Urca and the Sugarloaf
Topic: Brazil
Rio is divided into neighbourhoods, each with a distinct character. We took a local bus Urca on Saturday day to discover the village by the sea within the city and then go up the Sugarloaf mountain.

The main beach in Urca is very scenic. It has the backdrop of the Sugarloaf, Christ the Redeemer looking over it and misty, mysterious mountains straight out to sea. The small promenade is lined with chairs where you can get a beer or drink coconut water straight from the coconut.

We walked through the streets admiring the houses. Some were Portuguese style, others mock Tudors and others art deco, all set in lush gardens. We managed to locate Carmen Miranda's former residence. We decided that if we ever lived in Rio, it would have to be Urca.

Every now and then we looked up at the sugar loaf which seemed to permanently be in cloud. We weren't sure whether to go up it or not. Would there be a view?

We took the risk and got the two cable cars, each about 3 minutes, to the top of the mountain. What a phenomenal view! It was hard to decide what to look at first, the beach we had just been sitting on, the long stretch of Copacabana, the city centre and its parks and beaches, Christ the Redeemer, or Niteroi across the bay circled by a rainbow. Rio really is a gorgeous city. We stayed up there until sunset and still weren't ready to come down.

Ipanema Beach
Topic: Brazil
Ipanema beach is fabulous. We walked along the boardwalk on our first day in light trousers and t-shirts feeling totally overdressed. I kitted myself out in more appropriate attire in a bargain shop called Marisa before hitting the beach ourselves the following day. In most cities, wearing shorts makes you stand out as a tourist, in Rio if you don't wear shorts you stand out! Plastic flip flops are also the thing to wear. I treated myself to a bright pink pair.

The beach was less crowded than I thought it would be and people do not sit still. There's volleyball, surfing, jogging, power walking all going on in addition to the favourite pastime: posing. The thing to do is stand up, stretch, rub oil on, check out the talent, do some testicular jiggling (if you are a bloke), and move in slow circles (presumably to get an all over tan). If you're a girl, this is all done wearing the skimpiest bikini imaginable (regardless of your size). Blokes display a mind boggling selection of togs - all 1950s style - in colours like lime green and orange. White is also popular. A posing guy near us had bundies to match his deckchair - what ever possessed him to buy them?

We spent a pleasant few hours on the beach one day covered in Factor 30 and sitting under an umbrella hired from an exuberant character called Ana. We still managed to burn a bit but didn't realise until later. Ana or one of her friends kept us well supplied with ice cold water and cans of skol and even grilled shrimp!

The Girl from Ipanema
Topic: Brazil
We arrived in Rio de Janeiro during a sticky, cloudy evening. The air conditioned taxi sped along highways and through tunnels cut into mountains into the city. It felt very exotic to see road signs for "Copacabana" and "Ipanema".

Ipanema was where we were headed as we thought it sounded cooler and more upmarket. We were right. Rain had begun to fall but people walked unhurriedly through the steamy, rainy streets wearing nothing but skimpy beach clothes and flip flops. Almost all of the apartment blocks on our street are tall, 1960s concrete, including ours. The doorman took our bags and we followed him into a clean but shabby lobby. Another doorman sat watching two TV screens showing black and white security camera views of the apartment's corridors and doorways.

The apartment is very funky and very retro. It is a modern version of 1950s chic, down to the red wall and white leather sofa! It is also huge and will be a very comfortable home for 2 weeks. Here it is if you are interested: Our apartment

That night we found a nearby chilled out restaurant and had pizza while we watched all these beautiful men walk by - we were firmly in the gay district.

From Cusco to Lima to Buenos Aires.....to Japan!
Topic: Buenos Aires
After a couple of flights and a brief stop in Lima, we were back in lovely Buenos Aires ready to shop for suits and prepare for our long-awaited job interview.

The day of the interview was hot and sticky. We met the president of Nagoya University of Commerce and Business in the lobby of the Sheraton hotel and began by having a nice chat about travelling in South America. I was concerned that he might not look favourably on this gap year of ours, but as it turns out, he was all for it and had backpacked around South America himself back in 1960!

After the interview, the president made a call to the dean of English Language and came back with two signed contracts for us as Assistant Professors of English Language starting April 1st 2005. We were very cool about the offer as it didn't sink in right away. Later, half way through a bife de lomo steak and a celebratory bottle of Saint Felicien Malbec, we realised that we both had jobs! We were very happy indeed.

