An Expanse of Dunes - Lencois Maranhenses

From Santarem, we caught a thankfully uneventful flight to Sao Luis with a brief halt in Belem, where we had some delicious graviola (a type of custard-apple) ice-cream. We also tried the not so delicious muruci (translation unknown, it tasted salty, sweet, and buttery; altogether too rich) and had quick naps on the cold steel benches at the airport, made somewhat comfortable by the use of our sleeping bag. We had also spent the entire night at Santarem airport, since our flight was too early for the bus from Alter do Chao and we didn't feel like splurging on a taxi. So, we caught the bus the previous night. It was slightly uncomfortable but manageable and MF Tree rewarded herself with a tapioquini with butter at the airport's 24-hour cafe.

Baggage and us arrived all together in Sao Luis in the blazing hot afternoon and soon found out that the bus to Barreirinhas - the gateway town to Parque Nacional Lencois Maranhenses (the point of us coming to Barreirinhas)- was leaving very very soon, i.e. in the next 30 minutes from the rodoviaria which was a 15 minute drive away. We dashed to the rodoviaria, bought tickets from some grumpy, slow, and unhelpful bus company employees (try to avoid Cisne Branco buses), one of us used a rather dirty paid bathroom and we boarded the bus. A brief scare occured when a woman was sitting in one of our seats but was quickly resolved when she saw that she had a different seat number. Next stop Barreirinhas and our first encounter with aggressive tour-company employees.

We were accosted by them as soon as we disembarked from the bus since Barreirinhas in recent times has become a popular destination with domestic and some international tourists due to its proximity to the spectacular Lencois Maranhenses. Fortunately we dealt with them fine and were guided by one of them to an inexpensive river-side pousada with a decent bathroom and a working fan. Unfortunately, what we didn't know was that it was next to a restaurant-cum-local-party-wedding-venue which blared music late into the night and started early in the morning. It wasn't very good music either - the first night it was locals singing accompanied by a religious sermon for what seemed to be someone's 40th birthday and the following morning it was loud and bad pop-music which no one was really listening to, just that the stereo was on and blowing into the river.Oh well, so it goes. The FFos was determined to not give this restaurant "any of his patronage" and cracked himself up everytime he said it (i.e. everytime we passed by it).

We did manage to accomplish two things that night - book our spots on a tour to Parque Nacional Lencois Maranhenses for the very next day and get dinner at a river-side spot called Restaurante Barlavento which had surprisingly good pizza and a mouth-melting maracuja suco com leite (passion-fruit juice with milk - essentially a passion-fruit milkshake.)

The next morning was a lazy one, spent dawdling at breakfast by the riverside and writing journals and blog posts and downloading photographs. We spent a while remembering our last three weeks (it's only been that long! But then again, we're now through 30% of our trip!) and relaxing after a long couple of travel days from Alter do Chao. We had a rushed lunch thanks to the laid-back service at Barlavento again and made our way to the tour.

Our route to Parque Nacional Lencois Maranhenses was by jeep and a short river-crossing by barge. A jeep full of Brasilian tourists and our genuinely friendly guide Jadson, who thankfully spoke English so we understood his instructions and informational tidbits. It's a bumpy ride from Barreirinhas, since it's a dirt-and-sand-through-some-water-bodies road which goes to the park, although it is extremely pretty and a big change from Amazonia since it passes through palm and shrub vegetation due to the dry and sandy soil. The park itself, left us speechless. A jaw-dropping expanse of rolling white sand-dunes and depressions filled with water in the rainy season. Most of the lakes were dry when we went because it was towards the end of the year (rainy season starts around January) but the landscape was no less stunning. Dotted with a few specks of green grasses and tree-stumps, wherever we looked was a desert like multitude of whitish-yellowish-brownish dunes.

