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Published: February 26th 2008
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Sandwiched on one side by white sandy beaches, and on the other by mountains, Rio is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful cities imaginable. The Botafogo, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches are the centres for entertainment and relaxation during the day, and by night Ipanema and Lapa become the centres of action with Samba dancing galore. Add to this the fanatical local support of Rio's football teams - Botafogo, Vasco De Gama, Flamengo and Fluminese - and you've got a recipe for a city I feel very much at home in.
Unquestionably the best view of town is up at the Christ the Redeemer statue. From here you get panoramic views of the entire city. To the big man's left hand side is the Marcana stadium - the venue for all the local football derbys. Next over is Botafogo, one of the city's beach areas. Continuing right over some mountains is the world famous Copacabana. And conpleting the semi-circular view off to the right is Ipanema, and the racing track of Gavea. To say the view is breathtaking is an understatement. And the Christ Statue itself is a very impressive piece of work - the big man is 130ft tall and
weighs in at 700 tons.
Beach-life is immensely important to the residents of Rio. It's the place to meet up, keep fit, play football and volleyball, swim... And they are immensely proud of the city. Whenever they want to put Salvador down in comparison, the beach is the first item on the list. We spent many hours down there, relaxing and taking in the views. You can really see why the locals put this at the top of their list of reasons to live in Rio.
Rio's nightlife adds another item to list of positives. Lapa is the Friday night spot - everyone hits the streets and Sambab music pours out of every bar and street corner. Everyone dances on the streets and generally busies themselves with being merry. Felt a little bit like carnival on a smaller and more manageable scale. The nightlife in Ipanema was no lurch either. I had such a good time that it came as a majort shock to walk out of the club only to realise that it was broad daylight and people were on the way to the beach!
One of the highlights of the stay for anyone, but most
particularlly for a football suporter, has to be a game in the Maracana stadium - the mecca to football in Brazil. And by coincidence we got here at a very good time: a cup semi-final between two the the cities big guns Vasco De Gama and Flamengo. Romario, Golden Ball and World Cup winner with Brazil in 1994, is currently player manager for Vasco, at the ripe old age of 41. Unfortunately he was not available to play (rumours have it that he was serving a ban for an illegal substance that he ingested in a 'Regain' style hair-loss prevention product), but Edmundo, from the same World Cup winning team was playing for Vasco.
From the moment of walking into the stadium the atmosphere was electric. The Brazilians are truly passionate about the football. It's not entirely unusual for dead chickens to be thrown at players from the stands, along with even less savoury items. We were sitting along with mainly Flamengan fans. And so for safety as much as desire, I decided to support Flamango. Flamengo went a goal down early on, but went on to win 2-1. The icing on the cake for Flamengan suppportors being that
Edmundo, a figure of considerable scorn, missed a penalty with the tie balanced at 1-1. I got a short video of the celebrations for the first Flamengan goal. I'm not the best cameraman in the world, but I think the video captures the moment quite well.
Pedra Bonita is on of the montains sandwiching Rio against the coast, and also a popular spot to fling yourself from 1,700ft and glide over the city with views of Ipanema, Rochina (the largest slum or favela in Rio), and São Conrado - the very wealthy part of town. The experience is amazing - once the initial jitters off jumping off a mountain top subsides, it's an incredibly peaceful flight. 20 minutes later we were plopping down in the Pepino beach. Everytime I remember it I get a broad grin across my face - it's been a highlight of the trip so far.
As with Salvador, Rio also has a huge contrast between rich and poor. São Conrado, home ot some of the Brazil's richest people is only a few hundred meters from the Rochina favela (shanty-town). We took a guide one day and visited into the favela. Though it felt a
bit voyeuristic, it was a truly worthwhile experience. At the entrance on of the drug-dealers watches everyone that enters, ready to set off a flare to warn his colleagues inside if the police are making a raid. Recently one of the top dealers made it to his 30th birthday - a feat almost unheard of - and huge celebrations accompanied this milestone. The guy at the entrance was about 22 or 23. A slightly chilling thought that he's already in his twilight years.
Inside the favela was alot healthier that I had prepared myself for. All the buildings are constructed of concrete and are fairly sturdy; all the people look healthy and well-nourished. By all accounts the residents are, and have been for many years, working together to make their neighbourhood a better place to live. Many houses now have running water and electricity (although open sewers are still standard). Any upstanding electrician would have a heart-attack looking at how the electricity is wired in! We got to see the local children practicing capoeira (a dance that mixes in elements of martial arts) and some others playing drums. I get the feeling that we got to see the nicer
sides of one of the nicer favelas, but it is definitely a story of hope and optimism.
Sadly our week had flown to an end and the time in Rio was over. We followed it up with a quick overnight stay in Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo is currently the worlds third biggest city, and rumour has it home to some of the best night clubbing in the world. Would be very rude not have a look. We got there on a Wednesday - hardly likely to be the best night of the week for going out. But all the same I was impressed by what Sao Paulo had to offer. Sao Paulo on a Saturday night has gone on the todo list for sometime in the future.
Next up was Florianapolis - reputedly home to some of Brazil's most beatiful people and some of their best beaches. Not wrong on either count. John Power had gone ahead and was charged with booking us a place to stay for the 3 nights. I regretted the decision when I was sitting in a row boat with all my worldy psoessions rocking side to side as we navigated the stream to
our house using a bamboo shoot. But thankfully we got over in one piece, with everything reasonably dry. Unfortunately the task didn't get any easier after a drink or two. At least the locals got some good entertainment out of it!
And now we're up in a college town called Curitiba en route to the Iguacu Falls. Taking the opportunity to get a bit of a breather in before getting to Buenos Aires next Monday for a few weeks of Spanish lessons.
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