The last hog - Rio

So, we’ve come to the final stint on what has been a truly epic trip.Flying over Rio in the evening after sunset was a good start, a patchy sea of flickering lights obscured by the many mountain tops.

A 2 hour coach journey from the airport and we arrived in Leblon, which is considered the nicest place in Rio, just 3 blocks from up from Ipanema beach.

After an average nights kip in the flat we were staying we took to the streets to grab some breakfast and go for our general wonder to scope out the place. We noticed how well it was maintained, plush buildings overlooked wide roads with trimmed palm trees lining the streets. Spent most the day on Ipanema beach, immediately took in the fantastic view of Sugarloaf mountain and the favela’s that occupied the bottom third, it was much more visible at night when the favela’s lit up the bottom half of the mountain and the dim light causing the rest of the mountain to stand out against a ‘starry blackground’. Stunning.

 https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ipanema+beach&sa=X&rlz=1C1WZPF_en-GBGB457GB475&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=xEDOU6_0MOX9ygOWqIKoCQ&ved=0CC4QsAQ&biw=1119&bih=712

The same night we hit the main area in Leblon, about 4 blocks back from the Copacabana, felt like we were in London, just a lot warmer! Quite a classy place with loads of small boutique wine & cocktail bars. Jumped into a big one that was busy, got straight on the shots and caipirinha’s, a popular cocktail in Brazil similar to a mojito.

Was a top night, mingling with the locals and other internationals. Walked or should I say staggered back along Ipanema beach around 3am, could have taken a cab but was nice to enjoy the view.

Feeling rather sensitive we left the flat around 9am and went to Corcovado mountain and upto Christ the Redeemer, took 2 minibuses up there, cost around £25, including entrance.
The pictures says it all really, the statue was extremely impressive, only beaten by the views over Rio. Could have spent hours just taking it all in, was absolutely stunning. Only negative thing were the amount of people there, quite a small area and frustrating knocking past people stretching their arms out for picture every 5 yards. Goodtimes though.

Decided to spend the rest of the day on the beach again, really going to miss it, it’s one of the favourites in Brazil I can see why. This last evening we had was spent enjoying a 400g Uruguayan fillet steak and a few cold ones.Got up early next day and had a last minute sunbathe on Ipanema, few coconuts later we had to go back, pack and hail a cab to the airport.

Rio, Madrid, London, home. Writing this a few days later, still whacked from not sleeping for 30 hours, but nothing will halt the feeling of knowing what an incredible experience it all was. It’s only going to be something to look back on now, I know there are millions of people that have experienced similar to what I have but it doesn’t make me feel any less lucky.

I think it’s safe to say I have the travel bug. Only thing to do now apart from all the clothes washing is to think of where I can explore next!
Thanks for reading! J

Alex

Amazonas!

The last evening in Sau Paulo was the Brazil vs Cameroon game, winning 4-1 with Neymar bagging 2 more goals and a star man for my dream team. 1st place in all 3 leagues.. for now!

Went to a club/bar/dance venue to watch it. What an atmosphere! At half time the lights dimmed and a wicked mix of dance tracks came on.. everyone got up and started throwing some shapes! Much better than listening to some old dudes talk about how brilliant Neymar was!

There must have been a few thousand heads in there and I can honestly say I've never seen so many stunning women in one place.. jaw dropping ! After the game finished, it turned into a Massive dance night, DJ's tearing it up like a night in Ibiza! Brazilians definitely lived up to the party stereotype this evening, amongst many!

Left earlyish, had a mission of a flight the following day upto the Amazon in Santarem, consisting of 3 flights. Left at 4pm, 14 hours later we arrived at the hostel in Alter de Chao. 25th June.

Day one has been a predictability now, purely to explore the place. Can see the Amazon river from the Hostel, spent an hour chilling on the hammocks they have hanging up, looking straight at it. The place is fairly quiet, not many signs of tourism, which is a positive.

As we were walking through the main town, which consisted of maybe a dozen shops, food shacks, restaurants & bars, we chanced it and grabbed a bowl of what can be only described as translucent slime with kelp juice and prawns. We both ate about half and politely declined the rest. Always open to trying anything once and wanted a taste of what the locals eat. Fuck me it was a struggle, did our best but there was only so much we could eat before heaving!

We booked a mornings boat ride up the Amazon for the following morning, the guide picked us up from our Hostel around 3pm. He took us though some narrow waters in a motorised canoe with a makeshift roof, after stopping off at a local bar on the river we swapped into a 3 man canoe, which was a third of the size. Using a paddle he took us much deeper into the Amazon, winding inbetween trees and shrubbery!

After about an hour we had completed a loop and were on our way back to the local bar we swapped boats from. Overall I was taken back from the purity of nature the Amazon can only give you, an extremely humble experience.

So we got to the bar and after having a cold frosty one we spent some time throwing ourselves into the river via a rope swing. Pretty decent. The next day we booked a trek through Amazon jungle. Left around 9am, after an hour hooning it down the River we finally got to our destination.

There were ten of us, mostly from Canada and the U.S, good bunch of lads. Two guides walked us through the Jungle for about 3 hours, stopping occasionly to inform us of interesting sights. He cut into one tree and explained the white powder that seeps from under the bark helps treat chest infections, it tasted like weak paracetamol! Awesome.

After asking about another tree that had diagonal knife marks on it, he explained this tree is used for extracting latex from. He pinched a small piece from the tree and stretched it out about a meter, pretty cool.

We had passed the secondary section of the jungle and into the primary (dense and basically untouched), we passed the half way mark and the heavens opened.. thunderous heavy rain just anialated us all, but I quite liked it, not every day you get to experience this. For once I wasn't that bothered about it raining!

The rain stopped shortly and a small opening appeared from the dense forest, revealing a breathtaking view over the Jungle and the connecting Amazon river. Simply amazing.

We got back to base around 4 hrs after we left. Had some lunch cooked for us by the locals, chicken rice and salad. Muito Bon (very good). Headed back to the hostel after lunch and wiped out after a hot shower. What a fantastic day.

Just finished watching Brazil qualify to the Quarters,  the Amazon has just erupted, what a finish!
Plus I had £2.50 on Brazil to win on penalties at 20/1 when they were 1-0 up, Bosh!

Looking forward to seeing Neymar & co in Fortaleza for the Quarters!

Until the next time.

Alex