We spent the next few days preparing and sending paperwork to Japan, and looking online at potential apartments in Nagoya.

In between all this excitement, we sweated through a summer heatwave in Buenos Aires, bought return flights to Rio de Janeiro, celebrated New year's Eve with our friends Cris and Ray, I turned 35 and we realised that our South American adventures are almost over. We'll need to head back home at the end of February.

Apologies for this rather rushed blog entry - I am badly falling behind in my writing!

Bless this Jesus
Topic: Peru
Christmas Day was great fun full of cheesy gifts, good food (guinea pig for David, chicken for me), good company and too many pisco sours!

We walked up the hill to San Cristobal church in the morning. People from the local parish gathered outside. A brass band played and the poor queued up for tea, bread, panetone and donated toys for the children while their snooty-looking llamas waited for them in the nearby courtyard. Inside the dark church was a wonderful belen built on mountain terraces giving it an Andean feel.

The cathedral was the place to be on Christmas morning however. It was the first time that we had seen the front doors wide open. People were milling in and out even though the sermon was in full swing. Some people were in fancy dress. Many brought little little baskets containing a baby Jesus or two to be blessed by the priest. there were hundreds of them all over the steps in front of the pulpit. They were carefully dressed and resting on a silk bed. What's that all about? Well, our theory is that the catholics introduced this custom to the Incas in order to wean them off child sacrifices. This way, the Incas kept a sense of ritual and ceremony and no one got hurt.

Outside, after mass had finished, the people in fancy dress paraded and danced and sang their way through the streets of Cusco. At one point I was so excited about getting a perfect full on picture with no tourists in the way, that I tripped over the curb, landing on my camera and then sending it skidding along the pavement towards a bench where an old man sat in the sun. David tried to help me up but I just spluttered "my camera, my camera". I was hoping that the damage would be minimum but it is VERY badly damaged. I need to find somewhere to repair it. Ah well, at least I brought a back up camera with me but it isn't digital.

Christmas Eve In Cusco
Topic: Peru
We had planned a walk up the hill to the church on Christmas Eve but when we got outside, our plans changed immediately. We found that there was Christmas market in the main square! We started by looking at the food stands. The thing to eat on Christmas Eve apparently is an anticucho de corazon i.e. bits of grilled heart and a potato on a stick for 3 soles. David was tucking into his first by 10am.

We looked around the market for a while - it was absolutely packed. The stands sold mostly items to make a Belen (crib/nativity scene). Stables, shepherds, angels, that kind of thing. Whole stands were dedicated to one or two items i.e. just baby Jesuses all sizes with extra outfits and shoes, Sheep etc. Some stands advertised services "Babies and angels mended here". The poor people from the surrounding villages also had items for sale: things they found e.g. patches of grass, bits of lichen, moss and ferns. People bought them to make their Belenes look more authentic. The villagers sat in dusty heaps among their lichen and endless children eating ice lollies. It was a big occasion.

We escaped the chaos of the square to a new Mexican restaurant set in a quiet courtyard. We chatted to Walter, out waiter friend and ate fantastic soup. A smiling lady dressed in masses of petticoats and shawls interrupted us and tried to sell us items she had woven herself. We really didn't need anything but, of course, ended up buying a hard pumpkin hand engraved by her husband with Andean scenes. She was so delighted, she kissed us several times and wished us luck on our trip. She told us to be careful of pickpockets who come up from Lima.

We spent the afternoon, in and around the marketplace. That night we had a table booked at a trendy restaurant called the Fallen Angel and had a great time there. It was very festive with hats and turkey and so on.

We walked home through the square and the remains of the market. A lady was still trying to sell shepherds and a few Sponge Bob Square Pants figures. Most people had packed up leaving a ton of rubbish behind. David insisted on wearing his paper crown all the way home and enjoyed the comments this provoked. People snickered at him which is rich considering the hats that they themselves were wearing - a bowler, a trilby and even something that looked like an embroidered quiche!

the cock of the rock and the road back to Cusco
Topic: Peru
As this was our final day, we thought we would be able to have a nice lie in to say, 5.30. No such luck. If we had any hope of seeing Peru's national bird, the cock of the rock who lives in the cloud forest, we had to be on the move by 4.30 at the latest. Nicolas gave us a shout at 4am and by 4.23 we were in the truck eating bananas.

