Oktoberfest

Strap on your lederhosen and hold on to your felt hats for the world's biggest beer-centric celebration. Oktoberfest! And where better to celebrate such a finely crafted beverage than in Germany's southern state of Bavaria, which has been perfecting the fine art of brewing for centuries. It still enforces strict beer purity laws to ensure its lagers, weiß beers and sweet dark dunkels remain the world's finest.

If you thought Oktoberfest was just another silly excuse to order enormous steins of beer, swing them around and spill them everywhere, well, you'd be partly right. But there is so much more to this mega-party than giant beer halls, bratwurst and pretzels. In Munich, Oktoberfest is held in the city's enormous showground, and is like a big carnival (think the Easter show without all the horsies), with rides, entertainment, food and of course beer. I was quite surprised to see little kiddies rocketing about the place, lining up for the rollercoaster and quaffing hotdogs.

Although it only happens once a year, the sheer size and solid construction of some of the beer halls looks like they are there to stay. Some of the big brands like Lowenbrau and Paulaner can seat thousands of people on long wooden bench tables inside as well as in the ubiquitous Bavarian biergartens. Crowds are kept entertained by oom pa pa bands replete with tubas and accordians, and are kept on their toes by tough-as-nails beer wenches armed with up to four one-litre steins per hand, and who think nothing of shoulder-barging revellers who get in the way.

Rockin the dirndls

Keeping your beer wench (which I'm told in this part of the world is a perfectly acceptable term) happy is an absolute must at Oktoberfest, otherwise you will be ignored and unable to get what you need - more beer. You can only be served drinks while sitting at a table, and its best to slightly overpay for each beer, as if you tip well she may even take a shine to you and start coming around more often.

It can be difficult to nab a table, which seat up to 10 people, once the festival swings in to full gear on nights and weekends. This does end up working out well, as it forces you to befriend groups of Germans in order to get a seat and be served. We ended up meeting lots of groups, some from Munich but many from all over the country who flock southwards for beer season. Beer drinking is a national sport all over Germany, but it seems nobody does it quite like the Bavarians.

Oktoberfest is celebrated annually as a commemoration of Bavarian King Ludwig II's wedding 201 years ago. Many of the original traditions are still in force. The most hilarious part of the festival is the lengths that people - both Germans and foreigners - go to to re-create the traditional dress. For the boys, its the suede leather lederhosen shorts, while ladies doll themselves up in floral frocks and fluffy white blouses, an outfit known as the dirndl. A felt hat with rope band and feather sticking out of it tops off the ensemble.

Uber-short lederhosen

We were quite keen to give the traditional dress a go, until we found out that they cost about 100 Euros ($135) an outfit, so we settled for daggy Robin Hood style hats instead. Finding affordable accommodation in overflowing Munich for the festival was also tricky, with spartan dorm beds in crowded hostels fetching up to 70 Euros a pop ($95). We opted to crash in a tent for three nights at a camping ground about 20 minutes from the town centre. It was organised by a bus company who also ferried revellers to and from the Oktoberfest site.

I can't say it was the most luxurious accommodation package we've ever experienced, what with having to pay for hot showers and toilet paper and getting extremely measly ''free'' breakfasts. The camping ground was absolutely packed, with about 10 other companies operating the same thing, and 150 happy campers in our group. Not that we spent a great deal of time at the campground anyway, and I was one of the lucky ones whose air mattresses didn't deflate while we were there.

It was much more fun to be at Oktoberfest as part of a big group, and there was always some good value people on hand to hang around with and fill up a beer table. It was a massive Aussie-fest - probably 90 per cent of those on the tour. After 10 months in South America meeting more Europeans than Aussies, it was quite a shock to meet the guy who lived 3 blocks away from us in Erskineville.

Say what you like about drunk Aussies, but at the end of the day they do know how to party, and are very outgoing and eager to meet new people, which made it easy for us to bond with our German brethren. After spending the first night in the Hofbrauhaus beer hall in central Munich laughing hysterically at Germans dancing on tables in their lederhosen, we spent the whole of the next day at Oktoberfest. We started in a big group at the Lowenbrau hall and moved out with a smaller posse to check out some of the rides. Luckily we did this nice and early in the day before too many steins had been consumed.

