Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Bom Dia Everybody!
We realise, and are very sorry, that we are slow at updating our blogs but we hope that the photos say it all!
So, as you can see our New Years Eve was a lot of fun- we made a good group of friends at the hostel we were staying in and we all went to the beach where we stayed to watch the first sunrise of 2008. On the 2nd Jan everyone went their separate ways and we took a spur of the moment decision to visit a place called Ouro Preto inland. It made a nice change and the place had a lot of interesting colonial history behind it as it was where half the worlds gold was produced in the 18th century. We visited a couple of churches, one of which contained 434kg of gold and the other was the complete opposite, built for slaves with hardly any gold or riches. We also visited a gold mine which was in the back of an old lady´s garden- she stumbled across it shortly after she bought the house back in the 1940´s. We wandered around the town, it was very hilly and had cute cobbled streets, very similar to an old European town. You could really see the Portuguese influence from when they took over the area.
We headed into Rio state to Teresopolis, its a city up in the mountains. The city itself was fairly dull however the reason we went there was for the National Park that surrounded it. We spent two days trekking around the National Park, following a number of trails. We saw some interesting wildlife...a trantula!! humming birds, 2 snakes and a monkey up in the tree tops! We really loved the hostel we stayed in here, although we were the only ones the lady owner was so so friendly and welcoming, we think she was sad to see us leave!
Now it was time to head for the beaches again- Arrail do Cabo. We spent 2 nights here and one full day. To make the most of it we went on a boat tour which took us to a few different beaches and Ilha do Cabo Frio where there was a cave with crystal clear, bright blue water. The beaches were picture perfect, white, soft sand and stunning clear sea water- perfect for swimming! On the way back we saw sea turtles swimming in the wild!
We have just been to Ilha Grande (Big Island) which we both agreed to be one of our favourite places so far...it had everything! Mountains, Caves, Waterfalls, (more) Perfect Beaches, Ruins of an old prison and more exciting wildlife- giant crabs, giant snails giant sea slugs and giant worms...a seahorse and a shark!!!! Tom even saw a weird fish when he was snorkelling that had wings and even legs!! We trekked to some of the best beaches we have ever seen, the best being Lopes Mendes. We would have liked to stay there for longer but as there were no cash points or banks on the island we had ran out of money after stretching it for 4 nights!
So...now we are currently in Paraty which is a place south of Rio de Janeiro and has around 65 beaches and 300 islands (which we are going to explore today on another boat trip). Day after tomorrow we are going to Sao Paulo to stay with some family friends and then it is just one more stop before it is ´Bye Bye Brazil´ and ´Hello Argentina!´
We hope this has updated you enough, lots more photos to put on.
Love Beth and Tom
xxx
- comments