Having a Ball in Rio

---

Carnival time in Rio was always going to be an interesting affair, and it didn't disappoint.

Sprawling in and between steep, imposing hills and forests, and with numerous beaches dotted along its coastline, Rio de Janeiro is one beautiful city. The beauty of the city is best appreciated from the top of the Sugar Loaf mountain, reached via cable car. You can also admire panoramic views by the iconic Christ statue, but for me the Sugar Loaf was the place to be. This may be partly because of the greater space available on the Sugar Loaf - at the statue it was so crowded that the words "Jesus Christ" coming out of my mouth had nothing to do with the statue. It was barely possible to move. The statue, while impressive, was smaller than I'd imagined and does not dominate the city's skyline quite as much as the postcards make out.

On the day before the carnival I took the speedy metro downtown. I was a bit apprehensive about going downtown, but I needn´t have worried. The centre was buzzing with pre-carnival anticipation. There are some pretty impressive colonial buildings in the centre, some of which have ultra-modern giant skyscrapers squashed up against them, making for an interesting mish-mash of old and new buildings. Similarly, many of the favelas (shanty towns) lie only a stone´s throw from the upmarket areas, highlighting the sharp contrast in the lives of Rio's rich and poor.

Although I escaped lightly, the sad truth is that Rio is let down by its high crime rate. You do need to stay on guard and watch out for dodgy folk. Having said that, I was relieved to find that Rio wasn't half as scary as I expected. I had heard oodles of horror stories, making me wonder whether you could even walk outside without your running shoes on. As it turned out, I wasn´t too intimidated and felt relaxed most of the time. And although I did meet plenty of victims, the vast majority of those admitted that it was their own fault.

I stayed in a fun hostel called 'Stone of a Beach' in Copacabana for my first 2 days in Rio before the carnival kicked off on the Friday, when I had to move to my carnival hostel 'Che Legarto', also in Copacabana. The best hostels are snapped up quickly for carnival but, as I was soon to discover, I had not booked one of the best hostels. Trying to squeeze as much money as they possibly could from carnival time, Che Lagarto rammed 14 beds into a small room with no air-con. I complained; they shrugged their shoulders. As if that wasn't enough, the staff were next to hopeless at giving information. Even the most basic questions were too much for them - I mean, they must get asked all the time what bus goes to the Sugar Loaf, or where the nearest internet café is, but I shouldn't have bothered enquiring about either.

Anyway, enough moaning. Carnival time turned out to be a blast. I spent most of my time with the crowd at 'Stone of a Beach'. The first few nights/early mornings were spent in the district of Lapa, a buzzing part of town. At the weekend Lapa was incredibly crowded with locals and tourists partying together in the street.

The main carnival parades are held in the Sambadrome arena. I went to the Sambadrome on the Monday night with Claire from the hostel, and we had a great time. We arrived there about 11pm and stayed until the end of the show at sunrise. We were able to get up close to the action and, even though we had seats, we stayed standing up for most of the 8 or so hours we were there. Rio's samba schools spend many months preparing and each school's parade lasts about an hour. The event is actually a competition, although you´d never have known it from the care-free behaviour of the participants. I would think the judges had a pretty difficult job as all the parades were spectacular, with extraordinary floats and costumes. The winners of the whole carnival were the very last school on show (just as well I stayed until the end, then), with the theme of Africa. The Africa parade was amazing, with giant giraffes (requiring giant stilts!) and huge, eerily life-like lions. After a while though, the samba music starting doing my head in. They played the same samba song for the entire parade, so much so that I still haven´t got it out of my head (pretty much the only words were "Africa! Africa!").

Although Rio is famed for its beaches, I hardly spent any time on the beach. There was too much else going on. Obviously I did spend a lot of time in the vicinity of Copacabana beach, which was actually less chaotic and more chilled than I had expected. Ipanema is the other main beach and reputedly more beautiful, although I didn't notice much difference between the two. If you want to go shopping then I guess it's better to be in Ipanema, but I didn´t.

Aside from the Sambadrome, there were street parties scattered all over the city. Finding them wasn´t easy, though. The hostels were very unreliable in giving accurate times as they wanted us to spend our money in their bars. As I wasn´t there to spend my time in the hostel bars (although admittedly I did have a cairpirinha or two!), this got frustrating at times. Of the parties which I did find, the best were in Ipanema and Lapa. Surprisingly, there weren´t too many people in costumes - it seemed that all the materials were needed for the Sambadrome. The only thing about watching the spectacle at the Sambadrome is that it leaves you with an urge to get involved and put on some silly costume. There was only one thing for it, then. I had to get dressed up myself...

Ah yes, the Gay Ball. Held on the final night of the carnival, it is perhaps the most extravagant and hyped up of all the carnival balls. A group of us from the hostel thought that this might be a fun experience and managed to get hold of tickets. So off I went to the market stalls to gather together my suitably camp costume. A few cairpirinhas were definitely required before setting off. By the time we got to the huge ´Scala´ venue, the event was in full swing. The sight that greeted us on arrival was nothing short of extraordinary. Hundreds of balloons had been hoisted aloft the entrance, which was met by a long red carpet. Large crowds of people were lining the route leading up to the entrance - they were there just to watch people entering the arena. This was pretty much how I´d imagined the Oscars to be like! Overawed by the spectacle before us, we were unsure quite what to do. We decided that there must be some other entrance. But no, we were told in no uncertain terms that we had to walk down the aisle in front of all the people! What followed was just completely surreal - people cheering on either side as we walked down. Usually I hate being the centre of attention but this was so surrreal I didn't care - I waved to the crowds, agreed to photo requests, and generally lapped it up. When I reached the balloons at the entrance I was even asked by a press photographer to pose for him and I was happy to let him snap away. I tell you, I could get used to this celebrity lifestyle! The grand entrances were even being broadcast live on Brazilian national TV, with the focus being on the drag queens, who looked like they´d spent months getting ready.

When I slowly awakened from my hangover the next morning/afternoon, a horrible truth dawned on me. All my clothes were locked away in my locker, and the key for my padlock was in my shorts. And where were my shorts? In the other hostel, as I had got changed into my costume there. Oops. I racked my brains but I had absolutely no choice but to put my costume back on. This was pure humiliation. I had to go downstairs in my sparkly outfit, and was immediately greeted with taunts of "The carnival´s over mate", to which I could only grimace in response. Then I had to go outside and try to hail a taxi. There are millions of taxis in Rio, you just cannot escape them. Except, it seems, when you are standing in a semi-clad glittery costume with a stinking hangover. If ever I wanted a taxi to swing round the corner it was now, but it felt like an age before one did. When one finally showed, I couldn´t dive into it quick enough. I changed clothes pretty quick, too.

A visit to the Maracana, the largest football stadium in the world, was a must for me. So, as there were 2 games on when I was there, I went twice. The first game, between Fluminense and Vasco de Gama was an amazing 4-4 thriller! Romario, a Brazilian legend still playing at 41, came on as a sub for Vasco. The Brazilians may be known for their creative attacking, but their comical defending was even more fun to watch. We had a bit of a hitch on the way to the game, though. The hostel vans were pulled up by the police, who were digging around for drugs. Apparently they had spotted someone in the van with his head bowed - they assumed that he was sniffing cocaine, when in fact he was just asleep! Later one of the hostel guys admitted that he had a stash of marijuana on him - if caught, he would have had to pay the police a lot of money. Ah yes, bribery and corruption is more than a little rife here. The second match was part of the Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions´League. Flamengo, probably Brazil´s biggest club, strolled to a 3-1 win against Venezuelan side Maracaibo.

I bumped into lots of people in Rio from my earlier travels. Some of these reunions were unlikely and bizarre, to say the least. Most strangely, I was in a bar in Lapa when I went to the toilet and accidentally went into the ladies (believe me, that it is easily done over here - some of the portraits on the doors to indicate the gender are so difficult to decipher that you either have to spend hours studying them or just take a plunge and hope for the best). Quickly realising my mistake, I had turned to leave the ladies' when I noticed that there was another guy in there. This was someone I had met in Buenos Aires. We were both more than a little surprised to see each other in such circumstances. I appreciate this tale sounds a bit dodgy, but that was how it was!

During my final day in Rio I tried out hang gliding. The location for the gliding - the Tijuca forest national park, various districts of Rio, landmarks including the Sugar Loaf, beach, ocean were all on view - made it impossible to resist for me. Take-off was from a precarious-looking wooden platform on the peak of Pedra Bonita mountain. My instructor gave me very thorough instructions before we set off in tandem. I had to lead the way by running fast off the platform - the temptation is to jump off, but apparently this is not a good idea. While in the air I could see Rio in all its glory (beautiful landscape) and shame (favelas), before landing all too soon on Sao Conrado beach. It was wonderful. I would urge anyone planning on going to Rio to do the hang gliding - you won't regret it.

I left Rio the next morning - just. My lack of sleep finally caught up with me and I slept in. I had arranged to catch the bus to Ilha Grande (´Big Island´) with Claire and the plan was for me to go round to her hostel and for us then to share a taxi to the bus station. Thankfully Claire was alert enough to realise that my lateness had some meaning, and she took a taxi to my hostel. I had literally just woken up when she came into my dorm. In something of a daze, I had to quickly scramble my things together and leap into the taxi. The taxi driver was superb and got us to the bus station in time, thereby saving my bacon.

Ilha Grande is a stunningly beautiful island off the coast, a mere few hours´ south of Rio by bus, and then a further hour and a half by boat. There are no roads or traffic on the island, a major plus. It reminded me a lot of Thailand´s Phi Phi island, but is perhaps less built up. My hostel ('Aquario') was situated very handily on the main beach. The most beautiful beach on the island, though, is Lopez Mendez - I spent a very enjoyable afternoon there, mainly in the sea.

After the craziness of Rio, Ilha Grande was the perfect place to chill out, and for that reason I would have liked to have had longer than my 2 days there. Yet I had to get to Sao Paulo for my flight to Lima. My night bus to Sao Paulo arrived at 3.45am, earlier than expected as the clocks had gone back - how rude that nobody told me. As there were many hours to kill before my flight, I decided to go into the centre via the metro. I popped into the cathedral and explored 2 different Sunday markets, one in the Republic Square and the other in the Chinatown-esque area called Liberdade. This didn't actually kill much time, partly due to my lack of interest in shopping and partly to the incredible efficiency of the metro. It was a relief, then, to finally get on my plane to Peru.

---