OUR NEW APARTMENT

Here are a couple of photos from our balcony looking across the bay towards Rio.

On Friday evening (28th December 2007) at 6.0pm Ray and I moved out of Ben and Paula’s apartment to one of our own! Fortunately it’s only down the road from them (but when it’s up in the high thirties it seems far enough to walk). As you can imagine we were both quite excited to be having our own place (again). But nothing changes! Ray is still on his laptop while I do all the cleaning and unpacking as you can see by the first photo (only joking).

We have one bedroom, a large living room/dining room (with double bed settee), shower room and kitchen, and good balcony with a hammock when we have the time to use it. We are on the 3rd floor side apartment but with a view to the front. I took the picture of Ray on his laptop this morning whilst doing the washing and tidying up!


I have not done any cooking here yet, but yesterday we went to Carrefour to get some essentials. Not planning on doing too much either as it so hot. You think when you go shopping you would recognise most things. Bread, milk and coffee are all very simple, but trying to find tinned tomatoes was not. I managed to pick up 3 tins of tomato purée instead. Thank heavens Ben was around and put us right.

We are planning on having a meal with Ben and Paula on New Years Eve, not sure if it’s going to be here or at their place. We bought a magnum of champagne from the duty free so we’ll be holding a glass or two up to all our family and friends. Most of you will be in bed by then (I think) as we are two hours behind here. Then we plan to go to nearby Icarai to watch the firework display. If it’s anything like the one we saw in 2005 it will be worth going to. Hopefully we’ll get some good pictures to put on the blog. Unfortunately we are not on the Internet at our place so need to go to Ben and Paula’s to collect emails and put this onto the blog. As you can see, Ray is still very much in relaxing mode!

OUR NEW APARTMENT

I, Pat, took some photos from our balcony looking across the bay towards Rio.

On Friday evening (28th December 2007) at 6.0pm Ray and I moved out of Ben and Paula’s apartment to one of our own! Fortunately it’s only down the road from them (but when it’s up in the high thirties it seems far enough to walk). As you can imagine we were both quite excited to be having our own place (again). But nothing changes! Ray is still on his laptop while I do all the cleaning and unpacking as you can see by the first photo (only joking).

We have one bedroom, a large living room/dining room (with double bed settee), shower room and kitchen, and good balcony with a hammock when we have the time to use it. We are on the 3rd floor side apartment but with a view to the front. I took the picture of Ray on his laptop this morning whilst doing the washing and tidying up!

Xmas

Pat's miracle shot of Santos Dumont's aeroplane replica

Ray's other attempt at photography

Xmas night at the park ... look what is shooting out of Ray's head!

A baby pink piano ... what a present!

Paula with her Dad, Euro

Enjoying himself?

Xmas cheers!

Ben & Pat with Paula's mum, Maristella

Ben, Paula and Paula's brother (Fabricio) and sister (Raphaela)

Ray, Ben & Paula at the party

First sight of Belo Horizonte

Downtown Belo Horizonte

View from restaurant just above our pousada

Ray trying his hand at photography

Jacuzzi luxury

Flowery toilet!

View from our chalet window



INTRODUCTION
Note from a novice blogger (Ray): I think that the text below will relate to the photos in the opposite order in which they will be published on the blog.

MINAS GERAIS
Driving out of Rio State and up into the mountains of Minas Gerais took about 6 hours. We left at 5.30 am to avoid the traffic that would build up on the 9 mile bridge across the bay from Niteroi to Rio an hour or so later. As we drove north out of Rio after 6 am, past the international airport, there were already miles of cars, lorries and coaches (with people standing in them for over an hour) queuing to get into Rio. The road slowly climbed and bent its way up to Petropolis, the old capital of Rio State, and then through well-kept toll roads entered Minas Gerais.

