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Published: February 26th 2007
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We´re going to Rio
de Janerio
my oh my oh ...
Peter Allen got the vibe of Rio pretty well in his lyrics.
with a possie of mates totalling 19 (you know who you are!!), most cities breathe a sigh of relief when they leave.
Rio broke them.
its impossible not to get caught up in the continual fiesta that is Carnival.
street parties, blocos, music, glitter, costumes, singing, beer, caprinhas, people with coloured hair, more music, people dressed as nuns and that´s just outside your front door.
its not hard to find the action in Rio.
in fact, most of us were trying hard to find ourselves away from it by the end of our week of carnival!!!
if our memories haven´t been totally destoryed by the beer and caprinhas, we´ll endeavour a quick re-cap:
we caught the morning bus out of Paraty (beautiful colonial town to the south of Rio) and were quickly terrified by the bus drivers speed at taking the tight corners and his disregard for lines on the road ... of any description.
there´s not much to hang around for at the bus terminal, so with a pleasant chap that practiced his english, we had a
mini city tour and arrived in paradise.
Jean-Michel´s hotel had a swimming pool and a room that was more luxurious that anything we had seen in a very long time, or are likely to see for a long time for that matter !
after so many nights bush camping, cold showers - if any shower at all ... this was all very exciting.
we popped up to a tree house restaurant to catch Suze, Jen and Sarah and take in the breath taking views from Santa Teresa.
the party possie united for dinner at Jean Michel´s - poolside of course.
rio has many sites, however we decided to kickstart our experience with a visit to the big guy on the hill.
big he is.
at 30m in height with outstretched arms of 28m, he certainly gets a great view of the city.
after what seemed to us like living the high life for a few days, we needed to appreciate that rio is not all about the "have´s" so we ventured on a favela tour to provide the balance
we did a tour with a company (www.bealocal.com.br) that has made friends with the locals in the favela and provides much
needed assistance in the form of a childrens school, minding centre and support for local artists.
the favelas have the reputation of not being the area you want to unwittingly wander into and it is an accurate assessment.
approx 20% of the population lives in favelas and many have good jobs in a variety of professions.
many do not.
we started the tour with a R2 motorbike ride to the top of the mountain and were given the low down on when you could photograph, and when to put the cameras away.
the druglords don´t like their picture being taken
fireworks signal the entry of the police into the favela and we were thankful that we didn´t hear that sound while we were there.
life in the favela is simple.
running water and electricity are common, as is an open sewerage system.
many favelas dominate hillside locations very central to town
most homes have a television or 2. it is the common pasttime and means to escape the surroundings outside i guess.
a different experience from the street parties in the streets outside.
street parties, organised parties and parties that have not category ... it was hard to keep up
with all the parties in rio.
at some we dressed up like cowboys, with water pistol guns, at others we wore indian feathered headdresses, some warranted the street purchase of nun´s habits
all had the common theme of music, sweet music, dancin, great drummin beats, cold beer - quiet offen sold to you by a 7 year old boy - and hot, hot, real darn hot temperatures.
at some of the street parties the locals who benefitted from second story apartments would be kind enough to throw buckets of water or hose down the sweaty revellers
the heat didn´t stop the crazy party people, nor did the stopping of the music, or the road coming to an end, or the thousands and thousands of other people dancing and partying in the streets .... it was all good fun and always too hard to leave ...
ipanema beach on a weekend is a sight to see, but during carnival it is an impressive sight - imagine bondi beach on boxing day and then multiply the number of people on the beach by a number so big you can´t comprehend it
sunchairs, umbrellas, tanned bodies, the fit, the not so fit and
all swished into teensy, tiny swimsuits that make you wonder about the point of wearing a costume at all !!
for those of us that share a phobia about crowds, this was definitely an interesting place to be.
the water was lined with bodies, some swimming, some parading and some dodging the waves that constantly crashed against the shore
shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip we swam with mates and strangers.
well, why not ...
ipanema was so crowded that you practically shared your sarong with the person sitting next to you
it was so crowded that to obtain the highly sought after "Brazlian bronze" you have to stand up on the beach to sun bake.
there is the upside though of such a highly populated beach ... the never ended supply of things you can buy ... caprinhas, beer, water, sarongs, shirts, hats, jewellry, empanadas (little tasty pies), pineapple, biscuits and so on and so forth.
it is an experience in itself just to sit on the beach and see what wanders past and what you can buy from the comfort of your beach chair
exhilerating ride on the tram through santa teresa and over the aqua
duct
wanderings through lapa
cable cars to sugar loaf mountain provided another perspective of this enormous city
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Pooreman
non-member comment
Hola
Hey Guys, Love the photos and stories ! Could you please pass on a special hello to the party girls - Suze, Jen and Sarah ! Cheers, PM