Brazilian Big Adventure

Bom Dia Amigos

Its been a while since we last blogged but to be quiet frank we have been too busy having a great time

After the underwater magic of Bonito we headed into the pantanal for some jungle action. I had not shaved for 4 weeks by this point (see the pics) so Jungle jim was primed and ready for some steve irwin (respect) snake wrestling action. We arrived at camp via a long bus journey, then a 1 hour bumpy ride down a dirt track in a truck that had somehow managed to pass its last MOT (health and saftey in brazil is non existent). There is the old saying you get what you pay for and we certainly had that slapped in our face when we arrived at camp. To say camp was basic was an understatement, sleeping in hammocks in huts full of mosquitos and a 3 day diet of rice beans and beef, the later which was skipped by our goodselves, wasnt our idea of fun but hey we were in the pantanal so lets roll with it. On a positive side it had a bar that served booze for a reasonable price so a few chopps (beers) several caiprinihas and a couple of sleeping tablets was enough to send you off until next morning. Despite camp being basic the activities were pretty good. On the afternoon we arrived we did a boat trip which made you feel like the kid off Gentle Ben or Gentle Biiinnn for those that remember the whiney kid(american 60/70s T.V Show). Up and down the river we saw lots of birds, giant guinea pigs bigger than me (unfortunately our guide wouldnt stop and let me wrestle it, damn thing was giving it large) alligators, caimens and lots of dead cows (stinky). Day 2 involved horse riding which was fun if a little painful the day after, now i understand why John Wayne walked like that. I unsurprisingly got the slowest Nag going that only moved if our guide smacked its arse with a stick. Not particluary handy when being charged by buffalo. Menisha's horse wasnt much better mind, and i suppose there was a clue in the name. Yes, Menisha's horse was called Paloma translated it means pussy. Nice. Anyway despite the slow pace it was a pleasant morning V hot but we saw some deer, lots more birds and an armadillo. The guides were giving it all the horse on 2 legs cowboy jazz which we could have done no problem but we didnt want to show them up, honest. In the afternoon we went pirihana fishing, which wasnt much cop to be fair. You get in the water (yes with the pirihanas and the caimen about 20 ft away) dangle your meat in and hey presto you either get the bait nicked by cheeky bar stewards or you get a bite and try and yank em out. Unsurprisingly they are hungry and more than obliging to keep chopping at the line, not much sport to it at all. Highlight for me was an annoying Aussie girl who later tried to steal our playing cards getting nibbled by Percy the Pirinha. Good lad Perc!! That evening we went on a nightime drive on the van and saw pretty much the same wildlife, caimen, deer, foxes, armadillo's etc. On day 3 in the pantanal camp we had just about had enough of the food, 5am starts and were ready to go but our guide had a morning trek and necklace making to do before we left? To be fair we got lucky with our guide who was a legend. Pepinio was a true wreckhead. He smoked weed constantly and started drinking chopp and cachacha from around mid-day. He was also our driver most of the time, he knew all the calls for the animals, he had a big knife, he walked everywhere bear footed, his name meant cucumber (work it out ladies), his only minus point came for making menisha the alligator tooth wicked badboy necklace and giving me the coconut palm hippy trash. We also had a smaller group of 4 which was Menisha, me and 2 danish girls who were actually pretty cool. We also met Jordan a swedish guy from the rival group (10 inc the Aussie, shut up you wench) who was a top lad that taught us all about the ways and tricks of brazillan/latino men and how to play poker. Big shout out to Jordan over there in Paraguay! All in all the Pantanal was fun, the place is beautiful and we saw hundreds of birds lots of other wildlife during our stay. We didnt see any snakes thank God or big cats but to get this kind of experience you need to hire a Pepinio all to yourself and go deep into Pantananl away from the roads. What the pantanal did teach us with the help of Jordan is that you can never trust a Brazillan when you ask him a question. Especially the price of something as there were people paying different prices for the trip. Of course when this is questioned there is much confusion, names are given, voices are raised but they send you in a circle trying to seek a fair price which unless you ar very persistent you dont get. After the Pantanal we headed back to Campo Grande (bit of a hole, but nice pseudo jungle eating joint behind the disused carpark building if you're ever in the area) with our resident stalker Jordan for our free night in the hostel before we headed off to Rio.

