Flavia & Gregory go LA

We set off on Papa 5 - our Exodus truck - at 8 am on Wednesday the 21st of Feb. First destination was Paraty, some 300 km south of Rio on the Costa Verde of Brazil, apparently one of the most beautiful coastlines in South America. Paraty is described as the most pictoresque colonial town in Brasil, and the name comes from its pirate history. Very nice town indeed, lots of nice cozy shops and restaurants. We camped here for 3 nights, the first of which was a nightmare. I chose the spot for the tent in the shade - we got there at 3 pm and had to plant it under the burning sun - in the night we realised that the trees diffused a very unpleasant smell (or was it what people were doing under the trees?) and it was so bloody hot!! Then things improved and the shade was still an advantage but generally I would say that camping in Paraty was not such a great experience. The sea is absolutely HOT - must be at least 40 degrees - so when we rushed to bathe to refresh after the tent planting ordeal, we found ourselves in the hottest broth we could ever imagine!! The town however is really lovely and the first experience with the truck and the cooking took our concentration. It is 17 of us, of which 6 Irish fellows - I just cannot get rid of them, can I? Worked with a terrible one for over a year, then the owner of the guesthouse in Rio was Irish, and now a third of the team!!! Well OK, I admit they are all very nice...
We have a nurse on board, a GP and a copper - I'd say the emergency services are taken care of - one of the guides is a mechanic, so I think we are really OK. Everybody so far seems really nice and helpful, so overall we are quite happy. We are now doing some 3 days of all day driving to get to the Pantanal, which is a wildlife hotspot in the South West corner of Brasil, full of birds, alligators, capybaras and unfortunately mosquitos. We are going to spend 2 nights in a lodge with pool and all luxuries, so we are quite looking forward to it.
Below are some pics of the camp and of a day boat trip we took from Paraty on boats called 'schooners' - ours was called Sir Francis Drake. It was really good, we made 3 stops at different islands and the water was absolutely gorgeous. Then they cooked on the boat and served a very good fish meal, AND I managed not to get burnt!

Next stop Pantanal, greetings to all

First 2 days were real hard, trying to recover from the last hectic few days in London, my fall down the stairs with annexed aches and sores as well as what looked like a mild symptom of DVT. My hand has finally healed and the legs are also OK, though still bruised.
3rd day was the real beginning of our holiday, in the sense that I was able to get up and walk around and feel like a human being again.
We have done all the usual sites - been to the Christ statue (completely obliterated by clouds though..), Sugar Loaf by cable car, Botanical Gardens, Copacabana and Ipanema beach. While going to Sugar Loaf, Gregory managed to burn his nose, while I completely underestimated the length of our trip and sun exposure and so managed to sunburn my shoulders and collarbone - nevermind, maybe when I hit 50 I will remember to put sunscreen on...NEVERMIND!!!!
The guest house is OK, a lot more rundown than what it looks like on the website - www.casamangomango.com - but the pool is refreshing and Gregory enjoys it every morning at 8 for an hour, together with Julie's kids, 5 and 7, who take it in turns to jump on Gregory's back and get carried backs and forwards. So they both have fun and Gregory swims with weights, which is great exercise. Casa Mangomango is huge and needs a lot of work, but the people are super-friendly and we have all what we need and more - a very large room with en-suite bathroom (not expected), free coffee all day, laundry lines outside the door, power points for all of Gregory's electronic devices (I still do not know how he has managed to fit everything in that ruscksack), we can access the kitchen to make our own caipirinhas and use the Internet and even have a small library with lots of very relevant books - travel guides on South America as well as grammars and even a small Chomsky selection.

CARNIVAL

On Monday night it was our turn at the Sambodrome - the 2 main parades run on Sunday and Monday night, then the winner is chosen. We went to the Monday one and it was worth every penny - never ever imagined that a show of this sort could ever be put up - thousands of incredible costumes flowing all night, from 9 pm till 7 am - just AMAZING!! We stayed till the very end and were completely hooked - no point in posting any pics since we have taken hundreds, which we managed to cut down to 190, and it would be just impossible to pick 2 or 3 for the blogger... The last school of the Monday night was the best - absolutely - and in fact they won the parade: Beija Flor. The theme was Africa, the rhythm was fantastic (still in our heads) and the costumes simply unbelievable. The Rio Carnival site is found at http://www.rio-carnival.net - unfortunately no pictures of Beija Flor though I am sure they are posted somewhere.

Here are some pics from Rio - next stop is Exodus overland!

Gone a long way, 80% or so of the house has been packed up. Gregory running a little behind as usual and me rolling down the stairs face down did not quite help with being fully fit for the loft trips, but we are managing...