Unfortunately, after our wonderful first day in the tropical paradise of Praia Vermelha on Ilha Grande, the weather took a turn for the worse and we had downpours and dampness for several days. We still managed to do some exploring (and eating açaí gelato) between rain showers, however, though we did not make it into the sea to snorkel with the green turtles eating at the seaweed farm. Still there are worse ways to pass the time than sitting on a sheltered deck in the middle of nowhere watching the sea, and colorful birds flying by.
On Monday 2, we sadly left the Ilha Grande on the fast ferry to the mainland and found a somewhat reluctant Uber drive to take us to our next stop, the mountain city of Petropolis.
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| The flex boat ferry between Ilha Grande and the mainland. |
The last hour of this journey was somewhat hair-raising as the rain was pouring down and we were driving fast up a very twisty mountain road, rising 2,700 feet and often in the left hand lane with severely reduced visibility!! But we need not have worried. The Brazilians have an interesting solution to the problem of 2-lane mountain roads that become too busy. Rather than going to the vast expense of expanding the road to 4 lanes, they build a separate 2 lane highway up the mountain, and make the old road one-way up the mountain and the new road one-way down the mountain.
Petropolis is a modest sized city with an interesting history. During the short-lived Brazilian Empire (1822-1889) it was the summer capital, when the emperor and all is family and vast retinue of dukes, counts, barons and assorted hangers-on moved to the mountains to escape sweltering Rio. The center of the city is full of huge, crumbling, and impossible to maintain Victorian palaces. Our hotel was one such, the Solar do Imperio, with huge rooms, high ceilings, plaster friezes, murals, elegant marquetry, marble staircases, window frames that no longer fit, patched-over rotting wood, crumbling plaster — a nightmare of non-stop maintenance, but very grand.
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| Our hotel in Petropolis |
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| Lin in the portico. Huge vases of fresh flowers every day. |
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Hotel dining room
We spent our 3 days in Petropolis exploring the unusual city, laid out by a German architect along several small rivers, and with many Germanic features. The weather was mostly cool and unsettled, with occasional downpours and often a strange damp mist swirling round the buildings.
We visited the fascinating porcelain museum — 1,800 china animals and figurines made mostly in Germany and France. |
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| The porcelain museum |
We enjoyed our self-guided tour of the amazing and interesting Bohemia Brewery, where we bought our senior discount tickets ($3) and were presented with a small beer glass, which was refilled at regular intervals. We learned a lot about the history and science of brewing and the importance of beer in world history.
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| Bohemia Brewery Museum |
We were delighted with the cute little house of Santos Dumont, one of the original pioneers of powered flight at the beginning of the 20th century. He was an eccentric character of diminutive size who invented a hot water shower system and dined at a 2-meter high table.
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| 2 meter high dining table with chairs to match |
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Santos Dumont “chalet” in typical Petropolis weather
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| The first indoor hot water shower |
On our second day we visited the vast Imperial Palace where the Emperor Pedro II lived. It is an imposing museum full of ponderous Victorian furniture and innumerable paintings and sculptures of Pedro and his large family. The polished wooden floors are immaculate and visitors must wear uncomfortable felt flip-flops to avoid damaging them.
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| Felt over-slippers that slip in every which direction |
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| Imperial Palace, Petropolis |
The city is very hilly and the rain forest on the surrounding mountains seems ready to take over at the slightest opportunity. There was evidence everywhere of landslides, and buildings that had disappeared. Some house owners have just sprayed their entire precipitous back gardens with 6 inches of concrete.
We came across one other interesting type of store we had never seen before — self-service ice cream. You take a plastic container and an ice cream scoop and help yourself from a huge range of flavors. When you have finished serving yourself, they weigh the container and charge accordingly. It was delicious ice cream in many wonderful flavors and very inexpensive…but is it hygienic? We suffered no ill effects.
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| Self Serve Ice Cream Store |
Today we checked out of our grand crumbling hotel after another delicious breakfast, and took the bus down the mountain from damp Petropolis to sunny Rio de Janeiro, where we checked into our hotel a few yards from Ipanema beach. We are looking forward to several days of exploring this fabulous city, using the hotel’s complimentary bikes, and Rio’s excellent subway system.
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| Confused electrician? |
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