Minas Gerais is a fertile place. Everywhere is green. It has the best cheese in Brazil! But no amount of greenery can hide the fact that the entire mountainous sierra is full of iron. Iron not only comes out of the mines here: it colours absolutely everything! The soil is bright red. The rivers are brown. All the old road signs are covered in red dust and rust. The cars and lorries, of all colours, have a red-brown covering on their wheels and at the bottom half of their doors. It is a place of spectacular views and a barely obscured Martian landscape.

Ben’s one-litre Fiat Sienna eventually toiled over the top of a 1500 metre mountain and came down the other side to our pousada. The pousada perched over the State looking westwards (see photo taken from our chalet window). The chalet itself was spacious and had a number of unusual features (apart from the breathtaking view). The bed was comfortable but built upon a solid concrete slab (we had never seen this before). The bed was made up and welcome chocolates placed on the pillow (how sweet!) and flowers placed delicately down the toilet pan! (We’ve certainly never seen that either … see photo). The Jacuzzi was a new luxury for us too.

From our high altitude view, we watched another extraordinary sight. It was late afternoon and storm clouds could be seen stretching across the horizon. Lightning occasionally flashed along the storm front as it slowly approached. As it got nearer, we could look down on the lightning as it seemed to be pushed like a wave in front of the huge cloud formations behind. The wind began to touch us long before the storm reached us and it was already clear that this was not the normal rainstorm we are used to in the UK. We watched a mini-tornado form on one of the hillsides away to the west and it slowly walked its way down the slope. The lightning became brighter and the thunder closer and, quite suddenly, visibility out of our vantage point dropped to zero as the clouds swept up our mountainside. The lightning took out the power line and the thunder sounded as if we were being struck directly by cannon fire! The wind and rain continued all night but, by the morning, the storm had cleared and we have had nothing but sunshine since then.


BELO HORIZONTE
How can we describe Belo Horizonte? After Rio, there can be no more spectacular-looking cities. But approaching Belo Horizonte from the south is a unique experience. Every city seems to have its outskirts. You know when you are getting towards Rio, or London, or anywhere else of any size. But Belo Horizonte is different. One moment you are in the Minas Gerais countryside with its red, dusty roads and green mountainsides. You cross a viaduct, round a hillside and peep over the side of the parapet and what do you see? (viz photo) … housing as far as the eye can see! It is the sudden-ness which is unique. Round the next corner and you see the rest of the city with innumerable high-rise blocks stretching to the “beautiful horizon”. Two minutes later you are driving into the centre of a city of about 4 million people! It would be like driving along in the Derbyshire countryside one minute and, within two minutes, finding yourself in Oxford Street!

We enjoyed a happy time in the city on Xmas Eve with a small selection (25) of Paula’s family (viz photos) and ventured into the city centre park on Xmas day in the evening (more photos). Of course nearly all shops were shut by then – but before the holiday Paula enjoyed showing Pat why Belo Horizonte is regarded as one of the best places to shop in Brazil.


SANTOS DUMONT
Pat has taken most of the photos and is clearly a talented photographer. Nowhere has she demonstrated these skills more brilliantly than in Santos Dumont. Driving back from Belo Horizonte to Rio, we passed through the town named after the famous inventor. In previous years we have Santos Dumont’s house in Petropolis, a house he designed and is full of his inventions and now acts as a museum to his achievements. The domestic airport in Rio is named after him. What did he do? Amongst other things he flew the first aeroplane before the Wright brothers ever took off. But Brazilians don’t write history so we are normally only taught about the Wright brothers. What did his aeroplane look like? Well there is a full-sized replica erected by the roadside in Santos Dumont … but there is no way that you can stop on the highway there. So Pat snapped it as we whizzed past in the car! (viz photo). Her future as a paparazza would be assured if she could find a daring motorcyclist to zoom around with her hanging on the back snapping furiously!

