TravelStream™ news feed for member dawn_smedley on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/dawn_smedley en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 09 Jan 2006 15:35:44 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1161631980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1161631980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1161631980/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jan 2006 15:35:44 -0500 Team Smedders on Tour

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Belem, Brazil

Well..what can we say...it was long but not too bad! At times it seemed like we were steaming along at a roaring pace so at one point we couldn't quite understand why it was going to take so long! Until we hit a dirt road and then we knew why and it became pretty slow going to say the least! Overall though, there was a sense of mutual sympathy and camaraderie between everyone on there, lots of smiles, very friendly bus drivers (who put movies for us on in English!) and good food stops on the way! And we arrived in Belem about 9ish the next evening (only 32 hours in the end!) and waltzed into a hotel just across from the bus station for a much needed shower and the luxury of a bed! Yipppppppeeeeee! I was so tired that I couldn't be bothered to go out for food! Paul went out and got a burger but he didn't tell me that at the time as he felt guilty for not bringing me one back! He's so horrible! Hee Hee!After all that travelling, we were prepared to get everything sorted today - find a hotel closer to the centre, book a flight to Manaus and get our tour booked in the Amazon but OH NO...fate was working against us and it turned out to be a public holiday! Grrrrrr! We were so frustrated - no airlines open, one travel agency was open but you couldn't book anything (??) and only one internet café in the whole of Belem which was a serious stroll from our hotel! Despite all this, we found a really sweet hotel and even though the streets of Belem were deserted, we had no choice but to make the most of a very quiet city!We did some research in the internet café and then found a cute little bar for some ice, cold beer! We had to join in on a public holiday of course! We then headed down to the docks to watch the sunset and the Amazon was as rough as you like - at this point we were glad that we'd decided to fly to Manaus rather then taking the 5 day slow boat instead! The skies were cool...really moody and you could see the storm clouds gathering! The dockside in Belem is very funky (and full of drunk locals on this occasion!)...they've basically converted the whole area into posh restaurants and cafes with a cute little art gallery and shops. All the cranes along the front are now design features and look particularly nifty at night when they're all lit up. We decided to hang around here for the rest of the night and treated ourselves to a posh buffet and a few beverages! Yummy food, caiparinha's, mellow tunes (coming from a live band on a moving stage hanging from the roof!) - so all in all a fab end to a frustrating day! And a lesson for my hubby is that when I'm feeling abit down, all he has to do is buy me some nice food and I'm smiling again in no time!So finally the next day had to be the day we got sorted! And we did...eventually! Our travel agency was now open to actually sell things and once we'd established that we actually wanted to get to Manaus and not Fortaleza - we had lots of options! It took us so long to make a decision, the flights had gone up by the time we made on! We're good! Flight tickets in hand though and smiles on our faces, we'd done it...we finally had a plan! We spent the rest of the day feeling a lot more relaxed and enjoying the sights and sounds of Belem. We visited the small zoo there (not one of Paul's fave pastimes as he hates seeing the animals cooped up) which had loads of plants from all over S America. We loved it as we'd seen most of them in the wild and most of the animals too! I went snap happy and took lots of piccies anyway and we loved to see the pink ibis which is quite a rarity! They're the most amazing pinky colour and can be found in the wetlands in Venezuela but we knew we wouldn't have time to go there so that was cool! We saw a couple of jaguar's too but they had really small cages...bless! Had a nice potter round though and then spent our last night in Belem in complete contrast to our first...eating HUGE burgers sat with locals on picnic chairs in the street!The next morning, we wandered around the docks visiting the different markets - fish, meat, veg and another one where you could get just about anything! One of the highlights was seeing a MASSIVE fish and we're talking about 2½ m long and about 50/70kg in weight called a piranaku which is found in the Amazon! Even the locals were taking photos so it must have been impressive. We took a photo of me stood next to it and that really gives you the perspective!It's a really vibrant part of the city and great for people watching and vulture watching actually! You've never seen such big birds hanging around for any leftover fishies! It's I think I glimpse of 'old' Belem before it got all funky and tourism caught on so much so really glad we managed to have a quick wander before leaving!And then it was time to head for the airport so backpacks at the ready, we jumped on yet another friendly Brazilian bus and started our adventure into the Amazon...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1161459060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1161459060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1161459060/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jan 2006 15:33:29 -0500 Team Smedders on Tour

