Copacabana

Star gazing tonight on the roof of hostel all we could hear of the city was the howling of dogs that roam the city. It made me think in Vancouver you would often hear cars or perhaps the skytrain.

Sidney and I enjoyed a quite day in Copacabana today. We took the time to cook ourselves a breakfast in the communal kitchen before we headed off to explore the town.

I think the small colorful town on Lake Titicaca made us both feel as if we were in Greece. We spent the morning walking along the beach and eating our homemade sandwhiches. We had quite the startle when our new friend Charlie (a dog) stuck his big wet nose in behind us. He became our pal and guardian protecting us from cars, bikes, and other dogs that we passed.

In the afternoon we made our way up to the top of a hill that overlooks the city and is a sacred area for the community. We climbed slowly trying to catch our breath up the steep stairs... I think it's safe to say the altitude and plague (which may have be passed on to Sidney) was affecting us. The climb was worth it as it gave us a spectacular view of the area.

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and making ourselves a delishes quinoa dinner with veggies. It was so refreshing to make our own healthy option.

Salt Flats

This is a recount of some of the highlights of the three day jeep adventure through Bolivia's Salt flats.

The salt flats are one of Bolivia's biggest tourist attractions and is the world's largest salt flat. They offer 1, 2 or three day tours through the area..we opted for the traditional three day tour.

Our jeep companions for the adventure included Michael of Switzerland and Josh and Elle of England.  They were kind, fun companions.

Day 1:
First stop the train graveyard with abandoned trains driven into the salt flat. Quite a sight to see.

Surprisingly a three day tour of salt flats isn't composed entirely of salt flats but day one was. It is kilometers of white hexagons with a few mountains in the distance. We took the typical perspective photos and enjoyed lunch in the middle of the flats.

The tour then continued on to a island of Cactuses that had grown on top of coral. It is amazing to think that the earth can change so much and that an ocean in such a large area could disappear. Apparently the world's oldest cactus is one the island but I haven't Google to confirm the accuracy of this factoid.

Night 1:
Surprisingly not as frigid as we had been anticipating. Our lodging for the evening was partially made of salt and had cement beds with mattresses on top. We spent the evening eating and playing cards and dice with our car mates. It was an enjoyable evening.

Shortly after we had gone to bed we all heard a pounding at the door. Some traveller's had gotten locked out of the hostel were trying to get back in. The joke of the trip became an imitation of the French accents yelling "SOS somebody help us its so cold". 

Day 2: The day of lakes

It was a spectacular day of seeing Bolivia's country side. It honestly seemed like the view changed from rocky desert to rolling mountains and hills every 15 minutes. The hills were often a faint yellow from little tuffs of grass that randomly arose from the rocky ground. Rarely there were little shrubs that mixed green in with the soft yellow. The jeep rumbled along and I strained to keep my eyes open (successfully I might add) so I wouldn't miss any of the sights. We stopped at 4 different lakes which unfortunately I can't remember the names of. My favorite was the last and was called Lagoon Colorado, the blue contrasted nicely with the pastel colors surrounding it. Also,   each time we jumped out of the vehicle we had to bundle up as the cold winter air was being whipped against us by the wind. I often find myself wondering why I vacationed somewhere so chilly...but at least it has been dry.

Along with the four lakes we saw a rock forest which is basically massive boulders randomly in the middle of the desert. It is shocking when you first arrive upon the structures.

Night 2 was much cooler. Our lodging had limited resources and the fire to heat the common area was hidden by the bathrooms. We all huddled around our table playing cards and dice again but this time listening to another rowdy van sing and play the guitar it made for a fun atmosphere.

Day 3:

A long day back driving back to Uyuani that started at 5:30 am. Along the route home we stopped and saw geysers which were pretty interesting but it was hard to take them in since we were freezing. From there we headed to hot springs.  I almost bailed at the idea of heading out into what felt like artic air to get into the water but I am glad that I didn't. It was so nice to warm up, view the mountains and lake, and watch little snowflakes fall. I think the springs were the highlight of the day for me. Jesse's favorite part was the massive rock formation that we stopped at for lunch...he and Sidney had a jolly good time climbing.

