Well my first week of my new adventure and Rio has certainly been just that. I arrived in Rio after a very long and exhausting flight, to discover that I did not have the address of the backpackers hostel I was staying at. Also I had not confirmed with them a few days before leaving Australia, that I was still coming. So the promised driver to pick me up at the airport did not materialise. The only way to access the address of the hostel was with internet access – and you can possibly imagine that was not going to happen at the arrival hall of Rio international airport.
After waiting for 1/2 hr and realising it would be pointless to wait any longer, I got into a Taxi, and had a long frustrating conversation that lead nowhere – the Taxi driver of course speaking only Portuguese and me only speaking English, very badly I might add, after 21 hours of flying. I took a deep breath, let go of the frustration of my own errors and eventually had a brilliant idea - I said “Any International Hotel in Copacabana” in my best imitation of Portuguese. Somehow he managed to understand me and 30 minutes later I was deposited at a hotel. They of course had no vacancies – but he concierge very kindly arranged a place for me a block or two down the street. One of the bell boys also carried the bulk of my luggage for me – I was most grateful, and tipped him appropriately – I hope.
So now booked into a hotel for the night, access to the internet allowed me to track down the address of the hostel and all was well with the world.
It 11:30pm and of course I am wide awake – so I decide to go wondering the streets of Copacabana, which I later found it is probably not such a good idea (Ipanema yes – Copa No). It was invigorating and I did start to get the lay of the land, feeling the pulse of Copacabana, hearing the roar of the Atlantic ocean on the shore – I had took the hotel’s advice and did not venture onto the beach at night. Its amazing how the Atlantic sounds different than the Pacific – one would think and ocean is an ocean pounding on a shore, but there is a different tenor, a song that sounds different to my ear – it is a foreign ocean, for a boy from Oz.
As I have been discovering life here in Rio is very hard for a large part of the population, there is a lot of poverty and a lot of crime. I had some indication of it before I headed here, but it has been an eye opener. I witnessed a lady have a necklace ripped from her neck by a robbery on a push bike. I meet a young , Canadian, who was the victim of a drug they call “Goodnight/Midnight Cinderella”. He invited someone he did not know very well back to his apartment and was drugged while the other party made him drinks. Cinderella, puts you to sleep for up to 72 hours. His is an amazing story which I wont tell, but the drug only partially affected him, he was out cold for 24 hours – all his valuables had been stolen, his credit cards, thankfully not his passport. He was helped by his apartment/real estate guy – he did a number of things including a police report but does not remember the next 48hours as the drug was still in his system.
Despite these things, it is an amazing place. The people are friendly, and very good looking. There is every shade of colour of skin, it is very multicultural, with a few hundreds years of integration, not like Australia or Canada, who’s experiments in multiculturalism while partially successful, will take many many more generations to truly reap the benefits. Brazil was one of the last countries in the world to abolish slavery, so there are many black people who’s grand parents where the children of slaves.
On Tuesday I found my hostel, moved over to it and quickly realised – I am NOT a backpacker. Sharing bathrooms and common areas etc – is really not my style, so I started to contact some people about renting an apartment short term. By Thursday I had moved into a fantastic little one bedroom apartment in Ipanema, very gay neighbourhood, much safer than Copacabana and a very different energy feel to it. I did meet a lovely young lady from England at the hostel and we spent some beach time together.
I decide that I would go find the gay beach – I think Tuesday afternoon, so I walked from Copa to Ipanema, 20 minutes, and I was walking along the beach front, wondering where the gay area was. What I say made me laugh, the gay section has two HUGE rainbow flag flying high above it .... WHERE HERE WHERE QUEER AND WE ARE ON THE BEACH.... It was very amusing, now where have I encountered this before on a beach. Australian gay beaches are on a need to know basis.
I have been spending a lot of time on the beach, reading, watching the surf, watching the parade of gorgeous men. Have meet some nice people down there. Via Gaydar I meet a Carioca (name for Rio people). Ivan is his name and he has introduced me to some other great people. So I am having lots of fun and meeting some fun people along the way. As I said earlier, the Atlantic is quiet different to the Pacific, the surf is rough and with strong currents. The water is full of sand as it is churned up, by the waves pounding the beach.
I moved apartments again on Sunday to a much nicer apartment, bigger, more secure, 15th floor, fantastic views... Oh my God – the views. Apart from that I have not been doing very much – just going to the beach and reading, doing a lot of writing – very inspired which is great, doing some photography, many amazing sights. However I reluctant to have my camera out very much – carrying such things openly, sets you up as an easy mark, and I have been warned numerous times.
I now have a push bike and went for a ride around the lagoon this morning, 7kms, then came home and did yoga and some other exercises. Before dropping off my laundry and once again heading to the beach.... This is my plan every day for the next week, cycle, yoga, exercise, breakfast, beach. Tomorrow afternoon, I am taking a small tour up to Cocovado – Christ Redeemer. Later in the week, I will go to Sugar Loaf for sunset, the views from there are supposed to be spectacular.
Adios Amigo’s will write again when I have the opportunity – a couple of photos attached.
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