So I´ve been Rio-ing it up good and proper. Managed to fit just about everything Rio-y into the last 48 hours: Samba, rum, football, beach, Jesus, carnival and crime - managed the lot.
The Carnival's pretty all dominating here. Stomping around the city like a feather-hatted stompy thing. Bloc parties ago-go. Got pickpocketed, serves me right for not having a bra to put my money in.
Went to the Sambadrome and saw Carnival proper. It was pretty amazing, a mile of tightly-packed, sequin-clad, dancing monkeys all trying to out-samba each other. Well spectacle. But it went on for 9 hours and I was over it within about ten mins. Each Samba school has an hour run, wherein they play the same song constantly. The costumes and the floats change but the song and the dance stays the same. Then the next Samba school comes out and does the same thing again for another hour. Once again, I've got no proof that I was there, so you're going to have to believe me. If you want pictures you'll just have to google some.
Visited the Redeemer statue. It´s the first proper tourist attraction I've been to on my trip. It reminded me how much I hate people in general and people with cameras in particular. Everyone there was taking exactly the same photos:
1. Them in the foreground with the bay behind.
2. Them with their arms out with The Big Man behind.
This was made even more ridiculous by the sheer volume of people trying to take the same photos without anyone else in them. Idiots. Neither photo comes out well. It's not the best view of the bay. It's not the best view of the statue. So do people just need proof that they've been? Won't their friends believe them? For my part I completed that dare (you know the one) and have absolutely no proof, so you´ll just have to take my word for it.
Went to watch football at the Maracaña stadium. Loud, I tell you, and full of crazies. The match for its part was pretty mediocre but there were some sendings off, so, you know...
Been away for a month now. I celebrated by having a shave, which isn't normally newsworthy. But equally it doesn't normally take an hour, I can see me getting my face burnt before the day is out.
Sunday 22 February 2009
Friday 20 February 2009
River of January
Rio's pretty amazing. It claims to be the best city setting in the world and after watching the sunset from a boat party in the bay it's probably right. 
Had a bit of an issue with accommodation. The cheap as chips place I booked ages ago cancelled my accommodation without telling me. Grrrr. Moral to the story is never stay at Ace Backpackers. They're not very ace.
Had deepfried chicken and banana for my tea last night. Struck me as an odd combination. Not quite as odd as the restaurant though. It was overlooking The Copacabana so we thought it was all picturesque and stuff, didn't realise it was bang in the middle of the redlight district. We were the only people there who weren't 50+ men or 19 year old Brazillian ladies wearing hotpants. Left a weird taste in my mouth - although in all honesty that was probably the banana-chicken combo.
Carnival starts today so I'm off to make me a mask. I´ve spotted a big Jesus face on a hill, reckon that would make a pretty good mask, no one´s using it so no one will mind, right?
Had a bit of an issue with accommodation. The cheap as chips place I booked ages ago cancelled my accommodation without telling me. Grrrr. Moral to the story is never stay at Ace Backpackers. They're not very ace.
Had deepfried chicken and banana for my tea last night. Struck me as an odd combination. Not quite as odd as the restaurant though. It was overlooking The Copacabana so we thought it was all picturesque and stuff, didn't realise it was bang in the middle of the redlight district. We were the only people there who weren't 50+ men or 19 year old Brazillian ladies wearing hotpants. Left a weird taste in my mouth - although in all honesty that was probably the banana-chicken combo.
Carnival starts today so I'm off to make me a mask. I´ve spotted a big Jesus face on a hill, reckon that would make a pretty good mask, no one´s using it so no one will mind, right?
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Paraty
It's all got a little bit tropical, here. I tell you. By
which I mean, it's really humid and the insects are massive. Butterflies as big as your face.
Paraty is probably the prettiest place I've ever been to. It's a tiny
colonial pirate town surrounded by jungly mountains on one side and beachy islands on the other.
Went to the jungly mountain bit today. It was a 4x4 Jeep trip. The "Jeep" was a bit less off-road than the micra (although we all know that the Micra was pretty hardcore) but that's beside the point. Spent the day being driven by some adrenaline junky kid and jumping in waterfalls. I'm a bit battered and bruised. Well un-healthandsafety.
which I mean, it's really humid and the insects are massive. Butterflies as big as your face.Paraty is probably the prettiest place I've ever been to. It's a tiny
colonial pirate town surrounded by jungly mountains on one side and beachy islands on the other.Went to the jungly mountain bit today. It was a 4x4 Jeep trip. The "Jeep" was a bit less off-road than the micra (although we all know that the Micra was pretty hardcore) but that's beside the point. Spent the day being driven by some adrenaline junky kid and jumping in waterfalls. I'm a bit battered and bruised. Well un-healthandsafety.
Saturday 14 February 2009
Goth on a Beach
I´d been having mosquito wars with the Argentian girl in my dorm. She always seemed to be able to put more bugspray on than me which meant that I got bitten. uncool. But then a big angry looking goth guy came into our room and i didn´t get bitten again. Do mosquitoes like goths? Are they tender, like veal?
I guess being bitten by mozzies helps to keep goths nice and miserable. It´s a match made in heaven.