Our short hike led us through 3 dry lake-beds and ended at the still water-filled Lago do Peixe (Fish Lake) where everyone enjoyed a refreshing dip in the water. We did hold everyone up a little throughout our trip because we went a little camera-crazy and clicked a ton of pictures while most the others in our little group were more interested in getting to the lake and taking a dip and then heading back. Our group included a Brasilian software professional living in Belgium (who was planning to move back to Brasil by the end of the year), his girlfriend who he had not met in a year, and a rather talkative corpulent old chap from Sao Paulo who did not pause his chatter to all and sundry throughout the tour. He was well meaning though.

We ended our Barreirinhas stay with another meal of pizza topped off with yet another maracuja suco com leite and a perfect-for-summer, chilled Brahma pilsener. The second bus to Sao Luis was at 9 am the next day and even with our notoriously lax timing we managed to make it with ease, albeit with a little fretting.

Amazonia

Alter do Chao sits on the banks of the Rio Tapajos, just before it joins the Rio Amazonas. The place where the rivers meet is in the neighbouring larger city called Santarem (of the-airport-where- we-lost-our-baggage-fame). The town really is sleepy, and everything closes in the middle of the day when the sun is at its hottest, and opens again in the evenings. Things are generally open until late at night. It is not uncommon to be able to buy your groceries or stroll over to the riverside to eat some sorvete (icecream) after dinner around 10 pm.

The first day we spent at Alter do Chao was Sunday, and the riverside beach was extremely crowded, with tourists and locals from nearby towns. The next few days we saw very few people and we had the beach almost to ourselves. The Tapajos forms a bay at Alter do Chao; the sand is clean and white, and the water is calm and blue-green. The word picturesque sums it up perfectly. Various riverside restaurants have their tables and chairs in the water itself - it is extremely comfortable and pleasant to sit with your feet in the cool river water while the afternoon sun blazes overhead.

Alter do Chao is not a common tourist destination (the gateway city of Manaus, or the port city of Belem are more popular with international tourists) but it is the spring-board to visit Floresta Nacional (FLONA) do Tapajos, a 6500 sq km primary rainforest reserve. Our day-trip started off with an hour-long boat ride on the river to the Maguary community. The boat was tiny, light, and could seat 4 people. Maguary is south of Alter do Chao, and the people earn their living by working rubber. There were many seringa (rubber) trees all around. The Maguary community doesn't actually collect the rubber (surrounding communities do that and sell the unprocessed rubber to them), they make products out of it. We saw the painstaking ways in which rubber sheets, bags, slippers, and other products were made. Everything is done by hand, there are very few tools, and it takes a long time. We should not neglect to mention that everytime one needs to enter or leave the community, one needs to wade through an ankle-deep bog.

We then took a 20-minute boat ride further south to get to the Jamaraqua community, whose forest we hiked into. We were accompanied by a guide from the community (this is a requirement of the Brasilian government). Unfortunately, the guide spoke no English (except for the word "Bambi" when he was trying to explain that there were deer tracks), and our limited Portuguese greatly restricted the benefit we got from his knowledge of the forest. Nonetheless, we were awed by the forest itself, and our guide's observation skills. For instance, he suddenly stopped while we were hiking through the forest, pointed to the ground and said aranha. We froze in our steps and waited quietly as he moved a few leaves and suddenly there emerged a tarantula! It was amazing and enormous. Or another time, he suddenly pointed into the dense foliage and said cobra verde (cobra is the Portuguese word for snake). We started off on a torrent of onde? onde? (where? where?) and finally noticed it lying peacefully amidst the leaves. We saw giant trees, enormous creepers entwined on trees, brilliantly coloured butterflies, and monkeys leaping across branches. We heard many birds. It was truly a magical experience.

Our trip ended with a canoe ride through extremely clear waters with strange and wondrous plants growing under it and schools of fish swimming through including some small, harmless varieties of piranha. One did not need to snorkel to see the plants or fish. The water was so clear that the plants photosynthesize until several feet underwater and extend their tendrils up to the surface for air. The green and red plants, with large mossy tendril like things underwater, and had big leaves that floated to the top and formed a carpet of leaves on the surface. There was also a plethora of river-birds - egrets and herons were the ones we recognized, the rest were mostly just called passarinha (small bird!) by our guide.

