Brazil

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September 18th 2008

Published: October 4th 2009

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andrewandkim

Rio

Andrew at the Maracana

We've been home for 6 weeks, but we thought we'd finish this blog properly whilst we are still bumming around looking for a job.

We spent over two enjoyable and chilled weeks in Brazil mostly lazing around on the beach. From La Paz, we decided to get ourselves to Rio as quickly as possible. Its fair to say that this journey was an epic. We flew from La Paz to the Bolivia/Brazil Border via Santa Cruz which was the most straightforward part of the journey. The airport at the border was interesting as there were none of the usual baggage carousels and facilities you get at airports - it did the job though. At Corumba, we spent a day in this border town before catching a bus to Sao Paulo. The bus was fairly comfortable but took over 28 hours. We had planned to head straight onto Rio but arrived late and so stayed for a night in Sao Paulo before heading to Rio the next morning.

We arrived in Rio the next day over 48 hours after leaving La Paz. We had arranged a flat in Ipanema which was a 5 minute walk to the beach and couldn't

Rio

The crowd goes wild!

have been better located. On our first day, we were pretty spaced out and wondered down to the beach to be greeted by brass bands and people dancing - the Brazilian party spirit soon woke us up! The beach setting at Ipanema was wonderful and we spent the rest of the next week lying on the beach and enjoying a few Caiparinha's and haloumi on a stick! The language was very different from Spanish and we struggled to get to grips with it, even numbers which were spelt similarly to Spanish were difficult to translate when spoken. The tones were very different, I particularly liked the greetings "muito bonj, buon dia" and "buon noite."

To be honest, our first week in Brazil was very lazy so we decided to book a flight to Salvador in Bahia State on the North-East Coast. We had arranged for a hostel on the beach, the weather was great and there were loads of bars in the area. Salvador is a historic city, with lots of attractive Portuguese colonial architecture contained within the famous Pelourinho. There is also a famous party which is held every week with loads of live music and food stalls.

Rio

Kim at the lake

The atmosphere on the streets was brilliant with loads of dancers doing capoeira and everyone joining in by throwing a few shapes.

After a few days we headed back to Rio, to laze around on the beach for a bit longer. We did take the time to visit Sugar Loaf Mountain and watch a game of footy at the famous Maracana stadium. Karen and Adam were in Brazil for their honeymoon so it was nice to go out for dinner with them in Rio before they flew home.

entually our time was up and we had to fly home. We'd had a lovely relaxing time in Brazil which was a great way to end our round the world trip. After 11 months, it took a little while to get used to being back on British soil but we're definitely glad to be home.

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