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Published: February 25th 2010
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Wow! Rio is an amazingly beautifil city. The setting picture perfect, weather perfect (if not too hot) and people very friendly. People were arriving like us the week before Carnaval, the city was chockers, the most tourists we have seen yet.
Learning from previous screwups, we now take enough money with us to do things and saw some sights!
We visited Christo (again), hired bikes and our own tour of Rio (great way to see the city and enjoy its setting *even if it was 40degrees - we even researched the best Pastel place in town and road there especially), Lagoon (twice the size of albert park), Sugar Loaf, Lapa (Samba school district and Arches), Walking tour around the CBD with Nic as guide, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.
After our stay at the Guesthouse we moved accross the road to our new Brazilian friends (Liana and Fausto) apartment. They moved out and let us stay for the week of Carnaval. The apartment is in a great location, 2 blocks from Ipanema beach in the heart of the action in that part of town, it seemed like 1000´s flocked to Ipanema everyday for the festivities.
Carnaval is quite different
to what we see back home on TV. For starters the whole country does Carnaval, not just Rio and most people are right into it. Rio parties hard for a week solid with organised Blocos, music performances and culminating with the Sambadrome parade (what we see on TV).
We experienced a few Blocos, each by different groups and each with its own musical style and atmosphere. Esentially they are rolling street parties which have a designated route. The band takes off with singers and dances and bus in tow. People join the party and follow, singing, dancing, drinking, sharing so much sweat. They usually last 5 or 6 hours and have 1000´s of people involved. We didnt last the duration, couple of hours is more than enough.
Not having pre bought tickets to the Sambadrome we decided to go in late one night to see if we could buy some scalped tickets. We took the tran in around 12,30am. The Sambadrome is where the parade takes place over 4 nights from 10pm to 6am in the morning and hold up to 80,000 people. It is full everynight until 6am. We cautiously walked around with beer in hand just
Ipanema Beach
AKA UmbrellaCity sussing the scene. A couple of scalpers approached us but wanted $200 AUD a ticket. We were finally approached buy a rather nice seedy dude who wanted only $60 AUD a ticket. Deal. What we noticed after paying was the 2 parts to the ticket didnt match up. he said it would be fine and it was but we had to walk 30min to the other side to get in through the exiting preformers. Stood/sat in the stand with locals, which was quite cool. We were blown away with the show. Each Samba school parades for 1,5hrs with over 4000 performers in each school. The floats were incredible, costumes, live music - the same song playing for the 1.5hours did get a little annoyng though. The cost to put this on must be enormous. We were told later that Fevala drug money probably contributes quite a bit to the event. We stayed for a few hours and got home very tired about 6,30am.
We both liken Carnaval to an Adult Schoolies Week. Chaos where everything and anything goes (including urinating in the street...).
On our last night we caught up with liana and Fausto, they took us to
a Churrausco resturant where it is all you can eat, meats cooked on the spit and carved at your table, our shout of course - thankyou Liana, Fausto & Dante!
Rio was great, at the same time we were both quite happy to be leaving. One thing we realised in Rio was that we both definitely prefer the more relaxed destinations and layed back way of life.
Check the pics, we are sure they will give you a much better idea of our time.
Rio Observations Hot, sweaty
Rich and poor
Beauty - Forrests, beaches
Coconuts
Acai (sorbet like berry thing served with ganola - yum)
Whistling - quite an effective way of communication
Beer (everyone drinks beer and a lot. 70%!o(MISSING)f Brazils beer consumption happens during the month of Carnaval)
Anyone can sell beer as long as you have ice & esky
G-strings - half bums to full G. Not all women should wear them though. Please, ladies of Brazil dress apropriately for your size please
Dickstickers - honestly there are a lot of fit dudes here but please men of Brazil put some shorts on.
Dogs
Safer than expected
Busy
Carnaval - madness
per
kilo eating, resturants that are self service and you pay based on the weight of your plate - AWESOME (we are starting one when we get back!)
Note: We have some good videos but still trying to figure that out, stay tuned
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Judy Clarke
non-member comment
Where are you now!
Hi there carnaval looked unbeliveable, too many people and to hot weather for me. Looked fantastic though. the places look amazing and beaches look beautiful. We are worried that you are stuck or if you are in Chile. Please drop us a quick message to let us know that all is OK and that you are safe. Love you heaps and continue to enjoy yourselves. Love Mum and Dadxx