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We’ve arrived at our first destination - Rio de Janeiro and have been staying in a small guest house called ´chez Michel´run by, you guessed it, a French guy called Michel! It´s very laid back and friendly. Just the kind of place we need to get ourselves sorted out before we get started on the bikes.
The culture shock arriving in Rio was nothing compared to our last trip when we arrived in Madras and nearly took the next plane home in a state of shock. Walking around Rio you could imagine being in a kind of European city really, obviously there are differences but they are not as marked as in other places we’ve been to. This is partly because we are staying in between the two famous beaches Ipanema and Copacabana. It’s the richest and safest part of Rio and the people here are all relatively well off.
Copacabana is nothing like I expected. I imagined it to be more of a Cancun style place with plush hotels, Hard Rock cafe , western style night clubs etc, but it’s not really very Americanized and tourist-oriented at all. It’s also not very exotic. The beach is beautiful but
the high rise buildings behind are quite ugly, there are iron bars in front of all the apartments and it is very seedy at night. It’s not a place for romantic night strolls under the stars!
During the day the beaches live up to their reputation though and really are great places to sit and people watch. Ipanema is now the most fashionable beach and all the rich cariocas (Rio citizens) go there at the weekend, surfing, posing, sunbathing (they are obsessed), jogging, playing volleyball etc. Almost all the woman have tiny bikinis and large bottoms and the men tight shorts in bright colours. Yesterday morning we spent a few hours sat in a beach bar, with our Brazilian friend Oto, taking in the sun and watching the show. I’ve yet to get out my prudish sporty bikini- I don’t think I’m going to look the part, I’ll probably get thrown off the beach.
Speaking of not looking the part, on Saturday evening we went to Lapa the area of Rio where there are lots of live music and samba bars and clubs. Obviously after a few Caipirinhas (very nice cocktails made with cachaça -sugar cane alcohol) I had a go at dancing samba but as the guy we went with pointed out, European girls just can’t dance like the Brazilians! They all have such rhythm on the dance floor, men and women alike and evidently they love to dance.
As for the football on Saturday, we watched the match in the street in a few of the different open air bars. I was supporting Brazil as I wanted them to get to the final to experience the party here but, although Edouard would have liked Brazil to go a long way, his heart was naturally with the French. There were no other French supporters so he had to hold in his joy when they scored as we were strongly outnumbered. Even though they lost the atmosphere during the game was great. The road, buses, beaches, shops and so on were empty and everyone was gathered around small TVs on street corners and in bars. They were happy and enthusiastic cheering loudly up until the whistle went at the end and it all went quiet when they realised they were out. I had expected them to be bad losers as football is so important to them but in fact they were actually quite cool and accepted that they were beaten by a better team, or should I say player. For them the cursed Zidane is the bane of their lives! In the evening when we went out the taxi driver and the hefty bouncer on the bar recognised the accent of the French guy we were with and insisted on shaking our hands in congratulations ( I just pretended I was French for the day!)
As you can see from the photos we also made a trip up to the Corcovado mountain to the 30m high statue of Christ the Redeemer. That was fantastic. The view over the city was incredible. You can’t see the extent of the city from the photos unfortunately, but its location is just amazing with the mountains and jungle touching the city and the beautiful beaches and islands in the bay. It’s just a pity the architecture is so ugly otherwise it would be beyond doubt the most beautiful city in the world.
Anyway, now after a short 3 days in the city we are preparing to head off today down the coast. I’m looking forward to getting away from city life and to spending some time in the little fishing ports between here and Sao Paulo. The bikes are all up and running, we tested them yesterday and the tent should be getting some use tonight too! Apparently the route is very hilly so our legs are finally going to have to get working. The real adventure is just beginning!
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