Rio de Janeiro

Finally the last leg of the South American Trip. Rio de Janerio! This is where we all went our seperate ways but all had a great time before we did. I spent about 5 days in Rio which was an amazing city. It is full of big hills which have been turned into what are called 'favelas'. Here people live in a world of there own it seems. All of the favelas are linked to gangs and are places where a lot of dodgy stuff happens. I didn't venture into them due to the apparent danger and couldn't really afford to do a tour but you could see a lot from the strees at the bottom. The favelas are under guard by the police with machine guns, I think as more of a way to stop certain people leaving the favelas. You can get all sorts of illegal stuff from the favelas and apparently some of the richer favelas even have anti-air craft missiles for if the police try and fly over. It was amazing how this all existed in such a big city.

While in Rio I ventured to my first ever game of professional soccer at Maracana Stadium where we saw Flamengo play Gremio (two Brazilian teams). We also went to a street party in Lapa which was a pretty awesome experience. The street party occurs every Friday night and 35,000+ people fill the streets of Lapa and party until the morning. You could buy 2 shots of Tequila for 5 reals in the street and beer for 2 reals. Was awesome. Saw the area they hold the Rio Carnival as well. From the set-up they have I could just imagine how amazing the atmosphere would be at Carnival.

Saw a lot of other stuff in Rio as well. Is an amazing city to visit but by far the most expensive of all the places we went to in South America. Even though this was the case it didn't detract from the place and the things to see and do.

Me and Andrew sitting on the path right beside the beach of Copacabana drinking coconut juice straight from the coconut.

Copacabana Beach. One of the many beautiful white sand beaches in Rio.

This building was in the Plaza in the centre of Lapa. It had some really impressive architecture going on with a golden eagle on the roof. Unsure exactly what the building was.

Another of the buildings in the Plaza.

This here is the Catholic Church. Only took a picture because I couldn't believe it is a church. Apparently it took a lot of time before it was accepted by many catholics as being a church and many still don't visit it for mass. Went inside it as well during a mass. It is massive but only has one level. The rest of the space is wasted. It's as bland on the inside as it is on the outside.

These arches are in Lapa. Traffic flows through them and a tram runs across the top of them. Went on the Tram across them as well. Cost us 60cents and was a pretty wild ride hanging off the side of the tram and pulling yourself in as buses came toward you.

Saw some really impressive graffiti in Lapa on some of the buildings at the bottom of the Favelas. Saw this just before we got to the tiled stairs.

These stairs lead up into one of the Favelas and have been tiled all the way up by a guy from Chile. Is an amazing story if you get a chance to have a look into it as to why he has done this. His whole life since he entered Brazil has been dedicated to tiling these stairs. When he finishes one area he destroys all the tiles in another area and restarts the area with a new design. The stairs are covered in tiles from all over the world that have been sent to him by different people. The stairs are quite famous and are in the video clip for 'Beautiful' by Snoop Gogg and Pharell.

Here is just some of the tile work he has created. His work was so impressive it just has to be seen for yourself.

Actually managed to get a picture with the man himself. This wild looking dude is the guy that works every day of his life to create and maintain this amazing stair case. In this picture we are right at the top of the stairs in the Favela.

This is one of the most famous beaches of Rio. Ipanema. This was where most people went to swim, surf and sunbathe. Beautiful beach.

Looking across the city to the statue of Christ. (Christ the Redemer). Unfortunatly while we were in Rio they were cleaning Christ the Redemer and the statue was half covered in scaffolding.

This was as close as we got to Christ the Redemer due to bad weather but even though it was covered in scaffolding it was still pretty cool to see.

Looking across some of Rio. The mound in the distance to the left is sugar loaf mountain which has two cable cars going up to it for tourists to capture a 360 degree view of Rio.

Heres the view from Sugar Loaf mountain back toward Copacabana beach. Wasn't a great day up there but the views were pretty breathtaking. Well worth doing and a great way to capture the layout of Rio with all of its Favelas and high rises spread everywhere along the beach.

