Day Thirty Three - São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro

Travel day today! We took the super efficient São Paulo subway to the bus station, where we said our final goodbyes to our hosts, Alexey and Laira. Our bus trip was six hours long, and we had semi-cama seats, so were pretty comfortable for the trip.

As we got closer to Rio, the rain started pouring down. By the time we got to Rio, it was like we were driving through a river. All the roads were flooded, and lots of cars were stuck in the water on the side of the road.

We took a taxi to our hostel, which was in Santa Theresa, a suburb on the hill above Centro with cobblestone streets and a tram that runs through it. It’s kind of a bohemian suburb – apparently lots of artists have studios there. The taxi driver had never heard of our hostel or the street it was on, so he drove there with our Lonely Planet map in one hand and the steering wheel in the other! The hostel is really nice – huge room with a balcony overlooking central Rio. Fantastic views!

Observations…

• So many slums leaving São Paulo. All with churches.
• All the road working guys drive white combivans.
• Emergency vechicle lights on all the time = boy who cried wolf.

Day Thirty Four – Rio de Janeiro

We started the day with breakfast at the hostel. It’s really quite an event. They cook the breakfast for you and serve you a huge plate of food – eggs, ham, cheese, bread, cake, fruit.

We took ourselves on a walking tour of central Rio today. First we visited the national library, Bibliotecha Nacional. We arrived just in time for an English-speaking tour of the library, which was really interesting! Next we visited Teatro Municipal, then a cool cathedral that has these metal statues outside. We bought our special New Year’s Eve metro passes. Rio has a special metro system for New Year’s Eve to get everyone out to Copacabana. We wandered through a street market that sells everything from loose batteries and extension cords to souvenir t-shirts to crotcheted bikinis. Pretty diverse! Our last stop of the day was Palacia Tiradentes, the old government building, where we were able to walk around the whole building. We were going to take the tram back to our hostel in Santa Theresa, but after we waited in line for nearly an hour with about 70 other people, we gave up and made our own way home!

Observations…

• It is a worry when I have to give directions to the taxi driver.
• An odd mix of people on the street who want to help you, and people on the street who want to kill you.
• It’s nice to see planes flying in and out from the airport WE are going to fly out of.

Day Thirty Five – Rio de Janeiro

Today we went on a tour of the main sights of Rio with some other people from our hostel. The van picked us all up at midday. We decided to a do a tour in Rio because the sights are all quite far apart and we only had limited time, so it was much easier to go on an organised tour rather than try and figure out how to get to each place on our own! Unfortunately it poured with rain all day, so our tour was dampened somewhat! We went to Corcodova first, which is the mountain that the famous Cristo Redentor statue is on top of. It was so foggy that when standing at the base of the statue, you couldn’t see it at all. Every so often the fog would clear for about 15 seconds, the crowd would cheer and everyone would snap as many photos as possible. So, we didn’t see much of the statue, and we definitely didn’t see any of the great views of the city that you can see from the top of the mountain!

Next to Maracana Stadium, the biggest football stadium in the world. Then to the place where the main Carnaval parade is held. Carnaval is a huge celebration that takes place all over Brazil in February, but the main parade is in Rio. There are amazing fancy costumes, samba dancers, huge floats etc… We got to see some of the costumes. Then we went to Catedral Metropolitana, which is a very modern building – it kind of looks like the Beehive, and it has these beautiful stained-glass panels inside. We were also meant to go to Pao do Acucar, also called Sugar Loaf Mountain, but since it was still pouring and foggy, we decided to save our tickets for another day when we’d be able to see the view!

Observations…

• There is no spouting on the rooves here.
• It rains well.
• Wives are handy.
• Fireworks (for the people) sound like bombs going off and have little sparkle.

Day Thirty Six – Rio de Janeiro

New Year’s Eve! We headed off on a tour of the largest favela in South America today, Rocinha, which is located near Copacabana. A favela is basically a slum or shanty town. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favelas) There are 1000 favelas in Rio de Janeiro. They are a big mess of houses – the people just build the houses wherever they can fit them. There are lots of little paths that lead through them, because all the roads have been build over the top of. There is lots of crime and drugs in favelas, and obviously poverty is a major issue there. Our tour van dropped us (along with the other 10 people on our tour) at the bottom of the favela, and we each took a motorbike taxi to the top of the hill Rocinha is on. The motorbike taxis are the taxis the people in the favelas use. Wendy’s taxi driver was a bit of a Romeo, and he was a crazy driver – he crashed into a bus! Luckily Wendy was holding on and didn’t come off the bike, but it was a bit of a near miss!

