I have just tried the local specialty - grilled Alpaca, which is a cross between a Llama and a sheep. After getting over the guilt of ordering something that looks more like an inmate at a petting zoo than dinner, I actually quite enjoyed it...
Been a bizarre but interesting week. Crossed the border into Bolivia and spent a few days at a teensy tiny, fantastic town on Lake Titicaca called Copacabana. Stayed right by the water`s edge, went kayaking, climbed (yet another bloody) mountain to watch the sunset and drank unhealthy amounts of red wine. After the strain of the trek, it was bliss. Met a mad bird from Australia (hi Felicity!) who it turns out will be in the UK VERY soon, so lock up your sons/valuable items... Took a boat trip to one of the lake`s islands, Isla Del Sol, and the place was so lovely the three of us ended up spending the night in a hostal right at the top of the island with stunning lake views and excellent breakfast, all for the princely sum of one pound twenty five! Intention was to get over to the capital, La Paz, where I wanted to do a mountain bike trek down ´Death Road´(the most dangerous road in the world, apparantly) but those pesky locals have some gripe with their Prime Minister and all transport was on strike. Bloody selfish gits, how dare they campaign for their rights and disprupt my plans? Humph. So instead headed to Puno, a town on the Peru side of the Lake. After having such a lovely time on Isla Del Sol we decided to boat over to Taquile (population 1,000), another island. Now, you can organise accomodation with a tour company in advance but if you wait til you get to the island you can arrange to stay with the locals themselves and it benefits the community more directly. Or something. Well you know me, I do love my selfless acts of charity...
So, we gets to the island and hauls our asses up to the main square (don`t get excited, this is a dust-pitch measuring 50 feet by 50 feet, it`s most appealing feature being, er... the view) and approach some guy in a colourful stripey knitted hat (apparantly denoting his position of authority on the island) for accomodation advice. Out of nowehere the oldest woman on Earth shows up - bare-foot and chewing coca leaves with her gums and her one remaining (seriously rotted) tooth, and he says, ´go now - you are staying with her´. `OK` we thinks, no problems. So we follow Snaggletoothed Mama Peru (as we affectionately dubbed her after my miserable attempts at conversation in Spanish failed to produce a name) across the island to her house, where she showed us to our room - a clay hut with no electricy and beds with matresses that were actually resting on straw. I shouldn`t complain, at least there were windows and a door (even if the one next to Rob`s bed had a hole in it big enough for a small child to climb through...). I hadn`t even had a chance to drop my bag before Mama P accosted me for the dosh. Ten friggin soles EACH! We had a bleedin` twin room with hot shower for 15 the night before! Still, it was an experience (and we had no other choice) so we coughed up. Then she disappeared. So we trekked round the island, which was beautiful, and watched the sunset - it was dark at 5.30pm. Back at the room, Mama P hadn`t even provided candles so we nipped to a local stall and bought some. By this stage I was getting a bit worried about food; you are suppossed to eat with the family but the family were nowhere to be seen. Rob was no help at all, saying not to worry as we had three packets of biscuits if all else failed... So to kill time in the vain hope Mama P turned up, we played several rounds of cards by candlelight, dressed in ALL our clothes as it was so cold. By 7.30pm I revolted. I shall NOT have biscuits as my evening meal! I shan`t! After another fruitless search for the elusive Mama Peru and her brood, I persuaded Bob to walk with me into town. We had seen numerous cardboard signs outside huts on the way up saying things like ´Restrant´and ´Hit Fod´. I needed to eat. We walked by torchlight all the way back to the main square and there was NOTHING open. Even the main square was deserted, devoid of all life except for one light - a shining beacon of hope in my desperate search for food. We headed over and opened the door and... this was clearly some private party. A quick interrogation of the nearest table revealed them all to be on the same tour and all to be German. My heart sank (not because they were German, because I had hoped this place was open to the public) but determined not to be beaten I headed to the kitchen and hey presto, ten minutes later me and Old Bob were sat with the Germans, eating their food and drinking their beer. Result! We were back in the room by 9pm, still no sign of Mama P. Bob went to sleep almost instantly (how does he do it? How?) leaving me to fend for myself. So I literally entombed myself in my sleeping bag so not even an inch of my flesh touched the bedclothes, fended off a curious spider with the only thing to hand (my factor 15 sunblock spray) and hunkered down for one LONG night... Had about three hours sleep in all, Bob had about 12. Got up, what a shocker - no Mama Peru. So we just left. Boat wasn`t til the afternoon so we found a nice secluded spot and just enjoyed the sun. That is, until a single local woman (you can tell the single ones easily; they have BIG fluffy pom-poms on their skirts whereas the old marrieds have tiny stubby ones) took a shine to me sat next to me smiling for what seemed like an age. She finally left my side, but perched on a rock behind me for half an hour watching me through a pair of binoculars. Was most upsetting. Finally got the boat, but due to local strikes we had to go to a port MILES away from town and take a bus back. Two hours later, high on petrol fumes and lungs full of dust, we are back to semi-civilisation...
