And so after a pretty bumpy 13hrs on a bus trying and failing to sleep I finally make it to Rio, as we arrive at the bus station in the north of the city I can see my first glimpse of carnival floats... Yippee. The city itself on arrival doesn't look great, very run down but this is the poorer side of town apparently. We pick up our things and wait for the mini bus with guys hanging around waiting to carry your bags to get money, it's a struggle to stop them and say no!
All ready, next stop Copacabana..... We arrive at the hotel, check in and sort out our bags then head to a cafe for some breakfast. After we are fed its a free afternoon to do with as we please. Thomas kindly offers a bit of orientation and helps me get laundry sorted out, and takes a few of us down to the beach and along the front and then on to the Haviana shop which to be honest is a must!!!
I have never seen so many Haviana in my life, and you can MYO.. (make you own), you can even pimp your flip flops with some bling... Haha, so much choice I have no idea what to pick so think I will come back to this later on!
Next stop is taking a look at where my hostel is, so Thomas walks me down there so I can check it out. Have to say it looks ok, and am looking forward to getting there and having my own space for a while and being in one place for a week and not constantly repacking!!
The group head out to dinner all you can eat pizza and kilo dinner, e.g. you pay by weight, it's ok but the pizza is just bread and cheese... No tomato! Then the real surprise is the desert pizza, with chocolate or banana, with ice cream. Interesting and quite nice!
Tomorrow is the final day of the tour and farewell to Thomas...
Thursday, 14 February 2013
Posted with Blogsy
Thursday, 7 February 2013
Next stop Rio... Carnival countdown
So all plans on the island for sunset and sunrise views were scuppered by clouds so I take a final walk up to the lighthouse panoramic view of the island, at this point too exercise is good as the rest of the day is bus, bus, bus again to get to Rio.
We leave on the slow boat, with some people looking a little green as we roll around... We catch a local bus to Curitiba, with not much time it's the local shopping mall for dinner. Hmmm... Mexican it is. Again, not sure it's a good idea before a 13hr bus trip but what the hell.
And so back on the bus, trying to claw whatever sleep I can before we get into Rio.... Nervous about this next bit of the trip, but getting excited now for the last few days before the party starts!!
Attack of the killer sand flies....
Next morning I'm feeling a bit better, so tentatively start to eat a little bread, drink a little tea... Yep, I will be fine. So, as it's bit cloudy today I think a nice walk up the beach to the fort is in order. The beach is flat, 5k long so a good 10k walk, I splash on a bit of sunscreen, cover myself in insect repellent (having learnt last night you don't leave your hut without it) and head out once again with my Tesco bag of bottled water!
The walk is great, the fort is good, nice view, takes about 3hrs round trip so lots of walking. I go for a bit of a swim before I head back in a nice secluded part of the beach. My swim is sadly cut short when a fish takes a bit of a disliking to my presence and starts to attack me in the water... Of course at this point I'm freak out, are there piranhas in Brazil? I'm not saying I ran out the water screaming, but it was a brisk walk... Probably because the fish was pushing me with all it's little strength... Cheeky bugger!
I grab my things having got the message, and head back... on dry land now, I realise my repellent is all washed off... Within seconds I'm being chased down the beach by hungry sand flies, Tesco bag flailing around me trying to get the little critters off my legs. To say it was a relief to reach my hut is an understatement. Priority 1 shower, priority 2 repellent and lots of it...
So, this is when it rains... And when I say rain I mean it, absolute torrential downpour. We all pretty much run to the restaurant for dinner. This is a local islander spot and I am persuaded to share the fish stew speciality of the house. What the hell... It's delicious, comes out in a clay pot and has octopus, squid, prawns, mussels and fish with rice and chips! I stick to rice. But amazing, really nice and thankfully doesn't poison me! We wait out the rain and then walk back through sandy puddles to the inn.
Island life... Sweet like honey!
So another early start (I have to say this tour lark is a bit like having to work, bed by 9pm up at 7am!! Haha... ) so after a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit, which is a first so far and a welcome relief from bread and cake, we head onto our little mini bus. 20 mins in to the journey the bus is overheating and the water leaking... So we are now in for a stop start journey to get to our boat! Thankfully though we make it, and are soon speeding to our next destination across the water Ilha do Mel!! Island of Honey.
