Ahh, blog writing is a good past time whilst waiting for photos to upload to facebook!!
So we are now in PERU!!! Day 2 in Lima now, waiting to meet our group for the big tour in about an hour. We have already met 2 of the girls who (coincidentally!) were at school with a girl we lived with in Rio for 6 weeks whilst volunteering - small world or what!!
We arrived yesterday at about midday. Incredibly we met a guy at Sao Paulo airport who lives in Lima and so he was a massive help once we got to the airport here. He got us a taxi for over half the price the guys originally asked for and has given us his number so that he can take us around and show us the best places for ceviche (very citrussy raw fish speciality) and Pisco Sours (the local drink, sounds very much like a Caipirinha to me.. not looking forward to that one!)
So yesterday we looked around the area our hotel is in known as Miraflores. It seems like a really nice district (deceptively safe maybe) with some great restaurants and markets. We went to one restaurant recommended by the hotel which was fantastic. I had calamari and Danni had some interesting corn (so many varieties of corn here, its unbelievable!) and some amazing fried potato. After eating the waiter let us go behind the kitchen7bar (right in the dining room) and pose for photos by the open fire etc. Very touristy but very fun! We also did a little shopping. Found a really really cheap market place with lots of rip off Abercrombie and Fitch etc which may require another visit. Also explored a street market full of incredible trinkets. Could really spend a fortune here (everything is so cheap, but I want everything...problem!)
We went to bed super duper early as we had to get up at 4am in Sao Paulo to catch the plane, but that was OK cos it meant we got up super duper early! We were at the cathedral in Lima at 8.30 this morning!! I wasnt greatly impressed by it like I have been by other churches. It felt very modern and a bit too much like a museum. Really couldnt imagine worshipping there, but it was nice... Wondered around the old town a bit. Found another couple of churches and a really weird sort of military memorial place which had a cellar full of coffins - very odd!
Food today has also been fantastic! We sampled the cerviche at a little (almost greasy spoon, but very nice!) place recommended to us by a police man (as you do!). Its wonderful!! Very very citrussy and a little spicy but absolutely gorgeous, especially served with sweet potato and 2 different varieties of corn!!
So just about finished uploading photos now and not a lot else to say - perfect! Got to admit that I do really like Lima and wish we could spend a little longer here, but very VERY much looking forward to starting the Southern Cross. As I said we´ve already met 2 of the girls and on our way out we saw 2 cute guys checking in at reception with big backpacks... fingers crossed theyre in our group! Haha!
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Tocorime
Yikes, it really has been ages and ages since my last post. A whole new month this time! Cant believe how fast this trip is going. We are almost half way through already and it feels like only yesterday we were at the airport!!
Our last few weeks in Rio were as fantastic as ever! Carnaval was absolutely insane. Unfortunately I got very very ill over that crucial week! Just read the end of my last blog which was raving a bit about Acai. Well scrap that! Can never NEVER touch the stuff again. Not sure if that was what made me ill but it was the last thing Id had before 2 instances of being violently sick and really dont fancy it again!
Despite the illness I still managed to enjoy myself! Parading with Imperio da Tijuca was such an incredible experience. It almost feels like we didnt do it, it was so surreal! Shame that the costumes were so ridiculous, but when everyone was there all dressed the same it really didnt matter. The atmosphere was totally electric. Very very scary once we got into the Sambodrome. You dont realise how many people are watching you, and not just that: how clsoe they are to you aswell! We were supposed to know the words for the Samba song, but as we didnt we were just miming crazily so that the judges (who sat much higher up) got a good impression. However, it mustve been totally obvious to all the people along the barriers that we didnt have a CLUE and nor could we Samba especially well. Bloody gringos!!
After our own performance in the Sambodrome we went to see the Special Groups performing which was another incredible experience. Their costumes were absolutely incredible (many photos to come, but they really dont do them justice at all!). So on Sunday night we were up watching the Samba untill 6am (plus scavenging for costumes afterwards - they just ditch them mostly! Its heart breaking to see all these beautiful sparkly creations lying in the dust. Got into proper magpie mode and salvaged a few special and transportable pieces!). After just 3 hours sleep we got up and headed to the final blocco being held up in Santa Theresa. It was totally BRILLIANT! Beforehand Id thought it was a bit weird having a street party like that during the day, but honestly it worked! It was fantastic! Managed to get rather tiddly (ahem!) by about 10 oclock and happened to bump into a gorgeous guy wed met in Lapa a few weeks back. He was Brazilian but with the most incredible sea-green eyes. AND, to top it all off he was dressed as Jack Sparrow. Phwoar Captain!!!
Which leads me nicely onto our week aboard the tall ship which we just finished today - sad times! It was a truly incredible week. Everything about it totally exceeded my expectations!!
The boat itself was just amazing. It was built by hand by Markus who was the captain on board. It had such soul and it was incredible to meet the guy whod actually made it himself. Apparently hime and a few friends had just decided one day that they fancied building a boat.Thought it would take them about 1 year but due to a change in currency all the money theyd saved up became worthless over night and what with a few other set backs it actually took them 6 years to complete the Tocorime. But I think it was totally worth it. It is an incredible boat and with such soul. Difficult to explain but it certainly wasnt your average boat!!
The itinerary was breath taking too. We went to so many beautiful beaches. It was properly paradise! We sailed to one which is rated as the 4th best beach in the world. It was so gorgeous - the sand was so soft it actually felt like snow. It even crunched and squeaked a little as you walked on it. And the sea was so so warm. It was close to heaven - especially was we arrived super early in the morning and so were the only ones there! Most days were similar to be honest. Wed always be in the sea (aquamarine, of course!). The boat had a supply of foam noodles which meant you didnt even have to use any effort to stay afloat! There was one American passenger who actually bought his own inflatable lilo with him and spent rather a lot of time floating on that (plus an umbrella to prevent sunburn - cue many Mary Poppins realted comments!) getting people to throw him beers. Definitely a good way to live! We also did a few hikes. One was absolutely incredible as it wasnt too much hard work but invo9lved scrambling up a fresh water stream to reach a waterfall. It was absolutely gorgeous and there was a little ledge in the water that you could climb up to and then slide down the rocks into a huge cool pool. Hopefully someone with a waterproof camera got some photos. It was truly breathtaking. We did another hike on the penultimate day which wasnt so enjoyable. Admittedly there were great views from the very top (the mountain is referred to as Sugar Loaf even though its not the offical one in Rio ((which we did go up, forgot to write about that! Absolutely lovely wathcing the sunset and drinking hot chocolate on there!))). The walk up was horrific. It took over an hour and was so so steep that there were a couple of ropes attached to the trees to pull yourself up on! It was also stinking hot.... Not entirely sure if the view made up for that but I guess its all good training for Macchu Pichu!!
Finally, the bit that really made the trip. The people on board. Everyone was absolutely brilliant: passengers and crew. Possibly my favourite thing about travelling is the people that you meet. Everyone was so interesting and interested - Danni and I and a guy called Sam were all the youngest but I never felt it. Its odd how at home Id never get the chance to meet certain people and lots of them would probably turn their nose up at hanging out with someone half their age. It was great to meet people from different countries too. Everyone was so different but really contributed. It was a brilliant group, we all seemed to get on so well and actually feel really sad to leave them all. Especially Christian the Norwegian barman, he was rather nice! Hehe......!!
Anyway, really need to gert off to bed now! Didnt get brilliant sleep on board. Having said that, one of my favourite parts was sleeping on deck. Wed watch the sunset at about 6.30 and then have dinner (oh my god the chef on board was incredible! A proper magician given the size of the kitchen and the heat down there!) and then lounge around drinking beers (or capirinhas..) as the stars came out. There were a couple of hammocks on deck but mostly Danni and I brought our matress upstairs. Then in the morning youd be woken up by sunrise or occassionally the monekys in the trees on the islands nearby. Wow!!!!!!!
2 nights in Sao Paulo now before heading off to Peru to start the big Southern Cross. Unfortunately we are both a bit ill at the moment. One inconsiderate passenger boarded the ship with a cold and subsequently most of the rest of us have it now and he is fine. Thanks Rogier!!!
Its a shame I missed such a long time out. This blog acts as my own record of the trip. Im sure Ill remember all the best bits... though there have been so many!! Almost half way now which is scary scary SCARY!!!
Boa noite
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Our last few weeks in Rio were as fantastic as ever! Carnaval was absolutely insane. Unfortunately I got very very ill over that crucial week! Just read the end of my last blog which was raving a bit about Acai. Well scrap that! Can never NEVER touch the stuff again. Not sure if that was what made me ill but it was the last thing Id had before 2 instances of being violently sick and really dont fancy it again!
Despite the illness I still managed to enjoy myself! Parading with Imperio da Tijuca was such an incredible experience. It almost feels like we didnt do it, it was so surreal! Shame that the costumes were so ridiculous, but when everyone was there all dressed the same it really didnt matter. The atmosphere was totally electric. Very very scary once we got into the Sambodrome. You dont realise how many people are watching you, and not just that: how clsoe they are to you aswell! We were supposed to know the words for the Samba song, but as we didnt we were just miming crazily so that the judges (who sat much higher up) got a good impression. However, it mustve been totally obvious to all the people along the barriers that we didnt have a CLUE and nor could we Samba especially well. Bloody gringos!!
After our own performance in the Sambodrome we went to see the Special Groups performing which was another incredible experience. Their costumes were absolutely incredible (many photos to come, but they really dont do them justice at all!). So on Sunday night we were up watching the Samba untill 6am (plus scavenging for costumes afterwards - they just ditch them mostly! Its heart breaking to see all these beautiful sparkly creations lying in the dust. Got into proper magpie mode and salvaged a few special and transportable pieces!). After just 3 hours sleep we got up and headed to the final blocco being held up in Santa Theresa. It was totally BRILLIANT! Beforehand Id thought it was a bit weird having a street party like that during the day, but honestly it worked! It was fantastic! Managed to get rather tiddly (ahem!) by about 10 oclock and happened to bump into a gorgeous guy wed met in Lapa a few weeks back. He was Brazilian but with the most incredible sea-green eyes. AND, to top it all off he was dressed as Jack Sparrow. Phwoar Captain!!!
Which leads me nicely onto our week aboard the tall ship which we just finished today - sad times! It was a truly incredible week. Everything about it totally exceeded my expectations!!
The boat itself was just amazing. It was built by hand by Markus who was the captain on board. It had such soul and it was incredible to meet the guy whod actually made it himself. Apparently hime and a few friends had just decided one day that they fancied building a boat.Thought it would take them about 1 year but due to a change in currency all the money theyd saved up became worthless over night and what with a few other set backs it actually took them 6 years to complete the Tocorime. But I think it was totally worth it. It is an incredible boat and with such soul. Difficult to explain but it certainly wasnt your average boat!!
The itinerary was breath taking too. We went to so many beautiful beaches. It was properly paradise! We sailed to one which is rated as the 4th best beach in the world. It was so gorgeous - the sand was so soft it actually felt like snow. It even crunched and squeaked a little as you walked on it. And the sea was so so warm. It was close to heaven - especially was we arrived super early in the morning and so were the only ones there! Most days were similar to be honest. Wed always be in the sea (aquamarine, of course!). The boat had a supply of foam noodles which meant you didnt even have to use any effort to stay afloat! There was one American passenger who actually bought his own inflatable lilo with him and spent rather a lot of time floating on that (plus an umbrella to prevent sunburn - cue many Mary Poppins realted comments!) getting people to throw him beers. Definitely a good way to live! We also did a few hikes. One was absolutely incredible as it wasnt too much hard work but invo9lved scrambling up a fresh water stream to reach a waterfall. It was absolutely gorgeous and there was a little ledge in the water that you could climb up to and then slide down the rocks into a huge cool pool. Hopefully someone with a waterproof camera got some photos. It was truly breathtaking. We did another hike on the penultimate day which wasnt so enjoyable. Admittedly there were great views from the very top (the mountain is referred to as Sugar Loaf even though its not the offical one in Rio ((which we did go up, forgot to write about that! Absolutely lovely wathcing the sunset and drinking hot chocolate on there!))). The walk up was horrific. It took over an hour and was so so steep that there were a couple of ropes attached to the trees to pull yourself up on! It was also stinking hot.... Not entirely sure if the view made up for that but I guess its all good training for Macchu Pichu!!
