At the Rua das Pedras she sits watching the sea...

Dressed in everyday comfy (but as always, classy) clothes, she sits facing the sea at the port of Buzios, a little Brazilian town a lá Saint Tropez, which she had 'discovered' some years before (in the 1960s, as may be the case). A seemingly modest but proud bronze statue of Brigitte Bardot, who must have fallen in love with the place, as many others have done after her. What's not to love? Great climate, beautiful scenery, washed by the warm waves of the sea, gorgeous houses and holidays mansions of the rich... and sometimes famous.

We were lucky enough to stay at such a beautiful mansion, just five minutes walking from the beach, where we explored the shore, the water and the rocks, watching the waves crash against them, taking a million photos of ourselves and the startlingly beautiful environs on that clear-blue day. (And to think that the day before we arrived at the afore-mentioned mansion among thunderous tropical rains, and entertained ourselves with painting each other's nails... until the rain cleared that night and we could get ahead into town, to show ourselves off walking down the fancy streets of Buzios, and to take photos with Brigitte).


Just a bit further from Brigitte resides the former president of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitschek, who half a century ago had the idea of building the new capital of the country in the middle of practically nowhere - now it is called Brasilia. He sits relaxed in his chair, waving at... well, supposedly, the crowd. It was around his chair that we did our little happy dance and took pretty poses. Fernanda taught us a little song then made up by someone once to celebrate his eagerness to build Brasilia - but all I remember now is 'Jusca tá na pila...'

We walked around, taking photos with statues of animals and trying to learn the correct basic steps to dance samba, and even ran into a small but cozy street samba party... but there was more waiting in the centre, as we now got into somewhat more deserted areas. So we returned to Brigitte, who sits gazing out at the sea at the start of Rua das Pedras, now the main street in town, adorned at every corner and on both sides with countless beautiful (and unaffordable) clothes shops and restaurants. I don't know if it has something to do with the French spirit present around there, but the place we came to love and where we came to love to eat was Chez Michou, which serves mainly beer and... crépes. And has a television screen, always showing a music DVD from a famous Brazilian artist. I say always because we returned there a couple of times afterwards and they kept up the tradition, at least in my time there. This is where Fé taught me to sing 'O amor... é um calor... que aquece a alma... O amor... é um sabor... pra quem bebe sua agua'. Timeless! And those crépes and Brahmas at Chez Michou (three times over) will certainly be in my memory for many years to come, let's hope always.

Back at our new house, we settled to sleep in our beautiful beds, with dreams of a blue sky and softly crashing sea waves, which became reality the next morning. And who can forget in this story the little boy who with such soul performed 'Thriller' and 'Billie Jean' for us? Intrigued?

Stay tuned.

Among the tropical winter rains of Cabo Frio

Hey!

You might remember from my travel ramblings earlier, that in mid-July 2010, Bryley and me set course for Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, and also visited the 'golden city', Ouro Preto. Back in BH in the evening after our stay in Ouro Preto, we boarded the night bus to make our way to the coast side of the Rio de Janeiro state. Actually, I don't remember much of the bus trip.. which must mean that I did manage to sleep at least a bit, which is quite a feat for me to do on a bus. (All I remember is taking pictures of ourselves wearing the identical Brasil top.. but then again, we have photos of that, haha).

At 6am the next morning we arrived in Cabo Frio, a well-known beach spot in the state of Rio, extremely popular with Brazilians themselves during the summer months. At least, everyone was always talking about going to Cabo Frio.. but there we were, in the middle of the Brazilian winter, arriving at the bus station, with the tropical 'winter' rains descending on the city. Luckily, our friend Fernanda was kind enough as to come pick us up at this early hour; without her it might have been just a bit more difficult to find our way to her place in all that rain ;)

And by rain I mean a downpour! From what I remember (but don't take my word for it, it's been a year... haha), we took a taxi to her apartment, down by the beach, anyways :) Once settled in her cozy place, we all went to sleep again for a couple of hours... after all, it was still pretty early haha, and whatcha gonna do otherwise with all that rain? haha.. But later in the day, we did actually brave the weather to go outside, flapping in our havaianas over the water running down the streets.

There's how much rain there was!


