Brazil Review

I'm just waiting for my taxi to the airport before I fly to Chile so I thought now is a good time to do my review of Brazil;

Watch a Brazilian football match, see some of Brazil's wildlife, go to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, attend the Rio Carnival and visit Christ The Redeemer. Those are the five things I wanted to do before I arrived here and I was lucky enough to do all of them.

It has been great to do all of those things and The Pantanal was fantastic but Rio has not been quite what I expected. The Carnival has meant that the streets have been absolutely covered with litter and there has been the constant smell of hot rubbish and wee because the really hot weather heats it all up in the day. Urgh (It has been a while since some disgusting news!). I have also been the victim of crime as someone in Brazil has cloned my credit card and it's now blocked!

Despite all those things not being very nice, the other travellers we have met and the people we have stayed with have been so kind and lovely. We are both looking forward to Chile now though as it is a little bit cooler and less humid (Rio has been just under 40 degrees every day and not much cooler at night).

The Photo: These are some steps near where we stayed in Rio. They were decorated by an artist called Jorge Selarón who used many coloured tiles in his work. Tourists even used to bring him tiles to use and you can find different tiles from many different countries, even England!

Christ The Redeemer

The big man is the last of the five '7 New Wonders of the World' I will see until I get to China in May. It is one of the most famous statues in the entire world, it looks over nearly all of the city of Rio De Janeiro and it is very tall!

To see this huge version of Jesus meant getting a train that went up the side of a very steep mountain and it took about 20 minutes to get to top. Once at the summit the views were incredibly impressive and I could see Sugarloaf Mountain, the Maracanã Football Stadium, The Sambadrome and lots of beaches.

Did You Know?: The hands on the statue are modelled on the hands of a woman. The artist who made that specific part of the statue used her own hands to make sure she got the shapes right.

One Direction Watch {Brazil}

While the boys may have not done much in Peru the same cannot be said about Brazil...

Songs on the radio: Check
Books/Magazines in shops: Check
Posters In Cities: Check

That's three of the big four and the only one missing is 'Music Videos On TV' and I haven't watched any TV here so that's pretty much a clean sweep! Top stuff boys.

Sambadrome Time!

Last night, I got to see probably the most famous parade in the whole world and it was absolutely amazing! It made me think back to Mr. Groves samba drum lessons at Weobley but multiplied thousands of times over!

The parades take place over three nights with six competitors each night and each competitor is a different samba school. Samba schools aren't educational schools but huge groups of people that work really hard on each year's parade. They must compose their own music, make their own floats, design their own costumes and choreograph their own dance moves. It is a huge job as each performance contains six floats and lasts over an hour. The schools that have taken part in 2013 will now already be working on what they will do in 2014.

I will challenge anyone to go to the parade and not be able to dance even the littlest bit, it is impossible not to! There are so many amazing memories I couldn't list them all but my favourite float was a huge waterslide with dancers sliding down it and my favourite costumes had to belong to the traditonal dancers with their huge feathers whipping around as they samba danced down the long road.

Did You Know?: The parade is not just one big party, each school gets marks from a group of judges who watch each performance carefully before deciding a winner.

Futebol

Yesterday, I got to watch a football match in Brazil as I travelled to the Engenhão Stadium to watch Fluminense v. Vasco Da Gama. Fluminense are one of the top teams in Brazil and I sat with their supporters, they normally play their home matches at the famous Maracanã Stadium but that is closed at the moment as they prepare it for the World Cup next summer.
It was great to watch a football match in the country where next year's World Cup will be held and the game finished 1-1. I even saw an ex-Liverpool 'keeper play in goal for Fluminense and Fred score for them (The same player who scored against England last week).
Did You Know?: Although the Engenhão Stadium won't be used in the 2014 World Cup it will be the venue for the athletics at the Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics.

Brazilian Table Manners

Do you eat pizza with your hands?

I turns out that Nadia and I accidentally ended up looking pretty rude when we ate our pizza last night. We have just read that Brazilians are relaxed about many things but table manners are not one of them and it says that no one eats pizza with their hands (Like we did) and many Brazilians will even eat a sandwich with a knife and fork if they can! Oops!

I always find it interesting to learn what different things are considered rude in one country but normal in another so I will make sure to read more of this book before going out again and try not to be rude next time, even if it is something that's not rude at home.

Carnaval Time!

'The Greatest Show On Earth' officially started today! The world famous Rio Carnival (Spelt Carnaval in Portuguese) kicks off on a Saturday and goes through until Monday, and that's just the official parades. Rio will continue to party until the following weekend as the whole event is a big celebration before Lent and nearly everyone in the city is taking part.

I have been lucky enough to get tickets to The Sambadrome (Where the official parades take place) for Sunday night, one of the best nights of the bunch, and I can't wait. I will need to save my energy in the day though because the parade will start at 8pm and can run until to 6:00 in the morning!

This photo is the view from where I am staying and you can spot a stage to the left. This is where a 'Bloco Party' (Block Party) started yesterday. Across Rio the different blocks will each have their own street parties during Carnaval with loud music, samba drums and lots of people that start in the day and go on for many hours.

Spot The Caymen

Can you see the beautiful caymen on the banks of the Pantanal? One is lurking in the water by the boat and another is in the background basking in the sunshine with its jaws open.

Give yourself one team/house/effort point if spot them both (You can even show this blog to your teacher to prove I said it was ok!).

Pantanal Welcome Party

Check out this happy group! This was the scene that greeted us as we arrived at our lodge on Brazil's Pantanal. They are a family of capybaras, the world's largest rodents.

Did You Know?: Being rodents, capybaras are related to the guinea pigs, hamsters, mice and rats that you might have as pets in your home!

The Pantanal & Piranha Soup

I have spent the last few days in the Pantanal and I saw so much wildlife while horseback trekking and boating around the wetlands. Some of the most memorable creatures were; cuddly capybaras, rare tree-climbing anteaters, scaly caymen, colourful blue and yellow macaws and howler monkeys swinging through the trees. When I stop and think about the fact that I saw all of these animals in the wild, not in a zoo, it makes me realise how lucky I have been and certainly made the early mornings worth it!

I was also quite adventurous with my food choices while I was there and even tried piranha soup! Piranha are very common in the Pantanal and it was served on my last night. I am not a fan of soup in the slightest and I am not a big lover of a lot of fish either so the combination did not exactly whet my appetite, however, as it was a local delicacy and it had been prepared for me I did not want to be rude and not even try it at all. I had a small spoonful...it did not taste as 'fishy' as I thought it might but it was not to my taste and I had no more than the first spoonful, I felt glad that I had at least tried it though. Battered catfish, another local fish, on the other hand, tasted great!

Did You Know?: The Pantanal is the largest flooded, freshwater wetland on earth and although most of it is in Brazil it also stretches into Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina too!

Long, Long Day!

After leaving Peru I managed to achieve: Being on 3 flights, visiting 4 different airports and spending time in 3 different timezones in 24 hours as well as going a whopping 40hrs without seeing a bed to sleep in! That would be the same as getting up at 7am for school on a Monday and not getting back into bed until 11pm Tuesday!
Finally, I arrived in the city of Cuiabá (Pronounced kwee-oh-ba) last night, slept like a log and am now waiting to go to the Pantanal where I hope to see creatures like crocodiles, capybara, anacondas and lots of birds if I'm lucky. I hope I am!