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Tuesday 27 December 2011

MORRO DE SÃO PAULO

After a hard year work work work, we decided to head north for a week. Ilha de Tinharé is a just off Salvador, Bahia, and the bustling port town of Morro de Sao Paulo is the place to do very little.

We flew straight to the Pousada Vila dos Corais from Salvador airport. This was an unexpected luxury,  but what a treat! - Always wanted to know what it felt like to be one of those swanky types stepping of the tiny executive flight. Now I know. It's pretty cool. The flight home was a different story - put it this way, zero visibility can surely only be fun in limited situations - and in my humble opinion, those planes (or any other vehicles for that matter)  - thoroughly deserve the luxury of being able to see.

Morro de Sao Paulo International Airport
Anyhow - the rest of the week was pretty straightforward - lovely food (all the dende scented delights you could hope for - best go easy on that stuff if you don't eat it that often!) - and stunning shallow beaches for toddlers to fill their buckets with little fish and crabs, rather than the more familiar species of empty beer can and crisp packet found on Copacabana!

(don't get me wrong - I love Copacabana, but the way some people just throw all their crap on the sand is starting to get to me. My latest in a long line of reasons for learning Portuguese more quickly is so that I can be brave enough to pick up someone's crap and give it back to them-- 'Oi, you slovenly bastard, I think you forgot something! - How about putting it in a bin so my kid doesn't keep pulling your cigarette butts out of his sandcastles? Have a nice day.')

Anyway, the Beach in Morro was stunning - our little guy complained at one point that the sea was too hot! - Poor little mite - I guess Brighton must be becoming a distant memory....

Anyhow as our delightful week of doing very little, the Christmas and New Year punters were arriving in force, and it looked like DJ Jane on the top of the hill was going to be in for several long nights. What a beautiful place to make your resolutions though - I only hope that the fire-wielding hippy chick we saw in the square manages to set fire her Catherine wheel-come-Hula Hoop in time. (on the night we were there, the breeze was posing a threat to her eyebrows and her sanity).

Friday 23 December 2011

Those Magnificent Toddlers.....



Well, the end of term is well and truly upon us and already there is so much to tell. - The last event before we headed of into the Bahian sun was the show. Here goes, I'll try and keep this brief.

Our two year old gets stuck into his daily grind like all other two year olds. And when faced with the opportunity of becoming Mr and Mrs Worthington, we naturally could not resist.

So we paid R$140 for the costume and R$30 each for the tickets, dressed him up like he's never been dressed up before and headed on down to the 500 seat theater to bill and coo with all of the other assembled multitude.

The theme? Our little bloke and all of his mates were all Santos Dumont. Their year (pretty much half their lives) together had come to this. All of the trials and tribulations of parties and biting and nits and the shits culminated in a fine display of biggles-like prowess as the animateurs we have come to know over the year pranced about the stage with 10 times more aplomb than their toddling charges!

How did he do? - Well, if you were two and someone dressed you up as the father of Brasilian aviation and then blasted music at you as the curtains opened to a gathered herd of paperazzi, I reckon you might do a pretty good impression of a rabbit in some particularly large headlights.

That's precisely wat he did. Awwwww.

(photo to follow - watch this space!)

If you don't take this off soon, I'm going to go mental....

Friday 2 December 2011

I like to ride my bright orange bicycle.....

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For a good number of weeks now, there have been a growing number of bright orange bike stations appear around the town. I heard a rumour, that they'd tried it before and they all got nicked. Well, they're definitely trying it again.


A Rio Cyle track - right in the middle of the bloody road. Nice.




Much like the Boris (and Barclays) Bikes of London - I like that the bank that did so little for the man on London's streets is now charging hime for a two-wheeled tour - Itau is now sponsoring a fleet of bright orange, six-speed beauties for the man (or woman) on Rio's streets to go out and get mangled in the traffic.

Its astonishingly good value at R$10 per month if you prepay by card. Just rock up at the station and call the number from your mobile. Type in the bike's number and it will be magically unlocked from afar. Now dive into the traffic and have an hour's dicing with death.

When you're done, just return the bike to any of the stations dotted around town. (you have to pay an extra R$5 if you go over an hour)

Simple eh? Its gonna be the Amsterdam of Latin America. Maybe.

Back in Brighton, there's an anual naked bike ride - maybe that might manage to make the traffic at least slow down a bit - what do you think?

Try one of these....

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