One Carnaval, one wedding, one Rio
We spent four amazing days on the beach of Barra do Una for Carnival. Brazilian beaches are truly spectacular with white sand and warm clear water and surrounded by the green jungle.
Although the town was small, we got a taste of what Carnaval is about: music in the streets, costumes and samba. Gadi walked around the streets with his father's professional camera and people started posing for him-very funny.
We returned to Sao Paulo to celebrate the wedding of Gadi's aunt. It was a nice celebration where I meet relatives for the first (and most likely the last) time. We wish Luci and Clelio a lifetime of happiness.
Now on to Rio de Janeiro...we were shocked when we first entered the city. It looked old and delapitated; not the Rio we expected. We then entered a tunnel going under one of the many hills and emerged in another world, a world of beautiful beaches and beautiful people.
Yesterday we visited the Botanical Gardens. We were walking alone along one pathway when we heard rustling in the trees above. Monkeys!!! Then some loud german tourists came along and scared them all away...We then made our way to the famous large Christ monument overlooking the city (very Jewish of us). The views of the city were amazing. We ended the day by walking along Ipanema beach watching the sun set...ahhhh...
Today we walked around downtown and the historical part of the city. Nothing much to report other than some more cathedrals.
Tomorrow we plan to spend the day on Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. It's such a hard life.
maps can be disproportionate…
In the last week, we travelled to the south of Brasil. Our first stop was the beach town of Florianopolis - unfortunately, it rained both days that we were there.
The first day, we tried to go to the noth beach of Jurere, but the rain wouldn't subside long enough for us to lounge around in the sand or go swimming. The second day was also cloudy, so we went on an incredible hike which had amazing views and finally brought us to a secluded beach.
We then made our way to Iguazu Waterfalls to meet up with Keren. The waterfalls are located at the triple forntier of Brasil, Argentina and Paraguay. These waterfalls huge!!! We arrived by bus on the Brasil side but were meeting Keren in a hostel on the Argentina side. We decided to walk the distance, afterall, it looked very close on the map. In reality, not so much. Now I understand why when we asked for directions to walk, people actually laughed at us.
Becca at the Argentina/Brasil Border
We walked across the Brasil border, then the Argentina border and after over two hours of walking we finally decided to catch a bus into town. We met up with Keren and half the population of Israel. In all seriousness, you hear more Hebrew on the streets than any other language!
The first day, we checked out the Brasilian side of the falls and the second day was spent ont he Argentinian side. The waterfalls are truly incredible; I could have watched them all day. And the wildlife is so diverse from giant spiders to aligators to the cutest little animal, called the coati.
We are now back in Sao Paulo hanging out with family again. Gadi's aunt, Luci, was amazing enough to get us free passes to the swimming pool at the Jewish Center. Yesterday, we got out fill of sushi at an all you can eat restaurant, which included sashimi....hmmm....
Today Gadi's parents arrived. We are moving out of the Gadi's uncle's house and into his cousin's house before we take off the a beachhouse for Carnaval!
Rebecca