This was a day when I saw everything, did everything and shook everything. An action-packed introduction to Rio, a city that I fell in love with during these 24 hours.
It started with a trip the four of us took up Sugar Loaf Mountain, to enjoy the amazing panoramic views of the city. Everywhere you look there are neighbourhoods on the beach, little inlets or mountainous forests. And on the right, the huge expanse of ocean. From here it resembles Sydney in some respects, but with huge hills, more greenery and, sadly, much more poverty.
That night Ian and I got our first taste of Carnival. Oh boy. We walked from our hotel on Copocabana to Ipanema, where there was a street party. There are hundreds of these so-called block parties during Carnival.
We were drawn to a bar on the fringes of the festivities, that had some older musicians playing samba drums. Imagine a Brazilian version of Buena Vista Social Club. The party here gathered momentum and soon everyone was dancing on the street outside, and even into the newspaper kiosk opposite. Everyone except Ian and I knew the words to all the songs, but we could "Ole" at the right time and we met lots of fun people.
Gary and Kleverson joined us later and Happy Birthday was sung to Ian in several languages, and at several points of the evening, depending in which part of the world the clocks were striking midnight. People tried to teach us to samba dance and we eventually got the hang of it, when Ian discovered that pretending to stamp on ants was the secret.
We had a bite to eat, the equivalent of a footballer´s half-time orange. Ian and I went back to the main street party, where we met loads of Brazilian gay men who were very charming and very topless. They were offended when we left the party at 4am. What a perfect day.
THING I DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE TODAY:
Spanish people say "patatas" when they take photos
RIO STREET PARTY PICS AND VIDEOS:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14099398@N00/sets/72157623477480322/
It started with a trip the four of us took up Sugar Loaf Mountain, to enjoy the amazing panoramic views of the city. Everywhere you look there are neighbourhoods on the beach, little inlets or mountainous forests. And on the right, the huge expanse of ocean. From here it resembles Sydney in some respects, but with huge hills, more greenery and, sadly, much more poverty.That night Ian and I got our first taste of Carnival. Oh boy. We walked from our hotel on Copocabana to Ipanema, where there was a street party. There are hundreds of these so-called block parties during Carnival.
We were drawn to a bar on the fringes of the festivities, that had some older musicians playing samba drums. Imagine a Brazilian version of Buena Vista Social Club. The party here gathered momentum and soon everyone was dancing on the street outside, and even into the newspaper kiosk opposite. Everyone except Ian and I knew the words to all the songs, but we could "Ole" at the right time and we met lots of fun people.
Gary and Kleverson joined us later and Happy Birthday was sung to Ian in several languages, and at several points of the evening, depending in which part of the world the clocks were striking midnight. People tried to teach us to samba dance and we eventually got the hang of it, when Ian discovered that pretending to stamp on ants was the secret.
We had a bite to eat, the equivalent of a footballer´s half-time orange. Ian and I went back to the main street party, where we met loads of Brazilian gay men who were very charming and very topless. They were offended when we left the party at 4am. What a perfect day.
THING I DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE TODAY:
Spanish people say "patatas" when they take photos
RIO STREET PARTY PICS AND VIDEOS:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14099398@N00/sets/72157623477480322/
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