The Big island and cash-strapped in the River of January!

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Friday 2nd May - We arrived at 5.30am to Angra Dos Reis (Land of the Gods) in Rio De Janeiro province. Got very little sleep again as the bus stopped every hour or so and turned all the lights on. Also we were right at the back by the toilet and the bus crowd was a restless lot, to-ing and fro-ing all night!! As the sun rose behind an overcast sky, the first boat to the island (Ihla Grande) was at 8am, so we sat around in the tourist office drinking black sweet coffee with Laerte, who had lived in New York and Boston and amongst other things had worked in Dunkin Donuts. His advice was great but i am sure he embellished alot of things. Anyway half way through our crossing, the sky turned black and the wind picked up tossing the boat from side to side, which had Laura saying internal silent hail mary's as the inadequate life jackets were handed around!!

The rain fell hard from 9am unti about 11pm that night when it started to clear. Not quite the sunbathig option we had hoped for. Also in our haste to escape the downpour, the jungle fringed mountains clearing down onto the beach and small harbour seemed to shrink embarrasssingly away in the rain like it was ashamed of its own beauty, we took the first accommodation offered. it was fine but expensive and a little depressing with no kitchen (we had been coooking most meals for the last 5 weeks, a stark contrast to the first 6 weeks, an indication of the change in the economy of the countries we faced).

We spent the rest of the day reading in the covered hammock and sleeping off a bad night on a bus, not for the first time. We also managed to find a room exectly the same for $13 cheaper in the youth hostel if we stayed two nights so we signed up and the money we saved paid for dinner on the first night and some food shopping for four meals that took us through to the Monday morning when we were due to head to Rio for the final furlong of the trip.

Saturday was spent on the beach and doing a couple of small treks within easy reach of the harbour town of Abraoo, including black beach, the old jail, aquaduct, natural pool and a waterfall.

Sunday was spent on a boat tour which was a nice way to spend a day but the weather had returned to an overcast day, but the rain held off, so it was nice snorkelling in the blue lagoon and just watching all the big boobies bouncing everywhere (oops! well I can't help it, its like they buy bikinis here in Brasil two sizes too small on purpose!). Had an early dinner and night. Boca beat River Plate in the Buenos Aires derby and Leicester got relegated on the final day of the English championship. I felt bad for Luigi Di Canio who left as QPR manager by 'mutual 'consent' after just 7 months in charge. Just hope we don't become too ruthless in our quest to get back to the Premiership. I would rather originally be a Fulham (same size as us), rather than do a Blackburn and more recently a Chelscum! Met an English gap year student who kind of forced the early night with his posh youthful ramblings about working on a ranch in the south and how all the local women love the fact he is an English Cowboy. He was harmless but I still felt like putting my foot through his arse. I am seriously ready to go home now, the finances being streched ever more all the time. I was looking forward to Rio, but the sheer price of things shocked me!

Monday 5th May - Left on the 10 am ferry and caught a bus to Rio, where arrived through the Zona Norte (rough northern suburbs and favelas. Over 3 million (20% of greater population) people live in 120 tax free, goverment subsidized favelas, the worst of which Ciudade de Deus the film City of God was based) around 3pm. Not fancying the bus we chickened out and paid $25 for a cab into Ipanema, where for three nights we were charged $220 for a double room. Ouch and even worse, this was standard!! We had to bite the bullet and enjoy it though, what else can you do in Rio De Janeiro (River of January). The day we arrived it was seriously grim weather and feeling the weight of our homesickness we decided to spunk $50 on getting pissed on Capirinhas in a bar which included a free spag bowl each. Went to bed seriously pissed and glad all the travelling we had to do left was to get ourselves from Ipanema to the airport on the 8th.

The girls in our hostel were very helpful and tried their best to help us cut financial corners. On the firstd ay we just walked around and I queued up at the famous Regata Club Flamengo HQ for tickets to the second leg of Flamengo v America (from Mexico City) in the Copa Libertadores. The hostel was charging $50 for ticket and pick up, I got ticket and made my way their and back to the famous Maracana stadium for $28. Nice! On Wednesday (America, bottom of the Mexican league, needed an unlikely three goal vioctory, after losing the first leg 4-2 at homme in the Azteca, the problem beig Flamengo had just won the Brasilian league title for a second successful year. However having met Eddie, A Mexican living in San Diego, we decided to sit with the other away fans, them being Jose, Maria, Eduardo, Julio, his wife, a small man of four foot nine. Eight away fans and 60 odd thousand home fans. What had I got myself into. Witht he score at 2-0 America at half time, at one point I feared for my life as the crowd raged all around us, after Flamengo, probably hungover from the league, missed chance after chance in their manager, Joel Santana's final game before heading to coach South Africa ahead of the 2010 World Cup. The atmosphere was awesome and I will try to put some videos I took on my facebook at some point. Having just arrived back to Boston after a 20 hour journey my main priority is to catch up on some sleep.

Incredibly the fat striker of America nabbed a second, and his side's third via a defelection from a free kick with 7 minutes to go, sending the home fans into a frenzy. Each of the three goals was a strange experience as they were met by utter silence, except 8 fans laughing and the blow of a ref's whistle hisarm pointing to the centre circle. I also found the feet of fame and I happen to have the exact same size feet of Pele. Wew left with five minutes to go to catch the final tube and avoid a lynching. I was not getting a kicking for being a Mexican when I wasn't, although the result was a shock to everyone including the viositors who can't have had odds any better than 30 or 40-1 to go through to the third stage!

Before the match we had checked out the Sambadromo where the carnival rages for 5 days to signify the start of lent and Sao Christao cathedral which holds 10,000 peple and looks like a cross between a communist monument to Lenin and a Philip K Dick sci fi Blade Runner building from the future. The inside had good stain glass all the way up to the 100m high roof and it reportedly held 20,000 for the 1980 visit of Pope John Paul II. Then we went through the streets of portuguese colony city of Santa Teresa, like Higinopolis in sao Paulo, the eldest settlement within the city with the first sewage, and followed the tram tracks up through Tijuaca forest to Christ the Redeemer for a 360 view of Rio, stunning!

Also went to favela, just did 1000 words and computer crashed, so I will just say it was fascinating. Then Thursday we spent on Copacobana beach and Ipanema Beach watching the beach bums and then flew out broke as all hell. I now write from Boston on Fri 9th May and will write one final highlights blog before I leave here. keep wathcing facebook fro videos and photos, cheers xtom

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