favela & apprecaition

Yesterday I spent the morning exploring the largest favela in Brazil. A favela is similar to a slum. It is a small area, filled with a huge amount of people, crammed in spaces we cant imagine, living in horrible conditions. The favelas are controlled by the drugdealers, who create rules and ´laws´` for their favela. It was amazing to see. It was one of my favorite things about Brazil. Which I wasnt expecting. Makes you appreciate where we were born, and what we have.

I also went to Christ the Redeemer, a neighborhood called Santa Teresa, and Sugarloaf mountain.

Today, ive spent the day getting a sunburn, and getting ready for my travels homeward. I walked up copacabana beach to Ipanema beach. I enjoyed little luxuries last night at the posh hotel, JW Marriott. 7 Pillows on my bed! And being very appreciative of it all.

Im also being appreciative of the people who are kind and patient while dealing with a foreigner, who has no comprehension of the language. there is a lot of sign language and miming going on.

Just about time for me to head to the airport, fly overnight to Houston, then on to Vancouver, where I get a short but sweet visit with one of my favorite people, then home. And one of the best parts of travelling is having such a wonderful place & people to go home to.

Obrigada for following along with me on this little adventure!

the pantanal

We just arrived back in Rio this afternoon after a very exhausting travel day.

We left from Bonito on tuesday morning and had a 4 hour drive into the Pantanal. Once there, we switched to a heavy duty truck that could handle the bumpy road for the last hour drive to the farm that we stay at. On the drive in we saw many birds and caimans.

We were dropped off at the farm that accommodates us, and we were shown to our sleeping area. I was pleasantly surprised. Two rows of hammocks strung up, a roof, walls of mesh to keep the bugs out and a door. So pretty bug proof and contained. The hammocks seemed comfortable enough. We went out on a short walk on the grounds around the farm and saw a couple of macaws in their nesting spot. We had dinner (all meals provided by the farm). Rice. Im very sick of rice. After dinner we went out on a short night drive. I was really trying to meditate up an anaconda, but no luck. It was pitch dark and just the guides spotlight lit up certain areas as he searched for wildlife. He shone his light out into the darkness, and you could see what looked like city lights. They were caiman eyes. The amount of them was incredible. Very cool.

after our night drive, our guide gave us a quick lesson in caipirinha making. It was lots of fun. many cairpirinhas were made and consumed. Finally, we tottered off to bed. Or hammock rather.

It was a chilly, loud night in the hammock. I woke up around 7 and went for breakfast. it was a pretty pathetic little breakfast. After that we headed out on our truck to do some pirannha fishing. On the way we spotted many birds, many caimans. We saw some vultures picking apart a carcas, and the local guide went to investigate. It was a juvenile anaconda carcoss, not much left of him besides his spine.
We quickly discovered that the pirannhas eat more of your bait than anything else, and I quickly got bored with the actually fishing, and preferred to watch the caimans, that were watching us fish and would try and steal your fish whenever you did happen to catch one. Some capybeara´s came down to the small lake while we were fishing.
On the drive back to the farm for lunch, we spotted more capybaras, more birds, and our guide took us down to a couple rivers where we could see giant river otters playing in the water and catching fish. it was very wonderful.
Afterlunch, rice, we went out horseback riding. We saw a little anteater, who was wonderfully cute, especially when he stood up on his back legs to show us just how big and scary he can be. We also saw another beautiful macaw, an armadillo, and a water viper, which was as close as it got to seeing a (live) anaconda for me.
We had dinner, rice. And i headed to hammock afterwards. This time, I bundled up with two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, two sweaters, and two blankets. It still wasnt enough, and I will chilly. Luckily, it was a very short night.
At 1:45am the alarm went off, and we climbed out of our hammocks and loaded up into the truck for a 1 hour drive back to meet our van. It was a freezing cold ride, as the sides of the truck are open. We finally got back to our van, loaded up and began the drive to Campo Grande to catch our flight. And then our van broke down. So we sat on the side of the road, and water to see if our replacement van would come in time for us to make our flight. At 6am our new van arrived and we SPED off towards Campo Grande. Thanks to the speeding of our driver, we arrived by 8am to check in for our TAM flight to Sao Paulo, and connecting on to Rio. We got to Rio around 2pm, met our driver and are now back at the hotel, getting ready for our last night as a group in Rio.

