MY BIG YELLOW FRIEND AND I REUNITED

WEATHER: Hot and 35C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: My home coming on Rosita

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Uncertainty of where to sit-hot seats

WORD OF THE DAY:  Countdown

DISTANCE TRAVELLED:

We had a long way to travel today, up to 12 hours, so Mark and Gray wanted to get an early start with a departure at 7am.  Anything before 7am and the alarm has to be set for a 5.45am wakeup, so it makes for an extremely long day for all.  My only issue this morning was where to sit.  The truck has been on the move for over 30 days, people have ‘their’ seats and I don’t want to upset people before I’ve had a chance to meet them.  There are 26 of us on a 36 seat truck, so I needed to work out where those 10 seats were.  I was counting on one of the backward facing table chairs would be free, as people usually don’t like travelling backwards so that was my first call, asking Chris if that seat was taken and he said actually no, it’s not, so first seat and I get it!  I figured there are only around 5 truck days left till we get to Caracas and people leave and then I can take one of their seats.  I have blog entries to catch up on, so the table will also come in handy.  SOLD.  I have a new seat.

So back on Rosita and I hate to say I’m excited.  I’ve had a hiatus away from the group and the truck and my batteries have now been recharged for the final 35 day push through the last 2 days in Brazil, 10 days in Venezuela, 10 days in Colombia and the remaining time in Ecuador and finishing the tour in Quito where the trip started back on the 12^th November.  There are only 3 original people from that start and then I joined 14 days later on the 29^th November, but we literally have been on the road for over 5 months.  That’s a long time in anyone’s book. 

I added a countdown app to my IPod when I was in Manaus, initially to count down the days for me till I saw Zeme again, but then I started adding in how long I had been away, the last time I had a haircut, how long till I see certain friends in the States and it has now been a great little app I have been checking every day.  But as we were driving along today it dawned on me that I need to not focus on how many days till I’m home or how many days till I see Zeme.  I am still travelling on the trip of a lifetime and I need to make the most of the time I have left.  I miss Zeme, he knows that, I know that and the days will roll along quicker if I’m not so hung up on the counting of them.  For goodness sake I am in South America, on a BIG yellow truck, living the dream.  There will be plenty of time to spend with Zeme in 121 days.  But just for the books the things I am counting down are:

I’ve been travelling for 366 days

My South America tour started 119 days ago

I’ve been on the South American continent for 144 days

There are 34 days of this section left to travel

I will be home in 99 days-that’s sounds weird and I’m in double digits

Only 121 days till Zeme and I are reunited in Brisbane in July

It has been 102 days since my last haircut (this needs to be rectified)

It’s been 40 days since I last saw Rosita-missed ya pal

….and finally there are 156 days till I arrive in Ethiopia and start my new exciting life in Addis Ababa.

So you can see I have been busy using my new app, but I am not going to be so absorbed in the counting of the days.  I am sure there are a million people that would love to swap places with me, so I am going to enjoy my last days on my last group tour and finish what I started with the same enthusiasm that I brought on day 1. Yep, I’m back on track.

Day 366 means that I have finished my diary that I bought in Brisbane before I left home.  It was actually pretty cool and it was a 365 day diary and each day was numbered in the top right hand corner of each page.  That’s how I always knew where I was at in my days.  Needless to say I haven’t seen anything like that since, so I have made my own by buying a notebook and just copying the same format.  I bought in Buenos Aires a leather notebook cover, so I’m using that for my new diary and the pages get me up to arriving home and then hopefully I will be able to get another 365 day diary to start my Ethiopian adventures in.  I am thinking about blogging my trials and tribulations once I get there and I think I will start a new blog address for that.  I’ll need to think of a name for the domain, so if anyone has any ideas send them through to me.  When I was in Addis Zeme had bought me arrival roses and then on my second last day he bought me goodbye roses.  So what I have done was picked all the petals off the 10 roses and I have dried and flattened them in my diary and we worked out that it was going to be 131 days till we saw each other, so I had 131 rose petals and I have now stuck one in my diary on each day till we see each other again. Awwwwwww I hear you say, I know sweet right!  So I did this today to fill in some time and I know that Chris and Heather were whispering about it, but what do I care, it is something that Z and I came up with together and I think it’s nice. 

I left 2 bags and a postage bag, things I was going to post home from Brazil and just didn’t get a chance, so it will be interesting to see what is in those bags after 7 weeks.  Obviously it is stuff I don’t need if I haven’t used it in the last 2 months, but I will need to go through it and decide what I will keep, toss and post.  I need to keep an eye in the crap I am buying and spreading on the truck as the tour comes to an end.  It is weird now that I can have the thought of being able to keep stuff on me till “I get home”.  I’ve never been able to say that till now.  On my round world ticket I am allowed to have 2 pieces of checked luggage and I think I will finally be able to use the allowance.  After this, Easter Island and Barbados I will be visiting friends till home, so having an extra bag to lug won’t be an issue and I won’t care that I look like I have over packed.  This is pretty exciting now that I think about it and as we head further north and leave Brazil things will hopefully become cheaper again and I can start to have a little spending spree before leaving the continent!  

We were meant to have lunch at the Equator today, but the weather was quite crappy and raining and when we pulled over at 2pm, Mark said they didn’t see the sign for it and 2 people piped up that they saw the monument and the sign and they didn’t say anything?  Are you serious?  So there were a few upset people, which I can understand as it is a pretty cool meridian.  I’ve seen it a few times in Africa and I have also seen it in Ecuador, but it would have been cool to see the Brazil one as well.  Some people are dopey areses sometimes.

We arrived into Boa Vista for our last night in Brail at 7.30pm, 12.5 hours after leaving Manaus.  There are a lot of people happy to leave Brazil.  They have been here for over 55 days and it is an expensive country and think people just need a change of scenery, country and currency and spirits will be lifted again.  Once again I am lucky, I only spent 34 days here, but I have a bitter taste in my mouth with them not giving Zeme a visa.  He seriously went back and forth from the Brazil Consulate in Addis over 15 times in one week.  They were really giving him the run around, the bastards and I can now say that as I am now out of their country and I won’t be coming back for a long time.

Mark and Gray hadn’t used this hotel in Boa Vista before so we had a little scenic drive around the city for about 10 minutes, which at the end of a 13 hour day, what’s another 10 minutes, but the city must have the world’s largest round-a-bout, it was massive, and we did 2 complete circles before breaking off and getting a quick toilet stop in for 2 people and then this really nice guy came up to the truck and asked if we needed help, well actually yes, so when we got everyone back on board, he lead us to the hotel in his car!  What a nice person, see there are still nice people in this world!!! 

Boa Vista is the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima. Situated on the western bank of the River Branco, the city lies 220 km (136 mi) away from Brazil's border with Venezuela. It is the only Brazilian capital located entirely north of the Equator. Boa Vista has an equatorial climate, with high temperatures throughout the year and a very narrow range of temperatures, with an average temperature of about 30 °C. It also lies within a very wet climate with annual precipitation often more than 2000 mm. These hot and wet conditions are ideal for the growth of plants, so the vegetation found in the city is both dense and varied.

As a modern city, Boa Vista stands out among the other capitals of the North Region of Brazil as it is a planned city with a radial plan. It was planned by the architect Darci Aleixo Derenusson who based his design for the city on one that is similar to that of Paris, France. The main avenues converge at Civic Center Plaza, where the headquarters of three governmental branches (legislative, judiciary, and executive) reside.

