Typhoid fever in Salvador and Carnaval in Rio!

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We hadn't heard much about Salvador before chatting with fellow travellers, but it is known as a party city where there is a good pre-Carnaval atmosphere. We had aspirations of drinking caipirinhas and dancing on the beach and experiencing the African cultural influence that is present there as a legacy of the slave trade. Unfortunately this was not to be as the vague gastrointestinal illness that had been plagueing me for weeks finally came to a head. I started to feel feverish during our flight from Lima to Sao Paolo and by the time we were in the check-in line for Salvador I was miserable with headache, chills, nausea and aching joints. We had a huge screwup at the airport in Lima when the LAN airline computers were down, meaning that they had to do all the check-in and baggage tags by hand, and yet they didn't hold the plane for us despite the hour or more delay. There were about 15 of us who missed the flight by minutes, and yet our bags were safely on their way to Sao Paolo. After about 8 hours in the Lima airport we caught a couple of hours of sleep at an airport hotel (paid for by LAN even though they wouldn't admit that it was their fault we were delayed and missed the flight) and returned to the airport to catch a 10:30 flight we'd scrambled to get with TAM (or was it TACA? I can't remember... because of my feverish state?)

Anyway, all of this served to make me feel even worse and by the time we arrived at our hostel in Salvador in the early hours of morning, I couldn't even summon the energy to have a shower. The next day (or later that morning I guess) Chuck convinced me to go to the hospital where they did a blood test and administered a few litres of IV fluids. It turned out I had an elevated white blood cell count and the Dr prescribed more of the same antibiotic I had already been taking. Two days later I could barely get out of bed and we went back to the hospital, where the new Dr said that she suspected I had Typhoid fever! Apparently they see 3 to 4 cases a week in gringoes arriving in Salvador from other South American countries. She did a blood culture and switched my antibiotics and told me the bad news: NO DRINKING ALCOHOL. Well, there went my Carnaval! Mom and Dad would not be proud to hear me say that I guess! I should be able to have fun sober, but I know all you readers understand!

After the hospital visits and the days of recuperation, we really only had one day to explore Salvador. We took a city bus to the downtown area and walked around a bit. What we saw convinced us that Carnaval in Salvador was going to be crazy! They were boarding up the glass-fronted shops, stockpiling beer in makeshift stands on the streets and setting up huge speakers and rows and rows of portapotties in the big town squares. All of the nice statues and fountains had big plywood sheets around them so our impression of Salvador was of a city preparing for an onslaught! The residents, when they heard we were going to Rio for Carnaval, said "Why? In Salvador you are IN Carnaval, in Rio you WATCH Carnaval." Needless to say we caught our flight to Rio with me feeling quite despondent as to how our Carnaval experience was going to turn out.

While Salvador had a bit of a grubby, run-down feel (although I'm sure the plywood and steel barricades everywhere didn't help!) Rio was beautiful! Copacabana was exactly how I'd pictured it with wide, white sandy beaches and clean, bright, classy-looking hotels. The beaches of Ipanema were even more white and wide and with apparently less sex tourism after dark. Our hostel was on a street a few streets back from the ocean, which were nicely shaded and cobbled with lots of greenery and paved squares. Our hostel itself was a huge disappointment however. Fellow hostel-goers warned us not to expect much help from the hostel staff as they were stoned all the time, and we soon discovered this to be true! We had our own double room but it was steps away from the rowdy bar and at the top of the 3-storey building, meaning that it was sweltering in the middle of the day (so much for our highly-anticipated afternoon naps after our overnight flight). Not only that, they only turned on the A/C from 10pm until 10am, which is ridiculous for a week when everyone is expected to stay out until 6am and sleep all day and when we were paying triple the normal rate for the Carnaval package. Our "shared bathroom" was shared with the bar, meaning I was confronted with torn-off toilet seats and puddles of pee when I went for a midnight potty-break. We tried not to be old-fogey grumps about it, but it really was the worst hostel we stayed at on our whole trip. Luckily there was a pretty fun group of people staying there for the week and I think we made the most of it.

A highlight was the Christ Redeemer City tour. It took us to the Maracena soccer stadium, to the ultra-modern Cathedral with soaring stained glass and amazing acoustics, to the Lapa steps whose colourful mosaic of tiles is continually refreshed by a crazy Chilean artist who says he will do so until the day he dies, and lastly to the Christ the Redeemeer statue towering over the city. The statue itself was an engineering marvel but the views of the city were absolutely stunning. I could have spent hours up there just looking at the view. Rio is built on little natural bays and harbours and beaches among rounded, lushly overgrown mountains jutting up from the shore.

Saturday was the day of the highly-advertised, highly-overrated hostel boat cruise. Actually I am probably just bitter because I didn't get to take advantage of the all-you-can-drink caipirinhas. Everyone else sure did and we got to swim in the only slightly trash-filled ocean and see the sunset over the Christ statue as we headed back towards the docks.

