Brazl Pt 2

Of course we booked the cheapest flight possible so it included 2 stop overs, one in Sao Paulo, which is way past Rio. This turned a 2 or 3 flight into an 8 hour trip. When we got to the airport it quickly became clear that Scotti's bag must have been left at one of those stops, wasn't a big problem as it got delivered to our hostel the following day, although it was a good reminder how easy it can happen. We were staying in a hostel in botafogo, the same hostel as Emma and Haley, nice to have a few days in a group of friends. We got to see some awesome sights in Rio when we did a cheap tour, including Christ Redeemer and Santa Teresa than down onto the Lapa steps. Our view of Christ Redeemer was Marred by heavy fog but was still amazing. We were also happy to catch up with a new friend from carnival and to spend a few nights with new friends from Melbourne, Kat and Abby. We finished our time in Rio like any good gringo does, drinking caparina's on Copacabana beach. Followed by a night celebrating St Patrick's day, with the help of a local friend we were even able to find a British pub to drink a Guinness in. After less than one hour's sleep we Managed to get to the airport at 6am and jump on a plane to Curtiba.

Crazy Bastard Juliano & Carol

Curtiba was amazing, worlds apart from any other town or city in Brazil. It was clean, organised and quite rich, an example of what the rest of Brazil is aiming to be in a few decades. We were invited down by my mate from Skyworks days Juliano. After a day of rest in a local park/zoo we got completely lost on the buses and ended up on the other side of town and made poor Juliano drive almost 1 hour to pick us up. We went back to Julianos house about 20 mins out of town to Campo Grande, a nice quiet place, used to be all plantations but as Curitiba has grown more houses have started to be built. Our first night involved meeting up with some of Juliano's University friends and hitting a local 'underground' pub/club a great night of learning the Samba. Juliano refused to let us pay for anything, an amazing host to have. I finished off by sharing the good part of a bottle of Jack Daniels with Juliano. Slept right through to the next night then after a bit of dinner we headed off to a BBQ at Redman's house, turned out to be a 'diaper & beer' party (basically a Brazilian version of a baby shower, but much more fun!) all his friends were very exited to meet us as it was a good excuse to practise their English, some had great English, others were a little bit harder to understand. On our last night with Juliano we went to a nice Thai style bar where we were given heaps of free drinks, just for being Australian and finished with Tequila and Tacos and a Mexican pub. Also drove Juliano's car through Curtiba, got the hang of driving on the other side of the road on the highway, much harder once we were in the city but. Our plans to Visit the Pantanal on our way to Bolivia were literally washed away as the area was badly flooded, just another part of the world getting hit with ever increasing natural disasters. So we booked a flight to Santa Cruz, Boliva from Sao Paulo and spend 2 days of rest and relaxation in Juliano's house while he was working. We boarded our plane at 10.30pm on the 23^rd of March and said goodbye to Brazil (for now).

The Sleep Mexican

All in all I absolutely loved Brazil, my favourite country in South America so far. We saw some amazing things, from Igauçu falls to a former world wonder in the Jesus statue in Rio and many more. We made friends for life all over Brazil and as a result have a bed to sleep in in every state for the World Cup in 2014. Portuguese was a lot harder to understand and learn than Spanish, but I think a much nicer language to listen to. Brazil was probably the most expensive country so far, probably due to their strong economy. We defiantly didn't have enough time (or money) to do and see everything I'd like to in Brazil but will defiantly be back there before my trip is over.

Till next time...Peace

Brazil Pt 1

Tomorrow marks the end of our time in Brazil, when we fly from Sao Paulo to Santa Cruz in Bolivia. After arriving in Brazil, through the Iguaçu border, on the 1^st of March, I've had an amazing three weeks. Seen some breathtaking sights, meet some amazing people, seen some familiar faces for the first time since leaving Australia and covered some 5000km.

After experiencing the up close and personal experience of Iguazu Falls from the Argentinian side, we crossed over the border on a local bus and after a quick and painless passport check, we said alo to Brazil.  Having only one day in Foz do Iguaçu, we jumped in a taxi to the falls. On the Brazilian side we got a breathtaking panoramic view of the same falls we were directly underneath on the previous day, I wouldn't bother trying to describe it, as it was literally beyond words. After checking out the many vantage points on the walk we said goodbye to some new friends and headed straight to the bus terminal where we hopped on our bus to Sao Paulo.

After a 14 hours trip we arrived in Sao Paulo and after failing to figure out the buses in this massive city we took a taxi to our hostel, which despite being under construction was very nice. After checking in we met up with Emma and Haley with their local friend Rodrigo and enjoyed a meat packed lunch at restaurant nearby. It nice to see some friendly and familiar faces after over a month of travelling. After getting to know everyone in our hostel we all headed out to a samba club, heaps of fun meeting locals who tried, and failed teaching me the samba. The following day we took to relax. Our shuttle to the airport somehow got lost on the way and even having three hours to spare when we left, we just got to the massive Aeroporto Guarulhos with just enough time to check in and run to our plane. From Sao Paulo we flew three and a half hours to Recife, then onto Olinda where we spent our awesome carnival.

