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Brazil Guide Parties

The Ultimate Guide to Carnival in Rio – Part 2: How to Plan

So you’ve read all about what Carnival in Rio is like, and you’re ready to jump on a plane yesterday right? 

This post should help guide you through planning and booking Carnival in Rio—from when to start booking, where to stay, and other things to consider before booking your cachaça fueled trip.

WHEN IS CARNIVAL 2016?

Carnival 2016 runs from Friday, February 5 to Wednesday, February 10. There will be plenty of parties in the days before and after these dates, but this is when the official blocos and parades take place, and definitely the minimum amount of time that you’ll want to be in Rio.

HOW LONG SHOULD I SPEND IN RIO?

As long as you can.

I spent eight nights in Rio and found it to be very rushed. I spent the first four days (Monday – Thursday) running around town visiting the Christ Statue, Sugar Loaf, hang gliding (because of the weather this can eat up an entire day), Forte Duque de Caxias, and I only got to spend one day lounging on Copacabana beach before it was overrun with Carnival partiers. I spent the last four days and nights moving from bloco to bloco with zero time to relax on the beach or sightsee, and I missed the last day of Carnival when the Super Mario Bloco happened. I also didn’t have enough time to do a favela tour or visit Tijuca Forest either.

I’d say if you plan on doing a lot of sightseeing, give yourself at least ten days in Rio. But obviously the more the better. If you’re only planning to visit Rio for the Carnival dates, be prepared for slower traffic, large crowds, and not seeing much of the city outside of the blocos.

Rio at Sunset

WHEN SHOULD I BOOK MY FLIGHT?

Unless you plan on staying at a fancy beachfront hotel, flights will most likely be the most expensive part of your trip. Even before you’re ready to book your flight I recommend you start playing the points game with your frequent flyer miles or travel credit card well in advance. Otherwise you’ll most likely be seeing fares for over $1000 from the US. Flights to Rio are definitely not cheap.

Once you’ve decided on which dates to travel you’ll want to book your flights (and accommodation) as soon as possible. Try being a little flexible with your dates to see which days are the cheapest and you might save a few bucks.

If you need a visa, you’ll need this flight confirmation first as part of your visa application. 

DO I NEED A VISA OR ANY OTHER TRAVEL DOCUMENTS?

If you’re traveling from somewhere other than Brazil you’ll obviously need a passport. Make sure that it’s valid for at least six months after your return date, and that you have enough blank pages to accommodate the entry/exit stamps. Some countries also require a visa, so make sure to leave a full blank page for that if necessary. 

US citizens also need to obtain a tourist visa (which right now is $140, good for ten years). If you live near a Brazilian Embassy or Consulate it’s fairly simple to schedule an appointment and go in with all of the paperwork and get it yourself. But if you’re nowhere near one you might have to pay a decent chunk of change to have an agency take care of it for you. This can get pretty expensive, so take care of it as soon as you’ve booked your flight so that you don’t also have to pay fees to expedite. 

I used Travel Visa Pro to get my visa. Their site is horribly designed, but their customer service is outstanding. I had tons of questions during the application process, so I found their on-site chat feature to be a huge help to make sure I was doing everything properly. 

When applying for your visa you’ll need to show proof of a booked round trip flight in to and out of Brazil. This can be difficult if you’re traveling a bit more loosely or on a one-way ticket, but it can be done. For example, I was planning on doing most of my travel to, from, and within Brazil by boat and bus, booking it all once I arrived and as I traveled. The people at Travel Visa Pro advised me to book a random bullshit roundtrip flight, print the itinerary, cancel the flight, then send the printed itinerary in with my visa application. I didn’t want to at first, but I ended up doing it through Expedia since they have a free 24 hour cancellation period, and everything worked out fine. I definitely felt shady doing it, but feeling shady is better than losing money and being denied a visa because you don’t have a return flight.

US citizens can check this link for more info on visa requirements: http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/country/brazil.html

DO I NEED ANY VACCINATIONS?

If you’re sticking to Rio de Janeiro and the surrounding coastal areas, then most likely no. But if you plan on traveling further inland before or after Carnival you might want to double check the recommended vaccinations. It’s never a bad idea to make sure you’re up on your routine vaccinations (such as MMR, etc.). Some health insurance plans will cover certain vaccinations, but others you’ll have to pay out of pocket at your primary care physician or at a travel vaccination center. 

Here’s a link to help you decide what you may or may not need for Brazil: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/brazil

WHEN SHOULD I BOOK MY ACCOMMODATION? 

If you have any sort of standards or expectations (like a private bathroom, private room, etc.) while traveling, get your hotel/hostel/apartment situated ASAP. Prices are roughly three to four times their normal rates during Carnival and they book up early. I booked in October (four months early) for this year’s Carnival and all of the hotels and hostels were already picked over. I lucked out finding one in Copacabana that was about $80/night (usually only about $20/night), but I shared a dorm room with five others. It was fine for me since I was rarely in the hostel and I had the chance to meet plenty of others to party with, but hostels aren’t for everyone. The sooner you book, the more options you’ll have and the cheaper they’ll be.

