Christmas in Brazil

How'd ya like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island? How'd ya like to spend the holiday away across the sea? How'd ya like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island? How'd ya like to hang a stocking on a great big coconut tree? How'd ya like to stay up late, like the islanders do? Wait for Santa to sail in with your presents in a canoe. If you ever spend Christmas on Christmas Island You will never stray for everyday Your Christmas dreams come true.

For those of you who don't know or remember this song by The Andrews Sisters from the 1940s, I found a youtube version (see below) complete with island pictures:) The song kept going through my head as I was traveling on Ilha Grande island at this time of year;)



But even before Christmastime, starting in late November, decorations started going up in the shopping centers around Sao Paulo and then on Paulista Ave too, the main street here in Sao Paulo, kind of like 5th Ave in New York. The weekend before Christmas things were really busy on the Ave in the evening, as people came in hords to see the Christmas lights and hear the chorus’ singing. On Sunday night, I happened to be coming back from the airport and the traffic was a complete stand-still. So, although I had some luggage, I decided it was probably worth it to get out and walk the entire length of Paulista back home. Maybe an hour walk if you don’t have anything weighing you down. I was glad I did, though, because I got to see all the lights along the entire Ave, that I may not have seen otherwise. The funniest part was just watching the Brazilian families enjoying the atmosphere and eating the local favorite…you guessed it – CORN! Seriously, not roasted chestnuts or eggnog or anything we associate with Christmas, just bowls of corn and fruit juice or beer:) It just didn’t quite feel like Christmas after I saw that:) But I did get some good pictures of all the lights (see a few below).



A couple of days later, on the 22nd, I headed to Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, by bus.


It was a lovely ride once we got off the freeway and just followed the coast, through beautiful Ubatuba (which is often called: Uba “chuva”, because it rains all the time!:)) and into Rio de Janeiro state. This particular day was incredibly sunny, and luckily the whole three daysI was in Paraty it really only sprinkled at most. The weather was great. Paraty is a UNESCO world heritage site a few hours from Rio. It´s on the water and with over 60 islands and 300 beaches! So needless to say there are lots of boat excursions that take you to nearby islands where you can snorkel and 30 minutes or so before getting back on the boat to tan your way on sofa-type areas with pillows on top of the boat to the next place! I did one of these excursions the day after I arrived and it was great. We stopped at several beaches and swam and snorkeled and then half-way through the excursion they served us a typical Brazilian lucnh of fish, rice, beans and capirinha;) Muito bom! What a hard life, huh?



I also stayed in an adorable pousada (bed and breakast/pension) that looked like an 18th century home and had huge shutters on my bedroom window that opened onto a small balcony overlooking cobblestone streets and nearby restaurants that constantly had live Bossa nova music. On Christmas day, opening the floor length shutters, I felt like Scrooge ready to shout, is it Christmas Day yet? Have I missed it???:)

View from my pousada window

My pousada

Paraty cobblestone streets & Portuguese architecture

On Christmas Eve, I took a bus about 40 minutes away to another area of beaches and a natural swimming pool that I hiked about 30 minutes to get to. After some more capirinhas on the beach, I was ready to go back to Paraty where I thought there would be a big midnight mass celebration or something similar since it´s a colonial town in a Catholic country. However, they just had a mass at 8:30pm. Luckily I was there a bit at that time because I found it too funny. The church was full but people were sitting outside watching the festivities as well through the open church doors. And in true Brazilian fashion, next to the church was a roll away bar (like a kiosk) selling liquor and capirinhas and one next to that selling popcorn:) It was like we were all about to watch a huge spectacle; I had to laugh. Then halfway through the service, people started shooting off firecrackers next to the church and ringing the church bells. I couldn´t tell if it was part of the service or just for fun, but pure festa at any rate:)



