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Monday, February 03, 2003 ( 00:39 ) Kate Fitzsimmmons How annoying!!!!! I just wrote about a 400 essay about what I have been up to and the computer crashed!!! Argh!!! This one may be a bit shorter cos i am p***** off!! Sorry for not updating for so long cos I have only just managed to find an internet place that doesnīt wanna leave me bankrupt! Spent a week in salvador visiting churches, watching capoeira (an african dance/fight thing), spending money. We also went to a candomble cerimony. It is an african religion where ladies in big dresses and men in white dance around to drium and fall into trances. It was really weird and kinda freaked me out! It was held in a favela too which didnīt really help!For the weekend we headed to Morro de Sao Paulo, a paradise beach island. It was amazing- just like those places I always see in holiday brochures and wanna go! We spent 2 days relaxing on the beach and partying at night. On the Sunday we came back to Slavador to get the bus to Lencois in Chapada de Diamantina (lots of mountains, waterfalls etc) We arrived in Salvador bus station at 11.15pm to get the bus at 11.30 pm only to be told there were no tickets left. Not happy bunny!! We managed to get to talk to the bus driver who felt sorry for us and said if we didnīt mind sleeping on the floor of the bus for the 6 hour journey he would take us BUT it is illegal to overfill the bus in the bus station so we had to run ahead of the bus, bags and all, to get on the bus on the road. It made me feel like a real traveller!! Arrived in Lencois at 5.30am and went to the hostel from where we had booked a 3 day trek through the mountains that was leaving at 9am that morining. So after 3 hours sleep, us being the worst prepared people ever, 5 of us, 1 american, 2 guys from chester, 5 brazilian people from Sao Paulo and our mad rastafarian guide, Rao, set off on the trek. The 1st day was torture! but we swam in waterfalls and arrived at our camp for the night - lots of flat rocks by the riverside! Had a fantastic dinner cookjed over an open fire and settled down for the night on the rocks. It was a bit unpleasant when we were woken at 2am by big raindrops splattering everywhere. We grabbed our stuff and dived for shelter under the caves. Despite that rude awakening, i had the best nights sleep I have had in ages! The second day after a breakfast of porridge, bread, honey etc we set off for our next camp. It was basically an upward climb! Arrived at our camp and left our bags and proceded to climb upwards to the bottom of a 400m waterfall called Cachoeira de Fumaca (translation - waterfall of smoke)We swam under the waterfall and then headed downhill to our camp. That night not to be caught in the rain again 5 of us (the gappers) decided to get under the cave in the last places left. Our heads were under cover but our leg were out a bit. Feeling all smug cos the others were out in the open we went to sleep. A reward for feeling so smug was that it didnīt rain but we got soaked cos of the overhang of the cave dripped down making puddles on our sleeping bags! We werenīt so smug in the morning i can tell ya! Not having had much sleep I was not amused when we had to climb upwards, upwards, upwards again! We got to the top of Cachoeira da Fumaca, had our legs held as we looked over down the 400m drop. It was definately worth it. So finally on Wednesday we arrived back at our hostel with blisters and feeling exhausted. That didnīt stop us though! On Thursday we were out horse back riding through nature! Anyway, we spent a week in total in Lencois at the best hostel ever. Swimming in various waterfalls and meeting lots of cool people. The other 4 of my group headed off to Brasilia on Saturday night to go on to the Pantanal but as I only have 10 days left, i came back to Salvador and I am getting a flight to Curitiba on Tuesday and heading across to Francisco Beltrao where my placement was for my last week in Brazil. I fly back to England on the 12th Feb! I also just found out i have a job interviedw for Childrens repping on the 23rd Feb!! ooh exciting!! Anyway hope allz good with u all. That was a really long update but who knows when i will update again! Cya soon... Miss Ginginha # Saturday, January 18, 2003 ( 16:02 ) Kate Fitzsimmmons Hey!! Sorry its