It was a quick dinner at Bobs.  A Hungry Jacks equivalent with a burger, chips and a drink and then in bed by 10pm.  We have a border crossing tomorrow but hopefully that won’t take too long and not such a long day as we had today.  Goodnight to Brazil for the last time.  We have had our ups and we have had our downs, but it time to leave……Tucan.

365 DAYS. 365 DAYS. 365 DAYS. 365 DAYS. 365 DAYS. 365 DAYS. 365 DAYS

WEATHER: Hot and 36C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY:  Achieving 365 days away from home

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Missing Z

WORD OF THE DAY:  365 days-happy anniversary

Good morning day 365!!! 

I have been away from home for 365 days. 

Where has the time gone?  When I think back to the people I have met, the friends I have made (and some that I haven’t), the places I’ve seen, the kilometers I have travelled in 365 days.  I can’t pick one country, one experience or one place that would be a highlight in my time on the road.  Each one is different and no experience the same.  The one thing that does stand out is the love that I found in Africa, particularly Ethiopia and in a special person called Zeme.  I never thought I would meet my soul mate on the trip, on the other side of the world and I am thankful that I added Ethiopia to my itinerary.  It was a last minute 2 week filler before heading back to Europe for my French River cruise.  The world has a strange and mysterious ways of sorting things out and I thank her for looking after me, not only in meeting Zeme but for my whole trip to date.  I also have to thank my travel gods that really have come through for me the whole trip as well (touchwood) and I look forward to my last 100 days on the road before finally touching down back on Australian soil in early July. 

Some stats for the 365 days:

I have travelled 6 continents

I have been to 52 countries

I have travelled on 49 international flights

I have 15 visa’s in my passport along with 106 countries stamps

I have travelled approximately 265,678km by air and land

I met the love of my life in Ethiopia………

My Facebook status today sums it all up:

365 days. That's how long I have been on the road. In 365 days I have met amazing people, made life- long friends and missed home every day. In 365 days I have travelled to 6 continents, 52 countries and flown 49 international flights. I am thankful for each and every day I have experienced new lands, cultures and memories that will last a lifetime. So a BIG thank you to every person that has touched my life in my 365 day World Odyssey, it has been the best 365 days of my entire life xx

So with all that said we leave the Amazon today and head back to Manaus.  We went back the same way we came.  Leaving the lodge at 10am on the motorized canoes for the 1.15 hours back to Lindoa Village where we were able to buy some cold drinks and stock up on snacks for the 3 hour trip back to town.  It was so hot already, and really humid there were a lot of red faces as we boarded the bus that had the air-condition blowing full ball.  There was a slight change to the itinerary and we were going to do a 40 minute boat ride ton see the meeting of the waters on our back to the hotel.  The cost was only 12AUD and apparently you can’t come to Manaus and not see this phenomenon.  We arrived at the port at 2pm and were boarded straight onto a small boat with a guide.  It took us 10 minutes to get to where the waters meet and the guide was very good at explaining why they don’t initially mix till about 100km down river.  The Meeting of Waters is the confluence between the Rio Negro, a river with dark (almost black colored) water, and the sandy-colored Amazon River or Rio Solimões, as it is known the upper section of the Amazon in Brazil. For 6 km in the dry season and up to 100km in the rainy season and the river's waters run side by side without mixing. This phenomenon is due to the differences in temperature, speed and water density of the two rivers. The Rio Negro flows at near 2 km per hour at a temperature of 28°C, while the Amazon River flows between 4 to 6 km per hour at a temperature of 22°C.  It was pretty cool to see as you could clearly see where the Rio Negro finished and where the Amazon River started.  We got to experience the temperature difference between the two rivers at the meeting and the boat took us over them both where they joined as we had our hands in the water and I rekon it would have been a 5-10C difference in the temperatures.  We got to float around here for about 15 minutes before getting speed back to land.  It was definitely worth the 12AUD and I am glad that they made time for us to be able to do it, so thanks Mark and thanks to Antonio as well.  We were back at the Manaus hotel at 3pm and we were able to check straight into our rooms.  Maxine didn’t do the Amazon extension, so I was able to keep all my stuff in our room and we were to share a room together for the night.  I don’t think it is a bad thing for Kate and I to have a break in sharing for a night or 2. 

Mark has told us to cash up on the Brazilian rials.  Once we hit Venezuela in a few days’ time, if you have cash you will get double your money on the exchange than what you would get on the ‘official’ exchange from your banks/ATM’s.  So I took a walk into town after dropping off all my gear and it was a mission as it was so disgustingly humid.  I knew where I was going from the one trip I took last week, so I headed straight for the ATM 15 minutes away, got out my cash, stopped off at the corner shop for some water and snacks for the truck and high tailed it back to the sanctuary of my air-conditioned room at the hotel.  God it was so hot out there.  I saw a sign that said it was 36C which I would believe and add 96% humidity to that and you have one big red faced sweat ball.  Nice. 

It was now computer time and I had finally paid for my round the world ticket and my internal flight to Lima and both tickets were sitting on my email from Beth.  It has taken a long time to get this right and just when we thought we had it all sorted Qantas have now cancelled their LA to Auckland/Christchurch services.  This buggers up my New Zealand stop where I was going to Christchurch to see Lynda for 3 nights and Lisa in the north island for 9 nights.  Option A was to fly into Brisbane and turn around on a flight to Christchurch, fly to Auckland and then back to Brisbane.  Not ideal but I had promised the girls I was visiting, but after looking at the cost of flights the one way flight to Christchurch was 468AUD and the one way from Auckland was 290AUD.  So it was going to cost me 758AUD extra now to see the girls and as much as I wanted to see them it is just a little too much money for a flight to New Zealand.  So now I had to email the girls and hope that they are okay with it.  If the flights were 200 even 300 I still would have done it, but when it’s nearly 800AUD, I think they will understand.  So with the sent button hit I it has now sunk in that I will be home 2 weeks earlier than expected on the 22^nd June.  As always I try and look at the upside and getting an extra 2 weeks at home will give more time to get all my affairs in order for Ethiopia, more time to see people and also I will now also be able to definitely fit in a trip to Darwin to visit Mums grave site and say goodbye to her as well.  It has been a long time since I have made that pilgrimage and I really want to do that before leaving.  I was hoping that Zeme would be able to join me in Darwin to see where I grew up and meet some school friends but he is only able to get 14 days off work including travel days, so it will be a push for him to come, so it will be something I will do before he arrives.  So I now get 6 weeks and 6 glorious days at home and as much as I am enjoying my trip I am really looking forward to getting home and seeing my friends and my beautiful god-daughters and my best friend who has been with me the whole trip in my heart and texting each and every week on the goings on at home.  It is quite ironic that 12 months to the day I have booked a ticket home, I have exactly 100 days till I’m home and as planned I would have been gone exactly 465 days, exactly.  This was not always the case as I was going to head back to Europe and try and get another 4 months travelling in but now that Zeme is in my life, I am now just eager to see him, get to Ethiopia and start my new life.  It’s also nice to know any further travel after this will be done with him and to share the travel experience with someone you love I think will be that much more rewarding.

Dinner was a simple burger next to the hotel at a local restaurant that also had the pay as you go buffet.  The buffet food looked a little dicey so I stuck with a fresh cooked bacon and egg burger and it was delicious and a grand total of 2.50AUD which is a bargain in Brazil.  I was on a mission to complete 2 more blogs before bed and then the light was off at 10.30pm.  We had a big days driving tomorrow and it will be my first time back on Rosita in 40 days.  I have always enjoyed the travel days (as long as my IPod is working) and I have missed approximately 15 days in the truck while I was on my Ethiopian hiatus so I am keen and happy to be reunited with my big yellow mate.

