Brasil baby yeah!!!!!

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Brasil, ten points!! the people are fantastic. Really funny and good fun, and totally helpfull too. I found it hard to understand their colourful Portugese but scraped through with my Spanish and the various international hand signals that have never let me down. and aside from the wonderfull people, the country is beautiful, food is great(very important) and there is a great atmosphere most places you go. It's a shame I didn't have more time to have a better look around, but I'll be back after this little taster for sure. I did get to visit a couple of friends i met in New Zealand though, and their families looked after me very well so a huge thankyou to both of you Paula and Flavia for hooking me up so good! Also I'm happy to announce that my blogs are finaly back up to an interesting level, and I plan on keeping them here untill the end of the year so stay tuned for more decent photos, new places and faces, and hopefully some quality stories

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Photos

a man down
this is how I crossed the border because I manages to loose a flip-flop somewhere in Santa Fe

very strict contamination control
they were so disgusted with the state of me that I had to sanatise my feet on this wet mat

first stop, the Iguacu falls
now it never rains here in the winter so the waterffalls are apparently quite dry at the moment, but I still thought it was pretty impressive

me up in the mix
not too many "ducks on the pond" today Mark!!

off to Cascavel
Flavia lives only a couple of hours from the falls so I hitched a ride with Angelica from the tourism office in Foz(muchas gracias Angie) who happened to be going the smae direction. it was really cool to see Flavia and her Family again after nearly three years, and they all looked after me and fed me up really well. check out those ribs!!!

the rat/pig thing
down by the lake in Cascavel

Brasilian money transporter
three armed men per wagon, very serious business

overnight bus to Sao Paulo
met these guys on the bus, well they saved me actually. the guy next to me shat his pants through the night and when I woke up I started violtently dry-wreching... so old mate got out his guitar, and they pulled me into the isle and made me play the the drums on a water bottle for a couple of hours of Brasilian sing-a-longs. it was great fun, I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying but they could understand me so it was really funny.

enroute
the highways are really good in Brasil, and clean and green too.

Avenida Paulista
pretty much the main street of downtown Sao Paulo

my $4 all you can eat buffet!!
soooooooooooo quality!!

view of the city from Tucuruvi
I took the metro to the far end of the blue line and went for a stroll around Tucuruvi, one of the poorer parts of the city

Comments

[Aunty F]

Amazing pics
Hey Russell Those photos of the waterfalls, and the viewing platform, and the Christ statue and the old guys eating oranges are just fantastic! No wonder you love Brazil so much, it's just so colourful and interesting! Good on you - keep taking the pics and sending the blogs. Very good stuff. Lots of love Francie

[Silvia]

AMAZING
Russ, we don't know each other but i'm one of Paula's best friends (i don't know why the little weasel didn't took us out together), and she told me to come here check out your photos...it's bloody amazing, your perception of Brasil is so fresh and great, the pictures are wonderful and I'm glad you had such a sweet time here! i hope your travels continue to be this much fun!! love silvs

[Tomas]

Borracherias en brasil
Si las conosco de maravilla a las borracherias, intente trabajar pero me despidieron, era duro el trabajo. y que tal la caipirinhia, tudo ben!!! y las mulatas brasileras?

[Aunty Lou]

reliving it!
Hey Russ - although this is the first time I have made it to reply to your blogs, we have been enjoying your travels 'with' you. We are reliving our days in sth america as we see your photos and read your stories, and it's great. Isn't Iguacu out-of-this-world? ...and the rat/pig thing is a capybara.... you are obviously enjoying life - good on you! lots of love Aunty Lou and the tribe in the deep south

[Maria Rosa]

saluditos
Hola Raulito, siempre reviso tus páginas, son espectaculares, muy didácticas... Espero que disfrutes de tu viaje y mucha suerte en todo, aprovecha que la vida es una sola!!! baila, canta, ríe, sueña, enamórate, emborrachate, (eso creo que has tenido bastante), etc... Un abrazo gigante!!!

[eat a d russ]

a big d
EAT A D!