Paraty is a beautiful colonial town on the Brazilian "Costa Verde" which we already visited in 2016 but really wanted to experience again. This time, we had a help of a local... Well, Michel actually comes from France, but he's been living in Paraty for ten years now. He sailed his beautiful sailboat from Canada and remained anchored in the bay of Paraty ever since; apart from some sailing trips around the region. He kindly accepted us aboard as couchsurfers and helped us out with recommendations for experiencing the local cuisine. The weather was extremely hot and the sea temperature (above 30°C) didn't really offer any refreshment so we visited one of the nearby mountain streams that form cascades and pools filled with crystal clear and cool fresh water. After that we decided it's time for another of our crazy adventures. We packed our camping essentials, rented a simple "sit-on-top" kayak and started a three day exploration of the nearby Mamangua bay. During our trip, we met a whole expedition of sea kayakers with proper equipment and plenty of experience. Their leader Christian (who turned out to have Slovenian heritage) recommended us some nice places to visit and our three day kayaking trip turned out to be a breathtaking experience. Once again we combined our impressions in a short video. Our "vagabonding" had finally come to an end. And how better to finish the South American journey than with one of its most representative places - the marvelous city of Rio de Janeiro. We had already visited the main tourist attractions such as Christ the Redeemer and Pao de Azucar back in 2016. This time we took it easier. We slept at a place of a charming couchsurfer Thiago just a hundred meters from the Copacabana beach. We chilled around, visited the Rio's markets to stock up on cachaca, acai powder and guarana, we strolled the modern promenade with the famous "Museum of tomorrow" and graffiti of the Brasilian artist "Kobra" and paid a short visit to a "bloco" - a pre-carneval party at one of the town squares. We also hiked to one of the best viewpoints over the city. The hike to "two brothers peak" begins at a pacified favela which is only reached by a sketchy taxi-motorbike ride with one of the locals. At the beginning of the hike, the favela didn't seemed to be completely pacified to us - there were around ten young men and boys walking around fully armed with guns and rifles, hunting someone that apparently broke the favela rules. They didn't really gave much of attention to us and so we hurried along not to be caught in a potential cross-fire. We reached the top without incidents and were joined by some other tourists as well to watch the amazing views over the city. Four days went by like nothing and all of a sudden, we were on a plane back to Europe. We reached Munich at noon and the sun had been good to us to warm up the winter temperatures at least a little bit. After more than a year we breathed in the cool European air with all it's aromas and smells and even though we were not yet back to Slovenia, everything felt very familiar. Well, staying with Jose (our friend from the times we had lived in Munich) and meeting up with some friends added an important part to the feeling as well :) But in the end... nothing can compete with the overwhelming feelings of coming back home. The drive from Munich to Ljubljana was another pleasant experience as Gaja & Peter redeemed themselves for taking us away for the long journey in the first place. Seeing our parents, siblings, nephews and the closest friends brought out many feelings and memories and for the next couple of days we had been meeting-up with people and getting back in touch with the surroundings. Only then it really became clear to us - we are back to "normal life"!
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Our last visit on the beaches of the Santa Catarina island (still around Florianopolis) was Lagoinha do Leste - hidden from the roads and settlements some walking is required to access this wonderful stretch of sand. We started in the morning from the lovely village of Armaçao, but the day was already growing hot so we took a dip in the sea in a small natural pool that was guarded from the ocean waves too cool down before the walking started. The hike was not too tough and soon we reached Lagoinha bay where a fresh-water lagoon is captured behind the sandy beach just meters away from the sea. The hills around the beach are steep and the forests pristine which results in plenty of pure and fresh potable streams flowing onto the beach out of the bushes. For the famous picture on a overhanging rock, we had to climb a hill on the other side and so finished our stay in Florianopolis with one of the best views of the region. With our backpacks weighing us down and the sudden lack of mobility, we decided to take it easy in our last month of traveling and limit the amount of places we want to visit. But it is not only mobility that comes into question... For the first time in months, we had to start figuring out where to stay for the night and the carefree wandering about had to come to an end. On the other hand, staying longer at one place makes you experience it in a completely different way than just passing by and so we turned our minds around pretty quickly to start enjoying the positive sides of backpacking. Our first stop was Montevideo. Just across the bay from Buenos Aires, the Uruguayan capital is like it's smaller laid-back sibling. The architecture and culture are similar with a touch of extra friendliness and tranquility. We spent a weekend in the city and