Muggings, Mountains and Mankinis

                                                 
                                                   Pao de Acucar - Sugar Loaf

                  The view from our Sugar Loaf walk

                             Crazy Monkey

                         The Flip Flop climb

  
                         Escaping the hostel

                           Brazilian Bums

                       Some more Brazilian Bums

                                                                    Beach Life

                            Beach reading

                          People Watching

  
                       The Copacabana Wave

                                                  Beach Football - bit close?

                    My people watching position

                            Refreshments

                               Larking

                                                  Little bit more beach time
 

                    Gym on the beach - naaaaaaah

                       The infamous Lapa night

  
                             Halfway up

                              The View

Ola....

So where was I .....Oh yes last time we were still stuck in the rat infested/run down bunk bed showroom/monkeys playground and you will be pleased to know that we have escaped - with only a mild case of paranoid schizophrenia. Through a friend of a friend we have wangled our way into staying with our friends mum in her apartment in Flamengo and its like a whole different world. Not only do we have a decent bed each, a settee, a fridge, an oven, a TV , Security and all the other niceties like that, we also have banished the rats, monkeys, lunatics and cold showers we were previously amongst! Flamengo which is the Portugese word for Flemish because the Dutch sailor Olivier Van Noort tried to invade the city in 1599 and Dutchmen were called 'Flemish' by the Portugese at this time is the next neighbourhood to Botafogo and similarly got a really nice atmosphere. Even better it is just down the road from our good friend Rogerio who also fills the role of tour guide and chauffeur so he's a handy little catch that one! Accommodation has definitely improved for the time being and its costing us a lot less than staying at the hostels but soon my sister Flo and her friend Katie will arrive for carnival and there will not be enough room for us all to stay here and we will have to rethink where to stay? Unfortunately this could mean DUM DUM DUUUUUUM dragging our heels back to the Botafogo hostel but such is life.

Sugar Loaf  or Pao de Acucar in Portugese is an amazing site to witness in Rio each time you look out to the sea and something I missed out on visiting last time so this year I plan to take full advantage of it. The Sugar Loaf is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro at the mouth of Guanabara Bay, rising 396 metres above the harbour it's name is said to refer to it's resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined sugar loaf. Along with Rogerio AKA tour Guide extraordinaire we walked from Flamengo to Urca to climb the first part of the mountain which is actually called Morro da Urca or Urca Hill to you and me, however don't let the word 'hill' fool you this was pretty steep and not a particularly leisurely 'hill walk' as Rogerio originally informed us. He said it would take 15, 20 minutes but this must have been the whole Brazilian timing thing gone a bit doo lally because it was definitely at least double that! After being told flip flops would be fine we turned up and were surprised to see that Rogerio had actually opted for trainers (which I do actually annoyingly have packed nicely away in my backpack at the apartment) and after we had been climbing for about 5 minutes I realised that trainers would definitely have been a much wiser option - Silly Gringoeeees! Now I am not knocking havianas or their marvellous workmanship but they are not renowned for their mountain climbing resilience and I doubt Sir Edmund Hilary would have had them on his checklist before setting off for Mount Everest. The terrain was very muddy and jungle-esque and the rain the previous night made it even slippier and more difficult to manouvere but there were some great not so strategically placed trees and vines we could cling on to on the way up. It was brilliant though walking through all the forested areas and we saw lots of monkeys and butterflies however you are under strict instructions not to feed the monkeys which I was more than happy to comply with given my recent strife with the pesky little blighters. The top of Morro da Urca was beautiful and you could see all the different neighbourhoods from here as well as the infamous JC of course. I did get lots of good photos from up here but I what I will tell you later has put a bit of a dampner on this you will see. From this point you cannot walk any further as it gets very steep but you can get the cable car from here all the way to the top (you can also catch this right from the bottom) which is when you reach the top of Sugar Loaf, we intend to do this classic tourist attraction trip when the girls arrive. I look forward to this because it really is very beautiful.

