THE NORTH COAST OF BRAZIL FROM SALVADOR TO BELEM - MAR 29 TO APR 10

For those of you who know me well, you know I love to read. It has always been one of my favourite things and I have read thousands of books and probably at least a hundred on this trip. Like many of us who like to read, I've always thought what a nice life it would be to be a writer. My work involves a lot of writing and I am reasonably good at putting thoughts to paper but this blog has opened my eyes. Writing is difficult and tedious and I have been doing everything in my power to avoid writing my blog the last 2 months. As I write this, I'm sitting on a ferry on the way to the Isla Margarita off the Venezuela coast in the Caribbean. I just finished another book and there's nothing to do so here I am back to the blog. My trip is ending in just over 2 weeks and I have 6 weeks of travel to catch up on in my blog. I hope I a find the will to catch up before I fly home.

My flight on the 29th of March leaves Cuiaba on time in the morning. I have to change planes in Sao Paulo and my flight to Salvador gets delayed for 3 hours. I finally arrive at 7PM and it's dark out. I hate arriving to a new city after sunset when I don't have a place to stay yet. So, I catch a cab to the historic centre of the city and get a room at a nice pousada for $50US. Brazil has been by far the most expensive country I have been to on this trip but I expect things to get cheaper as I head north.

Salvador is a huge city on the coast with a population of over 3 million people. It is one of the main cities of Carnival and its nightlife is reputed to be the best in Brazil. It is also a city with a reputation for gangs and violence. On the taxi ride into the city centre, I see poor neighbourhoods everywhere similar to the Favelas of Rio. I also notice that the demographic of the people has changed. Throughout my travels in Brazil, there has been a large part of the population that is European in decent. In the far south of the country, the majority of the populations' heritage can be traced to Italy or Germany. But here, I am once again the gringo who sticks out.

Once settled into my hotel, I go in search of a restaurant, I missed lunch today and I'm starving. There's a pizza restaurant right across the street so I grab a table on the patio. After ordering, I pull out my tablet to read like I often do when eating alone. The manager of the restaurant quickly warns me about someone trying to steal my tablet while I'm reading. He warns me about 3 times but I am able to eat my pizza and read without incident.

It's Easter this weekend and Salvador is full of tourists and locals alike. The next day, I walk the streets of the historic city centre and it is very pretty with a nice plaza and many colourful shops and cafes but I just can't seem to get into it. The downtown centre is small and I don't have to walk far to get into neighbourhoods that make me feel uncomfortable. I had planned on staying  here for 3 or 4 days but I realize that another big South American city just does not interest me anymore and I decide I'll go north in search of a nice beach. That evening, there is a big free concert in the main plaza a couple blocks away. I quite liked the first band which was a latin/reggae fussion but the main act is a rap band and I don't care much for rap and I quickly realize rap in Portuguese is especially not my thing.

The next morning I'm at the bus station a little after 10AM to catch a bus to Recife. I don't have a ticket or know when a bus leaves but my guide book says buses go 5 or 6 times a day, unfortunately the next bus is not until 1PM. I buy a ticket for $30US and I find a place to sit so I can read a book, and it is about 35C and very humid. A little before 1PM, I start heading to the bus platform. I realize I have my sunglasses on my head so I stop at a table and take off my big pack. I open my small pack in search of my case for the glasses and I pull a few things out of the pack to find it. Suddenly, a young guy grabs a small bag that I put on the table next to me and runs off. There is no way I can go after him with my 2 packs but I kind of chuckle to myself. He just stole toilet paper, bug spray and sun screen, so no big deal.

Within an hour, I'm on the bus on the way to Recife. The bus takes 5.5 hours to get there and it is just getting dark. I did not expect the city to be so big and it looks quite poor. I'm not interested in staying in another city so I decide not to stay and catch a night bus to Natal. Natal is also a big city on the coast but I'm not going to stay there. My bus arrives at about 11AM and I get a taxi to take me 20 minutes south of the city to Ponta Negro. Ponta Negro is a small town with one beautiful long sand beach with giant sand dunes on either end. The main street along the water has no building on the waterside and is full of cafes, restaurants and bars on the other side. It is very nice and has a very laid back feel. I find a nice hotel half a block from the beach and get a room with AC for $25US. It is off season so rates are half of the peak season rate.

I end up staying 4 lazy days there enjoying the beach, relaxing in cafes along the waterfront and just taking it easy. I go for long walks on the beach everyday and my big excitement while there is all about the small bag I had stolen. When I first check in, I decide to go get a little more cash out of an ATM and I can't find the small leather case that I keep my bank card and one of my credit cards in. Then I remember as I was packing up in Salvador, this leather case was sitting on the bedside table, and for some reason, I threw it in the bag with my sun screen and bug spray. I never put it there before and just realized now that it was stolen by the guy in the bus terminal in Salvador.

What a pain! Bank cards and credit cards have been my Achilles heel on this trip. I quickly cancel both cards and I'm happy to hear that no transactions have been made with them in the last 24 hours. Now, I'm down to one credit card and getting the bank card and other credit card will take weeks. I only have 6 or 7 weeks left in the trip so I decide not to get my sister to send these new replacement cards to me and I will use the last credit card for everything. I need to stock up on cash for the Amazon and for when I get to Venezuela. Venezuela has a black market for foreign cash. The situation is similar to Argentina. The government has set the exchange rate at 6.2 to 1US dollar. But this is not a true reflection of the value of the Venezuelan Bolivares. A black market has sprung up throughout the country and the exchange is about 4 times the official rate, so I need to bring Brazilian cash.

So, the first day in Ponta Negro, I withdraw $800 Reais which is about $400US. When I get back to my room, there is an email from my credit card company asking me to call them about possible fraudulent activity on my account. I call them right away and my account had been flagged because I had withdrawn money here in Brazil and earlier in the day, purchased an electronic book through Kobo which is registered as a Canadian transaction. The guys very helpful on the phone and we get the issue taken care of and he even updates my travel plans, at least so he tells me. The next day, I decide to get more money and my card won't work in any ATM. I call CapitalOne and now I'm told my account is on hold because I am late on a payment. The balance on my account is $160 with a minimum payment due 8 days ago of $10. I explain my situation, but they say there is nothing they can do until a payment is made. My sister is in Belize and won't be back until a couple of days. I have enough money for a week or so but need to get this cleared up.

I talk to Kelly 2 days later after she gets back from Belize and that morning she goes to the bank and pays off the $160 balance. But now, CapitalOne says it will be 4 business days before the account will be active again. By now, I am about 6 calls in and have worked my way up to the most senior customer service representative. Then, Kelly sends me an email saying she had just got off the phone wth the supervisor I had been dealing wth and the whole issue is not about the outstanding balance but instead is about possible fraudulent transactions. It turns out the 1st guy I dealt when I got the email did not clear the fraud alert and did not update my travel plans, but erased the ones that were previously there. So finally after about 8 phone calls, my card gets reactivated. It seems that CapitalOne does not even now how there own systems work, so frustrating.

Anyway, finally I have some cash and after 4 sort of relaxing days, I'm back on the bus heading north to Fortaleza. I take a day bus that leaves at noon and arrives in Fortaleza around 8PM. I get a room at the Ninho da Pelican for $20US. Next morning I'm very surprised to see that the hotel is right across from the beach. It was so dark, I didn't even realize last night. I stay a couple of relaxing days, this time without the bank stress before catching another night bus to Sao Luis. Sao Luis is near the coast along the Rio Anil and is the last major city or town before Belem and the mouth of the Amazon. It's fairly big, around 800,000 people but feels small and the historic centre is beautiful. so I stay a couple days there.

As I head north, I'm getting very close to the equator and it is getting real hot and humid. After 2 days in Sao Luis, I catch another night bus to Belem. Brazil is big, it seems like I have spent at least a dozen nights on the bus here.  Finally, I'm at the Amazon River. but Belem is not what I expected. I was expecting a dirty little port town bustling with activity. What I found was a city of over 1.3 million people with a bad reputation for gangs. It is dirty, hot and not a nice city to spend time in.

I get a room at the Amazonia Hotel for $25US and immediately go in search of a boat heading west up the Amazon. I walk to the river port and find out that a boat leaves tomorrow which is Friday and then the next one leaves on Tuesday. I buy a ticket which includes a state room for  $175US on tomorrow's boat. I am going to Santarem which is half way to Manaus and it will take 3 days to get there. I'll stay in Santarem for a couple of days before catching another boat west to Manaus. I'm hoping that Santarem may have some jungle tours based from there. I'm able to get some laundry done before the boat leaves the next day at 6PM. At least it is scheduled to leave at 6PM but is is almost 8PM before we are underway.

This is a part of my trip that I have been anticipating for months. I am excited to see the Rio Amazona and the surrounding jungle but more on the trip up the river and my adventures in the jungle rain forest in my next blog entry.

Ciao amigos.

THE PANATANAL, BONITO, CUIABA AND CHAPADA DOS GUIMARAES, BRAZIL - MAR 20 TO 29

Pousada Santa Clara

It was another long 13 hour bus ride to Campo Grande from Foz dos Iguacu. Campo Grande and the Pantanal is one time zone west of Iguacu so it is just after 6AM when my bus arrives. I'm surprised that a couple of tour companies have people waiting for our bus because it is so early. Both companies have offices right in the Rodoviaria (bus terminal) so I go check out what kind of tours they offer.

Caimans at the River Near Pousada

The Pantanal is a vast wetland covering 21,000 sq km of the southwest portion of Brazil and is one of the world's great wildlife preserves.  Parts of the Pantanal spill over into Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina forming a total area of more than 100,000 sq km. Partly flooded during rainy season, it is a mecca for wildlife tourism and fishing. The Pantanal plain slopes north to south and west to east into the basin of the Rio Paraguay and is rimmed  by low mountains. It has South America's highest

Peccaries

concentration of mammals including Jaguars, Ocelot, Great Otters, Maned Wolf and Anacondas. There are also over 700 different species of birds and 4 different species of  Caimans. I've read quite a bit about the different tours here and they are either focused on fishing or wildlife tours and I'm interested in both.

