Day 104 - London

... and now I am back.

I am back home.

Everything is exactly the way I left it. Same things, same places, same smells. I am back home and for some strange reason I feel like I have never really left. I am feeling very strange and very tired but also happy to be back. After all, this is my home. I am not yet realizing that I did travel around the world on my own and now I am back. I feel I have to take the map and check where my next destination is, but once again I tell myself I am at home.

This is my final destination.

I am sitting on the floor looking outside the window. It is snowing and everything is quite. When I close my eyes I see thousands of images. Images of people and places.

I need time now. I need time to think and to metabolize everything I went through. It has been an experience that changed me. I know it, I feel it. I am not myself anymore, or at least, I am not anymore the same person that left 4 months ago. I feel that something has changed inside; changed in a better direction. There is so much beauty and poverty in the world, so much joy and so much pain. But it is a wonderful world and after all, what makes it so beautiful it is us, the people who live in it.  

A journey on my own but never really alone neither with my soul nor with my heart. A journey mostly characterized by all the people I met either just for few moments or even for few days.
People of every social level and every profession. People who in their simplicity have always left me something: a smile, a hug, a memory.
People who have helped me with incredible hospitality and people who have showed me the best way to go, both in this journey and in my life.
Moments filled by their expressions of joy and passion, pain and sorrow, tears and smiles. Expressions which have been my best companions and that in their simplicity have made me realize even more what a lucky man I am.

This journey and this diary are dedicated to all of them.

  

Day 102 – 103 – Rio de Janerio

Rio de Janeiro. Do you remember the classic songs of Jobin or Joao Gilberto like Desafinado or the Girl from Ipanema? The sun and an explosive nature? The long beaches and the fresh capirinas? The samba and the statue of Christ overlooking an amazing view of the city? The smiles and the openness of the Cariocas? The football and the super tight bikinis? Well... this is all true. This is all real. The reality is even better than what you generally see on TV.

I arrived after a terrible trip by bus, sitting next to a very annoying and crazy man whom woke me up thousands times because of his irresistible need to talk at 4am. I managed to arrive in one piece without a potential terrible headache at the bus terminal. I took a taxi and went to the recommended hostel of my book guide. The hostel was very nice even if the room was pretty disgusting. It was officially my last night in a hostel so I didn’t really care. I met a nice group of people and with them we decided to go out at night in the Lapa district. Thousand of Cariocas and tourists converging into a huge square with loud music, loud people, litres and litres of capirinas and delicious food. The night was a typical night in Rio and I am happy I managed to experience it. This is a kind of night that you wouldn’t really like to experience every Friday or Saturday but it’s good to experience it because it reminds you what being a real Carioca really means. I went back to the hostel around 4am and I collapsed still fully dressed in my little and uncomfortable bed. The morning was shining and warm. It was approximately 9am when I stood up feeling a little bit broken and slightly strange thinking that this would have been my very last day of such a long a trip. In order to forget this thought, I had a good and regenerating breakfast by the pool and a lovely chat with a Colombian girl who was eating in a table close to mine. I went for a long walk to Ipanema and Copacabana seeing all the people getting to the beach and getting ready with their towels or with their surf board. At 1pm I organized with the hostel a city tour. Together with a Korean guy and the guide, I managed to visit all the most important and iconic places of Rio. The Christ and the Sugar Leaf, the area of Santa Teresa and again the Lapa district. The city is simply amazing and I can easily seeing myself living here (like previously I have also said of Buenos Aires) for a very long time (well who wouldn’t probably!). I order a taxi to pick me up at 7.30pm and went straight to the airport for my 23.30 flight back to London. While driving along Ipanema beach and the lagoon, there was a magnificent sunset with a wonderful blue/pink sky. I thought with myself that this was the best 'last image' I could have ever had to finish the journey of a lifetime.

I thought: ‘It is over. The journey it is really over now.  It is all over.... but maybe this is just the very beginning of a different life I will have’.

The taxi was fast approaching the tunnel which drives outside the city.

I turned myself one more time, for one very long moment, to impress in my eyes a wonderful glimpse of the best 103 days of my life.

I smiled while turning back, and without even realizing it, I told to a very confused taxi driver: "let’s go home now...".

