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June 20th 2010
Well, we have reached out final destination- the great city of Rio de Janeiro. As with our other blogs of places we stayed for quite some time we'll split this up into sections based on what we did/where we visited. Brazil vs. South Korea volleyball match: Our first night in the city we totally lucked out and got the chance to watch the Brazilian National volleyball team play a match. All the best volleyball teams in the world are currently competing in a league called the World League. Each country competing gets a chance to host the other 3 teams in their group for 2 matches and luckily our first weekend in Rio Brazil happened to be hosting. The venue the match took place in was really cool. It seemed to be specifically for volleyball and ... read more
June 17th 2010
Oi again, Greg and I are now in Trindade, a small town of 700 on the beautiful costa verde. Its only 40 minutes from Paraty, a nice short travel. We originally had planned to to stay 2 days in Trindade and then the other two (before heading to Rio) at Ilha Grande...but, as soon as we got into this quiant town with its beautiful rolling hills covered in green jungle and bright flowers over every fence, we started to think we might not want to leave so soon. This became a definite when we got to the hostel (Kaissara Hostel); a beautiful wooden cabin/house with jungle surroundings, a great group of people and great owner (George). The first day, we hiked for an hour to a natural pool created by large boulders separating the ocean from ... read more
June 11th 2010
Oi! After reluctantly leaving Florianopolis after a great stay we hopped on an overnight bus towards Sao Paulo. 10 hours later we grabbed another bus, this time 6 hours, to our next destination in Brazil- Paraty. Paraty is one of Brazil's most beautiful colonial cities and is located right on the Atlantic coast about 4 hours south of Rio. Once again it's loaded with tons of beaches, islands, mangroves and generally beautiful scenery. Once a month when there is a full moon and the tide is high the seawater rises to a level which results in the flooding of the Historic Center. About 6-10 inches of water flows in and fills the streets. We unfortunately did not get to witness this but from the pictures it looked pretty cool. The water doesn't stay in town for ... read more
June 9th 2010
Hello again, After realising our plans of traveling to the northeast coast of Brazil and making our way south towards Rio were a bit more expensive/ambitious than we could enjoyably handle we decided to fly from Manaus (where we ended our boat trip) all the way to the south of Brazil to a place called Florianopolis. After a 1 hour stop over in Rio we continued on to Florianopolis by plane and after catching a taxi at the airport we quickly realised we had entered an entirely different climate from the Amazon, to say the least. It is winter in Brazil right now so the south sees cooler temperatures, much less humidity, and the day we arrived at least- rain. The staff at the hostel informed us that the past week had been very wet but ... read more
June 3rd 2010
Oi! As Greg mentioned, we arrived safely in Manaus! Our boat was not overloaded and looked pretty safe (however this didn't stop me from imagining every exit plan and hoping that if the boat went down we'd be in a narrow section of the river). But none of that materialized, apparently Peru boats are much worse than the Brazil ones! On Saturday, we started off our 3 day adventure on the Amazon with a full day of waiting at the port for tickets and then to board the boat. The boat is meant to start boarding at 4pm, but people start putting their luggage in the queue as early as 8am, so we arrived at 11am to get our bags near the front of the line (as recommended to us). Our wait till 4pm was made ... read more
May 27th 2010
Well...we finally hit a snag in our plans. Friday: Flight from Bogota to Leticia (both in Colombia). Leticia is in the very south-east corner of Colombia at the tri-border of Colombia/Brazil/Peru. We crossed into Tabatinga, Brazil (no formal border entry just quite yet) with the intention of heading down the Amazon river on Saturday for 3 days to reach a town called Manaus. Our first surprise: the office that issues Brazilian Visas (in Leticia) closes at 2pm. We didn't get into town until about 4pm so immediately we knew we could not make the Saturday boat because the office isn't open on weekends. These boats only leave on Saturday and Wednesday so this set us back immediately at least 4 days. Our second surprise: about 30mins later we find out the office in Leticia NO LONGER ... read more
May 26th 2010
Hola! Aside from spending time in Cartagena, Laura and I also made a trip up the coast to a small fishing town called Taganga for 2 days. Set in a small bay on the Caribbean Sea, Taganga was a really nice laid back spot to chill out for a day and the jumping off point to visit the beautiful Tayrona National Park. After a 5 hour bus ride to Santa Marta, followed by a taxi ride to Taganga, we were lucky to be able to get a room at the most popular hostel in Taganga called La Casa de Felipe. This was a great spot. Tons of common space on 3 different levels (the top level was littered with hammocks and great views of the bay for the sunset), nice rooms and a great restaurant that ... read more
May 25th 2010
Hi everyone! We've switched climates and gone to extreme hot on the Carribean coast of Colombia, a city named Cartegena. I (Laura) had anticipated that this would be one of my favourite cities and I was right, it was a very unique and interesting city! Being on the coast, the city is surrounded by large stone walls used to protect the city from attacking pirates (in the past). The beach area (Bocagrande) and historical areas all have a Carribean, Spanish, African vibe to them. We stayed just outside of the historic centre in an area called Getsmani, where the cheap hostels were because believe us when we say that staying in the historic centre costs a fortune (we looked at one place just for the fun of it, call LM hotel boutique....I was intrigued and thought ... read more
May 20th 2010
Hola! A 9 hour bus ride from Manizales later and we are in the capital city of Colombia, Bogota. We decided to stay in the historic center of the city which is called La Candelaria. This area of Bogota is filled with colonial buildings, vast plazas and many of the main museums the city has to offer. After settling in to our hostel, we had some dinner and then headed to the more upscale are of Bogota called La Zona Rosa for the night. This are is filled with restaurants and bars and is packed with people on weekends. One thing we quickly found out however is that the places were not cheap! Basically Canadian prices for drinks which we had gotten used to NOT paying. With no other options really, we enjoyed a nice pitcher ... read more
May 14th 2010
Hi all! So we've had a bit of a gap since our last post, the reason being we're having a great time in Colombia! Yes, you heard that right. Try and put aside your misconceptions if you have them about Colombia for awhile and check out the cool stuff this country has to offer! We must admit that the government funded commercial for tourism in Colombia (which is really taking off right now) couldn't be more accurate: "The only risk is wanting to stay." Cali: After crossing the Ecuador-Colombia boarder we continued on by bus to the city of Pasto where we would spend the night to break up our bus journey. The next morning we did another 8 hours before reaching Cali, our first Colombian destination. Cali is known for 2 things: Salsa clubs and ... read more
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