Finally, the bit that really made the trip. The people on board. Everyone was absolutely brilliant: passengers and crew. Possibly my favourite thing about travelling is the people that you meet. Everyone was so interesting and interested - Danni and I and a guy called Sam were all the youngest but I never felt it. Its odd how at home Id never get the chance to meet certain people and lots of them would probably turn their nose up at hanging out with someone half their age. It was great to meet people from different countries too. Everyone was so different but really contributed. It was a brilliant group, we all seemed to get on so well and actually feel really sad to leave them all. Especially Christian the Norwegian barman, he was rather nice! Hehe......!!
Anyway, really need to gert off to bed now! Didnt get brilliant sleep on board. Having said that, one of my favourite parts was sleeping on deck. Wed watch the sunset at about 6.30 and then have dinner (oh my god the chef on board was incredible! A proper magician given the size of the kitchen and the heat down there!) and then lounge around drinking beers (or capirinhas..) as the stars came out. There were a couple of hammocks on deck but mostly Danni and I brought our matress upstairs. Then in the morning youd be woken up by sunrise or occassionally the monekys in the trees on the islands nearby. Wow!!!!!!!
2 nights in Sao Paulo now before heading off to Peru to start the big Southern Cross. Unfortunately we are both a bit ill at the moment. One inconsiderate passenger boarded the ship with a cold and subsequently most of the rest of us have it now and he is fine. Thanks Rogier!!!
Its a shame I missed such a long time out. This blog acts as my own record of the trip. Im sure Ill remember all the best bits... though there have been so many!! Almost half way now which is scary scary SCARY!!!
Boa noite
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Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Copacabana
Wow Wow WOW!!! Our new residence in Copacabana is absolutely fantastic - mostly due to the people. We came over on Thursday night to meet Michel, Gabi and their friend Miguel who lives here, and from the moment we stepped through the door we had a good feeling. It seems almost impossible to meet 3 more friendly, relaxed, and genuinely NICE people! They welcomed us so so much, inviting us to stay for dinner (which we ate sat on the floor out of wooden bowls surrounded by their 4 cats) and we ended up staying for hours playing the piano and drinking beers etc. It's difficult to explain how lovely these people are! And incredibly talented too. Michel is an artist (Google Michel Groisman) and Miguel is a photographer (currently working on a set of photos involving ink falling through a tank of water, very good!) and Gabi teaches and practices the Alexandra Technique. Very hippy -especially considering the hammock in the front room -but amazingly interesting!
We've been here for a couple of days now. We moved in on Friday which was a bit tough seeing as we went out on Thursday night and didn't get home until 5am. And got up for work at 6am!! It was our last day at project though, so very worth going. I was surprised how much I've gotten attached to those kids!! Unfortunately it wasn't the big 'carnival party' we'd been planning because half of the kids have gone back to school, but it was still a fun morning. After saying goodbye (and holding back the tears, literally!) we went to the restaurant down the road for one last time. Our waiter, chef and friend: Julios, was very sad to hear that we wouldn't be coming back.
So on Friday afternoon we moved house for the first time on our travels. It was quite a sad occassion, and pretty epic! We totally had to do the gringos on the Metro with a rucksack-baby, and matters were made far far worse by my dodgy stomach! There was one point where I wasn't sure if I'd make it, but rest assured: I did!!
The weekend was pretty chilled. On Saturday Miguel gave us a tour of the local area. It was really really useful: he showed us an amazing ice cream shop, bakery, nut shop (note the food theme... oh dear!), the best place to drink Acai, and an amazing music shop which has live music scheduled for every day. We have been so so grateful to him. Michel and Gabi are not living here at the moment - they have gone to a new EcoCommune being set up 5 hours away by 3 of their friends. Like I said, hippy but interesting!! So Miguel has really taken us under his wing. That night we wanted to go out for a Valentine's meal (just 5 ladies :( although apparently Brazilians celebrate Valentine's day in June, so that obviously explains our lack of dates...hmmm!), and Miguel took us on a mini restaurant tour to choose our favorite. And if all that isn't enough: this morning he cooked Danni and I waffles with home made apricot jam and fresh coffee. Seriously, this guy is a legend! I want to bring him home!!
We spent most of Sunday on the beach (as per usual!). In the evening I headed up to the favela near Santa Theresa with a few of the other volunteers. The community was having a Carnival party for all of the local families (didn't stop some of the men bringing guns, scary stuff!). We somehow got ourselves involved with the Batteria (drums etc). The samba beat is surprisingly difficult to keep up with. We were all a bit shocked by the dancing going on though. People can say that Western children grow up too quickly, but when you watch 3 year old Brazilian girls dancing Samba like that you begin to wonder...
After the party a few of us decided to head up to Santa. Someone told us that there is amazing live Samba there every Sunday night... it appears that was wrong!! We did manage to locate the most 'happening' bar of the evening where we bumped into Olivia (our project leader) and her new boyfriend, exciting stuff!!
Monday was another chilled out day involving the beach. We went out in the evening to Emporium: our favorite bar (so far...!). It was totally filled with gringos, but it was actually quite nice to be able to have proper conversations (involving sarcasm: Danni, especially, was ecstatic!!). We spent most of the night with some Ozzie boys (or 'dudes'!) and ended up watching the sun rise over Ipanema beach with them. It was incredible. You could look to your left and see the sun peaking orange over a few clouds, and then turn to the right and there was Sugar Loaf and the glittering houses next to it in total darkness, and with all the stars and gradations of colour in between...! Wow.
It turns out that we also watched the sun set today. This time from Cristo!!
This morning, Danni and I braved it and (ironically!) had Brazilians in Brazil!! Haha. It was my first experience of waxing so I was pretty scared (shaking, restricted breathing etc!) but it was actually fine. Apparently much better than the way it's done in England!! From there we headed on to Uruguaiana to do some Carnaval shopping!! The 4 of us girlies got matching outfits: 4 for each big night of Carnaval!! We have: Hawaiin; cow girl; ravers; and Brazil lovers!! Fun times.
We then headed up to Cristo (after a mahoosive cup of Acai, my new favorite! Seriously, can't stop thinking about it.. wonder if it may be addictive!). We went with some French guys we met yesterday. It was incredible up there. We got a taxi this time to save walking and to be a bit safer (thanks for the heads up Felix!) which meant that we could stop off at various other view points and spend longer at the top watching the sun set. It really was very momentous. It's not often that something can so totally stop you in your tracks. It's a very humbling place to be: looking out as the sun sets over Rio and Cristo looms over you. Incredible!
Not much else to say. It's been a almost surreal 3 days living in Copacabana!!
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
The Weekend and More...
I've done it again, left it far too long between blog entries... sigh!
Danni and I didn't go out on Friday night in the end. The bites on her leg were really playing up: about 6 of them swelled up and filled with puss to the point where it hurt to walk, so she had an excuse to stay in bed. Myself, I was just tired!!
On Saturday we went to Ipanema beach again. It was just myself and Danni, but we managed to bump into Becky there (she used to be living in our house but her project finished so she's been out in a hostel for the past week. Although we still see her nearly every day, she even comes up to the house - maybe just to use our internet...! - which is ace). It was a lovely day, I had the nicest swim in the sea I've ever had - that is, until I realised I'd gone in with my new watch and broken it :( such a fool! But it hasn't been so bad. I'm determined to go for a while without a watch cos I'm usually so anal about knowing the time: it should be good for me! I've gone 4 days so far and I'm not going totally insane so that's ok!!
Whilst on the beach we met some really cool guys. Unfortunately they were only in Rio for a couple of days each, but they were staying at the Mellow Yellow hostel in Copacabana and they invited us there for a few drinks before we took them to Lapa (so weird how we are now the ones in the know and they relied on us to show them where was good.. pressure much!). Their hostel was pretty cool, except the bar was up about 6 flights of stairs and it had a bit of an 18-25s Mediterranean holiday feel about it - there were some girls there doing a 'sexy dance'class which was a bit cringey! Anyway, we didn't join in with that. We played a fun drinking game instead. Very smilar to the one where you count up to 10 in a group and can't speak over someone else, but you had to stand up as you counted and drink (obviously!) if you lost or if you were the last to go. Much amusement! The 'hostel drink'there was lush as well. It was called a Mellow Yellow and was actually a nice cocktail involving cashaca, unlike Caparinhas!!
From there we went to Lapa where we met up with lots of people from our house (including some of the newbies having their first night out in Rio!) and the beautiful boys as mentioned before! We just hung around chatting for ages near the Arcos and eventually decided to go into a club. At first, I thought it was really lame. The music was all Portuguese classics from the 70s and 80s, but it was all sort of laid back Samba. By the end of the night everyone was partner dancing and it was a really great atmosphere. When I got tired I just ended up sitting on a bench at the side smiling at everyone else having such a good time.
We left at about 6.30am by which point Danni had had a rather hilarious rant at some poor unsuspecting Brazilian man. Well, he wasn't 'poor' actually, he was really annoying and wouldn't leave us alone and it seemed like he enjoyed Danni's explosions as he kept clapping along and sort of chanting with her... interesting stuff!!
Ipanema beach again on Sunday. This time we avoided the Hippy Market as we do the same thing every week - wonder around wanting everything but never having quite enough money and always being aware of the budget (or slight lack of!). It was rather interesting on the beach as I bumped into a couple of guys I'd met in various clubs over the last few weeks... Got told I was very cute because of my English accent whilst speaking Portuguese, the fact that I'm 19, and the fact that I live with my parents. Well hundreds of people here live with their parents for years and years, so I don't know what they were talking about dammit!
On Sunday evening we attempted going to Santa Theresa AGAIN!! This time we got as far as going down the hill to the square and waiting for a Kombi. Unfortunately, when the Kombi came we decided it was too late as the live music finishes quite early so we vowed to go next week and Danni, Becky and I ended up at a little bar in town which was quite nice anyway!!
We did manage to make it to Santa Theresa on Monday though! *cheers* we started off by meeting Becky in the morning and going with her to her project. She works up in the favela near Santa Theresa. It is a whole lot nicer than our one out in the country. It's difficult to identify exactly why it was nicer - the road was concreted so that was an obvious difference, but it had a lot narrower streets than ours. Still, it most definitely has more money and probably the volunteer work going on there helps create a cheerful atmosphere - it was like i-to-i central! There were hundreds of volunteers and ex-volunteers there painting. It's quite funny because the drug lords who rule there have allowed them to paint, so long as they only do big blocks of colour: not one house red, one blue etc. This is so that if there is a police raid it will be more difficult for the policemen to identify which house the drug traders are hidden in because the whole street is blue or salmon or whatever. That's just the way it is!!
From the favela we walked up the hill and eventually hopped on a tram. They are funny little things! Very narrow but very tall so they look pretty precarious on the roads! We had a great time just hanging off the sides (free that way, never mind paying 60 cents to sit down!). It was actually like being an excited little kid again, and Danni got even more excited when one of the beautiful bohemian types got on!! We had forgotten to take a Lonely Planet book, so we ended up just hopping on and off the trams wherever we saw a nice spot. We had a beer overlooking a favela on the opposite hill - we go past it on the train every morning, it has an incrediblely high road winding up the hill on huge stilts. We also found quite a few gift shops which were very nice.
