Brazil- Rio, Ilha Grande, Paraty, Sao Paulo & Foz do Iguazu

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First time in Brazil, I was amazed how large Rio de Janeiro was. Every bit of land on hillside as was built on, from favelas to multi-storey buildings. We were staying at Copacabana beach, so spent the next day planning the trip and then relaxing at the beach. The waves are pretty crazy there, with the odd one rolling you right over. It was understandable how not too many people were out too far in the water because of this.

The next day was spent at the Jardin Botanico. There were lots of monkeys there, pretty cute wee things, we saw one cracking a nut on the ground with his human like hands and others grooming each other. There was a lovely mix of flowers across Brazil and South America as well as the rest of the world. We then checked out Ipanema Beach. This place seemed to be the more popular beach when compared to Copacabana with younger trendy people tending to congregate there. The views from it were very impressive over to rocky islands and to the sides, Rio’s steep hillsides.

The next day the mist started to roll in and it was at this time that we realised we really were in the winter in Brazil. With limited time available we headed up to Cristo Redentor- Christ the Redeemer. The train up showed us great views of favelas and downtown Rio, before heading into the mist. Eventually we got to the top- a very cold and wet top and looked up to the Jesus statue to barely see it. There were no views of Rio, and then suddenly the clouds briefly cleared and there was a cheer from the crowd as Rio came to light. Some quick pictures and a minute later it was all mist again. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait long before the mist cleared some more and we got some great views right across Rio.

Transport in Rio is great if you are close to the metro, however the bus system isn’t particularly the easiest, especially if you want to get from another part of town that isn’t a route from the metro. We were planning to go to Santa Teresa- the arty part of town that has a traditional tram taking people from a metro station up to the hill Santa Teresa is on. From Christ the Redeemer it isn’t the easiest route unfortunately. A taxi later and we were in the Bohemian part of Santa Teresa and saw the old fashioned tram, which no matter where we were we seemed to miss either on the way up or the way down. We ended up walking the whole way down from Santa Teresa and then back up only to take a bus which took us 45 minutes in the wrong direction, turned around and passed back by Santa Teresa before taking half an hour back down to the main district of Rio. So in the end, trains definitely are needed in this city as buses and trams are too confusing!!

The next day the mist didn’t work in our favour again with Sugar Loaf mountain being totally in the mist. We managed to get some great views half way up on the first hill before sugar loaf. This is the mountain Roger Moore and Jaws ended up fighting on the famous cable car of Sugar Loaf in Moonraker. You could see the views he got of the airport that was meant to be the airport Drax was using, but you couldn’t see much of Sugar Loaf. The highlight of the actual Sugar Loaf, were the marmosets that live up there, surrounded by a Jurassic Park jungle feel.

Next we headed out to Ilha Grande, only a 3 hour bus ride from Rio to Angra dos Reis where we picked up a boat to take us over. The weather was still not on our side but the island was a stunning- very Jurassic Park type of place i.e. tropical. The main town was pretty much the only key place people lived and to get around the island most would boat taxi or tourists would walk over hills. Our first day we headed for an isolated beach known as Lopes Mendes, the walk took us over some pretty steep hills and passing 2 beaches- one we had to wade across a channel, walk along the beach then wade across a channel of water before heading up through another forest before finally reaching Praia Lopes Mendes (our beach). The beach was fantastic, although certainly not deserted with many tourists and locals doing the same walk or getting a boat from the main town of Abraao around to the second beach- Praia do Pouso then walking from there. The waves are extremely strong here, hence why no boat can go to Lopes Mendes beach, also hence why it is only accessible by walking across part of the island. The way back for us was far easier as we managed to catch a boat from Praia do Pouso going back to main island town of Abraao. The next day we took a boat trip across to the best snorkelling sites on the island such as the blue and green lagoons. Sadly the weather wasn’t the best so swimming did get pretty cold, especially when the rain started and the sun disappeared behind some clouds. Typical for us Brits to come to Brazil in their winter/ rainy season. The town itself was a lovely tourist town complete with great restaurants- although beware if there’s live music, you have to pay for it in your restaurant. Also many of the restaurants on the beach front only do menus with meals for two people, you have to specifically ask for meals per person. The bars here do some epic caipirinhas which after one of these make you pretty merry- cheap night out anyway!!

