The mission was to get to Uruguay to meet up with the car importer before Friday morning.  The task… pick up enough riders to offset costs and drive 29 hours in two days, with a stop over in Floripa.  Easy right?  So I picked up four riders in Rio at 6am, every single rider was 5-15 minutes late, South American time.  We only encountered one checkpoint and was waved through by military men with large guns, apparently we were passing near a favella.  The car behind us got pulled over but we sailed through.  The ride was easy until we got to Sao Paulo where I had to drop one guy off and pick up another girl.  It was nearly impossible to find her in the Ibuerapuera park, Maddy took my phone cord out of the car so my phone was running low on batteries but I finally got her to walk to where I was located.  One of the other people in the car was able to navigate us out of Sao Paulo, not an easy feat.  Only 2 hours lost.  The trip south was fine and beautiful until it started raining, and raining and raining.  We finally got to Floripa after a 16 hour drive, two of the passengers disembarked and after running around to ATM’s, to find money for one the passengers his last 50 Reai’s I got to my hotel for the night.

The next day the rain continued with heavy downpours until an hour from the Uruguayan border.  It was four lane highway until that point but two lanes afterwards.  Sooooo…. We finally get to the border and I start asking my passengers about documents and everyone had assured me beforehand that everything was fine, so the girl got real flaky at this point and didn’t go to Brazilian immigration at all and I started asking questions again and I found out she was living in Brazil as an irregular for 11 months, and didn’t pay fines for previous entry and exit problems.  So, I got my exit and cancelled the import permit, then we went to the Uruguayan side and got passports stamped no problem and the import permit was not a hassle either.  So around this time the aduana (or customs) inspectors took an interest to us.  First the girl got called over to immigration and they determine that she was an irregular, then they took a look at me (without my beautiful wife and three doting children) and figured me for a drug smuggler.

So we got a major inspection of the car all doors, engine and roof carrier.  Everything passed muster, but the girl was getting more and more harassed because of her entry and they brought in a drug sniffing dog to take a look at the car.  The dog could not have been more dis-interested, but of course they said,  “There was a Marijuana cigarette smoked right here!!!!”  This was the spot where Julie had been riding for the last 6 months and had just been immaculately cleaned by the Rio detailers.  So, after 2 hours of the bullshit run around, drug sniffing dogs and holding our passports, they released us with no repercussions.  5 more hours in the fog and we arrived in Montevideo at 10:30, a total of 33 hours of driving in two days.  Ugguhhhh.  I flopped down into bed and had a satisfying sleep.

The next day I slept in until the appointed time I was to meet the purchaser of the car at 11am and completed the sale.  I walked around town for most of the day, did some shopping and caught up on the blog.  I stayed with Deby’s my friend form CH2M than night and she invited me to Shebat dinner with her family.  It was neat to see their family interact and celebrate their team win a Uruguayan NBA basketball champion.

The next morning I hopped on a flight and got back to Rio safe and easy.

We departed from Salvador south but on an inland road toward Belo Horizonte (pronounced horizonch) the drive was expected to take two days to BH with a stop in an unscheduled location which turned out to be a very small town in mostly the middle of nowhere.  We grabbed a hotel some dinner, hamburgers of course and set off to bed.  As we were leaving we stopped at a large rock store outside with an immense amount of rough stones, we let the kids pick some and I got a bunch of neat specimens and it cost us less than $10… perfect!

We continued our ride with lots of happy customers.  We arrived in Belo Horizonte and stayed at our favorite chain hotel Ibis, cheap and clean.  We reduced our stay by one day in the city to get more time in Rio to relax so we only had one full day in BH and we took full advantage.  In the morning we ate breakfast and headed out to Praca da Liberdade and took in the beautiful sunny day, we found at great example of Oscar Niemeyer’s architecture in the square and I bored everyone with a review of his life and Brazilian history.  World schooling at it’s best!

We then stumbled onto an procession into a church and after wandering into the proceedings we discovered that it was a priest becoming ordained, it was a beautiful day and a beautiful church.

It was quite the We wandered down to Coreto do Parque Municipal and found an exercise park for the kids to run around on, the next best thing to a playground.  We then stumbled onto a carnival and gave everyone a couple of rides before moving on.  I even did the bumper cars with the kids!

