Posts with tag 'Brazil'

The Girl From Ipanema Wears a Thong on the Beach

I´m back again. Posting myself this time. We are in Rio de Janeiro at the moment. Arrived here from Buenos Aires on Monday evening after our flight was delayed a couple of hours. We headed straight to Ipanema by bus looking for the Mango Tree Hostel. Not knowing the address, that was a little awkward to find so we just ended up staying in a place called Karisma. We booked into a 6 man dorm for 3 nights and for 2 of them had the room to ourselves. It was a nice hostel in a really chilled out area. The hostel was converted to a house and all the people working there are really sound, even brought us out one of the nights.

Anyway, the first day in Rio we went to the beach in the morning, followed by a tour in the evening. The tour brought us to the Christ the Redeemer statue on top of Corcovado. Its the famous one that everyone knows. The view from there was really good and the statue itself was impressive. Our guide told us that it was given to the city by the French. Makes you think that they should stop giving away all the really famous statues... After that, I found the rest of the tour a bit pointless. We went to Maracana, the football stadium but never went inside. We saw where the Carnival goes along but it was just an empty stand when we were there and then quite possibly the ugliest Cathedral I have ever seen. Looks like it was designed by the guys who did the Arts Block in Trinity. In saying that though, I did have a good time and did enjoy seeing the city a little more.

That night then we headed out so the next day was written off due to a hangover. We just lazed about mostly. Yesterday then we changed hostels to Copacobana, just to see what it was like. Its a nice enough hostel but the rooms are terrible. There are 4 sets of bunk beds stacked 3 high in a room with no floor space to speak of. They have a pool here though and it is near to the beach but I dont think any nearer than where we were in Ipanema. Yesterday evening we went to the top of the Sugar Loaf Mountain to watch the sun set. That was really cool, even if I was a bit more terrified in the cable cars than I let on!

Today it was back to the beach, where we bought a ball and played some football on the beach. We obviously are not very good so the Brazilians would have been laughing at us. Tonight then we are off to Lapa to the street parties which we are looking forward to and then we head back to Ipanema for our last 2 nights in Rio. We´ll take in a soccer match on Sunday before going to Ilha Grande and on to Iguazu from Monday.

Pics are on the way so until next time...

Brian

Mrs Meecham will be happy to see more photos of Matt. As for Mrs Corrigan, I´ll get some up of me soon incase you forget what I look like

Inside the horrible Cathedral was nice but very dark

Matt on Sugar Loaf. He has some photos of me... honestly

Monkeys hang around Rio and our Hostel

Really, it is my blog, not Matts :)

When the sun went down, everyone clapped. Not sure why, it was inevitable really!

As night falls the statue of Christ watches over the city and faces Portugal

Look its me... really!!

One Year On...

So a year ago today, me and Jonny touched down in Bangkok. 365 days later I´m most of the way around the world in Paraty in Brazil. People at home have gotten themselves into a recession so I´ll have to go home and sort that out in a couple of months :)

As I mentioned we are in Paraty now. A little town between Rio and Sao Paulo. We are staying a couple of days here mainly to just chill out and to say goodbye to beaches for a while (well Matt is, I´m loving having a hammock again).

Since the last post we´ve been out in Lapa which is the part of Rio that has the street party at the weekends. We had locals showing us how to samba and I think at one point Alison broke out some of her Riverdance moves, had to be done! We had a good night there and then left copacobana to go back to Ipanema. A bit more time playing football on the beach there too. The Brazilians must have thought we had never played football before.

On Sunday we did the favela tour. It was interesting to see what goes on there and to be honest, the sense of community is class. Something that is lacking a bit now in most other places. It did feel a bit uncomfortable for me doing it as part of the tour, but I think I was the only one so it is a good thing to do if you are in Rio. That evening then was off to the Maracana to watch Flamengo lose 1-0 to Vitoria. The game itself was a dour affair but the atmosphere before the game and when Flamengo actually had a couple of chances, it was unreal. They had a goal disallowed for offside which went down like a fart in a spacesuit and the female assistant got all sorts of abuse from 41,000 fans for most of the second half. In fairness, she was having a shocker of a game.

After Rio we went to Ilha Grande. We stayed in a place called Che Lagorota or something like that anyway. Was a good place and the island itself has a great feel to it. We trekked to a beach and just lazed about all day so was fairly good.

Now we are staying in Serra do Mar in Paraty. Its a class hostel here. Somehow we managed to be given a private room and I got a double bed!! For the same price of a dorm too! Excellent!

On Sunday Ipanema beach was very busy, lots of people and Umbrellas

One of the streets was closed off and used as a pedestrian street

The beach had bars along the top. Mmmm... Coconuts

Rochina is Rios biggest favela and was the biggest in South America but apparently one in Venezuala is now competing for the honour

Me Pete Alison Matt and Henry on the way into the Maracana

Me and Matt in the Maracana before kick off

As the atmosphere hotted up, the Roman Candels were lit

The waves on Ipanema beach were scary at times. The broke so close to shore and were fairly violent. The current was really strong too.

Big signs told you the temperature and time. That day got up to 28 degrees

A boat in a bay on our way to the beach

No Paraty!

So yesterday we left Paraty and due to 2 full buses we are now hanging aroung the bus station in Sao Paulo. Its and hour into the city and apparently there is nothing to do when you get there so I´m taking this time to put up some pictures.

The name of the place we stayed in Paraty was called Sereia do Mar which is one of endless spelling mistakes and typos I noticed in that last post. Too lazy to fix them so ignore them :) Anywho, Paraty is a great little town. We made an effort to go out one night there but we were back early. Went to a place in the Old Town called Dinho. It was a small place with a good crowd and live music. Would have been a good night I think if we were up for it but in our heads we had a long bus journey the next day, which was cut substancially short by the bus being full.

A piece of info for anybody going from Sao Paulo to Iguazu, its an expensive bus journey. Works out at about 90 euro I think but havent bothered to work out an exact price. You can fly but I think that is an extra US$150 again (from an overheard conversation).

Anyway, I have little enough to say right now and only really wanted to put up some more photos.

Enjoy...

Brian

Me and Matt missed the bus to the waterfalls and figured we´d be ok walking, judging by the map it looked ok. After 3 hours of a walk we saw no waterfalls. Not to worry, Iguazu is the next stop

One of the streets in the old part of Paraty. Town became a big port with the Portuguese after the found gold nearby.

Another street, with a tree this time!

There was buntin on some of the streets but I´m still not sure what for

Not just any church... an old church!

From what I know. ¨Oi¨ means ¨hi¨

For those who cant speak Portuguese, it says Coca-Cola

Flowers in our hostel