Rio Copacabana Beach

Our last couple of days we moved hotels to the beach, a bigger room with 4 separate beds 🙂 and this is when the real rain started. We swam in the ocean – super high waves and an undertow as well as an overtow (I know that’s not a word but it should be). It was colder than I thought but still great.

We went on long beach walks so we also covered Ipanema, did some fairly serious shopping as there was a market just beside our hotel, and toured the Copacabana Fort and military museum. Painting below is what I figure Carnival used to look like 😉 outfits far less fabricky these days.

The beach was very entertaining. Besides all the vendors along the boardwalk, there were beach bars, some of which had live music, and plenty of volleyball both regular and soccer style. The second was so cool to watch, especially if the players were good.

This was our last beer and dinner on the beach, with wet shoes, bags and raincoats. We felt badly for Carnival samba parade goers – Saturday was the parade for the winners of earlier in the week. When we saw the parade on Monday it was totally clear. The stadium is not covered so not only would viewers get wet but so would the participants.

Rio City Centre

The remains of Carnival blanketed the area: paraders excavated themselves from costumes, watchers hurried home and floats were discarded just past the end of the Sambadrome – long stadium for the samba parades. We saw it all at 5am heading home for a gigantic sleep.

We were on the move by noon I’d say. For the next couple of days we toured around the centre. We walked just over 10 kms almost every day. So much to see as we wound our way near our hotel, including many places to relax with a beer.

The peak of our excursions was Christ the Redeemer statue. So many elbows and cameras all squeezing in for photos. Fun fact: the statue originally had a cross under one arm and a soccer ball under the other. Locals called him ball Christ. So the arms were reconfigured to be outstretched. We saw what looked like the welding on both.

We also saw graffiti, famous favelas where some movies have been filmed, Tijuca National Park and finally saw inside the Cathedral Metropolitan – we walked by it 5 or 6 times but not only was it closed, a locked metal fence surrounded it. Later we realized that many, many structures such as historical buildings, subway stations, churches and etc had same locked fencing – hooligan deterrents. Plus no shops were open until mid-week.

And then these famous stairs created by a local artist in the past 10 years. He received tile donations to make it happen. This spot was even busier than the Carnival revelers we bumped into on our first day. Clearly he liked red.

Finally we hopped the cable car at Sugar Loaf mountain. A famous James Bond scene was filmed here way back when. the cable car first opened in the 1930s and was state of the art. Below was that model. It was upgraded in the 1970s and again in 2008. Sunset view was amazing. Look for Christ the Redeemer all lit up.

Our last morning in the centre we visited a former mansion with a private, now public, collection of Brazilian (and other art). We grabbed an old tram back by the arches or previous aqua duct system. Now it just forms backgrounds for movies.

Rio Carnival

Carnival for a week in Rio – we are here!

This was a surprise trip for my mom’s bucket list – we carved out a family vacation with my sister, brother, mom and myself. Last time we did this was in high school. Whoa.

The connections weren’t great ie the opposite of direct but an up grade on the first flight was awesome. Real glasses and cutlery. Who knew? 😉

We arrived first thing Sunday morning. So early our rooms weren’t ready. We wandered around the area meandering through more than one samba party and checking out expired floats from the previous evening – expired meaning bits broken off or mutilated. When we finally checked in though – four single beds 🙂

Loud jumpy music and skimpy outfits is carnival. Most popular – super heroes, Mario and Luigi, Joker. And bathing suits with fishnet stockings. We purchased some supplies to fit in. Nothing outrageous. Drinking beer in the street never goes amiss. Lots and lots of police out and about too.

Monday we walked around the downtown and port areas. In the afternoon we picked up tickets to that evening’s samba school parade. The atmosphere is one big party. Every other person is in costume. It smells like urine, charcoal and burned meat. We dressed up and went out!

The parade was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Six samba schools, 70 minutes each, 4-5 floats, 500-1000 people, competing for first place based on the theme and how well they execute it. The schools work on their parade for a whole year, including writing and releasing a song. We wrapped at 5am – can’t remember the last time I did that!!