Since there wasn't much point going that way, we didn't even try braving the beach (although we did get a live glimpse of it from the street... and on the TV weather monitor in Fe's house, but the view wasn't encouraging), and set out for the city, hidden under big umbrellas. What we did find was a great havaianas shop, where we all managed to find a good pair for a discount price :) Oh, and the shop assistant guy was totally into Fernanda, hahaha. (Yes, Fe, he was ;-))


In the summer (or likewise weather), Cabo Frio would be a really cool spot to visit. It's got a really cute harbor, with cool boats, pretty houses and green hills on the other side of the water, and all these cafe's and restaurants along the waterside. The city center itself is like any other town (from what I remember of it), but down by the harbor the atmosphere in the summer sunshine must be of party-till-sunrise, haha, as Fernanda was also telling us about... so obviously, I have to come back to Cabo Frio in the summer! ;)

Dancing in the rain in Cabo Frio :)


Despite the weather, we still tried to make the best of our day, buying havaianas, flirting with shop assistants (khem, Fe! hahahaha), dancing with our big umbrellas in the rain down by the harbor, with palm trees as tropical decor in the background... :p

After a while of exploring the city, we came back home for another drying-up break and hanging around. But not for long!



Dancing with Fe :)


Come evening, the weather actually dried up more or less, and it was windy and a bit chilly rather than anything else, so we dressed up (I borrowed Fe's dress... she had the cutest beach clothes with her) and went out to have dinner back by the harbor again. Too bad we couldn't sit out admiring the views of the harbor, as the restaurants were all covered up, but we had a great time having dinner and caipirinhas, of course :) On our way back home among the rather deserted streets of Cabo Frio - the locals were probably not as brave as us to take on the chilly evening - we even stopped by a local cafeteria to have some frozen acaí with granola, Brazilians' favorite sweet-tooth dessert ;) (As much as it is kinda funny to eat something so frozen in such 'cold', haha).

What's a meal without a caipirinha or two? ;)


Well, dreaming of what Cabo Frio would be like in the summer, and especially during Carnaval, we made our way to Fe's apartment, to then continue our journey the next morning to Buzios, to stay with Fe's family there. But what happened there you will find out next time!

Thanks for reading!

Um beijo :)

'Onde está a praia?'

Hey all,

Already a few weeks ago, I thought it would fun to write a short blog entry on this (but didn't get to it yet): languages and, in my specific case, Portuguese. A language that, despite not having just fallen into my lap (I did actually have to make some effort to learn it and still do.. ;)), has made itself present in my life in a more long-term way than I could've imagined back in the day... before I made myself ready for all those overseas adventures, that naive soul, haha..!

Recently while surfing the internet I came across a video of Shakira, the famous singer, giving a short press-conference in Brasilia after meeting with the president of Brazil to discuss the latter's new plans about education for young children. And to my amazement, Shakira was speaking about all these development plans and her enthousiasm about it in... fluent Portuguese!! I did briefly read somewhere sometime ago that it's among her lingual talents, but I didn't actually pay too much attention to that then. But when I heard her talking in Portuguese for several minutes non-stop, with a slight accent of course, but a complete confidence, I was like, woah hang on a minute!! hahaha...

Exactly where and how Shakira, whose native language is Spanish, learned Portuguese as well, I don't know (but would be interested to find out), but coming across this video was in any case like an extra little boost for me that learning Portuguese might actually be really useful! Ok, it's not one of the 6 main UN languages, but I can already tick off 2 of them anyway. And considering Brazil's incessant economic growth and BRIC position, as well as its dominant size within South America, I'd say that it's in fact almost a surprise that Portuguese isn't more popular already. Chinese is, after all, already extremely popular to learn among many people whose eyes are set on the Far East... but why should Portuguese be lagging behind? ;-)

Mid-June, the new University College alumni magazine arrived at my doorstep. This year I wrote an article to be published in it, and guess what it's about? Yeeees, learning a new language, haha! Actually, I wrote up a little personalized guide as to how one might be able to learn a new language in another country in a short while, based on my experience in Brazil. And I philosophised about it a little, too... well, all I've got to say right now is I hope people enjoy(ed) reading it, and who knows it might come in handy for someone someday =)

In fact, I find that knowing Portuguese comes in handy - and funny, in the case below - at rather unexpected moments. For example, a couple of weeks ago I tuned in really randomly to Shania Twain's website (yes, another famous singer), and found a live streaming of a press conference she was giving - but no, not in Portuguese, hahaha! In English... but next to the video there was the twitter account running busy with all these people around the world watching the video at the same time leaving comments. And I found, to my surprise, that it was basically full of Brazilians, some of them even exchanging messages back and forth about the video, all in Portuguese. Some rather entertaining stuff. That was just the randomest thing ever though! I never realized that of all the places, Brazil in particular would be so big on Shania ;)) She's like one of my fav singers from way back in the day, when I was still living in Russia even (so that's at least 10 years!!), and to go to her website and find all these Brazilian Portuguese comments in the twitter thing was just really hilarious for me.

