Around the world in 155 days: Not so tired.....

Firstly some catch up on the photos I haven´t been able to post due to security issues. To the left is me running up the sand dunes on Ilha de Santa Catarina last week. The dunes run pretty much down the whole middle of the island as you can see - they were a lot of fun, though that sand was the hottest sand I´ve ever experienced, and I´m still digging sand out of my camera (every nook and unexplored cranny is Full of sand).

Here´s Elena, who with her family ran the Pousada in Ilha de Santa Catarina where I stayed, with her toy poodle Petra, who was very cute.

I mean real poodle, but a Toy breed.

Below is a pic of the statue of Christ the Redeemer from our hotel. Jesus perches atop the highest point in Rio and keeps and eye on the City. (More on him later). He´s lit up at night, and up so high on dark mountains that it looks like he´s floating in the sky over the city. Very cool.

Have slightly recovered from Carnaval. Joined up with the tour group yesterday that will take me across the continent to Quito in Ecuador via (the rest of the South of) Brasil, Bolivia and Peru - travelling on my own has been a lot of fun, but being able to (slightly) relax my hypervigilance is very, very welcome! Most of the people in my group (there are 11 incl. me) I had already met at the hotel over Carnaval, and they all seem pretty cool. I´m not the oldest, and it´s not like a creche - so it should be a lot of fun.

The day after Carnaval in the Sambadrome we were all knackered.... Getting home at 7am takes it out of you. Sanguiero were announced as winners of the competition yesterday, and as they performed in round 2 on Monday night we didn´t see them. Beija Flor came second though and we saw them - they were my favourite (so, well chosen, judges based on my well-trained eye). It´s been fun watching the news and seeing what we saw.... doesn´t do it justice though!

On Tuesday Carnaval officially finished, so all the shops have now reopened and it´s back to BAU in Rio de Janiero. We managed to squeeze a bit more partying in though before all the celebrations were over....

Tuesday morning I went on a tour of the favelas (slum area). I wasn´t sure what to expect (City of God, maybe), but I´m really glad I did it. It´s not all drugs and doom and gloom - a lot of people choose to live there because it´s cheap, there´s no tax and all the utilities are free (ergo: stolen) and the gang protects the favela residents, so we were safer there than in Copacabana - the gang doesn´t want any trouble or police going in, so there´s no way they´d do anything to a tourist.... seeing a 14 year old boy on a bad arse motorcycle on every corner with a great big machine gun (long pointy barrel, big handle, magazine type thing - I dunno what it was) was a bit nervewracking. I did not want to p#ss those guys off...... the last time someone was raped in there was 20 years ago, and the gang found the guy, cut him up and put bits all over the favela. There has been no further trouble, since. The gang pay for a lot of the healthcare and education in the favela, although the money comes from questionable sources. The chick that did the tour has lived in one her whole life - and says she wouldn´t leave. Below is a favela - but not the one I went to (bought wrong memory card....). You get the idea - house upon house built up the hill.....

In the favela we weren´t allowed to photograph the sewer (why in God´s name anyone would want to is beyond me) because they are embarrassed by it. It is the worst I´ve seen - even worse than the sewage Traff and I had to wade through in Thailand (with a motorbike). Twice I vomited and the sewage didn´t even touch me, but I decided in would be bad form to vomit into the sewer if they were embarrassed for you to look at it, so I had to hold it in. Urgh. I tried Açai in the favela. On the third mouthful I thought -what on earth am I doing? There´s raw sewage in the drain next to me (they get the water illegally and then dispose of it the same way, pretty much), and I´m eating a homemade, crushed (ice!!!) frozen berry and guarana drink (like a granita) ..... It was nice though, and so far, so good. It´s week 4 in South America - an upset tummy is now part of my everyday existence. I´ll spare the details! We also werent allowed to photograph the gang.... for obvious reasons.

In the afternoon a few of us went down to the Tuesday bloco in Ipanema -one of the best. It kicked off at 4pm - there´s a big Gay-Lesbian-Bi-Try element to some of the parties, and we weren´t disappointed at this one in Ipanema. Mick wanted to take some more risks in Rio - so we caught the local bus. Mother of God. It´s trying not to go through the windscreen that is the problem, not the robbers up the back. Below is Belinda, Mick (in the Montecristo) and Matt (Tom Sawyer) and me early in the evening. I believe this was the first (damaging) drink of many.

A bit later in the night, I was thrilled that these lovely ladies agreed to have their pic taken with me. I choked on my breakfast the following morning when they were on the news coverage of the bloco in Ipanema - being interviewed. I was hailed as a talent spotter....

This was quite a bit later (below). I´m doing a thumbs up, so I believe that this was after the 5th damaging drink of many. We were sitting next to the beach in Ipanema and I looked up and we were surrounded by all these kids. I panicked, jumped up and thought, ´this is it, we´re being robbed´. One of the guys grabbed me and said ´this isn´t a robbery, we just want to talk to you´- and that they did. They asked us if we like ´rippy roppy´music - which we eventually worked out was Hip Hop. We laughed so hard we cried - they were the highlight of our evening....

After dinner in an Irish pub, and some Caiprinhas (MBenn - we may have drank a bottle of Rum that night at yours but you didn~t make them anywhere near as strong as they do here), we headed home to play some poker (given the nail was in the coffin for me with that last Caiprinha, it wasn´t successful). As we left the pub, Matt (Tom Sawyer) said - ´Look! There´s Jesus!´. I said ´When I turn around there had better be a statue´. So much mileage out of a floating Jesus.

It was a very long bus ride down the Costoa Verde (Green Coast) and boat ride to some islands, including Ilha Grande for me yesterday (Wednesday!) as you can imagine......

.....but one of the most beautiful places I~´ve been as you can see.

These guys played on the boat - it was a great day. Beautiful swimming, snorkelling and seafood lunch - white beaches, green and blue seas, and beautiful remote islands.

Here I am feeling even shorter and more insignificant than usual at the foot of a very large tree on Ihla Grande.

Here is Francesco and Adelaide, from Switzerland. I met them on the boat - they´re great and made the boat ride very enjoyable. They want to come and stay in Melbourne. I said, ´Sure! After August when I´m back, Sarah and Brett would love to have you!´. Very excited that they invited me to Milan, where they are from, and Zurich, where they live .... Great! And even after I embarrassingly ate Francesco´s lunch due to a slight misunderstanding....