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[Apr. 7th, 2008|08:12 pm] |
(I tried to post this yesterday but the internet here is too slow to do it within 30 minutes. Some pics may have made it onto picasaweb.google.com/rach150384). Now on attempt #4 of trying to post this goddamn thing.)
Oi,
Still can't get used to saying oi as a greeting, I keep saying ola instead. I am here, fine and dandy. A little tired from lack of sleep over the past few nights (two of them have been on very cold planes and I forgot to take socks on board) but nothing 7 hours of sleep tonight won't fix. All three flights were delayed at some point but I still got to Rio just 30 minutes late. I brushed off the 20 people trying to get me to pay 70R$ for a taxi and found the correct bus to the hostel. I did, as predicted, miss my bus stop but actually overshot it by half a mile. Thank goodness I packed light.
As we came out from the airport, we passed what I initially mistook for derelict buildings then I noticed the signs of life around them - laundry hanging between crumbling walls, kids running through the narrow streets. I'm not sure if that was just a poor neighbourhood or if that was one of the favelas. It was a sobering first sight of Rio.
Found the youth hostel at about 10am and was told my bed wouldn't be ready until 1pm and I could use the internet if I wanted to while away my time. While away my time? I've only got a few days here, I'm not going to waste daylight hours on the internet. I left my backpack at the hostel figuring backpackers have a reputation for being smelly and dirty (I hadn't showered for over two days at this point) so no-one would be surprised by the grungy English girl wandering around.
I set off along Ipanema beach. That's the closest beach to my hostel. It was surprisingly empty since it's supposed to be one of Rio's most popular beaches. I'm blaming that on the weather which was overcast and drizzling slightly. The beach was nice enough, lots of volleyball games going on, as well as some decent surfing at one end. I then wandered over to Copocabana which was gringo-tastic. Then I took noticed cable cars trundling perilously between hills in the distance, took a quick look at lonely planet and found I was fairly close to Sugarloaf Mountain - two hills that are connected by cable cars for no good reason that I can tell. But off I went like a good tourist. I paid a whopping 35R$ for a ticket to the top, although it was cloudy. Something tells me I'll be waiting a long time if I hold out for good weather before doing the fun stuff. I predict the view would be fantastic on a clear day, on a cloudy day it was ok from the first hill and non-existent from the second. But to make up for it, there were little wild monkey things climbing around(how did they come to be only on the one hill?). So that made my day. I also saw a guy with some gibbon-type thing, pimping it out to the tourists so they could pay to have their photos taken with it. I frowned and moved on - most of our animals in Thailand were abused in similar ways by the tourist trade.
So I wandered back to my hostel, stopping at a kiosk to grab a coconut drink. Pick your coconut, pay 2R$, they hack its top off for you et voila! A drink! What was that thing the doctor said about eating raw fruit from street vendors? I forget...
More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/rach150384 or something like that. Will post again from Belem where hopefully the internet access is a bazillion times faster.
Tchau,
Rach |
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| Comments: |
From: (Anonymous)
2008-04-09 12:09 pm (UTC)
Cocowhat? | (Link)
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We have the same one's here (in Vietnam)--they're tasty but are they really coconuts? Coconuts are brown and furry and taste like, well, coconut--these taste vaguely of juice..I think coco-not.
From: (Anonymous)
2008-04-09 12:12 pm (UTC)
Re: Cocowhat? | (Link)
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That came up as Anonymous, but it's not, it's me, Mendy. x | |
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