Rio de Janeiro - American Adventures 2014 (Part 3 of 8)

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Once I said goodbye to my Miami crew I hopped onto a plane headed for Rio. It was sheer coincidence yet I was to land into Rio during the heart of carnival .... a time where anything and everything goes. I didn't know what to expect but I had an idea from my research on youtube. Everything was going to be a lot more expensive for those 5 carnival days, that's for sure. Accommodation prices shoot up 5 times too and is quite hard to find. I booked mine in January from Miami, only to find nearer the time the booking didn't go through so I had to find another place last minute.

Before I left Miami I did some research into how to get from the Rio airport to where I need to be and was told not to get ripped off by the taxi services they offer your face as you exit. Turn right and take the local bus, it will be super cheap compared. With this in mind I picked up my baggage, exited the airport and before I even looked to the right I had purchased a ridiculously-priced taxi ticket to my destination. Oh well, at least I know I'd get there. I was making conversation with the taxi driver as I hadn't spoken Portuguese for a couple of months .... this is where I fell in love with the Brazilian accent, especially that of Rio, unreal. When he asks me to give an address of where I'm going he tells me it will cost more than my ticket price ... lovely, I've become the token 'take advantage of the tourist' guy.

Once I arrived at the hostel it was around 8am and I hadn't slept in a very long time .... but it was scorching, near 40 celsius. I was shown to my bed and I tried to sleep for a while, however it stank like dogsh!t in this room and it was offputting. I overheard people saying they were joining the gang downstairs to head to the beach so I decided to say hello and join in .... quickly I made some good friends that I spent the next 5 days with.

Rio is famous for its Copocabana and Ipanema beaches, the land where thongs are a-plenty and big booties are a-welcoming ... I will just say this about it ... <em class="_4-k1 img sp_ZrsPFjUrAQL sx_a7dbf8">smile emoticon smile emoticon smile emoticon smile emoticon

Beachwear is different there. For girls less is more, for guys it's this thing which is a cross between speedos and shorts called Sunga, and personally I found them to be ugly. There were too many Sungas on the beaches.

Carnival was absolutely mental ... as soon as I landed there were people in costumes everywhere, celebrations, street parades, cheering, drinking, total chaos everywhere. It was madness but an awesome experience. If you weren't wearing some sort of costume then you definitely appeared out of place. I actually wasn't a fan of the street blocko parades tho ... they weren't like what you expect carnival to be like ... for that you have to pay and go to the main event. Street parties were just thousands of people getting pushed around and drunk and an opportunity for pickpockets.

Rio generally has a bad reputation for crime .. thefts, killings in the shanty towns, etc. During carnival bad things can happen. I was as careful as I could be, not going out alone in the dark, not taking anything with me (camera, wallet, phone, etc), staying in groups. After a while I got used to the habit of covering my pockets and assessing my surroundings so I felt more comfortable taking things out with me ... but I also had luck on my side. Some other people I was with had things stolen from their pockets and they wouldn't know ... or if they felt it they would turn around and not have a clue who'd taken it. One of the guys in the hostel was a bit tipsy and decided to take a leak in the sea, pulled his shorts down, had his phone stretched out in his hand and boom, had it snatched off and was pushed into the water whilst still pissing and shorts by the ankles. Another group of friends (ex-military) were stopped by the beach by a gang who demanded they hand over a lot of money or get shot ... and they didnt have money on them which made it a tricky situation to get out of. I was ok ... my only concern was to get the new MacBook Pro I bought in Miami through my trip in Brazil and back home safe.

Food in Rio can vary from cheap to expensive ... but overall I found eating out verrryyyy cheap. Everything is relative and to those travellers who came from other parts of South America thought it to be rather costly. I always compare the world to UK prices (even in Portugal, it's a lifetime-built habit). There was this special place near the hostel where we used to eat once or twice a day ... I would get my fish sandwiches and they were lovely. There was a bit of a routine each day for me ... breakfast here, head to supermarket next door, get some cottage cheese, couple bottles of water then head out to the beach or wherever we were going. Eventually they ran out of fish and my daily routine was coming to this cafe, asking if they had fish, them saying no, head to the supermarket, can't find the cottage cheese, get some water bottles and head back home.

