South America

As we sat in the internet cafe in Manaus trying to organise our holiday post-Dragoman, it became apparent that internal flights in Brazil were more expensive than Europe, so our plans of sunning on the beaches of North East Brazil were thrown out the window. We could only afford to fly to Rio for our last 2 weeks. I was looking at hostels in Rio, trying to find a nice, cheap, social place to stay and Dee cried "Look at this one!". I leant over to her computer to see that she was looking at the Copacabana Palace hotel, the best hotel in Rio, "It's only £250 per night for a deluxe room". It seems we had difference of opinion of how we want to spend our last couple of weeks in South America. While Dee was getting all excited looking at the 5* hotels on expedia, I managed to find a good, luxury hotel at a fairly reasonable rate; £56 per night. We were just about to book when I looked up the weather forecast for Rio; 28degrees and raining. That was it, we were going to Natal on the North East coast and it was going on Dee's credit card. She exclaimed, "There's no way I'm going back to England without a tan, I don't care about the costs!". We organised a flight to Natal that left Manaus at 1.20am, stopped at Fortaleza for 6 hours and finally arrived at Natal at 2.20pm. I managed to find a really nice hotel at a cheap price. We booked into the Honeymoon Suite (hey, it was on Dee's credit card) which had it's own living area, kitchen and private rooftoop pool!

We arrived at the airport with ample time and was able to check in our over-heavy bags, so looked around the touristy shops. I bought something I didn't realise I needed until I saw it - a varnished piranha. The flight was delayed by an hour and we kept saying "It's weird being alone isn't it?", missing the comfort of the group. We arrived at the massive coastal city of Fortaleza at 6:30am, shattered from not sleeping on the plane at all. Our bags were being transferred automatically onto the next flight, but we decided to check the baggage reclaim anyway. Good job, because we saw our bags, complete with their luminous pink TRANSFER tags tied around them, which we had to check in again while we looked like zombies from lack of sleep. We headed straight for some quiet seats and plonked ourselves on them for a couple of hours sleep before our flight that afternoon.

Out of the window Fortaleza looked like an exciting place. There were huge skyscrapers jutting out of the skyline and loads of people about. It has a reputation as a party city but we just sat and played cards till our flight took us to Natal (delayed again - I think this is a common theme for TAM airlines). Natal was unexpectedly big. We thought it was a small beach town, more like a fishing village, but it was a huge metropolitan city. We were staying in Ponta Negra, a tourist destination South of the city, which was a short taxi ride away. We passed huge supermarkets and really nice restaurants on the main road through Ponta Negra and arrived at our hotel to be taken to our rooftop suite. The hotel wasn't directly on the beach, it was a couple of blocks back, but we could still see the sea and the famous Morro do Careca, (or Bald Spot Mount), a sand dune which used to be used as a ski slope, until it became too eroded for use. I jumped in the private pool and then quickly jumped out again. It was freezing, good for cooling off, but the weather here was cloudy, much to Dee's dismay. That evening we just got some snacks and watched TV in our outdoor lounge, complete with a hammock to relax in.

The next day we went to breakfast and the sky was full of dark clouds. I tried to reassure Dee that the clouds would clear, but I think she could detect doubt in my voice. It wasn't long before the heavens opened and it began raining. It wasn't the rain that we get in the jungle that only lasts a few minutes. This was Manchester rain, light and unending. After a lot of persuasion, I managed to get Dee off the dry sofa and leave the apartment. We walked to the famous sand dune and walked down the main street, looking for a restaurant we had seen on a flyer. We walked for about an hour, occasionally the rain got heavier, but it wasn't cold and Dee had her umbrella. Dune buggies zoomed up and down the roads here, as there are some good dunes to the North of Natal. We walked back along the promonade and watched the dedicated surfers for a while then stopped in a bar for a drink. The barman assured us that the next day will be sunny, I hoped so for Dee's sake. We ate at a really nice pay-by-weight restaurant that evening. That night I went to sleep with my fingers crossed, hoping it would be sunny the next day.

We awoke to the same cloud as the day before and Dee was almost suicidal. "I'm going to have to go back to England whiter than I left", she snarled angrily. I could see blue sky on the horizon, but it was like trying to humour a child, "Come on Dee, it might clear up soon, cheer up". She was adamant that it was going to rain for the rest of the time in Ponta Negra, so she sulked on the sofa until the blue sky on the horizon moved overhead and the sun emerged. "What's the point in going to the beach, it's not going to last". I pretty much dragged her to the beach anyway and by the afternoon the clouds had lifted, as had Dee's mood. The waves here were massive, so that was me entertained for the afternoon. The beach sellers parolled the beaches selling clothes and jewelery, so that was Dee entertained for the afternoon. I hired a bodyboard for 2 hours for £3 and burned my face waiting for the perfect wave. By the afternoon we were both glowing so we headed back to our apartment. In the kitchen was a small barbeque so we thought it would be a good idea to go the huge supermarket and have a meal indoors that night, to save money. It actually ended up being more expensive than the nice meal we had the previous night, but Dee got to have a couple of bottles of wine, so she was happy whatever.

