Rio again

We flew back to Rio for the last three days to relax and enjoy ourselves prior to our return. We stayed in Ipanema, which is a great place for beaches, sights and walking about. Certainly where I would go for a first visit to Rio. (Ipanema or Leblon. Copacabana is nice and central - but run-down, everywhere else wouldn't give you that beach experience). We sat at the pool atop the hotel and I went bright red. Which was just a bit annoying. T was not in the least sympathetic, which was fair enough.


Corcavado

We went back to the handbag shop T had spotted earlier and bought me a pair of shoes and no handbag. Go figure. Other than that we relaxed. Which was nice.

Our hotel couldn't put us up for the third night (actually, they might have been able to, but the reception staff were so useless that we gave up asking - their loss and, as it turned out, our gain) so we had a scout around for somewhere else to go. I spotted a nice looking place on Laterooms and so we went. It was fantastic. It's up in Santa Theresa (where the tram goes to), so is probably not suitable for a first visit - as the main attractions and the beaches aren't all that close. However, it was lovely and quiet and there was a superb local bar just at the end of the street.

We got upon our last day and took the bus to town. We escaped the bus with our lives and wandered to the cathedral (it was the closest bit of shade to shelter us from the midday sun)


Inside the cathedral

After wandering briefly and posting some stuff home, we had lunch. Opposite or table in the square was a sign which was representative of many that we had seen all over Brazil on this trip. It is some kind of message of hope for the forthcoming Obama presidency in the USA. In Salvador, we saw T-Shirts with a picture of Barack on it and the slogan "Yes We Can" underneath. It's really interesting to observe how the event seems to have had impacts (and positive ones at that) all over the world (or, at least, the bits of it I know about). What a contrast to the experiences I had back in November 2004 when I was in a very despondent Chapel Hill, North Carolina after W had re-claimed the presidency.


Obama-mania

We left Rio on a BA flight at 23:25, homeward bound. Another adventure was coming to a close.

Recife

We had a straightforward flight to Recife and took a quick taxi ride to our hotel which was on Boa Viagem beach. We checked into our 70's themed room and took an instant dislike to the place. The beach outside was pleasant enough - in a Vila Velha kind of way - but wouldn't be relaxing in the slightest.


Busy beach

We decided to get a taxi across to Olinda (the other side of Recife) and had our dinner there. It was a poor man's cross between the bustle of Salvador and the architecture of Ouro Preto. We watched sunset over Recife;




Sunset over Recife

We ate our dinner and then took a taxi back to our hotel through the rank smelling streets of Recife. We decide to get out of Dodge.

This proved to be a little more problematic than we expected due to the fact that the woman at the GOL airlines desk insisted that we pay a small fortune to change our flights. I had a bit of a hissy fit (T got the brunt of it, for the heinous crime of wanting a cup of coffee) and then we decided to go back to the hotel. Rebook the flight and ignore the GOL woman. I redeemed myself somewhat with T by getting a refund for the flights we no longer needed.

We were heading back to Rio for the last three days - staying in a hotel that we had been to before on our last trip.

Goodbye Recife - we didn't give you much of a chance - but you blew it anyway.

Salvador - ii

We liked Salvador. It's got a bit of an edge to it, but it's manageable. It felt to us a bit like Cartagena in Colombia, which we had loved during our last trip.

Salvador is a major, bustling city, but the central part has undergone a tourist-led revival. We were staying in the Pelorinho (the old bit in the middle) which was pretty much completely touristy.


Tourist telephones

We also saw some more Samba drummers. A bit more presentable that those in Buzios, but equally keen.


Oludum drummers

During the rest of our stay, we completed the laundry; got some stamps; visited an old convent - now a top class hotel; saw more funicular elevators; had sundowners on the roof of the hotel; ate in a lovely Italian restaurant and generally chilled.

We arose to get our flight to our last location - Recife.

Salvador - i

We got a pre-paid taxi into Salvador and went straight to our hotel. I'd stayed in the same hotel in October 2007 after I'd sailed across from Tenerife on Bark Europa. I'd really liked Salvador and wanted to show it to T. I'd also really liked the hotel and it was the only one that we had pre-booked from the UK (apart from our first few nights in Rio).

