The 20:00 flight left from Birmingham Airport so I drove across to Trev’s house near Stratford Upon Avon and his sister in law drove us to the airport. An Air France flight took us to Charles de Gaulle, Paris for a short stop over and a connecting flight at 23:20 took us across the Atlantic to Rio de Janiero. Air France were a bit stingy on the alcohol but the in-flight entertainment was fine.

Saturday March 16th

We arrived at Galeao (GIG) airport, Rio (also known as Antonio Carlos Jobim) 30 minutes late around 7am and it was already 25’c. I had originally planned to book an 8.45am internal flight to Porto Alegre in the South West but had only found seats on a 15:40 flight that afternoon. Our plan of action was to go to Terminal 2 to see the TAM company and see if we could check in our luggage in advance, thereby freeing us up for a few hours to explore Rio. Arriving late, I wondered if we would have made the 08:45 flight anyway with baggage collection, getting Brazilian currency (Real) from an ATM and a long walk to the other Terminal.

When we rolled up at Terminal Two, there were lines of people trying to check onto flights. A representative asked us where we were going and when he heard ‘Porto Alegre’ we were moved up into a short line for check in. At the desk, I explained we had afternoon flights but wondered if there were any spare morning seats. There were and we were checked on to the 08:45 flight. Result! We boarded the plane on ‘last call’ and then sat on the runway until 10am. We weren’t sure what was going on but were just glad to be back on our original schedule. Finally we took off for a 2 hour flight. Rio was covered in clouds and we had no views of Christ the Redeemer or the beaches. We touched down on Porto Alegre around midday.

One of my rules when arriving in a new country is to try and get out of the capital city and spend the first day somewhere smaller to acclimatise to the culture. While researching the trip, I had poured over maps around Rio and had only come up with the old colonial towns of Ouro Preto, 7 hrs north and Paraty 4 hrs west of Rio. Once I had decided that we would head for Uruguay in the south west first and tour Brazil last, I checked on bus times/fares and discovered that it would take at least 24 hours to get to Porto Alegre changing in San Paulo. On a whim, I checked internal flights and discovered that a 2 hour flight cost about the same as the bus ride. It was a no brainer. While Porto Alegre was hardly small, it was a provincial capital and would be an easier start than Rio. My Portuguese amounted to ‘Bom Dia’ (Good day) and ‘Obrigado’ (thanks).

After collecting our backpacks, a woman on the information desk told us we could catch a bus to the other terminal and get a train into the centre about 8km away. We found the transfer bus and then walked out of the airport over walkways and spotted a bus stop underneath. Deciding to try a bus first, I attempted to ask a woman if it was going to the centre, but I couldn’t speak Portuguese and she couldn’t speak English. When a bus turned up, we boarded past the driver to a very large conductor seated on the left. From the size of him, he didn’t move much. ‘Centro?’ I asked as the bus pulled away. ‘Rondavario?’ (Long distance bus station) and got a shake of the head. He couldn’t speak English either but indicated that the train line we were following was what we wanted and that when we got off, we should walk to the next station. This turned out to be a kilometre away. Maybe we should have just caught the train to start with! Doh!

The next train took us two stops very close to the Rondavario and we went to see if any companies were going to Montevideo in Uruguay tomorrow. There were two but the buses left at 10pm.

When booking the flight, I had assumed that we would not arrive until around 7pm that night, so I had reserved a hotel near the bus station called America Hotel. Walking from the station, it seemed like every road was being dug up in the four blocks to the hotel. Most hotels had very thin facades, a long corridor really and then opened up at the back. We found a tiny lobby which opened into an undercover car park next door. Not something you see everyday. Arriving 6 hours earlier than predicted we were allowed to check in at 1pm.

The room was small, basic but en-suite. The electric shower head had electric wires hanging off it. There was a strange control built into the wall that supposedly let you change TV channel and volume as well as the fan. This didn’t work. Neither did the fan. We could change the TV channels by hand. An air conditioner did work. With a few hours to kill, we went to explore Porto Alegre.

Brazil Background

The CIA website says that “Following more than three centuries under Portuguese rule, Brazil gained its independence in 1822, maintaining a monarchical system of government until the abolition of slavery in 1888 and the subsequent proclamation of a republic by the military in 1889. By far the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil underwent more than a half century of populist and military government until 1985, when the military regime peacefully ceded power to civilian rulers. Brazil continues to pursue industrial and agricultural growth and development of its interior. Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labour pool, it is today South America's leading economic power and a regional leader, one of the first in the area to begin an economic recovery. Highly unequal income distribution and crime remain pressing problems”.

