Salvador

Location: Salvador (Pelourinha), Bahia and Pria De Forte
Temp: 27-30c mostly cloudy with outbreaks of sun and showers
Hostel: Albergue das Laranjerias  (R$66 for two bed –toilet + breakfast)
Links: http://www.bahia-online.net/  http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~sergiok/brasil/salvador.html
 
Salvador is all about constant thundering drumbeats; acrobatic capoeira dancers; huge stretches of white, brown and pebbled beaches; Africana-Brazilians wearing resplendent bright colours, skilful beach soccer players and head shaking, body swaying, smoke blowing reggae, afoxe and samba music. I’ve never seen so many dreadlocks or drums in my life! Everywhere you look someone is dancing to or making music, kicking a ball or trying to put a multicoloured “welcome to Bahia ribbon” on your wrist. The place is a live with positive energy. I know now why the majority of Brazilians I’ve met unanimously agree that it is the number one city to experience the world famous February carnival. Forget Rio, Salvador is wear it’s at for carnival if you want to get stuck in and take part.
 
To appreciate the city, its culture and its people you need to know a little about its history. According to legend the city was founded by an Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, in 1501. In 1549 it became Brazil’s first capital. Salvador remained the most important city for two centuries growing rich on exports of sugar cane, gold and diamonds, tobacco, imports of African slaves and cattle ranching in the inland (sertao) regions. It was also world famous for its sensuality and decadence-until 1763 when the sugar cane industry began to faulter and Rio usurped pole position. The city experienced economic problems in the 19th century but nowadays with growing petroleum, chemicals and –helped by a face lift of the beautiful historical centre-tourism. However, for all its development and progression it ostensibly suffers chronic social problems with homeless people, street crime and prostitution rife.
 
The adventure started in Salvador the minute we left the airport. I took the very reasonable airport bus (2 euro, one way) to get to the port area Pelourinha which is situated bang in the cultural-centre of the city. The bus ride was one of the best I ever took. It was one and a half hours in length and rich in spectacles. I gladly would have paid double the price and stayed on double as long. Before getting to Salvador I had never realises there was so many beaches. And I never, for once, thought the city was by and large so intrinsically based on an ocean lifestyle. You learn quickly how to adapt when travelling. And before I knew it I was swinging my hips and banging my fingers to a mysterious beat on the seat in front of me. The dogs couldn’t stop wagging their tails and even the young surf board carrying 12 year old beside me was humming an Ivete Sangalo tune as we cruzed along.
 
My estimate is that the beaches run for about 15 miles. I’ll have to check up a book to confirm it but either way I’d say I’m not too far off the mark. I’ve never seen such a long stretch of beaches in a city before. And all the people seem to be on them. Half the population seems to be skating, cycling, running, walking, catching buses or selling pop corn, sweet corn or coconuts in little palm tree kiosks beside the beach. The other half are playing soccer, pumping weights, body boarding, surfing and snorkelling on the beach. It’s amazing to take it in from the slow moving window of a bus. When I arrived it was about 6pm and the light was fading, the sun was beginning to hide behind an ominous looking grey pall of puffy clouds and a gentle wind had starred to stir, but despite the atypical weather elements it didn’t seem to stop the people coming out in their throngs and thongs. There were thousands of bikinis, sarongs, Bermudas and Havianas on show. And amazingly, like a dream come true, there was almost a soccer match on every beach we passed. One thing that struck me about these games was the variety of pitches and balls that were in use: asphalt, grass, sand and mud; tennis balls, melons, coconuts and real deal footballs. Very cool. More affirmations for why they dominate soccer. The place was banging and hop-bobbing-throbbing with fun. And I couldn’t stop dreaming I was out there. I could see myself with the Irish number three “Deco” jersey the boys from work gave me before I left. I’d be out there strutting my Irish stuff against the Brazilian artists. Big punt up the middle Big Jack style, a shout for Ireland, a few sliding tackles, dirty elbows and an eye gauge, a cross from Brutos at the by line, a knock down from Eusebius, and as sweet as a ripe coconut a left footed half-volley from yours truly into the top right hand corner of the net. Boom! Bang! Keeper covered in dust. Brazilian boys’ mouths open. Ref pointing to the half way line. Nice one. 1-0 to the Gringo! Put that in your straw pipe and smoke it J……….. No need to laugh……… I`m serious………… It’s going to happen one of these days.  Mark my words.
 
Monday was a quiet night due to transit tiredness but with the cells recharged 24 hours later we were ready to take on the town. Tuesday night in Salvador is a big night. Very big. I’ve never known such an atmosphere surrounding a Tuesday night in any other part of the world I’ve visited or read about.  I had previously reported that Monday night can be a big night in Sao Paulo. But while a Monday night in Sao Paulo is like a normal Thursday night with its fair share of life leading up to a weekend. Tuesday night in Salvador is like a full on action packed Saturday night. Let me explain. It starts in the square in the cultural centre of the city. At about 6pm a huge stage is set up for some of the local bands and about 50 stalls are set up surrounding the square mostly selling chilled cans of Skol or Bohemia beer, skewers of a wide variety of meats, sweet cakes, big and small, exotic smoothies with fruits you’ve never heard the name of and don’t want to try pronounce and capoeira and samba paraphernalia. In addition, there is a huge number of individuals, children mostly, constantly asking you if you want your shoes shined, want to buy some cashew nuts, want some grilled mozzarella cheese or want to buy a drum. One punter even offered me a big bottle of Teacher’s whiskey for 10 euros. Declined on that one but I took one little boy up on a shoe shine and another on the delectable, mouth watering, addictively chewy grilled cheese skewer. Sex for the stomach.
 