Our Last Safari

We opted to go out to the bush for our last Safari night. In reality, this meant no internet as the digs were as luxurious as the main lodge. We had a watering hole just beyond our balcony and watched warthogs come around to top in the mud and baboons to eat the green Nile cabbage. That evening we star gazed on the enormous deck, different sky but same patterns. I’d noticed quite a few dry river beds and bridges over sand. Apparently the camps close in the 4 month rainy season, when all these areas fill with high levels of water and make driving impossible.

Another beautiful sunrise and breakfast on the sand bank before we did a walking safari and found out all about trees and shrubs and animal behaviors. Trackers really have a lot to work with to figure out what’s going on. We’d survive less than a day out there!Don’s foot in an elephant print for scale. On our way home. With all the connections it is going to take about 50 hours. Yikes 😳.

Zambia

With a few bumps and hiccups we arrived in Lusaka! Country 72 🙂

After buying a SIM card and drinking a beer while it activated, we could finally use the Zambian equivalent of Uber to get a ride to our hotel. It worked. Sort of. Took a while for someone to accept our request and then we had to pay in local currency – the exact thing we’d wanted to avoid…

We booked another safari in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia’s north as who knows when we’ll get this personal with elephants again. So right back to the airport, which we zoomed to because the roads were clear as the president about to land and drive into the city. Mind you our flight was delayed for the same reason 😜.

First observations – this park has more poo than animals. Second observation – in a pack, there is often one animal on its own a distance away. We’re calling it Fred. Hippo example below. We are still getting up at 6am to eat and rush off for a drive around to spot animals. No idea how long we can keep this up. In the evenings we genially caught the sunset, had sundowners and then a night drive where a spotter shines a very powerful light into the trees to see night animals. We have been known to drink Gordon’s on safari 🙂 Best animal scene: while parked to drink morning coffee, we saw tons of baboons and impala out on the plains. Suddenly a few got up to run away. Then more and finally every single one was on a tear in the same direction. As if a bomb had just gone off. It did in the form of wild dogs, snarling and barking. Right in the middle of everyone. The plain cleared out and then they all came back the other way. No one was hurt but what a show.

We also saw giraffes cross a river. Except for Fred, far left, who eventually turned back.

Uganda

We bailed on our planned hike up Mt Longonot because some of us wanted to sleep in and others were still sore from yesterday’s bike ride. We left Lake Naivasha with plenty of time to get to the airport, or so we thought. Yet 50 minutes before the flight to Uganda we were tearing though the airport to make the flight. It worked out. Phew!

The drive to Bwindi Impenetrable Nationa Park was long and filled with tons and tons of police checks (picture steel spiky strips on the road) and speed bumps. We left Entebbe at 8 and arrived at our lodge around 5. What a view!

At the information point, we received our briefing. Lots of history and tips about being around gorillas. Our were trekking with a mom and her university-age kids. Needless to say, I was the weak link.

Our guide, and two armed rangers, led us through dense brush up and down the mountain. I have new respect for the Hobbits’ journey and have no idea about Kathleen Turner did the jungle in Romancing the Stone – well fine it was a movie. Anyway I was winded pretty much the whole time. I also saw machetes in action, they can saw through trees!

Don spotted the first gorilla in a tree. In addition to our guide, trackers were feeding information about where the family we were tracking was.

At one point the silverback sprang up suddenly in my direction. Quickly I turned to run. But then he settled down. Otherwise we were like wallpaper to the gorillas. We had an hour. Wow!

Lake Naivasha

Travelled up to Lake Naivasha, and revisiting a big memory of renting bikes and cycling through Hell’s Gate National Park.

We walked around and around the east part of Nairobi looking for a gas station that had local transport north. We talked to at least 5 different people and could feel ourselves getting close. Finally we got the last 2 seats on a shuttle. We barely fit down the aisle and piled our bags on our laps.

At the town, we took an even smaller public transport out to the lake. Squishy, warm with smells of everything. The campsite we booked is rustic and so green. We found a large group of students doing a scavenger hunt. And lakeside viewing. We rented bikes at the campsite that belong to staff. Both a little small for us, we made it work as best we could. Hell’s Gate was wonderful. We came to realize how hard it is to actually spot animals from afar, but we persevered. It was warthog alley as Don spotted them simply everywhere. Zebras were about 40 meters away but not too bothered after checking us out. The giraffes were indifferent.It was the water buffalo rumble that got a little tense – 40 pairs of eyes staring us down. And the snorting. We retreated calmly but somewhat startled. None chased us. Phew.

