Buzios

Hello all, writing to you from Rio again - just stopped over here for a night before we make the overnight bus journey tonight to Curitiba.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was a rainy day in paradise, so Franco took us on a short tour of the penninsula and its many many bays. We then went to the supermarket to purchase very very cheap Cachaca (Brazillian cane rum stuff) and limes. With nothing else to do due to the weather, Franco gave us a lesson in Caipirinha making, and thereby gave us something to do the whole day. After excessive Cachaca intake, we took a walk into town and sat on the pier, from where we spotted some turtles and two amoungst us (fausto and nadia) immediately decided that the person who most resembles a turtle is Ryan Smit. Congratulations Ryan.

Wednesday:

More kak weather today. Boo hoo hoo. Again we solved our troubles with more Caipirinha`s. That evening we went to Patio Havana, a cuban bar/restaurant in town where we ate great Pizzas and listened to a Samba/Jazz/BossaNova three piece band. The drummer bore a sharp resemblance to a Beaver. We sat listening to the BossaNova Beaver for quite some time, before heading home.

Thursday:

Good weather today! Got up earlyish and went to a beach called Jao Fernandinho - a tiny bay with tranquil clear water. Fonz and Esteban rented a two man kayak for an hour and proceeded to conquer the waters of Buzios.

After setting our sights on a nearby (nature conservationish) island, we (very bravely) attempted to land our yellow boat on the urchin infested rocks of ye ol isle. This did not go well. After much shouting and falling about and cutting our feet on the barnacles, we conquered said Ilse and proclaimed it as new territory for the Republic of South Africa (we did this by urinating on it). Henceforth, the Ilse has been known by all as the Ilha do Ventersdorp.

That evening we went to a Creperie (Crapery) called Chez Michou and ate crepes (craps). The crepe jokes (crap jokes) were made as easily as the crepes (craps) were by the crepemakers (crappers). These jokes still continue today. After eating craps all night and washing our craps down with Skols, we went home. We soon became regulars at Chez where we ate craps on a daily basis.

Friday:

The good weather continued today so we hit the local beach (there are 23 beaches in Buzios and Ferradura, one of the bigger beaches, was in front of our house). We took a large inflatable boat along and since the bay of Ferradura is so bay-like that the two ends almost touch (like the Knysna heads) the water is completely calm and bright blue - like a huuuuuuge swimming pool. We stayed on the beach the whole day, tanning, floating aimlessly on the boat and chilling out (Who says travelling is all just fun hey?). That night we were feeling up for a large night so we tried a Mexican club called Zapata, but the big douchebag bouncer was an idiot with no business sense and was turning everyone away because he was in a bad mood and thus the club was empty. (It seems that bouncers are universally stupid). So we landed up at good ol´Chez Michou - they dont just make craps there, its also a happenin bar where you can dance around with your crap in your hand. Nadia is getting very tired of our Crepe jokes so that will be the last one :)

Saturday:

Great weather again so we went to another of the many beaches - Joao Fernandes - another great bay-like beach with amazing gold-green water. We sat on a deck above the beach and did some intense people watching. We then hired some snorkelling gear and took the underwater camera case with us (thanks Dan). Fantastic.


That evening we bought our bus tickets back to Rio and landed up, once again, eating freshly made craps at Chez Michou.

Sunday:

Packed our bags and got on the bus to Rio. After much waiting around near the metro station trying to get hold of Gustavo on a payphone (Gustavo is a born and bred Carioca who kindly agreed to put us up for the night). The Gusmeister took us to an all-you-can-eat place in Copa where they had every kind of food you can imagine. After gourging ourselves on Sushi, we tried some rather unusual foods like frog´s legs, Rabbit (Bunny!) and chicken hearts (naat so nice). We walked around Rio for a bit and came home. Gustavo is a photographer (and a mechanical engineer on the side) and so he insisted on taking some photos of us. He also let us in on his incredible spading technique of having a professional looking photography studio in his living room. Genius. Fausto priced some photography equipment this morning.

Monday (today):

Gustavo`s brother (who is a tourguide who had lived in Rio all his life) picked us up and took us up Corcovado to see this giant statue of Bob, a guy who looks a lot like Jesus. We then took a drive through Lapa and visited an incredible tiled staircase which the artist (who we found working on the staircase) has been continually crafting for the last 18 years. He began trying to sell his paintings in Lapa 20 years ago but was unsuccesful because it was such a scummy area. So he began to clean it up and make it look better by tiling all 215 stairs and the surrounding walls. He is still working on this task and continually changes and updates the tiles. He asks tourists to send him tiles from their home countries and now 115 countries are represented somehow on his staircase (which is actually still public property so he doesnt reap the benefits of his work). We were all in awe of his giant staircase and his impressively masculine moustache. Fausto and Esteban are slowly putting together a music video of us hiphopping around the world... Snoopy Dog (who copied us and also flimed his music video here) had better watch out befo ma boys put a cap in his ayes.

