Monday 18 January 2016

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe



Carolyn.  Victoria Falls is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.  Not to be missed if you are anywhere in the region.  We were definitely impressed, even though we were told the water levels were unusually low due to the drought in the area for the last few months (usually the rainy season starts in November - but when we were there in mid-January, the rains had just started that week).

The weather forecast for the day we planned to enter the National Park was for lots of rain.  We debated the wisdom of paying our park entrance fees that day - after all, we were in the area for a few more days - but we decided to take the chance.  But only 5 minutes after we entered, the downpour hit hard.  Vern ran back out to vendors by the park gates to rent umbrellas: our rain coats and plastic ponchos could keep our bodies dry - sort of - but  not our cameras, they needed shelter!! 

The wonderful thing about visiting on a day like this is that almost no one else was there.  And happily, after 40 minutes, it stopped raining and it felt like had the whole place to ourselves.  Amazing.  

There are many precarious places that require serious caution when walking the ridge of the gorge - particularly after it rains and the rocks are very slippery.  You can literally walk right to the edge, and fall right off.  Cooper asked a simple question: "why don't they have safety rails?" - to which our only answer was "...because this is Africa..." (compared to Iguazu Falls in Brazil/Argentina, or Niagara Falls in Canada/US - all of which have ample safety guard rails on all pathways and viewpoints!)

But honestly, being able to approach these crazy cliff drop-offs, without any other tourists around, with just the roar of the falls to keep us company - it felt like we were experiencing something really special.  We had a chance to just sit alone and watch the falls for over half an hour before another person wandered along.  That would NEVER happen at Iguazu or Niagara.  Happily the person who joined us wanted to sit and chat while watching the falls too, so we all got another half an hour together to contemplate the power of nature before the next small group came by.  Cooper got bored by this point, and we let him go explore the immediate forest areas along the path behind us - always within sight - while we adults truly appreciated this amazing opportunity to sit still.

The next day, outside of the National Park, we all chose to experience one of the many adventure activities popular in the area:  Vern went whitewater rafting on the Zambezi river, and Carolyn & Cooper each did a harnessed jump 95 metres into the gorge, including 75 metres (a very long 4.5 seconds) of free-fall.  A little bit crazy, and an amazing adrenaline rush!

(video of the jump will be posted soon)


More pictures will be posted soon...


Friday 15 January 2016

Paraty, Brazil

Spent several days in this quaint, historical coastal town with beautiful beaches and islands.  More blogging about Brazil to follow.




Tuesday 12 January 2016

Foodie Corner: Brazilian Barbecue … In Brazil!

Vern.

I consider Brazilian BBQ - also known as “all-you-can-eat-meat”, “meatfest”, or “meat-a-thon”- to be one of the true pleasures of being a non-vegetarian.  (With apologies to my vegetarian and vegan friends.) 

For any that have not experienced this phenomenon, the premise is simple:  You walk in, sit down and are provided with some kind of “go/no-go” token – perhaps a small flag or a coaster that is red on one side, green on the other.  As long as you have the “go” side showing, servers will periodically come by your table with huge hunks of meat on a spit, and offer you any or all of it.  (It’s bad form to ask for the whole skewer, at least all at the same time.)   This eating marathon continues until you put on the “stop” symbol, feeling several kilos heavier.

A visit to Brazil would clearly be incomplete without at least one meal at a BBQ abode.  In Rio, we chose Fogo de Chao, a highly-recommended Brazilian BBQ establishment.  We were not disappointed.  The ongoing selection included pork, chicken and over a dozen different cuts of beef.  Patrons are provided with a map of the different cuts, in Portuguese, English and German.  

Fogo de Chao also includes a generous salad bar, as do most Brazilian BBQ restaurants.  Here’s a tip for the uninitiated:  go easy on the salad bar and focus on the meat.  If you want leafy things, go someplace else.  The same goes for the tasty appies and delicious-smelling bread rolls that the tricky servers bring you to fill you up.  Ignore them.   It is your responsibility as a diner to maximize your meat consumption.  If your chair does not creak from your newly-acquired kilos by the end of your meal, you’re doing something wrong.  And, hey, it’s mostly protein anyhow, low on carbs.

