Travelogue :  Amber's Southeast Asia travels

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WOW WOW WOW what can i say i fell so in love with RIO. Its amazing so beautiful the mountains the views at night from our house across sleeping rio it was beautiful looking up at the Christ Redeemer hauntingly but soothingly looking over rio almost a feeling of an angel keeping everything ok, really this place is amazing. The culture the people so up beat and friendly. They use combis as a means of travel you can flag a combi on your route anywhere and once you get in everyone is friendly and chats i have never been helped so much from the locals as what i was helped here in rio. People went out of their way one time a lady walked with me for 15 minutes to take me safely to the supermarket when i asked her if i was going in the right direction! And of course the beautiful dancers so so lovely i had dance lessons everyday and we had such a giggle in the lesson and at night our dance partners came out with us and dragged us up to dance the physical contact in rio is great i have never felt so loved in a community that i was so new to.

So to be a bit more specific on what i did in rio. I arrived and immediatley loved it i was staying up in saint teresa which is an arty part of town above rio and as i said earlier withthe best views over rio. The house was beautiful it had a rooms within the house to stay and then the massive dorm downstairs outside where i stayed.... i loved this dorm and after two weeks on the last day i said to my irish friends who were also on the dance holiday doesnt it feel like we have been living here forever!! in a great way i felt so comfortable there and so wish to be back there. The dancers were lovely to us such fun i made such good friends i miss them so ;-( as well as dancing and learning to dance the samba and forro i did some community work within the favelas we painted a house there and he inside of the libary for the children. Some of the others also painted the creche and made it lovely for the little ones. Apart form this already busy schedule and of course most nights getting in at 4am we also made frequent trips to copacabana beach....oooohhh i loved that beach its just like you see on the postcards and in the movies. What mekes it amazing and so different is the high rise buildings and the way the sun filters through these skyscrapper buildings filtering from behind the buildings filling the air on the beach with a sunbeamed hazy misty sunned beach it was beautiful especially when the sun started to go down. While on the beach mini carnivals go by on the broad pavement side walk. This city lives for dance,dance is incorperated ineverything they will be dancing in the local cafe behind the counter while serving you they will dance till 3am in the morning and then get up at 7am and teach dance they hold dnace rehersals for the carnival continually around the year and spend all time rehersing for the big carnival, where all the dance schools take place. They hold great dance performances in the streets they just live for dance no wonder there is such a great happu upbeat vibe to this city and no wonder if elt so goooood here physicaly and emotionally.

So all the stuff we hear here all the violence portrayed on tv about brazils violence, mugged at knife point ummm welll i saw heard none of it in my three weeks in rio, i went out alone sometimes at 11pm or so i used local transpirt or walked and i felt safe yes i did have money in an inner pocketbut even so i saw no one who ifelt uncomfortable around. Anyhow this totally worked in my favour as there are hardly any tourists in rio at all and the brazilians are so varied colour that it feels quite cosmopolitan.

At the end of my time here in rio i was sick to leave but i did i flew to the falls of brazila and argentina ...the falls were beautiful but i had begun to fall ill in rio and once at the falls very ill with fever and lost my voice so the place i stayed was like a retreat i had chosen one away from all with acres of ground where you could camp if you liked there were hammmocks and cats and no other guests apart form me!!! well hardly any anyhow. i then left here after the awful brazilian man that owned this place gave me food drenched in vinegar after i told him i am v allergic to it!! so yep i get sicker!!! Anyhow i left here and head for salvador i was lucky again with my choice of hostel and met good peple here but i was still ill and i was missing rio and i had seen the old town insalvaodr perrinho so i did my usual freedom trick as im sure thats what it is i dont like my structured itinery so i flew back to rio and stayed at the house agian with Teresa who i had become good friends with i also stayed with one of the dancers with himand his family bliss i was in heaven here. Ok you are all probably sick of me going on about how wonderful it is so i will stop i could seriously continue writing great things all night so many great memories here even the simplist laughing so much i was crying in the dorm with my Irish friends being held by my dancer friend when i cried so many simple but beautiful things that just dont happen everyday. I wont ever forget RIO my love for it the beauty the beauty it gave me and love.

xxxxx Rio

oohhps nearly forgot the favelas the people there are NOT dangerous no matter what you read or the bad press it gets the people there are hard working people they live hereas cannot afford anywhere else and the favelas is run by the drug dealers who control who coms in who goes out ....sure they are not great but they do look after the people within the favelas and the police are corrupt and the shootings within the favelas is usually some corrupt thing going on withthe drug dealers and police a mess and sad but true, i guess where isnt corrupt though the government is corrupt everywhere.

August 08/08/08 - 05/09/08