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!