That night we split up and Mimi and I did redhead sushi night, the kid can’t get enough while the brunettes did pizza.  The next day we left for Rio via Ouro Preto.

Ouro Preto noted as the “Paris of Brazil” is a very old town situated in the mountains with old churches and steep cobblestone streets. We started walking around but had major whines and had to stop for lunch #1 at 10:30am, I think these kids are eating more and at shorter intervals.  We toured a historic mint in the town and stumbled on another example of Oscar Niemeyer’s work, this one a bit 70’s  communist style.

We zipped out of town and down out of the mountains for our last bit of driving of the trip!!  (I still need to drive the car to Montevideo)  We got stuck in massive traffic getting into Rio but we found our Airbnb in town located in the Santa Teresa neighborhood.

Salvador is the furthest north we are traveling in Brazil after reconsidering the trek up to Fortaleza, so this is it, the remaining part of the trip will be leaving South America.  We arrived in Salvador by ferry crossing the bay from the south, it was a short boat ride but I did need to take off the roof carrier on top of the van to get on the boat, due to height restriction, I glad that I am now a pro at taking the carrier off.  It was a beautiful day and a great way to approach the city.

We disembarked and drove to our Airbnb in Barra the furthest eastern point of Salvador where the Atlantic ocean meets All Saints bay.  We got situated in our place and then went out for dinner at a place on the ocean a couple blocks from our house.  I ordered a traditional fish stew called a Moqueca, which was delicious and way more than I could eat because nobody helped me out.  I had leftovers for days, too bad for everyone else.

Salvador is one of the oldest towns in Brazil establish by the Portuguese in the 16^th century and served as one of the main ports for receiving slaves from Africa.  Brazil received far more slaves from Africa than did North America and the Caribbean.  Maybe due to this fact or or just my perception there appeared to be significantly more people of African descent in the city and the food also seemed to be more diverse with many more spices and flavors.  We explained to the kids about this history and some of it seemed to sink in, especially when we visited a historical square where the slaves were purchased and sold.

Our first full day was Friday which ended up being cloudy and rainy so we did lots of school and then walked around our neighborhood, visiting the Da Barra light house and Museu Nautico de Bahia part of the historical fort on the Atlantic coast.  We learned that the portugese established a fort at this point in 1534 the oldest fort in Brazil.  We ate dinner at home and celebrated the weekend and steadily improving weather.

On Saturday we went to the Pelourinho neighborhood and walked around, lots of beautiful buildings, churches and shopping stores lined this area.  We ran into a group of people practicing the Capoeira a mixture of martial arts, dance and exercise, it looked really fun.

We visited a convent converted into a hotel and then rode a funicular down to the waterfront area and then visited the Mercado Modelo.  What a busy day, we went back home and relaxed until dinner.

 

We ran into a drumming core getting rowdy in the square once used to sell slaves.

 

On Sunday we declared a beach day as it was sunny and went down to Praia do Porto da Barra on the bay side of the Barra and enjoyed sand castle building and beach lounging to our hearts content.  Maddy got a massage from a local beach guy Maddy thoroughly enjoyed it, what is better than getting a massage at the beach?

One Monday we did school and I went to get repairs on the car, I backed into a truck that was illegally parked behind me earlier in the week arrgghh.  The back light was cracked and no other damage; if that is the only damage that we have on the car I will consider us lucky.  In the afternoon we walked along the beach to a Jesus statue that is north along the Atlantic coast, it was good for the kids to get out and walk around a bit.

The next day we traveled north in the city to Forte do Monte Serrat another 16^th century fort that was integral in protecting the bay from invaders, we thought it was closed but a soldier answered the door and let us in to poke around, it was beautiful and well maintained.  We strolled along the nearby beach and poked around the neighboring abandoned convent.  I was very hot so we decided that we would head home, before major complaining commenced.  I grabbed some beans rice and chicken at the nearby market and we had dinner at home.

On our last day we did another beach day, after seeing a very poor forecast for the week when we arrived the weather got progressively better and we got sun almost everyday.  Our last day on the beach was interesting as the waves kept getting higher and higher and washing away our chairs and umbrella, at one point we had to chase flip flops and kids into the water.  No harm was done.  The next day we packed up our stuff and headed out of town.  After a lovely week in Salvador, it is officially time to play escape from South America.

