Other side of the Equator - Part 2

Landed in Foz

BUGET AIRLINES - OCEAN AIR

CCB had a rented a car and it was quiet useful since most places are far off from the city and having ur own trasport gives u that extra bit of flexibility.

Foz landed in straight into my friends aunts house , A quick round of introductions and the complex sign language communiction later we were digging in for a gorgeious dinner of pork,black bean, rice and wht not and i couldnt stuff in the desserrrrrt

Early start another gorgeious breakfast of rolls ham and hot choclate .Let me tell u the locally produced coca makes this hot choclate extra special , loved it No where else would u get that taste and yet its cheap locally avialable coca (a business opportunity here)

Onward to seee Foz do iguacu from the brazilian side the biggest waterfall in the world in terms of volume of water flowing trough almost twice as big as niagra and in the border of 3 countries (parague . Ar and Br)

Well if u cant get the scale of things when former president of US and his family were the first lady looked at it and said " Ohh poor Niagra "

seriously it will make Niagra thirsty

next day was my extra special, both of us being engineers
Itiapu Dam -

This is the worlds biggest dam spanning 2 countries generates enough electricity to cover 98% of parague and 25 % of brazils needs and to date its the single largest eco friendly Power generation plant.Even after the 3 gorges dam is built it would be the biggest in the world but it wouldnt beat Itapu in terms of electricity produced.

In the short video shown in the tour it said the chinese will have the biggest dam but we have the power of parana.Itaipu litterely means sond of Rocks in the guarani langauate - local tribal group.

Facts about Itiapu

The name "Itaipu" was taken from an isle that existed near the construction site. In the Guarani language, Itaipu means "the sound of a stone". The American composer Philip Glass has also written a symphonic cantata named Itaipu in honour of the structure.

Itaipu Binacional is a company that runs the largest operational hydroelectric power plant in the world.^[1] It is a binational undertaking run by Brazil and Paraguay at the Paraná River on the border section between the two countries, 15 km north of the Friendship Bridge. The project ranges from Foz do Iguaçu, in Brazil, and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, in the south to Guaíra and Salto del Guaíra in the north. The installed generation capacity of the plant is 14 GW, with 20 generating units of 700 MW each. In the year 2000, it achieved its generating record of 93.4 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), which supplied 93% of the energy consumed by Paraguay and 20% of that consumed by Brazil as of 2005.

Credit- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itaipu

After this was again a pretty shady part of my trip

After this we made our way to the Argentinan embassy .where CCB's cousin was working .Well joys of my international connections ehh courtesy of him my visa was done in 4 mins . ONwards to Parague .

We went Up to the Parague border parked the car on the brazilian side and walked across Parague and voila I was in Ciudad del Este Parague and country i had set foot in with a valid visa passport stamp or any piece of official paper .Mom u should be proud of me:)

Crossing the bridge on the side roads on to the bridge and stepping into parague it all takes about 15 mins but u can see a stark difference in skin colour and the place .It looks a bit more dirtier people trying to sell u any thing .Its a bit like National market Bangalore india but on a much larger scale.

Half a day in parague we made our way back because later they start checking for passes and i didnt have any.so there u go i have been in and out of this country no problems.After coming back CCB went to this random chemist shop to ask for some directions and bingo he found one of his relatives there and he owned the shop .I was the uninvited guest to his house that day :)

All along my time in Brazil these were the questions asked

India.................! mouth wide open and awe that people of india can be normal humans.In this part of the world u have got to understand they dont come in contact with a lot of Indians and that too me working in UK and brown and looking like a paraguaian makes it a bit more intreasting . All along in the Clubs of Rio to Curtutiba a few people mistook me for Portugese or paraguian

How many languages do u speak - reply was 7 i cut it down to 6 they had almost stars in their eyes

What are the languages - i had to give them the whole list

Next - is the song and dance routine

Well i was force fed some more rolls and stuff saying its argentenian dont get it anywear eat eat.Remeber all this was happeing in portugese and i had to figure it out through CCB translations or actions and hand movements (universal language).