I'm not the only person who likes the hotel "Casa do Amarelindo"; it's the #1 hotel in all of South America, according to Trip Advisor. T likes it too - it's a hit.

Our first afternoon was spent in the Cantina da Lua bar/cafe, which sits beside one of the main squares in the old town. It's a great way to get to see the vibe of this area, as the world passes you by as you sit watching it. We even saw a couple that we had met in Vitoria, but they had passed by us before we recognised them.

We did little but chill out on our first day.

Day two (Tuesday) saw us much more active. We located a lavanderia and dropped off our washing; went to the market to look at tat, look at the cellars and watch some Capoeira; wandered through the rather run down "cidade baixa";


Faded elegance

We got a funicular railway (inclined plane) back up to the tourist bit;


Top of the lift

We bought some anti-itching cream for our mossie bites and some shampoo for T; swam a bit; went to a condomble blessing ceremony (in the first slave-built church in Salvador);


Condomble

We had a pizza and some beers in a bar right next to a square where a band was playing and ... went to bed.

Belo Horizonte - again.

We eventually set off from the hotel and got to the bus station in Ouro Preto to find out that the next bus was full and that we'd have to wait an hour and a half until we could leave. No problem, that's what books are for.


T, waiting for a bus

We got on the bus and had a reasonable journey back to BH (apart from the overheating alarm going off and us having to slow right down each time we started to go up a hill). We arrived at the bus station and went to get tickets for the bus to the airport (our hotel is near the airport - we have an early start). We'd missed one by five mins and didn't fancy hanging around BH bus depot for an hour for the next one. So we got a taxi to our hotel.

Our driver was rubbish. Capping off a really annoying journey, where I had to tell him where to go all the time (like I knew!) he then tried to stiff us into paying for him to go back too. This is quite a common tourist scam and we were foolish to not check with him when we got in that we'd just be paying the fare on the meter. (In our defence, we've not had a single driver try this on us all trip and so we kind of got a bit lax about it.) After making it clear to the bloke that we weren't born yesterday and a masterful stroke of command by T, demanding - and getting - our bags from the boot so that we weren't held hostage to his outrageous demands, we ended with a compromise that suited neither of us. He got an extra tenner from us, but that was nothing compared to what he demanded. He stayed around the hotel lobby bemoaning to anyone who would listen (precisely nobody) for a bit, then drove off.

We checked in.

The room was OK, just. The road outside was busy and noisy; the hot water wasn't; the food was about 90% salt; the "Games Room" had a concrete floor and was directly above our room and the corridors seemed to echo and magnify any sound. Including people leaving at 4:00 am.

And it rained all night.


The road, rained upon

We got a reasonably priced cab to the airport and boarded our flight to Salvador. Even the possibility of seeing Brasilia from the air was ruled out by the appalling weather we had. We weren't in the best of moods as we arrived at Salvador airport and collected our luggage.

Unfinished Business, finished

What were you doing back in Belo Horizonte I hear you all ask. Surely it wasn't just a nerdy need to travel for 13 hours on a train, was it?

No, it wasn't. We had unfinished business in Ouro Preto and, by golly, we were back here to take care of it.

We organised a transfer from BH to Ouro Preto and arranged to stay in the Grande Hotel. It's an Oscar Niemeyer designed concrete square box, the only 'modern' building in Ouro Preto, which has been a conservation area for many years (hence the capital of Minas Gerais being moved to the newtown of Belo Horizonte)

To get a view of the town, we stayed in a suite (which isn't as expensive as it sounds) and we have a lovely two-level apartment with a sitting area and balcony downstairs, a wooden spiral staircase and a mezzanine, bathroom and bedroom upstairs. It is very nice and light and airy. As seems to be the style in Minas Gerais, it is decorated in the seventies, but, somehow, this works. The bathroom is worse than in the Ouro Minas, the bed is OK, the windows don't fit properly but none of that matters. It just feels nice to be in. Hats off to Oscar.


