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Hello!!
So we´ve been in Rio for a while and I love it! Here´s just some of what we´ve been up to....
Sunbathing on Copacabana and Ipanema beach has been our main activity when the weather is good. Both beaches are gorgeous.
On our second day we met up with Andy, Katie and Georgia (who are also going to Linklaters) and went out to an indie night with them.
We went to see a local derby football match last week. The stadium was amazing and the fans were so involved, waving giant flags and setting off fireworks. There were two sending-off´s but it ended with a draw. Strangly there was even an obama look-a-like there who we met and of course took photos with.
We went up Sugar loaf mountain in a cable car to see the amazing views over the city and chilled out with a beer at the top.
Last Thursday we started the first of 4 nights out in a row (making the most of every minute in Rio) by going with about 40 people from our hostel to this RnB club, which was a good warm up to the parties that followed.
On Friday night we headed out to Lapa to the Street Parties (after a ´few´pre-drinks at our hostel bar). I was of course an absolute liability. I wanted to find a toilet and so I met a brazilian girl who showed me where the loos were and then introduced me to all her friends, meanwhile search parties were being sent out by franki and jenny as i´d been gone 10 mins. I returned unaware of the palava with 6 new brazilian friends in tow (none of whom even spoke english). Fun times!
Saturday was spent recovering from Lapa on the beach and then we got ready to head out again to a Samba Rehersal. This involved us going to a club where they practice their routine for the carnival. The girls in their costumes were amazing (think lots of sequins and feathers on some and some people literally dressed up as gollywogs- racist??) and they move quicker than i think is humanly possible, there were even little kids who were amazing. We tried to join in and were given giant flags to wave and dance to the huge samba band who were playing.
Sunday night was my favourite, most energetic and embarrassing night all in one. Jen and I went to a Favela Funk Party. It is held in one of the Favelas (the shanty-type-town) in Rio and so we were given the following warnings before we went in:
1) Don´t try to buy drugs
2) We all leave together at 4am as they start shooting practise at 4.45am
3) If you kiss a local girl it´s free
4) If you kiss a local boy you have to pay
With this information onboard, Jen and I ventured in hoping not to get shot. Inside it was so much fun! We made friends with 3 local brazilian girls and they showed us their dance moves, which involved lots of arse-shaking and popping, which they then taught us. We were the best of friends from that point on... until they started asking for Gringo´s (tourists) to come up on stage for a dance competition and our new friends volunteered us! So in front of 1000 people Jen and I showed off our new dance moves and were proclaimed the best Gringo´s (although the Brazilian´s were rather better than us). The worst thing is that we keep meeting people now who remember us being on stage!
As if that wasn´t enough excitment on Monday I went hang-gliding over the city, which was fantastic. You basically sprint off a cliff and glide over the buildings and ocean. I loved it!
Today, we went on a tour of the favela itself, which was so interesting. There is such a contrast in the quality of living compared to ipanema and copacabana, but it is still beautiful and very colourful in it´s own way.
Tomorrow we head down to Ihla Grande to lie on the beach some more on the island.
It´s been a brilliant start to the trip and I´m really looking forward to the adventures ahead!
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