Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia

 I survived 2 Brazisn domestic flights to land my 97th country, and had my late lunch while eating for 5 pm shared shuttle. The last flight was before the National Park so I only took the river shots.  For $5.5 in the SLZ airport, this was a huge plate of food. I will skip dinner. As everyone commented, the beef was chewy like boots. LOL After 4 flights plus 4.5 hrs shared shuttle ride, arrived ay my hostel at a town near Lencois Maranhenses National Park with shifting dunes with the lakes in between that are most spectacular at low sun, when a range of shadows come into play. I will take three tours in three days to explore the  Park.

The highlights for Brazil:  Lencois Maranhenses  –  São Luís -   Brasilia -  Rio de Janeiro -  Ilha Grande -  Paraty -  Sao Paulo - Bonito.  After travelling 95 countries, and I felt Brazil was the most challeging destination, since high crime rates and non-Portuguese speakers face serious difficulties. I was stressed out by the street robberies, highway robberies news in Brazil, and I am trying my best to take precuctionary mesaurements.  One friend kindly treated me a Chinese lunch and donoted me an Andriod phone as a spare to take on Brazian streets. Since e-SIM cannot be switch among devices, I will get a physical SIM for Brazil. In addition, I will bring a damaged iphone to surrender to robbers. Yes, three phones to carry around. "To prevent robbery in Brazil, the key is to avoid looking like a target. This involves dressing modestly, leaving expensive valuables like jewelry and watches at home, and only carryi...

 My 8-hr layover in Panama City helped to stratch my legs and to add one county count. After checking my bag with a storage service ($5), I didn’t do much homework for Panama City, so i checked with the tourist desk to get a METRO map and some basic info.  I ventured into old town Panama City by METRO. It was hot and steamy, but kind of fun. Beside a wedding, I witnessed one guy collapsed in the METRO and two gunshots on the street.  My offline map tried to get me via a shorter route to old town but i walked back to the 5 de Mayo stop after two blocks as i sensed it was taking me via a poor neighborhood. I spotted a bigger and brighter road one block away which appears to be much safer and I made the right choice to stay safe.  It was overcasted so I skipped the further away Canel, and just walked around old town. I bought a fried fish ($2) from a street vendor and ate it back in the airport. This airport does supply nice and cold drinking water. BTW, Panama uses US ...

Ready for my 2.5 month trip to Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Panama and El Salvador. I got my bags down to 8.5 kg (including hiking boots and a sleeping bag), by having a hair cut, etc.  The cloest United Clubs are in terminal C at IAD, so it took me 45 min out and back from terminal A to use my one -time pass.