Sep 04
Angra lies on the mainland of Brazil directly opposite Ilha Grande. It is the starting place for many holidaymakers that want to visit the island.
A regular ferryboat service runs between Angra and Ilha Grande. This ferry service is also very popular among islanders who visit the mainland for shopping. If you are fortunate enough to own your own motoring yacht, you have some options. Some motorboats choose to do the 2hr journey from Rio de Janeiro, but many yachts stay in Angra in a huge “parking garage”. The owners reach Angra by road and may even stay in Angra or elsewhere on the mainland, visiting Ilha Grande during the day.
For us Angra will always be the ultimate place to shop for provisions. The anchorage area is very close to the shopping Mall and Sophia could probably have rowed the dingy to reach it.
Not only is it close, but there are convenient mooring bollards in a sheltered enclosure to tie to. The BEST PART though, is that you can take your heavily laden shopping trolley right up to your dingy to unload. No heavy shopping bags and no heavy backpacks that have to be carried over long distances. You can buy as much as you can possibly fit onto your dingy and still transport safely to the yacht.
The plan was that this would be our last point of provisioning before leaving Brazil. Therefore we had to use up all Brazilian money that we didn’t want to hold onto as keepsakes. The girls agreed that this was a great idea and a great place to do it. Since they had some money left they chose to splurge it on a Chocolate Sundae each.
Shopping here was the only time that we could order Pizza and make it to Shang Du in time to eat it before it cooled down. This was sooo cool!! Sorry, so Hot!
The one other thing I have to mention, is that the fish life at this anchorage must be very rife. Right through the night we could hear the sound of fishes feeding on a reef coming through the hull. Whether this was a reef below us, or the “reef” attached to the bottom of our hull, we could not tell. What we did know is that of all places the anchorage at Angra was the place that we could hear it the loudest.
Karin J has the job of hosing down the anchor with sea water whenever we weigh anchor. She has just reminded me that Angra dos Reis is the place with the most mud at the bottom. It took ages to rinse the anchor properly.
Aug 30
Frans loves diving. I think that this was the real reason we returned to Ilha Grande. He just could not bear the thought that we never even attempted to scuba dive in such a lovely environment. Now we can truthfully say we did attempt it.
Our first dive was on Father’s Day. We had a real bizarre time in sorting out the equipment as the last time we dived together as a family was on St. Helena – 5 months ago. The children insist on growing – well Karin J and Sophia do – and things that used to fit do not fit anymore.
We managed to kit ourselves out and then began the swim to the rocks. Dive plan: swim to the rocks, climb over the little rocky beach, enter the water on the other side, commence diving. Easy peasy!
From Shang Du it looked really close, but once inside the water and actually swimming, it was another story. Swimming with Scuba Gear can be very tricky. This is only the transport phase, so you do not want to use any of your precious air. You could swim on your back, but this means you don’t know where you are going and you also have the hot sun in your face. Swimming on your stomach, the cylinder pushes your face into the water and you need to use your snorkel to breath. This way too, you can’t see where you are going and need to push your cylinder up to get a bearing. Either choice is hard and Frans ended up dragging more than one family member most of the way.
Now, we were only part of the way. We needed to climb over the rocks – in full view of a load of holidaymakers.
We must have seemed like a tribe of aliens. If you do not remove your fins, you can only walk backwards. To remove fins, you need to be able to bend double in your super thick wetsuit and reach your feet. If you lift your feet so that someone else can remove your fins, you are in danger of falling over backwards in the direction of your cylinder. But by far, the most difficult part of all is standing up when the water becomes too shallow to float. The rocks are slippery and very uneven. The problem lies in the kit. All of your equipment – the suit, the cylinder, the bc, the demand valve and even the weight belt is now waterlogged and we all know how heavy water can be. These things that only a moment before seemed weightless, now pull on all your muscles to keep you in a horizontal position. Then, just as you manage to get off your knees, your foot slips and the whole exercise is for nought.
Karin J was a little in front of me walking, falling and resting in short bursts. Just before I reached her, she had a bad fall and drew blood on her knee. Some holidaymakers rushed to help her and I’m nearly certain that I could see the reproach in their eyes. What kind of parent does this to their child?
We did eventually all make it to the other side and from then on, we dived our plan.
It would have been a truly great dive if the visibility was better. Even in the 4-5 metres we had, we saw some amazing things. The fishes were clearly different and the reef too. We saw beautiful flying fish and ugly sea cucumbers.
After the dive we were in much better shape mentally to tackle the way back home. No holidaymakers to glare and no rush. Still, Frans had to go back for the two younger members to help them safely over the water and on board.
We learnt some lessons from that first dive and decided to do things differently the second time around. We were anchored at Sitio Forte. After kitting up we hung our gear on the outside of Shampoo (three sets to a side) and drove to the site wearing our wetsuits and with our weight belts at our feet in the dingy.
Armed with the coordinates and the GPS on Frans’ waterproofed tablet, we set out to find the wreck. Frans had to do 3 reckon dives to find it and he tied our buoy-line onto it. We all agreed that with good visibility this could have been one of the best sites we have ever dived on. The wreck was amazing and very approachable.
A few times during the dive I heard noises that sounded like a distressed child and I diligently checked all four. No problems. After surfacing I learnt that the noise was made by Karin J, as she was happily singing along into her mouthpiece right through the dive. She rated this as her best dive ever. Sophia had to come up early due to feeling cold and I accompanied her up the buoy-line and we waited in the dingy for the others – Sophia in my lap to get some warmth.
For a place that can become unbearably hot during the day, it felt strange to have the cooler, rainy weather and before this dive we nearly forgot what it was to feel cold.