On the night the Brazilian famous “Olodum” samba band were playing at Largo de Tereza Batista on Rua Gregorio de Matos 53. It`s the main attraction. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see them but luckily enough I got to hear some of them. Basically, by the time I arrived to see them the doors were closed. I’ll be going back in three weeks time so I don’t intend to make the same mistake again. Having said that we were very fortunate to see some of the countries most talented capoeria dancers in action.
 
Capoeira is a martial art that was devised by the Brazilian slaves in the eighteenth century. For centuries that slaves were not allowed to practice martial arts of any description so they cunningly devised an art of their owned that looked like an acrobatic dance but it used in the right manner in combat was lethal. The dance consists of between 4-10 people standing around in a semi-arc. One or two are playing precussion instruments  and singing and one by one the performers get a chance to throw themselves around. The best way I can describe it is as a mix of astanga yoga, kung fu and gymnastics all rolled into one. Mostly, the participants spend 30 seconds on stage and then someone else comes in. Sometimes you will see two of the dancers joust together but most the performances I saw consisted of one person back flipping, bouncing on their hands in a hand stand position, cart wheeling into a double flip, high kicking or free flipping from the ground without the use of hands into the air. I had seen it once or twice in Ireland but it was nothing compared to the Bahia performers. Much more athletic, much more flamboyant and much much more technical. Amazing. Their skill and fitness blew me away. Brutos wants to give it a go next time we go back. He’s so serious about it he bought some of the caopeira pants. I hope he doesn’t break his neck when he gives it ago. He always injures himself when he tries to mimic professional athletics. I’ll try get a snap of it when it happens.
 
The third and last day in Salvador consisted of a two and a half hour bus ride, 80km north, to the highly recommended Pria de Forte. Pria de Forte is a beach resort with a ruined fortress and famous turtle sanctuary.  When there I got an Indian hena-ink tattoo of a scorpion moving to a Chinese peace symbol on my bicep ( you can check it out in the photos), I got some acupuncture on my right ear and I took in an excellent massage. I also managed to cram in some of the Brazil v Paraguay copa de America qualifier and get a little sun.
 
I’m now back in Sao Paulo and with two other dogs from Ireland: the polymath-circumnavigator Chief O’Hara and the fearsome-merciless-man mountain, rip your head off with his bare hands (and worse dancer that I know!!!) Maddog McKeever. The hunting is about to get very interesting. Already one of them has found a bone. Amazing considering their only here two days!
 
I’ve managed to finally compress some of my photos from a variety of my recent trips. There up in the new Brazilian photo folder. Hope you enjoy them.

Praia De Pipa

Day: 117
Location: Pria de Pipa (North East) 
Temp: A hot 31c
Hostel: Posada Piranha (R$40 per night plus breakfast) and Posuada Veriea (R$50 per night + breakfast)
Links: www.natal-brazil.com www.pipa.com.br www.praiadapip.com.br
Books: reading the excellent Pearl again by Steinbeck.
 
Am now chilling it out after the last few hectic weeks in a beach resort 90km south of Natal. The place is buggy heaven with colossal sand dunes surrounding a sea bay. Pipa is very lively and theirs loads of young people hanging out on the beaches, in the bars and restaurants and on the streets. Its got one main street with loads of interesting jewellery, clothes and paint shops. Its also got its fair share of international restaurants and street vendors. Interestingly, it has two very popular bars, right across from each other, called the Blue Bar and the Yellow Bar. Everyone goes to these bars up to 2am and then they very quickly close down and everyone makes the five minutes walk up the hill to the one open-air disco that they have. Last night was mostly techno music and some local Brazilian tunes. I enjoyed it and ended up staying there until the sun came up.
 
The entire resort has a very mellow feel to it. It seems as if the hands on the clock move slower here; maybe something to do with the beaming sun.  People generally are very haphazard with everything they do: getting to the beach, eating, drinking, talking. It’s just what the doctor ordered and I’m now tucking into a few books, working on the tan, studying a little more Portuguese (which is coming on in leaps and bounds) and drinking a few “agua de cocas”, which I can’t get enough of for 20 euro cents a pop.
 
Getting here was fun! First the plane in Noronha was broken so we had a 5 hour delay. The plane company, after busing us all to a restaurant for free food and drinks got us on a plane which they had to rent in from Manaus. Luckily we hitched a free ride with a crazy codeine taking Dutch doctor and a Dutch Soap Opera writer down to Pipa for free. Fun guys.  Since then we’ve hitched to all the beaches or took the 1 real bus everywhere. The people here are very friendly and everyone hitches. Bizarrely the place only has one taxi driver. A deaf dude that drives around a 70s banged up Volkswagen. Seen him twice now and he seems to be doing a roaring trade. For the life of me I can’t understand why there isn’t any competition.  
 
Overall Pipa was well worth the visit. Some of the most spectacular beaches i`ve ever seen. There is a lovely feel to the small town, the people are very friendly, the food is good and at a reasonable price and the quick trip to Dolphin Bay to see the daily appearance of the somersaulting dolphins is unforgettable. Definitely worth making the effort to get here from Natal for at least two or three days.  

