Rio the Beautiful

Hi all,
It has been a while since our last blog. Just a quick few sentences about what had happened since we wrote last time and then I will write about Rio de Janeiro.

Last time I mentioned that our motorcycle was making funny noises and Todd was looking for a tool to get it fixed. We ended up stopping at the local repair shop and the three guys running it let us use all their tools. They were so nice and if we were missing a tool one of them would jump on his scooter, ride to the other repair shop and get it for us. It took us about 4 hours to adjust the valves, only to find out as we were driving away that the popping noise did not stop. Couple days later we were lucky and were able to buy the tool and so we adjusted them again, but the popping did not stop. We ended up going to the BMW dealer in Rio and they told us that the popping is caused by Brazilian gas that contains 30 % of pure sugar alcohol. My conclusion is that we all would make funny noises if our food intake contained 30 % of pure alcohol.

As far as Brazil goes it is really a beautiful country. Everyone I have met before I came to Brazil had always described it a paradise. People had their eyes closed, held their hand on their heart while they were speaking about the beaches, rain forest, food and people. So far that has been our experience.

The Road to Rio was probably the most spectacular I have ever seen, with the ocean on the right and the rain forest on the left. With each turn we took the view got even more gorgeous which one may have thought was not even possible. One day there were even 2000 turns.

Todd was very particular about taking the “right” road to enter Rio. This south road was supposed to give us the most spectacular view of the city. I was pretty happy to take just about any road that gets us to the hotel as quickly as possible so I can eat all the mangoes, bananas and papayas I picked from the trees. The news about the gangs shooting down the helicopter, the guide book telling that one wrong turn means getting robbed, kidnapped, and who knows what did not help either. However, our experience was very different than what the guide books had planned for us and we experienced nothing but the beauty, joyful energy and the enormous richness of the city.

I am not even sure how and where to start to begin describing the city. When I went for a walk tons of people were jogging and walking along the beach, kind of like around Lake Harriet, except they all look like they knew each other. They also take breaks to buy huge coconuts and drink the milk with straws, talk loud and laugh a lot. Most of them constanlty dance to samba music which you can hear just about everywhere you go. It all felt very rich and diverse, there were groups of elderly exercising together in circles, cute guys playing soccer, a TV station making an interview with some soccer player, Christ the Redeemer above it all, hugging the city and so much more.

In Rio, you can spot some kind of soccer game 24 hours a day pretty much any direction you look. The TV-s with the game on are everywhere and seem to have a crowd of about 20 people (minimum and as the day progresses as many as 100) around them. People surround the TV and cheer constantly for “their“ team. It seems like soccer connects Brazilians very much ,everyone is welcome to stop by at the bar or restaurant without ordering anything just to watch the game. Another neat thing I noticed is that the love for their president Lula, also seemed to connect Brazilian people together . Almost everyone we met liked him and according to the statistics he has about 79-90% approval rate here.

What I found very interesting about Rio is that it is full of contradictions mainly due to the enormous economic class differences. However, in spite these enormous differences they not only manage to live literarily next to each other, but also appear to have lots of joy and happiness. (I will talk little more about the differences between rich and poor in our next post as I will describe the experience of visiting Favelas in Rio). Another cool thing about Brazil is that literally everything one buys in Brazil is made in Brazil. It is really amazing. That is the way they support their economy and possibly one of the main reasons why Brazil was not affected as much by the economic meltdown.

We had spent about 7 days in Rio visited most of the tourist places, visited favelas and concluded that Rio has something for everyone. It is so fertile with flavors, colors, sounds that I was not even able to imagine one city having it all. It is so hard to describe , you guys just have to come and taste acai, listen to the samba music and see the beautiful Copacabana beach.

Here is a little samba song for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD-UCbmjTs4

love,
Kristina

Pantano do Sul

Hello Everyone,
It took a while to get here but I think we have found paradise! From the border with Uruguay up Devils Inferno road onto BR 101 which will take us all the way to Rio. There were small ferries, large ferries and sometimes no ferries and we had to backtrack. Each time the scenery was spectacular.


From the moment we got onto 101 though we knew something was wrong. Every bridge that day (maybe 60) was gone, vanished. All being rebuilt simultaneously. So all of the traffic had to move down two levels than back up two levels, around the bridge construction, then back onto the main road. All while trying to maintain speed. Sometimes it seems that the posted speed limits are actually the minimums.
It was getting dark so we took a right to the Island of Santa Catarina. That was 6 days ago. We are in Pantano do Sul a small fishing village at the southernmost point of the island. As close to heaven as I think I have ever been. Jungle and beach merge with small houses here and there. Fisherman push their boats from shore into the Atlantic on greased boards. From our deck you can see canaries, parakeets, toucans, parrots and many other birds I can’t identify. Flowers are springing up after each rain, wild orchids, bird of paradise and cyclamen all common plants.


The main city is Florianopolis about 400,000 people and yes it is the city of flowers. Also being the cultural capital of southern Brazil there are many options, from organic markets, to street Capoeira performances(begun by African slaves as a means of self-defense it combines fight, game and dance in a very fluid circular movement) there are performances and practices all over.

So the island along with the beautiful city I just mentioned has over 42 pristine
Beaches all more or less used for surfing. They even do a little sand dune surfing here. The story we have read is about the Pororoca Evidently at the mouths of some rivers when tidal conditions are just right powerful waves can form that push up these rivers. The waves can be 4 meters high and travel at 30 kilometers per hour temporarily overpowering the seaward rush of the rivers waters. There are national championships each year and the record goes to a guy who rode one of these waves for 37 minutes covering 13 kilometers. Wow!

There are also many lakes within the island, some fresh water and some connected to the ocean. Surrounded by hiking trails there are plenty of options for things to do. Nights get pretty cold, (of course no heat in any of the places we stay) so we around the flashlights at night for warmth! Check out the photos for Pantano do Sul.



When you go into a restaurant/bar they serve for free unlimited shots of Cachaca. This is a pure distillation of sugar cane coming in at about 120 proof.
You can see from this photo of me what happens to one after a few of these shots.


On another topic they recently discovered a cave in northern Brazil filled with cave art dating back 50,000 years. That makes it the oldest inhabited site in the Americas. What did the cave art depict? Lots of hunting, eating, dancing, drinking and of course sex!



One last item. I did find the valve adjustment tool at the 49th store. Not bad, they even had curbside service.
Miss you all,
Todd