Sites like Airbnb are also a good option, especially if you’ve got a heap of cash to throw down up front. Unfortunately they’re not necessarily cheap, but you can easily reserve a multi-room place and then find other people to fill the rooms and split the cost. 

When I searched for hotels in October I was seeing rates starting at $300/night and up, so good luck with that.  

WHERE SHOULD I STAY?

Don’t worry about staying near the Sambadrome (where the main Carnival parade happens). It’s far from basically everything and the surrounding area doesn’t have the best reputation at night, so you’re better off only making the trek there for the parade. 

Most of the blocos happen in Zona Sur (the South Zone, where all of the beaches are) and downtown, so you’ll definitely want to stay in one of these areas.

I found Copacabana to be a perfect location—right on the beach, and easily accessible to all of the blocos on the beach and downtown because it’s basically right in the middle. Ipanema and Leblon beaches are beautiful and they say more upscale than Copacabana, but they’re also a bit further from downtown than Copacabana is. Botafogo, Flamengo, and Lapa are also popular tourist spots; especially near the Lapa Arches where tons of people meet for drinks pretty much every day and night during Carnival.

I stayed at the Rio Rockers Hostel about four blocks from Copacabana Beach and felt 100% safe day and night. To the point where I drunkenly walked 15 minutes to McDonald’s with my phone in my hand texting at midnight one night. In retrospect that was an extremely stupid idea and I should’ve been robbed (as others I’d met were robbed in the same area), but hey, sometimes you drink a million caipirinhas and do stupid stuff.

In my opinion, staying near a train station is a great way to get around during Carnival, especially since the streets close down for blocos and it can be difficult to get around them. The trains run 24 hours during Carnival and are always packed with party goers, so it makes the ride between blocos an event in itself. Some of the subway stations will close down too if there’s a bloco happening there, but it’s not difficult to figure out the next closest stop since everyone will be getting off there (in costume and beer in hand). 

If you’re really broke you can check out couchsurfers, but just remember that if they bail last minute you could be left shelling out a ton more money for last-minute lodging.

Here’s a link to some more information about the neighborhoods in Rio: http://www.rio.com/practical-rio/neighborhoods-rio

HOW EARLY DO I NEED TO BOOK TICKETS TO THE SAMBADROME?

For many people (both locals and tourists) a highlight of Carnival is the parade at the Sambadrome. Personally I’m not a fan of parades, so I had absolutely zero intention of going until I developed a severe case of FOMO once I realized basically everyone else in Rio was going.

If you don’t care much about the Sambadrome then you can pick up some cheap last minute nosebleed seats once you’re in Rio. You’ll be able to see the parade, but you might want to bring some binoculars or at least a camera with a decent zoom. However, if you want a good view and comfortable seats you’ll want to purchase tickets as far in advance as possible as they sell out very early—especially for the best parade days. 

I got tickets at my hostel for about $35 the day before and we sat in the very last section on the parade route. Our seats were set back quite a bit from the parade, so it was difficult to see the detail of the costumes with the naked eye. But people were still singing and dancing and having a great time, squeezed elbow to elbow in the stands. Overall it was fun and tolerable for a couple of hours, but be warned that these parades go on literally all night long.

The main parades (i.e. the biggest and best samba schools) are Sunday and Monday, with most people opting for Monday. If you’re a clueless tourist like me you probably won’t recognize much difference between the different schools, so go whichever night is most convenient and affordable for you.

I was also told by locals that you can show up on Monday around 1 or 2AM and try to bargain cheaper seats, so that’s worth a shot too.  

Here’s a bit more info about the samba schools and the parade and tickets.

http://www.rio-carnival.net/rio_carnival/sambodromo-samba-parade-tickets.php

Seats at the Sambadrome
These were our $35 nosebleed seats at the Sambadrome
I’m not sure why there’s such a big gap between the first set of seats and the bleachers.

WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO BOOK FOR CARNIVAL?

To me, the best thing about Carnival is the street parties. And better yet they’re free and awesome. So you can show up to any of them with a beer in hand and have the time of your life, no need to book anything in advance. 

So really, the only things you should book in advance are flights, hotels/hostels, and Sambadrome tickets. But if you plan on spending any time immediately  before or after Rio in a nearby beach town or island such as Ilha Grande or Paraty, you’re better off to book that in advance also. Lots of people plan to do the same so places can book up a bit in advance if you wait until the last minute. We had to rearrange our plans for the first three days after Carnival because there were no hostels available in Paraty.

Now that you’ve got the basics covered, just save up some money and start counting down the days! There are tons of other celebrations all over Brazil (like the more traditional celebration in Salvador) so if you can swing it, it’s worth checking some of those out too before visiting Rio.

Anything else you’re wondering about planning a trip to Rio for Carnival? Comment below!

