Well I'm still in Rio, but only just. Carrying round 20 Reais in my front pocket to give to potential muggers, leaving my camera in the flat, jogs around the lake and along the beach, going into C&A in Copacabana to cool off on hot days (the iciest air con in Rio), portuguese lessons, and actually having a daily routine will all shortly be things of the past. I'll also be leaving behind in Rio my excellent host 'family' Teresa. Although my portuguese has improved about 7000% it's still a shame I wasn't really able to communicate with her properly, and the same could be said for Martin my Swiss farmer accomplice who was was actually quite an amusing bloke. Roughly a week ago now Teresa and I said goodbye to Martin (in a 'Rock n Roll Club - Crocodile' t-shirt) who was escaping the city ahead of carnival to visit a friend out in the countryside somewhere. A few days later Teresa told me she received an email from Martin, he wrote to her in Portuguese but if it had been translated I would imagine it would have gone something like this:

"Teresa, wie gehts? I iz having ein disaster mit meinem bus trip vrom Rio. I iz read das ze duratzion of meine bus war neun hours, howzever 9 warz ze arrival time! 9pm ze next day! Ja, in actzual fact mein trip lasted 21 hours, what ein schwein hund!

Martin"

Before Martin left Rio Teresa took us to a famous samba club one friday night in the amazing party district called Lapa. It's a bit like a museum with lots of old stuff hung on the walls and live music.

http://www.rioscenarium.com.br/


Teresa had reserved a table next to the stage and we had to get there early to ensure it wasn't given over to anyone else. I wasn't particularly enthused when Teresa dragged me up on the dancefloor within 20 minutes of arriving particularly as I can't dance and only one other couple had taken to the floor and therefore putting me on view of the hardly insignificant number of people watching. The ironic applause from the woman in the table next to us when we sat down said it all. Some more friends from the language shcool torned up later so I didn't have to be marooned with Teresa and Martin all night but I think Teresa was appalled when she found out I drunk 8 Caipirinhas during the evening. This is the national drink and made up of a sugar cane based spirit, lime, sugar, and ice. It is dangerously drinkable.

Aside from Teresa and I welcoming Martin's replacement to the flat (a barrel shaped American/Mexican hybrid girl called Iris) I haven't really done all that much else over the last week or so. The weather here has been terrible and I have been tempted to ask Brazil for my money back. Rio is not quite the same when its overcast and drizzling. I did go the the Maracana football stadium again to see a game, this time a Rio derby between Vasco da Gama and Botafogo. The crowd was much bigger this time and resulting atmosphere far better. It was a cracking game with Botafogo taking a 2 goal lead and then having one guy sent off. Vasco got it back to 2-2 but conceded a penalty right at the death which Botafogo converted. Needless to say there were a few fisticuffs and shenanigans in the stands and outside the ground after the game. There has also been the small matter of Rio carnival over the weekend just gone........

The highlight was the famous carnival parade on the sunday night. It takes place in the purpose built Sambodromo which is a 1.7km long road essentially with huge stands for the spectators either side. The main parade takes place on Sunday and Monday when 6 samba schools parade on each night and are judged on a number of things from the floats, costumes, the song, dancing etc. Only one samba school is on the parade ground at a time and comprises of probably half a dozen big floats (maximum height 14m!), 4,000-5,000 dancers and each has a maximum of 1 hour 20 minutes to parade. Each school has a different theme, my favourite was the animal one and the best float was the giant leapoard head (I've put some photos on the blog) which apparently had 11 men inside making it move. I've got some short video clips too including one of the cleaner that saunters down the parade strip after the school has gone through and dances for the crowd, its the exact same bloke that starred in the advert on the tv (was it a Nike commercial?) and is quite famous in Brazil.

I joined up today with a tour group to begin seeing the continent. I'm using the same company I did the trip with in India, they use a big converted truck and cram it with people and camping gear. Here's a link to the itinerary for the first leg of the trip (I will be continuing on through Venezuala and Colombia before getting off in Quito in Ecuador):

http://www.dragoman.com/destinations/tripdetails.php?cat=XMV

The sheer number of miles we'll be covering without use of a plane is rather daunting. There was quite a lot of ground covered in India which on inspection of a map Brazil dwarfs. There are two guides, 'Tamar' a swiss lady and 'Diggar' a proper fair dincome aussie bloke. The tour group is 18 strong and is the usual hotch potch of nationalities but average age does seem to be a bit old which is a little disappointing. Apparently I'm sharing with a guy called Anders (safe assumption that he's swedish) but I haven't spoken to him yet. No germans in the group and associated idiosyncracies to comment on so maybe these blog entries will get a bit shorter.

PS In case anyone goes to Brasil/Portugal in the future, needs to buy a soap dish, and wants to avoid a long drawn out difficult explanation of said item with a non english speaking sales assistant.... the portuguese for soap dish is 'soap dish'. The one I bought smells of lemons inside and I'm very pleased with it.