After a 7 hour journey to Ouro Preto, we arrived at our hostel at 7 in the morning. We had previously been told that the double room would be ready for us when we arrived, but we got there, the owner told us that the room still had two bunkbeds in it (presumably with sleeping residents) and the room would not be ready until gone midday. She was ´confused´ as to when we were arriving (or was trying to make more money by letting a room out twice...). We crashed for a few ours in the dorms, and finally got into our room after 1.

 

We had hoped to meet up with one of the friends we spent some time with in Curitiba (Lorenn) here in Minas Gerias as she was back visiting her mum in a nearby (well within a couple of hundred miles anyway!) town, but unfortunately, the bus connections meant it would have taken 7 or 8 hours to get to her town (and the same back), so it wasn´t really practical. It was a shame, as it would have been great to have seen her again and to have seen her family as well.

 

That afternoon we wandered into Ouro Preto and our first thoughts were ´wow, it´s steep round here!´. The roads are mostly cobbled and it has some seriously steep roads. The town itself is a UNESCO Wolds Heritage  Site (as was Paraty) and there are lots of colonial era buildings and churches. We went for an evening meal to try some Minas (the state) cuisine and had ´Tutu a Mineira´ - a dish with pork, rice, beans and crackling. Very nice. That night was the first of the main carnaval nights (there had been some partying for a week beforehand) and there were various bands playing around the town and lots of ´Republicas´ (student groups - a bit like frat groups, but less severe) with music. We went to the main square and saw an ´axé´ band playing. Axé is a Brazilian style of music - kind of a fast, South American pop. It was quite enjoyable, especially watching the crowds enjoy themselves, with a bizarre Rolling Stones cover (Can´t get no satifaction) in the middle. The music wasn´t really our thing - bit too samey. We went to bed about 1am - the music seemed to go onto about 6!

 

The next day was Friday - the first ´official´ carnaval day with a samba band parading around in the evening. Before that, however, we got a local guide to spend a couple of hours showing us around. Lima was a really knowledgable guy who seemed to know everything about the local history and showed us several churches, a museum and an old mine (the colonial wealth of Minas Gerais was built on gold). It was really interesting, if a little tiring with all the walking up and down the hills!

 

That night we went back into town, saw the samba band and realised that it was more or less exactly the same as the previous night - the music, the people on the streets, even the same bands playing the same music live! We wandered the packed streets, trying to avoid the more spectacularly drunk people and headed home.

 

On Saturday we had arranged for Lima to meet us at the hostel for the second half of our guided tour. At 10 we headed off and spent the next 6 hours walking around various museums and churches, without a break! I don´t know how Lima did it, but I was certainly knackered by the end! It was really interesting, with loads of details about how the slaves were treated (they built their own church) and how the town developed. It´s definitely worth investing in a guide (only £12.50 for the two days), but you have to have your walking shoes on!

 

That night we went back into town for some food, getting a bit fed up with the same music (samba is pretty repetative ayway), the same drunk guys peeing in the streets (nice), gropping any passing girls and generally being loud and obnoxious. Carnaval here is not the Brazilians at their most attractive...

 

On Sunday we decided to escape the Carnaval madness (the music runs all day and all night) and headed to a nearby (well, three hours away) town, called Congonhas. Here there are the most famous works of a famous sculpturist/architect, Aleijadinho. He did a lot of work in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but the most famous thing about him is that he had a degenerative disease that meant he lost the use of his arms and legs. He had a hammer and chisel strapped to his arms and carried on working up until his death in 1814. There are lots of his works in Oruo Preto, but the mostfamous are the 12 Prophets in Congonhas. They are 12 statues outside a church. They are of biblical figures, but are supposed to be modelled on some insurgents who were present (and friends of Aleijadinho) at the time. They also reflect some of his features and the impacts of his illness (deformed limbs). Interesting, but, unfortunately, Congonhas has nothing else of note and is a very ugly town otherwise. It took us another three hours toget back to Ouro Preto and another night of Carnval (yawn).

 

The next day we went out of Ouro Preto again to what was supposed to be a fazenda (a farm), but turned out to be some house on the edge of a small town. It was also peeing down, so we couldn´t do the walk to some waterfalls we had been planning. After these disappointing beginnings things improved when we had a walk around the town with some nice little shops and then took a horse ride up into the mountains. We both managed a canteron the horse, which was good fun. Then back to Ouro Preto, to more Carnaval music and smell (urine...).

