FOZ DO IGUAÇU: Natural Wonders viewed from a Bus Floor

The latest enterants into the Phil´s Phworld Bizarre Travel Provider Activities Hall of Fame. (1) British Airways. Who, for reasons only beknowst to themselves, will occassionally delete flights from my itinerary. After the latest such occurance (when my Hong Kong / Delhi flight made a dissapearence) I asked why such things happened. The girl on the Round the World desk had no idea. But hoped it wasn´t inconvinent. I asked whether they´d refund my international call costs each time I rung them to sort out such messes. She didn´t get back to me.

And, more appropriatly to this entry, (2) Pluma Buses, Brazil. Who, in the course of a sixteen hour trip from Florianopolis to Foz do Iguaçu, managed to make four stops, change drivers three times and buses twice. Yes, apparently it takes three buses to make a five hundred mile trip. Admittedly, these were *nice* buses with full reclining seat action but each had some slightly disturbing quirks. The first bus had seats which went back. And back. And back... So much so that Nicola almost crushed the poor child sat in the lap of the woman behind her. Which may have contributed to the subsequent puking of said child. The second bus had seats which realised their place in the gravitational way of things, plus the benefits of random film entertainment (Cyranno de Begerac. In French. Without Portuguese subtitles) In fact, that bus would have been fine for the final ten hours. Sadly, though, with three hours to go we were asked to make another random change to a bus which was already half full. Resulting in four of us making the final part of the journey sat on the floor. And jolly uncomfortable it was too. But, as someone who once spent three hours sat on the floor of the Palace of Westminster waiting for a non appearence from a local MP, it was no great trial.


Foz do Iguaça. That`s like a shorthand for `another amazing Brazilian photo oppotunity

The reason for all this discomfort was our trip to the Foz do Iguaçu. An interesting place for purely geographical reasons: being a crossing point between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, it also has the benefit of being gifted with some of the world´s most stunning waterfalls. 275 of them, to be exact, plunging out of the rainforest in a large arc and attracting all manner of wildlife. Including, of course, large groups of tourists. After a couple of months in small town Brazil there´s something tear jerkingly familliar when a group of Japaneese tourists emerge from the forest with the cameras gleaming in the sunlight. Undoubtedly the waterfall highlight of this trip so far and, like so much in Brazil, with photos well worth the price of national admission in itself. Worth the price of three country´s admissions, actually.


The obligatory ´Fools at the Falls´shot. Jess gladly obliged for this one.

Waterfalls are, of course, extrodinarily pretty. But aside from looking at them, walking around them and getting pleasantly soaked in the sprary there´s not a whole lot else to do but marvel. Not that that´s a *bad* thing. It just doesn´t make for good blogging... Hmm... There was the mad rush to garner the world´s best butterfly picture before the swarm of them around us dissapeared to pastures and sugary things new. That was exciting, and a little disconcerting (who´d have thought it from a swarm of butterflys?)


One of the many beautiful butterflies just waiting to land at your feet in Brazil. Strange, but true. Just make sure you bring your sweetest shoes.

I got so excited with the falls just then that I forgot to mention the Itapiu dam: just up the road from the falls and the world´s biggst hydroeletric dam. It generates enough power to light 95% of Paraguay, 20% of Brazil and is generally very big and turbine filled. It also hosts a curious light show in the evenings, maybe trying to compensate for all the ecological damage in building the thing in the first place, which basically is a front to make tourists watch a video proclaiming the dam to be the greatest of mankind´s achievements and the cure for all known ills. Ever. Someone should just marry it right now.

And tomorrow we´ll be crossing to Argentina where, apparently, the views of the falls are even more spectacular. So no doubt there´ll be some hilarious anecdote of obnoxious customns officials on the tiny bridge between the two countries. If we didn´t have the curiosities of Brazilian organisation to muse over, we´d just get very bored.


