*Hauwa in South America*

So firstly major apologies for the lack of updates. I´ll try to do a quick update of Chile and maybe as I get more time I can fill in the gaps of Iguassu and Argentina!

I am currently in the very small town of Pisco Elqui in the North of Chile. Last night a group of mosquitoes decided to feast on my face which I was not pleased about! I could actually feel them swarming me in the night and couldnt find my lovely wind up torch (courtesy of the lovely mama and papa John). I had to make my way out of my dorm room in the dark to the bathroom and when I looked at my reflection I wasn´t too surprised to see my forehead disfigured quasimodo style into something that somewhat resembled the beautiful hills of Valparaiso..... though not so beautiful as they´re on my head. Anyway I thenn had to make my way back to my room and rummage through my back pack to find my antihistamine cream and also my mosquito spray. I covered my face in deet, and cream and finally went back to bed. Fortunately with the added help of antihistamine tablets, my face actually doesn´t look too bad but as I also got bitten below my left eye, blinking feels a little bit strange. Anyway the plan for today was to hire a horse and visit the Pisco distilleries. There´s a ranch down the road from then hostel but I cant seem to find anyone working there to enquire about prices etc...typical! The tour agencies charge a bomb but I was told the ranch owners have more reasonable prices.

So going back to Santiago. I stayed in a really love hostel called ´Nuevo Horizonte´and it was more like a home. I met a really nice English couple who had been travelling for over a year and were heading to New Zealand. Everyone in the hostel was pretty settled and they were all happy to spend their days doing nothing so it was initially quite overwhelming for me having to make my way around alone but I enjoyed it. After the madness of Buenos Aires it was nice to just go out by myself and I always felt a sense of achievement after successfully finding my way around. The first thing I did was a free walking tour. i had high expectations after the brilliant ones I did in Buenos Aires. Unfortunately for me, this tour didnt quite live up to my expectations and it was just me and the guide which was also a little bit awkward! Anyway at least I got a sense of the city and some of the history and the guide was able to give me directions to the museums I wanted to see.

One of the highlights of Santiago was going to ´La Chascona´the house that Pablo Neruda built for his lover (who later became his third wife). I really loved it. I met an older English couple who were headed to ´Cerro Concepcion´so I tagged along with them. We took the funicular up the hill and the view of Santiago was incredible. It´s a huge city surrounded by the powerful Andes in the background. We climbed right to the top where there´s the statue of the Virgin Mary and all the prayers, letters and candles placed by people hoping for her to grant their prayers and bless them etc. I went for a drink with my new friends. It was really nice to be in the company of parents. Made me miss home a little bit but it was lovely and it was funny because I could see that people were wondering what our relationship was....

I had a really nice bbq with the people in my hostel one night and on another night, Evelyn, the owner of the hostel, took Jason (a nice English guy) and I to a student house round the corner where we met some nice chileans, frenchies and a south african girl who took us to a really cool student party which was free! It was called ´Miercoles Ball´and it was sooo much fun! It reminded me of UCL Vodpop in first year at Turnmills- it was THAT good!

The day I left Santiago I went to the ´Museo de la Memoria y los derechos humanos´which was incredible and by far one of the best and most moving museums I have ever been to. It was about the fall of Allende´s government, the military coup and the atrocities committed under the military dictatorship. The museum was also incredible because there was a section which charted all the dictatorships and truth commissions globally including reports on Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Nigeria etc. What I found fascinating though was that there was no mention whatsoever of Pinochet. In contrast to the Argentinians who talk a lot about their dicatorship and protest regularly, the Chileans seem to want to forget. Not many Chileans have visited the museum and I was told by some that it was because it was too sad and too recent. This all happened about 30 years ago and they all know someone who was victim of the atrocities or they themselves were victims. I have also been told that Pinochet is a very contreversial figure and Chileans do not like to give opinions on him.

I said my goodbyes again- always a horrible part of travelling and headed off to Valparaiso with my massive backpack (which I loathe carrying). I spoke to Molly and Suzi´s mum (due to a slight mistake) before I left. It was nice to touch base with the Goulds and I think it gave me that little push to keep my spirits up and leave the place I had become so comfortable in.

Soooo, sorry for the delay! I havn't stayed in one place for very long and Carnaval was manic so the blog has been a bit neglected!

