Travel-Trotter

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.

On Tuesday in Rio we decided to visit Corcovado one of the sugarloaf hills (more on this later) in Rio the location of the Christ the Redeemer statue.  We had learned that the best way to get to the top was to take the tram, so we hailed our first Rio cab the rides and grabbed a ride to the bottom of the tram.  The taxi ride was pretty affordable under $10.  It was a beautiful day and since we delayed school we were able to get out early.  We boarded the tram just barely making the train 10:30 tram. To get to the top of Corcovado the tram takes you up the hill at about a 20 degree angle traveling through a preserved jungle on the sides of Corcovado, we didn’t see any animals but the atmosphere was exciting especially when you past one of the several viewpoints overlooking the city.

It was a warm day approaching 90 degrees and the top of Corcovado and was very exposed, the girls did great with a ton of sunscreen and lots of water.  As with most days when we are out we end up eating a snack or a pre-lunch lunch at 11am.  This sustained us through walking around the statue and taking pictures.  At first Julie was very apprehensive about the height but got used to it by the end.  We got lots of pictures and the views were fantastic.

After Corcovado we looked at an area with old buildings that were beautifully ornate but a bit run down.  They appeared like they were just hacked out of the jungle after 100 years of being over grown.

At lunch time which we went to a park close to the Praia do Flamengo, a beach within the Rio bay that was very close to down town, we played on a playground and then headed to the beach.  The beach was not very crowded and the water looked pretty disgusting and brownish green algae color.  We did not let the girls go in the water and were actually very surprised to see other people taking swims but they didn’t keel over dead.  It a good spot to play in the sand and take in the great views of Sugarloaf mountain.

So the original Sugarloaf mountain, the one in this picture, located at the mouth of the Bay of Guanabara is a famous symbol of Rio.  It is also where geologists first described this type of rock formation which looks like, you guessed it, a loaf of refined sugar.   The many hills around Rio have this same type of conical shape formed by erosion and exfoliation of the gneiss.  So they are all called Sugarloaf Mountains referring to the geological formation but there is only one with the proper name of Sugarloaf Mountain.

Welcome to Rio de Janeiro… ahhh Rio what an amazing city, the beaches, the views, the food the people.  We arrived on Tuesday and checked in with our airbnb, two blocks off Copacabana Beach, right in the middle of a very cool neighborhood.  The diversity of people was amazing, lots of tourists but since this is low season (winter) there were mostly locals and none of the sites had long queues.  The weather turned out to be rather nice for us with the rain only coming at night and the days were sunny but very pleasant and not scorching hot.

Our first night in Rio we walked Copacabana beach and had a Caipirinha and ate fries while the kids played in sand.  The views of the city just from the beach were spectacular, lots of beach vendors would come up and see if you wanted to buy anything, we got very good at saying no.  It was nice to relax after the debacle with taking the roof carrier off the car to park in a garage but it is done and we will gladly be taking taxis and subways for a week.

The sidewalks near the beach were a mosaic of black and white stones and the cool thing was each beach had their own design.  The one above is world famous for Copacabana Beach.

On Wednesday we traveled out of our gated resort and headed down to the town of Angra dos Reis, it was about 20 minutes west along the coast.  Angra is a fishing town, it was quite large so not your average quaint fishing village town, but it was full of color and life.  We had promised ice cream to the girls days before, so went on a search but with many of our attempts at dinner or food, the shop of choice was not open yet and we had to settled for pre-packaged ice cream.  We walked around the town for a bit longer and found some beautiful streets but headed home after Caroline scrapped her leg.

We relaxed at home as the weather was getting worse.  The next two days were crummy weather days so we completed school and work while still getting to chill out overlooking the beach.

On Saturday we ventured up to the Tennis club an area with a pool and organized activities.  We found out that the girls could join some activities with other kids and a teacher that spoke English.  So we didn’t see the girls for a few hours, we checked in on them of course but Maddy and I stole away for a soak in the hot tub and Maddy got a massage.  We sat by the pool for a few hours until dinner time.

We played cards that night and I taught the kids how to play War and Blackjack, lots of life lessons learned.  They are still not good at the losing bit of cards.

There was live music that night at the club so after we put the kids to bed I went out and listened to the music for a while and watched.  I felt a bit like people were watching me, I was about the only white person there but anytime I talked to people they were amazingly friendly and were very patent with my awful Portuguese or lack there of.  On Sunday it was a beautiful day so we did beach in the morning and pool in the afternoon.

The kids had activities again including a water balloon fight, and a pie in the face contest. We ate at home and cleared out the refrigerator, after dinner the kids wanted to watch the featured movie and I watched the big soccer match between Flamengo and Fluminanse, so we went back to the Tennis Club; Flamengo won 1-0.

We extended our stay at the resort due to the holiday on Monday (workers day), thinking that nothing would be open and their might be some additional strikes, so we opted for another beach day.  The beach and the barbecue grills had lots of activity and music and the Brazilians partied all day.  We completed some school and then headed up to the pool for a bit more time there.  We had dinner at the club which was not cheap and then packed up and washed all our clothes in preparation for RIO!!!

