I am so sorry for neglecting this blog.
Well I made it to Rio and was there for a week. Rio is amazing!
At first I thought that I would post here every few days, but that unfortunately didn't happen. I toyed with the idea of summing up the previous week's events at the end of each week, but I dont think that would capture the excitement and different feelings I felt during the week.
So I have decided to update it more regularly.
Right. So I was in Rio which was surreal and amazing and thrilling at the same time. You know how the guides say that very few people here speak English? Well it was no exaggeration. Even the lady at passport control didn't! She smiled at me, said something, smiled back and handed my passport. I obliged with a 'gracias' which I later found out is Spanish and means f**k all in Portuguese!
Well Rio was incredible. Incredible and expensive. Apart from accommodation, it felt like London-by-the-Beach when it came to prices. Which is why I decided to head up north to Salvador, where I am now in North East Brazil.
My friend from home came to visit me in Rio. He is doing a six month exchange with a uni in Sao Paolo. It was cool to see him and his friends for the three days that they were up here. They left on Sunday. I decided that I would be leaving on Tuesday and mentally my mind was already withdrawing from Rio. I was in my hostel's common area when I started talking with a fellow traveller that had walked in. Turns out he's a fellow Brit. We got talking and met the rest of his group and they invited me out with them that night.
To say we got on really well would be the understatement of the year. The next day we went to the Sugar Loaf mountain and I was literally gutted when they invited me to travel together around Southern Brazil and Argentina. Gutted not because they had asked me, but because I had literally bought my ticket to Salvador an hour before this proposition came up!
I'll be bold enough to say I unexpectedly and uncharacteristically shed a tear when my coach began pulling out of Rio Bus Station for our long pilgrimage up North. The last time I cried was last year because of a bereavement. So now I really do understand it when people say you get to meet the most incredible people when you go travelling. Of course we don't fully know what will happen in the future, however I hope our paths cross again either on this continent or back in the UK.
Brazilians are quite hospitable, and so genuine I get goose bumps. A friend of mine (a Belgian guy I met randomly on the beach, because I was literally dying to speak to someone in English, and I had spotted him with a Lonely Planet travel guide) had met a local Rio girl on the beach and she had invited us out with her friends to a club. She quite literally refused to let us pay for drinks, and even when we met her the following night for dinner, you could tell she was so genuinely pleased to see us.
She explained how amazing it was to meet us four (me, the Belgian guy, and an American couple I had befriended) and you could really sense the sad twinge in her voice that soon all of this would all be over....I would continue on my travels, the Belgian and Americans were returning home the next day, and she would be back to work from annual leave just a few days later.
I've never met someone so genuine, and someone so honest with their words.
Right now I'm in Salvador. I was sad to leave Rio, I honestly miss the people I met, but I'm glad I can say that and now it's time to enjoy Salvador.
I had severely underestimated how long it would take to bus it up here from Rio. I had guessed about 17 hours. Make that 30. At one point, in complete despair, I wondered if the bus was ever going to stop. On the plus side, it was only half full, the legroom was extensive and the seats nearly fully reclined. On the downside, when I finally emerged out of the roomy comforts of our coach, my legs wobbled, clearly unused to the notion of walking and I seriously wondered for a second if they were going to give way completely, sending me into a undignified heap on the ground.
My hostel here is superchilled, super quiet (compared to the party hostel that was Che Lagarto Ipanema) but I like it.
The hostel owner (a Brit who moved here two years ago) confirmed my hunches - that to truly enjoy Salvador, you need to spend some time here, and the things to enjoy here are slowly discovered, rather than brashly put in your face a la Rio.
I wanted to spend some time here before venturing down South. I might even head West into the Amazon. Now that I am here why not?
That's it for now. I promise to blog at least every two or three days, if not more. It would help if you leave a comment or two so I know there are people out there. I should have marketed my blog a lot more before I set out on this trip, but oh well, not the end of the world.
Well I made it to Rio and was there for a week. Rio is amazing!
At first I thought that I would post here every few days, but that unfortunately didn't happen. I toyed with the idea of summing up the previous week's events at the end of each week, but I dont think that would capture the excitement and different feelings I felt during the week.
So I have decided to update it more regularly.
Right. So I was in Rio which was surreal and amazing and thrilling at the same time. You know how the guides say that very few people here speak English? Well it was no exaggeration. Even the lady at passport control didn't! She smiled at me, said something, smiled back and handed my passport. I obliged with a 'gracias' which I later found out is Spanish and means f**k all in Portuguese!