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Olinda, Brazil

We arrived in Recife bright & early and did some research on how to get to our next destination! Hmmmmm...Belem, a 36 hour bus journey away or Fortaleza, a 26 hour bus journey away!!! Choices, choices and all with our precious time in Brazil running out if we wanted to squeeze a trip down the Amazon in! So after a very friendly visit to the tourist office, we jumped on a tube into town and eventually managed to work out where we needed to be to get the bus on to Olinda! As soon as you arrive, you get mobbed by guides in yellow t-shirts trying to get you to book a hostel, be your guide/best friend, etc but we went with the advice of the lovely folks at the tourist office and headed to a small pousada (family-run guesthouse) which turned out to be an absolute gem (although I had fancied the one with the swimming pool!) You walked in to the pousada and it was literally like walking through their house through to a back section where they had some lovely big rooms with shuttered windows looking out onto the quaint cobbled streets below! Awww! Olinda had really appealed to us from the guide book as it's supposed to be one of the largest and best preserved colonial cities in Brazil and it's got an amazing setting perched on a hill overlooking the Atlantic! And really there's not a great deal to do there apart from wander round soaking up the atmosphere, taking piccies and admiring all of the old churches and buildings dotted around the place. It's also the kind of place with lots of quirky little shops and art galleries! So we took to the streets in the sweltering heat and wandered and wandered and wandered! We had gorgeous views pretty much everywhere we looked and the hillsides were just scattered with beautiful, old domed churches and the skyline of Recife in the distance. What a contrast! We had lunch in a local bar type place and headed to the beach (not of one of Brazil's finest it has to be said!) and spent a couple of hours sat in deckchairs with a beer in our hands until I got too hot and sunburnt and escaped back to our lovely cool room for a quick snooze! It's a hard life travelling you know!So what would a Friday night in Olinda have to offer? ALOT! This was one of the coolest nights we'd had in Brazil! We headed back up the hill where there were loads of street vendors selling stodgy manioc pancake type things stuffed with lots of different fillings from chicken to cheese! Not so good for the arteries but they tasted pretty damn good washed down with some ice cold beer! There were folks selling beers out of cool boxes very cheap and I turned to cocktails as there were lots of little stalls set up where you could buy freshly made cocktails - what a GENIUS idea! I tried quite a few varieties and funnily enough they tasted better and better the more I had until us larry lightweights decided to call it a day, giggled back down the hill and fell into our beds!!!! Great atmosphere though...it was like the whole of Olinda heads to that one place on a Friday to play music, chat and just spend time with their mates! We will definitely miss the old outside culture when we get back! Maybe we'll be investing in numerous patio heaters! Really glad we made it to this lovely little town! We were still umming and aahing about where to go the next morning really wanting to avoid the mammoth bus journey to Belem if we could...but after looking at the cost of flights, throwing around a million different options and the time we had left in Brazil, we finally decided that getting the bus to Belem was the best (???) option! So we hopped on yet another friendly bus back into Recife again with everyone helping us know when to get off (Brazilians are soooo nice!), jumped back on the tube to the bus station and booked our tickets to Belem - treating ourselves to another Bob's icecream cone for finally making a decision! Whilst we were sat waiting for the bus, we got accosted by a Brazilian guy promoting AIDS awareness - which was all well and good apart from I don't think the AIDS charities might have agreed with the way he tried to explain the problems in Brazil!!!! So we gave him some money to basically leave us alone after a very bizarre conversation and onto the bus...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1161199620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1161199620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1161199620/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jan 2006 15:30:46 -0500 Team Smedders on Tour

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Salvador, Brazil

Our aim was to get to Salvador for a Tuesday night as everyone we'd met had raved about how good it was so after a quick brekkie the next morning, we jumped in a taxi to the bus station and boarded the 12:30 bus to Salvador (another 26 hour classic!). The service stepped up a level this time though as we were given snacks, a pillow and a blanket! WOW! The scenery was really pretty following the coast up to Salvador...hilly, lots of little villages, lakes & rivers! Awwww!We arrived mid afternoon the next day and it was hot, hot, hot! After a while chatting to a very friendly local trying to work out where to get the bus into town, we crossed a manic, manic bridge where people were selling everything, over to one of Salvador's biggest shopping centres and managed to find a minibus to take us where we needed to go! This was a genius find in the end as it took us all along the coastline, past ancient forts until we finally arrived in the old town. I was in hysterics watching Paul try and get off the bus as it had an inconvenient turnstile we had to get through right at the front...thought he was going to fall flat on his face at one point but hey I shouldn't complain as he was carrying my rucksack as well! :0) Our hostel had great views over one of the main squares so we settled down for a few beers watching the world go by! Well the town certainly does come alive on a Tuesday...there are people everywhere and so much to see & do. We spent a few minutes watching break-dancers doing their thing...I wanted Paul to show off with some moves of his own after hogging the dance floor at the wedding but he didn't want to show them up and then it was onto the main square where there was live music blaring out and food stalls everywhere! We headed through the cobbled streets to try and find the drummers...you can hear their beats wherever you're standing; it's just a case of finding them! We found them in no time and joined the locals following them down the streets boogying on behind....how cool would it be if this sort of thing happened in Northampton every Tuesday night! Hmmmmm chances???? We ended up finding a very cool bar crammed with locals who took to the middle of the bar every now and again for a quick boogy, grabbed some food and then headed back to the main square to try and work out how Brazilians can shake their bums so well and we can't! It just looks so natural to them! What a cool atmosphere...we just stood there drinking beer & caiparinha's listening to samba watching Salvador strut its stuff!!! The next morning we enjoyed brekkie on the balcony and then it was out to explore the sights! We headed down to a great viewpoint overlooking the sea and came face to face with a tiny little monkey in the bushes just next to us. I immediately got paranoid that it was rabid and was going to bite us so we swiftly moved on! Hee Hee! Salvador has a similar to set-up to Monaco in some respects as the town itself is built up into the hills so there are lifts that you can take from sea-level up to the old town which means not as many steep hills to climb! Sounds like a good idea to lazy old me! It's also got lots of nice boats bobbing up and down in the sparkly blue sea and a stunning coastline which we're presuming carries on this way all the way up the country. We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets - admiring the colourful houses, quaint cobbled roads, old churches and the vibrant people that seem to be everywhere! We stopped for a while in a bar we'd found the night before and all the locals were samba-ing away in the middle of the day, drinking the afternoon away! We could get so used to a lifestyle like this where having fun and dancing is not just something you do on a weekend! It's such a good city for people-watching. I was especially fascinated with some of the female tourists who insist in having their hair dreadlocked...most of the time it just looks soooo bad but maybe that's just me getting old! Think you would have to be mega pretty and brown to get away with it though! Think we'll leave that one to the Brazilians! The rest of the time in Salvador was spent trying to decide on our plan for the remainder of the time in Brazil! We'd just begun to realise just how big it really is! MASSIVE! GINORMOUS! HUGE!With a kind of rough plan in place, we had our last morning in Salvador relaxing and trying to explain to a beggar that the watch that Paul was wearing really was cheap!!!!! And then jumped on the bus back along the coastline to the bus station via the huge shopping centre for a quick Bob's Icecream! Thanks Bob! And on the overnight bus to Recife and our next stop...the quaint little seaside town of Olinda...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1134665340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1134665340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1134665340/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jan 2006 15:26:57 -0500 Team Smedders on Tour