Ouro Preto from our balcony

Anyway, staying in Oscar's house wasn't what we came here for. We had business to attend to. Whilst we were on our tour here a couple of weeks ago, T had spotted a ring that she liked. She'd decided against buying it, mainly because the rest of the people in our tour group were standing around as she was looking at it and trying to decide. Of course, as soon as we were on the minibus heading back to Belo Horizonte, she decided that she really did like it. So we decided to come back. The nerdy train thing was just a Brucie bonus.

After looking at the ring, going for a beer, looking at the ring again, deciding on buying it and then going back for another beer, I was sent to pick it up and pay for it. This I did whilst T sat chatting to a couple of English lasses that we met in the bar. The only English people we've met so far.


Business ... finished

We stayed in the bar until we could hardly stand then stumbled back to the hotel. I managed to fall down one of the hundreds of pot holes and scraped the skin off my knee. Nurse T cleaned it up for me, bless. Apparently I was a bit of a handful and insisted on sitting on the balcony when we got back. T finally steered me into bed where I lay comatose and snoring, apparently. I woke up feeling fine and T feels rough after a practically sleepless night. I've negotiated a late check-out and, as I type this, T is catching up on her badly needed zzzz.

Later this afternoon we'll be getting the bus back to BH and staying in a hotel near the airport, ready for our morning flight to Salvador via Brasilia.

The only ....

The Ouro Minas Palace Hotel is on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte and is a 25-ish storey tower block across the road from a shopping centre. Every piece of hotel branding has (in Portuguese) "Ouro Minas, the only 5 star hotel in Belo Horizonte" emblazoned on it. I reckon that somebody opening another 5 star hotel in BH would probably bankrupt this one, as the rebranding bill alone would cost thousands.

To say the least, we were disappointed. This is, by quite a way, the most expensive hotel on our travels and it simply wasn't worth it. The rooms are dated, the bathroom was probably bleeding edge in 1979, but really showed its' age. The staff were excellent and the common areas were OK, if a little underlit. We had something to eat (as the toasty on the train didn't really keep the wolf from the door) which was perfectly nice.


View up the tower

Breakfast was not included (which is really unusual) and wasn't worth the 8 quid each that we were charged. On the train, we were debating whether to stay there three nights or not. We didn't.

Choo choo train

We got up early to catch our train to Belo Horizonte. After a brief scare, we got a taxi and were zoomed to the train station. Boarding was quite straightforward and we managed to stow our luggage safely and take our seats as the train boomed its' hooter and we set off at a crawl.


Our train

We dozed for the first couple of hours as we headed due North to get to the river that was to be our companion for the majority of the journey.


Rio Doce

At about ten o'clock I walked to the buffet car to try to buy some food. They were most apologetic, as the ovens were fully used heating up some food that we must have slept through the ordering process of.

I returned empty handed. Luckily we had bought some cereal bars and water from a petrol station the night before, so we didn't starve.

Our entertainment for the trip was both external with the amazing scenery and internal with the comings and goings of various passengers and the antics of kids, one cute little girl in the seat in front of us was great value when she wasn't asleep. I'm sure her milk was laced with cachaca, as every time she was fed, she fell straight asleep. She was very well behaved for nearly all the thirteen (13) hours of the trip.

The train was reasonably comfortable (we were in Executivo class - I didn't see what the cheap seats were like). We were the only non-Brazilians in our coach (and, probably, on the whole train) it was great fun and we didn't resort to books or ipods for the whole trip. (except for T doing a sudoku all by herself).

After another aborted attempt to get food, I finally got the impenetrable opening hours of the kitchen right and got us a couple of Misto Quente (cheese and ham toasties). They were edible. Just.

As we drew into the station in the dark we were back on full arrival alert (transportation hubs are usually busy, bustle-y affairs where being alert is quite important) and T secured a taxi from the jostling throng as we got our taxi to the splurge that was the Ouro Minas hotel, the only 5 star hotel in Belo Horizonte, as they keep on and on .. and on about.

New Year

Well, New Year Brazil style. We weren't sure what to expect, so we made sure we had quite a big lunch in case getting food later proved to be tricky. That was a good move.