Lunch was in the home of a local family who made a huge effort to prepare vegetarian food for us. It was a delicious spread - made even better by the tiredness of the long day - of spaghetti, rice, beans, salad, egg and soy. The sun was setting and the moon rising as we were getting into our boat to get back to Alter do Chao. The river was pitch dark, there were storm-clouds and lightning bolts on the horizon and our ride was guided by moonlight shimmering off the river.

Baggagem perdida!

A long and roundabout flight with many connections dropped us off at the Santarem airport, from where we were to take two buses to Alter do Chao, a sleepy riverside town in the heart of the Amazon. We waited at the baggage collection area in the Santarem airport sleepily at 5:30 am, and were jolted awake when the carousel stopped and our bags had not arrived. Frantic thumbing through our phrase book brought us to the "baggage lost" page, and we explained to the staff waiting around that we didn't see our bags. Our confidence levels did not rise when everyone looked panicked and ran to the flight we were just on, waiting on the tarmac to take off to its next stop. Unfortunately, our bags were not found by the staff quickly rummaging through the plane's baggage compartment, and we found ourselves filling out an airline form with the help of two staff persons who spoke some English. I have to say that the airline (TAM) and airport security staff was extremely helpful, and we filled out the Portuguese form and made our way to the bus stop to take our bus to Alter do Chao.
Despite our grim situation (no change of clothes, no underwear except what we were wearing, no spectacles/contact lens solution, no medicines, no soap) the bus ride to Alter do Chau cheered us up immensely as we drove through the rainforest, and the cool breeze whipped through the windows bringing respite from the sweltering heat of the Amazon. A treat awaited us when we reached the pousada we were to spend the next indefinite period of time (until our bags reached) - for very little money we were given a palatial room in a charming garden setting (an arara (macaw) serenaded us from the neighbour's trees), with a sumptuous breakfast every morning, and best of all, the nicest and kindest owner! After feasting on a huge breakfast we made our way into the praca (which is about 3 blocks long) to purchase some underwear, clothes meant for this weather, soap, and contact lens solution. After a few tries, we managed to get all! In fact, it felt kind of good to have so few things to take care of. We enjoyed this simple living for the next two days while our baggage remained missing, taking turns to mope and be cheerful. More than the loss of the baggage, it was the indefinite stalling of the rest of our trip through Brasil that we were ruing.

Luckily, our baggage reached us in a couple of days, and we enjoyed our stay in Alter do Chao (and our visit to the Amazon rainforest) tremendously.

An Unusual Species

Everywhere we go in Brasil, we are an unusual species since Indian tourists are few and far between here. The typical international tourist here is European/US American*.
However, due to the unbridled success of the soap opera (Caminho das Índias) based on Indians that aired until a few months ago, everyone welcomes us with open arms and treats us like celebrities. We are loving it! We intend to watch a few episodes on Youtube when we get back home.

*We are in the midst of reading Open Veins of Latin America, by Eduardo Galeano and have been sensitized to not calling US Americans Americans, since Latin Americans also have a claim to that name.

Indian Food Extravaganza

With all the glorious food that we were devouring in Sao Paulo, we decided to cook up a minor feast (by our standards) of Indian food at home, for our hosts. Of course, neither of us had cooked up all that many minor feasts before so if anything a minor adventure was to be had.

At least we easily settled on a menu - it was to be a full spread. Starting off with either Papdi chaat or Bhel depending on the ingredients available, followed by stir-fried Okra with potatoes, Chhole, Carrot salad, Rice and finished up with Gazar Halwa.

We found all ingredients necessary at an extremely well stocked supermarket called Pao de Acucar, but didn't quite estimate the time well. We had dawdled in Parque do Ibirapuera and the Bienal exhibition a little too long and so by the time P. and M. returned, we were still cooking! Fortunately though, our first-time attempts, with modifications for ingredients (and time!) not available, at tamarind chutney and gazar halwa turned out perfectly fine. The substitute for papdi that we picked up at the supermarket held up well under yogurt and the late addition of jeera (cumin) and bay-leaves to the rice didn't go south either. All in all, the food was good and the cooking and eating of it was fun! Even though, ahem, we say this ourselves. The food was also bolstered by the very solid bottles of wine - Brasilian ones - that P fished out.

