Rare Adventures

Tag: health

Rio – first impressions

We all have a view of what to expect in Rio, but is it really like that?

First stage of our South American adventure is a little stopover in Rio de Janeiro. It is a vast city, so the first challenge is where to stay.

To be honest that one is easy thanks to Barry Manilow singing about the Copacabana Beach all those years ago, so we headed there, which is the main tourist zone, but also has a big contingent of locals at the weekend enjoying their city.

We did a really good city tour which I will blog separately, these were my first impressions of a city that I had wanted to visit all my life.https://rareadventures.uk/2025/11/04/rio-in-a-day/

The beaches

The famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema are right next door to each other, are both 4.5km long and only separated by a small headland. Ipanema is golden sand whilst on Copacabana there is white sugary sand and both make for great walks to enjoy the beach life.

There is something incredibly exciting about making it to these world famous beaches but in truth, they are similar to any Spanish costa, with high rise apartments on one side, and endless beach side cafes to sit and enjoy a coffee, beer or cocktail. They are famous for the beach football, volleyball and surfing and there is plenty of each, but the surfing is a bit overrated to be honest, I didn’t bother going in it was that average.

The city environment

Rio itself is not a beautiful city. It is set amongst steep, jungle covered mountains which give it a natural green beauty, but the human contribution has turned the valleys and plains into a concrete jungle of old concrete high rise buildings that have had no sympathy for the colonial history and generally overwhelm the older buildings. Probably the highlight of this is the modern Catholic cathedral, it would be hard to find an uglier building.

The massive natural harbour is one of the wonders of the world and as you move around the city there are numerous beaches in each of the suburbs. Having done a tour of the city, I can’t think of any reason why anyone would want to stay anywhere other than on one of the famous beaches, or near it if your budget is a bit tight. It is a very busy city, with traffic jams everywhere and I can’t imagine having much fun in the other suburbs.

The Weather

A big surprise was the weather, when we were doing our checks, it was consistently sunny and 30c. Our first day was overcast and turned into heavy rain, thunder and lightning, second day lots more rain and thick fog, third day we had clear blue sky and sunshine, so we have 4 seasons in 3 days, the only thing we didn’t get was snow. I guess there is a reason why the whole area is jungle, it gets lots of rain!

Luckily, we scheduled our city tour on the wettest day, but in hindsight this was probably a bit of luck, as we were able to enjoy the beaches when the sun was out.

Language

Having spent 2 weeks plugging away with Duolingo to learn some Spanish in preparation for Argentina, it was deeply disappointing to note that the Brazilians didn’t respond to my attempts at being friendly in Spanish. Now I do realise they speak Portuguese, but there are enough similarities to be civil.

I then realised that most Brazilians don’t speak anything but their own version of Portuguese, no Spanish at all (maybe on principle!), and they don’t speak English either, so the early exchanges in the beach bars and shops of the Copacabana were very hard work, which really surprised me bearing in mind it is such an attraction for visitors.

Global Cities

If I had to compare Rio with one city it would be Sydney, with the beautify harbour and beaches and a population that loves the outdoor life.

A few years ago, I concluded that there are some cities in the world that are very different to the rest of that country.

The first time I noticed it was on the US, where New York stands apart, Los Angeles was nothing like the rest of the US or New York, similar if you travel to Australia then Sydney is totally different to the rest of the country and London is the same.

The difference with London is that it is also the capital city, unlike the others. I put Rio into this category, as a global city, where people flock to experience that individual vibe.

In all those cities, you can stand and watch herds of people passing by and it is difficult to spot what race that country is. In Rio there is such diversity in the population that you couldn’t say “That is a Brazilian”.

The food

First impressions were pretty good from the beach front bars at Copacabana with lots of fish and steak with unusual sauces and tastes.

On the city tour we had a Brazilian BBQ which involves eating as much meat as you can. We were lucky enough to stumble out of a rain storm into a restaurant in Ipanema called Bodega Belmonte which was a really authentic dining experience and we had a great afternoon eating and avoiding the rain.

So, our tour of South America is up and running with a great start in Rio, one of my life ambitions achieved.

03/11/2025
Destination Argentina
Patagonia and Ushuaia here we come

Nearly time to pack our rucksacks for the next adventure. This is a big one on our bucket list and has taken a lot of planning over the last few months.

Anyone in their right minds would be using a travel agent, but that is too easy for us. It would hardly be Rare Adventures if we had someone organising us, just think of the things that could go wrong.

This idea first came up from the BBC series “Race across the world“, when they travelled the length of South America. The scenery was so remote and beautiful that we decided we had to see Patagonia and the most southerly point at Ushuaia.