The first tour company offers a 3 day, 2 night tour to a pousada located 6 hours drive west of here right on the Rio Paraguay and only a couple

hours away from the Bolivian boarder. The tour includes a boat ride down the river, piranha fishing, some hiking, a jeep safari ride during the day and another at night plus all meals, private room accommodations and the price is $225US. The other tour company offers a similar package but it also includes horseback riding and the tour company owns the pousada instead of acting only as a booking agent, the other company is only a booking agent. However, the price is $265 but

River Tour

the room is a 4-person dorm. Both tours leave from Campo Grande today at 10AM in a tour company van. I also ask both companies about fishing tours, the first says no problem but it is $200US a day including 1 night's accommodations and meals. The other company tells me that they do not offer fishing trips this time year because it is rainy season and the fishing is not very good. I can't help but get the feeling that the first company is just trying to say whatever they have to in order to make a sale and whether there is

fish or not does not matter. I also get the impression that the first pousada is not that nice where as the other one looks really nice and even has a pool. So, I go with the more expensive option without any extra days of fishing.
The name of the tour company and pousada is Santa Clara and they also have a hostel just 2 blocks from the bus station. One of the tour company staff walks me there to wait for the van that leaves at 10AM. I'm able to have a shower and get changed into clean

Giant Otter

clothes and I also meet Charlotte and Joanne. They are from England and arrived on the same bus as me from Iguacu and are also going to the Pousada Santa Clara. We leave right on time and drive to another hostel to pick up Lindsay and Nick who are also from England and then we are on our way west to the pousada.
On the way, we stop at a buffet lunch restaurant which are really popular in Brazil. You can have whatever you want, you just pay by weight, usually a large plate of food costs about $10US. Around 3:30PM, we come to

a small town where a truck is waiting to take us to the pousada. We all sit on benches in the back and the truck starts down a long narrow dirt road to the pousada and we get there around 4:30PM. We see a couple of Toucans flying along the roadside along the way and there are 4 or 5 Hyacinth Macaws on the ground just a few hundred metres from the pousada. There seems to be a lot of different types of birds around the pousada.

Capybera

The Pousada Santa Clara is very nice, there's a large common area with a big patio, lots of hammocks, a pool and a volleyball court. There is also a covered dining area as well as a inside dining area and entertainment room with TV and a pingpong table. The dorm I'm in is very nice with air conditioning and private bathroom and I'm only sharing it with 1 guy from Germany.

After getting settled, the 5 of us walk to the nearby river to see the

Caimans sitting along the riverbank, they are not that big, maybe 1.5 metre from tip of tail to nose, but there's lots of them. When we get back to the pousada, there are a bunch of Peccaries around the patio area, they are similar to wild pigs but more docile. They seem used to people as we can walk right up to them and they don't seem to mind.

I go to bed early as I did not sleep that well on the night bus. Next morning,

Piranha Fishing with Max & Nick

the breakfast is server at 7AM and by 8AM we are walking to the river with our guide named Max to do a boat tour of the river. Although it is supposed to be well into rainy season and usually the rivers all would have flooded into the surrounding pastures and fields, this year the rains are late and the water level is only a metre or 2 higher than during dry season. So, the local river is quite low, in fact, it just has enough water in it to allow the boat to safely navigate it. This is good news for us because the local

animals still need to come to the river every day for water. Normally this time of year, most of the land is flooded except for a few high points which become islands and the animals become more spread out and harder to find. Dry season is the best time of the year to see animals but the river is almost at the dry season level.

The river is only 10 to 20 metres wide and only a metre or so deep. There are Caiman everywhere along the river

banks and quite a few swimming along the surface of the river.  Within a few minutes we see all kinds of birds like hawks, herons, eagles, kingfishers, cormorans, vultures and a whole bunch that I did not recognize. Then we see a Giant Otter 50 metres in front of the boat. It heads into some brush along the river bank and we notice it has a large fish in its mouth. As we pass where it disappeared, we see it sitting along the edge of the river eating a large piranha. The Giant

Otter is the second most endangered animal in Brazil next to the Jaguar, so we are really lucky to see it. A few minutes later, we see a couple of Capybaras which is the largest member of the rodent family. It kind of looks like a big brown hamster that weighs almost 20kgs. We end up seeing quite a few Capybaras and I'm surprised that they are often on the riverbank within a few metres of some of the Caimans. Max explains that Caiman only go after smaller animals and that the Capybara is too large for them to attack.

We are back from the boat tour at around 10:30AM and Lindsay, Nick and I are going to try some piranha fishing. Joanne and Charlotte are staying an extra day and will do piranha fishing on their last day.  We use a 2m long piece of bamboo with 2 metres of fishing line and a hook and we fish on the river right near the pousada with chunks of pork. We stand at the edge of the river and let the bait sink to the bottom, within 10 seconds, you either have a fish on or have lost

your bait. Within minutes, we all catch at least 1 piranha, each is about 15cm long but has an amazing set of teeth. We feed the nearby Caiman with our catch and we soon have a dozen Caimans waiting within 2 metres of us on the riverbank for the next free piranha. Within half an hour, we are all piranha fished out but we keep a couple of the larger ones to eat for dinner.

By the time we get back to the

pousada, it is lunch time and then we have a couple of hours before we are going on a hike. It's getting pretty hot and the pool looks pretty inviting so we spend the next couple hours relaxing in and around the pool. At 3PM, we get in a truck with Max and drive about 40 minutes down the road to where we are hiking. We see a couple of Marsh Deer in a field along the way. The area we hike in is some new growth forest between some grazing lands. There is very little brush between the trees and

we have 4 other women join us for the hike. These women talk during the entire hike so there is little chance of coming upon an animal as it would have heard us coming from a mile away. We do see another animal which is a rodent about half the size of a Capybara.

On the drive back, we stop at a couple of small ponds. These ponds have been cut off from the main river for 8 to 10 months and are full of Caiman. By

Joanne, Andrew and Charlotte

now, the Caiman have eaten every fish that was in these ponds and they are now starving. Most of them would not have eaten for 2 to 3 months. Until the rains come and the river floods into these ponds, the only food is other Caimans but only the sick or the ones that starve to death are eaten. We wait at one of these pools for sunset and we stand along the side of the pond among dozens of Caiman. They are very lethargic because they have not eaten for so long and they barely will move away from us. We are able to reach out and touch their tails without getting any reaction. As the sun goes down and we take pictures using the flash on our cameras, we see hundreds of glowing eyes of the Caimans.

Once it is dark, we get back in the truck and Max has a spot light out. We drive back while he looks for animals along the side of the road using the spot light and their eyes glow back at us but the only thing we see are more Caimans at each pond we pass and a couple of deer. The drive seems kind of pointless to me as Max sits on top of the cab and blocks our view down the road and the truck is quite big with a big old diesel engine that is very noisy and I can't imagine many animals

Jabiru Stork

staying near the road as we pass by. But Max assures me that they see animals all the time this way and he claims that they spotted a Jaguar this way 2 weeks before. That evening, the German guy sharing my room has left so I have the room all to myself.

The next morning we have breakfast at 7AM and walk over to the coral at 8AM for horse back riding. I can't remember the last time I have been on a horse but it has been over 20 years and I'm a little apprehensive

Hyacinth Macaws

about it. All the horses are quite small but I get the biggest of the bunch named Jorge. We ride for a couple hours on trails the wind around the pousada. Other than a few birds, we don't see any animals but I actually enjoyed the ride quite a bit.

It's about 10:30AM when we get back and we see a giant Jabiru Stork in a field not far from the coral, so we decide to walk over near it to try and get some pictures but it flies off just

as we start to get in range but I get a decent photo of it flying away. It is the 2nd largest bird in South America next to the Andes Condor. We then head back to the pousada and we have a few hours before my van leaves to take me to Bonito. Lindsay and Nick are also going to Bonito but Joanne and Charlotte are staying for another day but they wish they were coming with us as they will just be repeating something we have done already tomorrow and they will go Piranha

fishing that afternoon. We spend these few hours in and around the pool and I do some reading. As I'm reading my book, I hear some Macaws squawking as they are always play fighting. I walk a couple minutes away from the pousada and find about 5 of them in a large tree. They are Hyacinth Macaws which are mostly blue and the largest of the Macaw family and I get some nice photos of them. Just after lunch, a couple of Toco Toucans land in a tree next to the covered patio and I get some really nice close up photos of these Toucans. They are such an interesting bird to look at, they appear like a live cartoon character with their huge yellow bill.

At 1:30PM, it is time to go so Lindsay, Nick and I jump into the truck and we get driven to the nearby small town where we transfer into a small van that takes us to Bonito. I thought Bonito was only a couple hours away but we don't arrive until just after 7PM. The owner of the van has a pousada in town and I get a private room with an air conditioner for $20US and Lindsay and Nick get a room as well. We then head out to the center of town to find a restaurant and we have some fish for dinner but then decide to order a bottle of a local liquor and proceed to drink it all and you drink it straight in shots. We are all pretty lubricated by the time we get back to the Pousada around 1AM.

The next morning we were hoping to go snorkelling in the Rio Da Prata where there is supposed to be lots of fish but they only let so many people go each day and today is already all booked. So, we reserve a time for tomorrow and go to see a cave called the Lagoa Azul instead. We hire a car to drive us the 30kms to the cave and the driver waits to take us back. The moment I saw that the equipment we were getting as part of the cave tour did not include a headlamp, I knew we were not going far into the cave. The opening of the cave is large and goes downhill at about a 45 degree angle. We hike down a pathway for  couple hundred metres to a lagoon at the bottom of the cave and the water appears to be very blue in colour. It gets a bit dark at the bottom but the daylight above is still very visible and there are not any amazing stalagmites or stalactites. Overall the cave is a bit disappointing considering it costs us each about $45US between transportation and the admission price. We get back to town around 2PM and have a nice lunch and then I spend the rest of the afternoon working on my blog and reading my book.

The next morning, we drive for about and hour to the Rio da Prata. I hope this is better than the cave since it is costing us each $75US. Lunch is included with the tour and we get there at about noon so we have a buffet lunch and then start the tour at 1PM. The river is fed from an underground spring that bubbles up into a small hill. The water from the spring is crystal clear and the resulting river is small with slow moving water. Although the water is quite warm, we all have to wear wetsuits because we will be in the water for about 2 hours and the added buoyancy should help keep us from touching the river bottom which is not allowed on the tour.

