Ola from Peru!

Well, we arrived safely in beautiful Peru after a rather gruelling 24 hour journey from Rio-Sao Paulo-Santiago-Lima-Cusco!

Spent all day yesterday in bed suffering from lack of sleep and the altitude sickness which hit us immediately we landed in Cusco. Really strange but you get a dreadful headache, feel really dizzy and it is quite difficult to breathe. Beth being the unfittest person on earth is used to being breathless easily and frankly is enjoying the fact that you need to exert yourself for half the length of time to start burning fat!

We were offered coca leaf tea on arrival to the hotel which helps ease the altitude sickness. Beth was deeply excited envisioning a big steaming mug of coco drink only to be given a mug of hot water with what looked like bay leaves floating around in it. Swallowing our fear of all teas herbal, we consumed and to our surprise was delicous and really refreshing. Of course that is nothing to do with the fact that coca leaves come from the same plant as cocaine...!

Peru truly seems to be the most beatufiul country in the world. Cusco is steeped in Inca history and the buildings surrounding the main square are magnificant colonial architeture - a little like Salvador in Brazil but with less of the manufactured colour. And the people! Such a refreshing change from the self-obsessed Cariocas. The Peruvians are such a smiley, kind and helpful nation and my God, the children are cute. We may do an Angelina Jolie and adopt a Peruvian child!

Our tans are suffering though as it is freezing here. Literally. It has been snowing all morning so it is a good job we have all our snowboarding clothes with us. Feel a little guilty though as the Peruvians just wrap themselves in their colourful blankets.

We are staying in a basic, typically Peruvian hotel called Ninos Hotel and for once the pictures of the hotel are exactly like the reality).It is only $30 for a double with bathroom to ourselves (bliss!) and all their profits are donated to the street children. In fact the owners have adopted over 18 street children so we can feel noble as well as comfortable!

We are starting the Inca trail on Monday so have plenty of time to acclimatise - apparently it takes at least 3 days to do that. Really excited about starting the trek though and seeing Macchu Piccu. We will retun to Cusco on Thursday night and stay in Ninos Hotel until Saturday when we will bus it down to Arequipa for the Colca Canyon. Cannot wait!

We will upload our Inca trail adventures on return (if Beth makes it of course) and in the meantime, love to you all xxx

...and one for the boys

Steve's lasting memories of Rio and Ipanema Beach: 5 absolutely perfect young women all wearing their dental floss bikinis, kicking a football between themselves (sadly, no photos). Although the footie skills were pretty basic, they were loving the admiring glances from the entire male population of the beach.

Excellent!

One for the ladies

Our last stay at the Hostel Harmonia in Rio saw us both in separate dormitories as they were so busy. Steve in the boys and me in the girls (despite Steve's best efforts to get that reversed).

Now, I don't mind sharing a dorm with 5 other girls, of course not, however I draw the line when; they are all 18-22, assume that cellulite is a new cocktail and think crows feet are part of a birds anatomy.

I trust I have inspired sympathy and gasps of shared horror from all the ladies reading this.

The Dog from Ipanema

Well, our last time back in Rio at Hostel Harmonia - sad to say goodbye to all the friends we've made here.

We visited the Centre area of Rio, where people actually work and not just ponce around on the beachfront doing sit-ups. In Rio it's not so much the girl from Ipanema but the dogs from Ipanema who really accessorise. We saw a dog, only slightly larger than a rabbit today dressed in a black and white spotted jacket with matching booties. The outfit was completed by a sun-visor with doggie sunglasses resting delicately on the brim, with a mobile phone dangling from the collar to complete the look. We weren't sure whether to laugh more at the dog or owner!!!!!

Salvador Photos

Photos of Salvador are now uploaded for anyone interested in seeing this bright and colourful city.

You can see a short video clip of the music school's performance here (3.4MB)

Sunny Salvador

Colour and rhythm aside (Beth was feeling poetic when she wrote that last update!), the minority of Salvador people ensure that travellers feel on edge for a lot of their visit, despite the heavy police presence. It's a shame as Pelorhino, the historic Centre (we stayed in a really good hostel www.alaranj.com.br), has much to offer. The houses are brightly coloured and the architecture is jaw-dropping in it's colonial splendour.
The Bahian food is perfect for us; seafood (Steve is now a convert), spice and carb-intensive. Beth 's proudest moment was when some Brazilians commented in admiration on Beth's impressive chilli sauce consumption. She was on the toilet for 2 days afterwards but they didn't need to know that.