Whilst I have already told you that the weather here is crazy - on the whole its fun and when its hot its very very hot and we have been spending a lot of time down the many beaches which adorn Rio's coastline - Botafogo, Flamengo, Leme, Copacabana, Ipanema. Its been cool hanging out, but a real eye opener quite literally when it comes to the Brazilians choice for swimwear!!! Lets start with the girls - there is a massive mix of races and colours here like any big metropolitan city so the same cannot be said for everyone by any means but on the whole the women here are tanned and beautiful with a very strong pear shape which it seems is best shown off by doing just that - showing it ALL off. I think its fair to say that the bikinis range from tiny to miniscule and the bigger the bum and whole body pretty much the better - which is actually quite refreshing to see but it does mean that my very English and insignificant derriere and my very 'normal' (by English standards) topshop bikini bottoms do not exactly help me to blend in with the locals just yet so a few squats and a purchase of a Brazilian bikini may be just the ticket! The men.....oh the men - some of their swimwear is just plain scary and in fact I think sometimes they are in competition with the women on the itsy bitsy teeny wheeny size stakes. On first view they wear normal board shorts like any self respecting male would (you know the type - just above the knee or a little higher perhaps) but as soon as they want to get their strut on down the beach is when it gets worrying. These are whipped off to reveal the smallest Speedos or trunks in the world which horrifically look like they are painted on - not my cup of tea but whatever floats your boat I guess. I do however have to strongly object though when they wear their white (verging on see through) pants/Speedos to go for a brisk jog along the beach where they and their 'little man' are jiggling along for everyone to see, much to their own delight it would seem......really Sugar Loaf and old Jesus are a much more impressive sight.

So picture the scene - its Friday 13th (something I didn't realise until the next day however) and we are heading out to Lapa with Rogerio, Berto and a whole gaggle of other boys and girls from the hostel. Lapa is a very cool neighbourhood in Rio which is renowned for its cheap food and drinks, street parties and general amazing party atmosphere and is actually where Snoop Dogg filmed his music video 'Beautiful' on the famous steps of Lapa named Escadaria Selaron (Selaron's Staircase), designed by Chilean born artist Jorge Selaron there are 250 steps made up of over 2,000 brightly coloured tiles from over 60 different countries. Tonight didn't fail to live up to this. There are clubs and bars here but the best place to be is in the streets outside where there are thousands of people all drinking, dancing, singing and having a really good time. We had some lovely caipirinhias from some happy chappy on the street, saw a 'pack' of extremely glamorous transvestites shaking everything that their Mumma did (or didn't) give them which is always entertaining and then into a bar for a deadly shot of cachaca (a Brazilian liquor which is made from fermented sugarcane juice) oddly named Gloria or something like that and then it was time to battle through the busiest part of the street. I shall now mention that I had already anticipated for this 'hecticness' and prepared accordingly...or so I thought? I had Hannah's bag on which for the record goes across your body tightly and has a zip and flap etc - all of which was done up so I thought I was pretty secure. The street was packed and we stomped through with Rogerio at the front, then Hannah, then me and then Berto bringing up the rear. It only took a couple of minutes but when we got to the other side I looked down and my bag zip was open and it felt distinctly lighter. Further inspection revealed that my camera was missing but surprisingly I still had my Iphone and purse....every cloud hey! At this point I have to commend whoever the pickpocketer  in question was on this occassion because he did a sterling job as I never felt a thing. This was annoying but I decided to deal with it in the morning and carry on enjoying the night downing a couple more caipirinhias and to instead look upon it like this....It was only a camera, albeit a very nice new camera from Mumma dearest but a camera nonetheless, it could have been worse - for example they could have taken a shine to my ear lets say and whipped one of those away instead. So I went to sleep drunk but happy with two intact ears.

