Grand Canyon Road Trip

On my way to California State University, Chico for my first semester as an senior exchange student, my family and I landed in Las Vegas and I beg to visit the Grand Canyon instead of staying 3 nights in Vegas. I made their minds, fortunately.

It was a really exhaustive trip. The first day, we were awake for 20 hours straight. We traveled 10 hours(5 hours flying and 5 hours driving). That many hours just to see the Grand Canyon on the South Rim. It was totally worth every second of this journey.

At the first glace, I couldn't believe what I was seeing! I thought someone just printed a huge poster with an amazing landscape and left in the middle of the desert. It took me few seconds to realize that what I was looking at was real!
Unfortunately, I only spent 4 hours in the Grand Canyon National Park. I will definitely be back there, but next time I am hiking and camping for several days in the middle of that huge mysterious place.


Our next stop was Page, AZ. We first went to see the "Tsé bighánílíní", which means "the place where water runs through rocks" in Navajo. I think the name explains everything. For those that have no idea what I am talking about, this place is known as the "Antelope".  It was kind of expensive the 30 minutes tour. It was about $20 per person, but totally worth every penny.


Page has more then one amazing attraction. The horseshoe bend is exactly 5 minutes away from the Antelope. I loved that place. First, horseshoes always represented luck for me ( I grow up among horses), so it was amazing to see a huge horseshoe made by the Colorado river. Second, there was no fence to keep you from falling down the cliff. My grandma stayed in the car because was too hot. Otherwise, she would have had  a heart attack for seeing me walking and jumping from rock to rock by the cliff edge. Third and not probably the last reason, the combination of the dimension of the canyon , the green transparent water floating, and all those different colors made this place so breathtaking.

Monte Verde

I have been away for a while, but I am back :)

This year, I have visited over 5 countries, but let's start with Brazil! During the World Cup, everybody was crazy about the match, but me and my friends decided to run away from this mess and hide ourselves in the mountains. We rent a house for about 5 days in Monte Verde, Minas Gerais. It is a very nice deal. We payed about R$50,00 (USD 20,00) per night per person, and there was 6 of us. The house could fit about 10 people, and it would be still comfortable :) There was no mobile signal or Internet, so it was good for everyone to unplug a bit. I was in trouble, tho. I had an image processing project to turn in, and those who program know how stack overflow helps tremendously when we get stuck. But I worked around that problem by downloading the whole documentation for OpenCV. Good news, I was able to get a lot of the features done, but I had to miss some of the nights out in the German bars around town. 

There were fire places in the house. So, we burned tons of wood to keep ourselves warm, and of course I couldn't resist to take picture of the fire. I almost burnt myself several times, but that's not a surprise. I am clumsy :P

      The city, Monte Verde, looks like a small European village. There are  plenty of European style restaurats and all of them sell good beers. Brazil is not big in brewing gourmet beers. Little by little, this market is growing in Brazil and you might be able to find a better range of beers.  In this city, there is also an ice ring! You really don't have to go to Europe to fell like in Europe, Brazilian are capable of faking it very well! hahahaha

     Monte Verde is a very small town. I describe this city as a single main street with about 1km width. Along this kilometer you will find several fancy restaurants, gift's shops, and coffee shops. Even though they are fancy you can still affort it. If you have ever been to Campos do Jordao ( which is a pretty expensive touristic city in the mountains in Sao Paulo state) I can say that Monte Verde is half of the price. 

 We climbed the mountains that divide the Minas Gerais State and Sao Paulo State. There was a lot of breathtaking flowers, and there was a lot of haze as well. On the top of the mountain there were some huge rocks. We climbed them too. Actually, I climbed just half of it. We were without any safety equipment, and then I got scared to fall... So, this combination of beauty, adventure, and mistery made me think I was in Alice's Wonderland.