The next day, sunblocked to the max, we went to the beach again and I tried bodyboarding again. I also got a pina colada from a beach bar, which was expensive, but served in a hollowed out pineapple, complete with pieces of fruit toothpicked to the outside. We had one more day here so we looked into dune buggying, a popular tourist activity in this area. It was only £20 each so we booked it in to leave the next morning. After finishing the left overs from the night before we went back to the pay-by-weight restaurant and shared a plate of sushi. Although we were getting up early for the dune buggies, we went to the main nightlife area of the town. It was full of cheesy clubs and open air bars, but it was busy and good people-watching. There is a large hostel in this area which is done up to look like a medieval English castle, but we didn't dare go inside to the Taverna club in the basement.

The dune buggy picked us up at 8:45 the next morning. The dune buggies here were a different style to the ones we had been on before. Their centre of gravity was lower and the engines not as powerful. The buggies can hold 4 people and it was cheaper for us to shack up with 2 others - a brazilian woman and her son. We shot along some beautiful empty beaches and flew over the sand dunes with about 50 other buggies. We stopped at some touristy markets where you can ride camels and take photos of the views. There was a bar/restaurant we visited which had tables and chairs in a lagoon. It was nice to swim and cool off a bit. Even Dee went in.

After flying over more sand dunes and crossing a river by ferry, we stopped at a large dune that had zip wires into the lagoon below. It was only £2 a go so I bought the ticket and got strapped in. I shot off without even thinking of the landing until I saw the water approaching very quickly indeed. I skimmed across the water on my bum and let got of the harness. Getting back up the dune was easy - a boat took us to the chair lift. At the top there was also a steep slide into the lagoon, which Dee persuaded me to have a go on (she didn't exactly have to twist my arm).

The next stop was for lunch at an expensive buffet restaurant, which we didn't eat at. We returned to our hotel at 5pm, 8 hours after we left. Our flight was leaving 1:30am so we packed our stuff and headed off to the same pay-by-weight restaurant (we are so boring!) and we ate a huge plate of sushi each before heading onward to our last adventure.

Manaus is a city in the centre of the Amazonian rainforest, made popular by the rubber boom in the early 20th century. It’s a huge city but its main transport system in the Rio Negro and Amazon River, so basically has one road in from Venezuela, and then the only transport out is by river. The city was really hot and humid and we sat outside the Teatro Amazionias and had pizza on the first night, debating what to do now that our overlanding had ended.

It was the first time in 5 months that we had had to organise anything and so the next day was a full day spent on the computer researching. I wanted beach and relaxing, Ollie wanted waves and excitement, as usual we had completely different ideas and expectations. After a full two days we had decided the place where we both could be satisfied and booked the last two weeks of our adventure.

During the time in Manaus we said goodbye to both those who were leaving and those who were continuing with Dragoman. One night we were told of a café that turned into a dancing bar later in the evening. It was in the middle of the huge millennium shopping centre and so to save money we drank beer in the food court first. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a night out in a food court. Security guards were looking at us gone out but we were excused when they realised we were foreign. We then went off to nearby Ponta Negra, the beach resort of Manaus on the river side. We found a rock club that sold extremely potent and cheap Caprihinhas. Everyone was dancing to music they would never personally even listen to and loving it. One guy ended up being the worse for wear in the taxi on the way home, Ollie and I awoke feeling extremely delicate.

We had decided on our last day in Manaus we would see the spectacle of the meeting of the waters, this is where black waters of the Rio Negro run alongside the Rio Solimoes without mixing for 8km to make up the Amazon river. Heading out in a small boat from the port we travelled for 20mins, passing a few river dolphins on the way until we came to the edge of the dark black Negro River water. Like the edge of a cloud it meets the lighter coloured slightly green Amazon. As you dip your hand into the rivers you can clearly feel the temperature difference of the warmer River Negro compared to the Solimoes.

