Z miasta na wies i z powrotem / From the big city to the country and back

Droga do Doliny Ksiezycowej - marsjanska.. / Road to the Moon Valley - a Martian one :)
Dolina Ksiezycowa / Moon Valley
Dolina Ksiezycowa / Moon Valley
Dolina Ksiezycowa / Moon Valley
Dolina Ksiezycowa / Moon Valley
Wielkie kroki sadzi sie... / Giant steps is what you take...
... na ksiezycu tym / ...walking on the moon.
Dolina Ksiezycowa / Moon Valley
Dolina Ksiezycowa / Moon Valley
Asia w namiocie / Asia in our tent


























Sao Paulo noca / Sao Paulo by night
Sao Paulo noca / Sao Paulo by night
Sao Paulo noca / Sao Paulo by night
src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3514/1936/200/096enriqueimy.2.jpg" border="0" alt="" />Henrique i my / Henrique and us
Zacheceni udana wizyta w Chapada Diamantina ruszamy na podboj nastepnego parku narodowego. Ricardo ma nas podwiezc na dworzec (jak juz wiecie, 20 km od domu, wiec jestesmy mu bardzo wdzieczni). Niestety poprzedniego wieczora zabral nas do libanskiej knajpy, najstarszej w miescie, ktora koniecznie chcial nam pokazac, wiec po paru glebszych mocno nam sie spalo, a Ricardo najmocniej :-)
W efekcie o dwie minuty spozniamy sie na autobus do Alto Paraíso. Wrrr. Ze tez firma Real Espress musi odjezdzac tak punktualnie. Nastepny o trzeciej, z jakiejs szemranej firemki i ta oczywiscie sie czasem nie przejmuje. Dojezdzamy wieczorem, miasteczko spi snem kamiennym, kamping pozamykany na siedem spustow. Pukamy do sasiada, mlody student prawa na szczescie i tak wybiera sie do miasta – wsiadamy i ruszamy w rajd po bezdrozach sladem tajemniczych tabliczek prowadzacych na inny kemping. Naliczylam ich z siedem, a i tak po drodze trzy razy sie zgubilismy bo tabliczki byly czasem ustawione zwodniczo. Wreszcie trafiamy i nasz kierowca z ulga nas zostawia i pedzi do znajomych, a my po uslyszeniu ceny od razu rozumiemy po co te tabliczki. Jak juz sie ktos najezdzil pol godziny po ciemku, to zeby nie wiem co mu zaspiewali, wracac juz nie chce. Trudno, bulimy jak za pokoj w pensjonacie, ale camping wyglada malowniczo, jakies oczka wodne, duzo zieleni, pieknie rozgwiezdzone niebo i koncert zab. Zanim rozbilismy namiot, wybucha nam zarowka sluzaca za latarnie, ktorej pan nie moze wymienic, bo oprawka na stale podlaczona do pradu i nie ma cieplej wody. A fe, panie kierowniku.
