Incidents of Travel in Central and South America 2010

I'm writing this last entry on the plane ride back home to Australia and I must say that I am sad to leave this wonderful trip behind; only in my memories. It is hard to re-cap everything that happened in Rio in words, but I'll try my best. Not sure were I last left everyone, but I think it was when we had just arrived in Rio after the long Iguazu bus ride. Amy and I went on a city tour with two Australian girls we met in Iguazu and I must say again that Rio is an amazing city! We first went to see Christ the Redeemer on top of a huge granite slab overlooking the city. It was incredible and there were so many people there taking pictures. The people here are really funny about taking photos...they have to pose in all of them and we were on a tour with about 6 Brazilian girls who thought they were models or something because their poses were hilarious! After we saw Jesus we drove through the historical part of the city with its nice buildings and such, then went to see the slum area called the Fevela. It's basically a mass of houses on the side of the hill...some don't even have electricity and it's so close to the city. We then went to the football stadium where the World Cup will be held in 2014, but we could only go in the museum outside because it was being renovated for the cup. Next we saw the arcs of Lapa, an old aqueduct that runs through the city and the Cathedral that looks like a giant tower and not a church at all. Also in Lapa we saw these stairs that had been constructed by 1 man throughout his life. They are so colouful and he has tiles from all over the world. This is a place in the city where it is legal to smoke weed from 8pm until midnight....weird. The last thing we saw was the street where they have the main Carneval parade competition in the city...it just looked like a deserted street, but I'm sure when Carneval is rocking out it's amazing!

    Every night the hostel puts on some kid of dinner then suggests where everyone should go out and that night we went to a salsa club...that only played the tiniest bit of salsa. It was so much fun, I am definitely going to miss the dancing here...it's just not the same at home. I can't really remember the order of most of the things we did, so I'll just give a rundown on everything merged into one. Apart from laying on the beach, swimming, walking the streets, and going out every night we also went up to Sugar Loaf one evening, which is another huge granite slab that juts up out of the ground near the water. You get up there by cable car and then have this incredible view of the city. We went up when it was still light and stayed up there until it got dark so we could see Rio at night...it was beautiful! Another day we caught the metro train to a shopping center to buy some white clothes for New Years (you had to wear white), so that was an interesting experience. The trains in Brazil are so much nicer and more organized than the trains at home. We also found an amazing frozen yogurt shop where you could have whatever toppings you wanted....absolutely amazing! I don't think that I have had any sleep in the past week and it really catches up with you...especially after the New years party.

    What can I say.....it was the funnest night that I have had in ages and the fireworks were spectacular!! We started the night with a party at the hostel...there were so many people and food and drinks, then about 10:30 everyone went down to the beach and it was sooo crowded! People everywhere, you couldn't take 2 steps. We made our way down to the main stage and found a good spot right in the middle and partied until midnight. Then the fireworks started and I couldn't take my every off for the whole 25 minutes...they were amazing! I got video of it all so I cant wait to watch that over and over again. The worst part of the night was coming back to the hostel. Amy needed to wee, so we left the people we were with to go find a toilet and got jammed in this mass of people exiting the beach. There were so many people and you just got pushed along with the crowd, it was so dangerous if you fell you were gone. At one point I lost my shoe (my new havies that I bought the day before!) and I was not going to let them go so Amy stood there pushing the crowd back while I looked for it in the sand.....phew found it. We finally made it back to the hostel for the toilet but it was closed and we had to go behind a tree....Amy accidentally left her camera on the ledge and we didn't realize until we were eating sushi with this Indian/American gu from our hostel so back we went and luckily it was still there! The hostel was open by this time (about 4am) so we sat for a bit and watched all the drunk people come back....really funny sight. Amy went to bed, but I went back down to the beach with someone from the hostel and didn't get back to bed until daylight, about 7am I think. Crazy fun night though and one that I will never forget.

    It is safe to say that New Years day was a right off...didn't get out of bed until 3pm then then didn't do much for the whole day. The next day was Amy's last and we went to Ipanema beach and sat all day, then it was off to the airport to say goodbye. That night I went to a samba club...it is so hard and fast, but so much fun, and it's good to watch the bands playing and everyone dancing. Then on the 3rd a friend drove me along the coast heading back to Sao Paulo (where my flight was from). This part of the coast is so beautiful; there are so many little beaches tucked away in bays surrounded by beautiful mountains and the road reminded me a little of the Great Ocean Road in Australia. We stayed the night about half way there in a place called Paraty which is an old colonial town on the waterfront. The beach here was beautiful!! It had perfect green water and white sand and there were little boats spread out in the water. The atmosphere was really relaxed and clam; it is a place I would love to come back to and spend a week or so. Then on the 4th we drove to Sao Paulo and it was goodbye to Brazil and to the whole South American journey.

    You are probably all wondering what the highlights were from the whole trip and it is so hard to narrow them down to a select few, but I'll give it a go. El Mirador is definitely up there! Right from the beginning I was loving the trip and exploring so many new things; after that would be the lake, San Pedro, where I did Spanish school because of its sheer beauty; then i'm going to merge all the Maya sites that we saw into one because I loved them all; white water rafting in Ecuador was definitely a highlight and so much fun; Machu Picchu of course; Mountain biking on death road; sand boarding in Chile; Buenos Aires; Iguasu Falls; and finally Rio and Copacabana beach!!! Ok it sounds like I named everything I did, but I did heaps more, but the whole trip was absolutely amazing!

    I think that I will miss writing this blog, updating everyone on what has been going on in my life for the last 7 months. It was been a pleasure and I hope everyone has enjoyed reading about our exploits in Central and South America. Hopefully this will not be the last travel blog that I write and that it can be continued in years to come. Bye everyone and thank you for reading.....
Love Catherine xoxo