So it is a very thankful goodnight on my 365 day of travelling.  There were a few people that weren’t sure that I could do that many tours back to back and still be enjoying it, but I did it, I am still happy and a BIG thanks again to every person that has touched my life in my 365 day World Odyssey, it has been the best 365 days of my entire life xx

365 DAYS. 365 DAYS. 365 DAYS. 365 DAYS. 365 DAYS. 365 DAYS. 365 DAYS

I DID IT!!!!!!

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS IN THE AMAZON JUNGLE

WEATHER: hot and humid 36C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting hit by a flapping piranha

BUMMER OF THE DAY: It’s bloody hot

WORD OF THE DAY:  Piranha

Another day in the Amazon, you know how it is.  It was a free morning, people could go for another hike in the jungle (no thanks), and people had the opportunity to go an overnight stay for the last time and not as far as yesterday’s group (no thanks) or a fishing trip or dolphin trip.  Kate and I decided to chill in the morning and then do a fishing trip in the afternoon.  I know, me fishing, but it’s not normal fishing we are fishing for piranha’s…… so that was our day planned. 

After our last lunch in the Amazon at 3pm we headed out in the motor canoes to try our luck for the last time to catch us a piranha.  It was nice to see some blue skies.  The rain comes and goes here.  It will rain for 10 minutes, clear up and rain again an hour later.  We have been lucky it hasn’t been any torrential rain and we are quite happy to put up with the intermittent showers as it also helps cool things down.  The two boats motored upstream to a new section of the river and amongst a new water forest the engines were switched off as we paddled (well the guide) through looking for a good spot to drop some lines.  We didn’t catch anything at the first stop so we moved on and after settling in for about 10 minutes Kate yanked up her line after feeling a niggle and low and behold there was a piranha attached for around 3 seconds before he decided to let go of the bait, he hadn’t been hooked and he was flicked into the boat and before any of us knew it the fish had slapped me in the side above my hip and starting flipping around my feet.  So then I screamed as I thought of his little knife like teeth ripping into my lily white flesh as he flipped and flopped around in the boat.  I could hear him but I couldn’t see him, so with my feet in the air, Kate laughing her head off and the flip flip if the piranha I was rescued when the guide came along and popped him down the back of the canoe.  Talk about a catch.  Well done Kate!!!  So we upped anchor a few more times and at the last spot Sharon caught 5 piranhas at the same spot.  Show off, I had some bites but didn’t catch anything.  I guess some people are born fishermen, Sharon, and some people are not, that’s me.

On our way back to the lodge we tried our luck in the lagoon to see if we could spot pink and grey dolphins and today we were lucky and we saw both.  It was cool to see the pink dolphins as you are just so used to seeing them a grey color and they are a lot smaller than their sea faring family members.  It is so hard to get photos of them though, so I have some splash action shots but none of them breaching the water. Oh well a memory I will have to lock away in my memory bank instead.  We sat there for around 40 minutes and as we did we watched the Amazon sky slowly change colours and I got some magic shots of the sky as it moved from blue, to orange with sunset coming in.  It really is a peaceful place and I can see why is such a special part of the world. We are lucky to be here.  We got back to camp just after 6pm and the weary trekkers from the previous night were back.  They had a great time and saw jaguar foot prints, a lot of Macaws, a tarantula as big as a DINNER plate and some scorpion spiders.  It was a difficult walk and I am glad that I didn’t go.  That is definitely not my cup of tea.  There were 3 people heading out tonight only hours walk away, but the creepy crawlies is just too much for me, so I won’t be joining them.  They will be back in the morning in time for our departure at 10am.

Once the sun has set and the moon and stars take over for 12 hours and you are out in the wilds with no street lights, car lights or house lights, you can look up into the sky the stars seem so much brighter and cleaner and the moon shining in all her glory looks fabulous.  You really appreciate what is up there and wonder if there is another life form looking back at us.  Will we ever really know? 

  

Dinner was amazing as usual and it will be missed.  Speaking of missed I am missing Z terribly at the moment, after spending 4 weeks, 24 hours a day with each other I keep thinking I have left something behind.  But time is steadily ticking by and the days are moving so quickly so it is with this thought that I go to sleep tonight for the last time in the Amazon. 

HACKING OUR WAY IN THE AMAZON

WEATHER: Hot and humid 36C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Waling in the mighty Amazon Forest

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Getting bitten by killer bees

WORD OF THE DAY:  KILLER BEES

We woke this morning to the sounds of the Amazon.  Birds, cicadas and more birds.  It was 5am, and we were off in the motor canoes this morning to see the sunrise and a spot of bird watching and anything else we could spot on the river.  It was foggy, so the hopes of seeing a sunrise were dashed but we preserved and saw a woodpecker, and he looked exactly like Woody Woodpecker the cartoon, peck peck pecking away, a lot A LOT of spider webs, with no residents home, thank goodness, other than that it was just the experience of cruising around one of the main estuaries that flows into the Amazon River.  We went a lake to see if we could spot pink and gray dolphins and we were unlucky, we didn’t spot any of them.  It is a lot like an African safari, it is the wild, they are wild animals and you just never know if it will be a good day or a bad day.  We tried and really didn’t see too much but as luck would have it as we motored back to the lodge about 20m from the floating jetty and we saw 2 pink dolphins.  Funny the way nature works, we boat 15 minutes to the lake and we see them out the front of the lodge. 

Breakfast was served at 7.15am, and again it was an awesome spread of fresh rolls, eggs, ham, cheese, arepas (small pancake, flat muffin things that are fresh and delicious with butter) and platters of fresh fruit.  A great way to start off what could, or could not be a busy day.  After breakfast the day’s events were explained to us and then we decided what we did and didn’t want to do.  There were a few options for tours and they don’t have a fixed day by day program because they think that’s the best way to do it. All tours are done in the most flexible manner to suit our needs.  Today’s options:

1.       A 2 hour walk in the Amazon

2.       A 3 hour walk in the Amazon

3.       An overnight out in the jungle that involved sleeping in hammocks and 12 hours of walking….

So people that know me know which option I took.  Yep the 2 hour walk in the Amazon.  I’m not a hiker, but I am in the Amazon and I knew I HAD to go, you can’t come all this way and not hike in the Amazon right?  So I chose the least painful option and picked option 1.  I wasn’t going to be peer pressured into the 3 hour walk that 15 other people were doing, and in the end it was just Kate and I with our guide Christoff.  We figured a smaller group, of 2, would have a better chance of spotting animals anyway and we weren’t too concerned.  There were 8 people that were doing the overnight option and kudos to them, besides all the walking in the humid conditions, they were sleeping out in the jungle, in hammocks, with all sorts of creepy crawlies and the thought of hand sized tarantulas crawling over me in a hammock was SO NOT appealing to me.  F*@k that!!!  That was also Kate’s put off, so we were more than happy to stay in style at the lodge. 

The Amazon basin is 6 million sq. km of river and jungle of which 3.6 million sq. km are in Brazil. The state “Amazonas” is an area of 1.58 million sq. km its Brazil’s largest state with the main city Manaus. The Amazon basin is so big and overwhelming that every traveler coming from here has respect for the nature. Over half of the living creatures until now discovered, are living in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon. There are 50.000 different flowering plants. On every hectare of rainforest grows 600 different species of trees. There are two seasons; the dry and the wet. From December until May/June we have the rain season and from July until November there is the dry season. Because of these two seasons there is low water from August until February and high water from March until July.

