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Published: January 9th 2009
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Bem-te-vi Walk
Beneath the Sugar Loaf RIO We were pretty much ready to leave Rio to head south, when a little inconvenience interrupted our trip... Lorena picked up Chicken Pox (Varicela) from who knows where.
On our last couple of planned days in Rio, we spent an afternoon in the beach at Ipanema, and went for a walk with Edu around Urca, but we were pretty lazy in general and Lorena did not seem to be feeling to well. The last day the sun was shining, and we had not yet been to the Sugar Loaf (Pan de Azucar), so eventhough Lorena was not feeling too energetic, I dragged her out in a taxi too the Sugar Loaf early in the afternoon. We got to the bottom of the two cable car rides and it was a beautiful sunny day. But we could not believe it as we started going up on the second cable car from morro de Urca to the Sugar
Loaf... a misty cloud started blowing on to the top of the hill, and as we got there, we could still see across the city on to the Corcovado, but 30 seconds later everything was white! the cloud covered the whole place and we
Common Marmoset
on Bem-te-vi walk in Rio could not see a thing... it was the second time this happened! It was just not our time to enjoy the views of Rio from up above. We even waited well over an hour up there, but the clouds just not moved, and when we came back down it all cleared up again and we could see the huge cloud parked at the top.
Lorena was still not feeling too good, and by this time she spotted an odd looking blister on her waist. We got a taxi back home, and as soon as Ronny saw her he immediatly said it was Chicken Pox, eventhough she only had one blister on her waist and one on her shoulder. She also had a bit of a fever and a slight headache.
We decided to go to the hospital, where we ended up waiting for about three hours before some teenage looking doctors with a palm computer were browsing the net to see what could be wrong with Lorena. They finally sent her for some blood tests, and after about 5 hours we left the hospital without knowing any more about what could be wrong with her. But when we finally went
to bed, we discovered another 10-15 blisters starting to come out, so we were pretty sure it was Chicken Pox. The following morning we were back in the hospital to pick up the test results, and we got some antibiotics and painkillers from them without much explanation or advice at all... but at least it was all free!
So from here it was 10 long days which Lorena pretty much spent in bed, with fever, headaches and unbearable itchiness which we tried to stop with as many things as we were told about or we read on the internet. I was also there the whole time, only going out to get stuff from the shops and I even missed the chance to see Flamengo at the Maracana. Ronny and Leandro were really great, coming over to see us every now and again and cooking food for us. The best thing was that Ronny pretty much left us in his flat for ourselves, so we felt like we were at our own place. Edu and Roger also came to visit Lorena, so we had the best care we could possibly get away from home.
Finally on the 15th of November we
Morro de Urca
Botafogo in the background on the way up to the Sugar Loaf were ready to continue our trip towards the south. On our last day we went around Rio with Ronny, Leandro and Edu, and we had a great meal in a steak house and had some amazing Picanha that was almost still moving with red juices and melted in your mouth.
CURITIBA We arrived in Curitiba early in the morning after a 12 hour night bus journey from Rio, but the seats were just like a 1st Class bed, so we had a good rest. After arriving at the cheap Savoy hotel, we went out for a walk since we could not check-in until midday. We decided to jump on one of those tourist circuit buses, since a lot of the things we wanted to see wer out of town, it was easier to get around on these. So at about 10am we were on the top deck of a tour bus in a chilli morning.
Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens, with a glass house inspired in the London Crystal Palace and some nice surrounding gardens, but nothing incredibly amazing. We then stopped at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, The Eye, another amazingly crazy building as you can see from
Sugar Loaf
on the way up the pictures. There was an exhibition of Niemeyer's work as well as many varied modern art exhibitions which were well worth seeing. After that we stopped at the Opera de Arame, a modern tubular steel building set in beautiful natural surroundings. By this time we were getting pretty hungry, and at about 3pm we stopped at Santa Felicidade, a traditional suburb known for its gastonomical offerings. We found a nice restaurant and had some more juicy Picanha, which you can just not get away from in Brazil. We were also lucky to get served, since it seems like all restaurants close between 4 and 6pm, so make sure you are not hungry at that time.
We finally got back to check-in at the hotel at about 6pm, and in the evening only went to a closeby shopping centre for some food, and back to bed to rest.
The next morning we took it easy and went for a walk around the town centre during the day. Curitiba is a relatively modern city with a small historic centre of cobbled streets. It has some pleasant large pedestrian roads right in the centre, so we actually did some necessary shopping here, and
Morro de Urca
from the cable car I even got my cheap version Flamengo shirt, as well as one for Martin (my nephew). In the aftenoon we were getting a bit tired and had not much to do, so we got to a shopping centre and went to the cinema to watch Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona... it was the best way to kill some time before our bus was due to leave that night at 9:30pm, and we had already checked out from the hotel.
FOZ Do IGUAZU After another overnight journey, we got to Foz (the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls) at about 7:30am and found ourselves a nice hostel in the centre of town with swimming pool and a double room with bathroom. Over here the heat started to get quite intense, and the swimming pool was a great bonus.
That day in the afternoon we went to visit the Itaipu Dam, the largest dam in the world in size and the second largest in capacity. It was very intersting to see such an amazing structure between Brazil and Paraguay on the Parana river and providing 90%!o(MISSING)f the energy required by Paraguay (this is produced by only two of the twenty turbines). The rest provides
Still Climbing
Praia Vermalha and Copacabana 20% of the energy needed by Brazil.
During the rest of the afternoon we cooled down and relaxed by the pool in the hostal.
The next morning we moved to another hostel because they made a mistake with our booking... this one was outside the town, near the Iguazu falls, and much better! After checking-in, we went to visit the amazing Iguazu Falls... and it was just incredible! Seeing that amount of water falling through such an amazing scenery and natural beauty was awesome. We spent about two hours in the park, walking around, getting wet, and either being congratulated or insulted for wearing a Flamengo shirt.
After the falls we went to the next door Parque das Aves, where we saw an incredible number of diferent types and colours of birds. The fact that they were all totally captive was a bit dissappointing, but it was great to see the Toucans up close and not scared at all.
That afternoon was back to the hostel to kill the heat of the day by the pool with a few beers and some nice food in the evening. Next day we were ready to continue our trip into Argentina and some
Nearly there
and the clouds are closing in more Iguazu Falls on the other side.
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