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Whoops over a month since the last blog - how rubbish am i!!!!! As a result this may take a while (skip to the end now!!!)
So we got the boat down the amazon and spent 2 days sat in our hammocks (am now excellant hammock sleeper) squeezed between 2 old people (and half the population of brazil) trying desperately hard not to break any hips as we swung not in time with the rest of the boat in every direction possible. Once on the river we did actually find small pieces of the once amazon rainforest. I forgot to mention this is in the last blog but the amazon rainforest does not exist any longer! We drove about 2 thirds of the way into it and its all full of farmland - not a patch of rainforest to be seen!!! Lucky the government has decided to leave a few patches along the amazon so all the tourists are fooled into thinking the amazon still exists but do not be fooled - it doesn´t!!!
Anyway once 5 guys had lifted daisy off the boat (i obviously was of huge help!) we were off out of brazil to french guiana. Brazil is a great country but i think we were both glad to leave finally!!! I have to say its the funniest country we have so far been to - i´ll give you some examples;
- I have never been to a more patriotic country - everyone wears t-shirts, shorts and i´m sure underpants (although i have no evidence to prove this lastone!) with the brazilian flag or BRAZIL plastered across them, all of the news is about brazil, international items hardly feature.
- Everyone loves god. Everyones cars, trucks, bikes are covered with pictures of mary or big slogans about jesus on them, however despite all this religous stuff they have more love motels where you can rent the rooms ´by the hour´ than anywhere else!!!!
- They listen to the same songs all the time. Literally there were 5 offical rio carnival songs and the whole 4 days we were there all we heard was the same 5 songs repeated all night!!!!! Everyone who was brazilian loved it, everyone else went insane!!!!
So we left the craziness of brazil and past into the order of France!!Yes French guiana is in fact france, it uses the euro and imports everything from france! Its a weird place if you can imagine a tropical, south american france you pretty much have it. Its so expensive though we spent the whole time camping waiting for our suirname visas. We landed on our feet though when we met 2 young guys who finding us camping at some lovely waterfalls apparantly metres from a deadly snake took pity on us and invited us to stay at their hotel they were doing up. We spent a few days there learning that these city boys lovely as they were maybe worried a little too much about things. I think this was shown by the fact that when i asked where the toilets were i had to be accompanied by the two of them (and Aaron who just came for a laugh!) with giant machettes the 10m to the toilet where they both took a 5 minute inspection of the room to make sure there were no snakes before i was allowed in and then accompanied back!!!
Anyway french guiana was lovely but too expensive and other roads were calling so we stopped off to watch giant sea turtles lay their eggs in a deserted beach (truly one of the most amazing sights i have everseen - watching something the size of a smart car come out of the water and make noises like a dinosaur without anyone else around - magical!) and then it was on to suriname.
Suriname used to belong to the dutch and its capital city is amsterdam crossed with the carribean - its cool!! We spent a few days there before heading into the jungle for a few days and then back to go to reggae concert. We figured being near the carribean we should go to at least one and there was an american artist Aaron thought he had heard of playing on saturday night. So arriving back into Parimaribo (the capital) we do what anyone else would do and bought a bottle of rum and got on the mohitos. Obviously one led to an other and as nothing starts early in the carribean we were both a little tipsey by the time we get to the venue. Now i was a little surprised when we turn up and its not a huge staduim but a little courtyard with a few people and their children there!!!! Hardly what you expect for a big american artist but hey maybe people do things differently here.
So a few more drinks and a few more people arrive and the support acts (all 10 of them!) get going! Its good music and the vibe is great with many a rasta dude sat around smoking whatever - so we´re in the reggae feeling. By the time the main act comes on we´ve both been dancing for several hours and are pretty drunk but looking forward to the big man. Only at that point does it all turn rather bizarre when on comes Patrick junior and starts singing about how much he loves jesus!!! Yes there we suddenly find ourselves blind drunk and bopping away at a christain reggae concert in some church yard in the middle of suriname!!!
