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Ok, I've been a bit slack on updating this recently but we've been moving around too much for me tosit still long enough! Here's a brief run through of the past 4 days.
Arrived in Rio late friday evening so didn't really get to grips with the city until saturday morning. Our hotel is something outta faulty towers, its got that many rules its just too funny (needless to say I broke several of them before even realising!). Its clean & in a great location but its like a paralel universe. The staff are slightly derainged, the decor can only be described as living in some giant blue & white china teacup (the wallpaper design) & nothing runs to time. For example; we ordered breakfast the first morning (no resturant to eat it in you order it to be delivered to your room) after 3 phone calls and over an hour later it arrived. We ravionously tucked into..........the driest bread rolls ever. The following day it only took 2 phone calls and a visit to reception before the dry bread arrived, then yesterday we just gave up!!!! Ahhhh well, at least its clean lol!
The change in humidity from sao paulo to rio hit us as soon as we stepped foot off the bus, it also stays around 27 degrees until well into the night............at last warmth ;-) After wandering around some nearby shops we headed to copacabana beach & stumbled upon the stage for the live earth concert....result! I'd completely forgotten it was happening here & today. Macy Gray, Lenny Kravitz & Pharrell Williams were the main acts along with loads of people we'd never heard of. We only caught Lenny Kravitz as he closed the concert & we had stuff to do during the day & had to get back to our hotel for our tour welcome meeting. On a beach note (& before I forget!) - the brazillians have absolutely no shame whatsoever when it comes to beach wear! Even walking on the way to the shops through the city blokes are wearing the smallest, tightest trunks ever....nothing else! And the woman whether they've got the figure or not literally 'let it all hang out!' (& no I haven't seen one model type yet either!). Being british you really don't know where to look & feel totally óverdressed'most of the time lol.
Bought my first pair of havianna's on saturday also (have since got carried away & bought several more pairs)....oh & also tried my first coconut water (an actual coconut!) too.
On sunday we finally had our welcome meeting (got posponed after rushing back for it ;-( & decided to do a city tour & combined trip to corovallo mountain (the one with the big JC one top). It was pretty good, we got to see alot of Rio & kinda got an orientation of the city too. We even passed through some of the favella's and across drug lords borders (eeeekkkk) & past the great train robbers (ronnie biggs') former mansion. On the way down from christ the redeemer I also spotted my first wild monkey in the surrounding national park. Got the obligratory photo with the man himself then headed off to the metropolitian cathedral (very big) & onto the Maracana stadium (even bigger) - which is currently busy hosting the pan american games rather than its traditional football games. Going to go back to watch a game in our final two weeks here (as normal service resumes then).
After alot of umm'in & ahh'in we decided to go to a favella party on sunday night. For those of you who don't know its a party held in the middle of the slums every sunday where all the slums residents gather to get drunk & party, lots! Didn't really know what to expect particuarly as the drug lords & gangsters go too.
We arrived about midnight (the party goes on until 4am) & the madness began. The whole place reminded me of some north london semi-derilect warehouse hosting an illegal rave. Every man was again half dressed, every woman was shaking their arses beyonce stylie to the music. Within five minutes everyone was dripping in sweat, dirty & begging to go home lol. I thought my best option was to try get drunk until I could leave at 4am lol. So I started drinking 1 reales beers (about 25p) - oh & did I suffer the next day; you bet I did!
We had VIP passes so were allowed into the 2nd floor area, which can only be described as a cattle holding pen! So we spent most of the night dancing downstairs with the locals, which was ok until you made eye contact, then any bloke would tell you 'you are the most beautifulgirl ever' then promptly try to snog you, with or without your actual agreement. After realising this helen & I only had eyes for each other!!!! lol
Halfway through the night an indoor firework display started (health & safety, people?!?). Around 3am we managed to blag a lift back with our tour guide, so got out earlier than some of our fellow tour mates. After very little sleep we left Rio for Paraty on Monday morning & our here until tomorrow.
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