We then paused to sip on steins at a bar that was actually a rotating merry-go-round. You could sit on a horse with your beer and just watch the world go by. Later on it was off to the ginormous Paulaner tent, where the beer wenches were getting a little stroppy as it was approaching 5pm, when many of the tables are reserved for corporate groups arriving after work (can you imagine rocking Oktoberfest with your boss and all of your work colleagues? Only in Germany!)

After that it was harder to get a table, but we managed to sweet talk our way onto one at the biergarten at the Hacker tent, where everyone recharged with roast chicken and I retreated to half-steins.

Neuschwanstein castle

Thankfully the following day, the tour operators took our sleepy hungover selves into the stunning Bavarian countryside to check out Neuschwanstein castle, a two-hour drive from Munich. The relief was palpable. It was much more pleasurable to sip in fresh country air and walk around a beautiful regal pile than face another stein. The castle, built in the alpine foothills as a refuge for King Ludwig in the mid 1800s to commemorate his pal and hero, composer Richard Wagner.

Unfortunately Ludwig met a sticky end in suspicious circumstances in 1886, before the castle had been completed, so parts of the interior on the second floor remain unfinished. I know all this trivia because we had a guided tour (something I almost never sign up for, had I not been on a massive guided tour already): But it was totally worth it to hear the hilarious voice of our petite, serious-looking guide, who had obviously been taught to project her speech so everyone could hear. Combined with a heavy German accent, the result was priceless, slowing down to emphasise words in this huge scary tone, ''the...castle...was...NEVAR....FINISHED.''

It's a pity Ludwig wasn't around to enjoy his masterpiece, because it's a pretty elegant crib. The walls are decorated wtih murals that represent various Wagner works, and there are amazing woodcarvings on doors, walls and above the obligatory royal four-poster bed. Even the royal john looked like a stylish throne.

Surrounding the castle is a network of tracks through the forest, including one that takes you to a bridge over a ravine directly opposite, where tourist hoards gather to get the money shot of the castle. We walked a little further uphill, and made it up to a beautiful lookout where we had an amazing aerial view of the castle, the surrounding hills and the town and neatly-tended fields below.

That evening, it was back to Oktoberfest. It was a tamer affair for our group, as we didn't arrive until 7pm. The Germans were in full-flight, whacking steins together and dancing on tables. It was Friday night, and absolutely packed, with tens of thousands of revellers staggering up and down the lanes of the fairground. Luckily we managed to bag half a table in a beergarden, having been refused entry to three others which were too full. We had fun laughing at people on a ride that was like a really fast, slippery travelator - many people stacked it straight after they hopped on.

Buenos Aires - Palermo & Recoleta

Leafy Palermo's avenues are lined with plush modern apartment blocks. This inner city neighbourhood, a few kilometres north of central Buenos Aires, has a much more upmarket demographic than the artsy hipsters crowd in San Telmo. Groups of women in expensive-looking leather boots walk their precious pooches among middle aged ladies pushing designer prams with their well-heeled husbands.

Palermo is criss-crossed by a network of grand tree-lined avenues. The enormous Avenida Liberador has a roundabout with a huge statue of Simon Bolivar, the leader of independence movements across South America. Avenidas Santa Fe and General de Las Heras are the area's commercial centres, and are lined with shops, delis, wine stores and cafes. Many of the quieter streets are home to neighbourhood steak houses, which serve up delicious juicy tenderloins, creamy potatoes and crispy salads.

One side of Avenida Liberador is lined with a series of rolling green parks, from the Buenos Aires racecourse and polo club (another British sport that enjoys unlikely popularity), to the Japanese Garden and jogging mecca Parque de 3 Febrero. This park has a tarmac circuit built around a geese-filled lake and historic houses, and is crammed with exercisers - joggers, walkers, cyclists and the ubiquitous Buenos Aires rollerblader. When we went on a Saturday there were rollerblading workshops, where groups were being taught various tricks and how to roll in and out of a series of cones.

