Rio De Janeiro: Dec 31st 2008

What a fascinating city. Stark contrast between poor and wealthy and I would guess a lot more poor! Much dirtier and underdeveloped than I had imagined.

Myself and a group that I am now travelling with spent New Years eve at Copacabana beach. Wow! Before this night I could not even imagine 2 million people gathered at one place. Yes... a big place, but people as far as the eye could see in every direction, 8 enormous cruise liners anchored off shore, fireworks, food, drink, music and so much more. Thank goodness we had a buddy system in place. The tradition here is to wear white on NY eve. Imagine trying to find your group - people you just met that afternoon, while sleep deprived, mildly intoxicated and in a sea of people at a very umfamiliar place, where everyone is wearing white!!! Needless to say, the camera stayed in the hotel that night so as not to invite trouble of any kind. And after surviving a hair raising taxi ride (where red lights dont even seem to mean slowing down) I was back at the hotel in the early hours and slept like a baby, ready to really start the trip on Jan 1st.

SPOT

IMG_1459, originally uploaded by dallicetylee.

I love Christmas... and this year was a particularly useful (and gadgety) one for Osman and I.

I am now the proud bearer of a SPOT. This satellite tracking device will accompany me to Brazil and beyond when I leave next week.

Not quite as subtle as a microchip, none-the-less it will enable Osman and you (if you like) to keep track of me as I travel around Patagonia over the next 2 months. Essentially I will be "checking in" with the touch of a button to assure that all is well and to plot my position on a Google Map. I have the option to call for help or scream 911 should there be an incident, and the knowledge that at the other end of the emergency beacon, help is at hand - and it knows exactly where to find me!

So, give me a few days to get rolling and by about Dec 31st you should be able to click this link and see where I'm at.

Of course, if all goes according to plan and failing any pilot confusion, I should have landed in Rio Dejaneiro and be planning my New Years Eve! Watch this space!

Natural Selection

This morning I was horrified and surprised to see our relatively lazy cat, Smokey Joe, pacing the back yard with a small bird in his mouth. He looked like he was on the run.

I stepped outside and called him. Smokey Joe thought this was an invitation to bring his little prey inside for breakfast. As he raced toward the open door I called NO and he stopped and opened his mouth. To both of our surprise, the little bird, with an obvious pulse, flew out of his mouth with speed and ease.

But it gets better...
Why was Smokey Joe pacing and looking for a sanctuary? Up in a near by tree this young hawk was waiting for his opportunity to score breakfast from my cat (or score his breakfast back from my cat)! As the bird took off, so did the hawk, in hot pursuit.

Fortunately for the bird, who appeared to be completely in tact, neither my cat, nor the hawk were spectacular hunters!!! The hawk circled briefly and returned to perch in our tree. Smokey Joe is still hiding under the bushes beneath him... In general he is afraid of birds that stand up to him!

Out On The Farm

It doesn't happen very often, but when the opportunity arises I do like to horse ride.
Lucky for me this trip both offers the opportunities and good company to boot.



So here we are in, or somewhere near Bariloche, and Brendan recommends this place that will let us ride all day. And even better, they will feed us all-you-can-eat BBQ and red wine for lunch in between rides! Does life get any better?

First stop is... Nope, not a waiver, not a helmet, not even a brief overview of the ride...Its the "get on a horse" part!

I should have suspected something was amok when my horse was named Samantha. Its just not the name of a spirited stallion is it?! Worse still, she had to be almost dragged out of the shade to meet me.

As you can probably guess, Samantha's heart just wasn't in it. While all the others cantered merrily down the trail, I was offered a green branch (whip) to help give Samantha the message... like kicking her repeatedly wasn't enough! She was described as stubborn by the staff. I prefer to think of her as "almost dead".

After several hours of this, I had made up my mind that I needed a different horse if I was to continue riding after lunch. So while the others finished off another bottle of vino tinto, I went outside to have a word in English with our Spanish-only speaking riding guides.

(Just for the record, I believe my Oasis friends found that last bottle of vino tinto on the table next to ours... at around the same time they relieved that table of their excess BBQ beef!)

Getting back to my quest for a horse that could keep up;
Imagine this... Me using broken and very poor Spanish (mostly made up) along with hand gestures to indicate that I needed a more lively horse AND while we were at it, my butt was sore, so could we add a sheepskin blanket to the English saddle I was enduring? Yep, they understood alright. And once they finished laughing themselves silly, I was assured my next horse would be faster.

Lesson of the day: Be careful what you wish for.
Cordito was a good looking horse, definitely taller, more muscular and his eyes looked sparklier too.

Definitely a better looking horse than Ewan's.



I tried him out with a gentle nudge and a "giddy-up". And we were off! From 0 to 60 in only a few seconds, I barely had time to hold on before having to rein him in.

The rest of my day was great. Even though I have no doubt the riding staff were probably teaching me a lesson, I had fun and managed take a few photos and video as we enjoyed the hills and vistas in the brilliant sunshine. Life is good.

In fact the only thing holding me back in the afternoon, was George and his slow-poke horse! If he hadn't been so entertaining, sitting upon his horse, legs straight out, singing "Summer breeze makes me feel fine..." I might have felt more frustrated. But before I got to that point, others did.




I would loved to have captured on film the part when Brendon came trotting up behind George and whipped the rear of his horse with a long green stick! Apparently old slow-poke had it in him to canter after all!!! The important thing is that George (a first time rider?) did manage to hold on, and in fact looked just as ready to hit the disco when finished, as when we started. Nice job George :-)

Rural Ireland

My day trip into County Wicklow was both relaxing and invigorating...