Until the Money Runs Out

The Last Week!

2009-02-24T11:44:00.000-08:00

I am back in Bogota for my last week of this long trip. Nearly five months has passed so you would think that my tan would be better than it is but it is what it is. This time next week I will be back in London and it is weird how much I am looking forward to it. I have never really felt this way on a trip before but a lot of the last two months has been spent looking forward to going home. I have become such an ungrateful traveller that I think it will be a long time before I put my backpack on for any extended amount of time. In fact, as part of my new 'try to be a grown up' plan, I have bought a suitcase on wheels to help me carry all my stuff home. There are other changes too... but most of these will come into force once I get back.

Lo siento, amigos...

2009-02-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

I went to Peru, as some of you might have seen with the one solitary photo posted on facebook. It was cool. I was only in Cusco, Machu Pichu and then had one night in Lima before flying to Bogota. Cusco was beautiful though the hostel wasnt as nice as it could have been, the staff were a little cold and a couple shagged in the bunk below me for over an hour, despite many protests!

Machu Pichu looks exactly as it does in the photos. Which was a relief. It had been raining all night the night before I was due to go, I thought that I had left the shower on at one point. But fortunately it had stopped by the time I was due to go. And I had my first tour in English which was nice after two days of Spanish.

The journey to Lima was pretty long and nasty... 19 hours all in.. grrr! But when I arrived in Lima I met the nicest taxi driver, he didnt even try to rip me off which was nice. The hostel was in Miraflores, the posh part of town and I am not (too) ashamed to say that I celebrated my return to civilisation with a Burger King. It was fantastic!

However the air in Lima was really really really bad.. I was still coughing up a lung when I reached Bogota a few hours later. I have spent the last few days staying with my old language exchange partner in Bogota and we went to Villa de Leyva for the weekend with some friends which was really nice.

Now I am alone in Colombia for the first time in two years... and some things have changed... the perpetual cry of 'llamada llamada' seems to be a thing of the past and there are way more foreigners here than I remember. Some things remain the same though....the irresistable nature of me for starters... yes, the bus driver asked me out. I kinda knew that he would. He had been through the bus a few hours before asking for tickets, then I realised that it was only mine he wanted to see. Later he came back and ruffled my hair and asked me if I was bored and if I wanted to dance. Not on the bus I replied. So it wasnt a big surprise when he asked me out when we arrived in Manizales, he offered a massage and a hotel for the night... I almost went for it.. hjahahahah!

Also, I bought a bus ticket today and my name was recorded as 'Helen British' once again the Colombian confusion of my lack of surnames with my nationality.. cute!

Right, am going to finish my pizza now, expect more later:)

Bolivia

2009-01-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

Well, so, I was leaving Sucre to go to La Paz when that damn bus broke down. The nine hours by the side of the road were pretty painful but fortunately the grandmother sitting beside me saved me a seat on each of the subsequent buses we had to catch. Bolivia was looking fairly grim but I must admit that this probably had more to do with my mood than anything else. Plus we seemed to be safely out of llama country which was a shame.

We passed through one town which had a queue about 30 vehicles long waiting at the petrol station. The queue included everything from motorbikes, cars, buses, mini buses and a large proportion of tractors. It was then that I realised that a few seats ahead of me were some English people. Later, as we pulled into La Paz I ran over to them and asked if I could follow them to whichever hostel they were staying in.

Thank goodness they said yes.

Tom and Katie (no, for real) were lovely and seemed to know so many people. I had a great weekend with them, again fortunately since we were stuck in La Paz because of the referendum, whch meant that for at least two days the buses were going nowhere. It was also a dry weekend- no alkholl!

Well the first day we headed out in the morning and there was something a little special going on, minatures of EVERYTHING were being sold. We bought some fake money and later worked out that we had to get it blessed before midday and we would have good luck for the year. People were buying all kinds of things, mini houses, cars, suitcases stuffed with cash, mini lap tops, shops, offices... it was only after 12 that we realised we should have invested in a bus!

And things got only more surreal as a group of nine of us went to San Pedro prison in the afternoon. Yes, we paid good money to enter a South American prison. Now, I have never been in a prison before but i have watched enough 'Porridge' and 'Prisoner Cell Block H' to feel that I know how it works. And I have certainly never seen one where the prisoners have to rent or buy their cells or where they have the keys and the guards dont.

We went approached by some guy on the street who told us that he was a prisoner and he would take us in, for a fee of course. Turns out that he was on the verge of being released so was allowed out during the day, with his wife and kids, who live with him in the prison. And things didnt get any less odd after that.

We were taken to meet a Colombian guy who claimed to have worked with Pablo Escobar (though I cant find any reference to him on the interweb) and spent most of the afternoon sat in his cell with another guy who had been caught trying to smuggle coke to Amsterdam.

It was a very strange day to say the least, coke was readily available but no beer- it is a prison after all! There are loads of wives and kids also living in the prison and half the people there seemed to be ex cons coming to visit their mates. The guy showing us around was unlikeable at first but we grew fond of him throughout the day and it was hard to go to the gates and walk out knowing that he wouldnt be doing the same for another 2 years or more.

The next day was the referendum and La Paz was like a ghost town, no cars anywhere. A group of us walked up to a look out point and, well, looked out. Later we descended on one of the fe restaurants open that day- a British Indian curry house! Hooray! Complete with Turkish waiter and fifteen of us gringo backpacker types. Those in the hostel that didnt go to the restaurant seemed to get take out- made for some pretty nasty bathroom visits the next day in a hostel where nearly 180 people had eaten curry the night before.....phew.

Of course all the bars were closed but the one in the hostel stayed open, on the condition that we were all quiet. All 180 of us. We managed it and didnt get closed down and in fact had one of my best nights in a long time.

The next day a group of us wandered around the Witches' Market and then yesterday I got on a bus to Copacabana, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, one of the highest, biggest lakes in the world. The bus was pretty small and made to Bolivian size, which meant that the headrest was firmly cloaking my shoulders. I didnt feel so good, I am sure that this was in no way related to the Ausie Day celebrations in the hostel the night before!

After a couple of hours the bus stopped, I didnt know why, and everyone got off. I followed them and bought a ticket for something. Hum, then followed them onto a small boat. At the same time our bus was being driven onto a slightly bigger boat and we took a shortcut across one of the narrower parts of Lake Titicaca. Now I understood why the buses were so small.

An hour later I arrived in Copacabana and coped out by just going into the nearest hotel without looking around. Today I paid an extra couple of quid ot move to a room with a bathroom and a view over the lake. Bargain.

I was going to take a boat ride out to Isla del Sol but it has been raining and hailing all day so I feel OK about not doing much.

Catching the bus to Peru tomorrow- wish me luck!

La Paz

2009-01-24T07:12:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick note to say that buses in Bolivia suck. When ours broke down after just three hours and 53km away from the replacement bus, we had to wait for NINE hours for the replacement. Turning a 14 hour journey into a hideous 23 hour one. Uf! But we arrived in La Paz in the end but it is a dry weekend because of the referendum tomorrow. We might have found a sneaky way around it.

So I am here until Monday as there is limited transport today, nothing tomorrow so I can't leave until then anyway.

Did see a big statue of El Che on the way into La Paz though which made me happy:)

Back to Blighty on 2nd March

I fell in love with San Pedro!

