Hello, so we arrived in Foz De Iguassu after a 9hour wait at the bus garage in Campo Grande and then a 17hour bus journey. We stayed in a place called Iguassu Charm which was nice. We had our own room and shower with hot water so we couldn't of asked for much more. We were close to the shops which was good as the first night we headed down to a restaurant called La Chamana (spelt something like that) for dinner. It was $57 per person which allowed us to each as much as we liked...This was definitely what we needed after such a long journey. This place was full of lots of different salads, vegetables, mash potato,cheese and not to forget the meat. This place was amazing. Waiters would come around with different meats and serve them to you. We ate chicken heart (didnt know at the time) mini sausages, pork loin, beef, mini steaks wrapped in bacon, chicken wrapped in bacon, fillet mignon and lots more...And let me just tell you that Andrew ate and ate and ate. Every time the waiter would come out with a new dish Louise would laugh because Andrew would ask for some. The only thing he did turn down was the bbq pineapple and that was only because he wanted to leave space for the meat. No word of a lie after about 10 different servings of meat he was finally done. Louise in the mean time had lemon mirang pie and half a strawberry cheesecake for dessert. Which Andrew too found himself eating after a 5 minute rest. This place was def the best place we had eaten so far. We were just gutted that we didnt bring a camera to take pictures of all the different meats to show you all. Anyway after dinner we fatted our way up the hill and back to our hostel. We booked our trip to the falls for the next day.
At 9m we got up for breakfast. Louise had the usual 2 toasts and slice of chocolate cake (it is just sooo yummy) with a coffee and Andrew had his 2 baguette rolls with cheese and ham. At 10am the taxi man took us to the Argentinian side of the falls which was about 40 minutes drive away. We didnt pay for the tour as it was a lot more expensive so we sent the day just wandering around. To get to the main falls you need to get 2 little trains. These take about 10 minutes. After walking through loads of walkways and bridges we finally arrived at the falls. IT WAS AMAZING. Just watching all the water fall was great. When you looked at the water leading up to the 'devils throat' it was so calm and relaxing and then it was just crazy. We spent about 45minutes here taking photos, looking around and trying to push our way through the crowds. We then headed back to a cafeteria for some food. On the way back there where about 100 butterflies in one place and thousands just flying around us. They where so pretty. There where ones that had the number 88 on them which was cool. At the cafeteria there where loads of raccoon type creatures hanging around for food (basically like pigeons). I think they also knew that we had leprosy because for some reason they didnt bother us. We didnt mind as we found it a lot funnier to watch them pester other people. One kid kept putting his feet up on his chair and the raccoon kept backing him in to a corner. I think this was only funny to us because the kid was screaming and it wasnt happening to us. After lunch we had a long walk around the park, check out the museum. This is where Andrew got in the home made boat. (This is what people used to sail down the river in hundreds of years ago). After a few shops (Andrew bought some Argentinian tea herbs) and a coffee we got the taxi home.
When we got back Andrew made a special Argentinian tea (everyone in South America drinks it) it was disgusting. It was really really strong and it didnt taste anything like our tea back home. So we threw it away.
We have a TV in our room so we had been doing a lot of TV watching when lazying around we even managed to find English speaking channels. We watched the last one of the Harry Potters, a film called The Fan with Robert DeNiro and Center Stage (the sort of crap i like to watch). On Wednesday night we headed to Paraguay. The bus journey was only 5 hours so the journey wasnt too bad plus the coach seat here are just amazing. The seat recline back soo far. I will take a pic the next time we are on them so you can see what we mean.
