Derek and Ann’s Travels in Brazil
November/December 2005
Some
time
ago
our
friend
from
London
Joan
brought
a
young
Brazilian
girl
to
stay
with
us
for
the
weekend
–
this made us think of going to Brazil for a holiday.
We
had
a
very
full
on
holiday
with
lots
of
interesting
places
to
see.
We
started
our
holiday
in
Salvador
in
the
North
where
we
hired
a
car
to
drive
to
the
town
of
Lencois
(10
hrs
away).
We
have
never
ever
driven
on
such
a
dangerous
road
full
of
potholes
and
huge
lorries.
Ann
thought
several
times
we
would
die
and
Derek
thought
he
was
a
Schumacher!!
The
scenery
around
Lencois
was
amazing.
Lencois
is
in
the
Paque
Nacional
da
Chapada
Diamantina,
it’s
a
beautiful
part
of
Bahia
in
the
North
East
of
Brazil.
Pretty
little
town
with
virtually
no
tourists.
Luckily
we
met
a
English
speaking
Brazilian
who
told
us
of
a
better
road
back
to
Salvador
.Lencois
was
famous for alluvial diamonds
Local
flight
to
Manaus
the
main
town
in
the
Amazon.
Booked
a
few
days
on
a
boat
up
the
Amazon
with
5
others
–
no
beds,
just
hammocks
on
deck.
We
walked
in
the
jungle,
slept
one
night
(or
tried
to
)
in
hammocks
on
trees,
swam
in
our
clothes,
fished
for
Piranhas
with
odd
bits
of
meat
and
enjoyed
our
experiences.
Manaus
is
not
a
particularly
nice
town,
but
the
Opera
House
is
wonderful.
Near
Manaus
we
saw
the
meeting
of
the
two
rivers, the Rio Solimoes (white river) and Rio Negro (black river).
Our
next
stop
were
the
Foz
do
Iguacu
Falls.
These
are
simply
amazing.
We
stayed
at
a
very
nice
hotel,
a
change
after
the
boat.
It
was
nice
to
get
some
clean
clothes.
We
have
seen
the
Victoria
Falls
but
the
Iguacu
Falls are as good, if not better.
Onto
Curitiba
to
meet
our
friend
Giselle
who
had
stayed
with
us
in
the
UK.
It
was
lovely
to
see
her.
We
drove
the
5
hours
to
her
home
town
to
meet
her
mother
(her
parents
are
divorced)
it
was
an
interesting
drive,
lots
of
mango
trees
and
sugar
plantations.
Later
we
met
up
with
her
father
and
he
took
us
to
one
of
his
farms.
Walking
around
a
Brazilian
farm
with
Giselle,
her
father
and
the
two
of
us
seemed
almost
unreal.
Pedro
had
several farms and travelled about 52,000 miles a year.
Back
to
Curitiba
to
get
our
things
together
as
Giselle
had
arranged
for
us
to
go
with
her
sister
and
husband
by
train
to
Paranagua
and
ferry
to
Ilha
Do
Mel.
It’s
a
small
island
with
no
cars
and
very
few
Europeans.
We
just
relaxed,
swam
and
walked
along
the
sandy
virtually
deserted
beaches.
.
We
were
sad
to
leave
but
had
to
get
a
flight back to Rio.
We
stayed
at
a
well
situated
hotel
in
Rio,
went
up
to
the
cross
on
the
train,
watched
the
sunset
at
Pao
De
Acucar and walked on the famous Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.
Flight back to London after another wonderful holiday full of experiences and funny stories.
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2022
Having talked to friends we decided to book a tour in the Pantanal to see the Jaguars, one of the big cats which we had not seen in the wild. This trip was booked for a
special birthday in 2020, but due to the pandemic, we were not able to go until 2022.
We had booked the Pantanal trip for 10 days and we decided to extend our holiday to 5 weeks. Derek organised the rest of our trip which involved 11 take off and
landings for our international and internal flights.
We started our holiday in Curitiba where our friends Gisele and John live. We stayed with Gisele last time we were in Brazil. John took us down to the coast for a few
days to stay in his house as Gisele was working.
We then flew to Cuiaba to meet our guide for the Pantanal trip. We moved from lodge to lodge which was quite tiring. However, we saw many different animals,
particularly jaguars, and birds. We went out every day either in a van or a boat. On the river at Porto Jofre. we had over the three days of 8 sightings of six jaguars. An
organisation has named all the jaguars to help them to keep track of the individuals, their numbers and movements.
We then flew to Recife in the Northeast of Brazil. Very little English is spoken in the North and so we found our Translator app on our phone invaluable. We stayed
outside Recife in the older part of the town of Olinda. The streets were all cobbled and all the outside of the front of the house’s painted in different colours, yellow,
blue, and red etc. We happened to be there for the night of the Presidential election. The voting is completed at 8 p.m. and it’s the only country to have electronic voting
so result was in by 9 p.m. Many celebrations in the streets and surrounding bars near where were stayed.
We took a flight of about 2 hours to the island of Fernando de Noronha. Being an island and considered paradise, it was very expensive. We stayed 4 nights seeing
found the island, swimming and snorkelling etc. It did not quite live up to our expectation, but it was relaxing, and we were glad we went.
Back to the mainland to stay for a few nights in Natal. Here we had a couple of days out, one going on a dune buggy ride, which was fun. The next day we went to see
the largest Cashew nut tree in the world. Cashew nut trees have lots of red and yellow fruit like peppers and this is attached to the tree by the nut.
It was time to leave the North which we loved and fly south to Rio. We got a bus to Buzios for a couple of nights. Buzios is a lovely place by the sea and really one we can
recommend people going there to chill out before going back to Rio to fly home. Our final 2 days were spent in Rio with a visit to the Favelas and part of the Atlantic
Rainforest boarding Rio. We walked along the Copacabana beach (too cold to swim) followed by a flight back to the UK.
THOUGHTS
Lovely holiday with friendly people.
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