Morro de Sao Paulo

After a rough 2-hour catamaran ride from Salvador we arrived in Morro de Sao Paulo. It is like paradise there, no cars and no proper roads, just sand and beaches everywhere. We were greeted by luggage carriers with wheelbarrows who wanted to carry our luggage for a tip.

There are 4 main beaches in the village but our hotel was located in "Praia do Encanto" which is further up the island, 6km out of town and only reachable by truck or by a 2hour walk along the beach. But it was nice and quiet up there. The hotel luckily had a regular shuttle service we could make use of.

Bianca and me had some great beach and pool time and were not doing too much, just one excursion with the catamaran one day. It was finally time to RELAX!

Praia do Encanto

Deserted beach

lovely fruits for cocktails

pool time

walk on the beach

hammocks are very comfortable!

Salvador da Bahia

Bonfim church - one of many in Salvador

sunset over Barra

trying to play the Berimbeau...

Capoeira Angola

Not a bad view from our hotel, eh?

Traditional Bahian dress

Bahianita serving Acajare (dress doesn´t look as good when you´re white)

View from the cidade alta

My friend Bianca and me left Rio de Janeiro by bus to Vitoria, form there to Salvador. It was a 20-hour bus journey, hopefully the last one of its kind! Quite tired from travelling, we decided to treat ourselves a little and checked into a posh hotel with swimming pool and beach nearby. We met John there who came from Brasilia and stayed with us another couple of days, then he left for home and colder climates on 1st March.

Salvador is a very colourful city with lots of culture and music but is also very poor. There are always people coming up to you begging or trying to sell cheap jewelery,which can get quite annoying after a while.

We visited Capoeira schools and saw 2 styles of Capoeira, the "Capoeira regional" which is very fast and more for show purposes but still very impressive, and the "Capoeira Angola" which I learnt in London, which is much slower and more of a fighting game and happens mostly on the floor. It was also good to see Capoeira in the street, however, you have to distinguish between a proper "roda" and the street show performers, which is just another way to rip off tourists as they are asking for money.

The Bahian food consists mainly of shrimps or seafood, and a lot of it is cooked in palm oil which can be very rich. Then you have got a dish called Acajare, which is made of manioc flour, fried with some shrimps and sauces on top. Quite tasty!

On to Morro de Sao Paulo!

more Rio photos

Pao de Azucar

my friend Bianca and me enjoying a beer after sunset

Cidade Maravilhosa at sunset from sugar loaf

"Christo" viewed from sugar loaf

...and by night

Rio de Janeiro - more than just carnival

Inside the Sambodrome

huge floats

Street carnival!


view from inside a favela

beautiful girl from favela

Copacabana Beach

Christo, the Redeemer looking over Rio

View from Christo over sugarloaf in the clouds


They call Rio de Janeiro the "cidade maravillosa" (marvellous city) and I can see why. It is a beautiful city, although many people have the impression it is very dangerous and you can´t walk the streets at night. Don´t believe what they hype up in the news! From our experience, the city is safer during carnival because there are always people on the street, even late at night. We took the tube (which is open 24hrs during carnival) and several buses and also walked a lot. Never had any problems, people were just in a party mood and generally all very smiley and helpful. Of course like in any big city, one has to take care and not flash the camera and lots of money around in the wrong places.

We even visited one of the oh-so dangerous favelas (with a guide, however) and were surprised that the image we had of a favela was completely shattered. Not everyone walks around with a gun (!), and not as soon as you walk in they are gonna rob you or sell you drugs. Only 5% of the people there are drug dealers and have guns. People who live in favelas are very poor but they are also clever and for example benefit from free internet access and electricity by zapping into the city´s cables. This is of course not legal but the government tolerates it. Favela basically means people building houses wherever they want without any authority and then building more houses on top of each other. The further down the hill you go, the worse the conditions get. A lot of rubbish around and a strong smell of sewage confirms that they do not have the basic amenities you would expect.
But they have schools there and some companies are trying to invest in community centres for the favelas. Apparently some of the money we paid for the tour goes towards supporting the community (I hope at least).

But then there´s the other side of Rio: beautiful (and not so beautiful) people on the many beaches, partying, carnival costumes and street parades, hot and sweaty bodies everywhere drinking beer and enjoying themselves, music on every street corner.

We went to the Sambodrome to see the official samba school´s parades which went on from 8pm til 5am.It was definitely worth seeing,even if the show was a bit long. It took 1.5 hours per samba school to walk from one end of the stadium to the other (it is massive!), so you can imagine how many people participated in the parade.

It was a great experience and would recommend to see Carnival in Rio at least once in your life.

more photos to follow soon!