We are in a group of about 12 people and a guide. We all get wetsuits on and are given a snorkel and mask. We then walk for about 1.5kms to the river and we are all hot in our wetsuits and are dying to get into the river. The river is beautiful with super clear water and there are large fish swimming around everywhere. We slowly drift downstream trying not to touch the river bottom. The depth in the river varies from about 60cm to 2m and is about 5 or 6m wide and is completely surrounded by jungle. I can't get over how big some of the fish are, the largest ones are probably 20kgs and there are so many. The amount of water in this river does not change much because it is not effected by the yearly floods and the amount of spring water remains consistent. There are 4 types of big fish that we see throughout the river, they are the Dourado, the Peraputanga, the Pacu and the Tambaqui. After an amazing 90 minutes we join onto one of the main rivers. There's still lots of fish but the river is muddy so they are hard to see clearly. About 30 minutes later we finish the snorkelling. This was one of my favourite things that I have done on this trip and would recommend it to everyone.

By the time we get back to the car, it is 4:30PM and we just have time to drive back to town so I can catch a 6PM bus back to Campo Grande. Luckily I had brought my pack in the car because we got to the bus terminal 15 minutes before my bus leaves. It takes 5 hours to get to Campo Grande and then I have a 1 hour wait before the connecting bus departs for Cuiaba in the northern Pantanal. Cuiaba is the largest city in the Pantanal with a population of about 500k. It is even hosting some games in next year's world cup. Temperature have been known to hit 45C in Cuiaba July and August so I wonder how any European teams playing here will do.

I arrive at about noon and soon find a room in the Pousada Ecoverde, or I should say, I end up sharing a room for $15US. I still want to find a tour company that offers fishing trips but there seems to be nothing available. The only tours sound just like what I did at the Pousada Santa Clara but are 3 times the cost. I talked to a French couple who get back that afternoon and I'm sure it is the same but they did not see as many animals or birds, so I'm glad I went went in Campo Grande. This town is kind of dirty and sweaty, it never seems to drop much below 35C with 80 to 90% humidity. I can't stand it and want to get out of here. I meet a British guy in the pousada who is heading to a nearby town called Chapada dos Guimaraes tomorrow. It's only an hour away but it is on top of a 800m high escarpment and is supposed to be much cooler. So, after some discussion, I'm going to go there too.

The next morning we catch a 10AM bus to Chapada. It is a much smaller town with a population just over 15k and it is much cooler here. We find some rooms in a nice pousada that was recommended to us for $40US. And then, after grabbing some lunch, we walk 40 minutes to a mirador (viewpoint) with an amazing view south of the Panatanal 800m  below us. The view is awesome and we watch some thunderstorms come rolling along the valley floor right at us and we even get the most amazing rainbow that appears to start right below us. We get back to a visitor centre just before a deluge of rain starts and we wait about 40 minutes for the storm to pass before we walk back to our pousada.
We then meet a local tour guide named Sergio. He speaks perfect English and wants to know if we want to do any tours. Both Argen and I want to go hiking so we settle on a 8 hour hike, 4 hours in to the tallest part of the escarpment and 4 hours back with some stops at some small falls where we can swim.

We are up early and on the road by 8AM. Sergio drives us into a national park and down a dirt road for about 30 minutes. We then starting walking down the remains of an old road that is now quite overgrown. It had rained hard all night but now it is starting to get sunny. About 30 minutes into the hike, we are walking along a sandy section of road where the ground is still damp from the rain, and we come across some Jaguar tracks of a mother and its cub. They can't be more than an hour or 2 old so they are probably still somewhere in the area around us. Later we come across Tapir tracks, that is one animal that I really want to see. The hike winds up and down through rocky areas, light scrub sections and jungle. Finally 3.5 hours in, we get to the small mountain  which is the tallest point in the Panatanal and is called Sao Jeronimo. It is a very steep trail to the top and we literally climb it but the view from on top is incredible. We stop and have a picnic lunch for about 40 minutes before starting back.
Once we climb down from the mountain we start back on the trail through a jungle section. We only go a couple hundred metres and we hear a combination growl/grunt noise that was very low in bass. Sergio was leading and he freaks out, turns around and yells at us to run. We get about 50m before we hear someone laughing. It is a buddy of Sergio's who had seen Sergio's truck where we left it. This guy made the sound of an aggressive jaguar trying to scare us knowing there was a mother jaguar around, it sure worked and we all have a good laugh.

We take a little different route back to the car that takes us right by a couple small waterfalls. The best thing about the falls is that there is a nice pool for swimming just below the falls and it pretty hot so we all go for a swim. Sergio then finds a very interesting fruit that looks like a big pinecone. But when he open it, there are these wedges of white fruit with a large brown seed in each wedge and it is the best jungle fruit that I have tasted so far on this trip. By the time we get back to the car and drive to town, it is almost 5PM but it was a great day and an awesome hike. We set a time to meet Sergio again tomorrow and he is going to take us on another tour which will be 3 different shorter hikes. We spend the rest of the day relaxing before going out for a nice buffet dinner and soe beers.

The next morning, we are once again off in Segio's car by 8AM. We drive east down the escarpment to the valley floor below and then head down a dirt road for 25 minutes. We then park and walk down an old dirt road for almost an hour. We come across a large rocky hill and we climb it. It is long and narrow and at one end is a really sharp rock formation called the roosters comb because it is shaped like that part of a rooster. We then climb down and continue along the valley floor to a couple of nice swimming holes along the river called Tapir Pond and Green Pond. It's a very hot day and we all enjoy a nice swim to cool down.

We then walk back to the car and drive about 40 minutes back up the escarpment to a trail head that will take us to the Dino Valle. Just as we start along the trail, we come across a troop of brown faced Capuchin monkeys. They come right down out of the tree and are obviously looking for hand outs and we cave in and give them some cookies. The Dino Valle is an area full of some interesting rock formations and is a location where some dinosaur bones were found. The highlight is a large twisted rock where the grain of the rock is in a spiral shape. It takes almost an hour and a half to walk to the far end of the Dino Valle which ends at a viewpoint overlooking the Pantanal. We then end the day by driving to the Parque Chapada dos Guimaraes where it is a short walk to a viewpoint of the largest waterfall on the escarpment.

We get back to the pousada around 4:30PM which gives me just enough time to shower and then catch a 6PM bus back to Cuiaba. I say goodbye to Argen and my bus gets me back to Cuiaba just after 7PM and I get a room back in the Pousada Ecoverde. Tomorrow morning I'm catching a morning flight to Salvador which is on the coast quite a bit north of Rio. This flight will save me over 48 hours of bus travel and the only place of significance in between is Brasilia which is just another big city.

Considering that I had not even heard of the Pantanal until I started planning this trip, it ended up being a fantastic part of my Brazil travels so far. I've seen more animals and birds here than any where else. And Chapada with the beautiful day hikes was an awesome last minute find that made my long bus ride to Cuiaba worthwhile.

I'm only planning on staying a couple days in Salvador as I am getting bored of big cities. Instead, I will push north towards Belem and the mouth of the Amazon with a couple stops at some beaches along the north coast along the way. I'm also going to book my flight home soon, probably in early June from Port of Spain Trinidad because the flight is so cheap from there.

More on my next post on the north coast of Brazil heading for the Amazon. Adios!

PUNTA DEL ESTE & COLONIA DEL SACREMENTO, URUGUAY AND IGUAZU FALLS - MAR 11 TO 19

The bus takes more than 3 hours to travel to Punta del Este from Montevideo and it's raining most of the way. It's a good thing I finished playing golf when I did. Punta del Este is located just over 140kms east of Montevideo on a narrow point at the southeast corner of Uruguay. It is a famous beach resort which caters to travellers from all over Uruguay and from both Argentina and Brazil. I'm kind of underwhelmed when I get there because I see too many high rises and too much concrete. It's almost a month past the busy season but I still find it difficult to find a room that does not blow my budget. I finally settled on a hotel in the downtown core after negotiating a 3 nights for the price of 2 deal which works out to $50US per night. It rains all the rest of the afternoon so I don't venture far. I wake up to more  rain the next morning and it is surprisingly cold; high is probably high teens. A month ago I was across the bay in Buenos Aires melting in the heat.

It rains all day but I do find a short break in the weather and walk around the perimeter of the peninsula. On the protected western side of the peninsula, it is all marinas and docks with lots of high end looking yachts. There is almost no one around, I guess when busy season ends there is not much of a shoulder season. On the eastern side of the peninsula, it is all beach as far as I can see but they are abandoned today because of the rain and there is a huge surf pounding the beach. I see a few surfers hanging out along the beach but they aren't venturing out in the heavy surf.

There are dozens and dozens of restaurants everywhere I look but at least half of them are closed. It must be hard to make money when the busy season is only a couple months long. It's actually hard to tell which restaurants are open because they are all so empty. I can't believe how few people are here. I finally find a cafe with lots of people and have a pretty decent meal for about $15US but I'm missing the market in Montevideo with all the Parrillas and fantastic beef.

The next morning it raining again and this time it rains all day and it is really windy. It almost feels like a March day in Vancouver. I spend the day working on my blog, uploading photos, watching videos and reading. I'm regretting the fact that I paid for all 3 nights upfront as part of the deal I got for the room, otherwise, I would be on a bus heading to Colonia del Sacremento.

It's raining the next morning as well but it does let up for a while so I walk to the bus station. I have to transfer buses through Montevideo to get to Colonia and I'm trying to figure out a way to do lunch in the mercado again because I'm addicted to the beef there and I think I'm suffering from withdrawl symptoms. Or maybe it is just the rain, I've seen more rain in the last 3 days than I have seen on the whole trip. I end up only having an hour layover between buses which is not enough time to go to the mercado for lunch so I have to settle for a burger in the only restaurant in the bus terminal which happens to be a McDonald's.

