Slow boat to Manaus

Hello from Porto Velho, starting point of our 3 day boat trip towards Manaus in Amazonia. Apologies for the lack of updates over the past week or so, but we have mainly been on the road travelling from Brasilia in Central Brazil, to Porto Velho on the Southern edge of the Amazon Rain Forest. We did however get a few days to relax in the Chapada dos Guimarães National Park, which involved some very hot walks, but luckily you were able to cool off at a number of waterfalls with natural swimming pools as seen in the photos below. There was also a clear forest river in the centre of the park that you were able to swim down and look at the fishes and other local wildlife as you go. Good fun even if the mosquitoes were especially vicious.

As you would expect in the wet season, we have had quite a lot of rain of late and because of this we were unfortunately not able to visit the Northern Pantanials as many of the roads were impassable. Brazil has had more rain than normal this season and therefore the wetlands are very flooded. The general pattern is for it to be very, very hot and humid during the day and then the heavy rains will come late afternoon. I have been surprised at how wet Brazil has been (it has rained almost every day and we had 5 days where it rained pretty much non stop), but then again we are visiting during the wet season. Unfortunately very thing in Brazil has had to be fitted around Carnival in mid Feb, so we are not visiting at the best time of year.

Am I looking forward to the Amazon Rain Forest? To be honest, not really. I am not a big fan of forests/jungles as I find them claustrophobic and the Amazon is going to be very hot, very humid and full of insects trying to bite you (the mosquitoes and sand flies in Brazil are the worst I have ever experienced and appear to eat DEET for breakfast!). The boat ride should be interesting, but I get the feeling it is not something I will want to repeat.   

Anthony

Brasilia – Model City

Verdict; some very impressive architecture, but you would not want to live there. It really is like Milton Keynes, but bigger and with more of a 60/70’s vibe going on. As the landmarks are so striking, rather than waffle on, I thought I would simply upload some of my favourite photos. Not a City to rush to visit, but interesting to see what happens when the development of a major city it 100% planned.

Anthony 

Photos: The guy waving is JK who was the Brazilian president who commissioned the city and therefore has a very large and impressive memorial dedicated to him, the modern cathedral is designed to look like Christ’s crown of thorns and I have absolutely so idea what the two guys with spears is all about! 

Brasilia

Hello from Brasilia, capital of Brazil and the only city built in the 20^th century to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city itself is not really a tourist destination, so we are only staying here for one night. City tour Sunday morning and then it is back on the road again, travelling towards the Northern Pantanals in Central Brazil. Unfortunately I cannot update any photos from Brasilia as I have not seen the sights yet, but I can tell you a bit about it and my first impressions.

Probably the strangest thing about the city is that absolutely everything is planned. The overall city is laid out in the shape of a bow and arrow, with designated sectors for everything. There is a bank sector, military sector, embassy sector and even a camping sector where we are staying. Because it was designed in the 50s and 60s it is also designed with the car in mind, a bit like LA. Why walk when you can drive! First impressions are of a rather soulless, modern city, but apparently some of the architecture by Oscar Niemeyer is supposed to be stunning, so I will reserve judgement until tomorrow.

Unfortunately internet access for the next 2-3 weeks is going to be very patchy (unsurprisingly they do not have the internet in the Amazon), so I will update the blog when I can. For the next week or so we are exploring the national parks of central Brazil and then it is back up North to catch a river boat for a 4 day trip down the Amazon towards Manaus.  

Finally, congratulations to Chris Froome who today won the Tour of Oman. Nice to see Britain continuing to dominate world cycling.

Anthony

Parque National da Chapada Diamantina

Happy Valentines Day and hello from Lencois, former diamond town and gateway to the mountainous Parque Nacional da Chapada Diamantina. This national park is home to waterfalls, natural swimming pools and large caves that you can explore or swim in. Today I spent a very enjoyable day seeing the main sights on an organised tour. In the morning we went swimming in one of the numerous natural pools fed by waterfalls and explored one of the largest caves in the area that contained a good collection of stalagmites and stalactites. Not the most spectacular cave I have visited, but certainly very large and some interesting formations, including one that looked quite a lot like Jabba The Hut! After a very nice traditional Brazilian lunch, it was off again to go swimming with the fishes at a crystal clear lake and climb one of the local mountains for a spectacular view of the park. All in all an excellent, if tiring day

Unfortunately we are back on the road tomorrow off to Brasilia, the purpose built capital city in the middle of nowhere (and when I say middle of nowhere, I really mean it). Think Milton Keynes Brazilian style.

Anthony     

Crazy Carnival!

Hello from Salvador, Carnival capital of Brazil. Forget Rio where all of the tourists go for carnival, carnival in Salvador de Bahia is probably the largest in the world with 1.5 - 2 million dancing on the street at any one time. We arrived on Thursday to catch the start of Carnival and will be staying in Salvador for the full 6 days of partying. Thankfully I am not camping, but staying in an apartment for the week. It is normally a student flat so has no mod cons (not even hot water), but it is well located and quite homely.