Tomorrow I have a full day of city tour in Rio to see the sights, then one last night on my own.

Tonight, I am excited to sleep in a bed!  

Caiman, capers and CaipIrinhas

Yesterday Morning we arrived in Bonito around 6 am after our overnight bus trip. I was the only one in the group who managed to sleep ok. We had a lazy morning, wandered up the main street and then in the afternoon we went to a beautiful river park area. It was stunning with clear waters, fish, waterfalls, and a sort of zip line out of over the water to jump into the cool river. It's quite hot here, about 35. 

Last night we went out for a wonderful dinner, during which I was very brave and tried the caiman, a species similar to alligator, which is not endangered and they have caiman farms specifically for eating. It was quite delicious, one of the best meals I've had so far. Another discovery is that I like capers. Two of my favorite meals here have been served with capers, and I am quite enjoying them. I am also quite enjoying the local cocktail, caipirinhas. Our guide is planning to teach us how to make caipirinhas while we are in the pantanal, so I am looking forward to that! 

Today I am having a pretty lazy day on my own. The rest of the group is off doing a river tour that didn't really excite me, and it was quite expensive, so I am spending my day enjoying a little introvert time, doing some souvenir shopping, and some sketching. 

Tomorrow we are traveling to the pantanal, a remote region where we will be sleeping in hammocks for two nights. On Thursday we make our way back to rio and civilization, so I will post again then! 

2 hours in Paraguay - does anyone need a taser?

Today we crossed the brazil - Paraguay border to spend two crazy, hectic hours in a border down of del este in Paraguay. 

The brazilians cross the border and do most of their shopping in this town, as it is apparently much cheaper for them. It was a crazy intense market streets filled with people and products and everything being pushed at you all at the same time. Watches, crocs, purses, DVDs, perfumes, tasers and a few rifles here and there. Our guide is practically running though the streets and we are all trying to keep up, whilst avoiding the tasers being demonstrated in the crowded marketplace. Very amusing! 

I resisted the tasers and returned back to brazil with only a couple of scarves. Pretty dull I know! 

The rest of the day was spent at a bird park, photographing the very photogenic toucans, other birds, flowers, and a beauty of a little snake. 

We are now hanging out back at the hotel, waiting to board our night bus. It isn't going to be a public bus like the last one, so I might not need all the layers I've been planning on (or the scarves!), but I've got some warm gear just incase they try to freeze us to death. 

Hopefully we will get some sleep and wake up in Bonito. 

Ciao, love and miss you all!

Soaked by iguacu

This is our group standing on the bridge that is the border between Argentina and brazil. I am on the Argentina side. 

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day. It started out good with these delightfully little cheesy puff balls at breakfast. Then we were off to cross the border into Argentina to go to the falls. Once there we went straightaway to start our boat adventure. The boat ride took us up the river to approach the falls from the water. We had a few minutes where we could have our cameras out, but then everything had to go into dry bags as we approached the falls even closer and went for a shower. 

It was pretty amazing, seeing the power of the water, and being right at the bottom of the falls. As you approached the falls it was pretty awesome as you looked up for the first few seconds, before you were soaked with water and couldn't see anymore. It was fantastic!

We spent the rest of the day exploring platforms and trails, all with stunning views of falls from all angles. They have great systems of suspended pathways over the falls that take you out to great vantage points. Many photos were taken. It was stunning and fantastic.

Towards the end of the day we took a small train they have within the park up towards the top of the falls, where there is a 1km pathway out over the river that turns into the start of the falls. At the end of the pathway is an amazing lookout into the most powerful part of the falls, called the devils throat. From here it looks likes a huge rapid that tumbles down into nothing but mists. Insane power and so much water.