 

 

The first day out of Buzios we drove for 10 hours following the coast but out of view of the ocean, we had a fairly uneventful ride with school completed on ipads and another one of the famous Brazilian buffets for lunch.  We arrived in Sao Mateus without a reservation but didn’t have much trouble finding a nice hotel at a surprisingly good price.  We seem to be beneficiaries of a weak Brazilian economy, we had some dinner in town and went to bed in our hotel room.  It was about 11pm that Julie got sick with some serious projectile vomiting.  Blech… we dealt with the throwing up for part of the night and we are hoping that this is the last episode.  Julie was perfect by the morning.

We drove another 9 hours the next day arriving in Itacare which was only a few hours outside of Salvador our eventual destination for the next week.  Itacare is a little surf town at the mouth of a river, but it definitely had the bohemian vibe.  We stayed in a historic mansion converted into a guest house called Casarao Amarelo, it was a entirely painted yellow and was easy to find.  We only stayed there for one night but we enjoyed a new cuisine, the tapioca, which was a pita pocket type thing with cheese and sausage and what ever else you wanted.  We enjoyed views from our yellow casa of the beach and the mouth of the river, it was a cloudy day but people were out on the beach and once the sun went down people were out enjoying the restaurants and the bars near the beach.  We went to sleep early to endure our third straight day of driving although only 4 more hours to Salvador.

Thursday, Maddy worked for most of the day wanting to finish everything up for the week at work, so the girls and I completed school, had some pool time and then went out to complete any last minute shopping for Maddy’s birthday on Friday.  We also procured a chocolate cake, which ended up being larger than I had expected, good to feed about 20 people.  We ate dinner at home and after putting the kids to bed, I started to feel sick, and was throwing up for a good portion of the night, it was awful.  The first real bug that we have had on the trip.  The next day I still wasn’t feeling well but was much better than the night before.

Friday was Maddy’s birthday and we celebrated by giving the girls the day off school. The girls and I gave Maddy gifts and cake at lunch time, we got he a fluffy travel pillow, jewelry and a Brazilian sarong and the kids each got her small trinkets.  We also teated Maddy to a message in the afternoon and some much needed alone time.  At night we took her out to dinner at a restaurant overlooking the ocean and had a nice night out.

The next day I was pretty well recovered and we lounged around and headed out to Praia Tartaruga to catch the sunset over the Brazilian coast.  The beach was pretty skinny although there was a rock that you could wade out to and explore, lots of tide pools and such.  We made it to sunset but the kids were pretty well in melt down mode by the time by the last rays of sunlight.

Unfortunately, that night both Caroline and Maddy came down ill.  Caroline threw up Saturday night and Maddy just felt awful and laid on the couch for Sunday.  Such a bummer Mother’s day, we laid low and had pool time and relaxed.  We chatted with both Oma and Nana wishing them happy mother’s day and then enjoyed another beautiful day in Buzios.

Monday was our last day before the two and a half day drive up the coast to Salvador.  We had some more beach time and cleaned up the apartment.  I took a run up to the coast and enjoyed a jog to some beaches that were only accessible by foot.  Buzios is definitely worth more time to explore but we are off to Salvador.  Our second to last city and the furthest north we are travelling in Brazil.  We are now only three weeks away from heading home and are waxing reminiscently about how great the trip has been even though we are ready to be home.

Wednesday we went to Cabo Frio an area south of Buzios and took a boat tour to several of the inaccessible beaches in the area.  The weather was beautiful and we were looking forward to the boat ride and peacefulness on the beach…. Ha ha haaaaa.  As soon as we got to the boat dock there were a half dozen people trying to sell us a boat ride and someone ran along our car trying to sell us a parking spot which we finally relented and took.  We got a package deal with the boat and parking and were on our way, until the “hangries” hit, Caroline had a huge meltdown after being told she would have to wear a long sleeve swim shirt so as we climbed on board the boat there was much crying, gnashing of teeth and throwing things.  I almost thought that some other boat riders were going to get off.

Anyway after settling down we went to a beach on Prianha Pontal do Atalaia, we pulled up and had to wade through water to get to the beach, which was fun and also a bit nerve-wracking thinking of dropping a bag filled with phones and wallets.  Nobody told us about this feature of the boat ride; but everyone did well.  Oh well more adventure, there were about 10 other boats that docked at the beach so the beach was packed with tourist.  We understood why, it was beautiful, with very fine white sand beaches and beautiful views, we spent most the time building sand castles and encouraging Caroline to relax and enjoy herself.

