Adeus Brazil

March 4th, Rio de Janeiro Brazil
This morning we checked out of our hostel and shared a taxi with two Aussie girls who were also checking out and moving to a hotel in Copacabana. They were very nice and suggested we leave our big backpacks in their hotel until our flight that night. Such a relief!
We made our way over to the bottom of a mountain called Pao de Azucar or "Sugar Loaf" which has great aerial views of Rio. We wanted to see the Christ the Redeemer statue and thought about doing a helicopter tour. But we watched a couple from the road and realized that they don't go close to the statue at all, so we decided to head to the sight.
The statue is at the top of a mountain cliff, very high up but luckily they have transport right till the top. It was pretty crowded but definitely cool. You can see the figure looking over Rio from most areas downtown. You also have great views of Rio from here.
After that, we headed to the airport for our flight to Cartagena Colombia. This flight was shockingly expensive, the cost of flying from London! But there's no way we were going to take a 5 day long bus, so an 8 hour flight it was.
I definitely need to go back to Brazil, 5 days is practically nothing in such a huge country. I'm pleased to say that our stay was safe and we don't have any bad experiences to report considering how much we were scared by stories! I'll miss hearing Portuguese, but quite excited to hear the "best Spanish in South America" that's apparently spoken in Colombia.

Sugar Loaf in the distance

Surfin' in Rio

March 3rd, Rio de Janeiro Brazil

After the insane night at the Sambadrome, we woke up in the afternoon in time for our surfing lessons! We were excited but I was nervous just because the waves are so big here. I also asked for a wet suit because I thought the water was too cold when I dipped my feet in but actually it wasn't at all. The guys loaded up all the boards into their funky van and told us to walk up to the beach, the same beach we went to yesterday. I was hoping it was just to wait for them since I didn't think those waves were small at all, but no, we were going to learn there. There weren't any surfers in the water that day because the waves were "too small" apparently. 

Anyway, our instructions were exactly one minute long, just how to stand on the board and how to Eskimo roll when a wave is breaking on you. That's it, now run in. Getting through the first wave was pretty hard but after that it was much better. You use your arms a lot as your feet are on the board and have to paddle really hard and fast. As we got deep enough, the was a good wave coming that Bernie tried but fell off and was dragged almost all the way to the shore. I kept falling off the board just trying to do the jump-stand. Every time I caught a wave I'd either not stand in time, or not paddle hard enough so I'd miss it. It was very tiring. Then a couple of huge waves broke over us and I wasn't used to the size and weight of my board so my Eskimo rolls were a complete fail and I just kept drinking water and getting dragged by my board like a rag doll. By this point I realised I couldn't see Bernie nor our English speaking instructor which was worrying. Turns out Bernie got pretty wiped out by a couple of waves and went to the beach to rest. 

When the instructor came back, I tried to jump stand on my board many many times and ended up with bleeding knees and elbows because I kept falling but I finally managed to do it, though not on a wave. I tried a few more more waves for another 45 minutes but kept falling. It was very frustrating because it's so much harder than I expected and so so tiring as you have to keep paddling as the waves keep pushing you back and forth. Finally another few huge waves broke over us and I was so tired and contstantly had water dripping from my nose that I also decided to pack it up and rest with Bernie who didn't come back in, he was too knackered. 

The funny thing is that actually getting to the shore is super hard. The point where the waves break closest to the shore is where the strength is the most and getting caught in that break means spinning around like crazy in the water. So I understood now why the instructor escorted Bernie to the beach earlier. It took me a few minutes and then when I was standing at knee deep water, a wave knocked me down completely and back in I went. When I was finally out of the water, I collapsed in exhaustion. I was quite disappointed in my performance, I don't think I tried hard enough and the fear of falling off the board as the wave broke was too scary. Many times, even when I was riding it perfectly and poised for a great ride, I wouldn't stand up when I needed to. 

