... a very wise man once taught me that it´s much better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission. So, boys and girls, Cosmo and I ask your forgiveness for one of the best weeks of either of our lives so far.
After a gruelling 11-hour flight from Heathrow to Rio, we had absolutely no idea what to expect. The guidebooks had told us about all the best bars and beaches; our mothers had told us all about the crime-stricken favela streets; and various movies had wet our appetites for the beautiful scenery. What we hadn´t prepared for was the sheer volume of combining everything together, seasoned beautifully by some of the most pleasant and most beautiful people I, for one, have ever seen.
Where to start? We arrived at the hostel late, very late, on Thursday night with a spring in our step but looking about as ´fresh off the boat´it was possible to look. All smiles and formality, we introduced ourselves to anyone that listened and tried (much too hard) to meet new people. It was ridiculously easy to relax into it. We dumped our stuff, found our beds and went downstairs for a few beers with other travellers from all over the place. From what I can gather, Rio´s a gateway to the rest of the world at the same time as being a hotspot for South American tourists. We met all sorts: British, Polish, Australian, Chilean, American - the works.
Walking through (some) streets in Rio is like flicking through the pages of a fitness magazine. Everybody is gorgeous, tanned and looking well in themselves. It would have been easy to jealously hate them if they weren´t such nice people as well! So we spent the first day walking up and down the streets of Ipanema and Copacabana (the former, I think, being far superior to its more famous big brother) and got horrible sunburnt. Sorry mum.
The evening´s were hard to keep up with. Rio is VERY expensive in February and we were knackered from the heat and all the moving about, so we spent most of our nights just finding a local bar and gorging ourselves on Caipirinhas. I´ve memorised the perfect recipe so I intend to drink nothing else when I get home. Cosmo ended up feeling pretty bad so I made him a makeshift rennie with a few sachets of salt and a bottle of water. He was chugging the cocktails down again before you could say ´heartburn´.
What else to tell you? You can make of Rio what you like. Whether you want sunny, serene (if slightly overcrowded) beaches or clubs full of samba music (which we stupidly didn´t get to see), there´s something there to make you breathless. But be warned, it will take you over and you´ll end up doing stuff you never planned on doing. Which brings us to the next point, which I´ve carefully been tiptoe-ing round to avoid any minor heart attacks within the family...
... we went hang gliding on Monday off some rain-forest covered cliff. It. Was. Incredible. After a very worryingly short training course (which basically consisted of a man who barely spoke Enlgish telling you to run on 3) we were strapped up and told to hang on, but, I quote, ´not too tightly´?! The experience was amazing, and after that gut-wrenching feeling when the floor first slips away from you, the 10-minute flight over the city rendered us all speechless. We landed on a very quiet beach tucked away behind a few rocks and felt totally relaxed (although the price-tag acted as a bit of a slap across the face to wake us up again).
With one night left to go, we moved hostel to a completely different scene in Rio near the Centro called Santa Theresa. Our mentally-challenged taxi driver can testify to how high up this place was and the views that evening made the worst taxi ride of our life worthwhile. Cosmo bought his stupidly expensive but wonderful camera the other day so there´ll be plenty of pictures to make all you suckers turn pea-green with envy in good time.
Yesterday, we jumped on a bus to a little town called Parati, which is about four hours from Rio on the ´Costa Verde´. We came purely on recommendation from a pretty cool guy staying with us in our first hostel. It´s been raining like a madman all day, and it´s fair to say that such awful weather corrupts the white-sand-crystal-clear image that this place must ooze whenever the sun comes out. Still, to look on the bright side, if it weren´t raining then we wouldn´t have come to the internet cafe and we´d definitely be doing something more fun than writing about the fun we´ve had so far!
So, that´s about it for the week since we left London. The torrential rains and explosions of green are a million miles away from home, and although it´s only been a week since we left we still feel like we´ve been away for months. Tomorrow morning we´re jumping on a bus to Sao Paulo (which we still have no idea how to pronounce in Portugese) and then straight on to Iguazu, which promises to be incredible.
Dad and Ros, I understand that we´re in direct competition with Tom, who´s also backpacking round South America right now. Well, to tip the balance, I´m going to upload some videos and photos as soon as I can find a computer capable of doing that without exploding. Speaking of which, we should probably end here as the lights have just been flickering and I´m expecting another power cut in the next few minutes.
