Brazil
Have just finished my two weeks in Brazil!! It has been such a wonderfully fantastic trip, and I recommend everyone to go and experience the samba spirit at some point. When I left Taiwan I remember the faces of some people when I told them I was heading to Brazil, they looked as if I was crazy and heading to war in Afghanistan. Seriously, provide you are diligent and not flashing your wads of $100 notes around it has been such a comfortable and safe country. The happy spirit is everywhere, people burst into songs that binds strangers together on public transports, and if people are in the mood they just grab you and start dancing (it was quite a challenging dancing on the tram descending at 45degrees down the Corcovado Christ Redeemer hill), not to mention the Samba clubs at night at Rio!
Start from the beginning, those who knows my bad luck in travelling wont be disappointed by my way from Taiwan to Iguassu Falls. How naive was I to think that nothing would go wrong with a travelling plan from Taipei-Narita-Portland-Atlanta-Buenos Airies-Iguassu. As I smirked to myself on the plane from Atlanta to BA thinking I am doing extremely well with my transiting, I looked at the little plane icon on the map in horror as we did a sharp right turn and looked as if we were going to land in Santiago, Chile. Yes, the plane surely got diverted due to the volcanic ash and after travelling for 50 hours I was in the wrong bloody country! And to make the matter worse, apparently the pilot signalled to the Chilean govement before the plane landed that the plane was in fact being hijacked, so we landed facing a line of policemen and had to sit in the plane going through an extensive search, in which I had to explain why I have so many passports...So, about 70 hours later and transferring from Santiago to Sao Paulo to Iguassu I arrived at the Iguassu Jungle lodge in Argentina! (something else happened that even though I held the boarding card at Santiago, TAM airline claimed that some brazilian dude was sitting at my seat from Sao Paulo to Iguassu, luckily I screamed and kicked loud enough for them to let me on the last leg! I actually think I was having a nervous breakdown by that point thinking I cannot spend another night adrift...) I was quite lucky that the driver actually worked in Japan for 10 years and spoke Japanese as looking back at the two weeks, it is a bit suicidal to travel south america with no Spanish under my belt. Thank god YM spoke spanish good enough to get us by...phew!!
Iguassu was raining when I arrived, dampening the spirit just that little further. But the sky suddenly cleared as we took a boat ride underneath the waterfall and got drenched. Drenched is probably an understatement as my small camera drowned and refused to work for days. We got a glimpse of the beautiful constant rainbow that just hangs over the waterfall, which added colour to the the freezing and soaking wet adventure even more memorable! We also went to the bird park and saw the cutest puffiest toucan! I wanted to poke it but was afraid its giant beak might bite my finger off.
After Iguassu we went onto Sao Paulo on an overnight bus, which admittedly was quite comfortable compared to the unorganised, subzero temp ones of Uyuni Bolivia. We bought the most expensive blanket at the only opportunist store at the bus station, a whopping 40GBP!! But it served its life very well on our subsquent journeys to the beach as a beach blanket!
Paraty was one of my favourite colonial towns in Brazil. We stayed in a quaint little pousada built by the owners father a bit further away from historic centre. Most of the city centre lodgeings were booked out as we managed to catch one of the annual literacy festivals. On arrival the pousada receptionist sat us down and marked the only traffic light in town which is situated on a straight road between the pousada and historical centre. At first we were wondering why it was so important, but later realised its definitive importance of finding our way home when one has way too many cachcas and capirinhas. We enjoyed the outdoor music and dance everynight as everyone sat outside drinking their hearts out, YM and I both got hit on by guys! haha! And to add to the craziness we decided it was a good idea to slide down this skull breaking waterfall, where I had the option to either break my leg or bruise and scrape my bumb as i slipped and came down with the current at full speed...and the only consolation to make it better is by going to the nearby cachaca brewery to drink more to ease the physical pain.
