Last night was our final night of our tour. We went out for dinner and then to a nightclub. We got unlimited caipirinhas 11-12 but they were awful so I only had two! The music started off absolutely awful, to the point that me, the other Aussie girls and Maria danced stupidly to take the piss. But it got better throughout the night and we actually ended up having a really good night!
This morning I woke up and was pleased to see Collingwood beat Hawthorn by 44 points and escaped injury free! Due to a developing cold I opted for sleep instead but I've used my global AFL pass to download the match and am going to watch after I post this!
Said 'bye to Maria. We've promised to keep in touch and she thinks she'll be in Aus in two years, I'll be in Washington DC at some point so I don't think I've seen the last of her!!
Then me and ten of the others headed off on a favela tour. What is a favela? A slum in Rio that developed in the 1970s when poor immigrants moved to certain areas. In the city of Rio all up there are 742 favelas, only 4 of which are regulated by police. 20% of Rio's 7 million population live in favelas! Typically favelas are dangerous, violent places full of drug lords and cartel wars. So we decided to go to one! Seriously though it was fine, we went to one of the regulated ones with an organised tour.
The one we travelled to was called Rocinha and has been police regulated since December 2011. 200,000 people live in it, and the houses can be up to five levels high, each level housing a family, some of which had up to twenty children! Our guide said he has 120 cousins. Yes, one hundred and twenty! His mum has ten siblings and his dad has 11. And to think I have six...!
So we walked through the favela. We started at a viewpoint where you could see the whole favela, it reminded me of a poor version of the Amalfi coast. Then we went to an art workshop and I bought myself a small painting. We saw a small garage band form and were treated to some drums and kids dancing! We went to a bakery and bought some Açai. Overall the favela was dirty and smelly (which I expected!) and very crowded. I suppose the people who live here have never known any different but to people as privileged as all of us it's hard to understand how they can. We ended the tour at a childcare centre and had another viewpoint. Part of our tour price goes to this centre as it is free for parents in the favela to place their children in this centre. The children were soooo cute and friendly!!
Got back to the hostel and walked to Copacabana beach from the hostel (a few blocks away) with Kathrin, Nicole and Chris. If you're anything like me you'll now have the Barry Manilow song stuck in your head for some time - apologies! We hung out there for a while as we ran into some others from the group.
We headed back to the hostel and then Kathrin and I caught a cab together to Ipanema, the next suburb over from Copacabana. My travel agent said it was nicer so I decided to stay my extra two nights there. I checked into my hostel, I have my own room and the wifi works in here so I'm set haha! It's so strange being by myself after two months of sharing a room with someone.
I met Kathrin at Ipanema beach and we had a quick swim. It and copacabana are so beautiful! I'm so happy Kathrin is staying 5 minutes from me though because I had been warned Rio is dangerous and within two blocks of walking alone I had been shouted out to and wolf whistled three times. I'll be fine though, I know lots of people in the city still the next few days and I'm aware of my surroundings.
After a quick swim I went back to the hostel and got ready and then went to the beach to buy a saring I had seen earlier. It is my Brazilian souvenir! Saw the sun setting behind the mountains which looked amazing! Then I met Kathrin at the train station nearby. We got the metro and went and met Daryl, Anne, Daniel, Danton and Jared at our previous hotel for dinner. We got a bit lost but eventually made it! We all enjoyed a really nice meal by the beach together.
I have some exciting news! Tomorrow morning I am going hang gliding over the city. I agonised all day as to whether it was worth $270 Aussie and have decided that you only get one life so you have to mak the most of it. $270 is a lot but the experience will be worth far more than that. I'm so excited! Being picked up at 8.30am.
There may be no blog tomorrow Melbourne time because I have a very full day and night. So if no blog tomorrow I'll be posting it Saturday morning my time (night time in Melbourne) and then I leave for London Saturday night!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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