been about 2 weeks since the last update but i been very busy! Ok so we left Rio (me, tessa, frankie, ann) and headed inland to Ouro Preto. Ouro Preto is an old mining town in Minas Gerais. It was full of precious stones that could only be found there, soapstone things and churches. We visited lots of churches and bought stuff and went down an old gold mine on the actual cart that they used when it was a working mine. That was a scary experience! We stayed there for about 3 days, and then headed to Caraca National Park to a Sanctuary. It was a relaxing few days wandering around lots of different footpaths, swimming in waterfalls and in between eating the most amazing food ever! After there we headed to Porto Seguro which was like a brazilian Praia de Rocha (not my favourite place) Very Very Very touristy. Loadza tat shops which was good. Also i wasnīt feeling that well so didnt enjoy it to the full!! Then after 3 days we came up to Salvador, where we are now. Havenīt got much to say about it yet cos only arrived yesterday but as soon as i know stuff i will update! Only got about 3 weeks left which is quite scary!! Missing everyone Hope allz good Cya soon...Miss Ginginha # Monday, January 06, 2003 ( 14:35 ) Kate Fitzsimmmons Hellooo!!!! So Copacabana at new year! We all hit the beach (about 25 of us) dressed in white. We had been eating cachaįa melon before we left the hostel so we were all very merry! Got to the beach bought lots of drinks and food and parked ourselves on the beach. It was absolutely packed! I met loadz of cool people and we just chatted until midnight. At midnight there were fireworks evrywhere! I have never seen so many fireworks! They were amazing! We just all ran into the sea (yes in our white clothes, which not surprisingly went transparent!) jumped over about 40 waves, threw flowers in etc. Then we wandered around, watched different music shows and ended up in a group of about 9 lying on the beacjh watching the sun rise! It was lovely! New yrs day was just a beach day to recover! Since i have been in Rio i have also been up the Pao de Aįucar, visited various site and on Friday 9m of us went on a weekend trip to Ilha Grande, an island about 2 hours off the coast. Paradise island, it was absolutely gorgeous, like paradise! We arrived there, managed to find a campiste that rented tents and stayed there 2 days. There is only like 1 main street and to get to the 102 beaches you have to go by boat. We went to a practically deserted one but all somehow got sunburnt and injured our feet. Me being the disaster area i am have got badly infected blisters on both feet which i am now taking anti-inflamatory tablets which means my alcohol intake is down to none! not a happy bunny! Anyway, got back to Rio last night and planned our next steps. Tomorrow 5 of us are heading inland to Ouro Preto then back to the coast tio Porto Seguro, Ilheus and then Salvador. Then we are heading back down to the south to see stuff around there. Then i fly back to London on February 12th! About 5 weeks left now! It has gone so quickly! Erm... thats all i have to update for now, will hopefully update again soon! Hope evry1 is ok Cya soon... Miss Ginginha # Monday, December 30, 2002 ( 22:20 ) Kate Fitzsimmmons Hi people!!! Just a quick one to ask how woz your xmas? I had a great time dancing away, eating bbqs etc. It really didnīt feel like xmas! But now I am in RIO baby!!!!! Arrived today, it was tough leaving Francisco Beltrao but it had to be done. I am staying in a hostel with about 20 other Gappers and it is in Copacabana! SO tomorrow night we are hitting the beach all dressed in white to Partay!! Went to the real Cristo on the hill in rio today, it was absolutely amazing! Got loadza things to do but as you know I do~īt have too much time to write. I am gonna write as often as I can to tell you about RIO baby! But thats all for now Hope everyone has a fantastic New Year. Cya soon... Miss Ginginha Thursday, December 19, 2002 ( 16:52 ) Kate Fitzsimmmons Hello people! This week has just flown by! Spent the weekend having BBQs which were lovely of course! Visited the "cristo"on the hill which is a minature statue (like the one in Rio), There were loadz things going on but me, being me have a memory like a goldfish so can't remember the past 5 minutes let alone the past week!! Xmas is creeping