1 Island, 86 Beaches

In the late 1800's, Ilha Grande served as a quarantine stop for cholera infected Europeans migrating to Brazil, and then later functioned as a high security federal prison. For us, the island with no cars, daily power outages and tons of hiking was the change of pace we were looking for after five days in the hustle and bustle of Rio.

Each morning, we'd rise from our hostel bunks to the sound of the Adele cd blasting from the kitchen into our window. Over ham and cheese, mango and banana and plenty of coffee, we mapped out each day's adventure that involved some combination of wandering into the jungle, dosing on a beach, or scaling a mountain .

Lopes Mendes is said to be one of the most splendid beaches in all of Brazil. In an enormous country with seemingly countless beautiful beaches, this is quite the impressive title, and Zach and I decided it was something we should see for ourselves. To reach the beach from town you either can take a boat for R$15 (about US$7 ) or you can hike into the jungle, and up and over to the other side of the island. Obviously we kept those purse strings tight and set off for the three hour trek to this legend of a beach.

While I cannot speak for all of Brazil, I can assert that Lopes Mendes is the most breathtaking beach I've ever sunk my feet into. The sand is hard packed, yet velvety and white like baker's flour, and seems to stretch forever before reaching crystal clear, aqua blue water. This powder sand is untainted of leaves, shells and, for the most part, people. It was absolute paradise, and neither words nor pictures can do it justice.

Both infatuated by LM beach, we'd planned to return and spend our last day on the island soaking in sunshine. However, the overcast weather had other plans, so we decided to climb Pico de Papagaio or Parrot's Peak. While only a 1000m elevation change, the trail (marked on the map with a skull and crossbones) to the top of Ilha Grande's highest point did not have switchbacks, rather it shot you straight up the mountain face and gave my legs a run for their money. After two and a half hours of reaching for dangling braided vines, enormous tree roots and moss covered rocks to hoist ourselves up the overgrown trail, we stumbled to the top. Over bananas and fresh bread, we enjoyed the view high above the jungle canopy, the circling vultures, the sweeping clouds and endless ocean.

Off to catch the ferry, back to the mainland for us.

Rio de Janeiro: Photo Blog

A few photos from our five days in Rio.

Spice table at a city street market.

Before sunset at the top of Sugar Loaf.

Enjoying breakfast at the hostel.

One of the monkeys waiting for breakfast leftovers. Blurred in the background is one of Rio's larger favelas.

At the top of Corcavado.

Enjoying some passion fruits in the city market.

El Cristo Redentor overlooking Rio.

Monkey that found some banana.

Monkey mad that he didn't get any banana.

A picture of the sprawling city of Rio from Sugar Loaf.

Grabbing some coconut water on Ipanema beach.

Trying to shave in our hostel. With no mirror and little light, I had to use a headlamp and Lesley's compact. As you may have guessed, I missed a few spots.

On the beach in Rio. Behind us are the mountains known as Two Brothers. To its left is Rio's most infamous favela.

Kevin and I as he showed us around Rio. Kevin is a friend from Denver that moved to Rio a couple months ago.

Rookies in Rio

After the long red eye to the other half of the globe, Lesley and I landed in Rio. With our spirits high we decided to jump in head first and take the city bus instead of a cab to our hostel in Copa Cabana. On the bus with our lack of Portuguese and the drivers lack of English, we did our best to request a stop at Copa Cabana. After a two and half hour bus ride (which I'm pretty sure only took us about 5 miles) our bus driver told us to hop off. We did, walking straight into a downpour. After rummaging our rain jackets from within the depths of our bags, we found out from another girl who looked as lost as we did that we were not in Copa Cabana, but had been dropped off on the wrong side of town. Good start. Standing there in the rain with our huge packs, we waited for another bus to pull up going our direction. We had more luck with this one, getting off at the right stop, only to wander the streets of Copa Cabana (still raining) to look for our hostel (void of any signage). After arriving and dropping our bags, we still had an hour to kill before our room was ready. Famished, we walked a few blocks and sat down at a local cafe. Doing the best she could to translate from Portugese to Spanish to English, Lesley ordered us some steak and potatoes. We were brought a delicious looking plate and felt very pleased with ourselves, until we took the first bite. We had actually ordered liver... We both began laughing at how absurd our first day had been, and all the mistakes we'd made along the way. But we both loved the adventure and couldn't have been happier with our first day abroad. It was the perfect way to start our trip.

