Rio De Janeiro - Sth America 2009/10


Some places in the world just sound cool, a legend surrounds them, Barry Manilow writes a song about its beach....can't have everything.

Arriving into the desolate airport, leaving there revealed a buzz, life, this was a place of excitement. Rio have also learnt that the tourist can pay pretty much anything at certain times. The hostel, Mellow Yellow, was at 5 star hotel prices, the 5 star hotels were at private island prices.

The city was really busy, for the first full day up to the Jesus statue where it was a cloudy accept for a small piece of blue sky above Christ, coming closer the sky opened up, once at the top the cloud had blown away and the sky was blue. That is how to see a statue. Below beautiful Rio was revealed.


The search for food continued, Elle had also read so much about muggings that there was no doubt we would be a victim. This reading led to the now infamous red robber incident. 11:00pm after an average meal, walking home, I pulled the taxi up to early so we had to walk. Suddenly the streets in Elle's mind became a battle zone, where we were the targets. A black kid or African Brazilian in a red shirt seemed to follow us for half a block. Elle was convinced he was a mugger. ¨He is following us, he is going to rob us!¨ A couple of things caused question, the first what exactly she wanted me to do, second did he really want to rob us. Posing these questions did not up my standing at this late stage of the night. So turning round the boy was looking away at someone else, apparently this was part of his plan, a few minutes later I jumped round to catch the red robber red handed looking at us, but he was not there. This jumping action further pushed me opinion ladder, added to fuming Elle, and led to the unforgettable statement that ¨he is hiding in the alcove, whenever we turn round. So to recap we are being pursued down a main street by a African Brazilian in a red shirt who jumps into alcoves if we turn to see him! Needless to say we made it home safe and now with much laughing Elle is trying to live it down.

Due to the red robber incident I decided to carry a roll of two's, known as my red robber roll, which I am hoping to give to the red robber when I find him and he mugs us.

The next couple of days we spent wondering the city, a highlight being a favela (or slum) tour, where we went into one of the bigger favela's rode on the back of motorbikes to the top and saw how a great proportion of the Rio population live. Also explained was the cycle of drugs, crime and violence that perpetuates in this area, an area that is ruled by drug lords and their gangs, with police mounting periodic raids to try and take the area of the city back. This is a recurring thing throughout Brazil.


New Years Eve approached and one thing was clear the Brazilians know how to put on a fantastic party.  Copacabana beach was packed with more people than I could possibly see, enormous stages were periodically constructed on the beach and everyone wore white, a spectacle in itself. Following drinks at the hostel bar with an English couple we met, Andy & Becky, we hit the beach with the hordes of other people. Music was Latin American and huge bands played, the locals were so happy to see foreigners that when we found our spot we handed Vodka and were encouraged to dance with them round a bottle. They yelled "USA!!" There was still communication issues, but that happens.


12:00am approached and we nudged from the stage to a better view of the beach, found the perfect spot with a great view of the water, the three barges that would let of fireworks and the many enormous cruise ships that lined the sea to see what we saw. 12:00 the barges let loose in a 20 minute spectacle of fireworks of three barges. Wow what a show!!!

More music followed! The obligatory burger before bed, this also demonstrated to me it had been a while since I had hit the town......I forgot this was obligatory.

New Years Day with a fuzzy head, it was of to Santiago, Chile for one night then......the big one draws closer as we catch a bus to Mendoza, the starting point for Aconcagua.
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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