Well as usual been a bit slack on keeping everyone up to date, so much has been happening may have to split this into two jounals. Seems so long since we were in Rio.....
10 Nov - Rio
Caught up with Bart again (whats that smell) and hit the beaches, weather is steadily improving but still lots of fat tourists on the beach (us included), still holding out for the hot brazilian beach babes.....Now have a tradition of sitting on the beach front with a couple of beers watching the sun go down.
That night had another bbq at the hostel, these all you can eats are going to be the death of me. Went out with the hostel crowd to a very dodgy club, entry included free beer for the first hour so cant complain.
11 Nov - Rio
Moved out of the hostel as felt like a bit of privacy. Booked the Inca trail for the 10th December, lots more sunbathing, swimming, and cervazas (beer), watched the locals play volleyball without using their hands. Fairly amazing. Where are the bbb s
12 Nov - Rio - Lapa street party
Wasted a good part of the day trying to send a deposit for the Inca trail, after about five visits to Western Union they finally told us that we couldnt send any money, had to send a panic email to the folks back home to sort it out, thanks mum and dad and Mandy for coming through with the goods. Still no sign of Brazilian beach babes...dammit.
Sitting on the beach as usual watching the sun go down and a bus load of european tourists turn up, they all line up on the pavement, the tour guide points and says "Copacabana Beach", they all look and pile back on to the bus, total time about 30 seconds....hilarious, glad we are travelling independantly.
That night went to a street party in Lapa, totally crazy!!! hordes of locals wandering around dancing to the Samba bands on every corner. Loads of wandering hands, Trina thinks they were after my wallet but I think otherwise :-) Got home about 4am. Bart goes missing, not going to ask what he got up to....
13 Nov - Rio - Samba party
Hearing lots of stories about how dangerous Rio is, just about every second person we talk to has had something happen to them. So far we have been lucky.
Lots more sunbathing, as its finally the weekend the brazilian beach babes have arrived in force...yaaaa!!! Trina has been able to perve at all the local boys all week so finally the boys turn. Rio has been hell on the male ego with all the local lads strutting around.
Wandering the streets and bumped into Simon and Ruth again, South America is just too small! Went with them to a local samba party, we were the only tourists there and had a great time partying it up with the locals, the stuff they can do with a little drum is pretty cool. Got home about 5am.
14 Nov - Rio - Bus
As this was our last day in Rio figured we better do at least one touristy thing and caught the train up Corcovado (the big statue of christ on the hill). From there it was off to the bus station to go to the Pantanal, a mere 22 hour journey.
15 Nov - Campo Grande
Arrived late in the afternoon and booked a three day trip into the Pantanal to check out some scenary. Meet up with a heap of other people doing the same trip and as per usual taught them how to play grass.
16 Nov - Campo Grande - Pantanal - Anaconda shit
Yet more time in buses and jeeps and we finally started seeing the Pantanal (a huge grassland area with heaps of cool animals). On the road to the Pantanal the driver suddenly slams on the brakes and backs up, turns out we had almost squashed an anaconda, we all piled out and the guide picked it up (all of 1.5m) and draped it around the shoulders of a Norwegian guy (Trond). The anaconda after a rude awakening and near death experience was understandably pissed off and proceded to shit all over Trond, it reeked, and so did Trond. We all had a go holding it and got some great pics. Also saw Tucans, alligators, water pigs, fireflys, and other stuff.
17 Nov - Pantanal
Got woken up very early to the sweet sound of howler monkeys going at it, not a pleasant awakeing. Our first game walk was in the rain, our guide seems to be completely obsessed with monkeys as refuses to look for anything else and chases after them at the slightest chance. See quite a few water pigs (apparently not good eating), parrots, dead snakes and a dead armadillo.
That afternoon is another game walk which turns out to be more monkeys, finally the guide listens and takes us to play with some alligators.
Another late night of mosquitos, candles, game of grass, and beers.
18 Nov - Pantanal - Bogged - Alligator hunting
More bloody howler monkeys in the morning, beginning to wish we had brought a gun. Headed off for a bit of sightseeing via horseback, luckily meet a fairly friendly horse. After a battle of wills we established who was the boss and from then on I did what the horse told me to.
That afternoon was meant to be another game walk but figuring we had seen it all we sat around having a few beers. Next minute a snake falls out of a tree near us and slithers under someones tent! Checked it out with the guide who gave us this pearl of wisdom.."snakes that fall out of trees are safe and won´t bite you"....yeah right....great guides will tell you exactly what you want to hear even if you ask the complete opposite question ten minutes later.
That night was a repeat of last with the added attraction of me and Bart wandering around doing our own game walk scouting for alligators. Their eyes glow a bright red when you shine a light on them, only saw one but then not sure where the sleeping ones were. Bart sort of managed to amuse the rest of the camp by spending 15 minutes trying to evict a dog from our shack, only problem, it was never inside.
19 Nov - Pantanal - Bonito - Night biking
Time arrived to leave Pantanal and truth be told we were not unhappy to go, too many long drives, huge mozzies, rain, and boring grassland. What do you know we got bogged on the way out and had to wait two hours for a tow. Arrived in Bonito late at night and were told the hostel was full but they had booked us into a hotel down the road. They kindly gave us bikes with no brakes or lights to make our way down in the dark!! Very kind.
20 Nov - Bonito - Snorkelling - Pink Striped Groper
Bonito was a real treat, beautiful sunny weather and really cool scenary. They have the most amazing fresh water rivers with heaps of fish. We spent a day snorkeling with an outfit called La Plata. The visibility was around 30-40m and lots of fish life. We had met some cool people in the Pantanal so carried on with them. The highlight was when Trina got a little confused and mistook an English guy for me. She started by grabbing his ankle and working her way up from there. I wont mention where she stopped but she does now have the nickname "The Groper", I have never seen Trina so embarrassed.
21 Nov - Bonito - Sunbathing
Decided that we needed a break after all the strenuous work and spent a day napping in hammocks and playing volleyball in the pool.....lifes tough sometimes.
22 Nov - Bonito - Buses, Death Train, Bolivia, Buses, Buses
Ok, get the hint that there were a lot of buses, for some crazy reason we decided to go straight through from Bonito towards Potosi until we got sick of buses (we did). Started off easily enough with a nice paved road taking us up to the border with Bolivia, from there it went downhill, we caught the train across to Santa Cruz, the train is known as the death train because it is so boring. The train is two carriages on truck suspension so its one hell of a bumpy ride.
23 Nov - Buses, Buses, Buses - Potosi
Thoroughly sick of buses but decided to push through to Potosi anyway, by the time we finally arrived in Potosi we had been on the road for 52 hours. Not something I want to repeat again. At the same time we had ascended from sea level up to 4100m, hello altitude sickness!!!!!
Will continue the next episode shortly to bring it all up to date. Hope you all are keeping well.
|
