Back home in the UK the weather seems to be dominating everything as thick snow has fallen over much of the country. Here in Brazil we may not be suffering with snow, but adverse weather conditions are having quite an impact on our trip.

Originally the plan was to move off from Brasilia and visit one or two other sites before returning to Rio and coming home. But flood conditions — across the whole of the country — have put paid to that. Brazil is suffering unprecedented rainfall across the whole country with the weather now being the number one feature on national and local news, with reports showing amazing scenes of flooding. Normally the weather maps on TV are used to simply predict temperatures and whether it is going to be overcast or not. One of our would-be destinations was on the coast not far from where a luxury holiday complex has been buried as the forest hillsides behind it have simply slipped into the sea — “death in paradise” claims the headlines. Moreover, reports on TV are linking these conditions with unusual weather pattern across the globe; apparently China and South East Asia are having a particularly bad time of it.

A few people have asked whether I’m going to get a chance to do some hiking. There was an option of doing some trail walking near Pirinopolis and area of outstanding beauty and waterfalls but this has been ruled out because of the weather. What I was hoping to do this time around was to research, and hunt out, some good hiking options for the future. There seem to be some very interesting areas to explore, but you do need a guide. You can just turn up in one of these towns and search for a guide but I’d feel more confident in that if my Portuguese was at all functional. I’ve yet to find any hiking/trekking tour companies who operate in Brazil.

It seems odd that Brazil isn’t catered for by trekking companies given that so many specialist tour companies operate across Latin America. I did wonder whether this was something to do with an absence of mountains and high places. Last year, while covering several of the major tourist and destination shows with Bob (for the Outdoor Station) I asked a number of the better operators why nobody operated in Brazil. I was told that this was because Brazil just didn’t see this as important, after all it is now one of the leading economies of the world. However, some of the potential trekking areas are some of the poorest and there would seem to be a lot of potential here. I was told that there are signs of change not least as Brazil is looking to develop ‘green’ tourism. Brazil is a country that is looking to exploit green technologies in a big way and is hoping to become a world leader in green industry.

I shall keep up with my research not least because I shall almost certainly be here again in the next few years. But if any of you have been able to trek or hike here I’d love to hear from you. If any trekking, travel, companies are beginning to operate here — or are planning to do so — then I’d really like to hear from you!

But now I’m back in Rio. The tropical rains that were a feature of our first days in the country seem to have receded a little but the weather is overcast and humid.

There is more time now to explore Rio on foot.The big debate of the day is which is better the Rough Guide or the Lonely Planet. Difficult to call this but I am noticing that LP’s entries are spread all over the place and are difficult to follow in a cohesive way. On the other hand LP’s design and fonts are better to follow.