Rosie in Recife

So after a couple of beautiful and relaxing days in Foz do Iguaçu, I took the bus to São Paulo. One of my favourite things to do actually, is to take the overnight bus. It’s really relaxing just sitting there, sleeping, eating chocolate biscuits, trying to watch movies in Portuguese. Even when you’re not sleeping, your brain is almost sleeping cos there’s nothing else to do. Although this particular bus was packed and it’s never much fun sitting next to other people. Just my luck, two youngish backpackers who seemed German (this observation was based purely n their surliness), and two youngish Brazilian woman were sitting in the chairs opposite me, and seemed to fight the entire way over whether the seats were down to far, or if it’s polite to punch the back of a seat while another person is sitting in it. There was also a mother with a baby sitting in the seat in fron of me, who I guessed was going to cause a lot of trouble, but she was a perfect angel…

Anyway, we got to SP about an hour and a half late. I was expecting my “friend” to have bought me tickets to Manaus and then from Belém to Rio, but when I checked my emails at the internet café in the bus station, I’d got an email from him saying “which flight numbers do you want?” I’d already sent them to him, twice, about a week in advance. So there was no way he was going to be able to get me tickets for a flight that left in two hours, even if he was online and could do it right away. And I was a little sick of travelling alone. Somehow, butterflies aren’t as beautiful, waterfalls aren’t as impressive, Cristo Redentor isn’t as majestic, when you’re not with people you love. And specially after having just left behind so many friends in Recife and missing them so much, and looking forward to coming home to nz so much that time seems to drag on. And I had no flights and nowhere to stay in SP (didn’t really want to stay with Luciano again). And to top it all off, my flippin VISA wouldn’t work anymore.

So I rang Neno, and said “I’m coming back to Recife.” Before I left, I said I wish I could stay in Recife longer, but Neno kept saying it would be better to see other parts of Brasil while I had the time, so I was totally ready for a discussion about it. But he said “Sweet as. What time are you coming? I’ll be at the airport.”

So I used Skype to ring a hostel in SP and booked a night. I couldn’t stop smiling, I felt like such a dick. I washed my clothes in the hostel, took a little walk around the neighbourhood, bought some Guaraná (man. I’m gonna miss that!). I tried to book a flight for the next day, but the computer wouldn’t work, so I just chilled out around the hostel feeling happy.

The next morning I got up super early and went to the airport to book a ticket from there, but my VISA still wasn’t working. So I rang dad and mum (it was so stragne to hear your voices! Strange in a nice way) and got more credit card details, but i had to have a functioning card, not just the numbers. Luckily, I had enough cash on me to buy an incredibly cheap flight to Recife that left at midnight. But it was from the other airport. So I took the free bus to the other airport (about 30 minutes away) stowed my luggage in left luggage and prepared to spend 14 hours at the airport.

When I was little (and somewhat unreasonable) I had always thought that if I ran away from home I would go to the airport. Clean toilets, showers, places to buy food (don’t know how I’d get the money, but there’s always leftovers right?), and there’s so many people coming and going that no one would ever notice you’re homeless. Perfect. Well on this day I totally learnt that an airport is not a cool place to run away to.

It started off fine with chocolate, Guaraná, sun and a reading book. But the chocolate was flippin expensive and the sun soon went in, leaving me freezing cold, sipping on warm and flat Guaraná trying to translate a Portuguese reading book before my hands went numb. So I went inside, read a bit more, went on the internet to let Neno know the time of my flight, read some more, fell asleep and dropped my book on the floor, drank some more Guaraná….it was so so boring! And I kept going for little walks arund to stay awake, and kept bumping into the same people (and this airport was way bigger than Auckland).

So I took a bus into the centre of SP to go to the street with motocycle shops (yes, there’s a whole street, actually more of a neighbourhood, that specializes in motorcycle repair and parts shops). He’d given me a list of things he needed for his bike. When I finally found the strret, I suddenly realised that I was so totally out of place. Not only was I female, but I was blonde, foriegn and young. So I went to the first shop to get off the street and away from the stares and asked where to get them. Luckily this shop had them so I spent a good hour or so while the men found the correct pieces and tried to explain them to me. So just before I bought them I said “are you certain these are the right ones and if they’re bot, will you pay for us to send them back to you?” He sai “don’t worry, they’re all the correct pieces.” So I said “Good. It’s just a lot of people rip me off because I’m forign and don’t speak Portuguese well.” So he paused for ages, then decided to ring Neno up and double check. And they were all the wrong pieces which I kinda guessed by the way he kept saying “well this is basically the same thing.” And everything was so expensive that we Neno told me not to worry about buying anything.

