Cooopa, Copacabaaanaaaaa

Hello Folks,

And here we go, I´m back to Brasiiiilll!! And arrived in Sao Paulo, I´m not alone!! (well,I started to think so when I was not able to find Michael for 2 hours in the airport). After a public announcement in the airport: "Micaeul Novailoine (which actually means Mickael Nouvellon in Portuguese...!) is called at the Tourist Information desk" and going on the Internet to communicate with my friend who was not more than 200 meters from me, we eventually found each other (I won´t say who is responsible for this delay, because I still have arguments for my defense). After an afternoon and an evening spent in Sao Paulo (and I won´t go into the details, starting right in the bus from the airport to Sao Paulo... :)), we took a plane to Salvador at the Congonhas airport (where the TAM Boeing 737 crashed few days after...). After a long walk in Salvador, and checking in the hostel, we had to find Amance. We started visiting around, having some "sucos" to celebrate our arrival. When being back at the hostel, we eventually discovered that Amance had been there all this time, but not precisely in the room or in the lounge downstair. No, to find him, one had to open-up the hammock suspended in the lounge to discover a black floating piece of the hammock that turned out to be... Amance´s hair!!! :).

That was it, a new adventure was about to start, with a third travel mate accompanying us for almost 2 weeks!

Alright, so we were ready to experience what so many people told us about... the Salvador beaches and nightlife! Well... we may have forgotten few things here... It´s winter time, the beginning of the week and the weather is not that great... So, when we went to the most famous beach, we were a bit surprise to see... nobody!! Fortunately, we had a quick trip back home (around 2 hours when a normal trip is just 45min). And when we hanged out at night for the crazy parties, we saw... almost nobody! Well, we may have found a girl who brought us to this Samba/Salsa club, but the way she was seeing things was not really the way we were seeing it, so... we left!! But we still had another opportunity to know Salvador´s nightlife. We were fortunate, because on Tuesdays, we still don´t know why, people are actually going out. There are concerts in the streets, people are dancing Samba in the street and so on and so forth. That was really really nice. And on top of that, we found girls very open minded (maybe a bit too much) who came to us and ask us to have drinks with them.

Well, why not... until we found out an hour later that... to go in a motel with them is very cheap! Wwow, we got a special price!! so lucky! But when they heared that we were not into that, then they started asking for money! Because they "lost their time with you" and they needed to pay the taxi back home. They wouldn´t let you go! Even in front of your hostel (where you can enter but not her), they blocked you the way and take their shoe off ready to kick you if you didn´t give them the money!! And worse, they started telling you that they know everybody in the streets, that it´s like a mafia there, all the cops are corrupted, and they threatened you to talk to the policemen in front of you and to tell them crazy things (you can´t say anything as you don´t speak But, still, we understood the potential this city could have during summer.
We then headed to Morro de Sao Paulo, an island some 70 kms away from Salvador. Despite some rain during the 3 days spent there, we enjoyed the beach, the Acai! (fruit from which they make a kind of frozen juice, mixed with cereals and bananas). We had our tradition there: at around 5, it was time for snacks, so we had from Acai or Brazilian empanadas (very different from the delicious Argentinian ones), "all you can eat" pizzas to hamburgers! We also enjoyed the delicious Capirihna and juices on the beach at night after eating too much at the Churrascaria (a "all you can eat meat" restaurant :)). Michael and me had to re-teach Amance how to eat as he was hardly eating anything and we got the impression to be reduced to 2 big stomachs with legs, looking for food all the time! So, as part of this teaching, we had to go back to this place the day after!

I need to say, in order to justify some people´s tan, that the sun was not really friendly even in Morro de Sao Paulo, and that the impressive golden brown color you might see, on Mickael´s skin no to mention it, is purely due to the Brazilian sun, and not from some artificial UV rays as some people could think :).
As Mickael was with us, we had to give him a glimpse of the hard trekks we did during our trip. We therefore headed to the Fonte de Ceu, waterfalls in the island, a must see attraction. Unfortunately, the map we had was not precise enough, so we made a bit more time than expected to get there. After an hour walk, under the burning sun, and surviving the mini-favelas we crossed, we made it to this wonderfull waterfall, that was really worth all this pain. A good appetizer before going to the famous biggest waterfalls of the world, in Iguazu. But then, after so much effort and courage, it was too much for Amance who unfortunately could´nt go into the cold water (Has he been to much used to his really nice surfing suit that protected him from cold in Jeri??). Anyway, just the strongest made it :).