TWIMO

Day 95 – 101 – Florianopolis

The original plan was to go to Rio directly from Campo Grande by bus. However the situation in Rio is pretty bad at the moment with the police and the military fighting the drug lords all over the streets of the northern part of the city. Despite some people telling me that the situation in the other parts of the city is ok, I thought that probably it wasn’t the best time to go around in Rio. I have to get back there anyway to catch my flight to go back to Europe so I will spend at least the last couple of days to visit the city with obviously the intention one day to go and spend there at least a couple of weeks. So I decided, also pushed by an incredible cheap flight, to go back to Florianopolis and spend few days back to the hostel and the guys there. The flight was at 3am from Campo Grande and I actually didn’t sleep at all if not collapsing once I was on the plane and during the stopover in Sao Paulo. I arrived in Floripa around 9.30am and I went directly to the hostel in Lagoa de Conceicao. Once there I was greeted by pretty much the same people I met last time I was here. I feel particularly at home here, knowing everyday new people. To open the weekend with style we went to a very good club in the city centre. Lots of alcohol and coming back as usual around 5am in the morning was the way the island and my fellow travellers at the hostel gave me their welcome. Days here run away so quickly between a match on the pool table, mornings spent on the seaside or even better on the boat visiting the countless beaches, a samba night and delicious capirinas. My trip must continue though, even more now that I am reaching the very final moments of it. I will travel tonight, Thursday 9^th of December, on a night bus, the last bus of this incredible journey. I don’t really want to leave Florianopolis considering how much at home I feel in this place and with the many interesting people I meet here, people like me that come and go from their long journeys. People from every part of the world who become for few days your best friends. The weather wasn’t always great but the entire atmosphere was simply unforgettable.
Goodbye guys, and thanks for sharing together great moments. I will remember these days for a long long time...

And now, the real final step of my journey: Rio de Janeiro

TWIMO!

Day 91 – 94 – Campo Grande - Pantanal

I arrived by bus to the region of the Mato Grosso do Sul and to the city of Campo Grande that was approximately 8.30am. I was terribly tired because I didn’t manage to sleep not even for 1 single minute. The bus, despite the fact that was exactly the same to all those that I have taken so far, seemed particularly uncomfortable. Once at the bus station, the guy of the company which will take me to the jungle was there waiting for me. After 15 minutes of crazy ride, I reached the hostel. I had approximately 2 hours to have a decent breakfast, wash myself as much as I could using the bathroom and drop few emails to advice that I would have been unreachable for the next few days. I jumped on an uncomfortable van together with other few people that as I guessed correctly were about to spend those days with me in the camp. One Swiss couple, an English and a Dutch girls and myself. It took us 3 hours before reaching the border of the jungle. Actually, it is not a proper jungle as its geographically close cousin in the Amazon, but rather more a proper mix of jungle and wet land, with less dense vegetation, which allow you to spot and identify animals much better than in the region of the Amazon. In the Amazon in fact the vegetation is so dense and intense that the light is not able to reach the ground forcing the majority of the animals to live and move almost on top of the trees.

A jeep was waiting for us at the entrance of a restricted area. I realized that the real restricted area wasn’t the one we were about to go into, but the one we were leaving, since the immensity of the jungle out there was predominant compared to the so called civilized or semi industrialized area we were just about to leave. We reached after one hour driving our camp. The camp was very basic divided in dormitory areas each one of them marked by a number and totally covered by mosquito nets. I was assigned on the Dormitory 1, a semi concrete building with 8 hammocks. In the camp there were 4 showers with one with mild water, mostly rain water, 4 toilets, a kitchen and a little canteen. The level of humidity and the amount of insects made me feel constantly wet and sweaty and also very incline to use a good amount of mosquito repellent. The combination of the two things, made my skin constantly dirty and sticky making the showers totally useless. As a consequence of this, I practically almost didn’t shower for 3 long days. Well, what can I say... a little bit of dirty adventure was what I needed I guess.

The amount of animals that I have seen in their habitat was huge. Jaguars, monkeys, caymans, piranhas, birds, tapirs, etc. The best living museum I have ever seen in my life. 

The animals were the main actors in a much wider stage. The power of nature was breathtaking. Its dominance, its majesty and its perfection are a mystery that makes me feel very small compared to the universal equilibrium of everything that was surrounding me. Thousands of animals living in perfect balance with their environment, each one of them finding their own little space of living in this immense land, being at the same time prey and predator. I was witnessing the perfection of nature. I was there, feeling as a little point of an infinite line of the cycle of life and death, with all the five elements balancing themselves out in a constant and perennial circle.

The main threat for the animals is obviously coming from humans. Direct killings and destruction of natural habitat are the main reasons. The government of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul have found an interesting solution. Basically, if farmers show pictures of their cattle being killed by wild animals, they will be refunded directly by the government with an amount of money which corresponds to the market value of the killed animal. This way, the farmers will not hunt and kill endangered species like for example the jaguars. At the same time, the government has mapped the situation of the land and forest and will constantly keep under control the amount of green areas. If some parts of green area are missing, the government force the farmers to pay a fee and if they are not able to pay, it expropriates the land. These drastic actions are undertaken also (and I would say mostly) to preserve the environment because tourism is becoming the main source of income of the local population and one of the main entrance in the Government balance sheet. At the end, no matter what the reason is, the most important thing remains the effect of these policies which are preserving the environment.

