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One last trip... that's what I said last time, and now here we are once again leaving. This time for 6 months to South America with my fiance Andrea. Does this travel bug ever really die? I hope not! Written by lucky One last trip... we've said that before, but this time it may be for real. Well, at least for a while. We've put everything back in storage, put life on hold yet again and have chosen adventure over logic. Follow along on our trip to South America. We'll be sending real-time updates with our camera phone thanks to TravelPod's mobile blogging service and will update our travel blog as much as possible. During this 6 month trek, we plan to visit our sponsored child in Paraguay, party in Rio during Carnival and work our way through as many countries and amazing sites as we can before ending in Colombia to head home where we promise that this time, we'll settle down... ... for a while :) Start of travels: Feb 07, 2006 End of travels: Aug 07, 2006 |
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1 of 38 The pre-trip build up... the best part of travel Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Oct 14, 2005 17:49 ( local time ) Hello and welcome! I've always said that the best part of travel is the anticipation... we're not leaving until February 7th but that old familiar tickle of anticipation in our bellies is already starting. After 3 years of saving & planning, we're excited to get ourselves down to a new, unexplored ( by us at least ) continent: South America. Let the countdown begin... More to come! |
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2 of 38 Our sponsored child Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Oct 24, 2005 07:19 ( local time ) We plan to visit our sponsored child in Paraguay on our travels and to volunteer in her community. This morning we just received another email from our sponsored child's organization in Paraguay. "Dear Mr. Luc, good morning. Just wanted to say that I didn't forget your visit and volunteer work. I am doing the follow up in the field, in order to arrange your visit from now on. Are you all right? Still coming? I just wanted to make sure that your plan hasn't changed, due to all those problems in your country. Sincerely yours, Gustavo Gimenez Asistente de Comunicaciones Plan Paraguay " I'm not sure what problems exactly he was referring to... but yes, we're still going! |
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3 of 38 Tic toc, tic toc... the count down begins. Ottawa, Canada Jan 08, 2006 07:07 ( local time ) Just about a short month left! Wow... I guess it's time to blog a little more actively. We've been busy planning the final days of our "pre-trip". The packing has started, we've bought most of our goodies ( I'm a gadget nut ) and the debaucherous going away party is scheduled. It's just a matter of time now until we're on a plane amazed at how quickly January went by. That's how it always goes. I purposefully avoid counting the final days but Andrea occasionally beams a big smile my way, bats her eyes in excitement and gives me the latest count. "42 days!" was the last enthusiastic update. Today's update would be "30 days!" if she weren't still in bed. Andrea just loves her sleep. I rather not think of how many days are left but being the planner that I am, I can't avoid flipping through outlook and doing a quick date-check myself. As everyday goes by I try my best to not stress about all of the stuff that we still have to do before we leave! ... put the stuff in storage, ... get insurance, ... finish up all of my work stuff, ... we can't forget about the going away party, ... buy this and that, ... get the visa's, ... get some US dollars, ... setup our visit to meet Edith, my sponsored child of 3 years in Paraguay, ... and of course try to get as much work in on TravelPod as I can before I go. This will actually be the first (big) trip we take using TravelPod since all of the great new features were added. I can't wait to get to use all of them from a traveler's perspective yet again. *** "Say yes" I couldn't wait any longer. Christmas morning seemed like the perfect time to ask Andrea, my girlfriend of almost 3 years, what she thought about spending the rest of her life with me... I can't believe how nervous I was to ask. I knew she'd say yes the minute I gave her the last present, a shinny ring. I'm happy to report that she did in fact say yes, after a short spat of bear hugs, a few tears and uncontrollable giggling. When Andrea came back to her senses, I realized that she hadn't actually said "yes". Being the nutty, detail oriented guy that I am, it wasn't official until I got a "yes". "Is that yes?" I asked when Andrea's eyes snapped back to reality. "Yes!" As if a 6 month trip to South America wasn't exciting enough, we're now engaged too! *** Still a month to go before we leave, I better get back to packing. Cheers! |
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4 of 38 The Mugger's Dream Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Jan 20, 2006 10:00 ( local time ) ** The Mugger's Dream Deciding what to take with you on a big trip is always a tough call. Especially for me... Yes, I confess, I'm a gadget nut... on my last trip I managed to piece together a nice little kit which included a small digital camera, an SLR camera and a tiny fold out keyboard with a palm pilot to type up my TravelPod entries from. It wasn't ideal but it worked. This time, it's getting a little extreme. For various reasons, including needing to stay tied into TravelPod while I travel, the kit has gotten much more complicated. We're calling our travel gear "The Muggers Dream" for obvious reasons. Luc's Kit: - Compact Sony Digital Camera ( Useful for taking pics when an SLR is just too bulky to take out ) - Canon Digital SLR ( We're photography hobbyists, an SLR is definitely needed ) - Small Sony Laptop ( For staying updated with the TravelPod team and various other things ) - Razr Mobile Phone ( To send photos to TravelPod in real time, ie: MoBlog ) Andrea's Kit: - Nikon Digital SLR ( So that we can compete as to who has the better camera, Nikon or Canon :) ). Yes, we know, we'll have more on our backs than an average South American's lifetime income but there was reason to the madness. Each little trinket had its reason. It's almost a game... The "How long will Luc and Andrea go without being mugged" game. A game we're hoping to win but based on stories we hear from friends about crime in South America, we're not holding our breath. We've done our best to cleverly conceal our goodies in day packs which don't scream "MUG ME PLEASE!". Included are some photos with this entry which we may later need for insurance purposes, have a look. ** MoBlog This! If you're not familiar with the term, MoBlogging means "Blogging from your Mobile" and it's a new feature on TravelPod. So, it just wouldn't make much sense for the founder to travel without MoBlogging on TP now would it! Plus, it's another good excuse to bring along another gadget, a snazzy camera phone :). Luckily, I didn't have to spring for a new phone. Our partners at Telestial, a company who rents and sells mobile phones and SIMS specifically to travelers, were kind enough to send me a cool new phone a handful of SIM cards and some other goodies. Unfortunately, apparently South America is just about the most complicated region to use a mobile phone in. I've spent at least 15 hours now and I have to admit that I still don't fully understand which SIM does what and how I'm going to send photos from my phone in Brazil to TravelPod. I'm still waiting for a call back from my Mobile provider so hopefully I'll have it figured out in the next week. The idea of sending Videos and Photos directly from my phone to TravelPod is pretty cool and would save tons of time in the Internet Cafes. More updates to come!
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5 of 38 Going blonde... Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Feb 04, 2006 13:39 ( local time ) Something radical... Maybe it's because I've just turned 30... maybe it's because I'm soon leaving the country and no one will see my almost fluorescent yellow hair, regardless, I thought it was fitting to try something "different" before I took off... ... going from brown hair to almost-platinum blonde seemed extreme enough. The fact that Andrea is staring oddly at me while I type this must mean that my sudden change in hue has achieved the desired affect! Andrea's blog Andrea's now got her travel blog all setup, follow along to see our travels from her perspective. Andrea's Travel Blog TravelPod in the OBJ A nice parting surprise was to see TravelPod in the Ottawa Business Journal (OBJ) today. The OBJ is a well-respected business paper here in Ottawa. Cool. If you're around the area, pick up a copy and check it out. Our Sponsored Child Gustavo from ChildReach emailed us a few days ago telling us that the community we're planning to volunteer and visit our sponsored child in is preparing "something" for us when we arrive. We can't wait to see what they've got in store for us. Gustavo also requested that we prepare a presentation for them about Ottawa & Canada, no time to relax for us! One more thing on the pile of todos. They have PowerPoint in small community villages in Paraguay right? Hmmmm maybe not. Time to go... Well... I think this will be the last entry before we go. The flight is at 4:30pm tomorrow. We've triple checked everything and are just about ready for the road. South America, here we come!