We took a 16 hour bus from Recife to Salvador on the Wednesday after carnival, ash wednesday as they call it in Brazil, the 9^th of March. Our hostel was in Barra. We were about to organise finding everyone who spend carnival in Salvador, when Kim and Rita happened to drive past the hostel and see me outside, in a city of millions, it's still a 'small world'. Unfortunately all the boys had left, and the girls only had one more night, but was good to have another night with good friends. Straight after carnival Salvador seemed pretty dead, not a lot a night life to speak of and a little dodgy on the streets, the first and only time I felt at all threatened on the street. It was a visible threat with every house and building having either massive amounts of razor wire on every wall or broken glass glues to the tops of walls. Despite this it was nothing dangerous if you kept your head screwed on. We spend the next three days chilling on the beach and exploring Pelourinho, an old area of town with lots of history, as usual for Salvador we had people trying very hard to sell us anything and one guy who insisted on being our give to the area. Did turn out well though, wouldn't have realised the history of the area without his help. Including the first Jesuit school (Pictured, not sure if its in the world or in Brazil) the first surgery college in Brazil and a church with more than 600kg of gold inside! Good to see the vow of poverty is taken serious by all. (sorry couldn't resist saying that...) and that Micheal Jackson filmed a massive music video in Pelourinho.

We left Salvador airport at 9am on 14^th, bound for Rio De Janeiro.

To be continued...

Carnival!

Hi Everyone!
So after setting up my new blog over a week ago, I finally get to do my first post! Scotti and I are now in Salvador, Brazil after a 16hr bus ride from Hecife in north Brazil.

I had probably the best week of my life up in Olinda (just outside of Hecife) where we spend our carnival week! I owe my Brazilian friend Juliano all the thanks in the world for taking us to Hecife. The carnival up in Hecife is a very traditional carnival, lots of families and almost everyone is Brazilian (very different to Salvador where is an expensive gringo carnival). Our accommodation was far from luxury but it made no difference to how good of a time we had. We slept on the floor until a new friend, Koala, gave us a air bed to use, we had no hot water (not that you wanted a hot shower, it was too hot anyway) and we had no internet or technology, but it was nice to have a break from that for a while anyway!

Each day consisted of waking up around 8 or 9 o'clock, a free breakfast then straight into the beers, which were free from the house we were staying at. On the first day we went to the big party in Hecife, called The morning rooster. It was awesome and we earnt much respect from our Brazilian hosts for lasting the entire parade, after most people had pulled out and gone back to Olinda. The parade was just one big party down the main street, with everyone dressed in crazy costumes. Massive trucks continuously driving past blasting traditional music and with lots of people dancing on top. We got taught a new dance, the fravo, a traditional northern Brazil dance. We finished the night by getting soaked in torrential rain, then eating a traditional meat dinner. Needless to say we had an awesome day.

Day 2 we did our usual morning routine then went and enjoyed the carnival in Olinda, lots of music, color, dancing and of course, lots of beers, even by Aussie standards there was LOTS of beer going around, which helped a little with the sweltering heat. We danced a lot, got crushed in the massive crowd and say the beautiful views the Olinda has to offer.

Day 3 is a little bit of a blur, for a couple of reasons. It started with our 'baptism' or initiation into our house (which was called 'Your Mothers House'). Our initiation was to drink a full glass of pitu, a local spirit, then do a dance on the table. This is one reason things are a big blurry, but the main reason for my confusion came when we found some black plastic outside, one thing led to another and we made a slip n slide of the road outside our house. After successfully surfing once down the plastic, I think I must have gotten a little confident and tried to go faster which resulted in me falling, hitting my head and being out cold for about 3 minutes (apparently). I was very lucky, and grateful, that the house was full of really nice and helpful people including doctors and nurses, they did everything right, checking my neck for damage making sure I didn't sleep etc. (of course everything I just recounted is not in my memory, and comes from other people telling me and photos/videos.

The final day for our Blocks day, were very one from our house came together in the same singlets, got out own band and we paraded down the streets of Olinda dancing and cheering, Heaps of fun. In other, more expensive, carnivals mostly you simply watch the carnival. In Olinda we were the carnival! So happy we were invited up there. I've made friends for life all over Brazil and will defiantly have to come back and visit someday!

Other highlights included being interviewed for the local TV station, learning some Brazilian drinking games, spending ages dancing around in a 'Chinese' style dragon as it paraded down the street and many more that may not be suitable for the blog...

We head to Rio next but are both rapidly running out of money so need to get out of Brazil quite quickly and escape to cheaper Bolivia!

Till next time...Peace!

New Blog...

Hi All,
So this is my new blog site, sorry to make you change but the last one was really crappy, especially compared to this new one...
Not much new to write as I've just written on the old blog, will do my first real blog post in a week or so, after carnival!
Peace
Sean