Brazil

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Once I crossed the Argentinean border into Brazil my papers were stamped within 5 mins and I had a further 50min wait till my bus town into town (Foz De Iguaçu). There I was slightly conned by a guy in a tourist info shirt who spoke English, but he did however walk me to the nearest cash exchange (probably his mate) and taxi (also his mate) to the bus station, but in all I did not get that ripped off just an few extra bucks and I now had a few Brazilianos to my name and at the bus station in time to get on a bus to Florianopolis. After paying for my bus ticket I soon realised how expensive it was going to be to travel within Brazil, nearly twice that off Argentina. I had a 14 hour over night bus trip. It was not a bad journey, but me and the guy I was seating next to were having some communication problems as he did not understanding the English language and I could not understand Portuguese sign language. I arrived at the bus station 40mins late; I searched around the bus station for Kirsten who was also meant to get in at 8am. I waited a further 30mins till I asked the lady at the information desk when her bus was now scheduled to arrive. I was informed 10am, so I waited it out till half past, when there was still no sign. The traffic upon my arrival was quite bad so I expected delays. I confirmed this with the lady at the desk. Now the time had moved out till 11am. So I stuck it out till 11.35 when I thought there was no sign of her showing up, so I left a message on face book of the directions to the hostel and the like. Once I left the internet cafe, there arrived her bus, nearly some 4 hours later than both she and I had expected. So we arrived at our hostel 4 hours after we intended to do so. It was a really nice place, just on the inlet from the ocean to the fisherman's slip way. There was a bridge over the river with a short walk to the beach. So after a look around the hostel (Shared Backpackers Floripa) we went for a wander around town. It’s not a massive place, but still quite nice and had a number of supermarcado's for us to grab some stuff for tea. Since both Kirsten and I were both trying to get on a physical and financial health kick, we grabbed our ingredients at the supermarket and fruit and veg shop for tea that night and the next day or two. After the shop up we started to prepare the meal for the night, which I think was a warm chicken salad, when the Kitchen Nazi entered the room and demanded that we get out of her space. We did not know that the kitchen was not open to the guests from 5-10.30pm (crock of shit and the only thing wrong with the hostel). But we were nearly down and got out of there so as not to upset the bitch. Friday morning the health kick continued with a 45min run along the beach, my first real run since leaving for the states. What a supreme athlete I am these days. After that it was time to get back in the ocean (god I love the ocean) and it also had been quite awhile between drinks, two and half months ago when I was in Mexico. Once again that evening Kirsten and I got in trouble with the Kitchen Nazi for using it while she was out getting more groceries. Even though all we did was put some fish in the oven that she was not going to use. On Saturday morning the weather was not that great to hit the beach, so instead of catching a 15min bus to the another part of the island we instead walked for a further 2 and a bit hours. After getting some cash from the ATM and hitting up the supermarket we jumped on the bus this time around and headed back to the hostel to prepare some food for the evening.
On the Saturday night there was a massive party at one of the clubs 2 hours up the coast. The cost to get in was $75 reils plus an extra $35 for transport there and back. So for once I decided to pull my head in as it would have easily have set me back over a 100 oz with out blinking an eye. On Sunday morning we headed back in the central part of Florianopolis to have a look around and book our bus trip to Rio, which was not cheap at all, over 120 bucks oz, the most expensive of any trip. Chief Kirsten had promised a few Irish lads who I had befriended at the previous hostel in Iguaçu, to cook them dinner that evening after seeing what she had produced the previous nights. So with the fish market just 100m from the hostel we picked up three massive fish which they gutted at the fish shop for us. I was once again thrown into salad duty (master McDonalds chief in my day) while Kirsten prepared the fish and potatoes. The card game Shithead continued from the first night where I massacred Kirsten, but now there was a group of about 6-8 people attempting to take my crown and the vindictive ways of some who's names I will not mentioned increased and alliances were made to plot my down fall. On Monday morning we had to be up nice and early to pack our bags and check out, as that afternoon at 4 we had an overnight bus trip to Rio. The rest of the day before leaving for the bus station was spent getting the last bit of sun and ocean water thru the system before a few days lay off until we arrived in Ilha Grande.
 
The bus trip was ok, but we found ourselves sitting next to the heater, so thankfully the bus was not full and there where some spare sits up the back where it was a lot cooler, cold in fact. For once our bus was early and I do mean early, 75mins early, so a kind of record in South America. There was a connecting bus that we had to catch to Reus which took a couple of hours, but we had not made up enough time to catch the 11.00am ferry to Ilha Grande. So we had to wait around until 4.30 for the next one out to the island. We arrived just on dark after and 90min journey out there. The hostel (Che Legarto) was located on the point of beach and the dorm room looked straight over the whole beach and town. It had its own balcony and hammocks outside the room. The lack of curtains within the room did mean a lack of sleep was had in the morning. After a nice breakfast we planned to hike across the island to another beach. It took us just over two and a half hours to hike across the island to this secluded beach/cove which was really quite beautiful and had a big rock outcrop on the left hand side to sunbake on and access the water from. After a few hours there I thought we should try to cut around the cliff race to the beach a few km's around the corner. Knowing there was no specific trail around there and the clear walk of the cliff top disappearing it was left to a bit of the good old bush bash and hit and hope approach. The bush became quite dense quite quickly and my board shorts and singlet where not that great for the bush bashing experience into the unknown. Thankfully we found a non marked track which was a major result after an hour of walking. It thankfully lead us to the track back to our hostel, but we still had a further 8k's to go up, down and around the mountains and beaches to get there. Just before headed up and around the last mountain we where offered a water taxi for 50 reuls. I was not as keen as Kirsten to grab it as I know we had 3kms to go and I really thought we had a bit of Monday light ahead of us. Well I was soon to be corrected when we got to the end of the beach. It had got quite dark all of a sudden and the last 3 kms in the bush was going to be done in the pitch black. Thankfully Kirsten had a little torch in her backpack, so a meal on the house was in order after my adventurous ways had added a further 2 hours onto out total 5 hour return trip.

