Rio

  

It was an easy two hour bus ride from Angra dos Reis to Rio. As soon as we arrived at the main bus station, we immediately got a taxi to our B&B in Santa Teresa, a neighborhood of Rio that once was home to the elite. But the well heeled left decades ago as the neighborhood deteriorated. Only now is the area begining to gentrify, along with the adjacent Bohemian district of Lapa, that's home to the music of the bosa nova and the samba.

When we asked the cab driver to take us to Santa Teresa, his eyes rolled a bit and with his hand, he made a motion of a firing gun. Not what you want to see. Apparently, there had been a major gun battle between a violent street gang and the police a few days ago. It was a bit unsettling.

It turned out that our B&B was in the better part of Santa Teresa. Gertrude's B&B is owned and run by Adreana, a gregarious hostess of Italian descent, who speaks Portuguese, English and German and knows her neighborhood quite well. Her house, built in the 1930's, is large and beautiful. With Santa Teresa being on a hill, the house had spectacular views of Rio, particularly the Sugar Loaf. 

                                    The breakfast room - our table was the far one.

One of the better known sights in Santa Teresa is the Escadaria Salderon, a set of stairs climbing 250 meters that artist Jorge Salderon tiled over throughout the years from spare tiles and tiles donated to him by travelers. He began the project around his house, but was soon expanding upwards and downwards of the stairs. It is a fascinating work of art. Salderon died in 2013.

On one of the evenings at Adreana's, the guests all pitched in to make a scrumptious pasta dish. It was a fun evening with lots of good conversation.

       I may have failed to mention that the other guests were lovely young Brazilian ladies.

We spent the better part of the next day finding our way to and touring the Corcovado (Christ, the Redeemer). It's a massive statue that can be seen from many areas in Rio. The route to the statue is on an old fashioned train that winds its way through dense rain forest. It's a beautiful ride. Needless to say, the views from the Corcovado are breathtaking.

                               View from Corcovado of Sugar Loaf and Rio's bay.

Our remaining time in Santa Teresa was spent visiting the historic center of Rio, the Rio Art Museum (MAR), the cathedral of São Sebastião (a Mayan architecturally styled building), the aquaduct and the Lapa neighborhood. We also paid our respects one last time to the historic Colombo confectionary for a pastry and an espresso.

                                                       Rio's aquaduct 

                                   São Sebasião cathedral looks like a Mayan pyramid.

                                                        The Lapa district.

We hated leave, but for our last three days in Rio we wanted to be in the Copacabana area. There, our main activities consisted of a tour of two favelas (the poor hillside dwellings that Rio is so well known for) and a trip up to Pào de Açucar (better known as Sugar Loaf).

Favelas are often found on hill and mountain sides. Today, some of the favelas have been given land    rights, sewage, electricity and roads.

                                  A school we visited in the favela district.

     Narrow, dark corridors honeycomb the favelas.

                         View from the first base rock of Sugar Loaf.

               Atop Sugar Loaf. Some folks went up the hard way by rock climbing.

On the day of our departure, with a very late checkout of our hotel, we had just enough time to visit Rio's botanical gardens and, for one last time, dip our toes in the water at Copacabana beach.

                  A number of artist eek out a living by building large sand castles.

                                                   Ipanema Beach.

                              A beautiful pond at the botanical gardens.

Our visit to Brazil was nearly over. It had been a unique experience, seeing this country and its culture, a people that I well could have been one of, had my parents decided to stay in Brazil fifty-five years ago. Strange, how life can turn out. We leave Rio knowing that we had a great adventure but we left plenty of unturned rocks for the next time.

                                     Diane at Copacabana Beach one last time.

Angra dos Reis and back to Rio

Angra of dos Reis

We had  a slow but comfortable ferry ride from Ilha Grande to Angra dos Reis. Spent most of the trip talking to a friendly Irish traveler who had just completed his studies for physical therapy. 

After docking, Diane and I grabbed a taxi to our hotel, which was a few coves to the east of town. When the cab dropped us off, we knew instantly that this was going to be a good stay. - the hotel was right along the waterfront, with rooms all facing the water.

As with all rooms, we had a large balcony with table, chairs, a bench and a hammock. We spent a number of hours on that balcony.

On one of the days, we took a boat trip to nearby islands to swim, snorkle and walk along pristine beaches. Allbeit, the water visibilaty was nothing notable as well as the sea life, the trip was a lot of fun and we got a chance to get better acquainted with several other guests from other South American countries.   

We had all our meals at the hotel, something we rarely do. But the meals were good and the prices were reasonable - particularly since the meals were served a few feet from the water.

We took a bus back to the city of Angra dos Reis to see if there was anything else to sightsee. But, alas, there isn't much to see and what there is to see, is pretty run down. After a beer and snack near the fishing dock, we headed back to our Shangri-La. 

After three days in Angra, we left for Rio. The plan called for staying three nights in the Santa Teresa and Lapa area and three nights at a hotel in Copacabana.

