Rio Part 2: Budgie smuggling on the Copacabana
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2008
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18
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Trip End
Jan 01, 2009
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Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Monday, March 31, 2008
There is plenty of other things to see there too though, like the amazing football matches, where it's rumored the famous Romario began to play, the beach volleyball games and even the odd bit of Brazilian martial arts called, Capoeira. So many amazing sights in just a few hours. The water was very very strong and made it very hard to swim in but we gave it a shot anyway.
The next day, Sunday, we went to see a local derby in the Maracana Stadium, between Botafogo and Fluminense. In all honesty, none of us knew much about either team and we were thrown in with the Fluminese fans so we didn't have much choice! The stadium holds 95,000 but there was only about 40,000 there, the noise however made up for it. It started about an hour before kick off and didn't stop until well after the final whistle, even though our team lost 3-1! After the game we had to wait about half an hour until the home fans left, and as Eoin and myself had bought some fake jerseys to blend in, we felt we would be fine leaving at this stage.
Welcome to Rio!
The local police didn't think the same, and one of them chased after us for about 100 yards before asking us to remove our jerseys before leaving the stadium our we'd more than likely get a nice "welcome" from the home fans. Needless to say, the quickest changeovers all of all time occurred right there and then!Back at the hostel we were treated to a show of the Brazilian martial arts I referred to earlier called Capoeira, which was stunning. They start as young as 4 and go up to late twenties. It's a mix of martial arts, music and dance. They were moving so fast it was often hard to get a picture of it, so I hope you can make it out!
Our last attraction on Rio was to go to a Funk Party in one of the Favelas I spoke about in the last blog. This wasn't an ordinary party though and was held in a warehouse full of 6,000 people complete with fireworks! If anyone has seen the film City of God, this is where the big nightclub scene was filmed. Luckily we got VIP access on a balcony so we could look down on the crowd and still enjoy the atmosphere. On the few treks downstairs I made, it was barely even standing room and definitely no space for me to work my moves on the dance floor!!!!
We didn't get back until 5am then next morning and had to leave at 12pm so, we managed to pack up, check out and head for the bus to our next destination, Fonz de Iguazu, on a 23 hour bus trip! This would be our last stop in Brazil so I'll be back soon with lots of photos from an amazing few days in which we visited 3 countries in 2 days and got absolutely soaked to the skin!
All the best
James
Comments
Rio
It's a tough life but you two seem to coping alright - fair play to ye!!! Pictures are amazing as always. You should have got the budgie shot tho. If you're getting a pic for the boys, you need to look after the girls as well!
Alri' Buds!!!
Alrite lads,great pics.....will be getting my skype issues sorted this week,so hopefully talk soon!