Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Bahram's World Tour 2006
Hello all and welcome to the first extract of my world tour travel journal. Rio is an amazing city, the people are friendly, the weather is great, the beaches are amazing and carnival is the most crazy thing I have ever experienced in my life.
Didn't get off to the best of starts when I arrived at the airport and the person who was meant to be picking me up from the airport was not there, which was a bit worrying cause I had no idea where I was going, but all turned out fine in the end.
On my first day, I met a few irish girls staying in my hostel and we chilled out on Copacabana beach with the sun beating down. Walking along Copacabana was the most surreal thing as I had been dreaming about this moment for 3 years now. After having a nice refreshing coconut and taking in the sight of Sugar loaf mountain from the beach, we chilled out in a bar with a few cold Chopp's (beers) and Caiprinhas. These are brazilian cocktails, made with Lime, sugar and Cashasa which is a brazilian rum. Two of these and you are on the floor, but some of you might say I am a lightweight.
Going out and getting drunk on my first night probably wasn't one of the best decisions I made as we were hiking up Urca mountain the next day. Urca mountain is the 1st mountain you get to before going onto Sugar loaf. As part of my 2 day city tour of Rio, we trecked up the first mountain, although watching the cable carts going up past us as we hiked up, was a bit gruelling. The views were worth the hike though and when we got the second cable cart up to Sugar loaf the views were amazing. It was a bit cloudy but it didn't ruin the day and you could see the whole of Rio from the peak.
After our hike we went to Barra beach, which is a surfing beach. After our hike we were quite hungry so our tour guide ordered us some traditional brazilian sandwiches, which were gorgeous. After chilling on the beach a bit more and trying to recover a bit from the night before, we went to the Botanico gardens, where there are preserved plants and beautiful landscapes.
The second day of the tour involved another hike through national park. Again, I didn't learn my lesson and had a bit of a big night, knowing that I had to go on another treck the next day. This time we hiked through national park, this is where the statue of christ is. But again, the views were worth the effort and got a few good snaps with me peering over the edge.
After our hike we found a small waterfall, well I say waterfall, it was a pipe pouring water out, don't worry it wasn't dirty, it was fresh rain water and we all took a refreshing dip underneath it as the heat was quite unbearable. From there we drove up to the statue of christ. As you can see from one of my snaps, I am as big as the big guy, all that working out has paid off. Being there for sunset was beautiful and you can gaze out on to the views for hours and never get bored.
From there we had an early dinner in a village called Santa Theresa. This is a beautiful little village up in the hills of the national park, on the way up to the statue of christ. Eating traditional brazilian food of rice, kidney beans in sauce, jerked meat, salad and mushed carrots and potatos really did hit the spot after such a long day.
Being in Brazil, I could not but go to the Maracana stadium, one of the biggest and most famous stadiums in the world, not just in footballing terms. Pele and Eusebio were privilaged enough to have their foot prints pictured with me, I'm sure they would have appreciated being pictured with a talented, gifted football player like me. Going to watch Botafogo who are a Rio based team played Igaucu, you may recognise the Igauca falls which are on the border with Argentina and Brazil. The footabll was the worst I had ever seen, I think Sunday morning pub football is better than that but the atmosphere was one I had never experienced before. People with huge flags, fireworks, sparklers, shouting and screaming with such passion and non stop singing throughout the whole 90 minutes, unbelievable.
The rolling stones concert on Copacabana beach was without doubt one of the best nights of my life. The city had been been buzzing all week as this was the unofficial start to the carnival and everyone knew it was party time. Over a million people there, walking down the beach at 3pm when the concert didnt start until 8pm was unreal as the streets and beaches were packed with concert goers and street vendors. Having a fellow english mate who brought his own beer bag to keep beers cool for his travels was rather handy as we had our own stash for the afternoon. Meeting fellow brazilians and talking to them about football and music which I have found is a universal language. Doing Mick Jagger and Kieth Richards impersonations all night made the brazilians laugh and when a cruise ship sailed up along side the beach to watch the concert, along with many other yachts who had done the same, hit home that this is such a huge event, not just in Brazil but in the world.
That was the start of the carnival, even though it didn't offically start for another 6 days. Carnival has been amazing and tonight is the last night. Street parties here there and everywhere, with thousands of people following a big double decker bus with a band and singers, everyone is just in a party mood. I had not heard about this until the next day but the street party in Santa Theresa, which my friends and I were at, was more than a big party, it was a cover up for a robbery of two of the most famous paintings in the world, a Picasso and a Monet. Not quite sure how they got away with carrying two big paintings through a big crowd, but I'm sure they had their means.
Went to the Sambodrome on the first of its two nights. Watching the samba schools compete to be the best samba school in brazil was amazing. The parade started from 7pm-7am, with each samba school having 80 minutes to impress the judges. We managed a 6 hour stint from 11-5am, with everyone dressing up including me, with my head dress and maracas, it was a fun night. I could not believe the scale to which the costumes and especially the floats had been made to, down to the smallest detail. We were at the end of the parade, but thoroughly enjoyed it as when the people got to the end they would come to us in the stand and dance and perform for us especially, watching the women samba dance was unreal, I never knew people could move like that.
Well that is Rio, I think I will be updating my journal a little more often than every 3 weeks as there is just too much to tell and share with you in that time. I am now moving down south on Thursday to a town on the coast called Paraty, before moving on to the Iguazu falls and Argentina. Keep in touch and stay tuned everyone. Hope you are all well, take care
- comments