I thought recently about all the capital cities I’ve been to and how they don’t always live up to expectations. I’ve been to capital cities in about 55 of the 80 countries I’ve backpacked through and thought it was a good moment to do a top 5. I write this post from one of them…
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I LOVE it when people ask me about South America and they say “did you go to Rio or Bariloche?” Because the answer is “no” and quite frankly, I still don’t really care that much about “on the beaten track cities”, which might explain how I got sentimental, inspired and perky on my visit to…
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What is Chipa? Actually don’t answer that, let’s start with a “What is Paraguay?” Well you’ll never really know unless you go there, so I went there. As I caught a local bus across the border from Brazil (Foz do Iguacu to Ciudad del Este) I did ponder on why I was going there. But…
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A bit of a change from the normal here on this post. This is an article I wrote for a travel magazine once which was never published and until now hasn’t seen the light of day. This was my introduction into Paraguay, the day I…was a stranger in Paraguay! This article is reproduced here in…
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Paraguay offers you an alternative experience to the rest of South America as I seen it. Here in Asuncion, the country’s capital city, tourists are few and far between. Even staying at the city’s best hostel (by a country mile) The Black Cat, the rooms weren’t full and you could kind of tell you were…
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As a traveller, long distance buses become a way of life and part of the travel routine. I personally love them – a great way to sit back, relax and let someone else drive you to your destination. Almost every bus journey I take becomes a real chance to see unique scenery from a distance.…
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In my series on World Borders, here’s how to get from Argentina to Paraguay (via Brazil), yes you will end up going from Puerto Iguazu to Foz do Iguacu and onwards into Ciudad del Este. This is a complete guide from my journey. OK so there are a few different ways to cross the border…
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This is not my exact bus that I boarded to leave behind the city of Asuncion, as I had no time to take a photo of that. But this is what it looked like! It was a very quick process and despite being rushed for time, my departure from Paraguay came with a delay.…
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If I had to list my favourite method of travel, it would probably be train travel (just edging being onboard a boat). Not only have I watched many documentaries on train travel, but I have a fascination with railway stations the world over – whether used or not. So I found out…
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Mixing football with travel can be easy, and also provide you with a good excuse to travel. All I would have needed to do then would be to take a leaf out of Shaun Schofield’s book and travel round the world watching Northern Ireland play football. Ironically I have a “leaf” in Shaun Schofield’s…
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