Feliz Natal - A very Brazilian Christmas and the week leading up to it....

---

Firstly, I´d like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas (or Feliz Natal as the Brazilians would say!)

I can only apologise for my once again slackness with the blog entries. In all honesty it is purely because I have been incredibly lazy and have spent many a day lazing on the beach since I last wrote an entry about mine and Amy´s epic adventure in the wilderness.

The last few days in Chapada seem like a lifetime ago now - and were mainly filled with rain (I bet you´re all feeling a little happier reading that), good food and a lot of walking! Me and Rosie embarked on a trip to trek to the top of Brazil´s highest waterfall - Cachoeira de fumaca which stands at over 1000 feet! The trek up was relatively uneventful, and as we were the fittest of the group (hard to believe I know) we got to go at a decent pace and fully enjoy the views. On the ascent it was very grey with a lot of low lying mist that seemed to envelop you the higher you got. It was eerily beautiful. After the 2km vertical climb, the path evened out and due to the rain the previous night a lot of the path was flowing with water. Cue wading through water above our knee height. Further we trudged on until we reached an area of fast flowing water with a rope to help aid you across (it was only later that we realised that this led to the drop of the waterfall and therefore Rosie almost falling in seems less funny now). As you approached the top of the waterfall, the sound of the water was just amazing. It seemed to crash and roar around you and when we reached the top, the view was just unbelievable. I have never witnessed anything quite like it, and it was only when I realised that to get a decent view of the actual waterfall that I would have to lean over the edge that panic set in. My heart started racing, my legs went to jelly, and apparently my face drained of colour. I watched others slowly creep to the edge and I could feel the fear rising within me. Suddenly, it was my turn and I was being encouraged to get down on my knees. And that I did - to the extent that I buried my head in them and had a mild moments panic (which the guide found highly amusing). As I shimmied my body closer to the edge I felt the incredible force of the water pulling me to the edge - and as I slowly (and very carefully I might add) peered over I saw the most incredible sight. It really was breathtaking - albeit terrifying at the same time. After about 10 seconds (thats all I could manage) I quickly clambered my way backwards and mentally high fived myself for getting through it in one piece (and with some dignity left). Possibly one of the most fantastic moments of the trip so far.

After Chapada, we decided that we were due a few days resting on a beach somewhere so at 11pm we began our overnight trip to the small island of Morro de Sao Paulo. This place really was a piece of paradise - consisting of 5 different beaches. This was the perfect place for a bit of R&R! The island itself was very quirky, with no motor transport the main form of getting about was the trusty wheelbarrow. This was used to move tourists luggage from the port to their hostels. Our helper ´Marinaldo´appeared to have eyes bigger than his biceps as he loaded his wheelbarrow up so ridiculously that after one steep climb up a hill we all thought he was going to have a minor heart attack. But he pushed through and we decided to stay at Pousada Timbalada, a lovely hostel whereby we had our own private room and bathroom for the three of us - another little bit of luxury. The beach itself that we stayed on was gorgeous and was definately a hang out place for the body beautiful and plastic fantastic of Brazil. There is not much to say as we spent 3 of the 4 days simply sprawled out on the beach! One night we embarked on a night out to a beach party after consuming a bottle of ´Natasha Vodka´- had to be brought purely because of the name (and it only cost 3quid)! Cue some crazy dancing from the 3 of us. A brilliant night.

It seemed that leaving Morro would be harder than entering as some idiot overbooked our catamaran back to the mainland, and we were physically stopped from entering the boat (despite having tickets to prove that we had paid for our seats). It was at this point that I think i exclaimed ´if they dont let us on that boat then i´m going to go all british on them´I have no idea what I thought that meant or what I was going to do, but it turns out it means plead the word ´please senhor´in portugese alot and then shout obscenities in English when they don´t listen and the boat drives off without you on it! Not impressed - but after we had calmed down, we were helped by a lovely man named Hilton who managed to get us back to the mainland via a much slower boat-bus-boat route!

After this, it was a one night stay back in Salvador before flying back to Rio! As we were heading to Ilha Grande (an island off the coast of Rio) and as the idiots abroad that we are hadn´t actually planned how to get there we ended up having to stay in Rio airport for 14 hours before heading to the bus station at 4am to catch a 5am bus! We felt like Tom Hanks for a day and surprisingly 14 hours passed quite quickly.....the coach and boat to Ilha Grande was pleasantly uneventful and our first day there was a bit of a wash out. After having not slept the previous night, we were all pretty wiped out and cat napped for most of the day. The second day we had booked ourselves on to a speedboat trip around the island - amazing!! It was my first speedboat experience and I had a few Bond girl moments when I was pulling myself back onto it out of the sea. Although the weather itself was a bit gloomy, the island and its surrounds still looked amazing. The mountains meeting the mist was just beautiful and it felt quite surreal swimming out in the sea surrounded by the mist. It was on this day that we also met lots of lovely people including a lovely Australian couple, and an eccentric older English couple (who defiantely have the right idea by earning money and then blowing it on great holidays every year)!

Ilha Grande went by in a whirl and soon it was time to leave and head back to Rio for the Christmas period. This turned out to be a bit more eventful than planned as we left the island in the middle of a storm - cue choppy boat ride and once again our transport back to the hostel had been overbooked so we were instructed to get in a car with a man from the island (in retrospect maybe not the brightest of ideas). This guy was obviously very nice and just doing his job but we couldnt help feeling a little bit apprehensive about climbing into a blacked out SUV to embark on a two hour journey back to Rio. The weather on the roads was awful - in Brazil, when it rains it bloody pours and we passed two horrific road accidents on the way. There were a number of occasions where I feared for our safety as he twisted and turned round corners. We aquaplaned a couple of times but luckily we made it to the hostel safely!

The atmosphere in the hostel is one of excitement - but in a very chilled way. We´ve met 4 really lovely girls in our dorm and along with them have purhcased the ingredients neccesary for a christmas roast - which we are going to attempt to cook tomorrow! Wish us luck! We also have 2 bottles of champagne, 6 bottles of wine, 3 bottles of cachaca for capirinha´s and a bottle of Natasha vodka. So...even if the food screws up we still have plenty to drink!!

I wish all of you a very Happy Christmas!

From Rio with Love,

Tasha xxx

---