Blogs from Brazil, South America - page 599

Like the title says...words cannot possibly describe what Rio is like during Carnaval. At first, I didn´t think much of Rio...just as another city with a beach. The city is overwhelming with its contrasts and the people. The first thing that I did was meet up with Hassan at his place. Next day we got our keys and the whole gang met up. Oggie, John and Hassan are the partners in crime here. The next day we went to the travel agency to get ripped off like every freaking GRINGO should. When I talked to the locals, i found out that we paid at least double for the Carnaval tickets along with a bunch of other things. But how fun is that if you don´t get raped with the prices? So the first thing we did ... read more

Today is officially as far as I know based on all the religious stuff, the last day of Carnival, and also the last stat holiday here so Mukuda will finally stop complaining about his laundry woes. First off I want to apologize for the lack of Carnival pictures, Blair was our photographer because his camera is much smaller than mine and we actually have several CD's full of the various Carnival activities we have engaged in over the last several days. I have a few pics I will post but the good ones will have to wait until later. We did much partying on the streets of Lapa, beaches and streets of Ipanema, and of course in downtown where the spectacular Samba parade took place. Now the samba parade is really quite something, they erected this ... read more

I took a flight from Salvador to Rio, as I was planning to see the winners parade there. I booked a hostel called King George, which is run by Israelies, and there were recomendations for it in the Lametayel site. I have no pictures of this hostel, but let me tell ya' that the conditions I had in 'Tironut' were better. There was no free room in other hostels for the next day, so I treated myself with a hotel, spent the next day searching for a hostel, and found a great one! It's called Che Lagarto, located in an Ipanema region, and costed a little more than King George. Before that, when I first landed in Rio from Israel, and now after comming from Salvador I spent my time in the Copacabana region, which is ... read more

Carnaval Friday: After living out of a bag for ten weeks we were as much looking forward to hanging up our clothes for 5 whole days as we were Carnaval. We were over the moon with our hotel with roof-top pool and bar one block from Ipanema beach. This was to be expected however as we had booked the hotel when we were both working and money had less value. What we spent on the hotel for 5 days accommodation alone is our current budget for 2 whole weeks total spend - but it turned out to be worth it. We hung up our clothes, showered and dried with big soft towels, shaved/dryed hair then put our rucksacks in the back of the wardrobe and cooled in our air-conditioned room while watching ´Malcom in the Middle´. ... read more

Having done two nights of crazy carneval, we decided to spend a couple of days in the countryside, relaxing and getting our forces back for the last day of carneval when Fat boy slim would be playing. Chris' family has a lovely house with a beutiful garden not very far from Salvador. It is very close to the beach and there is a swimming pool in the garden. The days in the house were incredibly relaxing and nice. In the meantime my brother Peter and his g-friend Karin also came over all the way from London. We enjoyed two days at the beach with them, one in Praia do Forte and one around the house sunbathing and trying a lot of the local food. Now we are heading back to Salvador to do the last night ... read more