TERESOPOLIS - BRAZIL

Heralded as the trekking and rock-climbing ´Meca´ of Brazil, Teresopolis was my next detination after a brief but enjoyable few days in Rio de Janeiro. The city certainly lived up to its reputation and I really enjoyed spending 2 days there, just walking around in the mountains and enjoying some great views of the nearby cities.

On my first day in Teresopolis I spent a day walking in the Serra do Orgaos National Park, a little way out of the city. Despite not being able to reach the summit of the parks highest peak in the time I that was available, I still managed to take myself to a sufficient altitude so as to get some great shots of the surrounding area. Once again I was really glad to get out of the cities and enjoy a little time in the natural environment, taking in some of the breathtaking scenery that exists in Brazil.

Having said goodbye to my friendly hostel owners (I was the only guest staying there) I took the bus back to Rio de Janeiro before continuing back to Camboriú, just in time for the Carnival celebrations. The bus ride to Rio was quite amazing as it was possible to see all the way back to the city from our elevated position in the mountains. the views of the city, mountains and coastline certainly made for a beautiful backdrop which unfortunately I wasn´t able to capture succesfully in any of my photos.

Despite only being a very brief visit, my time in Teresopolis was most enjoyable and a very welcome break from the city life in Rio and Sao Paolo. This is definately somewhere I would recommend people visit as a 1 or 2 day trip from Rio and I think it is highly possible that I will return there during my next trip to Brazil.

PARATI & RIO DE JANEIRO - BRAZIL

Having enjoyed 2 days catching up with my mates Renato and Ralfe in Sao Paolo, I next headed to the coastal town of Parati, located between S.P. and Rio de Janeiro. Despite staying only 1 night, I really enjoyed my visit to Parati and the coastline scenery which I took in on the bus ride to Rio de Janeiro was so spectacular that I considered hiring a car and retracing my steps more slowly so as to capture the amazing vistas in my photos.

Having arrived to Parati after a whole day of short bus rides from 1 small city to the next, I enjoyed just hanging out with a few people at the hostel and playing some cards. I eventually retired to bed in the early hours of the morning and still managed to get up reasonably early and go for a long walk in the hot, humid and therefore rather uncomfortable conditions. After scaling a number of the nearby hills and getting some nice photos of the surrounding region I returned to the hostel and got an afternoon bus to Rio.

Upon arriving at the location of my pre-booked accommodation, I was somewhat disheartened to find the hostel located on a small and very seedy, side-street in the suburb of Botafogo. However, despite my initial aprehensions, I quickly realised that in fact this was to be one of the best hostels I had stayed in. Where it was lacking in appearance and cleanliness, it was more than compensated by the great vibe and the fantastic people staying there. Over my 5 day stay in Rio I met some awesome people and had a great time.

Having visited Rio previously in my 2005 trip, I spent my time in the city just chilling, wandering around and visiting a few more out of the way places such as the Tijuca national park located right in the city centre. Whilst spending a day walking through the park and scaling one of the mountains, I was continually amazed by the fact that I was in a city of more than 10 million people and yet was still able to enjoy such peace and quiet. In addition, the views of the city from the mountain top were quite spectacular !!!

By far the highlight of my trip to Rio was however the FREE Rolling Stones concert held on 18 February. All that day everyone at the hostel was on edge, just waiting until it was time to walk down to Copacabanna beach and take part in what was being predicted to be one of the biggest concerts (in terms of crowd numbers) of all time. Despite an anticpated crowd 3 million people, only 1.2 million (yeah... ONLY 1.2 million !!!) people showed up although on the walk down to the beach it felt like the whole of Rio was relocating. The streets were absolutely full of people and it was fantastic to see everyone so happy.

