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!

Raining in Rio!

With the last few days being a whirl of mass toiletry panic buying in Boots, getting a parking ticket when I HAD bought a pay & display ticket (I would have written to you Council if I weren't going travelling...) and having to swap my backpack on the day before travelling because it was too small (Thanks Blacks in Clapham!) I can't believe I am now writing my first 'proper' entry into my blog : D

Having arrived early at Heathrow (there is a first time for everything...) I was sat in departures with a mixture of fear, trepidation and excitement running through me as it dawned on me that I was about to begin my adventure in South America...may I add here that it took a green tea from Costa Coffee to actually have these emotions kick in as I was literally a walking zombie from having to wake up soo early!

My flight to Frankfurt (my first stop en route to Rio) was delayed at Heathrow due to fog at Frankfurt airport - the clue was in the Captain's welcome speech in German (flying Lufthansa) exceeding its normal time and going on for about 10 minutes! there was me panicking about the public sector strikes at Heathrow which incidentally had no impact whatsoever...

Whilst sat on the plane waiting for take off I read two quite amusing articles in 'i' newspaper:

The first being about how Tony Blair's goverment had tried to get Oxford University to admit the late Colonel Gaddafi's son but rejected him only to have him accepted into London School of Economics (LSE) which is now dubbed the 'Libyan School of Economics' (!) due to its connections with the Gaddafi regime.

The second was about how an American gun club is offering families (yes that's right) a chance to pose for photos with Santa while holding pistols and assault rifles?! The image accompanying the article showed Santa flanked by a machine gun and a tripod-mounted rifle with a boy holding a semi automatic rifle with an attached grenade launcher...

Both articles made me chuckle during what would have normally been an annoying situation.

My connecting flight at Frankfurt was fuelled with me running like a mad women through the airport thinking I was going to miss my flight, barging past everybody queuing at security and being fast tracked through the system and then being told by quite a scary authoritative German security lady that I had plenty of time before my flight left and to calm down and take it easy! typical...

The flight itself was fine, entertainment was OK albeit slightly lacking in film selections. The only negative was the smell we all had to get used to throughout the flight of the guy who had brought his pet dog on board?! I think he must have been a professional dog groomer or something as his laptop was covered in pics of dogs (I could see it from where I was sat...) and the attention he was paying the canine was pretty intense.

Arriving at Rio, going through security and getting my bag was super quick, the airport itself reminded me a little of Cuba (quite stuck in the 70's) but generally good. Understanding Brazilian on the other hand was another thing all together! I thought having a Spanish mama would have prepared me for this day, but how wrong I was. Just trying to find a cash machine and then booking a taxi was a trial in itself (I blame my tiredness and weight of backpack for this!) but I managed it in the end and was soon on my way with the oldest taxi driver in the world driving like a lunatic through the torrential rain of Rio. Finding Tom and Manuela's place (wonderful people that have offered to have me stay for the first few days) was tricky as my taxi guy didn't appear to understand my broken Brazilian and also appeared to have a serious issues reading the address when written down - when he turned the page upside down it clicked that his near sighted vision was clearly not good so he offered me his mobile to call Tom. It turned out we had gone too far up the road and past their place!

So I'm here in Rio, having had my first nights sleep, waking up not knowing where I was initially. Weather is still misty but Tom and Manuela have the most amazing view from their living room window:

As they say in Brazil, Tchau for now! 

Not long to go now!

So its T minus 17 days until I leave London and head off to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, the first stop on my five month tour of South America : D


I'm excited albeit slightly terrified at the same time...I'm going solo, and whilst everyone keeps on telling me I'll meet other travellers along the way, I'm still going to have to rely on myself to get to places which given my lack of sense of direction and poor timekeeping (I like to think its because was born late and its paved the way for the rest of my life...) you can understand why I am a little apprehensive!


To keep my mind occupied away from the aforementioned fears, I have thrown myself into familiarising myself with pretty much all the camping / travelling shops in Covent Garden and buying most of their stock...prior to planning this trip I had NO IDEA how much of another world there is given to these types of activities! 


I have kitted myself out with the essentials and a couple of random items which I probably won't use but would have such smugness in whipping out should the need arise - the foil blanket  being one, I think I may have used one of these once at a festival and recall it made me look like a bird about to be shoved in the oven but I'm sure if I'm stuck in the wilderness freezing I shall gladly rock this look again...


I'm getting the first of my jabs done tomorrow, I can't say I'm looking forward to it as I tend to bruise fairly easily but I have no choice in the matter given that they are necessity for most of the countries I'm visiting. 


Right, I'm off to go and attempt to load the backpack and putting it on, this needs to be done as the last time I wore a backpack was during my gap year in Spain and I spent most of the time on the floor like a tortoise...not a good look. I also need to start wearing my walking boots (so UGLY by the way...there is seriously a gap in the market for better looking walking boots!) Hasta lluego!