Final update from Rio!

Hey everyone!!

My stay at Rio had finally come to an end - am leaving tomorrow on the night bus for Ouro Preto, just for a few days on the way to Salvador! Heading north where its hopefully going to be even hotter! :o)

As most of you have probably heard... i didnt even last a day in the fevelas! :o( It was awful so I ran away! I met the American woman at the bottom of the fevelas and we hiked up to the top of the fevelas where the childrens day care centre is, then she said bye, good luck and left! She was the last person I spoke to who could speak a single word of English! Noone at the kids centre could speak any English whatsoever which was so hard because i couldnt really help the teachers that much as we just couldnt understand eachother! I spent the day with the 2-3 year olds ... soooooooooooo cute!! It didnt matter too much that we couldnt understand eachother as they mostly just wanted to cuddle and play with my hair! hehe! :o) But it was quite frustrating when they were asking me questions, or crying coz one of the others had smacked them over the head and i just couldnt do anything! They had a sleep from 12-3pm which was quite boring just watching them sleep.... was quite jealous, quite fancied a nap too! :o) At the end of the day I was just hanging around waiting to go back to the managers house, she kept trying to talk to me but we just couldnt understand eachother! Then she motioned for me to follow some women, so i followed them back to a house, which turned out to be the managers house! It was horrible though as I was just sat there not understanding a word and feeling like a complete lemon! The manager eventually came home but didnt show me where i was sleeping or anything so i just carried on sitting around feeling stupid! I wanted to go into town and maybe meet up with Richard or buy a Portuegese-English dictionary but she couldnt understand me when I asked her what her address was so that I could find my way back incase i got lost, which i knew i would! In the end she gave me her phone number although I knew that wouldnt help at all as if we couldnt make sense of eachother standing opposite eachother then it was hardly going to be any better on the phone! I ended up just going round the corner to buy something to eat, but came back pretty quickly because it felt a bit unsafe! Then I tried phoning mum to ask whether i should do a runner but i couldnt make the phone work and the woman couldnt understand what i was trying to say! And the other people sat around just kept laughing when i guess answered her questions which she apparantly didnt ask! :o(

So in the end I decided it was all just too lonely and humiliating! They were really nice but there was just no point as we couldnt communicate with eachother whatsoever!! I didnt feel like I was being much help with the children either as i couldnt communicate with them or the teachers so i decided the whole thing would only make me more miserable the longer i stayed there so I decided I would give the woman the 50pounds as a donation to the centre so she knew i thought the work she was doing was really great, i just couldnt be much physical support! But when I told her i was leaving she didnt understand! I gave her the 50pounds and tried explaining it with lots of hand motions and asked her if she understood, at which point she told me to follow her! She led me up these tiny vertical stairs, was so glad i hadnt eaten much that day otherwise i would definately have gotten stuck which would have added to the humiliation hehe! Then we went up more stairs and ended up on the roof, at which point it did cross my mind that maybe she had understood me, was mad and was going to push me off the roof! Luckily she didnt! :o) Instead she opened a big cabinet in the floor and started taking things out of it, by then id decided she was going to lock me in there but luckily she didnt do that either! She just handed me a dictionary! phew! :o) Then we just stood on the roof while i looked up every word of my ´im leaving now´sentence! She still didnt understand and took the dictionary off me and looked up a random word, cant even remember what it was now, but it definately had nothing to do with anything! she then told me the view of the fevelas was beautiful (which it really was, the whole of the fevelas were lit up and it did look quite amazing!) and started taking down all the washing! I asked her if she wanted any help and suddenly understood English because she said yes please! So i ended up spending 20minutes taking down this womans washing! Then when we went back downstairs she gave me a piece of paper and a pencil and told me to write down what i was trying to say! So i got to work with my dictionary again, this time on paper! When i was finished she said she half understood but soon enough we were back on the roof, with her shouting at her neighbour to come over who could speak English! That was a bit of an overstatement, she could speak about 5 words! I tried using really basic English like ´i take bag and leave´ upon which they went inside and started looking for my bag which they thought i was saying id lost! It was so frustrating (but in quite funny now looking back!) but anyway eventually after about half an hour she managed to understand that i was leaving, why, and that i wanted her to keep the money! So i got my things and fled the fevelas, luckily managing not to get mugged on the way!! :o)