Overall the salt flat tour was well worth the time and my favorite part was getting to see Bolivia's vast land scape.

Island Del Sol

Today Sidney and I visited the Island Del Sol a beautiful little island that is 2 hours by boat from Copacabana. We spent the day walking from the North to the south end. It was a beautiful trail that had amazing views all the way along.

Somehow I have managed to get a small sunburn even though it is cold enough that I am wearing my gloves and toque. So I have now invested in an epic wide brimmed sunhat which offers extra sun protection.  I will be looking super good in all my photos from here on out!

I'm beat from walking in the sun all day so I'm off to bed super early. Tomorrow I think Sidney and I will head to Peru!!

A story you won't want to miss

Today June 26th started out with us flying from Uyuani (where the salt flats were) back to La Paz so that we could see Jesse off. It was a quite morning with breakfast and cards together at the airport to help Jesse pass the time. At about noon we bid Jesse farewell.  It was hard to say good bye since we had gotten so comfortable as a traveling trio.

Sidney and I feeling brave decided to attempt public transit from the airport to the city center where we hoped to catch a bus to Copacabana, Bolivia by lake Titicaca.  It was a tight squeeze with our two big bags in the mini bus but the man riding next to us slightly squished by our bag smiled graciously.

We made it with ease to our destination even making a connection to shorten our travels with the help of friendly drivers and passengers. Sweet success and we saved significantly with our bravery. We couldn't believe our luck wither when we found a bus departing for Copacabana in 15 minutes.

The bus ride was gorgeous and Sidney and I almost solved all of the world's problems with our deep conversations. I guess I could post our solutions in the future ;) Lake titicaca is the highest lake of its size in the world and looks like a ocean holding many little habitated islands.

At one point along our ride all the passengers were asked to disembark the bus and cross the lake via boat...While the bus would cross on a barge and meet us on the other side. I had read about this and was prepared but the problem is we weren't quite certain if we were at the right stop so we decided to wait and see if everyone else got off as well. They did...no big deal right?

We walked over with the last of the passengers to buy our fare across the water. I fumbled to find our change as Sidney purchased the tickets before we headed for the little boat.

But this is where things get interesting..we were stopped since the boat was full... and we were forced to watch the rest of the passengers on our bus disembark on the boat without us. We were kindly redirected to another boat that would take us across. At first I wasn't worried I had read that the barge takes a lot longer to cross than the little boats so we should have plenty of time. But then we sat... and sat and slowly watch our bus with our "muchilas" (AKA our giant sacks with all of our worldly traveling possessions) float further and further away towards the opposite shore. Of course we were getting more frantic but the boat wouldn't depart without more passengers and there were only 4 of us. We were close to paying for the boat to cross with just us when another mini bus arrived. We too were finally on beautiful blue lake with sparkly water chasing our bus across. They would wait for us right? They knew they had our bags and possessions ?

I turned to Sidney half way across the lake as our bus gradually disappeared from sight and said "I wish I could appreciate this moment more". She agrees and took 20 seconds to take in the beautiful scenery before she rejoined me in worrying about our bus.

We thought we could maybe see it a corner of it parked behind a large building...but we couldn't be certain.  As soon as our boat docked the boat driver let us off first. Sidney shot off like a rocket running and I was in close pursuit as soon as our feet hit the ground.

I almost had time to sigh with relief with the sight of our bus parked behind the building before the bus pulled out and started to roll down the street.

If Sidney and I weren't at full speed before we were now. Half a block behind our bus we started to scream...

WAIT

STOP

Sidney screamed HEY at the top of her lungs.

I who has learned to say hello, Thank you, count to 8, and some other very basic Spanish decided to scream "Escuopa" my best attempt at excuse me in Spanish.

But the bus continued on... and that is how we have come to be south American adventures with a sling bag and two little purses.

