Brasil – (1 month, 13 flights, 2 car trips) September – October 2007
Rio de Janeiro, Ubatuba, Santos Island, Florianopolis, Cuiaba (pantanal), Fortaleza, Jericoacoara.
Rio and South Coast to Florianopolis
September 14, 07; Friday
Arrived in Rio without incident and on schedule despite recent publicity or long delays in Brasil due to their aging air traffic control system. Reliable Michel arrived soon to pick me up. We went straight from the Rio airport today to Petropolis, a place in the mountains north of Rio. I was pretty ragged out from 18 hours of flight, but did get a little sleep. The drive up there is very scenic with lush green surroundings, large elevation gain and frequent “banana farmer” fruit stands along the way. As on many prior trips I am having to reorient my position to the sun. I am asking Mike why we are driving south when we want to go north, only to realize we are going north – and the sun is in the north. Petropolis is the place where the Emperor of Brasil lived when there was an Emperor, in the 1800's. The Palace is a Museum and in addition the sort of nice town has lots of neat architecture. Also visited the museum (vacation home) of Santos Dumont. He is Brasil’s claim to have been first in flight – even though he did all his aviation in France. Returned to Rio about 9:30 pm and wondered the streets of El Centro (center city) for an hour or so finding a place for dinner. This area is called Lapa, is home of the signature bridge of archways (Arcos de Lapa) seen in many travel posters of Rio, and home of much of Rio’s night life. Like Rome, the longer the sun is down, the more tables (restaurants) the streets sprout. Then to Michael’s apartment in Ipanema -- where we spent a couple more hours unsuccessfully trying to get his Wi-Fi working.
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Saturday morning I took the wireless router out of the loop and got on the internet directly through his cable connection. Went to the ubiquitous Rio landmark, Sugar Loaf, but we hiked up and rode the tram down. How do you spell ubiquitous – even Word doesn’t know? (a couple years later a friend, Ilana, from Sao Paulo provided the link of a spectacular photo of precisely the place we hiked to) What does it mean? Sunday was a pretty lazy day around Ipanema and a lunch walk up to Lablon. Michael’s Greek friend, reputed to be both an MD and an IT geek, failed to fix out Wi-Fi in an hour’s trying. D-Link routers are getting a bad reputation around here.
If I’m counting right, this is my seventh trip to Brasil. This time we are scheduled to repeat some old stops, like Rio and Florianopolis, but also visit the important things missed in prior trips, like the pantanal and windsurfing at Jericoacoara. Monday was spent at the University Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV) at Michael’s thesis presentation and having a long lunch with Paulo Figueiredo, the professor closest to having a technical background in their business school. He got approved for the MBA with a few editing suggestions.
Today, Tuesday, we begin the drive south intending to spend the night near Sao Paulo at resort island locations Santos, Guaruja, or Pria Grande. One high-light was driving by the village of Guaratiba, location of the Embratel satellite ground station that I often visited and worked at in the 80's - 90's. The coastal drive down BR 101 is just fantastic scenery and lush fauna. Looks somewhat like the San Juan Islands near Seattle, but 30 Fº warmer and tropical vegetation. We stopped briefly at an old Brasillian Colonial town Parati that has several blocks in two directions in near original 16th century condition. We stopped for the night at Ubatuba, which has the trappings of a popular ocean resort town with many nice restaurants. We got a very late start, 3:00 pm, and hence are about 200 km short of Santos. This coast is so pretty that we should have had a couple days getting just this far.
Instead of the intended 8 am departure we got off about 10 am from Ubatuba. It was a rather long slow drive to Santos Island, but just spectacular. Maybe I have to say the last two days of driving are the most beautiful drive in my life, at least at the moment I know nothing to compare. How about miles of wild impatiens growing by the highway … or some other big tree with many beautiful lavender and magenta flowers growing. We got to Santos Island but then got hopelessly lost.
Michael is not totally comfortable in Brasil so he is making me drive in the strange large cities --- while he is texting and cell phoning friends for directions.
But getting directions from someone here is another matter. One person in 11 has a car in Brasil. Most people have never been more that 5 miles from where they were born and can’t read a map. So in addition to the language problem ……………they really don’t know where anything is or how to get there??? Eventually we meet Michael’s texting friend, Martha along the beach on Santos. This turns into a long bar visit and late lunch leading eventually to the decision to spend the night here. A two day drive down the coast is turning into three.
