By Lucy
We recently met a girl in Puerto Iguazu (Argentina) who had been mugged in her first few days in Buenos Aires. She was walking through an area called La Boca which is reported to be fairly rough, (but very beautiful) in the middle of the day with lots of people about. Some guy just ran up to her snatched her bag and ran off. Rob and I never carry too much in our day bag - all our important bits are locked up back at the hostel or in our money belts strapped to the inside of our legs, but it does make you think how it would affect us if something like that happened. The girl seemed fairly upbeat about it, and we heard her telling lots of other people at the hostel, so she was using it as a story, and piece of advice to tell other travellers.
It reminded me of the woman me and Rob met when we were in Buzios, Brazil. We had been exploring all day and were on our way back to our hostel when we passed an ice cream parlour and decided to treat ourselves. We were sitting down outside and my ice cream had started to melt faster than I could eat it and I was getting annoyed. Rob told me to stop worrying about it and we started to have a (minor) argument. A lady had come and sat down on a bench behind Rob and I could see her looking at us. All of a sudden she shouted over 'Where you from?!´ Oh great, I thought, she´s going to tell us to be quiet, `Inglaterra, England´I replied. She then started going on about how she didn´t like Buzios (she was from a place about 20 minutes away and had come to visit her mum) and how people in Buzios were very rich, but thieves never robbed local people, only people like us - foreigners.
When she said that I got a bit concerned, why did she say it? It sounded like a bit of a threat, or was she trying to give us advice? We had just been to the bank to get some money out, and I became very conscious about it. I put my hand on the pocket it was in to check that it was still there. I didn´t move my hand away after that. Then, a dodgy looking bloke sat down the other side of Rob. Oh my God, I thought, is this her accomplice? He was just staring at her, and looked really weird.
Then she proceeded to ask us many questions in very broken English, like were we married etc. We had our Portuguese phrase book and we were attempting to answer her. She seemed geniune but I was still concerned it could be a scam. She started telling us about her family, she had 2 children, a boy and a girl, and she said she was waiting for her son who was on the internet. She was separated from her husband. She also told me she was half Armenian and that the Armenians were some of the loveliest people in the world. She also told me a fact that I already knew - all of their surnames end in -ian (thanks Lisa J!) The weird bloke had moved on by now.
Then she said something that really touched me. She told me and Rob that we had love and light in our eyes (our ojos!), and that she sensed a lot of love and sincerity between us. She told us that meeting us had been a special moment in her life. I thought, there´s no way she could be a con artist and say something that lovely. We thanked her for her nice comments, and with that her 12 year old son and his friend appeared from the internet cafe. She tried to introduce them to us, but being typically teenagers, they weren´t having any of it.
We told her we had to go, and with that she got up and walked round to me, she hugged me and kissed me once on each cheek. She told me it was one kiss is Sao Paulo, and 2 kisses in the rest of Brazil. She then kissed Rob. We said goodbye and walked away. As we were walking we both confessed that we were really worried when she first turned up. No-one does that in England, strangers aren´t interested in eachothers´lives, so being Englsih we get concerned when someone starts talking to us - what do they want, what are they trying to sell me etc.
She was just a lovely lady, waiting for her son, who saw a young foreign couple and wanted to find out a bit more about them, and I won´t ever forget her.
Saturday 31 January 2009
Friday 23 January 2009
Brazil
After a 12 hour flight from Madrid, we were both absolutely knackered. We managed to get a bus from the airport, after being accosted by a million taxi drivers who wanted to charge us 80 reais. The bus cost 7 each, but we weren´t really sure if we were on the right bus... It turned out we were but the bus stop was about a mile from the hostel, so after a nice midnight hike through the streets of Ipanema we arrived at the hostel sweaty and tired.
Whilst in Rio we visited Sugar Loaf mountain (by ourselves!) and also took a taxi ride of a lifetime round the sights of Rio including Corcovado mountain with the Christ statue (which was fantastic and the highlight of Rio). The taxi driver was a complete lunatic and only spoke about 5 words of English, but he was great fun, and took us through the favelas (slums) of Rio and explained the history of them to us (via an Italian/Canadian/Romanian translator who shared the taxi with us). He also took us to Lapa Steps which are beautifully decorated by a lunatic artist with different tiles (and bath tubs!) from all over the world.
