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So first things first we didn't end up stranded we ended up making it to Rio, however our bus journey didn't get off to the greatest of starts. Everything was going smoothly we had got our ticket, was there in plenty of time, loaded our bags into the baggage compartment of the bus but then as we went to get our seats, there was a little old lady sat in Earl's seat. We wouldn't have minded just sitting in another seat but we knew that there would be other pick-ups and we didn't fancy the hassle of moving every time, so a quick game of charades later with the chaps outside running the show and they were in seeing what the crack was. I'm not exactly sure what happened or was said due to my very limited bus but the old lady ended up having to get off the bus. Yes ladies and gentlemen Earl and I had a 70+ old lady kicked off a bus. It was a new low. We felt eyes from all the other passengers and felt we could lynched, it was probably all in our heads as it was all forgotten by the next stop to be fair they probably knew that the singing and arsing about from their children was enough punishment for us anyway not that we even did anything wrong. Anyway from the early dramas the bus journey went ok, I managed to complete the first Game of Thrones book which I thoroughly enjoyed, have a nap and listen to a selection of tunes on my iPod including Funeral Party, Arctic Monkeys and The Gaslight Anthem.
30 hours and 53 minutes from stepping on the bus we were back in Rio. No thinking that the close to 31 hour bus journey was enough we jumped on another bus. It was the 178 which would get us to our temporary place of residence. We were back in an AirBnB this time the house belonged to an old lady called Maria but the rooms were sorted by her daughter Isabela. Maria had typical old persons flat, she had two cats, and the décor was ageing. The shower was hot but small, the door opened inwards meaning if you any bigger than me you were not getting in and out and you'd have to shower straddling the door or climb in. But the flat was homely though and I like that and whatever it lacked Maria made up for in kind, she was more than happy to tell tales in her very limited English of her times in Belgium and Paris. We could want for nothing too; in our room she had left us shampoo, conditioner and soap, also things for breakfast cereal and fruits and a container of biscuits. She also had a massive love of the royal family she took ride in showing us an old photo of Queen Victoria and telling us of past monarchs to be honest she knew more about the king and queens of England than Earl and I put together. She was a lovely old lady and said she would be our Mother and protector whilst we were here. There was also another girl staying at the flat a young American girl called Candy. Her name might suggest we would be some sort of porn star but she was far from it, she looked about twelve and not developed into a woman yet, but her stories of her travelling around the world suggested she was older than her looks. She also had cracking Portuguese and would often translate for Maria when she was struggling with the English dialect. You could sense the old woman liked having the companionship of other people and not just her two cats. She also reminded me a bit of my Mother, well my Mum stroke Grandma, she had a mixture of both about her looks and it made me miss my Mum and Dad more than I already thought possible. It was really time to get my ass in gear and sort out this sim card situation. After a rice, tomato and corned beef dish the day was near at end so after hearing a few more tales and a quick browse of the internet I fell asleep.
The next morning I woke up and Earl kindly bought me breakfast in bed, it was just a bowl of Nesfit from the cereal that was already in our room. Nothing fancy. I then watched the first episode of Hamish and Andy's South American Gap Year to try and get some ideas for the rest of my travels, so don't be surprised if you see me wearing a hat of fireworks or Earl eating turro worms. After that it was time to explore, we had heard about a safe favela we could go visit back near the s***ty beach backpackers hostel we use to stay at. We called in just to see if we could get any information about the favela and we were reunited with Captain Disney, for a brief while I though you know what the World Cup has made this chap better, but no his attitude and arrogance returned and we were left wishing we had brought with us he eggs we purchased at the supermarket the previous night. So we made our way to Santa Marta Favela. On first approach the favela almost semt kind of set up, like it was too touristy. There was a cable car at the side that led up to the top of the steep favela but unfortunately we couldn't find the entrance to