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6 of 38 Touch down in South America Sao Paulo, Brazil Feb 08, 2006 06:49 ( local time ) "Even the locals don't go there" For the past 6 months, we'd heard time and time again about Sao Paulo (SP) being a dangerous city. First, we stumbled onto Sao Paulo in my "The World's Most Dangerous Places" guide book which provides tourist-style info for courageous/crazy tourists. Sao Paulo was listed amongst several other nasty places like Kosovo, East Timor ( pre-war ) and Colombia. Statistics like the 10,000 car thefts per day and 25'ish homicides per day ( during carnival ) started ringing alarm bells. Even though our stop over was for only 23 hours en-route to Paraguay, needless to say, Andrea was worried. Having been bestowed the duty of protecting Andrea, my soon to be wife, I was starting to worry a little myself. Many of the other countries I've visited in the past have always come with security warnings from the Canadian Government or perhaps even other tourists, but never had I heard from so many sources just how bad it was. To be safe, I figured we would avoid the bus and metro by just sticking to taxis. It was our first day ( and only day ) in SP and I figured that we just didn't need the added risk and complexity of figuring out a new cities transportation system, especially considering that the jammed packed busses were a popular place for pickpockets. Oddly, while still suckled in the safety of our Air Canada flight, Andrea seemed to be favoring taking the local bus & metro on our first day in town but after a few minutes chatting with our new friend who sat next to us on the flight, a Sao Paulo local named Wu, she quickly changed her mind and I could sense that a new plan which involved spending the day by the hotel's pool would have been just fine by her. "I'm from Sao Paulo, and I don't even go there" Wu said while laughing in an "Are you mad?" kind of way and looking at a spot on the map where I'd told him we were visiting after landing. I saw Andrea's face drop. The suggestion was in the Lonely Planet guide book, so I found it odd that it would be that dodgy. Wu continued, "I never go there, it's the old city. I have to go get my drivers license there tomorrow and I'm actually a little worried myself". Andrea crept over my shoulder to ask, "Have you ever been mugged?". Wu laughed again. "Ohh man... of course! When I was younger, I was mugged just about every day. You know, they take your watch, or your bag, your shoes." Wu went on to echo the fact that SP was the most dangerous place in Brazil, specifically the area we were headed. I could tell Andrea was worried now. Not that she was trying to hide it with her eyebrows curled up in a worried puppy stare. Well, I didn't think that either of us would feel satisfied with our brief stop over in SP if we just stayed in the hotel and waited for the night to pass so we agreed to leave our stuff in a locker, take a taxi downtown, and promptly jump back on the taxi back to the hotel if it didn't feel right. At the very least, we wanted to get a view of the worlds 3rd largest metropolis from the top of a building we'd heard of. What's the worse that could happen? ... right? Language barriers It was hot, humid and very Portugese. English wasn't going to get us too far off the beaten path here. I have to admit thinking that Portugese sounded like a very funny language, I couldn't put my finger on it but I wasn't sure that my tongue twisted in the ways it needed to to speak it. We spent 30 minutes struggling with a simple "thank you", which still gets a blank stare from some locals. New York on Steriods Thanks to a not-so-cheap but well worth it hired taxi and a flurry funny sounding Portugese directions from our friendly hotel desk clerk we spent the day being chauffeured around SP by Vincente, our taxi driver. In hind sight it was a good move getting Vincente to take us downtown because the 2 buildings we had targeted as our look-out where we would get a view of the city were both closed due to rain. The drive through graffiti soaked SP was safe but Vicente did occasionally make an odd gesture with his hand which seemed to look like a finger pulling a pistol trigger anytime Andrea would opened her tinted back seat window to get some air. We didn't ask what exactly that meant but figured the universal symbol couldn't be good and closed the window to keep Vincente's payload of tourists ( ie: us ) well out of sight from the masses of people buzzing around us. Even though Sao Paulo is amazingly multi-cultural, I have to admit that my glowing blonde hair probably didn't help us blend in. Vicente managed to finally get us to the Italiano building, the tallest building in town where we finally saw SP from high, high above. What a sight! With 17 MILLION inhabitants, all living within spitting distance of each other the city looked like a giant jungle of concrete as far as the eye could see ( see the attached photos ). Very much like New York on steroids. With all of our running around to find that great view, we'd used up most of the day so we decided to head back through 1 hour of bumper to bumper traffic to our hotel were we could try to get some desperately needed sleep before our flight the next day to Paraguay. That night the chaos and busy streets of SP seemed miles away as we laid in bed where Andrea was happy to find out that Brazilian TV carried Oprah, ( in English too! ) and we fell asleep. ZZZzzz......
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7 of 38 Meeting our sponsored child, Fabiola Santani City, Paraguay Feb 10, 2006 12:48 ( local time ) Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! Touch down in Paraguay Flying into Paraguay we noticed a stark difference even before touching down. From high above, our window seat revealed that the terrain had drastically changed. Paved streets were now red dirt streets. A sea of concrete buildings were now lush green fields speckled with red roofed houses. This was Paraguay, and the capital at that: Asuncion. We were in Paraguay to first visit a child which I'd been sponsoring since 2003. The cutest little girl named Edith Fabiola Ortigoza through Plan International ( aka. Child Reach ). I'd been in communication with Plan for at least a year arranging our visit. We'd wanted to do much more than just visit and had requested if we could volunteer in her community as well. Although this wasn't something that they typically did, much to our content, they were happy to accommodate us. Plan set us up in a very nice ( and cheap too! ) hotel in Asuncion. A tiny place with clean rooms and best of all, 2 pools with mini water falls draining into them. After spending a night in the concrete jungle of Sao Paulo, we were in heaven! The yard was a shady area where parrots sang, fruit trees provided large shaded areas and lizards basket in the warm sun. A few lazy hours by the pool catching up on sleep seemed to be just what the doctor ordered to get over our jet lag and we were more than happy to do just that! Once our strength had been regained, we decided to wander down to the Super Mercado ( Super market ) to sample some local delights which is always fun. The market was much like in Canada, clean and big with the major difference being the price! Andrea was in fruit heaven here. We loaded up the cart with: - 1 x mango - 1 x pineapple - 1 x pack of crackers - 1 x small bottle of Cana ( local alcohol made of sugar cane and brutally strong! ) - 1 x papaya - 4 x buns - 4 x slices of ham - 4 x slices of cheese - 2 x big bottles of water - 1 x bottle of juice - 2 x yoghurts - 1 x large squeezable packet f mustard For a grand total of $4 USD! Coming from Canada, and even our hotel in Sao Paulo where a tiny bottle of water was $1.50 USD, this was a steal! Back at the hotel we feasted in our comfortable rooms, watched an old movie I had brought on my laptop, popped half of a sleeping pill each and slept slept slept. Volunteering Day 1 - Plan Paraguay - Making a real change. It was a fresh new day and it was time to meet my sponsored Child, Edith, or as we would later find out, Fabiola as she's called. Augusto, a Plan employee and a soon to become friend, picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the Plan office. The office was based out of a gorgeous old mansion in central Asuncion which they'd just recently moved into. "You see, you're a bit of a pioneer" Chuck, the white haired and obviously seasoned chief of Plan Paraguay told us during our 2 hour briefing. "Many people come to visit their sponsored children but no one has ever asked to stay and volunteer, so we're not quite prepared for this." Chuck had spent 20 years working for organizations like Plan in various countries and was set to retire in the coming year. Right from our first chat with Chuck and several other senior Plan employees it became very clear that Plan was making a real difference here. Plan's objective was to make local communities self sufficient. By training, educating, providing better, cleaner and safer facilities, Plan was helping over 22,000 children in underprivileged regions of Paraguay. Plan was also the largest organization of it's type in the country. Fabiola, was in San Pedro, a community which was extremely poor and in exceptionally bad condition 5 years before Plan targeted the community for assistance. Plan didn't aim to stay in a community for ever, they always planned to leave and move on to other communities once they had helped to a point of stability and could leave ongoing care to local cooperatives. We would later find out that Plan would move out of Fabiola's community in roughly 2010 when their work was done. Considering that clean drinking water had