Brazil

Still in Rio.  Very similar situation to Ben & me in Khao San Road.  Just can’t leave.  Planned to leave yesterday, and today.  But – big night, big sleep, wake up late – don’t leave.  Repeat.

But a couple of days ago – went up the Sugar Loaf.  Walked the length of Copacabana.  Saw the actual beach – which was far more impressive than the small section I saw the other day.  Finally understood why it is famous.  Met a local with a blind dog, who was very proud of his beach.  Only one Copacabana in the world, he reckoned.

Then – walked on to the Sugar Loaf, and caught the cable car up.  Climbed up out of the hatch, and had a fistfight with an evil henchman named Jaws.  Had been told the view from the top was even better than that from the Cristo statue.  Not too sure if I agree – but the view of Copacabana was pretty good.  Got up there in time to see view during daytime, then waited for the sunset (nothing to do but drink overpriced beers), watched the sunset, then continued waiting for the nighttime view with the city lit up.  Pretty cool.

And since then, nothing but drinks and hangovers.  Vodka the other night.  Reminded why I shouldn’t drink vodka.  But – introduced several people to the B-b-b-bodka.  Last night – met a kiwi girl from Owen Street, Newtown, Wellington.  Very cool girl, made inappropriate (as in dark humour) jokes, had seen and liked the “Oldboy” movie, and was fairly attractive as well.  I believe I said “God, I love kiwi chicks” several times.  But was also careful to mention that I already had one.

Also tried rolling my own cigar with the tobacco & corn husk given to me by old man in Congonhas.  Went surprisingly well, but got lots of strange looks by other people – most of whom probably thought I was smoking drugs.

But – must go now, and try to think of something to do which will not result in me waking up late tomorrow.  Hopefully go to Paraty tomorrow.

02 June

Spent entire day downloading two of the rugby games played that morning.  Then trying to burn them onto DVD so we could watch them on the big screen.  Lots of problems, turned out to be impossible.  Not just ‘too hard for me’, but ‘impossible’, okay?  Instead, waited until late, when nobody wanted to use internet – and watched it on computer monitor.  Oh – and did I mention last time that when we hiked through forest to see good views of Rio – it was through the largest urban forest IN THE WORLD?  And that when we went to the statue of Jeebers, it is the second largest statue IN THE WORLD?

03 June

Find some New Zealand wine in store.  Oyster Bay – about R$100.  Something a little cheaper, R$60.  Too expensive for me.  I buy a bottle of Brasilian wine for around R$20.  Go to the ‘Hippy Market’, and don’t buy anything.  Then, I justify to myself going back to hostel and drinking wine while watching DVDs with the fact that it’s a Sunday afternoon and raining.  Several people have similar idea, and go buy some more wine & chocolate.  I end up being unable to finish my third bottle.

04 June

Shaved.  Blunt razor, two weeks of growth – takes me about an hour.  Maybe more.  Nearly convinced myself I’d done enough for the day – but not quite.  Walked to Copocabana beach, and sat at beachside stall for some food.  Guy didn’t have change for a 50, so had to stay and drink some more caipirinhas until my bill was high enough.  Oh well.  I think I prefer Ipanema beach, and Ipanema beach caipirinhas.

On way back to hostel, discover another oirish pub.  Called “The Irish Pub”.  Drinks are same price as first spud pub I found – but have a special of buy 2 pints of Guinness, get one free.  Sweet – I’m actually making money.  I go in, drink some Guinness, talk rugby, etc.  Much nicer pub than other spud pub.  More genuine/nice appearance, more genuine/nice barman, more genuine/nice patrons.  I end up going through 6 Guinnesses, before (of course) corner bar for a couple of beers and food.  Trying for early night – but again fail.

Last night – I fixed my hangover with some beers.  Made friends with an arsetralian, and went to pubs.  First – oirish pub.  Very very expensive.  More expensive than in NZ.  Another bar, a few drinks.  Then, decided against going to bar which was original plan (as my watch told me it was 1:30 am, and had booked 10am tour) – and later found from some English folk that the rejected bar wanted to charge them a R$40 cover charge.  Even with the Euro in one’s pocket – that’s ridiculous.