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Adventure Brazil Colombia Guide Solo Travel South America

Ten Days in the Amazon on a Budget: Part 2

Three nights of sleeping in a hammock strung up alongside about 100 strangers. Six consecutive carb-heavy meals of rice, noodles, and beans. Ninja mosquitos with a freakish immunity to Deet. Showers in smelly brown river water. This isn’t exactly a Carnival Cruise, people.

Perhaps this post should be titled something along the lines of “Traveling From Colombia to Brazil on a Boat,” but I wanted to keep it consistent with the first post. But that’s exactly what this post is about, my experience of crossing the border in Leticia, Colombia and taking the slow boat from Tabatinga to Manaus.

The hammocks before it got crowded
Our hammocks strung up before it got too crowded

 

If you’re not uptight you don’t have high standards while traveling, this is an awesome, cheap way to see the Amazon on a tight budget—not to mention a great way to save hundreds of dollars traveling from Colombia to Brazil if you’ve got a bit of time. A flight between the two countries can easily cost upwards of $700 USD, but for only about 70 you can hop aboard a ship from Tabatinga, Brazil (which is only a short cab ride from the Leticia airport, or walking distance from most hostels in Leticia) and head downriver to Manaus to catch a flight elsewhere in Brazil.

So that’s exactly what I did.

I did the trip downstream during the rainy season when the rainforest was flooded, which apparently knocks off at least an entire day. There are several other routes from ports in Peru, Colombia, and Brazil ranging from a few days to closer to a week, but I thought the three-day route between Tabatinga and Manaus was plenty. 

Keep in mind prices will likely vary greatly based on the time of year and how far in advance you book, but here’s my breakdown during the peak of high season just before Carnaval:

– $112 flight from Bogotá to Leticia on a Tuesday
– 200 Reais (about $66 USD) for my 3-day boat ticket (which includes all meals)

– 36000 Colombian Pesos (about $14 USD) for a hammock and rope
– $164 overnight flight out of Manaus to Rio de Janeiro on the following Thursday night.

That ends up being about $356, which isn’t exactly pocket change, but the only other costs over those total ten days were $30 for three nights in Leticia, the free hotel room in Manaus, plus a few bucks for meals and $100 for the Amazon tour. Plus booking the overnight flight to Rio helped me save on one night’s accommodation. Definitely cheaper and more exciting than if I had flown the $700 Bogotá to Brazil flight in seven hours, and way cheaper than booking a touristy Amazon tour through some agency.

Amazon Boat
A quick shot of our ship in port in Manaus

As mentioned, this post is all about staying in Leticia, Colombia and taking the slow boat from Tabatinga, Brazil, to Manaus, Brazil. For more info on an activity-based tour of the Amazon, check out this post.

ABOUT THE BOAT: VOYAGER V

There are several different ships you can take, but I don’t think you have much control over which one you get on. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I prepared myself for the worst. There was a lot of ambiguity on how long the trip would actually take, and some horror stories about the food being served with a side of explosive diarrhea and vomiting. But overall my trip was a super relaxing, pleasant experience with no nasty side effects—for me at least, some others on board the ship weren’t so lucky. My tiny bout of tummy troubles held off a good few days until I was tucked away in my own private hotel room in Manaus. (Thankfully it was nowhere near as bad as what I dealt with in Thailand.)

Anyway, back to the ship, the Voyager V. Most of the locals seemed to congregate on the bottom level even though it was extremely noisy near the engine. There was a small kitchen in the back half of the ship right alongside the motor, and a picnic table eating area where all of the meals were served. Food was served at a set time every day (breakfast around 6am, lunch around noon, and dinner around 5pm) and yes, I was almost always one of the first people in line for feeding time.

On the second level there was a fully netted-in soccer pitch that stayed lit up well in the night. There’s also a snack counter selling hamburgers, ice cream, beer, soft drinks, and a few other snacks; a common area with plastic tables and chairs, and what looked to be private cabins towards the front of the ship.

The top level was pretty much just hammocks, bathrooms, and gorgeous views.

Sunset match
Only in Brazil
The bar/hangout area
The common area aka the gringo drinking area
The private cabins had a little space to themselves on the side of the boat
People who booked private cabins enjoying some deck space

 

Each deck has several bathrooms containing a toilet and a shower, and some have a sink. On the top deck alongside our hammocks we had four bathrooms with a few additional sinks outside of the bathrooms, along with a TV and about 15 power outlets. There are actually a good amount of power outlets scattered around the boat, but they’re almost all in awkward places high on the wall. You can leave your phone there to charge by tucking it behind a soap dispenser or something but forget about trying to charge a laptop unless you’re ready to stand there and hold it. 

Bathrooms on board the boat
Two of the bathrooms on the top deck. Notice the charging ports on each side, where it’s kind of difficult to leave something charging.

