rach150384

rach150384

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Unimpressed with La Serena

[Sep. 5th, 2008|03:56 pm]

[

Current Location

La Serena

]

Hi all,

I'm currently in La Serena, about 300 miles N of Santiago. I tacked on an extra day to explore a bit before heading back to Santiago and then on to Easter Island. However, I feel like I'm missing the point of La Serena. I made a list of everything I wanted to see and had seen everything within 4 hours, and that's with multiple reading breaks in the park. Yet, this is a popular backpacker destination. I can't figure out why.

Don't get me wrong, La Serena is perfectly nice as towns go but it's lacking on the tourist attractions. It's got a beach which is probably much nicer in summer although I did enjoy watching the waves for a bit and it's got several parks, which, disappointingly, look like parks that one might find in the US, Thailand, the UK etc. The best bit is probably the archaeological museum (the German guy in our room last night had the hardest time saying 'archaeological', poor bloke). The museum has pottery and various artifacts from over 1000 years ago and from all parts of Chile. Sadly, the little explanation placards were in Spanish so I made up my own descriptions. "Here we have a large knife commonly used to remove bogies" etc etc. Best of all, it has one of the few BigHeads (officially known as Moai) removed from Easter Island.

So my day in La Serena was a bit underwhelming but hey, now I know. It's worth spending half a day in, one full day is a bit much and I hope you have a good book if you're staying longer than that. That said, the weather is nice enough, the scenery is good and I'm off to the airport in half an hour.

So enjoy the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/rach150384

To the BigHeads!

Rach

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The Worky Bit

[Sep. 4th, 2008|08:36 pm]

[

Current Location

Cerro Pachon

]

Hey all,

I'll do a bit of a post about the worky bit of the trip just to pretend that this wasn't all about the opportunity to see the BigHeads on Easter Island.

The telescope is located on a mountain, Cerro Pachon, at 9000ft, which means it's above most of the clouds. Unfortunately it wasn't quite above *all* of the clouds and so two thirds of the intended science objectives died when I saw this:

A decent chunk of astronomy deals with accurately figuring out how bright things are and it's impossible to do if clouds keep flitting across your image, obscuring that light astronomers so desperately crave. However, we had a few backup projects in case of clouds so all was not lost. There was a reasonable amount of snow up there but a dedicated plow had shoved it out of my way. Oh, that little Toyota in the photo was the car I used for the 4 days I was up there. The 'hotel' was 3km from the dining room and telescope so I had great fun zipping along the dirt track. Of course, the car had a top speed of about 45km/h and the brakes weren't so good.

I spent a bit of time wandering around in awe of the magnificent vista then figured I should actually figure out the night's observing plan, given the cloud condition. Luckily, my room had wireless so I listened to songs through youtube (it has *everything*) and worked out a rough strategy then headed up to the telescope to do some calibration images. Since the telescope and camera are not perfectly clean, you can end up with artifacts on your images, primarily caused by bits of dust on various bits of the system, e.g. filters, mirrors etc. So to get rid of those, you take an image of a plain white screen. Then any variations in your image (anything that isn't a white screen) is due to dust etc. in the system. Then you divide those out of your science images. Anyway. That didn't take too long so I went over the weather forecast with the telescope operators (they move the telescope for you and do the engineery-stuff) and it was not good. A giant band of cloud from the south was headed our way. In fact, here is a picture of it from earlier in the day:

We went off to eat dinner and collect our night lunches. A night lunch is intended to replace the meal that you usually eat around the middle of your waking hours. It's pretty much the same as a regular lunch except you eat it at about midnight. Or, if you're like me - the child at the cinema who had eaten all of her sweeties before the trailers were finished - you eat it at about 9pm. Earlier if you're bored. We came back to the telescope and started setting up. The sky was cloudy but sometimes if the clouds are thin you can observe anyway, as long as you're not aiming for good information about the brightness of an object. So we pointed a third magnitude star which means, in clear weather, it is easily visible to the naked eye. The telescope could barely 'see' it. This is a 4m telescope, meaning the diameter of the mirror is about twice the length of Jeremy Clarkson. We clearly had a problem with the weather. The objects I was aiming to observe were about 40 million times fainter than that. So the night was dead. We hung out until 3:30am when I was told that all the other observers had given up hours ago (pansies). We headed back down to our rooms about an hour before twilight, which signals the end of the night for astronomers.

I slept from 5am til 12pm - this is a fairly early night for an astronomer. I woke up hoping it would look better but no. It looked worse than yesterday, if anything. Here's a picture of the dome that houses the telescope I was using. Note the giant giant band of cloud.

Regardless, I went through the motions of setting up and taking calibration frames. Dinner, nightlunch, and a closed dome. Darn. Luckily for me, my older brother was trying to work in Australia, 14 time zones ahead, and I bugged him via skype. We had great fun being the grown-ups we are by using an online application designed to allow people to hold online business meetings. What they didn't realize was just how much fun two people in their mid-twenties could have with the drawing feature they had added. The result is below. We sent it to our mum so she can put it on the fridge. I expect to see that at Christmas, Mum.

At 3:30am the encouraging news that there appeared to be a hole in the southern edge of the cloud. I had a quick look through my object list and, yes, there was one lump of rock in that region. So we waited 30 minutes to check that the hole and weather was roughly stable and... in the time the wind picked up to 80km/h meaning that the dome couldn't be opened even if the sky was perfectly clear. So there went that night.

Just for fun, here's a pic from the telescope controls:

Rinse and repeat. Slept 6am-1pm. Lunch, take photos, calibration images, dinner, nightlunch. Watch all-sky camera show nothing but clouds for 5 hours. And then the temperature dropped and ice began to form. Once the dome had ice on it, that was it. Game over. You can't open an icy dome for fear the ice will drop inside onto the telescope mirror. I should say that a telescope mirror is not like a mirror one might have at home, which has the shiny bit protected by a layer of glass. This layer of glass produces all sorts of optical distortions and problems which you don't notice too much when checking your hair (as I do frequently) but these distortions have a terrible effect on the quality of astronomical images. So we just have the shiny bit, typically made of an aluminIum alloy, with no protective layer. The thickness of aluminIum layer is only about 0.1% of the thickness of a hair on your head. So you can imagine that the layer is pretty fragile and needs to be protected from falling ice, dust-laden winds, spitballs, etc.

More importantly for our safety, ice had begun to form on the winding roads that led back to our warm beds. Fog had also rolled in. So we packed up and set off in a procession - one telescope operator (TO) leading, me in the middle in my little Toyota, followed by the other TO. I'd like to point out that they had big trucks with proper manual gearboxes and my stupid car was an automatic which had a nasty habit of wanting to stay at 40km/h - not a good speed on steep, bumpy, icy roads and one wrong turn will see you sliding over the edge of a cliff. But we made it just fine and headed for bed. I set the alarm for 5:30am to catch the sunrise but one look out the window was sufficient to confirm that the fog had not lifted and waking up that early was pointless. So back to bed I went.

I headed back to La Serena at 3pm with no data to show for 3 nights. That's the danger of being an observational astronomer. Sometimes you win, sometimes you watch youtube for 3 nights. I mean, err, sometimes you write scientific papers and proposals for three nights. Yeah.

And now the backpacking fun begins! More from La Serena coming soon...

Rach

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Planes, airports, etc.

[Aug. 30th, 2008|07:52 pm]

[

Current Location

Honolulu, Dallas, Santiago, La Serena, Cerro Pachon

]

Hey all,

So I'm in Chile, ostensibly for work but I've tacked about a week of vacation on the end to take full advantage of a free airfare to South America.

I'm here because an astronomer in Arizona was awarded time to use a telescope in Chile but was unable to go on the observing run and he asked for a volunteer to take his place. Free trip to Chile anyone? Yes, please. With my advisor recommending me as an experienced observer I was chosen to spend 3 nights at the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) on Cerro Pachon, Chile. Woo hoo! The aim was to look at some Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs, fancy was of saying lumps of rock past Neptune) to nail down their positions. Constraining orbits is important work if you want to be able to observe the objects, without spending half the night examining a large area of sky to find them, in a year or two's time. So I packed a small amount of belongings in a backpack (no checked in bag makes things simpler) and off I went.