 

Our final full day in Ouro Preto was another day away from Ouro Preto (can you see a pattern yet...) to another colonial town (and UN World Heritage site) called Tiradentes. Tiradentes was named after the leader of the insurgents I mentioned earlier. Again it was nice, but spoilt by loud Brazilians getting drunk at midday... It took us four and a half hours to get there and the same back, so it was a long day, but it was a very nice town. We didn´t get back until 9.30, so decided we couldn´t be bothered fighting our way through the crowds to a restaurant and just got some empenadas from the bus station.

 

Today we are heading back to Rio. Carnaval ended last night (so things are quieter here in Ouro Preto), but there is a final parade of samba schools on Saturday in Rio that we have tickets for. We are going to stay with Egdar and Tales in Copocabana, so it will be good to see another side of Rio. I just hope the parade on Saturday doesn´t go on to long - it consists of the five best samba schools, who each parade for 80 minutes earlier in the week to progress to the final. 5 time 80 equals a hell of a lot of samba...

 

 

 

After updating the blog last time, the rain hadn´t yet stopped, so we dashed over the road to a restaurant for a drink to kill some more time, waiting for the rain to stop. Unfortunately, the drainage in Paraty isn´t so great, so we sat watching as the rain came down and the streets started filling up with water... As there didn´t appeat to be any sign of the rain stopping completely, we picked a relatively calm period and headed off to try and catch a taxi back to our hostel. Sadly, the taxidrivers had obviously all decided is was too wet to venture out and, so, after 10 fruitless minutes waiting, we realised we would have to walk back. A twenty minute walk would normally be no problem, but the rain had returned to it´s torrential levels and we were absolutely soaked by the time we got back.

 

The next day the weather, whilst not raining, was not good enough for the beach, so we wandered around the streets of Paraty, looking in all the little shops there.

 

Fortunately, the next day, our last full day in Paraty, was much better, so we got the bus back out to Trindade beach. Once again it was a beautiful spot to spend the day. That night we went back to the Indian restaurant we had previously been to with Tina, Pukar and Meera. The food was great again.

 

We then had to pack up our stuff and get ready to leave the little hostel we were in and head to the state of Minas Gerias and the town of Ouro Preto for carnaval. As our bus wasn´t until the evening, we wandered around the beach near the hostel and into Paraty for a last look around. It´s definitely a nice place to visit. At about 4 in the afternoon we got a taxi to the bus station for our bus to Rio. Four hours later we then had another two to hang about before the overnight bus to Ouro Preto, a small university town with a lot of colonial buildings - kind of like Paraty, but with mountains instead of the sea.

 

 

Well, Tina has left us this morning after a lovely ten days or so here in Brazil (and briefly in Argentina).

 

She arrived slightly delayed at our B&B (Secret Garden) in Puerto Iguassu at about 3.30 in the morning and the next morning we were up and off to the Falls. We spent most of the day exploring the falls, where you can get close in beside them. They were great, but the real amazing view was of the ´Devil´s Throat´. This is the largest of the 40-odd falls that make up Iguaçu and is truely spectactular. The shear force and volume of water going over the fall every second is incredible. That night, at the tip-off of some other guests, we went back to the Devil´s Throat for a moonlight walk. This was the most special moment of our entire stay. The sight of the falls in the moonlight was amazing. Sadly, none of the photos we took came out, so it is hard to show you what we mean, but it was incredible.

 

The next day we went back to the Argentian side of the falls and took a boat trip out on to the river below the falls. You get absolutely soaked, but it´s great fun. That night we enjoyed some of John´s (the owner of Secret Garden) complimentry caipirinhas - Tina´s first try of this very Brazilian cocktail (and not to be her last!).

 

The next day we had to leave Argentina for the last time and headed over to the Brazilian side to stay at a hotel in the falls National Park. The hotel was nice, but very expensive and full of old Americans - not really our crowd. Still, it meant we could stay by the pool for the afternoon (until a storm crashed over...) and the next morning we could wander around the Brazilian side of the falls (more of an overall view than on the Argentinian side).

 

Next up we stopped off at a bird park on the way to the airport. We weren´t expecting much after the first few cages, but the place was really large and had loads of cool South American birds - the most spectactular being the Toucan. They also had snakes, turtles, loads of parrots and macaws. The flight to Rio was a little delayed, but our lift to the next B&B was waiting for us when we came out with our bags. This was a room out by the pool, but the bathroom was about twenty metres away - not good for midnight pees!

