Brazil, Buenos Aires

I’m back in Buenos Aires where I started the trip 8 months ago, completing my trip around the world. I’ve spent the past few weeks in Brazil traveling from Sao Luis to Fortaleza to Recife and then to Rio de Janeiro where I met Carole and Audrey. The highlights of Rio were Sugarloaf Mountain, the Christ the Redeemer Statue that overlooks the city and Ipanema beach. We then traveled to Iguassu Falls which really is one of the most incredible natural wonders in the world.

During the trip I took a total of 52 flights traveling 75,000 air miles. I look forward now to getting home and seeing family and friends who I miss very much!

Lençóis Maranhenses

Barrierinhas is the starting point for travel to Lençóis Maranhenses National Park and tours on the Preguica  River.  The bus ride from Sao Paulo is about 4 hours and since I appeared to be the only non-Brazilian, I was prepared to say in Portuguese:  I don’t understand and I don’t speak Portuguese.  Luckily at the first coffee stop I met Aline, a Brazilian who lives in Barcelona and is fluent in English.  She became my friend and translator for the next few days.

We checked into our pousada in Barreirinhas and then got started on a large 4×4 vehicle that took about 12 of us into the park.  The main features of the park are large fields of sand dunes with lagoons where rain water has accumulated.  After a short time of exploring the dunes we spent much of the afternoon swimming in the lagoons.  The group was friendly and made efforts to communicate with me and I did surprisingly well speaking to them in Spanish.

Aline and I had both a nice lunch and dinner of fresh fish and seafood at one of the many riverfront restaurants in Barreirinhas.  I sampled many juices made from fruits found in Brazil like acerola and cupuacu.  In the evening there were live bands bands playing up and down the waterfront and it was hard for me to believe just a few days earlier I was in London.

Yesterday we took a speed boat on the river where we got off at various points to go into the sand dunes, pass some time in a local village with a lighthouse and an outside bar, have lunch on the river, and swim in the Atlantic at the point where the river meets the ocean.  The water was very warm, but the current was extremely strong.

I was pretty overwhelmed by the natural beauty and the friendliness of the people.  Back in Sao Luis, I’m preparing for the trip to my next destination of Fortaleza.  I had planned on taking a bus which I thought would be a few hours from looking at the map, but apparently it is 18 hours, so I’ve decided to fly.  Brazil is a huge country, larger in area than the lower 48 US.

London – São Luís

The weekend in London was great.  I was able to meet up with people who I met on tours this past year who live in the London area.  Nat and Zoe from the China trip, Marco, Lexy, Anika and Shreena from the Japan trip,  Andrew and Marnie, who I met in Bolivia last fall, and Jolie who I traveled with in Mongolia.  It was fun hanging out in London restaurants, cafes and museums and catching up with friends.

Yesterday at 2PM I got on the Tube and 29 hours and 4 flights later (stops in Paris, Rio, Brasilia) I was in Sao Luis, on the Atlantic coast in the northeast corner of Brazil.  My hotel is on the ocean and I was able to get a brilliant sunset my first evening here.  I came this far up the coast primarily because I wanted to see Lencois Maranhenses National Park, which is supposed to be one of Brazil’s most beautiful natural attractions. It’s pretty inaccessible if you want to go on your own so I booked 2 days with a guide which I’ll do later this week.

Sao Luis is a couple of degrees below the equator, so I’ll have some nice tropical weather, and it has a population of about 1 million.  While I’m here I’ll go into the historic center of town which is supposed to be an attraction in itself.  Over the next few weeks I’ll work my way down the Brazilian coast spending time in the cities of Fortaleza and Recife.

Lisbon

Lisbon has been just the right place to relax after the Iceland adventure.  It’s a nice European city with lots of charm and character. I’ve spent the days exploring the city ‘s streets and museums and also planning my upcoming trip to Brazil.  I’ve decided against the intensive Portuguese classes in Brazil since I find that I’m getting along fine here in Portugal speaking Spanish.  Instead I plan on exploring Brazil’s northern coast and working my way down to Rio where I’ll meet Audrey and Carole around Oct 10th.  This weekend will be busy in London where I plan on meeting many new friends from the UK that I’ve met along the way on this trip, and then I’ll leave for Brazil on Monday.

I’m staying in a small guesthouse in an old apartment building in the center of Lisbon which is very comfortable and accessible to most attractions in the city.  There are hills all around Lisbon where there are great city views.  The weather has been perfect.  Warm days and evenings are getting chillier now that fall is approaching…which also means I´ll be home soon.  A little more than a month left on this trip.

North Iceland

I have to say that the week in Iceland was a high point of the RTW trip.  It’s a beautiful country, very sparsely populated (only about 300,000 people live here) and a real adventure to drive through.  I also reached the furthest point north that I’ve ever been – 66 degrees N.  Here are some photos from my final days here.