Night CCB deserted me to take his aunt to the hospital .2 hours i was left with his Uncle with some pretty animated conversations showing the family photograph album .Telling me who was what .

I must say credit due CCBs aunts family .They welcomed me as one of their own and gave me soo much and the food it was gorgeious.

Onwards next day to Argentina

3 countries in 3 days not bad ehh....

Stamp out and in 15 mins and Ar the land of tasty Steaks,Che , Tango and more important FOZ.we ended up in Puerto iguazu the town closest to Igauasu.I must say the argentinian side of the falls are much more impressive than the brazilian one .From brazil u get a panoramic view and from Ar u get up close and personal to Iguacu river .Garagatas diablo(devils throat) was absolutley impressive . get this its has 275 falls spread around 3 kms

Pics speak more than words well if possible i will even load the video have a look.

Intreasting bit of on the Argentenian side is u get up close and touch the falls yep .we took a speed boat that take u under the the falls.Its so powerful u couldnt open eyes and the fresh water pounding on u when its 30 C and humid it does make it a bit extra comfortable.Back and then we had the biggest icecream in the world and bak home for extra special dinner and then onwards to Curutiba

Going to Curutiba was a decision made because , even tough there is nothing much to see its my friends native .Its the city he knows it as good as the back of his hand. Landed in and was recived by is MOM and onwards to his luxurious apartments.

There CCB took me this fantastic eat as much as u want restaurant where one person or Skewer comes in every minute with a huge lump of meat like this and explains about it and if you want he will slice a piece as much as you want.I am told they do about 40 different kinds of cooked meat in this place they came up all the wierd stuff

Chicken heart,Ostrich,Tender steak,Roasted Steak blah blah blah

Bummer i couldnt try all of it but did manage to try a lot of meat . Sorry mom but the steaks u get in S america taste soo soo awesome you can compare it high quality horse meat(sorry again mom) or higest quality tender lamb.

Hit the clubs and bars in the night but by this time i was dead tired with all the late night outs and partying and hetic travel well just a few more days.

Next day went around all the beautiful parks in curutiba .This is a very sort of a business city and is relatively cooler than the others i had visited which was a welcome relife.

All the parks to me being from india looked like mini jungles by itself and the city was pretty but not touristic.Its certainly more devloped than Rio and there is majority european popluation here well i did enjoy just sitting in the park watch the world go by general catch up and sipping tender cocount .

All along CCB had the most embarassing job when i was taking fotos (of mundane things to them) explaining it to the people that i was from india and this was new to me!!!!!

Came bak tired to the apartment and had a good chat with CCBs cute nephew he tried as much as possible to talk to me in portugese but i could convey my message as well !!! And here the most amazing conversation happened .

CCB and this Kid wanted to see the schools and school children in india so i did a random search in youtube and put on this video.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lpc-jGZkbAk

He watched the video with great intreast and asked me this question

Y are they walking to school while my mama drops me off in a car everyday !!!!! this is unfair Look at how different this kids barely 5 years old thinking

Life would eventually take this away from him and he ends up greed like us CCB's parents tried to talk to me all the time .Once they asked me where i went what i saw and everything , surprisingly i manged to answer most of them thats when CCB's mom said to Him u see we dont need to know the same language but still can talk - True true

Next day was the day i was flying i had a little more than half a day left .ohh forgot to tell u the previous night CCB was quiet keen on me rating the first indian restaurant in his city so we had dinner there sadly we were feeling the effects of it the next day driving .While CCB taught it was becs he was not used to indian food i taught it was goosebumps before flying !!!!

Either way next day we were enjoying the views of Graciosas mountain with some stomach rumbling and stopped at a colnial town called Morretes beautiful colonial town and had a lovely meal .Sadly could have most of if due to the strange noises in our stomach !!!!

Here the speciality is eating the beef boraetoo(typo) with banana.Very tasty but sadly could eat a lot but did drink a lot of Guarana Antartica (brazilian fizzy drink) if u get a chance try it i got hooked into it .And i swam is cold water in the river there which had no one onnnn , it was quiet cool.