Fernando de Noronha

Day: 110
Location: Fernando de Norohna
Tour Guides: Atlantis Diving Centre
Temperature: 27

Fernando de Noronha is a hidden gem. It is a volcanic island that shoots up from the ocean floor. Not many people know of its existence. And I’m glad that it’s that way. Noronha is 26 sq km and 360km off the north east of Brazil. It is nearer to Liberia in Africa than it is to Sao Paulo! It is inhabited by approximately 2,000 Brazilians and at any given one time no more than 420 tourists are allowed on it. To get there you have to take a jet plane for an hour. You can’t get there any other way. On entry you have to pay a hefty enough tax for each day you spend there. I ended up paying 30 euros in total. The island has some unique characteristics in its culture which you can detect straight away when you arrive: the taxis are sand buggies, the police hang out in burmudas and ray-bans on beaches speckled with coconuts and most of the locals have one form or other of a sea animal tattooed on their body. The main attractions are the multitude of gorgeous beaches, the ultra friendly natives and the wild life that hog its coastlines. The island has changed hands on more than one occasion. At first it was owned by the Portuguese explorers of the sixteenth century. It then exchanged hands from the Spanish, to the English to the French and then back to Brazil. It was a hide away for pirates, a penal colony, a navy base for the US during world war two and as of the late 1980s it was officially made a protected marine national park. Now diving is the fruitful waters is the primary attraction. People come from all over the world to experience it and very few go home disappointed. It’s commonly accepted that Noronha has the best diving in Brazil and some say if you didn’t dive there on your visit you really didn’t visit the island. I agree.

When I arrived I checked out as quickly as I could what marine activities I could do. After a couple of hours sussing out the local tour operators, the prices and the content and location of some of the tours on offer I decided that this was the ideal place for me to try get my basic diving (PADI, www.padi.com) certificate. PADI is a certificate that allows you dive to a maximum of 18 meters in all the most popular dive sites in the world. The course takes in 3 theory classes, four dives and a written test. I was very fortunate to come across an excellent tour company called Atlantis and more importantly a brilliant guide. A beautiful young Korean/Brazilain instructor called Sandra. Not only was she very competent and knowledgeable about the myriad details involved in diving she was patient and made me feel assured at all times. And she always had the most beautiful smile on her face. The vagabond salutes her. The course started with getting to know the equipment: first stage, regulator, octopus, equaliser, weight belt, purge button, buoyancy control device (BCD) backpack, cylinder, din-valves, fins, pressure gauge, wet suit, face mask, and much more. Next was a trip into low water to get used to breathing and exhaling into the mouth piece. As part of the course you have to learn how to control your buoyancy which sounds easy but its not. The basic concept is to be able to descend, ascend and hover in the water in a controlled relaxed fashion. The primary way of doing this is by pressing one button on your BCD which inflates your jacket with air to bring you up, another button, which deflates it and helps bring you down and then by exhaling or inhaling air in your lungs to make them increase or decrease the air volume in your body. It takes a little while to master this and at the start you keep pressing the two buttons on your BCD but after a few hours you start to get the hang of it. After learning some of the basics on the first day I got a chance to take my first dive at about 12m which was on a 25m ship wreck just off the port. I thoroughly enjoyed inspecting the massive anchor and looking at the disassembled rusting hull of the boat. Fortunately, on my first dive I got to see a turtle. Unfortunately, he had been spiked by a local fisherman’s hook. It was caught in his mouth and in his back stream the line hung in the water like the tail of a barracuda. My instructor went down and tried to help him but he was a little nervous and instead of accepting her help decided to swim off into the blue. On my second day I did some emergency exercises: learning how to exchange oxygen, emergency ascents, putting on the weight belt in water and putting on the BCD while on the surface. Little tricky but I managed to master it fairly quickly. At the end of the exercise I took my second dive down along a coral reef. It was my first time coming across a multitude of sting rays and the first time that I have come in contact with a wild shark. On this occasion it was a mid sized 1.5 meter reef shark. Innocuous enough but believe me when they start swimming towards your hard jumps a beat. A magnanimous creature. The water was an explosion off colours. I saw flat fish that had silver bodies and pink fins. I saw big fat green and brown speckled fish with razor sharp teeth. There was one cool little fish which was one of my personal favourites that looked like he had a squashed rainbow on his tiny back. Then there were dangerous looking guys, one that looked like a samurai sword with various sized sharp teeth in his mouth. I kept away from him as much as I could. When I told the dogs about him later Brutos reassured me that if he had attacked that he would have leapt from the dive boat, as quick as you can say I’ve found Nemo, and come to my safety. When I prodded Eusebius about it he said he would have let one of the instructors know that I was in difficulty and a professional would have come to my assistance. In the end I didn’t need any help and I simply continued the 45 minute dive studying reef, being mesmerised by fish and hovering through, over and in algae. That night I had a class on breathing at depth. It took in modules on: air, contaminated air, oxygen, nitrogen narcosis, decompression air, redissolution, etc. Diving is a highly technical sport. And the main things I’ve learned about it is always be Eusebi-esqe: conservative, take your time, anal about detail and be prepared. The last dive the following day was magnificent. Sandra kept the best to last and brought me deeper into about 17m water. We explored black caves, undulating caverns filled with fish and tiny tunnel, vents and holes that left little or no margin of error for entry. Very different to the other dives I had done and much more technical. My favourite part was floating through the dark valleys, brushing aside some of the fish and seeing the deep blue abyss in front of you. The whole experience had a massive salty taste of more. I was instantly addicted. Unfortunately, my flight was the next day and one of the golden rules of diving is never dive 12 hours before a flight, so that was sadly the end of the diving on Noronha. That night I say my theory test. And I’m glad to report I passed. I now have my basic PADI certificate. I went out that night and celebrated with a little dancing and a few beers. It now means that when I get to the barrier reef, New Caledonia and some of the beautiful dive sites in Thailand, Sri-Lanka and India I can be captivated and mesmerised once again by the beauty of the many mysterious, tantalizing and truly beautiful animals that inhabit our wonderful oceans.