just been installed in her community 2 months before we arrived, there was still quite a bit of work to do. Chuck went on to show us a schedule they'd put together for our stay, it was perfect. Activities such as picking cotton in the fields with the family, helping with house chores and their farm animals, assisting with local Plan activities such as photographing children to send photos to sponsors and making presentations to the local school were all laid out in a neat schedule for us. In exchange, Chuck asked us to thinking deeply about the issues in the communities and how they could be resolved. It was clear that eliminating poverty here was a complex issue with many facets. For example, Chuck explained that many children don't even have birth certificates which limits their opportunities. Plan launched a program to train mid-wives to register newborns for a certificate to help solve this problem. Other issues such as government financial support, corruption, land ownership and the availability of good road and clean facilities plagued the country. Many of these issues were not obvious at first glance and that's exactly why Chuck wanted us to put serious thought into the situation and to write up our impressions to leave behind. Chuck also asked that we make notes on how they could improve our volunteering experience so that they could make this possible for others should they want to. After our chat, we saw the rest of the operation. One room contained many boxes where gifts arrived and letters from sponsors were translated and sorted for delivery. The entire process of sending a gift to a child was a lengthy one, to the point of actually having to deliver the gifts themselves. Because the poorest of communities do not even have addresses, let alone mail, Plan had setup a delivery system to bring packages to the children. Overall, it seemed to be a well staffed, well organized and well run system which Plan was running in Paraguay. After leaving the office, we headed for Guica. into San Pedro province where, Fabiola's village was. Within a few minutes drive, paved roads and luxury residences vanished, in their place, small shacks and fields speckled the country side. Augusto, our English speaking Plan representative, explained that in Paraguay, the middle class was almost non-existent. 90% of Paraguayans where very poor and the other 10% where very rich. Plan focused on helping not the sponsored children specifically but rather the children's communities by putting in clean water and other badly needed facilities which all residents benefited from. Money from our monthly contributions, $30 USD, was never given to Fabiola or her family directly. This was done to avoid making them dependant on the donations. By helping the entire community, they were making a real and more importantly, a lasting, change. "That's her!" I could tell even before the van stopped. When we arrived late in the afternoon at Fabiola's home, I was getting nervous. I didn't speak Spanish and had no idea what to expect. We drove up the long muddy road leading to her home where the family sat in the yard waiting for us. I spotted Fabiola's cute little face right away. We poured out of the van and slowly walked over to greet them. "Ola" we said, to the family as the attention focused in on Fabiola. She squirmed a little, half hidden behind her father. She was scared and shy. Who wouldn't be! Not speaking Spanish, or Guarani, their local language, didn't help to break the ice either. The family ushered Fabiola and her sister, Camilla, over to greet us and they relunctantly tip toed over to meet us with their chins shyly tucked in. We weren't sure what was going on. Two little girls stood in front of us with their hands clasped together as if they were praying. Augusto jumped in, "You have to do the sign of the cross" he said. By now the girls had already started to scatter wondering why their new guests wouldn't even bless them as we should have done. Apologetically, we restarted the process and did the sign of the cross towards them. I have to admit, I'm not 100% kid-savvy, surely not as much as Andrea who teaches children back home. The first 5 minutes, which seemed like 1 hour were very awkward. We sat around, not able to speaking each other's language and stared across at each other. Chickens and their tiny little chicks pecked at our feet and clucked all around us. It seemed that live stock lived amongst the families here. Pigs rummaged for food, their pony walked freely and stray cows wandered over into their yard from time to time as we sat flipping through our English to Spanish dictionary looking for things to say. We brought out some sweets and gifts we had bought in Canada which helped break a little ice. "Let's play with the kids, play breaks any language barrier" Andrea suggested. A seemingly simple idea which completely eluded me, thank God for Andrea! I picked up the Frisbee and we spent at least an hour tossing the disk around with the girls and other local kids who'd stopped in. Between playing with the kids and a very long photo session, which the kids absolutely couldn't get enough of, the ice had successfully been completely broken. The family's home Their home was a very modest one. It consisted of one room with a straw roof, an attached kitchen with walls made of loose sticks contained a brick oven. The oven was a new addition. As with other projects, the oven was built by the locals ( the father in this case ) but the parts were purchased by Plan. The father and mother slept in one bed and next to them, in a second stray mat bed, slept Fabiola and her sister. The yard was shared with the animals. A small water-well, was their main water supply before the Plan water-supply was installed 2 months before. Their home's well wasn't deep enough to provide clean water. Next to their well was the new clean water tap which they were happy to show us. Hotel Santani By the end of our visit we were exhausted and headed back to check into our modest hotel in Santani City a small town 1 km from Edith's home. Santani only had 2 hotels and compared to our digs in Asuncion, this place wasn't much to write home about. A bed made of a long piece of foam which would reek havoc on Andrea's back, a small TV and a closet. The shower had a heater mounted on it for hot water with electrical wires precariously dangling from the shower head. It wasn't much, but it would do just fine.
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8 of 38 Making the Chipa Guiaca, Paraguay Feb 11, 2006 16:01 ( local time ) Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! Day 2 - Chipa time It was a typically hot and sticky day which we started off by making bread, but not just any bread, Chipa! Years back, Fabiola had sent us a letter saying that there were making the "Chipa" for Easter. Ever since we've been dying to know what Chipa was. Not only did we now know what it was but we knew how to make it! Chipa & Sopa Paraguay are two local breads which are very popular. Chipa reminds me of a cheesy type of bagel and is pretty yummy although very filling. We all gathered in Fabiola's yard and began the long process of making Chipa. First we broke up the hard Paraguayan cheese into small bits. Then we mixed in all of the ingredients into a large plastic tub. Then came the hard part, kneading the tough dough. The process took several hours and Anna, a local Plan employee did a good job helping us as we attempted to knead the big tub of dough. When it was finally ready we balled the dough into small pieced and placed them on small pieces of palm leaves which where cut out from long green palm leaves. The kids helped out but mostly they bounced around us singing "Chipa! Chipa! Chipa!" as they let loose their energy. The cooking process was an interesting one. In a small 3 foot high traditional oven there had been a fire burning for a few hours. The oven was a small, hollow mound of bricks which formed a rounded half pod with a small opening on the ground. It was rarely used these days do to it's long cooking process. Once the oven was hot enough, the fire within it was extinguished and the coals where removed from it. The bricks were now so hot that they could cook just about anything. In went the Chipa where it sat for a while after closing the opening by stuffing it with fresh green leaves. When it was all done, the small but heavy, breads where ready to eat. To be honest they were little dry and too hard for my liking but considering the conditions and tools we had to cook it with, they weren't so bad! The great Paraguayan horse race When you think horse race, what you think of is a little different that what we experienced in Paraguay. The horse track, 3 small dirt paths next to Fabiola's home, was buzzing with locals, and we were ready to see a show. We'd walked out to the middle of the track and before I could finish paying for a beer which we'd bought for Fabiola's mother, two horses had already started roaring down the track! I scrambled for my camera and snapped a few shots. In the span of 10 seconds, the race was over! "It'll take a few hours before the next horses are ready, we should go home" Augusto suggested. What? A few hours? We had just arrived! Augusto explained that the way it worked was that the locals would bring their horses to the track and just lounge around. Eventually, two Paraguayans would taunt each other enough to "pick a fight" as it were. Not a real fight but, a race. Then the two would race while the locals bet on the winners. It would end in a few seconds and the process would start over again. Waiting in the heat for a few hours to see a 10 second race didn't sound that appealing so we packed up and headed back home.