Onwards to the airport were i flew from Curutiba- Sao paulo(via)- Rio - Saopaulo- London- my city. 5 flight in a space of 18 hours was dead tired by time i was back .

This trip was a milestone for me

Visiting 3 countries in 12 days

Getting to meet the proper locals what more eating for free at their place

Seeing one of each of

7 wonders of the modern world - Christo Redentor

7 Wonders of the Industrial world - Itiapu dam

7 Natural wonders of the world- Iguacu falls

Handgliding

Entering a country with out a single piece of legal document whts more buying souvienrs there and coming back unhurt !!!

All this in 12 days pretty impressive ehh .....

Well that was the end of my amazing adventure in S america . I still remember Seeing CCbs card when he left Europe with a message inviting me to his country and thinking well i dont see that happening but it did !!!.Dreams do come true u just have to work hard to get to it thats all

He has promised to tour my motherland with me .Only time can tell if that dream can come true!!!!!!

Got to the flight and bak to cold grey England .I taught numerious times when i will set foot on this continent again there are so many things i did on this trip and so many i missed on partly becs i didnt have enough time and partly becs of buget and distance constraints

some of them include

• Giant steaks and Buenos aires
  
• Patagonia
  
• Machu pichu
  
• Pirana hunting in the amazons
  
• Anaconda watching there as well
  
• Swimming in this river if that is safe
  
• Death road Bolovia

Please give me time and money my lord so that i could do this

Well thats it this time preparing my next blog about the ancient city of Constantinople

so please wait

CIAO

PS Ignore the Typos spell checker not working and i dont have enough time to correct manually

The other side of Equator 19 march 08

If u have guessed from the pattern from my previous blogs congrats.

Like all my previous trips this has a strange but a interesting story attached to it. Nipping back almost 10 months before this actual trip i watched a wicked film call Motorcycle diaries.The film was a documentary of Ernesto guvera de la serna (che guvera’s) trip across S America.
Saw the film which nevertheless impressed me and wrote to my Brazilian friend about how beautiful his continent was and this is the reply i got.(well this is wht it looked like)

Thanks for ur email yes S America is very nice .Do u want to come here and visit, We both can take holidays together and visit a lot of places
Tell me wht u think
CCB
Funny enough S America was flashing back in my dreams as well (don’t ask me why).Couple of days later google search reveled a £300 ticket to Sao Paulo .Me being too greedy said this

Hey CCB
Thanks for the invite yes , S America sounds good and the plan doesn’t seem impossible. Got some deals and will sort out soon.
C u in Brazil
BBB

But after this email was sent I found out £300 for just a one way ticket and a return would cost over £700 SHIT!!!!!
Several Internet searches later and reading a lot of travel blogs in http://www.travelpod.com/ .I had made up my mind or probably i had reached a point of no return.
After several frantic Internet search (yes by this time i was desperate to see SA) i got a cheap ticket from TAM a Brazilian based airline.Little did i know that they had a appalling safety record with the most recent of crashes in around 2005.All it mattered to me was i got a deal for little over a £500 and a that too to Rio de janerio ehhhhhhhhhh

Well moving onn CCB confirmed since last year that it was a safe airline so went ahead with the booking and fingers crossed will be in Rio one piece.
The time had finally come with Internet searches and found i could hand glide in RIO and CCB being Mr organised planned everything and had got cheap Domestic airline tickets as well .he was joining me the next day.

There was a secret deal between which i won’t propose to revel in this blog. J nothing dodgy mind u

6 Hours before leaving i packed and packed lite .What more would u need in the beaches of Brazil then a swimwear and flip flops :).

I was meeting Natalia the girl who was from Barcelona (previous blog) who was co incidentally was in London the same day i was flying .All she did before flying to London was to tell me she would be waiting in Piccadilly at 2 .

What to say it was a surreal meet up without the use of Modern technology aka mobile phones and stuff. We met for sure and it felt 10 times better when we took the technology out of it .After that i met my other South Korean friend who was now working in London had gorgeous beef bulgogi for dinner in South Korean restaurant .

