Yes I can say that I have celebrated Carnival in the party capital of the world---RIO! It was absolutely a week to remember! We celebrated Carnival--Brazil style, spent our days at the beach, celebrated my birthday at the Sambadome, and came home with a tan that I have never had! I could write every detail about what I experienced during Carnival but it won't do it justice. This is just like the Amazon, you have to experience it to believe it. It won't ever be enough to write about it experience by experience. So here goes my best ---- At the Copa COPACABANA!
I wasn't feeling well and so I ended up taking the prescription I had with me for a couple days and I started to feel better. Of course I regret now that I didn't take it the way I was supposed to then and I'm really hoping it isn't going to affect me later; I have been feeling off and on since I've been back. Anyways that was my first couple days so I'm getting that out of the way.
Foodwise---We really didn't eat out much because there wasn't really anything good in our neighborhood. I was disappointed that we couldn't find anything because I was really looking forward to the flavors of Brazil. I think if we had more time there, I would have been satisfied. In our time there, we really didn't see any variety at all. Everything just felt to similar to me. I ended up cooking for most of the week; buying our ingredients from the local supermercado. Our first night there we did go to the Giraffe Restaurant down the street from our hostel right at the death corner! I call this the death corner because there's a blind spot there, no street lights, and you had to cross at your own risk which was EXTREMELY hard to do because the cars turn that corner fast and from two different directions so the timing has to be perfect in order to cross by RUNNING, not walking across the street. That was where we also experienced our first encounter with one of the kids from the streets of Rio.
Everything you have heard about the kids is probably true. They will try to pickpocket, beg for food or money, and may gang up on you with their friends. All of this had happened to us while we were there, but nothing dramatic. The whole situation with the kids is a very sad thing that needs to be addressed in that country. We had waited until he was satisfied with the money and food another customer was giving him and left so we could.
So here are some pictures of the food we enjoyed while in Rio
The blazing Brazilian sun--oh how I miss you! We spent everyday at the beach. We used up Copacabana and Ipanema. The sand was perfect--soft like flour, water was the perfect temperature, and the people--all over the place! Venders screaming "COCA-COLA", "AGUA", "HELADO PARA UM REAL", and other cool, refreshments. I did give in to a craving of shrimp and bought 5 shrimp on a stick for R$3 (US$1.50). I know I probably shouldn't have done that but I love it too much to pass it up! Very crowded beaches. People here, all I'll say, didn't look how I had expected them to look like. I'll leave it at that. No pickpocketing happened to us when we were on the beach, which I think we were pretty lucky, considering some of the stories we heard. Of course we never took anything valuable to the beach. We sadly only brought our cameras once to the beach, so we couldn't take many pictures because they would stare at you if they knew you had a camera. I was in a funny situation where I was surrounded by a couple Brazilians and I thought they would take my camera, by the way they were acting towards me (too friendly), so I did this funny thing and jumped back away from them. Eventually they were trying to just make conversation and they were nice to talk with.
It was hard to tell what the Brazilians intentions were with us because they acted quite differently with us than the Argentines. I kept joking with Nicole about her blonde hair and that she would either get us hurt or keep us alive! They were just harder to read and definitely not what I had expected. Some were nice and I still have the memory of one of the kids on the beach who had offered me her beach bucket out of nowhere so I could pour some water on my body because the heat was so CONSUMING on the beach. The sun was blazing and you could feel the rays all over your body. I left with color that I will never get in California and of course that is due to where Rio is located on the globe/map and the weather patterns because of it.
Random funny moment--Definitely had to be the day we went to the local locutorío so I could call home on my birthday and we had just thought it was funny how the guy working his shift didn't understand English (fortunately understood my Portuguese) but did sing word-for-word that Beyonce song that I DON'T LIKE "Put a Ring on it" in English. I just could not stop laughing when we left. If you have unfortunately heard this song, just imagine a guy singing to it.