 

DAY 1
Our tickets had a 1030AM departure time. Riiight. Anyone who’s traveled in South America knows that 1030 translates to about 130. Yet we still decided to head down to the port to get a good spot around 9am. In the pouring rain, four of us crammed into this miniature clown car taxi with all of our wet bags. The dirt roads were flooded, so the taxi driver refused to drive us all the way to the port. Instead he dropped us off at the top of a muddy hill where we were forced to make the rest of the slippery trek downhill in the pouring rain. I still don’t know why we paid him the full fare, but I’m glad I’d tucked the flip flops away in favor of hiking boots. After dropping my bag in a mud puddle while digging for my ticket, I went straight to the top deck where all of the gringo tourists were stringing up their hammocks. I had some of the guys help me hang mine, partially because I didn’t trust my own knot-tying skills, but also because I was too short to reach the rafters.

The hammocks on the top deck
The top deck hammock area filling up
Dirty hammock selfie
Snapping a quick hammock selfie on the last day before packing up to head into Manaus

 

The deck filled up within about a half hour of our arrival, but we finally left the port at about 110pm, naturally. 

The first day was rainy and grey so I spent most of it tucked away in my hammock stuffing my face with an embarrassing amount of the snacks I’d packed. Around 5pm we were served a delicious chicken noodle soup and bread. Soup isn’t really my idea of a full meal, but with chicken, noodles, and veggies, it was extremely tasty and satisfying. Once it got dark I decided it was appropriate to start drinking beer, which I quickly decided was a huge waste of money. The mini cans of Brahmas were quickly eating up my budget but not giving me the desired level of drunkenness I had set out to achieve in pursuit of a good night’s sleep. After six I settled for a sleepy buzz, but unfortunately the MMA fight blaring on TV well into the middle of the night had a different agenda.

Port

One of the ports

Sunset after the rain

Tiny Brahmas

The Hammock Crew
My hammock buddies. Daniel (the crazy German smirking at the camera) spent his entire three days trying to become a Rubik’s Cube master

 

If you’re a light sleeper like me, a pair of earplugs just won’t do the trick. Bring headphones and charge your phone/mp3 player. I was constantly waking up every time my earplugs came loose. Also every time a baby screamed, someone knocked into my hammock, or the boat made its cringe-worthy screeching metal sound while turning. At like 12 or 2am (I was too sleepy to read my watch properly) the boat blew its horn and woke us all up while pulling into port. In my sleepy, startled state I shouted “iceberg right ahead!” before drifting back to sleep. Good to know I still have a sense of humor while half asleep.

DAY 2
It seemed like only ten minutes later when I heard a man walking around the deck, shouting in Portuguese while rolling up the sides of the boat to reveal glaring morning sunlight. “What an asshole,” I thought, “doesn’t he know people are trying to sleep?” But he was calling us for the world’s earliest breakfast. And as much as I’m not a morning person, I’m also not one to miss a free meal, EVER. So I forced my grumpy ass out of my hammock at 6am and made my way down to the bottom deck for breakfast.

“Breakfast” was a community bin of shitty rolls (aka hot dog buns as we call them in the States), a tub of butter, and overly sweetened coffee. Definitely not the quality of breakfast I’d normally wake up at 6am for. I smuggled an extra piece of bread back to my hammock to coat with the strawberry jelly I’d packed, scarfed it down, then read about two lines from a book before dozing off again. The only good thing about not getting a proper night’s rest on a boat like this is realizing that you have absolutely zero obligations the next day, so you can nap whenever you damn well please. Finally when I woke up for good a couple hours later I mustered the energy to shower.

Showers on the boat are exactly what you’d expect them to be. They pump out brown river water straight from the Amazon, in the same 4×3 room as the communal toilet. It’s not as cold as you’d expect, but not at all warm either. In the humid Amazon temperature I actually found it rather refreshing.

After that my entire day was an endless cycle of reading, napping, and eating. I think I took four or five naps, only leaving my hammock whenever I heard someone shout that it was feeding time. 

Lunch consisted of a basic pasta, rice, beans, and some kind of beef. It’s a good thing it was delicious because it’s basically what we ate for every single meal the rest of the trip. After going for seconds on the pasta and beans I went back to sleep and woke up a half hour before dinner. (Yes, I’ve gained weight.) Dinner was basically the same meal as lunch, except with chicken instead of the beef.

Pasta, rice, and beans
Pasta, rice, and beans for days

 

After dinner I wandered around the boat with my camera to take some shots of the best sunset we’d see while on the river. I nerded out for a good hour or two before retiring back to my hammock to resume reading Killing Pablo.

I slept much better the second night because I wised up and put my headphones in and blared some Deftones for a good twelve hours. Win.

Another boat at port we'd been following for a few spots
Another boat making the same journey
Cruising along
Chugging along the river
Evening cruising
The scenery doesn’t change too much, but it’s sure nice to watch as it passes by
Sunset on the Amazon
Oh and the sunsets are pretty epic

Sunset on the Amazon

DAY 3
I woke up again at 6AM just long enough to ask the girl in the hammock next to me if breakfast was the same as yesterday. When she said yes I covered my face and fell back asleep until about 830.