To P. and M. - this was just a teaser, there's more awaiting on your future trip to India!

P.S. Erm, late revelation, but the carrot salad was a late addition because we had too much carrot for the halwa!

Sao Paulo, an Ode to Food

We had to devote an entire post to Sampa's food and drink, it was marvellous. We started each day with a sumptuous breakfasts at P. and M's home, where we were treated to excellent coffee, assorted breads, heavenly bolo de fuba (cake of cornmeal) with erva doce (aniseed), requeijao (Brasilian cream cheese), homemade blackberry jam, pao de quiejo (refer our Ouro Preto post), and fruit.

The city has many Italian and Japanese immigrants. In fact, Sampa has the world's largest Italian population outside Italy. It is no surprise therefore, that pizzerias and sushi places abound. Paulistanas claim that Sampa's pizza is the best in the world, and I would have to agree! I have never eaten better pizza! I suppose I will need to confirm this after our trip to Naples (not yet scheduled). We went to one of Sao Paulo's oldest and most traditional pizzerias in the Italian neighbourhood of Bixiga, where the Famiglia Tarallo has been serving excellent pizzas since 1958. They have up on their walls some kind of certificate from Italy about their margherita pizza vouching for its authenticity.

We also ate excellent Japanese food at the Mercado Municipal. Mercado Municipal is an enormous colonial building built in 1928 that houses a varied selection of fresh produce, spices, wines, prepared foods, and eateries, and basically anything food related. We were introduced to the extremely simple, elegant, yet divine Brasilian dessert - salada de frutas com leite condensado (fruit salad with condensed milk!), for which we made the trip back to Mercado Municipal a second day! At Mercado, we were also introduced to Pasteis, a delicious Brasilian snack/meal made of fried flour and stuffing (either cheese, fish, meat, vegetables, or sweet things like chocolate or guava). We have become great fans of pasteis (what's not to like in fried flour and cheese?!) and keep an eye out for them on our travels.

Thanks to P.'s friend who suggested a vegetarian restaurant close to Ave. Paulista, we got to eat at Vegethus. It's a pay-by-weight/all-you-can-eat-buffet with a huge variety of delicious solely vegan food and desserts. We sampled their vegan pizza, pasta, rice, beans, croquettes, salads, goiaba (guava) flan, maracuja (passionfruit) cake, and other assorted desserts. TFFos took the all-you-can-eat quite literally and was therefore stuffed to the gills for the rest of the day, and could not even eat dinner. Close to P. and M.'s house is a Sampa institution Rancho do Empada, which serves a variety of Lanchonettes (hot snacks!). Here we ate empadas, a baked good that looks like a muffin from the outside, but is actually a cover of dough, with various savoury and sweet stuffings to choose from. Empadas are widely available everywhere we go, as Brasilieros seem fond of their snacks.

Edicificio Italia not only provides a splendid view of Sao Paulo, it also hosts great wine and finger foods. We were introduced to the Brasilian wine Talento, a blend of Cabernet, Merlot, and Tannat (an Uruguayan grape high in tannins). We also ate excellent rucula and brie croquettes - fried appetizers.

P. and M. took us to sample Sao Paulo's best caipirinhas at Veloso and its sister establishment next door. Being Brasil's national cocktail, our expectations were high and we were not disappointed. The traditional caipirinha is made with cachaca (extremely sweet sugarcane liquour), lime, and sugar. Today, caipirinhas come in varied forms - with fruits, or made of vodka, or sake. TFFos's favourite was the traditional, while mine was the one with caju (the red cashew fruit, not to be confused with the nut). Here we also tried the Brasilian staple - mantioca. As an appetizer, it's served fried, like french fries. As a vegetable it's often stewed and eaten with rice. For our South Indian readership, it tastes quite like aritikai, or raw plantain.