Leave Peru in the morning for Venezuela. Will be so nice to get back to sea level as we have spent the last two weeks at 12,000 feet. Let me tell you, that altitude plays HELL with your skin`s moisture balance...
Ciao ciao!
John xx
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Aguas Callientes, Peru - Weds 18th May
Well, I did it - I hiked the Inca Trail! Even more impressive, I did so without 1) Showing myself up by passing out, 2) getting sick and 3) plunging down a 12,000 foot crevice. But, I get ahead of myself...
The day before the trail started, we decided to get in some practice and hike around some ruins around Cusco. Not wanting to overdo it we thought we´d get a cab to the first ruin and hike back (about 8km). So, we hires a cab (well I say that, was like the smaller younger brother of the SMART car I hired the week before leaving...) who agrees to take us up there for 10 soles (about one pound eighty). Gets about three miles out of the city and the bloody thing breaks down! So we ended up hiking all the way there and all the way back! Was v cool if not a bit hard on the old ankles... Anyways, up at 4.30am next day to take a bus to the start of the hike. We were in a group of six with one guide; a Canadian couple (Tiffany and Steve) and an American couple (Sarah and Jeff). These people had obviously done this before and come prepared; me and old Bob had a teeny rucksack crammed to the limit with just a few bits of clothes and a micro sleeping bag. Everyone else had plenty of warm clothes, really decent sleeping bags, emergency rations of food, tents with hot-tubs... Oops. Well, day one was fab - a relatively easy hike for four hours to the first campsite. We stopped for lunch and it was unbeliveable, there was this tent with full place settings and a three course meal, set up on a little outlook over the mountains! Was bizarre, felt like Meryl Streep in ´A Passage to India´ This feeling was helped somewhat by the wide-brimmed khaki sunhat I bought at the start of the trail... Finally gets to campsite, which was stunning. Our tent was pitched 3,000 metres up overlooking a valley backed with snow-capped peaks. Was so tired fell asleep rightaway (9pm, the earliest I have been to bed since I was six years old...) despite having a paper-thin matress and the ground being all pebbly. Woke up feeling refreshed and then checked my watch... 11.55pm. Was gutted. Spent next six hours shivering with cold, sliding down the tent every few minutes (was pitched at, like, 45 degrees) and freaking out at all the mountain sounds. I am NOT a born camper...
Day two was the hardest day of my life. I know I have a tendency to exaggerate but... trust me, this was tough. We climbed for seven hours, three miles of continuous uphill mountain pathways, to the summit called ´Dead Woman´s Pass´; friggin hell they are NOT exaggerating with that name. The summit is at well over 4,000 metres - that´s 13,000 feet. The air was so thin I could barely breathe and climbing the last hundred steps to the summit I couldn´t take more than two steps without having to stop. This is not just me but everyone, I hasten to add... Sarah almost blacked out at the top. Then we walked all that way back DOWN - steps so steep you had no choice but to look at your feet the whole way. Second campsite was even more awesome than the first. After dinner I popped a few sleep aids (having learned my lesson well from the first night) and slept like a drunkard. Was fab. I will take two seconds out here to mention that the toilet facilities were less than desirable... Those of you who know me well will know about my aversion to all things toilet related - this was like my worst nightmare. I won´t go into detail but it was GRIM...
