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Around the World

April 2017 - January 2018
A 282-day adventure by Simon Read more
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  • Simon and BlakeAround the World
    1
    Day 1

    London Heathrow

    April 3, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Our morning started at 2.30am following a luxurious stay in our windowless easyJet hotel room. We awoke to the good news that our Australian visas had been granted (talk about cutting it fine) and were feeling very positive about the adventure ahead of us! Our luck soon ended when the airline refused to let us check in as we didn't have a flight booked out of Brazil. Apparently a flight out of Peru isn't evidence enough that you are going to leave Brazil! By the time the supervisor came on duty and was able to help us the plane was overbooked. Our luck changed again when they offered us €600 each in compensation, a £20 food voucher (with which we treated ourselves to a Wetherspoons breakfast) and rebooked us on to a direct flight to
    Rio with British Airways at 12:30.

    After all that, we have finally made it to the departure lounge and are on our way...    Read more

  • Simon and BlakeAround the World
    1
    11
    Day 2

    Rio de Janiero

    April 4, 2017 in Brazil ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Our first observation about Rio... they drive like maniacs! The journey from the airport felt like an Alton Towers ride!

    But we are here and checked in to our first hostel! I have no idea what the guy at the reception desk said to us but we both got a fist pump so I think we have made a good impression!

    Today we did 2 back to back walking tours around Downtown Rio and then Copacabana and Ipanema which were really good.

    Highlights of Downton Rio were the 215 Selaron Steps and the delicious brigadeiro from a beautiful historic bakery where the King of Brazil used to go to make all of his important decisions on Brazilian politics. If it's good enough for him it's good enough for us right!

    We have an amazing view of Sugarloaf at the end of the road from our hostel and we also caught our first glimpse of Christ the Redeemer from Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon (a stunning lake in the district of Lagoa.

    We are fully embracing eating on a budget with a $1.29 (34p) packet of chicken super noodles for lunch and some pasta and tomato sauce for dinner!    Read more

  • Simon and BlakeAround the World
    Day 3

    Day 2 Rio - Christ the Redeemer

    April 5, 2017 in Brazil ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    Today we went to see the big man himself Christ the Redeemer. It was a perfect sunny day with not a cloud in the sky so the views over Rio were incredible. Unfortunately due to technical difficulties and a slight school boy error we have very few photos although we did manage to get a couple before it died.

    We finished the afternoon off with a trip to Ipanema beach, which is just next to Copacabana, to make a start on the tan (we were definitely the palest gringos on the entire beach!)    Read more

  • Simon and BlakeAround the World
    Day 4

    Day 3 - Rio

    April 6, 2017 in Brazil ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Having fully mastered the metro in Rio we decided to give the bus a go to visit Jardim Botanico. Fortunately for us, we had the nicest bus driver ever who shouted down the bus when we tried to get off the bus a stop early and then when we did get off, kept beeping his horn and pointing us in the right direction towards the botanical gardens!

    Within the first five minutes we spotted a hummingbird and 2 toucans! We didn't spot anymore for the rest of the time we were there so we felt very lucky to see them!

    The gardens were absolutely beautiful!

    This afternoon we did a walking tour of the Rocinha favela. Our guide was a chap called Wellington who used to live in the favela. The locals travel up and down the favela on mototaxi's so in order for us to get a true taste of favela life we jumped on the back of a bike and were driven up to the top of the mountain, weaving in and out of traffic and pedestrians. Literally everyone in the favela travels this way, including little old ladies with their groceries! Crazy!

    From the top you had an amazing view over the city and could see the contrast between the favela and the city. From the top, we walked back down through narrow streets between the houses which are all built on top of each other. We learnt a lot about the history of the favela and the way of life there. The government provides the favelas with water and electricity but in order to connect a home to the grid the locals connect themselves to the main power lines. The result is a messy spider web of wires travelling in all directions. Whilst we were there we saw a man on a step ladder with a pair of pliers playing around with the wires - terrifying!

    Tomorrow we leave Rio and head to Ilha Grande. Our parting thoughts on Rio are that it is a much friendlier city than the horror stories portray. We haven't felt unsafe at all and have really enjoyed our time here.    Read more

  • Simon and BlakeAround the World
    Day 6

    Ilha Grande

    April 8, 2017 in Brazil ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    After 3 hours on a minibus followed by 30 mins on a boat, we have landed in Ilha Grande. It looks a bit like Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs (think about he scene where they approach the island for the first time with the John Williams score).

    We are staying in the Biergarten Hostel which is really nice. The staff are friendly, it's nice and clean and in general has a much better vibe than the last hostel so we feel much more at home here.

    We arrived on the island late afternoon so didn't do much yesterday.

    Today we went on a 7km hike across the island through the jungle to Lopes Mendes beach. It took us around 3 hours (it was really steep and very muggy) but was very enjoyable (even Simon enjoyed it 😂). And the beach at the end was totally worth it! We have never been on a beach like it. It felt a bit like when Leonardo di Caprio finally discovered the beach!

    After an hour of sunbathing and a brief dip in the sea we opted to get the boat back to have some dinner. Dinner today was a very delicious home cooked meal of rice, carrot, onion and courgette (at least that's what we think it was) in a tomato sauce! Poor Simon misses meat!    Read more

  • Simon and BlakeAround the World
    Day 8

    Day 2 and 3 - Ilha Grande

    April 10, 2017 in Brazil ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We didn't manage to write a post yesterday as we got ourselves into a rather long game of Phase 10 with an American guy called Kevin. I can proudly say I (Blake) won!

