Lima

Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru.  It has a population fast approaching 9 million, Lima is also the fifth largest city in Latin America, behind Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.  Lima has been defined as a beta world city.

Arriving in Lima, we never knew what to expect... was it going to be as crazy and dirty as Rio de Janeiro?  Well it was crazy but surprisenly not as dirty...the grass was very green and some parts of the city where really taken care of.

We had just one and a half days to see the sights of Lima so we had to move fast and limit ourselves on what was best to see.  Miraflores is a cute little neighbourhood with the beach, nice bars & resturants, with everything close by and a tourists heaven, but this isnt really Lima? so we took a trip into downtown, to the hussel and bussel and it was crazy, total LOCA! loud, with so much traffic, we noticed there isnt many traffic lights here or little green men to say when its safe to cross the road...  Also the taxi drivers have a cage wrapped around them whilst driving, I guess for protection?

Anyway the hitsorical part if Lima was nice, many beautiful squares, churches and buildings.  We took many hours going from one place to another, the heat was unbearable at times but we made it out alive!  People like to stare here, it felt like we were pop stars and that we were the attraction, one guy actually took a picture of us, how strange...but everyone was friendly enough which was nice.

We are now packing and heading to Puerto Maldonado for our trip to the Amazon Jungle!!

Easter Island

Iorana!!!!!  (Hello translated from Rapa Nui)

Easter Island ( Rapa Nui) is a polynesian Island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southerneastern most point of the polynesian triangle.

We arrived on Easter Island with a warm welcome from the local people, with music and flowers at the smallest airport we have ever seen!!

As soon as we got there, we were amazed of its beauty... we started to tour, of course seeing all the important Rapa Nui head stones, the beautiful beach and the extinct volcano with other sights around.

We spent a wonderful christmas day on Anakena beach,with crystal clear waters and tropical heat, at night time we went to see the  Rapa Nui culture dance show, it was very entertaining.

The culture was very interesting to see, the people were friendly, our local tour guides (the dogs) were very adorable, most were homeless but they became friends to us.  The sun was out most days, with one day only raining but in those sunny days, I did manage to turn mysaelf into a tomato.

This is just the beginning of our trip! we are in Santiago, Chile tonight and leave for Lima, Peru tomorrow!!

Were we spent Christmas Day :-)

Beauty & The Beast...

The beauty of Rio de Janeiro and below in the next post is the beast of Rio! Two sides to one city!

Guerra no Rio de Janeiro Brasil (War in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Brazilian Election

The Brazilian public voted for the new president of Brazil to be Dilma Rousseff.  She is a former Marxist guerrilla fighter who was imprisoned and tortured under the military dictatorship. A trained economist, she then became a local and state government official and President Lula da Silva's chief of staff. Now she is the first woman in Brazil to be president. 

Brazils new Federal Deputy in Sao Paulo is Francisco Oliveira Silva - known as Tiririca or Grumpy.  His Quote for winning:

"What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don't know. But vote for me and I will find out for you," was another of his messages.

He has just passed a literacy test.  Even though he can´t write...

As I learn about the Brazilian goverment it seems clear to me this is where the country has went all wrong, uneducated criminals have taken over the country.  They steal and abuse the public and the people are so uneducated that they don´t see what is happening right under their noses.  With high taxes, poor education  and so little jobs for the "real people" and so little pay for them.  I wonder what the goverment are actually doing or what they are planning to do to get this country up and running normally.  It is true, Brazil has taken the stage for international relations and providing economical growth but for the people who are homeless, without food and without education, I feel this should be the main priority for this country.  I doubt the goverment see this as this doesnt make them money, it looses them money.


Current president "Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva"



New Presiden t"Dilma Rousseff"

Where Brazilians vote

The president before and after plastic surgery!!!

Sao paulos new Federal Deputy, dressed as a clown, representing the people for sure...

Finding Solitude in Rio de Janeiro

Where to go when you want some silence and not see or hear anything of civil wars??

Arpoador...

On top of Rio de janeiro



Copacabana



Relaxing on a Hammock

Boat ride to Paqueta island

Rio Violence( part 2)

Update on the Rio Civil War in the city...

The army & Police have taken over one of the biggest slums here.  There are still many helicopters flying around and many people have been told to stay at home.  The people who live up in the hill of the slums have been told to not leave and if they have already left, then their not allowed back in their homes.  The police have it surrounded.  They are checking everyone in the area.

The drug dealers were given a choice to surrender yesterday but they never so the army have forced into the scheme and caught many of the drug dealers.  Alot of drugs, weapons and money have been found and taken to the police headquarters.  The top drug dealers have been flown out of Rio de Janeiro and to other cities in Brazil to try and keep them from interacting with other drug dealers in the area.

Rio Police in favelas!!

At the moment in Rio de Janeiro, it seems the police are trying to get the drug dealers out of control in the favelas... the police and the army soldiers are grouping together and fighting back now.  All the while the drug dealers and people living up in the Favelas are coming down to the city and burning cars, buses and anything which will cause havoc on innocent people.  Not caring if people die or get injured.

The aim I suppose is to try and get the police out of the favelas and back down into the city areas, this clearly isn´t working.  Their are police all over.. it seems to me Rio is defently not ready to host the World Cup in 2014.

BBC news has the latest of what is happening.  See the link below

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11852588

I believe this will be on going for the next few months or years in fact...