South America

The route so far runs almost entirely through Brazil. Rio de Janeiro west to the Paraná border at Guaíra, south over the switchbacks of the Serra do Rio do Rastro to the beaches below Porto Alegre, then north — eventually by an 85-hour bus — up the Amazon to Santarém, where the Tapajós meets the river without mixing into it.

Roughly 12,500 kilometres of it in a 1997 Toyota Hilux. Carnival in Lapa and on Ipanema beach, the falls at Foz do Iguaçu, the islands off Angra dos Reis, samba at Pedra do Sal, and the murals of Rio.