Brazil! Loves & Hates

Brazil is a fantastic country and since its my last day here and I have free internet, I figured I would clue you in to some of the best things about Brazil.

• Churrascira (Brazil BBQ) is a buffet for less than $5 USD you get all you can eat. The meat guy brings around and slices meat at your table until you cannot have any more. Yummy!
• They are sharing & social people. At a resteraunt, they serve beer in large bottles (600 ml) and bring you small glasses to share with your friends. Its odd to them to order your own beer and drink it all yourself.
• The beautiful people (they are everywhere)
• Landscape - we have seen much through the side of our bus windows and it is green and lush. The dirt is a red-brown and has altered the color of our flip flops, but it makes for an excellent contrast. The deep green hues and lush trees vs. the red of the rocks and ground.
• Beaches ~Impanema is my favorite!
• Rio de Janero
• Waterfalls- not only does Igazu totally kick butt, we were able to go swimming in 6 or 7 other ones in various parts of Brazil. This has been my favorite activity while in Brazil.
• Coxina - a little ball of chicken that is fried with something. Yummy! totally awful for you to eat no doubt.
• Its realtively cheap here (we have lived on $60 usd a day)
• the ´angels´that have come to our rescue along the way -- when we were unable to communicate in Portugese and were lucky enough to come to our aid.
• Havaianas

Things I wont miss:

• Plastic napkins (seriously, if its not absorbant what is the point???)
• You cant flush toliet paper down the toliet ... you must put it in a trashcan next to the toliet
• Couples (old, young, teenagers, whatever) make out EVERYWHERE here. Waiting for the bus, walking down the street, at a resteraunt, EVERYWHERE.
• All the food is salty and rather unhealthy (with the exception of the delicious tropical fruit).
• Wierd shower heads that I could possibly electricute myself with.
• Extremely few and far between English speakers.

ps. more pics in the same old album ... I will be starting a new one soon!

Falls of Igauzu

We arrived after three not luxurious buses to the Falls of Igauzu, Brazil. We had the pleasure of taking two local buses to our hostel. It was very simply done and the landmark to get off was none other than McDonalads double arches. The hostel is not impressive, but oh well, its cheap.

We arrived at the hostel before 11 am and were unable to check in. We stored our stuff and headed off to the main attraction on a local bus. The waterfalls are near the border with Argentina and Paraguay, but we decided to see the Brazilian side first. They are very impressive. The pictures, big surprise, do not do it justice. We had a nice walk through the jungle and it only cost $8 something USD to get in. We snapped tons of pictures (the best have been uploaded to my Brazil web album) and came back into town.

We went Itiapu Dam and Power Plant for a tour on Thursday. It is the worlds largest hydroelectric plant in power output. They generate 90% of Paraguays power here and 20% of Brazils. It was an immense dam but it has not rained enough recently, so it was not very exciting to see. Very little watter was visable from where we stood. Oh well, it wasnt expensive and the bus ride was a random trip.

We then spent the afternoon going to Paraguay. It sucked. I posted a picture of it in the album, too, but it is not worth seeing. They refused to give us passport stamps (because we didnt have a visa to be in the country) and I was unable to find a post office or a postcard to mail myself. Upon my attempt to re-enter Brazil, I got in trouble for not having the exit card. They even went to the trouble of finding someone who spoke a little English to explain that I needed to have an exit card to leave Brazil. I was trying to re-enter Brazil, so this didnt make much sense but I apologized and explained it was back at the hostel and they finally let me depart.

Tomorrow -- Argentina side of the falls and then a long bus trip towards Urugauy!

Bonito

bonito means beautiful in portugese. as a town, it is not so beautiful but there are lots of beautiful things to see and do within a few kms from town.

We are staying at the HI Bonito Hostel. It has AC (praise the lord!), a pool, and accepts credit cards. Breakfast is included in the price and was pretty nice this morning. The room is clean and comfy, it is sooo nice after being in the Pantanhal. Its like being in a resort.

We went snorkeling in the Barra of Sucuri River. They had all the equipment we needed and gave us wet suits. The water was so refreshing! It was my first time snorkeling and it was very enjoyable -- although our guide did not speak English, we played the ´follow the leader´game. (We watched what the Brazilians did, and then copied them.) After we had all of our gear on, we paddled upstream against the current. There were 7 of us and the guide, only 3 of us apparently knew how to paddle. The two ladies didnt even attempt to try paddling from what Mike and I saw. Good thing Mike and I were along to carry these folks upstream. We then got out of the boat and just floated down and soaked it all in. All you hear when snorkeling is the sounds you make, everything else is silenced by the water. As I never understand what people are saying here, it was nice to have a different kind of silence. We did not get to see millions of fish -- just four varities, but they were plentiful and quite large. I was also able to enjoy the different vegetation as we floated down stream.

Our second day tour was of waterfalls. We saw 7 waterfalls, ranging in size and shape. We got to go swimming in 5 of them. The first one is pretty and scenic and we got some great shots. It proceeded to start raining after the 2nd one and rained most of the rest of the tour, so we dont have as many pictures of the later ones since we put the camera away to protect it. One waterfall had a small cave you could swim into after you passed under it which was fun. Since it was raining, we got to see the rain dripping on the stalactites. There was also a waterfall and a place to jump off -- I am way too chicken for that sort of thing. They are very concerned about preserving the ecology of the area (which is wonderful) and that was why we were not allowed to climb around on everything and go in every waterfall. It was a great fun day -- and the rain probably made for better views of the waterfall.

The Pantanal

...did not live up to its expectations. We arrived in Campo Grande, Brazil and booked a 3 day tour with Ecological Expeditions.

The trip started off on a good foot, we missed our bus by 5 minutes and had to ´catch´it. As the small van from the hostel weaved through traffic and caught our bus, we knew we were in for an adventure.

We never would have survived with out 100% DEET insect repellant that Mike brought along. Regular OFF or bug spray will not do in the slightest. I have never experinced misquotos so badly before in my life.

We slept in hammocks and had no fans. It was impossibly hot the entire time. Our áctivities´consisted of: a safari, piranha fishing, horseback riding, & a boat tour. When we went on the ´safari´and ´hiked´through the woods, it was really a misquto feeding. The buzz buzzzzz of the misqutos never left my ears. I was constantally in motion attempting to swat them away. We saw some minimal animals but it was most unpleasant. Piranha fishing is exactly the same as regular fishing, just that you catch fish with nasty teeth. They were cooked for dinner that evening and tasted surprisingly fishy. The horseback ride was the most enjoyable activity, but my horse was getting into it with the other ones and kept attempting to bite every other horse.

I am happy to be back at a hostel... in Bonito (which means beautiful in Portugese). :-)

Rio de Janero

It means January River in Portugese, as they were thinking when they arrived it was a river. They were wrong, but Rio is still wonderful.

We arrived safely into Rio on Tuesday after a rather delightful (if things can be) 19 hour bus ride. We have been staying at Sun Rio Hostel, which is okay. The booking for our hostel confused the front desk people and so they switched rooms on us. Somehow, they let Mike and I sleep in the all girls room.

We have done EVERYTHING! We got to take the cable cars up to Sugar Loaf and see beautiful vistas of the city. We saw the Flamanigos (a team from Rio) play Boa Vista at the big soccer.... err... futball stadium the Mercado. We went to the national musuem (it sucked). We visited Copacabanna and Ipenemia beaches. We loooved Ipenemia and Copacabanna was okay. We adventured to see Christ the Redeemer (my first of the new 7 wonders of the world). From the top of the hill that the Christ statue is on, you can see all the beaches and everything. It was wonderful. The statue itself is neat to look at and when you see how far up it is, its hard to imagine them hauling everything up there.

We have made lots of friends since we have been in Rio for so long. We made friends with a wonderfully nice portugese guy who led us to a samba school rehersal in the sambadome. This is where carnival will go all nuts starting on Friday. Mike and I cant afford to stay (a package is like 1,000 usd for 6 days) but we got to see it all. We met the mayor of Rio, the King, Queen, & Princesses of Carnival, and saw the rehershal from the samba school. It lasted hours. The first school was all blue and white and I think had about 1,000 people. They didnt have their full on costumes, but it was amazing and energizing. Everyone was joyful and sang their heart out the entire time. They started with a few songs and then when the procession started into the sambadome, it was the same song continously. Each school has an anthem of sorts and they just sang it out the whole time and danced to the music. The first school lasted probably about 2 hours and we were just hooked the entire time. There was a reasonable break and then a second school started in. They were a smaller group but still entertained us for another hour or so. Their colors were green and yellow/gold. It was so exciting and when we departed to catch another bus home, people were still singing on the buses. Even though it was 1 am when we got back to the hostel, it took awhile to settle because it was so much fun and so much happy energy you couldnt help but take it with you.

It was rainy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so we had some extra time to kill and were a bit meloncholy. We decided to tour the favella. It seems sort of wierd to take a tour of the slums, but several people told us it was really interesting. As it was rainy and we couldnt lay on the beach like we wanted, we went ahead and did it. The slums of Rio are incredible. We went into the largest one with a guide, of course. We took a crazy motorcycle ride up the hill (no helmet, zig zagging through traffic, take turns at an unbelieveable pace) that was thrilling. I think we got our moneys worth in just that bit. Then our guide gave us a little bit of information and told us to put the cameras away, there is a guy whos job is to watch at the enterance to the favella and we shouldnt take any pictures because the drug lords get upset. Our guide Daniel knew everyone and we felt completly safe. Every corner we turned he said hello to the people we passed. I believe he takes his groups on the same route every single day, so that it is part of what the slums look like but also a bit nicer than most parts. We saw some neat graffiti (pictures in the brazil album in the previous post) and met the artists. The streets of the favella are very narrow and you can tell there was no clear plan. They have open sewers, so at the top of the hill it is okay but at the bottom it is grungy and nasty. We went to a day care center and the children were adorable. They are clean and fully clothed, so you know they are being treated well. It was just an amazing experience.

*i have uploaded a few pics for your enjoyment to the same album*