THE ROUTE
Autor: Marcos e Oliver | Publicado: 2009-09-21T07:17:00-07:00

OLIVER´S TOP 10 BEST PLACES:Corcovado Mountain, Rio de Janeiro, RJTrinidade, Paraty, RJLençois MaranhensesIguaçu Falls, Brazil.-Argentinian BorderAlter do Chao, AmazonasPelourinho, Salvador, BAOlinda, PEJericoacoara, CEAvenida Paulista, Sao Paulo, SPSao Luis, MABEST HOSTELS:Che Legarto Hostel, ParatyBambu Hostel, Foz do IguaçuHostel Amazonia, ManausBEST FOOD:Cocada (sweet Coconut snack)Tapioca ( pancake made of manioc)PF - prato feito ( CHEAP! A full meal - rice,beans,spaghetti,meat or fish, salad)roasted brazilian cheese on a stickAçai ( a berrylike palmfruit from the amazon - smoothielike dish)BEST DRINKS:local Guaranafresh juices ( mango, passion fruit, acerola+orange, guava)Vitamina ( milk and fruit shake)BEST DEALS:(free) bushwalking in the amazon forest or the atlantic rain forest145 Reais for a 5 days, 3000km Amazon River Boat tripgetting a local bus ride - rollercoaster!all you can eat breakfast in Hostel Amazonas, Manaus1,50 Reais for a shower and toilet on the bus station35ct for a great bread-cheese-ham-snack in Lençois Maranhensesdomestic flights with AZUL and GOL if you book early1 Real for a new movie on DVD, black market600ml beer for 2,50Reais in a bar up north2,50 Reais for Soap - gives you a happy moment every shower!WORST TEN FLOPS:Ilha do Marajo, Maranao´reef trip´in Maragogitrying to sleep in a 24 people dorm in Mellow Yellow Hostel, Rio de JaneiroMaceió, Alagoasmore than 10Kg of luggage in the north eastpaying more than 15 Reais for foodRecifeBusses instead of planes for long distancesattempt to camp in a citya third lazy day in a rowTHE ROUTE:SALVADOR  23.07.2009Our second day in Salvador started with the plan to walk across the City park , but sadly only a small part of it is open for tourists and safe enough to go to. Additionally to that the safe part is not worth seeing at all!  A good place we spent our lunch at was a Pasta all you can eat place. They serve delicious pasta, especially several shrimp dishes ( com camarão).  A nice place to see the sunset is at Barra Beach, you might not want to get beer there, it wasn’t cold at all. Instead of buying food or drinks on the streets a super market is close by.     In general it has to be said that without any local guidance or a good city map it is a hard piece to get around Salvador. Bus system remains a mistery even after a few days not only for foreigners, but also brazilian travellers from other cities.   PRAIA DE FORTE    24.07.2009 -  26.07.2009  We made a great day trip to Praia de Forte, a nice resort-like beach and tourist town with a worth mentioning tortoise centre. ( Tamar). From Salvador busses leave several times and it takes about 90 minutes with Linha Verde for 8 Reais. The Busses leave from Salvador Bus Station.   It is a nice day trip, but you need to be aware that it is a tourist place, not much room for locals. They got ATMs there, noone speaks english.   MACEIOAt  night we took a couch from Salvador to Maceió, the Capital of the state Alagoas. 9 hours later we arrived in the “small-town-like” metrópole.  We camped for 15 Reais per person very close to the beach and a 15 Minute walk to the main restaurant promenade on Praia Cruz das Almas.  Maceió is worth for a day trip, more days are not necessary to see the city. The beaches are nice but not extraordinary.     MARAGOGI  27.07.2009 – 28.07.2009    From Maceió we took a local bus for 12,50 Reais with DEF to Maragogi, a famous tourist place with a “reef” and famous White-sanded beaches.  For a Pousada on the Esplanade you pay 70 Reais for a Double with Air Con, hot shower, TV and Fridge.  There are a lot of offers to go to the reef for snorkelling, don’t go if you want to see real reef or if you are interested more in sea life than tourists snorkelling in 1 metre deep water in rock pools.  If you’re still convinced you want to go, don’t pay the 50Reais which are the locals’ first offer, pay the most 30 Reais.           29.07.2009 – 30.07.2009     After Maragogi we travelled with pretty much every kind of transportation to get to Porto de Galinhas. We took a mini bus to Barreiros to switch into a Kombi ( an ordinary car in Brazil, for Europe: SURFBUS!) to drive to Ipojuca to take a bus there to Porto de Galinhas. We payed about 12 Reais each for all of those fares ( 3,50R, 7R, 2R). It’s possible to get a straight bus for the same price. It is meant to leave at 7am and 12am, we wanted to take the 12am one, waited until 1.30pm and decided to not wait any longer (even though it is sure that it would have arrived some time...) and take the private transportation system.   PORTO DE GALINHAS  Porto de Galinhas is a super nice and safe place for travellers. It has pretty much one main street with shops and food places and a great beach, White sand, turqouise water and waves for surfers of any level, The Atlantic provides great tube waves for experienced surfers and calm perfect “learner’s” waves.  