Day 89: Santa Cruz, Bolivia

As soon as you cross the border from Brazil, you immediately see the differences. Gone are the supermarkets, the nice roads, the diversity of the people, ideas of what constitutes “clean.“ While we were in line for the train tickets, a man in plain clothes who was apparently employed by the rail company was directing people in a real line to take turns for the ticket counter. In Bolivia, lines are foreign things–people of all ages pass to the front of the line and push their way in front just because they don`t feel like waiting in the long line. Thankfully for us, since we were on a tight time schedule, this man was keeping everyone literally “in line.“ Another scruffier looking guy comes inside the station and, chatting with the line-keeper, pulls a half eaten donut shaped piece of bread out of his pants pocket and gives it to the line-keeper guy, who takes it, and even more surprising, actually eats it! What is this land? This is the real South America. Things are back to strange; there are no rules, just grey areas. It`s like Central America, minus Costa Rica which is all refined and paved and clean like Brazil. Bolivia is noticeably different and it feels like coming home after all the time we spent in the poorer parts of CA. Although admittedly, it was a bit tough to get back out of the western habits from the last 2 countries and back into the uncomfortable, staring, strangeness of a place like Bolivia. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 88: Corumba, Brazil –> Bolivia (sorta)

Another boring day for posting. We  got our stamps and papers in order for the border crossing into Bolivia. Doing a lot of post writing today at a gas station/convenience store/church/internet cafe (no joke, all lumped into one enterprise!).  Ran into one of the guys from the Blue Cave tour we did a couple days ago in Bonito while we were doing some website work. This afternoon we left Brazil but we arrived at the border during the 2 hour lunch break. With no other real option but to stay there, we decided to head across the border anyway (it`s not like anyone was going to stop us–they were at lunch!) and buy our train tickets in case the border visa took a while.

Thinking the train station couldn`t be too far, we starting walking through the mud, rain, and growing water puddles until we finally found out that the station was 15 minutes away by car. When we arrived by taxi, we discovered that they too were taking a 2 hour lunch. Now we were really stuck and had to wait and hour and a half for the train ticket office to open back up. Finally taking care of that mess, we taxi`d back to the border where we began filling our form after form for the visa (US citizens need visa for Bolivia–reciprocal behavior between these 2 countries). After filling out forms in tripilcate and answering some questions, we were informed we had to pay the $135 fee only in US dollars. What?! Ok, so we had to find an ATM but it wasn`t working and we were directed by the security guard to the other ATM in town a few blocks away. It wasn`t working either. We had no choice but to head back to the border to pay in Bolivanos. Luckily, on the way, we ran into one of the many guys who change money (just some guy in a lawn chair by the road–there`s a long line of them yelling “Cambio“ as you walk through the border) who ended up giving us a better rate than our bank! Whew, now we could pay our fee and hopefully be on our way. When we got into the border office, who did we see but that German guy from the cave tour and the internet cafe from yesterday! Turns out we were all taking the “death train“ to Santa Cruz but were seated in different train cars. FYI, the “death train“ isn`t named so because it`s dangerous. Instead it was used to carry Yellow Fever victims out of town into a quaratine area. It`s a really slow, rocky ride where the train sways so hard from side to side on the tracks, you will swear time after time that it`s surely going to tip over. Very, very slow overnight train with lame Chinese movies and an overdubbed American movie without English subtitles.

No pictures because there is nothing to see…just mud, lots and lots of mud.

Day 84: Pantanal, Brazil

Another early start at 6:30am for a boat trip down a part of the river we`ve not seen yet. On the drive to the launching point, we saw a small grey fox and a swamp deer. During our trip we saw a capybara resting on a bank beside the water, a couple of baby caiman about 6 inches long near a muddy bank, and plenty of caiman curious at our boat.

Capybara at the rivers edge

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Day 83: Pantanal, Brazil

There are certain times when we ´´acquire´´ stray travelers. Some are really cool people and some are really, really not. Our bunkmate whom we lovingly refer to as Frenchie since we never actually did proper introductions has decided to latch onto us. Normally we don`t mind these kinds of liasons and they often prove to be quite fun. This one is merely a frustratingly unattachable cling-on. Frenchie loves to talk but not just to people or about the weather or the tour. No, that would be too easy. The only things this guy talks about are (1) himself, and (2) how great France is compared to…the whole world. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 81: Campo Grande, Brazil

As if it weren`t a big enough pain just getting to Campo Grande, when we arrived, the entire bus was stalled because of one guy who lost his wallet. It had already taken 17 hours instead of the scheduled 14 and now we had to deal with this guy. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 72: Paraty, Brazil

Today was another slow day of Saben dragging his bum leg around like a wounded dog. Internet, Ice cream, Lunch, Ice cream, Internet… Until a chance meeting on the way back to the hostel.

“Well, hello!“ Anytime someone speaks to us in English, they`re nearly always trying to sell something. As it happened, we were standing on the foot bridge overlooking the muddy water and suspected someone was wanting to sell us a boat ride. Turning around slowing in preparation for a polite “No, Obrigado,“ we were stunned to see who had spoken the words. It was the sweet English couple we sat with at the soccer game in Rio! How funny that we should meet again, in this place at this particular moment! Read the rest of this entry »

Day 65: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Today was the day to be in Botafogo (a small neighborhood in Rio) and we were lucky enough to be there. Today was the big futbol match between Botafogo and some unworthy opponent. It was a requirement that we go. We headed toward the stadium in a swarm of black and white (Botafogo´s colors). There were fans of the other team there somewhere but they dare not show their faces. Botafogo is one of the largest teams in Rio and thousands of fans had came to see the regional finale. Unfortunately the opposing team was rather small and only had a limited (few hundred) fans show up.

Action at the stadium

As we entered the stadium the crowd was already a buzz. Chants and black and white balloons filled the air. This is the epitome of Rio, futbol on a Sunday in one of the largest stadiums in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 62: Petropolis, Brazil

We are absolutely in love with this city! It´s so beautiful, it´s relaxed, it´s comfortable. It´s perfect! There are beautiful parks, cobbled streets, canals, mountains, typical conveniences, tons of fruit stores, and gorgeous buildings.

Checked out the Imperial Museum where all visitors are required to wear the big fuzzy slippers over their own shoes while walking (sliding, rather) through the musuem.

Our rockin`fuzzy slippers!

It´s $2 for students and $4 for non-students to get in. The route throughout is roped off so you must follow the intended order of things. There are tons of neat artifacts from the royal family like the king´s clothes and crown, tons of ladies´fans, lots of lovely oriental decorations like vases and boxes plus lots of beautiful furnishings. Read the rest of this entry »

We got up really early to go down to our new favorite bakery/restaurant to pick up breakfast for our wonderful hosts Bernardo and Marilia for hosting us an extra 2 days. Everything would´ve been fine, except we had forgotten to take our anti-malarials the night before (too much Carnival fun!) and had to take them this morning asap. Taking them on empty stomachs is a really bad idea, as we discovered! Read the rest of this entry »

Day 57: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We had the most awesome day ever today! This morning, Bernardo and Marilia invited us to accompany them to another street parade to which we happily agreed. We met up with some of their relatives and, to let them share their carnival tradition with family, we split off and started exploring the parade by ourselves.

Us at Carnival Day 2

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