Rio

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We gladly left Sao Paulo and headed for Rio de Janeiro, a place so many people have loved and has been classed as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We couldn’t wait!

It didn’t start well! Like most Brazilian cities they are useless for public transport and have most of the bus terminals at least 10 km from the city! It doesn’t make any sense and just makes everything a pain, setting off a few hours early to get the bus and then after arriving trying to work out how to get into the city. Rio was one of the worse about 15km from Copacabana and the bus terminal was under some sort of renovation so it was hopeless to work out where to go.

We phoned the hostel we had booked and they told us it would be best to get a taxi as it can be dangerous getting the local buses, nice one! It was 2 o’clock in the afternoon surely it can’t be that bad and the taxi would cost about ten pound so no chance with that as it was a rip off. We then got lucky and found a Police man which spoke enough English to tell us to walk across the road from the terminal and we could get a bus for 50p each and he said it would be very safe. The bus was fine, even though there were a few dodgy looking old ladies but I felt I could fight them off if need be!

We finally arrived to the hostel which we wasn’t looking forward to in the first place as Rio is so expensive we would have to stay in a 8 bed dorm as that was the cheapest option at 7 pound each a night and even that wasn’t cheap for what we usually pay but like I have mentioned seems the norm for Brazil about 15 pound for a double, but 20 in Rio! With us not having long left we have to think about the pennies as there are not too many of them left!

The next few days we spent on the famous Copacabana Beach. The beach looked as beautiful as all the pictures, with white powder sand, palm trees and the beautiful setting of Rio with Sugar Loaf Mountain and Christ Redeemer in the backdrop.

Even with the pretty scenery you don’t really look as there are too many Brazilian beauties in thong bikinis and their tits hanging out, with a cleavage as big as an arse! It was fantastic and the sunglasses came in very handy! Michelle being the best girlfriend ever got bored hitting me after a while and even pointed a few out! She also pointed out some of the sights I didn’t want to see! That’s the great thing about Brazilian beaches it doesn’t matter what you look like and the perfect place for the body conscious as what ever size you are you all where the same, as in the smallest Bikini you can find.

To describe the Bikinis its probably best thinking like a man and imagine what a man would design which would just barely pass any laws that prohibit nudity! I think it’s barely a hanky worth of material and a bit of string to cover top and bottom half! For some reason no body goes topless and apparently frowned upon, very strange seems there virtually naked anyway! The men outfits are not much better with Speedos being the chosen attire and as Michelle puts it ´Budgie smuggling´! (I will leave it to your imagination for that one!) For me I am more than happy in my swim shorts.

A strange sight which I thought I would never see in a public place, body hair bleaching! You read right, some women would be covered in this white liquid and just lie in the sun with not a care in the world! After a while we just got used to it and then we seen an old dear doing her tash! Just wrong and I think enough said on that one! My mum and sister are coming to meet us in Venezuela in the next few weeks and will have to see if they fancy giving it a go, my sisters got a tash like Magnum!

After burning for a few days on the beach we decided to visit some of the main attractions and spent the day visiting Christ Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain. Christ Redeemer has recently been voted as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World so was looking forward to that after being amazed by one of the others, Machu Pitcchu.

As soon as we got to the Redeemer we knew it was going to be hassle as there were loads of tour buses and guys pestering you with different tour options. We already knew we didn’t want to do the train up to the top as we have heard you don’t get to see much and its better to take a taxi that stops at various miradors on the way. The train was 35 real’s and the taxi 30 real’s, about 8 pound each which we thought was a bit steep seems it wasn’t going that far but they know as long as they are cheaper than the train then people will still go with them! We bumped into another English guy and he joined us in the taxi. We got to see some great views of Rio from different angles so it turned out o.k. Finally at the top and it was rammed with tourists all vying for space to get photos of Christ. The statue was huge and a lot bigger than I thought as from sea level it looks tiny. Michelle really liked it but I wasn’t that impressed and don’t think it should be one of the seven wonders especially when you think of some of the ones that didn’t make it especially Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Next up was Sugar Loaf and which we went to in taxi with Rich who ended up joining us for the day especially after saying we were planning to have a few drinks at the top! We took a cable car to the top for 8 pound and the views from here were also amazing and we stayed for the sunset which was amazing and then watched the first stars appear in the sky over Rio and then the city lights gradually came flickering on like stars as the city came alive.

Another day trip we went on a tour to visit the largest favela in Latin America, Roçinha. A favela is the slum area of a city and this one holds around 200,000 people and getting bigger as it climbs up the slopes of Rio. We started on the edge of the favella and took motorbike taxis to get deeper inside and that was adventure in itself as the drivers were crazy going at super speeds winding through traffic and when that attempted to stop them they would go on the pavement, they didn’t like to stop! From our group I was first up by 5 minutes and started to worry about where Michelle and the rest of the group was but then they gradually arrived everybody saying they couldn’t believe how crazy the drivers were! As we started the tour I was expecting to see wooden and corrugated iron shacks but the majority of houses are made of concrete and built so close to each other that there is barely any room to move. The place is like a maze with makeshift streets going in every direction with no real semblance of order. Most of the streets are razed mounds of dirt barely wide enough for 2 people and the sewage system either side.

