Blogs from Brazil, South America - page 552

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South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro September 12th 2006

Hello guys. Well we have arrived in Rio and spent 4 days seeing the sights and sounds Rio has to offer!! The flight from London was good considering we nearly missed the plane despite being in the airport 5 hours before the Rio flight!! Anyway Philip was lucky as he got 8 hours sleep compared to Chiara who was awake, looking at the path of the flight over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, wondering where we would land if there was engine trouble. Thankfully everything was fine and we arrived at Rio to be accosted by taxi drivers looking business! Our hostel is great - just in the middle of Copacabana close to the beach and in a safe area. On the first day we went on a hostel tour of the city including the ... read more
Christo Redentor ....massive!
Central
mmmm.....so nice! buonissimo!

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais September 12th 2006

I left BH after a wild night out, culminating in me wandering through the worst neighborhood of downtown Belo at midnight - at one point a man wandered past me, clutching at a towel wrapped around his arm, soaked in blood from a recently inflicted wound. On the bright side, this has imbued me with a heightened confidence that some may call naiveity. Thursday was Brazilian Independence day, so for the holidays, some of my friends had planned to visit a fazenda belonging to a friends family. Only 100km North of Belo, the countryside took a drastic change. The lush rolling hills of Southern Minas and the thick jungle-like Mata Atlantica all but dissapeared. In it's place, the a yellow-green sea of dry grass, full of tall lumps of termite mounds and scattered with the short ... read more

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Salvador September 10th 2006

Salvador first freaked me out but turned out to be fantastic. Once you get used to being the object of the occasional hissing and being accosted by people selling everything under the sun, then its really nice. There is a prominent African influence here which is evident in the features of the people and the handicrafts ie. wood carvings, musical instruments and artwork. The pelourinho (old town), is packed full of historic and cultural buildings and churches. Its also very touristy with loads of souvenir shops, art galleries, cafes and restaurants. There are ladies dressed in traditional bahia costume wanting payment to take a pictures of them. Also pretty cool and the little "coco" vans where the little man sells you a coconut with which you drink through a small hole with a straw. Then you ... read more
Salvador 2
Salvador 3
Morro de Sao Paulo 1

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Arraial d'Ajuda September 10th 2006

after a 21 hour bus journey, we arrived at porto sergui. We then got a 2 min ferry to Arrial D Ajuba and found a hostel - Soduco Maloca which is really nice and clean (although we were bitten by the little critters around so take lots of repellent)! This place is a mini paradise. The shops are lovely and you feel safe - unlike Rio! The beach is basically one long stretch and if you walk down the other end this is where most people are. As we were getting ready to leave the beach one day a boat anchored in front of us and one girl was taken of the boat, followed by another and then another and then 4 more etc etc until the whole boat was empty and they were all infront ... read more

South America » Brazil » Distrito Federal » Brasília September 9th 2006

"I´ve gotta go back, Marty!" "Back where, Doc?!" "Back . . . to the future!" Brasília, that is. I left behind the old, bustling, savage world of the Amazon for the complete opposite in little less than a four hour plane ride. For those of you who don´t know (which I´m guessing is pretty much everyone), I´ll give you a little history lesson, free of charge. Brasília is an enormous planned city, probably the most unique in the world. And it has a very interesting history, besides its odd buildings. Way back in the mid-to-late 19th century an Italian bishop named Dom Bosco had a dream in which he saw a great new civilization rising up between the 15th and 20th parallels. The dream became widely known in Brazil, and soon there was talk of moving ... read more
Interior of the Catedral
Palácio do Congresso
Palácio Presdencial

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Itacaré September 8th 2006

Vi har naa kommet til Itacaré, som er et av Brasils strandparadis. Vi kom hit natt til i gaar, etter en dag med reising, forsinkede og overfylte busser, poesregn, overpriset taxi m.m. I gaar regnet det, men i dag har det vaert fint vaer og da er Itacaré bare strand og idyll. I gaar var det nasjonaldag i Brasil, og det feirer brasilianerne paa same maate som de feirer alt mulig annet (karneval, kristne helgener, afro-brasilianske gudeskikkelser m.m.); de spiller musikk og drikker oel og caipirinha. Dessuten er det stort surfe-stevne i byen naa, saa det er mye folk her og god stemning. Men naa som vi har kommet hit og det er gaatt over halvparten av turen vaa, er det paa tide med et lite tilbakeblikk, og vi skal kort gaa igjennom noen kuriositeter og ... read more

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Ilha Grande September 7th 2006

Ilha Grande (pronounced eee-la graaanjee), literally the ´big island´is indeed a big island, off the coast of brazil about halfway between Rio and Sao Paulo. The island is covered in Atlantic Rainforest, mountains, and few howler monkeys (which can scare the hell out of you when youre hiking alone through the jungle and youve never heard a howler monkey before). The entire island is accesible by trial (and only trail), leading to freezing cold natural springs and secluded beaches, one of which still has the remains of a prison..the island has been at times a leper colony and a prison island (its where they sent the, ahem, political prisoners). Man, if that´s how they treat the criminals and the lepers you know life is good in Brazil. The hostel was about the best thing I´ve ever ... read more
this is town...
¨the most beautiful beach in brazil¨
colonial era church..on the beach!

South America » Brazil » Pantanal September 7th 2006

Campo Grande & Pantanal - Took an (expensive!) flight from Montevideo to Campo Grande, which is quite a large town and supposedly the gateway to the pantanal. The Greentrack rep for pantenal tours met me at the airport and took me to his office located in the seedy bus terminal in Campo Grande. In his own words, "I'm sure there is a little trap door in this terminal which leads straight to hell". After giving me a pretty scetchy description of the tour intinerary and so-on, he recommended a hotel across the road and also took me to dinner and also to a nice bar with live music. A few hours later I was looking forward to relaxing in the hotel room to watch some cable TV when the skies absolutely opened and in a couple ... read more
Pantenal 2
Pantenal 3
Pantenal 4

South America » Brazil September 6th 2006

The Death Train?! More like the comfort Train! I think the Death part refers to the onboard ebtertainment: two films starring the Rock (sorry Sam!) and 80s pop videos. In actual fact it's because they used to let Bolivians unable to get a seat sit on the roof. You can guess the rest! As soon as I got to the border of Brazil there was a definite change: people wore smiles and Brazil t-shirts, and there were huge supermarkets and all things Western- very much unlike the impoverishment of Bolivia. I headed straight for my tour of the Pantanal, Brazil's giant marshland which covers half the area of France. There we slept in hammocks, went on sunrise/set walks, safaris in the woods, kayaking, horse-back (or should I say mule-back) riding, and saw various monkeys, capybaras (the ... read more
Wading Through The Swamps in Search of Wild Beasts
Mooooo
Cayman




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