In an ideal world we would like to have been doing more by road to enjoy the scenery, but the distances are so vast we will be using internal flights as our main form of transport. Wooksie has put a 1 month limit on the trip and we had to be home for Christmas, which apparently starts on the 1st December in her world, the schedule was a bit of a challenge,

It is quite difficult to filter though the information on the internet, there is so much to trawl through and evaluate, but eventually we came up with this route. Driving or train would have been more fun but would have constrained us too much, and by using flights we can spend more time as the destinations.

After all these years, and with all the online information, we still end up buying a copy of the “Lonely Planet” as a simple point of reference.

Argentinian itinerary

Here is our plan, or maybe more of a list of things that might happen!
- 29^th October fly from Bristol to Rio– with a change in Amsterdam with KLM, we spend 3 days enjoying the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, bars and having a look at Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain.
- 2^nd Nov we fly to Iguazu Falls – for trekking, 4×4 offroading and speed boating around the spectacular falls, it’s going to be a spectacular day.
- 4^th Nov we fly to Bariloche via Buenos Aires – this could be a bit tricky as it’s not a through flight but with a bit of luck we will arrive in the northern part of Patagonia and the Argentinian Lake District in the early evening. Trekking and adventures at altitude await us.
- 9^th Nov we fly to Buenos Aires – we then have 3 or 4 days getting to know the place and popping over to Montevideo in Uruguay.
- 13^th Nov we fly to El Calafate to spend 4 days trekking around the glaciers and mountains in the southern part of Patagonia.
- 16^th Nov we fly to Ushuaia to head to the most southerly point in South America and cruise around the Beagle Channel, unfortunately Wooksie didn’t fancy a cruise to Antarctica which is a disappointment.
- 20^th Nov we start our trip home with more stop overs in Buenos Aires and Rio before getting back for the end of November.
We have lots of adventures and and scenery to explore d and will be posting regular updates on what has happened – onwards and upwards.
26/10/2025
My weight loss journey 10 – Mounjaro after effects

Managing Weight After Mounjaro: A Real Challenge

See the rest of my Weight loss journey posts.

Coming down and stablisation

Generally the treatment was really successful in my view, but coming off Mounjaro has to be managed; it is deeply depressing to know that something like 80% of people put their weight back on within 6 months. The son and wife of one of my mates lost 5 stone before a trip to NEw Zealand, when they came back, they put it all back on again. To make matters worse, they are quite contented that if they need to lose weight off again it will cost them about £3000, so why bother staying fit.

I did some research around the topic and fortunately came across this podcast back in the summer. The podcast discusses the relationship between the food industry and the weight loss drugs. In summary, the problem is that many of us are addicted to food thanks to the disgraceful marketing by the food industry and now the pharmaceutical industry has found an antidote to the addiction.

So, it is like a heroin addict being hooked on Narcan as the alternative. There are people who even think there is a conspiracy between the two industries, but it’s not worth going there. Discussing it with another mate he couldn’t understand why people just couldn’t stop eating crap, he took some convincing that he was lucky to be one of the fortunate people who weren’t susceptible, just like he is inexplicably and annoyingly much better than me at mountain biking.

Positive side effects

The problem with Mounjaro is that you are likely to put the weight on when you come off it, unless you really focus on changing from the eating habits that got you there in the first place. The strange thing about the drug is that it seems to help with other addictions and habits, there is even evidence to reduces other addictions like gambling.

Human nature being what it is, people are continuing to use the jab to keep their weight down rather than taking the chance of putting the weight back on, basically people are hooked.

It helped me break some habits, notably I liked to have a drink in the evening while watching tv. This habit went back to when work was really stressful, I would come home, put the kids to bed and the drink was the signal to my body that it was time to relax.

It was normally gin and tonic, but since having the jab I can’t face a gin and tonic. The other mini addiction was bacon sandwiches or rolls in the morning, for some reason, the smell and taste just doesn’t do it for me anymore. My couple of months on the jab seems to have had more benefits than just weight loss.

I’m writing this just as the price of Mounjaro has increased 170%, apparently this is to reduce private demand so that there is enough supply for the NHS, apparently there are not enough stocks to treat the clinically obese and those with serious diabetes.

I’m sure the makers were heartbroken about imposing this price rise, but I suspect people will still find the money or switch to the slightly less effective Wegovy, which is now a lot cheaper, particularly if they are moving on to sustaining rather than losing weight.

I guess the major lesson from this experience is just how depressing it is that the food industry has got millions of people addicted to appalling and damaging food, yet no government on the planet is willing to stand up to them and stop it.