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Rio de Janiero, Brazil

Our bus journey from Campo Grande to Rio was to take about 26 hours...youch and this was the first of many very long bus journeys to be had in Brazil! The country is seriously MASSIVE! I wasn't happy though when the bus arrived though as it stank...of dirty toilets and I felt seriously depressed at the prospect of holding my nose for the next who knows how long!!!! Luckily though after about an hour, the bus stopped at its depot for a thorough cleaning and all was right with the world again! Pheeeew! The journey itself was pretty uneventful...we passed some lovely scenery once we reached the coast North of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo itself just looked huge and we stopped at self-service buffets for all our meals which were yummy actually! One amusing thing was a military guy who sat in front of us that got abit friendly with a woman on the bus...lots of canoodling going on and when he got up to leave he didn't even say goodbye to her so think she was abit put out! Woman on every bus eh? We actually had to sit in our first traffic jam for along time as well after an accident on the motorway...think it's safe to say that that is one thing we don't miss about England! We eventually arrived in Rio the next afternoon and jumped in a taxi to Botafogo as I was abit scared about getting the bus after all the scare mongering stories we'd been told and managed to crash straight into a motorbike! Whoops...nothing serious apart from our taxi getting a bit battered!!! Our hostel had been recommended to us by Kay & John and turned out to be very cute indeed with a bath-sized swimming pool to match and triple-decker bunk beds! Hmmmm! We settled down for a quick welcome beer by the pool and then headed down to the beachfront at Botafogo for sunset looking at Sugarloaf Mountain in front of us and the Christ Redeemer behind us! We were definitely in Rio! Another place recommended to us was 'Pizza Rodizio' just down from the hostel, which is basically all-you-can-eat pizza, they just bring around lots of different flavours including dessert pizzas dripping with chocolate and strawberries! How could we not try it! We had a very lovely waiter who was extremely patient with us as we tried to speak Portuguese and basically we stuffed our faces!!! Chocolate & strawberry dessert pizzas though...what a winner! Mmmmmm! Stuffed to the max, we jumped on a bus to Lapa for a night on the town! It was excellent jumping off the bus right infront of a huge illuminated archway bridge, which carries the 'Bonde' tram through Santa Teresa (more about that later!). There was a big music event going on in a club close to the arches so we went to see if we could blag our way in but it was definitely a 'no gringo's' aloud thing!!! Boooo! Again we'd had loads of warnings about Lapa being abit of a dodgy area at night so we decided to start off in the bars along the pavement to see what was going on! After some extremely strong caiparinha's, we got brave, thought sod it and headed to the back streets where the heart of Lapa really was...what an atmosphere...basically loads of live music on the streets, the sound of drummers belting out everywhere and lots of folks just sitting drinking cheap beer on the streets! This was more like it! There was obviously one woman who was bossing the decks on the street and what she said went!!! No questions! There were loads of police cars everywhere as well and we were sat opposite one for while so we didn't exactly feel threatened, as we'd been led to believe! That's one of the things about travelling though...everybody likes to tell you the worst stories ever so if you listened to everything you hear, you wouldn't go anywhere or do anything! Most times we've found that if you're just careful, then you're absolutely fine and dandy! Anyway we were sat amongst lots of friendly folks, listening to funky tunes and we stayed there until we ran out of money, very drunk and jumped on a bus back to the hostel! What an excellent start to an excellent city! Our first night in the triple deckers was memorable to say the least and whoever designed the bunks didn't really think it through properly as the fan only hits the top bunk, they had plastic sheets on so when you're restless and you're sheet comes off you just end up sticking to the plastic and to top it off, we happened to be sharing the dorm with 2 English blokes that snored like troopers! Not quite at Gareth's level but definitely ranked up there!!!!! Hee Hee!Feeling rather hungover the next morning, we headed out on our full day tour (being lazy again!) around Rio to include HANG-GLIDING!!!! Yipppppeeeee! In true Team Smedders stylie, the guide was late picking us up due to a flat tyre...we have to have at least one per country so we told him not to worry as it was probably our fault! Hee Hee! Our guide Wilson was a TOP bloke anyway and seemed to know everything there was to know about everything we needed to know...which I guess is pretty useful in a guide and we headed up on the windy roads up into the Parque Nacional Tijuca way up behind Rio through lush forests! Lovely jubbly! We had a bit of a trek from the car park up to the highest point in Rio - 'Alto de Boa Vista' - and it was roasting, combine that with a hangover and I was struggling - beautiful walk though...lots of greenery, flowers and butterflies. When we reached the top though...boy was it worth it...we had the most amazing views looking down over Rio and could see for miles & miles...from the beaches of Ipanema, Copocabana and Barra (where all the rich & famous footie stars hang out!) to the Christ Redeemer...what an amazing location for a city all surrounded by turquoise seas and gleaming white sand! Aaaaaaah, this is the life! Few fast Rio facts for you courtesy of our man Wilson: Ipanema beach actually means 'bad water' as the bay used to be covered in mangrove swamps and gave off a bit of a stench and Copacabana beach is named after a Bolivian monk who apparently landed here so there you go! Anyway after a quick chat up at the viewpoints and an insight into the corruption within the Brazilian government, we slipped and slid our way down to the take off point for our hangliding experience! EEEEK! We basically had to volontarily run off a platform, off a mountain and rely on the hangglider thing to get us safely to the beach below! But hey, we didn't really have much time to think about it as the next minute, I was all strapped up, practising my runs and before I had time to say cheeeeese for the camera, I'd taken a flying jump off a mountain! WHOOOPPPPEEE! And what a sensation it was....I have never been so exhilerated in my life (I had to let out a few compulsory girly screams though!)