Carnival baby!!
Trip Start
Oct 04, 2005
1
13
21
Trip End
Apr 19, 2006
Rio de Janeiro (Yes Jenny - South America!!), Brazil
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
We finally arrived in Rio after a long 24 hour journey which had about 40 stops and was completely rediculous but i won´t go into it! However the journey had some pretty awsome views of hills that went on for miles, it was quite pretty.
When we arrived in Rio we were expecting sheer madness of Carnival, ie. ribbons etc everywhere, people dancing. But it just seemed normal which was a bit disspaointing. Although we did manage to see the famous Christo Redentor figure on top of the hill.
We got to our hotel which again was pretty ridiculous but i won~t go into that either, the accomodation was wicked but the staff were not on this planet! We were staying in Catete which is just out of the center and is a place wherre lots of backpackers stay but not a lot happens. We had a wonder about and had our first of about 5 burgers in 4 days (oops)! (It is really hard when you don~t understand menus in restaurants and all you recognise is cheesburger or pizza!) Catete in itself wasn~t very lively and quite dirty and dull looking.
On our first night we decided to wonder into the centre near the sambadrome which is where the main parade takes place on the sunday and monday night. We somehow managed to weedle our way inside the drome and witness the kids version of the parade which was pretty fantastic in itself. Full of brazilian kids going mad as they dance to samba music in fabulous bright costumes. We were the only european looking people there and i felt a bit intimidated as we looked like wheres wally amongst the crowd! Although it was great as all the locals were obvioulsy cheering on their kids and dancing and waving like crazy as their kids passed by.
Afterwards we stumbled across a HUGE queue stretching for what seemed like miles, it was for entrance into another park\stadium thing called sambaland and the queue was going down really quickly so we decided to go in. Inside it was mental! About 20 thousand brazilians dancing to samba and genuinely getting hammered. There were no costum,es or anything but it was obvious that it was a carnival celebration as carnival was written everywhere. We joined in and danced and drank and ate with the locals which was quality. Again we stuck out like a sore thumb, especially with Chris being so bloody tall! It was good though!
Saturday 25th Febuary
We got up lateish and headed to Ipanema beach which is meant to be nicer than Copacabana. But before we even saw the beach we realised that there was a football match on at the Marcana~stadium and that we HAD to go. So we went all the way back to the hotel and then headed to the stadium. It was carnage trying to get there as the carival atmosphere had kicked in a bit now and that mixed with the brazilian football fans was awsome! They were all chanting on the train, you could hear them a mile off i am sure. We got to the stadium which was huge to me but Chris said it was pretty standard. We manmaged to get tickets and were in th Botafogo side, the other team was Flemengo. These are the two main teams in Rio and it is apparently the equivalant to Arsenal vs Tottenam?????? For fear of being beaten to death by the crazy CRAZY crazy supporter behind us we just paid attention and went mad when things were going our way and went mad when they werent1 I loved it so much, was my first ever football match. WE were winning at first but then we lost 3-2 in the end. The chants between the two lots of fans were so loud and Chris said it is never that good at home (dont know if he is humouring me!). Was great!! The Canadians we were with loved it too and had absolutely no idea when we were offside\onside either , just like me!!
Although a riot nearly broke out amongst our fans over one bloke holding his flag up too high or something!! Men!
In the evening we went to Santa Theresa to see a ´Bloca´which is basically a street parade\party. We got there far too late though and only caught the end. Although we still saw the end of the party and some great Carival costu,mes. All the locals just dress up, anything goes so it is like our Christmas, haloween, valentines all rolled into one as you see father Christmas, whitches, devils the lot. Everyone was dancing to Samba and so hammered they were all passed out on the streets! Santa Theresa was very cool though, was on a really steep hill so you could see over the city, and all the bars had huge windows that you could sit on so you were still in the street if that makes sense.
It was quite scary at some points because we walked a bit to far the lane and ended up in the slums i think so turned straight back.
We managed to find a restaurant that you could actually sit down in as everywhere was so packed and i had THE BEST curry ever! It was a fruit curry! Bit random but so good! Apparently a traditional portugese dish?
Sunday 26th Febuary
This was Carnival day for us as it was the day we had Sambadrome tickets.
We had a good but hectic day as we went to Corcovado to see the Cristo Redentor figure (or Christ the redeemer as Chris calls it to all the Brazilians as he asks for directions!). We finally got up the top in a mini van after about an hour of none stop traffic as it was probably the busiest day of the year. It was very cloudy unfortunately. We got to stop off for photos on the way though which was cool and saw the helipad used. When we finally got there it was so packed you could hardly move. It was really cool to see it though, i have always wanted to visit Rio and see the statue and now i am here!! Still can~t believe it. He seems so small when you lok at it from the city though, at night though it is very cool as he looks like he is floating on air as there are no lights on the hill so it is not lit up.
