Rainforest, Rio and reunions

The last few weeks have been incredible for me. In between having done some more travelling, I’ve reunited with friends who have also made it across to this side of the globe, and I can honestly say I’ve been having the time of my life. I’ve finally found some time to sit down and write about it, so I hope you enjoy the read!

We’ll start with the arrival of Aiden, a friend of mine and Lewis’s from uni in Nottingham. Aiden had been working in Porto Alegre for two months, and he came and spent his last week in Brazil with us. The same weekend that Aiden got here, Cesco, another friend from Nottingham, came to visit us before setting off on his own Brazilian adventure in Florianópolis. Cesco’s visit was brief, but it was great to be surrounded by familiar faces again, even if only for a short time! Aiden’s week with us started off with a trip to Samba do Sol. Samba do Sol is a really fun and chilled event held every Sunday in São Paulo. Samba music is played live, and revellers dance the night away, with the samba moves of the Brazilian crowd putting our gringo dance moves to shame. A couple of days into Aiden’s stay, we headed to Beco de Batman, a street famous in the Vila Madalena neighbourhood of São Paulo which is famous for its graffiti. Personally, I was slightly underwhelmed by it. The street art is good, but I think there is better art in other places throughout the city. I also made the mistake of going later in the day when there were no street vendors around, so it is possible I didn’t get the full experience. Something far more up my street was Praça Pôr do Sol, literally meaning Sunset Square. Anyone who knows me (or even just follows me on Instagram) will know how much I love a good sunset, so what could be better than a square dedicated entirely to watching the sunset? Not much, in my opinion.

Cesco, Aiden, Lewis and me during our short reunion

After four days in São Paulo, it was time to head north for our trip to the Amazon rainforest. We had been excited about this trip for weeks, and it definitely did not disappoint. We spent our first night in Manaus, the capital city of the Amazonas state. The area around the famous Teatro Amazonas is pleasant, with a number of bars and restaurants scattering the edge of the square, looking onto the impressive theatre. Once you leave the space immediately next to this square however, Manaus leaves a little to be desired. The streets feel slightly sketchy after nightfall, and there doesn’t seem to be much to see, although I didn’t spend long enough in the city to really get a good feel for it.

With our night in Manaus complete, it was finally time to head to the rainforest! We had booked our tour through a company called Amazon Riders, which was suggested to us by our hostel. We were picked up from the hostel in the morning and from there we set off on our adventure with a very friendly guide called Rafael. He drove us down to the river, where we got onto a speedboat to take us across the river. Halfway through the speedboat journey, we came across the famous Meeting of the Waters, which is where the dark Rio Negro and the paler Rio Solimões meet, and you can see a clear distinction between the two rivers as they join. This difference in colour occurs due to a difference in density, speed and temperature of the water of both rivers, and it’s quite an incredible sight. Once we reached the other side of the river, we were taken in a camper van across to another river, where a canoe was waiting for us to complete the final leg of our journey to the Amazon Ipanema Lodge, which consisted of a number of little huts on the riverside. We unpacked our belongings and headed to the main hut where we had a delicious lunch of fish, chicken, rice and feijão (a traditional Brazilian bean dish), followed by a quick swim in the river before getting ready for the first part of our tour.

Our first Amazon adventure was to go piranha fishing. After being told a number of horror stories about people getting their fingers bitten off by piranhas, Lewis, Aiden and I headed off on our canoe, along with two Argentinians and our new guide Tucano. Once we reached the Laguna do Piranha, we were all handed fishing rods and bait, and after a quick demonstration by our guide, it was our turn to start fishing. Surprisingly, I was the first of us to catch one, and I managed to successfully get it over to Tucano with everyone’s fingers still intact! After about an hour of fishing we had caught about 10 piranhas between us (with the exception of Aiden, who failed to catch one), and it was time to move on to the next part of our tour. We stopped at a sort of lake and here we could spot the Amazon’s very own freshwater dolphins whilst watching the sunset, which all in all was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Aiden, Lewis and I even got to get in the river and swim amongst dolphins as the sun was setting behind us! It was an unforgettable experience. As night fell, we headed back to the lodge, caiman spotting along the way. Tucano was absolutely incredible at spotting the gleam of the caimans' eyes from a long distance away and silently canoeing over to them. Eventually, he managed to catch one with a sort of lasso and after winding its mouth with rope so it couldn’t bite, he hauled it on board. I refrained from touching it as I felt sorry for it being hauled out of the water, but it was still cool to see. With the caiman released back into the water, we made our way back to the lodge where we had yet another delicious meal, before going to bed to prepare ourselves for our jungle hike the following day.

Aiden, Lewis and me swimming amongst dolphins in
front of the sunset in the Amazon 

We woke up just before 7am for our jungle hike, and ate breakfast at the lodge before heading off. We took the canoe deeper into the rainforest, and then proceeded on foot further into the jungle. The first stop on our hike was a tree which contained an ants’ nest. According to Tucano, these ants served as a natural insect repellent, so we all allowed the ants to cover our hands and arms before crushing them to form this supposed insect repellent. I’m not convinced it worked as Aiden still got bitten on his hands, so all in all the only thing we gained from it was probably the slightly uncomfortable sensation of hundreds of ants crawling over us. Along the hike, Tucano pointed out several different plants and explained their medicinal purposes. One of these was a tree believed to have anti-malarial properties, which he encouraged us all to take a bite of. Verdict on that one? Tasted absolutely grim, and judging by the smile on Tucano’s face, might not even have had anti-malarial properties. We will never know. On another of our stops along the way, Tucano made us plaited bracelets out of some kind of tree, so we now all have a piece of the Amazon with us at all times. Tucano also made me a crown out of a plant called palmeira de coco babaçu, allowing me to pretend I was queen of the jungle, which obviously I loved. On our way back to the canoe, Tucano spotted a poisonous tarantula, and with extreme skill managed to tie it up with a string before handing it over to each of us. I’m not going to say it wasn’t scary having a poisonous tarantula that close to me, but it was pretty incredible. We then went back to the lodge, where we had a lunch that included the piranhas we had caught the previous day, which was cool. After lunch we packed up and got back on the canoe to start our journey back to Manaus, as our time in the rainforest had sadly come to an end. A trip to the Amazon rainforest is an unbelievable experience, and one which I would absolutely recommend to anyone.