The last site we chose to dive on was that of an old helicopter wreck. According to the information the coordinates lay very close to an “Isolated Danger” marker-buoy.
Frans, Marike and Sophia went out in Shampoo to find the wreck while the rest of us waited on Shang Du.
Frans nearly exhausted himself, diving many times, but the wreck just seemed to disappear. Again, the visibility was terrible. In clear visibility, it should have been possible to see it miles away. Frans and the girls chose to dive anyway, but I easily opted out of this one. At this point in my life, I do not need to dive for diving’s sake.
Not one of them regretted diving, but it seemed that the spectacular diving experience that we had wanted at Ilha Grande was not to be. Whether this was due to the time of year or maybe just some bad weather causing the bad visibility, we will never know. Maybe next time…………….
Aug 28
We left Paraty and motored around beautiful islands and mainland. Eventually we went all the way up into fjord Mamangua.
Our Brazilian Cruising book mentions this remote little place and that not many yachts visit here.
We were hoping for beautiful, clear water and lovely swims around the boat. What we did get, however, were rainy days and brownish water caused by the river flowing into the anchorage area. There were leaves floating on the water. It was beautiful and we loved the absence of man’s mark – no plastic or other refuge finding its way on the current. A remote little village blended into the far bank and there was not another sailing yacht in sight.
The guide book promised a lovely waterfall a little upriver from the sea and we eagerly bunched into Shampoo to go and explore the river. The book warned of snakes in the jungle and Sophia immediately found a nice stick to ward them off. You tap the stick on the ground to scare them away.
The river curled through Mangrove forest where the reflection on the water was so clear that it looked like two forests. One above water level and one below.
There are many bright, coral-red crabs that live just above the waterline, climbing the trunks of the trees.
Huge, white crabs too and we even saw a snake lying on the one bank. Sophia clutched her stick more firmly.
The atmosphere was strangely eerie and we were all trying to keep Karin J‘s anxiety levels from jumping to full scale panic. None of us would have been surprised to see a crocodile emerge next to our dingy.
At last we reached the point where we could go no further on the water. We tied up the dingy and followed a well trodden path.
All of a sudden the jungle changed into what looked like a little subsistence farm. We heard dogs barking and as we came into a clearing, there was a woman with two dogs and ………very strange………..a Howler monkey!!!… just sitting down next to her bags. She didn’t speak any Portuguese and we think she belongs to an indigenous Indian tribe. We passed without incident and soon hit the jungle again.
It is here that Sophia took up her stick banging in earnest. She was determined to warn any snakes (and everything else too) that we were coming. All of a sudden she lost enthusiasm and told me that she doesn’t want to walk in front anymore. Graciously she offered me her stick and said I could bang it if I feel like it. Very strange. As I took up Sophia’s position I had to laugh. I soon realised what caused the strange behaviour. The person in front gets to break the spider webs that cross the footpath. This was too much for Sophia and she was willing to encounter snakes rather than spiders, as she sheepishly confessed when confronted.
The waterfall itself was a marvel. It was the first time in 6 months that we could submerge ourselves completely in fresh water!!! It was deliciously refreshing. My family stood in amazement when I was the first one in.
What a wonderful Creator we serve! Icy cold water in a hot, humid jungle. A natural massage under the waterfall! And all of this, in a beautiful setting that man is unable to duplicate. To me, this is just a small glimpse of the Heavenly Rest that awaits all believers at the end of our lives.
Aug 28
Hi everybody, sorry that I haven’t blogged in a while but now I am going to, so sit back, relax, and read.
I remember that last time I forgot to tell you that we went to a zoo in Rio. It wasn’t the best one, but it was nice to see strange animals.
After we left Rio for the last time, we went to Ilha Grande, where we really had fun despite school. We went Scuba diving for Father’s day. It was real tough getting to the dive site. Our boat was anchored in a little bay, but between our bay and the big bay on the other side there was this piece of land kind of sticking out like a stick from the island. At high tide it would only show a few rocks where the stick of an island and the big island was connected, but at low tide it was actually a piece of land. We went diving at low tide and my Dad wanted to dive in the bay next door. Now we could one of two things: climb over the low piece of land, or ride with the dingy all the way around the sticking out piece of land. We all decided that it would be better to climb over the piece of land than to go all the way around the piece of land. We underestimated the distance we had to swim to the rocks and were very tired once we reached the rocky place. Now we couldn’t swim over it. It was low tide. The rocky place was a little patch of dry land we had to walk over, and that is no easy thing to do with all our diving kit. But we made it over. I would not have been able to do it without Dad’s help. I fell once, and could not get up. Luckily I have a strong Dad who could help me so I was fine.
After Ilha Grande, we went to two other places. (As far as I can remember.) A place called Paraty, and another place. Paraty was a very nice place, it has cobblestone road everywhere. We went for a walk with a picnic to some fort. The fort was on a hill and it had a spectacular view. At the foot of the hill was a little beach bar and as we walked past it a dog came from nowhere and started to follow us. I say follow, but it was more like lead. He insisted on walking in front and even assumed we would be going up the hill to the fort and not carry on, on the path we were on.
When we got to the top and ate our picnic he only tried once to get a titbit of food till we told him off and then he went away to go lie down in the sun and roll on the grass. Two other people came up the hill and went down again in the time we were there, but the dog waited for us to go down before he would, he wouldn’t even go and see if we dropped something while eating. (Which we did) and just calmly led us down the hill again. When we stopped walking he would stop and wait for us to catch up. We dubbed him Kerneels. He followed us all the way to the beach bar, then he stopped and calmly sat on the sand and went to sleep.
