Rio De Janeiro

´There is no choice in what I must do, nothing is greater than to be with you´ Mellow Doubt by Teenage Fanclub

Hello again

Well we´ve been up to quite a lot since I last wrote, there is so much going on in Rio just now that it´s hard to keep up. The Brazilians just go crazy during carnival.

I´ve written a seperate blog this morning entitled ´Flowers Of Manchester´ as it is the 50th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster that claimed the lives of 8 of the Busby Babes. It contains a very moving poem written in the aftermath of the crash, check it out.

But back to Rio where it is raining today! The weather has been very mixed since we arrived, blazing sunshine at times, thunder and lightning at others, torrential downpours at least once a day and light drizzle quite a bit of the time. But it has been dry during the important times and the weather has certainly not stopped us or the Brazilians from partying.

Sunday February 3rd
We got up at 11.30am for breakfast. We hung around the hostel for a few hours chatting to people - Greg from Aberdeen and his wife Georgina from Bristol, Mike who is volunteering in Rio, Stewart and Dave from Oz and Justin and Casey from Oz.

We eventually ventured out at 3.30pm and andered down to a shop in Santa Teresa and bought burgers and some salad and went back to the hostel and made some food before an an]fternoon siesta.

Fraser came to meet us at 8pm and after a few beers we decided to head down to the Sambadrome to see if we could get tickets outside for the big parade. We didn´t have any problems getting them. As soon as we got outside a guy came up and asked us if we wanted some. He originally tried to charge us $600 Brazilian for 3, but we got him down to $350 Brazilian, around 30 pounds each. We were in the cheap seats but we still saw everything and certainly got our moneys worth. We got in at 10pm and stayed until just before 2am. The floats, costumes, dancers, colour, passion and energy generated at the Sambadrome has to be seen to be believed. It was fantastic.

We left at 2am and wandered around the Sambadrome. I was immediatly struck at the poverty only yards from a multi-million pound extravaganza. People were watching the parade in the Favela´s (the slums that start on the outside of tha Sambadrome) on tiny TV´s, as they couldn´t afford to go inside.

We ended up walking back to the hostel and Fraser got a taxi. Santa Teresa is right next to the Sambadrome, so we had a 30 minute walk up the hill to our hostel and a good nights sleep.

Monday February 4th
We got up at 11am and had breakfast and then I went back to bed while Lynn pottered around and tidied up a bit. Fraser came to meet us at 2pm and by 3pm the rain had gone off so we went a walk around Santa Teresa and found a full on bloco (street party) happening. We got some drinks and stood and watched and danced to the band that were playing. They were a 5 piece playing Sax, Trombone and various items of percussion. Some of their friends joined in by banging their flip flops together or hitting a can with a stick. Soon there was a big crowd in the square and everyone was in full on carnival mode again. It very rarely stops, there is always something going on, whether it is an official bloco, the sambadrome, stages set up in Lapa or Central or an impromptu street party like this one.

We stayed for a few hours and then went back to the hostel before heading down to Frasers hotel in central. We had dinner there and then went across to Avenue Blanco, where there is always something going on. We ended up parading along the entire Avenue behind a Samba Band, dancing along and even attempting to sing! We got to the top of the Avenue where there was a stage and a band were playing some laid back samba music that had attracted an older crowd. We stayed there for a bit and bumped into Greg and Georgina before heading back down the Avenue. We were halfway down when we were approached from the bottom by another band. We waited in the wings to allow them to pass and then joined in with the crowd. The band had a leader that was showing the crowd what actions to do, so everyone swayed and clapped in time. It was great fun.

We didn´t stay out too long though and got a taxi back to the hostel at midnight. I think the last few days had caught up with us a little!

Tuesday February 5th
We got up at 11am and sorted out some stuff for washing. Fraser came to meet us at 2am and we decided that despite some cloud overhead we would go up Sugar Loaf Mountain. We got a cab to the foot and then paid $35 Brazilian each for two cable cars up to the top. The view from the top was excellent, although it would have been really spectacular if the sun was shining. Rio is such a unique city, in more ways than one. There is the coastline and beaches, and then hills and mountains with districts of Rio built in between, then the statue of Christ The Redeemer looms in the distance and Favelas are built up the hillsides.

We´ve still to go up to the statue, we´re holding out for a nice clear blue day. We had a couple of beers up the top and got a bite to eat before going our seperate ways for siestas. Fraser then came back to meet us at the hostel at 10pm and we had a few drinks with the Aussie´s. At midnight we decided to go down to Lapa, where there are always street parties and there is a stage with bands and DJ´s. There was quite a large crowd down there and we got some drinks and watched a couple of bands before heading home for 3am.

Today, Feb 6th, we have no fixed plans. Fraser is moving hotels today so we won´t see him until tomorrow. I think Lynn and I are going to have a quiet day and maybe plan a few things for when we leave Rio next Monday. We only have 3 weeks in Brazil and we won´t see much of the country at all. But we did decide that Brazil was going to be more like a holiday and we´re enjoying staying in the one place for a decent length of time and our hostel is the best we have stayed in. As Brazil is the size of the USA, we would really need to spend at least 2-3 months here to see a lot of the country, but maybe we´ll come back if Scotland gets to the 2014 World Cup!

Catch you all soon.

Murray and Lynn
xxx