2009-01-21T07:14:00.000-08:00

Bloody Madonna and her 'La Isla Bonita' and me on my way to San Pedro- grrrrrr, 26 hours of her rattling around my head. Well I darted up Chile pretty quick smart and the bus was only delayed by an hour when we got a puncture. I arrived in San Pedro around 1am and found a place to lay my head and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The next day I finally got out of bed and went out for a little explore. Little because San Pedro is not exactly Buenos Aires. It is a weird little place, made of mud and teeming with tourists either coming from or heading to Bolivia. Of course I was of the latter variety and didnt take much time before booking my three day jeep ride to Uyuni in Bolivia.

Three days, two nights and all the meals included set me back $100- ah how I wish that the pound wasnt so piss poor at the moment, it takes all the fun out of seeing prices in dollars when you cant just half them and look smug while the Americans cry. Huff. But at least it makes it easier to talk to Europeans about prices now that I finally know how much a euro is worth.

Anyway, the next day saw me waiting for the jeep at 7.45am. Another guy turned up for the tour and my heart sank. Herman the German (no, really that was his name) didnt speak English and didnt look like a barrel of fun either. Hum, a little fact I had forgotten when questioning the tour office the day before, did the guide speak English? Apparentely not. We all spoke Spanish that first day.

And oh my goodness was it the best hundred bucks I have ever spent?? Oh yes it was! Half an hour after leaving San Pedro we were breakfasting at the Bolivian border, being carefully watched by a couple of Andean wolves. After that it was lagunas and flamingos agogo for the next two days.

The first night I didnt sleep at all and was pleased to discover that no one else had either- damn that altitude sickness. After a day of sun we had arrived at our basic accommodation just before the hail and snow started. Yes, it was cold. I gathered together all the spare blankets in the room and nearly suffocated under the weight of them to try and block out the coldness.

Day two was more flamingos and llamas and vicuñas (kinda like a llama but not actually a llama, the tour guide did explain the difference but it was all in Spanish so I might have lost the finer points). And day three was an incredibly early start- not helped by Marie forgetting to change her clock to Bolivian time before setting the alarm, therefore waking us up at 3.30 rather than the 4.30 we had to be up by.

I was first out of bed and out of the salt hotel and waiting outside admiring the night sky by the time the others crawled out of bed. Guess that they had gone back to sleep after Marie's alarm went off.

We drove onto the Salar de Uyuni- google it, it is amazing- an ancient salt lake which at this time of year looks and sounds like snow. We watched the sun rise and I cant really tell you how amazing it was!

WE spent a lot of time on the salt plains before finally making it to Uyuni, a town which looked really grim on the outskirts (the kind of town where pigs shag in the middle of the street, I am not making this up) but the centre was really quite nice. I stayed the night along with someone else from the tour and then yesterday I got the bus to Sucre.

Let me just say that Bolivian buses suck almost as much as the internet connection here!

Not looking forward to the trip to La Paz tomorrow but it has to be done. Especially if I am planning to be back in the UK at the end of Feb!

Which I am:)

Not Chilly in Chile

2009-01-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

OK lets get the excuses out of the way first. Reasons for not writing before include mind meltingly slow internet connection, keyboards so bad that I have to practically pummel my hands through the desk in order to get them to register anything, laziness and just plain having too much fun to write. But i am here now, little ones, worry ye not, I have not been eatedn by a rabid llama or necked so much malbec that I cant remember my name let alone my username.

OK, so where were we? Cant remember so let me go from Buenos Aires once more. Ah, I had to leave. Once my teeth were completely fixed there seemed little reason to stay beyond sheer love of the city, and that can get pricey. So on 31st December I planned ahead and prepared my bags ready to depart the next day. I neednt really have worried as I had a quiet New Year's Eve, exactly what I needed after the excesses of Christmas in Uruguay. And so on 1st January, I heaved my bag onto my back for the first time in a month (having just taken a small bag to Uruguay) and headed to the bus terminal and Cordoba. A German girl from my beloved Estoril hostel was heading the same way and off we went.

However she had booked into a different hostel to me so we parted ways on arrival in the morning and met later for some food. The next day I just wandered around and took photos. Then travelled overnight once more and hit Mendoza.

Mendoza produces around 70% of the wine in Argentina and it would have been rude not to have sampled some, though the drink of choice amongst the youngsters in the hostel was the rather punch packing fernet- which we nicknamed ferret for the face that you pull when you drink it. I did a wine tour with some people from the hostel and later that night we purchased some ferret in order to get the young hostel lad drunk. At some point in the night an asado (barbecue) was demanded for the next night. And the hostel laid it on a treat and promptly put Hostel Lagares Beltran at the top of my loved hostels list (Estoril at this point having been promoted to the home away from home list).

If it had been a wrench leaving Buenos Aires, I wasnt expecting to feel so sad leaving Mendoza. We had a blast over the three nights I was there- Lois, my American friend, and I set ourselves the thrifty challenges of finding the cheapest fernet we could (just under two quid) and the cheapest red wine (uf, about fifty pence a litre) all of which were actually wonderfully drinkable (once we got the coke-ferret ratio correct).

Arriving into Mendozza few days before I had glimpsed my first sight of the Andes since leaving Colombia nearly two years ago and a smile spread across my face. So I decided that my trip through them on the way to Santiago de Chile should be during the day to most enjoy the scenery.

Good idea.

Apparentely the same idea that nearly the entire population of Argentina felt the same way. Three hours after leaving Mendoza we were high in the desolate mountains at the border. Where we proceeded to stay for another three hours. Making us late into Santiago whioch had the knockon effect of buggering up my travel plans into the city.

I had been advised not to get a taxi, both by an English boy in Mendoza and the bus driver. The metro here is good and clean and unfortunately doesnt sell tickets after 11... I discovered at 11.02. My imploring finally melted the heart of the security guard who let us passengers through for free. A good result but stressful.

My second night in Santiago saw me meeting up with Fernando, a guy that I met in Medellin in 2007- often referred to, by me, as my only friend who doesnt speak English. We sank a few beers, had an alarmingly green looking pizza (avocado being overly used here to a degree) then hit a clandestine club for some serious grooving. All in Spanish, fortunately Fernando is pretty good at speaking Spanish slowly and clearly, without all the embellishments usually employed by Chileans.

Sightseeing yesterday was great. I was standing in a queue for the funicular and a Brazilian guy in front of me turned out to be the tour leader of the massive group waiting behind me in the line. When the ticket guy asked me how many tickets I needed I said one, just one, and pouted. He told me that there was nothing wrong with being alone and I said that there is when you are behind a large group of Brazilians. He then told me to push my way into the line and brought out my tickets and change for me! A few minutes later he took me to the front of the queue and pushed me ahead of everyone. Bless him! And all in Spanish again:)

Then I bought a couple of tops, the most important thing for me being that they werent black, I always seem to wear black. The woman told me that the purple suited my hair.

And it must have done since the local nutter today told me that I was very beautiful. Though I pretended not to speak Spanish.

Today is my last day in Santiago and I might even enter a museum later....

Nochebuena

2008-12-24T08:24:00.000-08:00

The problem with free internet in the hostel is that there is always a long line for it and even when there isnt it feels like there is. So I have run out into the sun to update good and proper. I am in Punta del Este in Uruguay and the sun has really come out today. I was in Montevideo for three nights and really liked the city, like a smaller Buenos Aires, but I have to admit to being 'homesick' for the place where I had been for the previous three weeks.

