Brazil

one of the highlights of our trip so far must have been the iguazu falls, i´ve never imagined them to be this massive and big. we saw them from the brazilian and argentinian side and i really recommend seeing both! looking at a couple of the rivers which form the falls, you´d never imagine such power and such big masses of water.absolutely amazing!!!also the hostel we stayed at in puerto iguazu was very nice and i almost felt at home, as some of my plants from home were growing in the garden- ok, they were just slightly smaller, but still, the same plants.
however, getting from iguazu to campo grande, which was our first port of call in brazil, was a quite difficult endevour. having bought all our bus tickets ourselved, we thought that it would safe us lots of hassle(going to the bus station on the bras. side etc) if we bought our tickets from an agent in puerto iguazu, knowing that we would be paying a bit more. all looked fine, i got an envelope with the tickets the day we were supposed to get them, but only once we had already left the agency and were on our way to the falls i noticed that there was just one ticket with teresa´s name on it.so, upon arrival back in town, we went back to try and find out what was going on - strangely enough, our agent had already left for the day and the other one had no idea what was going on, so we called the other agent and she told us that there is no more ticket available form another person and whether we wouldn´t like to go tomorrow morning, which we didn´t, as we already had our pantanal tour reserved and didn´t want to spend a day on the bus (safes us from paying for an extra night and we get to a new place in the morning). so, i got quite angry with her and somehow she managed to find another ticket - on a different bus one hour earlier than teresas.wonderful, first bus trip in brazil, overnight and both of us alone and we both had to change buses once. my first bus had no a/c and was extremly hot, whereas in the second i felt as if i had gone to antarctica, it was fucking freezing, must have been 10 degrees or so.apart from that, i had this guy sitting next to me who constantly `accidentally´ touched me and took up lots of space.teresa´s bus broke down etc - all in all, not much sleep that night, but we both arrived in campo grande around the same time and could soon start our pantanal tour, which i was extremly looking forward to, animals and nature after lots of cities. although it wasn´t the best time of the year to go, i was still hoping to see lots of wildlife etc. what i wasn´t expecting though was that this lodge would also be a huge party place with lots of backpackers. in general, i thought it would be much more remote than it was, whereas teresa was expecting it to be less rustic.
anyways, so another 4 or so hours on a minibus, with lots of rain on the way. the minibus ride was followed by a ride in a rustic version of a pic up or something, also in the rain, which was paradise for my little mosquitoe friends. `off`we go again, which has turned out to be our favorite smell on the trip. after the 3 days in the pantanal, i was covered in bites, my right foot alone had 25, my hand 13 and many more on the rest of me - didn´t count them all to be honest. day one basically ended with lots of drinking, playing drinking games (which i, as always, couldn´t really follow, but thankfully teresa and mark helped me cheat a bit)etc. on day 2, i didn´t go on the full day jungle safari with the others, as i was expecting a phone call regaring a job interview, yes, in the middle of nowhere, but they had to do it monday or tuesday, so that was really the only option. we´ll see how it went, but hey, who does interviews in the pantanal, i should have gotten plus points right there, however, i think the guy who called me was quite jealous-after all, he was sitting somewhere in germany while i´m in brazil. it was about an internship in new york, btw, all expenses paid - i should find out soon whether i got to the next round.
but anyways, so in the morning (i was quite happy i didn´t have to go hiking), i went on a boat trip along the river, where we saw lots of caimans, toucans, other birds (can´t remember their names), capybaras (water pigs), but no anacondas or jaguars. still, very nice.
after lunch and my interview, we went on a horseback ride - it´s been over a year since the last one in mongolia, which was where teresa fell of the horsy.
day three was then the hiking day for me, with lots of rain and therefore, not that many animals, apart from mossies. the last morning was then spent with fishing piranhas (not me of course)and tubing down the river with the caimans etc in it, which was alot of fun.
back to city life in campo grande, the people we´d met on our trip decided to go out for dinner and then to a karaoke bar, which must have been the best night on our whole trip. apart from a summer loving duet, i sang my `favorite` song edelweiss again and i´m sure most brazilians have never heard it before - shame on them. speaking of the guests in the bar (apart from our group) i have no idea how many of them were men and how many women - campo grande seems to be transvestite/transsexual heaven.
teresa and i left campo grande the next day at 3pm, in order to get to sao paulo by 6am and then got a flight to salvador de bahia. after 4 days surrounded by mostly foreigners, it felt somehow strange i thought. buses in south america seem to be timed a lot better than planes. our plane was late, and we still don´t know why. also, who could expect an international airport to have a selection of books which goes beyond 10 titels (our of which i had read 5 and wasn´t interested in the others)?
anyways, so we spent 2 days in salvador, great place, but as far as sightseeing goes, all i say is 365 churches! so we decided to take a little rest before the carneval madness starts (we bought one day ticket so far which cost us around 140 euros) and are now in praia do forte, a touristy, but very cute beach town with a great hostel and will probably stay here for another 2 or 3 nights and then go back to salvador/to ilha itaparica. after having survived carnval, we will then head down to rio and end our trip in sao paulo. however, i am currently very tempted to change that to a bit later....