24-28.11.10 Salvador

We arrived back in Salvador at around midday and headed into the city to explore while we waited until our friends Neto and Carol finished work - (Rach worked with Neto a few yrs ago in the UK).  The first thing we noticed about Salvador was the amount of construction that was taking place.  The rest of Brazil seems to be stuck in the 1950’s (or earlier).  We found out later that there had been a lot of government investment in the north-east of Brazil over the last few years, mainly due to Lula (Luis Inacio Da Silva) being president.

Salvador is split into two levels (Cidade Alta & Baixa) by a huge embankment which is connected by the art deco Carlos Lacerda Elevator.  The upper level houses the old city and the area of Pelourhino, an area that has recently had a significant amount of renovation.  Pelourhino was very touristy with lots of ladies dressed in traditional dress called Bahians enticing you into each and every craft shop.

Bahians enjoying a local festival - Which Rach and I gatecrashed. Their fault for letting us in...

The Lacerda Elevator from the Macardo Modelo

A trip in the elevator to the Macardo Modelo rewarded us with a short viewing of a Capoeria performance.  Capoeria is an art form which originates from Angola and is a ritual fight to gain the nuptial rights of women now celebrated as dance.

After a couple of beers and some ‘Carne do Sol’ with Neto and Carol, we headed back to theirs.  They live in an area called Stella Maris which is near the airport on the coast.  Their house was gorgeous – a gated modern complex with communal gardens and pool.  It was great to be staying in what can only be described as heaven compared to what we have been used to.

Friday night we headed to a Samba night which had been organised in conjunction with a local church and Capoeria graduation ceremony.  No entrance fee although you were expected to make a food donation – we didn’t know this prior to arrival.  The band was a group of old men who looked like they had been playing for years.  The music had a great beat and although we didn’t understand what the singer was singing, we heard the message of the lord loud and clear.  This was our latest night yet – 3am we went to bed and after 3 caipirinhas I was ready for it.

A friendly bar man serving Rach some local cachaca. Sugar cane rum. 

We learnt a lot about driving in Salavador during our stay, mostly about security.  Nobody stops at red lights after dark unless absolutely necessary to avoid hold-ups.  Whilst we were in the car after dark we stopped at a total of five police road blocks to allow searching of cars and buses for drugs and guns.  When we drove up to the road blocks, Carol naturally wound down the windows and turned on the courtesy lights to allow the police to see who we were.  They have never been stopped in the past.  Most of the cars have blacked out windows (well beyond the legal limits for the UK) to prevent people from seeing the driver and passengers in the car.  Even parking on the street had its own little rules.  Random men and women seem to ‘own’ the streets at busy times, with the presumption that they should be paid for ‘looking after’ your car.  This charge varied from a couple of R$ to whatever the attendant requested.  We realised throughout the duration of our stay that all we have described above is deemed as normality in Brazil, and really brought home the issues of safety we faced during our visit.

Largo do Cruzeiro Do Sao Francisco near Pelourinho

The next day was one of culture.  Firstly, we went to see a Rodin exhibition in a beautiful old house, followed with a really good feijoda with a couple of glasses of cachaca.  We were then taken by our friends to a really good vantage point to watch the sunset but unfortunately the sun was hiding behind a cloudy sky. Tut!

Outside the Rodin gallery set only 10m off a very busy downtown street

Ryan, Neto and Carol - Did somebody mention it was snowing in England......Sorry!

We ended the evening with a visit to the Modern Art Museum (amazing staircase that you would never get through building regs in the UK) and an outdoor jazz concert.  The jazz concert is a regular Saturday night event which attracts a couple of hundred people, oh and a singer from New York, not to mention two gringos from Leeds.  Salvador is a hub of culture, music and the arts and we are very glad to have experienced this place with a couple of locals. - Thank you Neto and Carol we thoroughly enjoyed our stay with you and only wish it had been longer!

The jazz concert - Kids were invited to play at the front. A real family affair

20-25.11.10 Arembepe

Salvador was a brief overnight visit in a dyer hostel before catching a few wrong buses in opposing directions enroute to Arembepe. We are heading back to Salvador next week so watch this space. Arembepe is 50km northeast of Salvador along the Coconut Road. After the mayhem of a few too many concrete jungles we decided to go somewhere well off the beaten track and enjoy some quiet beaches. The bus doesn’t quite reach here so we had a short but a very hot walk into town before miraculously finding our beach chalet on Estrada da Aldeia Hippie (translated means Hippy Village Road) . That said, we did ask a few friendly locals for directions. We are getting plenty of inquisitive looks here. We are the only gringos in town but everybody smiles and shouts ‘Bom dia’.

