Amy and LP have blogs too!

Just thought I would share Amy and LP`s blog addresses with those of you who might like to compare our writing and observation skills... or just see what they are up to. : )

http://amyinsouthamerica.blogspot.com
http://lpinargentina.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Final days in Brazil

Capitan Zanahoria (Captain Carrot) goes to the museum... but we were looking at him in a museum - mind boggling, I know.


On the beach in Florianopolis




We bought these vegetables and fruits for $2!!! Cortney was excited about it.


We are now in Uruguay. This means that we are no longer in Brazil. And no longer speaking in really pained Portuguese... but missing the bright sun and 88 degree beach days.

Lesson #1: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ACCEPT SEATS NEAR THE BATHROOM ON 11 HOUR BUS RIDES. THIS IS A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH.

Before we left Brazil, we went to a little city called Florianopolis, or for us Brazil saavy travelers, Floripa. We ended up renting an apartment for $7 a night per person with our own beds, kitchen, bathroom, and tiny little sitting area. We stocked up on food to cook in the apartment and settled down to four days of saving money. The saving money plan broke down a bit, however, when we decided to go out to dinner in a little neighborhood close to ours, jumped off the bus in the pouring rain, ran to the nearest restaurant, and ran into FRANK AKERS. WHOA. There are some of you who do not know Frank, but for those of you who do, you might also know that we went to school at UNC together and that I knew he was thinking about coming to live in Rio de Janeiro way back in May but hadn`t made up his mind. You might also know that we didn`t keep in touch about it and that running into him in a random restaurant in the middle of nowhere Brazil was crazy! I think he`s planning to stay in Floripa for a month with the friend he is traveling with and try to find a job doing something. The last plan I heard after we had sipped lots of caipirinhas and found our way home around 3am was that they were going to be hotel maids.

So, we spent four quiet days with gloomy weather hiking around our little beach town in Floripa. We found some awesome rock formations down by the water to scramble around on and Cortney did a bit of bouldering. We also took a walk on the beach where we saw migrating whales from the shore. We later learned they were Southern Right Whales making the swim down to Antarctica and that they were in calving season. They were probably fifty feet from the shore... near some surfers who had completely forgotten about surfing. We saw about 15 and who knows how many more there were. They kept surfacing to breath and a few of them looked like they had flipped over and were slowly moving through the water playing with their tails and fins in the waves. They were HUGE and so close to shore. Other highlights include being followed around by yet another stray dog... we named this one Stinky... and also saving a seahorse and a blowfish from certain death stranded on the sand.

After Floripa, we decided to head to Uruguay but this was not as easy as it might sound. Showing up at the bus station with no idea of the schedule seems like the wrong thing to do now since all the buses had already left for Uruguay until the following Tuesday (we were there on Sunday). However, a nice attendent squeezed us onto a bus to Porto Alegre where we spent a night since buses for Montevideo didn`t leave until the next day. Since our bus didn`t leave until 8:30pm we explored Porto Alegre for the day and it turned out to be one of the best days so far. We stored our bags at the bus station and walked to an abandoned train station about 15 blocks away where they now house modern art exhibits. We wandered around alone for a bit but were eventually found by a very cute guy who was a volunteering art student and he offered to help explain the exhibits - modern art is usually beyond me. My favorite included a series of 100 or so pictures about the life of Captain Carrot. I`ll try to post a picture of him on here. Apparently the artist`s son created the story and then the artists took a series of photos with a little carrot shaped man doing his daily activities. Hard to explain in print I guess.

We finally arrived in Montevideo early this morning and found a hostel with no trouble, took showers, and then explored the city a bit. It is a really beautiful city. It reminds me of Quito - but it is much calmer and more laid back as far as I can tell. Amy and I are very excited to be conversing a more fluently than in Portuguese and Cortney is putting up with our constant pressure for her to be practicing her Spanish.

Cataratas do Iguacu

16.5 hours on a bus to Iguazu Falls. Full of screaming babies and a rather chubby bus driver who decided to sit next to me and also decided that the most comfortable place to rest his elbow would be directly between my ribs. We arrived at 7am, rather delirious, to our hostel... out in the middle of nowhere with birds chirping and rain falling. We rested that day and woke the next to head to the Argentinian side of the falls. I was so happy to get to Argentina and launch into Spanish. It was incredible how comfortable Argentina felt just because I could communicate the things that I needed instead of trying to speak really broken Portuguese that probably sounds like Chinese to the Brazilian people anyway.

The falls were indescribable. So I really won´t try but I will say that they completely lived up to our expectations. I am going to post a couple of pictures but they don´t come anywhere close to expressing the scale of the falls. There are at least three sections to the falls so the pictures only show one section at a time and they are all massive and thunderous. We had a fantastic day... went on a boat ride that took us up under the spray of a HUGE waterfall that looked like it could have taken our boat, crumpled it up, and thrown it out to the Atlantic ocean. We did lots of hiking and checking out the different views of the falls. Today we are going to see the Brazilian side of the falls where you are supposed to get a nice panoramic view but not get up at close as the Argentinian side.

