Photos
Back to Rio page
Pousada Barra do Sol
The Gym
Back to Home
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Rio Part II - Teresopolis | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
23rd-27th June (Sun-Thurs): We probably should have partied because the first rain since I have been here started at 3am and decided not to stop.. A long wet walk down the trail (or watercourse) followed (after the obligatory 2 hours umming and arring about what to do about Tat). I did the best out of our group, only going down once to the cheers of the crew. The indefatigable Brasilian nature remained strong until about the fourth mud slide so I made an effort to keep up the whistling.. We passed the 4 firemen (job for ya Davo) on the way up with a stretcher for Tat at 1pm: Too misty for a helicopter.. After a superb shower and clean-up we headed for a feast at a local restaurant (as usual my hosts insisted on paying - sigh) before checking on Tat in hospital - her ankle was broken, not sprained.. I should have insisted on carrying her even more forcefully.. Then back to Rio Sun night for a great sleep. Looking deeper at Brasilian culture, it seems that the male must always seem as dynamic as possible - and this applies anywhere. My first Yoga session on Monday night was short, but indeed, some Brasilians enjoy the pleasures of peace as well as activity. I also managed to get to Capoeira class in my classy board shorts and t-shirt. Capoeira is a martial art/dance derived from a mixture of african and japanese forms spawned by the early Brasilian slaves who disguised the martial art from their Portuguese overseers as a dance. It is done to music with a lot of agility and groundwork - George, you and Jimbo would love it. The weather turned sour here in Rio as well, in fact it rained Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so my painting continued as uninterrupted as the patter on the roof. Prior to Teresopolis, I was quite depressed! All you have to do to make me unhappy is to injure me so I can't exercise or paint, feed me a big portion of meat and isolate me from friends via distance of language. Yes, missed friends and family. Even with gym, Capoeira, Yoga and surfing, it is still hard to make friends with the Brasilians of Barra, presumably because of the language barrier. This week is good however, and after another good surf lesson (with heaps of choppy second break) I returned in time for Fabiano (the owner of the Pousada) to take me to the Rio State soccor final between Americano and Fluminesce - talk about atmosphere. The game was held in Maracána, the biggest stadium in South America and maybe the world - holding 200,000 people. It was about half full. Fabiano bought the tickets - here´s some tricks for the peddlers (I learnt two that night) 1. Show that all you have is an impossible to change $50 note. Wait until the peddlar fishes out one bit of change, then the next while holding onto the $50, then slide him one of the notes given as change and walk off, muttering about how hard change is to get. Was good for a laugh for a few seconds. 2. For drink salesmen: hold drink while showing high denomination note. When vendor looks at you like you´ve stabbed him, say you´ll go and get change and walk off with the money and the drink into the crowd. Vendor waited with me for a few minutes then went looking for this mate of Fabianos into the crowd - LEAVING HIS BAG FULL OF DRINKS WITH ME! When Fabianos mate did return (with empty drink) we were in a hand waving confrontation with the vendor... more amusement. You'd have loved the atmosphere Mike, but I didn't get all of the rules - some parts looked as violent as aussie rules. The crowd is kept removed from the field by a moat! You'd have to smuggle a scaling ladder (Ky) through the turnstiles to get to the players... Those boys do have amazing skills with a ball, but I'd have to be brought up with it or play the game to be as passionate as the crowd... No beer was allowed in the stadium - its funny to see hard core sports fans drinking Hula Hula, a fruit juice and looking tough.
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
| Daily links | |||||||||||||||||||
|
30th June Photos Back to Rio page Pousada Barra do Sol The Gym Back to Home | |||||||||||||||||||
| My Info: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Name: | Craig | ||||||||||||||||||
| Email: | |||||||||||||||||||
| [email protected] | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||