The next beach was actually on an island called Praia da Ilha do Farol; beside the beach the rest of the island was protected due to ancient burial grounds and you could actually see bones in one area that was roped off.  After exploring we played in the water for a bit before swept away to the final beach Praia do Forno, where we had a late lunch of fries and calamari, washed down with a couple Caipirinhas for the adults only.  The beach life is one I could get use to…. we played in the water and the sand a bit more before heading back to the boat launch.

 

I got up at 7:30 and walked down to the dive shop and was right on time, although I forgot my dive book.  There were 5 people and myself and several employees waiting at the dive shop; it wasn’t long before we walked out to the boat about a block away. Everyone was speaking Portuguese so I survived on hand gestures and boarded the boat with our tanks and equipment and we headed out.  The ride was approximately 1 hour along the coast out to Ilha Ancoro (Anchor Island), we started out in calm waters but soon we were in the open ocean with large swells, I was glad to have taken my sea sickness pills.

We fitted our gear on the way out to the island which all seem to fit fine.  We finally got some instruction from one of the dive masters that spoke English.  I was paired with a French man Alexandre who spoke English, we got along well chatting most of the way to our dive site.  The four other customers on the dive boat were diving but only Alexandre and I appeared to be certified and dove both times.  There was one woman who was doing a resort dive (a dive where you are not certified and is typically your first time) who completely abandoned her dive after getting flustered, then got sea sick on the ride home.  What a bummer.

The dives were very entertaining and beautiful.  The coral health was not great but there were tons of fish and turtles, some soft corals and a gnarled looking morey eel.  On our way home we spotted the water spout of a whale and also saw a pod of dolphins that followed us and played in the wake of the bow of the boat.  We got back to the dock around noon.  I was exhausted but had an amazing time.

Dolphin video

I met up with Maddy and we headed out to Praia do Forno after the kids finished school and lunch.  The beach was smaller but very pretty and had interesting rocks for the kids and I to walk around on, Maddy rented a stand up paddle board and we all went exploring on it.  The bay near the beach was full of turtles and we saw 10-15 of them in an hours time on the paddle board.  The kids were so excited when they saw the turtles and nearly fell of the paddle board and sometimes did.  I was exhausted from paddle boarding and diving; certainly a very active day.

We had a short two and a half hour drive east along the Brazilian coast to get to Buzios, an odd rocky peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic with many little coves and inlets. There seems to be small beaches everywhere you look, and each of them have at least two purveyors of beach chairs, umbrellas and fruity drinks.  As we pulled into town we stopped at a local beach Praia da Ferradura, as we were not allowed to check into to our place until 4.  The beach was like pulling into our own slice of heaven.  The kids played in the silty sand and Maddy and I enjoyed some free beach chairs and some sunny weather.

We finally pulled into our Airbnb rental around 5pm and unpacked our stuff before heading out to dinner.  The new place was a two story condo with three bedrooms and a shared pool.  It was very comfortable and close to town.  The area around Buzios was heavily influenced by tourism, lots of fancy places over looking the water.  Apparently in the 50’s the French actress Brigitte Bardot came here with her Brazilian boyfriend, how scandalous.  Anyway she made it famous and lots of other stars have followed in her footsteps.  We took pictures with her statue but then found out she was a bit of a racist and anti-immigrant, so we are not big fans.

The next day we school, pool beach in that order.  We attempted to go to an isolated natural beach but the walk seemed to daunting to the girls so we decided on Praia Joao Ferrandes.  There was not too much beach available as it was high tide, but the waves were very small so it was perfect.  We notice lots of what we thought were islands in the distance but they ended up being coastline, enhancing the already beautiful scenery.  We didn’t realize that we were looking back at the coast, which made sense with the small waves.

After watching the kids play in the sand for a couple of hours, I notice a scuba pop up dive shop and wandered over to inquire.  They did a short dive looking at statues in the water which didn’t interest me too much but it got me thinking about an actual dive.  So later that night I headed into town and talked to Buzios Divers and signed up for two dives the next day.

