February 7, 1997: Chicago -> Miami -> Rio de Janeiro
February 8: Rio de Janeiro: Copacabana
February 9: Rio de Janeiro: Corcovado, Ipanema, Hippie Fair
February 10: Rio de Janeiro: Sugar Loaf, Carnival
February 11: Rio de Janeiro: Fat Tuesday, recovery
February 12: Rio de Janeiro -> Sao Paulo -> Foz do Iguassu: Itaipu, Paraguay
February 13: Foz do Iguassu: Safari, boat trip, Argentina
February 14: Foz do Iguassu -> Sao Paulo -> Manaus -> Ariau
February 15: Amazonas: Ariau, jungle walk, aligator spotting
February 16: Amazonas: Ariau, piranha fishing, swimming, village, dolphins
February 17: Amazonas: Ariau -> Manaus
February 18: Manaus -> Belem -> Miami -> Chicago
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My fiancee and I recently returned from a 12-day vacation to Brazil which included Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Iguacu Falls at the Paraguay-Argentine border and the Amazon. Travel and flight arrangements were arranged by EarthWise Journeys (earthwyz@teleport.com). In Brazil, South American Tours took care of us and handled most additional arrangements. Prior to our departure, international and domestic airfare, hotels, pre-booked tours, various taxes, meals at Ariau Jungle Lodge and breakfasts cost $2618.00 per person. I spent another $506.59 using credit cards and another $390.00 in cash while travelling as well. Additionally, the Brazilian visa cost $25. The yellow fever and hepatitis A vaccinations and the anti-malarial Lariam (mefloquine) cost another $48.09. Developing 13 rolls of film cost $137.92. All that comes to $3725.60 just for me. That still doesn't include film, some clothes we bought specifically for the trip and mosquito repellent, but it should give you an idea of the costs involved.
I carried various travel brochures, printouts of the wealth of knowledge I collected and compiled from the more than generous people on the net, Fodors Brazil, The Lonely Planet Brazil (great overall info). As far as luggage went, I had a backpack with a hipstrap (in which I placed a smaller backpack).
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February 7 Friday: Chicago -> Miami -> Rio de Janeiro
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Rio de Janeiro
The locker at O'Hare aiport in Chicago for our winter jackets cost $11 for the time we'd be away. We had some trouble figuring out how to leave enough money for the entire duration. An older man who I think manned the nearby shoe-shine stand helped us out -- probably when he saw the clueless looks we had. It was so much warmer and humid when we arrived in Miami. We found we could only carry one bag each on the Varig flight, so my backpack and Sara's bag had to be wrapped and collected. Checked baggage going on our Varig flight to Rio could be wrapped in plastic. I had never seen such a thing before. They had a machine that would wrap your backpack in plastic (presumably to prevent theft) before it was taken away. Luggage wrapping in Miami cost us $7.
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February 8 Saturday: Rio de Janeiro: Copacabana
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Rio de Janeiro
We had seats 15A and C on the 767 that took us from Miami to Rio (Varig flight 815). The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:30 PM. The service on Varig was quite good. Sara describes it as wonderful. The in-flight movie was 'Matilda,' but I fell asleep before it ended. When we arrived, an exhuberant man with a thick accent from South American Tours named Ibo met us at the airport. Sara and I each changed $100 in travelers checks before Ibo had a driver take all three of us to the Windsor Palace Hotel. We arranged to go on a Corcovado tour on the 9th and a Sugar Loaf tour (R$35) on the 10th through him. We tipped the drivers R$3 and the bellboy R$2.
We were in room 405. We really thought the hotel was great. We highly recommend it. The location was hard to beat. The roof had a bar and a pool that seemed to be taken out of a movie set. The view from there was wonderful. We could see Copacabana beach just a few blocks away in one direction and scenic hills in the other.
After settling in, we went for a walk which took us by a nearby park and McDonalds. We visited a church and stopped by the South American Tours office on the 5th floor of the nearby building. We then headed north along Copacabana beach taking in the sights. There were many beach goers out.
At the end of the beach where we rested Sara bought us two coconuts (R$1.50 each). Sara accidentally used the OK sign we were told had an obscene meaning in Brazil to the saleswoman. We drank out of the coconuts with straws. We hadn't expected to be out in the sun as long as we were, so we hadn't put on any sunscreen. Sara had put some on but not on her shoulders where she ended up getting burned. My knees and the tops of my ears became a little tender. There were many women in small thong bikinis but no women were topless. Some people were selling various items on the beach. We only saw a few tourists which were easily identified by their video camera. The waves crashing on the shore were huge and looked like they'd be a lot of fun to swim in. We don't have any pictures from that walk because after all we heard about crime in Rio, on our first day there we were too afraid to carry a camera or anything that looked valuable on us.
