Brazil

Thursday the 27th of November

What more can I say except fantastic! From the moment we stepped off the plane I just fell in love with Rio. It is just such an amazing City to look at, the hills, the sea, the mountains and the half naked Brazilian women!

So what have we been up to, I here you ask. Well we arrived on Sunday and went straight to our hotel which exceeded my expectations, have a look at the picture of the view from our hotel below, simply fantastic.

After dumping our bags we decided to head straight for the beach, as our hotel was in between both the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches we were spolit for choice but opted for Ipanema. We then spent the next four hours relaxing and swimming in the sea, everything in life was perfect! Well it was until the realisation set in that both of us had sunburn (yes Mum I know I am stupid and yes I did put on sun block, I just still managed to get burnt.) We then headed back to the Hotel to spend that night and all of the following day lying in bed in agony.

On day three in Rio with our legs and backs a bit better but still rather pink, we decided to head up the Corcovado Mountain to see the statue of Christ. First we had to catch the bus though and catching buses in Brazil is both easy and an absolute nightmare all in one. Nightmare as there is no such thing as a bus stop so finding where to get the bus from is quite hard. Also easy as when you do see your bus you just wave and it will stop to let you on. Anyway the Corcovado was ace, although in person the statue of Jesus is a little on the small side. Don´t get me wrong, a 35 metre statue of Jesus is big it is just I have seen so many pictures of the giant Christ looking down on the City that I just imagined it to be bigger. No pleasing some people hey, 35 metres of Christ and he still moans. The railway going up the hill was really fun if a little scary as in certain places there is just sheer drops down the side of the mountain.

Wednesday we ventured back down to the beach and this time decided to rent a couple of beach umbrellas, so although we still lazed around and played in the sea we managed not to barbeque ourselves.

Friday 28th November

Hi Hope you like our pictures. I am enjoying Rio as it has the benefits of a city with all your shopping and munching needs as well as having a great beach and the sea to cool off in and believe me in this weather you need water! Its so hot and humid, most nights it rains. The plants and trees are so lush, and rubber trees grow huge lining the streets. The Brazillian men aren´t so scantilly clad as the ladies but I would say that is a good thing! There are kids and guys playing football all round the place in the flavelas, on the beach and its good to watch them. We accidently wondered in to the slum areas in the centre of rio yesterday and rapidly hurried out. Today will hit the beach, and tomorrow will go to a football game to see Rio and San Paulo, which I am excited about.
On the whole having a great time in Rio and will be staying here a little longer than I expected to anyway. x Lou

Friday the 28th of November

Still having a great time. Went into the centre of Rio yesterday but I was suffering from the heat and a slight hangover and I found it quite an exhausting day. The centre looked quite nice but we did not get to see much as we were wondering around lost for most of the day.

Today is just another day at the beach I think. I am definately staying under the umbrella though as I am still quite sore from Sunday. Lou has started to go brown where as I am still glowing red.

Tomorrow the big football match, I am looking forward to it. I think I will wear my Celtic top. Anyway beach calling but before I go could people drop me over an email so that I have your email address as I wrote down a list of everybodies emails but forget to bring the list. DOH!

Sunday 30th of November

Well today makes a week in Rio and all in all it has been a pretty good week. Well except the sunburn. I think we are really starting to get settled into things now and with every day that passes I become a little bit more lazy. I am not sure why but the less you have to do the more hassle it seems to be. When all you have to do in a day is write a couple of postcards it really should not be that much of a chore. However I managed to put off the postcard writing for three days and the laundry was much the same. When I did finally drag myself down to do the laundry I really felt I had achieved something and then it dawned on me that washing your pants is really not much of an achivement for a whole day. I do not know how people get anything done when they have the beach and the sea to distract them.