We went to several beautiful secluded beaches and natural swimming pools. By the time we got to Ilha Grande the weather cleared up and the azure sky showed its face. YM and i decided to begin a trail of 8km to Dois Rios which intially seemed harmless, but later on became my ride of death as we decend the hill with large boulders and the most inadequate and ergonomically incorrect bike (the handle bar was shaped as if it is used for local to carry large fruit baskets upon, and i only had a front break with no backbreaks or lights). Everything was patched up as we came through the forest clearing to be met by the local police, and i nearly hugged him when he said the beach was 3 minutes away! It was a vast span of prestine beachline all to ourselves, and made the journey truly worthwhile.
I nearly drowned at the blue lagoon as stupid me didn´t know how to snorkel properly. I drank lots of pungent seawater which burnt my throat, but at the time we thought it was bacteria infection and decided to remedie the situation by chucking down more alcohol to sterilise the infection. Only about 2 days later when I started coughing violently feeling a flap of skin at the back of my throad did I realise I probably burnt it, and the additional gallons of alcohol probably didn´t really help...After taking a quick hour of samba lesson we head straight to Rio Scenarium and Democratus in the Lapa Samba Clubs district in Rio. Maybe it was the cachca and other concotions but we felt like we were actually dancing the Forro pretty well!! I just loved the happy music and happy spirit in everyone.
The last day was marked by us paragliding over Rio city, landing on one of the prestine beaches of Rio. People take real care of their public beaches, and it really was such a honour to be able to enjoy the smooth white sand and the nearly trashless beach. The proximity for people living in Rio must be a real bliss, able to walk to the beach and up the mountain and to the lake in less than 10 minutes. And the food and drinks had been more than wonderful, all you can eat sushi buffet, all you can eat gaucho grill, freshest fruit juice bars, for once my skin hasn´t gone to pots from all the travelling and actually is looking good with all the fresh vegetable and morango (strawberry) juice I have been intaking.
A note on Brazilian cocktails. The use of measuring shotglass is completely redundant. We watch the bartender constantly poured the cachaca into the cup, and watch it overflowing for the next 5 seconds. A glass of capirinha in Brazil probably contains 3 more units than British cocktails. I attempted to make a list of total alcohol intake, and here it is!
wine: 2 bottles
sake: 1 bottle
capirihina: 28
cachaca: 16
mojito: 4
cuba libre: 2
pina colada: 2
hi fi: 2
beer: 1
Shots
cachaca: 2
taquila: 4
vodka: 6
cachaca 42 (tasted rank and only costed 2R!): 2
dumeq: 4
random stuff which cant recall: +- 20
Start from the beginning, those who knows my bad luck in travelling wont be disappointed by my way from Taiwan to Iguassu Falls. How naive was I to think that nothing would go wrong with a travelling plan from Taipei-Narita-Portland-Atlanta-Buenos Airies-Iguassu. As I smirked to myself on the plane from Atlanta to BA thinking I am doing extremely well with my transiting, I looked at the little plane icon on the map in horror as we did a sharp right turn and looked as if we were going to land in Santiago, Chile. Yes, the plane surely got diverted due to the volcanic ash and after travelling for 50 hours I was in the wrong bloody country! And to make the matter worse, apparently the pilot signalled to the Chilean govement before the plane landed that the plane was in fact being hijacked, so we landed facing a line of policemen and had to sit in the plane going through an extensive search, in which I had to explain why I have so many passports...So, about 70 hours later and transferring from Santiago to Sao Paulo to Iguassu I arrived at the Iguassu Jungle lodge in Argentina! (something else happened that even though I held the boarding card at Santiago, TAM airline claimed that some brazilian dude was sitting at my seat from Sao Paulo to Iguassu, luckily I screamed and kicked loud enough for them to let me on the last leg! I actually think I was having a nervous breakdown by that point thinking I cannot spend another night adrift...) I was quite lucky that the driver actually worked in Japan for 10 years and spoke Japanese as looking back at the two weeks, it is a bit suicidal to travel south america with no Spanish under my belt. Thank god YM spoke spanish good enough to get us by...phew!!
