As my South African World Cup adventure came to an end, our South American adventure began - This one much longer and probably very different to the last!
I'll pick up on the 8th June - a bleary eyed start in Cape Town where I departed company from Glover after an EPIC holiday. I flew to Buenos Aires (bizarrely one of only two routes from South Africa direct to South America) where I would spend one night in the bohemian district of San Telmo. Nothing really to report other than steak sandwich, quilmes and coffee.
The next day I spent walking around San Telmo and Buenos Aires' microcentre, before heading to the airport to finally meet Jo in Rio de Janeiro. I was in BA for one day but got a really good vibe from the place and cannot wait to head back there in November (ish).
I say I was in BA for one day - but that's a bit of a lie... Later that day I headed to BA's domestic/regional Jorge Newbery airport for my flight to Rio de Janeiro to meet Jo. I arrived at the airport to scenes of utter chaos and confusion. My Castellan (South American Spanish) is non-existent so it took me a while to understand that there was an impromptu strike by Air Traffic Control staff - our first but surely not last taste of South American left-wing rebellion.
All flights were cancelled or delayed by at least 6 hours, and people were actually going mad in the airport - shouting, screaming and running in random directions. Anyway, I slept in the airport on a very comfortable marble floor and got the first available flight to Rio to finally meet Jo - 14 hours later than planned...
The first few days in Rio were very chilled - involving a lot of sleep and walking / cycling along Leme, Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon beaches. We were staying in Copacabana - a lovely studio apartment in a not so lovely part of town! It was fine for us and I'm sure we'll be staying in much worse accommodation in the next few months. Those of you that have been to the 'Cidade Maravilhosa' before will probably agree with me saying it can be a fairly grimey place up close - due in part to just how densely populated it is, but it does have a truly vibrant atmosphere and can be quite intoxicating in it's charm.
Things came to life on Monday 12th when we rose early to visit Christo Redontor (Christ the Redeemer) atop the Corcovado, stroll around the sumptously serene district of Urca and watch the sun set over Rio from Pao da Acucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain). As I said, Rio can be quite grimey at first, but from a distance it's nothing short of breathtaking - comparable only to Cape Town in terms of natural beauty (I still cannot decide which is more picturesque).
One thing I will say is that Rio is probably the most vain place I have ever visited! A stroll along any beach is likely to make anyone without a Hollywood body feel slightly inadequate, especially after 5 weeks of braai, beer and fast food!
Here are some of the best pictures of Rio - more can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/fernando.nilanga.
Christo doing a lot of redeeming...
Christo Redentor from afar...
View from the Corcovado...
Sunset from Pao da Acucar...
Ipanema Beach...
The next few days were spent sheltering from almost British weather in cafes, bars, restaurants and museums in various neighbourhoods throughout the city, many featuring live music. We did manage to catch a football match (my 11th in 5 weeks!)in the Maracana; for the uneducated (!), Rio's main football stadium and one of the largest and most historic in the world. It was a Rio derby - Flamengo vs Botafogo, but disappointingly the stadium was only about 1/4 full (which in an 85,000 seater stadium is still quite a few).
Nevertheless, we sat ourselves next to Flamengo's faithful samba band and watched a typically brazilian game of football - not a huge amount of tactics or teamwork but a lot of attacking flair and skill. The end result was 1-0 to the current league champions Flamengo, but more importantly I can now claim to have watched games at two successive World Cup Final venues(thanks to Pal for pointing that out).
Near the hallowed turf...
Our stay in Rio ended on a bit of a low - I managed to somehow pick up a seriously strong stomach virus halfway through a night out in a Samba club in Rio's Lapa district. Being sick 10 times in one night is something I've come close to before but I think that was a personal best even for me.
You'll be glad to know that I managed to recover just in time for our one-day, three-flight journey from Rio de Janeiro to Cartegena in the North of Colombia, via Sao Paulo and Bogota.
Miraculously our bags arrived with us in Cartagena and we've spent the last 3 days doing two things in the main - Sweating and learning Spanish. Cartagena is an incredibly beautiful city but that's all for the next blog, which will be from somewhere in Colombia.
Until then - Ciao!
