Travel Diary: Brazil (June 2022)

After a thoroughly enjoyable carnival experience we left the following morning in search of magical beaches and hopefully a little bit of surf.  The island of Ilabhela is divided by a fairly high mountain range which means the east coast beaches are typically only accessible by boat or long hikes through the jungle, there is however one beach, Castelhanos, which can be accessed by a 4wd vehicle.  The drive is absolutely spectacular, even if views are limited due to the jungle, as it climbs to well over 500m asl and descends the same again in the space of 15 kilometers. Images of being Robinson Crusoe for a few days are easily invoked when just after cresting the summit there is break in the jungle vegetation and you get a brief view of the beach tucked away in a big bay and totally surrounded by rainforest.

The reality is slightly different when you do reach the beach, at least for the daylight hours between 10:00 – 15:00.  The remoteness, adventure of getting there and picturesque nature of the bay make Castelhanos an ideal adventure tourism destination and means that everyday large groups of tourists arrive, either having been shuttled in over the said mountain pass or having come around the island on a boat tour, to enjoy lunch and Caipirinhas at the few restaurants on the beach which are operated by the local villagers. Once the day tourists had left we got to witness the more authentic side of life in the bay, including one young lady receiving driving lessons from her dad on the beach. Her learning curve was going to be steep, both literally and figuratively, as apart from the beach sand between the low and high tide marks the only other possible driving opportunity is the above-mentioned 4wd pass.

The second event that quickly shattered our ideas of pretending to be Robinson Crusoe for a few days was a little guy known as a borrachudo!   Unbeknown to us, Ilhabela is as famous for its scenery as it is for these little black flies which you only detect after they have bitten you and left a very itchy and swollen red mark, Stuart managed to initially avoid them by going surfing whereas they sneakily bit Tania while she sat on the beach.  The best solution to avoid being bitten, is citronella lotion and there is even a brand named “CitroIlha”.

When we had passed through the checkpoint at the start of the pass the guard had enquired how long we would stay in Castelhanos and as is usual our answer was “we don’t know but probably a few days”, however that evening  while we did our best to not scratch the bites it was a very easy decision to decide to leave the next day, the problem being you are not allowed to depart Castelhanos until 15:00 in the afternoon.   The reason for this is that because of the steep and narrow nature of the pass directional flow is regulated for safety. Not too many things scare us but 8 hours of daylight ahead and the accompanying borrachudos certainly had us anxious that night.

After driving over the pass we arrived just in time for “rush hour” on the ferry, the crossing to Ilabhela a week prior had been very rough due to the storm system around at the time, thankfully the channel and therefore crossing was much smoother this time and we could sit and relax with the windows down. In a country were not many people automatically speak English or are comfortable too, we have been quite surprised how many ferry workers do and on this ferry crossing, we once again experienced that.  With the vehicles all loaded and the ferry underway we were approached by one who started talking to us and then translating the conversation to the foot, bicycle and scooter riding passengers who were jam packed around us.  As the ferry docked on the mainland, one of these “listeners in” gestured to us from his scooter and then proceeded to hand over a very large bag of banana’s as a gift to ourselves. It was very frustrating to only be able to smile and say “muito obrigado” (thank you very much), especially when we realised he had given us all of his bananas and was now driving off with none!  Such kind gestures typify how welcome we have been made to feel in Brazil.

Hoping that we had put the barrachudos behind us we found a nice little campsite just before Ubatuba which had direct access to the beach, some waves and what appeared to be a nice chilled surfing culture.  Between stilted conversations with other campers and being able to people watch when the weekend rolled around we got to just enjoy and soak up everyday life for your average Brazilian and once again, can say we absolutely love it.  If it had not been for a patch of bad weather rolling in, our 5-day stay could easily have become 10.

Anyhow we had everyday chores to complete, like shopping, visiting a laundromat, paying for our cellphone data and getting a haircut for Tania.  Admin days like this are at present rather exhausting, for two simple but probably often underestimated reasons: firstly we are always carrying out these tasks in a new city with which we are not familiar and so most things are a struggle to find and then secondly you have to do everything in a language with which you have a grasp of about 5 key phrases, so a simple task like operating the self-help washing machine or tumble dryer becomes a major exercise in translation on the phone and is typically a two person job.  Thankfully our next stop, Itamambuca, was not too far out of town.

Itamambuca is a very funky little eco village with what appears to be a huge surfing culture, the bad weather had however arrived and with it some thumping swell and so not being familiar with the wave, Stuart took the cautious decision to stay out of the water. 

At this point in the journey we were getting close to Rio de Janeiro and were trying to figure out the logistics of how to manage a visit to the famous city.  We absolutely love the independence that Mr Jones gives us, together with the ability to visit places which are off the beaten tourist track but he does complicate life when you want to visit a big city in which there are naturally limited camping or even safe long-term parking options for a tall vehicle like him. An additional stress we were feeling was that practically every Brazilian we had met so far had warned us of the dangers of Rio and how careful you had to be driving there, in order to avoid the favelas and so forth.  Adding to the complexity was that the weather forecasts did not look great and we didn’t want to be visiting the iconic tourist landmarks of Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf when it was going to be wet and cloudy.  

