Brazil - part 2

Currently we are in Buenos Aires, where we are spending a week before heading down to Patagonia. Here is a quick photo review of the second part of our Brazil trip. We headed south from Rio de Janeiro down the Costa Verde.

There is some beautiful scenery during the short bus ride to where the ferry leaves to Ilha Grande. Lots of little islands...... and yes everything is green!!!


The views during the ferry trip don´t get old.


Almost there in Abraao (the only real town on Ilha Grande)


Nice lighting on the first evening


It´s quite a popular destination and even a large cruise ship anchored in the bay


First day we went for a snorkel trip to the Blue Lagoon and the water was really quite nice and blue. We saw tons of fish, a long eel and even a few turtles.
That´s our boat for the day.




We made also some more stops along nice beaches.


The next day we did about a 3 hour hike to the Lopes Mendes beach on the south side of the island. Here is a nice view back onto the bay of Abraao.


Some more beaches along the way.




Finally we arrived at the Lopes Mendes Beach.



After 4 days on Ilha Grande we headed further down the coast to Paraty. This is a nice colonial town. It´s a bit on the touristy side but really nice with the cobblestoned streets and there are no cars in the old centre.






There is a fort on the hillside that protected the harbor in the old days.


Oliver getting a bit silly and is trying to climb. For once it´s not Jaya that is climbing the trees!


From Paraty we took the night bus to Sao Paolo and from there we flew to the Iguazu Falls at the border to Argentina.


The coati were all over the place on the Argentinian side.




We stayed on the Argentinian side and one day we walked to the 3 border point where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet.


On the Argentinian side you experience the falls from very close up and it´s very impressive. On the Brazilian side (as seen below) you get the nice overview. Here 2 tourists are posing for one of those touristy shots.




The falls are very impressive. The only downside to this is that lots of other people know about it also and the place gets very crowded. Especially all the oganized tous are quite annoying. In case you get caught in the middle of one of those groups you just feel like a herd of sheep. You get pushed along between the fences as seen here.


But besides the crowds it´s really beautiful and from the Brazilian side you see lots of rainbows when you visit the falls in the morning.


The last day we went to see the Itaipu Dam. It´s currently the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. In 1994, the American Society of Civil Engineers elected the Itaipu Dam as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Soon it will be overtaken by the (controversial) Three Gorges Dam in China.


When you read this we are probably already in Patagonia (El Calafate).
Our route looks more or less like this.

You can find our route and pretty good maps on http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=-18.39623~-61.523438&style=r&lvl=3&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&cid=2CF1823075161E3B!106&encType=1

or on the simple Google map below (Argentina is quite blank).
(marked in blue is what is covered so far in the blog)