Teatro Colon & Tango

I have been trying to convince Dave that a city bus tour really isn’t a bad way to do some sightseeing ever since we begun our trip. Today he caved. Our bus with audio guide steered us around the city.

There are two bridges in the neighborhood of Boca, the citizens think so highly of the original bridge that even though it is non functional they leave it up as a memorial.

The Hippodrome is the most famous race track in Argentina. The train station runs directly to the race track but many people refused to take the train home after a bad day at the track as it was a sign of poverty and only some one with absolutely no money in their pocket would be subjected to taking the train. For this reason, most people would take the long walk home if they have gambled away everything.

After a very cold open top bus ride we headed back towards home and thought we’d have a cup of tea and a cake in a place across the road from us which came highly recommended. Inside this place was like Willy Wonkas. Every kind of sweet, pastry and cake you can imagine all served by waiters in tuxedoes. We ordered and sat and people watched whilst enjoying the warmth and goodies that accompanied it.

Back to the hotel for a little nap whilst Dave did some blogging. The rain had now set in and temperatures had dropped a little more. Not being that hungry, and feeling lazy we ordered some sushi take out, watched tv and enjoyed a bottle of wine. It’s funny how normality becomes the perfect way to spend an evening after being away for a while.

Day 4
Today we decided to take a closer look at Teatro Colon, acoustically considered to be one of the top Opera houses in the world. Famously, Pavarotti joked about not liking performing here because they were too perfect leaving no margin for error. We braved the subway for this trip. Successfully arriving at our destination we made our way towards the tour booking desk. An English tour had just started so we rushed down the corridor to meet up with the group. We were told all about the old theatre by a very enthusiastic guide. The construction itself was a very interesting story, complications arose due to financial difficulties, arguments over the theater’s location and the death of the first architect. There were three architects in total before the theatre first opened in 1908 after 20 years of construction. The outside of the building is very simple and not particularly very impressive.

Inside was a completely different story, the 7 storey building has gilded tiered balconies at each level with the ability to seat 2500 spectators in plush red velvet chairs.

The ceiling inside the theatre has a hidden chamber to support a children’s choir. During certain performances, the children would sing from above, unknowingly to the audience, providing a heavenly angelic affect.

The building was restored to its former glory and reopened to the public in May 2010.

Originally, only visited by the wealthiest of clientele prior to a show, this room now serves cocktails and ouer d’oeuvres to all guests before a performance.

After the hour and a half tour we decided to stroll back to our hotel. We walked the length of the central city, seeing how the neighbourhoods changed so quickly was really interesting and could be likened to New York’s diverse areas all so close to one another.

Tonight was Tango night. Our BA agenda always included seeing a show so after a little research and asking around we decided on the Esquina Carlos Gardel show. The Germans we had shared our Argentinian trip to Iguazu with had recommended Don Julio restaurant for ‘the best steak they’d ever had’. Not wanting to miss that we decided to take them up on their recommendation for dinner before the show. Our dinner was fantastic apart from a small red wine incident over Dave’s white shirt.

With show time approaching we went outside to catch a cab, having no luck we went back in to the restaurant to ask for help. The manager promptly called the taxi and told us it would be here in 5 minutes we waited at the bar and were handed a glass of champagne to ease the wait time.

Once we arrived, we could easily see that the performance space was a beautiful old theatre transformed in to a dining area and bar set up where the stalls would have been. We were shown to our booth and instantly poured some of the limitless wine included in the performance price (no denying those Argentinians know how to drink!). No sooner had we settled in to our seats that the lights went down and the dancing began.

The show was made up of various individual, couple and group dances throughout the 2 hour performance. The orchestra sat unusually suspended above the stage so you not only got to enjoy the incredible dancing but also watch the accompanying live music played. My favorite was a red headed girl that could move in ways that didn’t seem natural whilst remaining completely elegant and in perfect time with her partner and the music.

The entire performance was completely mesmerizing and a lovely way to spend our last evening in BA.

Day 5
Today we decided to investigate the area of Palermo. We chose to take the 3 mile stroll having nothing else on the agenda today. After a slight detour in the wrong direction we made it. This is a very trendy neighbourhood of BA full of cafes, bars and boutique shops. We wandered around then sat and soaked up some sun which had decided to emerge in the Sereno Plaza for a while before turning around to walk back home to pack and catch our bus to Medoza, Argentina.

I was very excited (perhaps too excited) about our bus ride to Mendoza. Having read up on the best buses and services. Ours was to be a 180 degree reclining chair with full catering, unlimited wine and TV. It sounded like first class flying at a fraction of the cost! We made our way to the bus station, boarded the correct bus, eventually, and sat back and enjoyed the 14 hour ride.

I woke up at one point as the sun was rising, I looked out of my window to see us driving alongside a glacier, the view was absolutely stunning. At 7am the lights were flicked on and a cup of tea and breakfast was promptly served. Before we knew it we had arrived!

Evita, The Pink House and Boca Juniors

We arrived at out hotel slightly exhausted after a delayed early morning flight. We showered, consulted our lonely planet and decided with most of the day gone we’d go to the Recoleta area, wander around the parks and take a look at Eva Perone’s famous grave site while we were at it.

Buenos Aires had caught us off guard a little in that the temperature was far cooler than we had been used to for a while, around 50F, and most definitely meant abandoning flip flops which hadn’t left our feet in the past 3 months. Layered up we jumped in a cab and began exploring

We reached Recoleta and wandered through the hippy fair full of stalls and street performers before reaching the famous Cemeterio de la Recoleta. The cemetery is the resting place for the elite of Argentina, whether they were politicians, war heroes or just extremely wealthy they all are buried here.

It seems in death, just as in life, it is important to keep up appearances. The enormity and lavishness of each of the tombs was incredible, each one bigger and more grand than the last.

We followed the crowds and managed to locate Eva’s resting place. Even though we had only been in Argentina a short time it was already very apparent to us how revered and important a figure she had been and still was to the people. Her face adorns various buildings and graffiti on the cities’ walls give tribute to her.

Heading back towards our hotel we walked through the area known in BA as the “lungs of the city.” Its named as such because this is where all of the major parks, botanical gardens and other green areas are situated.

After a couple of hours we were losing light and the cold began to eat away at us so we headed back to the hotel via a wine shop so as we could sample some of the famous Argentinian red. It seemed only right that for dinner we indulge in the local fare, parrilla. A selection of various grilled cuts of meat all served on a hot skillet table side. Some of the meats were a little more questionable than others but we dug in none the less.

Day 2
Goooooooo Boca!
With no luck on the football front in Brazil we decided to give it another crack in Argentina. As luck would have it one of the most popular teams in the city were playing a major rival that evening. We managed to organise some tickets and a guide because going alone is not recommended, we were to be picked up at 3.30pm for a 6.30pm game. This seemed aggressive but we decided this must be to allow for a tour of the stadium and some pre game beers somewhere as would be the norm at home.

With some time to spare before the match we decided to head to the ‘pink house’ Casa Rosada, the presidential palace. We were lucky to go on the one day a week the palace is fully open to the public, every other day the president and his staff work inside. We had a guided tour which led us through the large building. We even managed to go in to the presidents current office as well as walk out on the balcony where Evita gave her famous speech to the Argentinian crowds in the square below.

We were told about an antiques fair in the nearby neighbourhood of San Telmo which also only takes place on Sundays. Being so close we thought we’d check it out. San Telmo is full of cobbled streets and aging mansions. Historically the area attracted a bohemian crowd and as such is still considered home to BAs main tango culture. We wandered along the streets and were witness to some impromptu street performances.

Almost football time so we decided to head back towards our hotel. We grabbed a quick bite and a glass of red and went back to layer up. Wanting to get in the spirit we thought we’d take some wine for the journey too, after all we had 3 hours until game time.

Our ride greeted us all decked out in his Boca gear ready for the game. We jumped in the minibus and made our way to the stadium picking up 3 more people on route. We reached the Stadium in about 35 minutes and were instructed to get out of the minivan and wait while it was parked, we would then go in to the stadium. We grabbed our drink hoping it might help keep out the cold while we waited but were quickly and sternly told that no drinking was allowed. Infact 3 hours before and 3 hours after a football match held in the Boca area alcohol is prohibited and not sold.

Security was on full alert for this match.

