Sunday 21 February 2010

Rio




As soon as we arrived in Rio we could feel the anticipation of carnival pulsing through the city like an electric current. After check-in and lunch we made our way to our first bloco. in the weeks leading up to carnival all the blocos rehearse in public and the one we went to was by the marina. The band
(mainly purcussion- bateria)was so fun to dance to, loads of people came, most in fancey dress.

The rest of the week before the offical carnival start, was spent relaxing on copacabana and ipanema beach. Our most cultural day was spent in the neighbourhood of santa teresa. We went to the ruins of an old house with a panaramic view of the city. Then we saw another house with a collection of artwork all inspired by Brazil
- it was beautiful. That night i went out with some girls from the hostel to Lapa, we alternated between a salsa and samba (live music) club. We met about 10 others from our hostel that night so we all danced in a big group.

Carmelitos
Friday, 2pm Santa Teresa
We danced for 4 hours behind a huge float with a band and amongst the bateria. Everyone's costumes were amazing, people sprayed the dancing crowd with water and foam and threw confetti over us all.

On the saturday we caught the tail end of a bloco in lapa before going to the Vasco X Fluminense football game in the worlds biggest football stadium- it holds 96000 people. I'm not a football fan but the atmosphere was incredible. There was a bateria so everyone was up on their feet singing and dancing throughout the whole match. Fans threw paper that glittered as it fell and when it got dark people let off fireworks. Our team lost, but after so much fun i really didn't mind.

Cordao do Boitata-Centro
Sunday, 7am
There were 1000s of people dancing on and around the palace. Men dressed as fairys were dancing on the statues, it was crazy.

On the way back to the hotel we partied at two more blocos.
Simpatica e quase amor
4pm, Ipanema
Banda da invalida
7pm, Lapa

Monday, 9am... another bloco at Santa Teresa and that evening was the sambadrome. The sambadrome was amazing- float after float, ostrich feathered costumed after ostrich feathered costume. Everything was so colourful amd sparkley, we were there from 7.30pm to 5am- what an incredible end to carnaval.

Saturday 20 February 2010

Arrial D'ajuda

Our last stop before Rio was this small, hippy beach town. They had the most generous portions of acai smoothie that we've so far found, the craziest looking hippies and the best capoira school. One evening we watched a capoira class through the window, as part of the fight the master would walk on his hands and do crazy flips. I don't know how but after the class, the master persuaded me and Leggra to join a class the following morning at
10am. The class was hard but we loved it and with the few basic moves we'd learnt we were able to fight
(though worryingly I did nearly kick Leggra in the head at one point.)

Thursday 4 February 2010

Olivença

This was a magical place for me! Me and Leggra were really treated like part of a family here. Our friend´s (from Itacare) friend owned a bar with his wife and every night me and Leggra were invited to eat dinner with them and the rest of the staff. Dinner ranged from Sushi to Seafood Spagetti to Chicken Strogonof which we all would eat on the beach or in the bar (which was on the beach). Every evening live music would play at the bar and people would come to dance foro, eat, drink and chat. I had a go a foro myself and love it- it´s a really fun style of dance and the music is beautiful.

On our second night in Olivença, it was the full moon. We all sat on the decking of the bar and together watched the moon rise up out of the sea- it was stunning and so wonderful to share the experience with our new friends. That night I learned to make caiparinha (the brazillian cocktail), stayed dancing till the early hours and walked along the beach to watch the sunrise before heading home for some well deserved sleep.

The next day we´d been invited to a bbq with some people we met in the bar, so we turned up and got given the most amazing meats, salad and even mango caipiroska (best I´ve ever tasted). It was really nice to hang out with some locals and they had really funky brazillian music playing as they cooked- we loved it.

I was so sad to leave Olivença and my new adopted brazillian family. There were absoloutly no gringos in the little villiage of Olivença, only hanging out with locals taught me so much about Brazil´s culture and I really think it helped improved my portuguesse alot.

Itacare



Arriving at our friend´s house in Itacare was like stepping into paradise- hammocks were strung up outside and mango, coconut and cashew trees all grew in the garden. As we entered the house we were given freshly made mango smoothie and then our friend made us coconut cous cous for lunch- amazing!

Whilst he went to work, we chilled on the beach and watched an incredible sunset. After wandering around town and popping into the restaurant where our friend worked at for a drink, me and Leggra got home via moto taxis and cooked dinner. At 11.30ish our friend finished work and off we three went on his bike to the town´s street party. The town was buzzing with energy- There was a car with massive speakers and booming music. The streets were packed with so many people it was hard to move and lined with cocktail and food stands. I tried a traditional Bahia food- Acaraje (fried bean, cut in half and then stuffed with shimps, salad and creamy sauces). A big stage by the beach had bands to which we danced to way into the night.

The next day, we all had lunch together and then took a hike into the beautiful forest (passing several showers by streams to cool off in) to the hidden beach. That night there was a rock band playing in a local bar (girls had free entry) so we went along. The next morning was a lazy one before catching the 3 o´clock bus to Olivença, where kindly our friend arranged for us to stay.