So... let's start with the journey. I flew from Honolulu, Hawaii to Dallas, Texas. An 8 hour flight but was there any food? No. Thanks American Airways. Then came the 13 hour connection in Dallas. I tried to get a hotel room (since work was paying) but they told me I would have to pay for two nights, given the hours I would need it for - 8am to 8pm. So never mind. I paid $25 for a day pass to the business club lounge which was full of free beer, wine, soft drinks, food etc. Once I'd also paid for internet access I was a happy camper. Oh, they also had nice hot showers. Lovely. The day went quickly enough and soon I was on a 10 hour flight to Santiago. Pretty boring flight, don't remember much of it so I guess I slept a lot. Did get a couple of good pictures of the desert when we were about 100 miles north of Santiago.

Then through Chilean immigration (far more efficient that the American version, I have to say) and past a long line of Americans and Australians complaining about the entrance tax. This is actually a reciprocity tax, and the Chileans honestly label it as such. If it costs a Chilean money to enter your country as a tourist, it will cost you money to enter theirs. So it's worst for the Americans who charge citizens of most countries $131 to get a tourist visa. I heard one American describe it as a "rip-off the gringo tax'". No buddy, it's a "let's-get-even tax". But, happily, I am British! And so it was free to enter as a tourist. Not that it would have mattered since I simply would have forwarded the bill to work.

I walked out past the duty-free to arrivals in Santiago and was confronted by a barrage of questions. "Taxi? Need taxi?" "Hotel?" "Want tour?" No, no and no. I pretty much ran past the horde of people waiting for their loved-ones and up to departures. There was an awesome machine there, named 'Luggage-Secur', or some such. The machine basically wraps your bag in bright yellow clingfilm (saranwrap). It was amazing. Probably a bit irritating for any security official that has to open it along its journey but oh well. So I watched that for a few minutes then continued through to domestic departures to catch my flight to La Serena. I had 4 hours there and I don't really remember what I did, other than confirm myself as a tourist by getting a sandwich from Starbucks, not understanding when the woman asked me if I wanted it hot and buying myself and the Helens some souvenirs. Then on to La Serena.

La Serena is a small historic city on the coast about 300 miles N of Santiago. Actually, with Chile it's hard to be far from the coast. Have you seen the ridiculous shape of this country? Hmm, I wonder if this is the country with the weirdest shape... well, I can't think of a better one. La Serena has a population of ~160000, or it did when my Lonely Planet guidebook was written. My taxi driver, Tito (spelled phonetically) met me at the airport and drove me to "The Compound", the headquarters for a bunch of telescopes. I picked up keys etc. from the security guard on the way in and was dropped off at my room. The place I was staying in was essentially a motel, with a small communal kitchen which I raided for any food without a name clearly marked on it. I found enough to have a dinner of egg-fried rice, followed by marmalade toast and a yoghurt, washed down with milk. YUM. Then followed some naps, an hour trying to guess the wifi password, half an hour trying to unlock the door to the library that reportedly had computers hooked up to the interweb, a quick meeting with a Dutch astronomer who also couldn't get the wireless to work but did know how to open the library door and then some quick gmailing and hotmailing. I went to sleep at about 3am, figuring I was most of the way towards being a night-owl.

Next day, I was taken up the 9000ft mountain, which lies just west of the Andes. Watch this space for photos... or go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rach150384

Rach

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Coming soon....

[Aug. 29th, 2008|10:29 am]

[

Current Location

Santiago airport, Chile

]

Chile!

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Last day in Rio

[May. 1st, 2008|09:00 am]

[

Current Location

Rio de Janiero, Brasil

]

I had a lovely 9 hour bus ride to Rio in which I watched some movie that I actually wanted to see but could not understand due to Portuguese dubbing and Spanish subtitles. Stoopid non-multilingual me. I headed back into the center of Rio by bus and, of course, missed my intended bus stop by two miles. I hate buses! Trains have to stay on the track and every station has a sign so you know where you are but buses? Buses can go wherever they want, there's nothing telling you the route and if you don't know what your bus stop looks like you'll mark yourself as a tourist by peering out the windows trying in vain to identify street names. End of rant against buses. So I sighed and, since I didn't know the number of a bus that would take me back and feared ending up even further off course, pulled the rain cover over my backpack and started walking.

It was raining A LOT so by the time I got to the youth-hostel infected area I was soaked. I wandered up to a hostel marked in Lonely Planet and asked how much for a bed. R$45, they said. 30USD? For a bed in a dorm? I raised my eyebrows in reply and the guy shrugged apologetically. I wandered off. As I was walking past a courtyard gate I heard someone say, "Bed? Bed? You want a bed?". Yes, I did want a bed. In fact, I really just wanted a roof. So I looked in and saw a bunch of flags hanging outside a small terraced house. Aha. A new hostel. And only R$25 for a night. I was very apologetic as I and my bag dripped 6 litres of water on the floor but the worker was lovely, showed me where everything was and then let me have breakfast for free.

I changed, met the American guys I was sharing my room with (the funniest Americans I've ever met) and headed out to arrange hang-gliding for the next day. Fortuitously, the guys that did the hang-gliding were based just across the courtyard in another hostel. They told me the weather forecast was not good and did I still want to go if it was a bit cloudy? Given the cost of hang-gliding I decided to wait for sunny weather, meaning I'll have to do it on another trip somewhere else. Instead, I booked a place on a tour of one of the favelas (slums) in Rio. At first I was a bit dubious of the idea of paying to view poor people but the leaflet claimed "Not voyeuristic!" and I had heard good reviews from other backpackers along the gringo trail. So that was booked for tomorrow and I spent the rest of the day munching on lots of things from the bakery and wandering around parks. Oh, and drinking with the Americans. Of course.

My guide for the favela tour picked me up from the hostel and we set off for Rosinho, Rio's oldest and largest favela. It is home for over 300,000 people. The homes are built in a steep valley, landslides are a common problem since none of the homes have real foundations - amazing when you realize that most of them are upwards of 3 stories high. Once someone has built a property in Rosinho they own the land and to make a quick buck, they will sell their roof space to another family so that another home can be built on top. In turn that family will sell their roof etc. etc.

We each jumped on the back of a motorbike to be ferried up to the top of the favela. From there we would walk down, through the makeshift streets. The bikeriders were insane, driving so quickly and so close to *oncoming* traffic that several of the girls were shrieking and I was clutching onto the handholds for dear life. That said, it was fantastic. I'm not sure if they drive like that normally, perhaps it was just to scare the gringos. The riders run sort of a taxi service, takng people up and down the valley for R$3. While the favela was initially just cheap housing, it now has many small businesses, a government-funded health center, a daycare for kiddos and even a post-office.

We reached the top in one piece and immediately I noticed the illegal electricity hookups, with cables stretching from building to building. Our guide told us that they have taken it one step further now with many homes also having free (illegally obtained) cable and internet access. At this point we were on the main road - the reason for the location of Rosinho. The tour guide has an arrangement with the druglords who run the favela - part of our money pays for the daycare center and in return the tourists have to follow these rules:

Don't buy drugs from anyone here - the police generally stay out of the favelas but would have to come in if they caught a tourist with drugs from one of the favelas.
Don't take a picture of anyone with a gun
Don't take a picture of anyone with a walkie talkie - these are watchers and are responsible for monitoring who goes in and out of the favela.

We walked past a couple of teenage watchers into the favela. The "street" was extremely narrow, no more than 2ft wide. As we walked down the conditions worsened. Rainfall washes debris, sewage and trash down the valley and into the houses. Thus, the rent for a house at the top of Rosinho is higher than for a house at the bottom. We stopped at a bakery (and put a little money into the Rosinho economy) then walked to a kids' music center. Some of the kids did a drum show for us using empty buckets. They weren't exactly good...or even rhythmic but they perform in Carnival every year. Their hearts were in it, at least. We were told that, while there are no schools in Rosinho, the kids get free bus rides as long as they are wearing school uniforms so they can get to and from school each day.

We finished by walking through an open air market. Why does every Brazilian market sell remote controls? I almost bought one as a joke gift for someone but by this point I was very close to having to exchange another travellers' cheque which is always a pain. See a previous post for complaints about exchanging money in Rio. The tour was undoubtedly the best thing I did in Rio. It was great to see in person all those things you learn about in school, and to see the work being done by both charities and the government in the poorer areas of Rio.

