Travel

Last night – I fixed my hangover with some beers.  Made friends with an arsetralian, and went to pubs.  First – oirish pub.  Very very expensive.  More expensive than in NZ.  Another bar, a few drinks.  Then, decided against going to bar which was original plan (as my watch told me it was 1:30 am, and had booked 10am tour) – and later found from some English folk that the rejected bar wanted to charge them a R$40 cover charge.  Even with the Euro in one’s pocket – that’s ridiculous.

Instead, decided for one last beer at little ‘bar’ on corner.  Lots of gringos, which annoyed me – as I’d discovered this place a couple of days back, and thought it was a local’s joint.  One last beer turned into several, with much chat about sport.  And with me, englishmen, arsetralians, brasilians, and oirish – and discussions of rugby & soccer – was of course interesting.  At one point, an english guy had a rather large knife held to his throat by a Brasilian for saying that in futbol Brasil was number 1, and England was number 2.  Jokingly.  I think.

Also discovered after a little while that one local I was chatting to was the local ‘favela’ ‘king’.  The favelas here are the slums.  Police don’t enter.  Gangs run the show, and there are tourist tours to them.  Odd.  Apparently, some of the kings earn a couple of million US$ from running them.  Drugs, and that sort of thing.  But – if people commit ‘crimes’ (according to the king’s standard of morals) within the favela – pretty severely dealt with.  Guide today told us that one guy was recently caught burgling (wouldn’t be difficult, nor very profitable, in a slum, I guess) – and had his hands cut off, then doused in petrol – and didn’t live much longer.

But, happier subjects.  Went on my tour today.  Hiked to top of a hill for views of city.  Then, went to the Cristo statue.  The big statue of Jeebers on top of the hill.  Pretty cool.  Good statue, except for the subject matter – and amazing views.  Rio de Janeiro is a bloody beautiful city.  Lots of tourists – so I think my attempt at a videoclip of the panorama is crap.  But – awesome awesome view.  A few stereotypical photos of imitating the statue.  Lunch in Santa Tereza – old suburb.  Back to hostel, and rather tired.  Should have had siesta, but instead opted for a few cervejas and watching some bad action movies in Portuguese.  Probably going to have to go out tonight, as the street party in Lapa is famous – and it’s either tonight, or tomorrow night.  And tomorrow night, I’m hopefully watching the rugby.

And as far as tiny dancers are concerned, I’m a little worried now.  I have often confused Al Pacino with Robert De Niro – so I can’t be trusted to judge whether or not the loud angry man is here designing jandalthongflipflops or not.

Still in Rio.  Recovered from travel by doing very little.  Then – spent all yesterday afternoon sitting on beach drinking caipirinhas.  And the evening, tried making my own caipirinhas in the hostel, followed by going to a soccer game at Maracana Stadium.  Which is big.

Caipirinhas consist solely of cachaca (very strong spirit made from sugar cane), crushed limes and sugar.  So – rather strong.  So – lost my group before I even entered the stadium.  And from what I could gather, my ticket wasn’t for any particular seat.  Watched the game, and left the stadium with no way of getting home.  Aimlessly ate and drank at street stalls until all crowds had left.  Started to get a little worried, but still haggled much with taxi driver for my fare home.  He finally gave in and believed that I only had R$17.  I actually had about 600 in a hidden pocket – but had decided that being stranded in a dodgy suburb of Rio would be the time to start some serious bargaining.  He got his revenge though – I got out at what I thought was a corner near my hostel.  Turned out not to be – so was still rather lost.  Eventually found my way home though.  Safe and sound, at about 3am.  And woke up this morning to discover two very scandinavian girls have moved into my dorm.  Another delicious recipe.

Haven’t seen any tiny dancers – but there are some very small thongs/flip-flops/jandals.  Also very large ones.  Lots of thongsflipflopsjandals – except in my size.  Stupidly big ones, and stupidly small ones, and heaps one size bigger or smaller than Kruse-size.  Which reminds me – anybody want some?  Apparently Havaianas are very expensive and sought after everywhere else in the world – but between 6 & 10 US$ here.