The next day we awoke in a hangover state of mind but knew I knew we needed to sort this so dragged Hannah (and myself) out of bed and we walked down to Botafogo police station as I had remembered seeing it and knew it was only 10 minutes walk or so away. I walked confidently up to the desk and asked the lady "Ha aqui alguem que fale ingles"  which basically means "Does anyone here speak english"  - the answer was a big fat no which was unfortunately what I was expecting. After 5 minutes of her talking 'at' me very fast in Portugese I reverted back (quite unsuccessfully) to my basic Spanish with an attempt at a Brazilian Portugese twang (or so I thought) combined with lots of hand gestures to boot. This exchange went on for nearly 10 minutes with both of us not having the slightest clue what the other person was saying. She finally said something and although extremely confused I pretended I understood (this was not the case) just to stop talking for a while as the hangover haze was starting to take hold. We were thinking about leaving when in walked our saviour for the day and translated to us that she said to wait here for 5 minutes and a police car will come and pick us up to take us to the Tourist Police station in Leblon, which was good timing as I had one foot out the door at this point. 5 minutes Brazilian time turned out to be 35 minutes English time but I let this one slide as it was a free lift. When two policemen arrived they stared at us for a fair while and then told us to get in the car - one of them looked like Cuba Gooding Jr and the other one spoke pretty good English and wasn't afraid to use it so this was to prove to be a very interesting ride. First of all the conversation was light and he was asking us the usual - "where are you from", "what are you doing"  but somewhere between Botafogo and Copacabana his confidence must have grown and he raised the question "have you kissed any Brazilian boys yet?" shocked but not particularly surprised at the jump from casual to full on flirting we said no and he went on to say that we should and when we do we will never go back (all the while both not attempting even in the slightest to hide their wedding rings). Conversation of this nature continued like this for the next 10 minutes and he started to get on to the questions of what we were doing later that night.....luckily we arrived at Leblon Police Station right before he could ask us out, but unfortunately not before he had time to tell me that I look young - like a baby?!?!!! Situations like this make you realise how very different our cultures and attitudes are sometimes. Whilst this relaxed attitude Brazilian policemen have adopted (I had previously found myself in a a similar situation with an Argentinean policeman in Mendoza a few years ago which resulted in him adding me on facebook and sending me numerous messages so maybe its a South American thing) was harmless and actually pretty amusing never in my life have I experienced and English policeman be anything but extremely serious, stiff and regimented. Somewhere in between would be nice. Inside the station the air conditioning was a godsend. I managed to speak to someone who did speak English and simply had to fill out a police report of what happened last night in Lapa for my insurance claim. The two policemen hung around for a while but then to our relief were sent away. After I was done two more policemen arrived to pick us up and take us home which I think despite all the flirting and awkward conversations is actually very good service - well done Rio. These two were a bit older and a lot less flirty and they took the scenic route home cruising along the beaches which was nice until we saw a crowd battering some guy on the street who I assumed was homeless - God knows what he had done?

The following day was Sunday and we went to the weekly Hippy Market in Ipanema which was really lovely. It was large with many stalls selling all sorts from amazingly kitsch tack of Jesus in various locations and colours but always in the same position to beautiful local artwork to the aforementioned 'now you see it, now you don't' Brazilian bikinis! We walked around for a good couple of hours looking at all the handmade goods and extremely bizarre- but- brilliant- all- the- same souvenirs and decided that this would be a weekly event for us to choose all the bits and bobs we would like to take with us. However this may be easier said than done and may involve leaving a pair of shorts or a flip flop here and there to make room. Its fair to say that I have already taken a rather strong dislike to my backpack and we are only at location one, I have a feeling this is going to be one of those love/hate relationships between me and the Karrimor! After here we headed down the beach to enjoy the sun and for a good catch up of people watching which is a favourite past time of mine and I have to say Rio is pretty good for it. A couple of hours later we decided to go for a beer and just in time it would seem. Once inside the bar and sat down with our cold cerveja in hand  I looked out the window and once again the heavens had opened and outside was a flurry of torrential rain and people running and laughing in their bikinis and flip flops, a humorous scene which I have witnessed many times before since being here and one which I'm sure I will see again.

Rio has continued to be an exhilarating city and we have been trying our best to keep up with the crazy, beautiful and bizarre events which we have been lucky enough to experience every day. I love it here and each day is interesting, I love the laid back attitude and am learning more and more about the Carioca way of life and the amanha amanha attitude.

Ciao for now
 

Theres a monkey in the room but the rat is in the toilet

Greetings loved ones....

