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Sunday 14th April 2013 - We landed in Rio and straight away as soon as we got off the plane were struck by that humid atmosphere and heat that everyone associates with stepping into a foreign place. This was so intense because the last week here has been continuos thunderstorms and rain, and it chose not to change on our behalf. To be fair the rain only came down in 2-3 showers through the day but the thick cloud hugged every peak we saw and attached itself to the jungle tree tops as we drove towards our hostel. Somehow the beach still looked inviting, I'm not sure if that's because there was just about as many football goals fixed onto the beach as you could humanly imagine or that the sand continued to look gorgeous. Whilst driving to the hostel we drove through a particularly poor area with buildings made of corrugated metal and breeze blocks at best. I saw a litter filled street with a group of literally 40 kids playing a disorganised game of football and on the parallel road a wild horse on its own pacing the rank looking street. Old cars would be driving on the grass just off the main roads and 2 men were washing themself in a lake. Bizarre, but couldn't help staring out the window the whole way.
We got to the hostel and the Dutch lady that welcomed us into this Swedish owned hostel was so welcoming. She made us a cup of tea (almost without milk) and showed us around the place. It has a really chilled atmosphere and since we were there early enough it looked like a great breakfast. Because of the weather there wasn't really much we could do on our first day in Rio but I had researched whilst back at work in Stratford that a big football match was on Flamengo vs Fluminense. We asked about it and our hostel receptionist straight away sorted us with tickets and a coach journey there. There were many pick ups and it was 2 hours north west of rio in Volta Redonda so the leaving time was 2pm. We decided to grab some Skol beers for the long journey and grab a bite to eat. We ate our relatively dodgy looking street food whilst looking out at the enormous waves crashing into Ipanema beach before crossing back across the main road and reuniting with 2 Austrian guys and a Colombian guy that we had met earlier. They too we're coming to the football so it helped that I knew what the coach looked like and could point it out to them. The range of nationalities on the coach was mad but so many of them spoke English I was so surprised. I haven't really found much of a language barrier except in the small shops.
We arrived in Volta Redonda right outside the stadium and it looked like a street carnival. Mass crowds in the street, huge flags attached to bamboo sticks and the background noise of ambulance sirens. Police were everywhere carrying what looked like a big lead pipe. It was easy enough to get into the ground and after a quick pat down we walked inside the basic concrete stadium. Can't imagine the pat down was too thorough as some guy next to us was smoking a huge joint quite leisurely. The singing and chants were unreal. A small amount of clapping well before the kick off from the home fans set off us away fans and we didn't stop all game even after going 3-0 down. One thing I noticed was that everyone knew all the words, from the small children to the girls who didn't look fussed and were texting on their phones but still multi tasking. Flags were everywhere and lots of dancing which was quite possible as the seating arrangement consisted of a small bit of plastic drilled into a concrete step. Hundreds of white balloons were given out for us to blow up and ripped squares of newspaper to throw in the air at kick off to make a spectacle. I really enjoyed the game although couldn't help but notice how poorly Fluminense played for the majority of the game. They had their time towards the end of the match but the damage was already done by a Flamengo side that were far more penetrable when they wanted to be. The coach journey back was easy to find through the crowds: firstly our guide was in bright orange, but secondly the coach had found a good spot close to the exit. I slept most the journey home getting back for around midnight, even if the A/C on the bus was freezing. Now straight to bed for our first sleep in a bed since Friday. Fingers crossed for some sunshine tomorrow Rio.