Colonia del Sacremento is about 200kms west on Montevideo 10 to 20 kilometers before the mouth of the Rio de la Piata which is the boarder between Argentina and Uruaguay. Buenos Aires is close across the bay but it's just far enough that you can't see it plus it's overcast and raining. Colonia was founded by the Portuguese in 1640 as is supposed to be the nicest colonial town in Uruguay and it is nice. But compared to Paraty in Brazil and a few other colonial towns that I have been to on this trip, I find Colonia does not measure up and is a bit disappointing since it was a "Can't Miss" location featured in my guide book.

Colonia is a small town and the historic centre is right on a small point on the ocean and I find a room for $35US at the Hostel Colonial. I then walk the town looking for a nice restaurant for dinner. There seems to be more people here than Punta del Este but it is not what I would call busy and many of the restaurants are closed. I'm still looking for a beef fix so I go to a Parrilla in the main part of town and it's not near as good as the meals I had in Montevideo but it is OK.

The next morning is looking a little brighter out but it is overcast and only 21 or 22C. Normally I would think how warm this is but after the weather I have seen the last couple months, I find it cold. There is a famous bull ring about 5 kms out of Colonia in an adjoining town. So, I decide to go for a walk along the river/ocean front and I finally see someone catch a fish. I've been seeing hundreds of guys fishing from shore for the last couple of months but this is the first time I've seen someone catch something. In fact, I have not even seen someone with a fish in their bucket.

It takes a little over an hour to get to the bull ring but it is not what I expected. It is called the Real de San Carlos and was built in the early 1900s but was used only for 2 years and then the government outlawed bull fighting. It was abandoned and now lies in ruin in the middle of a roadway roundabout. By now the bright skies of the morning are gone and it looks like more rain. I walk back to my hostel and a light rain starts about a half of a kilometer before I get there but it really pours down a few minutes later. It rains the rest of the afternoon but lets up to a slow drizzle in the evening. I go in search of another Parrilla which I find but again it is no comparison to the mercado in Montevideo.

I'm happy that I did not commit to 3 night this time because the weather is looking bad for tomorrow and there is not much to do here. So, after dinner I walk to the bus station and buy a ticket for the 5:30AM bus to Salto. Salto is the most northern town along the river that is on the boarder bewteen Uruguay and Argentina that has a bridge. I will cross back into Argentian to the city of Concordia and then I will catch a bus to Puerto Iguazu.

It's been a while since I've been in a small country and the bus drives most of the way across Uruguay to Salto in just over 7 hours. I then catch a bus across the boarder to the bus terminal in Concordia and buy a ticket for the 9PM bus to Puerto Iguazu. I've got almost 6 hours before my bus leaves, so check my big pack in at the bus terminal's luggage storage and I walk to the town centre to find a place to exchange US currency for Argetinian Pesos. I get a 7.5 to 1 exchange, the best I got before was 7 to 1 and the official exchange rate at the ATMs is still about 4.9 to 1. I'm sure glad I got some US dollars in Uruguay.

I'm hungry and I did not have lunch so I want dinner before I walk back to the bus terminal. They serve dinner so late in Argentina and I'm the first person into the restaurant shortly after it open it's door around 7PM. I just have enough time to eat dinner and walk back to the bus station with 30 minutes of lee way just in case. The one thing I hate paying for on the trip is cab fare. Whenever possible, I will walk to where ever I am going. Even if it means walking with my big pack for more than an hour. I just find it hard to justify the cost of a taxi when the fare is often the same price as dinner or a night's accommodation.

It is 12 to 13 hours by bus to Iguazu but my bus ends up being over 2 hours late in arriving. The bus originated in Buenos Aires and apparently there were problems with one passenger's ID when the bus was stopped by the military police and everyone's ID was checked. One of the MPs had ridden the bus with the passenger in question and they met with more MPs at the terminal and after almost an hours of talking, they finally let the guy back on the bus and we leave just before midnight. It takes 12 hours to get to Puerto Iguazu and at a police checkpoint just before town, more MPs are waiting and they haul the same guy off the bus and this time it looks like they arrest him.

When I get off the bus, there is a guy who owns a pousada looking to see if anyone on the bus needs a place to stay. He says he has a private room with bathroom for only $20US. It's only a couple blocks from the centre of town and the bus terminal so I go check it out. It is actually a suite with a little kichen  including a fridge and a separate sitting area. It's off season and this guy figures some money is better than nothing so I take the room for 2 nights.

It's a bit late to head to the falls so I decide to go get lunch and explore the town. I find a nice Parrilla and finally get that good steak I have been craving ever since I left Montevideo. The downtown core of town is small with restaurants, bars, hotels and souvenir shops everywhere. Tourism is definitely the main business here. I was hoping to change some Brazilian Reais into Pesos but it is siesta time and almost everything is closed until 5PM and the streets are deserted. As I walk by a restaurant that is open, one of the waiters says "Combio" to me which means he wants to know if I want to buy Pesos. I say yes and he gives me a real good rate and I buy just enough to get me through the next 2 days. I do not want to have any Pesos left when I cross the boarder into Brazil because Argentinian Pesos are worth so little in Brazil.

Puerto Iguazu is small, only about 25,000 people. It is tucked in the far north end of a small narrow tongue of Argentina that sticks up between Uruguay and Paraguay. This is the only part of Argentina that boarders Brazil. It is also where the Rio Iguazu meets the Rio Paraguay. Across the Rio Paraguay is the Ciudad (city) de Este in Paraguay and across the Rio Iguazu is Brazil. I'm not going to Paraguay but I walked down to the river and saw Paraguay a couple hundred metres away. That evening, I have another steak for dinner at a different Parrilla. Since I will be leaving Argentina soon, I may as well take advantage of the good beef.

The next morning I walk to the bus terminal and catch a city bus 25 minutes to the Catarata de Iguazu (Iguazu Falls). I'm at the Iguazu National Park just after 9AM and I am looking forward to seeing the falls. Iguazu Falls was named one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World by National Geographic. There is not just 1 big falls here, instead there is over 275 falls of various sizes and more than 200 of these falls are on the Argentina side. One of the aspects of these falls which is incredible is the jungle setting that surrounds them. Argentina made this area into a national park many years ago and there is only one hotel but it is at least 1 km away from the falls and the river, so it is not at all like the setting at Niagra Falls which is packed with hotels and restaurants.

Once off the bus, I walk about 1 km to the Tren de la Selva which is a small train that takes me on a 25 minute ride to the Estacion de Diablo. From there, there is a 1km aluminum walkway that crosses over mostly river and jungle above the fall until you come to a big viewing platform at the Garanta del Diablo. The viewing platform is suspended right over the edge of the waterfall. This is the biggest waterfall at Iguazu and the sound of the water is deafening and spray is being blown onto the platform soaking all the visitor's. The river above the falls is on a very flat plain and it is more like a large shallow lake than a typical river. At the falls, there is a 74 metre precipice which the water plunges down into a narrow river gorge. Over the last few millions years, erosion slowly moved the water falls up the shallow river creating over 4 kms of width to the falls and resulting in the many falls where water plunges down into the gorge. On my walk back to the train, I see large cat fish swimming in the river below the walkway and then I take the train back to the Estacion Cataratas.

I then walk down a jungle path and come to a visitor centre and restaurant. As I walk through the restaurant patio area, I see quite a few Coatis. Coatis are similar to raccoons but with a long conical snout. I see a man and a woman come out of the restaurant carrying a tray with 3 or 4 empanadas on it. As the man tries to set down the tray on a table, a Coati runs toward him and takes a flying leap and knocks the tray and empanadas flying. Within seconds, there is dozens of Coatis scrambling for the food and just as fast the food is gone, it was pretty entertaining. I  also see coatis ripping apart any plastic bags that people carry because they have learned there is often food in plastic bags. The Coatis are pretty aggressive and the big adults are kind of scary.

I then start hiking the Circuoto Superior walkway along the top edge of the falls. The walkway extends out over many falls for about a kilometer. You walk right over the edge of some falls named Hos Hermanos, Chico, Ramirez, Bossetti, Eva, Adan and Gpque Bernabe Mendez. There are viewpoint at each waterfall and there is lots of spray blowing around so I need to be careful about my camera as I don't want to have to get another. Walking this walkway is almost an interactive experience with the falls.

I then head down the Circuito Inferior trail that takes you down near the river and gives you nice views of the falls that I just walked above, the views are incredible. Here along the river are boats to take you right up near the falls and into all of the spray. I want to do this but it costs around $35US and I'm running short on Argentinian Pesos and if I go, I'll need to exchange more money which I don't want to do because I only have large sized bills to change and I will end up with Pesos when I cross into Brazil tomorrow. So, I decide to skip the boat today and I will do the boat ride tomorrow from the Brazilian side of the falls.

The Circuito Inferior trail does a loop and brings me back to the main entrance of the park where I catch a city bus back to the bus terminal. It's almost 3PM and I'm hungry so I get another nice steak meal at a Parrilla. I have just enough Pesos left for lunch, for another nice beef dinner, to pay for my accommodations and to catch the bus to the city of Foz do Iguacu on the Brazilian side of the boarder tomorrow morning.

The next morning, I catch a 9AM bus from the terminal to Foz do Iguacu. It's a city bus which surprises me because of the boarder but it stops and to let everyone get their passports stamped leaving Argentina and entering Brazil. The bus drops me off at a city bus terminal in the heart of the city. I'm surprised how much bigger the city is compared to Puerto Iguazu, it's probably somewhere around a quarter million people maybe more. I catch another city bus to the Rodoviario (bus terminal) and check my big pack there and buy a bus ticket to Campo Grande in the Pantanal. I then catch a bus back to the city bus terminal and transfer to another bus that takes me the 40 minutes to Parque Nacional Foz do Iguacu.

It's after 11AM when I get to the park. Once into the park, you need to catch a bus to take you about 15 kms to the falls. I get off one stop early to get a boat that goes to the falls. My not wanting to change more currency in Argentina comes back to bite me as the boat ride is double the price from yesterday but I'm here so I am going. First, there is a 15 minute "Jungle Ride" on a truck down a narrow road surrounded my jungle. Of course we don't see anything other than trees. Then we get to the river, the boats are exactly the same as the ones in Argentina and the trip last for 40 minutes. We're a couple kms downriver and it takes about 10 minutes to up to the falls. There are fantastic views of the falls but I left my camera locked in a locker on shore because we were told we would basically be having a full shower under the falls. We soon move towards one of the small falls, and the warning was accurate, we all get absolutely soaked.