We waited in the street for our driver to return and for our tickets to arrive which after almost 2 hours seemed like it might not happen. I tried my best to find some sun and stay as warm as possible.

10 minutes before kick off a shady little man ran over to us pushed tickets in our guides hand and we were on our way inside the stadium. By this time the crowds were going wild. The drums and singing had commenced and incredibly did not stop once throughout the 90 minutes played.

The atmosphere was electric in the stadium, every fan was truly immersed in the game. Even though Quilmes, the opposing team, dominated most of the first half Boca still managed to steal a goal and take a 1-0 lead into halftime. The band and singing got louder and the pace of the game picked up, Boca had several opportunities to put the game away but couldn’t capitalize.

A late goal scored with a header sealed a great 2-0 win which led to even more singing and excitement as we made our way back out of the stadium.

We were given some Boca goodies by our guide and were dropped back off at a restaurant near our hotel where we watched the highlights of our game on the tv over dinner.

Foz do Iguacu

We booked two days at Foz Do Iguacu in order to see the falls from both the Brazilian and Argentinian side. The Brazilian side of the falls was a short 15 minute ride from our hotel so it was the obvious choice for our first day. Marica, the owner of the B&B, covered her dining table with all kinds of breakfast goodies. We sat and ate with several other couples, interestingly the couple we had the most in common with was a retiree German couple. They asked us what our plans were for the day and kindly offered to lend us their rain ponchos they had purchased yesterday. As the conversation continued they told us that they had already been to Machu Picchu, Santiago and Barriloche. When we asked them if Iguacu was their last stop they laughed and told us that they were just beginning a 5 month trip around the world. We couldn’t help but tell them that we were doing a 4 month tour. They had always wanted to do it in their youth but kids and a career got in the way, now that they were retired they were living out their dream. The four of us had a very nice conversation, I think they saw a lot of themselves in us and we admired them as they gave us hope that our tour doesn’t necessarily have to be a once in a lifetime experience.

11am rolled around and our driver arrived to take us to the falls. We were recommended a bird aviary to visit before entering Parque National Iguacu, wanting to make a full day of it we thought why not. Some pics of our favorite birds.

We’ve seen more animals mating on this trip than I can even remember, but it never gets old!

There was a large walk in cage loaded with parrots but they seemed to have gone mental from being in too small a cage with too many other parrots. First they got extremely territorial, squawking and pecking at one another then, before we realized what was going on, 100 kamikaze dive bombing parrots were flying back and forth the length of the cage. We hit the ground and crab walked out of there before any one lost an eye. After the attack it was without a doubt time for the falls.

We walked across the road to the park entrance, purchased our tickets and were directed to the bus stop where we would be picked up and driven to the falls.

The bus drove a half hour and dropped us off at the beginning of the hiking trail. It only took one second of viewing it before Hayles said, “I can’t imagine getting a better view than this.”

Little did we know the magnitude of the falls. We walked the trail for several hours mesmerized by the ever changing view.

The mythology behind the falls is that many years ago a giant serpent, Boi, lived in the Iguassu River. Once a year, the guaranies would sacrifice a maid to Boi by throwing her in the river for him. One year a young man, Taroba, leader of the tribe, was in love with Naipi the maid chosen for the sacrifice. The night before the sacrifice Taroba rescued Naipi and escaped by canoe with her down the river but Boi knew of the escape. In his furious rage, he bent and split the river forming the falls separating and catching Taroba and Naipi. In his rage he turned Taroba into a trees opposite of the falls and Naipi’s beautiful flowing hair turned into the falls. Boi submerged into Devil’s Throat to watch Tarboa and Naipi and ensure the two are never together again. However, on sunny days, there love for one another is too strong and a rainbow surpasses Boi’s powers to reunite the two of the together.

Devil’s Throat was the climax of the Brazilian side, a long steel grate takes you right in the middle of the strongest flowing part of the waterfall.

Within seconds we were drenched, luckily we were protected by the jackets the Germans gave us at breakfast. In the misty chaos we found someone that had a very nice camera (these people tend to take the best pics) and asked if he would take a picture of us, he took a dozen and I repaid the favor.

This guy kept up with us for the next three photo spots and without asking would reach out for my camera, we lucked out with a good photographer that took some great pics.

We still managed to have a little fun on our own.

On the ride home our driver told us that two people had checked into the hotel today and wanted to go to the Argentinian side tomorrow as well. This worked out perfect for us as it cut the price of our ride in half.

We had some wine by the pool, wrote some emails and picked a place for dinner. Brazil might seem an odd choice for sushi, but we have not had any since we left Tokyo’s fish market two months ago and we had a craving. The boat platter they brought us out was stupendous and delicious.

Day 2 – Argentina Side

At breakfast we talked to two new Germans (there were a lot of Germans in Iguacu) staying at the B&B. When they told us they were heading to Argentina we knew these were the people we’d be sharing the ride with. We couldn’t quite figure out their situation, one guy was easily 6’6 where the other guy was about 5’5. They were on the reverse trail of South America to us so we traded advice on where we had already been and vice versa.

Upon arrival to the National Park we parted ways. The difference between the two sides was very apparent, the Brazilian side gives you a much broader overview of all of the falls that make up Iguacu; whereas the Argentinian side put you right into nearly every individual waterfalls. Whether directly on top or right at the base, both views were more than impressive.

These little guys, the Coati, are everywhere on both countries sides.

They may look cute but they are scavengers like raccoons. Some crazy woman was petting one at one point but she wasn’t just petting, she was stroking it like a unknowing 2 year old pets a dog. We were shocked that it didn’t take her hand off. Some great entertainment was provided watching them work for food. One girl was eating a foot long hoagie when a huge Coati started running after her, she literally ran laps around a courtyard while eating her sandwich. However nothing beat the family that was being harassed in the food court. One determined to win some food got on his hind legs next to the dads chair, Dad repeatedly swatted him away, but it didn’t seem to phase The Coati in the least. Four more of them then joined the hunt for food and ganged up against mom. From a few meters all he heard was a scream, when we turned around the Coati were running back into the forest with mouths full of entire empanadas, the last one came running past us with the rest of their lunch in a plastic bag.

We took a small train to the top of the falls named El Diablo station. On our way up a train passed us on the way going down. Our mouths dropped at the site, it couldn’t be, it was impossible…it was our arch nemesis couple! Somehow they had already made their way to El Diablo and were heading back down. AHHHHH! They beat us again!

Regaining our composure we decided to let it go (the alternative was throwing empanadas at them and letting the Coati go to town) We walked on a steel grate for nearly half a mile over the river. The discussion was that we preferred the Brazilian to the Argentinian side, the overall view that encompassed all of the waterfalls rather than one at a time. Our opinions didn’t change as we reached the top of Devil’s Throat but we certainly reconsidered. The view inside the Throat yesterday was incredible but watching the tons of water continuously pour over was a sight neither of us will soon forget.

On the walk back to the parking lot we saw this giant walking across our path. It was shedding its skin so most of his body was black and white but his tail was covered with brown dead skin.

We also spotted these fellas

We found the Germans and our driver and headed home. The four of us had some wine by the pool together and they gave us several recommendations for Mendoza and Buenos Aires. Our driver honked his horn and we bid our farewells before heading out to dinner. We were in Brazil so it was only fitting that we have one dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse before leaving the country. Meat continued to come out and we sampled everything except the sweetbreads and chicken hearts.

We went to bed early as we had a 6.30am flight out of the airport on the Argentinian side and had to get up at the crack of dawn to make it across the boarder in time. We did set our alarm clock however it had somehow managed to switch to silent so instead our wake up call came in the form of Marica knocking on our bedroom door to tell us our driver was outside.
We were mostly packed but still had to run around throwing any loose items in our backpacks. Hayles was half dressed with a tshirt on, and little else, when Marica burst in to the room to tell us to take the back way out as it would be easier. A bottomless Hayles calmly covered herself up and thanked her, I scurried my naked self back into the bathroom before being seen. Marica thanked Hayles for choosing her B&B, only two days with her and it was like we were family. We loaded up the car, crossed the boarder and hopped on our flight to Buenos Aires.