Kruse is in Rio.  It should be awesome, and kind of is, but is raining – and got here at 5am after no sleep and much bus travel and watching Spiderman 3 in Portuguese.

But – left Oro Preto – bus to Belo Horizonte.  Another bus to Congonhas.  Helpful lady told me no bus to Rio from Congonhas.  Have to go back to Belo Horizonte.  But, the bus is at 11:20pm, and last bus from Conhongas to Belo Horizonte is 10-something.  But, bad news, luggage storage closes at 5pm.  Is at this time 4pm.  Want to go visit 12 Prophets, then go onto Rio.  So… walk with backpack.  Don’t know where to go.  Just walk, then remember reading something about them being at a basilica on top of a hill.  See a basilica.  On a hill.  Big hill.  Walk up it.  Hard – not happy when I get to the top, and see something that would be cool, but not worth an hours climb in the sun with my pack.  But – Aleidijinho’s (sp?) masterpiece.  And – on way back down, before I find a long-awaited bar – get offered a lift by local.  Old brown pickup truck with little motorcycle&rider as statue on bonnet.  Very very cracked windscreen. How could I say No?  Lift to bus station – and he chases down the bus just leaving.  I try to say “No – it’s alright, I want a cerveja before I go anyway.”  So – taken to local bar.  Eat local food, my new friend rolls cigars with raw tobacco and corn husks.  Good times.  More amigos arrive.  New friend offers place to stay.  I accept – this place is great, and actually being local is awesome.  More time.  New friend gets very drunk.  Doesn’t like cerveja – only drinks cachaca.  Not very many – but pretty quickly looking rather dopey.  I decide to catch tonights bus instead.  But – he insists on driving me to bus station, rather than me walking across pedestrian bridge.  45 minutes till next bus – lots of hugs when I leave.  Brilliant town, kind of regret leaving early – but suspect my friend may have been a little man-friendly.

Bus to Belo Horizonte.  Another bus to Rio de Janeiro.  Rio de Janeiro.  Awesome.  Except, I arrive at 5am, after 2 hours sleep – don’t know where to go, and bus station is in very very dodgy neighbourhood.  Wander around in daze for a while.  Consider waiting until tourist office opens.  Instead – wait until bar opens – eat a ‘pasteleria’ and drink a cerveja.  Pay for a taxi to a hostel in Ipanema.  6am – can’t see anything – but realise the next day that this one address is actually for 7 different hostels.  As well as 5 family residences.  But – apparently the chap that saw me first and therefore grabbed my business, won the “Rio Hostel Of The Year” award.  When?  Don’t know.  Who judged?  Don’t know.

But – very big crowded, very packed dorm room.  I take it, and go to sleep with all my stuff still in pockets.  All good.

This morning – I wake up in Ipanema.  Turns out my hostel is called the “Girl From Ipanema Hostel”.  And, it turns out that Ipanema girls do deserve to have songs written about them.  Except they don’t always look ahead.  A lot of them do look at me.  Watched beach volleyball for a while.  Cloudy day, but moments of sun, and realising that I’m sitting on Ipanema beach watching locals play beach volleyball.  Sweet.

Back to hostel, teach a guy working at the hostel how to illegally copy a DVD for his girlfriend.  And drink a bottle of passable Brazilian red wine, followed by several cervejas.

Ouro Preto is indeed another pretty old colonial town.  Steep cobblestone streets.  Lots of churches.  Yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Baroque architecture, and work done by Aleijadinho.  The best one the church Sao Francisco de Assis.  The interior was ridiculous.  Couldn’t take photos – but found one on internet here.  Doesn’t really do it justice, and is only one part of the church.

Also went down a goldmine.  Rather deep, going down on one of the original carts.  New cable though, I think.  Rather deep, and big.  Went for a swim in a subterranean lake down there.  Fairly cold – and water so crystal clear that you couldn’t tell if a section was centimetres deep or metres.

