Highlights from the road

the fun continues in a smallish (relative to other cities here) down the coast and inland a bit from Rio - Foz Do Iguarco. Tomorrow we're off to see falls that according to the reports are taller than niagara and bigger than victoria. or maybe it was the other way around. either way it sounds dramatic. but that's tomorrow. today we're having a chill day in town - laundry, internet, and sweet sweet sleep.

we've just spent a couple of neat jungle days in Curitiba. Day 1 was taking an old train through the mountains (stunning views) and arriving in a small town where we decided to tube down a river. you know you've left north america when there's no waiver in sight and you're handed a tube, helmet, life jacket, and a couple pieces advice in portugese - something about feet first and walk the section just after the big rock. As kirk said "finding a big rock in the river is like finding a guy in a suit in new york". some serious rapids and i expect lower water than usual as we took a bit of a beating. As kirk's first time down a river in any kind of flotation device he fared very well. His butt however is another story...

Next day was taking the train to a national park for some jungle hiking. We were the only ones to get off the train at this stop so we knew we were in for some fun. The rain had made hiking up impossible so the park warden set us off on a slightly different route. he walked with us the first 15 minutes and then gave us instructions for the rest. the trail was the path used before roads and trains in the mountains (this park isn't accessible by road). some serious hiking with a lot of elevation traversed. Two river crossings which were fun on the way out and even more fun on the way back in the pouring rain. train picked us up on the way back and we arrived in the bus station kinda wet, muddy, and so so hungry. found dinner in the bus station as nothing close by but they had just what we needed. and the waitress understood kirk's clucking and waving of his arms to mean that he wanted chicken. Frango seems to be the word for chicken but sometimes it also means ham - making for some interesting meals.

speaking of interesting meals - i finally caved and agreed to eat peanut butter for lunch. it's cheap, nourishing, yada yada. When we went to open it at our picnic spot we discovered it was caramel. nothing like a caramel and banana sandwich to fill the spot!

next stop punto arenas...

The beach is the word.

well we've left Rio and we`ve been in Paraty for three nights. Tomorrow it`s on to Sao Paulo. But lets back up for a minute. Rio was great but I think we`re both good if we don´t see it again soon. Friday morning we hiked up to the tram that takes you to the Christ statue on the mountain that overlooks Rio. One of the landmark Rio sights. After we`d hiked about 400 vertical meters a car stopped on the road beside us and a gentleman said he`d give us a ride to the base as it wasn`t safe to walk in this area....well thanks but we`re really not into getting into a car with someone we don`t know. Before he pulled into his drive he said don`t walk any further up the mountain into the shanty town, only walk down. While we we´re talking with him a SUV had stopped and as we walked further the woman driving asked if we were going to the tram and also offered us a drive. Figuring it was a little safer with her (and odd that 2 people seemed concerned) we got in and she said the area is fine but she offered to drive us as it was a long way. We were happy to receive the ride because by the time we had taken the tram to the top there was about 20 minutes before the afternoon clouds moved in.

From there we went on to ride another tram that went down into the centre of town and were told by another woman to watch our backs. This was communicated to us by her pointing to her eye, then her back and then us. All was fine but the tram only ran at rush hour and we ended up taking the bus down. Think we climbed about 2 vertical km that day.

Dinner in the heart of the city and the centre of the night life in Rio. Then it was a hour and half bus ride back to the hotel. Got on the bus going the wrong way but saw a lot of the city.

The bus trip out to Paraty was about 4 hours and 3 of that was along the coast weaving in and out of inlets and up and down lush green covered mountains. Paraty has consisted of beach and hiking the Gold Trail today. Think we`ve been to the beach three or four times and we both can`t stop commenting to each other how ridicuosly warm the ocean water is.
And a quart of beer is a dollar fifty Canadian. Things are tough but we`re managing.

We took the local bus to the head of the Gold Trail and that was an adventure in and of itself. First we found out that they had come off day light savings down here about two days ago but the funny thing is it hasn`t made a difference at all. The trail took about a hour to hike one-way and the 45 minutes to come down. Huge lizards sunning themselves as we walked though. Down off the mountain and back to the beach before dinner. We`ve arranged to have dinner cooked at the inn we`re staying at and they`re going to do local fish for us. Going to set us back five dollars Canadian each. The night before last we had a local dish which consisted of shrimp and a local cheese cooked and served in a pumpkin. We`ll be looking for Dave to recreate this when we get back.

OK we should be off for dinner as we`ve already gained our hour today.

Take care all.

update from the coffee/pastry man

his hotmail is kirk_bean@hotmail.com

livin la vida loca...or something like that...

Hi from Rio! we~re in shorts and sandals and heading to the beach. sweet days indeed. (sorry ~bout the punctuation but i can~t find an apostrophe on this keyboard).

so the story about why our email addy~s don~t work is a long one. and not all that interesting. suffice to say the email addy~s we said we~d be using no longer work. my new one is kathrynlagden@hotmail.com. kirk is outside drinking what we think might be a large espresso and eating a pastry. but i~m sure he~ll put a note up once he~s set up.

thanks for the bday wishes. spent it atop a mountain watching the lights of the city come on. and then to a portugese restaurant for vino and fish.

the beach beckons...

The fridge magnet numbers say 4 more days.

We were talking this morning about how the fridge magnets once read 41 days and that seemed close and far away. Four more days just seems like it’s on top of you. We were both up last night between 4am and 6:30am with either excitement or anxiety…or both.

Here’s a map of the route. The dates beside the cities are when we fly out. In the case of Rio de Janeiro, our first stop, that’s the date we fly in. The dotted lines are flights and the solid lines are our intended overland route.

It’s Kathryn’s last day in the office, it’s 4:46pm, she says she has zero items in her mailbox and has just received a great sendoff from the colleagues. 6pm this evening should be really sweet for her.