Raphi around the world: January 2015

Sunday 25 January 2015

In the amazon jungle...

I returned back well from the Amazon jungle and it was amazing!!
Spent 6 days and 5 nights in the jungle next to one of the many side arms of the Amazonas.
On the way to the jungle lodge we saw the famous "meeting of the waters".
Where the Rio Negro (black river) and the Amazonas (white river) meet together. The funny thing is that they don't mix themselves. This is due to the temperature as well as the speed of the water. The Amazonas is colder than the Rio Negro and flows 3 times faster.
It is quite interesting to watch both rivers running side by side for about 6 km, till they finally unite.

After an rough car ride on a narrow street through the jungle and one more boat trip we arrived in the jungle lodge.
There we meet with our tour guide Nigel Kurt. He is quite a funny guy and he loves all kind of reptiles and other dangerous animals. So the amazon jungle is exactly his territory... :-)
We did a short canoe trip and Nigel showed us the area and the animals living there. We saw Caimans, Dolphins and all kind of different birds.
The highlight was, when he climbed a tree to get a sloth for us. I was very impressed how he spotted it out on the tree, because it is very hard to see them! What a nice animal, always looking so cool and relaxed. :-)

In the evening i met 2 girls from England, a guy from France and a guy from Germany.
We played "Shithead" and "Asshole" and had a lot of fun... :-)

One the next day we went into the jungle and Nigel explained all the different plants and trees. What you can eat and what is poisonous. He also caught a big tarantula only with is hands and showed us "killer ants". 2 bites of them can kill a man!!
We ate some brazilian nuts, which are apparently very hard to open and also a kind of larva
living in another nut. That was looking quite disgusting but it tasted like the coconut-meat.
Or as Pumba would say: "Slimy, but full of vitamins..." :-)

Pirania fishing was also a very nice. Caught 4 of this dangerous fishes! We had them on the next day for lunch. Tastes like captain Iglo's fish sticks... :-)
One evening we went caiman spotting. I was very impressed when Nigel spotted one of them and jumped right into the water to catch the alligator only with his hands!

Another day we went to the local people called "cablocos" to see how they live.
When we arrived i thought they live from planting weed illegally. But the big plantations i saw are manioc-plants. They just look quite similar to weed. There is quite a long process to get some kind of powder out of the roots of the manioc-plant. Which the cablocos sell at the markets in Manaus.
Since a few years most of the houses also have power supply. There is a big project in Brazil called "Light for everybody" which makes it possible for them to cook without fire, to wash the clothes in wash-machines and not in the river and to even watch TV...
After that we went for a swim in the river. It was a kind of strange to go swimming there, once you have seen piranias and caimans... ;-)

One day there was a 2 meter anaconda in our camp. Another guide saved the snake before getting killed by the local people. Because they are very afraid of any kind of snake and kill them anytime they will see one.
After showing us the anaconda, it was released right in the middle of the camp.
At the beginning it was a strange feeling to know that the anaconda might be behind the next bush or tree. But nobody of us had seen the snake again...

We also stayed on night in the jungle, only with our hammocks. Had a nice fire and grilled chicken. In the night we went spear-fishing. But this was not that easy to catch a fish, tried it two times but always failed...
And once it was getting dark, you can hear all different kind of animals singing together the "Symphony of the jungle"...

Paddeling along the river and a visit to the big Ceboka-trees was also quite interesting. I really enjoyed the paddeling, saw a lot of river dolphins coming very close to my canoe...

It was really an amazing experience during this 6 days. To see the all the different plants, trees and animals living in the amazon jungle.

Have now a few days left in Manaus. Today i was just walking in the city, let's see what else i can do here...

Finally one more picture for you: Who can spot the sloth in the tree?

Saturday 17 January 2015

Last days in Rio...

After a long party night i relaxed on the next day sleeping long.
In the afternoon i met with a really nice girl. We met each other on the plane to Rio.
We had a great time, walking along the beach, watching the sunset at Ipanema beach, drinking some beers and eating Globo and Tapioca.
By the way, on the Ipanema beach brasilian people clap their hands when the sun goes down on the horizon. It is a guesture to say "Thank you, for this nice day".
Obrigado Daniella, for this nice day! (clap, clap, clap,...) ;-)

On my last day in Rio i went to the amazing Estadio de Maracana and to the Sambadrome.
This is the famous street where all the beautiful dressed dancers are presenting their performance during carnival time.
And the funny thing is, that the street is not used the whole year, except for the parades when there is Carnival.
Then i went swimming and relaxing on the Copacabana for a last time and drinking some Caiprírinha.

Tomorrow i will fly to Manaus to make some trips in the Amazon-jungle and on the Amazon-river...
So that means i might not have internet for the next days...

But therefore here is a final cool picture for you:

Baking heat and the first days in Rio

I arrived well at 11 pm in Rio de Janeiro, staying at the El Misti hostel Copacabana.
The staff there is really very friendly and helpful...

The 1st thing which hacked me down was this outstanding heat here in Rio.
During the night we had temperatures around 30°C and during the day almost 40°C.
This is amazing!! And i left home in the deepest winter with some snowstorms... :-)

On my first day in Rio i went to the Pao the Acucar, the sugar leaf mountain.
There is a cable car going up the mountain with a middle station at the Urca mountain and the final station on the peak of the 396m high sugar leaf.
I read, that you can hike up to the middle station and then buy a ticket for the peak.
It took me 30 min and almost all of my water to get up the Urca mountain, because it was so extremely hot.
At the middle station i found out that they stopped selling tickets for the peak since 2 months.
You can get only tickets on the ground station and you have to pay the full price...
I thought f**k you and tried to hike up the sugar leaf by my own but there is no chance, you really need climbing equipment because it is so steep.

I was completely pissed, all the hike up for nothing... But at least it was funny watching the other hikers coming up Urca mountain making the same experience :-)
In the end i went down again, bought the ticket and got to the peak of this fucking sugar leaf mountain..
But the view up there is really amazing! And because of spending already a lot of time to finally get up, i could make some nice pictures of the beautiful sunset...

On the 2nd day i made a city tour visiting the Christ redeemer statue, Santa Teresa, the colorfull Escadaria saleron steps and guess right, again the sugar leaf mountain... :-)
But I didn't went up again, i spent some time on the beach next to it, relaxing drinking coconut water and some awful brasilian beer...

Next day was pretty relaxing, organizing boring stuff and spent some time on the Copacabana beach. Man this beach is crowded!!
Lots of people were playing volleyball but only with their feet. The Brasilian call this foot-volley and it's very famous over there. It was amazing to see how many of them are doing sports on the beach like playing volleyball, football but also doing special workouts for their fitness.
I think that's why you can't see that much fat people in Rio.
Most of them are very well trained and good locking. (I don't have to mention that, with "good locking" i mean the girls of course!! :-) )
And when you see a fat person it is normally a bloody tourist!
In the evening a few guys from the hostel and me go to the famous "Local beatz"-party.
There was a life band playing and after the band finished disco and party hard...
(for insiders: "Disco-Raphi! Disco-Raphi" hehe... )
We had a lot of fun!!

Saturday 10 January 2015

The final countdown

Only 2 days left, then i will start my almost one-year-trip around the world...!!!
Getting really excited...!! :-)

Saturday 3 January 2015