 

The first day in Rio we went up Sugerloaf mountain, which was really nice. The views were great and it wasn´t too crowded. After a quick lunch on Copacabana beach (looks good!), we went into the centre of Rio. Here we took a tour round an old theatre (Teatro Municipal) and a tram ride into a neighbouring suburb. 24 hours into our Rio stay we still hadn´t been mugged or kidnapped...

 

One of Xana´s brother´s old boyfriends had friends in Rio and we had arranged to hook up with them for an evening meal. By happy coincidence, the old boyfriend (Moises) was also in town and Xana had´t seen him for six years or so. They took us for a great meal by a lake just next to Copacabana.

 

Next day was a trip to the Corcovado to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer. This involved a packed train ride up the side of the mountain with loads of tourists, where we had to endure a samba band playing right behind our heads. The top of the mountain was no less crowded, a situation made worse by the fact that part of the top was sealed off to allow a German TV company to film a soap opera and that there were dozens of dignatories present to launch the bid of Christ the Redeemer to be one of the ´new´ wonders of the world. Apparently, someone has decided we need a new list of the seven wonders of the world and there is a website to allow people to vote for their favourite - the winners will be decided in Lisbon in July. Not quite sure why we need this new list, but there you go... We also saw some samba dancers and a samba band at the top. The views were great, but we preferred being on top of the Sugerloaf mountain.

 

That afternoon, we had a tour of the favelas. I was a bit worried about this because I didn´t want it to be a zoo-like trip to see all the poor people, but it was actually very interesting, not least because the conditions in the favelas were nowhere as near as bad as you would imagine. Whilst still obviously very poor areas, they had shops, roads, internet cafes (!), half decent housing and were more like normal towns in some places in Bolivia and Peru. I think we were taken to some of the ´better´ favelas, but it was interesting none the less.

 

That evening we went back out again with Moises, Edgar and Tales, this time to a restaurant on Copacabana beach. Afterwards we went for a walk along the beach (something all the guide books warn against, but Moises had no such qualms) and had no problems. It didn´t even feel dodgy, despite the fact that it was well gone midnight.

 

The next day we left the B&B, but one of the owners was not very friendly. He kept pressurising Tina to pay as soon as we arrived, wouldn´t take credit cards and then, when we had problems finding a cash point that would accept our cards, kept asking Tina every morning to make sure we got some money out straight away! It´s our holiday and whilst we had no intentions of not paying, we weren´t going to spend all of our two days in Rio trailing round banks! Eventually we found one were our card worked (Tina never found any ATMs that would take her card, despite it being accepted in restaurants, etc.) and could get some cash out. The owner definitely needs to relax.

 

We got the bus down to Paraty. This is a small colonial town on the coast about four hours from Rio. The pousada we were staying in here was easily the best of the lot. The owners were really friendly, the breakfast was great and the building itself was lovely (picture to be attached). We cand definitely recommend Bambou Bamboo for Paraty! At the pousada we met an English couple from London (Pukar and Meera) and got on with them really well over a few caipirinhas. We all went out to a pizza restaurant next door and decided to hire a boat together the next day.

 

The next day was really sunny, so the five of us headed to the docks and boarded the boat the Pousada owners had lined up for us. The captain proceeded to take us out to some beautiful beaches and coves on some of the numerous islands that surround Paraty. We stopped off at one for lunch and then headed back. That night we went to an Indian restaurant for some really nice food.

 

Yesterday we caught the bus out of Paraty to Trindade - a smaller village along the coast. We then clambered over some rocks and through some jungle onto a really quiet beach to spend the day chilling out under some trees and in the increadibly warm water. Another bus back and then it was time for some food. This time the three of us found an Argentinian restaurant for a great last meal together.

 

This morning we put Tina on a bus to Sao Paulo (after some last minute panic to find her bus ticket!) and then moved out of Bambou Bamboo and into something more akin to our usual level of accomodation - a hostel. It seems to be nice enough, but we need to adjust again after the luxury of the last week or so! It was great to see Tina again after five months, but we wish she had stayed longer. She was just starting to relax and unwind and then it was time to go again...

 

It´s currently tipping down outside, so we´ve been hiding out in an internet cafe for the last two hours, hoping for a break in the weather so we can scurry back to our hostel.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there,

 

Well, we survived the Pantanal! Seriously though, it was hard work. We left Campo Grande on a minibus for a five hour journey, before transfering to the back of a lorry. At the transfer point were some people who had finished their time in the Pantanal and were waiting for our bus to arrive to take them back to Campo Grande - they looked pretty knackered and they couldn`t wait for us to unload and get on their ticket out of there. What caused them to look so miserable, we wondered...

