Travel Pause

Well, ladies and gentleman, for now my travel plans are on complete hold for a short time. Actually probably more like a year. I have have a fantastic news - John and I are expecting a girl in March 2012. For more details click here.

Don't despair though! Even though we will take it easy next year with a newcomer, we will make sure to take a couple of trips locally - Walla Walla, Orange County, Whistler and who knows where else.

Don't pack olive oil!

Well, we made it to Tortola just now. For an easy trip to Caribbean for some reason it did not feel easy. We managed to take all sort of transportation possible in less than 24 hours - taxi, plane, bus and a ferry. But who is complaining there, that's part of starting an adventure. The worst part was getting our bags back in St Thomas only to see how the olive oil bottle broke and spilled all over one of our bags. John was pissed! Had to borrow some trashcans to carry it to the hotel and wash everything we had in our bag or just throw stuff away.

Why in the world did I pack it? I read some tips that things on the islands are expensive so best to prepack things like that but in all honesty so not worth it.

After we washed it all we finally took a break, had some food and checked out our boat - our home where we will spend the rest of the week on.

Around Rio

Rio is much more beautiful and less dangerous as expected. We heard so many scary stories from our friends, local friends and lots of blog stories, but maybe it's just our luck, but nothing crazy happened to us. John and I were so paranoid the entire time, holding to our bags on the beach but we were relieved after some time that it's not as bad as people make it to be.

We spent a good amount of time walking around Copacabana, took a bus to Ipanema. Great beaches that go on forever. Can't say the same thing about food. Everything in Brazil is overcooked, lacks flavor and just plain not impressive. When I lay out on the beach all day and it's 100F the last thiing I want to eat is all you can eat steak or pizza.

One of the days we took a bus tour to see the highlights of Rio:

Christ the Redeemer

Carnival Avenue

Sugarloaf Mountain

Final Destination - Rio

Copa view

Copacabana beach

My highlight of the day - Passion Fruit Caipirinha

Iguassu Falls in Argentina

Today we went off to check out the falls from the Argentinean side. Last night I sync'ed up all of our pictures to the laptop and forgot to put the memory stick back to the camera. Fail! Well, no reason to get all mad, we managed to take pictures with my crappy IPhone camera. The one above with John and I right next to "Devil's Throat", right at the point where all the water breaks. 

The day was full of frustration, standing in long lines. Later we found out that it was a national day off in Argentina, hence everybody decided to go there since it was free for the citizens. We managed to stand in line for about an hour just to get on a trolley for Devil's Throat, which is not typical for this park.

Lessons learned: 

1. Don't forget to put memory stick back into the camera
2. Don't visit parks on Argentinian holidays 

For dinner we decided to stay in the hotel, got some food by kilos at the store nearby with delicious Argentinian wine. John was able to watch his UNC Basketball in hotel's lobby. We made some Argentinean friends, they were really interested in what John was watching and why, while introducing us to their favorite wine. 

Iguassu Falls in Brazil

We got into Iguassu Falls this morning. I felt amazingly much better and well rested. We checked in our hotel room, took well deserved shower and took a bus to the falls on the Brazilian side. Got covered with rain just a little bit, but not something we are not used to thanks to Seattle. 

Words can't describe how gorgeous the falls are. I feel like all the pictures we took just don't do justice to how beautiful it is. I can see where James Cameron got his inspiration for "The Avatar". 

Stopped by the bird back, located right next to the falls. Main highlights were toucans of course and other cute birds can't remember the name right now. 

For dinner, we decided to skip the buffets, by kilos and head out to true Argentinean restaurant called "Armazem", so far one of our best meals on this trip.

Bus in Florianopolis

We got back to what we realized boring Canasvieiras. Lesson learned - "never take a trip advise from John Rapp!". It's a small town for Argentinian tourists with a tiny beach and practically nothing to do. We were considering to take a day trip to dune riding but it sounded so complicated and the weather did not look really promising so we just chilled on the beach all day, then did some shopping, then laid out on the beach again. It was really rough.

Bought some Havainas, not sure what the hype is but apparently it's the new scream in states so gotta to get some for gifts.

Later in the day, our friend Dave met up with one of the girls he hooked up at the wedding so he dragged us to go out to keep him company. We made some new friends at Guacomole, Floripa downtown and later on went out to a fancy club on the other side of the island called Confraria club. 

Notice these are not my shoes. My new friend made me exchange my rainbow flip flops for her nice ones so I would get in the club. They were slightly bigger and a bit uncofortable but totally worth it. Confraria club was like a total fantasy for a single guy, it's too bad I am not a guy nor am I single. Plus John and I were so exhausted from drinking since day one on this trip, we had to call it a night at 4 am (yes, people here in Brazil party really late).

Next day I spent in bed, feeling like crap - dehydrated, tired and probably a bit sunburned with a small rise of body temperature. Lovely. Well, I sucked it up all day, then we took a bug to Iguassu Falls which was super comfortable. I slept more than 24 hours and the next day magically completely recovered. 

Brazilian Wedding

Spent all day on the beach in Torres being loud and drunk. Taught everybody how to play durak. Next thing we realized the day went by us doing practically nothing. Just in time for the wedding.

John and Laura's wedding was beautifully set at the local church. We could not understand the word that was said but it was entertaining watching their photographers-paparazzi coordinating and taking pictures none stop.

After ceremony we headed to some fancy hotel for reception. The rest of the night got a bit hazy and probably something I don't want to share but let's just say we had a great time!

Bus to Torres

Painful morning… all I can say about today. Woke up with an awful hangover after all those caparinhas and other awful drinks which sounded like a good idea last night. Luckily, John is feeling much better today. No more puking and his stomach has recovered. 

We stopped at a Brazilian churrascari with everybody. Food was ok but so needed after last night’s. Chicken hearts were interesting to try. Too bad we can’t get them in States.

Took us a while to find our hotel. The bus driver, whom was hired by Laura, had no idea where he was going, after circling around for hours in Torres we finally found our place. Later we met up with everybody out of town and Laura’s family at the pizza buffet place. The rest of the night I am not allowed to blog about J

Florianopolis makes strong drinks

We make it to Brazil. The flight was long and painful. Took a lot of liquor to finally fall asleep only to wake up with a hangover and change planes. We almost missed out connecting flight to Floripa, but luckily the airline held it for us, which apparently happens all the time.

We were very happy to finally arrive to out hotel and meet up with some of our friends. Naturally we went out to celebrate our reunion with some local drinks, which was a bad mistake for John. The next day he was suffering; probably the combo of cheap cachaca, guarana and sugar.

The next day we just chilled at the beach, enjoyed the nice sunny weather, beach and ate some food on the beach. My personal favorite was fried cheese with italian herbs.

John just slept all day. I forced him to go outside but it did not go well. Later we met up with the rest of our group who arrived later. Hit the local bars and lived up to loud American reputation.