We had a walk down Arembepe beach into town where we were surprised to see a very vibrant and busy little square. Super friendly with a good family atmosphere. Lots of street food on sale too. I ordered something, with everything on, with something else on it. I think it was a bit like the conversation in the kebab shop on the way home from the pub. I.e. - I said something he didn’t understand, he said ‘everything on mate’ I said something else he didn’t understand, he said ‘chilli sauce mate?’ I said, ‘lots please’ which he understood! What we actually got was a bean cake with shrimp paste, coconut, palm oil, garlic and hot sauce. We later found out it is called acaraje, deap fried bean cake stuffed with vatapa. A traditional Bahian dish with West African routes. (Salvador is in the state of Bahia!).  Afterwards Rach ordered a beef, cheese and banana crepe – when in Rome!  Surprisingly, she thought it was very nice!

Arembepe Beach from our little bungalow. Home for 4 nights.

On Monday we decided it was time for a spot of sunbathing. After getting bored very quickly we headed for the hippy village we had heard about. Once famous because Mick Jagger and Janice Joplin used it as a retreat in the 60’s.  It was an amazing place. Really chilled out as you would expect.  There was obviously a reason for this too...! It was tiny. Home to say 40 to 50 people each skilled with a different craft to try and make money. There was a guest book in the centre of the village which we signed. We had a good look through it. Just Brazilians and Argentines – No Brits or Europeans - Fantasic! Rach bought a bracelet off a guy full of tattooes with a crocodile tooth in one ear and a tiger tooth in the other. Shortly afterwards a guy painted us a picture in 5 minutes from a blank canvas without brushes just using his palms and his fingertips. The picture was amazing. We almost felt guilty saying we didn’t want it because it’ll get ruined in our rucksacks. Which was actually one of our most successful Portuguese language triumphs.

Painting with just his hands hippy man. Hippy village

Heading back into town along Arembepe beach we came across a sea turtle which had come ashore to nest. It’s currently the nesting season and there is a turtle reserve in town protecting their habitat and recording their movements etc. Apparently of the 7 species of sea turtle 4 nest here. Purely by chance the workers from the protection reserve came and tagged, measured and recorded it’s vital stats before letting it go back into the ocean. They turned it on it’s back which looked painful but I guess it’s for the greater good and it didn’t do it any harm. We were extremely fortunate to have seen such an incredible animal in it’s natural habitat up so close.

Turtle we saw being tagged on Arembepe Beach 

On Tuesday we took a day trip down the Coconut Road to a small town called Priah do Forte. On route to the bus stop an unmarked silver van with blacked out windows pulled up besides us. A guy got out and shouted ´Praia do Forte´. The van was full of locals so without even a second thought we climbed in.. (sounds more radical than it was. We had been told about these unofficial taxis the night before). After the short journey we decided to stick to the official buses. The driving was mental. Praia was much more developed than Arembepe but still very laid back and quiet. We had a day exploring this sleepy little town with a few beers on the beach as the tide came in to wash us away. We has a late lunch of a local fish dish called Moqueca Peixe. Fish stew with coconut, palm oil and spices. It was awesome. Met a bloke called Pablo who spoke English and gave us lots of advice about safety in the area and general lack of it. It really brought it home to us that even here in this quiet little town you need to take a few precautions.

Local fishermen at Praia do Forte

Thursday morning we head back to Salvador where we are meeting up with Rachels friend Neto and his wife Carol, both Brazilians who live in Salvador and have very kindly invited us to stay for a few days.

17-19.11.10 Belo Horizonte & Ouro Preto

We arrived at Belo Horizonte (the largest city in the Minas Gerais region) on the overnight bus, and to our delight the sun was shining.  We dropped our bags off at the Pousada (which turned out to be a bed in someone’s house) and head off for a day of exploring. 

Our hosts had recommended that we start our visit with a walk around two of the main parks Parc Municipal and Praca de Liberdade.  Next stop was the Mercado Municipal – the central market.  We had timed it well as the heavens had opened (sound familiar) and we took a leisurely stroll amongst the stalls.  This market sold everything you could imagine.  The usual cheese stalls, butchers alley, chilli and spices, budgies (yes, the pet bird type), live poultry and other live creatures.  (Jane, this has nothing on Kirgate Market I can tell you!)  We scuppered past as it was a bit un-nerving to bar/restaurant area and chilled with a couple of chopp’s (draught lager) to watch the world go by.

