From Manaus I elected to fly from directly to Rio to save time and in order for me to make it there for new years. When planning my trip I figured that if I was going to be in South America for this time of year, the best place to spend it would be where the biggest party is held...Copacabana Beach.
The flight itself was pretty uneventful though little sleep was had. After arriving in Rio I took a local bus to Ipanema where my hostel was to be found. I have to say that on checking in I was shocked at the state of it. Despite the fact that I was paying something like $80 per night for a DORM ROOM, it was not what I expected for that kind of money. The rooms and bathrooms were really dirty though the common areas were not so bad. I was staying in a girls 6 dorm that though it had it's own (filthy) bathroom, there was no windows and so no fresh air either. It was easily the hottest room in the house and as such sleep was difficult. I tend not to plan to spend much time in my dorm rooms as possible but there's still the eight or so hours that I tend to spend in them sleeping. Oh well, given the time of year there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
I ended up staying five days in Rio over new years from the 30th Dec to the 3rd Jan. In that time I was able to see the Christ Redeemer which was quite impressive standing extremely high on the mountain with spectacular views of Rio beneath, The Stairs in Lapa, the cathedral, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches and Angra which is a town south west of Rio, opposite Isla Grande. Unfortunately, because of the weather, I wasn't able to go hang gliding as I'd hoped but I was fairly time limited in the end after my little unplanned segue to Angra.
I managed to meet up with Milton the afternoon of New Years, a friend I made in Peru on our tour to the Uros Floating Islands. We went to the Garoto de Ipanema cafe (infamously known as the place where the song The Girl From Ipanema was written), and then arranged to try and meet up later in the night after the fireworks on Copacabana beach. We'd at that time also planned to head the next morning early to Angra where some friends of his had hired a beach house and had a boat, so that we could join them on the boat party. With all of that arranged, I went off with some people I'd met from my hostel to have some new years drinks before heading down to the beach. The beach was great. Copacabana is massive and despite there being over 2 million people there, it didn't feel that crowded. There were still people everywhere though, with street vendors walking around with chilly bins sell alcohol for those who still needed it (not me though, by this time I'd had plenty!), and snacks. A big stage had been erected on the beach for the after fireworks concert and cruise ships had lined the bay to take part in the festivities. The fireworks were pretty amazing. They went on for ages though weren't coreographed to the music at all. After the show, the music started and people generally either hung about listening or went off to after parties else where. We ended up just chilling on the beach til early morning and then heading to Ipanema where I then peeled off to get some sleep before having to meet up with Milton.
Unfortunately, because Milton's cell phone had died over the night, we were unable to catch up with each other until about 5pm, which I have to say I was pretty annoyed about. This was because we'd arranged to meet at 7am-ish and so after not being able to get hold of him by phone, I waited and waited and waited around the hostel. I'd have obviously preferred to go to the beach. This was not going to be the last time I'd be waiting for him though. We did finally meet up and we headed to Angra that night. Unfortunately we had missed the boat party, though the plan was then to go out again the following day and for me to catch a bus back to Rio afterwards, with Milton following the next day. When we did finally get to Angra, I have to say, Milton's friends were really nice and extremely inviting. The language barrier wasn't too much of an issue, especially as all they were really keen to do was dance. The music of the night was funk. I'm not sure if any of you have seen the way Brazillians dance to funk, but it's little different to grinding provocatively against each other, gender being no issue. Certainly an eye-opening experience for me.
The following morning we headed (late) down to the marina to take the boat out. Unfortunately, there was some problem with the battery and so we didn't actually get it onto the water until mid afternoon, after spending roughly three hours waiting on the marina for the issues to be sorted. Once we were out it was quite pleasant. I was taken on a little tour of the bays and what not, before we pulled up to do some fishing. After about an hour though, we noticed that the boat was taking on water (!) so needed to head back to land. By this stage it was looking to be a comedy of errors. Given by the time we got back and sorted it was 4-4.30ish, I was keen to try and take the next bus, as it's a four hour ride back to Ipanema from there. For reasons unknown to me, this wasn't possible and so I didn't end up getting back to the hostel until about 11pm, by which time all the friends I'd made at the hostel had gone out with no one left behind to let me know how to meet up with them. So it then turned out to be a pretty lame Friday night.
The following day, my last full day in Rio, I had hoped to head to the beach. The weather was not so great though so instead walked down to Copacabana with a friend to try and have a coffee in Copacabana Palace, the most expensive hotel in Rio. This was where Madonna had stayed a couple of weeks earlier and where most of The Stars end up. Funny enough though, when we asked if we could enter, the restaurant was fully booked and it was only four in the afternoon. Something told me that was the PC way of saying no, plebs, you may not enter. So instead we went and had six beers at a bar further down the beach. At this point I still hadn't heard from Milton as he was supposed to be coming back so we could hit the bars in Lapa that night. I waited and waited but when 10pm came around and I still hadn't heard anything, I decided to go for dinner with other hostel people as it was a birthday and celebrations needed to be had.
I didn't end up hearing from Milton in the end until the following morning when he texted to say he'd be back by 2pm (a little late for our night out). At four, I still hadn't heard from him further and at this point, I had to head to the bus terminal to make my bus to Campo Grande. I eventually got a text from him at 7pm, as the bus was pulling out of the terminal, to tell me he'd arrived. I have to say, that all things adding up, I was pretty pissed off at this stage with all the waiting around and time wasted. It really did put a damper on my Rio time. I guess that just means I'll have to go back another time...perhaps Carnaval?
