Another for the ladies

Those who are squeamish please turn away now:

I have just washed my knickers in the hotel sink with shower gel
I am having to tweeze away the hairs on my legs
My eyebrows look like crows have nested in them
A beautician would now refuse to give my toes a pedicure
I have not worn makeup for almost 2 weeks
My hair would break at the sight of a hair dryer

Apply some eye shadow and have a good shave for me ladies xxx
(obviously Beth not Steve!)

Chasing Rainbows

Yes Ok, book lovers, we know we've nicked the title from John McCarthy's book but it was just too perfect not to use for this piece. So perfect to summarise Iguassu falls...without doubt the most beautiful sight we have ever seen.

We went to the Brazilian side of the falls on Sunday and Argentinian side today. They are a collection of 275 waterfalls on the Iguassu river on the foot of Brazil and at the top of Argentina.

The Brazillian side was breath taking with amazing panoramic views. Tripping over the racoons we shuffled towards the edges of the observation points and here we are just lost for words. No words can do the beauty of them justice, we can only describe the magnificance of the falls and the wonder of the spray when the falls hit the river below and the sheer magic of the rainbows which rise from the spray. Truly beautiful and utterly breathtaking. We will just let our photos do the talking when we finally find an internet cafe that lets us upload them.

The Argentinian side was a different experience altogether. In Brazil, you become a voyeur of nature at it's most beautiful; Argentinian side you are so close to the falls that you feel you are almost part of the event. Devil's Throat is the area where the main Falls start and end, in a mist of vapour so thick that rainbows cirle and arc beneath.

We also went on a boat trip that took us round and under the falls then down the river. It was fortunate that the day was so hot as Beth had water in rather embarrasing places - frankly, it looked like she had wet herself! The boat trip ended and we picked up a safari jeep through the rest of the jungle. A bit frightening as on boarding they handed us a leaflet on how to protect ourselves from the wild cats that can sometimes attack the tourists. We proceeded with caution!

We also made some friends on the 2 days of trips and as we were all such a mix, ended up calling each other by our nationality instead of names. The Austrians were 2 elderly ladies who must be very wealthy as they were staying at the only hotel to overlook Iguassu falls. The elderly Israeli man, Manager of a Kubutz, had just had a heart operation but inisted on running everywhere! The Mexicans were just the nicest couple and we hope we are that happy after 10 years of marriage. Paraguay - actually called Edgar, our fab tour guide for the tours. Finally, London 1 (we were London 2!}, Caroline and Patrick. Bizarrely they got married on the same day as us last year, are in their early 30's, have given everything up to come travelling too, are going the same way round the world (unusual} and Patrick's brother lives in Stroud! All a bit freaky. We are going to stay in touch and who knows, maybe we will meet up with them in Asia somewhere. We are beginning to realise that the world is actually a very small place!

All in all, a fantastic couple of days and the Falls we shall never forget. One more day in Foz before leaving on the bus back to Rio again Wednesday pm. Tomorrow we plan to take the local bus into Paraguay. More soon and until then, lots of love xxxx

Money, Money, Money...

...or not. Picture the scene. In a remote Brazilian town on the border of Argentina and Paraguay. Yet to pay for hotel, trips and return journey to civilisation (Rio), and your debit card stops working; the only way you can access money. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

If you don't want the details, skip to the end paragraph!

After blind panic, we tried to call Lloyds but phone didn't work. Reception managed to get through for us after about 30 mins of trying an we got through to the overseas emergency line. After alledgedly failing the first security question, we were transfered to the fraud team. As we got to the front of the queue they closed for the bank holiday. We then raced to the internet cafe to note all our transactions in readiness for the next round of security questions. Rang Lloyds again. What is our overdraft faciliy. Bugger. Ran back to internet cafe to check online. Run back to reception, ring again spend another 15 minutes explaining situation and finally pass checks. Lloyds tell us they accidently cancelled Steve's debit cards. Beth is ready to fly home and nuke Lloyd's head office. Finally discover that Beth's card may work. Race to the bank, hearts in mouths, to withdraw money. Type in 1000 reals and cross our fingers.

Waiting....whirring noises.....Beth sobs.....more waiting....more whirring noises....Steve hits wall.....'take your cash'....hooray!....'technical fault' flashes up. Beth loses 4 stone in tears alone. Running to next machine we finally manage to withdraw cash.

We then proceed to get very drunk, make a voodoo building of Lloyds Bank in Bedford and stick dental picks into it.

The Bus Journey

Well, the 24 hour bus journey was....interesting. Take 3 maniac coach drivers, a screaming baby, a snoring passenger and a collection of bad films* and you get the picture!
Actually we managed to get about 6 hours sleep which isn't bad considering the bus stops every 2 hours at service stations and all the lights come on. Great way to see Brazil countryside though and we actually quite enjoyed the journey. Met a great, if not slightly spaced out, New Zealander who had some great travelling tales. He's invited us to dinner when we get to NZ and bizarrely lives only a couple of streets from Beth's Aunite Maureen in Cambridge, North Island.

Arrived in Foz de Iguassu and checked into the Cassino Palace hotel which is like something from Pulp Fiction but without the blood stains, which is a relief. It has a pool too despite being only 15GBP a night plus the breakfast is great and we can even make packed lunches from the bread rolls and ham when the staff aren't looking. We're getting better at the whole economy thing!

* Who actually thought that 'Red Dragon' was suitable viewing at 2pm in the afternoon? Feeling faintly sick, Beth was forced to watch gruesome murder after gruesome murder, whilst eating her sadrillo (called something like that but Brazil's equivalent to a cornish pastie) and watched Anthony Hopkins eating flesh. Charming.

Tour de Brazil

We are finally exhausted by Hedonistic Rio and seek solace in the more sober parts of Brazil. We have been quoted over 3500GBP for trips to Bolivia, Iguazzu falls, Salvador and the Amazon so Beth has now finally accepted that this is not a repeat of our honeymoon and we do have to economise. We spent 5 hours in a Brazilian travel agent yesterday booking trips all over the country (at least 3 hours was down to the language barriers and much grunting and frantic arm geticulations).

Iguazzu Falls
Situated at the foot of Brazil on the Argentinian border, we are hoping that the breathtaking beauty of the falls will off set 24 hours in a coach to get there (yes, that is 24 hours on a coach - Beth sobs silently in a corner).

Manaus
Manaus is the city in the Brazilian jungle and heralds the start of the mighty Amazon. We are flying to Manaus on Sat 5th June (even Steve can't contemplate over 70 hours by coach and boat) and our one big luxury is a 7 day river boat tour of the Amazon...sleeping in hammocks - so cool! Visit Swallows and Amazon Tours for more information.

Salavador
We fly to Salvador (cheaper than coach, honest Guv) on 16th June and it is reputedly the cultural region of Brazil. At least we won't get knoked over every 5 minutes by the power walking/marathon obsessed Cariocas. Unbelievably, they even have a seperate pavement for runners in Rio. At least in Salavdor, we can stick our tummies out and be proud!

Bolivia
We'll hopefully trek there from Peru if we have time (Beth sighs in resignation) as the Salt plains and flamingos sound amazing.

Anyway, we'll update the site after each adventure so until then, much love to you all xxx

photos of Rio added

Just managed to update the Gallery with some photos of Rio. A bit of a slow process though as no ftp access.

Unforgetable Anniversary

Bloody hell - what a comedy of errors! Our first anniversary was certainly memorable....

We checked out of the youth hostel first thing in the morning to find a hotel where the shower would have noone else's body fluids or hair stuck to it. Locating The Atlantis Copacabana Hotel and with a bargain rate of 30GBP including breakfast, we took 2 nights thank you very much. To off-set this luxury, we trekked 2 miles across Copacabana district to get there instead of taking a cab...with ten tonnes of luggage in the blazing heat. God, we felt virtouos!

Checking in, Beth burst into the bathroon prepared to worship the shower and stumbled across a nest of eggs. Yes, eggs of the insect variety. Reception promptly arrived with insect killing spray, Beth is hysterical and Steve is desperately trying to locate the correct portugese for 'these are eggs we need to move rooms'. The closest he got was 'I am a vegetarian'. The maid looked thunderstruck as if we were actually implying that if we weren't vegetarians we would have eaten them. Feeling faintly sick, we walked all the way back to the youth hostel again (I repeat another 2 miles) to pick up the tour to see Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf mountain.

This part of the day was absolutely amazing. We took a bus ride up Corcovoda mountain to see Christ the Redeemer statue. It's almost as if the statue is watching over Rio - it's totally amazing and the views were equally incredible. Then onto Sugarloaf, we got the cable cars up and watched as the sun set over a hectic Rio and the night lights came on, illuminating the city, favellas and beaches. The effect? Rio is surely the most beautiful city in the world from the top of Sugarloaf mountain.