The sun is shining, the water is blue, the beaches are sandy and clean, it's truly a small paradise island and a welcome change from the bustle of cities. Thomas gives us some orientation around the surf beaches and what to do and we head to VilaVerde our little Inn on the island. Once we are settled we get a little tour, and go for lunch... I have crab salad and sushi, brave I know (especially as everyone in the group see,s to be dropping like flies with sickness) but hey I like to live dangerously, anyway the others share the sushi so we share the risk.
We have a look around then head to the swimming beach, the water is gorgeous and it's sunny and warm so it's nice to rest for a while and have a swim. There is a current you can tell whilst swimming, if I go left I move quickly if I go right I pretty much swim on the spot!!
Tonight there is a party in the island so we get some vodka in, crack open the UNO before dinner and get ready. It's not long before I start to realise I don't feel to hot! One "club social" (Brazil's equivalent of the ritz cracker) and hmmm... I think I might be sick! That is a sign, not to mention its taking me 1 and 1/2 hrs to finish my vodka lemon! So, sadly I retire, and yep... Food poisoning strikes, game over.... No party for me!
Slippery when wet....
We arrive ridiculously early in Curitiba, Brazils second largest city. After no sleep on the bus, and with pregnant ankles from the bus journey I tiredly squeeze my feet into my brand spanking new trekking shoes!
From here we get the Serre Verde scenic train up through and into the rainforest to start our trek. This normally goes all the way to Morettes but we hop off 1/2 way through to take a trail through the national park. All sounds quite wonderful and scenic until I see the cobble stone path, soaked with all the rain and warning bells go off in my mind... I can see myself falling on my arse pretty fast in these spangly new shoes! Priority 1 is to not bugger up my wrist anymore or it's game over yacht racing. So, at this point I get strapping up like mad and the splint is on!
So we get started in our 5k trek, good practice for Macchu Picchu really although this is all down hill! It's not long before I can't see the rest of the group for dust, luckily we have another guide leading and Thomas kindly takes care of me. So,at a real snails pace we baby step our way down through the rainforest, both of us slipping occassionally (more me than him), and Kyri is also hanging at the back too so at least I don't feel too bad! At this stage with my good hand I basically have Thomas in a vice grip... And my eyes practically never look up, Thomas points out lovely stuff and I nod, briefly look up and say "yep, great" and straight back to looking at my feet so I don't fall!
Sadly I don't feel up to the swim in the rapids, good thing and one of the group starts to quickly get swept away.... Luckily the park guide Rodney jumps to the rescue! We finally make it to Morettes, with the last kilometre becoming "are we there yet?", "how many k's left?" and thomas always replying "ah, 45 minutes more" and so we walk for 1/2 hour and he says 1/2 hour more, and so on... I think by the time we get there we are so relieved, starved, shattered and will have no problem sleeping.
We head out for some local food, very interesting combination and delicious. Rice and black beans of course, the South American staple diet! Fish and chips, chicken wings, spag bol (sort of!), deep fried banana and some "manioc flour" thing, beef stew. We all devour this quickly, washed down with a Bacardi after a hard day on the trail.. Haha. So, the best thing is the rice, stew, banana and flour... Weirdly delicious! With ice cream for desert.
After this we head back and it's still pretty early, so we have a game of UNO first point of order is to agree the rules, bit like pool it Aussies and English and a it of uncertainty, and they seem to change as you play and people remember new ones!! Anyway, it starts to get a bit manic as the game speeds up and everyone's capability slows down... Good fun, but quickly ends with everyone shattered and off to bed by 9!!
On the road again....
And so we bid farewell to Deigo, after a great few days in Argentina. Barely really touched the surface of the country really but had great fun, and definitely want to return to try out Mendoza for the wine and Ushuaia to reach the most southerly tip, to name but a few places. But now we turn to Brazil and say hello to our new tour guide, Thomas.
This is we're organisation falls over a little bit, we are told to expect the new guide at 9, I think it's nearly 11 by the time he arrives. Then instructions aren't clear in the pack about the next 4 days, so having meticulously packed with not a spare centimetre available I now have to get my head round how to unpack and repack with 4 days... This is about as stressful as it gets!! So rainforest, hiking, and island life now crammed into a backpack... With accompanying designer Tesco bag for the overspill! We hit the road.....