By the time we are back on shore and I catch the bus to the falls' viewing area it is past 3:30PM. I need to be at the park entrance and on a bus heading back to town no later than 5PM as my bus leaves for Campo Grande at 6:30PM. I'm worried I won't have time to do the entire walkway.

The Brazilian side of the falls is a lot different than the Argentina side. You are across the river from most of the falls but they are still quite close so the vistas are awesome and I think the photos today will be even better than yesterday. The viewing pathway is only a couple of kilometres but there are many viewpoints along the way. The highlite of the walk is an aluminum walkway that extends out into the river just below the Garanta del Diablo which is one of the falls partially in Brazil.

I have just enough time to do the entire walk at a nice pace taking photos before I catch the bus back to the park entrance and then catch a bus back to town and then take another bus to the Rodoviario. I get there at a little before 6PM. I'm starving as I had no lunch but there is no time for anything other than a greasy burger in the bus terminal's cafe before I board the bus to Campo Grande.

I loved Iguazu, I've been looking forward to seeing the falls since before I left Vancouver. This was one of my pins on the map of places I had to go and it did not disappoint. I'm happy that I saw it from both sides, my favourite side for the experience was in Argentina but the grand views and beautiful photo opportunities from the Brazilian side were incredible. I'm excited about going to the Pantanal, it is supposed to be the best part of Brazil for viewing animals. It is also suppose to have some fantastic fishing so hopefully I will catch some fish and see some animals.

Bye for now.

PARATY, SANTOS & PORTA ALEGRE, BRAZIL AND MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY - FEB 27 - MAR 5

It is pouring rain for most of the 2 hour drive to Paraty but it stops a few minutes before getting to town. It's about 3PM and I find a room in a nice pousada for $30US per night. Although the rain has stopped, many of the streets in town are flooded. Nevertheless, I decide to go for a walk in the old town core. Paraty is supposed to be the nicest colonial town in all of Brazil. The oldest part of the town is about 6 square blocks right along the coast to the east and a river to the north and south. The streets are cobblestone and very narrow, they are pedestrian only. All the building in this area are hundreds of years old and there are many restaurants, bars, shops and artist studios. Most of the restaurants have small interiors with tables setup in front of the restaurant right on the street.

Within 20 minutes, it is starting to rain again so I cut my walk short and go back to the pousada. The rain lasts the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening. Around 8PM it finally stops. I head to the main street west of the old town and find a busy pizza restaurant for dinner, the pizza is excellent. I'm looking forward to meeting Louisa and Jason here tomorrow. I met them in Nicaragua about 10 months ago and our paths are crossing again. Since I last saw them, they got engages on Valentine's Day.

The next morning I wake up to the sound of more rain, so I decide to work on my blog and do some reading. Just after noon, it stops raining and I head out for a walk. Some of the flooding caused by the rain seems to have receded, but in the old part of town there is flooding caused by a real high tide. This happens quite frequently and the road fills up with water but the sidewalks and building remain dry although there are parts of the old town that I can't get to without getting my feet wet. When I get to the main plaza, I find that there is a stage being setup with a nice looking sound system. It is the town's birthday today and there going to be a big concert in the plaza tonight.

It starts raining lightly once again and within a few minutes it is pouring so I take refuge in the pousada again. When I get back to my room, I have a message on my tablet from Louisa; Jason and her have just arrived into town so we set a place to meet at 6PM and we plan on going out for drinks then dinner. It rains all afternoon and is still raining when I go meet Louisa and Jason. The rain has chased almost everyone in doors so the streets are almost deserted. We head into the old town looking for a nice bar but most of them only have outside sitting areas that are not covered so it takes a while to find a indoor place. We spend a couple of hours conversing about what we have been doing since we last saw each other. I especially enjoyed hearing about the volunteer work they have done; first at a turtle hatchery in Costa Rica and more recently at a monkey and bird rehab center in Bolivia.

After a couple hours, the rain stops and we decide to go check out one of the outside bars but after one drink it is raining again. We duck into a small cafe for dinner. We enjoy the live music and dinner is ok but nothing special. Finally around 10PM it stops raining for good. We decide to head to the plaza and within 15 minutes a Brazilian rock band starts to play. I think the rain keeps a lot of people away as there are not many people in the plaza and those there are very subdued. After listening to the band play for about 40 minutes we decide to get another drink somewhere; the band is not bad but all the songs are in Portuguese. All the bars are completely deserted and after 1 more drink, we call it a night.

The next day it is not raining but it is still very overcast. After breakfast, I go for a 4 hour walk, at first I try to walk to what I thought was a nearby peninsula with some beaches. But after an hour, I realize it is many kilometres away so I end up walking round the perimeter of the whole town where I find a different beach called Praia da Pontal across the river to the north of town. On my way back to town to get some lunch, I run into Louisa and Jason and we decide to meet up at 7PM for dinner.

We go to another restaurant in the old town and I order fish. It tastes strange and I'm unable to eat it, I think it may have been in the fridge too long so I hope I don't get sick from it. I really have not had a good meal in Brazil yet, I miss the Argentinian beef. It has been raining lightly on and off all evening and the town is very quiet for a weekend. We have a couple drinks after dinner but there is no one else around so we say goodbye and call it a night. I'm heading south to Uruguay and they are heading north to Rio to fly to Australia in a few weeks so I won't be seeing them again on this trip.

At noon the next day, I catch a bus to the city of Santos which is located on the coast just east of Sao Paulo.  The bus takes the coastal road and there are beautiful beaches every few kilometers and the bus stops at everyone of them. It is only a little over 200kms to Santos but it takes about 5 hours to get there. Santos is the largest port in Brazil and has a population of just over 400,000. It is also a good alternative transportation hub to Sao Paulo for buses heading south, it has a beautiful beach that stretches for several kilometers right in front of the main city and it was made famous by it's futbol (soccer) team in the 1950s and the team's star player, Pele. Santos was the only team Pele played for other than the national team until he was coaxed out of retirement to come play for the New York Cosmos in the old NASL. He scored over 1000 goals during his career for Santos and I really want to see the stadium he played in and the Santos Futbol Club Museum. Tomorrow is Sunday so maybe there is even a game I can go to.

My guide book has a full page write-up on Santos but does not list any places to stay. Instead it just says there are many hotels and pousadas in the center of the city 2 or 3 blocks west of the beach. The bus terminal is quite a ways from the beach so I catch a taxi to the beach and start walking to find a place to stay. I walk for about an hour and I don't see any hotels or pousadas other than a couple of really high end hotels right across the street from the beach. Finally as it gets dark, I find a pousada and it is only $25US per night so I take a room and then grab some dinner at a nearby restaurant.

The next morning I walk to the Santos Futbol Stadium and visit the museum in the stadium.  Of course Pele is the main attraction and there is one whole corner just on his soccer exploits. all the various trophies they won are on display including a couple of world club championship trophies. Most are from Pele's era in the late 1950s and the 1960s but the are a few from every decade. I buy a Santos jersey as I leave the museum and I see a sign about a game today at 4PM against Corinthians. It's only 11:30AM and there is already lots of fans around wearing Santos shirts but then I see dozens of buses and the fans are getting on these buses to go to Sao Paulo to watch the game. I decide I don't want to be the only English speaking person on the bus so I don't go with them.

It's a beautiful day so I decide to walk down to the many beaches that fronts the city. I walk north along the whole length of the waterfront including along Praias Jose Minino, Gonzaga, Boqueirao, Embare, Aparecida, and Ponta until the beaches end and the city curls west along the Santos Channel. There is a large pier located here called Fisherman's Wharf and true to its name, it is full of people fishing. I've been seeing lots of people fishing along rivers and along the ocean ever since I got to Chile but I am yet to see someone actually catch something. That evening after dinner, I walk to a nearby mall that has movie cinemas and watch the new "Die Hard 5." They should have stopped after the 4th movie because this movie was terrible and the story was ridiculous.

The next morning I catch a bus south to Curitiba. Curitiba is a fairly large city a couple hours away from the coast. I need to decide if I want to spend more beach time at a coast destination like Florianopolis or whether I want to continue south B-lining my way to Uruguay. I've been on the Brazilian coast for more than 3 weeks, so I decide to keep heading south. I arrive in Curitiba around 6PM and immediately buy another bus ticket for the night bus to Porto Alegre leaving around 9PM. So I check my bags in at the bus station and go find a restaurant for dinner. I come back to the bus station around 8:30PM and grab my bags and my bus leaves right on time.

I arrive into Porto Alegre around 9AM and I get a room in the Hotel Erechim for $25US per night. Porto Alegre is located on a large estuary just inland from the coast. It used to be a large shipping port but the port was closed more than 20 years ago. It is now the cultural centre of the southern part of Brazil which has a huge German and Italian influence because of the high number of immigrants from these countries in the first half of the 1900s. It is also the largest city in the south at over 1.4 million people. The city is quite modern, very clean and has the feel of a European city. I spend the afternoon walking the main downtown core and shopping districts. That evening I have dinner at a traditional Brazilian restaurant where waiters bring meat on a large skewer to your table and cut off pieces until you do not want more. It was the best meal I have had in Brazil so far and cost only $15US.

The next morning I check out of the hotel and go buy a bus ticket to Montevideo. The bus does not leave until 8:30PM so I check in my backpack at the luggage storage place in the terminal and then go for a real long walk. I first head to a large park in the centre of the city called Parque Farroupilha, and then I walk along the waterfront back to the main downtown centre. I go back to the same restaurant for another great dinner before heading back to the bus station to grab my stuff and catch the bus.