Flying time

Quick tube from Piccadilly circus was in Heathrow on time and no problems with the Flights .I have to say i was impressed after all the things i had heard , gorgeous Air hostess sorry food or did i say Air hostess , well it was all a taste of things to come!!!!.

Long flight nothing exciting except free drinks and Air hostess (again) .Made it at Sao Paulo at 6 Am and surprising chaos was surrounding me ,tried to calm down and sort myself out.

Voila in South america finally

All the name boards were in Portuguese .Well for those of u who have been in Sao Paulo and Mumbai airports there is one thing common – These are clearly functional airport which are overloaded and none of the instructions clearly written . All i heard was Connections this way i had to run that way and just Cross my fingers thinking i am in the correct line !!!!

Crossing fingers worked this time and arrived in Rio no problems .I would suggest TAM to anyone and everyone decent airline with good food and beautiful well no prize for guessing this time!!!!

Had to go to this hostel called Che lagerto near Copacabana.

Che Lagarto Hostel

Rua Anita Garibaldi number

87 CEP 22041-080- Rio de Janeiro - RJ Brazil
EMail: copacabana@chelagarto.com

Phone: (5521) 2256-2776 / 2256-2778#

MSN: chelagartocopa@hotmail.com

Although there is a bus service to town from the airport me having a laptop didn’t want to risk it the first day honestly Rio has the reputation of being not a very safe destination.

Cab to the hostel . Rio city airport credit due to the people who planned it , there is a dedicated ring road which has no traffic signals until u reach downtown!! As result transit to and from the airport is very quick. Bengaluru airport are u listening???

On the way into Hostel 35 mins on the Cab saw pretty sight of christo redentore(Christ the redemmer) and stuff .Already the city started to impress me Lush green vegetation ,beach , Babes and heat which was a surprising change from London where there was snow.

Checked into the hostel and wanted to call the guy on a hand gliding so went to the public booth.Turns out i had to use a card so called them from my mobile and arranged for a pick up had 2 hours to kill so out on the Copacabana it was .

Initial impression - It was the largest crowed beach i have ever seen so it was all new for me.People sunbathing playing volleyball ,soccer etc impressed me .Here looking good bare chested is more important than life itself. The receptionist at the Hostel was the most hottest looking girl i have seen till date .So chatted up with her and guess what me being an indian ,I was put in close to celebrity status because they rarely get to see indians and very very rare to see and indian backpacker .So chatting with her ofcourse clarifing and going to great lenghts explaing about facts and figures of India (never loose and opportunity eh.....)+ u need to be a good ambassador of ur country u know!!!!

Went in for hand gliding thingeee i must admit inspite of seeing all the fotos and reading about it.I had no idea what i was going to attempt.

Here are the contact details and some info

Email Just fly - justfly@alternex.com.br

Thanks for sending your email to Just Fly.
Take off ramp - Pedra Bonita

Hang glide from Pedra Bonita Ramp, located at the Tijuca Forest National Park, at a height of 1700 feet (520 meters) and the landing is on São Conrado "Pepino" Beach.
The flights last from 10 to 30 minutes depending on the wind and on the weight of the passanger. Weight limit uses to be 100 Kg (220 pounds), but in some special conditions of wind and if the passanger is a good runner we can take up to 240 pounds (110kg)
The whole trip takes approximately from 2 to 3 hours to be back at your hotel.
We are all certified instructors by the Brazilian Hang Gliding Association.It is not necessary any previous experienced. On the ramp, after wearing the harness, you will have a briefing and in few minutes you will be ready to take-off. In normal conditions of weather it is not cold and you can wear light clothes, like t-shirt, either shorts or paints and tennis shoes or a kind of sandal that can be tied on your feet.We can fly from the sunrise to the sunset time, but best times for better flights use to be between 9am and 2pm.
Cloudy days can be even better than very sunny, clear and hot days. The best day to go to the beach is not necessarily the best day for hang gliding. Best flights use to happen right after cold fronts when it is still cloudy or partially cloudy. Of course, there are many exceptions and I will let you know the real condition for flying and will not push you to go if it is not good.
The regular cost is R$240,00 per person. As you are getting in touch directly with me you have 10% discount.
The pick-up and drop-off at your hotel is included.