Santos is an awesomely beautiful place, super harbor, lots of beautiful park. Martha says biggest beach park in the world - how do you measure that? It is several miles in length across one side of the island.
Thursday am we finally find our way south off the island and continue the trip to Florianopolis, arriving about 5 pm with no further excitement. Upon arrival Michael went to pick up his 9 year old daughter, Nicole. Search for a two day apartment was a minor disaster. After looking at several pousadas, Nicole chose the “good” place at a higher price – only to find it very dirty and a few facilities in the bath not working. After complaining about the heavy coat of dust on everything, they sent someone to clean. But a few hours later it was dirty again – and we discover someone down stairs two floors is grinding out a concrete wall and the dust is being distributed through the whole building by air vent system.
Saturday am we got to the airport to catch plane to Cuiaba, only to learn that the Brasilian web site had not accepted credit card payment for the ticket. Fortunately we scraped up enough cash between us. The flight stopped at Campo Grande (Grange) on the way to Cuiaba. Spent the remainder of the day walking around Cuiaba in the intense heat, high 90’s and very humid. It’s the pantanal! Then crashed early at our hotel, the Amazon Plaza.
Sunday morning, caught the shuttle to our pantanal lodge, SESC Pantanal, Hotel Porto Cercado, near the town of that name. This is about 100 km south of Cuiaba. This is reached by driving about 100 km southwest on a paved road and about 50 km southeast on dirt. The lodge seems mostly populated with Brasilian guests and very little English is spoken. Good thing I have an interpreter along. We went up the Cuiaba river after dark and saw perhaps 100 alligators (caimans) and several other animals and birds, including many capybaras, one of the mammals in the Amazon rainforest. They are the world’s largest rodent weighing up to 150 pounds. Learned that alligators don’t eat people, only fish. Healthy diet. Our guide said greatest danger of swimming is sting rays. On one occasion when we scared a big alligator into the water, it frightened the piranha and several jumped from the water into our boat. Michael and I were the only people on the tour.
Tuesday (9/24) – in sharp contrast today is overcast and almost chilly. It’s the dry season and in addition the pantanal is having a draught, so there’s not much standing water – hence we aren’t having many mosquitoes, yet! I did get some sort of insect bite on my leg that made a tiny open wound for about a day, and today my whole leg is somewhat stiff and sore. Today we went on a long elevated walk across the “dry swamp.” Saw lots of monkeys and a few exotic birds, but no anacondas yet. Internet is the only way to keep abreast of world news – what did we do 15 years ago?
Wednesday. Finished reading Blink, Malcolm Gladwell. We picked through the rental fleet of about 30 bicycles and found two very dysfunctional bikes we could ride for a short distance. Rode to Parque Barra do Piedras (below the rocks??) about 6 – 10 miles round trip. Then the late afternoon excursion by boat down the Cuiaba Rio was quite interesting. Great variety of large birds, unlimited alligators, and a couple other animals. Also got to see the primitive houses and boats of the local people, many of whom were out fishing in the early evening.
Mysteries of Brasil. Most, not all, the large trucks and buses have a tube extending from the lower part of the outside of the body down to the center (hub) of each wheel. I have been seeing these for 15 years on many trips to Brasil and often asking what is the purpose? There are many answers, none of which I believe yet! Ranging through: 1) special brakes, 2) tire pressure monitoring, 3) tire pressure measurement and air supply (regulation), 4) a lubrication system, 5) cooling of the brakes --- what the heck are these things? Later I will write about the mystery of “the wall.”
Thursday. Went on a 5 am boat ride up the river that was not much to remark about. Supposed to see wild life awakening, but both Mike and I would rather WE had not awakened. Then caught the van back to Cuiaba. Rented a car at the airport and drove 70 km north to Chipada dos Guimaraes. This is a rocky canyon area much like Zion National Park. Quite interesting and beautiful. We were hoping to see flocks, or at least a flock, of vermilion (red) macaws (Araras in Portuguese), but weren’t so lucky.
Northeast and Windsurfing at Jericoacoara : Jeri Album
Friday (9/29), Most of the day was consumed by two BRA flights to Brasilia, then Fortaleza. We left the Cuiaba hotel driving ourselves to the airport at some unknown location without a second to spare in Mike’s usual style. .At the Fortaleza airport we were met by Alexandre Landim, Mike’s Rio MBA classmate, who showed us around, including his wife's fantastic art shop, and allowed us to spend the night at his parents condominium on the 21st floor of one of the ubiquitous Fortaleza high rise residences near the beach. Dinner with Alexandre, wife, and a Portuguese couple, acquaintances of Alexandre on vacation in the city.
