Blogs from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 230

We made another brief stop off in Paraty, a beautiful colonial town on the coast which has an old fashioned charm about it. We spent our day there wandering around the cobbled streets and looking in the cute little shops. There is a picturesque harbour there and several islands off the coast. Unfortunately it didn´t stop raining while we were there so we couldn´t appreciate the beaches surrounding Paraty, therefore we decided to move on to Rio in search of some sunshine...... read more

I got on the bus and for the first time in Brazil since the (ahem) airport incident I was alone. The bus drive was uneventful. I recall looking out the window to the Impatiens covering the side of the road and I thinking of about home. As the bus flew by a blur of Impatiens I kept tab of how much they would go for at good old Pipkin’s. I lost interest after about 1000 dollars worth or so- any aspiring flower importers out there? I arrived at the bus station in Rio de Janeiro, and I did not see Clara. This left me with no choice but to face my arch nemesis, the Brazilian public phone. Due to a number of error messages I could not understand, I had yet to successfully complete a phone ... read more

He muttered something in Portuguese I couldn't understand. Carol did and she told him that it was a quarter past 7. He crouched down and began to talk to Carol. The first thing I thought was he is trying to sell drugs, but there was something wrong in his tone of voice. For a moment, I wondered why he was getting angry. Then Carol told me to give him my wallet and the hostility made sense. It seemed like a safe situation. Granted, before coming to Brazil I had read a lot of robberies occur on the beach, but there were still people walking by. Around 150 feet to our left we could see a family enjoying the beach. While the sun had gone down it was still a half an hour from getting dark. The ... read more

08:00 Sat. Here we are, safe and sound - and shattered. Now all we have to do is get a bus into Ipanema. The hotel we booked is rubbish, so tomorrow we move to a good one. Early night. Sun. This packing / unpacking is a pain - after that, off we go sightseeing. The beaches and people are fantastic, but we coul´m´t recommend it as a holiday destination. The city of Rio de Janeiro is huge, crowds of people everywhere. The view from Sugar Loaf alone is worth the journey - breathtaking! - a cross between Sydney, Hong Kong & New York. Police on every street corner and beggars everywhere else, but we felt safe enough. Rio very expensive, so we had to blow the budget sometime. Mon. The clouds on the mountains have lifted, ... read more

after a huge night at a mexican bar on tues night and a purposefully very quiet night last night were hoping to finally get some sight seeing done today. fingers crossed all goes well.... di have no idea if this will work, but its a map of all the countries visited so far in lukes wee life. div style='text-align:center;'a href='http://www.travelblog.org/VC/my-visited-countries.html?cl=idasnzcujmmxbefritnlpospukmxusarbrcipeuy' onclick='window.open("http://www.travelblog.org/VC/my-visited-countries.html?cl=idasnzcujmmxbefritnlpospukmxusarbrcipeuy&popped=1","tb_map","width=820,height=510,toolbar=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=auto,resizable=yse,status=no,location=no");return false;'img src='http://www.travelblog.org/VC/vc-mini.php?cl=idasnzcujmmxbefritnlpospukmxusarbrcipeuy' width=197 height=107 alt='Visited Countries' border=0brMy Visited Countries/a/div brGet your own ... read more