Down at the Copa...Copacabana

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For those of you expecting every entry in this journal to be tales of drunken escapades I´m afraid we´re going to have to disappoint because we´ve actually being doing other things over the last few days. Admittedly most do involve alcohol!

So, where did we leave you? The heat of Rio on Sunday and plans for a tourist adventure on Monday...

We had a bit of a wander on Sunday night along Copacabana beach and then decided to grab a bite to eat. The way the restaurants work over here is very different, it just involves massive amounts of food (meaning Andy is in his element!!). Anyway we all had the most massive brilliant steak meal with all these lovely accompaniments and I really can´t describe how great it was. Suffice to say it was Steak-a-riffic...

Monday´s plans to see Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf took a bit of a nose dive when we woke up to find it absolutely tipping it down with rain. Rio is in the middle of its rainy season at the moment (blooming typical) and it just rained pretty much all day on Monday. The trip was cancelled as the bad weather meant that both mountains were surrounded by clouds - they sit so low that it would have been pretty pointless. We were all quite jet lagged so just chilled at the hostel during the day.It´s an Israeli hostel and the guests are about 95% Israeli, one of the most unfriendly nationalities we´ve come across so far to be honest. We made friends with another English guy staying here, who´s called Raff, and all decided to wander over to Ipanema in the evening and got ridiculously lost. We finally came across a bar and would you believe it - IT WAS AN IRISH BAR!! IN RIO!!! When confusion subsided we decided to make the most of it and had quite a good laugh.

By Tuesday we´d decided not to be deterred by the weather, so went on an all day boat trip organised by 3 of the hostels. For 90 reais (just under 20 pounds) the boat goes away from Rio towards the next big city along (can´t remember what it´s called) and you got free food and drinks all day. Think 18-30 with the most fantastic views you´ve ever experienced.

The boat left dock at about 1pm, with Rio under rain clouds. Half an hour later we were out in the Atlantic Ocean under warm sunshine. There were DJ´s playing really great music, a mixture of hip-hop, dance and Brazilian funky stuff and we finally dropped anchor just off this beautiful beach. Everyone was free to swim around or just chill out however, but what most people were doing was just staring back at Rio - the view was amazing. If you´ve seen pictures of Rio and been impressed, nothing could prepare you for the attack on the senses once you see it for yourself. Rio was still cloudy and from time to time the cloud thinned enough so that the figure of Christ the Redeemer could be seen literally floating in the air miles above the city.

Of course, the free food and drinks were flowing and everyone was having a good time. On the slow journey back to dock the four of us sat on the side of the boat and debated whether things could ever be better. It really was the best day. But it was´nt over yet...

During the course of the day we met loads of people from another hostel up the road, all of whom were planning to go to an area of the city called Lapa later on. Keen to see more of the city (and pretty inebriated!!) we tagged along to see what it was all about.

It was brilliant, we stepped out of a fleet of taxis to find a massive open air market with people selling all sorts. Souvenirs, food, mugs of the local alcoholic beverage of choice (a rum concoction called caiprinha - just a bit strong). We all bought tickets for this big club that someone had been told about and were not disappointed. It was all housed within a gated fence and outside you had all the food and drink stands whilst under this massive marquee thing in the middle thousands of people were dancing to this really funky band, just going absolutely mental everywhere. It was really mad. Joff still managed to find a little podium and him and Raff had a bit of a dance, whilst Andy and Steve joined the end of a massive conga line!! We finally got home at about 4:30am, absolutely exhausted.

Having planned a day of recovery today, we stirred at about midday to find that the sun had come out. A few hours later we were sat on Copacabana beach, singing Carpenters songs (don´t ask!!) and fending off the advances of hundreds of traders selling drinks, towels and pretty much everything you could want. We realised that you could come back from Copacabana beach with an armchair, pestle & mortar and what looked like a hacked off donkey´s leg but was apparently a drinking gourd. Joff, Jamie and Steve are still on the beach topping up the sunburn whilst Andy is sitting under a fan trying to take his mind off the fact that his shoulders are bright red.

Over the next few days we´re going shopping, doing a bit more sightseeing and taking in a game at the Maracana (Fluminese v Flamengo - the big Rio rivals) and watch this space to see how we got on.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, as it´s a bit of a long one today. Give it a few more like this and we´ll have to go back to tales of drunkenness to save you all on opticians bills.

AC

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