One of Palermo's grand avenues

A couple of Palermo's parks are frequented by another Argentine peculiarity - professional dog walkers. There are so many dogs in the city that this has become a respected profession. Dog walkers must be licensed, can take up to eight charges with them (although in reality many have many more), walk them for two hours twice and day and some even have veterinary training so they can look out for ailments.

We found a park that was like a depot for the dog walkers, with up to 100 pooches running around or tethered to the ground. Seeing dog walkers in action is a hilarious site, as they cruise down the streets with an army of pooches hanging off a messy tangle of leashes.

Dog walker - this one is a beagle specialist

Palermo was our home for a week of our stay in Buenos Aires. We rented an apartment close to the subway station, just off bustling Avenida Santa Fe. Our place was a studio shoebox but had a spacious terrace to enjoy in the springtime sunshine. After months of being on the road and staying in mangy hostels, it was so nice to have our own pad again and cook what we liked in the kitchen.

All of our neighbours in the apartment block were super-friendly, and eager to make small talk when when we bumped into them in the lifts. Very different to the hostile looks I used to get from unfriendly neighbours when I lived in Sydney's inner suburbs!

Neighbouring Recoleta is even more upmarket than Palermo. I felt decidedly under dressed in my well-worn backpacker garb when walking the streets. All of the women here are very well-dressed, and hang out in fancy coffee shops and bakeries, sipping tea and nibbling on Argentine delicacies media lunas (small custard-filled croissants) and alfajors. These are sweet biscuits lathered with gooey caramelly dulce de leche, smushed together like oreos and covered in either meringue or chocolate.

Giant mausoleums at Recoleta cemetery

Recoleta's star attraction is its cemetery, which is like a mini-city of enormous marble and stone mausoleums. It is laid out in a grid radiating from a central statue of Christopher Columbus, with the mausoleums arranged like houses along a series of avenues.

Some of the tombs were so well-constructed, they looked bigger and sturdier than much of the housing we have seen people crowded into throughout Latin America. Many luminaries are buried here, including Evita Peron, several former presidents, doctors and scientists.

Recoleta is also home to a number of art galleries, including its local cultural centre and the Bellas Artes or fine arts museum. Both were free. The cultural centre had an interesting photographic exhibition called the people of Buenos Aires. It had quirky shots of all types of people, including street toughs, homeless people living under freeways, children, corporate types and some of BA's many immigrant groups including Chinese, Japanese and Bolivians.

Sadly, Buenos Aires is our last stop in the Americas, after 10 months learning Spanish and travelling from Baja California in Mexico through Central America to Colombia and through South America. Buenos Aires is amazingly mellow and easy to deal with in spite of being such a large city, and was a definite highlight along with Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Havana and Bogota. We are heading to Europe now, on our way to the UK where we hope to find work in our respective professions (journalism and electrical engineering). We will be in Germany for two weeks, just in time for Oktoberfest! Stay tuned for our next adventure as El Mundo hits Europe.

Our apartment block in Palermo

Buenos Aires - San Telmo & La Boca

Every Argentinian I've ever met will mention how "European," or how similar to Paris is their stately capital city Buenos Aires. Travel guides reckon that Argentina is oddly positioned in Latin America, and feels greater kinship with its European cousins, from which the overwhelming majority are descended, than its neighbours Brazil, Bolivia and Chile.

We may be visiting a place in the bottom corner of a developing continent, but Buenos Aires does its very best to convince you otherwise. There are the stunning grand baroque buildings adorning its the central Plaza de Mayo, including the president's crib, Casa Rosada (pink house) and the Catedral Metropolitana. Spanning out from the so-called microcentro are a web of grand avenues. And by grand I mean WIIIDDDE. One of them, Av 9 de Julio, is about 20 lanes wide and has four separate pedestrian crossings to help you across this enormous road.

Argie ''European'' pride

The streets of the centre are lined with beautiful 19th century apartment blocks, boasting posh little shrub-lined balconies. We could be in Paris but there are not nearly enough trendy cafes. Instead, there are cheese-filled delis, shops selling empanadas, grocery stores with giant butcher shops in the back and takeaway shops selling steaks, burgers and sausages.