I had a lot of fun. I was with good friends over there, and for sure I will remeber those days and miss every single second, and smile I shared with them :) 

Torun - Poland

So let's register my last vacation... After few years I turned back to Poland. This year,  I visited some family's places, and Torun is one of them. It's the town where my grandma was born. This city is a tourist point due to Copernicus ( the guy that found out that the earth is moving around the sun), and this city as known as city of the most ancient recipe of Honey Cookie ( I don't know if it's the right name in English , in Poland they call it "Pierniczki" , and Portuguese "Pao de Mel") - Anyway they are still delicious even without any name... hahahah 

  unfortunately,  I just took few picture, this is one of them. I'm not sure but I think is the apartment that my gradma lived when she was teenager...  

Some city view from a Castle Hill 

( the Castle was just behind me,...

but my best pic was od the city)

when we are turning back home 

after visit Torun!

just an picture with my lovely grandpa...

Amsterdam

Amsterdam 

Passei o ultimo dia do ano nessa cidade, visitei um pouco da região que tem perto do quarteirão dos museus e a estacão central. Era impressionante a quantidade de ''ciclistas'', as pessoas usam as bicicletas como meio de transporte, acredito que seja por causa do preco de um bilete de bonde ( 2,6 euros), existe uma ciclovia na cidade inteira, e os holandeses tem um sino(buzina) instalado no guidão, eles nao tem receio em usa-la! Olhem as bicicletas, essa quantidade é quase nada perto das rampas, com altura aproximadamente de 2 andares, cheias de bicicletas... Não era pra eu ter saido na foto, e eu estava sorridente por causa da geracão ''saúde'' e das bikes.

Como eu tinha pocuo tempo pra ficar na cidade eu planejei ir visitar o Museum do Van Gogh, é o museum que contem o maior acervo de obras desse artista, estão reunidas 200/900 que ele produziu. Tem obras de outros artistas também, como Monet, Paul Gaugin, etc.

Mesmo no último dia do ano de 2010 a fila para entrar no museum era enorme, na foto só dá pra ver a metade da '' frente'', pra trás tem mais um tanto de pessoas.  O ingresso é carinho, custa 14 euros. Mas até 17 anos não paga, totalmente FREE!                                                                

Essa foto tem uma historinha... quando entrei no museum eu fui no balcão onde alugam aqueles guias eletronicos (mp3) e perguntei o seguinte :'' May I take picture of  the paintings?'' o cara respondeu : '' You just can take picture of this wall''. Bom ele estava se referindo a uma parede onde estavam as informacões do Van Gogh e uma foto gigante de um quadro dele. Mas eu entendi que poderia tirar foto do ''Hall'' onde  nos estavamos, porque eram três salões, um em cada andar. Então toda contente, fui lá e tirei a foto do primeiro quadro que vi, nào deu 5 segundos o guarda veio chamar minha atencão! hahahahaha,

Bom aqui é algum parque perto dos museus, não faco ideia porque eu me enfiei na cidade só com um papel que imprimi como chegar da estacão central até o museum do Van Gogh, e com o numero do bonde. Mas não serviu pra muita coisa, eu me guiei melhor pedindo informacão pra policial na rua e o motorista do bonde! hahahaha 

No mesmo parque em um banquinho do lado, os meninos estavam fumando e o cheiro de macanha era evidente! Enquanto no Brasil as pessoas se escondem pra fumar, em Amsterdam eles fumam em público sem problema. Quando comeca a escurecer a cidade ganha cheiro de erva.

Esse é o palco sendo montado e testado a iluminacão horas antes de comecarem os shows da virada do ano...

Viagem- Pantanal

Pantanal Mato Grossense

 O Pantanal é caracterizado por grandes fazendas alagadas no período de outubro -abril, no período de seca formam grandes lagos, é nessa época mais fácil de visualizar os animais, pois a abundância de alimentos é menor. A vegetação é uma mistura de Cerrado com Mata Atlântica.