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9 of 38 Churches Schools and Horses Santani City, Paraguay Feb 12, 2006 16:27 ( local time ) Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! Day 3 - Church day I have to admit that I'm not a very big church-goer but when we were asked to attend the Sunday service, we were awfully curious and happily accepted the invite. The small church in Fabiola's community was where the clean water well had been installed two months before we'd arrived. The church was central to the 60 houses in the neighborhood. It was a modest white washed building with mostly hand-made decorations. A rough looking stray dog sniffed for food under the benches as the locals chased him away. Cows grazed on the lawn. To call the community to the service, a church bell was normally rung, but because it was too small, they now used a cast iron piece of rough metal hanging from a tree as their bell. "Si, Si" the nun dressed in plain clothes said pointing to the chunk of metal and the rod used to ring it. They wanted me to ring the bell. So I did, perhaps a bit too hard as I saw bits of paint tearing off with each hit. "Clang! Clang!" Everyone laughed and a few more locals showed up for mass. Not many people attended, roughly 10 in total, and mostly kids. The service was given by a young 16 year old girl. There was also a 7:30am mass which we'd missed and assumed that most people must have gone that one so that they could start working in the fields as early as possible to avoid the heat. Schools out for summer It was still the Paraguayan summer and school was out. Anna, our Plan guide took us to 5 communities to check out their local facilities and schools. Plan always put a heavy emphasis on children and specifically, their schools. "To make a lasting change, we focus on the children" I remember Chuck saying when he'd briefed us as we arrived the week before. We spent the day visiting local schools which consisted mostly of small buildings with 2 classes per building and a small washroom. Plan had helped put in clean drinking water and clean washrooms to these schools. I have to admit taking these things for granted back home but without a basic healthy learning environment, I could imagine that it would be very difficult to make any change at all. The washrooms we saw, surrounded by poverty, were the cleanest and nicest ones we'd seen in Paraguay to date. Most of the schools where in bad condition, broken windows, deteriorating chalkboards, some chalkboards were more wall than chalkboard. One school kept an old classroom available for burning fires on a piece of old sheet metal where kids, many of whom didn't have shoes, could huddle around on cold days at school in the winter. After touring the schools, we had a very good appreciation for schools back home and had a greater understanding of just how hard it would be to improve living conditions without proper learning facilities for the future generations. Agua Frio, a Paraguayan Water World Down a very long potholed red-mud road which could only be navigated at a speed of 10km per hour and after stopping to see several local schools to witness the good work which Plan had been doing, we visited a tiny piece of heaven secluded in the Paraguayan Jungle. It was a beautiful waterfall which had been cleaned up and made to host outings for the local communities. Complete with benches, a fire pit for cooking pigs and other animals and covered areas. Anna explained that the local community ( 180 kids to be exact ) helped build the site to give the local schools a place to go for a field trip. One recurring theme which we heard of time and time again was that all local projects, whether funded by the government, NGOs or Plan, were always carried out by the community. This helped to build local skills and to get the community involved. With a goal of making the communities self sufficient, this worked well. Once we'd cooled down in the water and it was time for lunch, we headed back to Fabiola's to eat chicken with the family which we bought from "Super Pollo" aka "Super Chicken", a small food stall in the city. We also picked up a local treat, Thedede. In Paraguay, locals drink a cold tea from leather bound cups. The cups are filled with herbs and water is poured in. A long metal perforated straw with a tip resembling a spoon is then shoved into the grassy mush and the cool tea is sucked up in one long draw. It's a refreshing treat in the sticky 35+ Celsius heat. Thedede is a communal drink. Typically a person will have a tea filled cup and straw in one hand and a large thermos of cold water under their other arm. The glass is filled with cool water and passed to one person who sucks it back and returns the glass quickly. The glass is then refilled and passed to another. I'd already taken up the offer for Thedede from several locals but with Andrea's weak stomach we thought it would be best for her to wait to try our own from bottled water. After a few hours of playing with the kids and eating fresh Guava from Fabiola's garden, we headed home to rest. King of the castle, well, the hotel at least. We arrived back at our hotel in the afternoon to find our hotel closed. Apparently almost all stores in Paraguay shutdown on Sunday, which, isn't all that strange considering that it is a day of rest. What was strange was that all hotels also closed! This explained an odd conversation we had in the morning with the hotel desk clerk which we oddly interpreted as them asking us if they could sleep in our rooms until we returned. A strange request indeed. Even more bizarre is that we actually accepted their request. It turns out that they were asking us what time we'd be back as all of the guests had already checked out. We were the only ones left and the hotel was closing for the day! When we returned the hotel clerk was patiently waiting for us outside with the key. She was keen to close the hotel and go home and hardly wanted to stick around and tend to us for the day so, she handed us... get this, the hotel key! No, not our room key, but the key to the entire hotel! Yes, we were now alone in the hotel, all staff was gone and we had the place to ourselves. Being nice little Canadians, we went to our rooms, destroyed a newly formed ant colony-cum-infestation which had sprung up in our room and didn't take advantage of our newly found hotel privileges. "Mucho Cavallo!" Anna picked us up at 6pm with Fabiola and her family dressed in their Sunday best. We were off to see more Cavallos, horses. This time it wasn't a race but a fair where 50 horses and their owners dressed up in their rodeo cowboy gear and pranced around a dirt fenced stampede showing off their speed and finesse while bathed in the setting sun. Several hundred people gather around the fences and listened to the band belt out catchy horn-filled tunes. Talk about a photographers dream! Thank god we'd just cleared off our camera's memory cards. I took 200 pictures alone during the 2 hour show. Fabiola's familia showed us around as we snapped away. Being a small tightly-knit community we met the teachers and friends of our sponsored child's family and pointlessly attempted to resist their endless hospitality. "El cavallo!" a man with a big smile wearing a cowboy hat said while pointing to his horse. I had no choice but to say "Si" as they quickly shoved me up on the horse and slapped a cowboy hat on my head. Never having seriously ridden a horse, I held on for about 5 minutes before jumping off in fear that the horse was headed into the arena where I'd have to fend for my life riding along 50 other horsemen. Walking through the crowd, holding Fabiola and her sister by the hand, we were then quickly ushered onto the stage where a band and an MC where wailing away in front of the horsemen, surrounded by several hundred locals. Not speaking Spanish very well, I feared what would happen next but we were never ones to refuse an offer. The MC spoke to the crowd about us and our sponsorship of Fabiola's family and then waved with his hand for us to come over to his side. "Ohh god... " I thought as we climbed up the stairs nervous with anticipation. Sure enough, the MC pulled us close and a flurry of Spanish words spewing much to fast from his mouth flew in my direction, followed by a microphone being tilted towards me and an awkward silence filling the air while they waited for me to say something. So, I said one of the only things I knew: "Um poco Espagnol!" or "I only know a little Spanish!" Unphased, he took the mic back and went on to speak to the mostly drunken crowd. He continued for a bit and got me to say "Si" ( "Yes" ) a few times into the mic for the crowd. A little embarrassed and wanting to get off the stage badly we attempted to leave as the MC signaled that we should stay and take photos... and take we did. We stayed on the stage for at least 1 hour as all of the horses and their masters danced around to music in front of us, spinning and running to the point of almost flipping off of the horses! It was an especially memorable experience. As the sun set we stayed-put and enjoyed the view from the stage down onto the show. After the awards where given away for the best riders, we quietly exited the stay, thanked the MC and headed home. Un... for... get... able...
