Leave a trail

[aron285]

Brazil: carnival and drinking

Brazil is famous for its carnival and for its parties. But are these parties as good as people say? The answer: it depends on what you like! One thing is clear for me after spending three and a half months in Brazil: Brazilians don’t dance nearly as much as I thought they would! Don’t get me wrong, most of them love dancing and there are many great dancers around. But the Brazilian way of partying is just very different from what I would call a party. One great example is New Years at Copacabana in Rio. I have to say, the fireworks were incredible!! But after that there were only a few big stages with popular Brazilian music, which is not great for dancing. People just stand around or sit and drink their beers. Yes they get wasted, but for me that’s not a party, that’s called drinking! On New Years Eve we walked around for hours and didn’t find anything entertaining, just utterly bored.  

I spent carnival in the North East of the country, in Recife and Olinda. Supposedly the most traditional of the big carnival parties in Brazil, it was big for sure! All streets in Olinda were flooded with people, especially on the day. This is where Maracatu and Frevo is played. That means a lot of drums and typical, local dances. Fun! There wasn´t that much music though. I guess for the amount of people, it´s quite hard to arrange music everywhere in town. You would find loads of people making out, cheap beers everywhere. Carnival here is super cheap! I haven´t spend more than 15 euros on a full day of drinking, amazing! At the small beach they played Coco, a local music and dance. I love this music so much, so much fun dancing on the sand with a lot of amazing dancers around! For me, this is the best of carnival!  

Recife Antigo (the old part of town) is the place for big concerts! Sometimes a lot of fun, sometimes too crowded, this is the place where people party at night. It is great fun! Some nights here had nothing to do with carnival. Nobody uses costumes, so it’s the same as a huge festival! I guess that’s why I actually prefer the Dutch carnival, since almost everyone really dresses up! Too bad it’s in winter though, and I find the music quite terrible. But hey if you drink enough…  

So, carnival is a lot of fun with parties everywhere! But, I hoped that people would have more costumes and that there would be more music in Olinda. For Brazilians it´s mostly about drinking beers and making out with other people. And that happens a lot!

[aron285]

Brazil: sex!

Then sex, there's a lot to say! Brazilians are known to have a lot of sex, and it's true! Girls can be pretty straightforward, and guys even more. In a bar or club, guys will literally try anything to get a girl. And it works! With a few beers, talks don't matter, friends don't count, the sole purpose is to get laid! Surely not all people are like that, but not many Brazilians would disagree with me.  

If you are European and blonde, guys and girls will line up for you. It really doesn't matter what you do, people will try to hunt you down! Especially for many guys that would be called heaven. I mean, how do you refuse a beautiful Brazilian girl? They make their purpose very clear: let's go home and **** until you die! The main difference between Brazilians and west Europeans? The energy! Brazilians rarely want to stop and really seem to need much more sex than us in our cold countries.  

Then, let's talk about diseases! Do Brazilians use condoms all the time? Do they do STD tests? No and no! Especially a clear no to the second one, even though the tests are for free! There is a lot of sex going on, often without condom, and many people have never done an STD test. So guys and girls, after visiting Brazil and having some special activities, do some tests!  

Cheating, also a lot of that going on! I've talked to (especially) guys who really don't seem to care about cheating. A few guys: yeah during my last relationship I cheated at least 10 times. Well I guess she has done it as well! Whatever! That's why there are more and more open relationships in Brazil. At least you cannot cheat then, because it's allowed. And for many people it works, so why not then? But you tell me, is there an ideal kind of relationship?

[aron285]

Brazil: Beers and music

Brazil has a lot of different kinds of music to offer! There is a lot of samba around Rio, forró in the North East, reggae around Belem, capoeira mainly around Salvador and loads of other kinds you´ve probably never come across! Every music style has a specific dance and there are plenty of variations. Am I a big fan? Not really… I like watching capoeira (the fighting dance) and I tried once as well (it was awesome!) and reggae is one of my favorite genres, but the main load is samba in the South and forró in the North East. Even though those are nice to dance for a while, I find especially samba a bad choice if you want to party. The way most people dance samba is utterly boring, and most bands play the same music over and over again.  

Brazilians love to drink beer at any occasion! Wherever, whenever, you should join! I have no problem with that haha, but the beers are not exactly good. Skol, itaipava, brahma, schin etc taste kind of like beer, but somewhat watery! Brazilians who have been to Europe agree instantly, there is a huge difference. There are, however, great microbreweries with some high quality beers. If found them especially around Belo Horizonte en Sao Paulo, but there might be more!

