Well Toto I don´t think we´re in Kansas any longer

WEll before I head off on my jungle adventure tomorrow I though I would post a little about the capital Brasilia and also the other place I have been staying at, Belo Horizonte for the last three days.

Brasilia up until fourty years ago did not exist. The then government decided that it would be a good idea to build a capital in the middle of the country which would unite all the states and bring some much needed economy into the interior. A team of architects including (the great) Oscar Niemeyer contributed some fantastic looking projects into the building of the capital city, however much to my pity it is not a city to be walked around in and instead lends itself to the car. The buildings are all on a grand scale but the roads are even bigger and seem to dominate the city. To boot it is an extrmely hot state and the landscaping virtually contains no shade or respite for the pedestrain. The climate and the soil are comparable to the Sahara - so I was told. The soil is beautiful and rust red and everywhere it is very dry. And this was winter!!! Anyway I have some fabulous photos but I have currently no way of transferring them to the computer so that will have to wait until i get back. My favourite building of all and a Niemeyer creation - and I could have stayed there for hours - was the Cathedral, really open and airy and just gorgeous.

Anyway on monday night I departed for Belo Horizonte (it took me 11 hours on the night bus) and I am staying in a nice youth hostel. The weather here is much much colder and my body does not like it. BH as the town is know is not particularly nice but is a good spot from which to visit the pretty and collonial mining towns. Yesterday I went to Ouro Preto (black Gold) to admire the baroque churches and it was even colder!!! I really enjoyed myself though as BH is by far the busiest city I ahve ever been in and Ouro Preto was calm and sleepy in comparison. The baroque architecture is incredible especially cvonsidereing that the main sculptor `Aleijadinho´was struck down with a degenerative disease at age 40 so in order to carve the amazing wooden artwok for the churches he used to tie his tools to his body and sculpt with them in that way..... incredible.

Tomorrow as I said earlier I am off the jungle - with a mixture of excitement and trepidation I must say! Not sure when I will be able to post again so for now this is all.

Tania xxxx

Anyone for a kilo?

Well I am now in a different place altogether from when I last posted an update and I am also no longer in Brasilia! I will write some other time on Brasilia and Belo Horizonte at some other point but I really wanted to write about food today.

So this blog is especially dedicated to Rich (who I know adores food) and also to my Dad who only ever seems to remember places by the meal he had there, which in my mind is the best way to recall things anyway!!

So let me begin with the words for food which actually throw me quite a lot as the name gives NO hint as to what the food might be and to boot I find it really hard to pronounce most things such as acaraje. The joy about Brazil is that it is such a mixed culture that indigenous words of the Indians have been introduced into the language as well as African words of course. BUT it doesn´t stop there as in most restaurants and supermarkets you can get sushi, this is bacause outside of Japan the largest number of Japanese people live in Brazil (predominantly Sao Paulo). Something that is really popular here is fruit juices and boy oh boy do they have a lot of fruit to juice from. I have been trying to try as much variety as i can, one I haven´t tried yet and should really is the fruit of the cashew which is made into a juice. The actual fruit looks beautiful!! And there are many many other fruits unique to the Amazon and the rest of Brazil which have no translation such as bacuri, acai, cupuacu.

The other staple diet is rice and beans - so Rich you would struggle a little I am afraid what with your freaky ´I don´t like beans´ thing - and most places serve food by the kilo - hooray I hear Rich cry :) - actually they give you a set price for a kilo of food and you help yourself to what can be sometimes disappointing but most of the time is a delicious selection of food. You simply take as much or as little as you would like. Apparently food has been served like this for at least 20 years and has become quite popular in Portugal. The best meal I have had so far (and one of the cheapest) was yesterday by the kilo and was just delicious, it cost me with an orange juice just over 2 pounds!!! The other option which I have also tried is paying a set price for a meal and it is eat as much as you like. The men serving wonder about with cooked meat on sticks which they slice for you - my favourite was `fraldinha´ which was the most succulent and tasty beef.....yum!

Anyway today I wandered around the central market of BH and it was wonderful - it really reminded me of my childhood with the smells of the cheeses, the meat, fish and the vegetables. Teh market really had a little of everything including dubiouos looking live poultry (in small cages) and dogs, cats and birds being sold all under one roof.

If I have any other noteworthy meals I will of course let you know - but needless to say I am looking after myself and eating well.

As an additional side note - nice to hear from you Sassa, write me an email to let me know how you are getting on and how your holiday was!

Katy baby - I hope Singapore is rocking and I look forward to hearing all about it and the rest of your trip!!

Tani xxxxx

An Adventure in Salvador - Part II

Well the `cold` turned out to be the flu. The kind that leaves you in bed for three days as you lack the energy to do much else, but and here is the bit that really gets me, laying in bed just makes your body ache...even more....nice.