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10 of 38 Sick Dayz Santani City, Paraguay Feb 13, 2006 15:22 ( local time ) Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! Day 4 - "Today's Forecast: Thunderous diarrhea with scattered vomiting" On Day 4, we'd planned to help the local Plan office conduct surveys in the local villages and take pictures of local children which would later be sent to sponsors back in their home country. I'd received many photos and letters over the years from Fabiola and was keen to go along to see how it was done. Unfortunately, an assault of ravenous local bacteria got the best of Andrea's tender stomach. "I'm sick" Andrea muttered as she tried to steady her trembling hands. Her face was colored a light sickly green and her eyes were heavy from a serious lack of sleep. Andrea had spent the night sleepless with explosive diarrhea echoed by violent bouts of vomiting. It was needless to say that she was in a very unpleasant situation. I sat up with Andrea most of the night and when Augusto finally arrived in the morning, we hunted down some re-hydration solution from the pharmacy. Poor Andrea was bed stricken, dehydrated, in pain and very tired when it came time to go into town. She wasn't going anywhere. We re-arranged our plans for the day and Andrea curled up into the fetal position on the bed where she slowly recovered. The Annual Progress Report At 1pm Andrea was feeling well enough that I could leave her in the room alone for a few hours. I made sure she had all of the supplies that she needed and went to see the family where we were to visit some local residents in the community to conduct the Annual Progress Reports (APR). The APR was a paper form which was filled in by the children once per year along with an updated photo. This information was then sent to the sponsor so that they could track the progress of their child. After a long discussion with Augusto where he explain the entire system and answered my many questions, we began the surveys, going door to door. In all we visited families who where all very friendly, one family even gave me a big bag of bananas to take home. Although I didn't speak Spanish, I could tell that a recurring theme of their discussions was Andrea's condition. All of the family's expressed their concern and for some odd reason, chalked up her illness to drinking Thedede an eating yogurt soon after which didn't seem to make much sense to me. Fabiola lived in such a small community that each family we visited I'd already met. First it was the family to gave the sermon at church, then it was Fabiola's grandparents, then the lady who sold beer at the fair. In only a few days, we'd met most of the very friendly locals. We finished up our surveys and I hurried back to the hotel to see Andrea. She was watching movies on the laptop and feeling slightly better when I arrived. She had regained some color and was also showing good signs of recovery. To be safe we rescheduled the next day to make it a little easier for Andrea and took it easy for the night. Day 5 - The long road to recovery A Gravol induced night of sleep did wonders for Andrea. She was looking well and we were set to pick cotton in their fields when Andrea's stomach decided it wasn't yet done tormenting her. "It hurts" Andrea moaned clutching her stomach. We cancelled the morning's activities and I stayed home with Andrea to watch over her as she slept the pain away. Later in the morning, the Plan head office had heard of Andrea's condition. It was clear to me that she was getting better but they didn't want to take a chance. "Chuck thinks that we should get her a doctor" Augusto informed me over the phone. I agreed and Augusto went off to seek help. Having been sick many times in foreign countries, Andrea was in good hands already and I wasn't too worried but it couldn't hurt to be safe. After a brief visit from the doctor, Andrea was prescribed a healthy dose of rehydration fluid and a day in bed. We canceled the events for the day and I stayed with her to nurse her back to health.
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11 of 38 Livin´ like the locals Santani City, Paraguay Feb 14, 2006 15:21 ( local time ) DISCLAIMER: It was always our intent to post our experiences with our sponsored child, Fabiola, in our travel blog. After meeting with Plan on our last day with them, they wanted to make sure that we did not give others the false impression that our experience was a typical one which sponsored parents could take part in. As we´ve learned, Plan allowed us to spend a week with our child so that we could give them our feedback on the experience, as a type of experiment. The goal for Plan was to get our feedback on the experience and see how practical it would be to offer such a volunteering experience to other sponsoring parents. Hopefully, one day, such extended visits and volunteerism will be possible with Plan but as of this writting it is not. Please understand as you read this. ******************** Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! Day 6 - A day in the life of an impoverished Paraguayan Andrea was back and 100% healthy so we set out for the cotton fields. Fabiola's grand parents were farmers and owned some land nearby. Today, we would pick cotton in their field first. If you think you're having a bad day, just thank god you aren't picking cotton. In the sticky heat, crouched over and picking small balls of cotton from ripe pods of cotton hanging from small prickly plants is hard work. Their entire field grossed only $500 USD, which isn't very much considering just how much cotton the field produced, 1000 kilos. After a few hours of picking we´d been well bitten by several voracious species of insects and were dripping with sweat so we headed back to Fabiola's for lunch. It was time to cook! We stopped off at the market and picked up some ingredients to make a popular Canadian dish for the family, Sheppard's pie. We bought enough to fed everyone and got to work. It was quite an experience cooking in their home on the brick oven. By making a small fire under the pots, we were able to fry, boil and bake the pies within about an hour. Aside from the heat of being in a small room with a roaring fire ( on top of the already hot and sticky weather ) was the only major hardship. This oven, or pre-fab, as it's called was very efficient. It had been one of the projects which Plan helped with and was much much safer and more efficient than a simple fire pit roaring in the kitchen which wastes wood and runs a risk of torching their home which was made mostly of dried wood and straw! After lunch, we ate some guava from their guava tree, feed the chickens and did the laundry. Laundry here is done in a curious bucket. Take one tire, cut in half, flip it inside out and seal one side. Now get water from the well to fill it and voila, you have a bath for the kids and a bucket to wash your clothes in. Seeing as the family only have 2-3 garments each ( which are very well worn and just barely hanging together ), doing the laundry almost daily is needed. We got down on our knees, reached in for the soap and washed their laundry while the mother showed us how it was done. I'm not too sure how effective we were but we helped until all of the clothes, about 10 pieces, where now "clean'ish". I've said it before and I'll say it again, we sure have it good in North America! Day 7 - School day Today we went to Fabiola's school, Plan had already helped this school quite a bit. They had new furniture, clean washrooms ( western style! ) and clean water. It was the nicest looking school we'd seen so far. By western standards, the school was nothing much but by Paraguayan standards, it was a gem. With 8 classrooms ranging from preschool to high school, they had their hands full. It was only a few days before school started after their long summer vacations. The teachers were all huddled into a small room where the principal was hosting a meeting. "Come! Come!" they waved us in. Roughly 20 teachers were crammed into a small office. We shuffled over and stood in front of the teachers with the principal who we'd recognized from the "rodeo" a few days back. Teachers in Paraguay made $3,000 USD per year, a salary they were obviously not too happy with. We shared a heavily translated chat with the teachers for a while which included a funny question as whether I was single to which Andrea protested an exaggerated "Yes!" which got a big laugh from everyone. Apparently the male teachers wanted to know if Andrea was single too. I didn't hear the answer to that question but I hope Augusto answered no! : ) Letters to a friend Once a year the sponsored children send letters back to their sponsor. I was one of the only sponsors lucky enough to actually see the letter being written. Plan had organized for the kids to write their letters with us present. The kids gathered in a classroom where older volunteers helped them write the letters. I sat next to Fabiola and watched as she wrote me a letter and drew a picture which I would receive 6 months later in Canada. "Bravo!" I whispered to Fabiola Many of the kids didn't realize just how important it was to send these letters back to their sponsors, we wanted to make that they knew. Just like Christmas It was now time to unload the bags of goodies we'd hauled in from Canada for the kids. We called over the principal and Andrea handed him the stacks of pencils, erasers and other supplies which Andrea's school ( Ste Catherine's School ) had donated. The kids then drew thank you cards for us to take home to the school after which we gave them each a toy. We spread the toys out on a table and tried our best to avoid a riot as the kids eyes lit up and they were drawn in to pick their toys which we had stocked up on at the dollar store before coming to Paraguay. Off we go We ended our day at the school by poking at a hole in the ground next to the grade 5 class where a tarantula lived. Although having a tarantula living in the playground of a school back home would cause mass concern and even make headline local news, no one flinched when I pointed out that a freaking killer spider was burrowed under the class! As the stick went deeper into the hole, I could feel the spider striking the stick in defense. A few people pitched in and tried to lure the spider out for us to see but it was shy that day. Perhaps it was best to leave it alone. With out parting goodbyes came an invitation. "Cerveca, Vino, BBQ" were all words I recognized in the principal's invitation for dinner. We accepted his courteous invite to come eat with them the following day at his home. Dinner was set for 9pm "a la manana". With the heat and long days, we were in bed by 10 these days, a 9pm dinner ( as is usual here ) would be a tough one but we'd give it a shot.