So to sum up Paraguay its a bit of a shit hole. We didnt have people trying to sell us grenades or guns when we arrived which was surprising as we where told people always approach you. The area that we are in (Asuncion) the capital is not too bad. There are a few shops and a mall as well as McDonalds, Burger King and another few nice places to eat. The people are actually ok here too. They don't bother you, and you can walk around the town with your jewellery on show, however we dont just to be safe. We leave here tonight to head to Santa Cruz in Bolivia which is going to take a while to get to but hopefully we can sleep most of the way. Once here we will be looking to get a bus straight away to Lima Peru so that we dont waste to much time there. The bus journey to Peru will probably take a while so we wont be writing here for a while. We hope you like the pictures so far and we will speak to you soon xx
Friday, 28 September 2012
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Saturday, 22 September 2012
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Arriving in Sao Paulo, the Pantanal and Bonito
Sao Paulo-17th Sep
Turned up at the bus station in Sao Paulo at 5am. We headed inside to get the Metro (tube) to our hostel but as no trains were running yet we got a taxi. After a 30 minute drive and the taxi man not knowing where he was going (pulling over numerous of times to check his map) we finally arrived at our hostel called Doms Hostel. The hostel from the outside was down an alley so it was quite dark. The taxi man got our bags out of the car and we told him to wait until someone was answered the buzzer. We heard a man open his window and grunt at us, so Andrew buzzed again and he let us in. Once we were shown to our rooms we fell asleep. After a nice few hours sleep we headed into town via the Metro. We went to a place called Sao Bento. This is in the center of Sao Paulo. (Bit like the city in London). We had a look around the shops, grabbed lunch and a few drinks. After we headed back to the hostel. For dinner we made fried veg with garlic and beef flavoring (bit like oxo) and for desert we had fruit. YUMMY...
Went to bed early this night as we had to get up at 3:45am to catch our flight to Campo Grande. At 2:23am we were awoken but VERY VERY VERY LOUD snoring. We tried putting our headphones in but this was no good. An hour past and we decided to get up before our alarm and make noise packing. To be honest this didnt make a difference as he stayed asleep.
Flight to Campo Grande was nice and quick. We were met at the airport by a man holding a sign saying Mrs Louise Lannigan. He drove us to the bus garage where we waited 2 hours for our bus to the Pantanal.
The bus journey took 5 hours. Our stop was on the side of a main road which we nearly missed. Luckily Andrew went to check to see if it was our stopped and was greeted by a man who looks and sounded like Mr Chow from the Hangover. He transferred us to our room in the Pantanal.
Pantanal- 18th-21st
The room we stayed in was dark, creeky and full of wildlife. There were rat droppings all over the floor and shelf. Holes on the walls and ceiling. After dropping bags off to this room we went for dinner. We met a man called Hans from Switzerland who was travelling South America by motorbike. He and Mr Chow were the only people who could speak English.
After a night of under the covers I was woken up by Andrew who gave me a cuddle and sang me Happy Birthday. As we had to be ready for our day off fun at 7am we got up and had breakfast. Going back to the room to brush our teeth Louise was greeted by a friend called frog. He jumped out of the plug hole while she was leaning over brushing my teeth. Fast little sucker jumped out the bowl and shot off.
At 7:15 we headed to the river to get into our two man canoe. Andrew sat at the back to steer and Louise jumped in the front. Heading down the river we found the canoe was very sensitive to movement and even laughing caused the boat to wobble. Along the way we saw Otters catching fish. Caimans along the river banks. On this trip were another English couple (turned up late night before so didnt know they were there till the morning) and Hans (who had a canoe to himself). The 3 boats headed down river nice and slowly. But Hans having difficulty steering his on his own. After 15 minutes we were both wondering where Hans had got to, to then hear birds squaking and going crazy in a tree above the bush Hans was in. He kept doing this along the way as he couldn't guide his boat. We found this hilarious which wasn't good for us as the boat would not stop rocking.
Once the canoe trip was over we done some Pirhana fishing. Louise caught a Pirhana and a Catfish and Andrew caught 2 fish being with P which we cant pronounce. But Andrew was very jealous as he really wanted to catch a Pirhana.
After fishing we had to go and pack our bags as we were being moved to another place which was known as the farm. Here is where we were settled for 2 nights and have to sleep in a hammock.
In the afternoon we went horse riding for 2 hours around the bush of the Pantanal. We see a lot of different birds on this trip..Toucans and McCors being two of them. On the way back we had to go through a field which had two bulls in. One bull went crazy and ran and headed butted a tree.