En-routage to Rio we had a bonus afternoon look-a-like stroke real celeb spotting. First of all we saw Jerry Springer waiting to board at Campo Grande. Despite my calls of We Love you Jerry and chants of Jerry, Jerry, Jerry across the runway he didnt acknowledge us. Probably didn't want to make a fuss we guessed. Then in Sao Paulo where we changed planes we saw The King at Gate 11. Yes ladies and gents Elvis is alive and well hanging in Brazil as we type/read. After much excitement pre boarding menisha nearly wet herself when he boarded our flight. Luckily we got some snaps which we are planning to sell to the Sunday Sport when we arrive back on British soil. Arriving in Rio we checked in to our digs which were top notch for the price. We are staying with a trapeze artist and his family, in a 3 storey 19th century Potugese mansion where we have our own floor and breakfast is served by the pool on the terrace each morning. Not bad at all. The area we are staying is called Santa Theresa which is truly beautiful old suburb in the hills with a real mixed community and houses, like Mini castles. Only downside is that its surrounded by 16 favelas so one has to take care during the evening and we have a man that watches our street from 7-7 and every night. Each house has a V Large dog but we have had no trouble whatsoever. Probably cos we look so hard. Saturday we checked out a old antiques market where people basically sold anything from 18th century items to their old porno collections. Menisha got a pair of Mary Quant 60s sunnies for bout 15 squid which we think is a true bargain (have yet to check their value). Our nights have mainly consisted of eating nice food i.s sushi and thai following our basic rations in camp pantanal. We have also cooked a couple of times to save cashish. Sunday, we checked out brazilan beach culture at Cococabana and Ipanema and the headed to the marcarana on the evening to see a futball game which was as our pet American Tourists in Rio would put it 'AWESOME!'. We watched Botofogo a Rio based team who play in Toon colours beat some newly promoted team from Sao Paulo state 2-1. There was only 30000 fans in a 150k + arena but they didnt arf make some noise. Nestled in with the fogo hardcore we stood, sang and drank beer into the night. When Fogo scored a pen within the first 5 minutes and Uge screamed goaalllll and hugged a Fogo fan we got a few strange looks from the locals but all in good spirits. Problem is everyone keeps calling us Americanos only today did some dude from a local bar lean out and shout "forget about it". Anyone but the yanks please locals. Anyway back to the match. Sao Paulo team scored during my mid half leek and it was 1-1 at half time. Then after the whistle had gone all the hardcore left the stand and walked round to the other side of the stadium to cheer the goals in from the end Fogo were attacking. You certainly can't do that at the mighty cov. One of the top bonuses of watching brazilian football is that old dudes come around every 5 mins selling you beer for 50p a can. As all good footie fans know watching is a thirsty pastime so Menisha and I ensured that the sellers went home with a pocket full of cash. In the 2nd half Fogo up'd tempo and scored in about the 85th minute much to the locals and our delight. By this point I had had around 3.50 worth in cans and there is some hilarious footage of me doing a Chris Waddle and Terry Butcher Italia 90 dance in the stands with a tinny in my hand. Unfortunately there were no scraps post match to unleash our ninja moves and we scampered back to base as Full fogo massive. Monday morning we had both booked into handglide over Rio (beats checking your email in the office) so we headed off to meet our instructors at the bottom of a big, big rock. My instructor Paulo was the Hasslehoff of handgliding as you will see from the next set of pics, again a true legend who during flight told me about where he used to take the ladies and also answered his mobile twice, inflight remember. Impressive. Menisha's guide wasnt as smooth but equally chatty during flight I am assured. Handgliding tandem was brillant altough I will admit that when he pins you to the kite type thing and you stare over the ramp 600m up the old legs and the arse starts to wobble. Basically you have to run full steam ahead and put your trust in your instructor. If you mess up or dont run you both can be in serious danger but both of us were naturals and flew like little birds for 15-20 minutes. Top notch. The rest of our time has been seeing musems, botantical gardens, beaches, chilling by our pool, drinking cachacha, drinking chopp and despite 1 day off laying low due to a dodgy thai (I will kill Steve when i get hold of him) we have seen christs statue and sugar loaf which were very good although full of tourists mainly Americanos. Unfortunately today is our last in Rio and this evening we fly to Salvador to see the lovely Sophie and we intend to stay for a few weeks, try and learn some language and generally hang out.