I spent the rest of the day attempting to withdraw R$20 so I could pay for both a taxi to the airport and my bed (I only had enough for one). It took 4 ATMS and 3 credit cards but I finally found a combination that works. Word of advice for anyone going to Brazil: take cash and travellers' cheques.

Off to airport then home!

Until the next trip,

Rach

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Ilha do Mel	[Apr. 28th, 2008\|05:14 am]
A 90 minute boat ride later we arrived on the tiny strip of sand that connects the two halves of Ilha do Mel. I wandered off with a couple of French (I think) girls to find somewhere to stay. Since it was the low season most places were closed but we eventually found a good place on the southern half of the island. The Frenchies dumped their stuff and disappeared while I wandered back up to the sand bar with my mp3 player. I suddenly had a weird urge to exercise and so went for a barefooted run along the western shore of the island. While on my run I saw this: Dead fish. It was in fact just one of many dead fish in a fish graveyard on the beach. I walked back as the sun was setting, then went on an internet hunt. This was harder than it sounds since there is only one place with internet on the island, everything is connected by tiny sandy trails through rainforest that all look the same, and there is no lighting. So I set off with my tiny maglite, cursing the housemates that suggested watching '28 Days Later' (zombie film). As I wandered down a random trail with no inkling of the direction I should be going in, I heard screams from behind me and suddenly two teenage girls came bursting out of the undergrowth, lighting their way with a cell phone screen. They screamed louder when they saw me, then burst into laughter. They had freaked themselves out, I'm guessing they had also seen a zombie film recently. Happily, they knew where the internet place was and took me there in return for me guiding the way with my torch. I managed to make it home alone, although with at least one wrong turn that ended with me standing at the edge of the ocean. I got up early the next morning to watch sunrise from the sand bar, then started walking towards the north of the island. I came across a fort so I spent a happy half hour exploring that before discovering a trail that led to the highest point on the island where the military (two hundred years ago) built a lookout post. I wandered on up to the north shore of the island, meaning to walk around to the other side (~7 miles) but alas, the map had lied and instead of beaches there were only marshes and pointy sticks along my intended route. To be fair, I gave it a good go, going so far as to strip to my bikini, put all my belongings in my bag and swim across a river opening with my bag above my head just like the army guys do. However, I was forced to give up when I realised that not only were the marshes impenetrable but, additionally, nobody would find my body for weeks should something happen. So I trudged back towards the southern half to check out the surfing beaches. Six miles later I reached Praia Grande and watched a couple of surfers for a while. I continued on my trek to find some caves (no great shakes) and a town (just a supermarket) then hiked back up the coast to a lighthouse to watch the sun set. Pictures can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/rach150384. Oh, almost forgot - I stumbled across a dead dolphin being pecked to pieces by vultures on the north shore of the island. It did not smell good. And then to Rio Rach
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Curitiba and a train	[Apr. 27th, 2008\|11:46 pm]
I have decided to finally finish writing my blog about my Brazil trip, after a tirade from my older brother who apparently checked my blog every day for six weeks after I got back to Hawaii. Sorry bro. In addition, the weather is currently terrible and so I can't use the telescope. So, where were we? Aaah yes. Off to Curitiba, pronounced Cur-ih-chee-bah. Arrived at the airport where I promptly got ripped off for a tourist bus because I couldn't find the regular bus stops. But no matter because "ripped off" meant I paid about 4USD instead of 2USD. The grand plan was to spend one night in Curitiba then catch a train to Paranagua, a small town on the south-east coast, where I would then get a boat to Ilha do Mel. So I arrived at the bus station, found the train station just behind and accidentally bought a regular-person train ticket instead of the tourist ticket. I keep doing that. I think it's because I keep trying to use Portuguese. If I just shouted English very slowly at people I would certainly end up on the tourist coaches. Mission accomplished, I left the train station in search of my youth hostel. I found it eventually, memorising the location of a shop selling bacon sandwiches along the way. It's been years since I had a good bacon sarnie. I checked in and again realised that if I had only joined Hostelling International I would have saved 50% on the price. Curitiba is a fairly normal city, on the small side with a lot of nice gardens and parks to explore. Unfortunately I only had about 12 hours in Curitiba and most of those were at night so I only had time for a quick walk through the park next to the hostel and to check out the homeless guys selling jewellery. I did make it back to the bacon sandwich shop where I struggled to make the guy understand what I wanted. Five months later and I'm still not sure what I said incorrectly but, boy, did it take a while to get that sandwich. The next day I went back to the train station where I joined a bunch of Brazilian families headed to Paranagua for the Sunday. The train was wonderfully colourful and the trip was an instant hit when little packages of free food were handed out. We even had a tour guide on the 4 hour trip, albeit a portuguese-only one. So I had no idea what was going on but it was apparently very funny to the others in the car. The ride was spectacular with panoramas of lush green valleys stretching back into misty mountains. We wound around steep curves and over precarious bridges with everyone hanging out of the windows. I'm glad I took the trip, a few backpackers I met in the Amazon had said it wasn't worth doing. Lies! All lies! Highly recommended should you find yourself in southern Brazil. Paranagua is a nice little seaside town that could in fact have been in England if it wasn't for the absence of sticks of rock. Mmm... The weather was also British - rain, rain, rain. So I tried and failed to find a place to buy a boat ticket to Ilha do Mel from and instead headed to the bus station to arrange my ticket to Rio in 2 days. After much miming and many numbers written on pieces of paper I realised I had to buy a ticket to Curitiba from one company, then a ticket from Curitiba to Rio from another company. With this accomplished I returned to the waterfront to find a boat going to Ilha do Mel. Et voila! I saw a boat about to leave with a couple of other backpackers aboard and on I jumped. And off we went...
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Argentina and Itaipu Dam

[Apr. 25th, 2008|11:44 pm]

[

Current Location

Puerto Iguazu, Argentina

]

Hey all,

Yes, this is a late post. I have, in fact, been back in Hawaii for a week but better late than never.

I set off for Argentina the next morning with another Brit backpacker, after changing 50R$ into Argentinian pesos. We had shunned our hostel's organised tour with the vague notion that between the two of us we could handle the bus systems and border control stations in two countries where we were, effectively, illiterate and mute. Happily, the number of people, Brazilians and backpackers alike, crossing the border each day was so great that the bus drivers and immigration officials were spectacularly efficient. The bus we caught in Brazil puttered up to the Brazilian border post where those leaving Brazil for more than a day disembarked. The rest of us continued to the Argentinian side. There we got off the bus and shuffled up to a line of immigration officers waiting to inspect our passports. I'm not exactly sure what the officer asked me but the Spanish reply "One day, waterfalls" seemed to suffice. With yet another page of my passport occupied I exited the border station and boarded the bus that had driven 50m along the side of the immigration building. The whole process took less than 5 minutes for the 30 people on board the bus. I'd like to point out that it usually takes ~60 minutes for a ferrener like me to get through US immigration. We were deposited in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, from here we caught a bus to the Iguazu Falls (note the change in spelling) park.

Luckily we had spoken to a Scottish couple at brekkie who warned us that Brazilian currency was not accepted at the park entrance, regardless of what all the tourist bumph was saying. So we made it into the park, past those hapless folks who had turned up with nothing but R$ in their pockets. The Argentinian side of the park was noticeably more organized with a train that ran throughout, a boat ride included in the entrance fee and handy maps available.

We spent most of the day hiking the trails that wind around the falls. The Argentinian side provided a closer view to the falls. We turned down multiple tour operators who were offering a boat trip to a section of the waterfall for 60R$. The people coming off the boat were VERY wet. Going back to Brazil sopping wet just didn't seem like fun to me. I will take a proper boat trip whenever I make it to Niagara Falls.

Martin hadn't yet seen monkeys in Brazil so we spent some time monkey-watching (a favourite hobby of mine) and were rewarded with the sight of 4 or 5 (insert species here) monkeys clambering through the rainforest that surrounds the falls.

We started to head back to Brazil once our leggies got tired, but not before buying a bunch of souvenirs at half the Brazilian price. Bargain. Upon arriving back in Foz do Iguacu we headed to a beer garden with a Brazilian traveller for, well, beer. Then Luiz took Martin and I to the most fantastic icecream place. Delicious.