We were out of Sao Paolo on some large freeways by 11:00, we cruised out of town until we turned south toward the beach.  The road was slow but it was certainly an interesting windy bumpy road through the jungle; we finally made it down to the coastal area before sunset, and it was worth it. It had to be some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.  Beautiful sandy beaches and islands intermingled with green seas and palm trees.

We rented a condo right on the beach lots of availability as it is off season, winter time in the southern hemisphere.  The first day we got there we investigated the beach and the piscina oceanica, an area for swimming that is protected from the ocean but has salt water flowing in through the rock.  There are lots of small fish that live in the enclosure for people to look at that can’t escape to the ocean.

We ate some dinner and headed to bed, the kids went to sleep without a peep.  The next day we all went for a swim in the piscina oceanica and got to use our goggles, the kids loved it, except Caroline was a bit scared of the fish.  Once we got out or the piscina oceanica I went to investigate if we could rent a boat and tour the islands.  We got to the marina just in time as all the tours start at 11, so after a mad dash to get the kids packed and to the marina, we were able to get on a 6 hour tour… cue the gilligan’s island music.

At first we thought we were going to have the boat all to ourselves, but we stopped over in on Ilha Grande and picked up like 10 people.  We were a bit confused as this was more people than our boat could take but we dropped off one person on their sail boat in the harbor and dropped another couple off on another boat tour, they had missed their boat.  So after all that we got a nice tour of Ilha Grande without paying for it.  Our tour was two beaches and one snorkel spot, or so we understood.

The first beach was very beautiful and isolated, the only people on the beach were from boat tours.  There was some snorkeling that we could do with some coral and fish right along the rocky part of the shore.  The kids were very interested at first and then decided that playing in the sand was more fun.

Our next stop was strictly a snorkel spot near a rocky island near the town of Angra dos Reis.  We all jumped in the water and swam around for 20-30 minutes or in Caroline’s case in might have been 20-30 seconds, she was still afraid of the fish and the potential for sharks, which was zero.  I am amazed that the twins have no fears of swimming around in twenty feet of water with only a water noodles and that was only after we forced them, they are water bugs for sure.  We left island on a high but that came crashing down when our boat motor cut out.  The captain was able to start it back up a few times but it died each time.  The captain poured a whole gallon of oil in the engine at which time I thought we might not be doing so well.  After a few more attempts the engine would not start at all and we were stranded in the middle of the Atlantic (actually mostly sheltered) but the weather did change rather rapidly on us all of a sudden and the poor woman who was sharing the back of the boat with us started to retch of the side.  What a cruise?!??!  After about an hour of much whining from the kids a rescue boat towed us to the shore and they we got a new boat.  We presumed that we would go home as it was getting late and the weather was encroaching on us, but they insisted on taking us to the final beach for a look around.  They then took us to a lunch spot??? It was more like dinner at this point and of course it was closed so we went to another place and had some fries and a caipirinha or two.  Before heading back the the sun was going down and it was starting to rain, and it really came down we still had to head back to Ilha Grande and then back to the mainland.

We were totally soaked by the time we headed to the mainland.  We covered ourselves with towels and hunkered down for our ride home.  We finally arrived at the Marina and had to find someone with keys to let us out; it was the end of a very eventful cruise.

The next day we packed up the car and began our trek to Sao Paolo, it would take us two days with around 6 hours of driving each day with a stop in Londrina.  The day we left was sunny and beautiful, wish we had more of that weather in Iguacu and we would likely have gone to the Argentinean side of the falls but we got some amazing views either way.  In Londrina we had a quick stay, had dinner at restaurant/bar kind of place that had a play area for the kids… perfect.  We all got a good night sleep in anticipation for the 11 largest city in the world with over 20 million people in its metro area!!  The next day was a easy drive until we got close to the city and all the traffic; it was chaos driving through the city, lots of one way streets, crazy big buses and trucks.

The city didn’t have spectacular beauty or a scenic water front but it was alive with activity even with the Brazilian economy in a deep recession.  We arrived on Saturday night and once we were settled into our two rooms of a smaller hostel type establishment called Residenza Mantovani we split up and headed to dinner.  Mira, Caroline and I set out for Sushi and Maddy and Julie got Lebanese food.  It was Saturday night and we could hear cheers go up in the streets when someone scored in the local football match.  After dinner I found a father and son watching a game in our Residenza and sat down and watched with them.  I was able to ask questions about the leagues and they were excited to talk with someone from the U.S.  The culture really revolves around soccer at least as much or more and Wisconsin revolves around American Football.

The next day was our only full day in Sao Paolo so we walked to Parque Ibirapuera, a beautiful park near the Jardin neighborhood. On our way we stumbled onto a local food market and got some oranges, dates, figs and apples.  The people were so nice they gave us lots of samples.