All in all it was an experience, I thought I'd be a natural surfer but boy was I wrong! We both also realised that when we get back to London, we need to go to the gym and work on our stamina and fitness. By the time we were back in the hostel, we were exhausted from paddling, going under even carrying the boards home on our heads for the one minute!

So surfing =1, Bernadine=0

Sambadrome

March 2nd, Rio de Janeiro Brazil

After 12 beautiful hours of sleep from our exhausting day yesterday, we woke up to a great breakfast of toasted ham and cheese sandwiches and fruits. I wish the hostels int he rest of South America had toasties, everyone would be so much happier. Since it's a rare day for us to be awake at a normal hour, we decided to use our time wisely and go to the beach. It's less that a minute's walk from the hostel and everyone goes to the beach in their swimsuits and no towel or slippers or anything, just their surfboards. Macumba beach is beautiful and most importantly not very crowded as it's quite a drive from central Rio, so it's mostly the locals hanging out here. It's sort of like a 'secret beach'. I think that Brazillians are at the beach whenever they have a free moment, I would love to live this life!

As we hit the sand, we realised that the waves here were huge. I mean so big that I was actually afraid to go into the water other than to dip my feet. This is very bad behaviour for a Goan, and that to me of all the people to be scared of the sea! Unthinkable! Bernie went in a bit more but the current was so strong that even when standing at knee level, a wave would completely overthrow you and the sand was very sinky. He came out pretty fast! We just sat around watching people and the many fishermen who were fishing from the beach with fishing rods. 

We got back home and decided to chill out a little before our hectic night at the Sambodromo which started at 9 pm. Once again we had to take a bus into town, and once again had to wait an entire hour at the bus stop. We finally reached Ipanema at around 8 pm, at this point the roads were so crowded that the bus had pretty much stopped moving and Ipanema is where the metro starts. We thought we'd have a quick bite and take the metro to reach the Sambadrome for 9 pm. We had tickets to sector 7 which is the best stand as it's opposite the judges, but there's no numbered seating so people go early to get the good seats. We knew that the show goes on from 9 pm to 6 am so we weren't too worried. 

After a quick meal and getting completely lost finding the metro, we finally made it to the station to see a massive crowd and long queues to buy metro tickets. We had no choice but to stand in the queue where we spoke to a São Paolo native who was really annoyed with the queue and 'inefficiency' and wondered what Brazil would be like for the World Cup. It's a fair thought, though Brazil definitely has the vibe and enthusiasm for the World Cup, I do actually wonder if they are prepared in terms of crowd management, traffic, crime, public transport etc.

Anyway after queuing and being held back in batches for each train, we were finally in and got off at Central station where we asked a nice volunteer for directions and he took us half way. Then again we got lost (no signage anywhere!) until we finally made it to the entrance of sector 7.

The Sambadrome is really interesting, it's actually a road with 6 bleacher stands on either side. This was built specifically for Carnival so I don't really know what else this structure could be used for. This is used for 4 days of Cranival. The first two days are cheaper and the parade consists of the samba schools that didn't qualify for the main two days. The next two days have the Top League or Special Group which consists of the best Samba schools and we went on this day. Each competing school is judged on costumes, theme, floats, lyrics, dancing, music etc. what I didn't know is that every school's entry consists of 6-8 floats and upto 4,000 people! That's bigger than the entire Goa carnival!

 It was absolutely packed with people waving flags and wearing hats and costumes and dancing in their seats. There were no seats left so we had to stand on the stairs. Suddenly there were a lot of fire works and the drums began and the floats started. Oh my gosh, the colours and the costumes and the actual floats! I've never seen anything like it. Majority of the people don't do the samba, they have huge coatumes so you can't really tell even if they are, but in front of each group they have the samba dancing girls in their magnificent costumes. It is a sight to see! Each school starts with a group of 5-8 dancers that set the mood and tone of the floats to come and since we were sitting right opposite the judges, they would stop and dance right there and these are the best dancers of each school. This is followed by the queen flag bearer in an amazing outfit along with a jester trying to make sure that all the attention is on the school flag. Then comes the first float followed by hundreds in costumes and so on. Each float took about 45 minutes from start to finish and then we had a break before the next school. 