Catching a quick movie (Hancock) at the Millennium Shopping Complex we headed back to the hotel to try and pack up our 5 months of stuff we had collected from the truck. Ramming things into the backpacks, making it as small as possible we were quite aware we had two huge bags to check in each, way over our luggage allowance. I still have no idea where it all came from, especially as I seem to have worn the same outfit for the whole holiday and Ollie has lost almost everything he originally came out with.

That night at 22:30 it was really sweet as everyone came down to reception to see us off. Even I had a few tears as we said goodbye, you really don’t realise how close you get when you're practically living in each others personal space for weeks on end. I was really looking forward to a relaxing two weeks with just Ollie and myself but I knew that this ending just made the ultimate trip end tangibly close.

We were now down to the last two days on the truck after 5 months of it being our home, so Ollie and I wanted to celebrate. We decided to hold Cindy (the truck) a party and stocked up on goodies in Santa Elena especially for the occasion. Ollie was in charge of the drinks and with contributions from the whole truck we bought enough vanilla rum to sink a small ship (3L plastic containers of rum for around 3 quid, headaches were expected). I was in charge of food and decorations, I bought bright orange balloons to cheer up the interior, silly string to annoy the cleaning group and cakes and all things bad for you to snack on until we felt sick. I also spent 3 hours wrapping up sweets and forfeits for a gigantic pass-the-parcel the night prior to get the party flowing.

The day of leaving Santa Elena was sad as we knew our overlanding was coming to a close but by lunch time we were blowing up balloons and hanging streamers with everyone else getting into the party spirit. Ollie and I mixed up some caprioska (it was entertaining trying to cut up lime with a penknife on a moving truck) and by the time everyone had had a couple of the 50% vodka cocktails down their neck, the cheesy music was flowing, faces were smiling, foots were tapping and everybody was wearing their party hats. When the pass-the-parcel came out, the cocktails were working to great effect and so the forfeits went down a storm, these included eating a sweet out of someone's bellybutton, putting ice down your pants, moon walking the length of the truck and doing an Irish jig, all in-between eating the prize sweets scattered among the wrapping. Dancing in the aisle was called for next, this was made difficult by the unexpected pot holes and so we had ultimate forfeits for anyone who spilt their drink. The ultimate forfeits inlcuded someone being a butler to everyone for an hour, another guy was tied to someone else for an hour, including when he had to do a toilet stop. One guy ended up getting blind folded for half an hour, which is when we got the silly string out and just covered him in it. The toilet stops became quite amusing as the more tipsy people got, the stops were more often, and usually just at the roadside as service stations were few and far between here. Locals often slowed down and even took photos of the gringos nipping out to do a number one still wearing their party hats and streamers.

Everyone on the truck got awarded a certificate of their not so outstanding achievements while being on the trip; all were taken in humour although some went down better than others!! By the time we stopped for dinner at a truck café in the middle of nowhere we had decided to set up camp in their car park and continue the party.

Everyone had a great time and it was so much fun celebrating the end of our overland trip actually inside the truck, in home, with everyone else. The very last day was a quiet one on the truck, for some reason most people felt unwell – must be a virus going round!! To this day I cannot even smell vanilla rum due to the bilious vomit it produces in my stomach.

We arrived at the campsite next to Iguazu Falls at about 6pm. The campsite is the nicest one so far. It has a pool, free internet, free table tennis, pool table and table football. After I whooped everyones arses at table football we had a bit of a swim and drank quite a lot of the 4 reais (1 pound) caipirinhas.

The next day we were up early and went to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls (the Brazilians spell it Iguaçu Falls). The weather was boiling and the walk we took towards the falls had amazing views. The walk went through the forest and there were loads of coatis about, which are cute but deadly, a bit like a pikey racoon. I saw them attack a woman who tried to feed them crisps. One jumped on her leg until she dropped the bag and they all came out of the trees and everyone watched and took photos of the feeding frenzy. The coatis are part of the tourist attraction almost as much as the falls.

When we got back to the campsite one of the Aussie girls had a photo of a tarantula which crawled across her foot on the walk. That totally freaked out Dee. She spent the next couple of days walking like she was barefoot on glass, just in case there is a tarantula about.

The next day we crossed the Argentinian border and went to the Argentinian side of the falls. Most of the falls are on this side, so we can get right up close to the water, which was amazing. The views which we saw were like they were from a film set like Jurassic Park. Its hard to explain but the whole environment looked surreally plastic, like a Disneyland version of itself.

We went on a boat trip which takes you really close to the waterfalls to get absolutely soaked. You can really experience the power of the water as you get close - its like needles in your face, and the noise is deafening. Dees last words before we we got on the boat was "If we sit at the front I think the water will just spray over our heads". How wrong she was. We came out soaked to the bone. Even my pants were heavy with water, and that was just after a few seconds of getting close to the spray. The weather was the hottest yet so it didnt take too long to get dry.

