The food has been great and reasonably easy to get for vegetarians which is always makes things easier. We have had to resort to the ubiquitous pizza from time to time but these seem to be good here as well. On the veggie side the salads are great as long as you specify "sem carne" or "sem piexes" as often a pizza or salad will come with ham or some other meat or fish even though it doesnt say it. Jan also goes for the accompaniments and has rice plus veggies with a "molhu pimiente" or hot sauce. Massa or the local pasta is also good and is quite easy to ask for a veggie one even if not on the menu. For me the meat away from the coast is great, huge platefuls whether steak or chicken but also in local fayre as lots of stew type foods that are really good. In the Pantanal where all the meals were provided it was often this sort of food we had, but it also included "jacare" which is caimen. Now on the coast it is more seafood as you would expect with huge dishes of prawns or as I had last night a single whole fish that was meant for 2 and was great.
A big highlight for both has been the huge breakfasts that are on offer everywhere we have stayed (and we are now in our 14th different bedroom). One or more tables are laid up with ham, cheese, breads including small round rolls usually served straight from the oven, these rolls have a lump of gooey cheese in and are delicious. Also on the tables would often be hot things like egg and sometimes a sausage dish but all places have a section reserved for cake, cakes and more cakes. These are really fantastic and I have managed to try most if not all several times (lets out another notch on the belt).
Now onto travel and we have made 4 internal flights in total and these are easy to make and a lot cheaper to get here than booking from UK we have found. Also there are many more air companies operating than we could find on the internet when searching. Other than air we have hire 2 cars, one from the city of Cuiaba to drive down through the Pantanal. The other was from Rio and is the car we have with is at the moment, both cars were the basic 1.0 but with air con etc and are 2 wheel drive not 4x4. Both were fine and in the Pantanal the small car was all that was needed. If I did the same again I certainly would go for a much more powerful car when driving around the rest of Brazil.
In the Pantanal the from Cuiaba to Pocone, some 100Kms was a tarmac road but fairly quite and flat, From Pocone the road extends another 140 Kms as a dirt track and is very flat and you only drive slowly so you can see the wildlife. The 1.0 ltr was great but from Rio all roads (ok most roads) are tarmac but with mountains and very steep hills a lot more power would have been better. You often have long lines of lorries to get by going up the hills but the driving has been ok. The main roads are busy and not in that good condition (Used to driving in Bucks so potholes are not a problem) but the odd "mine shaft" sized opening needs watching out for as well as the traffic calming measures called road humps that pop up at various places. These are not small like UK road humps but often some 300mm high or more so you need to be careful. One of the things we have not enjoyed though is getting out of towns, signs along the roads are good but the main road may go through a town rather than round it and the way out is not signposted. The sat nav does not help as it sort of sends you round and round the town with the sound going "recalculating, take next left followed by immediately left" and you find yourself in a dead end, a river or anywhere but on a road.
Occasionally the main road just stops then you have a dirt track for a while and the sat nav has no idea where you are.
Drivers are a problem especially the huge lorries as overtaking is on the road or verge (Note I didnt say what side of the road) The you get a really slow lorry going up a hill with a sort of overtaking lane or rather a slow lane for lorries. A few slow lorries take on them selves that no one will pass so they drove right down the middle or better still you have 2 lorries side by side neither giving in or able to go more than 10mph up the hill. The cars have been reliable except yesterday driving down the coast and in a long queue of traffic in a town the temperature started climbing rapidly so I stopped to check we had not lost water or something. All seemed ok but it got hotter with warning to stop immediately. We worked out that the fan on the radiator was not working so using the heater inside to blast very hot air at us we kept the engine cooler while stationary or in traffic and once out of the town and on the clearer road all was fine. Its a hire car so they can sort it later.
Fuel is cheaper than UK at about £0.95 per litre and thousands of fuel stations so no problem in finding any.
No comments:
Post a Comment