The tram from Santa Theresa goes back into the main town via the Arcos de Lapa - the old aqueduct, with great views of the new city blocks surrounding the weird concrete cone of the cathedral. From there we walked into Uruguaiana, and (alas!) ended up at the Columbo Cafe again! Third time in three weeks, woopsy! But once we realised where we were there was no way we could resist it and walk past! After that little indulgence we also indulged in a bit of shopping around the area (just window shopping though due to lack of money!). However, once we got back to our neighbourhood, we stumbled across 2 amazing vintage shops!! One of them was just like a mahoosive jumble sale. I picked up a really cute smock-style dress for $3 and a pair of shiney gold heels in almost perfect condition for only $10. Very impractical, but never mind!! They'll look great on the Inca Trail...
We've just been at project for the last few days. We've had far fewer kids because of the schools going back and it being so close to Carnaval so we've stopped doing the afternoon sessions (a very welcome decision as no kids ever turned up and we just wasted time getting hot and tired there!). However, we have decided to hang around every day and have lunch there. Not sure if I've written about it before, but there's a fantastic 'restaurant' (just a jolly old man who loves having gringos in his house and his wife!). For just $5 you get as much rice and beans as you can eat, plus salad, plus a different choice of meat everyday. It is absolutely lush! Danni and I have taken to eating as much as possible at lunch times because we have so little food here at the house and there's not much point in buying more because we are leaving here on Friday. Good stuff - it's almost worth the bus and tram fare to get there just to have such a fantastic meal!
Last night we made our 2nd (or possibly 3rd) attempt at finding the Clan Cafe. It's in the Lonely Planet and it sounds like it would be great: live jazz and various other types of music every night. This time, we took a taxi but the driver swore he had never heard of it and that there were no bars in the area. We took his word because he lives there, and so set out to find somewhere else to wile away the evening. We started off in a bar, but ended up retiring to the juice bar next door (until 10.30pm, wild or what!) But that was also lush (need to enhance adjective vocabulary!). I had Açai - apparently a super fruit, but very very Very tasty!! Danni also had a Frappucino which was heavenly. We are already planning our next trip there...!!
That's just about all to write for now. Project is going well at the moment. We just found out that it is going to get sponsored hugely starting very soon. Some guys turned up (we thought they were just going to do one theatre class), but they've said they'll fund a teacher a day for the kids to learn Ballet, Capoeira, Theatre, Modern Dance, and Circus. It's going to be great! When we get back to Rio in April we will definitely go back to visit to see the classes in full swing! Also found out that Olivia's managed to find some of her friends to sponsor 3 of the older guys through university which is absolutely fantastic as otherwise they wouldn't have stood a chance of going! They want to do Medicine, Law and Architecture and have apparently planned that when they graduate they will move into an appartment with Olivia in Copacabana and be god-fathers to all her children and they'll eat out every night and go to clubs.... It's just incredible what this project can do for them all and it feels great to be a part of it, no matter how small! We are doing the Carnaval party on Friday so have spent the last 2 days making lanterns out of yoghurt pots and masks covered in sequins and feathers! Should be good...
Off to bed now. We've just done our first round of packing tonight - very sad! It really does feel like home here, especially in this house. However, we are meeting Michel and Gabi (long convoluted 'friend of a friend' type story) tomorrow before we move in on Friday. Pretty weird seeing as they won't actually be in the house the whole time we're there! They're happy to leave us in the capable hands of their friend Miguel... should be excellent! Especially as the house is in Copacabana. Not looking forward to the Metro with our luggage though... our first taste of proper back packing!!
Boa noite xxxxxxx
Danni and I didn't go out on Friday night in the end. The bites on her leg were really playing up: about 6 of them swelled up and filled with puss to the point where it hurt to walk, so she had an excuse to stay in bed. Myself, I was just tired!!
On Saturday we went to Ipanema beach again. It was just myself and Danni, but we managed to bump into Becky there (she used to be living in our house but her project finished so she's been out in a hostel for the past week. Although we still see her nearly every day, she even comes up to the house - maybe just to use our internet...! - which is ace). It was a lovely day, I had the nicest swim in the sea I've ever had - that is, until I realised I'd gone in with my new watch and broken it :( such a fool! But it hasn't been so bad. I'm determined to go for a while without a watch cos I'm usually so anal about knowing the time: it should be good for me! I've gone 4 days so far and I'm not going totally insane so that's ok!!
Whilst on the beach we met some really cool guys. Unfortunately they were only in Rio for a couple of days each, but they were staying at the Mellow Yellow hostel in Copacabana and they invited us there for a few drinks before we took them to Lapa (so weird how we are now the ones in the know and they relied on us to show them where was good.. pressure much!). Their hostel was pretty cool, except the bar was up about 6 flights of stairs and it had a bit of an 18-25s Mediterranean holiday feel about it - there were some girls there doing a 'sexy dance'class which was a bit cringey! Anyway, we didn't join in with that. We played a fun drinking game instead. Very smilar to the one where you count up to 10 in a group and can't speak over someone else, but you had to stand up as you counted and drink (obviously!) if you lost or if you were the last to go. Much amusement! The 'hostel drink'there was lush as well. It was called a Mellow Yellow and was actually a nice cocktail involving cashaca, unlike Caparinhas!!
From there we went to Lapa where we met up with lots of people from our house (including some of the newbies having their first night out in Rio!) and the beautiful boys as mentioned before! We just hung around chatting for ages near the Arcos and eventually decided to go into a club. At first, I thought it was really lame. The music was all Portuguese classics from the 70s and 80s, but it was all sort of laid back Samba. By the end of the night everyone was partner dancing and it was a really great atmosphere. When I got tired I just ended up sitting on a bench at the side smiling at everyone else having such a good time.
We left at about 6.30am by which point Danni had had a rather hilarious rant at some poor unsuspecting Brazilian man. Well, he wasn't 'poor' actually, he was really annoying and wouldn't leave us alone and it seemed like he enjoyed Danni's explosions as he kept clapping along and sort of chanting with her... interesting stuff!!
Ipanema beach again on Sunday. This time we avoided the Hippy Market as we do the same thing every week - wonder around wanting everything but never having quite enough money and always being aware of the budget (or slight lack of!). It was rather interesting on the beach as I bumped into a couple of guys I'd met in various clubs over the last few weeks... Got told I was very cute because of my English accent whilst speaking Portuguese, the fact that I'm 19, and the fact that I live with my parents. Well hundreds of people here live with their parents for years and years, so I don't know what they were talking about dammit!
On Sunday evening we attempted going to Santa Theresa AGAIN!! This time we got as far as going down the hill to the square and waiting for a Kombi. Unfortunately, when the Kombi came we decided it was too late as the live music finishes quite early so we vowed to go next week and Danni, Becky and I ended up at a little bar in town which was quite nice anyway!!
We did manage to make it to Santa Theresa on Monday though! *cheers* we started off by meeting Becky in the morning and going with her to her project. She works up in the favela near Santa Theresa. It is a whole lot nicer than our one out in the country. It's difficult to identify exactly why it was nicer - the road was concreted so that was an obvious difference, but it had a lot narrower streets than ours. Still, it most definitely has more money and probably the volunteer work going on there helps create a cheerful atmosphere - it was like i-to-i central! There were hundreds of volunteers and ex-volunteers there painting. It's quite funny because the drug lords who rule there have allowed them to paint, so long as they only do big blocks of colour: not one house red, one blue etc. This is so that if there is a police raid it will be more difficult for the policemen to identify which house the drug traders are hidden in because the whole street is blue or salmon or whatever. That's just the way it is!!
From the favela we walked up the hill and eventually hopped on a tram. They are funny little things! Very narrow but very tall so they look pretty precarious on the roads! We had a great time just hanging off the sides (free that way, never mind paying 60 cents to sit down!). It was actually like being an excited little kid again, and Danni got even more excited when one of the beautiful bohemian types got on!! We had forgotten to take a Lonely Planet book, so we ended up just hopping on and off the trams wherever we saw a nice spot. We had a beer overlooking a favela on the opposite hill - we go past it on the train every morning, it has an incrediblely high road winding up the hill on huge stilts. We also found quite a few gift shops which were very nice.
The tram from Santa Theresa goes back into the main town via the Arcos de Lapa - the old aqueduct, with great views of the new city blocks surrounding the weird concrete cone of the cathedral. From there we walked into Uruguaiana, and (alas!) ended up at the Columbo Cafe again! Third time in three weeks, woopsy! But once we realised where we were there was no way we could resist it and walk past! After that little indulgence we also indulged in a bit of shopping around the area (just window shopping though due to lack of money!). However, once we got back to our neighbourhood, we stumbled across 2 amazing vintage shops!! One of them was just like a mahoosive jumble sale. I picked up a really cute smock-style dress for $3 and a pair of shiney gold heels in almost perfect condition for only $10. Very impractical, but never mind!! They'll look great on the Inca Trail...
We've just been at project for the last few days. We've had far fewer kids because of the schools going back and it being so close to Carnaval so we've stopped doing the afternoon sessions (a very welcome decision as no kids ever turned up and we just wasted time getting hot and tired there!). However, we have decided to hang around every day and have lunch there. Not sure if I've written about it before, but there's a fantastic 'restaurant' (just a jolly old man who loves having gringos in his house and his wife!). For just $5 you get as much rice and beans as you can eat, plus salad, plus a different choice of meat everyday. It is absolutely lush! Danni and I have taken to eating as much as possible at lunch times because we have so little food here at the house and there's not much point in buying more because we are leaving here on Friday. Good stuff - it's almost worth the bus and tram fare to get there just to have such a fantastic meal!
Last night we made our 2nd (or possibly 3rd) attempt at finding the Clan Cafe. It's in the Lonely Planet and it sounds like it would be great: live jazz and various other types of music every night. This time, we took a taxi but the driver swore he had never heard of it and that there were no bars in the area. We took his word because he lives there, and so set out to find somewhere else to wile away the evening. We started off in a bar, but ended up retiring to the juice bar next door (until 10.30pm, wild or what!) But that was also lush (need to enhance adjective vocabulary!). I had Açai - apparently a super fruit, but very very Very tasty!! Danni also had a Frappucino which was heavenly. We are already planning our next trip there...!!
That's just about all to write for now. Project is going well at the moment. We just found out that it is going to get sponsored hugely starting very soon. Some guys turned up (we thought they were just going to do one theatre class), but they've said they'll fund a teacher a day for the kids to learn Ballet, Capoeira, Theatre, Modern Dance, and Circus. It's going to be great! When we get back to Rio in April we will definitely go back to visit to see the classes in full swing! Also found out that Olivia's managed to find some of her friends to sponsor 3 of the older guys through university which is absolutely fantastic as otherwise they wouldn't have stood a chance of going! They want to do Medicine, Law and Architecture and have apparently planned that when they graduate they will move into an appartment with Olivia in Copacabana and be god-fathers to all her children and they'll eat out every night and go to clubs.... It's just incredible what this project can do for them all and it feels great to be a part of it, no matter how small! We are doing the Carnaval party on Friday so have spent the last 2 days making lanterns out of yoghurt pots and masks covered in sequins and feathers! Should be good...
Off to bed now. We've just done our first round of packing tonight - very sad! It really does feel like home here, especially in this house. However, we are meeting Michel and Gabi (long convoluted 'friend of a friend' type story) tomorrow before we move in on Friday. Pretty weird seeing as they won't actually be in the house the whole time we're there! They're happy to leave us in the capable hands of their friend Miguel... should be excellent! Especially as the house is in Copacabana. Not looking forward to the Metro with our luggage though... our first taste of proper back packing!!
Boa noite xxxxxxx
Friday, 6 February 2009
Argh, so much to write!
Owww, I hate it when I have to write loads. Always seem to forget the actual interesting bits while I sit here, then as soon as I've finished I remember loads.. never mind, here goes!!
