Up and down the moutains

Right. Me and a couple of friends sat down after Carnival and had a chat about what we would blog/email home about the Rio Carnival. The question being, do you pick out the good bits polish them up and put a rosey glow on things to make it sound fantastic, or do you tell the truth? In a way it´s almost like admitting defeat to say that you came here and ´didn´t have the most amazing time´. It pursuaded me to write....

The Truth About Rio

Throughout South America, and maybe the world, Rio De Janerio (River of January) at the time of Carnival has the reputation of ´The biggest party on earth´, supported by sayings such as ´no one knows how to party like the Brazillians´. This maybe true. Unfortunatly, what IS true is that there is a staggeringly high rate of crime against tourists, much of that crime is violent and if you are being parted from any money, you can lay bets that you´re being ripped off.

I´ve been to a lot of places and been told dire warnings about crime and over caughtous advice on how to protect yourself. I have always pretty much ignored it and been fine. Not so in Rio. Over a four day period, four out of the five people I was hanging out with had either been mugged or had and attempted mugging, we´d all been massively ripped off by taxi drivers randomly driving though the (massive and confusing) city for hours and had heard numerous reports of people being held up with broken bottles, knives and rocks.

Ok, nothing has happend to me, but for a carnival where most of the fun to be had involves wandering the streets at night searching for rumoured block parties (blockas) it does kind of impead the fun your supposed to be having.

Having said all this, there were some wickid times to be had.

Everyone said that if you´re going to see a live football match, you have to do it in Brazil. They are football mad here (not supprising, seeing as they are actually GOOD at it). So we decided to go and see a local league match between Vasco and Fulimines. Forget English football man! These guys, don´t just sing or chant... At the home sides goal end, they had and entire samba band beating out a rythmic primail beat which was accompanied by thousands of fans chanting and singing a constantly changing set of lyrics. And at five or six differant points, five meter flags where being waved in the air. You just couldn´t imagine this happening in Europe, the Brazillians have a exuberance and a rythm that was really facinating to watch.

We headed for this part because it looked the most atmospheric. It was, but it was also the area which had the most fights. At one point we had to litterally run out of the way. After the first fight broke out, we noticed that the police had dispenced with their regular night sticks and replaced them with four foot long battons!

On another night, coming home after a night on the local rum, we got accosted by a group of ten or so teenage boys. Somthing that if it happened in England would have scared the crap out of me. But here it involved them leaping on us and dancing us round a big circle on the metro plaform singing and jumping up and down.

We also did manage to make it to one blocka, a random collection of people standing on a street corner with random sound systems and beer sellers which was a brilliant way of actually interacting with the locals. Again after a few rums it became easier to let go of irrational fear of being mugged or robbed and actually start appreciating the friendliness and sociablity that the Brazillians are famous for.

On our final day we were taken into the famous favellas (slums). Rio is a bizar city which is broken up by a serise of steep hills right in the middle of everything. This is where the favellas have sprung up, which means that the very poorest inhabitants are living right side by side with some of the richest. This explains why crime is so rife, becuase povity is litterally everywhere. We were taken up into one of these by a local inhabitant right by Copacabana beach. What has supprised me right across south america is that the really poor people look just like everybody else. They don´t seem to see any reason that just because they are poor that they shouldn´t make an effort with their appearance, dress nicely, do their hair etc. You can´t help but respect them for it, but coming from my culture it does make you less inclined to give them money, cos they don´t really look like they need it. When you see them in the slums which they live in, it really is a stark contrast to how they look themselves.

The whole experience felt very safe except for when our guide started chatting away to some chap and I noticed that he had a gun casually tucked into his waste band. When I asked our guide why, he casually replied... ´oh it´s because he´s a criminal´. At this point in my haste to remove myself from his vacinity, I slipped over and fell on my arse. Nice work Phil.

Next I´m off to Salvador which is supposed to be smaller, which will be a welcome change. First however I´ve got to get past my first proper South American bus journey. 26 hours of it.

More on that later...

Our final stop before Rio was a little town called Paraty. Apparently a popular holiday spot for the Brazillians. It was here you could really start to feel the anticipation for carnival. In the lots surrounding our campsite the beat of samba bands rehursing became more and more prominant. Early nights became impossible and therfore what was one to do except spend the time one would normally spend sleeping sampleing one of Brazil´s most famous exports, the capahrina (a mixture of local sugar cane rum, sugar, lime and lots of ice).