Lex Luther, the NY Giants not even the Dallas Cowboys compare to our new Arch Nemesis

The sky was overcast as we sat and ate breakfast. From the deck we checked the weather and saw nothing but grey skies and scattered thunderstorms in the forecast. This was doubly disappointing, not only would we not be able to see Christ another day but paragliding was out of the question as well. We also had hopes of seeing a football match while in Brazil, two games were playing this evening. One was in a part of the city that Dave, the hotel owner, told us we were not allowed to venture into. The other game had not announced which stadium the game would take place in, even though it was scheduled to take place in less than 8 hours. Maracana is the national stadium where the major 2014 FIFA World Cup games are planned to take place but no club has subscribed to play their games there as of yet this season. Football would have to wait for another South American city.

We weighed our options and decided to take a walking tour around Centro. Finding the bus stop was easy enough, we sat at the corner and awaited its arrival. Once we hopped on it was only a few short stops later before we had reached our destination. Being a weekday, the streets were packed with business men and woman grabbing cups of coffee or making their way to a meeting. The weather held up and we managed to see everything Centro Rio had to offer.

There are many stops along the walking tour including: Theatro Municipal, National Art Museum and even the house of Congress. Brazil seems to have their own 99%’s whom were camped outside a few of the cities political offices.

Our hotel provided a free drink at Bar Gomez, a quaint pub a couple blocks away from our hotel which was always packed. We were a little hungry after a long day so we ordered a pre-dinner snack of meats and cheese to nibble on, what came out was nothing short of half a pig and a wheel of cheese. Dinner was not necessary afterward the feast of meats and cheeses. In our room that evening we sipped on wine, ate candy and cookies and I forced Hayley to watch the second part of a series on Mermaids on Discovery Channel. We didn’t see any while scuba diving but they may be out there.

Day 5 – It was our last day in Rio, our flight to Buenos Aires left at 4pm. There was only one thing on the agenda today and that was to see Christ Redeemer. We had already gone online and paid for the tickets so we had to make one last attempt before departing the city. It was another cloudy morning but the forecast showed a 2 hour window of sun and clear skies, this would be our best chance in days. It was also when we would meet our arch nemesis couple, they got on our (Hayley’s) radar easily enough having checked in on the same day as us but it was when the hotel owner told them what a cute couple they were a few feet away from us that irritated Hayles. I asked her if she had seen my face lately and reassured her that it must be me and my lumberjack beard keeping us down. To clarify, the “cute couple” comment put them on our radar but it was all the events that transpired that made them our arch nemesis.

After breakfast we headed down the road to catch a cab, normally it was very simple but, as is always the case when you’re racing against the clock, today it was not. We had been waiting for a cab for 5 minutes when the other couple emerged on the opposite corner. The odds were well against a cab driving past that side of the street but sure enough as soon as they arrived one pulled up right in front of them, we caught one shortly after. When we arrived at the ticket line to Christ a funicular was just pulling up at the station, perfect timing. Unfortunately, that car was already accounted for a maximum number of passenger so we would have to wait a half hour for the next one. As the funicular pulled away guess who we saw taking up four spaces…yup, our arch nemesis couple.

While waiting for the next funicular we had some fun and learned about the creation of Christ Redeemer.

In the mid 1800’s the King of Brazil sought out Rio’s highest mountain. He walked up this same hill with his son as often as possible not only enjoying the views but basking in the peace and tranquility provided by the seclusion. After he passed, his son, who enjoyed the trips with his father so much, decided to build a rail line up the hill so that tourists visiting Rio could appreciate all the beauty and uniqueness the city offered. Princess Isabel initially rejected the idea of the Christ statue in 1889 but it reemerged in 1920 by the Catholic Circle of Rio and was funded mainly by donations of Brazilian Catholics. A few natural disasters occurring during construction damaged the statue and delayed the anticipated completion date, it took 9 years in total to finish the statue. Nevertheless, in 1931 the project was completed. In 2007, it was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

The ride to the top of the mountain was beautiful, finally the clouds had parted and the sun emerged providing the best views possible of Rio. Christ Redeemer stands 13 stories high from its base.

Some pics from a top the mountain looking out over the city.

It took all week to catch a glimpse of Christ from up close but we finally made it and it was well worth it the wait.

Our cab from the hotel to the airport was scheduled for 1:30pm, the hotel told us not to be late because the cab will leave if you’re not ready. We had a special deal through our hotel which reduced the fare to the airport half price so we didn’t want to be late. After snapping a few more pics we were on our way to catch the funicular.

It hadn’t even departed yet but as luck would have it the car was full once again which meant we had to wait another 25 minutes for the next one. Our frustration was only magnified when we saw our arch nemesis couple comfortably sprawled out as the funicular headed down the mountain.

The taxi back to the hotel pulled up just in front of our cab to the airport just as it was about to leave. We told him we needed one moment to grab our bags and frantically ran into the hotel, said our good byes, grabbed our luggage and headed to the airport. Before we even checked into our flight we saw on the big board that it was delayed 1.5 hours so we had some time to kill. We checked in and got rid of our bags. With the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky there was only one thing two classy people like us could think of doing to kill the time. There was a small concrete island just a few feet away from the airport entrance, we grabbed a seat, soaked up the Rio sun and finished our open bottle of wine. Waste not, want not. Cars drove by and literally honked and applauded at the sight of us.

In my Phillies hat, 76ers t-shirt and scraggly beard I could as well have looked like a homeless person.

Hayley, on the other hand, was nothing less than a lady.

The bottle was empty and it was time to leave. When boarding our flight we were shocked to see our arch nemesis couple getting on the same plane, they must’ve been hiding somewhere in the terminal. Once again, they managed to get on the plane before us. A short flight landed us in Foz de Iguacu. Since we sat in front of them we were certain we would get off the plane first but as we walked across the tarmac somehow they were in front. I turned back and noticed the plane was letting people disembark from the back as well. Luckily, they weren’t staying at our B&B or it could’ve meant war.

Our hotel this time around was called Marica’s B&B and was no more than Marica’s beautiful house. It was too late to see the falls and we were too tired for a nice dinner so we walked down the road to the mall where we were told we would find some simple restaurants. What we found was a food court but it would suffice. We dined on various Japanese delicacies that any mall buffet would offer.

Oh, Jesus Christ!

Feeling ten times better than we had yesterday we woke and headed to breakfast. The buffet spread at our B&B was too good to be true, an assortment of meats, cheeses, cakes, fruits as well as eggs and pancakes made to order and most especially, for Hayley, tea. She’s a much more pleasant girl when she gets s brew in the morning, trust me.

Dave, one of the hotel owners, was very informative in helping us plan our day. He sat with us and told us of a very good hippie market that is only open on Sundays just outside of Ipanema. We walked around the market checking out the art and antiques the locals were selling, as we did the sun began to burn off the clouds. Being only a few blocks away from the beach we had to check it out. On Sundays, in Rio, when the weather is warm, everyone goes to beach. The coast line of Copacabana and Ipanema stretch for miles and nearly every inch of the sandy beaches are occupied, we managed to find a nice spot and seized it quickly.

Men walked the beaches selling all sorts of snacks: empanadas, gamberonis (local shrimp), cerveza, whiskey and even pork rinds. We all have heard the rumors about Brazilian woman and their thongs on the beach but what we didn’t realize is just how true it is. Regardless if the girl is 100lbs or 300lbs, they ALL wear a thong, it made for some interesting sights.

I try very hard to get a picture of the two of us on the beach with the mountains in the background.

Afterwards, we rented some bikes and rode around Lagoa Rodrigo, a gorgeous man made lake in the wealthiest section of Rio.

Wanting to take advantage of the beautiful weather we headed to Sugar Loaf Mountain. The views of the city were incredible, instead of me describing them just see for yourself.

If anyone has ever seen the movie Rio, these are the monkeys featured. They are called the common marmoset and are very common in the city.

Christ Redeemer overlooks the city as the sun sets.

This statue sits directly outside of Sugar Loaf.

The beach may have been warm but at the peak of the mountain was a different story, the winds swirled and temperature massively dropped. We decided to call it a day and head back to our hotel. Dinner was at a Brazilian restaurant serving fantastic customary local food.

