We leave Caraiva with heavy hearts...it's easily our favorite place in Brazil so far and we'd love to stay. But all good things must come to an end and we know the vibe is about to change there anyway. It's no hardship going back to Arrial though. It's much busier than when we left but is still holding onto it's relaxed beachtown charm. The main beach here, Praia Mucuge is the busy party beach, lined with barracas playing loud forro or reggae, but walk a mile south and you get to the beautiful Praia Pitinga. Sometimes we hang out at Mucuge, [View Full Entry]

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Our 2 year old guidebook describes Caraiva as "without electricity, cars, banks and phonelines...remote and beautiful". Since publication electricity has arrived but thankfully nothing else has changed. The bus from Trancoso leaves paved road quickly and then bounces down mud tracks that would be totally impassable after rain. Driving past fields of buffalo and plantations for 2 hours before being dropped off at the river to complete the journey in a canoe. Like Barra Grande, it feels like an island with the river on one side and the ocean on the other. The riverside has a few restaurants a [View Full Entry]

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Feeling energised from our rest in Barra Grande, we head off down the cost in search of the perfect place to spend Christmas and New Years Eve. First stop is Porto Seguro, a town renowned as a party mecca and the birthplace of the lambada. Sounds hot! It's not. The party scene is more Benidorm than Ibiza and we know within hours that this is not the place. Still it's fun and the weather is sweet, so it's no hardship spending some time exploring the (not Top 10 but still nice) beaches. Ritch continues with his inability to say no to [View Full Entry]

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Described in the guidebook as "deliciously off the beaten path", we're happy to discover Barra Grande, taking some effort to get to is both beautiful and peaceful. The journey goes like this: 1hr ferry from Salvador across the Baia de Todos Santos (aptly nicknamed the Bay of All Saints and All Sins), a 4hr bus stopping at evermore remote fishing villages until you arrive at the tiny port of Camamu, before taking a fishing trawler across the mangrove lined bay onto the Peninsula de Marau. You get the feeling of being on an island, with the bay on one side and [View Full Entry]

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It takes 32 hours to bus it from Rio to Salvador...that sounds like a horrible journey I know, but the comfortable air-con buses mean it´s not too bad, plus we´re used to the huge distances by now. We decided to go so far north in one go for a couple of reasons...Rio state was forecast yet more bad weather, so we´re hunting sunshine, but also we realise that it´ll be Christmas in 3.5 weeks and we need to get to where we want to spend the holidays before all the hotels fill up. We think we want to be around Trancoso, [View Full Entry]

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We hadn´t planned on going to Rio just yet...our flight out of Brazil leaves Rio on 8th January and we were going to save it til last. But the promise of dancing in the streets with our friends made the decision easy, so now we have a weekend in Rio to enjoy. We stay in Santa Teresa, a neighbourhood to the north of the famous beaches but next door to Lapa, the heart of Rio´s street party scene. Every weekend the streets around the landmark Arcos do Lapa aqueduct fill with bands of samba drummers and dancing crowds...it´s like a mini [View Full Entry]

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I´m really excited as we sit on the ferry at the port Angra dos Reis, waiting to meet our friends. Jason and Nathalie are over for a 2 week holiday, Sharif and Emelie are right at the start of their year´s adventure. It´s surreal to watch them walk across the port towards the boat...after almost 3 months away it´s strange and wonderful to see their familiar faces. We´re headed for Ilha Grande, an island just south of Rio. It´s got a strange history as a 16th Century pirates´ lair, then a leper colony and most recently, til the 90´s, a prison [View Full Entry]

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It takes 30 hours to get from Iguazu to the Brazilian coast. A couple of buses, switching in Sao Paulo; we don´t hang around...the city just looks to big and the ocean is calling us. We have 5 days before we meet up with Sharif, Emelie, Jason and Nathalie and we plan to spend them near Paraty on the Costa Verde. Our bus from Sao Paulo drives us through thunderstorms as we head for the coast. Monsoon like rains fall then clear to sunshine like someone´s flicking a switch. No wonder it´s called the Costa Verde...it is so green and lush [View Full Entry]

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The Parque Nacional Iguazu is just fantastic. As well as the falls (over 250 of them) there´s 1550 sq km of rain forest. They´ve created 3 trails all around the most magnificent of the falls with the minimum impact on the environment...it´s impressive. We start with Passeios Superiores, which takes you on catwalks above the falls so you can look down over the incredible views and get a taster of what´s in store. Then it´s on to the Passeios Inferiores, which despite it´s name is even more impressive. It runs along the bottom of the falls and you can get really [View Full Entry]

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There can be only one entry in honor of the excellence of Argentinian steak. It really is ridiculously good, from the finest tenderloin to the cheap lomitos (steak sandwiches) sold on every corner. Served so well cooked and in such huge portions that there´s no need for anything more than salad and chimmichurri (garlic and herb oil) on the side. This doesn´t mean that there´s nothing else worth eating here. We´ve had loads of excellent food in Argentina, from the spicy chorizo sausages in the best sandwiches ever, the choripan, to the only authentic Italian food we´ve tasted in months. But [View Full Entry]

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