Rio de Janerio (Part One)

So we arrived in Rio and the weather turned nasty. Its been raining here ever since which has crushed my hopes of spending 4 days on the beach. We´ve had to find other things to do. Our first night here was our last night of the tour so we went out for a farewell dinner. It was this huge buffet place and I must say that Ive become a buffet champion. For desser they had chocolate pizza which was weird because it was pizza dough with nutella on it but it also had cheese? Which souynds gross but actuall tasetd all right. Then everyone wanted to go to the markets but Melanie wanted to go out clubbing because it was Saturday night in Rio and you know what, I agreed. So everyone else left to be boring and we went out partying with another group and another guide (10 all together). The other group was on a ´comfort tour´ meaning they had spent a lot more money for their trip and had a lot more money. Three of them were staying at the Marriot and one guy (who was 28 and a plastic surgeon) loved showing off the fact that he had tonnes of money so he bought drinks for everyone all night. He always made sure I had a beer in my hand...I wasnt about to complain. We went to Club 6 which is like the hottest spot in Rio. It had 3 floors and 4 different dance rooms. When we got there there was a huge line up and they make the girls and guys go in seperate lines. But this guy selling cigarrets walked up to us and asked if we wanted to buy VIP cards for 5 Reals. Well of course, so we got in right away. I wondered why everyone didnt buy them and the gu7ide were like, well they cant afford it. They save up all week just to come here. When you get in they hand you like a plastic credit card. So you dont pay cover or for any of your drinks until the end of the night, which could get dangerous because you dont really keep track of how much youre spending, plus you have to wait in line to leave at the end of the night. I was looking HOT in my short pants and socks with hiking shoes and smelly t-shirt. Plus my eyes were really irritated from something and bright red and leaking, but I still managed to get smarmy boys hitting on me. I really think they need to get higher standerd. This one guy kept grabbing my face to kiss me and I had to keep shoving him off. Finally I swore at him, not just any swear, like the WORST swear you can possibly say in Latin America, he got the hint. But these guys are just rude and insane. We left at 3 AM.

Had to wake up early to say goodbye to everyone. We were going to go on a city tour, but since the weather was really bad, the guide said we wouldnt see anything anyways, so we should leave it for another day. Rhiannon and I decided to take a tour of the Favellas. Now in Lonely Planet they say do not, under any circumstances go to the Favellas. Yopu will be raped, robbed and murdered. They are basically ghettos run by drug dealers and since the residents steal water and electricity and dont have to pay taxes it is the cheapest area to live in Rio. I think (after dinosaur tracks of course) that this was the best tour Ive ever been on. We got driven to the base of it (there were 8 of us) and then you get on the back of a motor bike and ride up to the top. The guide said you can bring anything with you ,money camera, gold bars and you WILL NOT GET ROBBED for 2 reasons. #1- 60% of the money you pay for the tour goes back to the community so they like you being there. #2- The drug dealers employ drug managers to watch the strees and ensure that there is absolutely no crime in the Favella because crime attracts police attention and THAT would get in the way of their drug dealing. This makes the favella the safest place to live in Rio. Plus they dont need our stuff anyways, the amount of money that goest through there is insane. The drug managers alone make 10 million Reals (about 5 million dollars) a MONTH...EACH. Also unlike in Peru where if you take a picture of someone you have to give them money, in the favella they beleive that if they are on your camera they will get on tv and one day be famous. They just wanted to be famnous so they would run up to us begging us to take their picture and then we would show it to them after and they were thrilled. One man ran to get his pcamera to take a picture of us. All the people were really nice and friendly. They teach the kids to make stuff to sell rather than beg for money. So they paint pictures on old pieces of wood or make bracelets. Rhiannon laughed at me as I bought quite a few, how could you NOT encourage them? Then near the end one of the drug dealers came up to us and wanted me to have a drink with him. Jim Beam and coke, well how could I refuse. I keep great company these days. The guide said that he told her if I ever wanted to come back to the favella on my own, he would protect me. All in all he was pretty nice, for a drug dealer? We stopped at an art gallery run by people living there and Rhiannon and I each bought a painting. Then we went to a bakery and had some cake. It was a really great tour. After it was done we got dropped off at the hippy market that is only on on Sundays.

There were a lot of stalls, it was way bigger than we thought it would be. We both bought some stuff and realized that we had spent an obscene amount of money that day. It was weird random starngers would come up to us and ask if we were sisters. We dont look alike at all except for the fact that we´re both short, and white. Then we went back to the hotel to pick up our stuff to move to the hostel for the next three days and Chris Jade and Donna were there waiting for us because the hostel messed up and everyone was in different rooms and they didnt even have my reservation so I didnt have a space at all. So they ran around trying to find another hostel that we could all share a room together. It worked out to be 3 Reals cheaper a night, but Im glad that they dealt with it for us and we just shopped all afternoon. That night we ordered pizza and watched a pirated version of the new superman movie, which we all thought was terrible. We basically mocked it the whole time. Chris was in a really bad mood and wouldnt talk to anyone except me for some reason. Jade was just like, why is he being nice to you. I said its cuz Im pretty. She told me I could have her husband for 20 Reals...I said that was too expensive. OUr roomates were 3 gay guys in town for the gay pride festival that was happening on Copacabana beach. They were flamboyant and loud, but really nice. One even offered to style Donnas hair after she took a shower because he was a hairdresser. She refused.

The next day Donna left for the airport and after shopping together for a little bit Chris and Jade broke off from me and Rhiannon and (sadly) us two girls were stuck together for the whole day again (just kidding I really like her). We did a lot of walking basically because after looking in the guidebook about Rio there was only 3 things to do:
1. Go to the statue of Christ and Sugarloaf mountain (which were covered in clouds)
2. Go hang on the beach (where it was cold and rainy)
or 3. Go to some museums (which were way on the other side of town)

So we decided to have some lunch and go walk across Copacabana beach, weather be damned. It was about 4.5 KM across the beach and it was nice. We walked along the water but sometimes we had to run cuz the water would come in further than usual. The waves were huge because the ocean was so rough. We met up with Chris and Jade at the hostel and went out for dinner with a couple Rhiannon had met on Inca Trail. They were really nice, from England. Then we headed off to see Pirates of the Carribean. Everyone was mad cuz I had a student card and paid only half of what they did (worked out to like $3). The movie was really good, I liked it alot. Then we went back to the hostel for bed. The guy who workes there keeps telling the other girls how beautiful I am and how much he likes me, and gives me free chocolate and caiprinahs...its funny to see them be like, we want chocolate and capriniahs. Oh well...