Earlier that day there was a traffic jam to get into Argentina which put u behind schedule, so when we got to the campsite Mac had put up our tents for us, which Dee thought was the best Valentines present. I was happy because I didnt have to buy anything to make her happy.

Just a quick note about the majority of our overnight stays as we head down the east coast of Brazil/Argentina. Due to the immense distance we have to cover daily its mostly not possible to find towns with campsites, so when everyone if trucked out we just stop, park up the truck get the tents down from the roof and pitch right there. The first bushcamp we broke into a wood, well, pineforest actually. It was swarming with mosquitos and lots of little jumping spiders, but also lots of fireflies that glow amazingly at night. But then comes the dilemma, open fire means BBQ so good tasty grub, but can you risk eating when you know it may be 12hrs until you reach a flushing toilet? There is always the truck spade and a quiet bush, but you risk losing your dignity and possibly getting eaten alive by bugs as you squat.

It was also Ollies cook group that night so I had the rare opportunity to take photos, I´m usually not allowed as apparanetly I can´t take photos for S**T but I think you´ll find the following photos are of a much higher class of skill than Ollies.

During the day, petrol stations are quite few and far between so we just stop the truck on the main road, boys to the front and girls to the back - glad I have my she pee so I´m not pulling moonies each time - what a great invention.

So heading out of Paraty on towards Iguazu Falls, this was the hottest day to date, sweltering 34 degress on the bus. By lunchtime everyone was feeling the burn so we managed to find a little town of around 10 local houses. Cameron (the truck) did us proud by taking us down a sharp decline one lane mudtrack to find the most beautiful beach so far in Brazil. After supplying the locals with some of our sandwiches for lunch they didn´t mind our bright orange truck taking up their whole town square as we wandered down to pure emerald green sea and smooth off white sand. This beach find was quite unexpected and we were so desperate to cool off most of us just stripped to underwear and dived in. A few funny looks from locals but no comments were made! It really has reached that level of closeness between us, 22 adults sharing a space 2 x 4m for 20hr a day does that to you!

So soaking from sea water we wandered back onto the truck, a 12hr drive that day to stay on a campsite just south of Sao Paulo. When we say campsite , I use the term very loosely, they vary quite a lot but most have one or two communal toilets with cold showers and nothing else. If we come across one with heated showers and a pool it is comparable to staying in a 6 star hotel.

As we arrived in this little town the sky turned a deep grey and the mountains had soon disspeared by thick cloud and rain. The whole sky flashed white as we saw fork lightening hitting the floor around us. I kindly gave Ollie the job of erecting the tent in the rain (with metal poles - missed him though,dammit ) and I got started cooking. Each night cook groups rotate and they do breakfast and lunch also. Ours was by far the best food of the trip, potato salad with honey soy chicken and aubergine sheeps cheese bake and we filled our bellys watching the electrical storm for hours. We then spent 4 hours playing "shithead" in the pouring rain, playing cards and water = soggy, great combination!!

So off to the falls, 2 more full days driving with only a bush camp enroute to break the monotomy. Plus the fun of service station toilets (did I mention you can´t flush loo roll in south america -overflowing bins and hot weather, smells good) and beating Ollie at backgammon as my only pleasure - oh life is hard.

p.s. Did I mention argentinian vino tinto is one quid fifty, and thats the expensive stuff. I´m officially alcoholic.

p.p.s. Keep seeing shoes tied with their laces hanging from the electrical wires in small towns, apparantly this is where you go to find drug dealers at night and I naively thought it was a childs game or something. Lots to learn.

dee.x

Hi guys,

Ollies busy fiddling with his many gadgets, I´m bored sat waiting for him so thought I´d update.

Where were we? Oh yeah hung over after the gay ball, well as you guys know we missed the welcome meeting for this trip, our attendance rate got much worse when we missed the meeting meal set for that night (we did have important things to do like use the internet). Our guilt increased as we met them on the way back to the hotel all holding hands - new best buddies; ain´t it sweet. However our charm and GREAT personalities got us back on track and we also have many ´new best buddies´

So there are 22 travellers on the truck ´Cameron´with tour guides Luca and Mac (I call him big mac cos he´s massive -in the fat sense). Arrived at Paraty at teatime, an old colonial town 286km south Rio very touristy, but pretty. First night we had a group meal (sticky over cooked pasta with bacon type sauce that had no flavour - that group ain´t cooking again) we then got allocated tents. These tents are green, mouldy smelling and small and will be our home for the next 5 months. Great. To round off a lovely meal the brazilian weather didn´t let us down by giving us a great lightening show with about 6 hours of torrential rain. The capsite was a lake and our beautiful smelly tent leaked so much we went to bed under a shower of rain water. So wet clothes on, wet bags to lie beside, muddy feet and no room to even breathe, we spent our first night overlanding.