Once we got to the park we found a playground for the kids and walked around some of the beautiful lakes and bridges.

There were a ton of people out for a Sunday walk or bike or whatever.  After enjoying the park we took a taxi ride to the city center and visited the Catedral Metropolitana de Sao Paolo.

It was a beautiful church and quite huge, they were feeding homeless people when we arrived and everyone was very cheerful to get something to eat.  We were feeling hungry ourselves and found a small restaurant and ate some empanadas and other types of quick food.  After walking around town everybody was tired so we relaxed back at our rooms.  Being in the city and all the hustle and bustle it is hard to take a minute and breathe, we were definitely feeling stressed so we changed our plans and booked a week on the beach near Angra dos Reis a beach town on the way to Rio.  The next morning we packed up and completed some errands in the big city including the purchase of a beach umbrella and two chairs and headed to the beach.

That night the rain started and it fell and fell not stopping until late in the afternoon the next day.  Maddy and I were happy to get lots of work and school completed.  After completing school I took the twins out to visit the Marco 3 fronteiras a spot where you can look and see three countries from one spot (you stand in Brazil and you can see Argentina and Paraguay) it was a bit of a tourist trap but they had a great playground for the twins.  We also learned about Alvar Nunex Cabeza de Vaca who in the 1540’s was the first European to visit the Iguacu falls.

We then traveled up to the Itaipu Hydroelectric plant north of Foz do Iguacu which is currently producing more energy than any other hydroelectric plant in the world even topping the three gorges dam.  We went to the check point but I had a bit of heartburn about the 50 dollars for entrance just to see the damn dam.  So we looked at the scale models and took a picture… of a picture, watched part of a movie and left, without paying a single Real.  The twins would not have enjoyed a long tour anyway.  I was reading later about the dam which took 13 years to build and took billions of cubic feet of cement to complete.

The downside to the hydroelectric dam was that about 10,000 people were displaced from the upstream valley, but particularly disturbing was the destruction of the Guaira Falls which at the time were the largest waterfalls by flow in the world.  Since they were located upstream of the dam they were flooded after construction was completed. Once the rock structure that produced the falls was completely submerged the Brazilian government placed dynamite beneath the water destroying the structure to benefit navigation in the reservoir, therefore ensuring that the falls could never be restored.

We arrived in foz do Iguacu around 6pm and met up with our Airbnb host and climbed the 4 stories to the top floor of an apartment complex.  It wasn’t one of the best places we have stayed but it was sufficient for a few days in Iguazu.  We headed out to the falls the next day (Wednesday) on the Brazilian side; the Iguacu river is the border of between Argentina and Brazil.  We parked our car and hopped on a bus (the only way in) and headed to the falls which is located inside a large national park preserving Atlantic forest a semi-deciduous forest.  We got off the bus at a stop near the lower part of the falls we were greeted by a pack of Coatis that surrounded the tourist we were dropped off with.  The girls loved them although we were warned not to feed or pet them, but we took lots of pictures.

Once we turned our attention to the falls we stood in awe of the beautiful cascades or in portugese they are called cataratas and these were just the lower falls.  The falls are a series of over 275 individual waterfalls that formed by eroding through 135 million year old basaltic lava flows with interbedded sand stone.  Faults formed vertically through the lava flows which allowed the river to flow through and erosion did the rest.  Like Niagara falls the Iguacu falls is eroding up stream and will continue to migrate. Although the falls are not the tallest, widest or greatest flowing of water falls it ranks very high in all three categories, it is much taller than Niagara and at time has a flow greater than it famous north american counterpart.

We walked along a 1 mile path with several views of the falls until getting to a view point with views of the devils throat, the largest and most impressive part of the falls.  We took lots of pictures but the kids as usual were annoyed with posing and hungry.

We had a buffet lunch near the top of the falls and then headed to a nature walk and boat ride that promised to get us soaked from head to toe.  The rain forest was fun except that Caroline was misbehaving and we didn’t see any animals, probably scared off by the crying children.  At the end of the nature hike we took a boat ride and had to navigate some of the rapids on our way up river to the falls where we moved very close to the cascades which soaked us from head to foot.

It was a blast everyone had a ton of fun except for Caroline who cried the whole time.  Julie on the other hand loved it and refused to wear a rain jacket which might have been smart because we all got totally drenched anyway.  After a full day, we went home and had some leftover dinner and hit the sack.

We stopped over Curitiba for one night on our way to Iguazu falls after a 5 hour drive from Floripa.  We had a bit of a snafu with our reserved room and had to get a hotel room in the center of town.  It worked out as we were closer to stores and restaurants; I got a haircut and replenished our band-aid supplies, we were running low between Mirabelle’s cuts and Caroline’s plantar warts.  For dinner we walked around the Cathedral square and ate pizza at a nearby restaurant, then went to sleep early in preparation for another 8 hour driving day.  The cathedral square was beautiful especially with the cathedral Sentuario Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe all lit up.