So what is Carnival in Brazil all about. As far as I can see so far it is about drinking lots and lots of beer, dancing to very loud street music and generally going wild for the full 6 days. Alcohol plays a huge role in carnival, so it is lucky that in Brazil beer is cheaper than chocolate milk and you can pick up a bottle of finest Brazilian Vodka for less than £2. Not sure if they understand the concept of exercise duty, or binge drinking!   

Central to Carnival is the music, where there are two distinct musical formats. The Afro Blocos are large drum based groupes accompanied by singers atop mobile sound trucks. The best known of these groups is probably the Olodum drummers who have collaborated with the likes of Michael Jackson and Paul Simon in the past. They played on Sunday afternoon and I was lucky enough to secure a ticket to be an official member of their bloco, dancing along the Dodo carnival route.

The other format are enormous sound trucks with bands atop belting out Brazilian music. These trucks have to be heard to be believed as they all seem to be competing with each other to see who has the loudest truck. The truck will then slowly make its way along the carnival route, followed by hundreds of official dancers in matching T-shirts.

There are three carnival routes in Salvador, Osmar which is the oldest and goes through the old town, Dodo which goes along the coast in the more upmarket part of town and a new route of Batatinha around the streets of Pelourinho, which is the historic centre of the city and the main tourist attraction. Each has its own distinctive feel and I have been to all three while I have been here.

So what is my verdict on carnival after being here for 5 of the 6 days. It is good fun, but three aspects have rather spoilt it for me. Security, transport and the heat.

Security; after dark you simply do not feel safe, with groups of drunken youths and criminal gangs roaming the city. Pick pocketing and bag/jewellery is a major problem where you have to be extremely careful with any valuables. Basically you only go out with your nights spending money, nothing else. Myself and a number of the group have had their pockets picked and jewellery stolen (luckily they did not get into my internal security pocket and so only got away with a map and packet of tissues). There are lots of Police around, but they only seem to be interested in breaking up fights and basically doing as little as possible.

Transport: Because of the road closures due to the two main carnival routes the city is basically gridlocked for 6 days. No buses and it is very difficult and expensive to get a taxi. Basically you have to walk everywhere, which is not great during the day because it is 35 degrees and at night due to the security concerns. It is also very, very slow progress if you have to go anywhere near the carnival routes while carnival is in progress.

Heat: Maybe you get use to it eventually, but 35 degrees during the day is just too hot to be partying out in the open air, with absolutely no shade available. Even at night it remains 25-30 degrees, so you are still constantly drenched in sweat.

Would I recommend coming to carnival? If I am being totally honest, no. Unless you want to party for 6 full days, get robbed, get ripped off and get very hot and bothered, I would give it a miss. Sorry Salvador, but I would rather visit Cromer Carnival.

Sunny Porto Seguro

Hello from Porto Seguro on the Discovery Coast, or Safe Port in English. The good news is that we have now left the rain behind and found the sun again. Horary! Porto Seguro makes the spot where the Portuguese first landed in Basil in 1500 and is one of the top beach destinations in the country, with lovely sandy beaches and warm seas. Unfortunately we are only here for one day, so a nice relaxing day or R&R is in order after all of the travelling since Rio. We are now on our way to Salvador for the start of carnival next week, hoping from beach resort to beach resort as we go.

As we are in the tourism heartland of Brasil, the campsites are getting a lot better and this one even has a gym, swimming pool and live Premiership football. What more could you want! First weights workout for two months today, so I will probably be unable to move tomorrow. I also went for a nice run along the beach, the added bonus being that when you get too hot you simply cool off in the sea. Not sure if that would work back home!

I hope all is well back in Blighty and now that we are in February it starts to warm up again.  

Anthony

Ouro Preto in the rain

Ok so maybe coming to Brazil during the wet season was not the greatest idea in the world. I spent a day in Ouro Preto, probably the best preserved colonial former state capital in all of Brazil and I have never seen rain like it. They have an interesting approach to drainage in Brazil in that it all runs down the road in a torrent and collects at the bottom of the hill. Not great if you want to keep your feet dry, or if you are trying to drive up a steep cobbled street that has just turned into a river!

Founded in 1711, the town of Ouro Preto became fabulously became rich during a gold run in the 18^th century, much of the wealth being used to build very elaborate churches. Many of these churches contain sculptures by Antonio Francisco Lisboa (generally know as O Aleijadinho, or the little cripple due to a maiming disease he developed in later life, thought to be leprosy), who is considered the Brazilian Michelangelo. He is certainly not in the same league as big Mike, but some of his work is very impressive. There are 13 churches in total, but I only visited two, which is more than enough. If I am honest I can never get too excited about Christian churches when travelling as they are a bit too similar to churches back home (apart from Ethiopia where they are totally unique). Think Buxton church, but with a bit more gold leaf and statues of the Virgin Mary.

Back to the coast now and fingers crossed the sun will return and it will warm up again. Only 23 degrees today, bit on the chilly side!