This is where the travelling section of my trip is suspended and the holiday part comes into play. So... bbq´s, boat trips, beaches, cocktails and ice cream start to play a major part in my days. Life is tough.

On our first full day me and a pal decided to head out of town a bit and go out to a waterfall which acts as a giant water slide. We walked up the side of the waterfall hoping to be able to hike to the top through the jungle. There wasn´t really a trail, but we struck out anyway, then when the trail really did come to the end ´someone´ had the idea that it might be fun to try and climb up the waterfall. I was litterally up to my knees in water with my boots tied to my back and my bag held over my head that i saw myself on the front page of the bbc news website, and decided to turn back.

It wasn´t just the sheer stupidity of what i was about to do, it was also that i remembered that the person i was with wasn´t just the cute blonde doctor of volcanos who´s really into capoara that she first appears to be. This is also the girl who got herself arrested in the middle east for punching a sailor, who wrestled her bag back off a potential mugger and who has openly admitted that she didn´t expect to make it past 25. I think there are better people to go free jungle hiking with.

On the way down I got a free tour of local rocks and then we panned for gold in the river, finding massive chunks of the stuff. And no, I didn´t keep it. If any of you have any idea how you process the gold so as to make any money you are welcome to give me a hard time about that.

Next stop Rio...

Welcome to Brazil! The land of endless torrential rain it would seem!

You wouldn´t credit it would you? I suppose if you are anywhere for three months it´s got to rain a bit but.... grrrr!

So we cross the boarder from Paraguary in to Brazil and head for Iguazu falls. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me (and everyone else surely) so you´ll understand how pissed off I was when I got dengy feaver. No really... I did have it! I got it for the night... 24 hour dengy feaver... it´s true! Well some kind of feaver anyway.

If any of you have ever had a feaver in a tent in extream humidity then you´ll know that it´s not pleasant, but luckily by the time it was time to get up to go to the falls I was all better. Hurrah!

To see the falls from the Argentinian side we had to cross the boarder BACK into Argentina AGAIN! When we got there the first thing they did was take us out in a boat to look at the falls from the bottom. For those of you that don´t know about Iguazu Falls they are some of the longest in the world, spanning over 2km in length and rising 80 meters. There are over 270 individual waterfalls. Most of these are on the Argentinian side so it´s hard to see them all at once. So as the boat sped round the corner we were faced with about 10 or so falls, pretty impressive... they took us right up to them, closer, then a bit closer... it was only at that point that I realised that we were actually going right under them. How much fun was that??!?! They took us under about 4 times...brilliant!

By the time we´d been at the falls for a few hours I was kind of thinking that maybe I´d seen enough, but then we started to walk out to ´Devil´s Throat´, for something to be genuinly cool it has to have a name like that. If it was called ´fluffy pants´ it just wouldn´t have been as good. Anyway this is the largest of all the falls and as we approached the sun properlly came out for the first time that day. Unfortunatly you had to fight the crowds to get to the front, the whole time thinking, ´just bloody take your photo and get out of the way´, however once you got there you could understand why people stopped to stare. It was mesmerising!

A horse shoe shaped falls with a river (1km wide) flowing over at such a rate that the water actually appeared to be going in slow motion then as the falls curve round to the side the falls break down into two tears of falls.

You can´t even see the bottom because the spray reaches so far up, and oh my god, you´ve never seeen so many rainbows in one place. On top of this the whole area round the falls acutally has swarms of butterflys. It really is a beautiful place.

The next day we went back, this time to visit the brazilian side. How many times can you see one set of waterfalls? The answer is... loads! Today´s highlight was the helicopter ride over the falls. I wasn´t convinced that this was worth it at 45 quid for a 12 minute flight, but holy jesus! Yay!