Since leaving Brazil I really havent travelled at all, just finally left BA to come to Uruguay on Saturday morning but even that was hard. Hard mostly because I went out the night before with a few people from the hostel, including a Colombian guy who couldnt really speak English. But me and him were the only ones that wanted to go to a nightclub. Which we did. But not for long. Got home about three hours before I had to get up and even managed to brush my teeth and take my contact lenses out:)

But when I woke up the next day I couldnt speak English anymore! Hahaha! The taxi driver that took me to the port in BA told me that my Spanish was very good but I explained that at that point I just couldnt rustle up any English- though I will admit that I didnt use the Spanish for 'rustle up'. I got onto the ferry and .... well walked around and then sleeeeeeeeeeeppppppppppttt. I hope that I didnt snore as much as the guy just across the aisle from me who slept for the entire trip. I just slept for half of it. As the duty free opened a couple of guys started entertaining the crowds with guitar and song which was fun.

Standing on the deck of the ferry, I could look behond me and see Buenos Aires and ahead of me I could see Uruguay! It was just like the cross channel ferry:) We arrived into Colonia and I got on a bus going to Montevideo and a nun sat down next to me and offered me a sweet. And suddenly I was in Uruguay, along with the 3.5 million residents, about half of whom live in Montevideo.

Now Uruguay was never on my agenda but it is so close to BA that it seemed almost rude not to go and the guys in the hostel in BA recommended Punta del Este for Xmas. So after three days in Montevideo I set off here. And took one of my shortest bus journeys so far, just two hours, but yesterday the normally beachy loveliness was marred by the clouds.

In Montevideo I saw lots of souvenirs for Uruguay, apparently lots of Brazilians and Argentinians like to come here to spend their cold hard cash and someone told me that they tried to get a bus from Porto Alegre in Brazil to Montevideo a few days before but the buses were all sold out. Weirdly I have seen lots of souvenirs with a map of South America turned on its head. Now I understand this humour with Australia and New Zealand as this rotation puts them at the top of the map but with Uruguay it is still about half way down South America, never mind which way up the map is.

So today is Christmas Eve and tomorrow is Christmas Day. And I have made the slight error of booking into a hostel that doesnt have a bar! Eeek! But at least it is quiet. So today I have to make sure that I have enough food to get me through tomorrow- at least there is Cabdurys chocolate here though I have yet to see a chocolate orange:( And I have a feeling that Papa Noel doesnt know where I am! So for the first time ever I wont be opening presents tomorrow. In fact, so sure am I of not receiving anything that I havent even brough any socks with me to wear let alone hang on my bedpost.

But there is a beach and there is some sun and I can have turkey some other time.

So to you all, feliz navidad!!!!!!!!

Feliz Navidad

2008-12-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

I have been in Uruguay for a couple of days now and I am having Buenos Aires withdrawal! Not the actual place but the hostel. I spent three nights in Montevideo and I feel like a bit of a granny because I had to complain about an Argentinian rugby team running naked and wild all night all over the hostel. Of course last night was very nice, of course because I was leaving the hostel today.

Uruguay seems cool enough- the last on my great tour of gaucho culture, which started in Rio Grande de Sul in Brazil. People drink mate in Argentina but here they drink it like they did in Porto Alegre, which is to say constantly. The streets are full of people clutching their mate gourds in their hands, with a thermos nestling in the crook of their elbows ready for top ups.

Montevideo was nice, chilled out and I had a nice time there. Today I arrived into Punta del Este and seem to have made the mistake of booking myself into a hostel with NO BAR! And it is Christmas Eve tomorrow and I have paid until 26th. Silly me!

The Tooth that broke the Helen's back

2008-12-18T12:08:00.000-08:00

At first I was afraid, I was petrified, thought that I could never live without my rotting teeth in my head but then... I met a gorgeous dentist and started to feel better about dental work. I met him in his official position, unfortunately, but better than nothing. Tomorow ends a weeklong dental marathon, the last of my six appointments this week, the 9th so far and I have one more before new year to get the stitches out. The novelty of telling people in the hostel that I am going for dental treatment has long since worn off and out of patient solidarity I haven't even asked the girl with her arm in a sling how she ended up like that.

But Buenos Aires hasn't been all teeth pulling, gorgeous dentists and non-stop pain. Today I was the first to arrive in the dental surgery and got a hello kiss from the dental assistant and the dentist- I love latin society! I don't know if they are just thrilled that my last credit card payment has gone through or if they have become genuinely fond of the girl that cried in the chair on the first day but also likes the time in the waiting room to practise her Spanish- reading the magazines. Though today I was shocked to read that Gael Garcia Bernal is going to be a daddy soon- and not, as planned, to our gorgeous children. Huff.

In other news, part of the reason that I haven't updated this much is because, believe it or not, I have been so busy here in the hostel. It is not the cheapest hostel but it gets the highest rating on hostelworld.com and the atmosphere is great and pretty much all fo the staff know me by name now, and occassionally forget to put the beers I have pinched from the bar on my tab.

The first week I met some great people here from all over the world, including Belgium- these I charmed with my delightful childhood stories of Meli Land (though they saw that it has recently been taken over by eveil forces, a fact I was first made aware of when I last met some folk from Belgium and told them the same stories. Also, even Belgians find it hard to win the 'Name 3 Famous Belgians Game' though admittedly because I discounted anyone that I hadn't heard of. However, we did get an Israeli to sing Dana International´s Eurovision hit so not all is lost).

Weirdly met two people from Felixtowe, though I don't know either of them as they are four years younger than me and the caste system in the Stowe is very rigid. And while recounting this story another girl introduced herself as the best mate of a mate of mine from back home, a mate I met in Oz nearly ten years ago- t'is a small world and no mistake!

Last week I went to Spanish school, but this week it was closed so I didn't. I met some lovely people there and we all went out last week. Fearful of not practising Spanish and being frightfully bored this week, I lined up some language exchanges only to meet an Aussie girl on Friday night who I then spent most of my non-dental time with until the early hours of this morning.

Today I have been mostly being operated on in dental way and then subsequently complaining about it. Tomorrow I am back at the dentist and then on Saturday I leave Buenos Aires, you heard it right, I am leaving- until 29th December anyway! I am going to Uruguay for Christmas- based on the recommendation of some Colombian friends and the guys in the hostel here. I am a bit scared, I haven't moved out of this hostel since leaving Brazil- the non-stop movement after 8 weeks in Brazil seems to have awaken some kind of traveller apathy in me here in Argentina. Ideally I would like to stay here and work, I love this city, but unfortunately even the Argentines are scarpering to the nearest beach for the summer- lazy sods! So I will move on.

Funds being vastly depleted after this dental work, I think that I will move quicker than planned, too bad but it is not the end of the world. And if anyone knows of any jobs going in Colombia, or Ecuador or......

Root Canal in Buenos Aires

2008-12-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

Crikey this is an easy city to love! Head over heels on my first day- posting my CV on my third day but it is the wrong season, being the start of the summer hols and all.

Started my Spanish class and my dental treatment this week. I still havent decided which is the most painful!