Party Boat, Paraty, Brazil

To finish up our trip together as a group before we entered Rio we went on a Party boat in Paraty. It was an epic day of drinking free Caprinhas and Beers we took on with us and eating as much food as we could. The day consisted of drinking, sailing for short periods of time and jumping off the yacht. We spent about 6 hours on the boat on which they blasted music the whole day. Was an amazing day in the sun with an awesome bunch of people.

Heres a view looking down the boat we sailed on. This is at the start of the day where everyone is still feeling a little hungover from the night before.

Chilling on the front of the yacht soaking up the sun and admirring the view.

Big swan dive off the nose.

Taking the rugby ball, which we bought in Argentina to keep ourselves amused, in mid air.

Did a lot of jumping off the boat if you can't already tell.

Some of the team we travelled South America with. Found the hat on the boat. Wore it for a couple of hours around the boat and in the water.

The change of atmosphere from the beginning of the day in comparisson to the end. Callum now has the remains of a devil costume tied around his head for some reason. Amazing party!!!

Paraty, Brazil

Paraty was the first time we saw the beach since Lima. It was a three day drive covering 2000km from the Pantanal to get to Paraty and we stayed in two interesting places along the way both behind petrol stations. It was well worth the drive though with Paraty turning out to be an amazing location with a beautiful white sand beach. We stayed in a hostel right on the beach and were a short walk from the old town centre which was a very cool place.


This is the hostel which we stayed at. I took this picture as I was standing on the beach. Nathan was enjoying the upstairs bar area in this picture. Spent a bit of time up there. Was like a tropical resort except for the fact we were staying in a dorm.

Heres the view of the beach from where our hostel was.

This picture is taken looking down one of the streets of Paraty. The old Paraty town centre has been closed off to traffic so it makes for a pretty cool place to walk down. They still use donkey and cart on the street though.

Here is another picture of the streets. Paraty is right on the sea and when the city was designed 300 years ago they designed it so that at high tide the streets would flood and would be cleaned off by the sea with the sea residing again at low tide and taking all the filth away. Pretty cool design which was still evident but not to the same extent it had been in the past apparently. Not really ideal for the environment either.
A river also runs through Paraty so these buildings have been built right on the river. Very cool town that was also very different to the rest of the Brazillian towns I saw.

Pantanal, Brazil

Went to the Brazilian Panatanal for 3 days. The Pantanal is basically a big wetland where there are a lot of different animal species living. They have a huge array of birds plus a lot of Cayman and Piranha, and apparently Anaconda and Jaguar but unfortunatly we didn't get to see either of these. It was a pretty amazing place but it was not something I would recommend people do as you can see a lot of the birds and animals during other adventures in South America. Had a good time though and did some horse back riding through the water in a mission to find anaconda. Was good fun as we got the horses to the point of almost needing to swim. Also did some walking through the swampy waters which I felt wasn't the brightest idea as it was where the cayman and anaconda hang out but was a cool adventure. Did a spot of Piranha fishing again and this time came up trumps so heres some photographic proof of the fishing as well.

My Piranha which I caught with my trusty piece of bamboo and a short piece of line with a hook.

A close up of one of the many Piranha we caught. There vicious looking little buggers with four rows of razor sharp teeth.

Callum managed to catch a Cayman while Piranha fishing. Certainly cleared everyone out of the water pretty quickly as we had all been standing knee deep in the lagoon trying to catch Piranha. He was the only one to catch a Cayman. Didn't get to eat it either unfortunatly.

Callum, Myself and Andrew filleting Piranha before we cook them up and eat them. Callum went for the over kill knife with his filleting. Not an easy task filleting a fish that small.

A Cayman just chilling in the sun between the main courtyard and our dorm where we all slept in hammocks.

More Cayman...

All prettied up in my things from the Pantanal. The necklace is made from a water lilly and the christmas tree looking thing came from inside the piece of wood in my right hand which came out of a type of palm tree. Was pretty awesome.

