Brazil
COSTS: In-country: £4737.58 (£31 a day) // Out of country - £1262.01 (see breakdown at the end)
DATE: 11 February 2023 - 11th July 2023
CURRENCY: Brazilian real R$
DURATION: 151 days
AGE: 21/22
TOP APPS: Workaway/Currency Converter/Reverso Contexto/Travel Spend
Contents (States):
🔴 Rio
🟡 Bahía
🟢 Minas Gerais
Rio de Janiero
Rio. It sort of feels like the city finds you instead of you finding the city. On one of the very first nights, my uber driver was so thrilled by my awful portunol that he took me to Copacabana, got me a caipirinha and we sat chatting together on the sand. That’s just one example of countless interactions you can find yourself having. It’s a city of nature, of graffiti, of poverty, of architecture, of music, but principally of life, especially during carnival 🎉
I stayed in an area called Santa Teresa. I had an intense week of soaking up the vibes, costumes, parties, and music, but mostly the cachaça from all the caipirinhas I was drinking 😂.
Going to the Sambadrome with a Canadian friend I met in Jamaica was one of the best nights (and mornings) of my life. Having the typical ‘meat, rice, beans etc’ at a local bar was incredible. So was the yakisoba from the awesome lady near Lapa. I went to a fab DJ set, joined in with multiple ‘blocos’ and made friends with a lovely Spaniard. My Air BnB, hosted by a daughter, mother and grandmother, was lovely and provided a safe haven to escape from the craziness when necessary.
Before, I was worried about going to carnival on my own, but everyone is so friendly it’s hard not to make friends and even when you are alone, people-watching is an experience in itself.
Other wonderful moments in Rio include:
Visiting Cristo deffo recommend the hike up to the top. The 3-hour trail is not too challenging unless you get your group lost like I did 😂
Ipanema/Copacabana beaches - watching the gorgeous volleyball playing Brazilians never goes amiss ;)
Just really be careful with your belongings ❗️ my bag was stolen while I was on the phone with my mum. They attempted to take £3000 from my cards :( luckily I still had my phone and had blocked them. Was a real pain though as I had no way to get cash for a while. . .
My favourite beach, Barra de Tijuca, was the West Zone of the city. Few tourists, no thieves, just locals, windsurfers, big waves, wonderful views and good vibes. Helped that I also spent my time there with an Argentinian who worked selling jewellery on the beach so it felt like I was part of the behind-the-scenes goings-on.
Spending time with this Argentinian, whom I’d met during carnival, and his group of friends, was always fun. Argentinians are a crazy and passionate folk and I was grateful to be able to practice my español.
The Botanical Gardens! Honestly spent one of the most beautiful days of my life here:
Visiting Rocinha and other favelas. I will never forget the Uber dropping us off (they don’t go any further), getting on a motorbike and zipping up the windy roads with the bike almost horizontal, to arrive at the top at a deserted rooftop bar! The view was incredible and to top it off a community samba group was practicing just next door and we were able to watch them practicing.
Escadaria Selarón or the ‘Lapa Steps’. A beautiful artwork created by the Chilean artist Jorge Selarón who began renovating dilapidated steps that ran along the front of his house. It became his life’s work and there are over 2000 tiles from 60+ countries around the world!
Going to Confeitaria Colombo. Founded in 1894 this is one of the top 10 coffee shops in the world! Deffo try the fabulous espresso, cachaça and hazelnut concoction.
Enjoying people watching on the Metro to get to a date with a guy I had no idea was a famous singer!
The Museum of Tomorrow - a very interesting science/history/nature museum
The Metropolitan Cathedral of St Sebastian and Pão de Açúcar
Visiting Pedra do Sal - a historic and religious site. A walking tour here enabled me to better understand Brasil’s colonial past under the Portuguese and the roots of samba. The area is known locally as "Little Africa", originating in the collective houses of escaped and freed slaves.
Listening to Samba pouring out of random bars at night and sitting journalling with a beer. Did you know Brasilians have an amazing invention called a camisinha which is a lil container that the beer goes in to keep it cold?
Getting my nature and borborleta fine-line tattoo as an early 22nd B-day prezzie 🎉
Ilha da Gigóia
This beautiful island, in my opinion, is Rio’s best-kept secret. Birds, cats, hidden alleys, bats, boats, breeze, calm, peace is what I recorded in my journal upon first arriving.
I stayed here after coming back to Rio from two months in Bahia. It was a place to be grateful, relax, appreciate and reflect on the crazy adventure I’d had and was having . . .
and then I met this someone, who would change my life. Let’s call him H.