Day 3 – To view Christ Redeemer you need to purchase your tickets online in advance, we tried to go yesterday but they were completely sold out. Instead, we bought the first pair we could for this morning. When we got to the front of the line the ticket woman told us that there was zero visibility of Rio due to the cloud cover. Trying to be optimistic and considering we had already seen the city from Sugar Loaf yesterday, we decided not to let that stop us from seeing Christ. The ticket woman went on to say that it is so cloudy that we wouldn’t even be able to see Christ, that was enough to deter us. Not to worry, she said that we could come back at anytime and our tickets would be valid.

The Botanical Gardens in Rio is supposed to be one of the best in the world with some of the most beautiful flora and fauna, A short cab ride and we were there. Some of our favorite plants, flowers and sights once we were inside.

Christ seemed to taunt us from a distance as the clouds began to clear and pour over the hill just beneath him. It still made for some very nice pictures.

We still had a few days in Rio so instead of chancing it with Christ and wasting our tickets we opted to save it for another day. Earlier this morning we booked a favela tour which was schedule to leave Copacabana at 2pm, with some time to kill we walked along the boardwalk and grabbed a drink on the beach.

A group of us met outside the Copacabana Palace Hotel and the tour began. The tour consisted of visiting two favelas Vila Canoas and Rosina, the largest favela in Rio. The story of how favelas came about is very interesting. Years ago, when slavery was abolished in Rio, it left a lot of uneducated people without jobs and homes. They had two options, return to work for their previous slave owners or start a life for themselves. At the time, there was a war going on between Brazil and Canudos. Leaders of the Brazilian army recruited these homeless, jobless men from the hills they were living on and told them that if they fought on their side that they would be paid and rewarded with land to call their own after the war had been won. They did indeed win the war but the terms of service never came to fruition and they were left homeless. Owning nothing, they retreated into the mountains and hills of Rio. What they lacked in education and wealth, they made up for with specific skills and craftsmanship. As slaves, these men would have to make concrete, lay bricks, and build houses for their masters. They took these skills, formed a team together and began building favelas on the hills of the city. These people were never removed from the land they had claimed as it was cheap and not deemed desirable to live on. As time went on, the houses became more and more built up, many directly on top of one another. In the 1970s, more people left rural areas of Brazil looking to move into the city and they located to the favelas. The people within the community are very friendly with one another, and the cohesive nature of these groups is what helps maintain the favela itself.

Favelas have a negative connotation around them due to all the drug trafficking that occurs inside them. With the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics quickly approaching, the city and government are trying to do everything they can to make the city safer and more tourist friendly. What this entails is a purification of the favelas. The purification refers to getting rid of all the drugs and drug trafficking within the favelas and assigning police men (ideally not corrupt) to make sure they do not return. The truth around this is that the people living within the favelas defend the drug dealers because they are taken care of by them. If they need money for food, a doctor for their sick child or anything else they go to the drug lords and they provide it for them, only enough to ensure that they will always be needed but more than the cities politicians. In return, the people protect and hide the drug dealers during the purifications. The government has “currently purified” 37 favelas but there are approximately 900 in Rio alone. They have focused the purification process to areas where the wealthy live, where tourist tend to visit and areas near or neighboring sights where the Olympics and World Cup will be held. Rosina has been purified and is the largest favela in Rio with a population of more than three hundred thousand. The shear size of it is incredible.

On the way back to the hotel we found a little bodega that sold everything including some very nice local wines. That evening we sat on our deck with a nice glass of red and researched local restaurants in the area. We found one very highly rated and it was packed when we walked by it last night, the choice was easy.

Their specialty was fried white fish that was accompanied with a very nice dipping sauce and fried ravioli. Not being able to make up our minds we had to order both…and a salad of course. The ravioli was stuffed with meat and cheese and the fish could not have been more flakey and moist. The Portuguese food was very different from the Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and other Asian assortments we had grown accustomed to but we
welcomed and embraced the culinary change.

A looooooong Day

A very good nights sleep with no baboon attacks but we were still up at the crack of dawn for one last game drive. There would be no returning to our hut afterwards so we took some pics of the lodge in the morning sunlight, loaded up our backpacks, picked up a local from the lodge (who not only hitched a ride all the to Mombasa with us but also shared in our last game drive) and headed down the hill.

This colorful guy was waiting almost on our doorstep to see us off.

All our favorite animals were out this morning.

I was hopeful to catch one more glimpse of a lion before we left but as the clock ticked it was seeming less and less likely. As we crossed over a bridge on our way out of the reserve I thought I spotted a pair of golden eyes peering back at me. In my loudest whisper I told History to stop the jeep. Sitting atop a small hill was the biggest male lion we had seen yet devouring last nights catch, buffalo, with a lioness by his side. For whatever reason History did not call the sighting over the CB-radio so for a half hour we watched the pair with not a soul around.

Bones cracked and flesh tore as we gazed on from only a few feet away. The female stood up first to get a closer look at us while the male continued to eat. On a full stomach, the male quickly grew tired of his feed and us spying on him and walked right past our jeep into a shady spot for a nap.

The lioness was right on his heels but it wasn’t fast enough for the alpha male, he turned around at her, stood, roared and swiped a paw at her.

The lioness immediately went into attack mode and caught him in the face with a quick jab of her own. For the previous three days, even as we watched them devour a zebra, they still looked so beautiful and seemed so majestic. However at that moment, and being only a few feet away, the realization of just how ferocious of predators they truly are is very apparent. I couldn’t have been any more chuffed with myself on the sighting, a pair of lions eating and battling, it was the perfect way to end our safari.

It took nearly four hours for us to reach Mombasa. Much to Hayley’s surprise, when she grabbed her bag out of the jeep she saw a giant cockroach on the floor. Im not sure if the look on her face was due to the size or the fact that it had been crawling around us for the entire ride. I told her to relax and calm down, we would not be seeing that African cockroach ever again. I was wrong. We moved through the airport to check in, Hayles grabbed our pack backs and camera bag and I carried our luggage.

We made our way to the desk and as I reached down to pick up our bags I saw for the first time what must have been the same giant cockroach fron the car quickly crawling up the shoulder strap of the camera bag. Before I could warn Hayley it had already made its way to her neck. She brushed it aside as if the tickle was merely a piece of her hair that had fallen astray. The bug was so large that when it landed on the floor it’s exoskeleton literally made a crunch noise. The pale look on her face was priceless when she realized she had a cockroach crawling up her neck. She looked back to get my attention to show me the size of the roach she was talking about but the smile on my face from watching the entire ordeal told her that I already knew.

We arrived at our gate and I glanced at the tv to see what soccer or cricket match was on now. It was Friday morning in Africa but back home it was still Thursday evening and the Eagles vs Chiefs were on tv. I have not seen an American sport played in the past 2.5 months, this was the first flight I wouldve gladly taken a delay. Seeing the Eagles play while I watched from Mombasa was surreal and something I never thought possible.

A short hour flight to Nairobi got us to the airport at 3pm, unfortunately our flight didn’t depart until after 11pm. This is by far the longest layover either of us had ever experienced but surely there had to be things to do at a major international airport: restaurants, shops and bars. We walked around looking for something…anything! It transpired all that existed at Mombasa airport was one small outdoor cafe. It had beer, it had wine, it had food, it would do. The heavens opened and we sat under cover watching the rains pour down as we enjoyed some African cocktails.

The rest of that day and the next all blur into one. We eventually took off from Nairobi and landed in Dubai, it’s miles out of the way of Rio, essentially about 5 hours in the wrong direction but without the layover the flight would’ve been 3x more expensive so we sucked it up.

Dubai is one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. After we landed it took a bus about 30 minutes to drop us off at one of the connection halls. It’s a shame our layover wasn’t here, it seemed like there were as many shops and bars as in NYC. A two hour layover and we were on our way to Rio De Janeiro and South America.

Fifteen hours, several movies, three airline meals, a lot of free airline wine and four really red eyes later and we had arrived. A nap was much needed after we checked into our very nice B&B in Santa Teresa, an artsy trendy neighborhood in Rio. In attempts to try and get rid of the jet lag we forced ourselves to wake up after two hours of sleep and grabbed a bite at a popular nearby restaurant. We sat on a beautiful outdoor terrace and toasted to the beginning of the last leg of our tour.

Lions and Tigers and Bea…Baboons, OH MY!

