Ilha Grande

... Ilha Grande(IG)...two street island and no cars...spent a week just lazying...
...IG...arriving in a magnificient boat...
...sailing around IG ...
...give P & V just a bit of water and they will jump in...here snorkelling...

Getting bored on Copacabana! Wish you were here! ...so for a laugh!

...this one dedicated to Bhirenbhai for following my blog religiously...

... Outlaws Prutch Cassidy & Daughter Dance Kid(PC&DDK) are at it again abusing the local wildlife- this time in Brazil…Kid asked the Alli-gators if they were all Muslims! And Prutch accused them of being Alliga-terrorist then she asked why they all looked the same and said is it something to do with being friendly with your cousins!...

…theses comments have caused uproar in all Alli communities all over the world…diplomatic relations are under stress yet again!...

…ALO(Alligator Liberation Organization) Chairman Alligator Arafat said from his bunker in Florida swamps “ my Muslim brothers we are fighting for independent Allistan and we will fight the infidel by every means possible”…
also at the same time…Alli’s were seen in East African river Mara wearing body armours and carrying bulky rucksacks and this has caused alarm in many Western Capitals…at the same time Alli suicide bomber explodes at London Zoo completely destroying the Pakistani cockroach house!...

…British Premier GB tries to put all British troops at home on full alert before he realizes that they are ALL in Afghanistan and Iraq and have been on full alert since they’ve been there -he mumbles f…..g Tony!

…Bush again bullies Presd.Mushy of Pakistan to close all the Alliga-terrorist camps in AOK(Alligator Occupied Kashmir)…Mushy said that will incur in loss of many jobs in AOK- A.B.S &B (alligator bags shoes & belts) industry…Bush tells him bluntly either he is with us on WOA(War On Alliga-terrorists) or he is against us…Mushy thinks for a second and says he is with the US as long as the US promise to keep him in his job as President of Pakistan for the next 30 years…Bush thinks for less than a second and says- DONE!...

…FATWA has been issued by Iranian Mullahs on PC&DDK…Kid thinks FATWA is something Dad should leave it alone if he wants to be thin again!...and Mum too said the Kid very quietly as Mum was about to down another slice of FATWA Pizza!...where is all that food going thinks the third person in the party as he downs sixth or seventh Brahma beer and who is counting anyway!...Prutch thinks with all that Brahma he is going to get up in the middle of the night more than usual!...

…TB said he will go to the UN and ask for sanctions against all Alli’s including stopping all imports of A.B.S & B before he realizes that he is no longer the British Premier!...meanwhile British Premier GB blames TB for all his problems as Labour can no longer keep blaming the previous Tory Governments …

…Bush said there are WZD(Weapons of Zero Destructions) in Florida swamps and gets ready to press the Nuclear Button before the 1st Lady reminds him that Florida is still part of USA and that his own brother Jess Bush is the governor there!...

…meanwhile PC&DDK are enjoying another dip in the cool waters of Copacabana Beach not realizing that thanks to them Third World War is about to begin …the so called third person in the party now has grown a beard,full head of hair(you should be so lucky Dad! said the cheeky Kid) put on weight, wearing salwar kameese and turban , carrying a sword, D&G dark glasses and from now on speaking only in Punjabi so not to look or sound like the third person!... and also carrying a bottle of Bisky to smell like a Punjabi too!...

…meanwhile PC&DDK have been released by the Brazilian Police after questioning as the Kid pleads not guilty as she has been under the influence of too many fizzy drinks thanks to the third person and Prutch pleads insanity due to very long holidays in many nice countries and also said she has been missing cooking, house work , going to work,Cardiff traffic jams,Eastenders , Corrie Street,Tesco’s cheese cake,M&S vegee triple decker sandwiches etc for the last 7 months!...two police officers with stomach cramps were curled up on the floor laughing as two others almost fell off the chair as she promised the Police that she will quit this long holiday lark on 10th May 2008 …

Still in Rio

... still in Rio and not been robbed or mugged yet!-acutally we have been mugged twice but not as you think-read on! 24th Dec xmas eve 7pm-went to Rio central this morning and it's the worst city center in the world as all the action takes place on the beach-been walking Copacabana beach all day -it's over 4km long! -must have walked over 10km today-seen everything on the beach-valleyball,football,tennis,open air gym,smallest Mcdonalds ever! etc-downside is you can't take your camera with you for safety reason so not too many pix to show-been to a very nice Arabic restaurent for lunch/dinner on the beach side called Amir-on 22rd went to what must be the worst Indian restaurent ever called Indian Cuisine then on 23rd we went to even the most worst ever Indian restaurent in all my life called Rajmahal-Rajmahal my arse-more like poison mahal-I mean how can you call a dish Mattar Paneer when it's got no mattar or paneer and the bastard had the nerve to charge us 175 Riels ie 55 quid-we can eat happily for 2 days on 55 quid-I am sure the bastard closed it for the rest of the day after we left and went to the beach as he made whole weeks profit from poor us!-I mean we were warned that we could get mugged by some poor Brazilian after dark but they never warned us that we could get mugged in broad day light in some shitty Indian restaurent by our own kind-although I must confess it's all my fault as my wife has reminded me a few times over the last 48 hours as I had read the reviews on the net about these two restaurents before going there and they all said DO NOT GO TO THESE TWO INDIAN RESTAURENTS as THEY SERVE ANYTHING BUT INDIAN FOOD but me being patriotic and all that I had to find out the hard way(thank god these are the only two so called Indian restaurents in Rio)...we have to say Brazil as a whole has been real disappointment comapre to Chile and Argy where we had great time and Rio is specially very disappointing to us...it does'nt feel like xmas here as it does in UK...on the night of 21st they had a huge carnival type xams parade on Copacabana beach and it had real festive spirit...tomorrow xmas day and nothing planned except that we are hanggliding over Rio at 9am to start the day then it's party on the beach all day with the locals...
by the way Vedanta is asking what's the weather like in the UK!..and if you are going to the beach or not!...

