One delicious year of adventures: March 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

This is THE END, My friends!

23rd March

Day 294

Began 03.06.09 - Ended 23.03.10

This is the day we kinda wrap things up for this trip at least. This evening we fly home after being on the road for 294 days. Travelling has been an amazing experience and it has opened our eyes to so many beautiful things and beautiful friends that we have come across (you all know who you are). That is why its sad to say goodbye to the life on the road.

We both would like to say thank you to everyone who have been reading this blogg, and I hope it has made you want to travel around the world. The world is huge and the people are diverse and strange in every place thats why the adventures will always continue whether home or abroad.

However we do have greener grass on the other side and who knows maybe even the blogging revolution will continue.

We would just like to share a few more things with you before we get on the plane back home.

We have been on:

5 trains

9 long car journeys

11 long and bumpy flights

17 boats

35 very very long bus lourneys

Thank you transportation, without you it would have been tough.

These are a few pictures that we treasure.

INDIA - Taj Mahal

please do ignore my flower power shorts.

THAILAND - Kanchanaburi Tiger temple

THAILAND - Blackmoon party

Megan & Angela

THAILAND - Koh Phangan

David & Ben (drowning their sorrows)

MALAYSIA - Cameron Highlands

VIETNAM - Sapa

CAMBODIA - Siem Reap

Ta Prohm

CAMBODIA - Siem Reap

Snake eating with our friend Van Sak

HONG KONG

AUSTRALIA - Whitest beach

AUSTRALIA - 12 Apostels, Great Ocean Road

NEW ZEALAND - Lake Mathieson

CHILE - San Pedro The Atacama

Floating Lagoon

BOLIVIA - Uyuni

Salt Flats

ARGENTINA - Iguazu falls

BRAZIL - Rio De Janeiro

Rocinha Favela

Thank you for reading everyone at home.

To everyone we've met around the world, Thank you!

ANGELA & DAVID

Favela life ain't so bad after all!

22nd March

Favelicious!!!

The biggest favela.

We were only aloud to take the picture in this angle,

behind me we weren't aloud to take any pictures

Rio De Janeiro.

You can see Christ on the top of the left mountain.

But he's very tiny.

This morning we are diving deep into the culture of Brazil by going on a Favela (Slum) tour with Favela Tour company. We meet at 9 am at the hostel and after a misunderstanding about the bookings we get on the way. The story begins with Martha the tour guide going through some safety procedures to make us feel at ease. Then we climb into the hills to our first stop and it's the Rocinha Favela. This is the biggest in Brazil and houses over 300,000 people. The way these favelas were generated was because they came to build the touristy beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon. The people did not want to commute to work for hours, so they set up residence on the hills surrounding the work place. When they built their house the next person came along and built theirs on top and so on, hence the different structures and different colours. The favelas were much more dangerous places when they first started, now however they are cleaner and safer, but not by much. They have running water, sewage system and cable tv all because of the agreements made with the government. All of these services are pretty much borrowed from the government without the intention of paying anyone back.

The favelas themselves were only put on the map around 1993, before that Rio government was trying to pretend that they didn't exist.What we think of these places is not actually the case. Yes they are in poverty, and yes they have problems but overall they are hardworking people, and you will never see a beggar on the streets of Rio, unlike our European cities. To beg in Brazil is considered shameful and hence not so many people do it.

Rocinha-The biggest favela.

At our first stop we were allowed to take some pictures, however only in a certain direction because otherwise there are people that are known as "hawks" will alert the bosses of the drug squad and you get your camera taken off at gun point. The general feel of the place is of mayhem and working people trying to live. It is dirty, and it is dingy, but what isn't on this world. As we drive through it we see everyday things, shops, bars, internet cafes, they are all here. It is like a closed community. They have schools and in the process of building a police department as the next step to eliviate the drug problem. The other extreme is that the richest part of the city is right on the border with the favelas and is therefore divided by a house (lucky guy that lives in that house).

A room in a favela with a view!

Borrowed electricity!

Smile you are on Fav - Cam!

We walk a bit through the streets to get the general feel of the place, and back into the van to visit favela no.2. This favela is tiny, and houses only 2,500 people. Nestled between the threes and mingling with the rich part of town. We stop off at a school which we are sponsoring by taking this tour, and see kids playing, learning etc. We then walk the narrow alleyways of the favela. It feels very cramped but friendly and people are carrying on with their lives even though the tourist wonder around here twice a day. The society in the favelas is multi ethnic and you can see people of any colour or creed. This is welcoming news and makes the favelas a more civilized place in my eyes. Overall this trip was very informative and great to understand the people of Brazil as they make up 20 % of the population that live in the favelas.

Where the 3 streets meet!

Where Rio de Janeiro began!

It's Electrifying!

Criminal Section on the Favelas.

The drug lords run the favelas and in exchange for keeping the people inside safe, they get to hide out there. Everything that comes in and out of the favela is watched by "hawks", people on roofes of houses. In the case of trouble, drugs coming in, and any other activity the "hawks" set off fireworks in order to inform the people that something is going down. Also for us tourists to be able to visit the favela there are certain rules that we must abide by, they are a) the windows must be open in the cars or vans while driving through (this is so they can see you) and b) you must not mention the word drugs or talk about the drug lords in the favela. There are a lot of guns and knives within the favela and the rate of crime is still high. The police are trying to flush them out, but at the moment it has not worked.

After all the slumming around we have to go and get tanned on the beach as it is our last day in Rio, and a steak dinner to finish a great day.

Angela & David

Copa-Copacabana!

