Teaching My Way Through Brazil: vacation

Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Exploring Arequipa

This was the only town in our travels where we planned ahead and ordered a taxi to pick us up at the airport. A lot of blogs warned against the taxi drivers in the town, so we took heed. It was a long ride from the airport to historical center, about 25 minutes, and as we started to see the architecture change I knew we were close.
Our hotel was only about 2 blocks from the center square, and once again- there were cobblestone roads everywhere. The town had a very colonial feel to it, which was present everywhere in the building and church structures. The Plaza de Armas with the fountain in the surrounding buildings was pretty during the day, but beautiful at night.
We spent the day walking through part of the town. We wandered over to the Municipal market, which was shutting down as we got there. There were several groups bunched outside of the marketplace, and vendors selling their foods. We opted to share a chicken kabob. I couldn't talk myself into the chicken heart, yet. The city was very tourist in the historical center, and several side streets offered craft fairs. One of the biggest attractions in the town were the churches, and they were definitely all unique in their styles.
Before it got dark, we had heard from someone that the bridges were beautiful, so we made our way to the bridges traversing the high way. On the way, under one of the bridges, a rap concert was occurring at a skate park. We didn't stay for too long, but we did cross the bridge and stumbled across a picturesque view of the next bridges, a stream, and the two active volcanoes in the background. After crossing the second bridge we found a huge super market. It gave us the opportunity to stock up on some of the small things we needed, such as chap-stick and need sneakers for me. My sneakers were making this awful squeaking noise, and it was finally driving my dad and me crazy. Fun fact, my foot size is very large for women in Peru, a 10 US size, and I didn't fit into the largest women's shoe size they had- a 40. Thus, I finally gave in and bought a pair of bright red men's sneakers.
As we circled the town to find a place to eat, and I tried to weed through the restaurant peddlers selling their menu, it was actually my dad who found the perfect place. He walked over to me and said that the place had a 2 plated for 20 pesos special. I thought to myself- no way, maybe he didn't understand since he doesn't speak Spanish. Low and behold, the waitress confirmed that there were two pages to the menu and you choose one from each side. We each had a soup, I got a chicken soup and he got veggie cream one, and then for main dishes we got a rice and beef meal. The view was overlooking the center square, which was incredible with the cathedral lit up. A live band joined for a few songs as well.

Rainbow Mountain

No one warned us that there would be snow. I figured that Peru could get cold in the Winter (the Brazilian relativity for "cold" that is), but I forgot that the altitude was an additional factor. We waited in the alley at 3 am for our guide to pick us up, and we got hopeful every time that a car passed by. Hearing our names finally being asked was one of the biggest reliefs. Except, we booked the excursion through our hostel, and the tour guide only had one name written down. It all worked out. So, we loaded the vans and drove around winding roads to the beginning of our hike. It was a slushy mess, and I only really wiped out hard about three times. When we got to the last twenty minutes of the hike it was a fast elevation change and the hardest part. We had to stop every few minutes to try and suck in wind, which made sense since we were 5,000 meters up and hiking a mountain. We did it though. Just as everyone says, the colors are not as bright in person, BUT- we had snow covered mountains on one side and color streaked mountains on the others. We had made it to one of the lookout points, but there was another to climb yet, which was every stepper. Getting up was the easier part, but coming back down I literally sat down on my bum and inch my way on the icy downhill slope. I had a very cold bum and hands afterwards. The hike back was a bit easier since the sun had dried up some of the mud. Standing at the summit through and looking at the contrasting scenery that surrounded me was astounding. The snowy mountains reminded me of the Swiss Alps, but the dry rocky section reminded me of Arizona.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Rio de Janeiro Exploration- Beaches, Municipal Cathedral, Santa Teresa, Forts, and more

June 2nd morning we had a later start, a lazy breakfast, and took a walk along Ipanema beach to Aporador Rock, which is famous for its sunset view. It was a beautiful and sunny day and it had a great view of Ipanema and Copacabana beach down each side. We next took the Metro to Carioca and wandered to the Municipal Cathedral, which is shaped like a Mayan temple. The inside had beautiful stained glass along the four sloping walls, and the center podium had seating around three directions. Next, we walked past the aqueduct to the Lavradio Fair in Santa Teresa. The fair only happens the first Saturday of every month and draws in over 300 vendors. On a side street we saw a live Capoeira performance with music and a crowd gathered to watch the fluid movements of the dance fight.

On our way up the Seleran Stairs we bumped into some Fulbrighters from Gioana in town for the Rio de Janeiro marathon. The stairs were more crowded than I expected, but the tile work was colorful and beautiful. Evidently, the tiles are swapped out with next artwork every so often. Houses lined the infamous step staircase with residents trying to sell pictures imprinted on al materials. We continued on through the hilly Santa Teresa neighborhoods to the Parque das Ruinas. The old refurbished building was a lot more impressive than I expected, and the top of the third floor provided an amazing 360 degree panoramic view.

By one in the evening we headed back towards Copacabana beach, hoping to get in some sunny beach time, but the sun was setting in two-three hours. The water this day was even colder than the first, and I honestly enjoyed Ipanema Beach better than Copacabana- but both were breathtaking with the meeting of city, ocean, and mountains. We relaxed on the beach for an hour and then decided to walk to the end of the beach to the Duque das Caixas (a fort on the hillside). The fort closed at 4:30, and we went up at 4, so we only had a bit of time to admire the view looking down on the city, the Christ Redeemer in the distance, and Pao de Acucar. We walked back to the metro along Copacabana beach. The cobble stone roads, crashing waves, and hazy mountains around sunset were amazing.

That night for dinner, Jake picked a Portuguese restaurant. It looked like a market store out front, but then as you walked in it had bottles of wine lining the walls and about 12 tables arranged. We had bacalao fish, and a famous tradition sandwich with calabresa, filet mignon, eggs, and poutine fries. We looked around markets for cheap wine and chocolate, and Jake snuck my wine into the hostel for me.

To see my adventures, click here to watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwpVy5INiDE&feature=youtu.be

Municipal Cathedral

Aqueduct

Municipal Cathedral

Santa Teresa market

Selaran Stairs

Parque das Ruinas

Duque das Caixas

Copacabana Beach

Rio de Janeiro- Sunrise Hike and Day 1

My Corpus Christi Holiday fell on the tailend of the greve- national strike with the truckers association, so I hoped that no delays would come to my flight… but they did. I left for the airport way too early, as I normally do, and got there at 9:40 am for a 11:55 am flight. My flight was delayed until 2 pm though, which made me miss my connecting flight in Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro. Alexa, a Fulbright from Apucarana, was also in the airport waiting for her flight and we hung out as we waited. I finally made it to Sao paulo, caught my adjusted flight to Rio, ubered from the airport to the metro station, and met up with Jake. We met at the municipal theatre, which Jake described as “Wizard of Ozy” with its green glow. We took the metro to the Ipanema neighborhood for our Pousada- Bonita. We went out to dinner with an America named Cesar, who was also staying at the Pousada. That night we spent drinking wine and talking to the bartender,and then booked an early excursion for a hike.

Jake and I woke up at 3:30 am the next morning, and met up with our hiking group in the lobby. This included a hippy guide named Gustavo, another guide, a Spaniard woman,and a Brazilian woman. We drove to a certain point in the Tijuca National Park and then hiked from there. We hiked up Pedra Bonita and has a stunning view of the major North and South zone beaches, Christ the Redeemer, and all of the city. We stayed there for about an hour as the sun peaked, and beside us was Pedra da Gávea. On the drive back we stopped at the viewpoints for Vista Chinesa and Mesa do Imperador, but the drive up through the national park was winding and on the hillside. The views were absolutely breathtaking.

