Living it up in Rio
July 29, 2005
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
We have been in Rio for the past 3 days and are loving it. This city is amazing, by far the best of the cities we've been to in Brazil. Even though it is the middle of winter here, the temperature is very comfortable and the beaches are still packed. We are staying in Ipanema, which is the beach right next to the infamous Copacabana. We randomly found a great hostel that is full of fellow backpackers from all over the world.
We have been busy doing all the touristy stuff and seeing as much of the Brazilian culture as possible before we leave. Yesterday, we went up to Corcadova to see the famous "Christ the Redeemer" statue that overlooks Rio. We have also found time to go to a Brazilian soccer game, watch some capoeira (Brazilian dance/fighting), hear some live samba music, eat at churrascarias, and go to the beach.
We take off tomorrow for stop #2 on our trip - Lisbon, Portugal.
Posted by tim at 04:21 PM | Comments (3)
Gustavo and Gustavo
July 27, 2005
Sao Paulo, Brazil
While attending an Accenture training session last year, I became friends with two guys from Sao Paulo - both named Gustavo. When Tim and I began planning for the trip, I wrote to them to get some inside info for our time in Brazil. After writing back and forth, Tim and I decided that we definitely wanted to visit the two of them. We could not have imagined more gracious hosts! Gustavo J. picked us up from the airport, which was well out of his way. Sao Paulo is the third largest city in the world, and it definitely felt that was true as we drove into town.
After picking us up, Gustavo J. dropped us at a hotel he had found for us. A few hours later, he came back with his girlfriend to pick us up for dinner. We met up there with the other Gustavo V. and a couple of his friends. Tim and I had been wondering about whether their friends would speak English, but they were all completely fluent - one of them even worked as an English teacher.
It was incredible what a difference it made having friends to show us around in a new place. After spending a week up in the Amazon with very few English speakers, it was so nice to be able to communicate with locals and ask all the questions we had. When we finished dinner, we said our goodbyes, and Gustavo V. offered to give us a ride back to our hotel. Along the way he gave a tour of the city, through a bunch of different areas. Their hospitality was far and above what we could have ever expected, and it made our time in Sao Paulo one of the hightlights of the trip thus far.
Thank you Gustavos!
Posted by tim at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)
The Amazon Boat Cruise (Disaster)
July 22, 2005
Santarém, Brazil
When planning our trip to Brazil, we decided to spend about one week in the Amazon and one week in Sao Paulo/Rio. The highlight of our Amazon trip was going to be a 4 day boat cruise down the Amazon river from Manaus to Belém. The description in our guidebook sounded great - spend your days lazily swinging in hammocks while watching the Amazon rainforest go by. We pictured a nice, relaxing ride as we sipped our beer and spotted monkeys swinging from the trees on the shore. The reality of the trip, however, did not live up to our expectations.
First of all, the boat was much more crowded than we had anticipated. We had opted for first class tickets, which just means that you hang your hammock on the second floor of the boat instead of the first, but apparently everyone else did the same thing. There were hammocks everywhere. It was so packed that all the hammocks were touching and overlapping, so if one person started swinging, everyone started swinging and bumping into each other.
And then there were the bathrooms...in one word, disgusting. There were 4 shower/bathrooms that everyone shared. They were tiny little rooms with a toilet and a showerhead directly on top of it. In addition to the smell, there was always a layer of water on the ground that never seemed to drain. Oh, and the shower head leaked too, so when you used the bathroom, you were constantly being dripped on.
Then on top of this, or perhaps because of this, I got sick. And let me tell you, those bathrooms are about the worst place imaginable to be sick. The constant motion of the boat didn't help to settle my stomach either, but this is probably more than you wanted to know. So anyway, when the boat finally docked in Santarém (halfway to Belém) at 2 am (7 hours after we were told it was supposed to arrive), we got off to find a hotel. This proved to be yet another challenge as the four hotels we tried in Santarém were all full. Our taxi driver convinced us to go to Alter do Chão, a small beach town 35 km away, where we found a small pousada (Brazilian bed & breakfast) that had an open room.
The good news is that things have been going much better since we got here. Emily has helped nurse me back to health, and I am feeling much better now. And this little town has been a nice break from the big cities we have been staying in so far. We have both agreed not to take a boat the rest of the way to Belém, so we will try to get a cheap flight the rest of the way instead. We just have to be there by Sunday morning to catch our flight to Sao Paulo.
Posted by tim at 01:18 PM | Comments (1)
Amazon Jungle Trip
July 19, 2005
Manaus, Brazil (Amazonas)
We had originally hoped for a 3 day, 2 night jungle trip but in order to make it to Belém in time for our flight on Sunday we have to leave Manaus by boat by Tuesday. So we still had time for a quick 1 night, 1.5 day trip. We just arrived back in Manaus and are about to catch the boat. It was a lot of fun...we'll have to come back to see the rest. Here are the highlights of our jungle expedition:
Meeting of the Waters
On the way to the jungle lodge, we stopped briefly at the "meeting of the waters". This is where the Rio Amazonas meets the Rio Negro. Because the two rivers have such different temperatures, velocities, and densities, they flow side-by-side for about 7 km before they start mixing. Quite strange. The Amazon river is the muddy-colored one and the Rio Negro is the dark one.
Piranha Fishing
Our first activity once we got into the rainforest was piranha fishing. We took a small canoe into the flooded forest (ígapos). In the Amazon the rainy season lasts from January to June. During this time the entire area floods and although it is already July, the forest was still flooded. You could see from the lines on the trees that the water had been about 5-6 feet higher before.
So we took our canoe into the middle of the forest and started fishing. Our technique was rather primitive - a hook and line tied to a stick. We used small pieces of steak as bait and just had to pull up if we felt a bite. I ended up being the lucky one in the boat by catching 2 piranha.
Caiman Spotting
After watching the sunset over Mira lake, we went looking for caiman (alligator). Our guide used a flashlight to find them (I have no idea how he saw them) and then grabbed one with his bare hands! It was about 2 feet long.
Amazon wildlife
Even though we only had one and a half days in the jungle, we still saw our fair share of wildlife, including spider monkeys, saki monkeys, dolphins (only the gray river dolphins; unfortunately, we didn't see the pink ones which also live there), iguanas, piranhas, caiman (alligator), and lots of birds and lots of insects. We saw a ton of different birds, in all shapes, sizes, and colors. There were also a lot of butterflies and dragonflies everywhere.
Posted by tim at 12:06 PM | Comments (4)