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.