Itaipu Dam at the height of its light show spectacular. It is pretty spectacular, but I wouldn´t say it´s world changing. The bass music being pounded under our feet was more impressive. They should rent the place out as a drum and bass venue.

ADDITION: As promised, here is the tremendously exciting and often hilarious Argentinian Border Crossing Story. We went to the border. We presented our passports. They stamped them. We spent a nice day in Argentina. We came back. Here endeth the story.

FLORIANOPOLIS - Gone trekkin´

Some days are worth any price. Some make a holiday or, indeed, a whole week or month worthwilde. I can safely say that the trek from Pantano do Sul to Lagoinha do Leste on the south of Ihla Santa Catarina may well have been worth the price of my entire year´s journey. And this was in the week when my cast was finally removed (that´s ten weeks of my right hand I still want back from somewhere. I´ve got a backlog of jars that need opening)

Wednesday was a holiday here (no, can´t remember which one) and was the first genuianly sunny day for a few weeks. So we decided to catch up on all the beach exploration / visiting we´d been missing out on. Then Geraldo, one of our resident homestay brothers, recommended that we take a trek away from the main tourist beaches around a particularly large looking hill to one of the island´s less visited lagoons. "It is a long walk." He warned us. But is it a pretty one? "Sure," he shrugged. "Just remember to bring some water."


Trekking over the wild hills of Brazil. They flew those boulders into New Zealand to make Lord of the Rings, I think. Or maybe New Zealand has a few of its own? I´ll let you know in due course.

Cue one and a half hours of jungle, waterfalls, and at times near vertical climbing followed by another hour of clambering over rocks on the edge of windy cliffs to reach the top of the hill overlooking Lagoinha do Leste. Quite literally, a picture paradise beach completley inaccessable by any other route but the long, hilly one. Not quite white sands and not quite empty but, hey, what do you expect for a Wednesday afternoon on real life planet Earth? Fictional perfection? Actually, some hardy souls had managed the same trek with surfboards, tents and all manner of strange accessorys.


Lagoinha do Leste. The view they invented postcards for.

Of course, the need to return to a place without darkened stumbling over cliffs meant our stay at the beach had to be shorter than our combined walking time too and from it (only took us two hours on the way back. We got this trekking thing down) And our level of preperation was somewhat lacking, so that some hardy souls had to do the whole thing in flip flops. Which was pretty impressive, really. I was, of course, wearing the exciting Gore-Tex boots (see: Expensive Shoes) which were wonderfully successful, until I slipped and got thigh deep into mud. Gore-Tex doesn´t work so well when you get the boot wet on the inside. Stupid Gore-Tex.

There were some sore muscles, the odd bit of sunburn and some cuts and bruises for everyone´s trouble (note to you all: if you see surfers crashing out on waves near large rocks you can rest assured that you´re probably *not* in a safe swimming area) but, undoubtedly, the whole experience earnt itself a top level placing in my all time favourite Brazilian Treks league table. And if we do it all again, apparently there´s an even steeper path over an even bigger mountain to try out. See you at the top.


Team Global Adventures return from Lagoinha do Leste. It´s all smiles until everyone begins to feel the lactic acid welling up in their calf muscles...

And lastly: a plea. I see from the ever reliable Internet Movie Database that Joss Whedon´s Serenity has been released on both sides of the Atlantic to general acclaim and not very much money. I beg. Nay, I plead. Please go and see this film so it makes some money. If not, someone might decide it´s not very good and deem it unworthy of attaching Portuguese subtitles to and releasing in the small, crampt lectue theatre which they put a sign saying ´Cinema´ on the front of here in Floripa. I medically need to see this film on a big(ish) screen, please can all Browncoats who´ve seen it post their obviously positive reviews here and everyone else then go forth and do what must be done to make this world work. Which is: spending money to make me happy.