Note: We met the king of the island. A 40 year old drunk called Lombra. Everybody knew him. His day consisted of drinking tins of Skol beer the minute he got up, copious amounts of rock diving, marijuana smoking, snorkelling pissed, jumping, skipping and dancing. One of the best entertainers I have ever met. He’d make a surly mother superior with a heart, throat, foot, and tooth problem laugh. A special person. Brutos loved him and took a few snaps for the archives.

The Pantanal

Day: 109
Location: Capo Grande, Mato Grosso Do Sul
Temp: 28
Tour Company: Ecological Expedition, 4 stars
Hostel: Campo Grande Youth Hostel, 3 stars
Price: $R320 for guide, tour, accommodation and food, also managed to negotiate 2 free nights in hostel and 1 hour internet access
Tour Duration: 3 nights, 4 days
Links: www.pantanaltrekking.com www.aguasdopantanal.com.br

I’m just finished 3 days of trekking in the southern regions of the Pantanal. The Panthanl is 3 times as big as the Netherlands and as such very hard to take it in its entirety. I concentrated on one of the more popular wetland camps between Corumba and Campo Grande. For those of you that don`t know anything about the Panthanl just think of the Amazon with all its wildness and ferocity and you`re not to far off the mark. The major difference being that the Panthanl is wetlands (marsh, forest and lakes) were as the Amazon is more jungle and river based. My main base was Campo Grande. One of the three primary gateways in the marshlands. It has a population of 700,000, is heavily dependant on pastoral farming and tourism is the home of a very strong Brazilian military presence due to its proximity to the Paraguain and Aargentinain borders. As such it was pretty common to see fighter jets wizzing by in groups of two or threes.

When we arrived in the airport from the Falls we made our way to the bus stop to catch a ride into town and the local tour office to find out what type and with whom we were going to take a tour. But, we never got on the bus in the end and I`m glad we didn`t. A local tour guide called Owl stopped us and asked us did we want a ride to the city: no strings attached. We agreed. Within half an hour we had agreed to take his tour. One of the best salesmen I have ever come across. This bloke could sell an Argentinean soccer jersey to a Brazilian.

To get into the depths of the wetlands and into our camp we had to travel by open-top truck for seven hours. A long time in the heat, but despite the countless ubiquitous royal-pain-in-the-ass mosquitoes that were munching on us, and, despite of the industrial strength cream we had on, it was an enjoyable journey as we got to see a variety of birds, the odd mammal and had blessing to see a juxtaposed crimson purple sun set.

Day one was a simple meal, a visit to our hammocks which were inside a wooden shelter- home for the next few days-and the organisation of a wake up call for 7.30am the next day. When we arose we went on one of two three hour walks (I regrettably this time did the bare foot thing again) into high grass prairies, bogs, pools and forests. Our guide was constantly on the watch out for animals and would stop us if he saw anything. On show was armadillos, basically funny looking supped-up, armour plated mouses as far as I could tell; multi coloured parrots; huge blue friendly macaws, venomous snakes and ugly crocodiles. Also a huge variety of big, small, skinny, round and tall birds, speckled, dappled and spotted butterflies, green, black, red and brown ants and loud, quiet, benign, poisonous, down right ugly and down right funny looking frogs. Also more commonly spotted were zebu cows which the local farms tended to and herds of shy deers. Day two for me was more exciting. We started with some piranha fishing in a lake that was an hour away from the camp. We used steak meat as bate and amazingly the little predators kept chomping on the hooks for hours and hours as if their lives depended on being hooked to a flashing spike. By the end of the day the group of people we were with had amassed at least ten catches. Most of which were thrown to the alligators on the bank that were studying our every move. The rest were brought back to the camp to be cooked. For me the highlight was watching the guide demonstrate how the piranha bites. He simply placed some grass in its mouth and it snapped into action with its razor sharp teeth. Luckily enough they didn’t cause us too much problems in the water while we fished. Instead of coming for our legs and hips they seemed more interested in the bate. However, that said the water was dangerous, an Irish girl who was in the camp the day before we arrived wasn’t as lucky as we were. Our guide told us that while she was fishing a giant five foot otter (there almost instinct) attacked her and bit her on both legs. Believe me when I say that these things. Even scared Brutos who is not easily scared. She ended up going to hospital and the guide told us that it will probably be two weeks before she walks properly again.

After the fishing we spent the evening riding horses through the prairies. We spent about two and a half hours going through a variety of terrains. It had been years since I was horse riding so I really enjoyed it. Galloping, trotting and bucking brought a constant necklace of smiles, laughs and screams around my face. I had a little mare called White Silver. A curious little bullet of a beast with a hint of an attitude problem. On one occasion he just lay down on the ground and refused to move. Almost crushed my right leg but fortunately I was able to get out of my stirrup in time. He eventually got up after getting one or two gentle whips from my guide.

That night in the camp Una organised a Panto-vision ( cross between the Euro vision and some of the local Brazilian samba music) It was fun and everyone joined in. All the nationalities were lined up in horse shoe formation around a huge log fire. The Brazilians kicked it off with banging of multiple drums and a serious of soccer tunes, the English went next followed by Polish, French, Canadian, Scottish, Slovakian, Israelis, Australian and Irish. There was also a competition at the interval to see who could down a can of beer the fastest. The Irish contestant was a joke and got more beer on his chest then in his mouth, the Israel contender forgot to put his finished can on his head, the French contestant cheated by opening his can before he started. Surprisingly, completely against the bookies favourites, the dark horse winner was a shy quiet Austrian. A titan of a beer drinker. And the best fisher of the day I might add. Obviously a man with many talents. Great fun. And captured on film.