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12 of 38 Leaving Fabiola Santani City and Ascuncion, Paraguay Feb 19, 2006 05:48 ( local time ) Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! Sad goodbyes We drove up to Edith´s home in the morning to say our last goodbyes. This morning would be our last visit and we knew this would be the last time we would see each other. After spending 8 days with the family, we´d grown very close and we weren't looking forward to saying adios one last time. When we pulled up to the home where the family waited, Fabiola was sad, I could tell. She wasn´t her usual self and shuffled slowly to the barbed fence to see us arrive. ¨Ola¨ we greeted the family. They´d pulled the chairs into a circle under a large tree where we always sat and talked in the shade. Fabiola crept up onto on my lap, unusually quietly. Only a few minutes later, while the grown-ups chatted, she disappeared into her home and reappeared quickly, smiling, clutching a small piece of paper cut out in the shape of a heart and handed it to me. I tried my best to read the Spanish words out loud. As I read, I looked over to Gustavo for translation. I didn't understand all of the words but mid-way through, Fabiola, her chin already tucked in leaped into my arms and buried her face on my neck. I didn't need to wait for the translation, I knew what the letter said by the look on her face and her reaction. I picked her up and gave her a big hug which in a strange way meant both thank you and goodbye. Fabiola squeezed tightly. Her mother came around behind me to see if her daughter was alright. I couldn't see Fabiola´s face anymore but her mother came back to sit down and was crying. I knew that her mother wasn´t the only one crying now. I flipped Fabiola around, cradled her in my arms and slowly walked away from the others. I have to admit it was a pretty emotional moment and I tried my best to hold back the tears myself with mild success. I am such a suck. I rocked her a little and tried my best to get her to smile. I shoved my face into her belly and belted out a huge blow which made her laugh and almost made her forget about the whole moment we´d all just shared. We sat back down and played for a while. The laughter washed away the thought that we were leaving soon and all seemed normal for a few minutes. I was wearing a large wide-brimmed hat we´d given them and we played around a little. We made silly faces while Fabiola snuck under the rim and cuddled up nose to nose. ¨I think she is in love¨ Gustavo said. So were we, this was going to be tough. ¨Ok, we should go¨ Gustovo said reluctantly. ¨Who wants to say it because it isn't going to be me¨ I replied in English knowing that no one would be able to understand my comment. Gustavo took the honors. I asked him to say some nice things about the family and to tell them that we were very happy to see that Fabiola had such a loving environment to grow up in. Fabiola gave me a big hug and started crying again. I put her back down, thanked them all again and we waved our last goodbyes. It was a very emotional goodbye, and one which I don't think I had completely anticipated. I took the long ride back to pull myself together and we headed back to Ascuncion for lunch with the Plan team to discuss our trip before finally leaving for Iguazu Falls.
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13 of 38 Iguazu Falls, Niagara ain´t got nothing on these Foz de Iguazu, Brazil Feb 20, 2006 05:49 ( local time ) Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! We were finally officially on the backpackers circuit. Now that we had left Fabiola, we were on our way to Iguazu Falls in Brazil, falls which promised to dwarf Niagara with its grandure. One long night bus to Cuidad del Este later, we arrived at a town close to the falls. It was 5am and we were waiting in a seedy bus terminal where our driver we´d arranged to pick us up never showed. Our bad luck just never ended! The border town was near Iguazu. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed for the falls. The falls where best seen from the Braziallian and Argentinian sides and we´d set out for Brazil on our first day. ¨Why are we at immigration¨ Andrea asked noting that going to the Brazilian side from Brazil shouldn´t require going to another country. It turns out we´d taken the wrong bus and were headed to Argentina! A few quick schedule changes and we changed our plans to see the Argentinian side of the falls instead. The falls turned out to live up to their reputation. Veins of water trickled through green mossy rock walls and water gushed from all sides. Iguazu was much different that Niagara in that it had more a jungle-feel to it. The falls seemed to explode from the surrounding foliage. It was very rustic and almost seemed untouched, even though proper tourist paths and infrastructure was clearly setup. We took a boat ride through the falls, got thoroughly doused and headed home after a long, sunny day. Along the way to the falls we´d met dozens of other backpackers which was a new experience for us on this trip as we´d been with Fabiola since we had started over a week before. We were hardly on the backpacking circuit. We got several juicy tid bits of travel info, exchanged emails and tucked in for the night. The next morning, we had planned to get a new laptop at a cheap black market town but without a driver, the busses proved too slow for us and we only managed to see the Brazilian side of the falls. Once we gawked at the falls from Brazil, we headed back to Ascunsion on another bus where we planned to catch our flight to Rio for Carnaval. We spent one more day in our hotel´s luxury where I unfortunately started to get what I thought was a cold. Unfortunately for me, it would prove to be much much more than a harmless cold.
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14 of 38 Carnaval and Pneumonia don´t mix Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Feb 24, 2006 15:15 ( local time ) Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! 10 hours in the Sao Paulo airport was way too much for anyone. After several delays were added to our already long stop over, our flight finally arrived and we were off to Rio to party it up a little. A plan we´d later find out wouldn´t play out exactly that way. Out of our element ... maybe it was the loud music in the Hostel when we arrived, ... maybe it was the young backpacker with hot red hair and blonde and black stripped eye brows. ... maybe it was the calls from other backpackers to get hammered, something we hadn´t heard yet on this trip. What ever it was, we felt like aliens in this weird place, the youth hostel. Had it been that long since we´d been in the ¨scene¨? Were we getting too old for this? Nahhh... but it would take a while to transition into traveler mode yet again. We arrived and unpacked. We´d made reservations at the hostel 6 months before and had high expectations of this place, Mellow Yellow, located a stone´s throw away from Copacabanna beach. Our room was hardly what we´d expected. When we opened the door, a small, hot and sticky, windowless concrete box with a small TV and a fan revealed itself. Hardly like our fancy digs in Ascuncion. ¨Oh my god!¨ cried Andrea on her return from the communal washroom. ¨Have you seen the washroom?¨ she shrieked I went for a look. The paint was crumbling, it didn´t have any hot water, the floor was dirty floor would make you want to wash your feet again after just having taken a shower and stepping out. We´d have to get use to this if we were going to survive 5 more months. Back on the scene. On the first day, we went on a boat cruise organized by the hostel in a remote bay around Rio. Loud music and drunken backpackers all around diving off of the roof of the boat was a tad different from our recent volunteering experience in Paraguay. My throat was soar from a slight cold and I was feeling dodgy so I sipped a few drinks and sat around chatting with others, slowly getting used to the scene, until the sun set over the hills. Having met several other backpackers, many our age, we began to get a little more comfortable with our new accommodations. Only a few days later were we right back into things. Sick Day When I awoke the next morning, after a horrible night of coughing and sniffling, I knew something wasn´t quite right. Not only was I coughing all night but my chest had been killing me for days. The coughing just made it worse. With each cough, my chest would clench in pain. ¨Let´s try the hospital¨ we cautioned as we changed our plans for the day. The hospital was clean and well air conditioned. I filled in a few documents, saw a few doctors and finally was diagnosed with a cold and an inflammation in my ribs. It turned out that my day pack was a little too heavy and poorly made which caused my ribs to pull in just the wrong way. ¨Just in case, we´ll do some xrays¨ the doctor advised A long, long wait later a different doctor emerged and reported the results back to us in broken English. She explained that the xrays had revealed that I had pneumonia! That certainly explained why I was feeling freezing cold although Andrea told me that my face was boiling hot and Rio was as hot and humid as it got. When we returned to our double room which had been on loan until it´s new tenants arrived we sat wondering if our luck would ever turn around. It was bloody Carnaval! In Rio! and I had to sleep tons and stay away from drinks. The doctor also advised that I should stay out of the sun! Not to mention that my iPod had been stolen and my laptop had been destroyed in Paraguay. Could it get any worse? After 9 years of relatively safe, uneventful travel, maybe my luck had run out. Andrea was on a downer, and so was I, ¨Let´s just leave Rio¨ Andrea thought out loud. ¨It´ll be better tomorrow¨ I consoled trying to believe it myself. To top it off, the tenants for our double room arrived and despite Andrea´s pleading with them, they just wouldn´t let us keep the room for a few nights while I recovered while they slept in the 4 person dorm we´d originally booked. ¨Nonono! We´re not giving up our room!