..the sensation of floating/flying was out of this world and the views...WOW...we were gliding over the mountainside over these massive houses with huge swimming pools one minute and then out over the turqouise sea glistening at us below, then all of a sudden we hit a thermal too fast or something and we were heading towards the beach pretty damn fast....and then it was all over... from being at the top of a mountain to landing neatly in one piece on a powdery white sand beach below! GENIUS...and then i could watch my hubby flying in behind me, giving me a little wave and then both talking a million miles an hour and being on a high for the rest of the day! Think its safe to say we both loved it and would quite happily have driven up with them to do it all over again but hey-ho it was time to move on and to visit the most famous landmark in Rio (apart from g-string bikinis) ...the Christ Redeemer welcoming the world to the wonderful city that is Rio.This involved another ride through the National Park through windy roads, past lots of waterfalls with Cariocas (locals!) in speedos strutting their stuff - only they can get away with it and my Dad of course - and great viewpoints! We finally arrived at the base of the huge statue and started to make our way up to the top...there's escalators and everything but we decided to sweat some more and use the steps! Raaaah! The statue itself is a whopping 38m high and when we were there it was really bizarre as Mr Christ looked as if he had the sun in the ball of his hand....very weird! The views were amazing from the top and we could literally see the whole of Rio sprawling beneath us....lots of photos later and still with huge smiles on our faces we had a quick icecream and then it was time to hit Santa Teresa for a very late lunch and a beer or 3! I was really looking forward to this as this part of Rio is supposed to have maintained abit of 'Old Rio' with its cobbled streets, old mansions and palaces and the 'bonde' which is an old streetcar and how everyone used to get around. I guess it's abit like the area surrounding the Sacre Couer in Paris...set on a hill and the place where all the artists and bohemians hang out but without the church....it wasn't to disappoint either, we literally felt as if we'd stepped back in time. Our guide took us to a local restuarant to try some of Rio's specialities to include rice & beans of course and then we all jumped on the bonde back into town! So cool...there were no seats left, so we were all hanging on for dear life on the side with locals and kids alike...crossing the Arcos de Lapa, we all had to look out for each other as the tram goes scarily close to the platform...it could easily chop off your toes...arriving safe & sound with toes intact, that was the end of our day out in Rio and what a day it was!!!!! After such an amazing day, we decided to have a nice, chilled out evening in the hostel over a few beers....niiiiiiice apart from more snoring!The next day the heavens opened so we had a pretty chilled out day not really doing alot until the evening when we joined in at the hostel BBQ. It was one of those random evenings where you're just expecting a few social drinks that all of a sudden turns riotous!!!! Or it did for me anyway...think Paul got scared and sneaked off at some point!!!! We met a group of mexican women who were on a working holiday and were staying in the hostel and had come equipped with a nice bottle of Mexican tequila...well you can imagine where the evening went from here!!! Girlies together, getting drunk, speaking waffly spanglish and giggling lots! Excellent! Too much tequila, beer & caiparinha later, I collapsed in bed with many promises of keeping in touch! Awwwwww! Fact: apparently the proper way to drink Tequila is first lick the salt, then suck on a lime (not a lemon!) and then neck the tequila...what a difference...normally tequila makes me pull one of those really bizarre faces but drinking it this way, it actually tasted nice!Sunny, sunny, sunny! And what else to do but hit Copocabana beach - a must in Rio! Think Paul had high hopes of spending the day staring at some nice Brazilian totty in g-string bikinis...hee hee..the first woman we saw had massive boobs, infact she was massive all over and she was wearing a bikini that just about covered her nipples! Infact i looked fully clothed compared to her!!! That's what's nice about Brazil though...everyone seems really comfortable with themselves and no-one wastes time worrying about what people think! The beach was great for people watching....from locals, to pasty white tourists and kids getting tossed around by gigantic waves...the current was so strong that flags were warning people not to swim and a helicopter had to keep hovering over the shoreline getting drifting swimmers back where they should be. Beach vendors kept wandering past selling everything from fresh shrimps and jewellry to beer and sunglasses...everyone warned us that we'd get loads of hassle on the beach but we didn't get any at all....must be because we're so brown like the locals! Splutter, splutter! Just to keep you updated with the latest fashions on Rio's beaches, the full g-string is no longer in...the thing to now where is a g with a little triangle!!! Another bizarre thing to mention as well is that the Brazilians are obviously famous for their bikiki waxes BUT they've all got hairy legs or the ones we saw did anyway! The things you notice....Heated up to max and with the tops of my feet beginning to bare a strong resemblance to red lobsters, we decided to go for a stroll along the beachfront! Lots of joggers, rollerbladers, locals strutting their stuff infront of the ladies and us...what a combination. There were some amazing sandcastles being built...really professional ones that looked like fairytale castles...lifesize people...quite impressive really! And then all along the walkways were the sarong sellers making the beachfront amazingly colourful with them all laid out in thier bright colours! We stopped for a beer and watched the world go by and again got no hassle even though this poor European chap who was actually whiter than me kept getting hassled by everyone...bizarre but we're not complaining! So feeling abit more bronzed (Paul) or burnt (Me), we headed back to the hostel for our final stop at the pizza place (did you honestly think we wouldn't be going back there!) and had the waiters running around for us especially when it came to the desserts and our quest to try the M&M's pizza! Our last day & night in Rio.......awwwwwwww....but next on the hit list....samba loving Salvador!!!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1129023480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1129023480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1129023480/tpod.html Mon, 28 Nov 2005 05:38:40 -0500 Team Smedders on Tour