The Amazon is world's biggest rainforest. This rainforest covers over 40% of Brazil's landmass and is the home of more than 1.800 species of birds and 250 kinds of mammals. The Amazon rainforest is responsible for 50% of the total oxygen production of the world. Both the Amazon River and its 1100 branches are responsible for more than 20% of the total freshwater supplies of the world. 10 of the 20 world's biggest rivers run in the Amazon basin. The Amazon River itself is more than 6.500 km long and of this, 3.600 km through Brazil. It is not a surprise that most supply routes running via the river and boats are the most important way of transport.

The Amazon Rainforest also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), of which five and a half million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. States or departments in four nations contain "Amazonas" in their names. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and it comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.

Based on archaeological evidence from an excavation at Caverna da Pedra Pintada, human inhabitants first settled in the Amazon region at least 11,200 years ago.  The first European to travel the length of the Amazon River was Francisco de Orellana in 1542. Wet tropical forests are the most species-rich biome, and tropical forests in the Americas are consistently more species rich than the wet forests in Africa and Asia.  As the largest tract of tropical rainforest in the Americas, the Amazonian rainforests have unparalleled biodiversity. One in ten known species in the world lives in the Amazon Rainforest.  This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world.

The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2,000 birds and mammals. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in the region.  One in five of all the bird species in the world live in the rainforests of the Amazon, and one in five of the fish species live in Amazonian rivers and streams. Scientists have described between 96,660 and 128,843 invertebrate species in Brazil alone.

The biodiversity of plant species is the highest on Earth with some experts estimating that one square kilometer (247 acres) may contain more than a thousand types of trees and thousands of species of other higher plants. According to a 2001 study, a quarter square kilometer (62 acres) of Ecuadorian rainforest supports more than 1,100 tree species.  One square kilometer (247 acres) of Amazon rainforest can contain about 90,790 tons of living plants. The average plant biomass is estimated at 356 ± 47 tons per hectare. To date, an estimated 438,000 species of plants of economic and social interest have been registered in the region with many more remaining to be discovered or catalogued.

We left the lodge at 8.50am with Cristoff, looking like Rambo in his army fatigues and a 50cm machete in his hand ready for some jungle action.  The lodge backs directly onto the Amazon, so we left via a walking track for about 10 minutes before we left it and started our bush bashing.  With Cristoff in front of us, hacking his way through vines and trees to make way for us, we were on the lookout for Amazon animals, birds and the weird looking fauna that lives in this wonderful environment.  Cristoff showed us an ant’s nest where you could out your hand on it and they crawl on you and then you squish them and their little corpses become a mozzie repellant.  He showed us sap from a tree that you can light and it becomes a fire touch, he showed us nuts and leaves you could eat and we tasted.  It was so humid in the rainforest though and Kate and I were sweaty Betty’s.  There were millions of mozzies buzzing around us the whole time, but we had out on bug spray and they didn’t seem to be biting us, but there is nothing worse than seeing and hearing them buzzing around you for 2 hours.  At one point I was following Kate and I saw a few bee looking things flying around her, so I told her to keep moving, but it was too late, we had disturbed a bees nest and they weren’t happy and we literally ran for about 10m and these suckers were stuck on our cloths and still biting us.  I copped the worst of it getting bitten 15 times on my left upper arm and I had one lodged in my hair that Cristoff took a few minutes to locate and remove and Kate got a bite to the face.  I do remember running and yelling “get them off me” as I shook my hair clean out of my hair tie!!!  It probably looked ridiculous but man their sting was really painful, I swear I saw teeth the size of a dog, so I am calling them killer bees which Cristoff was quick to inform us that they weren’t dangerous and proceeded to cut some bark off a tree and told us to rub the inside of it on the bites and within minutes it killer 60% of the pain.  This is the Amazon; they probably have a cure for everything in here. 

We got to see some cool scenery, with a stream we saw with the sun shining on it was a bright red, some funky plants and of course the killer bees, but other than that we were unlucky in the animal department again, but we trekked for 2 hours in the Amazon Jungle and it was an amazing experience.  Sweaty, dirty but amazing all the same.  The ground was all spongy from the years of leaves dropping from the trees and decomposing on the ground, amongst the rotting logs, freshly fallen logs covered in moss the only thing that worried me the whole time was the holes in the ground.  They obviously belong to animals of some sort and every time I walked past one I was waiting for a set of teeth, 10 legs or a tongue to come out and attack me.  But alas it didn’t happen; sometimes your imagination can be an enemy in those situations.  Kate and I thought for a while that Cristoff was lost, we would backtrack a few times and he would stop and take a second before moving on again, so we were very very relieved when we came upon the path back to the lodge and he said ‘he knew where he was now’.  So exactly 2 hours from the minute we left we found ourselves back at the lodge and I am so glad that I didn’t do the 3 hours.  2 hours was more than enough for me. 

Lunch was at 12.30pm with the usual massive spread and then the afternoon activities were explained.  At 3.30pm there was the option to go and visit a local family via the motor canoes and in the evening they were going Caiman (crocodile) spotting after dinner.  I have to say I was absolutely shattered and decided not to do the family option and stayed at the lodge and slept and read the afternoon away.  The group returned at 6pm and then after dinner they departed for the caimans at 8.30pm.  Cause I had slept all afternoon, I just couldn’t rouse myself and also skipped the night caiman tour.  I was knackered.  The group saw and held a baby caiman so I sort of regret not going but seen one crocodile seen them all right? 

So I have all the names of the new people and in no particular order I’d like to welcome to ‘my’ tour:

Wendy and Tony-Australian

Maria-Australian

Marina-German

Rebecca-Canadian

Dom- English

Cam-Australian

Natasha-Australian

Jade-English

Gerard-Netherlands

Luigi-Italian

Stephanie-Swiss

Danielle-French

Maxine-Australian

Taz-English

Moon Sung-South Korea

Michelle-English

Heather-Australian

Chris-New Zealand

Nez- Australian

So goodnight from our second night in the Amazon. We are in the Amazon.  It is still hard to believe.

A SPOT OF PIRANHA FISHING IN THE AMAZON

WEATHER: 35C and humid

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: The group arrives

BUMMER OF THE DAY: The group is tired and cranky

WORD OF THE DAY:  The group is here

THE GROUP IS HERE!!! 

THE GROUP IS HERE!!!

I was on my way down to breakfast this morning when I got a knock on my door at 7am and there was a tired Mark standing there with a big hug at the ready.  It is good to see a friendly face!!  I went down to breakfast and when I walked in there were a lot of stranger faces looking back at me, but in amongst the see of faces I saw Julia and Sharon first and then I saw Kate.  So BIG hugs all round for the crew and as the morning progressed Kate introduced me to all the new faces of the tour.  Some of them I will only know for 11 days as this section of the trip finishes in Caracas but 10 of the new faces will continue on, so having to remember 21 new names will be my mission in the next few days.

They all had 2 hours to freshen up as we were leaving at 9am for our 3 nights in the Amazon Jungle.  As they didn’t get to spend any time in Manaus we will be leaving the Amazon a few hours earlier to get back to Manaus a little earlier and visiting the Meeting of the Waters, so I get to see this phenomenon anyway, so it is just as well I didn’t do it during the week.   I had to pack a day pack for the Amazon and I was lucky enough that my roomie Maxine was not going, as she had been before, so I was able to leave all my stuff in the room which was good to not have to leave it in the luggage room.

