Back packing

Trip Start Apr 15, 2007
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Trip End Jul 15, 2007


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Flag of Brazil  ,
Friday, June 8, 2007

Hi again, I know its been a while since my last entry, but so much has happened and I've been having so much fun! On the 29th I met with my group for the first time, it is relatively small at 4 people including the tour leader but more people are meeting us in Sucre and La Paz, so I'm completely content with the situation. The good thing about traveling with GAP is that there are so many tours happening at the same time so you are constantly meeting other groups, and I have now met 2 people who live literally 5 minutes away from me at home and a handfull of other English people which is nice. Our first night out was good, we went for a group meal before meeting another group and going to a bar. The next day in the early morning we left Rio for Ilha Grande, a small island just off the coast of the Rio De Janeiro province that was a good 6 hours away, it was beautiful and we were really lucky with our weather and were able to do all the activities in the bright sunshine (and dont worry mum I am using my sun cream, but have almost run out!) We did our first mountain trek, which was around 4 hours and took us from our hotel to a private beach on the other side of the island, it had around 50 tourists spread out all over so again it was nice to be able to speak to other travellers and get adivce, as well as swim in the sea for the first time which was amazing
Booze Cruise
Booze Cruise
! On the beach I played football with a bunch of Brazilians who were doing their kick up game which the specialize in, I was pretty chuffed that I came 2nd in the knock out round! At night there were a few great restaurants but only one club which was 10 Reals to get into (about 2.50 pounds) and was crap! On the second night there was a really big Reggae street concert which was cool to go along too and I really enjoyed that! Our last full day on the island was spent on a boat with 3 other gap groups and a few tourists (around 45 people in all) where you paid 50 Reals and had a BBQ and as much Caipriniha's as you can drink, I stayed pretty sober after drinking too much the previous night but a few people got pretty wasted! I also managed to catch the England game in a Brazilian bar, they weren't too pleased when I cheered as we scored but when Brazil equalised the place erupted!

Upon return to Rio we caught our very first night bus, which took us to Curitiba, which can literally be described as a shopping mall! There wasn't much to do and we were only stopping there as it was too far to take a bus straight to Iguassu (until now I have done 36 hours worth of bus journeys!). In Curitiba we had a relaxed day and went to the cinema in the evening to see Spiderman 3 (luckily in English). The next day we headed off early on the bus for the whole day to Foz Do Iguacu (Iguassu falls), a very long journey which felt to take forever with the poor film selection the bus had
Gone swimming
Gone swimming
! We arrived in the night so didn't have time to do much but we still had a meal out. The next day we visited the Brazilian side of the falls, which were stunning, from the Brazilian side you get a more panoramic view, where as on the Argentine side you literally go right next to the falls and optionally you can get a boat under one waterfall which I did and was fantastic. I also did a helicopter ride over the falls, which was very pricey at 70 USD for about 15 minutes, but I have to say I am very chuffed that I did it as it was fantastic. We also had time to go into Paraguay to the local market, where everyone in our group bought electronics, apart from me. One girl in my group had to buy a new camera because she left hers on the beach in Ilha Grande and it got soaked but just about worked, but she then left it in the hotel! After she bought the new one she realised that it had an American power socket and therefore is useless out here (Oh dear!).

The next place on the list is my current destination, Bonito, a small tourist town which is a lot further north and you really do feel the heat difference, literally 25 degrees by about 10am! Both yesterday and today I went to a small park like area which had a nice stream to swim in, full of fish. I met another gap group and with some english guys my age played beach football against some brazilians! We won 7-5 and they were devastated! Although I have bruised the ball of my right foot and scratched my left leg, both are really painful but I will get over them!

I hope you guys are enjoying reading what I'm doing, tomorrow we head off for Pantanal! Really excited! Heard its great fun, then Bolivia! Take care all.
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