The way out was through a geothermal area. Don shouted “smells like Iceland!” In addition, Lake Naivasha is a flower growing heaven. I read roses picked in the morning can be in Europe by evening 😳.

Lamu

Lamu is an island off the Kenyan coast that is a UNESCO world heritage site, being the oldest inhabited area of Kenya. We flew here right after our safari. The airplane was small and the airport smaller. We caught a “taxi,” a canoe sized boat, across the water to the town.Most of the buildings are along the waterfront. The ones not crumbling or dilapidated are bank buildings and mosques. There are no cars – transport is donkey or motorcycle. Our first night we walked 45 minutes south to get to a bar, it’s mainly Muslim so not too much alcohol, to find out it hadn’t opened yet for the season. Back at our hotel we found there was bar all along – I joked that we’d just done an Alchemist.

The next day we wandered around trying not to be shocked by the temperature difference – Nairobi was 22 and cool, Lamu 29 and hot. There were lots of kids greeting us and Don stopped to chat with whomever said hello. I swam in the pool and read my book. Delicious down time.Birthday Sunday started with banana chocolate pancakes, and then a little more leisure before back to Nairobi for a fancy dinner and hotel.

Masai Mara

We booked a 2-day safari (journey in Swahili) to Masai Mara including a 45 minute flight there. In all my time in Kenya, I’d never been here, so this was new. Our mid-range room was terrific. The hot water bottles at the foot of the bed were filled and placed inside at part of room service. We also had coffee delivered at 6am for a warm up! While we slept, we only heard the wind and water rippling in the river outside, thankfully 🙂 Driving around, both on and off the paths, looking for animals where our guide had last seen them was exhilarating. He could spot hippos that looked like rocks and leopards that blended into the grass. At times we were so close I could see the expression in the elephant’s eyes. So amazing to see animals in their own world. It’s not often I’m up for sunrise. Even during rainy season, it’s pretty spectacular. We found this vantage point. Fact: acacia trees really are this lonely. We had a picnic breakfast a little while later, albeit ready to jump back in the Land Rover if required 😉 Not all the terrain was flat and smooth. Many times we crossed a river – might have been the same spot – where either entry/exit points looked dodgy, even for a 4-wheel drive or the water level looked suspiciously deep. Our guide had no fear nor did he stall even once.

Kenya – Nairobi

I was in Kenya last circa 2006 when I worked in South Sudan. Now I’m back as a tourist! About a week before our flight, Don and I purchased e-visas. When we landed, this line was much longer than those buying visas on the spot, and also took longer – go figure.

We stayed at the Panafric – where I stayed for my first month before I found my apartment. I remembered a large parking lot and huge buildings in a U shape with a grand entrance. Yeah no. Although parts were being renovated, it was very small and the entrance was off a gas station…hmmmm.

Our first morning I found back the YMCA where I stayed my first two nights in November 1997. And my old apartment or at least the gate – I’m fairly sure that was it. We walked into town and wandered around and I tried very hard to remember what I could. Don laughed a few times when I energetically saw a word or place I knew only to find no images came to mind and I had a blank when I tried to recall being there. Clearly memory is more of a feeling 🙂

We went to the top of KICC where my office used to be. Back in the day, I could walk there in about 20 minutes. I remember being able to call up for chai to be delivered – precursor to Uber Eats.

The next day we took a local bus to Karen and then hiked along the roadway for 45 minutes to Karen Blixen’s house. I seem to remember going there before, but then none of it was familiar. The house was in a large clearing, bought and then donated by the Danish government. Our guide recounted how involved she’d been with the local community (kijiji in Swahili) and her staff. Also found out both her mother and brother visited her there. In addition to being a writer, Karen Blixen also also painted and listened to interesting music when she wasn’t doing 10,000 things to run her coffee farm. Both evenings we ate out at restaurants that I used to go. Couldn’t really remember either. Yikes. Not sure how keen Don will be to revisit my days of youth again. Or I’ll have to downplay what I used to know.