Our next stop was the other place. I don’t know what this place was called, but it was very pleasant there. We rode our dingy into this river, I was super scared. I kept on imagining a crocodile surfacing next to the dingy. Then we left our dingy and walked on a path. We saw a tame howler monkey and two adorable little dogs. At the end of the path was a waterfall, and there we had a glorious swim. It was nice to swim in fresh water again.
After this place we headed back past Ilha Grande and Rio on to Buzios. Buzios was an interesting place. There is random lifelike statues that are made of bronze. As the town didn’t seem overly lively by day we decided to go at night to see if anything was happening. Lucky for us there was some little festival of some kind. So it was loads of fun. There were people selling food of all kinds: bowls of rice with sea food mixed in, interesting pancakes with chocolate sauce and ice cream banana tart with pieces of chocolate hidden inside with more ice cream, and much more.
Once we went to eat at this self-service place. Brazilians seem very fond of these. It was very nice with a view of the bay, we could see all the boats. I personally don’t like their chicken. It is only the breast and it is cooked dry!! And can you believe that a friend of ours (Brazilian of course) actually like it! Well, their fish was much better. They also had beef and lasagne, plus a lot of salads. (But I don’t really eat salad.) They had delicious French fries. This place had a special on buffet, so we could go back all the time.
About halfway through the meal, four police came in and sat two tables away from us. They had all their gear on: bullet proof vests, big guns, strap around the leg with a hand gun, lots of pockets with who knows what inside! Unfortunately I was facing the wrong way, so I could not keep an eye on them, but they had to walk past our table to get to the food, so I saw them often enough. (They all went for seconds.) They took off their bullet proof vests and the vests over that with lots of pockets in them, but kept the leg strap hand gun with them. They always left a guy at the table to guard all the stuff. When the rest came back with plates piled high with food, the other one went and came back with a plate piled just a high as all his comrade’s plates.
We stayed long enough to see them go and take seconds. They came back with plates piled just as high as their firsts. Pudding were these small plastic bowls. Some full of caramel others full with disgusting jelly type things. I admit that I was responsible for quite a lot of the caramel’s disappearance.
On the way out we saw the four police men’s car parked outside it was quite a cool car. For like half the walk back to the boat I couldn’t stop thinking of the police I found them very cool. On the walk back to the boat we passed this restaurant that was roasting whole pigs out in the open so everyone walking on the street could see and smell. If we hadn’t just had a really big meal at the restaurant I would have been hungry.
Aug 19
After our 4 month long stay in Rio de Janeiro, we returned to Ilha Grande for a last time. Frans completed his full time work and we were able to spend much more time exploring and sailing around. We made a decision to start at the town of Paraty. Paraty (pronounced pa-ra-chee) lies on the mainland, 20 miles to the West of Ilha Grande.
This town was once used as a port to ship gold from the interior to Rio de Janeiro. After the linking of the mines directly by road to Rio, Paraty subsided into what it is today. A delightful town with a colourful heritage and colourful appearance. It is a real tourist attraction and with good reason.
From the anchorage it is possible to see the old town with the church as a definite marker. We loved waking up to this sight in the morning.
As one approaches the town with the dingy, you realise that there is one very long jetty crowded with smaller “party boats”. We were there during the off season and did not see many of them in use. Some were covered with hearts and others were painted bright pink. We think these are meant for small parties of international tourists, not necessarily Brazilians.
We ended up pulling our dingy up onto the beach as it didn’t look safe to tie up to the jetty. We do not have an anchor to tie to our stern as the “party boats” do. It was low tide and we pulled it up really high onto the beach. It was a cloudy, rainy day and all we noticed was that the sand was blackish.
The “old town” is definitely the most interesting. The buildings are mainly white with very bright, colourful shuttering and doors.
All the streets are built out of stones and are sloped to the middle to form canals. Walking these streets is a real art. It is impossible to take a step without looking at your feet. The little shops and their merchandise are very arresting, so that the walking happens in stages: Stop, look at the shops, look down and walk a little way, stop, look up……… repeat J.
The streets were designed as canals so that the whole town could be flushed clean during high tide. In the old days this meant that the sewage dumped on the streets would be cleaned out twice a day. When entering the town it was low tide and only as we returned did we see the water fill the streets.
We had to detour a few times as it was impossible to cross an intersection without getting wet.
We amused some fishermen as we launched our dingy to return to Shang Du. Unwittingly trying to walk over the same sand as we did while landing the dingy, we suddenly sank deep into the black sand. The high tide saturates the sand but does not alter the appearance at all.
The next day promised sunnier weather and we really wanted to visit the Fort when we could appreciate the view so, we decided to stay one more day.
We were delighted when we walked onto the beach the next day. In the sunlight the blackish beach sand glimmered with golden spots and Franci found it a real challenge to capture this on camera. It really looked like fool’s gold mixed with black sand.
The fort was a lovely, lovely walk with a beautiful view. Well worth waiting for a sunny day. A black dog joined us for the walk up to the fort. He acted just as if we owned him – freaking us out a bit – waiting for us when we fell behind. The best part was when he turned into the entrance to the Fort. He just somehow knew that we were heading there.
He neither begged for any scraps of our picnic, nor demanded much attention. After the descend, as soon as we passed a certain restaurant on the beach – round about where he joined us – he nonchalantly flopped down onto the sand without so much as a goodbye.
I’m convinced that for the girls, the best part of the day was the buying of the hammock. Ever since playing on a hammock on the Yoshima’s boat, they’ve wanted one for Shang Du. It was nearly twilight as we got back to our boat, but up the hammock went.
Immediately the dilemma: ONE hammock for FOUR girls? Also, the obvious fact that the yacht is symmetrical and that there is a similar space on the port side begging for another….. Well, in the end we sent all four of them off with the dingy to buy a second hammock. They loved the freedom of “going on their own” and we have not been sorry yet.