Our first impressions of the city was that we were in another concrete ‘sprawl’ like Sao Paulo but after some digging we found some ‘interesting’ architectural finds.

Concrete sprawl of Belo Horizonte

Unknown building, Belo Horizonte

Arts Centre, Belo Horizonte

The mountains and hills of Minas Gerias ‘General Mines’ contain the richest mineral deposits in the whole of Brazil including gold and diamonds found at the end of the 17^th century.

The main draw to the region of Minas Gerias was a small town called Ouro Preto approx 100km south-east of Belo Horizonte.  Frankly, the town was beautiful and we had a really relaxing day wandering through the winding streets and viewing the Baroque and Rocco architecture – a real contrast to the recent cities we had visited.  At lunch, we visited an all-you-can-eat buffet of the comida mineira (local cuisine) which was pretty incredible for the price of R$15 (£5.40) each and stuffed ourselves so full we could hardly walk out of the restaurant. 

The streets of Ouro Preto

Most of the churches have facades which have been sculptured by a chap called Antonio Fancisco Lisboa who was a prolific young sculpture in the region.  Unfortunatley in the latter years of his life he suffered from a debilitating disease which causes his fingers and toes to drop off.  This didn’t prevent him from working and he tied his tools to his wrists and ankles, producing some of his best works.  He was later nicknamed Aleijadinho which translates as ‘little cripple’

We took a rare visit (for us) inside one of the attractions - the Matriz de Nossa Senhora do Pilar church which has an interior literally covered in gold.  We’re not ones for entrance fees and museums in general but this one was actually worth the visit.  The sculpture inside was amazing and although it wasn’t undertaken by Aleijadinho it was heavily influenced by him.

Matriz de Nossa Senhora do Pilar, Ouro Preto

 

After some deliberation we decided that it was best to head north to the Bahia region and chill on the Coconut Coast just north of Salvador before visiting a friend from uni.  Ryan had a full blown conversation in Portuguese with the bloke in the ticket office and impressed me so much. I don’t know why I was so surprised – everyone knows Ryan seems to have a knack of being good at everything!!  We finally feel (2 weeks in) like we were getting somewhere with the language – Ryan doing all the speaking with me translating the response. 

Once back at the Pousada the host dropped a few hints that there was some good night-life in Santa Theresa and many bars to visit, we got the message and headed out for a few quiet ones.

As the bus didn’t leave until 7pm on the last day, we found ourselves with an extra day in Belo with not much left to see.  We dragged breakfast and check out as long as possible and headed for a bus to Pamulha, a wealthy district that was built in the 1940’s around an artificial lake - designed (again) by Oscar Niemeyer.  It was a really hot day so we could only muster up the energy to visit one of the buildings in the area – the Igreja de Sao Francisco de Assis which was built in the 1940’s.  The Catholic church was so radical for it’s time that a huge campaign took place to prevent it from getting inaugurated.  Nineteen years later, the first mass was held there with 100,000 people and the current president of Brazil in attendance.

Igreja de Sao Francisco de Assis, Pamulha

We drifted back to Santa Theresa for a beer in the sun waiting for the departure of our bus.  For some reason I had been exhausted all day, so I went to join the locals for a kip on a park bench.  It sounds a bit ‘trampish’ I know (you can take a girl of our Sheffield…) but everyone seems to just lie down and snooze wherever they fancy.  The power nap did me good and I woke just in time to order some food (and a few drinks) before heading to the Rodoviaria to catch the bus. 

Rach having a (rare) caipirinha

When we were booking the tickets, we were told that the bus would arrive at 1630 the following day (21.5 hours) so we were knew we were in for a long journey.  The buses are really well equipped with large comfy reclining seats, air conditioning and an onboard loo.  They tend to stop every 2.5 hours or so at a service station to allow people to stock up on supplies or use the washroom facilities.  The only downside is the washrooms all have a charge associated with them.  Mostly they are between R$0.5 – 1 each time equating to about 35p each which doesn’t sound a lot.  However, we you have the bladder the size of a peanut, everytime the bus stops I have to use the loo.  Between us over the duration of the bus journey we must have spent at least R$12 just on going to the loo.  To top it off we also got charged about R$7 (£2.5) on water which was making me go even more!!  All in all I flushed £7 of our total £55 per day budget down the loo!

