Rolling Stones

ich bin die kleine Katze...

Ilha Grande II - gatos... (cats)

We stayed in a little hotel called Pousada da Cachoeira (HIGHLY recommended), owned by a Klaus, who came to Brasil to marry Teresa and set up his beautiful Pousada. Being German he is very friendly to animals, so he is feeding more than 10 cats in his big garden.
His newest aquisition were these two little cats. Both had been abandoned in front of his door. The grey one already old enough, but totally shy, the little one really naughty but only three weeks old. Too young to even eat by herself.

So during our stay I felt responsible for her and took care of her meals and of her of course.
But I had to leave her behind. My little apartement in Sao Paulo is definetely not the place for a cat to live. Even less if you consider that she is used to a biiiiig garden and lot of other cats around.

Ilha Grande I - nature and us

I decided to spend my birthday on Ilha Grande, an island in front of the Rio de Janeiro state with only a little village (almost entirely made up of little hotels) . Cars are forbidden on the island, so there are no streets, just trilhas. With lots of animals included. The sign on the first photo is warning about jacares (crocodiles), but we didn't see any of them.
And this 'bicho' did somehow scare us, until we realized it was already dead. In fact I am not thaaaaat keen about insects. Even less about big ones.
We walked sooooo much, but we also saw really great things. For example some impressive beaches with cristall clear water and powder white sand.

And this natural swimming pool, part of a river.

And some little water falls now and then.
Great!

Little little train in Rio

Rio has this charming neighborhood Sta. Teresa, which you can visit with this charming little "bondinho". A relatively safe way to get through the favelas (chanty towns) around Sta. Teresa and you definetly get one of the best panoramic views of the north of Rio. And a cheap one as well, because the 40 min trip costs only 60 centavos (25 Euro-cents), which is nothing compared with the 35 Reais (14 Euro) they charge for going up to the Christ Statue on the Corcovado mountain.

Ensaios Tecnicos - even carnaval needs some practice

You've probably heard about carneval, haven't you. Well, here in Rio they have this HUUUUUGE desfile de samba, where the samba schools can present themselves before some judges to get rated in 10 categories (like best theme song, best costume, best dance performance, etc.). Well, but somehow they have to practice their skills in the actual sambádromo, isn't it. SO... there are the ensaios técnicos. In the Sambadrómo. With the actual theme song. But without costumes and with only one carro alegórico (the trucks which are responsible for the music). The other carros alegóricos are replaced by busses, so spies from the other schools can't figure out very much about the actual performance. Unfortunately we couldn't either.

But it was still worth it. Every Samba Schools gets 80 minutes to perform. Here you see the school BEIJA-FlOR DE NILOPOLIS. The've won the contest already three times, so expectations are quite high. We'll see if we get to see the REAL parade of this school in carnaval.

I am back in civilization

For all of you who tried to call, skype, msn, sms etc. me yesterday: Thank you for remembering my birthday. I spent the weekend and the day itself on an island "Ilha Grande" without even my cell phone available. But by now I am back in Rio and happy to see if I manage to answer all of you personally ;-)
Beijao.
PD: I'll add some fotos tomorrow.