Last destination all together, but not least... Rio de Janeiiiiroooo!!! After meeting 3 Israeli girls on the boat back to Salvador and having decided to go together at Rio, we spent a night at the Salvador airport before taking of at 5am to Riooo. Wow, the famous city, capital of beaches, nightlife, beautiful girls (we have a good example below :)), etc etc. Few minutes before landing, I opened slightly my eyes and looked through the window. I thought I was still half dreaming, or my lashes were still covering my eyes as I was still seeing a kind of.. deep gray. And no... I had to convince my mind, the sun had some troubles again to go through the clouds...
But fortunately, it improved and we could discover Copacabana with a beautiful view on all the beach, the Pao de Azucar (Sugar Loaf) as well as the Christ the redeemer. After walking for a long time discovering the Copacabana and Ipanema area (which has a beautiful and more posh beach), we decided to go on top on the Pao de Azucar. But we had to be quick to be there at sunset (even though there were clouds hidding the sun at the horizon..). So, we started to rush and walked fast for almost an hour to eventually arrive at the cable car transporting people to the top of the Sugar Loaf. Until we found out that... we didn't have enough money to go up!!! Well, Amance and me can find excuses (yeah, you know, we are tired from our trip, we need to rest etc etc), but Mickael! hum... any valid excuse? well, I know I'll pay for what I just said in a very soon Mick's comment... but as he always said, I don't have any surviving instinct!
But eventually, we made it the next day, with beautiful pictures thanks to Mick's very creative mind (see the pics :)). As for the nightlife, we won't say much (there's both nothing and too much to say ;)), but something is sure, there must a great potential in the summer...

Then, after 3 days spent in Rio, one of us unfortunately had to leave... So we had to say goodbye to our professional photographer (most of the pictures you'll see are from him and his high quality camera, although we had to take some of our pictures from the Sugar Loaf as our camera does a much better job at night ;)). Mick was indeed leaving after a too short stay in Brazil, despite several attempts to postpone his flight. Miiick, come baaack!!!!

We then tried to forget our sadness around some coconut milk, a Rio Panamerican 2007 beach volley game (which made us realize to what extent Brazilians are bad losers and not fair-play fans) and drinks at night on Thursday and Friday (when we had a brief overview of the Rio's nightlife, still not meeting our expectations..:().
The day after, we were heading to Sao Paulo where we just stayed overnight before going to the Iguazu falls. We went to the Italian Areas where we ate again so much (imagine all you can eat italian food....) and got to know the Sao Paulo nightlife, better than what we experienced in Rio... Who would imagine that!!?
And that's it, we made it to Iguazu, after knowing 2 more Israeli girls (yes, they are everywhere!!), with whom we went to the falls on the Brazilian side. These falls are just amazing, not only for their heights (as high as 100m) and their numbers (270 exactly), and not to mention the incredible peak flow (6.5 millions liters per second, when Niagara's falls is just 2.5 millions) but also for its beautiful rainbows rising from the falls, thanks to... the sun (we thought it wasn't existing in Brazil, we got it wrong :)). But the most impressive side was from Argentina, where we could stand right over the most famous fall: La "Garganta del Diablo". We can also get closer to other falls, where you get a serious idea of the power generated by even the smallest ones.

But all good things have an end, and we had to take the bus to Buenos Aires to take our flight today for Santiago, from where we'll have another flight to ... the famous Isla de Pasqua (Easter Island)!!, the last unknown place we will visit before... going back :(((

That's all folks!! this is our next to last comment on this blog... I already feel some tears coming into my eyes...

M.