Anyway, the journey wasn’t too painful (we have worse to come) and as 1630 arrived, we were just saying to each other how easy the journey actually was.  We then hit about 1715 having not got to Salvador and I started to get worried – had we passed the stop and didn’t realise, were we asleep and didn’t hear the driver… Then it dawned on me that there was a time difference in Salvador that we hadn’t accounted for.  Phew…or so we thought.  1730 came and passed, so did 1830 and we started to poop.  Ryan checked the guide book to see how long the journey should be from Belo Horizonte to Salvador – 28 hours he read.  28 hours!!!  I won’t write the expletives that came out of my mouth, it wouldn’t be for pleasant reading (mum you know the sort).  I soon got over it and resigned myself to another 4.5 hours on the bus – after all, we are in Bahia, the most chilled out state in Brazil!  Half our later, we pulled into Salvador, 24 hours after we had set off.  Something, somewhere, must have got lost in translation.

Funny piccie of Ryan to make you smile

13-16.11.10 Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo is massive. Home to over 11 million people and with only 3 days here we were only ever going to scratch the concrete surface. There is no room here for historical preservation. 95% of the colonial baroque architecture has been demolished or abandoned in the last 40-50 years to make way for so called modern high rise blocks. This city covers 1500 sq km and is the industrial power house of Brazil. There are no buildings here with any real architectural merit. A few exceptions, one perhaps being the Ibirapuera Park with numerous Oscar Neimeyer buildings and a couple of interesting concrete high rise blocks on Avenida Paulista. That said, they are the best of a bad bunch and the whole city is in dyer need of some TLC.  It is aparent that this is a city of two things, business and culture.

 Oscar Neimeyer building, Ibirapuera Park

HSBC on Avenida Paulista, Sao Paulo

 
It's a bank holiday here with many shops closed and we were therefore advised to steer clear of downtown until Tuesday because of beggars and pick pockets! When we did go downtown we headed for the BANESPA building having been told we could take a lift to the top for panoranic views. After making fools of ourselves by going into the wrong building first and asking to go to all the way to the top (it was the 5 storey stock exchange building) we found the BANESPA, modelled on The Empire State but a very poor relation. Alas - the panoramic viewing gallery was closed, due to rain...(?)

BANESPA Building, Central Sao Paulo

We stayied in a hostel in Vila Madalena, one of the city's leafy (and safe) suburbs, home to the young and relatively well off. Loads of graffiti around here but the locals love it and it is very well respected by the Brazilians as being a creative art in it's own right.

Graffiti in Vila Madalena, Sao Paulo (A wealthy suburb)

We went out in Villa Madalena with two Polish guys, two Brazilians and an American who were staying at the hostel. We ended up gatecrashing what we though was an organised juggling & circus show. Turned out it was just a bunch of likeminded locals having a get together in local park. We sat and drank beer with them watching them tightrope and juggle amongst other things. The Brazilians were really friendly and welcoming and we soon made friends. In fact, afterwards we headed to a local pool hall with a guy from the park. We spoke to a non english speaking Brazilian for a good couple of hours and all I learnt was his name and how to say the days of the week in Portugeuse - Not bad we thought!

On our last day we visited MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo) on Avenida Paulista. Home to a number of paintings from the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Rembrandt as well as many local Brazilian artists. The MASP building is noted as one of Sao Paulo's great contemporary buildings.  The building seems to defy gravity and appears to 'float' above the street, markets are held beneath.

MASP, Sao Paulo

(Rach) We were sat having lunch today in central Sao Paulo and after having just tucked into chicken, rice and beans I saw an old lady diving through the rubbish bags searching for waste food.  It seems that there are two distinct societies here existing side by side.  I suppose it was one of those moments for me where I realised how lucky we are in the UK that (most) of our society is provided with the basic human needs - shelter, food and clean water.  I can only image this divide being more obvious in places we are yet to visit.

After several days of rain, we were happy to be taking the night bus to Belo Horizonte in search of some decent weather!!

11-12.11.10 Paraty

We'd heard a lot about Paraty from fellow travellers we had met as a 'not to miss location' worthy of spending some decent time there.  Paraty has remained largely unaltered since it's heyday as a staging post for the 18th century Brazilian gold trade, passing from Minas Gerais to Portugal.  The town is full of Colonial Portugese architecture which is really pleasant and pretty - the sort of place to take your mum for the day (sorry mum). 

Example of the pretty town streets

Example of the Portugese colonial architecture

We landed ourselves a tourist map which highlighted all the key 'sights'.  The majority of these were really old churches with entrance fees but we were told that if we took the walk up to the old fort, we would be rewarded with views of the whole town.  We followed the map and found ourselves in someone's front garden, then up a muddy path to a pretty unimpressive fort, over a wall and followed the path to... no-where.

