Tuesday 16 August 2011
In Rio
After a painful 55 hour bus ride, I am in Rio de Janeiro, currently staying in a very rustic hostel sleeping on an air mattress.
Belem at last!!
Thank the Lord I made it off that boat.
So I found the hostel easily enough. No more room in the dorms though so we got a double for 32 reals. Not a bad price. At first....
We did quite alot in Belem, mainly due to this other traveller who kept on persuading me to leave the fan. So we visited the amazon reserve, and this one was much better than the previous. I got to saw several monkeys, where one of them managed to escape it's
Cage. I saw jaguars, a man-sized owe and rat cat hybrids. Also iguanas, vultures ripping wart mice with bone crunching sounds to boot. Bloody awesome. And on the way to the reserve, we visited a church thats meant to be quite odd. Meh. See one old church, seen them all.
On the next day we visited the old market place. It's just a massive place full of fruit sellers, mini restaurants, juices, herbal remedies for things like diabetes and such. Probably don't work though judging by their colour. I also saw a lot of homeless bums and a clown...
I also went on an incredibly boring walk around town. Yeah, that was great fun, getting lost. But I hot to see mote of Belem, it's parks, colorful buildings that won't stand out in vietnam...yeah...
So I found the hostel easily enough. No more room in the dorms though so we got a double for 32 reals. Not a bad price. At first....
We did quite alot in Belem, mainly due to this other traveller who kept on persuading me to leave the fan. So we visited the amazon reserve, and this one was much better than the previous. I got to saw several monkeys, where one of them managed to escape it's
Cage. I saw jaguars, a man-sized owe and rat cat hybrids. Also iguanas, vultures ripping wart mice with bone crunching sounds to boot. Bloody awesome. And on the way to the reserve, we visited a church thats meant to be quite odd. Meh. See one old church, seen them all.
On the next day we visited the old market place. It's just a massive place full of fruit sellers, mini restaurants, juices, herbal remedies for things like diabetes and such. Probably don't work though judging by their colour. I also saw a lot of homeless bums and a clown...
I also went on an incredibly boring walk around town. Yeah, that was great fun, getting lost. But I hot to see mote of Belem, it's parks, colorful buildings that won't stand out in vietnam...yeah...
Day 4 of hunger
Day 4
I never got a good sleep. More people have got on the boat before the day ended, and it was more uncomfortable than ever. There was this one gringo lying sideways on his hammock, which took up my room.
I didn't do much today. Sean still ain't feeling great unfortuantly, but we did get to see amazon children hook their tiny rowing boats onto our boar, climbed on and started selling shrimp. This occurred several times, with one child falling off the boat. She survived. But it's really amazing what these young children have to do to bring in an income, especially because of their age; being around 5 to 10.
This should be the last day I'm on this damn boat and off the bloody river.
I never got a good sleep. More people have got on the boat before the day ended, and it was more uncomfortable than ever. There was this one gringo lying sideways on his hammock, which took up my room.
I didn't do much today. Sean still ain't feeling great unfortuantly, but we did get to see amazon children hook their tiny rowing boats onto our boar, climbed on and started selling shrimp. This occurred several times, with one child falling off the boat. She survived. But it's really amazing what these young children have to do to bring in an income, especially because of their age; being around 5 to 10.
This should be the last day I'm on this damn boat and off the bloody river.
Day 3 of hunger
Day 3
YES!!! People have left the boat and I have space!!! I am looking forward to a very nice and undisturbed sleep.
I'm still having one meal a day. Sean has some illness. I think his lunch was bad so he caught food poisoning. Thankfully I'm ok.
YES!!! People have left the boat and I have space!!! I am looking forward to a very nice and undisturbed sleep.
I'm still having one meal a day. Sean has some illness. I think his lunch was bad so he caught food poisoning. Thankfully I'm ok.
Day 2 of hunger
Day 2 of my boat ride. Luckily we docked at a minor port, so I was able to pick up a cheap lunch. This means no dinner tonight, but at least my belly is always full up on water.
I'm not doing much here. I try to read my book, play game on my iPhone, listen to music and urinate alot. Thats to be expected however, with this water diet of mine. It's night now, and to my surprise the apace around my hammock is much more compared to last night. Last night my feet were playing footsies with someone in anonet hammock, I had another hammock above me and another right beside me. It was still an easy sleep, just difficult climbing out of the hammock.
I'm not doing much here. I try to read my book, play game on my iPhone, listen to music and urinate alot. Thats to be expected however, with this water diet of mine. It's night now, and to my surprise the apace around my hammock is much more compared to last night. Last night my feet were playing footsies with someone in anonet hammock, I had another hammock above me and another right beside me. It was still an easy sleep, just difficult climbing out of the hammock.
5 day boat ride...crap
I am so annoyed right now. Arriving to the port where we bought our tickets, they have the nerve to tell us to go to the other port! Luckily we had this information booth worker sort things out, resulting in a ride on a pick up truck to our correct port.