Aug 18
We needed to spend four months of our 3 year-circumnavigation in Rio de Janeiro in order for Frans to work full time. If we had our way, we would have spent the whole four months in and around Ilha Grande (Big Island).
The Internet there is good, the water is clear enough to swim around the boat, the variety of different anchorages are amazing and we would have been content………… That is, if we could only get there 🙂
As we limped into Rio towing 26 tonne Shang Du with our dingy and had the engine subsequently removed completely via the roof……we had to put aside our grand visions of this grand island for a while. However, we kept the dream alive and managed to do two enjoyable trips to Ilha Grande and its surroundings during our time in Brazil.
For Shang Du, it is about a 13 hour trip from Rio. (Compare this to the motorboats who happily eat up huge fuel supplies to do the same distance in 2 hours!).
What a contrast to Botafoga Bay! We arrived in the dark and very clearly we could smell the rich aroma of the soil. It was so quiet that we could hear crickets chirp. We anchored and turned in for the night.
The next morning we were surprised by the now familiar greeting of the Howler Monkeys. It is possible to hear them at a distance of 3 kilometres through dense jungle. They sound exactly like the crowd at a huge football match, cheering just after a goal is scored. A wave or rumble of noise, building up to a crescendo and then dying down again. We were fortunate to see some of these Brown Howler Monkeys on one of our hikes and when they are not actually howling it is hard to believe that these docile creatures are capable of making any noise at all.
During our first visit to Ilha Grande Frans was still working full time. This meant that he had to get started at 3:00 am every morning to coincide with South African time. I tried to join him just before sunrise and what a truly blessed experience it was. During the week the anchorages are mostly deserted and we loved the feeling of being alone. The weather was rainy and we spent the week catching up on school and odd jobs.
And oh yes,…… we did some hull cleaning : )
Frans did the heavy scraping at the bottommost parts while Marike and I attacked the sides. However, It was already after the first scraping, that we completely lost Marike as an active member of the hull-scraping team…….
The hull is covered with life. It is not immediately apparent how much life. Only after deciding that a rest is in order, do you start to notice the tiny, creeping, icky, MOVING fuzz that now cover you and yours. I have never seen Marike as freaked out as she was then.. She thought writhing about was an appropriate action for dislodging the critters. She kept on squealing and demanding that someone bring her a change of bathing suit immediately, so she could change right there in the water. If I did not, at that point, notice my own company of critters, it would have been even funnier. Needless to say… Marike does all kinds of other things nowadays, but no hull-cleaning. Just for clarity – the critters never last long out of the water and can simply be brushed off later.
The Island is covered with Atlantic Jungle. There are no thorns and no stones that can hurt your feet. Thus, after the first two hikes where my children dutifully carried their sandals in their hands to placate the Mommy, hikes were done barefoot.
The hikes were really enjoyable. They were all well shaded from the burning sun and full of very interesting and diverse plants as well as small animal life (think spiders and ants and worms mostly).
There was one hike we would do often. It is the pathway that connects the Praia dos Mangues cove with a beautiful boogy-boarding beach Praia Lopez Mendes. The sand on the two sides of the island differ dramatically. The one side of the island lies toward the mainland and the other side is directly open to the ocean. The beach sand on the mainland side is course and grainy and yellow-brown. On the side of the ocean it is not sheltered enough to anchor and the beach sand is finely ground into a very white sand that squeaks as you walk over it. Marike loved the feeling of it between her toes, but the noise freaked me out.
The highlight of our first time at Ilha Grande was the long weekend that fell right in the middle of our stay. Frans was able to take time off and we invited Mike and Nancy de Vries to spend the weekend with us on the boat. They were so gracious with both us and the primitive “camping” arrangements on board. Everyone – except me – took a long hike from the town of Abraão to an ancient aqueduct and to an old prison in the vicinity.
They had a good time drawing in white beach sand with black sand right underneath. Frans immediately thought that the black sand was due to oil pollution, but Mike – a Geologist – assured them that it was just a different type of sand. He showed us later how to separate the black sand particles from the mix by using a magnet.
That night we rounded off our dinner with interesting Brazilian desserts bought by the expedition from a typical dessert trolley in Abraão.
A description of the long weekend experience at Ilha Grande would not be complete without mentioning the Brazilian way of relaxing. After we had the anchorages very much to ourselves during the week, we were astonished when motorboat after motorboat started arriving at the island on Saturday. We planned to spend the day snorkelling at the blue lagoon beach and soon made our way there in our dingy. As we arrived, we realised that there is barely a space left to pull the dingy onto the beach. The whole beachfront was taken up with motor yachts “parked” in the water in front of the sand. They tie one anchor in the sea at the bow (front) and another anchor in the sand in the shallow water to the stern (back). Very few people actually leave their boats. They sit on the boats in the sun and drink and eat and play loud music. If they do swim, they swim right next to the boat and just wallow a bit in the shallow water. After we managed to squeeze the dingy through onto the beach we had a glorious time snorkelling and even saw a few sea turtles. The water, it seems. Is not the main attraction if you are Brazillian.
Even people who do not own motor yachts or have access to them, choose to spend the long weekend at Ilha Grande. Enter the PARTY BOAT. So called because this is precisely what their function is. These are fairly large wooden boats with lots of seating. They are decorated with fake masts and little white crossbars that look like bunting. Huge crowds rent space on these to come and lie next to the Island.
They sure do not do much swimming. The most we saw was one specific boat that issued every person with a swimming noodle. It was fascinating to see the line of colourful swimming noodles climb out of the boat, drift along in a line and get back in.
After the clear water and the star filled nights it was hard to return to Botafoga Bay. This was especially true as we spent the remaining time in Rio, tied to the working docks with its unique problems – not knowing whether the keel would scrape and the mosquitoes and the rats……..
