Sol da Barra Apart Hotel Rio de Janeiro

Logo no início do planejamento, conjecturando sobre que tipo de viagem faríamos, nos deparamos com a questão: para que sentido rumar? - Leste ou Oeste.

Basicamente, essa decisão tem a ver com como encarar o jet lag, a fadiga relacionada à mudança de meridianos em deslocamentos aéreos, distúrbio do relógio biológico, rompimento do ciclo "luz ...

... malls.
We also went to see some very nice old buildings and a 17xx palace in the city center.

By the way Brazilians really really dont speak English so learning Portuguese ractically saved us many times and enabled us to speak freely with the locals and learn about thelivesfes.

We were supposed to have a flight to sao paulo and another one from there to ilheus. the airline sent us from one airport to the other by taxi because the first ...

... but have stumbled way more times than 3. everyone wears flip flops = havianas, even the poor people wear the same brand as rich people. little kids try to take your money. there is no sense to the buses routes. pedestrians have no rights. word #9 thank you = obrigada... put an o on it if you are a boy. ill remember the other funny stuff and write tomorrow. trying to get to a meeting tonight... hopefully there will be people there. maybe a northern beach town tomorrow.

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... which are abour 2km away as the crow flies!! On top of this, my hostel in Ipanema told me that late last yr there was an organised mugging of 30 hostels in Lapa/Santa Teresa (obv all at the same time) and that my hostel atm was targetted... So maybe this IS the real Brazil; that one of the Caricocas (local from Rio) from the Ipanema hostel was telling me about- relative to Ipanema, that is, but being a solo female traveller, that i cant speak the ...

... the groups of caiman waiting below), hiking in search of anacondas, boating down the wildlife rich rivers, and horse riding through the jungle. The guide in charge of our group, named Gabrielle, was a hilarious cross between Rambo, Tarzan and The Crocodile Hunter, complete with jungle calls, headband, and belief that he was invincible when it came to dangerous animals or drinking parasite ridden waters. On hikes, we were forced to maintain a half-run in order to ...

... us in through the doorway... we declined and left, fast.

We moved on to the next recommendation, a stroll through the Parque de Flamengo to Botafogo bay. This started off pleasant enough, with the calm bay and Sugarloaf in the background. As we neared the bay we soon found ourselves walking alongside a motorway with no-one else around except some homeless people living near the waters edge. A couple of local people out running saw us, and ...

After sitting in the gay section of ipanema, watching gaivotas swoop for fish and the mountains being covered by clouds and sweeping views, and hearing tracy practicaly purr with delight from sun and sand I conclude: I still love Brazil. The food: - The food here really agrees with me, I am always with energy always find something to eat and my allergies are looked after - I love caiperinhas - I love the ...

... the most inviting night on offer, which was to be the samba school, although it turned out a bit different than expected.! This school (area and type of samba) were voting for their Miss Samba..the lady to represent on the float for Carnaval. There wasnt a great deal of gringo's here but fuelled by Capirinha's and the rest, we threw some moves on the floor Brazilian stylee and got down till 4 in the morning..!! Rio would certainly deserve another few visits in the future..!!

... which thankfully is actually kind of similar to Spanish.  So, I had to step in and try to interpret between Will and Deborah to varying degrees of success, whilst playing 'guess what I'm saying' using hand motions with Rafaela.  But hey, it worked out somehow ;-) After a full day of recuperation, a few of us embarked on a tour of this charming, and by now not so intimidating, city.  First stop was the 'Pao de Acuacar' or Sugar Loaf mountain, a ...

... owners had become success stories, selling their properties and moving up the property ladder to become landlords and offering opportunities for others to follow in their footsteps.

These were the views from the roof of one of these properties, not bad eh?

Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil al_fey