Paraty (Brazil)

Our next stop after Ouro Preto (and 2 bus trips later) was Paraty, where we stayed for 3 days. We were spoilt with picturesque beaches and even some sun here! It is another colonial-era village (we seem to be loving these!) with cobbled streets so uneven you have to be really careful where you step or else it can be painful!

While here we spent a day soaking up the sun at Trindade, a tiny town with a seemingly untouched gorgeous beach, about an hour away from Paraty by bus.  We also spent a day out on a boat where we stopped off to swim and snorkel at a number of beaches on some of the islands near Paraty.

Paraty was lovely and we thoroughly enjoyed finally getting some sun and time at the beach!

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Ouro Preto (Brazil)

From Rio, we took an overnight bus (the first of many!) to Ouro Preto, a small colonial-era gold mining town about 7hrs north of Rio and nestled among hills.

The town is very quaint, full of baroque-style churches (some were amazing inside) and winding cobbled streets, and is now a Unesco World Heritage Site.

We stayed in an awesome big 18th-century house that has been converted into a B+B. It was full of antique furniture and had original creaky wooden floorboards. We had a relaxed couple of days here strolling the streets, visiting the galleries, museums and churches, and enjoying the local chocolate shop! We both loved this wee town.

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Rio de Janeiro

After BA, we spent nearly a week in Rio, where we experienced crazy carnaval (see separate post), world famous beaches, and unfortunately, heaps of wet weather!

Rio´s setting is spectacular - blue seas and white sands surrounded by mountains and rainforest - and even though we only experienced half a day of sunshine there, we could still understand why visitors love it and call it paradise!

One of our highlights was visiting the favela´s, where the poorest of the city lives. It was an eye-opening experience. Many dwellings consist of not much more than a few boards pounded together, and drug dealers and crime are prominent. We went into the Rocinha favela which is Rio´s largest, housing some 160,000 people! It was like a small city, with shops such as butchers and grocery stores (and even banks!) all located inside the favela. Access to clean water, sewage and healthcare is only enjoyed by a few of the larger favela´s such as this one. That Brazil has one of the widest income gaps in the world was very evident here - the Rocinha favela sat right alongside one of RIo´s wealthiest suburbs.

One of our major disappointments was when we went to see Christo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer), the huge statue on top of the peak known as Corcovado and with awesome views of the city. The weather was finally sunny, so we decided to head up, but unfortunately everyone else had the same idea. After a 3 hour wait we finally made it to the top, but by this time heavy cloud had settled in and made it difficult to view Christo Redentor (only about 20 meters away!) let alone see any of the city below...major fail! The photos below of this are about as good as it got! Fortunately we did manage to get some decent views of the city the following day when we went up Pao de Açucar (Sugarloaf).

Despite little good weather in Rio, we did still make it to the beach a couple of times to enjoy life as the cariocas (Rio´s residents) do...relaxing on the beach with a caipirinha in hand!

COPACABANA BEACH:

IPANEMA BEACH:

FAVELA VISIT:

CHRISTO REDENTOR:

SUGARLOAF:

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Carnaval!

We were in Rio during Carnaval - the huge celebration that takes place over a week each year. Although Carnaval is celebrated throughout Brazil, Rio´s is the most famous, attracting over 500,000 tourists to the city specifically for it.

Rio is crazy during Carnaval - the city was packed, vibrant and seemed to never sleep the entire week. Street parties/blocos took place throughout the day and night in numerous locations all over the city, with the sounds of samba in the air as thousands of people filled the streets (and spilled out onto the beaches!) to dance and have a good time.

We managed to get tickets to the 2nd night of the main parade at the Sambodromo, where, along with some 30,000 others, we watched the top samba schools compete. The parade consists of elaborate floats flanked by thousands of pounding drummers and costumed dancers. It was incredible! The parade doesn´t start until after 9pm, and with the 6 schools each having about 85 minutes to perform it made for a very late night! Even though we could only afford the cheap seats, being part of the buzzing crowd and atmosphere made it well worth the investment! (The photos below will give you some idea of what the parade was like!)

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Uruguay for a day

While in BA we did a day trip to Colonia del Sacremento, a small town in Uruguay just an hour´s ferry ride across the (murky brown) Rio de la Plata (river). Colonia was founded by the Portuguese in 1860 to smuggle goods across the river to BA and is now a popular tourist destination full of cobbled streets and an assortment of colourful houses.

A very cute town, definitely worth a visit! 

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Buenos Aires

Just what we expected, and so much more - BA is a huge and busy city and just as they say, electrifying. It is full of passionate people, stunning architecture, and has a heavy European influence. We loved our time here!

Some of our highlights:

- The leafy suburb of Palermo, where we stayed and spent time strolling through the subneighbourhoods of Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood

- The fascinating Cementerio de la Recoleta, which is like a small city and where the Famous Evita is buried, along with BA´s rich and famous

- A late night Tango show at Cafe Tortoni, BA´s oldest cafe

- Fantastic and cheap meals of steak!

- Visiting the working class barrio (suburb) of La Boca - home to the famous Boca Juniors football team and Caminito, a street of brightly coloured old corrugated buildings, artists and tango dancers

- Finding good coffee spots! A favourite was Oui Oui, a tiny French bistro in Palermo filled with everything cute and serving excellent coffee

- Experiencing the crazy atmosphere of a local football game with the supporters singing and chanting nonstop throughout the entire match!

We have now adjusted to hot weather, eating dinner after 10pm and communicating via lots of hand signals! We´re looking forward to coming back to Argentina after our next stop - Brazil.