Day three - unbelievable. A bit of climbing but mostly pathways that wound around the sides of the mountains. The views were simply jaw-dropping. Another good nights sleep (God bless Tylenol PM, a wonder drug indeed) followed by a 4am start for the final furlong. This was just indescribable. We started off hiking in the dark (well scary) but then watched the dawn break over the Andes - enormous peaks slowly appearing, covered in clouds that were actually BELOW us. Just amazing. We reached the sungate at Machu Picchu in just over an hour. This is what we had been waiting for. We rounded the summit ready to take in the view of the lost inca city across the valley and.... couldn´t see a Godamn thing. The whole place was shrouded on fog. I was absolutely GUTTED. We waited for a while for the fog to lift but it just wasn´t happening. Completely deflated we headed down the path to the city. Let´s just say that the place was renamed Machu-Fuckin-Picchu VERY quickly... We got the the ruins and had our tour. It was an incredible place but we just couldn´t help feeling cheated. It was so foggy we could only see the place we were standing; no views across the city, no mountains, nothing. Vidal, our guide, tried his best to convince us that the fog added an air of mystery but we were all pretty devastated. Four days of agonsising hiking for THIS? We then had the rest of the day to wander round in the fog and imagine what this place really looked like. So we climbed to the highest point in the city, the watchtower, and sat glummly. Then the most incredible thing started to happen. Slowly, the sun started to burn through the fog and it all started to appear beneath us. We sat at the peak of Machu Picchu and watched as it came into view - the enire city, the mountains - eveything. It was the single most awesome thing I have EVER seen, and in a way was even better than getting a first glimpse from the sungate a mile away. What an incredible place. Spent the rest of the day wandering in awe and taking about 17,000 pictures. There were even wild Llamas wandering the terraces. Just amazing, and even better than I had imagined it would be.
Spent last night at the foot of the mountain in a town called Aguas Callientes, soaking in the natural hot springs. What a week. Unfortunately today both of us are REALLY sick. We had to check out of the hostal at 9am and our train isn´t until 4pm. Was going to climb a mountain today (what is happening to me?!) but just too ill. Anyway, dosed up on Immodium so hopefully be OK. Hope so as we have a four hour train journy to Cusco followed by an overnight bus to Puno. The bus company is called ´Pony Express´and we are travelling this enormous pink bus! Will be like Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Only with no sequins, no Abba and five day old clothes...
Anyway I have prattled on for long enough. I am sending two disks of piccies to St Louis with my new American chums Sarah and Jeff, so they will upload for me and as soon as it´s done I´ll let you know. Stay safe peeps!
Juan xx
PS) Whoever ´anonymous´is who put a comment on the last post - you are so right, I should stop getting info out of guide books. The next time I want to know the elevation of a city I shall take a tape measure. Oh, and shoes are NOT a traveller´s best friend. That particular honour goes to ´Wet Ones´... !!! ;-)
The day before the trail started, we decided to get in some practice and hike around some ruins around Cusco. Not wanting to overdo it we thought we´d get a cab to the first ruin and hike back (about 8km). So, we hires a cab (well I say that, was like the smaller younger brother of the SMART car I hired the week before leaving...) who agrees to take us up there for 10 soles (about one pound eighty). Gets about three miles out of the city and the bloody thing breaks down! So we ended up hiking all the way there and all the way back! Was v cool if not a bit hard on the old ankles... Anyways, up at 4.30am next day to take a bus to the start of the hike. We were in a group of six with one guide; a Canadian couple (Tiffany and Steve) and an American couple (Sarah and Jeff). These people had obviously done this before and come prepared; me and old Bob had a teeny rucksack crammed to the limit with just a few bits of clothes and a micro sleeping bag. Everyone else had plenty of warm clothes, really decent sleeping bags, emergency rations of food, tents with hot-tubs... Oops. Well, day one was fab - a relatively easy hike for four hours to the first campsite. We stopped for lunch and it was unbeliveable, there was this tent with full place settings and a three course meal, set up on a little outlook over the mountains! Was bizarre, felt like Meryl Streep in ´A Passage to India´ This feeling was helped somewhat by the wide-brimmed khaki sunhat I bought at the start of the trail... Finally gets to campsite, which was stunning. Our tent was pitched 3,000 metres up overlooking a valley backed with snow-capped peaks. Was so tired fell asleep rightaway (9pm, the earliest I have been to bed since I was six years old...) despite having a paper-thin matress and the ground being all pebbly. Woke up feeling refreshed and then checked my watch... 11.55pm. Was gutted. Spent next six hours shivering with cold, sliding down the tent every few minutes (was pitched at, like, 45 degrees) and freaking out at all the mountain sounds. I am NOT a born camper...