The beaches in Bahia were also wonderful with fluffy yellow sand and clear seas, home to hordes of surfers and bodyboarders. Just a shame you had to sunbathe with your bag padlocked to your legs!

'Pelorinha Dia & Noite' was amazingly good fun. An open air area full of bars, restaurants and centred around a huge stage where there were live samba and bossa nova bands every night. We tried to emulate the locals in their frenetic appreciation of the music; 100 revellers jumping on the spot. We may not have looked very stylish but we definitely worked off our dinner that night!

One day we wondered into the lower city - an area reached by lift or a long winding walk through the favelas. The first time we walked down through the favelas, oblivious to the danger as they were so crowded. The second time we wondered down was on a Sunday, almost deserted, and an elderly local started shouting urgently at us in Portuguese. We only finally understood when she mimicked slitting her throat to warn us off the route. We heeded the warning and got the hell out!!!!

In the lower city they have displays of capoeira. For those who haven't seen this, it dates from the Afro-Brazil slaves brought to Salvador. They practiced capoeira as a form of Marshall Arts (similar to kick boxing) but as the slave drivers became increasingly threatened by a potential revolt, the slaves disguised it as a form of dance; put to music and displayed as non-contact. The men that practice are incredibly graceful, balanced and supple - how they don't kick each other we'll never know. These guys definitely graduated from BAGA 1 gymnastics*! Shame we couldn't take a picture but it's considered too risky to take your camera out in the lower city.

The memory though is one we won't forget and the potential to be a victim of crime is far outweighed by the wonderful impression that Salvador leaves on your sense.


* BAGA, for anyone who did not do gymnastic classes in their youth, is the UK qualification - BAGA 1 being the best and where you either need to be able to do the splits or a back flip to graduate!

Falling in love with Salvador

Salavador invades your senses with rhythm and colour. Blues, greens, reds and yellows warm your soul and hold promise of wild abandon. The people of Salvador seem to create rhythm where none existed before; in their walk, the way they speak...they can make music from tapping a bench and flicking the lid of a drink can.

The local music school beat their coloured drums on a Saturday afternoon, drawing Brazilians and tourists alike to stamp their feet as one. Noone remains unaffected and as each child beats their rhythm and dances their own dance, it's only when you hear the harmony that you loose your heart to Salvador.

Leaving Manaus, Back to Rio, Salvador here we come!

We spent our final day in Manaus locked in our hotel room. Not against our will you understand but because nothing, N-O-T-H-I-N-G, opens in Manaus on a Sunday. We went slightly crazy that day although at least we could watch cables and such Hollywood gems as 'The Brylcream Boys'. Unmissable. The England vs.France game was the highlight and lowlight of the day - no explanation needed there. Our flight back to Rio was cancelled and we had to hang around the airport for hours in the middle of the night.

Returning to Hostel Harmonia, Ipanema, felt a little like returning home. Some of the travelers may have changed but the Swedish owners and staff remained, friendly as ever and the new travelers we met equally as nice as the last. The whole hostel (20) crammed into the lounge area to support Sweden during their game against Bulgaria. Travelers of all nationalities were honourary Swedes that day, waving the flags and sharing in the glory of their 5-0 victory.

Heading to Salvador was a bit of a bun fight as in typical Brazil style, the plane was very late in (nothing in Brazil ever runs on time). Arriving at about 9pm, we were immediately accosted by beggars and we ended up in the first hostel we found. A complete hole as it turned out and Beth stayed up all night waving Steve's penknife threateningly at the door on the off chance of a stray Rastaferian breaking in. Not a great start but much to explore over the next 5 days and ample opportunity for Salvador to redeem itself!

New Photos

Photos of our Amazon adventure are now online so click here if you would like to view. Happy viewing!

Return to Manaus

After a delicious breakfast of fried bananas, pancakes, omelette and fruit (we are now obese), we stopped at one of the few beaches that are not flooded at this time of the year to have a final swim in Rio Negro., Beth felt particularly brave that she was swimming despite knowing what dangerous fish the river holds (at this stage Steve feels like he must interject that piranhas only migrate shady swamps, crocodiles really only come out at night and that however big, there are no more carnivorous fish in the Rio Negro. Beth ignores him totally and continues to feel very brave).

