PORTO ALEGRE - BRAZIL

Not exactly on every tourists trail in Brazil, I travelled from the beaches of Uruguay to Porto Alegre, the provincial capital of Rio Grande del Sur in the south of Brazil. After a late night arrival on the first day of February, I wandered around the city although there wasn´t a lot to see and do... firstly because the majority of the citys population had migrated to the coast and secondly because of the ridiculously hot weather. That night I celebrated my 24th birthday with a few friends of friends but it really was a quiet night on all fronts.

During the remainder of my time in Porto Alegre I spent time just hanging out with my new Brazillian budies, cooking cleaning and relaxing. I did manage to go out over the weekend, the first night to a rather odd alternative club with some awesome music and some rather interesting patrons. Still I had a good night just chatting with various people and eventually managed to find my way back to where I was staying with the help of a few friendly revelers.

Also during my stay in Porto Alegre I travelled to to the nearby coastal town of Tramandai where I met up with another contact of mine and enjoyed 2 days of sunny beach weather, a little partying and a little sleeping. I really enjoyed staying with Laura and her extended family and the night out on the Saturday certainly was alot of fun. I also really enjoyed playing the Brazillian version of beach cricket (´Taco´). More out of luck than anything I proved to be quite good at this game (much to the amazement and delight of the locals) and had an awesome time getting to know some more Brazillians and experiencing what life in Brazil was really like, not just as a tourist.

Overall, my time in Porto Alegre was a bit of a mixed bag. Whilst there wasn´t that much to do I still had alot of fun and met some great people who were incredibly kind to me. This really set the trend for the remainder of my visit to Brazil and I would imagine that someday I would like to return to Porto Alegre, possibly not during the summer however !

Photos 1&2: Night out for my birthday.

Photos 3-10: Partying with Laura and her friends/family in Tramandai.