When I last wrote my blog I was under the influence of 5 caipirinhas, I apologise for anything I may have written.
As you may remember, I mentioned that we were going out for a night in Lapa. This is a part of the city in the North renowned for its night life. As it was a Friday night and also Easter weekend, everybody was out in force. Therefore we found it very difficult to find a club with space as we arrived very late. We did, however, stumble across Two Door Cinema Club performing live, we stood outside the fencing of the concert singing and dancing along. Filled with enthusiasm Tom, Ed and I decided to give an impromptu "Best of English Music" concert to our friends from the hostel, Adele, One Direction and Robbie Williams featured prominently. Tom was quickly surrounded by some Canadian girls who were convinced he looked like Edward Cullen. Ed has also been telling everybody that he is featuring in the next series of Downton Abbey, I have been telling everybody that my house is Downton Abbey.
Undeterred by our failure to get into a club we caught a van to a party we had heard about. On Friday nights, these vans turn into parties-on-wheels, therefore I felt the necessity to dance along to Don't Cha by the PussyCat Dolls, then proceed to rap. I am informed that my performance was a sight to behold.
We found ourselves standing outside a heavily graffite-d concrete wall, it looked more like Shawshank Penitentiary than a party. A Portuguese friend from our hostel made the comment "Guys (turns white as a sheet, takes a sip of beer, steadies himself and continues) this fiesta looks a little bit too 'underground', even for me". However, as normally happens with 18-19 year old males, we were lured in by a blisteringly attractive girl.
Here are Tom and Ed's accounts of this night:
"Tom was less than keen to enter but with the assurance that we would jump in front of any bullets heading his way we slithered in like the gringos we were. Words cannot really describe the scene which greeted us; as our Portuguese friend had correctly predicted (see above), the event was well and truly 'subterranean'. Species of humans, the like of which we had never set eyes on, roamed around. Despite the authentic favela atmosphere - provided by the eardrum-rupturing funk and eye-watering fumes - it did not take long for us to feel gravely out-of-place. After attracting some admiring glances, we decided enough was enough and went to leave. Our escape was delayed somewhat by having to prise Ben out of the arms of a buxom Brasileira but we eventually returned to our hostel with our limbs intact.
On Saturday we were meant to head off to Buzios. However, beautiful weather in Rio and the idea of a 4 hour bus journey put an end to that plan. I cannot explain how grateful I was that we stayed in Rio as the next two days were absolutely amazing. We met some very friendly Americans in our new hostel who we spent the night with. Prior to meeting them, we had thought that the term "An American Abroad" was synonymous with Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington's acclaimed show "An Idiot Abroad". How wrong we were. These American lads and lasses were fantastic company and showed a genuine interest in us and the Brazilian way-of-life. I really hope that some of our anti-American jokes and comments weren't taken too seriously. We bought a couple of beers and sat on Ipanema beach chatting away. Life does not get much better than this. On our walk back to our hostel from the beach, we were stopped by police as they had received a tip off that some tourists were smoking marijuana on the beach. Evidently it was not us. We were searched very thoroughly, some may argue too thoroughly, before being sent on our way. Just another bizarre event that has occurred to us in Rio.
On Easter Sunday we got up early to go to Copacabana beach to watch Usain Bolt attempt to break his 150m world record. A great atmosphere even though our view wasn't very good - the Olympics in Rio are going to be something very special.
After baking in the sun waiting for the race we set up camp on Copacabana beach for the whole day. There were some of the best waves I have ever experienced, they towered over Ed and me when we went swimming. Definitely one of the most chilled days we've had so far this trip. Tom was burnt to a crisp.
After a very lazy morning on Monday we headed off to Sugar Loaf Mountain to watch the sunset. We were greeted with the most exceptional views over the bay of Copacabana and the rest of the city. It was a superb way to spend our last evening in Rio de Janeiro. We will definitely miss Rio very much (especially the caramel skinned and very beautiful girls) and have had the most amazing week here.
Ed and Tom
Copacabana Beach
Sunset over Cristo Redemptor
We arrived in Sao Paulo late last night. Sao Paulo is the biggest city in the Southern Hemisphere and we feel very small here. A completely different feel to Rio which we're not quite sure about yet.
Until next time
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