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football,favelas,funk and the falls
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Well, after four days on some of the worst busses ever encountered, including 3 over night and one 24 hour one, we finally made it to Brazil! Once we got our bearings, we checked in to the ´mellow yellow´ hostel. It had been recommended to us by pretty much everyone we had met, so we were expecting good things and it delivered! though Brazil was soooo much more expensive than all the previous countries we had been too, it was nice to be in a country a little bit closer to home, the hostel we were at had a substantial bar, clean rooms, hot water and best of all a Jacuzzi, and all the staff spoke English which was handy because we literally knew 1 word of Portuguese between us!
The location was amazing as well, about 100meters from Copacabana beach, and although
it was incredibly crowded, we spent the first two days enjoying some downtime and just chilling out! On the night of the second day, we went to a ´favela funk party at a warehouse in the middle of the favelas (Brazilian slums) where they filmed some of the scenes in ´City of God´. We had managed to get through a savage amount of spirits before we got there, so when we arrived, it was pretty much a question of finding a spot on the dance floor, and making a fool of myself (easily done). I lost my mate (Mills) within minutes, but found a few Aussies who seemed to be in the same paralletic frame of mind so that was handy. Toward the end of the night, they set fireworks and all sorts of displays off. It was an amazing party and a lot of fun to be getting smashed in the centre of one of the most dangerous places in Brazil! Not to mention highly exciting!
The next day for some cultural solace, we decided to go see Christ the Redeemer. We got
unlucky with the weather as it was really cloudy but still we managed a few good views and managed to get some nice photos of the statue. The sunset point offered better views and we even got some nice shots of the statue illuminated! Needless to say after the previous night neither of us felt like doing much, so a night in the TV room was a welcomed solution.
Bright sunlight greeted us the next morning and it turned out to be the hottest day of the trip so far, at about 28°. We definitely didn’t require any invitation to spend the glorious sun drenched hours mooching on the beach! Ahhh… good times!
As we didn’t have anything planned for the night, Mills went to bed early and though I was about to follow suit my craving for a nightcap found me in the bar. As fate would have had it, I met the English guys we had befriended a few days back and they were heading to a samba party in lapá. Not wanting to have two chilled ones in a row (nights, not beer), I followed suit. After a nail biting taxi journey where our two taxis were literally racing through the streets doing burnouts at the lights, we arrived at this club, we were the only gringos there and they had a live band playing so we got a table in and settled in for a night of caprihnas and samba!!!
The next day we did a tour around the main favela in Rio, Rocinha, where over 200,000 people live in mostly illegally built houses, and the streets are run by violent drug cartels. We were rather nervous before we started, I mean after all this is said to be one of the most dangerous places in the world. Yet, it was not as bad as we expected, other than seeing some 15 year old kid sitting on the side of an alley playing with an m16, there was no threat at all, and we were told that was because the tourism generated helps the favela run and any crime on the tourists would bring the attention of the cops. Not exactly an ideal situation when you are trying to run a multi million pound Drug Empire! We managed to get a motorbike ride up to the top and then walked all the way down. It truly was an original and eye-opening experience, and really cool to be able to see it all so close at hand, we even stopped at a day care centre where we could walk around and play with the kids, really surreal!
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The location was amazing as well, about 100meters from Copacabana beach, and although
it was incredibly crowded, we spent the first two days enjoying some downtime and just chilling out! On the night of the second day, we went to a ´favela funk party at a warehouse in the middle of the favelas (Brazilian slums) where they filmed some of the scenes in ´City of God´. We had managed to get through a savage amount of spirits before we got there, so when we arrived, it was pretty much a question of finding a spot on the dance floor, and making a fool of myself (easily done). I lost my mate (Mills) within minutes, but found a few Aussies who seemed to be in the same paralletic frame of mind so that was handy. Toward the end of the night, they set fireworks and all sorts of displays off. It was an amazing party and a lot of fun to be getting smashed in the centre of one of the most dangerous places in Brazil! Not to mention highly exciting!The next day for some cultural solace, we decided to go see Christ the Redeemer. We got
unlucky with the weather as it was really cloudy but still we managed a few good views and managed to get some nice photos of the statue. The sunset point offered better views and we even got some nice shots of the statue illuminated! Needless to say after the previous night neither of us felt like doing much, so a night in the TV room was a welcomed solution.Bright sunlight greeted us the next morning and it turned out to be the hottest day of the trip so far, at about 28°. We definitely didn’t require any invitation to spend the glorious sun drenched hours mooching on the beach! Ahhh… good times!
As we didn’t have anything planned for the night, Mills went to bed early and though I was about to follow suit my craving for a nightcap found me in the bar. As fate would have had it, I met the English guys we had befriended a few days back and they were heading to a samba party in lapá. Not wanting to have two chilled ones in a row (nights, not beer), I followed suit. After a nail biting taxi journey where our two taxis were literally racing through the streets doing burnouts at the lights, we arrived at this club, we were the only gringos there and they had a live band playing so we got a table in and settled in for a night of caprihnas and samba!!!
The next day we did a tour around the main favela in Rio, Rocinha, where over 200,000 people live in mostly illegally built houses, and the streets are run by violent drug cartels. We were rather nervous before we started, I mean after all this is said to be one of the most dangerous places in the world. Yet, it was not as bad as we expected, other than seeing some 15 year old kid sitting on the side of an alley playing with an m16, there was no threat at all, and we were told that was because the tourism generated helps the favela run and any crime on the tourists would bring the attention of the cops. Not exactly an ideal situation when you are trying to run a multi million pound Drug Empire! We managed to get a motorbike ride up to the top and then walked all the way down. It truly was an original and eye-opening experience, and really cool to be able to see it all so close at hand, we even stopped at a day care centre where we could walk around and play with the kids, really surreal!
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Author info
Sam Barber
is a 21 year old part time chef/ full time traveler from Bristol, England.
Having seen enough of an interior of a kitchen after 4 years, Sam decide to pack up and explore the interior of the world.
Currently en route to New Zealand but like any good traveler, he is trying very hard not to get there anytime soon.
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