So Sunday we didn't actually make it to Santa Theresa owing to being on the beach for far too long, never mind! Instead, Danni and I got an early night so that we would be bright eyed and bushy tailed for our walk up to Cristo on Monday. Yes, walk. No-one seemed to believe that we wanted to walk! Literally, loads of cars stopped on the way past us and offered us lifts, and everyone seemed to think we were crazy! But we thought it was great. It only took 2 hours (and 5 minutes!) rather than the 3 or 4 people said it would take. The road up was lovely. It started off as a long steep residential street, with the houses getting nicer and nicer the higher up and more into the forest we went. We think some of them maaaaay be owned by drug barons due to the watch towers outside and numerous guard dogs dotted around... hmmm!!
It was a bit of a disappointment however, because after our big climb and $R13 entrance fee (pah, even for walkers!) Jesus was covered in clouds :( We could barely see his feet!! However, every so often the clouds blew away and we got fleeting glimpses of his face. In some ways, that was more special than just seeing him straight up because everyone cheered and it was a really good moment. Also, we bumped into some guys we knew up at the top. Crazy!! Seriously, we are all the way out in Rio, barely speaking Portuguese, atop a huge monument, and these 2 guys walk up to us that Danni and the others had met in a night club (we'd also happened to see one on Ipanema beach... it's such a small world!)
On Tuesday we were back at project. This week with the kiddiwinks we have started getting them and the buildings ready for carnival. To start with we made bunting. Each of the kids painted their own flag (we've just strung them up, and they look ace!). We also helped them make tops and skirts for their costume which they decorated with gallons of paint - mostly pink - and tons of glitter! So that's all well and good. Also, we have spent a LOT of time playing with some play-dough which Olivia bought. They get so involved in it! All the girls like making little sitting rooms with sofas and TVs and people, and will literally amuse themselves for hours over it! We're not complaining though, it's very quiet and surprisingly relaxing to play with smelly green goo!!
We've been out twice this week (so far!). The first time was on Tuesday night when Felipe and Lucas (the 2 hot guys from the beach..ahhh) invited us to go to the ferris wheel on Copacabana beach. It's only up for a couple of months - something to do with Rio's bid for the 2016 Paraolympics, but it's lovely and in a great place. It was quite expensive to get in (unless you used Danni's student card, as the 4 of us brown haired and pasty girls did!), but you gt a free ride on the wheel and then there are a couple of nice swanky bars and food places round the bottom. We chilled out there for a while before heading to a little Indie Bar in Ipanema called Emporium. I had half a Caparinha there and actually quite enjoyed it (although not sure if it really agreed with me...!) But, alas, disaster struck as the 2 beautiful boys paired off with 2 of my friends. Darn it!! Plenty more fish in the sea....
We also went out last night to a club in Botafogo called Casa de Matris. It was awesome despite the fact that I was literally the first through the doors - they made us queue outside and everything just to make the place look good, tchuh! Anyway, it got really busy later on and it was a really unusual place. It felt just like a sort of house party and there was some really good music playing. Lots of sort of bluesy jazzy stuff, very fun to dance to! Met up with loads of people we knew there. There were a few from our house who'd had to move out because they finished their projects so they'd come along with the friends who they were living with (one of whom was very nice, but that's an entirely different story!). We even bumped into some guys from Capoeira (oh man, totally forgot to write about that earlier, will have to come later. Screw cronology!) which was very weird. Definitely a small world! It's so odd, but also nice, to have friends in Rio to bump in to on nights out!
We ended up staying there very very late (5am!). Unfortunately I didn't meet him, but Danni and Kat met the son of the President of Brazil (so he said..) but the important thing was that this guy had a credit card, with NO LIMIT!!! He bought them loads of drinks, including a bottle of champagne :0!! They came upstairs to see me and were like ''try this'', I thought it would be disgusting so was pleasantly surprised to find it was champagne!!
So we left the club and got a taxi back to avoid walking up the hill from the subway station, BUT, disaster struck when we realised none of us had a key. (Becky who had had the group key had gone home earlier and we'd all totally forgotten!) So, annoyingly, we had to ring the doorbell for ages but still no-one came. Which meant we had to treck down the hill to go to a 24 hour fast food cafe called Big Nectar where we ate breakfast and then all 3 of us fell asleep! We must have looked ridiculous as we were all still dressed up and everything, but never mind!! At 7 oçlock we trudged back up to the house (damn that hill!) and were eventually let in after another good 10 minutes of doorbell ringing. Urgh! (4 hours later, I was getting up for work...joy!)
Back to the Capoeira: it is a type of dance/martial arts which one of the project leaders does and so he invited a few of us to come along. At first we thought we'd just be watching, but next thing we knew we were back and doing a class :0!! It was really fun though. Especially being stodd next to Brian (our token Irish guy) who was totally unco-ordinated and didn't get it at all!! We ended up having to join in at the end where everyone stands in a circle and sings/claps while a few pairs spa off. Very embarassing as I only knew 1 kick and 2 blocks but kept doing the wrong block... ah well! Becky and I are going back on Monday. (Another good thing about the class was that there was free cake at the end, excellentttt!)
That's just about all I can think of and my fingers can stand typing for now. Friday night... what to do..? I've been invited to go out with Bruno (the friend of a friend from Casa de Matris) but not entirely sure as he wants to meet in an hour and I've literally just got in from work and the important task of buying butter (queued for 30 minutes for that bloody butter, so I bought myself a chocolate as a reward, yeahhh!) and I am a sweaty betty to say the least. There's someone new in our room now and I think they're sleeping so don't really want to disturb them fresh from the shower and trying to get dressed. Not the best introduction...!!
Beijos: xxxxxxxxx
So Sunday we didn't actually make it to Santa Theresa owing to being on the beach for far too long, never mind! Instead, Danni and I got an early night so that we would be bright eyed and bushy tailed for our walk up to Cristo on Monday. Yes, walk. No-one seemed to believe that we wanted to walk! Literally, loads of cars stopped on the way past us and offered us lifts, and everyone seemed to think we were crazy! But we thought it was great. It only took 2 hours (and 5 minutes!) rather than the 3 or 4 people said it would take. The road up was lovely. It started off as a long steep residential street, with the houses getting nicer and nicer the higher up and more into the forest we went. We think some of them maaaaay be owned by drug barons due to the watch towers outside and numerous guard dogs dotted around... hmmm!!
It was a bit of a disappointment however, because after our big climb and $R13 entrance fee (pah, even for walkers!) Jesus was covered in clouds :( We could barely see his feet!! However, every so often the clouds blew away and we got fleeting glimpses of his face. In some ways, that was more special than just seeing him straight up because everyone cheered and it was a really good moment. Also, we bumped into some guys we knew up at the top. Crazy!! Seriously, we are all the way out in Rio, barely speaking Portuguese, atop a huge monument, and these 2 guys walk up to us that Danni and the others had met in a night club (we'd also happened to see one on Ipanema beach... it's such a small world!)
On Tuesday we were back at project. This week with the kiddiwinks we have started getting them and the buildings ready for carnival. To start with we made bunting. Each of the kids painted their own flag (we've just strung them up, and they look ace!). We also helped them make tops and skirts for their costume which they decorated with gallons of paint - mostly pink - and tons of glitter! So that's all well and good. Also, we have spent a LOT of time playing with some play-dough which Olivia bought. They get so involved in it! All the girls like making little sitting rooms with sofas and TVs and people, and will literally amuse themselves for hours over it! We're not complaining though, it's very quiet and surprisingly relaxing to play with smelly green goo!!
We've been out twice this week (so far!). The first time was on Tuesday night when Felipe and Lucas (the 2 hot guys from the beach..ahhh) invited us to go to the ferris wheel on Copacabana beach. It's only up for a couple of months - something to do with Rio's bid for the 2016 Paraolympics, but it's lovely and in a great place. It was quite expensive to get in (unless you used Danni's student card, as the 4 of us brown haired and pasty girls did!), but you gt a free ride on the wheel and then there are a couple of nice swanky bars and food places round the bottom. We chilled out there for a while before heading to a little Indie Bar in Ipanema called Emporium. I had half a Caparinha there and actually quite enjoyed it (although not sure if it really agreed with me...!) But, alas, disaster struck as the 2 beautiful boys paired off with 2 of my friends. Darn it!! Plenty more fish in the sea....
We also went out last night to a club in Botafogo called Casa de Matris. It was awesome despite the fact that I was literally the first through the doors - they made us queue outside and everything just to make the place look good, tchuh! Anyway, it got really busy later on and it was a really unusual place. It felt just like a sort of house party and there was some really good music playing. Lots of sort of bluesy jazzy stuff, very fun to dance to! Met up with loads of people we knew there. There were a few from our house who'd had to move out because they finished their projects so they'd come along with the friends who they were living with (one of whom was very nice, but that's an entirely different story!). We even bumped into some guys from Capoeira (oh man, totally forgot to write about that earlier, will have to come later. Screw cronology!) which was very weird. Definitely a small world! It's so odd, but also nice, to have friends in Rio to bump in to on nights out!
We ended up staying there very very late (5am!). Unfortunately I didn't meet him, but Danni and Kat met the son of the President of Brazil (so he said..) but the important thing was that this guy had a credit card, with NO LIMIT!!! He bought them loads of drinks, including a bottle of champagne :0!! They came upstairs to see me and were like ''try this'', I thought it would be disgusting so was pleasantly surprised to find it was champagne!!
So we left the club and got a taxi back to avoid walking up the hill from the subway station, BUT, disaster struck when we realised none of us had a key. (Becky who had had the group key had gone home earlier and we'd all totally forgotten!) So, annoyingly, we had to ring the doorbell for ages but still no-one came. Which meant we had to treck down the hill to go to a 24 hour fast food cafe called Big Nectar where we ate breakfast and then all 3 of us fell asleep! We must have looked ridiculous as we were all still dressed up and everything, but never mind!! At 7 oçlock we trudged back up to the house (damn that hill!) and were eventually let in after another good 10 minutes of doorbell ringing. Urgh! (4 hours later, I was getting up for work...joy!)
Back to the Capoeira: it is a type of dance/martial arts which one of the project leaders does and so he invited a few of us to come along. At first we thought we'd just be watching, but next thing we knew we were back and doing a class :0!! It was really fun though. Especially being stodd next to Brian (our token Irish guy) who was totally unco-ordinated and didn't get it at all!! We ended up having to join in at the end where everyone stands in a circle and sings/claps while a few pairs spa off. Very embarassing as I only knew 1 kick and 2 blocks but kept doing the wrong block... ah well! Becky and I are going back on Monday. (Another good thing about the class was that there was free cake at the end, excellentttt!)
That's just about all I can think of and my fingers can stand typing for now. Friday night... what to do..? I've been invited to go out with Bruno (the friend of a friend from Casa de Matris) but not entirely sure as he wants to meet in an hour and I've literally just got in from work and the important task of buying butter (queued for 30 minutes for that bloody butter, so I bought myself a chocolate as a reward, yeahhh!) and I am a sweaty betty to say the least. There's someone new in our room now and I think they're sleeping so don't really want to disturb them fresh from the shower and trying to get dressed. Not the best introduction...!!
Beijos: xxxxxxxxx
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Back Online Again!
Havn't been able to write for a few days because our internet has been down. At first we thought it was because of a big storm we had the other night, but it turns out that some moron in a big van tried to drive up our little street and went straight through the overhead cables, grrr! But we're back online now so that's ok! (Just difficult to remember everything of interest that has happened in the last few days!)
On Thursday with the kids we made bracelets and necklaces. It kept them amused for aaaages! We bought the stuff and sort of thought it would take maybe an hour at the most, but then as we were doing it I looked at my watch and most of the morning had gone!! It's always good when you find some way to keep them amused - stops them getting rowdy and fighting and stuff!!