After a manic few days in Rio we headed to chill-out central Buzios, about 3 hours along the coast. It was discovered by Brigette Bardot some time in the 60s and the people there love her so much they erected a statue of her (which Rob decided to abuse - see photos). We were very impressed with the hostel there as we had our own personal hammock, which we made full use of.
From Buzios, we headed back to Rio to catch an overnight bus to Campo Grande which is the gateway to the Pantanal wetlands. The bus trip was about 24 hours in the end and we were both shattered once we arrived. We booked a 3 night package to leave the following morning. Lucy slept pretty much the whole day in Campo Grande. The next day we headed to our lodge deep in the Pantanal, and over the next 3 days went horse-riding, piranha fishing (and ate some!), trekking, jeep safari and a boat trip where our crazy tour leader, Sandro, fed piranha to some caiman (and almost had his hand bit off). We saw loads of different animals, but unfortunately as we have a crappy camera, the photos aren´t amazing. On the last night, we were headed to a party in another lodge and we had to walk across a pitch black field with our wind-up torch kindly donated by Pagey (Rob´s mate), and we saw a pair of eyes staring at us which happened to be a snake. We then shat ourselves and ran the other way. So unfortunately we never made it to the party.
After the Pantanal we went south to Bonito to do a bit of snorkelling in the Rio da Prata (Silver River) as the waters are crystal clear and fantastic for viewing fish. It was Lucy´s first time snorkelling, so she was given ´special´ treatment by our intense crackhead guide. On the way to the river we were ambushed by some monkeys who were playing overhead, and it was probably a better wildlife experience than the whole of the Pantanal!
We´re now off to Iguacu to see the waterfalls before heading over to Argentina where hopefully we will be able to communicate better with the locals, cos Portuguese is a bloody nightmare!
Whilst in Rio we visited Sugar Loaf mountain (by ourselves!) and also took a taxi ride of a lifetime round the sights of Rio including Corcovado mountain with the Christ statue (which was fantastic and the highlight of Rio). The taxi driver was a complete lunatic and only spoke about 5 words of English, but he was great fun, and took us through the favelas (slums) of Rio and explained the history of them to us (via an Italian/Canadian/Romanian translator who shared the taxi with us). He also took us to Lapa Steps which are beautifully decorated by a lunatic artist with different tiles (and bath tubs!) from all over the world.
After a manic few days in Rio we headed to chill-out central Buzios, about 3 hours along the coast. It was discovered by Brigette Bardot some time in the 60s and the people there love her so much they erected a statue of her (which Rob decided to abuse - see photos). We were very impressed with the hostel there as we had our own personal hammock, which we made full use of.
From Buzios, we headed back to Rio to catch an overnight bus to Campo Grande which is the gateway to the Pantanal wetlands. The bus trip was about 24 hours in the end and we were both shattered once we arrived. We booked a 3 night package to leave the following morning. Lucy slept pretty much the whole day in Campo Grande. The next day we headed to our lodge deep in the Pantanal, and over the next 3 days went horse-riding, piranha fishing (and ate some!), trekking, jeep safari and a boat trip where our crazy tour leader, Sandro, fed piranha to some caiman (and almost had his hand bit off). We saw loads of different animals, but unfortunately as we have a crappy camera, the photos aren´t amazing. On the last night, we were headed to a party in another lodge and we had to walk across a pitch black field with our wind-up torch kindly donated by Pagey (Rob´s mate), and we saw a pair of eyes staring at us which happened to be a snake. We then shat ourselves and ran the other way. So unfortunately we never made it to the party.
After the Pantanal we went south to Bonito to do a bit of snorkelling in the Rio da Prata (Silver River) as the waters are crystal clear and fantastic for viewing fish. It was Lucy´s first time snorkelling, so she was given ´special´ treatment by our intense crackhead guide. On the way to the river we were ambushed by some monkeys who were playing overhead, and it was probably a better wildlife experience than the whole of the Pantanal!
We´re now off to Iguacu to see the waterfalls before heading over to Argentina where hopefully we will be able to communicate better with the locals, cos Portuguese is a bloody nightmare!
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