So the good news is we made it here, great news is Rio is amazing but bad news is our hostel is not so much?
The plane journey was long and boring but the prospect of having 6 months to do exactly what I wanted and when I wanted was very exciting so this made up for the food/hideous chicken flavoured mush that was served up to us on a nice little tray that day! We had a stop over for a few hours in New York JFK airport which was fine but then our plane got delayed and the airline very flippantly informed us that "something was wrong with the plane", but they weren't sure what - they said maybe a leaking engine which as you can imagine filled us with hope and good positive energies about being stuck in that less than perfect tin can 30,000 feet in the air for the next 10 hours.

From the airport we jumped in a taxi and headed towards our hostel in Botafogo which we booked a few days before at home (now is probably a good time to tell you that this hostel - Club Sarrefua was about a third of the price of other hostels over new years period so we were a little dubious as to how it would turn out but just kept our fingers crossed). Botafogo - which literally means 'set it on fire' is a beachfront neighbourhood in between Copacabana and Flamengo, it is a nice part of the city so we are told which is relatively safe and we were pleased to see that both the police station and hospital were both only a few hundred yards of the hostel on Rue Bambina, you know got to be prepared for the worst and all that! Outside the old building was pretty and inviting - however this is a classic example of why we should never judge a book by its cover! Inside the downstairs area was.....we shall call it warehouse chic and with its tall ceilings and shabby mish mash of furniture, painting and general paraphernalia it was 'Brick Lane - esque'. So why was such a gem like this with decent prices not packed over New years period in Rio I hear you ask? All was revealed as we went up the spiral staircase. It is one massive room upstairs with 62 bunk bed in one room and its occupants were me and Hannah and the boys that worked in the Pool Bar/Crack Den situated in the basement below. The beds look as if they were built by a struggling but ambitious fiver year old and you can literally push the top bunk and it wobbles so naturally both me and my lovely travel buddy Hannah opted for a top bunk so as not to be flattened during the night. The mattresses are literally pancakes I AM THE LEMON so I have a really nice bed slat imprint on my back now. But hey a bed is a bed is a bed but a rat in the bathroom which poor old Hannah encountered one evening when brushing her teeth is a different story, this combined with a leaking roof (perfectly situated above the bed I cleverly chose out of 62), noisy but friendly nonetheless builders and constantly hearing weird monkeys chatting somewhere in here is making us want to relocate...I will keep you updated!

On the friday night we had a very slow BBQ where most of the food went to the cooks themselves and left us little gringoes pretty hungry! Samba that night in the Favela Tabajaras was really cool though for the Beija Flor night! Obviously I cannot Samba, that is a given and whilst us group from the hostels were most certainly the pink elephants in the room we gave it a good go and I found the best/only thing we could do in this situation was jump/hop/skip from foot to foot and just keep smiling.....the trick is simply this - Don't look down!!!!!! because it is when you do this that you realise how mentally retarded both you and your feet look. Me and Hannah got a motobike taxi home which was really fun and later in the week when we met some lads and told them the boys on the bikes kept on telling us to hold them tighter and tighter which we assumed was for safety reasons, the lads said this never happens to them and the boys on their bikes actually told them to let go and move back! Oh the joys of being a blonde with blue eyes in Rio.....

New Years or Revelion as it is called here was actually amazing! After meeting at the hostel we spent it down Copacabana beach along with 2 million others all just drinking, dancing, chatting and swimming, it is without a doubt one of my best! The atmosphere was so happy and friendly and down the beach I didn't see one fight which was obviously lovely but a bit of a culture shock because had this been England there would most definitely have been lots of fighting with that much drink involved! Actually I tell a lie later that night we saw some local women leaving a random jewish nightclub and then one of them whipped of her flip flop (probably a havaiana) and starting chasing this lady hitting her with it but that doesn't count because it was just funny! Anyway I digress - back to the beach at the stroke of midnight we were in the sea with a bottle of champagne and fireworks which went on for nearly an hour - a very good night all in all with a perfect mix of caipirinhas, good people and a cheeky bit of David Guetta DJ'ing on one of the stages at the beach - better start thinking how that can be topped next year??