Next we headed to the old Manaus prison which, although has not been used for over 100 years, still felt unsettling and evil and despite 38 degrees, we felt cold. Apparently the islanders still lock really bad villagers up in one of the cells. Then Steve spotted a winged ant the length of an index finger. We left.

Two bottles of insect repellent and a bottle of suncream later we arrived back in Manaus, sunburnt, bitten all over but happy! What an amazing adventure and one that we'd highly recommend.

The Indian Commune

We left early in the canoe for more piranha fishing (Beth sobs) but this time to try and catch the elusive black piranha. They are the biggest of the species and can grow to 2 foot in length (Beth pales). We spent all morning in the flooded forests and divided our time between bailing out the leaking canoe for fear of sinking and actually catching them. Beth caught the only black one much to her dismay.

In the afternoon we started the long journey back to Manaus (95km) in time for our departure tomorrow. We stopped along the way at a native Indian community. The elder 'approved us' (someone has to!) and we were then allowed to wonder round the small village consisting of wooden huts and, the centre of the commune, a soccor pitch. We watched the boys play and wondered whether we were witnessing the next Ronaldo they were so good. Steve took a penalty and in true English style he missed. The men hunt, fish and farm in the day but it is the women who generate the most income for the commune through their beautiful crafts (girl power in the Amazon!)

The Indian communituy is like 'the Good life' on a gigantic scale. They have no real need for money and are oblivious to the situation in Iraq, the European union or the poilitical status in Brazil. They just simply survive and exist within the context of their community.

We sat on a beach to play with the children until we found out that the mud mound next to us was thinly covering the elder's parents who had died the previous week. We left pretty sharpish.

We have fallen out of love with the hammocks. After 5 mights we have become hunch backed and the amazon noises now hold promise of giant insects that could come into the boat and eat us (technically they couldn't and wouldn't but Beth's imagination is running riot in the heat of the Amazon).

Mosquito bites: too busy itching to count them.

Animal Magic

The morning was spent lazily whilst we travelled to the place where the 2 Katharinas were to be picked up. Katharina went to the toilet before she left only to find a huge rodent in the cupboard. Anand stabbed it with his machette but it escaped into a hole and hid, leaving only a trial of blood and a faint smell of decay. With this legacy, the 2 Katharinas left and it was so sad to see them go as we had had so much fun.

In the afternoon we travelled to the 3 mouths, where the Rio Negro is split by 3 islands (flooded though as the water is so high). These 3 beautiful nature reserves are home to gorgeous, gorgeous animals and birds, such as grey and pink dophins, blue and yellow maccaws, parrots and Toca Toucans. We had seen all these at the Bird park in Foz de Iguacu but nothing prepared us for seeing them enjoying their natural habitat. We felt so priviliged to witness it all and at night when all the stars came out, sat for hours starring up at them. That is until a giant grasshopper the size of Beth's feet (massive - see earlier Jesus sandals article from May!) landed on the deck and then we called it a night - safely within our mosquito nets.

Mosquito bite: Steve 54 (of which 29 are on his knee alone), Beth 72

We are English...get us out of here!

We spent a lazy morning, canoeing around the river and had bbq fish for lunch. We canoed for 2 hours to reach the jungle where we planned to sleep. Whilst Beth sprayed herself frantically with the strongest insect repellant money can buy (in vain as it turns out), Anand and a second guide cleared a place for camp close to the river edge (Beth and the two Katharinas were too scared to go in further for the night...much to Steve's disapointment). Within half an hour, the guides had errected a cover, made a table of palms and got the fire roaring with chicken on sticks cooking over. We found some suitable trees and set-up the hammocks and mosquito nets - camaflaged to made us inconspicuous to the Jungle animals (Beth gulps). As the night drew in, the animals started to come out whilst we ate our chicken, rice and fried bananas from leaves. To steady our nerves, the guides made us all caprioscas (vodka, sugar and lime) but continued to tell us horror stories filled with anacondas, monkey spiders and jaguars.

By 7pm it was so dark there was nothing left but to go to sleep. Staring up at the trees and hearing the river lap the shore did in no way dispel the fear of all the dangers the jungle has to hide. In fact Anand found a monkey spider (very posionous) the size of his hand on the tree trunk his hammock was tied too. It is a mercy we slept at all! In the morning, we were almost dizzy with happiness in the knowledge we had survived. That is until Anand pointed out a tree where a Jaguar had sharpened his claws not 5 minutes from where we slept. And then we couldn't wait to get back to the boat!