We wandered out at about 8pm to see what the score was and found the place completely deserted. Not a single shop, bar or restaurant was open. Going back to the hotel, we asked the people there whether this was normal and the reply was in the affirmative. The next beach along would be a bit busier, we were told. After a brief siesta we toddled off to see what "a bit busier" meant.

It meant that there were a reasonable number of people (not thronging crowds, but a steady stream of people) walking to the centre of the beach area to watch the fireworks that would be going off at midnight. We walked all the way up to the centre, bought a beer from the ubiquitous bloke with a polystyrene box and walked back to our hotel where our complimentary little bottle of fizz was chilling in the fridge.

We went to the roof of the hotel and were slowly joined by other guests. There were probably thirty of us up there at midnight. As midnight fell, we were treated to several firework displays. The Iate clube (that's Yacht club to me and you); Ilha do Frado; Ilha do Boi (2); Praia do Camburi and Vila Velha. The last two were by far the biggest and were obscured by geography. The Ilha do Frado one went on for about 45 mins and then started again at 1am. It was pretty.

There was a song sung at midnight, not Auld Lang Syne, and there were muted "Happy New Year"s (Feliz Anno Novo). The two guys next to me shook my hand, but that was about it. I'm sure that the beach party was in full swing, but we were taken by surprise as to quite how quiet the night was.

Just after 1am we left the folks on the roof (who knows, maybe they were waiting for us to leave to start the party proper!) and went to bed. A quiet New Year by any standard.

On New Year's day we moved back to the Comfort hotel and checked into a lovely no smoking room with a lovely view of the beach. T couldn't sleep properly due to the smell of smoke. The ash tray in this room didn't have a no smoking sign!

2008 approaches the end

We are still here in Vitoria, at the small roomed but nice Bristol hotel. When we returned to our room after a stroll around town (no favelas this time) we found a quarter bottle of fizz and a couple of champers glasses.

Now that's good service. T pointed out that it was "Surprise and Delight". Which rather amused me. On my "Customer Journey" that is staying at the Bristol hotel, it's a nice thing.

I am not being brainwashed.

We are about to discover what new year Brazil style actually is. Expect an update when I'm capable.


Happy New Year

Vitoria - still

We have mostly been a chillin' for the last few days. We are staying over at the beaches in Vitoria and found a nice room in a lovely hotel, so we've camped here for a bit. We did investigate going up the coast, but it all looks a bit too complicated and they don't have any of those nice buses we had in Argentina. There is also the matter of some unfinished business (of which, more later).

So, we have decide to stay here for New Year. We have to move from this hotel, as it is fully booked for the celebrations (and, no doubt, seriously expensive too) and so we decided to check in to the Radisson on the beach opposite. It looks new and is reasonably priced, so we walked in there to book a room.

Apparently they can't book rooms at the desk, so we have to send an email. After two emails and no reply, we were seriously questioning how good a hotel this was going to be.

Anyway, whilst I'm on the subject, we needed to do our laundry. After wandering around town on a Saturday looking for a lavanderia, we finally gave up, as they all seemed to be closed. This caused a small problem, as I was out of clean T-Shirts.

To remedy this, we went to the shopping centre to see what we could find. We wandered into a shop called "TACO", which, whilst sounding like a fast food joint from Mexico, looked an awful lot like GAP. I walked in and was spotted straight away and asked if I needed help. Given my total inability to convey "No thanks, I'm just looking" in Portuguese, I was immediately discovered to be an Ingles speaker and the English speaking shop assistant was summoned to deal with me. The problem, it turned out, was that all the super-fatso T-Shirts had been sold in the run-up to Christmas and so the combined sales force of the whole shop was conscripted into searching for the last GG (Extra Large) T-Shirts in the shop.

I do not look good in Lime Green.

Finally picking a dark blue, a light blue and a white one, we paid for our purchases and said goodbye to Brazil GAP.

After a couple of lazy days, punctuated mostly by:

• Drinking beer in to the sights and sounds of "Best of the 80's" videos (including such masterpieces as "Take on me" by a-ha; "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits; two interchangeable Erasure songs; "Another brick in the wall" by Pink Floyd ... you get the idea)
  
• Eating moqueca (fish stew) a few times (tasty)
  
• Swimming
  
• Reading books
  
• Taking the odd stroll past a favela
  

We decided that we had to have an active day on Monday.

