http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Brazil en-us Sun, 08 Nov 09 22:22:25 +0000 Sun, 08 Nov 09 22:22:25 +0000 So on Friday I went to this open market they have here called Feira de Sao Jaoquim. It's big with a section for fruits weavings meat Candomble stuff and random stuff. It stinks there. People men like to pee on the outsides of the portapotties.. Gross. They have this fair every day in the morning until afternoon. It's in the lower city. It has a pretty bad stigma since it's supposed to b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-451511.html Im still alive. Im in Rio. Having a great time. This city is incredible. I will make it short today and update with pics and more details soon. The bus car and motorcycle drivers are freggin nuts. I really cant describe it. If you drove like this in the states you would go to jail. But somehow it works and no one crashes. People know how to drive here. I love it. My Portugese still is p http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Santa-Teresa/blog-451468.html So.. .only kidding We caught the boat back to the mainland yesterday then travelled a couple of hours on a packed local bus down the coast past a nuclear power station and on to Paraty an old colonial town with brightly coloured windows and doors and roughly cobbled streets that flood at high tide. I say flood but I guess thats more at the Spring tides it did come in a bit yesterday http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Paraty/blog-450947.html This town is located in the So Paulo's State.It is a nice town with good and cheap restaurants and beautiful places. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/blog-450827.html Boninal is somewhere 8 hours away by car through the semiarid zone in Bahia. It's a small town with 15000 residents. The town is mostly black Bahian aspect. Most of the blacks work the manual jobs.. everyone gets along though. Actually one of the grandparents of my host mom is a lightskinned black. Boninal is my host mother's hometown. She grew up there and came to Salvador to further her st http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Chapada-Diamantina-National-Park/blog-450497.html So there's a crew of sixteen of us on the tour i'm one of 2 brits there are 2 from ireland 2 from canada and lots of aussies and everyone seems really nice. We're spending a couple of nights on ilha grande a small tropical island with really course sand except on lopes mendez where it was so fine it squeaked Spent the afternoon there and it was very hard to leave. Had tried my hand at b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Ilha-Grande/blog-450451.html Today in Brazil is the day of the dead. I guess the Brazillians celebrate the dead. Similar to Halloween. Last night was very big party in the city of Saquarema. I rode my bicycle down to the city and connected with an american that i met at a party two nights ago. Charlie is from Chicago. Very cool guy who knows many brazillians. We had a great time last night and i understand why now they http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Saquarema/blog-450198.html So I spent the whole of last night travelling and Im just a bit knackered will be heading off for a siesta shortly but Im back in Rio for one night to join the Intrepid tour we head to Ilha Grande tomorrow home of apparently the worlds 3rd best beach Ill have to let you know. Anyway a little of what Ive been up to in Bonito... Day 1 was the tombstoning we did a walking tour along http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Copacabana/blog-449673.html Ok so i've spent a couple of days in the world's largest wetland except the guide tells us he has never seen it so dry. I flew rio to sao paulo sorry i'm on the phone again and on to campo grande the d is a 'juh' sound about 500 miles inland. From there it was basic hotel with a fan and a dodgy computer then a 6 hour coach ride towards bolivia. Then another hour up a dirt road to the fa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Mato-Grosso-do-Sul/blog-449579.html Ok ok Nayse got me to paint a couple of flower pots of hers today after our shopping adventures. Let's see the weather has been nice but not amazing just not as much sun as I would like. Really who cares right It is above 75 degrees and Im a block away from the beach. Zero complaints. Oh yea I really want to apologize to everyone because I have gone back and read some of my blogs and my http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Saquarema/blog-449344.html Keeping it brief as i'm typing this on my phone via wifi. Lots to tell can't wait to get to a pc Last night was a little surreal the bus drove for an hour and a half on dirt roads to get to Bonito but the town is actually really cool. Met a couple of folks who are doing this properly over a year in south america now that's some real self development time Went tombstoning in one of the loc http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Mato-Grosso-do-Sul/Bonito/blog-449286.html Salut les amisApres avoir passee deux jours de reve sur lIlha do Mel nous avons repasser une nuit a Curitiba pour pouvoir ensuite prendre le train de nuit direction Foz do Iguazu a la frontiere BresilArgentineParaguay comme cetait un long voyage plus ou moins 10 heures de route nous avons decide dun commun accord bien entendu que nous prendrions le bus de nuit.Donc apres avoir passe un http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Paran-/Foz-do-Igua-u/Igua-u-National-Park/blog-449169.html Hoi allemaalNa een laatste nachtje slapen in de favela in Rio de Janeiro zat het avontuur in ZuidAmerika er weer op. Op donderdagavond rond middernacht vlogen we in 14 uur naar Dublin. Een eitje vergleken met de 24hrs busreizen in Zuid Amerika.De afgelopen 11 maanden hebben we genoten van al het moois dat ZuidAmerika te bieden heeft. We komen dan ook thuis met rugzak uitpuilend van de unieke er http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Lapa/blog-449010.html I was sad to leave Isla Grande but I had to make my way to Sao Paulo to get my flight back home but before that happened I had a brief stop in Paraty. To get to Paraty I got a local bus to the bus station and wandered down the main street to the ocean which is where the Misti Chill hostel was located. I would recommend this hostel it had a good vibe about it and the manager there was from new http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Paraty/blog-448695.html I am now in a very unsunny Brazil so instead of hitting Ipanema beach I thought I would finally update the blog. Bus Catching AbilityMy bus catching ability is actaully getting worse but slightly more eventful. I was meant to catch an overnight bus from the Brazilian side of Igazcu Falls to Campo Grande. Unfortunately though numb nuts here turned up at the Argentinian bus terminal. My face dropp http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Mato-Grosso/Pantanal/blog-448509.html Apres avoir trainer pres de la cote et dans des bled un peu perdus nous voila a Curitiba 900m daltitude 8 millions dhabitants et pleins de jolies choses a faire et a voir ... et enfin...... du soleil ahhhhhhhhh http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Paran-/Curitiba/blog-448450.html To be honest I missed the afternoon part of it because I was on a family outing until 430p. And I was so tired after that I took a nap for one hour. Most of my friends went to check it out around 2p. By the time I got up everyone I knew went...and some people warned that it's not too good to go by myself since men are such creepers here and I don't want them bothering me nor do I want my cam http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-448207.html We have been in the Brazilian Jungle about 3 hours from Manaus for the last three days. It took two boat rides and two vehicle rides to get here. There is no cell signal or Internet. The only electricity is by generator. We found a guy named Vincente Thomas through Lonely Planet he was listed under Manaus jungle trekking and he met us at the airport in Manaus. He delivered us to a floating http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Amazonas/Manaus/blog-447916.html Well my plans for the race have been scuppered. Basically the organisers where unable to process my application within the 13 days they were given and they have informed me that they have been unable to enter me in the race. Next time i may have to try applying a year in advance just to give them enough time to click a button on a computer. Will be intrested to see how they cope with the olympics. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/blog-447898.html So I swapped to the beach and now I have a computer to type on rather than using my phone and wifi..The Lonely planet described the mini rooms at the Hotel Toledo as coffins... not quite that bad and only slightly smaller than my digs at uni so Im used to it. Weeny en suite thoYesterday started with heavy rain but it had just about finished by 8am so jumped in the taxi to Copacabana. A quic http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Copacabana/blog-447886.html