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Hi guys,
I hope you're all well? It's been a while since I past posted, I guess I've been having too much fun in Brazil!
The last time I posted I was in Buenos Aires. I ended up spending 2 weeks there in the end. I went to watch River Plate play at the national stadium. It was fun to enter the stadium with the proper supporters who were singing and jumping up and down as we queued. The stadium holds 80,000 people, and it's a circular shape with no roof. Reminds me of the colosseum. The game wasn't the best quality I've seen , and in the end River lost, but the fans provided the entertainment.
I also went to watch Boca Juniors play with my friend Javier from BA, and his friend Juan who got us tickets. I met them at the bus station for the Monday night game. We were going to take the bus to La Boca where the stadium is. This was he best and craziest bus ride I've ever witnessed. It had commuters going home from work, but then a load of Boca fans came on, so many so, that they had to open the doors, which led to a load of the guys hanging out the doors. The fans spent the whole journey singing, dancing and banging the bus, it was crazy and to see the faces of the commuters was priceless. What made it even better was that passing cars, buses and pedestrians would start joining in too, I've never witnessed anything like it but it's one of the best things I've experienced with football.
The stadium of the team that Maradona supports, is a lot smaller than River Plates stadium, with 3 large stands and one small stand for VIPs. I wanted to sit with the proper fans but ended up sitting in corporate seats as the line was too long, so I had a good view. When the away team equalised I was wondering why the guy on my left was so happy, I found out he was the vice president of the away team! Again the quality of football wasn't great and I'm sure Derby could give these guys a run for their money. The end of the game consisted of the away fans, who were on the top tier throwing inflatable bags of urine near to the supporters in the tier below, thankfully that wasn't me!
During my time in BA I went to La Cabrera which is known to have the best steak in BA. It was nice but I'd be disappointed if it was the best. I also went to the Evita museum, which I surprisingly enjoyed and I stayed in probably my favourite hostel so far. Estoril Terraza had the best people I've met so far, as a group, as well as a great roof terrace.
One day I was out with my friends, Anna, Ivy and Megan, during the middle of the day, on BA's biggest road, Avenida 9 de Julio. As we were walking a young boy rushed past me and tried to grab Megan's bag, but as she was distracted another boy came past and ripped her necklace off her. It happened so fast, I started to chase the boy with the necklace but he ran right across the first section of the 16 lane road and there was no way I could follow. I was amazed he got across without getting hurt. I was so annoyed that I was too slow in reacting but when I turned around I saw Megan had grabbed the first boy. Now these boys were probably around 8 years old. She had him in a tight grip, and oh yeah I forgot to mention Megan is a police detective from Australia, so the kids totally picked the wrong person. Megan was obviously quite angry, to say the least and some of the words she came out with, I'd never heard a woman say. The locals were trying to get her to release him, but noticing how angry she was they backed off, as did this teenage boy who was working with this boy. He wanted none of it, and the boy with the necklace was watching from the other side of the road. The boy who Megan had hold of was so scared, from a routine snatch and grab raid which he probably does everyday, it had someone gone horribly wrong for him and his friends weren't going to be much use in helping him. In the end Megan took his necklace, as they had taken hers, and let the boy go. Him and his teenage accomplice walked off wondering what had just happened.
A few moments later an old Argentinian man came over and asked if the pedant he found on the floor was Megan's. It was, result! She was only really bothered about the pedant, the boy had only made off with the chain. A few hours later we were having lunch and I came tithe conclusion that in reality Megan had actually mugged the boy! That boy must have got a load of stick when he returned to his mates, it was probably along the lines of 'you're supposed to rob them, not get robbed yourself...'. But who knows maybe this experience has set him on the straight and narrow.
That evening we met some other friends and told them the story. All of a sudden there was a sudden nervousness around young kids in the street, and this was highlighted as we got off the metro. 2 young boys were walking down the steps as we were walking up, one of the girls panicked and lost her flip flop momentarily as one of the boys stepped towards her. She then yelped out, with the rest of us about to apprehend the kids, but in reality they were just walking down the stairs, and they called the girl loco! I've never seen such a big group of adults so afraid of 2 kids!
When my time came to leave BA, it was with a heavy heart. I said goodbye to my friends and got an overnight bus to Puerto Iguazu to see the Iguazu Falls.
The Iguazu Falls are out of this world and easily the best thing I have ever seen. It's not just one waterfall but lots of big waterfalls. I took a boat ride that took me right up to some waterfalls, and needless to say I got soaked. There were many spots where you could get right up to the fall, and the Devil's Throat is just crazy with the amount of water that falls there. Its always busy there but I managed to get a few minutes peace. Rainbows form in the falls which is breathtaking.
The next day, myself and Margaret who I originally met in BA, but met again in Iguazu crossed into Brazil. I've always wanted to go Brazil, but i wasn't as excited as I thought i would be, this was mainly due to everyone telling me how expensive it would be. We decided to wait for her friend Ellen to see the Brazil side so we decided to go to Paraguay for the afternoon as we heard you can get cheap electronics. It involved just getting a local bus and going over the border and back again, we didn't even stamp in or out.
Ciudad del Este was crazy. It was boiling hot when we got off, it was so busy and disorientating, and we had people trying to drag us into shops. We found some legitimate looking shops but the prices weren't that cheap and other shops were selling fakes, especially one where I enquired about iPhones. The guy read off a box that had clearly been printed off badly and when I asked him what gigabyte it was, he said no, so I made a quick exit. After an hour or so we decided to head back to Brazil. Foz de Iguacu is a massive city compared to the small town that was Puerto Iguazu in Argentina.
The next day Ellen arrived, and we visited the Brazil side of the falls. Loads of people had told me how it wasn't that good but I thought it was just as good as the Argentinian side. You get a great panoramic view of the falls, and possibly the best bit of the whole place was the walkway that took you right into the falls. You get wet but you get up close to the falls and rainbows, simply amazing.
That night we took a bus to Florianopolis which is a city that has lots of nice beaches on the island to the east of it. We stayed on a beach on the island but the whole duration the weather was bad, so I was limited to walking round the town and watching English football. I wanted to surf burghs weather was so calm.
After 3 nights I got another bus to Sao Paulo, which is the biggest city in South America, and it is huge. I took at least 2 hours to get tithe bus station after we had entered the city limits. There isn't much to see or do here, so the days mainly consisted of relaxing or walking around, although the Corinthians football stadium and the football museum it holds were both definitely worth visiting. It has great night life though, although a bit too pricey to party every night if you're a backpacker like me....
After 3 nights, I caught a bus to Rio, which is the one city I've always dreamt about visiting, and it felt like a massive achievement when I arrived.... Except no one had told Rio and I was greeted with heavy rain on a Monday morning, pretty much like Monday mornings when I used to work. The weather was bad for the first few days, which restricted me to a couple of walks along the beaches of Leblon and Ipanema and watching the surf championships when they were on. However after a few days the weather improved and I managed to get out and about and explore the city.
One of the first things I did was to do a favela tour through the biggest favela in Rio, Rocinha. It houses 300,000 people. It started with a crazy motorbike journey from the bottom right to the top of the hill where the favela is located. The bikes weaves in and out of traffic, at high speed, narrowly missing buses and speeding round 180 degree bends. At the top we got off and walked down. The favelas and the dangers they pose are massively hyped up. We were told if we came to the favela alone we wouldn't be harmed but we would be asked if we were here for business or visiting someone. If we were here for neither we'd be asked to leave as the drug lords who run the favela are obviously weary of the police snooping around. We were told not to take pictures of the lookout guys and anyone carrying guns, of which there were plenty! All the residents have free Internet and cable, and don't pay taxes, and all the people I met were smiling, happy and usually friendly so the stereotypical impression everyone has is quite wrong. Obviously places in the favela smell, and there's guys with guns, like when we watched some kids play samba music, a group of guys, all with guns, were a few metres away with guns just having a normal chat, just everyday life in a favela!
I also went to see the Christ the Redeemer statue. You can see it from some points in the city but it looks a lot smaller in real life than what it looks like on tv and films. It's such a simple statue but it is very effective, and it does stand out above Rio. The view you get of the city is very good too. You get a great panoramic view of the city.
I also went up Sugerloaf mountain, where you take 2 cable cars to the top. This also gives a great view of the city but from one corner of Rio. It's great for viewing a sunset, seeing the sun go down and then the city and Christ statue light up was well worth the wait.
On Friday nights I went to Lapa, which is where all the clubs are. However on Fridays they have street sellers selling alcohol so I spent the whole night on the street dancing to samba provided by some street performers.
I also visited the Lapa steps, which is where Snoop Dogg filmed his video for Beautiful, and there we jammed and sun songs with some local musicians. I played football on the beach with some locals, who in all honesty weren't that good. It was like playing at school again! I spent a Sunday on copacabana beach, which was full of people playing foot volley, volleyball, football, and relaxing.
Finally I celebrated my birthday in Rio. Turning 21 is a strange, it's like I'm finally a proper adult! I wasn't feeling well the days leading up to it, so couldn't celebrate to the max, but I managed to do a hang glide, which involved running off the edge of a cliff (me and jumping off stuff are done for this trip for definite!), the views were great and it's so relaxing. I also got free drinks and a free night at the hostel, from the kind owners, although I think the cake I bought for everyone helped! My Danish friends also helped make it a good one.
Rio has been my favourite city so far, it has everything, gorgeous beaches, great nightlife, really friendly people, it's football mad, usually great weather, good public transport. and best of all the women are the most beautiful I've come across. Old blue eyes was right, the girl from Ipanema is stunning, and not to mention the girl from Copacabana, Leblon, etc....
So after 2 and a half weeks I left Rio. The first day after my birthday involved a 23 hour bus ride to Campo Grande as I make my way to Bolivia. I feel like Willy Fogg as it involves 2 buses and a train. Today was the 23 hour one, then after a night stop over I get a bus to the border at 6.30am tomorrow, for 6 hours, and once over the border I catch an overnight train to Santa Cruz, from where I have no idea what my plan is....
I'm definitely returning to Brazil, and Rio, most likely for the 2014 world cup, so if you want to come along start saving as one thing Brazil isn't is cheap! However it's not enough to put me off...
Hopefully my next post should be from somewhere in Bolivia, where? I have no idea...
I know this has been a long post, my apologies, but it will keep you busy for a while!
Until next time, take care.
- comments
Mags Love it Sanj!! I will never forget the fun of Iquazu, the madness of Paraguay!! The bad weather of Florianopolis.. and the great RIO.. Reality bites so enjoy every moment x
Ma Good job you had a woman to protect you! It might have been you getting mugged if she wasn't there!! x
DV7 Im pretty sure 180 degrees is a straight line? :s lol. Glad ur having a sick time man!! Wish I was with ya aha my mate and I wanna go to 2014 world cup as well so I will be saving and we will roll with u aha cant wait man! Take care mate see ya soon pal! X
Kev I liked the robbing off the thief story - what goes around comes around.