First of all, we walked back to all the closed lavanderias to discover that it would take them a week to do our washing. Ooops. Luckily, in one of the shops, another customer told us about a laundromat. Off we toddled. We dropped off our washing with the nice lady at the laundromat and arranged to return 3 hours later. Bliss.

Wandering through the blistering hot streets of Vitoria meant that we needed to stop for water. After finding a nice cafe, we had water, Coke, cheesy balls, sausage bits and two of the sweetest, stickiest deserts in the world. Finally we turned up at the HSBC to see if they would change some travellers cheques for us.

Now, banks in Brazil (much like the rest of Latin America (and some parts of Europe)) seem to be semi-fortified affairs. In order to get into one, you have to nod politely at the chap with the shotgun, pass through a metal detector and then go through some set of doors that ensure only one person can enter at once and, perhaps more importantly, leave at once. Given this increased security, T stayed out in the lobby bit (where the ATMs are) underneath an A/C outlet, whilst I went in and asked if I could do a spot of Cambio.

I got to the front of the queue and asked in my best "Lonely Planet Brazilian Portuguese phrase book" foreign "Do you have a foreign exchange office?" There was a big smile from the lady behind the desk, who promptly stood up and scuttled off to the back of the bank. Moments later she reappeared behind me and asked me to follow her. I was ushered into the "HSBC Premier" area. It was at this point that it got a bit surreal.

I gesticulated to T (through the lightly frosted glass separating us in the Premier lounge from the proles) to come through. She couldn't miss this.

We ordered water (without gas) from the be-aproned waitress as we waited in the leather armchairs to be served. Eventually I was summoned into an inner sanctum to effect our transaction. Luckily I had T's "first direct" card on me, so we were identified as bona fide HBSC customers. The woman dealing with me had to telephone up to find out what to do and, between the three of us, we managed to navigate the endless computer screens to provide me with some cash in exchange for my traveller's cheques. We stayed a while to split up the cash between us in the safety of this little exception from reality. At one point she came back to swap the piece of paper I had signed for another one - for what reason I have no idea. Smiling and waving goodbye to our new friends, we once more ventured into the sauna that is outside and took a photo - just in case we forgot about it. Behind the bank is the favela we wandered past on Sunday.


Premier, no less

We then hailed a taxi and asked him to take us to the train station. We wanted to see if we could get back to Belo Horizonte by train in the new year. After the usual near death experience that is riding in a taxi in Latin America, we had a near perfect (i.e. no resorting to wild gesticulations) exchange with the staff at the station and purchased to Executivo class tickets on the 2nd Jan. Feeling pleased with ourselves, we once again imitated crash test dummies as we were transported to pick up our washing and then to a bar for a well earned cold one and chips.



Jobs - done

Due to the lack of taxis, we started to walk back to the hotel and passed a nice looking hotel, right beside the Iate club. We popped in and were welcomed by Danielle and shown the rooms. They were small but have fantastic views and the hotel is right in the centre of everything. As the Radisson was quite so useless, we dumped that idea and booked in for a couple of nights. The only issue is that it might be a bit noisy, but, on New Year's eve - that's par for the course.

Back to our hotel, which has become alot less of a haven now that more people have arrived. We went to bed without our tea.

Don't Smoke

But if you must, this no smoking sign acts as a handy ash tray.


And, whilst we are on the subject, some of the traffic lights over here have four lights, Green (no surprise there), Amber (Orange/Yellow, whatever), Red and, oh, yes another Red. As one red light seems to mean "Keep going if you aren't actually going to hit anything (probably)" then maybe two red lights means something like "Even if the road is clear, STOP, please".

Ilha do Boi

We checked out of the comfortable but basic Comfort hotel and moved operations to the Hotel Ilha do Boi. It is situated on a peninsula in the bay off the beaches of Vitoria. It's another 1970's affair - but this time has been kept modern and is just great. For a very reasonable rate we have a room with a view of the bay and the city and use of various amenities including the circular swimming pool. The sun is on and off and the coastal breeze keeps everything at an acceptable temperature.