Last night we went out for all you can eat pizza, which pleased me very much. The night before had been all you can eat meat, including peacock and (Kristin, avert your eyes) rabbit. The servers bring out tray after tray of different varieties of pizza; garlic, sausage, chicken, veggie, Stromboli, and many others. The end was the best part though, dessert pizzas! Nutella and strawberry and my favorite, a creamy white chocolate sauce with coconut and strawberry. It was fantastic. 14 pieces later, we rolled home and into bed! A great day! The hardest part is deciding which pictures to share!

Miss you all, much love!

Hot and cold - the words

Yesterday we had a lazy morning at Paraty, and we were picked up by a private transfer around 10:30. We drove for 5 hours to Sao Paolo, reached the bus stop at 3:30. Our night bus didn't leave until 6:30, so we had to sit in the bus station for 3 hours. It was so insanely hot. There was no air circulation. It was brutal. A young boy was wandering around near me, and he had a small handheld fan. All of our group was urging me to mug him, but I restrained myself.

We boarded the night bus at 6:30 and at 9:30 we had a quick stop for dinner. Afterwards, when we were trying to sleep the air conditioning on the bus was so intense, I wAs pretty sure we were going to freeze to death. I had bare toes so I tried to stretch my pants to cover my feet. I kept my hood up and my hair down to try and keep my ears warm. It was a pretty brutal night. I tried to reassure myself I would not loose my nose or toes to frostbite. And in the end, I didn't.

I have many bug bites around my ankles, which have been crazy itchy and my ankles are now quite swollen up - kankles. I'm hoping a good nights sleep in a proper bed, the proper temperature will do them some good.

This afternoon we spent exploring the Brazilian side of iguacu falls. 25% of the falls belong to brazil, and the rest to Argentina. The brazilian side is known for being better to view the entire falls. While the Argentinian side is better for close up exploring.

It truly is amazing. The most impressive, beautiful landscape I've ever seen. There is a beautiful trail around the side of the falls, that concludes with a platform out into the falls, where you get soaked. It's an incredible experience. It could do with a few less unruly children running around, but what attraction couldn't? It really is a beautiful collection of water.

And the best part is we get to go back for more tomorrow - the Argentinian side. Go to posts down if you haven't seen the pictures yet!

Beautiful Paraty - the words

Ack, I've just realized due to some technical shenanigans, a couple of my posts arrived on my blog sans words! Don't know where they went, but here they are now!

It's been a pretty awesome couple of days. The meeting with our group on Sunday evening went well, it's a small group. There are 2 German girls traveling together, 1 German man, 1 man from wales and my roommate from the UK. We had a quick dinner together on Sunday night before bed.

Monday morning we left rio and travelled by private shuttle to Paraty, which was about 4 hours. Our hotel here is quite nice with wifi and a swimming pool. It is about a 20 minute walk into the old town.

Yesterday afternoon I spent wandering around the old town. It is stunning. White buildings with vibrant doors. Many photographs of doors. Beautiful cobblestone streets, which are rather tricky to actually walk on. I had a delicious ice cream and then came back to the hotel before dinner. Dinner we ate at our guides family's restaurant. It was the best meal I've had so far.

This morning we had a really big breakfast before heading off on our adventure. We boarded a public bus and took that to one of the richest areas in brazil. From there, they have to shuttle us across this private land, only for the rich people. We then boarded small motorboats and they transported us to a beautiful beach. There we explored, took photos, swam, before hiking on to a little waterfall, where we could swim in the cool pools. We hiked on to several more beaches. The hiking was pretty strenuous, but it was a very amazing day. Aside from the first and last beaches, we saw no one else the entire day. It was lovely.

My camera card stopped working just before the end of the day, so that was a bit of a panic, but I've got a working card now.

We still need to go out and get supplies for our very very very long travel day tomorrow, and then off to dinner, so I better run.

Tomorrow we travel all day and all night and reach iguassu falls on Wednesday morning. More then!

Love to you all, miss you xoxox

Hot and cold

Beautiful Paraty

Photo tour of Paratay

tudo bem? - everything good?

