Beautiful Brazil

We crossed over to Brazil, Porto Iguaçu to be exact, in a luxury car (compliments of Andrea's Iguacu tour) with a driver who couldn’t speak English or understand our limited Spanish as he was... Brazilian!! Welcome to Brazil... Goodbye Spanish and welcome to Portuguese! At least we didn’t even have to get out of the car to stamp our passports as our Brazilian driver did it all for us!

From there we flew to Porto Alegre to meet up with Lisha’s friend from Tahoe, Caro – where we stayed with her family for 3 days! We arrived in Porto Alegre on Saturday afternoon, ready to party that night in true Brazilian style with Caro and her Brazilian girlfriends. We went to Caro’s friend’s birthday party – got our first (but def not last) taste of Brazil's national cocktail, the Caipirinha (made with cachaca, which is sugar cane rum, sugar & lime) and set out on the town after learning more about Brazilian culture from all the single Brazilian girls! We had a really fun night out - with Caro's friend Gia trying to 'hook us up' with Brazilian boys by acting as our translator and match maker!
The food market in Porto Alegre
View in Porto Alegre
We took the bus on that rainy Sunday to Caxias do Sul, to visit a friend we had met in Chile, Victor! Caxias do Sul was established by Italian immigrants and is also a wine-producing area in Brazil (although we later figured out we couldn't afford the wine in Brazil). We spent the day there, getting a taste of Brazilian/Itialian cuisine, and getting a personal tour of the town and surrounding areas. The following day we set out to explore the town of Porto Alegre and do some sightseeing, afterwhich we grabbed a bus to Florianapolis on what was our first busride in Brazil and definitely a dodgy bus ride at that, comparable with bus-riding in Bolivia!

A 'bunch of glass' in Caxias do Sul!

We arrived in Florianopolis early the next morning and after 2 local busrides, getting dropped off at the wrong stop, walking up a giant hill in the morning heat - we finally arrived at our backpackers, Sunset Backpackers (we met one of the hostel owners at Millhouse in BA), and he was insistant that there is only one place to stay in Flori, and he was right - this was the view of the lagoon from our backpackers:

All worth it though, as we were finally experiencing Brazilian paradise and we're booked into a private room with a double bed, small balcony and an amazing view - Andrea and I dubbed it the 'honeymoon suite':

No time was wasted as we went on a tour of the Florianopolis beaches that afternoon with our backpackers in their magic school bus, complete with disco lights and matching sounds system. The spent a chilled out afternoon lazing about on the beaches and watching the sunset, we also met some cool peeps on the tour and spent the next couple of days with them!

We liked Florianopolis so much, the hostel owner convinced us to change our flights - which we did after he helped us and so ended up spending an extra day in Flori before we set of for the rest of Brazil.

Next stop RIO BABY!! ...but not quiet yet as we flew to Rio, got there and then directly went to the bus station to grab a bus to Buzios (a nearby beach resort), also known as the St.Tropez of Brazil and playground to the rich and famous! Our hostel, Nomad Buzious Seashore Hostel, was right on the beach - and we were loving living it up in the lap of luxury! We spent our days lying on the beach - sipping on Caipirinhas, eating oysters, eating fruit salad dessert... all while lying on the beach!! One word for this place and that's AMAZING! The cobble-stoned, fairy-lit street of Buzios:

Yummy, Oysters on the beach!View from our hostel:

On our last day we went on a booze cruise with all-you-can-drink-Caipirinhas and rushed from the boat to our hostel to grab our backpacks and make our bus to Rio... just in time, and arrived safely in Rio, ready and amped for Saturday night!
In Rio, we stayed at a hostel called CabanaCopa in Copacabana... and we made some friends & went out to a local bar called Emporio in Ipanema on the Saturday night. We spent the next day walking along the Copacabana beach, and explored the areas of Ipanema and Leblon, going to the hippy market in Ipanema and running into Capoeira performers on the beachfront. That night we signed up to go to a Favela party (term used for shanty town in Brazil) with our hostel and whole group of hostel friends, something not many well-off Caiocas (Residents of Rio) would do!! However our tour operator (Don't be a gringo, be a local) assured us there is no reason to be scared as we were 15 vans with roughly 10 people in each van all going together - basically a 150 gringos all heading to a party in the Favelas! We arrived in a massive warehouse-looking club with thousands of Favela locals getting down to Favela Funk! 'think African Kwaito type style music' Luckily the gringos had a 'VIP' section upstairs - so we could get use to our new surroundings before joining the masses who were dancing like we've never seen people dance before. The guys mostly weren't wearing shirts, their shirt was safely rolled up and tucked into the back of their jeans and the girls wore tight clothes and tiny dresses but somehow managed to 'hit the floor' or 'get down' in a way only Brazilian girls can! We had a massively fun night after we got over the initial shell-shock, and this was definitely one of the funnest nights we had in Rio!!