After dinner we headed out on our night walk in search of Jaguars armed with only a torch. Along the track Paulo (our guide) said stay on the main road and watch out for Vipers. This worried Louise a lot and set her off into panic mode. We walked for about 10 minutes when we stopped and was told to turn our torches off. This frightened Louise a lot as all she could now think about was venomous snakes and Spiders. We walked for a little longer until we reached a gap in the bushes and was told to walk down there. Louise went crazy and embarrassingly shed a tear. The group and Andrew thought it was because of Jaguars but it was because she was told not to walk of the track because of snakes and now being told to walk into a bush. Andrew said we cant stray from the group and forced Louise down this gap. Once coming out the other side we noticed it was a large water hole where there were about 100 caiman. All you could see when shining your torch with no exaggeration were 100 set of red eyes staring back at us. With a couple of Kapybyro eyes looking at us too. We did see some Jaguar footprints but they must have left before we got there. After a few pictures taken we headed back.
The next morning we all got up for a shower. Mike and Jen who were in our group said the water was freezing. However when it was our turn Andrew had a fiddle around with the shower and noticed it was on the cold setting. So the evil genus that he is turned it back to cold when we were done. Louise said that we should tell them but Andrew said they should work it out for themselves with an evil laugh. Sitting at the breakfast we found it highly amusing when we kept saying we couldn't believe how cold the shower was.haha. After breakfast we went on another 2 1/2 hour walk where was saw monkeys, raccoon type creature, armadillo and a dead cow. Our guide told a lot about the nature there. He showed us the tree which made fresh drinking water, a tree that makes pva glue and red fire ants. That can kill you.
After lunch we headed out again for another 3 hour walk (yes a lot of walking in the wild) in search of an Anaconda. However it had moved from where it was last spotted. On the way back we came across a large mud pit full of Caiman, storks and a beautiful sunset.
That night we were woken by a huge storm. With constant lightning and thunder. It was actually really cool to watch.
Bonito-21st
This morning we transferred to Bonito by bus. We arrived at 12.30pm and settled in to our hotel. We booked 2 excursions. One to a natural swimming pool (river with fish) and one to a hidden cave with beautiful blue water. The swimming pool was good, we snorkeled with the fish and fed them bags of pellets. Andrew was trying to hand feed them but they werent having any of it.....until...He decided to hold a pellet down with his index finger in the water for the fish....The fish swam up ate the pellet and Andrews finger. Louise could not stop laughing as he must of been the only person in the whole place who has ever been bitten by one of these fish. He then sat on the side and kept on about there teeth while Louise was still relaxing with her feet in the water. (This has scared Andrew for life) haha.
Today we went to the cave. It was a beautiful blue colour (words can not describe it). We read up that the cave wads 850million years old and has the depth of 90 feet. At the bottom it has some fossil remains of a Sabre Tooth Tiger, Mammoth and a giant Sloth. Our guide didnt speak any English so we where in the cave for 3 hours not knowing what he was talking about. However the sight was amazing enough that we didnt care.
For the rest of the day we took a walk around central Bonito where we stopped for dinner. We had caiman to start (set out like calamari but tastes like chicken) and then sirloin steak. Which was lovely.
Tomorrow we will be heading to Iquazzu falls so you may not hear from us for a while but please take a look at the photos in the meantime.
xx
Turned up at the bus station in Sao Paulo at 5am. We headed inside to get the Metro (tube) to our hostel but as no trains were running yet we got a taxi. After a 30 minute drive and the taxi man not knowing where he was going (pulling over numerous of times to check his map) we finally arrived at our hostel called Doms Hostel. The hostel from the outside was down an alley so it was quite dark. The taxi man got our bags out of the car and we told him to wait until someone was answered the buzzer. We heard a man open his window and grunt at us, so Andrew buzzed again and he let us in. Once we were shown to our rooms we fell asleep. After a nice few hours sleep we headed into town via the Metro. We went to a place called Sao Bento. This is in the center of Sao Paulo. (Bit like the city in London). We had a look around the shops, grabbed lunch and a few drinks. After we headed back to the hostel. For dinner we made fried veg with garlic and beef flavoring (bit like oxo) and for desert we had fruit. YUMMY...