If you face north to the Rio de Plata (which you can't see much of because there is a giant marsh in the way), to the left there are a series of giant parks, upmarket apartments and trendy shops in the barrios of Recoleta and Palermo. To the right is the slightly more shabby but equally trendy neighbourhood of San Telmo, followed by the seedy former port district of La Boca. We divided our 10-day stay in Buenos Aires along this axis - four days being urban hipsters in a grungy hostel in San Telmo, and the remainder in a stylish modern apartment in Palermo.

Like Argentina itself, San Telmo has had a riches to rags history, but is in the process of clawing its way back into the spotlight. With rows and rows of tattered colonial mansions, San Telmo was originally built as an upscale area, until sickness plagues drove the urban elite to move further north. It then became more of a ghetto, as the big houses were subdivided and overcrowded with large families. More recently, as artists and general boho types became interested in the area, it is starting to gentrify again.

In cafe/bar El Federal at San Telmo

Quirky clothes, antiques, homewares and bric-a-brac shops have popped up along San Telmo's cobblestone streets. They sit among the more established institutions of plush corner cafe/bars, so diverse that you can go there for a coffee, a cake, a glass of wine, a sandwich, or even a steak at just about any hour of the day. These little haunts are beautifully decorated, the walls lined with wine and fancy sherry bottles, historic pictures and antique bits and pieces.

Calle Defensa is a focal point for San Telmo, where you can find the most interesting shops and restaurants, particularly its intersection with Calle Chile, which is lined with sandwich bars and cafes that stay open until late. Further along Defensa is plaza Dorego, which plays host to a big antiques fair every Sunday. We missed the fair but arrived in time to see the tango dancing which takes over the plaza in the evening. A giant dancefloor with big speakers is set up in the plaza, and couples just show up and practice their moves. 

Do you tango?

Steak houses are another key institution in San Telmo. As in most of Argentina, you don't have to pay top dollar at a swanky place to enjoy a tender, perfectly grilled hunk of meat. We had a good tenderloin (called lomo) and an average bife de chorizo at Don Ernesto on Calle Carlos Calvo, although we suspect we were given ''gringo grill'' treatment after we ordered our steaks jugoso (medium rare) and they came out decidedly medium - no blood in sight. We also shared a butterflied t-bone at Desnivels on Defensa, which was not quite as tender, and again overcooked. To our dismay, other diners in the place had managed to order thick pink juicy steaks - obviously we need to learn the Spanish word for ''still moo-ing.''

A few blocks east of San Telmo near the waterfront are a series of canals that were dredged out with the intention of becoming the new port (when the original one at La Boca became too small). In typical Argentine style, the digging took too long - by the time it was completed 30 years later, the canals were too narrow to accommodate the recently expanded berths of modern ships. The project was abandoned and the area fell into decay, joining the many other square kilometres of disued port areas around the city.

Stylish modern buildings line the renewed canal precinct

But the bulldozers moved in and created a huge urban renewal area, to rival that of Docklands, Canary Wharf (and maybe one day Barangaroo?). The canals, or diques as they are known, are lined with tarted up warehouses (a la Jones Bay Wharf), modern business park style squat office blocks and shadowed by huge apartment towers. Wide paved walkways line the canals and are popular with power walkers, dog walkers and, another Buenos Aires specialty group, rollerbladers.

That's right - its not the 90s any more but no one told the Argies. Rollerblading is immensely popular here - people drive from all over BA to these wide, flat expanses to pull on their 'blades and go for a cruise. We spotted many people practicing fancy moves - going backwards, spinning, breaking suddenly. There were a couple of skateboarders out and about but their numbers paled in comparison compared to the rollerblading crowd.

The No 10 Messi jersey is a market fave

South of San Telmo, clustered around the disused port area (which nobody has yet bothered to rebuild) is La Boca, a far shabbier part of town. Colonial buildings are far more dilapidated here, and many are boarded up and look like they have turned into squats. We took a stroll down here one Saturday - despite the usual warnings of it being ''dangerous,'' we found it perfectly fine to wander down the main drag, although it didn't really provide much entertainment in the form of shop and/or people watching.