I offer you a very reliable service, honesty, safety and I will do my best to make a very good flight with you. I don´t push you to fly in a bad wind just to make money. You can read some comments about our service at http://books.dreambook.com/justfly/main.html
You can confirm your reservation by email or you can call me anytime at 2268-0565, 9985-7540 and 9798-1804. You can also talk to me via Radio Nextel ID.: 55*46*13425.
Please, call direct to keep the discount.

I would suggest this company As Paulo the instructor was very friendly and i got from what i know the best price compared to other agencies.Whats more u don’t pay until u complete the flights or just incase u don’t complete u don’t pay !!!!

I signed my life away on a piece of document for a additional 10 R$ was glad to say if i die from a fall from Pedra Bonita these people can continue what they are doing what they do best :)
Went into the Pedra Bonita with a extra crazy driver and made it on top .When i leaned on the ramp this is what i saw !!!!!!!!!!!!

Shit all i could see was clouds and when they drifted i saw the beach far far below .At this point i had a few second thoughs ,Being a from india and a staunch follower of the complex karma principle i forgo all my inhibitions J .What ever will be will be!!!!

Easier said than done
Next came a short clear and Precise safety instruction by OK English speaking Pilot !!! He said and i quote
“ Just one thing just keep running don’t stop at any point in the ramp otherwise we dip , Run even after u finish the ramp”

Dip fuck no i didn’t want to dip from this point so i told him i am a good runner not to worry .Actually i was the person doing most of the worrying. Soon the adrenaline kicked in and again decided this was a point of no return.Looking at a woman having endless fags to cool herself made me feel better .

Point came in all the safety harness checked and was ready to go and we just stood there on the ramp for the cloud fronts to clear .I hated this although i much admit i was enjoying the view of Rio from the top and was a bit apprehensive .

3 2 1 Go is all i heard I was running partly becs i didn’t want that " Dip "and partly becs of my life.We tooooook offffffffffffffffffffff any my god .I was looking at the world below me with wings and it felt bloody good and just saw a bird flying past me at that time all my fear vanished into the humid air of Rio

I would suggest this activity to any one brave of course but young and old alike can enjoy the view of the Mountain ,Beach, City centre and the jungle all from one point - Le SKY and u will definitely be impressed.

Came bak from this experience to the hostel cant remember what time but late enough to check into my hostel.A bit of nibblers in a per kilo restaurant to quench my hunger and later i was casually chatting with some people over drinks when my Messiah arrived - CCB there he was at the gate waiting .

It was a wait a long wait almost 2 years and i had waited 10 months since we started planning this trip to meet him .Over a year of sharing a house i taught i knew him well but meeting him after 2 years after that ,I had not even imagined it in the wildest of my dreams.To add to this i told the people i was chatting with about our stay in Europe and how we were meeting after 2 years .They taught it just happened in movies !!!! but yes true friends do keep in touch no matter what the distance and the fact that we were seeing and managed to keep in touch inspite of being so far off was a point of interest for them.Right there a Turkish girl made a pact with her house mate from America to meet up like us .

Hold on let me tell u the amount of communication happening between us when we planned this trip .It was a couple of emails about the trip but once I got the ticket there was around 4 mails from CCB and Myself to confirm the destination and 2 for hand gliding that's all it was .No fancy phone calls confirmations and all that shit both of us just took the plung hoping the other one would also like it .But being ex housemates we pretty much knew each others likes and dislikes.But yeh that was all there was to planning this trip for 10 Days so it was very surprising to see how each other had changed in matter of 2 years.

Well as soon as we met .We set off to a 24hour juice bar ,these juice bars a concept unique to this part of the world open 24/7 and make fresh juices and sandwiches which are heavenly No i am not talking about the processed Tropicana but exotic fruits many of which don't even have a english name because they grow in the amazons.