it, not that we looked too hard, so we took what seemed like a million and one steps to get to the top. The favela was strangely endearing the houses or huts or rooms they had didn't seem that bad. I suppose I probably would have thought differently after a couple of nights in one, and I guess this favela was quite luxurious as it was acquitted with electricity and plumbing. The community also semt all at one there were football pitches people were playing on, I really wanted to join in, but to be honest I was completely knackered from the walk up to the top, there were also kids flying kites it was quite a surreal experience. Wikipedia tells me that the favela has about 8000 residents, with 500 wooden houses, 2000 brick houses, 4 kindergartens, 3 bakeries, 2 sports fields, 1 block of a samba school, 3 military units and 1 small market. The favela is one of the steepest in the city and I can definitely vouch for that. After our self-made favela tour there was plenty of time in the day so we decided to go up to the top of Pão de Açúcar or how it is known in English - Sugar Loaf Mountain. Sugarloaf Mountain is a peak situated at the mouth of Guanabara Bayon a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 metres (1,299 ft.) above the harbour, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar. You may have seen the mountain if you have played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II as the mountain can be seen from the map, favela. It is also in the film Rio numerous times and also can be seen in a Simpson's episode amongst other media appearances. To reach the summit, we had to queue for around an hour and a half and pay a whopping 62 Brazilian Real (about £15) to take two cable cars. The first ascended to the shorter Morro da Urca, 220 meters high. The second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar. On top of Morro Da Urca we saw Monkeys, there is also said to be Toucan's although we didn't spot any. The view from the top of each summit was sensational, you could see along the Copacabana beach, the big Jesus statue towering down over the city, the city, Bofotago harbour. The only thing that marred the experience was the amount of queuing that we had to do. But with the world cup final being in Rio the next day I'm guessing that Rio had quite the population. Also up there we saw ex-American soccer player Cobi Jones taking in the views, I never got to have my picture with him as I was too busy stuck in lines and because of his fame he could queue jump. After Sugar Loaf Mountain we headed back to our flat in Catete where we watched the 2nd Half of the 3/4th place play off. Now I'm not a fan of this game, I agree with Louis Van Gaal that it should not be played and it is an irrelevance. You have two teams heartbroken that they have not made the final and now they are being made to play again. I can also see why it's played it's another world cup game for the fans and the host city and I suppose that's what matters the most. Holland ended up winning three zip adding to Brazil's misery, the only thing left as a final insult to Brazil fans was Argentina lifting there trophy on their home soil.
It was here, World Cup Final day. The final would be contested between Argentina and Germany. To be honest I didn't care who won, it was the final I least wanted, I wasn't really cheering for any team; I wanted a Brazil vs Holland final. Still if the Argies won the atmosphere in Brazil I imagined would be quite intense but we would have to see if that would happen first. A quick round of cereal a gone off Mango and Eggs on bread was for breakfast, we chilled out for a while, I popped into a nearby hostel to see if they had any books since as though I had just finished the first Game of Thrones. I didn't strike lucky and find the second edition, neither did I find a good book, well I might have done but they were all in German or other languages so I wouldn't have been able to read 95% of the book. We had some lunch (A Portuguese Pizza for me tuna pasta for Earl) and then headed to the fan fest to watch the World Cup Final. It was not just the World Cup Final that had importance today; it was also the last day of my World Cup Challenge. Despite seeing a tonne of football shirts the previous day at Sugarloaf Mountain, I still needed four more teams: - Brazil, USA, Portugal and the ever so invisible South Korea. I was confident there would be at least one fan from each though at the final fan fest it was just a matter of finding them, it was my last chance or I wold be coming face to face with failure and I'm not a great loser. We arrived on the Copacabana beach and the fan fest was rammed with folk. Foolishly for some reason I thought that because Brazil wasn't in the final the fan fest wouldn't be as busy, how wrong was I? Thousands upon thousands of