Once we were all at the top, we spent about two hours walking through the paths of the favela with our tour guide, hearing about what life is like living in a favela. There were lots of little kids following us, and they love having their photo taken and seeing it afterwards. So cute! We saw lots of gang members and drug dealers. Every time we were near a known drug dealer hangout, our tour guide would tell us all not to take photos, because the drug dealers obviously don’t want tourists taking their photo! We saw one guy from the gang that controls the favela who had a huge gun slung over his shoulder and a couple of other guns shoved in his waistband. Nice.

Apparently the only way the police can enter the favelas is in big armoured tanks, otherwise the gangs will shoot them dead. All the favelas are controlled by gangs and drug dealers. We were assured that it was quite safe for us to be there, but it was a bit freaky seeing so many gang members and bad guys! We visited an art studio, where some young artists who live in the favela paint and sell paintings of the favela. We bought one to bring home with us. They’re really talented guys.

We saw lots of bad things in the favela and lots of good things. Good things – the kids who were so happy to see us, the people selling handicrafts from their stalls, the artists in the studio; bad things – gang presence, drug dealers, falling down houses with kids looking out the windows, huge piles of rubbish, crazy bird’s nests of power lines, overflowing drains. It was a really interesting tour and definitely worth doing.

We headed out to Copacabana around 7pm for New Year’s. We both wore white tops, like the cariocas (people from Rio) do on New Year’s Eve. At Copacabana, there were four big stages set up along the beach, and it was packed with people. We hung out on the beach, watched the bands, watched the people. The fireworks at midnight were amazing – 16 tonnes of fireworks off 16 barges, 2 million people on the beach. We got sprayed with champagne, the whole beach was yelling and cheering during the fireworks. Very impressive. Great place to spend New Year’s Eve!

Observations…

• Rio knows how to party.
• Everybody is very “clap, clap, cheer, cheer”.
• People WANT to live in the favella. Even come back from overseas to live in the favella. Hmmm…
• Favellas are scary.

Day Thirty Seven – Rio de Janeiro

Feliz Ano Novo – Happy New Year!

We had a sleep in, then headed off to Pao do Acucar, Sugar Loaf Mountain, which we had missed the day of our tour. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we had great views. We took a gondola to the top and took lots of photos. Beautiful!

We spent the afternoon at Copacabana. We found an unused beach umbrella and settled under there for a few hours. It was pretty hot – 34 degrees. Every so often a man would come past with an ice block cart – we each had four ice blocks over the afternoon!

Observations…

• G-string bikinis are the most awful, pointless, unflattering things I have ever seen. And as for those mankinis?!
• People don’t worry about the suns harmful rays. Be sunsmart team.
• Tic Tacs are very big here and I like it.

Day Thirty Eight – Rio de Janeiro to Paraty

We packed up and headed to the bus station. Our whole bus to Paraty was full of tourists, which was a nice change – most of our buses have been filled with locals. The bus trip took four hours, plus a restaurant stop halfway through – it seems a bit unnecessary to have a restaurant stop on such a short bus trip! We saw lots of slips along the roads. Later we heard about the big landslide at Angra do Reis, which we drove past. 40 people died in it.

We stayed at a hostel on Jabaquara Beach at Paraty. The beach itself wasn’t as good as we thought it would be – it was a long narrow strip of sand and no surf at the beach. We made use of our hostel’s restaurant on our first night – pizzas and caiprihinas – a very Brazilian cocktail. Yum! And we listened to the live band at the restaurant!

We had an awful hot, sweaty sleep after we failed to turn on the air conditioning properly! Oops.

Observations…

• Argentina cities are grids and are easy and sensible to get around. Brazil cities are a mess.
• Taxi prices vary ALOT.
• Police here think they’re all hip with their big guns. But they have terrible cars.
• Saw a bat on the tree at the hostel.
• Found a crab in our room. Wendy chased it out.

Day Thirty Nine – Paraty

Wendy woke up to find approx 50 mosquito bites on her legs. Oh dear.

We discovered there was no water at all in Paraty – caused by all the landslides in the area. Not good to find out after a hot sweaty sleep! Ew!

We spent the day relaxing on the beach. We found a shady spot on the sand and read books, dozed. When we got back to the hostel, we realised we were sunburnt – so much for our shady spot! Oops!

Observations…

• The sun here is VERY strong.
• Why do some people walk around videoing camering everything? Are you really going to watch “view of Rio”, “me getting on the gondiler”, “my wife buying a postcard”. Take a photo!!
• It’s height of summer, mid 30s outside. But everything is so green and healthy.

Day Forty – Paraty

Still no water!

We spent the day exploring the colonial town of Paraty today. We took a horse and cart tour of the old town – very quaint! Cobblestone streets, lots of little cottages, old churches.

It was the hottest day of our trip so far – 38 degrees. We spent the day ducking in and out of the shade – the sun was so hot!

We looked through all the shops scattered throughout the town. There were lots of people in their shops actually making the things they were selling – jewellery, art, ornaments, sewing, painting.

We had dinner at a local restaurant – a very authentic meal of steak, rice, manoic flour and chips. Pretty good.

Observations…

• Oh my, it’s hot.
• In shops: Checkout 1 – Get receipt made, leave item. Checkout 2 – Pay, get receipt stamped. Checkout 3 – Get receipt checked, pick up item.

Day Forty One – Paraty to Rio de Janeiro

We had arranged the day before to get a lift from our hostel to the bus station. About five minutes before we were due to go, we checked with the receptionist and discovered the hostel’s car had broken down… So we quickly arranged for a taxi to pick us up! Our bus trip to Rio was pretty uneventful. We had some great views of the beaches.

We took a taxi from the bus station to the airport and checked in to our fancy airport hotel. So nice to be somewhere where the water worked! We explored the airport, had dinner and repacked all our stuff before going to sleep early before our flight the next morning. Quite nice to be at the airport the night before our flight and know we only had to wheel our luggage trolley out the door and we’d be at the check-in counter!

Observations…

• Communication is the key to everything.
• Yay for airport hotels.

Day Forty Two – Rio de Janeiro to Santiago to Auckland

Yay, we’re going home! We left the hotel at 5.30am and checked in for our flight. It was a little late leaving, but we were in the air around 9.30am. The flight from Rio to Santiago was pretty uneventful. We ate lunch, read the in-flight magazine, dozed. Finally arrived in Santiago. We had an eight-hour wait at Santiago airport. It’s a pretty good airport – lots of shops, restaurants etc… We did some souvenir shopping, ate, bought some duty-free. Our flight was meant to be at 11pm, but was delayed, so we left about midnight. The flight from Santiago to Auckland was 13 hours. We ate dinner as soon as we got on the plane, then went to sleep. We each got about five hours sleep, then watched movies and ate breakfast.

We landed in Auckland at 5am NZ time on Friday 8th January. We’re really happy to be back in New Zealand! Our friend David picked us up from the airport and dropped us home. We spent our first day back unpacking, doing big loads of washing and sleeping!

Observations…

• Thumbs up for home time!

Day Twenty Three – Puerto Iguazu, Argentina to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay to São Paulo, Brazil

Big travel day today. First thing, we headed to the Brazilian embassy just down the road from our hostel and double-checked that we didn´t need a visa to get in to Brazil, because we had heard some conflicting information. Thankfully, we didn´t! After breakfast, we packed up and headed to the bus station and caught a public bus to Ciudad del Este, just across the border in Paraguay. We were planning to take a bus straight from Iguazu to São Paulo, but the buses were all booked, so we had to travel to Paraguay and catch a bus from there. We thought we couldn´t get into Paraguay without a visa, but the man at the bus station that sold us our tickets assured us that we wouldn´t need a visa, as we are in transit to Brazil. The bus to del Este took us straight through to the bus station there – it was so packed with people! Looking out the window when we drove through the city, we were glad we weren´t hanging around there – heaps of stalls selling cheap electronics and the streets were packed with people!

We hung out in the bus station for a couple of hours until our bus in the afternoon. We were in the “VIP” section, which was not very VIP at all! Finally got on the big bus to São Paulo. Really nice coche cama seats – comfortable and almost fully reclining.

We got to the Paraguay border, and the bus driver told us to get off the bus to get stamped out of Paraguay. We explained that we didn´t get stamped in, so we didn´t need to get stamped out. He was adamant that we needed to. There were three other travellers on our bus with the same issue – they were told they didn´t need to get stamped in either. So, we all went in to the immigration office, and that´s where the fun started…

Apparently, we did need to get stamped in to Paraguay and we did need a visa. (Just like we told the guy we got our tickets from!) The other people – two Dutch girls and a British girl had all been told the same thing, so at least we weren’t on our own! A nice Argentine girl translated between us and the immigration people. They wanted to charge us an astronomical price for not having an entry stamp, but we argued a bit and managed to negotiate something much less. Luckily we had a stash of US dollars with us. The other girls didn’t have anything with them, though, so we lent them our spare cash. (Yes, they all paid us back later!) Finally we got our exit stamps and were allowed out! It all seemed very corrupt and not very fair, so we were glad to see the back of Paraguay! The whole debacle held the bus up for over an hour! A few hundred metres down the road was the Brazilian border, which was a breeze.

The rest of the bus trip was very uneventful. Had a great sleep in our reclining chairs!

Observations…

• At hostel you can get lunch box with ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwich, cereal bar, delicious apple and a bottle of water. All for $12 pesos. Awesome!!
• Brazilians have a quota of how much electronics they can take back into Brazil from Paraguay. I can see why.

Day Twenty Four – São Paulo

We arrived at the bus station in São Paulo, and it was gigantic and packed with people! We were wondering how on earth Laira (one of our hosts) would find us, and then suddenly there she was! One taxi ride later, we were at Alexey and Laira’s apartment. We spent the day meeting their dog, Petrushka, eating and relaxing.

In the evening, we went across the city to a wedding. Alexey was playing in a quartet there, so we went along to watch. We ended up seeing two weddings, because the earlier one was running late – they don’t seem to leave much time between them! It was at a big Catholic church. The ceremonies were very formal and quick, and the guests talked through the whole thing, and during the first ceremony, guests for the second wedding kept walking in and sitting down! So weird.

Observations…

• We catch a lot of taxis. Better than walking!
• We are getting VERY well looked after.
• No constant car horns here.

Day Twenty Five – Paulo

We had a quiet morning, then headed out in the afternoon. Ryan conducted the Sphaera Ensemble who rehearsed and recorded his music -In Their Light, Reclusion, The Attic and two NZ pieces Ryan arranged – Pokarekare Ana and Te Haranui. The session went very well and the musicians really liked the music – a great success.” Ryan will write a complete post about the afternoon on here soon.

In the evening we went to Avenida Paulista, a popular shopping street with lots of beatiful Christmas lights. We ate Brazilian food at a restaurant there – tasty marinated steak strips and chips made from something that is kind of like potato, but starts with m. Can´t quite remember the name! Wendy drank her first caiprihina cocktail – a very popular Brazilian drink. We also had our first taste of guarana, which is kind of like L&P is in NZ.

Observations…

• The Sphaera Ensemble is awesome.

Day Twenty Six – São Paulo

We headed out to the supermarket with Alexey in the morning to get food for breakfast. There were so many things we had never seen before. All kinds of bright coloured fruits and vegetables! We spent the afternoon relaxing and planning out the sights we wanted to see over the next couple of days of our stay.

Late afternoon we went out and saw Catedral Se, which is a very beautiful cathedral in the heart of São Paulo. Then we went to Teatro Municipal, which, like all the other theatres we have been to on this trip, was undergoing renovations! We also went to Catedral Monastery San Bento, which is a huge old monastery with a school attached.

We ate at a restaurant with food from Minas Gerais, which is a region near São Paulo. Lots of good food, kind of Middle Easternish.

Observations…

• Finally we’re in a country where motorcyclists have to wear helmets.
• They also have a law to not use cellphones while driving.
• Arriving Saturday we thought there was no smog in São Paulo. Wait until Monday!
• Toast here comes from the supermarket already cooked!
• Fanta is fanta, but has real oranges!! What?
• Police are NOT your friend.
• Buenos Aires street market relaxed and civilized. São Paulo market agressive and uncomfortable.

Day Twenty Seven – São Paulo

Ryan and Alexey spent the morning composing their music. In the afternoon, we went to Estacao da Luz, a beautiful old railway building. Then we went to Pinacoteca do Estado, an art musuem and looked at the Brazilian art there. Then we went to Sala São Paulo, a big theatre, but it had shut for the day.

Our last stop was Liberdade, also known as Japan Town. Lots of cool Japanese shops, restaurants etc.

We had dinner at Black Dog, a popular restaurant there, a bit like Subway.

Observations…

• Argentina was different to Chile. Uruguay was a little different to Argentina. Brazil is COMPLETELY different to all the rest.
• There are markings on the floor in the art gallery for blind people. Ummm…
• The subway here is mega!

