Left Lençois, got to Rio
4 03 2007Hi all, we’re in Rio… actually got here on Friday.
Lençois turned out to be really chill. In my opinion, it is like the Ozarks of Brazil. There are lots of caves (we visited Gruta Lapa Doce) and geological attractions. We burned a day because of a cough I came down with and just slept. Bought some local cough syrup made with honey and plant extracts and that seemed to do the trick (along with the rest). This time of year, Lençois is quite rainy and unfortunately this makes the water quite cloudy in the otherwise-clearwater pools, which supposedly are quite a sight.
We really enjoyed just hiking from town to see:
- Ribiero do Meio: a swimming hole with natural waterslide - got to see some little monkey-critters called Micos on the way.
- Salão de Areias: a dry riverbed? with huge boulders and natural colored sand.
- Another swimming hole with cool rock overhangs near Salão de Areias.
so Thursday we took the afternoon bus back to Salvador and went to Yemanjá restaurant (the recommended place to try Bahian food), and made it to the Airport where we camped out for our 5 AM flight to Rio. I didn’t sleep much.
So now we’re in Rio! The coolest city (i.e. little towns not included) we’ve been to. They have a metro and an extensive bus system so getting around is no problem. Yesterday we took a walking tour of downtown that was mentioned in our guide book but I would not necessarily recommend. Last night we went to Pão do Azúcar, the hill at the mouth of the bay where you get panoramic views of the city. Got some sunset pictures of the huge Jesus statue from there and great dusk shots of the lights of the city coming on. It truly is beautiful. We met some Israelis there who invited us to dinner - we ended up stumbling into a restaurant in Copacobana where Meghan and I shared a dish of banana farofa and chopped steak in a brown sauce w/ mushrooms, peas, etc. - a specialty of the house. Interesting combo - tasty!
We are planning our next hop to Foz do Iguaçu where we will cross the border into Argentina, not to mention see the enormous waterfall there (Iguazu falls).
