Our free walking tour in Paraty at 1030 was led by an Argentine of English ancestry.  That explained his very good English with a posh accent.  The English group was small but the one led by his Portuguese-speaking counterpart was much bigger. He gave a good history of the city, explaining how it grew because […]

I tried not to over-eat at the awesome breakfast buffet at the hotel.  We had some time to Pakill before checking out at 1045 to make our way by Uber to Sao Paulo’s Tiete bus station for our 1215 bus to Paraty. We got to the station an hour before departure, in case the station […]

For a small hotel the Calstar put on an awesome breakfast with hot and cold options, including plenty of fruit and different juices and shakes.  We timed ourselves well to get into the small breakfast room without waiting. We have a free walking tour to join at 1130 but reviewing the information last night, I […]

With all sightseeing in Blumenau done, we had nothing to do but relax between breakfast and our midday checkout.   The bus to the airport was scheduled at 1330 so we decided that it would be safe to attempt to summon an Uber around 1230 and still have the bus as a backup. Kim went to […]

After a good buffet breakfast which included some local German specialties, I went out to look for some water.  Kim needed time to get ready as he didn’t feel rested from the night’s sleep. Looking for water proved unbelievably hard.  Despite searching for “supermercardo” on Google Maps, some were non-existent, some were cosmetic supermarkets etc.  […]

Today we travel from Brazil’s most African city, Salvador (28% black, 52% mixed and 19% white) to the south where it is rather white.  Our destination Blumenau is 90% white, 8% mixed and less than 2% white.  It has a strong German history. We have a flight on Gol at 1400 to Rio de Janeiro’s […]

I had toyed with the idea of an little adventure on the water today, possibly going to Morro de Sao Paulo by boat.  With the weather still unpredictable, it didn’t seem like a wise idea.  The alternative beachy trip to Itaparica and Ilha dos Frades with a more sheltered water crossing also didn’t seem wise.  […]

Yesterday, we probably did more than what I had planned for.  The idea was that we’d have a lazy day after the longhaul flight.  So, this morning, we took it easy by lazing around all morning till a light lunch of burgers from nearby. Joe, the pousada’s proprietor, had suggested that we make a trip […]