Went to bed early this night as we had to get up at 3:45am to catch our flight to Campo Grande. At 2:23am we were awoken but VERY VERY VERY LOUD snoring. We tried putting our headphones in but this was no good. An hour past and we decided to get up before our alarm and make noise packing. To be honest this didnt make a difference as he stayed asleep.
Flight to Campo Grande was nice and quick. We were met at the airport by a man holding a sign saying Mrs Louise Lannigan. He drove us to the bus garage where we waited 2 hours for our bus to the Pantanal.
The bus journey took 5 hours. Our stop was on the side of a main road which we nearly missed. Luckily Andrew went to check to see if it was our stopped and was greeted by a man who looks and sounded like Mr Chow from the Hangover. He transferred us to our room in the Pantanal.
Pantanal- 18th-21st
The room we stayed in was dark, creeky and full of wildlife. There were rat droppings all over the floor and shelf. Holes on the walls and ceiling. After dropping bags off to this room we went for dinner. We met a man called Hans from Switzerland who was travelling South America by motorbike. He and Mr Chow were the only people who could speak English.
After a night of under the covers I was woken up by Andrew who gave me a cuddle and sang me Happy Birthday. As we had to be ready for our day off fun at 7am we got up and had breakfast. Going back to the room to brush our teeth Louise was greeted by a friend called frog. He jumped out of the plug hole while she was leaning over brushing my teeth. Fast little sucker jumped out the bowl and shot off.
At 7:15 we headed to the river to get into our two man canoe. Andrew sat at the back to steer and Louise jumped in the front. Heading down the river we found the canoe was very sensitive to movement and even laughing caused the boat to wobble. Along the way we saw Otters catching fish. Caimans along the river banks. On this trip were another English couple (turned up late night before so didnt know they were there till the morning) and Hans (who had a canoe to himself). The 3 boats headed down river nice and slowly. But Hans having difficulty steering his on his own. After 15 minutes we were both wondering where Hans had got to, to then hear birds squaking and going crazy in a tree above the bush Hans was in. He kept doing this along the way as he couldn't guide his boat. We found this hilarious which wasn't good for us as the boat would not stop rocking.
Once the canoe trip was over we done some Pirhana fishing. Louise caught a Pirhana and a Catfish and Andrew caught 2 fish being with P which we cant pronounce. But Andrew was very jealous as he really wanted to catch a Pirhana.
After fishing we had to go and pack our bags as we were being moved to another place which was known as the farm. Here is where we were settled for 2 nights and have to sleep in a hammock.
In the afternoon we went horse riding for 2 hours around the bush of the Pantanal. We see a lot of different birds on this trip..Toucans and McCors being two of them. On the way back we had to go through a field which had two bulls in. One bull went crazy and ran and headed butted a tree.
After dinner we headed out on our night walk in search of Jaguars armed with only a torch. Along the track Paulo (our guide) said stay on the main road and watch out for Vipers. This worried Louise a lot and set her off into panic mode. We walked for about 10 minutes when we stopped and was told to turn our torches off. This frightened Louise a lot as all she could now think about was venomous snakes and Spiders. We walked for a little longer until we reached a gap in the bushes and was told to walk down there. Louise went crazy and embarrassingly shed a tear. The group and Andrew thought it was because of Jaguars but it was because she was told not to walk of the track because of snakes and now being told to walk into a bush. Andrew said we cant stray from the group and forced Louise down this gap. Once coming out the other side we noticed it was a large water hole where there were about 100 caiman. All you could see when shining your torch with no exaggeration were 100 set of red eyes staring back at us. With a couple of Kapybyro eyes looking at us too. We did see some Jaguar footprints but they must have left before we got there. After a few pictures taken we headed back.