I spent three days in this place. Three days that felt so long and so short at the same time. Living in constant contact with the nature around me, falling asleep with the ‘music’ of the animals and waking up with the first rays of light breathing the humid scent of the trees and rivers. I will never forget this experience. I left the camp with a deeper consideration of how beautiful and fragile nature is. It is up to us to preserve it and to make it flourish at its best. It is a treasure that belongs to all of us and to our future generations. Our own existence depends on that.

TWIMO

Day 90 – Foz do Iguazu & the Itaipu Dam

The last day in Iguazu, before my departure to Campo Grande was spent not only organizing my next visit but mostly in organizing my quick day tour to one of the most magnificent man-made engineering construction ever build. The dam of Iguazu. This dam gives electricity and power to the entire state of Paraguay and to 25% of the Brazilian population. The building is enormous and shows how man not only can somehow dominate the power of the nature, but also dominating it to his own profit and good. The excursion to the dam was an extremely interesting experience visiting the entrance and the turbines, the story of the adjacent river and the way Brazil and Paraguay have actually managed to build this monster in 20 years with high costs, higher revenues and the life of 138 workers. My guide, a young Brazilian engineer was not only extremely clear in explaining difficult concepts but also very patient to answer all the questions I had.

The tour ended around 4pm just in time for me to go back to the hostel, grab my stuff and go to the bus station for my journey to Campo Grande and the first real experience with an Amazonian environment. I am very excited about this!

TWIMO!

Day 89 – Foz do Iguazu

The morning started with a long and rewarding breakfast. The day was hot and humid. I prepared my stuff and walked to the bus station. After missing a couple of buses I managed to jump to the right one which was leading me directly to the Brazilian side of the waterfall. I met a nice guy from Naples in the bus and we shared the journey with some good chat about Italy, our journeys and some good personal experiences we had. The Brazilian side was a very good experience, in a way less impressive as first impact than the Argentinean one, but the overview from this side is definitely more clear and overreaching. From this side I had a real and better proportion of the dimension of this incredible natural site. The day was spent with lots of pictures, a good beer and nice chats. I said goodbye to my Italian fellow traveller, and went back to the hostel. I managed again to jump off the bus to find myself in the middle of nowhere in a very doggy place. I entered in a supermarket asking for help. I didn’t really know where I was and I needed good indications on how to get back to the hostel. The woman, who was working there, left the cash asking a colleague to replace her, took her own car and drove me directly to my hostel. Bless her! I have never experience such a friendly and helpful attitude in years and it was such a refreshing experience. She told me that she will never tell her husband and that would have been a little secret between the two of us.

I finally arrived to the hostel with a little smile on my face and a huge hole in my stomach. The night was pleasant, next to the little swimming pool spent to chat with a couple of new travellers in the hostel while uploading pictures and writing few lines of this diary. Tomorrow I will go to the Itaipu Dam and then I will catch the bus to Campo Grande for my 4 days in the Mato Grosso.

TWIMO

Day 88 – Puerto Iguazu & Foz do Iguazu

I woke up in the morning with a great sunshine outside the grey window but the most a big need for a hyper caloric breakfast. The breakfast was good indeed and left the hostel satisfied and ready to kick the day. I left the bag at the hostel and went to the station to catch the bus to the falls. I arrived there around 10am and the tour that I have booked the day before started around 11am. So I had 1 hour to sit on a lovely bench, soak up some sun in a wonderful natural green environment and wait for the guide to pick me up. Other people started to arrive and finally my little group was formed. The tour was based on a small excursion inside the surrounding jungle to then jump into a speed boat and to experience the waterfalls directly at their bottom. The experience with the boat was probably the most exciting one; I also realized how powerful and immense nature can be. I could barely keep my eyes opened, feeling the cold water on my face and hearing the sound of tons and tons of hitting the ground every second. I spent the rest of the day visiting the national park and taking loads of pictures of the waterfalls. The nature all around was incredibly green and lush. I loved it here and despite the huge number of tourists, this is definitely a place worthy visiting. I arrived pretty late back to the hostel with a massive hole in my stomach. I had a pizza in the same restaurant where I ate the night before, collected my bag from the hostel and then jumped into a bus to cross into the Brazilian side. I arrived in Foz do Iguazu late in the evening after have been waiting for the bus at the frontier for more than an hour. The hostel that I chose was a nice place, recommended to me by a Croatian girl that I met in Florianopolis. I spent a nice evening there with the owner, a young boy born and fed in Iguazu. He took me out and we went for a beer and a good dance in a local Samba place with his friends. I got back to the room around 4am; the room was accommodating 12 people but fortunately that night I was alone. I hit the pillow falling asleep in few minutes.