The following day we visited the Brazilian side of Iguacu falls. Unfortunately this side does not open early and we therefore arrived at 9:30am along with swarms of other people. This side is completely different to the Argentinian side. Here you get an overall view of the falls from a distance. Additionally, the Devils Throat (which was closed on the other side) was open. Here you are able to get up really close to the bottom of the falls to take some impressive pictures, and also get soaked. At the very end you ascend to a platform that gives a panoramic view of the falls. Both sides were really impressive but our personal favourite was the lower trail on the Argentinian side.
That evening we took an overnight bus to Florianopolis. This journey was very comfortable, in our cama seats and was meant to take 14 hours, giving us a whole day to soak up the sun in Florianopolis. Unfortunately, for reasons we don´t really understand, there was a 6 hour day and we spent the gorgeously sunny day, in the bus! We did briefly make to the beach in the late afternoon though.
Our day in Florianopolis was spent at two beaches: Barra da Lagoa and Mole beach, before taking our last night bus of the trip to São Paulo. Having booked an early bus, with the expectation that it would inevitably be late, it arrived early! This gave us all day to explore the city.
After walking down Batman Avenue, we took the metro and walked down Paulista Avenue, the new financial district, before heading to Parque do Ibirapuera. We wandered round the parque and visited the African Art Museum (mainly because it was free!).
The following day we decided to join a free walking tour of downtown Sao Paulo. Despite being 4 hours, it did not drag on and we saw most of what Sao Paulo has to offer, including the three tallest buildings in Brazil. Along the tour we bumped into several large groups of people visiting Brazil for World Youth Day, which gave us an impression of just how busy Rio was going to be! During our lunch break we decided to try the national fruit - acai. This is eaten as a sorbet topped with granola and banana. Following on from the tour we visited the Municipal market where we tried some more local fruits and pastels which are a kind of thin, crispy empanada stuffed with meat.
Our next stop was Paraty. This is a cute, little and old beachside town. Our time here was spent lazing on the beaches and trying the national drink: caipirinhas.
From Paraty we headed to Ilha Grande, notorious for its gorgeous beaches. When we arrived to catch the boat transfer, it began raining, which it continued to do for the next 2 days! We still managed to wander round the town, pick up some souvenirs, walk through the state park and indulge in our first meal at a per kilo restaurant. It was a nice relaxing few days, even if we weren`t able to top up our tans.
Our final stop of Brazil, and our trip, was Rio. The first morning we decided to participate in a favela tour. The favelas are the slums of Rio and are known for their high crime and violence rates. This tour however, set favelas in a new light and we did not feel unsafe at all. We visited two favelas, one of which is the largest in Rio, Rocinha. We also visited a school, although is was a Saturday so there were no kids about.
That afternoon we rented bikes and cycled 7.4km round the lagoon which is just behind Ipanema. This was a great, flat cycle ride that gave great views across a lot of Rio.
We finished the day with a walk along Ipanema beach before heading back to the hostel.
We took a trip to Santa Teresa and Lapa the following day and had out first bus ride experience. Lets just say that Brazilian bus drivers really need some driving lessons and especially need to be taught how to use the brakes correctly without causing all passengers to fall over in a domino effect. Santa Teresa is a cute little area set ont he top of a hill. It used to be accessed by tram but this has ceased operaiton since 2011 when there was a bad crash. We decided to take a bus to the top and walk back down. On the way back down we passed a lot of art work and stopped at the Parque Das Ruinas which gave us a great view of Rio.
Very close to the bottom are the Lapa steps, a set of steps that have been decorated with mosaics. They are pretty incredible and very colourful!
Down in Lapa we visited the cone shapred cathedral which was extremely busy due to World Youth Day, and is an odd structure for a cathedral. We also passed by the Lapa arches before heading back to Ipanema for dinner.
That night we treated ourselves at a Rodizio. This is basically like a buffet restaurant but the meat is bought out on skewers and sliced onto your plate. There is an endless supply of food and so many different varieties of meat constantly passing by your table that by the end we were well and truely stuffed!!
After the Rodizio we went to a favela party which was a pretty interesting and insightful experience. We were picked up at 11pm and drove about 30 minbutes down the road where we all got out of the minivan and walked into what was effectiveluy a large warehouse. We had VIP tickets so walked upstairs to the balcony where we had a bar and great view of the stage and dancefloor. Initially it started with a DJ, followed by a live act and ended with a different DJ. Here we learnt that ass shaking is a key part in Brazilian dancing and there was actually an ass shaking competition, that we both decided to avoid!!
Not getting back til 5:30am, the following morning was spent in bed before wandering along the beach, around the shops in Ipanema and to Urca to watrch the sunset over Christ.
The next moring saw us get up early to beat the crowds up Sugarloaf mountain. This involves taking two cables cars in order to reach the highest of the mountains. Unfortunately it was not the clearest of days, but we still got some pretty incredible views.
From Sugarloaf we headed to downtown where we took at look at some of the old architectural buildings. The cathedral, monestary, national theatre and national library were the keys sights, before venturing into the local market to buy our final souvenirs.
For our final night of our trip, we decided to spalsh out on a luxurious 4* hotel. Arriving at 2pm to our 13th floor room with a sea view, we spent the next few hours lying on the sunbeds by the rooftop pool and drinking Caipirinhas!
Our three course meal down in the restaurant was amazing - by far one of the best meals we have eaten in the trip, but also one of the most expensive!!
The next morning was an early one again as we watched sunrise from our room before indulging in our buffet breakfast! That morning we had tickets to go up to Christ the Redeemer on the tram. It was a clear day so the views from Christ, at 700m, were incredible!
As this was our final day we spent the majority of it on the beach and at the rooftop pool bar where we had our last atempts to top up the tans! In the evening, before our flight, we climbed up Urca hill to watch the sunset.
Only a few hours later we were on our rammed plane and heading back to the UK!!
Now to explain our post title. At the beginning of the trip we decided to collect both a t-shirt and a bracelet from each country. By the time we reached Australia our bags were filling with clothes and our wrists covered in bracelets. As we searched for jobs we decided the bracelets needed to be removed, and along with the numerous t-shirts, we sent them home with our parents. We vowed to continue collecting both bracelets and t-shirts and Brazil saw us accumulate our final ones.
There will be one final blog post to come now that we are back in the UK so keep an eye out.
See you all very soon!!! :-)
Much love
X x x
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