The government does not recognise these mini cities and because of this don’t provide any help or support for the people living there. Electricity and water companies are in the area and the majority of houses have these facilities but not all of them. The social class of the favela is that the better off people live at the bottom but they are still very poor and the even poorer closer to the top, the reason for this is closer to the bottom its more convenient for you to leave and get to work and don’t have the hassle of having to walk through the maze of streets. The rich of Rio think that the favelas are lawless slums where everyone is up to no good and some of this is true as desperate people are forced to take desperate measures to try and improve their situation. The people don’t want to live in these areas but have little choice. The majority are decent people just trying to make ends meet and trying there best to save up a little money to better themselves and their family for the future.

The Favelas are very close to some of the richer areas and most of the residents of the Favela work in these parts to save money on transport and because it’s easier to have a job so close to home. The Government want to relocate the favelas outside the city as they see them as a blot on their beautiful city but the residents don’t want to move so far away as there livelihood is within the city and they will have to spend lots of money on transport getting to and from work. Like I said before the government don’t help in any way so when it comes to crime in the Favela it is taken care off by the drug gangs and any criminal acts are dealt with harshly and quickly, which means they are a fairly safe place to live as people understand the consequences. I wouldn’t fancy my chances much without the guide though! The guide said that the people of the favella don’t mind tourists coming to look as the only help they get are from tourists and foreign charities who give money for schools and hospitals.

For me it was a very strange experience and one I didn’t like and shamefully just wanted to get out of there as I couldn’t believe that people could live this way. There is so much money in Rio, the whole of Copacabana beach is lined with 5 star hotels and lots of big beautiful houses in the suburbs and then you have the favelas, how can you have such an extreme? It pissed me off that the rich of this area are just getting richer and don’t give a toss about the poorer people. We have traveled virtually every country in Central and South America and I have to say that Brazil has by far the biggest gap between the rich and poor and it’s disgraceful. The government need to start looking at the majority of the country and stop pretending its like one of the major countries in the world, the number of poor people I have seen, it’s a third world country in every way. Like I mentioned about Christ Redeemer being voted a seven wonder I think it’s very ironic as what I have seen Brazil needs some sort of savoir, before more and more people have to suffer. Even more surprisingly FIFA have awarded Brazil the 2014 World Cup? How can the biggest sporting event in the world be offered to a country that can’t even look after its own people? Yes it will probably bring a lot of jobs but from history underdeveloped countries that host such a big event go into shit load of debt which will only fall on the people.

On a lighter note! Our last weekend in Rio was Gay pride weekend! This is the closest we are going to get to the Rio Carnival sort of atmosphere so we were glad that we were lucky enough to be there. It was brilliant, lots of very strange sights to say the least and some amazing costumes for the men in drag. Michelle loved the muscle bound men dancing and prancing about and must have taken about a million pictures the pervert!!

One of the other things we didn’t expect to see in Rio was a little oasis in such a huge city and we went to visit the Botanical gardens. It was huge and it was nice to walk around and see lots of animals, marmosets, monkeys, toucans and other pretty birds and flowers. It was a good place to get away from the hussle and bussle of city life.

One of my favorite things for Rio apart from the football was the food. Oh my god we found the best restaurant I have ever eaten in, Momchique a Churrascaria, all you could eat meat buffet. This place was amazing and don’t know where to start in explaining it! You would be sat down with your empty plate and men would be walking around with huge skewers of various meats and I would say about 12 or so different options from different flavored beef to pork, chicken and lamb but beef the main theme. The beef was amazing and so many great flavors from garlic to roasted peppers and herbs to just your plain filet steak which would just melt in your mouth. They would stop by and just slice it straight from the joint so each piece was juicy and fresh. After a while I had a huge pile on my plate and was just eating like a pig and every time somebody stopped by I would get even more I just couldn’t stop myself it was just too good to let it go by! For Shell it wasn’t the best as for one it didn’t include dessert and she also doesn’t like red meat but the salad bar was huge and with a few other hot meals staples like spaghetti and rice dishes and there was also sushi to choose from, it had everything you could want! All of this for 4 pound, I was in heaven. We ate there 4 times and I would have gone every night if it wasn’t for Michelle being boring wanting to try other places, how rude!

Another common theme for Rio was the number of travelers we have met with stories of being robbed and 90% of them in Brazil most in Rio and the rest in other South American countries. When I say number of travelers about 20 or so and every single one of them had been robbed from some scary violent ones to the more sneaky ones which you don’t notice until later. It was a really eye opener to us and thank are lucky stars that we have had no misfortune.

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Photos

Rio
Bleaching those hairs! No shame in Rio, well apart from me taking the picture!

Rio
All done and look at the difference?!

Rio
The cow parade in Manchester a few years ago is now in Rio. I loved this one in a bikini, you wouldnt get that in Manchester, far too cold!

Marmoset
Botanical Gardens