It’s a wrap: Days 11, 12 and 13 in Brazil

I’m now 34,000 feet over the Amazon on my flight home. Bye bye, Brazil. Hello wintry America.

The last few days, which were spent in the resort area of Santa Catarina Island, Brazil, were pretty uneventful – exact as I planned. I went to the beach a few times, did a little shopping, rocked in a hammock outside my room.

On Thursday I took my one and only tour of the whole trip. It was a seven-hour boatride to an island that is a kind of preserve. The boat ride took 90 minutes each way — and I’m glad I took Dramamine because it got bumpy. Amazed no one got sick on the boat.

Anyway the four hours on Campeche Island wasn’t nearly enough for me. The green waters reminded me of Thailand, and I think I had a hard time capturing the real beauty of it with my camera. I signed up for a 90-minute hike to see archeological sites, but mostly I just wanted to see the other side of the island. The tour guide spoke only Portuguese so I had to guess at what he was saying. Basically, people who lived on the island 5,000 years ago did some cool rock art.

In the end, the Florianopolis experience was damned relaxing. And the inn I stayed at should be Four Star Diamond on the strength of the wonderful propriator, Ida. I felt like the $50 a night I paid was robbery – me robbing her! That included an amazing breakfast of fresh fruit, bread, cheese, yogurt and juice. I’ll miss the fruit for sure, such as the guava Ida grows and harvests herself. The name of the place, if you should ever go, is Pousada Marujo.

And now comes the final thoughts, the things I’ll remember about the people and places I found in this first – and hopefully not last – trip to Brazil:

– People warn you about the crime, but really it’s the same as anywhere else – there are some tough parts where you just have to be careful and not stupid. A couple of people bugged me, but I just shrugged them off and kept walking.

– I love the local buses. But travelers be warned: Not even the special airport buses are built to accommodate luggage. Makes no sense.

– Meat is king in Brazil. Well, meat and fruit. Veggies not so much. It was hard to try to eat healthy in a place overflowing with bread, cheese and sweet, sugary drinks.

– If you’re lucky enough to really meet actual Brazilians, you will come away a better person. They’re fun-loving, smart and full of a love for their country, and their soccer team.

– My trip took place in the middle of February, which is late summer on the bottom half of the world. That means heat, and lots of it. I’m fairly sure I didn’t have a night when it got below 75 degrees F. And several days had heat index levels over 100. In my 12 nights of lodging, I had air-conditioning only for the first two. That meant a fan for 10 nights, and with that kind of heat, a fan just can’t cut it. If come here in summer again, I will have to book rooms with AC.

– This is a great place to go if you want to avaid other Americans! I only ran into them when I went to the most famous attractions in Rio. On the boat trip to Campeche, there were four of us Americans on a boat with 40 or 50 people. Only 13 percent of Brazil’s foreign tourists come from the U.S. And that’s too bad, because they’re missing out.

With the World Cup coming to Brazil next year, and the Olympics two years after that, I’m guessing more Yanks will visit and fall in love with the place like I did.

Trading city crowds for resort town: Days 9 & 10 in Brazil

As I write this, I’m checked into my wonderful $50-a-night (including breakfast) pousada in Barra da Lagoa, Brazil. It’s about a 45-minute local bus ride from the city of Florianopolis.

There are a few key things to know about this area:
1) It’s a laid back resort area with innumerable beaches to choose from. And it’s a surfing mecca.
2) This part of southern Brazil was settled by Germans and Italians, so the locals look more European than in other parts of Brazil. A friend told me the most beautiful women in the country come from Florianopolis.
3) I’m actually on a pretty big island called Santa Catarina. The big city of Floripa, as it is locally known, is on the opposite site of the island from where I am now.

The plan for the next few days basically involves two things: short hikes and beaches. Oh and maybe a boat ride to a particularly beautiful island that has both hikes AND beaches. I do have to go into the big city to do a little shopping for gifts and such to take home. I always do that at the last stop on the trip so I don’t have to carry them around with me as I travel from city to city.

Meantime, let’s back up to Monday morning, my last full day in Rio. That was the morning I chose to visit Corcovado, which is the mountaintop featuring Cristo Redentor, aka Christ the Redeemer. It marks the second “new” wonder of the world I’ve visited (Rome Coliseum being the first).

I took the most commonly used route to the summit, which consists of a 20-minute cog-train ride up to the 2,300-foot high base of the statue. I sat next to a tour-guide leader from Vancouver, B.C. – we compared notes and impressions of Brazil. She envied my independence; I envied the next phase of her trip – the Amazon

Anyway, the statue and summit were so crowded that I couldn’t wait to catch the next train down. Sure the view was nice, but frankly I was getting a little used to Rio’s stunning vistas. They are every direction, all the time.

Monday afternoon I hopped waves again at the beach.

