Just back in Sao Paulo after four action packed days in mountains of Campos do Jordão. The Paulistians do a strange thing this time of year. During the June bank holiday they converge in their thousands on a small mountain village 3 hours away by car ride. The village looks like something straight out of a Swiss ski resort. With the exceptions of snow and ski slopes they have the rest. Everyone goes around as if its Christmas eve. The trees are adorned in lights, everyone has a heavy coat on, and the majority of people are wearing scarfs and gloves. It`s kind of strange to see it in Brazil It`s not exactly something you hear a lot about. I had the pleasure of staying for 4 days with 20 lunatics in a lodge that was set beside a river on the side of a forested mountain. Most of the days were spent eating excellent food (stroganoof and the quintessential Brazilian, pacanha barbecue being my favourite); sitting out in a grassy expanse talking and relaxing, and, mostly, dancing, drinking and jumping up and down inside the big cabin to the eccletic beats of our resident DJ, NASDAQ (AKA Aconcanda). This was the longest period of time I`ve spend talking nearly completely Portuguese. It was a great help for me. After almost 3 months its now beginning to sink in a little. As ever I spoke much better with a healthy helping of cerveja in the stomach.
This week so far has been quiet, and presently working on my itinery for the next two months of traveling. As of this Wednesdaymy good friend Una is coming down to join the vagabond and the dogs for a spot of rambling. First stop will be the Falls the Iguacu, after checking them out from the Brazilian and Argentinean side we'll head to the swamp lands of The Panthanel to check out the wide variety of wild life and fauna. From there the one i`m looking forward to, a six hour flight to beach city of Natal in the extreme North East. Will spend a week there before taking another flight to Salvador and then a road trip, picking off little beaches before heading back to Rio, and then Sao Paulo, to meet my good mates Kevin and Jim who are coming down on the 15th of July. Will spend four days in Sao Paulo with them before we hit Rio for four days, probably Natal again and then onto Fortaleza for a week or so. Well that's the plan so far. I`m spending a lot of time at the moment checking out hotels, posadas (B&Bs) and hotels. Also i`m trying to get myself a Brazilian airpass for about 7/8 flights but its seems to be impossible. Everywhere i`ve tried has come up blank. It seems to be that you can only buy the tickets from abroad, but only when your not in Brazil. Strange system. They need a Ryan Air down here big time......
Gotta run, trying to keep an eye on the European Championships. Everyone down here keeps asking me why Ireland aren`t in them. I keep shaking my head and reciting the sleeping giants analogy.
I`ve put up some of the photos for you to check out. Also took a lot of camcorder footage but as of yet haven`t been able to find a free streaming server that can host the footage for me. Will keep working on it. If anyone else has any experience of this type of thing let me know.