We met one morning as I was hanging out my laundry. He came down the stairs from the Air BnB apartment above mine and with a simple ‘Bom día’ we were off to the beach together. We spent the next week exploring Rio (mas tudo era fechado 😂) and ultimately the next two months together. But I’ll get back to that ¨̮
Bahía
Algodões
After carnaval I lived in this small town on the Peninsula of Maraú for 2 months. I was supposedly taking care of a surfer called Pedro’s house and cats while he was away in Bali. For the first week, I basically lived off coconuts and jackfruit as was waiting for my replacement wallet from wonderful mama Angie and had used up the last of my cash getting there. The beach was deserted, the nature was stunning (cicadas, butterflies, bats), but I got lonely with just me and the coconuts (castaway vibes). So I branched out and made friends further along the peninsula in Taipu de Fora, starting with a quad bike guide called Cayro, then his friends; Ale and the lovely couple Lucas and Swedish Klara, then her neighbour Larissa and her friend Vanessa! We enjoyed barbecues, beaches, surfing, lighthouses, pizza, hammocks, maconha, moqueca, dirt roads, dancing, bola, a lua and even did the Brasilain New years tradition of jumping through 7 waves when the clock strikes midnight:)
While this may all seem like sunshine and rainbows, my mental health had declined throughout the journey. I wanted to take care of myself but struggled. I wanted to reflect but I diverted. I fell when drunk and hit my head (again) badly. I had a fight with a thorny bush (again) while trying to get to the sea. I was reckless and lost. On reflection, I was not old enough for this place. This place for spirituality, health, love and family. Not for wayward adventuresses.
That being said, the moments I spent walking along the beach at sunset, the moments reading The Power of Now, the moments journalling, the moment meditating after taking mushrooms for the first time, and being with the stars, wind and the full moon, these are moments that will guide me always.
Salvador
Salvador is the historic and vibrant capital of Bahía. It is recognized throughout Brasil, and internationally, for its cuisine, music, and architecture. After the magical ferry back from the Peninsula of Maraú/Itacaré I headed straight to the beach and, observing a gente playing ‘altinha’ (a notorious ball game), chatting and watching the sunset, I was filled with energy and joy.
I stayed in a fab hostel and quickly made friends with a group of Brasilians from all over + I was actually speaking Portuguese! (After having memorised thousands of flashcards whilst sunbathing and bouncing around on buses.) Together, we explored Porto da Barra Beach, Pelourinho, a samba night, the House of Music Museum and tried Acarajé and Açaí 💜
I also spontaneously got a long-awaited abstract back tattoo while watching the Bahian waves roll onto the beach through the window and listening to BaianaSystem 😊
Coast of Discovery
Back to H 😊 This map was more or less his plan for his two-week holiday. This stretch of Bahian coastline is where the Portuguese first landed and so the birthplace of the Brazilian Nation. It is also the 3rd most popular tourist destination in Brasil and made of pristine beaches, fab nightlife and friendly people. On about the second day of having met in Rio he asked if I wanted to come with him and I am beyond glad I said yes. (I also trusted him as he was reading Sapiens).
So off we flew, highly hungover, to Bahia!
Porto Seguro
Where he used to spend his summers as a teen. We stayed in the wonderful hotel ‘Vale Verde Praia’ and quickly became friends with the wonderful staff. We enjoyed the beaches by day and the bars and an incredible restaurant for Acarajé (the regional dish of Bahía) by night. They also had an alcoholic smoothie with 16 ingredients!! (There was a prize for whoever was able to guess all of them :) yet nobody has been able to so far.)
My 22nd Birthday was spectacular. H did a surprise brunch on the balcony and hired a buggy with which we visited Passarela do Descobrimento, a palm-lined promenade with pastel-coloured colonial buildings, restaurants & shops. Here we enjoyed a seaside restaurant, did some cheeky shopping, I met a nice clown lady in the supermarket, H got a tattoo of a butterfly a bit like mine :) and we met a beautiful doggo. Unfortunately, the buggy got towed as we’d parked in the wrong place and it all went a bit pear-shaped.
We ultimately spent a lot of time in the hotel, as I was low-key dying from the tattoo I got in Rio becoming infected. But this was okay, we spent an afternoon on the balcony watching Joker with rum and bazeados, sun-bathed by the pool and played UNO. All this up until the moment when I felt like my arm was actually falling off. We headed straight to the SUS (NHS equivalent) where I got put on a drip and given what I thought were antibiotics, long story short, they were anti-inflammatories and I continued dying for 3 days as I was essentially overdosing on ibuprofan.
2. Coroa Vermelha
We rented a proper car, did a big food shop and headed a little further North to a cute Mezzanine Air Bnb I’d reserved. Here I recovered, cooked fajitas for dinner, had fab convos, played the card game ‘cactus’ and fed the cats sardines.
From this base, we also visited the Camino of Moses, a natural phenomenon where the sea recedes revealing a beautiful land walkway, and the historical centre of Porto Seguro with churches and the town founded by the Portuguese explorer, Pedro Alvares Cabral, in 1500.
