brazil 17 [eng]

hello dear friends

from the totally rainy northeast of brazil, i‘ll send you my latest report, today i take you to rio de janeiro, into a crazy week of classic gringo life. peppered with wonderful surprises ...
have fun while reading!

btw, unfortunately, Cathi forgot her phone in Salvador because of this, we are missing some photos, maybe I update the post later with the new pictures.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DateA2pja57LOJoFK52BEGDuXJ0hwJzh&usp=sharing

11.2. - 17.2.

today I enjoyed it really well to sleep long, because cathi had to work, we had breakfast late. unfortunately I also felt the approach of a small cold, when I packed all my things together and we laid around for a while on the sofa, prepared for the departure from boicucanga.
lolli had talked to the owner of the cabana and she had agreed to take us to the bus station in the city ...
Around 4 pm we sat in the car and a short time later we were in the regional bus to são sebastião. arrived there, we waited until about 9 pm and then I bought our tickets to Rio, the bus would take us in 7 hours to drive to the city.
the waiting time we spent with food, drink and on instagram, because even at such remote, almost extinct bus stations like the one in são sebastião, there is almost always a free public wifi in good quality.
When we got into the bus, the sun had long gone down and the ride was as always cold. I slept badly at all.

The bus reached Rio early at 6 am, it was still dark and in search of our uber, which should bring us to the hotel, we ran vigorously. just as the sun was rising, we reached the mambembe hostel in lapa, a wonderful neighborhood and a great adress for tourists.

Since we were extremely early and terribly tired from the night in the bus, we first slept a few hours on the sofas in the "living room" of the hostel. then we were awakened and could move to our beds, here I slept again for a while, until hunger drove me out of the bed. Also, the headaches that I had here on my last visit came back and I helped a little with a paracetamol.

In the afternoon, together with Cathi I went up the mountain to Santa Teresa, here are two addresses that I wanted to show her, once a kind of small café, they sell the sacoles, so small water ice cream bags with different fruit tastes and also the supposedly best açaí place around, just a culinary delight.
In the afternoon we were back in the hostel and I then managed to make up for my missed Sunday family call, fit well, because today also is my little brother's birthday.

then cathi and I took the metro to the beach in ipanema, where we strolled for a while over the sand and admired the sunset on the cliffs at the eastern end. the sun sank behind the dois irmaos, one of the famous landmarks of rio ..

our way back to the hostel, which we first went on foot, along the Copacabana and later with the uber, was long. arrived in the hostel, we talked a little while with the other gringos and then went to sleep.

We almost missed the breakfast today, which you get here at the hostel until 10 o'clock. During the meal we became further acquainted with the other hostel inhabitants.
Also a girl appeared, which organizes free walking tours, here in lapa. With a relatively large group of other gringos we spent the morning in the city and were guided by curiosities and sights, so for example we saw a very well-known bakery, the bar szene and the well-known escaleras selaron, a stairway that was over and over covered by colorful tiles designed by an artist, that was born in chile.

After a quick lunch at a good price per kilo restaurant near the stairs, we climbed the mountain further up to Santa Teresa, until the Parque das Ruinas, a very old half-ruined city villa that is now used as a cultural space for concerts and art exhibitions.

Meanwhile, we became friends with three Australians and later in the hostel, i went on went to write a new blog entry.
Meanwhile, Cathi bought some food and then we cooked a delicious mango caju curry, which we then ate along with two girls at the sunset.

the three Australians had asked alex, a funny guy who works here in the hostel, to teach them how to mix the caipirinhas. So we all gathered outside on the terrace and learned in which order, this quite simple drink needs to be mixed.
At some point, all the other people of the hostel, joined and we played a stupid drinking game in the living room of the hostel.
In the process, I also met Jan, a guy from köln in germany, who spends the last days of his travels in brazil.

Eventually it became too loud for the hostel and we walked down the steep path to the arcos of lapa, a historical aqueduct around which nightlife is concentrated, but on a wednesday evening, it is not so bright.