apart from an artesanal market in one of the parks everything was pretty much closed. It seemed as if every single citizen went down to the waterfront with their family and friends to enjoy the "mate ceremony" - sitting around and talking in good company while constantly sipping tea through the metal straw. Oh and since the Uruguay legalised marijuana in 2017 it's practically impossible to avoid the smell of it everywhere in the streets around you. It might even have an effect in the (too) loosen-up attitude of the people. The tiny village of Pacaraima at La Linea (border between Brazil and Venezuela) probably hasn't seen that many people in years. Due to the economic situation in Venezuela the people are fleeing the country in high numbers and while most decide to exit into Colombia, there is a big wave of migrants at the brasilian border as well. We approched the security guard that was organising the long waiting lines for the customs office and somehow convinced him that we really don't need to wait for 8 hours just to leave the country. He made an exception although we weren't Brazilian citizens and the customs officer stamped our passports while decently speaking english with us. His comment that we are "making a leap of faith" travelling to Venezuela as backpackers was not calming at all and so we carefully walked the several hundred meters between the border checkpoints. Well, sort of... on the way we also exchanged some Brasilian reals for Venezuelan bolivares on the street and instantly became millionaires :) The situation with Venezuelan currency (Venezuelan Bolivar VEF) is extremely complex - it took us several weeks to actually understand and we will try to explain it in next blogs. Venezuelan officers didn't bother much for us being different than a usual visitor and so the border crossing only took a slight amount of time of what we imagined and heard from other travellers. Santa Elena de Uairen is a lively border town which blooms with illegal trade. Gold, silver and Bolivares can be bought on the street at every corner. We exchanged money all the time and never had any troubles even when the police or national guard (guardia) were around. Not only that they don't bother to intervene, they use the black market exchange themselves as well. There are many posadas and tourist agencies in town that offer more or less expensive tours to Roraima and Gran Sabana, but since the crisis began, several of the biggest already shut down their business due to lack of tourists. We wanted to avoid visiting Roraima with an agency anyway so we came well prepared. Reading about the lack of food in Venezuela, we already left Manaus fully packed with provisions for an isolated six day hike. Our meals were neatly packed in zip-lock bags, the fuel bottle for our little ethanol stove was full, raincovers and ponchos were close at hand, water purifier charged and although our backpacks felt like having stones in them our spirits were high. Because the visit of Mt. Roraima requires a guide, we contacted a local freelancer with good recomendations and met with him on the street to talk business. He couldn't take us to the mountain himself, but he offered to organise another guide for us that could also speak english (you will see why this is important in the next episode). We found accomodation at a german couchsurfer Niklas, that became fascinated with Venezuela, married a local, settled down in St. Elena and now owns a travel agency and a very nice cafeteria with the best coffee around. Already on our first day in the country, we experienced a part of venezuelan everyday life and had to go to bed without a proper shower due to the lack of running water. The day started with a nice cup of coffee (we were surprised observing seven year old scholars drinking espressos as a daily habit) and a guarantee from Niklas that our guide will be late. Not having been acustomed to the Venezuelan rythm yet, we got up an hour too early and waited for the guide to gather his food for another one (it was partly our fault booking a guide at the last minute). The Roraima journey commenced with a 4WD drive towards the mountain village of Paraitepuy. On the way, the silhouettes of the famous table-top mountains (tepuys) were already taking shape and the ever present fog was covering both of the neighbouring tepuys Roraima and Kukenan. The anticipation grew with every driven kilometer and once we arrived to the village it didn't take us long to put on our hiking shoes (our guide was satisfied with crocs), inscribe in the visitors book and start walking. The way to the summit usually takes three days, but we were pushing our guide to reach the top of the mountain already in two, because we wanted to have more time to explore the top. The path leads across the vast graslands of Gran Sabana, between the fires that have been a local routine for centuries and are the reason for the lack of trees across the whole area. The tepuys are therefore visible throughout the whole first day of hiking and appear like growing from the ground as you approach the feet of the mountain. The first day, we walked for five hours, crossing two rivers on the way (crocs came in handy for our guide at those points) and reaching Rio Kukenan camp-site. We planned to reach the top on the next day, so we started early and continued across the same landscape, but the path was getting steeper with every step. We stopped occasionally to catch our breath and admire the views of the mountain with the constantly moving clouds that condensed between the tepuys. During one of these moments, we caught a sight