Saturday 25 February 2012

Brazil - From Rio to Iguassu

Days 1-5          Country no 1 - Brazil

Ariived in Rio early in the morning - the journey into town passed shanty towns, commercial docks and really posh places. I noticed vultures wheeling around and sitting on lamp-posts as we would expect to see sea-gulls.  I only had that day in Rio and so charges around the main sites: -
Christ the Redeemer - it is truly stunning - the scale is phenomenal - they definitely should not put one on Primrose Hill! It would never be as good and if on the same scale would dwarf the hill!







From there I walked along Ipanema and Copacobana beaches.  The bays are clearly stunning but being the last day of Caranaval and with Rio having 2million visitors during Carnaval, the beaches were packed with bodies -people recovering from seriously hard partying and others continuing with the hard partying!
View from Sugar Loaf Mountain
Finally I went up Sugar Loaf Mountain on the cable car - the views from there are stunning and really shows off Rio at its best.
In the evening I went out to one of the street parties near my hotel - so many people having fun and a lot of alcohol, but all very amicable and jolly - it was amazing but would have been more fun if I had been with other people ....

The next day, having met my group for the week we set off to the bus station and onto a local bus to Paraty.  The buses are amazingly comfortable and bode well for the next few weeks .....
There are currently 18 in the group, but a few leave after the fast week.  It is nearly all girls with 3 blokes in the group and our tour leader.  Most of the group are australian and between 18 and 26 but there are a few others to add to the diversity!
One of the bays where we swam

Beach at Paraty
Paraty in flood

Paraty is a really beautiful Potuguese Colonial Town - very cobbly streets that flood once a month at high tide. The buildings are painted in multiple colours - very pleasant.  Today we went on a boat tour around the coast and to a few of the islands off the coast - really beautiful and very relaxing. We saw dolphins around the boat which was great.

We have now moved Sao Paolo, the biggest city in the world / southern hemisphere - depending on who you listen to. Apparently 20 million people live here.  It is huge and amazingly busy.  Today I went with a couple of the others to the main art museum - what a fantastic collection they have - though mainly European art - Monet, Picasso, Rodin etc etc.  We then went up the tallest building in Sao Paolo - the views were great - sky scrapers as far as the eye can see.  Apparently Sao Paolo has the largest fleet of helicopters in the world as that is how business men get around - it takes so long by any other means!!  Finally I went to the Municipal Market. I love the way that all the food is displayed so magnificently - fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat, fish, olive oil, cakes - everything.

Now back at the hotel and trying to sort the technology .......

1 comment:

  1. You must have sorted out the technology beautifully - thanks for the update and great photos.

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