The border is actually in the middle of the Iguazu falls, so right in the centre of the river. So as we drive over we see the colours of the bridge change from blue and white, to green and yellow! We are now in Brazil, I get my stamp and head for the helicopter ride around the falls. With the border and the way the falls lie the majority of the falls are on the Argentina side, however the best view of the sheer scale of them is from Brazil... Argentina get the boat rides, Brazil get the Helicopters.
I join the queue with a group of Aussies and a Brit, turns out she is from Mill Hill just fresh of the boat so to speak and when I say I live in Wanstead I find out she plays cricket on Nutter Field opposite my house! Small world indeed... The ride in the helicopter is pretty cool, short at 15mins but well worth it to see the size of the falls and for a different perspective.
Next we head to the Brazil park, which to be honest is tiny in comparison to Argentina, today is absolutely scorching I think 37C easily and we are all burning up as we walk round, spotting a few monkeys on the way and taking endless photos... I think at last count I got up to 300 photos of the falls, which for all your sakes I have whittled down to 3 I think just to give you an idea. "Awesome" is a word that really does apply here.
I think I am not the only person relieved to hear the bus depot we are heading to in Foz do Iguazu has showers.... The thought of 10hrs on the bus in what I am wearing now, I don't think any deodorant on the planet would have made it through this day and still be working on an overnight bus! So off we go, have to say I'm impressed for a mere £2 I get a shower, soap, shampoo, bathroom and towels. Fresh and ready we start to head to the bus.
Of course now the fun starts, we all get on the bus and then are greeted by more people with the same seat number... This is great when not many speak English, I'm lucky the lady in my seat has a little English she finds out what is going on and comes back. Apparently, someone booked our tickets in the wrong direction!!!!! Some back and forth with the bus officials and we are all split up on 3 buses, me on the last with Jamie. With them being only 15 mins apart there is no problem but you can tell Thomas is a bit worried.
So the bus journey starts and we are lucky that we can swap seats (to sit together) with a young Brazilian guy Eduardo from Curtiba, he speaks really good English and explains he hasn't seen any foreigners on this bus route for 4 years or had a chance to practice his English so we happily chat away until we are ready to attempt sleep... This isn't the luxury of Argentinian buses, but it's not too bad... Semi-Camma travel is a step down, no food service, less recline and leg room but it will get us there (maybe!). Fingers crossed.
Sunday, 3 February 2013
The wheels on the bus..
So 17hrs on a bus is not as bad as it sounds and there are many different classes of seat. Semi-Camma or Camma and then a few unpronounceables as you move up the scale. We are travelling Camma, so the seat are a bit like business class airplane, not fully reclined the back goes pretty far back and there is a leg rest. You get served food, tea, coffee, wine and get movies! So all in all not a traumatic experience.
It's at this stage of the tour with all the travelling you start to feel the pressure of tight time schedules. Off the bus we get to the hostel, leave the bags in room and all change to head to the National Park of Foz de Iguazu. 16 of us (including the guide) have about 20 mins to change, with one bathroom.
After endless problems trying to the things you need in the many bags and a very small room full with people, we are finally ready to go... We get a bus to the falls, find our guide and are on our way fighting through the hundreds of tourists for a spot to view the falls and take a picture. The park is quite big so to fit everything in we only have a short time at each stop. Feels a bit rushed, but the falls are spectacular really beautiful and vast, I can understand why this is one of the New Seven Natural Wonders! Tick in the bucket list box...!
The best part of the whole day was the boat ride up the river and into the falls, literally.... It was great fun and after blazing heat of 36-37c all day (straight of an overnight bus!) it is refreshing just should have taken my shorts off first and stuck to the swimwear!! Then it's a very soggy walk through the park to meet up before heading back to the hostel. This is the point at which the whole tour leaves me behind in the park... It took them till they got to the bus stop to realise I wasn't there, meanwhile back in the park I worked out the time (park closing time!) and figured they were on the way back to the hostel so headed to the exit 1/2 way up I see a frantic looking guide and one of the crew pegging it down hill to find me...
As its the last night we all go for dinner and I decide to have a steak and red wine.... After all this is still Argentina, I dont regret the decision as it is the best steak so far and the wine is wonderful. We head to a bar for a quick drink to say farewell to Diego. The waitress brings us a round of complementary capiahinias which go down well, then everyone decides to go back tired after a long day of walking and no sleep the night before!
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