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Brazil: Nature

Brazil has many beautiful places! The problem? Everything is so damn far apart! Often you need to travel a thousand km just to get to the next park or town, not exactly around the corner. So what does it have to offer?  

The North East is mostly beaches! Huge stretches of white/ yellow sand without any people in sight. Beautiful backpacker towns like Pipa, Canoa Quebrada and the jewel Jericoacoara, in the middle of the dunes with parties on the beach and a stunning lagoon nearby. The mainland is quite dry and flat and there is not too much to see, except for Chapada Diamantina (in Bahia). This national park is stunning, with lush green rainforest, plenty of waterfalls, impressive mountains and at night cool air. Plenty of trails, it is easy to get of the tourist track and guesthouses within the park to suit everybody’s needs.  

Then the South East! Especially the States Minas Gerais (!), Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo offer a lot of hiking in the green mountains. The weather might be a bit unstable in the summer, but there are many trekkings and dayhikes you can do. And they are not crowded at all (Brazilians are not such big mountain fans, but everyone flocks to the beaches in summer). Beaches they have as well! But in contrast to the North East, it can get super crowded here! It’s just too close to the big cities.  

The South offers great beaches, huge canyons and, of course, Iguazu falls. The waterfalls are huge (monstrous!), stunning and one of the most beautiful pieces of nature I have ever seen (and I think that says a lot). Especially the devil’s throat (the biggest waterfalls) is really extreme! Even though it must be a 100 meters high, it is more a huge rapid than a waterfall. It has around 1.5 million liters of water per second flowing through it. Worth every penny!  

Then there are huge canyons you can spend weeks in exploring! The best know is Aparados, quite easy to visit on a day trip from Porto Alegre or Florianopolis. Amazing views into the canyon and some pretty amazing trees and waterfalls! The beaches around Florianopolis are probably the best in this region, but very crowded in summer as well.  

Of course there is the amazon with a huge amount of rivers to explore. I didn’t see that much of the amazon, so I don’t have an interesting opinion about it.  

So… Brazil has a lot to offer, but distances are huge. You can either spend a lot of time on the road, or spend a bit more on flights (they are not that expensive if you book well in advance). Enjoy!

[aron285]

Brazil: food and self service

Brazil has a great self-service concept, meaning that you can take any kind of food you want from the buffet and you pay per kilogram. Generally not very expensive, you´ll find these kind of restaurants in every town! Most of the times the food is good and you get to choose from chicken, beef and fish with rice, spaghetti and beans, many times with some good salads.  

Apart from that I find food in Brazil utterly boring. They don´t use a lot of spices and not enough salt (for my taste anyway), and the main food is the same almost everywhere. On every plate you´ll get rice and beans and you can choose beef, chicken or fish. After a few weeks I was aching for something else, after a few months I just couldn´t eat it anymore. Luckily in some places you do find different kinds of food, like in the amazon or tapioca in the North East. So everywhere I´m looking for the self-service restaurants, which gives you some choice. Brazil does have a huge variety of fruits! I’ve come across dozens of fruits that I’ve never seen before!

[aron285]

Brazil: Beaches and the weather

  Brazil has brilliant beaches! Generally, the further you go towards the North East, the better, the emptier and the less polluted the beaches are (that doesn´t mean they are bad in the South)! Go in the right season and you´ll spend weeks without seeing a cloud. But burn you will! The sun is super strong in the North East, and with the constant breeze on the beaches you won´t realize that until the end of the day. Well, too late!

  In summer in the South around Rio and Sao Paulo it gets real crowded on the beaches. Locals and international tourists alike flock to the beaches! The funny thing is that foreigners expect sunshine and blue skies every day. But January and February is kind of the rainy season, meaning that you´ll get wet pretty often!   Brazil gets real hot in summer and it´s always hot in the North and North East! You´d expect that Brazilians are used to it by now, but this is far from true! I feel like they complain just as much about the heat as we Dutch people complain about the bad weather in our little country, if not more! Because we grow up with a big range of temperatures, we are very resistant to any kind of weather. Brazilians from the North East find it too cold below 25 and too hot over 30 degrees. Imagine them visiting Europe in winter!

[aron285]

Brazil: Dangers and hitchhiking

Brazil is known to be dangerous, especially in the big cities. We have all heard the stories of assaults, guns and robberies. After months in the country, these are still stories for me. Luckily nothing happened to me and I’ve seen nothing terrible happen. The daily news shows the people terrible things that happen across the country. But like everywhere in the world, the news forgets to show the beautiful side of the picture. Brazilians are super friendly, but partly due to the propaganda of the news everyone is blinded by the fear of all the dangers. Lets say you would give the country’s actual danger a grade 6 (whatever the level is). If you would ask the locals, the answer would most likely be a 9 or 10 on the same scale. This is what the news and the stories of people around you can do to you. And yes, it clouds their judgement a lot!  

