Blogs from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 224

There are many facets to Carnaval, it is not like Notting Hill Carnival where there is one procession down a determined route. Things are not organised in Brazil not even the time always makes sense. (Look out for later update.) The main parts are the Blocos and The Sambodrome Parade. There are many Blocos that parade around various parts of the city. The Blocos have a name and a theme such as Banda De Ipanema. Ipanema is a predominantly gay area so the Banda De Ipanema Bloco has a gay and transvestite theme. The Bloco consists of a few musicians playing Samba on top of a float, followed by lots of gay, transvesite and straight followers all dancing and following the float. Anyone is free to join any Bloco they choose but are encouraged to wear ... read more

The drive in to Rio was exciting with anticipation. We had come such a long way across the vast continent of South America, and done and seen so many things along the way, and here we were, finally heading to our last group destination. As we drive in to topwn, we spotted Corcovodo ( the Christ statue ) in the horizon. Our tour leader played 'Time of Your life' by Green Day, as a send off for our last time together on our Bus, who is called Frank! We pulled up at our hotel, The Granada at 2pm, and checked in to the rooms. Immediately at the hotel, the receptionist is one of the most beautiful girls we have ever seen on the planet, typical Rio! Me and a some friends then walked in to the ... read more

Pas mal de changement depuis la derniere fois puisque samedi matin g en effet demenage pour aller vivre dans l appart avec les Australiens. La je fais connaissance avec tout le monde et je rencontre Kylee, une charmante fille de 28 ans habitant Sydney.(la photo suivra bientot). On est tout le groupe dans deux appart different en attendant lundi de demenager dans un plus grand appart. Ma soiree etait deja organise puisque je devais aller au concert des Rolling Stones avec certains de l auberge de jeunesse et Kylee devait aller a une soiree samba avec le reste des Australiens. Ni une ni deux j attaque mon plan "charme" et reussie a la convaincre de venir avec moi au concert (Mick Jagger prenant lui aussi une place importante dans sa decision je dois l avouer). Avant ... read more

Hello all! Well, after a short stay in Argentina we had quite a few long drives across the country and arrived in Puerto iggassu which was the region to see the iggassu falls from the argentinian side. We were told this was the best side to view the falls and i have to say it was a great day. The views were fantastic and the falls staggering. Got rather wet as you get really close to the falls and took a little jet boat ride under them which was fab! Got some good piccies too i think! At the end of the day we had a very short ride on cindy the truck to take us across the border into Brazil where we stayed in a place called foz de iggassu. We stayed in a lovely ... read more

O Rio e DEMAAAAAAAAIS, LEGAO, MARAVILHOSO!!! Rio is FANTASTIC!!! Backtracking to Belo Horizonte: evenings spent chilling at Claudio´s funky sushi restaurant (and trying the different varieties of caipirinha - strawberry, mango, pineapple... YUM!), making great contacts (among whom - a lift to Rio!!), and a crazy dancing evening (all night... morning... etc) at a trans nightclub... which, incidently, resulted in my lift (Claudio) sleeping through our agreed meeting time to go check out the apparently fabulous mining town of Ouro Preto (Oh well, got to leave something for next time!)... I did go to the hairdresser though. My nails will have to wait for another day (year.. lifetime?!) as it was full... but it did give them something to talk about at the hairdresser that I´d NEVER in my life had them done!!! Everyone was very ... read more