The bus arrived at 9am and after losing one passenger and locating him 30 minutes later we hit the road to see the Amazon Jungle.  Man we are off to the Amazon.  I’m not really sure what is happening as I have missed all the information leading up to it, but it was an optional excursion that we paid 300AUD for the 3 nights, which included all your food and activities while at the lodge.  The drive in the beautiful air-conditioned bus was 2.5 hours which got us to Lindoa Village and the motorized canoes which were to take us to the lodge.  The canoe ride, with a motor, took 1.5 hours on the Urubu River which eventually turns into the Amazon River.  So with the wind in our hair, we find ourselves in the mighty Amazon and it feels amazing. 

When we arrived at the lodge just after 1pm and it is amazing.   I got my roomie Kate back and we were given the keys to one of the newer bungalows and a personal tour of room by the owner of the lodge, Antonio, to which the lodge has the same name.  Antonio is a Native tour operator and offers safe and reliable jungle tours with experienced native guides, for those who like to feel the real Amazon and learn about its flora, fauna and ecosystem, far away from the city of Manaus. The beautiful ecological lodge is located on the Urubu river bank, 200 km from Manaus. Offering a choice of staying in comfortable rooms with toilet and shower or staying in a bungalow with hammocks, where you enjoy the beautiful view of the river, with shared toilets and showers. At our jungle tower, which also has private rooms, you will have spectacular panoramic views of the jungle and the river, the perfect place to enjoy the beautiful sunset and listen to the sounds of the jungle.  Antonio grew up in the South of the Amazon in the jungle along the riverside, a real caboclo. That’s how they call the people from this state of Brazil. His parents taught him all about the forest. How to survive there and what you can use from the forest (fruits, medical plants etc.) As a little boy he went along with his father to the forest to collect rose wood and Brazilian nuts, which we sold. When he got to the age to go to school he had to paddle a lot. He went to school by canoe and had to paddle for a few hours. The teacher, a lady who gave lessons in her house, was also the midwife in town. So if she had to help somebody with delivering a baby, there was no school and he would paddle back home again.  In order for him to get food they had to go fishing. Children have to help fishing as soon as they're able to do this. He learnt how to get different kinds of fish and of course how to prepare them.  He also had to learn all the eatable things the forest has to offer.  Antonio’s dream was to have his own company and work with the native people. This was realized in 2007 when he started with his own company Amazon Antonio Jungle tours in Manaus. It was then he also started building his own ecological lodge on the Urubu River, with help from the native people.  The main reason why he loves this job is because he likes to share knowledge and experience of the forest with other people. Showing them how to live and survive in the jungle.

After settling into our rooms lunch was served at the main part of the lodge that also had a view looking down to the Urubu River.  The food served was amazing with a buffet of beef, chicken, mashed pumpkin, salads and bread.  Drinks are on a consumption basis and a tab was started for each person and we would just fix up the bill at the end of our stay.  We had an hour to relax which the guys needed after the last week they have had and then we headed back into the canoes for a spot of piranha fishing on the Urubu River.  This river has dark water like the Rio Negro, resulting from organic acids released by the decomposition of organic matters which kills bacteria and other parasites in the water and the lack of terrestrial sediments which makes it safe for swimming, and the area has far less mosquitoes. The Urubu River starts in Presidente Figueiredo and runs for many km's before reaching the Amazon River. Via the Urubu River we travelled up stream by motorized canoe to through the narrow channels and the flooded forest. It was so peaceful in here.  Once we entered the flooded forest, which is exactly that, it is dry for 6 months of the year and then during the rainy season it floods to over 5m, the engine is turned off and then we use oars to maneuver through the trees and channels.  This was where we had our first stop for piranha fishing.  If you do catch anything it goes back to the lodge and cooked along with the nightly dinner. 

A piranha is a member of family Characidae and an omnivorous freshwater fish that inhabits South American rivers. They are known for their sharp teeth and a voracious appetite for meat.  The total number of piranha species is unknown and contested, and new species continue to be described. Estimates range from fewer than 30 to more than 60.  Aquarium piranhas have been introduced into parts of the United States, with specimens occasionally found in the Potomac River, Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri and even as far north as Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin, although they typically do not survive cold winters.  Piranhas have also been discovered in the Kaptai Lake in southeast Bangladesh. Research is being carried out to establish how piranhas have moved to such distant corners of the world from their original habitat. Some rogue exotic fish traders are thought to have released them in the lake to avoid being caught by anti-poaching forces.  Piranhas are normally about 14 to 26 cm long although some specimens have been reported to be up to 43 cm in length.  All piranhas have a single row of sharp teeth in both jaws; the teeth are tightly packed and interlocking (via small cusps) and used for rapid puncture and shearing.

There are various myths about piranhas such as how they can dilacerate a human body or cattle in seconds. These myths refer specifically to Pygocentrus nattereri, the red-bellied piranha.  A recurrent myth is that they can be attracted by blood and are exclusive carnivores.   A Brazilian myth called "piranha cattle" states that they sweep the rivers at high speed and attack the first of the cattle entering the water allowing the rest of the group to traverse the river.  These myths were dismissed through research by Helder Queiroz and Anne Magurran and published on Biology Letters.  Nevertheless, a study in Suriname found that piranhas may occasionally attack humans, particularly when water levels are low.  Attacks on humans are usually reported around docks where fish are frequently gutted, and entrails are commonly thrown into the water.

So with information at the back of my mind, we baited out bamboo fishing rods with pieces of chicken and threw our lines in and waited, and waited and waited.  We actually didn’t have to wait too long before Heather caught our first piranha and after changing locations Mark was next off the rank.  They are an ugly fish but we took a wad of photos to make it look like I had caught it.  I had a lot of bites on my line and the sneaky devils stole the whole bait off the hook a few times but it wasn’t my day for fish.  I don’t know how people enjoy the sport so much, sitting there with a rod in your hand waiting for a fish to bite.  Because we were in the Amazon and we were trying to catch piranha’s it was exciting, but to just catch ‘normal’ fish in a ‘normal’ river would be BORING. 

After 3 hours of fishing and scooting around the flooded forest we headed back to the lodge where we saw some pink dolphins swimming just near the lodge’s floating jetty.  It is strange to see dolphins in a river and not in an ocean but they were beautiful all the same.  Dinner was another feast of local dishes and as we were all pretty tired (the group was knackered) they moved the caiman night spotting to tomorrow night so that everyone could get an early night and be nice and fresh for tomorrow’s activities. 

It is hard to believe that I am in the AMAZON. The Amazon jungle is directly behind the lodge.  I am in the Amazon!!!  I have now met the entire group and I have a good vibe about them which is great.  I think it also helped that we didn’t get straight onto Rosita; we have these 3 nights before I’m re-united with her.  Welcome back to South America, welcome back to Brazil and welcome back to the Tucan group.     

MOROSE IN MANAUS

WEATHER: Hot and 35C-apparently

WORD OF THE DAY: Sleep and Wi-Fi  

I am combining my 4 days I spent in Manaus as I really didn’t get up too much, seriously I am embarrassed to tell you I left the hotel once in 4 days and it was to see if I could find a camera in town for one of the girls, otherwise I may have not left the hotel at all.  It sounds terrible, but luckily there isn’t that much to see in Manaus and what there was to see we were going to see upon our return from the Amazon next week.

