Around The World In 80 Waves

Massive congratulations to RGC 1404 for winning the SWALEC Division 1 East. Rugbi Gogledd Cymru 1404 is part of a long term objective to get more rugby players from North Wales involved in the national side.

Despite having many passionate players and supporters, North Wales has always been pretty bereft of access to top level sport. The Welsh Rugby Union have finally decided to tap into the resources available in the north of the country away from the rugby strongholds along the M4, by part funding this team and their development centre. RGC 1404 entered the lowest level of the Welsh leagues this season, with the long term objective of becoming another regional rugby side like the Ospreys and the Scarlets

I saw their first competitive home match before leaving on my adventures and have been following their results via the web, as well as wearing my shirt on match days for moral support. The team won the league at the first time of asking and managed to remain unbeaten at home in Eirias Park throughout the season.

Watch out world the Gogs are coming!

Flying from Brazil to my next stop in Peru I have to cross the longest mountain range in the world, the Andes. 

They are over 4,000 miles long and extend through seven South American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

The Andes range is the world’s highest mountain range outside of Asia and I have learnt that the peak of Chimborazo in the Ecuadorean Andes is actually farther from centre of the Earth than any other location on the planet’s surface, due to the equatorial bulge resulting from its rotation.

In October 1972 a plane carrying a rugby team from Uruguay to Chile crashed in the Andes. The survivors had to fend for themselves amidst the freezing weather at altitude with a very limited supply of food, after the search and rescue operation for them was called off. Only16 of the 45 on board actually survived, and they had to resort to eating the flesh of their team mates who had died to do so.

It is common knowledge that rugby clubs foreign tours can get a little out of hand, but this took things to a whole new level!

The movie Alive told the story of these events, but I am hoping not to have anything similar happen on my own flight. The plane seems to be full of Japanese tourists, most of whom are pensioners. I doubt they would feed a big lump like myself for long! 

The time has come for me to leave Brazil and I am going to have to do that without seeing the world’s longest ‘wave’.

The Pororoca like the Severn Bore is a tidal bore, which is a phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave of water that travels up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the river or bay’s current.

The Pororoca has waves up to 4 metres high that travel as much as 800 km inland upstream on the Amazon River and adjacent rivers. Its name comes from the indigenous Tupi language, and translates to “great destructive noise”.

It occurs at the mouth of the river where its waters meet the Atlantic Ocean, and is best seen in February and March, so I can’t blame the Panamanian customs for missing it.

The wave has become popular with surfers and an annual championship has been held in São Domingos do Capim. However, surfing the Pororoca is particularly dangerous, as the water contains a huge amount of debris from the shores of the river. The record for the longest time captured on tape riding the wave is a staggering 43 minutes!

I had talked about surfing this with my Brazilian friend Rommel before he died, however it is probably just as well that I didn’t have the time to have a go at it on this trip.

Apart from crocodiles, cayman, etc living in the river the Amazon is also home to it’s own very angry fish. The Piranha!

Check out this footage of a few people who did manage to surf it a few years back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a_2g6uTDb0

I only had a very short time available to me in the Iguacu National Park to enjoy the falls and the wildlife living nearby, so I treated myself to a stay at the Hotel De Cataratas.

It is the only hotel in the park and as you can see from this aerial view is right next to one section of the massive waterfalls. 

The hotel is operated by the Orient Express group who run the trains fromLondon to Istanbul, and a similar level of opulence to what you would expect there can be found here.

It is however far from cheap and I think I spent more on one night here than I did in the whole of El Salvador and Honduras combined! 

Having spent plenty of time in hotels before and during this trip I have become rather good at making the most of the facilities on offer anywhere I go.

Although it is the winter here in the middle of the rainforest it was still more than 25C so I spent a great afternoon sunbathing on the loungers by the pool. All the while being brought olives, peeled fruit, nuts and caipirinhas by the retinue of staff who really didn’t have much to do. There was even time for a deep tissue massage before I left.

It was an extravagance, but made sure I left Brazil with some wonderful memories despite the surf not being up to much while I was at the coast.

The Iguazu Falls, the Iguazú Falls, the Iguassu Falls or even the Iguaçu Falls (depending on where you come from) are the waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Brazilian state of Paraná and the Argentine province of Misiones.

The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu, and are the main reason that I came to the Iguacu National Park. My guide book described them as making Niagara Falls look like a mere trickle.

The Iguazu River flows through Brazil for most of its course. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the boundary between Argentina and Brazil. 

Thanks to Panamanian customs seeing Argentina from across the other side of the river is as close as I will get to that huge country.

It is a shame because all the Argentinians I have met on this trip have been fantastic people and few have anything like as much animosity towards the UK as their Prime Minister Cristina Fernández de Kirchner would have us all believe.

There are developments to allow tourists as close as possible to the falls themselves on both sides of the river.

This walkway (that I really have no idea how one would go about building) sticks out right into the middle of the falls from the Brazilian side. 

As you can see, you get drenched going out along the walkway and the down pressure of all the water going over the falls creates so much wind that the spray is driven into you and soaks you in seconds.

