South American Trip Part 1 - Brasilia, Brazil

We started our 5 month South American trip in Lisbon for just one night to be ready for a very early flight to Brasilia the next morning.

Although Lisbon was just the easiest way to get to Brazil, from what we saw it is definitely a city I need to experience more. It had that lovely Barcelona feel with nice weather, some cool restaurants and welcoming people. I think a summer trip next year could be on the cards.

Our first destination, Brasilia was to see Sara's brother, Daniel, his wife, Elka and also to meet their recently born son, Samuel.

It was amazing to see these guys and meet Samuel for the first time who is full of playful energy and cheeky smiles.

Brasilia is the capital of Brazil and a fairly new city that was founded in 1960. Daniel called it the Milton Keynes of Brazil, that although doesn't look much like it, it does have that more modern feel and seems they have designed it with the idea that everyone needs a car to get around.

They have created a huge lake in the center of the city which is a very nice place to relax and quite a great thing to have as the focal point of the city.

We stayed in a small hotel near to Daniel and Elka's place, that was very welcoming and a good price. Every morning for breakfast they were nice enough to treat us to a popular Brazilian food, Tapioca, made into a pancake.

One of the highlights of the trip was staying in a town called Alto Paraiso about 3 hours drive from Brasilia which was in the middle of a national park with many waterfalls that you could visit and swim in. Without doubt my best waterfall experience.

We went to so many waterfalls I lost count and it is quite hard to decide which was the best one, but the one above is definitely up there. So spectacular to see walking above it and amazing to swim in and and get under the falling water.

The nature around these waterfalls was incredible and it was quite remarkable how tame the dragonflies were.

I was very lucky to get such a clear shot of this dragonfly above. Easily my best shot to date.

Some of the art work on the buildings was pretty cool.

Samuel below showing his cheeky side.

The shot above is one of my favorites from our time in Brazil. I still haven't seen the photo they took in this.

All in all, this has been an amazing start to our trip and cannot thank Daniel and Elka enough for showing us around, cooking us some lovely meals and introducing me to some fruits I've never even heard of.

Also many thanks to Elka's father Imora (I'm sure I haven't spelt that correctly) and Ilka for letting us stay at their beautiful house on our last night. Hope to see you all again soon.

Obrigado :)