Brazil Vacation in 2013 (Feb 4 - Feb 15)

A group of 108 JCCAA members went to Brazil for visit Iguazu Falls, Carnival 2013, and cruise on Iberostar Nergo River.  We were divided into two groups with different itineraries to visit the same tourist attractions.  We took immunization shots and medicines to prepare for the trip.  With International/domestic flights later, we finally arrived in Brazil on Feb 5. Prior to the trip, there were a lot of warning regarding safety and diseases.  However, we had a very smooth and incident-free trip.  For one thing, the river we cruised on was Nergo River and not the Amazon River.  Nergo River is a large branch of Amazon River; however, it has a totally different biological environment than the Amazon River.  The Iberostar cruise ship has a fixed schedule cruising on Nergo River during weekdays and cruising on Amazon River during weekend.  We did not learn this fact until the morning we embarked Iberostar by the local tour guide from Manaus. 

However, the whole trip was interesting and we saw lots of new things that we will not be able to witness if we did not travel all the way to Brazil.  It was an eventful and exciting trip. 

Highlights of the trip are:



 

Feb 5 - Sao Paulo City Tour

After overnight flight from Miami we finally arrived San Paulo (São Paulo), the tour company arranged breakfast at hotel for us. It was a buffet style breakfast with various food and fruits, particularly the papaya was the hit.

First attraction was the Oscar Niemeyer‘s building design exhibition. It is a group of buildings designed by him.  We also visited the South America Culture exhibitions in one of the buildings. 

Then we drove thru av Pauliao (financial street) and had lunch at Esfiha Chic with Brazilian buffer including a lot of South American steaks. 

We visited Museu Paulista in the afternoon. The exhibition in the museum is limited, however, they have a wonderful garden in front of it for wonderful Kodak moments. Leisurely walking and photographing thru the garden, we saw the Richo do Ipiranga Monumento and we took our 1^st group picture in front of the monument.
 

 

We end up at Ibirapuera Park for further leisure walks. In the Ibirapuera Park, there is a beautiful water fountain just like the one in front of Bellagio (except without music). 

 

We had dinner at Rafain Café which has Brazilian BBQ along with a varity of ice cream which was a hit. We stayed at Slaviero Suites for the night.  

Our group's (Group A) itinerary also calls for Bandeirantes Palace (Government Palace) and Municipal, however, we just drove by and viewed them from the bus due to security and safe issues in the area.

Feb 6 - Bird Park and Parque Nacional Iguazu

We started our tour at Parquet das Aves which is a bird park. There are many types of birds for us to observe closely. You can even pat some of them. It is a conservation project that rescues amazing rainforest birds. 

Parque Nacional Iguazu (Iguazu National Park) was the next stop for us. Since we needed to cross the border to Argentina side, it took us quite a long time to get thru the Argentina Boarder Office. For saving time, we had the lunch box on the bus while we waited for the Boarder Office to process the visa which cost $170 per person. Once we got to National do Iguacu, it amazed us by how close we could get to see the falls. As a matter of fact, we had difficult time taking photo on this world wonder spot due to water splashing onto all of us including the camera lenses. Facing the danger of damaging our camera, we still could not stop taking more photos. It is truly a world wonder scene. 

We had dinner at South’s Place Churrascaria.

Feb 7 - Parquet National do Lguacu, and Heading to Rio de Janeiro

We visited Parquet National do Iguacu which is the national park at Iguacu on the Brazil side. From there we had paramedic view of the whole Iguacu falls. It gave us a grand view of the whole falls which consists of uncountable numbers of different falls. Some of them are even double layers. The view is just breathtaking. 

 

We had lunch at a restaurant inside the park.  After lunch, we were ready to fly to Rio de Janeiro. Once we got to Rio de Janeiro, we learned that we had a local Brazilian tour guide who claimed she can speak English. However, her English and knowledge of the city are very limited, and laughing loudly is the only thing she is good at. 

The bus took us all the way across the town to Real Astoria for sea food dinner.  It turned out that it was the worst dinner we had for the whole trip. It was half plate of pasta with few salmon crunches. Complains were flying across all tables.  

We lodged at Windsor Guanabara.

Feb 8 - Metropolitan Cathedral, Escadaria Selaron, Christ the Redeemer, and Carnival Street Party

We were on the bus to view the half completed World Cup Stadium Maracana which was undergoing renovations for the World Cup 2014.

 

After that we visited the Metropolitan Cathedral, an unique cone-shaped church with modern architecture. The Metropolitan Cathedral is old but impressive. 

 

 

 



After Metropolitan Cathedral, we went to visit the famous Escadaria Selaron which is a set of world-famous steps in Rio de janeiro.  They are the work of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selaron who claimed it as "my tribute to the Brazilian people".  There are 250 steps measuring 125 meters long which are convered in over 2000 tiles collected from over 60 countries around the workld.  it is colorful and good spot for Kodak moments.

 

The tour company arranged lunch for us at Restaurante a Miners which had great ox tail dish along with many different types of free liquors. 

The tour attraction for the afternoon is the famous Cristo Redentor or “Christ the Redeemer”, the 5th largest statue of Jesus in the world. It is 30.1 meters (99 ft) tall, not including its 6 meters (20 ft) pedestal, and 19 meters (62 ft) wide. It weighs 635 tons (625 long, 700 short tons), and is located at the peak of the 700-metre (2,300 ft) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city. A symbol of Brazilian Christianity, the statue has become an icon for Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. You have take the train (Tram do Corcovado) operated by Corcovado Rack Railway at a particular schedule with pre-purchased ticket. Then you will take either 223 steps or elevator to the observation deck at the foot of the statue. The status is huge and is worth the effort to get up all the way to the top of the mountain to see this wonderful man made wonder. You also have a wonderful full city view of Rio de Janeiro. 

 

 





Then we stayed at Copacabana Beach for leisure walk along the beach. Some of us did take the opportunity to do some shopping.

 

 

 

We had dinner at 中國飯店 which is a Chinese restaurant with dishes already prepared and sit on the table for who knows how long. 

Our agenda for this evening was walking to the famous street party Carnaval de Rua, Rio 2013 near our hotel. Our local tour guide warmed that it is not a safe thing to do; therefore majority of people from our bus did not participate. Several braved ones did go out to the street party. The only thing we saw was people crowded in several blocks of the street following the music played from the paraded trucks. People are moving shoulder to shoulder, and it does not give you the sense of safety. We did walk along for about one hour and decided to turn around to go back to the hotel. Well, at least we experienced the street party.