Our final trek back from the Youth Hostel to the Atlantis gave us a big appetite for our dinner. Unfortunately as we entered into the room to change, we were greeted by fully fledged insects...the eggs had hatched. Marvellous. We moved rooms.

We went to the Esplanada Grill and had a gorgeous (huge!) meal of wild boar leg and steak - thanks a million Mum for treating us.

As we sat watching Ipanema activity (district next to Copacabana and slightly more civilised and less frantic), a rather cute looking young Brazilian boy, no more than 8, came over......and tried to grab Steve's watch. Steve saw him off with a clip round the ear!

After that debacle we thought we would be safer to grab a cab back to the hotel and blow the expense. What a mistaka to maka. Our taxi driver didn't actually know his way round Rio and appeared to be long sighted as he held the map a mile from his face. Stopping at the traffic lights to ask directions from a cabbie next car along, with horror, we realised the cabbie was asleep. We shall not be using the taxi's in Brazil anymore...

All in all, an unforgetable first anniversary!

One for the Ladies

Am involuntarily on the Atkins diet as Brazil is a meat dominated place - bread, what`s bread? We are going into the Ipanema district of Rio today to visit Christ the Redeemer. (massive statue overlooking Rio). I shall be praying for a bikini body. It`s Speedo city as well - most distracting when you are walking along the street with your husband (clearly joking Brown)! Just finished a breakfast of melon and pineapple so feeling particularly virtuous and am even ditching my tankini today in favour of a bikini. God help the locals.

Lots of Love
B
x

Hedonistic Rio!

Well, we arrived safely yesterday after a 14 hour flight via Sao Paulo. At first glance, Copacabana area of Rio is all the the guide books promise; samba in bars, football on the beach, majestic skyscrapers shadowing the curve of the beach. The gritty reality may be some what different though as Rio is like a prison - every building including Youth Hostels and Hotels are behind bars. We're staying 3 blocks down at Chelagarto Youth Hostel and it was a bit of a baptism of fire to begin with. Our double room was double booked so we had to share a mixed dorm. Whilst bunk beds are cool for kids - we spent the night dreaming of a room to ourselves and a double divan from DFS! Other travellers are just so friendly though and everyone shares their travel experiences so freely.

We've spent today on Copacabana beach - 27 degrees and a gorgeous way to start our travels. The Cariocas (natives of Rio) are not so much extroverted as sextroverted! Bikini bottoms don't really cover, well their bottoms to be honest (Fuji boys: investigation is stil ongoing into what a Brazilian is!), and they certainly have no inhabitions - wish they'd bottle it. Last night we had a meal for $10 - family sized pizza and 4 beers - eat your heart out Pizza Express! Today we have sampled the street fayres of Rio de Janieroc - corn on the cobs in their leaves and cooked in front of you and massive frankfurters in breadcrumbs cooked on the side walks (strange concept but yummy). Trying to conserve our money though because we're breaking up our Brazil trip into bite size chunks - with a trip to Bolivia inbetween, fellow travellers say it is unmissable with it's salty plains and flamingo shows. Unresolved questions about Brazil to date: Why are all the dogs the size of hamsters? Why do they dress their hamsters in souwesters?
Brazilians are always happy - haven't seen a miserable one yet - very far removed from Britain! More later this week and in the meantime, hope you're keeping well, lots of love to you all xxxx

Beth and the Jesus Sandal

I stare at it. This object of hideousness, tormenting me. I force myself to look it full in the sole. A size 9, brown leather religous icon. That I have to wear on my foot. I look back into the wardrobe and last season's wedges look down at me flirtatiously. 'Pick us' they silently beseech, 'we saw you through last season, we made your legs look thinner, your shoulders stand higher...we made even your yellow toe nails look good'. I look back down at the Jesus sandal; representing everything I've never been good at or wanted to be good at; exercise and comfort.

I must do this. I search for the second sandal. It's hiding from me underneath a pile of jumpers. The cheek of it. The cheek! I should be the one hiding!

I wrench them onto my feet, secretly beliveing that my big size 9's and freakishly long toes will somehow be transformed into cinderlla's glass slippered feet. They aren't. My wedges mock me silently from the wardrobe.

Thanks

Cheesy we know but sentiments are sincere!...

We've planned for a while
And now the day's here
To explore the world
With bravery not fear.

We'd just like to say
Thanks so very much
For all your best wishes
Cards, presents and such.

We will keep you updated
As we travel the world
Your support means so much
So please stay in touch.