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Published: July 21st 2006
Here we are at Guaruja almost the end of the Rio- Sao Paulo coastal road.
We have been spoilt on this first stage of our trip, all the better to help us get used to things. The weather has been sunny almost everyday, 25 to 30 degrees with a light breeze, ideal for cycling and lazing on the beach. There have been lots of places to stay, either possadas or campsites, we passed through pleasant, small towns where we could find everything we needed, the road had a hard shoulder where we could cycle peacefully and all the towns had networks of cycle lanes (better than the UK). The food has been great and the people very friendly and helpful. If only it could be like that all over South America!
One great thing about cycling is that you end up in towns that, as a tourist travelling by bus, you would not normally bother to visit. In these towns foreigners are less common so people are especially welcoming, curious and interested to find out about where you come from, what you are doing etc. A lot of people have stopped us to say hello and we already have a lot of new names and addresses in our book of people to call 'if we need any help at any time!'
We have stayed in some really nice places. Asking for directions to a campsite, the lady invited us to stay in her home on one occasion. Another time we spent two nights camping in some guys back garden! In the evening, despite the language barrier, we played cards with his kids and listened to his stories about his time spent in the navy travelling the world, then as a bus driver travelling around Brazil, his opinion of the royal family and Zidanes recent headbut incident! Otherwise we've stayed in quite a few possadas and campsite just a stones throw from the beach, perfect for an early morning dip before breakfast!
One of my favourite places to stay was on a private persons land which he had converted to a little site for tents. There was only us and another couple there and it was away from the town so the stars were incredibly bright and clear at night and in the morning the place was full of different varieties of brightly coloured birds. We spent ages feeding these beautiful birds! At the bottom of the property was a river with a little boat to use to cross to the other side where, after a short walk, we arrived on a huge beach where a surfing competition was taking place. So we went from watching the birds to watching the boys, both very pleasant sights!
On the subject of appearances, the young brazilians live up to their reputation and are in general good-looking. As they get older they quickly get a lot more rounded! There is a huge variety of skin colours from black African, through mixed mulatto to blond-haired blue-eyed germanic looks. Here in the south people are generally paler skinned than in the north of Brazil. There are a lot of descendants of Italian and German settlers. Recently we've realised that if we don't say anything people don't realise instantly that we are not Brazilians. This is very relaxing compared to Asia where we stood out from the crowd. The only problem is that people often speak to us as they would their fellow Brazilians and we don't understand a thing!
A little comment on the important subject of food - it's very good! Lots of fruit, fish, beef, sweets and cakes- mmm! and our new staple - pastels. Pastels are great. They are a variety of different savoury snacks, of the sausage roll, pork pie kind - perfect for hungry cyclists. They are sold all over the place in all different forms, pastrys, pies, buns, fried pancakes and filled with beef, chicken, prawns, ham and cheese. In fact we never know what the filling is until we bite into them but we've not been disappointed yet. We have stumbled across a few festivals in the evening in the towns, often linked to the church, where the whole town comes out to listen to live music and to eat on plastic chairs and tables from a variety of stalls held by different associations selling all types of pastels and other goodies. Luckily we've been doing a lot of cycling to work off all we've been eating, otherwise the poor bikes might have given up by now!
We are not going to visit Sao Paulo itself because, although it's probably very interesting. Not being fans of big cities, especially on bikes, we have decided to give it a miss. Next stage is inland to Iguacu Falls. It's a long way and we don't really know what to expect. It will probably be less luxurious than the journey so far - no more beaches for a start, but it's good to move on to other things! We'll try to keep you updated if we find any Internet cafes!
Bye for now and send us your news!
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Monique Princiaux
non-member comment
hello!
Rebecca, I often remember you and i print your news to read it quietly at home.i can see your travel is really very rich and nice and i am very happy for you. i spent the last week to do yoga with my teacher , it was really very nice and useful for my body. this week i'll work for the pay and after i hope we can have some days in our country. the weather is very hot now, and we are suffering in the office.... i hope you to have a good time travelling and send you my good regards. bye! Monique