Overall, the Panthanl was a wonderful experience. I’ve never been so close to so many exotic animals outside a cage. I never seen howler monkeys screech continuously into the night as they run from branch to branch; I’ve never seen alligators chump on fish and scurry into lakes; I’ve never had a macaw perch itself on top of my arm or steal my shampoo; I’ve never been bitten by green ants that produce a sting like a wasp; I’ve never made jewellery out of cactuses; I’ve never got a tattoo from a fruit that lasts for supposedly three weeks and I’ve never ate piranha teeth and flesh. Hopefully, I’ll get to do it all again and more when we get to Manuas and the Amazon in a month’s time.

Note: Before I went trekking I was walking down the street in Campo Grande when I happened on something I had always seen on TV but never directly experienced. There was an open gate on the side of the street that revealed a sermon taking place. It was one of those ones like you see in America where a preacher is eulogising and showering down homilies and diatribes at the seemingly possesses crowd as if the apocalypse was upon us. People were roaring crying, some were holding their heads in their hands and sobbing and weeping and others were on the ground crouched down on walls shaking and gently hitting there hands off the ground. Strange. It was if the orator had cast a spell and everyone was puppets on a string acting out his every whim. At the end the crowd handed up envelopes of money up on the alter queued for a CD of the sermon!

Fact: Mosquitoes live for approximately 7 hours and come out to feed and die at dusk and dawn. I hate them. Eusebius couldn’t stop itching his bites.

Vagabond Tip: A piece of equipment that would be worth buying would be a super light, super small, super strong monocular. It would help looking at various different things at long distance. It would have been cool to inspect some of the shyer animals that kept at a distance and were harder to study.

The Iguaçu Falls

Day: 98
Temp: 21
Location: Argentina, Puerto Iguacu

As Catararas do Iguacu (Iguazu in Spanish) are the most overwhelming and spectacular waterfalls in South America. They consist of a sub tropical rainforest park covering 170,000 ha, 275 separate falls, a 28-km gorge and bridges connecting the Brazilian city of Foz de Iguaçu with the Argentine town of Puerto Iguacu and the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este. And if that doesn't wet your taste buds enough. There's plenty more on offer :a daily deluge of international snap-happy tourists, camouflaged ornithologists, ground breaking scientists, friendly raccoons, white ear opossums and poisonous red and black heliconius butterflies, five members of the toucan family, black-capped screech owls, shy jaguars and fearsome pumas, yellow-billed cardinals, red-crested finches and a whole load of other land, water and air creatures which would probably need a National Geographic, Lonely Planet or British Encyclopedia to name.

The Falls are a fifteen hour bus journey or a one and a half hour flight from Sao Paulo. Myself and my recently arrived good friend Una Kearns went for the latter and more comfortable option. The flight landed us on the Brazilian side of the falls (around 80% of the falls lie in Argentina, but there are national parks on both sides). We decided to make our way straight to the park at 4pm in the evening to take in as much of the park as we could before it closed at 6pm. Fortunately, it was more than enough time to take the 2km trek to see the sites. Afterwards, we got out passports stamped and went across the border to the highly recommended Holiday Inn hostel. Without doubt, the coolest hostel i`ve ever been in. Huge. With really friendly, informative staff, excellent food and a brilliantly designed reception area including pool tables, hanging chair hammocks, countless books, giant couches and unsually carved towering wooden chairs(watched Zidane and co drop a few tears in their European Cup and had a couple of the local beers while there).

Day 2 was a full day which started off at 12am with the excellent safaris adventuras tour company and a 8km jungle tour which brought us along the edge of the park and into the rain forest. The excellent trilingual guide warned us to take care not to be stung by the giant acidic innocuous looking netal leafs that cover the forest floor and hypnotised us when teaching us about the very tasty heart of the palm fruit tree, which takes six years to ripen before being ready to be eaten (the plant is a protected specious in Argentina but not in Brazil, were it grows more freely). Next we caught a speed boat with twenty others tourists taking a 2km ride along the Iguazu river and into the rapids. The boat journey was fast and furious and brought us through a valley with scores of various sized waterfalls on each side of us which seemed to playfully join in the singing of the boats engines and peoples screams. The river then split into a fork and we got a glimpse from the river base of the awesome Guarganta del Diablo (Devil`s Throat, have a look at the link above and snaps). This is a jaw drop, must see, spectacle. Viewed from below, the rolling, thundering, crashing water is truly beautiful in a setting of orchids, ferns and palms. And incredibly, above the impact of the water, upon basalt rock formations hangs a 30m pall of clouds and mist which makes it impossible to see the base of the falls. In comparison, the Niagara Falls look like a piddle Eusebius or Brutos would take on the side of the road. A true beast of nature. To be respected, revered and marvelled at. Extremely aggressive, frighteningly powerful. There was no chance of going up to see it by boat. Far too dangerous. The only way to look at in the face was afterwards from the top of the park. On the other side of the fork in the river was a paradisiacal enclave spectacle with a colasseum of over twenty waterfalls and one other stand alone monster, the second most powerful fall in the park, called San Martin. This was the one accessible by boat. Thankfully, we were blessed to have a rainbow at the periphery of the plummeting water. And our captain was bold enough to take us into it and drench us. I've never been inside a rainbow before. It felt like I was being baptised for the second time. It is something I will not forget for a long time. Hopefully, the camcorder footage I managed to perilously sneak in will do it justice on screen. After a good old soaking we climbed a little up the side of a cliff and took a really small wodden train to the top of the park to get a better glimpse of the Devil. From the top, standing out on a man made platform, in my opinion, the view was better than from the base of the river. It's kind of funny when you see it. When you look to the right of the fall you have a pond like river with hardly a ripple in it. Looks like a place you could row a little one man boat, chill out, hang a line over board, take a nap and wait for your catch, a couple of hundred feet away is one of the most powerful waterfalls on the planet. If you go over the top of this one there simply is no coming back.We spent 6 hours on the Argentinean side. More than enough.

