Planning: the major stops in South America

We're almost off again, me and my Mooney. The planning is reaching it's final stages and we're headed to Brazil and Argentina. We'll head to the Dominican Republic in late April. I should be meeting another Earthrounder, Wayne, in the Dominican Republic and we'll continue together from that point. We'll fly to Barbados for a quick stop and overnight, then go around Venezuela and into Brazil at Boa Vista, in the north.

After passing through customs and spending a night at Boa Vista, we'll overfly Manaus, where the two main rivers join to form the Amazon and continue to Alta Floresta. In the planning stages we found this to be an interesting eco-tourism place in the rain forest, so we've planned two extra days here to learn about this ecosystem. Leaving Alta Floresta, we have a 4-hour flight to Brazilia to arrive on May 6th for the start of a five-day Earthrounders' meeting. See www.earthrounders.com for more information.

Following the meeting, several additional earthrounders will join together in our two planes to visit Alto Paraiso, the Pantanal and Iguacu Falls (on the border with Argentina) over the next seven days. The we'll each head our own direction.

I'll continue south into Argentina where I hope to do several stops, including visiting a friend, Eric, who is doing a year abroad, following graduation from high school and prior to starting university this coming fall. I'm looking forward to staying with his family, trying to speak Spanish and taking his new friends flying in my Mooney.

Leaving Argentina, I'll return north following the coast of Brazil, making several stops in Lencois, Noronha and Belem before visiting Cayenne in French Guiana then proceeding around the Caribbean for my return home. Overall the flight should take five weeks and about 80 flight hours. I'll keep you updated on my progress.