Some of the floats and costumes we out of this world. There was a pirate themed float that actually had a cannon shoot a pirate out and he fell into a net. It was beyond amazing! They also had a lot of people selling drinks and food so it was very nice and easy. We stayed on till about 4 am watching, the only disappointing part being that it's more like a show that you watch as you can't partake more than dancing in your seat. Unfortunately we'd only taken my mobile for pictures and they aren't great so mental pictures will have to do. 

We finally got back in the metro where a drunk young guy and his girlfriend insisted on buying Bernie's hat and haggled over the price for ten minutes! And ended up returning it and asking for a refund 10 mins later. After the metro we decided to take a cab home the rest of the way, only reaching home once it was light. What an amazing once in a lifetime experience ticked off my bucket list!

Riiioooooo

March 1st, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We arrived at Rio's GIG airport at 3:30 am and decided to hang out at the airport till dawn because we'd been warned about all the crime in Brazil so we thought it would be better to head to our hotel in daylight. After talking about catching a bus and looking for the bus stop, we negotiated with a cab to take us to our hostel Rio Surf n Stay. It was a pretty long journey and we got lost a bit but finally made it to our hostel in a lovely area less than a minute from Macumba beach and 5 minutes from the famed Prainha beach which is a surfers paradise. The only issue is that it is pretty far from downtown Rio, an hour and a half by bus! But we couldn't do anything about the distance thanks to my booking snafu.

Since we couldn't check in till 2 pm, we left our bags and headed back into town. The bus ride was pretty awesome as we drove right alongside the beaches and they are gorgeous. At one point, a group of about 6 teenage boys entered the bus completely drunk holding bottles of vodka in their hands singing and shouting. It was 8:30 am! But it's Carnival (or Carnaval as it's spelt here) time so I think for these 5 days, the authorities turn a blind eye to most antics. The next bus we were on had a guy passed out with just shorts on and his legs hanging out the window. The bus conductor tried waking him up and then the bus driver actually had to pull over to help. They didn't end up waking him but they pulled his legs back into the bus! Poor guy must've not had a penny left on him. Crazy.

We collected our Sambadrome tickets which I booked online in advance and actually managed to book the right date! Then we decided to head to Copcacabana beach with our Acai frozen juice which is really popular here. Copacabana was packkkked and it was still before 12 pm. We walked along the beach admiring the view and the many hot bodies around us. The best thing about Rio is that every one walks around in their bikinis or tiny Speedos, but not only just on the beach, even in the city center, in supermarkets etc. While there are lots of hotties, there also are many not very fit people but they just don't care and are so confident and happy with themselves. Since it's Carnival, everyone was in 'costumes' which mostly consisted of tiny swimming trunks and a cape for the boys, or boys wearing dresses and wigs. And for the girls, tiny shorts and a bikini top with some sort of ears or hat headgear.

We ate lunch at a random buffet restaurant and then continued walking to Ipanema beach. By this time, the beach was so packed that the main roads next to the beach were shut down and people had spilled over on to the road which was also packed. Everyone was having a great time dancing and singing, it was pretty much a block party before the party. Unfortunately we don't have a single picture as everyone warned us about taking our phones and cameras out. Rio Carnival is the biggest Carnival in the world and they estimate about 2 million people per day on the streets!

Finally at around 5 pm we decided to head back to Recreio and waited for over an hour for our bus. We were so tired but there were so many entertaining mad people to watch that it was okay. The funniest thing about the people here is their reaction to Bernie - it's like they've never seen a Chinese guy before. They come up to him and say "nihao" or do the Gangam Style! Finally we got fed up of waiting for our bus so we just took the first one that showed up. It stopped at a massive shopping mall where we walked around a bit and finally took the second bus home. Back at the hostel, Bernie immediately fell asleep and me not much later. Day 1 in Rio during Carnival and we're both fast asleep by 8 pm!