We had a leisurely sip of beer in the bar, which Alex had chosen and after we walked past the clubs, whose music I would call honestly, as terror-funk, we walked back to the hostel and fell into the beds.

Slightly hungover, we enjoyed the breakfast in the hostel and then i joined Janni on the way to the often praised Uruguayan street fair, some blocs away from the hostel. Overall, however, rather a disappointment, a mass of Asian cheap clothes and other stuff that nobody really wants.
That's why we both decided to look for a vintage shop and a new shirt for him.
we somehow stumbled magically pulled by the ads into a hardware store and enjoyed that tour a lot.

this is probably something that only an artisanal person can understand, but it was just fun to visit a place that i saw at home, at least once a week and in such good company, it’s twice the fun. jan speaks very good Portuguese and so after a short time we found a vintage shop, unfortunately we did not saw anything that was perfect for him and so we walked back to the hostel, exhausted from the sun.
Here I worried a little about Cathi, who made a very sickly impression. then I formatted the photos and published a new blog entry.
In the afternoon cathi and I went together with a dutch girl, to the beach in ipanema, where we met the australians again and just enjoyed the sweet life in the sun and the gigantic waves, that were about 3m high.

Back to the hostel we drove with an uber and I talked a lot with the driver, who could even speak some English. he answered many questions, e.g. why whole rio stops in the rain, a curiosity that we noticed in the first few days, the people here stay at home when it rains or rain is announced and at home I mean, they do not go to school or work ...
He explained that this is related to the architecture and geography of the city, during heavy rainfall and here they are always heavy, so much water comes down the mountains that even small cars are flushed with and then a flooding is simply a danger to life in some areas of the city...
back at the hostel we cooked a second version of the curry from yesterday and then I talked to the dutch girl for a very long time, she just finished her psychology studies and will start working after her trip.
When it started to rain, we went to sleep.

after the obligatory breakfast at the hostel, cathi set out to visit the well-known christian statue and i walked with janni and the dutch girl, together we visited santa theresa to search for these stickers.

This sticker can be seen almost on every car, it goes back to a tram accident, some years earlier, which claimed several lives. Since then the tram has been modernized and is now much safer.
After endless rumors, we finally found some stickers at a kiosk and I bought two of those for my van at home. then it was time to say goodbye to janni and we hugged us. i would have liked to spend more time with him, but i will probably visit him when i come to cologne.

the hostel even has a room, with many instruments to play in, if you want. I jiggled something on the guitar before cooking pasta with the returned cathi, then we changed and joined the other people on the terrace. here I talked a lot to Eleri, a Welsh girl. tonight was a big street party in another district, with the glitter I bought on the street market , I made sure that we were all sparkling, before we skated with 5 (!!!) uber, fully occupied to pedra do sal.
Once there, we gathered together and then had to sadly determine that the party had been canceled due to rain. funny thing is: it did not rain. So we planned and after some rumge question was firmly what our options were. Since everyone was in the mood, we then marched, the 20 people we were to a kind of alley. where a heated party atmosphere bubbled, it was a kind of samba jam in progress and the boys lit the dancing crowd neatly.
some beer and the realization that flipflops are not a good shoe-choice for such events, later a taxi brought us back to the hostel and tired we fell into the feathers.

today was definitely the best, because, after breakfast we made our way to flamengo beach, close to here should be a secret bloco, recommended by alex. so we reached the place and it was apparently so secret that nothing was going on. already slightly disappointed, from our inability to find a single good party in this city, we sat down at a table in a small bar on the edge of the park.

after a few minutes we were addressed by a young man who was dressed as a rocky, he told us that he was waiting for his girlfriend, a wonder woman and then along with batgirl and another friend names emma, they wanted to go exactly to the bloco, that we also searched.

finally arrived, just expected us a blatant party, which stands on a level with good German festivals, the colors, the joy, the powerful, even not electronic music, and of course the joy that the people express, even if they have been dancing since 8 am, all this i just to good.