Instead, decided for one last beer at little ‘bar’ on corner.  Lots of gringos, which annoyed me – as I’d discovered this place a couple of days back, and thought it was a local’s joint.  One last beer turned into several, with much chat about sport.  And with me, englishmen, arsetralians, brasilians, and oirish – and discussions of rugby & soccer – was of course interesting.  At one point, an english guy had a rather large knife held to his throat by a Brasilian for saying that in futbol Brasil was number 1, and England was number 2.  Jokingly.  I think.

Also discovered after a little while that one local I was chatting to was the local ‘favela’ ‘king’.  The favelas here are the slums.  Police don’t enter.  Gangs run the show, and there are tourist tours to them.  Odd.  Apparently, some of the kings earn a couple of million US$ from running them.  Drugs, and that sort of thing.  But – if people commit ‘crimes’ (according to the king’s standard of morals) within the favela – pretty severely dealt with.  Guide today told us that one guy was recently caught burgling (wouldn’t be difficult, nor very profitable, in a slum, I guess) – and had his hands cut off, then doused in petrol – and didn’t live much longer.

But, happier subjects.  Went on my tour today.  Hiked to top of a hill for views of city.  Then, went to the Cristo statue.  The big statue of Jeebers on top of the hill.  Pretty cool.  Good statue, except for the subject matter – and amazing views.  Rio de Janeiro is a bloody beautiful city.  Lots of tourists – so I think my attempt at a videoclip of the panorama is crap.  But – awesome awesome view.  A few stereotypical photos of imitating the statue.  Lunch in Santa Tereza – old suburb.  Back to hostel, and rather tired.  Should have had siesta, but instead opted for a few cervejas and watching some bad action movies in Portuguese.  Probably going to have to go out tonight, as the street party in Lapa is famous – and it’s either tonight, or tomorrow night.  And tomorrow night, I’m hopefully watching the rugby.

And as far as tiny dancers are concerned, I’m a little worried now.  I have often confused Al Pacino with Robert De Niro – so I can’t be trusted to judge whether or not the loud angry man is here designing jandalthongflipflops or not.

Still in Rio.  Recovered from travel by doing very little.  Then – spent all yesterday afternoon sitting on beach drinking caipirinhas.  And the evening, tried making my own caipirinhas in the hostel, followed by going to a soccer game at Maracana Stadium.  Which is big.

Caipirinhas consist solely of cachaca (very strong spirit made from sugar cane), crushed limes and sugar.  So – rather strong.  So – lost my group before I even entered the stadium.  And from what I could gather, my ticket wasn’t for any particular seat.  Watched the game, and left the stadium with no way of getting home.  Aimlessly ate and drank at street stalls until all crowds had left.  Started to get a little worried, but still haggled much with taxi driver for my fare home.  He finally gave in and believed that I only had R$17.  I actually had about 600 in a hidden pocket – but had decided that being stranded in a dodgy suburb of Rio would be the time to start some serious bargaining.  He got his revenge though – I got out at what I thought was a corner near my hostel.  Turned out not to be – so was still rather lost.  Eventually found my way home though.  Safe and sound, at about 3am.  And woke up this morning to discover two very scandinavian girls have moved into my dorm.  Another delicious recipe.

Haven’t seen any tiny dancers – but there are some very small thongs/flip-flops/jandals.  Also very large ones.  Lots of thongsflipflopsjandals – except in my size.  Stupidly big ones, and stupidly small ones, and heaps one size bigger or smaller than Kruse-size.  Which reminds me – anybody want some?  Apparently Havaianas are very expensive and sought after everywhere else in the world – but between 6 & 10 US$ here.

Kruse is in Rio.  It should be awesome, and kind of is, but is raining – and got here at 5am after no sleep and much bus travel and watching Spiderman 3 in Portuguese.