Just kidding the bus went about half a block with us screaming in pursuit before it stopped and let us on. All the passengers were having a good laugh so it's hard to say if the bus departing was a joke or if we were really 30 seconds away from only having the clothes on our back.
A day I won't be forgetting...more on our trip in the Salt flats to come. For now I hope someone has a good chuckle with us as we our counting our blessings tonight that we made it safely to Copacabana.

A short travel story

Here goes the short story of how Jesse, Sidney and Marley rode the bus with a pig.

Once a upon a time there were three eager adventurers who needed to commute from Sorata to La Paz in order to continue on their Great South American adventure. Sidney the early rising adventurer got the group moving to catch the 7:30 bus (although truth be told she really wanted to be on an earlier bus).
The adventurers arrived and at first glance they believed they would be the only three on the mini bus that morning. It wasn't until their bags were being loaded on top of the mini bus that Marley noticed a little snout emerging from under a tarp.  She should have been a better person and in this moment hesitates to admit that when the bus driver started asking for their bags she poked her brother Jesse and said pass him your bag. She wasn't wanting her bag to end up next to the "dead" pig. His bag wasn't placed next to the pig and so she sighed with relief that her conscious could be clear.

It was just a few moments prior to boarding the bus that the pig got bumped and let out a loud squeal. Marley jumped in surprise giving the  Bolivian folk at the bus stop a good chuckle. That is how the 3 adventures got onto a bus with a pig.

It would be easy to think that the story stops there because the bus ride although a little smelly was quite uneventful what more could there be to share?

Well let's just say Marley's conscious wasn't let off the hook so easily that day. As the adventurers unloaded there bags from the bus in La paz Jesse found a nasty surprise from a car sick pig on his bag. Pig vomit on his bag.

Truth is the pig vomit could have ended up on any of the bags and to be honest Marley is a little relieved that her borrowed bag narrowly escaped pig vomit. What will karma think though?

Day 3 Sorata our epic hike

Our plan traverse via jeep to 4200 meters then try and hike to about 5000 meters to a glacier.

The journey started early we departed out hostel at 6 am. I of course was nervous because the manager of our hostel, a obviously wise man, warned us that we wouldn't make our target and would likely feel the altitude before that. We left with sound advice to watch over one another and were prepared to accept if we didn't make it all the way to the glacier.
Warning some of the next few details may be an over share. So my nerves have a tendency to do a number to my bowels and let's just say between the nerves and possibly food I had good reason to be nervous about trekking out into the wilderness that morning. One of my biggest concerns between stomach cramps as we started up the mountain was that poop would end up everywhere. Rest assured that somehow I survived the trek without fulfilling this worry but let's just say it was a relief to return to the hostel that night.

So the trek...first thing in the morning it was dark and the clouds looked like our view during the hike would be impaired and like we might also get wet. But as we climbed higher we gradually emerged above the clouds. Because of the altitude we set a fairly slow pace each of us feeling slightly short of breath or had small headache at some point during the beginning. I should mention that the first two hours of our hike or so before the sun caught us was frigid. I was numb and was thankful that Sidney lent me her  toque and gloves. I think because i was sick i was having more trouble regulating my temperature. I think because my hands were numb and Sidney took pity on me and when the sun started to emerge and she put the cold sunscreen on my face so the cream wouldn't make my hands even colder. It was a kind gesture. After about 4 hours that our guide warned us that at our pace we wouldn't be able to make it to the glacier. Our guide was also quite concerned about my cough and worried about it with the altitude. Sadly, I felt like the slow one slowing the group down but I just had to remind myself that at times they were also feeling the altitude as well.  Regardless of the fact that we didn't make it to the glacier the trek was an outstanding! The scenery was epic. We traversed a little trail along the rocky mountain meadow ish terrain between steep ridges with a view of snow capped peaks. Jesse took lots of photo's on his camera so I won't try and use a 1000 words to describe what we saw.

I will say it was a spectacular day and we live on one amazing planet.

Roof top shots in La paz

Sorata

Sorata: June 18,19,20

After Sidney 's spectacular arrival at 6:30 in the morning we headed to Sorata which is on the west side of Bolivia and is know for its trekking in the Cordillera mountain range. It was a 4 hour bus ride from La paz.

