Blogs from Centro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 2

I am a school teacher. Last year I made the decision to teach internationally. My reason for this decision is based on the ambition to become fluent in Spanish. I teach beginning Spanish and feel the need to speak the language fluently in order to be the best teacher I can be. Latin Amercia is obviously my focus of countries where I want to teach in order to help me achieve this goal. Spain is pretty much out of the question because the pay is terrible. Central Amercia might be a good choice and certainly South America. There are several steps you have to take in order to be considered for internation teaching. One of them is to sign up with an international job search service and typically, attend a job fair, where you meet with ... read more

Carnaval. It really deserves its own entry, doesn’t it? Ok, so it’s a more pricey venture, but truly like nothing else you’ll ever see. We left Petrópolis to arrive in Rio around 5pm. From the bus station, we cabbed it to pick up our tickets. (They’re actually these cool press-pass looking things that we wore around our necks.) Then, we had a few hours to kill before showtime so we strolled along the main streets in Rio enroute to the Sambodromo. The previous night’s floats were being ushered down the main street in one direction, while many of the on deck floats began lining up in the other. It was cool because we got to see the floats really close up; you’re walking right next to them! The streets were full of people, singing, dancing, and ... read more

Finished writing this in Santiago , largest city in Chile. Hello everyone been a while since last posting! Forgot to add a map last blog to show the second half of GAP overland trip so added to this one, continuing from La Paz where the last map ended. Obviously the lines are as the crow flies not as the truck drives! From the google maps it says we have travelled around 5000 miles from start to finish but maybe actually more, also travelled many miles by plane, 4X4 and walking! Will have to tot the miles up properly some time. Will keep adding maps as the travels progress. Last time I left you we had finished the GAP tour and seen the sights of Rio De Janeiro. We (Mike, Sarah and me) moved to our surf ... read more

Made it! The trip so far has done wonders for the carbon footprint - jfk and sao paulo before we landed at a damp rio. First view from the aeroplane was of shark's tooth mountains and a church perched on a big hill, and then I noticed the houses, scattered on the hills as if someone had fired a gun full of lego bricks at them. Then there was the traffic.. Am in the business district, and there are a few skyscrapers going up, but most everything else is portuguese colonial. You can't tell what shop is coming next, though - a garage next to a plastics shop next to someone selling umbrellas. As you can tell, I went for a wander; I was trying to follow a walk in the lonely planet but couldn't even ... read more

Me landa i Sor Amerikas storste by Sao Paulo med omlag 20 millionar innbyggjarar. Me fekk eit stressande forsteinntrykk daa me tok metroen midt i morgonrushet. Her er trikset og vente paa ein litt mindre full vogn, eller eventuelt presse paa alt det du maktar til du er sikra ein liten plass i vogna. Her blei det nokre rolege dagar, og me fekk starta jakta paa dei perfekte Havaianasane. Me traff nok ein valldol, Bjorn Tore Homme, og han introduserte okk for brasiliansk frukost og ol paa sitt beste. For karnevalet, var det paa sin plass med litt sol og strandliv igjen, og me reiste til Ubatuba, ein liten strandby omlag midt mellom Sao Paulo og Rio de Janeiro. Her gjekk Bjorg Maren berserk og totalt amok i Havaianshyllene, og endte opp med 22 par sandalar ... read more