If you want to experience a very special stay, stay at Albergue do Alberto, close to the beach and main street and full of interesting people. For 15 Reais ( CHEAP!!!) you get offered a smelly, shared room. If you”re lucky you will share the room with the owner or some street artist, Michael Jackson Double or homeless-looking randoms J Don’t hesitate to stay there. It is like camping, but the price is unbeatable. We didn’t have any electricity for a day now, because the owner couldn”t pay the bills, but we hope that for future visitors and backpackers the hostel will still be existing.     31.07.2009    We took the bus which leaves every 30min from Porto de Galinhas to Recife and arrived 3 hours later in the state capital of Pernambuco.( The bus was meant to take us there in approx. 1 hour).RECIFERecife is a huge city with over 2,5 million habitants and it has the reputation of being pretty dangerous. At least it has the highest murder rates in the whole country. It has an old city centre which doesn’t offer any special sights. The suburb Boa Voagem is famous for its many hostels and places to stay. We chose a backpacker’s hostel for 30Reais a night for a bed in the dorm, but there’s noone to share the room with.  The beach at Boa Viagem is closed for surfers all year through due to the extreme danger of shark attacks. Over the past 10 years there had been more than 20 fatal incidents on that beach. Swimming is possible, swimmers seem to be less tasty?!  For free wireless internet visit the huge shopping centre. It’s very close to Boa Viagem, probably too expensive for backpacker’s budget shopping though.31.07Marcos was sick and we stayed in the hostel in Recife. We were in our bedroom for the whole time and got ROBBED! A guy who stayed in the hostel for 4 days came into our shared room at midnight and pretended to look for a power plug to charge his phone. It gave him plenty of possibilities to check out our stuff and see if we were asleep or not.I wasn´t and talked to him, but when we woke up at 4 am. because a peruvian guy was missing his Pantalones we noticed:one missing pair of jeans of the peruvianmissing money of the peruvianmissing watchmissing Marcosses Ipod and Macbook - thats why we didnt have any possibility to post lately...01.08.09We left the hostel the next morning after calling the police and went to a hospital to get Marcos checked due to his illness.In the afternoon we got picked up by our host from Recife to stay at his place.Even though he was really busy he found time for us not to only pick us up but have lunch and dinner together, great conversations and a lot of fun! Thank you a lot at that point for the great time.I explored the antigue centre of Recife ( which is not recommendable for a stay longer than 2 hours) and surroundings. It has to be said that the small streets in the city centre can be very dangerous and travellers should avoid being there at night. The district Sao Antonio has a lot of street prostitution and for me it was one of the saddest things to see young and pretty girls looking like death itself - drugaddicted and broken as a person.OLINDA02.08.09We visited Olinda 6 km away from Recife.Olinda is one of the most beautiful towns of Brazil due to its amazingly well restored colonial architecture. The town is perfect for a few hours of walking and enjoying not only the beaty of itself but of Recife: Recifes skyline, harbour and beach can be seen from Olinda´s highest point.Olinda´s sacral architecture was quite astouning for me, but sadly every church was closed.The beach in Olinda is not a tourist place and only locals visit it. Swimming and going into the water is forbidden due to high risk of shark attacks.If you want to visit the local favela - look out for a mid-aged rastaman near the beach area ;)At night I visited a spectacular light spectacle at the Apolo-theatre back in Recife which was produced by our couchsurfing hosts! I had a great time and enjoyed the show. It was amazing how much can be done with light arrangements and sound.RECIFE03.08.09I spent the whole morning walking back from the city centre to find our place where we stayed and I couldn´t believe how hard it was to keep on going in the right direction due to Recife´s crazy structure. Do not leave home without a map and some phrases in portugese!!!At night we left Recife from the Bus Terminal which is outside town and easily reachable by Metro to Fortaleza - a 14 hour drive north.FORTALEZA04.08.09 - The Party begins:We arrived in Fortaleza in the morning and took another bus to our couchsurfing place.We found ourselves at place crowded with travellers and a overwhelmingly nice and friendly host. In a ´two-room´-appartment we stayed with 2 Brazilians, 1 Argentinian, 1 Israeli. Great adventure.At night we went to some bar enjoying the company of about 15 people, drinking, eating grilled cheese and meat,talking, singing and playing the flute and a small brazilian guitar! Great night out!05.08.09 - The Party continues:I woke up in the hammock the other way round I remembered I had fallen asleep in...Crazy night.We spend a great, relaxing day on the beach - Praia de Futuro , which is a bit out of town and not a very special beach, don´t go just to see the beach and kite surfers; go if you go with many people, if you love palm tree roofs, cheap drinks, crabs for 2,50Reais and juice.At night we went to some bar enjoying the company of about 15 people, drinking, eating grilled cheese and meat,talking, singing...