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Published: March 5th 2006
hi there folks, have to say its been a while since i´ve e-mailed people or even entered an account of what we have been up to since we got here. but the following is an account of what we have gotten up to since we have been here. enjoy.
February 20th 2006
arrived in Rio after a 13 hour flight which included a stop over in Sao Paulo. when we arrived in heathrow BA were offering us £400 each to get of the plane and take the next flight the day after. but i turned it down despite ruths protests as i was more than eager to get on the flight. they would have put us up in a hotel and everything for the night. i suppose in hindsight it would have been a good thing to do since the extra cash would have come in handy. i mean £400 is about what 650 euros. got a transfer to the hostel that ruth ahd organised. the first thing that hit me about from rio, apart from the wall of heat when we left the aiport was the traffic. bumper to bumper all the way to the hostel. got to the hostel and found or room which was less than what we had expected our double room to be. we just got a bed, a fan(which was useless in the heat) and a locker that didnt actually lock!!!! great start to it all. we left our luggage in and got changed into some shorts and t-shirts and headed down to copacabana beach. they were still taking down the stage from the rolling stones concert a few days before, abouot 2 million people turned up. mostly cos it was free. during the evening we dined out in style, dominos pizza. so the food sint too strange.
February 21st 2006
me and ruth decided to handgliding after seeing it advertised in the hostel. sure isnt that the first thing you do when you arrive to a new city. see if theres handgliding available and throw yourself off a 400mm cliff and float down for a few minutes. it wasnt cheap at 270 reals, but what a view of the city from up there. i was talking to someone in the hostel the night before about doing it, they had done it the night before and seen someone having sex in a pool below. i wasnt so lucky so my flight down only lasted about 15mins. was still a good start though to the holiday. we got dropped off at Ipanema beach. now this beach or district is obvioulsy famous for the song girl from Ipanema. but the meach is just wonderful, white sand for a few miles and the sea is so clear and warm. there werent too many brazillians or sorry ´cariocas' out on the beach that day since it was a weekday. cariocas are what local rio refer to themselves as. they even have a metro station named after that. we tourist or out of towners are simply refered to as gringos. the cheek!!!! copaabana beach although nice hasnt exactly got the cleanest water in the world, we seen a toilet seat get washed up and some one else we were talkin to seen half a pram get washed up too. back to the hostel that evening to have an all you can eat bbq. now before we left everyone was telling us that south america had some of the best meat we would ever eat in our lives. they were not wrong, there was beef to be had till you were sick of it. absolutely gorgeous. then got drunk till the wee hours of the morn.
February 22 2006
woke up with a bit of hangover. the heat does not go well with one of these. we are talking about 30-35 degrees everyday, sun beaming down and then the humidity is about 70-80% also. anywho is was out with the sunscreen and into the bg bad city that rio. we headed up to a place called Santa Thersa. it is an area where the bohemian life stlye lives and alot of artists and muscians go up there evryday to ply their trade to the tourists. some actually live there too. anywho you have to get a tram or 'bondinho'. now this tram has been in existence since about the early century and the trams it seemed also came from that period too. it took the driver about 5 goes to get it started. its all electric. now there are people haning off the side of this thing all the way to the end of the line, about 1/2 hour journey. but the people even hang off the side when going over a viaduct thats about 200mts above the road (these arches or viaduct are in an area called lapa, and people sometimes say meet you at the arches if heading out). of course theres steel netting on either side but ut has rustd away and to be honest would probably not even stop a fly if something like that fell on it. the main part is called largo de guimares. there is supposed to be shops and restaurants but we only found a few and the streets around that area didnt seem to hold much either. the one thing that is good is the view on the way up and down. you travel around the edges of some favelas and you can see quite a bit of rio from one of the many vantage points. that night we had a novel experience with our food. we had pizza, which was becoming a stable dinner diet for us. anywho we ordered one each. then the waiter comes out with a small saucer of tomato ketchup satchets. then the pizzas arrived. with no tomato sauce on them what so ever. s for a margherita pizza which ruth had all you got was the base and cheese on top. brilliant!!! we headed back to the hostel for a few bevvies and meet this idiot called tom from yorkshire. he was a prat. he was all into doing drugs and asked ud have we done cocaine, said we should go to coloumbia and try some cos its the best in the world. neither of us have done it but he just kept pushing it and saying we should. he also wouldnt stop going on about his bike and how fast it could go. personally ithink he has had too much charlie and it has affected his speech and his brain power. idiot.
February 23 2006
the hostel had organised a baot party for all the people staying in the hostel over carnival. they put us on a schooner and we headed out of the marina to a beach on the far side of rio i think near niteroi beach. anywho it had two levels at the back and when we stopped we had the option of jumping off the upper level if we wanted. which we both did a few times. the water was warm but very salty. the hostel also had laid on food and beer/water, pretty much all you can eat and drink for the day. poor ruth though had one too many caiprinhas and couldnt even remember getting o the boat. it was a good day. lots of sun, a little swimming, some beer. it occured to me then that the rest of the holiday could be just like this. i didnt have a care in the world, no worries about where i had to be tomorrow of work. (am i making anyone jealous who is reading this???) the sunset as we pulled into harbour was amazing. the sun was setting behind the chrst the redeemer statue. nice.
