Cafayate is located in the Calchaqui Valley, about 183km away south of Salta, and famous for its wine production. I booked myself into a day tour which departed at about 7.30am and brought us back about 5.30pm.
The road to Cafayate goes through the Quebrada de las Concas, a series of capricious and rock formations with some amazing view points.
Some views from Quebrada Las de Conchas
The moment I got into Salta, my first reaction was “WOAH! It is really hot here!”. For a moment I felt like I was in a desert with the dry heat!
It took me a while to settle down and also to avoid the heat, before deciding to head out to explore the city.
It’s another nice perfect and hot day, as I pack my bags and get ready to head to the Argentina side of the Iguaçu Falls, before being dropped off at the hostel in Puerto Iguaçu (Argentina). A group of 11 of us from the hostel were going there today, and Iguaçu Falls is one place which is not so enjoyable when visiting alone, especially when there are so many good photo opportunities!
We arrived at the Cataratas Del Iguaçu (Waterfalls of Iguaçu in Spanish) at about 10.30am and spent the whole day here (in contrast to just about 4 hours on Brazil side). The longer duration on the Argentina side was mainly due to the waiting time for the trains which when added up could be as long as 2 hours. There were also 3 different trails one must explore in this place (vs. only 1 main trail on Brazil side).
In addition, we also took the jungle + boat ride on the Argentina side which took approximately 1.5hour to complete.
Wow! The weather is hot here! Total contrast from the weather in the other parts of Brazil I had been in for the last 1 week.
As I will only be spending a night in Foz do Iguaçu, I quickly dropped my stuff shortly after arriving and headed out towards the Iguaçu Falls. Entrance fee wasn’t cheap, but it is definitely a MUST SEE in Brazil.
It was absolutely stunning and magnificent! Words alone can’t describe the view, and there was a really well laid out path to walk and view the falls.
Leonardo took some time out from work this afternoon and drove me to Mirante do Moro da Cruz, a hill in the middle of Florianopolis, to get a good birds-eye-view of the city.
He subsequently dropped me of at the centro to visit some sights while he headed back home to work.
The downtown area of Florianopolis is a rather compact town filled with repetitive shops selling similar items, as well as a couple of churches and a market (Mercado Publico Municipal), which I felt was the most interesting to visit in the whole downtown.
Leonardo brought me out to a Samba Club last night in a quaint little house near a fishing village, and boy was it crowded for a Sunday night! Cars lined the street for miles around, and when we got into the club, it was packed!
This is also probably the cheapest bar that I had gone to since arriving in Brazil, with a cover charge of BRL10.00 and caipirinha at BRL5.00 per glass!
We squeezed our way through to the outside area on the other end of the entrance, where we could get a good view of the band, which played really good samba music when we were there.
We headed to the southern part of the island to do some trekking, as Leandro (Leonardo’s brother) and his friend Selyo will be heading to Bolivia and Peru and will be trekking Macchu Picchu.
It was a fairly easy trail as most of the route was paved, and with some steep terrains. The view though was absolutely picturesque as we climbed the hill and got to see the Atlantic Ocean during the trek.
I arrived in Florianopolis and headed to Leonardo’s house. The moment I got into the house I was WOW-ed! It was a penthouse, with a large area split over two floors and with great panoramic sea view.
“So sorry, I can’t believe I locked you out last night.” Melissa said to me when she stepped into the house at noon, shortly after I had woken up.
She continued “I must have been really tired and went to sleep and I remembered I was dreaming of different bells ringing. And after a while my actual conscience started processing and I wondered if it was real. So I walked out and open the door and saw you sitting on the floor”.
After 5 hours bus ride, we arrived in Sao Paulo at 5am in the morning. It was cold!!! It was too early to go to our friends’ place at that hour, so we spent the next 5 hours at the bus terminal and tried to get some additional sleep.
We left the bus terminal at about 11am and my first impression of Sao Paulo as we left the terminal.. It’s so city-city!!! Lots of buildings, highways, cars, fog etc. Not sure if I am going to like this city…
Aliang and I separated ways half way to head towards our respective friends’ house, and not knowing if we may meet again over the next few months, we said our goodbyes and exchanged well wishes.
Met up with my friend Melissa and subsequently went to the largest park in Sao Paulo – Parque de Ibirapuera. It is a huge park and even though I spent about an hour walking around the park, I still did not completely finish walking the whole place.
One can also almost get lost here! Nevertheless, it is a really pleasant place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, with a large lake in the middle and lots of tracks for joggers and cyclists.
I headed towards Paulista Avenue, the famed street in Sao Paulo, and it just emphasised further my initial impression of the city. 
This seems to be the heart of the business district, filled with tall buildings and lots of cars.
Spotted a few rhinos though… Of course not real ones, but rather life-size with painted bodies, and it seems like there are many of such rhinos scattered across the city.
My next stop, Liberdade. Liberdade is supposed to be the so called Japanese district and this is probably the only place that I have found so far that makes me like Sao Paulo, and that is because there are many Asian food markets here! I heard that Sao Paulo is the city with the highest number of Japanese population living outside of Japan, and it is probably for this reason that there are a number of Asian markets here, with about 50% of the store carrying Japanese products.
