Brazil

Our memorable Brazilian moments will always include the scarily steep streets of Ouro Preto...

And the exotic flowers that flourish in the hot, humid, tropical air…

The rainy season has begun, and Brazil was hit repeatedly with major storms throughout our time here, but the everchanging skies have given us some wonderful vistas…

Brazil is a very large country and, luckily, we have been well away from the severely flooded areas where many people have died. Although we have witnessed, (and enjoyed), many thunderous tropical downpours, none have interfered with our plans. Our only weather incident was when our guide got our car stuck in the flooded sand dunes of Jericoacuara after a vicious storm and partially ripped off the front bumper. Seeing the streets of Paraty inundated by the high tide was a particular joy…

Some interesting things to know before you go: Very few Brazilians speak English and, surprisingly, even fewer seem to speak Spanish. However, there are many similarities between written Portuguese and Spanish, so we were able to communicate reasonably well – and there is always Google Translate. By the way: this sign on the lawn of an upmarket shopping mall in Manaus doesn’t mean what you might think…

Brazilian law requires that preferential service is given to all seniors over 60 in all public facilities and we constantly found ourselves by-passing the line-ups as we were (reluctantly) pushed to the front…

Most, if not all, attractions are half price, or free, for seniors but we pretended not to understand and insisted on paying whenever we could. Dogs are welcome everywhere and seem very well behaved. Supermarkets even provide kennel-equipped carts for those taking Fido shopping…

Brazil is more than three-quarters the size of Europe with indigenous tribes in Amazonia who have never been in contact with the outside world. However, through colonisation and resource exploitation, the cities of Brazil are not significantly different to many in Europe. The supermarkets and stores are as good as we might expect anywhere, and Carrefour hypermarkets and C&A stores seem to be everywhere. With a few exceptions the food is universal – especially, American, Italian and Japanese – but these casava flour cheese puffs (pao de queijo), seem to be the national dish and are served at almost every meal…

In short – there is nothing to frighten Granny here in Brazil and we have had a great adventure for the past month. But now we are heading north to the island of Puerto Rico: our gateway to the Caribbean Islands.

Two and a half hours upriver from Manaus we set off into the Amazon jungle armed to the teeth with a survivalist’s kit of: mosquito repellent; bite-cream; anti-malaria tablets; fungicides; assorted plasters; ear plugs; and a boy scout knife with a tool for removing stones from horse’s hooves which, according to Google, could be useful for prising open the jaws of piranhas or thrust into the eye of an attacking jaguar. This carefree group of delightful young Brits, (without as much as an aspirin between them), accompanied us on our first foray…

Jaguars, capybaras, guinea pigs, howler monkeys, sloths, and wild boars, successfully hid from us in the dense jungle as we scanned the riverbanks for signs of life, but then a troupe of squirrel monkeys just couldn’t resist the tasty banana treats our guide had thoughtfully brought along…

Numerous birds made themselves scarce as we approached, and then waited until we were just out of camera range before laughing at us. However, some birds simply kept very still and hoped that we wouldn’t notice them in the bush. These parrots were well camouflaged…

But then we discovered they were actually pets who could talk and sing.
This one at our jungle camp was especially friendly with staff member Maria…

And when we weren't hunting for animals we could always watch for fish from the camp's palapa...

Having had problems sleeping in tropical places because of nocturnal noises, we were prepared with our earplugs. We needn’t have bothered. The frogs and cicadas all respected the camp’s 10pm noise curfew, (although nothing could drown out the daily thunderous downpours or the crack of fireworks from a nearby community celebrating a football match).
Swimming with pink dolphins and fishing for the giant piracucu fish were two of the attractions that drew us to Amazonia. Unlike the shoals of diminutive piranhas with razor-sharp teeth capable of stripping the flesh off a dead horse in minutes, the monstrous piracucu fish are probably big enough to swallow a small horse whole. Although the biggest piracucu can weigh more than 450 pounds the one that James caught was a 200 pound lightweight…

But wait a minute! It looks like this fish was in a tank, (and the line had no hook – only bait). But then there were the adorable pink dolphins…

They were definitely wild and not in a tank. But, just like the monkeys and parrots, they knew which side of their bread was buttered or, in the case of dolphins, which sardine smelled the freshest.
We are, of course, teasing a little. Not all the creatures were tame – this slender stringlike snake might have given us a nasty nip…

Although this pretty butterfly seemed innocuous enough…

As for the plants? The jungle is not a good place to look for flowers but there is a real standout in Amazonia. It is the giant waterlily with pads more than four feet in diameter. And when this flower blooms it will be a monster…

After 5 days in the jungle, we returned to Manaus without a bite or a scratch and with our survivalist’s kit unopened. However, we will hang onto our boy scout knife – one day on our travels we might run into a lame horse!

By the time you read this we will be living in a thatched hut somewhere deep in the Amazon jungle. It will almost certainly be raining, but don’t feel sorry for us. Before we left Manaus we stayed in a lofty hotel on the river’s bank…

It has an atrium 16 storys high…

During the day we swam in the hotel’s pool fourteen floors beneath our balcony …

And in the evening we went to see a show at one of the most incredible theatres in the world. The musical was based on the story of American circus impresario, Phineas T. Barnum. While the dialogue was in Portuguese and difficult for us to follow, all the songs were in English. And dancing is dancing…

However, it was the theatre that we truly wanted to see as it is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful theaters in the world…

This is the Renaissance Revival “Teatro Amazonas” in the historic center of Manaus city. It was inaugurated in 1896 for the Amazonian elites who had made their fortunes from the surrounding rubber plantations. The interior has changed little in the past 137 years…

All of the materials to build the theatre were brought by ship across the Atlantic and then 1,450 kilometres up the Amazon River to Manaus. While ocean going ships travelling one and half thousand kilometres inland may seem a stretch, the Amazon is twelve times the size of the mighty Mississippi and is fed by over a thousand tributaries. It discharges so much fresh water into the Atlantic that it is still drinkable more than 160 kilometres into the open sea.

We have much still to learn about the Amazon and will be doing it offline, and off the internet, in a jungle retreat until next Wednesday. Then we hope to return with wondrous tales of the people and the creatures we have met in the tropical rainforests of Amazonia.
In the meantime, comiserations to our friends at home who are digging out from under another snowstorm. We are sending you warm wishes from Amazonia.

Airport hotels may seem a strange topic for our 750th blog post, especially as we have now passed a travel milestone, (no pun intended). Our blog site mileage tracker tells us we have travelled more than half a million miles in the past 14 years. Equivalent to circling the globe 22 times. In that time, we have spent many hundreds of hours in more than five hundred airports on every continent except Antartica. We enjoy airports. Every airport is a gateway to a new adventure and, in many cases, it is portal to a time machine. This is today’s airport – Forteleza, Brazil…

The time machines are the airplanes that shift our autumn to spring and winter to summer. But, way beyond that, they often transport us back in time to an era where oxen still pull carts and plough paddies; to places where electricity and running water are only for the rich; to visit cultures still locked in ways we might consider medieval – this was Myanmar in 2013...

And sometimes we are catapulted forward in time to places where maglev trains fly at 500 kilometres an hour; where robot delivery vehicles and driverless taxis effortlessly zip around the cities; where societies like Sweden no longer use cash….

Brazil is not far behind Sweden on the path to being cashless and we have used credit cards for almost everything here. But this blog is about airport hotels. There have been many movies, and some real life experiences, of people living in airports for extended periods. We are definitely not living in an airport, however, we seem to have spent a lot of time in airport hotels on this trip. We will have spent eight nights in airport hotels by the time we get home and our best description of them would be – blah!
But every so often we hit a diamond. And this is it. The Intercontinental Residence and Hospitality. (R.I.O.) in Cumbuco…

R.I.O does not claim to be an airport hotel – it is actually 36 kilometres from the airport – but we had previously tried an actual airport in Forteleza and decided that anywhere within a hundred miles would be better as long as we could catch our midday flight to Manaus. But what a gem!
The French owner, and head chef, Olivier, has created a most enchanting tropical oasis.
The incredible pool is surrounded by lush tropical gardens…

Spacious rooms, beautifully designed and furnished with luxurious bedding and even hammocks on the verandah overlooking the pool, just add to the ambience…

While everything at R.I.O. was gorgeous, the meals created by Olivier were simply divine. For dinner - homemade lobster ravioli, seared fresh tuna, black angus entrecôte steak and the most delicate crème brûlée imaginable. And, for breakfast: an amazing variety of tropical fruits, crepes, croque monsieur et al. And, unquestionably, some of the best croissants and baguette we have ever had.
We already know that we will spend the rest of our travelling days trying to think of a reason to re-visit Fortaleza just so that we can stay again at R.I.O. and enjoy the incredible culinary experiences created by Olivier. This is Olivier…

And this is our first view of the mighty Amazon River where we will be spending the next week…

With the mercury hitting thirty-five and vultures swirling in the thermals above the dunes we could be in the Sahara. But we are actually in The Doldrums – just 3 degrees south of the Equator – at a place that is closer to Africa than to the westernmost provinces of Brazil. This is just a part of the beach at Jericoacoara…

During the ‘Great Days of Sail’, the perpetually windless oceans 5 degrees either side of the Equator, known as the Doldrums, were more fearful for sailors than the Roaring 40s or even the Screaming 60s. Many sailors were becalmed for weeks, or sometimes months, under the relentless sun off this coast and perished through thirst, starvation, scurvy, and even madness. However, when the heavy, moisture laden, air reaches the coast of Brazil it billows into cumulus clouds that burst into tropical downpours...

Fortunately, we are now thousands of kilometres away from the devastating floods that have killed many in southern Brazil in the very places we were staying just two weeks ago. Many of our days in the Doldrums have been far from sunny, but Jericoacoara is not renowned for its sunny skies and windless ocean. It’s a village known for its sand. It is built on sand. Everything is sand. The roads are sand…

The village streets and sidewalks are sand...

And the sand road to get here winds its way 11 kilometres through mountainous dunes of sand…

Jericoacoara is a world away from Brazil’s teeming cities with their multi-ethnic populations and seemingly unfathomable social problems. It is a place where middle-class Brazilians come to build their sandcastles on the beaches of pricey resorts and to race dune buggies, dirt bikes and horses across the dunes….

It is a vast desert with sandy marshes that bloom in the daily downpours…

It is an oasis in a sea of sand where birds nest in the palm trees and giant iguanas hide in their shade...

For us, Jericoacoara is a place of respite between the freneticism of Carnival in Salvador and our next adventure deep into the Amazon jungle.