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Published: December 7th 2006
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Ahhh Life passes by slowly!!
Drinking coconut milk whilst in a luxary hotel The final leg of our 15 months round the world extravaganza takes us from Belem at the mouth of the Amazon 6000km south to Rio which claims to be one of the greatest cities in the world.
We set off south on a 28 hour slow and uncomfortable bus journey to Forteleza one of a series of large cities on the north east coast of Brazil. Staying in an OK German / Swiss pousada only 2 minutes walk from the beach. It was like the Gold Coast of Australia with the beach front lined with huge multi-storey tower bocks. A relaxing time on our first real Brazilian beach was at Puerto Futuro. This was also our first exposure to Brazilian thong style bikinis - which Anne refused to buy!!
This area was very busy so we headed 36km down the coast to Prainha a small village with a super expensive but also super nice hotel! There were literally endless miles of unexplored beach and sand dunes here and we spent 3 very nice chilled out days. In fact most of our time until we reached Rio was spent on beaches and in bars!
A short 14 hour bus
Prainha Beach
100km's of untouched and unspoilt beaches journey south took us to Natal a smaller but still busy city. Staying again very close to the beach front, time was spent yet again relaxing. The only incident of note was that a silly little kid tried to stab James with a broken bottle. Fortunately due to James' fast reactions he failed to succeed and also went home with a broken arm!! We also got into drinking coconut milk and eating ice creams - from self-service and pay by weight - great idea. James also learnt all the tricks of su doku puzzle solving.
Further down the coast we arrived in Joao Pessoa a lovely city although dirty in the centre - a bit like a Mars Bar. After missing our bus stop on the local routes we had to retrace our journey - explaining this to the bus conductor in Portuguese was not easy. Anyway we found a hotel after looking around about 6 and headed to the beach again. Anne was struck down with some mild general pain disease but recovered over night - but this did get her out from walking the 5 miles to the shopping centre to allow us to change some money.
About 60 km further along the coast is one of the top 10 beaches in the country - Tambaba a nudist beach. We had heard so much about it we felt that we really had to go and take a look. We managed to get a bus to Jamuca which is about 10km from Tambaba beach and found another pousada to stay in. The only restaurant for miles was in a very expensive hotel so we ended up eating there for the next three nights. James nearly had heart failure when he saw the prices on the menu but luckily the meals were for two people.
The next morning we set off along the beach passing through five long and deserted coves and finally reached Tambaba. After reading a long list of rules enforced by some pretty Brazilians - such as total nudity only and no unaccompanied men etc we went on. Anne was in her element with everything free although she got her breasts burnt badly! The beach was that good we even went back a second day! Although our feet were sore from 40km of beach walking.
After returning to Joao Pessoa we headed down
to Salvador where the Portuguese made landfall in 1500. Sold as traditionally African culture we were a little disappointed with the city - it also wasn't as unsafe as we had been told. James took Anne for a trip on a lift and a train between the high and low cities. It only cost 1pence each trip so didn't make too much of a dent in the budget!
At last it was our final bus journey 28 hours down to Rio. Brazilians claim that god made the world in 6 days and the 7th he devoted to Rio - however when we got there it was cold, raining and our taxi driver dropped us 1 mile from our hotel. Anne had to put her jeans on here, which was the first time since climbing in Peru.
Early the next morning we walked down to Copacabana beach where there just happened to be the World Beach Soccer Championship. It was free to get in so we watched the two semi finals. France were knocked out by Uruguay which was very pleasing and Brazil beat Portugal which also made us happy after the real world cup this year!
The
Forteleza Skyline
Reminded us of the Gold Coast around Brisbane Australia sea was very rough and made swimming somewhat dangerous - but we both at least had an attempt. It was also very cold which made James wish he had stayed further north.
The following day we got a bus and train to take us to the Christ Statue - on Cordova. Hundreds of people joined us even though it was a little cloudy but we still got some good views of the city. On our way back to Copacabana we decided to go to Sugar Loaf Mountain and on the scary cable car to the top. We didn't realise how expensive it would be and after paying for the cable car we didn't have enough money left for the bus back to our hotel - we would just have to walk.
The views from the top of the Sugar Loaf were good but it was still cloudy over much of the city. It even started to rain on us at one point. The only depressing point was that you could see how far we had to walk back to Copacabana Beach.
Our final day in Rio - it was raining pretty much all day. We bought some
presents and a few bottles of rum and had a final meal out in South America - at least for this time.
November 15 2006 we get on a BA flight to Heathrow which actually takes off early!
So after 463 days or 40003200 seconds, mas o menos, away from the small but mighty Island just off the coast of Europe we return home to a damp grey typical November day!!
Since getting home we have found out that neither of us can work until the Criminal Record Bureau check that we haven't any hidden secrets so we are on an enforced holiday! Although James has a job interview next week at Hull.
Thanks for reading!! Incidentally the blog sites have been read over 2200 times.
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James Anne
James Walkington
This is bloody great
Hope you weren't injured when you took out the kid - did you really break his arm??? Wish I had been there with you on the nudist beach!