Day two was the hardest day of my life. I know I have a tendency to exaggerate but... trust me, this was tough. We climbed for seven hours, three miles of continuous uphill mountain pathways, to the summit called ´Dead Woman´s Pass´; friggin hell they are NOT exaggerating with that name. The summit is at well over 4,000 metres - that´s 13,000 feet. The air was so thin I could barely breathe and climbing the last hundred steps to the summit I couldn´t take more than two steps without having to stop. This is not just me but everyone, I hasten to add... Sarah almost blacked out at the top. Then we walked all that way back DOWN - steps so steep you had no choice but to look at your feet the whole way. Second campsite was even more awesome than the first. After dinner I popped a few sleep aids (having learned my lesson well from the first night) and slept like a drunkard. Was fab. I will take two seconds out here to mention that the toilet facilities were less than desirable... Those of you who know me well will know about my aversion to all things toilet related - this was like my worst nightmare. I won´t go into detail but it was GRIM...
Day three - unbelievable. A bit of climbing but mostly pathways that wound around the sides of the mountains. The views were simply jaw-dropping. Another good nights sleep (God bless Tylenol PM, a wonder drug indeed) followed by a 4am start for the final furlong. This was just indescribable. We started off hiking in the dark (well scary) but then watched the dawn break over the Andes - enormous peaks slowly appearing, covered in clouds that were actually BELOW us. Just amazing. We reached the sungate at Machu Picchu in just over an hour. This is what we had been waiting for. We rounded the summit ready to take in the view of the lost inca city across the valley and.... couldn´t see a Godamn thing. The whole place was shrouded on fog. I was absolutely GUTTED. We waited for a while for the fog to lift but it just wasn´t happening. Completely deflated we headed down the path to the city. Let´s just say that the place was renamed Machu-Fuckin-Picchu VERY quickly... We got the the ruins and had our tour. It was an incredible place but we just couldn´t help feeling cheated. It was so foggy we could only see the place we were standing; no views across the city, no mountains, nothing. Vidal, our guide, tried his best to convince us that the fog added an air of mystery but we were all pretty devastated. Four days of agonsising hiking for THIS? We then had the rest of the day to wander round in the fog and imagine what this place really looked like. So we climbed to the highest point in the city, the watchtower, and sat glummly. Then the most incredible thing started to happen. Slowly, the sun started to burn through the fog and it all started to appear beneath us. We sat at the peak of Machu Picchu and watched as it came into view - the enire city, the mountains - eveything. It was the single most awesome thing I have EVER seen, and in a way was even better than getting a first glimpse from the sungate a mile away. What an incredible place. Spent the rest of the day wandering in awe and taking about 17,000 pictures. There were even wild Llamas wandering the terraces. Just amazing, and even better than I had imagined it would be.
Spent last night at the foot of the mountain in a town called Aguas Callientes, soaking in the natural hot springs. What a week. Unfortunately today both of us are REALLY sick. We had to check out of the hostal at 9am and our train isn´t until 4pm. Was going to climb a mountain today (what is happening to me?!) but just too ill. Anyway, dosed up on Immodium so hopefully be OK. Hope so as we have a four hour train journy to Cusco followed by an overnight bus to Puno. The bus company is called ´Pony Express´and we are travelling this enormous pink bus! Will be like Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Only with no sequins, no Abba and five day old clothes...
Anyway I have prattled on for long enough. I am sending two disks of piccies to St Louis with my new American chums Sarah and Jeff, so they will upload for me and as soon as it´s done I´ll let you know. Stay safe peeps!
Juan xx
PS) Whoever ´anonymous´is who put a comment on the last post - you are so right, I should stop getting info out of guide books. The next time I want to know the elevation of a city I shall take a tape measure. Oh, and shoes are NOT a traveller´s best friend. That particular honour goes to ´Wet Ones´... !!! ;-)
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Cusco, Peru - Jueves 12th Mayo 2005 (check ME out!)
