Cod Balls and Caipirinhas

Having spent my first day in Rio cooped up in the apartment (a mixture of tiredness and fear of going anywhere on my own whilst my hosts Tom and Manuela were at work all day) I had serious cabin fever by the time Tom came home, so after a few caipirinha's we ventured out to Copacabana for dinner and more drinks at a a bar called Pavão Azul which literally means Blue Peacock. We drank some local beer which comes in a big bottle and you share amongst everyone drinking out of these small glasses, great for someone like me who takes ages to drink anything, not so good I imagine for someone used to drinking pints. To accompany our beer we ate these fried balls of cod called 'bolinhos de bacalhau' which are amazing and come seasoned with either olive oil or this special chilli sauce which tasted even better than the cod balls. Seriously I'm not the biggest fan of anything spicy as some of you may well know but this chilli was different. You could ACTUALLY taste the flavour which in my book is pretty amazing as most chilli you have in the UK just blows your head off and numbs your mouth. Needless to say these little cod balls went down a treat, apparently I even ate them like a true Carioca (local Rio person) - holding them with a napkin - what can I say? I'm a natural :D


We then caught a cab to Ipanema and had dinner in a place called 'Devassa' which is a gringo friendly food chain in Rio. We ate a platter of fried food (the first of many in South America I'm sure) washed down with more caipirinha but this time a special one which had strawberries and blackberries mixed into it along with a pineapple ice lolly stuck in for good measure. Delicious albeit slightly tricky to drink fruit mush through a straw.

En route back to the apartment Tom explained that at the bottom of the hill where their apartment is there are a number of transsexual prostitutes who work the area...literally the minute he finished telling me this we drove past a group of them. Most of them naked. Literally no clothes on their surgically enhanced bodies (they were all men remember & this is Brazil the land of cosmetic beauty) except for a thong and high heels. Odd when surely they're working the streets to make money so why flaunt all their wares before being paid?! We didn't stop to ask, although given how slowly the taxi driver was going past them I'm sure I could have lent out of the window and posed the question although on reflection they probably would have thought I was after something else so just as well I didn't.


After waking up late the next day we caught a bus which felt more like a roller-coaster into Ipanema. The bus driver drove so fast around a bend that at one point we all thought the bus was going to tip over. I say we, it was just in fact me that felt this way. Every one else on the bus just acted like nothing had happened and that travelling at the speed of sound on a bus which clearly wasn't designed to go that fast was completely normal. Once in Ipanema, we grabbed a quick smoothie before visiting a local vista tower which had been built next to a favela called Cantagalo. Looking back I wish it had been an alcoholic drink we'd had as it would have helped me deal with the experience a little better. The views from the tower were amazing but venturing around the favela was the weirdest experience ever. It was like nothing Id ever seen before, the smell in places was pretty offensive given their lack of sewer system and it was difficult to get your head around the fact that people, especially families actually live like this. But everyone looked so happy and the kids were running around barefoot playing football or flying little kites. We really wanted to take photos but given where we were it didn't feel quite right so no pics to show you I'm afraid other than this one of the outside of the favela:

After our experience in the favela I needed some retail therapy so we went to the Havaianas shop where I bought a couple of pairs of the obligatory Brazilian flip flops. £12 for two pairs!! bargainous. 


Lunch / dinner followed at Bar Veloso which was where the song 'girl from ipanema' was written. We ate the most amazing steak which comes to your table on a hot plate half cooked and then you finish frying it yourself:

This was followed by a stroll along Ipanema beach (weather isn't great but it still looked stunning). The waves were actually quite big which was surprising, the locals call this 'resaca' which literally means hangover. I guess because some hangover's can be brutally rough on you?!


The beach is overlooked by two mountains called Dois Irmãos, not to be mistaken for the Sugar Loaf or the hunchback where Mr JC resides:

Speaking of Mr JC, we saw a shrine of him and his mama Mary in our local underground station, I'm assuming this is pretty standard for a catholic country so I won't question it:

So that was my first 'proper' day in Rio. Apparently we're off out again tonight so I'll let you know what the Carioca's get up to on a Saturday night in Rio...Tchau!