There are a lot of fun things to do in Rio. Sugarloaf mountain, Christ the Redeemer, Lapa, Maracana stadium ... and many places I didn't visit. The most fun thing I did was on my birthday, 4th March. It was the day of the sambodrome where the main carnival is held. You buy tickets for whichever set of seats you want. We ended up buying them opposite the judges center-stage which was the best spot as all parades want to impress the judges in order to be declared the winner. As we were all dressing up getting excited for the event, there was another guy in the group who was very happy and counting down the hours. It was then I found out it was his bday too, the chances of that ... we were bday buddies. I didn't know at the time but we could have paid a little extra and become part of the parade, there's a section at the end where the public get to dance and dress up. Sambodrome was something extraordinary, they spend millions on this event. I can't imagine how many months of practise goes into it. All parades competing for top spot, amazing creativity, beautiful people with beautiful costumes ... stunning brazilian girls in feather outfits ... synchronized marching. For 6 hours they kept on going, and in the background they were playing the same melody over and over again, yet it never got boring ... I was humming that for days ... rather patriotic. Sambodrome was my highlight of Rio.

One of the nights I went out to Lapa which is the main nightlife area in Rio ... nothing special but few bars/clubs, open-air ones too. It was still carnival mode and people were going crazy. Nightclubs are rather different there, for example we walked into one and rather than a DJ they have a band playing samba music live on drums, pretty amazing. It was super loud though .... ever since I DJ'd at my friend's bar in Tavira last summer my ears can't handle loud music ... and this was in the very high decibel range ... more so than standing next to the speakers without ear protection at Armin van Buuren's opening of Intense in Amsterdam last November. Over the course of the past few days I got to learn the differences in culture when it comes to Brazilian life. One of the things I noticed was that guys come onto girls very strongly ... they'll just see a girl going by, grab her and start kissing her ... and she'll oblige. If she doesn't, they'll force it. Many female travellers had to deal with this and it made them uncomfortable out in public ... guys can be such disrespecting arseholes. Things are very different there. To be honest, carnival will add to this since it's an excuse for people in masks to act out their deepest desires and do what they normally wouldn't do during those 5 days, hidden inside a costume, blaming it on an alter-ego.

Suddenly, it's all over. Day 6, the carnaval has ended. I went out that morning in my carnival gear and as I walked the streets I felt like a right tit .... You can sense the difference in the air. No more cheering in the streets, no more singing, no costumes, people looking suicidal on public transport ... normal life returns. Now starts the task of cleaning up the city which to me seemed like an impossible task. It wasn't, unbelievably they took 24 hours to clean the streets up ... I was impressed. Now and again you saw somebody with a carnival hat, glitter, bright clothes, costume ... and it would look out of place. The friends I'd made at my hostel were leaving too .... suddenly from a full house of 40 peeps it eventually came down to just me having the whole hostel to myself. You see, I had plans to stay in Rio for a month, but after seeing the change I felt lonely and decided I'd have to move on.

The first stop was doing laundry. I went to this place with a friend and walked in, looking baffled by these machines, washers on the left, dryers on the right. The 2 women in there took pity on us and decided to help. One of them pointed to the store across the street to go get some powder, then guided us on how to use the machines and told us to come back in 15. When I returned the woman had opened the door of the machine and had placed a cup of fabric softener next to it, saying that it's a good time to put this in. I did this, went back out for a cold orange juice, then when we returned to put the clothes in the dryer we found they had done this for us as well ... it was a lovely service, one that I paid them for.

The next stop was the famous Lapa steps, the one Snoop-Dogg made famous in one of his vids. We were determined to get the money shot on this one which proved to be difficult. Plenty of tourists waiting for pictures, then when you push in and sit on the steps, you get people walking up behind you. I wanted all of the steps clear ... waiting and waiting for the right moment ... and then it started monsooning down. Not giving up, we spent over an hour, maybe 2, just getting soaked trying to get that perfect picture shot, trying not to soak the camera in the process. In the end I gave up and decided I was happy with what I had.

The last couple of days I was all alone in the hostel. I went to a huge outdoor market to look for some clothes ... other than that I didn't do a lot, just watched movies. In fact, the hostel had a sky package and they had cool movies in there. You could buy them and the owners would unlock the movie with their PIN. On the 1st day I watched and memorized the pin, so since then we kept ordering movies ... if they were boring we'd switch. One day the pin no longer worked, they'd clocked onto our scheme and we then had to pay for the movies.

I decided it was time to do some exercise. Although I'd seen an outdoor gym by the beach with weights made out of stones, I preferred to go to a proper gym. I used this website called gympass.com where I could use my credit card to by X passes and use them at the gym. I bought a lot of them as I'd be returning to Rio many times throughout the month. The gym was nice, 3 floors ... pretty amazing brazilian butts moving around in there ... I liked my sessions in this place.

The week had come to an end and it was time to move on. Wherever would my adventures take me to next?

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