Friday 20 January 2012

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
 


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