I spent the next morning at Itaipu Dam - a massive hydroelectric power station that supplied 90% of Paraguay's power and 25% of Brazil's. I didn't have long to look around as I had to get back into town (and then out again to the airport) but it was a morning well spent. I had toyed with the idea of going to Paraguay but from other travellers' accounts the nearest town was simply a duty-free haven for Brazilians.

Next: a flight to Curitiba towards the coast, where I'll catch a train to Paranagua on the coast. Onwards and upwards.

Rach

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The Brazilian side of Igaucu Falls	[Apr. 24th, 2008\|08:26 pm]
Hey all, Quick post in the 9 remaining minutes of internet time. I got to Foz do Iguacu after a 16 hour bus ride. Mostly uneventful except it was frigging cold and I couldn't sleep despite wearing as many clothes as possible. I even wore shoes! So I arrive in Foz extremely tired but did bump into a couple of Frenchies that were in the Pantanal with me. I pointed them in the direction of my hostel, they beat me there since they took a taxi. I was brave and figured out the buses. I dumped my stuff and headed off to the Brazilian side of the waterfalls (which are reputed to be better than Niagra). Have a quick google if, like me 2 months ago, you've never heard of Iguacu Falls. I paid the admission fee only to find that the park was touristastic and had more giftshops than Disneyland. Every trail started or ended with a tour company trying to sell you a boat ride or a giftshop. Worse, it turns out some of the tour companies own the trails, meaning the 9km trail I had planned to hike would cost 135R$. Now, I can get a helicopter tour for less than that (40quid, 80USD) so I laughed in their faces and left. I should say that the falls (what I could see from the tiny trail that was free) were absolutely beautiful. Simply amazing. I'll post the pictures when I'm able but the sight was probably the best in Brazil so far. Internet about to run out but will just say I left the falls pretty grumpy due to the ludicrous 135R$ charge for that trail. Day was saved by the discovery of a beer garden near the hostel. 4R$ for a giant beer (picture will follow some day) and 11R$ for bacon pizza. Wonderful. Argentina tomorrow with another backpacker, maybe Paraguay. Later, Rach
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The Pantanal

[Apr. 24th, 2008|07:48 pm]

[

Current Location

Pantanal

]

Hey all,

This will be a bit of a garbled post, have already forgotten some things from the Pantanal, blame the beer.

The 5 hour bus ride to the Pantanal was mostly boring, I made some instant friends by sharing a packet of biscuits around the 8 backpackers on board. We then took a jeepy-thing to our accommodation. The camping part was awesome. A really relaxed, laidback place filled with interesting backpackers. All of us (between 10 and 15 depending on the day) slept in a big room with hammocks slung from wall to wall. We had two bats living in there, they ate the mosquitos which was good because the mozzies were vicious there. My ankles have still not recovered from the first night.

The first night was great, mostly because one of the Israelis had a guitar. We got a campfire going and passed the guitar around - why is it most backpackers can play guitar? No Jan, we did not sing kum by yah. Spelling?

On the first morning we went piranha fishing (sigh, again). This time I was more successful and caught two piranha and a catfish. The catfish was weirdlooking but quite delicious. The piranha tasted ok, since I don't normally eat fish I can only compare them to the catfish and they were worse. I tied with a Kiwi (James) in number of fish, Daniel (Israeli with guitar) didn't catch anything and vowed never to fish again. Our guide Sandro showed us how to clean the fish, quite icky but mega-fun! Then we handed them over to the cook for lunch.

We went horseriding for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Boy, was that stressful for the first 20 minutes. My horse was in fact a sheep that had to do whatever the other horses were doing. Unfortunately I was riding with more experienced people who rapidly galloped off into the distance. And off went my horse with me clinging to the saddle, trying not to drop my camera, shouting "Pare! Stop!" and commands in any other language I could think of. Happily, my horse (nicknamed Bastard) soon tired out and began to plod along at a much more amenable pace. Riding was good after that, although we didn't really see much wildlife.

Tuesday was a trekking sort of day. We spent a few hours walking in the morning, and then drove to a more remote location for more walkies in the afternoon. We saw a load of monkeys, armadillos, toucans, macaws and, most importantly, capybara. The capybara were cool, just like giant guinea pigs. I want one. We watched sunset as we drove back, spectacular again. Then the stars came out so everybody asked me questions and I had no idea which constellations were which since I was in the wrong hemisphere. So I made some stuff up. They'll never know...

That night James, myself and an Aussie called Daniel had a few too many drinkies and took our guide Sandro for a special tour of the Pantanal. I was the experienced tour guide since I had been in the Pantanal for almost 4 days by then. We showed him many things including the dangerous Brazilian woodsnake (looks and acts a lot like a stick). The boys and I didn't get to bed until 3am which was a mistake as James and I were leaving the next day and had many many hours on uncomfortable buses ahead.

Our final activity was floating down a river in rubber tubes - perfect for those nursing hangovers such as James, Daniel, Sandro and myself. As we reached the halfway point Sandro started shouting "Get out of the water!" So we swam to the bank and pulled ourselves out, wondering what was up and hoping it was something big and scary like a huge caiman (alligator). Turns out Sandro thought he had seen giant otters but in fact he saw a couple of girls from camp swimming. In a fight between a huge caiman and a giant otter, the giant otter would win, they're very aggressive apparently. Good to know because they look sort of cuddly.

My time in the Pantanal was amazing, mostly because of the people rather than the wildlife I went to see. The crowd was so chilled out, loads of fun to hang out and swap stories with. In particular, James and Daniel were great, we spent hours talking in the hammocks outside. I was sad to leave, but it was time to move on. Next stop: Foz do Iguaçu and Argentina.

Some photos have made it onto picasaweb.google.com/rach150384 but I'm paying extra to use a computer with available USB ports and will only spend another 10 minutes uploading. They'll make it eventually.

Rach

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(no subject)	[Apr. 20th, 2008\|12:18 am]
Hey all, Hope you enjoyed the last mega-post. Don't get too used to it, I have left the comfort of Gero's office and am back in the world of paying for a bed. This morning I met up with Rich for some business (exchanging USD for R$) before heading to a zoo with him. We took a wander around. I had seen most of the animals in the wild (except the manatees which are next to impossible to spot in the Amazon) but it was cool to have a look again. We saw a couple of monkeys that had somehow gotten out of their cages and were trying to get back in. They were climbing around the outside while their mates on the inside looked on in confusion. We spent a lot of our time with our heads craned upwards in the hope of seeing a sloth. Sloths are difficult to spot in the wild since they don't move much or make a lot of noise. Rich spotted what looked like a mudball stuck to a branch, we watched it for a few minutes and eventually a little head peeked out and had a look around. We watched the sloth for a while but, boy, those things are boring. It just hung there, occasionally moving its head, but not doing anything. So we went back to the manatees which were in a tank with a bunch of leaves - it looked like a giant soup was being prepared. Mmm manatee soup. They're not endangered, right? Gero (tour operator guy) drove me to the airport after lunch (a pastry, cup of fried plantains, can of guarana and two yoghurt sweets -I love street vendors). I caught a few planes and am now in Campo Grande in the east of Brazil, towards the Paraguay and Bolivia border. Tomorrow I leave for 4 days of camping (with hammocks, a roof and food so not really camping, think there are even bathrooms). I think I get to go horse riding, on a jeep safari, a boat trip and piranha fishing again. It should be amazing. In theory, I get back on Wednesday night at 7pm which is good becausemy bus to Iguacu Falls leaves at 8pm. So I am going to get some much needed sleep, I arrived here at 11pm and leave tomorrow morning at 10am. Must also buy bus ticket tomorrow, hoping it will be cheap. Thanks for the comments! Rach
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In the jungle, the mighty jungle

[Apr. 16th, 2008|01:40 am]

[

Current Location

Manaus, Brazil

]

Our jungle lodge was (probably still is, in fact) located about 120km south of Manaus. Getting there involved two boat rides and an hour by car.