Being on an island what else do you eat but fish? The calamari was alright, but the fish stew was amazing as was the passionfruit juice, one of the best I have ever had. The following day was quite relaxed as I got to sleep in as we had shifted to a dorm room where there were curtains so as not to be woken at 7am again, also the internet requirements (face book addict) had to be met as well as organising our trip to Rio. After that it was time to get some rays covering my slightly more non white body, but the sun was so hot that I was sweating off the sunscreen I had put on only minutes earlier. So we retreated to the shade for a cheap lunch and an ice cream. That evening once again the hostel was putting on an all you can eat BBQ which a friend (Nancy) from The Clan in BA was also going to as she was staying in the hostel next door. So it was a good night sitting on the deck over looking the bay with a few beers and too much food to digest. On Friday morning we hired some snorkels and masks and set out to swim around a few of the small islands just a few hundred metres off the shore. The clarity of the water was not amazing, in parts which sucked a bit, but there was still some alright snorkelling to be had and the fact that I am swimming around in salt water is always a highlight.
 
Once again it was an early start on the Saturday morning to get most out of the day. This time we had to be on a 9.30am boat back to Reus for our connecting bus to Rio. It was a beautiful day and disappointing to be on the bus for a bit of it. We arrived in Rio about 3ish and got a cab to a family friend of Kirsten's who has been living in Rio the past 3 or 4 years. Her house mate had just moved out and there were a few spare rooms with mattresses which she had offered to us. We got to Antonia's by about 4ish and after dumping our stuff, headed down the street to have a look see and a few beers and some food. We had a relax after getting back from our late lunch and then got stuck into some pre drinks before catching up with Jess who was also in Rio at one of the local bars before heading to Lapa for the night. It’s a very local scene with plenty of samba and live music. We spent most of the night at this one Samba club which had a 10 piece live band playing and the locals were going off. It was quite a hot and sweaty, yet a fun atmosphere to be in. After the detox it was not a massive night compared to BA, but it was still a big one in the end. A little scratchy on the Sunday morning, we walked around most of the Rio shore line and the streets of Impenima. Some 7 hours later we got back to Antonia's and crashed hard. On Monday morning the sun was out and there was only one place I wanted to be and see, tower 9 on Impenima beach. The surf was quite good with a 2 to 5 foot sucky shorey to body surf. After some but never enough fun at the beach we headed back to Antonia's as we thought it would be best to try to get up to Christ Redeem in the arvo while the sun was out and the sky was blue. But after we got back and had some lunch the clouds had rolled in and it was point less going up there as there was not going to be as good a view as on a nice day. So we spent the afternoon cruising the streets of the centro and that evening we headed to see the new Batman with Antonia and a few of her friends. The weather did not improve on the Tuesday after the clouds had rolled in the previous afternoon, so we hit the streets of Copacabana and Impenima for a look around and caught up with Jess before bidding her farewell as she had a trip that afternoon to Madrid. Once again, 8 hours after leaving the house for a look around town we returned spent and chilled out for the rest of the evening. It was very similar again Wednesday as the weather was not on the improve, so we spent the day in and around the centro looking at the older buildings and churches within the area before having a look around the Lapa and Santa Tersa Area after a nice lunch in the Centro. The views from above the Santa Tersa area were quite beautiful as the sun was starting to set and it created quite a hazing look with the clouds and pollution settling at that time. After getting home again after a long day of walking and sight seeing we were quite spent, but I had planned to catch up with Leandro (a Brazilian Guy whom I worked with in the States). We had tried to catch up the past few days but not with much success. We headed out to a pizza place that Antonia had recommended, which had some of a biggest sizing of small and medium pizzas I have ever seen in my life. After battling our way through this massive and tasty tea we headed with Leandro on a guided tour of the city in his car. We headed to a few places we had seen and a few we hadn't, but it was good to see it all light up at night. Thursday was my last day in Rio and as I had been banking on the weather report to be true and have clear skies that day to get up to Christ Redeem, all was on the line. Thankfully the clouds cleared once we got up and after a bit of break and getting all my gear in order we headed up to see one of Rio's main attractions. There was an amazing view up there. The pollution did spoil total clarity of it all, but it was still quite amazing. After getting some great shots, serious and not so serious we headed down the mountain on the tram. From there it was a short walk back to Antonia's house, so we stopped into an Italian Resturaunt on the corner for some lunch. I did not have too much time after that, so I grabbed my gear, said my farewells before jumping in a cab to the airport.
 
The security at the airport was a lot more relax than any other flight I have encountered on my trip, but the queue to check into my flight was the longest yet. Whilst waiting for my flight I ran into Ross an English guy who did the 15 hour bus trip to Rurrenbaque as well as the same trip along the Pampas. So after 2 months it was quite funny to run into him at the airport and be on the same flight, but to top that off we were seated next to each other. He was not the only one whom I had meet on my trip on that flight, 3 rows in front was an English girl who I shared a dorm with in Iguazu and 2 rows behind was an Scottish guy who was also from the same hostel.
 
Brazil was great and I would love to spend a bit more time travelling up the coast when it was a few degrees warmer and chill out in Santa Caterina, Ilha Grande and Rio as well as checking a few more destinations further North and West of Rio.
 
Michael signing off from my flight to Madrid, chatting to Ross about our adventures in South America.

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