Now is probably a good time to raise the point that South Americans love fireworks -whether its at football matches, new years or just when your bored and feel like it so here in Rio me and Hannah have taken to playing the game - Firework or gunshot because as much as they love their fireworks brazilians also seem to love a gun unfortunately! We hear bangs all the time here and we just probably naively think/hope/pray it is some crazy with a firework. However we have been here for only 10 days now and have already seen a dead body as we drove down a busy street on Copacabana and heard on the news that a American tourist had apparently been shot in Botafogo (yes where we are staying) but people have told us that most incidents like this are drug related so as this is not something that interests me I will keep my head screwed on and we will be fine.  For example we went to a Favela - Santa Marta on the hillside behind Botafogo the other day with a guy from our hostel and it was brilliant, we walked all the way to the top through tiny little steps, back alleys, peoples gardens and it was fine, all everyone wanted was just to help and chat. The young lads were kite flying from the rooftops, the girls skipping around singing and yeh there was a very distinct small of weed in there but thats pretty much the smell of most places in the city in my experience, more often than not in our hostel itself. The Favelas as a whole have been cleaned up a lot and the drugs reduced so that they are safer places both to live and visit what with the Olympics and World Cup both coming up in Brazil tourism is high on the agenda! As long as you don't go up there with a great big blinging rolex or a massive SLR round your neck then it's cool. The top had a stunning view over Sugar Loaf mountain which must be amazing for them to wake up to every day!

We have been spending some time at the hostel we stayed at a few years ago when we were in Rio and another one close by and have met some old friends and made some really nice new ones. Rogerio who works at the hostel has been showing us the nightlife of Rio once again and we have literally been out every night since we have been here - whether it was a Samba night, a party in a Favela, rooftop BBQ or a latin party all have been brilliant but this combined with copious amounts of caipirinhas, local beer and late nights is knackering so tonight is a well deserved night off! They have a strange and very dangerous (on your pockets) system here in a club where you are given a receipt at the beginning of your night and each time you get a drink it is added to this instead of paying as you go -  you have to pay at the end otherwise you can't leave and you are literally stuck there FOREVERRRRRRR! not quite that bad, but difficult to keep track! We have heard some very interesting chat up lines/compliments so far....here are a couple of the gems; "Millie you look like a fish man" which I was pretty confused by to say the least but after some interesting sign language, puzzled conversations and with the inevitable help of google translator it seems that Cassio (a brazillian lad staying and working at our hostel) was merely trying to say that I look like a mermaid which I suppose he did in a round about way! Cassio has had some crackers - the other day  he informed us he would "brush our teeth" Another one which I am still confused about was being told I was a beautiful little boy....I think we should leave that one there!

To sum up Rio so far  which is aptly named 'Cidade Maravilhosa' or 'Marvelous City' I would say that it is crazy, fun and beautiful! The city is amazing and brilliant to walk through, the tunnels which connect the different neighbourhoods are not so much though - its pretty much like ice skating on a pool of human faeces (now there's a pretty picture) in flip flops whilst playing dodge the homeless! The beaches are beautiful and lots of them, the food is cheap and tasty if not a little too much egg chucked in to everything for my liking. The atmosphere is happy and its been fun and interesting learning the way of life and cultures here! The people are extremely friendly and welcoming and so far have gone out of their way to ensure we have a great time. The weather has been bizarre - torrential rain one minute and scorching sun the next but that's the tropical climate for you and variety is the spice of life as they say! Even though i'm not a religious person its good to see the Big Man himself watching over us every day and to wake up and see one of the seven wonders of the world each day on our doorstep! Im very much looking forward to my next 2 months here!!! 

                             Home sweet home

             our hostel - looking pretty nice from the outside

                    
                     our treat of a toilet inside

   One of the few windows in our room, reminiscent of the shining perhaps?

                            warehouse chic

                   amazing views all over the city

                               standard

  
                             also standard

                             The Big Man

                       Kite flying in the Favela

   We made it to the top of the Favela. Looks as though we are in    a cage, we're not?

            Me and Hannahpants on one of the many nights out!

                                Rooftop BBQ courtesy of Diego and Rogerio

         New Years at Copacabana beach - brilliant fireworks!

                         David Guetta playing

    some of the 2 million people at New Years - amazing atmosphere

    2 English,  a Scot, a Peruvian and an Argentinean = fun times!

                             Samba Night

That is all.

I can still hear monkeys.