Christmas in the sun

First of all...MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all and a HAPPY NEW YEAR fast approaching. We have has a very different festive period I feel. Upon leaving Ilha Grande (where we accidental-on-purpose forgot to pay for our room...) we arrived in sunny Rio and to our hostel located a stones throw from the Copacabana beach. On arrival we meet up with Josh, Dave and Guy again and decided to hit the town hard, and I mean very hard. We went to a place called The House and were astounded by the beauty of the woman and the strength of the drinks....needless to say it all ended well. Armed with heavy hangovers we quickly got our camera fixed (so no more black-smudge-ufo-things) and headed to chill on the beach which although quite crowded was great fun in the 30+ degree heat. Followed by a more relaxed evening at our excellent hostel.

Christmas eve started with a bang as me and Dave embarked on a 6km run of the beach to see the 'sights', although it was already 29 degrees at 9oc so was hot work but great fun! After a quick dip at the rival Ipanema beach, we wandered back down the Copa were I nearly got in deep trouble trying to take a photo I shouldn't....it was for u Dad! We followed this by getting a big game of volleyball going on the beach. Then to stay in Brazilian customs we had an amazing roast dinner (best we could manage esp with Steve and Guy throwing hot gravy around) and exchanged secret Santa presents on Xmas Eve and a few beers into the evening (and into the next morning as it happened) to get merry with fellow hostelers from around the world.

THE BIG DAY! and a scorching 34 degrees, so after a relaxed morning with a Brazilian breakfast we again frequented the Copacabana beach for more football, swimming, ogling, etc before an all-you-can eat Xmas BBQ and more beer to continue to merry theme. Obviously not a standard Christmas for us, but good fun all the same. To finish off Rio in style, Boxing day, we went on a self-guided city tour, some more football and volleyball on the beach then a cheeky game of vodka poker, some ufc fighting and a bar crawl in LaPa, Rio's party district.

All in all, we had an unforgettable Xmas period in a city which has quickly become on of my favourites in the world so far. The combination of weather, cityscapes, beaches, green scenic mountains, partying, woman (who are by far and away the best iv ever seen, you fall in love, on average, every 12 seconds) make it the premier destination for any trip to South America.

We are now in Puerto Iquazu in Argentina after a 25 hour bus ride, with Rod Stewart live on the TV, and sweating a lot due to suddenly finding out we are in a Malarial region with no tablets, so keep as much skin covered as possible! Then off to Buenos Aires for New Year....'tis a hard life!

Paradise

We survived! The horrific experience of doing four night bus journeys back to back is now just a grand story. We worked out that over 100 hours of a life we will never see again, 67 were spent being supported by four wheels, generally getting thrown around due to the desperate tarmac shortage that appears to be facing south American roads. As we were powering our way to and through the Brazilian border we changed our plans, and final destination became Paraty, a small colonial town a few hours south of Rio. Part of the ‘Green Coast’ it sits in a bay in which 65 small islands are dotted. The outlook from our beach front hostel was quite something. This however was unknown when we arrived shrouded by the night, and we all (still travelling in a five) simply found a bed and utilised it. When I woke in the morning, I was laying on a bottom bunk, my head was in line with the dorm door, which was open, and I could see the sea, maybe 20m in front of me. Paraty was used then as a chill out, relax, enjoy Brazil experience (for the most part, see day two story..!!). The first day we lounged around, had a swim, got a bit burnt and wandered round town. We also ventured out in the evening through the cobbled streets and enjoyed some cocktails and schemed about how to best explore the bay. We teamed up with an Aussie girl and agreed that the next day, when the other three in our party left, we would form a new posse, rent a canoe for the day and go hence forth.

Unfortunately it wasn’t that simple. Canoe man we had seen on our beach was nowhere to be seen. Armed with information that there was another guy on the next beach along we set off, took the wrong path, got lost in jungle wilderness and then became stranded on a rock from which we could see that target beach but not reach it!! Plan A was hatched, and Stuart swam to the beach hoping to persuade canoe man to give him a canoe (with no money, we didn’t want to get it wet) so that he could rescue us, we could hand over currency and be on our way. Plan A failed. On receiving the signal that Stu couldn’t get a canoe, we assumed money was the problem and I set about getting to the beach with the wallet under my hat, id keep my head up, pay, rescue aussie girl and wed be on our way. Plan B failed, due to the likelihood that my hat was not going to stay dry I had to swim to ‘shore’ and clamber over rocks and barnacles, bashing myself and also cutting open my feet on oysters, gradually skirting to the beach. On arrival I gathered from Stu that these injuries could be added to exhaustion from his swim and further abrasions! I also learnt money was not the problem, canoe man had simply decided to take his lunch break and bugger off. When he returned we arranged to get a canoe, and looked up to see aussie girl being rescued by a fisherman. So, I didn’t need to come to the beach, and now nor did Stu as we would have been saved had we stayed put. It then started to rain. Then a lad from Manchester arrived and told us it was a ten minute stroll round the road from the hostel. We were tired, bleeding and battered and gave up. The next day we got up early, got canoes and went for it, found little coves and hidden beaches and generally had a fantastic day. That easy.