I had a kind of a blackberry juice and ham sandwich and next pooled in some girls and guys from the hostel to hit the liquor march and clubbing!!

Turns out that the entrance to the clubs are expensive even by British standards 30 R$ for entry but u get free booze inside and girls enter half price or in some places free.Shit gender discrimination.

But the beer kept flowing american music was blasting out loud when at around 2 i called it a night becs by that time the jet lag and stuff started to catch up with me.

Turns out that i was so tired i was asleep within 5 seconds of getting into bed and snoring out loud !!! ehhh i apologise to CCB and all my unfortunate dorm mates who were subjected to this music.

Next day got out early to explore the mighty Rio .There is something unique to this city which i have not seen anywhere the interracial mix and openness to welcome people irrespective of skin colour ,wallet does give it a vibrant twist.

Ipanema- another popular beach were the beautiful gurias (local of Rio) hang out i could see Y the most popular Bossa nova song " Girl from ipanema " comes from this place

Tall and tan and young and lovely
Girl from Ipanema so lovely

Cristo redentor- one of the 7 wonders of the world u have to go there on a clear day to appreciate the beauty .Much more wonderful was people like myself and CCB lieing down fully flat to get our portrait + the Christo was a gigly sight:)

Sugar loaf -


Another of the cities high point where u can get an arial view and monlitic rock or granite with superb views all round .watched sunset from here would definately recommend it




Maracana

Perhaps the worlds most popular stadium which at one point held about 200000 people, now because saftey concerns they have reduced it to 100000 ohh bugger .Had the fortune of watch 2 best local teams Vasco v/s Flumanes in action and flumanese won 2-1.There were 60,000 in the stadium making the sound of a million.Every time there was a goal or a foul about 10 cans of lager would go in the air so by the end we were all smelling pissed wether or not we were pissed was left to question.The Gurias also taught us how to hurl abuses at the refree like "we know where u live u are a dead meat "ohhh god i wouldnt want to be a refree here

Tijuca forest - World largest artifical forest created

Lapa- A older part of town which at night has the colour of its own :)

Favela - most dangerous and safest part of Rio u would see 15 year olds with hand guns here but surpisingly the favelas ruled by particular gangs are suprisingly crime free since they dont want clashes because it would damage there corporate makeup !!

Another Night out this time it was spent in Lapa the magical part of town goes balistic after 12 where even the roads become places where people show off their capuara and samba skills . This was once in a life time experience for me the whole district was jam packed with local and they were selling Caprinnia (a brazilian based cane alcohol 40%) very strong mind u on the streets .Yet i didnt see one person vomiting on the street which is quiet common in here.

Next day was the day for a cycle tour we rented bikes and ended up going to Ipanema and copacabana and the lagoons around .If u ever wonder y the the song Girl from ipanema has a mention one look at this place and u will know y.

Superb food at the per kilo restaurant and continued my cycling .Night we went into the Barra shopping centre.Here again very similar to mumbai the most riches part of Rio (Barra) is right opposite to the poorest favela.

Dinner in a place called Gourmet- Here we had eat as much as u like Pizza restaurant for close to £6 the intreasting bit is this restaurant litrally makes only pizzas nothing else

Starter- Garlic pizza

Mains - Pizzas with various toppings dont know how much but around 30 of them

Dessert - Banana pizza , chocolate pizza, vanilla pizza

Dont belive me have a look at the PIC

Last day before we left we were lying around copacabana and then went to the Funk party .Now this is no ordinary party this is a party were people from the favela come down and dance the most erotic way that i have seen.

Next day quick look at the beach and then it started raining , bummer and afternoon off to the airport go to Foz de Iguasssuuuuuuu

There are several Cheap airlines in brazil from where u can fly cheap like GO AIR and stuff book early u can fly cheaper than travelling in busses

well coming to trasport - IN this country long distance train travel is almost unheard of so the alternative is luxury busses .I mean proper buses with beds and overhead entertainment system and bed . some of the busses run 30 hrs journey between cities.

ON wards to Iguassu to see the Might of Parana