Well, I've come to the end of my post at the moment. I'm not entirely sure what exactly my point is here, I just wanted to babble a bit and share some funny and curious things here on my blog hahaha. And I guess, for me the point is to reinforce and reassure myself of learning Portuguese further, which I will do sem duvidas ;)

Thanks for reading! Hope you'll come back again to check out my blog =)

PS As for the title, it's a word play on the UC alumni magazine's illustration for my article, which had a dude in swim shorts and an iPod, with 'donde esta la playa' written in the speech bubble, hahaha... and as I'm still going to write about some Brazilian beach adventures here soon, I thought, why not head in that direction already ;-)

In the city of black Brazilian gold

Hello there!

I promised last time to write about Ouro Preto, a small but famous town in Minas Gerais, a couple of hours' ride from Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state. Ouro Preto, along with places such as Mariana, Congonhas, Tiradentes and Sao Joao del Rei, are all towns which prospered back in the Portuguese colonial period and are to this day adorned with colourful, picturesque architecture, most notably churches. These can be found spread around the towns, their Portuguese colonial style looking particularly beautiful against the backdrop of the green hills and a variety of other colonial architecture around. Ouro Preto is possibly the most visited of these towns, thanks to its proximity to Belo Horizonte.

I wrote a little bit about Tiradentes and Sao Joao del Rei a while ago, where I went along on a day trip with Saci, the school where I worked in Juiz de Fora. Ouro Preto (literally, 'black gold' - it was one of the mining centers back in the industrial period of Minas) is probably around the same size as Tiradentes, but as far as I know (or rather, have seen), can boast of more churches adorning its steep hills - and those hills are certainly steeper than in Tiradentes! Nowadays, Ouro Preto is actually known as a hippie/student town, and from my own observations, I can testify to that!

Beautiful Ouro Preto, the city of 'Black Gold'

We arrived in Ouro Preto in the middle of the day and at that point the skies looked like they were about to open up and spill out on our heads. Luckily, despite the dark clouds still hanging around in the sky, the sun rays managed to break through a little later and make our photos brighter and much happier looking. Indeed, the first photos on our cameras are quite dark, with menacing clouds above.. and much brighter and nicer later that same afternoon!

In Ouro Preto, we stayed in a hostel of the same owners as those running our hostel in Belo Horizonte (it's not really a coincidence, we booked our hostel in Ouro Preto through them), whose logo has a cute little green alligator. Luckily, the town is small and we didn't need to go far to get to and from the hostel - walking around on the old stones and cobbles of Ouro Preto requires good shoes, and is potentially lethal to shabby suitcase wheels.

On the steep streets of Ouro Preto

Spread around its green hills are the many (twelve? thirteen?) colonial churches, usually seating proudly at the peak of the actual hill, from which you can admire the view of the town from a whole variety of viewing points, as we have. Being prepared to climb the afore-mentioned steep cobbles of the city comes with the visiting ;-)

I won't describe every church we went to take a closer look at, because even in the less than 2 days we had there we still managed to check out quite a few (though many were closed at the time, so we just admired the outside part), or every other architectural high-point of the city, because basically the whole of Ouro Preto is very beautiful and therefore worth visiting. What did catch my eye right away though, and has remained with me throughout our stay, is the strange combination of this old colonial city architecture, with the steep streets paved with cobbles, and... the many cars around, either parked or driving (sometimes blocking good photo opportunities). Really, traffic congestion in Ouro Preto is pretty astonishing - something you would imagine in a city like Sao Paulo or Rio, sure, but not in this small historic city, surrounded by mountains on all sides. But I guess that's how modernity goes.

Our first afternoon in the city, we explored the main square, with its important-looking buildings and the mountains forming the impressive background landscape (don't forget the dark menacing clouds! haha); cute and colourful little streets around the center, with the artesanato shops selling all kinds of hand-made artifacts, clothes, and jewellery (of course, we couldn't quite stay away from those), restaurants and the locals' and tourists' homes (aka hostels and such). We also had lunch at a rather expensive restaurant (my bad! didn't look at the menu properly) whose expenses obviously mainly went out on the great location and image, rather than cuisine.. oh well. At least Bryley got to hang out of the window and take more pictures of the cute little street.


One of the cute streets of Ouro Preto: judging by all the nametags and notices, a busy one!

We were also lucky to catch some beautiful views of the town lit by the rays of the setting sun, starting with the church on top of the hill, down to the streets below. We caught some amazing views from atop one of the higher points in Ouro Preto, next to a local museum. From here, we could see the hills with the houses built around them (I think, that was a kind of local favela, actually), a number of beautiful colonial churches, the central square and the steep streets and corners. Ouro Preto bathed in the golden rays of the setting sun.. how romantic! ;-)

Among our great discoveries in Ouro Preto was also the awesome market next to one of the churches (well, everything is nearby a church in this town.. but this one really was next to it), where we spent almost a couple of hours searching out little souvenirs, gifts and jewellery. Really, they had so much stuff, including things you could also buy in BH (and I did), but here they were a lot cheaper!! There was a lot of choice in particular of all kinds of souvenirs made out of stone, polished, carved and painted into numerous beautiful things, such as jewellery boxes. Apparently, a Minas/Ouro Preto specialty.