Tuesday morning I caught my flight to Florianopolis. I had enough time after checking in to walk through the town and even visit a small sea-turtle sanctuary and interpretive center. Poor things in their little tanks looked like all they wanted was to crawl the hell out and get thyselves into the ocean.

Here’s the obigatory picture portion of the post:

A crowd gathers on the sidewalk outside a bar to watch a soccer match between teo of Rio’s biggest teams: Flamengo and Botafogo.

The view from atop Corcovado.

The great little pousada I’m in now.

The view from a pedestrian bridge in Barra da Lagoa.

At lower right, fishermen work on their nets.

Rio’s hot and sweaty, but beautiful too: Days 7 & 8 in Brazil

Today’s featured video comes to you from atop a rock outcropping at the east end of Ipanema Beach. It’s the place to be for sunset, and Saturday night was no exception. It wasn’t the most amazing sunset given the clouds, but it was still enough of an experience that everyone joined in a round of applause at the end of it:

But lets rewind to the Saturday morning and recap the events of the weekend:

1) I wandered through the Copacabana neighborhood and along the famous boardwalk. I’m glad I chose to stay in Ipanema because it’s got a better mix of trendiness and beauty.

2) I took the subway to the center of the city where I intended to see the more artsy and bohemiam neighborhoods of Lapa and Santa Tereza. Unfortunately, the combination of scary-looking street urchins and stifling heat, plus hillclimbs, sent me scurrying into a slightly more safe area called Gloria. There, I admit, I broke down and had lunch at a McDonald’s, mostly because it had both air-conditioning and a bathroom I could use. See, I really had no choice.

3) From Gloria, I took a bus to the Botanical Garden. The sight was only meh, so let me talk about the buses instead — they’re awesome! From just about any bus stop, if you wait long enough (and usually not long at all), one will come along that’s going to whatever part of the city you want to go. You get on and pay the cashier who sits behind the driver — and she gives change. One tip though: they won’t actually stop unless you flag them down. Oh and some are air-conditioned and some are not. Random, I guess.

4) Sunday morning I caught a bus to Sugarloaf Mountain, one of the must-see sights here. You take two sections of cable car to get to the 1,200-foot summit. Anybody always picture the cable snapping? I do every time. It was pretty hazy so my pictures didn’t turn out that great (see below). I was hoping for a break from the heat because of the higher elevation, but no such luck. I think I saw old people passing out.

5) After returning to Ipanema by bus and eating leftover pizza for lunch, I decided my earlier vow not to go swimming at the beach with 10 million people and instead wait until the next part of my trip for that – well, that was just plain dumb. I went down to Ipanema Beach, found a one-square-foot section of sand in between the masses to leave my sandals, and hit the surf. And oh man was it awesome – the water was the perfect temperature to cool you off (78 F according to one site) and every once in a while a bigger-than-usual wave gave you a rush as you had to decide: Do I merely bounce up with the swell and let it roll by, or will it break before it hits me? When one of these larger waves rolled down the beach, you could hear a succession of gleeful screams. The only reason I left was because my sunscreen was wearing off.

Tonight I’m off to the nearby pay-by-the-kilo buffet. I had it Friday night and it was great. These types of places are very popular here. About one pound of dinner Friday night set me back 25 reals, or $12.50. Tip and beers took it to $24, but that was still a great deal.

Up next: Up early Monday to try and beat both the crowds and the heat at Rio’s No. 1 attraction, Cocovado (Christ the Redeemer statue). Oh you can be sure I’ll be hitting the water again in the afternoon.

Liked this view near the botanical garden.

The sunset scene at Ipanema.

My fav pic of the whole trip so far: dusk sets in at Ipanema.

The view from Sugarloaf Mountain.

And the cable car at Sugarloaf.

The masss at Copacabana Beach on a hot and hazy Sunday.

The most crowded beach I’ve ever seen: Day 6 in Brazil

Because it was a travel day, it’s a short post. Most importantly, watch this:

That’s two blocks from where I’m staying in Rio de Janeiro. It’s warmer than usual (low to mid-90s) so people were hitting the beach in droves, even at 5 p.m. Expected heat index tomorrow: 102. I’ve got the next three days to explore the city (my beach time will come in a less crowded area next week).

Meanwhile, a word of caution for folks planning a trip here: the ATMs like to mess with you. The first three attempts to withdraw cash today failed for no apparent reason. I called the bank back home and they said try again, but at a different bank. That time it worked, for no known reason. Try Banco do Brazil.

Time to get food.

Churches and hill climbs: Day 5 in Brazil

Ouro Preto is an old mining town set amongst massive hills. Today it is a big tourist magnet with 250-year-old colonial architecture and narrow, windy, picturesque streets.

I took two long walks totaling maybe three hours and that was pretty much it. I could have done fine with just a day trip, but then again four hours roundtrip on the bus might have been too much for one day.

The truth is that I’m a big city guy, and this place just doesn’t do it for me.