Our driver was coming to pick us up first thing in the morning so we packed the night before and woke up early to grab a bite to eat before we had to leave beautiful Diani Beach. As we ate it seemed our safari had come to us, our server fought with a 3ft Macaque monkey trying to grab steal some fruit and croissants from the buffet table. Hayley finished her second cup of tea and I checked the driveway to see if our driver had arrived, when I saw a man wearing a “Lions Bluff” golf shirt I knew it was time to go. He introduced himself to us as Hesdarwee but, with his accent it sounded exactly like “History” to us.

History was from the area and claimed to know some short cuts. We drove through dirt roads and a few small towns, after only an hour of driving he pulled his truck to the side of the road and began talking to a random man in Swahili. They opened the hood of the car and began going to work, we weren’t sure what was going on but it seemed there was a problem with our vehicle. We stood on the side of the road and watched as the locals carrying huge baskets on their heads walked by. Hayles looked at me apprehensively and said that she had to pee. For a while the strategy was that I’d be the look out as she would hide behind a bush but there were too many people walking about. She decided to venture into a local establishment and try her luck, apparently she was welcomed like a queen and shown the finest facilities the local watering hole had to offer. After an hour, our jeep was fixed and we were back on our way, 6 hours later we had arrived to Lions Bluff Lodge in Tsavo West National Park.

It sat at the peak of a mountain overlooking the planes, the slogan was, “The View with a Lodge.” As we approached we saw this family of zebras, our lodge is atop the hill.

It was absolutely beautiful. We stood overlooking the planes trying to spot animals roaming about, it was a little difficult considering how high we were but within minutes we spotted a herd of Zebras, a lone elephant and a baboon sitting just a few feet away from us. We’ve had some run ins with baboons before so we were sure to keep a close eye on him. Lunch was being served as we arrived so we sat down, grabbed a quick bite and a glass of wine to celebrate the start of our safari and headed out in search of “Game” shorty after.

History raised the top of the jeeps roof and drove down the steep hill as we kept our eyes peeled for anything that may appear. On safari, you never know what you might see or when you’ll see it so you are constantly on the look out. We were no more than a few hundred yards away from the lodge when a huge bull (male elephant) appeared. We spotted herds of zebras, giraffes, elephants, Cape buffalo, families of baboons and dozens of different types of birds (there are more than 200 species of bird inhabiting Tsavo West) that literally stop to stare at you.

It was all great but nothing is ever as thrilling as when you find the King of the Jungle. This lioness was in heat, during that time the male lion does not leave her side for eight days looking to seize every available mating opportunity he can muster up during that time. He does pretty well for himself, on average the male will mate with the lioness more than 25 times a day, about 200 times in the span of all eight days. We watched as they lay by each others side basking in the setting sun of the bush.

After nearly a half hour of staring at the pair, History asked if we’d like to head back to the lodge before the sun light completely faded away. Even during this 30 minute drive we encountered even more animals.

The male ostrich is black because he sits on too of the eggs and protects them during the evening, the female is responsible for this duty during the day.

The moon shined brightly in the sky as the sun set on the horizon.

When we arrived back at our lodge the sun had set completely and it was complete darkness outside beside the few rays of light provided by the full moon. A Masai warrior escorted us to our room with bow and arrow in hand and a dagger on his hip. The Masai are born and raised in the bush, as young men they are sent out on their own to live in the wild amongst the animals. They need to kill an animal such as a gazelle or buffalo before the age of 16 and are not thought to be a true man until they kill a lion. It is only after they have killed a lion that they are allowed to marry and have a family of their own. It is said that they can talk to the animals, ride the wildest zebra and tame the most aggressive elephant by just looking in their eyes. You may ask why did we needed a personal escort to our room by one? Well…the lodge is completely out in the open, there are no fences or gates of any kind. The only thing that separated us from them was a Masai warrior. Our lodge on the other hand was a different story, it was an authentic African hut made of wood, straw and clay except for one side.

It was a giant viewing window made of no more than hessian, it was rolled up during the day so that we could look out onto the plains and at night it was rolled down, zipped shut reinforced by velcro flaps. A whistle hung on the wall, the guide book in the room advised to only blow this in the case of extreme emergency.

We took a nice warm shower, dressed and headed to dinner. Before we could even shut the door another Masai warrior was by our side providing us with an escort. A portly German girl with a mouth full of chocolate came running over to us. Apparently, shortly after we left the male and female earlier today, the pair began mating. It was a very interesting story but her gloating was even less attractive than the chunks of chocolate that stuck to her teeth as she told the story.

Dinner was served in quiet a surreal setting, it was a giant white stone patio that over looked the bush and up at the stars. Even a personal stone chimney filled with coals rested beside us to keep our legs warm in the chilly night. There is a huge change in temperature between night and day in Kenya’s bush, it can reach as high as 100 degrees in the sun but drop as low as 50 at night. The guide books informed us that, “Kenya is a very cool country with a very hot sun.” Our dinner was more than we could’ve hoped for, steaming pumpkin soup followed by roasted potatoes, grilled vegetables and rotisserie chicken. We hopped into bed with full stomachs and to our delight found piping hot water bottles beneath the blankets at the foot of our bed. How could we not have a great nights sleep?

An elbow jabbed me repeatedly in the ribs until I woke up, “What?!” was the only thing I could muster up. “There’s something ripping open the velcro trying to break into the tent!” whispered Hayley frightfully. After a closer inspection at the loose end of the tent we knew it was too small to be a lion or elephant. There was only one monster that could reach inside our tent with hand like fingers to undo a zipper and velcro flaps and we know that beast all too well…the dreaded BABOON! The flashlight was no where to be found and with no a weapon in hand and Hayley panicking I resorted to the only tactics I could think of. I stood up, grabbed the iPad and shined its light at the tent all while stomping on the ground and hissing as loud as I could to intimidate our attacker. He must’ve known what a formidable foe he was now dealing with and darted in the other direction, we heard his galloping footsteps around our deck and underneath our hut. We slept with one eye open the rest of the night.

Day 2 – Our safari began at dawn so our alarm went off before the sun began to rise. We threw on a few layers to keep us warm and grabbed a quick breakfast before our first game drive of the day. History was already out and about and raring to go before we even finished our first brew. The jeep crawled down the hill and before long we spotted this zebra whose one eye was left blind after an attempted attack by lions, the claw scars along his body told the entire story.

We didn’t have to drive much further before we spotted our first lioness. She had to be different than the one we saw yesterday since she wasn’t accompanied by her male counterpart. The lioness lay atop the red clay all by herself.

As the other jeep crept up on her side she rose, stretched and began to bellow to stake her territory.

Tsavo is a national wildlife reserve and jeeps are not supposed to veer from the road, History began telling us that what the other driver was doing was illegal and he could be fined and even lose his license for doing it. Before long she was off stalking in the high grass of the bush, we caught up with her a half mile away. Herds of zebra, gazelle and impala stopped in their tracks and stared at the lioness as it approached, she walked across the path a few feet away from us.

There weren’t any lions on our second game drive of the day but we did see giraffes, a huge family of elephants and a herd of hundreds of Cape buffalo.

We enjoyed a nice lunch, Hayley napped, I worked on the blog and then we went out on our evening drive.

We witnessed two incredible sights, the first was a pride of four lions laying underneath a tree trying to catch some shade.

The other was a jeep that had driven right up to the pride to catch a better view however, when the driver tried to return his vehicle to the road he got stuck in a groove. History drove our jeep right behind the stranded jeep and tried to push it out of the ditch but one tire turned as the other remained still, clearly this jeep did not have four wheel drive. It’s driver was left with a tough dilemma, he needed to get the jeep out, but the only way to do that was tie a line from his front bumper to another jeep. This meant he’d have to get out of the vehicle just a few meters away from four fully grown lions. We could not decide what to watch, the man tie the tow or the lions staring at the man licking their lips.

The lions did not take their eyes off the prey, when they stood we were certain something was about to go down.

History, chuffed that the law breakers were learning their lesson, began laughing uncontrollably, we couldn’t help ourselves from joining in. Initially, the group of tourists inside the jeep found the situation comical but a half hour later and still no resolution caused some panic to begin to set in. When we drove past them someone from another jeep shouted, “Ok, we’re off. Shall we bring you something for breakfast? What would you like?” With another successful drive under our belts we headed back to the lodge.

Unknowingly, we each captured shots of us looking out on the plains for game.

We love safari!