Our diver told our group we had 40 minutes so we took all the photos before heding back to find our group. But we couldn~t! We kept walking down the hill to find them and they just didn~t turn up so we decided to walk down which was absolutely bloody miles. About half an hour into it the bus drove passed and tooted at us. We managed to stop them and everyone looked serioulsy pissed off as they had all been waiting for half an hour for the stupid English couple to get to the bus. No one spoke to us!
Afterwards we went to Copacabana beach!! Wahoo! It was very touristy but great atmosphere. We sat and had Caphrina´s ( i can´t spell that right) and watche dthe pčople go by. Then we walked down to Ipanema beach and caught a Bloca that was coming to the end so there was loads of loud music and people going crazy (again).
That night was carnival time!! We had a few drinks before heading to the Sambadrome. There are 14 schools in the parade spread over 2 nights and this was the first night. Each school has an hour to impress the crowds, we missed the beginning as we didnt want to go too early as it went on tiull 6 am and we knew we wouldnt make it the whole night otherwise. We baught silly wigs to wear. The atmosphere was so great! We were in the cheap spot though which was right at the end of the parade and we were quite high up. It was good as we got to see the floats a lot more clearly as they all turned left at the end, but we didn~t get to see the dancers up close.
Each parade was simply stunning!! The outfits and Floats were amazing. You cant describe it really and unfortunately i didnt take my camera as i was afraid it would get nicked so i cant put photos on , although i did take a disposable. Each school has a chosen song which is played continuously for an hour. At first you think it is crap but by the end of the hour you are jumping around to it like a maniac.
About 2 hours in it started to chuck it down with rain and the Brazilians went mad!! They danced even more and the atrmosphere was electric! But cold! Everyone in the crowds was dancing and waving flags and every now and then all the girls would scream as there were a lot of celebrities taking part. It was such a wicked night!!
Monday 27th Febuary
We got up late! Wanted to chill out today which was good as nowhere was open! We went to the mall and it was shut! I was gutted! We headed to Copacabana to spend the day there. There is so much going on you can just sit and relax or you can go shopping on the street markets or you can sit at the bars and drink cocktails and people watch. We did all three. You get quite a nice view of the mountains from the beach too.
Agua coca skol is our new saying! That is all you hear when you are on teh beach.
There was lots of footy and volley ball going on spo we watched but didn´t dare join in as they were far to good!
In the evening it was carnival time again so the atmosphere was good. I forgot to sayon the night we went to the sambadrome we had to walk around the stadium ro get in and all of the people that lived there had their houses open and were watching it on the tv outside whilst having street partys. The little kids were going mad (again) if they saw a glimpse of the floats from the tops of their roofs!
We wanted to go out and party again that night, but first we wanted to have a nice meal so we chose a place in our book that said it was top notch (although as it is a budget guide we still thought it would be chepaish) It was called Porcao Rios and when we puleld up it was more like an English stately home than a restaurant. It over looked teh harbour! We went in and it didn´t seem too posh but a lot ore so than anywhere else we were eating (i.e macdonalds). The food was amazing. It was a buffet and then you have loads of men going round with differenet meats on sticks which i think is quite traditional in Brazil. We were told it was all you can eat so we ate loads. We had 189 Reals on us for the night so as most meals we have average at 80 we thought we had plenty to go out after and party. But the bill came in at 191! We were so embarrassed! Didn´t even have enough for the taxi! We contemplated me ordering another drink whilst Chris went back to the hotel, got more money and came back but i would have been too embarrassed. What was worse was that about 20 reals that we had on us was in small change! In the end we had to pay them with what we had. We just gave it to the guy quickly and basically ran into the taxi before he had time to count it! It only equals about 40p but still! So embarrassing! So we couldn´t affard to go out that night after all!
Tuesday 28th Febuary
Last day in Rio for now although we will prob come back before coming home so we can go to Sugar loaf on a clear day to get some good photos.
We wanted to have a touristy day and go to the museams but everywhere was shut again!
We ended up going to the Cathedral Metropolitana which was a very moden Cathedral and walking about Praca Floriano. It was pretty grim there because it was the aftermath of the carnival so you got the occasional drunk old man (i saw one poo in a corner which was nice) and dodgy looking people (also saw some guy get beaten up with a bat) so we got out of there pretty quicly and headed to the airport to fly to Bolivia.