La Boca's smelly waterfront area - its thanks to the black estuary-like riverbank - has a wide footpath, but it isn't populated with the usual walking and rollerblading crowd. Further along though is a buzzing precinct filled with markets, tango bars and restaurants. Along El Caminito (the little walkway), the shops and houses are painted a variety of vivid, clashing colours. There are tarted up makeshift dwellings that look like they may have been constructed from shipping containers. Adding to the colourful medley are bright street murals.

Swept away by Igauzu Falls

View of the falls from Brazil

Forming part of the border between Brazil and Argentina smack bang in the middle of a semi-tropical rainforest, the mighty Iguazu falls is not exactly convenient to anywhere. It is a 16 hour bus ride to Sao Paulo in one direction and 17 hours to Buenos Aires in the other direction. But it obviously has a lot of pulling power - people endure bus rides of up to 24 hours to visit this magical natural wonder.

The falls can be viewed from both sides of the border. Divided by islands in the river into about 275 separate waterfalls, they gush downwards and are between 60 and 80 metres in height. Its possible to see more of the waterfalls in one hit from the Brazilian side of the border, giving a general overview of the area.

The Brazilian side has several lookout points dotted along a 1500 metre walking track. It culminates with a bridge over the river right in front of the breathtaking Devil's Throat area, a 150 metre wide u-shaped portion of the river where the water rushes through incredibly fast, creating an enormous cloud of mist which soaks you right through when you are on the viewing platform.

View of the falls from Argentina

Visiting from the Argentine side, while slightly more expensive than the Brazilian side, allows you to get more up close and personal with the falls. It has several different walks you can take through the national park which wind their way very close to some of the falls. There is a viewing platform practically underneath the Salto waterfall where you get thoroughly drenched - fortunately the mild climate means you are dry again within minutes. Another trail takes you above the waterfalls so you can watch them crashing down into the lower part of the river.

The highlight of the Argentine side is the track up to the other side of the Devil's Throat. While on the Brazil side there is the bridge that brings you underneath and to the side of it, on the Argentine side the platform walkway gives you a birds eye view. It is almost hypnotic standing at the platform, watching the water crash down into the misty abyss below. We were standing there in awe for about 10 minutes, when suddenly the water current must have increased because we were dumped on by a huge misty cloud of water. Check out our Devil's Throat video.

View of the Devil's Throat from Argentina

There was an amazing amount of wildlife in the park, considering it was pretty packed with tourists. We spotted an endangered Brazilian tapir along the roadside when we were on the bus back to the visitors' centre. We were dismayed to find about 50 tour buses parked out front when we rocked up to the Argentine side at 10am, yet still the park was alive with the chirping of brightly coloured blue birds and there were dozens of coati - a rodent-like creature with a tail like a racoon and a long bendy snout - sniffing around in areas where people were eating. On the way to see the Devil's Throat, there was a decent-sized alligator snoozing on one of the islands in the river.

Alligator!

Although we were incredibly reluctant to leave Brazil - it has been one of the highlights of our trip so far - we opted to stay at Puerto Iguazu on the Argentine side, which is a smaller, friendlier (and cheaper) town than industrial Foz do Iguacu on the Brazilian side. We arrived in Foz do Iguacu after a 16 hour bus ride from Sao Paulo, took two local buses to get from the bus station to the falls (despite what the Lonely Planet tells you, buses to the falls leave from a different bus station to the long distance terminal) and visited the Brazilian side before crossing into Argentina.

From the falls, we jumped in a taxi to the border post on the Iguazu river, a few kilometres downriver. Once we got our exit stamps, we walked across the bridge to Argentina. The cement siding on the road was painted Brazil's national colours of green and yellow until exactly halfway, when they changed to Argentina's light blue with a white stripe. Apparently the two countries had to share the cost of building and maintaining the bridge, and couldn't agree on the colour scheme!