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Campo Grande, Brazil

We wandered to the bus station in Bonito and jumped on the next bus back to Campo Grande with a super friendly bus driver! Awwww! He spoke the few words of English that he knew and we chatted back in the mix of Spanish & Portuguese that we knew and all laughed lots as I don't think either of us knew what we were talking about! Hee Hee! We arrived back at the hostel in the afternoon, checked back into the hostel and headed out for a burger and beers on the streets...it turned out to be a holiday in Campo Grande so everyone was getting absolutely wasted, there were huge speaker systems on the streets and it took great skill to avoid all the hangers on wandering past us...not sure if they were asking legitimate questions or just being abusive...all I know is that even I have perfected the art of blanking people now! Is that a good thing???? Great atmosphere all in all though and now it was time to head to the city lights of Riooooooo...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128764160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128764160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128764160/tpod.html Mon, 28 Nov 2005 05:37:20 -0500 Team Smedders on Tour

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Bonito, Brazil

We headed to Bonito in air-con luxury which was really nice as it had started to get hot, hot, hot and managed to spot lots of toucans and 4 blue macaws flying along side us! We arrived early evening and checked into the HI hostel there equipped with a swimming pool no less, settled down for a few beers with Kay & John and tried to decide what we were going to do the next day and most importantly if the weather was to be kind to us!We woke up the next morning to an extremely cloudy sky which left us in a bit of a dilemma as the main part of Bonito's charm is the clearness of its river water and obviously the sun would make a huge difference regarding visibility for snorkelling, etc so we decided to hold off for abit to see what the weather decided to do! Kay & John had to leave the next morning so we eventually decided to just go for it and arranged to leave at midday - unbelievably about an hour before we were due to set off, all the clouds disappeared completely and were replaced by the most amazing clear blue sky! Yipppeeeee! So off we headed and in broken Portuguese managed to work out where to get our attractive wetsuits and booties - we've got an excellent (or not!) photo of me sat next to Kay who has unbelievably brown legs and me with seriously pasty whites!!! Challenge is to get at least abit of colour by the time we get back! Our afternoon started with a short walk through the forest where we got our first glimpses of the stunningly clear water....never seen anything like it...you just felt like you were looking straight at the river bed and could see lots of massive fishies!!!! The reason why it's so clear is because river water bubbles up through underground springs in limestone rocks and they basically have very high concentrations of dissolved salts and limestone. The limestone attaches to all solids in the water causing them to precipitate out of solution. This leaves the waters crystal clear. (Can you tell I copied this from somewhere as the words are too big for me! Hee Hee!) We then spent the next couple of hours floating down the river with our snorkels admiring the huge shoals of fish and the underwater flora (I even managed not to hit the river bottom!!!) ...some of the biggest fishies must have been at least ½m long and one had a particularly grumpy looking lip! Very cool as well as we had our own photographer who took piccies of us all throughout the afternoon and then we could spend lots of money on a CD when we got back but it was well worth it as had lots of photos of the area on there too! After a quick ice cream we headed back to the hostel and decided to head out to find ingredients to make our very own caiparinha's! My job was to find the limes and not knowing the Portuguese word for limes at this point, I tried to explain to the woman what we were making and she knew instantly...success! So equipped with our bottle of cachassa, a HUGE bag of sugar (it was the smallest we could find!), a bag of limes and some ice we embarked on our mission to get sozzled! Mmmmmm....they were lovely and even if I do say so myself, I think mine were the best but that's because the lovely kitchen lady lent me a cocktail shaker when it was my turn so I guess I cheated!!!! A lovely night though and then it was time to say our goodbyes to Kay & John and for us to be introduced to 'Snake' Man and his 16 year old bit of stuff! Snakeman was basically a rich Brazilian who had gone bankrupt so had decided to enter into tourism and spread his love of snakes to the tourists of Bonito! A very nice man if not a bit bizarre and with our love for Bonito growing with every caiparinha, we decided to stay on an extra day and go and see some waterfalls and a blue lake the next day!We got up in good time next morning to have a nice, leisurely brekkie only to be informed 2 seconds after sitting down that we'd be leaving in 10 minutes!!! Rush, rush, rush!! So off we went again and we had a lovely, funny, chatty guide who basically didn't stop talking all day! Our first stop was at an estancia with stunningly beautiful gardens and colourful flowers everywhere you looked and once again the sun was shining down on the Smedleys! We set off walking through green forest along the river - the water today wasn't quite as clear as the day before but the area was just soooooo beautiful you can really understand why they call the place Bonito which means 'beautiful' in Portuguese. We saw so many waterfalls throughout the day and they must be some of the prettiest we've seen with lots of greenery all around them and beautiful flowers! WOW! There was no hesitation on the swimming front either...we were both straight into every pool we came to! We actually saw a capybara sitting serenely on top of one of the waterfalls and then quite randomly saw him jump over the waterfall itself!!!! Kamikaze capybara!!! We went to try and find him in the pool but no joy. Our guide told us that they spend a lot of time behind the falls as do the swifts who make their nests behind too so you just see them flying in and out of the waterfalls! Mad! We probably walked for about 3 hours in total and it was just one waterfall after another and at certain points we headed up into the tree canopies so we had amazing views of the whole area and how green it actually is. At this point, our guide decided to share a documentary he had seen on TV with us about Dutch cheese! Very random, in the middle of a forest watching a Brazilian with his beer gut out and a Dutch tourist re-enacting a 'traditional Dutch cheese dance!!!' Had to be there moment me thinks!Part of the journey back involved a serene boat ride along the river to another pool with a 6m platform for people to jump from! Eeeeeek! Obviously Paul was first up and straight in there...I took a little more convincing but finally plucked up the courage! Paul was supposed to be taking a video clip of this momentous occasion and bloody missed it!!!!!! Grrrrr! So I had to do it again...but by this time I was quite enjoying it anyway! Our last stop was to visit a cave with a 'special something inside'! Curious we swam into the cave and saw a HUGE phallic shaped rock formation.... think it gave Paul abit of an inferiority complex...hee hee! And then it was back to the estancia for lunch and the most amazing spread...talk about immaculate presentation and yummy to boot! Happy days! In the afternoon, we headed out to see a huge cave with a blue lake inside. We had to wear extremely attractive hairnets and helmets...fwoargghhh! The stalactites and stalagmites were HUGE and in allsorts of bizarre shapes and if you used your imagination a lot we could make out...a sitting Buddha, a Sikh woman with a veil, more phallic formations of course and many more!!!! As we entered the cave, you could kind of make out the blue of the lake but as we got deeper and deeper, the real colour started to appear and we have never seen colour like it! WOW! Such a lovely blue and apparently between December & January for one hour each day, the sun hits the water and the colour then must be awesome! Unfortunately it was hard to show the true colour with our camera but we bought a postcard which we can show you when we get back! :0) Another amazing day in Bonito and again we decided to stay another night and head out snorkelling again the next day although this all went pear-shaped in the end! At breakfast the next morning as I checked with the hostel what time we'd be leaving, she decided to tell us that they didn't have room anymore even though when we'd booked it at midday the day before they had! Grrrr! We managed to get the night free at the hostel though as compensation but we were a tad disappointed not to be able to go snorkelling again! Booooo! But we would definitely recommend taking the time to visit Bonito...it's GOOOOOORGEOUS!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128628380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128628380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128628380/tpod.html Mon, 21 Nov 2005 16:38:28 -0500 Team Smedders on Tour