That afternoon we went to a football match - my first football match ever!! It was Felipe's favourite team playing in their local stadium, so he was absolutely extatic!! He sent us this long email about how some people had been to a different game, but if we wanted to see a Real team play Reak football we had to come to this one! And anyone who didn't go he said wasn't his friend anymore! It was a good evening (although I probably won't go to another football match, wasn't really my thing, but glad I went for the experience!) The Botafogo supporters were insane! They had hundreds of different chants which were accompanied by some live drummers! Needless to say, they won 1-0, but because of all the flags and dancing and jumping on chairs going on in front, most of us didn't actually see the goal! Still, it was fun! And it also involved a long trip on a crazy train, so that was an experience too!
We were all absolutely knackered on Friday when we headed off to project. We finished off decorating the kid's photo frames and started making some Birthday Cards (on Saturday it was Leanne's birthday - she lives in the other house and has been to project with us once so knows the kids, and I also made one for mum with the help of a 5 year old girl... it's very glittery!!)
I didn't go out on Friday night in the end, but a few of the others did and they ended up meeting some GORGEOUS boys who we happened to meet up with on Ipanema beach on Saturday (I thought I'd tag along for that, hehe!). It was insane, we got to post 9 on the beach and it was so so crowded, we never thought we'd find them! But we said, ''If it's meant to be....'' and all of a sudden, they started walking towards us! Seriously, have never seen anyone so perfect in my LIFE! And he speaks English (with an Australian accent!) Perfection. Can't really believe I'm writing this on here where mostly family will read this, but honestly, after we'd seen him the 5 of us girls talked about nothing else for the rest of the afternoon!
Later on we all went out for a meal for Leanne's birthday. There were 30 of us trying to get into this restaurant, but fortunately the building was huge and they put us on the very top floor! We thought it was going to be a BBQ buffet, but it turned out to be another all you can eat pizza place (but unlike the other one, they also served past dishes which was a nice change!) Unfortunately, the pudding pizzas weren't quite as good this time. They were all covered in really bright sickly icing stuff, so any that we didn't like we tried to pass onto other people! It was very funny for a while, everytime someone turned around they ended up with 3 sickly slices of pizza on their plate! In the end, Danni ended up getting all of them - hahaha!
We were absolutely stuffed by this point, so we decided to walk into Lapa where there was a Bloco going on - an official street party to mark the beginning of Carnival. We thought it would be fun anyway, but also the gorgeous guy said he'd be there and try to meet us - so that was another good incentive! Alas, we didn't bump into him :( but it was fun anyway! The Bloco finished quite early (11 oçlock, but it had started at 5..!) and we'd met this guy who said he was going to be performing at this club nearby. It was supposed to be Samba with the guy rapping over the top. So we went! The guy never actually performed, but the club was really cool anyway! It was playing hip hop all night, and there was some awesome dancing going on!! Seriously, the Brazilians CAN DANCE!! It was brilliant fun for a while (although a little cringeworthy on our dancing-parts, did have alittle help from a professional dancer, so couldve been worse!) but for some reason, most of the clubs here only play one sort of music all night, so after a while it gets a little repetitive! We left quite early cos we were all so tired!
Today we are thinking of ehading to the beach again. Probably Ipanema - it's further away than Flamengo, but it is full of gorgeous people, and the sea is really really good for swimming in :) and then later on we're going to head up to Santa Theresa (need to get a tram upthe hill, which is kind of exciting!) because there's supposed to be really good live Samba on Sunday nights... fingers crossed that we find it!
Phew, long blog!
Tchau xxxxx
On Thursday with the kids we made bracelets and necklaces. It kept them amused for aaaages! We bought the stuff and sort of thought it would take maybe an hour at the most, but then as we were doing it I looked at my watch and most of the morning had gone!! It's always good when you find some way to keep them amused - stops them getting rowdy and fighting and stuff!!
That afternoon we went to a football match - my first football match ever!! It was Felipe's favourite team playing in their local stadium, so he was absolutely extatic!! He sent us this long email about how some people had been to a different game, but if we wanted to see a Real team play Reak football we had to come to this one! And anyone who didn't go he said wasn't his friend anymore! It was a good evening (although I probably won't go to another football match, wasn't really my thing, but glad I went for the experience!) The Botafogo supporters were insane! They had hundreds of different chants which were accompanied by some live drummers! Needless to say, they won 1-0, but because of all the flags and dancing and jumping on chairs going on in front, most of us didn't actually see the goal! Still, it was fun! And it also involved a long trip on a crazy train, so that was an experience too!
We were all absolutely knackered on Friday when we headed off to project. We finished off decorating the kid's photo frames and started making some Birthday Cards (on Saturday it was Leanne's birthday - she lives in the other house and has been to project with us once so knows the kids, and I also made one for mum with the help of a 5 year old girl... it's very glittery!!)
I didn't go out on Friday night in the end, but a few of the others did and they ended up meeting some GORGEOUS boys who we happened to meet up with on Ipanema beach on Saturday (I thought I'd tag along for that, hehe!). It was insane, we got to post 9 on the beach and it was so so crowded, we never thought we'd find them! But we said, ''If it's meant to be....'' and all of a sudden, they started walking towards us! Seriously, have never seen anyone so perfect in my LIFE! And he speaks English (with an Australian accent!) Perfection. Can't really believe I'm writing this on here where mostly family will read this, but honestly, after we'd seen him the 5 of us girls talked about nothing else for the rest of the afternoon!
Later on we all went out for a meal for Leanne's birthday. There were 30 of us trying to get into this restaurant, but fortunately the building was huge and they put us on the very top floor! We thought it was going to be a BBQ buffet, but it turned out to be another all you can eat pizza place (but unlike the other one, they also served past dishes which was a nice change!) Unfortunately, the pudding pizzas weren't quite as good this time. They were all covered in really bright sickly icing stuff, so any that we didn't like we tried to pass onto other people! It was very funny for a while, everytime someone turned around they ended up with 3 sickly slices of pizza on their plate! In the end, Danni ended up getting all of them - hahaha!
We were absolutely stuffed by this point, so we decided to walk into Lapa where there was a Bloco going on - an official street party to mark the beginning of Carnival. We thought it would be fun anyway, but also the gorgeous guy said he'd be there and try to meet us - so that was another good incentive! Alas, we didn't bump into him :( but it was fun anyway! The Bloco finished quite early (11 oçlock, but it had started at 5..!) and we'd met this guy who said he was going to be performing at this club nearby. It was supposed to be Samba with the guy rapping over the top. So we went! The guy never actually performed, but the club was really cool anyway! It was playing hip hop all night, and there was some awesome dancing going on!! Seriously, the Brazilians CAN DANCE!! It was brilliant fun for a while (although a little cringeworthy on our dancing-parts, did have alittle help from a professional dancer, so couldve been worse!) but for some reason, most of the clubs here only play one sort of music all night, so after a while it gets a little repetitive! We left quite early cos we were all so tired!
Today we are thinking of ehading to the beach again. Probably Ipanema - it's further away than Flamengo, but it is full of gorgeous people, and the sea is really really good for swimming in :) and then later on we're going to head up to Santa Theresa (need to get a tram upthe hill, which is kind of exciting!) because there's supposed to be really good live Samba on Sunday nights... fingers crossed that we find it!
Phew, long blog!
Tchau xxxxx
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Carnival Kids
Wowww, we had an amazing morning with the kids today! Fortunately I didn't go out last night (Danni did, and somehow managed to get through it all fine! She came back from the Academia do Cachasa with the opinion that all cahchasa is gross - which I knew already, so didn't miss out on too much there!)
Today with the kids we began by taking photos of each of them to put in their photo frames they made yesterday. It's quite a novelty for them to have their picture taken, so you can just imagine them all clamouring the camera and stuff! We had to take their profile pictures almost like school photos because Olivia said that their parents would be really pleased with that, as photos are such a luxury for them.
After that, we were thinking of doing a fashion show because all the kids had deliberately come in their best clothes and done their make up (very amusing watching Maria - the five year old - put on far too much lipgloss before her photo and then totally flaunting it and pouting insanely!) and hair (hair styles in Brazil seem to involve smoothing everything down with gel - I'm not a fan, but they thought they looked good!). However, we had one head dress that Leanne had made out of a magazine when she came on Friday, and so myself and Olivia began to make a few more. Before we knew it, Danni and Stevie had had to join in too because absolutely all of the kids wanted one! It was totally manic. They were all crying 'Tchia, tchia' (Aunty, aunty) and demanding more bits of feathers be stuck on and for us to make them wristbands too! It was amazingly fun despite the chaos!
Eventually, we got round to the catwalk. The girls were absoutely brilliant (boys got a bit shy as predicted, but still strutted their stuff a bit!). They had a really great model walk and had the serious expression and the flounce at the end of the catwalk down to perfection! They've definitely been practising! It was very fun and very funny, especially when a couple of the boys paired up with the girls... romance in the air...?! Maria (the youngest of the group) was a particular favourite with everyone, she kept coming back for more and blowing kisses and completely milking it! It was a fabulous morning, never mind the exhaustion :D
Today with the kids we began by taking photos of each of them to put in their photo frames they made yesterday. It's quite a novelty for them to have their picture taken, so you can just imagine them all clamouring the camera and stuff! We had to take their profile pictures almost like school photos because Olivia said that their parents would be really pleased with that, as photos are such a luxury for them.
After that, we were thinking of doing a fashion show because all the kids had deliberately come in their best clothes and done their make up (very amusing watching Maria - the five year old - put on far too much lipgloss before her photo and then totally flaunting it and pouting insanely!) and hair (hair styles in Brazil seem to involve smoothing everything down with gel - I'm not a fan, but they thought they looked good!). However, we had one head dress that Leanne had made out of a magazine when she came on Friday, and so myself and Olivia began to make a few more. Before we knew it, Danni and Stevie had had to join in too because absolutely all of the kids wanted one! It was totally manic. They were all crying 'Tchia, tchia' (Aunty, aunty) and demanding more bits of feathers be stuck on and for us to make them wristbands too! It was amazingly fun despite the chaos!
Eventually, we got round to the catwalk. The girls were absoutely brilliant (boys got a bit shy as predicted, but still strutted their stuff a bit!). They had a really great model walk and had the serious expression and the flounce at the end of the catwalk down to perfection! They've definitely been practising! It was very fun and very funny, especially when a couple of the boys paired up with the girls... romance in the air...?! Maria (the youngest of the group) was a particular favourite with everyone, she kept coming back for more and blowing kisses and completely milking it! It was a fabulous morning, never mind the exhaustion :D
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Day Off, Day On
As Mondays are our only (week)day off, we decided to make the most of it and do some of the more touristy stuff with hopefully fewer tourists around. (Still havn't got round to Christ yet, waiting for perfect weather for perfect views...)
Instead, we went to the Botanical Gardens. We left stupidly early in the morning because Alison told us that there are often toucans in the trees first thing. Alas, none for us today :( However, the whole place was lovely. Admittedly, it was just trees - very few flowers - and usually that thing is incredibly boring, but it was just such a nice space. Wish I'd taken my book! We wondered around loadssss of different areas: atlantic rainforest, humming bird garden (where we saw zero humming birds, but did spot 2 later on!), insectiverous plant house, japanese garden etc. Took many photos (attempted using macro on my camera, but as I have no idea what I'm doing as regards such things, the photos are pretty mediocre!), including a couple of intrepid-jungle-explorer ones!! Haha, we wish!
After that we walked to the nearby lake (which is huuuuuge) and rented bikes! Momentous occassion as I havn't properly been on a bike for a good few years. Pretty wobbly to start with, especially as I kept playing with the ''I <3 my bike'' bell that I had!! Good stuff! Took us about 40 minutes to go around the whole thing, by which time our thighs were killing us and bums were numb, so we hit up a really nice juice bar we'd seen on the way there. It was absolutely LUSH! I had a proper PassionFruit juice - literally pureed and iced passion fruit, very yummy and very well deserved we felt!!
