Advertisement
Published: November 16th 2010
Edit Blog Post
The flight to Bolivia was eventful and by that I mean Bolivian belly had caught up with me. I was hunched over in a ball most of the flight with stomach cramps, not a good start. We eventually got to Sau Paulo in one piece and waited on the arrival of our friend Ray from New Zealand. His flight ended up being delayed so he didnt get there until quite late. It really was lovely stuff seeing him after a year and a half, unfortunately I spent the whole of our time in Sau Paulo in bed with flu. Doug and Ray said it was just a concrete jungle anyway and I hadnt missed much. We put off our depature to Rio by a day while I recovered and then headed north for twelve days in Rio.
Our first night in Rio was a Friday, I was still recovering so we didnt really do much. On the Saturday we went for a walk around the city and then went to see Vasco de Gama versus Gremio. The Brazilian fans are pretty wild but also friendly, we managed to stumble across a Brazilian Liverpool fan with a "You never walk alone" tattoo,
he got that wrong for starters. Vasco were 3-1 up going into injury time, they ended up drawing 3-3. It was a decent game but our first taste of Brazilian football put it on par with the championship. As I was feeling better we went for a night out, the night was pretty good. However there were a few ganster pimps in there, we avoided them. The one problem with a Brazilian night out is that you get a card at the start and you put everything on that throughout the night and then pay at the end. Trouble was there were about 200 people trying to leave and only two cashiers. We ended up waiting over an hour to pay our bill. The gangster pimps obviously pushed to the front, we let that slide.
The weather wasnt great the first few days we were in Rio so we only managed to see a little bit of the city and the beaches were pretty deserted. The Monday was better so we went to Impanema beach, it was lovely stuff, as long as the eye can see and some mental waves. I only wish someone would tell the middle aged Brazilian
women that thongs on the beach are not for everyone. Woof. The Tuesday we spent doing a tour of Rio, this included taking in my second wonder of the world, Christ Redeemer, again it was very impressive. You can see it from where we were staying but it is only once you are up close that you really appreciate how huge it is. It was full of tourist which meant our obligatory handstand photo was difficult and we eventually got told to stop by security before we could get a decent one. The tour also included going to a few nature spots and some traditional Brazilian food. The Christ statue though was the pinnacle.
The next day we went down to Copacabana beach, the weather was sporidac so we took advantage of the beach when we could. Again the beach was massive, I think I prefered Ipanema though. That evening we went to another game, this time Vasco de Gama versus Corinthians. As we knew Roberto Carlos was playing for Corinthians we sat with the away fans. About ten minutes into the game, about 500 of the most nutty football fans I have seen came into the Corinthians end. They
were all Corinthians fans named the Gavioes, they all looked mental so we just stood at the back out of there way. They all wore matching Gavioes branded jackets, it was quite surreal. The game finished 2-0 to Vasco which was a bit annoying as we were with Corinthians and the standard was again poor. We got to see Roberto Carlos play though, his legs have gone but he still showed touches of class. It turns out that Ronaldo also plays for Corinthians and we missed his come back from injury by a week which was a shame.
The following day we went on a tour of the largest Favella in Rio. It was such an eye opener. The tour was led by a really interesting guide who knew her stuff. She showed us a few of the projects ran in the Favella and a few of the areas where there had been conflict. The head of the Favella was 24, he carries a gold gun. She talked us through the corruption with the police in the Favella and how problems are sorted. The favella has the lowest crime rate in Rio as all issues are sorted by the head
of the Favella. The only crimes really in the Favella are drug traffiking and murder. I feared her methods saying it was ok to leave your door open at night but just be careful for gang wars and shoot outs with the police. I´ll stick with mid Beds I think. That evening we had an excellent night out in a place called Melt, the annoying payment system was still in place.
The following day the weather was rubbish so we just chilled out before going to the Lapa street party. This was a like a mini carnival in a part of Rio. Every Friday they just block the streets, bring in a load of porter loos and set up stands serving drinks in the street. Again like most of Rio it was quite surreal. It was a good night and had a decent carnival vibe about it without being too wacky.
Again the weather let us down the next day so we just watched sport all day. On the Sunday we went to Ipanmena again as the weather was good, the water was pretty crazy and we got to see a helipcopter rescue from the sea. It wasnt any of
us dont worry. That evening we went to a Favella party, it was more of a semi rave in a warehouse to be honest. Again Rio threw up some querks. In the middle of the party they stopped the music and had the campest compare I have ever seen come on the stage and judge an all male topless dance off. This phased me more than a little bit.
We spent the next couple of days chilling out, we managed to get another beach day in and on our last night with Ray went for a few drinks. It was really great to see him and he is home when I get home which is lovely stuff.
We said our goodbyes to Ray and Doug and I made our way down to Florianopolis for five nights. We had been promised great beaches and great weather while there. There was only one of these however and unfortuantely it was great beaches, without great weather this was pretty redundant. We managed to get one decent days weather out of five. We also did some sandboarding and had a night out in El Divino while we were there but we mainly just relaxed
and watched a lot of sport.
Brazil was excellent and Rio is like no other city, the rich poor divide is crazy and you never really get used to seeing a favella city on the side of a hill in the middle of the financial district. I would recommend it to anyone, the only downside was the weather, it was still better than Englands though I am sure.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0466s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb