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Published: February 12th 2008
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...Poker session in Floripa, The concrete jungle, Cidade Maravilhosa, And the Brazilian & the hooligan... How are things? All well I hope. I´m right in the midst of the Brazilian stint now, quite a country I have to say.
Last blog was end of Carnaval I believe. Well, that also heralded the end of Florianopolis as it was time to give another city a bash. We left, but not before a night to sign off on in the hostel that consisted of poker, Irish, and a stray dog taking quite an affection to me. No better way to say farewell to the resort than that surely. Next up we had Sao Paulo, defined by the splendid chaps at wikipedia.com as a megcacity, due to the some the 18 million residents who live there. Sao Paulo is also the commercial centre of the nation, and the
Paulistas are pretty friendly people it has to be said. Unfortunately, I doubt there is an uglier city in Brazil. Its simply miles and miles of mundane skyscrapers and practically nothing else. We only booked in for a two day stay as a stop off on our way to Rio and it was for
the best. I´m enjoyed my time there but there was very little to do in daytime. Once we had arrived, we met a couple of Brazilians in the hostel who were taking a walk around the city. The most remarkable thing I remember was a young kid of about 8 busking on one busy city centre street? His method of earning cash I hear you ask...Singing? No. Dancing? Not a chance. Instead this little bright spark was doing maths equations to an eager audience. He´ll go far this one.
Night time, and a quiet little drink in our hostel turned in to something of a social gathering. Feeling a tad peckish, 7 of us headed out for a bite to eat, more drinking, and further political debate with a german lad named Timm who gave us his insight into the European Union. Very insightful it was too. The place we arrived had happened to be a bit of a locals place but we had our two natives with us so we felt fine. Two bites into a fantastic calabrese pizza, the Brazilians next to us got chatting after picking up on our ´gringo speak.´ The topic of conversation they
began with was naturally football. Upon catching sight of yours truly they labelled me a West Ham fan and dubbed me ´The Hooligan.´ This coming from the more popular than I realised film ´Green Street´ that documents British football violence, and my choice of haircut. That Hooligan thing stuck around for the duration of Sao Paulo, whereas Aaron got complimented on quite a few occasions that he could pass for a native Brazilian. Still, could have been worse...Timm, according to our Brazilian friends, is the spitting image of James Blunt. Upon realising this, they sang ´You´re beautiful´ to him about 392 times. Hell, I even joined in myself, they weren´t too bad as vocalists. Carrying on from the whole football thing, they mentioned they were playing the following day and asked us to come along. Un-nerved by one of the lads (He was quite tall and they called him Peter Crouch, apparently they love a good look-a-like in Sao Paulo) promising that he would embarrass me by placing the ball through my legs 3 times, we had to give it a go. The games were 5-a-side, with a roll on/ off kind of situation. I felt like I was going
to pass out after 5 minutes due to the weather and not having exercised in 6 weeks, but us gringos held our own I´m proud to say. Overall it was a great experience and definitely something that couldn´t have been done without of the help of the locals as the pitch was in a slightly questionable area. Thankfully they were all friendly enough, and everyone made efforts to convert us to support their preffered teams. This mainly consisted of crude statements about rivals that are distinctly unrepeatable.
And so Sao Paulo was done. Forgettable as a city, but the experience and the people were very worthwhile. Next up? Merely Rio de Janeiro. The Marvelous city. Famous for beaches and beauty, football and Favelas, Samba and, as of the 10th February, the imminent arrival of Sam Sparrow. It´s also one of the settings for the classic 1979 Bond thriller, Moonraker, where Bond and Jaws get into a bit of a scuffle, in case you weren´t sure. We´d taken the bus from Sao Paulo and arrived early evening into the ´Ipanema wave hostel,´ located a mere 1 minute walk from the beach. Not much done that night but the next
day we headed right to Ipanema for beach fun. We got in and settled down and instantly felt out of place. I didn´t see anyone with skin as pale as mine, an issue I felt I needed to remedy...
So I got sunburnt again, as is the norm now. I did apply cream but I really don´t have the knack at getting it right. Ah well, the day was a good one and on the night we took in some fine local cuisine of chips topped with cheese and bacon. Tasty, but the claim that it was chedder cheese going down my gullet was questionable. I know my chedder, and brother, that weren´t it!
Seeing as the day before had consisted of intentionally doing nothing, the next one was scheduled for getting to know the city. Where better to start than Pão de Açúcar. That´ll be sugarloaf mountain for those less familiar with the Portuguese language. We did the whole cable car thing right to the top and it afforded a truly memorable view of the city, from the famous beaches to the just as famous corcovado mountain. Something that really distinguishes Rio is how huge a contrast
it offers in such a relatively short space. From where we were we could see clearly the glamourous beaches of Copacobana, Ipanema and Leblon. Yet in the very same panorama are the notorious favelas, a hotbed of poverty and murder that scar the face of Rio. Brazil is a fairly wealthy country, yet the government are loathe to do anything about the disgracefully abject conditions that exist, last year they apparently cut off altogether what little funding they actually provided. The poverty continues, as do the average 80 murders a week.
The afternoon was set for a tour courtesy of our hostel and a driver they hired for us. He took us to the sights but didn´t speak English which was challenging. One time he pointed to my thigh that was still ridiculously white as my shorts had prevented sunburn there and called me a gringo, to which to laughed quite a lot. He also honked his horn regularly at situations that didn´t call for it, e.g. women. Still, the tour was worth every penny. First, he drove us to a part of town, pulled over and calmly stated favela. Realising I´d left my bullet-proof vest at home, he
then informed us by shaking his head and imitating gunshots with his hands that of the seven favelas in Rio, they dont shoot each other at this one.
Jesus Christ. This was the next thing we saw. Right up on top of the tallest peak in Rio stands the statue they call ´Christ the redeemer.´Very awe inspiring I must say, as were the views from here yet again. Additionally, the situation provided me the opportunity to try out several poses for the camera. Such classics inclued the Christ copycat, the point, flexing the muscles, and my personal favourate, the Bruce Forsyth. We took a drive back through the town, this time stopping to look at a Favela that apparently is dangerous, although this time from quite a distance back. Other city highlights included the new cathedral, the old tram in Lapa, and some fancy steps that have taken 17 years to create.
And that is your lot I believe. There will be more to come from Rio, but tomorrow we are heading on a 3 day trip to Ilha Grande, just to see how things are down there.
Cheers.
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GrandDad Peter
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Which one are you ?
I like the photo of Christ and you - are you the big stoney one ? The views from the peaks are indeed marvellous, but the Cathedral was disappointing. It's amazing how the favelas are right next to posh golf courses - inequality is the curse of all Latin America, but Lula is doing his best to equalize. Rio is also great for shoeshops - I've just today thrown away a pair of trainers I bought four years ago. Where next ? Your capacity for making friends will get you into trouble with con-men, so watch it