Carnival
For Carnival yes! it was incredible. what an awesome start
to a six-month journey into South America.
Rio de Janeiro Brazil what a great travel destination I spent a
month and a half in the city as a sort of temporary residence.
Making Plans
I didn't plan for very long, I just
found a good fare online and went for it. I mean Rio for Carnival,
it's like a travelers dream.
Exotic, energetic fun in a word - Samba!
First Impressions
arriving at the airport in Rio - you see I
generally travel alone so it can be overwhelming when you arrive at
a new place and you are just trying to find your way around. I had a very good experience at the airport with a young women
behind a travel information desk. I just told her the name of the
hotel from my travel
guide and she phoned them all in Portuguese of course and made
arrangements for me. I jumped on the public bus worried about crime
because Rio as a big
reputation for crime so when I get to a new place my guard is really
high bordering on paranoid bus driver conveniently missed my stop
and made
me walk further than I would have liked to well it worked I got to
the hotel was really worried
Lodging
when I first got there I looked at a 5 dollar place
with nothing more than a fan and a nasty shared bathroom but hey it
was five bucks. I opted for the
12 dollar place with air-conditioning, private bathroom, very safe
and right in front of a metro stop.
Food
you know how sometimes it can be hard to know what to eat in
a foreign
country will not in Brazil they have a beautiful concepts called by
weight buffet
unlike in the US where you pay a flat cost to pig out in Brazil they
have a big
spread of many choices and you load up your plate with just what you
want and
pay for just what you put on your plate by the weight I ate very
well in all of Brazil with the system.
Transportation
transportation in Rio is excellent they have
a subway systems that takes care of most of your sightseeing buses
to go beyond that are cheap and easy and dependable
Safety
What can I say, Rio is
world-famous for crime. There is a huge divide between the rich and
the poor. Rio and other parts of Brazil have a
unique entity known as a favela or slum. They are on the outskirts
of the main city. A good movie to watch is City of God which shows
just how brutal and dangerous a favela can be. I stayed clear of
these areas.
Fun
Carnival is amazing, so much energy and
enthusiasm - music and dance. I arrived two weeks before the start of
carnival, so I have a chance to scope out the parade grounds of the route.