We enjoyed our stay in Puerto Iguazu - it was a nice introduction to Argentina, a friendly little town and beautifully easy to navigate after our time in the big cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. We liked our hostel Residencial Uno, located on a quiet residential street of town, which had friendly helpful owners, a nice terrace to chill out on and five beautiful Alsatian dogs as pets.

Eating our way through São Paulo

All you can eat sushi!

Sprawling São Paulo does not boast the spotless beaches or stunning vistas of its coastal neighbour Rio de Janeiro, but it has a style and finesse that makes it worth visiting this non-stop metropolis. The city's attractions are not always obvious on first glance – you have to look more closely to discover its gems.

It is highly recommended to arrive in São Paulo with an empty stomach and pack a big appetite. This mega-city is absolutely bursting with places to eat, from neighbourhood grocery stores called lanchonetes to pizza parlours, French bistros and sushi bars. There are also 24-hour bakeries where you can have sit down buffets or hamburgers, pizzas and enormous sandwiches made to offer at any hour of the day. We went into one at 3am and ordered massive roast beef sandwiches with rocket, cheese and pineapple, and the place was packed with people of all ages doing the same, like it was a completely normal thing to do!

The secret behind São Paulo’s amazing gastronomy is its cultural diversity – it is the biggest, most multicultural city in Brazil. Its divine Japanese cuisine is thanks to the biggest Japanese community living outside of Japan. Besides offering amazing foreign cuisine, São Paulo has also taken traditional Brazilian favourites, such as rodizio or buffet, churrasco meat barbeques and chopp or draft beer and perfected them. The city is also awash with traditional Portuguese botequim bars which sell ice-cold beer, caipirinhas and snacks such as cod ball croquettes and meat sandwiches.

Teatro Nacional

São Paulo isn’t a mecca for sightseeing – it does have a couple of museums and cathedrals to gawk at, but its historical centre of town is quite run down, having been neglected in previous generations. Work is being done to improve the areas around Praça da Sé and Praça da Republica, in between which the beautifully domed Teatro Nacional sits.

The centre of town is quite a weird place because it is such a hotchpotch of different architectural styles. You’ll find a row of Parisian-style apartments next to a dull grey 70s-style throw up with tiny windows and no balconies. It seems as if the city was built with little to no planning in mind – unlike other mega-cities there are no grand avenues or colonial quarters, and hardly any big parks or public spaces.

The city’s central market, Mercado Municipal, is freakishly clean and organised compared to other Latin American markets. Fruit stalls are neatly stacked, butcher stalls have meat sealed in chilled sections behind glass cabinets and there is a restaurant-style eating area in a mezzanine level food court. Downstairs we found an amazing lanchonete or sandwich shop selling the most amazing variety of pasteis, which look like very large pasties stuffed with various combinations of meat, chicken, fish and gooey catupiri cheese, a runny white concoction that looks like liquefied Laughing Cow cheese.

Tall buildings dominate the skyline in every direction – from the centre it looks like most of the city’s 20 million residents live in vertical villages and work in office towers. True, São Paulo is the industrial and financial engine of Brazil, being its centre of manufacturing, automotive, high-tech and luxury goods industries. But its world-class restaurants, metro system and freeways mask another side to the city which is safely tucked away from tourists’ eyes. While there are many wealthy people living here, there are also millions living in slums away from the big end of town, and its high crime rate is a persistent problem.

Just south of the centre, skyscraper-lined Avenida Paulistana is São Paulo’s commercial and financial hub. Further out from this, and easily accessible on the city’s fabulous metro system, are a bunch of trendy bohemian neighbourhoods where locals congregate to eat, shop, party and stare at artworks. The concrete-clad urban environment is made more interesting by the amazing array of street art and murals on just about every street corner.

Vila Madalena is an artsy, upmarket neighbourhood a few kilometres from the centre. Its main intersection is packed with huge pub-style restaurants. Quieter side streets play host to an interesting collection of art galleries, quirky clothes shops and fancy restaurants. On Saturdays the area comes alive with markets – fruit sellers take over the main drag Rua Mourato, selling all types of fresh produce, including cheese, olives and nuts.