Vitoria, Espirito Santo

We have extended our stay to four nights and are contemplating staying in Vitoria for New Year. It seems to be a nice place and most of the visitors are Brazilian and not European or American. That means that the locals have to suffer more of our appalling Portuguese, but that's not a major problem for us.

Our room got a new LCD TV today. The TV that we don't turn on today is more modern that the one we didn't turn on yesterday.

We have also firmed up our plans for the end of the trip. We are going to do more flying that we had hoped, but this is more due to the bus timetable not fitting our exacting requirements than anything else. It's a shame, but there you go. Our last two stops will be Salvador and Recife. We won't be stopping in Rio on the way back (except at the airport).

Feliz Natal

Merry Christmas


Beach Christmas

I don't think it's going to snow today.

I might be wrong.

Colonial towns

We rose early to join our tour. We were joined by a Brazilian couple who hailed from the south of the country. This meant we were going to an additional town on our tour. After an hour of high speed mini-bus driving we arrived at the town of Conhongas where there are a set of sculptures by a ex-slave who had no hands and was nicknamed 'little cripple'. Apparently he was very important in the furthering of the artistic style. His name is Antonio Francisco Lisboa, or Aleijadinho. He was certainly prolific.


Church, old

After Conhongas, we went to the pretty town on Mariana. Unfortunately, the church was closed, so it was a whistle stop tour.


P and T overlooking Mariana

From Mariana we went to Ouro Preto. Ouro Preto used to be the capital of the state of Minas Gerais until Belo Horizonte was created. It is a pretty, busy town built on a steep hill. There are alot of tourists and churches here. After a while, old churches,inside and out, start looking pretty similar.


Church, also old

A few interesting things we noticed were:

• The extra set of ornate doors inside the churches
  
• The separation of slaves from the free people was enforced for the congregation
  
• The sheer quantity of images of Christ suffering on the cross
  
• The nativity scenes in each church, with baby Jesus missing of course. He gets dropped in at midnight
  
• The quantity of gold, naturally
  

After getting back to the hotel, we got our executive limousine (the same bus we had been in all day) to the airport to fly to Vitoria. The flight was quick and uneventful. The hotel in Vitoria is clean and, apart from the sauna/fridge option of the A/C unit, absolutley fine.

Belo Horizonte

We got up and booked a tour of the city. Within 1/2 an hour we had at our disposal: a guide, an interpreter and a driver. We then did a whistle stop tour of Belo Horizonte, including such sights as Oscar Neimeyer buildings ...

 

Building by Oscar

The second biggest covered football stadium in the world (after the Maracana in Rio)

 

Large

We saw the dressing rooms, the warm-up areas and the chapel. It was great. We then went to see the church by the lake (another Niemeyer creation).

 

Symbolism

We liked our tour so much that we booked the same trio for a day trip the next day to Ouro Preto.

Lunch was in our first Kilo restaurant. These are common in Brazil and are basically a buffet of all sorts of things that you pay for by weight. The food was fresh and very tasty. We had to share a table ... very un-British.

We decided to see when we could catch the train to Vitoria. Everyone seems to say it is an amazing journey. 12 hours by train or 45 mins by plane. In the end we had no choice ... the train was fully booked until the end of the year. With that plan scuppered, we headed back to the hotel for a swim. In the rain.


Swimming in the rain

After chatting to our new friend for a while, we went to the other side of town for a yummy dinner. Back late for an unsettled night's sleep, after negotiating a late check-out that let us have a quick break between our tour and leaving for the airport.

Buzios to BH: +13 hours -30 years

Our last day in Buzios was a quiet affair, as befits a Sunday I suppose. The morning was taken up with admin. T was most patient, which was nice. We did more detailed investigation into our proposed trip to Vitoria and decided against it; as the main aim of the trip (to go on the train from Virtoria to Belo Horizonte) would be extremely difficult to achieve. Instead, we decided to go straight to BH (via Rio). After much umming and ahhing about where to stay in BH, we looked at laterooms.com and found that the best hotel in town (according to our guide book) was going for a song. The Internet is a wonderful thing. T is happy.

