Tag Archives: Baby

Barra da Lagoa and our plans for the next few weeks

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As well as numbers I also love a good plan and this trip gives us plenty of opportunities to scour maps, AirBnB and flight / bus schedules in order to arrange the next phases of our trip.

With 2 weeks in Rio behind us (see Claire’s blog here) we want to lay out what we have planned over the next few weeks as well as quickly comment on the week just gone.

26th August – 2nd September: Barra da Lagoa

This week we have been in the fishing village of Barra da Lagoa (not quite as small as it sounds with the plethora of hostels, surf schools and restaurants around but that said it is still very quiet and relaxed) near Florianopolis. This is a tranquil, serene and beautiful place that sits at the southerly point of a seemingly endless beach on the east side of Isla Santa Catarina. Our days here are simple – playing on the beach with Amber, drinking Brahma beer, keeping our costs down and trying (sometimes succeeding) to make meals that Amber will eat (more on this to come but it’s been emotional to say the least).

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Barra da Lagoa

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8 things to do in Rio with a baby

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We knew before arriving in Rio that visiting with Amber in tow would be very different from the trip we would have had before becoming parents. For this visit at least, the city’s infamous nightlife would remain out of our reach.

But caiprinha fuelled samba parties are not all there is going on, and after two weeks in the ‘Cidade Maravilhosa’ we feel that we got a great taste of what it is about. Stunning, massive and fascinating, it had more than enough to occupy us, and despite thinking we were taking it relatively easy, we covered a lot of ground.

Rio is far more accessible than you would think given its reputation. Where we were staying in Barra Copacabana was safe and secure, and easy to get around by foot. The metro system is handy and linked us to various points of interest. Taxis are in abundance, and with Ubers as cheap as they are it often cost less to travel by taxi than by metro.
Here is a list of the things we did that we particularly enjoyed, and that we found to be either baby friendly, or at the very least baby accessible.

1. Parque Lage. The place we loved the most during our whole stay and the scene of Amber’s first official hike. Once the residence of a rich industrialist and now a public park, it has an abundance of fish ponds, woodland paths and, most enjoyably, grottos and caves to explore. As enthusiastic but novice spelunkers, we could barely contain ourselves.

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Spelunking for beginners

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Inside Santa Marta Favela

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Favelas (slums in Brazilian urban areas) are synonymous with Rio. And despite at least one favela being visible from most points in the city a tourist has no real need to visit or even go through one such as they are positioned high up on the hills overlooking the offices, homes and beaches below.

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View of Santa Marta favela from its base

That said and in a similar way to the slums of Mumbai some favelas are now open to tours to give outsiders the opportunity to witness first hand what life is like for the residents who live there. With our knowledge of favelas limited to watching City of God (also set in Rio) this was an opportunity we wanted to take and would further round our experience of this city as our time here drew to a close.

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Our first week in numbers

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I love numbers. And so what better way to mark our first week than a run down of some of the key facts and figures from our time in Rio so far. So in no particular order:

Twenty
The number of minutes spent at Christ the Redeemer where cloud cover meant we only saw a fraction of the famous views. Also the number of times we got annoyed by tourists pushing and shoving to get their perfect photo. Not that we’re bitter.

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Christ not doing much to redeem the view. Out of shot are a million tourists lying on the ground taking photos.

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Rio 2016

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The main reason we started this trip in Rio was because of the Olympics. Such a massive and daunting city, without any knowledge of Portuguese, would have otherwise probably not been the best starting point. But we committed to the Games and bought tickets to a morning athletics session before we even booked our flights.

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First impressions

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With 48 hours in Rio now behind us here’s some of our first impressions:

1. Natural beauty. To state the obvious the geographical setting of this city is absolutely majestic. Mountains, lagoons and beaches merge seamlessly with the city which wraps itself around its landscape in a natural, unimposing way.

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The journey

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It’s safe to say that we thought taking a 16 month old on a 3 hour car journey and 2 flights including one of 11 hours all on the same day was asking for trouble. However yet again Amber proved that she typically handles things far better than her parents do (see vaccinations, sleep and hot weather for further examples).

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One day to go

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I am currently surrounded by endless piles of stuff, trying to figure out what makes the final cut. It’s the day before we leave for Rio and I need to decide for once and for all what we are taking with us. Packed already are toys, books, endless sachets of calpol and two Bunnies (life wouldn’t be worth living if we lost Amber’s go-to cuddly). Still to be decided are clothes – how many t-shirts do you need for a year??

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