Pictures are now up on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29762003@N00/sets/72157594347482095/

More photos of pantanal and Rio to follow soon.

Choaw for now peeps

Gstar and mX

Y'ola peeps!

We're in a place called Bonito, way, way inland in Matto Grosso Sul. We're en-routage to the Pantanal to spot giant guinea pigs and anacondas. More on the Pantanal tour next blog as we're leaving tomoro. In the meantime here's what we've been up to between les whales (so canny and so cute for a mom of 17m and baby of about 7m) and now...

We left Praia de Rosa and headed back north to an island called Isla Catarina. It's main city is Florianopolis which can be reached by a bridge from the mainland. The island is pretty vast and has numerous enormous inland lakes and lots of gorgeous beaches on the other side of the island to the city and mainland. We headed to a place called Barra de Lagoa, a pretty little fishing village sitting between one of the big lakes and the Atlantic. We hired a little apartment belonging to a crazy old bird called Dona de Floripar Pousada. Gav kept calling her Rosa in durh Brit can't be bothered to learn your name even tho it exactly the same as an English one. But she didn't mind. Has a bit a of a soft spot for him methinks....

Our apartment had a nice little kitchen and balcony that was next to the river which ran from the lake to the sea. We also has a pretty view of the sea and the mountains that seemed to spill into it. All in all pretty magical for next to nowt a night. The mountains seem standard fare for coastal Brazil methinks as they have around in most places that we've been to by the sea to date. Beach wanted! Must have - beach, salt water and er...big rainforest covered mountainous backdrop. We had a few chilled out days cooking fish out of the sea/lake/river??? Who knows and lots of walks along the beach including one to Mozambique beach which was further along the same stretch as Barra de lagoa. As per we were told it wasn't far. A hours walking later we decided to turn back. The other end of the beach still wasn't in sight and we were hungry.

Three days later we flew from a airstrip by Florianopolis to Foz Iguacu. The planes in Flo airport literally jetty right up to the floor to ceiling glass door. You (the passenger) just hand in you boarding pass and walk less than 10m to the steps taking you up your ride. Nice! We arrive in scorchio Iguacu and had a lush couple of days (one in Brazil and one in Argentina) seeing the most amazing waterfalls. Rainforest boardwalks and water thundering down countless falls so loudly you can barely hear yourself breath.

We left Iguacu a few days ago on our way to Bonito. The only bus taking us in the right direction left at 6am (nice) taking 9hrs (oh we're loving it), with a change in Dourades. Our expected ETA was 2.50pm, and then another bus to Bonito which would take us 5 hours. Woo Hoo! Buying the ticket in the morning should have been a sign. We got to the bus station early but had to wait an absolute age because each one was being written by hand and the 5 people in from of us took 40 mins to purchaes their tiket one by one. The bus left late. At 12pm we're still only halfway and the bus drivers have stopped for lunch. For 45 mins! Don't fret boys, you make sure you've got a full belly for all that strenuous bus driving activity. The roads beyond the lunch stop are dirt and we get to Dourades for our change at 6pm (nearly three hours late). There is no other bus that day. Oh well, taxi then anyone?

Angela and Tom a nice Aussie who shared our lovely journey agreed. A friendly chat with the local taxi dudes, 30 mins of chin scratching and discussing the options later. We're off. The taxi massive were pretty gutted we didn't fall for the 'there are only two seat belts in the back so you have to take two taxi's for four people' trick. Durh lads we counted them when we got in the taxi, there are three in the back and two in the front. Fours of us plus one of you, thats one per person. Sheeeeesh!