When it was just about light, we stopped at a place where you could peer through an opening at a place where the male cocks pick up females. We spotted something red in the trees - it was the guy himself! Funny looking fella. Big, bright scarlet with no sign of a beak. We watched 2 males for a while until breakfast was ready. After breakfast, we walked through the beautiful cloud forest for a while. I loved the cloud forest. the air seemed crisp and cool and thin compared to the thick, soupy, festering air in the rain forest. The path was lined with rich ferns and beautiful wild orchids. There were no mozzies, but a few strange butterflies.

The truck picked us up. Nicolas, full of cheer as ever, told us that because of the rain, there had been a landslide on the road ahead and we might not make it to Cusco. We found out later that a bus full of passengers had perished on that road but we had a smooth ride back.

As we came nearer to Cusco, we passed through small towns specialising in particular food - bread in one place, Cuy (guinea pig) in another and pork in another. We stopped at the pork one for a set lunch. The first restaurant was rejected (thank god) because the special of the day was stomach. David and Vaila seemed disappointed. We went to a place that had bits of fat and scraps on the menu instead.

We arrived in Cusco around 3pm and said goodbye to Nicolas, Cristian and the driver. They seemed pleased with our tips and we wished them a happy Christmas. We arranged to meet Vaila, Mark and Ann on Christmas day for lunch.

We checked into the Royal Inca hotel. Luxury beyond our wildest imagination (all relative). Crisp sheets, clean bathroom, separate sitting room downstairs, phone, balcony, carpet. Our first job was to get clean and get our laundry done. Then it was to eat. Then sort out an apartment in Buenos Aires for after Christmas.

Amazingly, we couldn't sleep. I had slept fine in tents in the rain, in lodges full of insects and on hard mattresses with damp sheets, but I couldn't sleep there. I think it must have been because of re acclimatizing to the high altitude again - we had gone up 2000m that day. The following nights were fine.

Last day on the river
Topic: Peru
Breakfast was unusually leisurely. Cristian, the cooker, proudly brought out a panetone, a kind of fruit bread that they have around Christmastime. It was horribly dry but we ate it so we didn't upset him. It was ok with drinking yogurt poured over it.

Nicolas, ever the optimist, told us that despite last night's thunder and rain storm, the river levels were low and we might have to pull the boat during part of the day's trip.

After breakfast, everyone came into our room to see the monster from the pits of hell which sat next to David's bed. Mark said it was like a land-langostine. It even beat the six cockroaches that they had in their tent the previous night. After the freak show, we motored off for the final river section, much slower than usual, up river. It was a cool, hazy day which we were all grateful for. We never even had to pull the boat.

Lunch was watery potatoes covered with bland yellow sauce eaten on the move. Cris was back to his previous standards. I looked back at one point during the afternoon as the cooker and the two boat guys had a water fight. This turned into a food fight. They were having great fun. I remember laughing at a pair of pants hanging from the ceiling drying, splattered with yellow peanut sauce.

We reached the end of our boat journey and after forming a human chain to empty the boat, we said goodbye to the lads and hello to our driver proudly polishing the new truck. We drove for a short while and then were dropped off to walk the remaining hour. The locals going past in the back of trucks (local transport) thought we were mad to be walking in such heat and they'd be right. I'm not sure we were even consulted. Nicolas did his usual. "Get out". "Walk". Then stomped on ahead of us. Finally we arrived at the town of Pilcopata and the lodge we had stayed at on the very first night. We remembered how primitive it had seemed at the time and how luxurious it seemed now - indoor bathrooms and electricity! We spent the next few hours chatting ad drinking cold beer. Very relaxing.

The jungle is wonderful, but....
Topic: Peru
The jungle really is wonderful, but there are a number of annoyances that I couldn't't wait to be rid of.

1. Mosquito bites. I had bites all over my ankles which wasn't helped by the wellies rubbing against them.

2. The outside showers where your newly washed flesh (free of deet) gets ravaged immediately. The wet floor means your stuff gets wet and the cold water makes you shriek.

3. Ditto outside toilets. You wouldn't believe where I got bites!

4. The fact that you are always covered in chemicals - sunblock and deet and then (a new thing and a godsend) after bite to stop the stinging!

5. The fact that your towel never dries properly.

6. Holding a torch and trying to find things in your backpack inside the tent especially when you are in a hurry and Nicolas is outside barking you us to "come on!"

7. Walking to the bathroom in the dark through the woods.

8. Having to use your clothes (clean or dirty) for a pillow

9. Always losing the torch/deet/socks/contact lense pot

10. Trying to take contact lenses in and out by torchlight while you are being bombarded by mozzies and the ledge is crawling with ants.