I arrived at 2.30am Monday morning and I just couldn’t sleep.  In the 36 hour trip I had slept around 16 hours on the plane and 2.30am Brazil time is 9.30am Ethiopia time, so my clock was slightly out which may have not helped much.  I have always told clients to try and adjust to the new time zone of where they are, if you arrive at night, try and go to sleep, if you arrive during the day to try and stay awake till night time.  I totally went against all those rules and stayed up till 7am when breakfast was served, so I showered and went to breakfast and then still wasn’t that sleepy, it probably didn’t help that I had speedy Wi-Fi in the room and English speaking TV shows, it’s been a while since I have seen a TV showing something else besides CNN news, so this was a massive surprise.  Around lunch time I started to get tired so decided to have a small sleep and then get up for an early dinner.  Well I woke at 11.30pm, so I literally slept the day away and now I was awake at midnight and not that sleepy, I wouldn’t think so after being asleep for 12 hours!  So I have really stuffed my body clock now and I was up till 5am reading and on the internet where I got a few hours’ sleep before I had to get to breakfast.  Breakfast has a small window of 7am-9am and if you don’t get there early the cold meat runs out but there seems to always be plenty of scrambled eggs and a beautiful juice which I think may be passion fruit based. 

I thought the group was due in this morning and I remember Mark telling me that when they do get in that it is really early, like at 6am.  It was now 8am and no sign of the group so I was thinking that maybe I had my days wrong, so I went back to my room and checked Facebook as I remember Debbie updating her status that they were getting on the ferry, so when I looked at that I was a day out and they weren’t due till Wednesday morning.  So I had another day in Manaus on my own and at this point I still had no urge to venture outside.  I was in an air-conditioned room, free Wi-Fi and TV.  I was in heaven.  I was also tired and I went to sleep around 1pm and woke up at midnight bright eyed and busy tailed.  Once again I would think so after another 11 hour stint.  Maybe this air travel is starting to knock my body around?  I have bought this on myself I know.  You know when you are sleeping weird patterns as the TV shows are repeating themselves.  The Seinfeld show I saw at 10am was being repeated at 2am in the morning.  They seemed to be on a cycle between Mad About You, Seinfeld, Will and Grace, America’s Top Model (cycle 6), American Idol showed for 4 hours one morning, Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy and then they would show one programme in English and then the same episode would be repeated later on in Portuguese.  I guess they don’t count on people watching TV 24/7 to pick out their programing flaws.     

So by this time I haven’t eaten lunch for 2 days and also no dinner for 2 days.  Breakfast is my only meal which has consisted of 2 fresh bread rolls with scrambled eggs and processed meat.  It doesn’t look that great on paper but it was actually quite tasty.  I spoke to Zeme today and it was so good to hear his voice.  He has been sending me text messages each day and I haven’t been receiving them which is super annoying.  He gets them from my new number but I don’t get his.  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH but boy it was a great phone call and it was then it hit me just how much I am missing him.  128 days.  That’s not long, that’s not long, that’s not long………

Day 3 in Manaus and the group are definitely due in today.  I even checked with reception today that they were expecting them in and he confirmed that he had a booking for them but couldn’t tell me when they were due in.  I thought they would have already been here at 8am, but not too worry at least I hadn’t missed the tour and they were still on their way.  After breakfast I was back in my room when I got a message from Mark and the ferry they were on was slower than they first anticipated and they weren’t going to make it today and they were hoping for a midnight arrival tomorrow night (Thursday).  Thank goodness he even had reception on the ferry to let me know what the hell was going on!  So no group and ‘another’ day in Manaus on my lonesome.  I did ask Mark what there was to do and he mentioned the Opera House was worth seeing and also the meeting of the water where the Amazon River meets the Negro River which they don’t mix together for over 100km and looks spectacular.  He also mentioned that if I was heading into town, Julia asked if I could get some prices for cameras as hers was stolen in Salvador and she was worried that she wouldn’t have time to do it herself with them now being delayed on the ferry.  I knew she had a top range Lumix so I knew what she was looking for and this was what I needed to get my arse out of the hotel and into town.  This was a blessing in disguise.  So at lunch time I got a map for reception, asked about the Meeting of the Waters tour, which the map I got but his English was nonexistent and my Portuguese was nil and my little Amharic that I learned was useless, so I just too the map and armed with directions walked the 10 minutes into town.  Centro is made up of two dollar shops located in pedestrian only streets over a city block.  There were also street vendors selling food and stalls selling the usual electronic wares of chargers, power boards and adapters.  After walking a few of the streets, there were a lot of point and shoot camera’s but not the type that I know Julia would have wanted.  After spending an hour looking around I headed back to the hotel and I know now why I had stayed in my aircon room, it was 36C plus 98% humidity.  It was a stinker and was very sweaty that is for sure.  I passed a corner shop on my way back so I stocked up on some snacks, water and a few bottles of soft drink too.  I think I may be having soft drink withdrawals as Zeme and I had been drink a lot of it each day and I had gone nearly 5 days without a drop.  That is not good. 

Manaus is a city in Brazil, the capital of the state of Amazonas. It is situated at the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers. It is the most populous city of Amazonas, according to the statistics of Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and is a popular ecotourist destination. The city was founded in 1669 as the Fort of São José do Rio Negro.  It was elevated to a town in 1832 with the name of "Manaus", which means "mother of the gods" in tribute to the indigenous nation of Manaós, and legally transformed into a city on October 24 of 1848 with the name of Cidade da Barra do Rio Negro, Portuguese for "The City of the Margins of Black River". Only on September 4 of 1856 did it revert to its current name.  It was known at the beginning of the century, as Heart of the Amazon and City of the Forest.  Currently its main economic engine is the Industrial Pool of Manaus.

It is the largest metropolitan area in Northern Brazil and the twelfth in all of Brazil, with 2,006,870 inhabitants. Currently, the city is one of 12 most influential cities of the country. Manaus alone represents 10.89% of the population of the whole of Northern Brazil and 49.9% of the population of the Amazon. 

Day 4 and the group are now due to arrive tonight all going to plan.  My self-imposed exile in Manaus continues as I try and get my blog up to date while I have the time and the internet access.  I have powered through 8 entries in the last few days, so it feels good to be catching my tail as I want to at least have left the African Continent before we check out on Friday.  I have also been using this time to update the actual content on my blog, as a lot of it was past tense, updated my tabs and in the end, because I could, changed the colours as well just to give it a bit of a revamp.  I have also been using today to get back in touch with Beth and finally finalize my round the world ticket as it is only 5 weeks till I will need to use the first flight component and I still need to book in my Easter Island accommodation and I need to also book in my Barbados accommodation.  So with emails going back and forth we got the final itinerary done, got it quoted and I supplied my credit card for the payment.  There’s no going back now and with that I emailed al my ‘hosts’ to make sure they were still good to receive me and I have now booked and paid for my ticket home.  There was one hitch and that was that Qantas have stopped their LA to New Zealand flights, so my plans to stop in Auckland to see Lisa and Christchurch to see Lynda have now been thrown into disarray.  I looked at flights from Brisbane to Christchurch and they were starting at 468AUD for a one way and then I still need to get from Christchurch to Auckland and then Auckland back to Brisbane.  The trip is going to cost me an extra 1000AUD!!!  I’m going to have to put on my thinking cap and speak to the girls as it will also be hard to motivate myself to leave Brisbane again for 11 days after finally getting home.  It is bad news really, but these things happen and I will work something out. I also chatted with Z tonight on Facebook, so we are keeping in contact which is great as I know how difficult it is for him, it is shame that the texting isn’t working as that was our perfect form of communication we were relying on.  Damn phone networks. 

I spent the afternoon blogging, talking to people on Facebook and I had to tidy up the room as I was going to be getting a roommate at midnight tonight.  Well that information changed again with a message from Mark at 1am and they had now lost an engine and were just running on one motor, so they were now due in around 7am just in time for breakfast he hoped.  The poor buggers had now been on a basic ferry for 7 nights; 2 days late into Manaus and now they would only have 2 hours to freshen up at the hotel before we headed off to the Amazon for the week-end and 3 nights.    