 

After another hour and a half on bumpy dirt roads, being attacked by swarms of mosquitoes (a theme for the days ahead), we arrived at our lodges. They were pretty basic - crappy old mattresses, cold water showers, mossie nets with holes in them - but a better bet than the camping option we could have taken! That evening we just had some food (beans and rice mainly) and had an early night. The next morning we got up and got ready for a horse ride. This was to be Xana`s first time on a horse, so she was a bit nervous. Luckily, the ride was a very simple walk around some flat Pantanal fields, so she got on fine. The only problem was the amount of mossies. We both came back with loads of bites and copious amounts of repellant seemed to make no difference. The ride itself was nice enough, if a bit dull as we didn`t see very much. Still, it was useful as now Xana knows that she can ride a horse without any problems.

 

That afternoon we headed out on the river for a trip to see some Caymans (South American alligaters). We saw plenty of those sunning themselves by the waters edge (getting pretty close in the process), some howler monkeys, kingfishers, storks, and some other birds that we only know the Portuguese for... We then drifted back on the current whilst watching a great sunset. That evening it was rice and beans again (as it had been for lunch...).

 

Next day was a `jeep safari`. This involved two hours on the back of a lorry with wooden planks for seats on bumpy dirt tracks (lots of bruised buttocks) and a couple of walks into the jungle. Not exactly a `jeep safari` as we had imagined it... Here we saw some more of the raccoon-like animals we had seen earlier in Brazil, the back-end of an armadillo (it was heading for it`s burrow at the time), some more birds, some capybras (large rodents) some more caymans (plus the usual mossies!) - not bad, but not as much as we had been hoping for. Apparently, it is better to come at the end of the dry season as the lack of water means that snimals tend to gather around the few remaining sources of water - also there are less mossies!

 

By this time we were both getting a bit fed up with the lodge and the mossies - Xana, especially was really being bitten every time she left the lodge (right through her clothes, even when wearing two or three layers (including denim) of clothing!) - so Xana decided to skip the dawn trip the next morning. I went out for it, getting up at 5am, to find that the rest of the group had decided to skip it as well! Anyway, me and the guide got back in the boat and headed up the river. As before, Louis (the guide) turned off the engine and let us drift back with the current. This time we heard the distinct cry of the howler monkeys (like an old man snoring really loudly a few rooms down the corridor) and saw a really nice sunrise. We also saw a capybra swimming in the river.

 

Next up was piranha fishing by the lodge. We loaded up our rods with meat and cast-off. Despite a lot of nibbles on the line, we didn`t manage to catch anything. Some of the others in our group caught some, but I think Xana and I managed to feed the piranhas more than they fed us!

 

After lunch we got back on the truck for another bone-shaking ride to the bus stop. We were pretty glad to be out of there and while we saw some good things, we`re not entirely convinced it was worth all the hassle and the dozens and dozens of bites we both had by that point (especially when some of the other girls in our group only had one or two bites the whole stay!).

 

The bus took us down some more dirt tracks (some of which were really slippery from the rain and involved a fair bit of wheel spin to get through the mud) to Bonito. This is a small town with lots of outdoor activities in the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately, as we had to be in Iguazu on the 1st (and it would take 20 hours on a bus to get there), we only had one full day there. We snorkled down a really clear river, which was full of fish. We hired an underwater camera with two Australians we met in the Pantanal who were also in Bonito and got some footage. It was a nice way to spend the morning and we got a good buffet lunch afterwards.

 

The next morning we had a booked a half day tour of a local cave, but the weather was too bad for us to go, so we hung around at the hostel for a couple of hours before heading to the bus station and our 20 hour journey to Iguazu. This involved 6 different buses and 2 taxi rider, but we finally arrived at our B&B on the Argentian side of the falls. We met a really nice Brazilian family (mum and two daughters) whislt waiting a some random bus station. The little girl was very cute and was soon playing with us all. After a while chatting the mum even gave Xana a little present of a small purse she had bought on her holiday. Very kind. At the same bus station we also met a Brazilian couple. The guy was studying English and wanted to chat with me a while. We exchanged e-mail addresses and promised to help him out with his English. We finally made it to Puerto Iguazu and settled down to wait for Tina to arrive (due at 1.10 the next morning).