South America 2001

Brasil | 02 Jul 2001

Brasil.

Arrived in Sao Paulo, hung out with family for a week. Nathalie arrived and we headed off to Rio together...

The weekend has been fantastic - 25+ degrees - and we spent all of it on the beach.

We found this great spot were all the locals hang out with a terrific beach vender - you knows you by the first day and lets you run a credit with him.

The beaches get soo packed here I couldn't imagine it in peak tourist season.

The people are truly gorgeous - if you ever wondered who could fit into those tiny designer clothes - well, I found a whole nation of them.

Gone are the days of vulupturous big bottomed brazilians - all of them have the most amazing figures and are truly beautiful.

The sea is an inviting turquiose that beckons you in to frolick in its waves and all around are lush green mountains - a true tropical paradise. There are these little beach barracas (huts) scattered along the beach that sell coco verde - which is coconut before it becomes ripe. They hack it open and inside is this glorious, delicious coco water mmmmmmm.

And while sitting on the beach there are hawkers who trott up and down selling their wares at the top of their voices.
Prawns on stick, grilled cheese complete with a homemade steel oven, and other little delights that we tried and had no idea what they were - kibes and other inpronunciable things.

The city is also fantastic - on friday night we made our way down to the city centre - to these tiny labarinth cobbled streets where at 4pm the Cariocas (name for people from RIO) spill out onto the streets and pump music out of their tiny bars. With chairs and tables lining the streets and millions of people jam together to shake off the work with music and alcohol. It was very amazing.

We tried desperatly to catch some Samba - but alas the suggestion of the hot spot turned out to be a dud to we had to opt for a tourist show - it was sooo aweful..

The music and costumes were amazing - but the show was really bad and cheesy and hadn't been changed since the 80's.

The people here are also amazingly friendly - whenever we are on a bus and need to get somewhere - practically everyone will help you and let you know where to get - they are all so sweet.

Well, Rio is fantastic - we have been up Christ the Redeemer and yesterday caught sunset on the top of Sugar Loaf mountain. We have eaten like kings and have sufficiently wasted on their dangerous sugar cane poison.

We stayed in a great spot in Ipanema - which is sooo much better than Copacabana and well, I could ramble on forever but to sum it up - AMAZING.

After Rio we went to the capital - Brasilia which is
> a truly bizarre place -
> its basically in the middle of the desert in the
> middle of no-where. The
> Architecture! YES! Oh my GOD! The government
> esplanade and the 3 palaces
> and the houses of Parliament etc. - are super cool.
> Otherwise, Brasilia is
> not the monster city hat critics make it out to be.
> It[s quite easy to get
> around, it[s not THAT big - in fact the smallest
> city we[ve been to and it
> has excellent public transport! The down side are
> the 12 lane highways in
> suburban areas and the lack of trees ans pedestrian
> paths etc. Oh, there
> are also no street names at all. It[s a city by
> numbers. For all you
> religious nuts (no offence) Brasilia has the highest
> concentration of
> different religions and churches in the world.
> Hmnnnn.
>
>
> From concrete Jungle to Vegetable Jungle. For a
> change of pace we went to
> the Pantanal which is this massive wetland about 1/2
> the size of France.
>
> We went piranha fishing and Natalie caught one and
> ATE it. (cooked of
> course). The bastards ate all my meat and all I
> caught was a curious and
> innocent Angel fish - the kind you get in any
> domestic fish

Locations Visited: Cuiaba, Foz do Iguacu, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Sao Paulo, Curitiba

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