We got back to the hostel and had a scant breakfast. There was no fresh fruit being served because of the greve. After, we walked three blocks to Ipanema Beach and spent an hour relaxing. I was surprised by just how many vendors come right up to you and try to sell you their hats, congas, drinks, food, toys and what not- and they even tried to sell to jake as he was sleeping. The beach water was colder than I expected, and similar to New Jersey water temperature, but the waves were much smaller (but I guess the temperature can be explained by the June Winter season).

To see the video of my adventures, click here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_54-SfTrRU&feature=youtu.be

Pedra Bonita

Mesa do Imperador

Pedra Bonita

Vista Chinesa

Ipanema Beach

Long Overdue Bonito Memories

It was a cold and long bus ride from Londrina to Campo Grande (9:30 pm- 7 am), which we then took an uber to the localiza in took to pick up our rental car! Thank goodness Lara knows how to drive manual cars, and she took the lead on that one. We ventured the 3.5 hours through the plain lands to Bonito in Mato Grosso do Sol and made it to Papaya Hostel. The first night we swam with fish at the Balneario Municipal, which had crystal blue water and a current that swept you down between the ladder entry points. That night we walked around the main portion of town and ate at a buffet style restaurants called Vovo, which is still my favorite Brazilian meal I’ve had here to date.

The next morning we were up nice and early, due to a mistake in the alarm setting, but chilled in the hammocks and saw the sunrise at 5:50 am. Our first excursion was Sao Mateus Gruta, which reminded me of Luray Caverns, in Virginia. Our tour guide, Cisero, was awesome and went between Portuguese and English for me. Our tour started in a house museum, and we made our way up to the third story to get fitted with helmets. From there, it was a walk across a swinging bridge, through the woods, and to the caverns.

Our next event that day was located at a resort called Nascente Azul, where we were served a lunch buffet and hung out by the ropes course over the water until it was our time for the group flutuacao. Our tour guide was rushed and very blunt, but successfully got us set up in our wetsuits. We practiced floating and snorkeling, then went to an area that you could pull yourself down the rope ten feet. Most of the river was only five feet deep at most, and I followed the fish around. We disembarked from the group tour and headed back to town, where we redeemed our free caipirinha coupon that night.

The next day we started early with the Estancia Mimosa waterfall tour. We checked in to the event, and I tried to spell out my name in Portuguese, which only ended with my name being Prettany for the day. As we waited to gear up, we hung out by the lake, which was resident to several Jacare- alligators. Once our tour started, we trekked out to the furthest waterfall first for about thirty minutes. There, we could swim out to and stand under the waterfall, but the current was really strong and they had ropes to pull yourself over. Next, we took a boat ride between the waterfalls, and piled into two paddle boats. This next waterfall had a cavern behind the waterfall and little coves to explore. As this event ended, we adventured to Boia tub crossing, which we passed and got lost. There were six of us on the tubing excursion, and they explained the directions in fast Portuguese. I expected a very calm float down the river, which was the opposite of what happened. What I didn’t understand in the explanation, is that they were preparing us for when we fell at the first waterfall, which they claimed was going to happen- and it did. We had to grab ropes to pull ourselves along the river and navigate small waterfalls. On the way back to the hostel, we had a cow block the road and stand there for a solid five minutes before moving- but even our yelling, honking, and mooing did not persuade him to move. We called this day our Jacare day, since we saw and ate Jacare in town that night!

We left Bonito the next morning, but decided to take an alternate back to Campo Grande. What we didn’t know is that this highway road was a single lane dirt road for 90 kilometers, with no visibility on hills and turns, and cars came barreling down it. We eventually made it to Aquidauana, known as the Portal of the Wetlands. We walked around by the church, Friendship Bridge, and local university. We made it back in time to return out rental car, but we were charged a cleaning fee. That day, everything was closed for the Holiday weekend, so we spent six hours in the mall. There, we met a family who gave us oranges and informed us that we couldn’t just eat chocolate. For a long weekend adventure, I think that we definitely took advantage of seeing a bunch and it was worth the long trip up. If I could go back, I would definitely also visit Lago Azul and Boca da Onca Waterfall.