The experience in the park can be easily taken in one and a half days. For us we spent half a day on the Brazilian side of the falls and the second on the Argentinean. Overall, the Falls are very impressive and highly recommended. A quick in and out is definitely worth the trip.

Next stop the marsh wetlands of the Panthanel!

The Competition Has Begun: Daisy Chain Lost-Monday

Location: Sao Paulo
Temp: 28

Today Eusebius walked up to me, handed me a jar full of daisies and a piece of toilet paper with a big long web address on it in blue ink. Ì`ve put it up here for you to look at: Monday

http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/40578f0f_af21/bc/Daisy+Chain+Lost+Script/
Daisy+Chain+Lost+Monday.doc?bfvbK2AB5TZBS4CE

He then told me that he had by and large finished his script but needed a few more days before he handed up the whole thing. He needs the days to fine tune a few bits and pieces. Not sure what exactly, he didn’t say. He pointed to the crumpled piece of paper and said that what he had given me was simply the first instalment. He knows that I have never read a screenplay before so he gave me the quickest tutorial known to man on what to watch out for. As best I can remember it went something like this:

“First and foremost Master remember that reading a screenplay is completely different to reading a Keats poem, a Casey play, a Crichton book, Beano, Buster, Dandy or that awful Sunday Independent you seem to have time for. It’s all about the big screen. It’s TV. It’s film. Its popcorn and coke. Its wine gums and ice cream. You know what I mean? Stop me if you’re loosing me. It’s a form of writing designed specifically for the camera, the director, for the actor……. Why are you looking at me like that?........ Alright, you got me, i agree, the scriptwriter does part of the directing. I’ll give you that, fair enough, BUT, and don’t make this mistake, because it’s a common one, how the text comes to the screen is the job of the director: artistic responsibility. My job is: plot, character, dialogue, structure, exposition.

When reading bear this in mind please, it’s important. When you read it you are afforded the privilege of being all these people rolled into one. To a large degree you decide on the setting, the look, the feel. There’s more, I’m tired so I’ll keep this short, if you want me to elaborate or recommend some web sites or books send me a mail and I’ll sort you out. Right, lead on MacDuff and damn be him who first cry hold enough. Sorry about that, artistic license. Here are a few other things you have to know:

1.The industry standard is Courier, 10pt font. I’ve used it.
2.Scripts are in the active tense. You don’t say he went, he got, he will get, he used to get. It’s all about describing what you see in the NOW, THE PRESENT, e.g we see Mr x getting, Mr x lifts up an axe and swings it violently at the poodle, Mr x is wearing nothing but a ripped pair of Speedos two sizes to small for him. Get it! Good. It’s all about describing what is on the screen NOW. Want me to say that again. It’s all about describing what is on the screen………N…..
3.At the start of scenes you see in capitals INT. or EXT. This means the scene is being conducted internally, maybe inside a room or hallway. EXT. means that the scene is external, maybe in a field or on a road. Usually followed after these terms is a little more detail where the scene is happening and whether it is day or night. Or occasionally what time it is.
4.If you see in brackets letters like V.O that means voice over. Remember Mike Hammer, or that other detective that looked like Hammer, but had a flash wheels and lived on a cool beach, MAGNUM PI I think was his name, yeah; okay you should have it now.
5.The odd time you’ll come with camera terms like, FADE TO, CUT TO, DOLLY PASS, PAN THROUGH. These aren’t scientific notations on the guiding system for a Scud missile. There simple terms that are largely self explanatory. Just think of the camera moving slowly, focusing in, pulling back, or switching to a new scene.
6.There usually is a title sequence like you see in the flicks. I’ve gone for a montage or a serious of images. I think they work. But you can be the judge of that. I was going to select music as well but on this occasion decided not to. You can do that yourself if you want.
7.The first time a character appears in a script he is in capitals and then he usually goes to lower case. If words are in capitals it usually means the camera is zooming in on it. I do it most of the time. It's hard to keep track of sometimes. If I make the odd mistake, please let me know.

Okay, I think that’s it. I can’t remember anything else. I pulled a Kerouac on it i.e. without the stimulants. I’m tired, or as some of the other dogs down here would growl: eu estou com muinto sono. I’ve been at it now non stop for three weeks. I’m pretty slow at this thing but I’m nearly there. Will take a few days off and then get back to the last bits and pieces. On yeah, you’re supposed to finish the sentence of a passage of dialogue for an actor on the same page. If you need to continue on the next page you should write (cont’d). I haven’t bothered with it but that’s alright it’s not as if it’s going to be landing on an agents table or anything.”

That was kind of it. Before he left he simply said, “Okay, got to go get some kip in the kennel Master. You can kill the puppy now.” He looked really tired. I reckon he’s going to sleep for at least two days. He’s got my ears cocked though. That bulldog is smarter than Eusebius thought. Well, we’ll see. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve read the full piece. Think I’ll have a little peak at it now though. My eyes are kind of itchy for some reason and my fingers feel a little twitchy!!!