( yes, I just copied and pasted the last part..)We were invited to stay at a new friends´s appartment on the 25th floor, because it was directly on the beach and we wanted to go there the next morning. It was a great feeling being that high up - not common for europeans.06.08.09- 16.08.09As followers of the travel blog might have noticed there haven´t been any updates for 10 days. That is first of all a matter of limited time at the computer, but secondly, and that´s objectively the greater impact, that we didn´t want to miss out on any activities, parties and meetings of the wonderful couchsurfing community in Fortaleza. The time here has flown and we had planned only 2 nights in Fortaleza, now we already stayed 10.In between Fortaleza and Fortaleza we spend one and a half days in Jericoacoara, a `backpacker´s hideaway´ as Lonely Planet calls it, but it could be described as a european colony somewhere in Far Far Away!It is a 7 hours journey away from Fortaleza and already the way there is an adventure. The last 25 km are on a dirt road, but if you expect a dirt road, don´t be disappointed, it´s more like a dirt path in between sand dunes, the beach, villages which surprisingly seem to recieve TV-signals and neverending grass-and bushland. The beauty of Jericoacoara is its isolated location with a great, shiny sky at night, its sourrounding sand dunes and a unique sunset in Brazil on the sea which can be seen from one of the sand dunes. It does sound romantic, well, it is. Jeri is the perfect place for a honeymoon, a place to spend time in a hammock, drinking Caipirinha from one of the many mobile beach esplanade drink sellers or just enjoy the hideaway for meeting other travellers. It is hard though to meet brazilians or locals, due to its high prices. Well, we are back in Fortaleza and don´t know how much time we´ll allow more to experience the many joys of Ceara´s capital.Oliver       SAO LUISLeaving Fortaleza was hard due to the great party time we had there, but at some stage you got to move on. After a lethal 20-hour bus ride to Sao Luis we arrived in the UNESCO world heritage city centre to be accommodated in the unofficially nominated 'worst hostel in Brazil' ( Hostel Internacional). Horrible showers, horrible breakfast and a motel-like room for an above average price. Wandering around town and seeing all the sights takes you a few hours if you stop for a juice and a couple of travel agencies for deals to Lencois Marenhenses, which most travellers do.LENCOIS MARENHENSESAfter finding out that the trips were between 200 and 250 Reais per person for a 3 day trip, the traveller's group of the four of us decided to rent a car and go on our own. It was the right thing to do. If you are a group of travellers you're easily able to bargain hostel prices, tours and other attractions. A car in that area gives you the opportunity to chill at deserted places and see small towns on the way. We ended up sleeping in a tent, so the average cost for our three day trip was 160 each all included.Lencois Marenhenses is a magical place. Please don't miss out on this one, everyone going there comes back amazed! It is a national park with white sand dunes and cristal blue lagoons in between. Rain forest around and nice beaches make this earthly spot perfect! Go and see, it's undescribable!ILHA DE MARAJOWe took an overnight bus to Belem to have a two day stay on Ilha de Marajo, a switzerland-sized island 4 hours by boat from the city. If you like boring, unspectacular places, be encouraged to visit that island. If you are not one of those guys, you only miss out on nice buffalo steak and cheese and not much else.BELEMComing back to Belem was a relief. We stayed there for a day to check out the well-known markets there and left for 100Reais each by boat to Santarem in the middle of the Amazon. AMAZON BOAT TRIP TO SANTAREMIt is a three day up-stream boat trip, with not much to do, but it is worth the experience! You sleep in hammocks in a room, hopefully air-conditioned, with about 80-100 people just next to each other, actually, partly on each other, because there is literally no space! Privacy is something to leave back in Belem. Most people on the boat are locals, but dont hesitate to get your portugese out of the backpocket and smalltalk around. They are curious and friendly. As a gringo you are the main attraction, and if you're blond and male, you are a Bradsh Pittsh, as they will pronounce it.The people on the boat being the main attraction, doesnt make dolphin watching or mantenee watching less fascinating and exciting. Look out for a few hours into the big waters, you might be lucky! Also take a good look at the changing vegetation on the shores of the world's biggest river. It is quite amazing and interesting how the Amazon differs!If you like reptiles - there is a game called iguana-spotting: one to countless players, sit and look, the one who sees an iguana gets a point, iguana on the tree counts two points. The player with the most points at the end of the day wins!After a three day boat trip, with average food - be careful if you dont have a cow's stomach, everyone was happy being on mainland arriving in Santarem. SANTAREMSantarem is quite a big city and you can get cheap gear for further travel in the Amazon. If you need a machete, knife or fishing gear, they got it all. It is an outdoor man's place. But don't stay too long in Santarem, because you just dont want to miss out on Brazil's best beach! Alter do Chao!ALTER DO CHAOAlter do Chao is a 30minute bus drive from Santarem. It is a small village on the river banks with a nice square and a few pousadas. You'll be able to enjoy the Ilha do Amor, the Love's Island, just a 4Reais boat ride across and go for some nice walking trips or just stay on the beach drinking Aqua de Coco, cold beer or snack. The water in the Amazon is beautifully warm and not salty, perfect as a backpacker's bath of the year! If you are willing to become a real Amazonian, take a sip, swollow and feel hardcore ;) Beware of sting rays in the water, so only go in the water where others do, stir off the ground and have a good look where you put your feet - or just swim. Stingray stings are usually not deadly, RIP Steve Irvin, but they have the reputation of being the most painful experience ever! They do leave a nicely shaped scar aswell, so if you do get stung, everyone's going to believe you the painful story. We did not test it for you, but checked out some nice scar and heard enough stories to retell them here. We also didnt to a jungle tour to the national park there, but it is said to be better than the Manaus jungle tours. Go and see. Let us know.AMAZON BOAT TRIP TO MANAUSBoating is the way to go in the amazon region. Another 2,5 day boat ride was coming up and we bargained an unbeatable price of 45 Reais each, try to beat it, 50-70 Reais is a deal already.We spotted pink river dolphins and some dead mantenees on the way, played iguana-spotting and my travel companions got me into some great card games. The boat trips are a good place to reflect, chill and get a sunburn. Don't forget to get lots of cup noodles before you leave main land and maybe some Loperamid tablets for the intestines... MANAUS - THE 'REAL' AMAZONArrival in Manaus was great, sunrise, the meeting of the rivers, the Rio Negro and the brown Amazon meet and form a line of black and brown seperated water. Manaus itself is nice city of 2 Million habitants, lots of possibilities for urban activities and famous for its huge and beautiful theatre. Stay at the great HI Hostel Amazonia, a walking distance from the city centre and the port.For us Manaus meant checking out the rain forests around on a below-low-budget budget. It works. Take a bus out of town, ask for a natural reserve, hike and follow trails, and voila, you are in the Amazon, just like the 300Reais day tours do it! Do not fear anything, it is completely safe and doable.And now a inside-information, do go to Manaus University! The campus is in the middle of the forest and offers many many many trails and treks to do! Wildlife, flora and more... Check it out!It is not like any university in the world!Our four days in Manaus went way to quickly, if you can, stay a week, there's lots to see.We flew from Manaus to Campinas (the cheap airport near Sao Paulo), where you can find bargain flight starting with 160Reais with Azul and Gol. ( voeazul.com.br, voegol.com.br)SAO PAULOComing back from the hot and humid Amazon to the rainy, smoggy and crowded Sao Paulo was like going to a different country. I was shocked how hard it was to wear shoes again and I was able to entertain myself for a day or two just by noticing how different walking felt like. The 12-Million habitant metropolis is worth seeing for its wealthy and well-structured museums, art galleries, exhibitions and cultural centres. The feeling of a big european city comes up being in the metro,  on the bus or on one of the business district avenues. The ethnic diversity is enormous and you definetely will enjoy anonymousity there. The