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Published: June 10th 2007
Brasil Map
Andrew Campling This is my 14th and final blog. The previous blogs have been written in some glamourous locations…a boat in Vietnam, beach in Thailand, bar in Bali, café in New Zealand, even on board the ‘Moose’ in South America, but non are as glamourous as where I am writing this now! Copacabana beach…no. Sugar Loaf mountain…no!? I am currently sat on my Mums new leather sofa (which I have already heard so much about) with a cup of PG tips, football on the telly and the smells and sounds of my diner being made in the background - that is glamour! It’s good to be home!
I first caught the travel bug 5 years ago when I travelled to Brasil for a month and, ironically, it is now Brasil where my travels will come to an end (for now!). I will be revisiting some of the same places that I did before which will bring back great memories of when I was 18 without a care in the world, but I’m sure it will be very different now I’m 23…without a care in the world! Maybe not! As if to illustrate the point, the first place we stayed in was
the very same hostel I stayed in all those years ago…
Our first stop in Brasil was Foz de Iguasu, the Brasilian side of the waterfalls, and I was in familiar surroundings. There was one big difference - the weather - it did not stop raining. It was so bad that we did not bother going to the falls because we wouldn’t had seen a thing. Instead we drank as there is not a lot else to do when it rains in Brasil. We went to the Refrain show, which was like a South American Dance Contest (like Eurovision but dancing), so each country had 20 minutes to show off their traditional dance, there wasn’t any official voting but Belle and I came up with our own scoring system. Uruguay won but only after Belle disqualified Brasil for trying to bride me by wearing, next to no, clothes. After the show we went to Club Ono - the best club in the world! It was great music, a good bar, massive dance floor (which I ended lying on at one point??) and cool people. Sadly things got a bit sour when I left as a bloke in a wheelchair,
now known as ‘Wheelie’, rolled up to me and spat at me! What the hell am I meant to do about that!? Firstly it is disgusting so I wouldn’t spit back and secondly I can’t start a fight with him. Then his mate decided he wanted to fight me because he decided that I hate Brasil, even my drunken attempt at “Te Amor Brasilia” couldn’t convince him otherwise…eventually the bouncer had to take him away. It’s at times like these that I think to myself…“this could only happen to me!”
Our next stop was Bonito and it was still raining! We went snorkelling in a river that was like swimming in a fish tank. The water was crystal clear and everywhere I looked there where fish and big ones at that. I haven’t got a clue what type they were but we were warned that we might see an Alligator or Anaconda so if I’m honest I spent most of the time looking for them so I would get a head start on the others! We spent two hours slowly swimming down the river looking at all the wildlife and hiding underwater from the torrential rain. Other than the
Capybara
Biggest Rodent in the world.beautiful river there wasn’t a lot else in Bonito, in fact it reminded me of Bracknell - a lot of concrete and not much character.
Our next stop was the Pantanal, one of my favourite places in the world, which is the biggest inland wetlands and all those wetlands mean that there is plenty of wildlife living in it. As soon as we arrived the sun finally came out after two weeks and it was just in time to try and get a tan before I got home! When we arrived we got straight on a boat and went in search of some wild life…and we found it. There were no end of Caiman (small Alligators), a huge stork, iguanas, but the best were Capybara (which are the biggest rodent in the world and look like giant guinea pigs - love them!). We then headed to our new home for the next three days, which was a hammock, and they were amazing, probably the best nights sleep I have ever had, so good in fact that I had to buy Mum and Dad one each. The next day we went piranha fishing which was very relaxing, with a beer
and the sun out, but between all of us only one piranha was caught and by a girl!? Izzy you put us boys to shame. We did catch a lot of other weird and wonderful fish like the snake fish which had a tongue like snakes…strange looking thing! The catch of the day has to go to Ad who somehow (no one knows how) managed to hook his own foot while walking back to camp. The hook was just under an inch long and barbed (girls, that means it cant come out the way it went in) so they had to push the hook all the way through and re-pierce the skin and then pull the whole hook through the top of his foot….OOCCCHHHH! By the look on Ads face it was a very painful process that was made worse because he had managed to hook his tendon - only Ad!