Sorata was beautiful it is a smaller (but still quite large) quieter town surrounded by mountains. We found a simple hostel that day and explored the town to get our bearings. We decided to walk to cafe illampu recommended by lonely planet just outside of sorata. We had a nice chat with the  Swiss owner while we ate delishes sandwhiches. They had built a look out tower between trees that we climbed. Jesse and Sidney went to the very top but I stayed at the lookout just below because it was already swaying and I felt dizzy so I decided to play it safe and they reassured me I wasn't missing a new view. 
Since they had just baked a new fresh cake they convinced us to have a piece while they went about work on their farm.  Work during our visit included killing three rabbits to transport  to their friend in La Paz. I will spare you guys the details on how that went down and say that the cake made with duck eggs and organic flower was yummy and we enjoyed playing cards in the country sun.
  
That evening we went back to our room played some more cards and then slept early. We sure made the most of Sidney 's first day and Jesse and I were so happy to have her join us.
  Oh one funny thing I forgot to mention was on our walk to cafe illampu we wandered 30 minutes in the wrong direction before we finally decided to ask for directions from the Bolivia children who had been walking near us. These children were friendly and eager to interact with us, they had gotten their English books out of their bags and were shouting words like "dog" "boy" "girl" at us. They were happy to give us directions back in the right direction. Luckily between Jesse's and Sidney ' s Spanish (and I like to think my smile ;) ) we have made out ok so far.

Day 2:
We were sleepy bears and slept until 11. I think we all needed it. I know I did as I have been fighting a cold. We hurried to get up and on our was as we wanted to walk to the caves 6 km out of town and at altitude it we had been walking a little slower than we normally would.

All three of us loved walking the winding roads through the mountains to the caves. Each turn in the road held a new view for us to take in. Jesse said it reminded him a lot of his trek in Nepal with winding roads along the  steep hillside between villages ...where as in Canada a lot of these area's would have been parks. It took us two and a half hours to reach the caves.

Going into the caves confirmed a few things for me:
1) I'm not a fan of small dark spaces. It was really just the entrance of the cave that was small and narrow and then it opened up into a big chamber but even the thought of the big chamber being burried under the earth made my skin tingle.
2) Likely because of reason #1 but I Don't think caves for are for me. This was the second time for me and the the first floating on a inner tube wasn't any better.

The cave was pretty interesting though it was 400 meters deep with an enclosed lagoon. We opted to walk the cave instead of taking little paddle boats. They lined the cave and path with little lights so luckily it was easy to see where we were going. We also had a nice guide who came in with us. The cave was extremely humid and was about 21 degrees Celsius. I think the humidity contributed greatly to my discomfort because I had more difficulty breathing and it brought out a barking cough. So although the walk to the caves was fabulous and was Jesse's and Sidney 's favorite part of the day, mine was the moment we exited the cave back to the fresh air.

Because we had slept in so late we were forced to take a taxi back into town so that we wouldn't be on the road in the dark. It actually worked out in our favor though because the taxi had to take a different route back do to Construction.

It is impressive to see the cars handled on winding tight turns and is even more impressive and terrifying when two cars have to pass on the road with sharp cliff on the side.

The rest of the night was uneventful..we found a quiet place to eat, bought food for our trek (hike) the next day and then went to bed early since we were leaving at 6 am.

Day 3 of sorata will have to be written later as we are almost at our destination and I hope to post this when we have brief Internet at the airport.  We are hoping to find our way down to Uyuani where the famous salt flats are located.

No guarantees on Internet since sorata didn't have connections any time we tried. But for now you know we are alive and well and enjoying our time in Bolivia.

La Paz

YesterdayJune 17th was a day I spent cold. It started off with a 30 second warm shower that turned cold. The shower only lasted about 2 minutes as a result.                                        
                                           
I also spilled on my pants and decided that it was more important to have clean dry pants and since the high was supposed to be 15 shorts should be fine right?  Wrong! I was the only person in La paz wearing shorts (or so it seemed).