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The Pantanal, Brazil

Up at 6 for brekkie, we were amazed to see a toucan and 2 blue mackaws in the campsite itself before we'd even gone anywhere! What a good sign! It was our ambition to see a toucan as well and our hopes were high after Gareth & Resh had told us they'd seen lots in the Pantanal so happy faces all round and I even got to hold one of the mackaws on my hand and they seriously weigh a tonne!!!!! After brekkie, it was time for a hike to see what we could find! It was the dry season when we were there which meant all of the wildlife hunts were done on foot, in the wet season everythings done by boat! The landscape is basically grassland intermingled with little forests and this is where the majority of wildlife tends to be concentrated along with the lakes for bird life, etc! One of the most amusing things we experienced in the Pantanal though were the 'nosy cows'...literally...cows who all turned to look at you at the same time in big groups as we were walking past! As soon as they got too close for comfort, they would all turn and run away and it felt like a scene out of Monty Python where you could almost hear the cows screaming...'RUN AWAY!' Hee Hee! Anyway our first little hike was highly successful and we saw a lesser anteater up a tree, lots more toucans (they're so common hee hee!), deers, raccoons, LOTS of mosquitos and loads of bird life! I'll try and remember the names of them all - a tiger heron, egrets, ibis, salt screamers, lots of little green parakeets, rose spoonbills (they are the most gorgeous colour!), massive jaribou storks, hawks, blue and yellow mackaws and probably lots more that we didn't catch the names of! Excellent! And then we had a bit of a sad experience as we came across one of the nosy cows who had got stuck in the mud surrounding the lake and had basically exhausted itself out! Bless! Me and the guide got straight in there to try and tug him out by the tail but he wasn't going anywhere! I on the other hand, pulled so hard that I fell on my arse in a huge pool of mud...much to hubby's amusement!!!! He liked to tell everyone that there were now 2 nosy cows stuck in the mud!!!! So nice!!!After lunch, we headed out to hunt for caimans and apparently swim with them if we wanted too! Hmmmmm....think I'll leave that to Paul! And on the way we managed to spot a howler monkey up a tree and a huge anteater just crossing the grass infront of us! Now they must be some of the bizarre looking creatures ever...but then again they probably think that about us or Paul anyway!!!! We arrived at the little lake and there were quite a few caimans basking around on the banks and you could spot their beady little eyes peering out of the water at us! Got a chance to take some real close up photos and while I was trying to take a piccie of hubby up close, and personal I managed to miss the caiman right infront of me who promptly went for me and I had to jump back!!! Eeeekkkk...certainly got my heart rate going!!!!! What was that about getting up, close & personal!!!!! Brave hubby went diving into the lake though with the guides but only long enough to have their pictures taken...although Paul will probably tell the story differently! Hee Hee! And then it was time for dinner and a night drive to see what we could find! For some reason I was completely shattered (it was all that caiman avoiding!) and spent the whole journey trying to unsuccessfully stay awake! Managed it long enough to see a cutey family of capybaris though! They're my favourites!Up for a sunrise hike the next morning and beautiful peachy skies, we managed to get a good shot of a toucan close-up we think! Saw a raccoon up a tree and managed to get poo'd on by a pair of howler monkeys! Thanks guys...it smells REALLY bad too! Obviously claiming there territory! Oh I forgot to describe to you how I think a howler monkey sounds when it starts its noises in the morning...bear with me here and REALLY use your imagination...Description of the noise a howler monkey makes...It's like when your tummy rumbles in an exam hall and everything else is really quite but then multiply that noise by 100 and throw a few burps in and that's what it sounds like!!!! Bet you can imagine it perfectly now! Hee Hee!Anyway...after our little hike, we chilled out by the lake and saw little woodpeckers fishing for their brekkie, we could hear woodpeckers tapping away and we saw caimans doing something really bizarre...they basically curve themselves into a U-shape and make funny noises! If anyone knows why they do this, we'd love to know!!!! it was a genius little campsite all in all, with lots to see even if you were just sat there! After lunch, we jumped back into the dusty jeep to spend the night at a lodge and saw stacks more wildlife on the way! Lots and lots of capybari, caimans, jaribou storks, egrets...all in pools at the side of the road! Just before we got to the lodge, we saw 8 blue mackaws (think they're the largest type!) flying close to the jeep and stopped at a local family's house who had a resident mackaw which we were able to hold! Amazing! from the lodge, we wandered down the river abit for a spot of piranha fishing and hopefully more luck for me this time! All abit bizarre though as we were stood in the shallows of a piranha infested river with caimans floating about 2m away! Think we're definitely losing it! Once again though, Paul had all the luck and caught a piranha and I caught a bloody catfish! Grrrrr! Don't you laugh now! One of the highlights though from the piranha fishing was a massive jaribou stork which came so close to us all so we were able to get some genius photos! Yippppeeeee! After dinner, we sank a few beers with another couple from blighty who we'd got to know (Kay & John) and contemplated the red moon which was very bizarre which John definitely lost sleep over and marvelled toads who basically ate all the insects flying around us! FAB! Hee Hee! Had a very sweaty nights sleep in the dorms and woke up the next morning for a quick jaunt out on the boat on the hunt for anacondas!The boat ride really reminded us of the boat rides we'd been on in Borneo scenery wise! We saw lots of caimans, birds, iguanas but had no luck with the anacondas I'm afraid! Paul went swimming again...he's alot braver than me, our guides mad hair do was finally revealed in its masses to us and then it was time to jump back on the jeep, say goodbye to the Pantanal and all its amazing wildlife and head for our next stop!!!! Bonito!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128457500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128457500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128457500/tpod.html Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:52:55 -0500 Team Smedders on Tour

