Blogs from Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, South America

Having passed the half way point in our holiday, we left Buenos Aires ...a beautiful city, and headed back to Uruguay to start our homeward bound cruise. Punte del Este is a peninsula with golden sandy beaches and very up market resorts. A very calm, attractive place. Then oh so very different we arrived sailing up the Rio Grand past fishing villages to the town ...a very working class Brazilian port. The people were very friendly and we found an optician to mend Brian's glasses ...after he sat on them! The chap laughed when Brian acted out what had happened and repaired them free of charge- all without a word of Portuguese except for obrigada ( thank you). I said the town was like arriving in Middlesbrough and driving into to Redcar! We called there to ... read more

Esco finalmente dalla regione amazzonica passando da quella che per secoli è stata la sua principale porta d'accesso, la decadente metropoli di Belém do Parà: l'ultimo saluto al grande fiume avviene al termine di un malinconico pomeriggio di pioggia trascorso sorseggiando birra "Amazonas" al tavolo di uno dei bar della zona del porto, da poco tutta accuratamente ristrutturata. Il sentimento di tristezza è dovuto principalmente al fatto di dover dire addio alla navigazione fluviale, per passare ora definitivamente a scomodi mezzi di trasporto su ruota; seguirò da qui in poi la linea della costa ed un sentiero tracciato da una serie infinita di dune di sabbia, che spero sapranno emozionarmi al pari della monotona distesa di vegetazione che per lunghe settimane ha accompagnato questo mio viaggio.... Tappa d'obbligo lungo il percorso è la città di Sao ... read more

All the way up the Brazilian east coast you could take your pick from a dozen or more places to see. There are so many options, choosing just a few was a difficult proposition. I decided that I would like to check out the smaller beach towns rather than the bigger cities, which meant heading straight up to Natal and on to Pipa beach. As I was mentally preparing for the 22 hour bus from Salvador to Natal I stumbled upon a flight only a little more expensive, so I jumped on it. However it was going to Joao Pessoa instead where I would spend one night before grabbing a short bus ride to Praia da Pipa. Joao Pessoa (meaning John Person in Portuguese) is not a big tourist destination but it seemed nice enough for ... read more

He hoi, Terwijl Karina de laatste hand legt aan ons vorige verhaal, vertel ik vast wat er de afgelopen weken is gebeurt! Vanaf Rio hebben we besloten om ons eigen ding even te doen, Karina wilde heel graag Argentinie zien, ik wilde erg graag meer van Brazilie zien, evt ergens wat langer blijven om iets van n sportproject te draaien oid. Vandaar dat je nu dus 2 keer zoveel verhalen gaat krijgen vanuit verschillende hoeken! Te beginnen in Salvador. Salvador heeft behalve zijn oude centrum voor mij niet zoveel te bieden maar Via via heb ik te horen gekregen dat er een national park in de buurt van Salvador is waar je heerlijk kunt hiken, genaamd Chapada Diamantina! De naam zegt het al, in 1844 werden hier diamanten gewonnen, nadat het uitgeput raakte is het meerendeel ... read more

Spontane Ideen sind meistens die besten, oder? Mal abgesehen davon, dass ich jetzt ziemlich im Unialltag bin, meine ersten benoteten Texte abgegeben habe u sogar schon eine Gruppenpräsentation hinter mich gebracht habe (deren Vorbereitung zwar etwas chaotisch verlief, aber immer noch wesentlich besser als befürchtet), ist in den letzten Wochen nicht so viel Spektakuläres passiert. Bis letzten Freitag. Victoria (eine Kommilitonin aus Bremen, die auch in Brasilien ihr Auslandsjahr macht) hat zusammen mit einer anderen Freundin (Steffi, aus Gründen der Verwechslung mit "meiner" Reise-Steffi nenn ich sie mal lieber Steffi II) ihren Besuch in Joao Pessoa angekündigt. Dankenswerterweise sind Freitag meine beiden Vorlesungen ausgefallen, weswegen ich mich gleich nachmittags mit den beiden im Centro treffen konnte. Am Samstag waren wir zusammen am Strand und in einer Auto-Vermietung - denn di... read more