Campos do Jordão

Just back in Sao Paulo after four action packed days in mountains of Campos do Jordão. The Paulistians do a strange thing this time of year. During the June bank holiday they converge in their thousands on a small mountain village 3 hours away by car ride. The village looks like something straight out of a Swiss ski resort. With the exceptions of snow and ski slopes they have the rest. Everyone goes around as if its Christmas eve. The trees are adorned in lights, everyone has a heavy coat on, and the majority of people are wearing scarfs and gloves. It`s kind of strange to see it in Brazil It`s not exactly something you hear a lot about. I had the pleasure of staying for 4 days with 20 lunatics in a lodge that was set beside a river on the side of a forested mountain. Most of the days were spent eating excellent food (stroganoof and the quintessential Brazilian, pacanha barbecue being my favourite); sitting out in a grassy expanse talking and relaxing, and, mostly, dancing, drinking and jumping up and down inside the big cabin to the eccletic beats of our resident DJ, NASDAQ (AKA Aconcanda). This was the longest period of time I`ve spend talking nearly completely Portuguese. It was a great help for me. After almost 3 months its now beginning to sink in a little. As ever I spoke much better with a healthy helping of cerveja in the stomach.

This week so far has been quiet, and presently working on my itinery for the next two months of traveling. As of this Wednesdaymy good friend Una is coming down to join the vagabond and the dogs for a spot of rambling. First stop will be the Falls the Iguacu, after checking them out from the Brazilian and Argentinean side we'll head to the swamp lands of The Panthanel to check out the wide variety of wild life and fauna. From there the one i`m looking forward to, a six hour flight to beach city of Natal in the extreme North East. Will spend a week there before taking another flight to Salvador and then a road trip, picking off little beaches before heading back to Rio, and then Sao Paulo, to meet my good mates Kevin and Jim who are coming down on the 15th of July. Will spend four days in Sao Paulo with them before we hit Rio for four days, probably Natal again and then onto Fortaleza for a week or so. Well that's the plan so far. I`m spending a lot of time at the moment checking out hotels, posadas (B&Bs) and hotels. Also i`m trying to get myself a Brazilian airpass for about 7/8 flights but its seems to be impossible. Everywhere i`ve tried has come up blank. It seems to be that you can only buy the tickets from abroad, but only when your not in Brazil. Strange system. They need a Ryan Air down here big time......

Gotta run, trying to keep an eye on the European Championships. Everyone down here keeps asking me why Ireland aren`t in them. I keep shaking my head and reciting the sleeping giants analogy.

I`ve put up some of the photos for you to check out. Also took a lot of camcorder footage but as of yet haven`t been able to find a free streaming server that can host the footage for me. Will keep working on it. If anyone else has any experience of this type of thing let me know.

Is Thor a bad influence on Eusebius?

Day: 76
Location: Sao Paulo
Temp: 24
Book: Sweet Thursday, John Steinbeck

I haven't mentioned the dogs for a while. Thankfully, the peace is still in tact. Despite the fact that I did see Brutos bark angrily a few times at Eusebius when he told him he had forgot to bring a torch and candles on the recent Diamond Highlands hike. Brutos forgot to bring toilet paper so Eusebius got the opportunity to do a little barking of his own. That was it. Evens. I asked Brutos how his writing has been going for the competition. Unsuprisingly, he didn't give much away. He told me that the Q;A;Z keys on his laptop were not working so he has being using the /;[;] symbols instead and then hitting edit>replace to sort it out. Bit of a pain but so be it. I know he's been working hard on it though. He's taking the thing very serious. I'm very surprised. Wonder what he's going to come up with?? I've never read a screenplay before so it will be interesting just looking at the format, even if the story isn't the best. Crazy dog, could be about anything!! Eusebius on the other hand doesn't seem to be doing any preparation for the competition. I'm sensing a small bit of arrogance coming from him. He's keeping his writing all on the Q.T. I'm constantly seeing Brutos reading or writing, but Eusebius, never. Maybe, he's been writing it at night. It's kind of ironic though, ever since they agreed to compete he's become more like Brutos. He's been hanging around with a pack of Brazilian dogs that have been taking him out drinking and partying constantly. One of his mates is a dog called "Thor", by all accounts he is absolutely bonkers and a great dog for the bitches. Supposedly, the complete party animal. A purported magician on the social scene. He seems to be Zinedine Zindane of fun, a nine dan black belt in love, with an unparalleled genius for conjuring up parties in the dullest of kennels. He's also got the special power to get other dogs to come to these gatherings at all hours of the night. Consequently, for the first time in years Eusebius seems to be lightening up. Paradoxically, while Brutos is still doing his fair share of going out. He's not doing as much as he did at the start. He seems to be reading loads, from a wide range of writers, and on a eclectic range of topics, in particular, he seems to be reading a lot of Kerouac and Bewskosky. He's also playing around with poetry; I caught him reading the Windhover by Gerald Manley Hopkins, but he's denying it, and he's constantly carrying around a jar of daisies with him. He won't let it out of his sight. Even when he's eating he has it around him. He also is buying pens off all the poor people selling them on the streets. I saw him bury some of them yesterday near a bus shelter. He's kind of becoming more like Eusebius with everyday. Not too sure when they are going to get me their respective pieces of work but I'm kind of looking forward to them now. I hope they explain their curios changes in personality these last few weeks.