The falls which actaully compromise over 270 separate waterfalls stretching over 3km are breathtaking. 

On the Brazilian side this is the last place to get close to the falls but you can almost stick your hand into the torrent of water.

I took some video while I was there which you can check out here using the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Qo8ctWnmk

I can admit to not noticing the rather menacing spiders lurking above me whilst filming! 

I spent an entire afternoon just marvelling at the power of this place which my pictures will never do justice to.

It was awesome.

Nuff said!

Any foolish notions of bombing in were quickly set packing you would not even last seconds in the water, with or without surfboard!

The only other thing to report was this amusing sign.

I didn’t know banisters could drive!

I left the coast because I was flying down to Foz De Iguacu in Brazil to check out the Iguacu National Park.

It is a vast nature reserve extending 225 thousand hectares into both Brazil and Argentina that was set up in the 1930s to protect the local fauna and flora.

It is home to more than fifty species of wild cats including pumas, jaguars and ocelots

The River Iguacu that flows through the middle of the park is home to cayman, and represents the border between Argentina and Brazil.

There are also countless birds including many eagles and toucans such as the one I spotted here.

In the park there are also a huge number of deer, monkeys, and a several very poisonous snakes and spiders.

However the things that I had the most contact with are these little fluffy things called coatis.

Don’t let their appearance deceive you though, they have very sharp clawws and have long sinced recognised that carrier bags carried by tourists are a potential source of easy food.

Throughout the day I saw several people fighting them off after the coati had crept up on their purchases from the souvenir shop unnoticed.

They would immediately set about ripping any packaging to pieces.

To try and minimise the ongoing assaults the national park have put up signs all over the park asking you not to feed the animals.

However and I checked this several times, nowhere did it say that you were not allowed to get them drunk!

In a desperate attempt to bag another surf whilst in Brazil I went down the coast to the other contest site at Barra de Tijuca. It didn’t take long in the taxi and was pretty cheap.

I was hoping to see some of the surf you see here, which regularly breaks on the beach there.

However what I found upon arrival was much more like this. 

Not in least bit inspring and the waves were not even worth putting on my boardshorts to try and go for a bodysurf.

(I write this historically and am a tad peeved that a swell arrived the following day as soon as I had left the coast. As I have said before though, that is surfing.)

It was good to see the machinations of the world tour once more even if I didn’t get to see the top guys surf.

Incidentally South African Jordy Smith won the event taking him to number 2 in the world rankings behind the current leader and beaten finalist in Rio, Ariano de Souza from Brazil

Rio is famous the world over for its carnival before the start of Lent on Mardi Gras. I believe it stretches out over a few days due to the scale of the event but it is certainly a bit different to the pancake day which is how we celebrate the occasion back in the UK.

It would have been good to be in town during the festivities but I would have had to miss out on so many of the great waves I enjoyed through Central America and we all know what my priorities are on this trip.

The costumes and the of course the women are amazing and it is certainly something I would return to Brazil for at a later date.

The Sambódromo is a permanent grandstand lined parade avenue which is used during Carnival.

I did get to see the Sambodromo but was more likely to see tumble weed when I was there than a parade of dancing girls.

It was hard to believe that such a dull street is party central for the entire planet every year.

Apparantly anybody can take part if they put together a costume. They usually cost hundreds of pounds and take hours of work, but I am not sure the world is ready for me in sequined hot pants just yet.

During my stay in Rio I have been based in the Ipanema area of town.

It is most famous worldwide for the tall and tan and young and lovely, girl from Ipanema who goes walking by.

For those unfamiliar with the song, it is a Bossa Nova classic and has been sung by many great singers such as Frank Sinatra and more recently was covered by Amy Winehouse. 

The lyrics to the song were written in this cafe by a bloke who would have coffee here every day and see a stunning girl walking past everyday.

Garote de Ipanema is the Portuguese translation of the song’s title.

I stopped in for a bite to eat and enjoyed the steady procession of delightful young things that still walk by on their way to the beach.

At the beach itself there are still no shortage of muses for any songwriters that are in need of inspiration.

I had a brief chat with this young lady, but she did not seem to be too impressed by my offer of composing a song on my ukulele for her.

Like the Billabong Pro itself I am a bit stuffed by the lack of waves at the moment.

I am having fun in Rio regardless but there really are not much in the way of waves. This picture is one of the contest sites and you can see the huge lighting pylon that they use to illuminate the sea if things get a bit dark. 

The waves really weren’t anything to write home about and I didn’t take my camera out with me when I went body-surfing again in amongst the crowd of people trying to do the same, so I don’t have any exciting pictures to show you.

However I couldn’t pass up the opprtunity to surf one of the stops of the world tour, especially when the whole of the surf industry was in town.

Surfing here means I have actually bagged the Atlantic on my travels. It is an old friend even if we are used to playing together on the other side of the water.

I can claim surfing in Brazil too, although I have to say I was somewhat disappointed in the surf on offer. Nothing you can do about Mother Nature though. Surfing is just like that sometimes. Waves breaking all week long when you are in the office and then nothing at the weekend when you are free.