Thats all for now you thirsty little blog readers. We´re catching an overnight bus at 9pm tonight and heading for Curitiba in the South, en route to Foz do Iguazu and then Argentina.

Yakshemash!

Los Gringos

Photo links: http://picasaweb.google.com/steveo.zogg/RioForTheSecondTime

http://picasaweb.google.com/steveo.zogg/Buzios

Updated link to Rio pics

Hey guys, just a quick one minute blog.

In Buzios, all is great. Will post pics and blog in a few days. Nice weather today we cooked fish and conquered a new territory for RSA - Ihla do Ventersdorp

K bye

Rio de Janeiro Part Deux

Greetings!

Well you certainly are a demanding bunch! You guys can´t get enough of our news can you? Joburg is boring then yes? Ahhhh. Writing to you from Buzios, in an internet cafe on Ruas de las Pedras (street of stones), but what follows is an account of the last few days in Rio de Janiero.

Saturday:
After leaving the internet cafe (from where we wrote you that last fantastic blog entry) we walked along Avenue Atlantico in Copacabana to Ipanema beach (we did not find The Girl From Ipanema though unfortunately although she`s probably getting on a bit). We soon discovered that through Fausto`s sunglasses, the world was transported back to the 70´s, and thus some of our pictures may contain a groovy feel.







We climbed a fine rock from which the view of Ipanema and the Two Brothers (the mountains) was fantastico. After some hard work (looking at aforementioned view) we were in need of some alcoholic goods. But alas! We sat atop the aforementioned fine rock and the beer sat across the bay guarded by some athletic Brazillians. At this point the bravest man amongst us, el Esteban (and by far the handsomest) gallantly volunteered to swim across the shark infested bay and procure three beers. Aside from the giant man eating sharks, the other problem was the badly made Brazillian money getting wet and said athletic men not accepting wet money. Thus, we sneakily protected the money by placing it inside a (not very waterproof at all) Versace Blue Jeans Mini Fragrance Case. After swimming for hours (minutes) Esteban emerged atop the fine rock with 4 (four!) Skols for the thirsty Gringos to consume. Henceforth, Esteban has been known as `Steve, the Procurer of Fine Alcoholic Goods`.





After drinking fine (naat so fine) beer and watching a fantastic sunset over Ipanema, we made our way home because we felt peckish (and so did the chicken we priced earlier). On the way we discovered why all Brazillian men are both muscular and tanned - they combine their tanning with their gymming by ingeniously building outdoor gyms on the beach - Boet! After a great cheap meal of chicken y potatch, we chilled out at the hostel and conversed with the various Swedes while drinking more Skol and chewing Coca leaves (which belonged to one of the Swedes).


Sunday:


Sunday was a day dominated by football. With the 2 English Premier league games on in the morning and the Rio derby at Maracana at night, only Cristo himself could have stopped us from watching some footie. He didn´t. After two seriously disappointing results (man u winning and arsenal losing, much to the GringowithnofootballtasteFausto´s delight) we went for a swim on copa-copacabana beach and were serious contenders for the title of Kings (and Queen) of the Beach after a fine display of excellent bodysurfing and tanning skills. The Hostel was organising a tour to go to Maracana (the largest football stadium in the world) for 70 Reales, but the Gringos were having none of that and went on their own for a total of 20 Reales: great success! The Swedes were visably upset after hearing about how they got ripped off. Ha, take that Sverige! Although it was quite a crazy experience buying our tickets (fanatics pushing in to queues that only existed in theory and policemen pushing them out again), we found some seats in the 125 000 seater stadium. The atmosphere in the stadium was indescribable, we`re trying to post a video, so for now just enjoy the photos.

Monday:

By Monday we were the veterans of Rio Backpackers, since the shelf life of a budget-traveller in a hostel is only a few days, and we (and our pockets) felt it was time to move on. We packed up our stuff and checked out at midday. We then boarded a bus headed to Christo (huuuuge rio statue of jesus), but on the way it began to rain (correctly predicted by Davethebastardknowitall) and the fog around us suggested we would not see much from the top of Corcovado, so we relucantly got off the bus and headed home. On the way, Sod`s law kicked in just in time and the sun came out. We made the most of the day by sitting at a seaside bar in copa drinking Caipirinhas in the sun and getting sunburnt and harassed by people from the Favelas. Fausto`s cousin, Franco, picked us up from the local supermarket **, and after crossing the biggest bridge in the world we were soon on our way out of Rio en route to Buizios, two hours north.



Other Travellers:


Oddly enough, we´ve gotten along with most of the people we`ve met in the hostels so far. Brits, Swedes, Aussies, Finns, Yanks, Canadian, Germans, Israelis: all ok; Dave the South African: naat so much (see asian in orange). His constant talk of his camera and its acoutrements, his self-proclaimed knowledge of the marijuana prices in Vancouver as of three days ago (he`s never been there), and his incessantly butting into conversations to make every aware that he was in fact 24 (older than we were and far far superior) led to our distaste for his flaghship nerdiness. Hi Dave. (facebook sucks!)