Jul 18
Hi All =)
Sorry it’s been so long since anything has happened here! My follow-up on Rio isn’t really going to happen – I’ll just tell you what happened since we left Rio =).
Our last two or so weeks in Rio were a whirlwind of activity. A lot of last minute things had to be perfectly coordinated so that the resulting activity would be productive. We got visas for the French Guiana, and we went to visit the Theatro de Municipal. We even got to see a music performance there right before we left! The engine still hadn’t been 100% till something like two days before we left, but as soon as it was sorted out, we were gone.
I will always include big leaves, graffiti, busses, black and white tiles, bikinis and the Portuguese language in my picture of Rio. In Rio I learned to love the different sweets of Brazil (açaí and brigadeiros to name two), and we really enjoyed our stay in Rio, even though the troubled engine gave us some hassles.
The night of the 13th (in June) we left Botofogo bay, and alternately sailed and motored our way to Paraty through the 14th. (‘Paraty’ is pronounced as ‘Paratchee’ – all the ‘t’s are pronounced this way.) The first day we spent on the boat while at anchor. It was a really miserable day, so we utilised it by doing school and sorting out a schedule: everyone be done with what you need to be done by 11:00, so that the rest of the day can be set aside for sightseeing. (Also that was the first day we remembered it is supposed to be winter – I actually felt a bit cold!)
We had a really good time in Paraty. The first day we went on land it was still cloudy, and even though the weather forecast had been ‘’sun will come out later’’ the sun never could quite make the effort, so we were left to wander through the town in the subdued light.
The town itself was really interesting – mainly for the streets in the old part of it. The original town was so designed that its streets would overflow during high tide, so as to wash them clean. (Indoor plumbing was non-existent in those days.) The cobbled streets are really bumpy and there are horse-drawn carts that hang around in that part of the town too.
The next day was way more fun. We packed a picnic and climbed up to where the ruins of a fort were supposed to be, and had a very interesting traveling companion. At first we were a bit worried about the strange black dog following us around. Actually, ‘’following’’ isn’t the correct wording. It was as if he pretended to belong to us. He walked ahead, and stopped when he realised we had stopped. (As when, for example, a bird was spotted.) He never bothered us when we were enjoying our picnic, and waited while we thoroughly explored the grassy clearing. (The fort was basically down to a wall, some steps and a few cannons.) While walking past the beach restaurants where we originally picked him up, he flopped back down onto the sand, quite happy.
Later, walking through the town back to the boat we went into a shop where we bought a few odds and ends, including a hammock. (We were really excited at this purchase.) When we got back to the boat we immediately put it up, and it was soon clear to all that another must be had. Not only could four girls not fit into a 2 person hammock, but it spoilt the symmetry of the boat. 😉
The four of us hopped back into Shampoo and whizzed back to shore, where two stayed by the boat (as we aren’t strong enough to haul it up onto the beach without dad, so it had to stay by the jetty) and two of us went a-hammock hunting.
The day was finished off by a lovely Churasco. (Pronounced ‘’Shuhascu’’) This is the Brazilian equivalent of having a braai. =) It was thoroughly enjoyed, and it was also the first time we used the braai on this ‘around the world’ trip!
That concludes our Paraty stay. The next day we motored to a new anchorage two fjords down. The place was called Saco de Mamangua. That same day we followed the stream through the mangroves that the guide book had told us led to a waterfall. Obviously we couldn’t follow the stream all the way up, so we had to walk a small distance. In the mangroves there were red crabs everywhere, and some of us (including me) once even saw a black snake on the bank!
It was strangely creepy motoring through the trees, and not knowing what lies ahead. I don’t know if any of you have ever watched any Jacques Cousteau documentaries, but it felt like we were in one. ;P We went on until we could see some actual land, and then some more until we saw some signs of humans. (There were a number of 2litre plastic bottles, filled with water and lying clumped together.) That’s another thing – that whole area had very little signs of life. At night we could only see one light (and a small one) on shore. The things floating around in the water were mainly leaves, varied by a few twigs. 😉 It was very refreshing.
We tied up Shampoo and headed into the forest, following the path. We didn’t really wear shoes – I think three of us did. The guide book said to wear good walking shoes and take water and a stick (to scare off snakes), but the soil was so soft that I just never got round to putting my shoes on.
The walk wasn’t a hard one. It led through mostly jungle, but we think we might have gotten off a little too soon, because our path led us through a small citrus fruit/banana plantation. (The guide book had also informed us that a few ‘natives’ live here unobtrusively.) When we entered the field, a sharp yipping chorus was struck up, and two little dogs barked defiantly at us from the shelter of a tree. We could also see a monkey huddled up to one of the bags. (Okay, it was more like slumping up.) That was rather a novelty – definitely howler monkey and definitely tame. Very interesting. There was also a woman (who wasn’t there at first, so I suppose she came to see what the noise was about) but when we tried to ask about the whereabouts of the waterfall, she didn’t even try to communicate, so we suspect that they don’t really know much Portuguese.
Right after the field we found a nice big sign pointing further along the path we had been following anyway, with “CACHOEIRA” painted on it. After my dad had satisfied himself (through the tablet) that this did indeed mean ‘waterfall’, we followed the trail.
The waterfall was beautiful, and its pool is the most epic place to swim! The water was cold at first, but we soon got used to it. My mom (round of applause) was first in, and she enjoyed it just as much (maybe even more) as the rest of us. It was fun to try swim against the current created by the waterfall. (Actually it was more of a cascade, really.) There are rocks on the bottom that you can try to stand on, except it’s tricky, since they’re so slippery is doesn’t take much for you to fall right off again.
