Rio - TIME FOR CARNAVAL!

So, we made it to Rio, and with a couple of days before Carnival starts we decided to get the sightseeing underway. It was quite lucky that we arrived early as it meant we had our choice of bed... 70 beds and 5 bathrooms was fun!

The first thing we wanted to see was Cristo Redentor. You can see this from most places in Rio, but up close it is special, and the view of Rio is even better. Here is a few of the thousand pictures we took from the top.

 

 

 

 

One of our favourite things was going on a favela tour of the biggest favela in Rio, Rocinha, with over 300,000 people living there. An average flat in Copacabana costs R$2000 a month (about £600) but the average minimum wage is R$600 a month, so any taxi driver, hostel worker, police officer will live in a favela. There were up to eight stories of houses built o top of each other and with only one road, most people don't have addresses, so post is delivered to a van. There was a real community feel with thousands of businesses, some schools, health care facilities and even a couple of hostels opening up.

 

 

 

 

 

And now time for carnival, what can we say, blocos, beer, capirinhas, feathers, heat, dancing, street parties, samba, Lapa Lapa Lapa

 

 

We went to the sambadromo to see the parade which was incredible. Each samba school has an hour and a half to parade and have thousands of people taking part in amazing costumes and show stopping floats.

 

 

 

Yes that is a water slide

Ad my favourite. Each person starts as a piece of Black Forest gateau, then they form together to make a cake, then pop their heads up to be the cherries on top!

And then it's all over

 

Salvador - lets see some "churtches"

After Maceio, we decided to travel 10 or so hours to Salvador. It was a good choice, the hostel We stayed in had:

1. Breakfast from 8-12, and they had eggs, and;
2. They had unlimited free caipirinhas from 5:15 - 6:15

Here is a snapshot of what we saw in Salvador with our guide Luiz who was born and bread in Salvador and has lived there for 60 years. He loves "Churtches"!

Sarah loving the churches on this tour

The view from the "elevator" which takes you down to the bay

The Pelo region was where the slaves were taken to fight against each other in yesteryear, and this is the routes of the Capoeira dance

Flo Rida giving a drumming lesson

 

 

Maceió - let's go snorkelling

We hear about a place not too far south of Olinda/Recife, and so decide to check it out.

It is hot in Maceió- John turned into a lobster!

It was really beautiful as we were promised, but we are glad we were only there for a couple of days, as once we had done the snorkelling, there was not much else to do. There was no one else in our hostel and the only way to communicate with our hosts was through Google translate.

Lesson learnt - When the booking form states "hurry last room available" this does not necessarily mean they have more than one room.

John loved swimming with the fish but the bar and kitchen that was situated 2km off the shore made it a bit weird.

On the day we organised our snorkelling we made a deal for R$60 for the two of us with a guy with a flimsy boat who would take us to the "coral reef". We get there and back fine, but he decides to charge us R$100. Out comes BP to the rescue, we find the words for agree - concordor, and change - troco, and have ten 10yr olds to help us argue with the guy. When that didn't work we resorted to drawing in the sand.

Reconstruction of our negotiation

Whatever we said we managed to agree on R$70 and we decided to call it quits.

Lesson learnt - have troco

 

First stop Brazil - pre Carnaval

So we arrived in a city called Recife in north Brazil after a very short stop in São Paulo. As we landed there was a huge congregation of people waiting for our arrival however they seemed to get distracted with a Brazilian star and let us slip by and start using our soon-to-be-best-friend

Brazilian Portuguese - Lonely Planet edition.

Sarah decided to use BP first and took him to the driver of the first bus she saw, after barely setting foot on the bus we all three of us were off, to where we didn't know, but this was a thing to come with the buses. Eventually we got on the correct bus and arrived in the red light district "2 minutes" walk from our Hostel. We got into bed an hour later.

Recife was ok, but we heard about a pre-Carnaval weekend happening in nearby Olinda. So off we get on to another bus driven by an Ayten Senna enthusiasts. Initially ordering a table for dinner rather than picking up our reservation we had our new home for the next 2 days. We stayed in our 'green box', a room directly above a restaurant so all the diners could see you on the way to the shower.

On the Saturday we followed different blocos around, groups of musicians and dancers who parade and perform down the streets. Sometimes they'd bump into other blocos and jam with each other which was amazing. Everyone knows the songs and we still haven't found any Brazilians who can't dance! I wish Notting Hill Carnival was more like this, there's colour everywhere, everyone is dancing and singing and you can feel the bass in your chest.

A taste of the volume of the music to come

 

 

 

 

Since I got Sarah this camera she is always trying to get the best shots