I think that I’ve started a love affair !
I didn’t mean to, I wasn’t even supposed to be there – Maybe it’s fate ?
She is beautiful and sensual, she is wild and exciting, she is dark and mysterious…..
She is Brazil !
Once upon a time, many months ago, when I was planning a vague route around South America I hadn’t even considered Brazil. Reading the Dangers and Annoyances section of any of the guide books is enough to put the bravest person off.
But things change… On the Navimag boat in southern Chile I met a great Brazilian couple, Greta and Aldo, that own a hotel in the quiet town of Paraty which is on the coast between Sao Paulo and Rio. They didn’t try to mug me, rip me off, threaten violence or any of the other things that the guidebooks suggest as being so Brazilian. Instead they invited my to visit them !
That, and the fact that I’d always dreamed of going to Rio, made me think: “What the hell, it’s only 2000km away, practically on the doorstep !!”
So in mid-July I left Montevideo to head north towards São Paulo via Florianópolis.
Florianópolis
The first thing you notice about Brazil is the fact that they don’t speak spanish, it’s close but not quite close enough. I decided that learning Portuguese would probably make me forget the spanish that I’d already learnt and so decided on a compromise….spanish sentences but with “obrigado” at the end instead of “gracias”. It worked surprisingly pretty well.
After an 18hr bus ride I eventually pulled into the bus station of Florianópolis, the state capital of Santa Catarine. I emerged in fear and trepidation, not knowing what to expect and cautious of everyone. Hardly the confidence expected of someone who has spent the last 15 months travelling around the world ! It didn’t take too long for me to relax though and to start enjoying the place.
Florianópolis is a nice, relaxed city that forms a bridge between the mainland and the island of Santa Catarina. I found the people to be extremely friendly, helpful and patient – especially with my spanish.
Whilst there I visited Barra da Lagoa, on the Atlantic side of Ilha de Santa Catarina, a beautiful and relaxing place with nice sandy beaches and good waves, and saw something quite unexpected. I’d travelled to the very end of the earth, as far south as any normal tourist could go, and had missed them and suddenly here they were playing in the surf, 4000km away from home….penguins ! I knew that they migrated north for the winter but I never expected to find them this far north. Isn’t nature remarkable ?
I was only in Florianópolis a couple of days before continuing my journey north.
São Paulo
São Paulo is South Americas biggest city with over 19 million inhabitants and my first taste of big town Brazil. It was in at the deep end, my bus arrived at five in the morning and it was straight on to the metro system and to the red light district where most of the cheap hotels are situated.
I was in São Paulo for 5 days in the end and really enjoyed it. Yes, you have to be careful but not paranoid. I love walking around cities and exploring and a couple of times found myself in areas in which I really shouldn’t have been. My way of dealing with it is simply to look like I know where I’m going, smile and say “hello” to everyone and get the hell out. It’s never failed yet.
There’s a lot going on in São Paulo. It’s not so much a city for tourists but more a city for locals with lots of music, art and entertainment. It also has some great architecture and even in the cities heart you can find narrow streets of cottages.
For me the highlight was a huge exhibition in the Parque do Ibirapuera celebrating 500 years of Brazil. There were several huge exhibition halls showing exhibits of Brazilian art and culture from the European, African and indigenous Indian influences. It was fascinating and gave a real insight to Brazil. The organisers said that the only way that Brazil could move into the next 500 years was to understand and feel comfortable with the last 500. How true that is.
I met some great locals in São Paulo and like so many places it’s not necessarily the place that matters but who you’re with.
Paraty
Paraty is a town with a history and is, in fact, a National and World Historical Monument. It was founded in 1667 and was linked with the mines in Minas Gerais by the Camino D’Oro (Street of Gold). The Portuguese would sail their caravelas to Brazil loaded with large stones for ballast and would then exchange them in Paraty for gold and jewels. The cobbled streets and houses of Paraty are made from the stones that they left behind.
Paraty’s setting is beautiful, on the shore of a blue ocean bay and surrounded by hills of tropical forest. The town was constructed to flood twice a day with the tides, thus ridding the streets of effluence and rubbish. Today this cleansing is less frequent but does still occur with high tides.
Paraty was a great place to relax and to catch up with Aldo and Greta at their nice Refúgio. Also staying there were an English/American couple: Thomas and Tamara, and we did several things together including going out on a large sailboat, going horse riding, and trying out the local Pinga: a high proof, sugarcane alcohol in a variety of flavours ! One time the three of us were stopped by the local police as we drove out of Paraty and were expected to pay a bribe. We pointed out that we were Aldo’s friends and immediately his face changed. He handed back our documentation and told us to be on our way. We found out from Aldo later that this particular policeman had messed with one of Aldo’s more influential friends before and had been posted to the back of beyond for a year !! We shouldn’t have been surprised, Aldo’s family are originally Italian !