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Campo Grande, Brazil

The overnight journey to Campo Grande was pretty uneventful apart from to say that you pay more in Brazil and don't get quite as much for your money as we did in Argentina!!! And no bingo in sight! Boooooo! The other thing to mention was the thunder storm that pretty much lasted all night...well actually there was no thunder at all just constant lightening...pretty spectacular!!!!! So we arrive bright and early and as it happens the company we were planning to do the Pantanal trip with live just across the road and they pretty much adopted us as soon as we stepped off the bus and we decided to head straight out onto the trip that very morning!!!! This meant we had a 2 hour mad dash to find a long-sleeved shirt and a baseball cap plus have showers, have brekkie, etc etc (I had a very close encounter with some serious bad taste shirts!!! Dave you would have been proud!) Finally we were ready for the off and jumped on a minibus to take us on the first part of our journey into the Pantanal! One more thing to mention though...how big do your reckon Campo Grande is...you know...middle of nowhere...well my preconception was from reading 'The Testament' by John Grisham where the main character has to go looking for a missionary in a local tribe somewhere in the Pantanal so I envisioned Campo Grande being pretty small, no mod cons as such and everyone moving around by boat! How wrong could we be...the place is bigger than Huddersfield and has probably got better shops!!!! Crazy!!!!!!Anyway after a couple of hours on the minibus, we swapped vehicles for an aging 4x4 and turned onto a dirt track! This was more like it...heading into deepest, darkest Brazil and as we got further away from the road, it really started to feel like it too! Infact describing the jeep journey afterwards, I would say it was bumpy, dusty and dangerous as random branches threatened to decapitate me on several occasions as I'd managed to bag the worst seat at the back and everytime we went over a bump, me and this other bloke felt like we were about to fly out of the back...so when we finally arrived and I could see again after clearing the dust out of my eyes, it was quite a relief to get feet back on firm soil again! Hee Hee! Real safari experience for you though! We arrived about 9 in the evening and it was pitch black...only the sound of insects and animals....oooooooooo...things started to come to life quickly though as our camp prepared dinner for us and we partook in our first caiparinha (cachassa, sugar and lime!)...which I loved...extremely sweet but yummy! And our first night in the Pantanal was spent sleeping in hammocks and surprisingly it was REALLY cold...I woke up with feet like ice blocks! Another surprise!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128367020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128367020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128367020/tpod.html Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:31:20 -0500 Team Smedders on Tour

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Cuidad del Este, Paraguay

So yes we were again having to buy another camera! OUCH! So the next morning we jumped on a bus back into Paraguay to the supposedly cheap, duty free Cuidad del Este and it was manic to say the least. Through talking to a few people, we found that lots of people choose to live in Brazil but have their companies/jobs in Cuidad del Este so its pretty hectic with everyone going over the bridge and everyone is carrying something, selling something, buying something...crazy, crazy, crazy! The town is just full of shops, market stalls, street vendors and there are people everywhere!!!!! MAD!We arrived and headed towards the electrical shops and after a quick scout around we found one of the more legitimate looking establishments and decided on a camera! All well and good, we really liked the guy in the shop who seemed to be straight with us and then he told us we had the choice of buying a camera that had been damaged but was now repaired and working 100% or a brand spanking new one!!!! The repaired one was obviously alot cheaper but the whole concept sounded abit dodgy to us so we went for the new one....or so we thought!!!!! As we went loads more when they converted it into local currency, they wanted to charge about 10% extra for using credit card, the camera didn't look new as the logo was all worn and we just started getting mega uncomfortable! At this point though we were running out of time as we needed to get back to the Brazilian side to catch the bus onto Campo Grande! So in the end we decided to go with it anyway, managed to get them to throw loads of rechargeable batteries in with it, reduce the price some more and thought sod it we just need the camera to last until the end of Jan! My God, our hearts were pumping though and some of the guys in the shop were obviously not happy that the sales guy had reduced the price as much...we had visions of them following us on the bus and stealing it off us and allsorts so yes we were ait tense when we left the shop to say the least!!!!!!Anyway we jumped back on the bus without incident and arrived back in Brazil and a few beers later we were feeling a tad more relaxed! Although we now know it definitely wasn't a new camera as we checked the set-up and the camera had already taken about 300 piccies at some point but anyhows it's still working!!!! What a day!!! But we had a camera and that was the most important thing as next on the hit list was a spot of wildlife spotting in the Pantanal! Yipppppeeee!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128111780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128111780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dawn_smedley/team_smedders/1128111780/tpod.html Sun, 13 Nov 2005 14:27:51 -0500 Team Smedders on Tour