Rio

... 20/12/07-at last in RIO!...Ilha Grande(IG) was beautiful and we rested well and now we are ready for more travel and new discoveies..IG is a small tropical island with very few people,just 2 streets and no cars,unpaved paths and wild!...spent most of my time in a hammock by the beach reading the new Harry Potter book and I have to say it´s the worst book in the HP series,read it in 4 days now it´s Pritti´s turn,weather was good in the end.We ate everyday at Biert Garden,buffet but you pay by weight of the food in your plate and for 15 quid for 3 we use to eat like Kings...this concept I have seen 1st time and it could work very well anywhere.

We left IG on 18th by ferry and arrived Rio on 19th,weather is cloudy but hot and we have a beachside hotel in Rio called Arpoador Inn on the corner of Copacabana and Ipenema beach...evreyone warns us not to take anything with you except little money once you walk out of your hotel and it is rather scary and we have loads of horror stories from other travellers...visited Maracana Football stadium-The Great PELE´S home-it´a concrete structure for 100,000 fans and it´s a stadium of bygone era´s of 60´s-new one to be built fo 2014 World Cup in Brazil...Rio has great location by the green/blue sea and black/lush green mountains but the city it´s self is again stuck back still in 70´s...hoping to hangglide/paraglide or something over Rio very soon hoping to do it on xams day...

Brazil...on the way to RIO for xmas

...after Iguazu Falls -bus to Campo Grande in Pantanal-total 24 hours bus ride-then 6 hours minibus to jungle lodge-few days spent exploring Pantanal-then back to Campo Grande and to Sao Paulo then another bus to Angra Dos Reis-total of 24 hous bus ride- then 2 hour ferry to a tropical island called Ilha Grande,its 300km from Rio and we are spending 7 days here just relaxing but first 3 days it rained non-stop and today 15th Dec it was glorious day and we spent all day on a boat exploring the differfent beaches of the island and snorkling too!-we leave here on Tuesday and be in Rio for xmas from 19th till 26 th then we fly to Peru the land of Incas! we also travel to Bolovia for 2 weeks from Peru...

Pantanal...Lodge

...our jungle lodge on Rio Negro...surrounded by wildlife specially thousands of alligators and millions of Piranhas fish....we know there are Anacondas ,Pumas,Panthers and Jaguars too but they are all nocturnal and very difficult to see...but we know that THEY were probably watching us at some point in our stay in Pantanal...

...Pantanal is half the size of France and it crosses Brazil-Argentina-Bolivia and we were very near the borders of both Bolivia and Argentina-it is mainly swamp land with jungles thrown in-it has very few people and no towns or roads-it has the greatest concentration of wildlife in the world and it is lot easier to see than in the Amazon Jungles...
... sunset from balcony of our lodge ...

...there is no better way to fall a sleep than in a hammock in the jungle...here we are trying to have afternoon nap as the sun really heats up...
...this lawn is teeming with birds of every kind all day but specially in the morning ..and when the lights were turned on in the evening there were thousands of bugs everywhere some the size of our palm and we had to run a gauntlet through them each night to get to our bedroom.. and when you got there there were frogs waiting for you on the door,in the room and in the bathroom...in the end we just left the frogs were we found them and bugs under 2 inches well we just ignored them and we just got use to them...honest! ...as we were about to leave our lodge we found Vedanta palying with a baby SNAKE...I am not kidding and it was about 12 inches long and very newly born...harmless said our guide Lewis...
...there were futbal matches every evening at 6pm as the sun goes down on the lawn between the river and the lodge...
...BRAZIL v TOURIST
...you don't want to know the scores...all I would say is if I were Harry Redknapp I would definitley sign up our cook and the barman-though the barman may need to loose some weight!....

Pantanal...Piranha fishing

...Piranha fishing on Rio Grande(big river) from front lawn of our jungle lodge-it was great fun and I think I may take up fishing... the bait used was chunks of pure beef and soon as you threw the bait in the water you could feel the tug of the Piranhas feeding on it straight away-real scary sensation...
...P trying her luck at fishing but Piranhas would just eat the bait and swim away...fishing ain't easy as I thought it was...
...this is the first fish I ever caught and boy did I enjoy it!-and yes it was PIRANHA-it was too small so I had to put it back in the river...note the sweat soaked shirt and it was only 9am...

...this is PIRANHA I caught and look at those teeth...boy they are vicious...it is known in this part that group of Piranhas has now and then eaten a fully grown cow in less than 15 minutes...
...some of the other fish we caught like this catfish -were grilled-I was told they tasted real good!...
...this is the same waters where we were fishing for Piranhas above and this waters are teeming with 20 species of Piranhas and hundreds of Alligators-just believe me because we have seen them and if you look carefully between the boat and the small white building on the left there is an Alligator swimming that got little bit too close to where P & V and their chums were swimming and I told P and V to come out of the waters-I am not kidding..across the river there were many Allis just waiting for the sun to comeout...Locals go swimming here all the time but not if they have open wound or women are on their monthly but it is still dangerous...the brave Swedes stayed in the water as though they had a death wish...I refused to get in that water for love or money...I think P would think twice before she would do that again as well...I think....