And so we found ourselves stalling and killing time with not much to do in little places like Paraty, and ultimately getting frustrated.  On the positive side: this did allow us to do a bit more research into Rio in terms of where we could park Mr J, reasonably priced hotels and tour options for the main tourist attractions. When a reasonable weather window appeared to open up for a few days we were able to move quickly and drove into Barra da Tijuca which is suburb on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.   Based on our research we were hoping to leave Mr Jones at a camping spot called Fritz House while we stayed overnight in a hotel in Rio, however what no amount of research can tell you, is how difficult it was going to be to find Fritz House. All the apps we use showed the location to be the same but upon arrival there was just a small wooden pedestrian door through which Mr Jones would clearly not fit and no signage to indicate this was in fact the spot.  Having consulted our various sources of information (iOverlander, Google, Google maps, bookings.com, etc) we were left none the wiser in terms of a different address or contact details.  For the next hour or more we drove around and around the neighborhood, which happens to be on the side of a mountain, so in other words up and down some very steep roads much to Mr Jones disgust and our frustration! Just as we were about to give up we passed a gate (which had previously been closed) and spotted a camper van inside!  

At the last minute the following morning we changed our mind with regards taking the metro into town when we realised an Uber would cost only marginally more and eliminate quite some hassle (and risk of being robbed – even Fritz had warned us of the “dangers” in Copacabana) and so took a very easy commute into our hotel in Copacabana.  During the drive, first impressions with regards the dangers were quite the opposite as our driver had both front windows open and his phone in a cradle on the dash and we observed many people happily walking along the sidewalks chatting on their smartphones.

Having dropped our overnight daypack at the hotel we immediately hit the Copacabana promenade to take in the sights and again were pleasantly surprised, not only because of the environment but also by how cheap the Caipirinhas at the little beachfront kiosks/restaurants appeared to be.  They were nearly half the price of ones we had seen further south in far less touristy areas and so being doubting Thomas’s we thought that there had to be a catch like maybe there was no cachaca in them… Therefore when we saw a spot offering well priced plates of fried chips (our favorite beach side snack/lunch) and caipirinhas we had to stop and try.  Needless to say our doubts were baseless, so much so that we stopped back at the same kiosk later in the afternoon for another “quality check”.

We had booked a full day city tour that would allow us to see and tick-off all the must see sights and so the next morning was an early start for us as the tour operator only offered hotel pickups at certain hotels in the area, we had chosen one close to ours but still wanted to make sure we got there in advance of the designated time.  The walk went quicker than planned and so when we arrived with 30 minutes to spare we decided to take a short stroll around the neighborhood which turned out to be a fateful move as the bus driver, unbeknown to us arrived and left in the 20 minutes we were gone.  In the meantime, we were back standing on the street corner and getting more and more nervous that we had been conned as the minutes past the designated pickup time ticked over.  Eventually Stuart managed to get hold of the tour company and after a very heated exchange they offered to accommodate us on the following days tour, this was far from ideal as we had only booked a hotel for two nights and would mean we we would only finish early on the 3rd evening but thankfully as Mr J was only a relatively short Uber ride out of the city we figured we could return straight to him from the tour.

All clouds have a silver lining and, in this case, it allowed us another “free” day which we could use up for taking in sights like the Copacabana fort and Ipanema beach.  In addition, the weather had become quite cloudy which may have meant both Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf would have been shrouded in cloud and so not ideal for visiting whereas the next day had much better weather.

The following day, thankfully the pickup went as planned and we were able to join the “selfie taking” masses as we got shuttled from one attraction to the next.  Over the course of 9 hours we got to see: Rio Cathedral, Estrada steps, Macarena stadium, Carnival boulevard, Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf.   We are glad “we have been there and done that” but in the end feel like we have had more authentic experiences seeing the carnival on IlhaBela and the mosaic artwork near Sao Francisco Sul, to name a couple.

Our final stop at Sugar Loaf mountain gave us a great view of an encroaching storm, and the accompanying winds made the cable car descent interesting, and by the time we had been dropped back in Copacabana it was dark and raining heavily.  A few more anxious moments followed as we tried to get an Uber and the first four cancelled on us (probably because we were heading out of the city and away from their main business), so we were very relieved when the 5th driver accepted. Our relief was short lived however as the car was a proper skedonk (South African slang for a beat up old car), with a fuel gauge showing empty, windscreen wipers that hardly worked, lights that were candles and a serious grating of metal if the driver selected first gear which he naturally tried to avoid. Knowing that our destination was halfway up a mountain and fairly far away, we both subconsciously voiced concerns to each other about whether we would be getting home to Mr Jones that night, thankfully however we did.