If you look hard theres a Tucan in the top of the tree. Saw a few Tucan in the Pantanal but it was hard to get close to any.

The sun setting over the Pantanal!

Rio Prata, Bonito, Brazil

Went to a place called Bonito in Brazil, it is famous for its fresh water snorkelling. You can do all sorts of different snorkelling and scuba diving around this area in some of the clearest water in the world. Some of the options such as the abseil into a cave followed by scuba diving were expensive so I opted for a river float which was well worth the money. We floated down stream letting the current carry us for two hours and saw some amazing sites. During this trip the river wasn't deep but you were not allowed to touch the bottom to ensure the surroundings were not ruined. Was a really good day out!



Showing my appreciation of the scenery!

Saw plenty of fish along the way. Just one of the many little schools!

This fulla was pretty damn ugly. Was the only type of fish I was afraid might tear me apart. He was pretty big and had a good set of teeth on him.

One of the many springs as we floated down stream.

More fish. We saw so many different species and there was no point when there wasn't a fish within sight. Most of the fish got close enough to you to touch them also.

The surroundings we had to deal with. Not only were the fish awesome but so was the rest of the underwater scenery.

Pretty stoaked about our day!

Paraguay

Skipped the boarder into Paraguay for a few hours from Brazil. Easiest boarder thus far I have needed to cross. You don't need a passport and just drive straight across the bridge. Was like chalk and cheese as a comparison from Paraguay back to Brazil. Paraguay is by far a lot poorer but because of this has a lot more character at this particular point of the boarder. Everything was a lot cheaper in Paraguay than Brazil and it was back to Spannish speaking rather than Brazils Portuguesse.


Heres a picture of us walking down one of the streets of Paraguay. Back to the road side stalls. Today was quiet as it was a holiday of some sort in Paraguay. Had enough time to get a beer in in Paraguay.

We also went on this same day to the point where the three countries meet. Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. These flags were on the wall of the building sitting beside the river at this point.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

For me this was, next to Machu Picchu, the highlight of the South American trip. I struggle to see anything being more amazing than this set of amazing water falls. Iguazu falls is an area of 250 waterfalls with huge amounts of power. They are apparently the most powerful waterfalls in the world and we managed to catch them at there most powerful point which occurs once every four years. While we were there 6,000 cubic metres of water was flowing over the falls every second. It's a lot of water and makes a lot of noise but I could have sat and watched it for hours on end. I didn't want to leave this truly amazing place at the end of the day. A lot of photos just to try and get a perspective but to really get the full brunt you need to see it for yourself.

Standing toward the base of one of the smaller falls. Because of the power we couldn't go right to the end of the plat form but here I got absolutly drenched.


Went on a jet boat and zoomed around the base of some of the falls. Again got drenched but managed to get some good pictures when the camera could come out. This here is just again a small portion of the falls.

Posing in front of some falls now standing up on top of them. A walkway went a long way across the top of the falls and at points you could look straight down the waterfall. The falls are curling right behind me stretching for ages.

Here I was standing on a platform where the fall was not only in front of me but falling from underneath me as well.

Looking across some of the 250 falls!

'Garganta del Diablo' The trail to 'The Devils Throat'. This is the largest waterfall of Iguazu Falls and it alone has 2,000 cubic metres of water flowing over it every second. Seeing this amount of water fall over a drop all at once is something special and extremely loud.

To get to 'The Devils Throat' we walked a boardwalk across part of the river supplying the large waterfall. It was a kilometre walk and we were only about half way across it. This picture is approaching the falls.

Repping the chiefs jersey at 'The Devils Throat'!

Looking across the horse shoe shaped falls to the water plumbiting. Pictures do not do the volumes justice.

Looking to the falls directly beside us. We are again standing on top of the water fall so can see the water dropping from directly beneath us.

This video shows 'The Devils Throat's' power a bit better but you need to be there to really capture the power!