Don`t Cry For Me, I`m not Evita

2008-12-02T04:07:00.000-08:00

About two weeks ago I met a couple of Canadian girls on a bus going to Florianopolis. Actually I had heard them complaining for hours so chose not to reveal my gringa status until the last minute. They were nice but whiney. However, we shared a cab to the hostel together so all was good. In our several hour stopover somewhere we got talking about plans for South American travel and when I said that I was going to Argentina the girls went all misty-eyed, similar to the way that I do when people say they are going to Colombia, and one of them gave me a 50 peso note.

Handy. That is around ten quid so not bad.

Yesterday I left Brazil (sob, sob) and arrived in Buenos Aires after minor delays in Brazil (caused by me screaming, shouting and holding onto various parts of the airport refusing to leave- or not, given my poor command of Mickey Mouse even after all these weeks, I have no idea what the delay was) and unbelievably my luggage reached the baggage carousel at exactly the same moment that I did. My luck continued and before I had even had time to make my first Argentinian trip to the loo, I was on a bus heading to my hostel. The bus fare was 45 pesos.

Handy again.

I left my stuff in the hostel and set off in search of an ATM to fill my purse with pesos. Easily found but not so easily negotiated with. First there was a long queue which dispursed when a guy came out of the bank and shouted something. Everyone walked away and I heard `about half àn hour` for the resolution of the problem.

The next few banks I saw had out of order signs on their machines.. not looking good. About half an hour later I joined a queue of eager Argentines and took my turn at the machine.

It took visa, great. It knew my name, spooky. It refused to give me money, droga!!!!

I tangoed from cajero to cajero but nothing. I tried all three of my cards but nada came out of the machine for me, just a blank refusal to furnish me with the necessary funds.

Arse.

However, I just tried again and was greeted with the glorious ticking sound of a machine counting the bills loudly to let everyone else in the bank know that you are withdrawing a rather large sum of money so if they fancied a bit of pickpocketing then you would make a good potential target.

I dont care- I can eat today:)

And so off into the sun- the cool cold Argentinian sun.

Floods

2008-11-28T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well it certainly puts things into perspective when you complain about a little bad weather on your holidays only to later see that part of the country wrecked by floods. Santa Catarina is suffering at the moment, people killed and displaced by the flood water.

Which all seems a little impossible to imagine in the glorious sunshine of Porto Alegre. I am on the verge of my last weekend in Brazil- heading to Buenos Aires on Monday, all going according to plan. And it is an ex-student filled week- staying with Jeferson in Porto Alegre then nipping out of the city to spend a couple of days with Max, and sharing a pint or two with other ex-Malvern types- I guess that would explain why I keep dreaming about work!!!

It is hot here, around 33, so nice for me but it seems that the rest of Rio Grande de Sul hate it! Max didnt like to leave the house until the sun had gone down and various students´mothers look worn out by the heat. And think that I am mental for heading into the sun each day in search of a tan.

Right, I think that it is finally time to wash some clothes, people have beengiving me funny looks all day but at least the smell has scared the pickpockets away!

Peas Louise!

2008-11-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

I just had the biggest burger known to mankind and it included the usual corn, crisps, tomato etc but I noticed that pea fell out and it was loaded with peasy goodness too- now that is service for you!

I am in my final week in Brazil now and have hit Porto Alegre- after just 115 hours on various buses! I went from rainy Florianopolis to rainy Sao Paulo and onto rainy Curitiba and finally to gloriously sunny Porto Alegre, way down south.

People kept advising me not to go to Sao Paulo, stating that it was just another big city. And so I avoided it at first but the rain in Floripa just seemed like a sign and a quick MSN conversation with Marina, another ex-student, and I was on my way.

And with a population of over 17 million, it could quite rightly be stated that SP is a big city but I have come to the realisation that I really do like cities. I do. I know I am a bit of a hippy and should therefore prefer nature (and nature certainly has its place, let´s face it, the highlights on my trip have oft included it) but I am happy in a city, I understand them more than nature. You don´t often get dragged out on eight hour hikes in the city, you never run out of water and if you get lost you can just jump in a cab. Perfect.

So the first day I arrived in SP, Marina was working so I just left my stuff in the Guarda Volumes in the bus terminal and went out for the day. I retrieved everything in time to meet her at the metro and we went back to her house. She lives just off Avenida Paulista which is pretty central- central to the good stuff and away from the actual centre where I was advised not to even attempt to take a photo for fear of having my camera nicked. Certainly when I was walking around there there did seem to be a lot of people who lived on various benches around the centre.

Mari was my student in the winter of 2006, leading up to my trip to Colombia and I have to say that she is one of the happiest and most adorable people I have ever taught. Despite the shocking winter weather she never lost her enthusiasm for London and life. Wonderful. And for our two nights out she carefully selected people who could speak English to accompany us- bless!

The next day was a holiday for everyone in the city, bar Mari. Of course it was a holiday at her company too but they were told that all the bosses would be there and so..... hum. Fortunately for those of us on holiday, the sun came out the next day- which made all the overly large Santa melting in its heat seem even more surreal to me. And the next day I was off again, this time to Curitiba.

I was going to stay in Curitiba for a couple of days- there are some nice things to do and see around there but I spent the night alone in the hostel and thought better of it. Instead of taking the panoramic railway to a fishing town, I overslept and took my stuff to the Guarda Volumes (yes, my most useful bit of Portuguese vocab to date!) and went off to SHOP! The rain gave me a perfect excuse not to have to go on the open top sightseeing bus or anything like that.

I was rather pleased with myself when I managed to buy a new top (yes! I am sick to death of everything in my backpack already, not least of all because it all stinks!), new batteries for my reading lamp (by bringing the old ones along and delighting a group of Brazilian shop assistants with my feigned shock at the price) and new contact lenses! Yes indeed an achievement. This was done by photographing the packaging of an old lens and just going into an opticians and asking if they had the same. I was relieved to find that not only can you buy contacts without a test or prescription in Brazil, they also have no qualms (?) about selling you one which is the wrong strength- albeit only 0.5 out.

So now I can see, read at night and I don´t stink- today anyway!

My last task in Curitiba was to call the student that I was due to be staying with in Porto Alegre. Easier said than done. Calling interstate is hard here- there seems to be a whole load of secret numbers which only Brazilians know, each passerby giving me a different secret number but alas to no avail. I sent him an email, hoped for the best and got on a bus.

Eleven and a half hours later I got off and he was not to be seen. I went to Brazil´s most expensive internet cafe in the bus terminal to check for messages but nothing. A very helpful man at the tourist information told me that I had too many numbers on the number which I had written down.

Hum again and back to the internet but the number I had written down was the one in the email. By now the guy in the tourist info office was looking at me like I really should have caught on that the boy didnt want to see me by now. But he had called me in London a couple of weeks before so he seemed pretty keen. It was a sunny day and after so long on the bus I decided that I needed to get out- another trip to the Guarda Volumes in the bus terminal later and clutching a map with Jeferson´s street hightlighted on it I emerged to have a look at one of my last destinations in Brazil.

You see, I had arrived at 9.30 on a Sunday morning, not a healthy time to turn up on someone´s doorstep. After all the fussing trying to phone and getting freshened up in the toilets (the room not the actual receptacle), it was still only 10.30. So I thought that walking would be better. And it was.

And I finally got there, managed to communicate my intent to the doorman who phoned upstairs, then guided me into the lift, pressed the button for the 8th floor and told me that I was pretty and finally I was there.

Poor Jeferson, looking as bleary-eyed as you can imagine a poor 23 year old is before lunch on a Sundy, opened the door and welcomed me in.

