Mexico & Brazil

After New Orleans we went into Mexico for eight days, which most of the time we spent in Mexico City. We would have to have traveled to the Mexico Caribbean too but time was not on our side. Mexico was the only place I was disappointed in, in the city and the food. The City place was full of Churches, and even though all the churches had been forced to leave the country during the 1800’s you still do not see any closed there. Some of the churches were quite fantastic, although with all the churches, temples and other religious activities I have seen on my travels so few – plus being totally uninterested in religion anyway – I am getting tired of looking at them! But we also managed to do a couple of day trips to nearly towns which was so interesting to see the countryside and also visit the Temple of the Sun and Moon from the Aztec Empire – quite an amazing structure, it always gives me strange feelings when I stand in a doorway at a house platform, knowing that they would at been standing in the same parts hundreds year ago – dressed and living a totally different culture, but still seeing what I was seeing. Also if I was alive then, I wouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near their compound, but would have lived with the peasants! As I said we didn’t enjoyed the food here, finding it more family style cooking, very basic and tasteless, not at all like the Mexican food we are used to in our country’s Mexican Restaurants. Our room here was in a Hotel right on the main Cathedral Square (the Sheraton here was too expensive), and every morning at 6 a.m. soldiers marched out playing their trumpets and drums to raise the flag and every night at 6 p.m. repeated the procedure in lowering it. We were here for 10 days, took some nice photos and then left for Rio de Janeiro.

Just a few photos from around Rio de Janeiro

In Brazil we did stay in the Sheraton Hotel again where the Chef and RM. there were very pleasant and helpful. As in Mexico communication was a problem and all our efforts to get up to the Amazon failed, apart from the fact that the art price was over 1700 US$. Before traveling to Brazil, buy a Brazil pass outside the country as its much cheaper. In the end we spent a week up in northern Brazil, in two towns called Maceo and Salvador. Both had nice towns and beaches, where our food was much improved and both were towns that had been fought over by French, Spanish and Portuguese over the centuries. One thing about Brazil is its crime. Everywhere you go you do not feel safe – and at night you are ultra careful. In Rio there are parts of the city you just don’t go even in daylight – although Taiwan was similar to that as well. In Salvador Margareth had her bag cut while we were packed in an elevator, but luckily nothing was taken as she is pretty careful how she carries her bag! The crime rate is affecting the tourists as they are going elsewhere. Two people we met had their room emptied, another couple robbed on the beach while they were sun bathing – many stories. It was good to go and see Brazil, but we didn’t find it all that enjoyable, apart from the time on the beaches and it was not as cheap as we expected. Saw the typical tourist sites though, like Sugar Loaf Mountain, the Statue of Christ on the hill, and of course Copacabana. Also went up into the hills to see Petropolis, where the royals had their Summer Palace. The beaches were nearly empty as it was winter, but I did go in few times and taken a swim in Rio, finding the water very cold. Copacabana beach is wide, white and easy to imagine being in summer full of people. They really look after their bodies and love to preen themselves in the beach. There is also a good bit of history all over Brazil, with parks jutting out in strategic places, and many churches once again. We had hope to have seen more, but what we did see whetted appetites to come back and see the Amazon, the Andes, and to visit more of the interior of this continent. I also found the Samba shown to be much more colourful, and with more action than the shows I was to see later in Paris, and then there is a local style of dancing, a combination of African and Brazilian, which is also very interesting to see.