Negative side effects

Meanwhile, people are getting addicted to being thin, guaranteeing years of income to the drug companies, the whole thing is mad but here we are in the 21st Century, half the world is starving and the lucky inhabitants of the free world are taking drugs to stop us eating.

There are lots of other suggested side effects being suggested, including muscle wastage and impact on mental health, so anyone considering it should do their research first, there is a ying and yang to everything in life.

I’d recommend the approach for anyone who is in the privilege position to be able to enjoy it.

See the rest of my Weight loss journey posts.

22/10/2025
Weight loss journey 9 – Mounjaro, the short cut to weight lose

Mounjaro, me and food addition.

Would I recommend Mounjaro– yes most definitely, it is changing people’s lives for the better, but it comes at a cost.

See the rest of my Weight loss journey posts.

For 8 years I’ve been largely on top of my weight, the scales would sneak back up slowly but I’d find a reason to kick in my tried and trusted method to reduce it again. There was always some target to focus on, like a 100 mile bike ride, or climbing the Inca Trail, or a weekend mountain biking, whatever it was, I’d find a reason to kick in the calorie counting and down my weight would come.

If you haven’t seen my other articles on weight loss and my journey, you can find them here.

6 months ago, I noticed the weight creeping back to an unacceptable level, but for the first time I couldn’t find the motivation to deal with it. I was living a happy life, gym and sport every day, but that weight was creeping on because my appetite seemed to be getting bigger all the time.

First, I passed through the 15 stone barrier, it was a mental upper limit for the last 8 years that normally caused me to react, but I didn’t. It was only when it reached 15st 4lb that I knew I had to do something because I was heading towards 16st fast, but why, I felt good and was living my best life.

My wife was the same, she had a method for losing weight with the Alavera clinic, but her cycle was different. She would lose 2 to 3 stone in a clinically controlled way, but it would always go back on. So, we were both on the upward weight cycle and both struggling for motivation, none of the adventures we had planned required much extra fitness, so why bother?

The awakening

Then we bumped into a friend in a bar, and I was totally stunned by the amount of weight she had lost, she was a totally different person, about a half the size version of the one we had seen a year earlier. After a bit of chatting she let us in on her diet secret, she was using the fat jab (in secret from her husband I hasten to add). I’d never heard of anyone using it, but it transpired we were probably the only ones left in the world that weren’t aware of it, we thought it was something only very obese people had access to on the NHS.

So, I did some investigation and was surprised how cheap the Mounjaro jab was. In fact, the monthly outlay was far less than what we had previously paid for the weight loss clinic, so in some ways it was a bargain at £200 per month and the promised weight loss was huge. Knowing my wife can be a bit slow to embrace opportunities I offered to go first and try it out and see what was involved.

Next day I was logged into the Numan website starting the process. First problem was I wasn’t 30 BMI, but not far off, so I calculated the weight I needed to be and uploaded the data and I moved on to the next stage, which involved a photo of me to prove I was fat, so I took a few photos of me breathing out in a baggy t shirt, and without much bother, I was through the medical stage and the medicine was on the way.

By this point, I was fully fired up on my weight loss mission. The sooner I got this weight off the sooner I would be off the medication; I wasn’t keen on the whole jabbing idea. I was straight into the calorie counting and my exercise was focused moved to calorie burning, I had lost 3 lb by the time the package dropped through the letter box a week later.

Starting the treatment

The first week of the dosage took me back under 15st, my first milestone achieved. It was difficult to know if the drug was having an effect or whether it was placebo. I had also started above my normal weight, so I had pounds to lose.

The second week we had a bit of a hiccup, I overdosed. I used the jab and was a bit confused why the syringe had not gone right down, the syringe goes down about 20% each week and leaves a drop in the bottom. I tried 3 times to apply it, on the assumption that it wasn’t working, I reported the matter to Numan.

An overdose

When they saw a photo of the syringe, they pointed out that I had used it up all up in one go.

If it was placebo before it certainly wasn’t over the next 5 days, I felt nauseous, floaters in front of my eyes and certainly no appetite, in fact I had to force myself to eat in the end. However, it did have some even better side effects as I lost another 4lb, so I was down 7lb in 2 weeks.

As I had proved my incompetence to Numan, they sent me another month’s worth of the minimum dose. To be fair, the support from them was really good. You get a coach to help with advice on food and lifestyle, and a clinical team for issues with the syringe and dosage. For the coach I was sorted with my approach, but it was good to have an online chat about different strategies and options.

