A Boy in Ipanema

I´m finally in Salvador for Carnaval after a great week in Rio de Janeiro. Rio is an amazingly beautiful city and I met heaps of great people, but the real highlight for me was the music.

Since it´s a week before Carnaval, the samba schools were all having final rehearsals and we travelled 1 hour to a poorer part of town where Beija Flor, who have won the Carnaval the last 3 years, were having their last rehearsal. The streets were packed with people dancing and stalls as we made our way to the hall where the school were rehearsing. There were a few thousand people in the hall with about 300 in the actual parade group. On a stage behind the dancers was the drumming corps and a few singers as well as the samba king and queen. It was complete madness pushing past and around people, but the everyone was friendly and just interested in having a good time. A couple of Brasilian girls tried to teach me to samba, but my feet just weren´t built to move that fast, though I´ll definitely be trying again.

A few nights later Andrew, a cool Canadian that I met at the hostel, and I went to an area of Rio called Lapa, which is where lots of locals and gringos go out. People had spilled out of the clubs everywhere and it was just like a huge street party for a few blocks. There was a smaller samba school playing here which was equally amazing.

On another night a group of us went with some guys from the bar in the hostel to an awesome dub and reggae night at a club called Casa de Matriz, which is in an old house. The music was unbelieveable and the guys toasting were great as well. There was even a guy playing trumpet live which worked perfectly. The requisite spinbacks, delays and call outs were, obviously, present as well.

Rio wasn´t just about the nightlife though. I got out and saw a bit of the city including a trip up to Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeamer), the famous 30+ meter statue of Christ that looks over all of the city. It´s kind of creepy actually that He´s always watching what you do.


We also checked out the Maracana Stadium, which seats upto 200,000 people, the Catedral Metropolitana, which is shaped like a cone and has huge (50 meter?) stained glass windows and Museu de Arte Contempor (the Contempory Art Museum), which is in an amazing building shaped like a UFO with great views of the city.

For more mountian and city views, I spent a few hours up the Sugar Loaf, a mountain with more amazing views.