An interesting side note:   As soon as I entered Fogo de Chao, I had the feeling I’d been there before. It brought to mind a memorable meal in Minneapolis.  I checked the back of the menu, and sure enough, one of the restaurant’s locations is Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.  So:  you don’t have to come all the way to Brazil for the experience.  Now get on out there and eat! 







Saturday 9 January 2016

Taking the Bad with the Good

First:  this entry has been a little while in coming, but there needed to be some mental healing time before we wrote.  And the act of writing has been a therapy of sorts…


Vern, Carolyn.

Well, New Year’s Eve is always a big party – and probably the biggest party in the world is on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  About 2 million people, they say.  And we were excited to be part of it.

Unfortunately, we also experienced the first truly bad  incident on our trip.

We were warned – and our own common sense told us – that there would be pickpockets in the crowd, so we safeguarded against this.  No purse, no wallet, nothing in loose pockets.  Our few valuables (a little money and the cell phone camera) were secure in our zippered pockets.  But we didn’t expect to be physically attacked.

We got to the party early, around 8pm.  There were already many hundreds of thousands of people watching a samba dance show on the huge beach stage.  We were merely three people in the massive crowd.  Vern decided to take a picture of the stage show, along with thousands of others.  You know how it is:  so many arms in the crowd raised above heads with a phone in hand, taking a picture.

Suddenly a hand reached up and ripped the phone away. Vern tackled the thief, who dropped the phone, but unbeknownst to Vern there were 4 other guys joining the attack too.  Everyone dived to the sand for the phone, and Vern was at the bottom of this beach scuffle, but the other guys were pulling him away and one of the gang got the phone first.  This all happened in about 1 second, before Carolyn or Cooper even knew something was happening.

In the next second, when Carolyn realized Vern was at the bottom of a pileup, she immediately concluded this must be about the cell phone, since it was the only valuable thing we had with us.  As the guys started to scatter, she got a good hold of one guy’s shirt, while Vern rose to give chase to the others. The guy Carolyn was latched onto dragged her until they tripped on someone’s beach chair, then she was flung off, and someone else fell on top of her.  In the meantime, Vern was chasing the guy he thought had the phone, with the other conspirators running interference. The chase crashed through beach chairs, vendors and bystanders.

When Carolyn rose from the sand, she saw Vern disappearing in the crowd, and she immediately looked for Cooper  who was still standing just 10 feet away, exactly where it all started.  Probably only 5-6 seconds had elapsed.

Cooper was understandably scared – actually, like most of the crowd, he didn’t know what had happened, he just heard the commotion, then he saw his dad running away, and he saw his mom thrown down in the sand.  Once he was with Carolyn again, she told him that the phone was being stolen, and they stood there a while hugging and crying.  Several bystanders checked with them, but everyone spoke Portuguese, so they had no idea what was being said, except to know their words were kind and reassuring.

Just as they were wondering whether they should stay there waiting for Vern, or go to our pre-determined “if we get separated” meeting spot, Vern came back, with a grim look on his face…and bleeding…the phone was gone.  Vern thinks it was passed around amongst the gang as they made their escape, and all was eventually lost in the crowd.  We only realized later that Vern’s prescription glasses were torn from his head during the chase, adding to the loss.


Both Vern and Carolyn wound up with minor injuries.  Cooper was unhurt, just scared.  We spent the next three hours filing the police report and getting patched up at one of the many first aid stations set up for New Year’s.  Happily we got back to the beach in time for the countdown to 2016, which was now even more crowded than before.  The fireworks were amazing – the biggest and best display we have ever seen.  But bittersweet.




More than anything else, Vern was fuming, and is still getting over the anger.  The incident is one of those things you hear or read about, removed from your own reality…until it happens to you.  

The reaction from the police and local Brazilians was perhaps the most dispiriting:  “Yes that happens a lot”, or “Sorry it happened to you, but it is very common”, or “My sister was downtown just this morning and had her gold chain torn from her neck.”   These unchecked, almost accepted assaults and thefts are a poor outlook for an otherwise world-class city.


The incident did knock the wind out of our sails for a few days.  But then we got out again to enjoy the beauty of Rio, including a thorough exploration of shopping centres and technology venues to buy a new cell phone.  But the event did sour our Rio experience and we were happy to move on.  






To see pictures from our world trip so far, click this link: