A Month in Brazil

In the month we spent in Brazil, we stayed in the Amazon rainforest, visited 5 Brazilian cities, saw one of the 7 wonders of the world, arguably one of the ‘new’ natural wonders, watched all the Brazil games with the locals and yes (I’m not avoiding it) watched England get knocked out of the World Cup in the group stages… Our worst performance since the 1950s. Despite the disappointment, which had to be expected as an England fan, it didn’t put a downer on our trip, infact it allowed us to do some things we weren’t able to do had England progressed – silver lining there!

Manaus

After our stay in the Amazon rainforest, the following day was game day. Thank god it was a 6pm kick-off as midday humid temperatures would have been hard to bear for 90 minutes. The square in Manaus was filled with England fans, it felt like a home game.

This game was my first England game in a competition, we couldn’t get tickets for England games in South Africa so was very excited. We all know how the game ended (2-1 loss to the Italians), but the performance was one of the best in a long time. Hope still remained for the Uruguay game…

São Paulo

We flew into São Paulo from Manaus (a luxury for us as we had no choice than to fly due to lack of roads). We stayed there for 6 nights, which in hindsight we probably didn’t need that much time there, but with 3-4 football games a day we had plenty to keep us occupied!

Game day arrived and there were a lot more nerves this time, as we knew we need to get at least a point out of the game or we’d be pretty much out of the tournament. I’ve never seen England dominate so much and actually have a go against a good team like Uruguay. Though we never looked like winning and who would have guessed it would be Suarez to score the winner for Uruguay… if only he’d taken to cannabilism a match before!

We met up with a Brazilian friend who lives in São Paulo that we met in Whistler, who showed us a different side of São Paulo. Thanks Leo!

Belo Horizonte

An overnight bus ride took us to Belo Horizonte for a few days. The buses were amazing compared to the Greyhound or Megabuses – comfy seats with lots of room that practically turn into beds. Who’d have thought in the last group game in Belo, England would already be out and we’d be gate crashing the Costa Ricans party! That didn’t put a downer on the day and the England fans were in good spirit. There was a great vibe walking to the ground. It helped the sun was shining. The prematch breakfast of kebabs and beer set the tone for the day. The atmosphere at the game was great – what a difference it makes when we don’t have to be nervous. For cat 3 tickets ( the cheapest tickets you can get) our seats were great, two rows from the front. So good that we were caught on tv and in a few media pictures.

We found a square filled with football fans and had one of the best nights in Brazil. The night ended in a very British way… in McDonalds at 2am watching someone getting arrested and football fans chanting! Never enjoyed a Big Mac so much!

We caught another overnight bus to Rio at midnight after a long (hungover – see above) day.

Rio De Janeiro

The city we’d been looking forward to visiting most didn’t disappoint! We had four days to fit in all the touristy things and try not to miss watching too many football games! Our first visit was to Sugar Loaf mountain, we had an early start to avoid the queues, which we were told could be up to 4 hours. The early start was well worth it and we were on the second gondola up. The views from the top were incredible, you could see the whole of the City – the beaches, favelas, downtown, the sea, Jesus (he gets everywhere!) and even low flying planes into the airport.

The next day we went to visit The Christo Redeemer, again an early start before the crowds started piling in. We were literally one of the first ones up but within 10 minutes of us being there, we were fighting to get a good photo. We apparently just missed Gary Linekar there. It was pretty impressive, even though he looks onto the whole city you don’t realise how big it is until you’re up close.

Wonder number 1

We took a tour of the biggest Favela in Rio, which is home to 74,000 people! The size was pretty overwhelming, but we were surprised at how well developed the houses were. Despite the fact the houses are built on top of each other, the majority have running water and electricity. It brought back a lot of memories of Romania for me. The children were very similar, they put on a little music and dancing performance for us – very cute.

Paraty

We went to Paraty based on a recommendation from friends in Whistler who had been. Paraty is a little beach town about 200km outside of Rio. It was great to relax for a few days in a less touristy town and not be harassed to buy things whilst sat on a beach.

We hired a boat for a few days (we had a driver, me and kyle left to navigate a boat wouldn’t be a good idea!) and went to a few of the remote beaches. A definite highlight of the trip so far. Another highlight was a little hike we took to get to a pretty much deserted beach.

Iguazu Falls

After a full day of travelling from Paraty to São Paulo and then to Foz Do Iguazzu, we dumped our bags at the hostel and went to see the Brazilian side of the falls (you can visit them from Brazil and Argentina). It was p*ssing it down so we didn’t hang around as long as we usually would but the views were incredible. The Brazil side gives you a panoramic view of the falls where the Argentina side lets you get up a bit closer to them. We had a much nicer day to see the Argentina side and it was much more impressive (though Kyle disagrees and preferred the view of the Brazil side). Due to all the rain the previous days a lot of the viewpoints were closed due to too much water, which was a big shame. What we could get to was still amazing…

After a month in Brazil we had mixed feeling about leaving.. watching the games with the locals, the atmosphere and the food. Okay it was mainly for the food. The food has been incredible, I’ve never eaten so much meat! You can eat really good quality food pretty cheaply. We actually shared most of the meals as the portion sizes are huge.

Now it’s onto Argentina, via a quick day trip to Paraguay whilst we are so close. More on that in the next blog… Whenever that will be!