Kiribu

I arrived in on the night bus from Floripa at about 8 in the morning. I actually managed to sleep pretty decently for the first time ever on a night bus. It was a modern bus with no air-co blasting in my face and no screaming kids poking me in the back. Bonus!

I headed straight to the tourist office to try to find a decent hostel or hotel and to see what there is to do in this city, because I didn’t have a clue. I was given a list of 5 or so hotels, hostels don’t exist in Porto Alegre, it is not really a backpacking type of town. They were all fairly close so I headed out for an early morning stroll in search of a cheap hotel. Just for curiosity I wandered to the opposite side of the bus station and across the road to have a look at the posh 5 star hotels, 1 or 2 nights of luxury would be nice! The price of the first was 150 R$, and the second was 220R$, about 50 and 80 pounds per night, actually not too bad, but I can do quite a lot with that money. So back to reality and the cheaper part of town.

Porto Alegre seemed pretty run down, lots of homeless people and beggars, so initially I took a lot of care, after all I was walking around with my backpack and man bag, anyone who would have robbed me would have done really well for themselves. Annoyingly the trousers I was wearing with all the zip stow pockets was falling down below my waist so I had to pull them up every 5 seconds. I always put my valuables in the zip pockets as then they actually have to go to some effort to guess which of the 7 pockets i have my money, passport, papers and cards in. If they smack me over the head and nick my longs, I am screwed, potentially in more ways than one.

A few things immediately struck me about Porte Alegre. The mix of different types of people was more diverse than any other city, and the class of people were also far more diverse. Lots of suited business types, young and old, lots of street vendors, almost every shade of white and black person, some were whiter than me. Lots of young students and school children too. In fact lots of people stuck out far more than me and might easily be mistaken for tourists. As a tourist you can feel quite safe as far as looks goes. Then someone asked me for directions from a car in one of the side streets. I just spoke spanish with them saying I was not from around here, duh!, I have a big green backpack on! I eventually got to the most recommended hotel only to find out they would only have the cheapest single room (communal bathrooms) available and I wouldn’t be able to check in until 11:30 anyway. I headed off to the next hotel on the list, back up through the main shopping street and almost back where I had started. Hotel Elevado looked pretty decent and they had fixed prices and a room available. Nice.

Travelling on your own it is far more fun staying in hostels and dorms as then you have someone to chat to or sight see with. I had a well deserved shower which was either cold, hot or unbearable. All Brazilian showers I’ve had have been rubbish. I headed out to explore the centre and main market with the map I had been given from the tourist office. Porto Alegre, unlike other cities in Brasil, is quite explorable on foot. I was feeling pretty tired so I didn’t stay out too long. I had a snoop around the market and had some food and went back.

The next day I really wanted to see a lot, and I did. By about 10 I was already roaming the streets again and on my way to the port area. Sadly the main port area was not accessible so I walked further down where the port stops and there is a massive refurbished warehouse, complete with large chimney, which used to be a factory or something. Usina do Gasômetro is now a huge exhibition centre. Further on there is a running path and cycle route along the edge of the lake and around a park. Really nice.

After exploring around for a few hours I almost accidentally ended up at the tourist bus point. As I was only here for two days and I couldn’t be bothered to explore around on my own, I thought this would be a good option this time around. There was a Rural Tour and a City Tour, One was right after the other so I signed up for both. They turned out to be really good actually, and gave a good overview of the city centre and the more residential areas. Highly recommended. I had done a lot of walking and a lot of sight-seeing. Funnily enough I didn’t meet any other european tourists during my stay. Like São Paulo I think this would be a great city to live in as it has pretty much everything although it is not as modern or well-developed and rather run down. The benefit is that some of the old architecture is absolutely stunning and definitely the highlight for me.

The following day I slept in, check out was not until midday and I only really wanted to see one of the parks, my bus was not until the evening so I had a long wait. I wandered around the centre and had some lunch before getting my things and heading for the bus station. I had booked a bus to Punta del Este, Uruguay, so Porto Alegre would be my last stop in Brasil. The bus company TTL organises all the stamps and visas for you, the scary thing is they take your passport off you until you reach your destination, this is to avoid waking you and standing in line for the border at 4 in the morning. I had a really luxury seat, right at the front, it’s a single seat so no one next to me. We were given blankets, food, drinks and they put on a really cheesy movie. Amazing, why travel by air!