Travel report #11
Brazil - Rio, Curitiba, Paraguay, Iguazu and Mathinos
Wednesday February 7, 2001
We landed in Rio after an overnight flight via Sao Paulo. Did not see much of the famous city on our way in, it was too foggy and we were seated on the wrong side...
Lost 3 hours and did not sleep much on the flight. Got very good help from Riotur, the official tourist office in Rio. They booked us a nice room (or a flat rather) in Copacabana.
Nice and big flat with A/C, fridge and cooking facilities, about 1km off the beach. Made our own dinner and sandwiches :-)
After some sleep we went to a Brazilian football match, Flamengo vs Sao Paulo at Estadio Mario Ruho. Unfortunately only about 10.000 there, the stadion rooms over a 100. But we got some samba drums and two goals for Sao Paulo!
Thursday February 8, 2001
High temprature and humidity and lack of sleep made us lazy. Anyway, we made it to Museo Nacional, interesting enough, lots of excibits, but all the written information only in Portugees.
Lots of sandwich and juice bars in Brazil, selling pastel and lanches. Our next stop was Sugar Loaf, a small mountain just outside the city center. Spectacular views of downtown, Copacabana and the rest of Rio. Two cable cars took us up there. Unfortunately, again foggy so that we could not see everything, only got a short glimpse of Cristo Blanco. Waited up there until sun set, Rio even more spectacular at night!
(Copacabana seen from Sugar Loaf)
(Copacabana by night)
Friday February 9, 2001
Time to enjoy the Copacabana beach. Had a lovely time, specially with the big waves. Spent the whole day there and got both heavily sun burned...:-(
Saturday February 10, 2001
Another relaxing day, before we in the evening went to a Samba school rehershal. Did not know what to expect, but it was interessting, about 4 hours of samba music and wild dancing, packed with people! Great fun! But no the costumes or organized dancing. Were home at 5 in the morning...
Enourmous thunderstorms in Rio, the most intense we have ever seen!
Sunday February 11, 2001
Nice evening walking along Copacabana beach, the first night without thunderstorms. Packed with people all along the about 4 km long beach. Football, American football, volleyball and lots of other activity. Great fun!
Monday February 12, 2001
Travel day. Took the bus from Rio to Sao Paulo. The guide book is not nice on this city, the biggest in South America (endless city as we took the bus in and out), so we continued directly to Curitiba. 12 hours bussing in total, arrived at midnight.
Got a really nice view of Cristo Blanco on our way out of Rio. Spectacular!
Tuesday February 13, 2001
A day in Curitiba, walked around the streets. Tried Brazilian pastel and fresh juice, very good. Nice city, very organized and clean. Visited a market, a combination of a western supermarket and a Bolivian market. Had dinner at a buffet, did not find any "ordinary" restaurants, they are all buffets! Rainy and we got wet...
Wednesday February 14, 2001
Curitiba a very organised city, most of the inhabitants are of german and eastern european origins not too long back. Took a tourist bus around the city, passing by memorials for all the communities. Stopped at the wire opera, a special and nice opera building. Then a nice park with a fake waterfall, and last a botanical garden. The last stop the nicest, but it was raining by then...
Got on a night bus towards Foz do Iguazu, the big waterfalls!
Thursday February 15, 2001
Arrived at 6am and found a nice hotel with a pool (Hotel Del Rey). Got some sleep before we headed towards Paraguay. A three border crossing here with Brazilian, Argentin and Paraguayan cities close together separated by two rivers that meet.
Paraguay and Ciudad del Este brought us back to Bolivian standards. Dirty and crowdy and markets in the streets. But maybe most noticable special for this place, lots of guards with big guns!
We walked around the city and looked at all the electronics shops and markets. Found a nice bar for a cup of coffee, and by luck they showed AC Roma vs Liverpool LIVE! Got to see it all, Liverpool winning by 2 goals. By time of writing ready for the Semi-finals!!!
(The border bridge between Brazil and Paraguay)
Walked back to Brazil, too late for the buses, took us a couple hours... Had to walk through some dodgy areas...
Friday February 16, 2001
Nice breakfast at the hotel before we headed to the big attraction, the Iguazu waterfalls. They are the biggest in the world in terms of amount of water pr second (about 5000 cubic meters!).
Its all part of a nactional park and we arrived by bus, seeing the water coulds far away. At the bus stop we were met by lots of funny animals, before we walked down and got a breathtaking view. It looked like many Niagra falls placed side by side! Amazing!!
We walked a nice path along the falls, got a great overview. Then at the end we walked out on a bridge taking us out into the middle of the falls. Most of the falls are in to steps and this bridge was build on the platoe, so that we could see straight down into the lowest part, and had the upper part hanging over us. We got very wet!! Fantastic!!!
A photo from the net, not the best but you get the idea: Brazil side - Argentine side
. Many more better photoes to come as soon as we get to unload our camera :-)
The inner part of the falls are very special, water falling down into a bay formation. They call it the devils throuht (djevelmunnen), all we can see is a white clowd above it!
On our way home we got more impressive sights. Visiting a bird park with lots of different birds and animals. We got to walk inside the nettings together with the birds. Amazing experince with so many unbelivebale birds and creatures. At the end we got to hold a parrot :-)
To complete a fantastic day we had a buffet dinner with BBQ. Typical type of restaurant for this area (called "Curra..."), we had more than we should to eat. If you get the chance, try BBQ chicken hearts, very tasty!
Saturday February 17, 2001
Relaxing day, used to try to find an ATM that accepted our VISA card. Not easy in Brazil (a whole lot easier in Bolivia!!!). Got on the night bus back to Curitiba.
Sunday February 18, 2001
Time to prepare for Carnaval and visit from Norway. We got on a early bus to a nice beach town called Mathinos. Got a small room at a pousada there, just off the beach. Had a nice afternoon in the water and on the beach!
Monday February 19, 2001
Needed a better place to live and found a house! Rented it for a week, paying R50 pr day. Two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and a big livingroom with dining area. And a garden. A bit old and well used, but all we need!
(IA in her Brazil outfit in front of our house)
Tuesday February 20, 2001
Moved into our house, and enjoyed life in a beach town. Cooked food and had a great time.
Took the local bus to Paranagua to arrange travel for our visitors from Norway.
Back in our house we got introduced to our own little zoo. The first two "kakerlakk"s found in the living room, the third showed up in the shower together with IA!! What a show :-)
We were later to meet a frog in our kitchen, a rabbit in our garden, two dogs, "firfirsler", tiny flies, mosqitos, etc. Some nice, some not that cozy...
Wednesday February 21, 2001
Invested in a body surf board, great fun!! Had to help the frog off the gas owen before we could cook dinner :-)
Thursday February 22, 2001
B got a proper hair cut (6mm), we tried Churro (very nice snack - oilfried bread with caramel inside!), and a sugar pipe drink, freshly squeesed sugar pipe! Enjoyed the big waves, IA almost got a blue eye as she was thrown over!