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Published: March 7th 2007
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Copacobana Beach!
On an average Sunday, every inch of sand and water is covered for as far as you could see! What a crazy, messy, noisy, bright, sunny, head-foggy week. From the day that Rita and I arrived in Rio, two days before the start of Carnaval, the time we spent here was non-stop, with the hardest decision we were faced with each day was whether to go to another street party or to the beach. We didn't really know what to expect from this city as we'd heard so many stories about how dangerous it could be, ie. "they will cut off your hand to get to your camera", including a girl we met in Buenos Aires who had a knife held to her throat while checking out the sites in the main square in the city centre. Pretty much on arrival to the hostel, we worked out that the other backpackers fell into two groups - either badly sunburned or had been mugged. On our first night there, we all went down to a street party, a car with a crazy sound system pumping music driving down the street, with a million people dancing and singing behind it, some people in costume or a brigade of boys wearing only tighty whities, I got adopted by a huge prostitute who was
Ipanema Beach
More busy crazy crowded madness! determined to teach me how to samba, and also got spewed up on all over my legs by a Brazillian partying maybe a little too hard - welcome to Rio!!
Our hostel was right in Copacobana, 5 minutes walk to the beach, with its packed packed beaches, umbrellas and chairs everywhere, even in the water when the tide came up. The water could get pretty gross, with plastic bags and bottles floating around, and in the afternoons the waves would become psycho and dumping! All the women, no matter if you are a size 0 or 100, wear teeny g-string bikinis and triangle bikinis, I loved it! Rita and I looked conservative in our normal bum-covering bikinis, makes you wonder what is the point in being self-concious at all! And the men, good lord, are out of this world HOT, I was literally in shock and truly a pervert, though there also seemed to be this fetish for speedo's that I didn't agree with!!
We also walked to Ipanema beach (only about 20 minutes away) on Sunday, the busiest day of the week, when the beach was so packed that you were like sardines in the water, and
Drinking on the streets
No such thing as lining up at the bar! Locals sold drinks out of eskies on every metre of the road when you got dumped by a wave you cracked heads with about 10 people. All the people in the water cheered and clapped for approaching waves and booed when the waves flopped, it was like a party in the ocean, and you could stand in the water drinking a beer if you wanted to. Lifeguards patrol to beaches in helicopters, and on one day I saw a swimmer get in trouble so a helicopter hovered over about 5 metres above the water surface, and a lifesaver jumped out of the helicopter into the surf, grabbed the swimmer and they were both scooped up by a bit bucket attached to the helicopter and the swimmer was returned to the beach, how awesome!
Every day and night there during Carnaval there was some sort of party on, usually at night people would congregate outside in the suburb of Lapa, with music blasting, processions of drummers and dancers on the street, and people selling beers and cocktails out of eskies every metre down the road (so you were never without a drink!), and food stalls selling pizza, noodles, and MASSIVE burgers! During the day there were lots of street parties called 'blocos'
Street party!
People swarmed the streets, drummers and dancers marched by, and things got messy with foam and shaving cream! in different suburbs, which were basically a bus blasting music and drenching the crowd with firehoses, or people playing instuments on the top of the bus as it drove around. They also sold foam in aerosols cans, so by the end of the bloco, the entire street and people in it were covered in white foam!
After a few days of non-stop partying, I had lost my voice and my mind, was walking around in a constant daze, had insomnia and couldn't sleep even though I desperately wanted to, so Rita and I took a rest from all the craziness and visited the massive Christ the Redeemer statue that watches over Rio. There were also markets lining every beach with art, Brazillian souveniers, Havianna thongs, jewellery, hammocks etc., so we spent a few cruisy hours meandering around these and curling up under an umbrella on the beach for a snooze..
On Monday night we went to the Sambadromo to watch the actual Carnaval procession, with crazy costumes, thousands of dancers, masses of feathers and glitter, huge impressive floats and pumping samba music, it was so impressive, the amount of time and effort that would have gone into it!
Masquerade!
Rita and I getting into the spirit! We were adopted by a Brazillian family who took care of us even though the conversation was a little limited, they squished everyone up and made room for us to sit and offered us their sandwiches all night - the people here are so friendly! We watched the performances and danced from 9pm until well after the sun came up..
..Then, on my very last night in Rio, on my very last night in South America, I got pickpocketed. It was only a small amount of cash, and I'm glad it wasn't the other pocket which had my camera in it, but how's that for irony?!?! The very last night!!
Despite this little incident, I ADORED Rio, with its beaches, markets, blocos, music, party spirit, carefree vibe, hot sun, acai, hot male bodies, cheese and banana toasted sandwiches, samba dancing on the streets, walking around in thongs, bikini, sarong and *maybe* a singlet and shorts if I felt like it - constantly sandy and salty - could I be any happier?!!
Rio was the perfect place to finish up on this crazy whirlwind trip of mine. These three months have opened up my eyes to different cultures
Lapa Bloco!
One of the blocos at Lapa - 10am in the morning! and people, I've witnessed and experienced so many new things; felt so challenged and struggled at times, yet came through alive, safe and with (most of!) my belongings intact; survived 35 hour bus rides; overcame the language barrier and taught myself spanish; snorkelled with sea lions; went white water rafting, horse riding, mountain-biking and paragliding; hiked for days carrying tents, sleeping bags and food, even in the freezing cold and wind; went days without showering; saw jungle, beach, ocean, mountains, glaciers, snow, saltflats and waterfalls; chewed coco leaves, ate empanadas, guinea pig and llama; (attempted to) dance salsa in Ecuador and samba in Brazil (not even going to attempt to tango in Argentina!); survived random hideous allergy; made friends from all continents; even managed to come home with a killer tan 😉
In the end, the overwhelming feeling I have is that of being very very blessed.
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