FLORIANOPOLIS - A Tale of Two Bridges

British spring time continues apace here in Florianopolis. Rain, rain, rain followed by drizzle and a bit more rain. Actually, it´s quite nice to have a bit of a change from the numerous heat centres of the States. And we´ve also had some funky eletric storms. Ands you can´t beat a bit of forked lightning, really. Apparently the weather has never been quite as crazy as this. It´s nice to make an impression wherever you go.


Exciting lightning storm ahoy. Couldn´t quite catch the lightning bolts on camera, but you can always paint them in yourselves. Send me your best efforts: we´ll have a little contest.

Exploring Florianopolis has been worhtwilde. It´s the type of city which has most of the really nice areas hidden away. The pituresque beaches and lakes are really on the nearby Ilha Santa Catarina: Florianopolis marks the gateway between continent and island. And there´s a marked difference between the two sides of the city. The continent, where I live and work, seems to house most of the poverty whilst the reclaimed land just one bridge span away is packed out with highrises and nightclubs. Crossing isn´t really much effort: just a quick bus ride. But the lack of pedestrian crossing space and the presence of large Police towers gives it a weird kind of feeling. Like they *really* don´t want just anybody going to their nice, pretty island. There is a pedestrian bridge: the enormously impressive ironwork Hercilio Luz. Which would make things seem more equal but which, sadly, was never completed and is permenantly closed. Ironic doesn´t even cut it.


Hercilio Luz Bridge. Nice to look at, otherwise kinda pointless. Notice the subtle differences on both sides, I was sitting on the continent looking to the island when I took this one.

Enough social commentary, let´s talk kids. It´s been a quick three weeks at Alfa Gente and we´ve all gotten into the routines of our shiny blue T-Shirts (no shootings yet, but I´ll keep you posted) and many hours communicating with anything but language. Being with the four to six year olds has its advantages: none of them is expecting Oscar Wilde discourse. But, at the same time, they don´t quite understand that "Eu nao fala portuguese" means I won´t understand their in depth instructions for proper Lego block building ten minutes later.

Something which is true of most kids from tough backgrounds, though, is that they´re looking for connection and attention in any form. You notice it a lot more, though, when you don´t speak the same lanaguage. So as long as I remain the best block tower builder in Alfa Gente, I think we´ll do okay. And, for the mostpart, they are lovely. They do want to beat each other up for long periods of the day and often over the most insignificant things. But what´s new, right?

We spend a lot of time in one colourful classroom where teacher extrodinaire, Lucia, manages to engage their attentions with little more than some recycled milk cartons and a glue gun. We did go for our first day trip this week, though. Chatering a bus and heading for Joaquina Beach on the east of the island. In the summer, it´s the place of choice for any self respecting chic Brazilians. In the spring, it´s cold and wet. Perfect for five year olds and British people.


Day tripping to the beach. It´s amazing how kids stand still for photos, they never do at any other time.

We ran around for maybe ten minutes, ate a few small pieces of pie (makes a change from rice) and then went home. The bus ride was an hour both ways and yet every one of the kids had a great time. If it were Brits or Americans, you´d need to be amusing them all day long. It´s pretty humbling how small things can keep small people happy... And if they weren´t with us, no matter the behavior, pretty much every other alternative for their lives is pretty sad. The other nice thing about Alfa Gente is we get sleep breaks every day. To keep everyone sane the kids are put down on matresses for two hours each afternoon. Many other industries could learn a lesson from that.

Three weeks down, eight to go. The question becomes how to move on from just being a new distraction to making a permenant difference. We´ve made some suggestions, and its been groovy seeing the paint come out in one of the other centres at the suggestion of Attiq and Lucy (who, of course, now have a load of painting to do...) and hopefully with a few more Portuguese lessons we´ll be able to do that. I need the Portuguese for "Now let´s stop building swords and put together a nice Lego police station with working cars, shall we?"


Lucia (back left) and the kids of Alfa Gente. They´re ever so sweet when they´re silent and standing still. Sometimes when they´re running about and screaming you can forget that.