Theft and danger in Rio

The first thing people said to me when I told them I was going to Rio was to watch out for theft. Now I'm not sure if I just got lucky or I put myself in less dangerous situations, but I had absolutely no problems whatsoever. I didn't notice any difference between Rio and any other town. Now I have to say I was a little more conscientious of my surroundings, and it might've been safer considering there were always so many people around, but I thought the only real risk was being pick pocketed.

There was one night when 2 guys I met up with said they had both been pick pocketed that night, but there stories sounded like it was completely avoidable. One of them said that he felt some guys pushing against him with some force, and he even said that he was wondering what was wrong with them, but then he said he didn't notice his phone was gone for a few minutes. I consistently check my pockets every time someone did so much as touch me, which is something I do whenever I'm going through crowds. I've also never been pick pocketed (knock on wood).

Another thing to note is that I saw no violence and no fights. Everyone was always happy and jolly, parting for carnaval. I couldn't believe that Rio was conveyed as such a dark city before. Now it might've been different in years past, but from my experience now I'd say Rio De Janeiro is pretty safe.

I even went out alone late at night to get some food a couple times, like 3-5am, and didn't feel scared at all. There were only a few people around, but none of them tried anything or seemed threatening on my 10 minute walk through Copacabana to the 24 hour restaurant. Of course if I was a girl I might not've done that alone, but it's not like you have to avoid the streets after a certain hour.

 

South America Traffic

So much fun! I love taxi rides, you never know when you'll get that party taxi. Bus rides not as great, but still fun. The cops all around South America are also pretty awesome. They don't care at all about traffic violations and drinking, which means that they probably won't bother me. And it also means they're probably spending time on more important things, like possible violence.

I was in taxis that blew past cops at speeds I thought could easily be above the speed limit, as well as blowing through red lights as they passed cops who also ran the lights. Speaking of the red lights, people use such good common sense with them. During the day and peak hours, people follow them. During the night when no one is around they go through them full speed if they can see who's coming. And if it's a blind corner they slow down and almost stop sometimes, but if no one's coming they go through. It makes complete sense, and it's annoying that I can't do that in the states. Yeah yeah so maybe they have a few more accidents, but I wonder how much of them are really due to someone running a red light and slamming into cross traffic. I haven't checked hah.

When I was in Buenos Aires, I was surprised at the amount of efficiency on the main streets. Those lights were timed so perfectly that it felt like we drove for miles without stopping when there was a light every city block. At one point my cab was on the end running yellow and red lights, but he sped up a little to catch up with the timing.

Buses in Rio are quite an adventure. First off, there are HUNDREDS of bus lines. I don't know how anyone could understand them all. Even with other Brazilian locals who lived in Rio their entire life they were asking the bus drivers if they went to a certain place. This absurd amount of bus lines means you can get everywhere if you know how, but I can't really use the website that tells you what to take because it's in portuguese and unfortunately google maps isn't hooked into their transit system. This also means that there are so many buses everywhere flying through the city. The bus drivers mean business, and they're not slowing down for anything. They slam on the accelerator and then slam on the brake when some other car cuts in front of them. It's like a roller coaster ride, and it's especially exciting when you just get on and you're still trying to pay for the bus while being rocked around. If the transmission is bad on the bus it can be even worse. Every bus also has a turnstyle so no one can jump it. It only releases once you pay, and it's quite a tight fit. If it's a tight fit for me, then I can't imagine what it's like for anyone who's at all overweight. What about the pregnant women!

 

CARNAVAL in Rio

Carnaval in Rio is definitely a crazy time. I was in town about a week before the major festivities began, so it was interesting to see the city come to life. During the busy days of carnaval, which is mostly Saturday to Tuesday, there were street parties with literally millions of people out on the streets. Sometimes they were so crowded you could be winding through a crowd for as far as the eye could see, it was ridiculous. Some of them were in a single area, some of them moved with some kind of parade or show. Some had music, and some were simple street parties where everyone just hung out.