RIO CARNAVAL

So, the wather perked up and I got sunburned on my forehead! It was so weird, all the english girls got really badly burned and everyone was saying how lucky I was then the next day I woke up with a painful sensation on my forehead that i've never experienced before. Black don't crack but it sure does burn!!

Anyway, during Carnaval and in the build up, there are street parties called Blocos. I thought these would be crazy and a bit like Notting Hill but it turns out they're pretty hit and miss. They publish the details of the Blocos which happen all over Rio all day everyday but they only take up a few roads and if you turn up late it's not always obvious where the van and music are etc. I went to two really amazing ones with people from the hostel. There was one called Barba in Botafogo where the music was so catchy and at the end of the parade there was a huge fire hose and they drench everyone in the street! It was crazy! I was glad I didn't take my camera though! I had to blow my money dry to pay for the metro home afterwards haha!

The other awesome Bloco I went to was on Ipanema beach which is the gay and fabulous beach (and apparantly where all the famous celebs stay) This bloco was great but there were soooooo many people it was really overwhelming. Soooo many guys were pickpocketed during these blocos. Even girls wearing money belts had kids with their hands up their tops trying to grab at the belts and people had cameras and necklaces ripped from their necks. It was really overwhelming being in such huge crowds but thankfully I never took anything with me apart from my train fare and the group of people from the hostel that I went around with were all older and we some how managed to never lose anyone!

Carnaval in the Sambadrome itself was IMMENSE! It was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen and Giselle and Ronaldinho were even in the Parade! It wasn't anything like i'd expected though. I thought it would be more about Samba but it's actually just a massive show where the focus is on the magnificent floats and costumes! There are only 6 Samba schools but each school is on for 90 minutes then you have a half hour break...it started around 8pm and didn't finish till like 7am!!!! after the 3rd school, the heavens opened and the most torrential tropical rain I have ever encountered proceeded to try to drown me alive. I managed to save my camera and it was really fun beacuse the audience just got crazier, singing and dancing......... 45minutes later I was shivering and sneezing and told the group I was with (those who had lasted) that I had to go home. Of course they laid on the peer pressure and I ended staying almost to the end. There's a couple, Stephen (32) and Joanne (29) who were really nice and cool and they gave me a plastic mac thingy to wear which made a difference but didn't stop me from getting sick unfortunately!

The show was incredible and i'd love to come back in the future and pay to join a samba school and take part.....Also ironically enough, the last school to perform on Monday, the one we didn't watch till the end....won the whole thing! Typical!

CORCOVADO, CHRIST THE REDEEMER AND SUGAR LOAF MOUNTAIN

So i've been doing a bit of trekking and putting my walking boots and shoes to use! I had a fun time trekking up Corcovado with a Polish guy (who lives in Brighton) called Jerzy! Everyone elso from the hostel wanted to get the bus etc which cost BRL$50 in total to get up there and see Christ but Jerzy and I were determined to trek through the rainforest for 2 hours and see monkeys! We set off nice and early and were told when we got to the botanical garden (where the trail starts) that it was closed because of the rain that had fallen before and so it was dangerous. We decided to just walk around the path but somehow found ourselves on the path anyway (I swear it was a coincidence). So the first 40 minutes we were chatting away laughing, having fun.....after that all you could hear were the sounds of the rainforest, the birds singing, and Jerzy and I huffing and puffing! It turned out to be a pretty hard trek but I guess it is all preparation for Macchu Picchu right! We got to the top (after climbing a precarious rockface....) after 2 hours and then were told we had to go back down the mountain to buy a ticket to see Christ (at this point Jerzy went nuts haha) No one seemed to understand how we were at the top without tickets. Anyway after lots of confusing conversations in Portuguese, the organisers offered to drive us back down to buy tickets then back up for free. The Q's were really long and the people coming down told us that due to the mist (which permanently hangs over Rio!) they didn't really see Christ and it wasn't worth the money! So.... We decided that we had sooo much fun trekking up Corcovado that we had no desire to see Christ! Definitely the most overrated attraction here methinks!!!!