Ilha Grande, Brazil

Time is going by quickly. We were in Ilha Grande for four days and have moved onward. It's time to recap our adventures in Ilha Grande.

From Paraty we took a local bus north for nearly two hours that dropped us off in the middle of Angra dos Reis. We had a little bit of trouble finding the ferry to Ilha Grande but after a little hunting, we found the "fast" boat to the island. Taking the speed boat Is 3x the price of the slow ferry, but at $15, it was affordable and got us there in 30 minutes instead of 1 1/2 hours.

The island town of Abrao is very quaint in spite of historically being the center of Rio's prison system until the mid 1960's. Today, it's small town with cobble stone and sandy streets. The beaches are magnificent. The back drop is a dense jungle with enormous rock outcroppings. 

We stayed in the center of town at a pousada (B&B) just off the beach that offered a sparse room with a decent buffet breakfast. The weather ranged from sunny days to overcast with light rains. Fortunately, the day we picked to go on a boat and beach tour, it turned out to be the sunniest day we spent in Ilha Grande.

The boat dropped us of at a small beach on the west side of the island. From there we had to walk across a pennisula to the east side (the windward side) of the island where there was a long stretch of white sandy beach. Truly a fabulours, world class beach - one of the best we've encountered. 

On one of the other days we were on Ilha Grande, we hiked to a lovely waterfall. It was a moderately easy hike through dense rain forest. Along the way, we found the town's aquaduct, a structure built well over a hundred years ago that still serves the community today. 

Our last day in Ilha Grande was spent dodging rain in between walks. But we still managed to take some nice walks around the hills of Abrao and along the beaches. Naturally, on the very morning we were ready to leave, we woke up to perfectly sunny skies. But, alas, it was time to leave and head off to Angra dos Reis, our next stop.

Rio to Paraty

Rio de Janeiro to Paraty

                                                      Ipanema boardwalk.

After our sojourn to the past in Petropolis, we drove our rental car back to Rio's Galeao airport, a drive that should have taken an hour. But after encountering massive traffic jams and poor signage that led us astray, we got to the car rental agency way late. Budget, however, was kind enough to look the other way.

Our few days in Rio were spent meeting up with a childhood friend of mine and getting re-acquainted with a city that is now enormous in size from when I last saw it (besides, that had been through the eyes of a ten year old - what the heck did I know!).

                                              Rudi, Sandra, Diane and me.

Meeting my old friend certainly was a highlight of the trip. Rudi and his wife, Sandra, flew in for a day from Itu, to join us in Rio. It had been 55 years since we had seen each other and it showed. After introductions we immediately began to rekindle the connection. Yet for a time, the moment had been filled with trepidations because we didn't know how things would work out after all this time. 

We enjoyed reminiscing about the past, talked about our parents and more recent events in our lives. We lunched at a restaurant on the Copacabana beach and afterwards had dessert at a historic confectionary restaurant (Colombo), in the old center of Rio. 

                               At Colombo's enjoying some fabulous desserts and coffee.

It was a truly unique experience seeing such an old friend again, after so many years. In the early evening we said our good-byes and made it a point to meet before another 55 years went by.

The next couple of days in Rio were spent getting more acquainted with the city and making plans for going south to the colonial town of Paraty.

Paraty

                                         The main church in Paraty.

The bus to Paraty took nearly four hours. Part of the drive took us through hillside areas. But at one point we got to the coast line and drove the rest of the way, along a beautiful coast. 

Paraty (pronounced Parachee) has a newer area and a historic zone. Our "pousada", which is more or less a Brazilian B&B, borders the old and new area. With wonderful hosts, great breakfasts and strong, Brazilian coffee - what else could one ask for.

                        Colorful tour boats line the docks offering day-long island trips.

On our first full day in Paraty, we took a boat trip with a big group of people (mostly Brazilians). It was a lot of fun and we ended up spending most of our time with a young Brazilian couple (Lia and Gabriel) from our B&B, who spoke excellent English. 

                             Our island excursion and new Brazilian friends, Lia and Gabriel 

The boat tour took us to several islands and bays where we could swim and relax. Some of the stops were beaches with backdrops of dense jungles. They reminded us of some of the South Pacific islands we've visited. The only things missing were the white sandy coral beaches. Here the beaches had the more typical light browne sand.

                                     One of the stops on our waterfall and cachaça tour.

                   Beautiful Bamboo shutes.

The next day we took a tour of the surrounding mountain area where there are lots of rivers and waterfalls. The tour also took us to some cachaca distillaries.

                                 One of the cachaça distillaries we stopped at.

On our last day in Paraty, we jumped on a local bus that took us across the narrow peninsula to a small, sleepy beach town called Trindade, pronounced "Treendahjee".

                                                       Trindade beach.

Our last evening in Parady we walked along the historic downtown area, browsed in some of the quaint stores and had a traditional Brazilian dinner consisting of fish, feijão (black beans) and rice. For drinks, we had caipirinhas, the typical Brazilian cachaça drink made with limes.