I´ve been doing some surfing. I always assumed that surfers wore wetsuits because of the cold. It turns out it´s so they don´t have to spend half an hour cutting board wax out of their leg hairs with nail clippers. All part of the learning curve. Incidentally I seem to be better at surfing than I am at Spanish. I can only really say "It is not acceptable for me that way" - which is a phrase Í'm fairly certain I have never used.
Yesterday there were peas in my sandwich, which I found odd (they were unsugared since you ask, Mike).
BTW. If you were worried about Craig and Lauren, they got over the border in the end. Only took them four days and eight bus journeys. Hurrah.
I guess being bitten by mozzies helps to keep goths nice and miserable. It´s a match made in heaven.
I´ve been doing some surfing. I always assumed that surfers wore wetsuits because of the cold. It turns out it´s so they don´t have to spend half an hour cutting board wax out of their leg hairs with nail clippers. All part of the learning curve. Incidentally I seem to be better at surfing than I am at Spanish. I can only really say "It is not acceptable for me that way" - which is a phrase Í'm fairly certain I have never used.
Yesterday there were peas in my sandwich, which I found odd (they were unsugared since you ask, Mike).
BTW. If you were worried about Craig and Lauren, they got over the border in the end. Only took them four days and eight bus journeys. Hurrah.
Monday 9 February 2009
If at first you don´t succeed, Chui, Chuy again
I´m in Brazil. It took a while.
I left my little fishing village Friday evening expecting a 14 hour bus journey but not really any dramas. But there was a strike at the border. We - i was with Craig and Lauren who I met a few days back in Colonia - got to Chuy, the frontier town, at about 11 when it was dark, lawless and there wasn´t really anyone around to tell us what we needed to do. Ended up getting a hotel for the night and waiting til the morning. Pretty glad we did as it took about 4 hours to get all the bits we needed, had to walk back to the Uruguay border control to get an exit stamp and try every cash point in town to get enough money for the new bus tickets we needed. Ended up leaving Chuy at 10 that night. Hassle.
But more of a hassle for Craig and Lauren, we´d spent so much time faffing to get across the border that their Visa entry dates had expired, so they got turned away at the Brazil border at about midnight. Which is nice.
Chuy was a weird place. The Brazil / Uruguay border runs down the middle of the high street - the Brazil side is blockpaved and the Uruguay side is HRA, road fans - which means it´s not really in either country so there´s just a heap of duty free shops and people selling fake stuff. There didn´t seem to be a fat lot to do to pass the hours. We played a fair amount of cards.
Anyway, I´m in Florianopolis now and it´s all suitably lovely, sadly it´s not a town where everyone listens to kraftwerk - although I did hear some dirtily squelchy Brazillian hip-hop today. Technically I´m in Barra de Lagoa, which is on a lagoon on a sub-tropical island off Florianopolis. It´s a bit of a resort but I reckon I can cope with that. This lagoon beats the pants off of our Santa Cruz lagoon, Mike, I tell you.
The weather is fairly mediocre, which suits me down to the ground. 27 degrees and cloudy. Ginger weather. and not eight inches of snow. Hostel´s about two minutes from the beach and the beach is covered in sand crabs, which are well cute. They stare at you, then throw a bit of sand, then stare some more, then scuttle down a hole. Well scuttly.
Went to a beach party last night. How very decadent.
çççççççççççççççççç
Weirdest thing eaten - a mussel empañada which is kinda like a cornish pastie, but with mussels in.
Best name for a steak house - Jesus
Place on the keyboard where the brackets and question marks are - who knows
I left my little fishing village Friday evening expecting a 14 hour bus journey but not really any dramas. But there was a strike at the border. We - i was with Craig and Lauren who I met a few days back in Colonia - got to Chuy, the frontier town, at about 11 when it was dark, lawless and there wasn´t really anyone around to tell us what we needed to do. Ended up getting a hotel for the night and waiting til the morning. Pretty glad we did as it took about 4 hours to get all the bits we needed, had to walk back to the Uruguay border control to get an exit stamp and try every cash point in town to get enough money for the new bus tickets we needed. Ended up leaving Chuy at 10 that night. Hassle.
But more of a hassle for Craig and Lauren, we´d spent so much time faffing to get across the border that their Visa entry dates had expired, so they got turned away at the Brazil border at about midnight. Which is nice.
Chuy was a weird place. The Brazil / Uruguay border runs down the middle of the high street - the Brazil side is blockpaved and the Uruguay side is HRA, road fans - which means it´s not really in either country so there´s just a heap of duty free shops and people selling fake stuff. There didn´t seem to be a fat lot to do to pass the hours. We played a fair amount of cards.
Anyway, I´m in Florianopolis now and it´s all suitably lovely, sadly it´s not a town where everyone listens to kraftwerk - although I did hear some dirtily squelchy Brazillian hip-hop today. Technically I´m in Barra de Lagoa, which is on a lagoon on a sub-tropical island off Florianopolis. It´s a bit of a resort but I reckon I can cope with that. This lagoon beats the pants off of our Santa Cruz lagoon, Mike, I tell you.
