Santiago de Chile, 10/5/06

Oi/Hola/Hi,

the three of us arrived in Santiago today after an exhausting week babysitting Laurie and Teo in Buenos Aires. We figured we should just write a Blog about Rio since it was so long ago, and wait until we catch up with the other 2 here in Santiago before we tell all about BA.

We arrived in Rio on the 26th, seriously worried that Kieran wouldn't even be allowed to enter the country, or that at best he would be forced to buy yet another ticket. As it happened the immigration officials simply waved us through to be set upon by the hordes of waiting taxi drivers trying to take us to an underground car park. Eventually we found our way to the hostel where, due to delays in our flight from Santiago, we were told our reservation had been cancelled. Not speaking a lot of Portuguese seemed to be a bit of a problem and had the guy standing next to us not been from Westbury-on-Trym we may have been in a world of trouble.

We quickly settled into the life of a Carricosa and hit Copacabana wearing, so called, "Bannana Hammocks" (one step up from a loin cloth). Despite what we had heard there weren't exactly a lot of tourists on the beach and one member of the group left in tears after being described as "pasty" by a group of local children. In addition to Copacabana our other regular haunt was the internet cafe where, in probably the highlight of the trip so far for Tommy and James, you could play online pro evolution soccer for a measly 3 Reals an hour. It's boring but it's a part of my life.

Our hostel offered a wide range of tours and activities and we took full advantage of this whenever possible. However, the buses would occasionally arrive late/not atall and our second night saw us finding our own way (without a guide) to São Cristobal a huge market in which we were the only gringos. To be honest we never really felt like we were in any danger but even so we wern't tempted to get involved with the dancing and gun fights. As the buses still were being a little tempremental the next day, we grouped up with some girls from Manchester who, as expected, went to UWE and yes, lived by the arches, for a trip to Corcovado to see Christ the Redeemer. The views were spectacular and the Christ was really impressive. Why certain people felt the need to try and balance him on their fingers for a comedy picture we'll never know. Its against nature, against God and he's going to hell. We saw even more spectacular views from on top of Sugar Loaf Mountain. The whole city was stunningly displayed in front of you, but "Lizard Boy" spent his whole time following reptiles around the cable car station.

With the hostel we went to the Maracana to watch Fluminese against Vasco de Gama in a massive local derby. The atmosphere was amazing totally different to anything we had seen in England. The people obviously cared for their team and didn't seem to care what they looked like as they screamed, danced and sung for the entire 90 minutes. Our final outing with the hostel was to the favela, Rochina, where City of God is set. We were pretty afraid before arriving and the rocket like motorbike ride to the top of the Favela did nothing to ease the nerves. However our guide, Daniella, assured us everything would be fine and as she slung the AK47 over her shoulder we all felt tempted to believe her. We entered at the top and made a beeline straight through the narrow alley ways. We soon realised that favela life is not how it is portrayed in the movies with benifits including free cable, free elecricity, free water, free protection by drug lords and some of the nicest cakes we have ever eaten. There is also a McDonalds. Alright for some.

Hope all is well back in blighty and we will post the BishKrew's adventures in BA soon....

LOL KJTx