We arrived in the evening in Sao Paolo. But as we didn't want to stay there, we took a shuttle luxurious bus to get to the bus terminal of the city. The ride was 45min and incredible expensive for such a short ride. After arriving there we were confronted with a huge terminal with hundreds of platforms and thousands of people. It was 22.00 in the night but hot and busy like to a main rush hour. After a short orientation time we found the location of the ticket offices. We saw 3 different offers for the same nights departure and booked with the cheapest one. We had some time before our bus was to depart and used the time to get some food before the 8hrs ride to Rio. Luckily we were tired and slept most of the time.
We arrived in the morning hours and took the local bus to get to Copa Cabana. After choosing one of the stops we tried to find a hostel. We walked along many roads until we found a hostel in our price range. We were able to store our bags and go to the beach, as our room. As still occupied. It was a nice sunny morning and on the way to the beach we stopped at a small open corner bakery which sold fresh juices, coffee and some kind of pastries. We tried a little of everything and realized that Portuguese was so far of Spanish and we started with all our knowledge about the offers from zero again.
Our walk along the beach was very interesting and entertaining. A lot of people played football and this damn good. Most people just lay there and waited for a vendor to come by so that they could fill their beer glasses again. The waves were playground for a lot of people for a refreshing splash of the heat.
We enjoyed the atmosphere, the view to the sugar loaf and watched the people. The afternoon we went to the hostel and our room mate, an old Rio expert, gave us some tips and hints and also told us about Lapa's nightlife, which was supposed to be on it's peak on a Friday night. And as it was Friday night, we went out! On the way there we already got greeted on the street by ladies with no shirts on.i thought that was a promising start. The small streets were packed with people. Out of every house came some music. Vendors had grills with food on it and others had big styrofoam boxes filled with cold beverages for sale. Some even had a cocktail bar build p and we ordered 2 large caipirinia's. The mix was very good and a lot of alcohol came into the mix of limes and a lot of sugar. With the cup in the hand we proceeded through the lively streets, watched people dance samba on the streets and People pass by.
There is an "old town" part, which has small narrow streets and very old buildings, and a newer area with wide streets and more modern pubs and clubs. We cruised through both, but liked the old part a lot better.
I think it was 4am by the time we came back to the hostel. Next morning we decided to move to another hostel, as this one was about to raise the prices by 3 for the upcoming new year. We found after the advise of our room mate a cheap, shabby hostel in Gloria. The prices were even with a new years increase cheaper in the private room, then in the other hostel in a dorm room. So we moved!
Christmas we spent at the beach in Copa Cabana. If you wonder why you didn't get any presents, then I can tell you that Santa was in summer-holiday mood and spent his time with us.
On christmas night we went to church. Not really that we understand Portuguese, but we wanted to enjoy this experience. The mess was fulfilled by a lot of music. It was almost like a concert, with the priest as a star and the church as hardcore fans, chanting, waving their arms and so on. There was even an emotional presentation of a small half naked baby to announce the Jesus baby birth. It was a wonderful evening and memorable.
We had dinner in a typical Brazilian restaurant where you fill some side dishes on your plate and all 5 minutes a guy comes by with a huge stick in his hand with a different kind of meat on it. He cuts a piece of the stick and puts it on a plate for you. They have all different kind of meats and it's an endless flow of huge amounts of meat. I almost had a meat infection (naaa, just kidding). After our long abstinence of meat, good meat, of the last few months, we ate a lot and were in heaven!
Another night in Lapa brought me closer to "Flamingo", not the bird but the local football club. After long celebrations with some fans, one of them made a jersey change with me. He insisted! I have now a Flamingo shirt with the number 10 and he has a grey T-shirt of mine. I hope he didn't wake up next morning and regret his decision. I for my part am now a Flamingo fan! Later that night we made contact with another group of people. They all were strong believers in Socialism and we went to sing socialist songs together with a group of typical percussion instruments known here in Brazil. As you know, my Portuguese sucks, so I just hummed with the beats and rhythms. It was a very entertaining evening, I can tell you that.