I’ve hitchhiked all across the country and found it extremely difficult. By far the most difficult country I’ve hitched so far. In six or seven occasions I didn’t succeed to get to my (very reasonable) destination before it got dark. And you really don’t want to end up in the dark in an unknown place in Brazil. Buses are quite expensive (also due to the huge distances), so I’ve spend a lot more money than I wanted to. Especially around Bahia (the state in the North East) the people are super scared of anything and everyone. At a huge gas station I must have asked over a hundred truck drivers, but none of them wanted to help me. Even telling them you are a European traveling won’t help a thing, it might even make them more afraid of me. Many times they lied about their destination, just to get rid of me. They say they are going North, and you see them going South after. What can you do against such fear? It’s a habit Brazilians grow up with.

Not everywhere in Brazil it is like this. There are plenty of smaller towns that are pretty safe and pleasant. Next to that, Minas Gerais (another state) is far more easy to hitchhike and it’s lots safer on the streets.

[aron285]

Iguazu falls!

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Amazing sunset at Porto Alegre

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Beach at Trindade, near Paraty, Brazil

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  Travessa Petropolis Teresopolis

This trekking just North of Rio is totally worth the effort! It has amazing green scenery, with huge rock formations and views all over Rio. The trek is seriously hard, with a big climb and many huge hills you have to ascent and descent. You won't find many tourists on the middle part, which makes it even more interesting!

[aron285]

Ouro Preto and Mariana

These two towns are nestled in the mountains with beautiful sceneries, plenty of waterfalls and lakes! But that’s not why most people come to Ouro Preto. They are here because of the history, the beautiful churches and the gold mines. This used to be prime area for gold mining, the biggest production in the World! The gold finished a long time ago and now these pretty towns are left. With a big student population it also hosts a great nighlife scene and plenty of bars to choose from. Enjoy the pictures!

[aron285]

[aron285]

Chapada Diamantina

Chapada Diamantina is a beautiful national park, with many waterfalls, very dense rainforest but also big rocks and high plains. It has a lot to offer to trekkers, with some relaxed backpacker villages.

Many trails are difficult to find and I would have been completely lost without my offline maps and gps on my tablet. The first day and a half I felt far away from civilisation, trying to find my way through dense forest and no other people in sight. A lot harder than I expected, but the next days were easier and equally stunning. And hot it is here in summer, around 35-38 degrees with no clouds in sight. Walking from water to water, that is. 

I saw some giant frogs, one campsite was seriously mosquito infested (since I was the only one there, it was a lot of fighting) and I had to deal with some big rats (one I hit, it started twitching and it died instantly). An interesting adventure with fireflies at night (some green ones as well) and getting up at 4:45 every morning to make the most of the “cool” morning. 

Every year a part of the park will catch fire in the dry season and locals are fighting day and night to stop it. Sadly the government is not doing anything about it and apparently it´s always people that start it. This year the fire was really big, but it didn´t really damage any of the touristy areas. Sadly, it did damage some of the villages around. Lets hope the government will give a shit in the future and do something about it! 

Now, I will just let you enjoy the pictures. See ya!

[aron285]

Some impressions of Porto de Galinhas and Maracaipe. Great place to camp, with amazing sunsets!

[aron285]

Recife, Olinda and pre-carnival celebrations!

I arrived in Recife with the goal to learn some dances (forró or samba), but I learned only a little. I did have an amazing time though, with a great music festival, pre-carnival celebrations and nice beaches. Not to mention amazing people I spent time with during 10 days of party and time on the beach. Especially Olinda is a beautiful, colorful town with amazing views from the hilltop. After extending three or four times (and changing hosts) it is time to hit the road again. Porto de Galinhas, I´ll be there in a few hours!

[aron285]

Natal

 Natal doesn’t have much for tourists except the beaches, but it has a beautiful forest outside the city. My host Bia brought me and some other couchsurfers there and had an amazing time. Walking a slackline, long talks about life and love while enjoying the sunshine and refreshing water. Perfect! Thank you so much for everything Bia! On an afternoon I started hitchhiking South, but nobody picked me up. Two guys in a pick up drove by a couple of times and I didn’t trust it, so I quickly crossed the highway and went back to my host. I do need to be careful here! The day after I was picked up really quickly and made it to the next city in no time, amazing lunch included!