Autobus do Sao Jorge oczywiscie spoznia sie poltorej godziny, wioske zastajemy jeszcze bardziej wymarla niz wczorajsze miasteczko. Przynajmniej kemping za grosze, ale nic jadalnego na obiad nie stwierdzamy. Przewodnicy tez wyszli, ale znajdujemy pana, ktory za drobna oplata (akurat drobna!) podwozi nas do Vale da Lua (Dolina Ksiezycowa). Wycieczke piesza wszyscy odradzaja, bo szlak nieoznaczony i mozna sie zgubic. Na miejscu przedstawia nam wlasciciela doliny (oczy wychodza nam z orbit, to tak jakbysmy spotkali wlasciciela Giewontu), a potem okazuje sie ze wlascicieli jest w sumie osmiu, bo rodzina byla liczna i sie spadkiem podzielili. Dolina nie rozczarowuje, tylko los marudzi ze zbyt sloneczna pagoda, bo zdjecia bylyby lepsze z szarym niebem. Ja tam sie na pogode nie skarze. Rano z prawdziwym juz przewodnikiem o imieniu Junior ruszamy nad wodospady, wycieczka bardzo cacy, ani sie za bardzo nie meczymy, ani nie dowoza nas pod sama atrakcje - 3 godziny marszu do jednego kanionu, kic kic do wodospadu i 3 godziny z powrotem. Idealne proporcje. Wodospad nazywa sie Cariocas czyli dziewczyny z Rio a nazwa jego wiaze sie z mocno dydaktyczna legenda o dwoch turystkach co na przewodnika zalowaly…
Po powrocie wpadamy na Aske, Polke mieszkajaca w wiosce od 10 lat, do ktorej wszyscy nas wysylali dowiadujac sie skad jestesmy. Dostajemy do dyspozycji hamaki i kuchnie. Wreszcie mozna cos upichcic, chocby jajecznice!Asia jest troche zakrecona, mocno w klimatach New Age´owych. Tuz po upadku komuny rzucila architekture i ruszyla na zachod, przez USA i Holandie, az trafica do Brazylii, bo jak mowil ayahuasca ja wezwal. Teraz regularnie popita ten magiczny trunek Indian z Amazonii, jest adeptka szamanizmu i leczy krysztalami, czyli jest troche wioskowa wiedzma. Mielismy nadzieje sie zalapac na lyka mikstury, ale jak smazylismy jajecznice to akurat wyszla do pracy (jest tez masazystka w ekskluzywnym hotelu). W domu zostali tylko jej goscie, z ktorych jeden bardzo halasliwie szukal swojego portéela, na glos analizujac fakty, z ktorych wynikalo ze ostatnio widzial go przed naszym przyjsciem. No to sie ulotnilismy, rezygnujac z eksperymentow. Rano lapiemy spozniony autobus do Brasilii, reszte dnia spedzamy stukajac pracke w bandycko drogiej kafejce, az spozniamy sie na nocny autobus do Sao Paulo. Nastepny mial przyjechac o 1.30, przyjechal o 3, hen z Bahii. Do ostatniej chwili kasjer nie chcial nam sprzedac biletow, bo nie widzial czy sa wolne miejsca. Po niecalej godzinie jazdy autobus sie rozkraczyl i do switu dochodzilo nas tylko stukanie mlotkow i kluczy francuskich. Potem jeszcze ze 3 przerwy na jedzenie (myslalby ze ktos tu probuje nadgonic!) i dojezdzamy na miejsce z 5,5 opoznieniem, calkowicie niedospani z powodu niustajacych rykow czterech bobasow z sasiedztwa. Na miejscu w kafejce odkrywamy, ze wszyscy gospodarze z Sao Paulo nas olali, jednoczesnie wylewnie zapewniajac, jak bardzo ubolewaja, ze nas nie poznaja i ze kazdy dzien bylby dobry, byle nie ten. Olal nas tez chlopak ktory kilka godzin wczesniej nas serdecznie zapraszal., ale postanowil pilnie jechac na plaze. Zostaly nam dwie osoby, ktore, moze, ale, wiec zamiast sie zastanawiac, spedzilismy noc na pracy tworczej w calonocnej kafejce. Kupilismy na nastepna noc bilet do Kurytyby z postanowieniem zwiedzenia SP w jeden dzien.