From Paraty we took a small bus and then ferry trip to Ilha Grande, an island with no roads (for it has no cars), no banks and not many people. There is nothing here but beaches, restaurants and some souvenir shops. Its bloody marvellous. We are once again soaking up beach delights, dancing to late night samba-beats and also trekking into the Jungle. We saw monkeys and Lizards before dipping in freshwater pools in clearings and finding more hidden beaches with amazing Brazilian women. This seems as close to paradise as we are likely to get… but then there are still five months to go!!

A record-breaking week

After some respite in La Paz on arrival, Me, Steve, Dave and Guy decided to book a round of golf to treat ourselves (as we live such hard lives at the moment). This wasn´t to be any round of golf however, set at over 10,000ft we undertook a hack around the World´s Highest Golf Course. With our guide, Pablo, giving us the politcal low-down on Bolivia on the way, we arrived, met our caddies (yes, even invested in some caddies), and were instantly awestruck by the views of this course set in the mountains (and how posh it was!) Unfortunatly due to a lack of practice our golf didnt match the surroundings or the caddies expectations, but this paled into insiginifcance with the weather and the course providing the perfect setting to spend our last day in La Paz. Guy showed us how to play with Dave, Me and Steve a fair few shots back but great fun was had by all, even with ´a bit´ of sunburn!

That evening we headed on a night bus to Uyuni on the World´s Bumpiest Round, therefore sleep was at a premium. Our reason for heading south was to undertake a two-day tour around the ´Salar de Uyuni´, the World´s Largest Salt Flats. Bleary eyed our saviour ´David the tour operator´ got us a good deal for the 5 of us on a tour and we headed to see some salt, or rather alot of salt. After quick stops at the Salt Hotel (made completely out of salt) and a small salt mining town we reached Fish Island for some lunch and a look at the incredable vistas. Now its worth mentioning I cannot do the views justice in words, to have a 360 degree view of white with backdrops of Andean Mountains is something that needs to be witnessed. After lunch we moved away from the hords of other 4x4 and undertook in the abligatory, crazy salt flat photos where perspective can be manipulated before reaching our hostel for a well earnt night in a bed! Just before the needed sleep, we poped out and witness probabily the World´s Greatest Sunset, keep an eye out for the photos! (note: unfortunalty still no photos due to Bolivian Internet, the World´s Slowest Internet, we promise we will put them all up in around a week when in Brazil)



Day 2 started early with an accent up a Volcano near our Hostel on the egde of the Salar, this took us a few hours and to a new record height for the trip so far of approx 5200ft. Not much oxygen up there! This again gave us some more breathtaking views of the Salt flats and surrounding mountains, before heading down via some 1250BC Mummies! After lunch we cruised along the salt for an hour or so (Me and Josh sunbathing on top of a 4x4 as you do...) and saw some Lithium mines, cold water Geysers, and the Train Graveyard of old abandoned British and French Trains before arriving back in Uyuni to grab a shower and give David our photos before undertaking World´s Longest Bus Journey....

I am currently writing this in Santa Cruz, Bolivia where we are 2 out of probabily 4 consectutive night buses down to reach the coast in Brazil (still not set an exact destination yet). We are tired and smelly but the dream of of the Brazil lives on........

Jungle Fever

We jumped on the rickety, non-bano equipped bus to the rainforest. The journey was hot and long, and filled with many heart-in-mouth, i'm about to go down this precipice and die, moments. However, the scenery was immence. I rarely fill more like a backpacker than when i'm hanging out the window of a hot crowded bus, getting slowly sunburnt with my jaw permanently dropped. All in all it was simply an experience then, and on entry to Rurrenabaque (at 5 in the morning) we went of in search of shelter. We were accosted on the way by Louis, a wheeling dealing Israeli who seemed like the man to put us on the pampas tour we were after. When we realised we had to leave that same day due to a national holiday fast approaching for the elections in Bolivia, we went all in. By 8.30 we were bouncing along dirt roads in a four by four with our guide 'Juan Carlos' who we were imformed spoke 'enough' english. We soon found out this was 'no' english, but actually his eternal smile and nod manouver had him sold to us from the start. After a few hours we reached a river, jumped in a wooden canoe type affair and sped into nowhere. On the way we saw flipping hundreds of alligators, birds of paradise, capabara, kingfishers, condors, eagles, turtles, monkeys (which we fed bananas) and... well, so much other stuff it just got silly.