Saturday morning we caught the bus for the five plus hour trip to Jeri – this for $R35 (~$18). Started reading Behind the Lines, W.E.B Griffin. First four hours were through the poor, dry countryside maybe 25 – 40 miles inland from the coast. Many small villages, all trashy and poor, and many stops and even more near-stops for the speed bumps – Brasil may have the world record for speed bumps, even when the road is too rough to go any slower. I should add however, that roads are frequently quite good. The last hour of the trip we transferred to an open “bus” built on the back of a 5 ton 4 wheel drive truck to traverse the dirt tracks and sand dunes to Jeri. There appeared to be many producing orchards in the last few hours of the trip, on both busses. I have still to learn what the fruit is (I think I am finding out many are pomegranates – who eats those?). Checking our reservation at the Blue Jeri, our standard room was adequate, but quite small. Found we could upgrade for $R20/day ($5 each), but shortly Mike had us transferring to the Mosquito Blue, nicest hotel in Jeri – on the beach. I’m there for the windsurfing, but I can tolerate the nice hotel on the beach too.
Went around looking for dinner. We selected a restaurant with fish dinner for $R36 (~$19), which I was thinking was kind of expensive judging from what I had heard of Jeri. The dinner came with a great salad, delicious fish in a great sauce and other accompaniments and was more than Mike and I could eat – come to Brasil for the food (apologies to my Australian friends)! Then … when the conta came, turns out to $R36 was for two people!
Sunday. Sumptuous breakfast with unlimited good fruits, pastries, meat, cheese, and eggs, pancakes or tapiocas to order. While enjoying this I noted that the exterior walls of Mosquito Blue are gleaming white, nevertheless, a girl is scrubbing them on Saturday morning. Then out to windsurf at Jericoacoara. First day I sailed an 87 liter Starbord Kombat and a 4.0m2 sail. The wind was strong and off-shore and the sailing was challenging. Sailed a bit less than 3 hours.
Some places have had free internet Wi-Fi, and some even good speed, e.g., Cuiaba, The pantanal lodge at SESC was free but quite slow 100 – 300 mbps. But in Jeri it’s the pits. $R6/hour and doesn’t work. Lady at the Mosquito Blue desk says it comes in here by radio (microwave towers I presume) and she claims the winds are so strong and the towers apparently so weak, the antenna pointing if disturbed enough to break the link.
Wednesday (10/3)..Been sailing 3 hours per day, getting adjusted to unfamiliar conditions. Wind has dropped slightly so generally moved to 4.5 and 4.7m2 sails for parts of the day – that’s still lots of wind. Also sailing the Starboard 86 liter Kombat, a super board. Jeri is really a neat place with lots of good yet relatively inexpensive restaurants and great beach ambiance. Streets are all sand, hardly any cars, just a few dune buggies. The main streets (both of them) have sidewalks part of the way and buildings and sidewalks built around the existing trees. I think in its present form the town is about 5 years old.
They’re cashews, not pomegranates! Growing all around here, even as part of the landscape of the hotel, but importantly on a large scale in orchards nearby. What I see is a small hanging fruit, yellow in color and similar in size and shape to an egg. The fruit is edible, but hanging from the bottom of it is a brown growth that is (becomes) the nut. Of course everyone already knows this but me, as lots of cashews are grown in California maybe. The Brasilians seem to be eating the fruit, known as cashew apple(Portuguese “caju”) but ones I have talked to don’t recognize the nut – strange, still have to sort this out. The nut is poisonous if eaten raw from the tree, instead must be processed. My impression is we grow them in the US and recognize the nut but not the fruit. Also produced in large commercial volume around here is a fern-like plant, manioc, knee to waist high that is used to make forropa (spell). This is a bland high fiber food, perhaps similar to hummus, that is served regularly in all of Brasil, perhaps in the typical role of rice or potatoes– quite healthy for the fiber I suspect.
Friday: Jeri is known for the “friendly wave” and it truly is. The water is warm, the air is warm and the wave, or set of waves, rolls gently along parallel to shore. The bottom is sandy and the wind is pretty much side-on the waves. The only hazard is windsurfer traffic in this remote and undiscovered site. Friday is video day at Vela. During part of the afternoon they take nice close-up videos of the sailors. At 6 pm they show them and Mathew (Case), the instructor from Santa Cruz Ca. critiques. An objective of the videos is to pick apart and comment on mistakes and suggest improvement. Since they were largely videoing mistakes, I didn’t make it to the big screen.
