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Published: August 6th 2007
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Our last day in Botafogo we went to the football stadium to watch Botafogo v Vasco, which was nothing like we had ever experienced in our lives. Trying to enter the stadium we were pushed, shoved and squashed like never before. We both nearly lost our flip-flops in the crowds and were surrounded by fat, sweaty men with their shirts off. It was disgusting but an experience we´ll never forget. Once in the stadium it was a lot of fun. We ended up sitting on the Vasco side but we think they had the better chants anyway. There were flares going off, lots of people shouting and huge flags. People would stand wherever there was a space. There were lots of beers, ice-cream and local drinks going round. Botafogo ended up winning 2-0. To end the day we ended up cooking bangers and mash but not as we knew it, what we thought were pork sausages turned out to be chicken.
After the first week we changed to Walk On The Beach hostel in Copacabana run by Bo a Danish guy and a portuguese lady. They were both really friendly and spoke really good English. The hostel itself was the
best so far, really clean, warm showers, a nice lounge to relax in and a bar run by John an English guy. A lot of people told us to go to Ipanema instead but we wanted to try Copacobana for ourselves. Once we arrived at the hostel we headed to the beach and spent the rest of the day there. The waves were really strong and the water ice cold but fun to paddle around in. We decided to take a walk to Ipanema and ended up finding a nice rocky area to watch the sun set in the distance. It was really amazing!!! We then took a slow walk back and met an American guy called Celio from New York. He had been staying here for several months and it was his last night in town. We browsed the market and think he took pity on us as he ended up buying us an ice-cream, Mango flavour, delicious! In the evening we sat in the bar at our hostel, there ended up being two other English, an Irish and American guy and us so it was a nice night and we made sure we got our free Caipirinhas.
Sand Castle
The Sand Catsle we built whilst on the beach! After the drinking the night before we decided to have a lazy day on the beach. We went to Copacobana as we liked it and it has a good atmosphere. You couldn´t sleep there though as there is always too much going on with people trying to sell you things, bands playing bongos and people throwing water over your feet without asking. A crazy woman approached Sam J randomley showing her thong (BUM) and telling us her husband is Italian. At the end of our first proper day at the beach Sam J was still white with red dots from being bitten to pieces and Sam D had her usual stripy look going on - (god knows how she does it). That evening we went to a funky bar which was very expensive with four drinks costing us 85 reals (about 24 pound). Almost a days budget for each of us. We went along with a couple of guys from the hostel and some girls they knew from Rio and Buenos Aires. They introduced us to all their Portuguese friends who were also friendly. We went on to supposedly the best club in Rio - didn´t think much of it
but still had a good time.
The next day we woke up late and went to Santa Teresa the old neighbourhood we had heard about which was meant to be nice. Trying to get there was a nightmare as we had to get a metro then a bus, only we could not find the correct bus. With the help of a taxi driver we found the right bus. By this time it was getting later, we went on the bus and ended up staying on there for a round trip. The bus driver most have thought we were crazy and he did not speak a word of english. As we travelled through Santa Teresa it looked unsafe and deserted. The sun was starting to set so we went all the way to the end of the bus route, waited on the bus while the buses took turns to leave and arrived back at the same point we left from an hour and a half later. But we saved on the bus fare!! That evening we had dinner at a Brazilian restaurant called Monchique. It was eat as much as you like and had such a variety with so many
dishes we never tried before. The waiters bring round different types of meat constantly until you tell them no more.
The next day we went to the rainforest Barra De Tijuca. Again we had trouble getting there intially getting on the wrong bus but the help of a women we managed to get there. When we got there we expected to find a vistor centre near the entrance but this was at least a half an hours walk into the rainforest up some very steep hills. We took a map from the centre not realising that when the women come to help us, we were supposed to pay almost 1 pound for one. Lucky enough we did not pay as it was useless. We saw some really amazing butterflies, which were huge and monkeys in the trees eating the fruit. We took a trail with small streams along the way with stepping stones to walk over and ended up at a waterfall where people wore there swimwear and went for a dip. To end the day we had a really nice burger and tried to catch a bus home We held out our hand from the wrong side of
the road (idiots) but were FLABBAGASTED when the bus did not stop. We had to wait 20 minutes for the next one.
Saturday we went on the favela tour. We arrived at the bottom of the favela to be told we had to get on the back of motorcycles to get to the top. Both of us had never done this before and was a scary experience.Once we got to the top of favela Rocinha we were shown how they get their electric - not through the electric company but by hooking up there own wires to the lines so they dont have to pay for it. We were taken to the art studios with some amazing art. We were then taken throught the favela which was very uneven and their houses were built on different levels. Here they build a home and then sell off their roof for someone else to build on and so on. They are several storeys high and with the heat and rain together with the foundations, which are normally of rubbish, they are pretty much guaranteed to fall down eventually. It really smelt and there were lots of skinny chickens running around on
piles of rubbish.It is a horrible way for people to live but was more sophisticated then we imagined with a cake shop and supermarket. The children were very sweet and love posing for photos, but always like to see the pictures as they think they are going to be famous on the TV and in the magazines. To finish the week of in Rio we had a night in our hostel bar playing black jack (which sam d was terrible at) and drinking Caipirinhas as a forfit. We played foosball with the hostel staff (which sam d was also terrible at) and had a really good night.
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Lee J
non-member comment
great stuff!
I'm just off to work so just a short one.... seems like you are loving it, glad you are making friends woth other travellers too. I would have loved to see some rainforest! Send me any photos you wanna back up, take care both of you! Love Lee x