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Published: April 10th 2008
Capoeira Mural
In the home of the martial art/ danceAfter moving to Australia, a Brazilian friend of mine once said the biggest difference between our two cultures is that Brazilians drink until they’ re happy and then they dance, whereas Australians drink and drink until they fall over. It didn’t take me long after arriving in Brazil to see what she was talking about.
Salvador-Bahia
I flew into a hot and sunny Salvador-Bahia 2 days before the world’s biggest party kicked off. I stayed at a hostel in Pelourinho- the city’s beautiful heritage part of town and waited for my younger brother, Jimmy, to arrive. It was great to have a couple of pre-Carnaval days catching up with Jimmy and checking out the historical area while the buzz around town was steadily building. The hostel rates during Carnaval went up by as much as $100 USD for dorm beds, and they were all booked months before hand. Luckily for us we had a mate, Matt, from Brisbane who had booked an apartment with some other Aussie mates for the week and said we could crash on their floor and couch. We moved in with the boys and got ready for the first night of what we had heard so
Pelourinho District
Just warming up, pre-Carnaval much about- both for its atmosphere and inherent dangers.
Carnaval
The thing that makes Carnaval in Salvador-Bahia so great is unlike Rio where you watch the parade, here you are the parade. There are 3 different circuits in town, each with 3 ways to get involved- watch from the luxury of a “camarote”, follow a particular float around in a “bloco” or take your chances from the sidelines in the “popcorn section”.
The “camarotes” are huge grandstand/ clubs set on either the side of the parade circuit. Your entry fee (from $120USD) gets you prime-position views at the level of the float trucks and all-you-can-drink alcohol and often food from 6pm-5am, as well as safety away from the riff-raff.
Starting at similar prices, “blocos” are the crowd that follows the purpose-built stereo-on-wheels float-trucks that actually make up the parade. A specific band plays on the roof of the truck and below are massive speakers, a bar and toilet. When you pay for a bloco, you get a unique and colourful shirt that identifies you as belonging to that bloco and you follow your truck around as long as you wish. You are protected from the crowd by
Carnaval Night 1
The gang in our camarote shirts before we knew what we were in for dozens of staff walking with a huge rope that encircles the truck and group.
The only free option is to join the “popcorn crowd”- getting its name from how you are constantly pushed tightly together on the narrow outside areas. Here you can watch all the floats come past and just follow behind (or sneak into) various blocos. Being free, it’s also where all of Salvador’s poor people watch the action; hence it’s also where all the pick-pocketing and fighting occurs.
Make no mistake; Carnaval in Salvador is a dangerous event. Any tourist we knew who went out with a wallet or camera had it stolen, and several also got their head kicked in when trying to prevent the theft. We followed all the advice of only taking enough money for drinks out in our underwear and wore board-shorts, so there weren’t any pockets for hands to wander into (it still didn’t stop them from trying). A lot of it comes down to luck though, as we found out when at least a dozen tourists we spoke to had up to $4,000 taken out of their accounts in a card-reading scam at one of the ATM’s.
Let
Barra Beach
Relaxing on the beach before heading back out the Party Begin
We kicked off our Carnaval week with the ‘Do Nana Camarote’ (a popular band) on night 1. The camarote set-up was amazing, with 3 levels of viewing platforms, bars and restaurants serving free food and drinks all night. Out the back was a separate concert area that overlooked the beach, which you could also walk down onto. It would have made an awesome club in its own right, and it was strange to think it, and hundreds like it, were all only there for a week. The drink servers obviously realised we were Aussies and thought that we were there to drink until we fell over, because they kept bringing their trays straight to us to lighten their load. As soon as the first bloco came around the corner, we suddenly knew what all the fuss was about. The sight of seeing a truck-stereo slowly moving toward us, with hundreds of matching-shirt people dancing around it to the blaring music, was impressive to say the least. One by one the floats slowly passed in front of us all night, pausing to play a song or two, before crawling along. True to form, the crowd in the camarote
Bloco Float
One of the purpose-built party trucks cruises past, while the police watch on mostly ignored the bar and concentrated on dancing like crazy, violently shaking the whole stand. Just before the end of the night, the skies opened up with a torrential downpour. We stumbled back home, absolutely soaked and exhausted.