So far, out of all the places I’ve had the privilege to swim, this has been second only to swimming in the middle of the sea. ^_^
The following day was a truly miserable, rainy day, so we didn’t attempt anything drastic. We stayed put on the boat, and did school. It was only the next day (Saturday) that we hoisted up Shampoo and motored over to Ilha Grande. The sea was a bit rougher than anticipated, and we were a little sea sick. The pills once again knocked me out, so there was very little ‘rest of the day’ for me.
Our stay at Ilha Grande was enjoyable, and we had a few goes at diving. The first attempt was a little haphazard, since it has been 6 months since our last dive, and for some reason we had to sort all the dive kit out from scratch. (It’s amazing how similar all the kit looks after you haven’t seen it for some time.) After that we only improved, and kitting up and down gradually became a much less formidable task. Sadly the visibility was really bad, so dives that could have been awesome, was not so great. :/
In the middle of our Ilha Grande activity we went to Angra, where we got a lot of fresh food, and topped up the water and diesel supplies. At the time we thought this would be one of our last chances for getting water until we reached Devil’s Island. Then we returned to Ilha Grande.
We stayed about a week, with three dives executed at different spots. Our last two days we went to the same bay that we were in at the very beginning. (The one where you can cross over a small strip of land and reach a great surfing beach on the other side of the island, the side open to the sea.) The only snag in our great plan, was that the wind came from the mainland. This meant that the waves weren’t able to reach their full potential as surfing waves. (Note: By surfing, I mean boogie boarding.)
We spent Sunday mainly on the beach, and built an epic sand castle. On Monday I turned 17. Had a wonderful day, and we went to the beach again – so this is the first time ever that I can say I swam on my birthday! ^_^
The day after, we lifted anchor, and travelled up north to Búzios. That’s where we had decided to wait for a cold front to come.
Büzios was nice. We had the chance to take a proper shower again (we hadn’t been able since leaving Rio.) There are quite a few bronze statues throughout the town, which are very nice. At the water line there are three amazingly lifelike statues that are ‘fishing’. Their hats and pants are different colours, so they aren’t just bronze coloured. We have decided that the thing which makes them look really lifelike is the way the water moves the ropes in their hands. (Also the way the water moves up and down next to them – but you get the idea: water moves, they look alive.) When we saw a photo of them in the guide book, we first didn’t realise that they were statues.
We wondered a little if the night life of this quiet town would prove to be more exciting than the sleepy day, so (I think it was Friday night) we went ashore in the evening. We were surprised to find a fiesta in full swing! The first hint we got was of the various (and there were many) restaurants having put up tables outside their buildings. We’re still not sure what it was about – we had fun, walking among the crowds, violin player here, cake stall there . . . wasn’t bad at all. 😉 Each restaurant had an example of their food for sale, and we had little tastes of different foods.
We stayed there until Saturday. When we tried to start the engine we all had mini heart attacks when it refused to start. (Okay, I don’t know about Karin and Sophia.) We bled the engine and we sprayed sunscreen into it. The sunscreen worked, but we’re not sure why, because it didn’t later on.
We motored out and when the wind first started coming, it came with some to spare. We went fast for quite a while (5 days, maybe?) Unfortunately we came to Abrohollos too soon. The wind had not died down yet, and we couldn’t get anybody on the radio. (Our engine still worked then.) There are reefs all around the bare, uninteresting looking islands, which we would have loved to explore, but we couldn’t stop. There are supposed to be mooring buoys at certain spots around the islands, but we only ever saw one, and in the 20 odd knots of wind, weren’t too keen to test out its endurance.
When we hit the continental shelf after the deep water (before we came to Abrohollos) we started seeing whales. Big pods of them quite close to the boat. Once it was just the four of us girls in the cockpit, and a whale surfaced right next to the boat. (Maybe 10 metres away.) I was the first to see, and immediately started pointing and hurrying over to that side of the boat. Sophia went into a coughing fit (she was eating an apple at the time) she was so excited! We saw quite a few whales ‘spy hopping’ in the distance too. Apparently the male whales do this to impress the females.
The wind only lasted a day away from Abrohollos, however, and since we then discovered our engine had turned traitor once again, we went very, very slowly. Actually, now I come to think of it, not as slowly as all that. We had a 1 knot current favouring us, and although we only went 2 knots average during the day, we had an average of at least 3 knots during the night. (For some reason the wind chose then to pick up.) So we never stopped moving (thanks to the current) and we even had some spurts.
It was still super frustrating, as the sails would bash themselves against the rigging in the light wind. The big waves (the only thing to remind us there had been a cold front) made it impossible for the sails to stay full in a too light wind. (For example, when we hit the continental shelf again and the waves started to even out as a result of the days of the slack wind, we could do 2 knots in a 4-5 knot wind.)
The same day our engine wouldn’t start, we had an amazing sunset show. ^_^ We were suddenly surrounded by dolphins! (Later we discovered a tiny flying fish on our deck, and we suspect the dolphins had chased the school until they had sought refuge under our boat.)
The dolphins were amazing! Most just did the normal dolphin thing of swimming to and fro in front of the boat (pretty awesome anyway) but there were some that jumped right out of the water! I didn’t think dolphins really did that! Unfortunately we have no video footage, but it was awesome! There were two ways in which they would do it – either they would jump and spin at the same time (most often it would be this) or they would do flips! I think I saw this at least three times. They do back flips, bringing their tail over their heads! So cool!!! ^_^
The following day when the wind refused to start 😉 we did our Atlantic crossing thing. Off came all the sails, and into the water we went. It was just as beautiful as in the very middle of the sea. (Even though we were closer to land, we were off the continental shelf, and the water was that amazing blue . . . ) We enjoyed it tremendously, and didn’t want to get out. I can’t describe the amazing blueness of that water . . . there is also just so much of it! You feel like you could see forever, and the boat really is tiny ^_^.