I think that it is worth saying at this point that I think Jeferson is possibly one of the sweetest guys I have ever met for oh so many reasons. We went to watch a football game last night (Inter vs the team that won) and he lent me a shirt to wear. There was even samba dancing at half time. But óur´team still lost.

And I think that brings you pretty much up to date with everything. I am heading out of the city for a couple of days tomorrow to visit another ex-student then back here for the weekend- my last weekend- I am flying to Buenos Aires on Monday!

Goodness me, how seven weeks flies!

Floripa

2008-11-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

So I arrived in Florianopolis on Saturday morning- the city is the gateway to Ilha Santa Catarina. I had been talking to a couple of Canadian girls on the bus from Foz and so we decided to look for a hostel together. We consulted the interweb and realised that we were all swooning at the same hostel photos so jumped in a cab to go there.

The cab left the city and then drove us through some dreamy landscapes- all beaches, lakes, picturesque rivers winding through gorgeous villages. In fact, every time we turned another corner we all sighed with the satisfaction of the place.

The taxi pulled up next to a small bridge leading over a river which led away from the 16km of sandy beach. As I got out of the taxi a familiar face was getting off a bus- Niall who I had met standing by the road in the Pantanal. We all went over the bridge and found the hostel easily.

However, it was the wrong one. I decided to stay and the girls went off to the other one. Me and Niall hit the beach pretty quickly. Ah sigh, perfection.

That night in the hostel there was quite a gathering in the bar, a host of caipirinhanas were consumed and then we went to a nightclub. Things are a bit vague after that. There was a band singing, they werent very good. I bumped into the Canadian girls, they pulled me out of the club, I grabbed Niall and suddenly we were walking along a steep, muddy and very dark footpath- I know not why. At the end we realised that the Brazilian guy were were following didnt seem to have much of a clue where he was going so we grabbed a cab and went home.

It was about that time that I posted the last entry here.

Awoke the next morning to the sound of rain. It continued for most of the day. But the hostel barbecue in the evening made up for it in some small way. As did the nightly arrival of the chocolate man- a lively old fella who sells homemade chocolates- lovely.

The next morning there was more rain. Half of the hostel signed up to leave the next day. I had to think of a plan quickly, yes I was going to leave but where was I going to go?? I am flying out of Porto Alegre to Buenos Aires and have some old students to visit there in my last week but I didnt want to make it a week and a half there. After much thinking about it and waiting to use the free internet in the hostel (and quick nipping out to the ever popular ice cream buffet) I decided to go the wrong way and head north to Sao Paulo for a couple of days and then head south again.

Yes, it is the wrong way but the bus is pretty cheap. And no one, guide book included, could think of other places for me to go in the south before Porto Alegre so that was that. Decision made. Spent the evening chatting to a guy from Nicaragua and one from Chile.

Awoke on the morning of my final day to glorious sunshine once more.

Huff.

Undaunted I am continuing with my Sao Paulo plan- I am meeting another old student there tomorrow when she finishes work. I am travelling overnight again so will have to dump my stuff in the Guarda Volumes in the bus terminal for the day and then pick them up to meet her later.

Now I am just killing time waiting for the bus- I have about an hour and fifty minutes to go......

Cop Out

2008-11-15T22:28:00.000-08:00

.. I know it is but I put the photos on facebook today! Sorry! You can see them there! Went to a nightclub in Florianopolis tonight- later followed a bunch of people down a dark alley, this policy has never yielded anything good. Arrived on another beach and got a taxi home with a guy from the hostel. At the hostel now and there is no queue for the internet! If I told you what I had spent the last hour listening to you would never believe me!

Alone Again

2008-11-14T06:22:00.000-08:00

so I cant remember if I told you that I have had company for the last week or so- first in the form of Moti, an Israeli guy that I met in Campo Grande, we picked up Melissa in the Pantanal and the three of us found Natasha from Switzerland on the bus going to Foz do Iguacu. It is nice to have a bit of company while travelling- I dont mean in the hostels as there is no end of people to talk to then (unless you are in Cuiaba where I was the only one in the room) but actually on the bus journeys.

This is not because I need to endlessly chat to folk while speeding along the highway (or unsealed road aka dirt track) but rather because it is lovely not to be the only one having to watch out for where to get off or worrying because you get a sudden attack of paranoia about having missed your stop. Also, it is a sheer joy to have someone to watch your bags for you while yoú pop to the loo or to get a snack os anything which would usually mean getting all backpacked up and walking around like a deranged upright turtle.

The company is nice too of course.

When we went to the Brazilian side of the falls on the first day here I went with the girls. It was amazing, there is something really special about being soaked by an enormous waterfall. The following day I went to the Argentinian side with Moti where we learnt that you dont know the meaning of the word soaked until you have been there.

The first day was so amazing but we had heard that the Argentinian side was even more impressive, we just couldnt see how this could be so given that the Brazilian side was so fantastic. Then we turned a corner and got a different view of the falls and turned to each other and said that now we understood.

There are two places where you can get thoroughly wetted on the Argentinian side and the second is a sheer wall of water with a walkway coming up to it. It is an almost spiritual experience when you stand at the end of the metal walkway (having fought off all the other tourists so that you can get a photo of you standing alone at the end) water penetrating to the very heart of you, the water crashing down behind you in thunderous applause and you laughing through sheer joy and excitment.. only later to realise that the dye in your jeans is not fast and so you will have wet jeans and a blue bum until you get home and shower. At least it got the ketchup from the day before out of my t-shirt! I am a class act and no mistake.

Of course the other bonus to being on the Argentinian side is that they speak Spanish! Joy! I could understand nearly everything- even when they told me a price for a sandwich and a drink which would have had Starbucks in London hanging its head in shame.

Today I went into the town to get some money to pay my bill here at the hostel, I am always secretly impressed with myself when I get a bus in town. It is easy to get intercity buses (provided you dont have to change too many times and it doesnt drive off and leave you at a rest stop somewhere) but it is far more difficult to get a bus from one place that you dont know to another that you dont know and it all happens so quickly. Usually.

Now I am just killing time until I have to go to the bus terminal to get my next bus.

Toucans, Hummingbirds and quite a lot of water

2008-11-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

I am in Foz do Iguacu, right near the borders with Argentina and indeed Paraguay. I went to the world famous waterfalls yesterday and again today- yesterday in Brazil and today I went to Argentina for the day to see the falls from the other side. I have just one word to say about both experiences.....

AWESOME!!!!!!

And I went to the Bird Park yesterday and have decided that if the world were filled only with toucans and hummingbirds I would be happy.

I am heading to the beach again tomorrow- ah it has been too long! After a couple of weeks of swimming with piranhas, being rained on and being soaked by waterfalls on both sides of the border it is time for some honest to goodness sun and sand again.

And another bus journey. I have racked up over 70 hours on buses in the six weeks and one day that I have been here so far. I have two more weeks in Brazil so I am sure that I have time for more before I head to Argentina. I know that you are all on the edge of your seats in anticipation.

Photos to follow when I find internet that is fast enough and someone to burn photos onto a CD for me...... we shall see!