A few of our meals were prepared by the wonderful D., including pancakes filled with cheese and vegetables, and a superbly sauce-y lasagna with zucchini. A word on the Brasilian zucchini- it is quite different from the type you get in California, and is extremely flavourful and crunchy, and not watery at all. I am a huge fan!

We will end our food post with a nod to Brigadeiro, Brasil's favourite dessert, usually made for children's birthday parties! It's surprisingly easy to make, but we intend to keep the recipe a secret so that we can dazzle our non Brasilian friends at our dinner parties. :) Let's just say that it is delightfully sweet and chocolatey.

Days and Nights in Sao Paulo

Lonely Planet calls Sao Paulo a "monster. The gastronomic, fashion and finance capital of Latin America ... home to 19 million people and more skyscrapers than could ever possibly be counted." (MF Tree, of course, tried and stopped at about 200) I'd call it more of a tsunami. While Rio's pleasures were more drawn out, lackadaisical and a little sleepy, Sampa came at us in a splendid sensory gush. We were hosted by the fantastic P. and M., who love food as much as we do. We should also mention their wonderful little dog, T. and the uber-helpful and lovely D. We were blown away by their warmth and hospitality, and aspire to be as good hosts to our friends, and friends of friends ourselves. There may be no better city in Brasil - Latin America or the world, if you ask Paulistas - as far as food is concerned. The same also goes for museums, cultural happenings and the mad rush of people. As passionate city-slickers, we absolutely loved it.

Everything that we saw was a highlight. Avenida Paulista - where the beautiful and wealthy of Sao Paulo can be found on weekdays. Also home to the high-calibre Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP) and FIESP (can't remember the translation. Also MF Tree corrects me - it's FIESP SESI SP!) We caught an excellent (mostly) photographic exhibit at FIESP chronicling Brasilia* through the years. From the days of its rapid construction under the eagle eye of Niemeyer, to visions of a utopian land in the middle of the country, to modern installations showing its present day condition in literal and metaphorical forms. The photographers included Marcel Gautherot, Peter Scheier and Thomaz Farkas. At MASP we were treated to modern German paintings, the progress of Romanticism through the ages and an exhibit capturing portrait painting at different points in history. All well-curated and displayed, although the English translations were a wee bit odd. Also on Avenida Paulista is the beautiful Livraria Cultural - a bookstore par excellence where we spent yet another lazy afternoon after a mouth-watering lunch (more on that later.)

Another lazy day was spent strolling through Parque do Ibirapuera and visiting the Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM) and the Bienal - a twice yearly exhibit of current international art. Also littering the Ibirapuera landscape are Niemeyer buildings (TFF gushes.) A verdant patch with varied play spaces for children in the middle of concrete Sampa, Ibirapuera is also an art oasis. Two of the spaces we mentioned already, but it also holds a museum of Afro-Brasilian art and a performance space for theater and music designed by Niemeyer. We're saving those for our next time.

Sao Paulo's Centro is studded with Colonial style gems. In our roamings around we saw the massive Catedral da Se, the ornate and peaceful Sao Bento - which also has a super bakery! producing some rather 'divine' bread and cookies - the Estacao Luz, the Pinacoteca, Praca da Luz and the truly awesome Mercado Municipal (reserved for our food post.) The Pinacoteca is our favourite museum in SP. Home to some fine Brasilian art, we were especially taken with the contemporary Brasilian sculpture and paintings. It also has some great rotating exhibits, our favourite from the current stock was one on photographs from the 1910-1950s by the Vargas brothers, a pair of Peruvian brothers from Arequipa.

Lastly, we had a revelatory look at the Sao Paulo night panorama from the Edificio Italia, which has the Terraco Italia - a trendy restaurant and bar at the top. Of course, we won't forget this in our food post!

More on food next! We take our leave for now, thinking about the lilting sounds of Chico Buarque, a Brasilan singer-songwriter - part of the MPB (Musica Populares Brasil) movement, introduced to us by M.


