Beer and beanbags

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You know, I had a title all lined up for this blog. It had been kindly donated by Michael Paynter, but events overtook me, and the title was changed. But Mike, you can take solace in that you have been namechecked in a world famous blog. Well, maybe not world famous, but perhaps famous in England. At least my mum and dad read it occasionaly.

So then, Rio de Janiero. The very mention of the place is enough to get you mugged apparently. But I've been around Latin America quite a while now, and consider myself pretty street smart, so I wasn't going to get too worked up about that. However, for whatever reason, it had never really been a place I was overly excited about visiting, and I was kind of there as it is one of the "must visit" cities of Latin America over any great desire of my own. In the next couple of weeks, I'd discover why it is one of the "must visit", and also find it rather difficult to leave.

Those of you familiar with Brazilian geography may note that I went from Paraty to Rio without stopping at Ilha Grande inbetween. You may even chastise me for missing out the island, as its meant to be a great place. But this was a deliberate tactical decision, as my scouting had said that both Adriano and Ronaldo would be involved in matches in Rio this weekend. Ilha Grande could wait until afterwards.

So, that first weekend in Rio involved a bit of an aimless wander around the city, a night out in Lapa, and 2 games of football. These turned out to be damper than the wettest squib you have ever seen. Both ended 0-0, Adriano didn't even play in the Flamengo game, and although Ronaldo did take to the field for Corinthians vs Botafogo, he stood very still for 60 minutes before being substituted. Bah. However, I did find out that Fluminese would be playing Corinthians at the Maracana on Wednesday in the cup quarter final, and thus determined to see some goals, I decided to stick around in Rio. Ilha Grande would have to keep waiting.

In the days leading up to the game, I did some proper sightseeing, walking up both Morro Urca (the hill just below the Sugar Loaf) and the Corcovado, which of course is home to Christ the Redeemer. The views over the city from both of these summits is quite splendid and well worth the trip up. Of course, you also manage to avoid paying the ridiculously high prices required to take the train/cable car. Of course, the fact that you can walk up is not very well advertised, but its safe to say that in the days following our ascent there was a steady stream of hikers from the El Misti hostel hitting the trail. I apologise to the respective companies for their loss of income.

Obviously, I also took the time to wander round the city itself. The centre is not particularly interesting, but Rio does have one of the better cathedrals that I've seen. I also took the tram up to the Santa Teresa district for a bit of a wander. On the way up, I took a seat, while all the local kids just ran after it and held onto the side. This looked rather fun, so on my way back down I joined in. It was definitely the highlight of Santa Teresa, which I thought was rather dull.

By now, it was Wednesday, and a large group of us had gathered to go to the game. Eschewing the expensive tour, we jumped on the tube to the Maracana, which was quite a lot fuller than the last time I went. Then, rumours of a sellout went round, and it seemed that we were going to be at the mercy of the touts. This all turned out to be lies, although the stadium was quite full. Gareth, who I'd met in Puerto Iguazu, was among us, and he bumped into a Fluminese fan he knew. This led to us heading to the section occupied by the most partisan Fluminese fans, and was a bit of a squash to say the least. Eight gringos stuck out like a sore thumb! Terrific atmosphere though, and as the teams came out everyone started chucking flour bombs, for reasons I'm not quite sure of. As for the match, with Fluminese needing to win by 2 clear goals, going into halftime 2-0 down wasn't the ideal first 45. Two quick second half goals got the stadium jumping, but miracles don't always happen, and the game ended 2-2.

Now, I had yet again planned to go to Ilha Grande the next day, but by now I'd made quite a few friends in the hostel, and some more people I'd met before in Brazil had arrived, so I decided to yet again put off making the move, in favour of some quality time spent on El Misti's beanbags. Indeed, Hannes, the German I originally arrived in Rio with, turned up to find myself and Rhys from Paraty putting the world to rights/talking crap while getting limbered up for a Friday night in Lapa. And thus beer and beanbags was born!

I should probably talk a bit about Lapa. By day, its a pretty interesting little area, with its distinctive aquaduct, and the famous Selaron steps (made out of individual brightly coloured tiles). A few years ago it was apparently really dangerous, and it still feels a little bit edgy wandering around on your own. I was fine though. But on a Friday and Saturday night, Lapa transforms itself into one big street party, with the streets full of drink/food sellers, and all the bars turning their speakers out onto the streets for all to enjoy. Great fun, although perhaps a little too great, as I had decided to go to Ilha Grande on the Saturday, but put it off yet again due to a little bit of sleeping in and a pounding headache.

Luckily, Rio has the perfect hangover cure, and its known as the Copacabana. And thats where I spent the last couple of days, happily sleeping away merrily on the beach, apart from the occasional battle with the huge waves that wash up there to keep things interesting.

Come Monday, and, with a bit of encouragement (i.e. people shouting at me to hurry up or we'd miss the bus) I finally did point myself towards Ilha Grande. Rio had sold itself to me completely, quite possibly my favourite city of my trip so far!

Stewart

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Photos

City Centre
The Dalek looking thing is the Cathedral

Ipanema beach
The lights behind are Rocinha favela