After spending my first day at my friends house in Sao Paolo, I started out in Alagoas state. The first night was spent in Maceio the capital. The next three nights were spent at Praia do Frances, about 20km. south. Lots of photos of the beach and town. On the second day I took a taxi trip down the coast to the delta of the Sao Francisco River. Sergio knew every nook and cranny. We saw 19th century fishing villages, coral reefs, and beautiful beaches. The trip took 6 hours down, 1 1/2 hours to get back.

Salvador is the capital of Bahia. It's the city where the slaves were brought from Africa and is an African city in culture, spirituality, superstition, and music. It has the largest population of African descent outside of Africa. These are pictures of the Pelorino, the neighborhoods surrounding it, Mercado Modelo, the elevator separating the old and new cities, and I finish up partying with Elviane and friends.

Manaus was next for a day. It's a city of 2 or 3 million people and a major port on the Rio Negro. They have the amazingly beautiful Teatro Amazonas opera house it was closed on the first day so I got exterior photos, then got inside when I went back on Saturday. It also has a huge street mercado that I got lots of photos of.

A three night four day cruise of the Amazon was next. It was mostly on Rio Negro, the Black River. It's the color of Coca-Cola. Here are pictures from the Premium and several canoe trips on the tributaries. We also went Piranha fishing. Our guide, Franz, caught a huge one that I got photos of the teeth. The sunset got out of sequence somehow, but that's ok.

Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful city. I stayed on Copacabana Beach and got a lot of photos of it and the Sunday mercado. Monday I took an organized tour of the city and saw a spectacular sunset over the city from Sugar Loaf. That night I saw a samba show. I've seen a number of good ones in Southern California but nothing like this one. The first few photos are the Lido section of the city at night. I finished off with a long walk to Ipanema Beach from Copacabana. I had lunch at Garota de Ipanema, the restaurant where Tom Joabim wrote the song "Girl from Ipanema.