The first two evenings I was there were great, lots of Christmas lights, people walking around and shops open. But it was a little sad walking around Paraty in the evening on Christmas eve because it was really just families celebrating together in restaurants that didn´t have space for only one person. They had special Christmas meal menus that were very festive, but really expensive, so I had to eat something simple by myself yesterday as I meandered around. Paraty has old cobblestone streets so you can just wander through and get lost as you go. I came across art galleries and little shops all the time on one street or another. As I wandered down one quiet street yesterday I suddenly saw a huge table set up in the middle of the cobblestone street with about 20 French people eating buche de noel and drinking wine in front of their creperie and toasting Natal (Christmas). It was so charming, I almost wanted to ask if I could sit down and join them:) There were tons of French people in Paraty and I guess many of them have probably opened restaurants since the town has become famous for its wonderful gastronomy. This family, however, were almost the only people on an otherwise deserted street and they were laughing and having a great Christmas meal in the middle of the street, complete with wine and candlelight. As I saw them eating together, though, I really regretted not having chosen to spend Christmas with friends here. Lots of wonderful friends had invited me to spend the holidays with them in Brazil yet despite their insisting otherwise, I thought I would just be intruding on their family holidays, and that maybe it was better to try to forget Christmas this year and just travel by myself. However, walking around on Christmas Eve I thought that my original feeling was a huge mistake. How did I think I was going to be able to forget Christmas? Even in a tropical country:) It´s so nice to be with friends and/or family at the holidays no matter where you are, and I wish I had taken them up on their kind offers when I had the chance.

So, Christmas Eve was a bit sad, but things started to look better the next day, the 25th. I woke up early and took a 2 hour bus ride to Angra dos Reis where I then took a ferry to Ilha Grande - complete paradise! It used to be a leper colony, then prison and military base, but the prison closed for good 15 years ago and since then tourism has expanded 10-fold. Beautiful green turquoise waters surrounded by green forest and scattered beaches.

Abraao - the main town on the island

Arrival in Abraao - view from my pousada

I wish I had arrived at Ilha Grande even earlier because I met so many people from various countries in just the first afternoon I arrived. When I had bought my ticket for the ferry in Angra the ticket salesman looked at me like I was a bit crazy and said, “You’re going to Ilha Grande on Christmas by yourself!?” And I thought, yikes, is this such a bad idea? But it turned out to be just fine. On Christmas I was signing up for a boat excursion for the following day when I ran into an English couple from Chester. They didn’t speak any Portuguese, so I ended up translating for them and we all decided to take the same excursion the following day. I was going to go to the beach and just explore the town of Abraao by myself, but they were going to hike to a waterfall and in typical English fashion, they said, “Come with us, it’s Christmas; you don’t want to spend the day by yourself” So, I went with them and we had a really nice time. We spent the day hiking to the waterfall (Cachoeira de Feiticeira), which was much higher and steeper than I imagined!!! I thought I was going to die, but, still good exercise:) Then we took the path down to the beach and thank God, there were people there willing to take us back by boat so we didn’t have to do that hike again!! What really cracked me up was how fast Brazilians could hike up and down these hills either in flip flops or barefoot! It was the same in Paraty when I went to the beach at Trindade. I was in my tennis shoes and still having a hard time and yet Brazilians would race by me barefoot with no problem. Am I just too Nordic, or what’s the problem?:)

Hike to the Cachoeira Feiticeira

Anyway, the boat trip back turned out to be better than we expected because instead of going directly back to the main town, the taxi boat driver asked if we wouldn’t mind going with him first to pick up another couple in Saco de Ceu, a famous part of the island. That sounded great, since we got to see another 4 beaches before going back to Abraao. The couple he picked up turned out to be really fun too, a Brazilian from Manaus married to an American from Dallas. They had been traveling all over and were just spending the day at one of the best restaurants on the island having Christmas lunch and drinking capirinhas by the pool. Sounded great! Guess it will have to be for the next trip:) Here are a few pictures of the beautiful area we swam in, though.

