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Published: March 9th 2007
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Samba 1
Myself, Ro and Andy at about 2am. Andy loved the wig and Dame Edna glasses, as you will see. Puerto Iguazu to Rio
Ok so here is my tale of woe, probably my worst day traveling ever. First here are some points you should know before I begin: Puerto Iguazu is the town on the Argentinean side of Iguazu Falls and Foz Do Iguaçu (not correct spelling) is on the Brazilian side. These two towns are about 20 minutes apart with a border crossing in between. I spoke to three different people about the bus ticket I bought and the departure times and I had been in the area for about three days. Also I was coming from Argentina where the buses are cheap, comfortable and provide food and entertainment.
With this in mind let me begin. I had been very organized and bought my bus ticket to Rio two days before the date of departure. The bus was to leave from Foz Do Iguaçu at midday and arrive in Rio about 11am the next morning. I left Puerto Iguazu at about 9.30 went through the border crossing with no problems, caught another bus and was in Foz with plenty of time. I arrived at the main terminal just before 11am, by my watch, feeling very pleased with
Samba 2
Faheem didn´t mind them either. myself for being so organized. I strolled around the terminal bought some water and food and pulled up chair. After a couple of minutes an announcement came over that the 12.15 bus was ready to depart. Having caught a few buses I thought this was a bit keen, so I looked around the place to see if I could find a departure board. It was at this point I saw a massive clock on the wall saying 12:15, searching frantically around the terminal I was faced with a plethora of clocks with the same image. So leaving my bags to the mercy of the public I ran out to the tarmac and was told the bus, of course, was gone. I then headed around to the ticket office where it was explained to me that yes there was a time difference between these two towns and no there will be no refund, discount or help in any way. Being the patient and understanding person that I am I naturally handled all of this very well. I’m sure I was even smiling by the time I handed over my credit card to purchase another $100 ticket for a bus that didn’t
Samba 3
Ro got in on the act as well, I think Andy may still be wearing those glasses. leave for six hours (this could have been at the thought of smashing the glass barrier and throttling the young sales girl, maybe).
Anyway after a delightful six hour wait, wondering why no-one had mentioned the difference to me, I boarded my bus and sat across the aisle from a mother and baby. I’m pretty sure that as soon as the bus pulled out of the terminal the baby wet itself giving the bus a wonderful urine fragrance for the next 20 odd hours. Of which there was not a flash of entertainment or a wink of sleep, the food stops were welcomed just to get out of the smell. Fortunately after this most pleasant of journeys I did eventually arrive at my apartment in Rio, knowing that I could only blame myself for the stuff up.
Carnaval
It turned out our place was right across the road from Copacabana Beach and despite it being relatively small would be great for the next ten days. There was also cable TV which shouldn’t be a big thing when celebrating Carnaval but when you haven’t seen one for awhile it is a welcome luxury. While waiting for the other
Parade 1
Hard to get clear pics because of the lights and a lack of skill, but I think you get the idea. boys; Andy, Faheem, Harry and Mike, to rock up my first couple of days were spent getting to know Rio and avoiding going shopping with the three girls; Bev, Ro and Laura, I was staying with. I of coursed managed to get quite sun burnt on my first day but thankfully only peeled a little during the last few days. Some of my mates would love this place, I mean you Giles, you could run along the beach in your underwear, do some exercises and then go and sit next to the water with a cold beer and no-one look twice, but you have to keep your underwear on. I even got some exercise in, fully clothed mind you, a great feeling after gorging in Argentina and with all the Peacocks strutting around I felt I had better get a bit of shape back.
The festivities kicked off with a street party, where I had a very long conversation with some Portuguese speaking Brazilians who were having an absolute ball. I have no idea what they were saying but that doesn’t seem to worry Brazilians, really nice people. The itinerary went beach, dinner, drinks and then out for the
Parade 2
The floats are mind-boggling, how they handle all the dancers and movement is beyond me. next few nights. Probably the best night out for me was when we went to a big outdoor concert called Sambaland. It had good music, good food, cheap beer and a view of some passing floats and fireworks at the Sambodrome, where we would be heading for the last night of Carnaval. This was of course the highlight; this is what you see on TV, the fantastic costumes and unbelievable floats. We bought our tickets from some dodgy guy on the street and were fully expecting to be laughed at and turned away, to our relief we got in. Finding seats for a group of 9 was a difficult task so we were a bit spread out for most of the night, but it was fine. The parades don’t really start until about 10pm and each one taking an hour or so to get down the drag means it finishes about 6am. I think I stayed till about 2:30 - 3:00, by then my bum was sore from the concrete seat and my legs were sore from attempting to dance when each parade went past us. The pictures and movies show better than I could describe the amazing colour and
Copa 1
Copacabana beach from the look out at Sugar Loaf mountain. size of these moving fiestas. We went to a couple of street parades and saw some brass bands but for me, outside the Sambodrome, the highlight was a Capoeira display, the Brazilian dancing martial art. These guys were unreal; they stopped the traffic in the street and barefoot performed some amazing acrobatics and martial art skill, including backflips over a 2 meter high rope.
We spent the last couple of days doing the touristy things, which showed just what an amazing setting Rio has. Apart from Mike who had a night involving the police, a psychiatric ward, a hospital and a drip, a story you wouldn’t believe except he had the certificates to show he wasn’t insane just very drunk, no-one had any trouble. Well I could go on and on about Rio but this is already too long. So after saying good-bye to some great people, who I will hopefully see in a few months, I met back up with Dan and flew out of Rio feeling like I had only seen a fraction of the place.
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Ric & Candess
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Isn't Rio sensational?
Hey guys. Been a while since our Chile trip. Good to see that you hooked up in Rio with some of the other guys from that trip. Thought of you as we saw some Carnavale photos in the paper here. Keep livin git up.