Argentineans had made the trip from the neighbouring country and took over the Copacabana beach. We had already got a taste of the Argies on our short metro ride to the beach where their supporters were chanting and singing that much the train was literally rocking and bouncing. The fan fest looked like some sort of Glastonbury beach, but there would be no bands or artists playing, the headline was the World Cup Final being played on the big screen. The Fan Fest on Copacabana beach was throbbing hours before the final, we were broiling in the midday sun, while many others had already started to seek out alternative venues to watch the match at the makeshift bars and restaurants nearby. By kick-off so many stood on the beach outside the Fan Fest that the advancing tide was a constant menace. Occasionally we spotted a cluster of Germany fans could be spotted, a relative novelty among the light blue and white of the Argies. The Germans however did have the support of Brazil who was none too happy about the Argentina chant that has reverberated around the country for the last month, with Argentine fans asking how it feels to be bossed around in your own home. It's sung to the tune of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Bad Moon Rising, and it has proved to be so popular back in Argentina that it has replaced jingles on certain radio stations apparently. Before kick-off it could be heard all over Rio. In truth the Argies were rude, obnoxious and annoying and this swayed me to wanting Germany to lift the World Cup trophy. I had other things to be worrying about anyway, it was the last day of my World Cup Fan Challenge. With the amounts of Argies around and the packed beach I had no doubt that there were fans from most countries there, but it was just a matter of finding them, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. At first I was seeing any other shirt than the ones I needed, even teams not in the world cup, the most notable were Peru shirts who I think even outnumbered Brazilian shirts on this day, there were even random shirts like Guatemala and Ethiopia. I was dragging Earl across the beach and back for what looked like false hope when out of the corner of my eye I spotted two Korean shirts, home and away! It was the hardest one I had left. Boom! The challenge was near on complete it was just a case of mopping up the rest and within the next ten minutes I had secured photos with two American gentleman donning the colours of their nation and a chap in a Portuguese top I heavily suspected was Brazilian but it didn't matter. Looking around there was no great perfect Brazilian picture I hoped for so I decided to bend my rules a tad and accept a photo that had been taken of a group of us in Brasilia at the roof top party we attended for the Brazil vs Chile game, I wasn't wearing my England top but I was with Brazilians in their jerseys and it would be a great focal point of the collage of pictures I put together. Now it was time for the final, we picked a spot in the middle of some Argies, but I'm guessing that pretty much every spot on the beach was like that. The final was tense as they normally are, the Argies went bonkers when they thought they had scored only for it to be correctly ruled out for offside, and they also missed another of good chances while Germany hit the post. Tensions were rising, but still the Argies were singing until they were eventually silenced by Mario Gotze's brilliant volley in extra time. This is when s*** got a bit out of hand. The Germans were quite right fully celebrating their goal when bottles, cans and even deck chairs were being launched at them by the bitter Argentines. It took a while for the Germans to retaliate but they did as well armed with the home support of Brazil who have a strong hatred for the Argentines. By the full time whistle brawls were happening along the beach, riot police were called in with their shields and tear gas, we managed to stay on the periphery of the proceedings but did get the dregs of some tear gas and an opportunist tried to pick pocket my wallet, luckily he didn't open my zip to my thigh pocket wide enough and when he gave it a tug I felt it turned around and he was off before you could say 'where's my wallet gone' but luckily mine was still half in my pocket. The whole of the charred was a huge blemish on what had been an excellent world cup. They say you only remembered the last thing but I hope in years to come I remember all the joyous times celebrating with fans across the world, the great goals and not the ugly skirmishes that happened at the end because one set of supporters couldn't face the fact they had lost. We made our way home dodging the trouble, had a microwavable lasagne and chilled out for the night as the next morning we had an early start. We were off to see Big Jesus.