up on us now, less than a week left. I am totally not in a Christmassy mood mostly cos the weather is absolutly boiling and it seems like August! It is truly messing with my head! Have to say I am nicely tanned tho! Saturday is probably gonna be my last night out with all my friends so we are going to the local club to samba the night away! All I know about Xmas this year is that on the 24th we go to mass from 8pm - 10pm, come home, eat turkey and then open all our pressies. On the 25th we are going to one of my "Brazilian Uncles" farm and having a BBQ. Thats the tradition apparently (well in my family, not sutre about the rest!) I have a feeling that the place we are going for a BBQ has a big river where we can swim so it will be fun! Then on the 29th I am going to Curitiba and getting a plane up to Rio (it was really complicated with all the buses, and the flight is cheap anyway!) Staying in Rio for at least 3 days then who knows! I am planning on going to Salvador and Belo Horizonte too. I will try and update this page every week but I don't know what my Internet access will be like while I am travelling! but I will do my best Anyway, if I don't write again before Xmas A massive Xmas Kiss to all of you and i hope you have a fantastic Christmas and New Year and don't do anythin I wouldn't do(that doesn't really leave alot!) Cya soon... Miss Ginginha # Wednesday, December 11, 2002 ( 12:33 ) Kate Fitzsimmmons What a week this week. Last week i spent in the schools for the last week. I even shed a few tears on the last day when all the kids left. What am i like!! I rehearsed with the kids all weeks for the play and it went really well in the end. More about that later. Firstly, my weekend - I spent saturday doing things for the play, i always get really carried away don't I ! But on Sunday we drove across to Foz Iguacu to meet my dad at the airport (he is here for a few days) and we thought to make the most of the trip and visit the Iguacu Falls. So we arrived in Foz at 9am. Dazd wasn't arriving until 2pm so we decided to do some shopping.... in Paraguay! Why not, it was just over the bridge! It was a horrible place, dirty and full of people trying to sell you all sorts of tat (u would have loved it Ben!) but I bought myself a discman for 18 pounds so i can't really complain! Then we went for lunch. We decided to go to Macdonalds. Not my first chouice but it was very entertaining! My family and the other family we went with were ''Macdonald virgins'' It was so funy just watching them.And they thought it was very ''chic'' eating in macdonalds! Bless them - you gotta love 'em. Then we went to the airport - the kids we were with were also ''escalator virgins'' They made themselves dizzy going up and down, up and down.... So met up with dad and headed to the Falls. They were absolutely amazing! Got absolutely soaked but got great photos. So arrvied back in Francisco Beltrao in the evening completely exhausted. Monday i spent rehearsing all day and dad helped me make halos, wrapping dictionaries (i gave my students dictionaries and photos), cooking mince pies!!! Tuesday was the same! Tuesday evening was the play, It went really well, the kids loved it, i loved it and surprisingly my mince pies went really quickly!! (in the bin or people stomachs, i don't know!!) It was all good tho! Very emotional at th end, the kids crying etc - i got some really nice presents and lots of great memories tho! Thats it really - I have got 16 days left and they are flying past. :o( Ok hope everyone is well out there Cya soon... Miss Ginginha # Tuesday, December 03, 2002 ( 20:03 ) Kate Fitzsimmmons Hey! For those of you who know me quite well, you will know that my culinary talents stretch no further than tortellini with tomato sauce and chicken pitta. Therefore you will surprised to hear that I (yes me) have been making MINCE PIES!! Brazil being a country that is not in Europe, I had to make up some ingredients and make the mincemeat myself!! I have to say, I am very proud of myself! I am gonna serve the parents of the students mince pie on the day of the Christmas play! I just hope they dont come down with food poisoning! So other than wowing people with my culinary talents this week I havent been doing much different. Erm
Cya soon Miss Ginginha # |
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