Since then things have got a LOT better, although i suppose it couldnt really have gotten worse!! :o) Ended up in a really cool hostel in Ipanema (the next beach along from Copacabana where i stayed before) and have met lots of lovely people here! Was waiting around for Richard the next morning (as it turned out he was staying in the hostel next to mine) who was still in bed as he had said he was going to the beach with people and i hadnt met anyone yet so i thought id tag along! But while i was waiting for him an Australian guy, Luke, asked if i was also going on the tour to Christ, Sugarloaf etc that he was waiting for! I wasnt sure if Richard had already seen those sights and i wasnt sure how long the good weather was going to last so i decided to go on this tour! It was amazing!

First of all we hiked up the pedra bonita mountain, the national park, which was sooo tiring as it was so steep and so hot! There were 2 Dutch girls in our group who kept crying because they were so tired so thankfully we got quite a few breaks on the way up as the tour guide tried to console them that we were nearly there (which we never were - he lied them to the top!) hehe! The view was well worth it though - you could see all of Rio including the Fevelas an hour away where The City of God was filmed! Then we took the sceanic route in the tour guides big van (which someone had crashed into the day before and was literally falling apart which was a comforting thought when we were hurtling up and down mountains, beeping our way around the corners so he didnt have to break!! hehe!) to the Christ statue! It was amazing but really busy! Then we went to Santa Teresa and had a look around, saw the famous steps there! Afterwards we had the option of going back to the hostel or being dropped off at Sugarloaf! Everyone apart from Luke and I went back to the hostel (the price for Sugarloaf wasnt included in the tour!) as they were too tired! Sugarloaf was the most amazing thing in Rio though.... you have the most beautiful view of the whole city and the sunset was absolutely spectacular!! I have never seen the sky so many colours... and never taken so many pictures!! hehe! :o) On the way back we found an Irish couple who were staying in the hostel next to us so we shared a taxi back and ended up going out for dinner and to the Lapa street party with them! It was a hilarious evening!

The next morning (yesterday) it was my job to wake everyone up at 9am so we could book handgliding! Got picked up at 10am with everyone a teeny bit hungover, except me ofcourse! :o) It was absolutely amazing!!! Really really scary having to sprint off the platform and into mid-air but was sooo exciting!! We were in the air for about 15 minutes i think! I think our flight was a bit longer as the guy said i sprinted so fast that we went up higher instead of dropping of the platform! My pilot guy was really cool and funny and could speak really good English, he was quite typically cheesy though and kept mentioning how lovely it was to be in the air with a ´beautiful lady´as his first flight of the day! I didnt really want to hear that it was his first flight of the day though and quickly double checked that you dont forget how to land from one day to the next but he assured me it was fine!! He took about 5 calls on his mobile while we were in the air though... i was like dude can we concentrate please!! he didnt seem to worry about dropping his phone! The landing was quite scary and we got a bit tangled up but it was fine and he told me i was a very good co-pilot! :o) He took lots of photos during the flight which you could buy afterwards on a cd for 12pounds which i bought! :o) Spent the rest of the day on the beach and just had an evening in with some English guys in the hostel common room last night!

Today Ive just been relaxing on the beach with a few English guys! Then went to watch the Germany v Spain match in the Irish pub down the road where we ended up bumping into lots of people from my hostel including the Irish couple which was fun!! There were lots of Germans in there, some with facepaint on so I went over and got them to paint me so it was obvious who i was supporting!! :o) Sad Germany lost though!! :o( Almost wished i hadnt gotten so excited with the facepaint though when we were walking around the markets after the match because i got stopped a million times by Brazilians either asking me what the score was or by Brazilians saying ´Germany not so good´to which i had to agree! hehe!!

OK ive been babbling away for years now!! Sorry! :o)

Have added some photos but will have to add paragliding photos next time as theyre on a disc which i dont have on me and someone else is waiting to use the internet!

Love and miss u all lots and hope to hear from u all soon! :o) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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