Surprisingly, a group of us managed to get quite a good position about 100 metres from the stage and whilst I couldn´t exactly see just how well Keith, Mick, Ron and Charlie were doing for their age, I was still astounded by how well they could still sing and rock it out just like in the good old days. I must admit that I was not a massive Stones fan before the gig but was instantly converted after hearing them play. The whole atmosphere of the night with the millions of people, great set up, great vibe and fantastic music really made the event one of my travelling highlights and something that I will never forget. It sure made me feel a lot better about changing my itinerary around and trading off a fair bit of backtracking with being able to experience a spectacle such as this.

SAO PAOLO - BRAZIL

On my way through towards Rio for the much anticipated free Rolling Stones gig on Copacabanna beach, I spent 2 days hanging out with some friends (whom I had met previously in Cordoba, Argentina) in Brazil´s largest city, Sao Paolo. Despite having visited the city previously (during my trip to Brazil in 2005) I still thoroughly enjoyed my stay there.

Sao Paolo, without offering any particularly spectacular scenery, still comes with much to do and after sorting out a few purchases, Ralfe and myself went for a walk around parts of the city which I had not previously visited. During my stay I was also able to meet a number of his friends along with experiencing ´family life´ in Brazil whilst staying with my other mate Renato.

As with my first visit to the city, I was amazed by the range of nightlife locations on offer on literally every night of the week and despite heading out on a Monday, the 3 of us had a great time at an alternative rock-electronic club, where we were treated to some fantastic music.

Another quick but enjoyable visit in one of the worlds largest cities !

Photos 1-3: Ralfe, Renato and myself enjoying a few beers.

CAMBORIU - BRAZIL

How exactly I ended up in Camboriu in the first place is probably enough for a blog entry in itself so I will attempt to at least keep the details of the story to a minimum and focus more on just how much of an amazing place the city was. After jumping on a bus in Torres destined for Curitiba, I was ´hijacked´ by a somewhat crazy, very beautiful and thereby rather typical brazillian girl (Alessandra) who told me I should instead accompany her to the beachside city of Camboriú. Despite this not being something a would normally do, her rather persuasive appearance.... I mean arguments.... meant that upon reaching Camboriú I decided ´what the hell´ and jumped off as well.

I think it is fair to say that I experienced more ups and downs during my time in Camboriú than during any other time throughout South America. The city was an amazing place and all around there were so many beautiful beaches and mountains almost to the extent where it was impossible not to enjoy my stay. However, being with Ale certainly provided its fair share of headaches and looking back now, it´s surprising that I didn´t have a breakdown at some point.

You see, Ale and her crowd are what the Brazillians term as ´roots´ people... I don´t really know where this comes from but my best guess is that is referring to getting back to dem ´grass roots mon!´ So, these people occupy themselves with very little except for going to the beach, lazing around and of course, consuming copious amounts of marajuana. It´s not that they are bad people, in fact far from it and many of them were extremely kind and lovely. It´s just that their lack of activity really started to get on my nerves after a while... that and the reggae music, which was the only music I heard for like 6 days and to which I will never be able to listen again.

After the initial 2 days of going to the beach, lazing around in rather dull weather, possibly grabbing something to eat now and again and then going out in the evening, I started to wonder if it was worth staying around for, however with the approaching weekend I decided to give it a few more days and just hoped that things would become more interesting. It didn´t !!! That being siad, I still managed to see alot of the surrounding region, including the absolutely beautiful beach, ´las bombinhas´ and I really appreciated the effort which Ale took to show me around and make sure that I was enjoying my time (if only she had been coherent enough to understand when I wasn´t !!!)

Without focussing too much on the negatives, I am glad that I managed to go to Camboriú and in fact ended up returning a few weeks later, a visit which I enjoyed considerably more. (This return visit however, was driven more by my desire to recoup a pair of jeans that I had left behind.... another long and crazy story). As I have eluded to, the visual scenery of the area was absolutely breathtaking and I did meet some really nice people during my stay. I think it is safe to say that I will never really forget my experiences from Camboriú, whether this be for good or bad reasons I cannot say but I guess this is all just part of the travelling experience !!!