Welcome to South America - Rio

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We have been in Rio for about 3 days now. As most of you probably know it wasn't the best start to our trip as our journey from New Zealand to Rio was HORRIFIC thanks to the wonderful Argentina Aerolineas. I will def never ever fly with them again. Thanks to them the first day of our trip was spent in the hostel waiting for our luggage to arrive and trying to get through to someone to find out where it was. It did finally arrive at 9.30 at night! By this time though we were over it as we were in the hostel bar drinking and meeting fellow travellers!

The place we are staying is really nice actually - it should be really as it's more expensive then New Zealand and we have a shared bathroom, but in big cities you just never know what you are going to get! It's a really easy place to meet people and we have been out with them for the past few nights. This is good as it's better to travel in groups as I feel safer. Place is called The Mango Tree if anyone ever comes to Rio!

So our first night after drinking in the hostel and trying the local cocktail - caiporinha (which is a rum based liquor mixed with a bit of freshly squeezed lime. Very strong so not sure I'll be drinking that again!) we headed out for a brazilian BBQ. This is where they bring you tray after tray of meat which they cut infront of you to eat. It was so good! Ate all types of meat including chicken livers which were very chewing!

The next day we did a city tour of Rio. I'm not a big fan of city tours but as we had lost a day we didn't really have time to try and get our bearings to go round the city ourselves. Also Rio is huge so we thought a city tour would make our life easier and safer! The tour took us to a beach - can't remember what the name was but it's where the hanggliders land. Also it is 'famous' as it has the biggest rock next to a beach in the world! Who know that was a catergory hey! Next stop was the urban rainforrest where we saw a really nice waterfall, then it was off to the main attraction - the massive Jesus Crist statue which overlooks Rio. The statue is huge and of course full of tourists all wanting their picture infront of it. It was so funny! You can't get a photo of just you (unless you buy one there which is photoshopped!) so it is a case of trying to take one with the least people in it! Also it was really cloudy when we were there so you have to wait for the cloud to move before you can try to take a picture in the 30 sec gap! Neadless to say our photos of it aren't great!!!

After the JC it was off to Sainta Terresa. This is a really nice part of Rio. Here we saw the steps where a local person has decorated with tiles from across the world. It is very beautifal and colouful and a very different thing to see.

So all in all the city tour was a great trip!

Last night we went out in the streets of Rio. It was Friday night which is a big party night. We went to Lapa which is where they have loads of samba clubs. They also have a street party there at the weekends. The traffic in Rio as you can imagine is crazy - even at 10 when we got our taxi to Lapa. At one point the police had closed a few lanes on the road which was causing a bit of traffic. There was a car on the side of the road, two police officers and a dead person under a blanket in the road. It was a bit of a shock to see this, especially as only a small bit of the the road was closed and it was open about a meter after where the body was. Also when I say closed I just mean a police car blocking the lanes in front and nothing at the back. Very strange and made us feel very uneasy.

We arrived in Lapa to see the massive street party. We were apparently early (at 11 pm!) so it wasn't that busy. It was busy enough for me though so don't think I could have been there at peak time! We walked around a bit with a guy who has been here before and can speak Portuguise which is always helpful! Bascially everyone is just drinking on the streets and partying! There is live music and loads of street vendors.

We made our way to a samba club called Rio Scenarium. What a fantastic club! It was huge - about 3 floors and had 2 rooms with live music in them. The bottom floor was what I know as South American music and was full of people of all ages dancing and singing along with the band. The other room was like 'new' South American music - I can't describe it but like South American music mixed with a bit of house or garage as there was a big bassline going through it. This was where the young kids were. It was good but I liked the more traditional one better. There were also a few different places you could eat at in the bar and some chillout bits. It was a really funky bar and had been decorated really well, like a wall was full of old clocks, another old radios, another old childrens bikes. It was really relaxed in there and I loved watching everyone dance and enjoy the music so much. It wasn't at home where people are too drunk to walk after 12! I mean they must have been drunk people in there but they just handled themselves better!

Ian and I danced the night away - even if we were both rubbish! I tried to teach him some salsa but he isn't interested! We only lasted till 2 but that is still pretty good for us!

Today we have already been busy as we did a favela tour this morning. Favelas are where the poor people live in Rio. It is also where a lot of drugs are dealt, people are killed and criminals love. The thing about them though is that inside they are actually safe as people generally don't rob from each other. They are generally run by the drug lords who want to keep peace in there as they don't want to attract more attention to themselves. Although saying that they have their own laws and the police don't generally get involved.

We visited 2 favelas - one was the biggest one in Rio with something like 80,000 people living there and the other was small with only 2,500. One of the starnge things about the favelas is that there are a growing numbers of middleclass people in their now (and not just from dealing drugs). Some people have nice houses which they have built and they have loads of bussinesses inside, like banks, gyms and restaurants. Of course though most of these people are poor and we could see even in the fevelas the difference between the 'rich' ones and extremely poor ones (who lived in shackes with no windows or doors). The small one was actually quite nice and I think people in that one have ok places to live.

There are something like 80 favelas on Rio and some of them are built across the roads from the most expensive places to live in the city, which is strange. There is also one right next to the Sherton hotel, which is a pretty fancy place.

Today is our last day in Rio and tomorrow we head off to the coast. Rio is a very interesting city which we can't really get to grips with in 3 days but have tried to! The sun is out today so we are off to the beach now. Another thing about Brazil I should mention is I can't believe how expensive it is! I knew it would be the most expensive country we would visit but man it is more expensive then New Zealand for everything other then alcohol which is cheap! We might have to start having a liquid soon!!

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Comments

[Olly and Lau]

Rio
Hey guys, saw the link to your blog on facebook. Sounds like you're having a great time in Rio, bit more hardcore than NZ, what with all the dead bodies etc! Interesting to hear what it's like to visit Brazil, might have to make a trip sometime. Just in the Bay of Islands at the moment, making the most of the sunshine before we head to the US next week, so beautiful up here!