Saturday, September 26, 2009

Surfer's paradise

There's a city in Australia, just a bit north of Sydney, called Surfer's Paradise. I'm pretty sure the people who named that place hadn't been to Florianopolis, otherwise they would've thought this was a surfer's paradise...

After spending 5hrs in a bus from Pantanal to Campo Grande, and another 27hrs on another bus from Campo Grande to Floripa, we were exhausted, smelly and hungry. Shower was top priority, and since it was already past midnight, we decided to forget about food and crash instead...


Next morning, I wake up and realize I've just landed in paradise...

Perfect day, not a cloud in the sky, warm, beautiful! Breakfast is included, so we head up immediately and eat to our heart's content...


Delicious strong Brazilian coffee that I know and love! :)


Then, after checking the surf conditions which were apparently very good, my surfer friend starts to itch and we take off immediately to head to the beach, where I have a beautiful afternoon in the sun, playing with an awesome camera, taking loads of pictures and eating Acai... (his camera, so pictures will come a little later...)

Brave New World





Swamp. Mud. Alligators. Piranhas. Beautiful rare birds, like Tucans and Macaws. Monkeys. Iguanas. Giant rodents. Jaguars. Fishing. Sleeping in hammocks. All of this and much more you will find in Pantanal.


Dorm... doesn't get much better than that, if you ask me!




This little guy would come everyday at breakfast and eat off our hands... he even drank my coffee!

I have been here before, six years ago, and unfortunately the government has implemented some regulations since then, which were put in place to protect the environment, but also interfere with the possibilities for wild-life viewing and some amazing experiences… However: a trip to Pantanal is always an incredible thing, and I’m very glad I had the chance of going a second time… :)


*Side-note* à The world really is a tiny ball (un pañuelo, as we’d say in Spanish). Six years ago I had eaten a baked pumpkin filled with a delicious home-made tomato sauce, the whole over rice. I have even made it since, because it was such an amazing and simple dish… Well, this time around, the guy who was the cook for the place I went to the first time, happened to be my guide!!! I didn’t remember him, but while talking to his wife about the first time I came to Pantanal, she mentioned that he used to be the cook, and that’s where she had met him… later on I asked him directly if he had been the one to make the stuffed pumpkin, and sure enough, it was him! How cool is that?


Beautiful, isn't it?

--Day 1--
We arrived, and did a bit of exploring on our own, watched alligators down by the river, hang out on hammocks and watched the stars…

A bit too close for comfort? nah... they're pretty laid back... I think...


--Day 2--
We went horseback riding, then fished piranhas side by side with the alligators, ate the piranhas for dinner (ironic, no?) and laughed our heads off with our new friends.


Yes, yes, the helmet is silly, but unfortunately mandatory...



At one point this alligator started coming towards me and I thought it'd be better to move out of his way...



I was waaaay too excited after catching that Piranha! :)


--Day 3--
We went on a walk through the jungle to spot some wild life, had lunch, then went on a boat “safari” down the river to see some more animals.




Somebody got to his dinner before he did!

--Day 4--
Woke up at 4am (yep!!) to go on yet another “safari,” this time by truck up to a point, and then on foot. We stopped somewhere in the middle to have breakfast and then headed back to the camp, to relax for a bit, have lunch and prepare to leave in the afternoon…



Friday, September 25, 2009

The Flood


Yesterday we went to Iguazu Falls again, but this time on the Argentine side, and as much as it pains me to say it (being Brazilian and all), it is actually better on the Argentine side. There’s a little hike through the woods (that we didn’t do because we didn’t have the time) and a little train that takes you from the main entrance to several parts of the park… Then, when you get off the train at the last station, Garganta del Diablo (or Devil’s throat), you have to walk for quite a while on metal “bridges” over the water, until you finally reach the observation deck where you’re really, really close to the falls and have a full view of them.




Amazing. Breathtaking. Not that in the Brazilian side it’s any less breathtaking… but when we were there, it was so misty (because the falls are so full because of the recent rains) that we could barely see anything but a white wall of mist. In the Argentine side, because we were above the falls (instead of in front of them) we could see better, and it looked like a big hole sucking the water in. It was awesome!






The problem is, unfortunately, we didn’t have much time, as we had to come back and catch our bus to Campo Grande at 6pm. We were heading into the Pantanal, and even though I’ve been there before, I was pretty excited about it… but this is what happened: we missed the little train by 5 minutes, and it comes every half hour, so we had to wait for 25 minutes. The train takes 15 minutes to arrive at the main entrance. We missed the bus that goes into town by 10 minutes, and it also comes every half hour, so we had to wait 20 minutes. By this time it was 4:50pm and there was no way we were going to make it back in time to catch our bus. We even tried… from the bus station in Puerto Iguazu we took a taxi to take us all the way home, wait while we threw our stuff together and head back to the bus station. We almost made it… we actually saw the bus pass us by when we were just 2 minutes from the bus station, but of course, he was going in the opposite direction! Luckily they changed the date without charging us for another ticket, and that was really nice of them…

So we decided we’d just skip Bonito (a city with lots of eco-tourism adventures) and go straight to the Pantanal, leaving on Saturday night and arriving in Campo Grande on Sunday morning. And since we had an extra day, we’d go back to the falls on the Argentine side and walk around some more, take another million photos, do the little hike through the woods, etc. We stayed up talking until late, so I was having a hard time waking up this morning… until I regained enough consciousness to realize that the beautiful sound that was lulling me to sleep was rain. And I don’t mean just a little trickle drip-drip-drip rain. I mean a full on storm! This realization came somewhere around 7am. It is now almost 11am and the rain hasn’t stopped or diminished its volume. It’s incredible! Thunder, lightening, rain, rain, rain! Of course, at 7am when I realized it was rain, I also knew there was no way we were going back to the falls today, and therefore there was no real reason to get up, so I stayed in bed, and fell asleep again, to the same tune Noah must’ve heard for 40 days in that arc… FLOOD!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Spontaneous Brazilian trip

I guess it's starting to be a trend, eh? People are traveling around, they start talking to me about it, and next thing I know, I'm on the trip with them! :) Yes, I have a very difficult life... for sure!

This one at least gave me a little more advance notice (not the <12hrs of last time!) It happened like this: my friend Guy sent me an email saying he was in Europe, and planning on going to either Africa or Brazil in a week, and was asking my opinion of what he should do. I obviously told him he should come to Brazil, and I would meet him there! So after a couple of days of emails and skype chats, he decided to come, and bought his ticket for a week later. We started to plan the trip, although very loosely (which was a good thing since we already changed a good part of it, and we're only on day 3!), where we should go and where we would meet.

He flew to Foz do Iguazu, and I took a bus up from Buenos Aires, and arrived at the airport to pick him up just minutes before his flight came in... perfect timing! So that's where we are at the moment, yesterday we went to the Brazilian side of the falls, got soaken wet from the spray and marvelled at the beauty of the falls, then dried up in the sun, had a humangous dinner in town and eventually dropped dead from exhaustion... it was a long day... but FUN! :)

 
That was at the restaurant for lunch... we had a blast!!!

 
At the falls... 

 
 Soaken wet! 

Apologies...

Hi everyone...

So I start by apologizing because I haven't finished the blogs of the last trip, (because I'm lazy and terrible!) and now I have to start blogging this trip because otherwise I'll have a hard time catching up, and the same thing will happen again... Hopefully I'll be able to finish the other blog at a later time, but for now, just forgive me and come with me as I cruise around Brazil! :)