Mosquito bites: Steve 24, Beth 57

Me Tarzan, You Jane

After a stormy night with lightening the lit the sky and had us all running for the lower deck, we travelled along the river for hours, swaying in our hammocks. We stopped at Lake January to see the giant Lilly Pads named after Queen Victoria as she is alledged to have described them as suitable for her hammock when she visited the Amazon once. Crocodiles 3 metres long lined the banks and yawned lazily as we looked on from the safety of our viewing point. We were then taken to one of the only beaches that isn't flooded at this time, to swim in the fresh water of the Rio Negro. It has far less carnivourous fish population than the Solimoes, which apparently houses a fish that climbs into any hole in your body to cut it's way into your intestine. Nice.

After a tasty lunch of bean broth and bbq piranhas (oh the irony of eating Piranhas and not the other way around!), we went jungle trekking in the Amazon rainforest for 3 hours. The rainforest hides remedies and solutions to many medicinal and household dilemas it would seem. We saw trees that provide the inidians with milk, water, milk of magnesium, rosewood, mahogony, rubber and resin to mend boats and burn to keep insects away. We suspect nothing would keep the insects away from us though as they seem to like our English blood! We moored alongside the jungle at night, so far from civilisation that the night was darker than the Rio Negro but for the stars and moon.

Mosquito bites: Steve 16, Beth 29

Swallows and Amazons

We spent the time before our flight to Manuas productively...Harry Potter 3 was brilliant (with or without Portugese subtitles). After a 6 hour flight with 3 changes, we finally arrived in Manaus - the biggest city in the Amazon region - at 4am. With an 8am start we overslept by an hour and it was a mad rush to pack everything needed for our riverboat tour for the start of our Amazonian adventure. Mark, a British-American-Canadian, and the owner of Swallows and Amazons, met us and introduced us to Anand (pronounced Anagee) who was to be our guide on the river boat for the next week. With a gold tooth, he looked more like a drug dealer than a tour guide! We boarded the lovely 'Socorro Maria 2' boat with two other German girls - the two Katharinas (or Katty and Katharina for differentiation purposes), both architectural students on a cultural month long tour of Brazil. We were really lucky with our travelling companions, they spoke great English and were great fun!

Firstly we were taken to the 'Meeting of the Rivers' - River Solimoes which is a light brown and Rio Negro river which is black. Due to high acids in the Rio Negro, the two don't mix and simply sit side by side contrasting brown and black like; coffee and cocoa, dark chocolate and milk chocolate or if you want to be really cynical, like an oil spill on muddy waters.

Most of our 6 days were to be spent along Rio Negro as there are less insects, however the first day and night were spent on the Solimoes to experience the wealth of wildlife, the rich mixture of plants...and mosquitos as we soon discovered. Firstly we took the canoe into some swamps to go Piranha fishing. Beth's nerves were not helped by Steve humming the Jaws theme tune every 2 minutes. With bamboo canes and hooks we caught 8 piranhas between us and Beth totally freaked the first time she caught one to the extent she almost capsized the boat in terror. Steve on the other hand caught 4 and calmly removed the hooks from their razor-teeth lined jaws. Boys are revolting.

After a scrummy dinner of fried yams, fresh water fish stew, rice, noodles and salad (blimey we're going to get porky), we took the canoe out again....to go croodile hunting. At night you can make out the gleam of their yellow and red eys. Some species can grow up to 7 metres long so Beth was desperately trying not to have a panic attack and think about the film 'Lake Placid'. The guide suddenly plunged his hand into the water and pulled out a two foot crocodile (see the photos to believe it!). He then carried this back (clutched tightly around the jaws we may add) to the river boat where we each took it in turns to hold it ourselves. Well, Beth held the tail as she wasn't going anywhere near those teeth! Anand then rubbed it's tummy and it fell asleep..would have been sweet if it wasn't for all those teeth...and then it quietly slid off the log into the water.

We spent our first night on the top deck in hammocks and fell asleep swaying to an orchestra of crickets, frogs, bush rats (they have the loudest croak of all in the Amazon!), birds and fish.

Mosquito bites: Steve 7, Beth 14

Quote of the week

'Hail to the Chubby's' - taken from the pudding section of a menu in Rio!