We headed out of Ilha Grande, typically in the beautiful sun L and caught a local bus back at Angra dos Reis to Paraty, complete with mad bus driver who flew round corners like we were on a pendolino tilting train! This is a town that Brazilians tend to go to, so isn’t quite as touristy. It is the first city that was officially built by the Spanish and still has the cobbled roads that actually made it incredibly knackering to walk on. Brazil has had quite a lot of Italian immigrants so pizza places are not hard to come by- lucky me. One of the best pizzas I have had was from one of the local Italian owned restaurants that was lightly baked and crisp it would just melt in your mouth. After that and one awesome chocolate mousse later, we checked out the town which had a jazz festival going on in the centre. Some beers and jazz on the lawn whilst watching the sun go down was exactly the thing to do here. I definitely think Sweden has ruined mine and Sarah’s ability to listen to slow smooth jazz music, with the epic sounds of metal bands like Amaranthe, so after a couple of beers we headed across town to the other stage, checking out the local art gallery in between. On the other stage was a Beatles tribute band!!! You come all this way and the Liverpool Mathew Street festival seemed to have followed us here. They were pretty awesome and were joined by J.J Jackson an American soul singer whose famous hit in the 60’s was ‘But it’s Alright’. The crowd here was electric and loved the mix of Beatles and other old classics. After this more caipirinhas were in order before the end of the night.

The next day saw us enjoy more of the town and get ready for the next place, Sao Paulo. SP is a huge city that is slightly less of a tourist place but has plenty of character all the same. We were only here for one night as we needed to head off to our next place but managed to see some parks, a big football stadium and a bit of the town.

Next was over to Foz do Iguazu- one of the 7 new natural wonders of the world! This was after an epic 15 hour bus ride, where the bus seemed to drop us off miles out of town. With a long hike into town we arrived at our hostel, which although fine had some interesting travellers who we found to be slightly odd. I have never met travellers who for 3 days stayed in bed and didn’t do anything. There comes a time when if you are in a place for too long and you get bored you should move on. Here these travellers should have done just that. The day didn’t get much better when the rain descended when we were checking out the town. I wasn’t quite used to the South American winter, but I had to get used to the cold and wet pretty quickly!

The next day was a lot better fortunately. We headed out to Iguazu Falls on the Argentinian side and randomly bumped into an old friend from school, at the view point of Iguazu River where you can stand on the Argentinian side and look across to Paraguay and Brazil. He was doing the same tour as we were. The views of the Iguazu River were spectacular. Each section took us up close with a different part of the waterfall. I remembered that Moonraker had filmed the boat chase here between Roger Moore and Jaws before finishing with Bond paragliding over the falls whilst Jaws fell over the edge of the falls. The Argentinian side takes you right up to the edge of the falls and in parts you can see straight over the edge into a cloudy/ misty obis, which often reminded you of this, with the spray being flung back up at you. Although Victoria Falls was a lot taller and much more water, Iguazu takes you right up to the edge allowing you that privilege of seeing the extremity of the falls. Impressively at the top of the falls there are a lot of small islands (which I remember seeing in Moonraker). Each of these seem to have their own ecosystem on them and contain plants and sometimes trees and this is all just before a massive waterfall. To get to the top of the waterfall we took a train which saved us the journey to show us the back of the falls, then we stopped for lunch. All around the national park are racoons, who scavenge anything that humans drop, it is difficult to make sure they don’t get any of your food as they can be quite forward in trying, including trying to climb onto you like a domestic cat. Next we headed for the highlight of the day- a speed boat ride underneath the falls. This was incredible and obviously very wet. The boat took us close to one of the part of the falls for some awesome pictures, it was pretty choppy and you felt the sheer force of the water as it plunged into the pools below. The speed boat then sped along the bottom of the falls to the other side and went straight into the oncoming water. It was incredible the surge of water and you couldn’t breathe for a short while due to the sheer water pressure. The boat, full of water then turned around and across to the other side of the falls for a similar experience. We emerged pretty wet but thrilled we had encountered an epic waterfall and not only seen it from the side and above but kind of also from underneath, although there was no way you could look through it. The rest of the day we smelt of wet dog.

Later we caught up with my old school mate (Andrew) his boyfriend Alex and a couple of people from the tour Alina and Anton for food and drinks. We found a really cool restaurant where we met Lucas our waiter who we ended up going out for drinks later whilst Anton taught us Danish drinking games, which we instantly turned into a new Brazilian drinking game. It was interesting to chat to Lucas about Brazil’s political situation with their president and I was impressed with how much Brazil seemed to know about the UK’s upcoming daft referendum on remaining part of the 21^st century or not.

The next day we headed to the Brazil side of the falls. Here you could get a great panoramic view of the falls as well as get close to the base of one of the falls and go up a lift to see it in all its glory. The pictures tell the best story. We then visited a bird park showing many of the local birds from across South America and a few I remember seeing in Africa. That evening we decided checked out a local show called Ipora which was a dance show of all the dance styles across Latin America. We have come to notice that certainly in Brazil and Argentina shows are more about having a nice dinner and then seeing a show. They are very much geared towards tourists and although our show was impressive, particularly the tango and salsa, it did seem quite stereotypical of many Latin American countries. Good fun all the same.

It was then time to say goodbye to Brazil cross the border- which was incredibly easy if you get a taxi and head to Puerto Iguazu to catch our 18 hour overnight sleeper bus to Buenos Aires.

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