I woke up in a great mood - dirty, smelly, no sleep and nothing dry to put on.

But, the sun sensing my wrath has done nothing but shine its glorious face off of the past two days. We´ve done a group boat trip with snorkeling (tropical fish and everything) and a day on the beach and now I´ve decided its too hot. I can´t drink enough water to keep up with the sweat, and Ollie is quite embarassing with his glowing redness. What, all we Brits do is complain - never?!

So off to Igazu Falls tomorrow morning, at 9am, having packed up our smelly green home.

dee x

On thursday we got on the truck which is our home for the next 5 months. It smells a bit and theres no air conditioning and theres not enough space, but weve grown an affinity with it already. Its called Cameron and when we drive through little towns and villages, everyone in the street looks up and waves at us.

The truck is pretty comfortable but storage space is minimal. Weve all been given jobs to do - mine is unloading and loading the bag, presumably because im strong and fit. Dees job is to look after the toilet roll and cleaning products, presumably because she looks like a cleaning lady.

We only drove for 5 hours and we arrived in Paraty, which is either pissing with rain or oppressively hot. Im not sure which i prefer. I seem to spend most of my time shying from the sun like a vampire or cowering from the rain like the witch from The Wizard of Oz.

Our first night camping was during a thunderstorm and our tent leaked, which wasnt a good start to the holiday, but the next day was boiling hot so we went to the beach and walked into Paraty.

The village is very old and picturesque. There was an organised boat trip in the afternoon, which was great fun. Everyone brought their own drinks and by the afternoon everyone was merry and we stopped to do some swimming and diving off the boat. It was a good opportunity to get to know everyone on our trip, and so far everyone seems nice. Im not sure ill have the same view in 3 weeks time though.

Included in our Rio activities was a boat trip around one of the bays to see the sunset. There were a few free (strong) cocktails and within an hour people were dancing to the dodgy DJ playing songs like the Grease megamix (a wella wella wella huh). The weather was raining so we didnt see the sunset, but I dont think many people were bothered by that. This Rio Carnival trip is the end of a few weeks travelling for a lot of people, and this was their last excursion together, so everyone was up for a good time. We got back to the hotel a bit tipsy and prepared ourselves for the Gay Ball.

The Gay Ball is a televised all over Brazil and is famous for its transvestites and fancy dress. We (well, Dee) decided to put a lot of effort into the costumes we were going to wear and tried to glam it up as much as possible. I thought we were pretty camp, but when we got downstairs at our hotel we saw what some of the other guys were wearing, it put us to shame. A couple of them were wearing speedos and t-shirts with the nipples cut out. For some, it was their first night at a gay club. I dont think they knew what they were letting themselves in for.

When we arrived we had to walk down the red carpet to get in and the huge crowd cheered and wolf whistled as we went past. It certainly was an experience...

Hey guys. First entry by me here - thought I´d put my own mark on his blog.

Have loved carnival week and experienced amazing sights. Still can´t do samba for toffee, still can´t hack the pure alcohol cocktails and not quite sure if I´ll ever return from the nocturnal state Rio has forced me into, but I sure am smiling.

Was the Gay Ball at scala last night, felt like a VIP walking up the red carpet with the crowds cheering us on and the TV crew. Fantastic atmosphere with live samba band to dance to and loads of queens dressed (using the term lightly) to the nines. Wearing little more than hotpants, a garter, feathers and glitter wig I felt right at home, must admit the cocktails helped. Missed our first trip meeting this morning so unsure of the itinery and who´s in our group but I will hold no responsibility (or guilt), 10am after the ball, madness if they think we were ever going to attend it.

The sambadrome the other night was fantastic, who´d have thought it was possible to snowboard on a carnival float. They must spend thousands on the costumes. The top 12 samba schools compete in the finale and each one takes about an hour to walk the length of the sambadrome with the crowd going mental, just one bugbear, parade lasts an hour - their song lasts abou 10 seconds, its on repeat, non stop, again and again...I´m never going to get them out of my head.

Love Rio, love the views from sugar loaf moutain, love the carnival, not so keen on its rain (my fingers are like prunes) but its all been good fun.

Thats it -I´m done. Bedtime.