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The final leg of our 15 months round the world extravaganza takes us from Belem at the mouth of the Amazon 6000km south to Rio which claims to be one of the greatest cities in the world.
Lifes a Beach and then you Fry!!
James and Anne Walkington2007-01-23 12:30:09
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The final leg of our 15 months round the world extravaganza takes us from Belem at the mouth of the Amazon 6000km south to Rio which claims to be one of the greatest cities in the world.
We set off south on a 28 hour slow and uncomfortable bus journey to Forteleza one of a series of large cities on the north east coast of Brazil. Staying in an OK German / Swiss pousada only 2 minutes walk from the beach. It was like the Gold Coast of Australia with the beach front lined with huge multi-storey tower bocks. A relaxing time on our first real Brazilian beach was at Puerto Futuro. This was also our first exposure to Brazilian thong style bikinis - which Anne refused to buy!!
This area was very busy so we headed 36km down the coast to Prainha a small village with a super expensive but also super nice hotel! There were literally endless miles of unexplored beach and sand dunes here and we spent 3 very nice chilled out days. In fact most of our time until we reached Rio was spent on beaches and in bars!
A short 14 hour bus 100km's of untouched and unspoilt beaches journey south took us to Natal a smaller but still busy city. Staying again very close to the beach front, time was spent yet again relaxing. The only incident of note was that a silly little kid tried to stab James with a broken bottle. Fortunately due to James' fast reactions he failed to succeed and also went home with a broken arm!! We also got into drinking coconut milk and eating ice creams - from self-service and pay by weight - great idea. James also learnt all the tricks of su doku puzzle solving.
Further down the coast we arrived in Joao Pessoa a lovely city although dirty in the centre - a bit like a Mars Bar. After missing our bus stop on the local routes we had to retrace our journey - explaining this to the bus conductor in Portuguese was not easy. Anyway we found a hotel after looking around about 6 and headed to the beach again.
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See photographs from:
Brazil Gallery