IT is official - I ming. I have not had a proper shower for ever and arrived in Cusco to find that our hostel (the ´Golden Peru´- I shall sue their false advertising for there is indeed nothing ´golden´ about it... except the bedding but that´s another story...) doesnt have hot water. So I cannot shave and have now cultivated a rather impressive full-on ginger beard... To top of this rather unpleasant image last night I gave in to the charms of a street vendor and purchased myself a knitted hat. Sounds OK? Well let me tell you, it´s proper wooley, it´s got ear flaps and some wool to tie under your chin (for those extra-cold nights), it´s grey, white and black.... and it´s got Llamas on it! As you can imagine, I look rather speacial wandering the streets in scraggy pants, ginger face-fluff and a retard hat smelling like four-day old socks. Even the locals are crossing the road to avoid me...
The last couple of days have been fun but manic. Last day in Buenos Aires we just milled around the parks and the centre. I replaced the camera that was stolen by filthy gyspy heathens; felt v smug actually because I got the exact same model and even managed to haggle for a 100 peso (18 pounds) discount in Spanish! They don´t call me Juan Espagñol for nothing... Also, felt extra smug because I used my penknife (sorry ´multi-function tool´) like a real proper traveller. OK so it was only to cut up a pear but you´ve gotta start somewhere... Stayed up all night to catch our flight to Lima, then waited for a good few hours to get a flight to Cusco so arrived absolutely bleedin´ shafted but all well worth it because... Cusco is GORGEOUS. It´s the oldest inhabited city in the Americas and is 3336 metres above sea level. The air is so thin that I can barely walk up a street (which are all at 45 degree angles) without almost passing out. Well, I´m blaming it on the altitude anyway... It´s been completely taken over by tourism but even that can´t spoil the place. It´s beautiful. Just spent today wandering around the tiny cobbled streets stroking Llamas (as you do). Tomorrow we´re doing a bit of training for the Inka Trail and spending the day hiking some ruins outside the city. Then Saturday morning, 5am, we´re of in to them thar hills to spend four days trekking to Macchu Picchu! I am SO excited. We have a pre-trek brief tomorrow at 6pm; the woman said something about gathering some leaves to wipe your bottom (I kid you not) and I didn´t have the heart to tell her I´ve already been to the chemists and bought a packet of wet ones... A bear might shit in the woods but that doesn´t mean I have too...
So, it´s still all systems go. We are going to need some serious R and R after this cos we literally haven´t stopped since we landed in Rio. It´s been physically demanding (remember, this is someone who used to drive to his local Spar...) but also mentally draining as well, adjusting to new climates, geographies, cultures, money every few days. You just get used to a place and then you´re off! Still working on the pictures; they´re all on CD but it´s going to take an hour or so to upload them and at the moment we just ain´t had the time. Appearing soon, I promise.
Take care y´all, hasta luego!
Juan xxxx
The last couple of days have been fun but manic. Last day in Buenos Aires we just milled around the parks and the centre. I replaced the camera that was stolen by filthy gyspy heathens; felt v smug actually because I got the exact same model and even managed to haggle for a 100 peso (18 pounds) discount in Spanish! They don´t call me Juan Espagñol for nothing... Also, felt extra smug because I used my penknife (sorry ´multi-function tool´) like a real proper traveller. OK so it was only to cut up a pear but you´ve gotta start somewhere... Stayed up all night to catch our flight to Lima, then waited for a good few hours to get a flight to Cusco so arrived absolutely bleedin´ shafted but all well worth it because... Cusco is GORGEOUS. It´s the oldest inhabited city in the Americas and is 3336 metres above sea level. The air is so thin that I can barely walk up a street (which are all at 45 degree angles) without almost passing out. Well, I´m blaming it on the altitude anyway... It´s been completely taken over by tourism but even that can´t spoil the place. It´s beautiful. Just spent today wandering around the tiny cobbled streets stroking Llamas (as you do). Tomorrow we´re doing a bit of training for the Inka Trail and spending the day hiking some ruins outside the city. Then Saturday morning, 5am, we´re of in to them thar hills to spend four days trekking to Macchu Picchu! I am SO excited. We have a pre-trek brief tomorrow at 6pm; the woman said something about gathering some leaves to wipe your bottom (I kid you not) and I didn´t have the heart to tell her I´ve already been to the chemists and bought a packet of wet ones... A bear might shit in the woods but that doesn´t mean I have too...
