Brazil with Julie and Dave

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"Brasil, Brasil" - its carnaval time and those patriotic Brazilians were in full on party mode when we arrived in Rio in a huge storm. Well most of them were, we stopped at the Riotur desk in the airport for tourist information and the Carioca on duty got out a map, circled the Sugar Loaf, the Corcavado (Christ statue) and said - "well there isnt really much to do here except for the beaches" - hold on a minute, isnt the world´s biggest party due to start in just a couple of days.....? Well that´s Brazil for you - full of contradictions and myths.

We were spending a couple of days in Rio where Julie and Dave would join us from the UK and then on to Salvador for the biggest street Carnaval in the world followed by a well earned rest in Arrial d'Ajuda before returning to Rio for Julie and Dave to fly home and for Simon and Claire to continue to Foz do Iguacu.

Rio really is a beautifully located city, to make the most of our short time there we took a tour up to the Corcovado and the Marcarana Football Stadium. To get to the Corcovado you climb through a rain forest and emerge at the top of the mountain where you take a lift and escalator (just like Disney!) up to the statue itself. There are fabulous views over the city from here, lagunas, sea, beaches, green hills, favelas and the sugar loaf oh and a very long bridge - we know this thanks to our terrible tour guide.

The Mararana stadium is home to I think 4 Rio football teams and Simon and Dave took a tour and came out terribly impressed with the changing rooms and the "nobs seats" to say nothing of running up the tunnel onto the pitch - now I dont know what any of this means but Im sure that they will fill you in over a beer at some time. Outside the stadium they have foot casts of their famous players and if you look at the pictures you´ll see Dave in Pele´s footprints.

When we were in Pucon Chile we met a couple from Rio and they recommended that we eat in Porcaos restaurant so off we went. WOW! Its a churruscaria where there is an all you can eat buffet of salads, cheeses, sushi´s and anything else you can think of. The waiters bring skewers of meats to your table and carve them onto your plate, sirloin, chicken, lamb and even ostrich. We were in heaven drinking Caiparinahs and terrible Brazilian wine and the waiters just kept bringing more out, you even get a little flag and you show the red or green side indicating whether you want more meat or not - woe betide the tourist who forgets to turn the flag to red!

Next day and we are off on a tour of the favelas with Favela Tour. Now everyone knows that Rio is dangerous, in fact the hype is so bad that you expect to see a gun toting, bag slashing street kid on every corner but thats just another myth. The tour is run on a social basis with money from the tour going to a social centre for kids in the favela. Favelas sprang up as a means of housing people flocking to the city for work and like in so many places in the world they developed without infrastructure and sanitation.

Favelas are also famous for being run by drug gangs, in fact you wont find any information about Favela Tour in the RioTur tourist office because Favela Tour tell you about these drug gangs and RioTur dont think that it is suitable material for tourists. The tour was a good insight to the places and their history, We even got to walk around a bit and peer through the windows into houses in the labyrinth of alleyways - and what did we see, flash TVs, DVD,s and washing machines - not quite what we expected! Infact the experience left us a little unsettled, 90% of Bolivia´s population live in poverty far in excess of anything we saw here - not that we wanted to see human suffering, its more that these Favelas are not a true indicator of the extent of poverty in South America.

The Favelas are however the areas which house the famous Samba Schools and that afternoon we took Rio´s very modern undeground to the Sambadrome for the opening ceremony of the Rio Carnaval. I dont know what happened but we are walking down the road where the kids are lining up to take part in the cermony in which Carnaval King Momo gets the keys to Rio for the Carnaval and we turn a corner and we are in the Sambadrome which is great except we are in the participants area and not in the stands. Not to worry we mingle and merge (as best as 4 Gringos can especially when one of them is 2m tall!) and sit out a couple of hours on the sidelines under the stern command of an old granny!

We spend a lazy morning on Copacabana beach where we have free Caiparinahs foisted upon us despite our protestations (er like why do you want to give us free drinks?) until they realise that gringos we are but we are not part of their corporate hospitality group! No matter they gave us them free anyway!

It was about this time that Julie revealed that she didnt like the Sugar Loaf and it should be flattened - sounds a bit radical we thought but apparently there was a hill in the middle of downtown Rio and that was removed so watch this space! All of a sudden its time to take a flight to Salvador where we are spending Carnaval proper. We are driven to the airport by Marcelo the most entertaining taxi driver in the world who whisks us away in his disco cab and gives us a preview of the Carnaval floats whilst talking and singing away to us in Brazilian Portuguese and interspercing it with football commentary in which invariably Brazil win 2 - 0 to England!

And so we arrive in Salvador de Bahia and the lovely colonial Catherina Paraguaçu Hotel and go out for a looksee in the old town. Carnaval has already started here and there are plenty of revellers about. Infact Salvador has 3 street Carnaval routes and we hang around in the old town to watch the famous Filhos de Ghandi and their float. Now there are some 6000 of these fellas who dress in togas, beads and flip flops and tote a bottle of fragrance around which they spray on unsuspecting Gringos like us.