Map

2008-11-10T08:48:00.000-08:00

I just realised that I used to put maps here to help you know where I am- so here is Brazil

Still having problems getting photos off my camera- I have been plugging it into the PCs but they give me an error message. Am a little concerned

Caiman Fatigue

2008-11-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

If I see another caiman I am going to punch him on the nose! Well, actually that might be a bit too ungrateful. I spent an amazing four days in the Southern Pantanal and you could hardly move for the little buggers there. I stayed in a campsite which was basically a room full of hammocks surrounded by a mozzie net and that was all. The first night there was no electricity but there was caipirinhas so that was OK.

Up early the next morning- the Pantanal turkeys make sure of that- and off horseriding for a couple of hours. Another couple of hours of serious lounging in a hammock doing nothing followed that and then out on a little walking safari.

Which was awesome! We saw capybara, caiman, howler monkeys, armadillos, deer etc etc and emerged from the forest just as the clouds had really begun to darken. We clambered aboard the truck and the first spots of rain hit the ground. We drove for a bit and it got worse. The guides stopped and put on the rain cover and then it was as if we had just driven into a shower- a shower with more thunder and lightning than you would expect to see. It was dark now and we were driving along a caiman lined dirt track only catching glimpses of the world as it was lit up by the lightning. The truck was all over the road, sliding in and out of the various potholes. Bits fell off it and had to be reclaimed by the poor guides legging it through the downpour.

It had all the ingredients of a bad B-movie- a group of international travellers, some staying at the guesthouse and then us favela kids from the camp, dangerous unknown beasties making loud and threatening noises in the darkness, the storm etc. We kept thinking that any minute we were going to break down and have to send one of the guides for help, only for him to disappear forever into the dark tropical night. I couldnt work out who would be the survivors in this B-movie scenario but decided that I would probably be one of the first to go- the London girl complaining that the wilderness wasnt co-operating with her endless demands, being attacked by bugs shortly before the truck ride home.

Of course, nothing bad happened and everyone back at the camp had moved all of the stuff into the middle of the room to avoid the rain which was pouring in on all sides. And rain really cooled things down from the temperatures of over 40 that we had been suffering- I even slept rolled inside two blankets that night.

But my English stomach got the better of me and I missed the hike the next morning but made it for the piranha fishing- this time I caught two that I managed to keep from jumping back and one that I didnt. They were cooked in a stew that night. And we played the international backpacker card game of Shithead for a glorious couple of hours.

The last morning we went on a boat ride, one of the English guys was bitten by a piranha when swimming in the river and I was hit in the back of the head by a suicidal sardine- they all started to jump into the boat at one ponint but this one was guided back into the water by my bonce. Unfortunately this was also the first point in the last four and a half weeks that I got sunburnt. Huff.

Then I left the camp yesterday with an Israeli guy that I had met in Campo Grande and then gone to the Pantanal with. We met an Irish guy standing by the road waiting for the bus to Bonito and we all came here together last night. Today we have been snorkelling. Moti, the Israeli, said that it was one of the best experiences of his trip. But I will be honest with you, I get freaked out by water on my face, not great for snorkelling, so I got in the river but in the end opted out of the hour long float and took a boat to the end- after half an hour or so of playing with the little fishes. Even my limited experience was enough to prove to me that Bonito is a very special place indeed. Gorgeous out of the water and in it.

On the way to Rio do Prata we stopped off at a canyon which I forget the name of, but it is filled with large screeching colourful macaws swooping carelessly through the air below as you stand at the top and look down. This was also a very special place which I would recommend to anyone.

I have just booked all my tours through the hostels, whether in the northern or southern pantanal, I have been told that all prices are fixed so there seems little point shopping around plus the chanecs of being with an international group seem higher if you are booking in the international hostel. I have yet to be disappointed.

I think that I am leaving Bonito either tomorrow or the day after and continuing my journey south. Photos to follow of course!

Pantanal Take Two

2008-11-04T11:04:00.000-08:00

I suddenly realised that I might want to take some photos on this four day safari I am going on in the Southern Pantanal- and I haven´t downloaded my photos from either of my memory cards. So I came up with the cunning plan of putting some of them onto my MP3 player for storage. Just one problem- no PC I tried (and I have tried about 8 here now in Campo Grande this afternoon) will play with my little camera. And finally I got one to recognise my big camera but while it would show me the photos, it would not save them onto the PC.

Grrrrrrrr.............

So I have gone for the other option of buying a new memory card- let´s hope that it is a little more co-operative than the PCs have been. And I hope that this does not mean more problems later.

Anyway, I arrived in Campo Grande this morning after an 11 hour bus journey from Cuiaba- totalling 50 hours on buses in the last four weeks- the only problem is that I had slept with my lenses in again so my eyes were somewhat glued shut when we arrived. Ah well, the hostel was easy enoughj to find, given that it is the first thing that you see when you get off the bus.

Everyone in this hostel speaks English and the guy that organises the tours was on a Channel 4 programme back in the U of K recently- ´Dangerous Jobs for Girls´- which he proudly showed me. There are some very bad reviews on the internet about this hostel but I am hoping that they are wrong! They mainly seem to centre around the tours on offer, which is the reason that people come here after all. We shall see- after the hassles with the tour last week I (hope) I have learnt that even if things don´t go exactly to plan the tour can still be amazing. I´ll let you know at the weekend.

The tour that I am going on heads off tomorrow, though the first day is just travelling, then three days of full on Pantanal activities (seemed to be a lot of walking involved for somewhere that is over 40 degrees at the moment) before transferring to Bonito for what is promising to be a highlight. If you are not sure what I am talking about, and let´s face it neither did I until two weeks agó, look at Bonito Brazil on Google images and prepare to be jealous!

So I will be away from the internet for a few days and assuming that I don´t get eaten by caimen or anacondas, I hope to catch up with you again in Bonito on Sunday or Monday. And maybe even find somewhere that will help me with my photos!

OK, OK, you win....

2008-11-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

... residents of Cuiaba, I admit it- your city is possibly the hottest place that I have ever been to! After a week of the temperature hovering just over the 30 degree mark in daytime and dropping as low as 24 at night, it really out-did itself yesterday by topping the 37 degree mark. And if I wasn~t so cheap, I would have sat it all out in a nicely air-conditioned room. Unfortunately I am that cheap so just paid for a room with a fan- which just seemed to waft the hot air towards me.

For most of the week I have been alone in my dorm so had sole control over.. well pretty anything that there is to control in a dorm.. but then a new girl came in. One who is oblivious to the heat and so likes to sleep without the fan on. We haven~t spoken yet but have communicated through the medium of the fan controls.

But I am leaving today (though this internet cafe is nice and chilled and at R$1.50 an hour (or around 30p) I am tempted to sit the day out here). It has been a pretty mad week. The problem with arriving on a Monday is that you have to wait until the weekend before your friends have any real time to spend with you- which in this case meant that we went out every night during the week so were too tired to do much at the weekend.

I have been here with Daniela who is one of my original friends from when I moved back to London three years ago. When I first started teaching in London I was way more interested in spending time with the students than the teachers. After all, the teachers were just English and the students were all fun and exotic. Plus the teachers very rarely get drunk and tell me how fantastic I am! Since coming back from Colombia I have spent more time with the teachers (and worked out that it is possible to get a compliment out of them if you fish enough).