Travel in Brazil has been long and expensive, in fact, it is more expensive here than anywhere else that I have been. A 2 to 3 hour bus trip cost around $20US,  5 to 7 hour bus ride costs around $40 US and a 12 to 14 hour overnight bus costs about $60US. With the size of Brazil, there is a lot of long bus rides coming up. After Uruguay, I'm travelling to Iguazu Falls and then the Pantanal area in the southwest part of Brazil. Then I want to head to Salvador on the coast north of Rio and it is over 48 hours by bus from the Pantanal. So, I think I may try to fly and it will probably be no more expensive than the bus.

I wake up on the bus around 7AM somewhere in Uruguay. They didn't even wake me up when we crossed the boarder which is surprising. The bus driver's assistant had everyone's passport so I guess he got the required exit stamp in Brazil and the Uruguay entry stamp. The bus arrives in Montevideo around 10AM and I go in search for a place to stay. The first couple of places I go to are expensive, around $50US. Then I stumble across a hostel 1 block from the main plaza in the old part of town and I get a private room for only $25US per night.

I need Uruguay pesos so I go in search of a bank. I walk down the main business street in the downtown core and there are very few banks and if they have an ATM, there is only one with a large lineup. There is only 2 types of banks that I can find with ATMs and my bank card and credit cards do not work in either of them. I'm just about to give up and go call my bank when I finally get my bank card to work. When I first put it in the ATM, I have to select "Foreign Mastercard;" not really very intuitive. I notice there is an option to take out US currency, I'll have to take advantage of that later because I will be back in Argentina when I go to Iguazu so I need more US dollars to take advantage of the grey market exchange. I also need to start stockpiling some US money for when I go to Venezuela. Venezuela has a grey market exchange similar to Argentina, but instead of getting 50% more when you exchange US dollars instead of using an ATM, you get 400% more. I'm going to want to have around $2000US in cash when I go to Venezuela.

It is nice to be back in a Spanish speaking country again. In Brazil, I really struggled communicating because Portuguese is so different from Spanish. Even the small amount of Spanish that I have learned makes a huge difference. It also makes me feel much more comfortable doing all the day to day stuff like ordering a meal in a restaurant or buying a bus ticket. But within 10 days or so, I will be back in Brazil and I expect even less people to speak English in the Pantanal compared to the Brazilian coast.

By the time I find an ATM that works, it is almost 4PM. I grab some lunch and decide to find out if there are any futbol games being played in town this weekend, it is Thursday tonight. There are 2 big teams in Montevideo, the first is Nacional and the second is Atlectico Penarol. When I ask about futbol games in the hostel, they tell me that both teams are playing at home this weekend, Atlectico Penarol is playing Saturday evening and Nacional is playing Sunday evening. So I decide to go to the Saturday night game and I'm told that good tickets are $10 to $15US.

The old historic part of Montevideo is on a small peninsula at the southeast tip of the city. And the next morning I decide to go for a walk along the peninsula's waterfront. Just before I get to the tip of the peninsula, I come across a large market called El Mercado del Puerto, it is a market that is full of Parrilla type restaurants and is supposed to be where the best grilled beef is served in all of Uruguay. There are dozens of Parrillas to choose from within the market. It's 12:30PM and I did not have breakfast, so I decide to pick a Parrilla for lunch. In every Parrilla, there is a huge grill prominently setup and there are steaks, chicken, sausages and seafood grilling everywhere I look. I finally choose a place and order a rib eye steak and I get a huge, thick 500 gram steak and it is awesome. It is as good as any of the steaks I had in Argentina and it costs less than $20US.

After lunch I continue on my walk around the peninsula and then I walk along a large beach until a get to another point a couple kilometers away. Then I decide to take a road that cuts through what looks to be a park on my map and this road will take me back to the main square near my hostel. This park ends up being a golf course called the Club de Golf del Uruguay. I stop at the clubhouse on my way bye and I ask how much it is to play. I'm told that weekends is members only but on Monday it is free for anyone. I can't believe there is free golf on a private course 1 block off the ocean with nice views of the ocean. I confirm that they have clubs to rent and they have top of the line Ping irons and woods for $40US. So, I guess I am going to stay through Monday and play golf.

On my way back to the hostel, I withdraw $300 in US currency which is the maximum the ATM allows and I will do the same tomorrow. It is almost 5PM when I do get back to the hostel. I spend the next couple of hours reading and working on a new blog post. The next morning I sleep in a bit and then work for a while on my blog but all I can think of is El Mercado del Puerto and a nice steak. So, at noon I walk to the mercado and have a incredible, huge sirlon steak at a different Parrilla than yesterday. I think I'm getting addicted to the beef here. I then spend a couple of hours looking for a pair of cheap runners or canvas shoes with decent treads for use during a trek in a flooded jungle or marsh area of the Pantanal. I've been warned that a couple days trekking in shallow water will make most shoes a throw away when you finish so I don't want to use my good hiking boots when I get to the Pantanal and/or the Amazon. But, I am not able to find anything suitable in a size 12 that is cheap.

The next day I once again have lunch at El Mercado del Puerto. I have a New York steak at another Parrilla and it is delicious. I then spend a couple hours walking throughout a market area of town before heading back to the hostel. At 5PM, I walk to the Centenario Stadium in the Parque Batlle which can seat over 75,000 people. I buy a ticket to the game for $15US and sit centre of the stadium about 10 rows up from the field. The stadium seating areas are designed so that you cannot go from 1 part of the stadium to another. This way, they can seat fans in sections according to which team they support and then these fans are separated from each other by the stadium design to help avoid possible violence between rival fans. There is even a moat around the playing field to keep spectators of the field and the players get to the pitch via a stairwell under the field along one sideline.

The stadium is about half full tonight but one end zone area is just packed with supporters of the Penarol team. Everyone in this section is wearing the home team's yellow jersey and they have drums playing non-stop like Brazilian fans do. They also sing non stop and most of the fans throughout the stadium join them for many of these songs. I never did figure out the name of the team that Penarol played but the visitor's were never really in the game and Penarol won 2 - 0 but the game was never in doubt but I really enjoyed it, especially all the singing and the drums

The next morning I get up late and read for a while before once again going to El Mercado del Puerto for some grilled steak. It's a good thing I'm leaving tomorrow after golf because I could eat here every day. After lunch I walk just over an hour to the bus terminal and buy a ticket for the 3:30PM bus to Punta del Este. I figure this should allow me lots of time to play golf in the morning before catching the bus. The est of the day I spend relaxing in the hostel reading and watching some video on my tablet.

The next morning I'm up early and catch a taxi to the bus terminal around 8AM. I then check my large backpack in at the luggage storage place in the terminal and then walk 40 minutes to the golf course. I get the rental clubs and some balls then head to the practise green to work on some putting and within about 20 minutes, I tee off with an American Marine who works at the US Embassy. The course is  over 50 years old and is a private club but the do most of their major maintenance on Monday's so that is why it is free. The only impact the maintenance made to my round was that a couple of tee boxes were closed for repairs. Otherwise, the course was a really nice tree lined layout with lots of bunkers that I seemed to be in all day long. I was hitting the ball great off the tee but my long irons, fairway woods and chipping were terrible and I end up shooting a 98.

There was almost no one on the course so we finish the round in just over 3 hours and I walk back to the bus station arriving at around 1PM and I'm able to change my ticket to an earlier bus that leaves at 2PM. The weather has been mostly sunny the whole time I've been in Montevideo but it is clouding up a lot this afternoon so I hope that does not mean that I'm in for some bad weather. Punta del Este is a beach resort town about 100kms east of Montevideo and I really want a couple nice days on the beach before heading inland to Iguazu and the Pantanal.

I was looking at my travel map on my blog the other day and I'm starting to fill up all of my destinations. I only have more of Brazil and Venezuela to go so I'm starting to think of when I will come home. I think I will likely fly home at the end of May from Trinidad and Tobago. It is less than half the price to fly from there than it is from anywhere in Venezuela. So, I will be seeing everyone from home in a couple of months and I must say that I'm starting to think a lot about home.

Adios for now amigos.

CABO FRIO, BUZIOS, ANGRA DOS REIS & ILHA GRANDE, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 16 - 27

Praia do Forte

I'm up early the morning of Saturday the 16th to go to Cabo Frio. I don't have a bus ticket but I think there are hourly buses so I leave the hostel around 9AM and catch a cab to the Rodoviaria Nova Rio which is the main bus terminal just north of Centro. I buy a ticket for a 10:30AM bus and then grab some breakfast in the terminal. Cabo Frio is a beach side town about 150 kms north east of Rio. It has a population of a little over 140,000 people and is supposed to have some beautiful beaches that aren't quite as crowded as the Rio beaches. My bus leaves right on time but it takes longer than I expected to get there as we have 4 or 5 stops along the way.

The bus arrives around 1:30PM and I find a room in the Pousada Velas ao Vento for $35US per night. I really want to go to the beach and have a swim because I have not swam in the Atlantic Ocean on this trip yet. So, I quickly get settled into my room and put on swim shorts and head to the nearby beach. It's a 4 or 5 block walk to the beach and the beach is a white sand crescent beach that stretches for about 7 or 8 kms. The east side of the beach near town is called Praia do Forte because of the ruins of an old Fort on the nearby point and the western part of the beach is called the Praia das

Dundas. The Praia do Forte is packed full of people and it is the most protected from the wind and the waves. The Praia das Dundas is far less crowded but more exposed to wind and waves and has quite a few surfers and kite surfers enjoying themselves. I find a nice section of the beach a little west of town, it's not too crowded and not to rough for swimming. The water is nice and warm, I would guess around 26 or 27C and the weather is hot and sunny; I spend a couple hours just relaxing on the beach and spending time in the water. I then walk along the beach to Forte Soa Matheus on the eastern point of the bay.

By the time I get there it is almost 5PM so I decide to walk back to the pousada. I guess I was not paying that much attention to exactly where the pousada was and the map that the tourist office gave me is the worst map I've seen on this whole trip. It only shows the main roads in the downtown core and the way it is drawn does not reflect the shape of the town centre. It shows the town as being in a standard grid but the town is not; many of the streets are curved or at funny angles and I seem to be going around in circles. It does not take me long to get within 3 blocks of the pousada but it then take me almost an hour to find it. Complicating matters is the fact I can't remember the name of the pousada so it's hard to ask for directions but I finally find it.

