Beach time

I haven't had time to update the blog lately, so I will try to sum up my last few days in Rio.

After the gang left it was time to enjoy Rio's beach. The weather was great, and the beach was lively even though it was a Monday. Here are some photos of Ipanema beach and the bay area. There is a rocky area at one end of Ipanema where people go to watch the sunset, I took some photos, you can see all of Ipanema from there:

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Panoramic view shot of Ipanema:

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I think I found the "Chica de Ipanema", she was posing for photos on the rocks (to her friend not the public, any comments??):

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There was not much left to do in Rio, and the only thing remaining was the Botanical gardens so I decided to check it out on Tuesday with Joel (a Canadian guy that was with me in the old hostel, as well as the new one). Joel came to Brazil to study Portugese, his plan is to work for the Canadian foreign services and specialize in the Americas. He was based in Salvador for his Portuguese lessons and was in Rio for a long weekend, a decision he regreted when he found out how amazing Rio is compared to Salvador. The gardens were not very impressive/interesting (even for a guy working with plants) so we decided not to waste time since it was Joel's last day in Rio. The main reason we went to the garden was because they said there were waterfalls there, it turned out to be some water flowing down (or we we went to the wrong place):

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On the way back from the Botanical gardens we needed help catching a bus, so Joel was asking a girl if she could help . The girl was going to Ipanema so we all went together to the beach. Samantha is a lawyer (working at her father's real estate company) from Porto Allegre in the south of Brazil and was on vacation in Rio. We spent the day on the beach and then she took us along with one of her friends to have lunch; her friend is a chef in one of Ipanema's top hotels. Joel left to Salvador later that day.

Some Ipanema panoramic beach photos from the day:

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We also saw dolphins swimming through Ipanema:

More beach videos (the girls there have serious skills but the ones in the videos are probably the worst, weekend is the best to see some talent):

Joel has been around South America and helped me with my Ecuador/Peru segment of my trip. He also told me how a group of armed men stopped his bus in Peru, he was with his girlfriend then. They stole the stuff they had with them on the bus but did not take anything from the bags stored in the luggage compartments.

Tuesday night I met a girl and a guy from Norway (and another couple from San Francisco), they were really cool. We went for drinks next to the hostel and then to a Samba nightclub that was full of Gringos. That night confirmed that Samba is not something that I can enjoy for more than half an hour. Fortunately the club had a second floor that was playing electro music, so that made the night more enjoyable (at least until the Dj started fucking up by mixing songs using the 1990 sirens). I had my fist Caipirinhas in the club, and it was not that good. It was free drinks until 12 am so the drinks were really nasty, but maybe I'll give it a try when I return again to Brazil. Wednesday morning I went to the beach and had sushi with the Norwegians; they then left to Fortaleza in the north of Brazil. I went to Copacabana for a walk later that day and ran into the Saudi youth team, they were training in Brazil before the world cup in Colombia. They had just played Brazil and lost 3-0. It seems that every time I go to Copacabana I run into a football team.

Photos from Copacabana:

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I was supposed to meet Samantha on Wednesday night to go to a Jazz thing in Lapa. I did not end up meeting her and met Enrique (the manager of my first hostel) to watch Brazil's Copa America game. We watched the first half while drinking beer at one of the small local street shops; we then went to his place for more drinks.

Rio for some reason is very friendly to gay people and it seems that they are everywhere. They even get their own spot on the beach, near post 8, where they have rainbow flags to pinpoint the area. I did not take any photos, so if you wanna see it you know where to go (post 8 Ipanema beach). 2 of the guys working at my hostel were also gay (one Australian and one British). It was the third gay Australian I met in Rio (the acid dealer, a random guy we ran into while getting a bus to Sugar Loaf mountain, and the guy working at our hostel). Also, apparently in my room in the first hostel we had a gay guy (American) with us. Joel was having drinks with the guy one day and then there was this other guy with them, who turned out to be his gay partner.

Meeting new people everyday started to become tiresome, you have to explain everything about yourself again and again every time you meet someone and the turnover of people is really high so it just makes it a bit annoying at times. I had one day remaining in Rio (Thursday the 14th) and I decided I'm just going to relax and not do anything. I was also falling ill for a couple of days; living in a room stuffed with people is a recipe for disease and I was really feeling bad on my last day in Rio.

This is my last post regarding Brazil, as I move on to Argentina.......