Upon waking I fixed myself a rather creative breakfast using some vanilla wafers, strawberry jelly, and a smashed ball of bread I dug out of my bag, then showered up to take another nap. We had lunch around noon, and right after loading up on more carbs I noticed the soccer pitch empty, complete with a shoddy looking ball. I was starting to feel restless and fat, so I gathered the gringos to play a game. Before long we were going full-on gringos vs Brazilians, running barefoot on the pitch and sweating our asses off in the afternoon sun. I only made it about 20 minutes before I had to quit from the unbearable blisters forming on my girly feet. I don’t think they missed me though, I was definitely the worst player on both teams.

Afterwards I went to the snack counter and paid 5 reais (about $1.60 USD) for a ham, egg, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, and mayo sandwich because my body was craving some sort of variety. It wasn’t great but it was a nice change. I skipped dinner that evening and instead watched an episode of Parts Unknown, and did some reading and writing before fading off into yet another early slumber.

DAY 4
On Tuesday morning I woke up around 7am to a lot of commotion. I thought it was just everybody making their way to another shitty breakfast, but I quickly realized people were packing up their bags. I looked at the GPS on my phone and we were nearly to Manaus. That woke me up immediately, so I got up and made my way to the front of the boat to see the sprawling city before us, which seemed to have popped up out of nowhere in the middle of the Amazon. Within the hour, the trip was complete in only about 66 hours total.

Manaus
And just like that, a city of almost two million appears out of nowhere

 

The trip was much more comfortable and organized than I was expecting. It’s not really a good way to see wildlife (or maybe we just weren’t looking hard enough) but you’ll get to see some interesting villages and beautiful sunsets. From what I could tell there are a lot of locals and tourists making the trip, so it’s easy to meet people on board if you’re traveling solo. But really, as long as you’re ready to relax and do nothing for a few days, you’re set. It doesn’t hurt to bring along a book or two and some snacks, but it really is very easy to just sway in your hammock and watch the scenery go by while catching up on some serious napping.

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Adventure Brazil Colombia Guide Outdoor Peru Solo Travel South America Tours Travel

Ten Days in the Amazon on a Budget: Part 1

Part of the reason I chose to do an extended trip through South America was because I couldn’t choose where to visit first on a short vacation: Machu Picchu, Rio de Janeiro, Patagonia, or the Amazon. So naturally, I decided to do them all, plus a bunch of other awesome things in between.

As part of my budget adventure, I planned on taking the three-night slow boat through the Amazon from Leticia, Colombia to Manaus, Brazil because this would only cost me $75 with all meals included, as opposed to the $700+ to fly internationally from Colombia to Brazil (more on this coming soon, stay tuned!). So naturally, it made sense to fit my Amazon experience in during my time in Leticia or Manaus.

(Aside from the cost breakdown at the end, this post is all about the two-day tour I took from Leticia. More info about the other seven days in Leticia, Manaus, and the three-night boat journey coming soon.)

My initial search for Amazon tours brought up a ton of options from Manaus. But they also seemed a bit expensive, and seeing as Manaus is a city of nearly two million, I thought it might be an odd place to go off the grid and spend some time in the secluded depths of the Amazon. Luckily when I arrived in the small tri-border town of Leticia, I met three other solo travelers who wanted to do a tour from there. Since there were four of us it ended up being about 1/3 the price that I was budgeting for one from Manaus, at 240,000 COP (roughly $100 USD). Sold.

We chose the two-day, one-night Javari tour from La Jaganga Hostel, and it was everything I wanted in a quick trip to the rainforest. We considered the three-day, two-night trip, but it really didn’t seem to offer many more activities than the two-day.

The trip took us on the Javari River which separates Peru and Brazil. The idea of an organized Amazon tour was really off-putting to me at first, but it’s pretty much the only option unless you want to end up lost in the Amazon by yourself. Luckily, this didn’t feel like a tour at all. Instead it was just us four and our guide, Francisco, and it felt like we were hanging out with a friend who was just showing us around. We didn’t see another tourist until we were heading back to Leticia on day two.

Francisco
The man, Francisco, and his machete after chopping down some tree branches that once stood in our way

Here’s how our two days went:

DAY 1

We left the hostel around 8:30am in a ten-minute taxi ride to the port across the border in Tabatinga, Brazil, where we met with Francisco. With his round belly and beaming, gummy smile, we all instantly loved him. The five of us jumped in the wooden, canopied boat as Francisco turned in three different directions, pointing out Peru, Brazil, and Colombia. After crossing over to Peru for a quick, yet crucial beer run, we took a leisurely boat ride alongside pink and grey dolphins, brown water, and lush green trees.

Amazon Crew
L to R: Max the German, Josh the Aussie, Francisco the Colombian guide, and Susannah the Colombian

Canoeing through the Amazon

The perfect companion for an Amazon boat ride: rum

About three hours into the ride, we passed a house and waved at the kids as we zoomed past. Next thing we knew, Francisco was turning the boat around to take us for a visit. We climbed the stairs to the wide-open room that hovered over the water on stilts. The family of about nine kids and four adults sat inside, grating and cooking yucca, and spoke Portuguese despite being on the Peruvian side. The kids were in charge of peeling and cutting up the yucca before handing it off to the women to press through a machine and then grating it by hand. Then the man cooked it in a giant pan over a fire, and us gringos ate it by the handful. 

House on the Amazon

Making grated yucca

Cooking the yucca

After our afternoon snack, we continued down the river to another house which was one of only a couple that we passed during the whole 3-4 hour boat ride. Like the last, this house was also on stilts. Since it’s rainy season and the forest is flooded we weren’t able to find dry land to hang up the hammocks, so we stayed the night in this house. It was basically two separate “houses” joined by a short outdoor walkway. One was a fantastic, huge kitchen complete with hammocks, a portable cooktop, a wooden table and bench seats. The other was two stories high, and the main sleeping quarters. The top floor appeared to be for the family, and us guests were split up into rooms: boys in one, girls in the other. Each room had two mosquito-net covered beds and mesh windows that looked right out at the river. The three bathrooms each had a refreshing shower that used rainwater from a tub on the roof, and for the most part you felt like you were showering outside. Quite honestly, it was kind of like a wilderness dream house.

An inside shot of the main sleeping area of the house we stayed in. The downstairs had several different rooms and three bathrooms which you can see into there in the back.

My bed

The kitchen
The ginormous kitchen and baby Victoria who was very curious about my camera

Kitchen

View from the front door of the house. The room in the back is the kitchen area.
Neighbors
I think the family owned this house too, right next door

I unloaded my bag in the room and went for a quick swim because I couldn’t resist playing with the most adorable puppy ever who was climbing on some scraps of wood in front of the house. The water was only about thigh-high, a further reminder that the flooded area around the house is actually dry land during the dry season. Totally unimaginable.

Puppy
Baby puppy! The family pet was walking around on some floating boards trying to figure out how to get back up to the house. I just HAD to jump in the water and play with him!

The family prepared us food which was surprisingly phenomenal. I thought it would be a lot of bland rice and beans like most tours, but again, this was nothing like a normal tour. We had yucca, potatoes and beans, lentils, arepas, pork chops, eggs, fish, piranha, pasta, cucumber and onion salad, carambola juice, camu camu juice, spaghetti, and a few other things I didn’t really recognize but loved the taste. It was like eating at an old friend’s mom’s house; they fed us well and there was a ton food every time we sat down.

Dinner plate #1

Dinner plate #2

The family was so friendly. Apparently they live in town, but they built this house as their kind of getaway house, and to host tourists for an extra income. My only regret is that I didn’t speak more Spanish or Portuguese so that I could’ve conversed with them more like the two in our group who were fluent in Spanish.

After we ate, we set out on the boat again to visit a wildlife conservation area, which looked just like another house on stilts in the middle of the rainforest. When we pulled up in the boat two monkeys immediately ran aboard, climbing on our heads, curling up in our laps, and almost instantly finding and devouring the bag of camu camu berries we’d just picked. The whole time we wandered the property, the monkeys followed us around curiously, hanging from the trees while snacking on fruit and watching our every move.

Pepe, the rambunctious monkey

Monkey Business

Monkey
My flash accidentally went off (seriously, I never use a flash) and this monkey jumped and ran after me while screaming. Scariest moment in the Amazon so far.

Then we got the chance to play with an anaconda that was contained in a wooden shack. Snakes don’t scare me, so I wasn’t so much worried about it biting or choking me as I was about not being strong enough to lift it or take it off without dropping it to the ground and pissing it off. Turns out, with a little help, it wasn’t as heavy as I’d thought and I managed to get a photo with it.

Anaconda
Nevermind the snake, look at this guy’s adorable smile.
Prehistoric Turtle
I think this was called a Mata Mata Turtle, some sort of prehistoric turtle that’s only found in the Amazon region

En español, we learned a bit about the gigantic nearly-extinct arapaima fish and some pretty awesome looking turtles, when suddenly we heard this loud, barreling train-like noise, and looked over to see a wall of rain pouring down about a half mile away and a rainbow forming right in front of us. With my camera and lenses in my hand, two of us sought shelter under the house along with a dog and her pups, a few chickens, and a little girl, while everyone else went up into the house. 

Rainbow

After the brief rainstorm, the sky cleared and we headed to a lagoon to watch the sun set while pink dolphins swam around us. It was definitely one of those “holy shit I’m in the Amazon Rainforest” moments, where my dreams as a third grader were finally fulfilled. Now if only I could figure out a way to see dinosaurs and make it to outer space, third grade Kim would be so jealous.

Amazon Sunset

Sunset on the Amazon

We went back to a delicious candlelight dinner when I realized, and revealed, that this was my first candlelight dinner ever. I think everyone laughed at me. Afterwards, Max and I headed out on a canoe to search for some of the nocturnal animals of the Amazon with the neighbor. This guy had a flashlight that could easily illuminate trees fifty feet away as he searched for the different creatures of the night. It was all kinds of awesome just paddling around this wide open lagoon under the light from a nearly full moon and hundreds of stars. We floated around to the choir of jungle animals as our guide pointed out the different sounds of monkeys, tree rats, frogs, and other Amazonian creatures.

