HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Not losing my camera after all the stories that came out today
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Football game was a bit of a bummer
WORD OF THE DAY: We are in Rio during Carnival
Breakfast was a buzz of conversation this morning. A lot of people last night had wallets, cameras or jewelry stolen amongst the partying last night. There was a group of girls who had their chains ripped straight off their necks, cameras out of pockets and wallets out of front pockets. I rekon out of 30 people 10 people had something stolen. That’s pretty high stats. Mark had pre-warned us all to not take bags out at all and just some cash. I ended up taking my drinking camera and it was tucked up in the left side of my boob and I had cashed stored up in the left bob. Even though I looked lopsided in my dress it worked and I made it home with my camera and ‘some’ money the rest which was spent on the cheap beers.
We had one thing organized today and it was a football match this afternoon at 4.30pm. With a massive day tomorrow at the Sambadrome, we decided to use this day as a chillax and rest day for the upcoming parade. We had to collect our washing at 12 noon which was an interesting exercise in itself with the washing lady speaking no English. How much English do you need to collect washing I hear you ask, well I got my washing back no problems, but Kate’s was not yet in a plastic bag and she was jib jabbing to us in Portuguese. Hmmmmm maybe there are some items missing, count them Kate. She counted them and all looked in order, so we just progressed into the payment side of things and this was also confusing as we were collecting Debs washing which she had already paid for so when Kate paid she also took money for Debs, so trying to explain to the old duck that we needed more change and she went to her old fashioned till 3 times getting money out as we tried to explain to her why she was doing it. It was funny and frustrating all at the same time, but 20 minutes later we walked out with our clean washing under our arms.
On our way back to the hotel a street party just sprung up from nowhere. They literally just walk around the streets beating drums, old petrol cans, blowing whistles and pretty much anything that can make a noise and they walk the streets drinking and dancing. The vibe is amazing and the drum beats go straight through you. It is amazing to watch them walk, pull up a sidewalk for an hour or so and then keep on moving. This particular one had a lot of drunk people for 12.30pm. Add that to 39C heat and I think there will be some very sick puppies at the end of the day today. I think I will pass on that, is that a sign that I am getting old or have I just gotten smarter in my years?
I used the afternoon to load photos to Facebook as I hadn’t loaded pictures since Paraguay, it’s nice to have fee Wi-Fi in the air-conditioned comfort of our hotel room. AWESOME is the only word that would describe that. It is a shame that I have lost my mojo for my blog at the moment. I think there are just so much going on days are hot and long and then the party on at the night time it just doesn’t leave a lot of room for blogging. There is also a lot of information that needs to go into the next few blogs and then tends to also slow me down a little trying to get all the information that I want in there. I hate the feeling that I am falling further and further behind but with my notes to help me I know that I will get it done eventually…….
The pickup for the football today was at 4.30pm. Mark had warned us with Carnival and a top team playing a local team that the atmosphere is not going to be like the games that you see on TV, firstly Macarana Stadium is currently closed for renovations for the World Cup and secondly the trams were playing in a stadium that only holds 8000 people. For Kate and I, who know nothing about football, it was just a chance for us to do something different even though it wasn’t that cheap at 50USD for a ticket.
As Carnival does, there was an impromptu street party and out transfer van couldn’t get to the hotel, so we walked for 10 minutes to get to the vans for them to take is to the stadium. I think even after that small set back we had arrived early to the stadium so that had us literally driving around in circles for 40 minutes until we could actually get out of the van. It felt like we were trying to lose some one tailing us or heading to a secret venue with all the driving, turns and lack of communication as we drove around. But we made it to the stadium and we were still early. There were some small local bars outside the gates, so we went to the quietest one and drank a 600ml beer in 15 minutes. Besides it being so humid, we were hurried up as they were ready to let us into the stadium. There was a guy selling Brazil merchandise and at the insistence of Sven I bought the really annoying wooden whistle that you can actually play a tune on as well. I knew I was going to drive people nuts with this and I couldn’t wait. Especially Kate, she was full of threats on what would happen to my whistle once my back was turned, but we will see about that. We were security scanned and out tickets checked twice before entering the stadium and poor Sven got pulled up and asked what was under his shirt and when he lifted it up it was just his tummy!!! He said he was so embarrassed.
I really don’t know much about football aka soccer to the Aussies. There were a lot of tourists in the crowd, Tucan had supplied 42 of us at the game, but we were mixed in with some of the locals and they took the game quite seriously as they should as it was there team. There was probably 500 people max at the game and it was concrete stands and self-seating. The only bad thing was the concrete steps were painted black, so after the sun being on them all day they were super-hot to sit on, like nearly too hot. Kate sat on her thongs to just try and give her butt cheeks some relief. They were really scolding hot. No alcohol is sold in the stadium and you are not permitted to bring it in either. But there were plenty of men walking around with big Styrofoam boxes with cold water, soft drinks, ice creams, chips and peanuts. They have a tough job with the box on their shoulder with ice and 30-40 drinks sloshing around in there. Poor guys but the drinks are double the price than what you pay out of the stadium so they are making some good money out of us. They also wear t-shirts with the prices of all their goods on the front which is a great idea!!
The game finished and we were shuttled back to the hotel which was a 45 minute drive away. Once again due to Carnival proceedings some of the roads we wanted to use were closed, so it took us a little longer to get back. We had arranged to meet Liz and Paul at 9pm and as things would happen they walked back into the hotel the same time we got back at 9.45pm. Great timing kids! We met back up again at 11pm and met back in the lobby to have a bite to eat and another walk around to suck up the street parties around our area. I’m not sure if it was the beers and the caiprinyas last night, but it seemed busier tonight, more drink people and the crush if people were on the border of not fun. I guess us being sober probably adds to the lack of patience as well. Dinner was a nice way to get out of the stream of people, but with a sidewalk café we still had a bird’s eye view of the people and their costumes. After dinner we walked past the arches to the main square, got a caiprinya for the road and walked back to the hotel. Seriously there were 100’s ,maybe even thousands of people drunk and we passed one guy that looked comatose standing up, it was a little freaky. I offered him a sip of my drink as a joke and his friends took a second to comprehend that I was joking…. Ha ha their faces were priceless!
Back to the hotel at 1am and I still had my cash and my camera. My bra purse is working a treat and just don’t understand why people don’t want to delve in there to rob me????? Big day tomorrow and I can’t wait to see the Parade tomorrow night!
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