After a good few hours of admin, we rewarded ourselves with lunch (very late lunch) on the local beach. We had a mixed kebab for two. It was OK. Whilst we were there, the whole beach cleared as it got quite chilly (in Brazil). The restaurant was so busy trying to close that they didn't even bother offering us pudding.

Back to the room for a siesta. T has a new book that she likes. Which means she is worryingly quiet for hours on end. I've even had to do a deal with her so that she'll stop reading for a bit so that we can go out for our tea.

Up bright and early to catch the bus, we had a bit of a rather dodgy breakfast and then got a taxi to the bus stop. After buying our tickets to Rio, we then were chatted to by a nice Brazillian lady who ennumerated her family in Rio at the least provocation.

After a quick stop along the way (where we noted but did not purchase Dulce de Leche) we arived in Rio and went to buy tickets to Belo Horizonte (BH). I waited in one queue whilst T went to another company. She came back to tell me that there were 2 tickets left on the next bus. We did some admirable South American queueing (i.e. We have already spoken to the person behind the counter once - this gives us the automatic right to ignore the queue upon our return) and got the tickets.

May I recommend to you that you don't sit at the back of an Executivo bus, next to the toilet - and next to the chiller (which is pumping out heat) - and on top of the engine, unless you feel like a mobile sauna. Luckily, this was only a 6 1/2 hour bus ride. Never mind - our palacial suite for next to nothing was awaiting in BH.

Perhaps I can digress for a moment, a momentito, if I may.... Reading and interpreting guidebooks is no mean feat. You have to kind of get into the style of the writer to try to read between the lines when interpreting an entry on a town or a hotel or anyhting really. This is complicated by the fact that the guide books have different audiences and styles; so the interpretation has to be modified by the book you read. The whole process is further complicated by the use of multiple authors within a single guidebook. Thus you end up with anomalies. Sometimes something sounds fine and dandy and you toddle off, then wonder what kind of space dust the writer must have been on when they wrote the entry.

Fodors: "The rooftop pool and bar are the best in town"
Lonely Planet: "Don't miss the rooftop bar and pool, one of the best in the city"
Reality: This can be the only rooftop pool and bar - if not, I don't want to see the rest. To be fair, the pool area is nice-ish, if a bit pokey. The bar staff are great, but the food (club sandwich) was inedible. The bar hasn't been redecorated since the Bay City Rollers were number one

Fodors: "Cons: Rooms lack character"
Reality: This is a grossly unfair comment. These rooms ooze character. The problem is that the character that the rooms ooze is Starsky and Hutch circa 1976. Actually, Huggy Bear circa 1976 might be more appropriate.

Of course, it is possible that our bus might actually have been a time machine. Come to think of it - I haven't seen any mobile phones yet. Hmmm.

And it's noisy in our room.

We may not be staying here for Christmas after all. Watch this space.

Buzios

We arrived in Buzios without much of a clue as to where we would be going. People were asking the bus driver to stop here, there and everywhere - we just sat on the bus waiting to be told that we had to get off.

After getting off, after being told to, we stood round waiting for a taxi; the one we got would have been a bit shabby in Bolivia - never mind what is billed as an upmarket resort for the rich and famous. Nevertheless it fulfilled the dual taxi functions of knowing where we wanted to go and getting us there in one piece.

Pousada Hibiscus Bungalow is just by a nice beach (Joao Fernandez) and is a bit of a walk into town. This suits us just fine. Our room is a tad closer to nature than we might like, but it's no Tortugal - where geckos used to pop their heads out of the thatch in the ceiling to see who was staying for the night.

We wandered into town and sat down at a shop overlooking the harbour and ordered our first ciaparinhas of the trip. They were nice, but astoundingly alcoholic. We then decided to ask for a fish, as there was a barbecue lit beside us. We were brought four fish to look at, one was recommended - we chose it. Much faffage ensued as the barbecue was re-kindled and the fish, salad and chips were prepared. It was a most amusing sight. Sated - we returned to the pousada with the aid of a rickety collectivo (to be honest, that's a bit tautological) to sleep the sleep of the just. Again.