Outside the apartment

Early breakfast and a walk along the promenade before it became too hot. Pat took photos – views of Rio from the road outside Ben & Paula’s apartment. But by 8.30 it had already reached 30 degrees … so we came back to write this blog! (We will upload the photos when google lets us - currently having technical problems)

First thoughts from Brazil

We left England in the rain
And flew off in Air France plane
Watched a Parisian wet moon wane
And got to Brazil … in the rain again!

The picture was taken by Ben who was waiting to see what two dishevelled parental travellers looked like after queuing to get through Rio customs for over an hour.

First thoughts from Brazil

We left England in the rain
And flew off in Air France plane
Watched a Parisian wet moon wane
And got to Brazil … in the rain again!



If I can learn to download the photo, the picture will be one taken by Ben who was waiting to see what two dishevelled parental travellers looked like after queuing to get through Rio customs for over an hour.

LAST THOUGHTS FROM NOTTINGHAM

After the slight detour to take in the sights and sounds of a cardiac ward, we are now almost ready to get going on the planned tour. Looking at Nottingham in October provides an attractive sight - autumnal leaves - but not much sunlight! So we are getting ourselves ready to increase the intake of sunlight (Brazil in December) and leaving leaves behind!

Old Folks Touring 5

Setting off on our world tour
We sold our house, our car, and more
And were invited, first, to come
To stay awhile in sunny Brum

But no sooner had our tour got started
When Ray became strangely faint-hearted.
So now we’re stranded in sunny Brum
Staying awhile with my patient Mum.

We’ve had to postpone our Vancouver flight
As Ray’s chest remains rather tight.
But he does not seem overly glum
To be staying here in sunny Brum.

Once he’s got his heart well sorted
And recovered from having our flight aborted
We’ll fly the flags and beat the drum
As we make our way from sunny Brum.

Old Folks touring 4

We have set off and arrived at our first destination. The sky is clear and blue, the sun is bright over the mosque's curved dome and the locals seem quite friendly. The neighbours have talked to us about how hard it is to work all hours in their shop and pray five times a day. The young man who spoke to us about this is only 19: he looks emaciated as he says he has little time to eat. He is clearly exhausted as he works 7 days a week; gets home from work about 10 pm and is out again by 5 am. This is Birmingham, UK.

Old folks touring 3

Before setting off on our tour we are discarding lots of furniture, bric-a-brac and other bits and pieces. So the house seems strangely empty now. But the oddest feeling is not the absence of familiar objects - it is the necessary dropping of the many routines by which we live. You cannot drop your clothes on a chair that is no longer in the house, nor pick out a pair of socks from a drawer when the chest of drawers has gone. If we are constantly on the move, we will find it hard to adopt any routines. It will be interesting to see how well we adapt to the state of "permanent revolution" (sorry to borrow your term, Trotsky) over the coming year or two.

Old folks touring: 2

Flying to Canada from the UK could cost thousands of pounds. British Airways & Air Canada offer one-way tickets from London to Vancouver for £730. However, a quick look at the ebookers site came up with tickets for £360 from Birmingham! It certainly pays to look around for bargains - especially if you want your money abroad to last for a year or two!

OLDER FOLK TOURING

The problem that older folk face if they want to undertake year-long tours is that most services are aimed at youngsters taking a gap year. So, although we may be reasonably fit and strong, we are not well-suited to lying on ground sheets in cold tents, climbing mountains with a heavy rucksack nor clubbing in seedy urban settings. We may have done these things thirty or forty years ago, but we know that trying them again will probably lead to expensive, foreign hospital treatment.

So our planning for this year's tour through north and south America includes:
- establishing a firm financial basis so that we know we can survive without resorting to squatting, begging and - even worse - going back to regular work!
- identifying the most practical means of transport: we are drawn to the idea of buying a second hand motor home in Vancouver, driving around Canada and the USA before selling it off, taking thye coach around Mexico, flying to Rio, coach to Iguacu and Bunos Aires, fly to Lima and walk the Inca trail.
- taking out health insurance - just in case our careful planning fails to avoid expensive, foreign hospital treatment