That afternoon we were absolutely knackered, so had another quite early night. Probably a good thing because we had work this morning and it was so so sooooo tiring! We all thought the kids were about twice as hyper as usual!! While Stevie taught them English (another random missmatched lesson she said!), Danni and I made photoframes with them. We'd gone yesterday and bought loads of coloured card for the task, and asked each kid which colour they wanted. Then, as soon as we got the paints out, they proceeded in painting the whole thing a completely different colour to the original card. We despaired!! But still it was really fun. Actually, fun until it came to clearing up. The water had gone off... NO WATER!! And 15 painty kids. Nightmare!! Fortunately we had one damp towel which just about did everyone and all the desks and tables which were covered in paint. It was just so difficult, because (being Western I suppose!!) the last thing you expect is to not have running water.
All that seemed to make the kids even more hyper and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing ball games with them and trying to stop them fighting each other! - they play a game of boys V girls where they try to keep a ball to their team. Usually results in one poor girl clutching the ball and getting mobbed by loads of screaming boys, or vice versa!! Anyway, was a pretty good morning, we're just wondering how we're going to manage the week after next when we have an afternoon session with another set of kids too!! Seriously, it's so exhausting just having 3 hours in the morning, but another 3 in the afternoon... doesn't bear thinking about yet!! We'll just have to get over that hurdle when it comes along!!
Just uploaded photos of Botanical Gardens and our bikeride to facebook. Happy days :)
Tchau xxxx
Instead, we went to the Botanical Gardens. We left stupidly early in the morning because Alison told us that there are often toucans in the trees first thing. Alas, none for us today :( However, the whole place was lovely. Admittedly, it was just trees - very few flowers - and usually that thing is incredibly boring, but it was just such a nice space. Wish I'd taken my book! We wondered around loadssss of different areas: atlantic rainforest, humming bird garden (where we saw zero humming birds, but did spot 2 later on!), insectiverous plant house, japanese garden etc. Took many photos (attempted using macro on my camera, but as I have no idea what I'm doing as regards such things, the photos are pretty mediocre!), including a couple of intrepid-jungle-explorer ones!! Haha, we wish!
After that we walked to the nearby lake (which is huuuuuge) and rented bikes! Momentous occassion as I havn't properly been on a bike for a good few years. Pretty wobbly to start with, especially as I kept playing with the ''I <3 my bike'' bell that I had!! Good stuff! Took us about 40 minutes to go around the whole thing, by which time our thighs were killing us and bums were numb, so we hit up a really nice juice bar we'd seen on the way there. It was absolutely LUSH! I had a proper PassionFruit juice - literally pureed and iced passion fruit, very yummy and very well deserved we felt!!
That afternoon we were absolutely knackered, so had another quite early night. Probably a good thing because we had work this morning and it was so so sooooo tiring! We all thought the kids were about twice as hyper as usual!! While Stevie taught them English (another random missmatched lesson she said!), Danni and I made photoframes with them. We'd gone yesterday and bought loads of coloured card for the task, and asked each kid which colour they wanted. Then, as soon as we got the paints out, they proceeded in painting the whole thing a completely different colour to the original card. We despaired!! But still it was really fun. Actually, fun until it came to clearing up. The water had gone off... NO WATER!! And 15 painty kids. Nightmare!! Fortunately we had one damp towel which just about did everyone and all the desks and tables which were covered in paint. It was just so difficult, because (being Western I suppose!!) the last thing you expect is to not have running water.
All that seemed to make the kids even more hyper and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing ball games with them and trying to stop them fighting each other! - they play a game of boys V girls where they try to keep a ball to their team. Usually results in one poor girl clutching the ball and getting mobbed by loads of screaming boys, or vice versa!! Anyway, was a pretty good morning, we're just wondering how we're going to manage the week after next when we have an afternoon session with another set of kids too!! Seriously, it's so exhausting just having 3 hours in the morning, but another 3 in the afternoon... doesn't bear thinking about yet!! We'll just have to get over that hurdle when it comes along!!
Just uploaded photos of Botanical Gardens and our bikeride to facebook. Happy days :)
Tchau xxxx
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Another Cultural Day :)
Ahhh, today was niiiiice. We went to bed stupidly early last night (turned down the house party for bed...wild stuff out here. Not!) but it meant we could get up early and hit the beach because it was SUNNYYYYYYYYYYY, hurray!! Totally made the most of it (appear to have got a tad burnt again - darnit!)
That really wasn't too cultural, but we did get interesting, honest! After lunch (of yummy cheese doughballs, good stuff!) we managed to get over to Niteroi - a nice stretch of land on the other side of the bay which you can reach by a huge road bridge or by boat. We went for the boat option (pretty difficult to locate, so had to ask a few locals about buses. Very proud!) It was lush on the boat, nice and shady and good views etc.
Our reason for going to Niteroi was a modern art museum inside a crazy space-ship-shaped building designed by Niemeyer (sp?!). Very interesting - check out the photos. Was totally captivated by one painting of a little boy. His eyes were absolutely amazing, it was so difficult to look away. I actually had to go back to have another look!!
We had a little wonder down to the beach there which was nearly deserted. The sand was lovely, but as with all of the beaches in the bay, the sea was a disgusting green-brown colour and as we don't fancy any Cholera etc, we gave swimming a miss!!
Got back from Niteroi pretty late and havn't really done much. Cooked an AWESOME cheese and fried ham omelette (to follow on from my kick ass Ratatouille yesterday - masterchef in the making!) and are just chilling out tonight. There seems to be a street band setting up right at the bottom of our hill. But bottom of hill means getting back to top of hill.... Hmmmmm!
That really wasn't too cultural, but we did get interesting, honest! After lunch (of yummy cheese doughballs, good stuff!) we managed to get over to Niteroi - a nice stretch of land on the other side of the bay which you can reach by a huge road bridge or by boat. We went for the boat option (pretty difficult to locate, so had to ask a few locals about buses. Very proud!) It was lush on the boat, nice and shady and good views etc.
Our reason for going to Niteroi was a modern art museum inside a crazy space-ship-shaped building designed by Niemeyer (sp?!). Very interesting - check out the photos. Was totally captivated by one painting of a little boy. His eyes were absolutely amazing, it was so difficult to look away. I actually had to go back to have another look!!
We had a little wonder down to the beach there which was nearly deserted. The sand was lovely, but as with all of the beaches in the bay, the sea was a disgusting green-brown colour and as we don't fancy any Cholera etc, we gave swimming a miss!!
Got back from Niteroi pretty late and havn't really done much. Cooked an AWESOME cheese and fried ham omelette (to follow on from my kick ass Ratatouille yesterday - masterchef in the making!) and are just chilling out tonight. There seems to be a street band setting up right at the bottom of our hill. But bottom of hill means getting back to top of hill.... Hmmmmm!
Saturday, 24 January 2009
A Cultural Day, Wow!!!
Today we were cultural, shocking stuff!! (Had of course intended to be cultural whilst here, just hadn't got round to it until now what with one thing and another..!)
Last night in Lapa was pretty good. Cos of the rain it wasn't so much of a street party as the week before, and almost as soon as we arrived one girl had her camera stolen from right out of her hands as she was taking a photo so that sort of put a bit of a downer on things. However, Danni and me and another volunteer called Becky branched off and ended up going to 2 different clubs. The first was realllly weird. We could here the music from outside, and it was pretty cool electro dance stuff so we decided to go in. To do this, you had to pay a woman through a tiny slit in a big concrete wall and you got a sort of credit card affair. You then walked down to another gap in the concrete wall and handed this to a big bouncer who frisked you and then let you into 'the club'(turned out to be concrete walls covered in a corrugated tin roof...!). It was alright inside, but cos no-one was dancing we felt a bit out of place and decided to head on. We found another club which was playing more English music (interesting hearing Brazilians singing along!) which was totally rammed. Got a bit felt up on the way through the dance floor, but managed to shake everyone off and avoid being kissed!!
Today we got up a bit late (yes we did get in late, but it didn't help that a few hours later one of the guys from the house called Trevor came into our room and turned the light on and shouted 'Party Time'... tried to get us to get up again, no way!). But then we headed off to the cathedral and another smaller church and back to the tea rooms again (couldn't resist it, the others in the group hadn't been before and there was no way we could turn it down!!!)
The cathedral is the oddest building. From the outside it is hideous: a huge and dirty concrete cone with loads of slats in the side. But inside, there are 4 huge stained glass windows going up to a translucent cross which makes the ceiling, and all of the slats are actually open to let in the air and means that the whole place is lit naturally. It really was fascinating walking in because the impression from the outside was far from cathedral-esque.
I took quite a few photos today to try to show the cathedral, and also some of inside the tea rooms so you can see why it's such a lovely place to go. I even tried taking some of the cakes on display, but the photos don't really do them justice!!
We're going to have a quiet night in tonight. May head down to 'the local'(haha!) breifly, but we wan't to be on top form for our second day of culture. We are going to venture over to the Modern Art Museum on Niteroi which involves taking a ferry (very exciting for Becky!). Should be good....
xxx
Last night in Lapa was pretty good. Cos of the rain it wasn't so much of a street party as the week before, and almost as soon as we arrived one girl had her camera stolen from right out of her hands as she was taking a photo so that sort of put a bit of a downer on things. However, Danni and me and another volunteer called Becky branched off and ended up going to 2 different clubs. The first was realllly weird. We could here the music from outside, and it was pretty cool electro dance stuff so we decided to go in. To do this, you had to pay a woman through a tiny slit in a big concrete wall and you got a sort of credit card affair. You then walked down to another gap in the concrete wall and handed this to a big bouncer who frisked you and then let you into 'the club'(turned out to be concrete walls covered in a corrugated tin roof...!). It was alright inside, but cos no-one was dancing we felt a bit out of place and decided to head on. We found another club which was playing more English music (interesting hearing Brazilians singing along!) which was totally rammed. Got a bit felt up on the way through the dance floor, but managed to shake everyone off and avoid being kissed!!
Today we got up a bit late (yes we did get in late, but it didn't help that a few hours later one of the guys from the house called Trevor came into our room and turned the light on and shouted 'Party Time'... tried to get us to get up again, no way!). But then we headed off to the cathedral and another smaller church and back to the tea rooms again (couldn't resist it, the others in the group hadn't been before and there was no way we could turn it down!!!)
The cathedral is the oddest building. From the outside it is hideous: a huge and dirty concrete cone with loads of slats in the side. But inside, there are 4 huge stained glass windows going up to a translucent cross which makes the ceiling, and all of the slats are actually open to let in the air and means that the whole place is lit naturally. It really was fascinating walking in because the impression from the outside was far from cathedral-esque.
I took quite a few photos today to try to show the cathedral, and also some of inside the tea rooms so you can see why it's such a lovely place to go. I even tried taking some of the cakes on display, but the photos don't really do them justice!!
We're going to have a quiet night in tonight. May head down to 'the local'(haha!) breifly, but we wan't to be on top form for our second day of culture. We are going to venture over to the Modern Art Museum on Niteroi which involves taking a ferry (very exciting for Becky!). Should be good....
xxx
Friday, 23 January 2009
More Rain :(
So the past few days it has been raining. It sucks, because when it rains here, it pours! Apparently it's been a really bad summer this year (global warming? dare i say it..?!)
Yesterday we didn't go into project because of the rain, but managed to summon up the courage to go out later on. We were trying to find a Jazz cafe which we thought was nearby but on second thoughts was probably further than we thought. Anyway, didn't find it at all but ended up at a little bar that sort of spilled out onto the street as the night went on. Danni and I shared 2 beers, and then were just about to head off home when we were called over by a group of Brazilians so we sat and chatted to them for a while (bit of an issue with language, but one of them spoke good english..!). It was good fun, and we've even been invited to a BBQ with them tomorrow... not sure whether to go or not yet...