We made it to Salvador in the end. (Of course, we deflected our course as soon as the engine gave trouble.) The wind came up the Friday night before we arrived, so we covered the last few miles quickly. Karin and Sophia were on first watch (8 – 12) so as soon as it was over, into bed they went. (Dad was up the whole night.) Franci and I were on watch from 12 – 4. By this time we were very close to Salvador, and the wind had picked up. No, wait, the wind had not really picked up – on average, we were going much faster, but now that I think of it, it was not steady at all. They wind came and went with the squalls. Sometimes we were heeling over, and sometimes we were plodding along at 2 knots.
For the first 2-3 hours, nothing much happened. We did our erratic sailing (now lowering sails, rain trying to invade the nice warm places under the oily jacket and then… sitting around, wet hair and gloves, looking at the GPS speed reading 2.4 kt.) Then we began sailing into the bay. Unfortunately, there was a current of about 1.3 kt. against us, which meant that we had to sail at least 3 kt. to pretend we’re making headway. All this, and the screen of the buildings meant less wind.
We had decided long before that we would launch Shampoo if the wind died, so when it started faltering we were on the foredeck, getting Shampoo ready for her midnight tow. I am so glad we had the upgraded engine. (When we returned to Rio after our first Ilha Grande trip, Felipe sold us a 15 horsepower engine. So now we have the 2.5 one as a spare.) Because of the 1.3 knot current, I think we might have ended up drifting onto the rocks if the engine hadn’t been strong enough to give us the extra 2 knots.
Dad in Shampoo, rain coming down, mom at Shang Du’s wheel, Franci in the pulpit up front and me waving my arms about so that Mom can see where to steer . . . it took at least an hour and a half to make up the ground we’d lost while launching Shampoo plus the extra 1.5 miles to the port. It was 5:30 before we dropped anchor, and we were tired. The sun was just lighting the sky when we all climbed back into bed.
Unfortunately we had to wake up two hours later. (I slept again after that, but Dad never got back to bed until that night.) The French people we had met in Rio, Botafogo bay, was in the same place as we were! (We knew they’d be in Salvador, but didn’t know exactly where.) They helped us lift anchor again, with the two dinghies acting like little tugboats. =) The manoeuvring involved in getting Shang Du in place was tremendous, and we are sincerely grateful for the help of those French people, as we couldn’t have done it alone.
We are now again moored in the Brazilian way: the back of the boat facing the jetty, with ropes securing it, and the bow (front) of the boat standing out with underwater ropes securing it there. Another version of this is typically a buoy you can pick up at the front, or simply anchoring it, like they do at the beaches. The taxiboats (there are many that ferry people from one place to another at Ilha Grande, since the island has no roads), throw out an anchor in the deeper water, then jump out and pull their boats perpendicular to the beach. After that, they secure the boat with another anchor put in higher up on the beach.
We had sent and received e-mails while still at sea, and had learned that our mechanic, Adeilo, from Rio was in Salvador. (What are the chances!?) We were really blessed, both in that he was there, and that we were able to make it to Salvador in time for him to be able to work on the engine. He arrived, sorted out the problem, and insisted on taking us out for lunch. (Also, didn’t want any payment for sorting out the engine!)
We have now been to see some sights in Salvador. We went to a lighthouse, rode the old elevator up to the old town (there visiting a church) and today we went to see a church and a fort. The elevator was first installed as a pulley mechanism, and a steam operated engine was installed before electricity was used. Quite a lot of people use it every day. The old town is situated on top of the cliff, so much the better for protecting it from invasion. This also meant that friendly ships and boats arriving at port would have to go an incredibly long way to get to the town, thus: elevator.
The black population verses the white population here is much greater than in Rio, as this used to be the capital of Brazil for quite some time (for example; the lighthouse we visited was the first ever to be built on South America), so a great number of slaves were brought here.
We plan to stay for a little while yet, (at least until Karin’s birthday) and enjoy the showers and internet. ^_^ When we arrived it was unbearably hot, and I struggle to get my head around the fact that everybody in South Africa might be feeling a little chilly!
Hopefully, if all goes well, this will be the last time we are in Brazil. I’ll definitely miss Brazil – I’ve really learned to like it here, and I just know that if we’d stayed maybe a month or two longer, I might have learnt Portuguese! 😉
xXx
Jun 04
Here are some more of the things that we have experienced in Rio. Some made us laugh out loud, some were just interesting and others made us smile. There are also those that disgusted us and those that were thoroughly delightful. I’ll let you decide for yourself which are which.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
During a guided tour in Central (Business District of Rio and also filled with history), we had the pleasure to visit many Roman Catholic Churches.
All of them were unique and in some way contributed to the history of the city. We especially liked the story of the Candelaria Church. A Spanish couple that were caught in a huge storm at sea, made a pledge to God that if they survived, they would build a church on the first piece of land they could buy. The little chapel that they built has been replaced by a beautiful cathedral, with the story of the storm and shipwreck depicted in some of the paintings on the ceiling.
Many couples would love to get married in the Old Cathedral of Rio dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This is the Church in which Dom Pedro II was inaugarated. The waiting list for getting married here is 3 years! Sounds like a very long engagement to me.
A look at Rio´s churches cannot be complete without mention of the Metropolitan Cathedral. From the outside it looks like a cone-shaped concrete mass, squared on the sides To my mind it is actually quite ugly.
It has become a real landmark in Rio, but was not received very enthusiastically at first. Inside it is really beautiful and I find the thought process behind the architecture really lovely. Instead of a Cross in the front of the church (where your proximity to the Cross depicted your importance), the architect wanted to show that all people have equal access to the Cross. Hense, a Cross above, that touches all the sides of the church.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
It seems as if EVERYONE in Rio takes selfies ….ALL… THE… TIME!!!… We are not just talking of a few teenagers that are camera happy.