I mentioned the jab to a few friends and their reactions were really interesting. I suspect a lot of people are embarrassed about using the jab, but the reality is that it is just another way to diet, so I wasn’t embarrassed at all. It was no more embarrassing than Weight Watchers or Man v Fat, you just want to get the weight off as soon as you can because it is making you sad and it isn’t good for you to be fat.

3 friends signed up to the treatment, which was excellent as we both got price reductions on our next batches, I almost became a dealer I was referring so many people. Most people started off inquisitive about the side effects and impact, and most of all the size of the needle!

From a personal perspective, the change wasn’t that noticeable because I was just getting back down to my normal weight which I had been 6 months earlier. I finished off after 3 months of “treatment”, my dose only reached 5mg (the max is 15mg), which is normally the second month. By that time, I had lost 16lb in weight in 3 months, so I hadn’t had time to become too dependent on the drug and in the hottest summer for 50 years, I didn’t put any weight back on.

So all round a very successful experience, however there are side effects that you should be aware of and need to be managed that I cover in the next article

17/10/2025
Tips for a Successful Trip to Les Gets Bike Park

I always look forward to the next trip to the Les Gets Bike Park, hot sunny days, hard baked berms and swooping down through the trees. The drive from Morillon is about 30 minutes so I needed to pack the bike into the back of the car and get all my stuff together.

The last trip to Les Gets was good but didn’t quite go according to plan thanks to the ever present Gremlins in my life. I had planned to video the runs for the YouTube channel so that people planning to visit could get a little insight into what awaited them.

top of Les Gets bike park

Last time I arrived at Les Gets I put the bike together and got to the top of the Chavannes Express lift, only to discover that the battery in my Go Pro camera was flat. I decided to go back down and try and buy a battery, which wasted an hour and produced no new battery. I had a great day on the bike but no YouTube content, even worse, I had a crash and smashed the camera mount anyway, so that was the end of that.

I wasn’t going to make the same mistake this time, double checked all the gear and packed it into my rucksack, packed the bike, made sure I had all the tools and repair kits, and off I went. In the underground car park I assembled the bike, put all the gear on and the last job was to attach the Go Pro. To my absolute horror the little bolt that attaches the camera to the mounting wasn’t there, how could that be?

View from the Triple 8 run

Gremlin attack

I had used it on the previous day on the Morillon runs, it couldn’t have disappeared from the mount, but it had. I searched the car, all the bags but nope, it wasn’t there. That meant it must have come off back in the garage and I had a spare in the apartment, but it meant a 1 hour round trip, that damned Gremlin. I didn’t bother stripping off padding, just jumped in the car and high tailed it back to Morillon, thank God for air conditioning and the patience of my wife to listen to my woes.

Just over 1 hour later, I was back in the same car parking bay, in exactly the same position I had been before but this time the camera was attached the bike, and I was ready to. I wasted no time getting out of there and up on the Chavanne Express lift for the first run and to make up for the hour I had wasted.

Some of you may have read the blog about my winter season in the Alps, when, after 65 years, I had concluded that quite randomly, I would have a quite irrational approach to risky situations at times, in fact I concluded I had a personal Gremlin living in my head that was trying to kill me.

View from La Nauchets lift, Les Gets

Risk Aversion

In response, I had decided that for my summer season mountain biking I needed to be a bit more grown up. Unlike snowboarding which happens in the ski area near our apartment, I had to drive to the bike parks so if I got injured, I would not only have the problem getting me down with not help, but getting the car home car as well, something as simple as a dislocated shoulder would be a disaster.

I made a rule, not just a promise, that I would only do blue runs, they are hairy enough at times and I still have crashed on them. However, as I had done most of them before. I knew where most of the dangers lay, so that is why the videos supporting this story are of the blue runs, for once in my life, I stuck to my rule.

The ride up on the Chavannes Express took me over the jump park and the Foue Libre trail, which is the run home, not only that, but you also get glimpses of some hairy looking black trails lurking in the woods. When I arrived out at the top of the Chavannes Express, I was ready for action and unhindered by mates.

Les Gets bike park top section

On previous trips my mates, notably The Chemist and The Mechanic have accompanied me. Despite explaining the routes to them they either shoot off in the wrong direction or just shoot off anyway and I spend the rest of the afternoon trying to work out where they have gone. When I eventually find them, they are normally going on about a Strava time rather than the hassle they have caused me, I have even found them in the undergrowth after crashes.

I checked the camera, and everything was working so it was time to go. At the top of this lift you can head back into Les Gets, head round the mountain to Morzine or head over to the Nauchets chair lift that takes you up to top of the mountain and the really steep runs, naturally I headed to the Nauchets lift.

For the story of the runs and videos of the trails, can be found in my next blog

07/10/2025