My Journey - Like It Or Not!

MrPants said:
Haven't updated my travels through Brazil recently so thought I'd bring things a little more up to date.

I spend only a day and a half in Rio de Janeiro but since it's probably the city that most everyone has heard of and is at least a little familiar with, I thought it was worth a few pics.
The problem is that the day I was out and about in Rio, the weather was really crappy. High cloud, low cloud, mist, drizzle - Yuk! The pics are pretty poor quality and dreary looking just because of the weather. Wish it would have been a brighter day but ........................

I wanted to get a bird's eye view of Rio so I went to Sugarloaf mountain and took the cable car up the 1,200 and some odd feet to the top.
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Sugarloaf is quite an impressive chunk of rock and the cable car ride to the top is, well, exciting as the car is pretty much glass all around so one feels unprotected when looking down at the unfolding vista that is Rio de Janeiro.

View of Rio from the top of Sugarloaf. You can see the city is a mass of buildings filling the spaces between the multitude of large hills that make up the geography of the area. Sorry, the view is misty this day. It would be stunning on a clear day when the colors were vibrant.
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Once down off the mountain, I was fairly close to one of Rio's oldest favelas in midtown. It was so large I couldn't get even half of it in one shot. Shack built upon shack up along the side of a hill. The streets in the favela are really narrow and entryways into the houses are right there where the roadway is. Not sure how people safely exit their living quarters without getting hit by a scooter or motorbike, which seem to be the only mode of transport within the favela.
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Of course no trip to Rio would be complete without a walk along the world famous Copacabana Beach! As I mentioned earlier, the weather was dull and dreary the day I was out around town so there were not so many sunbathers on the beach this day. I was amazed at the sheer size of this beach. It runs for as far as the eye can see, with downtown Rio as a backdrop.
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It's all sand with little to no rocks the whole way along the beach. The sand is pretty fine so you sink into it a bit as you walk. It's a bit of a struggle getting across the softer sand, down to where it's more firm by the waterline.
In this pic you can use the couple of people show as a scale to judge the distance from the water to where the road is. The road is all the way back to where you can see the buildings. It takes a good 10-12 minutes to make the trek from the roadway to the waters edge through the soft sand of the beach.
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I would have loved to stay in Rio longer and spend at least one sunny, warm day at Copacabana beach if just to people watch alone. That would make for an entertaining day I think. Maybe next time as I had to move north to my next planned destination.
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Amazing pics! We were in Rio in 2001 and took the cable car as well. My partner and I were traveling with a lady friend of ours. We are both deathly afraid of heights and were screaming like little girls. Our friend was perfectly fine. But the view was certainly worth it and a Caipirinha made us forget all of it. :ROFLMAO:

Glad you are continuing to enjoy yourself.

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PamfromTx said:
No photo of The Christ the Redeemer statue?
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Hey Pam; I didn't include that one, even though it's the most well know attraction around Rio. It is a long way away from the area of Rio I was in so I could only get to either Sugarloaf or Christ the Redeemer and chose Sugarloaf because it was closer to other things I wanted to see. I was pretty disappointed I wasn't able to get up to see it but the weather was so poor, I didn't want to spend the $$ to get there and just be in the clouds and not able to see the city below it.

I did manage to get a pic of it. Terrible photo though as it was really far away and literally in the clouds that day it was so overcast lol.
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RadishRose said:
@MrPants , did you see any Carnival Parades?
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No I didn't as Carnival isn't until late April this year; runs for a week or so with the big parade and shows around April 30th. They sure do like to party a lot there no matter what the occasion though. This pic a little bar on the second floor of a building in town somewhere. Middle of the day, on a weekday and everybody's there enjoying themselves lol.
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MrPants said:
No I didn't as Carnival isn't until late April this year; runs for a week or so with the big parade and shows around April 30th. They sure do like to party a lot there no matter what the occasion though. This pic a little bar on the second floor of a building in town somewhere. Middle of the day, on a weekday and everybody's there enjoying themselves lol.
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Oh, I looked it up, Carnival was set to take place from February 25th to March 5th, 2022 as I thought, but it was cancelled, due to Covid.

They did re-schedule to April as you say.
 
Yes, it's normally Feb-Mar. but later this year. I may see if I can get back there providing I'm still in Brazil. Carnival would be great to experience!
 
Sliverfox said:
Enjoying your pictures & travels.
Will you settle somewhere when you are done traveling?
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Glad you are enjoying my travel reports :) I go back to Canada every 6 months at most to keep my Canadian Health care active as well as my Canada Pension Plan payments from the government now that I'm eligible. I'll stay there for the summer months then migrate somewhere warmer come Sept or Oct., assuming I'm still able health wise. So far, so good!

I have a friend back in Canada who is alone and has a good size house so he's happy to have company at least on a temporary basis and I pay him rent and chip in for groceries etc. It works for both of us. I'll be heading back there in a month or so.
 