Praia da Feiticeira

Praia do Amor e Saco de Ceu

I did end up having Christmas dinner with the English couple, though, Lisa and Joe, which was great. We were going to eat at one of the places on the beach in the main part of town but they remembered an Italian place that was really quaint and on another beach, so we went there. We needed a flashlight as we walked through part of the forest through two beaches before we came upon the area they were thinking of. It was hard to imagine that there would be anything back there, let alone a restaurant, but sure enough suddenly we saw some lights and a charming little restaurant and hotel (pousada) overlooking the beach. Since it was Christmas they had a special fixed menu that was more expensive and not necessarily Italian but it was still excellent. I had Ravioli stuffed with pumpkin for starters and then risotto and shrimp for the main course and for desert tropical fruit salad – delicious! Plus we had fruit juice and champagne; a truly excellent Christmas meal. It was lovely, as Lisa and Joe said about everything:)



The following day, we did a boat trip around the entire island on a speedboat, which was superb. Just one beautiful isolated beach with turquoise water after another. Spectacular! We went snorkeling and lounged in the water all day. I got incredibly sunburned!!! But it was worth it. Definitely recommend this tour for others as well. It was R$150, but we were gone for 9 hours and saw practically the entire island. Loved it! Here are just a few of the photos.

Brazilians from Campinas that I met on the boat



On Sunday I went on another excursion, this time just the Southern part of the island (Super Sul) in order to visit the beach where the prison had been. The other excursions don’t actually stop there and give you time to visit and walk around. I think they should really allow you about 4 hours here because the beach itself is one of the most beautiful on the island too, and it takes a while to get from the boat onto the beach. You have to take a little raft boat in or swim. So, we were there around 1 hour and 20 minutes maybe, but definitely needed more time. Still, it was great to be able to see that; the energy there is very creepy, thinking about all the political prisons and hard criminals who had been kept there during the 100 years it was in existence. On the rest of the trip, we got to visit Lopes Mendes beach, one of the most famous in Brazil and even swim with the dolphins near Ilha Jorge de Grego – absolutely beautiful once again!

Instead of a speedboat, we were on a pirate style one:)



Dolphins (golfinos in Portuguese) at Ilha Jorge de Grego


On our way back to Abraao it started to rain, but it was good timing for us since we had already finished our excursion. Yet it rained buckets all night long! In the evening, Lisa and Joe’s pousada owner was having a birthday party with a Reggee band. The singer is quite well known in the area and is from Ilha Grande, so it was fun. We met some other Americans from Michigan and several Brazilians from Rio as well. Having birthday cake and capirinhas on the covered deck with live music definitely allowed you to forget about the rain.



Monday, however, my last day on the island, I thought it would rain the whole time because the day before had been so disastrous. Yet I awoke to beautiful sunny skies and so I did some souvenir shopping and then went to visit the ruins of the leper colony and the local beach near Abraao, Praia Preta. Because it was so sunny, I thought maybe I could hire a local boat to take us back to Lopes Mendes, the deserted gorgeous beach on the island. It was still sunny when we left, Lisa, Joe and I, but once we got there the clouds started to come in. The thing about this beach is that the boats take you to Santo Antonio beach and then you hike 20 minutes up and over a hill to arrive at Lopes Mendes.

The hike isn’t hard, no problem going in flip flops, as long as it isn’t raining! Well, we got to the beach and then were tons of people there because boat excursions leave from Abraao every hour in the morning to take groups for the day. But after only about 20 minutes or so it started to rain – hard! And we were thinking of that path back to the beach, which was already somewhat muddy due to the rain from the previous day. We had no choice but to head back as it was only going to get worse. Well, this was an adventure in itself. Imagine a bee-line of people in just beach clothes and no good shoes trying to hike in pouring rain over a slippery rocky path with mud and rain sliding down. Thank God I had brought my tennis shoes again:) But most people were trying to go barefoot and it was so slippery, I saw person after person wipe out. I didn’t fall, but one guy behind me fell and slid right into me. It was a disastrous walk back and a real bummer because I was looking forward to spending more time on this beach. But c’est la vie.

We had to wait for out private boat to come and get us, except that he had another commitment to pick up a couple at a different part of the island, so we hitched a ride back with another local boat. All of us freezing on this little fisher boat ducking the rain and incoming waves, I was just so glad to make it back to land!!:) I had just enough time to get changed and pack up my things to leave on the last ferry back to Angra dos Reis and catch the overnight bus to Sao Paulo (7 hours). It was a long journey back, but well worth it: beautiful trip!!

Tchau e ate logo!