Blogs from Pará, Brazil, South America - page 7

In Belém, I've booked a hotel straight out the Lonely Planet guidebook. It's justly full of tourists from every corner of the world that all speak English. The hotel staff is like the Adam's family, but if they were really indescrivable monsters and not family friendly comedians with a laugh track: the old woman, a stout ball of anger the shape of a stool; her grey haired giant son lurks clad only in a purple towel, amphibiatically darting in and out of the shower. As one of the few bilingual, I get the chance to be a bridge between the worlds. But rather then the warming love of the olive branch, I just feel dirty. It is through a businessman I hear of a city called Porto do Moz - and as I do not ... read more

Once again i have defied the odds and managed to navagate from my last blog destination in Forteleza to Belem... running low on funds as everything was shut during carnival i jumped on a bus to belem a 24hour bus ride from fortaleza hoping when i got there the banks would still be open. Yes the race against time was on once again... firstly the likelyhood of a brazilian bus being on time was extremely unlikely and it was set to arrive at 1pm (banks in brazil genrally close around 3pm). secondly... banks are also closed on saturday and sunday today was friday. so the bus pulled in to the rodoviario at 1:15pm amazing there just might be a possibility of getting to the bank whilst it was still open. i finally figured out my map ... read more

sodeli, nochere sehr abentuerliche fahrt vo são luis uf belem simmer etz endlich do. mir hend ues gluecklicherwiis fuer dtagesfahrt entschiede, well schlofe hettmer do eh noed choene. e stross wo zwueschedure loecher het wommer e halbs auto choend dristelle. eifach zkrass und i mein belem isch noed gad wuerkli en unwichtige ort, isches doch smuul vom amazonas und i nimm mol ah en wichtige hafe fuer alli gueter usem amazonas fuer di ganz welt. however. de zue chunt no , dass mir abeme gwuesse ort sogar no polizeischutz becho hend. isch scho krass. han mol i de zitig glaese, dasses uf dere strecki am meischte busueberfaell in brasilie git. aber isch au klar, bi dere fahrbahn, wommer nur chan schritttempo fahre. logischerwies hemmer denn auno en usgraubte und leerstehende bus gseh. miteme schuss uf dfrontschiebe, ... read more

So we left Rio and headed inland briefly to Ouro Preto, an old mining town set in the hills. Its a pretty place, surrounded by lots of greenery, with cobbled streets and lots of coloured colonial style buildings. We found some very friendly locals who went out of their way to meet our weird gringo requests... at the local restaurant myself and a couple of others asked for wine, but they didnt have any... however the owner nipped out to a local shop and bought some especially for us! It did take a while to actually get a glass, since it was white wine and wasnt chilled so they put it in a bucket of ice for a while... then they had to work out how to open it, which was obviously something they dont do ... read more

I spent this WE on Ilha de Marajo, where the buffalos are wild and stroll around the streets. It is a very primitive island with few cars but many bikes. On the somewhat scary trip to the island (there were big waves, not a very stable boat, people were screaming, bags were flying everywhere and I think that the life wests were hanging there more for decoration than for other purposes :o) I met a bunch of crazy Frenchies that I ended up sharing room with. I had my first warm shower (or should I say boiling since it was either icecold or boiling, hihi) since I came to Brazil. Very nice. We had some nice buffalo meet and then explored the only disco in town. After having tried three times, the bouncer lady finally decided ... read more