Until next time, Ciao ciao (as they say here)

The Final Count Down

And we’re off! Well almost.  With t-minus 24 hours until we hop on a jet for Rio, Lesley and I are picking up the last minute essentials and trying to cram them into our already bulging backpacks.  We’re both filled with a mix of excitement, trepidation, and the “oh shit, we’re actually doing this” feeling.  It’s amazing that this all started with an idea last December to take some time off from work and travel for a little bit.  Somehow that “little bit” turned into 10 months and most of the southern hemisphere.  When we originally played around with the idea of traveling, it didn’t take us long before we were both hooked on the idea of purchasing an around the world ticket.  Through Star Alliance, you can book a fare that takes you around the world on any Star Alliance airline.  They have a program online that let’s you build your itinerary by selecting pretty much any city in the world (http://www.staralliance.com/en/booking/book-and-fly/#).  I felt like a kid in a candy store.  It was too easy to start clicking the map and adding cities to our itinerary that we both dreamed about visiting.   Our conversation went something like this:

Zach:  Hey, want to go to South Africa?

Lesley:  Yea, looks amazing.  And what about Thailand?

Zach:  Definitely.  Okay, they’ve both been added. 

After putting together our most wanted list of destinations, our map ended up looking like the one below.  

After spending a month in Rio and the surrounding areas, we’ll head to Santiago for a couple weeks.  From Santiago, we take the lonnnng flight to Johannesburg.  There, we spend a couple days at a lion reserve outside of Johannesburg, before taking our time exploring the southern coast of South Africa.  We give ourselves about 3 weeks to get to Cape Town, traveling by bus, train, or elephant.  Along the way we’ll hike the Otter Trail, a 5 day hike often ranked among the best in the world.  Once we reach Cape Town, we’ll catch a flight back to Joburg and move right along to Nairobi.  In Nairobi, we’re going to meet up with my sister and spend 3 days volunteering at an orphanage (http://www.tumainiministries.org/) which was started by some local Denverites.  After our time with the kids, we’ll cross the border into Tanzania and hop on a jeep for a safari in the Serengeti.  After 4 days of snapping pictures of giraffes and running from lions, we’ll drop Jess at the airport and make our way to Moshi where we’ll meet our Kilimanjaro guides.  Just a quick 7 day hike up and down Africa’s tallest mountain and we’re off to South East Asia.  But more on that and the rest of the trip later, we’re not going anywhere until I finish packing my bag!

Preparation: 10 days 'til 10 month hiatus

Ten days from now, we’ll pry ourselves from our mothers’ loving, death grip hugs at Denver International Airport and be off to Rio de Janeiro…and a few other places, but we’ll get to that later.

Prepping for a ten month trip to, well, just about everywhere has been an interesting ride all in its own. First we tackled the typhoid, tetanus, Hepatitis A and yellow fever immunizations in one doctor’s visit, and sat through a two hour briefing informing us that we’ll need to be on anti-malarial pills the entire trip and will DEFINTELY get sick since we plan to eat lots of street food (mmm) and drink questionable water. Besides me passing out on the exam table, the mild hallucinogenic dreams brought on by the yellow fever shot and mentally accepting that diarrhea will play a large role in my ten months of traveling with my boyfriend, medical prep was a piece of cake.  

We also had to send our passports to the Brazilian, Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies for Visas. Each time, we had to send a new pair of passport photos with our applications, passports, and of course some moneys. While the Brazil Visa was the only that specified a ‘neutral expression’ in the photo, I somehow managed to look like a vicious criminal taking a mug shot in every single photo I submitted. Cute. I’d like to blame it on the fine photography of Walgreens, and not the fact that I’m unbearably non-photogenic, but future photos posted to this blog are sure to confirm Walgreens was NOT the one at fault…

Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of reading travel lit and trips to REI and Wilderness Exchange (and maybe a trip or two for me to Free People), resulting in this lovely living room:

Very much looking forward to our struggle to get alllll of this (plus a ton not pictured, including but not limited to, flowy skirts, swimsuit cover-ups, and other completely unnecessary items I “plan” on bringing) into one backpack.  He won’t admit it, but Zach is looking forward to saying I told you so when I am only able to pack half of what I planned on. Can’t say I blame him.