O szostej zamykaja kafejke, ruszamy w miaste. Do 10 mamy juz obejrzane glowne atrakcje i postanawiamy sie podzielic zadaniami: ja dowiem sie o park rozrywki Hopi Hari, a los pojedzie na stadion kupic bilety na dzisiejsze derby. Wraca po 4 godzinach, okazuje sie ze na stadion nawet nie dojechal, bo po tzreciej przesiadce do stadionu wciaz trzeba bylo kawalek dojsc, wiec zawrocil bo i tak bysmy na mecz nie zdazyli razem dojechac. Zamiast tego jedziemy do HH. Wielka atrakcja, nie tylko w skali Brazylii, bo maja nbajlepsza kolejke gorska w Ameryce Pld., ale dojazd to cala wyprawa. Busy parkowe jezdza z SP tylko o 10 rano, a potem trzeba jechac z przesiadka, co zajmuje nam 2 godziny (zamiast 25 minut). Na miejscu kupujemy tzw. paszport czyli bilet na wszystkie atrakcje i ustawiamy sie w godzinnej kolejce na pierwsza. Przynajmniej bylo warto. Konstrukcja w ksztalcie wiezy Eiffla wwozi cien a wysokosc 70 metrow i stamtad puszcza pionowo w dol. Cos jak spadajaca winda, tylko ze bez kabiny. Uff! Potem po poltorej godzinie czekania zalapujemy sie na kolejke gorska, ktora salada sie tylko z petli, ale jakiej! Najbardziej porazajaca jazda w moim zyciu. Paszport okazuje sie picem na wode, bo nikt go nie sprawdza. Chetnym radzimy albo kupic zwykly bilet i nie dokupowac wymaganych biletow na pojedyncze atrakcje (jezeli chcecie czekac w kolejce) albo do paszportu dokupic Express pass czy cos takiego, co pozwala jezdzic bez czekania. A warto, bo park ma sporo atrakcji, z ktorych wiele wartych jest powtorzenia. Postanowilismy zaryzykowac i zamiast jechac z przesiadka, poczekac na autobusy parkowe. Tak jak sie spodziewalismy, wszyscy ktorzy przyjechali rano, juz sobie zabukowali miejsce w busie powrotnym, wiec wszystko bylo teoretycznie zajete, tylko czekali na spoznialskich. Ale uparlismy sie, wsiedlismy do jednego z busow i powiedzielismy ze jedziemy na stojaco. Pan sie stropil, bo w Brazylii miejsc stojacych sie raczej nie sprzedaje, ale juz zauwazylismy, ze w Ameryce Pld. Upor dziala cuda. Tak jak w Kolumbii, Brazylijczykom nie wypada byc niegrzecznym, wiec jak sie najezasz i robisz sroga mine, to czesto ustepuja. Znalazly sie jeszcze dwa miejsca siedzace i ruszylismy (ponad godzina drogi, a nie zachwalane 25 minut). Z dworca z glupia frant dzwonimy do Henrique, ktory mowil, ze byc moze moglby nas przenocowac, ale to nic pewnego i okazuje sie ze mamy zaproszenie. Mamy szczescie spotkac kolege po fachu (H. w dodatku jest tlumaczem ustnym), wiec swietnie sie dogadujemy i postanawiamy przesunac date wyjazdu. Robimy z Henrique obiad i gadamy do nocy. Nastepnego dnia musimy dokonczyc zlecenie, los zostaje na kompie gospodarza, ja szukam kafejki. Czwarta z kolei okazuje sie wreszcie dobra (mudi miec Windows XP, zeby mozna bylo zmienic czcionke na polska). Po pracy idziemy na rodizio da pizza (czyli pizza do upadlego) gdzie serwuja m.in. pizze czekoladowa z lodami, los jest wniebowziety. Jedziemy do miasta szybko cyknac fotke panorama miasta z tarasu w Edificio Italiano, a kelner kaze nam za to zaplacic 15 reali (ponad 20 zl) od osoby, wiec smiejemy mu sie w twarz i robimy zdjecia z korytarza, tez dobrze widac. Pedzimy w pospiechu do shoppingu (hi hi, tak nazywaja centrum handlowe) zlapac Henrique na pozegnalne zdjecie i tylko na to mamy czas, bo niedlugo autobus. Buzi-buzi i mkniemy na dworzec.