So what have we been up to I hear you ask. Well Friday was just to the beach, Yawn! But Saturday we ventured off to the Maracana stadium to watch the football, Fluminense V Sao Caetano. We went with a tour and two guys from our hotel, Ray a Canadian here on work and Richard from Wales who has spent two Months travelling through South America studying agriculture. The stadium was very big but to be honest it did not look as big as I thought it would, as I could not picture 160,000 people in it. (Oh look heres Ruairi moaning again I hear you grown. First of all 35 metres of Jesus is not big enough for him and now he is moaning about the size of one of the largest football stadiums in the world.) As it turned out it was fairly empty with less than 30,000 but it was still well worth the visit. The football itself was nothing to write home about and was second devision standard. Well all apart from one player, I am not sure how they managed it but somehow Fluminense how managed to get Romario to play for them just for that game. The final score was 2-1 to Fluminense with Romario scoring a dubious penalty to win it.

After the game we headed to a pub by our hotel called ´The Irish Pub` complete with the usual pictures of Irish cottages and writers. You could have almost thought you were in Ireland. Well apart from the fact it was 30 degrees, they spoke Portuguese and they did not sell the black stuff.

I think tonight will be our last night in Rio and tomorrow we will start heading down the Emerald Coast. Although we still need to sort out travel and accomadation so we might not leave until Tuesday. Either way we will keep you updated.

Wednesday 3rd December

We are now in Ilha Grande, an island off Rio. It could not be more different to Rio though. It is crime free, has 109 beaches, tropical atlantic rain forest, humming birds, crabs, frogs, many young kittens and pregnant dogs - they dont mess with nature here at all. There are no cars on the island only walking and cycling allowed.It is forbidden to catch kill any animals (apart from fish). It is great to be amongst nature but also a little scarey. Yesterday in the darkness of the night I felt paranoid that a panther would climb through our windows. In the light of day I realised how irrational this was, there are no panthers, but there are however monkeys - we have not seen any yet but yesterday saw an iguana scurrying away in the forest.

It is also really lush here and rains loads but luckally the rain has stopped over the last few days which has given Ruairi and I the opportunity to take advantage of its amazing secluded beaches.

Yesterday we set off to walk to the beach, it was a bit of an adventure as it was a pretty steep walk, and took 2 hours, we walked through what seemed like a giant botanical garden except it was real. The leaves are huge, the bamboo grows high, and the sounds off all the birds its so tranquil. It was not all plain treking; with Ruairi getting over heated and Lou falling on her arse in wet orange mud. Ruairi then cut me a walking stick which was useful and gave me that extra bit of security! After a long 2 hours arrived at the beach. It was amazing as we were the only ones on the beach, apart from a family who lives there. The beach was perfect with mouintains in the background, palm trees to shade under (who needs umbrellas?) and green, calm clear waters. The effort put in to get to the beach was definately worth it!

We enjoyed a relaxing time of the beach playing cards intersperced with swimming - Ruairís new found confidence in the water was demonstrated by his desire and attempt to swim back to main land Brazil (it took a boat 2 hours). He did however decide to swim back as he realised that he would have to swim back to the Island once or should I say if he reached Brazil. Well what can I say - I was shocked well amazed really.

Anyway after considering the prospect of the 2 hours walk back decided it be a better idea to ask a local guy to take us back on his boat, and at 4 pounds could not grumble.

Today we plan to do a similar treck but not so long, hopefully we will see a monkey today though!
Love to everyone. Lou x

Thursday 4th of December

I now know why it is called a rainforest. Yep you guessed it, it rains a lot. Although when the sun does come out boy does it ever come out! We arrived on Monday and it was raining, then we had a dry, sunny and very hot Tuesday and Wednesday. Then today we had the rain again.

Well Lou has already filled you in on most things concerning Ilhe Grand and also I have spent the last hour putting the pictures on so I am afraid this will only be a quick one as I am off to stuff my face with shrimp any second. However before I go I will fill you in on todays adventure.