¨ the nasty woman snapped with a thick accent avoiding eye contact at Andrea´s gentle plea. Andrea shuffled back to the room and was in complete shock and dismay sitting on the bed, in disbelief that others could be so inconsiderate. Unfortunately, we´d have to stay in a tiny, hot, sticky, concrete 4 person room without windows and hope that my contagious state wouldn´t infect the others. I hauled my fluid filled lungs over next door and crawled into my bunk-bed dripping with sweat. This would be a long few days. That first night, I barely slept as I battled a fever. Andrea went out to check out the local scene for a few hours but came back early in the morning to make sure I was ok. Thankfully I had Dr. Andrea to nurse me back to health. It could only get better from here, right? Beach Day When I awoke I still felt like my lungs where filled with cement but I was determined to do something with our day. Being only 2 blocks from the infamous Coppacabana beach, we grabbed our beach gear and headed for the waves. We spent 2 hours wading in the massive waves which crashed into shore. Unfortunately, the surf was very dirty and as we floated over waves, piles of unidentifiable nasty looking trash floated by. Copa was very polluted. The rolling stones concert, only one week before, probably didn´t help either. Two hours of fun-in-the-sun later, we headed back to the hostel. ¨Am I red?¨ I asked Andrea as she scanned my shoulders carefully. Somehow we had foolishly thought that only a few hours in the sun would not require any sun block and we both were sun burnt and as the minutes ticked by, our skin began to glow a deep red. Unfortunately, my body didn´t react very well to the sun burn and my fever started up again! So, there I was, freezing cold from the fever and sun burned with pneumonia! Argggg!!!!! The words of the doctor in Rio warning us not to go in the sun echoed in my head as we canceled any other plans for the day and I went to bed to nurse my fever. Street Parties The next day we headed Ipanema beach where their bloco was in full swing. I wasn´t quite better yet but was determined to get out our of that bedroom. Each block in Rio has a street party during Carnaval and the Ipanema one was meant to be the best. If I could get myself there, I could at least like I had taken part a little in Carnaval! We headed over, and took a nice walk down the beach as the sun set over the hills behind Rio. We tried to join in for the street party and followed along with the crowds of slowly moving locals and tourists who were all jammed in behind a big truck which blared music as all took small steps forward. A few hours of strolling around amongst the crowd later, I was too beat to enjoy myself and we stumbled home as sober as could be. Get me outta this place The next morning I´d had it. It was clear that I was not going to get any better in this hostel and needed a good night of sleep in AC to recover. Being Carnaval, the options where slim for accommodations but it had to be done. We walked across the street, handed over 170$ for one night of AC bliss. That evening we went up to watch the sun set from the top of a massive hill which overlooked Rio where a statue of Jesus with arms spread out was perched. It was yet another early night for us, but at least we managed to sleep! What a relief. The next morning I was feeling much better and decided to extend our stay in the posh hotel for another night hoping that our insurance would pay some of the hotel expenses. After all we were paying for both our hostel AND our hotel rooms for each night. Ouch! Favellas Rio is notorious for it´s slums. The slums seem to be built in the nicest areas of Rio. This was because poor locals would squat on public land as their home, and in Rio, the public land was on the hill sides. All of these squatters eventually made up the large slums called the favellas. As it turned out, the slums had some of the most scenic views in Rio! To get a full appreciation for the slums, we took a tour of one. A guide and a handful of other tourists jumped into a minibus and we headed for the slums. The guide explained that the favellas were run by drug lords and in certain parts, we were advised to not take photos as ¨look-outs¨ ( young boys watching for the police ) kept watch. True or not, we kept our cameras low in those parts. After wandering through the alleys which burrowed deep into the favellas, sometimes so deep that sunlight wasn´t visible feeling almost like walking underground. When the day ended, we headed home to rest up for the Sambadrome Sambadrome - the end In many ways, I´d wanted to stick around in Rio and not bail out early so that we could see the massive parades at the Sambadrome. On the last days of Carnaval, thousands of floats and dancers parade down the Sambadrome where on-lookers gawk at the extravagance. Unfortunately, our cheap tickets which we´d purchased through the hostel had us sitting WAY back at the end of the parade. By the time the parades reached us, they´d mostly stopped dancing and walked off of the main drag, energy spent. It was a huge disappointment and I think we would have enjoyed it more watching it on TV! And with that, we left early, packed up and got ready to head to Floripa, a small beach island in southern Brazil for a little beach relaxation. Andrea finished off her Rio experience with a last minute hang-gliding and we boarded a long 16 hour overnight bus to southern Brazil.
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15 of 38 Tranquility and recovery, kind of. Florionopolis, Brazil Mar 04, 2006 15:17 ( local time ) Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! We arrived in Floripa on an overnight bus to be greeted by Matheo, a nice older man who we had a hard time tracking down in the bus terminal. Matheo spoke Spanish, a welcomed change from the usual Portuguese which we could hardly make out. He gladly chatted us up and drove us to the Pousada ( guest house ) which his family ran. Leaving the hustle and bustle of Rio, the absolute quiet and peacefulness of Santinho, the east coast beach we were staying at, was a nice change. Our room looked over sand dunes which protected the beach. Santinho was quiet, very quiet. Many of the other beaches on the Island buzzed with tourists, but not this one. After dropping our bags and walking over the wild, grassy dunes, passed a pair of baby owls waiting for their mother, we fully appreciated just how untouristy this beach was. The dunes made a good job of isolating this beach and best of all there was no typical ¨beach strip¨ with shops and restaurants here. Only a few locals who made the trekked over the dunes would find the Island`s surf, which all locals knew, was on the beach of Santinho. We´d arrived only a few days after a major surf competition and it was clear from the locals walking around the back streets with surf boards in hand that this was a surf town. Hardly a touristy one but one which locals came to enjoy the non-stop volleys of waves crashing into the beach. After the hustle and bustle of Rio, we needed this. A little quiet, were we could get over our last tickle of sickness. For the first few days, our time was spent on the beach, bussing into town to eat, snacking on ice cream and vegging out. There really wasn´t much else to do in Santinho. We were lucky enough to have a room with a view which looked out onto the dunes. Not quite high enough to see over the dunes onto the Altantic Ocean but the view teased the imagination by letting just enough ocean spray splash above the sand. Two massive rocky hills surrounded the small beach and soared over the dunes at either end of the beach. On our second night, a thunder storm roared as we wandered home after a tasty dinner of local corn-filled burgers and ice cream. It poured as we ran back to our room soaking wet. Sitting on our balcony, we sat for what seemed to be hours as the lightning crashed over the Atlantic and thunder pounded around us. Although we couldn´t see the Ocean from our balcony, our front row seat of the storm was the best on the Island. Luc & Andrea, The Surfistos The next day we figured that we should do something touristy. We knew that Gustavo, Matheo´s son, gave surfing lessons so we thought we would give it a try. Surfing, unfortunately, didn´t come naturally, for me. I was a little cocky at first and made sure that Gustavo brought along a smaller freestyle board as well as the long beginner board he´d already taken out. ¨Mui difficile¨ Gustavo cautioned tapping his finger lazily on the smaller board. Yeah yeah, how tough can it be I thought... later, as waves crashed into my body, tossing me around like a rag doll and I gulped down another large helping of sea water, I found out just how tough it was! It only took about 30 minutes, after Andrea had already managed to stand up on the bigger board that I decided to switch from the small board to the easier and bigger one. One half bellyful of salt water later, I finally ¨got it¨. I managed to stand up and surf in on the massive buick-of-a-board while Andrea struggled with the more challenging smaller one having already conquered the big-board. When we finished our lesson, Andrea walked over onto the beach and bent her head over to show me something. ¨Not the hospital, again.¨ It´s always hard to tell if Andrea is actually hurt. This time, she was. On the back of Andrea´s head a one inch gash was bleeding. It was hard to tell if it was a deep cut but the surf board´s fin had certainly made solid contact. ¨Is it deep?¨ she asked with a worried face. We weren´t sure but headed back to the Poussada to clean up the wound. When we returned Matheo saw the cut and his fatherly instinct sprang into action. He quickly jumped in his car and drove us to a small clinic. We were pretty sure it wasn´t serious but it couldn´t hurt to have it checked out. After all, we didn`t think that my minor cold would end up by being pneumonia either! The doctor´s cleaned up the cut and had us on our way. The cut was very small and a few swabs of disinfectant later, we headed back home where we added yet one more injury to the list. We spent the rest of our stay in Santinho quietly enjoying the peaceful town and took yet another night bus, this time out of Brazil and into Uruguay.