I knew before embarking on my trip that it was winter in Bolivia and to expect -5 at night and 15 Celsius during the day. So I thought I would be warm enough in pants and a fleece during the day and my -20 sleeping bag borrowed from Diana. But even though the sun was shining there is something about being on top of a mo Mountain at altitude that makes it down right chilly. Jesse is chuckling to himself since we are still headed to colder regions...I am not chuckling and will be on the look out for something warmer.

Jesse took some pestering to get him to wander into La Paz ' s city center. He wanted to wander around by our air b and b and then explore with Sidney when she arrived. But I wanted to move so we got on the city bus (van) and headed into town. It was just after lunch time at that point and I was famished so our first mission was to find food. We found a restaurant that was recommended by lonely planet and headed in. My heart sank when Jesse said " I don't know what any of this is". I was now dismayed that I would surely be eating outside my comfort zone. Jesse found 2 meals with one that had the word chicken in it
and one with the word egg and ordered it. Jesse did a fantastic job and when the food arrived I was delighted to find meals with rice and Potatoe. Go Jesse Go!

After we ate we headed to the coca leaf museum. It was very interesting. Did you know that coca cola used to have cocaine in it? Now they just use the coca leaf to flavor the drink. I wish they had dated some of there information better since it said in Asia addicts who refuse refuse treatment are dealt with by gunfire and homosexuals are sawed in half. Those are just not ok with me. Overall the museum was great and we both really enjoyed it.

We then headed to the shopping district and found that you could purchase dried llama fetus. We mostly looked at llama wool sweaters.

We then headed home on the bus and had an early day I think we were both glad to have had an adventure out own town. I will have to write more about the actual city of la paz later :)

Travel day

Today was a travel day. Somehow we found our ways from Santa Cruz to La Paz. We have also spent quite a bit of today trying to figure out how to see the things we want to see in Bolivia.

Travellers at our hostel last night were telling us how challenging it was to get to the salt flats since there was protests and road blocks along there way. Apparently they were told by there bus driver they had to get out and walk through then another bus would be waiting...but there wasn't.  It made for quite the risky adventure one that Jesse and I aren't to fond of especially since the Canadian government recommends not crossing the road blocks.  This leaves us with flying which is quite a bit more expensive but I don't want to miss this world wonder that is supposed to be amazing.  I think we will just have to bite the bullet.

I have to say planning all the nitty gritty details isn't my favorite it would be lovely if it was simple and straight forward.

I think La paz is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains looks sort of like salt lake city and the Utah.  The culture here is already obviously very different though.  I'm hoping I don't get altitude sickness...I felt funny getting off the plane but Jesse attributes this to my outstanding ability to create a nervous response. He may be right :)

good night.... If I can figure out how to post my blog on the wedding it will be posted otherwise I will have to wait for downtime to rewrite it.

Brazilian Fruit tasting adventure!

A quick summary of yesterday and today so far before I nap before the wedding tonight.

Yesterday was a peaceful day. Jesse and I walked woth Thomas ' s opa for an hour or so. We weren't quite sure what we were in for since there is a language barrier since his opa speaks only a little German and Portuguese. Plus, we were told his opa has alzeihmers and we weren't exactly sure how bad it was and if we should be finding our way back safely. We did.

It's quite sad Thomas told us that his grandpa often gets robbed as he doesn't do online banking and thief's target the elderly. It made my heart hurt to hear that because he is the dearest man and always has a smile on his face.

Most of the rest of the day we either watched the world cup or were planning the next leg of our trip. Sadly, we have decided not to go to Iguassu falls as it is very expensive and we would only have 24 hours there before we would have to be in Bolivia to meet Sidney. Instead tomorrow afternoon we will fly to La paz and spend a few days adjusting to the altitude and doing adventures around there before we meet Sidney. I think Jesse and I are happy with our plan.

In the evening we went to the Super market and got fruits that we don't have in Canada so we could try them. Mostly, they were all quite good.  One the cashew fruit was quite gross in my opinion although Jesse ate the whole thing.