The first boat ride was across the main channel of the Amazon River. It branches into many channels, lakes and creeks so which bit exactly is the Amazon is a matter of opinion. As we crossed in a comfy speedboat we came to the meeting of the waters. This is where the dark, acidic water of the Rio Negro (flowing from Colombia) meets the lighter water of the Rio Solimoes. The waters have different temperatures, densities and speeds which mean they don't mix for several kilometers and flow side by side. Rio Negro flows through a deeper channel, moving more quickly and collects more dead vegetation than Rio Solimoes. The decaying vegetation raises the pH of the water, making it less amenable to life. So there are fewer mosquitoes around dark water, but also fewer monkeys. I think you can guess which was more important to me.

We all stuck our hands in as we crossed from Rio Negro to Rio Solimoes, the temperature difference of 4 degC was noticeable.

Next was a 40 minute car journey to the next boat. On the way we stopped to see giant water lilies alongside the road. They can grow up to 1.2m in diameter and can hold up to 10kg. I estimate that's one of my legs.

Our final step was a fast, hair-raising boat trip through the winding channels to reach Lago Juma (or somewhere close to it). We had less than an inch of waterboard at times, and several of us came close to losing an eye to overhanging branches. Still we made it one piece.

I had paid 140R$ per day to sleep in a hammock at the lodge but luckily they had a few spare beds so I took one of those. The lodge was far from rustic by my standards. There were little cabins that you could rent and one big room with a bunch of beds and then hammocks slung over the porch outside. Each hammock was covered by a mosquito net. The local store was a 3 minute boat ride away, you could buy a beer or soda for 3R$.

Between lunch and the afternoon activity we had a siesta because it was too hot to do much. I went for a swim in the river by the lodge with a few others. The water was incredibly gunky and my towel is now disgusting. But it was good to cool off. I later found out that there are plenty of piranhas down there and caiman (alligators) are common too. Apparently, as long as you keep moving the piranhas won't nibble on you. Didn't have a problem with caiman so I can't offer survival tips for those.

Our first afternoon was spent bird and dolphin watching. I won't post the photos of the birds here, they are mostly blurry or pointing in completely the wrong direction. We saw kingfishers, egrets (like herons), herons, hawks, vultures and jacanas which are really common and really pretty. They're sort of like the Amazonian pigeon, but way better looking than ours. There are two types of dolphins in the Amazon - grey and pink. The grey dolphins are easier to spot since they travel in large groups and come up frequently for air. The larger pink dolphins tend to travel alone and can last 30 minutes underwater. We did eventually see both kinds over the 4 days. We often watched grey dolphins as we ate breakfast.

On the way back to the lodge we stopped for a spot of piranha fishing. This was a simple affair, involving a stick, a bit of string, a barbed hook and some chicken skin. Alan, our guide, showed us how to wrap the chicken skin over the hook, then dangled it in the water and within 90 seconds he had a piranha on the end. Great, we thought, this will be easy. Not so much. It turns out the important bit is snapping the rod upwards hard and fast when you feel a bite. I decided I wasn't jerking it fast enough at one point so when I felt the next big bite I flicked the rod up quickly...and the piranha flew off the hook and 5 feet across the river. Hmm. Not so successful. Ironically, the only one of us to catch a piranha was the vegetarian Israeli girl who threw hers back.

In the evening we went caiman-spotting or, more accurately, we went caiman-grabbing. Eight of us (6 customers, one guide and one boatman) piled into a motor-canoe and set off in darkness along the edge of the river. Alan, our guide, shone a torch into the undergrowth to watch for the reflection from the caiman's eyes. When he saw something he would signal for the boat to move closer, crouch on the prow of the boat then suddenly make a grab into the water and come up clutching an alligator. I was watching pretty carefully so I think I will try that technique in the Pantanal. He caught the first caiman, a 3-month old black caiman. Black caiman are the most dangerous type, but you've not got much to fear from a tiny one. He pointed out a few things then said we should try to find another one. "Who wants to hold it?" he asked. I gave the others a quarter of a second to respond before piping up with "I will". The others actually didn't seem that enthused. So I was handed a tiny caiman. You have to hold it around the neck which prevents it from opening its jaws. We took some photos, check out picasaweb for those. We set off again with Johnny the black caiman in my hand. Alan signalled for quiet and we pulled in to shore. Alan grabbed and came up with another, larger caiman. He passed that one off to someone else. This happened twice more, each time Alan would turn back to face us with a caiman larger than the one before. Finally, he went to catch the last one. He came up with one that was about 2ft long, the biggest yet. "Who will hold this one?" I was currently caiman-less, having passed Johnny to Selina behind me. "I will". Alan looked at me dubiously. "This one?" "Yeah." "Hmm. Ok." And he handed me a caiman we later dubbed Andy, for no apparent reason. Andy was a bit of a fighter and didn't like the look of the other caiman in the boat (all being held tightly by their handlers). We took our catch carefully back to the lodge so we could learn about them.

(Susie and Liz, I thought the kids might be interested in this stuff so I made notes!)

Did you know caiman have two eyelids - one that works like ours and another translucent one to act as a goggle and prevent bacteria from entering the eye when the caiman is underwater? Caiman have webbed backfeet which they use for swimming, they don't use their front legs for swimming. Baby caiman start with 74 teeth and grow 6 more teeth by the time they reach adulthood. The sex of the caiman is determined by the temperature of the eggs' surroundings, about 60% of all caiman born in the Amazon are female. The babies eat frogs and little fish, adult caiman eat big fish and sometimes the babies. Predators include hawks and vultures which are common in the Amazon. They can live for over 100 years and take 50 years to reach full size. Black caiman can grow up to 6m long, but happily we didn't see any that big. It would have been funny to see Alan try to wrestle that into the boat though. And that's most of what I can remember about caiman.

Time to say goodbye came (after the obligatory photo session, check out a sample on picasaweb). We all bid farewell to little Johnny. I'm not sure that kid is going to make it. He wasn't swimming very well, compared to the others. By now, 4 days later, perhaps he is back where we picked him up from (they mark their habitat somehow and so can find their way back).

The next day we woke at 5am to drag ourselves out of bed, into a canoe to see the sunrise. Actually, it was no great chore for me since I had been waking at 5/6am on the boat anyway. Sunrise was spectacular.

We headed back for breakfast then went travelled by canoe for a jungle trek. I hadn't expected to find the plants particularly interesting, having picked the tour mainly for the wildlife viewing, but the diversity and scale were incredible. The number of palm trees suprised me, in the past I've associated them only with beaches. The locals use the palm fronds for their roofs and also weave baskets, hand fans, etc. We saw a lot of cool things, way too many to talk about now because it's getting late and I will need some sleep soon. Check out some of the pics, I'll post more when I get back to 24 hour internet access.

In the afternoon we set off to camp in the jungle. It started pouring as we set out so we took shelter in the local bar (not much more than a covered area next to someone's house with a small pool table). When the rain stopped we continued on for 30minutes by boat, eventually landing on a small clearing where a shelter of palm fronds had been erected. We slung our hammocks and mosquito nets and started to make a salad while Alan got a fire going. He made the best bbq chicken I have ever had. Well worth the two hour wait. We taught each other tongue twisters while we waited for the chicken to cook. Alan (who is Brazilian) already knew the "she sells seashells" one, having spent 5 years at a language school. I taught him "Peter Piper" while Teemo came out with a Finnish one consisting only of the syllable "co" and Selina had a great swiss-german one about fish. I wish we had made a video of it but my cheapo $53 digital camera doesn't do audio.

The next day we went to a local house to see how they make manioc flour - a staple food they use to replace rice when money runs low. They take the flour to Manaus to sell because they can get twice the price than if they sold it locally. Then we headed back to the lodge to shower all the bug spray off.

Later that afternoon, Teemo and Selina and Yanik (Swiss couple) left for Manaus, leaving Roy, Naiomi and myself to do some monkey spotting. Alan took us to a creek where we turned off the motor and paddled around in silence. We saw squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, sagi (sp.) monkeys and another kind that sounded like capuccino but probably wasn't. That was probably the best bit of the whole jungle trip. We were pretty far in, in complete silence, surrounded by giant vegetation and could hear the monkeys crashing around above us. We were paddling again the next morning when a monkey lobbed a coconut at our boat, missing by a couple of feet. OK, it might not have been on purpose but we like to think it was.