So Daniela was one of my first drinking buddies in London but she came back to Brazil two years ago- can~t believe that it has been that long! We have really had a lot to talk about. I have spent most of the week then either in the pub or sleeping off another hangover and avoiding the sun as much as possible. On Monday we went to a pub and only left when it closed, Wednesday we went to a night club, Thursday was another pub, Friday was a barbecue at a friend´s (massive) house, Saturday was necessarily quieter so we went to a pub and last night.. well pub again.

Yesterday we went to a big shopping centre near Daniela´s house with her mum and teenage brother. The shopping centre (or simply shopping as it is in Portuguese) had AC but seemed a bit shy about using it. They were getting ready for the arrival of Papai Noel next weekend- the grotto was nearly ready and even included some fake snow- though for many of the residents here snow is an alien concept. I am tempted to stay so I can tell Santa what I want for Christmas but figure that he will probably be appearing in other shoppings too.

Dani´s friends have been awesome at trying to communicate with me. There was a girl at the barbecue who can speak fluent Spanish after leaving in Spain for two years so we had quite a long chat- though, don´t tell her this, I didn´t always understand much! And everyone else has tried to talk to me which is enormously sweet- even Dani´s mum tried out a couple of words!

What I like about visiting my Brazilian students here in Brazil is the amount of time that I spend hanging out with goodlooking young doctors, pilots, lawyer, pharmacists etc- in London most of my English friends are English teachers and my foreign friends, well they take what work they can get really. It is a whole different world for me... and the houses!!! Oh my god, my flat in London would nearly fit in the barbecue area of the house that I was in on Friday night. Not everyone here lives in such splendour of course but it is really interesting to see.

And Cuiaba is quite different from Salvador- well the people are different from those that I spent time with in Salvador. For starters, most people here pay in cash and in Salvador it was a constant merry-go-round of passing out the chip and pin machines for everyone to pay, once they had all got out their phones and used the calculators to work out their share of course. People here don´t spend as much time in beachwear- we are a long way inland here- or seem to spend as much time in the gym or getting tattoos as the people that I saw in Salvador. And they kept asking me why on earth I was in Cuiaba, not a reaction that you usually get near a beach. But I loved both places and met some really cool people in both.

But it is time to move on. I am catching a bus to Campo Grande later- having not quite made it to Chapada during my time here- we wanted to go but things conspired against us and the last person to offer to take me there (a rather goodlooking young surgeon who had just had a fight with his girlfriend) quite rightly realised that taking an English girl who he met last night in a bar out to the countryside for the day probably wasn´t going to do his relationship any good. So Campo Grande it is and the Southern Pantanal. Then Bonito- which I am really excited about- you will understand why when you see the photos.

And as for a photo update here, I brought all the relevant equipment with me only to find that the PCs are locked tightly in cages under the desks so I guess that they are not keen on letting you near the USB ports.... another time, dear friends, another time!

Pantanal

2008-10-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

I have just seen on the BBC website that it has been snowing back home in Blighty-crikey! Snow couldn~t be further from my mind here in stiflingly hot Cuiaba. As I have said previously, I left Salvador on Monday morning and was sad to leave behind Thiago and his friends who had kept me company for the week. Actually, I only had a few hours to feel sorry for myself because logging onto MSN, I was chatting to a Colombian friend, Camilo, who told me that a Brazilian friend of ours was from Cuiaba.

Running out of time in this strange internet cafe/classroom, I sent her a very quick message telling her that I was in town and the name of the hostel. A couple of hours later I got a phone call and an hour after that I was living the high life of Cuiaba in the company of Daniela and some ofher delightful friends.

Daniela was in the same class as Camilo but left London two years ago. We chatted a lot on MSN when she first went back but the chatting eventually fizzled out... until we were actually sitting next to each other here in Brazil! We were both a bit taken aback really- me because I hadn~t realised that I was going to her city and her because she was wondering what the hell I was doing there!

Needless to say, some beers were drunk and in fact, despite my pleas for restraint, Dani only stopped ordering when the barman refused to sell any more alcohol- looking around, I saw that the rest of the tables had all been packed away and the staff were waiting to go home, so I dont think that it was anything personal!

Anyway I had to get up early the next day for a bit of an adventure- in fact, the reason that I am here, so far from the beach, near to the Bolivian border- the Pantanal!

The Pantanal- or Swamp- contains an area of almost unimaginable biodiversity. There are alligators just lazing around near the roads, birds all screeching their calls across the skies, buffalo wallowing in pools of water

and so much more. We drove along the highway until the tarmac petered out and then we drove the unsealed road for another hour or so- stopping for photos along the way.

But it had been raining the day before the car that we were in was a long way from being the Chelsea tractor so necessary for ferrying kids to school in the dangerous cities of England. Finally, after some time getting the car out of one bit of swamp, the driver, Marco, had to abandon it and go and get help

while I was left sitting under a tree in the 34 degree sweltering heat of the midday sun. At one point a wild mule cantered out of the bush to see what I was up before scampering away to shout to its friends. The bugs loved me! I spent quite some time flicking them off until I remembered Rachels parting gift of some bug spray which I had in my bag. I sprayed, they flew away but came back to rest of the only bits of me not covered, face, fingers etc. Sigh.

About an hour later I heard a chugging noise, I prayed that it would be Marco and sure enough he emerged on the trailer being pulled by the tractor belonging to the pousada (guest house) that we were heading to. Hooray for that!

We arrived at the pousada and Marco disappeared. Well, he wasn~t that much help anyway, given that he couldn~t speak English and my Portuguese extends as far as ordering beers and asking the way to the toilet. A table of people asked me to join them and I gladly did so. And it was fortunate that I did as it turned out that no provision had been made for my arrival, ie there was no English speaking tour guide waiting for me as promised.

Hum, the Swiss couple at the table took matters into their hands and their English speaking tour guide told me that I could join their boat trip- I just had to wait another three hours. Poor Marco was supposed to be back in the city by then getting on with other work that the hostel had for him. The tour guide encouraged me to sit it out and told me that Marco couldn~t leave without me, despite the hostel worker wanting him to come back- even offering me some money back to ensure my timely return.

Stuff that, I had paid to see alligators and have wildlife pointed out to me in English and so that is what I did. I have been on many tours in the past where there has been no mention of swimming and then swimming has occurred so I had packed my tankini (hahaha) this time just in case. Which was great as I now found myself with several hours to kill and a swimming pool looking all inviting and, well, wet!

Well you couldnt imagine how crowded this poor tiny pool was- a large group of Brazilians were having the time of their lives in there but I got in and floated in a corner and chatted to the Swiss girl.

Eventually 4.30 came and we got on the boat to go down the river. And it was certainly worth the wait!

The birdlife was incredible. And we saw the world~s biggest rodent, capybara, everywhere- but seem to have forgotten to upload the photos here! Hahaha! Then we reached a part of the river and Walter killed the engine and started making funny honking noises.. turns out that he was calling the caiman out to be photographed

We saw tropical otters frolicking on the river banks and caiman just drifting past. Giant kingsfishers dove in and out of the water, it was amazing! The water was almost as hot as the day surrounding us.

Then it was down to business- catching the food for the stew that night- piranha stew that is!