February 24 2006
we spent the day going to the big man over looking the city. el cristo redonto, or christ the redeemer. you get another bondinho, this one infintely better than the last one. takes about 1/2 hour to make the trip up to him. if going ake sure you sit on the right hand side of tram as you get the better views of the city as you go up and down. the staute its self is set in tijuca national park. the largest city park in the world. its also a jungle. its full of reptiles and snakes and spiders and some monkeys too. apparantly it was a forest alright but it was re planted by the government so they could preserve it. the view from the statue is wonderful, you can see most parts of the city from the top. that night we heade out with a few peoplw we had met in the hostel to lapa for a street party. now since it was the first day of carnival that night it was mental. people everywhere, music coming from all directions. try to think of an area the size of abouttemple bar and the surounding area and you get some idea of how big the party area is. now the streets are filled up with poeple. you are literally breathing someone elses breath its that close to each other. every bar has its own band playing samba music and then theres the music from the clubs. we had a god few drinks and dance some of the night away in the streets and met with some of the locals to talk about football and the carnival. it was all done with sign language and gestures since non of us speak any portugese. but it was great fun and brilliant to see. then at about 5,30 in the mornign we headed to copacabana beach to watch the sunrise. really was a great thing to see. never imagined i would be sitting on that beach watching the sunrise.
February 25 2006
after the hectic night we had we decided to take it easy and decided to head to Ipanema beach for the day. the neach was packed with thousands of people. you only get about a foot square to yourself its that crowded. got burned though which wasnt nice. the waves were something else though. big enough to surf in and i even got tossed about in them a few times and landed on the beach coughing and spluttering up very salty sea water. we organised the rest of our trip in brazil too. after rio we were going to head to a place called Paraty, about a 4 hour bus journey south of rio. it was at this stage that i was getting about pissed off about the hostel. we had since wednesday moved into a 6 bed dorm as part of our carnival package with the hostel. it cost us around 350 euro for the 7 nights which wasnt cheap. but the room had no a/c, the ensuite was hardly cleaned and smelled so bad. also we woke up every morning in balls of sweat as there was no a/c. there were fnas alright but they were useless against the heat in the room. we were staying in a 6 bed dorm, i would hate to thin what the guys in the 24 bed dorm were going through. the other people in the room felt the same way about it too.
February 26 2006
Pao de Acur, or the sugar loaf to you and me. that was the destination for the day. we headed up there for sunset. it was easy to get to, just a bus ride away about 20 mins. but the view from the top is fantastic. i urge any one who comes to rio to see the sun setting from here. we seen go down just behiind the statue of christ. it was amazing. we even have some pics which i will load up here at another time. getting back to our hostel was a differnt story. we waited about 1/2 hour to get a bus that didnt arrive, so we decided to get on another on that would leave us fairly close to our hostel. bad idea that one. when we got to Ipanema district the roads were jammed solid with poeple partying in the streets and parades going on. we deicded to get out and walk to find a restaurant since we hadnt eaten since breakfast, about a 10 hour gap between meals. we were also getting snappy at each other because of it. we found a pizzeria alright and again were handed pizzas that had no tomato sauce on it. we watched the carnival on tele that was beiing braodcast from the smaba drome. now what happens is that on the sunday and monday night there about 7-8 samba schools which parade through this street. it is basically a street with grandsatnds either side. each school gets about 60-80 mins to parade through and show off its school with floats and its thousands of members dancing in bright costumes. then after the two nights they are given the results of the judges. its basically a big samba competition. it starts at about 9 at night each night and finishes about 8 in the morning. on tele it looked impressive.
February 27 2006
tongiht was our night to head to the sambadrome to see the parade fo the schools. we also booked our bus tickets to paraty and ouro preto our next two stops. the hostel has organised the tickets for the parade as it was part of the carnival package. of course they ot use the worst seats in the house. at the very end of the parade route when the school has spent about an hour to get here. also each school has to come up with a song for their parade. just one song which is ung over and over again for their part of the carnival. the songs are published in a laeflet that you get in the drom but it was in portugese so prety useless to us. we left after one school. it was good to see and all that but it was basicaly the same thing over and over again. lots of dancing to the same song. went back to copacabana beach and had a few beers at a kiosk.
February 28 2006
got to leave the shit hole of a hostel today. we heard some stories about people getting ripped off money by the hostel and not getting it back and we had seen their more than brilliant organisational skills first hand. if there was somethig going on that night no one knew when it was going to happen at what time or where to meet it was just a disaster. my advice DONT SATY IN THE MELLOW YELLOW HOSTEL IN RIO.
March 1 2006
arrived in paraty after a 4 hour bus ride in full a/c comfort. the place wea are staying in called the villa del rey ( they have an internet site if you want to check it out) for about 30 euro per night we get a full bufet breakfast, pool, bikes for the day, our own room with a/c, a tv, ensuite. absolutely gorgeous place to stay. we were paying about 45 euro a night for the mellow yellow double room. the room is lkie that of a jurys inn, basic but a hell of alot better than the other place.
well thats it for now. my impression of rio is that its a great city, i give you no reason to go there but just dont stay long as it will eventually get to you. also if you dont like the heat come during a cooler time. also bring a bit more money than you originally planned as rio is a nit on the expensive side to party everynight. tiil the next time, same bat chanel, same bat time.......this is burger signing out. Tchau.
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Martin
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650 euro??????????????
I cannot believe you turned down 650 euro to stay one more day in a hotel. You are away for a year and a half, what is one more day going to do? Anyway, tell us, are you thinking of getting this blog published, its good stuff.