Love to you all from Cosmo and me. We´ll keep you posted....
After a gruelling 11-hour flight from Heathrow to Rio, we had absolutely no idea what to expect. The guidebooks had told us about all the best bars and beaches; our mothers had told us all about the crime-stricken favela streets; and various movies had wet our appetites for the beautiful scenery. What we hadn´t prepared for was the sheer volume of combining everything together, seasoned beautifully by some of the most pleasant and most beautiful people I, for one, have ever seen.
Where to start? We arrived at the hostel late, very late, on Thursday night with a spring in our step but looking about as ´fresh off the boat´it was possible to look. All smiles and formality, we introduced ourselves to anyone that listened and tried (much too hard) to meet new people. It was ridiculously easy to relax into it. We dumped our stuff, found our beds and went downstairs for a few beers with other travellers from all over the place. From what I can gather, Rio´s a gateway to the rest of the world at the same time as being a hotspot for South American tourists. We met all sorts: British, Polish, Australian, Chilean, American - the works.
Walking through (some) streets in Rio is like flicking through the pages of a fitness magazine. Everybody is gorgeous, tanned and looking well in themselves. It would have been easy to jealously hate them if they weren´t such nice people as well! So we spent the first day walking up and down the streets of Ipanema and Copacabana (the former, I think, being far superior to its more famous big brother) and got horrible sunburnt. Sorry mum.
The evening´s were hard to keep up with. Rio is VERY expensive in February and we were knackered from the heat and all the moving about, so we spent most of our nights just finding a local bar and gorging ourselves on Caipirinhas. I´ve memorised the perfect recipe so I intend to drink nothing else when I get home. Cosmo ended up feeling pretty bad so I made him a makeshift rennie with a few sachets of salt and a bottle of water. He was chugging the cocktails down again before you could say ´heartburn´.
What else to tell you? You can make of Rio what you like. Whether you want sunny, serene (if slightly overcrowded) beaches or clubs full of samba music (which we stupidly didn´t get to see), there´s something there to make you breathless. But be warned, it will take you over and you´ll end up doing stuff you never planned on doing. Which brings us to the next point, which I´ve carefully been tiptoe-ing round to avoid any minor heart attacks within the family...
... we went hang gliding on Monday off some rain-forest covered cliff. It. Was. Incredible. After a very worryingly short training course (which basically consisted of a man who barely spoke Enlgish telling you to run on 3) we were strapped up and told to hang on, but, I quote, ´not too tightly´?! The experience was amazing, and after that gut-wrenching feeling when the floor first slips away from you, the 10-minute flight over the city rendered us all speechless. We landed on a very quiet beach tucked away behind a few rocks and felt totally relaxed (although the price-tag acted as a bit of a slap across the face to wake us up again).
With one night left to go, we moved hostel to a completely different scene in Rio near the Centro called Santa Theresa. Our mentally-challenged taxi driver can testify to how high up this place was and the views that evening made the worst taxi ride of our life worthwhile. Cosmo bought his stupidly expensive but wonderful camera the other day so there´ll be plenty of pictures to make all you suckers turn pea-green with envy in good time.
Yesterday, we jumped on a bus to a little town called Parati, which is about four hours from Rio on the ´Costa Verde´. We came purely on recommendation from a pretty cool guy staying with us in our first hostel. It´s been raining like a madman all day, and it´s fair to say that such awful weather corrupts the white-sand-crystal-clear image that this place must ooze whenever the sun comes out. Still, to look on the bright side, if it weren´t raining then we wouldn´t have come to the internet cafe and we´d definitely be doing something more fun than writing about the fun we´ve had so far!
So, that´s about it for the week since we left London. The torrential rains and explosions of green are a million miles away from home, and although it´s only been a week since we left we still feel like we´ve been away for months. Tomorrow morning we´re jumping on a bus to Sao Paulo (which we still have no idea how to pronounce in Portugese) and then straight on to Iguazu, which promises to be incredible.
Dad and Ros, I understand that we´re in direct competition with Tom, who´s also backpacking round South America right now. Well, to tip the balance, I´m going to upload some videos and photos as soon as I can find a computer capable of doing that without exploding. Speaking of which, we should probably end here as the lights have just been flickering and I´m expecting another power cut in the next few minutes.
Love to you all from Cosmo and me. We´ll keep you posted....