Bonito is another rip off, but a damn pretty one. The water here has limestone in it so all sediments calcify and sink to the bottom. That scientific speak y'all. Anyhow it means the water is crystal clear and you can snorkel around in irridescent blue water seeing lots of fish and on occassion scarier things like caimen and anaconda. Yoikes! We had one day at the Municipal baths which are on a river just outside town. There were shoals of fish swimming right up to you and we thought things couldn't get much better but they could! Today we headed out to a Fazenda (ranch) with access to more river action. It was a tour with guide only but the water was ten times more beautiful and we saw even more wildlife. We hired some attractive wet suits (Gav got a discount for his childs one)and an underwater camera and have some amazing and not so amazing shots/film footage of us and the underwater massive.

So yeah, we're a bit over excited today and overstuffed by the inclusive ranch Brazilian enormous running buffet so its our dedication to you, all our loved and not so loved ones at home that has got us in this cyber cafe typing up our blog. Tomorrow it's bye bye Bonito and up into the Pantanal before heading to Rio. Bring it on! More news soon.

Laters gators!

mx and GJG Huge

ps we have our photos on CD now and up loaded to Flickr so we'll get them on here too soon so you don't think this is a scam and we're really staring a new life in Rochdale.

Ola mates!

We're here! Pheeeeewwwww!

Nothing can prepare any of us for the Brazil. A new place with new sites, sounds and in our cases an intelligible language - we've barely mastered our own for gawdsakes!). Both Gavros Hugemeister and I spoke to lots of peeps, did our reading and as a result had our own expectations of Brazil and the Brazilian massive who would be hosting the first leg our our Big Adventure.

We were both shattered after an endless merry-goround of packing (houses, rucksacks, small useless household objects in bubblewrap into paper, in cardboard boxes, into cupboards...), organising tenants and generally getting our shit together. A big thanks to all those that helped - we couldn't have done it without you. You know who you are and we're both really grateful. Ta ever so!

Getting on that plane at stupid o'clock in the morning on a drizzly, cold grey Toon morning (much like any other) we were totally ready for our new start. Bring it on! Ncle - Amsterdam. An eternity on the concourse (delayed by the damn Schipol fog) and 11.5 hours later we arrived in Sao paulo.

A vast expanse of a city - A megapolis (that's silly Lonely planet speak, lonely planet/footprint guide is evil, more of that laters) - of 30 million people. Set inland on a high plateau consisting of and surrounded by great big hills covered in lush forests and houses filled with little (in the main) Brazilian people. Enormous and awe inspiring.

OUr taxi driver from the airport had one of the biggest grins imaginable. It made his whole face light up.Despite being caught in what we gathered was the Sao Paulo horrendorama of a post 5pm traffic jam (it was 7pm and still choca). He kept shaking his headand point at the traffic all around us across the way, above on hills, below us in the valley. Cars and lots of 'em. Clasping his thumbs and the tips of his fingers repeatedly like a crab - he'd point, say something that we belive translated roughly to "Blimey look at all that traffic! It never changes!" Lots of lane dodging and a few short cuts later we arrived at our pousada. He helped with our bags and even knocked off 1.50 Rs (roughly 40p) from our fare. Nice man. Bonus! We'd only been in the country five minutes and saved some cash.

Thusfar we've had a pleasant couple of days in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We've learnt.

- There are people in the world who are smaller then we are. (Gav is especially happy aboiut this.

- Brazilians like their food. Imagine, Bread (like 12 different types), fruit, cake (three types at least), cheese, ham, juice and jelly for breakfast. As much as you can eat. Sadly no icecream, they've let the Brazilian breakfast side down) to go with our jelly, I wanted to complain, but Gav wouldn't let me. Woos.

- Guidebook are generally our of date and can't be trusted.

- Likewise, Brazilian roadmaps can't be trusted either. In Brazilian not far means keep walking for three days and you might get there. Well it is the size of Eurpoe(more book trivia - we've got more if you're interested just let us know. our minds are filled with crap travel book facts). Our poor little legs have walked miles and miles and miles....

All in all we had a pleasant couple of days in Sao Paulo, headed to Curitiba which is 6 hrs south on the bus. Been hanging our here and plan to get the bestest train journey in Brazil to Morretes a little colonial town tomorrow. Given there ar like two ther train rides in the whole country not sure what to expect. We'll let you know soon. Ciao for now.

Mski and Uge xx