Brazil

Unfortunately I am returning home, my father passed away.

This has really hit me. I am sure I will continue travelling, it is just a matter of when.

Posted by Jason Willock

Well tonight is my last night in Rio, I survived Carnival, which was a lot
of fun, I met some great people, and partied it up. I think I may have over
did it, as yesterday I felt like hell, and today I am still not great, so I
am taking it easy tonight. I am in a hotel in Copacabana, and it seems I got
lucky as I am the 5th guy in our group of 11, so I get a room all to myself,
and I am hoping that will be the case for the rest of the tour. I am not
sure why Copacabana is the most popular beach in Rio, as Ipanema where I was
originally staying has a why nicer beach, and is much safer

Today I met the rest of the people on the tour into Bolivia, 6 girls, 5
guys, all but one girl is from New Zealand or Australia, and she is from
London, so I am the lone Canadian, but at least everyone speaks english!
Good mix of ages from early 20's to mid 30's, should be a good trip. We
started our journey by visiting Corcovado the Christ Redeemer statue, and
Sugar Loaf, the two main touristy things in Rio, both were nice, not mind
blowing but the views were great, you could really see how big Rio is, it is
a very beautiful city, very green, and I definitely would come back here, I
would like to see how it is when it is not Carnival, I think it would be a
completely different city.

Other than that, not too much to report, this will be the last update for at
least 4 days, as the trek starts tomorrow, with two bus rides, and a train
ride, and then a two hour hike. I have to leave the majority of my gear in a
locker at the Train Station, so I hope it's all there when I get back. I am
sure it will be. Our tour guide for the Brazilian part of the journey seems
like a nice guy, he has traveled a lot, and the first stop we are going to
is his home town, so I am sure he will be able to show us some amazing
things.

So enjoy the photos from Rio, and I hopefully should have a ton more amazing
pictures when I reach civilization again!

Posted by Jason Willock

Well today is the last day of Carnival, it has been a crazy time, lots of
parties, and late nights. I am looking forward just to relaxing and seeing
the sites of Rio in the next couple of days when the tour starts.

Sunday night a bunch of us went to the Sambadrome, that was amazing, the
size of the parade route is massive, 1.5hours to walk from end to end, and
the number of people in the Samba Schools are mind blowing, 1000's of people
in each school, the costumes, floats, and music is just amazing, seeing it
on TV does not do it any justice, I wish I had brought my camera, but a few
other people from the hostel did, so I am going to try to get there photos
from there camera to my laptop. I have uploaded a few pictures today of the
few things places I did bring it out. There was a massive street parade the
other day, and we walked in that, it was crazy, so many people, they had a
huge truck with a band, oddly enough the band only played 3 songs, over and
over again, so by the end of the parade I was able to sing along for the
most part.

They say there are currently 700000 tourists here in Rio, a large portion of
those are from other parts of Brazil, but I have met people from all over
the world, Everyone is so friendly and in a festive mood.

It is so hot here, there is never any wind, so the heat just sits here, and
it's so humid, but it beats snow!

Tonight should just be insane, so I am looking forward to that.

I'm off to go play some beach volleyball with some of the people from the
hostel, it has been nice being with the same group of people for a while,
there is a great group of Irish guys, and the Norwegians from my dorm are
very nice as well.

Posted by Jason Willock

Well I have survived the first two nights of carnival. Friday night a bunch of us went to a massive block party where there was thousands of people, with music, food and drink all over the place. It was great fun, everyone was in a happy party mood. Unfortunatley I got pick pocketed twords the end of the night. I let my guard down while dancing really close with this girl Then another girl came from behind and started dancing, then the two girls kissed, and then took off. I was confused for a second then checked my pockets, and saw they made off with about 20cdn. So at least it wasn't a huge loss. And at least I had a little fun while I got robbed!

Saturday about thirty of us from the hostel went to a soccer game, really nice stadium, but it wasn't even half full, but the Brazilian fans are diehard soccer fans, so it was quite a fun time, and lots of action, the game ended in a 4-4 draw.

Then during the night we went to a beach party, it was all right, but most of us were pretty tired, so it wasn't overly crazy.

Tonight will be a long fun night at the sambadrome, so I am just going to take it easy on the beach today.

Posted by Jason Willock

Well I have arrived in Rio. I am staying in Ipanema district, which is
the rich part of town, security is high, all residences have gates
with a guard. But I feel safe in this area. The hostel is about a 2
minute walk to the beach, and one of the nicest beaches I have ever
seen, the sand is perfect, it´s clean, there is a nice surf, and there
are lots of hot women in very small bikini´s. And for the girls there
are lots of really buff guys in small trunks. Brazil seems to be a
very fit country, along the beach there are tons of little gyms with
pull up bars and benches for sit ups.

This is the first dorm room I have stayed in on my trip, it´s a 9 room
dorm, the first night it was just me and 3 people from Norway, 2 girls
and 1 guy, last night another guy from Norway arrived, and a guy from
Chicago, so I suspect that tonite it will be full up. Suprisingly I am
not having to much problems sleeping, but the sleep isn´t as good as
sleeping in my own room, not that there is much time for sleeping!

Wednesday night I took it pretty easy, I was drained from having to
get up at 6am for my flight, and then it took about 3 hours to clear
Brazilian Customs, they only had 2 people working and there was 2
757´s ahead of our plane.

Last night a bunch of us had pre beverages at the hostel, and then
headed out to a Samba club, with a live band, it was so packed in
there you couldn´t even move, so we had a couple drinks there and then
decided to hit this bigger night club, I was in a cab with these two
girls from England, and when we got there it was about $20cdn to get
in, and this was at about 4am, so we decided just to have a couple of
beers at a patio bar next to the club, which happened to be a hooker
pickup area, so it was quite fun just to people watch, all these
hookers talking to guys, some of them were quite hot, others not so
much. Then oddly enough this guy got up and started playing the
bagpipes, it was quite entertaining, everyone on the patio was
clapping along, who would think to bring bagpipes to Carnival!

Brazil on a whole is quite expensive, everything is similarily priced
to back home, and it´s not just because it´s Carnival, I have talked
to people who have been traveling in Brazil for a month or two, and
prices are expensive all over the country, I figure it is going to be
a very expensive week!

Saturday I am going to another football game, Brazilians are crazy
about there football, whenever there is a game on, everyone is huddled
around what ever tv they can get there eyes on, so that should be
interesting, and then Sunday I am going to the Sambadrome for one of
the big parades, I am looking forward to that, it should just be utter
chaos! It starts at 9pm and ends at 6am! Too bad I won´t be able to
bring my camera, as they say everything you bring will likely get
stolen or lost.

I am writing this from an Internet Cafe as my hostel charges way to
much for internet, and they don´t have wireless, so excuse any typos,
as this is a odd keyboard.

I will go hang out on the beach again today, try to work on my tan,
60SPF sunscreen is too strong, as I haven´t gotten much color in the
last couple of days, so I think I will try some 25instead. Carnival
starts tonight so I am looking forward to see how that will change the
city!

I´ll try to do another update on Monday! Oh and the Google Maps will work for Brazil, so click the map link, that is exactly where my hostel is!

Posted by Jason Willock