I'm surprised that the pousada does not have Wi-Fi. This is the first time in months that I have not had Wi-Fi and I'm surprised that a place in the modern part of Brazil doesn't have it. In fact, I've only stayed in places without Wi-Fi 5 or 6 times this whole trip. I'm supposed to be getting a message from Hannah from England confirming her travel plans on a trip to Brazil as we had discussed meeting up in a few days to go to Ilah Grande; I travelled with Hannah months ago to the Corn Islands in Nicaragua so it will be nice to meet up again. I've also finished my most recent book on my Kindle App so I would like to

download a new book. Hopefully I can find a restaurant or a cafe with free Wi-Fi. With that in mind, I go to 5 or 6 restaurants but none of them have Wi-Fi and I finally give up and have dinner at a pizza place. On my way back to the pousada, I see a McDonald's restaurant, they always have free Wi-Fi so I'll stop by there sometime tomorrow.

I sleep in a bit and spend a couple of hours writing my next blog post. By the time I'm ready to head out, it is almost noon. I haven't had breakfast and I'm starving so I decide to go to the McDonald's for

a burger and fries and the free Wi-Fi. There's a message from Hannah and she is going to be a couple days later leaving Rio than I expected but we agree to meet up on Ilha Grande on the 24th. I then find a new book to download to my tablet. I also can't figure out why my tablet is showing the time as 11AM and not noon. I finally do some searching on the internet and find that daylight savings ended last night at 2AM, who knew.

I walk back to my pousada and drop off my tablet and then walk down to the beach. I go back to the same not so crowded spot on the beach and spend a couple hours there. Then I decide to walk to the far west end of the beach. It's farther than I think and after almost 2 hours of walking and at least another kilometre to go, I turn back. But I do get to watch some great kite surfing and some of the kite surfers get unbelievable air jumping the waves.

It's almost 6PM when I get back to the pousada, it's a little too early for dinner so I spend a couple hours reading. I then go to a riverfront section of town that has lots of nice restaurants and bars hoping to have a nice dinner. I order some fish that the waiter recommended but it is badly overcooked and not very good. It's disappointing because it was an expensive dinner.

The next morning I check out of the pousada by 8:30AM and walk down to the bus station to buy a bus ticket to Buzios. Buzios used to be a small fishing village about 190kms from Rio that nobody knew about. Then in the 1950s, stories and pictures about Bridgette Bardot vacationing on the Buzios beaches started circulating around the world and almost overnight the Brazilian jetset turned the small town into a fashionable resort. Buzios is located on a small spider shaped peninsula and there are 25 beautiful beaches within a couple kilometres of town. Unfortunately, no buses from the terminal go to Buzios, I need to take a city bus that I can catch across the street. I hate taking city buses with my big backpack. Although these buses are cheap, they are crowded and there is usually nowhere to put my backpack. When the bus pulls up, it is standing room only but luckily there was a little space to put my backpack in front of the first row of seats.

Ilha de Cabocla

It takes almost an hour to get to Buzios and the bus drops me off at the edge of the main down centre. There is a tourist office right where I get off the bus and I grab a map there. I girl who speaks English at the office says she can help find a hotel or hostel. Everything she tells me about in town is way over my price point but then she says that I can get a private room with bathroom for $40US at the Pousada Vila Satiliana less than 10 minutes out of town. My guide booked warned that Buzios is very expensive for accommodations so $40US doesn't seem to bad. This girl offers to walk there with me so I can see it and it's nice. Then when she tells the pousada owner the price she quoted me and there has been a mistake; the rooms is supposed to be $80US per night but the owner agrees to honour the price I was given.

After checking in and getting settled in the room, I head for Praia Azeda for an afternoon at the beach. I grab a couple of empenadas for lunch as a pass through town and it's a beautiful town. Most of the roads are closed to cars and there are restaurants, cafes and bars everywhere. There are also lots of nightclubs, stores for shopping and small art galleries. It's very touristic but despite that, has a nice look and feel. The town follows the contour of Praia Canto and is only about 3 blocks deep. The is a scenic island called Ilha de Cabocla a few hundred metres offshore with a large cruise ship sitting just

off the island. Apparently this time of year there is a cruise ship here almost every day. I walk along the seawall for more than a kilometre and then cut through a residential area before cutting down to Praia Azeda. It's a small beautiful beach that is tucked into a small bay near the very tip of the peninsula. There is no houses or anything around so it has a nice remote feel. There is only a few small structures built to service patrons on the beach with food and drinks. The beach is very crowded and it's very hot so I pay $7US to rent a beach chair and a sun umbrella for the afternoon.

Praia Azeda

With all the little bays and beaches around Buzios, there is always a few that are protected from the wind and waves no matter what direction the wind is going. And today, Praia Azeda is one of these beaches that is protected so there is no surf what so ever. Again the water is very warm, somewhere in the high twenties so it a nice day at the beach. I just have to remember to put screen on after every dip in the water and not drink too many beers. Around 4:30PM, I walk back to the pousada passing through town along the way, it's about an 50 minute walk. I relax in the pousada for a couple hours before walking back to town for dinner at a small outdoor cafe. I like this place.

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The next day I work for an hour or so on my blog and read for an hour before heading for the beach. Today I'm going to a couple of beaches right at the end of the peninsula called Praia Joao Fernandes and Joao Fernandinho; they are side by side with a small rock outcropping between them. It's almost the same walk to these beaches as yesterday only a little farther. Once again I grab lunch as I cross through town and there is another cruise ship in the bay. Again there are no houses overlooking these beaches and they are quite a bit bigger than the small beach from yesterday. The water is nice and calm again today and this time I don't bother with renting a chair and umbrella.

Praia Joao Fenandes

I stay at the beach until about 5:30PM before finally walking back to town. I'm hungry so I decide and stop at a Subway shop and just grab a sandwich before heading back to my pousada. I was planning on heading to town for a drink that evening but I get wrapped up writing my blog and then reading my book so I don't go anywhere.

I've got 1 more full day in Buzios and I want to explore a few more beaches. So that morning I head to a nearby beach that is closer to the start of the peninsula called Praia Tataruga. It's a nice beach facing north up the coast but it is a little

more exposed and there is a small surf coming in. I stay for about an hour and go for a swim but it's not as nice as other beaches I went to so I decide to try another beach. I cross the peninsula which is about 1.5 kilometres wide and go to Praia Ferradura located at the end of a long inlet. The inlet faces south down the coast and the beach is a large 1km or more crescent shaped beach. Most of the beach is fairly exposed to the wind and some fairly big surf but the east side of the beach is protected and I hang out there for about and hour. This beach is right in the middle of a residential neighbourhood so it does not have the same vibe as the other beaches I've been to so I decide to end my day back at Praia Azeda which is my favourite of all the beaches.

Praia Ferradura

Later as I'm walking back to the pousada, I stop at the bus station and buy a ticket to Rio for the morning. Once there, I will buy another ticket to Angra dos Reis which is about 150kms south of Rio. I spend another quiet evening at the pousada watching a couple of videos that I had downloaded onto my tablet.

The next morning I leave the hostel at 8:45 to catch a 9:30AM bus to Rio. It arrives at about 12:30PM but it takes me a while to figure out which bus company sells tickets to Angra dos Reis. I finally find the right company's ticket office but there is a lineup of about 20 people and only one ticket window is open. I'm hoping to get through this lineup in time to catch the 2PM bus but the line is no moving very fast. At 1:55PM, I finally get through the lineup and I'm able to buy the last ticket on the bus. The moment I have the ticket in hand, I literally run to the platform where the bus is leaving from and within 2 minutes of getting on the bus, it's on its way.

The 150km drive from Rio along the Costa Verde highway is amazing. The coast has all kinds of small towns and beautiful beaches tucked into small bays all the way there. Angra dos Reis is a town right on the coast with a population of over 120,000 people. Its main industries are ship building and fishing. It is also the main port where ferries come and go to the nearby Ilha Grande. It's too late to catch a ferry as it is almost 5PM when I arrive so I need to stay the night but I decide to stay for 2 nights because I'm not meeting Hannah for a couple of days. I walk from the bus terminal to the main part of the city and find a decent room in a nearby hotel for $30US per night. The only downside is that there is no Wi-Fi.

Angra dos Reis

By the time I'm in the room and settled it is almost 7PM and I'm hungry because I did not have time for lunch. So, I go in search of a restaurant and I can't find anything other than a hamburger/sandwich cafe which I reluctantly settle for. The next morning a decide to go for a walk around the downtown core looking for a better restaurant for dinner tonight. I find some nice restaurants tucked along one block of the waterfront so at least I know where I'm eating tonight. I then grab some empanadas and drinks to go and walk along the ocean road that winds it way south out of town in search of a beach. I

walk for a couple hours and find a spot where locals are swimming but there is no beach as the tide is up high right to the seawall and I finally give up. On my way back, I look down into the water which is tight up to the seawall I'm walking on and I notice a sea turtle and over the next 20 minutes I see a dozen more. That's a good sign as we are very close to Ilha Grande and I'm hoping to do some snorkelling there.

I'm about half way back to town and the bright blue skies have suddenly gotten very dark and ominous, I can tell it's going to rain soon so I pick up my pace.

Just as I get with 2 blocks of the hotel it starts to rain lightly and within seconds of getting to the hotel the floodgates open and it is pouring. This is not like heavy rain in Vancouver, it is more like 10 thousands buckets being dumped down at the same time. Within minutes, the streets are under a few centimetres of water. The storm last several hours with lots of thunder and lightning, hopefully the humidity drops a bit after this as it was extremely wet out this morning.

Finally at around 8PM, the rain almost stops so I

take advantage of the lull to head to one of the restaurants I saw this morning where I have Frango Cubana (frango means chicken in Portuguese). I'm not sure exactly how it is cooked so I guess it will be a surprise. When it come, it's in a cheese sauce which looks good but it is so thick and totally tasteless and just dripping in grease; I can barely eat it. So far, I'm missing the good food I was eating in Argentina and Chile, especially the beef. I was eating fantastic Argentina steaks for less than what I paid for this lousy chicken and I had some bad meals in Rio and Cabo Frio as well.

