"One of the most famous birdwatching sites in Southeast Brazil" is what the bird book says. How you pronounce it is altogether less clear!! It was a long holiday weekend in Rio (Corpus Christi) and we needed to get out for the day. Others trail up the Amazon - but for us, taking the bus to Itatiaia National Park is as good as it gets.

Rain greeted us on Friday as we got up. For some reason rain in Rio equates to traffic jams - and the 75 mins we'd left to get the bus to the Rodoviaria (bus station) appeared at one moment of despair (around Central Station) to be insufficient! However our familiarity with the routine at the bus station meant we arrived with a minute to spare and weren't even the last!! And off we went!!

It was over 2.5 hours later that we drove into the 2 booth bus station at Itatiaia. There was a list of bus times to the National Park and we had arrived early - making a slick transfer possible. A R$2 bus fare took us up to the park with the bus stopping en route to pick up packages from locals that turned out to be for various workers at different points in the park. Entering at the park gates - where we dismounted to pay our R$22 (foreigners) entrance fee - we were taken 9km in to the visitor centre and dropped off. We'd arrived - 5hrs after setting off! Not bad for a walk in the park!

The visitor centre was in the colonial grand style. Interesting - if rather faded (butterflies were all shades of brown!) and moth-eaten - collection of butterflies, insects, birds, animals and rocks prepared us for what to look out for. Rocks never fade of course!

We walked down to the Blue Pool. Growing up as I did near Dorset's Blue Pool - and having swum in one Lagoa Azul as we did on Ilha Grande - I'm afraid this was a big let down! It might have been the weather but the small pool in the river looked like any old Scottish river!
We then sought out the 'Quiosques' with Kate thinking of a coffee. We discovered half a dozen barbecue shelters - not exactly overrun with visitors - but it is winter in Brazil! We nevertheless sat on benches sheltering from the mizzle and had a very British picnic!!

We did see birds (humming birds, tree creepers, woodpeckers and others we are still trying to identify! The bird poster at the visitor centre was quite helpful - we think we saw a Patinho! We also saw monkeys - cleverly lifting the lids off the bins and checking for tasty morsels in the litter!

We walked up the road to a waterfall destination. Apart from the occasional slow-moving car, the forest was so quiet and appreciated all the more by Zona Sul-ers used to the screech of buses and Bem-te-vies - rather than distant tap tapping of woodpeckers and screeching parakeets. The trail to the waterfall when we got to the start was closed. Landslips seem a common feature and Michelin (why?) have their budget stretched to handle the maintenance of the - very few - trails.

Soon it was time for the ride home. We waited with a few others for the bus - which turned up at 5 on time, and took us and various park workers down to Itatiaia Centro and the bus station. We had time to check out Itatiaia (unremarkable) and found coffee, pizza and beer for the trip home. The journey passed - entertained by the sweetest of Brazilian tots - who had been on the go for 5 hrs and was driving his granny and mother spare. P asked if Lucas 'fala Ingles', to be told 'fala de nada' as he took his turn at bouncing him on his knee.

Arriving at the Rio bus station (in a rough area of town) at 10.30pm, the ensuing bus back to Ipanema really does expose you to the underbelly of Rio late at night and we felt distinctly uneasy at times but got back OK and P celebrated with a Theresopolis Gold from the fridge. A day that saw 10 hrs on a bus for 4 hrs in the park and a chance to wear a pullover in Brazil for the first time will certainly go down as another memorable one during our time in this immensely rewarding country.

A few extra thoughts from Kate:

It's definitely cooler here now - we have a blanket on the bed!

The Brazilian countryside around Rio is not particularly spectacular, except for the exotic vegetation. Scotland and the Lake District are far more beautiful - with far less litter.

We've joined a video shop across the road from us here as cinema here is v limited and v expensive relative to what we're used to. We have to watch them
on W's mac but are very much enjoying catching up with films we've missed since we've been away as well as discovering some new Brazilian ones too. They have a good range of dvd's so it should keep us entertained for some time!

I've been to a couple of Indian cooking classes, largely through want of anything better to do out here..
They coincided with P's Indian PhD student, Santhi, being in Rio so, with her help, I tried some things out with varying degrees of success! There are no Indian restaurants in Rio which makes it difficult to source the right ingredients and neither the classes, nor the meals here did anything to change my mind that Indian cookery is a lot of hard work! Roll on our return to the UK in that respect.

The last part of this blog before we head off for the UK is the Brazil v England friendly for the re-opening of the Maracana (check out the photos!) Despite fears that the game would be cancelled because the stadium wasn't ready, it went ahead according to plan although the palm trees outside needed extra support as they hadn't had time to bed in!

Some abiding memories:
3 England subs warming up when the Brazilians had a dozen!!
The English fans' rendition of 'Engerland, Engerland' and GStQ which Brazil only answer with boos! Brazil don't have many collective songs (and Flu boo the Fla ones!) - nor do England actually - but I thought it a feeble response.
Very friendly-family crowd and not a hint of malice - safest place in Rio?

We amazingly, in a crowd of 66,000, bump into Ricardo - who had been with the British Ambassador at Fluminese's old ground before the game, raising money for his kids charity as always.

Onto the football! England, (and Brazil, by their standards), were abysmal first half! Second half was a good 'un. England going 2-1 up was a crowd stunner! I probably saw Rooney's finest goal in an England shirt. Chamberlin's Dad was asleep when his goal went in!
Very cheering - but with Brazil 16th in the world and hosts in 2014 - they'll be the ones under pressure. England kept their shape - which is nice for Roy Hodgson - he probably couldn't see my Liverpool shirt surrounded by all the yellow! Stadium and boys done well. Definitely a game of two halves!!