This morning we drove around Sao Paulo and got the full tour!! It is quite a different city first off it is massive. It has 25 million people and is 74 x 50 km. I am pretty sure it could eat Vancouver if it was a animal. Secondly there is a huge range of economic class. There will be a massive house or very nice apartment then not even a block away there are slums and it is like this all around the city.

We also went to the institute butantan.  It is a famous snake museum and research institute.  They have the only hospital in the world that specializes in venomous bites and they research antivenom.  It was very interesting.

Tonight we will go to the ceremony which starts at 7 and then the party for the wedding after which apparently lasts until 5 am.  That should be interesting for me lol.

#So itchy

#So itchy
# unknown erythematous papular rash errupting on my forearms
# long itchy 6 hour bus ride
# thanks dad for the sensitive skin

Jesse and I were reluctant to leave Rio today as we have had fantastic hosts. They made us feel safe and welcome and showed us a great time in the city. Our host even got up with us at 5 this morning and took us to the bus station.

We had a nice bus ride to Sao Paulo and met Jesse's friend Thomas at the bus station.  He brought us to his family apartment where we spent the evening catching up and watching Brazil play. I should also mention we drove by the Brazilian team bus and there groupies.  It was fun watching the game here in Brazil...The city around us went nuts with people yelling and lighting off fireworks from their balcony when Brazil scored. From everything that is happening here in Brazil around the world cup I am wondering about the effect it is having on the people. Such a beautiful game and sport should be having a positive impact and I'm not sure I think it is...but more on that another night. I am exhausted from not being able to communicate with anyone. I wish my brain would start picking up Portuguese.

scratch you all later!!!! (hopefully this rash disappears soon!)

Redonk Redonk

Day 4:

Today was another day where I am sure that we met the recommended 10 000 steps. Our air b and b hosts toured us around downtown Rio and showed us all the sites. We saw 3 amazing cathedrals and an outstanding monastery that I am sure we would have never have been able to find ourselves. Unfortunately,  there is quite a bit of political unrest and the security guards for the museums are all on strike so the museums are all closed. The timing of this blows my mind with so many tourists here for the world cup. I think it just shows how much unrest there really is in the country right now.

Tonight we went out for a traditional Brazilian dinner which was delicious. They ordered 3 appetizers for us to try and one massive entrée for the 4 of us to share. The food was not that outlandish and I enjoyed everything that they ordered. It's amazing how less picky I am when I am hungry ;) ... I think I forgot to mention I thought I was ordering a Mediterranean sandwhich last night with cucumber,  cheese and tomato sauce but what I really got was a massive eggplant sandwhich with sundried tomato and cheese. It was surprisingly tasty but I was also famished from our long day. Regardless tonight's meal was tasty but ridiculously (redonk redonk) expensive.  It made a major dent in our wallets.

The rest of the evening we spent listening to our host playing the guitar for us and sharing his music which he had recorded it was a nice way to unwind after a long day.

Grouse Grind in sandles anyone?

Day 3

Jesse and I slept in this morning to find a wonderful breakfast prepared for us by our hosts. I am still a little nervous (probably for no good reason) but so far there hospitality is outstanding. They are definitely showing us the best of Brazil. After we ate we made our way to the fruit/veggie market to pick up lunch for the day. I wish I had a pedometer on as once we started walking for the day we didn't stop.  We went to Impanema and Copacabana Beach which were beautiful. Jesse swam a little in the large waves while I just waded. We then made our way to the famous sugar loaf (Paodeacugar? ). We decided we would hike up to the first peak. The beginning of the hike reminded us both of the grouse grind and I was cursing my choice to where sandal s. Luckily the hike didn't take as long as the grouse grind or as long as they told us. We made it up in about 20 minutes. I think this was the highlight of the day for me as half way up Jesse froze and pointed into the thick jungle and said look.... Low and behold a monkey!!!! Then there were 5 climbing around the trees around us. Unfortunately they were two quick to capture a good picture. The trip up the Gondola was also spectacular, again, we had arrived around sunset and the view of the ocean sparkled and the city was starting to light up.  It was a little bit chilly at the top and we could see dark clouds rolling in so we decided to head down after snapping our photos.  Our legs were exhausted riding the subway back to our room.

