Holiday in Brazil

8^th - 22^nd September 2007

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Brazil was great fun, we flew to Salvador and it took 1½ hours to get through customs and immigration! The next day, the weather was appalling, but we were flying to Rio de Janeiro. The weather there was much better. It was cooler than I was expecting, but pleasant all the same. The hotel was right on Copacabana Beach, but the room was tiny and the door to the bathroom hit the vanity unit! We went up Corcovado (Christ the Redeemer), Sugar Loaf Mountain and visited the Cathedral of São Sebastião. We also ate in a couple of churrascaria's. Went for a walk along Copacabana too. We felt safe and weren't aware of any danger, but we did try to keep our wits about us. After two nights in Rio it was time to fly to the Iguassu Falls. These were spectacular, there was a lot of water, unlike when we visited the Victoria Falls. We went to both the Brazillian and Argentinian sides and the views were amazing. We took a boat trip right up to two of them (Santa Maria and San Martin) and got absolutely drenched! On our final day in Foz we also saw the Itaipu Dam, which is cuurently the largest hydro electric dam in the world (until the Three Gorges in China, goes online). It's 8km wide. We also took a trip across the border to Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, which was a grubbly little tax-free border town. That evening we flew back to Salvador via São Paulo finally arriving at the hotel about 3am. The hotel was very good, probably the best all-inclusive I've stayed in. It was about 8km by road or an hours walk along the beach to Praia do Forte, the local village. We ate there once and on the Sunday we walked in and saw all the locals strolling about. There were a group of people doing capoeira in the street, including two young boys of about 8 or 9. We also visited the local Turtle Project there, but didn't really do anything else other than chill. Yep we enjoyed the holiday. Then it was time to go home and this time it took FOUR hours to get through immigration! Wonderful!!