11. Being too hot and sticky to get inside the damp sleeping bag and not knowing who used them last!

12. Having to pack every morning in a hurry

13. The mud that gets everywhere

14. The deet that gets everywhere. It melts plastic, stinks and stings existing bites and flavours all your food.

Sounds like I had a horrible time doesn't it? I actually, I really enjoyed it but it was a very full on jungle experience and the only way you can appreciate it. Very few tourists visit this particular part and I'm glad as it means it is still very unspoiled.

Creepy Crawlies
Topic: Peru
We woke early to the eerie sounds of the howler monkeys. We showered in the dark which has its advantages: you can't see what monsters lurk in the corners (it's all open to the jungle).

Everyone was lively at breakfast. Mark and Ann found a Blair Witch like voodoo construction outside their tent - a stick with twigs tied around one end. What could this mean? It wasn't there the previous day.

We compared ankle bites. The cunning critters are biting through socks and trousers!

We spent the morning powering back by boat to Boca Manu, Fitzcarald (yes, like the film): to semi-civilisation and the airstrip where we would leave Nora and Alejandro. Alejandro is a mystery man from the jungle. He was introduced to us in Cusco simply as "an engineer coming to examine the campsites and lodges" but we generated alternative theories about his identity during the trip. What was funny was that we left Katherine to find her own way to the airstrip but we delivered Nora and Alejandro and even put them on the plane!

The airstrip was very amusing. We moored the boat and walked through the woods, past a house with washing out to a grass clearing with a basic shelter. Two men were mowing the grass with hand mowers. Mark and Ann told us that they had been doing the same thing when they had arrived. The shelter (4 poles and thatched roof) was in fact the terminal building, waiting room, check in desk and control tower. There was a weighing scales which weighed the baggage AND the passengers. A wheel barrow was available to take the bags to the plane. A military plane landed and people got off, including a charismatic gringo who knew Alejandro. We added further conspiracy theories to our growing plot. There is a novel in there somewhere. And a film. The trailer voice over would start: "A secret airstrip in the heart of the Amazon rain forest".

After putting Nora and Alejandro on the plane, the rest of us went back to Boca Manu for a lunch of rice and beans. A scabby, skinny dog patiently waited for leftovers, probably the best meal he had had in months. Well fed children pestered us with requests for coke and sweets. One boy said to me "Gringa, comprame gaseosa". I told him it would rot his teeth. He glared at me. I glared back. He knew I had won.

Before leaving, I went to the loo - it was a corner of the room behind blue plastic sheeting. To my surprise there was a real toilet (and a real bucket to flush it with brown river water).

After 3 more hours of boat travel (the reason why I have such a complete diary for this section!) we arrived at the lodge. We were very excited. It was beautiful - all wooden walkways nestled in tropical jungle. Clean towels and our own bathroom - luxury indeed! There were fewer mozzies but the candle light revealed the most enormous flying cockroaches up in the rafters. I hoped the flimsy mosquito net would keep them out.

After a brief rest, we put or wellies and went on a walk through the sludge to spot tapirs. I still don't actually know what a tapir is! Nicolas was in a foul mood. We think we was missing Nora. He stormed on ahead and shouted instructions back at us. It was really mucky, hot and sticky. The ground that wasn't flooded was covered with fungi, damp leaves and frogs. David kept walking into giant spider webs. We thought Shelob would get him. After about an hour, we reached a lookout tower and were told to sit still not moving or talking or looking out in an attempt to spot tapirs. No looking. No standing. No moving. No photographs. No talking. No breathing. Poor Vaila sneezed and received a dirty look from Nicolas. We sat there for about an hours and a half as it turned dark listening to the symphony of noises of birds and insects from the forest. We have serious doubts of the existence of tapirs. Nicolas had never even seen one! We walked back by torch light which was scary and exciting. I slipped in the sludge at one point and almost went in. I wonder how many creatures perished under 6 pairs of welly boots that night.

We could't wait to shower as we were hot, sticky and absolutely dripping. I loved taking a shower that I didn't share with 200 mosquitoes!

We had bought a bottle of warm Chilean wine in Boca Manu and we had it in out steel beakers to accompany the rubber chicken. Only Vaila would eat it (as a challenge) as she prides herself o being able to eat anything. She's not kidding. It would have been easier to eat rubber ball. We were laughing until we cried as we speculated as to the origin of the chicken. Even the "cooker" was laughing at it.