The next morning we all got up for a shower. Mike and Jen who were in our group said the water was freezing. However when it was our turn Andrew had a fiddle around with the shower and noticed it was on the cold setting. So the evil genus that he is turned it back to cold when we were done. Louise said that we should tell them but Andrew said they should work it out for themselves with an evil laugh. Sitting at the breakfast we found it highly amusing when we kept saying we couldn't believe how cold the shower was.haha. After breakfast we went on another 2 1/2 hour walk where was saw monkeys, raccoon type creature, armadillo and a dead cow. Our guide told a lot about the nature there. He showed us the tree which made fresh drinking water, a tree that makes pva glue and red fire ants. That can kill you.
After lunch we headed out again for another 3 hour walk (yes a lot of walking in the wild) in search of an Anaconda. However it had moved from where it was last spotted. On the way back we came across a large mud pit full of Caiman, storks and a beautiful sunset.
That night we were woken by a huge storm. With constant lightning and thunder. It was actually really cool to watch.
Bonito-21st
This morning we transferred to Bonito by bus. We arrived at 12.30pm and settled in to our hotel. We booked 2 excursions. One to a natural swimming pool (river with fish) and one to a hidden cave with beautiful blue water. The swimming pool was good, we snorkeled with the fish and fed them bags of pellets. Andrew was trying to hand feed them but they werent having any of it.....until...He decided to hold a pellet down with his index finger in the water for the fish....The fish swam up ate the pellet and Andrews finger. Louise could not stop laughing as he must of been the only person in the whole place who has ever been bitten by one of these fish. He then sat on the side and kept on about there teeth while Louise was still relaxing with her feet in the water. (This has scared Andrew for life) haha.
Today we went to the cave. It was a beautiful blue colour (words can not describe it). We read up that the cave wads 850million years old and has the depth of 90 feet. At the bottom it has some fossil remains of a Sabre Tooth Tiger, Mammoth and a giant Sloth. Our guide didnt speak any English so we where in the cave for 3 hours not knowing what he was talking about. However the sight was amazing enough that we didnt care.
For the rest of the day we took a walk around central Bonito where we stopped for dinner. We had caiman to start (set out like calamari but tastes like chicken) and then sirloin steak. Which was lovely.
Tomorrow we will be heading to Iquazzu falls so you may not hear from us for a while but please take a look at the photos in the meantime.
xx
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Farewell to Paraty
OK so carrying on from the night before. We decided to watch a film. (Bridesmaids) When the film had finished we turned the lights off to go to sleep and within 2 minutes we could here a mosquito (just one) buzzing around. Louise shot under the covers where she stayed until it was too hot. Being very careful and making sure she was covered in all places she made a gap around her nose, eyes and mouth to breath. Andrew however didn't care too much, he just listened to his iPod and tried to swat it whenever it came by. Anyway morning came, Louise was still tucked up under her sheets. When she got out of bed to get ready for breakfast low and behold she had a bite right on her left cheek right under her eye. This has now swollen to look like she has been punched!! How she got bit she doesn't know but this mosquito was one very clever stealthy ninja!
Boat Trip 16th
So this morning the sun was shining. We managed to book ourselves onto a boat tour. This tour takes you around different islands, gives you the opportunity to snorkel and dive off the boat.
The boat was due to leave at 11am and as usual we were both running late. When we finally got to the boat after asking everyone along the dock which trip was ours we headed to top deck. Louise managed to snatch the last sun lounger and Andrew got the last table and chairs. When the boat set off we noticed that we were the only two white (milk bottles) and English speaking people on the boat. As it was a Saturday we think the Portuguese where out on a weekend trip. Anyway the boat had set sail and we were both happily people watching. There was one little boy who we noticed needed to go a wee, so his mother stood him up on the edge of the boat and held him to go a wee. What she didn't think about was that she couldn't see what she was doing and the wee ended up going everywhere. Basically it was spraying up. We found this very funny indeed. Especially because she now had wee all over her, the dad and the boy and she ended up having to take him to the toilet anyway. (This is what happens when you are a lazy goat).
