Maracanã madness and the Cove of Kings

Sorry we've been so long since the last post, but we've been running around southern Brazil. So, after Cabo Frio, we headed back into Rio for a short night and caught a futebol match at Maracanã stadium! Flamengo vs. Ipatinga, 1-0! The home team won! We will load a video of the crazed fans when we get a chance! It was great, and Brazil is hosting the 2014 World Cup, so now we have a reason to come back :) !!

After a sleepless night staying in a hotel near the bus station (rodoviária) in a shady neighboorhood in Rio, we hopped on the bus to Angra dos Reis, the Cove of the Kings, about 200 km west of Rio. Couchsurfing with an American ex-pat and his Brazilian wife. He is one of the few Americans we've met down here, there are mostly Europeans travelling in this area. All the locals keep asking us if we're German or French. Its nice to have an American to relate to, and he is well adapted to life down here. We enjoyed a real Brazilian family churrasco today and sipped cachaça! Life is good!

There are 365 beautiful islands off the coast here. We took a couple days to visit Ilha Grande (pronounced ilya granj), which is pretty much as close to paradise as I can imagine. Its about a 1.5 hour ferry ride (dolphins included in the green green water), and there are trails all over the island for exploring. After camping out for a few very rainy hours, trying to divert the flowing waters from the tent, the sun came out and he hiked to Praia Lopes Mendes. Check these photos; we will add our own photos asap. It was literally an untouched beach with white sand that squeeks under your feet and only one small island to stand in the way of your view of the vast Atlantic, looking south. Stunning!

Up next: A previously unplanned journey to Lima, Peru to meet up with our good friends Dave and Ansley! We leave on Tuesday morning from São Paulo! More details to follow!

The Cold Cape and Blue Sea

The weather has finally started cooperating and we've been able to enjoy some beautifully sunny days on the beach. Cabo Frio is a great city and our host, Mariana is very sweet and patient with our feeble Portuguese! But she speaks english very well, and has showed us much about what daily life is like in this part of the world. For the most part, life is good. People take the time here to enjoy eachother and there is very little rushing around, even when there is work to do. The idea of 'lateness' does not exist in the same way as it does back home. We put so much emphasis on time, that I think we forget to just enjoy eachother's company. We have a lot to learn from this Latin American lifestyle! They know what are the most important things in life!





We visited a town called Buzios and another called Arraial do Cabo. Both were absolutely amazing places. This picture of the sea was taken from a vista above Arraial do Cabo, from which you can see the Great Atlantic stretching out to Africa. The feeling there was beyond words. The sun shone intermittently as the thin clouds raced by in the brilliant blue sky above. The green waves crushed against rocks and the spray hung in the air, allowing plenty of time to reflect on the meaning of the contacts that we make in our own lives. The friends we have made here are like family already, but we've got to keep moving.



These places are absolute paradises. I just keep getting this feeling that we are going back in time. This simple life is the good life.

We checked out a samba 'class' that was more like a party in the town square. Anna learned some new dance moves from some very good Brazilian ladies. They are already getting ready for Carnival 2009 down here! Any reason to have a party is a good one! Another fun and easy dance style we've seen is called forró. Music is everywhere and everyone is as willing to teach you a new dance as they are to listen to you butcher their language!










Let me use this forum to make a plug for this amazing cultural-exchange/cheap-travel website that we've found:

http://www.couchsurfing.com/

Highly recommended!

Our profile:

http://www.couchsurfing.com/people/thecappas

It is exactly what it's name suggests! Contact people in cities that you are visiting and you can stay with them in their homes, instead of in a hotel or hostel where you'd be more likely to meet other foreigners. It's allowed us to see much deeper into the regular life and customs of our global neighbors. It seems quite safe, and if your host/guest is not a good match, you can just move on. We've really made a good friend of Mariana in Cabo Frio, and hope there are many more to come!

For the most part, people are really welcoming and the Portuguese quote of the day is:

'Fica vontade'!

Getting out of town!

So, we're finally out of the big bustling city; we made the move to a smaller city to the east of Rio called Cabo Frio. But before we left, we made a stop at the botanical gardens. I don't know if anybody has been keeping up on the weather in Brazil, but we're under some kind of cold front, and it's been downright chilly round here. The temperature changes very little throughout the day, but its been raining off and on, but mostly all day just misting. So even, with an umbrella its hard to stay dry, with tiny droplets of water attaching themselves to you from all directions. But it's okay; we've just been having quite a few Funbrella days. But today is the first day with some substantial sunshine, so I'm going to try to keep this post brief.

Anyway, the Garden is full of all kinds of strange plants. It felt like we were on another planet. Incredible succulents, bromeliads, and orchids, huge trees. But honestly, the most memorable and entertaining thing about Rio are the buses. They are CRAZY! We've decided that they are like flying sardine cans! They barely slow down for anything, if at all, for pedestrians that better hurry up and get across the street!