*Constructred in 3 years, Brasil's capital was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, with the ideas of the school of modernist architecture in mind, which exposed and presented solutions through urban planning for the most serious problems presented by the industrial revolution - mass migration to cities, bad housing, reduction of green areas, excessive pollution and noise, improper transport leading to long commutes. The solutions included zone planning, with each zone being a self contained unit with space to work, play and live. Brasilia today though, likely thanks to its isolated location in the bare center of the country, is not the vibrant city that its creators imagined and remains only the seat of government.

A Big, Huge, Wide THANKS! all around

- To F. for introducing us to P. and M.

- To P. and M. for being such generous, wonderful and warm hosts in Sao Paulo. We loved Sao Paulo and had a great time.

- To Senhora Heloisa of the Pousada Tupaiulandia in Alter Do Chao in Amazonia, for all her help with our baggage delay (Yes, our baggage was delayed and potentially lost!). We highly recommend staying at this pousada if you ever find yourself in Amazonia.

- To Jorge of Mae Natureza for help translating things into English! And for the tour into Floresta Nacional do Tapajos, where we hiked through the Amazon rainforest.

Radio Silence

After a stupendous stay in Sao Paulo, we had limited and slow internet access in Amazonia, at a small town called Alter Do Chao which is on the banks of the Rio Tapajos. We have some more stories written up and they will be posted soon. Postings will remain intermittent because we will be on the move, quite a bit, for the next few days in Northeast Brasil. Thank you for your patience. Please hold.

Emerging

... from a food coma.
Sao Paulo, Brasil

Ouro Preto

Our first weekend in Brasil was spent at a picturesque and hilly town that has decided to remain in the 18th century. Situated in the state of Minas Gerais, Ouro Preto was established as a gold mining town. It generated much of Brasil's gold, and today is designated as a World Heritage site by UNESCO for its baroque churches, of which there are many. In fact, and I am not kidding - there is an exquisite church with extravagant gold covered sculpture and relief work every 500 yards or so. Several of the churches have stunning facades by Aleijadinho, Brasil's own Michelangelo, the son of a Portuguese architect and a slave. All buildings in Ouro Preto are required to preserve the look of the town, so the entire town looks straight out of a fairytale, complete with cobblestone streets.

We explored many of the churches in town, including the Matriz de Nossa Senhora do Pilar (Mother Church of Our Lady of Pilar) boasting 434 kg of gold in its ornamentation, and the Igreja de Sao Francisco de Assis (Church of St. Francisco of Assisi). The facades on the churches, and the design of the churches themselves were stunning, but the excessively gory, sanguinary sculptures in their interior were a bit creepy. Historically, all the mining in town was done by slaves imported from Africa (yes, they treated them like goods), since large indigenous populations were wiped out by disease or were hunted down by the early European settlers. We were surprised to learn that 40 percent of the slaves taken to the 'new world' were brought to Brasil. One of the colonial houses preserved in town showcases various devices employed by slave owners to manage their slaves. Even though we theoretically knew of the horror of slavery, it was stomach-churning to see the wrought iron handcuff-cum-ankle-cuff chains, neck-chains, dead weights, and awful living conditions that they were subjected to. However, at the gold mine closest to our hostel, we learned about the story of Chico Rei, a slave who bought freedom for himself and his family by mining lots of gold. At this gold mine, we were also treated like celebrities by a group of 17 year old school boys on a field trip, who were thrilled to learn we were from India and wanted to take photographs with us! We felt a little sheepish, but were happy to oblige. Apparently a hugely popular soap opera aired recently in Brasil was based upon Indian people. Mental note to self - find out more about this soap opera and watch it! We learned more about this soap opera at our stay in Sao Paulo (next stop).

We were fortunate to chance upon a musical performance in the Museu do Oratorio (museum of oratories), right next to the Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Carmo (the Church of Our Lady..not sure what 'do Carmo' means). A soprano (soprano), flute (Cravo), and a harpsichord (traverso barroco) trio performed a series of classical pieces by Bach, Handel, Telemann, and Schutz. The performance was held in a small space in the museum, and we were happy to be a part of the tiny audience that would fit. All explanations and other announcements were entirely lost on us, as they were made in Portuguese. But the music held us spellbound.

