Wednesday, August 31, 2005
...The Girl From Ipanema...
Rio...ah...Rio. Bronzed bodies, little bikini´s, caperinha´s, copa...copa..cobana, samba beats and hot, steamy weather and that is just to get started. Rio is all that you imagine from the songs, Bond movies and picture perfect post cards. Image is everything here and that is why pete and I stayed away from the tinsy insy pieces of bathers (sorry guys no pictures...just couldn´t afford the plastic surgery!)
Paty came and met us for a dirty weekend in Rio. Its not cheap here..the hostels are expensive as London and act like a sauna in the night but we had a great time checking the sights out in Rio...the Christ, the footie (more on that later) and of course the beach action.
Rio, like the rest of brazil has a stark contrast between the Rich and the Poor. We will talk on that later...but from hearing rumours of high crime rates and violence we fortunately escaped...unlike one unlucky frenchmen our hostel told us about. Night one whilst picking up a few brazilian delights at the supermarket he gets caught in the middle of a robbery and ensuing gun battle with the brazilian police...night 2 in Rio....Out partying in perhaps an unsavoury part of town he is set upon by a gang and closely escaped being gang raped....day three in Rio...a harmless trip to the Christ nearly ends in a brawl when he does the usual christ post (shirt off) in front of the statue...and his mate calls out that he is a big hairy monkey...to which the enromous american next to him...thinks he just called him a fatso...and gets mighty angry...still Rio is a place of adventure.
Like everyone in Rio..we headed out to Lapa (party district) for a night in a hot and steamy samba club...Lapa has an eclectic vibe...young, old, beautiful...and the prostitutes in there tiny little underwear strutting their stuff....course Pete not knowing anything about this sort of thing (isn´t that right Peter!!!!!) mistook then lovely transexuals to be girls.
...my best dayout was sunset from Sugarloaf with a Caparinha in hand...
# posted by Pete @ 1:20 PM 
