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Published: November 27th 2008
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Christ the Redeemer
This is the most impressive statue I have ever seen! Where ever you are in the city you can see him. I am sitting in a little internet cafe on the beach in Ilha Grande. This is an island about 150km South/West of Rio. It is beautiful and the moment I got here I knew it was just what I needed.
The first 5 days of my trip have been pretty full on and I am really looking forward to just relaxing, chilling and re-chaging the batteries.
Rio is a fantastic city and I felt a lot safer than I had believed I would. Everything I had heard before I arrived was that everone got robbed! While you definitley have to be careful, I didn´t really feel threatened once. Rio reminds me of Sydney in many ways, It is a city on the ocean surrounded by beautiful lush green national parks. Like Sydney it is so green and blue all at the same time. It is also a city that has great beaches and scenery but an amazing night life too. Unlike Sydney though it has massive amounts of poverty. What is really strange is that the rich and the poor all live toghether in the same suburbs. You will find a Favela next to millionaire houses. There are
Horizon of Rio
Rio has such an amazing sky line. The buildings are just nestled into the big green lush hills. about 700 Favelas in the state of Rio. I was really surprised I think I expected there to be just one big one. They house alot of people though. The largest Favela has 200 000 people living there! The sky line is amazing. Most cities have a sky line made up of buildings and bridges. When you see Rio from the top of sugar loaf mountain you can´t help but be so impressed by the sight. The tall white buildings are all completely dwarfed by the green hills around them.
I really struggled adapting to life in a hostel on my first night. I was in a dorm with 2 sets of triple bunk beds. I was on the top bunk which apart from the fear that I was going to fall out (I am accident prone afterall!) it turned out to be quite good as you have more privacy and I was able to set up a little camp with my water, eye mask, head torch and book and sleeping bag!!
It only took me one night to adapt though and have realised sleeping in a doorm is fun. That is where you meet people. I shared
initially with 2 girls from Sao Paulo and 2 english girls on a 2 week holiday. Made friends with the English girls (for one day/night before they moved on) and then 2 english boys who took their place who were doing volunteer work in the next town along and had come on the fri for a night out in Rio. Ended up going out to Samba club with the boys and their local friends that night which was a lot of fun. Apart from going for a very expensive meal with the English girls that is the extend of my nights out so far. I am sure more will come but at the moment I really am content with early nights and chilling out (I know this doesn´t sound like me!).
I am the oldest 'traveller'that I have met so far but that doesn´t bother me - I am not feeling old! Also most people tend to be in groups but that is also not bothering me. A client of mine who had travelled alot on her own said that as an extoverted person travelling my yourself makes you more independent and appreciative of your own company. I can
see already how true that is.
I think I had underestimated aspects of travelling on your own in a country where you don´t speak any of their language. The only word I have managed to master in Portuguese so far is thank you and I am saying that a lot!
Yesterday I travelled from Rio to this island and thought it would be quite straight forward. All I had to do was catch a bus from the main bus station in Rio to a costal town (Angra Dos Reis) and then catch a ferry to the island. It turned out to be quite difficult and without the help of some really nice locals I met along the way I don~t know how I would have done it.
Firstly I had to catch a local bus from Ipanema (my area in Rio) to the bus station. With my huge backpack it was tricky enough and luckily I knew how much it would cost but then couldn´t ask the driver how to tell me when I was at the bus station. Luckily this man who had lived in New York for 5 years was sitting next to me and
told me all I needed to know about the bus station and alternative routes to get to Angra Dos Reis. Without him I would have spent ages in the arrivals section of the bus station.
Even when I got to the departures I queued up on 2 floors in 3 different lines before I found the right ticket booth. First floor here means ground floor which was very confusing. Then I realised that the next bus would get me to Angra Dos Reis just after the last ferry of the day left for Ilha Grande so (thanks to the guy on the bus) I went to catch a van instead.
They park just out of the bus station and seems locals regularly use them as transport. It was basically a mini bus. Once I got to the town, of course I was no where near the ferry and had no idea how to get there. Luckily again, a lovely local couple saw that I looked lost and the girl had just started studying beginners english, so they got me on another bus and carried my back pack for me and ran with me to the ferry terminal and
helped my buy my ticket!
Then the ferry (which is actually a little boat) was really delayed. I couldn´t quite work out what was going on but apparently some people had been stuck there for 3 hours. There was lots of shouting in Portuguese and eventually another boat turned up and we all had to climb across to it and set off for the island. you could only sit outside and it was pouring with rain. I did~´t know that it was going to take 3 hours (I had expected it would be half an hour - I have later found out that the actual ferry only takes 1.5 hours). So after me sitting outside for about an hour in my raincoat getting soaked (which I actually wasn´t minding) the driver of the boat got me and some other females into the cabin and I actually had a bed for the rest of the journey!
I only had the name of the hostel when I got off the boat in the rain and dark (it is a safe island though - promise dad!) and these local girls walked me along the beach to my hostel. My new hostel
Christ the Redeemer
You can see this where-ever you are in Rio is lovely. A 4 bed dorm with own bathroom and is right on the beach. I went to bed early again last night (or rather fell into bed) and fell asleep and woke up to the sounds of the waves lapping right out of my window.
I slept in the dorm with a girl from Sao Paulo last night but she has gone now so on my own for now.
I think I am planning on staying here for about 5 nights and then will make my way further down the cost in Brazil. I am going for long perioods of time without talking to anyone so I apologise for the lengthy blog but I need to talk some how!
All in all I am loving it so far. I am seeing some beautiful places and meeting some great people and having what I am sure if a very very different experience because I am doing this on my own. I am sure when I go on client visits in the future I will be better at finding my way there if I am managing to find my way to the places that I am (but then
I am not using maps here!!).
Love to you all xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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