When I say I have been in bed for the last three days this is not strictly true. I did go on a historical tour of Salvador and learnt so much more about the place. An editors note that I must make is that Candomble was a religion still practised in this region which was brought over by the African slaves in the 16th century. They have saints much the same as the Catholic religion does and each saint in Candomble directly relates to a saint in catholicism. The Slaves masters wouldnt let them worship their God so they invented their own god and saints to worship. Very interesting. Also a fact that I learnt yesterday whilst having dinner in my hotel sat on the terrace in my fleece (in 30 degrre heat and I was still cold) watching a Micahel Jackson DVD of his music videos was that in 1996 his song `they dont really care about us` is filmed in Pelourinho (the historic old part of Salvador) and where i had been satnding the day before!! How cool! The video features a famous NGO `Olodum`from Salvador. Fantastic drumming in the video - check it our if you can!

I have also rather unhealthily, have been frequenting the shopping centre, which is handily only a twenty minute walk away from my hotel. As i can´t go to the beach (too hot) or the twon cenmtre (too far away the way I was feeling) the shopping centre was the only form of exercise i have had for the last couple of days. Anyway the walk to the shopping centre and back is what fascinates me.... there are some really really hard working people who will do anything for some money. This includes three men sitting on the street corner shelling peas to sell to passers by, catching an octpus and selling it on the beach, selling crappy phonecards, vegetables, herbs, chilled or natural coconut juice and many many other forms of things. There are also those that stretch out a single hand and ask for some money, or those more sadly sleeping on a filthy looking matress on a walkway which crosses two busy roads on the way in/out of the shopping centre.

Then there is the shopping centre and the overblown prices of most of the shops in there and it makes me wander how on earth those who are getting by (badly) on $350 reais a month can afford the dress for $289 reais or the shoes for $90 reais, where do they go for there clothes? What i find curious is that the shopping centre has excatly the same layout as ALL shopping centres in Lisbon ie. there is a food hall crammed full of shit, commerical and overpriced food for sale and all the homecooked places are nowhere to be seen. The cheapest option for meals over here is the food by kilo, this means there is a set price for a kilo of food and you choose what you want to eat from a buffet, simple really. This way you get to try a little of everything!

Before i finish this very long post I just wanted to say that you can smell the hormones in the air in this place - I think everybody is horny all the time here!! Over breakfast yesterday I got given a full account by another guest of her night out and how she kissed an italian whilst he was with another woman at an open air club. I can understand though why everybody is so horny, the hot weather means people wear less and if they are all as beautiful as all the men and women are here then i guess you would feel silly if you didn´t join in! Dont worry though Rich I have definatly not been joing in!

Off to Brazilia tomorrow - the futuristic Brazilian capital which i am very very excited about!

T xxxx

An adventure in Salvador

Well I arrived in the north east region of Brazil - a state called Bahia which apparently is totally different to the rest of Brazil and proudly calls itself the most cultural!

Having arrived late at night in a foreign place I was glad to hook up with Louis Martin a french canadian who speaks amazing portuguese having spent ten months on and off in Brazil. He told me that he was staying in Barra outside of the main town as it was close to the beach and reminded him of the time he had spent Carnival here with his girlfriend, it seemed to be a good idea to stick with someone who knew where they were going and after establishing that neither of us was single we gladly told the hotel that we would share a room (with twin beds).

Since arriving in Salvador I have been fighting off a really bad cold and I feel kind of miserable but yesterday I spent the day on the beach whilst Louis took care of his plane ticket stuff (he was flying back to Toronto today having not seen his folks for 15 months and his girlfriend for four) and then we went into the Old Town, I was expecting it to look a lot like Lisbon as it was one of the first towns to be colonised (after much toing and froing) by the Portuguese and it did´t dissapoint. It was also the region where slaves from Africa were brought and it is because of this that the regions´s population is predominantly black. Things like Capoeira and Canduble (?) are very popular here, the first being an amazing form of martial arts to the rhythym of music and the second being a tribal religion.

Anyway all the above makes it a very beautiful town to walk around in, if Rio was massive, busy, good looking, noisy and kind of scary then Salvador is the beautiful sister to Rio, also busy, more noisy but feels safer and is just great!! I feel a little on my own now that Louis has left but it has also been nice as with a cold it is always best to be left to one´s devices. Yesterday we happened to arrive in the old town whilst an evening musical festival was being set up and so we stuck around to observe the singing, drumming and general merriment that was taking place. It was great fun.

Today I have spent the day on the beach topping up my tan and being hassled by men of one kind or another. I think tomorrow I may try and buy a wedding ring - just so´s they get the message. Where is my big man to bat them away eh? Honestly I kid you not, I was told that being ´blonde´would draw me lots of attention but it was really annoying at times today, not even the runny nose that could beat rudolph´s hands down in a red nose competition put them off!!!! In an effort to cheer myself up I have been for a wander around the shopping centre (found some good books for research) and went to the cinema, I watched ´Click´an appaling Adam Sandler film that really there is no point in you wasting your money on. There was some theatre on in town but the was I was feeling earlier I needed to make sure i didn´t stray too far from my bed.........