We (that is, I mostly) also bargained with a few sellers for a number of cute earrings for us, too. That must have been funny: two gringas, one speaking English to her gringa friend and consequently bargaining in Portuguese to the seller. But we got our way :)

After all that effort, we sat down for our deserved evening meal of the typical mineira food: salsicha (a kind of sausage that mineiros claim isn't actually sausage) and mandioca (I think it translates as 'yam'.. and I always thought tastes a bit like potato), washed down with some Brazilian beer of course. We were sitting at this cute cafe at a street corner of the main square, if I remember it well, decorated inside with photos of Ouro Preto and Minas Gerais, with a terrace outside, and some good live music by (probably) one of the local musicians, for whom we clapped enthusiastically. I remember the place must have had a rather European atmosphere, because Bryley and I were discussing that this kind of European-style cafe life is still of course the best :) How great that you can find it all the way in Brazil, too.

The next morning we started our sight-seeing down a different street from our hostel, exploring a few other shopping and photo-taking opportunities. Later that afternoon, we were leaving back to BH to set off on our trip to Cabo Frio (in Rio state) to meet our friend Fernanda, from Saci. So, we didn't have much more time to enjoy Ouro Preto, and we had to make sure to do it all! And so we put our most sturdy shoes on (hmm, All Stars in my case) and headed up all those cobbled streets.

It's funny to note that with the multitude of churches in Ouro Preto, it's difficult to say which the most famous or beautiful are, as they are similar in style, and each one is very nice. There is a well-known image of the city: a church on a hill, surrounded by red-roofed houses all around, and I think that's the one we saw in the city center the night before.. but who knows, maybe not. In any case, we headed to one of the churches on top of another hill we haven't seen up close yet, and that was quite a walk up indeed! Luckily, it was along the streets with many more cute little shops, restaurants, and a multitude of soft colors as everywhere else in Our Preto.


Yep, that was quite a walk up to the beautiful old church! And parked just nearby, a Beetle car, one of the many in Ouro Preto.
On our way there, we also encountered a large hostel with a veranda and great photo opportunities (though I didn't have the sense to put my sunglasses on on this bright day so I'm squinting like an idiot in all the pictures). And on our way back, we stopped by a small restaurant run by a sweet local lady who provided us with some lovely simple lunch (and much cheaper than the day before) and great hospitality. With the place almost empty at that time of day, we could eat out on their small cozy balcony, with the view of one of the biggest churches and the houses around right before us. And the lady even helped us by trying to take a good photo (but it was too bright to get a really good one).

Well, that's about it for now about our journey to Ouro Preto - we didn't have much time there, but as the town is so small (but still takes enough effort to see, trust me, with all that climbing), we got a pretty good idea of it, I'd say :) But hopefully, I can still go back again when I'm the area once more. As I said, that night we were back in Belo Horizonte, and got on the night bus to drive for nine hours back to the south, to the summer resort of Cabo Frio to be exact. What happened in Cabo Frio and Buzios is going to be up next! :)

Thanks to all of you still reading! It's been a long journey... but I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog to this point. We're almost there, at the end of this particular adventure.. ^^

Beijo!

In the splendor of Belo Horizonte

Hey!

Well, here I am again! Once again I've had another period in which I just didn't get to writing on this blog - things have been busy and not always very butter-smooth, but I really will try to write much more often here than I've done recently. A promise I've made many times, haha, but don't always follow up on.

And a year since my Big Brazilian adventure, there is still more to write about it - this is still more or less my Brazilian blog after all, so I will continue until I'm out of words hahaha (out of words? Hopefully that's never going to happen). And this time I will write about Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, where I stayed in Brazil.

I've written a tiny bit about BH (as they call it for short) before, not long after I've come back from Brazil. I've been there twice: once with the other trainees from Juiz de Fora (all guys!), and once with Bryley, in June and July respectively. It's funny because the first time I was in such a male company: I went with three other guys, and we stayed in BH with a guy (Joao from AIESEC BH, who so kindly took us all in... though he only knew Kevin, I think). That's so not like me, either... hahaha. But the second time I went with a female friend, and we stayed at a hostel, and did girly stuff like going shopping at a market.. but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyhow, very different, but cool in both cases.