We walked by some shops and restaurants about a block away from the beach on our way back to the hotel. I bought us four 1.5 liter bottles of water (R$2.80) at one shop. Sara bought some conditioner for her hair (R$1.90) at another shop. When we got back to the hotel, we showered and napped. We were able to watch CNN from our room and pick up several radio stations.
We made 8:30 PM reservations for dinner at Moenda, a restaurant at the Hotel Tracodero off Atlantica Avenue not far from our hotel. We went to 7:00 PM Mass at the nearby church. We stopped back in our room before going to dinner. I changed into shorts, and Sara called her father's friend Eraldo who lives in the area. We had a very big seafood dinner for two. Our table was next to a window that looked out over Atlantica Avenue and Copacabana Beach. From there we could see men dressed up as women and some other costumed characters roaming around -- a few playfully chased some girls. The staff was very attentive. We tried using some Portuguese from our Berlitz guidebook on them. After dinner, we had a sweet peanut dessert and coffee. I put the R$55 on my MasterCard while Sara paid the R$8 tip.
After dinner, we walked southwest on Atlantica Avenue where we observed quite a few dancers in groups. There were also small groups of musicians. Sometimes the crowds got pretty thick. Many were cooking and selling things on the sidewalks. When we reached the end of the beach, we could see Alpha Centauri in the sky. It's the closest star outside of our sun. It was quite a treat because we can't see it from home in the northern hemisphere. We saw more characters, sights and musicians on our way back to the hotel. Once there, we went up to the dark roof to take in the sight of Rio at night. While there, we saw a banda go by on Atlantica Avenue. Since the beach is 4km long, we figured we must have walked over 5 miles along it that day. It was around 2:30 AM when we finally got to sleep. The air conditioning in our room made me slightly cold.
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Rio de Janeiro
I got up first at 7:05 AM and showered. We ate a complimentary breakfast before going down around 8:45 AM to be picked up by a Grayline bus for the Corcovado tour. The breakfasts at the Windsor Palace Hotel featured a large variety of fruit including mango, papaya and pineapple. We always enjoyed them. The tour was running late, and we still had to pick up more people. On the way our route took us through a 3km tunnel. The line for the tram to the peak was very long. We talked with some people from England and later with an older man from Texas. I ended up riding backwards both ways on the tram. Sara and I were separated during the tram ride up. The huge statue of Christ with its open arms was quite a sight. We could see birds sitting on one arm. There was a small chapel in its base. Helicopters would often fly by giving other tourists another perspective. Many birds (hawks?) were flying about as well. I was glad we had brought my binoculars. We were less fearful of getting mugged today, and we ended up taking a lot of pictures. I didn't buy the picture a girl took of me on the tram. There were many tourists. Below the statue there were many shops. The view of the city and the ocean below was beautiful. On our way back we saw Rocinda, the largest slum in Brazil. It contrasted greatly with the area in which we were staying. I ended up falling asleep on the drive to the hotel.
Sara ordered a club sandwich with fries from room service for our lunch. I took the opportunity to write down notes of our trip.
Eraldo and Katia picked us up in their car around 4:10 PM. Although Katia was 7 months pregnant, she was dressed as in as little as everyone else seemed to be. Most people walked the streets scantily clad. It was not unusual to see people just wearing bikinis. We thought the casual attire was part of Rio's charm. People seemed to be very comfortable with their bodies. Another difference was the lack of overweight people that you'd normally see in the United States.
We drove to Ipanema just southwest of Copacabana and parked in Eraldo's mother's garage. We stopped by the Hippie Fair flea market where I bought a bird made out of quartz (R$10) for friends back home. We walked southwest along the beach for a while before turning inland. We saw the bar where 'The Girl from Ipanema' was composed. A banda was playing outside. Across the street Eraldo and Katia treated us to some cold mango (suco mango) juice after we tried their very sweet sugar cane juice. Rio is known for its fruit juice bars. Sara couldn't get enough of them.
We then went to Eraldo and Katia's apartment in Leblon which was just southwest of Ipanema where Eraldo played on the piano and Katia sang 'The Girl from Ipanema' in both English and Portuguese. They introduced us to a soft drink called guarana which we thought was great. Sara seemed to order it everywhere we went after that. After a quick tour of their apartment, Eraldo drove us further southwest to Barra de Tijuca. We stopped in the hills on the way in Tijuca Park where we took pictures and saw huge jaca fruit the size of watermelons hanging in the trees. We saw the sun setting behind two hills that were fabled to be brothers somehow. It was a great and beautiful drive down to the beach where we stopped and tried coconut meat. |
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