The next day was a bit soggy but I got out early in the morning for a run, jogged the length of Copacabana beach and got some great views and watched a fisherman reel in a fish.

The rest of the day was cloudy with some rain in the forecast so we hunkered down and got lots of school work completed.  We really needed a down day as well after being very active the first couple of days in town.  I completed the deal to sell the car to someone who saw it in Uruguay which was a great relief to have it completed.  I will need to drive to Uruguay to complete the deal before we leave but it is what it is.

Maddy had some calls scheduled for late in the day so the girls and I took the opportunity to get some gifts for mom for her birthday.  It was fun to bop around the stores with the girls although actually getting them to decide on something appropriate was difficult.  Julie and Caroline found things but Mimi had trouble deciding.

On Saturday we headed out to the zoo and National Museum of Natural History, the subway was the best option and by far the cheapest to get all the way across town.

The zoo was actually really good, with lots of large birds, snakes, monkeys and large cats that are endemic to South America.  I think the high light for me was seeing a couple of harpy eagles, the largest species of eagle in the world.  The girls loved being inside the aviary with the birds and taking pictures right next to them.

We then did a quick tour through the Museo National (National History Museum), it was free so we didn’t feel bad spending as little time as we felt although we ended up going through almost everything.  The insect room was probably the highlight, although I liked the meteorite collection and the T-Rex skull of course.   The museum is housed in the old governors mansion and it was beautiful, with amazing views and amazing architecture.

We went back home to relax and get ready for Maddy and I going out on the town.  We had a babysitter come over at 8pm to watch the kids, she didn’t speak English so we used a lot of google translator.  She was recommended by another one of Maddy’s friends.  We first went out for Indian food, which was great, before heading out to a place called Carioca da Gema in downtown Lapa it was an eclectic place with several live bands geared toward Samba.  The place had three floors and lots of people our age, it suited us.  We ended up heading home around midnight, I am sure that everyone else partied until dawn.  Once we got home the adventure really began, our babysitter had apparently fallen asleep and would not be woken up with all our pounding on the door.  The doorman finally got a ladder and I jumped over the back gate and woke Caroline up and she was able to let us in the door.  We only had two people yell at us for the noise.  Oh well, our adventure on the town was fun.

The next day we headed out of town, I was feeling remorseful about leaving as there were street markets and the beach highway was closed down for the day.  I really enjoyed our time in Rio, it was for sure my favorite city in South America if not the world.

The next day was supposed to be the last perfectly sunny day in Rio so we took another day off school and headed to Sugarloaf Mountain to take in the views.  We got to the mountain at a reasonable hour and had no lines getting up to the top.  There are actually two telefericos, the first takes you to Morro da Urca where you transfer to a second teleferico up to the top of Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf Mountain).  The views were pretty spectacular, you can see all of Rio including Copacabana Beach and the entire Guanabara Bay.  I took a time-lapse of the teleferico ride up to the top and it turned out really well, doesn’t even look real.

We learned that the first wires for the telefericos were attached to the backs of climbers who scaled the mountain.  Then subsequently heavier wires were attached and pulled up until the proper thickness of wire was at the top.  It must have taken a long time with a lot of effort, but the views were worth it.  We had our mid-morning snack to avoid meltdown when we got to the top then wandered around the different terraces at the top taking tons of pictures.

After an hour of wandering around and learning about the history of the place we headed back down the mountain and visited the beach at the bottom of the mountain a secluded beach called Praia Vermelha.

It was a complete disaster, we didn’t have bathing suits so everyone got wet of course even after many warnings not to, and everybody was overly hungry which seems to be our biggest problem despite having food like every hour it seems, our girls must be having a growth spurt.  We grabbed hamburgers at a local food cart and placated everyone for the moment.

After Sugarloaf we headed back to our apartment, grabbed the beach bag and played at Copacabana beach for the rest of the day.  The water on the Atlantic side of the city (not the bay side) was much cleaner and we allowed the girls to play in the surf.  Although not too far as the waves got progressively bigger as the day wore on, at one point a man had to be rescued by the local lifeguards after he was having trouble swimming.  We kept a close eye on the girls, but they never got into trouble.  We snacked on shrimp, caipirinhas and cashews that were sold to us by vendors walking by.  After another great day in Rio we retreated home and got some rest.