So, how do we get there?

After returning from my 2011 trip to Egypt and Jordan, a close friend of mine from high school expressed interest in joining me for my next international foray. And hence, it was decided that in 2012, Tom and myself would explore South America; the focus of course being on Carnaval in Brasil. Contrary to common perception of Carnaval in Rio being the thing to do though, we opted to go for the huge street parties (blocos) in Salvador, Northern Brasil.

Months passed without action and it was only when we saw a Facebook invite for a ‘South America” night by STA Travel Broadway that we started thinking we should probably start boking in flights, especially as flights into Brasil start to get very expensive during Carnaval.

Although we missed the initial talks (trying to sell their package tours) we spent a fair bit of time that night talking to Freya, who was a great help in putting together all our flights. Although I had never used a travel agent before, opting to find flights myself, in this case, it worked out cheaper and offered more options to do it through STA Broadway, an organisation I would recommend checking out whilst doing flight research.

The outcome of all of this?

Tom and I would travel together for approximately 5 weeks starting off with flying to Salvador, Brasil from Sydney via Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo arriving at 1am, 16th February 2012 (the first day of Salvador Carnaval) then flying to Rio on 23rd February, Buenos Aires to Lima, Peru on the 15th after which Tom would leave for London and I would spend the remainder of my trip checking out Bolivia, Colombia and Chile.