It was raining again this morning, but after yesterday we decided we really should make a huge effort (even huger given that we'd got in after midnight so had about 6 hours sleep :O ). It was really good fun once we got there. We took another volunteer called Lianne who got really stuck into making carnival head-dresses out of magazines, and a guy called Rob who immediately started showing some of the older boys how to fix the electrics and shower and stuff. The rest of us did a lot of cutting out people from magazines and then ripping up strips of bright paper to make them little carnival costumes. Good fun but very messy! Later on, Stevie and I attempted to give an English lesson... wasn't great! The kids kept asking us words they wanted to know, so by the end the blackboard was full of words like stadium, flipflop, jumper, How are you?, pencil etc etc. We had been intending on doing colours... never mind!!
So tonight we are just planning to go out to Lapa (but it's raining... :( bad times!). Firstly, however, we are going to play Ring of Fire... could be interesting!!
Tchau xxx
Yesterday we didn't go into project because of the rain, but managed to summon up the courage to go out later on. We were trying to find a Jazz cafe which we thought was nearby but on second thoughts was probably further than we thought. Anyway, didn't find it at all but ended up at a little bar that sort of spilled out onto the street as the night went on. Danni and I shared 2 beers, and then were just about to head off home when we were called over by a group of Brazilians so we sat and chatted to them for a while (bit of an issue with language, but one of them spoke good english..!). It was good fun, and we've even been invited to a BBQ with them tomorrow... not sure whether to go or not yet...
It was raining again this morning, but after yesterday we decided we really should make a huge effort (even huger given that we'd got in after midnight so had about 6 hours sleep :O ). It was really good fun once we got there. We took another volunteer called Lianne who got really stuck into making carnival head-dresses out of magazines, and a guy called Rob who immediately started showing some of the older boys how to fix the electrics and shower and stuff. The rest of us did a lot of cutting out people from magazines and then ripping up strips of bright paper to make them little carnival costumes. Good fun but very messy! Later on, Stevie and I attempted to give an English lesson... wasn't great! The kids kept asking us words they wanted to know, so by the end the blackboard was full of words like stadium, flipflop, jumper, How are you?, pencil etc etc. We had been intending on doing colours... never mind!!
So tonight we are just planning to go out to Lapa (but it's raining... :( bad times!). Firstly, however, we are going to play Ring of Fire... could be interesting!!
Tchau xxx
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Favellas followed by Tea and Cake *cringe* and RAIN
Argh, didn't write on here yesterday and now I feel like there's so much that's happened and I don't want to forget anything. So prepare for waffle!!
Yesterday was our first day going to our project. We had to meet Felipe and his partner Kris (female) at 9 oçlock which felt horrible, but was nothing compared to what's to come!! We had to walk allllll the way down the hill then to the Metro stop. Then it was 8 stops on the metro, then change to a different line and go allllllll the way to the final stop. It's called Pavuna (if anyone's interested..?!). From there we have to get a bus (absolutely ridiculously rickety thing, I think Felipe said that the driver said the bus we were on was on its last day, hah!). The whole journey takes about an hour and a half which means that we have to get up at 6.30am every morning from now on :O definitely going to take some adjusting to!
We got off the bus, and began to walk up the hill into the favella. To begin with, the road was tarmaced and there were little shops selling water and snacks and stuff, and I was thinking that this really wasn't too bad. Then the tarmac stopped. The road is just hideous. It's literally just rubble and clay and its completely covered in shreds of plastic bags and bottles and bits of metal (thank goodness for that tetanus jab!!) and just general crap (don't think it's literally crap, fingers crossed!). It's not far up that road until you get to our project house. It's a lovely little area, despite the surrounding crap. And I say lovely, but by Western standards it certianly isn't... anyway, it's good enough!!
The lady who runs the project is called Olivia and she is absolutely fantastic. She was a volunteer with i-to-i who worked on the same project 2 years ago. Then, it was being run by an absolute arsehole who ended up getting fired because he was using all the money for himself, and kept selling off bits of their land and the fridge and freezer and stuff. Bad times. So Olivia and her friend went home and sold everything they owned and did loads of fundraising so that they could buy the house back and re-start everything. It's only Olivia who's there at the moment, but they really have done a fantastic job! Since she bought it, she's managed to build another big hall our of back which even has a stage so that the kids can perform their circus and dance acts (which they absolutely love! They showed us lots of it today!). Olivia also raised money to have a bit of the road outside the project concreted. Unfortunately because of all the rain recently (there has been a LOT of rain, we got flooded today :O flipping tropical storm!) it has started to collapse already. Would be great to be able to help out and raise some more money to do it properly and do more of it.....hmmm!
The kids there are absolutely fantastic. We were all really shy yesterday and didn't feel like we got very far with them. We are only with them for 3 hours every morning because its the school holidays so (for some reason) they all go home in the afternoon. After the shyness of yesterday, today was brrrrrrilllllliant! We got there and the kids were just starting to arrive. I began by joining in with the boys playing football. Which was tragic I may add. It is totally true what they say about Brazilians and football, and with my mediocre skills it was pretty embarassing. They seemed to appreciate the effort though.
After that, we played a few name games to try to get to grips with all the kids names. So far I've got about 6, the rest are 'hey, you'. Suits me! They were really inquisitive and asked us all loads of questions. They were all really surprised at how we weren't married and didn't have any kids yet, yikes!! Danni and I also played piggy in the middle with a few of them, and attempted a teensy bit of English teaching. Then they showed us lots of their circus skills. They're all like little monkeys! They've got so much energy and are all really cheerful (apart from one boy called Alison (?!) who keeps crying, and the others tease him - they were kicking footballs at him while he was lying on the floor sobbing, so I told them off, yeaaaaah! - but aparently he's just attention seeking... we'll have to suss that one out!)
The afternoon was compleeeetely different to the morning. We went with Olivia back to her apartment (she lives with her boyfriend - possibly soon to be ex-boyfriend! - and his mum and brother in a little suburb surrounded by more favelas). She took us to a place for lunch where there is a massive buffet and you just load up your plate with whatever and then it gets weighed and you pay by weight. It was yummy, but I couldn't help but take a little bit of everything which I didn't recognise - didn't get anything I didn't like so big *thumbs up* for that one!
From there we caught the metro to Urugaina where there are loads of art and craft shops where we bought some paper and paints to start making a Carnival Mural with the kiddiwinks tomorrow. It's amazing how cheap everything is there, definitely going to stock up on certain stuff!!
However, it was absolutely peeing it down all afternoon - a proper tropical storm. So, Olivia took us to her favourite place in Rio: an absolutely gorgeous Art Nouveau cafe. The whole place is covered in gigantic mirrors and fancy lights and stained glass - fabulous! It sells hundreds of different cakes (want to try every sort again, but definitely shouldn't if I want to fit into my carnival costume!) and we had proper tea (very impressive!) and even shared a bottle of wine (woops, sorry mum!!). It was absolutely lush and we are definitely going back there for Danni's birthday in April.
We've just trecked back up to the house, up the hill which is gradually turning into a total waterfall. Aparently if it rains too much we can't get out because it floods at the bottom and the water's too dirty that it's unsafe to get through. I really hope it doesn't because I'm really looking forward to going in and starting to paint tomorrow!
And that's 'HOW'for NOW
Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yesterday was our first day going to our project. We had to meet Felipe and his partner Kris (female) at 9 oçlock which felt horrible, but was nothing compared to what's to come!! We had to walk allllll the way down the hill then to the Metro stop. Then it was 8 stops on the metro, then change to a different line and go allllllll the way to the final stop. It's called Pavuna (if anyone's interested..?!). From there we have to get a bus (absolutely ridiculously rickety thing, I think Felipe said that the driver said the bus we were on was on its last day, hah!). The whole journey takes about an hour and a half which means that we have to get up at 6.30am every morning from now on :O definitely going to take some adjusting to!
We got off the bus, and began to walk up the hill into the favella. To begin with, the road was tarmaced and there were little shops selling water and snacks and stuff, and I was thinking that this really wasn't too bad. Then the tarmac stopped. The road is just hideous. It's literally just rubble and clay and its completely covered in shreds of plastic bags and bottles and bits of metal (thank goodness for that tetanus jab!!) and just general crap (don't think it's literally crap, fingers crossed!). It's not far up that road until you get to our project house. It's a lovely little area, despite the surrounding crap. And I say lovely, but by Western standards it certianly isn't... anyway, it's good enough!!
The lady who runs the project is called Olivia and she is absolutely fantastic. She was a volunteer with i-to-i who worked on the same project 2 years ago. Then, it was being run by an absolute arsehole who ended up getting fired because he was using all the money for himself, and kept selling off bits of their land and the fridge and freezer and stuff. Bad times. So Olivia and her friend went home and sold everything they owned and did loads of fundraising so that they could buy the house back and re-start everything. It's only Olivia who's there at the moment, but they really have done a fantastic job! Since she bought it, she's managed to build another big hall our of back which even has a stage so that the kids can perform their circus and dance acts (which they absolutely love! They showed us lots of it today!). Olivia also raised money to have a bit of the road outside the project concreted. Unfortunately because of all the rain recently (there has been a LOT of rain, we got flooded today :O flipping tropical storm!) it has started to collapse already. Would be great to be able to help out and raise some more money to do it properly and do more of it.....hmmm!
The kids there are absolutely fantastic. We were all really shy yesterday and didn't feel like we got very far with them. We are only with them for 3 hours every morning because its the school holidays so (for some reason) they all go home in the afternoon. After the shyness of yesterday, today was brrrrrrilllllliant! We got there and the kids were just starting to arrive. I began by joining in with the boys playing football. Which was tragic I may add. It is totally true what they say about Brazilians and football, and with my mediocre skills it was pretty embarassing. They seemed to appreciate the effort though.
After that, we played a few name games to try to get to grips with all the kids names. So far I've got about 6, the rest are 'hey, you'. Suits me! They were really inquisitive and asked us all loads of questions. They were all really surprised at how we weren't married and didn't have any kids yet, yikes!! Danni and I also played piggy in the middle with a few of them, and attempted a teensy bit of English teaching. Then they showed us lots of their circus skills. They're all like little monkeys! They've got so much energy and are all really cheerful (apart from one boy called Alison (?!) who keeps crying, and the others tease him - they were kicking footballs at him while he was lying on the floor sobbing, so I told them off, yeaaaaah! - but aparently he's just attention seeking... we'll have to suss that one out!)
The afternoon was compleeeetely different to the morning. We went with Olivia back to her apartment (she lives with her boyfriend - possibly soon to be ex-boyfriend! - and his mum and brother in a little suburb surrounded by more favelas). She took us to a place for lunch where there is a massive buffet and you just load up your plate with whatever and then it gets weighed and you pay by weight. It was yummy, but I couldn't help but take a little bit of everything which I didn't recognise - didn't get anything I didn't like so big *thumbs up* for that one!
From there we caught the metro to Urugaina where there are loads of art and craft shops where we bought some paper and paints to start making a Carnival Mural with the kiddiwinks tomorrow. It's amazing how cheap everything is there, definitely going to stock up on certain stuff!!
However, it was absolutely peeing it down all afternoon - a proper tropical storm. So, Olivia took us to her favourite place in Rio: an absolutely gorgeous Art Nouveau cafe. The whole place is covered in gigantic mirrors and fancy lights and stained glass - fabulous! It sells hundreds of different cakes (want to try every sort again, but definitely shouldn't if I want to fit into my carnival costume!) and we had proper tea (very impressive!) and even shared a bottle of wine (woops, sorry mum!!). It was absolutely lush and we are definitely going back there for Danni's birthday in April.
We've just trecked back up to the house, up the hill which is gradually turning into a total waterfall. Aparently if it rains too much we can't get out because it floods at the bottom and the water's too dirty that it's unsafe to get through. I really hope it doesn't because I'm really looking forward to going in and starting to paint tomorrow!
And that's 'HOW'for NOW
Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Bugs, Samba and Pizza... Lots of Pizza!
Can't quite remember what I wrote last time, but anyway!
