Advertisement
Published: July 11th 2008
Edit Blog Post
We left La Paz on the 23rd June and started our epic 5 day bus journey to Rio de Janeiro. The first leg of the journey was an 18 hour bus ride to Santa Cruz where we stayed over night in a hostel called Alojamiento Acre Backpackers which cost under 1.50 pounds a night and you could see why. The next day we headed for Brazil with another 18 hour bus to Corumba which is just across the border from Bolivia, from there we jumped on another bus, this time for 24 hours to Sao Paulo then straight to Rio getting there at around 2 in the morning on the 28th June.
After staying the night in a hostel called stone of a beach we checked in to a place called Mellow Yellow which was considerable better and immediately checked out Copacabana beach which was pretty good and gave us a chance to chill out in some hot weather for the first time of the trip. That night in the hostel bar we were treated to some local brazilian dancing with two locals strutting there stuff, not overly sure what the type of dancing it was called though! The next
day followed the same theme of going down to the beach but that night we went to a party in a favela (the so called slum areas of rio). The hostel ran buses too and from the party in a massive club/warehouse type place, i think it was a really good night, cant remember a whole lot however (doesn´t sound like me i know) apart from getting picked up and back to the hostel at about 5 in the morning. On the monday after a long lye in we did a tour of the christ the redeamer statue looking over Rio, unfortunately it was quite a cloudy day so the visibility looking over the city wasn´t all that good but could still take a few photos of the statue and the city. The tour also took us to the Dona Marta view point a bit further down once again looking over the city, and could see Rio as night fell which was pretty cool. The beach was again the call of the day on Tuesday and another chilled out night watching Dvd´s at the hostel.
We booked up a Favela tour for wednesday which was a really good experince,
and a completely different world to that of the part of the city we were staying, Copacobana. The Favela we visited was called Rocinha and once we got to the bottom in a minibus with 6 other tourists we were driven to the top on motorbikes by some locals who drove like maniacs which made for an entertaining ride. Once at the top our guide led us down through the centre of the Favella through the narrow allyways going between the thousands of shanti housing, every little space available being used for either housing or shops. Whilst going down we saw some pretty cool Graffiti and some spectacular views looking over the favela itself and the city of Rio, all of the time being told when we could take photo´s as the people who run the Favela are massive drug people and obviously dont want pictures to be taken. On the walk we had a group of kids play drums for us, stoped of at an art studio and saw a teenager who was probably about 16 sitting down with a massive gun, he was apparantly an urban soldier helping control the Favela. That night was the second leg of
the south american cup final between Fluminense from Brazil and L.D.U from Ecuador which was being played at the Maracana stadium in Rio. Me and Barbs went with 4 other english guys to watch the game outside the stadium in a bar with the locals which was a pretty mad atmosphere and meant that we were obviously supporting Fluminense. We spend the whole game chatting with the locals and getting into the spirit of things. The game itself went into extra time which at that point the gates of the stadium were being opened to let in more fans we tried are luck but they wern´t open long so didnt make it in. At one point some fans were trying to force the gates open so the police started spraying tear gas or pepper spray (not sure which) at them, luckily for us we were far enough away not to get hit by it. Unfortunately Fluminense lost on penalaties so the night ended on a bit of a down note.
On the 3rd July the weather took a turn for the worse with one of the mornings waking up to a pretty mental storm, therefore the next couple of
days were spent in the TV room, on the internet and booking stuff up for our next stop on our travels Iguazu Falls. We did manage to make it out of the hostel and go up to Santa Terasa on an iteresting version of a tram. The place itself is kinda the old side of Rio with lots of old buildings, art galleries and souvenir shops, riviting stuff! We also went to a street party in Lapa on the friday night, i got myself a little drunk and had my camera nicked, so wasnt all that memorable for me!!
One of the highlights of Rio was going to watch the football with the locals in a bar as mentioned earlier. Because of this we just had to go to the Maracana Stadium and watch a live game, so on the Saturday we went and watched Flamengo vs Nautico. Me, Barbs and an english couple, Katie and Luke(who incidently went to castle school in Thornbury...randomness!) were right in with the Flamengo fans which made for an incredible atmosphere. Think i am now officially a glory supporter as Flamengo won 3 - 0 and are top of the Brazilian league. Our
final day in Rio was spent on Ipenema beach and then went to another Favella party which i actually remember and seemed to spend far to much time on the dance floor with the locals, most of been highly amusing. On the 7th July we headed on another 24 hour bus down to Foz do Iguazu (Iguazu falls on the Brazilian side), how i love buses!!
On the Brazilian side we stayed at the hostel natura which was just amazing, it was outside the the centre of the city, right out in the sticks away from everything. We were 2 of only 8 people staying there which made for the most chilled out atmosphere and a complete contrast to Rio. There were cats and dogs there who provided the entertainment, the kitten would attack the dog all the time with the dog just shrugging it off gently, highly amusing. The hostel also provided breakfast and dinner which were both spot on with the aunt of the family doing the cooking. On the only full day we had there we walked around the national park and saw the falls from lots of different angles and perspectives, it is just the
most awesome sight! The walk took around and hour and a half and plenty pictures were taken.
On the 10th July we made it acroos the border to Argentina to Puerta Iguazu,with the other guests from the Hostel Natura and explored the national park from this side. This side of the falls provided alot more in terms of what you could see and how close you actually got to all the different falls. The first place we went was to devils throat where you took a train and then wakked acros a bridge right to the top of one of the waterfalls. We then walked the upper circuit looking down on the falls followed by the lower circuit looking up and getting extremely wet in the process! After all this we took a speed boat ride on the Iguazu river and got right underneath a couple of the falls, seeing how powerfall they are and once again getting soaked, no need for a shower that night! The whole boat trip was immense, and after seeing the falls up close it took us down all the rapids on the Iguazu river. From there we took a jeep through the national
park and the surrounding forests to the exit of the park.
After a night staying in Puerta Iguazu our next stop is Buenos Aires, leaving today for another 17 hour bus journey, wo ho!! Take care people!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0382s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sheelagh
non-member comment
Areeba, Areeba, Areeba or somthing like it.
Hey Ian, I got the full flavour of your latest blog. Pics of the falls look amazing, and u a both certainly meeting and having a good time with some kind people. Keep everyone updated. Am now goin to read Sams blog. Luv Sheebird