We decided long ago that we would do a night drive during this safari. There wasn’t an opportunity to do one on our South Africa safari last year so we thought it would be a very unique experience. We made the booking for tonight, the drive starting after dinner had been served.

With some time to kill we shared a nice bottle of red wine and bought a Tsusker (local beer) for History. We met an older English couple sat at the bar, the woman ecstaticly announced that she was infact the one who had spotted the pride we had seen earlier in the day. It’s very hard to actually spot lions in the bush, most of the time another jeep spots it and calls their location over the radio for everyone else to join. This English woman was celebrating her success with multiple doubles of Jack and 7up whilst her disapproving husband looked on!

After another great dinner we met up with History and were introduced to our “spotter”, Steven. He told us that 6 eyes were better than two so if we see anything to be sure and let him know. They both asked if we were sure we wanted to do it but when they said, “Hopefully, we’ll see something.” we both wondered if it was going to be a waste of money. Hayles and I had no idea what to expect as we drove down the hill into the darkness. Steven shined a huge spotlight from one side of the plain to another, his vision was nothing less than phenomenal. He was spotting even the tiniest of animals, we quickly learned that anytime there was the slightest of reflections in the distance, that was the light catching an animals eyes. The nocturnal animals were out and we saw quiet a few: a long eared hare, a jackal and a dik dik (the smallest gazelle in the world) It looks exactly like a gazelle but 1/20 the size. We were able to displace the myth that giraffes sleep standing up, they do in fact lay down while sleeping. Our sightings at this point were fantastic and more than we couldve hoped for. It would’ve been more than enough but just when we were about to head back Steven spotted several pairs of eyes in the distance. He knew each animals eyes and swore these were lion eyes, History drove in for a closer look. What we found was absolutely incredible, it was the pride of four lions that we had seen earlier in the day devouring a zebra. They paid no attention to us as they feasted, tearing at flesh and ripping bone, it truly was an unforgettable experience.

We went to bed with a flashlight and weapon by our side just in case our baboon came back and fell asleep talking about what we had just seen.

R&R on Diani Beach, Kenya

Having accomplished one of the most tiring and difficult feats either of us have willingly put ourselves through we were overwhelmingly pleased that we had at least had the sense to tag some well earned beach time in Kenya immediately after.

We hired a driver to get us from Kilimanjaro to Diani Beach, just along the coast from Mombasa. This was a long drive for the most part along unmade dirt tracks. It also included us negotiating a rather interesting brush with Kenyan officials whose honesty may leave a little something to be desired.

We had a large 4 x 4 and plenty of room so we sat back and just soaked up the scenery on the 10 hour drive. We were even lucky enough to spot some elephants roaming the bush on our ride.

By the time we reached our hotel we could not have been any more ready for the sight that met us. A beach that stretched for miles of perfect white sand. Finally a good idea of ours! We settled in to our room and went and enjoyed dinner overlooking the beach excited at the prospect of doing very very little the next few days. While lying on the beach our first day this caravan passed us by, not something we are accustomed to seeing strolling along the beach.

For the next 3 days we proceeded to lounge around on the beach, watch the kite surfers, diligently take part in happy hours and catch up on some much needed R&R.

Summit Day

We were given some tea and porridge, this was what we had for breakfast every day only today there weren’t any eggs. We all sat in the tent quietly mentally preparing ourselves. One person may have gotten sun stroke during the walk through the desert yesterday and never made it out of her tent for the climb. We checked on her to make sure everything was ok, one thing was for sure, she wasn’t going up. They lined us up in single file turned our head torches on and started the final ascent. Hayles and I managed to find one torch and shared it.
Couple things to note:
1. Several people had oxygen masks to help with the altitude. Since we had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to, of course we did not.
2. Everyone had 2 skiing poles which they reserved and had waiting for them at the debriefing meeting on day 1. When we realized everyone had rented them we decided it would be a good idea but when we rented two instead of getting 2 pairs, we got 2 poles. So Hayles and I only had 1 pole each.
3. We needed 2 pairs of gloves. Hayles bought some in Bangkok but I thought I’d be fine with the pair of Union Jacks mum got me for Christmas last year (thanks Trace!) Last minute I realized that was a terrible idea so I used a thick pair of socks as mittens over my gloves.
4. We had no head torch at all. Our guides had 1 to lend so I wore it, Hayley led and I tried to light the way best I could for the both of us.
5. During the chaos that ensued the first morning before we left for 4 months ago, I only managed to pack one winter hat. Thank god cousin Tasha bought me Marvin the Martian for Christmas last year.

The ascent was near vertical. Not being able to see anything only added to the difficulty of the climb but at the same time the darkness helped mask what was ahead of us for the next several hours. The only thing we could see were flashlights above us snaking up the mountain. It seemed endless and was very intimidating when I saw how much higher some of the other groups were. From there on in I tried not to look up as much as possible. The gradient is so steep that your path has to be in a zig and zag instead of trekking straight up. The cold goes straight through your bones, the altitude makes it very difficult to get oxygen and that’s not accounting for the fact that your exhausted and fatigued from 4 days of hiking. Our water in our backpacks was hot when we began but we still needed to place them upside down in thick socks as to not freeze during the climb. We couldn’t stop to break and catch our breath for more than a few minutes because the sub zero temperatures could cause you to cool down and possibly suffer hypothermia. Hayles had to pee on the ascent which was, as you can imagine, altogether a rather difficult activity!

During our first pit stop we grabbed water and tried to drink as much as possible but with socks as mittens it proved to be an extremely difficult task. No sooner had I grabbed the bottle that the whole group assembled and we were off climbing again. Those that had camel backs were struggling to drink their water as well since they had to blow the excess in the tube back in to the pack otherwise it would freeze, even doing that required to much exertion. Several times, as we stopped for other parties to catch up, I doubled over trying to catch my breath. I would feel Hayley sliding backwards on to my head as all strength left her legs. Id push her forward with the top of my head and we’d continue to climb. There were 4 markers leading up to Gilman’s point, the ridge of the volcanic crater which stood at 5,700 meters. As we climbed we knew that when the sun came up and the sky began to brighten that was our indicator that we were almost there. As this started to happen and the sky slowly turned orange we began to hear people above us cheering where they had hit the goal. Knowing that we were almost there filled us with excitement, pride but maybe relief most of all.

After 6 hideously long, grueling hours of climbing we made it! As we made it to the top we were greeted with hugs from all of our guides and a cup of tea to help warm us up a little. I looked at Hayles, she was crying with tears of joy and sense of accomplishment. We gave each other huge hugs and watched the sun come over the horizon, it was absolutely stunning. You literally are on top of the world, sitting high above the clouds.

This feeling of elation is short lived, within 5 minutes the guides tell you that if you want to go to Uhuru, the true peak and highest point of Kilimanjiro, we had to go now before we freeze! Knowing this was a once in a lifetime chance and the opportunity would never come by us again we had to try. We mustered up as much enthusiasm as we could and followed the guides. One of our group was a little delirious and could not recall the previous six hours. She decided not to go all the way but surprisingly the other 11 of us decided to go for it. We were a group, team (during that week, a family) of troopers!

The summit was only 200 meters higher at 5,900 meters but this was an additional 2 hour hike. The whole way up people were falling over, being rushed down the mountain, throwing up and turning white. The final push caused people even more difficulty than we had imagined. I thought if I stopped putting one foot in front of the other I would lose my momentum and would never make it to the top. Knowing this, I continued to trudge forward on my own. Two guides, Raphael and Emanuel, joined up with Hayles and the three of them walked together. At one point Hayles said they saw me teetering back and forth and feared I may stumble off the mountain. Raphael stayed with Hayles and took the piss out of her to distract her and Emanuel met up with me. He pointed out the beauty in the view and the huge glaciers that stood across from us. These massive glaciers are 200 feet high but it is believed that in the next decade or so they will have completely melted and be no more due to global warming. Raphael and Emanuel not only got us to the summit but made sure we were safe the entire time. Hayles took 1 or 2 breaks so was a little behind me, I remember telling Emanuel that I needed to find her but he assured me she was ok and pushed us onward.

After 2 more hours we made it! The elation was incredible. I looked around at the rest of the group but didn’t see Hayles. Leigh and I looked for her as icicles dangled from my beard.

I wasnt sure if she made it and feared she turned around but then I saw her and we had a celebratory snap at the top.