We danced through the day and in between I talked to different people who were all thoroughly surprised and impressed to see us two gringos here, as this party, marketed without social networking and therefore it has remained very underground in recent years , but that speaks for our good nose. I also loved our exclusivity, it was only Cathi and me and not 20 people from the hostel, who had experienced this special event. as it turned out, they were at a bloco in ipanema, who fell apart in panic because at some point there were shots ...
when we were exhausted at around 5pm and the musicians stashed their instruments, we drove back to the hostel and overloaded with joyous party energy, we danced around the room for a while, before we ate something and I then dangled with eleri on the couch, we talked a lot about her work, because she lives my dream, she works on festivals as an illustrator, paints walls and makes them look old or like wood and stones and of course much more. she also gave me some wonderful recommendations for great festivals in uk and maybe i manage to work at one or two. this is her website, if you want to take a closer look at her awesome work.

https://www.madebyeleri.com/new-page

I was shocked when I told her about Bob Ross, and realized that she didn’t know him. So we watched via the tv in the living room, some episodes from the joy of painting series and soon she fell in love with his style and this unique way of explaining.
the best thing was that while we sat in the living room, whenever people passed by, they paused all movement and were just amazed. moreover, it was funny that, without exception, everyone, and we gathered more than 15 nationalities, knew this wonderful man and his work, everyone except Eleri, whose work is painting.
later in the evening everybody wanted to leave, to a kind of free festival in the north of the city, I was very undecided and my belly feeling actually told me to hang here on the sofa and let the evening end with eleri and bob ross, but then the one swedish girl told us that tonight they will also have nice techno at this event ...
I suffered from my rehab to electronic sounds, so i put on my shoes and then said goodbye to bob and her.
The following chaos I summarize briefly, we had the wrong address in the uber, missed the other people, ran a bit aimlessly through the night, found people, in front of the big cobra graffiti in the harbor, who also wanted to see the fest, run for half an hour, saw the queue at the entrance of the area and drove back home in disappointment.
I should learn to trust my belly more ...

finished off the wasted night and the minimum amount of sleep I had, I had breakfast for a long time and then went with kle, richard, eleri and an italian, to the hippie market in ipanema, a really pretty market, with a lot of arts and crafts and interesting bits and pieces.

over the beach promenade and a delicious coxhina for lunch, we reached the copacabana beach, in light rain, which we then strolled along.

In the early evening we reached the sambadrom, the great arena, with a street in the middle, where the big parades take place during the carnival. today there was a rehearsal of three big blocos, who dance for the spectators and prepare for their presentation in a few weeks. it’s a free event.

After a ridiculously long waiting time, the violent rio-rain set in during the first few dances and that did not detract from the performance of the dancers. The audience also has an energy that should not be underestimated, and it explodes with screaming and applause. just a loudness, colorfulness and party that will give you the goose bumps, how great it must be here, when the parades in full costumes march in and the dancers give their absolute best?

the last bloco is from the biggest samba school of rio and in retrospect, i can say, they won the carnival presentation this year. foto is from the real carnival from the web.

the rosa y verde, so pink and green and so were the fans dressed with smoke flares, confetti and flags simply offered an incredible spectacle.
when around 22 o'clock it was all over and we arrived a short time later back at the hostel, we went fast into the beds, because tomorrow cathi and I will leave rio in the northern direction to guarapari and from then it goes back to bruuuuuuunooooo, the best car in Brazil!!!

hopefully i was able to take you to brazil for a couple of selected minutes, now i will release you to everyday life and wish you a wonderful spring. See you soon!

love
pauli

here my current contact data:

mail: [email protected]
Phone: +55 (11) 98842-2617
whatsapp: +54 9 11 2693-6601
blog: https://steemit.com/@schningelnatter
in case you want something more updated, instagram: @schlingelnatter