Last night we were thinking of going out but were so ridiculously tired (I blame the heat!) that most people went off to have a 'power nap' and no-one got up! However, Danni and I and the girl who has just joined us in our room called Chloe had a rather interesting experience with a massive bug! You probably had to be there, but there was a flipping huuuuuuuuge chicada like thing flying around our room, chucking itself and the light and generally being scary that we got rid of in an absolutely pathetically girly way which involved me wrapped up in my sheets and Danni running away and falling up the stairs because it flew at her! Very amusing afterwards, but pretty scary at the time! Who needs to go out to have an exciting night?!?
So after our lame early night, we decided to get up early and head to the 'hippy fair' near Ipanema beach. It's quite a treck to get to on the Metro and a Bus (we felt rather proud of our efforts there :-) ) but was definitely worht it! So much amazing stuff to buy - probably going to go back there in our last week in April to get souveniers without having to carry them through Peru etc.
Most of us just ended up buying clothes because later on in the afternoon we had been invited to join a nearby Samba school's practice for the main Carnival Parade. Problem was, we had to wear all green and white (they were very strict about that!) and so we had to do some shopping. I bought a tye-died dress which ended up looking like a tent, but never mind!!
The Samba practise was AMAZING once it started! We spent about 2 hours standing around being arranged into lines and then re-arranged into lines and moved backwards so more people could join! But eventually we got to dance through the main Sambodrome, which surprisingly was full of spectators! It was such a great afternoon. The main point was to learn the Samba song because the schools all get judged on all of their participants: how well we know the song, how much we smile and stay in lines etc. And the point of all this is:
WE ARE GOING TO BE IN AN OFFICIAL CARNIVAL PARADE IN COSTUMES!!!!!!!
Cannot wait for that! If today's rehearsal was so good then the real thing is going to be mind blowing!!
After all that dancing, and because it was Jo's birthday, we all went to the local restaurant just down the hill from our house. It's an incredibly place. Downstairs is a buffet where you take everything you want and weigh your plate and then pay by the kilo, and upstairs is a pizza buffet where you pay a set price (worked out at about 5 pounds) and get unlimited pizzas of every type you can imagine! Particular favourites were chips-on-pizza, banana-pizza, chocolate-and-strawberry-pizza, crab-and-chicken-pancakes, and the King of all pizzas: ice-cream-pizza!!!
Absolutely stuffed now and exhausted from all the Samba, so another early night I think so that we can get to Copacabana tomorrow morning and walk around the beach front to Ipanema.....
Chow xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Last night we were thinking of going out but were so ridiculously tired (I blame the heat!) that most people went off to have a 'power nap' and no-one got up! However, Danni and I and the girl who has just joined us in our room called Chloe had a rather interesting experience with a massive bug! You probably had to be there, but there was a flipping huuuuuuuuge chicada like thing flying around our room, chucking itself and the light and generally being scary that we got rid of in an absolutely pathetically girly way which involved me wrapped up in my sheets and Danni running away and falling up the stairs because it flew at her! Very amusing afterwards, but pretty scary at the time! Who needs to go out to have an exciting night?!?
So after our lame early night, we decided to get up early and head to the 'hippy fair' near Ipanema beach. It's quite a treck to get to on the Metro and a Bus (we felt rather proud of our efforts there :-) ) but was definitely worht it! So much amazing stuff to buy - probably going to go back there in our last week in April to get souveniers without having to carry them through Peru etc.
Most of us just ended up buying clothes because later on in the afternoon we had been invited to join a nearby Samba school's practice for the main Carnival Parade. Problem was, we had to wear all green and white (they were very strict about that!) and so we had to do some shopping. I bought a tye-died dress which ended up looking like a tent, but never mind!!
The Samba practise was AMAZING once it started! We spent about 2 hours standing around being arranged into lines and then re-arranged into lines and moved backwards so more people could join! But eventually we got to dance through the main Sambodrome, which surprisingly was full of spectators! It was such a great afternoon. The main point was to learn the Samba song because the schools all get judged on all of their participants: how well we know the song, how much we smile and stay in lines etc. And the point of all this is:
WE ARE GOING TO BE IN AN OFFICIAL CARNIVAL PARADE IN COSTUMES!!!!!!!
Cannot wait for that! If today's rehearsal was so good then the real thing is going to be mind blowing!!
After all that dancing, and because it was Jo's birthday, we all went to the local restaurant just down the hill from our house. It's an incredibly place. Downstairs is a buffet where you take everything you want and weigh your plate and then pay by the kilo, and upstairs is a pizza buffet where you pay a set price (worked out at about 5 pounds) and get unlimited pizzas of every type you can imagine! Particular favourites were chips-on-pizza, banana-pizza, chocolate-and-strawberry-pizza, crab-and-chicken-pancakes, and the King of all pizzas: ice-cream-pizza!!!
Absolutely stuffed now and exhausted from all the Samba, so another early night I think so that we can get to Copacabana tomorrow morning and walk around the beach front to Ipanema.....
Chow xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Saturday, 17 January 2009
Lapa
Hello, again! It's Day 2 but today hasn't really been that interesting, not compared to last night!!
A massive group of us headed down to Lapa district, renowned to be the party central of Rio - and it certainly was! There were hundreds of people just dancing in the streets to the samba bands. We had an amazing time, especially being taught how to samba by an old(ish) sweaty man. I think his main point was that it had to come from your heart, although with neither of us speaking a word of the other's language, this may be completely wrong!!
It's too hard to describe what an amazing night it was. We only had a few beers (I did buy one Caprianha (sp?) but it was farrrr too strong for me to drink, so I gave it to Brian who gave it to Danni who gave it to someone else...!)
Today we have just had our orientation by Felipe. Turns out that Danni and I and a girl called Stevie have had our project changed because of a problem with the other co-ordinator, but the one we are on sounds pretty similar and is run by 3 ex-volunteers who managed to buy the house where its run when it was on the verge of closing. It's still in the favellas and still community work. We start on Tuesday morning at 9 :O but definitely looking forward to it (although very apprehensive about visiting the favellas!)
Not entirely sure what's happening tonight. We've been told about a samba school rehearsal in a club somewhere but after last night's festivities and our vague plans to visit a 'hippy market'in Ipanema tomorrow morning we may decide to have a more chilled out night in the bar down the road with Felipe.... who knows....
xxxxxxxxx
A massive group of us headed down to Lapa district, renowned to be the party central of Rio - and it certainly was! There were hundreds of people just dancing in the streets to the samba bands. We had an amazing time, especially being taught how to samba by an old(ish) sweaty man. I think his main point was that it had to come from your heart, although with neither of us speaking a word of the other's language, this may be completely wrong!!
It's too hard to describe what an amazing night it was. We only had a few beers (I did buy one Caprianha (sp?) but it was farrrr too strong for me to drink, so I gave it to Brian who gave it to Danni who gave it to someone else...!)
Today we have just had our orientation by Felipe. Turns out that Danni and I and a girl called Stevie have had our project changed because of a problem with the other co-ordinator, but the one we are on sounds pretty similar and is run by 3 ex-volunteers who managed to buy the house where its run when it was on the verge of closing. It's still in the favellas and still community work. We start on Tuesday morning at 9 :O but definitely looking forward to it (although very apprehensive about visiting the favellas!)
Not entirely sure what's happening tonight. We've been told about a samba school rehearsal in a club somewhere but after last night's festivities and our vague plans to visit a 'hippy market'in Ipanema tomorrow morning we may decide to have a more chilled out night in the bar down the road with Felipe.... who knows....
xxxxxxxxx
Friday, 16 January 2009
Day 1 in Rio
Argh, this feels like a very momentous occassion: my first proper blog entry! Don't quite know what to write!
So, the journey here was pretty uneventful to be honest. Plane journey was infact only 10 hours long (not 15) and time difference is only 2 hours (not 5 - shows how much we knew!). However, at the other end we did manage to get a little lost in the airport looking for money changing facilities and consequently were the last to meet up with Felipe and the rest of the group who had been on the same plane.
We stepped out onto Brazilian land, to find that it was raining!! But a nice warm, humid (sweaty) rain, not like lame cold English drizzle! We were taken in a taxi up to our house: over the power lines which were across the road because a telegraph pole had fallen over in the street earlier that day!! By the time we got to our accomodation, we pretty much just collapsed into our mosquito-netted beds and slept right through till mid morning! Ace.
Today, we got up and realised we had no food! So we managed to schneck a lift down the hill with Alex, the guy who owns the house and fortunately owns a car *thumbs up*. We went down into the Gloria district and changed some money before going to the local supermarket and stocking up on the basics!
After that, we hitched a lift home with some of the other volunteers we found in town (8 of us in a 5 seater car!!) and thus avoided walking up the hill (a 5 minute walk according to Felipe, but only if you 'walk slowly like a cow'!)
After breakfast/lunch, we headed down to the other volunteer house which is just down the street and decided to hit the beach! Fortunately we met two guys who have been here for a couple of weeks, so they took us on the Metro and we had our first taste of Copacabana (fewer beautiful bronsed Brazilians than expected, phew!). The sea was crazy: it was just like Cornwall only a bit warmer, which I suppose was to be expected from the Atlantic in the Southern Hemisphere Summer!!
We are now back at the volunteer house, having had a hearty and oh so exciting dinner of pasta and tomato sauce and are conisdering whether to head out to Lapa (party!) District with the a few others. Don't worry parents, we're not planning on drinking too much! We just want to try one of the local cocktails (for now). Although having said that, we did have a beer at the bar Felipe recommended at the bottom of the hill before facing the walk up this afternoon!!
I think that's about all for today...!
Love and miss you all, Kat xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
So, the journey here was pretty uneventful to be honest. Plane journey was infact only 10 hours long (not 15) and time difference is only 2 hours (not 5 - shows how much we knew!). However, at the other end we did manage to get a little lost in the airport looking for money changing facilities and consequently were the last to meet up with Felipe and the rest of the group who had been on the same plane.
We stepped out onto Brazilian land, to find that it was raining!! But a nice warm, humid (sweaty) rain, not like lame cold English drizzle! We were taken in a taxi up to our house: over the power lines which were across the road because a telegraph pole had fallen over in the street earlier that day!! By the time we got to our accomodation, we pretty much just collapsed into our mosquito-netted beds and slept right through till mid morning! Ace.
Today, we got up and realised we had no food! So we managed to schneck a lift down the hill with Alex, the guy who owns the house and fortunately owns a car *thumbs up*. We went down into the Gloria district and changed some money before going to the local supermarket and stocking up on the basics!
After that, we hitched a lift home with some of the other volunteers we found in town (8 of us in a 5 seater car!!) and thus avoided walking up the hill (a 5 minute walk according to Felipe, but only if you 'walk slowly like a cow'!)
After breakfast/lunch, we headed down to the other volunteer house which is just down the street and decided to hit the beach! Fortunately we met two guys who have been here for a couple of weeks, so they took us on the Metro and we had our first taste of Copacabana (fewer beautiful bronsed Brazilians than expected, phew!). The sea was crazy: it was just like Cornwall only a bit warmer, which I suppose was to be expected from the Atlantic in the Southern Hemisphere Summer!!
We are now back at the volunteer house, having had a hearty and oh so exciting dinner of pasta and tomato sauce and are conisdering whether to head out to Lapa (party!) District with the a few others. Don't worry parents, we're not planning on drinking too much! We just want to try one of the local cocktails (for now). Although having said that, we did have a beer at the bar Felipe recommended at the bottom of the hill before facing the walk up this afternoon!!
I think that's about all for today...!
Love and miss you all, Kat xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Post 1
Inspired by one Mr Felix Brann, I have decided to set up an online blog so that while I'm away I don't need to send repetitive emails to everyone I know! Instead, you can do the hard work by checking my blog which I will try to update!!
It is currently 8 days until Danni and I leave, and it is drizzling. Bring on Brazil!!!
It is currently 8 days until Danni and I leave, and it is drizzling. Bring on Brazil!!!
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