Escadaria Selaron - Rio de Janeiro

Although the weather isn't that great here in Rio de Janeiro, yesterday we went ou to Lapa and Santa Teresa....

Between this 2 places there is a stairway "Escadaria Selaron"that is totally covered by little tiles from all over the world. Dutch, portuguese, brazilian, irish, really from everywhere!

The artist is Jorge Selaron a Chilean artist who is a bit crazy.

He also makes art, paintings, and they all have the same image of a pregnant women but with his head on top :-)

Just see some photo's we took of the stairs.

We walked up the stairs in direction to Santa Teresa. We have been there already in September, but it is a nice place to be. We then took the "Bondinho, or tram" down to Lapa. It is an incredible ride as it drives on top of a sort of aqueduct. That was nice :)

In the afternoon, we went back to Ipanema. Another crazy and long bus ride...

We then decided to walk to the "Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas", an extensive lagoon located in the heart of the Ipanema and Leblon - see more info here.

The full loop is 7500 m, which we have walked in about 1:15h. Good exercise and preparation for the evening huge dinner.

Today we are flying home :( We are already checked in and got nice seats in the plane and from tomorrow morning 8am local Lisboa time we are home again....

Last week in Brazil!

There we are, on the 6th of December we flew from Cuzco to Salvador, this was quite a long trip.
The first flight was from Cuzco to Lima at 7 am with LAN Peru, only 1 hr and no problems.

In Lima we had a 2 and a half hour wait and took the next flight to Sao Paulo with TAM it was almost a 5 hr flight, but the service was good and we got a lot of nice food (my first real meal after my food poisioning ;-)) When we arrived to Sao Paulo, (which is an enormous airport) we had to change our ticket and we got some food while waiting for the last flight of that day to Salvador de Bahia. This flight took 2 hrs and by midnight (time difference included) we arrived to our hostel in Salvador....

Sunday after a nice sleep and brazilian breakfast with lots of fruit and juice...hmmmm, we went to the beach, the weather was great, warm and sunny!!!! In the afternoon we went to Barra shopping, the biggest shopping in Salvador to buy some Xmas gifts :)

Unfortunately the days after the weather changed completely and the always so sunny Salvador changed into the wettest city... so no more beach, and more shopping..... :(
On tuesday we visited the Pelourinho (centre of Salvador) with the colourful houses and the beautiful church, which has so many golden elements...incredible....

Because the weather was so bad we decided to leave earlier for Rio de Janeiro, we booked a flight with TAM (which is almost impossible and a real challenge to keep your patience) for thursday..

On thursday we flew to Rio, with a delay we arrived around 6pm to Rio... also in Rio it was raining and our idea of getting quickly to the hostel ("Margarida's Pousada" really nice, clean and friendly staff) didn't work because of all the traffic jams ;(
Around 19,30 we finally arrived to the hostel and went straight for dinner to Frontera, a buffet restaurant where for 28,99 reais you can eat as much as you want (sushi, meat, vegetables, salads,carpaccio,etc..)

Friday and Saturday the weather didn't change to much and we did more Xmas shopping and went a bit to the beach when it was not raining.... It is incredible but the image of Brazil without rain is for sure not true and they know a lot of rain as well ;(

Cuzco and Machu Picchu

After Puno we continued our way to Cuzco and the Sacred Valley.... We took a bus which was stopping at some of the little villages in the Sacred Valley.

Unfortunately I (Stefien) got food poisoining in Puno, and didn't feel well for almost 5 days, without eating and staying for the most time inside the hotel.

Carlos enjoyed the bus trip and got to see a Inca village and some beautiful church. Around 5pm last monday we arrived to Cuzco. We were booked into hotel "Los Ninos" which is a 2 star hotel in Cuzco owned by a dutch lady and all the money is used to help the street children (have a look at the website) On our last day we took a tour in and around the hotel/foundation and it is incredible what she does for the Peruvian community!

We had a quick walk at Plaza das Armas and then I went straight to bed because I felt worse and worse. Tuesday wasn't any better and wednesday morning the doctor came and did some tests to exclude that I had anything major. He also subscribed me some medicines. All this time I had spent in our room (which was luckely private and very nice)

Carlos during this time, took very good care of me and did some sightseeing in Cuzco.

For Thursday we had booked a tour by train to Machu Picchu, we were picked up at 6,30 am to go to the trainstation and at 6,50 the train was leaving. It was taking nearly 4 hrs to get to Aguas Calientes (village before Machu Picchu where the train stops) but the views were amazing.

In Aguas Calientes we had to take a bus to get up the mountain, which took another half an hour. I was still not feeling great, but as we travelled all the way to see this I didn't want to miss it.

Machu Picchu (Quechua: Machu Pikchu, "Old Peak"; ) is a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,400 meters (7,875 ft) above sea level. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is 80 km (50 mi) northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamba River flows. The river is a partially navigable headwater of the Amazon River. Often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu is one of the most familiar symbols of the Inca Empire.

Once we got inside the view of this "world wonder" (which was only revealed to the world in 1911 by Hiram Bingham) was amazing, imagining that this was build so many years ago without todays technologies, and it survived quit some earthquakes!! We had a guided tour of 2 hrs included which Carlos completed, but I was to tired and just enjoyed the amazing views (and feel sick :-)) Once Carlos finished the tour we returned to Aguas Calientes and took the train back to Cuzco.

The last day in Cuzco was Carlos birthday, finally I felt a bit better and we went for a walk in the centre. Which is beautiful, the architecture of some churches is amazing. In the afternoon we just stayed around the hostel as we left the next day early to fly back to Brazil, Salvador de Bahia, where we are at the moment.

Ah, please don´t confuse the flag on the picture on the left :) It is simply the Inca´s flag which represents the rainbow, sacrate for them, nothing else. Don´t be bad ;)

The trip and with that the posts are almost coming to an end, but we hope you enjoyed following our adventures through the blog?

Ate ja :-)