Since I've written a bit about my first stay in BH already, this time I'd like to write about my second trip there. BH was the first place Bryley and I went to on our twelve-day trip around, and we left the day after the final football game between Holland and Spain (the great weekend in JF I've described before, full of birthday and football parties). We only ended up having 1.5 days in BH though, as we soon embarked on the trip to Ouro Preto, a small colonial town two hours from there, and then back down south to the coast to meet my friend Fernanda for our stay in Cabo Frio and Buzios. After that we hit Rio again, as well as Niteroi. All in twelve days... busy bees, right? So now I'll devote the next few entries to this trip, before getting to what will probably be my last entry on JF itself (for the moment), as I know I've promised a while ago.. (Luckily, I've already done Bahia hahaha).

Belo Horizonte, as I said, is the capital of Minas Gerais and the biggest city, I guess about 3 million in all? It's easy to notice that it's a metropolis just by the avenues, which are really wide, with loads of traffic. But they are beautiful, too - with lots of trees around, many of which were blooming when I was there (either the first or second time.. or possibly both, maybe the trees took turns for me ;)). In BH we stayed at a nice hostel in a central area of the city, and actually when we searched, I don't think we even found that many hostels. BH isn't really very touristy, either, even though it's a very beautiful city, and definitely has enough to see and do.

At the Praca da Liberdade in the heart of Belo Horizonte.. anyone else is reminded of LA? ;)


Well, I don't want to sound like a tourist guide though.. the night we arrived we didn't get up to too much other than going out for some food and drinks with some people from the hostel in the area around. And the next morning we had a lovely breakfast out on the terrace in the sun :) As we pretty much just had that one day to explore the city, we got going to see some of the more famous sights, such Praca de Savassi, Praca de Liberdade, where we took lots of photos, and the Mercado Central, the central market where they sell pretty much everything, from food to jewellery to flower baskets (and also lots of things made out straw and wicker..). Being in the company of only men, I didn't actually make it to Mercado Central last time, haha. And it was so funny because though it was around 28 degrees during the day, most Brazilians around were wearing long sleeves and some even light jackets and such, while Bryley and me were dressed for summer. Ok, it was actually during a Brazilian winter, but it certainly didn't feel like one! So we got many stares from the locals who probably thought we were two crazy gringas to be walking around like that in the winter. Tank tops, shorts and a pair of the same All Stars (yes, we bought the same ones). See, in our European winter, that would be crazy, but in Brazil it was pretty normal.


Yes, they really sell everything at the Mercado Central!

Of course, at the Mercado Central, we got caught up in a jewellery store, and I think we must have bought quite a few things there. It was also quite a good place for gift shopping.. and Bryley got me a pair of earrings with a Brazilian flag that I still wear quite a bit :)

After browsing through the market, with its foods, arts and crafts, we had a late lunch on our way back. We stopped real quick by our hostel and then rushed off to see the sunset at Mirante, near the Parque das Mangabeiras, a famous viewing point in the city, up on the hill, nearby a very rich and classy area that a friend of mine calls Beverly, and with good reason. The houses along the road on the way to Mirante are incredible. And they get the view, too!

I remember we had quite a ride on the bus on our way there. It was this small thing that rambled up and down the steep BH hills, at quite an impressive speed. Even Bryley, who's taken long bus journeys in India, was slightly freaked out by the bus trip, I think more than me. Sure, there was a slight chance you might fly out of the seat on the way, but luckily neither one of us did, and we managed to get to the endpoint unscathed. Unfortunately though, the bus didn't actually get us all the way to Mirante, but stopped at a little square, still a 5-10 min drive from there. So we had to catch a taxi and actually only managed to see the sunset through the back seat of the car as it was rushing up the hill.. by the time we got to Mirante, the sun had just set and we missed all that sunlit glow across the city's towering modern buildings. Well, I myself have seen the sun slowly setting over BH before as I've already been to Mirante during my first visit, but I guess Bryley was slightly dissappointed.

But not to worry, we still had a good time, having our coconut drinks and watching the natural light fade away after the sun and the little twinkly golden lights spring up around the buildings of the city. They call Belo Horizonte that name for a reason for it means 'beautiful horizon', and it really is. And as the last of the light fades and the sky turns dark, the city is a shining mass of gold.

The golden horizon of Belo Horizonte at night time


At Mirante, we also ran into some of the guys from the hostel that we already met the night before. We didn't stay with them too long though, as we headed out to meet a friend of our friend Gabriella who lives in Belo Horizonte and gladly agreed to meet us in the city. So we went together to a really cute, colourful bar decorated all around with artsy-craftsy items, with even a small corner where you could buy some of those.

