July and august 2004
Brazil

School was over and we had in front of us 2 months of vacations. What can we do... Discovering a little bit more Brazil, going farther than Oiapoque, our eternal horizon.
We write "a little bit more" because even with two months, this is a huge country. For those who will have a look to a map, they will realize that even with our 225 hours of travel by bus and our 6 hours by plane, we covered just a slice of the country.
Brazil is 8.500.000 km²: 17 times bigger than France. Fifth biggest country in the world, Brazil covers almost half of South America.
Beyond soccer, pretty girls, its extraordinary melting-pot, Brazil also used to align the myth of insecurity. We found the country quite tamed, at times close to the US model.
Like many country in Latin America, extreme poverty extend in front of extremely wealthy families. A confrontation always violent. Brazil is the 10th economic power in the world. It has everything. Brazilians are hard workers and ingenuous. But overall, they are just so easygoing and welcoming that by themselves they are the best reason to discover Brazil.
Whatever, the main purpose of our vacations was the rendez-vous we had with many friends and family members.

After 18 hours of bus and 532 km on a disastrous road we end up in Macapa at the mouth of the Amazon River where we took a plane for Belem on the other side of the River. Here flying over the banks of Marajo Island, as big as Switzerland.

Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River. At the market Ver o Peso, one can find incredible articles: special oils to attract or repulse, heal or wound …

We left French Guyana with some friends to join other ones in Belem. For Betty's 32th birthday, we took a bath in the Amazon River on the island of Cotijuba.

Leaving Belem, it took us 40 hours of bus to join the mythical city of Bahia de Salvador. We have been disappointed by the city, a little bit too touristy now. Here in the Pelourinho, the historic area of the city.

Salvador de Bahia, on the beach and buildings side.

Among national beverages you find the Cachaça, made from sugarcane. In cocktail with green lemons, sugar and ice, it's called Caipinrinha. It's a very sweet and dangerous product with which one never knows how all this is going to end… Enjoying caipirinha in a lagoon in the middle of huge sand dunes to celebrate the meeting with our friends: Frédéric, Manu, Philippe and Nicolas.

Time came when it became important for us to stop partying, so we got to the interior of Bahia's state to hike in the Chapada Diamantina National Park. A tough trip in a landscape of mesas, canyons and falls.

An old man, still looking for diamonds in the area. He's proud to show us a US 500 diamond before showing us the way as we got lost.

To drink the water of the creek, you need to go beyond the colour of it.

The best sightseeing of that trip: cachoeira da fumaça, a 420 meters high fall. To see it, you need to lie on a flat stone overhanging the cliffs while people grab your legs just in case you would suddenly feel able to fly.

End of the trip in the Capon Valley.

Back on the Nordeste coast, in Natal.

Strolling in buggy in the sand dunes around Natal…

… and an authentic cultural artefact of the country (note that the string is actually not as popular as it was before in Brazil. Fashion changes.)

Typical boat of the Nordeste.

A good nest at Praia da Pipa…

… and it's magnificent beaches.

Than we went south to Rio. We were totally charmed by the city. One of the prettiest setting in the world.

City life is always turned to the many beaches. Here Copacabana.

A classic Sunday afternoon on the beach of Ipanema.

We met Betty's youngest brother, Stephane, and his wife Jessica. The Christ Redemptor, at 710 meters of altitude overhangs the city of Rio. Some says that the statue, with it's arms, invites the people of Rio to work a little bit more.

In Rio, we were to meet Marco, Pati and Jean Martin with whom we had a wonderful time in Ecuador.

Enjoying Rio's beautiful bay on a sailboat. This boat, the largest of it's kind in Brazil, was built in Amazonia. It took four years and passion to make it.

Rio view from the sugarloaf.

Sao Paulo where we met Betty's parents. At the top of the Italian tower we contemplated this huge megalopolis of 17 millions inhabitants, third largest city in the world. Downtown is big as the whole city of Paris.

Downtown Sao Paulo.

Downtown Sao Paulo. The city was too big to be enjoyable on a short time. So we ran away.

We traveled to the triple border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay to contemplate Iguacu Falls, among the prettiest in the world.

Iguaçu Falls.

On the bridge between Brazil and Paraguay we go back to the chaos we used to encounter in other countries of Latin America.

Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, facing Brazil, is the biggest commercial center in Latin America. You can find everything in the chaotic streets and building of the city. It's also one of the most corrupted towns in the continent.

34 hours of bus later we were in Ouro Preto in the Minas Gerais' state. During the XVIIIe century, half of the gold extracted in the world came from the Minas Gerais: 1.200 tons of gold of which the biggest part ended in the banks of England! A famous uruguyan journalist wrote that without this gold, England would never had been strong enougn to fight Napoleon… In Ouro Preto, churches are the testimony of that wealthy past.

Main Square in the colonial city of Ouro Preto. One of the churches has not less than 434kg of gold.

To ends our vacation, we went to Ihla Grande, a tropical island close to Rio de Janeiro. Peaceful and well preserved, we made some good hiking.

With Betty's parents, at one end of the pretty Lopes Mendes beach.