First of all I´ve never been in a chopper before, and it´s so much fun. As you approach it you kind of expect it to go into slow-mo like in the movies... alas my life fails to mimic hollywood yet again. However I did managed to get the front seat though with a glass floor (urrrrgh). Take off was by far the best bit. 12 minutes seemed to last a very long time. First of all it was beatiful flying over miles of rain forest, then you glimps the falls. Yeah yeah yeah, seen them before... loads in fact but from the air they really are amazing! From this hight all of the spray from the falls actually looks rainbow coloured. First pass around them and you think you´ve done only to find that a steep bank (arrrrrrrrrgh) turns you and you are approaching them from right down the middle and much lower. As the helicopter decended back down to earth I was grinning like and idiot.

Then.... you´ve guessed it, more falls (after a stop at a bird park where I was nearly eaten by a parrot). This view you could actually see all of them in one go, and again... totally amazing. You could just stay there for hours and hours because in front of you is a waterfall that by any standards is impressive, then you move your eyes a little and there is another, and another and another, for miles! It was a sad moment when we left knowing that I´d probably never come back.

I was sad to leave Foz de Iguazu (litteral translation of Falls Of Big Water in the local dialect), all and all had a lovely time there (even with the dengy feaver).

Currently in the race to Rio for the legendary Carnival (the biggest party on earth), unfortunatly this seems to involve stopping of in some of the smallest, wettest, insect infested misserable little campsites in the middle of nowhere you´ve ever seen. I have litterally been living in a puddle.

Only three more nights left in a tent now, and have at least managed to procure one for myself. Yay!

Rio in 3 days!

Well finally met up with the group when they rolled up in BA. It was like I´d known them my whole life and not seen them for years. Nuts how quickly you get to know people when you spend every day with them outside your normal environment.

It´s funny trying to sum up the personalities on this kind of trip. This kind of trip I don´t really class as travelling as it´s just way to easy. I´ve got incredibly lazy as you are driven everywhere, shown stuff, get back on the bus and go somewhere else. I´m taking this as a nice break before starting the more challenging bit but some people here just wouldn´t travel any other way: I find it really baffelling because the main reason I´m here is to challenge myself and spend some pleasant time being lost in order to appreciate being found again and all the good stuff you discover on the way. Does this make me some sort of crazy? I´ll be interested to see what other people think when I get off this truck.

Am I being very limited in thinking that when your in a city there really isn´t much to do except get stupidly drunk and go shopping? Musiums? Art Gallerys? Churches? Eh?

So yeah... the rest of the time in BA was spent pretty much nocturnally and a bit wobbly but finally braved looking stupid and started trying to chat to the locals. If I could just get over being so English and not wanting to bother anyone I´m sure I could actually do this all the time. I now know the size of the famillies of several attractive, young, male argentinans and have established that they have lived in buenos aries their whole lives and that they like it there. Ta da! Facinating stuff ;-)

On leaving the city the fist place we stopped off was a bit of a contrast... camping in a service station/truck park complete with argentinian truck drivers and the local "entertainment".... if the trucks a´rockin´ don´t come knocking, and infact run away, far away! (trying to avoid the mosquitos and the frogs)

Have now arrived in Paraguy. This wasn´t of much interest to me when I booked the trip so didn´t really think about it much. I had no idea it was actually one of the poorest countries in the whole of south america. We´re currently in the capital city which is a totally bizzar place. It feels like a small town in the middle of nowhere. There´s litterally nothing here and the only buildings that don´t look totally run down are the embassies.

The streets here are very hassley and because they speak a mishmash of spanish and local dialect it"s impossible to tell wheather they want to sell you something or are trying to chat you up. I started off by smilling and saying thank you. Of course if they were in fact trying the latter this could get you into trouble.... I might just try sticking my fingers in my ears and running away. Mainly cos it´s funny, but also because if they think your totally insane maybe they´ll leave you alone?

I also don´t think that I´ve ever been anywhere this hot. The two days we´ve been here it´s been 40 degrees in the shade. Today this is fine as I have aircon... tomorrow we´re heading towards iguazu falls where there are rumour of 100% humidity (surely that´s just like being under water), swarms of mozzies and we´re camping. Hurrah!

All of a sudden February in the UK doesn´t sound all that bad ;-)

On the count down to Rio... 10 days and counting...

Oh and also must mention my friends Laura and Katie... I´ve told them that my entire blog focuses on them and they´ll be awfully disappointed if they don´t at least get a mention. Laura and Katie, Laura and Katie... they are here too..... tra la la.... Laura and Katie.....

the end.