Rio was amazing, although it has rained for the majority of the time! The day after we got there we just walked around the city and got a feel for it. It has everything, beautiful beaches, dense forest, posh areas and slums.
We had a tour in a favella, or slum, which was so eye-opening. we went to the biggest slum in Rio, Rocinha and got on motorbikes to the top (the best, or richest part of the slum, if you can say that, as the pathways are bigger and sewage drains down) and walked down through the maze.
It smelt terrible. We had a woman with us explaining how things work, like, when you enter or leave the favella, you cant take pictures, as they have kids working for the drug lords with radios and guns to watch who goes in and out. The guy that runs the whole favella, and it was huge, is the top drug lord and leader of a gang called ADA (whish stands for friends for friends in Portuguese) , is only 23 years old, but apparently he is old for a gang member, as most don’t make it past 17.The guide said the film city of god is actually very accurate representation. I have never been anywhere like it. But you actually felt safe, only 10% of the population in the favella is involved in the drug and gun dealing, the rest just live there as they can’t afford houses in the city.
That night we went to a street party in an area called Lapa, it was so great, so busy, people dancing samba in the streets, singing, I can’t remember what time we stayed till, but we didn’t leave early! We overslept the next day, missed out check out and the lady in the hostel had to come and shake us to get us up! We then travelled 2 hours up the coast, got on a speed boat and went across to Ilha Grande (big island)
Ihla Grande is maybe one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, white sandy beaches and rainforest. We were extremely hung-over and after a VERY bumpy ride on a speed boat neither of us were feeling too good! So we lay on our beds listening to the sound of the ocean which was right outside our door. We managed to drag ourselves up to head to an all you could eat fish BBQ with free caiparinha's. We sat right on the ocean to eat and i couldn’t remember having dinner in a more beautiful spot. The next day we were up early, 2 girls we had met in Argentina were in our room so we all had breakfast and started on a 3 hour hike through the jungle. It was so hot and humid the trek was really difficult, we also believe we heard a jaguar, so this was extremely scary at the time, we're still not sure what it was, but it sounded angry! The hike was so worth it, as we finally arrived to Lopes Mendes, the most beautiful white sandy beach. We got the boat back though as we couldn’t face the walk again!
We spent the next day wandering around the island; we saw some ruins of an old prison, natural pools and old aqueducts before catching the speed boat back to the mainland.
Our last few days in Rio were spent fighting with the bank as per usual and sightseeing. We did the normal touristy things, Seeing the Christ redeemer, the lapa stairs where snoop dog and pharell shot some of the beautiful video, the stadium etc, before heading to the airport (and nearly missing our flight!)
Now we are back home, safe and sound. Hope everyone enjoyed reading the blog x x x