Film projectors and old dial phones for sale

A few streets away, past rows of antique furniture stores and the imposing family tombs in the São Paulo cemetery, there is a giant antiques fair. We spotted an amazing variety of goods on offer here, to action figurines of Astro Boy, Bananas in Pyjamas and other 80s favourites to old Brazilian vinyl records, film projectors, army helmets, swiss army knives and even a rocket launcher!

The antiques on display were impressive – entire sets of polished silverware, napkin rings, trifle servers and sherry glasses, as if every Nana’s house in the whole city had been raided and put up for sale. There were also more modern items you would expect to find at markets such as jewellery, quirky artworks, baby clothes and fresh flowers.

One of the many things we couldn’t leave Brazil without trying is its national dish, Feijoada. This delicacy is a bean stew with assorted cuts of pork, including ribs, fillet, sausage and optionally, ears and various piggy insides. It is served in a giant bubbling cauldron, and accompanied by rice, spinach, crunchy fried crackling and this strange powdered cassava stuff called farofa which is sprinkled over top and used to thicken up the sauce. The stew has this amazing smoky pork flavour, and the meat falls right off the bones.

Crowds gather outside Consulado Mineiro waiting for a table

We were instructed to head to Consulado Mineiro, a Brazilian culinary institution located right opposite the markets. It was overflowing with people drinking on the pavement, waiting for a table. We had to wait an hour but decided it was worth it. It helped that we could order beers and drink them on the sun-drenched pavement. An order for two costs 60 reals ($35), and is absolutely enormous. It could easily have fed a family of four. Nevertheless we were prepared for the challenge and arrived for the task with totally empty stomachs. We nearly managed to polish off the entire stew, but there was still plenty of rice left. It was so filling that we had trouble walking home, and had to lie down for a siesta shortly afterwards. We didn’t need to eat anything  for the next 24 hours!

We had intended to check out more live music and clubs in São Paulo, but we were a little put off the first night when we went to a restaurant that had a band playing (sitting down at one of the tables) and we were automatically charged a cover charge without being told – it just showed up later on the bill.

Feijoada food coma

Fortunately Casa Club, the hostel where we stayed, had it all worked out for us – they had a different live band on every night, and sold ice buckets packed with beers in them for under $10. There was a great banjo-toting funk band on the Saturday night that played a bunch of Brazilian favourites before switching to covers of popular music later on in the night.

Casa Club’s bar was really popular with the locals, and was packed out every night. The locals were super-friendly and always eager to chat – and practise their English. Everyone in the city we encountered were very nice, and went out of their way to help us, even if they didn’t speak English. We were lost in the city with our map out (ok, and kind of arguing about which direction to walk in), when a guy stopped to help us, gave us directions and even walked part of the way down the street to make sure we were going the right way!

Rio de Janeiro - Ipanema and Copacabana

For Cariocas, or Rio de Janeiro natives, weekends involve a street party or two, a visit to one of the city's stunning beaches and watching as much football as possible. The fact that Carnaval doesn't start for months is no barrier - there is a street party every Friday night on the main drag of grungy inner city neighbourhood Lapa, and other impromptu samba parties are not hard to find.

On Saturday evening, in the normally drab centre of town, the roads fronting a number of small bars were closed off and a samba band set up on the street. It was all very civilised, with the musicians sitting on chairs at a table sipping beers, surrounded by several hundred people craning their necks to watch them. The main singer was this enormous guy with a great baritone voice playing a proportionately tiny ukelele. All up, the band had about 10 members, including several playing African style drums and percussion instruments, many similar to those we have seen in bands playing Cuban music.

Giant flag at the football

On the Sunday we trekked out to Rio's Olympic stadium - not the biggest in town as its gigantic Maracana stadium is undergoing renovations - to watch a local derby between rivals Flamengo and Vasco. This meant we were able to see Brazilian football star Ronaldinho, who plays for Flamengo, in action. The match was important, Flamengo needed to win in order to ascend to the top of the table, but not being Brazilian football league experts we didn't really care about the outcome and weren't sure which side to go with.