The rest of my time in the Pantanal was spent relaxing in one way or another, I was either, sunbathing, reading in a hammock or snoozing in a hammock. It was bliss! In the evening we all had a few drinks around a huge camp fire and would
slowly make our way back to our hammocks, except for Ad who forgot which one was his hammock was so slept on the floor which turned out to be next to his hammock!? The whole time in the Pantanal was really relaxing and gave us all a chance to chill out after the stresses and strains of lots of travelling.
My penultimate stop was Paraty, a cool little town on the coast just south of Rio. We went on a boat trip around some of the beautiful little islands to do some snorkelling and see a few secluded beaches but the sun struggled to come out so it ended up being more of a booze cruise. We all sat around for the day and got nicely beered up and reminisced about days gone by…‘they were the days!’ Paraty was also great for shopping so spent a few days with Izzy and Belle browsing around the many boutiques and spent what little money I had left. The rain also returned and suddenly a river appeared in the middle of our campsite and washed a few tents away, it was like a scene from Glastonbury. As half of us didn’t have
anywhere to sleep we decided to stay up and leave for Rio at 3am so we would get an extra day in Rio. Our plan didn’t go accordingly as we got about 3 miles out of Paraty when the ‘Moose’ decided it wanted to sleep and wouldn’t go any further, 8 hours later we where back on the road and heading for Rio.
Our final stop was my favourite city in the world, Rio de Janeiro! Our first night was the end of the tour so we all went out for a great meal and lots of wine, beer and much much more. It was sad to say good bye to Sarah, Cam and the ‘Moose’ after 7, great, weeks of travelling from Lima to Rio. All those who travelled on the ‘Moose’ ended up staying together in Ipanema on what I named ‘Ramsay Street’ because we had good neighbours who became good friends…you all know the words! It was a street full of hostels, where every night everyone ends up sitting on the street having a few beers and then head out together. Ipanema was a really nice part of Rio to stay in mainly because it was
the centre of the best nightlife but Ipanema beach was also something special! I have never seen so many beautiful people in my life! Men, women, young and old, all were absolutely stunning…it was great. The women pose on the beach in the smallest bikini I have ever seen, leaving nothing to the imagination, well not quite nothing!? So naturally we all spent everyday lying on the beach watching the beautiful, Brazilian, world go by and trying hard to get the best tan possible for when we got home. About 5pm we would declare Pimms o‘clock or usually Beer o’clock and we would head, looking nicely bronzed, to the nearest bar and start drinking for the rest of the evening - this is what we did most days while we were in Rio.
We did have a few excursions, one day we went to the Irish pub to watch the England Vs. Brasil game, which was great as we were winning for most of it and were winding the locals up but they got there own back at full-time. We also went to see Vasco de Gama Vs. Fluminese at the Maracana (biggest stadium in the world) which was
awesome; the Brasilians are so passionate about football, so we were treated to non-stop singing, drums and a few flares. The game wasn’t great but it worth it just to sample the atmosphere and we also got see Romario play the first game after he got his 1000 goals. Our final distraction from the beach was the big man - Christ the Redeemer - at the top of the mountain looking over the city, cleansing the many sins of Rios occupants. I have seen it before but it still took my breathe away, it is enormous! Like no other statue I have seem but I suppose it needs to be because there are a lot of sins taking place in that city below.
After 10 days of beach life in Rio we got to our final night and we ended our travels in a way that only Rio could offer. We headed to an area called Lapa where every Friday night a few thousand people take to the streets for a huge street party. It was crazy, the whole place comes to a stand still and drinks stalls pop up at the side of the roads and everyone just
gets drunk together while dancing along to people playing various Brasilian beats. It was a great way to end an awesome stay in Rio and an awesome time travelling.
After 286 days, over 45,000 miles, 16 countries, 85 places and a lot of new friends, it is all over. I feel like I have been the luckiest person in world to have seen and done the things that I have on this trip. Right now it feels good to be back and see my family and friends and especially Rachel.
So in the words of Forest Gump;
“That’s all I gotta say about that!”
THE END
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JULIAN DELBEKE
non-member comment
the trip
andrew can i say as anold man,older than your dad! how much i have enjoyed reading your blogs from around the world. they have been fascinating and its nice to sree you home. i am sure i will hear more from you over the next few weeks,which are going to be very tame, compared to your adventures over the last 10 months or so julian