Sao Paulo again – thanks Daddy

We came from Ilha Grande and arrived 10 hours later in Sao Paulo. Took a quick shower in a hotel where one of Daddy s colleagues had a room (thanks a lot) and were out there enjoying dinner with Daddy and friends. We stayed in Daddy s place for the weekend, damn it is a big apartment, maybe I should start working 60 hours a week as well. The highlight was definitely the brazilean barbecue we had in Marcelo s place – you brazileans know how to live.

Daddy thanks again for housing, fun and a little bit germany. Love you for your patience and friendship. We hope we can make it up to you soon… 

 

1. The Mini-Bar  

2. Barbecue crew

3. Brazilean barbecue

4. Just chilling

Ilha Grande

1. The Island

2.On the way to the beach

3.Work out at Palmas beach

4.Lonely yacht

5. Prahia Lopez Mendes

6. Beach models

7.Fishes 8.Back on board

9. Happy Björn

We decided to go to Ilha Grande, because of the weather forecast. By the time we should get there it should have been 30 C and the forecast turned out to be right. We left Rio the next morning after going out with a bunch of people to Lapa, a part of the city which is famous for its street parties on the weekend. We ended up talking to the two german cops Tobi and Julia for most of the night and left together on the next morning feeling safe on our trip to the island. After sleeping during a 2 hours bus ride we arrived at the ferry boat and finally arrived on the island. We were greeted by Markus, a german owner of a local hostal where we stayed during our  trip.

Ilha Grande is the perfect place if you are into nature. One can do trekking, there are a bunch of trails which lead you through the „jungle“. It has more than 100 beaches, surfing is good at a beach called Lopez Mendes. You can also snorkel and dive.

On the first day the four of us went on a 45 minute walk to a beach where we spent the day sunbathing. We had dinner in a restaurant right on the beach and ate a typical fish dish with bananas. The next day we went by boat to Lopez Mendes (too lazy to hike for 2 hours). The waves were not that big, but surfing was still a lot of fun. I had been in the water for maybe 20 minutes when all of the sudden all the other surfers pointed in my direction. I turned around and saw a big shadow in the water 5 meters away from me. I thought that can t be a coconut and prepared myself for combat. But it was a manta ray „flying“ around in search for food. Incredible…

On the next day we went snorkeling. Although impressing like the times before, the cold 22 C made it hard to stay in the water for a long time. We saw a lot of different coloured fishes and some sea stars.

Rio de Janeiro

1.Rio  2.Ipanema  

3.On the beach  

4.Surfer in Rio   

5. On the way to Jesus

6.View from the train  

7. Jesus from the back

8.View from Jesus   

9. Corcovado   

10.Jana and some other people in front of Jesus

11. Rio from above  12. We

13.  14. Jana again  

15. On the way to suger loaf  

16. The Sugar Loaf

17. Helicopter landing place  

18.On the Sugar Loaf  

19. Björn and the Sugar Loaf  

20.View from the Sugar Loaf

21. Lizard  22. Monkeys  

23. Palms  

24. Copacabana beach  

25. Big waves  

26.Jana at Copacabana beach  

27. Partying in Rio   

28.Thumbs up  

29. International friends  

30. Shots  31. No comment

Rio de Janeiro is by far the most beautiful city we have been to. The brazileans call it ciudade maravilosa, which translates to beautiful city and they certainly got it right. It is the diversity what makes it special. The sea, green hills and nightlife leave you without asking for anything more. We planned to stay 3 days but ended staying a week. Rio s downside are the high hostal prices. We payed double the price for a room that we payed so far in Brazil.

We were lucky though to meet a bunch of crazy people shortly after we arrived and went out together during the first night. Again we were quite an international group, but this time only europeans, which resulted in singing the national anthems of Italy and France at approximately midnight in an open restaurant/bar on a sunday night. We laughed so hard, because a spanish guy from Madrid imitated the soccer player Ronaldo during the whole night, which was hilarious. Got some french style shots in a discotheque (result can be seen above – i know boys will be boys). The shots were not on the menu which caused us some trouble, because they wanted to charge us the same price for a shot that you had to pay for 2 normal drinks. Never order anything that is not on the menu in Brazil. After argueing with the manager for maybe 30 minutes we paid cursing them on the whole way back to our hostal. But the good part is still to come.