21st March

Life's a Beach!

David (hungover)!

Welcome to Copacabana beach. After the party last night we were very happy to just sit on the beach, the weather was not as good as we hoped today, but we still managed to catch some rays. The beach itself is huge and many people wearing skimpy bikini's and mainly speedo's for men. Sand is pure and water is a darkish green like the seaweed colour. The beautiful mountains surround the area but also the high buildings are close by. The funny smells do come from the ocead and it smells like a harbour. Apart from that well it's a beach, people working hard selling things that tourists want as memories and obviously cold beers are popular. We don't do much and just chill for the day and sometimes thats all that matters.

Beautiful views on Copacabana Beach!

Angela & David

Bus bus and Samba Party!

19th -20th March

Bus bus and more bus!

Brasilian Countryside

Did anyone ask for a 23 hour bus journey? Ah yes we sure did. Iguazu to Rio please and make it snappy, please. Ok, says the bus man only 23 hours, no biggie. So off we went, customs first and that went smoothly. You gotta love the European passport, it is so easy to travel. Anyway on the road we settle in to our seats and watch movies all day. Night time comes and we realise that there are no food service on this bus, even if it says there was suppose to be so we have to settle for a first taste of Brasilian grub in the shape of a microwaved pizza slice......mmmmm I hear you say. On route we witness a road accident which does make your stomach turn slightly especially harsh to see a head injury. Poor bikers.

Waking up at 7 am and we are still on the bus, what a surprise. We pass some extra green and extra windy hills of Brasil on route via Sao Paulo and onwards to Rio de Janeiro. We made good time and pulled up at the Novo Rio Bus terminal at 12 pm, right on schedule. Time to catch a cab, so we join forces with two guys to make the journey cheaper. Taxi's are bastards everywhere and the prices are always through the roof for us gringo's. Even our attempts of speaking Portugese does not make them believe that we are local. So we get to our hostel for a mere R$60 (€28 split 4 ways luckily). The room we have is a spacious apartment style with kitchen, fridge and everything one could want. We are pleased considering Rio is a bloody expensive place.

First night we are ready for a party and are meeting up with Luis, Nicola, Sue and Steve and heading into Lapa (the party centre of Rio). Wecatch the tube and only bring enough money for the night out. We make it to the Samba club called Scenarium one of the hottest clubs in Rio. It is cool with three floors, and a different system to order drinks etc, you get given a card when you enter, they also take your picture, then you just order and drink and pay at the end. Weird but it works, although the problem is if you have only a certain amount of cash you could get stuck at the end. Not to worry, we survived, and had a blast. And Luis sorted us out with a cab at around 4.30 am. The taxis are mental here and do not obey the red light signal at night, oopsie where are the police when you need them, ha! Good night!

Bucketfest!!!!!

Sue, Luis and David and the rest of the gang!

What time do we close?!

Samba in its full glory!

Angela & David

Monday, March 22, 2010

Amazing Iguazu Falls

18th Of March

IRELAND 6 DAYS LEFT
SWEDEN 21 DAYS LEFT

At 6.30 this morning our alarm clock went off. Not easy at all to get up today as we are a little bit hungover. Plus only 2,5 hours of sleep doesn't really make it any better! All we can do is get some breakfast into us and then leave for the Iguazu falls.

Little do we know that this will soon turn out to be one of the most amazing days of our trip.
We arrive and the sun is shining and making our heads soar. Luckily we have a 6 litre water bottle with us.

First of all we get the tickets and the explain that we have to walk trough the djungel first to get to the falls. As we walk and talk and laugh David suddenly yells "WATCH OUT" Me and Molly look down and scream, like girls do when they see a spider. But this wasn't just any spider! This was a TARATNULA!! He was just there on the path, chilling out! As creepy as they are i still stayed and took a fem photos. It was pretty amazing to see a tarantula in the wild i have to say!

The very hairy tarantula

As we get closer we can hear the falls. It's getting louder and louder every second. We are so excited and walk a little bit faster. And there they are, Iguazu falls that consits of 275 falls over 2.7 km.

We just stand there thinking "where does all the water come from?" It is just so much of it and it's so beautiful. We walk the upper and the lower trail whish means we both get to see the waterfalls from above and undernethe. From above is really nice. From undernethe we get really wet and we can see lots of little rainbows.

We also took a little boat tour around and underneath the waterfalls. They warn yo it's going to be wet, but we could never be prepared for how wet we were just going to get. But it was thrilling and fun. Clothes being wet for the next 4 hours...no problems.

This is the falls from the upper trail

Angela and David

Sharing some waterfall love

Naughty naughty David.

Poor bum bum

Why does Molly remind me of a goat??

A goatee and she'd fit tight in there. haha

David on the upper trail.

David and Molly are having a very serious conversasion about the food we just had

"My bread was a bit too crispy at the ends"

"Mine was ok, now what do you think of the AC inside?"

"Why?"

"Just because"

Angela & David underneathe one of the bigger waterfalls

Getting SOAKED!

This is taken from the boat. We're about to get waterfalled

David underneath one of the waterfalls.

He just cannot hide his excitement

Angela & Molly underneath the waterfall

Molly

It's not raining.

This is just the spray from the waterfall.

Angela & David at the most impressive waterfall

Garganta Do Diablo (Devils throat)

We had such a lovely day today. To finish the day off, we had a look at the very funny Engrish.com site and laughed a lot! There is a 23hour long bus journey to Rio De Janeiro waiting for us tomorrow so we better get some sleep. Good night

Angela & David