Naiomi, Roy and I tried piranha fishing again on Thursday, this time from the dock outside the kitchen (where we swim) and we had more success. Naiomi still caught the most but I finally got one, good and proper. I think I will be piranha fishing again in the Pantanal so hopefully I will be an expert by the end.

Our final trip on Friday morning was to the home of a rubber-tapper - someone who collects sap from rubber trees to make things like shoes, wallets and condoms from. Yeah, you heard right. Washable, reusable condoms. But anyway. The guy is 84 and learnt the trade from his father who was the first teacher to move to the area. The local school is named in his father's honour. So we watched the guy make two wallets, then Roy had a go at making a condom. It takes 3-4 days for the goods to dry out so we'll never know how it turned out. Maybe someone will buy it. I bought a ... wallet.

Then it was back to the lodge for lunch, one last sunbathe then onto the boat to begin the journey home. The ride home was just as exhilarating as the ride out there but better because the guide next to me, Damian, had sweets. I got back to Gero's Tours at about 5pm and quickly set off in the direction of the Teatro Amazonas to see if they had any tickets left for an opera that night. Alas, there was no performance and that was my only chance since I leave tomorrow (now today, it's almost 1am). Too bad, I shall just have to watch the film about how it was built. It was built mostly in Europe then shipped across the Atlantic and 1700km up the Amazon. It opened in 1896 (thank you Lonely Planet).

So I wandered back to Gero's tours and was given a key to the office. Two swiss girls and I will be sleeping in the backroom of the office tonight because we are too tight to spring for the youth hostel next door. Plus, Gero has better internet access (I was in an internet cafe earlier and was getting VERY annoyed, as you could probably tell. I solved my problem with a can of guarana and a giant slice of chocolate cake from a teenage street vendor up the road).

Tomorrow I plan to explore Manaus a little (tour around the Teatro Amazonas sounds good, as does a wander to a couple of museums) before heading to the airport in the afternoon. I think Gero is going to give me a ride which will save a lot of hassle with buses. I'm heading to Campo Grande next, from there I will go camping in the Pantanal - a vast swampy region covering 230,000 square kilometers across Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil (I am so tempted to wander over to Paraguay it's not even funny). Thanks again, Lonely Planet. It's supposed to be the best place in Brazil for wildlife viewing so I am really looking forward to it. I think things will be a bit non-stop for the next week to 10 days so don't expect too many posts (if any). I'm excited!

Photos are at http://picasaweb.google.com/rach150384 I think.

Take care y'all,

Rach

P.S. Mum, I hope you teach your kids about the rainforest because I have some great photos you can use. None of that text-book rubbish! Hope Israel is interesting, tell Dad I say hi.

P.P.S. Chuckle, thanks for you comments, will get around to emailing you one of these days. Blondie, where are you? Or are you too old for email now?

P.P.P.S. A couple of the guys from the Belem-Manaus boat (Sacha and Rich) just walked past so I went out to get a few beers with them. Now it is 3am and I must go to bed. Tomorrow I think Rich and I are heading to a museum out of town before I fly to the Pantanal and Rich catches a bus to Venezuela. As you do.

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Manaus in less than 12 hours	[Apr. 14th, 2008\|08:57 pm]
We docked in Manaus (largest city in the Amazonas state, half of the state's 3 million inhabitants live here) 12 hours late, which meant that my tour operator didn't show up to meet me. I waited for 45 minutes, watching the number of taxis dwindle. It was dark, dock areas are normally seedy at night and I was a few km from my intended hostel so I sheepishly went back to the taxi drivers I had previously rejected (having told them I was meeting a friend and didn't need a taxi) and got a taxi to the address given in Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet, why would you lie? There was no tour operator there. My wonderful taxi driver didn't just drive away though, he carried my backpack while we asked everyone on the street if they knew where Gero's Tours were located. In the end, failing to find Gero, we walked to a low-budget hotel that I knew was on the same street. And ta-da, there was Gero's Tours. Of course, it was now 10pm and no-one was there. So I paid 60R$ for a room (twice my normal price). I would have tipped my taxi driver except I know he charged me twice as much as the locals, so he can take the tip out of the extra. It was not a good start to my time in Manaus, especially when I found out my room had just been painted (still wet and smelly with it) and the TV had 7 fuzzy portugues channels. I had no water at this point and didn't want to wander the streets alone looking for a supermarket that would still be open so I decided to test my chlorine water-purifying tablets. Unfortunately, my mum bought them for me when I went to Thailand two years ago and I hadn't checked on the state of them since. They had formed a single mass with no indication of the original size of just one tablet. So I estimated. Wrongly. My water bottle still smells of chlorine, despite multiple neutralising-iodine tablets. But oh well. Things looked up the next day as I found Gero just as he was setting up at 8am. He remembered that I had booked a tour, I asked if he had one leaving that morning since I'm on a tight schedule. He looked at his watch - "we have one leaving right now!" I checked out of my hotel, we jumped into his car and he drove like a maniac to the dock having called ahead to tell them to wait. He beeped twice at every car on the road. We made it and I piled in the boat with 5 backpackers - a couple from Israel, a couple from Switzerland and a lone Finnish guy. And off we went... No photos, I hate the combination of photos and internet.
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(no subject)	[Apr. 13th, 2008\|08:06 pm]
Hey all, It's been a while so I'm going to backtrack to the second half of my journey up the Amazon. After I left the internet cafe in Santarem I grabbed lunch and supplies with a Canadian guy who is riding his motorbike across the Americas. He has been travelling for over 18 months now and has clocked a crazy number of miles. We bitched about the cost of visas to various countries (he had to pay 130USD for his Brazilian visa while I didn't need one) while eating acai (ah-sy-ee) icecream from a supermarket. Acai is made from the pulp of acai berries (duh) that are grown mainly in the north of Brazil. The Brazilians make it into drinks with milk or just water, or add fruit and granola to make a snack. I hadn't heard of acai icecream but it was good! It did stain my entire mouth purple though. We made it back to the boat where I found street vendors wandering the decks, selling their wares to the passengers. I bought a bag of little peach cakes for 1R$ and shared them with the family of three next to me. We had the most amazing sunset that night (hopefully I will upload photos shortly, internet is very slow). I skipped dinner to watch, well worth it. The next two days were uneventful. I finished reading Papillon (highly recommended) and ran down the battery in my MP3 player. The little boy next to me, who had been highly suspicious of me since boarding in Belem, suddenly decided on Sunday that I would probably like to play with his toy cow (vaca in portugues) and so we played together for a while. We listened to Elvis and the Beatles before Pinky's battery finally kicked the bucket. I took a couple of pictures of him, the kids on board like to see themselves on a digital camera, but he hadn't figured out that he needed to stay still. To be fair, he was about 2 years old. He chattered away to me for the rest of the trip but I have absolutely no idea what he was saying. Ok, half of this post just got deleted, the number five key seems to double as delete. The internet here is driving me crazy. It would be ok if I wasn't trying to upload photos. You better appreciate those! (new photos have possibly been uploaded to picasaweb.google.com/rach150384 or somewhere like that) As I was saying... The boat trip was definitely worth the time and money. It would be interesting to do it again at the end of the dry season when the river can be up to 10m lower and 7 miles narrower (it was >12miles wide in places). When we got to Manaus what was left of the gringo clan dispersed as we made our ways to various hostels and tour operators but we keep bumping into each other in and around Manaus. And now... for another post maybe. The photo uploads are irritating me to hell and back so we'll see how many I do before I simply delete everything and leave. Update: I have been waiting 40 minutes for 5 photos to upload and am giving up since I'm paying for this and would rather spend the money on an icecold coke. A few photos from Belem have made it. Photos from the boat and tales from the jungle will be coming in the next decade.
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Off the boat!	[Apr. 11th, 2008\|04:09 pm]
Hi all, I am temporarily off the boat as we have a few hours in a town called Santarem. We are about 700-800km up the Amazon at this point, a little over half way I think. So far, the journey has been amazing. Tales of boring boat rides are spread by boring people who do not know how to make friends. Despite it being the low season, there were about 8 backpackers (mostly Brits, with a few others). The food is ok, the bathrooms are not that bad. I have to be quick or the boat will leave without me but highlights so far include listening to the little brazilian girl in the hammock next to me sing, watching the river dolphins jump about this morning, watching sunset and sunrise, climbing a sort-of-mast on the top deck with Rich (Brit backpacker) and having beers on the top deck by moonlight last night. Have seen some crazy birds, mostly ones that look like storks and vultures. Oh yeah, brushing my teeth with Amazon river water (pumped straight up from below the boat) is fun too. The water is VERY muddy. What diseases? I have accidentally slung my hammock in the wrong class, meaning I am sans AC despite having paid for it. I could move but I like watching the little kids playing around my hammock. All the other gringos are upstairs. When I say I slung my hammock, I actually mean a Brazilian man called Carlos slung it for me. I was putting it up, thought I was doing an ok job until he pointed out it was twisted and wonky. But now it is good and very comfortable, although it was sort of crowded last night, all the hammocks were swinging and I kept (accidentally) kicking the little girl next to me in the head. Well, if she will sleep with her head hanging over the side. I spend most of my day hanging out with my new friends and swapping travelling stories, or reading and sunbathing on the top deck. The weather is good, maybe 30degC+. Quite humid but who cares? Every lunch (usually rice, beans, spaghetti for some reason and meat) is followed by a happy nap in my hammock. I think I am going to cart it back to Hawaii but I am not sure where I could hang it. Most of our gringo clan left this morning, they will continue to Manaus later this week. A few of us are left. Maybe more backpackers will have boarded by the time I get back. Now, I think I will find some sweeties in a supermarket (Fiona had the most awesome yoghurt flavoured sweets so I want some of those) and head back to the boat. Manaus, here I come. Rach
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You are crazy!