On another note, had my friend Ben, his brother Dan and their traveling amigeo Forest in Sao Paulo for the last few days. To all, the vagabond salutes you and wishes you well on your travels.

Also the Vagabond has taken up new residence in a cool part of town called Perdizes, Rue Apiacas, 720, Apt 24. I'm sharing a two bedroom apartment with a lovely woman called Frida. Hopefully, the days there will be good. I think she doesn't mind the dogs. There on their best behaviour at the moment so all is well. A big thank you to the very warm and generous Marcel for putting up with us the last couple of months. With heads bowed, silent barks, v shaped fingers and paws in the air, and chest banging: we salute you.

Chapada Diamantina (The Diamond Highlands)

I’m just back from an action packed week of hiking in the National Park of Chapada Diamantina, or the Diamond Highlands as they are known in English. It was the best experience I’ve had on my travels to date.

The Diamond Highlands are located in the very centre of Bahia State, about four hundred kilometres from Salvador. They are famous for their raw beauty and for the huge reserves of diamonds and gold that they possessed (most mining has stopped now days). The park spreads for fifteen thousand squared miles, is larger than Holland or Belgium, and is more of a high plateau, averaging about thousand meters, than a true mountain range. It took a 2.5 hour flight from Sao Paulo to Salvador and then another one hour flight on a tiny jet plane to get to our pousada (or B&B), in the village of Lencois. The landscape in the area is one of rolling mountains (consisting of a variety of geologies but mainly limestone), deep valleys completely covered in trees, scrubs, flowers, open high plains and shady canyons. Intertwined with these sculptured rocks and grasslands are almost uncountable clean, cold, drinkable mountain streams, spectacular waterfalls, and deep natural swimming pools, two of which I had the pleasure of swimming in, in my birthday suit. To add to this you have a wide variety of animals that roam the landscape. Unfortunately, the number of species is smaller than it was before the miners came and started hunting but none the less it’s still impressive. The list ranges from black howler monkies, collared anteaters, yellow armadillos and vampire bats to caimans, rattlesnakes, boa constrictors and a wide variety of rodents, foxes and lizards. There are 250 species of birds and God knows how many different types of butterflies, snails, spiders and mosquitoes, some of which had the pleasure of feeding on mine and the dogs’ blood. And rumour has it that there is still the odd jaguar roaming the highlands and attacking some of the local farmer’s deers and cows. While on this trip I didn’t have the chance to see it I did however get to see some of the rare tiny, red, daisy, inconspicuous looking delicate flowers that are carnivorous.

To try describe in complete and utter detail the things I saw, did and experienced in Chapada would take too much time and would be absurd. Almost as absurd as two Nobel laureates meeting for the first time over lunch and having nothing to talk about. Or as absurd as being introduced to every grain of sand on a beach, by name, by the ocean, and then been asked to repeat their names in order. There is simply too much. As such, I’ll give you the truncated version.

The first day in Lencois was spent going to two caves that had blue lagoon water inside. It took a little bit of effort to descend into the caverns but it was worth it. Especially, the second one where we all had an opportunity to do a little snorkelling. Day 2 I set off with my good friend Carlos on a two night three day hike to the 360m free falling waterfall of Fumasa. The hike covered 24km of a wide variety of terrain and was very much like the experience I had a few years ago when trekking to Machu pichu. The group I set off with consisted of 5 people. Lucia, our excellent guide and cook. Myself and Carlos. And a Swiss couple, Bengy and Carolina. Great company. Most of the days consisted of walking and climbing with constant stops for short water breaks, food and photos. We woke at 7am and went to sleep at 8pm under a blanket of the brightest, clearest, most resplendent stars I have ever seen. On the hike we got an opportunity to see some wild fruit, a nest of bees that produce a rare wax like municipal substance called proion, wild orchids, five foot snakes the name of which I can’t remember and small nimble frightening looking spiders that design intricate web systems. Beautiful. Wild. Different. On the last day after tentatively peering over the edge of the cliff to see the waterfall’s cascading turret I descended bare foot down the mountain with my guide for 7km through, mud, water, forest, grass and rock. My knees were shaking when I got to the end and amazingly I managed not to cut or scrap myself. I’ve never felt the souls of my feet so alive in all my life. Highly recommended. Day 5 was spent taking another trek but this time it wasn’t on land. It was a 2.5 hour 4km trek into a cave system called, Torrinha, or little tower. Inside there was an exceptional collection of exotic limestone formations consisting of thousands and thousands of strange looking stalactites and stalagmites. Only 3 of us went inside. Myself, my friend Lincoln, and our guide. To see we had a gas lamp that shun about 8 feet, the rest was pitch black hole black. It was a strange experience. I’ve never gone for so long, so deep, under ground. It was a strange feeling. At one point the guide turned off the light and we stayed silent for a minute in a chamber 85 meters below the surface. It was a surreal sensation. Clostaphobic. Black. Silent. Cold. Alien. Also, during that day we got the chance to swim in a near by cave again. This time a dark cave pregnant with a multitude of fish. We had the use of underwater torches so we got the opportunity to startle a few fish and crabs with the lights as they tried to go about their everyday lives. The last day consisted of a trip to the famous Pai Inacio mountain to take in the crimson sun set beside the huge metal cross at the peak. The view from the top was majestic. And the vegetation on the rocky peak was a natural garden of orchids, bromeliads, cactus, and lots of other local beauties you’ve never seen or even heard of.

Overall a welcome break from the urban jungle and a brief but unforgettable glimpse into some of the beauty of the interior of Brazil.

PS:I've put some photos up in my Brazilian folder if you want to check them out.