Things are not cheap though, but if I were staying more days, I would probably have bought some Asian ingredients and do my own cooking. Nevertheless I still managed to buy something Asian here for my dinner – Korean Shin Ramyon! Yippee!
It is nice to have some Asian food after much time, even if it is instant noodles. Hot and spicy and perfect for a cold day!
Aliang and I decided that we will leave Paraty on a 11.30pm bus tonight, so that we can be in Sao Paulo in the morning. It had started raining since late afternoon, and it didn’t look like the rain is going to be stopping anytime soon.
So we packed our bags and got geared up for the wet weather to catch the bus from Matheus’ place to the bus terminal. For the first time I am carrying my backpack on my shoulders (I had been using the wheels over the last 2.5months!), as the road from Matheus place to the main road was not suitable for the wheels and I also needed to protect my bag from getting wet!
Got a lift from Matheus to the bus terminal on his buggy (he had a busy day yesterday replacing his battery and fixing up the buggy!), where I was supposed to meet Aliang at 9am. Matheus suggested that we walk around the historic centre of Paraty and take a leisurely boat trip to visit some of the islands.
So we walked towards the port and just as we got there, one of the boats was about to depart. We quickly hopped on after understanding the route the boat was taking and we were also pleasantly surprised that the cost of the 5hr boat trip wasn’t exorbitantly priced for a touristic town like Paraty.
We had slept in after a crazy night of partying that ended about 3.30am, filled with many drinks and laughs (along with a couple of broken glasses and some damaged property… which is another long story!). Both Aliang and his host Joulien had stayed over at Matheus’ place since it was late to ride back to Joulien’s place and the weather outside was too cold at that hour!
After a late breakfast, the plan was decided that Joulien and Aliang will head back to Joulien’s place to get change and we will meet them at Trindade Beach in a couple of hours. So off they went while Matheus and I got ready to head out.
Aliang decided to join me for the trip to Paraty, and so we met at Rio’s bus terminal to take our 4.5hr bus ride. It’s nice to have company travelling on the road, especially with a fellow Singaporean in this part of the world, as we seem to be a rare commodity in this region!
The bus ride was beautiful as we drove by stretches of beautiful coastlines. We were excited and couldn’t wait to arrive.
Time flies, it is already my last day in Rio before heading towards Paraty tomorrow.
There are still a few more sights in the city which I would have loved to visit – such as the Sugar Loaf Hill. I have a feeling that I will get the opportunity to visit Rio again, and since it was also a bright and sunny day, I decided that I would give the sights a miss and just relax and absorb the Rio atmosphere.
Yay! The sun is out!!! There were still a fair bit of clouds in the sky, but at least it is no longer gloomy!
Not knowing what the weather may be like the next day, I decided not to take my chance and head over to Corcovado – a definite must see sight when one is in Rio.
So I got in touch with Aliang, a Singaporean friend I got to know in Rio 2 days ago, and arrange to meet at the foot of the hill at 11am.
When we got there, there was already a long queue waiting to get their tickets. It was about a half an hour wait before reaching the counters to purchase the tram and entrance tickets for Corcovado, and an additional one hour wait to board the tram (you will be auto-scheduled on a tram upon purchasing of ticket and ours was scheduled for 12.40pm).
The tram ride to the top of the hill took us about 20 mins. We quickly made our way up an elevator and a flight of escalator and were immediately awed by the gigantic presence of the back view of Cristo Redentor.
It is another gloomy day outside, but at least it stopped raining by late morning. So I headed out towards Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas.
It is a huge lagoon and on a clear day, one would have been able to see Corcovado and the statue of Jesus Christ.
I was looking forward to go to Cristo Corcovado (the famous hill with the statue of Jesus Christ) today, but woke up to find that it was raining… Bummer! Was hoping that it would stop after a while, but it didn’t look like it was going to let up, and when I checked the weather forecast, it indicated that it will be raining the whole day.
So time for Plan B! I decided to head over the bus station to first purchase my tickets for Paraty, my next destination, before heading to Centro, the main downtown district.
I was excited as I saw the view of Rio de Janeiro city from the top, and couldn’t wait to arrive.
After about 2.5 hours flight from Salvador, I arrived at the airport.
Stopped by at a square near where I was staying to capture the “Three Fat Ladies”.
Don’t need explanation why they are called the “Three Fat Ladies” but each lady is suppose to represent each of the three races that originated Brazil : African, European and Indigenous Made in bronze and about three metres high, each one of the ‘girls’ is looking to its region of origin : Damiana to Africa, Mariana to Portugal and Catarina to North America.
Finally broke the waking up at 6.30am as spell, as slept in till about 11.30am after getting back at 4.30am this morning after being shown a night out in Salvador City by Tarso and Edson.
We headed out at about midnight and first tried entering a club, which we later realised we couldn’t enter as I had not brought any identification documents out with me. Apparently the club was rather strict and needed proof of ID that one is above 21 years of age before admittance.
