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Published: January 5th 2008
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My first steps of 2008 were made with a limp. It was early morning Jan. 1st. Jenny and I hit the pavement in search of refueling sustenance. We were coming off a night that neither of us will ever forget. The evening burned an indelible mark on both of our minds, but we were more concerned with the physical marks that New Year's 2008 had left behind. My body in particular was left battered from our revelry. My head pounded, my stomach roared with hunger, blood flowed from a gash on my left elbow, and my right knee- which I had hyper-extended in the fun- gave me the ambling, jolted stroll of a Thriller background dancer. This misery that we fought through was the world's way of reestablishing a balance to the universe. You see, with the time that we had on New Year's, Jenny and I had thrown off the delicate stalemate held between joy and sorrow. Yin overwhelmed Yang. We just had too much fun. The world needed to punish us the next day in the interest of preventing a tear in the space-time continuum. So we knew to take our discomfort in (broken) stride with the satisfaction that
Shazam!
Unbeleivable fireworks no hangover could ever break even with the night we had.
Our year ended as all years should. We've been in Rio now for just over 2 weeks. In the final week of our stay here we were busy little bees. We went on a city tour that took us all over town. We saw all the different barrios and views of the city. The tour included a hike through the national park that I have dubbed Dengue forest because we got slaughtered by mosquitoes. The hike culminated in a beautiful panorama that gave us a great view of the whole city. We were both shocked by the scale of it all, sprawling for miles. We had been in our little Ipanema bubble, which has more the feel of Newport Beach than a 12 million-person metropolis. After the hike, the tour finished at the statue of Christ the Redeemer. It´s a staggering sight with the combination of the incredible views and epic height of the great statue. Jesus sits on top of the hill, arms wide, greeting all comers that enter through the port. We laughed to learn that the statue, like the statue of liberty, was finished in
Bam!
Well taken Ali France. Cheeky French. Our guide joked that Jesus was standing like that because he was being robbed by the people in the favela below. We loved the statue, but the combination of heat, stifling crowd, and exhaustion from not sleeping in the hostel the night before made our visit very brief. (Our hostel dorm room was joined by some cute little Swedish blokes. They were tiny 18 year olds with bad peach fuzz. Hanz and the chipmunks I dubbed them. They became instantly less adorable when they staggered home at 4 am and commenced to make an insane amount of noise before one of them chose to throw up on himself and his bed. In the deep frier that was our room that smell quickly migrated as it cooked. Consequently I decided to start my day a few hours early rather than marinade in it.)
The next night was a soccer game (sorry football match) at the Maracana stadium downtown. It used to be the world´s highest capacity stadium until a few years ago when they added seats because too many people were were getting trampled in the standing-room only audience. The match was an exhibition between a collection
Kapow!
Take that Santa Ynez 4th of July of international players and the Flamengo league championship team from 1987 (their version of the 1985 Bears, only they've won since). The match still drew 40´000 people ready to roar. Just because the players were all in their late forties, doesn't mean that there shouldn't be fireworks, flags, chants, drunken brawling, and all the other requisite hooliginary. Everyone acted as if they had all just won the lottery jackpot for every goal, and there were 15. It was an amazing experience and our first taste at Latin Football passion.
The rest of our days were spent lounging on the beach, drinking açai, watching sunsets (everyone applauds when the sun cracks the horizon. A moving tribute that I´m totally stealing.), watching Ali stress over his site as it dangled on the edge of crashing, and altogether getting to know and love Rio. This is the longest we've been anywhere and I really never want to leave.
This brings us to New Year´s. They say that Rio is a city of contarsts because of the proximity of the rich and poor, the variance in it´s terrain and the differences in its people. New Year´s is no exception. It´s everything you´d
Pow!
Immediately after midnight want in a massive modern party to rival any in the world, but blanketed in a coating of deeply held local ancient tradition. We started the evening off with a traditional Brazilian dinner at our local friend Ana´s house with her family. You´re not allowed to eat chicken as the last meal of the year because they flap their wings backwards, a bad omen. Fish is best, we had salmon and tuna, both strong fish that will make you hearty in the new year. After a meal that was very insightful on what a real Rio lifestyle is like, We said goodbye to Ana´s parents and brother to head to Ali´s place and have a drink or two. We decided not to go overboard, just have enough to loosen up slightly. We wanted our memories to be lucid. You do'nt want the craziest party you ever see to be blurry. So we headed out to Copacobana Beach ready to rock. Coming around the corner past the mouth of the touring apartment buildings and out into the open beach was truly amazing. 2 million people lined the shore. Though the pictures speak for themselves, I´ll try to do the experience justice.
Zoom!
We drank responsibly, we promise Everyone was dressed in white, another tradition. The color underwear you choose is also imperative. It dictates what you wish for in the coming year. White for peace, green for hope, yellow for money and pink for a new lover. Jenny chose blue for safety and I chose red for passion. We figured the combination would set a good balance. So we carved our way through the crowd and set up right at the water´s edge. With our experiences with South Americans and their mas or menos time, we wouldn´t have been surprised if the fireworks started 20 minutes late. We were shocked when they started 5 minutes early though. The next 15 minutes contained utter chaos. A spectacular fireworks display provided an explosive background to a series of more traditions. Everyone on the beach suddenly mobbed into the water. You must go into the ocean, hop on your right leg over 7 waves while making 7 wishes. I landed in a hole and twisted my knee after the first wave, so my last 6 wishes were "I wish i didn't hurt myself." (magical note from two years in the future: my knee is still a constant irritant. Wouldn't change
Ringing it in
Not a bad New Year's kiss anything from that night though). All the while you must eat grapes, have a champagne shower and throw flowers to the water goddess as a gift in exchange for a prosperous year. We continued to party at the giant Samba stage for a few hours, then transferred to Ipanema beach for an epic rave. The evening's revelry finally caught up with us about 4 am when we returned to bed and submitted to sleep.
We left Rio for two nights for Buzios. It´s Rio´s answer to Carmel, so we had to leave. It´s just not fun sitting on a beach, using your shirt as a towel while surrounded by a sea of silicon beauties wearing diamonds in the water and getting served hand and foot all day. So we retreated back to Rio for two more nights with our tails between our legs. On Sunday, we haed to Ilha Grande for more beach paradise, followed by a stint in Paraty (even more beach paradise). That will close out the South American portion of our tour. Next stop Africa.
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happy new year!
Amazing pics, as usual! What a wonderful way to start the new year...besides the whole twisting the leg in the water part. There wasn't much tradition in Ko Phangan for New Year's...I think the tradition is make out with many people as possible. Eagerly anticipating Africa reports!!!