"Heeoo"
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2005
1
24
Trip End
Nov 13, 2006
Rio, Brazil
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Flying in to Rio is pretty incredible as the sea finishes and the islands begin, followed by white sands and mountains and then the houses...millions and millions as far as you can see, apart from the mountains and sea of course!! At first there appears to be no high-risers as the residential area seems endless, mainly on the level land but occassionally creeping up the side of the hills!
Then you see the central areas which look like a lego construction of tall buildings everywhere, with very little variation and seeming to be edging closer to that beautiful white sand even as you look at them!
However, Rio (or 'Heeoo' as they say out here - our accents and Portugese isn't exactly flawless but as you can all imagine, that doesn't stop us trying!) is a city of contrasts to say the least, so as you get to know it a bit better you realise there is the largest city forest anywhere in the world along side the most concentrated population of peoples in the many favelas...as well as the rolling hills and mountains that surround the whole city.
We arrived on Monday the 14th November at 8:30am and after a fantastic (can you smell the sarcasm?) wait at the airport we took the bus to our hostel in Copacabana. I had my guidebook at the ready and my as yet unused travellers sense of direction to try out and so confidently led the way down a street behind the hotel we were dropped outside, not forgetting a quick glance in the sky to see a flock of huge prehistoric looking birds (Caroline immediately named them Terradactils - thereby beginning our delight in naming things in a way we could remember them!! As I said, our Portugese isn´t great!).
So, I knew where we we´re going, I had been studying the map in the guide book during the bus journey from the airport and was very confident! We looked a picture with our various bags hanging off us, and me wearing trousers and walking boots to keep the baggage weight down! Oh yeah and it was boiling hot and we were tired and hungry...needless to say that we got spectacularly lost, not that we were a huge distance from the hostel but I managed to take us round in ever decreasing circles until we final found our bed for the night, Mellow Yellow, after asking about ten people where the road was, not that they could understand us and not that we could understand them.
Anyway, we had a healthy nap and then went out to explore Copacabana. It really took a good couple of days for it to sink in that we were here despite the sun, white sands, tiny bikinis and fresh coconuts on the beach really should have been proof enough.
Our three main trips in Rio were visiting a small museum of the native Indians, getting a bus to the Corcovado mountain with the giant Christ statue and a personal guided tour through one of the largest favelas in Rio.
They were all interesting in their own way, the Christ statue was amazing just due to its shear size and symbolism of a hugely Christian country. The views were incredible with a huge city scape that turns to sea in one direction and mountains to the other. The Favela tour is when a group are taken through the slums of Rio for a couple of hours. We were hesitant about this for obvious reasons of hypocrisy and fear fr our safety but it really turned out to be one of our favourite memories so far (its only a week I hear you cry!!) the people were incredible and have realsied the possibilities of tourism in to these areas and the people are so friendly it is astonishing, probably more so than even the average Brazilian, well Rionian anyway. The favelas are huge and the statistics are baffling, with little hundreds of thousand in the tiny area we saw and plenty more millions in similar conditions around the rest of the country, our guide said around 60% of the entire population of Brazil live in favelas. It was also probably the safest we felt in Rio as a whole during our stay. Indian Museum was a real little find as it was virtually empty and we just wandered around a small but hugelt diverse mixture of photos, and recovered and donated objects from the local Amozon Tribes, including huge cerominial headdresses that were about twice the size of caroline.
Rio has been mad, crazy, beautiful, relaxing and hectic in equal measure so we´re off to explore a tiny clonial town on the coast, built on the mouth of a river and the centre is closed off from traffic as it is consider a historical monument - great!
Caroline (My first email): Hello all!!
Hope all is good back in sunny old England! Im going
to try and make these emails as short and unboring as
possible!!
We landed in Rio on Mon morning after a very long
overnight flight so as you can imagine we´ve not
really been with it! Rio is very very hot and
abslolutely mental but I love it. We're staying in a
really nice hostel on Copacabana beach (yes, thats
right people, 'at the copa-copacabana, la la la la la
la la la la'). The beach is beautiful and the
Brazilians wear extremely tiny tiny pants, and im not
even talking about the girls. Sam loves it. Im a bit
worried.
Anyway, yesterday we went up to see the big Jesus (you
all know what i mean, im sure) and the views were
amazing. It was all good apart from a death-ride in a
people carrier up the mountain! (dont worry mum, or
Jane for that matter - its all good!!)
Today we went on a Favela tour which is where a guide
takes you around the slums of Rio that go right up
into the mountains. If any of you have seen the film
City of God, you'll know what I mean. I cant really
describe what that was like. There were hundreds of
thousands of people living in horrid conditions and we
walked through the alleyways of the communities
feeling a bit like annoying tourists but they were the
nicest people ive ever met. The kids were beautiful,
following us around, holding our hands and one man
offered to take us into his home. Not one person asked
us for money which was what I was expecting. I didnt
think they would be so welcoming without getting
anything in return. It was just crazy.
Other than doing the touristy things, we've mainly
just been finding our feet, going to the beach (sam's
burnt!) and eating very greasy fried things. yes,
thats right, I will return as a heffer. Please prepare
yourselves! I cant really believe that im actually
here - its all very weird. I am starting to relax and
am looking forward to the next bit!
Tomorrow we leave Rio and go along the coast to a
little town called Paraty for a few days. After that,
we visit a few more little towns and head back to Sao
Paulo on sat for our flight to La Paz in Bolivia
(bring on the altitude sickness!)
Better stop waffling now coz im boring myself and
these computers keep crashing! Its Brazil baby!
Please, please email me with any gossip, I miss you
all lots.
Lots of love and kisses to you all,
