Yesterday was the last day of our four months in South America! We just arrived in Mumbai for a month in India, then on to Nepal and southeast Asia.
Here's how we wrapped up South America:
Petropolis: yes, I made us go somewhere mostly because of the name. Petropolis is in the mountains north of Rio, and was the summer getaway of Brazil's royalty. What's that? Brazilian royalty? TIME FOR A HISTORY LESSON!
Brazil was a Portuguese colony. In 1807 Napoleon conquered Portugal, but JUST before he got to Lisbon the entire royal court (15,000 people!) loaded up for Rio, which they declared the new capital of the Portuguese empire. They governed from Rio for 13 years, until King João VI returned to liberated Portugal for political reasons, at which point his Brazilian-raised son Pedro I took the opportunity to peacefully declare Brazil's independence. The empire of Brazil lasted more than 70 years under Pedros I and II before the declaration of the Brazilian Republic.
We saw Pedro II's summer palace in Petropolis. Relatively low-key compared to equivalents in Europe, and for good reason. Pedro II was a humble and hardworking consensus-builder, and preferred to spend his free time reading and his extra money promoting the sciences. He travelled around the world incognito, and generally avoided the spotlight. He's most famous for leading the movement for Brazil's abolition of slavery, and is widely regarded as "the greatest Brazilian."
Paraty: on the coast between Rio and São Paulo. We stayed in a beach-side b&b complete with tropical plants and animals- monkeys would try to join us for breakfast.
The owners were extremely talkative and convinced us to visit nearby Trindade beach. Chilly but great scenery and hikes, including a natural swimming pool: a section of the beach enclosed by giant boulders.
On the way out of Paraty we had a bus layover in a town named Ubatuba! Such a great name.
São Paulo: all about food. São Paulo is the 6th largest metropolitan area in the world, and is a mix of international communities from waves of Japanese, Italian, and Arab immigration. We took full advantage of the famous food scene and had some of the best meals of our trip: sushi, izakaya, Korean barbeque, Brazilian steakhouse.
Also saw some excellent museums! 1) Museum of Japanese immigration on the 250,000 Japanese who moved to Brazil pre- and post-WWII. 2) Museu do Futebol, an interactive museum on the history and great figures of Brazilian soccer. Includes a powerful interpretation of their infamous 1950 World Cup final defeat to Uruguay, high-volume recordings of fan sections, and a PK simulator! Priscilla and I both scored, but only one of us kicked their shoe off in the process.
-Peter
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