Brazil, slightly smaller than mainland USA is the 5th largest country in the world and a real up and coming nation. Characterized by large and well-developed agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and service sectors, Brazil's economy outweighs that of all other South American countries, and Brazil is expanding its presence in world markets.

Portuguese is its official language. It has borders with Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The climate mostly tropical, but temperate in the south (where we were). Its natural resources include: bauxite, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, platinum, tin, rare earth elements, uranium, petroleum, hydropower and timber

The population currently stands at around 200 million. Sao Paulo has 20 million people, Rio de Janeiro 12 m and Belo Horizonte 5.7 m. Brazilia is the (newish) capital with 3.7 m. Whites make up 54% while mulatto (mixed white and black) 38.5% and black 6.2%. 74% are Roman Catholic while 15% are Protestant. The current average income is $12,000 a year but 20% of people are below the ‘poverty’ level.

Porto Alegre (whose centre contains around 1.5m people) means ‘Merry Harbour. It is the capital and largest city in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and one of Brazil’s largest cities. It is consequently one of the top cultural, political and economic centres of Brazil. Founded in 1772, the vast majority of the population are of European descent. The city lies on the eastern bank of the Rio Guaiba (Guaiba Lake), where five rivers converge to form the Lagoa dos Patos (Lagoon of the Ducks), a giant freshwater lagoon navigable by even the largest of ships which is why industry and commerce was established here. It is one of the most heavily industrialised cities in Brazil.

We walked into the centre which was bustling with Saturday afternoon shoppers. The public buildings all looked 20th century – the town hall, library and art gallery but small tree lined plazas broke up the urbanisation. The Cathedral sat on a slope further back from the river. The Central market located inside a large 19th century building had small stands selling fresh meat, cheese and vegetables as well as superb sausages. The first floor was mostly taken by restaurants all full of late Saturday afternoon diners.

The art gallery contained a wonderful ground floor exhibition on interior decorating that looked like it had been painted by colour-blind Mexicans on acid. It was full of security with a guardian in almost every room and it wasn’t that big and didn’t seem to have anything of value. Maybe like the old Russian tradition, they invented jobs for people. These people seemed to stare at their mobile phones most of the time.

At one point during our walkabout, a protest march came past. About three hundred young people filed past with ‘anti-drug’ placards and T-shirts. Some were made up and dressed as ghouls and zombies. There were chants and cheering as they followed a double decker bus and with loudspeakers around the streets.

It was nice to potter around, our first afternoon in Brazil. No-one bothered us. It was a quiet and uneventful start but just what we needed after travelling for 24 hours. Searching for somewhere to eat, we found a cheap restaurant where you could pile your plate high with a 10 Real buffet of strange foodstuffs – cold vegetables, salad, assorted meats in stews including tripe, dried fish plus a freshly grilled piece of chicken. Ordering beer, we were presented with 1 litre size bottles which came in tall plastic coolers. It was the cheapest meal we’d have in Brazil.

Sunday March 17th

I got up early and walked to the bus station at 7am to see if there were any buses heading south. A bus to Pelotas was leaving at 8am. Back at the hotel we packed and had a quick Sunday breakfast of lovely sponge cake and piping hot milky coffee. Leaving Porto Alegre, we followed very straight roads over a very flat landscape that was well watered, lush and green. The trees were low level. The bus was fast and hardly stopped en route.

Arriving in Pelotas three and half hours later at 11.30am, the sleepy bus station seemed to attract every dog in town as the place to take a nap. There was a bus heading to the frontier town of Chuy at 1pm. We bought tickets and sat outside on a bench in the shade drinking beer trying to plan what to do when we reached the Uruguayan border.

Our next bus was slower. It seemed to stop endlessly to pick up locals in the middle of nowhere or detour off the main road into small places to get more passengers or then drop them off a few miles further on. This was obviously the only bus on a Sunday afternoon that people could use to visit families and friends. Cars would flash the bus driver – he must have been well known because we never saw a police car speed trap. The scenery remained unchanged except for the sighting of strange wombat like animals hanging around a water channel by the road side. I think they are called Capybara which are the world’s largest rodent that can weigh up to 70kg. There were also flocks of heron type birds. It took an age to reach Santa Victoria which we thought would be our only stop. Most passengers disembarked here.

Brazilian immigration was 3km north of Chuy. We had only been in Brazil for a day and a half and we were already leaving. When the friendly passport stamper asked us where we were off to, I showed him my tiny photocopied map with a pink line through Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. He then produced an excellent map for us that nearly covered our entire route and was indispensible during the trip.