Monday 15th April 2013 - Another day where the iPhone weather teased us about potential sunshine. I woke up for some reason at 5am I presume I'm still getting used to the time change. Slept really well anyway even with a girl in the bunk bed opposite coming back drunk at 4am. We went downstairs after waiting till 9am came along and breakfast was served. The breakfast was amazing! There was the most amazing baguette bread, loads of different fresh fruit like pineapple and water melon and then eggs that you could cook however you like with cheese and ham too. Obviously anything that's buffet style I can't leave until i am full, so we spent a fair amount of time pigging out to last the whole day. Once we finished breakfast our day was still up for debate so we asked one of the guys that works in our hostel and he recommended what turned out to be a perfect day for us, that matched the continued cloudy weather. We walked the full parameter of the Rodrigo de Freitas lake which was beautiful and some great scenes, even stopping to use on of the outdoor gyms there haha. After walking past Flamengo stadium we took a left heading towards the Botanical gardens on Jardim botanico. These were awesome, set out really beautifully and some of the ponds and fountains were breathtaking apparently there the biggest in South America so maybe we won't need to go to anymore if these are the best? Ha. After a few hours walking around we decided to go on another recommendation and head towards the Parque Lage going past the HSBC bank that had previously blocked me from my card withdrawals.. Which I still need to sort. This park was amazing with a fountain out front and a pool inside; apparently the mansion/building is used in lots of music videos including snoop dog I'm not sure which but I'm guessing the pool had chicks in it at one stage! Around this point the sun began to come out so in a hurry we decided to taxi it to the beach rather than walk. The taxi was cheap anyway as it wasn't too far and meant we could catch a bit of the sun on the beach before it disappeared from the array of mountains this place has. We started at Leblon and walked the length of Leblon and Ipanema beach. Calfs killing, we decided to walk into Ipanema looking for a restaurant to eat food later. We bumped into a puppy girl pug who was quality! We showed the owner the picture of our pug and she laughed. There all the same! With many places to eat to choose from we headed back without a definite answer to the apartment to chill as our feet were in need of a rest after the walking. Eventually we made it out of the hostel and we had asked our Polish friend Where was really cheap to eat and he suggested a little pizza place around the corner. The pizza was so cheap, ok it was only one big slice but it filled us up and with a couple of beers we felt quite merry after our street drinking so fell asleep pretty sharpish. Can't wait for tomorrow I hear its sunny!
Tuesday 16th April 2013 - I woke up again so early today, and after a while nicki decided to climb down from her bunk bed and join me in the bottom bunk. Eventually we got up even before breakfast had started. Because it was before 8am the receptionist advised us that we could catch the early morning breakfast in the square 2 blocks from us so we walked down as we needed to visit the bank anyway. The smells were lovely, and they were even letting people try the foods before you purchased them from their stalls. We made it back to the hostel and passed the Swedish owner the money to pay for our tour. We had booked on the 1pm city tour which pretty much ticks off all the big bucket lists in the city. We had purposely booked the 1pm tour to allow us the time to visit Ipanema beach as the weather was already boiling hot at this stage. After breakfast sat on the balcony we were on the beach at 9am and stupidly I didn't put my suncream on in time and burnt myself, still better off than nicki who burnt her stomach really bad. I went for a swim in the sea, well when I say swim i mean getting bashed about by the waves. You can't really swim as the waves are so enormous. After taking a shower and watching loads of joggers on the beach I decided to take a run to nicki's surprise. I went on a half an hour run to the bottom of Leblon beach and back and totally ruined my feet. Each toe had a blood blister from the sand and I was sweating so much. I took another shower and after a small nap in the sun we walked back to the hostel to get ready for our door to door tour pick up. Our first trip was to Christ the redeemer which was, as I'm sure most can imagine, incredible. The view was what did it for me. To see the landscape it's like no other I've ever seen. The unique looking mountains and the sea, I can really see why people settled here. It's stunning. We managed to get the classic tourist photos thanks to a girl we had met from Sydney who was