Greetings from Brazil

Yesterday night we arrived to Aracaju after over 15 hours of journey from Madrid airport. We can already say that Brazilian people are extremely nice and helpful. Our Couchsurfing host proposed to pick us up from the airport at 2:45 a.m. from the airport. Although at the beginning it was a bit weird because he couldn´t find his car in the airport parking, he took us to his place and instead of letting us sleep on his couch, he moved to his mum´s and left us in his 2-room apartment. Today we slept most of the day so all we can say about Brazil is that it´s very hot and colourful. People are friendly and although we don´t speak Portuguese they always try to help and show us the way... The biggest surprise of our journey was to find a kite attached to Jordi´s backpack at the luggage claim in the Aracaju airport. No idea how it got there...

Before that we spent 2 days in Rome and visited typical touristic attractions. First night we spent in a hostel run by funny and extremely chatty Bangladeshi guys. On the second night we surfed a couch at Stefano´s place who was very kind. He prepared Roman pasta and took us for a night sightseeing tour.

 Saint Peter´s Square

 Swiss guards

 Ponte Sant Angelo

 Pizza in Rome

 Piazza Navona

 Shopping paradise for priests

 Shopping paradise for nuns

 Patheon

 Colosseo

 Night sightseeing with Stefano

 Ice cream at 2 a.m.

People eating ice cream can be a problem

On Wednesday, 28 of March, "thanks" to Spanish general strike we flew to Madrid and spent there an amazing evening with our friends. 

 Retiro´s lake with Ania and Vivek

 Stock exchange building and plaza Cibeles

 Strike preparations at Plaza del Sol

 Kilometre zero for all radial roads in Spain

 After few beers and montaditos with Jordi Fageda (don´t confuse with Faxedas!!)

Healthy breakfast before the flight to Brazil

Until Sunday we´ll stay in Aracaju and then go to Natal by bus (1300 km in 15 hours).

Let's get the Trip started...

Our adventure has already begun. Yesterday we came back from Granada in south of Spain which was the small opening of the 'big trip'. Apart from wonderful monuments from the Arab period, Granada has also hippy atmosphere and a real tapas tradition (you get a small dish for free with every beer or wine you order).

Graffiti in Realejo - bohemian neighbourhood of Granada

Alhambra palace in Granada

Arabesques in Alhambra  

Tomorrow we're flying from Barcelona to Rome. The backpacks are ready (almost of course). We just need to buy few small things, such as comfortable shoes (it's not a joke!!).

We're full of optimism and ready for adventures. The only thing that worries us is the general strike in Spain which is scheduled for 29th of March - the day of our flight to Brazil. The airlines will give some more information about cancellations tomorrow. Let's hope that in the worst case we'll be a bit late...
Fighting Austerity: Spanish Unions Call for General Strike

In three months we want to visit  7 countries: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay.

We're starting in Aracaju, located on the eastern coast of Brazil. We'll stay there only for 2-3 days and then go to Natal where Jordi's friend lives. On 7th of April we're flying from there to Manaus in centre of Brazil. It's considered as the best gateway to jungle trips and our plan is to take from there a boat to Leticia (border city between Brazil, Colombia and Peru). It will be a six-day trip through 'mighty Amazon' and although there is a cabin option, we'll probably choose a second one - sleeping in  hammocks:) In Leticia we'll celebrate Jordi's birthday (don't forget to send him wishes on 20th of April) and we have our flight to Cali in Colombia on 22.04. That's pretty all we have planned. We're hoping to meet Karo's friend in Bolivia in the middle of May.

We'll try to write here something at least twice per month (or one post per country) as we're not sure about Internet access in places we go to (probably there will be no post from the riverboat;)