Not all Favela'd -out yet, we followed up the Favela party with a tour of the Favelas the next day! WOW, this was definitely an experience! We went to Rocinha, the largest Favela in Rio, and got escorted on moto-taxis (basically getting a lift on the back of a motorbike) up the steep street hills of this crowded Favela. Our photography was restricted during the tour as there are some areas that are not to be photographed, this is as per gang regulations - for example we couldn't taken any photos going in or out of the Favelas as the entry and exit locations is to be kept 'secret'. This was definitely a pity as we saw some very interesting sights such a guys driving on the back on moto-taxis with an AK-47 in hand! We also walked past numerous gang members with guys hiding under the jackets or stuck in the back of their pants, all equiped with walkie-talkies so that they can communicate with each other. This particular Favela is run by a gang called Amigos dos Amigos (ADA), which translates to friends of friends!

We met up with our friends from Florianapolis that evening in Leblon, the chic beachfront suburb in Rio.

On Tuesday , we decided to try out the beaches of Rio, especially the world famous Copacabana beach; the weather didn't quite turn out as forecasted, and unfortunately we never got to experience Copacabana beach in true brazilian style, but this is always an excuse to go back, VERY soon!! Brazilian beaches:

The following day, we set out on a city tour of Rio visiting the neighbourhood of Santa Theresa by a small , really old fashioned tram , which actually made headline news when it crashed only a few days after we were there.

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Mix in trendy Leblon was the party for that night. All you can drink caiprinhas until 12pm, for only 15 real, which is about R60. It was enough to set us up for the night.

Finally the sun had come out in Rio and and we headed for the absolute 'must-sees' , Christ the redeemer statue and Sugarloaf. The views were spectacular and the absolute beauty and spirit of Rio shown off from these view points. Ashamed to admit, it made the view from Table Mountain look rather silly..... Rio, to date , the most beautiful city we had seen in the world!!!! Christ the Redeemer statue:

Sunset from Sugarloaf:

Our last night in Rio was spent with the locals, making our own caiprinhas at one of their apartments and visiting some neighbouring pubs, by the time we got there most had closed, but the drinking on the street continued, some very clever people have coolerboxes on the side of the streets and sell to you straight from there.

The next morning we were off to Isla Grande, meaning 'big island'. It is Brazil's biggest island and also has one of the top 10 beaches in the world,Lopes Mendez. The island has no cars and the only way to get around is to walk or to take a water taxi to the other side. It has a very small population but plenty backpackers, restauarants and parties!! It is safe to walk everywhere and has a real community feel :-) simply put, paradise :-) The first day there, we embarked on a hike, which was a little longer than anticipated and almost all of the team had some close moments along the way negotiating the sometimes steep rocky paths. The hard work was rewarded though when we reached our beautiful destination, what looked like a deserted small town and ate at a local restaurant, which is more like the porch of somebodys house. You also had to wait for the hosts to finish showering and brushing their teeth before you could use the 'restaurant' bathroom!! Lucky we had experienced this all before in Peru and Bolivia.
Hiking on Ilha Grande:
The next day we headed out to the top 10 beach Lopes Mendez on the water taxi; totally unpopulated Lopes mendez is beautiful; and the weather played its part too, a perfect beach day :-)
A perfect day at Lopes Mendez beach:
The water taxi

Apart from hiking and beaching we enjoyed the most delicious food on the small island, some great meals out and some great parties!!
Dinner on the beach on the island of Isla Grande:

Our last coastal town stop was in Paraty, heading down the coast and making our way towards Sau Paulo. Paraty is a historic town and os also well known for its beaches and waterfalls...! Here we once again enjoyed some great dinners, some good parties (including a local beach braai party) and the mean caiprinhas served by the Che Lagarto barman!! We visited nearby Trinidad, which had some stunning beaches, and did a waterfall tour, which takes you to a few unique waterfalls, one of which you can slide all the way down , and visited a local cachaca mill (brazilian national drink)

Historical Paraty . It was really sad leaving Paraty, knowing that we were headed to the big city of Sau Paulo for just one night , and then it woud be time to go home, this was our last taste of Brazilian coastal towns, beaches, local parties on the beaches and midday caiprinhas in the sun...

We didnt see much of Sau Paulo as we were only there for one night, it is one of the biggest cities in the world, but more a city to work in than one for tourists. We had a farewell dinner and drinks with Imke and Stu, sad that our travelling party was now going to split ways :-( and the following morning tried to do some last minute (not so successful shopping) and enjoyed the last of the brazilian markets , then it was time to make our way off to the international airport, homeward bound...!! Excited to go home and see family and friends but devastated that these incredible three months were coming to an end! The airport was chaos (never seen anythign like it before) but we finally made our way on to flight SAA 233, destination: South Africa!! What an incredible experience this had been!!!!