48 hours in Rio

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A little freaked out by the many stories we had heard about Rio, Leon and I caught the subway to the train station. In a rush, as usual.
This was our first bus ride in Brazil and definately not up to the standard of the Spanish speaking countries. No such thing as reclining chairs here!

We got to Rio around 4:30. My old work mate, Jesse had given me a contact in Rio. I had been in contact with Amos for several weeks. We arrived in Le Blon to a phone call from Amos. He was coming to meet us for a beer down the road. What a legend!

We turned up a little late by Europeans standard but it ended up being a good 1/2hour early by Rio time. I had no idea what this mystery man looked like, expecting that he would probably find us without too much difficulty.
Amos turned up and before i knew it, i was discussing the different sorts of Caiprinhas with his work mates. The bueaty was they all worked in international freight so spoke great English.
Last man standing- Leon, I, Amos and his mate Kris racked up a 250rio bill which included 38beers.
After splitting the damage, I could not convince a legless Amos it was a good idea to push on, so we carried on home.

I awoke to find Leon a little worse for wears, so carried on to the beach to meet up with a few of the crew from last night at Ipanema beach. 37degrees celcius. Still very tender from Sao Paulo, I tried to keep in the shade as much as possible which seemed to work.
The perving was outstanding on the crowded beach. The sand was 30 deep with deck chairs and umbrellas. From a quick glance, surely there was 50,000 people on the beach.

I met Leon back at the hostel around 4 before meeting back at Kris house.

We had a sample of Carnival. A street party with several floats, yahooing and beer on the streets kicked in to gear for a couple of hours. Kris and her friend who we meet by chance encounter, educated us a little about the appropriate Carnival behaviour. Basically, it seemed to be do not mess with the police and do whatever you want.

After the drinking continued... the first bar I remember clearly. Upon attempting a handless glass scull, the glass shattered between my teeth. An absolutley horrific way to fail my prize trick! Cheap glass man.
We pushed on for more drinking and meet up with Amos. Not dressed appropriately, we left Amos to hold the fort. We returned half an hour later to a find he had done a runner on the entire NZ$150 bill. What a mad dude. With disbelief we avoided that bar and went down the road to a club which was rumoured to depict Rios crazy side.
Leon and I people watched until around 4am. Perhaps the craziest thing was the bathrooms were just doors on the side of the bar. Similiar to changing sheds on the side of an old skool swimming pool. The decor was all metal and concrete, the music raw and industrial. This set the scene for weirdos of all orientations. To be honest, 3 dodgy clubs in a month was a little too much for us.

The following day, we went took a taxi to Sugar Loaf mountain. The other view from Cristo (Jesus on the hill from the Primo ads) was blocked by clouds. We picked perhaps one of a handful of days in which the sun did not shine over Rio.
SugarLoaf ended up being an exciting choice. Upon reaching the top, the clouds subsided giving us a spectacular view of the city beaches. We walked around for an hour or so.

We boarded the gondola, only to be hit suddenley by a thunder storm. Along with 70other people we waited perched in the gondola with a 300m drop below. Fantastic. The other dynamic was our bus left in 2hours - so we really needed to get a move on.
We ended up waiting around 20mins in the gondola. The taxi driver back to Le Blon was sleepy - which added to the adreniline. We picked up our stuff before again battling the Sunday traffic to the bus terminal. Phewww! We made it.

Bahia here we come!

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Photos

Amos and co
...about 20 beers in!

Carnival
Kris and I, enjoying the views!

Carnival warm up
A little taste of what to expect

Wassup!
Always time for a bit of skylarking.

Night out
The crew at the kinky nightclub. Amos, you little legend. Still fired up after doing a runner from the restaurant.

Le Blon beach
A cross section of the 4km beach

Sugar Loaf
Here comes the storm!