is the bus station and thats where we are as I write this next post waiting for our midnight bus back to Rio.
Loafed around Rio and everything we see or do reinforces our belief that it is the best city we´ve been to. Santa Theresa was quaint, escarda celeron was inspiring, hanging off the little bonde or bondinho ( little tram) from lapa to Santa Theresa was ethereal, and most of all the cariocas whose attitude we hear so much about are the friendliest!
We finally decide to move on from Rio and take things as they come with the Chilean visa. Bahia is our plan except that getting there will cost us about $900 /- even if we took the 24 hour bus! So thats immediately struck off the plan. Renata and Anu sit around, Helena and Ronaldo have ideas and finally we come up with a plan. We bus down to Sao Joao Del Rei, one of the most historic towns in the Minas Gerias state, check out Tiradentes the culinary capital of Brazil and then move south to Ilha Grande, the island that has no motor vehicles nor banks.
The bus ride was panoramic for lack of a better word. The thickness of the vegetation is something I have never before experienced. Rolling hills, huge valleys , shades of green... awesome!
SJDR itself was a downer. I was particularly not feeling it that day and the general mood did little to allievate the brooding edifices around. My first bad day. I could see the effect on Anu and Yannick. The pausada ( family owned guest houses) was expensive, the churches were oppresive, and the restaurant was nice but the food we wasn´t what we expected! Dinner at the little street side Hambuguesa restaurant was nice. I started to feel better and then it began to rain the last rain of summer. I think that rain washed away most of my ill feeling. SLept well and woke up to one hell of a breakfast. It comes as part of the pousada deal. Here we also haad a fantastic conversation with a proffessor of English. Leant a lot about the brazilian mindset, the days of the dictatorship, their hopes now etc and there is no question that Brazil is our twin brother, afew years ahead and with far greater infrastructure.
Later that day we took off by local bus to Toradentes, a 20 min ride. Just entering this little town was enough to lift my spirits. Quaint is not expressive enough for the 3 streets that make this town/ village. Here I must add that the Brazilian people are definitely amonst the friendliest I have met even though most of them speak nothing other than Portuguese.
We found a great pousada, walked along the unpaved roads. I don´t say cobble stone because these were boulders compared to cobble stones that paved the road. Horse carriages run around merrily but these streets are a tyre makers dream. Tiradentes is engulfed by rather large hills. We walked around found the fountain called Chafariz that was fed by a spring but most of all the we just enjoyed walking around.
The night cooled down by a light rain as we walked around trying to decide on what to eat. It is a difficult decision is a town with the most michellin star restaurants in Brazil. Finally we decided on a restaurant and decided to eat what was a local speciality Oro Pro nobis - a chicken ( i too was surprised) dish with a ton of green veges , rice and a corn puree that kind of looked like hummus.It was a fantastic meal. Can´t compare it since it was the first oro pro nobis I had eaten!
This mornig w met a french couple at breakfast. Theyhave invited us over to their house in Rio for drinks when we get there. If we can we will definitely meet them. I have realised that these conversations have begun to mean a lot more to me than seeing the sites, not that the places and everything else is any less impressive.
Lots of confusion regarding our Chilean visa so we had to come back to SJDR, make some very specific payments and since the confusions still haven´t been cleared up we are taking the bus back to Rio tonight. Tomorrow hopefully we will clear the issues involved and continue to Ilha Grande the day after.
Oh yeah, the US Airways did credit the refund back to me with a small small fee! The prayers at the redeemer have paid off.
Too long a post to read and correct so forgive the errors. I´m posting anyway.
Loafed around Rio and everything we see or do reinforces our belief that it is the best city we´ve been to. Santa Theresa was quaint, escarda celeron was inspiring, hanging off the little bonde or bondinho ( little tram) from lapa to Santa Theresa was ethereal, and most of all the cariocas whose attitude we hear so much about are the friendliest!
We finally decide to move on from Rio and take things as they come with the Chilean visa. Bahia is our plan except that getting there will cost us about $900 /- even if we took the 24 hour bus! So thats immediately struck off the plan. Renata and Anu sit around, Helena and Ronaldo have ideas and finally we come up with a plan. We bus down to Sao Joao Del Rei, one of the most historic towns in the Minas Gerias state, check out Tiradentes the culinary capital of Brazil and then move south to Ilha Grande, the island that has no motor vehicles nor banks.
The bus ride was panoramic for lack of a better word. The thickness of the vegetation is something I have never before experienced. Rolling hills, huge valleys , shades of green... awesome!
SJDR itself was a downer. I was particularly not feeling it that day and the general mood did little to allievate the brooding edifices around. My first bad day. I could see the effect on Anu and Yannick. The pausada ( family owned guest houses) was expensive, the churches were oppresive, and the restaurant was nice but the food we wasn´t what we expected! Dinner at the little street side Hambuguesa restaurant was nice. I started to feel better and then it began to rain the last rain of summer. I think that rain washed away most of my ill feeling. SLept well and woke up to one hell of a breakfast. It comes as part of the pousada deal. Here we also haad a fantastic conversation with a proffessor of English. Leant a lot about the brazilian mindset, the days of the dictatorship, their hopes now etc and there is no question that Brazil is our twin brother, afew years ahead and with far greater infrastructure.
Later that day we took off by local bus to Toradentes, a 20 min ride. Just entering this little town was enough to lift my spirits. Quaint is not expressive enough for the 3 streets that make this town/ village. Here I must add that the Brazilian people are definitely amonst the friendliest I have met even though most of them speak nothing other than Portuguese.
We found a great pousada, walked along the unpaved roads. I don´t say cobble stone because these were boulders compared to cobble stones that paved the road. Horse carriages run around merrily but these streets are a tyre makers dream. Tiradentes is engulfed by rather large hills. We walked around found the fountain called Chafariz that was fed by a spring but most of all the we just enjoyed walking around.
The night cooled down by a light rain as we walked around trying to decide on what to eat. It is a difficult decision is a town with the most michellin star restaurants in Brazil. Finally we decided on a restaurant and decided to eat what was a local speciality Oro Pro nobis - a chicken ( i too was surprised) dish with a ton of green veges , rice and a corn puree that kind of looked like hummus.It was a fantastic meal. Can´t compare it since it was the first oro pro nobis I had eaten!
This mornig w met a french couple at breakfast. Theyhave invited us over to their house in Rio for drinks when we get there. If we can we will definitely meet them. I have realised that these conversations have begun to mean a lot more to me than seeing the sites, not that the places and everything else is any less impressive.
Lots of confusion regarding our Chilean visa so we had to come back to SJDR, make some very specific payments and since the confusions still haven´t been cleared up we are taking the bus back to Rio tonight. Tomorrow hopefully we will clear the issues involved and continue to Ilha Grande the day after.
Oh yeah, the US Airways did credit the refund back to me with a small small fee! The prayers at the redeemer have paid off.
Too long a post to read and correct so forgive the errors. I´m posting anyway.