Encouraged by the successful trip to Chapada Diamantina we move on to conquer the next national park. Ricardo is supposed to take us to the station (as u know, its 20 km from home, so were grateful!) Unfortunately the previous night he took to a Lebanese bar, the oldest in town and after a few drinks we overslept a bit, and so did he...:)
As a result, we miss the bus to Alto Paraíso by just two minutes. Shit! I wonder why Real Express buses must leave on time?? The next one leaves at 3pm and its some mickeymouse company which doesnt give a damns abt punctuality. We arrive at night. The town is fast asleep, the campsite is closed. We knock on a local resident's door, a young law student is going to the cente ranyway, so we jump into his car and we embark on a journey thorugh the local wilderness following the mysterious signs leading us to another campground. I counted seven, and we got lost three times on the way anyway, because the signs were misleading. Finally we make it, our driver sighs with relief and takes off and we quickly realize what all those signs were for after we find out what the price is. When somebody drives around the middle of nowhere in the dark for half an hour, he'll swallow any price they can throw at him and no mistake. Oh web, we shell out the 20 bucks we would normally pay for a room in a B&B.. At least the campsite looks pret scenic, a lot of greenery, ponds, beautiful stars at night and a frog concert. Before we set up our tent, the bulb which provided light blows up. The owner cant exchange it, Im very sorry!, because he doesnt have the tools and the bulb socket is connected directly to the power source. There's no hot water either. Shame on you, manager :)
The bus to San Jorge of course comes 90 minutes late and we find the village even more sleepy and quiet than the town yesterday. At least the campsite is dirt cheap but we cant find any decent food. All the guides (2 of them!) have left with tourists but we find a guy who for a small fee (small my ass!) takes us to Vale da Lua (Moon Valley). Although its supposed to be just 4 miles outside of town, everybody is telling us not to walk, because the path is unmarked and it's easy to get lost. So we take the ride. On the spot we meet the valley's owner (at which point our levels of surprise skyrocket!) and then it turns out that there are 8 or 10 owners altogether because the family was big and they had to split up their heritage. The valley does not fail to impress, although the Moose is grumpy because the weather is too sunny and shots could be nicer with grey sky. I can't complain.
On the next day we take a real guide called Junior and we walk to see the waterfalls. It is a great hike, we do not get overly tired but we do not get driven right to the site of interest either...3 hours walking to a canyon, then a short hike to the waterfall, then 3 hours back - that's what I call a happy medium! The waterfalls are called Cariocas, meaning Girls from Rio, and the name is derived from a suspiciously didactic legend of two girls who wanted to save money, supposedly came here without a guide and vanished... duh! After we come back, we bump into Joanna, a Polish girl who's been here for 4 years (and 8 years in Brazil), and who everybody had been telling us about upon finding out we're from Poland. She lets us use the kitchen and the hammocks at her house. Finally we can cook something, if only scrambled eggs! Asia is a little out there, she into New Age stuff a lot. After the communism fell, she dropped out of an architecture school and she moved to the Western World. Spent some time in the US and Holand and then came to Brazil, because as she says, ayahuasca called her. Now she regularly drinks this magical drink of Amazonian indigenous people, she studies shamanism and she heals people using crystals, so she's a bit like the village witch. It was nice to talk to her, although she practically lost the ability to speak Polish, so we felt sorry for her trying to make up a sentence in Polish and having to ask us for words and phrases all the way... Anyway we were hoping to get a shot of the famous drink, but when we were frying our eggs, she had to leave for work (she also works as a masseuse at a plush hotel). Only her other guests were home, on of which started looking for his wallet in an ostentatious manner, letting everybody know he last saw it before we came (!!!) So we took off, giving up psychoactive drinks and experimenting : ) On the next day in the morning we caught a delayed bus to Brasilia, we spend the rest of the day working at a cybercafe, where calling prices a highway robbery would be a gross understatement and then we miss the night bus to Sao Paulo. The next one was due at 1.30am and of course it came at 3am, back from Bahia! Until the last minute the ticket man wouldn't sell us the tickets because he didn't know if there will be seats left. An hour after we took off, the bus broke down and until down all we could hear was the noise of hammers and spanners. After that we made maybe 3 or 4 lunch breaks (and you would think they might try to catch up because they're so late already!) and we reach the city with a 5.5 hours' delay, tired as hell because of 4 wailing toddlers torturing us from the neighboring seats. At the bus station's internet café we find that all our promised hosts in Sao Paulo gave us the finger, at the same time ensuring us in kind words that they do not remember who we were and that every other day would be perfect to host us, just not today, please! There was one guy who promised to offer us a heartfelt welcome, but decided to go to the beach instead on the spur of the moment! Screw you!!! So we were left with two people which might, would, could... oh web... so without further thinking, we spent a night working in a 24 cyber café. We bought a ticket to Curitiba for the next evening and we decided to see SP in one day.