Last Samba in Rio

We're all samba'ed out as we went to the most amazing bar cut into the hillside in Santa Teresa last night. It was in the middle of all the favellas and we were lucky enough to
get to go with 6 other travellers in a taxi - normally non-locals aren't allowed but our hostel managed to get us entrance.

Blimey, the cariocas can shake their booty - I didn't know that bottoms moved that fast...it was like they were battery powered! We did our best but sure we still looked like tourists. The samba band were great and the place got so packed, it was just amazing watching them all dance and laugh and dance some more. The views from the 'hut' we were in were incredible too, looking out across Rio from near the top of Covocoda (Mountain where Christ sits). Beth went to the toilet and found herself looking out into
the stars as there were no curtains let alone glass! All in all an amazing night but we didn't get in until 5am and we're flying tonight to Manaus....with horrible hangovers - their vodka, lime and sugar concoctions are enough to knock out a horse.

Copacabana Beach vendors

You know the sort of thing. You're lying on the beach, getting a nice tan and someone blocks the sunlight and tries to sell you something. Well, in Rio, we have been offered:

t-shirts and towels, rugs, hammocks, jewellery, sunglasses (we were wearing some at the time!), number plates(!!), tours of Rio, bikinis, ice cream, oysters, shrimps on sticks, water melon, pineapples, sun cream, beach balls, beer, coca-cola, water, Globo (fried tapioca we think), caps & hats, henna tatoos, face painting, photographs of yourself on the beach, wooden boxes, bongs (and "things" to go with them), radios, fish & chicken on a stick, wooden mortar & pastel, belts, bandanas, fake beer glasses (look full, but liquid is between 2 layers of glass) and cashew nuts.

And they all whistle at you like they're trying to get on the next episode of One Man & His Dog!

All we want is a tan...

In peace!

Return to Rio

Bus journey back from Foz was a disgrace! A bit like New Zealand and their sheep to human ratio, there were more bags than people being boarded and it seemed like half the Paraguay market traders were travelling back with us. There had obviously been some sort of tip off as we were boarded 6 times by armed transport police checking out the group of traders. There was lots of shouting and loads of money seemed to change hands on a regular basis and to 2 English people who only know "please", "thank you" and "sorry" in Portugese, we couldn't understand what the hell was going on. Our imaginations ran riot and by the end of the journey, we had decided we had shared our coach ride with a bunch of Columbian drug lords named the Rodriguez Cartel! We were the only people left on the coach when it pulled into Rio; the others being taken away for further questioning by the transport police.

Once back in Rio, we found a brilliant hostel; Harmonia - really pretty in a back street of Ipanema (cleaner, classier and less touristy than Copacabana). It's absolutely gorgeous - the other people here are great and even the bathrooms are nice !

We had our first meal here in 'Garota de Ipanema', the bar where the 'Girl from Ipanema', was composed, then we watched the surfing on the beach. Beth bought a tshirt for 4.50GBP, could life be anymore perfect?!!!!

Walked 8 miles today to the Rio Botanical Gardens which were pretty spectacular and walked around the famous lake which you can see on the Jesus pictures in the photo gallery. Hoping our legs will stop aching by 10pm though as we have sacrificed seeing the new Harry Potter film tonight in favour of a night of Samba dancing. The bar is apparently located up the side of a mountain in a Salsa club and the hostel are running a tour there tonight with a big group of people going. Hope Steve performs better than when we tried to learn Salsa in Olney!!!!!

Paragraph about Paraguay...

...because that's all it will take to describe our 10 minutes there! It took almost an hour to do a 5 mile journey into Paraguay due to the Brazilians all travelling in...it really felt like all of Brazil too there were so many people. Ciudad Del Este is the first town in paraguay on the Brazilian side and is best known for it's cheap electrical goods. From what we saw, it's actually a shanty town with market stalls built on top of it. After 10 minutes we couldn't stand the pollution and shouting and staring at digital camera models 6 months out of date and decided to get the bus back. We soon realised this was ambitous as the buses don't actually stop in Paraguay and you have to run alongside and swing on. We felt like action heros!

Video of Iguassu Falls (Argentina side)

New photos of Iguassu Falls (Brazilian and Aregntine side) and Bird Park now under the photo galleries. Also here is a quick video of the Iguassu Falls - around 1.8MB download if you have the patience! Dscf0364.avi