Yesterday was a fairly relaxing day in which we did not really walk to far so today we decided to go for a bit of a challenge and walk 9 miles across the island to Dios Rios. Dios Rios, we were told, had the best surf and also an old deserted prison. The prison was there but the surf was nowhere to be seen. Which was a real sh*t as I decided to bring a body board to surf on. Anyway the whole day turned into a bit of a disaster. After treking 4.5 miles over a hill covered in rainforest we found the beach. Great we thought and I ran in with my body board only to discover the waves were only as high as my knees. After a few attempts to surf 2 foot waves I gave up and decided to sit on the beach and read. The weather had other plans however and no sooner than the book was opened the heavens followed suit.This meant that Lou and I had to turn straight around and head back to Abroa. Only on the return leg we had the rain driving down and my unused Body Board also seemed to be considerably heavier than on the way there.

By the time we arrived back at Abroa we were completely soaking and both our feet were in pain but still we were in high spirits. I am not sure if I would do it again but it was definately an experience. Plus the day was not a complete wash out as the wildlife on the walk was amazing and we did manage to see the old prison at Dios Rios. The prison was a very wierd and quite spooky place with a whole (almost) deserted town around this old crumbling prison. It was like some B horror movie with us (one twat with a surf-board) wondering into this town with nobody bar a few toothless locals eyeing us up. Although the similarity ended there as they failed to eat us and make jewelery out of our bones. On that cheery note I leave you as I can hear my shrimp calling.

Monday the 8th of December

Monday, today is 3 weeks to the day since we left. Although it seems a lot longer as we have done so much over the last 3 weeks.

Currently we are in Paraty which is a couple of hours drive down from the Ilhe Grand. Although today is our last day here, mainly due to the weather. Paraty is a lovely place but it quite small and most of the activities are based around the beach and walking or riding to the beach. As it is raining here today we have decided to leave a few days early and head off to Sao Paulo.

Quite looking forward to seeing Sao Paulo as it is meant to be a massive and lively City. I think it has a population of around 9 million, but don´t quote me on that. Not sure how long we are going to stay in Sao Paulo for, I think it all depends on how much we like it and also how safe we feel. I mention feeling safe as most of the guide books say that Sao Paulo has more crime than Rio.

After we leave Sao Paulo it is then a 6 hour bus journey down to Curitiba, where we should stay a couple of nights and then finally on to Foz to see the waterfalls and then over the boarder and bye bye Brazil! I like Brazil so will be sad to go but equally I am excited about seeing Argentina and using all 7 spanish words I have managed to learn.

Pictures to follow soon, I would do it now but this PC has no USB port!

Thursday the 11th of December

Hi everyone,

Ruairi and I have quite different reports of San Paulo. In essence I hated it - he loved it. Also we did underestimate the population - I think it stands more at 15 - 18 million and grows each year. It really was a culture shock being in the biggest city in South America - coming from such tranquil places such as Paraty and Ilha Grande. It was so busy, huge, noisy, polluted that at one stage I just wanted to cry! Then I got lunch and we ended up seeing a good exhibition at the MASP Gallery, it was suprising to see a real mixture of paintings from Brazillian landscapes, to old English lords, with artist featured including, Monet, Manet, Picasso, Rembrant, and Gaudi.

We then made our way to the tallest building in the city and only then could we really appreciate the size of SanPaulo - it goes on for miles and miles with a sea of concrete tower blocks. The view was however fantastic as we saw through the day, sunset and evening with many beers and cocktails from the bar on the 42nd floor. Ruairi with ideas of grandeur talked incessently of going to a casino, being in such a luxurious place must have got to his head! However the beers were only 1 pound each for us and an excellent night was had.

On the whole however, San Paulo did not have too much for a tourist who wants to escape from city life ( i.e me!) and so I am glad we left the next morning for Curitiba in order to get to Foz do Iguacu, the waterfalls - and I cant wait!
x Lou

Thursday the 11th of December

Yep on this one I have to agree with Lou, our opinions of Sao Paulo really could not be more differant.

The City is massive and just amazing, yes people do not adjust your sets I did say it was massive. I bet you were all thinking here we go again, Ruairi has already complained about 35 metres of Jesus being to small and the 160,000 Maracana not quite being big enough for him and as much as I love being underwhelmed, Sao Paulo was overwhelming! Originally I thought it was 9 million but it is 18 million and 3 times the size of Paris. We did not arrive until 10.30pm at night and what a sight it was driving into the City, I do have to be honest here and admit that I was slightly nervous as well as excited. By the following day however the nerves had completely gone and I was just ready to go out and explore the giant concrete jungle that is Sao Paulo.