Two of our friends, Antonio and  Laurent, were walking around outside on the streets independently from each other. A guy approached Antonio trying to sell him marijuana and Antonio told him that he did not want to buy anything. All of the sudden the police arrived telling Antonio that he wanted to buy and that they had to arrest him unless he would give them all the money he got. They searched him and found 15 reals which equal 6 euro. They told him that this would not be enough and that he had to get out money of a cash machine. Of course he did not want to pay them so he told them that the cash machine did not accept his card. So they took him back into the car telling him to drive him to the police station where he would have to pay 3000 reals (ca. 1200 euro) to get out. Antonio luckily remembered the name of one of his far-relatives who emigrated years ago to Brazil and has a high position in the police. He told the two cops that he wanted to call this relative. When the cops heard his name they stopped the car and told Antonio to get out.

Independently from Antonio, Laurent walked on another street when some other cops stopped, searched him, robbed him 20 reals and drove away. 

We told this story another german girl we knew on the next day. She went out on the following day with two other german guys. On there way back, the cops stopped their taxi and told them to get out. Then the cops started asking for their weapons and drugs. Of course they did not have any which they told them, so the cops wanted to search them. The two other germans are cops in germany as well and one can speak portuguese so he started to talk to them, telling them that they are actual colleagues. When the brazileans heard that all of a sudden they introduced themselves by name, shook everyones hands and drove away. Join the forces…

On the day after our night out we woke up and went to the beach right across our hostal. We arrived there still a little exhausted, got two chairs and tried to relax. I was asking myself why all the men were looking in my direction when we realized that we were at the gay beach. Of course we could have realized this before as the rainbow flag was located only 5 meters away from us…

We spent the next days sightseeing, walking around Ipanema and Copacaban beach and just having a good time. Check out the pictures…

Itacare, Porto Seguro, Buzios

1. Happy surfer  2. Itacarecinho beach  

3. Beach posing  4. Should I go in?

 5. After surfing  6. Beach friend 

7. Itacare  8. Brazil…  

9. View from our hostel  

10. Trancoso  

11. Björn with Brigitte Bardot  

12. Buzios

Itacare is Brazil s surf capital, so Bjoern was excited to get there. We got out of the bus to realize that the city s entire roads were under construction which spoiled the picture of a nice and relaxed surf town a little. The beaches however were the most beautiful we saw so far. In walking distance there are 4 beaches which are all good for surf, at one there are even national tournaments held. The fifth beach can be reached taking a 45 minutes hike through the jungle. Guides offered to take us there, but in order to save money we prefered to go on our own. We thought it could not be that hard just to follow one track, but it turned out to be quite an adventure when the track divided into two. In the end luck was on our side as we chose the right track. We arrived at the beach after 45 minutes, sweating like maniacs, and were stunned by the beautiful white sand, crystal clear water and perfect waves. Thanks to god I brought my board…

From Itacare we went on to Porto Seguro, which is loved by Brazilean s for it s holiday packages. We were there during low season so it was not overcrowded at all. We spent two days there laying at the beach and Jana hunting for cheap jewellery.

We took the ferryboat to Arrial d’Ayuda thinking it would take 2 hours and turned out only to be 5 minutes. Again it was beaches, beaches and beaches. We stayed in a hostel owned by a french guy and before sleeping had to kill 5 cockroaches which left Jana a little sleepless. After 3 days we went on to Trancoso, stayed 3 days more there and were on our way to Rio de Janeiro.

Upon arrival in Rio after an 18 hours bus ride we decided to take another bus for 2 hours to Buzios. Buzios is a beach resort for the rich and beautiful, but luckily it was low season so we were allowed as well. Bjoern made friends with Brigitte Bardot (but I did not get close to her mouth – Fon and Christian you know why). We stayed in a nice apartment owned by an argentinian/uruguayan couple (finally someone to speak spanish with), went surfing and walked around observing the rich ones…

Morro de Sao Paulo, Boipeba

1. Paradise  2. Snorkeling

3. Thumbs up 4. Tropical sea

5.Rainbow in Boipeba

 6.Damn i’m lucky

7. Model shot  8. Beach shooting

The ferryboat arrived in Morro de Sao Paulo leaving Bjoern seasick (I think i drank too many Caipiroskas on the night before). We were expected by a bunch of locals who tried to sell us their services to transport our backpacks with their shiny wheelbarrows, but we didn t fall for their trick. Instead we carried everything by ourselves which turned out to be not the best choice at all, because it took us almost 20 minutes to reach our hostal. You ll say that s nothing, but try to walk with a backpack of 20 kilos over beaches and uphill sections. We finally made it a little exhausted, arriving in paradise. Morro de Sao Paulo is a little touristy island, palm trees and crystal clear water inclusive.

