Sunday, February 28, 2010

3 more days in Rio de Janeiro/3 dias mas en Rio de Janeiro















On my first day in Rio with the guys we went to Copacabana beach, singing of course "Copa, Copacabana". We had a late lunch and then took the cable car up to the Pao de Azucar (Sugar Loaf). We watched sunset there, the view was amazing, Christ the Redeemer looked beautiful. I still think the view from the Christ the Redeemer was way better though. We went back to the apartment for dinner, and afterwards headed out in search of some nightlife. We got on a minibus and asked people where we should get off. We got off at the indicated place in Ipanema but there were only 2 bars, there were some people around but one bar had no music, and the other one only low music... the best thing was a parked car in front of them with the radio at full balst and a few people dancing around the car. We asked several people for "the bars, music, dancing" area, and they all pointed towards the same 2 bars... So there we went, had a drink, and called it a night.
The next day we headed to Ipanema beach. Guille found a cell phone buried on the beach, and it didn´t have enough credit for phone calls but yes for text messages, so we texted the most recent person called and told them we had found it and wanted to return it. We then walked around Ipanema and Leblon, got our photos taken at the front of the bar where "Garota de Ipanema" song was composed, walked along the Lagoa de Freitas ( a lagoon) drinking a coconut. And we got a phone call from the phone owner or someone who knows him, or.. we don´t know who really, maybe they were calling for a completely different matter, but we told them we wanted to return the phone and after much much language difficulties we managed to agree on meeting up the next day at 9am at the corner of our apartment to return it. At night we went out to Lapa for dinner, which is the cool and party area supposedly, but being a Monday night it was dead, so we just had dinner and headed back. What a difference from the Rio I saw last week, when it was continuous partying everywhere, it´s hard to believe it´s the same city!!
Our last day we woke up early and went to the agreed meeting place to return the phone... only that we got there 20minutes late. We waited around for a bit and didn´t see anyone, so Guille and Vicente went for breakfast round the corner, and I went back to the apartment to finish getting ready. When the guys returned a bit later they said they got another call and returned the phone. YAY! Mission accomplished, it was so exciting and fun while it lasted hahaha. We headed to the Floresta de Tijuca, a National Park. It was lovely, we saw a waterfall, had some lunch, and then did a short bushwalk to another waterfall where we took a bath. The water was cold and hitting really hard as it fell, but it was cool, it felt like a very hard massage. After that we headed into the city. We walked around, looked at impressive buildings, we went into the Metropolitan Cathedral (what an amazingly bizarre building for a church! It looks already so weird from outside, but from the inside it´s even more strange, so modern and out of character for a catholic building!), we walked around some shopping streets, and ended up in Praca Quince (a square where the Swedish guy had told us to go at 6pm and sit in a coffee shop... we don´t know why, it didn´t look good at all, we found only a couple of crappy coffee shops... maybe cause we got there at about 6:15 instead of 6pm as he told us?!?!). Then back to Copacabana, I went to an internet cafe and copied all the pictures from Guille´s and Vicente´s cameras, and then back to the apartment. Quick shower, finished packing, and then the guys walked me to the bus stop and I got a bus to the terminal. Bye guys, I'm gonna miss youuuuuuuuu, but we´ll meet again in July in Madrid!! I took an overnight bus from Rio back to Sao Paulo, departing at midnight.



El primer dia en Rio con lso chicos fuimos a la playa Copacabana, obviamente cantando "Copa, Copacabana". Almorzamos tarde y depsues nos tomamos el cablecarril hasta el Pan de Azucar. Vimos el atardecer ahi, la vista lindisima, el Cristo Redentor se venia divino. Igual creo que la vista desde el Cristo Redentor era mucho mejor. Volvimos al departamento a cenar, y despues salimos en busqueda de vida nocturna. Nos subimos en una combi y le preguntamos a la gente que estaba ahi en donde bajar. Nos bajamos en el lugar que nos recomendaron en Ipanema pero solo habia 2 bares, habia un poco de gente pero uno de los bares no tenia ni musica, y el otro solo musica bajita... lo mejor del lugar era un auto estacionado en frente de uno de los bares con la radio a todo volumen y alguna gente bailando alrededor del auto. Le preguntamos a distinta gente sobre la zona de "bares, musica, baile", y todos nos senalaron los mismos 2 bares... asi que alli fuimos, tomamos un trago, y nos fuimos.
Al dia siguiente fuimos a la playa de Ipanema. Guille encontro un telefono celular enterrado en la arena, y no tenia suficiente credito para hacer llamadas pero si para mandar mensajes de texto, asiq ue le mandamos un mensaje a la persona mas reciente en la lista de llamadas y le dijimos que habiamos encontrado el telefono y queriamos devolerlo. Despues caminamos por los barrios de Ipanema y Leblon, nos sacamos fotos en frente del bar donde la cancion "Garota de Ipanema" fue compuesta, caminamos por la orillad de la Lagoa de Freitas (una laguna) tomando un coco. Y nos llamo el duenio del telefono o alguien que lo conoce, o... no sabemos quien era en realidad, tal vez llamaban por algo nada que ver, pero les dijimos que queriamos devolver el telefono y depsues de muchisimas dificultades de idioma logramos arreglar para encontrarnos al otro dia a las 9am en la esquina del depto donde nos estamos quedando para devolverlo. A la noche fuimos a Lapa a cenar, que se supone que es el area copada y de fiesta, pero siendo un Lunes estaba muerto, asiq ue solo cenamos y nos fuimos. Que diferencia con el Rio que vi la semana pasada, que era fiesta permanente en todos lados, es dificil de creer que sea la misma ciudad!!
El ultimo dia nos despertamos temprano y fuimos al lugar acordado para devolver el telefono... solo que llegamos 20 minutos tarde. Esperamos un rato pero no vimos a nadie, asi que Guille y Vicente se fueron a desayunar a la vuelta, y yo volvi al depto para terminar de enlistarme. Cuando los chicos volvieron al depto me dijeron que los llamos de nuevo y devolvieron el telefono, YAY! Mision cumplida, fue tan entretenido y divertido mientras duro! hahha. Fuimos a la Floresta de Tijuca, un parque nacional. Lindisimo, vimos una cascada, almorzamos, y despues hicimos una caminata corta hasta otra cascada adonde nos bañamos. El agua estaba fria y pegaba fuerte cuando caia, pero estuvo muy bueno, fue como un masaje bien fuerte. Despues de ahi fuimos a la ciudad. Caminamos, miramos edificios impresionantes, entramos a la Catedral Metropolitana (que edificio increiblemente bizarro para ser una iglesia!! Ya es lo suficientemente raro desde afuera, pero desde adentro es todavia mas raro, tan moderno y fuera de lo comun para ser un edificio catolico!!), caminamos por algunas calles con negocios, y terminamos en Praca Quince (una plaza donde el tipo sueco nos habia dicho que teniamos que ir y sentarnos en algun cafe a las 6pm... no sabemos por que, no era lindo para nada, solo encontramos un par de cafes feos... tal vez porque llegamos ahi a las 6:15pm y no a las 6pm como el nos habia dicho?!?!). Despues de vuelta a Copacabana, yo me fui a un internet cafe y me copie todas las fotos de las camaras de Guille y Vicente, y despues de vuelta al departamento. Ducha rapida, termine de empacar, y despues los chicos me acompañaron a la parada del bus que me tome para ir a la terminal. Chau chicos, los voy a extrañaaaaaaaaaaaaaar, pero nos vemos de nuevo en Julio en Madrid! Me tome un bus de Rio de vuelta a Sao Paulo, saliendo a la medianoche.

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