Everyone spends the day time at the beach, eating amazing fresh fruit and grilled cheese on sticks before getting ready for the evening ahead. We went the popcorn option for 2 nights- which was less controlled, and even more fun. We did see plenty of thefts and fights, which were eventually broken up by the police and their technique of “ask no questions, just club everyone involved”. Anywhere you were on the sidelines, a beer vendor was within reach. In the side streets cocktail carts and street meat vendors producing a bitter-sweet smell with the combination of fruit and cooking meat mixed with the stench of human filth.
While running across some grass, I managed to trip over a cable holding a billboard up and land flat on my face. Just imagine when you walk around a tent and you trip over the guide-rope. Now swap walking for running and swap the rope for a thick cable. I was able
Street Meat
Hanging out with ´Super-Ted´ on our street corner to laugh it off and the guy at the local cocktail stand generously gave me 2 free shots of vodka- 1 for my bleeding leg and 1 for my mouth (the wound ended up getting infected and I had to see a Doctor in Rio).
The word on Salvador-Bahia must be out at home; because there seemed to be more Aussies in town than any other tourist group, especially when the big western DJ’s were playing. Even the guy with a meat stand on our corner was Argentinian born, but had lived in Melbourne for 30 years. “Super Ted” was a quality guy who cooked us up tasty steak sandwiches and kebabs, as well as organised anything else we needed, like bus tickets.
The best thing we did was to get Ted to organise some bloco shirts for Jimmy, Wellsy and I for a well known local act, (Ara Ketu) in the Central Avenida Circuit. Up there we were the only tourists in sight and stood out like sore thumbs amongst the dark-skinned locals. The feel was much more authentic and tribal that the touristy Barra Beach Circuit, as well as far more dangerous on the sidelines. The
Tranquil Trancoso
The perfect remedy for our sore heads bloco itself was amazing and we’ve never danced so much in our lives. For 6 hours we partied with and like the Brazilians- drinking a little and dancing non-stop, while the locals asked to be in photos with us crazy white tourists.
The following night we resisted from drinking for a bit (for security reasons), while we went down in the late afternoon to watch the sunset and take some photos of the early action. On the final night, we joined with seemingly all the tourists in town in ‘Fatboy Slim’s’ bloco. It was one more massive night that blended up with the others afterwards and left us all with week-long hangovers.
It’s hard to put into words how electric the atmosphere is at Carnaval time, but perhaps the best way to describe it is imagine the biggest New Year’s Eve of your life, then put 6 of them back to back and you might be getting close.
Trancoso
Following such a massive week of partying, we were in need of a few days of relaxing. We sure found it down 12 hours down the coast at a small town called Trancoso. The small Byron Bay
Trancoso Bar
Of course its never that quiet in Brazil, there´s always a caipirinha bar within sight type town was set on the top of a hill overlooking a stunning coconut-palm lined beach. Matt’s friends Wellsy and Davo (can you tell they’re Aussies by the nick-names?) joined Jimmy and I to escape the “gringo trail” and kick back in the tropical paradise. We just swam, ate and relaxed on the beach, under palm trees during the day, while at night, we found that there is no such thing as zero nightlife in Brazil.
After surviving all the street meat and cheese on sticks in Salvador, Jimmy and I managed to get a bad case of the “Brazo-Belly” from the “por kilo” buffet (buffet by weight restaurants that are everywhere here) we ate the day before. After taking shifts on the toilet all night, that afternoon we had to get a bus, ferry and taxi to connect with a 20 hour bus to Rio de Janeiro- all with no air conditioning in 35c, humid weather!
Rio de Janeiro
Needless to say we didn’t arrive in Rio in the best of shape, but we had no time to rest. We arrived at the hostel in Ipanema just as everyone was getting into mini-vans and heading out
Maracana Stadium
The spectacular stadium before the game, and thunderstorm to the big local rival football match between Flamingos and Fluminense at Maracana Stadium. We joined the group and were put into the safe “gringo” section of the ground, with an amazing view of the surrounding mountains and the imposing Cristo de Redenter statue. Although scoreless, the first half was entertaining and the crowd was still pumped. At half time, however, everything changed. A massive thunder storm rolled in, flooding the field and cutting the stadium’s lights. Rather than quiet them down, the rain inspired the crowd to sing, run around and light flares like they were possessed. The whole game dynamics also changed and goals started coming regularly- especially for Fluminense. The final score was a 4-1 upset to “Flu” over “Flam” and we were told to wait around for the likely outside violence to calm down.