Every so often he’d spot a pair of red eyes and paddle closer. Before I knew it he was pulling small caimans into the boat, letting us hold them before throwing them back in the water. They seemed to freeze up as soon as you touched them, and when we threw them back in the water they swayed their body back and forth like they were still in shock before disappearing.

We also saw a snake swimming through the water, a wide-eyed owl perched on a branch only a few feet away, a tarantula clinging to the side of a tree, and I nearly bashed my face into a bat that was hanging on the side of a branch before it got startled and flew away. It was a truly amazing experience that I couldn’t believe the other two had missed out on by going to bed early.

When we got back, Francisco was partying down with some cachaça caipirinhas he’d mixed up. I tried one but it was a bit too sweet for me, and since I was the only non-Spanish speaker still in the room, I got ready for bed and retired for the night by 10pm.

DAY 2

It started getting light out at the absurd hour of 430AM and the family started stirring about just as early. I looked out the window to see grey skies and decided there wouldn’t be a great sunrise so I went back to sleep.

At a slightly more reasonable hour (about 7AM) I finally got up and showered. After another delicious breakfast, we set out in a canoe to go piranha fishing, which was probably the most hilarious experience of the entire two days. Five of us piled into what probably should’ve been a three-person canoe, without life jackets, and set out again with the neighbor guy. The water was about an inch from spilling into the boat and flooding us out, as we cautiously turned our way into the jungle. Every slight move tipped us to the side as I regretted bringing my SLR on board, so I shoved it in my waterproof bag for safe keeping. After about a half hour we ended up in a pretty strong current, which had us bashing into branches, careening straight for a tree. Josh, the Aussie in our group who was paddling in the front, looked for direction on which way to go but the tide carried us much quicker than the guide could direct us. We crashed right into the tree as Josh calmly stood up, quietly mumbled some profanities, and jumped into the water without even rocking the boat. I knew something had happened, but the slow rate at which he calculated his next move and jumped out without capsizing us was rather impressive. Just as quickly, I realized that he’d just ran right into a swarm of wasps when I saw at least a hundred of them flying around a grey nest. Both Josh and the paddle were being pushed downstream with the current and we kind of just sat there watching as the guide backed us up away from the wasps. Josh eventually climbed back on board with stings all over his face and neck, and I held off on making fun of him until later in the evening.

About an hour and a half after setting out, we dropped our poles (sticks with fishing line and a hook tied on, baited with fish) into the water right in the middle of some shrubbery. Almost immediately I could feel the piranhas biting, but the first few times I pulled the hook up those bitches robbed me of my bait. 

Now you should know that I’m a fairly poor sport. I’m fiercely competitive when it comes to dumb shit. I learned early on that I suck at sports and it’s a waste of energy to get pissed because I suck at soccer, basketball, kickball, running, etc. I just do what I can and have fun. But when it comes to things like bowling, beer pong, Mario Kart, tejo, and apparently fishing, I get livid when things don’t go my way. I focus intently and the only words to leave my mouth are usually curse words. So you can imagine the scene as we all sat quietly in a canoe while the piranhas stole my limited bait right off my hook.

Then the guide caught one.

Then Josh caught one.

Then I got pissed. 

Using that anger, on the next nibble I yanked the hook right from the water and voila—a piranha! I shouted a few obscenities, took some pictures, and to add insult to injury to the piranha, the bait was still in tact when we took it off the hook. I dropped the line back down into the water and felt another bite. Again, I pulled a second piranha up less than 20 seconds later, with the same piece of bait. Talk about killing two fish with one piece of bait, suckersss! 

Lunch! My first piranha catch

 

I was on a roll. At this point, Josh had also caught two and stopped for a smoke, Susannah had given up a long time ago, and I put another piece of bait on my hook. We only had a couple of pieces of bait left, and after my adrenaline wore off I realized what a dick I was for baiting up again when Max had yet to catch a fish and was still trying. After another piranha robbed me of that piece, I reluctantly put the pole down and decided to chill out and let Max try to wrangle one in with the last pieces of bait. He didn’t, by the way.

The ride back to the house wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the ride in, as the guide took the helm and guided us through a calmer area full of giant Amazon water lilies. We returned for our last delicious lunch which also included the freshly prepared piranha. They don’t have much meat on their bones, but piranha meat is delicious. It’s not fishy at all, just super juicy and tender.

Amazon Water Lilies
The giant Amazon water lilies are lined with spikes underneath to ward off predators, and can support around 20kg, if not more
Fish lunch
I took this pic through the green mesh screen of the girls preparing our fish right in the river. If I spoke their language I would’ve offered to help.
Sorry not sorry, piranhas. Thanks for being delicious.

Around 2pm we packed up and left the house for another leisurely ride back to Leticia. We saw toucans and tons of other colorful birds flying in the sky, sloths slowly climbing amongst the leaves, huge towering ceiba kapok trees, and all in all completely different scenery as we cut through the jungle.