There was a delicious chocolaterie in town whose cafe specialty was a twist on cappucinos.
Our hostel was clean and comfortable and had a stunning open air, rooftop kitchen. We cooked dinner one night, and thoroughly enjoyed the views of the hillsides all around us, with baroque churches and cobblestone streets peppering the landscape.

Our Portuguese improves with our increased ability to rapidly find things in the phrase book! We are now able to make purchases at local grocery stores, describe how we want our coffee, and explain to people that we speak very little Portuguese.

I have to end this post with a nod to Pao de Queijo (literally "bread of cheese"), a Minas Gerais specialty which just melts in your mouth when eaten fresh from the oven!

Cidade Maravilhosa

The charms of Rio crept up on us. They lay in soaking in the atmospheric neighbourhoods and beaches. Even without the sun, Ipanema and Copacabana weave their golden ways. Flanked by the imposing faces and lush slopes of Rio's numerous hills, including the stunning Pao de Acucar extending into the sea, they form an almost unbeatable one-two. We spent our third morning succumbing to the Praias. Combined with a happy half-hour spent browsing around a bustling street market full of fresh fruit and vegetables - one of our favourite things - purchasing ingredients for dinner, and wolfing down a mango and an acerola suco it made for a near-perfect morning. We even found a cozy little nook to laze about at, between the two beaches, on a rocky outcrop overlooking surfers and the city.

The beach-Rio of movie and imagination isn't the only one that will suck you in though. Our afternoon was spent wandering about Centro - gazing at the Biblioteca Municipal and Theatro Municipal both beautiful colonial-era buildings - and Santa Teresa. Taking a bondinho (streetcar) to Santa Teresa is part of the experience as you rattle along and pass by graffiti, art galleries, hip restaurants and decaying old mansions. We browsed through some stores and an art gallery before taking in a jazz performance at a restaurant called Marco while enjoying a local beer - Antarctica - and another suco. Eventually, before it got too dark, the bondinho rattled us back to Centro and the metro sped us back to the hostel, where we served ourselves up some quick and simple (but delicious) dinner with the fresh vegetables from the morning.

I suppose it was only fitting that our Rio jaunt ended with us being transported to the bus station listening to Samba de Carnaval and, as MF Tree described, an unfortunate adventure at the boarding area.

P.S. My beard, it grows!

An aside: on people and overnight buses

I thought I´d take a quick moment to share our thoughts on the people we have met so far. We started off in Rio in a hostel that is frequented by extremely young (~18-22 year olds) backpacking tourists from over the world. While it was nice to meet them, and they are very good human beings, we felt removed from Brasilian people and culture, and we also felt a little out-of-place since their interests (mostly to party and have a good time) were different from ours. For instance, it was quite unfathomable to them why we would want to spend the weekend in Ouro Preto, a historic town preserved like it was in the 18th century. In Ouro Preto, we´re staying at a hostel where we are the only non-Brasilians! It has been amazing to meet people on their vacations (mostly Paulistanas*!). We met an extremely informative and earnest C., a history teacher, and M. the sociologist who works in urban development for poor people in Sao Paulo. Then we met G., who is a student wanting to be an engineer, who works as a fab technician part time! Then there was M. who is a psychiatrist. Everyone has been so warm and friendly, and we are likely going to meet some of them in Sao Paulo next week. Our quick note to ourselves was to avoid the hostels recommended for `young´ people.

