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Published: October 20th 2007
Wow so this is what Brasil is supposed to be like! Music, friendly people, cheap drinks, safe streets, and nice beaches!
Last night we went to the street party in Lapa and had a blast! We partied in the streets, went in and out of clubs, danced our faces off, consumed a few too many beverages and arrived home at 4am! We left when things were still going strong too ... the bars go all night here! They're alot like Canadian bars, but less "fuss" - really, all the people want is a place to shake their booty. We met a ton of people, foreigners and locals combined, and discovered the Caipirinha (a stong concoction of sugar, lime, liquor and ice). After two really cruddy days here, it was nice to finally get some reassurance as to why we came to Brasil in the first place!
Something we've quickly picked up on ... the people have a passion for life that is different than ours. Our culture puts alot of focus on working and what kind of work you do; but Brasilians do more of a planning work around life. Everything is about relaxing, maybe chilling at the neighborhood
bar, and going to the beach! It's a life we could get used to!
We're staying in the neighborhood of Copacabana - one of the best neighborhoods in Rio! Safety is less of an issue for us here, and that feels good! We aren't as afraid to take pictures or of getting mugged as we've been thus far. Of course it's almost always about common sense, but the odds just seem to be better here! Today we walked around all day and went to the beach - COPACABANA BEACH! It's the stuff dreams are made off!! The beach was beautiful and seemed to stretch on forever. Whatever you've heard about Brasilian women and the beach is true ... stunning women were everywhere!! The really cool thing was that not so stunning women were everywhere too!! In Canada we have the "Skinny Complex" ... as in, we believe that the only woman who should wear a bikini is a thin woman. Not the case in Brasil! Big girls (like Mommasitas) and teeny girls (think "Maxim") coexist perfectly, sometimes in matching bikinis and nobody cares! Same things goes for the men. It's all just another day at the beach!
So
Free Love
Proof that the big and the small can coexist! far we are fans of hostelling. It's awesome to meet other travellers, hear stories and bounce ideas back and forth. It's also really nice to speak English with others! We're still a bit blown away by the language barrior, and though it isn't as bad here as it was in Sao Paulo or Santos, it's still rough.
We have run into a problem with our scheduling and travel route. It turns out that we need a visa to enter Venezuela if we're entering overland (which was the plan), and we have neither the visa nor the time to get it. However we've discovered that if you fly in the country, then the visa is free from the airline. This means that we need to pay for another stupid plane ticket, not a planned expense! We're also sort of in the south of Brazil and need to get to Belem (which is in the north) in order to catch a boat down the Amazon, but didn't really leave ourselves enough time to bus it. So that could be another flight. We tried to see a travel agent today, but everything was closed so we'll have to wait until Monday.
The picture taking has been almost non existant, because of that whole fear of getting mugged (we met a guy who was robbed within 3 hours of landing in Brasil!) We'll leave you with a few that we did manage to take though!
Mucho Lovo,
Trevor and Kristena
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Maria
non-member comment
hair!!
The humidity must be good there!! Check out those curls! :)