I arrived in Rio this morning around 9am, but the lineup for immigration was huge, and even after the huge wait it still took forever to get my luggage. After that I headed up to find where to meet the shuttle I had prearranged. I think I just missed the shuttle, so I sat down to wait until 11 for the next one. When my driver showed up there was a bit of a kerfuffle over the hotel to drop me off at, and it turns out I really don't know enough portuguese to communicate. Tudo bem? which means everything good? thumbs up? 

Okay we got that sorted out and headed off. A few minutes later we stop in the middle of traffic. and pop the hood. hmmm, never a good sign. a couple minutes later we carry on again. but now we are put putting along so slowly, every other vehicle is flying by us. Then we stop again. Hmmm. This time my driver flags down a taxi, and I am transferred over to taxi. By driver pays the taxi and off we go. Tudo bem? 

We try to converse for the rest of the ride, but Portuguese is very challenging! My initial "tudo bem" lead him to believe I knew more than I do. 

Finally I arrive at the hotel, my room wasn't ready but i got changed and dropped my bags and headed down to the beach. So many people. So many umbrellas. So many bikinis and speedos. I walked for a while, but didn't dare go into the huge maze of umbrellas on the beach. that all just seems a bit overwhelming! 

I´m all checked into my hotel now, my roomate hasn't arrived yet. I think I am going to spend the rest of the day on the rooftop pool, that seems more relaxing than fighting for a spot on the beach. 

We`ll have a group meeting tonight and then tomorrow morning head out down to Paraty, which sounds much more relaxed than Rio. 

So for now, everything is very good. looking forward to meeting up with everyone tonight. 

Love to everyone at home. Its beautifully hot here! 

Talk soon! 

A little luxury

My journey started this evening and I flew to Vancouver. I am checked int the Fairmont in the airport, before an early wake up call for my flights. I am appreciating the luxury. Airplane shaped cookies, a delicious king bed, and a huge bathroom. I do think I would like to live in a hotel, especially a fairmont!

Tomorrow night I will be sleeping on the plane, so tonight I am going to enjoy the room of having a king size bed all to myself!

Ciao for now, until I reach Rio!

Off to Rio!

On Friday after work I am flying out to Vancouver, overnighting at the Fairmont in the airport, and early Saturday morning fly to Rio de Janeiro (via Houston, TX).

Sunday 16 Sep - Arrive in the morning and check in to my hotel. Afternoon free. Evening meeting with fellow travellers.

Monday 17 Sep - Leave Rio and head down to the colonial town of Paraty, and spend the afternoon exploring the cobblestone streets and cafés.

Tuesday 18 Sep - The day is free to enjoy island-hopping from beach to beach in the Ilha Grande Bay, snorkelling or a visit to a typical fazenda or farm to sample local cachaça.

Wednesday 19 Sep - Depart Paraty in the morning to Sao Paolo, the fastest growing city in the world and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, where we change to an overnight bus, arriving in Foz do Iguazu the following morning.

Thur, Fri, Sat 20/21/22 Sep - Spend the next two days plus exploring this tri-border region where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet at the junction of the Parana and Iguazu rivers. The focus is, undoubtedly, the magnificent Foz do Iguaçu, or Iguassu Falls.
On Saturday late afternoon we travel by overnight bus to Bonito.

Sun & Mon 23/24 Sep - Arrive in Bonito by breakfast time. Explore nearby underwater caves and waterfalls, go rafting or snorkelling down the crystal clear Rio de la Prata, visit macaw nesting spots, or simply spend a lazy day by the river.

Tue & Wed 25/26 Sep - We make our way to the Pantanal, an immense wetland area famed for its profuse wildlife, where we take a two-day wildlife excursion to fully appreciate the area’s beauty and bounty. Accommodation is basic but unique - we stay in a large tent and sleep in hammocks.

Thursday 27 Sep  - Fly back to Rio for another night in paradise.

Friday 28 Sep - Full day to explore Rio.

Saturday 29 Sep - Most of the day free to explore Rio before a night flight back to Canada via Houston. Arrive back in Whitehorse 9pm on 30 Sep.

Should be a beautiful, amazing journey.

Obrigada (thank you) for following along on the adventure!