lovely and became our friend throughout the day. Next was a famous neighbourhood called San Teresa. This place is filled with extremely steep cobbled streets where you felt you could fall out of the seat of your vehicle. Also there used to be a yellow tram that ran right through here but a recent accident where 6 people were killed when it came off the tracks means it has been removed. Hence a huge wall painted in memory of these people with the driver, Nelson, and a small girl holding a sign reading "we want our tram back". A small hobbit man called Howie was one of the tourists on our tour and I swear he had a death wish he walked infront of two cars whilst taking photos and plodding around - odd fellow. Straight on from there was the lapa steps which were nicki's favourite part of the whole of Rio. Such a brilliant idea I don't know why every city wouldn't want one. A well travelled man from Chile had decided he wanted to clear out a dirty staircase with the governments permission and fill it with tiles from everywhere he had been. It's truly a wonder of the city. I was shocked at how epic it really was. There were a group of men playing instruments at the top of the staircase which we climbed without realising how high they actually are due to their beauty. Cats chilled out around the stairs and you could even see the famous artists studio who designed the steps. Unfortunately the artist recently was burnt to death a year or so ago. Supposedly by someone who was threatening him about some of his work. He was the artist but others wanted recognition. The trial is still ongoing. After waiting for Howie to take his photos we moved on to the cathedral which was like no other building I had ever seen. It's cone shaped with a huge open entrance. Brown in colour and huge stained windows that, when looking up inside, look like a massive cross. Ironically when it came to leaving it was Howie who was ushering people back on to the bus as now he was worried about missing the sugar loaf mountain at sunset, this made me laugh haha. Funny I used the word usher there because literally our tour guide looked just like him, fernando, and he was so cool. He talked about his life living in the city born and bread. He spoke about how hard it has become to get a property in the city and they are pushing the poor locals out and moving in the rich outsiders. He mentioned a term which meant your a person born and bread in Rio and when we got to sugar loaf he explained this in depth, he was very interesting. Basically when the Portuguese first came here in their boats in 1520's they thought they had discovered a huge river mouth and due to this discovery being in January they named the place River of January. Because they only knew how to build buildings in a European manner with white stone found locally the foreigners (Portuguese) were known as the men in the white houses. But nowadays the meaning and translation has changed because the men in the white houses are now considered the locals like fernando, born and bread in the city. So yea we got to sugar loaf after a long wait through traffic as fernando said not everyone gets a house but everyone can buy a car. Nicki was a bit nervous about the cable cart but the tour guide advised it was brand new and from Switzerland. We felt safer after being shown the first cable card from 1912 it was literally a cage I'm so glad ours was the nice modern one. After mountain hopping we made it to the top and just missed the sunset. In fact we could see the sun moving up the mountain as we were on the cable cart. We didn't mind though as the views were still unreal and to see the city slowly flick on all its lights was an experience ill never forget. I can see why they thought this was a river it's just a mad mad coastline. I can't believe how nature has formed something so unique and gorgeous. I can only imagine how excited the people were when they first came across it. Our tour guide explained and pointed out to us a city, which was correctly named Ocean of January to correct the previous mistake. Once we had got on the bus we realised we had left Pete from our tour at the top of the mountain, he was like the nerd from euro trip so I felt bad for him as he probably panicked. But anyway after this wait we made our way back to the hostel. Once dropped off at our door we decided to go straight for something to eat, we had seen a place earlier so stopped off at this cheap place that looked like it gave generous portions as we were starving. My god were we right! I had carbonara and nicki spag Bol. I ordered the large one which was absolutely massive. Not even I could finish it, it came in like a cauldron haha. I had 3 plates worth and finished nicki and then after a could more of these Skol beers we made our way back to the hostel to sleep. This time using the top bunk as storage and both sleeping in the bottom bunk.