So on my way back to the bus stop, I saw a beauty salon and decided to get a manicure and pedicure as my nails were in an absolute disgraceful state. I felt like such a moviestar as one woman did my hand nails and one woman did my feet nails. And it only cost R$22 for both – which is about NZ$18!!

Then I got the bus back to the airport, read a bit more, had a SP burger and boarded my flight back to Recife!!!

I got a plane to Foz do Iguaçu, otherwise known as Iguaçu Falls on Sunday morning. My “friend” from Recife (who I don’t like so much) bought me the ticket because his brother works for the TAM airlines, and can get them really cheap. So I just had to transfer he money into his account. So Luciano and Itala got the bus with me to the Airport and said Goodbye (I don’t know why this has a capital, it just seemed right at the time), and I bought some ridiculously expensive chocolate for the flights. Why is airport chocolate always so expensive?

There were two flights actually, one to Curitiba and then another to Iguaçu, each about an hour long. When I arrived in Iguaçu, I went to the bookshop and looked at a copy of Brazil Lonely Planet, memorised the number of a hostel, and went and called them. Luckily they had space. Actually, I think most hostes will have space cos it’s not the busy season. Anyway, I got a taxi to the hostel which was really nice (the hostel, not the taxi; that was pretty average). I arrived at about 3pm, so just chilled out most of the day…watched a couple of movies, used the internet…nothing special.

When I was checking in, my bag fell forward awkwardly on the fall and suddenly there was this awful high-pitched sound like an alarm going off. It was coming from my bag, but I had no idea what it was. So I frantically searched through my bag, until I found the little torch that mum had sent me. I always thought it was just a torch – and it had come in handy a LOT at the hostels cos I couldn’t always put the light on if someone else was sleeping. But it was actually an alarm as well! Haha. Thanks mum!

But I had to talk to this man called Luiz, about the falls. I wanted to see the Brasil side first, then the Argentinian side the following day, but he suggested I go to the Argentinian side first with a group of three others who were going the next day. So that was cool, we were going to leave at 9am cos we had to go through two sets of customs. So the next day I got up early, got ready, had breakfast (that incuded some of that Dolce de leite that Ollie brought back frm Argentina that time), got my passport and went to meet Luiz at 9am on the dot. But he said two of the people had pulled out of going, and we needed at least three to go “but don’t worry, I’ll get someone else, we’re definately going to go”. He asked everyone, but no one else wanted to go, until a girl turned up from an overnight bus and decided she’d come too. So we finally left at 12pm. Brasilians….

The falls were absolutely beautiful. So so amazing, I think the most stunning thing I have seen these last six months. I can’t explain how beautiful they were, and even the photos and videos (which I can’t put up yet, because I need the cable) don’t do them justice.

The Argentinian side basically walks along the side of the falls, so you can see them incredibly close up. At some points, they were almost frightening, standing directly below a huge sheet of water pounding down almost on top of you. And thats apart from the fact I was terrified of dropping my camera into the falls. Like when we were little, and Jane’s family came to NZ and we all went skiing and on the way back stopped off at some waterfalls. And when I got out of the car to see them, I took my brand new toy dog with me, and I was so so sure I was going to drop him in the falls. Even now, I sometimes think about that time, and I’ve had any a sleepless night because of it. And so Iguaçu falls was like a re-visitation of this nightmare.

But I didn’t drop anything into the falls J

We also went on a boat trip which went right up to the falls, and underneath them. This was actually really frightening for me. I was totally scared. I think it didn’t help that I’d just read on NZ Herald online, that there’d been a white-water rafting accident in NZ where a woman had died. Our boat was a white-water rafting boat, and the water around the falls was so turbulent because of the power of the falls. But I’m still alive. When we got off the boat, we were soaking wet – like we’d been swimming in the water. And my skirt was basically see-through.

