Returning to South America and heading to Brazil

We had a wonderful five months at home seeing friends and family as well as a month in Europe in the Alps visiting Zach and Jenna, and, of course, skiing. Now it was time to head back to South America. We flew to Buenos Aires on May 27th and spent a couple days there seeing a few more sites of this wonderful city. One of our stops was at the El Ateneo Grand Splendid Bookstore, considered one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. It opened in 1919 as an opulent theater, then was converted to a bookstore in 2000. We also visited the National Museum of Fine Arts. I especially enjoyed some of the paintings that portrayed the history of Argentina. And we had another wonderful steak dinner at a restaurant near our AirBnB.

On May 29th we took the hour-long ferry ride across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia de Sacramento. Susan from Posada Casavieja met us at the ferry terminal and took us to reunite with Hank. Unfortunately Hank's battery was dead (despite Ruedi starting it every month) and could not be recharged. A wonderful couple from Switzerland, Christian and Eva (friends of Ruedi and Susan) helped us buy and install a new battery (more of an issue than I imagined, particularly with my rusty, poor Spanish). We spent a few days getting organized, and a day in Colonia so Sheri could see this beautiful colonial town, then headed on towards Brazil.

Our first impressions of Brazil were not great. Although the drive across the state of Rio Grande do Sul was nice, as we approached the coast, it became more crowded with heavy traffic and difficult to find any nice places to camp. We stayed the first couple nights at a hotel in a town in the mountains called Gramado. Gramado was nice enough, but a bit touristy, almost Downtown Disney-like. The highlight for me was finding a gaucho store where we bought a couple gaucho hats and a bola, some boots for Sheri, and a gaucho knife (facon) for Randy's birthday. We then drove towards Florianopolis, spending one night at a truckstop (a convenient and safe place for us to spend the night while driving in Brazil). Santa Catarina Island near Florianopolis is a place with some nice beaches, but we could not find a great place to camp, perhaps because campgrounds were closed due to being low season. We met the owner of a good restaurant in a small town, and he offered to let us stay in the courtyard of his bed and breakfast. We had a nice evening visiting with him where he shared some of his good local wines with us. From Florianopolis we went to Curitiba, a city where my sister lived for a year about 20 years ago. Curitiba is a famous for its urban planning and sustainability. Our main goal in Curitiba was to get the oil changed. The manager at the Jeep dealer, Thiago, was super nice and fit me in that day. We also had a good dinner at a churrascaria.

From Curitiba, we headed to the Costa Verde, a coastal region between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro where the coastal mountains of the Serra do Mar and the Atlantic rainforest crash into the ocean, creating some beautiful coastal scenery with some nice sandy beaches. It was here that we finally found some nice places to camp and some nice peaceful towns, especially the colonial town of Paraty.

We celebrated our anniversary at one of those beautiful beaches camped under a full moon. Finally a nice place to camp. But since it was our anniversary, and Valentines Day in Brazil to boot, we spent the next night at a very nice hotel in Paraty. And because Sheri loves water, the hotel included a nice pool and a hot tub. The next day we took a boat tour to some beautiful islands and beaches to enjoy the scenery and swimming.

Paraty was founded as a village in 1597, and established formally as a town by the Portuguese in 1667. Soon thereafter it became an important colonial port for the export of gold from the mountains of Minas Gerais. A 750 mile trail was built to bring gold to the coast and on to Portugal, and to bring miners and African slaves to the gold mines. Pirate activity in the area around Paraty led to a new overland route for transporting gold to Rio de Janeiro and Paraty became less important. Paraty has preserved many of its colonial buildings and cobble-stone streets in its historic center, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and tourist destination. The Gold Trail is now a popular trail for hiking. One of the interesting aspects of Paraty is that the cobble-stone streets were designed to be cleaned once a month when the tide rises above its normal level during the full moon and floods the streets in the city center.

Brazil is well known for its music which blends the rich cultural heritage of its European, African, and Indigenous roots. One of my objectives of coming to Brazil was to enjoy some of the live music of Brazil. To our good fortune, we found out that there was going to be a music festival in Paraty on that weekend, so we changed our reservation for the bed and breakfast in Rio and stayed the weekend in Paraty so we could attend the Bourbon Jazz and Blues Festival. Hotels were booked so we moved to a nice campground not far from the city center. The music was excellent and included a nice mix of jazz and blues musicians from the United States, Europe, and Brazil.

After enjoying the music festival we moved on to Rio de Janeiro in time to check into our bed and breakfast and enjoy some drinks and the sunset at Ipanema Beach.