I just loved the hussle and vibe of the whole City and was in my element walking along the wide and busy Avenues. However Lou was not sharing my excitment so after some lunch and a visit to the Mueseum of Art Sao Paulo, we headed up to have drinks on the top floor of the Italino Tower. I dont think I need to say much about this as the pictures are a match for anything I can say about it. One thing I will say is that I was probably the tallest person in the bar and the bar is the highest point in the City, so if I was the tallest person in the highest building that would mean I was higher up than all 18 million inhabitants of Sao Paulo. Just a thought!

Anyway we left Sao Paulo the following day and are currently in Curitiba. Tonight we have a 10 hour journey down to Foz which should be great fun apart from the fact that the coaches are designed for Brazilians. Which lets just say are not the tallest people in the world. Although by all accounts it will be well worth it as the waterfalls are meant to be breath taking.

Sunday the 14th of December

Well it is bye bye Brazil and hello Argentina, as I am currently sat in an internet cafe in Posadas, Argentina. Well why are you still typing in the Brazil page I hear you ask, well I still have some info and pictures from Brazil to tell you about!

Well we left Curitiba as planned, and travelled through the night across to Foz Do Iguacu. We arrived at 8.30am heading straight to the hotel, dumping our bags and then heading straight for the waterfalls. You can view the falls from both Brazil and Argentina, with Brazil offering the panoramic views while Argentina has more trails and close up views. The waterfalls are 275 falls in total and the trail on the Brazilian side allows you to see a great many of them. The best bit however was a ledge, called the Devils Throat, which was in the middle of the main falls. This meant that as the water fell over the falls a great amount of spray was produced, rising about a hundred metres into the sky, and with the devils Throat being in the centre of this, we got soaked.

After seeing the falls it was still early so we decided to venture on the the Itaipu Dam. The Itaipu Dam is the largest hydro-electric power-plant in the world, lying on the Rio Parana, it produces 95% of Paraguays and 25% of Brazils electricity. It is also the largest man made object of the 21st Century. Armed with these facts we figured it was worth a view, well these facts and also the fact the tour was free. (We are not tight, we are on a budget, yeah right like who will believe that Ruairi?) The tour was good but unfortunately the giant Spillways on the Dam were not open, which took the edge off it slightly.

Yesterday we were going to head over to see the Argentinian side of the falls but when we woke up the weather had other ideas. As the rain had no intention of letting up we decided to just forge ahead to Posadas. This was not quite as easy as planned and in total it took 10 hours, 5 buses and a taxi to go the 200 miles from Foz to Posadas.

But we made it and here I am in Posadas. To be honest I have mixed feelings as I loved Brazil and I am really sad to have left but I also know there is so much else to see and that I have to move on. I am glad that I know longer have to try and speak Portuguese as quite frankly I was rubbish. Spanish I am no expert but compared to Portuguese I am fluent. I tired to pick it up but for some reason I just could not pronounce anything apart from "thank you" properly. If I had got mugged all I would have been able to do is thank them repeatedly while handing over my money. I could not even manage to order a beer as was proven in Curitiba when Lou and I walked into a bar one evening to get a drink. We sat at the bar and I said what I thought was 2 beers please. Lou and I sat there waiting for our beers and talking , 5 minutes passed and still no beers. Then the barman came back and plonked down to ice-cream sundays with chocolate sauce, which Lou and I decided to just eat as it seemed easier than trying to explain we wanted a beer. We sat there scoffing ourselves in fits of laughter with the barman looking at us like we had just escaped from a funny farm. Whether it was because we were laughing, or because we ordered ice-cream in a pub, we will never know.

Well that it for the Brazil page. Well bye bye Brazil, it was great and I will see you all on the Argentina page.