I don’t really know what’s going on here, but we were trying to take an interesting selfie.

We made it back to Leticia around sunset, as James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” BLARED from the Peruvian border. Definitely a weird choice considering how little English music I’ve heard down here, but it gave us a good laugh.

Should you do it?

Duh, that goes without saying. Visiting the Amazon was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had so far, and I barely scratched the surface. It was a fantastic two days and I really think we saw and did a lot. If you do the same tour during the dry season you’ll probably have more options to hike through the rainforest, sleep in hammocks outdoors, and possibly see even more wildlife. But we definitely got to see much more than I thought we would, and I can’t recommend this experience enough. I would love to go back during the dry season and do a longer trip, but come on, $100 for two days of transportation, food, lodging, and activities? Totally worth it. It’s worth noting that the more people you have, the cheaper it is. And if you need a translator you will pay even more, so it helps to have at least one person in your group be fluent in both Spanish and your native language.

Pricing breakdown for ten days in the Amazon region:
Flight from Bogotá to Leticia: $112 (though one guy I met said he booked one for $40, I have no idea how)
Three nights at La Jangada Hostel in Leticia: $30
Two-day, one-night tour: $100
Three-night boat from Leticia to Manaus: $75 (more on this adventure coming soon!)
Two nights in Manaus: $21 (I redeemed hotel points for a free stay, just had to pay taxes. But you can find a hostel for just as cheap.)

Grand total: $338, averaging about $33.80 per day, plus a little extra for food in Leticia and Manaus.

Categories
Living Abroad Solo Travel South America Travel

I Just Bought My First One-Way Ticket

I’ve been in Ohio for eight days. Most of the time I’ve been sitting on the couch in my pajamas watching TV and playing with the dogs, but today I finally made a move towards my “what’s next.”

After months and months of figuring out destinations, routes, and budgets, today I purchased a one-way ticket to Cartagena, Colombia. I’ll be welcoming 2015 by devouring empanadas and salsa dancing my way through the walled city. Then a few days later I’ll hop on a bus and head off to another part of Colombia for a few nights before packing up and moving on to another spot. For at least a few months.

As of December 30th I’ll be backpacking my way around South America indefinitely (basically until I run out of money, get sick of roughing it, or complete my grand tour, whichever comes first). I’m going to leave most of the trip unplanned and completely open to spontaneity, but I’ll be following a rough path:

through Colombia, eventually making my way down to Brazil in time for Carnaval, then down through Argentina where I’m hoping to spend a few weeks in/around Buenos Aires before reaching Patagonia, then up through Chile and Bolivia before making it to Machu Picchu, and finally finishing up in Ecuador.

Aside from living in a cozy flat in London for three months, the longest trip I’ve ever taken has only been about two weeks, so this is a completely new experience for me. But since I wasn’t quite ready to make the commitment of moving to the West Coast just yet (mostly the whole getting a car thing), I figured it’s time to go live the life that my inner wannabe Latina has always wanted to live. Plus I’ve felt so liberated since selling nearly everything I own a few weeks ago, I kind of can’t wait to live with nothing more than what I can carry on my back for a while.

During this trip I’m going to focus more on my travel writing, perhaps even writing a book—but more on that in the next month or so. In the meantime, any suggestions on where to stay, what to eat, who to meet, or what to see while I’m down there, leave in the comments!

Categories
Europe

My First Football Match: Ghana v Brazil in London

Who would’ve thought that my favorite part of London would have absolutely nothing to do with the city itself? On my last night in town we went to a Ghana and Brazil football match at the Fulham Football Club.

I’ve been to my fair share of concerts. That’s pretty much all I did from age 14-19. I’ve been in the mosh pits trying to prove that girls are just as tough as guys. I’ve spent sizzling afternoons squished against the front row barricades and sweaty, overweight, BO-reaking men in the 100+ degree heat at Ozzfest in the middle of July. I’ve been pushed to my knees and had my face squeezed against a barricade through an entire four-minute song. I’ve been squeezed into the crowd at a Rage Against The Machine reunion tour so tight that you think you actually start to feel your ribs cracking one by one (which is weird consideirng there’s no room to take a proper breath large enough to expand your lungs and snap your ribs in the first place). Well the crowd OUTSIDE of the arena waiting to get in for this Ghana vs. Brazil match was even worse. I was 5’2” in a sea of 6’+ men stemming from Africa (I’d assume since we were on the Ghana side).

The game was intense. That’s a huge reason why I love football, the passion. The fans were constantly roaring and stomping their feet to the point where I started to question how sturdy the seats were.

We had pretty good seats, I just wish I had a better lens. That’s something I need to invest in soon. Right after I take [another] photography class to learn how to use my camera a little bit better.

The view from our seats
I should’ve gone streaking

In the end Brazil took the 1-0 win, making me wish I were on the other side with all the celebrating fans and Latin men. The overall experience was comparable to a hockey game, and only solidified my feelings that I need to move to a country that appreciates football a bit more than the USofA.

Brazil!