Next up: A bus ride back to Belo Horizonte for the one-hour flight to Rio de Janeiro. 5 in Brazil

Ouro Preto is an old mining town set amongst massive hills. Today it is a big tourist magnet with 250-year-old colonial architecture and narrow, windy, picturesque streets.

I took two long walks totaling maybe three hours and that was pretty much it. I could have done fine with just a day trip, but then again four hours roundtrip on the bus might have been too much for one day.

The truth is that I’m a big city guy, and this place just doesn’t do it for me.

Next up: A bus ride back to Belo Horizonte for the one-hour flight to Rio de Janeiro.

Modern art and palm trees: Day 4 in Brazil

Bernardo Paz is a Brazilian pig-iron magnate. After collecting modern art for years, he decided to build his own unique place to display it.

The result is the amazing Inhotim (In-YO-cheem), about an hour and a half outside of Belo Horizonte by bus.

It’s essentially a dozen contemporary art galleries and many more open-air installations set within 5,000 acres of a tropical botanical park. It includes the largest collection of palm species in the world – 1,400 of them.

Flowers and hummingbirds were all over and I tried my best to capture them on pixels, below.

The art was worthwhile. My favorites were the works of Leon Ferrari and Tunga. I would have included pix, but it is forbidden. Click on their names to read about them and see their work.

Ferrari’s intense geometric prints are a style I can really relate to. With Tunga, the compositions are amazing in their creativity and imagination.

It took about five hours to cover everything at the park.

This evening, I’m praying my host doesn’t kill me for messing up the programming on the TV remote last night. I tried to fix it and I made things worse! I’m counting on her to let me do a load of laundry tonight …

Next up: Off to Ouro Preto early in the morning for one night in that colonial mining town.

Carnaval party time: Day 3 in Brazil

Rio is where the big-time action is for Carnaval, but that doesn’t stop a lot of other Brazilian towns from throwing their own parties every year. Today I got to see what that’s like in Belo Horizonte, a city of 5 million to the northest of Sao Paulo.

I flew to B.H. on Gol airline, a one-hour flight. I checked into my B&B arranged through Airbnb.com and walked to the nearby bus station to get my tickets for the Inhotim park tomorrow and Ouro Preto on Thursday. The truth is Belo is a mere jumping off point for those two interesting destinations.

Belo appears to be a rather gritty, boring city. Thank goodness there was Carnaval to liven things up today!

I had done some research and found that a few isolated block parties were scheduled for this evening. I managed to track one down after a long walk. And what a cool experience it was.

Folks were dressed up in a wide variety of costumes and most were dancing along to a core brass and drums band that was the heart of the beast. Vendors were selling beers as fast as they could grab them out of coolers, and clearly people were having a good time as the throng moved slowly, block by block.

Watch the video below to see what it was like — the band really gets crackin’ around the 1:45 mark. Oh and there are a very still photos down below the video.

Next up: A day in Inhotim, a crazy botanical park-slash- contemporary art museum.

Downtown madness and great food: Day 2 in Brazil

My first full day in Sao Paulo was fantastic, mostly thanks to one of those travel rules that always holds true: Only a local can really show you a place. And I was lucky enough to have that situation today.

Eduardo and Camilia were my hosts today, thanks to a colleague in Seattle who introduced them to me via Facebook. These Paulistas took time away from their busy lives to show a complete stranger — me — their favorite parts of Sao Paulo. For the whole day. How’s that for friendly natives?

They met me at my apartment and then we took the subway into the center, the oldest part of the city. At first it was fairly uncrowded, seeing as this the Carnival holiday period and most people are off work today and tomorrow. They marveled at how easy it was to walk through the city’s largest subway station, a place that would be wall to wall bodies on a normal workday.

Inside the cathedral.

We went into the Sao Paulo cathedral, a place so big an actual service was under way in one alcove and you would have barely noticed it.

We marveled at some of the wonderful classic architecture, including some buildings restored within the last few decades. The city was founded 450 years ago.

My wonderful hosts for the day, Eduardo and Camilia.

By late morning it was beginning to get hot – Unlike the day before, there was no rain this day to cool things off. This was to become a mini-theme for the day.

While Camilia shopped for her job, Eduardo and I walked a little father afield to see the Luz train station, the structure of which was imported from England. Near there we walked through a bit of a dicey neighborhood to a train station that has remodeled into a concert hall. Unfortunately, it was closed for the holiday, another mini-theme for the day.

The crazy shopping district of 25 de Marco Street.

From there it was time to return to the downtown core. Eduardo led me through the Sao Paulo version of “crazy town” – 25 de Marco Street. By now the holiday shoppers were out in droves and it was scrunch time. “I’m looking for a way out,” Eduardo said. Eventually we escaped the throngs and made it to a cafe where we cooled off and I was introduced to two Brazilian specialties: ice-cold draft beers called choppes (show-pay), and pao de queijo (cheese bread). They hit the spot! Camilia rejoined us here and was able to cool off as well.