Day 229 - 232 : São Paulo

Feeling small around the
tall buildings in the centre of city

In my final days of Brazil as well as in South America, as I find myself back in Sao Paulo, the 1st place where I first arrived in South America about 6 months ago.  Time flies, as it is just about another 1.5 months before I return to Singapore.

The few days in Sao Paulo allowed me to catch up on my house-keeping of travel plans and planning for the next 1.5mths on the road; the opportunity which I never had over the last couple months without a proper computer access after my netbook got stolen.

For that reason, and since having been in Sao Paolo previously for a couple of days, I did minimal sightseeing.  My impression of this city when I was first here was nothing exciting, and that didn´t change much on my return of this trip.

Day 222 - 228 : Carnaval in Rio

World´s Greatest Show!

When I left Rio a few months ago, I had the feeling I would once again return.  Just because it is such a beautiful city, and there were still a few sights I have yet to see (eg. Pao de Azucar and Niteroi, which even after my 2nd trip I still have not visited!  Perhaps there needs to be this feel of unfinished business in a city if I want to come back again!).

At that point, I never imagined it would be this fast; I only decided in the last couple of months to extend my trip, just to attend Carnaval, and here I am!

This time round, the feeling of Rio feels different from before.  It is still a beautiful place to be in, and with better weather too (i.e. much warmer and no rain).  However, the crowds on the street is incredible!  It seemed like the whole world is here (at an estimate of about 800,000 tourists, in addition to the locals, packed in the main streets of Rio) just to attend Carnaval too, which is said to be the World´s Greatest Show!

Tijuca National Park

We needed to seek some reprieve from the crowd and blockos (street parties), and so decided to take a drive to the Tijuca National Park, where one can find a waterfall, and spend a few hours relaxing.

If not for Torsten, I wouldn´t have known that there was a waterfall in Rio so close to the city!  Located about 20 mins drive from the apartment, we saw a lot of people around the area as we approached and tried to find a place to park.

"Greatest Show on Earth"

The Carnival in Brazil is a big part of the Brazilian Culture, and it is sometimes referred to by the Brazilians as the "Greatest Show on Earth".


I had of course returned to Rio hoping to watch the parade, when I found out that the parade is held in the Sambodromo, and one has to buy tickets to watch it.  By the time I checked for tickets availability, they were already sold out, with most of the seats exorbitantly priced.  

Disappointment at Brazil Embassy

I managed to hitch a ride in Miguel´s car together with Robin, since their office is just 1 block from the Brazil embassy.  Considering that I had lugged my luggage along (so that I can make my way up north upon obtaining my passport), the ride was good instead of having to squeeze in the bus with the morning traffic.

I had asked Robin for a favour to help me with translation at the Brazil Embassy and to mention about the news article and changes to the visa policy.  The staff at the counter subsequently showed us a long list of all countries and the visa requirements (information which was dated in mid November), and according to it, visas are needed for Singaporeans.  I pointed to them the date and mentioned that the news article was published on December 14.

Day 183 : Brazil visa not needed?

Got an email from Aliang today, after some email exchanges we had over the last couple days, and my complaining about the extended stay in Bogota to settle my Brazil visa.

It was at this time he pointed me to an article in ¨AsiaOne¨ website dated 14 December that an agreement has been signed which does not require Singaporeans to enter Brazil for up to 30 days.

Yippee!!!  It is strange that the embassy didn´t highlight this to me when I was there.  Since today is a public holiday, I am going to make a trip tomorrow, and see if I can get my passport and hopefully money back too!

Trip Extension

After contemplating on changing my tickets for the last 1 month, I have finally got round to changing my Singapore Airline return ticket today and therefore confirm that my trip has been extended!

So the new plans after Colombia would be to travel in a sail boat via Cartagena to Panama, spent a couple of weeks in Panama, and take a flight to Rio de Janeiro (to be booked in the next couple weeks!) in mid February, just in time to attend Carnaval, and then travel down South to Sao Paulo to catch my flight to Barcelona in end February.

Spend about a week in Barcelona and off to Morocco for about 3-4 weeks, and then to London and I fly out of Paris back to Singapore in April!

So if anyone is keen to join me on the additional places, let me know and I will give you my detailed plans!

Day 79 : Iguaçu Falls – Brazil Side

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. 

Day 78 : Last Day in Florianopolis

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. 

Night at a Samba Club

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.

Day 77 : 1st Trek in South America

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. 

Day 76 : Penthouse in Florianopolis

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. 

Day 75 : Locked Out!

“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”.

Day 74 : Sao Paulo

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!

Day 73 : Departing Paraty

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!

Day 72 : Historic City & Boat Trip

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. 

Day 71 : Trindade Beach Mix-Up

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. 

Day 70 : Paraty

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. 

Day 69 : Last Day in Rio

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.

Day 68 : Corcovado & Cristo Redentor

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.