Brazil - Parati and Rio

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Continuing our travels in South America, our next stop was Sao Paulo, Brazil. This city has the 5th largest population in the world (Brazil is the 5th largest country). One night spent in this huge metropolis was enough. Our memory of Sao Paulo will be of having the best meal of the trip so far - shrimp, the size of lobster prepared for us table side.

The following morning we hired a driver. He was supposed to speak English. No English but a real sweet guy! The plan was to drive from Sao Paulo to Parati so we could view the beautiful tropical landscape. All went well until we reached Parati with expectations that did not materialize. Sunny, beautiful beach, nice hotel - NO! Luckily, Hector, our driver, didn’t abandon us and helped us find a different hotel. The monsoon rain we couldn’t do anything about so we adjusted, wandering through the historical town, a UNESCO site, between the downpours, sitting on our covered deck reading & sipping wine. The evenings were fun. That’s when the town came alive & you heard constant drumming. The restaurants also had live music, Brazilian and Reggae. The nice beaches were 20 & 30 minutes away by bus and further by boats but who cared - no sun, only rain. So even though we didn’t get to the beaches, all in all, it was a very unique experience and probably turned out for the best after all.

The highlight of Rio was seeing the view from Sugarloaf the evening we arrived. Below us was the most stunning landscape we’ve ever seen - lush verdant hills & valleys, inlets, bays, ocean, monoliths. All of this natural beauty plus the favelas with Jesus Christ the Redeemer looming over from Corcovada above! We lucked out and had a beautiful sunset. This ended with a spectacular thunder and lightning storm delaying our decent in the tram another 45 minutes.

We opted to stay in a B&B in the Santa Theresa/Lapa barrio. We were closer to the favelas. This made us much more aware of the huge gap between the rich and the poor. Two thirds of the population lives in poverty! On the positive side the beaches were pristine and beautiful, populated with sun worshiping, uninhibited people! Plus very little air pollution since they’ve been using ethanol and natural gas since the 70’s for their transportation.

This was our last stop in Brazil. We wish we’d planned more time in the country.

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