Day 3 Tour of Rio

After all our frolicking in the Favela Funk Party we awoke to the sound of Paul arriving home at 7 in the morning. It had taken him 3 hours to get home on public transport.Today was the day we were going to take in all the famous sites of Rio. The bus left at 12:50 and Conor and Tom just about made it back for it! We went with one of the lads from Dublin who was staying in hostel and we had to pick up more people from another hostel.

Our first stop was Christ the Redeemer Statue which involved a long bus journey straight up to the top of Corcavado Mountain. Our tour guide was very informative and helpful and great enthusiasm about Rio even though she does the tour every day!
The view from the top was amazing and you could see everything Rio had to offer from Copacabana Beach to The Sugar Loaf. The statue itself looked epic looking over the city! Its hard to believe it was brought up the mountain piece by piece on a train.
We took our photos(most people liked to take them while lying down) and we were on our way back to the bus to head to the Marcana Stadium.

On the way down we drove through one of the many Favela’s in Rio.
We were informed before we got to the stadium we wouldn’t be going inside but would only be driving around it! Had we not gone to the game last night we would have very angry to say the least.

We arrived at out next destination was the street where the biggest parade in the world takes place every February. It looked a bit empty but every February the place comes to life! There are big stands along the streets and private boxes which can cost over 70.000 reals for the night!

Our final stop before heading back was Sugar Loaf Mountain. It involved getting to cable cars to get to the top. It was a great experience being at the front of the cable car. At the top we had a great view of the city and in particular the Christ Statue with the sun setting in the background! There was even time for a short freestyle performance by me on which went down very well with the locals(keep an eye out for it on Youtube)! After it was time to get the van back to the hostel after a good days sightseeing.

That night we had to pack and make our way to another hotel where all the people from the tour were staying. We said our goodbyes to everyone in Yellow Mellow and made our way to the hotel in a taxi with one of the best/craziest drivers I have ever being in a car with. It was the best display of overtaking I have seen in my life. He showed no fear, flying in between buses that were changing lanes. It mightn’t have been as scary if we had seatbelts!
When we arrived we meet Carlos, our tour guide and the rest of the group and we headed out to a Brazilian Buffet. The waiters came around all night to each person non-stop offering different types of meat and chicken. I even tried a Chicken Heart which I regretted instantly! After paying the bill we all headed to a Samba Bar which had an interesting payment method. The waiters tick the box on a menu as you drink and you settle the bill when you leave, a method that I don’t think would work in Galway!
We arrived back in the hotel after a good night and got some much needed sleep before our journey to the tropical island of Ilha Grande!

Day 2 Favela Funk Party

Waking up in Rio was pretty cool but it was raining. We had a nice free breakfast in the Hostel. Bannanas and pineapple’s were among the selection. We had breakfast with our new room mates. We headed down to look for the Man United Chelsea match and watched it in a little café and although we were disappointed with the result, we had a bit of banter with the locals.

After heading back to the hostel we decided to go to Flamengo’s match against some crap team I never heard of. A mini bus with other people from the hostel picked us up and we went to one of the local pubs to taste the atmosphere of the game. At first we felt a little akward because we stood out like a sore thumb but football is a universal language so we soon settled in. The barman even knew were Galway was!!! We were in the pub for two hours before the match so we went across to the stadium about a half an hour before kickoff. The stadium is a like a big circle and it can fit over 100,000 people but it fits officially 92,000. Inside the stadium there is no assigned seating…in fact there is no seating at all. Everyone just stands up for the game. The atmosphere was great as well; it is helped by the flares and drums!! When Flamengo scored everyone went nuts, these huge flags appeared out of nowhere!!! One funny thing we noticed during the game was that when someone buys a drink in the stadium, they instantly offer it to everyone else!! The game finished 1-0 to Flamengo so everyone was happy out! After the match we passed a statue of Garrincha, a famous Brazilian. It is a statue of his head and when people walk by they just slap him on the back of the head! We were in stitches and started doing the same thing! I have no idea why they do it but it is a bit of craic!

