Mate

No, not the Australian ¨mate¨, but a herbal drink that tastes like shyte and is drunk through something that in Australia people smoke other substances from. And, after the first revolting sip, the friendly Brazilians told me it had cocaine it it - and the cultural barrier means that I´m not entirely sure they weren´t joking...........

The friendly Brazilians also made me sing Australian songs - Waltzing Matilda, and Down Under. They know about Australian Crawl and Men at Work - thank god a well stocked ipod meant I didn´t have to sing anymore...... Trying to explain a billabong, a coolibah tree (I had to admit that I actually didn´t know what one was) was interesting. Billy was easy - kettle without a spout¨. And I must be incredibly unAustralian because I don´t even know the meaning of ¨Waltzing Matilda¨¨itself. (Hello Wikipedia).......

Yesterday I got out of town on the train, an hour or so away to Tigre - and then went up a very cool river delta through a collection of islands to this foresty place. It was worth the trip. The train went past the favelas (slums), and then ¨country side¨, very different to BA. Although with 13M people in this town, it wasn´t really ¨countryside¨per se. And it wasn´t as hot - relief!! God knows how I managed it though, I think it was pure arse as the whole thing was in Spanish and incredibly disorganised. There were 10 boats tethered together, everyone else knew where they were going and no one spoke English - made it there and back though!

Mel and Kel - I´ve had my first little accident. It poured rain on Friday, and I´ve discovered my hiking shoes don´t handle urban terrain all that well when it´s wet; they are very slippery on concrete. So I slid down a path and into a gutter.... more öuches¨. I was in a very edgy part of town, full of great boutiques and bars (of all places to fall over). I´d met this guy from Austria and we were laughing how foreigners gets Austria and Australia mixed up all the time, and I was on my way to having a beer with him and a mate of his, which I had to enjoy covered in mud!

Never a dull moment in the life of a traveller.

My very clever nephew understood when I explained that I was going away on a plane - every time he sees a plane, he says Äunty, Aunty!!¨. Not bad for 21 months. Let´s hope he remembers for the next six months!