WE GO TO RIO

JAN 31 - FEB 5

In honour of our last overnight bus, Kim and I wet the whistle early by having a few cheeky caipirinhas prior to boarding our Rio bus. We were feeling festive and had been churning out renditions of 'I go to Rio' for days. Yes, we were pumped.

The alcohol seemed less of a good idea at 6am when we stopped over in Sao Paolo, but nonetheless we eventually arrived in Rio at 3pm, slightly dishevelled... and looking forward to Saturday night activities.

First impressions of Rio, or morerather the Copacabana-Impanema beach strip: steaming hot, too buzzing to feel beachy in a traditional sense - but everything is certainly happening on and around the water. Which was fine by us. You can buy absolutely everything from the comfort of your beach towel... food, water, cocktails, clothes, sunglasses, ridiculously small bathers... just click your fingers and it appears.

Not only this but the residents seem to be playing out many aspects of their lives down here. Sporting pursuits, working out, group exercise, dates, birthdays. (At this point I would perhaps mention the swimwear experiment which Kim and I embarked upon, except that I have been banned from doing so. Suffice to say, these incredibly small pieces of material which pass for bathers are not exactly sturdy...).

The city skyline itself is a little more surprising. The less-famous tourist attraction - of course after the imposing Christ the Redeemer monument - is Sugar Loaf Mountain, which juts out oddly over the bay. As thought God just tacked it on the end as an afterthought. Admittedly it is the vista from the Christ statue which confirms Rio de Janeiro has one of the most unusual, compelling urban sprawls I've ever seen.

And of course this uniqueness is matched only by it's intriguing inhabitants! Rio is an explosion of colour and sound, from street conversations to billboard advertising, nightclub lights and leafy streets. Yes it's intense - and absolutely f.a.n.t.a.s.t.i.c!!(By no means is the entire place beer and skittles, but this was one city where we were content to stick to the sensible areas. I was pretty disappointed that we didn't have time for a favela tour as I'm sure the 'real' Rio emerges there).


After our dismal Saturday night effort (asleep during second cocktail) we met up with a fun crew of ex-Floripa kids on Sunday and took the party bus out to a Favela Funk Party. The infamous 'festa' is a weekly rave, held in a hot, steamy warehouse, with up to 1,000 people all getting down and groovy - it sounded brilliant! In reality there were significantly less people, most of them gringos and the music was beyond-a-joke loud... but hey, they sold vodka by the litre, and we shook our booties until the wee hours.



It broke my heart to leave Rio, but it was only fitting that my final days of this adventure were spent in such a fun, fiesty city. Although I will always regret my money running out a mere WEEK from Carnivale!!