Transportation was also crazy with so many people everywhere. With everything so far away I would take taxis, the metro, or the bus to get around. Taxis needed to watch out where they went, since they could easily be stuck on a blocked road. There were also never enough of them! If you were near a bloco, it was hard to find an empty taxi, and sometimes they would be on call or something so wouldn't pick you up anyway! The metro was super crowded, but ran fine. The only problem was the queues to refill your prepaid metro card were 30+ minutes long, so if you didn't have any money on your card it could be a huge pain. Buses were epic, since all the Brazilians seem to know the same songs and drunkenly sing at the top of their lungs and bang on the windows and walls in unison. Drinking on all these types of transportation is permitted and no authority figure ever tried to calm the party, so there's no stop to the drunken debauchery.

Many of the parties also consisted of everyone being half naked. With the beach sometimes nearby and the hot summer of rio, it was all too tempting for everyone. I gladly took part.

There wasn't just one party at a time, they were everywhere all over the city, and Rio is definitely not small. Some would be more popular than others, but you had so many options to choose from! It usually didn't take long to find one wherever you were. They did have brochures and information on where all the parties were and when they started if you wanted to know. This pic is just a small section. The 18th is when the fun really began, so that one went on for a few more columns.

After a street party, it would be a disaster area, but cleaners would clean everything up soon after. This made littering a normal occurrence. Done with your beer/cup/napkin/whatever? Drop it. No extra trash bins were provided so everything would just end up on the ground anyway once they started to overflow haha. Rio doesn't have the same campaigns as Texas apparently :p

Street parties were definitely my favorite part of carnaval, since they're big, fun, and free. There are many other events that I hear are pretty nice, but can get expensive, and I'd already been spending plenty. Tickets to the sambadrome to watch the parade and balls (which I think are just indoor smaller, classier parties?) were some things I didn't do.

One thing I did spend on was a costume to be in a samba school parade. Why watch when you can be a performer I thought. I spent what seemed like way too much money to order a costume back in December, since they were already starting to sell out then. They said I could pick it up when I got there. I should've picked up my costume before carnaval really started, but that slipped my mind so I ended up going to get it on the first craziest day, oops! After weaving through the crowds of the bloco on the street where I was picking up my costume, I finally got to the place and ended up in a waiting room while they fetched my costume. While waiting, I found some epic looking wings and started to play around with them.

Then when my costume finally arrived, the lady started to fit it on me while I continued to drink.

Then suddenly, she turns around, picks up the wings, and hooks them into the back of my costume. Holy shit those were my wings!?

Once it was made sure everything fit, we took the bus home to Copacabana to regroup with our costumes and then head over to meet up with the rest of the samba school.

In that picture the bus wasn't that crowded, but before we knew it there were tons of Brazilians singing and banging, and I had no idea how I was going to get those wings off the bus in the middle of Copacabana. When the time came, we all just got up and I slowly squeezed my way through the crowd with my massive wings as they chanted "gringo" at the top of their lungs haha.
Once home, I put on the costume in full force.

I don't have any pics from the parade since I didn't bring my camera, but I was with a friend who will probably post some soon so I can see a few. It was a great experience, but the costume was super uncomfortable and there was lots of waiting and hanging around with the other paraders before actually dancing (which was actually just doing whatever you wanted, it was completely unorganized, just fun) and pretending to sing (since I didn't have time to actually learn the samba song I was supposed to know lol) during the 1 hour parade through the sambadrome. It made me want to go back and actually watch an entire parade go by, since I only saw my own group of costumes, but I was having way too much fun at the blocos to take a break and watch samba for an entire evening.

Another fun activity I did was a favela party. A favela is a slum area where the poor people just start building, usually on the side of a mountain or some sort of land where the government usually won't care to take it back. By now some of the favelas have become so big they're more official anyway, but they don't start that way. One of the favelas has a little bar on the top where tourists like me can apparently go up and party. I didn't know what I was getting into as I went there with others from my hostel, but once at the bottom of the favela you have to take little mototaxis(just a motorcycle that you can ride on the back of) or a bus(vw 80s van) up to the top, unless you want to walk 20-30 minutes up a very steep road. I opted for the mototaxi, since it was so much fun! Once we got up there it was a great view of the Ipanema beach and mountains of Rio. We ended up staying until sunrise and got some great views.

I`m in Brasil

I have finally made it to Brasil, and it`s a blast. Carnaval is in full swing and the streets are full of parties everywhere around the city. I was here for a few days before the rush of parties though.

