OWEN AROUND THE WORLD: February 2007

The metro in carnival!

I had not originally planned to head to Brazil, but with Rod, aka Rodrigo, an old family friend living in Rio, it seemed rude not to pay him a visit as the carnival was about to get underway! Rod has been living out in Brazil for a few years now, living off the rent from his house in the UK, and I really don´t blame him! He has a great lifestyle out there, and I was lucky to be able to stay with him and meet all his Brazilian friends. It certainly seemed like he showed me some good party spots, and he also showed me the way when it came to ordering lots of beer, not to mention his translation services... Thanks Rod!

I literally fell in love with Rio during my time there. It is perhaps the most picturesque city in the world simply because of how it is set up in this tropical paradise of beaches, islands and small mountains. Looking down at it from the Pao de Azucar or the Christo you can´t help but be stunned by the view. It is an incredible mix of beautiful buildings, wealthy areas, and then the poor favellas which because they are located on the hills, seem like they have been dropped on top of the more fortunate cariocans.

It certainly was the most intimidating city I have been to so far on my trip. Among the travelling community, it is certainly the place with the most horror stories about people being robbed, being held up at gun point... Luckily I did not have any problems, although during one tightly packed parade I did have to remove a loose hand from one of my pockets... I guess you just have to adapt to the place and its social reality, so typically I would leave my camera at home, and just carry a little cash. Overall, Latin America seems like a place with a real haves and have-nots divide much more extreme than anything in Europe. Surely it would benefit the wealthier people to try and change this, but in Rio, the feeling from people I spoke to is that the government does not do much to remedy the situation.

The carnival atmosphere is really different to anything I have experienced before. Its a bit like one of the big Spanish city festivals, just a thousand times bigger and with an even crazier group of locals. It really is round the clock partying, fuelled by hordes of stands selling ice cold beer, capirinhas, and some great street food. People love their ice cold beer in Brazil, its almost a crime to not serve it super incredibly ice cold. The fridges in shops have a thermometer to show what temperature the stuff is at. The main parades take place in the Sambodromo, a stadium built just for the carnival. The parade of the different samba schools run all night long, and by about 5am most people are well and truly samba-ed out, but the music keeps going and people keep dancing. The costumes, the floats, the musicians. They take a year to prepare, and you can see why because they are just so intricate and well done.

Other things that hit me in Brazil, apart from the ice cold beer, are the havainas, the very tasty per kilo food buffets, the friendliness of the people which is in stark contrast to the violence that occurs, and the promiscuity which seems to rein free, especially during carnival! Everyone has a pair of havainas, you'ld almost think you would need a pair to get Brazilian citizenship... I made it to the Maracana too, to see Flamengo whip Maracaibo from Venezuela in the Copa Libertadores! It was great to get to such a legendary stadium...

After carnival, I made it down to Florianopolis, an island off the mainland where I stayed for a couple of days with Patricia and Joanne who I had been travelling with in Chile... It was great to chill out, sleep and spend some time at the beach and at the lakes... Patricia lives in a great little house practically in the jungle. It was a great alternative to the craziness of carnival, and it was cool to meet her family. Now I´m back in Argentina, on the border with Paraguay, and getting ready for a push north towards Bolivia and Peru. It was a bit of a mission communicating in Portuguese although it was good fun to try and learn a bit, but its good to be back speaking Spanish! All in all I loved Brazil, and hope to get back there on a future trip.

Some of the pics below are from Iguazu and the frontier between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil there. The three towns are very close together, Puerto Iguazu, Foz do Iguazu, and Ciudad del Este. The contrast between them though is immense, and I hope this comes out in the photos. Ciudad del Este in Paraguay is suppost to be one of the most corrupt cities in Latin America, a shopping centre for Brazilians and Argentinians. Its a strange place with a funny mix of luxury goods and filthy slum like streets. Did not feel very safe, but its an intriguing place. You can walk across the bidge to Brazil with no migration checks, but locals prefer to hire a motorbike for the journey, as there are stories of people being robbed of their purchases in the No Man's Land at the centre of the bridge!

La Garganta del Diablo in Iguazu!