Last Stop Brasil

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We have finally come to the last country on our tour...Brasil. We crossed over the border from Peru at Inapari, had a few problems getting any further as there were no buses and the car collectivo refused to leave until he had four people (there was no sign of anyone else turning up in the next day or so). So we put our rucksacks back on and trekked it over the bridge to the border crossing outside Assis Brasil. Luckily, a bus going to the next town pulled up at the same time as us and our first (but definitely not last) example of the friendliness of the Brasilians came in the shape of them waiting for us to get our stamps and still smiling when we finally got on!

We made our way slowly (36 hours non-stop on the bus, after my ipod was stolen in Brasileia, not pretty) down the West side of Brasil to the town of Cuiaba where we joined a trip into the Pantanal to see if we could see some wildlife close-up. We stayed in a couple of lovely Fazendas and saw a multitude of birds and mammals including large numbers of Caiman close up. John finally got his photo of a Toucan and I got my Macaws so it was all good. We travelled with two French couples, it was quite strange to be speaking in French in a group again, particularly after months of speaking broken Spanish. The evenings included attempting to drink the strongest Caipirinhas you have ever tasted which gave me some seriously strange nightmares. Our activities over the three days included, horse-riding, lots of galloping which was brilliant, Piranha fishing, not so successful, walking around the Pantanal in the dark, and spotting an Armadillo (crunchy on the outside smooth on the inside).

After our trip to the Pantanal, it was back on the bus for 27 hours this time, to the Iguacu Falls. We stayed on the Argentinian side so I´m cheating a bit here, but they were amazing. Apparently much better than Niagara according to those that had been. Both the Brasilian and Argentinian sides were stunning, especially the Devil´s Throat, best thing to do is see the photos. We met up with Kori from London and Veronique from Luxembourg and the four of us stayed in the very comfortable Youth Hostel just outside Puerto Iguacu, it was a relief to be able to speak Spanish again for a couple of days as our Portuguese is not great.

From Iguacu we travelled up towards Sao Paulo, changing at the bus station to get to the coast and the beautiful, if incredibly expensive, Paraty. We stayed at the lovely Pousada Art Colonial and attempted to get recruited as extras on a film that was being made there, sadly French and English tourists didn´t have much to do with Brasil´s history so they politely declined. We spent our time in Paraty taking boat trips, wandering around the beautiful town and stuffing our faces with french toast every morning. We finally had traditional Caipirinhas which were drinkable, although I found I had more of a taste for the vodka based one, Mother´s daughter.

After a relaxing time in Paraty we were ready for our week in Rio. We had booked a specific tour of activities for our time in Rio with a brilliant company called Jingando (Teresa-don´t forget our discount next time we come!). Our first night set the pace for the week, getting in at 3am (Inca Trail posse, not bad eh??) 6 hours prior to working on our community project. Other highlights included, the essential trips to Sugar Loaf and Christo, but also an amazing day with Charles in the Julio Otoni Favela helping to paint the roof of the community centre to prevent the rain coming in. We´re still finding black paint in strange places a week later...we spent another morning in the larger Prazeres favela (Morro to the locals) where we painted a house white, despite my many suggestions for various designs, and tested John´s stamina by putting Ana-Paola (one of the local community workers) on his shoulders in the baking heat to reach the top bits.

Much to John´s initial disgust, we also did 6 hours of dance lessons with the amazing, and very patient Marinho, who had us moving around, almost like pros, by the end of the week, after I had incurred a kick in the leg and an elbow in the eye. So successful was he at teaching us, that John might even want to continue when we get home! Music-wise Rio was great, there wasn´t an evening where something wasn´t happening and we were lucky enough to see Alcione, one of the most famous samba singers in Brasil, perform right by the Lapa Aqueduct.

Other highlights of the week were, people watching in Ipanema, shopping in Rio Sul, oh dear, and going to see a football match at one of the biggest stadiums in the World: The Maracana. Wow, Brasilian fans really know how to enjoy a match, it was crazy from the start, with fireworks, flour and huge flags being passed across the stadium, to finish with sobbing, kissing the ground and the sky and knocking over anyone stupid enough to not be concentrating on standing up ie me, good job John was watching.

We waved the beautiful area of Santa Theresa goodbye and headed to Salvador for our last 9 days of travelling before heading back to Blighty. Salvador is fantastic, we are staying in the old town area of Pelourinho where there is music on every corner and a bar and a restaurant to go with it. So far we have visited the islands in the bay, very sunburnt, taken 10 hours of Capoeira lessons, another thing we´d like to carry on at home, especially as John´s biggest claim to fame so far is that he managed to outwit a red belt, much to our teacher´s delight.

Lastly, but definitely not least, we were able to visit a project in one of the areas of Salvador, Cabula, called Lua Branca, which has been put together to teach the locals, from young children all the way up to adults, how to practice Capoeira. We were lucky enough to play a little part in two Rodas (a Capoeira gathering where everyone sits in a circle and to the sound of music created by attendees, people take it in turns to combat each other). The very friendly, and patient Marinho (must be in the name), talked to us about the project and his Mum made us strawberry juice before we headed out to meet everyone. At the end of the evening, what seemed like 100s of children stood with us at the bus stop, asking us questions and pretty much highjacking the bus on our behalf, before waving us off all the way down the road. Very inspirational.

Tomorrow we´re off to the beach for the last time, our final days here will take us back to Rio and then on to London, where hopefully Mum will be waiting with an egg-butty for me and a strong coffee for John! Thanks to everyone who have been keeping up with our travels, hope it hasn´t been too boring to watch us having one of the most amazing experiences of our lives, and maybe it might inspire you to do something similar. Love Gemma & JohnXXXX

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Photos

The coolest bird in the Pantanal
Check out that crew-cut, the Crested Cara-Cara

Jabiru storks
The official birds of the Pantanal