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Rio Carnivale and Paraty!
After saying goodbye to Tom for a few days in Manaus, we headed off to Sao Paolo for one night before the fun began in Rio.Unfortunately we only had time for a brief walk around the centre before getting on a 7 hour bus journey to Rio. In this short period, we found the city overwhelming; it was extremely multicultural and everywhere we looked the horizon was filled with sky scrapers.
We arrived in Rio at 9 am, and the temperature was already a cool 32C! So as soon as we dropped our bags in the Hostel, we met Jack, 23, from Bishops Stortford and hit the beach. We were already noticing the difference from the last time we were in Rio on a rugby tour in 2006; it wasn't raining and there were actually some other people there! Although Carnivale hadn't officially kicked off yet, we hit the bars of Rio that nightwith our hostel for a few bevvies.
Consequently we had a slow start to the next day, once we surfaced we met with our tour guide; Jay, 36, a soft fruit farmer from Maidstone, to go up into the heart of a favella. This was a 3 hour trip into the slums of Rio; it was an unbelievable experience and something we didn't previously know was possible to do. The trip started with a ride on the back of a motorbike up to the top, where we shared a drink with some of the locals before wandering back down through the streets and sampling the local food and art. We were amazed at how good the conditions were bearing in mind this was meant to be the poverty stricken area of Rio; it provided an insight that you would not expect to receive before entering, we would highly recommend this trip if you're in Rio. On the way back to the hostel, we decided we would head to the main blocco that night in Lapa; there were hundreds of thousands of people there that night, and we managed to catch a beautiful sunrise the next morning! It was good that we saw the sun that night, as we didn't see much of it the next day! We got up just in time to buy some meat and have a hostel BBQ on the roof, before heading out to an amazing beach party in Ipanema.
We spent the third morning of Carnivale on the beach, before trying to find somewhere to catch the rugby - we regretted doing this as we sacrificed valuable party time for a typically bad English game of rugby! That night we headed to the Sambadrome for the main event; it was an amazing spectacle, the dance groups were so impressive, and we even managed to steal some costumes for some photos on the way home!
We woke up excited for our last day of Carnivale, we planned to go up Sugarloaf mountain in the day before heading to the Rio Music Conference at Marina de Gloria to finish with a bang with Steve Angello and Sharam DJing. Both shattered expectations; the weather was perfect for Sugarloaf (photos simply don't do it justice), while the night at the Marina was the best of tour so far. Amazing.
The next day we felt that our work in Rio was done, so after catching one more blocco, we headed down to Paraty for 3 days R&R with Jack and Marc, 27, from Canada. Although the weather was not quite up to expectations, the rest was welcome before we meet up with Ollie and the boys in Sydney. It never ends!
South America, done.
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