Rio!

Dear all
We finally arrived in Rio De Janeiro with its soaring mountains, powder white beaches not to mention an abundance of samba sounds and the odd cappirinha!
We arrived quite early at the hostel, but still managed to miss most of the Royal wedding being  dragged out by BBC World & therefore only saw the edited highlights. Kate looked lovely & all that and I felt very patriotic and proud to be British, but I am really glad we missed the wedding fever in the UK & the media's second by second microscopic coverage  it all looked too much!
Much refreshed & in order to appreciate the full range of what Rio has to offer I spent the first afternoon on Marcelo Armstrong's Favla tour. There is no way to sugar coat Rio, despite its party name tag, it has a reputation for crime & violent, but as I saw on the tour it is generally  between the police & the drug lords running the larger favelas.  The fact that Brazil has managed to pay off its IMF debt and has seen some double digit growth in the last eight years has also served to temper the crime rate as more and more economic migrants move away to the north of Brazil rather than into the overcrowded city. Even the favelas have prospered in this time with most hovels now being refurbished into reasonable albeit basic brick abodes, with metred electricity, schools and in Rocinha  (the largest Favela with 250,000+ residents) there is a new hospital.

Day two saw us going on a city tour so we could appreciate the sights without taking the wrong street! Rio is surrounded on two sides by powder white beaches with turquoise waters and flanked by mountains covered in rainforest. We had a short walk in the Tijuca national park and then visited the chinese temple nearby which is supposed to have spectacular views of the city and Christ the Redeemer (voted one of the new worlds seven wonders in 2007). Alas the cloud base covered it all so we could only see a bit of Ipanema Beach. So I was a bit disappointed as we actually approached the Corcovado to see the iconic statue up close and personal, fully expecting to only see his feet.  But as you can see the cloud mysterously disappeared right at the top so you had a perfectly clear  view of him! Yippee.

Our Final part of the tour was around Lapa and the very picturesque Santa Teresa, which is set on a small hill overlooking the city. It is very olde worlde with cobbled streets and an old trolley car that rumbles up and down the hill. Our final stop was one of the most eccentric. A famous set of 215 steps whihc have been decorated over the last 20 years by a Chilean artist, who is a permaent fixture constantly tweaking the tiles and persuading you into his shop. He is quite a character and the tiles have been send from all over the world so its great fun trying to find ones form your own country!

I spent the next couple of days at the beach, and enjoying the hippie market, bought some Havainas, tried the local restaurants (including a a fantastic all you could eat Parilla!) and really got into passionfruit cappirinha's! There was also teh release of the new dreamworks movie Rio that was caputring everyones imagination (see right!)  On our last full day I walked from our hostel about halfway down Ipanema to Ponta do Aroador that seperates Ipanema from the famous Copacabana beach, then walked the whole length of Copa (4.5km) down to Brazils iconic Sugar Loaf mountain  and managed to get up the cable car just as dusk was falling. The view from the top was magical and will stay with me forever.

Rio is definately on my revisit list. Quite frankly 4 days is just not enough time to do this town justice and although I would actually visit Brazil at carnival time I think I would give Rio a swerve and see it in Salavador then come back to Rio to party! Girls you had better hope I win the lottery soon. Unfortunately our time here is done and tomorrow we take a flight to Iguassu  - onwards and upwards!

The train to Morretes

Dear all

I think I'm going to really like our short excursion into Brazil. We have spent the last two days in Curitiba. Most people have never even heard of this place let alone added it too their travel, but its one of Brazil's urban success stories

This city has slums: some of the same shantytown 'favelas' that dominate most South American cities, have sprouted on the edge of town as the population has rocketed. But even they are different, & hopeful in palpable ways. They are clean, for instance, under a city program, a slum-dweller who collects a sack of garbage gets a sack of food from the city in return. And Curitiba is the classic example of decent lives helping produce a decent environment. Because it has a great public transport system, and because its inhabitants are attracted toward the city center instead of repelled out to a sprawl of suburbs, Curitibans use 25 percent less fuel per capita than other Brazilians, even though they are actually more likely to own cars.

Anyway I digress as this isn't a moralising blog its all about our adventures and the main reason we came to Curitiba was to catch a train out of it!  There are very few trains left in South America & those that are still running are usually just scenic journeys kept open by tourists and this was just such one. The Serra Verde Express journey decends 900m through the lush temerate Serra do Mar to Morretes (Except on Sundays when it goes all the way through to the port of Paranagua). We had a Portuguese guide who spoke very little English, but the views pretty much spoke for themselves. Our journey was made even better by the fact that it was just after the Easter holidays & the train was virtually empty! Once in Morettes we had a wander round the very sweet town and then took the bus back up to town.

Day two in Curitiba saw me taking the city double decker Linha Turismo bus. Its a great way to see the sights even on your own. It takes a set route and you can hop off and then on at four of the 23 attractiosn on route. Quite a few of the stops were within the city centre so I chose four of the more remote interesting places. First stop was the Botanical gardens with its eye catching palm house. Its pleasant enough to stroll around for an hour, but not really a patch on Kew or Wisley! The second stop was a Germanic park with a Hansel & Gretle story theme and a fantastic view over the city.

The third stop was at the Wire opera house, which is a huge steel & glass contruction and looks very beautiful. The final stop was to a park that has been generated from an old quarry and has zones for different uses.  Our next stoptakes us to Rio ............... its party time........ til then..............xx

Florianopolis

Dear all

I hope you are having a great Easter break. We landed in Florianopolis gateway to to Ilha de Santa Catarina on Friday for the long weekend. We were staying at the very picturesque Barra Da Logoa right on the warm Atlantic waters - it really was! On the bus out to the village we bumped into Charlotte & Jonny, who we travelled down to the Chilean Lake district with.  The room in our hostel was not the best but the view from the rooftop made up for that. We met and spent most of our time with a lovely Irish couple Neil & Aileen.
 The weather for an Easter weekend behaved and we spent most of our time on the various little beaches and bays that were a few minutes walk from our place. The evenings were spent drinking caipirinhas in the bar - which go down far too easily! I can honestly say it was one of the best easters I have ever had & not a chocolate egg in sight!
Our next stop is Curitiba - one of Brazils most modern cities

Night all