So that was my 4 uneventful days in Manaus.  I can well and truly say now that I am well rested, I am only 3 days behind in my blog, I have booked and paid for my round world ticket and I am ready to see some familiar faces, meet some new faces and get back to a few more trips in Rosita.  There are 39 days left on tour and even though I am missing Zeme like CRAZY I plan on making the most of my time that I have left on my World Odyssey.  

THE EAST COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA TO THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA

WEATHER: 3 Continents 30 hours-planes time and climate controlled

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Escaping the oppressive heat of Rio de Janeiro

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Leaving my roomie for 4 weeks-I’m going to miss you Pal

WORD OF THE DAY:  AIRPORTS AND AIRPLANES

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 17,174KM

Today I start my journey to Ethiopia and see what my future holds.  I haven’t seen Zeme since October and after all the who-ha of the last few weeks I will be happy to just finally getting on a plane and having him in my arms.  Even if it means that I am the one that has to travel the 30 hours and not him.  My flight isn’t till 3.25pm, so I had the morning to have a nice leisurely breakfast and then back to the room to finish the packing.  I am leaving Kate with a small plastic bag of stuff that I won’t need for the next 4 weeks, other than that, the rest of my gear is on the truck or in my backpack ready to go.  Funny to think that I will have my stuff spread out in 2 continents for the next 4 weeks. 

Deb is moving into my bed for the night tonight.  Svendog left at 6am, Mick left at 11am and Paul and Liz don’t leave till 6pm tonight and they were going to leave their bags in the luggage room.  But we got a knock on the door at 11am and they asked if they could keep their bags in our room as someone just had their bag stolen from reception and it had their passport in it and they were on their way to the airport for their flight home.  NIGHTMARE…. So they wanted to make sure that their stuff was safe and it worked out well as they then stayed with us in the room till 12 and then Paul carried my bag down for me and they helped hail a taxi and with a final hug and good-bye to Liz and Paul and a massive hug for Kate, with promises I will be back to re-join her in 4 weeks I was off to the international airport.  I didn’t get a chance to see the rest of the gang.  Julia, Helen, Deb, Sharon and there was no Tucan love from Mark or Gray, but I am assuming they are getting their shit ready for the new joining group as they have 21 new people joining and the pre-departure meeting is tonight.  I wound down my window as my taxi pulled away and I kept waving until I could no longer see my buddies waving frantically at my departing taxi.  My next adventure begins and I have all the luck and wishes with me from everyone so I know that I am going to be okay.

Being the end of Carnival I expected the airport to be busy, but after the 25 minute drive and paying the taxi driver 40RS, I found the airport to be nearly deserted.  The trolleys were free, so with my bag hoisted on that I found my check-in counter which had no-one waiting.  It is a little strange when you find your counter there were 3 small mobile counters where there was a guy waiting.  He checked my flight time, checked my e-ticket and passport and then let me through to the check-in counter, which also had no-one waiting.  I asked the check-in chick if my bags could be checked all the way through to Addis as I was travelling on 2 separate tickets and this flight was on an e-ticket all on its own.  It wasn’t going to be a big deal if she couldn’t as I had the time to recheck it but it would just be less fuss for me in Sao Paulo. Well you can imagine my surprise when she said no worries I can do that for you!  Woo Hoo!  Thanks and my bag only weighed 19.2KG and I also got my window seat, so it looked like today was starting out to be a good travel day.  From leaving the hotel, to checking in, security and finding the table was a process that only took 55 minutes!!!!!!  No word of a lie.  Isn’t that INSANE!!!  I had allowed extra time based on Rio Carnival traffic, so I had nearly 2.5 hours to kill, but this was okay as I found a café, pulled up a chair and table and started to get some blogging done.  I didn’t move for nearly 2 hours when the battery on my computer started to get flat, but at Rio International they have charging stations in their departure gates so I was able to re charge the computer and the laptop for the next section if I have time to pull it out.     

The airport isn’t the newest but with free trolleys and the charging stations it has thumbs up from me.  I also LOVE the South American way of boarding planes and they have 2 lines, sometime 3.  They have the lines based on seat numbers and even though they do boarding via seat numbers all over the world, for some reason it just seems to work better here.  I am lucky I have always been in the first seat call, meaning I am in the back of the plane, but I am okay with this so I can just get on and get my backpack in the over -head locker without someone stealing all the space. The plane we were on was a 737-800 with a seating configuration of 3x3.  It was only a 45 minute flight to Sao Paulo and as quick as you could say Rio Carnival we were landing in Sao Paulo.  Even though I left from the International airport in Rio it was a domestic flight so with no security, customs or baggage collection I found myself in the arrivals hall.  I found the international departure sign straight out of the baggage collection doors, up the escalators and my check-in counters for Lufthansa were just to the right.  It couldn’t have been easier.  There is something strange checking in for an international flight with no bags and I am sure it looks weird as well.  There was only one person in front of me and I was checked in through to Addis with my required window seats within 10 minutes.  Hello travel gods….where have you been hiding the last 3 weeks, I could have used you with the Zeme saga’s.  I had 3 hours here at Sao Paulo and no 30 hour international leg is fully complete without a McDonalds feed, so I stopped and had 10 nuggies before proceeding through the quickest security and passport check I have ever been through and into the gates. 

I found my gate and pulled up a pew and blogged for 1.5 hours before having a wander around the duty free shops, to which there aren’t that many at Sao Paulo and then our flight was called and they had that great seat lineup to which I was again in the first boarding by a row, see ya suckers!!!!  The Lufthansa aircraft that operates this service is a 747-400 with a 3x4x3 configuration.  I was allocated the seats directly behind the galley which at first glance I thought were dodgy seats, but you still got a pocket in front of you and there was bulkhead leg space, I could nearly straighten my leg before hitting the wall.  The check in chickie was very nice to give me that seat.  The down side was it was an older aircraft that didn’t have in seat TV’s.  WHAT I hear you cry, I know.  I thought for a second that it was just these seats next to the galley, but after a quick reccy all the seats didn’t have TV’s and there were the old fashioned TVs that dropped from the roof every 6-10 seats.  It surprises me on an 11 hour flight that operate such an aircraft, but they obviously do and after reading the inflight magazine it conformed there are 3 places in South America that operate this aircraft and I happened to be on one of them.  Thank goodness I am on a direct service back to Rio and will be on a plane that does have personal TV’s.  Maybe I have just done so many flights now that my expectations are just a tad too high?  I mean this is how we travelled 10 years ago and we didn’t complain back then did we?

Once on the plane, strapped into my window seat the gentleman on the aisle arrived, so the middle seat was still vacant.  I think this is now my most tense moments of a flight, waiting to see if the seat is going to be empty, which on an 11 hour flight is always an added bonus to have the extra room.  So when people are walking past looking at the seat numbers looking at their boarding passes and you just hope that they keep on walking past and when they do you make a sigh of relief and wait for their next wave of people to come through.  Well we were lucky and the doors closed with an announcement for the Hostees, so we were home and hosed we had a spare seat.  The only bad side to these seats as they are a form of bilk head the arm rests don’t lift up, but to be able to spread your wings during meal times and to put your stuff does make all the difference on long haul flights.

