Road tripping in Brazil

So we like road trips, self driven. Neil will drive almost anywhere, the only countries we've opted for a car with driver in the past are India and Sri Lanka. You don't really know a place until you've driven off the tourist route and seen how ordinary people live. This trip he's driven in Colombia, Panama, St. Lucia and now Brazil. We started in Rio, went to Paraty and then drove all the way down to the Sierra Gaucha Wine Region. Next stop Iguazu Falls, then Bonito. Our in-between stops included Curitiba and Fransisco Beltrao; regular towns that aren't touristy at all.  And that's how we find ourselves in Miranda. It's the gateway to the Southern Pantanal but tourists don't stay in town. They usually pick up their safari trips in Campo Grande or Bonito. 

So this is how we ended up in a 2 star motel, eating pizza take-out in bed and drinking Leopoldina Chardonnay 2017( decanter magazine -  93 points) which we had purchased on the Estate some days before and watching episodes of  The Simpsons on the phone. None of which would have been possible without google translate and a very helpful lady on the front desk to order the pizza ( she did get herself something that made it onto our bill) and provide the glasses and opener. After our Pantanal trip, we'll be driving all the way back to Sao Paulo too. Brazil is great for a road trip. I have never seen so much beautiful green countryside and the farming is on a grand scale. Have loads of cash for all the tolls, stick to the silly speed limits to avoid fines, load up on podcasts, pack snacks and water and have a good trip.

Rio Carnival

Wow! Rio Carnival 2019! So you've asked for tips and advice on how to do it -  best as I know, here we go!

Plan A. Go with a local. If you have a friend in Rio, use your connection. Local knowledge counts a lot.

Plan B. If not, here's what we learnt. There are different aspects to carnival.

1. Samba School Parades. A competition held in the Sambodromo. The best nights are Sunday and Monday before Shrove Tuesday when the top 12 samba schools take part. It's hard to get a ticket directly, so we used the official resale site RioCarnival.net, paid via credit card, well over local price and at least 6 months in advance. Tickets are only released on the day of the event either delivered to your hotel or as we did it, collected from a ticket office in Copacabana. This process was simple. They advised getting to the Sambodromo on the Metro but it's located in a super- dodgy part of the city, so we used Uber. Our driver found a route - there's lots of road closures in the area - that dropped us one block from our entrance.

The parade starts at 9.15 pm and ends at about 5 in the morning. Each school has about an hour of parade with at least 6 massive floats and a few thousand dancers!!! It's mind blowing!! We made it to about 2.00am!!

2. Balls - These are fancy affairs at hotels or clubs. Not our scene.

3. Blocos - or street parades. Over Carnival season Rio has over 500 different parties in different neighborhoods. Here again, local knowledge will be most useful. The bigger parades are crazy and crowded and we witnessed crime and gangs clashing with armed riot police a few times. We would find a restaurant or bar with outside seating and enjoyed the parade in comfort and safety. At other blocos the atmosphere was relaxed and a lot of fun. You must dress up. Imagine the entire population of the city in fancy dress or swimwear out on the streets for 48 hours of revelry.

4. Stay in Copacabana. We stayed at Rio Othon Palace, a really big, generic hotel with a wonderful rooftop bar. The beach will be very convenient from your hotel and your hotel will provide beach chairs and umbrellas. It's really hot so you probably only want to spend a few hours a day down on the sand. In the evening it's relatively safe to walk to the local restaurants and bars.

5. Visit Centro, Lapa and St. Teresa during the day but not at night. Be alert, leave valuables in your hotel safe and wear a money belt under your clothes.

Our favourite stops in Centro were the Colombo Confectaria, a beautiful,  historic tea-room and the Portuguese Reading Room, one of the most beautiful old libraries in the world.

7. The view of the city from the Christ the Redeemer lookout is amazing but the selfie-taking hordes will drive you nuts.

8. Uber is fantastic and a very safe way to get around in Rio.

Sao Paulo

Panama to Bogota, Bogota to Sao Paulo. Early check-in negotiated at the Intercontinental in Jardim Paulista , a nap, a walk to the mall to buy a SIM card, an afternoon at the MASP. Really great modern art displayed rather bizarrely with the info on the back, so you had to circle each piece to read about the artist. In the end we had fun guessing each artist before checking on the back. Can you tell your Modiglianis from your Legers? We were surprised at how good at it we were. Traveling teaches you all sorts of things. We are most privileged to have been to very many of the world's best Art Museums. Something's rubbed off.

And then to art and genius of another kind. In pouring rain, we ubered to D.O.M for dinner. Alex Atala is a colourful and amazingly talented Chef who cooks with traditional Amazonian ingredients.

Watch his episode of Chef's Table to learn all about him and his cuisine. D.O.M has been rated in the Top 20 restaurants of the World for over 10 years. We had a fabulous food and wine pairing. Call me a blog- pooper, but I decided not to try and take photos of everything. It detracts from the sheer enjoyment of the evening. I never want blogging or taking pics to become the reason for traveling. If I happen to take a pic I can add to the blog, great, otherwise it's too bad.

On Sunday, we headed to the suburb of Pinheiros to a Carnival bloco. What fun, walking and dancing in the streets with locals; drinking fewer beers than everyone else due to a lack of public toilets. Fogo de Chao  is a chain of upmarket Brazilian steakhouses. Dinner of buffet style sides and salads and as much red meat as you can possibly eat, brought to your table on skewers by waiters dressed like gauchos. Raise the white flag when you can eat no more!

Trinidad and Panama

Trinidad and Tobago

We didn't go to Tobago, the holiday island, so perhaps I am being a little harsh, but Trinidad isn't high on my list of recommendations.

