Oi! (yes, I picked up how to say hello in Portuguese at least!)
Time has again passed in a mad whirlwind here in South America, in the lush and tropical land of Brasil (yes, note the spelling, the rest of the world seems to get it wrong for some reason). Brasil has been an amazing country full of fabulous experiences, taking me a little by surprise. I didn´t have a lot of expectations, you never know what you´re going to get when you arrive somewhere, but I have truly loved Brasil and almost everything it has to offer.
We crossed over the border from Argentina into Foz do Iguacu where we had a couple of days to enjoy the incredible beauty of the Iguacu falls, all 250 of them, stretching across two countries and covering anyone within a kilometre radius with water spray from the force of them! From there it was straight into the Pantanal, a mere 230,000 square kilometres of tropical wetland, mosquito haven, and animal and bird paradise. We spent two nights at the jungle farm, sleeping in hammocks, enjoying horse-riding, jungle-trekking, toucan-spotting, croc-catching and piranha fishing, and one night in the jungle lodge getting cosy with the millions of mozzies that we got to know quite intimately. It was a first for many things, learning to recognise yet another species from the croc family - the caiman, spotting toucans and macaws flying free in the open, learning what a Capybara looks like (the worlds largest rodent) and how to say its name, and finding out what piranha tastes like (fishy, if you were wondering)! It was wicked, and definitely one of the highlights of my whole trip.
After the Pantanal, we went looking for some refuge from the mosquitos in Bonito, a small town known for its crystal clear water and amazing snorkling. Well, the water was clear and the snorkling was ok (not the ´best in the world´ i´d been told), but we definitely didn´t find any refuge from the mozzies so we high-tailed it out of there after a couple of days, in favour of heading north towards Parati, giving time for our bites to heal. We stopped along the way at a nice little beach town where it poured with rain so we all voted for an upgrade and ditched the tents for a night and found a couple of nice little cabanas to shelter from the rain in. It was all going well, sitting inside, playing cards, a fridge to cool the drinks, until bed time when we discovered that the roof had been leaking downstairs right onto the beds! So 6 of us were all upstairs, squished together like peas in a pod, sharing 3 mattresses on the floor, but at least we were dry, and had the bonus of not having to pull our tent down the next morning! Hooray!
Parati was a bit crazy, the last stop before Rio meant that all the overland trucks that had been travelling through South America for the last 4 months were all congregating together at two little campsites for the few days beforehand, and it all equaled madness. It was a pre-Rio buildup of partying 24/7, as well as throwing an all day boat-cruise in there too! A lethal combination of sun, salt, sea and drinking, ending in everyone needing a Nana-nap by dinner time!
Saying farewell to Parati meant we were on our way to Rio de Janiero, and it was the last leg of our journey. It was a fairly short drive to Rio, only 4 hours, and the time passed quickly with many repeats of Peter Allan´s `I go to Rio´ and lots of maraca shaking, all in preparation for the Carnaval of course! The Carnaval was an incredible 5 days of street parties, parades, balls at the Scala Club (including the Red & Black Ball, and the Gay Ball), staying up all night and getting back to the hotel in time for breakfast before we crashed, and of course, lots of Samba-ing. The night of the Sambadrome parade was incredible, 9 hours of solid samba, 6 different samba schools, each with more than 5000 members, all competing to be named the best school, it was crazy. We were in the cheap seats (of course, being Budget!) right down the end of the Sambadrome which is 1.6km long, in with all the locals, it was such a crazy atmosphere, lasting all the way til 6am.
The end of Carnaval on the 21st of Feb meant the end of my `Budget Expedition´ and it was a sad farewell to many friends, heading off to all over the world, and it was also time for some serious recovery and relaxation! If only...
The day after Carnaval, Lindsey, Becs and I thought we´d try and do a little sightseeing, and for the first time since arriving in Rio took our cameras out of the hotel and walked the 5 minutes up the road to see the famous Rio Arches and take a photo. Unfortunately while taking the photo, two street kids decided to make the most of the opportunity and one jumped Lindz and took off with her camera, and the other got me from behind and tried to steal mine. Unfortuantely my camera was still around my neck and under my arm so in the process I got pulled to the ground and dragged across the concrete until eventually my camera strap broke and the kid got away with it. So it was a very sad farewell to all my photos from Argentina, Chile and Brasil, damn these big memory cards! It ended up as not as relaxing a day as planned coz we had to then spend the rest of the day and what felt like all night, at the police station making a report and filling in paperwork. Not fun. But at least we were ok, no major injuries, just a few bruises and grazes, and at least we didn´t have anything else on us or that would´ve gone too I would imagine!
So after that, Lindz and I were happy to move out of our hotel in the semi-dodgy area of Lapa, and into our accommodation for the next week and a half, only a couple of blocks back off Copacabana Beach! We´ve had a lovely semi-relaxing 10 days of lying on the beach, swimming, wandering all the different beaches including Ipanema and Leblon, sightseeing up Sugarloaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer and generally laying about inbetween organising flights, camera shopping, and insurance reports!
So now it comes time to farewell South America, and funny enough, on the anniversary of my leaving New Zealand last year to head to the Outback. South America has been an incredible journey through so many different landscapes - mountains, beaches, deserts and jungle, and so many different countries. I have experienced all sorts of emotions, incredible highs, with a few lows, and all things in between, and I have a million memories to draw on. I think I can say without a doubt, it has been everything I hoped it would be. Now it is time to move onto the next adventure, I fly out tonight to Mexico City where I have 5 weeks to travel through Central America as I please, on my own, me and my backpack and wherever the wind takes us...hopefully somewhere along the lines of Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Guatemala...a new direction, a new adventure and another million memories to make. Can it get better than this...?
Til next time, take care,
Senorita Ronita xxx
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