Anyway after about 20 minutes of sailing we stopped at our first island. Andrew jumped in first and then Louise. Andrew decided while shouting kill myself kill myself (weird boy) that he wanted to do flips off the boat. He managed to do these successfully without injuring himself or anybody else which was good. 20minutes went by and we were called to get back on the boat. After setting sail the food menu went around. We didn't want to spend loads so we only took out 40$ with us. Well lets just say the foods starting prices was 35$. So instead we bought beer and crisps. When the food actually arrived it was quite funny as we were staring at everybody's food. Andrew then saying to me with a sad face...help me i'm poor (this is a funny quote from the film Bridesmaids) well anyway this had us both in hysterics for a little while.
Our next stop was for snorkeling. We were told when we first booked that we can do this, however they did not tell us we had to pay 10$ for the equipment. We didn't care, we just watched from the boat and complained that there weren't many fish anyway.
Oh I forgot to say that there was a photographer on the boat going round taking photos of everyone excluding us. She did not approach us once! Louise even sarcastically jumped up and down in front of her shouting hello film me film me. Still no response so we decided to deal with the fact that we had leprosy.
The boat ride continued for another few hours and finally we got back to our hostel with nice burnt skin.
In the evening we had pasta and bolognese sauce which was lovely. (We have done quite alright for food here). After dinner we went to buy our bus ticket for tomorrow morning to Sao Paulo. Stupidly we thought the 9:40am bus was going to be available. Well no it wasn't!! The next available bus was 23:10. So we booked on to this instead. When we got back to the hostel we were shattered, we had a couple of games of shithead and then went to bed watching Overboard. Louise tonight cleverly got out her mosquito net... not so clever that she is full of bites and didn't think to use it before the ninja last night.
17th -Time for check out
So this morning we had to check out at 11am. We left our bags in a secure place in the hostel and headed for the beach. We had a few beers, a massive lunch and then some more beers. We felt that this would make the day speed through. Well actually it didn't. It was 2pm and we still had 9hours to burn. We are not going to be able to give you a list of things that we done in this time as we sat on the beach all day watching dogs attack each other oh and they dig holes. We did see and enthusiastic little dog running up and down the beach for about 10 minutes. This was cute. By about 5pm we started to play good old shithead again...Louise winning 12-5. (Andrew was not amused) However we realised that I kept winning because he was no longer cheating. ( We now have a new fair way to shuffle the cards)
So it is now finally 10pm which means we can walk our way to the bus station for our 6 hour bus journey. Lets hope its a nice one...
Boat Trip 16th
So this morning the sun was shining. We managed to book ourselves onto a boat tour. This tour takes you around different islands, gives you the opportunity to snorkel and dive off the boat.
The boat was due to leave at 11am and as usual we were both running late. When we finally got to the boat after asking everyone along the dock which trip was ours we headed to top deck. Louise managed to snatch the last sun lounger and Andrew got the last table and chairs. When the boat set off we noticed that we were the only two white (milk bottles) and English speaking people on the boat. As it was a Saturday we think the Portuguese where out on a weekend trip. Anyway the boat had set sail and we were both happily people watching. There was one little boy who we noticed needed to go a wee, so his mother stood him up on the edge of the boat and held him to go a wee. What she didn't think about was that she couldn't see what she was doing and the wee ended up going everywhere. Basically it was spraying up. We found this very funny indeed. Especially because she now had wee all over her, the dad and the boy and she ended up having to take him to the toilet anyway. (This is what happens when you are a lazy goat).
Anyway after about 20 minutes of sailing we stopped at our first island. Andrew jumped in first and then Louise. Andrew decided while shouting kill myself kill myself (weird boy) that he wanted to do flips off the boat. He managed to do these successfully without injuring himself or anybody else which was good. 20minutes went by and we were called to get back on the boat. After setting sail the food menu went around. We didn't want to spend loads so we only took out 40$ with us. Well lets just say the foods starting prices was 35$. So instead we bought beer and crisps. When the food actually arrived it was quite funny as we were staring at everybody's food. Andrew then saying to me with a sad face...help me i'm poor (this is a funny quote from the film Bridesmaids) well anyway this had us both in hysterics for a little while.
Our next stop was for snorkeling. We were told when we first booked that we can do this, however they did not tell us we had to pay 10$ for the equipment. We didn't care, we just watched from the boat and complained that there weren't many fish anyway.