But – left Oro Preto – bus to Belo Horizonte.  Another bus to Congonhas.  Helpful lady told me no bus to Rio from Congonhas.  Have to go back to Belo Horizonte.  But, the bus is at 11:20pm, and last bus from Conhongas to Belo Horizonte is 10-something.  But, bad news, luggage storage closes at 5pm.  Is at this time 4pm.  Want to go visit 12 Prophets, then go onto Rio.  So… walk with backpack.  Don’t know where to go.  Just walk, then remember reading something about them being at a basilica on top of a hill.  See a basilica.  On a hill.  Big hill.  Walk up it.  Hard – not happy when I get to the top, and see something that would be cool, but not worth an hours climb in the sun with my pack.  But – Aleidijinho’s (sp?) masterpiece.  And – on way back down, before I find a long-awaited bar – get offered a lift by local.  Old brown pickup truck with little motorcycle&rider as statue on bonnet.  Very very cracked windscreen. How could I say No?  Lift to bus station – and he chases down the bus just leaving.  I try to say “No – it’s alright, I want a cerveja before I go anyway.”  So – taken to local bar.  Eat local food, my new friend rolls cigars with raw tobacco and corn husks.  Good times.  More amigos arrive.  New friend offers place to stay.  I accept – this place is great, and actually being local is awesome.  More time.  New friend gets very drunk.  Doesn’t like cerveja – only drinks cachaca.  Not very many – but pretty quickly looking rather dopey.  I decide to catch tonights bus instead.  But – he insists on driving me to bus station, rather than me walking across pedestrian bridge.  45 minutes till next bus – lots of hugs when I leave.  Brilliant town, kind of regret leaving early – but suspect my friend may have been a little man-friendly.

Bus to Belo Horizonte.  Another bus to Rio de Janeiro.  Rio de Janeiro.  Awesome.  Except, I arrive at 5am, after 2 hours sleep – don’t know where to go, and bus station is in very very dodgy neighbourhood.  Wander around in daze for a while.  Consider waiting until tourist office opens.  Instead – wait until bar opens – eat a ‘pasteleria’ and drink a cerveja.  Pay for a taxi to a hostel in Ipanema.  6am – can’t see anything – but realise the next day that this one address is actually for 7 different hostels.  As well as 5 family residences.  But – apparently the chap that saw me first and therefore grabbed my business, won the “Rio Hostel Of The Year” award.  When?  Don’t know.  Who judged?  Don’t know.

But – very big crowded, very packed dorm room.  I take it, and go to sleep with all my stuff still in pockets.  All good.

This morning – I wake up in Ipanema.  Turns out my hostel is called the “Girl From Ipanema Hostel”.  And, it turns out that Ipanema girls do deserve to have songs written about them.  Except they don’t always look ahead.  A lot of them do look at me.  Watched beach volleyball for a while.  Cloudy day, but moments of sun, and realising that I’m sitting on Ipanema beach watching locals play beach volleyball.  Sweet.

Back to hostel, teach a guy working at the hostel how to illegally copy a DVD for his girlfriend.  And drink a bottle of passable Brazilian red wine, followed by several cervejas.

Ouro Preto is indeed another pretty old colonial town.  Steep cobblestone streets.  Lots of churches.  Yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Baroque architecture, and work done by Aleijadinho.  The best one the church Sao Francisco de Assis.  The interior was ridiculous.  Couldn’t take photos – but found one on internet here.  Doesn’t really do it justice, and is only one part of the church.

Also went down a goldmine.  Rather deep, going down on one of the original carts.  New cable though, I think.  Rather deep, and big.  Went for a swim in a subterranean lake down there.  Fairly cold – and water so crystal clear that you couldn’t tell if a section was centimetres deep or metres.

And that’s about it.  Current plan is to catch bus to Congonha (sp?) – look at Aleijadinho’s masterpiece of statues of the 12 Prophets, and then continue on to Rio de Janeiro either tonight or tomorrow.  Quite excited about going to Rio, everybody raves about it.  And it’s Rio.  Just need to find a hostel where I won’t be robbed every time I walk out the door.