But the whole day was amazing…it was flippin hot and I got really sunburnt, but the fals were just so beautiful. There was a track to follow, and it seemed that around every bend was another secret waterfall or view of the falls that was more beautiful than the last. I took thousands of photos. And then I thought that I was taking so many photos that I’d maybe forget what they looked like and only remember the photos, but I just couldn’t help it…I was totally camera-hapy that day.

The next day a few of us took the local bus to the Brasil side of the falls early in the morning. This side was more of a panoramic view of the falls, as it was on the opposite side of the river than the falls (if you get what I mean). I think maybe this side was even more beautiful. There are so many falls, in the middle of a beautiful rainforest, that’s just teeming with beautiful buterflies of the most amazing colours – yellow, metallic blue, metallic purple…and these really cute litle raccoon like animals. This side was much shorter though, but ended with an extreme close up of  one part of the falls called the Devils Throat. This is probably the most powerful and overwhelming part of the falls. From the Argentinian side you can see it from the top, and from the Brasil side you can see it from the bottom. From both sides it’s amazing.

Anyway, after seeing the falls, I took a bus back to the hostel and chilled out for most of the day, as I had to wait for an overnight bus back to São Paulo that left a 7pm.

Rio de Janeiro

Where to start?

I guess I’ll start at the beginning so you know why i feel like i do about this “Cidade Marvilhousa”.

After saying goodbye to everyone at the apartment, I got a taxi to the aeroport, and went to check in. It was 2.15am and I had to check in before 2.30 because the flight was leaving at 3am. But the lady at the desk said the flight had been cancelled, and I could either take a plane at 6am to Salvador then Rio, or at 7am straight to Rio.

So I decided on the 7am flight, and so had to spend almost 5 hours at the airport. I tried to read my book, but kept falling asleep and dropping it on the floor, so then I decided just to sleep. I found the area with a few other people sleeping, so I didn’t feel like such a loser, but sleeping, sitting up in a airport chair is incredibly uncomfortable, so basically I sat there with my eyes closed feeling miserable. Then I went for a walk around the airport, which is quite flash actually – about as flash as Auckland, which is one of the nicest airports I’ve seen. But I bought a pinting on unstretched canvas about two months ago which wouldn’t fit in my suitcase so I had to carry it around, and I left that somewhere in the airport. Oops.

Eventually it was time to board the flight and I got a good window seat, but I was asleep before the plane even left the ground. And take-off is my favourite part so I was a bit gutted when I woke up two hours later with a flippin sore neck and realised we were half way to Rio already. It was actually very similar to my trip into Rio five months ago…I was very upset about having to leave behind my new family and friends. Also, I didn’t have anywhere to stay in Rio, just a business card of a hostel Grace had thrust into my hand at the last minute. She had stayed in it when she had gone to Rio.

I got a taxi, which was ridiculously expensive – $R80 – although to be fair it was a 40 minute drive. When I got there, luckily they had a room for me

That night I went out with Diana and Michaela, the Italian girls from Recife, and some trainees from Rio. We went to a samba club but it wasn’t much fun. Haha. I prefer Recife  I know I sound like a tourist who’s always comparing everything to their home country…but too bad this time. I tried to like Rio.

On Saturday it rained and stormed and there was thunder and lightning, so I just chilled out at the hostel…internet, tv (in English!!), and sleep On Sunday was going to be the elections for the local governments of Brasil, so Rio had a 24hour alcohol ban. For this, no-one really went out at night either…none of the samba clubs were open because they were Sunday’s polling booths, and most of the other places shut down too. If they can’t serve alcohol I guess they’re not ging to make much money. So I just watched a movie on TV, and went to sleep early again. Man! Rio is awesome!

