hola!!
Wow, I havent written for ages, and am a little daunted at the catch up task ahead. But here we go...
So Rio. Claire and I stayed in a hostel in Ipanema beach (next to Copacabana, but much nicer). Rio is a really picturesque city - with mountains right down to the ocean, islands close to the beach, and the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the city. We spent most of our days at the beach, huddled under a beach umbrella, where we still managed to get hideously sunburnt (we were at the beach for about 5 hours that day though...). Ipanema is quite a rich area, filled with beautiful shops, restaurants and people, and quite safe for the 2 of us.
As is typical Brazilian style, the men here were always very forward in asking to be your "boyfriend for today". A more creative pick-up strategy from one guy was "give me your emm-essa-enna", my what? Turns out he wanted my msn to chat to me online, keeping up with the technological times and all that.
One really awesome night Claire and i had, we went to a live samba music venue in Copacabana called Bip Bip. It looked like a tiny cafe, with a diverse mix of people playing instuments and singing all sitting at the tables inside, and people there to listen to the music spilled out onto the street. We were the only gringas there, and glasses of vino tinto in hand, we really got into it. (I initially asked the owner if he had caprioskas, but he made some comment in Portuguese about this not being the Carrabean. Huh.) The people were so passionate about the music, and after a song, the singer would sit down, then instruments would be exchanged and a different person would stand up to sing. It was an awesome expreience. 2 Brazilian guys with incredibly limited English started talking to us; we actually chatted to them with broken Portuguese and English for about 2 hours, and they were teaching us how to samba. You just need to stress that you have a boyfriend, and if they still wanna chat to you, then great! Claire and I marvel at how you can have such language difficulties, but still manage to talk and be understood, and have a great time (body language and hand gestures is key).
We went to the Christ the Redeemer statue one of the days; it was a great view, but it was just so touristy it didnt do a great deal for us.
One night our entire hostel went out to a samba club in Lapa, which was so muh fun, really awesome group. It was bloody daunting though, after being asked to dance by a Brazilian guy (who all can dance), knowing that a) you dont know how to samba and b) you`re going to tread on their feet quite a number of times. They were all really nice though, and i always stressed that it was my first time samba-ing.
Then after our week in Ipanema, Viv and the other guys arrived, staying in a hostel in Santa Teresa (one of the suburbs of Rio). He arrived on Valentine`s Day! That night we went to another samba club, and I got to dance with Viv instead, which was much better (and we trod on each other`s toes equally...haha just kidding, we`re stella dancers together). Claire and i then spent the next 2 nights staying with all the guys, and we went to Maracana Stadium to watch a soccer match (oh my god, the fans are insane). Was really awesome.
From there, Claire, Viv and I travelled for the next two weeks on our own. We went to a place called Trindade, about 4 hours south west of Rio. It was this gorgeous, tiny beach-side town, and our hostel was in a rainforest, about 5 mins walk from the beach (a haven for mozzies though). You would barely pick that this place was a hostel, it was so beautiful. We spent 2 nights there, just going to the beach and relaxing around the hostel. And the other travellers staying there were really awesome - we hung out with them a fair bit.
Then onto Florianopolis, another beachside town, where we managed to score an apartment overlooking the beach! Again, spent our days relaxing at the beach, cooking awesome meals, and OH MY GOD enjoying ICE CREAM BY THE KILO. Yep, you get a bowl, choose the ice cream you want, add any kind of sprinkles and toppings you could possibly want (yes, chocolate ice magic and dulce de leche sauce), then you weigh it and pay accordingly. I think i might open one up in Sydney...
We also ran into some friends of Viv`s from sydney uni, so we spent a night drinking homemade caprihinhas (a really potent cocktail, made with a Brazilian alcohol called cachaca, made from sugarcane) and playing cards. Oh, and Florianopolis was home to this incredible doughnut thing from the bakery (imagine a jam doughnut without the overload of sugar sprinkles, and instead of jam, filled with dulce de leche). Oh, and another incredible thing in this town? The fruit and veggie stores did 1 kilo of any veggies for 90 cents. Yep, we ate a lot of veggies.
Florianopolis (like every Brazilian town) had lots of stray dogs, especially on the beaches. I do have a real love for dogs as you may know, so (whilst not patting them, because they were strays), i`d often say hello to various dogs in that voice that people only reserve for pets or children ("who`s a good boy?!" etc...). Anyway one night the 3 of us went down to the beach, and as we walked onto the sand this really cute stray dog came over to us, so i chatted to it (a very normal sentence to write). This dog then walked with us along the beach, when we sat down it sat on the sand next to our sarong. If anyone walked anywhere near us on the beach, it would go mental barking at them, and protecting us (not that anyone was a bother, but the dog just wanted to protect us!). Then after the beach we walked to go out for dinner, and the dog trotted along beside us and growled at anyone nearby, and wagged his tail at us. We went to a restaurant and the dog waited across the road. Then after dinner we went to the ice cream place, we sat outside so the dog could sit with us (he sat underneath our table). Then he walked with us back to our apartment, and we bode him farewell! Was so amazing, this poor little stray just befriended us because we were nice to him. I wish i`d gotten a photo.
After 3 nights in Florianopolis, Viv, Claire and I then headed to Uruguay... (I`ll write this section next).
Ciao!
Brooke
xx