The only other organized tour that we did was the Favela Tour, which we'd been warned against due to the stray bullets that often find their way into tourists. Chuck was disappointed because we didn't see any weapons and only passed a couple of dudes that we were told not to photograph because they were drug dealers. I found it an interesting and enjoyable experience. We zoomed to the top of the favela on the back of motorcycles (our guide told us to make sure our bare ankles didn't touch the hot exhaust or we'd get a "favela tatoo") and then made our way down on foot through the winding, narrow streets and alleys on foot. We stopped at a gallery of local artist to lend our monetary support and were treated to a short drums show by some kids. They are encouraged to provide something in exchange for our reais rather than just shout "money money!" whenever the gringoes walk by, although some kids tried this tactic too. One thing that impressed me was that some residents had decorated their houses with potted plants and caged songbirds. It showed me that you can make the most of your home no matter where you live. Granted this was the oldest, safest and cleanest favela in RIo, with its own community association, post office and water supply, but at least we got a bit of a glimpse into the favela way of life, now matter how tame.

The highlight of Carnaval for tourists in Rio is Sambadrome and we had paid way too much for tickets for the Monday night parade, but were eagerly looking forward to it. On Sunday, we decided to head there to see if we could get last-minute tickets. We arrived too late, but spent several hours walking around the Sambadrome enjoying the crazy costumes, drunken tourists and locals and general Carnaval atmosphere. I was even able to enjoy it while only drinking Coke! We got to see some of the floats and crazy costumes as they waited in their places for their turn to go into the parade, and Chuck paid a miniscule sum for two giant sequinned, feathered crowns from one of the samba schools that had already taken their turn.

On Monday night we made our way back to the Sambadrome by Metro, quite excited about seeing the actual parade. On the way, we were mugged (sorry I didn't tell you until now Mom and Dad but I didn't want you to worry). Admittedly we were stupid, walking on the less-populated side of the street on the way to the pedestrian overpass into the Sambadrome. Two guys came up and said "stop, stop" and held out a little knife about the size of a nail file. Chuck gave them the 12 reais he had in his pocket (smart guy he had the rest of his money in a hidden pocket and in a money belt!) and as they were pressing for more, an undercover policeman sprinted up and pointed a gun at them. One guy ran away and the other guy slipped and fell, which gave the cop the chance to kick him as hard as he could in the stomach and the butt. My instinct would have been to stop him from hurting the guy too much, but the mugger soon got up and limped away. The cop immediately left and we kept walking! All in all it was over in minutes and Chuck said it was worth the 12 reais for the experience! I never felt actually threatened which is also stupid I'm sure, but we'd done all the right things and the cop had been in the right place at the right time, so no worries!

The parade was all that we expected and more! The music was ear-splittingly loud and the pictures don't do justice to the spectacle of the costumes, floats and enthusiasm of the dancers. I tried to puzzle through the programme in Portuguese to get the theme of each samba school, but eventually gave up to watch it all happen. We had great seats right near the judges, which is apparently the best spot because the schools save all their best moves for that section of the 1km-plus long parade route. A favourite float of mine was a huge garbage heap with giant, red-eyed rats and a flapping vulture on top. We only had the stamina to stay until 4:30 am or so and didn't end up seeing the winning school, but it was a crazy experience and we'd definitely do it again!

Our last day of Carnaval was pretty casual as our lack of sleep was starting to catch up with us. We took the Metro to Ipanema and just wandered along the beach people-watching, passing by several booming "blockos" (block parties) and stopping for meat on a stick (Chuck was brave enought but I chickened out after my Typhoid experience) and corn on the cob until we made our way back to Copacabana. The beaches were absolutely packed, both in the water and on the sand, with locals and tourists who were easy to identify by their patchy sunburns. We found out later it was over 40 degrees C that day and the waves were cool and refreshing. That night there was a free barbecue at the hostel and they managed to redeem themselves slightly because it was delicious. We said our goodbyes to our fellow gringoes, marvelling that the week had gone by so fast, and made our way the next morning to the oceanside hotel we had booked to spoil ourselves after the scuzziness of the hostel.

Our last day in Rio was quite extravagant by our standards. We relaxed in our hotel room for the morning with the air-conditioning set on high and had a late lunch at Pacao, a reknowned churrascaria in Ipanema. I gorged on salad bar and sushi and Chuck enjoyed all the meat on offer except for the chicken hearts. We waddled our way back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap. That night, we took the Metro to the Maracena soccer stadium to see a semi-final game between the Rio teams of Flamengo and Bogota. This turned out to be one of the highlights of the week! We sat in the Flamengo fans' section and the energy and antics of the fans made North American sportsfans look like boring lazies. There were songs, drums, huge flags, flares and general jumping around and screaming seemingly with every play! We soon got into it and were hugely disappointed when Flamengo lost, although the guy sitting beside me acted like it was a personal affront. In order to prevent riots and injuries there is no longer any alcohol sold in the stadium (very strange for us Canadians who are used to a beer with a game) and the security presence inside and outside the stadium was huge. Fans themselves seemed to contribute to keeping order as well, loudly pointing out anyone who had thrown a pop can or pushed at a rival fan. On our way back to the Metro we saw a guy get attacked by police dogs as well!

The next morning dawned rainy and we weren't too disappointed to leave Rio, looking forward to a relaxing week in Sao Paolo and a quick trip to Iguazu Falls before flying home to Canada.

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