Carnival-tastic?
I'm sure you've all had a sleepless night wondering if we received our carnival tickets and made it to the sambodrome. We'll keep you in suspense...we had to wait so you can too!
Got the bus into Ipanema to visit the bag shop but it was closed until 10am. As this is our last day in Rio we had to go up the Corcovado even though it was still cloudy. We got the cute funicular through the rain forest up to the Christ statue. The view over the city looked very promising on the ride up until the last 50m and we were engulfed in thick grey cloud.
We did manage to establish that Christ has not turned his back on Rio and does in fact look out over the city. I'm sure this is a great comfort to the residents of the favelas behind the mountain who can't have failed to notice the symbolism.
We were glad not to be on a tour of the Corcovado as we were able to wait for an hour or so and get a glimpse of Rio through the clouds. The 10am tour had a torrid time and barely saw each other let alone the city below.
Whilst waiting for the clouds to clear, we got chatting to a kiwi (a man, not a fruit or bird) who was on a round the World year off and made us really jealous. He'd just been to Ecuador and then Antarctica on a whim. He'd spoken to some locals who said this was the worst Summer in Brazil for the last 12 years! No kidding.
We got a bus (yes, finance wins over personal safety) to the shopping centre, where Sarah was not so worried about finance as she spent a ridiculous amount of money on a designer bag and wallet. In her defence, Sarah did claim to be helping the local economy as the bag is made by Gilson Martins, a Brazilian designer.
In the rush to the bag shop Sarah left the one item entrusted to her care at the sandwich bar. Her new, black and white M&S umbrella, which has been an essential item during our rainy stay in Rio.
Went back to the hotel to pack and...to pick up our carnival tickets!! Yippee.
We then got the most unhelpful taxi driver ever who dropped us off 10 streets from the bar where we were meeting Aoife (Sarah's Canadian cousin) and her friends. We arrived at the bar just as they were leaving and all walked down to the beach to join the drag queen parade. After a few minutes the heavens opened and we got soaked (we had no umbrella you see) running back to the bar. It was really good meeting up with Aoife and her friends for a drink.
We had a frantic taxi journey back to our hotel to get the shuttle bus to the sambodrome. It is an incredible place. There are stands for 120,000 people. The were 10 samba schools parading, each given an hour for the three to five thousand school members to march, dance and play samba music down the 500m runway. The costumes were vibrantly coloured and elaborate and the floats were unbelievable. You can help but get carried away with the music and the infectious enthusiasm of the Brazilians. It was such a unique experience and has been the highlight of our trip.
Got the bus into Ipanema to visit the bag shop but it was closed until 10am. As this is our last day in Rio we had to go up the Corcovado even though it was still cloudy. We got the cute funicular through the rain forest up to the Christ statue. The view over the city looked very promising on the ride up until the last 50m and we were engulfed in thick grey cloud.
We did manage to establish that Christ has not turned his back on Rio and does in fact look out over the city. I'm sure this is a great comfort to the residents of the favelas behind the mountain who can't have failed to notice the symbolism.
We were glad not to be on a tour of the Corcovado as we were able to wait for an hour or so and get a glimpse of Rio through the clouds. The 10am tour had a torrid time and barely saw each other let alone the city below.
Whilst waiting for the clouds to clear, we got chatting to a kiwi (a man, not a fruit or bird) who was on a round the World year off and made us really jealous. He'd just been to Ecuador and then Antarctica on a whim. He'd spoken to some locals who said this was the worst Summer in Brazil for the last 12 years! No kidding.
We got a bus (yes, finance wins over personal safety) to the shopping centre, where Sarah was not so worried about finance as she spent a ridiculous amount of money on a designer bag and wallet. In her defence, Sarah did claim to be helping the local economy as the bag is made by Gilson Martins, a Brazilian designer.
In the rush to the bag shop Sarah left the one item entrusted to her care at the sandwich bar. Her new, black and white M&S umbrella, which has been an essential item during our rainy stay in Rio.
Went back to the hotel to pack and...to pick up our carnival tickets!! Yippee.
We then got the most unhelpful taxi driver ever who dropped us off 10 streets from the bar where we were meeting Aoife (Sarah's Canadian cousin) and her friends. We arrived at the bar just as they were leaving and all walked down to the beach to join the drag queen parade. After a few minutes the heavens opened and we got soaked (we had no umbrella you see) running back to the bar. It was really good meeting up with Aoife and her friends for a drink.
We had a frantic taxi journey back to our hotel to get the shuttle bus to the sambodrome. It is an incredible place. There are stands for 120,000 people. The were 10 samba schools parading, each given an hour for the three to five thousand school members to march, dance and play samba music down the 500m runway. The costumes were vibrantly coloured and elaborate and the floats were unbelievable. You can help but get carried away with the music and the infectious enthusiasm of the Brazilians. It was such a unique experience and has been the highlight of our trip.
posted by Ian @ 2:33 am
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