    On our second day on the island we hiked to a waterfall Cachoeira da Feiticeira. The water was freezing but was very refreshing after the long hike up. It was so humid yesterday, I don't think we have ever sweated so much! It was like when you go into the tropical animals bit at the zoo or as Simon said his family trip to the Eden Project when he was 12!

    After our dip, we hiked to the nearest beach and spent a few hours there before hiking back to our hostel. On the way back we saw lots of little marmosets which were super cute!

    Today we opted for a much lazier day and instead of hiking, opted to take the boat back to Lopes Mendes for a relaxing day on the beach. I'm so glad we did as on the way there we saw lots of dolphins swimming near the boat! We were only discussing the other day how we have never seen dolphins in real life so it was amazing!    Read more

  • Simon and BlakeAround the World
    2
    Day 9

    Day 4 - Ilha Grande

    April 11, 2017 in Brazil ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Today we went with Blake's suggestion of hiking to some prison ruins. Apparently hiking to the highest peak on the island without a guide (after the last people that did it got lost and weren't found for 5 days) wasn't a sensible idea 😒

    The prison we visited used to house some of the most dangerous criminals in Brazil. The nearby beach was called Dois Rios which means two rivers. It gets its name from the two river that run down either side of the beach into the sea.

    Tonight we are adding frankfurters into the usual mix of courgette, carrot and tomato!

    Number of steps on the island:

    Day 1 - 15,651 (9.8km)
    Day 2 - 17,733 (10.4km)
    Day 3 - 7,733 (4.5km)
    Day 4 - 25,208 (16.4km)

    I think we may have overdone it on the hiking!

    Number of Spanish ladies we have annoyed due to being English and not speaking Spanish - 1

    Our new roommate was here for not more than 5 minutes! It was too cold so she cranked the temperature up on our air con. She was also annoyed with the lack of free bottled water so that she had to boil her own! She then checked out complaining that everyone spoke English! Ciao!    Read more

  • Simon and BlakeAround the World
    Day 12

    Paraty

    April 14, 2017 in Brazil ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    We picked the perfect time to leave Ilha Grande as it was torrential rain all day! We jumped back on the boat and caught a minibus to Paraty. Unfortunately Simons travel towel didn't make it with us as he left it in the previous hostel!

    Paraty is a historic town with cobbled streets and lots of donkeys! You have to concentrate when you walk around as the cobbles are ridiculously large and very uneven!

    We are staying at Leo's Clan Beach Hostel which is amazing! Leo has been looking after us and took us to a hostel party on our first night for a couple of caipirinhas which was fun!

    Yesterday it rained all day so we had a very lazy day as there isn't much in the way of rainy day activities in Paraty! Leo put on a movie and popcorn in the morning so we did that before venturing out for lunch. For lunch we had delicious dostadas which are like toasted flatbreads. We then went for dinner in the evening with a couple of people we met in the hostel (Ciaran from Ireland and Lisa from Germany) before coming back and having a huge game of Phase 10!    Read more

  • Simon and BlakeAround the World
    2
    Day 13

    Day 2 & 3 - Paraty

    April 15, 2017 in Brazil ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    The sun decided to put its hat on for a little bit yesterday so we ventured to a nearby beach. As soon as we got there we realised we had forgotten a towel so wandered back to get one after half an hour and then went to a much closer beach for a few hours. It was pretty overcast but still a good temperature to have a nap. After a long deliberation as to whether you can get sunburnt through the cloud, Simon is proof that you can get REALLY sunburnt if you don't put suncream on!

    In the evening we did a walking tour and learnt a lot about the history of Paraty. As it's Easter weekend there are a lot of Easter related services happening around the town. There are approximately 5 alters depicting the various events of Christ hidden behind doors throughout the town. You wouldn't know they were there and they only open twice a year on Holy Tuesday and Good Friday. We were therefore very lucky to see them on Friday as they won't be open again until next year!

    Leo who owns the hostel we are staying in plays in a band and they were playing at a nearby hostel in the evening so we went to show our support which was fun!

    Today we went on a boat trip which was good. We stopped at various places and got to jump off the top of the boat and swim in the sea. We also spotted 2 turtles which was incredible!

    Leo cooked up a delicious BBQ for dinner with the most amazing steak and Brazilian sausage! We are now quite rapidly slipping into a food coma so are going to chill at the hostel this evening.    Read more

  • Simon and BlakeAround the World
    1
    Day 16

    Day 4 & 5 - Paraty

    April 18, 2017 in Brazil ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    We spent our Easter Sunday visiting Toboga Falls, a waterfall with a natural slide! It was so much fun to slide down!

    We followed this by a trip to the Cachaca distillery. Cachaca is a drink made from palm sugar and famous in Paraty. For R$5 (around £1.30) we had a tour around the distillery where they showed us how they made the different types of cachaca. We then got to taste them all and after about 8 shots we headed back to our hostel.

    On Monday we jumped on the bus to Trinidade which has some gorgeous beaches. Unfortunately we didn't get to witness any of these as the moment we stepped off the bus there was a torrential downpour. After hiding under a shop canopy for an hour and the rain showing no signs of stopping, we hopped back on the bus back to Paraty. All in all a very unsuccessful day! On the plus side though, we got some laundry done and now smell fresh and clean again.

    That concludes our time here in Paraty! It's been a lot of fun! Now to pack our bags again and start our 18 hours of coach journeys (overnight) to Florianopolis via São Paulo.    Read more

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