Carnaval Festivities--CRAZY time that I will never forget---the street parties--samba parades--people dancing the Samba all over the streets--and just straight partying and having fun pretty much everywhere. Plenty of entertainment for all ages to enjoy. I enjoyed the Samba parades; especially participating in a little black market activities. We weren't going to pay R$200 to almost R$600(US$100-300) to go celebrate the parades so we ended up getting tickets from someone selling them outside of the Sambadome and we were lucky to get them for R$30 (US$15) and of course lucky they weren't bad tickets! Before we entered into the dome, we were almost surrounded by a group of kids and were trying to pickpocket from us. Fortunately we got away and managed to safely get into the dome. Awesome dancers and floats! I still--to this day, have the Samba songs in my head! They had them on repeat, literally! Nicole even changed one of the songs by replacing "viiiiiiiiiida" to "Reeeeeeeeema" to make my birthday song! My birthday was that day! One I'll never forget! As we were leaving in the wee hours of the morning, we ended up walking through some bad areas trying to find a taxi back to our hostel. Pretty scary but nevertheless an interesting experience. We found the first taxi and got out as fast as we could!
The street parties--SO MUCH FUN! Just groups of people having a good time. Met random people and had random conversations. One guy was telling me his Brazilian mom married someone from Georgia and is living in the states and how he hated his stepfather and is making a trip to the US just to visit his mom. Another guy was showing us the new dance, "the stretch dance". He was doing stretches, like what you would do after a workout, and dancing at the same time. Interesting. I prefer the samba and shaking my hips!
I would like to clear up one thing. People in Rio are not having sex on the streets and everywhere. People assume that is what happens during Rio's Carnaval but we didn't see anything like that. Although I actually was talking to someone in my running group the other day because she had spent time in Brazil studying abroad and how one of her friends ended up having sex with someone who he thought was just any other regular person at a party, did it in an alley, and in the end found out she was a prostitute when she asked him to pay her! WOW I was shocked when I heard that. PLEASE just go and enjoy yourself there; don't do that! And this isn't the first time I have heard this. You will always see a group of them at every club you walk into in Copacabana. And surprisingly the ones we saw dressed pretty normal.
Random fact--I was eating breakfast in the morning one of the days (They stopped serving breakfast at our hostel at 10am and I would usually run down the stairs for it at like 9:55am to grab something for Nicole and I!) and one of the guys who worked at our hostel sat down next to me to eat his breakfast and randomly asked me to guess when Valentine's Day was in Brazil (I don't really care for that day).
I, of course just said February 14.
He said "no"
and I was like "the 15th? 16th? Somewhere around that time?"
And he said "no, it's June 12. Want to know why?"
"Sure."
"Because no one wants to have a boyfriend/girlfriend during the month of February! It's Carnaval time! We want to celebrate and just have fun!"
"Oh, interesting."
That was the first thing he said to me when he sat down to eat. Not sure why that was but I thought that it was cool just learning something new!
WHAT A SMALL WORLD! One of the nights that we were out in Ipanema, Nicole spotted a couple guys who turned out to be the guys that we hung out with when we were in the AMAZON! How crazy is that! I think they saw us but couldn't tell it was us while we were trying to get their attention when we drove past them in our taxi. It really is a small world after all!
After Carnaval, we spent the rest of the days experiencing the city. We saw the Christ the Redeemer statue, Corcovado Mountain, La Tijuca Forest, Leblon, Sugarloaf Mountain, Macarena Stadium, and explored more of the city. We unfortunately missed the soccer games and our team Flamengo! And it was worse when we could hear everyone in the streets celebrating their favorite soccer teams win and we weren't there to celebrate in the stadium. You gotta love the way Brazilians celebrate their soccer teams!
Safety In Rio--Like I said before, please be aware of your surroundings while in Brazil, but do be openminded. I think it just depends on chance and your situation-if you're in the right place at the wrong time. Yes kids tried to pickpocket from us, stared at when they saw our cameras (which was rare because we didn't really carry them in public), don't bring or wear valuables at the beach or anywhere, don't flash your cash, unfortunately prostitution and homeless people are everywhere, men and kids peeing everywhere on the streets--anytime of the day (wear your shoes or sandals), and watch out for the cars. Be careful if you do go alone. I'll admit, I was a little terrified about going to Rio for the reasons mentioned above but I did try my best to be openminded and now I'm missing Rio and I want to go back! Just don't believe everything you hear. You just have to go to Rio and see it for yourself.
And we are now at the end of my amazing journey through parts of Argentina and Brazil. I know you're thinking IT'S ABOUT TIME! I'm sorry! Just working and figuring out what I want to do next in life. Now if I could just finish putting the pictures in the photo albums!
Te amo de todo o meu coração, Rio!