When we got back to the hotel we watched “Caperio dancing”.
The best way to describe this is that it is like martial arts and dancing rolled into one. The 4 dancers were kicking at each other and ducking and diving, it was pretty surreal! They even used swords at one point! After this we had a few drinks and decided to go to the “Favela funk party” which cost us 50 reals after I used my business negotiation skills to bring him down from 60 reals…Smurfit college eat your heart out!!The staff in the hostel are great fun and we got on really well. We all went on a mini bus to this Favela party which was about a half an hour away but it was worth it!! When we went inside we were allowed into the VIP area. The layout is so strange, Mike referred to it as being like a cattle mart except that there was loads of beautiful Brazilian girls dancing….our kind of mart!!! All the Brazilians seemed to like our Galway dancing, I think they were laughing with us and not at us but who cares we had fun. We got home at 4 or 5 to the hostel but one of our room mates was nowhere to be seen. We looked all over for Paul but to no avail. His friend said that he usually does a disappearing act, so on that note we hit the hay!!!

Day 1 – “The River of January”

This is the direct translation for Rio de Janeiro, yet there is no river of note to be seen in Rio. However there is so much more sights and sounds to embrace in Rio. Our pick-up was waiting for us at the airport when we arrived at Rio and brought us straight to our hostel. While travelling in the car we saw at a glance the diverse metropolis that is Rio. We noticed the poverty in the Favelas, where shacks are built on top of each other, rubbish on the streets thronged with people in rags. It is impossible to ignore the magic of the Christ the Redeemer statue even on the car ride to the hostel. It stands above everything else in the city, up in the clouds beside God, overlooking and casting a watchful eye on events down below. The Sugar Loaf is another major landmark which we were impressed with during our car ride.

The hostel was basic but nice. Good crowd of young people and surprisingly a lot of Irish!! It felt like student accommodation in Ireland again! Having endured a gruelling 14hr flight bed was the only destination for us. After a 4hr nap we headed to the Copacabana, which is a beautiful white sand beach and the atmosphere and relaxed feeling in the area is calming. The weather was good today which made the experience even better. Lifestyle in general here seems to be relaxed, calm, stress free and everyone moves at a pace that is comfortable for them. Of course the Brazilians passion for football is evident everywhere you go from the numerous Flamengo jerseys strolling the streets to the kids playing keepy uppy on the beach. That evening we returned to the Copacabana to find a beach football league occurring to our delight. This was serious stuff and could be seen in that each team had kits, fans and the game had kitted out linesmen and refs. Football is everywhere to be seen but we really are looking forward to soaking up all the attractions this city has to offer, a lot more attractions than just a river!!

Tom

Day 0 preparations...

Our day began at the early hour of 3am. This was the morning that our new lives would begin. All week we hadn’t really contemplated this change. The cows roaring in the Kiloughter plains didn’t help my chances of sleeping though. I eventually got a bit of shut eye.

Morning in Kiloughter began at 8 for the last time. We got ready in order to say our goodbyes to the family. They all arrived and acted casual discussing the travel that was in front of us. Few cups of coffee later they decided it was time to let us on our way. This was the beginning of floods of tears from some of the family members. Emotions were exceptionally high which some of us didn’t fully expect. They waved us to the gate. This symbolised the end of a chapter of all our lives but the beginning of another.

The journey to Dublin provided many discussions about the adventure as well as the sad goodbyes. One last goodbye was left for Mum (Breda Daly). Pressure was on here when we departed in Dublin Airport. The fathers tended to get more emotional than the mothers. Mum held out the tears. That was it we were now 4 Adults out on our own.
Dublin to London flight went perfect no problems.

Next up was the long haul flight from Heathrow to Rio de Janeiro. The plane journey started well. The plane was massive. We got our seats. Mike got stuck between two Brazilians but it’s a lesson that might stand to him at a later stage. Killing time seemed easy at the start. One movie in and the arrival was 8 hours 30mins away. Then the “Da Vinci code” and the plane journey was down to 6 hours. The next six hours were harder to kill. Sleeping seemed impossible. Maybe nerves were beginning to kick. Time eventually disappeared. We landed in Sao Paulo then beautiful Rio. Stay posted Conor