metropolitan area has the amount of Australia´s habitants and 12% of the whole brazilian population. Sao Paulo is the place to fly internationally.CAMPINASCampinas is the gayest city of Brazil, counted by the amount of homosexuals living there, but for most travellers it´s more interesting because of it´s budget airline airport connection. It is 1 hour drive from Sao Paulo, so it is worth checking out flights, especially domestic ones from Campinas before you pay for a flight from Sao Paulo. The bus is for free to there from Sao Paulo if you´re going to fly from Campinas Airport. We did manage to get a flight from Manaus to there for 350Reais and to Salvador for 180Reais!RIO DE JANEIROHeeyou dshe shaneeyou? Yes, thats how you pronounce it the Carioca way (habitants of Rio de Janeiro). The most beautiful location of a city is definetely the place where Rio was built on. Being a metropolis with contrasts of every kind, challenges everywhere and possibilities of any kind Rio stands out for its AMAZING view from the Corcovado mountain where the Christo is placed on ( 15 entry if you hike 9km up the hill! or taxi up, 36 if you take a train up) and the world famous Pao do Azucar, the Sugarloaf (40 Reais entry). It is a must see on the way through Brazil and it is a must do to go up on at least on of the spots that overlook the city. Furthermore visit the Copacabana Beach, Ipanema Beach, both suburbs have excellent clubbing and tourist areas, but be careful at night - Rio is a hot spot of crime, drugs and violence. Check out the centre of town, on weekends the hippie market and do go to a Samba club. Read some stories about the favelas (shanty towns) and/or watch the excellent movie `cidade de Deus´ or in english `city of God´. The poverty of the people in the favelas is incredible, the amount of weapons and drugs aswell. Back in the really bad times, kids were guarding hills of cocaine on the street in the favelas and police would not be able to even enter those district. Until now the police and gangs are in big conflict and it´s not uncommon that ´lost bullets´ find their way into someone just passing on the street of the bad districts of Rio. Avoid those - you don´t want to risk your life, noone gets spared if a gun fight has started. It is said that being close to police man is a safe thing, but keep in mind that that fact can make you an easy aim aswell if violent attacks break out. Also keep in mind, you are in Brazil, everyone´s corrupt, the one to trust the most, thats yourself!  Rio has been the most dangerous city and remains being number one - in beauty and danger. Do not miss out on it, dont be scared - its just as dangerous as being in a crocodile tank, no, not that bad. It is awesome!PARATYParaty is a small, beautiful colonial town with an amazing city centre, well preserved architecture and beautiful, car free areas for walks through town, window and souvenir shopping. It is located between Rio de Janeiro (4,5h by bus, 50Reais) and Sao Paulo, on the beach, close to islands, the amazing Mata Atlantica, the world heritage Atlantic Rainforest, bays and many many more. It is the place to relax and chill out, to get up in the morning to go for a walk, a hike or a beach trip. The scenery is magnificent and the beautifully shaped mountains behind town create a great panorama. It is a paradise for photographers! If the sun´s out, I wasnt too lucky, the water becomes turqouise-blueish-green. There are some amazing waterfalls to visit. Don´t hesitate to take a big walk around, discover places yourself. The area is safe! It is a good place to go to or come from Rio - it is the complete opposite, the beauty though is comparable, but of course, a completely different kind.FOZ DO IGUAÇUA unique world wonder, one of its kind : the argentina-brazil shared Iguaçu Falls! It is amazing and astouning, you wont close your mouth for a day or two staring and staring at the water masses crashing down! Undescribable. Visit both sides. It is completely worth it. If you have a day more and you decide not to see the natural falls it is worth seeing the biggest dam in the world in power production. It is 8km long and on the Rio Paraguay, shared half by Brazil and half by the tiny neighbour Paraguay. The hydropower station contains 20 turbines, each 10 metres wide. All of them produce the amount of energy to supply 20% of whole Brazil and 93% of Paraguay! It is amazing - no need to go to the Yangtse-kiang-dam in China. This one is just as big, at least in power production!CIUDAD DEL ESTE - PARAGUAYIt is a magical place just across the bridge from the brazilian Foz do Iguaçu, no passport nor immigration needed. It is worth seeing if you want to see South America´s biggest black market with fake watches, sun glasses, electronical equipment and any kind of fake clothes! Go and enjoy a paraguayan Mate tea or drink, dont be shy, try it!