Group summit pic. (Unfortunately, Tom is blocked by Baxter and Hayley, Hugo and Helen are not pictured) All 11 of us made it to Uhuru!

About 65% of people reach the summit and we can now say we did. By this point you are as cold as one can be and all of your extremities are numb.

You think once you make it to the top the hard part is over but unfortunately, that’s not even close to being true. The guides gathered the group and told us that the sun was out in full force today so we had to get back to camp ASAP before it took its effects on us. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a situation where its 0 degrees but you have to worry about the sun, then again, I’ve never been at 20,000 feet before. It was a 4 hour hike back down the mountain. Raphael set an insane pace and I tried my best to follow. I thought I’d regain some strength after descending a hundred meters or so but 5,800 meters is still 5,800 meters. Our first break came an hour in and I was struggling. Hayley asked how I was doing about a dozen times, she’d later tell me that I was whiter than a ghost and my lips were blue. The water stops and breaks were few and far between and it was taking its toll on the group, some were physically ill or, like me, just looked like death. At one point Tom took control and told the guides that we all needed a few minutes to catch our breath and have a drink.
It was around this moment that we realized we hadn’t yet eaten any of the snacks we were supposed to on the way up. There was such a struggle opening water that there was never any time to eat. We stopped, pulled out a famous Bintan, now frozen, and got some energy for the push downward. The group began to separate into smaller groups of two or three people. Hayles and I found ourselves alone, right in the middle. Skiing down rocks from side to side we tried to get down the mountain as quickly as possible. The sun began beating down on us and we were out of water. After our third break we decided that we wouldn’t stop any more, it was just too hard to get going again. Both of us would’ve gladly passed out on the side of the mountain but we knew we needed to get to camp.

Making it back to camp was the most fantastic feeling imaginable. All you want to do is lay down and take your boots off. Neither of us were sure we’d ever get them back on again, our feet were killing us. Now was some rest time. The guides allowed us a 2 hour nap then woke us for lunch. Over the meal everyone compared stories, aches and pains and congratulated one another on their achievement.

Boots back on and all packed up again, we had another 3 hours hike ahead of us descending 1,000 meters to the next camp. All in all it was 15-16 hours of hiking that day. EXHAUSTING!

At dinner that night Florence said, “thank you all for being safe and coming down alive.” He told us a woman in another group got pulmonary edema and it didn’t look like she was going to survive. We knew it was hard but it doesn’t really hit home until you’re there hearing tragic stories like that. I researched it, about 20-25,000 people climb Kilimanjaro annually, 2/3 make it to the summit and about 10 people die trying.

Day 6 – There wasn’t a single member of the group that didn’t sleep like a baby thanks to the endless day before. When we arrived at camp yesterday there was massive cloud and fog cover, it was difficult to see a few feet let alone anything else, however when we woke up it was a different story. We each stepped out of our tents at the usual 6.30am wake up to the most beautiful sunrise coming over the horizon.

We had already come down 2,000 meters from the summit but we were still at about 15,000 feet. Rested, relieved and with the true end in sight we all shared our final breakfast together on the mountain.

The horror that we had all just endured already seemed like a fairy tale. After breakfast, the guides called us outside the tent for the “tipping ceremony”. They sang a few songs for us, one of them we have a video of and still gets played routinely.

Sam gave a speech to all that had helped us complete the amazing journey and soon after we were on our way once again.

Our leader, Florence.

Only six more hours of hiking and the entire adventure would be over. We wouldn’t have to use this bathroom anymore.

Helen set the pace and our guide, Solomon, told Tom and I that we needed to speed up to catch her since she was all on her own. As hard as we tried, we never did. Hayles told stories with Esther and Leigh on her descent and I had about 6 hours of some quality time with Tom.

Two of our guides, King Solomon and Diglan.

Emanuel who helped me make it to the top and Hayley’s boy, Raphael.

The terrain began to look greener and we knew we were almost home free.

We make it back to base camp.

The thermals we bought in Bangkok were actually American flag and Union Jack tights…how could we not get to the top looking like this.

The first thing we all did once we got back to the hotel was bathe. Having not had the luxury the entire climb we all fantasized over our final breakfast about just how good it would be. Trust me when I say that you will never see a dirtier tub than after you’ve been up a mountain for 6 days (thank god for wet-wipes) We held a photo comp with the group to compare bath filthiness. The results were incredible!

Fresh and clean, we met each other at the bar for some celebratory drinks before dinner. We feasted (as much of a feast you could possibly enjoy at our hotel) and Sam handed out everyone’s certificates after an emotive farewell speech. It was definitely the hardest thing either of us have ever done but it was also the greatest experience to date and one to remember for a lifetime. We could not have had a better group of people to spend every waking hour of a week with, they were all awesome people. Clearly, I’m romanticizing it already but hey….WE JUST CLIMBED MT. KILIMANJARO!!!! Woooo!

Kill me now, its Kilimanjaro!

After a couple of drinks on Koh San road we headed back to our hotel. Having read how physically draining our upcoming climb would be and all the advice previous climbers had posted on the internet we decided to grab some energy bars at a convenient store on our walk home. Unfortunately, the store didn’t have anything of the sort, there weren’t energy bars or nutri-grain bars or even granola bars. Instead we bought half a dozen packs of sugus (they are similar to starbursts) and half a dozen bintan bars. They had gotten us through scuba diving, hopefully they would help get us to the summit.

Our flight from Bangkok was scheduled to depart at midnight but as we arrived at the airport we saw on the departure board that it was already an hour delayed. With some time to kill we decided to hit up the convenient store in the airport to see if they had the food supplies we were looking for. They did not but that didn’t stop us from picking up some peanuts, baked beans (not in a can, these were crunchy and packaged) and a pair of UV protective glasses so the sun at 20,000 feet wouldn’t burn my eyes out. For $7 they probably weren’t truly UV protective.

The plane took off a little after 1am and touched down in Nairobi shortly after 10am local time. There were three gates at the transfer terminal of the airport and not much to do besides sit and wait for 2 hours for our flight to Kilimanjaro to depart. It took us a while to acquire a visa, mainly because customs in Tanzania doesn’t take their own currency. They’ll accept US dollars and GB pounds but not Tanzanian Shillings. We survived the ordeal, found our driver and enjoyed the 1.5 hour ride to our hotel. Tanzania is everything you picture Africa to be, dirt roads cut through miles of endless plains with locals walking from one place to the next.

The temperature in Kilimanjaro was much cooler than we expected. Having been in hot and humid climates anywhere from 90-120 degrees our bodies had grown accustomed to the heat and near went in shock when we arrived at the hotel and it was a chilly 60 degrees. Being too cold to go to the pool and with nothing around us to see for miles we took a nap and reenergized.

We awoke feeling rejuvenated so we sat by a newly made fire and had a few drinks to settle in before our pre-climb briefing at 7pm. We entered the room to meet our group, 15 people in total, and were the only two people with drinks in hand. We got the run down for an hour, including our route, each days agenda, what to expect, how our bodies may handle the altitude and how the whole operation would work. There were to be a total of 56 guides/porters/cooks to get us up and back. This seemed a little excessive but we had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into so decided they know best. Godson gave us our briefing, he was an experienced climber who had been to Kilimanjaro’s summit more than 250 times. He would not be our lead guide, having just returned from a climb however, he was sure to tell us the three keys to success to reaching the top:
Rule 1: “Pole Pole” which translates to slowly slowly.
Rule 2: Drink 4-5 liters of water a day.
Rule 3: PMA. Positive Mental Attitude. Gotta believe you can do it or you’re already done for.

Yea yea yea..lets climb this thing.

Like the first day of elementary school we went around the room introducing each other…

Tom and Madeline have been married for 29 years and currently reside in Dallas, TX (to my family and friends at home not to worry, he’s not a Cowboys fan) I can’t say the same for their son, Kevin, who accompanied them, but what he lacked for as a Cowboys fan he made up for with some of the best one liners of the trip.

Esther and Nick were from the UK and would actually celebrate their second anniversary halfway through the climb. Congrats guys!

Baxter and Leigh live just a few blocks away from us in NYC so we were able to kill hours of climbing time talking about local restaurants and bars.

Sam is from St.Louis and has the goal of climbing the 7 highest summits on each continent. Kilimanjaro being the only non technical climb, this was first on the list.

