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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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We arrived at Rio Airport early in the morning, and it´s a pretty daunting place. The Tourist Information booth was closed coz we were too early, and we had no hostal booked... we had a couple of people mascarading as tourist information, but it was pretty obvious they weren´t (the gold teeth and tattoos kinda gave it away). So we hung around for a bit and finally were able to speak to someone who could help us. We got out of the airport asap and headed for a hotel. Our taxi driver was a really nice guy, and spoke incredibly good English, telling us about the parts of the city we were driving through and about Cristo Redento mountain (the big statue of Christ overlooking the city). When we got onto the motorway he started pointing out the favellas (slums). We knew before we arrived in Rio that these were pretty scary places, but his description had us locking our doors instantly (which he promptly pointed out, wouldn´t help). To cut a long story short, the favellas are run by two conflicting gangs. These gangs regularly have shoot-outs protecting their territory. The police don´t enter the favellas (which incidently stretch for miles) and the druglords are the governing force. He then proceeded to tell us that the gangs have shut down the motorway that we were driving on before to do as they please, once hijacking army trucks to steal their weapons..!! Subsequent to this, the army were sent in to retrieve the weapons (AK47´s and Uzi´s no less) and were shot down. Pretty scary stuff.
Anyway, after our very inciteful, and somewhat terrifying tour, we arrived at our hotel in Ipanema to find the smallest broom cupboard of a room we´ve ever seen, and considering this was the most expensive place we´ve stayed in since arriving in S. America, we were pretty shocked...! Rio is expensive!
Anyway, we spent the next couple of days checking out Ipanema, took a tour to Cristo mountain (and I´ve gotta say, the statue is huge!!!) and visiting the botanical gardens (Jardim Botanico). I must add, to all those people I had bets with about Yaz, I won! She couldn´t do it... She finally broke, and bought a pair of shoes...!!
And yes... While we were in Rio I had my 30th birthday! It was great! I was awoken in the morning by room service of breakfast and champagne, which is always a good start. Then we went for an `all-you-can-eat ´sushi bar which was fantastic, had a stroll on Ipanema beach for a couple of hours, watching the surfers, and then back to the hotel to get ready for the evening (which I had no idea about). We were taken to a grill restaurant, where they come round with all different types of meat (including chicken heart... urhh!) and you just say yes or no - fantastic! Then, from there we were taken to a samba show - truely spectacular! basically it´s like a taster of the Rio Carnival, with the extravagant costumes and dances and music... All-in-all, a fantastic birthday!!!
The next day we decided to check out Copacabana. We had been there once before to look for an apartment for the week, but really didn´t like the area, it was a bit of a dive, and there were some scary types around, but hey, you can´t go to Rio without a visit to Copa. After about two hours or walking along the beach, we made it, and it was pretty beautiful. We were even lucky enough to witness a sea rescue, some girl was swept out to sea and was picked up out of the water by a rescue helicopter and brought to the beach, pretty impressive!
That evening there was a massive concert on Copacabana beach, a huge stage, a great reggae band, and thousands of people, some of whom can only be described as ´questionable´. These people know how to party!
The next day we caught a coach and headed towards Ilha Grande...
previous travel blog entry
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