3. Caraíva
This town about 160km South was a journey and a half to get to; a ferry, a 4-hour taxi, a canoe and a donkey ride, but it was magical. On the way, we saw the sunset over beautiful flood plains, authentic indigenous villages, eucalyptus plantations and forests that still belong to nature.
The small and rustic village itself has no cars, basic infrastructure and dozens of artisanal shops, lovely restaurants and sandy alleyways. It was here that we celebrated H’s birthday, enjoyed the murmuration of birds on the beach, me teaching a group of children yoga by our aparto and other peaceful and perfect moments.
H had changed the way I travelled. I was no longer alone. He opened up Brasil to me, being the extroverted, friendly and kind Minero he is. ‘Minero’ means someone that comse from Minas Gerais. They are well known throughout Brasil for being super friendly (the equivalent of Northerners in the UK). My Portuguese improved no end and he was also always babbling with fun facts and stories that he would share without a care. We also simply fell quite a bit in love with each other. It felt meant to be and our intimacy was so unexpected and profound, people that we had been together for years, not days. Every week with him felt like a month.
*Teresopolis/Rio Crazy Interlude
After these two weeks in Bahia we stayed a final weekend with his close friends in a town called Teresopolis, just outside of Rio. At this point I barely knew what was going on, was simply following him and was just laughing to myself about how the town we were going to sounded like a dinosaur. This all led to the most intense night of my life. We went to a Reggae concert, me and H got too drunk, I booked an Air Bnb thinking I was clever and emboldened as I left the concert, only to realise I couldn’t get back in as I didn’t have the tickets.
So there I am, alone, frightened, wandering around Rio until 4 am. Then the most insane coincidence of my life occurs as I bump into my friend German from the Dominican Republic!! Just in the street, on a random night, in Rio. I love the universe.
H had waited for me and we then wandered together discussing what had happened, giving money to a guy in need and eventually low-key proposing to each other on a bridge at sunrise. It was magnificent and relieving. But the 6-minute video of the moment, showing me lying down, not caring if I fell off the bridge, shows I was in no state to be committing myself to someone for the rest of my life, no matter how much I loved him.
The rest of our time in Teresopolis was nice; playing with their cats and dogs, going to waterfalls, playing cards and cooking falafels for them. They also had a beautiful daughter who was so sweet. Finally, we got the bus, the bus to BH, H’s home.
Minas Gerais
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte (or BH); the capital of Minas Gerais. It was here, in the city, that I lived with him for two months before returning to the UK. We took trips to Pira Pora (such an awesome name and place), Brumadinho and the freezing São Bartolomeu. We did this at weekends so, in the meantime, I became a semi-brasilian stay-at-home wife; cooking, cleaning, chilling, running and visiting museums, then restaurants, bars, trampoline parks and football games with H at night. It was splendid. We weren’t sure if we would get on as well when actually living together, but we did. He, however, is an organised 36yr old who has his shit together, whilst I, surviving after 15 months travelling, was not. It worked, but somehow I knew it could not indefinitely.
Pirapora
H’s equivalent of Ricky. We went on the weekend of their annual motor-club show so we got to enjoyed the bikes, vibe, music and nightlife (all the way through to sunrise). I met his sister, mum and all the family. It was impossible to walk down a road without him bumping into and saying hello to at least 3 people he knew. I felt part of it all :) We visited his Aunt’s farm one afternoon and enjoyed their private waterfall! Me, him and his sister also visited a church with a massive tree growing out of the ruins, truly beautiful 🌳. The journey there and back with H’s best friend was also great; the open road, speed and sunsets.
Brumadinho
About two hours from BH is this town with access to one of the top 25 museums in the world, Inhotim. With over 50 installations of contemporary art it is an immersive experience that blurs the boundaries between art, nature, and the human imagination.
São Bartolomeu
With the final rented car of our adventure, H and I headed to this little town to stay with his friend. This friend is a tour guide and his house, passed down through the generations, had a beautiful garden with cats and chickens galore. As you walk down the one main road you notice the little houses with colonial architecture, the curious look of the residents, children playing in the street, the little churches and how time passes slower.
Alongside passing time here we headed to Ouro Preto for a concert and impromptu church service, visited a waterfall (I am firmly convinced it is impossible to get sick of waterfalls in Brasil) and made H’s fav, veg and noodle soup.
And with that final trip and a fabulous Pride Parade back in BH my first encounter with Brasil had come to an end. I flew home from Rio after 18 months away from home and 5 months spent in Brasil; completely and utterly in love with this country which I know I want to be my future home 💖
Out-of-country cost breakdown
£ 592.84 Flights year + the cost of the flight home: £574.09!
£ 114 Travel Insurance (split across a year)
£ 226.51 Health Related Costs (split across a year)
£ 240 Visa Visitors are allowed to stay within the 90 days without a visa. I overstayed. But funnily enough they only charge me when I return to the country? ;)
£ 88.66 Fees From cash machines :(