Saturday. As usual on this trip everything is done near the last minute. I have no plane ride from Fortaleza to Rio, needed on Thursday and which we are wasting much of the day trying to fix. Internet is poor connection and won’t accept foreign credit cards for domestic airlines. Michael’s Brasilian credit card will not work for reasons he can’t explain, travel agents are helpless in Jeri, no ATM’s to get money even if it were useful, hotel takes only cash – not travelers checks, what else could be in the way? We seemed to have "no way" to buy a final ticket we required. Eventually Mike emailed a classmate in Fortaleza, Alexandre, from his MBA program and got him to buy and pay for the tickets. That was lucky, not everybody would fork out $700 cash for two strange foreigners. Even I would think twice about this. Jeri is known for its “friendly wave.” And it truly is! A set of waves gently rolling along, wave faces perpendicular to shore, over smooth sandy bottom and less than shoulder high warm water. Of course warm weather too. Easiest wave I have encountered, if you go down recovery is easy, I have seen no broken equipment. Biggest hazard is traffic. But beware! As the set rolls out to the beach there is a serious wind shadow where folks are getting stuck, followed by rescue by boat. Not particularly dangerous, but annoying.
Capoeira, is a type of dance seen in northeastern Brasil. Two dancers appear to be in marshal arts combat. Rumor is that the slaves preserved the ability to fight back in this dance.
Monday (10/8) Last day of sailing (9 in sequence without a break). Today is probably the strongest wind, 4.0m2. Meeting people from UK, Australia and elsewhere. US must be the center of the universe, you, have to fly to San Diego or LA to get to South America from Australia.
Tuesday – taking the 4 hour bus back to Fortaleza – that really takes 5.5 hours This trip through Fortaleza we stay in the same high rise on the beach, but a different unit on the opposite corner of the 21st floor, again courtesy of Alexandre and the friends in Portugal who own this one. A luxury apartment high over the ocean – with only cold water plumbing – a common occurrence in Brasil.
When the Brasilians bought their first spacecraft from my company their unofficial goal was to buy one, copy it and make their own in the future. Some chance. They can’t even make plumbing. They completely forgot the hot water plumbing in nearly all residences and businesses – even new ones built in modern times. No sewage drains accept toilet paper! Michael is concerned that when his daughter is a guest in some American’s home, what will she do with the toilet paper! They can’t even make napkins that work, or napkin holders! Make a spacecraft – fat chance.
Thursday (10/11) Headed home. Wow! A spectacular evening taking off from Rio. Past sunset and perfectly clear making all the lights in every area of the city visible at once, with the scene carved up by the lagoa, the bays, Sugar Loaf and other landmarks highlighted. As we spiraled up to altitude it seems the pilot was giving us a guided tour. With all it’s problems, crime, poverty, corruption, dilapidation, favelas, …., I was not conscious of much smog. …… and for sure tonight is crystal clear – I’m impressed.. Someone in the airport with whom I had a conversation said he has a house in Rio. How can that be? Everyone in Rio either lives in a high rise or a favella..
Remarkably we found the best and free internet in the pantanal lodge and Cuiaba. Everywhere else was expensive or poor, or both. Michael’s cell phone solution that we were planning to have was a total flop. The software wouldn’t work in either of our computers, and in the north the cell phone provider didn’t even have the service.
Despite the late night party culture I just left in Brasil, I must have been getting too much sleep because here it is the middle of the night and though I am having a good flight on Continental, I am awake. They do have a couple things wrong though. They served a pretty good dinner, with real knives and forks – the first I have seen since 9/11 - but somehow the martini came after dinner instead of before. And a few minutes ago I went up to the lavatory (they call it on airplanes) and the sink was full of soapy water. Someone must have put toilet paper in it, because you know where they don’t put it in South America. What baffles me on the latter subject is that there is apparently no effort to change it – even in these luxurious beach-front new condominiums, there is no plumbing for hot water, and the same old toilet paper disposal system prevails. On the other hand, up north we have another system for toilet paper disposal and seem to have no inclination to change that either. But wouldn’t you think they would just put the pipes in these new buildings just in case someday when we get the population down where the earth can support it someone might want to wash their hands in hot water! Or maybe Canada will ban hot water plumbing to help alleviate global warming.