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Foz de Iguacu, Brazil

The day after we arrived ended up being a bit rainy...in Brazil..I know that´s what we thought! Brazil...the land of sunshine and thong bikinis! So we decided to hang around for the day in Foz and await the sunshine the next day...I got a bit homesick watching ´Calendar Girls´..what a film and looking at piccies that mum and dad had emailed through! Awwwww! Paul found a good kebab shop so he was happy!The wait was worth it as the next day the sun had his hat on again so we jumped on a bus to see the Brazilian side of the falls. After numerous attempts trying to get a map so we could work out what we wanted to do, we gave in and jumped on the ´free´ doubledecker bus that takes you through the park and we decided to jump off at the start of the Cataratas walk where we randomly raccoons in plenty (not what we were expecting!) Having never seen one before...I got quite excited and spent the first quarter of an hour trying to take a photo! Yes I know there were some amazing waterfalls to see!!! Hee Hee!So off we trotted and the first views we got of the falls were stunning to say the least...its not just the falls themselves though, it's the setting, the noise, the size, the rainbows...everything really and needless to say we were pretty impressed! The walk was cool as well as it started off a little way away from the Devil's Throat so you kept walking round each corner of the trail and getting wow'd by even more waterfalls, getting drenched by even more spray and getting deafened by the increasing sound of the water as it thundered over the falls! The waterfalls form a horseshoe shape and the number of them varies between 150 and 300, depending on the flow of the River. The water level was really high when we were there but I'm not sure how many there were and funnily enough we didn't count...even if Paul is an accountant geek! Hee Hee!Once we reached the Devil's throat, we ventured onto a walkway which takes you literally above one of the falls and it feels like you are stood in a torrential rainstorm and the sound is deafening! Paul was loving it as it was just like a great big wet t-shirt competition and it just so happened that the majority of women had white t-shirts on! Hmmmm! I wonder what Paul was really looking at...By this time, we were completely soaked to say the least so getting even wetter didn't seem to be a problem so the rest of our time at the Devil's Throat was spent at various lookout points some of which gave the best overall views of the falls...if you could see through all the spray! We took some special birthday messages literally almost underneath the falls for Lorna & Hurri...hope you realise just how wet we really were!!! Hee Hee! And then headed back to the bus stop to dry out for abit and decide what to do next!!!! We eventually decided to jump on a helicopter to get a birds eye view of the falls which was abit spenny as we were only up in the air for 10 minutes but the views were unbelievable and it really gave you the impression that there was a big gap in the earth with lots of water spilling into it! (Apparently they were formed over 100 million years ago due to massive volcanic eruptions!). It really gave you a perspective of how big the falls really are and also showed you all the rainforest surrounding the falls! We can't exaggerate enough how stunning the setting is as well...butterflies, orchids, palms, bamboo and just green everywhere! Can you tell we loved it? We just felt sorry for the Japanese lady who was sat in the middle seat on the helicopter ride as 10 minutes is not a long time when everyone is trying to get the same photos! Bless! Another bonus was that we loved the helicopter ride itslef...it was Paul's first time and the last time for me was with my Dad on a flight from Penzance in Cornwall to St Michael's Mount! WOWEE! Lots better than micor-planes put it that way! So then it wa sfeet back safely on dry land and back to Foz for some rice & beans!The next morning we decided to be lazy and joined a tour to do the Argentinian side of the falls!! We had a very sweet guide who spoke very amusing English and were accompanied by three brummie lasses which all in all made for a highly entertaining day! You don't even need to get your passport stamped if you're just going across for the day which we were quite releived about as we ended up with about 8 stamps in our passport for Argentina alone from the all the toing and froing we'd been doing!!!!! We arrived at the park and headed out for a stroll through the forest to the Upper Walkway and the start of our search for a toucan!!!! No toucans, but we found a very green lizard on a tree and I took some genius photos...definitely the best I've taken since we've been away and guess what...I deleted it by accident! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Our first lookout was just beautiful and for me it started a day of just amazing scenery! Different people prefer different sides of the falls for different reasons but for me...the Argentinian side was just alot more beautiful and you were just alot closer to it all somehow plus the weather was absolutely stunning which I'm sure helped! Rainbows were absolutely everywhere, colourful butterflies were fluttering everywhere we looked and we were mightly impressed with a guy showing off as he made the most beautiful paintings of the falls in 3 minutes...with his finger!!! WOW!!! After a few more lookouts it was time to head back to jump on a jeep through the rainforest to go on a boat ride into the falls themselves (it's alot cheaper on the Argentinian side if you're planning to do this!)! Oh yes...we like getting drenched! The guide was explaining that we were driving through secondary rainforest and infact that there is only 6% remaining in the National Park. Very sad! We saw some parakeets but that was about it really! We arrived at the river, donned our lifejackets and headed onto our power boat onto the river and towards the falls! We passed hundreds and hundreds of yellow butteflies on the riverbanks which just looked like a banking full of daffodils or something! Quite mad!Think our driver was abit of an adrenaline junkie and why not as he took us bouncing over the rapids at great speed, twisting and turning everywhere! We pulled up infront of the 3 musketeers so we could take piccies literally straight infront of them and then putting our cameras safely away, he revved up his engines and bezzed straight into the Devil's Throat....and I mean straight into!!!!! We had all this water from the falls slamming down on us and we couldn't see a thing...what a rush!!!!!! Someone told us on that particular day, there were 3000 cubic metres of water coming over the falls!!!! Normally, the boat drivers can take you behind the falls but there was just too much coming over!!! Anyway drenched to the max, the driver asked us if we wanted to do it again and like little kids, we all screamed 'Yeeeeeeeeeeeeesssss!!!!' Doesn't take much to revert back to childhood eh? This time as we went under I did some seriously girly screaming for the video camera and Paul shouted in a very manly voice (???) BVS!!!! To finish off, we went under the San Martin falls which again was mighty exhilerating and then it was all over...boooooo...bit more rapid action and some slick moves to get us even wetter which we REALLY needed!!??!!! (one guys at the front just had this huge wave come right on top of him!!!) And onto the jeep to dry off in the sunshine! After a quick lunch of beers and empanadas and some sneaky shots of the worst speedos you've ever seen...we set off to get even closer to the falls on the Lower Circuit! Reluctant to get drenched again but eventually bowing in under peer pressure, we had ample more opportunities to get soaked and were lucky enough to see a perfect 360 degree rainbow which is one of the most lovely things I've seen...think we nearly managed to get the whole thing on camera! Randomly as we were walking along, we had the opportunity to give some money to charity and have our blood pressures taken...funnily enough with our highly stressful lifestyles, everything was fine & dandy!!!!!! The last part of the day was spent on the train out to the Devil's Throat and on the Argentinian side you are literally standing above with all the water cascading over the falls beneath you....the noise and the sight is just spectacular along with the ypnotic rainbows...even if we were sharing it with all the delegates from a big conference in suits (guess I should be used to that)!!!!! It was quite mad to see the old walkways out to the lookouts which had been washed away when the waters had got really high!!!! They've been designed now so when that happens, the maintenance people can dismantle the walkways really quickly and put them back again once the water has receded to a safe level! Ingenious eh? Resorting to the shade as our skin was frazzling in the sunshine, our second camera decided to play the dirty on us and conk out!!!!!! Not again I hear you say!!! We were just grateful that it had happened at the end of the day!!! If you're going travelling though....allow for camera breakages!!!! Grrrr! So all too soon the day was over and we jumped back on the train and back on the bus to Brazil!!!!! What an amazing experience!!!!
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