Well Rio was incredible. Incredible and expensive. Apart from accommodation, it felt like London-by-the-Beach when it came to prices. Which is why I decided to head up north to Salvador, where I am now in North East Brazil.
My friend from home came to visit me in Rio. He is doing a six month exchange with a uni in Sao Paolo. It was cool to see him and his friends for the three days that they were up here. They left on Sunday. I decided that I would be leaving on Tuesday and mentally my mind was already withdrawing from Rio. I was in my hostel's common area when I started talking with a fellow traveller that had walked in. Turns out he's a fellow Brit. We got talking and met the rest of his group and they invited me out with them that night.
To say we got on really well would be the understatement of the year. The next day we went to the Sugar Loaf mountain and I was literally gutted when they invited me to travel together around Southern Brazil and Argentina. Gutted not because they had asked me, but because I had literally bought my ticket to Salvador an hour before this proposition came up!
I'll be bold enough to say I unexpectedly and uncharacteristically shed a tear when my coach began pulling out of Rio Bus Station for our long pilgrimage up North. The last time I cried was last year because of a bereavement. So now I really do understand it when people say you get to meet the most incredible people when you go travelling. Of course we don't fully know what will happen in the future, however I hope our paths cross again either on this continent or back in the UK.
Brazilians are quite hospitable, and so genuine I get goose bumps. A friend of mine (a Belgian guy I met randomly on the beach, because I was literally dying to speak to someone in English, and I had spotted him with a Lonely Planet travel guide) had met a local Rio girl on the beach and she had invited us out with her friends to a club. She quite literally refused to let us pay for drinks, and even when we met her the following night for dinner, you could tell she was so genuinely pleased to see us.
She explained how amazing it was to meet us four (me, the Belgian guy, and an American couple I had befriended) and you could really sense the sad twinge in her voice that soon all of this would all be over....I would continue on my travels, the Belgian and Americans were returning home the next day, and she would be back to work from annual leave just a few days later.
I've never met someone so genuine, and someone so honest with their words.
Right now I'm in Salvador. I was sad to leave Rio, I honestly miss the people I met, but I'm glad I can say that and now it's time to enjoy Salvador.
I had severely underestimated how long it would take to bus it up here from Rio. I had guessed about 17 hours. Make that 30. At one point, in complete despair, I wondered if the bus was ever going to stop. On the plus side, it was only half full, the legroom was extensive and the seats nearly fully reclined. On the downside, when I finally emerged out of the roomy comforts of our coach, my legs wobbled, clearly unused to the notion of walking and I seriously wondered for a second if they were going to give way completely, sending me into a undignified heap on the ground.
My hostel here is superchilled, super quiet (compared to the party hostel that was Che Lagarto Ipanema) but I like it.
The hostel owner (a Brit who moved here two years ago) confirmed my hunches - that to truly enjoy Salvador, you need to spend some time here, and the things to enjoy here are slowly discovered, rather than brashly put in your face a la Rio.
I wanted to spend some time here before venturing down South. I might even head West into the Amazon. Now that I am here why not?
That's it for now. I promise to blog at least every two or three days, if not more. It would help if you leave a comment or two so I know there are people out there. I should have marketed my blog a lot more before I set out on this trip, but oh well, not the end of the world.
No, not the end of the world at all. Even if only a few people ever read your blog, you will have documented your experience and shared a little piece of you.
As fir Rio being expensive, I am starting to hear that a lot about big cities in South America. A friend of mine has started targeting the more rural areas because they are more enjoyable (often safer) and cheaper. I can definitely say the same about Venezuela. While Caracas has a lot to offer, there are a lot more smaller cities/towns where you can get more bang for your buck. You just have to be willing to take the roads less travelled.
I seemed to have trouble including my openid in my comment. My blog is www.balancedmeltingpot.com. Stop by when you get a chance...
Thanks! What I have been doing is writing on a private blog documenting what I`ve been up to, so when I get back home I will flesh them out and publish them bit by bit. Then I will also have more time to spread the news about the blog!
I will check out your blog!
Hope you have a fab time in Salvador... I've been to brazil 4 times and having fell so much in love with salvador I've been unable to drag myself away from the place to venture down south... Since you are of a Nigerian background the food should feel really familiar... My favourite is acaraje... If you like acara you should love it because it is even better!
Really very nice post about Rio.. Waiting for your next post.