^21st May, 2003.

Hi there.

15/5/2003

Hi all,

Once again it has been a while since the last e-mail, heard the weather is lovely in Ireland, you will be glad to hear that we are now in the cold, about 1000km south of Buenos Aires so the chance of coming home with a tan is slim and none! I think it was about 3 weeks ago at this stage since I last mailed so finding it difficult to remember where I left off.

I think it was somewhere around Iguazu Falls which borders Brazil and Argentina. We then decided to spend a few days in an area of Brazil called the Pantanal, so we did a 20 hour bus ride to get to a town called Campo Grande which is where the tour started from. We arrived into that town at 6am in the morning and by 6.15 we were booked on a trip and ready to go. We went for the 5 day option as we were told we would get to see more wild life. It was a 7 hour drive from Campo Grande to the camp where we were to spend the first 2 nights, then we were going to a more remote camp for the other nights!!

The area of the Pantanal is about the same size as France and is mainly a grassy wet lands, however being the dry season it was mostly grassy with the odd watering hole and apparently it is easier to see animals in this season as they all drink water from the same pools. A lot of the landscape actually reminded us of the Phoenix Park although there are a lot more exotic animals than in Dublin (apart from the zoo!.) Our guide for the first 2 days was Paulo who despite working for the trekking agency which ironically was called Ecological Expeditions he was not very eco friendly and I think he frightened the animals as they heard his coming for miles off. It was an early start each morning and after breakfast of wasp covered melon and stale bread we would head out on a walking safari in search of wildlife. Through no skill of the guide we did actually get to see quite a lot. namely lots of crocs, an anaconda snake 20 foot long, capibara (looked like massive rats), rare giant fresh water otters, a giant ant eater and lots and lots of beautifully coloured birds. We spent a few days at the second camp where we changed guides and got to see what is quite rare to get a glimpse of, a puma. Of course the guide spotted him first, we then tracked it through the trees and everyone except Suzanne got to see it, so we followed it again and we got up quite close but once he spotted us he ran off. One of the mornings was spent fishing for pirahna in one of the lakes near the camp, okay Evan did the fishing and Suzanne watched. One of the guys had a cut on his leg and he could feel the pirahnas nipping away on him, yuk!! It was a great moment when Evan eventually caught a fish, lets just say we would not want to be starving and depending on a feed of fish for dinner as we might go hungry, although it was a lot more than what Suzanne caught sitting on the bank!! Pirahna tastes nice although the ones that were caught were only small so not much meat on them.

On the last morning there was a 4 hour horse ride, which Suzanne was hesitant to do being a complete beginner but hey you only live once. The look of horror on her face as she climbed on the horse for the first time was caught on camera by Evan who decided sensibly enough to sit this one out. For those people who are complete beginners on horses take note, you are supposed to sit quite far up on the horse to lessen the impact of the continual bouncing up and down. Early on Suzanne thought her horse guessed she was totally inexperienced and scared out of her wits so he took it quite easy until the guide would come up and whip him and they would then take off into the sunset hanging on for dear life. We don’t believe in video cameras but this would have been one to capture on film. The group was of varied skill, about 6 of them had never ridden before. There was 2 American body builders in the group who each weighed about 20 stone, the last time one of them was on a horse the horse actually collapsed from exhaustion, they looked comical on the back of horses made for small Brazilians, not two Arnold Schwarzneggers from the states. After about 2 hours Suzanne felt like her backside could not take it any more and there was still a further 2 hours to go. Eventually someone tipped Suzanne off that she should have been riding nearer the horse’s neck all along so that alleviated the pain somewhat and she was okay for the last 2 hours. She had bruises in unimaginable places and the relief of throwing the leg over the horse and getting off it was unreal!! To sum up the Pantanal trip it was amazing, saw great wild life but of course insects just loved our white flesh so we got eaten alive, food consisted of rice and vegetables for 5 days in a row for lunch and dinner, Evan was craving steak, or meat of any shape or description would have done, beautiful sunsets, great campfires but 5 days is defo long enough.

The day we got back to Campo Grande we had a night bus booked to Rio De Janeiro which was supposed to leave at 9.30. We were in the station early for the bus but it was one of those bus stations that had no information about which bus was leaving next. By the time 9.30pm came Suzanne was like some hysterical Irish woman running up and down trying to get someone to talk English to. Portuguese is a little bit like double dutch and we did not understand a word of it, whoever says it is like Spanish is lying!! Our Spanish has come along a little bit since we started travelling but it was not until we came to Brazil that we realised that at least we can get by in Spanish speaking countries, nobody in Brazil seems to speak English at all, eventually an Israeli guy who had been in the Pantanal with us came along and saved the day and eventually we were on the bus bound for the cultural capital of Brazil.

