Rio and Sao Paulo

I had a couple of days before I flew out of Rio to Buenos Aires so I spent it getting to know the city. First I had to get up high to have a look at the landscape which is quite remarkable. I had to decide whether I was going up Sugar Loaf or the Jesus hill. I was going to do both but turns out I could not be bothered as time was limited. I ended up going up the loaf because the cable cars looked like more fun. The view was pretty spectacular as you will see in the photos. I had a quiet beer at the top and hung out with the other gringos who were all snapping away like mad. I then took the wrong bus in an attempt to return to the train station and ended up god knows where. Some friendly local informed me, in Portugese that I had to get off the bus and take another one on the street we had just passed.

Luckily with a great deal of miming and energetic pointing I understood and found myself back in the city rather than in Ipanema which was the next step on my tourist trail. Undeterred I went and found Ana who kindly took me to Copacabana and Ipanema that evening. We arrived just on dusk and I saw the famous Copacobana beach. It was nice enough but is, like many parts of Rio a bizaare mix of poverty and wealth. There are a lot of muggings around there so Ana and I hot footed it to Ipanema which is much nicer. The beach, even though late in the day did not fail to deliver on an assembly of hot people.

Naturally the following day I was anxious to get back to Ipanema to see it in all its glory. I took a lot of photos in which you can play where´s wally and locate the hot bloke that is the focus of the photo. I spent the day with Migla, the Lithuanian I met on the ferry from the island, buying samples of the wares that are peddled all day on the beach. I started with a coconut, in true tourist style and then quickly it with a spiced cheese thing that is grilled in front of you on the beach. I also, inexplicably ended up with a yellow polka dot bikini. You can sit there all day and not move as everhing you could possibly want, including Caipirinhas and beer are brought to you. A splendid day indeed.

We then went out dancing with Migla´s Brazilian friend Fernando. He was a pretty cool dude with that typical Brazilian laid back attitude. He was a music producer who just loved to dance. We ended up at some sort of street dancing thing drinking Caipirinhas from a makeshift bar that materialised from somewhere. I was standing there enjoying the the clapping and the gypsy-like jungle dancing completely unaware that I was being surrounded by gringos. I went to the bar and heard a familiar Aussie twang as I ordered. I then walked past some loud Aussies who were now occupying the space. One said quite loudly as I passed that I was probably English and another guessed Dutch. I told them to guess again, they thought I was probably Danish. I told them in no uncertain terms that they were idiots and that I was Australian. One, Perry defended himself saying that my accent was from a different part. I asked him where he was from and he responded, Melbourne. Me too I said, what part? Clifton Hill he responds... Grrr small world.

I decided to change my flight to give me a few more days including 2 in Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo is a massive city so I was escorted on a rather speedy tour by two of the residents Jose who travled with us to the island and Roderigo. Roderigo and I quickly because new best in spite of the fact that the only English he knows comes from pop songs, mainly Britney. What was missing in verbal communication was made up tenfold in enthusiastic gestures and singing. ´to the left, to the left´´quickly Naomi running, running, now funky´. We had a splendid day in the market. I ate a ham sandwich that was ridiculously hammy.

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