So, it´s still all systems go. We are going to need some serious R and R after this cos we literally haven´t stopped since we landed in Rio. It´s been physically demanding (remember, this is someone who used to drive to his local Spar...) but also mentally draining as well, adjusting to new climates, geographies, cultures, money every few days. You just get used to a place and then you´re off! Still working on the pictures; they´re all on CD but it´s going to take an hour or so to upload them and at the moment we just ain´t had the time. Appearing soon, I promise.
Take care y´all, hasta luego!
Juan xxxx
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Buenos Aires - Sunday 9th May
OK, so I've decided - I love this travelling lark already, but I am not so fond of other travellers. For instance, met a German girl at Buenos Aires airport and ended up sharing a cab as she is staying at the same hostel as us. After about 20 seconds I just wanted to punch her. She had landed in the the city without a guidebook and although I think that's cool I didn't think the way she frowned because I had a guidebook and a vague idea about the city in advance was cool at all. And then there's all the other travellers, all yah-yah and so obsessed with being individual that they don't seem to realise that by wearing their oh-so-cool wooly jumpers covered in holes and their just-the-right-level-of-worn-out Doc Martins they are actually more mainstream than Chavs. You can't move here without bumping into someone playing a guitar or catching a whiff of Patchouli. It's all terribly predicatable. Anyway, back to German bird - I bumped into her on the stairs this morning at 5am (after a night out - my GOD, it is unheard of here to go out before 1am...) and found it hard to supress a laugh when, after comparing notes about where we'd been and what we'd seen, I discovered that in her quest to throw away the rulebook she had spent two days wandering the city aimlessly and had seen practically nothing. Har har. Anyway, spent the first night in a dorm with 6 other men and it was as smelly and upsetting as it sounds. So have now got a private room on the top floor for an extra 2 pound per night. I'm sorry but I don't think you need to spend the whole night listening to other people fart/snore/burp in order to experience a new place...
Anyways, whinge over. Predictably, Buenos Aires is FAB. This place is absolutely HUGE and so different to Rio. Well it would be I suppose, being in a different country and all... The city is so chic and cosmopolitan, not what I expected at all. Again, have seen most of it on foot but today hired a bike (well, I say 'bike' - it looked like something a four year old had thrown together with some left over Meccano; no brakes, no gears and pedals so long that I couldn't actually turn the front wheel without falling off...) and cycled all over the shop. Was v cool. Also, visited the Casa Rosada - the place where Madonna (sorry, Eva Peron) did her arm-waving schtick. And yes, all I have done for the last two days is skip around singing 'Another Suiotcase in Another Hall'... The other thing about BA is that it is SO cheap. Had the most MASSIVE steak last night that cost about a fiver, and tonight went to the cinema (Kingdom of Heaven - excellent), which cost three pounds - and that was including a hotdog, popcorn and Pepsi! The downside of this is that all day, everyday I have to turn a blind eye to all the knicker-wettingly cheap shopping opportunities. How depressing... So, two more days here then on to Peru on Wednesday. At some point in the next few days I WILL get some piccies posted, I promise. Stay cool my English frieds!
Juan (Peron) xxx
Anyways, whinge over. Predictably, Buenos Aires is FAB. This place is absolutely HUGE and so different to Rio. Well it would be I suppose, being in a different country and all... The city is so chic and cosmopolitan, not what I expected at all. Again, have seen most of it on foot but today hired a bike (well, I say 'bike' - it looked like something a four year old had thrown together with some left over Meccano; no brakes, no gears and pedals so long that I couldn't actually turn the front wheel without falling off...) and cycled all over the shop. Was v cool. Also, visited the Casa Rosada - the place where Madonna (sorry, Eva Peron) did her arm-waving schtick. And yes, all I have done for the last two days is skip around singing 'Another Suiotcase in Another Hall'... The other thing about BA is that it is SO cheap. Had the most MASSIVE steak last night that cost about a fiver, and tonight went to the cinema (Kingdom of Heaven - excellent), which cost three pounds - and that was including a hotdog, popcorn and Pepsi! The downside of this is that all day, everyday I have to turn a blind eye to all the knicker-wettingly cheap shopping opportunities. How depressing... So, two more days here then on to Peru on Wednesday. At some point in the next few days I WILL get some piccies posted, I promise. Stay cool my English frieds!