Bjoern was kind of excited because of the surfable small waves and bought a used surfboard which from now on shall be his loyal companion. After entering the sea and trying to get used to the waves again, he came out of the water with several locals having driven over various parts of his legs. But they could just not stop him…

Those who know me know that i am a little bit afraid of sharks when it comes to surfing. Once some guys from Swiss tried to lower this fear by telling me that there are statistically more people killed by coconuts falling on their heads than by shark attacs. One evening Jana and I were having dinner when all of the sudden a guy walked in leaning on two concerned looking men. When we asked what happened they told us that he had be hit by a coconut. Hopefully i do not have to witness a shark attack as well…

From Morro de Sao Paulo we took a boat to Boipeba, a less touristy island with long, empty beaches, friendly locals and tropical climate. On our way there from Morro de Sao Paulo we made a stop in a natural pool which is formed by a reef with lots of different tropical fishes to see while snorkeling. Check out the pics it was amazing. We arrived one hour later in Boipeba after Bjoern had serious sunburns on his back. They just did not warn us that snorkeling without a shirt can be dangerous to your health…

A local 24 year old kid named Albino (he was really dark skinned, no joke) took us by the hand and showed us a nice hostal directly located at the center of the small village. There was a small supermarket which we could see from our balcony where the locals got wasted every day. When we asked Albino if the hostal would be calm he said there would be no problems with noises. On the second night Jana was taking a shower and I sat on the balcony when all of the sudden I heard music. I looked left and could not believe my eyes: a donkey was coming up the street with speakers on his back, the music on top volume and maybe 30 locals dancing around it. The whole procession went on to the supermarket where they met with the already wasted locals and then made their way through the town. We asked the hostal owner what was going on and he told us that it is low-season – not many tourists around so the locals party all the time. We spend aproximately 3 days in Boipeba at the beaches had freshly fished lobster directly at the beach and went off to Itacare – Surfer s paradise…

Salvador de Bahia, Brazil

1. Coconut water  

2. Beach time with Joana

3. Pretty close, huh 

4. Salvador city beach

5. Ferryboat to Morro de Sao Paulo 

 

When we took a closer look at the distances in Brazil we realized that it would take us more than a 30 hour bus ride to get from Sao Paulo to Salvador de Bahia. While we still consider ourselves to be young and healthy individuals we decided not to put ourselves in danger by the brazilean busdriving maniacs and caught a cheap flight from Sao Paulo to Salvador instead. We left Sao Paulo on a cloudy day, temperature maybe 15°C and landed two hours later in sunny Salvador boasting 30°C. Upon our arrival we took the airport bus to get to the city and arrived in the city s old town (Pelourinho) about when it got dark (17:30). Bjoern s spanish friend Pableras told us to spend the night there. The Pelourinho turned out to be a shady area with locals warning you not to enter any sidestreets if you don t want to get mugged. After meeting with Pableras and his brazilean girlfriend Joana on the first night they offered us to stay in Joana s place which we happily accepted. Thanks again you two for having us, it was so nice staying with you during our time in Salvador. Our 5 days in Salvador were characterized by taking sun, taking sun and taking sun with Joana and Pableras introducing us to the special brazilean art of doing so. Upon arrival at the beach you get a chair and sunshade from your local provider fro 2 real each. Then you try to eat and drink as much as you can, only interrupted by taking your occasional swim in the 27°C warm sea. We think Salvador is made for us.  We went to a handful of different beaches and had more food and drinks during the night. Our friends told us about the islands Morro de Sao Paulo and Boipeba, which could be reached by ferryboat in 2 hours so after 5 days we headed there…

Sao Paulo, Brazil

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.                  

 6.  7. 8.

1. In front of Sao Paulos second highest building; 2. View over Sao Paulo; 3. The magnificient two; 4. Church; 5. Dinner with Daddy; 6. Partytime; 7. The boys; 8. Daddy, Marcello, Jana

Sao Paulo is such a big city, it inhabits about 20 Billion People. It is brazil s cultural and work center, but also the gap between very rich and very poor is obvious on every corner. We stayed for 2 days in a hotel downtown wondering how many drunk and homeless people were around. We went up to Sao Paulos second highest building (for the highest you have to pay) from where you only see skyscrapers, a lot of them having landing platforms for helicopters. Sao Paulo is the city with the most airtraffic in the world. Luckily after two days we could change to the apartment of Bjoern s old soccer-teammate Detlef (Daddy) Massorz who works in Sao Paulo. It was like heaven being in a proper home after 2 months of hostels. Daddy showed us Sao Paulo s other side: restaurants and discotheques. If you have the money you can really enjoy your stay there: every kind of food is offered and the nightlife can be compared to the one in New York (I read). We went out a lot with Daddy s brazilian friend Marcello who promised to organize a proper brazilian barbecue when we are back in Sao Paulo around the 22. of may. We are looking forward to it…