Christ the Redeemer is an Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ. It was considered the largest Christ statue in the world from 1931 until 2010 when it was topped by the Christ the King statue in Poland. The statue in Rio is 30 metres (98 ft.) tall, not including its 8 metres (26 ft.) pedestal, and its arms stretch 28 metres (92 ft.) wide The statue weighs 635 tonnes (625 long, 700 short tons), It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone, and was constructed between 1922 and 1931. It is located at the peak of the 700-metre (2,300 ft.) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city. A symbol of Brazilian Christianity, the statue has become an icon for Rio de Janeiro and Brazil and we were off to see one of the "new" Seven Wonders of the World. Learning from our trip to Sugarloaf we decided to go early and beat the queues. The 6.30am alarm was not pleasant, it was the first time we had been up at that unearthly hour for a while but it was worth it, as when we got to the ticket kiosk in Largo Do Machado we only had a fifteen minute queue and we were straight in a van and off up the Corcovado mountain to the monument. Once we had reached the top the Big Jesus semt to be far smaller than we imagined. Although it was early the Big Jesus still had a good crowd and getting photos were problematic with the amount of folk, but we got a quiet a few. We took in the breath taking 360 views from the top as well, the mountain Big JC sits on dwarfed Sugarloaf and you could see all over Rio. The coastal view went from Copacabana to Sao Conrado, probably further but I know the names of the beaches, we also saw the steep favela we had visited, the city and the soccer stadium, which would be our next destination. We finished taking our snaps and then headed to the Maracana stadium where the Final was played the previous day. I was hoping we might get a cheeky tour inside or that we would find a final ticket as a souvenir but unfortunately there was too much works happening around the ground. There were many fans there though taking signs and various other memorabilia we might have joined them in getting some mementos but we feared they would not fit in our backpacks and make the rest of the journey around South America. So I just had my photo took outside the largest stadium in Brazil. On our return home we managed to spot a smart phone, being the good guys we are we managed to return the phone to rightful owner and headed off back home feeling good about ourselves. Lunch consisted of a steak sarnie, and then I watched The Delivery Man and had a siesta as the early start had took it out of me, I woke up to finally speak to my parents on skype after two months which was awesome and I heard all about the shenanigans going off back home, it appears nothing has really change and my father is still telling really bad jokes the latest being about two bars of soap. But like I said it was great to see and speak to the folks again! That night we had a few beers with some other AirBnB guests staying at Maria's flat. Candy was the first to join us and we played f***ed the dealer, the dealer somehow not even managing to make one circle of the three of us playing; we were then joined by another American Julio. It turned into a bit of England vs America at King's Cup and also at Hello Guvnor but we had a good laugh and enjoyed some beers and got rid of some more of the rum, we were about to head out into the night until Maria stated talking. I retreated to bed in the early hours of the morning, and Earl let me know the next day that she continued to talk in their ear for another good hour about her travels, Paris and other subjects.
The next day after a healthy lie in and a fried egg sarnie I was ready to go out and have an adventure, or maybe hit the beach. Unfortunately though I had to sit by my laptop and wait for an email, we were trying to sort out our next travel destination and this time it would be an island called Ilha Grande. We had emailed a company about getting there and our travels now it was just a case of getting prices from them and booking. Seen as though we wanted to leave the following day I didn't want to miss out on the email and email them back after business hours. I sorted out my up and coming dream team competition, wrote some of this very blog, surfed the web and still no email. So I decided to send them a Facebook message. We popped out to the supermarket, I had a chicken and chilli sarnie for lunch, Earl had pasta, I also bought a sweetcorn flavoured milkshake, despite the smell it wasn't that bad, saying that though I wouldn't be able to drink it like I would orange juice. But there was still nothing in the inbox from easy transfers. The day was getting on too, business hours were shortening. We tried using our hosts phone but nothing, it appeared Easy transfers were not very easy to use or get hold of. So we decided to look into more alternative methods. We found a way we could get there by bus and boat so that was now the new plan as we stuck a metaphorical two fingers up at Easy Transfers. Now we had a plan for tomorrow we had the rest of the afternoon / evening to do whatever, truth be told though it was too late to go the beach or see any sites and we couldn't really go out for any bevvies as we had to be up the next day for our travels. So we went to the supermarket and stocked up for our trip, Candy had told us that the island we were going to was pretty pricey so best to get in supplies beforehand. When we returned I watched The Switch my second film in two days which focussed on sperm donating, and then I watched a pretty awful film called The To Do List, which was only made bearable by the very beautiful Rachel Bilson being in the film. Then at 00.13 I finally had a reply from Easy Transfers, but it was too late for them now, they could do one!
It was a struggle to get up on the 7.30am alarm the next morning, but we just about managed it, breakfast was a scrape together of some remaining food, chilli and crisp sarnies with a sweetcorn milkshake, yeah its not really what you need at that time of day, despite the taste being ok too I'm still not sure if there is a need for a sweetcorn milkshake any time of day. We got our s*** together said our farewells to Maria and Isabella which had the potential to go on forever and then we were off to, back on the road again. Next stop - Ilha Grande. So until next time stay safe and take care.
Adi
xx
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