Snakes, Crocodiles and Pirahnas :S

Hola Amigos!!

First the little addition I added to my last post (if you missed that since you don't get an email if I modify something):

"Just got back from the beach (it's about midnight here). A day full of skinboarding, an evening full of beach football with locals and a nightly swim before going to bed Loving it! Was really nice, an was even made man/goaly of the match. Now really to bed, tomorrow surfing! Ciaociao bisbis."

Saw that that was already a week ago and since I just got out of the plane (no don't worry I'm not back in NL:P), it's time for an update. We're now in Campo Grande in the Pantanal Jungle. We loved Rio sow much, we stayed there over a week and that's why we skipped the Ilha Grande and came straight to the Pantanal. Hereby our time in Rio and what we'll be doing next.

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1) A Rio de Janeiro; beach and parties

Believe I left off with the surfing lessons. When we went to the beach on the 3rd day, the waves were too big (almost 3 meters), so no beginnerslessons. So we chilled the whole day and in the evening Linda went to a boot party, I chilled at the beach with Jason (England) and Jeff (USA) and kooked a nice meal. And then, on the 4th day we finally got to surf. Quite fun, just a hell of a job to get out of the surf without falling of or get taken by a wave. :S But I managed to get some waves where I could pretent to surf. :P Lin did better, but then again she stole my waves the whole time. ;) Unfortunately, we didn't get another chance (read were too tired or lazy) to do it again. So the rest of Rio was quite alike: to the beach during the day and at the hostel at night (this means alcohol btw). We did one day of sightseeing though, to the 'sugar leaf': a rock of 397 meters in the ocean with a splendid view over the city and the sunset. Only reachable by cablecar (it was fun watching Jason being afraid of hights!). Other high lights were: a sunset on the beach, dinner with Jason, Jeff and Lin and dinner with 3 Swiss girls (I cooked both times and appearently it was good :D). Ow yeah, and we went to a street party in Lappa (Lin twice, but I was overtired). So that was it. Could easily have stayed there another week, but I already have a ticket home. :S

1) B Campo Grande and Bonito, the Pantenal Jungle

Like I said, we arrived today in Campo Grande. We have a tour booked for tomorrow morning at 10, so haven't seen a lot of the city (isn't that much :P). We will go into the Pantanal for 4 days and 3 nights, so I'm of the radar again. More details will follow in this post when I got back. So now email notification, just check my site again on monday. Will be in Bonito then (in the Pantanal), where you can snorkel in cristal clear rivers and maybe even in caves. :D In short: I've been looking forward to this my whole trip and I will hopefully love it!

***MODIFICATION***

I'm back in Campo Grande again. Alone this time, Linda has gone on to Paraguay with Chris (Australia) and I'm flying back home tomorrow at 10 AM. Pantanal was not as good as I expected. Didn't see any anacondas but a lot of Kaaimens. For the rest: lots of birds (parrots, toecans, tjakosjakalakas, king fishers and more), kapibaris, pirahna (fishing!!), an anteater and some monkeys. Weather was bad unfortunately, lot of rain so almost all animals were hiding. And we had a shitty guide who didn't explain a lot plus we were in the camp site and this was (we heard afterwards) the lesser option to stay. :( But all in all we had a good time, mainly because of the other gringo's who were complaining. :P With some of then we also went to Bonito. We did three tours in three days here and I'm now completely out of money. :P Well, at least I know how that feels now. ;) On the first day we did a waterfall tour, including swimming. But since the wether was bad (rain and about 9 degrees), I now have a cold due to that. But on the second day the sun broke through because of my sun dances and we did a 1,5 hours snorkel in a cristal clear river. Quite nice I must say! And this morning we went to a shining blue lake inside a cave. So all in all I had a nice ending of my trip. :D

***END MODIFICATION***

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2) The Route

This was my trip:
- 22/01/09 I flew to Aruba to visit and pick up Linda;
- 03/02/09 We went to Washington DC and visited Mariska;
- 06/02/09 We took take the bus to New York and slept in our first hostel;
- 10/02/09 We had a flight to Orlando and did 2 days Disney World
- 13/02/09 Drove to Miami were we did Miami city and the Keys;
- 17/02/09 Flew to Bogota (Colombia);
- 23/02/09 Cartagena;
- 24/02/09 Santa Marta and la Ciudad Perdida (6 day hike in the jungle);
- 02/03/09 Taganga (rest!);
- 04/03/09 Medillin;
- 05/03/09 Salento (Zona Cafetera, between Perreira and Armenia);
- 08/03/09 We took the bus to Ipiales (border) and left Colombia behind us;
- 09/03/09 Quito;
- 13/03/09 Galapagos (8 day cruise and 2 days on Santa Cruz for diving);
- 22/03/09 Guayaquil;
- 25/03/09 Lima;
- 28/03/09 Huarachina (Sandboarding);
- 29/03/09 Nazca lines;
- 30/03/09 Cuzco;
- 01/04/09 Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu (hot springs and ruins);
- 04/04/09 Cuzco again;
- 07/04/09 Bustrip to Canyon Country;
- 08/04/09 Cabanaconde and the canyon itself (3 day hike);
- 11/04/09 Arequipa and El Misti vulcano;
- 16/04/09 Puno and Floating Islands;
- 17/04/09 Copacabana and Isla del Sol;
- 20/04/09 La Paz;
- 22/04/09 Uyuni and the Salt Plains;
- 27/04/09 Tupiza for some horse riding;
- 01/05/09 Wine, wine and more wine in Mendoza;
- 06/05/09 Capital B.A.;
- 13/05/09 B-Day at the waterfalls of Puerto de Iguazu (Argentina) and Foz do Iguacu (Brasil);
- 18/05/09 Really entered Brasil in Samba y festa city Riooooo de Janeiroooo!;
- 26/05/09 Campo Grande and into the Pantanal Jungle;
- 30/05/09 Bonito for snorkling

And then what we/I planned:
- 04/06/09 B-Day Ta Back at midnight :P

And I'll be home in the summer (that is if I'm not off to Disney again). Working in July for the WMC and having an operation for my hernie as well.