The trip is going great. We decided to speed up our exit of Brazil by a couple of days and skip a train ride we were planning on taking. Several people said it wasn´t worth the expensive tourist price. So, tomorrow we are headed to Florianopolis, a popular Brazilian tourist destination, to check out the beaches and atmosphere there. Another LONG bus ride!

Love to you all!

We are the only Americans in Brazil

We spent two glorious days in Rio de Janeiro... soaking up sun on famous Ipanema Beach and exploring the city. We moved on rather quickly though to get to Ilha Grande, and island off the coast of Angra dois Reis, Brazil. We took a ferry ride for about and hour and a half, got off the ferry, and quickly realized that everyone with a pulse from Rio de Janeiro had come to Ilha Grande the day before. ALL, I repeat, ALL of the hostels were booked. Amy and I left Cortney sitting in front of a hostel with our new friend, Bert, who gave her ice water and tried to talk to her in Portugese (sorry Cortney), in search of a place to stay. After wandering through the streets for awhile, we finally found a campground that would take us for what Amy heard as R20 (about $10) for all three of us. We ran back to get Cortney and quickly set to pitching our tent about 5 inches from the nearest one. After kicking about 2 pounds of sand into our tent while organizing our stuff (just so we could exfoliate during the night), we went to pay and discovered it would really be R20 per person. We grumbled and groaned a bit and then paid up. We left the campsite and went directly to the Hosteling Int´l Hostel which would be R20 for our own room, bathroom, and breakfast. We booked that for the next night. The island was beautiful at first glance, with a beach just 2 blocks from our campsite, boats floating in the harbor, and forested hills behind us. The one major highlight of camping was listening to drunk Portugese teenagers singing love songs at the top of their lungs and being accompanied by a guitar until they went to the bars at 11 and then listening to them return at 4am.

The next day we got up early and headed off into the woods. After climbing for about 45 minutes, we began to descend to a beach, a beautiful beach, which we passed. Another climb up over a hill and descent to yet another gorgeous beach. Nope, not yet. Two more up and overs and we finally reached Praia do Lopes Mendes (Lopes Mendes Beach) and it took our breath away. Big black rocks to the left with palm trees and misty mountains in the backgroud. Fine, white sand and turquoise water. There were very few people there compared to the other beaches and especially compared to Rio. We planted our stuff on the sand and ran for the water, which was the perfect beach temperature. We spent a few hours there (and ate the nastiest tuna sandwiches I have ever eaten in my life. I don´t think I can eat tuna for a long time... it tasted like cat food - I still maintain that we read the label wrong and it actually was catfood) and then we returned to our hostel. It took us less time to get back... about 3 hours there and 2 hours to get back. We spent our last day on the island at another beach closer to our hostel.

Now we are in Paraty, back on the mainland. It is a cute colonial town. We walked to the fort today and then explored the downtown area, which is completely paved in cobblestones. Excited to see what happens at night here.

I am learning a little bit of Portugese, which I speak very tentatively... as Amy is much better at it. Thank goodness that the Brazilian people are wonderful. So far they have been nothing but friendly. Taxi drivers always wave and give us huge smiles when they drop us off (hopefully this is not because they have just ripped us off) and hotel staff are always really sweet... even though we have no idea how to ask for the things we need. Cortney took a pillow with her to the front desk today and pointed to it and just said "otra?" They always get the general idea.

When does our flight leave again?

We're preparing to leave for our trip. Amy said yesterday that she wishes she could just wrap this week up in a box and keep it forever because this is all about the unknown. We've got one hostel reserved for our first two nights in Brazil... and after that we have no real serious plans aside from two plane tickets.

Here's the tentative plan so that I can look back on this later and laugh.
Week 1: Rio de Janeiro (arriving Sept. 5) and beaches between Rio and Sao Paolo.
Week 2: Catch a bus to Foz de Iguassu (the BIG waterfall), bus towards the coast and take the train from Curitiba to Paranagua, work our way to Florianopolis.
Week 3: S. Brazil through Uruguay
Week 4: Montevideo to Buenos Aires
Week 5: Flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego on Oct 8
Week 6: In and around Tierra del Fuego
Week 7: Tierra del Fuego and then bus to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile by Oct. 19
Week 8: Torres del Paine
Week 9-14: ??? Up through Argentina, a trip to Argentina coast, maybe stopping to see the island of Chiloe in Chile, making our way towards Valparaiso to see Amy's host family. This could also include a trip to Bolivia if budgets/time permits. Flying home on Dec. 18

We've spent the last couple of days running around picking up supplies. I put together a med kit so hopefully we're covered for everything from stomach aches to blisters. We're picking Cortney up this afternoon so she can join us for our last night in the states, tonight. Last thing to do is say bye to our friends and family here. SO EXCITED FOR TOMORROW!