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.