The café is closing at 6.00am so we move to town. By 10 we have all the main attractions visited and we decide to split: I will find out abt the amusement park Hopi Hari and the Moose will go to the stadium to buy tickets for today's derby. He comes back after 4 hours, turns out he didn't even reach the place, because after changing trains 4 times turned out he still had to take another bus to get to the stadium so he gave up because we wouldn't have made it anyway... So instead we head for the theme park. It is a big attraction, not only for Brasil, because they claim to have South America's best rollercoaster rides. But getting there is tricky... Park buses take off from SP only at 10am, and if u miss them, u have to take public transport, which takes 2 hours (rather than 30 minutes, as the park bus company promises :) Once we get there, we buy a passport, or a ticket to cover all rides and we stand for one hour in a giant line for the first one. At least it was worth it! A tower styled to resemble that of Gustave Eiffel in Paris take u to a nice height in a special seat and then drops you for an about 240 feet freefall. Something like a falling elevator, but there's no cabin this time. Whew! After another 90 minutes of waiting we get to ride a rollecoaster, which includes basically just a loop, but it's hell of a loop! The most thrilling ride of my life! The passport is full of shit, because nobody checks if we have it. If u go there, buy a simple entrance ticket (which is cheaper but supposedly requires u to pay separately for each ride) and ride for free because nobody will want to see your passport anyway or buy an Express Pass, which allows u to take 4 rides without waiting. It's worth it, because the park has a lot of attractions, many of which are worthing riding two or three times. Our city bus left at 7.00 but the park closes at 8.30 so we decided to use our time to the fullest, risk it and wait for the returning park buses. As expected, everyone who came in the morning, bought a round trip on the park bus, so all places were theoretically occupied and they were just waiting for some people who were late. But we didn't exactly want to be stranded there, we got on one of the buses and we told the guy we would ride standing. He pulled a long face, because travelling standing is not a custom in Brazil but we already realized that being obstinate enough can work miracles in South America. Like in Colombia, Brazilians are expected to be polite, so if u get a little rude and push them around a little, they often give up. We found two seats left and we took off. Of course, it took us more than an hour instead of the 30 minutes they claimed it would take. From the station we call Enrique, a guy who said he might maybe put us up as last resort, and luckily he says yes!! Also, we are happy to meet a coleague (he is an English language interpreter) so we connect immediately and we decide to move the departure date. We make dinner with Enrique and stay up until late talking. On the next day, we have to finish the job, so the Moose occupies our host's laptop and I look for an e-café. After work we go to eat a rodizio da pizza (pizza, all u can eat!) where we have a fabulous chocolate and ice cream pizza, the Moose is dying with delight! Then we head to the center, to take a shot of the city's panorama from a lookout in Edificio Italiano, the city's tallest building, but there's just a fancy restaurant up there and the waiter tell us to pay 10 bucks for getting us, so we laugh him out of the room and we head to the corridor where the views are also nice. Then we rush to the shopping (that's what they call a mall here :) and take a goodbye photo with Enrique and that's all we can do before we catch the bus to Curitiba!