The first things I noticed when coming from Peru:

• Establishments accept credit cards! In Peru I think I used my credit card once...maybe twice, and it was super slow. Here in Brasil it`s still not as fast as in the states but it`s fairly common.
• The internet is faster! I think the lines into Peru were just much slower, since it`s just easier to browse over here, and my photos are actually uploaded at a decent speed.
• The intercity buses are big again! In Peru many of the buses were just glorified minibuses that were about as big as a vw camper van but rigged up to have lots of seats and poles to hold onto.

It`s hot here, the beaches are huge and beautiful, the waves are quite strong actually. I already got wrecked by a wave when body surfing and it took away my sunglasses and gave me a nice burn on my knee!

I`ve also partook in the samba festivities and paraded through the sambadrome in full costume in front of thousands of people. Much fun was had.

Time to go out and party on the street some more, carnaval isn`t over yet!

The final days of Peru

After taking my detour into Bolivia, I ended up having only 4 days or so left in Peru, with many things on my to do list. I narrowed it down to 2 places. Lima, since of course I had to be there at the end to catch my flight, and Huacachina, since I just couldn't wait to hang out in that oasis town surrounded by sand dunes.

First stop, Huacachina, and it was just as awesome as I'd hoped. I arrived at the main hostel in the tiny oasis town, Casa de Arena, at 4:50pm, just in time to catch the evening dune buggy and sandboarding tour at 5. The other travellers told me to get the crazy driver, since he was way more fun. He was easy to spot, since he looked like a total badass, schwarzenager style. And boy was he crazy, speeding over the sand dunes, bouncing all over the place, making me fear for the dreaded rollover. Instead all I got was a great thrill ride and eyefulls and mouthfuls of sand.

After a dune buggy ride, it's time for some sandboarding! You can either ride it like a snowboard or just go down it on your stomach like a sled. Some of the sand dunes are huge and steep, and when you go down it straight on your stomach you gain way too much speed...quite thrilling. When you ride it like a snowboard it's a bit slower, and it requires a bit more skill that I have yet to master, but still a blast.

For a party hostel, the Thursday night was pretty dead, but I was exhausted anyway from La Paz and travelling. On Friday night I was definitely ready when the hostel opens a discoteca that's apparently very popular with the locals too, so it's quite the party....literally right next to the 18 person dorm rooms I was staying in. Not like the noise mattered, I stayed up all night anyway and missed my planned tour to the Ballista islands at 6:30am, totally worth it.

Earlier in the day, after a day of chilling in the sun and boating in the lagoon, we climbed up the dunes at sunset, and that's when we first saw the discoteca. 

Our boat was the one on the left..."movidick"

Rowin'

Here you can see our hostel, with the entire ghetto looking roof part farthest from the street being the discoteca and the rest being the hostel with a pool and bar in the middle. 

Yeah it was big. And the dunes were big too. Quite a workout to get up there, but totally worth it. We timed it perfectly to get a fantastic dune sunset and a quick run down the dunes at dusk.

View of the dunes from the hostel dorm

Back to Lima I went, and it was completely different than every other place in Peru, but that's because it was also the first big city I was in. The city and the people had a more modern look and feel, no more old Peruvian ladies carrying their babies on their back with a colorful scarf looking thing. It seemed like everyone's skin was a bit lighter too, when the entire south had a much darker and aged look.

Unfortunately I could only spend one real day in Lima, since I arrived in the evening and had to leave the next night for a redeye flight, but I got together with some other hostel folks and we had a nice tour around the town all day. The most exciting part of the day was when we tried to catch a cab to this ceviche restaurant we'd heard about. Ceviche is pretty much raw fish, scary to eat but quite tasty with how they prepare it. So the cab driver didn't know where this place was, so he kept pulling over and trying to ask people for directions, but we weren't being that successful. I pulled out my smartphone to gps it, but next thing we know we're driving down the street and 2 motorcycle cops come from the other direction and stop us. Our first thought was that we had too many people in the car, since we crammed 4 in the back and 1 in the front, but apparently they stopped him because we were about to go into a bad neighborhood and they were yelling at the cab driver for taking a bunch of gringos this way haha. After asking for our documents and figuring out the situation, the cops decided to take us to the restaurant themselves, since they knew where it was. Yeah we had a police escort. 

One cop in the front

One cop in the back

Peace bro, thanks for the escort.

Afterwards we walked the long way to our hostel, with some nice views of the beach and a dangerous stairway up the oceanside cliffs. Of course we dipped in cold ocean water for a moment.

