One Year On...

Posted by Brian

Posted on July 25, 2008

So a year ago today, me and Jonny touched down in Bangkok. 365 days later I´m most of the way around the world in Paraty in Brazil. People at home have gotten themselves into a recession so I´ll have to go home and sort that out in a couple of months :)

As I mentioned we are in Paraty now. A little town between Rio and Sao Paulo. We are staying a couple of days here mainly to just chill out and to say goodbye to beaches for a while (well Matt is, I´m loving having a hammock again).

Since the last post we´ve been out in Lapa which is the part of Rio that has the street party at the weekends. We had locals showing us how to samba and I think at one point Alison broke out some of her Riverdance moves, had to be done! We had a good night there and then left copacobana to go back to Ipanema. A bit more time playing football on the beach there too. The Brazilians must have thought we had never played football before.

On Sunday we did the favela tour. It was interesting to see what goes on there and to be honest, the sense of community is class. Something that is lacking a bit now in most other places. It did feel a bit uncomfortable for me doing it as part of the tour, but I think I was the only one so it is a good thing to do if you are in Rio. That evening then was off to the Maracana to watch Flamengo lose 1-0 to Vitoria. The game itself was a dour affair but the atmosphere before the game and when Flamengo actually had a couple of chances, it was unreal. They had a goal disallowed for offside which went down like a fart in a spacesuit and the female assistant got all sorts of abuse from 41,000 fans for most of the second half. In fairness, she was having a shocker of a game.

After Rio we went to Ilha Grande. We stayed in a place called Che Lagorota or something like that anyway. Was a good place and the island itself has a great feel to it. We trekked to a beach and just lazed about all day so was fairly good.

Now we are staying in Serra do Mar in Paraty. Its a class hostel here. Somehow we managed to be given a private room and I got a double bed!! For the same price of a dorm too! Excellent!

On Sunday Ipanema beach was very busy, lots of people and Umbrellas

One of the streets was closed off and used as a pedestrian street

The beach had bars along the top. Mmmm... Coconuts

Rochina is Rios biggest favela and was the biggest in South America but apparently one in Venezuala is now competing for the honour

Me Pete Alison Matt and Henry on the way into the Maracana

Me and Matt in the Maracana before kick off

As the atmosphere hotted up, the Roman Candels were lit

The waves on Ipanema beach were scary at times. The broke so close to shore and were fairly violent. The current was really strong too.

Big signs told you the temperature and time. That day got up to 28 degrees

A boat in a bay on our way to the beach