Ryan on the path to no-where with beautiful views of the... ocean.

To give the town credit, it has over 200 islands accessible from the town which we would have explored weather permitting.  As it was raining pretty hard though for most of the time we were there, we could have seen the town in an hour. 

I did get pretty excited about the boats though - Meggi, how about buying a boat and doing it up like this to sell to Lisa??

And so we left for Sao Paulo... the 5th largest city in the world...

08-10.11.10 Ilha Grande

 Ilha Grande on the Costa Verdi ('green coast' named after the colour of the sea, south of Rio). Took a 2hr bus ride from Rio to catch a very hard to find and very dodgy looking ferry from Angra dos Reis. The ferry took around 1.30hrs to get to Ilha Grande and cost a whopping £3.00. Met an English couple doing a similar thing to us. Matt & Harriet. Used each others useless non-Portugeuse to ask for help and find our way - didn't work - at all...

The erm..ferry port

The island is amazing. Picture the island in the TV series 'Lost' - Tropical paradise. Lush green forests and jungle with 900m peaks and white sands. Cars are prohibited, in fact there are no roads just tracks and walking trails from one end to the other. The people here are really friendly and the atmosphere is as laid back as it gets. Total contrast to Rio. Our bed for 3 nights was a little private chalet tucked away from Abraoo, the small port come fishing village cente.

Our bed for 3 nights. A far cry from Rio.

On day two we walked 3hrs to a remote beach called Lopez Mendes, Not before taking the wrong path and doing a 1hr detour - nothing changes! The jungle lined paths are amazing, really loud with the sound of god knows what animals. Weird smells too - We think it's rotting fruit.  Well worth the walk. The beaches are amazing and pretty deserted.

On the 3hr trail through the woods to the beach. It was so hot..

 

Lopez Mendes Beach. Even hotter.

On day two we walked past some ruins of a prison. The island once served as a prison to quarantine slave immigrants from europe and africa on their way to Brazil. An attempt to control the outbreak of chollera - Nice!  Past an ancient aquaduct enroute to the worlds biggest anti-climax of a waterfall. Roll on Iguazu Falls! Still at least we saw a few monkeys and iguanas on the way.

A not very impressive waterfall modelled here by Rach

Met a great Brazilian guy called Jose Agnaldo. He invited us round to his house in the morning for some Caipirinha's in the evening but when we turned up but he didn't have any limes - Not sure he had any rum either, or ice come to think of it...? He said he'd go to get some but the tropical heavens opened and it started raining Brazil style. We stayed for an hour or so to brush up our Portuguese. Our last night on Ilha Grande was spent trying to avoid the drips through the roof of the chalet. We've never seen rain like it. No point staying around the beach in the rain...

The whole of Ilha Grande looks like this

and this...

07.11.10 Last day in Rio de Janeiro

Red hot blue sky day. Nice after the tropical storm yesterday. After being followed and shouted at by a zombie mad man with a limp we headed to the famous Ipanema Beach (as in the song The Girl From Ipanema). The Ipanema area is totally different to the rest of Rio. The young, rich and fashion conscious come here to show off. Enter Ry and Rach...Seems like half of Rio make a living on the beach. People selling everything from drinks, sarongs to chicken hats (hats with chickens on the top). Dunno what's more weird. People selling them or people actually buying them! The beaches are a way of life here. Not just tourists and holiday makers but full families and communities transcending from the favela's (shanty towns) to have fun.

One of Rio's favela's - Home to 2 million people

Loads of kids playing football on the beach too. The ball never touches the ground. Spent around 3 hours on the beach. Even with cream on I (Ryan) got burnt. There is just no way this gringo is ever going to blend in. Better get used to it.

[Lads - Sincerely apologies for the lack of photos on Ipanema Beach. 

I didn't want to get sand in my camera - Honest - Ry]

After the beach we headed to Santa Teresa near the hostel. Santa Teresa is the bohemian area in Zona Norte (north side of Rio). It's the place where all the artists hang out. Home to the only exising tram line in Rio, it's located on a huge hill filled with bars, restaurants and studios. Much more quiet than nearby Lapa.

Tram in Santa Teresa - If you ride outside on the foot board you ride for free!!

Burnt and cooling off with a beer

Stumbled across this - It was a scrapyard, an artists studio, a gallery and a bar all in one. No seats, no tables, just a few bottles of spirits, loud dance music and a really dodgy makeshift timber terrace overlooking Rio. Fantastic!!