Headed to the bus terminal in Recife to catch the 6.45pm bus to Salvador. It is going to be a long 14 hour bus ride, and decided that I will take an early dinner before boarding the bus.
I have seen Bob’s Burgers a number of times across the places I have visited so far, and guessed that this must be a local fast food joint in Brazil. Decided 
to give it a try, and I must say, even their fast food is really expensive!
I took a meal called “Double Cheddar”, which is similar to a double cheeseburger from MacDonald’s, which comes with a medium coke and fries, and that came up to BRL 14.25 (almost S$11.00)!
Salvador is located in the Bahia region, and is made up of a higher population of darker skinned people. I have heard that this is also one of the most notorious place for street crime due to the high social inequality level, and was taking extra precaution here by not carrying unnecessary cards, bringing minimal cash and for the cash that I brought out, splitting it into different pockets.
In normal circumstances, I would have walked all the way towards the centre of the city, which would be about an hour’s walk from where I was, especially when there were a few sights that could be visited along the way.
There doesn’t seem to be much to do in Recife, and I have already completed the main purpose of my trip to Recife, which was to visit Olinda.
Considering that I had a late night the night before, I decided to take it easy and just take a walk along the beaches of Recife, before getting ready for my 14 hour bus ride to Salvador!
I personally felt that Recife had a nicer beach than Natal’s Ponta Negra, however, I am not too sure if I would be keen on wanting to swim at this beach! Just check out this warning!
I made a day trip into Olinda, a small cultural town located about 20 minutes from Recife. And my first impression is that it felt like Malacca! Portuguese style buildings were everywhere, although Olinda felt a little more colourful and vibrant as compared to Malacca.
Bus connections from Pipa to rest of the other cities are not so direct. Getting to Recife required that I take a 40 minutes ride on a mini van from the hostel to Goianinha, and from there walk along the highway to a restaurant called Mirante do Vale where I can purchase my bus ticket.
This is also where the buses pick up passengers towards Recife.
It was about a 10 minutes walk from the final bus stop at Goianinha, and it felt weird walking and crossing along the highway to the restaurant. It was a good thing that the highway traffic was fairly mild!
I only heard about Pipa 2 days ago from Leandro and his friends, and highly 
recommended as a place to visit. As it was on the way towards Recife, I decided to make a stop and stay for 1 night.
Pipa is about 80km south of Natal, and had a tourist resort feel to the place. Most people here could speak English so getting around and moving about was quite easy.
Don’t expect white sand, clear water type of beaches, however it is a really pleasant place with some good spots to laze around and chill out, and for the surfers, some good surfing spots. It is so chill out and relax that I have met people who have stayed here for over a month!
I went on a tour on a Buggy to explore the Sand Dunes and Coastal Lines of 
Natal. Most of these tours do not speak any English, so I was extremely glad that Leandro helped to coordinate with the tour company to pick me and drop me off at his apartment. I was also really lucky that one of the other tourist who was taking the same buggy could speak fairly good English, and helped with translating!
This is a definite must if in Natal and I had a really good time.
I woke up and looked at my clock… its 11.30am! The sun is high up in the sky already! I quickly took a shower and got ready to head out. Leandro was still in bed so I decided to use my laptop to get some things done while waiting for him to wake up.
I looked down at the clock on the bottom of the screen and it showed 7.30am! It was then I realised that I had forgotten to adjust the time on the phone and it was actually 6.30am when I woke up! Apparently the sun rises really early in Natal (around 5.15am) and sets very early too (5.30pm).
I am on my way to South America, which will take me a whole day of travelling, due to a transit and waiting time of 5hrs at Sao Paulo Airport before flying to Natal!
On one hand, I am excited about going to South America, and on the other, there’s some fear – due to safety and also language, since lesser people will be able to speak English.
Furthermore, as my first stop is Brazil and Portuguese is used here, it means I will have to pick up a whole new language from scratch, and fast! It is said to be similar to Spanish though, so I just have to hope that what I had learn in Spanish so far will be able to help me through this country!
Crossing my fingers!
Antoni Gaudi is a very important figure in Barcelona, as he helped to characterise Barcelona with some key buildings, one of which is the Sagrada Familia.
There was a long queue when I went to visit it today and spent over 3 hours alone at this building!
Interesting to note is that the foundation stone of this building was laid in 1882, and is still a work in progress based on the models Gaudi left behind. At the point of my visit, there was still about 40% left to completion, and it is targeted to be only completed in 2020!
La Rambla
I had an interesting welcome into Barcelona, which may have been caught on TV! I started my exploration of Barcelona with the La Rambla, a long tree-lined pedestrian walkway and the busiest and most lively street of the city. Barely after stepping onto La Rambla, I saw a number of TV cameras lined up, seemingly waiting for something or someone to arrive.
I decided to hang around for a little while and shortly after, a small truck appeared with music playing in the background. The videographers from the TV company started moving around to capture the best angle of the performance. I could only assume that they were some celebrities or personalities doing a short appearance on the streets.
I left Stefano's house at 7.45am to catch the 8.07am train to the airport, which later required switching to an airport shuttle from T2 ...