It turned out that this decision was made for us. We went to the match in a big group, paying heaps extra for the privilege of being picked up and dropped off in a mini-bus, because we were told the match was "sold out." We were all seated together right in the middle of the Vasco section, right under a bunch of big swirling flags and groups of intensely passionate fans, so we couldn't exactly start barracking for the other side!

Football hooligans - brazil style.

Before the match officially started, both sides of the stadium - fans of opposing teams are strictly segregated on opposite sides - engaged in a massive, all out sledging match. First drums pounded, fans chanted and flags were lifted on one side of the stadium, then the other side screamed and chanted back in response. There were flags like giant tarpaulins that came down over our heads and laid out flat, covering hundreds of people each. It looked pretty cool when the opposite side of the stadium had all their flags rolled down. When our sides were rolled down, it was like being trapped under a parachute and not being able to see anything!

The actual match was pretty uneventful, being a nil all draw. The fun was more in seeing Brazilian football nuts on their feet shouting the whole match, practically crying when their team narrowly missed a goal, and then ripping their shirts off and cheering all the same. It would have been even more crazy had any goals been scored!

Ipanema

Rio's famous beaches, Ipanema and Copacabana lie just south of the city proper, around the corner from the big rocky mass the Sugar Loaf which juts out into the Atlantic. Opinion is always divided on which is the better beach. The longer, skinnier Ipanema seemed to have reliably better surf, although a strong current made it pretty uncomfortable for swimming. But both had picture-perfect powdery sand, turquoise water and beautiful green mountains as backdrops.

Neither beach goes wanting in terms of action on the sand. Even though we were in the area early in the working week, there were thousands of people there, soaking up rays, sleeping under umbrellas, playing football and beach volleyball.

Ipanema beach has every product or service you can imagine right there on the sand. There are beach bars set up at regular intervals that rent out deck chairs and umbrellas. Roving hawkers sell everything from snacks such as prawns on skewers and acai berry smoothies to bikinis, sarongs and even Arabic art. 

As we discovered in other parts of Brazil, less is more when you're on the beach. We felt positively overdressed while walking along in tshirts and shorts trying to find the perfect position to occupy. Ipanema beach is so big that it is divided into different posts that look like they are more than a kilometre apart. Post 8 is the gay area and is littered with muscle-bound couples in super-tight budgie smugglers, while post 9 is packed out with beautiful people in thong bikinis lathered up with tanning oil.

Copacabana is prettier to look at being crescent-shaped and more sheltered as well, and had lots of cool bars adorning the beachfront. The road running along the beach is pretty built up, lined with fancy hotels and apartment blocks like a mini-Miami.

Forgot your bikini?

We opted to stay in Leblon, which borders Ipanema, because it had a bit more of a relaxed feel to it than Copacabana, which has streets lined with posh shops and hotels. Ipanema had an amazing variety of places to eat and drink - we hit on a Japanese restaurant that offered all you can eat sushi for around $25 which was an absolute winner. As a bonus, the sushi and sashimi was of amazing quality, better than I have ever eaten in Australia. There was also a great kebab joint just a block from our hostel that sold delicious felafel and lamb sharwarma.

Ipanema and Copacabana are both packed with traditional Portuguese-style botecos, or neighbourhood bars that also function as grocery stores, snack bars and restaurants. Some of these places are pretty basic - they used to be called "dirty feet" bars because this reflected the state of the feet of most of their patrons. Others have become trendy in recent years, and have upgraded their menu to a big variety of cocktails, wines and fancy foods. But the mainstay of these bars is chopp, or draft beer. Brazilians are famously anal about the way their beer is served - it is pulled at 0 degrees, served at 3 degrees and is meant to be finished before it warms up to 6 degrees.

We found some amazing sandwiches at Cervantes bar in Copacabana. Sadly we weren't in the mood for beer so did not have any chopp, but we were more than satisfied with a filet mignon sandwich - leaves the chewy Aussie steak sandwich for dead - and another sandwich stacked with inumerable slices of roast pork and topped with pineapple.

Sunset at Copacabana