We were each given a bamboo stick with a hook baited with meat. It was easy to feel the piranha tugging at the bait but a lot harder to convince them to stay on the hooks while being lifted out of the water. I finally hooked one but he wriggled free and leapt back into the water- I was quite glad really

Team Swiss got three or four but threw back the tiddlers while Team German finally bagged themselves one for the stewpot. The tour guide, needless to say, was a bit of a pro

We headed back to the pousada as the sun started to set

The capybara were everywhere by the time we arrived, I snapped a couple in the darkness. I kinda wanted to stay in Pantanal- the night noises had started, the insects buzzing and whirring, the frogs calling to each other, the caiman honking through the darkness... the sky was filled with stars and fireflies were flitting carelessly through the night.

But I had just paid for one day in this paradise and so came back to the city. I am visiting the Southern Pantanal next week when I get to Campo Grande and will be sure to spend a couple of nights there.

Tonight, more drinking with Dani of course!

Moving On

2008-10-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well eventually I had to leave the safety of Thiago~s flat in Salvador and make it out on my own again. Thiago was a complete sweetie, he was sweet in London and even better in Brazil. I must say that Brazil suits him, he looks much healthier and happier- maybe it is the sun or the fact that he spends half of his day in bed (hi Thiago!). We went and met various friends of his with all differing levels of English- ranging from none to better than mine.

It is so interesting to meet my ex students in their natural environments and gives a weird change to the student-teacher dynamic- where suddenly I am the one with all the questions. Like, had I understood it correctly, that Brazilians use LEGAL to mean cool and DROGA (drugs) to mean like DAMN! Turns out that I was right! And we laughed about that and my misunderstanding of what a borrachareria was (borrachar -or er, cant remember- means drunk in Spanish so I thought that itwas a very honest way of advertising the places where you get drunk. Turns out that it is something to do with tyres instead)- and if you want a proper laugh, ask the nearest Brazilian what the Portuguese for KNIFE is!

For the last few nights we havent gone to bed until after the sun has come up so when I booked a flight for 6 am today it just seemed easier to stay up all night so Thiago could drive me to the airport.

We watched ~The Mummy Returns~ in Portuguese with Portuguese subtitles, turns out that it is enough like Spanish for me to basically follow films but I get completely lost when people start speaking it to me. Not least because whenever I heard Portuguese in London I had to tell people to speak in English- that doesn~t go down so well when you are in Brazil.

Thiago was very informative about Brazil and the history of Salvador= anything that he didnt know he just lied about! Though he did admit that the samba was created when a group of Brazilians came off the beach and tried to get the sand out of their Havaianas (fancy flip flops which are pretty much compulsory here- so much so that my ordinary sandals set off the security bleepers in two airports today- the immigration official looked at my shoes in digust but waved me through despite his better judgement).

So I am on my own again- I have had to dust off my Portuguese dictionary and start trying to understand stuff again. It is amazing how difficult people think that my life is going to be without the language- the tourist information guy at the airport today was in shock that I would think that I could catch a bus without some kind of crash course in the language.

Apparantely Cuiaba is famous for being hot- unlike the rest of Brazil which more resembles the Artic. At least everyone keeps telling me how hot it is and the guy at the airport, him again, wished me luck dealing with the heat! I think that it is like the Koreans thinking that their food is too hot for anyone else to handle, Brazilians think that no one can cope with the heat like them.

Given that I had been awake most of the night, I arrived in the hostel and went to sleep. Then I went out looking for a supermarket - no luck! This town seems to be mostly furniture shops which just dont make such a healthy meal option- not with the state of my teeth! But Thiago forced some biscuits upon me before I left this morning so I have something to fall back on.

I am in a very weird place writing this, by the way. I am in the corner of a classroom where some of the people are having a class and others are just updating their orkut accounts. The place also houses English and Spanish classes- weird! The teacher appears to just be talking to one person at the moment, does that mean that I can leave the room without asking permission? Very odd indeed!

Brazil, it is not all...

2008-10-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

... beaches and bikinis, you know... but quite a lot of it is!

I am in Salvador still with an old student of mine. It is hot, I am lazy, so far it is perfect!

We have been to the beach, and lazed around in a friend of Thiago~s pool..

The beach is nice but gets a little crowded. But the water was glorious.

This is Thiago, could he look any more Brazilian! Hahaha!! Bless!

This is the historical centre of the city

There is a lot of bars and restaurants here and also a lot of churches!

Your avid blogger and her young friend. It has been very useful being with a Brazilian who could explain stuff to me, especially since today is the second round of the mayoral elections here and there has been pretty constant campaigning the whole time that I have been here- complete with catchy little ditties that get stuck in your head. Without Thiago I wouldnt have had a clue what it was all about. It has been driving him nuts! To the point that he has been throwing things at the trucks with music blaring out of them all day.

We have been out a couple of times too- to a friends house and to a pub last night to watch some live music. It has been a very relaxing week and has really made me want to learn Portuguese! Something that I thought would never happen as I am so faithful to Spanish. But I dont think that I have time to study and sightsee so I know which one will win!

Thats all for now- take care and I will catch up with you when I leave Salvador- it will happen one day!

Photos! Edited

2008-10-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten what a tedious process this uploading photos lark is.

Anyway, here is the Jesus statue on the second time that I went up there on a clear day

This is a lovely place just a five minute ferry ride away from Porto Seguro, I went there on Sunday morning and wished that I had been there the whole time! The water was so warm...

Some goose laughing in front of Jesus. It was so much hotter the second time that I went up there- in fact I hadnt been intending to go back but I was walking around the lake and it was such a beautiful day and all of a sudden I was there! And then I got a local bus back to Copacabana which was really good as there is a real sense of achievement in catching a local bus! Especially one with a turnstile to get on it.

Ouro Preto- nice place with a larger nightlife than you might have expected. This is a photo from my new camera but unfortunately I have squashed it up a little to fit in on here. It is such a pretty place

View when the mist cleared a little on the first day of sightseeing- we had been up by Jesus and literally all we could see was a white mist so thick that it was like staring at a blank wall. Only the signs telling us what we could have been seeing had the fog not been there gave us any idea of where we were. Then suddenly the mist lifted and the crowd screamed with excitement and started elbowing people out of the way to get photos such as this. I have some that I took on the second day when it was clear but I like this one more somehow

traditional Brazilian footwear - more than just a flip flop- I actually bought some high heeled flip flops! And felt gloriously tall as I strutted along the beach at Copacabana- until the blisters started that is

This is just the smallest of a lot of floats out for the Gay Parade

And this is the food that sends my students in London all misty eyed when they think about it- tastes better than it looks! Well, it would have to really!

And up by Jesus again but on the sunny day- notice that the skin is not as white as it could be!

More food at an all you can eat buffet in Ouro Preto- I could eat this whole lot it turned out

Fireworks in a football stadium- are you sure thats a good idea... I thought that this was really weird! Get people riled up and then sell them explosives... hum!

This is one of the ferries going from Porto Seguro- it costs 2 reais to get over there and it is free to come back.. nice!

Guanabarra Bay in Rio, taken at the end of a day sightseeing up Surgar Loaf Mountain

If you want soapstones sculptures then Ouro Preto really is the place for you. This is a photo of Abi, the English girl that I went there with, shortly before I fell off my high heeled flip flops and someone kindly mended them for me

Believe it or not, the view wasn~t even this good when we first arrived!

Getting ready for the game in the largest football stadium in the world

English culture weirdly summed up with these three photos in this chain of English schools

My first beer in Brazil!

Ipanema Beach just after the rain on my first day in the country

Sandcastles are a little different here in Brazil

And this was on the toilet door at the airport in Portugal- man, they are hard on smokers!