Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.
So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. --- Mark Twain

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Ubatuba 1


Having visited Santos I drove along the coastal road up towards Rio de Janeiro. There is also a motorway from Sao Paulo towards Rio de Janeiro, but as soon as I have begun to talk to somebody about visiting this area I have always been suggested to ride along the ocean-side road, it is said to be more beautiful and more interesting .The distance from Santos to Rio de Janeiro is a little over 500 kilometers, that is - in theory one could get there in one day, and there will be time left over as well. This is in theory, if we look only at the map.

As there are wonderful views of the ocean and the beaches by the road and many interesting towns - such as Ubatuba and Paraty, then one can`t help spending much more time. I have been advised to consider taking one week and although this seemed to be too long in the beginning and how one could spend a whole week to cover 500 km, then looking back - it is a perfectly proper recommendation. I arrived at Santos on November 9 and at Rio - November 15 in the evening, so all together it took 6 days.

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Some intermediate places to make a stop - Ubatuba was said to be the only city through which the Tropic of Capricorn runs , so again the time has come when the sun will appear directly in the zenith . Again - in theory, because in practice the sun was behind the gray clouds and only warm rain met the head.



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A few hundred meters further there was the Ubatuba Aquarium, not especially big, but having quite interesting specimens, and the next hour was filled.

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Moreia-pintada-da-areia (Gymnothorax ocellatos). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnothorax_ocellatus ja http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moray_eel.

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There was also a small, interactive aquarium here - if it is the right and a modern expression.

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Interactive means - that at first you wash your hands and then you are allowed to stroke and scratch the inhabitants of the aquarium from behind the ear , such inhabitants - as sea stars for example. Here one cannot swim together with the sharks. For extreme seekers there are other places for that . For example it is possible to experience it in Cape Town (the Two Oceans Aquarium).

Next - we will discuss the everyday issues. The subject of electricity – to be more exact. There are quite many nice plugs and connectors in the next picture. DSC08090_thumb
In the depth of my bus there are some more, but these items were soon at hand to be lined up. I have not had time to find out the reasonable explanation from the internet – why different regions (countries) use different plugs. But certainly there would be a practical justification, right and left-hand traffic. Only the world of the plugs is much more various compared to the world of automobiles. In that world there are left-hand cars and right-hand drive cars, and that`s the whole story. You will arrive at the next country, and at the camping site you find out that one cannot get electric current as one more transition is required. In Brazil in some places 110V is in use and in some other places - 220V, and sometimes both, or nothing whatsoever. .In this picture with the help of this construction electricity was brought to the bus. But then it decided to over-heat a bit, to melt together and then stopped functioning at all.

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No matter that the gray plug in the middle was bought from Buenos Aires and seemed to be a decent Chinese product, with Chinese and English letters on it and everything. And not cheap.

CHENGDURIYONGJIAO DIAN QI CHANG SU could mean that it lasts long and works well - or perhaps it is the name of a place. Or whatever. In practice this meant to find out another solution to get electricity before darkness. And a picture from last night. This little animal was awakened by the water of the toilet. The first 10 seconds it looked dizzily around and then realized the necessity to run away

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The Travelling rule - you must always carry a camera or at least a phone with you to take pictures.

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