Brazil

Well, I survived Rio! Just! Rio is a real party city, and I got very little sleep there, despite being really, really jtlagged. It took me 30 hrs to land in Rio, at midnight! After all the crime horror stories I´d heard about Rio, I was a bit scared of landing in the middle of the night, but it was easy in the end. I got to the hostel, and thought it was deserted - but everyone was out partying! 

Anyway, Rio has to be set in the most beautiful location for a city. Marvellous beaches, beautiful mountain ranges, islands, the lot! I walked along Ipanema and Copacabana beaches, which were nice - the craziest thing was seeing people play volleyball with only their hands and feet. I went to a soccer game as well, as it was pretty mad, with all the singing, chanting, drums and general chaos. There were throwing paper and talcum powder everywhere, and it was a sea of red and green. I got split up from the main group before the game as well, as I was chasing food, which made it a bit hairy, but got talking to a Brazilian guy, who was going off tap in the stands. Eventually found my group after the game, because it would have been a mission to get back on my own! 

However, the best part was going up to Corcovado, where Christ the Redeemer is. This had the most beautiful views, and was where I concluded that Rio has the most pretty setting in the World, bar none. The city seems to nestle on the back of a dragon, which emerges from the white sand and blue sea in coils of green rain forest. It was captivating! I also went out dancing one night, to see what all the fuss was about - it´s pretty crazy out there, because things only start going around midnight. I was out til dawn, which is most, most unusual for me! But I was so jetlagged, that I couldn´t sleep anyway. 

So, I escaped Rio, because I needed my sleep, and went to an old Colonial Town in the mountains, Ouro Preto. This was the town with the steepest streets ever! I took a wrong turn to my hostel, and I had to lug my bags up and down hills to get there. phew! Very hard work! And the streets are all cobbled as well, because they were built during the gold rush, hundreds of years ago. It´s a UNESCO city, because there are so many beautiful old churches, exquisitely carved by Aleijindinho, a mulatto who lost control of his hands, so strapped a hammer and chisel to his arms to work! Unbelievable. He´s known as the Brazilian Michaelangelo.

I then caught night buses on consecutive nights, with Sao Paolo squeezed in. Sao Paolo surprised me, because it has the best art gallery in the Southern Hemisphere, garnered from all that Brazilian colonial gold, years ago. There are Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, Monet, Rembrandt, Rubens all side by side in a small gallery. It was extraordinary.

My last few days have been spent in the Pantanal, a wetland half the size of France. There is a lot of wildlife here, so you can see Caiman, Capybara, Armadillo, Tapir. It was an ok tour - but I suspect this a place where you come to realise how grand it is in retrospect. The animals are all there, and it´s only later that you think, gees, did I just see a Tapir?

Now, I´m just recovering in Bonito after the hard travel and sleepless nights. I still think my body is getting used to travel again - I´m getting old! It was a shock to the system, to be completely free to do what I like, to escape the routine. It was both daunting and bewildering - but I´m settling into the routine, and relishing it. I´ve got a River to swim down tomorrow - packed with fish in the clearest of clear waters, then Iguazu Falls to scout on both the Brazilian and Argentine sides. Wow! It may sound surprising, but I wasn´t totally excited about this trip, more trepidation - but I knew once I was on the road, the excitement would explode. YEAH!