Iguassu was raining when I arrived, dampening the spirit just that little further. But the sky suddenly cleared as we took a boat ride underneath the waterfall and got drenched. Drenched is probably an understatement as my small camera drowned and refused to work for days. We got a glimpse of the beautiful constant rainbow that just hangs over the waterfall, which added colour to the the freezing and soaking wet adventure even more memorable! We also went to the bird park and saw the cutest puffiest toucan! I wanted to poke it but was afraid its giant beak might bite my finger off.
After Iguassu we went onto Sao Paulo on an overnight bus, which admittedly was quite comfortable compared to the unorganised, subzero temp ones of Uyuni Bolivia. We bought the most expensive blanket at the only opportunist store at the bus station, a whopping 40GBP!! But it served its life very well on our subsquent journeys to the beach as a beach blanket!
Paraty was one of my favourite colonial towns in Brazil. We stayed in a quaint little pousada built by the owners father a bit further away from historic centre. Most of the city centre lodgeings were booked out as we managed to catch one of the annual literacy festivals. On arrival the pousada receptionist sat us down and marked the only traffic light in town which is situated on a straight road between the pousada and historical centre. At first we were wondering why it was so important, but later realised its definitive importance of finding our way home when one has way too many cachcas and capirinhas. We enjoyed the outdoor music and dance everynight as everyone sat outside drinking their hearts out, YM and I both got hit on by guys! haha! And to add to the craziness we decided it was a good idea to slide down this skull breaking waterfall, where I had the option to either break my leg or bruise and scrape my bumb as i slipped and came down with the current at full speed...and the only consolation to make it better is by going to the nearby cachaca brewery to drink more to ease the physical pain.
We went to several beautiful secluded beaches and natural swimming pools. By the time we got to Ilha Grande the weather cleared up and the azure sky showed its face. YM and i decided to begin a trail of 8km to Dois Rios which intially seemed harmless, but later on became my ride of death as we decend the hill with large boulders and the most inadequate and ergonomically incorrect bike (the handle bar was shaped as if it is used for local to carry large fruit baskets upon, and i only had a front break with no backbreaks or lights). Everything was patched up as we came through the forest clearing to be met by the local police, and i nearly hugged him when he said the beach was 3 minutes away! It was a vast span of prestine beachline all to ourselves, and made the journey truly worthwhile.
I nearly drowned at the blue lagoon as stupid me didn´t know how to snorkel properly. I drank lots of pungent seawater which burnt my throat, but at the time we thought it was bacteria infection and decided to remedie the situation by chucking down more alcohol to sterilise the infection. Only about 2 days later when I started coughing violently feeling a flap of skin at the back of my throad did I realise I probably burnt it, and the additional gallons of alcohol probably didn´t really help...After taking a quick hour of samba lesson we head straight to Rio Scenarium and Democratus in the Lapa Samba Clubs district in Rio. Maybe it was the cachca and other concotions but we felt like we were actually dancing the Forro pretty well!! I just loved the happy music and happy spirit in everyone.
The last day was marked by us paragliding over Rio city, landing on one of the prestine beaches of Rio. People take real care of their public beaches, and it really was such a honour to be able to enjoy the smooth white sand and the nearly trashless beach. The proximity for people living in Rio must be a real bliss, able to walk to the beach and up the mountain and to the lake in less than 10 minutes. And the food and drinks had been more than wonderful, all you can eat sushi buffet, all you can eat gaucho grill, freshest fruit juice bars, for once my skin hasn´t gone to pots from all the travelling and actually is looking good with all the fresh vegetable and morango (strawberry) juice I have been intaking.
A note on Brazilian cocktails. The use of measuring shotglass is completely redundant. We watch the bartender constantly poured the cachaca into the cup, and watch it overflowing for the next 5 seconds. A glass of capirinha in Brazil probably contains 3 more units than British cocktails. I attempted to make a list of total alcohol intake, and here it is!
wine: 2 bottles
sake: 1 bottle
capirihina: 28
cachaca: 16
mojito: 4
cuba libre: 2
pina colada: 2
hi fi: 2
beer: 1
Shots
cachaca: 2
taquila: 4
vodka: 6
cachaca 42 (tasted rank and only costed 2R!): 2
dumeq: 4
random stuff which cant recall: +- 20
posted by Annie @ 9:31 PM
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