My philosophy has always been that life is too short to do things you don’t enjoy, and too short to be missing out on doing things you do want to do. That is why I built my business in the way I did – so that it would free me up to do what I want to do. Our Brazil and Peru tours were interesting - but huge. Everytime we went to a new place, it was a full day’s traveling.
Floating past caymans in the Pantanal, Brazil (Noel Swanson)Brazil and Peru were interesting - but huge. Everytime we went to a new place, it was a full day’s traveling.
We first went to Campo Grande, where we met someone who introduced us to Pousada Santa Clara in the Pantanal, which was excellent. Cheap, but good room, full board and excellent guides. We did a river trip, tube floating among the caymans, walked through the forest and saw an anteater, monkeys, racoons, parakeets, capybaras and loads of birds. We also fished for yellow-bellied piranhas and caught one each, which were then fried for us that evening – very tasty but very small and lots of bones!
From there we went to the youth hostel in Bonito. The hostel was great. We had a private room, there was a swimming pool, and they organized all the tourist trips. We did a snorkel float in both Rio Sucuri, and Rio de Prata – freshwater rivers with astounding clarity. But the trips were very overpriced and very tourist oriented. Apparently everything is government controlled, and you got treated like children on a school trip.
Next was Foz Iguazu which was simply amazing – huge, huge waterfalls that we saw from both the Brazillian and Argentinian sides. Both were equally spectacular.
We then visited Ceu’s friend Matheus in Belo Horizonte – a clean modern city with such steep hills that you really need good breaks on your car! It was like going on a roller coaster. We had a lovely visit with him and his mother and brother – and got to drink the Brazillian specialty drink called ‘Chop’ (pronounced ‘Shop’) which, believe it or not, consists of just the FOAM from an ordinary beer! Absolutely crazy! Matheus showed us his city, took us to the best restaurants and, naturally, we watched the Brazillians play at the World Cup. Nothing else to do, since the entire country closes when a game is on. Even the museums shut until after the game.
From there we went to Rio, and stayed in a rather basic youth hostel at Ipanema. We ate in the restaurant across from ‘The Girl from Ipenema’ restaurant, which is where the song was written. We toured the largest Favela which is run by a drug gang – and as a result has virtually no crime, as they want to keep it a safe place for people to come and buy drugs!
Of course we walked both Copacobana and Ipanema beaches, along which there a several public, open-air, work-out gyms. They consist of a frame of pull up and other bars and one even includes weights. They are totally free and get well used. We often saw people there with a personal trainer coaching them.
Throughout the trip we had sunshine, warm weather, and no rain.
A 4 hour flight took us to Lima, Peru. First stop was a Ceviche restaurant in Miraflores – It was so good when we went there on our first pass through, (on the way to Brazil from BVI), that we went back there a second time. Lima itself, however, was rather uninspiring. Very run-down.
Our agent Jessica was very helpful with the whole process and always responded in a timely way to all of our questions.
K Van
1 day ago
Chern was very patient snd helpful.
CaBaba
2 days ago
Cruse ship was great. Fantastic food and service. Cruise itinary got changed so not what we expected, but not an major issue. Japan portion was great. Drivers/guides arranged by 80 Days were great. Hotels were mostly ok. Did not know that most hotels outside of major cities do not allow shoes to be worn in the hotel. again a minor inconvenience. Overall a great trip. Adventure Life communications were timely and much appreciated as far as changes/requests.
Peter Goff
3 days ago
We were a group of three that initiated our research by independently searching for the best agency to help us in the somewhat complex experience of traveling to the Galapagos. We chose adventure life because they were the most responsive in the website provided the most comprehensive overview of the trip. Their reviews were also very good.
Adventure, life splits up its booking process in two parts. First Jeff, the booking agent helped us decide which experience best suited are interests. We chose a small 14 to 16 group sized yacht. Once the booking was made with Jeff, we were handed off to Coleene, who oversaw the complex process of assembling all of the necessary documents and making sure we had everything we needed to make the trip go smoothly. The adventure, life website, then becomes your personal place of reference for all things related to your trip from door to door. It’s a lot of information to assemble, especially for three travelers, but the website makes it easy and Colleen‘s gentle reminders kept us on track. In all, from the beginning, we had four months from the time we started our research till the time we departed. We felt that was, a good amount of preparation time and don’t think it would be wise to do it in less than four months. Mostly because I think you have more options with that amount of time. There were others on our trip that took six months and more from the time they started planning.
The trip itself was outstanding. We ended up on an excellent yacht (Galapagos Angel II) with a great group of guests that we were able to connect with and put together a really nice google photos album to share.
Jed
1 week ago
Mary was very helpful. Quick to reply with helpful information and closure on arrangements.