Whenever you visit the beach, or the gardens or maybe just the yacht club, people are taking photos of themselves.
Brazilians do not seem to have the reticence often attributed to other nations. They preen extensively beforehand and then pose in the most dramatic stances, as if modelling for glamorous magazines. This seems to apply to everyone, no matter the age, gender or photogenic qualities of the participant.
This is also very popular with couples.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Paqueta is a delightful little town on an island. near Rio. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to Paqueta by ferry and no cars are allowed on the Island. The ferry ride only costs 5 Reals, compared to a short bus trip of 3.40 Reals.
We spent a lovely day there, taking a horse-buggy ride and having lunch.
One of the strange things we saw was a special Cemetry for Birds next to the People Cemetry.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
We were absolutely amazed at how many of the people in Rio de Janeiro wear Tattoos.
It was 40 degrees Celsius when we landed here and people wore as little as possible. If you take into account that decency standards in other places are slightly higher (for shorts that might be lower) than in Brazil, there was a lot of exposed skin to look at : ).
It was very difficult to find someone without a Tattoo. They wear them on their arms, on the back of the calves, lower neck, upper torso, wrist armbands, lower back etc.
After a while, the whole idea of Tattoos started losing its shock value. We just became so used to them. I even caught myself starting to think that some of them looked really nice. There was this exquisite Tattoo of a bird that covered most of a young girl´s upper back in beautiful colours………
But then… you only have to look at the older people and the way the Tattoo loses its appeal on wrinkled skin to not get too carried away.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
We experienced some real Brazilian hospitality in the home of Marise Mueller. She is a native born Brazilian that loves to travel. Her English is excelente and it was a real pleasure to spend time with her. She could answer our questions on customs and traditions.
She invited us to her home for a very typical Brazilian meal, Feijoada. It is a stew made with the traditional black beans and can be cooked with or without meat. We had a version that included pork and it was deliscioso! It is always served with rice. In addition she cooked some farofa (looks like breadcrumbs and is made from the cassava root) fried with egg. Also Kovi – a type of leafy, green vegetable finely sliced and slightly cooked.
With the Feijoada, Marise gave us each a peeled orange to accompany the meat. This was to counteract the fattyness. We all broke our orange into the seperate wedges, but she ate hers with a knife and fork.
Our dessert was a delicious Banana Torte, the recipe of which she inherited from her aunt. Brazilians love sweet things to eat and are very good at making them.
From Marise we learnt that Brazilians eat rice and beans EVERY day! It suddenly made sense to us why this always came with anything you ordered to eat.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Santa Teresa is a lovely quaint, artistic area in Rio.
It is located on top of the Santa Teresa hill, by the centre of Rio, and is famous for its winding, narrow streets which are a favourite spot for artists and tourists.
One of its claims to fame is the Escadaria Selarón. A staircase covered in tiles by a Chilean born artist Selarón.
Running from Joaquim Silva street and Pinto Martins street the steps straddle the Santa Teresa neighbourhood. There are 250 steps measuring 125 metres long which are covered in over 2000 tiles collected from over 60 countries around the world. Selarón considered the work as “never complete” and claimed that “This crazy and unique dream will only end on the day of my death”.
Originally, tiles for the work were scavenged from various construction sites and piles of urban waste found on the Rio streets. But in later years most of the tiles were donated by visitors from all around the world. Of the 2000+ tiles, 300-odd are hand painted by Selarón depicting a pregnant African woman. Selarón didn’t comment on this except to say that it was a “Personal problem from my past”. He began renovating the steps on a whim in 1990. Many times, his phone was cut off and he was threatened to be evicted from his house due to being unable to afford the living costs. He sold many paintings and accepted donations from locals and travelers to continue his work. Since 1977, Selarón claimed to have sold over 25,000 portraits, all featuring the same pregnant woman which mostly funded his work. It was a labor of love for the artist who resided in the same house by the steps he lived in when he started the work. He was mostly unfazed by the attention given to him by curious onlookers and tourists alike. He was constantly spotted at the steps working by day and treating drunken revelers to fascinating anecdotes by night.
Selarón was found dead January 10, 2013, on the famous Lapa steps. His body was found with burn marks.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
We all know that electricity in South Africa is highly controversial and often invisible : )
Not so in Rio!
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Everywhere in Rio, people operated businesses from their cars. I don’t know whether this is legal or not.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
One evening as we walked to the McClauchlans for dinner, we saw an amazing sight. A bat drinking from the flower of a banana tree. This was right next to the street.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
We will definitely miss the ice cream in Brazil.
It is possible to buy the loveliest fruit-flavoured ice-cream in tubs. Also popsicles come in fruit flavours and taste as if made with real fruit. The favourite popsicle flavour being Coconut.
Near the end of our stay, I suddenly discovered that the empty ice-cream containers are exactly the right size to fit into my freezer on board. The result was that I had to put my poor family through the ordeal of eating ice-cream every night for a while! 🙂
Even though the fruit flavours were delicious, the children’s favourite is one called “Pudim”. This refers to a Tapioca dessert made in Brazil.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
People park their motorbikes on the street. They do lock them, but in South Africa I’m sure these would have been carried away. Whenever they expect rain, they cover them in these dandy raincoats.
.________________________________________________________________________________________________
And then……. the Rio Street Market!!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
At the market I bought and cooked my first Octopus ever!!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
For now, this concludes our stay in Rio. We are planning to head out soon and will not have full Internet access for quite some time. We should be able to do plain text postings.
Recent Comments