September 20th to September 26th
Nearly missed bus ride
In the previous post I forgot to tell you that we almost missed the bus!
We went to the bus station in Florianopolis at 6:40ish, and were told by a lady to go wait in the vip lounge for the Catarenense bus. It was getting later and later. After a while it seemed the bus would be late, Mom could not go check because of her foot so after a while mom made dad check if we were sure it was Catarenense. Uh oh, dad came back running. It wasn’t! Our bus was Santojo and it was already waiting for us!! We quickly gave in our bags and jumped in our seats.
Phew that was close😰!!
This bus was a bit different than the Catarenense. We did not have the leg rest and it had curtains between the passengers.
Not so happy
When we arrived in the city Porto Alegre (happy port) we saw it looked so run down.
When we got off at the bus station we saw the ticket booths and shops were all empty and destroyed, with a lot of funky people and homeless hanging around.
This surprised us because we read that it was one of the richest cities in Brazil!
“The affluent Brazilian city of Porto Alegre is known for its charming mix of cultures and modern infrastructure. Straddling the banks of Lagoa dos Patos, the largest lagoon in Brazil, Porto Alegre is one of the country’s major transportation hubs. Its port is among the biggest in the nation. Strong academic facilities, forward-thinking leaders and a stable economic climate have helped shape its reputation as a center for the arts, culture and global business.”
Spacious apartment
We got an Uber to our apartment. After checking in we went up and saw our apartment. It was beautiful, almost as big as a smallish house. The kitchen was well equipped and dad enjoyed using all of it. Even the air fryer. The apartment also had beautiful stained glass doors for the kitchen and my parents bedroom. And the best part was that I had my own room! With a proper bed, finally!!! 🛌💤😴
Hop skip jump
During the week we walked around a lot in short stretches as mom was limping and hopping and very tired after every walk.
We sent out dad to explore first and direct us to the “must sees”. He also had to find mom some twine so that she could make me mittens while she was crocheting away her sore foot frustration.
Gradually we found out that where we were staying had a lot of old style buildings hidden amongst the skyscrapers, churches and statues, making it a truly beautiful city.
Here are some of the things we saw:
Rua dos Andradas
This was our favorite road not too far from our apartment building.
The main area of the historic center of Porto Alegre is a street full of life. You have all kinds of services, from cafes to restaurants, second-hand bookstores, supermarkets…
In that one street there was also a Beco do Libros, a book shop that was an alleyway full of books. We were constantly tempted to buy something but couldn’t because it’s impractical to travel with books 😩.
In the middle of Rua dos Andradas is the Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana (a giant pink building). The cultural center is located in the former Majestic hotel. It has several exhibition halls, a theater, a cinema and a rooftop restaurant. It had really nice architecture (2 big buildings connected by a bridge and a lot of little details) but they sure picked the wrong colour 🤮.
Flooding
The park close to us had an exposition on the 2024 Rio Grande do Sul floods.
Those were severe floods caused by heavy rains and storms that hit the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, and the Uruguayan cities of Treinta y Tres, Paysandú, Cerro Largo, and Salto. From 29 April through to May, it resulted in 181 fatalities, widespread landslides, and a dam collapse. It is considered the country’s worst flooding in over 80 years.
In Porto Alegre, the Guaíba Lake rose up to 5.31 m (breaking the previous record 4.76 m of the 1941 floods). Most areas of the city were flooded. More than 60 streets became completely inaccessible. Rescue workers (army, police, civilians) used four-wheel-drive vehicles, boats, and jet skis in order to maneuver through flooded streets in search of stranded and missing people. Many people set up rescue efforts for pets.
It was sad to see those pictures, but then we understood why some parts of Porto Alegre look unhappy.
Public Market
We usually visit the Public Markets to get to know the city. It tells us what fresh produce is there, what kind of people are living there and more. Inaugurated in 1869, this Market specifically is more than a market: it is a cultural and food/drink center where locals and visitors enjoy fresh goods, handicrafts and the famous gaucho foods/drinks. We bought sausage. Yum yum 🤤.
Praça da Alfondega
In the heart of the historic center, amongst the big buildings I saw this beautiful fountain with mosaic. We also saw an enormous art museum, the Museum De Arte Do Rio Grande (we didn’t go in, though).
Military Museum
When we were out walking we found a military museum and got in for free. They had different types of tanks from different times, cars, guns, and even canons. The funny thing was that they put the kitchen trolley thing and put fake steaks in the dryer 😠.
We saw a lot of female soldiers, going out for lunch, as well.
Churches and Cathedrals
We also saw a lot of churches. One had beautiful stained glass windows (Metropolitan Cathedral) and another one was humongous (Church of our lady of sorrows).
We also saw the huge Palacio de Justitia on the Praça da Matriz. There was a statue with dragons.
Walk along the river and parks
We took an Uber to a Recreational area for gaucho culture where people were busy setting up for a large event. So it looked more like a festival/ fair venue. We didn’t stick around too long because nothing was finished and everyone was busy building the stalls.
This area in Brazil is known for its cattle industry and its gauchos. Gauchos are a type of cowboys that work with the livestock out on the pampas (large flat treeless area, low grasslands) 🐄🐂.
From there we went for a walk along the Guaiba river.
The Guaíba River is another one of Porto Alegre’s main attractions. It is a huge body of water, which covers 496 km², some people consider it more of a lake than a river. It gets used for walking, cycling, running along the shores, fishing and other water sports.
We walked around this huge “must visit” park area (Farroupilha Park a.k.a Redenção) with skating areas and doggy areas but then mom’s foot started to hurt more so we went to the food court of a mall and sat at the Macdonalds. On the way back we saw a humongous soccer stadium.
Race to the border
Dad had been looking at distances and planning for the rest of the trip and we still had many miles to cover! From Porto Alegre you could get an overnight bus straight to Montevideo. But then we wouldn’t see anything. We wanted to follow the coastal road and see the landscape, but it was quite a distance, so we stopped over in Rio Grande.
Down town Rio Grande
Waking up at 5:30 to do final packing (yay!🙄) and get on the early bus. It was 320km and took over 4 hours. The landscape was getting flatter and had many black cows. People were coughing on the bus. Luckily dad had baked brownies for the bus🤤🍫.
I’m not sure what I was expecting Rio Grande to look like. All I can say is it was disappointing. It had the equivalent of a shabby factory town with horses grazing everywhere, and the guy from air bnb didn’t even have his address right. It took us ages to find it and then our room was really shabby. There was paint peeling off the wall, with a tiny, dirty bathroom, not much of a kitchen and my mattress cover looked dirty. We also discovered that the owners were taking care of this old guy who wasn’t quite right in the mind (yikes😰 then I got scared he’d break in at night by accident). Later while we had dinner a cat named Juju snuck in through the open bedroom window and hung around while we ate our chicken.
Ciao Brazil
The next morning we were out of there on the bus to the Uruguayan border town. This town is split in half: one side of the main road to Brazil (Chuí) the other side to Uruguay (Chuy).
The bus stopped in all the small villages and in the middle of nowhere to pick up and drop off people.
The bus stopped at the Brazilian immigration office so we could get our stamps and then continued on to the Chui bus station. We were waiting for a taxi but none came. We then walked allllll the way to the Uruguayan bus station, carrying mom’s bags.
Ciao Brazil, ate logo!
At the Chuy bus station we got lucky and got a bus that would leave in a couple of minutes. That bus also stopped at the Uruguayan immigration office and then continued to our final destination: Punto del Diablo. And guess what, that bus also stopped in strange place and had lots of coughing people!
See you all in the Uruguay!!😉
This is Gitane signing out!