About the most interesting thing that happened on my walking tour of the centre was when I stumbled across a huge pile of vomit, all swept up into the corner. And I mean a pile…like when you bring in a load of washing off the line and can’t be assed folding them up, so you dump them in a pile in the hall…that’s how big it was. Although on closer inspection it turned out to be spicy wedges, rice and feijoada all thrown on to the street and brushed into a pile. So even that was a little disappointing

So on Sunday, Neno picked me up at 4.30. While I was waiting for him, Gustavo, the annoying kid from next door had caught a butterfly and was torturing her. So I let her go, and told him to catch a lizard thing, which there are thousands of. I thought he wouldn’t be able to find one, but he soon came back saying there was a giant one around the corner. So I took the box and put it against the wall, and went behind the lizard (which was tiny), and clapped my hand. And it ran straight into the box. Haha. They’re so stupid. That was one of my Brasil highlights actually J

But me and Neno finally left. It only took about an hour to get there, but it was dark when we arrived. The house was absolutely huge! It’s also used as an NGO sometimes, by Neno’s friend, because there’s so much room. But there was no electricity when we arrived and the caretaker who lives there was not at home, so we couldn’t even get the keys to enter. So instead we went to the beach and had a beer. Neno finally got a bit of reception on his phone to ring his friend from the same area and he invited us to church. So we went to church.

It was an evangelical church and when we got there, they were in the middle of signing songs. There was a drummer (who also turned out to be the pastor or whatever they call it in evangelical churches), a guitarist, a keyboardist and three signers. Most of the congregation were kids and teenagers, and for a couple of songs they got real into it – standing up, clapping and signing loudly. And Neno sang a bit too which was really cute; although he’s not an evangelist, so don’t worry. Afterwards, we talked to a few of the people. Neno knows them because they run a big NGO in the area where they adopt or look after for awhile, lots of poor street children. They were all really nice, although one woman – a German actually, was unnaturally happy I thought.

When we went back home the caretaker was there, and he gave us the keys. After awhile the electricity came back on as well, but we had to eat dinner by candlelight (not as romantic as it sounds). Then we made caipi-frutas with orange and acerola. It was actually really difficult for me to drink anything, cos I’d seriously been drinking for a week! We ended up having a long discussion about god, but I still don’t fully know how people in Brasil can believe in him so blindly. I don’t know what they think he does – it’s like they give him credit for all the good things that happen, but if anything bad happens, they say it’s the fault of man. As though man can’t do anything good himself, but causes all the bad things in the world to happen.

Anyway, we woke up mid-morning and went to the beach. First we went to a beach called Pedra de Xaréu. Pedra means rocks or stones, and the beach was covered in black rocks. It was really beautiful. We walked al the way down the beach and over the rocks and burnt our feet. Neno’s friend owns a bar at this beach but she wasn’t there, so after a quick swim we went to another beach called Calhetas. It was a really beautiful beach, but quite small and the sand was really coarse. It was my favourite. We had a couple of beers and shared a fish that was pink and some thick macaxeira wedges. It was really nice. Then we went for a walk over to another beach that is nicknamed Gay-bú because apparently lots of gays go there (the biggest beach in the area is called Gaibú).

Then we went for a tour around the other beaches, including one called Paraiso (paradise) which looked more like an industrial wasteland. And we saw monkeys in the trees! And some really old ruins of a forte. It was really beautiful.

When we got back home, we were really tired, so we took some pitanga berries and limes off the trees in the orchard and made more caipri-frutas. And then had a really early night.

The next day – I’d totally lost my sense of time by this time – we went back to Xaréu and this time Neno’s friend Elle and her husband were there! She’s so crazy but really cool. There was a lot of confusion at first, cos Elle is pronounces very similarly to ele which means him in Portuguese. So I kept being confused as to who was being talked about. But we had lots and lots of fun on this day! We drank so much cerveja, and also had a couple of shots of cashaça (I’m almost Brazilian now cos I actually like cashaça now). For lunch we had lobster, then caldinhos and rice and oyster stew. And Elle and her husband, and their friends Sandra and Fernando (who were a little scary) kept coming and going too, so it was a really nice day. We also did a bit of fishing from the beach and caught a fish, but he was quite small so we threw him back.  By the time we left at late afternoon, we’d been through 10 600mL bottles of cerveja!

Then we went home and made churrasco and potatoes, and had a sleep. I think the sun really exhausted us actually. Then we bought a couple of bottles of wine and went back to Xaréu and had dinner with Elle and her friends. We had lasagna and red wine which was perfect! But we had too much to drink, so we couldn’t drive home. Instead, the husband of Elle drove us in his buggy. It was awesome!