Roughly my trip after North and South America will look like this:
- 09/09 (or 10/09) Australia (working and traveling for almost 1 year, maybe with Katie);
- 05/10 Asia (Indonesia, Philipijnen, Maleisia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, China, Korea and Japan, maybe with Isabel for a while);
- 11/10 Trans-siberian Railway Peking Express through among others Peking (China), Mongolia, Jarkoetsk (Rusland), Onsk (Rusland), Moskou (Rusland) for 18 days (maybe with Robbert);
- 12/10 Home sweet home for Christmas, Wingman back in the Netherlands.

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3) My to do list

In one of the first messages I wrote, I said that you could let me do certain things in exchange for money. Here is the status quo:

- Get (naked) on national tele in the USA: Waiting if were on, being taped for Comedy Central and MTV’s the Fashion Show ~ REWARD: € 100,- by Ruud and Youri;
*** (nearly) ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Find a famous place/square and be a street artist: I forgot my jiggling balls every time I went into Paris or other cities, but I had some audience in Zipaquire and jiggled in the Uyuni salt plains. ~ REWARD: € 100,- by Ruud and Youri;
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Enjoy your trip: I will! ~ REWARD: € 25,- by Hans (Thank you Hans!!)
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Shave your head bold: since my mum shaved me twice I'm almost hairless now. :S ~ REWARD: € 3,50 by Sarah H;
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Come to the Luna-Tik Switch: since I'm in Maastricht now (and bored) and waiting till 10h, I think I'll manage. ~ REWARD: free entrance as per Erik;
*** ACCOMPLISHED ***
- Carry Mickey around the world and take pictures in famous places: I WILL! ~ REWARD: A cool photo collection, as per me!;
- Get married in Las Vegas in an Elvis Suite and stay married for at least 2 months: Linda s not interested ~ REWARD: € 450,- (or 150,- for a short marage) as per Erik;
*** FAILED or not???***
- Carry the hand cups around that I ‘won’ with the Saint Nicolas Surprise: they are still on my back ~ REWARD: ??? told by Jule;
- Collect 2 stickers from every hostel I go to: difficult, since they only have 'visite kaartjes' ~ REWARD: 0,50 euro each as per Erik;
- Gues on what place in the world 2 pics my parents send me have been token: it was around Istanbul, one on the canal between Asia and Europa and one was the Blue Mosque in Istanbull ~ REWARD: 20,- as per dad and mom [Money on my account ]
- Get dressed up by a loco from BA: sorry Erik, completely forgot about this one. :S ~ REWARD: ?? (don't remember) as per Erik;
FAILED MISSERABLY

Did I forget one, do you want to add one?? Let me know!!
Do you want to add some?? Let me know!!

NOTE!! I’m running out of quests, please give me some more!!!

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4) Games

A little game for all:

Each person that posts, must repeat the sentence 'I will go on holiday and take with me:', repeat the items of previous persons and add one item of his own.

This is where we left of and since nobody played last post, we’ll stop with this one:

*I'll go on holiday and take with me: my backpack (Inge, afblijven!), my hand cups, Inge's prom dress, Mickey Mouse, a snorkel, juggling balls, 1 under pens, a passport, mama's toothbrush, Linda!, a winter jacket, snow boats, my MP3 player, mama’s bracelet, some dollars to buy breakfast, everybody’s notes with the best wishes on them (there actually at my parents Erik),my lonely planet, some stickers and bueno aires-carnavals-attribute.

Here’s a new one:

Each post must say a number (in sequence from one till 50). The one who is number 50, will receive a little reward. And there will be a secret number reward as well!

*Failed big time due to lack of cooperation

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Sow, short post for this long period of time, but haven't done sh*t. I'm off to bed, big trip of horse riding, pirahna fishing and more to go to. See you really soon!!

*** MODIFICATION ***

Like I mentioned before, tomorrow I'm flying home. This means I'm gonna be home for your B-Day Ta! Hope to be in Landgraaf about 23.00h on the 4th. Hereby my flights:

Campo Grande - Brasilia / Vertrek 3 juni om 10.10h / Aankomst 3 juni 14.20h / vluchtnr TP9283

Brasilia - Lissabon / Vertrek 3 juni om 17.05h / Aankomst 4 juni 6.20h / vluchtnr TP0172 (TAP Portugal)

Lissabon - Amsterdam / Vertrek 4 juni 14.20h / Aankomst 4 juni 18.15h / vluchtnr TP0660 (TAP Portugal)

And then, on the 5th I'll be going on Luna-Tik Fak-Cie kamp. Meaning I'll be gone another 3 days. But from the 7th of I'll be available for visits (if I'm not sleeping). :P Well, that's it. Ciao!! XXX

***END MODIFICATION ***


Kisses, lottie love and more from the one and only Wingman aka Ralf and a hug from Mickey!!!!