Long time since I wrote, hope you're up for an epic!
My short time in Rio is about to come to an end, I feel like I've been on my holidays. As there was a few of us we rented an apartment in Ipanema without realising it had a rooftop terrace and swimming pool. Oh the absolute luxury!! I'm going to find it really hard to return to the backpacking reality now.
But so much to tell you before we get to Rio, I can't really remember where I left off.but I think it was when I went back to Cusco. Now it's a lovely town and very comfortable to stay in as everyone speaks English but seriously, one week is enough. I think we were all sick and tired of freezing our asses off at altitude and we still felt a bit ropey - that too from the altitude, and anyway Cath, Clare and I had booked our trip to the jungle and were VERY excited about it. As we sat in Lima airport we rejoiced about being at sea level and vowed never to complain about the heat again, ever..
So we flew into Iquitos, a jungle town in the middle of the Amazon jungle only accessible by plane or boat. We chose to go there as it's the only place outside Brazil that you can sail down the Amazon river. We were ready for 4 days of monkey spotting, fishing for pirhanas, swimming with pink dolphins and hunting for alligators, we were so excited that we even agreed to go camping in the jungle.
Doesn't it sound great? Let me assure you that all these things happened, although I was a bit wary of the anacondas when I was swimming in the Amazon. We even had a mad night out with the locals in the village - I think our tour guide fancied a night on the lash at home! This ended up with us drinking firewater - the local home brew and me feeling really dodgy the next day, just great for paddling in a dug out canoe for 4 hours.
I'm ashamed to say though I couldn't wait to get out of the damn place. My overwhelming memory will be of being eaten alive by mozzies the size of wasps. These monsters managed to devour me through my thick canvas trousers. I had at least 60 bites on the back of each leg, on one knee I counted 28.
Seriously if you stopped walking you got attacked, if you stopped paddling you got attacked, if you came out your hammock you got attacked. It was sheer hell. Cath, came out in a worse than usual allergic reaction and was blistered all over her arms. I was dying for her to give in and say she wanted to go back to the lodge but dammit she didn't. Oh and let me tell you about the camp, we presumed it would've been I pre set camp in the jungle but oh no, we paddled in our canoes to the riverbank in the middle of nowhere, cut down trees to sling our hammocks and covered them with mosquito nets an tarpulin, THEN got eaten . We were begging to go back to high altitude by the end of it!!!
Needless to say my plans have dramatically changed. I was meant to be staying in the jungle in Ecudor for a month but there's no chance of that. In fact after being on the beach in Brazil for 3 weeks I'm not wanting to go to Ecudor at all. So I'm going to fly into Quito (more high altitude), meet Alison and Sean hopefully, go to the Galapagos and then go straight to Columbia.
So guys thats the next proposition. Next week all the people I've met so far will be away so I'm ready for the next lot of visitors. I'm getting a little bit travel weary now - well it has been 4 months, so I'm going to go to Cartnagena for a month. Its on the Carribean coast of Colombia. Beautiful colonial town with Carribean beaches and great diving. Have I sold it to you yet?? I should be there at the end of May, as always all welcome and then you can say you survived Columbia!
I've still got to tell you all about Brazil but I need to go shopping before it gets dark - I'm staying in a dodgy part of Rio now!
I'll continue after dinner, think about Columbia....