Wharf at Vila do Abraao

I'm up at a decent time to get all my stuff packed and ready to go. Then I walk down to where the ferry docks and buy a ticket for the 11AM sailing for $12US. I then go back to the hotel and an hour later grab my stuff and head for the ferry. The ferry is a catamaran passenger ferry that holds about 80 people. It makes an hour long crossing to Ilha Grande 3 times a day. The weather is beautiful as we cross to the island and the storm last night definitely knocked some humidity out of the air. The ferry is taking us to the largest settlement called Vila do Abraao on the northern end of the island and there is a Cruise ship moored in the bay as we come in.

It is Saturday and not the best day to get a room here as weekends are always the busiest time. I meet a young Brazilian women who offers to take me to some hostels and pousadas. She gets a small commission from the hostel but I don't mind because my guide book has no accommodations for here listed so I'm flying blind. We go to at least 10 different places, everything is either completely booked or very expensive ($75US or more). By now the heat is really getting to me as I walk around with my big pack on, so I finally agree on a small suite with a 2nd double bed in a loft and it has a

Praia Lopes Mendes

small kitchen as well for $60US but I only take it for 1 night. Maybe Hannah needs a room and we can split the cost? If she already has booked something, I will check out room options in the morning as about half of the people here will be leaving tomorrow.

The place I'm staying has WiFi but there is barely enough bandwidth to open Gmail but I'm able to get an email out to Hannah about the room. She sends me a message back a short time later to say that she had already booked a room; she is in 3 week vacation mode and not long term traveller mode meaning everything is pre-planned and pre-booked. No problem, one place that I saw that was cheap said they had rooms available tomorrow.

I decide to explore the town and it is small, probably only 2500 to 3000 people and it is only 7 or 8 square blocks in size. There is quite a large bay on one side of town but not any real nice beaches. Ilha Grande is very mountainous and there are steep hills surrounding the backside of the town. Ilha Grande used to house a large prison but it was closed in the 1960s. Because of the reputation of the island as a prison, it sat pretty much untouched for about 30 years other than a few very small fishing villages along the inside shore facing the mainland. Finally, someone noticed some of the fantastic beaches on the east side of the island, the most well known being Praia Lopes Mendes which Footprint ranks as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. With the islands close proximity to Rio and Sao Paulo, it has quickly become a major destination for foreign and domestic tourists. But so far, the government has not allowed any major resorts on the island so it still has a deserted island charm even though it has become a frequent stop by the many cruise ships that cruise these waters December through March.

Tomorrow I want to go to Praia Lopes Mendes and there are 2 ways to get there; for $12US I can catch a boat there and back or I can hike along a seaside trail about 2 hours. I was originally thinking of the hike but after walking around for more than an hour looking for a room in 90% plus humidity and mid thirties temperature, I decide I will take the boat. So, I'm up early and walk to the Pousada Ilha Grande and get a room for $35US and they promise it will be ready to check-in by 10:30AM. I go back and pack my stuff and check out but when I get to the pousada, my rooms not ready. Finally around 11AM my room is ready, I quickly get changed into beach wear and grab my snorkelling gear, sun screen and day pack and head to town to buy tickets for the boat. The last boat leaves at 11:30AM and I just have time to get my ticket, buy some water and snacks and then jump on the boat just before it leaves.

It takes the boat an hour to get to a bay called Saco das Palmas where we are dropped off. It is then a 15 minute walk over the isthmus of a peninsula to get to Praia Lopes Mendes, this saves over an hour in the boat with an exposed ocean and rough seas. Just this short walk has me drenched in sweat as there is a decent hill to go over and I'm so glad I did not choose the 2 hour hike. The beach is beautiful, the trail comes out on the west end of the beach and then the beach does a slow curl for about 2 or 3 kms to the east and the sand is powder white that gently slopes into the water.

Almost everyone at the beach is at this west end near the trail but I don't know why they don't walk to the other end because this end is not protected at all and big waves are crashing in on the beach. There is a point on the other end that sticks out a good kilometre and protects the last few hundred metres of beach. So, I stop for a quick swim to cool off then walk for about 40 minutes to the far east end of the beach. The water here is nice and calm and there is almost no one here, it's perfect. I just lie and relax for the first hour and a half or so with quick dips every half hour. There is even some trees at the top edge of the beach that offer some welcome shade. I then grab my snorkel gear and head to the shallows near the point, I have been carrying this gear without using it since the Galapagos Islands so it is nice to finally do some snorkelling. There are huge boulders scattered all along the shallows beside the rocky headland, there is not much coral but there are lots of fish. I snorkel for about 45 minutes and the highlight is 4 or 5 large sea turtles and a group of 5 squid.

By the time I finish snorkelling it is time to grab the rest of my stuff and start back to where the boat dropped me off. It takes almost an hour to get there and I have just enough time for another quick swim to cool off before the boat leaves at 4:30PM. By the time the boat gets back to Vila do Abraao and I get back to the pousada and have a shower, it is almost 6PM. Once again my pousada does not have internet and the internet was not working at the other place this morning. I know Hannah was due to arrive around 5PM and I know the name of her hostel. I head to an internet cafe in town to see if she sent me an email but the bandwidth of their internet is so low I cannot open Gmail. I decide to walk over to Hannah's hostel and she is right there in the courtyard when I get there. She's just arrived so we decide to meet in town at 7PM so she has a chance to get settled.

We meet in town at 7PM and find a nice looking restaurant with a patio. It's great catching up with her as it has been a long time since I saw her on Little Corn Island and we have a nice dinner. We are both a little hungry still and decide to go to a desert bar for some cake; we both order chocolate cake and we get the 2 biggest pieces of cake that I have ever seen. We should have ordered 1 and split it because we both don't even eat half of our pieces. Tomorrow, Hannah wants to go to Lopes Mendes and I want to do a snorkel tour. So we agree to meet up tomorrow evening, Hannah will send me an email about where to meet and I will check emails at a internet cafe after my tour. There are 4 internet cafes in town so surely one of them will have decent internet connection.

The next morning I'm in down at the waterfront by 9:30AM checking out tour options. Every tour company offers the same snorkelling tour for the same price of $75US and no one will discount. It's a bit expensive for snorkelling as I have done 2 tank scuba diving trips for less but I'm here and I want to go snorkelling so I book a tour. The tour leaves at 10:30AM in a speed boat with 8 of us plus our guide/captain. Everyone on the boat is Brazilian except me but one couple and their 30 year old daughter speak English. We cover a lot of the island along the inside coast and stop at 5 or 6 places for 45 minutes each. There more reef here than I saw at Lopes Mendes but it still not near as good as the Caribbean or the Galapagos. There's a fair number of fish with the highlight being a sea turtle, a couple of squid and some really interesting bottom fish with long pectoral fins that looked like wings.

We are back from the tour by 5:30PM and I decide to check for messages before going to my pousada. I end up at all 4 internet cafes and I could only get one place's computer to load Gmail and I could see a message from Hannah but it crashed before I could open the message and then I couldn't get it to open Gmail again. I don't see how these places survive with this kind of internet as every place I was at was dealing with 2 or 3 people having the same problem as me. Even small island in the Caribbean like Little Corn had better internet than here. So I head to by room and have a shower and get changed and then go over to Hannah's hostel. She's not there but I write her a message to meet me at 7:30PM along the waterfront. I wait there until 7:50PM but no Hannah. I'm guessing she didn't get my message. I have dinner at a nice pizza place on the main walk of the waterfront and I'm hoping to spot her but no luck.

The next morning I decide to head back to Lopes Mendes. I head to the waterfront area a  bit early hoping to check my email but once again all the internet places are useless so I catch a 10:30AM boat to Saco das Palmas. When I get to the beach, I go back to the far east side of the beach like last time. I'm about half way along the beach when I see a lone penguin on the beach ahead of me. I walk right up to it and take a couple pictures. I know penguins on the Pacific side go as far north as the Galapagos which are right on the equator but I can't help but think this guy is lost this far north on the Atlantic. I'm sure he doesn't like the high twenties water temperature either.

I try and stay out of the sun as much as I can today because I burnt my back yesterday. I thought I put screen on every time before snorkelling but I guess it washed off quite quickly and my back is pretty red. This is the first time I really got a sunburned this whole trip. By 1PM the beautiful sunny day has turned into a cloudy day with a threat of rain. I decide some more snorkelling would be in order since I saw more in 45 minutes here than I saw all day yesterday. I end up snorkelling along the rocky headland all the way to the end of the point almost a kilometre away and it takes close to 2 hours to get there and back. It was fantastic, I saw around 15 sea turtles, tons of fish including some big ones, a bunch of puffer fish and 3 small schools of squid. The largest school had 19 squid of various sizes, they let me swim right up to less than a metre and we just stayed there staring at each other for a few minutes. When I first saw them they were gold in colour and looked like they had diamonds on top of them, at one point they turned vibrant purple and then they turned pink and seemed to have a yellow light inside them. They were always lined up in a perfect line always facing the same direction and they seemed to change colour in unison. The largest one was about 25 cm long and it seemed to be checking me out as much as I was checking it out. I so wish I had an underwater camera because they looked amazing.

By the time I'm back from snorkelling it is time to get back to catch the 4:30PM boat. Once back in town, I try and check emails but 2 of the internet places are closed and the other 2 tell me the internet is not working the second I walk in the door. I once again leave a written message for Hannah at her hostel to meet me in town without any luck. It's too bad, she's come all this way and we only see each other the one evening. She is heading back to Rio to meet her sister who is flying in and they're going to spend a week or so in Rio with her dad who is in Brazil on business and I'm heading to Paraty which is another 100kms south down the coast.

The next morning I'm down at the dock at 9:30AM and I buy a ticket on the 10AM ferry back to Angra dos Reis. This ferry is a large old one that seats a couple hundred passengers. It takes more than an hour and a half to get to Angra but only cost $2.50US. Once in town, I walk 20 minutes in the rain to the bus station. Luckily it is only raining lightly so I hardly get wet. I then buy a bus ticket for the 1PM bus to Paraty and within minutes it is pouring rain.

More on Paraty and my way south to Uruguay next time.