Dangerous stairwell up the cliffs?

Maybe a little bit, but mostly their fault for covering the stairs with gravel!

The evening consited of going to this water fountain park, which was surprisingly impressive. There was a main fountain with a laser light show and dancing fountains, as well as one you could walk through and some you could just play in. We couldn't resist the temptation of getting wet because it looked like so much fun.

Ahaha all the kids

Jump!

Well, that was the end of my Peru experiences, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of this country. When you look at a map I've only explored the southern half, maybe 40% of the country, and even in that I didn't spend enough time. I have a feeling it'll be like this with many of the countries I visit...

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Stomach problems? Say what?

So I'm still not sure how I haven't had any stomach problems yet. I've had hangover problems and other generic colds trying to get me, but my stomach is going strong.

I'm surprised because I have:

• Forgotten to wash my hands or use hand sanitizer before I eat and then proceeded to eat finger food and lick my fingers. Yes, gross, but when you wash your hands so much less frequently it stops becoming second nature. I really need some pocket sanitizer so that it's easily accessible and memorable, because it's only a matter of time before this gets me.
• Eaten street food that looks less than sanitary. Most of the street food seems pretty safe, even though the people selling it to you are usually touching the food with the same hands they take your money with, but one time I had some delicious chicken skewer and about half way through eating it I saw in the light that it was still a bit raw on the inside. I stopped eating it of course, and it seems I have survived since that was over a week ago.
• Probably done something else unsanitary since it's just not that big of a deal over here. They give you sugar for your tea and coffee without a serving spoon, so everyone just uses their own, which has sometimes already been dipped in their drink or sipped on. It is not the norm for restrooms to have soap available, even if you have to pay for them (yeah total bs).

Saturday, February 4, 2012

And I'm off to Bolivia!

Throughout my travels I'd been hearing many people talk about going to Bolivia after Cusco, specifically to Copacabana and La Paz. Well I wasn't planning on doing that until my Brazilian friend told me she was going to be in Puno for just a day tour and then head into Bolivia to do exactly what everyone else had said. When I got to Puno myself, I decided why not, so I got on a bus with 3 others to Copacabana, Bolivia, supposedly the prettier side of Lake Titicaca.

Before heading over to another country, I quickly glanced at the visa requirements, and read in one place is was going to cost me, and in another place it wasn't. The guy selling us bus tickets said it would be no problem, but sure enough we got to the border and I had to do a visa application and pay $135 to get into the country as a reciprocal fee just for US citizens! They wouldn't even accept credit cards and since everything around this area is so cheap I didn't have that much on me, so I had to borrow money from all my travel buddies to get across the border.

 Once we finally arrived, it definitely was nicer than Puno, a quaint little town that's mostly just a take off point for the Isla de  Sol, a 2 hour ferry ride away. We found a great hotel for only 50 bolivianos (exchange rate is around 7:1 so that's around $7...nice) with a lake view and everything. We were on the 6th floor with no elevator though, and when you're already at 3800m that takes quite a lot out of you. We were all gasping for air by the time we got to our rooms haha.

 

We headed out early next morning to the Isla de Sol, after running out of the hotel since he thought we hadn't paid (but we definitely did immediately when we checked in). It was foggy, rainy, and cold on the ferry, which I was worried I wouldn't get on since that dock seemed like it would fall apart at any moment. It was just a big area with 2 motor boat engines on the back and some benches and fences on the roof. We were first inside, but as soon as the engines started, thick foggy exhaust started to fill the inside, which only had 2 small windows at the front that definitely weren't going to vent the place well. We quickly decided to climb up to the roof by a tiny ladder on the outside of the boat, quite dangerous looking haha.

 

Freakin cold on the ferry some parts.

We got to the island and immediately started looking for some accommodations. There are tons of locals around asking you if you need habitaziones. First you ask them if they have aguas calientes (hot water), desayuno (breakfast, since most places include it...it's usually only stale bread, butter, jam, coffee, and tea), and wifi (which they usually don't have, and definitely not on this little island). Well they had the first one, but the whole place looked like a disaster area we weren't expecting much. They led us a few minutes away from the main area, up some rocky path, and finally to our rooms. We just decided to do it, even though it was simply a room with beds, lacking shades and a heater hah.