Glaciers, Icebergs and Waterfalls

Skaftafell National Park covers the area around and including the Vatnajokull Glacier.  The natural beauty here is almost unreal.  I took two hikes in the park, one to the Svartifoss Waterfall, the other to a viewpoint overlooking the glacier.  The highlight of the park for me was Glacier Lagoon where icebergs just having broken off of the glacier float in the lagoon where they stay until they melt enough to flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

I spent last night at the harbor town of Hofn where I had a nice lobster dinner at a restaurant where everything on the menu was some kind of a lobster dish.  This morning I drove along the coast to the East Fjords, which was incredibly scenic.  Driving inland to Egilsstadir I got a flat tire in a pretty remote area.  No problem…I thought I’d just put on the spare tire.  Turns out the spare was flat also.  After walking for a half hour towards a farm in the distance which was much further than I estimated, a car finally drove by.  A nice German couple let me use their cell to phone for help.  It was about five hours later before I was on the road again.

I was very happy to make it to Egilsstadir where I’m staying at a small guest house this evening.  I’ve gone as far east on the island as I can go and am now heading back towards Reykjavik, this time taking the northern route.  The weather is very strange here.  It has been quickly alternating between rain, mist and sunshine since I’ve been here.

South Iceland

I arrived in Reykjavik on Friday afternoon and I was lucky to be upgraded to a Toyota Land Cruiser.  As I would soon find out a 4×4 is necessary anywhere off Iceland’s main loop road.  Reykjavik is a decent sized city where most of Iceland’s population lives.  The city’s central district was large enough that I spent an entire afternoon checking it out.

I left Reykjavik early yesterday and after a short while passed through Thingvellir National Park which is extremely scenic but more famous for it’s history.  It’s the place the early Icelanders met annually for a thousand years to democratically govern the island.

After the touristy Gulfoss waterfalls and Geysir, the geothermal area, I decided to go to Vik, the town on the southern coast where I had hotel reservations, via the Landmannalaugar Nature Reserve.  I missed the part in the guidebook that warned about crossing this area.  I forded no less than 15 rivers and streams before I made it back to the main road.  It was very stressful because some of the rivers were so deep and so wide I didn’t know if I’d make it across.

I reached Vik by sunset and had a nice dinner at the restaurant next to my hotel.  Next destination is Vatnajokull, the largest glacier in Europe.

Oslo

When I was in Oslo in 2002 it was November, and so cold that I really didn’t see as much of the city as I would have liked. This time the weather is perfect and I’m taking advantage of it. There are bike racks all over the city and you can purchase a card which allows you to swipe it and take a bicycle. You can then return it to any of the 95 bike racks throughout the city. The famous Vigeland Sculpture Park with it’s crazy human sculptures was impressive when I saw it last time, so I had to return. Unfortunately, many of the sculptures were under scaffolding for washing, but there was still enough to see.

Since I was here last, the new Oslo Opera House opened and it is an amazing piece of architecture. It’s designed so that you can walk to the roof of the building from the outside on these large open slanting platforms. Since the building overlooks the river, I was lucky to be there as the sun was setting this evening.

I went to the Nobel Peace Center this afternoon which was more interesting than I expected and there are several art museums that I want to try to see tomorrow. For a city of only about a half a million people there is really so much to see and do here. I have one more full day before I head off to Iceland.

The only downside of Oslo is how expensive it is. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I don’t remember it being like this the last time, but the dollar has really weakened. Expect to pay $15 for the simplest sandwich. About $5 for a bottled water. I talked to some people who just got back from Iceland and they said it wasn’t so bad there.

Athens

I’m back in Athens and finally went and saw the Acropolis.  The Parthenon is still covered in scaffolding while it undergoes restoration.  The views from of the city from the Acropolis are great.  Walking around afterwards I came upon the Herakleidon Museum of Visual Arts that had three exhibits that I enjoyed.  One was on M.C. Escher and another was on Vassarely who is one of my favorites.  The third was on Toulouse-Latrec. Unlike earlier in the month when I was in Athens, the weather has been cooler and we even had a powerful thunderstorm. 

Tonight I’m having dinner with Soula, a high school friend who lives here and tomorrow I leave for Oslo via London.  I spent a while these past few days planning my upcoming road trip through Iceland.  There’s a ring road around the island which I plan on driving in one week.

Istanbul

Istanbul has been a great city to chill out in after the hectic pace of the Egypt/Jordan tour.  I’m staying in the Sultanahmet Square area where the city’s top attractions are:  Ayia Sofia, Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque.  My hotel is in a neighborhood with cobblestoned streets, shops, outdoor restaurants and cafes.

With a population of 10 million, Istanbul is a huge city with lots of neighborhoods, many of them on the water.  Istanbul is in both Europe and Asia with the Bosphorus Bridge linking the two continents. I’ve been enjoying walking around although there are many steep hills in the city.  Fortunately, the funiculars provide an easy way up and down.  Being late summer, the afternoons are particularly hot, but places like the air conditioned Modern Art Museum was a great place to escape the heat.

I return to Athens this weekend for a few days before heading north to Norway and Iceland.  I’m looking forward to the cooler weather…in Reykjavik the daily highs are in the low 50s F.