Brrrzil...its not always sunny travelling!

---

Having wrung out our damp clothes from the Chilean lake district we descended into a cloudy and wet Rio, not what had been in the plan at all. We know that it is totally unacceptable to complain about such things when on ridiculous (and i´m sure to everyone else endless) escapades such as we are undertaking, but Ipanema beach in a cold monsoon just isn´t quite the same, standing at the base of the famous statue of Christ when you can´t see its head just doesn´t feel like he is really helping out much!

Anyway we only had eight days in Brazil which it has to be said is shaving it very fine (!), so we focused our attention on Rio. We made the most of 4 cool, cloudy and rainy days in Rio doing most of the typical "must see" sights. The view from the Cocovado, where the statue of Christ stands, is still stunning in cloudy weather, watching the clouds roll by hoping for a small glimpse of Sugarloaf Mountain or the Maracana football stadium. During our visit to the statue of Christ Lynda also had a chance to compare herself with her idea of heaven; the lady with the longest legs in the world was doing a photo shoot for the guiness world records, and yes they were unbelievably long stretching half way back to Moscow, Markwell was just a few inches short. The tram ride up to the artsey Santa Teresa district was also fun, especially as Matt had to hang off the side with the locals all the way down.

We had bracing and damp strolls along Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, with brief stops for the delightful sucos (fruit juices) and deadly caipirinhas (local sugar cane booze with lots of lime and sugar). We were fortunate with our timing and did manage to get some clear skies for our very unlike James Bond ride up the cable cars to the top of Sugarloaf mountain. No baddies wanting to take over the world that day, but some magnificent views back across the city, with Christ for once actually showing himself!

Certainly the thing that we did with the most enduring memories will be a visit to one of the favelas, these are basically the poorest areas of the city where a vast number of the population live. The houses are generally makeshift and the poorest eschalons of the society eek out a living alongside drug dealers and prostitutes. The tour we did was insightful and thought-provoking, and pleasingly didn´t feel too much like we were rich people in a zoo; naturally it was the kids that provoke the most emotional reaction, you simply feel you want to help somehow, however difficult that is. Anyway, we both concluded that we didn´t think one has really experienced a city like Rio without such a visit, and although pretty unpleasant were delighted to have done it. Our little group was very respectful and interested throughout but we did think it rather symbolic when at the end a group of six Brits pulled out their hand sanitiser as soon as they got back to the bus, literally washing their hands of the place.

The favela tour was eye opening but the stark contrasts between rich and poor was none better illustrated by our attempts to shelter from yet another stiff downpour by grabbing a coffee in a shopping centre at the back of Ipanema beach in Leblon. This was about 2 hours after experiencing the favelas, and neither of us had ever probably seen such as swish shopping centre anywhere in the world. There were overprivilaged kids running amok, and plenty of mobile phones and ipods knocking around.

Rather than spend the whole time in the city we decided to head down the coast for a couple of days to a small colonial town called Paraty. Paraty is a gorgeous, if rather touristy, colonial town adjacent to a stunning green coastline. The town itself has been well preserved, the cobblestone centre off limits to cars, and of an evening bars and cafes spill out onto the streets making for an enjoyable atmosphere to down a few more of those deadly caipirinhas.

Having explored the little town we decided to undertake a day trip by boat to explore some of the coastline and nearby islands. These trips are very popular with the Brazilian tourists as well as the few of us gringoes that were there, and this made for a wonderful cultural experience. We hopped on a very local boat where no-one on board spoke anything other than Portuguese. We chose it because it was quieter than most, and we were looking forward to a tranquil cruise. Brazilians do not do tranquil and very soon our boat was packed with people, along with the other dozen or so schooners that were trying to leave the wharf at exactly the same time. Our dreams of tranquility gone we decided to simply enjoy the way Brazilians do tourism, watch the total chaos that ensued whilst partaking in some excellent people watching. As luck would have it for once the weather was on our side and we had a mostly sunny day, which made the snorkelling and beach stops very enjoyable.

Back in Rio we had a couple more important aspects of Brazilian culture to enjoy, football, capoeira and samba! As luck would have it there was a big football game being played at the main stadium in the city, the maracana, between the local favourites Flamengo and Sao Paulo rivals Palmerias. We joined the party atmosphere alongside 63,000 nutty locals, and what a treat we were in for. The game was amazing from start to finish Flamengo winning in a playground scoreline of 5-2, and the atmosphere matched it. The party continued from start to finish and we had monster flags, Mexican waves, flares, various ridiculous chants to very familiar European melodies, and of course the obligatory waving shirts over your head. By the end of the game we were exhausted and our throats hoarse, an unbelievable experience...the premier league still has some way to go.

We also managed to catch a capoeira show. This is part of the black Braziian culture whereby slaves developed a form of dance based upon martial arts (as their captors would not allow them to actual fight for their own safety obviously), basically it involves amazing speed of movement in which the guys (and girls) punch and kick missing each other by inches, all to rhythmic beats. We even managed to get in on some audience participation, Matt making a considerable fool of himself attempting a head stand..ouch! whilst Lynda´s prowess at cart wheeling was on show for all. Best of all though for Lynda was that it involved several muscled guys without shirts on strutting their stuff...there was much talk of upgrading!!!

The on our last night in Brazil it was time to get those hips moving in a very cool Samba club in the Lapa district. The main vocalist may have been the coolest man alive despite being the size of a small whale, and although our hips moved to a somewhat less rhythmic beat, we had mucho fun, and it was a great ending to our little taste of one of the craziest places around.

---