At the bar, we had a great time getting to know Barbara, Gabi's friend, who's also spent a year in Holland herself years before, when she was still in high-school. But as this was not yet enough for us for the night, we met up with her friend William (whom she lovingly calls Lilly...) who then drove us to another sight-seeing spot above on a hill where the view of the city at night was just... amazing. Although Bryley's camera has great night functions and has captured part of the splendor (a little alike to the photo above), looking over that modern city spreading out in all directions at night time can't quite be compared to a photo.. now it's just in my memory.

Together with Barbara at the supercute bar in BH

Barbara and William also took us to this supposedly famous 'bar on a corner' in BH, where even on a Tuesday night the typically Brazilian scene of plastic chairs, tables and beer holders (with the small cups) was full of people enjoying the above mentioned beer. So did we together with our new friends :) And I swear I remember as we came and went there were quite a few male stares in our direction. Lol!

Well, the next day around noon we went off in the direction of Ouro Preto, a small but famous city two hours from BH. And Ouro Preto will be my next stop here, and it will be soon!

Thanks for reading!

Beijo

Rio 2.0 - on a big 3D screen, that is =)

Oi!

When a famous Hollywood film studio decided to make an animation film called 'Rio', they probably didn't have people like me specifically in mind, who greatly miss the flamboyant scenery and atmosphere of this city (and country), but it was of course a great pleasure to watch! Taking a 3D ride through Copacabana and Ipanema, Lapa, flying (together with the birds, the principal characters of the movie) past Christ the Redeemer, and even speeding it away up and down a favela on a motorbike... it brought back so many memories of this city! I've written about Rio on several occasions already, but with the movie out and slamming, I thought I would briefly write about some impressions once again. And thanks to the Brazilian director of 'Rio', though clearly aimed for a large mainstream international audience, the film still to a large extent has an unmistakable Brazilian spirit. Oba!

When I arrived in Brazil, I was probably just as lost and disoriented as Blu (the bird in the movie) and his owner when they came to Rio de Janeiro... haha. But with such breath-taking views and up-beat Brazilian tempers around, how do you not warm up to the Brazilian spirit? (In both my case and that in the movie.. not that I am trying to draw parallels here or anything! ;-))

For one, I thought it was awesome that the film takes the viewer around the city, from the glistening Ipanema beach to the favela, and from the Christ figure to the world-famous Carnaval parade (of course! haha). And the 3D animated images of the city were so life-like! Three cheers to the modern animation technology! And naturally, it makes you want to go back. Now, right after the movie! Haha. Mmm, the animated evening image of the view of the Ipanema bay with Sugar Loaf Mountain in the center seen from the slopes of the favela will stay with me for a while, I think. Just as the real memories of seeing these contradictory features of the city will, of course. And not to mention going up the favela on a motorbike! Just as we did, when the scene in the film came up, I was like, no way did they actually include that in the movie. How awesome :)

And the música! I've written about my love for Brazillian music on my blog before, so you can imagine my thrill. It was a little funny to hear some of the samba songs in English, but it still had lots of great up-beat music... anyone ever thought of having a dance-in movie? (You know, instead of a drive-in, hahaha). Because I would totally be dancing it out to this one. Together with the super-cool funky Rio birds. Vumbora!

Of course, the popularity of Rio and Brazil in general will continue and keep growing as we draw nearer the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. Until that time (which I will hopefully spend in Brazil for both occasions, hehe), there might be several more such delicious reminders for me of my (first) experience in Brazil. I sure look forward to it!

Together with some lovely ladies in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, Lapa

Well, that's just about it for my observations for the moment. Just wanted to share some personal thoughts inspired by seeing the movie. But I figured I won't bore you with a long text this time ;-)

Beijo!

Mouthwatering Morro de Sao Paulo, pt 2

Hey!

I think it was yesterday or the day before that my mum commented that it's been a while since I'd written on my blog (she checks it these days with surprising frequency). And it's true, it's been already almost a month since I wrote here last, so I'm going to break the bad habit now. I guess I just got a bit busy, what with my role as sales assistant at a large Dutch department store, and starting an internship as copywriter at the communications department of Fairfood International, an NGO based in Amsterdam. And, if you check out their website once in a while (fairfood.org), you might notice one of my articles, as I will also be writing for the blog as part of my responsibilities. So, even if new entries don't appear on this blog as often as they should, you can check out the Fairfood website to see if something I'd written recently had newly appeared on there :)

Well, as my readers residing in Holland would know, we've been having quite some summery weather lately, it's incredible. Today, I went into town clad in a summer top and skirt, and havaianas. Unbelievable! With weather like that persisting outside, it's time to go back to the Brazilian island of Morro de Sao Paulo, as I'd promised to make your mouths water with the story of the most perfect breakfast and 11 caipirinhas shared by three garotas. (Actually, I will probably just make my own mouth water from it. lol)

The breakfast from a dream
(... but I know it was real!)

