the part where holly goes it alone

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sooo peeps,

this has to be a very quick entry as ive got a bus to catch in an hr to the other side of bolivia. and the computers dont have any usb points so i cant even charge my ipod let alone uploading photos before you ask.

lets see how far we get in the escapàde in an hr anyway.

in the last entry we'd just fnished the sambadrome which was awesome. the next day was monday, we didnt get in until 6 am so we didnt do anything on mon, tried to go to the internet in a massive shopping mall but it was shut for carnival. the couple that ran the place did a bbq for us in the eve. stacks of meat (the beef is v good there) skewered up then put on one of those big oven bbqs, then all cut up and put in front of us, with bread. there was beef, salami like sausage and chicken. v nice.

the next day we were assured the internet would be open. so we decided we needed to use it really before travelling up to brasillia. it was shut again. so we had missed out on a trip to a waterfall and to have our hair cut under it by one of the canadian girls who happened to be a hairdresser. we were not impressed. humph. so it was too late to do anything with our day again, being out in the sticks and all that. we caught a lift from marco, fernandas friend to the bus station. his driving was crazy, intent as he was to keep turning round and talking to us in english and making massive hand gestures that kept making him swerve. eek! but we got there ok, well, just in the nick of time. he was nearly an hr late!

its the little things that sometimes can bring more joy when you're travelling. and we were well excited that our coach and seats were a bit nicer than the ones before. they had bits that came down to put your feet on. and they gave us little packs with different mini snacks in them and we even got a carnival paper! and.. we stopped at a better service station. whether that had anything to do with the nice coach i have no idea. but it was good. they have this buffet service type thing in brazil. you take a plate, load it up, and pay depending on how much it weighs. all different types of nice foods, from salads and fruit to stewed meats and rice. very nice. in fact i recommend it for england. surely it would put a stop to obeseity if people had to pay per quantity! so the less well off dont buy cheap fast food, just less good food. shall i write to mr brown.. or is it too controversial? thats the best bit of the brazillian diet anyway, they really dont eat vegetables, its just meat and bread. and not much fruit really. they have all cuisines and eat a humongious amount of cheese. its pretty poor and my body is crying out for nutrients. esp as all we eat on buses are cookies and nuts!

moving on... arrived at brasilia on tuesday, and immediately regretted it. we checked in to a hotel, hotel bristol (there are no hostels). it was ok, there was a swimming pool, and we had a balcony, good shower and tv, which was playing jason mraz on the music channel.. they really like him here. good call! so that was nice. we went for a small wander. now, if you ever get the chance to go, dont! not even if your life depends on it. i cannot believe we went 15 hrs out of our way to go to the worst capital city in the world. theres NOTHING there. its supposed to be shapped like a bird, of course you can only see this from aerial pictures. its generally a massive expanse of ground with some big roads and big buildings (supposedly all done by the same architect and supposed to be very nice to look at... especially the congress building.. rubbish! you get more architecture in oxford st than from the whole of brasilia!) and the other thing they boast about is the tv tower, supposed to be the beak of the bird... ITS A PHONE MAST!! not even joking. i took a picture of it because i didnt know whether to laugh or cry. you can be the judge when it goes up. thats the only picture i took in brasillia, apart from the pool. we went back to use the internet in the hotel but it broke. they spent an hr trying to fix it then just shook their heads and walked away leaving us in the less than adequate 'conference'room. how rude! so we went and quizzed them on where to go for internet and a few other things, jsut to get our monies worth.

we went for food, ordered some random grub from the menu and got pretty lucky with generally meat and bread. but think we also got some kind of tofu in couscous. hmm. obviously deciding it was the biggest waste of time and space ever we wanted to leave as quickly as possible and go to santa cruz. naturally the capital city has buses and planes and connections all over south america, who would doubt this or even question it. not us. but we should have done, because we found out, to our great annoyance that we couldnt get a direct bus to bolivia, we had to stop at campo grande first then change... it would take 15 hrs and cost an arm and a leg. oh how i regret ever going to that damn place. so we bided our time by the rooftop pool, going all the way down to reception again to ask them please if it would be too much trouble to come up and actually open the rooftop so we could get some sun and go in the pool. they were slightly exhasperated. so were we. and we got burnt.

our bus supposedly left at 7. all the long haul ones leave later so they get to their destinations at a reasonable time. not sure why i jsut said that really.... they're all long haul. so we caught a taxi back to the train station, but not after watching this tiny little man struggle with our big bags which were as tall as him. he clearly didnt want any help from us, but watching him waddle and sway about and end up dragging our bags to the car was so funny. we couldnt stiffle our laughs. it was v bad of us. so, we got to the bus station, only to have 2 guys behind the glass of one of the many compaies that line the inside of every bus station (only a few companies go to every destination) tapping furiously at us and guesturing for us to some over. think the hotel may have phoned ahead coz they knew exactly our predicament and had tickets ready. perfect. the bus was non descript. we were on a bus again. again.

27/2/09 got into campo grande.. in the middle of the pantanals of brazil. there is nothing there except the way into the pantanals and the only reason people go there is to do tours of the swamps. everyone knows this. we´d been travelling for some time now, really since tuesday, and it was friday... to get to campo grande to be told that there is no direct way to santa cruz or anywhere in bolivia and that we had to catch another train to corrumba on the border was less than inspring just 2 weeks into our trip. i blame brasilia for all of it. we could have gone from rio quite happily. grr.

unfortunatley this was a bit too much for kate to handle, and, 14 days into the trip she went back to england, homesick. i dont think i need to go into it in great detail, i was in the middle of nowhere in brazil just about to go into the unknown territory of bolivia, i know what you're thinking... which means i'm sure you can imagine just how i felt. enough said. email for more details if you so require. she'll be meeting me again in heathrow for africa and beyond.

28/2/09 after a sleepless night i boarded the busto corrumba, two becomes one and i decided to go it alone. i didnt work my arse off for a year to go home after 2 weeks.

another bus journey, more things to ponder. including the fact that i had pretty much jsut covered the width of india in 4 days. the scenery had also changed. the countryside had given way to the swamps and marshes of the lowland brazillian amazon. just on the bus i saw so much wildlife i was astounded. a wild toucan, parrots, massive flocks of cranes, different shapes and sizes, deer, huge huge birds of pray and possibly the snout of an alligator!

it has to be said, as the bus pulled up into corrumba after 6 hrs i was more than apprehensive. not knowing exactly what i was doing and not speaking any portugese or spanish (fine if theres 2 or you to muddle through it but not if theres just one). very very luckily for me i saw what looked like travellers who had been on my bus in annimated conversation with a couple of touts at the station. the migration desk was closed and the train that i was supposed to catch at 3 (train of death its commonly known as due to being long and slow and boring) was full. ohhhh dear. it was 4 isralie people that were in full discussion. i joined them to see what was going on and what the verdict was. aparently we had to wait until the next day for immigration to open and to catch a train or a bus. then they asked, to my great relief, if i wanted to go with them to find a hostel.

so my lone adventure begins with adi (girl), yasmit (girl), rotem (boy) and liram (boy). not so lonesome at the mo.

i must leave you there, waiting on tender hooks for me to tell you if and how we managed to get into bolivia... for now, i have another train to catch. my 5th train in 8 days. 8 days on and off trains. hopefully this will be the last for a while.

keep in touch everyone. im a lone wanderer now so need your emails more than ever.

hope you're all well
love me xxx

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Comments

[Ian C]

Spooky
This is exactly what happened to Joan Wilder before she bumped in to Jack Colton!