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And so, with our last week fast appoaching, we headed onwards and upwards to Rio, thinking it would be the perfect place for a final blowout on the beach.
But oops, oh yeah, itś Brazilian winter isn it?!
Now I see why people travel with the seasons. Rio is very much a summer city. We had two days of sunshine, when we all sat on the beach sipping coconuts and praying that we´d tan (we didn´t), the rest... well.
Shopping.
Turns out that it is the best place for a final blowout afterall. In crappy weather thereś no point going up sugarloaf mountain for the view, or going up to see the Christ the Redeemer statue, or hanggliding onto Copacabana Beach... So we very successfully "avoided the tourist trap¨ by not doing any of these! Instead we met up with Emma again, also in her last week, and the three of us spent the week ¨slumming it¨.
This is how we ¨slum it¨:
One day we head to the beach(after having waxes at the beauty salon obviously... this is Brazil), only for clouds to appear. In our crappy mood, we decide to cheer ourselves up by heading to the five star Copacabana Palace Hotel, where we buy the cheapest drinks on the menu then sit there for hours asking for more complimentary nuts and sweets. We then go into the hotel and run around the fancy corridors photographing ourselves looking like tramps.
Vastly cheered, we head into the H. Stern jewellerry shop next door to look at diamonds. The lady, most likey assuming that we were guests at the Copacabana Palace, invites us to the H. Stern world HQ in Ipenema, which entails a FREE transfer, FREE tour of the diamond workshop, FREE gemstones, coffee and internet, plus the chance to try on incredibly expensive diamond necklaces and sapphire rings. ¨Would you like us to put anything aside for you that you like, Madame?¨
Sadly our failure as backpackers does not end here. We then use our free transfer out of the HQ to go to the extremely fancy Leblon Shopping Centre, where we prance around in our ridiculous dresses and then go to see the latest (and greatest) Harry Potter film- best decision we ever made!
Our ¨slumming it¨ also extended to copious ammounts of shopping. Not only does Rio have a ridiculously vast array of cheap Havaianas, it also has CHARITY SHOPS! Lots of fun for us three, I can assure you. We bought very very very practicaly backpacker buys, like balldresses (Emma), Vivienne Westwood jelly shoes (Amy), and puffy jackets (me). Manages to resiist the catsuits, but only just. Budget completely gone to pot now, and seriously dreading trying to pack all my new items to go home, even with the new big leather bag. Also went a bit mad at the Sunday Hippie Market in Ipenema, but it was seriously fun.
Sadly (for our budgets), our ¨slumming it¨ also included eating. Which we do a lot of as it is. Posh sushi with Andrea, the woman Emma is staying with? Sure! Our ¨last supper¨ consisting of so much food we are still eating and sharing it three days later? Of course! Por Kilo resteraunts? Why not? I don´t have the money for a taxi, but I will buy street food! Cheese on a stick? No? Shrimp on a stick? Meat on a... You get the idea.
Our final day in Rio was probably the slummiest of them all. Emma´s family were flying out to meet her that night for a two week holiday together before she goes home, which meant that she could check into her nice hotel early... which meant that we could accompany her, and watch cable, use the spa facilites, jacuzzi and sauna it up, and then order cocktails and fish platters at the resteraunt! Slummy, slummy times...
We also went out quite a lot, because this is Rio and that is what you do. We went to the Sunday Favela Funk party the night we arrived, which is meant to be a big clubnight in this warehouse in a favela but I saw very few signs of the favela. That was ok, but less so if you don´t like being molested. Better was House on a Tuesday night, with free caipirinhas from 10 til 12, and free entrance for girls (yay for reverse sexism!). Caipirinhas are abundant in Rio, and contain the local spirit cachaca with varying amounts of sugar and lime, and is quite the killer. We also went to one club night which involved queuing up for about two hours to get in (great fun actually, met lots of cool people) and the club itself was like a frat party you see in those American college films, with lots of drunk people drinking beer out of plastic cups squeezing into tiny rooms in a house which happens to have a bar,
The Lapa Street Party on a Friday night is meant to be legendary, but the weather was awful that night so it all seemed quite half hearted and not nearly as crazy as we´d been told. Clubs were closing at 4am! Drinks were cheap, admittedly. Everyone warns you that Lapa is really dangerous, and so to go carrying a bag, or excess money, or wearing jewellerry is madness. And so of course we did none of those things. Thankfully, it turns out, because we got attacked by a gang of street children!
We were walking under this bridge in very plain view of everyone in the vicinity, all lit up and next to the main road and... but these kids were brazen! Could kind of see it coming as we walked under this bridge where all the eight or nine year olds who had been begging had gathered out of the rain. Amy and Emma had pockets, I did not, which is probably how I can explain what happened next. One kid just stuck his hand in Amyś back pocket, which was of course empty, so we just kept walking, but then all of the other kids (there were loads of them) started diving into their other pockets all at once, and suddenly they were just swarming all over them. Both of them had a child feeling in every pocket, checking for jewellerry, and searching inside their clothes for money hidden in their bras or waistbands, all at once. Luckily they left me alone, so I managed to help Amy free herself, then save Emma, who was being dragged to the ground whilst trying to beat them away with an umbrella. It wasn´t so bad, itś not like we had any money for them to steal, it was just quite shocking how brazen they were, and how young. You get told to expect it, but still.... and then you feel bad because you´re like ¨Those ****ing kids!¨ and then you remember that they are only kids, and this is their world, and if we´d been born there we´d do exactly the same.
We also went to a caravale rehearsal on the Saturday night, which was really cool, it seemed to be all Brazilians in their sequinned carnavale best, with this amazing drum band, and then all the different groups perform their routines in full costume! Really cool.
And so there you have it. Our last week fled by, and now I´m sitting in a storm in Sao Paulo and flying home tomorrow. And all I have left to say is that next time I go back to Rio, in the SUMMER, I will be staying at ¨Stone of a Beach¨ hostel, not ¨Mellow Yellow¨!
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