Brasilia is the official capital but Rio has all the makings of a capital. We stayed in a hostel called El Misti in Botofaga, which was about 15 minutes walk from Copacabana beach. We spent the first day just sitting on the beach, weather was really nice, and it was good to be in the heat again. We did all our sight seeing the second day, went up the famous Christ Statue, then got the cable car up the Sugar Loaf mountain to see sun setting over Rio. It is a beautiful city and despite there being plenty of Favellas (slums) they are all on the north side of the city so tourists don’t actually get to see them unless you get a tour into one. We went to a first division match where the quality of the football was unbelievable. The big stadium in Rio is the Maracana Stadium which holds over 110,000 people but unfortunately there was no match on there the few days that we were in Rio. We spent a full day on Ipanema beach as well, watching the body beautifuls strutting their stuff!! On our last night in Rio we did a bit of a pub crawl and sadly visited a few Irish bars, good fun though.

We left Rio sadly after about 4 days and headed south to a lovely island called Ihla Grande, 100km from Rio. The ferry took about 2 hours to get there from the mainland, the sun was shining and we were set for a few days of sun, sea and sand. We stayed at a lovely guest house called Fred’s Place where we got to meet a great bunch of people, in particular a really nice couple from South Africa called Richard and Tamara and an Australian couple called Kelly and . The weather changed a day after we got to the island but we still headed off each day and went for hikes, the worst prison in Brazil was situated on the island but was closed down 9 years ago by a governor who was bribed by the jailed gang leaders from the Favellas in Rio to close it down as it was too far away for them to conduct their business. Did you ever hear anything so ridiculous? At nights we ate fish in the local restaurants, which is a turn up for myself and Evan, and got to sample some local cuisine. The Brazilians are big into a drink called Caipirinia which is made from Cashasa, Limes, sugar and ice. It’s really strong but sure you have to try these things, one pub served them from freezing cold coconut shells, nice!!

We overstayed our time on the island and so had to cut out a few places on the way to Buenos Aires, we got the 2hour ferry back to the mainland, a 7 hour bus to Sao Paola, then we got a bus to take us directly to the capital of Argentina for US50. The bad news was it took us 36 hours to get there!! The time went quite quickly and we were in BA by Friday morning at 10am.

We stayed in a hostel called Hostel Inn, which was really nice. Friday was spent sorting stuff out, we booked all our flights for the next few weeks as we are running short on time and can’t afford to spend days on end on buses. Buenos Aires is a great city, the people are really friendly and there is a great buzz about the place. We had planned to go shopping for camping stuff for heading south but after walking the length and breadth of the city realised there was no good shops. Bought a few bits and pieces, everything is so cheap, and the clothes are really nice. The credit card suffered a little. On Sunday morning we went to an area called Camonito where the Italian immigrants painted all their houses these beautiful colours with paints left over from the boats. This is the original place for tango in Buenos Aires as well as the Italian immigrants brought with them a dance which when mixed in with the Spanish culture became Tango. We got to see tango on the streets and it is a great dance, we might go to see a show if we get the chance. After a morning of sightseeing we went to see a football match in the stadium called the River Plate, which is where the 1978 world cup final was held. The atmosphere was great, the locals take their football very serious. Unfortunately the home side, River Plate lost to the visitors Newell’s Old Boys. We saw the Boca Juniors stadium as well which is where Maradonna started his career. There are yellow and blue flags all over the area near the stadium.

One of the highlights of Argentina it has to be said is its food and I am surprised that they are not overweight with the quality and quantity of food they have. The beef really is the best we have ever tasted. They are very fond of these all you can eat places called Tenador Libra (Free Fork) and we pigged out in a place called “Grants” last night as a good bye to the city. 10 of us went from the hostel and the amount of food consumed was criminal. 2 of the lads decided to have a “creme caramel sucking contest” and they managed about 5 each. With a few bottles of wine, mineral water and all you can eat including desserts the bill amounted to the equivalent of Euro7 each, unbelievable. We managed to get to bed by 3am and we were up at 5am for our flight. As you can imagine we are wrecked so once I sign off here I might need to go for 40 winks, or more.

Anyway we are in Puerto Madryn at the moment, we are visiting the Peninsula Valdes tomorrow to see some Whales, elephant seals, seals and possibly some Orcas then off to the very far south of Patagonia, Argentina to a place called Ushuaia.

Better sign off now as the eyes are beginning to close.

talk to you all soon,

Slan,

E&S