Freshly caught piranhas for lunch 

The end of our time in the Amazon also meant Aiden’s time with us was coming to an end. We arrived back in São Paulo on the Sunday, having spent the Saturday night in Manaus, and went for a final meal before Aiden’s departure. Tilly’s sister Freya also arrived that day, so she joined us for the meal. After the meal it was time to say goodbye to Aiden. After a long hug and quite a few tears from me as I won’t see him until my return to the UK next summer, Aiden set off on his way home. The start of the next week I spent mostly with Tilly and Freya (follow Freya’s food Instagram at @the_grubhub!), before we flew to Rio de Janeiro later in the week. I also went for a lovely meal to Bráz Pizzaria with Lewis, Gabi, and Lewis’s parents, who were visiting for the week, which was a really fun evening. On Thursday, it was time to go to Rio! I was joined on this trip by Tilly, Freya, Will, our American friend Richard, and Will’s friend Cat, who was going to be setting off on a tour of Brazil leaving from Rio on the Friday.

Upon arrival in Rio, we headed straight out to see Sugarloaf Mountain. Rather than taking the easy route and doing both stages by cable car (which I obviously would have preferred) we decided to hike the first half of the journey. Here I discovered how unfit I am, as halfway up I was honestly prepared to sacrifice myself to the gods and die, I was that tired. Thankfully, we made it to the top without any casualties, and got the cable car up to the very top of Sugarloaf (hallelujah!). The view from the top of the mountain was absolutely insane, and it was an amazing start to our time in Rio, despite the sweaty climb that preceded it. For our first dinner in Rio, we decided to go all out. We found a churrascaria called Churrascaria Palace that looked incredible, and headed over there. Churrascarias are Brazilian-style barbeques, where the meat is all you can eat and is brought round by waiters on skewer-like things. You point to where you want the meat cut from and they chop it off straight onto your plate. It was an absolutely out-of-this-world meal. The meat was phenomenal, and there was a buffet with fish and veg which was also included in the price. Incredible. The Friday was devoted to going to see Cristo Redentor, or Christ the Redeemer, and I can definitely understand why he is one of the wonders of the world. The statue is immense. I massively underestimated how big it would be. It is genuinely enormous. It’s also completely swarming with tourists, as you would expect, which makes it relatively hard to get a decent picture. Still very impressive though. One thing I would suggest would be to not bother with the train to the top, as we had to wait two hours to get on it, which is a bit of a pain in the arse. Instead, get a minibus, as apparently this is less prone to having enormous queues.

Friday night was host to yet another reunion. My friend Meg, again a friend from uni in Nottingham, is doing an eco project near Rio, so she came and stayed in Rio for a couple of nights while we were there. It was so nice to see her, especially as she spent the second semester of second year in Mexico so other than one day in June, I hadn’t seen her since December. She joined us for our beach day at Ipanema beach on the Saturday before our night out that evening. Ipanema beach is lovely, but it is also absolutely rammed with people, so it’s best to get there earlier in the day to secure a spot. We had a great day before heading out for a few hours on the night, which ended early when we came to the realisation that the club we were in was absolutely awful and we’d rather be in bed. Our Sunday started off with a trip to the Museum of Tomorrow, a really interesting science museum that focuses on our impact on the world and how the world is going to change based on global trends at the moment. We then walked over the Escadaria Selarón, the world-famous steps by Chilean artist Jorge Selarón. The steps are beautiful, although, as is the case with most tourist attractions in Rio, they are also absolutely covered in people.

The latter half of Sunday was my favourite part – it was time for me to fulfil a lifelong dream, a dream inspired by Barry Manilow’s ‘Copacabana’, with the key lyrics behind the inspiration being ‘her name was Lola, she was a showgirl, with yellow feathers in her hair [...] at the Copa, Copacabana’. The night before I had scoured the street markets for some yellow feathers until stumbling upon a shuttlecock made up of green and yellow feathers – success! Shuttlecock purchased, I dismantled it pre-Copacabana trip so the yellow feathers were loose, and here followed a photoshoot on Copacabana beach with my yellow feathers in my hair, achieving my dream. We finished the day with a beautiful meal at Joana Pizza and Bar in Ipanema, where they do amazing (and cheap!) pizzas in a relaxed environment.

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl

Our final day in Rio was filled up with yet another hike, this time to Dois Irmãos. We got a motorbike through a favela to reach the start of the trail, and then proceeded to start our trek. There were monkeys jumping between trees on the way up, which made the hike slightly less painful. When we (finally) reached the top, we were greeted by the most incredible view of Rio, which made the hike completely worth it. On our way back down, we walked through the favela, which was an interesting experience as it’s so clearly different to the rest of Rio. With our trip to Rio over, we said our goodbyes to Freya at the airport on Tuesday morning as she started her trip back to England, and we headed back to São Paulo. It was actually really nice to get back to São Paulo after so much time away, and it was extra lovely to be reunited with Lewis, as he hadn’t come to Rio due to his parents having been in São Paulo.

Tilly, me, Will and Freya at Dois Irmãos

I’ve just noticed I’ve been writing for a while now, so I’ll stop here. Thank you to everyone who read this far, and I hope you enjoyed this blog!

Beijos,
Lola