I used to think that no city could match Sydney for its naturally beautiful setting, but Rio is at least as stunning, if not more. The way the sheer-rock cliffs rise up at the end of the beaches and behind the city mean there are so many prime viewing spots. We stayed for a week at trendy Ipanema Beach, which is
Sugar-Loaf Mountain
Jimmy and I at just one of the amazing vantage points above Rio much nicer and cleaner than the more famous Copacabana. Three views that come to mind were when we went up Sugarloaf Mountain, fought our way through the crowds at the Cristo de Redenter statue and hang-glided from Mt Bonita. We also visited the Santa Teresa and downtown Lapa districts, and had a scary experience on the way back in the taxi. We were pulled over by police holding machine guns to our faces. They told us to get up against the wall as they padded us down and searched the car. Our driver had a calm look on his face, indicating this was not unusual to happen, and after not finding anything they said we could go!
The rest of the days we hung out on the beaches and saw stunning sunsets on the mountains behind Ipanema Beach, while at night we drank at the local street corner bars and went to one amazing samba club in Lapa. We also took advantage of the over-the-counter valium you can buy in Brazil in preparation for more long-haul bus trips ahead.
On our last day, we did a guided tour of the favellas. We wanted to do it the day
Cristo Redenter Statue
Beating the crowds off for a photo with the big man before, but all tours were cancelled because a special forces' cop had been shot dead there. It was really interesting to go inside and see how orderly and relatively clean the conditions were. Under an international humanitarian agreement, all large favellas in Brazil must have access to the basic utilities- water, electricity, rubbish collection and telephones. The drug lords who control the favellas don’t want the hassles of other crimes taking place (other than their drug pushing), so they keep strict control over it. We walked through 2 favellas and visited the school the tour company helps fund. That afternoon Wellsy, Jimmy and I took a bus to Sao Paolo.
Sao Paolo
Sao Paulo is one of the world’s most populated and expensive cities, with as many as 18 million people (depending on how it’s measured). Without someone to show you around, it’s a daunting city to visit and most tourists don’t even bother. Thankfully Jimmy knew a local from London, Dani, who volunteered to be our guide. She met us at the bus station and took us to a motel she had booked for us. She then took us out to meet her friends at a bar,
¨At the Copa, Copacabana¨
The beach´s famous high-rises backed by its infamous favellas followed by a happening nightclub. The next day we did a walking tour around the city which included going up the tallest building in the city at a surprisingly low of 41 storeys high. The view in all directions from up there was a sprawl of medium-level buildings as far as you could see. With the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, we had to get some sushi for lunch from Japan Town. That night we again went out for drinks and to an expensive club ($50USD cover).
We spent the following day kicking back in Sao Paulo’s premier park- Parque do Ibirapuera. We went to a few hip neighbourhoods that you wouldn’t find without a local and ate dinner with her friends again. Afterwards we took the speedy metro to the bus station to catch an overnight bus, and after a valium we were asleep in no time.
Florianopolis
We arrived in “Floripa” the following morning, and took a cab to the fishing village of Barra de Lagoa on the other side of the island of Santa Catarina. We were heading to meet up with Davo and to spend some time on the island, making the
Ipanema Sunset
We never got tired of seeing this sight most of our last beach opportunity for sometime. With no real sights to see, Floripa is all about relaxing and enjoying the beach. A mix between Byron Bay and Seal Rocks in Australia, the island has great beaches, warm water and some happening nightlife in town. There haven’t been many places I’ve been to where I could say I could easily live, but Floripa is one.
With the reputation around the country of having the best looking girls, it was no wonder half the male tourists were there searching for wives, particularly at the beaches. Girls also out-number guys by so much that its not uncommon to see girls in cocktail dresses on a night out with their boyfriend wearing shorts and thongs (flip-flops).
I was determined to get some surfing in after lugging my surfboard, Sheila, with me through Brazil. Luckily there were a few waves around to surf in the mornings, and swim and eat in the afternoons. One afternoon, Jimmy and I paddled the hostel’s kayaks up the river with the incoming tide. We found a water-front bar to park at and drink some beers in the sun, while waiting for the tide to change.
Take Off
One of the guys launches of Pedra Bonita, high above Rio After a couple of hours and the tide running out, we cruised back home and had a tasty ‘por kilo’ buffet dinner.