It was an overnight flight, so once dinner was served the plane was shut down for sleep time which was fine by me.  I think I slept for 8 of the 11 hours which I love as it makes the time go so much quicker.  Breakfast was served and we landed on time into Frankfurt International Airport.  We wound our watches 3 hours forward as we exited the plane and then I had to work out where I was and where I needed to get to.  Frankfurt International Airport is massive and busy; you could see the jet streams of at least 20 planes as we came into land and then the planes that were waiting to take off and at gates was impressive.  Frankfurt Airport is by far the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany, the third busiest in Europe (after London Heathrow Airport and Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport) and the ninth busiest worldwide in 2010. Passenger traffic at Frankfurt Airport in 2010 was 53.0 million. As of winter 2011/2012, Frankfurt Airport serves the most international destinations in the world, serving 275 destinations in 111 countries and is the second busiest airport in Europe by cargo traffic. The southern side of the airport ground was home to the Rhein-Main Air Base, which was a major air base for the United States from 1947 until 2005, when the air base was closed and the property was acquired by Fraport.

The airport has been expanded several times since its opening in 1936 and now has two large terminals (Terminal 1 and Terminal 2), with a capacity of approximately 58 million passengers yearly, and four runways. In recent years, major construction works were necessary to make the airport compatible for the Airbus A380, including a large A380 maintenance facility; because Lufthansa has stationed its A380 aircraft fleet at Frankfurt Airport. On October 20, 2011, the fourth runway went into operation, which will allow the airport to meet the predicted demand of about 700,000 aircraft movements in 2020. To handle the predicted passenger amount of about 90 million in 2020, Fraport currently builds a new terminal section at Terminal 1 for additional six million passengers and a large Terminal 3 for 25 million passengers is scheduled to be built beginning in 2013.

Lufthansa has a separate First Class Terminal at Frankfurt Airport for the use of its first class passengers. The terminal can only be used by passengers flying Lufthansa First Class or Lufthansa's Miles & More HON Circle members. They also must be departing on a flight operated by Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines Group, Lufthansa, Lufthansa Regional or SWISS. Passengers flying other Star Alliance partners in First Class do not have access to the First Class Terminal. The terminal has 200 staff and is used by about 300 passengers daily. It provides individualized security screening and customs facilities, valet parking, a white-linen restaurant, a cigar room and bubble baths. Passengers clear exit immigration controls in the terminal and then are driven from the terminal directly to their aircraft by a chauffeured Mercedes-Benz S-Class or Porsche Panamera. The commercial success of the FCT at Frankfurt has led Lufthansa to plan the opening of a similar facility at Munich Airport.

I told you this place as massive.  I was lucky that I arrived into terminal2 and my next flight departed from terminal 2 after checking the 6 big screens that had for departing flight only up till lunch time, I had to clear another security check and I was back in the gate areas and duty free.  DUTY FREE.  I haven’t done any duty free since buying perfume in Madagascar in September and I have been talking about getting a new IPod.  Firstly the battery life on my current one is getting a little short and it doesn’t have a camera like the new generation IPods.  Now at the back of my mind is my gadget conscience telling me I don’t need it, I have a perfectly working IPod, don’t buy it.  But I just know I will eventually upgrade and get a new one, and I figured if I do it now, I will be able to give Zeme my old one, versus holding back and being good for a few more months and then buying one and what would I do with the old one.  At least I know this would go to a good home.  I went and got a sausage sandwich to ponder on this and decided to just do it, so I did.  While I was there I also bought some more memory cards and while I was at it my drinking camera was on its last legs, so I bought what I considered to be the deal of the century an Olympus 10xoptical zoom for 160AUD.  This is an exceptional price and as I had spent over 300EUR I was entitled to a tax refund.  Well by now I was starting to run short on time, but 60EUR was worth the race around.  So I had to go to the custom and duty office to get a stamp to then make a dash to the refund office to actually get the cash back.  You had the option for cash or a refund to the card which they swipe there and then, so I got the refund back to the card and then retraced my steps back to my gate which they had just started to call.  Nothing like getting things done at the last minute. 

We had to be bussed from the terminal to our plane and it was a 15 minute journey.  Where the hell did they park our plane?  It was actually quite an interesting ride as we got to see the planes coming in, taking off, at the gates and also departing and at one point we were only 5m away from Singapore Airlines A380 as we drove past it moving to the runway.  That thing is MASSIVE!!!  The flight from Frankfurt to Addis was a newer plane and an A340-300 with a 2x4x2 configuration and in seat TV’s.  When I arrived at my seat I was in a 2 seater and there was a lady already there.  Damn.  I knew my luck had to run out at some point.  The upside was I was in another bulkhead row directly behind business class and this time I could stretch my legs and get them fully extended AND we were in what seemed like a premium economy cabin that only had 5 rows and our own toilet, but the seats and service were economy.  So out of 40 possible people in the cabin we had 15!!!  And when the announcement came to close the doors my neighbor moved into the set of 4 seats which she had to herself for the 7 hour flight to Addis.  Thanks again travel gods; it’s nice to have you back in my corner again.

My nerves were starting and I couldn’t stop looking at the main cabin screen that tells you all the flight information as you fly, time at destination, kilometers left and fly time left.  I just couldn’t draw my eyes off the time as it counted down to my landing in Addis and seeing Zeme again.  Would he be there?  What about if he forgot or got the days mixed up?  All this was running through my head as I slept and watched a movie to kill the time.  It is also at this time I think of the new group as they head out of Rio today.  I wonder how the seating went, how the new group looks and what they think of ‘our’ truck.  This also brings me to think on where I will be sitting when I meet up with the truck again in 4 weeks. I really can’t have a say as I haven’t been there and there are only 10 days left till Caracas and then Mike leaves and I know he was going to try an nab my original seat, so I know that I may just get MY seat back again anyway. 

Tick, tick, tick the time went by and after 29 hours we finally touched down in Addis Ababa-Ethiopia.  The time had come and I had a million butterflies in my tummy!!!  The good thing coming back to a place is that you know where you are going and what you need to do.  Australians need a visa to enter Ethiopia and a 30 day visa is issued upon arrival for 20USD.  As I was at the front of the plane, I was first off and made it to the visa office fairly quickly and they have a pretty efficient system in there considering they write each visa as you come through.  Immigration took a little longer but from arriving to getting the baggage carousel was only 30 minutes and out bags were just starting to come out, so I made an excited pee stop at the toilet and by the time I got back to the carousel my bag was there.  I grabbed a free trolley on my way back and after getting my bag tag checked to the chitty and waved through the scanner with a few quick questions I entered the arrivals hall looking for Zeme.  There was also to be a transfer guy from the hotel with my name, but he was the least of my concerns at this point.  I’m scanning all the faces as I came out and I couldn’t see Zeme.  My stomach dropped.  I looked at the time, I had landed nearly 55 minutes ago and I knew that the airport wasn’t far from town or his home.  In the meantime the transfer guy came over to me with my name on the sign, so I explained to him I was waiting for some-one and sent Zeme a message.  After 5 minutes I tried to call him several times and there was no network.  Dang it, I was at this time feeling sick to the stomach and I asked the transfer  guy to try and call the number as it was a local one and he got through after the third attempt and Z was waiting outside for me.  THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I saw him walking towards me and he had the beautiful smile I remember and then he pulled his hands from behind his back with 5 red roses!!!  What a way to be welcomed back to Ethiopia.  Boy I have missed him.

So I am now back in Ethiopia and all going to plan I will be returning here in August to make a new life with Zeme and I am so excited about the prospect. Z and I have a wonderful 4 weeks, well 3 weeks and 3 days and we are going to use every minute to our advantage and it feels good to be here.

WELCOME TO ETHIOPIA xx