16.o1.2o18 • Foz do Iguazú

we finally reached the 9th and last country of our great grand trip: Brazil !! and an epic natural spectacle right at the beginning: the Iguazú falls in `Foz do Iguazú´ – huge waterfalls from up to 82 meters hight sweeping down into the depth. a lot of tourists come here just to see these amazing falls which are also representing the border between Brazil and Argentina – that´s why it´s possible to visit them from two natural parks. we went to the `Parque nacional Iguazú´ on the brazilian side and were absolutely excited !! in the park you can find a lot of rare animals like coaties, monkeys and even leopards but anyway the main attraction is still the `Devil´s Gorge´ where all the water masses of the falls flow together into a big river. even if there are a lot of visitors it is absolutely worth going there just to see what our earth is capable of creating !! after this great expirience we had to come back to daily life and to face some `problems´: maybe as you know they speak Portuguese in Brazil and let me tell you: it´s totally different from spanish .. totally !! furthermore english is not very common here so we had to learn some basic phrases .. here´s an example: `Oi, tudo bem ? – Tudo bom.´ (`Hey everything ok ? – Everything fine.´) .. sounds pretty funny right ? anyway .. what would the world be without different languages ? isn´t it interesting to learn more about a country and its culture ? well i think it is :))

21.o1.2o18 • Sáo Paulo

after a short stopover in `Curitiba´ we made it to the biggest city of Brazil – `Sáo Paulo´ !!
with its huge skyscrapers it seems to watch all over south america but let me tell you what hides inside the streets of this city: first of all `Sáo Paulo´ has an excellent metro system which connects most of the hoods around here. but on our first day the metro was striking – bad luck .. but never mind .. the next working metro station was just about one hour away :)) when we finally got to the center our first stop was the `Pinacoteca Luz e Estacao´ which contains some awesome work of `Auguste Rodin´. afterwards we took a break in the shadow of some tropical plants in the beautiful park right beside the exhibition. the next day we went to the quarter `Vila Olímpia´ to meet some friends we got to know on a trip in Bolivia. after having a typical brazilian lunch together (rice beans potatoes .. seems to be very common in all south america !!) we tried another speciality of this country: `brigadeiros´ – chocolate filled chocolate balls with chocolate topping .. it’s with chocolate (did i already mention it ?) i tried the one with dark chocolate and it was very good but it’s hard to eat more than one at once. after this feast and our long and hot way home we jumped into the wonderful cold pool of our airbnb in `Jabacuara´ .. so it got a perfect day !! but the following day should get good (or bad) too – our very last long bus drive on our tour !!

27.o1.2o18 • Rio de Janeiro

when we finally reached `Rio de Janeiro´ we knew the time ran too fast .. five months seemed like a few weeks and we weren’t ready yet to end our trip even if we already saw a lot while visiting 9 amazing countries of south america. but the last five days in Rio showed us that the end of a dream is just the next door to another adventure. on our first day we went to the famous `Copacabana´ beach next to `El Pao de Acucar´ (Zuckerhut) .. there we enjoyed watching the people while drinking some fresh and cold coconut water – delicious !! then we walked down the promenade till we reached a lake in the middle of the city .. here we first saw the huge statue of `Cristo Redentor´ on the top of a rock .. in a few days we would stand right there. we also visited the quarter ‚Ipanema‘ on that day and had a very good ice cream there with a typical brazilian sort of berry cream called  `Acai´ – a very tasty and natural mousse. the next day we went up to the most popular postcard motif of Rio – `El Pao de Acucar´. first we walked about 40 min up then we took the ropeway to the top from where you have a fantastic view all over Rio and its Favelas !! on our way down we met some really fancy mokeys looking at us like we were Aliens :)) the last three days went so so fast: we visited some art museums, met `Cristo Redentor´ watching over the green hills and the deep blue sea of Rio, went to the beach again and drank Mojito and Caipirinha and just lived in the moment. we felt so comfortable in this city where the biggest problem seems to be the sunburn on your shoulder. and when the last day came nearer and nearer we took a review all over the last months and just said `wow what a wonderful time´ and exactly this was our thought when our plain set off back to Europe.