as soon as they have had dinner. There is never more than 4 of 5 people in the bar . Can you imaging an empty, free bar if the English were in the hotel!!



The plus side is we get the pool and beach to ourselves.

Conversation with a Belgiam couple about a group of Dutch girls staying at the hotel
´´If they where British they would drunk by now´´
´´And pregnant´´

Fly tonight (14 April) at 12, one night in Amsterdam for a joint and back in Ipswich on 16th

Beaches and more beaches

Rio Grande do Norte has hundreds of miles of the most amazing beaches

Give a Northern Brazilian a restuarant and he will ruin every meal by gunging sauce over everything and over cooking it. Give him a tin for a charcoal fire and a beach and he will cook the most amazing fish and shrimps

Canoa Quebrada is a village thats suddenly packed at weekends. Clubs and bars open which don´t seem to even exist during the week. The party starts at midnoght and goes on all night

We stayed in a lovely place run by a very strange guy. He has built two beautiful houses but hasn´t got round to putting proper roofs on. As it was the rainy season we would be woken by warm rain water dripping on the bed but it would all dry out next morning


If you put a transparent seat onto a toilet in a dim room. Well it was bound to happen. The water is from the rain!!

There is a beach near Pipa, called Dolphin Bay, where dolphins come to feed at low tide. They wait for the big waves and body surf nearly to the shore, clearly playing. I went in to swim with them but they seemed to disappear - can´t think why

A marmoset that had been abandoned on the beach and is being reared trying by hand

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Pipa was a little fishing village without electricity in the 70s. It was discovered by hippies and surfers and gradually developed into a seaside resort. The beaches and surrounding countryside were untouched and the fishermen earned far more from the tourists than they ever did from fishing. They also got essential modern comforts such as good espresso coffee, electricity and sewers.

Its recently that the damage is being done. Globalisation and the rising Brazilian middle class have encouraged the type of person who thinks a holiday home is essential. Consequently Pipa is in danger of turning into yet another sprawling resort. Destroying the very thing that attracted people to the place in the first place.

The rising land values has pushed development along the coast to other villages, where they are building hotel and holiday complexes that are self contained. So no need for the tourists to go into the village and no espresso for the fishermen

Its the rather depressing pattern we have seen throughout our trip. With the exception of Venezuela that is such a basket case no-one would want to invest there

What we have lost really hits you when you visit Pipa´s Atlantic Forest Sanctuary. A few acres of protected woodland. In its untouched state, Atlantic Forest has four times the diversity of life than the Amazon jungle. When the Spanish arrived 15% of Brazil was covered now it is less that one tenth of one percent and the bits left are so fragmented that plants and animals are in genetic ghettos. What ever we do we can never return these forests to their former glory.

The beaches all along this coast are breathtaking but their pristine beauty is marred by the plastic bottles and bags that seem to be taking over the world.

This is why I prefer cities. They can be glorious but even the worse (Managua?) are always interesting. They serve a purpose and unlike Atlantic Forest can be always be repaired and improved.