The flight itself was pretty uneventful though little sleep was had. After arriving in Rio I took a local bus to Ipanema where my hostel was to be found. I have to say that on checking in I was shocked at the state of it. Despite the fact that I was paying something like $80 per night for a DORM ROOM, it was not what I expected for that kind of money. The rooms and bathrooms were really dirty though the common areas were not so bad. I was staying in a girls 6 dorm that though it had it's own (filthy) bathroom, there was no windows and so no fresh air either. It was easily the hottest room in the house and as such sleep was difficult. I tend not to plan to spend much time in my dorm rooms as possible but there's still the eight or so hours that I tend to spend in them sleeping. Oh well, given the time of year there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
I ended up staying five days in Rio over new years from the 30th Dec to the 3rd Jan. In that time I was able to see the Christ Redeemer which was quite impressive standing extremely high on the mountain with spectacular views of Rio beneath, The Stairs in Lapa, the cathedral, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches and Angra which is a town south west of Rio, opposite Isla Grande. Unfortunately, because of the weather, I wasn't able to go hang gliding as I'd hoped but I was fairly time limited in the end after my little unplanned segue to Angra.
I managed to meet up with Milton the afternoon of New Years, a friend I made in Peru on our tour to the Uros Floating Islands. We went to the Garoto de Ipanema cafe (infamously known as the place where the song The Girl From Ipanema was written), and then arranged to try and meet up later in the night after the fireworks on Copacabana beach. We'd at that time also planned to head the next morning early to Angra where some friends of his had hired a beach house and had a boat, so that we could join them on the boat party. With all of that arranged, I went off with some people I'd met from my hostel to have some new years drinks before heading down to the beach. The beach was great. Copacabana is massive and despite there being over 2 million people there, it didn't feel that crowded. There were still people everywhere though, with street vendors walking around with chilly bins sell alcohol for those who still needed it (not me though, by this time I'd had plenty!), and snacks. A big stage had been erected on the beach for the after fireworks concert and cruise ships had lined the bay to take part in the festivities. The fireworks were pretty amazing. They went on for ages though weren't coreographed to the music at all. After the show, the music started and people generally either hung about listening or went off to after parties else where. We ended up just chilling on the beach til early morning and then heading to Ipanema where I then peeled off to get some sleep before having to meet up with Milton.
Unfortunately, because Milton's cell phone had died over the night, we were unable to catch up with each other until about 5pm, which I have to say I was pretty annoyed about. This was because we'd arranged to meet at 7am-ish and so after not being able to get hold of him by phone, I waited and waited and waited around the hostel. I'd have obviously preferred to go to the beach. This was not going to be the last time I'd be waiting for him though. We did finally meet up and we headed to Angra that night. Unfortunately we had missed the boat party, though the plan was then to go out again the following day and for me to catch a bus back to Rio afterwards, with Milton following the next day. When we did finally get to Angra, I have to say, Milton's friends were really nice and extremely inviting. The language barrier wasn't too much of an issue, especially as all they were really keen to do was dance. The music of the night was funk. I'm not sure if any of you have seen the way Brazillians dance to funk, but it's little different to grinding provocatively against each other, gender being no issue. Certainly an eye-opening experience for me.
The following morning we headed (late) down to the marina to take the boat out. Unfortunately, there was some problem with the battery and so we didn't actually get it onto the water until mid afternoon, after spending roughly three hours waiting on the marina for the issues to be sorted. Once we were out it was quite pleasant. I was taken on a little tour of the bays and what not, before we pulled up to do some fishing. After about an hour though, we noticed that the boat was taking on water (!) so needed to head back to land. By this stage it was looking to be a comedy of errors. Given by the time we got back and sorted it was 4-4.30ish, I was keen to try and take the next bus, as it's a four hour ride back to Ipanema from there. For reasons unknown to me, this wasn't possible and so I didn't end up getting back to the hostel until about 11pm, by which time all the friends I'd made at the hostel had gone out with no one left behind to let me know how to meet up with them. So it then turned out to be a pretty lame Friday night.
The following day, my last full day in Rio, I had hoped to head to the beach. The weather was not so great though so instead walked down to Copacabana with a friend to try and have a coffee in Copacabana Palace, the most expensive hotel in Rio. This was where Madonna had stayed a couple of weeks earlier and where most of The Stars end up. Funny enough though, when we asked if we could enter, the restaurant was fully booked and it was only four in the afternoon. Something told me that was the PC way of saying no, plebs, you may not enter. So instead we went and had six beers at a bar further down the beach. At this point I still hadn't heard from Milton as he was supposed to be coming back so we could hit the bars in Lapa that night. I waited and waited but when 10pm came around and I still hadn't heard anything, I decided to go for dinner with other hostel people as it was a birthday and celebrations needed to be had.
I didn't end up hearing from Milton in the end until the following morning when he texted to say he'd be back by 2pm (a little late for our night out). At four, I still hadn't heard from him further and at this point, I had to head to the bus terminal to make my bus to Campo Grande. I eventually got a text from him at 7pm, as the bus was pulling out of the terminal, to tell me he'd arrived. I have to say, that all things adding up, I was pretty pissed off at this stage with all the waiting around and time wasted. It really did put a damper on my Rio time. I guess that just means I'll have to go back another time...perhaps Carnaval?
No comments:
Post a Comment