We met a group of Aussies (I know, more of them!) who started throwing caipirinha parties at their apartment next door. When Davo and Wellsy left for Argentina, Jimmy and I moved into our own apartment opposite Justin, Luke, Adam and Dylan and the partying increased. Soon we had people (the two Scotty’s and Mark in particular) coming from the hostel bar to party at our place.
As with anywhere though, hanging out with the locals always makes your trip more authentic. In the surf one day, I met Roberta, a good bodyboarder from down the coast at Porto Alegre, who was at the beach with her sister. We hung out with the nice girls a few times over the week at the beach and one night out in town. A Brazilian friend I met in San Diego, Vince, came down with his brother and mates to visit us for the weekend. We went surfing and sandboarding at nearby Joaquina Beach, and caught up over some drinks at night. Vince and his wife are getting ready
"Borrowed Power"
Electricity wires in the favellas to move to Australia in a few months, even though he’s never been there. I’m helping him out with some contacts, while he helped me out by buying Sheila from me. Although it was a shame to have to sell my trusty board, it will make travelling around South America much easier now.
It was sad to leave Floripa after such an enjoyable week, but we had to keep moving and Jimmy, Dylan and I jumped on an overnight bus to Foz do Iguacu, better known as Iguazu Falls.
Iguazu Falls
The 275 waterfalls that make up ‘Iguazu’ are situated on the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The falls are located in a national park, with an abundance of wildlife around. Unlike Niagara Falls, there are no casinos, expensive parking or huge hotels right next to it. The other thing that makes Iguazu more impressive than Niagara is the variety of the falls and the ability to access so many sections of it. We spent the first morning checking out the Brazilian side, which includes the most photographic viewpoint in front of “The Devil’s Throat”. We then crossed over to stay in Argentina, after some more
Sao Paulo Skyline
The massive expanse of medium-level buildings hassles with ‘Hostelling International’ and their rules.
We spent the next day out at the Argentinian side of the falls exploring the edge of the side falls and over on the island in the middle. While there, we crossed a barrier and climbed up into a huge archway that was a hang-out for the local condor population and had great views of the falls. The final view we saw was from the lookout situated right above “The Devil’s Throat”. Seeing and hearing the amount of water exploding over the edge was a humbling experience. The mist created from the impact would be considered enough rain to call off a game of cricket. That night we finally got to confirm the rumour that Argentina has the most comfortable buses in South America. Reclining way back in our leather seats, consuming our hot meals and sparkling wine meant we didn’t care we had another 19 hours to get to Buenos Aires. That and the valium for dessert meant the trip flew by!
Highlight
What better way to see one of the most visually stunning cities on earth than to hang-glide above it? Our group of 8 were picked up
in an open-top troop-carrier 4WD early morning and driven down to Rio’s southern beach of Pepino. There we met our “pilots” and went up in a convoy through the lush rainforest of Tijuca National Park up to Mt Bonita. With a toucan watching from a nearby tree, one by one we had a quick practice run, before running off the edge of a perfectly good ramp. The view was incredible. To our left was the expansive Rocinha favella and most of the beachside city, backed by its daunting mountain range. To our right more beautiful beaches stretched to the south and out to sea laid a collection of scattered islands. While the ride itself was more smooth than terrifying, circling behind breaking waves on the sandbank and the final, fast landing on the beach was a thrill.
After chilling at Ipanema Beach for the day and watching another amazing sunset, Jimmy and I splurged on a classy ‘churrasco’ restaurant. The Brazilian style BBQ involves servers constantly bringing out various BBQ meats on skewers so long as your indicator card is showing green. If you’ve had enough, you simply turn your card over to show red and they stop filling
Florianopolis View
Looking across the bay from our hostel your plate. With such delicious cuts of meat coming out at regular intervals, we resisted for as long as possible, but after close to an hour we had to fold. It was definitely the most meat we’ve eaten in one sitting and some of the tastiest as well.
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Vince
non-member comment
Joaquina´s Dream
Hey Tom!! I was anxiously waiting for this update.. cool pics and stories to tell!! Don´t worry about Scheila, she is doing very well.. every weekend we go to the beach and ride some waves together..She is a really nice girl, only problem is that Giulia is getting jealous!!! Take it easy Bro and keep in contact.... Cheers, Vince