The Adventures of the Little Indian Girl

We then planned to head to Santa Teresa. It's supposed to be the one hill that is not overtaken by favelas and is still serviced by the tram. So, of course, it's a big tourist spot. The street car goes over these arches.



I didn't hang out from the sides! Stood in the back though as all the seats were taken up! We rode all the way up to the top. We should have gotten off earlier but then we didn't really do our research. I guess we expected big signs for Santa Teresa and a touristy area. Well, no such thing. We got off at the last stop and walked back down the hill that would make for a nice walk and give nice views of Rio. This tram driver was the same one who had taken us up and saw him come up again. We waved a hello, he hesitated at first and waved back! :)
( ton of pics behind the cut )

Over our stay, a lot of the people kept talking about this show they watch in Portuguese that showcases Indian culture/customs through a soap-opera style of story telling! So many people would describe it to us. Even the cook at the hostel we stayed at in Rio. So, on Sunday night, when the TV was free, we actually watched the show for some time. The show seems to be filmed in India, but the actors are all Portuguese. It's called Caminho das Indias! I shared this with mom and she laughed pleasantly. She remembers stopping traffic when she wore saris - literally, when we lived back in Brazil in the early 80s! For the first time she had worn pants and t-shirts!! And once when I went about walking on my own, I saw a local lady wearing a sari!

It started late morning and continued on the whole day! We had lunch at a nicer version of the Kilogram place - it had so many more options for us to try! yum! In between we went back to meet the Real Bus and collect our luggage! yay! Enjoyed a nice walk down the beach side and a last caipirnhas and caught the cab to head to the airport and back to the USA. sigh.

30 March 2009

On 30th morning we checked out of the hostel, took a cab to the National park one last time on Brazil side, and again contemplated going on the speed boat ride. The group that went the day before felt for the amount of money they spent it wasn't worth it (on Argentina side) and on the Brazil side for the same amount you get a longer time on the boat. So, we ran into a guide (who comes free it seems) that helped us out to hook up with a vendor. We almost did it but then the credit card server was really slow or something. And that gave us time to back out from it as time was an issue. We just had two hours there and so didn't want to spend the time trying out credit card payments.

We then took the bus all the way up to the top of the hill and took a slow boat ride before the river fell over the cliffs to form the waterfalls! We both were their first customers and the only customers! The waters seemed so calm. And the water was not very deep - 1-2 meters in depth.


rainbows formed from the waterfalls...And on occasions the mist rose up so high!!

( read more )

We got back from our trip to Brazil this morning!! Can't believe that we were actually there! We truly enjoyed the trip and have a nice tan to prove it. If we were there for another week I think we would have picked up Portuguese! Everyone loves speaking to you in Portuguese even when you inform them that you don't really understand what they are saying! But it was a lot of fun and entertaining. We did however pick up some amazing samba music and local Cachaça to mix up and enjoy once we start missing the city of Rio.

But for now we are happy to be back and looking forward to sleeping in our own bed together after a week long stint in hostel bunkbeds!

on the side: I miss my laptop! sigh..this week will be getting a monitor to hook it up and all!