Saturday morning and the sun shone. The view is lovely.

View - lovely

We did some admin and then set off, with our washing, into town. After dropping the washing off, we went in search of a way to our next destination.


Washing - tick

It looks like we need to go from Buzios to Cabo Frio to Campos to Vitoria. It will be an adventure

After meeting the oldest woman in Buzios (apart from her mother, who is 99), we toddled off for lunch, eventually settling for the Bar do Ze. We shared a ceviche to start and then, to the accompaniment of a Torrontes (from the vineyard in Mendoza that we had stayed in last year) and Gotan project (French/Argentine tango band we had just been to see in London a few days before departing on our travels) we had a lovely steak (me) and Red Snapper with Banana (T). Fantastico.

We walked back to the pousada for a swim and a brief siesta prior to setting off back into town to collect our clean washing (one of life of the road's little pleasures). We stopped for a drink at a chill-out bar and then headed home as everything seemed to be packing up for the night.

Deciding that walking all that way was a bit thirst-inducing, we decided to stop at a bar beside a square for a drop of refreshment. Where we bumped into Alan, a chap we had been chatting to whilst swimming earlier that day. He convinced us to go and see a Samba band practising in the main square a bit later. We had pizza and went to see the band.


Drummage

This was now 11 pm and there were people of all ages (including a couple of cute toddlers that stole the show) both watching and taking part. It was fantastic. The power of the drumming at that close a distance was quite astounding.

With our ear drums still ringing, we wandered back to bed, saying goodbye to Alan who was off in search of a party. We slept soundly once more.

Busy Buzi Bus

The dying embers of my birthday saw us calibrating our pedometers on Copacabana beach, stopping for a night-cap at a kiosk and then heading for some shut-eye.

We got up late on Thursday and went down to the dungeon for free brekkie. Then we decided to see what the whole H Stern thing was about. Pretty crap really. But it got us to Ipanema, ticked a box and enabled us to buy T the most expensive Havaianas in the world.

We went back to our favourite Rio bookshop for lunch and I bought a book about Buenos Aires (a novel about it actually).

We walked along Ipanema beach in the rain and stopped for a beer. Then we went back to the tourist trap that is the bar that the guys wrote "The Girl from Ipanema" in.

We walked back to Copacabana and I crashed out. For 14 hours.

On Friday we got up to get the bus to Buzios. It was busy. The Busy Buzi Bus.

Friday night was spent on the quayside in Ossos, watching the comedy that was our meal being prepared and the dancing that was the cruise liners manoeuvring in the bay. We got a collectivo home.

Back in Rio - Xmas and New Year 2008/9

 

Rio - damp
So, here I am once more ...
(oops, shouldn't really start quoting Marillion lyrics should I - it'll show how old I am.)

Did I mention it was my birthday?

So, T and I are back in South America. This time for a month. And only in Brazil.
We had a lovely flight time (11:40am) from Heathrow and, after depositing the car in the extortionately expensive car park, arrived in plenty of time to have a Gordon Ramsey breakfast - nice food - appalling service - shocking price, before getting onto the plane and sitting on the tarmac for the best part of an hour.

The entertainment was good enough. Hancock, Ghost Town, Mummy 3 and Trans Siberia. Time passed and we landed.

Arrived at the Marriott (those points do add up) and went straight to bed, pausing only to open my "Happy Birthday Fiance" card (did I mention it was my birthday? - what about the fact that T and I are engaged (which happened 10 months ago)).
Anyway. We awoke to poor weather.

Our spirits were not dampened. After wandering about - failing to get cash - getting a SIM card for the phone and getting wet, we sat at a kiosk on Copacabana beach and had a beer. It's my birthday. We had a beer. On the beach.

T spotted a nice looking restaurant in the guide book and so we toddled off to Porcao. It's a Brazilian BBQ joint. An all you can eat affair. With a cloud enshrouded Sugar Loaf mountain as a backdrop.


T helping to celebrate my birthday - what a trooper

We waddled back for a siesta.

(There's still a bit of my birthday left).

3,577 steps so far today.