[Apr. 9th, 2008|11:10 am]

[	Current Location	\|	Belem	]
[	music	\|	None, pinky is dead	]

I spent most of last night talking to a Brazilian woman who has travelled to Belem to meet some friends and is staying in my hostel. She was a little annoyed at the state of the bathroom - shared with the men because the women's is under construction, there are no lights, and not enough space inside the cubicles to swing a dead cockroach, let alone a dead cat. I told her about my next step to Manaus by boat, her response was wide-eyed wonder at the thought of a lone female backpacker travelling 1500km up a river for 5 days, sleeping in a hammock. To me, that sounds fantastic but she was dubious. "You speak Portugues?" she asked. I held up my tiny phrasebook in reply. She burst out laughing. "You are crazy!"

I had brekkie with an English bloke who had just arrived from Salvador (further down the coast). He gave me a battered version of Papillion to read on the boat, I wish I hadn't left my old book in Rio so I could have given him something to read. I did point him in the direction of a couple of bookstores though. He is heading to Manaus on Friday.

I went to the waterfront market today, Velho de Peso (I think). It was incredible. There were all the normal stalls of umbrellas, t-shirts, PS2s, tv remotes, you name it, it was there. I bought a hammock for 25R$, I was so surprised at the cheap(ish) price that I forgot to haggle but no matter, seems decent. Then I stumbled across the food section. Wow! So many types of fruit and veg, a decent number of which I had never seen before. There was a whole section dedicated to various meat products as well as huge baskets of shrimp and various fish. Also, there was a medicinal bit, with all sorts of plants etc from the Amazon on sale. I wish I could have taken pictures but the market is notorious for thieves and I didn't want to draw attention to myself. The smells were the best anyway and it's hard to record those.

So now I must return to my hostel to see if my boat ticket has arrived. Then I need to pack up, check out and figure out how I will get to the boat (maybe a taxi, I have no idea if there is even a bus that goes in the right direction). Thanks for the comments. Sorry again for the lack of photos, this computer also has no USB port. Does still have a floppy drive though.

Tchau!

Rach

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Made it to Belem!	[Apr. 8th, 2008\|06:28 pm]
You might wonder why I am surprised. I bought my in-country airpass at the last minute (~10 days before leaving) from a random company I found on google, Easy Flight Center. I was more than a little suspicious of their authenticity but bought the tickets anyway, having failed to find another travel company that could get them winged over to Hawaii in time. It was a great relief to see today's ticket accepted without the agent looking at me as if I had just handed her monopoly money. The flight was even on time. On board, I sat next to a very jolly Brazilian by the name of Victor. We got chatting (in English, thank goodness) about movies (Juno mainly), bands (we both have am affinity for Weezer and I told him to look up the Shins) and musical instruments. He pointed out a bunch of good places to go in Belem and seemed a little disappointed that I will only be spending 24 hours here. We shared a taxi into Belem since he lives close to my hostel. This hostel is awesome, although on the expensive side at 38R$ per night (twenty something dollars). That said, I had expected to spend my afternoon walking around the Belem docks looking for a boat leaving for Manaus (1500km up the Amazon) tomorrow but the guy at the front desk booked my ticket instantly for a discounted price, saving me several hours in a dodgy neighbourhood. 220R$ for a hammock-space (I splurged and spent 20R$ extra to get space on the air conditioned deck). Not bad for 5 days' accommodation and food. Will be stocking up on snacks before I leave though. I think I have to get to the boat about 4 hours before it leaves to claim my space though. Side-note: Brazilian bakeries are fantastic! So many cakes and pies and pastries and they're all good! I can't help going into each one I pass and buying something random. Will be stocking up on their biscuits before I leave. Having sorted my next step, I wandered off to find a biological park (=fancy name for zoo) where I could see some of the flora and fauna of the Amazon. I really went there to see sloths climbing in the trees overhead - what did I not see? There were plenty of iguanas climbing around, weird birds in cages and crazy rat-bunny-things, no idea what they were. I would post a picture so someone can google it for me but this computer is so old it doesn't have a USB port. Then I went wandering through Belem, which is a gorgeous town with colourful colonial-style buildings, although it's a little rough in places. I did read of mugging at knife-point on one traveller's blog and Victor told me he saw someone get shot in a dodgy part of town. With this in mind, I was back in the hostel by nightfall. It had also started to rain, properly hard. Guess that's the jungle weather for you. So tomorrow I must buy a hammock (there's a big market on the waterfront I want to check out) and catch my boat to Manaus. I might manage to post tomorrow, otherwise I'll be back next week! Rach
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Rio day 2

[Apr. 7th, 2008|10:33 pm]

[	Current Location	\|	Rio de Janeiro	]
[	music	\|	pinky is charging	]

Oi!

The weather was slightly better during daylight today, although it's pouring now (10pm).

I spent most of this morning wandering around Ipanema and Copacobana searching for somewhere to exchange my devalued dollars. There are a load of banks around here that can apparently exchange money but this can be a real hassle if you don't have an account with them, which I don't. So I wandered for a couple of miles into Copacobana after failing to find the "several cambios" along some Ipanema street advertised by Lonely Planet. Eventually I found a sign for one that pointed down the dodgiest, dingyist (sp?) corridor I've ever seen outside a horror film. To add to the creepyness, a solitary guy stood at the end, not moving, not saying a word. But I needed Reals so down the corridor I went. Luckily for me there was a cambio at the end, with an exchange rate of 1.65R$ per dollar. Thanks George Bush, you made this so much more expensive. But anyway, it's better than the 1.4R$ per USD I got from Travelex on my way through Atlanta. So I swapped a vast sum of money and half expected an armed gang to be waiting in the corridor when I came out, but it was empty, save for the silent creepy guy.

After dumping most of the money back at the hostel (yey padlocks) I wandered off to have a look at a lake a few blocks from my hostel. It was surrounded by people biking, running and generally being healthy, even guys in suits were exercising. Weirdos. I wandered half-way around (~4km I think) then got bored. The giant Jesus had been towering above me during my walk so I decided to catch a bus to the train that would take me to the top of that hill. How hard can that be? Well... I had the bus numbers from a hostel employee, unfortunately those are the buses that leave from near my hostel. The buses that left from the area I was now in had completely different numbers. After waiting at a bus stop for 15 minutes and not seeing a single bus that had anything close to my destination of choice I plucked up the courage to test my terrible Portuguese on a woman. She did understand which was a plus and waved her arms at the other side of the street. Ok, I thought, off I go. Wandered to a bus stop over there, again failed to see any bus that might be going in my direction. Then I realised she had been waving her arms quite vigorously and thought maybe she meant me to go several streets over to the main road. Aha! Several buses per minute were passing through although I still couldn't find one with Corcodova or the Portuguese translation of "Giant Jesus" on the front. It was at this point that I envied those on package tours, I was jealous of the tourists who simply have to stumble down to the hotel lobby at the right time to make it to their sightseeing destinations. Then I realised I was being a wimp and tried to snap out of it, lest I find myself eating McDonalds and only speaking English for the rest of the trip. So finally, I recognised the name of a road nearby the train station for the giant Jesus, jumped on board, checked with the driver and off we went.