Re-bonjour a tous,

J’ai donc retrouve avec grand plaisir Mickael et Matthias a Salvador, apres cette parenthese solitaire plutot memorable, de rencontres en rencontres, de surprises en surprises...L’emploi du temps fut l’espace de trois semaines plus que jamais flexible, l’ensemble des lieux que je pensais visiter s’etant reduit a quelques elements...Autant dire qu’il y a de la matiere pour un eventuel retour dans la region du Nordeste!!!

Et les aventures continuent a Salvador!! Entre Matthias et son nouveau reseau de poules, Mickael et ses nouveaux reseaux de traficants bretons... Quand je vous disais que le Nordeste etait “craignos”, ils ne s’attendaient pas a recevoir Jessy James et Billy the Kid en personne, les terreurs de la nuit!!!

Apres quelques soirees rythmees et un apercu rapide des coiffures, de la faune et de la gatronomie locale, Salvador nous repousse litteralement au large sur l’Ile de Tinhare, reputee pour ses cocotiers, son soleil et ses plages de sable blanc... Le temps pour Mickael de se faire un bronzage impeccable, un jour sur deux par contre car l’hiver nous guette et, chose inattendue, il pleut de temps en temps...Heureusement il y a une liste consequente de cocktails a deguster et je peux vous dire que ca prend un temps fou ces choses-la!!

S’etant attardes dans la region de Bahia, on se decide pour voler jusqu’a Rio avec une partie du groupe israelien rencontre a Pipa (Je vais finir par etre billingue comme Matthias si ca continue, yalaaaaaaaaa!..). L’occassion de jouer aux cartes toute la nuit dans l’aeroport de Salvador et de faire une n-ieme fois les laisses pour compte en dormant sur les bancs...

But we’re going to Rio....De Janeeeeeeiiiirooooo....Rio est vraiment tres belle, les plages de Copabacana et Ipanema sont a la hauteur de leur legende, la vue du Christ et du Pao de Azucar sont tout aussi renversantes. Il n’y a pas a dire, c’est beau, “a Cidade Marvilhosa” comme ils le disent et le repetent la-bas... Ils n’ont pas tort meme si on decouvre le penchant extreme des bresiliens pour le chauvinisme a travers les XVeme jeux panamericains qui se deroulent a Rio. Ils refusent de donner les scores des matchs ou le Bresil a perdu, dans les arenes de Beach Volley, ca siffle a tout va les equipes adverses, quitte a les enfoncer dans le sable...Tres peu fairplay les peperes...
Ceci dit, grande decouverte de bonnes vraies churrasqueria, restaurant de viande a la broche et...a volonte!!! Autant dire qu’on s’est bien fait peter le ventre!!! A noter cependant l’echec, il faut bien l’avouer, au niveau de la vie la nuit (ou “nightlife”, mot que je n’ai jamais autant entendu depuis que Matthais est revenu, je me croirais de retour a Sup de Co!!!). Il paraitrait que c’est a cause de l’hiver que les cariocas ne sortent pas tous les soirs, comme il est coutume le reste de l’annee. Il va donc falloir revenir la encore!!! A se demander si on ne ferait pas mieux de prendre les billets tout de suite...

Sur ce Mickael nous quitte, sur Copacabana s’il vous plait, laissant le duo infernal boucler la boucle. Rapide passage a Sao Paulo, le temps de se faire exploser une nouvelle fois les boyaux dans Bixiga, le quartier italien de la ville, puis direction les chutes d’Iguazu, aussi impressionantes du cote bresilien qu’argentin. Houdini n’aurait pas fait mieux ici...

Nous venons donc tout juste de retrouver notre chere Argentine: son ambiance, son bife de lomo, son vin, son dulce de leche et son accent...Nous sommes a nouveau charmes des le passage de la frontiere. Nous avons deja retrouve nos endroits fetiches de Buenos Aires avant d’entamer l’ultime fin finale du voyage a partir de demain direction...une partie tres “ouest” du Chili...

On sent d’ailleurs arriver tout doucement la fin du voyage et un doux spleen s’installe avant le retour...Surtout qu’on est bientot la pour tout vous raconter les enfants!!!

Un enorme abrazo a todos y hasta la vista!!!

Amancio De Calle Florida