Animais :

Tamandua  - Mirim (Tamandua tetradactyla)

Jacaré ( reptéis da ordem Crocodylia)

                                               Jabiru Mycteria , essa ave é o símbolo do pantanal, classificada como maior ave voadora do Brasil, chega a pesar 8kg. Popularmente conhecida como Tuiuiú.

Casinha do João de Barro!

Martim Pescador

Cuiabá, capital do Mato Grosso sediará a copa de 2014 no Brasil, a cidade já está em clima de preparação, reforma e construção para hospedar os esportistas e todos envolvidos com o evento. Estou curiosa qual será o impacto para a região, tanto para o meio ambiente quanto para a população local que vive em precárias condições.

Fazendas

Por do Sol

Cachoeira Véu de Noiva

Nascente em Nobres

Thailand

 

  Before leaving Asia I went to Thailand for few days. I was looking into getting there by train from Kuala Lumpur, but it would take more than 10 hours and I´d need to take some buses to get in Phuket ( turistic island ), so I found cheap fly to get directly to Phuket international airport ( I think by plane was cheaper than by train). If you go to phuket don't change your money over there, the money Exchange was better at the malaysians intentional airport than anywhere I saw in phuket. After arriving on the airpor we took a van cuz (there are taxi and minivan to get in the city you wish) taxi was too Expensive for me, van was more convenient it cost 150baht, is about 4$ or less than this!

 At the beach you can rent a rest chair under the umbrella, I have no ideia how does it cost, but it's very common so turist pay for it :

Trafic and the stores were disorganized, like you can see:

I stay in Kuta, it is the funer city, I mean there are a lot of bar, woman show, funny spot. What about the beaches? Pretty cool, nice and warm... European "ladies" use to do TOP Less! Such a lot of place in Asia there were bitches everywhere...they were on tour trought some turistic point making company for the guys that they were spending day and mostly night... 

 

 

What is interesting to do in Thailand ? First of all is ride an elephant! It's pretty fun, maybe it seems to be scary, but is interesting feel how slowly and soft the way it walks! The trainer beats hardly with a stick on the head of their elephant and he also guide screaming with it! 

 

Second of all is corious watch a muyai Thai( Thai box ), international people fight it a lot of the hand to punch their rival, but the Thai people fight more dancing and using their leg to kick, Thai people fight seem to be less aggressive then other nationality doing it!

 ( some pictures don't fit with what I wrote, like this peanapple, I would like to upload another picture but I don't have them here, acctualy I lost them, so when I find it I wish to be able to organize this post)

Bali / Indonesia

When traveling to Bali, you should save about $ 25 to acquire a visa and more $15 to pay the air port services while you are going back. Bali has its charm, I got heartbroken when I saw the food chain restaurants and those international resorts like Hard Rock Cafe. 
Bali can be overwhelming with salesman trying to push tons of merchandises while you are walking on the street. They  might even speak your language! 

 

(Sunset on the temple)

The Island is very small, but the traffic it's so crazy( I will try to explain how it looks,as you can see my English vocabulary is poor, that's why it wont sound like William Blake 's creation! hahahaha). 
The road are pretty well maintained and new. The streets are very narrow, so every time there is two cars coming from opposite directions it seems like they will have a frontal collision. It is extremely scary.

 Unfortunately I did not have the chance to party in Bali, it was a family trip and I am only 16. I was very disappointed with the beaches, the sand was full of trash. I was reading that in  Bali bonfires on the beach are very traditional and popular.


( curves levels or  rice terraces, it's so amazing and unbelievable! )

 On the right picture is a Balinese family house. For what I understood, several generations live there together. They have their own temple and garden.










                                                                  (Balinese House)






  On the right side picture is Kuta Beach! It is a very popular beach to surf. 




















I was very amazed by the Balinese's Temples. They are so different from anything I have seen before. Their garden is so beautiful, and all the details are so rich.  



Another thing that broke my heart was to see child labor in Bali. In Brazil, unfortunately you can see that too.