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Morning all!
Well where do I begin to fill you in on the events of yesterday & last night, lol?
So we got up late (correction, helen got up late!) & we thought we'd better leave sugar-loaf for another day (meant to be today but guess who's still not awake lol!). We caught up with internet stuff & phone calls back home, then wandered the length of Impanema's main shopping street. We were just browsing in ANOTHER jewellery store when this woman from the store appeared & started talking to us in english (a rarerity here). She invited us to look at the stores larger selection located on the 14th floor of the building, being bemused by the offer we accepted. A few minutes later there we are standing in the foyer of this VIP jewellers being handed over from one woman to another, who then preceeded to explain the merits of brazils precious stones?!?!?!
We're ushed through each dispaly cabinet, then finally asked what we're intrested in, me being me said do you have any silver (I don't do gold lol)! At that point the woman realised we were back packers not the next paris & nicole, & we got abruptly dropped in the souveinr section at the rear of the store (how rude lol). Even in here though another lady asked us whether we had a driver waiting - honestly helen was dressed for the beach & I resembled some travelling hippy - & they still thought we we're here on 'daddy's credit cards, lol!!!! When we finally got back down to earth (literally), it was like in the past five minutes we'd been kidnapped & forced into buying some ridiculously overpriced jewellery! A very surreal experience.
Fast forwarding to that night, we went for tea in our usual buffet resturant with a new friend (Ida - a candian, who happened to have previously worked for GAP & knew our last tour leader, Karina the horrid - small world, huh). Me & helen decided to go for drinks afterwards at our local (which incidently we found out last night is a gay bar, thought something was up there!). After five capiranhas (my current record) helen decided maybe heading back to the hostel was a good idea, seeing as things were starting to spin & she was still seated at this point.
So we make our way back & a few feet from our hostel we pass the nightly collection of people barbequing on the corner of our street (they're always eating & drinking & generally having a good time there). We stop to buy a drink & they invite us for a few beers with them, so as not to appear rude we sit down & start chatting to them all.
A quick summary here to set the scene I think. There's a few guys from favellas (one cooking, the rest sitting round drinking), A guy from leicester (who was so vague about his reasons for living here for the past 3 years without working, I can only summise he's the local drug dealer!), a random guy from our hostel who's from Nottingham (& is so obviously sick of the brazilians shouting, robin hood at him every five minutes), a really old black guy that sings in the local posh hotels - he's convinced that I somehow resemble demi moore (yes really, he was old!), insists on having his picture taken with me & sings to me in english alnight but can't actually speak a word of english??? Oh, also there's this guy who looks dutch but swears he's from here, can't speak any english & shouts at us all the time because we're not speaking portugese, even though we explain that we just don't know any. Finally, there's the half columbian, half indian guy, sergo, who speaks perfect english, buys us numerous beers & was the one who invited us to join them in the first place (his work involves exporting, need I say more, lol)!
So there we are 11.30pm, thinking we'll have a drink with them seeing as we walk past them all everynight to get to our hostel. 3 hours later I'm holding up a very pissed helen while we stagger back home, her in fits of laughter, me in pain from holding her up. After hugging the poor security guy to death, she agrees maybe going to bed is a good idea. I should point out earlier that day we'd changed rooms & were now sleeping on the top floor of the hostel & have to navigate the tiniest staircase in the world to get to our room. Not good when you've got a leary hudson to hold up. Basically, I ended up shoving her arse up said staircase just to get her to bed!
After giving her strict instructions to stay put whilst I went back downstairs to get her some water, I leave the kitchen & find her back downstairs! So off we go again trying to get her back up to the top floor (alan, I now know why she never drinks, lol). Before we can get into bed (& I can stop panicking about helen falling down the several flights of nearby stairs just outside our bedroom door), she insists on cleaning her teeth. I go back to check she's ok after several minutes of silence & find her foaming at the mouth with toothpaste & slumped over the sink......nice!
Well its now 11.30am the day after all that & she's still not awake - I think someones going to suffer today, lol! Forgot to mention that during our drinking session with the bbq guys, they found out its helens birthday next week & have decided to throw a special street party on sunday night. I think its only right I now go & wake her up & remind her that she's got to do this all over again tomorrow night, lol!
Kez xxx
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