Port of Spain

We're back at the Hilton on the hillside overlooking Savannah Park. Dirty, scruffy piece of ground. The guidebooks mention the Magnificent Seven, a row of historical mansions bordering the park. Mostly boarded up and derelict. Downtown and Independence Square. Desserted and dangerous looking on a Sunday. Waterfront. We did have a coffee at the Grand Hyatt. And we had brunch at a food court. Well just a few take away windows and some benches. We got some local dishes to try. The place was packed with groups and families waiting for Carnival party boats. You gotta be dressed to the nines;very tight, very colourful, very bling. At noon, the DJ on the boat cranks up the music, a sign that it's time to board. You can take your own coolers on board and by the time they set sail, it's literally standing room only for a day on the water; dancing and drinking. 

Caroni Swamp

We did an afternoon boat tour on the Caroni Swamp. This was amazing. Travelling through the mangroves, the guide showed us lots of birds, including the common pootoo, something like a tree dwelling nightjar. And boa constrictors curled up and hopefully asleep in the trees above our heads. Once out on the lake we saw flamingoes but the absolute highlight was watching thousands and thousands of scarlet ibis coming in to roost. I'd recommend stopping in Trinidad for this spectacle alone.

Panama City

Driving from the airport into Panama City with it's high-rise condos lining the seafront, it reminded us of Singapore about 25 years ago.

Our hotel was well located in El Cangrejo and it was safe to walk everywhere. Stopping for good coffee was back on the agenda. 

The fishing port and fish market is worth a visit. We headed into the Casco Veijo or Old Town, a world heritage site that is fast gentrifying and fun to explore. We found a branch of Marzola Parilla for drinks and a late lunch, with a window table; great for people watching. After lots of googling to find live music in this city, we had a great meal and music at Cafe Pomodoro, around the corner from our hotel.

Birding Panama

Via a bit of research and some luck, we contacted Gonzalo Horna via email and arranged a day of birdwatching for the following morning. He drove us out to Pipeline Road, Gamboa, near the canal. In the trees in the carpark we saw toucans, macaws and parrots. What a fantastic spot to watch birds.We were out for 5 hours. Gonzalo found us 4 out of the 5 different Trogans in the area and we saw more than 50 species. Seeing massive ships cruising through the jungle on the canal is pretty surreal. 

Back in town, the "trendy" nightlife area of Camp Alegre was pretty dead on a Wednesday night but we did have a great meal at La Posta.

Road Trip

On our 3rd day we hired a car. First stop, the Panama Canal. The history of the canal is really interesting and the engineering for the new canal that can take the Supertankers, impressive. For the largest ships, 1 crossing can cost up to a million USD. 

We drove all the way to Portabelo on the Northern coast of Panama. The old buildings have been declared a World Heritage Site but what a shabby, sad and disappointing place. The wooden statue of Black Jesus in the Cathedral attracts Catholic Pilgrims from all over Central and South America; some of whom crawl on their hands and knees for many kilometres to get there.

We drove back to Gamboa to do an afternoon boat cruise on THE canal and to Monkey Island. Rather funny negotiations about price and destination ensued due to our complete inability to speak Spanish, but we jumped into the boat with 2 French ladies who were out to fish and hoped for the best. We saw 4 different species of monkey and lots of birds and our skipper rode the wakes of the giant ships on the canal like a pro surfer.

That night, back in the city, we ubered back to Casco Viejo, ate dinner at a taco joint then went to Danilo's Jazz Club for the evening. An exuberant Caribbean lady fronted the band for an evening of jazzy Bob Marley hits.

St. Lucia, Caribbean

And so the great plane trek... Cartegena, Colombia to Panama City, Panama. Panama City to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Long taxi ride to the Hilton. Room service and a bed. Long taxi ride back. Port of Spain to Castries, St.Lucia. 

What a delight to finally check into The Bay Gardens Resort for a whole week. Our first floor apartment had a balcony with sea views, literally a few metres from the beach, with a calm swimmable sea and lots of sunshine everyday. We just felt relaxed and happy. Unpack those cases for a whole week. Get your laundry done. Make your own coffee and breakfast in your own kitchen.

Rodney Bay is a very touristy cluster of resorts, a handful of restaurants and bars and a marina. Manufactured Caribbean like the package tourists from North America and Europe like it. Not to say it isn't very, very pleasant. And it's all within walking distance of our hotel. 

Most of the family is here to celebrate Neil's mom's 80th birthday.  Mom from Johannesburg. Sandra, Rob, Lisa and Dylan from New Jersey. Charles, Leonie, James and William from London. Joan and Raymund from North Carolina. Ashley from Dallas. Gail and Neil from Anywhere and Everywhere. 

There are a few excursions on offer. Neil and  I hired a car one day with Mom to tour the island; to see the real St.Lucia. We also did a birdwatching tour one morning. We all went to Pigeon Island one day - a mediocre and touristy experience at best. The family did a catamaran trip. You can use the sailing boats and kayaks from the hotel free of charge.

On the first evening we got together for dinner at Spinnakers, which has a great setting on the beach with sunset views. Our rule that the food is usually pretty mudane if patrons are coming for the view definitely applies here. And our group did go back quite a few times which just goes to prove the point.

For Sunday brunch and to celebrate Mom's birthday we had a great time at Jacques, with it's waterside setting on the marina. Here our rule doesn't apply at all and we did come back too.

Buzz is the other restaurant worth mentioning in the area. 

This package-type of travel is not our thing but we did have a good time with the family.