Another day well spent in Rio!

Elevator music anybody?

Well I'm lying here listening to Portuguese banter, the spinning fan, and Jesse's gentle snore. We just laid down and it took him seconds to pass out cold while I lay awake pondering the fact that I am on another continent and wondering how safe it was to sleep. It had been a long day of travels but none the less went more smoothly than I could have imagined. I found Jesse easily at the airport and we smoothly found a cab to take us to our air b and b. The hosts were wonderfully friendly and showed us around the neighbourhood and fed us a delicious lunch. Jesse and I then headed off to the Christ Redeemer (Corcovado). The subway is a handy way to get around town and plays wonderful elevator like music at every stop...so today's adventure was filled with 5 second dance parties. It was a beautiful ride to the top along a winding steep road before we reached our destination. We arrived just in time to enjoy the sunset over Rio along with many other soccer fanatics who have come to enjoy the world cup. What a glorious city and a spectacular way to spend our first day.

Cat cuddles are the best

Day 5:
Our final day in Rio is coming to an end. Today felt less jammed packed full of tourism but was a fulfilling way to spend our day.

This mornings news would have made us happy regardless of where we were in the world. Jesse found out he passed his final exam of medical school and can officially call himself Dr. with confidence. I felt honored to be with him as he read the results and celebrated in the tiny internet cafe.

We then sent off on an adventure into the jungle with our hosts that Jesse and I were both looking forward. The National park of Tijuca is an enormous park. We only wandered through part of it and saw 2 species of butterflies, hummingbirds and other bird species. I kept hoping for a sloth but was not able to conjour one with the power of positive thought (I haven't given up on the possibility of one before the end of the trip yet though).

In the afternoon we spent some rushed time at the Natural history museum. It was an outstanding museum in one of the houses of the Rio family. I was shocked by their display. Having been to the national history museum in New York I was impressed with how it compared (especially since it was so cheap to enter) and was shocked by some of the exhibits, for instance, mummies from Egypt.  Let me repeat that...legit mummified human beings not just in their tomb but openly on display. I do not remember seeing that in New York but maybe I have forgotten. Or it means more to me now having been in the gross anatomy lab. I have a feeling though that there is just a slightly different level of custom on what can or should be displayed.

Our (by which I mean picky Marley's) brave food adventures for the day included a custom Brazilian lunch with rice, brown beans, chicken, and an unknown vegetable powder substance. Jesse also finally found the Acai berry smoothie that he had read about in Lonely Planet. I know he really enjoyed the flavor and was blown away by how sweet it was considering he ordered the one with no added sugar. I'm just happy we survived another day well fed!

In the evening we spent the night making sure we had everything gathered, bought groceries for our 6 hour bus ride to Sao Paulo,  and of course purchased some amazing  Brazilian chocolate for Jesse to bring home. I may now be regretting not having purchased my own. Once we were all packed we sat down to read and unwind... it wasn't long until our previously shy cat friends joined us for some cuddles. Jesse and I both enjoyed there company.

Good night from Rio!

This is just a short message to let you all know that I am alive and well in Rio. I have more blogs written on my phone to post when I finally find wireless but as my time on the computer is short this is just a quick update.

Rio is a gorgeous city that is very similar to Vancouver in many ways. The beaches are amazing!!

Our hosts through Air b and b have been superb. I don´t think we could have been any luckier!!!! They have been very welcoming and been our own tour guides throughout the city.

More to come when we arrive in Sao Paulo tomorrow I hope :)

The journey begins

Dear Friends,

Well I am off on a my Great South America adventure!!!! I have to admit I am filled with fear and excitement. I have decided to use the blog to journal about my trip and thought I would share my experience with those who may be interested. I can't promise to be a thrilling writer or to be completely grammatically correct but I can promise to update on whether I am still alive!!!! 

First stop: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Here's hoping I am all packed...my bag seems a little light!!!!!