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South America » Brazil » Santa Catarina » Florianópolis
November 25th 2008
Published: April 20th 2009
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Brazil was the last leg of our trip, a great way to finish our travels, and the liveliest memory now sitting on the couch of our living room in a dull day in Cork. Brazil started with Giorgia and David (my sweet cousin and her husband) and their dogs Bohr (chega Bohr!!) and Runa, in Florianopolis, island Santa Catarina, where we stayed for 10 days enjoying their company, the marvellous island and.... waiting for the rain to stop! Unfortunately we arrived during heavy rain which just after we left brought huge disasters to the local communities and far too many dead.

Giorgia and David spoilt us with kindness, chat, dvd nights and sushi! On a sunny day we went with Giorgia to visit the Spanish fort, had a swim in the ocean, and then went for a fish lunch on the beach, eating kilos of prawns, oysters and anchova (which has nothing to do whith anchovies since it's 40 cm long and 2 cm high!). We had a great time with them and hope to go and visit them again!

When we left them we headed to Pantanal, an area of amazing natural beauty, with swamplands, rivers, forests and many species of animals, and in particular of birds. We saw caymans, deer, an ocelot, capivara, tapir, otter....The most memorable experience in Pantanal was floating in a transparent river and being carried slowly by the current along 6 km of its length with big golden and black fish swimming towards us and then changing direction just few centimeters from our face and being able to see so clearly the bed of the river with all its small creatures and vegetation.

We absolutely loved Salvador de Bahia with its still rich African culture and its music and capoeira on each corner. Every night we witnessed some samba concert in the street or venues which were able to give us so much energy and couldn't resist singing or dancing along. We enjoyed eating street food from beautiful Bahian women with their large dresses and turbans.

One night we visited a candomblè ceremony, an African religious ceremony, which in Brazil retains also some aspects of catholicism, following the colonisation by the Portuguese. We went with a local guide to a house in the suburbs of Salvador, not really the favelas, which hosted the ceremony and all the people who wanted to participate. We watched with amazement as 5 or 6 people dressed in clothes to represent the God they venerated going into a trance, dancing and shouting, smoking cigars and drinking beer....a mixture of acts which was fascinating, at times funny, and certainly authentic and not, at least this time we are sure, done for the tourists.

We spent the last few days in Rio, a city that while it's not so impressive from an architectural point of view, is in a stunning location, between the sea and the hills, with stunning views of the islands and the lagoon. Our hostel was in Santa Teresa, the artistic quarter, with cafes and art galleries, little artisanal shops and lovely old houses. After three days in Rio we had enough though of the chaotic capital and escaped for the last two days of our eights months travelling to Buzios, a lovely beach resort with beaautiful beaches but far too chic for our taste! There we absorbed as much sun and sea water as we could before heading towards cold and boring Europe!


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