Before we fled the big city, we had one more set of tasks to take care of, shopping for slightly high-end personal care items from “The Body Shop” and so forth together with a general stock up of freezer items which we had run down in anticipation of spending time away from Mr Jones.

The much feared, drive through Rio de Janeiro and northwards turned into a non-event, partly because we hit the road quite early on a Sunday and also because the combination of our GPS and Google maps running simultaneously meant we did not take any wrong turns and end up in a favella. Our destination for the day was 200km north, in a little spot called Arraial do Cabo which we had read was nicknamed the Caribbean of Rio state thanks to its white sand and crystal clear blue water.

Just as there is no common standard electrical plug type around the world, there is no common valve or thread size for LPG gas bottles.  It seems that there are even more variations for gas than there are for plug types, we were expecting this and had come as much prepared as possible.  Firstly, we have two bottles, to buy time for finding a place that can fill the main bottle and secondly, we have a bag full of potential adapters. When we first arrived in Uruguay we were very lucky as one of the adapters suited their thread type and the first place we tried filled gas and not only swopped bottles, so we quietly hoped that it could be as easy when our main bottle ran out here in Brazil.  After a day a day of driving around to multiple gas bottle depots and then hardware stores to see if they would fill or we could buy a suitable adapter Stuart eventually accepted defeat and purchased a Brazilian 5kg bottle and regulator, hoping that as it is a different shape to the South African one that we could, with some adaption, still fit it on to Mr Jones existing gas bottle bracket.

Our running around for gas had in the meantime brought us closer to the town of Buzios which Stuart had read had some decent surfing, unfortunately the camping was a rather long walk from the beach and also not that great so we decided on only one night.   Stuart got absolutely hammered as the waves were big and heavy when we arrived, thankfully the next day produced milder conditions and so we spent a lovely day on the beach before heading back to Arrial do Cabo.

In our nearly two months in Brazil this has been the first time we have “backtracked” on our route and headed South instead of North.  The reason was twofold, firstly by chance we had learnt that the next stage of the World Surf League Championship tour (WSL) would be taking place nearby and South Africa had two surfers who would be competing so we figured it would be fun to witness and also wave the flag in support.  The second reason was, that the time when we could apply for an extension on our visa was drawing near and Tania’s research showed you could do this at the local airport in Cabo Frio which was far more appealing than attempting it in a big city as we had done a month prior in Santos.

While we waited for the WSL event we made the most of the white sands and good weather n Arraial do Cabo, including pumping up our StandUp Paddle board (SUP) and making a trip to a nearby island.  After a fun paddle we chilled on the beach for a while and were just getting ready to carry the SUP back to camp for lunch when there was this massive BOOM and the SUP flew over our heads – it had delaminated at one of the seams and rapidly deflated.  It’s doubtful that it is repairable but for now we have put in back in the roof box and will keep our eyes open for places that repair the large inflatable power boats.

A couple of days prior to the start of the surfing competition we headed down to Saquarema hoping against hope that we would find somewhere to camp as we had read that 40 000 people descend on the little town each day and that most accommodation is booked up months in advance.  In addition, we had only been able to identify, online, two possible camping sites, both of which were very small.  Luckily for us, a new one was in the process of being developed which we passed as we drove in and they didn’t have a booking system running so had no idea at that stage how many people might come so we quickly secured a spot for the week.  The only challenge was they only had 100v electricity whereas we need 220v for our battery charger and the site was very shady but with some careful positioning we placed Mr Jones so that he would get at least 6 hours of sun each day, which we hoped would be adequate for our solar panels to keep the fridge battery charged.

We set an alarm (a rarity for us these days) on the morning of the first day of the competition so that we could get down to the beach in time for what we believed was the start time and not miss the first South African who was scheduled in one of the earlier heats. As it turned out we needn’t have been such eager beavers as the beach was practically deserted at that time and also the women heats take place first but it did mean we could secure prime positions right in front of the athletes change room and so could proudly display the flag as they exited for their heats. This we repeated for two days.

Each day the crowds swelled in size throughout the morning until there was literally no room between the incoming water and people which made for some amusing sights when a larger wave would roll up. Sadly, our boys didn’t do so well with only one of them getting through to the last 16 but it was a fun couple of days and incredible to observe the passion and feel the energy from the crowd when a Brazilian was surfing. 

It would appear we like to attend big and fun events at the end of each month we have spent in Brazil, last month it was the Carnival on Ilabhela island and this month the WSL event, it also meant that we were now in the window period that is allowed for requesting an extension of our tourist visa. So, with Saqaurema in our rear view mirror we popped back up to Arrial do Cabo, unlike last month when we tried to do it too early this time it was a piece of cake and within a few hours had been granted, which means we can stay in Brazil for a total of 6 months if we want. If our experiences of the first two months are any indication to go by, it is going to be a great further 4!

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