Rio De Janiero
Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl
With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
Ok, hands up who knows the rest of the words ? It normally degenerates to: Do do do do da, do do do do da etc until complete strangers join in with…
At the Copa, Copacabana
The hottest spot north of Havana,
At the Copa, Copaca-ban-a
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa….they fell in love
If I had a pound for every time I found myself singing that tune whilst in Rio I’d be a rich man. I just could not get it out of my head !!
Rio de Janiero ! The place synonymous with Sugar Loaf Mountain, the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Carnival, beaches, beautiful woman, Copacabana beach and Barry Manilow (?) is something special. It isn’t actually a river at all but a large bay, falsely named by the Portuguese navigator Gasper de Lemos in 1502. The French, the first settlers in 1555, didn’t do much better by calling it Antarctic France. It’s surprising either of them got there in the first place !
I arrived late on a Sunday night and got a local bus to Copa, Copacabana where my hostel was located. I was a little apprehensive, Rio’s darker reputation goes before it, and the zip on my day pack chose that moment to break – good timing ! I got there safely though
I have to admit that I loved Rio. It must have one of the most beautiful natural settings of any city in the world. The view from the top of Corcovado (Christ the Redeemer) has to be seen to be believed and to see the sunset and city lights from Sugar Loaf is also something special.
It’s hard to describe what makes Brazil and, in particular, Rio special. It just has a life, a passion, an energy that I have never felt before. It’s hard to explain exactly what it is but it can’t be denied. It’s the only place I’ve been to where a single beach vendor will offer chewing gum and g-strings !
I was lucky to share a dorm and, more widely, a hostel with some great people. We had a great time going to clubs, to the beach, to bars (chewing Guaraná nuts), to fruit juice stands (the juices are simply the best, anywhere), to a beach concert of Gilberto Gil (a famous Latin American musician), as well as going to all the tourist places. Thanks everyone, it was great !
It was sad to leave in the end but everyone was moving on and the time was right.
Curitiba
Curitiba was simply a days stopover on the way from Rio to Foz. It’s a pleasant enough place, was good for shopping, has a trendy bus system but not much else. It was a 10 hr bus ride to me final stop in Brazil, Foz Do Iguaçu.
Snap Happy Again
Some of you will remember that my camera broke down in Ushuaia, in southern Argentina. I spent a lot of time looking for a replacement and even had an abortive attempt to get one through the internet (It’s a long story and it’s taken me 3 months to get my money back). Foz’s location enabled me to finally find a replacement.
Foz Do Iguaçu is located on the tri-border of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina and just over the border, in Paraguay, lies the extremely dodgy, contraband city of Ciudad del Este. It’s not a place that you want to hang out too long but it’s great for buying low price electrical goods and I was able to buy the camera that I was looking for, for the same price as in the states – bargain ! So finally I’m snap happy again. I hope that you like the results.
Foz Do Iguaçu
Ever seen the film “The Mission” with Jeremy Irons and Robert de Niro ? It’s about the Jesuit Missions here in south America (I’ll talk more about them in the next update) and during the film you often see the back drop of some beautiful waterfalls.
I remember seeing that film at college, being touched by their beauty and thinking that one day I’d love to see them. Well, the time had come. Those falls are the Iguaçu Falls.
The Iguaçu Falls are basically a long canyon over one side and one end of which flow the falls. At one end you find the semicircular Garganta del Diablo (The Devils Throat) over which 5000 cubic metres of water flows per second and drops, with a tremendous roar, 70m to it’s base !! It is a truly awesome sight, and sound !
There are two sides to the Falls: The Brazilian and the Argentinean sides both of which are reasonably devoid of development. They really help you to appreciate the falls in their natural surroundings. The Brazilian side gives you an overview of the falls as you see them from a distance. It helps you to appreciate just how huge they are. From the Argentinean side you’re “up close and personal” and generally wet !!
My command of the English language fails me to describe the falls accurately and to relay the noise, their power, their energy and their sheer beauty. From the top you feel that you could fall off of the end of the world. Look at the photos that accompany this update to get an idea about the falls but bear in mind that they don’t begin to do them justice.
Summary
It’s a funny old life isn’t it ? How often is it that the unplanned and unexpected times often give the most pleasure ? So it was with Brazil. I was only able to see a glimpse of it in the time that I had but I know that it’s changed me and has had a effect on me deeper than most other countries that I’ve visited.
Do you know what the Portuguese word is for a hummingbird ? It’s Beija Flor or Flower Kisser. That’s Brazil !
`til next time,
Iain
View Brazil in a larger map