And so the parade began with these huge trio electros (lorries full of speakers with a stage on top) passing by at deafening volume with their flunkies following behind. Salvador Carnaval is not a casual spectator sport, to get the most from it you´ve got to be in a bloco (a roped off area behind a float for which you pay entrance fee in the form of a T Shirt) or in a camarote (a grandstand). At this point we didnt have either and so we were well and truely squashed in the street not an entirely agreeable experience!

Rather than go for more squashing in the streets we spent the next day on Praia Flamengo beach in the cool and stylish Bossa Nova lounge bar watching Brazilians do what they do best - beach life.

For Dave´s Birthday we took the plunge and forked out for a the Skol Camarote. Yes Skol lager is alive and well in Brazil and tonight Fat Boy Slim was playing on the Skol truck! We bought 2 of our shirts from a girl in our hotel and another 2 on the black market. We tucked our tickets in Dave´s shoe (muggings/ pickpocketing for tickets is rife) and our money in Simon´s ...well best not said where! We are wandering around the carnaval route when 2 Brazilian guys wearing the same shirts come and save us, give us a set of rules (dont stop, dont look at anyone, just follow us) and whisk us half a mile up the road in a crocodile to the Skol Camarote - we make it without being mugged! They looked more frightened than we did.

Inside the grandstand is amazing, there is a two layer viewing platform at eye level with the stage on the top of the trucks, downstairs is an airconditioned dancefloor, crash pad and food court and there is an onsite hairdresser and make up artist giving everyone the sparkly treatment and a crystal maze like machine. Oh and its drinks included with Skol, Caiparinahs and fruity cocktails all round. Julie and I havent had time to customise our shirts (some of them are amazing transformed from an outsize tshirt into a ruched, strappy number with sequins!) but no matter there is someone on the door with ribbons to do it for us.

We spend a happy night there watching the odd float, drinking the odd caiparinah, playing the maracas and watching badly behaved and very drunk girls just waiting for Fat Boy. Its about 4am when the Skol float pitches up but who is that on the decks, its some brazilian guy, Fat Boy is on the float but has decided to take a break and this outside his sponsors stand - thats the last time he gets any of my money and there were a few pissed-off Brits in the Camarote I can tell you. Main event over we start our way home, what a nasty experience, the carnaval has been going for 5 or more days now and the road is just a sewer lined with drunks. Dave manages to step on the wrong toe and for his effort gets a punch in the face - nice Birthday pressie. We just had our disposible camera and maracas pickpocketed.

Next day its off to Arrial and the idyllic Vila do Beca - check out the picture of that pool. We share our flight with Olodum another famous carnaval band who are playing at the Eco Parque beach below our hotel so we get to hear their set without having to brave the crowds or pay for a T Shirt.

Arrial D'Ajuda really is a lovely little resort, its got boutiques and decent restaurants and a relaxed atmosphere. Julie turned 30 whilst we were here and we spent the morning snorkling and scuba-diving off a reef and the afternoon drinking pink champagne by the pool topped off by dinner in a Thai restaurant - not too stressful a way to turn 30 afterall!

The rest of the week was much of the same, by the pool, Simon and Dave providing us with the odd freshly harvested coconut - though I dont think the cleaner was too pleased to have his broom handle snapped in the process (oy, you didnt see me - right? S), playing with Frango the cat and generally chilling out.

All too soon it was time to return to Rio for J&Ds fight home. Our last night was in the Garota de Impanema Bar where the famous song was written. A huge tourist trap but the Piranah (DIY grill for thin strips of steak) was amazing. One more taxi trip to the airport with the famous Marcelo and we went our separate ways with Julie and Dave upgraded for the flight home to the UK and Simon and I delayed into the small hours for our flight to Foz do Iguaçu - the waterfall on the border with Argentina and Paraguay.

None the less we were up bright and early and on our way to the Brazilian side of the falls early next morning. Unfortunately the weather was awful, a big thunder storm hung over us and we had to invest in stylish plastic coats or drown. It may have been the weather but Foz do Iguaçu was a disappointment to us, the new visitors centre had terrible English translations and after the excitement of getting to Angel Falls the waterfall experience here was just too Disney! To make matters worse Simon had his lunch stolen out of his hand by the maurauding coatis. Ahh well off to Paraguay...

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Photos

us at Christo
with a guest appearance by Claire´s other chin

view from Christo
with the offending Sugar loaf top left

view from Christo with us
taken by really tall bloke

Comments

[Alexandre Cinelli]

Information
Dear Sirs, the right stadium name is MARACANÃ and not Macarena. Best Regards, Alexandre