Finally we get to a beach!!!
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2006
1
40
65
Trip End
Ongoing
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
After 10 mins of searching we finally caught up with Eamonn, Alex, Gemma, Liza, Nicole (Alex's sister) and Rod a friend of Eammon and the girls. It wasn't long before we were settled in with a cold beverage and joined in the swing of things. It was great to see everybody again and catch up over cocktails on one of the coolest beaches in the world. By the time we all left we'd had enough sun and Cachaça so it was back to our various abodes to get showered ready for Alex's Birthday night out. We all met at our place and kicked the night off with champagne (which was a nice touch as we hadn't tasted that for while) before heading off to the restaurant . We went this amazing seafood place where Carla and I shared lobster and loads of wine was had (a big thanks to Alex for a great night). Half way through the meal some friends that Alex and the others had met in the north of Brazil turned up and would you believe it they were friends of ours too! We had met them in November in the Bolivian jungle, small world. The rest of the night was sampling the Rio night life until the early hours of the morning, much fun was had.
The next few days the weather wasn't so good but it didn't stop us having a laugh and seeing all Rio had to offer. We did a tour one day with girls and Rod where we saw Christ the Redeemer statue, Sugar loaf mountain, the Macarena football stadium and took in a favela. We also said goodbye to the girls and Rod and they all flew home on the 20th. With Christmas looming we realized something needed to be done about Christmas dinner (very important). One of the local lads Ely who worked at the hostel kindly offered to have everybody round his flat for Christmas dinner. On Christmas Eve a load of us went out to buy all the ingredients but as usual we left it all to last minute and started to really panic when we got to the super market and it was shut! Luckily we found a little corner shop still open and they had a big turkey so we snapped it up quick...phew! We had quite a chilled one Christmas Eve and found a nice bar and treated ourselves to a few bottles of wine. Christmas morning we headed to the beach, the sun was shining and it was great to spend the day swimming in the sea for the second year running. Time was ticking though so it was time to get the dinner on. We got Elys flat at about 4pm to lend him a hand in the kitchen. When we arrived the kitchen was the size of a broom cupboard and news had just filtered through that 25+ will be attending. All things considered Carla and I offered to take charge of the cooking as it would have been impossible to have more than two people in that kitchen. If you could imagine a kitchen that size with every burner on and no ventilation in the heat of a Brazillian summer was no laughing matter (the gravy had a lovely salty taste to it!) 4 hot and sweaty hours later and by the grace of god a full Christmas dinner with all the trimmings and a gravy my mum would be proud of emerged with enough food for every guest to have a plate, result. Our efforts we're very much appreciated and Eamonn at this point was well stuck into a turkey leg and a bottle of Vodka. It was a great evening round Elys flat and we all partied to the early hours of the morning apart from Eamonn and I who got in at 8am leaving enough time to shower before making our way to the girl from Ipanema bar/restaurant(a famous bar in Rio where the famous Jazz standard was written) to watch Spurs demolish Fulham 5-1 and have steak and chips for breakfast....Ah life is good. Soon after we had to return to the hostel, say our goodbyes, grab our bags and head to the airport. We'd realised that time and money where against us (Brazil is so expensive) so we decided to fly north to Manaus and get a bus over the border to Venezuela.
