Rio Carnival Tings

Yo!!

Blistering Brilliant Blogtastic Bundles of BOOMness!!

Im back again, back again, Robbie Robbie G on track again!

Ive left Rio (for now) and writing this blog about carnival in Rio de Janiero. Ive had 3 strong caipirinhas, so it should be more GINterestinggggg.

OK... Does carnival live up to the hype? Is it the best thing since Frank Lampard on slice bread?? Well, the answer is........I DONT KNOW! :p

I think for me to truely judge it, I have to come here 3 or 4 times and do EVERYTHING! Theres a lot going on all the time, its impossible to do everything. They have street parties non stop, clubs, balls, its all going on. Some "blocos" I went to just seemed like we got a bus to see a street parade, but we actually just got crushed by 6 billion people and then there was one guy with a drum...tapping it a bit :-l But we went to a couple where we could see drummers, dancers, blah blah blah and it was cool. It helps if you love the music, and youre drunk. Obviously! ....Talking about drunk....Caipirinhas!! You might of heard me mention the name. Its basically a 40% (maybe bit more) alcohol called cachaca, crushed ice, and lime. NO mixer. But theyre nice! And get you waste stained after a couple. You could get some on the streets at block parties for 5reals. Which is like less than 2quid. Dunno why alcohol is so cheap in an expensive country, but i aint complaining. There was one night where we moved to a hostel where 2 friends from our tour was staying, which had a caipirinha party. They were handing them out free for a couple hours. As I said, about 3 can get you drunk.... So I had 9 to start.... Plus a couple shots. We found out there was a party in town that was free entry and free caipirinhas til midnight. So Me, Cat, Sarah and Nicola went there too. Had 4 or 5 more drinks.... Club wasnt great but I didnt care at that point. I found out that free entry didnt necessarily mean free exit. We paid to leave for some reason. But it was literally 30 seconds before i fell on to the grass and puked my guts out so i didnt care. We also got tickets for the "Champions parade". Which is the best 5 or 6 schools at the actual carnival parade at the sambadrome. The tickets were cheaper than the 1st weekend, and we got the cheapest seats. Went on from 9pm to 6am! The floats were AMAZING! Proper jaw dropping. Coz of our distance we didnt really see the costumes etc close up, but it was cool. The Brazilians are bloody mental though! A song would come on for a school to march to, and we're at the end of the run way thing, so it takes 30mins til we even see them. But they dance samba ALL NIGHT! The songs are obviously popular coz they know the words, but they put it on repeat for like 2hrs until that school finishes! Kids that were about 6 yrs old dancing all night, fat people, elderly, black, white, gay, straight, they all love it! And they wernt even drunk! Aside from that, Rio is a great place. After the carnival kinda wared down a bit etc, I remembered the real reason i always wanted to visit the city. Its crazy to see guys and girls walking down a busy street like oxford circus with a surf board and speedos because theres a beach right round the corner. People warned us about pick-pockets, and crime. But unless your retardedly naive, it aint a problem. We had people try it on a few times. But most of the locals are nice and would go out their way to help you. They have 7aside football pitches everywhere, they play on the beaches too, cool graffiti, nice parks, nice beaches, views...... its lovely :) I have lovely days :)

The only bad point in Rio I think was our 1st day when we went to Christ the Redeemer, and the Sugar Loaf mountain and saw NOTHING! As it was the only day of the year where Rio has crap weather :-s Well, we did see a bit, but not much. Since then the weathers been TOO hot if anything. Sweat about 60 tons of sweat a second.

ANYWAY Better go bed now. Im rambling, and every sentence i type i have to reread.

Keep your beady lil eyeeesss, open for a blogging surpriseeeee! ;)

....I rhyme tight, all night, like your shorts...and you get served like tennis courts....

POW!!

Brilliant Bolivia & Boombastic Brazil

Good morning blogaholics!

Robbie G giving you that high you need! ;) lol

Sooooo what a rollercoaster ride we've been having lately. It'll take AGES to write about everything, but I haven't updated since leaving Peru, so let's crack on slobberbloggers ;)

Brilliant Bolivia.

Before I came to Bolivia, I used to think of cocaine. Now I just remember it for being CHEAP! especially when you cross over to Brazil and you get your trousers pulled down everytine you go to make a transaction. £4 for a meal would be expensive there. We did the death road. Def did the death road. Started so high up and it was soooo cold. By the time we got to the bottom it was boiling! Saw alot of crucifixes along the way. It's pretty safe for cyclists, but drivers must of been sh*tting it going down there. Salt flats were great too. I was expecting them to be. I wasn't expecting the whole surrounding area to be just as cool though. The rocks, snowy mountains, train graveyard, all as worth seeing as the flats I'd say. In Potosi we also visited a gold mine. We were told it's a real eye opener to go and see and blah blah. But our guide was really cool, and he told us about the miners mentality and how well they got paid. I actually think I could be tempted to do it short term one day. Think I'm more suited to a mine than an office. Game changer :p

Then came Brazil! I already mentioned the price difference, but the other major change was the temperature. It's is HOT! ....and the girls are also HOT!! lol. Went to the Panatal, and Bonito. Won't talk about them too much because the photos are yet to come. Then on to Iguazu Falls. Something I've wanted to see in my life, and it didn't disappoint. It was like being on Avatar! The pictures I've taken wont do it justice....

You might of heard about the "ups and downs" we've had lately. Its long stories, but Ill jot them down in a bullet point kinda form:

Found out after checking emails our hostel for carnival gave our rooms away. FML.

They were trying to confirm we were still coming as it was thier busiest period. Unfortunately we spent alot of time in slat flats and jungle, and I don't check my email much, so the beds were taken.

Obviously they didn't think a £70 deposit was confirmation enough. FML.

After complaining and battling, the hostel found another hostel for us that was cheaper. So we tried to get in contact with them. We emailed them, then me and Cat got a local bus to see the worlds 2nd largest Dam. But the water wasn't running through it as it wasn't wet season yet. FML.

After the dam we wanted to check we had enough money in the bank to pay this new hostel. Went cash point, no card. FML. We went to a supermarket 20mins befre and thought I must of dropped it there. The problem was, it was a 20min walk in the other direction, and our tour bus was leaving soon. So I gave my bag to Cat and ran. Most of it was up hill and it was like 40degree heat. FML.

When I got there, stressed, sweaty and angry, I asked workers if they had seen it. Obviously my portugese ain't great, and I nearly gave up as I thought it was hopeless, not there, and the bus was nearly ready to go. I asked one other woman in a White shirt and drew what the card looked like. She went "ah Metro!" she had it hidden under a computer keyboard. My relief helped me run half way back, but after that I had to take my top off and march like stone cold Steve Austin.

To make a long story short, our Internet banking password got locked, international phone calls to them to fix it was a bomb, Internet cafes didn't work, wifi sucked, and everything went wrong in trying to sort this booking. But we finally confirmed it today :) about 2 days before carnival. (After rushing to book something back in august for it) lol. Seems to be all good now though! Hopefully carnival is siiick and Chelsea stop conceding late goals :)

Leave it there for now.

Keep your shorts tight. I know I will.

And keep a look out for more blistering blogtastic bullsh*t ;)