Had a fun adventure the other day with some people I met at dinner one night. We all went out to the Cumbuco area just outside of Fortaleza to go ride the sand dunes in rented Dune Buggies!
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The sand area is huge and runs for miles and miles just up from the beach that is also massive. There's a number of small oasis spots along the way down by the water. Sparsely populated with what appeared to be a mix of local homes as well as some tourist homes.
Cumbuco Dune Buggy Oasis.jpg
We stopped at an interesting make shift watering hole in the middle of nowhere. Looked like there used to be some sort of activity going on there which was abandoned at some point,
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There was a small lake there where the sand dunes ended and what looked like a large savanna area on the other side of the lake. It appeared to be quite flat & fertile without jungle yet did not appear to be farmed unless there were cattle there perhaps?
Cumbuco Dune Buggy.jpg
After a super fun yet strenuous day of bouncing around in the sand, we ended up back on the beach near the shoreline and made a straight run along the pathways that was just up from the beach. Had some pretty sore muscles for a day or so after that adventure but it sure was a lot of fun :love:
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Made my way up to Belem (Brazil) which it at the mouth of the Amazon river. I can book a ferry ride up river to any number of destinations from here but first I spent a couple of days wandering around the town just to see what was there. I'd heard many negative things about this place but you can't always believe what you hear from complete strangers so I always like to check things out for myself.

Turns out, the reports were largely true! First place I've been in Brazil that I've never liked at all. The weather only added to my dislike for this place as it was heavily overcast, hot and very humid. These weather conditions added a sense of gloom to the visual dirtiness and decay evident everywhere around the town.
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I made my way to what seemed to be the central area of town which was also where the local fishermen docked their boats, some literally running them up on the muddy shoreline until the tide was able to float them off again I suppose. The whole area stank of rotting fish guts that were disposed of in the shallow waters along the muddy shoreline. The only creatures that seemed happy to be there were the dozens upon dozens of black vultures, looking for a quick snack.
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Just on the other side of this docking area was a line of buildings that displayed the black stains which seemed to cover all the cement buildings in this town. This is where the vultures either sat perched atop the buildings or circling in the dark sky above eyeing the harbor below in case another fishing boat was to pull up with it's catch for the day.
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Had to get out of that area just due to the stench and besides, it was mid-day and I wanted to explore a little more before heading back out of town to where I was staying for the night. The next place of interest I found was an open marketplace, which was bustling with people shopping and eating lunch. I poked around a little but didn't see much of interest and wasn't particularly hungry, due to my earlier experience. This place is by no means filled with people who are well off and in fact there was a lot of abject poverty evident everywhere in this town. Some at the market looking for lunch weren't exactly ordering from a menu :(
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To completely cement my decision to begin an immediate meatless diet was a local butcher stall I happened across. This place certainly wouldn't pass inspection anywhere else that I can think of. I could not see any refrigeration unit, running water or other sanitization products and the butcher, who seemed to have pretty good butchering skills, was cutting pork, chicken and god knows what else on the same counter without wiping it down between products :oops:

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He was putting on quite a show for his customers as he carved up whatever carcasses he had on hand and explaining things as he went along. His loyal clientele all seemed very happy with the whole process - me; not so much so I just moved along. No sale as far as I was concerned :sick:.
After that it was back to my hotel outside of town. Just had a salad that night for dinner? After a good night's sleep it was off to the ferry docks in the morning to book a trip up river. I knew things would improve once I got up river a way because I've been there before and there's some interesting places and sights along the way.
 
As long as you're not wearing a diamond neckless or a Rolex, you're pretty safe here from anything I have ever experienced. The Government sites almost always over play actual on the ground scenarios. They have to. Some people don't have any street-smarts.

As far as the Covid situation here; it is bad but when I am around people, it's normally outside so I'm not that concerned (fully vaxed + boost). Mask works in dicey situations. So far, so good!
 
I was behind some sand bags , taking fire, my hand were shaking, a private gave me a cigarette, said it might help me, with the shakes, quit in 1999
 
Thanks for explaining the Covid & crime situation; I was just going to ask.

Do you feel vulnerable as a tourist? You’ve been before so not too many surprises.
 
fmdog44 said:
Quitting does not get you out of danger. Get a chest x-ray annually or whenever. I was at the doctor yesterday and she asked me was I ever a smoker? I quit 30 years ago.
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apparently your not clear on chest X-rays until 40 yrs I’m told……
i gave up 36 yrs ago
 
charry said:
Mr pants .well done…..did you get help, or like me ,go cold turkey !
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Started with the nicotine patch for 2 days then didn't bother and went cold turkey from there on.
You know the greatest benefit to quitting in my opinion is being free to live life the way I want to and not having to be a complete slave to nicotine addiction! It was hard to realize that until I'd been quit for awhile but I wouldn't give up that freedom for anything now (y)
 
MrPants said:
Started with the nicotine patch for 2 days then didn't bother and went cold turkey from there on.
You know the greatest benefit to quitting in my opinion is being free to live life the way I want to and not having to be a complete slave to nicotine addiction! It was hard to realize that until I'd been quit for awhile but I wouldn't give up that freedom for anything now (y)
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I understand …and also , that your in control of your life ….
I thought it was a great achievement when I gave up !!
 
Pics of the Amazon River aren't that good because I only have a cell phone and the river is wide so distance is not my friend but i wanted to record the river as I saw it so here goes:

It's really wide in many places - much wider than I thought it would be originally.Amazon River Sunset.jpg.
There are a lot of small villages all along the river. Usually located at junctions of smaller rivers that flow into the Amazon Basin.
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The river is running high at this time of year, the rainy season. The water is muddy in most places and the current is very strong, flowing toward the Atlantic ocean at this juncture.
People all up and down the river go about their daily routines.
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The change in landscape is abrupt. One minute you're in the middle of the jungle then suddenly, there's a decent size city on the banks of the river but regardless, people apply their livelihood, whatever that may be.
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The river seems to have a life of it's own and it changes from mile to mile.
I'm heading to Manus Brazil, a major manufacturing city some 1,500 km's up river from the Atlantic Ocean.

It's hot .... It's humid and .... It's lovely!Amazon6.jpg
 

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