The weather is fairly mediocre, which suits me down to the ground. 27 degrees and cloudy. Ginger weather. and not eight inches of snow. Hostel´s about two minutes from the beach and the beach is covered in sand crabs, which are well cute. They stare at you, then throw a bit of sand, then stare some more, then scuttle down a hole. Well scuttly.
Went to a beach party last night. How very decadent.
çççççççççççççççççç
Weirdest thing eaten - a mussel empañada which is kinda like a cornish pastie, but with mussels in.
Best name for a steak house - Jesus
Place on the keyboard where the brackets and question marks are - who knows
Thursday 5 February 2009
Timpani for the Devil
The cicadas are REALLY loud here. Especially in my room, which is a bit disconcerting. If I'm honest. There was one in the hostel chimney last night. Croaking like a croakey thing it was.
I'm in Punto Del Diablo - Devil Beach - and it's not all that like anywhere i've been before. I like the weirdness, although I'm well too ginger for beach resorts at this latitude. And it's full of hippies. Luckily I've bought veruca socks for the showers - don't want to
be catching hippy, now - euch!
Got here at sunset last night with just a printed map of where I was staying. Trying to find stuff after dark in a place with not really any streets and definitely no street lights was a bit taxing. Added to that the map was a bit wrong. Fortunately I'd learnt Spanish on the bus journey so I was able to ask someone "where's the Little Devil because I can't see the fishmonger" (with retrospect the bit about the fishmonger was unnecessary, but I wanted to pro0ve that I'd mastered the language). Either way, he knew what I meant, but didn't know where the hostel was. Which was understandable, because he could only see it from his porch. And lounge. The idiot. Or tease.
It's pretty hot. Think I got a little bit burnt today. Gonna have to bathe in Factor 40 tomorrow morning. Or wear a dressing gown.
Or both.
I'm in Punto Del Diablo - Devil Beach - and it's not all that like anywhere i've been before. I like the weirdness, although I'm well too ginger for beach resorts at this latitude. And it's full of hippies. Luckily I've bought veruca socks for the showers - don't want to
be catching hippy, now - euch!Got here at sunset last night with just a printed map of where I was staying. Trying to find stuff after dark in a place with not really any streets and definitely no street lights was a bit taxing. Added to that the map was a bit wrong. Fortunately I'd learnt Spanish on the bus journey so I was able to ask someone "where's the Little Devil because I can't see the fishmonger" (with retrospect the bit about the fishmonger was unnecessary, but I wanted to pro0ve that I'd mastered the language). Either way, he knew what I meant, but didn't know where the hostel was. Which was understandable, because he could only see it from his porch. And lounge. The idiot. Or tease.
It's pretty hot. Think I got a little bit burnt today. Gonna have to bathe in Factor 40 tomorrow morning. Or wear a dressing gown.
Or both.
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Headless chickens
I think I´ve spent too long in Montevideo. It´s probably the ugliest place I´ve been. And I´ve been to Luton. They just don´t seem to have any planning control which means that picturesque coves or historic monuments are overlooked by seventies pre-fab apartments: 26 storey versions of Boswells A Block. Which is pretty.
And there doesn´t seem to be a fat lot to do.
Nearly went for a swim yesterday. Normally I´m not too fussy about what I swim in, but there were just a few too many headless chickens on the beach for my liking. I´m such a pampered westerner. It was like the Rough Guide writers´ summer party had gone horribly wrong.
Still they have big steaks and big beers. It could be a bit of a culture shock when i find that most places don´t serve steaks by the kilo or beers by the litre.
_________________
Lately I´ve been puzzled by taps. Either I´ve forgotten how to use them, or the direction you have to turn them is a bit arbitrary down here.
And there doesn´t seem to be a fat lot to do.
Nearly went for a swim yesterday. Normally I´m not too fussy about what I swim in, but there were just a few too many headless chickens on the beach for my liking. I´m such a pampered westerner. It was like the Rough Guide writers´ summer party had gone horribly wrong.
Still they have big steaks and big beers. It could be a bit of a culture shock when i find that most places don´t serve steaks by the kilo or beers by the litre.
_________________
Lately I´ve been puzzled by taps. Either I´ve forgotten how to use them, or the direction you have to turn them is a bit arbitrary down here.
Monday 2 February 2009
Carnaval (in italics)
I´m in Montevideo and it´s Carnival Season. Ended up at a street parade yesterday, I think it was the inaugural parade of the Carnival Queen, although I´m not certain. I made it through about half. It was all colouful and that, but five hours of watching people walk past is way more than I could comprehend.
Curiously, before the parade they armed the kids in the street with shaving foam and polystyrene, which meant any dancers, drummers or crossdressers near the edge of the street got tarred and feathered. I´ve heard that the next parade is even crazier. Sadly I´ll miss it, but I´m expecting nail guns and stonings.
Curiously, before the parade they armed the kids in the street with shaving foam and polystyrene, which meant any dancers, drummers or crossdressers near the edge of the street got tarred and feathered. I´ve heard that the next parade is even crazier. Sadly I´ll miss it, but I´m expecting nail guns and stonings.
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