Oh I forgot to say that there was a photographer on the boat going round taking photos of everyone excluding us. She did not approach us once! Louise even sarcastically jumped up and down in front of her shouting hello film me film me. Still no response so we decided to deal with the fact that we had leprosy.
The boat ride continued for another few hours and finally we got back to our hostel with nice burnt skin.
In the evening we had pasta and bolognese sauce which was lovely. (We have done quite alright for food here). After dinner we went to buy our bus ticket for tomorrow morning to Sao Paulo. Stupidly we thought the 9:40am bus was going to be available. Well no it wasn't!! The next available bus was 23:10. So we booked on to this instead. When we got back to the hostel we were shattered, we had a couple of games of shithead and then went to bed watching Overboard. Louise tonight cleverly got out her mosquito net... not so clever that she is full of bites and didn't think to use it before the ninja last night.
17th -Time for check out
So this morning we had to check out at 11am. We left our bags in a secure place in the hostel and headed for the beach. We had a few beers, a massive lunch and then some more beers. We felt that this would make the day speed through. Well actually it didn't. It was 2pm and we still had 9hours to burn. We are not going to be able to give you a list of things that we done in this time as we sat on the beach all day watching dogs attack each other oh and they dig holes. We did see and enthusiastic little dog running up and down the beach for about 10 minutes. This was cute. By about 5pm we started to play good old shithead again...Louise winning 12-5. (Andrew was not amused) However we realised that I kept winning because he was no longer cheating. ( We now have a new fair way to shuffle the cards)
So it is now finally 10pm which means we can walk our way to the bus station for our 6 hour bus journey. Lets hope its a nice one...
Friday, 14 September 2012
Paraty so far
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Kayaking and relaxing (being lazy)
Paraty
Since arriving in Paraty on Tueday night we havent really been up to much.
Been getting up at 9am every morning to go for breakfast (cheese n ham toasties) On Thursday At a 11am we were told that we had to move rooms. This was very upsetting as we both had bottom bunks and the room we had to move to was top bunks. We soon sortd that out those as one bunk didnt have anthing on so Louise made herself comfortable, to then find out that she had stolen a South African mans bed.
Louise played the sob story that she couldnt climb the the top bunk and he soon gave her his bed :-)
On Thursday we also went Kayaking in the sea with about a group of 12 people which was good. Louise handled the waters like a pro. (This is actually true)
Andrew had some difficult moments, one falling out of his kayaking in the mangroves by being pulled into a tree by the strong current.
Louise found this extremely hilarious. After a few hours kayaking we stopped at a different beach for lunch. Andrew had Frango(chicken) with salad, rice and kidney bean sauce and Louise had the same but with beef. It was really filling and tasty. (Photo of this to follow shortly)
When we got back from kayaking we went to the supermarket to get our food. Andrew cooked, he made frankfurter sausage with perppers and onions mixed in with a tomato based sauce. We had this with Pasta. The Portuguese guy who we share a room with kept calling Andrew Jamie Oliver (well actually he was calling him Jimmy). We both found this hilarious.
After dinner we had a walk to the town where we handed in or washing. We only paid $18 which is £5.50 for a masive bundle which was good.
Once back we had a few game of cards before bed. Andrew felt the need to constantly cheat. Louise managed to play him at hs own game and get him back without him realising, which was good.
Today we didnt do much.The weather wasnt great so Louise had a day of reading her book and Andrew had a day at picking up the washinng, buying the food for the dinner and then rewarding himself with a few beers on the beach (even though it was freezing) whilst watching the wild dogs. (There is about 8 of them in a pack) They chase people who come by on a bicycle or a car and bark at them. We were going to hire a bike for the day but we are going to give this a miss.
The day has been pretty boring with not much to report. However literally 5 minutes ago Andrew said he had found a corner shop. He said he was going to get some nibbles. When he came back he said 'the man wasn't sure how much to charge me for the crisps. I kept saying to him Donde Esta, Donde Esta' I then burst out laughing and told him no wonder the man was confused you kept saying to him in Where is, where is?? haha I found this hilarious as you can imagine. Well this is all we have to report today. WE are however going on a boat trip tomorrow so should have plenty to report back then.