But the bad luck didn't stop there. The ticket said the boat would leave at 10. Not the case here. It left 2 hours later, so I bought an expensive lunch to eat. Then when dinner time rolled out, I was told I had to PAY for dinner! My anger at Lonely Planet knows no bounds for their misinformation. Now I must conserve money and have one meal a day or I won't have enough to last the snide boat trip. At least water is free...
But the bad luck didn't stop there. The ticket said the boat would leave at 10. Not the case here. It left 2 hours later, so I bought an expensive lunch to eat. Then when dinner time rolled out, I was told I had to PAY for dinner! My anger at Lonely Planet knows no bounds for their misinformation. Now I must conserve money and have one meal a day or I won't have enough to last the snide boat trip. At least water is free...
Manaus, first look at the amazon
Hi everyone
To start off, boats are stupid. We left the port and after some walking about,'we reaLized that our port was nowhere on the lonely planet map. But using my horrid portuguese skills, I managed to obtain a general direction of where our hostel is. Sean wanted to get a taxi, but after y experience in Porto Velho, I think not.
Manaus has been fairly entertaining. A few urkes here and there but all in all, it was a fairly nice way to see the rainforest without the huge price tag.
I visited a rainforest reserve where they outfitted it for tourism. So entering it, I got to see huge trees, manatees, otters, creepy gigantic bugs and alligators. Well worth the small price of 5 reals. What wasnt worth it was the day before, Sean and I took a 3 hour wAlk to reach it, only to find out it was closed! I blame the deceptive maps. And after visiting the reserve, we got on a wrong bus and ended up in a university campus! But no trouble came of it. It just took us longer to get home.
We also did a few walks around Manaus just to check it out.
We scoped out the pink theatre house and the pink government building...I'm starting to think South America has a pink building fetish, as Buenos Aires also had pink building as the presidents crib.
To start off, boats are stupid. We left the port and after some walking about,'we reaLized that our port was nowhere on the lonely planet map. But using my horrid portuguese skills, I managed to obtain a general direction of where our hostel is. Sean wanted to get a taxi, but after y experience in Porto Velho, I think not.
Manaus has been fairly entertaining. A few urkes here and there but all in all, it was a fairly nice way to see the rainforest without the huge price tag.
I visited a rainforest reserve where they outfitted it for tourism. So entering it, I got to see huge trees, manatees, otters, creepy gigantic bugs and alligators. Well worth the small price of 5 reals. What wasnt worth it was the day before, Sean and I took a 3 hour wAlk to reach it, only to find out it was closed! I blame the deceptive maps. And after visiting the reserve, we got on a wrong bus and ended up in a university campus! But no trouble came of it. It just took us longer to get home.
We also did a few walks around Manaus just to check it out.
We scoped out the pink theatre house and the pink government building...I'm starting to think South America has a pink building fetish, as Buenos Aires also had pink building as the presidents crib.
Wednesday 3 August 2011
The pirates life is not the life for me
Hey everyone.
I'm off the 3 day boat ride now, but I will blog according to the days I was there.
Day 1
Walking to the port is so long. I decided not to get a taxi just to save money. But there was time to get breakfast so the morning was not all bad. An interesting sight did come up however; we saw a door that was half the height of me! I try include the picture.
Arriving at the port, I boarded without any propels, hanged up my hammock and went up deck to sun tan. The food here consist mainly of carbohydrates such as rice and pasta, with meat, beans and sometimes a salad. Great food, and if there's any left over we are allowed to help ourselves, so I'm always full.
Day 2
Done nothing. I found out that above my hammock is a power socket. So just been reading my books via iPhone and listening to music. It has dawned on me that the sunsets look bloody amazing out here.
Day 3
It's starting to get real boring here very fast. Finished reading my books; soldiers son series by Robin Hobb. I highly recommend her. So to pass the time, I tend go stare at the birds that fly by, the sandy beaches along the river and other boats. Still....I'm so bored. Thank technology for games or I would have jumped in the river and attempt to reach land. At least the boat is making good progress despite going upstream.
I'm off the 3 day boat ride now, but I will blog according to the days I was there.
Day 1
Walking to the port is so long. I decided not to get a taxi just to save money. But there was time to get breakfast so the morning was not all bad. An interesting sight did come up however; we saw a door that was half the height of me! I try include the picture.
Arriving at the port, I boarded without any propels, hanged up my hammock and went up deck to sun tan. The food here consist mainly of carbohydrates such as rice and pasta, with meat, beans and sometimes a salad. Great food, and if there's any left over we are allowed to help ourselves, so I'm always full.
Day 2
Done nothing. I found out that above my hammock is a power socket. So just been reading my books via iPhone and listening to music. It has dawned on me that the sunsets look bloody amazing out here.
Day 3
It's starting to get real boring here very fast. Finished reading my books; soldiers son series by Robin Hobb. I highly recommend her. So to pass the time, I tend go stare at the birds that fly by, the sandy beaches along the river and other boats. Still....I'm so bored. Thank technology for games or I would have jumped in the river and attempt to reach land. At least the boat is making good progress despite going upstream.
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