Juan (Peron) xxx
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Rio De Janeiro - 4th May 2005
"At the Copa... Copacabana..." "The Girl From Ipanema...." " Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand..." Oh yes, been singing my liccle heart out because.... I'm in Rio baby! Yeah! Whooooo! Grrrrrr! Etc, etc... OMG, this place is just sensational. Been here just three days and already completely intoxicated by the place. Easily the most beautiful city I have ever been to, although something tells me that I will be making that statement rather a lot over the next 12 months... The flight was suprisingly bearable for a 14-hour slog. Though that might be something to do with several sherries before take off and a good six hours sleep... Spent the waking hours of the flight arguing with Bob as to whether the wild-haired woman in the next cabin was actually Ruby Wax (cue debate about whether a B-list celeb would be travelling economy in ANY instance, let alone on an epic long-haul...). Anyhoo, it transpires it WAS Ruby Wax, and then the remainder of the journey was spent devising a tactic to get her photo. Bob was adamant we waited until baggage reclaim... so obviously I considered that to be FAR to sensible and the minute the doors opened I legged it off the plane like a ferret and threw myself at her before we´d even reached paaport control. Bob was still on the plane, bless him... So, the prized photo was achieved and will be appearing here very soon. Funniest thing was, she got carted off at passporrt control due to a problem with her passport, so Bob had to go without! I´ve always said it pays to be impatient and now we have proof...
Well, back to Rio - WOW. Have spent the last three days walking (yes, you heard correctly) - must´ve done at least 15 miles yesterday. Walked the full length of Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, around some lake named after a famous Brazilian (I know, as a proper traveller I should learn the names of these things but God this is week one, give me a break...) and then all the way to Pao De Acucar (get me - that´s Portugese for Sugarloaf Mountain). Which was, simply, STUNNING. You have to go up two mountains to get to the summit, and on the first peak we decided to splurge and take a helicopter tour. It was amazing, all around Rio by air. Then to the summit itself, and the view was so beautiful we stayed up there for hours just to watch the sunset (with a few beers, naturally - incidentally the big beer here is, wait for it... Skol!! Jesus, I didn´t even stoop that low when I was a destitute student...). Speaking of Jesus, today we visited Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) which in real-speak is the huge statue of Jesus that looks over the entire city, 710m up. Again, simply stunning. I won´t try and describe ~ I´ll post the píccies when I get to Buones Aires. All 500 of them - you LUCKY people! So, tomorrow we leave Rio for the 8pm bus and take a six hour journey to Soa Paolo for a 7am flight to Buenes Aires - better give Barry Manilow a rest and start brushing up on the Evita soundtrack...
Big hugs
John xx
PS) I haven´t even mentioned the totty here because if I even started I would NEVER be able to stop. It is SUPREME... Although it does make me never want to take my top off again... ;-)
Well, back to Rio - WOW. Have spent the last three days walking (yes, you heard correctly) - must´ve done at least 15 miles yesterday. Walked the full length of Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, around some lake named after a famous Brazilian (I know, as a proper traveller I should learn the names of these things but God this is week one, give me a break...) and then all the way to Pao De Acucar (get me - that´s Portugese for Sugarloaf Mountain). Which was, simply, STUNNING. You have to go up two mountains to get to the summit, and on the first peak we decided to splurge and take a helicopter tour. It was amazing, all around Rio by air. Then to the summit itself, and the view was so beautiful we stayed up there for hours just to watch the sunset (with a few beers, naturally - incidentally the big beer here is, wait for it... Skol!! Jesus, I didn´t even stoop that low when I was a destitute student...). Speaking of Jesus, today we visited Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) which in real-speak is the huge statue of Jesus that looks over the entire city, 710m up. Again, simply stunning. I won´t try and describe ~ I´ll post the píccies when I get to Buones Aires. All 500 of them - you LUCKY people! So, tomorrow we leave Rio for the 8pm bus and take a six hour journey to Soa Paolo for a 7am flight to Buenes Aires - better give Barry Manilow a rest and start brushing up on the Evita soundtrack...
Big hugs
John xx
PS) I haven´t even mentioned the totty here because if I even started I would NEVER be able to stop. It is SUPREME... Although it does make me never want to take my top off again... ;-)
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