of a magnificent double rainbow arch forming just a short distance away from us that made the place feel like it was drawn for a cartoon. We reached the base-camp a whole hour faster than planned and took the whole hour to rest and relax - the toughest part was still in front of us. The climb to the summit is not technically demanding, but with more than twenty kilos in backpack and the first longer hike in months it was not a piece of cake. The way to the top of the mountain leads through thick tropical forests, that were too inaccessable to be burned down by the locals and the path winds its way along a steep ledge - the only part of the mountain side, that isn't pure vertical rock. At one point, you have to cross under a waterfall, at the other you can appreciate the views of the rocky mountain walls. We had to use all our power to get to the top and the last couple of hundred meters we basically crawled on all four. The trees were already gone at that point, and the characteristic black rocks already started to appear in strange formations. Our guide Fernando, that had been walking at least a couple of hundred meters behind us for the whole two days took the lead now to navigate us through mist and rocky blackness towards our accomodation. We camped at the hotel Indio, that might not include all of the comodities of other hotels, but sits the highest and offers the best views over the Gran Sabana with a marvelous sunset. By the way, a hotel on Roraima is just a simple rock with an overhang, that offers enough protection against the rain and winds to enable cooking and a comfortable sleep in the tent. Before getting to sleep, Fernando tried to scare us a bit with some spooky stories about the place and with the dark and mysterious surroundings, he might have succeded just a bit :) But we were too tired to be afraid anyway and after setting up the tent, cooking a simple dinner and freezing a bit in the chilly wind we squezeed ourselves in the sleeping bags and spent the first night on Roraima. In the next two days we explored the mountaintop to see some of the interesting spots that this crazy landscape has to offer. On the way towards the triple border of Brasil, Venezuela and Guyana we stopped for one of the best views of our lives. The air that was blowing over the edge of the cliff was cold and fresh - the mountaintop sits at around 2700m - and underneath, the immense Guyanaise jungle was spreading way into the distance with little white clouds gently moving over the treetops 400 meters below us. While enjoying the view of the neighbouring tepuy Kukenan, we could feel why these mountains were a source of mysteries for thousands of years. We continued our way towards El Posso, a big sinkhole that was carved into the stone during billions of years by one of the many mountain's streams. A jump into the Posso needs a bit of courage and is just as interesting as the way out, that leads through a tunnel and requires a little bit of climbing :) We also took a bath in natural pools called jacuzis, but the resemblance is purely in their shape, the water is freezing cold. In the evenings, while we were cooking and sharing our scarce food with Fernando who only took bread and hot sauce with him for the whole six days, we were listening to his stories about travellers getting lost on the mountain. Some of them only took a short walk from the hotel but couldn't find their way back when heavy fog suddenly rolled over in a matter of minutes. We also had a share of bad weather so we could't see all of Roraima's sights because visiting a viewpoint in fog really doesn't make sense. But we didn't care much - the place turned out to be more than we could ever expect and some facts about the mountains additionally blew our minds. Tepuys are the oldest mountains in the world and already took their shape in the time of Pangea when South America was still connected to the African continent. Due to their isolating shapes, the flora and fauna on top is completely endemic and scientists found some species whose DNA is more similar to their African relatives than the ones in South America. The rising number of turists are the reason that precautions to protect the environment also include taking all human excrements off the mountain. After the third night on Roraima, we therefore packed our stuff including a medium sized poo-bag and left the mountaintop. On our way down, we realised how lucky we were to be able to spend two full days as the only people on the mountain. Due to the carneval period, dozens of brasilian and venezuelan turists were on their way to the mountaintop. We couldn't believe the number of people we met on the way since for the whole four days before, we were practically alone. Back at the village, we counted 150 inscriptions after ours and Fernando told us, that people sometimes need to wait in the base camp for several days in order to get a free spot at one of the hotels on top. Pretty tired, we climbed a little hill to take the last view of the mountain and talked about coming back again sometime in the future and if possible bringing our friens or family to show them this amazing place. We came back to St. Elena full of energy and impressions. After packing out our stuff to leave it on the air for a bit we realised Gasper's smartphone is missing. He couldn't believe his stupidity - he barely used the phone on the mountain since there was no signal anywhere and still he was somehow able to lose it on the way... |
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February 2019
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