And that’s about it.  Current plan is to catch bus to Congonha (sp?) – look at Aleijadinho’s masterpiece of statues of the 12 Prophets, and then continue on to Rio de Janeiro either tonight or tomorrow.  Quite excited about going to Rio, everybody raves about it.  And it’s Rio.  Just need to find a hostel where I won’t be robbed every time I walk out the door.

Spent a couple more days in Lencois.  Went to see some more waterfalls, climb a ‘mountain’, see a couple of caves.  One cave has water which turns bright blue at a certain time of day.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?) – the model that was rumoured to be in town – was indeed in town.  And she was having a photo shoot at the cave.  Sorry lads – didn’t get any decent photos.  A couple of bad ones – but the light in there was awful.  And she wasn’t a particularly attractive model.  Amusing though – watching her at the local cafe – with her little retinue of bootlickers following her around.  One guy whose job it seemed to be to carry her iPod with speakers.

25 May

Anyway – caught a bus to Brasilia.  24 hours after getting to bus stop in Lencois, arrive at bus stop in Brasilia.  The city of the future.,  Everybody had told me not to bother coming – nothing to see.  But, a city that was created because some Italian guy dreamt about a new civilisation appearing with it’s capital in a certain place – “So, let’s build a capital in that place…”, seemed like it could be interesting.  A city built from scratch in three years.  Well – got here, and was pretty quickly annoyed with it.  Back to the Brasil of beggars and touts.  Also – planning a city from scratch seems like a good idea.  But only if you remember that there are pedestrians.  Maybe they did it on purpose, foreseeing the futuristic Segways.  Also – all hotels in one area.  Nice idea.  Except only expensive ones get built there.  So, after a short time looking for a hotel, deciding it wasn’t worth going out to the suburbs for a cheap room, I figured I’d catch a bus out that same night.

Went to a shopping mall.  Brasilia loves shopping malls.  Very futuristic, in a Clockwork Orange or Brazil kind of way.  Exterior wall of shopping mall covered in external air-con units.  Inside – cubicles.  Whole thing – flat, ugly.  I figure that this mall wasn’t designed by Niemeyer.  Seen a couple of buildings that I assume were done by him (I think all the public service buildings were) – and lots more curves.  All curves, really.

Anyway – stopped for snack & cervejas in the mall.  Watched a homeless woman (in front of her two young children) snatch a bottle (empty, phew) off my table, as she wanted to use it as a weapon against a large woman she’d been having a yelling match with.  Figured this was a sign that my decision to leave was the right one.  Caught bus from central bus station (huge.  Unbelievably massive.) to the long distance bus & train station (lots of buses, no trains), and got the next ticket to Belo Horizonte.  Where I am now, and have a ticket for one hour from now to Ouro Preto.  Another small pretty colonial town, apparently.  Accommodation looks expensive, so will probably spend little time there, then onto another small town, then Rio de Janeiro.  Am hoping the accommodation in Ouro Preto isn’t too expensive, as I will have been travelling for maybe 48 hours by the time I get there.  And would like a shower, and to sleep in a bed.

Well – left Salvador.  On a hungover 6 hour bus ride.  I know I’ve been travelling too long here when I saw a 6 hour bus trip, and thought it was too short – maybe I should go somewhere different so that I’ve actually moved a decent distance in my generally intended direction.

Lencois – nice.  Small.  Cobblestone streets.  Horses roaming around streets.  Drum bands roving streets.  National park next door.  Went on a daytrip to Brasil’s tallest waterfall.  Not much water, but plenty of fall.  Had to lean over a rock outcrop to see it from the top.  Little pool at the bottom.  Then – last night looked at some photos taken by guys who’d done a 3 day trek – including visiting the bottom of the waterfall.  The little pool is actually quite big.

Otherwise – haven’t done much.  Today – slept in.  Got a cold, ate some soup, drank some cerveja, had a siesta.  Oh – and my pousada here has a hot (well, warmish) shower.  First warm shower I’ve had since Venezuela.  Celebrated with a shave.  Plan for this evening – more soup, more cerveja.