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16 of 38 Laid back Uruguay Montevideo and Colonia, Uruguay Mar 08, 2006 18:39 ( local time ) Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! A 20 hour bus ride is enough to send anyone into a full body cramp, which was exactly how we felt when we pulled into the clean Montevideo bus terminal from Brazil. We had planned to stop for a day or two in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, to check the city out. Not knowing of anything special about the place, we had low expectations. The sleepy capital was very much unlike any other capital we´d visited in South America. Montevideo´s streets were lined with large leafy trees and the wide shady streets and old colonial architecture had a distinctive European feel. The weather was very much cooler as well which was a nice treat. We spent the first day walking around the city, shopping in local market for very stylish, and cheap, handy crafts. We had checked into the local hostel and after a chat with a few backpackers, some of which has spent several weeks here, it was pretty clear that people came to Montevideo to escape the big cities. ¨What have you been doing here for 3 weeks?¨ I asked a backpacker watching the football game on the communal TV. He laughed and smiled almost seeming embarrassed ¨Nothing man, just chilling.¨ So chill we did. We only stayed for one day and headed off to Colonia, a small town nearby. Quiet Colonia Colonia, a small quiet town which was once enclosed within an old Spanish fort and was now a UNESCO site was ( thankfully ) only a short 3 hour bus ride away from Montevideo. The fact that we could walk from the main bus terminal to our hostel in the city center was a sure sign that this town was much smaller than any others we`d visited. The hostel was an old building with 25 foot high ceilings and tall doors. Hardly posh digs but at 7$ USD we couldn´t complain about our 6 bed dorm. Cobblestone streets and old-style buildings made for a pleasant walk around the city which we ended with a large cold beer overlooking the Atlantic as the sun set. Excuse me, did you say ¨TravelPod¨? Sitting in the communal room at the hostel the couple next to me were puttering around with the free Internet. ¨Maybe we should update TravelPod¨ I heard the Irish girl next to me say to her boyfriend. I snapped my head over to see what they were doing. I guess it shouldn`t come as a surprise that many people in hostels and hotels all around us were updating their TravelPod but sitting right next to them and brought it home. We chatted for a bit and talked about TravelPod while I grinned happily. What to do in Colonia with 8 hours to kill With 8 hours before our ferry to Buenos Aires (BA) we decided it was time for me to get a hair cut, a big one. After going blonde before leaving for the trip, the only thing left to do was to shave it all off. Never having gone bald before, I was a little worried that I had some massive birth mark or something lurking beneath my hair which I´d never seen. ¨Number 1?¨ the barber asked in his rough English. The look on his face was disapproving, as if he´d just smelled something nasty. I didn´t care, I was determined to go all the way. We stopped short of breaking out the razor blade and clean shaving my head but the quarter inch of hair left was short enough. On the way out I stepped over the mounds of half blonde/brown hair surrounding my chair. Outside, we inpected the damage. ¨It looks good baby!¨ Andrea encouraged. Being my loving fiance, she had to say that, I knew that. So I quickly examined the doo in the reflection of a nearby glass window. Although I kind of looked like an escaped convict, I agreed, it wasn`t that bad. Every gust of wind tickled my newly miniature hairs and convinced me that this was the way to go in the brutal South American heat. Why hadn´t I done this before!
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17 of 38 Yo Hablo Espanol en Beunos Aires, just a little :) Beunos Aires, Argentina Mar 21, 2006 13:03 ( local time ) Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! A city you just have to love We had heard an enormous amount of hype about Beunos Aires, or BA as it's called. So much so that we thought it would be impossible to love the place with such high expectations. We had heard promises of deliciously juicy Argentinean steaks selling for less than $5 USD. Tales of the world´s best red wines for less than $3 USD a bottle. Friendly locals, not (yet) tainted by the large amounts of tourists which other big cities received. One guide book described BA as ¨Prague before everyone knew about Prague¨. With that, we thought it would be impossible for BA to live up to its rep. Gladly, we were wrong! Arrival We arrived by boat from neighboring Uruguay late at night and realized we had no local currency to take a bus or taxi with. It was too late to get any cash at the terminal so we walked our heavy load of packs a kilometer away to our hostel. At night BA seemed pretty quiet, at first at least. We were staying in the business center of the city which, like most other big cities, shut down at night. The wide streets, the widest I'd ever seen seemed eerily empty. The hostel we had arranged to stay in was the only one we could find. The U2, Oasis and Rolling Stones concerts which all had taken place in a few weeks had brought in swarms of tourists and all of the accommodations were booked up! We were glad to have called the night before. A 3 hour jaunt around town looking for an available bed was not something we were looking forward to. Thanks to our reservation, 2 beds in a 7 bed dorm awaited us at the V&S hostel. We parked ourselves and stayed there for several nights. The hostel was very comfortable and actually had real, 8 inch thick mattresses, which was a first for us on this trip. The next morning at breakfast, Andrea scanned the room to find me as she walked back from the toaster with her food. Having just gone from blonde to bald, Andrea couldn't recognize me amongst the other backpackers. San Telmo - Tango in the streets For our first tourist destination we targeted the weekend fair in San Telmo, a neighborhood known for its artsy feel. We spent the afternoon walking down the barrio's main street where tango dancers spun around with intense gazes for the tourists in the blazing sun and bizarrely dressed locals posed for the camera, and for some peso's as well of course. In some cases, the intricately dressed posers actually were worth a picture, like the old man elegantly dressed in early 1900's garb hold a cup of mate ( a local tea ), but others were just bizarre. Like the old lady sucking on a kazoo and playing kids-sized drums dressed in strangely colored clothes and tooting away. Andrea stopped for a pic and the lady quickly covered her face with a paddle which had the words "Put money in the bucket for a picture". Crafty. Mounds of local crafts and antiques filled the ta |