The night busses in Rio are just like the once from Harry Potter. You enter them and they start exhilarating instantly. If you not manage to hold on a seat you will end up on the back-row in a blink of an eye. They drive with unbelievable speeds through the roads, sometimes only on a third of their wheels, this is at least how it feels. It definitely is an experience and probably better then some of the joyrides in some of the amusement parks.
As we decided to stay over new year in Rio, we started exploring the city step by step. Unfortunately our friends from Atlanta were not able to come and share their knowledge with us about their city, so we had to do it on ourselves. One day we went to the famous Impanema beach. A beautiful beach with a great scenery.
On the promenade people were riding their bikes, boarding or jogging along. A lot of well trained people... We also came to a lake from where you can see the Christ statue from far away.
Along the beach and all over Rio you can find outdoor gyms for everybody to use. A great way to keep a country fit. But as the foo (except of the meat) is not really good and definitely not healthy, I guess this is necessary. The best gym we saw was this one right at the beach. All others were modern and in bright colors. This however reminded me more of a prison gym! With a nice view...
This is the otherwise from Copa Cabana.
We walked for many hours through the city and had a look at different sights.
We experienced all different kind of areas and aspects of the city. There are many reputations about the city and I can certify that they are true. It's and dirty and dangerous city. Even during the day time in bright light, in the middle of a busy street you are not safe. The fact that in the night time in a party area you will feel some hands in your pockets on the search for your belongings is a given thing and when prepared for it (money hidden) it doesn't matter that much. A long story I could tell right here, but if you are interested, I'll tell you in person one day... Unfortunately during one incident I hurt my foot and it swell up and I was not able to work for 3 days. A short trip to a supermarket made it worst in an instance. So we rested in our small, hot, shabby little prison room. But good to know that there are very adventurous taxi drivers who like it like in action movies... A long story, as I said, which I need to tell in person.
As we wanted to see a little of Rio, we went to see the statue of "Christ the Redeemer". With a little shuttle we went up the windy road. A long queue and long waiting times were all inclusive. When we finally arrived on the top, we thought that we actually shortly saw the statue. It was a wonderful foggy day and even though we were at the foot of the statue, we most of the time didn't see it. Every little appearance was welcomed by the crowed with a loud sound of excitement.
It was a pricy, foggy experience with long waiting times. During a nice and sunny day there are beautiful views which might be worth the money. We could wait for new year to come so we could leave this place. We stayed in town to be able to see the big celebration at Copa Cabana beach together with 2.5mio other people. We prepared some caipi to take with us to the beach.
It was a rainy day and it stayed for most of the night drizzling down on us. We didn't take any pictures as we didn't want to take a camera with us. And it proofed to be right as our Swedish friends got their second camera stolen within one week just 15 min after we arrived at the beach. All the time you could feel hands grabbing into your pockets, searching for your belongings. As we didn't have anything, we didn't worry too much. The crowds of people was enormous. We were not able to walk. We got pushed everywhere and I was scared for my life at some stage. For a distance you would need 10min on a busy day, we needed 1hrs. We finally stopped in the middle of the beach with view on one of the 5 stages. It was not really possible to see and hear very good what was going on on the stage, however, the first band we saw was pretty good. Wen it finally was 12 a huge firework started. It was amazing and mirrored 4 times above the bay. It went on for 18min and one of a kind. A great experience for the firework, but the amount of people didn't make the rest of the evening very enjoyable. We had good company (Mikael and David), which made the fact that we couldn't refill our beverages any more, not so bad. Number one it was too far to any shop and as soon as all the walking vendors were sold out of their stock there was no chance for more, as I said it was impossible to get anywhere, including the toilets. A magic pancho did great job that night. We managed to get back to our hostel where we met David again, after we lost him in the crowds. We drank a beer as we were really thirsty and went to bed. A couple of hours later we finally were on the road out of Rio and were very excited about our next destination, the "Iguazu Falls". We arrived at Foz de Iguazu after a 26 hour bus ride!
It could have been a different experience, however the one we had was not what I expected and I was disappointed in a lot of ways about Rio and Brazil.
More pictures of Rio are here.