Helen was Scottish, living in Luxembourg with her hubby and and new born son. A change of job gave her a 6 week window in which she decided to have a once in a lifetime experience.

Sylvia was a retiree and had raised over $12,000 for a small children’s charity by doing the climb.

Helen #2 was also from the UK, a nurse braving the trip on her own.

Carmen, “Hugo’s translator” from San Francisco, was accompanied by her brother, Hugo, from Guatemala. She had roped him into the trip by the promise of Zanzibar.

We recieved our skeeping bags and down jackets at the end of the meeting, clearly I was very excited.

After the meeting we had our first group dinner and learnt the basics about each other. Everyone was keen on an early night so we finished up and spent our last time in a bed for the foreseeable future!

The next morning we woke early to pack the bag we would actually be taking to the mountain with us. There are weight regulations for how much weight the porters can carry so essentials only. It’s important to remember that everyone else on this trip was here for this sole purpose and came armed with gaitors, camel backs, head lamps and oxygen tanks…we had none of these and had actually done most of our climb shopping in Bangkok. You will see the result of this later.

We left the hotel at 8am ready to begin our adventure.

The 2 hour drive took us to the base of the mountain. We signed in, met all our porters, assistant guides, stomach engineer (cook) and lead guide (Florence). This was our crew.

The weather was about 25 degrees warmer than it had been yesterday so we took off our jackets, put on some lotion and began to ascend.

Day 1- easy enough. A 4 hour climb through a rain forest where we saw numerous baboons and squirrel monkeys. It was a 1,000 meter ascent starting at 1,500m. From here to 2,500m proved to be a piece of cake. Our guides gave us several breaks through out the day and we all wondered why. Feeling great and keen on getting to our first camp we felt the breaks were a little excessive and wanted to continue the hike but our guides insisted on some rest. I have endured this beard throughout some of the hottest weather Asia could throw at us but I always knew it would pay off during this climb.

Once we got to our first base camp we signed in again and did a 2 hour round trip acclimatization hike. The guides try to gradually get you used to the altitude so we went up another couple hundred meters, chilled a bit and came back to camp. The terrain of this camp was by far the nicest we would experience.

We shared a nice group dinner consisting of onion soup that tasted very similar to chicken stock (we had a different soup every night; whether it was onion, carrot or leak they all looked and tasted exactly alike) potatoes and battered fish. Florence gave us the run down for tomorrow and told us that if we needed to go to the bathroom in the night be sure to bring your flashlight because there are jackals in the area. Not to worry, the light scares them away, only problem was we didn’t bring a flashlight. After borrowing one from our guide we called it a night and headed to bed. We were camping so that meant tents and sleeping bags. As we shivered into our sleeping bags we wondered whose terrible idea this was and thought how cold it was. Green and inexperienced as we were we were clueless that this was only the beginning! If all this wasn’t enough to endure we were also taking altitude medication which has a side effect of making you pee constantly. Add 5 liters of water to this and you can imagine how many times we woke up in the pitch black middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Fearful of jackals we always went together, terrible nights sleep.

Day 2- We were awoken at 6:30am by our guide with a big good morning and asked if we would like tea or coffee. After we had our warm drinks to wake us up we were brought two bowls filled with hot water and told “washy washy”. This is how we would bathe for the next week, exciting! Todays itinerary consisted of another 1,000 meter ascent but a much different day compared to yesterday. We ascended 1,000 meters in the first 3.5 hours but then had another 3.5 hour hike to camp which took us up and down an abundance of hills, mountains and ending trudging through marshes. It wasn’t far into our morning climb that we got our first true peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro, needless to say we got a little excited.

The mountain in the background is not Kilimanjaro but it was our destination and would be our camp for night three. Still need to get through the next 36hrs before we’d arrive there.

Halfway through the day we stopped off for lunch.
Hayley and Leigh

Sam and Nick

Ester, Helen and Helen

Poor Baxter…

Shortly after lunch we were off.

In the middle of the day one of our team needed oxygen, this was when we lost our first group member. We were not only sad to see her leave but seeing how quickly the mountain and altitude gets to you allowed a little fear to creep into our heads.
Needing to stay positive, we tried our best to enjoy the landscape and have a little fun.

Once at camp, the altitude caught up with me and I had a terrible headache through out dinner. Helen did as well so when we took Tylenol at the same time we kept checking in with each other to see if it the others had subsided, they didn’t. Knowing I had to eat I forced my food down and resisted the feeling of nausea and being sick. Hayles said she was feeling great which worried me a little more but luckily as soon as I laid down the headache subsided.

As we began to fall asleep we could hear one of our group in the tent next to us struggling. She planned the climb for a year and even has a mountain house in Colorado at the same altitude we currently were at but as we were quickly learning altitude sickness does not discriminate and the mind has a way of playing tricks on even the most prepared individuals. There was hyperventilating, weazing and vomiting. We tried to sleep but as you can imagine this evoked a certain amount of fear in us and it was difficult to shake off hearing the events occur a meter away. Her husband grabbed Florence around midnight and he gave her oxygen. What we found out the next day is as soon as you need oxygen, that’s the end of your adventure. The guides send you back down the mountain and you go home no matter how you recovered or well you feel. As we all awoke the next morning and learned what had happened we became disappointed for her and bummed not to have her experience, company and positive attitude the rest of the trek. A lack of sleep another night made the next day that much harder.

Day 3- Almost another 1,000 meters but much different terrain.

We arrived at 4,350 meters around noon.

After another sign in it was “resty resty” time. Why everything had to be repeated twice is anyones guess but it made us smile! I struggle to take naps but not Hayles, she was out within minutes. She woke up an hour later, had some lunch and then we all left for another acclimatization walk. Base camps varied immensely but we were excited to be that much closer.

The acclimatization hike took us to 4,500 meters. The view was amazing, above the clouds looking down on Tanzania.

We could even see Kenya. The guides said, “see the brown? That’s Kenya.” They have their own jokes. I struggled again in the evening at dinner with a bad headache and fatigue but the Tylenol knocked it out. Hayles was still ploughing through and hadn’t incurred any symptoms as of yet. Each of the previous three nights I had awoken at least twice having to pee but slowly learning some water drinking tactics tonight, I only had to go once. As I walked to the toilet I looked up to see the most amazing site I’ve ever seen, the entire Milky Way. There can not be many places on the planet that you can see the entire galaxy in the sky but there it was in all its beauty. I only wish it wasn’t so cold outside so I could’ve enjoyed it longer. Back into my sleeping bag and awaited day 4.

Day 4 – it was a 7 hour hike through the desert but only 200 meters ascent in altitude to 4,700. For the first time in days we had a good nights sleep, we woke up rested (just look how great we look) and ready to go.

A few months ago a pilot flying had misgauged his altitude and crashed into the mountain, it must be too hard to move at this height because pieces of the crash site still remain.

The mountain was growing in size with every hour but it was too late to turn around.

After the disaster we had the morning we left NYC I only managed to grab one winter hat. (Thanks cuz!)

Our porters would leave camp well after us because they had to pack up camp and all our gear but they quickly caught up and passed us shortly after.

The sun beat down on us making it a scorcher and it clearly took a toll on some of us more than others.

However, when the clouds rolled in the temperature quickly dropped 10-30 degrees. It was a long walk but we finally arrived to Kibu camp at the base of the mountain. We had seen the beast in the distance for days but for the first time we could see our path up close and personal and just how steep it was. We had lunch around 1:30pm, then “resty resty” (this time I fell asleep quickly) At 5:00pm we were woken for dinner and our summit briefing. The speech was maybe the scariest thing I have ever heard. We all needed 4-5 layers on top and bottom as the temperature would be as low as -10C to -20C with winds potentially upwards of 75mph and 50% normal oxygen levels. Florence told us to let him know of any sign of not feeling well immediately, he went on to say that he has seen people die on this mountain so we shouldn’t keep anything to ourselves. We went back to our tents as aprehensive as we could ever have been. Once inside, we packed all of the clothes we were going to need on the ascent in our sleeping bags so they would be warm when we put them on in a few hours. Hayles and I laid in the tent before falling asleep telling each other that this was it, the final push…we could do it. All our hard work the past 4 days had led up to this and it was time. Our wake up call was to be at 11pm….