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Published: September 25th 2008
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Ipanema
Mocking the lack of sunshine... We were saturated!! Rio has been under a cloud of haze & rain the entire time so far, so no adventures to the beach 😞 It just means i am going to have to come back here one day!
We are staying in Copa, Copacabana, which is not the safest of areas. Went to a shopping mall over in the next suburb. Now, Brasilian retail assistants have this interesting customer service approach where they superglue themselves to you the moment you enter the store and shadow you the entire time, trying desperately to sell you whatever they catch you looking at. Drives you batty.
Went for dinner in Ipanema, which is far nicer and a lot more plush than Copacabana. The residents are all stylish, attractive, and rich. We liked the area so much we went back the next day for lunch.. It was absolutely hosing down but bugger it, I was determined to dip my hooves in the sand at least once so off we trotted, make up streaming down our faces (who can be bothered holding an umbrella!) to the very wet and very deserted Ipanema beach. I got a bit carried away with the frivolity and my jandal got
swept away so i dashed in, hell i was wet anyway, to retrieve it.
Final night in Rio we went to a Samba Club in Lapa where we met up with the last of the tour group who were still in Rio. One last session of Caipirinha´s and we were driven home by some boy racer cab driver on some sort of death wish, seemingly dodging traffic that just wasn´t there..
Nursing a sore head i was up early to venture by bus down to Sao Paulo. This is what I will refer to as the Lonesome Dove leg of my South America trip, as I am now by myself, without a posse of revellers around me at all times. 6 hours down to Sao Paulo, I had a mental cab driver (I seem to attract them) who dropped me off in the area Centro, where i had booked my hotel. Interestingly enough it was the dodgiest area I´d been in on this trip, far worse than Copacabana. I actually think i had booked myself into some cheap sex hotel, as my bed was round and had a painting of a nude couple in a ´sensual´pose as the
headboard. Great.
Called up Victor, an old Brasilian friend of mine who lives in Sao Paulo and he came and picked me up, we went to his place where his parents have the cutest pooch looking oh so glam with stick-on earrings! Loving it!
Went out for dinner, 4 of Victor´s mates came along and i realised that this is where all the good looking Brasilians had been hiding! Had a fab night out with the boys, although early on in the night the conversation was 98% in Portuguese. With a few beers under their belts their confidence increased and you couldn´t stop them practicing their English if you tried! These boys know how to party, Wednesday night and we end up in an uber expensive nightclub. $10 AUD for a shot of Smirnoff (When it´s $15AUD in the supermarket for a whole bottle) and $6AUD for a red bull as a mixer. It seems that there is a lot of money in Sao Paulo, the boys didn´t bat an eyelid! A great night out, and I rolled home to the round bed at about 4 am.
The next day i spent updating this very blog and sorting
my life out for the next destination, Bolivia. Had dinner with Victor and his parents that night.
Off to the airport I went and checked in with Aerosur (never heard of them before, South American airlines aren´t meant to be dodgy, are they?). Bought an Ipod charger in Duty Free, found a 220v socket, which is quite hard to find in Brazil, as most are a weak 110v. Happily fleeced some free power for a while as i waited for my flight to La Paz.
The plane ride wasn´t that bad (hell, at least it wasn´t another bloomin bus!) apart from one creepy looking bloke giving all the women around me, & unfortunately including me, the most obvious glad eye. Clearly had an eye for lonely women travellers. The foolish woman in the row in front of me fell for his sad charms and beckoned him to come sit with her. Phew, the rest of us could enjoy the rest of our journey in peace. We stopped over in Santa Cruz and got smacked in the face with intense stifling hot air. Is this aircon gone wrong or is it really this hot in Bolivia? Either way, I
wasn´t prepared as Brazil, apart from Ilha Grande and a few random days, wasn´t that hot.
The connecting flight from Santa Cruz was delayed and I ended up befriending 3 older Brasilian gents and we whiled away the time with some charades. Got off the plane in La Paz and within 20 paces my heart was pounding, couldn´t catch my breath and thought i was going to heave.
Welcome to 3.7kms above sea level 😊
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