That`s all for now - we hope that meaty blog wet your insatiable appetites for news. Will post another one about Buzios when we leave this paradise :)

For more photos of our awesome journey, click http://picasaweb.google.com.br/steveo.zogg/RioDeJaneiro

K BYe!

Rio de Janeiro: first leg

This place is crazy!

We´re currently sitting in an internet cafe in Copacabana and the time is ticking down so what follows will be a very short account of the first few days in Rio. Yes please.

After the 7 hour bus ride to Rio we shared a taxi with Isabella, a elderly woman with a slightly scrunched up face who sat next to Fausto on the bus, took an immediate liking to him and insisted on calling him ´Faust!´ like they were old friends. Isabella says hi by the way. Just kidding. After mothering Fausto for the entire bus ride she gave all of us a kiss on the cheek as we parted ways on the main street (Atlantico) of Copácobana. We miss her dearly.

After another hectic search for a place to stay, we climbed a huge hill about 4 blocks back from copacabana beach and found Rio Backpackers, a smallish hostel with a friendly vibe - full of other young travellers of varying nationalities. We were welcomed with Caipirinia´s from Dean the barman (a lad from Manchester who had somehow found his way into the position of barman simply by staying at the hostel for too long and had developed the inability to leave Rio). We met a couple of Frankfurters (Germans, not sausages), Felix und Linda, who we took a liking too immediatly. But we have discovered that with people coming and going, one cant get attached to the frankfurters one meets, can one? Oh felix...

We spent a sunburnt day on Copacabana beach where we ate (2) (tiny) PRAWNS (each) for lunch and watched the Cariocas (Rio-folk) enjoying the sun and showing far too much skin for their own good. We have, sadly, discovered that, contrary to popular belief, not all Brazilians look like Alesandra Ambrosia - some of them simply should not be allowed to wear g-strings.

In celebration of good friday, there was a huuuuge street samba party in Lapa, in central Rio. Absolute madness ensued and soon the three Gringos were the undisputed kings of Samba. Not really, but we gave it a go, shirtless and all. The experience of buying beer from an 8-year-old street vendor is one we wont soon forget, althought I must say he was more efficient and friendlier than most Joburg barmen.

Tomorrow we go to Maracana - a massive football stadium to watch a Rio derby of Flamengo playing Vasco de Gama (not the portugese explorer - a local football team).

Alright time is up. Pics from Sao Paulo are up so check em! (http://picasaweb.google.com.br/steveo.zogg/Saopaulopicsfromthefirsttwodaysoftheadventure)

Peace. Los Gringos

Sao Paulo

Hoy!

After a long and tragically boring transatlantic flight, the three Saffers arrived in a hot and humid Sao Paulo. It was clear from the start that communication was going to be an issue, since, while our Spanish is not bad, it turns out that Portugese sounds more like a Ukranian talking dirty than Spanish. After much miscommunication and wandering about, we got on a bus to take us to the center of the city.

By the time we got into the center it was evening already and we were anxious to find a place to stay for the night. The anxiety wasn´t helped by the fact that the bus had dropped us in the middle of a city whose population is 18 million - and all of them seemed to have converged on the one street and decided to shout at each other in Ukranian. Nadia, Fonz and I were blending in quite well though and didnt really look like tourists, with our brightly coloured backpacks which were bigger than us, our panic-striken faces and our clearly marked guidebook open on a map of Central Sao Paulo.

After a bit of a look, we found the Sao Paulo Hostel near Praca de Republica, and were relieved to check into a room with a double bed and a single bed, a window, en suite bathroom, and a bar fridge which we filled with the small bottles of gin and vodka we had recently borrowed from South African Airways. We then relaxed considerably and went in search of food. We found a place called Churrascaria where we drank quarts of Skol beer and ate far too much. Saw some facinating cultural centers, including the charming `Butt Sellers´. After that the goings on of the day had taken its toll and we got an early night.

Today we explored Central Sao Paulo - we walked a huge loop around starting from our hostel in Downtown Republica and ending in Central Se, and took many pictures of the city. This place is bigger than you could possibly imagine! We went up to a terrace on the top of the Edificio Italia (a rather large building) from where you can see the entire city. The pictures do it more justice than my words could, but they still do not give you a sense of just how big it is. 30 story buildings stretching to the horizon on every side of you. Its massive.

However, after you get over the Massiveness (it takes a couple beers), there aint that much else to keep you here. Accordingly, we are packin up for Rio tomorrow morning and shippin out.

Los Gringos vs. That Huge Statue of Jesus, coming soon... Pics of Sao Paulo will be up ASAP

Obrigado,

Steve

Welcome

Hello all,

I've created this little bloggy as a way of keeping in the loop those who wish to remain abreast (not that any of you are already breasts) of our progress through the craziness.

Currently its T minus 8 days until we launch into the land of the moustache. We will post as often as our circumstances allow. Keep checking back - this should be rather interesting...

Out.