Sunday, 9 September 2012
Waterfalls, Beautiful Beaches and horrible Jungle treks
So while on this Paradise Island we thought we would get involved. Check
out the nice beaches, trek one hour to a waterfall and relax. Well, let us tell
you that we have not relaxed since getting here…..bar today
Friday
The morning started off a rocky one. As we had no cash and the island doesn't have a cash point Andrew headed off to the main land. After 2 hours he came back needing a stiff drink. When he arrived on the main land there was some sort of political voting parade. He had to jump over a railway line, zig zaged through a parade just to cross the road. When arriving at the cash point he had to try 3 different ones as for some reason the cards didn't work. Panic set in as he didnt have enough cash to get back to the island. When he finally got cash and headed back to the boat and back to the island.
At about 12 we overheard our German roomy Thomas say that the waterfall
was nice, you can get there yourself and that it’s only an hours trek with some
steep hills!!! WELL this was not the case. We set off at 12:20 and headed into
the jungle alone. There was a path to follow and signs to show what direction
to go. Along the way we were passed by other walkers so we knew we weren’t
alone and on the right track. About an hour in we came across a pool. So we
stopped for a few minutes thinking we had reached our destination. But this was
not it!!! We then carried on walking for another hour and
a half along little narrow jungle pathways which were steeper than we had ever
seen in our lives. We were pretty much dying with exhaustion, lack of oxygen to
the brain and our clothing was soaked with sweat! We had 2 small bottles of
water that we tried to maintain for as long as possible and we didn’t want to
stop because it would only be worse. Pretty much the whole trek was up and down
so even coming back we knew would be the same struggle. We finally arrived at
the waterfall at 2:50pm sat on the rocks, stuffed our face with a bag of crisps
(ate these like savages) and drunk some water. Took a few photos and then had
to head back. This was so we were back before it got dark. So at 3pm we headed off
again. Our legs where tired, Louise had a headache, a sore Achilles on her left
foot and a bad knee on her right and would not stop moaning. Andrew had bad toes
which where hurting him in his trainers. All in all we felt like we couldn’t go
on… But we did and at 5:10pm we finally made it back to the main beach where we
started. We stopped off for an ice cream as we felt we had deserved it. We got
back to our hostel at about 5:30pm. Louise went for a little knap at 6pm…she
woke up at 9am the next day. Andrew had to go out and find his own food; he ate
a sausage on a stick and a hot dog. He then had a wander and went to bed.
Saturday Morning
So after breakfast this morning we went down to the pier to buy our tickets to the beach Lopes Mendes. This beach is on the same island but if you wanted
to walk here it is another 3 hour trek, so we thought we would pay to get the
boat. After a 45 minute boat journey we got off the boat to a beach that didn’t
look that spectacular. We were told that this is not the beach and you have to
trek 20 minutes through the jungle to get there! Well as you can imagine Andrew
laughed and Louise could of nearly cried. Especially because we had to walk
through in our flip flops. The hills here were bad but not as bad as the others.
After 20 minutes we finally arrived and it was a dream. The sand was white and so soft that when you
walked on it, it crunched just like snow does when you first walk on it. The
sea was a tropical blue and the waves where quite high. We spent 4 hours of
bliss on what looked like a completely different island. We hired a body board
for an hour too which was great fun, we were pro’s at trying to catch a wave J
At 4.30pm we headed back. Got dressed and went to the hostel kitchen. We
made a tomato pasta sauce with onions, green peppers, garlic and frankfurter.
We had this with pasta and parmesan cheese. It was bloody lovely. After dinner
we sat at the bar with our roomies. Had a few beers and then headed down to the
beach where there was a bonfire and a ring of people singing which could easily
have been cum ba ya in Portuguese. We spent about 10 minutes there and called
it a night at 2am.
Sunday
This morning we didn’t do much. We decided we didn’t want any trekking so
we decided to stay at the beach and relax.
Friday, 7 September 2012
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