First day was good but weather was drizzly and not as sunny. Went to the beach with some english people I met at my hostel. In the afternoon I met Molly´s flatmates from Southampton and we went for lunch. My hostel is 5mins from the beach- 2 blocks away but it took me 30minutes to find my way back haha!! It was fine though as it was bright and daytime and I became familiar with Copacabana. In the evening I stayed at the hostel and met more girls travelling on their own from UK and one from the USA. We went for dinner at a popular sandwich restaurant. The next day an English girl (Amy from Essex - about 26) and an Englisy guy (Paul from Liverpool- a police man!!!!) and I went exploring to a distric called Santa Teresa where Molly´s flatmates are staying and we randomly bumped into Molly´s flatmates! We walked all day and got lost for about an hour! We had an amazing lunch with rice, potato, beans, chicken and the portion was HUGE and it only cost the equivalent of GPB 2!!!!

We then walked through the city centre called Lapa and randomly met this guy called Tony who said he was the drummer from Boney-M!? We then went to watch the sunset on Ipanema beach which was dirtier than Copacabana (though all the guide books say it´s cleaner and nicer). The view is definitely nicer from Ipanema beach and it was cool watching the surfing as most of them were really good.

I went out samba dancing last night with all the people from the hostel and this morning the sun was fully out for the 1st time since i´ve been here so I went straight to the beach with Amy and I went into the water and I made friends with three little Cariocan girls. They were 7, 6 and 4 years old and mesmirized by my hair. They got frustrated though that I can´t speak Portuguese!

The beach is really funny- Brazilian´s are sooooo image conscious. There are just men in speedos EVERYWHERE and all the women´s bikini bottoms are thongs! Everyone works out in public too. Everywhere you turn people are jogging or lunging or doing sit-ups or chin-lifts!! White people here are a strange shade of brown...... it´s really hard to explain. Brazilian women are beautiful but it´s the children that are the best. They are sooooo exotic looking and cute!

I havn´t been to see ´christ the redeemer´or ´sugar loaf moutain´ because it´s been so cloudy and i´ve been told you don´t get a good view. People say that the statue of christ overlooks the city and you can see it from everywhere....LIES!!! Honestly, we´ve all been convinced it doesn´t exist!! I finally saw it today when I got to the beach around 10am but by midday it was obscured by cloud again. I think my plan is to go to them really early in the morning!!

Anyway today is the first day of carnival so there are lots of street parties. I may go to one with some people from the hostel. It´s really great that the hostel is so central as I can head out without any valuables so I don´t need to worry about being robbed and losing things. So many people have been robbed at the beach etc and Amy only carries disposable cameras to the beach and busy places and she gave me one so I can take a few more snaps!!

I´m in a 6 bedroom female dorm at the hostel which is nice because i´m with 3 other girls who are travelling alone. It´s really nice but everyone here keeps saying that it´s one of the nicest places they´ve stayed and that the breakfast is the best they´ve had (it´s lots of fruit and juice and bread and cereal....). It seems like i´m starting with the best...I just hope it wont be too traumatic when I move hostels!!

My phone doesn´t seem to be working so hold fire on that for now!

Lots of love,

Hauwa

Just a note to say I arrived last night and it's really surreal! It's really hot and humid but unfortunately today was overcast and drizzly but that didn't stop me from headin to copacabana beach with my new friends that I made in the hostel (which is also nice). I met Rachael and Jo (Molly's flatmates from Southampton) at the beach and we had a yummy late lunch! I have managed to buy a phone sim today. Number is 7489 9204. I think that has to be prefixed with +55 for brazil then +21 for Rio (while I'm here).

Thanks for your post Suz! I really wish I could speak portuguese. No one really speaks or understands Spanish or English. Also I got lost today. The hostel is 2blocks from the beach- a 5min walk. It took me 30 minutes at least and asking for directions twice to find the hostel!

Not sure what I'll do tonight. The girls invited me to their hostel in Santa teresa but I'm wary of venturing out alone and I also want an early start tomorrow to do some sight seeing!

Missing you all!

Hx

Hey guys!

So with two weeks to go before my three month travelling debut, I am trying to be super organised! Welcome to my blog which I will try very hard to keep updated! Pass on the details to anyone who's interested who I may have forgotten to contact! Hopefully I will get to see most of you before I leave to wish you farewell! That's all for now......Unless something interesting happens between now and March 1st ;-)

Lots of Love,

H

x