So, we have found a very friendly and gracious family to host us here in Cabo Frio. With very little notice, they have welcomed us into their home and only the eldest daughter speaks english. She has been our guide around this beautiful city and our teacher of Portuguese. The hardest word for us to learn has been 'dog' (cachorro), which also happens to be the only problem here at the house; that one dog is very sweet, named Vitulho, and the other is mean and bites. His name is Fofão, and he broke his chain and escaped into the house, where everyone is terrified to go near him.

There are elections coming up in Brazil. There are competing sound-systems blaring campaign ads and music from speakers lashed to the roofs of cars driving around the bairro (neighborhood). Its quite entertaining to try and tease out the different sounds, and now we have some cheesy songs stuck in my head. Here, what we would call 'elevator music', they call 'dor de cotovelo' (elbow pain), so to indicate that you don't like this music, all you have to do is point to your elbow and smile! Never going to forget that one!

Thanks everyone for reading and we love any comments. See some more of our pictures on our picasa album!

Quote of the day: 'Deixa estar jacaré, sua lagoa ainda há de secar.'

Exploring Rio

On our way out of Copacabana, there was a gas line explosion on our street! Nobody was hurt, but it was quite a scene to remind us where we are!

We have moved to our 2nd couch surfing house where we have learned to cook some delicious Brazilian food. Tapioca cakes, mmmm so good, are kind of like quesodillas or crepes back home. You can put practically anything inside and it is awesome!

We have been all over the city to bustling downtown and, in contrast, the Santa Teresa district, which is a hippy slash reggae neighborhood far up on the hill overlooking Rio central. There is this crazy old trolly car up the hill, which is packed full everywhere it goes with people hanging out off the railings which run dangerously close to parked cars, lamp posts, concrete walls, and steep drops off the side of a bridge!

We were really hoping to get to a futebol match here in Rio, where people are crazy about the sport. Maracanã is the home of the soccer stadium, where we got the wrong date for a soccer game; anybody who has struggled to understand a foreign language will know what its like to go somewhere expecting to see something, only to find out that the event is next week! Haha, we must look like some very silly gringos! Dang looks like we wont be seeing a soccer game in brazil.

Yesterday we trekked in the Floresta de Tijuca, a national park right outside of Rio, which supplies the much of the freshwater to the city, in the Mata Atlântica climate, so green and lush. It was a rainy and cloudy day, adding to the mystic feeling of the forest, although I guess there are some wonderful views of the city on clear days.

One interesting thing about Brazil: there are cars here that run only on alcohol, derived from the abundant sugar cane here. The alcohol-based fuel here is much cheaper per unit and, it is good to see that other fuel options are being used here. This country is flush with natural resources, and it shows that here they are doing their best to direct their efforts in the right direction!

See the rest of our pictures here!

Lots o' love!

Tony & Anna

Rio is for Lovers!

Wow! What an amazing place! Today we hiked up to the top of Morro da Urca mountain which is the peak near and under Sugarloaf (Pão de açúcar), the most famous peak in the Rio skyline. In the distance in the picture above you can see the Cristo Redentor (the redeemer) statue. The views from up here are amazing and the breeze from the sea feels so good! There are some wild macaque monkeys on the top which are like our chipmunks back home: very curious and all too willing to take food from humans.

It is still hot here even though its officially winter. The beach was packed this morning with people just enjoying life here. It is hard not to! See all our pictures here

Rio de Janeiro!

Hi everyone,

Here we are in Rio de Janeiro after some very long flights. We arrived yesterday to a very cloudy and rainy day. We hopped on the bus from the Airport to Copacabana and, after freezing in the air conditioning, and gazing out the window at the amazing diversity of the city (very poor neighborhoods right next to or up the hill from walled guarded palaces), we stepped off the bus on that classic beachside road, the Avenida Atlantica, a couple blocks away from our hosts apartment. We walked right to his building and there we were! We were welcomed into a very nice and clean living space and it feels very nice to be here!

We cleaned up from the long trip, and stepped out to eat dinner. They have these restaurants here where you eat [por quilo], pick what you want from a buffet and pay by the kilogram. A good way to make sure that you get only as much as you can eat.

One vision we saw here that you probably would not see back home was a bunch of guys playing pool in a building that was practically in shambles, piles of rubble everywhere and the walls broken down, but having a good old time anyway!

Will post some pics soon!

Até,
Tony e Anna

Summer Recap!

See our photos on Picasa from our Road Trip this summer. It was great! East, West, you name it, we were there. Each of the 3 legs was about 3 three weeks long. A short trip around Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming; a quick return home; then out to upstate New York; back home; then out to California! Now we're back before we leave for Brazil! We are writing this blog about 5 hours from our departure! We can sleep on the plane! Rio is the first stop on this journey to who-knows-where!

Anyway, so we fly to Buenos Aires first from Miami via the Eye of Hurricane Ike which is looming! Keep an eye on the weather and we'll keep you guys posted on our progress. We'll upload large amounts of photos to our Picasa account, so you can check it anytime; and we'll post to the blog as often as possible with a few words about where we are and what we're thinking about.

Lots of Love,
T&A