Day Twenty Eight – São Paulo

After Ryan and Alexey spent another morning composing, we headed out on our own for a day of sightseeing and activities!

First stop was MASP, the São Paulo art musuem. It was very impressive. We saw paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso, Renoir, a sculpture exhibit by Rodin, and an exhibit of Walker Evans´ photography, which Wendy studied at university. Also saw a cool street graffiti exhibit.

Next headed back to Sala São Paulo in time for the afternoon tour, but turns out the tours are closed for summer. Oh well! Just our luck.

Next we went to Memorial a la Americana Latina. It was pouring with rain by then, so we didn`t hang out for long!

Observations…

• Sirens here are like a bad soundtrack to a sci-fi film.
• It’s not a tourist friendly city.
• We think we blend in, but people look at us as if we are some strange creature they have never seen before.
• Supermarkets don’t smell in Brazil like in Argentina.

Day Twenty Nine – São Paulo

Today was Christmas Eve and NZ cuisine day. We had promised Alexey and Laira that we would treat them to a day of typical NZ food.

We made pancakes for breakfast. Ryan did a great job of flipping pancakes. We had fruit salad and syrup with them.

For lunch we had fresh ravioli with garlic and tomatoes. More Italian than NZ, I guess, but it was something that we would typically eat!

In the afternoon, we went to the bus station and bought our tickets to Rio. The bus station was completely packed with people. Apparently there were 200,000 people through the bus station on that day. Crazy!

For dinner we made our favourite chorizo, potato and chickpea salad. We watched fireworks out the window of the apartment. There are lots of parties and fireworks on Christmas Eve in Brazil.

Observations…

• At shops the gift wrapping is do it yourself.
• Buying a bus ticket? Write down destination and date. So easy.
• Pets are big here.
• Here you stay up and party until Christmas day.
• Fireworks non-stop from 7pm until well after midnight. Huge crazy ones that are illegal in NZ. Sounded like a warzone.

Day Thirty – São Paulo

Merry Christmas! Oh, actually, Feliz Natal!

We started the day with pao do quejos for breakfast, which is a typical ‘special’ breakfast in Brazil. They are basically cheese scones served hot.

For Christmas lunch, Laira cooked a fantastic lasagne – very different from lasagnes we’re used to, but it tasted great. Thanks, Laira!

We gave Alexey and Laira the presents we had brought with us from NZ. Lots of Kiwiana souvenirs.

We spent the afternoon at Parque Do Ibirapuera, which is a big park around two lakes – lots of families and people biking, walking and rollerblading. As we were leaving we noticed crowds of people gathering around the lake. We found out they were waiting for a fountain light show. We joined the crowds and found a good spot to wait. The show was OK – not quite the extravaganza we were expecting, but we got to see the huge Christmas tree at the park all lit up, so that made it worth it!

We had breads and dips for dinner and red Chilean wine. So, that was our Brazilian Christmas! Thanks, Alexey and Laira, for a great day!

Observations…

• When we take the stairs, people look at us strange as they fight to get on to the escalator.
• Don’t stare at people on the subway!

Day Thirty One – São Paulo

We headed off to the São Paulo Zoologico today. There were thousands of animals there all with their own little cage. Very different atmosphere from NZ zoos. Crowds of people would stand waiting and would cheer and applaud when the animals moved or did something special.

After the zoo we went across the city to a street full of music shops. There were at least 30 shops there!

Later that night, we had ice cream sundaes from a per kilo ice cream shop. You make your own sundae, and they weigh it and charge you per kilo. Per kilo is a very popular style of restaurant in Brazil.

We were all pretty tired after lots of walking, so we had a quiet night. Ryan and I watched ET on DVD.

Observations…

• Boy on the train walks down putting lollies in your lap or balances on your leg. Then once given to everyone, he’ll walk back down and collect money for the lollies.
• Full length body suits are in fashion.

Day Thirty Two – São Paulo

Last day in São Paulo today. We headed out to check out the shops in the morning.

In the afternoon, Ryan and Alexey worked on their music.

We all decided to go to the movies and see Avatar (English audio for us, Portuguese subtitles for them). When we got there, tickets were sold out! So we had an early dinner instead and spent the night repacking our bags and swapping photos.

Observations…

• Bookshops are very hard to find here.
• In Argentina you say you don’t speak much Spanish, they help you and it’s easy. In Brazil you say you don’t speak much Portuguese and they are persistent with their long sentences.