The shear volume of alligators came back to haunt us however when Juan decided to beach the boat and hand gesture we should get out to push it off. When there is a language barrier, muddy water you can't see into and a significant amout of hungry looking alliators about you become more than apprehensive. Juan smiled and nodded. We all jumped out, and actually this became a regular theme when the river became shallow. I wouldn't say we ever enjoyed the experience however! It took a few hours to reach our lodgings - Wooden, stilted and basic to say the least, but equally f-ing cool! That evening we popped a little further down the river to the 'sun set bar' and sipped cold beers watching the sun go down over the Pampas. On the way back we saw some alligators by night and fire flies...

The next day we went on foot through the pampas anaconda hunting. Unfortunately we failed to find said snake, but did enjoy a few rounds of 'hit the alligator on the head', which came with some amusing results. After we returned to camp (using our engineering skills to ford the river and reach a well earned lunch without the guides) Juan did indeed find an anaconda, but we weren't in the vicinity. After a siesta in hammocks, we went swimming with pink dolphins, which Juan had us believe was totally safe despite alligators on the shore. Good fun though!

On the third day we went fishing! Pirana fishing... We caught sardines for bait, chopped them up, then reeled in the snappers. Stu was successful in both regards, and also managed to find some cat fish. I only made enemies with the sardines, but was pleased to catch anything on my first ever fishing trip. The piranas were cooked up (Juan was some sort of Guru and added significantly to the pile) and we ate them with lunch - very nice with a bit of lime! That left the return journey with even more hair raising out of boat moments. It also decided to rain and completely soak us, but we were so unclean and un bothered by this stage it just became funny. In the jeep our driver did a masterful effort with the wheels, and we sailed through the bog road when all around us jeeps were getting stuck (including that of the party boat - woop woop).

The bus back to La Paz was delayed, broke a wheel and was hampered by rain and the uphill journey. It was horrific, especially considering most of us were stuggling with stomach altercations and once again a lack of toilet, but we survived. Well worth it...

More SA Tribulations

With the awe-inspiring Inca Trail behind us we headed for the Bolivia with Leonie (German/Italian girl) and a small town named Copacabana on the shore of Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately we had both now been struck by irregular bowel movements (along with a lot of other travellers we are finding). Steve: “Rear end problems have produced some funny moments however. To get across the Bolivian border we had to vacate our toilet equipped bus for a rickty minibus. After loading his bag onto said minibus Stu decided it may be prudent to utilize the loo one last time. Unfortunately with myself and Leonie on the minibus with Stus luggage and with Stus behind still hanging over the Bano in the first bus, the driver gunned it for La Paz. By all accounts Stu had an embarrassing moment flinging the door open to shout expletives at the driver whilst trying to control rectal outbursts. I had no idea what to do, thankfully Stu remembered the word for stop however...” Thankfully only my pride was damaged and we made it to the Lake, which was incredible.

At 3810m a.s.l. it is the world highest navigable lake is certainly an impressive sight. Once we had dropped our bags at a hostel, with a night bag packed we headed for a 17km coastal walk from Copa to Yamupata where we planned to catch a boat to the Isle del Sol (Island of the Sun). On route we saw some redonkulous scenery, floating islands and even partied and drank at a Bolivian street party for some Virgin, with the Bolivian woman desperate to dance with us, great craic! We made it, albeit very tired, to the boat and reached the Island for the night with 3 more ‘real life’ Germans for company. That night the Island of the ‘Sun’ experienced the biggest storm either of us have ever witness which kept us up but was impressive to say the least.
The next day we trekked from North to South on the Island with Seb the Bald German, with some ruin visiting and toilet frequenting en route (still not functioning well!) and caught the last ferry back to Copa for one more night before heading to La Paz the following day (world’s highest capital city) with Seb and an International Observer from Canada for the up-and-coming Bolivian elections, Go Evo!!!!

Once arrived at La Paz we met up with the 3 amigos (Welsh Dave, Josh and Guy, friends from Uni) and we proceeded drink the bar dry and fail miserably at the pub quiz. Steve still suffering with stomach issues at this point so didn’t think this was a good idea. Steve: “Missing beer!!” Also we found that our plans coincide up until Christmas in Rio so after a day of market frequenting today we head off north tomorrow to Rurrenabaque and a Pampas Tour to the Bolivian Amazon to swim with dolphins, hunt for anacondas, fish for piranhas, canoe down rivers and generally see tons of wildlife. Will let you know if we survive........

P.s. Apologies for lack of photos, good internet is hard to come by! As soon as we have it, you will see all the wonders we have encountered.