I think tomorrow, if I am feeling better then I will go for a guided tour around the old town in Salvador.

Almost forgot to mention - every morning i eat my breakfast on a top floor balcony overlooking the sea. There is a spectacular array of birds and butterflies in Brazil but today i ate breakfast with a hummingword - words cannot convey my excitement and fascination with this small and totally beautiful bird..... :)

Can I taste your sweet stuff?

Well today i am off to Salvador in the northeast and am really excited about seeing a new place. Rio has been great but the weather has tended to be cloudy and yesterday it rained nearly all day - some terrific thunderstorms too which makes for exciting times as the temperature still stays so warm.

On Saturday we went on a tour up to the Cristo (i have some nice pics) saw a monkey in the forest on the way down and then in the taxi went for a ride around the old borough of Santa Teresa, full of portuguese architecture, and then onto the cathedral (beautiful and very different) and then to some famous decorated steps that a chilean artist has dedicated 16 years of his life to. We met him and posed for some piccies with him and he even gave me a postcard of his for free (which was jolly nice although he was a rather odd sort of bloke!!).

In the afternoon the ¨gringos¨ went off to a football match for the afternoon. 45 of us foreigners amongst the fiercely proud and loyal Flamengo fans........... it was great although I have to confess to watching the fans watching the game rather than watching any of the actual game myself!! However four minutes from the end the home side scored and the stadium literally exploded!!! All good fun :) and a must for anyone visiting Rio!

Yesterday as i said the weather was rather crap and so we went and looked around a local fair and i fell in love with a handbag (which was bought before i got chance to purchase it myself) and then we chilled out at the hostel for the rest of the day sheltering from the rain. The most hilarious part was when the guy i met on the plane on tuesday walked into the hostel i have been staying in and we both realised that the other person was staying there too! I think he had enough of the 24 bed dorm place he was staying at in copacabana!

I feel really lucky to have found this place and met such great people so far.

Btw the sweet stuff i refer to above is the Caipirinha........... man alive it is strong! Whew! Makes me think of my boy - who i miss evry much :)

Tania xxxx

Welcome to Rio

Well here I am and what a journey it has been. On the flight on I met a really nice guy who was also staying in Rio who had also never been before to South America. I felt really apprehensive getting out of the airport but as i has organised transfers and my first night´s stay at the hotel it was all gooooooood :)

In the morning i was up at six am as i was so blooomin excited!! I saw these massive birds flying overhead and they looked like oversized bats with red and white underneath them flying high in the sky......... totally amazing.

MY first day i found a really nice hostel in Ipanema - the safest place that i have felt so far and have met a really cool bunch of people. Today the weather is pretty rubbish and I am trying to think of some cool things to do. I might be booking myself a cheap flight to Salvador for monday in search of the sunnier weather :)

We have for the last two days tried to get a tour which would take us up to Chris then taking in some sights through Lapa and Santa Teresa, via the big church and then onto the sugarloaf mountain. Unfortunately this all depends on the good weather as the Cristo stands at 710 metres and in the bad or cloudy weather it just isnt the same.

Anyway this place is amazing, I feel like a big kid in a sweetie shop and everywhere I look there is a more tempting sweet!!

I have to confess to missing my boy and everyone else, but now I have a phone everyone feels that little bit closer.

Big hugs to you all T xxxx

The importance of being idle

Well with only a few days to go till my big trip and with only tonight left to pack it is finally starting to sink in that in one's week time I will be in Brazil .... by myself! Gulp!

The last few weeks have been franctic, I feel particularly sorry for my ma and pa and especially Rich who has had to put up with my occasional panic stricken moments with regards to everything else but the trip, such as car insurance and servicing, banks mucking me about and today to top it all off the post office called me to tell me that they can't supply me with the Brazilian currency that i was going to take with me as they don't have any in their central office. What's happenend has the Brazilian mint stopped producing currency or has their been a sudden rush in Reias, so much so that they DONT HAVE ANY LEFT?!!!!

And as for this latest round in arrests over plots to set off explosives in planes; well this has really made things difficult for all travellers this summer, especially if you are on a long haul flight and can't take i-pods, books or anything else other than a wallet, medication and baby food. Great!

Anyway as the title to this blog suggests I will be taking it easy over in Brazil and definately making the most of my time over there. Of course the research is especially important but I will also indulge the senses and make sure that I take part in as much as I can and time will allow.

I will of course endeavour to keep people posted on my trip via this blog and will see you all on my return.

Adieu xxx