The next morning we got up quite early for some reason…I guess because it was so hot…and then we went back to Xaréu. We had to go on a bus first, then motor taxis. We tried to do a bit of fishing, but the tide was too far out and we caught nothing. So we had some Guaraná (I think even Neno, hardened drinker that he is (not) had had too much to drink this weekend). So then we got the motorbike and went home, packed up and went back to Recife L

It was by far my best time in Brasil and my best memories. When we got back to Recife, I had to pack up all my stuff, then went to Olinda with Neno to say goodbye to his house and Otto, his dog. Then we went to Socaldinhos for my farewell dinner. Quite a few AIESECers came and it was so so so sad (this time gets three so’s). Emília cried and made me cry, and she gave me her earrings, which was the sweetest present. Cecelia gave me a flag of Brasil that she’d used to cheer on Brasil when they won the worldcup, and she’s written a really sweet note on it.

Then I had to say goodbye to Alex, who is like my brother, and Steph who is like my sister (even though I only knew her for a few weeks), and Fallon and Grace. THEN I had to say goodbye to Neno which was the saddest of all.

Ah man, I have a lot of days to catch up on!

On Thursday after work I visited Neno again at his work, but just for about 20 minutes. It was probably a waste of time, but I just couldn’t help it! On Friday was my last day at work. I just went for the morning to sort out the last few things, then I went shopping. I bought a strapless bra so I could finally wear my clothes that needed it (but two days later, thanks to Murphy, the package from NZ arrived in the post, and now I have two strapless bras).

Then me and Steph went to Burburinho’s for a drink with Mônica, her boyfriend and Thiago – a couple of my friends from work. They’re really lovely – I wish they’d been working the entire time I was, cos they’re way more fun than the others who used to work there. Apart from all the caiprioskas we drank (actually, this time we had caiprinha’s cos they’re cheaper), I also had lots of honey cashaça that Mônica brought. It was really good at the time, although I tried some more a couple of days later and I couldn’t stomach it (although that’s probably because I drank so flippin much this day).

After Burburinho’s I had to say goodbye to Mônica and Thiago…my first goodbyes *tear*. Also, I had to say goodbye to Burburinho’s *even bigger tear*. But we went to Downtown next, for the birthday party of Renata. We got there at just after midnight I think, and so it was still going strong. She had a whole upstairs part of the bar roped off for her party and she had bottles of whiskey for each table, lots of little cocktail food and a humongous beautiful chocolate cake. Her family is filthy rich. It was a crazy party but Neno was working the whole time so it was sad. And I shouldn’t really go there so much, because it’s so unfair to have fun in front of him while he’s working, but I like to see him so at work will have to do.

He always gives me fancy free drinks…my favourite is the one that’s always on fire…it makes my throat hurt with flames. Whenever we go, we don’t have to line up like everyone else…we just go straight to the front and the bouncer lifts up the tape for us and kisses our checks. We get so many dirty looks though! Nightclubs here work different from NZ…when you enter, you give your name and they give you a card, then you use the card to buy drinks and you can’t leave until you’ve paid the card off at the door. But the man at the door never gives me a card. Apart from the drinks Neno gives me, Renata always buys me drinks too. So when I should be spending about R$150 a night on drinks, and R$50 on taxis…I don’t pay anything. Renata’s private chauffer or Neno gives me a ride home.

Steph is really cool…on Saturday we bought pizza’s from the supermarket and had a whole pizza each! It was awesome. In the morning I actually had to throw up, and the vomit was bright bright orange. Like the colour of the orange highlighter before you use it over an ink pen and it gets strips of blue ink down it. Proper orange. Man it was gross, but then I felt way better and ate my whole pizza. Good times.

Later, Neno came and we had cachorro quente (Brazilian hotdogs) and caldo (I think it’s called), which is a sugar cane that is put through a huge press to get the sweet liquid out of it. It was a really strange taste…I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but it was weird. Nice, but I prefer Guaraná. Then he had to go to work, and later, Renata came and picked up me and Steph and we all went to Downtown AGAIN!!

This time it was nice…quite laidback, there was a cover band of Nirvana playing who were really good. So we had a few drinks and a bit of a dance though I couldn’t really get into it. Dancing to nirvana is strange.

Then on Friday, me and Neno went to the beach!!!! Actually, this deserves it’s own post…