Well then, this is the last post to be made on this travel blog. Do not fear, however! Those of you that have enjoyed my shrewd and witty writing style may still enjoy it at my ordinary blog, which I fill with wonderful stories of joy from my day-to-day life and the occasional post about the inner workings of the internet, be it something to do with XHTML or W3C working procedures. These fascinating internet-based writings may be found at beingmrkenny.co.uk/blog. I post quite regularly, so there’s usually something to keep you entertained. And the archives go back over a year now, so there’s something to do on a rainy day.

Getting home

I got home last Friday, and have been back in England for two nights. It’s been a bit weird coming home, things are slower and less, well, South American. It’s funny being back in one place instead of running around after busses and getting taxis and booking hostels in broken Spanish. Still taking a while to settle in. A couple of times in South America I woke up in the middle of the night all confused as to where I was. The first time was in Lima, on the first night, when some people entering the dorm woke me up. I sat bolt upright and said something like, “Who’s that, who’s there?” It was quite odd, I gradually woke up and realised how embarrassing that was and went back to sleep.

The second time was in the Pantanal—the wilderness park in Brazil. I woke up in the almost pitch dark, not being able to see anything, and my first thought was that we were in a bus station, since that was what I was dreaming about, I think. I said something similar to “What’s going on?” which woke up Claire and amused her no end. It’s still very surreal, though, not knowing where you are!

The same thing happened on my first night at home. Since I don’t really live here (at my parents’ house) my little sister has taken my room, while I have her 6 foot cubed room. I’m not bitter. Anyway, I woke in the middle of the night, probably due to a combination of jet lag, the unfamiliar sensation of a comfortable bed and duvet, and the fact that the cat was sleeping on me in the most annoying way possible (cats have a special dispensation for doing just this).

I woke up and I had absolutely no idea where I was. I did not recognise a single thing in my room, not the window (which lets in copious amounts of light), not the bedside table, not anything. Now that was weird. Took me about a minute to finally get my bearings, whereupon I remarked, in the darkness, to myself, how nice it was to be home under a duvet.

Beard lovers will be sorry to hear that my face is now bereft of facial hair. Was clipping it this morning when I made too bold a trim, and the beard sustained losses too grave for recovery. I think I’d like to grow something back, however.

Just remembered something from the first day in Rio. In the taxi on the way to our hostel (this is the second taxi) we passed a coach with steamed up windows. What was even more unusual was that everyone in the coach was riding a bike! They were all on exercise bikes. Everyone waved when we stared up in wonder, it was quite a sight to see. You can see their website at www.busbike.com.br. It’s all in Portuguese, but there are some photos. I have no idea what it was for, since the engine was running—the cyclists weren’t powering the bus. But it’s probably a good idea, it looked like fun. Anyway, check out their site :D

Flight

The flight over was funny. The big one, from Rio to Madrid, was with Iberia. Iberia is one of the worst airlines in the world! Well, it’s probably not, but out of the airlines I’ve been with it certainly doesn’t rank too highly. During the flight I noticed one particularly marvelous example of customer service. A passenger asked something from the air hostess, and before he could even begin his request she said “colleague” in Spanish. Thinking she hadn’t heard him, he then tapped her on the shoulder to repeat his question. Again, before he could even start, she turned and snapped at him, “Yes, my colleague!” So that was fun.

Then there was another flight from Madrid to Barcelona, and from there to London. The flight to London was with British Airways. Good old British airways! With the air hostesses dressed in uniforms from the eighties, and safety videos from the nineties! Everyone was ridiculously polite; even the foreign air stewards were falling over themselves to be polite, speaking with only the slightest of foreign accents. It was such an enormous difference!

The trip

This trip has actually been really amazing. Not that I was expecting it to be rubbish, but it’s been really fun. I think I’ve grown up quite a lot as a result of it, and I’m certainly less naïve. How many times have I now said that here, too many. Never mind, blogs are all about repeating oneself anyway.

One thing I’ve learnt is how to use the Lonely Planet. This is a guidebook for travellers, for those of you that don’t know. They contain all sorts of usefull information about hostels, restaurants, tourist attractions and the like. I have found the formula for their use:

1. Get Lonely Planet
2. Look up hostel information
3. Tear out hostel information and staple together
4. Burn remaining pages and scatter the ashes

While it was definately invaluable for locating hostels, and restaurants in the smaller towns, I feel that following a guidebook too closely means that things are too planned. Of course, having a schedule is a must in case you run out of time, but there’s always the risk of rigidity. That said, I’m sure there’s stuff we would have missed were it not for Lonely Planet, so it’s probably a good idea to have one for reference. Just remember it’s you who builds the trip, not the book!

Photos!

Talking of the site, I have now organised all my photos into folders, so I can select which ones I’m going to upload. I’m currently changing web hosting companies to one which supports PHP so that I can have a nice photo gallery thingy with next and previous buttons. At last! ‘Twill be so good! The photos are now available at beingmrkenny.co.uk/photos/southamerica. Also gonna put “first post from…” for each country, to make it nice and easy to navigate.

Sadly, I think I’ve lost the video card with all the amazing videos of the wildlife on it. I.e. the anteater, the armadillo, the flamingo. My blood boiled! I am bitterly, bitterly annoyed about that. Hoping against hope that I have lost it somewhere in my room, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I threw it away when I got rid of loads of stuff on Ilha Grande. Will try emailing the hostel, however. Anyway, looking on the bright side, I got rid of an awful grey jacket I had knocking around, so it’s not all bad news!

The end

Talking of unpacking (well, not really, but I need a link to fit this next bit in), whilst I was going through all the contents of my bag, I found a little plastic bag which I didn’t recognise. Upon opening it, I found a small collection of large colouring pencils, exactly like those sold ubiquitously in tourist shops across South America, and which I had been admiring for weeks. Accompanying them was a torn off label from an olive oil bottle from Ilha Grande that Claire removed, to my very great elation (indeed, to quote Miss Elizabeth Bennet, I was “excessively diverted”—more Austen for you Claire!). It was a lovely surprise and one which went a long way to removing the bitter, bitter pain of losing my videos. And on such a note, I shall hereby close this blog.

Amen.