After this we decided maybe its time to leave so head off to Guyuana. This used to be a british colony and is brilliant!! Its very carribean, has amazing food and brilliant people. The capital is like a 1950s film set in places and everyone speaks english (brilliant!!!). Its a crazy place where there are cows and sheep walking down the main motorways and people and stuff everywhere. We spent a few days in the capital and went to watch some cricket (I know me and cricket but i loved it!) as its the west indes. After that its was on down south to the worlds highest single drop waterfall.
Now most people take a plane therefor a day, or if not you get 3 boats and a bus. We could afford none of these options so we of course decided to just see how far we can get. Daisy does us proud in getting us along one of the worst roads i have ever seen (water filled pot holes the size of houses) and at one point we find her head light under water) and deposits us at this hamlet on the river. On the way we met a man who said his ancestors used to walk up the river on well made tracks )excellant we figure we´ll walk there!! After an interesting day spent at this hamlet we manage to hitch a ride on a boat up the river with 20 litres of petrol (sadly aaron dropped daisy in a small lake on the ride to get the petrol ' so we just left her with a local to dry out!).
We make it to another village where we sleep on someones veranda trying desperately to avoid the vampire bats which are prone to attacks!! Bat bite free in the morning we decide to head off. Talking to the locals apparently there is a path but its never used anymore )even the locals don´t walk it and no one has been up there for months!! Since when has that ever put anyone off!!! We obviosuly do the sensible thing and make a machette/axe out of an old battery case and and a stick and leaving the locals to take bets on how far we would get before we return we set off!!
So the locals reckoned it would take us 3 days it took us 4!!! We walked through the jungle literally in some places through the bush with no path!! We waded or crossed on tiny balancing logs 120 creeks and camped in hammocks in the middle of the jungle.We saw jaguar footprints on the path, a zillion different colourful and huge spiders and got the beginnings of foot rot from 3 days walking in wet clothes and shoes (it was the wet season). But the main thing is we made it!!! The falls were worth every blister and absoluately stunning. They are the highest single drop waterfall in the world and we saw no other tourists! There are no railings just a few polite signs pointing out you may die if you pass this point and we had lunch on the falls, brilliant. Sadly by the end of this expedition i could not walk so we did manage to hitch a ride on boats back with some sympathetic people but what an expedition!!
Daisy had thankfully dried out on our return (bless her she did not have a dgood time in guyuana, some drunk lorry driver drove into her on a ferry!) and then she gets dropped in the drink, but being the champion she is she is still going!!
From jungle craziness we headed south, through the savannas or guyana (stunning) and back into brazil for 3 days to buy motorcycle parts and revel in a hotel bed and aircon!!!!From here it was on to venezuala. We´d decided to just cross venezuala to save time and so this is pretty much what we did. We drove south to north (past angel falls, decided we were over wtaerfalls so skipped them) and then east to west. Its a beautiful country in places but i do have to say one of the most polluted i have ever seen. This is probably not helped by the fact we could fill up daisy 17 litre tank for 15p!!!!and everyone drives around in smokey and the bandit huge old american cars! We were grey at the end of every day!!!
From venezuala it was on to columbia and in contrast some of the most pristine countryside i have seen for a long time. Its on the carribean sea and the beaches and waters are stunning!!We´ve ridden some crazy mountain roads (one benefit of only having rubbish free tourist maps to navigate with, you never end up on the right road usually on the back roads!!), going to some stunning and tiny villages and had beers with some great locals. We even made it on columbian local tv the other day, having been found by the local presenter in one such small town square. Probably the worst interview anyone has ever seen as speaking only about 50 words of spanish we blagged the whole thing and who knows whether we answered the questions correctly!!! Luckily we will never have to see it!!
Anyway we´re now in bogata for a few days before heading south and to equador which due to our lack of time we have to attempt to cross in about 1 week!!! Its a busy schedule from here on in so wish us luck and maybe i´ll manage to find time to update you hopefully sooner this time along the way. Apologises for the essay!!
big love
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Sue Clark
non-member comment
Are you sure?
I picture you somewhere in North London, playing explorer games on the pc then doing your blog! Are you sure you're really in South America? Loved the last one - wonderful pictures came to mind. Eddie and Sue