I'd told you much already about Bahia, Salvador and Morro de Sao Paulo, though even as an (inspiring) writer, sometimes (ok, quite often) I find it difficult to express exactly what it is I feel or have felt about something in words. Expressing what you think is in this respect much easier... but as always, I'm going to keep trying, hoping that my readers will keep coming back to the blog.

So, the first morning we woke up in our lovely pousada in Morro de SP, we were greeted by the hotel owner with trays of what is the most loveliest breakfast, really. See the photos below as proof that I'm not lying, as writers may have the tendency to exaggerate things now and then.

Yep, there were plates of exotic fruit: papaya, oranges, pineapples, bananas, my favorite watermelon, and the small little red fruit the name of which I can no longer remember... it probably grows in the Amazon, like acai (can someone help me with the name?? haha); orange juice and coffee; cheese and ham (Brazilian must-haves); rolls, croissants and chocolate brownie-type cakes, and of course white bread rolls (another Brazilian must-have at breakfast, haha). All that served on a platter, and consumed on a nice terrace with the view of the sea in the background, and the feeling you have when you've got a day ahead of you where you don't really need to do anything, rather than explore the island and relax. Sounds good, don't it?

Actually, I remember that when we went off exploring the beaches (as you may recall from the previous entry, there are at least four main beaches on Morro de SP), the sun was hiding for much of the time. Even so, it was still warm (Bahia, duh), and we could lie on the beach with our coconut water (for those of you wondering about that, yes, it comes in a real coconut, they call it agua de coco in Brazil... yum! I wish they had that here in Holland, too, it would greatly complement the nice weather. But I guess that's one of those special things you get so easily in tropical countries and can't get in this part of the world).

"Mais uma?"

As this isn't an exact account of all activities we did on the island, it should suffice to say here that we had a lovely relaxing day on the beach, and the sun came out later in the afternoon after all (with the unwanted effect that it burned Bryley's legs while we were walking back.. quite badly); and we had a big lunch at a restaurant on the beach closer to home and when some small rain drops were felt, we could hide under a cozy wooden roof, where we read some magazines and chilled out on the wooden - but cushioned - benches; and Bryley had a tereré done by an elderly lady, basically a Brazilian dreadlock made up of multiple colours.

And I just remembered what we actually did that night! Haha. We have some photos posing all together with the four of us (Bryley, Yuen, Silvana, and me) on the deck at the sea, but honestly I was just wondering a minute ago, so what came after? There seems to be no photographic evidence. But now I know, we went to this random party (I think, just me and Bryley, as Silvana and Yuen were too tired) with a few people we already knew from Salvador who were on the island at the same time (one of them recommended to us we come there in the first place). We stayed around at the party for a while, but weren't really feeling the vibe, and we - girls - knew that the minute we'd get up to join the people on the dancefloor there'd be a large amount of guys swarming around us. Just as was the case at Pelourinho in Salvador, the local male population present at the party also seemed to think much of themselves... hahaha. On a similar note, I remember we also noticed a few dark-skinned women with small children of mixed complexion that we kind of figured came as a result of white tourists visiting the island with such frequency.. well, enough said. Just something that popped into my head just now as an interesting observation we made, especially that night.

The next morning Silvana, our friend living in Sao Paulo, had to get the boat back to the mainland, which made it the three of us again. That day we chilled on the beach, basically lazing around. But what I've been promising to tell about is the night of eleven caipirinhas, which came that evening. The three of us girls dressed up in our best outfits (Bryley in my long beautiful dress from Rio de Janeiro which I never find the occasion to wear in Holland) and headed to one of the restaurants along the main street, where we sat for hours, enjoying good food, great live music practically next (door) to us, and, well... the caipirinhas. Ok, in our defense, the caipirinhas were quite small, but we still managed to make it to round 3 (round 2 for Yuen, she was lagging behind a little, which you wouldn't expect of her, but true, hehe), after which I was feeling giddy and happy. LOL. At which point we paid our bill, including the 8 caipirinhas. But since we ordered so many, the waiter offered us a round on the house, so how could we say no? Except that the fourth caipirinha turned out to be a little more difficult to consume. Which in the end I managed almost to the end, and Bryley ended up drinking her own to the bottom plus helping Yuen with hers. Really. Hahahaha.

