Adios Rio!
31 Mar
The Rio trip is over for now. I need some peace and quiet! Lapa truly is the party capital.
So what happened in the final few days:
- Went on bike ride with Glenda round Ipanema, Copacabana, Lagoa and ended up at Botanical Gardens (definately worth a visit when in Rio – great orchirds, humongously ugly plants of all varieties that somehow manage to seem quite pleasant, tiny monkeys and plenty of unusual fruits. Go there when it’s sunny for best results). On the same road as the botanical gardens is a little ice cream shop called Mil Frutas. They let me try about 12 different varieties before I eventually decided on Orange and Ginger. Simply the best ice cream I have ever ate in my life. The ice cream is quite expensive but it is definately worthwhile. There was apparently a very famous Brazilian behind us in the queue. I later found out it was Chico Buarque, a famous singer whose songs have been covered by pretty much every popular brazilian musician to have lived. I had been listening to an album by Ney Matogrosso which I later found out was completely Chico songs, so there be the evidence.
- Went to Afrobeat night at Clandestino (below some hostel in Copacabana) with Kamille. Unbelievable songs, rarely do I get to hear Fela Kuti played so loud. It also made me want to discover a lot more afrobeat artists, as there were some seriously funky grooves being played here. Unfortunately, the people I was with wanted to leave so we went in search of another party. I can’t remember the name of this place, but it wasn’t too hot so we headed off to Piste 3. Here they played Nirvana, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Blur, it was pretty much like heaven. Unfortunately, this party was not enough either though so we headed off to Casa da Matriz. This is someone’s house that they have converted into a nightclub. Very strange dancing in someone’s living room. I arrived back at the flat at 7.30am. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post.
- Went to gallery opening with Fabiola (collection of stickers plastered over 2 rooms, creating a technicolour vision of Rio – very nice indeed. I think the exhibit was called ‘A Gentile Carioca’ which means a friendly resident of Rio). Afterwards, we headed up the hill to a house party. I can’t remember the name of the area, Morra de something, but was a beautiful little place on top of a hill. All the streets were about 4 foot wide, and every house seemed to be full of people spurting out raucous laughter like no man’s business. The party was in an artist’s studio. Each room had a different discipline. One room had huge murals and paint splattered from floor to ceiling. Probably the primal scream room. There was a room for more considered paintings and some nice acrylics were on show here, but my favourite was the music room, where one of the housemates had taken apart a huge array of amps and electronic devices, mixed up all the pieces and then started to recreate them. The ability to make strange noises will never lose its appeal.
- Fresh fruit market on Sunday. Are mango, papaya, guava, abrico and manioc. A little disappointed that every amazonian fruit I encountered tasted like papier mache, but hey, the papayas were good.
Biking back to Copacabana
And I think that’s it for Rio. I will definately return at some point. For now, I am heading to Sao Paulo for an evening before getting the night bus to Isla de Santa Catarina, or Floriannopolis as it’s better known.
¨Vasco, vasco de gama, vasco de gaaaaaaaaaama!¨ There was no way I was ever going to come to Brazil without going to the Maracana, so once I found out there was a local derby coming up soon after I arrived I knew I was going to have to go. Getting a ticket to these games is easy. Find any football club in Rio. Find a queue leading up to a hole in the wall. When it gets to your turn look through the hole into some kind of dimly-lit cave, say the name of the game you´re after and follow it with arquibancada, por favor. This last part is to ask for the grandstand. This is the upper tier of the ground. The bottom tier is for wimps. Once you get to the game, savour the atmosphere outside for a little while, you´ll probably get to see some fireworks. Once you enter through the main entrance you can get to whatever part of the stand you want. Green is for the hardcore fans, neé hooligans. Yellow is for the drums and for the diehards who ain´t too bothered about a punch up. White is for families, couples and neutrals. If you carry on walking around you will then reach yellow and green again, but for the opposing fans. There´s a blue section as well on the far side but I think this is for the rich kids, so we won´t worry about that.
After 10 minutes, one of the Vasco wingers makes a run for the by-line only to be tackled by one of the Flamengo defenders, who clears the ball to safety. Instantly, the ref runs over, pulling a red card out of his pocket on the way. The Vasco end erupts, everyone´s hugging each other, the dozens of 12 foot Vasco flags are waving from side to side, and I´m struggling to remain on my step. The game goes on, with Flamengo playing some neat triangles, working out 3 or 4 openings. They seem reluctant to shoot and the keeper only has to make one save, but they´re all over them. With 10 minutes left in the half, the Vasco striker, Carlos Alberto (this is the same Carlos Alberto who scored the first goal in the Porto v Monaco Champions League Final, for anyone interested) is put through on goal, he squares up to the keeper and plays the ball into the bottom left-hand corner. Only one problem, the linesman had already flagged for offside. As Carlos Alberto has already been booked for winning a tackle earlier in the game, it´s no surprise when he has to make a sudden charge to the dressing room. Flamengo are back it in! Their fans are delerious. The score remains 0:0.
A similar pattern occurs in the second half, however it´s Flamengo who have the first man sent off here. Again, the ball was won fairly. Shortly after, a Vasco corner played right into the goalkeeper is dropped and a Vasco player is left with 5 yards and no chance of missing. Vasco are soon down to 9 men too, but have a rare break away, 3 Vasco attackers against 1 Flamengo defender, which ends in the second goal of the game. The ref, quiet so far, doesn´t want to be forgotten though and sends off 1 more Flamengo player for good measure. I think that´ll give him the headlines. The match pretty much fizzles out after this. There aren’t too many players on the pitch and they seem a bit tired out. Kleberson (ex-Man Utd and Besiktas) comes on for Flamengo for about 25 minutes but doesn’t really have any end result.
