Arrail Do Cabo, Brazil - American Adventures 2014 (Part 7 of 8)


Advertisement
Published: July 13th 2015
Edit Blog Post

After a lovely time at Iguazu falls, I debated whether to go back to Rio for my final week or go to Buenos Aires. I'd gotten into travelling mode and was thinking about hitting a few more countries within 1 week. I decided it was a silly idea and flew back to Rio instead.

I returned to the hostel I stayed in originally and received a good discount for a room to myself. I actually had the whole hostel to myself, the place still being deserted. Not a lot going on outside either and even my favourite cafe had shut down for renovation.
After 2 days I decided it was time to leave again ... I was getting lonely. Previously when I travelled from Rio to Parati I missed the famous stop-off island 'Ilha Grande' and had plans of going there. Somebody stopped me and said "no no forget the west, you go east" .... and so I did, on a bus all the way to a true paradise called "Arraial Do Cabo".

This is a place many go to unwind after hectic party life in Rio. When I arrived I had a long walk to the hostel and immediately knew it was going to be a great few days. There were a group of people playing Texas Hold'em Poker which I hadn't dabbled in for a while. The hostel host was getting merry and told me to go in and do whatever, there's food in the fridge and eat whatever, don't worry about paying for my stay just do it whenever ... I liked his style.

After I took everybody's money and made enemies, the game was over and we just chilled. Soon after, a couple came by just after midnight and then the adventures began. There was a Zambian girl who was constantly asking questions like an inquisitive child who knows nothing and a dude who I had amazing conversations with who had been given a lot of inheritance by his family and now just got f^cked up all the time. We talked and laughed and at 6am I had the brightest idea of going out to see the sunrise ...

Arrail do Cabo has absolutely magical beaches ... I have never experienced anything like it despite seeing many beaches in my life. It took 30 mins for the intoxicated couple to finally make it out onto the streets, and another 30 to make it to the beach 5 mins away. I was very tired by then too so I didn't notice that I was watching the sunrise without the sun being present. Eventually I realized they'd brought me to the sunset beach, not the sunrise beach. Still, as the sun came up on the other side, the reflections and the colors produced in the sea here were astonishing .... this is a vision I will never ever ever forget in my life ... nature is so beautiful, the world is so magical and I am truly grateful to be able to experience things like this.

After witnessing the sunrise we decided to walk up a hill by some horses. This entire journey was fun because of these 2 nutheads. The guy was just hilarious. For example, we'd see a horse in the distance and he'd go into hiding in the grass to make sure the horse doesn't see him and trot over to kill him. He went up by himself on an adventure and I sat down on a rock with this Zambian girl. And then things turned freaky. All of a sudden her voice changed like she was somebody else and she said to me "so why are you so sad?" ... then she turned to me and her eyes went 100% black like she was possessed and she continued to say things like "what happened in your life to make you like this ... you can tell me, go on tell me, what are you hiding? whats happened to you?" ... and I was very freaked out by this. This girl was no longer the same person and this conversation carried on for 5 mins ... I knew she was looking deep into my soul, I could feel her/it in there rummaging around and I was using all my energy to push her out. Eventually the voice of the other guy was heard as he was coming back down the hill and suddenly her eyes returned to normal and she went back to being her previous self. Later that day she asked me if I was freaked out by her. I said I wasn't and then she started telling me about things that happened in her life, like incest and other crazy things ... I didn't want to talk to her anymore.

Other than that the few days in this place were just what I needed. Everybody cooking for each other, doing things for each other, going to the beach ... playing guitar, games, watching movies ... occasionally hearing people having orgasms through thin walls. This hostel was a home, do anything, eat anything ... it's all good. I cooked a lot for the others, especially eggs. My random omelette inventions went down a treat in this place ... even the week supply of pilau rice was gone after a day.

Before I even realized it, my time here was up and I had to get the bus back to Rio for one last time. I said my farewalls to the people I'd been going to the beaches with and off I went ... a little sad to leave this paradise of a place. Even the sand in these beaches was like cocaine, so fine, so thin ... doesn't stick to you ... Tony Montana would have snorted it all up for sure.

Being my final day in Rio, I decided to spend it wisely and visit the famous landmark ...the Christ statue. I was in a rush to do this since I had to get to the airport far away and the day needed to run like clockwork. First was to get a bus to this place and I couldn't even get that right. I made it eventually and got off the bus, not knowing where to go next. Right next to the bus stop were guys waiting for tourists with vans .... the typical 'rip off the tourist' hotspot. Straight away this one dude was in my face "statue? statue? i take you, lets go" .... "im not going to the statue" and I turn away. Still ... "come on I take you, statue?" ... I started getting angry at this point. I don't do too well with people being pushy with tourists and eventually I snap. The same happened in Morocco and I could feel by blood boiling. All of a sudden I started shouting and swearing ... "I'M NOT GOING TO ANY F^CKING STATUE SO GO AND F^CK OFF YOU SH!TBAG" ... and then I noticed all his mates in the other vans perking up and getting ready to intervene. I decided it was best to get away so I turned around and walked off ... still casually, I don't get scared ... what will happen will happen, it's a challenge. Him and his friends started shouting at me "F^ck off you indian ... f^ck you" and I could hear them even from a distance ... do you think I might have upset them? smile emoticon

Because I wanted to get away from these guys and not look like I was lost, I walked straight ahead and admired this blue building on the left. There was a mini train station I was trying to find that takes you up to the top where the statue is but I couldn't see it. Little did I know that this blue building was actually the train station (I found that out coming back down). So I just go straight ahead and even when I'm lost I refuse to come back and show those guys that I actually should have used them to go to the statue. Instead I decide that it's a possibility to walk up ... if I do a power walk I can get up in a couple of hours ... it just means spend 5 mins up there, get home really fast, don't eat anything and fly to the airport. I'm using my GPS to work out how to get up to the top of the mountain, although it's not showing me anything useful, being a mountain and not a town. The heat was ridiculous and I was dripping all over, totally lost. I was about to give up when I heard a motorbike coming my way and this person stopped and told me he'd take me up to the statue. I said sure let's go ... this being my first time on the back of a bike. When I hopped on he actually went all the way back down to where the van-boyz were and started going up a different way ... I totally was on the wrong path that's for sure.

This motorbike ride was scary at first ... the guy was going up a mountain at crazy speeds, banking so I was right near the ground thinking I'm about to fall off and lose the skin on my face. Eventually I got used to it and didn't even use my hands for support ... bikes are amazing in how they appear to defy gravity.

When he finally stopped and told me I was there, I paid him and off he went. I asked somebody which way to the statue and they said "oh you're nowhere near the statue, you need to get a train there" .... the little sh!t, where did he take me? Well I was definitely in unknown territory so I just bought a ticket and made my way to where I needed to be. At this point I used up almost all the cash I had with me due to all the unexpected travel costs. I had enough to get in and maybe enough to get home ... nothing for breakfast frown emoticon

The statue itself was cool ... but it was basically just a place packed with tourists all taking pictures in front of it 1 at a time with their arms stretched out in the same way as Jesus ... original. I wasn't in the mood for pictures, just 5 mins here and I was back on my way home ... rush rush and to the airport I go.

It would have been nice if my flight was from Rio to Manchester, but they decided to fly me to New York for 13 hrs on the way ... in effect doubling my journey time. I didn't have much luck with customs when I first came through JFK ... would I fare any better this time?

Tune in next time to find out ....

Advertisement



Tot: 0.161s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0627s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb