brazil so far .....

---

Hello everyone!!!

I have found out that this is the easiest way to communicate and show pictures online....it is my own personal travel blog which only people i invite have access to. We flew in on monday evening and went straight to our hostel which turned out to be in a really good position, was very clean and the staff were extremely friendly. rio de janeiro is probably the most beautiful city that i have ever been... so far! it is a picturesque skyline of buildings against amazing mountains of rainforests. i will try and figure out how to put photos on here soon. We spent a couple of days on the famous cococabana and i panema beaches relazing and swimming and admiring the local choice of swimwear....well the womens at least...i dont really know where to look when literally every man walks past me wearing the tightest fluorescent speedos! we also went up sugar loaf mountain, and up to the christ the redeemer statue, which both provide amazing views of the city. unfortunately when we went up to the christ the redeemer statue there was a tropical storm so that was not so spectacular. we went to a brazilian football match which was crazy with drummers and dancing and chanting the whole time!! definately put cheltenham town fans to shame! we sampled the legendary nightlife of the region of lapas too which is a huge street party, with samba drums, every kind of music being played and a crazy atmosphere!

We then left Rio and headed south to an island called isla grande. it is the second largest island off brazil and is the definition of paradise. there are only 5000 inhabitants and 7 cars and the island is just a tropical beaches and stunning beaches. the weather was a bit overcast but that didnt take away from the beauty of the place and we hiked about 12 miles all together on it. we also met some cool people there and somehow ended up in the only 'discoteque' on the island learning how to do the traditional island dance! it involved a lot of counting of steps and hip shaking....i like to think i held my own!!! the island was extremely primative and had no internet or real infrastructure... but it all just added to its beauty.

We left isla grande yesterday and got the overnight bus to sao paulo where i am currently. the overnight bus was an experience as we ended up in sao paulo bus satation at 3 o clock in the morning with no where to go. fortunately everybody seemed to be in the same boat and just waited until the morning in the waiting area....like an airports... until we got the underground to our hostel.

brazil so far has surpassed all of my expectations. the people are extremely friendly and welcoming. every place has its very poor places....the favelas...but they are outside the cities and are crazy to look at from a distance. both gibbo and i are surprised how well my spanish is getting us along here. the language is brazilian portugese but most brazilian understand basic spanish and with a mixture of broken spanish and animated pointing so we are getting along well on the language front.

we are off to florianopolis tomorrow for a week of relaxing on the beach and hopfefully learning how to surf before we are off to igassu falls which everyone raves about.

i hope this works and will try to add some photos soon.

all my love


james

xxxxxxxx

---

Comments

[Auntie Ju]

Wow!
Sounds like you're having a great time, James! Thanks for keeping us posted! X