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Waterfalls and Street Parties
Bear with me on this one, I am going to struggle!!
I left off in Iguazu, it was raining and very very cold, and I am now sat in an internet cafe in boardies and a tshirt after a day swimming in the sea visiting islands and jumping off boats! How things change in just a week or so, I will do me best to fill in what happened inbetween!
Iguazu falls were amazing, an incredible amount of water and so many view to be snapped. I have decided to take a leaf out of (brother) Ben`s book and write a poem to sum it up.
A bus, a train, a man called oscar
A noise, a tourist, two tourists, a lot of water
A roar, a rush, a push, a shove
Some spray, a flash, a pose, a splash
A bird, a lunch, some rain, some spray
A view, a snap, a wet camera, sob
The scond day at Iguazu we visited Brazil and saw it from the other side, Afterwards we had to participate in an all you can eat buffet for about 12-15 pounds, i was ver sceptical as the night before we had had a buffet which ended with me chewing on a hoof trying to get some meat off it. The buffet was the most food I have ever eaten, i had three piled high plates of meat, steak chicken pork you name it, and ice cream to top it off, i was like a hamster on a meusli box!
I caught the bus that evening to Rio and said goddbye to the girls for 2 days, after our bus experience in Arg i was expecting the same, it wasnt bad but it was a normal coach for 22 hours and no food! thank goodness i stocked up my food store a few hours before hand!
I met a swedish girl called Ylva on the bus and we checked into a really nice hostel in Ipanema with a pool etc. The next day we headed off to the beach in the morning, Rio is amazing, stunning beaches by a huge city, we booked a sight-seeing tour for the afternoon with some guys from the hostel (American, Kiwi, Swede, Irish and Brit!), which was really good. We went to the Christo Redento stuatue where i discovered water in the lens of my camera! doh! it has been Ok since touch wood! We were driven around my our guide Orlando in a VW camper to my delight and i sat in the front (geek)! After the statue we saw the Lapa steps which are cool (see photos later) built by some man who thought they were too boring before! Then to top the day off with a nice cherry on top we headed up sugar loaf mountain for sunset. We were really lucky as it had rained the day before so I got some brill pictures from up there with nice clouds and sunset and night scenes as well. It was one of the best views i have ever seen in my life!
That night we headed out for some grub as a goup and then later to a boat party with two Brazillians from the hostel, it was pretty fun trying to dance on a rocking boat (not in the musical sense or film) until 5 in the morning! a great day all in all but very expensive, the exchange rate is much less favourable here!!!
I checked out that hostel in the morning to meet the girls who were arriving from Buenos at a much cheaper hostel! Needless to say the hostel experience was weirder than the one in New York I had with Ben and Steve! So it was no surprise that we swiftly checked out the next morning! We spent the next day hostel searching and chilling on copacobana beach and we were really lucky to see a huge pod of dolphins jumping just past the waves!
We met up with Lilai (the american) from my old hostel the next day and Ben and english GP on an 18 month trip!!!! (so jealous but i cant complain!) we hung out on the beach and then met up again for some good grub later. Our previous night in our new hostel had been very loud and i had got not enough sleep because of the club downstairs and the lack of windows! It was my last full night with the girls and we decided that we would need something to help our sleep and therefore spent a night drinking caiprianghas on the beach. this was the girls first real experience of this drink which is pretty strong, and the outcome was a very fun night ending with coconut throwing and a run along copa beach at 4 in the morning!!
I made a mess of meeting the tour group i was supposed to be with for the next 50 days and turned up a day early and was lucky to sneak a room in a very busy hostel! i met up with the girls again for some sun, we cooked a prawn curry and then i headed out to meet li and ben to head to a street party in Lapa, which was amazing, really busy and we met some guys Li had met on the beach earlier.
i headed out sight-seeing with the girls the next day and sat in the front seat of a taxi reciting my tour from earlier in the week and ended up at a very cloudy christ statue. you couldnt even see the statue stood next to it however at one point the cloud broke and from the reaction of the crowd and the effect of the floodlights you would have thought christ himself had appeared! I ended up stumbling into my tour orientation meet and greet session half an hour late as we were so late from being at the statue! I hope they werent too cross!
With an early start 6.00 am the next day the sensible thing would have been an early night however i headed over to say bye to lilai and ben and ended up being dragged out with some brazillians they had met earlier. we had an interestinbg night to say the least!!! we went to one place that didnt exist and then thanks to both the taxi driver and the brazilian girls we ended up on a very expensive long traxi ride to a very scary rough part of rio, where the taxi drivers dropped us off after telling us it was safe for `Gringos`!! we stood in the que feeling nervous until one of the girls said we should speak english quietly! at the point the decision to leave was swiftly taken! we ended up having a very good night out and i made it back to the hostel in time for the truck leaving. (our driver says he´s not a bus driver its a truck!!)
we headed 4 hours down the coast to praty where we are now camping. it is such a beautiful place amazing islands and beaches. we saw a sea turtle and sawm on the first day cutting our feet on barnacles and then we went on a boat trip today and saw dolphins and swam and dived loads! i wish we were here longer but we are up early tomorrow for a mega two day drive to the Panatal a wetland area which should be amazing and my next post will be when we have emerged from there!
I wish i had more time to write this but i am, to use an ash phrase, pikey-ing some internet from a hostel nearby. I have also missed loads so this will most likley be editted!!
Thats How for Now!
j
- comments
Mike Meat-tastic! If I ate that much I'd have to sleep it off for a day on some damp mud under a bush and then bring up a fur ball. Look out for capybara's in the wetlands. I think I would like one as a friend ... they don't eat meat which is fine by me! We are having a shed/summer house/log store/wine cellar/cattery built in the back garden. It is bigger than the Dover one and will probably have the doors on the right way. Me and Beyonce took a slow worm into the alley way and bit its head off! Ha Ha! for being slow! Ha Ha! Hip Hip!
Grace Josh, So good to hear you are alive and well! We missed you after you left and then we had to say bye bye to Ames so then we were even sadder! Anyway as I predicted, East and I arrived back in the UK on Fri and the weather has been horrid ever since. I hope it's good for you! Keep updating, it will be good to hear about things we did too! xxxx