The guilty little caipirinha ;-)

As we left the place, it actually began to rain, so we had to run home along the streaming sandy pathway. This happened on a Monday night in early August, and someone had told us that Mondays were party nights on one of the bigger beaches on Morro. So, as Bryley insisted we go check it out and it had dried up by then, we left the already dreaming Yuen at the pousada, and headed to the beach (while I felt a bit of a brain freeze after all the caipirinhas, haha). As we half-expected though on a relatively cold and rainy night off-season, the party was kind of there, but not really, since there were a few bar stalls around selling drinks, a few people, some music, but otherwise pretty deserted. We stayed a little while anyways, and I had trouble convincing the random guys around that I was a mineira (that is, from the state of Minas Gerais). Especially the guy we talked to who turned out to have spent some time in Holland, caught me out. I blame the caipirinha-induced brain-freeze. Haha!

Palm trees and natural skin lotion

The next day we were leaving the island to go back to Salvador, but we couldn't leave without trying out the famous mud bath of the island. For this, we walked for almost an hour along a narrow beach side off the mainstream tourist way, dodging big boulders in the way, sometimes walking ankle-deep in the sea to make it around them (the beach was that narrow and the boulders that big at some points). But it was beautiful scenery, with blue sky, many palm trees and almost jungle-like vegetation along the coastline. And as we finally made it to the rocks that exude this natural muddy skin lotion, we saw that quite a few other people had the same idea, you almost had to line up for the treat. Nah, kidding, we could totally relax in the light-pinky soft mudbath for a while, after which we took lots of silly pictures covered with mud. No, they're not going on here, hahaha!

Going around the big bolders on the beach on the way to the mud bath :p


Well, only a few more words to say about Morro de Sao Paulo now. As our boat took off from the shore later in the afternoon, we had some truly beautiful sights before our eyes (and cameras) from all around. Beautiful sky, lit with softly changing colours of the slowly setting sun, moving waves around the boat that always make me muse, and the charming island we were leaving behind, with a pretty sandy shore and a jungle green just behind it. There were also some small cute boats strewn about, and pretty colourful houses along the shore and also higher up among the green sides. It was a beautiful sight to have for the beginning of our trip back to Salvador. I have a photo which especially makes me miss the trip and just Brazil in general, though it actually hasn't got anything specific to do with me, but for some reason it just does. A bunch of local boys playing soccer on the beach on an island in the Atlantic ocean, somewhere of the coast of one of the most popular destinations in Brazil... what's so special about it? :-)


Getting a Brazilian tereré

After a rather long trip back, we made it back to Salvador and checked into a hostel in Pelourinho, where the host was tipping off all the girls to go see that folkloric Bahian dance show with the half-naked capoeira guys, of which I have written before. That Tuesday, we attempted another go at the busy Pelourinho night, ending up at a very random party at a big dirty outside club where none of us felt quite comfortable I think so we didn't stick around; and as usual of course we had hordes of local guys after us, causing havoc and making us run (well, not really, but some of them got a little too excited about the gringas, but what can you do). Oh, and again I tried to pass for a mineira, and this time there was this random Brazilian guy in the crowd who actually complemented me on my English, when I said I was from Minas. My English! Lol :)

The next day we explored the shopping possibilities at the busy market in town, where we bought some jewellery from a Chilean guy living in Brazil, including the birthday gift for our host sister Cacau, and my super-colourful acai beads that I love and love to wear. Also, this is where I got my own tereré (dreadlock in my hair), custom made from Brazilian colours only, that is, green, yellow, blue and white. It was beautiful, my tereré, and I still have the actual dread itself. It was a shame that already after a couple of weeks it started disentangling and I had to take it out. Next time in Brazil, I'll be sure to get another one :)

Perhaps also funny to note is that that night we had our dinner at the pub of our own hostel owner, where we were presented with a menu consisting of food from all corners of the planet, so we chose a meal of Indian, Moroccan and Thai cuisine, which was random but very good nevertheless, and it came in these cool ethnic-looking plates. Yes, I fall easily for this kind of stuff :p At the same time, each meal had a fair offering of rice on the side, so they actually looked kind of alike.. haha. Not to mention that rice is actually one of the integral parts of the Brazilian cuisine as well ;)

At this point, the story of the trip to Bahia comes to an end, and I applaude you if you managed to get to the end, in one go in any case. I feel like I've written a whole novel! In any case, I hope you have enjoyed reading about Bahia and that this isn't the last time I'm writing about it, and look forward to the next trip there =)

Obrigada!

Mwah!

PS Just wanted to mention that after taking the night plane back to Rio, Bryley and me still managed to spend a few hours in Rio before heading back to Juiz de Fora, so we were basically awake and on the road for... quite a while. A day, maybe? But it was worth it, even missing the bus because of the traffic and waiting an 1.5 hours to change our tickets for the next bus ;) But we made it back home that evening, right on time for Cacau's birthday party :)