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Published: January 9th 2011
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We arrived.
Eleven hours on a flight after a 4 hour layover in London. Flight itself was a nightmare as we were sitting in close proximity to a family that must have been some sort of on the road guerrilla marketing scheme for Durex. Their little bundle of joy roared like bull for the entire duration of the flight and whenever Pavarotti junior went to sleep his loving parents would inexplicably tickle him awake to perform another party piece. Naturally, the sound on my in flight entertainment was broken so I couldn’t escape from it all by watching movies on max volume, a real shame as the selection was brilliant.
Brazilian customs took 2 hours to clear. The first 30 people in the queue got grilled with questions but eventually they began to let everyone go with a quick passport stamp. Both of our eyes are bloodshot with lack of sleep at this stage, Niamh is just ahead of me in the queue and all you can see is two legs attached to a backpack. As my recent trip to the bathroom confirmed my wee is the colour of lemonade from lack of fluids, the rivers of sweat that has begun to pour off me since leaving the plane is only exacerbating the problem and I seriously need some water.
Bizarrely all the atms in Rio are deactivated between 11 am and 11 pm so we had no means of acquiring funds when we finally got through the security desk, which meant no means to pay for a taxi or our hostel.
We eventually found a bureau de change that converted the contents of our wallets into Brazilian and then we meet our taxi driver and embarked on what easily one of the most bowel loosening scary experiences I have had in a moving vehicle.
Have any of you watched the first Star wars? Not the first of the old (good) ones but the new ones with the rubbish effects and the really irritating little kid and all the alien races are based on racial stereotype s. There’s an interesting section when the aforementioned annoying little kid partakes in “pod racing” which entails thrill seeking racers driving at suicidal breakneck speed in thrown together improvised vehicles in a high speed race in which most of the participants die in pile ups and collisions.
George Lucas clearly holidayed in Rio and taken a taxi ride while doing so because the force was clearly strong in our chosen taxi driver for being able to drive at 120 km per hour through a metropolitan area while navigating bends and avoiding dozens of other cars doing exactly the same thing. Niamh was closing her eyes the entire time and my hand still hurts from her squeezing it in abject terror!
Just after the airport we went past the favelas, Brazils often talked about slums that are reputatedly riddled with gunmen and banditios. I was often warned about Rio’s reputation for violent crime and robbery by many people prior to going, that point due to the more immediate danger of the car I was in the thought didn’t enter my head, aside from back the cab was moving so fast any gunman looking to have a go would have to lead us with his aim to have any realistic chance of hitting us. I was told by a Brazilian quite defensively on an internet forum prior to leaving that a tourist should be much more worried about being injuring in an accident then being robbed or shot while staying in Rio, I can now say I can completely agree with him!
The hostel is nice and homely, a security guard is posted outside at night and the man at front desk is very friendly and helpful. Our room is on the top floor, thankfully clear of cockroaches and above the bed a massive fan dominates the space. It’s gargantuan large and pans from the bed to the front door makes the room tolerable in the heat. and in the darks its centre glows slighting leading me to privately call it the Great Eye of Sauron. This of course causes me to mumble in a golem voice whenever it looks at the bed and provokes the ire of Blondie who is doing a very good job of falling asleep.
I’m trying follow niamhs example and nod off too but the great eye is always watching…
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carla
non-member comment
yay!
glad to hear ye made it in one piece! very jealous of the heat! hope you manage to work in tolkein/lucas references in your blog right the way through your trip- funny stuff! xxx