We also had our first experience with overnight bus travel- from Rio to Ouro Preto. To start with, the Rodoviaria Novo Rio (Hodoveeareea Novo Heeo), the central bus terminal in Rio, is enormous in itself, but it seems even bigger when you don´t understand Portuguese signs and directions! We were thoroughly lost, but somehow made our way to the correct terminal. Then, it was a challenge to get on the right bus, since there seemed to be numerous buses going to the same location, run by the same company. Additionally, when we found our bus, and tried to get on, we realised we had to fill out a card (in Portuguese). Somehow, we got through that hurdle, with a lot of help from kind fellow passengers who spoke varying amounts of English. The worst awaited us yet. We got on our bus to realise that two elderly people were sitting in our seats! Luckily, they spoke excellent English and we were able to communicate with them. The bus company had messed up and sold us all the same seats! The two passengers were very apologetic about the situation when they learned this was our first trip to Brasil, and our first bus journey! Much loud discussing ensued in Portuguese with the bus company people, the other passengers, which we were only spectators to. Finally, the two other passengers got on another bus to their destination, and we were finally seated. We don´t know much about the ride since we fell promptly asleep and woke up 8 hours later in Ouro Preto. All we know is that taking high speed curves is a popular national pastime!
We reached Ouro Preto with our backpacks safe and sound the next morning.


*People from Sao Paulo - where we are headed next!

Novice blues and a (slightly) false start

After the first day we sat about planning the next two. We came up with a detailed plan allowing us to explore the city relatively thoroughly (well, at least as thorough as possible in two days during day-light hours only- we are warned against wandering about Rio at night looking like tourists!)

Of course, as is our wont, the plan was derailed first thing in the morning when the after effects of 3 straight days of packing, moving and stressing about the trip led to us waking up only at 10 am. Of course, I had no small part of the blame since I set the alarm to 7 and then forgot to turn it on. Sigh.

After breakfast and some careful calculations we decided to hop onto a city tour which would take us on a quick round of a few of the places we wanted to visit at what seemed like a reasonable price. Bad choice and we´ve learned to know better. The tour was a little bit rushed and not to our tastes. We much prefer walking about, taking our time and soaking it in. What better way, no? What we did get in the bargain though, was an easy way to Corcovado, atop which is the now iconic statue of Cristo Redentor. I must admit, we were not prepared for the gorgeous city-scape that awaited us. Rio´s setting is fairytale-esque, amidst sheer cliffs covered with tropical forests while on the other side is the ocean and scattered islands.



The economic chasm though is apparent between the well-heeled cariocas (beautiful, wealthy, young Rio de Janeirians) and the large population that lives in poverty in the favelas. Again (this time, sadly) a reminder of Indian cities. Hopefully though, Lula´s policies could be making things better. There is now much more support for the economically underprivileged - like free school education, reservations in universities, scholarships and lunch money. There were visibly apparent signs as children trooped back with school-bags.

We also drove through the pretty and boho neighbourhood of Santa Teresa. If we lived in Rio, this is where we´d like to be! Art galleries, great food and music all with a little bit of an edge. Faded colonial houses mingled with expensively maintained and restored ones. Ivy dripping down their sides and wooden or brightly coloured window panes in white-walled homes. We immediately decided to revisit the area the next day.

The trip ended with a visit to the kooky and slightly off-kilter Escadaria de Selaron. A staircase in Lapa covered with brightly coloured tiles from all over the world. The staircase is a project in seemingly eternal progress under the aegis of a Chilean artist living in Rio. If the international nature of the project was in doubt - remember, U2 shot a single-cover over there!

First Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Rio is great, reminds me of several cities in India rolled into one. Especially the graffiti, colour palettes, and the closely packed old colonial buildings still in use as regular offices and houses. We're staying at a hostel in touristy and expensive Ipanema; tiny, clean, friendly, ruled by a gregarious Alex. Spent the afternoon at Ipanema beach, and caught a football game at night between Fluminense (from Rio de Janeiro) and Santos (from Sao Paulo). I am not originally a football fan, but the energy in the stadium was electric, replete with humongous flags, synchronised cheering for the home team, chalk, balloons, and loud cursing. It's great to be staying in a hostel. There are plenty of intrepid travelers from all over the world.
Things learned today: How to Pronounce Rio de Janeiro, How Little Portuguese We Know, The Off-Side Rule, Hand Gestures and Facial Expressions Can Get You Quite Far, Rio Taxi Drivers Have No Patience With Rush Hour Traffic Especially When a Football Game Awaits.
Word most used today: Obrigada!