Caribbean Coast

To compensate for the lack of posts this last month I've knocked up another little video to try and show you where I am at the moment. I'm working at a hostel in Santa Marta, Colombia, trying to cut down on expenses before NZ.

I don't have that much footage because I don't tend to take the camera to the beach, but one day when we were at Taganga (the next bay to Santa Marta), we saw these fisherman hauling in a catch using these huge nets. Enjoy...

Although it hardly feels like it's Christmas-time here, apart from at the beach front in Santa Marta which rivals Blackpool illuminations in its colourful array of bulbs, Merry Christmas everyone.

Paratay

Using Paratay as our base I got a bus to the small fishing village and paradise that is Trinidade (Trin-ee-da-jee). You soon get used to the 'chee' sound that Brazillians love to use - even English looking words; Internet (in-ter-ne-chee), Facebook (face-ee-boo-chee). I can't get my head round where i'm meant to use it but apparently no word is complete without a bit of chee action.

The 20 minute bus ride to Trinidade was crazy. I wished I had my video camera as we flew through the twisty jungle roads descending down to sea level. Quite a few times I got air going over bumps and literally came out my seat. Nevertheless, on this journey we got talking to a guy from Paratay called Johnny who spoke really good English. He was heading to the beach too. We were asking himwhere we should go and he agreed to show us a few sights.

After chilling on the beach for a while, he took us to look at the coves around the bay, using a network of steep pathways through the jungle that grows over the islands. I properly felt like I was Robinson Crusoe as we made our way though this surreal landscape, climbing over huge round boulders and great tree roots. The final cove was the best - although we missed the sun disappearing behind the rocks by a few minutes. The cove was protected from the open ocean by a reef, so the water was still and there was this beautiful french girl swimming there, she said she'd been living in Trinidade for 4 months, I can see why it would be easy to stay.

Fifa Fan Fest

Its pretty hard to not get excited about the football in Rio de Janeiro, the game

was televised live on Copacabana beach at 3.30 but the warm up started long before,

with the sound of samba, air-horns and cars tooting at the thousands of fans descending

to the beach.

I'm still a bit sketched out about taking my camera out of the hostel, so unfortunately the picture

shown isn't mine, but it doesn't do it justice. The Brazilians have such a wild party spirit and it

was so funny to see close ups of randoms in the crowd on the big screen from the cameramen

who were wandering around, there was this old guy dressed as michael jackson that I particularly

warmed to, and of course the beautiful babes of every shade imaginable with hips that don't seem

to be attached to the rest of their bodies! I'll be surprised if I make it out of Brazil on this 6 month

South American stint at this rate!