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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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. Colombian capital is enormous and cold. An estimated eight million people are inhabiting a part of wide high altitude valley and even from the city's best observation point - the Montserrat, we struggled to see the end of the city through the smog. The tall buildings of city's business district are giving way to colourful barrios that rise up the hills and spread into the plains. We visited Quinta de Bolivar, a residence of the famous Simon Bolivar, learned a bit more about his life and felt like a tourist attractions ourselves when a class of young Colombians on their field trip started interrogating us about our origin and travels. We also marveled the fine golden handcraft of pre-Colombian civilisations in the famous Bogota's Museum of Gold. Our great couchsurfer hosts Jonathan and Christian (both musical souls) showed us the part of life in Bogota, that's hidden for the turists. We visited a small theatre where we tried to follow the story with our poor knowledge of spanish, we tried the local tamales (spiced rice with meat cooked in banana leaf) from the street and the most fun experience of all - played "tejo"· Tejo is a latino version of boules where the goal is to hit a marked circle in a clay target with a catch... There are small bags filled with gunpowder around the circle and hitting one of them results in a big bang, plenty of points and an obligatory celebration cursing. Add a box of beers and you can imagine where this can lead to :) Fortaleza is the capital of Ceara state and offers all the hustle and bustle of a Brazilian million city. The chaotic markets and the typical smelly odor of tropical streets intertwine with the metropolitan beach promenade scattered with five-star hotels and fancy residental buildings offering marvelous ocean views. The view from our room in a humble pousada (a typical name for a guesthouse in Brazil) only included the neighbour's AC unit so we were more than eager to find the beach and face the ocean as soon as possible. As we were swimming for the first time and nervously checking our stuff on the beach every couple of seconds, we noticed another couple which stood out from the rest of the people on the beach as much as we did. We soon caught some familiar phrases and discovered that they were Slovenians travelling for a couple of weeks before starting an internship in Recife. What are the odds of meeting a fellow citizen (remember! it is only 2 million of us) on a random beach in a random city in Brazil?! After two days of discovering the city we were already on the move. We asked our first South-american couchsurfing host to stay with him for a couple of days and we were not sure what we signed up for. But José, a student of oceanography greeted us with open arms and shared his whole life with us. Whether we were cooking in his kitchen, listening to his electric guitar sessions, or smilling to his student friends who came along to do a group project (the only thing we can do in portuguese is smile), we always felt welcomed. At the end we didn't even feel like tourists in Fortaleza anymore :) Encouraged by the local hospitality, we explored the city sights such as jangadas, small fishing vessles with distinctively shaped masts and mercado central, a multiple storey building with shops that offer handicraft and typical local products. With the help of José's surfboard we even hit the local beaches and enjoyed the sensation of playing with ocean waves the first time after several years. In a true "Manca fashion" we also had to hit the streets for a daily run which surprisingly proved out to be a pretty normal thing to do. In fact, the Fortaleza city promenade turns into a giant sports field in the evening cool (if it is possible to name it that at 25°C). Running, skating, roller-blading, capoeira, beach footbal, beach volley a number of fully occupied open air fitness places and even the sport clubs bringing the kids to train directly on the beach. The popularity of sport in Fortaleza was one of the most overwhelming things of all. Unfortunately, one of the most impressing memories are also the high fences that extend along every single property in town. Most of them are upgraded with electric fences, spikes, or broken glass bottles and some of them overviewed by a security guard in a fort-like cabin at the entrance. The building of José was not an exception, but when we asked him if crime was common in his neighbourhood he answered that nothing bad had happened since he had lived there. We couldn't have helped us but to see the situation as a general fear that has infiltrated the society over the decades of unstable Brazilian history. Our view was only confirmed with the constant warnings of the locals to be careful with our camera and to carry our backpack in the front although we have never felt insecure for a single time. It seems like a vicious cycle where the feeling of unsafety is provoking the crime to even happen in the first place. What else does a three meter high fence around a fancy condo suggest to a criminal mind that urgently needs money? But who are we to judge and since Fortaleza actually found it's way into a recent list of top 50 most violent cities in the world, we might just got it all wrong... we will definitely further comment on this topic in our upcoming posts. These observations however, didn't bring down our spirits at all. In fact, we very much liked the city and enjoyed its vibrant atmosphere. After more than a week, although planning to stay less, and more accustomed to the brazilian tempo than the hot weather, we decided it was time to say goodbye to Fortaleza and move on...
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