The train went up through what little is left of Atlantic rainforest around Rio, it was pretty impressive until the clouds killed the view. I was hoping to see monkeys again but they must have been hiding. Up the top were the predictable hundreds of tourists (yes, I know I count as one) and a giant Jesus. No, dad, he did not have steps inside him.

I took the obligatory photos (see picasaweb.google.com/rach150384) and took the train back to Cosme Velho, where I caught a bus back to Ipanema. Actually, I caught a bus to Copacobana because I got off too early (I hate buses). But that detour took me past a bakery where I bought something that looked like a ham and cheese pastry but had random other things in it too. I have no idea what it was or what it was called, I like to just point and order. I munched on that as I walked quickly back (it was getting dark and Rio is not too safe).

I had hoped to make a foray into the National Park where some good hiking trails go through the rainforest but the bus-kerfuffle knocked a couple of hours out of my day, as did the exchange-kerfuffle. So maybe I will do that on the way back. I'm off to Belem in the northeast tomorrow (in theory at least), from there I plan to catch a boat up the Amazon for 5 days (1500km) to Manaus. Find out how the plan goes awry tomorrow...or the day after or maybe in a week depending on t'internet access.

Rach

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(no subject)	[Apr. 7th, 2008\|08:12 pm]
(I tried to post this yesterday but the internet here is too slow to do it within 30 minutes. Some pics may have made it onto picasaweb.google.com/rach150384). Now on attempt #4 of trying to post this goddamn thing.) Oi, Still can't get used to saying oi as a greeting, I keep saying ola instead. I am here, fine and dandy. A little tired from lack of sleep over the past few nights (two of them have been on very cold planes and I forgot to take socks on board) but nothing 7 hours of sleep tonight won't fix. All three flights were delayed at some point but I still got to Rio just 30 minutes late. I brushed off the 20 people trying to get me to pay 70R$ for a taxi and found the correct bus to the hostel. I did, as predicted, miss my bus stop but actually overshot it by half a mile. Thank goodness I packed light. As we came out from the airport, we passed what I initially mistook for derelict buildings then I noticed the signs of life around them - laundry hanging between crumbling walls, kids running through the narrow streets. I'm not sure if that was just a poor neighbourhood or if that was one of the favelas. It was a sobering first sight of Rio. Found the youth hostel at about 10am and was told my bed wouldn't be ready until 1pm and I could use the internet if I wanted to while away my time. While away my time? I've only got a few days here, I'm not going to waste daylight hours on the internet. I left my backpack at the hostel figuring backpackers have a reputation for being smelly and dirty (I hadn't showered for over two days at this point) so no-one would be surprised by the grungy English girl wandering around. I set off along Ipanema beach. That's the closest beach to my hostel. It was surprisingly empty since it's supposed to be one of Rio's most popular beaches. I'm blaming that on the weather which was overcast and drizzling slightly. The beach was nice enough, lots of volleyball games going on, as well as some decent surfing at one end. I then wandered over to Copocabana which was gringo-tastic. Then I took noticed cable cars trundling perilously between hills in the distance, took a quick look at lonely planet and found I was fairly close to Sugarloaf Mountain - two hills that are connected by cable cars for no good reason that I can tell. But off I went like a good tourist. I paid a whopping 35R$ for a ticket to the top, although it was cloudy. Something tells me I'll be waiting a long time if I hold out for good weather before doing the fun stuff. I predict the view would be fantastic on a clear day, on a cloudy day it was ok from the first hill and non-existent from the second. But to make up for it, there were little wild monkey things climbing around(how did they come to be only on the one hill?). So that made my day. I also saw a guy with some gibbon-type thing, pimping it out to the tourists so they could pay to have their photos taken with it. I frowned and moved on - most of our animals in Thailand were abused in similar ways by the tourist trade. So I wandered back to my hostel, stopping at a kiosk to grab a coconut drink. Pick your coconut, pay 2R$, they hack its top off for you et voila! A drink! What was that thing the doctor said about eating raw fruit from street vendors? I forget... More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/rach150384 or something like that. Will post again from Belem where hopefully the internet access is a bazillion times faster. Tchau, Rach
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I'm outta here!

[Apr. 4th, 2008|02:43 am]

[	Current Location	\|	Honolulu, Hawaii	]
[	music	\|	I'm working on it	]

Hi all,

Welcome to my first Brazil post. I'm off to Brazil tomorrow for a four-week vacation from Hawaii (this place just wears you down). Why Brazil? Couldn't tell you. I've had some justification for the other backpacking trips I've taken - I went to Costa Rica because I made the mistake of thinking Jurassic Park was filmed there and thought it looked cool (I later found out the movie was filmed in Hawaii); went to Thailand when google told me I could afford to spend 6 weeks playing with monkeys in an animal rescue shelter and still spend 3 weeks backpacking; and I spent 24 hours on a greyhound bus just to see the Hollywood sign, although I did make a stop at Universal Studios - best theme park ever. But I'm not really sure why I'm off to Brazil. Part of the reason might be that my housemates and I have blank maps stuck on each of our doors, we colour in each country we've been to and Brazil is a big 'un to get. Of course, there's all that stuff like tropical rainforest with giant anteaters, sloths and tapirs, swamps with herds of capybara and beautiful beaches. Another reason is that the plane ticket was just $1070, pretty good when you take a look at a map and realise just where Hawaii is.

I'm currently sat in my room with rather a small pile of belongings to take. I plan to take a half-full backpack given that I will misjudge my bus-stop in Rio de Janeiro out of fear of shooting past my hostel and will have to walk 2 miles in 35 degree heat. I am fully kitted out for my trip however and can boast a full first aid kit (no thermometer though, mum!), tiny tubes of toothpaste, 16 AA batteries and a tiny MP3 player I like to call Pinky. I am rather proud of Pinky - $30 for a 1GB MP3 player. It's even got a speaker. I still need to finishing filling Pinky up with the essentials. Essential music will include a selection of Ben Harper, Elliot Smith, Elvis, The Smiths and Billy Joel. I think Pinky will be one of the best things I've bought for this trip. I would only be happier if I could figure out a way to take my guitar. Seriously tempted to buy one before taking a 5-day, 1500km boat trip up the Amazon. Pinky's batteries will only last so long.

I'm looking forward to being on the road again. The last proper trip I did was Thailand which was amazing - my Thai travel blog is somewhere below this one. No more internet, no more ipod, no more cellphone. My god, no more google, no more youtube. Hmm. How will I entertain myself? Better find one of those book things (actually already picked it, On the Road by Jack Kerouac).

Things I plan to do on this trip:

Sleep in a hammock while travelling up the Amazon
See pink river dolphins
Catch a piranha then eat its face off
See a herd of Capybara in the Pantanal (east Brazil)
Go to Argentina for a day
Run off a cliff with a Brazilian (hang-gliding)
Poke a caiman (alligator)

Things I do not plan to do:

Catch dengue fever
Lose a vital document
Lose a finger to a piranha
Plummet from a cliff with or without a Brazilian

I think that about sums it up. Now I must get back to packing or, more importantly, whittling down my list of possible songs to put on Pinky.

Rach

Disclaimer: Words will not always be spelled correctly. If you are American, there will be many Us, Ls and Ss that you think are superfluous - they are not. There will be little to no grammar and/or punctuation at times. My younger brother always says bad handwriting makes letters last longer, I am assuming the same goes for poor spelling etc. If I am excited when I write, there will also be no obvious structure to the post, nor any indication that I have thought about what I am going to write. If you would like to read something more eloquent, please hunt down my older brother's travel blog at www.sorryforthegroupemail.com. Units used will be metric, imperial or made-up. There will be no consistency.

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