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You are here: Home / Archives for brazil

Travel in Rio de Janeiro

October 8, 2012 By Danny

Traveling to Rio de Janeiro from the Pantanal was a bit like hopping out of Never, Neverland and back into reality.  Rio is a vibrant, lively big city, known for it’s beach culture and carnival.  The Pantanal is known for it’s birds, quiet and swamp like atmosphere.  Traveling between the two was like traveling from one end of the spectrum to the other.

One night in Rio, and we were enraptured.  It was as though we returned to Never, Neverland, just this time in a city built in paradise.

We showed up with now plans but quickly found a Rio de Janeiro hotel and immediately started to fall in love with all things Rio.  At the corner of our street a juice bar seemingly ran all night, squeezing fresh orange and citrus juices from an industrial sized blender, with bags of fruit swinging from the ceiling rafters.  The music played loudly and the crowd kept coming.  The people were as diverse as the juices the shop blended.  Of all ethnic groups, backgrounds and cultures they converged on this tiny juice stall.  The men gathered at the counter, the couples at sidewalk tables.  It was as though no other place in the neighborhood existed.  And yet every 10 feet there was another place just like it – a gathering place for a seemingly endless neighborhood of friends.IMGP2716

From our base in Catete we explored Rio on foot, by bus and by metro.  We walked the famous beaches, wearing more clothing than seemed appropriate, and covered more distance in just a few days than we ever thought possible.  Ipanema, Copacabana,  Leblon, it seemed hardly real to be at an exotic beach one moment and in a busy, thriving metropolis in the next.  We skipped the climb to Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf, opting instead to explore the picturesque architecture of Santa Teresa. What was old was also new in Rio de Janiero and the colonial architecture mixed with skyscrapers, creating a landscape that was the antithesis of planned, and at the same time, fit together like an old puzzle.

We met, dined and enjoyed the evening with local students. Unwilling to break the spell that Rio and it’s residents held over us, we talked politics, life and philosophy (as you do when you’re enthralled with a place!) until the wee hours of the morning.

And when we returned, the juice bar was still open.

IF YOU GO: Although Rio de Janeiro is full of interesting neighborhoods with their own character, and a hotel in Rio de Janeiro always seems to be well located- between the bus, metro, taxis and on foot, nothing is a long distance away. It is easy to fall in love with Rio and fall under it’s spell. Take the time to explore beyond the beach and the Sambadome, there is so much more to the city than Carnival and tiny bikinis!

Filed Under: Brazil, Destinations, Headline, South America Tagged With: brazil, travel in rio de janeiro

Photo:A Photo Worth Sharing

October 21, 2011 By Danny

I took this photo in the middle of Brazil’s Pantanal.  The Pantanal is one of the world’s largest wetlands and stretches for about 65,000 square miles.  The ecosystem is thought to be home to over 1000 bird species as well as countless fish, mammals and reptiles.

This guy seemed not to much mind our boat passing by and let me get a rare closeup, most of my bird shots are of this fellas’ cousins as they are taking flight AWAY from our boat.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

IF YOU GO:  The Pantanal is huge but overall we saw many of the same wildlife we saw while we were in Bolivia’s Amazon on our Pampas Tour.  If you do want to visit the Pantanal, we’d recommend going to the town of Bonito at the southern end of the Pantanal (we were in the northern end) where you can float down crystal clear water with nothing between you and the fish other than a wet-suit!

Filed Under: photos Tagged With: Animal, Bird, Brasil, brazil, pantanal, Swamp

Good Animal, Bad Animal & Ugly Animal

February 25, 2011 By Danny

There are a lot of animals in the world and we aimed to see all of them.  Of course we didn’t but, we seem to have had a lot of animal experiences over our travels. Here are just a few:

The Good

IMGP0444
Our first week on the road was an amazing one. Waking up the first morning in Guerro Negro, Mexico, jumping on a boat, and having what is probably the most amazing experience possible with a wild animal was fantastic. The boat tour that we took brought us out into the harbor where the gray whales literally just swam right up to our boat to play with us and allow us to pet them. The newborn calf led his mother and when a second boat stole his attention his mom swam right up so we could continue rubbing her skin. These were wild animals and we never gave them any food. The next few days, further south in La Paz, we took a boat ride around Espiritu Santo where we were visited by (not so nice) pilot whales, a humpback whale, jumping rays and for a finale we snorkeled with some very friendly and playful sea lions.

The Bad

IMGP4525Our trip to the Pantanal saw some practices that we find particularly upsetting. We went fishing for piranhas in the river, a perfectly OK activity and one we’d done just weeks earlier in the Bolivian Amazon, and then returned to the lodge with our catch. Upon our arrival we found the beach littered with caiman (the South American version of the alligator) who were just waiting to eat those fresh piranha…and they were fed, right there on that sandy beach. We consider it a bad practice whenever animals are given the opportunity to link humans with food, the reason we did not go diving with the great white sharks in South Africa. We were also annoyed when bait was tossed into the river for a hawk to come and catch…creating a nice, fake photo opportunity each time that hawk came down to eat.

The Ugly

IMGP1287The whales of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula were wonderful, many of the mammals we encountered in Africa were not quite so accommodating. After spending gobs of money to see the rare mountain gorillas of Uganda, we were more than a bit surprised when our welcoming by these animals was one of dominance by one of the group’s males. The gorilla charged us, actually knocking one of the guides to the ground; it was an authentic experience but more than a touch scary. Runner Up: Also in Africa, one elephant in Kruger National Park just didn’t want us get past him. This elephant just stood in the road, blocking our passing, and when we finally were able to make a run for it, he turned and reared his head….VERY unhappy at our having passed by. Jill wasn’t able to enjoy elephants again, which was problematic because we saw lots more.

This column of ishouldlogoff.com aims to answer those questions that we always get asked. What was your favorite this, or your worst that. Every week we aim to highlight a new topic and will do so until we run out of ideas. If you have an idea for a Good-Bad-Ugly post, feel free to tell us in the comment section below or send us an email. To read all of them, click here.

Filed Under: Good, Bad & Ugly, Headline, Travel Reflections Tagged With: africa, animals, baja, brazil, good-bad-ugly, gorillas, Mexico, pantanal, travel, whale

Photo Tuesday: Pantanal Birds

October 5, 2010 By Jillian

It should be no surprise that wetlands attract birds, but we couldn’t believe the diversity and variety of birds we saw in the Pantanal in Brazil.  From huge storks to small kingfishers the area was a birders heaven.  Each night at dinner an older British couple sat with their private guide going over the new species they saw that day and playing back the recordings of its song.  I have always liked birds, but spending time in the wetlands of Brazil really made me appreciate their grace and beauty.  I love this picture because it captures the peace we had gliding through the water.

Filed Under: photos Tagged With: animals, birds, brazil

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