city of god - the beach

Having a few hours to spare until a mammoth bus journey, I thought I'd get the blog underway. So, from the beginning...

After a (somewhat one-sided) tearful goodbye at Heathrow, we jetted off on the luxurious Air France 747. The 'extra leg room' seats I'd selected online were in fact the seats in front of the 'extra leg room' seats, and even for my modest pins, this was a squeeze. Needless to say, the leggy Heslegrave was struggling.

Soon after this revelation, my 'adjustable' seat headrest adjusted so much that it came off, and we quickly determined that the square panels in the back of the seats in front were not our personal TV screens, but in fact just square panels - the only TVs being those flickering mid aisle, showing mediocre french films for the duration of the flight. And to top it all off, as we had the seats in front of the emergency exit, the recline of our backrests was limited, further reducing the comfort. Anyway, rant over. After 11 hours of interrupted dozing, we landed in Rio.

Greeted by our taxi driver, Wilson, who immediately decided that Gra was called Brian, we headed off to our hostel. The outskirts of Rio were pretty shabby, with favelas lining every hillside. Our first hostel was Brazil hostel, located in Lapa - the party neighbourhood of Rio. After a quick welcome and tour of the hostel we were recommended to head up to Santa Teresa, a beautiful area up in the hills.

Within ten minutes of leaving the hostel some little shit had tried to have Ste's sunglasses, we witnessed a man pissing in the street, and then we got lost. Welcome to Rio.

Eventually, we found the tram station, and the tram ride was a spot on way to begin our intake of Rio. We stopped near the top of the route and had a few cervejas and some lunch (quickly learning that Brazilians like cheese in their food) with a couple of Aussie girls we met on the tram.

For our first night, a big gang from the hostel headed out to a Samba bar, followed by a Salsa bar. The second Wilson of the trip - a dead ringer for Samuel Eto'o - was tearing up the dancefloor and offered us a few Salsa steps to get by. In our next two days in Rio we took in Ipanema beach and a tour of the city - involving Sugar Loaf Mountain, Monte Christo, the Maracana stadium, the Samba Drome and Lapa steps (the setting for Snoop Dogg and Pharrell's "Beautiful" video).

We flew up to Natal the following day, where it became apparent to us that a pretty good grasp of Portuguese is an essential to get by in Brazil. The basics needed to be learned, as we realised when Gra elbowed a woman in the head on the bus, and not having the Portugese for 'sorry' in his locker, all he had to offer the bruised woman was "Nao, Nao!.." ('No', in Portuguese).

Natal was a complete contrast to Rio. A very chilled beach town with nice beaches and a laid back hostel strewn with hammocks. Our three days here were very relaxed.

First, we took an epic dune buggy tour along the coast, hammering up and down the dunes. An experienced only topped by the 'Meat Roundabout'. For R$25 (about a tenner) we had the run of a buffet and endless cuts of meat brought round and sliced at the table. Naively, we mounded our plates with food from the buffet, not realising the volume of meat to come. All delicious, including a first - chicken hearts - which at first glance we thought may be some form of testicle.

Whilst circling 'the roundabout', sat on the beach front, we saw two very good looking young girls walk along. And after seeing them accost two old men in as many minutes, we concluded they might just be prostitutes. They very kindly confirmed this for us shortly after, by leading one of the senior gentlemen down onto the beach, only to reappear five minutes later; the girls adjusting their hair, and the old timer skipping off down the beachfront, whistling.

From Natal we took a two hour bus to our next stop and current location, Praia de Pipa. It's absolute paradise. The beaches are stunning, and the town is very chilled with cobbled streets and colourful buildings, a great atmosphere, and very hot weather. We have ended up staying here a day longer and could easily stay many more. The daily grind here has consisted of swimming with dolphins, trying to surf, and beach kick ups - life could be worse. We've also had our first beach football challenge here, and we started small, quite literally - the three challengers were around six years old.

We've already met a few characters along the way, one of those being Sando, a guy in his mid thirties from south Brazil. He recently informed us that he had two girlfriends, and claimed the secret to this is simply that "you just have to be a good administrator".

As always, we've christened each other with a few new nicknames:
Gra - Clam, Clamster, Clammy, The Clam Man, Clam Clam (this evolved from Ste being undecided whether to address Gra as Clark or Ham). Brian. Roberto, and (phonetically) Hraham. Gra introduced himself with these two names to the same girls at two different stages through one evening.
Ste - Dithering Daisy, we now know why he is always late.
Myself - Mr balls/Mr No Balls, this was coined by our buggy driver as he could see mine being smashed all over the hard buggy seats as he rallied over the bumpy dunes. Tan Man, due to me wanting to lie on the beach a lot whilst the two nerds frolic in the sea.

Well, that's all for now, a 20 hour bus journey to Salvador looms...
Ipod, check. Book, check. Toilet roll, check!

20.01.10