We took our daypacks and trekked back into town to get some food. The lunch special wasn't going to start for half an hour so we had some hot drinks and some burgers from a stand, which were pretty tasty but didn't fill me up at all. We decided we'd go over to the south part of the island to get more food. We knew it was far, but little did we know we wouldn't get there for over 4 hours...

After adding another traveller to our group of now 5, walking over the rolling hills with great views, paying more and more tolls for their little path which we were initially told would only cost 10 Bolivianos but ended up totalling 20 Bolivianos, we finally arrived at the south part of the island at around 5pm. 

Sunset was at 7:15, we were about 2 hours from our hostel, and we still had to eat. I was starving, since I was completely unprepared for the journey we embarked on. We actually found a decent place to eat with a fantastic view and a really nice lady running everything, a rare occurence since we'd had many unfriendly servers. Delicious food finished and a setting sun meant we had to get going. 

Fortunately we had a near full moon during the evening, so when it finally got dark it was still bright enough to make our way along the rocky uneven path without flashlights. Risky? Yes. Adventurous? Yes. We stopped a few times to get some nice night shots of the landscape too.

After we finally got back to the northside, we were hanging out when at about 10:45pm the lights in our hostel went out. Flashlights quickly fixed the problem, but when I went outside a few minutes later and looked towards the town (one thing that was nice about our hostel was the view), I realized that there were absolutely no lights whatsoever on the island. I thought it might be a daily power shutdown to the small island, but I thought that was a bit early for a complete power shutdown. Took a few more night pics of the scene.

We didn't worry about it too much, and just went to sleep in our spider infested rooms, but the next morning the problem consisted. You couldn't really tell in the day since everything had tons of natural light available and they used gas to heat up food and whatnot, but it was still weird knowing there was no power to the town. 

We took a ferry back into town and needed money first and foremost, since there was no atm on the island and we were running short on cash. We even needed money to catch a bus to La Paz, but when we got to the atm it was completely off. A little confused we went to the next one to also find that off...and then it all came together. Copacabana had no power either! Fortunately we had another traveller spot us some bus tickets so we could get to La Paz. Hopefully there's power there so we can finally pay people back!

The bus to La Paz...Jesus had our back.

We had to cross a part of the small lake and pay an extra fee to ferry over ourselves in another boat...probably because those bus ferries couldn't carry all the weight...

Power in La Paz!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Machu Picchu

For the last 5 days I've been hiking the inka trail through the Andes to the ancient city of Machu Picchu. We've had heart pounding climbs, knee jerking decents, and everything in between. We were drinking Coca tea to help with the altitude, since we're at around 14,000 feet on some of the mountain passes. You chew these leaves and then stuff them in the side of your mouth like chewing tobacco. We also drink Coca tea, it's quite a popular leaf around here in the Andes. Here's the elevation chart.

 

We were 23 people, from Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Switzerland, and Germany. And yours truly from the United States, it's always interesting being with all foreigners.

Along the trail we have porters that carry our stuff, tents, food, and just about everything else. It's pretty crazy seeing them pass you by carrying so much more than you haha. Here we are in the tent eating the meal that the porters cooked for us.

Here's our first campsite with all of our tents. Each tent could house 2 people, and they were properly protected from the rain! I say this because I had a bad experience one night camping in Wyoming. They had a semi-waterproof tent and put the tarp inside it. Then they had a waterproof cover on it.

Even though it's the rainy season, we've been quite lucky. The first 3 days it only drizzled on us a little bit, and we had a fair amount of sun, enough for me to get burned a little. On the morning of the 4th day, the day we were supposed to get to Machu Picchu, it poured the entire morning and didn't start clearing up until we got to Machu Picchu, which ended up being perfect timing. It definitely provided with some interesting landscape pictures with all the fog.

More of the group.

 

On the way up to the highest mountain pass on the 2nd day.

Some nice forest scene.

Right at the top of the highest mountain pass headed down the other side.

Campsite 2nd night.

Ruins on the 3rd day along the inca trail.

Booby trap!

Aguas calientes from a distance!

 Top of the world!

 Machu Picchu is around the corner!!

 

Made it! And boy do I need a shower.

 After the clouds cleared, the usual picture.

 

 Maybe more pics to come perhaps if the Internet and time is nice to me.

 

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