Blogs from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 228

I am beginning to think that none of my entries in this Travelblog have reached u so I am keeping this brief as a test run. Diana and I have travelled from Venezuela where we saw the Angel Falls, held Anacondas, climbed 2800mt high Tepui, which is a flat toped mountain in the south of the country. Then continued into Brazil and floated down the Amazon River for 8 days with 8 other westeners, lying and sleeping on deck in hammocks and eating rice beans and cow for the entire trip. Boat was fun thou and made a lot of local freinds. November and December were spent here in Brazil and as its such a huge country we have still not reached the border with Argentina yet. Attended carnival in Natal for 2 nights and danced ... read more

So we left Argentina and Paraguay behind us and caught an overnight bus to Sao Paulo - largest city in South America and usually jostling for 4th/5th place in the biggest cities in the world rankings. Half way through the journey (just before 'lights out' one of the passengers came round and collected the equivalent of GBP4 from each person. We had no idea what it was for; nobody else on the bus spoke English and we did'nt know the Portuguese translation for "what's all this about then, pal?" Anyway, we paid up and could only assume what it was for.... either a tip for the driver (very nice, thank you very much - the bus was full) or a police bribe - cops often stop buses and search them, much to the inconvenience of the ... read more

My time in Mexico had, unfortunately, come to an end and next stop was rio. My experience in Mexico was fantastic, and I can’t thank Sarah and Mandi enough for putting up with me and letting me stay on their sofa. I hope I wasn’t too bad a flatmate!! In Rio I was to meet back up with Steve and Chris, who had spent the last four weeks island hopping around the Caribbean. Getting between two of the largest cities in Latin America would usually involve a single direct flight, however, in keeping with the shoestring nature of my budget, my journey from Mexico City to Rio involved 3 separate flights and an 11 hour bus journey!! However, it was cheep like the budgie. Rio was a really fun city, visually stunning with its coastal setting ... read more

Hello! Sorry for the delay in getting this one out. We had trouble getting our hands on a computer. We´re currently waiting for a boat that leaves for Ilha do Mel so we´ve got some time to update this.... So after leaving Rio we headed straight to Parati a beautiful colonial town 4 hours south of Rio along the Costa Verde (the green coast). First a little history- Parati is a small town of 15,000 which has been named a national monument as UNESCO considers it to represent one of the world´s most important examples or Portuguese colonial architecture. Not only that - but the bay of Parati has over 300 beaches and 65 islands. It is truly a beautiful place. The old historic part of town is completely pedestrianized so the only sounds we heard ... read more

Honestly...what´s the point of coming to Rio if you don´t see a single thong (Steve) or a bronzed adonis (Lou) strutting their stuff on Copacabana beach !! So..it´s been London weather pretty much since we´ve been here (not even managed to get up to the big Jesus chappy)...There´s not a lot to do in Rio in the rain (and especially not if you are tired after weeks of sightseeing and wanna sit on the beach)... Anyway...we´ve still enjoyed it. We did get a couple of hours on Ipanema beach, and we spent Lous birthday on a loooooonnnggg lunch and a few beers in the local English pub (how romantic). We managed to get up to Santa Teressa neighbourhood which was quaint (see pictures of trams!) and had a look round the central district (yawn..another church). However, ... read more