Wednesday 17th April 2013 - Another early morning again! I think I've seen 6am tick over every day of this holiday so far. We knew today was going to involve plenty of planning. As today was the day to move on from our beautiful Rio. We had the lovely breakfast only this time without the eggs and stuck to the fruit and fresh baguettes. Filled ourself up for the 30 min walk to Copacabana beach. On route to the beach we stopped off at Paxtur to purchase our R$ 132 tickets to Paraty a 5 or so hour bus journey from here. We went the wrong way at first and were cut off by the national park but the place we went to was lovely and we took some great photos with the length of Ipanema in sight. Once reaching the famous Copacabana you could straight away see the long curving stretch of beach finishing off at the foot of sugar loaf mountain. We bought a coconut and had a drink whilst on the beach. The waved here were much more steady and swimming was actually possible rather than fighting the waves. We had booked a favela tour that morning, we were supposed to go on the 10 o'clock one as Lisa from yesterday's tour has asked if we would go with her but unfortunately we wouldn't of had time to do both so we booked the 2 o'clock tour instead. Once we got back from the beach we met our tour guide, Alan, shortly after quickly booking our hostel in our next destination - Paraty. Alan was a very different tour guide. Still very interesting but he smoked at every opportunity and even made the poor German guy with us get the metro home instead of the promised door to door service just chucking him R$5 to compensate. Glad we got the door to door treatment :) guess Ipanema is an easy pick up route. The favela tour was probably my favourite of the whole of Rio. It was the biggest culture shock and eye opener I have ever had. We started at the very top of the hill at the favela called Racinha, home to 300,000 people all situated on one hill! We saw the post office and hospital for the favela. All the post goes here as no post man in the world could navigate the alleys of this complicated intricate favela with no planning whatsoever. We walked down a claustrophobic tunnel which led down from the top to the bottom of the favela. The smell wasn't great at all, and the wiring and electricity was so basic yet complicated. All the homes had like connected there wires into the mains with pegs and tape very dangerous next to the raw sewage running past. TVs existed through windows I saw but they were so distorted and fuzzy I don't know how people watched them. Wild dogs were everywhere and hens, cockerels and lots of rats. Many homes had collapsed because they were on hills with no planning or little building knowledge and with the trees being cut down they slump quite quick. Alan explained to us that the houses often had all the generations of a family so when another generation was born they just built a new floor on top of their home with breeze blocks, cements and corrugated metal. It's crazy. Water is provided from the river, where very basic pumps pump water up the hill in plastic pipes that run along the floor and into little blue buckets that every home has. There is only one road so you must walk up these hills to get back to your home although there are men on bikes that are willing to taxi you up the hill a little further. Alan noted how funny it was that in Europe the rich live in the hills and the poor in the city but in Rio it's the poor that live in the hills. As we walked down this tunnel/alley all the children would shout money money money and stair but mainly we were not bothered otherwise, we were told they don't care about us it's only if we are a threat or police. Or if we photographed any drugs etc. but Racinha has been pacified by police control since 2011 and all guns confiscated. Not without loss though. We saw one corridor that had gun shots all on the walls where the police had met some confrontation. Once we got the bus home and said goodbye to our German friend we decided to go back to the hostel and ask where to eat that was cheap and Brazilian food. Our receptionist was so good she advised this small place on the corner like street food but it was so nice. Steak chips rice black beans and salad. With a beer! And it was only like R$12 each. I popped to the toilet and got so lost ended up getting chased out of a random kitchen then got stuck in this corridor that looked like it was off Alice in wonderland. We said our goodbyes to the lovely people at harmonia hostel it had been such a great first hostel for us and we will miss it loads. Stepped out on to the street and flagged down the first taxi which after struggling to speak Portuguese we managed to understand Rio bus station and even after sitting in traffic for ages we arrived at the bus station bang on time and for R$34 even though it was on the other side of the city. Fernando had mentioned earlier that Rio was trying to solve its traffic problem for the World Cup and Olympics in '14 and '16 he said the governments honour was at stake but then rememebered they have no honour. I think they should definitely get that tram back in San Teresa for the football and games. He bets the police will be on form at the expense of the locals not the tourists but told us how the police always get involved with big matters right as it becomes to late but that was mainly in reference to the poor Chilean man that built the lapa steps. Anyway our bus is here a bit late 8:17pm so it's time to leave this great city and sleep our way to Paraty. Should arrive at 11:59pm? Lets see
- Josh -
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